IX.

Ioasaph said unto him, "Great and marvellous, sir, are the things
whereof thou tellest me, fearful and terrible, if indeed these
things be so, and, if there be after death and dissolution into
dust and ashes, a resurrection and re-birth, and rewards and
punishments for the deeds done during life. But what is the
proof thereof? And how have ye come to learn that which ye have
not seen, that ye have so steadfastly and undoubtingly believed
it? As for things that have already been done and made manifest
in deed, though ye saw them not, yet have ye heard them from the
writers of history. But, when it is of the future that ye preach
tidings of such vast import, how have ye made your conviction on
these matters sure?"

Quoth Barlaam, "From the past I gain certainty about the future;
for they that preached the Gospel, without erring from the truth,
but establishing their sayings by signs and wonders and divers
miracles, themselves also spake of the future. So, as in the one
case they taught us nothing amiss or false, but made all that
they said and did to shine clearer than the sun, so also in the
other matter they gave us true doctrine, even that which our Lord
and Master Jesus Christ himself confirmed both by word and deed.
'Verily,' he spake, `I say unto you, the hour is coming in the
which all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son
of God and they that hear shall live:' and again, `The hour
cometh when the dead shall hear his voice, and shall come forth,
they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they
that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.' And