4. But further, attend, I pray, to the very
principle of justice, and come to thine own case. Thou hast
different sorts of servants: and some are good and some bad;
thou honourest therefore the
good, and smitest the bad. And if thou art a judge, to the good
thou awardest praise, and to the transgressors, punishment. Is
then justice observed by thee a mortal man; and with God, the ever
changeless King of all, is there no retributive justice The argument from
God’s justice is treated by Athenagor. De Resurr. c. x.
and xx.–xxiii.; Justin M. De Resurr. c. viii.? Nay, to deny it is impious. For
consider what I say. Many murderers have died in their beds
unpunished; where then is the righteousness of God? Yea, ofttimes
a murderer guilty of fifty murders is beheaded once; where then shall
he suffer punishment for the forty and nine? Unless there is a
judgment and a retribution after this world, thou chargest God with
unrighteousness. Marvel not, however, because of the delay of the
judgment; no combatant is crowned or disgraced, till the contest is
over; and no president of the games ever crowns men while yet striving,
but he waits till all the combatants are finished, that then deciding
between them he may dispense the prizes and the chaplets τὴν
στεφανηφορίαν. Roe. Cas. A. Cf. Pind. Ol. viii. 13; Eurip.
Electr. 862.. Even thus God also, so long as the
strife in this world lasts, succours the just but partially, but
afterwards He renders to them their rewards fully.