12. Furthermore, of what the tabernacle was made the Lord hath told us, saying unto Moses, 'Take the first fruits,'--that is, the most precious gifts--'of the children of Israel: but from him alone who willingly offereth gold, and silver, and brass, and precious stones, and purple and linen twice dyed'; namely cloth of the colours of blue, purple, and scarlet: and of biss, which is a kind of Egyptian linen white and soft: 'and goat's hair, and rams' skins dyed red,' which we call Parthian, because the Parthians first dyed them thus, 'and purple skins and shittim wood' (shittim is the name of a mountain, and also of a tree: its leaves are like the white thorn, and to be injured neither by fire nor by decay): 'and oil for the lights, frankincense, and ointment of a sweet savour, onyx stones, and sard-onyxes, and jewels: and let them make Me a house, that I may dwell in the midst of them: and that they may not weary themselves in returning to this mountain.' [Footnote 139] [Footnote 139: Exodus xxv, 2.] 14. The arrangement of a material church resembleth that of the human body: the chancel, or place where the altar is, representeth the head: the transepts, the hands and arms, and the remainder--towards the west--the rest of the body. The sacrifice of the altar denoteth the vows of the heart. Furthermore, according to Richard de Sancto Victore, the arrangement of a church typifieth the three states in the Church: of virgins, of the continent, of the married. {20} The sanctuary [Footnote 140] is smaller than the chancel, and this than the nave: because the virgins are fewer in number [Footnote 141] than the continent, and these than the married. And the sanctuary is more holy than the chancel: and the chancel than the nave: because the order of virgins is more worthy than that of the continent, and the continent more worthy than the married. [Footnote 140: The sanctuary of course means that eastermost division in churches consisting of three parts, which still remains in many Norman buildings, and of which Kilpeck, in Herefordshire, may be taken as a type. These churches are generally apsidal: but there are instances to the contrary, as Bishopstone, in Sussex. A view of the sanctum sanctorum and chancel arches in this church is given in the Cambridge Camden Society's 'Illustrations of Monumental Brasses,' part iv.] [Footnote 141: This passage is somewhat obscure; but the difference between the virgins and the continent appears to be this: by the former are meant those who have taken vows of celibacy; by the latter, those who practise it, without, however, having bound themselves to it by vow.]