Edition Masquer
De civitate Dei (CCSL)

Caput XIX: Quae ratio sit uisibilis sacrificii, quod uni uero et inuisibili deo offerri docet uera religio.

Qui autem putant haec uisibilia sacrificia dis aliis congruere, illi uero tamquam inuisibili inuisibilia et maiori maiora meliorique meliora, qualia sunt purae mentis et bonae uoluntatis officia: profecto nesciunt haec ita signa esse illorum, sicut uerba sonantia signa sunt rerum. quocirca sicut orantes atque laudantes ad eum dirigimus significantes uoces, cui res ipsas in corde quas significamus offerimus: ita sacrificantes non alteri uisibile sacrificium offerendum esse nouerimus quam illi, cuius in cordibus nostris inuisibile sacrificium nos ipsi esse debemus. tunc nobis fauent nobisque congaudent atque ad hoc ipsum nos pro suis uiribus adiuuant angeli quique uirtutesque superiores et ipsa bonitate ac pietate potentiores. si autem illis haec exhibere uoluerimus, non libenter accipiunt, et cum ad homines ita mittuntur, ut eorum praesentia sentiatur, apertissime uetant. sunt exempla in litteris sanctis. putauerunt quidam deferendum angelis honorem uel adorando uel sacrificando, qui debetur deo, et eorum sunt admonitione prohibiti iussique hoc ei deferre, cui uni fas esse nouerunt. imitati sunt angelos sanctos etiam sancti homines dei. nam Paulus et Barnabas in Lycaonia facto quodam miraculo sanitatis putati sunt di, eisque Lycaonii uictimas immolare uoluerunt; quod a se humili pietate remouentes eis in quem crederent adnuntiauerunt deum. nec ob aliud fallaces illi superbe sibi hoc exigunt, nisi quia uero deo deberi sciunt. non enim reuera, ut ait Porphyrius et nonnulli putant, cadauerinis nidoribus, sed diuinis honoribus gaudent. copiam uero nidorum magnam habent undique, et si amplius uellent, ipsi sibi poterant exhibere. qui ergo diuinitatem sibi adrogant spiritus, non cuiuslibet corporis fumo, sed supplicantis animo delectantur, cui decepto subiectoque dominentur, intercludentes iter ad deum uerum, ne sit homo illius sacrificium, dum sacrificatur cuipiam praeter illum.

Traduction Masquer
The City of God

Chapter 19.--On the Reasonableness of Offering, as the True Religion Teaches, a Visible Sacrifice to the One True and Invisible God.

As to those who think that these visible sacrifices are suitably offered to other gods, but that invisible sacrifices, the graces of purity of mind and holiness of will, should be offered, as greater and better, to the invisible God, Himself greater and better than all others, they must be oblivious that these visible sacrifices are signs of the invisible, as the words we utter are the signs of things. And therefore, as in prayer or praise we direct intelligible words to Him to whom in our heart we offer the very feelings we are expressing, so we are to understand that in sacrifice we offer visible sacrifice only to Him to whom in our heart we ought to present ourselves an invisible sacrifice. It is then that the angels, and all those superior powers who are mighty by their goodness and piety, regard us with pleasure, and rejoice with us and assist us to the utmost of their power. But if we offer such worship to them, they decline it; and when on any mission to men they become visible to the senses, they positively forbid it. Examples of this occur in holy writ. Some fancied they should, by adoration or sacrifice, pay the same honor to angels as is due to God, and were prevented from doing so by the angels themselves, and ordered to render it to Him to whom alone they know it to be due. And the holy angels have in this been imitated by holy men of God. For Paul and Barnabas, when they had wrought a miracle of healing in Lycaonia, were thought to be gods, and the Lycaonians desired to sacrifice to them, and they humbly and piously declined this honor, and announced to them the God in whom they should believe. And those deceitful and proud spirits, who exact worship, do so simply because they know it to be due to the true God. For that which they take pleasure in is not, as Porphyry says and some fancy, the smell of the victims, but divine honors. They have, in fact, plenty odors on all hands, and if they wished more, they could provide them for themselves. But the spirits who arrogate to themselves divinity are delighted not with the smoke of carcasses but with the suppliant spirit which they deceive and hold in subjection, and hinder from drawing near to God, preventing him from offering himself in sacrifice to God by inducing him to sacrifice to others.