Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume V/Cyprian/The Treatises of Cyprian/Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews/Book III/Part 114

by Cyprian

114. That one ought to make confession while he is in the flesh.

In the fifth Psalm: “But in the grave who will confess unto Thee?”^[1] Also in the twenty-ninth Psalm: “Shall the dust make confession to Thee?”^[2] Also elsewhere that confession is to be made: “I would rather have the repentance of the sinner than his death.”^[3] Also in Jeremiah: “Thus saith the Lord, Shall not he that falleth arise? or shall not he that is turned away be converted?”^[4]

Footnotes

1. Ps. vi. 5. [Here, as often, the grave is represented as enjoying a temporary victory, for the flesh is no longer capable of worship. Not till the whole man is restored comes 1 Cor. xv. 54, 55.]
2. Ps. xxx. 9.
3. Ezek. xxxiii. 11.
4. Jer. viii. 4.