Chapter 22.—Further References to Cyprian.

For he says also this in the epistle whose title is inscribed, “On the Mortality:”319    Chs. 2, 18; The Ante-Nicene Fathers, v. pp. 469, 473. “The kingdom of God, beloved brethren, is beginning to be at hand; the reward of life, and the rejoicing of eternal salvation and perpetual gladness, and the possession formerly lost of Paradise, are now coming with the passing away of the world.” This again, in the same epistle, he says: “Let us greet the day which assigns each of us to his own home, which snatches us hence and sets us free from the snares of the world, and restores us to Paradise and the kingdom.” Moreover, he says in the epistle concerning Patience: “Let the judgment of God be pondered, which, even in the beginning of the world and of the human race, Adam, forgetful of the commandment and a transgressor of the law that had been given, received. Then we shall know how patient in this life we ought to be, who are born in such a state that we labour here with afflictions and contests. Because, says He, ‘thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which alone I had charged thee that thou shouldest not eat, cursed shall be the ground in all thy works: in sorrow and in groaning shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall it give forth to thee, and thou shall eat the food of the field. In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread, till thou return unto the ground from which thou wast taken: for earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou go.’ We are all tied and bound with the chain of this sentence until, death being destroyed, we depart from this world.”320    Ch. 11; The Ante-Nicene Fathers, v. 487. And, moreover, in the same epistle he says: “For, since in that first transgression of the commandment strength of body departed with immortality, and weakness came on with death, and strength cannot be received unless when immortality also has been received, it behoves us in this bodily frailty and weakness always to struggle and fight; and this struggle and encounter cannot be sustained but by the strength of patience.”321    Ch. 9; The Ante-Nicene Fathers, v. 486.

22. Hoc enim et in epistola, cujus de Mortalitate titulus inscribitur, ita dicit: «Regnum Dei, fratres dilectissimi, esse coepit in proximo, praemium vitae, et gaudium salutis aeternae, et perpetua laetitia, et possessio paradisi nuper amissa, mundo transeunte jam veniunt.» Hoc rursus in eadem: «Amplectamur,» inquit, «diem qui assignat singulos domicilio suo, qui nos isthinc ereptos et laqueis saecularibus exsolutos paradiso restituat et regno.» Item in epistola de Patientia: «Dei sententia cogitetur,» inquit, «quam in origine statim mundi et generis humani Adam praecepti immemor et datae legis transgressor accepit: tunc sciemus quam patientes esse in isto saeculo debeamus, qui sic nascimur, ut pressuris isthic et conflictationibus laboremus. Quia audisti, inquit, vocem mulieris tuae, et manducasti ex illa arbore, de qua sola praeceperam tibi ne manducares, maledicta terra erit in omnibus operibus tuis. In tristitia et gemitu edes ex ea omnibus diebus vitae tuae: spinas et tribulos ejiciet tibi; et edes pabulum agri. In sudore vultus tui edes panem tuum, donec revertaris in terram de qua sumptus es: quoniam terra es, et in terram ibis (Gen. III, 17-19). Hujus sententiae vinculo colligati omnes et constricti sumus, donec morte expuncta de isto saeculo recedamus.» Itemque in eadem: «Nam cum in illa,» inquit, «prima transgressione praecepti firmitas corporis cum immortalitate discesserit, et cum morte infirmitas venerit, nec possit firmitas recipi, nisi cum recepta et immortalitas fuerit; oportet in hac fragilitate atque infirmitate corporis luctari semper et congredi. Quae luctatio et congressio non nisi patientiae potest viribus sustineri.»