And for this reason we have believed that there will also be a resurrection of bodies after the consummation of all things—not as the Stoics teach, according to certain cycles of periods, the same things ever coming into being and passing away to no useful end, but once for all, when the ages of our world are completed; and that the constitution of men will come into being utterly, for the sake of judgment. And it is not Minos or Rhadamanthus who judge us, before whose death no soul, as they fable, was judged; but the maker himself, God, becomes the examiner. And even if you suppose us to be triflers and babblers, it is no concern to us, since we have believed this doctrine. For just as, before I was born, not yet existing, I did not know who I was, but only subsisted in the substance of fleshly matter, and having come into being, I who once was not believed through birth in my own existence—in the same way, having come into being and through death no longer existing, and being seen no more, I shall be again, just as, not having been before, I was then born. And even if fire annihilates my flesh, the world holds the matter vaporized; and even if I be consumed in rivers or in seas, even if I be torn apart by wild beasts, I am laid up in the storehouses of a rich Lord. The poor and godless man does not know the things laid up; but God who reigns, when he wills, will restore to its ancient state the substance visible to him alone.