Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume V/Cyprian/The Treatises of Cyprian/Exhortation to Martyrdom/Part 3

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Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. V, Cyprian, The Treatises of Cyprian, Exhortation to Martyrdom
by Cyprian, translated by Robert Ernest Wallis
Part 3
157821Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol. V, Cyprian, The Treatises of Cyprian, Exhortation to Martyrdom — Part 3Robert Ernest WallisCyprian

2. That God alone must be worshipped.

“As it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.”[1] Also in Exodus: “Thou shalt have none other gods beside me.”[2] Also in Deuteronomy:  “See ye, see ye that I am He, and that there is no God beside me. I will kill, and will make alive; I will smite, and I will heal; and there is none who can deliver out of mine hands.”[3] In the Apocalypse, moreover: “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach over the earth, and over all nations, and tribes, and tongues, and peoples, saying with a loud voice, Fear God rather, and give glory to Him:  for the hour of His judgment is come; and worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all that therein is.”[4] So also the Lord, in His Gospel, makes mention of the first and second commandment, saying, “Hear, O Israel, The Lord thy God is one God;”[5] and, “Thou shalt love thy Lord with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. This is the first; and the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”[6] And once more: “And this is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.”[7]


Footnotes

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  1. Deut. vi. 13; x. 20.
  2. Ex. xx. 3.
  3. Deut. xxxii. 39.
  4. Rev. xiv. 6, 7.
  5. Mark xii. 29–31.
  6. Matt. xxii. 37–40.
  7. John xvii. 3.