children of Israel.”  The manna was kept in the ark to remind them of the benefit conferred by God on the children of Israel in the desert; wherefore it is written (Ex. 16:32):  “Fill a gomor of it, and let it be kept unto generations to come hereafter, that they may know the bread wherewith I fed you in the wilderness.”  The candlestick was set up to enhance the beauty of the temple, for the magnificence of a house depends on its being well lighted.  Now the candlestick had seven branches, as Josephus observes (Antiquit. iii, 7, 8), to signify the seven planets, wherewith the whole world is illuminated.  Hence the candlestick was placed towards the south; because for us the course of the planets is from that quarter.  The altar of incense was instituted that there might always be in the tabernacle a sweet-smelling smoke; both through respect for the tabernacle, and as a remedy for the stenches arising from the shedding of blood and the slaying of animals.  For men despise evil-smelling things as being vile, whereas sweet-smelling things are much appreciated.  The table was placed there to signify that the priests who served the temple should take their food in the temple:  wherefore, as stated in Matt. 12:4, it was lawful for none but the priests to eat the twelve loaves which were put on the table in memory of the twelve tribes.  And the table was not placed in the middle directly in front of the propitiatory, in order to exclude an idolatrous rite:  for the Gentiles, on the feasts of the moon, set up a table in front of the idol of the moon, wherefore it is written (Jer. 7:18):  “The women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven.”

In the court outside the tabernacle was the altar of holocausts, on which sacrifices of those things which the people possessed were offered to God:  and consequently the people who offered these sacrifices to God by the hands of the priest could be present in the court.  But the priests alone, whose function it was to offer the people to God, could approach the inner altar, whereon the very devotion and holiness of the people was offered to God.  And this altar was put up outside the tabernacle and in the court, to the exclusion of idolatrous worship:  for the Gentiles placed altars inside the temples to offer up sacrifices thereon to idols.

The figurative reason for all these things may be taken from the relation of the tabernacle to Christ, who was foreshadowed therein.  Now it must be observed that to show the imperfection of the figures of the Law, various figures were instituted in the temple to betoken Christ.  For He was foreshadowed by the “propitiatory,” since He is “a propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:2).  This propitiatory was fittingly carried by cherubim, since of Him it is written (Heb. 1:6):  “Let all the angels of God adore Him.”  He is also signified by the ark:  because just as the ark was made of setim-wood, so was Christ’s body composed of most pure members.  More over