Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume V/Cyprian/The Treatises of Cyprian/Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews/Book III/Part 95

by Cyprian

95. That we are to live with the good, but to avoid the evil.

In Solomon, in the Proverbs: “Bring not the impious man into the habitation of the righteous.”^[1] Also in the same, in Ecclesiasticus: “Let righteous men be thy guests.”^[2] And again: “The faithful friend is a medicine of life and of immortality.”^[3] Also in the same place:  “Be thou far from the man who has the power to slay, and thou shalt not suspect fear.”^[4] Also in the same place:  “Blessed is he who findeth a true friend, and who speaketh righteousness to the listening ear.”^[5] Also in the same place:  “Hedge thine ears with thorns, and hear not a wicked tongue.”^[6]  Also in the seventeenth Psalm: “With the righteous Thou shalt be justified; and with the innocent man Thou shalt be innocent; and with the froward man Thou shalt be froward.”^[7] Also in the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: “Evil communications corrupt good dispositions.”^[8]

Footnotes

1. Prov. xxiv. 15.
2. Ecclus. ix. 16.
3. Ecclus. vi. 16.
4. Ecclus. ix. 13.
5. Ecclus. xxv. 9.
6. Ecclus. xxviii. 24.
7. Ps. xviii. 25, 26.
8. 1 Cor. xv. 33.