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| To the Clergy, Concerning Prayer to God.
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Epistle VII.2175
| 2175
Oxford ed.; Ep. xi. a.d.
250. |
To the Clergy, Concerning Prayer to
God.
Argument.—The Argument of the Present Epistle is Nearly the Same as
that of the Two Preceding, Except that He Exhorts in This to Diligent
Prayer.
1. Cyprian to the presbyters and deacons,
his brethren, greeting. Although I know, brethren beloved, that
from the fear which we all of us owe to God, you also are instantly
urgent in continual petitions and earnest prayers to Him, still I
myself remind your religious anxiety, that in order to appease and
entreat the Lord, we must lament not only in words, but also with
fastings and with tears, and with every kind of urgency. For we
must perceive and confess that the so disordered ruin arising from that
affliction, which has in a great measure laid waste, and is even still
laying waste, our flock, has visited us according to our sins, in that
we do not keep the way of the Lord, nor observe the heavenly
commandments given to us for our salvation. Our Lord did the will
of His Father, and we do not do the will of our Lord; eager about our
patrimony and our gain, seeking to satisfy our pride, yielding
ourselves wholly to emulation and to strife, careless of simplicity and
faith, renouncing the world in words only, and not in deeds, every one
of us pleasing himself, and displeasing all others,2176
| 2176
[Compare, in former letters, similar complaints, to which brief notes
are subjoined. And mark the honest simplicity of these
confessions. 2 Peter ii.
13, 14, 15.] | —therefore we are smitten as we
deserve, since it is written: “And that servant, which
knoweth his master’s will, and has not obeyed his will, shall be
beaten with many stripes.”2177
But what stripes, what blows, do
we not deserve, when even confessors, who ought to be an example of
virtuous life to others, do not maintain discipline? Therefore,
while an inflated and immodest boastfulness about their own confession
excessively elates some, tortures come upon them, and tortures without
any cessation of the tormentor, without any end of condemnation,
without any comfort of death,—tortures which do not easily let
them pass to the crown, but wrench them on the rack until they cause
them to abandon their faith, unless some one taken away by the divine
compassion should depart in the very midst of the torments, gaining
glory not by the cessation of his torture, but by the quickness of his
death.
2. These things we suffer by our own fault and our
own deserving, even as the divine judgment has forewarned us, saying,
“If they forsake my law
and walk not in my judgments, if they profane my statutes and keep not
my commandments, then will I visit their transgressions with the rod,
and their iniquities with stripes.”2178
It is for this reason that we
feel the rods and the stripes, because we neither please God with good
deeds nor atone2179
for our
sins. Let us of our inmost heart and of our entire mind ask for
God’s mercy, because He Himself also adds, saying,
“Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not scatter away from
them.”2180
Let us
ask, and we shall receive; and if there be delay and tardiness in our
receiving, since we have grievously offended, let us knock, because
“to him that knocketh also it shall be opened,”2181
if only our
prayers, our groanings, and our tears, knock at the door; and with
these we must be urgent and persevering, even although prayer be
offered with one mind.2182
3. For,—which the more induced and
constrained me to write this letter to you,—you ought to know
(since the Lord has condescended to show and to reveal it) that it was
said in a vision, “Ask, and ye shall obtain.” Then,
afterwards, that the attending people were bidden to pray for certain
persons pointed out to them, but that in their petitions there were
dissonant voices, and wills disagreeing, and that this excessively
displeased Him who had said, “Ask, and ye shall obtain,”
because the disagreement of the people was out of harmony, and there
was not a consent of the brethren one and simple, and a united concord;
since it is written, “God who maketh men to be of one mind in a
house;”2183
and we read
in the Acts of the Apostles, “And the multitude of them that
believed were of one heart and of one soul.”2184
And the Lord has bidden us with
His own voice, saying, “This is my command, that ye love one
another.”2185
And
again, “I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth
as touching anything that you shall ask, it shall be done for you of my
Father which is in heaven.”2186
But if two of one mind can do so
much, what might be effected if the unanimity prevailed among
all? But if, according to the peace which our Lord gave us, there
were agreement among all brethren, we should before this have obtained
from the divine mercy what we seek; nor should we be wavering so long
in this peril of our salvation and our faith. Yes, truly, and
these evils would not have come upon the brethren, if the brotherhood
had been animated with one spirit.
4. For there also was shown that there sate
the father of a family, a young man also being seated at his right
hand, who, anxious and somewhat sad with a kind of indignation, holding
his chin in his right hand, occupied his place with a sorrowful
look. But another standing on the left hand, bore a net, which he
threatened to throw, in order to catch the people standing
round.2187
| 2187
[After the manner of Hermas. Vol. ii. p. 24, note 2.] | And
when he who saw marvelled what this could be, it was told him that the
youth who was thus sitting on the right hand was saddened and grieved
because his commandments were not observed; but that he on the left was
exultant because an opportunity was afforded him of receiving from the
father of the family the power of destroying. This was shown long
before the tempest of this devastation arose. And we have seen
that which had been shown fulfilled; that while we despise the
commandments of the Lord, while we do not keep the salutary ordinances
of the law that He has given, the enemy was receiving a power of doing
mischief, and was overwhelming, by the cast of his net, those who were
imperfectly armed and too careless to resist.
5. Let us urgently pray and groan with
continual petitions. For know, beloved brethren, that I was not
long ago reproached with this also in a vision, that we were sleepy in
our prayers, and did not pray with watchfulness; and undoubtedly God,
who “rebukes whom He loves,”2188
when He rebukes, rebukes that He may
amend, amends that He may preserve. Let us therefore strike off
and break away from the bonds of sleep, and pray with urgency and
watchfulness, as the Apostle Paul bids us, saying, “Continue in
prayer, and watch in the same.”2189
For the apostles also ceased not
to pray day and night; and the Lord also Himself, the teacher of our
discipline, and the way of our example, frequently and watchfully
prayed, as we read in the Gospel: “He went out into a
mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to
God.”2190
And
assuredly what He prayed for, He prayed for on our behalf, since He was
not a sinner, but bore the sins of others. But He so prayed for
us, that in another place we read, “And the Lord said to Peter,
Behold, Satan has desired to sift you as wheat: but I have prayed
for thee, that thy faith fail not.”2191
But if for us and for our sins He
both laboured and watched and prayed, how much more ought we to be
instant in prayers; and, first of all, to pray and to entreat the Lord
Himself, and then through Him, to make satisfaction to God the
Father! We have an advocate and an intercessor for our sins,
Jesus Christ the Lord
and our God, if only we repent of our sins past, and confess and
acknowledge our sins, whereby we now offend the Lord, and for the time
to come engage to walk in His ways, and to fear His commandments.
The Father corrects and protects us, if we still stand fast in the
faith both in afflictions and perplexities, that is to say, cling
closely to His Christ; as it is written, “Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine or nakedness, or peril, or
sword?”2192
None of
these things can separate believers, nothing can tear away those who
are clinging to His body and blood. Persecution of that kind is
an examination and searching out of the heart. God wills us to be
sifted and proved, as He has always proved His people; and yet in His
trials help has never at any time been wanting to believers.
6. Finally, to the very least of His
servants although placed among very many sins, and unworthy of His
condescension, yet He has condescended of His goodness towards us to
command:2193
| 2193 [A
vision granted to the pastor in behalf of his flock. See Vulgate
version of Ps. lxxxix.
19, which
Cyprian’s, doubtless, anticipated.] This prediction of
settled times was published in unsettled ones; and it was
fulfilled by the sudden and unexpected death of Decius, in his
expedition against the Goths. |
“Tell him,” said He, “to be safe, because peace is
coming; but that, in the meantime, there is a little delay, that some
who still remain may be proved.” But we are admonished by
these divine condescensions both concerning a spare diet and a
temperate use of drink; to wit, lest worldly enticement should enervate
the breast now elevated with celestial vigour, or lest the mind,
weighed down by too abundant feasting, should be less watchful unto
prayers and supplication.
7. It was my duty not to conceal these
special matters, nor to hide them alone in my own
consciousness,—matters by which each one of us may be both
instructed and guided. And do not you for your part keep this
letter concealed among yourselves, but let the brethren have it to
read. For it is the part of one who desires that his brother
should not be warned and instructed, to intercept those words with
which the Lord condescends to admonish and instruct us. Let them
know that we are proved by our Lord, and let them never fail of that
faith whereby we have once believed in Him, under the conflict of this
present affliction. Let each one, acknowledging his own sins,
even now put off the conversation of the old man. “For no
man who looks back as he putteth his hand to the plough is fit for the
kingdom of God.”2194
And, finally, Lot’s wife,
who, when she was delivered, looked back in defiance of the
commandment, lost the benefit of her escape.2195
Let us look not to things which are
behind, whither the devil calls us back, but to things which are
before, whither Christ calls us. Let us lift up our eyes to
heaven, lest the earth with its delights and enticements deceive
us. Let each one of us pray God not for himself only, but for all
the brethren, even as the Lord has taught us to pray, when He bids to
each one, not private prayer, but enjoined them, when they prayed, to
pray for all in common prayer and concordant supplication.2196
| 2196
[Saying, “our Father,” not “my Father.”
Vol. i. p. 62.] | If the
Lord shall behold us humble and peaceable; if He shall see us joined
one with another; if He shall see us fearful concerning His anger; if
corrected and amended by the present tribulation, He will maintain us
safe from the disturbances of the enemy. Discipline hath
preceded; pardon also shall follow.
8. Let us only, without ceasing to ask, and with
full faith that we shall receive, in simplicity and unanimity beseech
the Lord, entreating not only with groaning but with tears, as it
behoves those to entreat who are situated between the ruins of those
who wail, and the remnants of those who fear; between the manifold
slaughter of the yielding, and the little firmness of those who still
stand. Let us ask that peace may be soon restored; that we may be
quickly helped in our concealments and our dangers; that those things
may be fulfilled which the Lord deigns to show to his
servants,—the restoration of the Church, the security of our
salvation; after the rains, serenity; after the darkness, light; after
the storms and whirlwinds, a peaceful calm; the affectionate aids of
paternal love, the accustomed grandeurs of the divine majesty whereby
both the blasphemy of persecutors may be restrained, the repentance of
the lapsed renewed, and the stedfast faith of the persevering may
glory. I bid you, beloved brethren, ever heartily farewell; and
have me in remembrance. Salute the brotherhood in my name; and
remind them to remember me. Farewell. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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