1. Many and great, beloved brethren, are the divine benefits wherewith the large and abundant mercy of God the Father and Christ both has laboured and is always labouring for our salvation: that the Father sent the Son to preserve us and give us life, in order that He might restore us; and that the Son was willing1    A slight and scarcely noticeable difference occurs here in the Oxford text, which reads the passage, “that the Son was sent, and willed to be called the Son of man.” to be sent and to become the Son of man, that He might make us sons of God; humbled Himself, that He might raise up the people who before were prostrate; was wounded that He might heal our wounds; served, that He might draw out to liberty those who were in bondage; underwent death, that He might set forth immortality to mortals. These are many and great boons of divine compassion. But, moreover, what is that providence, and how great the clemency, that by a plan of salvation it is provided for us, that more abundant care should be taken for preserving man after he is already redeemed! For when the Lord at His advent had cured those wounds which Adam had borne,2    Portaverat; “had brought” (Oxf. transl.). and had healed the old poisons of the serpent,3    “Poisons of the old serpent.” He gave a law to the sound man and bade him sin no more, lest a worse thing should befall the sinner. We had been limited and shut up into a narrow space by the commandment of innocence. Nor would the infirmity and weakness of human frailty have any resource, unless the divine mercy, coming once more in aid, should open some way of securing salvation by pointing out works of justice and mercy, so that by almsgiving we may wash away whatever foulness we subsequently contract.4    [The beauty of Cyprian’s exordiums and perorations proves that he was a true orator. “Great and manifold,” etc., Translators of King James.]

0601D I. MULTA et magna sunt, fratres charissimi beneficia divina quibus in salutem nostram Dei Patris et Christi larga et copiosa clementia et operata sit et 0602D semper operetur, quod conservandis ac vivificandis nobis Pater Filium misit, ut reparare nos posset, quodque Filius missus esse et hominis filius fieri voluit 0603A ut nos Dei filios faceret. Humiliavit se, ut populum qui prius jacebat erigeret: vulneratus est, ut vulnera nostra curaret : servivit, ut ad libertatem servientes extraheret: mori sustinuit, ut immortalitatem mortalibus exhiberet. Multa haec sunt et magna divinae misericordiae munera . Sed adhuc, qualis providentia illa et quanta clementia est quod nobis salutari ratione prospicitur, ut homini qui redemptus est reservando plenius consulatur! Nam, cum Dominus adveniens sanasset illa quae Adam portaverat vulnera, et venena serpentis antiqua curasset, legem dedit sano , et praecepit ne ultra jam peccaret, ne quid peccanti gravius eveniret. Coarctati eramus et in angustum innocentiae praescriptione conclusi. Nec haberet quid fragilitatis humanae infirmitas atque 0603B imbecillitas faceret, nisi iterum pietas divina subveniens, justitiae et misericordiae operibus ostensis, viam quamdam tuendae salutis aperiret, ut sordes postmodum, quascumque contrahimus , eleemosynis abluamus.