Also by the windows the five senses of the body be signified: which ought to be narrow without, lest they should take in vanities, but should be wide within to receive spiritual good. The door is Christ: whence the Lord saith in the Evangele, 'I am the door.' [Footnote 573] The pillars be doctors; who do hold up spiritually the temple of God by their doctrine, as do the evangelists also the throne of God. These, for the harmony of divine eloquence, be called silver columns: according to that of the Song of Songs, 'He made the pillars thereof of silver.' [Footnote 574] The stalls do denote the contemplative: in whom God doth rest without offence. These, for that they do contemplate the highest divinity and glory of the eternal life, be compared unto gold: whence in the aforesaid Song of Songs it is said, 'He made a golden bed.' [Footnote 575] The beams be such as spiritually sustain the Church: the ceilings such as adorn it and strengthen it; of the which (because they be not corrupted by vices) the bride glorieth in the same Canticles, saying, 'The beams of our house are cedar and our rafters of fir.' [Footnote 576] For God hath built His Church of living stones and imperishable wood: according to that, 'Solomon made himself a litter of the wood of Lebanon; [Footnote 577] that is Christ of His saints made white by chastity. The chancel, when lower than the body of the church, showeth mystically how great humility ought to be in the clergy: according to the saying, 'The greater thou art the more humble thyself.' [Footnote 578] The altar signifieth Christ, without Whom no acceptable gift is offered unto the Father. Whence the Church uttereth her prayers unto the Father _through_ Christ. The vestments with which the altar is adorned be the saints of whom the Prophet speaketh unto God, saying, 'Thou shalt surely clothe Thee with them all as with an ornament.' [Footnote 579] [Footnote 573: S. John x.] [Footnote 574: Cant, iii, 10.] [Footnote 575: Cant, iii, 10.] [Footnote 576: Cant, i, 17.] [Footnote 577: Cant, iii, 9.] [Footnote 578: Eccles. iii, 18.] [Footnote 579: Isaiah xlix, 18.] {168}