And what is your excuse? ‘Who has ever come,’ you say, ‘and told us about the next world?’ No man ever did; but God, Who is the most worthy of belief, has revealed these things. ‘But we cannot see them.’ Neither can you see God; and do you doubt His existence because you cannot see Him?’ ‘I believe in it most thoroughly,’ you say. Now, then, if an unbeliever ask you, ‘Who has ever come from heaven and told us these things?’ what will you answer? How do you know that there is a God? ‘From visible things,’ you reply; ‘from the order which is in the whole creation; from the fact that this is evident to all.’ Therefore, apply the same argument to that which concerns judgment. ‘How am I to do this?’ you ask. I will tell you, and you will say if I am right. Is God just, and does He give to each one according to his works, or, on the contrary, is it His wish that the wicked should do well and feast, and the good be in trouble and want? ‘Certainly not,’ you say; ‘for not even a man would suffer this.’ Then where are those who are upright here to enjoy good things? Where are the wicked to suffer, if there is to be no future life and no retribution after this world? Do you see that so far it is one against one, and not two things instead of one? I am showing you that the just will have not one thing rather than another, but two things rather than nothing, and that with sinners and those who feast here just the reverse is the case. For those who feast in this world have not even one thing against another, but those who persevere in virtue have two things instead of nothing. Who will be in refreshment—those who misuse this present life or those who lead an ascetic one? You say the former, but I point out the latter, and call in as witnesses those very people who have enjoyed present things, and they will not be ashamed of what I am going to say. For they have often cursed match-makers and the day on which the marriage-tie was completed, and have envied the unmarried. Many young men, who could easily have married, have desisted for no other reason except its irksomeness. I say this, not in disparagement of marriage—for it is honourable—but against those who misuse it. For if married people have often called their life insupportable, what shall we say of those who have fallen into the abysses of lust, and who have led a life more slavish and miserable than any captivity?—of those who have rotted in luxury, and drawn down a hundred disorders upon their body? ‘Still,’ you answer, ‘it is pleasant to be somebody.’ Nothing in the world is bitterer than this servitude. The vain man and he who wishes to please all-comers is more servile than any slave; whereas he who looks down upon vainglory is exalted above all, and troubles himself not with what others say. ‘But having money is delightful.’ We have often shown you that those are in greater plenty and refreshment who have given up these things and are rather possessors of nothing.