Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 2.djvu/346

Of whom all things, and we ourselves, are sprung.
All things are open to His piercing gaze,
While He Himself is still invisible;
Present in all His works, though still unseen,
He gives to mortals evil out of good,
Sending both chilling wars and tearful griefs;
And other than the Great King there is none.
The clouds for ever settle round His throne;
And mortal eyeballs in mere mortal eyes
Are weak to see Jove, who reigns over all.
He sits established in the brazen heavens
Upon His throne; and underneath His feet
He treads the earth, and stretches His right hand
To all the ends of ocean, and around
Tremble the mountain ranges, and the streams,
The depths, too, of the blue and hoary sea."

He speaks indeed as if he had been an eye-witness of God's greatness. And Pythagoras^[1] agrees with him when he writes:

"Should one in boldness say, Lo, I am God!
Besides the One—Eternal
Infinite,
Then let him from the throne he has usurped
Put forth his power and form another globe,
Such as we dwell in, saying, This is mine.
Nor only so, but in this new domain
For ever let him dwell. If this he can,
Then verily he is a god proclaimed."

Chap. iii.—Testimonies to a future judgment.

Then further concerning Him, that He alone is powerful, both to institute judgment on the deeds performed in life, and on the ignorance of the Deity [displayed by men], I can adduce witnesses from your own ranks; and first Sophocles, who speaks as follows:

"That time of times shall come, shall surely come,
When from the golden ether down shall fall

1. "Pythagorei cujusdam fetus."—Otto, after Goezius.