Section 438
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 407 unction and the sacerdotal garment of the Holy Spirit. And thou, O excellent ornament of this new and holy temple of God, endowed by him with the wisdom of age, and yet who hast ex hibited the precious works and deeds of youthful and vigorous virtue, to whom God himself, who comprehends the universe, has granted the distinguished privilege of rebuilding and renewing it to Christ, his first begotten and only begotten Word, and to his holy and divine spouse ; whether one might call thee a new Beseleel,* the architect of a divine tabernacle, or a Solomon, the king of a new and better Jerusalem, or a new Zerubbabel, superadding a glory to the temple of God, much greater than the former. You, also, O nurslings of the flock of Christ, the habi tation of excellent discourses, school of modesty, and the devout and religious auditory of piety. Long since, indeed, we were allowed the privilege of raising hymns and songs of praise to God, when we learned from hearing the sacred Scriptures read, the wonderful deeds of God, and the benefits of the Lord con ferred upon men, and whom we were taught to repeat, O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, the work that thou didst in those days, in the days of old.' But now as we perceive the lofty arm and the celestial hand of our all-gracious and omnipotent God and king, not only by the hearing and the report of words, but by deeds ; and, as we may say, with our own eyes, as we contemplate those faithful and true declarations recorded in times of old, we may raise another song of triumph, and exclaim, and appropriately 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 framed by God ? which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.' Concerning which another passage of the holy Scriptures thus, declares : ' Glorious things are spoken of thee, thou city of God ;' into which the all-gracious God having collect ed us by the grace of his only begotten, let each one here as sembled only sing, cry aloud, and say : 'I was glad when they said unto me, we will go into the house of the Lord ;' and again, The name is written in our version, Bezaleel. Exod. xxxv. 31. 37