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A Certain one of those of moderate talent, who had composed a
discourse, stepped forward in the presence of many pastors who were
assembled as if for a church gathering, and while they attended quietly
and decently, he addressed himself as follows to one who was in all
things a most excellent bishop and beloved of God, through whose zeal
the temple in Tyre, which was the most splendid in Phoenicia, had
been erected.
Panegyric upon the building of the churches, addressed to Paulinus,
Bishop of Tyre.
"Friends and priests of God who are clothed in the sacred gown and
adorned with the heavenly crown of glory, the inspired unction and the
sacerdotal garment of the Holy Spirit; and thou? oh pride of God's
new holy temple, endowed by him with the wisdom of age, and yet
exhibiting costly works and deeds of youthful and flourishing virtue,
to whom God himself, who embraces the entire world, has granted the
distinguished honor of building and renewing this earthly house to
Christ, his only begotten and first-born Word, and to his holy and
divine bride; one might call thee a new Beseleel, the architect of a
divine tabernacle, or Solomon, king of a new and much better
Jerusalem, or also a new Zerubabel, who added a much greater glory
than the former to the temple of God; and you also, oh nurslings of
the sacred flock of Christ, habitation of good words, school of
wisdom, and august and pious auditory of religion: It was long ago
permitted us to raise hymns and songs to God, when we learned from
hearing the Divine Scriptures read the marvelous signs of God and the
benefits conferred upon men by the Lord's wondrous deeds, being
taught to say 'Oh God! we have heard with our ears, our fathers
have told us the work which thou didst in their days, in days of
old.' s But now as we no longer perceive the lofty arm and the
celestial right hand of our all-gracious God and universal King by
hearsay merely or report, but observe so to speak in very deed and with
our own eyes that the declarations recorded long ago are faithful and
true, it is permitted us to raise a second hymn of triumph and to sing
with loud voice, and say, 'AS we have heard, so have we seen; in
the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God.' And in
what city but in this newly built and God-constructed one, which is a
'church of the living God, a pillar and foundation of the truth,'
concerning which also another divine oracle thus proclaims, 'Glorious
things have been spoken of thee, oh city of God.' Since the
all-gracious God has brought us together to it, through the grace of
his Only-Begotten, let every one of those who have been summoned
sing with loud voice and say, ' I was glad when they said unto me,
we shall go unto the house of the Lord,' and 'Lord, I have loved
the beauty of thy house and the place where thy glory dwelleth.' And
let us not only one by one, but all together, with one spirit and one
soul, honor him and cry aloud, saying, ' Great is the Lord and
greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in his holy mountain.'
For he is truly great, and great is his house, lofty and spacious and
@ comely in beauty above the sons of men.' 'Great is the Lord who
alone doeth wonderful things'; 'great is he who doeth great things
and things past finding out, glorious and marvelous things which cannot
be numbered'; is great is he 'who changeth times and seasons, who
exalteth and debaseth kings ';, who raiseth up the poor from the
earth and lifteth up the needy from the dunghill.' He hath put clown
princes from their thrones and hath exalted them of low degree from the
earth. The hungry he hath filled with good things and the arms of the
proud he hath broken.' Not only to the faithful, but also to
unbelievers, has he confirmed the record of ancient events; he that
worketh miracles, he that doeth great things, the Master of all, the
Creator of the whole world, the omnipotent, the all-merciful, the
one and only God. To him let us sing the new song, supplying in
thought, ' To him who alone doeth great wonders: for his mercy
endureth forever'; 24, To him which smote great kings, and slew
famous kings: for his mercy endureth forever'; 'For the Lord
remembered us in our low estate and delivered us from our
adversaries.' And let us never cease to cry aloud in these words to
the Father of the universe. And let us always honor him with our
mouth who is the second cause of our benefits, the instructor in divine
knowledge, the teacher of the true religion, the destroyer of the
impious, the slayer of tyrants, the reformer of life, Jesus, the
Saviour of us who were in despair. For he alone, as the only
allgracious Son of an all-gracious Father, in accordance with the
purpose of his Father's benevolence, has willingly put on the nature
of us who lay prostrate in corruption, and like some excellent
physician, who for the sake of saving them that are ill, examines
their sufferings, handles their foul sores, and reaps pain for himself
from the miseries of another, so us who were not only diseased and
afflicted with terrible ulcers and wounds already mortified, but were
even lying among the dead, he hath saved for himself from the very jaws
of death. For none other of those in heaven had such power as without
harm to minister to the salvation of so many. But he alone having
reached our deep corruption, he alone having taken upon himself our
labors, he alone having suffered the punishments due for our
impieties, having recovered us who were not half dead merely, but were
already in tombs and sepulchers, and altogether foul and offensive,
saves us, both anciently and now, by his beneficent zeal, beyond the
expectation of any one, even of ourselves, and imparts liberally of
the Father's benefits, he who is the giver of life and light, our
great Physician and King and Lord, the Christ of God. For then
when the whole human race lay buried in gloomy night and in depths of
darkness through the deceitful arts of guilty demons and the power of
God-hating spirits, by his simple appearing he loosed once for all
the fast-bound cords of our impieties by the rays of his light, even
as wax is melted.
But when malignant envy and the evilloving demon wellnigh burst with
anger at such grace and kindness, and turned against us all his
death-dealing forces, and when, at first, like a dog gone mad which
gnashes his teeth at the stones thrown at him, and pours out his rage
against his assailants upon the inanimate missiles, he leveled his
ferocious madness at the stones of the sanctuaries and at the lifeless
material of the houses, and desolated the churches, at least as he
supposed, and then emitted terrible hissings and snake-like sounds,
now by the threats of impious tyrants, and again by the blasphemous
edicts of profane rulers, vomiting forth death, moreover, and
infecting with his deleterious and soul-destroying poisons the souls
captured by him, and almost slaying them by his death-fraught
sacrifices of dead idols, and causing every beast in the form of man
and every kind of savage to assault us, then, indeed, the 'Angel of
the great Council,' the great Captain of God after the mightiest
soldiers of his kingdom had displayed sufficient exercise through
patience and endurance in everything, suddenly appeared anew, and
blotted out and annihilated his enemies and foes, so that they seemed
never to have had even a name. But his friends and relatives he raised
to the highest glory, in the presence not only of all men, but also of
celestial powers, of sun and moon and stars, and of the whole heaven
and earth, so that now, as has never happened before, the supreme
rulers, conscious of the honor which they have received from him, spit
upon the faces of dead idols, trample upon the unhallowed rites of
demons, make sport of the ancient delusion handed down from their
fathers, and acknowledge only one God, the common benefactor of all,
themselves included. And they confess Christ, the Son of God,
universal King of all, and proclaim him Saviour on monuments,
imperishably recording in imperial letters, in the midst of the city
which rules over the earth, his righteous deeds and his victories over
the impious. Thus Jesus Christ our Saviour is the only one from all
eternity who has been acknowledged, even by those highest in the
earth, not as a common king among men, but as a trite son of the
universal God, and who has been worshiped as very God, and that
rightly. For what king that ever lived attained such virtue as to fill
the ears and tongues of all men upon earth with his own name? What
king, after ordaining such pious and wise laws, has extended them from
one end of the earth to the other, so that they are perpetually read in
the hearing of all men? Who has abrogated barbarous and savage customs
of uncivilized nations by his gentle and most philanthropic laws?
Who, being attacked for entire ages by all, has shown such superhuman
virtue as to flourish daily, and remain young throughout his life?
Who has founded a nation which of old was not even heard of, but which
now is not concealed in some comer of the earth, but is spread abroad
everywhere under the sun? Who has so fortified his soldiers with the
arms of piety that their souls, being firmer than adamant, shine
brilliantly in the contests with their opponents? What king prevails
to such an extent, and even after death leads on his soldiers, and
sets up trophies over his enemies, and fills every place, country and
city, Greek and barbarian, with his royal dwellings, even divine
temples with their consecrated oblations, like this very temple with
its superb adornments and votive offerings, which are themselves so
truly great and majestic, worthy of wonder and admiration, and clear
signs of the sovereignty of our Saviour? For now, too, 'he spake,
and they were made; he commanded, and they were created.' For what
was there to resist the nod of the universal King and Governor and
Word of God himself?
"A special discourse would be needed accurately to survey and explain
all this; and also to describe how great the zeal of the laborers is
regarded by him who is celebrated as divine, who looks upon the living
temple which we all constitute, and surveys the house, composed of
living and moving stones, which is well and surely built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, the chief cornerstone being
Jesus Christ himself, who has been rejected not only by the builders
of that ancient building which no longer stands, but also by the
builders, evil architects of evil works, of the structure, which is
composed of the mass of men and still endures But the Father has
approved him both then and now, and has made him the head of the corner
of this our common church. Who that beholds this living temple of the
living God formed of ourselves, this greatest and truly divine
sanctuary, I say, whose inmost shrines are invisible to the multitude
and are truly holy and a holy of holies, would venture to declare it?
Who is able even to look within the sacred enclosure, except the great
High Priest of all, to whom alone it is permitted to fathom the
mysteries of every rational soul? But perhaps it is granted to
another, to one only, to be second after him in the same work,
namely, to the commander of this army whom the first and great High
Priest himself has honored with the second place in this sanctuary,
the shepherd of your divine flock who has obtained your people by the
allotment and the judgment of the Father, as if he had appointed him
his own servant and interpreter, a new Aaron or Melchizedec, made
like the Son of God, remaining and continually preserved by him in
accordance with the united prayers of all of you. To him therefore
alone let it be granted, if not in the first place, at least in the
second after the first and greatest High Priest, to observe and
supervise the inmost state of your souls, to him who by experience and
length of time has accurately proved each one, and who by his zeal and
care has disposed you all in pious conduct and doctrine, and is better
able than any one else to give an account, adequate to the facts, of
those things which he himself has accomplished with the Divine
assistance. As to our first and great High Priest, it is said,
'Whatsoever he seeth the Father doing those things likewise the Son
also doeth.' So also this one, looking up to him as to the first
teacher, with pure eyes of the mind, using as archetypes whatsoever
things he seeth him doing, produceth images of them, making them so
far as is possible in the same likeness, in nothing inferior to that
Beseleel, whom God himself 'filled with the spirit of wisdom and
understanding' and with other technical and scientific knowledge, and
called to be the maker of the temple constructed after heavenly types
given in symbols. Thus this one also bearing in his own soul the image
of the whole Christ, the Word, the Wisdom, the Light, has formed
this magnificent temple of the highest God, corresponding to the
pattern of the greater as a visible to an invisible, it is impossible
to say with what greatness of soul, with what wealth and liberality of
mind, and with what emulation on the part of all of you, shown in the
magnanimity of the contributors who have ambitiously striven in no way
to be left behind by him in the execution of the same purpose. And
this place, for this deserves to be mentioned first of all, which had
been covered with all sorts of rubbish by the artifices of our enemies
he did not overlook, nor did he yield to the wickedness of those who
had brought about that condition of things, although he might have
chosen some other place, for many other sites were available in the
city, where he would have had less labor, and been free from trouble.
But having first aroused himself to the work, and then strengthened
the whole people with zeal, and formed them all into one great body,
he fought the first contest. For he thought that this church, which
had been especially besieged by the enemy, which had first suffered and
endured the same persecutions with us and for us, like a mother bereft
of her children, should rejoice with us in the signal favor of the
all-merciful God. For when the Great Shepherd had driven away the
wild animals and wolves and every cruel and savage beast, and, as the
divine oracles say, 'had broken the jaws of the lions,' , he
thought good to collect again her children in the same place, and in
the most righteous manner he set up the fold of her flock, 'to put to
shame the enemy and avenger,' and to refute the impious daring of the
enemies of God.
And now they are not, the haters of God, for they never were.
After they had troubled and been troubled for a little time, they
suffered the fitting punishment, and brought themselves and their
friends and their relatives to total destruction, so that the
declarations inscribed of old in sacred records have been proved true by
facts. In these declarations the divine word truly says among other
things the following concerning them: 'The wicked have drawn out the
sword, they have bent their bow, to slay the righteous in heart; let
their sword enter into their own heart and their bows be broken.' And
again: 'Their memorial is perished with a sound' and 'their name
hast thou blotted out forever and ever'; for when they also were in
trouble they 'cried out and there was none to save: unto the Lord,
and he heard them not. But 'their feet were bound together, and they
fell, but we have arisen and stand upright.' And that which was
announced beforehand in these words, 'O Lord, in thy city thou
shalt set at naught their image,' has been shown to be true to the
eyes of all. But having waged war like the giants against God, they
died in this way. But she that was desolate and rejected by men
received the consummation which we behold in consequence of her patience
toward God, so that the prophecy of Isaiah was spoken of her:
'Rejoice, thirsty desert, let the desert rejoice and blossom as the
lily, and the desert places shall blossom and be glad.' 'Be
strengthened, ye weak hands and feeble knees. Be of good courage, ye
feeble-hearted, in your minds; be strong, fear not. Behold our
God recompenseth judgment and will recompense, he will come and save
us.'
'For,' he says, 'in the wilderness water has broken out, and a
pool in thirsty ground, and the dry land shall be watered meadows, and
in the thirsty ground there shall be springs of water.' These things
which were prophesied long ago have been recorded in sacred books; but
no longer are they transmitted to us by hearsay merely, but in facts.
This desert, this dry land, this widowed and deserted one, 'whose
gates they cut down with axes like wood in a forest, whom they broke
down with hatchet and hammer,' whose books also they destroyed,
'burning with fire the sanctuary of God, and profaning unto the
ground the habitation of his name,' 'whom all that passed by upon the
way plucked, and whose fences they broke down, whom the boar out of
the wood ravaged, and on which the savage wild beast fed,' now by the
wonderful power of Christ, when he wills it, has become like a lily.
For at that time also she was chastened at his nod as by a careful
father; 'for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth.' Then after being chastened in a measure,
according to the necessities of the case, she is commanded to rejoice
anew; and she blossoms as a lily and exhales her divine odor among all
men. 'For,' it is said, 'water hath broken out in the
wilderness,' the fountain of the saving bath of divine regeneration.
And now she, who a little before was a desert, 'has become watered
meadows. and springs of water have gushed forth in a thirsty land.'
The hands which before were 'weak' have become 'truly strong'; and
these works are great and convincing proofs of strong hands. The
knees, also, which before were 'feeble and infirm,' recovering
their wonted strength, are moving straight forward in the path of
divine knowledge, and hastening to the kindred flock of the
all-gracious Shepherd.
And if there are any whose souls have been stupefied by the threats of
the tyrants, not even they are passed by as incurable by the saving
Word; but he heals them also and urges them on to receive divine
comfort, saying, 'Be ye comforted, ye who are faint-hearted; be
ye strengthened, fear not.' This our new and excellent Zerubabel,
having heard the word which announced beforehand, that she who had been
made a desert on account of God should enjoy these things, after the
bitter captivity and the abomination of desolation, did not overlook
the dead body; but first of all with prayers and supplications
propitiated the Father with the common consent of all of you, and
invoking the only one that giveth life to the dead as his ally and
fellow-worker, raised her that was fallen, after purifying and
freeing her from her ills. And he clothed her not with the ancient
garment, but with such an one as he had again learned from the sacred
oracles, which say clearly, 'And the latter glory of this house
shall be greater than the former.' Thus, enclosing a much larger
space, he fortified the outer court with a wall surrounding the whole,
which should serve as a most secure bulwark for the entire edifice.
And he raised and spread out a great and lofty vestibule toward the
rays of the rising sun, and furnished those standing far without the
sacred enclosure a full view of those within, almost turning the eyes
of those who were strangers to the faith, to the entrances, so that no
one could pass by without being impressed by the memory of the former
desolation and of the present incredible transformation. His hope was
that such an one being impressed by this might be attracted and be
induced to enter by the very sight. But when one comes within the
gates he does not permit him to enter the sanctuary immediately, with
impure and unwashed feet; but leaving as large a space as possible
between the temple and the outer entrance, he has surrounded and
adorned it with four transverse cloisters, making a quadrangular space
with pillars rising on every side, which he has joined with
lattice-work screens of wood, rising to a suitable height; and he has
left an open space in the middle, so that the sky can be seen, and the
free air bright in the rays of the sun. Here he has placed symbols of
sacred purifications, setting up fountains opposite the temple which
furnish an abundance of water wherewith those who come within the
sanctuary may purify themselves. This is the first halting-place of
those who enter; and it furnishes at the same time a beautiful and
splendid scene to every one, and to those who still need elementary
instruction a fitting station. But passing by this spectacle, he has
made open entrances to the temple with many other vestibules within,
placing three doors on one side, likewise facing the rays of the sun.
The one in the middle, adorned with plates of bronze, iron bound,
and beautifully embossed, he has made much higher and broader than the
others, as if he were making them guards for it as for a queen. In
the same way, arranging the number of vestibules for the corridors on
each side of the whole temple, he has made above them various openings
into the building, for the purpose of admitting more light, adorning
them with very fine wood-carving. But the royal house he has
furnished with more beautiful and splendid materials, using unstinted
liberality in his disbursements. It seems to me superfluous to
describe here in detail the length and breadth of the building, its
splendor and its majesty surpassing description, and the brilliant
appearance of the work, its lofty pinnacles reaching to the heavens,
and the costly cedars of Lebanon above them, which the divine oracle
has not omitted to mention, saying, 'The trees of the Lord shall
rejoice and the cedars of Lebanon which he hath planted.' Why need
I now describe the skillful architectural arrangement and the
surpassing beauty of each part, when the testimony of the eye renders
instruction through the ear superfluous? For when he had thus
completed the temple, he provided it with lofty thrones in honor of
those who preside, and in addition with seats arranged in proper order
throughout the whole building, and finally placed in the middle the
holy of holies, the altar, and, that it might be inaccessible to the
multitude, enclosed it with wooden lattice-work, accurately wrought
with artistic carving, presenting a wonderful sight to the beholders.
And not even the pavement was neglected by him; for this too he
adorned with beautiful marble of every variety. Then finally he passed
on to the parts without the temple, providing spacious exedrae and
buildings on each side, which were joined to the basilica, and
communicated with the entrances to the interior of the structure.
These were erected by our most peaceful Solomon, the maker of the
temple of God, for those who still needed purification and sprinkling
by water and the Holy Spirit, so that the prophecy quoted above is no
longer a word merely, but a fact; for now it has also come to pass
that in truth 'the biter glory of this house is greater than the
former.'
For it was necessary and fitting that as her shepherd and Lord had
once tasted death for her, and after his suffering had changed that
vile body which he assumed in her behalf into a splendid and glorious
body, leading the very flesh which had been delivered from corruption
to incorruption, she too should enjoy the dispensations of the
Saviour. For having received from him the promise of much greater
things than these, she desires to share uninterruptedly throughout
eternity with the choir of the angels of light, in the far greater
glory of regeneration, in the resurrection of an incorruptible body,
in the palace of God beyond the heavens, with Christ Jesus himself,
the universal Benefactor and Saviour. But for the present, she that
was formerly widowed and desolate is clothed by the grace of God with
these flowers, and is become truly like a lily, as the prophecy says,
and having received the bridal garment and the crown of beauty, she is
taught by Isaiah to dance, and to present her thank-offerings unto
God the King in reverent words. Let us hear her saying, 'My soul
shall rejoice in the Lord; for he hath clothed me with a garment of
salvation and with a robe of gladness; he hath bedecked me like a
bridegroom with a garland, and he hath adorned me like a bride with
jewels; and like the earth which bringeth forth her bud, and like a
garden which causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth,
thus the Lord God hath caused righteousness and praise to spring forth
before all the nations.' In these words she exults. And in similar
words the heavenly bridegroom, the Word Jesus Christ himself,
answers her. Hear the Lord saying, 'Fear not because thou hast
been put to shame, neither be thou confounded because thou hast been
rebuked; for thou shalt forget the former shame, and the reproach of
thy widowhood shalt thou remember no more.' 'Not as a woman deserted
and faint-hearted hath the Lord called thee, nor as a woman hated
from her youth, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee, but i with great mercy will I have mercy upon thee; in a little
wrath I hid my face from thee, but with everlasting mercy will I have
mercy upon thee, saith the Lord that hath redeemed thee.' 'Awake,
awake, thou who hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his
fury; for thou hast drunk the cup of ruin, the vessel of my wrath,
and hast drained it. And there was none to console thee of all thy
sons whom thou didst bring forth, and there was none to take thee by
the hand.' 'Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of
ruin, the vessel of my fury, and thou shalt no longer drink it. And
I will put it into the hands of them that have treated thee unjustly
and have humbled thee.' 'Awake, awake, put on thy strength, put
on thy glory. Shake off the dust and arise. Sit thee down, loose
the bands of thy neck.' 'Lift up thine eyes round about and behold
thy children gathered together; behold they are gathered together and
are come to thee. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt clothe
thee with them all as with an ornament, and gird thyself with them as
with the ornaments of a bride. For thy waste and corrupted and ruined
places shall now be too narrow by reason of those that inhabit thee,
and they that swallow thee up shall be far from thee. For thy sons
whom thou hast lost shall say in thine ears, The place is too narrow
for me, give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in
thine heart, Who hath begotten me these? I am childless and a
widow, and who hath brought up these for me? I was left alone, and
these, where were they for me?'
"These are the things which Isaiah foretold; and which were
anciently recorded concerning us in sacred books S and it was necessary
that we should sometime learn their truthfulness by their fulfillment.
For when the bridegroom, the Word, addressed such language to his
own bride, the sacred and holy Church, this bridesman, when she was
desolate and lying like a corpse, bereft of hope in the eyes of men,
in accordance with the united prayers of all of you, as was proper,
stretched out your hands and aroused and raised her up at the command of
God, the universal King, and at the manifestation of the power of
Jesus Christ; and having raised her he established her as he had
learned from the description given in the sacred oracles. This is
indeed a very great wonder, passing all admiration, especially to
those who attend only to the outward appearance; but more wonderful
than wonders are the archetypes and their mental prototypes and divine
models; I mean the reproductions of the inspired and rational building
in our souls. This the Divine Son himself created after his own
image, imparting to it everywhere and in all respects the likeness of
God, an incorruptible nature, incorporeal, rational, free from all
earthly matter, a being endowed with its own intelligence; and when he
had once called her forth from non-existence into existence, he made
her a holy spouse, an all-sacred temple for himself and for the
Father. This also he clearly declares and confesses in the following
words: 'I will dwell in them and will walk in them; and I will be
their God, and they shall be my people.' Such is the perfect and
purified soul, so made from the beginning as to bear the image of the
celestial Word.
But when by the envy and zeal of the malignant demon she became, of
her own voluntary choice, sensual and a lover of evil, the Deity left
her; and as if bereft of a protector, she became an easy prey and
readily accessible to those who had long envied her; and being assailed
by the batteries and machines of her invisible enemies and spiritual
foes, she suffered a terrible fall, so that not one stone of virtue
remained upon another in her, but she lay completely dead upon the
ground, entirely divested of her natural ideas of God.
"But as she, who had been made in the image of God, thus lay
prostrate, it was not that wild boar from the forest which we see that
despoiled her, but a certain destroying demon and spiritual wild beasts
who deceived her with their passions as with the fiery darts of their
own wickedness, and burned the truly divine sanctuary of God with
fire, and profaned to the ground the tabernacle of his name. Then
burying the miserable one with heaps of earth, they destroyed every
hope of deliverance.
But that divinely bright and saving Word, her protector, after she
had suffered the merited punishment for her sins, again restored her,
securing the favor of the all-merciful Father. Having won over first
the souls of the highest rulers, he purified, through the agency of
those most divinely favored princes, the whole earth from all the
impious destroyers, and from the terrible and God-hating tyrants
themselves. Then bringing out into the light those who were his
friends, who had long before been consecrated to him for life, but in
the midst, as it were, of a storm of evils, had been concealed under
his shelter, he honored them worthily with the great gifts of the
Spirit. And again, by means of them, he cleared out and cleaned
with spades and mattocks, the admonitory words of doctrine, the souls
which a little while before had been covered with filth and burdened
with every kind of matter and rubbish of impious ordinances. And when
he had made the ground of all your minds clean and clear, he finally
committed it to this allwise and God-beloved Ruler, who, being
endowed with judgment and prudence, as well as with other gifts, and
being able to examine and discriminate accurately the minds of those
committed to his charge, from the first day, so to speak, down to the
present, has not ceased to build. Now he has supplied the brilliant
gold, again the refined and unalloyed silver, and the precious and
costly stones in all of you, so that again is fulfilled for you in
facts a sacred and mystic prophecy, which says, 'Behold I make thy
stone a carbuncle, and thy foundations of sapphire, and thy
battlements of jasper, and thy gates of crystals, and thy wall of
chosen stones; and all thy sons shall be taught of God, and thy
children shall enjoy complete peace; and in righteousness shall thou be
built.' Building therefore in righteousness, be divided the whole
people according to their strength. With some he fortified only the
outer enclosure, walling it up with unfeigned faith; such were the
great mass of the people who were incapable of bearing a greater
structure. Others he permitted to enter the building, commanding them
to stand at the door and act as guides for those who should come in;
these may be not unfitly compared to the vestibules of the temple.
Others he supported by the first pillars which are placed without about
the quadrangular hall, initiating them into the first elements of the
letter of the four Gospels. Still others he joined together about the
basilica on both sides; these are the catechumens who are still
advancing and progressing, and are not far separated from the inmost
view of divine things granted to the faithful. Taking from among these
the pure souls that have been cleansed like gold by divine washing, he
then supports them by pillars, much better than those without, made
from the inner and mystic teachings of the Scripture, and illumines
them by windows. Adorning the whole temple with a great vestibule of
the glory of the one universal King and only God, and placing on
either side of the authority of the Father Christ, and the Holy
Spirit as second lights, he exhibits abundantly and gloriously
throughout the entire building the clearness and splendor of the truth
of the rest in all its details. And having selected from every quarter
the living and moving and well-prepared stones of the souls, he
constructs out of them all the great and royal house, splendid and full
of light both within and without; for not only soul and understanding,
but their body also is made glorious by the blooming ornament of purity
and modesty.
And in this temple there are also thrones, and a great number of seats
and benches, in all those souls in which sit the Holy Spirit's
gifts, such as were anciently seen by the sacred apostles, and those
who were with them, when there 'appeared unto them tongues parting
asunder, like as of fire, and sat upon each one of them.' But in
the leader of all it is reasonable to suppose that Christ himself
dwells in his fullness, and in those that occupy the second rank after
him, in proportion as each is able to contain the power of Christ and
of the Holy Spirit. And the souls of some m of those, namely, who
are committed to each of them for instruction and care -- may be seats
for angels. But the great and august and unique altar, what else
could this be than the pure holy of holies of the soul of the common
priest of all? Standing at the right of it, Jesus himself, the
great High Priest of the universe, the Only Begotten of God,
receives with bright eye and extended hand the sweet incense from all,
and the bloodless and immaterial sacrifices offered in their prayers,
and bears them to the heavenly Father and God of the universe. And
he himself first worships him, and alone gives to the Father the
reverence which is his due, beseeching him also to continue always kind
and propitious to us all.
"Such is the great temple which the great Creator of the universe,
the Word, has built throughout the entire world, making it an
intellectual image upon earth of those things which lie above the vault
of heaven, so that throughout the whole creation, including rational
beings on earth, his Father might be honored and adored.
But the region above the heavens, with the models of earthly things
which are there, and the so-called Jerusalem above, and the heavenly
Mount of Zion, and the supramundane city of the living God, in
which innumerable choirs of angels and the Church of the first born,
whose names are written in heaven, praise their Maker and the Supreme
Ruler of the universe with hymns of praise unutterable and
incomprehensible to us, who that is mortal is able worthily to
celebrate this? ' For eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of men those things which God hath prepared for
them that love him.'
Since we, men, children, and women, small and great, are already
in part partakers of these things, let us not cease all together, with
one spirit and one soul, to confess and praise the author of such great
benefits to us, 'Who for-giveth all our iniquities, who healeth all
our diseases, who redeemeth our life from destruction, who crowneth us
with mercy and compassion, who satisfieth our desires with good
things.' 'For he hath not dealt with us according to our sins, nor
rewarded us according to our iniquities;' 'for as far as the east is
from the west, so far hath he removed our iniquities from us. Like as
a father pitieth his own children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear
him.'
Rekindling these thoughts in our memories, both now and during all
time to come, and contemplating in our mind night and day, in every
hour and with every breath, so to speak, the Author and Ruler of the
present festival, and of this bright and most splendid day, let us
love and adore him with every power of the soul. And now rising, let
us beseech him with loud voice to shelter and preserve us to the end in
his fold, granting his unbroken and unshaken peace forever, in Christ
Jesus our Saviour; through whom be the glory unto him forever and
ever. Amen."
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