Section 455
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. out. For it is resplendent not only in soul and mind, but the body also is brilliant with the blooming ornaments of chastity and modesty. But in this temple there are also thrones, many seats also, and benches, in all the souls in which the gifts of the Holy Spirit reside, such as anciently were seen in the holy apostles and their followers, to whom cloven tongues, as of fire, appeared, and sat upon each one of them. But in the chief of all, Christ himself perhaps resides in his fulness. In those that rank next to him, each one shares proportionately in the distribution of the power of Christ, and the Holy Spirit. There may also be seats for angels in the souls of some who are committed to the instruc tion and care of each. Noble and grand also, and unique is the altar, such as should be at least, that sincerity and Holy of Holies, of the mind and spirit of the priest of the whole congre gation. That great High Priest of the universe, Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, himself standing at his right, receives the sweet incense from all, and the bloodless and immaterial sacri fices of prayer, with a bright and benign eye ; and with extended hands, bears them to the Father of heaven and God over all. He himself, first adoring him, and the only one that gives to the Father the worship that is his due, and then interceding with Him for us, that he may always continue propitious and favourable to us all. " Such is the character of this great temple, which the great creative Word hath established, throughout the whole world, constituting this again a kind of intellectual image on earth of those things beyond the vault of heaven. So that in all his crea tion, and through all his intelligent creatures on earth, the Father should be honoured and adored.* But those regionsf beyond the Dominum et Servatorem nostrum **™ T* seipsum, Patre iitinorem, et X»T» r«, iterum seipsum et Patrem unum dicit. Et si locutiones hujuscemodi, blasphemiara vel heterodoxiam sapiunt, quis sapit recte ? The Greek reads thus: o ru^p au™ (xo^M) Tia^ro n x< O-E/SOITO. Valesius vertit "Pater ipsius" quasi *uru> pro «UTOO sed potius videtur indicare agentem. Versions nostra hie non redditur quia lector eommunis titubet nee versione Valesii assentire possumus. Qui nexum sententiarum penitus inspexerit facile videbit Eusebium, hie filium Dei quasi curatorem adorationis Patris innuere. f Our orator, now drawing to a close, winds up his survey of the temple on earth, by an apostrophe to the transcendant glory of the church triumphant.