The Treatises of Cyprian

In Isaiah: “Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth: for the Lord has spoken; I have begotten and brought up children, but they have rejected me. The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel has not known me, and my people has not perceived me. Ah sinful nation, a people filled with sins, a wicked seed, corrupting children: you have forsaken the Lord, and have sent that Holy One of Israel into anger.” In the same also the Lord says: “Go and tell this people, You shall hear with the ear, and shall not understand; and seeing, you shall see, and shall not perceive.

For the heart of this people has grown gross, and they hardly hear with their ears, and they have shut up their eyes, lest haply they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should return, and I should heal them.” Also in Jeremiah the Lord says: “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves worn-out cisterns, which could not hold water.” Moreover, in the same: “Behold, the word of the Lord has become unto them a reproach, and they do not wish for it.” Again in the same the Lord says: “The kite knows his time, the turtle, and the swallow; the sparrows of the field keep the time of their coining in; but my people does not know the judgment of the Lord.

How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? The false measurement has been made vain; the scribes are confounded the wise men have trembled, and been taken, because they have rejected the word of the Lord.” In Solomon also: “Evil men seek me, and shall not find me; for they held wisdom in hatred and did not receive the word of the Lord.” Also in the twenty-seventh Psalm: “Render to them their deserving, because they have not perceived in the works of the Lord.” Also in the eighty-first Psalm: “They have not known, neither have they understood; they shall walk on in darkness.” In the Gospel, too, according to John: “He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God who believe in His name.”