and grace cannot melt, be rendered
cheerfully obedient by laws and threats? Not human mercy is offered
us, but divine mercy, and Paul would have us perceive it and be moved
thereby.

"To present your bodies."

11. Many and various were the sacrifices of the Old Testament. But all
were typical of this one sacrifice of the body, offered by Christ and
his Christians. And there is not, nor can be, any other sacrifice in
the New Testament. What more would one, or could one, offer than
himself, all he is and all he has? When the body is yielded a
sacrifice, all belonging to the body is yielded also. Therefore, the
Old Testament sacrifices, with the priests and all the splendor, have
terminated. How does the offering of a penny compare with that of the
body? Indeed, such fragmentary patchwork scarcely deserves recognition
as a sacrifice when the bodies of Christ and of his followers are
offered.

Consequently, Isaiah may truly say that in the New Testament such
beggarly works are loathsome compared to real and great sacrifices:
"He that killeth an ox is as he that slayeth a man; he that
sacrificeth a lamb, as he that breaketh a dog's neck; he that offereth
an oblation, as he that offereth swine's blood; he that burneth
frankincense, as he that blesseth an idol." Is 66, 3. Similarly, also:
"What unto me is the multitude of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah: I
have had enough of the burnt-offerings of rams, and the fat of fed
beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of
he-goats." Is 1, 11. Thus, in plain words, Isaiah rejects all other
sacrifices in view of this true one.

12. Our blind leaders, therefore, have most wretchedly deceived the
world by their mass-offerings, for they have forgotten this one real
sacrifice. The mass may be celebrated and at the same time the soul be
not benefited, but rather injured. But the body cannot be offered
without benefiting the soul. Under the New Testament dispensation,
then, the mass cannot be a sacrifice, even were it ever one. For all
the works, all the sacrifices of the New Testament, must be true and
soul-benefiting. Otherwise they are not New Testament sacrifices. It
is said (Ps 25, 10), "All the paths of Jehovah are lovingkindness and
truth."

"A living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God."

13. Paul here makes use of the three words "living," "holy" and
"acceptable," doubtless to teach that the sacrifices of the Old
Testament are repealed and the enti