Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume V/Cyprian/The Treatises of Cyprian/Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews/Book III/Part 28

by Cyprian

28. That remission cannot in the Church be granted unto him who has sinned against God (i.e., the Holy Ghost).

In the Gospel according to Matthew:  “Whosoever shall say a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come.”^[1] Also according to Mark: “All sins shall be forgiven, and blasphemies, to the sons of men; but whoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, but he shall be guilty of eternal sin.”^[2] Of this same thing in the first book of Kings: “If a man sin by offending against a man, they shall pray the Lord for him; but if a man sin against God, who shall pray for him?”^[3]

Footnotes

1. Matt. xii. 32.
2. Mark iii. 28, 29.
3. 1 Sam. ii. 25. [i.e., he regards this text as expounded by the preceding words of Christ. Compare 1 John v. 16.]