The Epistles of Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Seneca, he says, who was the sharpest of all the Stoics, held the Almighty in such high veneration! For instance, when discussing a violent death, he writes: “Do you not understand the majesty and the authority of your Judge? He is the supreme Governor of heaven and earth, and the God of all your gods; and it is upon him that all those powers depend which we worship as deities.” Moreover, in his Exhortations, he says: “This God, when he laid the foundations of the universe and began the greatest and best work in nature—the ordering of the world's government—though he was himself All in All, substituted other subordinate ministers to serve his command.” Lactantius, Divine Institutes, Book 1, Chapter 1.

The sharp-minded Seneca saw this in his exhortations: “We,” he says, “have our dependence elsewhere, and should look up to that power to which we are indebted for all that we can claim as good.” Ibid., Chapter 2.

An invective, Seneca says in his exhortations, is the masterpiece of most of our philosophers; and if they happen to fall upon the subject of avarice, lust, or ambition, they launch out into such excessive bitterness as if railing were the hallmark of their profession. They remind me of the gallipots Small jars used by apothecaries. in an apothecary’s shop, which hold remedies on the outside but poison within. Ibid., Book 3, Chapter 15.

He who would know all things should read Seneca, the most vivid describer of public vices and manners, and their smartest critic. Ibid., Book 1, Chapter 9.

Seneca says in his books of Moral Philosophy: “He is the brave man whose splendor and authority are the least part of his greatness; who can look death in the face without trouble or surprise; and who, if his body were to be broken on the wheel, would be less concerned for the pain itself than for the dignity of bearing it.” Ibid., Book 6, Chapter 17.

Let no man think himself safer in his wickedness for want of a witness; for God is omniscient, and to him nothing can be secret. It is an admirable sentence with which Seneca concludes his exhortations: “God,” he says, “is a great (I know not what) incomprehensible power. It is to him that we live, and to him that we must approve ourselves. What does it avail that our consciences are hidden from men, when our souls lie open to God?” What could a Christian have said more to the purpose in this case than this divine Pagan? And again: “What is it that we do? To what end is it to keep planning and to hide ourselves? We are under a guard, and there is no escaping from our keeper. One man may be parted from...