Chapter 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" ¹ from falsehood, from murder, from cruelty, from poisonings, ² 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; ³ 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 ⁴ of our Lord. We, however, 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. ⁵