Athenagoras, Plea for the Christians 12

Come now: if we did not believe that God stands over the human race, would we purify ourselves in this way? That cannot be said. But because we are convinced that we must give an account of our entire life here to the God who made us and the world—a God who is moderate, philanthropic, and slow to anger—we choose a life that is moderate, philanthropic, and slow to anger, reasoning that we will suffer no evil so great here, even if some take our very soul, since we will receive a reward there for our gentle, philanthropic, and equitable life from the great Judge. Plato says that Minos and Rhadamanthus will judge and punish the wicked; we say that even if someone were Minos or Rhadamanthus or their father, he would not escape the judgment of God. Then there are those who think this life is only for eating and drinking, for tomorrow we die, and who treat death as a deep sleep and forgetfulness—sleep and death, twin brothers—and believe this makes them devout. But we, having reckoned that the life here is of little and slight worth, and being sent by the only one who knows God and the Word from him—who knows the unity of the Child to the Father, the communion of the Father to the Son, what the Spirit is, the union and separation of the united ones, of the Spirit of the Child of the Father—and knowing the life that awaits us, which is far greater and better than words can express, if we are sent forth pure from all wrongdoing, and being so philanthropic as to love not only our friends—for if you love those who love you and lend to those who lend to you, what reward will you have?—do we, being such people and living such a life, fail to believe we are devout, in order that we may escape judgment? These things are small compared to great things and few compared to many, so that we may not trouble you further; for even those who test honey and the hill test the whole by a small part.