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. Æschylus
said:—
“One thing I know, I hold it ever true,The evil-doer evil shall endure.”
And 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—concerning this, too, Dionysius
said:—
“The eye of Justice seeing all,Yet seemeth not to see.”
And that God’s judgment
is to be, and that evils will suddenly overtake the wicked,—this,
too, Æschylus declared, saying:—
“Swift-footed is the approach of fate,And none can justice violate,But feels its sternhand soon or late.“’Tis with you, though unheard, unseen;You draw night’s curtain in between,But even sleep affords no screen.“’Tis with you if you sleep or wake;And if abroad your way you take,Its still, stern watch you cannot break.“’Twill follow you, or cross your path;And even night no virtue hathTo hide you from th’ Avenger’s wrath.“To show the ill the darkness flees;Then, if sin offers joy or ease,Oh stop, and think that some one sees!”
“Not without judgment is the Deity,But sees when oaths are struck unrighteously,And when from men unwilling they are wrung.”
And Sophocles:—
“If ills you do, ills also you must bear.”
That 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.
