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.] {26} 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.