The Treatises of Cyprian

In Jeremiah the Lord says: “I have sent unto I you my servants the prophets. Before the daylight I sent them (and you heard me not, and did not listen with your ears), saying, Let every one of you be converted from his evil way, and from your most wicked desires; and you shall dwell in that land which I have given you and your fathers for ever and ever.” And again: “Go not after other gods, to serve them, and do not worship them; and provoke me not to anger in the works of your hands to scatter you abroad; and you have not hearkened unto me.” Also in the third book of the Kings, Elias says unto the Lord: “In being jealous I have been jealous for the Lord God Almighty; because the children of Israel have forsaken You, have demolished Your altars, and have slain Your prophets with the sword; and I have remained solitary, and they seek my life, to take it away from me.” In Ezra also: “They have fallen away from You, and have cast Your law behind their backs, and have killed Your prophets which testified against them that they should return to You.”