P. Thus it is affirmed that the golden altar is also the image of Christ.

K. Moreover, in justice, He is also understood by "incense folded and fragrant" (Exodus 30:7): for He Himself is the Bishop; for it is said: "Let Aaron burn incense over him with incense folded fragrant" (ibid.). And the incense is "composed": for the Word, being God, was made flesh, and Immanuel is as it were composed from the Divine nature and humanity into a unity that transcends the mind, inexpressibly composed. "Fragrant," because He has no coarseness of service according to the law, for it is said: "Sacrifices and offerings Thou didst not desire; Thou hast opened my ears; Thou didst not demand burnt offerings and sin offerings. Then I said, Behold, I am coming; in the scroll of the book it is written of me, I desire to do Thy will" (Psalm 39:7-9; cf. Heb. 10:5-7). And what is this will of the Father, concerning this He Himself secretly guided us in the Gospels, saying: "For I came down from heaven, not to do My will, but the will of Him who sent Me. But the will of the Father who sent Me is that of all that He has given Me I should not destroy anything, but raise it all up at the last day" (John 6:38-39): for He offered Himself for us "as a sweet aroma" (Ephesians 5:2), and for this He was proclaimed a Bishop. Thus, He Himself is the Bishop, Himself and incense "folded and fragrant"; Paul also testifies to this, saying: "But thanks be to God, who always gives us to triumph in Christ, and spreads by us the fragrance of the knowledge of himself in every place. For we are the fragrance of Christ to God in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing: to some a smell of death unto death, and to others a smell of life to life" (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). He also calls upon us: "Therefore imitate God, as beloved children, and live in love, just as Christ also loved us, and gave Himself for us as an offering and sacrifice to God, as a sweet aroma" (Ephesians 5:1-2). He also clearly establishes the time of incense, decreeing that everything should be done in order and adornment, and in such a way that the power of inner contemplation should be maintained in us, for He says: "early" and "in the evening," when the lamps are lit and prepared (Exodus 30:7), since the words "evening" and "early" indicate continuity and constancy, while smoking during the lighting of lamps may be It means very well that it is only when we are illumined by the Divine light that we are abundantly filled with the fragrance of Christ, and thus we come to perceive (feel) the blessings of the inner tabernacle, or the sharing of Divine gifts, which Christ gives to the worthy, so that if anyone is not yet in the light through faith, he certainly does not partake of the mental fragrance, having not yet tasted the mysteries of Christ: "If you do not believe, because you are not verified," it is said (Isaiah 7:9): because faith is, as it were, an entrance that leads to understanding and opens the mind to the reception of the light of God. He calls incense "always" because there is no time in which Christ does not smell fragrant in the holy tabernacle, that is, in the Church. And He forbids to make a drink offering on it, that is, on the altar of Christ, and to offer an offering (Exodus 30:9), for in Christ that which was in the law has been abolished, and shadows come to an end: this, I think, is a drink offering and an offering. And the prophet testifies, saying: "The meal offering and the drink-offering have ceased in the house of the Lord" (Joel 1:9): for when worship and service in spirit and truth have already been declared, then in some way shadows are superfluous, images are vain and utterly useless: for in Christ is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17; cf. Gal. 6:15); and after the manifestation of the truth, those who were justified in the law fell away from grace. "Do not offer," he says, "on the altar of "another incense" (Exodus 30:9): for we will receive absolutely no one else in Christ (as Christ), and we will not say to anyone else: "Teacher! one of you is our Teacher, Christ" (Matt. 23:7-8 and 10), and to Him alone we will be attached, saying: "Of the incense of thy ointments thy name is like poured ointment; therefore the maidens love you. Draw me, we will run after you" (Song of Songs 1:2-3). Or this does not mean the saying: "Do not bring ... other smoking"? — for Christ alone is sufficient in the Church for the truly intelligent, who do not seek any other stench, like the unfortunate Jews, who, in their madness, desecrated "incense folded and fragrant," that is, Christ, and remained unpartakers of this sacred and truly Divine fragrance; but another will be received in His place, the son of iniquity, "resisting and exalting himself above all that is called God or holiness, so that in the temple of God he shall sit as God, pretending to be God" (2 Thessalonians 2:4), who also defiles the Divine tabernacle, being a strange smoke and, so to speak, a stench of the devil: for "whose coming," it is said, "is by the work of Satan" (2:9).

P. I understand what you are saying; for thy speech is clear.

K. God commands Aaron to make atonement over the altar of incense once a year, so that he may anoint the edges of the horns with the blood of the atonement of sins; for the holy of holies is, saith He (Exodus 30:10). And this is clearly presented to you by the divine Paul, who says: "But Christ, the High Priest of good things to come, having come with a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is, not of such a dispensation, and not with the blood of goats and bulls, but with His own blood, entered once into the sanctuary, and obtained eternal redemption" (Heb. 9:11-12): for, as he again says, having died once, Christ "rose from the dead, no longer dies: death no longer has power over Him. For because He died, He died once to sin; but what lives, lives for God" (Romans 6:9-10). Thus, the divine Aaron entered the holy of holies once a year through the blood of the cleansing of sins. And in this again see Christ with His Blood, as it were, sprinkling His cross for the life and salvation of all: for the image of the cross is the horns, like hands, stretching straight on both sides. Therefore, understand Christ, who died once, but is holy of holies by nature, as God; for John is true when he says, "And of His fullness we have all received" (John 1:16): for all visible and invisible creation partakes of Christ, the Angels and Archangels, and even higher beings, the Cherubim themselves, who are holy only through Christ alone, in the Holy Spirit. Thus, truly He is the altar, He is also the incense and the Bishop; in the same way, He is also the blood of the cleansing of sins.

P. Yes, you are right. Just what the blood of the cleansing of sins is, I cannot clearly understand.

K. Foreshadowing the cleansing by blood and the sacred sacrifice, I mean Christ, through whom we are also saved, avoiding the defilement that has come upon us through sin, the law says in the book of Leviticus: "But if all," he says, "the congregation of Israel sin by mistake, and the matter is hidden from the eyes of the congregation, and does anything contrary to the commandments of the Lord, which ought not to have been done, and is guilty, then, when the sin with which they have sinned is known, they shall present a bull of the herd of the cattle as a sin offering, and bring it before the Tabernacle of Meeting. And the elders of the congregation shall lay their hands on the head of the calf before the Lord, and shall kill the calf before the Lord. And the priest who is anointed shall bring the blood of the bull into the tabernacle of meeting, and the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle it seven times before the Lord before the veil. and he shall put the blood on the horns of the altar which is before the Lord in the tabernacle of meeting, and the rest of the blood he shall pour out at the foot of the altar of burnt offerings, which is at the entrance of the tabernacle of meeting" (Lev. 4:13-18). We will talk about this more extensively in time. Behold, then, as it were, in a calf again Immanuel, who was slain for us, who delivered us from sin, who took us away from judgment and opened us from punishment, who entered into the tabernacle "greater and more perfect," not with the help of bulls and goats, "but with His own blood" (Heb. 9:11 and 12), and who once tasted death: for high on the tree, pierced by a spear in the side, He poured out blood and water. The image of the cross can be, as we said above, the extremities of the horns.

P. You said it well.

K. But he did not divinitely establish the law of purification by blood alone, but also by holy water; for this is the most perfect path to purification, in the reasoning of the sacrament in Christ.

P. How did he show this, or how?

K. It is written: "And the Lord said to Moses, saying, 'Make a basin of brass for washing, and its base of brass, and put it between the tabernacle of meeting and between the altar, and pour water into it; and Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet out of it. when they are to enter the tabernacle of meeting, they shall be washed with water, that they may not die; or when they should come to the altar for service, for sacrifice to the Lord, they shall wash their hands and their feet with water, that they may not die; and it shall be an everlasting statute unto him, and to his descendants throughout their generations" (Exodus 30:17-21). That in this the grace of holy baptism was prescribed, as it were, is clear: for when we are baptized, we do not acquire the laying aside of the impurity of the flesh, but are delivered from the abominations of the mind and heart, and are washed from the defilements of sin by the grace and love of mankind of Him who calls us to salvation: for we are justified "not by the works of the law," according to the Scriptures, "but by the faith of Jesus Christ" (Gal. 2:16). Behold, then, how Aaron, though holy according to the law, also those who are appointed with him to the ministry wash their hands and feet with water, and then they are taken to sacred labors, and also those who enter the holy of holies free from fear, whereby the law clearly and evidently, I think, shows, and the deed itself almost cries, that he is unclean with God, and seems to be sacred according to the law; if he has not been washed with water, and that the power of the lawful ministry is not sufficient for purification. Thus, even those who are sanctified according to the law washed beforehand, but it is not the clean that is cleansed, but the defiled and unclean. Christ Himself said the same thing: "He who has been washed need only wash his feet, for he is completely clean" (John 13:10). The all-wise Paul also writes that "for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4). Thus, the law is not perfect for sanctification, if saving baptism had not come to the aid of those who thirst for kinship with God. For this reason the divine John, although he was crowned with the highest praise and attained the highest degree of virtue, nevertheless asked the Saviour to be baptized, saying: "I need to be baptized of Thee" (Matt. 3:14).

P. Pravda.

K. The hands and feet that are washed signify the purity and sincerity of the deed and, as it were, the approach to each of the actions. When we have attained perfection in this through exercise, we are permitted to ascend to the innermost tabernacle, offer spiritual sacrifices to God, and dedicate them to Him in the form of incense as the incense of the Gospel life. With profit, however, He commands those who wish to enter the Holy of Holies and those who take care of sacred matters to wash themselves, "lest they die": for it is truly dangerous and subject to punishment to approach God uncleansed. That is why the wise Paul insistently demands that we examine ourselves, if we wish to partake of the mysterious blessing, and then approach it (1 Corinthians 11:28). And that negligence in this is full of danger, he reveals when he says: "Therefore many of you are weak and sick, and many die. For if we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. But being judged, we are chastened by the Lord, so that we may not be condemned with the world" (11:30-32).

P. Thus, it is confirmed that the sacred laver foretold us the grace of holy baptism.

K: Yes, you must not doubt at all. And if you consider the manner in which the laver is built, you will, I think, be all the more astonished: for thus it is written of Bezalel, who skilfully arranged what was in the tabernacle: "And he set the laver between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar, and poured water into it for the ablution, and Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet out of it. when they entered into the tabernacle of meeting, and came to the altar, then they were washed, as the Lord commanded Moses" (Exodus 40:31-33).