(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all discovered errors.)
TREATISES ATTRIBUTED TO CYPRIAN ON QUESTIONABLE AUTHORITY
EXHORTATION TO REPENTANCE.[1]
Translated by the Rev. Ernest Wallis, Ph.D.
That all sins may be forgiven him who has turned to God with his whole
heart.
In the eighty-eighth Psalm: "If his children forsake my law, and walk
not in my judgments, and keep not my commandments, I will visit their
iniquities with a rod, and their sins with stripes; nevertheless my loving-
kindness will I not scatter away from them."[2]
Also in Isaiah: "Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, When thou
shalt turn and mourn, then thou shalt be saved, and shalt know where thou
wast."[3]
Also in the same place: "Woe unto you, children of desertion, saith the
Lord! ye have made counsel not by me, and my covenant not by my Spirit, to
add sin to sin."[4]
Also in Jeremiah: "Withdraw thy foot from a rough way, and thy face
from thirst. But she said, I will be comforted, I am willing; for she loved
strangers, and went after them."[5]
Also in Isaiah: "Be ye converted, because ye devise a deep and wicked
counsel."[6]
Also in the same place: "I am He, I am He that blotteth out thy
iniquities, and will not remember them; but do thou remember them, and let
us be judged together; do thou first tell thine unrighteousnesses." [7]
Also in the same: "Seek the Lord; and when ye shall have found Him,
call upon Him. But when He has drawn near to you, let the wicked forsake
his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him be converted to
the Lord, and mercy shall be prepared for him, because He does not much [8]
forgive your sins."[9]
Also in the same: "Remember these things, O Jacob and Israel, because
thou art my servant. I have called thee my servant; and thou, Israel,
forget me not. Lo, I have washed away thy unrighteousness as . . . , and
thy sins as a raincloud. Be converted to me, and I will redeem thee."[10]
Also in the same: "Have these things in mind, and groan. Repent, ye
that have been seduced; be converted in heart unto me, and have in mind the
former ages, because I am God."[11]
Also in the same: "For a very little season I have forsaken thee, and
with great mercy I will pity thee. In a very little wrath I turned away my
face from thee; in everlasting mercy I will pity thee."[12]
Also in the same: "Thus said the Most High, who dwelleth on high, for
ever Holy in the holies, His name is the Lord, the Most High, resting in
the holy places, and giving calmness of mind to the faint-hearted, and
giving life to those that are broken-hearted: I am not angry with you for
ever, neither will I be avenged in all things on you: for my Spirit shall
go forth from me, and I have made all inspiration; and on account of a very
little sin I have grieved him, and have turned away my face from him; and
he has suffered the vile man, and has gone away sadly in his ways. I have
seen his ways, and have healed him, and I have comforted him, and I have
given to him the true consolation, and peace upon peace to those who are
afar off, and to those that are near. And the Lord said, I have healed
them; but the unrighteous, as a troubled sea, are thus tossed about and
cannot rest. There is no joy to the wicked, saith the Lord."[13]
Also in Jeremiah: "Shall a bride forget her adornment, or[14] a virgin
the girdle of her breast? But my people has forgotten my days,[15] whereof
there is no number."[16]
Also in the same: "For a decree, I will speak upon the nation or upon
the kingdom, or I will take them away and destroy them. And if the nation
should be converted from its evils, I will repent of the ills which I have
thought to do I unto them. And I will speak the decree upon the nation or
the people, that I should rebuild it and plant it; and they will do evil
before me, that they should not hearken to my voice, and I will repent of
the good things which I spoke of doing to them."(2)
Also in the same: "Return to me, O dwelling of Israel, saith the Lord,
and I will not harden my face upon you; because I am merciful, saith the
Lord, and I will not be angry against you for ever."(3)
Also in the same: "Be converted, ye children that have departed, saith
the Lord; because I will rule over you, and will take you one of a city,
and two of a family, and I will bring you into Sion: and I will give you
shepherds after my heart, and they shall feed you, feeding you with
discipline."(4)
Also in the same: "Be converted, ye children who are turning, and I
will heal your affliction."(5)
Also in the same: "Wash thine heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that
thou mayest be healed: how long shall there be in thee thoughts of thy
sorrows?"(6)
Also in the same: "Thus saith the Lord, Does not he that falleth arise?
or he that turns away, shall he not be turned back? Because this people
hath turned itself away by a shameless vision, and they have persisted in
their presumption, and would not be converted."(7)
Also in the same: "There is no man that repenteth of his iniquity,
saying, What have I done? The runner has failed from his course, as the
sweating horse in his neighing."(8)
Also in the same: "Therefore let every one of you turn from his evil
way, and make your desires better. And they said, We will be comforted,
because we will go after your(9) inventions, and every one of us will do
the sins which please his own heart."(10)
Also in the same: "Pour down as a torrent tears, day and night give
thyself no rest, let not the pupil of thine eye be silent."(11)
Also in the same: "Let us search out our ways, and be turned to the
Lord. Let us purge our hearts with our hands, and let us look unto the Lord
who dwelleth in the heavens. We have sinned, and we have provoked Thee, and
Thou hast not been propitiated."(12)
Also in the same: "And the Lord said to me in the days of Josias the
king, Thou hast seen what the dwelling of the house? the house of Israel,
has done to me. It has gone away upon every lofty mountain, and has gone
under every shady(14) tree, and has committed fornication there-and I
said, after she had committed all these fornications, Return unto me, and
she has not returned."(15)
Also in the same: "The Lord will not reject for ever; and when He has
made low, He will have pity according to the multitude of His mercy.
Because He will not bring low from His whole heart, neither will He reject
the children Of men."(16)
Also in Ezekiel: "And the righteous shall not be able to be saved in
the day of transgression. When I shall say to the righteous, Thou shalt
surely live; but(17) he will trust to his own righteousness, and will do
iniquity: all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered; in his iniquity
which he has done, in that he shall die. And when I shall say to the
wicked, Thou shalt surely die, and he turns himself from his sin, and doeth
righteousness and judgment, and restoreth to the debtor his pledge, and
giveth back his robbery, and walketh in the precepts of life, that he may
do no iniquity, he shall surely live, and shall not die; none of his sins
which he hath sinned shall be stirred up against him: because he hath done
justice and judgment, he shall live in them." (18)
Also in the same: "I am the Lord, because I bring Iow the high tree,
and exalt the low tree, and dry up the green tree, and cause the dry tree
to flourish."(19)
Also in the same: "And thou, son of man, say unto the house of Israel,
Even as ye have spoken, saying, Our errors and our iniquities are in us,
and we waste away in them, and how shall we live? Say unto them, I live,
saith the Lord: if I will the death of a sinner, only let him turn from his
way, and he shall live."(20)
Also in the same: "I the Lord have built up the ruined places, and have
planted the wasted places."(21)
Also in the same: "And the wicked man, if he turn himself from all his
iniquities that he has done, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment,
and justice, and mercy, shall surely live, and shall not die. None of his
sins which he has committed shall be in remembrance; in his righteousness
which he hath done he shall live. Do I willingly desire the death of the
unrighteous man, saith Adonai the Lord, rather than that he should turn him
from his evil way, that he should live?"(1)
Also in the same: "Be ye converted, and turn you from all your
wickedneses, and they shall not be to you for a punishment. Cast away from
you all your iniquities which ye have wickedly committed against me, and
make to yourselves a new heart and a new spirit; and why will ye die, O
house of lsrael? For I desire not the death of him that dieth, saith Adonai
the Lord ."(2)
Also in Daniel: "And after the end of the days, I Nabuchodonosor lifted
up my eyes to heaven, and my sense returned to me, and I praised the Most
High, and blessed the King of heaven, and praised Him that liveth for ever:
because His power is eternal, His kingdom is for generations? and all who
inhabit the earth are as nothing."(4)
Also in Micah: "Alas for me, O my soul, because truth has perished from
the earth, and among all there is none that correcteth; all judge in blood.
Every one treadeth down his neighbour with tribulation; they prepare their
hands for evil."(5)
Also in the same: "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy, because I have
fallen, but I shall arise: because although I shall sit in darkness, the
Lord will give me light: I will bear the Lord's anger, because I have
sinned against Him, until He justify my cause."(6)
Also in Zephaniah: "Come ye together and pray, O undisciplined people;
before ye be made as a flower that passeth away, before the anger of the
Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord's fury come upon you, seek
ye the Lord, all ye humble ones of the earth; do judgment and seek justice,
and seek for gentleness; and answer ye to Him that ye may be protected in
the day of the Lord's anger."(7)
Also in Zechariah: "Be ye converted unto me, and I will be turned unto
you."(8)
Also in Hosea: "Be thou converted, O lsrael, to the Lord thy God,
because thou art weakened by thine iniquities. Take many with you, and be
converted to the Lord your God; worship Him, and say, Thou art mighty to
put away our sins; that ye may not receive iniquity, but that ye may
receive good things."(9)
Also in Ecclesiasticus: "Be thou turned to the Lord, and forsake thy
sins, and exceedingly hate cursing, and know righteousness and God's
judgments, and stand in the lot of the propitiation of the Most High: and
go into the portion of life with the living, and those that make
confession. Delay not in the error of the wicked. Confession perisheth from
the dead man, as if it were nothing. Living and sound, thou shalt confess
to the Lord, and thou shalt glory in His mercies; for great is the mercy of
the Lord, and His propitiation unto such as turn unto Him."(10)
Also in the same: "How good is it for a true heart to show forth
repentance! For thus shalt thou escape voluntary sin."(11)
Also in the Acts of the Apostles: "But Peter saith unto him, thy money
perish with thee, because thou thinkest to be able to obtain the grace of
God by money. Thou hast no part nor lot in this faith, for thy heart is not
right with God. Therefore repent of this thy wickedness, and pray the Lord,
if haply the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee. For I see that thou
art in the bond of iniquity, and in the bitterness of gall."(12)
Also in the second Epistle of the blessed(13) Paul to the Corinthians:
"For the sorrow which is according to God worketh a stedfast repentance
unto salvation, but the sorrow of the world worketh death."(14)
Also in the same place of this very matter: "But if ye have forgiven
anything to any one, I also forgive him; for I also forgave what I have
forgiven for your sakes in the person of Christ, that we may not be
circumvented by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his wiles."(15)
Also in the same: "But I fear lest perchance, when I come to you, God
may again humble me among you, and I shall bewail many of those who have
sinned before, and have not repented, for that they have committed
fornication and lasciviousness."(16)
Also in the same: "I told you before, and foretell you as I sit
present; and absent now from those who before have sinned, and to all
others; as, ill shall come again, I will not spare."(17)
Also in the second to Timothy: "But shun profane novelties of words,
for they are of much advantage to impiety. And their word creeps as a
cancer: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have departed from the
truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened, and have
subverted the faith of certain ones. But the foundation of God standeth
firm, having this seal, God knoweth them that are His. And, Every one who
nameth the name of the Lord shall depart from all iniquity. But in a great
house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and
of clay; and some indeed for honour, and some for contempt. Therefore if
any one shall amend(1) himself from these things, he shall be a vessel
sanctified for honour, and useful for the Lord, prepared for every good
work. Moreover, flee youthful lusts: but follow after righteousness, faith,
charity, peace, with them that call upon the Lord from a pure heart. But
avoid questions that are foolish and without learning, knowing that they
beget strifes. And the servant of the Lord ought not to strive; but to be
gentle, docile to all men, patient with modesty, correcting those who
resist, lest at any time God may give them repentance to the acknowledgment
of the truth, and recover themselves from the snares of the devil, by whom
they are held captive at his will."(2)
Also in the Apocalypse: "Remember whence thou hast fallen, and repent;
but if not, I will come to thee quickly, and remove thy candlestick out of
its place."(3)
Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland beginning in
1867. (ANF 5, Roberts and Donaldson). The digital version is by The
Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.
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