28. The pavement of the church is the foundation of our faith. But in the spiritual Church, the pavement is the poor, of Christ: the poor in spirit, who humble themselves in all thing: wherefore on account of their [{25}] humility they are likened to the pavement. Again, the pavement, which is trodden under foot, representeth the multitude, by whose labours the Church is sustained.
29. The beams [Footnote 165] which join together the church are the princes of this world or the preachers who defend the unity of the Church, the one by deed, the other by argument.
[Footnote 165: Beams. That is, probably, tie-beams: here is another reference to the architectural arrangements of Early English date.]
30. The stalls in the church signify the contemplative, in whom God dwelleth without hindrance, who, from their high dignity and the glory of eternal life, are compared to gold. Whence He saith in the Canticles, 'He made a golden seat.' [Footnote 166]
[Footnote 166: See Appendix I.]
31. The beams in the church are preachers, who spiritually sustain it. The vaulting also, or ceiling, representeth preachers, who adorn and strengthen it, concerning whom, seeing that they are not corruptible through vice, the bridegroom glorieth in the same Canticles, saying 'the beams of our house are cedar, and its ceiling, fir.' For God hath built His Church of living stones, and imperishable wood, according to that saying, 'Solomon made himself a litter of cedar wood;' [Footnote 167] that is, Christ, of His saints who wear the white robe of chastity.
[Footnote 167: It is very difficult to find the right meaning of the word ferculum here. The English version gives the passage from the Canticles, 'King Solomon made himself a chariot (marg. reading, bed) of the wood of Lebanon. In the extremely beautiful treatise of Hugo de S. Victore, De Nuptiis Spiritualibus (cap. iii), the fercula nuptialia appear to mean the marriage feast, which is to perform its part in the general Sensuum refectio, by its sweet savours; as the bed or chariot of Solomon is noted for the odour of its cedar wood. However, the same writer devotes five Tituli of his Erudit. Theolog. Ex Miscellan. namely, lix—lxii of the first book, and cxxi of the second, to the consideration of this Ferculum Solomonis: which he decides to be a lectica sen vehiculum, a litter or sedan (such as is now used in Sicily under the name of lettiga), differing from the lectulus or bed (Cant, i, 16), inasmuch as this denotes the repose of the contemplative life, while the ferculum typifies the laborious exercise of the active life; and differing again from the currus or chariot (the only other vehicle mentioned in Holy Scripture), since the latter is drawn on the earth with a grating noise, and represents a depraved heart clinging to earthly things, but the former is borne smoothly and quietly above the ground, an image of the righteous soul despising earthly and seeking heavenly things. Lastly, the ferculum, or litter, typifies the Church, from carrying, a ferendo, as doth the Church her children unto Heavenly Rest.]
The chancel, that is, the head of the church, being lower [Footnote 168] than its body, signifieth how great humility there should be in the clergy, or in prelates, according to that saying, 'And the more thou art exalted, humble thyself in all things.' The rail, by which the altar [Footnote 169] is divided from the choir, teacheth the separation of things celestial from things terrestrial.
[Footnote 168: The fact that in many unaltered and unmutilated churches the chancel is lower than the nave, appears to have been unnoticed by ecclesiologists. Wherever it occurs, William Dowsing, or some of his puritanical coadjutors, have been supposed agents in the matter. But there exist chancels, which, whether from the height of the piscina and sedilia, or on other accounts, cannot have been lowered, to which nevertheless there is a descent from the nave. Such an one is that of S. Giles's at Cambridge: and the arrangement is very common in the little churches of the south-west part of Sussex.]
[Footnote 169: This is another very remarkable passage: and one which proves that the injunction of Abp. Laud for the erection of altar rails was not a novelty. And though their abolition is much to be wished, as well from the ugliness of all existing specimens, as from the irreverence which they seem to pre-suppose, the Church in England can scarcely be charged with the adoption of an innovation in giving her sanction to them.]