The Treatises of Cyprian

In Isaiah: “I have spread out my hands all day to a people disobedient and contradicting me, who walk in ways that are not good, but after their own sins.” Also in Jeremiah: “Come, let us cast the tree into His bread, and let us blot out His life from the earth.” Also in Deuteronomy: “And Your life shall be hanging (in doubt) before Your eyes; and You shall fear day and night, and shall not trust to Your life.” Also in the twenty-first Psalm: “They tore my hands and my feet; they numbered all my bones.

And they gazed upon me, and saw me, and divided my garments among them, and upon my vesture they cast a lot. But You, O Lord, remove not Your help far from me; attend unto my help. Deliver my soul from the sword, and my only one from the paw of the dog. Save me from the mouth of the lion, and my lowliness from the horns of the unicorns. I will declare Your name unto my brethren; in the midst of the Church I will praise You.” Also in the cxviiith Psalm: “Pierce my flesh with nails through fear of You.” Also in the cxlth Psalm: “The lifting up of my hands is an evening sacrifice.” Of which sacrifice Sophonias said: “Fear from the presence of the Lord God, since His day is near, because the Lord has prepared His sacrifice, He has sanctified His elect.” Also in Zechariah: “And they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced.” Also in the eighty-seventh Psalm: “I have called unto You, O Lord, the whole day; I have stretched out my hands unto You.” Also in Numbers: “Not as a man is God suspended, nor as the son of man does He suffer threats.” Whence in the Gospel the Lord says: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in the Son may have life eternal.”