The First Builders of Altars—The Difference between Altare and Ara—Various Significations of Various Kinds of Altars—The Ark of the Testimony—It is preserved in the Lateran Church—What a Man needeth that he may be the Temple of God—What the Table Signifieth—Of the Candlestick—Of the Ark—Of the Altar—Of the Altar Cloths—Of Steps to the Altar.
I. The altar hath a place in the church on three accounts, as shall be said in speaking of its dedication. We are to know that Noe [Footnote 195] first, then Isaac [Footnote 196] and Abraham [Footnote 197] and Jacob made, as we read, altars: which is only to be understood of stones set upright, on which they offered and slew the victims and burnt them with fire laid beneath them. Also Moses made an altar [Footnote 198] of shittim wood: and the same was made as an altar of incense, and covered with pure gold: as we read in the xxvth chapter of Exodus, where also the form of the altar is described. From these of the ancient fathers, the altars of the moderns have their origin, being erected with four horns at the corners. Of which some are of one stone, and some are put together of many.
[Footnote 195: Gen. viii, 20.]
[Footnote 196: Gen. xxvi, 25. xxxiii, 20.]
[Footnote 197: Gen. xiii, 18.]
[Footnote 198: Exodus xxvii, i.]
2. And sometimes the words altare and ara are used in the same sense. Yet is there a difference. For altare, derived from alta res, or alta ara, is that on which [{34}] the priests burnt incense. But ara, which is derived from area, or from ardeo, is that on which sacrifices were burnt. [Footnote 199]
[Footnote 199: The true ecclesiastical distinction between altare and ara is that the former means the altar of the true God, and is therefore alone used in the Vulgate, answering to the Greek
, as opposed to ara (
), an altar with an image above it. See Mede. Folio 386. ]
3. And note, that many kinds of altars are found in Scripture: as a higher, a lower, an inner, an outer; of which each hath both a plain and a symbolical signification. The higher altar is God the Trinity: of which it is written, 'Thou shalt not go up by steps to my altar.' [Footnote 200] And it also signifieth the Church Triumphant: of which it is said, 'Then shall they offer bullocks upon mine altar.' [Footnote 201] But the lower altar is the Church Militant, of which it is said, 'If thou wilt make an altar of stone, thou shalt not make it of hewn stone.' [Footnote 202] Also it is the table of the temple. Of which he saith, 'Appoint a solemn day for your assembly even unto the horns of the altar.' [Footnote 203] And in the Third of Kings, it is said that Solomon made a golden altar. [Footnote 204 ] But the interior altar is a clean heart, as shall be said below. It is also a type of faith in the incarnation, of which in Exodus, 'An altar of earth ye shall make Me.' [Footnote 205] And an interior altar is the altar of the cross. This is the altar on which they offered the evening sacrifice. Whence in the Canon of the Mass it is said, Jube hoc in sublime Altare Tuum perferri. [Footnote 206] Moreover the external altar representeth the sacraments of the Church: of which it is said, 'Even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.' [Footnote 207] Again, the altar is our mortification in our heart, in which carnal motions are consumed by the fervour of the Holy Spirit.