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| Of Sacrifices.
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Chapter V.—Of
Sacrifices.
So, again, we show that sacrifices of earthly
oblations and of spiritual sacrifices1197
| 1197 This tautology is due
to the author, not to the translator:
“sacrificia…spiritalium sacrificiorum.” |
were predicted; and, moreover, that from the beginning the earthly were
foreshown, in the person of Cain, to be those of the “elder
son,” that is, of Israel; and the opposite sacrifices
demonstrated to be those of the “younger son,” Abel, that
is, of our people. For the elder, Cain, offered gifts to God
from the fruit of the earth; but the younger son, Abel, from the fruit
of his ewes. “God had respect unto Abel, and unto his gifts; but
unto Cain and unto his gifts He had not respect. And God said unto
Cain, Why is thy countenance fallen? hast thou not—if thou
offerest indeed aright, but dost not divide aright—sinned? Hold
thy peace. For unto thee shalt thy conversion be and he shall lord it
over thee. And then Cain said unto Abel his brother, Let us go
into the field: and he went away with him thither, and he slew him. And
then God said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know
not: am I my brother’s keeper? To whom God said, The voice of the
blood of thy brother crieth forth unto me from the earth. Wherefore
cursed is the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive the blood
of thy brother. Groaning and trembling shalt thou be upon the earth,
and every one who shall have found thee shall slay
thee.”1198
| 1198 See Gen. iv. 2–14. But it is to be observed that the
version given in our author differs widely in some particulars from the
Heb. and the LXX. | From this
proceeding we gather that the twofold sacrifices of “the
peoples” were even from the very beginning foreshown. In short,
when the sacerdotal law was being drawn up, through Moses, in
Leviticus, we find it prescribed to the people of Israel that
sacrifices should in no other place be offered to God than in the land
of promise; which the Lord God was about to give to “the
people” Israel and to their brethren, in order that, on
Israel’s introduction thither, there should there be celebrated
sacrifices and holocausts, as well for sins as for souls; and nowhere
else but in the holy land.1199
Why, accordingly,
does the Spirit afterwards predict, through the prophets, that it
should come to pass that in every place and in every land there should
be offered sacrifices to God? as He says through the angel Malachi, one
of the twelve prophets: “I will not receive sacrifice from
your hands; for from the rising sun unto the setting my Name hath been
made famous among all the nations, saith the Lord Almighty: and in
every place they offer clean sacrifices to my Name.”1200
Again, in the Psalms, David says:
“Bring to God, ye countries of the
nations”—undoubtedly because “unto every land”
the preaching of the apostles had to “go out”1201
| 1201 Comp. Matt. xxviii. 19, 20, Mark xvi. 15, 16,
Luke xxiv. 45–48, with
Ps. xix. 4 (xviii. 5 in LXX.), as explained in
Rom. x. 18. | —“bring to God fame and honour;
bring to God the sacrifices of His name: take up1202
| 1202 Tollite = Gr.
ἄρατε. Perhaps ="away with.” | victims and enter into His
courts.”1203
For that it is not
by earthly sacrifices, but by spiritual, that offering is to be made to
God, we thus read, as it is written, An heart contribulate and humbled
is a victim for God;”1204
and elsewhere,
“Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise, and render to the
Highest thy vows.”1205
Thus, accordingly,
the spiritual “sacrifices of praise” are pointed to, and
“an heart contribulate” is demonstrated an acceptable
sacrifice to God. And thus, as carnal sacrifices are understood to be
reprobated—of which Isaiah withal speaks, saying, “To what
end is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? saith the
Lord”1206
—so spiritual
sacrifices are predicted1207
as accepted, as the
prophets announce. For, “even if ye shall have brought
me,” He says, “the finest wheat flour, it is a vain
supplicatory gift: a thing execrable to me;” and again He says,
“Your holocausts and sacrifices, and the fat of goats, and blood
of bulls, I will not, not even if ye come to be seen by me: for who
hath required these things from your hands?”1208
for “from the rising sun unto the
setting, my Name hath been made famous among all the nations,
saith the
Lord.”1209
But of the
spiritual sacrifices He adds, saying, “And in every place they
offer clean sacrifices to my Name, saith the Lord.”1210
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