{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/002/0020135.htm","path":"chr/ecf/002/0020135.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/002/0020135.htm","text":"And that evil-doers must necessarily be punished in proportion to their deeds, has already been, as it were, oracularly uttered by some of the poets, as a witness both against themselves and against the wicked, declaring that they shall be punished. \u00c6schylus said:\u2014\n \u201cHe who has done must also suffer.\u201d\n \u201cIt is fit that suffering follow doing.\u201d\n \u201cThe deed rejoiced you\u2014suffering endure;\nThe taken enemy must needs be pain\u2019d.\u201d\n \u201cThe foe\u2019s pain is the hero\u2019s meed.\u201d\n \u201cOne thing I know, I hold it ever true,\nThe evil-doer evil shall endure.\u201d\nAnd that God sees all, and that nothing escapes His notice, but that, being long-suffering, He refrains until the time when He is to judge\u2014concerning this, too, Dionysius said:\u2014\n \u201cThe eye of Justice seeing all,\nYet seemeth not to see.\u201d\nAnd that God\u2019s judgment is to be, and that evils will suddenly overtake the wicked,\u2014this, too, \u00c6schylus declared, saying:\u2014\np. 110\n \u201cSwift-footed is the approach of fate,\nAnd none can justice violate,\nBut feels its stern hand soon or late.\n\u201c\u2019Tis with you, though unheard, unseen;\nYou draw night\u2019s curtain in between,\nBut even sleep affords no screen.\n\u201c\u2019Tis with you if you sleep or wake;\nAnd if abroad your way you take,\nIts still, stern watch you cannot break.\n\u201c\u2019Twill follow you, or cross your path;\nAnd even night no virtue hath\nTo hide you from th\u2019 Avenger\u2019s wrath.\n\u201cTo show the ill the darkness flees;\nThen, if sin offers joy or ease,\nOh stop, and think that some one sees!\u201d\nAnd may we not cite Simonides also?\u2014\n \u201cTo men no evil comes unheralded;\nBut God with sudden hand transforms all things.\u201d\n \u201cThe wicked and proud man\u2019s prosperity\nIs based on sand: his race abideth not;\nAnd time proclaims the wickedness of men.\u201d\n \u201cNot without judgment is the Deity,\nBut sees when oaths are struck unrighteously,\nAnd when from men unwilling they are wrung.\u201d\n \u201cIf ills you do, ills also you must bear.\u201d\nThat God will make inquiry both concerning false swearing and concerning every other wickedness, they themselves have well-nigh predicted. And concerning the conflagration of the world, they have, willingly or unwillingly, spoken in conformity with the prophets, though they were much more recent, and stole these things from the law and the prophets. The poets corroborate the testimony of the prophets.","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol II: THEOPHILUS: Chapter XXXVII.\u2014The Testimonies of the Poets.","type":"page"}