Chap. Xiii.—Of Washing The Hands.
CHAP. XIII.—OF WASHING THE HANDS.
But what reason is there in going to prayer with hands indeed
washed, but the spirit foul?—inasmuch as to our hands themselves
spiritual purities are necessary, that they may be "lifted up pure"[16]
from falsehood, from murder, from cruelty, from poisonings,[17] from
idolatry, and all the other blemishes which, conceived by the spirit,
are effected by the operation of the hands. These are the true
purities;[18] not those which most are superstitiously careful about,
taking water at every prayer, even when they are coming from a bath of
the whole body. When I was scrupulously making a thorough investigation
of this practice, and searching into the reason of it, I ascertained it
to be a commemorative act, bearing on the surrender[19] of our Lord.
We, howsoever, pray to the Lord: we do not surrender Him; nay, we ought
even to set ourselves in opposition to the example of His surrenderer,
and not, on that account, wash our hands. Unless any defilement
contracted in human intercourse be a conscientious cause for washing
them, they are otherwise clean enough, which together with our whole
body we once washed in Christ.[20]