The Treatises of Cyprian

In the Gospel the Lord speaks, and says: “He that loves father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loves son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that takes not his cross and follows me, is not worthy of me.” So also it is written in Deuteronomy: “They who say to their father and their mother, I have not known you, and have not acknowledged their own children, these have kept Your precepts, and have observed Your covenant.” Moreover, the Apostle Paul says: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or hunger, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, Because for Your sake we are killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we overcome on account of Him who has loved us.” And again: “You are not your own, for you are bought with a great price. Glorify and bear God in your body.” And again: “Christ died for all, that both they which live may not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.”