| << | Contents | >> |
Cyprian
In the fifty-second Psalm: “They that please men are confounded, because God hath made them nothing.”[4456] Also in the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians: “If I wished to please men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”[4457]
In the Wisdom of Solomon: “In every place the eyes of God look upon the good and evil.”[4458] Also in Jeremiah: “I am a God at hand, and not a God afar off. If a man should be hidden in the secret place, shall I not therefore see him? Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.”[4459] Also in the first of Kings: “Man looketh on the face, but God on the heart.”[4460] Also in the Apocalypse: “And all the churches shall know that I am the searcher of the reins and heart; and I will give to every one of you according to his works.”[4461] Also in the eighteenth Psalm: “Who understands his faults? Cleanse Thou me from my secret sins, O Lord.”[4462] Also in the second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: “We must all be manifested before the tribunal of Christ, that every one may bear again the things which belong to his own body, according to what he hath done, whether good or evil.”[4463]
In the cxviith Psalm: “The Lord amending hath amended me, and hath not delivered me to death.”[4464] Also in the eighty-eighth Psalm: “I will visit their transgressions with a rod, and their sins with scourges. But my mercy will I not scatter away from them.”[4465] Also in Malachi: “And He shall sit melting and purifying, as it were, gold and silver; and He shall purify the sons of Levi.”[4466] Also in the Gospel: “Thou shalt not go out thence until thou pay the uttermost farthing.”[4467]
In Genesis: “Then said the Lord to Adam, Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of that tree of which alone I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat, cursed shall be the ground in all thy works; in sadness and groaning shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns and thistles shall it cast forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field in the sweat of thy brow. Thou shalt eat thy bread until thou return unto the earth from which also thou wast taken; because earth thou art, and to earth thou shalt go.”[4468] Also in the same place: “And Enoch pleased God, and was not found afterwards: because God translated him.”[4469] And in Isaiah: “All flesh is grass, and all the glory of it as the flower of grass. The grass withered, and the flower hath fallen away; but the word of the Lord abideth for ever.”[4470] In Ezekiel: “They say, Our bones are become dry, our hope hath perished: we have expired. Therefore prophesy, and say, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I open your monuments, and I will bring you forth from your monuments, and I will bring you into the land of Israel; and I will put my Spirit upon you, and ye shall live; and I will place you into your land: and ye shall know that I the Lord have spoken, and will do it, saith the Lord.”[4471] Also in the Wisdom of Solomon: “He was taken away, lest wickedness should change his understanding; for his soul was pleasing to God.”[4472] Also in the eighty-third Psalm: “How beloved[4473] are thy dwellings, Thou Lord of hosts? My soul desires and hastes to the courts of God.”[4474] And in the Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians: “But we would not that you should be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who sleep, that ye sorrow not as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also them which have fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.”[4475] Also in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: “Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it have first died.”[4476] And again: “Star differeth from star in glory: so also the resurrection. The body is sown in corruption, it rises without corruption; it is sown in ignominy, it rises again in glory; it is sown in weakness, it rises again in power; it is sown an animal body, it rises again a spiritual body.”[4477] And again: “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the word that is written, Death is absorbed into striving. Where, O death, is thy sting? Where, O death, is thy striving?”[4478] Also in the Gospel according to John: “Father, I will that those whom Thou hast given me be with me where I shall be, and may see my glory which Thou hast given me before the foundation of the world.”[4479] Also according to Luke: “Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, O Lord, according to the word; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.”[4480] Also according to John: “If ye loved me, ye would rejoice because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.”[4481]
In the Wisdom of Solomon: “All the idols of the nations they counted gods, which neither have the use of their eyes for seeing, nor their nostrils to receive breath, nor their ears for hearing, nor the fingers on their hands for handling; but their feet also are slow to walk. For man made them; and he who has borrowed his breath, he fashioned them. But no man will be able to fashion a god like to himself. For since he is mortal, he fashioneth a dead thing with wicked hands. But he himself is better than they whom he worships, since he indeed lived, but they never.”[4482] On this same matter: “Neither have they who have regarded the works known who was the artificer, but have thought that either fire, or wind, or the rapid air, or the circle of the stars, or the abundant water, or the sun and moon, were the gods that rule over the world; and if, on account of the beauty of these, they have thought thus, let them know how much more beautiful than these is the Lord; or if they have admired their powers and operations, let them perceive from these very things that He who has established these mighty things is stronger than they.”[4483] Also in the cxxxivth Psalm: “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have a mouth, and speak not; they have eyes, and see not; they have ears, and hear not; and neither is there any breath in their mouth. Let them who make them become like unto them, and all those who trust in them.”[4484] Also in the ninety-fifth Psalm: “All the gods of the nations are demons, but the Lord made the heavens.”[4485] Also in Exodus: “Ye shall not make unto yourselves gods of silver nor of gold.”[4486] And again: “Thou shalt not make to thyself an idol, nor the likeness of any thing.”[4487] Also in Jeremiah: “Thus saith the Lord, Walk not according to the ways of the heathen; for they fear those things in their own persons, because the lawful things of the heathen are vain. Wood cut out from the forest is made the work of the carpenter, and melted silver and gold are beautifully arranged: they strengthen them with hammers and nails, and they shall not be moved, for they are fixed. The silver is brought from Tharsis, the gold comes from Moab. All things are the works of the artificers; they will clothe it with blue and purple; lifting them, they will carry them, because they will not go forward. Be not afraid of them, because they do no evil, neither is there good in them. Say thus, The gods that have not made the heaven and the earth perish from the earth, and from under this heaven. The heaven hath trembled at this, and hath shuddered much more vehemently, saith the Lord. These evil things hath my people done. They have forsaken the fountain of living water, and have dug out for themselves worn-out wells, which could not hold water. Thy love hath smitten thee, and thy wickedness shall accuse thee. And know and see that it shall be a bitter thing for thee that thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord thy God, and thou hast not hoped in me, saith thy Lord. Because of old time thou hast resented my yoke, and hast broken thy bonds, and hast said, I will not serve, but I will go upon every lofty mountain, and upon every high hill, and upon every shady tree: there I will be confounded with fornication. To the wood and to the stone they have said, Thou art my father; and to the stone, Thou hast begotten me: and they turned to me their back, and not their face.”[4488] In Isaiah: “The dragon hath fallen or is dissolved; their carved works have become as beasts and cattle. Labouring and hungry, and without strength, ye shall bear them bound upon your neck as a heavy burden.”[4489] And again: “Gathered together, they shall not be able to be saved from war; but they themselves have been led captive with thee.”[4490] And again: “To whom have ye likened me? See and understand that ye err in your heart, who lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, bringing it up to the weight. The workmen have made with their hand the things made; and, bowing themselves, they have adored it, and have raised it on their shoulders: and thus they walked. But if they should place them down, they will abide in their place, and will not be moved; and they will not hear those who cry unto them: they will not save them from evils.”[4491] Also in Jeremiah: “The Lord, who made heaven and earth, in strength hath ordered the world, in His wisdom hath stretched forth the heaven, and the multitude of the waters in the heaven. He hath brought out the clouds from the end of the earth, the lightnings in the clouds; and He hath brought forth the winds from His treasures. Every man is made foolish by his knowledge, every artificer is confounded by his graven images; because he hath molten a falsehood: there is no breath in them. The works shut up in them are made vain; in the time of their consideration they shall perish.”[4492] And in the Apocalypse: “And the sixth angel sounded with his trumpet. And I heard one of the four corners of the golden ark, which is in the presence of God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound upon the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, to slay the third part of men; and the number of the army of the horsemen was two hundred thousand of thousand: I heard the number of them. And then I saw the horses in the vision, and those that sate upon them, having breastplates of fire, and of hyacinth, and of sulphur: and the heads of the horses (as the heads of lions); and out of their mouth went fire, andsmoke, and sulphur. By these three plagues the third part of men was slain, by the fire, and the smoke, and the sulphur which went forth from their mouth, and is in their tails: for their tails were like unto eels; for they had heads, and with them they do mischief. And the rest of the men who were not slain by these plagues, nor repented of the works of the deeds of their hands, that they should not worship demons and idols, that is, images of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood, which can neither see nor walk, repented not also of their murders.”[4493] Also in the same place: “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and hath received his mark in his forehead or upon his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of His wrath, and shall be punished with fire and sulphur, under the eyes of the holy angels, and under the eyes of the Lamb; and the smoke of their torments shall ascend up for ever and ever.”[4494]
Search Comments
This page has been visited 0001 times.
| << | Contents | >> |
10 per page