The Treatises of Cyprian

In the book of Chronicles: “The Lord is with you so long as you also are with Him; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.” In Ezekiel also: “The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in what day soever he may transgress.” Moreover, in the Gospel the Lord speaks, and says: “He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.” And again: “If you shall abide in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Moreover, forewarning us that we ought always to be ready, and to stand firmly equipped and armed, He adds, and says: “Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning, and you yourselves like men that wait for their lord when he shall return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open unto him.

Blessed are those servants whom their lord, when he comes, shall find watching.” Also the blessed Apostle Paul, that our faith may advance and grow, and attain to the highest point, exhorts us, saying: “Do you not know, that they which run in a race run all indeed, yet one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain. And they, indeed, that they may receive a corruptible crown; but you an incorruptible.” And again: “No man that wars for God binds himself to anxieties of this world, that he may be able to please Him to whom he has approved himself.

Moreover, also, if a man should contend, he will not be crowned unless he have fought lawfully.” And again: “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you constitute your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God; and be not conformed to this world, but be transformed in the renewing of your spirit, that you may prove what is the will of God, good, and acceptable, and perfect.” And again: “We are children of God: but if children, then heirs; heirs indeed of God, but joint-heirs with Christ, if we suffer together, that we may also be glorified together.” And in the Apocalypse the same exhortation of divine preaching speaks, saying, “Hold fast that which you have, lest another take your crown;” which example of perseverance and persistence is pointed out in Exodus, when Moses, for the overthrow of Ama-lek, who bore the type of the devil, raised up his open hands in the sign and sacrament of the cross, and could not conquer his adversary unless when he had steadfastly persevered in the sign with hands continually lifted up.

“And it came to pass,” says he, “when Moses raised up his hands, Israel prevailed; but when he let down his hands, Amalek grew mighty. And they took a stone and placed it under him, and he sate thereon. And Aaron and Hur held up his hands on the one side and on the other side, and Moses' hands were made steady even to the going down of the sun. Anti Jesus routed Amalek and all his people. And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this, and let it be a memorial in a book, and tell it in the ears of Jesus; because in destroying I will destroy the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.”