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Thus a true sacrifice is every work which is done that we may be united
to God in holy fellowship, and which has a reference to that supreme
good and end in which alone we can be truly blessed. And therefore
even the mercy we show to men, if it is not shown for God's sake, is
not a sacrifice. For, though made or offered by man, sacrifice is a
divine thing, as those who called it sacrifice meant to indicate.
Thus man himself, consecrated in the name of God, and vowed to
God, is a sacrifice in so far as he dies to the world that he may live
to God. For this is a part of that mercy which each man shows to
himself; as it is written, "Have merry on thy soul by pleasing
God." Our body, too, as a sacrifice when we chasten it by
temperance, if we do so as we ought, for God's sake, that we may
not yield our members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but
instruments of righteousness unto God. Exhorting to this sacrifice,
the apostle says, "I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the
mercy of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." If, then,
the body, which, being inferior, the soul uses as a servant or
instrument, is a sacrifice when it is used rightly, and with reference
to God, how much more does the soul itself become a sacrifice when it
offers itself to God, in order that, being inflamed by the fire of
His love, it may receive of His beauty and become pleasing to Him,
losing the shape of earthly desire, and being remoulded in the image of
permanent loveliness? And this, indeed, the apostle subjoins,
saying, "And be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed
in the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and
acceptable, and perfect will of God." Since, therefore, true
sacrifices are works of mercy to ourselves or others, done with a
reference to God, and since works of mercy have no other object than
the relief of distress or the conferring of happiness, and since there
is no happiness apart from that good of which it is said, "It is good
for me to be very near to God," it follows that the whole redeemed
city, that is to say, the congregation or community of the saints, is
offered to God as our sacrifice through the great High Priest, who
offered Himself to God in His passion for us, that we might be
members of this glorious head, according to the form of a servant.
For it was this form He offered, in this He was offered, because it
is according to it He is Mediator, in this He is our Priest, in
this the Sacrifice. Accordingly, when the apostle had exhorted us to
present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, our
reasonable service, and not to be conformed to the world, but to be
transformed in the renewing of our mind, that we might prove what is
that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God, that is to say,
the true sacrifice of ourselves, he says, "For I say, through the
grace of God which is given unto me, to every man that is among you,
not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to
think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of
faith. For, as we have many members in one body, and all members
have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body in
Christ, and every one members one of another, having gifts differing
according to the grace that is given to us." This is the sacrifice of
Christians: we, being many, are one body in Christ. And this also
is the sacrifice which the Church continually celebrates in the
sacrament of the altar, known to the faithful, in which she teaches
that she herself is offered in the offering she makes to God.
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