crifice spiritually; that we
pray for the Church; that we preach. Whoever will do this, he is a
priest, as all are bound to be, inasmuch as they should preach the
word, pray for the Church, and offer themselves up before God. Let
those fools then go who call the institution of the priests
spiritual, who yet bear no other office but just to wear the tonsure
and to be anointed. If the being shorn and anointed makes a priest,
then might I easily shear an ass and anoint him, so that he should be
a priest also.

Finally, St. Peter says, that we are to offer up spiritual
sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Since Christ is
the corner stone whereon we are laid, it must be only through him
that we are to treat with God, as we have heard sufficiently above;
for God does not look upon my cross even though I torture myself to
death, but he looks upon Christ through whom my works are acceptable
before God, which otherwise would not be worth an alms of a straw's
value. Therefore Scripture calls Christ properly a precious corner
stone which imparts its virtue to all who through faith are built
upon it. So, also, St. Peter teaches us in this passage how Christ is
the living stone--what Christ is; and the figure is a fine one, since
it is easy to understand by it how we are to believe on Christ.--It
follows, now, further:

V. 6-10. _Therefore it is contained in Scripture, Behold I lay in
Zion an elect precious corner stone, and whoever believeth on Him
shall not be put to shame. To you therefore who believe, He is
precious, but to the unbelieving, the stone which the builders
rejected is made a corner stone, and a stone of stumbling and a rock
of offence, even to those that stumble at the word and believe not
thereon, whereunto they were appointed. But ye are the chosen
generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the peculiar
people, that ye should show forth the praise of him who has called
you out of darkness into his wonderful light: who once were not a
people, but are now the people of God, to whom God did not show
mercy, but (now have obtained mercy) to whom He is now merciful._

I have before said, that St. Peter has enriched and fortified his
Epistle well with Scripture, just as all preachers should do, in
order that their foundation may rest entirely on the word of God.
Here also he introduces four or five texts, one upon another. The
first he has taken from the prophet Isaiah, word for word, that