Ver. 18.—'These things I have suffered without the iniquity of my hand, when I had pure prayers unto God.' 25. Christ alone above all had pure prayers unto God.—For without iniquity of his hand did he suffer, who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth (1 Pet. ii, 22 f.), and yet he endured the pain of the cross for our redemption. He alone above all had pure prayers unto God, because even in the very pain of the passion he prayed for his persecutors, saying: 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do' (Luke xxiii, 34). For what can be said, what can be conceived, purer in prayer than when mercy of intercession is bestowed even upon those by whom the pain is inflicted?
Whence it came to pass that the blood of our Redeemer, which the raging persecutors had shed, they afterward as believers drank, and proclaimed him to be the Son of God. Concerning which blood it is fittingly joined: