{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/003/0030186.htm","path":"chr/ecf/003/0030186.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/003/0030186.htm","text":"So, again, we show that sacrifices of earthly oblations and of spiritual sacrifices 1197 were predicted; and, moreover, that from the beginning the earthly were foreshown, in the person of Cain, to be those of the \u201celder son,\u201d that is, of Israel; and the opposite sacrifices demonstrated to be those of the \u201cyounger son,\u201d 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. \u201cGod 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\u2014if thou offerest indeed aright, but dost not divide aright\u2014sinned? 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\u2019s 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.\u201d 1198 From this proceeding we gather that the twofold sacrifices of \u201cthe peoples\u201d 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 \u201cthe people\u201d Israel and to their brethren, in order that, on Israel\u2019s 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: \u201cI 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.\u201d 1200 Again, in the Psalms, David says: \u201cBring to God, ye countries of the nations\u201d\u2014undoubtedly because \u201cunto every land\u201d the preaching of the apostles had to \u201cgo out\u201d 1201 \u2014\u201cbring to God fame and honour; bring to God the sacrifices of His name: take up 1202 victims and enter into His courts.\u201d 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;\u201d 1204 and elsewhere, \u201cSacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise, and render to the Highest thy vows.\u201d 1205 Thus, accordingly, the spiritual \u201csacrifices of praise\u201d are pointed to, and \u201can heart contribulate\u201d is demonstrated an acceptable sacrifice to God. And thus, as carnal sacrifices are understood to be reprobated\u2014of which Isaiah withal speaks, saying, \u201cTo what end is the multitude of your sacrifices to me? saith the Lord\u201d 1206 \u2014so spiritual sacrifices are predicted 1207 as accepted, as the prophets announce. For, \u201ceven if ye shall have brought me,\u201d He says, \u201cthe finest wheat flour, it is a vain supplicatory gift: a thing execrable to me;\u201d and again He says, \u201cYour 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?\u201d 1208 for \u201cfrom the rising sun unto the setting, my Name hath been made famous among all the nations, p. 157 saith the Lord.\u201d 1209 But of the spiritual sacrifices He adds, saying, \u201cAnd in every place they offer clean sacrifices to my Name, saith the Lord.\u201d 1210\nThis tautology is due to the author, not to the translator: \u201csacrificia\u2026spiritalium sacrificiorum.\u201d\n156:1198\nSee 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.\n156:1199\nSee Lev. 17:1, Deut. 12:1.\n156:1200 156:1201\nComp. Matt. 28:19, 20, Mark 16:15, 16, Luke 24:45, with Ps. xix. 4 (xviii. 5 in LXX.), as explained in Rom. x. 18.\n156:1202\nTollite = Gr. \u1f04\u03c1\u03b1\u03c4\u03b5. Perhaps =\"away with.\u201d\n156:1203 156:1204\nSee Ps. li. 17 (in LXX. l. 19).\n156:1205 156:1206 156:1207 156:1208\nComp. Isa. i. 11-14, especially in the LXX.\n157:1209\nSee Mal. i. as above.\n157:1210","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol III: Tertullian: Part I: Of Sacr...","type":"page"}