rt, and in the same
way exterior acts are referred to the members of the body. It appears,
then, that God is to be worshipped by exterior as well as by interior
acts.

We do not show reverence and honour to God for His own sake--for He in
Himself is filled with glory to which nought can be added by any created
thing--but for our own sakes. For by the fact that we reverence and
honour God our minds are subjected to Him, and in that their perfection
lies; for all things are perfected according as they are subjected to
that which is superior to them--the body, for instance, when vivified by
the soul, the air when illumined by the sun. Now the human mind
needs--if it would be united to God--the guidance of the things of
sense; for, as the Apostle says to the Romans[66]: _The invisible things
of Him are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made_.
Hence in the Divine worship it is necessary to make use of certain
corporal acts, so that by their means, as by certain signs, man's mind
may be stirred up to those spiritual acts whereby it is knit to God.
Consequently religion has certain interior acts which are its chief ones
and which essentially belong to it; but it has also external acts which
are secondary and which are subordinated to the interior acts.

* * * * *

Some deny, however, that exterior acts belong to religion or _latria_,
thus:

1. In S. John iv. 24 we read: _For God is a Spirit, and they that adore
Him must adore Him in spirit and in truth._ External acts belong,
however, rather to the body than to the spirit. Consequently religion,
which comprises adoration, has no exterior acts, but only interior.

But here the Lord speaks only of that which is chiefest and
which is essentially intended in Divine worship.

2. The end of religion is to show reverence and honour to God. But it is
not reverent to offer to a superexcellent person what properly belongs
to inferiors. Since, then, what a man offers by bodily acts seems more
in accordance with men's needs and with that respect which we owe to
inferior created beings, it does not appear that it can fittingly be
made use of in order to show reverence to God.

But such external acts are not offered to God as though He
needed them, as He says in the Psalm: _Shall I eat the flesh of
bullocks? Or shall I drink the blood of goats?_[67] But such
acts are offered to God as signs of those interior