Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume V/Cyprian/The Treatises of Cyprian/Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews/Book III/Part 4

by Cyprian

4. That we must boast in nothing, since nothing is our own.

In the Gospel according to John: “No one can receive anything, except it were given him from heaven.”^[1] Also in the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: “For what hast thou that thou hast not received? But if thou hast received it, why boastest thou, as if thou hadst not received it?”^[2] Also in the first of Kings: “Boast not, neither speak lofty things, and let not great speeches proceed out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge.”^[3] Also in the same place:  “The bow of the mighty men has been made weak, and the weak are girt about with strength.”^[4] Of this same thing in the Maccabees: “It is just to be subjected to God, and that a mortal should not think things equal to God.”^[5] Also in the same place:  “And fear not the words of a man that is a sinner, because his glory shall be filth and worms. Today he shall be lifted up, and to-morrow he shall not be found; because he is turned into his earth, and his thought has perished.”^[6]

Footnotes

1. John iii. 27.
2. 1 Cor. iv. 7.
3. 1 Sam. ii. 3, 4.
4. 1 Sam. ii. 3, 4.
5. 2 Macc. ix. 12.
6. 1 Macc. ii. 62, 63.