Tractates on the Gospel of John

¹¹ Let us, brethren, choose for ourselves God as our judge, God as our witness, against the tongues of men, against the weak suspicions of mankind. For He who is the judge disdains not to be witness, nor is He advanced in honor when He becomes judge; since He who is witness will also Himself be judge. In what way is He witness? Because He asks not another to learn from Him who you are. In what way is He judge? Because He has the power of killing and making alive, of condemning and acquitting, of casting down into hell and of raising up into heaven, of joining to the devil and of crowning with the angels.

Since, therefore, He has this power, He is judge. Now, because He requires not another witness that He may know you; and that He who will hereafter judge you is now seeing you, there is no means whereby you can deceive Him when He begins to judge. For there is no furnishing yourself with false witnesses who can circumvent that judge when He shall begin to judge you. This is what God says to you: When you despised, I did see it; and when you believed not, I did not frustrate my sentence. I delayed it, not removed it. You would not hear what I enjoined, you shall feel what I foretold. But if you hear what I enjoined, you shall not feel the evils which I have foretold, but you shall enjoy the good things which I have promised.