[134] Let us conceive, then, of the tabernacle and altar as “ideas,” the first being a symbol of incorporeal virtue, the other of its sensible image. Now the altar and what is on it can be easily seen. For it is constructed out of doors, and the fire which consumes the offerings is never extinguished, and thus by night as well as by day it is in bright light.
[135] But the tabernacle and all its contents are unseen, not only because they are placed right inside and in the heart of the sanctuary, but because anyone who touched them, or with a too curious eye looked upon them, was punished with death according to the ordinance of the law, and against that sentence there was no appeal. The only exception made is for one who should be free from all defects, not wasting himself with any passion great or small, but endowed with a nature sound and complete and perfect in every respect.
[136] To him it is permitted to enter once a year and behold the sights which are forbidden to others, because in him alone of all resides the winged and heavenly yearning for those forms of good which are incorporeal and imperishable.
[137] And so, when smitten by its ideal beauty he follows that archetype which creates by impress the particular virtues, beholding with ecstasy its most divine loveliness, or when he approaches some virtue which has received its impress, ignorance and the condition of the uninstructed are forgotten, and knowledge and instruction are at once remembered.
[138] And therefore he says “Wine and strong liquor ye shall not drink, thou and thy sons after thee, when ye enter into the tabernacle of testimony or approach the altar.” In these words he speaks not so much by way of prohibition as stating what he thinks will happen. If a prohibition were intended, it would have been natural to say “do not drink wine when you perform the rites”; the phrase “you shall not” or “will not” drink is naturally used, when the speaker is stating what he thinks. For it is impossible that anyone, whose study and association lie among the general and specific virtues, should let indiscipline, which is the cause of drunkenness and the symptoms which follow it in the soul, have entry to him.
[139] And he frequently calls the tabernacle “the tabernacle of testimony,” either because God who cannot lie gives His testimony to virtue, a testimony to which it is excellent and profitable to give ear, or because virtue implants constancy in the souls of men, eradicating with a strong hand the reasonings which doubt and waver, and thus witness-like revealing the truth in the court of human life.