fice, and that clean, will be offered to him, and that his name is glorified among the Gentiles."[1] Adv. Här. L. iv. c. xvii. p. 249.—“ Therefore the offering of the Church, which the Lord directed to be made over all the world, was deemed a pure Sacrifice before God, and received by him; not that he stands in need of a Sacrifice from us, but because he that makes the offering, if his gift be accepted, is thereby rendered worthy of praise.—As then in simplicity the Church offers, her offering is accepted by God as a pure Sacrifice. It is our duty to make an offering,” &c. See p. 209. Ibid. c. xviii. p. 250, 251.
TERTULLIAN, L.C. “ It was ordained in the old law, that no sacrifices should be offered to God, but in the land of promise, which the Lord was to give to the children of Israel; and that, when they entered, Sacrifices and holocausts should there be celebrated. Why then does the Spirit declare by his prophets, that, in all the earth, and in every place, Sacrifices shall be offered ? In every place incense shall be offered to my name, and a clean offering. (Malach. 1.)—As then it is plain, that a temporary Sabbath was appointed, and an eternal Sabbath predicted; a carnal and spiritual circumcision ; a law that would pass away, and a law to endure for ever; carnal sacrifices likewise, and
- ↑ On this passage, the learned editor of Irenæus, Dr. Grabe, observes: “ It is certain that Irenæus and all the Fathers—either contemporary with the Apostles, or their immediate successors, whose writings are still extant-considered the blessed Eucharist to be the sacrifice of the new law, and offered bread and wine on the altar, sacred oblations to God the Father; and that this was not the private opinion of any particular church or teacher, but the public doctrine and practice of the Universal Church, which she received from the Apostles, and they from Christ, is expressly shewn in this place, by Irenæus, and, before him, by Justin M. and Clement of Rome.” Nota in Irenæum. p.323.
