Miscellanies 5.1.9

And I am inclined greatly to praise the poet of Acragas, who hymns faith thus: “O friends, I know that truth is in the words I will speak; but very hard for men, and grudged, is the rush of faith upon the mind.” That is why the apostle too exhorts that our faith be not in the wisdom of men who profess to persuade, but in the power of God, which alone can save even without proofs, by bare faith. “For the most reputable man knows and guards … opinions; and justice will surely catch the fabricators of lies and their witnesses,” says the Ephesian. For he too, having learned from the barbarian philosophy, knows the purification through fire of those who have lived badly, which the Stoics later called the conflagration; according to which they also teach that the individual will rise again, thereby embracing the resurrection. And Plato says that the earth is purified at certain times by fire and water, thus: “There have been and will be many destructions of men in many ways, the greatest by fire and water, and other lesser ones by countless other means.” And a little later he adds: “The truth is that there is a deviation of the bodies moving around the earth and in the heavens, and at long intervals a destruction of things on earth by much fire.” Then he adds about the flood: “And when again the gods purify the earth with waters and flood it, the herdsmen and shepherds in the mountains are saved, while those in our cities are carried by the rivers into the sea.”