Edition Masquer
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput IV: Quod uni uero deo sacrificium debeatur.

Nam, ut alia nunc taceam, quae pertinent ad religionis obsequium, quo colitur deus, sacrificium certe nullus hominum est qui audeat dicere deberi nisi deo. multa denique de cultu diuino usurpata sunt, quae honoribus deferrentur humanis, siue humilitate nimia siue adulatione pestifera: ita tamen, ut, quibus ea deferrentur, homines haberentur, qui dicuntur colendi et uenerandi, si autem multum eis additur, et adorandi: quis uero sacrificandum censuit nisi ei, quem deum aut sciuit aut putauit aut finxit? quam porro antiquus sit in sacrificando dei cultus, duo illi fratres Cain et Abel satis indicant, quorum maioris deus reprobauit sacrificium, minoris aspexit.

Traduction Masquer
The City of God

Chapter 4.--That Sacrifice is Due to the True God Only.

But, putting aside for the present the other religious services with which God is worshipped, certainly no man would dare to say that sacrifice is due to any but God. Many parts, indeed, of divine worship are unduly used in showing honor to men, whether through an excessive humility or pernicious flattery; yet, while this is done, those persons who are thus worshipped and venerated, or even adored, are reckoned no more than human; and who ever thought of sacrificing save to one whom he knew, supposed, or feigned to be a god? And how ancient a part of God's worship sacrifice is, those two brothers, Cain and Abel, sufficiently show, of whom God rejected the elder's sacrifice, and looked favorably on the younger's.