4 For to this battle our Lord, as with the trumpet of His Gospel, stimulates us when He says, “He that loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loves his own soul more than me is not worthy of me. And he that takes not his cross, and follows after me, is not worthy of me.” And again, “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed shall you be, when men shall persecute you, and hate you.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for so did their fathers persecute the prophets which were before you.” And again, Because you shall stand before kings and powers, and the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the son, and he that endures to the end shall be saved; and “To him that overcomes will I give to sit on my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down on the throne of my Father.” Moreover the apostle: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (As it is written, For your sake are we killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors for Him who has loved us.”
Source: The Epistles of Cyprian (New Advent)