where they find it in the Concordances of the Bible apply it here,
whether it fits or not]. Afterward they append their own dreams, as
though indeed a sacrifice signifies whatever pleases them.




Part 30


_What a Sacrifice Is, and What Are the Species of Sacrifice._

[Now, lest we plunge blindly into this business, we must indicate, in
the first place, a distinction as to what is, and what is not, a
sacrifice. To know this is expedient and good for all Christians.]
Socrates, in the Phaedrus of Plato, says that he is especially fond
of divisions, because without these nothing can either be explained
or understood in speaking, and if he discovers any one skilful in
making divisions, he says that he attends and follows his footsteps
as those of a god. And he instructs the one dividing to separate the
members in their very joints, lest, like an unskilful cook, he break
to pieces some member. But the adversaries wonderfully despise these
precepts, and, according to Plato, are truly _kakoi mageiroi_ (poor
butchers), since they break the members of "sacrifice," as can be
understood when we have enumerated the species of sacrifice.
Theologians are rightly accustomed to distinguish between a Sacrament
and a sacrifice. Therefore let the genus comprehending both of these
be either a ceremony or a sacred work. A Sacrament is a ceremony or
work in which God presents to us that which the promise annexed to
the ceremony offers; as Baptism is a work, not which we offer to God