10. Let the faithful Christian, I say, devote himself to the sacred Scriptures,16    [Always the sacred Scriptures are held up as capable of yielding delight as well as profit to the believer. The works of God and His word go together. Col. iii. 16.] and there he shall find worthy exhibitions for his faith. He will see God establishing His world, and making not only the other animals, but that marvellous and better fabric of man. He will gaze upon the world in its delightfulness, righteous shipwrecks, the rewards of the good, and the punishments of the impious, seas drained dry by a people, and again from the rock seas spread out by a people. He will behold harvests descending from heaven, not pressed in by the plough; rivers with their hosts of waters bridled in, exhibiting dry crossings.  He will behold in some cases faith struggling with the flame, wild beasts overcome by devotion and soothed into gentleness. He will look also upon souls brought back even from death. Moreover, he will consider the marvellous souls brought back to the life of bodies which themselves were already consumed. And in all these things he will see a still greater exhibition—that devil who had triumphed over the whole world lying prostrate under the feet of Christ. How honourable is this exhibition, brethren! how delightful, how needful ever to gaze upon one’s hope, and to open our eyes to one’s salvation! This is a spectacle which is beheld even when sight is lost. This is an exhibition which is given by neither prætor nor consul, but by Him who is alone and above all things, and before all things, yea, and of whom are all things, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and honour for ever and ever. I bid you, brethren, ever heartily farewell. Amen.17    [There is much in the above treatise which is not unworthy of Cyprian. As to questions of authenticity, however, experts alone should venture upon an opinion. Non nobis tantas componere lites.]

0786C X. Scripturis, inquam, sacris incumbat Christianus fidelis; et ibi inveniet condigna fidei spectacula. Videbit instituentem Deum mundum suum, et cum caeteris animalibus hominis illam admirabilem fabricam melioremque facientem. Spectabit mundum in delictis suis, justa naufragia, piorum praemia, impiorumque supplicia, maria populo siccata, et de petra rursus populo maria porrecta. Spectabit de coelo descendentes messes, non ex aratro impressas, flumina transitus siccos refraenatis aquarum agminibus exhibentia. Videbit in quibusdam fidem cum igne luctantem, feras religione superatas et in mansuetudinem conversas. Intuebitur et animas ab ipsa etiam morte revocatas. Considerabit etiam de sepulchris admirabiles ipsorum consumptorum jam ad vitam corporum 0786D reductas, et in his omnibus majus jam videbit spectaculum, diabolum illum, qui totum detriumphaverat mundum, sub pedibus Christi jacentem. Quam hoc decorum spectaculum, fratres, quam jucundum, quam necessarium, intueri semper spem suam, et oculos aperire ad salutem suam! Hoc est spectaculum 0787A quod videtur etiam luminibus amissis. Hoc est spectaculum quod non exhibet praetor aut consul, sed qui est solus et ante omnia et super omnia, immo 0788A ex quo omnia, Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi, cui laus et honor in saecula saeculorum. Opto vos, fratres, semper bene valere. Amen.