Cyprian & Lactantius · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Now let us say a little about sacrifice itself. Plato says that ivory is not a pure gift for a god. What then — painted panels, presumably, and costly woven stuffs are pure? No: anything that can be corrupted or stolen is not a pure gift for a god. Yet while he recognized that a living creature should never be given something drawn from a corpse, he failed to notice the parallel: that flesh itself has no business being presented to a being without flesh. How much better and truer is what Seneca says: "Do you wish to think of god as great and calm, to be revered with gentle majesty, a friend and always near at hand, worshipped not with slaughter and much blood — for what pleasure does he take in the butchering of the innocent? — but with a pure mind and an upright, honorable purpose? No temple should be raised to him from rocks stacked skyward — each person must dedicate him within their own breast instead." If anyone, then, thinks that robes and gems and other things that are held precious are dear to god, that person plainly does not know what god is; he supposes god delights in things a man who spurned them would earn just praise for scorning. So what qualifies as undefiled, what befits divinity, save the very thing he himself prescribed in his own sacred law? There are two things that ought to be offered: a gift and a sacrifice — a gift for all time, a sacrifice for the occasion. But among those who understand nothing whatever of the nature of divinity, a gift is whatever is fashioned of gold and silver, likewise whatever is woven of purple and silk, and a sacrifice is a victim and whatever is burned upon the altar. But god makes use of neither, since he himself is incorruptible and all of that is corruptible. Therefore both things offered to god must be incorporeal, of the kind he does use. The gift is integrity of soul; the sacrifice is praise and hymn. For if god is not seen, then he ought to be worshipped with things that are not seen. No religion, then, is true except the one that consists in virtue and justice. How god makes use of a man's justice is easy to understand: for should a man prove righteous, once granted immortality he devotes himself to god's service without end. That all people are born for nothing but justice, both the ancient philosophers and Cicero as well have suspected. For discoursing on the laws, he says: "Of all the matters debated among learned men, surely nothing is more important than to understand clearly that we are born for justice." This alone, then, we ought to show and offer to god — that for the grasping of which he himself brought us into being. And how very true this twofold kind of sacrifice is, Hermes Trismegistus stands as a fitting witness, matching us — meaning the prophets whose teaching we hold to — both in substance and in wording. Concerning justice he spoke thus: "This word, O son, adore and cultivate. The one worship of god is not to be wicked." Likewise in that perfect discourse, when he had heard Asclepius asking his son whether it would please his father to have incense and other perfumes offered for the sacrifice of god, he cried out: "Hush, hush, good words, Asclepius! Harboring such a notion about that one singular good counts among the worst of sacrileges. None of this, nor anything resembling it, suits him: he abounds in everything that exists and stands in need of nothing whatsoever. Rather let us worship him by giving thanks, for his sacrifice is blessing alone." And rightly so. For sacrifice ought to be offered to god by word, since god is Word, as he himself has confessed. The highest rite of worshipping god, then, is praise directed to god from the mouth of a just man — which, however, in order to be acceptable to god, requires the utmost humility, fear, and devotion, lest anyone, trusting in his own integrity and innocence, fall into the fault of pride and arrogance, and by that act lose the grace of virtue. But in order to be dear to god and free of every stain, let him constantly implore god's mercy and ask for nothing else but forgiveness for his sins, even if he has none. Should he wish for something more, there's no call to put it into words before one who already knows our desires: if something good befalls him, let him give thanks; if something bad, let him make amends and confess that it happened to him on account of his own sins. And no less, let him give thanks even in adversity and make amends even in prosperity, so that he may be always the same, steady, unchanging, and unshaken. Nor should he think that this is to be done only in a temple, but also at home and even in his own bed. Let him, in short, always keep god consecrated in his own heart, since he himself is god's temple. And if he has served god, the father and lord, with this constancy, this obedience, this devotion, his justice is complete and perfect; and whoever holds to it has, as we have testified before, obeyed god, and has fulfilled his religious duty and office.