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36 Credibility of the Gospel llistory.
(hat determination to the satisfaction of the scrupulous and
the judicious : but such a performance, even supposing that
ability, would require a longer digression than could be
allowed of in this place ; for which reason that attempt must
be deferred.
V. We are in the next place to consider St. Cyprian's testimony
to the epistles of the apostle Paul.
1. ' Accordingi to what the blessed apostle Paul writes
' in his epistle to the Romans ; " Every one shall give an ac-
'
'
count of himself: therefore let us not judge one another :"
ch. xiv. 12, 13.
2. He quotes the latter part of the first chapter of the
epistle to the Romans very agreeably to the reading Ave saw
"^
formerly in Clement of Rome, ver. -32, " Who," says^ he,
" when they knew the righteousness of God, did not consider,
that they who do such things are worthy of death ; nor only
they who commit them, but they also that consent to them
that do them." The meaning of the text, according- to this
reading, is, that not only they who actually commit the sins
beforementioned, are liable to punishment, but they also
who approve of, and consent to such evil things. So it is
said of Paul, that* he was " consenting to Stephen's death,"
Acts viii. 1.
3. In the first book of Testimonies :
* In" the first epistle
of Paul to the Corinthians ; " Moreover, brethren, I would
not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were
under the cloud." Likewise in the second epistle to the
Corinthians: " Their minds are blinded unto this day :" '
see 1 Cor. x. i. and 2 Cor. iii. 13, 14.
4. In one of his epistles, ' The^ blessed apostle Paul also,
chosen and sent of the Lord, and appointed pi'eacher of the
gospel, says the same thing in his epistle ; " The Lord Jesus,
the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread ; and,
"^ Secundum quod beatus apostolus Paulus in epistola sua ad Romanes scribit
et dicit ; Unusquisque nostrum pro se rationem dabit ; non ergo nos invicem
judicemus. Cypr. Ep. C9. al. 76. p. 188. See Vol. ii.
p. 41. * Sed et hoc idem Paulus apostolus scribit, et dicit Qui
fum justitiam Dei cognovLssent, non intellexerunt, quooiam qui talia agunt,
morte sunt digni : non tantum qui faciunt ea, sed et qui consentiunt eis qui
hxc agunt. Ep. 67. al. 68. p. 175. * "SavXog St r)v avvtvcoKiov ti]
avaiperrei uvth. " In epistola Pauli ad Corinthios prima : Nolo enim
vos ignorare, fratres, quia patres nostri omnes sub nube fuerunt. Item in epistola
ad Corinthios secunda : Obtusi sunt sensus eorum, &c. Testim. Lb. i. cap. 4.
p. 22. " Beatus quoqiie apostolus Paulus, a Domino electus et missus,
tt praedicator veritatis evangelica; constitutus, hcec eadem in epistola sua ponit,
dicens; Dominus Jesus, in qua nocte tradebatur, accepit panem, et gratias
agens, [egit, et, Baluz.] frcgit, et dixit, Hoc est corpus meum, quod pro vobis
tradetur. Hoc facite in meam comniemordtionem, kc. Ep. 63. p. 152.