[4595] Ex. xix. 18.
[4596] Acts ii. 2-4.
[4597] Ex. iii. 2.
102. That all good men ought willingly to hear rebuke.
In Solomon, in the Proverbs: "He who reproveth a wicked man shall be hated by him. Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you." [4598]
[4598] Prov. ix. 8.
103. That we must abstain from much speaking.
In Solomon: "Out of much speaking thou shalt not escape sin; but sparing thy lips, thou shalt be wise." [4599]
[4599] Prov. x. 19.
104. That we must not lie.
"Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord." [4600]
[4600] Prov. xii. 22.
105. That they are frequently to be corrected who do wrong in domestic duty.
In Solomon: "He who spareth the rod, hateth his son." [4601] And again: "Do not cease from correcting the child." [4602]
[4601] Prov. xiii. 24.
[4602] Prov. xix. 18.
106. That when a wrong is received, patience is to be maintained, and vengeance to be left to God.
"Say not, I will avenge me of mine enemy; but wait for the Lord, that He may be thy help." [4603] Also elsewhere: "To me belongeth vengeance; I will repay, saith the Lord." [4604] Also in Zephaniah: "Wait on me, saith the Lord, in the day of my rising again to witness; because my judgment is to the congregations of the Gentiles, that I may take kings, and pour out upon them my anger." [4605]
[4603] Lev. xix. 18.
[4604] Deut. xxxii. 35.
[4605] Zeph. iii. 8.
107. That we must not use detraction.
In Solomon, in the Proverbs: "Love not to detract, lest thou be taken away." [4606] Also in the forty-ninth Psalm: "Thou sattest, and spakest against thy brother; and against the son of thy mother thou placedst a stumbling-block." [4607] Also in the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians: [4608] "To speak ill of no man, nor to be litigious." [4609]
[4606] Prov. xx. 13 (LXX.).
[4607] Ps. l. 20.
[4608] Oxford edition, "to Titus."
[4609] Tit. iii. 2.
108. That we must not lay snares against our neighbour.
In Solomon, in the Proverbs: "He who diggeth a pit for his neighbour, himself shall fall into it." [4610]
[4610] Prov. xxvi. 27.
109. That the sick are to be visited. [4611]
In Solomon, in Ecclesiasticus: "Be not slack to visit the sick man; for from these things thou shalt be strengthened in love." [4612] Also in the Gospel: "I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me." [4613]
[4611] [Elucidation XII. See p. 528, supra.]
[4612] Ecclus. vii. 39.
[4613] Matt. xxv. 36.
110. That tale-bearers are accursed.
In Ecclesiasticus, in Solomon: "The talebearer and the double-tongued is accursed; for he will disturb many who have peace." [4614]
[4614] Ecclus. xxviii. 15.
111. That the sacrifices of the wicked are not acceptable.
In the same: "The Highest approveth not the gifts of the unrighteous."
[4615] Ecclus. xxxiv. 19.
112. That those are more severely judged, who in this world have had more power.
In Solomon: "The hardest judgment shall be made on those who govern. For to a mean man mercy is granted; but the powerful shall suffer torments mightily." [4616] Also in the second Psalm: "And now, ye kings, understand; be amended, ye who judge the earth." [4617]
[4616] Wisd. vi. 6.
[4617] Ps. ii. 10.
113. That the widow and orphans ought to be protected.
In Solomon: "Be merciful to the orphans as a father, and as a husband to their mother; and thou shalt be the son of the Highest if thou shalt obey." [4618] Also in Exodus: "Ye shall not afflict any widow and orphan. But if ye afflict them, and they cry out and call unto me, I will hear their cryings, and will be angry in mind against you; and I will destroy you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children orphans." [4619] Also in Isaiah: "Judge for the fatherless, and justify the widow; and come let us reason, saith the Lord." [4620] Also in Job: "I have preserved the poor man from the hand of the mighty, and I have helped the fatherless who had no helper: the mouth of the widow hath blessed me." [4621] Also in the sixty-seventh Psalm: "The Father of the orphans, and the Judge of the widows." [4622]
[4618] Ecclus. iv. 10.
[4619] Ex. xxii. 22-24.
[4620] Isa. i. 17, 18.
[4621] Job xxix. 12, 13.
[4622] Ps. lxviii. 5.
114. That one ought to make confession while he is in the flesh.
In the fifth Psalm: "But in the grave who will confess unto Thee?" [4623] Also in the twenty-ninth Psalm: "Shall the dust make confession to Thee?" [4624] Also elsewhere that confession is to be made: "I would rather have the repentance of the sinner than his death." [4625] Also in Jeremiah: "Thus saith the Lord, Shall not he that falleth arise? or shall not he that is turned away be converted?" [4626]
[4623] Ps. vi. 5. [Here, as often, the grave is represented as enjoying a temporary victory, for the flesh is no longer capable of worship. Not till the whole man is restored comes 1 Cor. xv. 54, 55.]
[4624] Ps. xxx. 9.
[4625] Ezek. xxxiii. 11.
[4626] Jer. viii. 4.
115. That flattery is pernicious.
In Isaiah: "They who call you blessed, lead you into error, and trouble the paths of your feet." [4627]
[4627] Isa. iii. 12.
116. That God is more loved by him who has had many sins forgiven in baptism.
In the Gospel according to Luke: "To whom much is forgiven, he loveth much; and to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little." [4628]
[4628] Luke vii. 47.
117. That there is a strong conflict to be waged against the devil, and that therefore we ought to stand bravely, that we may be able to conquer.
In the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians: "Our wrestle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers and princes of this world, and of this darkness; against the spiritual things of wickedness in the heavenly places. Because of this, put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to resist in the most evil day; that when ye have accomplished all, ye may stand, having your loins girt in the truth of the Gospel, putting on the breastplate of righteousness, and having your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace; in all things taking the shield of faith, in which ye may extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." [4629]
[4629] Eph. vi. 12-17.
118. Also of Antichrist, that he will come as a man.
In Isaiah: "This is the man who arouseth the earth, who disturbeth kings, who maketh the whole earth a desert." [4630]
[4630] Isa. xiv. 16.
119. That the yoke of the law was heavy, which is cast off by us, and that the Lord's yoke is easy, which is taken up by us.
In the second Psalm: "Wherefore have the heathen been in tumult, and the peoples meditated vain things? The kings of the earth have stood up, and their princes have been gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ. Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away from us their yoke." [4631] Also in the Gospel according to Matthew: "Come unto me, ye who labour and are burdened, and I will make you to rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me: for I am meek and lowly of heart, [4632] and ye shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is good, and my burden is light." [4633] Also in the Acts of the Apostles: "It seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to impose upon you no other burden than those things which are of necessity, that you should abstain from idolatries, from shedding of blood, and from fornication. And whatsoever you would not to be done unto you, do not to others."
[4631] Ps. ii. 1-3.
[4632] In one codex, from this point all the rest is wanting.
[4633] Matt. xi. 28-30.
[4634] Acts xv. 28, 29.
120. That we are to be urgent in prayers.
In the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians: "Be instant in prayer, and watch therein." [4635] Also in the first Psalm: "But in the law of the Lord is his will, and in His law will he meditate day and night."
[4635] Col. iv. 2.
[4636] Ps. i. 2. The Oxford edition continues: "Likewise in Solomon; Be not hindered from praying ever, and delay not unto death to be justified; for the repayment of the Lord abideth for ever.'" [In a day when there were few Bibles, and no printed books, no concordances, and no published collections of this sort, reflect on the value of this treatise to a young believer, and on the labour of his pastor in making it.]
Elucidations.
------------------------
I.
(On the unity of the Church, p. 421.)
The epistles have already been elucidated as the best exposition of this treatise. Little need be added. But, to illustrate the bearings of this treatise upon the history of Christian unity, we need only refer to the manner in which the subject was treated as soon as the papacy was created by Nicholas I. Thus, he astounded the Greeks by his consummate audacity (a.d. 860) in the matter of the disputed succession in Constantinople. [4637] "It is our will," he says, "that Ignatius should appear before our envoys," etc. He declares it the rule of the Fathers, that, "without the consent of the Roman See and the Roman pontiff, nothing should be decided." Also, he affirms, "The Creator of all things has established the Princedom of the Divine Power, which He granted to His chosen apostles. He has firmly established it on the firm faith of the Prince of the Apostles,--that is to say, Peter,--to whom he pre-eminently granted the first See," etc. He was now speaking on the strength of the forged Decretals, to which he appeals, and which he succeeded in making law for the West. He thus created the lasting schism with the Easterns, who had never heard the like before his time.
Obviously, therefore, had Cyprian entertained such ideas, his treatise could never have been written; for it is a masterly exposition of a curious point, viz., the fact that (1) the Apostle Peter received the first grant alone, and yet (2) all the apostles received precisely the same; while (1) Peter had thus a primacy of honour, but (2) in no respect any power or authority over his brethren. On these admitted facts he constructs his theory of unity, expounding by it the actual state of the Church's constitution. Peter's memory he honours, but without any less reverence for all the apostolic Sees, which over and over again he maintains to be of equal authority and sanctity. That the Church was founded on Stephen any more than on the Bishop of Carthage, he never imagines; for it is one thing to allow that a bishop has succeeded an apostle at the place of his last labours, and quite another to assume that therefore such a bishop is virtually the apostle himself. Yet this assumption is the ground of all Roman doctrine on this point. [4638]
Had such been Cyprian's idea, his Treatise on Unity must have proceeded thus: (1) "Our Lord said to Peter only, I will give unto thee the keys; (2) to the rest of the apostles He gave only an inferior and subject authority; (3) to the successor of Peter, therefore, at Rome, all other bishops and churches must be subject; for (4) in this subjection the law of unity consists; and (5) if even all the other apostles were alive to this day, they would be subject to Stephen, as Prince of the Apostles, or would be rebels against Christ."
Compare this treatise of Cyprian, then, with any authorized treatise on the subject proceeding from modern Rome, and it will be seen that the two systems are irreconcilable. Thus, in few words, says the Confession [4639] of Pius IV.: "I acknowledge the Holy Catholic Apostolic Roman Church for the mother and mistress of all churches; and I promise true obedience to the Bishop of Rome, successor to St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and Vicar of Jesus Christ." This is the voice of Italy in the ninth century; but Cyprian speaks for OEcumenical Christendom in the third, and the two systems are as contrary as darkness and light.
II.
(Falsifying of the text, p. 422.)
Cyprian is often innocently quoted by Romanist controvertists against the very principles of Cyprian himself, of his life and his writings. This is due to the fact that they have in their hands vitiated and interpolated copies. Thus, take a famous passage as follows:--
Cyprian.
Loquitur Dominus ad Petrum, Ego tibi dico Tu es Petrus, etc.^(a)
Super unum^(b) ædificat ecclesiam.
Hoc erant utique et cæteri apostoli quot fuit Petrus, qui consortio præditi et honoris et potestatis, sed exordium ab unitate proficisitur,^(c) ut^(d) Christi ecclesia^(e) una monstretur.^(f)