23. He has clearly joined herewith and added the law, and has bound us by a certain condition and engagement, that we should ask that our debts be forgiven us in such a manner as we ourselves forgive our debtors, knowing that that which we seek for our sins cannot be obtained unless we ourselves have acted in a similar way in respect of our debtors. Therefore also He says in another place, “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”60    Matt. vii. 2. And the servant who, after having had all his debt forgiven him by his master, would not forgive his fellow-servant, is cast back into prison; because he would not forgive his fellow-servant, he lost the indulgence that had been shown to himself by his lord. And these things Christ still more urgently sets forth in His precepts with yet greater power of His rebuke. “When ye stand praying,” says He, “forgive if ye have aught against any, that your Father which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive you your trespasses.”61    Mark xi. 25. [Elucidation III.] There remains no ground of excuse in the day of judgment, when you will be judged according to your own sentence; and whatever you have done, that you also will suffer.  For God commands us to be peacemakers, and in agreement, and of one mind in His house;62    [Ps. lxviii. 6. Vulgate and Angl. Psalter.] and such as He makes us by a second birth, such He wishes us when new-born to continue, that we who have begun to be sons of God may abide in God’s peace, and that, having one spirit, we should also have one heart and one mind.  Thus God does not receive the sacrifice of a person who is in disagreement, but commands him to go back from the altar and first be reconciled to his brother, that so God also may be appeased by the prayers of a peace-maker. Our peace and brotherly agreement63    [Cyprian was very mild in his position against the accusations of Stephen. Sec. 26, p. 386, supra; also Treatise ix., infra.] is the greater sacrifice to God,—and a people united in one in the unity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

XXIII. Adjunxit plane et addidit legem, certa nos conditione et sponsione constringens, ut sic nobis dimitti debita postulemus secundum quod et ipsi debitoribus nostris dimittimus, scientes impetrari non posse quod pro peccatis petimus, nisi et ipsi circa debitores nostros paria fecerimus. Idcirco et alio in loco dicit: In qua mensura mensi fueritis, in ea remetietur 0535B vobis (Matth. VII, 2). Et qui servus post dimissum sibi a domino omne debitum conservo suo noluit ipse dimittere (Matth. XVIII, 34), in carcerem religatur: quia indulgere conservo suo noluit, quod sibi a Domino indultum fuerat amisit. Quae adhuc fortius Christus in praeceptis suis majore censurae suae vigore proponit: Cum steteritis, inquit, ad orationem, remittite si quid habetis adversus aliquem, ut et Pater vester qui in coelis est remittat peccata vestra vobis. Si autem vos non remiseritis, neque Pater vester qui in coelis est remittet vobis peccata vestra (Marc. XI, 25). Excusatio tibi nulla in die judicii superest, cum secundum tuam sententiam judiceris, et quod feceris hoc et ipse patiaris. Pacificos enim et concordes atque unanimes esse in domo sua Deus praecipit, et 0535C quales nos fecit secunda nativitate, tales vult renatos perseverare; ut qui filii Dei esse coepimus, in Dei pace maneamus, et quibus spiritus unus est, unus sit et animus et sensus. Sic nec sacrificium Deus recipit dissidentis, et ab altari revertentem prius 0536A fratri reconciliari jubet (Matth. V, 24), ut pacificis precibus et Deus possit esse pacatus. Sacrificium Deo majus est pax nostra et fraterna concordia, et de unitate Patris et Filii et Spiritus sancti plebs adunata.