grew up from their earliest consciousness in sanctifying grace and interior perfection. The second are the penitent, as S. Paul, who had persecuted the name of Jesus; S. Augustine, who had wandered early from the divine law; S. Thomas of Canterbury, who had been immersed in the world without falling from God, and yet with many imperfections. The antecedents of these two kinds are widely unlike, but
of the High Priest who has not first offered himself to God a living and holy sacrifice, and shown forth the reasonable and acceptable service, and offered to God the sacrifice of praise, and a contrite heart, which is the only sacrifice demanded of as by the Giver of all things, how should I (without these things) dare to offer to Him the outward antitype of these great mysteries; or how put on the name and habit of a priest before (my) hands be consecrated by holy works; before my eyes are accustomed healthily to behold the creature, and to worship the Creator alone; … before my feet be planted upon the rock, perfect as the hart's, and all my ways be directed according to God, neither deviating in any degree nor at all (from Him); before every member become a weapon of justice, all dead works being cast off, swallowed up of life and giving place to the Spirit?"—Orat. ii. c. xcv. tom. i. pp. 56, 57.
S. Gregory then requires of the candidate for the priesthood 'before ordination an oblation of himself, the service of his reason and will, a spirit of praise and of contrition, holiness of life, I separation from creatures, adoration of the Creator, stability in grace, sanctification of all our members, mortification of passions, and the reign of the Holy Ghost in the soul.
And again: "This, too, I know, that under the law it was ordained that no priest blemished in the body, or while separated from the sacrifices, could offer the perfect oblations, but the perfect (τελείους) only—a symbol, as I judge, of the perfection of the soul.'—Orat. ii. c. xciv. tom. i. p. 56.
