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| Chapter XVIII.—Concerning sacrifices and oblations, and those who truly offer them.
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Chapter XVIII.—Concerning sacrifices
and oblations, and those who truly offer them.
1. The
oblation of the Church, therefore, which the Lord gave instructions to be
offered throughout all the world, is accounted with God a pure sacrifice,
and is acceptable to Him; not that He stands in need of a sacrifice from
us, but that he who offers is himself glorified in what he does offer, if
his gift be accepted. For by the gift both honour and affection are shown
forth towards the King; and the Lord, wishing us to offer it in all
simplicity and innocence, did express Himself thus: “Therefore,
when thou offerest thy gift upon the altar, and shalt remember that thy
brother hath ought against thee, leave thy gift before the altar, and go
thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then return and offer
thy gift.”4034
We are bound,
therefore, to offer to God the first-fruits of His creation, as Moses
also says, “Thou shalt not appear in the presence of the Lord thy
God empty;”4035
so that man, being
accounted as grateful, by those things in which he has shown his
gratitude, may receive that honour which flows from Him.4036
| 4036 The text of this passage is doubtful in
some words. |
2. And the class of oblations in general has not been
set aside; for there were both oblations
there [among the
Jews], and there are oblations here [among the Christians]. Sacrifices
there were among the people; sacrifices there are, too, in the Church:
but the species alone has been changed, inasmuch as the offering is now
made, not by slaves, but by freemen. For the Lord is [ever] one and the
same; but the character of a servile oblation is peculiar [to itself], as
is also that of freemen, in order that, by the very oblations, the
indication of liberty may be set forth. For with Him there is nothing
purposeless, nor without signification, nor without design. And for this
reason they (the Jews) had indeed the tithes of their goods consecrated
to Him, but those who have received liberty set aside all their
possessions for the Lord’s purposes, bestowing joyfully and freely
not the less valuable portions of their property, since they have the
hope of better things [hereafter]; as that poor widow acted who cast all
her living into the treasury of God.4037
3. For at the beginning
God had respect to the gifts of Abel, because he offered with
single-mindedness and righteousness; but He had no respect unto the
offering of Cain, because his heart was divided with envy and malice,
which he cherished against his brother, as God says when reproving his
hidden [thoughts], “Though thou offerest rightly, yet, if thou dost
not divide rightly, hast thou not sinned? Be at rest;”4038
since God is not appeased by sacrifice.
For if any one shall endeavour to offer a sacrifice merely to outward
appearance, unexceptionably, in due order, and according to appointment,
while in his soul he does not assign to his neighbour that fellowship
with him which is right and proper, nor is under the fear of God;—
he who thus cherishes secret sin does not deceive God by that sacrifice
which is offered correctly as to outward appearance; nor will such an
oblation profit him anything, but [only] the giving up of that evil which
has been conceived within him, so that sin may not the more, by means of
the hypocritical action, render him the destroyer of himself.4039
| 4039 The Latin text is: “ne
per assimulatam operationem, magis autem peccatum, ipsum sibi homicidam
faciat hominem.” | Wherefore did the Lord also declare:
“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are like
whited sepulchres. For the sepulchre appears beautiful outside, but
within it is full of dead men’s bones, and all uncleanness; even so
ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of
wickedness and hypocrisy.”4040
For while they were thought to offer correctly so far as outward
appearance went, they had in themselves jealousy like to Cain; therefore
they slew the Just One, slighting the counsel of the Word, as did also
Cain. For [God] said to him, “Be at rest;” but he did not
assent. Now what else is it to “be at rest” than to forego
purposed violence? And saying similar things to these men, He declares:
“Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse that which is within the cup, that
the outside may be clean also.”4041
And
they did not listen to Him. For Jeremiah says, “Behold, neither
thine eyes nor thy heart are good; but [they are turned] to thy
covetousness, and to shed innocent blood, and for injustice, and for
man-slaying, that thou mayest do it.”4042
And again Isaiah saith, “Ye have taken counsel, but not of
Me; and made covenants, [but] not by My Spirit.”4043
In order, therefore, that their inner wish and thought, being
brought to light, may show that God is without blame, and worketh no evil
—that God who reveals what is hidden [in the heart], but who
worketh not evil—when Cain was by no means at rest, He saith to
him: “To thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over
him.”4044
Thus did He in like manner
speak to Pilate: “Thou shouldest have no power at all against Me,
unless it were given thee from above;”4045
God always giving up the righteous one [in this life to
suffering], that he, having been tested by what he suffered and endured,
may [at last] be accepted; but that the evildœr, being judged by the
actions he has performed, may be rejected. Sacrifices, therefore, do not
sanctify a man, for God stands in no need of sacrifice; but it is the
conscience of the offerer that sanctifies the sacrifice when it is pure,
and thus moves God to accept [the offering] as from a friend. “But
the sinner,” says He, “who kills a calf [in sacrifice] to Me,
is as if he slew a dog.”4046
4. Inasmuch, then, as the Church offers with
single-mindedness, her gift is justly reckoned a pure sacrifice with God.
As Paul also says to the Philippians, “I am full, having received
from Epaphroditus the things that were sent from you, the odour of a
sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, pleasing to God.”4047
For it behoves us to make an oblation to God,
and in all things to be found grateful to God our Maker, in a pure mind,
and in faith without hypocrisy, in well-grounded hope, in fervent love,
offering the first-fruits of His own created things. And the Church alone
offers this pure oblation to the Creator, offering to Him, with giving of
thanks, [the things taken] from His creation. But the Jews do not offer
thus: for their hands are full of blood; for they have not received the
Word,
through whom it is offered to God.4048
| 4048 The text here fluctuates between quod
offertur Deo, and per quod offertur Deo. Massuet adopts the
former, and Harvey the latter. If the first reading be chosen, the
translation will be, “the Word who is offered to God,”
implying, according to Massuet, that the body of Christ is really offered
as a sacrifice in the Eucharist; if the second reading be followed, the
translation will be as above. [Massuet’s idea is no more to be
found, even in his text, than Luther’s or Calvin’s. The
crucial point is, how offered? One may answer
“figuratively,” “corporally,”
“mystically,” or otherwise. Irenæus gives no answer in this
place. But see below.] | Nor, again, do any of the conventicles
(synagogæ) of the heretics [offer this]. For some, by maintaining
that the Father is different from the Creator, do, when they offer to Him
what belongs to this creation of ours, set Him forth as being covetous of
another’s property, and desirous of what is not His own. Those,
again, who maintain that the things around us originated from apostasy,
ignorance, and passion, do, while offering unto Him the fruits of
ignorance, passion, and apostasy, sin against their Father, rather
subjecting Him to insult than giving Him thanks. But how can they be
consistent with themselves, [when they say] that the bread over which
thanks have been given is the body of their Lord,4049
| 4049 Comp. Massuet and Harvey respectively for
the meaning to be attached to these words. | and the cup His
blood, if they do not call Himself the Son of the Creator of the world,
that is, His Word, through whom the wood fructifies, and the fountains
gush forth, and the earth gives “first the blade, then the ear,
then the full corn in the ear.”4050
5. Then,
again, how can they say that the flesh, which is nourished with the body
of the Lord and with His blood, goes to corruption, and does not partake
of life? Let them, therefore, either alter their opinion, or cease from
offering the things just mentioned.4051
| 4051 “Either let them acknowledge that the earth is
the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof, or let them cease to offer
to God those elements that they deny to be vouchsafed by Him.”
—Harvey. |
But our opinion is in accordance with
the Eucharist, and the Eucharist in turn establishes our opinion. For we
offer to Him His own, announcing consistently the fellowship and union of
the flesh and Spirit.4052
| 4052
That is, according to Harvey, “while we offer to Him His own
creatures of bread and wine, we tell forth the fellowship of flesh with
spirit; i.e., that the flesh of every child of man is receptive of the
Spirit.” The words καὶ ὁμολογοῦντες …
ἔγερσιν, which
here occur in the Greek text, are rejected as an interpolation by Grabe
and Harvey, but defended as genuine by Massuet. | For as the
bread, which is produced from the earth, when it receives the invocation
of God, is no longer common bread,4053
| 4053 See Harvey’s long note on this passage, and what
immediately follows. [But, note, we are only asking what Irenæus
teaches. Could words be plainer,—“two
realities,”—(i.) bread, (ii.) spiritual food? Bread—
but not “common bread;” matter and grace, flesh and Spirit.
In the Eucharist, an earthly and a heavenly part.] | but the
Eucharist, consisting of two realities, earthly and heavenly; so also our
bodies, when they receive the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible,
having the hope of the resurrection to eternity.
6. Now we make offering to Him, not as though He stood
in need of it, but rendering thanks for His gift,4054
| 4054 The text fluctuates between
dominationi and donationi. | and thus sanctifying
what has been created. For even as God does not need our possessions, so
do we need to offer something to God; as Solomon says: “He that
hath pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord.”4055
For God, who stands in need of nothing, takes our good works to
Himself for this purpose, that He may grant us a recompense of His own
good things, as our Lord says: “Come, ye blessed of My Father,
receive the kingdom prepared for you. For I was an hungered, and ye gave
Me to eat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink: I was a stranger, and ye
took Me in: naked, and ye clothed Me; sick, and ye visited Me; in prison,
and ye came to Me.”4056
As,
therefore, He does not stand in need of these [services], yet does desire
that we should render them for our own benefit, lest we be unfruitful; so
did the Word give to the people that very precept as to the making of
oblations, although He stood in no need of them, that they might learn to
serve God: thus is it, therefore, also His will that we, too, should
offer a gift at the altar, frequently and without intermission. The
altar, then, is in heaven4057
| 4057 [The Sursum Corda seems here in mind. The object
of Eucharistic adoration is the Creator, our “great High Priest,
passed into the heavens,” and in bodily substance there enthroned,
according to our author.] | (for towards that place are our
prayers and oblations directed); the temple likewise [is there], as John
says in the Apocalypse, “And the temple of God was
opened:”4058
the tabernacle also:
“For, behold,” He says, “the tabernacle of God, in
which He will dwell with men.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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