Chapter 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,836 who speaks as follows:— “That time of times shall come, shall surely come, When from the golden ether down shall fall Fire’s teeming treasure, and in burning flames All things of earth and heaven shall be consumed; And then, when all creation is dissolved, The sea’s last wave shall die upon the shore, The bald earth stript of trees, the burning air No winged thing upon its breast shall bear. There are two roads to Hades, well we know;837 By this the righteous, and by that the bad, On to their separate fates shall tend; and He, Who all things had destroyed, shall all things save.” And Philemon838 again:— “Think’st thou, Nicostratus, the dead, who here Enjoyed whate’er of good life offers man, Escape the notice of Divinity, As if they might forgotten be of Him? Nay, there’s an eye of Justice watching all; For if the good and bad find the same end, Then go thou, rob, steal, plunder, at thy will, Do all the evil that to thee seems good. Yet be not thou deceived; for underneath There is a throne and place of judgment set, Which God the Lord of all shall occupy; Whose name is terrible, nor shall I dare To breathe it forth in feeble human speech.” 836 [Langus compares 2 Pet. iii. 7.] 837 Some propose to insert these three lines in the centre of the next quotation from Philemon, after the line, “Nay, there’s an eye,” etc. 838 Some say Diphilus. Chapter III.—Testimonies to a future judgment. 781 Chapter III.—Testimonies to a future judgment.