Of the Spiritual Victim, Which Prayer is.

Chapter XXVIII.—Of the Spiritual Victim, Which Prayer is.

For this is the spiritual victim ⁸⁹³⁶ which has abolished the pristine sacrifices.  “To what purpose,” saith He, “(bring ye) me the multitude of your sacrifices? I am full of holocausts of rams, and I desire not the fat of rams, and the blood of bulls and of goats. For who hath required these from your hands?” ⁸⁹³⁷ What, then, God has required the Gospel teaches.  “An hour will come,” saith He, “when the true adorers shall adore the Father in spirit and truth. For God is a Spirit, and accordingly requires His adorers to be such.” ⁸⁹³⁸ We are the true adorers and the true priests, ⁸⁹³⁹ who, praying in spirit, ⁸⁹⁴⁰ sacrifice, in spirit, prayer,—a victim proper and acceptable to God, which assuredly He has required, which He has looked forward to ⁸⁹⁴¹ for Himself! This victim, devoted from the whole heart, fed on faith, tended by truth, entire in innocence, pure in chastity, garlanded with love, ⁸⁹⁴² we ought to escort with the pomp ⁸⁹⁴³ of good works, amid psalms and hymns, unto God’s altar, ⁸⁹⁴⁴ to obtain for us all things from God.

Footnotes

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1 Pet. ii. 5.

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Isa. i. 11. See the LXX.

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John 4:23, 24.

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Sacerdotes; comp. de Ex. Cast. c. 7.

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1 Cor. 14:15, Eph. 6:18.

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Or, “provided.”

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“Agape,” perhaps “the love-feast.”

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Or, “procession.”

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Altare.