Numbers 4:19

Now therefore let us return to that tabernacle of the church of the living God, and let us see how these several things ought to be observed in the Church of God by the priests of Christ. If anyone is truly a priest, to whom the sacred vessels, that is, the secrets of the mysteries of wisdom, are committed, let him learn from these and observe how these things ought to be kept within the veil of conscience, and not easily brought forth to the public. Or if the matter demands to bring them forth also to the inferiors, that is, to the more unskilled, and to hand them over, let him not bring them forth naked, let him not show them open and utterly exposed; otherwise he commits homicide and exterminates the people. For everyone is exterminated who touches the secret and ineffable sacraments, not yet transferred by merits and knowledge into the order and grade of the priesthood. For to the sons of Aaron alone, namely to the priests, it is granted to see the very ark of the testament and the table and the candlestick, and whatever of those things which we have comprehended above, naked and unveiled. But let others see these things covered, or rather let them carry them veiled upon their shoulders. And the sons of Kohath indeed, since they themselves, although they are not priests, are nevertheless nearest to the priests, can carry these things upon their shoulders; but others place their burdens and their ministries not on their shoulders, but on wagons. For, to say something even about these by anticipating the reading, since the passage has prompted it: when wagons were offered by each of the several tribes, four of them the sons of Merari received, but two the sons of Gershon; while those who are better than these do not receive wagons. Consider, therefore, now, what kind of division is made in the offices of the divine ministry, and how the things that are holy are not thus imposed to be carried by dumb animals, but they ought to be men endowed with reason, and to carry upon their shoulders the vessels by which the holy of holies are ministered; but those things which are harder and heavier are imposed to be carried not so much by rational as by dumb animals. But even in these there is some difference. For those who attend to the harder and heavier ministries have more animals; for four wagons are given to the sons of Merari, but for the sons of Gershon, because they were near the sons of Kohath, two wagons only suffice; from which it is shown that for the harder works and, so to say, the coarser, there are more who serve as animals; but to those things which are procured by rational beings, few of those who seem less instructed or educated approach. For to those things which are mystical and stored away in secret and lie open only to the priests, not only does no animal man approach, but not even those very ones who seem to have some measure of practice and erudition, but have not yet ascended by merits and life to the priestly grace. Not only do they see these things through a mirror and in an enigma, but they also receive them covered and veiled and carry them upon their shoulders, that is, that they may know them more by the act of works than by the revelation of knowledge. Since therefore such is the dispensation of the mysteries of God and of the ministry which is held among the holy things, we ought to show ourselves such that we may be made worthy of the order of the priesthood, lest heavy burdens be imposed upon us as upon the irrational, but that we may be assigned to the priestly offices as rational and holy. For we are a royal race, a priesthood, and a people for acquisition, provided only that, equaling the grace we have received by the merits of life, we may be held worthy of the holy ministry, so that, when we have departed from this life, we may deserve to be taken up, as we said above, among the priests of God and those who minister to the ark of the testament, that is, in the secret and hidden mysteries, and with unveiled face may behold the glory of the Lord and enter the holy land, whose inheritance our Lord Jesus Christ will grant to us, to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen.

The Lord, giving answers to Moses and Aaron, says: "Do not destroy the people of Kohath from their tribe out of the midst of the sons of Levi; but do this to them, and they shall live and not die, when they draw near to the holy of holies," and the rest. First let us understand those things which are related according to the letter, and thus, with the Lord granting it, we shall ascend from the understanding of the letter to the understanding of the spirit. Understand, then, first the very arrangement of the tabernacle of testimony; understand also the holy of holies, which are set apart by a veil interposed from the holy places, which it is not permitted for any of men to look upon, except the priests alone. After this understand how, when it has come to the point that the sons of Israel move the camp, the tabernacle is taken down, and Aaron and his sons the priests within the holy of holies cover each single thing with its own coverings and veils, and, leaving these covered in the same place where they had been, they bring in the sons of Kohath, who are appointed to that duty, and cause them to lift upon their shoulders all those things which the priestly hand had covered. And on account of this it is said by the Lord: "Do not destroy the people of Kohath from their tribe," as though they would in this be destroyed if they had touched the holy of holies bare and open, which it was not lawful not only to touch, but not even to look upon when unveiled. If you have understood what the order of the history contains, ascend now to the splendor of the mystery, and behold the light of the spiritual law, if the eye of your mind is pure. If anyone among those who minister to God is worthy to grasp and to see the divine mysteries, for the beholding of which the rest are less capable, let this one be understood to be Aaron or the sons of Aaron, who is able to enter to those things which it is not lawful for others to approach. If, then, anyone is such, to him alone the ark of the covenant lies open, revealed; he sees the urn holding the manna; he considers and understands the mercy-seat. He beholds both cherubim, and the holy table, and the candlestick of light, and the altar of incense. This man considers and understands these things spiritually, that is, he who gives his labor to the word of God and to the mysteries of wisdom and is free for God alone in the holy places. Let him indeed know, to whom these things are revealed and entrusted to be examined spiritually, that it is not safe for him to open them and to disclose them to those to whom it is not permitted that they be disclosed; but he ought to cover each single thing and, once covered, to hand them over to the rest, the less capable, to be carried on their shoulders and to be laid upon their necks. For when the teachers, each of them learned and perfect from the mystical words, enjoin works upon the peoples, and the people indeed do and fulfill what is commanded, yet do not understand the reason of the things that are done—what else is being done except that the holy of holies, covered and veiled, are carried upon the shoulders? And that you may perceive still more clearly what is being said, we shall instruct you by examples drawn from the divine volumes. Moses without doubt understood what the true circumcision was; he understood what the true Passover was; he knew what the true new moons were and what the true sabbaths; and although he had understood all these things in the spirit, yet in his words he veiled them through the forms and foreshadowings of bodily things; and although he knew that the true Passover to be sacrificed was Christ, he commands a bodily sheep to be sacrificed at the Passover. And although he knew that the feast day ought to be kept in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, yet he gave precept concerning the unleavened bread of flour. These, then, and things of this kind were the holy of holies, which, when Moses handed them over to the rest to be carried—that is, to be fulfilled in things and works—yet he handed them over covered and veiled in the common utterance of words. That the shoulders hold the token of works we have often shown in many places of Scripture. But in ecclesiastical observances too there are some things of this kind, which indeed it is necessary for all to do, and yet the reason of them does not lie open to all. For that, for example, we bend our knees when praying, and that out of all the regions of heaven we pour out our prayer turned toward the region of the east alone, I think has not easily been ascertained by reason by anyone. But of the Eucharist too—whether of its receiving or of the rite by which it is performed—or of the things that are done in baptism, of the words and gestures and orders and questions and answers, who could easily explain the reason? And yet all these things, though covered and veiled, we carry upon our shoulders, since we so fulfill and carry them out as we have received them handed down and commended by the great high priest and his sons. When, therefore, we perform all these things and things like them, and yet do not attain their reason, we lift upon our shoulders and carry the divine mysteries covered and hidden—unless there be among us some Aaron or sons of Aaron, to whom it is granted to behold these things bare and revealed. Yet it is granted in such a way that they know that these things must be veiled and covered by them, wherever reason shall demand that they be given to the rest and brought forth into work.