Epistle to Diognetus 7

1For it is no earthly discovery, as I said, that was entrusted to them. They are not concerned to guard any mortal invention so carefully, nor have they been entrusted with the administration of human mysteries. But truly, the Almighty Creator of the universe, the invisible God himself, planted among humanity from heaven the truth and the holy teaching that surpasses human understanding, and firmly fixed it in their hearts. He did this not, as anyone might imagine, by sending to humanity a subordinate, or an angel, or a ruler, or one of those who direct earthly affairs, or one of those entrusted with administration in heaven, but by sending the very Maker and Creator of the universe himself. Through him he made the heavens; through him he enclosed the sea within its proper boundaries; all the elements faithfully observe his mysteries; from him [the sun] has received even the measure of the day’s courses to keep; the moon obeys him when he commands her to shine by night; the stars obey him as they follow the course of the moon. Through him all things are ordered, bounded, and placed in subjection: the heavens and the things in the heavens, the earth and the things on the earth, the sea and the things in the sea, fire, air, the abyss, the things in the heights, the things in the depths, and the things between the two. Him he sent to them. Was he sent, do you think, as anyone might suppose, to establish a dominion and inspire fear and terror? Not so. But he sent him in gentleness [and] meekness, as a king might send his son who is a king. He sent him as God; he sent him as [a man] to humanity; he sent him as Savior, using persuasion, not force, for force is no attribute of God. He sent him to summon, not to persecute; he sent him in love, not in judgment. For he will send him in judgment, and who will endure his presence? ....[Do you not see] them thrown to wild beasts so that they may deny the Lord, and yet they are not overcome? Do you not see that the more of them are punished, the more others multiply? These do not look like the works of a human being; they are the power of God; they are proofs of his presence.