Chapter 17

§ 1.

But that God in the Law commanded certain observances, not as needing their service, but for their own good,¹ is very fully signified by the Prophets. And again that God needs not their offering, but for the offerer’s own sake, i.e., Man’s;—the Lord clearly taught, as we have shewn. For if at any time He saw them careless of righteousness, and keeping back from the Love of God, and thinking that God is propitiated by sacrifices and other typical observances, Samuel in the first place would speak to them thus:² God willeth not burnt offerings and sacrifices, but He willeth His Voice to be heard: Behold, hearing is better than sacrifice, and hearkening than the fat of rams:³ then David saith, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but ears hast Thou made for me: Burnt-offerings also for sin Thou hast not required. Teaching them that God will have obedience, which saves them, rather than sacrifices and burnt offerings which avail them nothing to righteousness: and prophesying at the same time of the New Testament. But yet more clearly in the 50th Psalm doth he say of these things,⁴ For hadst Thou willed sacrifice, I would have given it of course: with burnt-offerings Thou wilt not be delighted. A sacrifice for God is a troubled spirit: a contrite and humbled heart, the Lord will not despise. That God accordingly hath no need, he saith in the preceding Psalm:⁵ I will not receive bullocks out of thine house, nor he goats out of thy flocks. For Mine are all the beasts of the earth, the cattle in the mountains, and the oxen: I know all the fowls of the Heaven, and the beauty of the field is with Me. If I be hungry, I will not tell thee, for the whole earth is Mine, and the fulness thereof. Shall I at all eat bull’s flesh or drink the blood of goats?

Then lest any one should think, that He refuses these things because He is angry, He adds, giving him counsel,⁶ Offer unto God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows unto the Most High, and call upon Me in the day of thy trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me;⁷ on the one hand, rejecting those things by which they thought to appease God while sinning: on the other, those whereby man is justified, and draws near to God, He makes matter of exhortation and admonition.

And this same also Esaias saith,⁸ To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith the Lord. I am full. And having rejected burnt offerings and sacrifices and oblations, as also new moons and sabbaths and holidays and all the rest of the ceremonial attendant on them, He concluded with recommending to them the things which tend to salvation.⁹ Wash yourselves, be clean, take away wickednesses from your hearts out of My sight, cease from your evil doings, learn to do well, seek judgment, deliver the wronged, judge for the fatherless and redress the widow, and come, let us reason together, saith the Lord.

§ 2.

For not through emotion as a man (according to the bold saying of many), did He put from Him the sacrifices, but in pity to their blindness, and giving an intimation of the True Sacrifice, which those who offer will appease God, to the receiving of life from Him. As He saith elsewhere:¹⁰ A sacrifice for God is a troubled heart: an odour of sweetness unto God, is a heart glorifying Him Who made it. For if it were in anger that He rejected these their sacrifices, as though they were unworthy to obtain His mercy, of course He would not recommend to these same persons the means by which they might be saved. But because He is a Merciful God, He did not cut them off from good counsel. Thus,¹¹ having said by Jeremiah, To what end do ye bring Me frankincense from Saba, and cinnamon from a far country? your burnt offerings and sacrifices have not delighted Me,¹² He added, Hear the word of the Lord, thou whole Judah. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Make straight your ways and pursuits, and I will settle you in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, for they shall not at all profit you, saying, It is the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord.

§ 3.

And again signifying that not to this end did He bring them out of Egypt, that they might offer Him sacrifices, but that forgetting the idolatry of the Egyptians, they might hearken to the Voice of the Lord, which was their salvation and glory,¹³ He saith by the same Jeremiah, Thus saith the Lord, Gather your burnt offerings with your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I spake not to your fathers, nor did I command them, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices, in the day that I brought them out of Egypt, but this word I commanded them, saying, Hearken unto My voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be My people; and walk ye in all My ways, whatsoever I shall command you, that it may be well with you. And they hearkened not nor gave heed, but walked in the thoughts of their own evil heart, and were turned backward, and not forward. And again, where He saith by the very same,¹⁴ But let him that glorieth, glory that he understandeth and knoweth that I am the Lord, Who work mercy and righteousness and judgment in the earth, He added, For in these things is My will, saith the Lord; but not in sacrifices, nor in burnt offerings, nor in oblations.

For the people had these not as the principal thing, but by way of consequence, and for the aforesaid cause: as Esaias saith again:¹⁵ Not for Me were the sheep of thy burnt offering, neither didst thou honour Me in thy sacrifices; thou servedst Me not in sacrifices, nor didst thou offer¹⁶5anything after toil in frankincense; nor didst thou buy incense for Me with money, nor did I desire the fat of thy sacrifices; but in thy sins and thine iniquities didst thou stand before Me.¹⁷ Upon whom then, saith He, shall I look, but on the humble and quiet man, and on him that trembleth at My words?¹⁸ For fat and rich flesh in abundance will not take away thine iniquities from thee.¹⁹ This is the fast which I have chosen, saith the Lord. Loose every knot of unrighteousness, undo the bands of violent dealings, send away those who are shaken to their rest, and annul every unjust writing. Break thy bread to the hungry with good will, and bring the stranger without shelter into thine house. If thou seest the naked, cover him, and thou shalt not despise the inmates of thine own seed. Then shall thy light break forth in the morning, and the ways of thine health shall arise very speedily, and righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory of the Lord shall be around thee, and whilst thou art yet speaking, I will say, Here I am.

And Zacharias too in the twelve Prophets, signifying unto them God’s will,²⁰ saith: Thus speaketh the Lord Almighty, Judge ye righteous judgment, practise loving-kindness and mercy every one towards his brother. The widow, and the orphan, and the stranger, and the poor do ye not oppress, nor remember every man his brother’s wickedness in his heart.²¹ And again, These, saith he, are the words that ye shall practise. Speak ye truth every one with his neighbour, and judge reconciling judgment in your gates, nor let each remember his brother’s wickedness in his heart, and love ye no false oath: for all these things I hate, saith the Lord Almighty.

And David again in like manner:²² Who, saith he, is the man that will have life, and loveth to see good days? Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guile. Eschew evil and do good: seek peace and ensue it.

§ 4.

From all which it is plain, that God sought not of them sacrifices and burnt offerings, but faith and obedience and righteousness, for their salvation. As in Hosea the Prophet God teaching them His Will said,²³ I will have mercy rather than sacrifice, and the knowledge of God above burnt offerings. Yea, and our Lord gave them the same admonition,²⁴ saying, For if ye had known what this is, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye would never have condemned the guiltless: at once giving testimony to the Prophets, that they preached the truth and convicting them of folly which came by their own fault.

§ 5.

Yea, and giving counsel to His Disciples, to offer unto God the first-fruits of His creatures,²⁵ not as though He were in want, but in order that themselves might be neither unfruitful nor ungrateful,—He took that which is part of the creation, viz. bread, and gave thanks, saying, This is My Body. And the Cup likewise, which is of that Creation which appertains unto us, He professed to be His own Blood, and taught men the new oblation of the New Testament; which the Church receiving from the Apostles offers unto God in the whole world:—unto Him who giveth us nourishment, the first-fruits of His own gifts, in the New Testament; of which in the twelve Prophets Malachi gave beforehand this intimation;²⁶ My pleasure is not in you, saith the Lord Almighty, and I will not receive sacrifice at your hands. For from the rising of the sun unto the going down My name is glorified among the Gentiles²⁷, and in every place incense is offered unto My Name, and a pure sacrifice: for My Name is great among the Gentiles, saith the Lord Almighty; most evidently intimating hereby, that while the former people should cease to make offerings to God, in every place sacrifice shall be offered unto Him, and that in pureness; His Name also is glorified among the Gentiles.

§ 6.

Now what other name is there, which is glorified among the Gentiles than that which belongs to our Lord, by whom the Father is glorified, and man is glorified? And because man belongs to His Own Son, and is made by Him, He calls him His own. Much as if some King were himself to paint an image of his own son, he justly calls it his own image, on both accounts, first that it is his son’s, next that he himself made it: so also the Name of Jesus Christ, which is glorified in the Church throughout the whole world, the Father professes to be His own, both because it is His Son’s, and because He Himself wrote and gave it for the salvation of men.

Because therefore the Name of the Son properly belongs to the Father, and in God Almighty through Jesus Christ the Church makes her offering, well saith He on both accounts,²⁸ And in every place incense is offered unto My Name, and a pure sacrifice. And incense, John in the Apocalypse declares to be the prayers of the Saints.²⁹