{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/008/0080784.htm","path":"chr/ecf/008/0080784.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/008/0080784.htm","text":"Chapter XXIII.\u2014\u201cWhither Shall I Go from Thy Presence?\u201d\nWhen I had thus spoken, Appion broke in upon my discourse. \u201cWhat!\u201d said he; \u201cdo not the laws of the Greeks also forbid wickedness, and punish adulterers?\u201d Then said I: \u201cThen the gods of the Greeks, who acted contrary to the laws, deserve punishment. But how shall I be able to restrain myself, if I suppose that the gods themselves first practised all wickednesses as well as adultery, and did not suffer punishment; whereas they ought the rather to have suffered, as not being slaves to lust? But if they were subject to it, how were they gods?\u201d p. 256 Then Appion said: \u201cLet us have in our eye not the gods, but the judges; and looking to them, we shall be afraid to sin.\u201d Then I said: \u201cThis is not fitting, O Appion: for he who has his eye upon men will dare to sin, in hope of escaping detection; but he who sets before his soul the all-seeing God, knowing that he cannot escape His notice, will refrain from sinning even in secret.\u201d","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol VIII: Pseudo-Clementine Literature.: Chapter XXIII","type":"page"}