Lactantius, Divine Institutes 5.15
Therefore with those two fountains of justice changed, all beauty and all truth is taken away and justice itself migrates back to heaven. That is why that good found by the philosophers is not true, because they did not know either whence it arose or what it effected--which has been revealed to none others except our people. Someone may meet us: are there not among you some poor, some rich, some slaves, some masters? Is there not some difference among individuals? Nothing--and there is no other cause why we give each other the name of brothers except that we believe we are equals.
For since we measure all human things not by body but by spirit, although the condition of bodies is diverse, yet to us they are not slaves, but we both have them and call them brothers in spirit, fellow-servants in religion. Riches also do not make people distinguished except insofar as they can make them more famous by good works. For they are rich not because they have riches, but because they use them for the works of justice; and those who seem poor are nevertheless rich in this, that they both do not lack and desire nothing. When therefore both free people are equals to slaves and the rich to the poor by humility of mind, yet before God we are distinguished by virtue: each person is so much more sublime as he is more just. For if justice is to make oneself equal even to lesser people, although one already excels by this very thing--that one has equaled oneself to inferiors--still if one has conducted oneself not only as an equal but even as a lesser, one will by all means obtain a much higher grade of dignity with God as judge.
And therefore God, consulting for us, among the divine precepts especially set this: who exalts himself will be humbled, and who humbles himself will be exalted. The health of which precept teaches that whoever has made himself level and shown himself humble among humans is held outstanding and distinguished before God. Nor is that saying false which is reported among Euripides in this way: what are thought evils here are goods in heaven.
Latin
Duobus igitur illis iustitiae fontibus immutatis omnis uil-tus et omnis ueritas tollitur et ipsa iustitia remigrat in caelum. ideo non est uerum illut bonum a philosophis repertum, quia ignorabant uel unde oreretur uel quid efficeret: quod nullis aliis praeterquam nostro populo reuelatum est. meet aliquis: \'nonne sunt aput uos alii pauperes, alii diuites, alii serui, alii domini? nonne aliquid inter singulos interest?\' nihil, nec alia causa est cur nobis inuicem fratrum nomen inpertiamus, nisi quia pares esse nos credimus.
nam cum omnia humana non corpore, sed spiritu metiamur, tametsi corporum sit diuersa condicio, nobis tamen serui non sunt, sed eos et habemus et dicimus spiritu fratres, religione conseruos. diuitiae quoque non faciunt insignes, nisi quod possunt bonis operibus facere clariores. diuites sunt enim non quia diuitias habent, sed quia utuntur illis ad opera iustitiae, et qui pauperes uidentur, eo tamen diuites sunt, quia et non egent et nihil concupiscunt. cum igitur et liberi seruis et diuites pauperibus humilitate animi pares simus, aput deum tamen uirtute discernimur: tanto quisque sublimior est quanto iustior. si enim iustitia est parem se etiam minoribus facere, quamquam hoc ipso praecellit, quod se inferioribus coaequauit, tamen si non tantum quasi parem, sed etiam quasi minorem se gesserit, utique multo altiorem dignitatis gradum deo iudice consequetur. nam profecto in hac uita saeculari quoniam breuia et caduca sunt omnia, et praeferunt se alteris homines et de dignitate contendunt, quo nihil foedius, nihil adrogantius, nihil a sapientiae ratione submotius: rebus enim caelestibus contraria sunt ista uniuersa terrena. sicut enim sapientia hominum summa stultitia est aput deum, stultitia, ut docui, summa sapientia est, sic deo humilis et abiectus est qui fuerit conspicuus et sublimis in terra. nam ut taceam quod haec praesentia terrae bona, quibus magnus honos tribuitur, uirtuti contraria sunt et uigorem mentis eneruant, quae tandem potest firma esse nobilitas, quae opes, quae potentia, cum possit deus reges quoque ipsos inferiores etiam infimis facere?
et ideo consulens nobis deus inter diuina praecepta illut praecipue posuit: qui se extollit, humiliabitur, et qui se humiliat, exaltabitur. cuius praecepti salubritas docet quod qui se aput homines planum fecerit humilemque praebuerit, hic aput deum praecellens et insignis habeatur. neque enim falsa est illa sententia quae aput Euripidem fertur in hunc modum: quae hic mala putantur, haec sunt in caelo bona.