The Bishop as Architect of the Church
The living temple which we all constitute, composed of living stones, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, the chief cornerstone being Jesus Christ himself —-this is the greatest and truly divine sanctuary, whose inmost shrines are invisible to the multitude and are a holy of holies. Only the great High Priest of all is permitted to look within the sacred enclosure, and fathom the mysteries of every rational soul.
The High Priest has honored with the second place in this sanctuary, the shepherd of your divine flock who has obtained your people by the allotment and the judgment of the Father, as if he had appointed him his own servant and interpreter, a new Aaron or Melchizedec, made like the Son of God. Let him therefore observe and supervise the inmost state of your souls, who by experience and length of time has accurately proved each one, and who by his zeal and care has disposed you all in pious conduct and doctrine, and is better able than any one else to give an account, adequate to the facts, of those things which he himself has accomplished with the Divine assistance.
As to our first and great High Priest, it is said, ‘Whatsoever he seeth the Father doing those things likewise the Son also doeth.’ So also this one, looking up to him as to the first teacher, with pure eyes of the mind, using as archetypes whatsoever things he seeth him doing, produceth images of them, in nothing inferior to that Bezalel, whom God himself ‘filled with the spirit of wisdom and understanding’, and called to be the maker of the temple constructed after heavenly types given in symbols. Thus this one also bearing in his own soul the image of the whole Christ, the Word, the Wisdom, the Light, has formed this magnificent temple of the highest God, corresponding to the pattern of the greater as a visible to an invisible.
— Eusebius. Church History X.IV. NPNF201
Paulinus and the Basilica of Tyre
Enclosing a much larger space, he fortified the outer court with a wall surrounding the whole, which should serve as a most secure bulwark for the entire edifice. And he raised and spread out a great and lofty vestibule toward the rays of the rising sun, and furnished those standing far without the sacred enclosure a full view of those within … but leaving as large a space as possible between the temple and the outer entrance, he has surrounded and adorned it with four transverse cloisters, making a quadrangular space with pillars rising on every side, which he has joined with lattice-work screens of wood; and he has left an open space in the middle, setting up fountains opposite the temple which furnish an abundance of water wherewith those who come within the sanctuary may purify themselves … he has made open entrances to the temple with many other vestibules within, placing three doors on one side, likewise facing the rays of the sun. The one in the middle, adorned with plates of bronze, and beautifully embossed, he has made much higher and broader than the others, as if he were making them guards for it as for a queen … When he had thus completed the temple, he provided it with lofty thrones, and seats arranged in proper order throughout the whole building, and finally placed in the middle the holy of holies, the altar, and, enclosed it with wooden lattice-work, accurately wrought with artistic carving … Then finally he passed on to the parts without the temple, providing spacious exedræ and buildings on each side, which were joined to the basilica, and communicated with the entrances to the interior of the structure.
‘Behold I make thy stone a carbuncle, and thy foundations of sapphire, and thy battlements of jasper, and thy gates of crystals, and thy wall of chosen stones; and all thy sons shall be taught of God, and thy children shall enjoy complete peace; and in righteousness shalt thou be built.’
Building therefore in righteousness, he divided the whole people according to their strength. With some he fortified only the outer enclosure, walling it up with unfeigned faith; such were the great mass of the people who were incapable of bearing a greater structure. Others he permitted to enter the building, commanding them to stand at the door and act as guides for those who should come in; these may be not unfitly compared to the vestibules of the temple. Others he supported by the first pillars which are placed without about the quadrangular hall, initiating them into the first elements of the letter of the four Gospels. Still others he joined together about the basilica on both sides; these are the catechumens who are still advancing and progressing, and are not far separated from the inmost view of divine things granted to the faithful. Taking from among these the pure souls that have been cleansed like gold by divine washing, he then supports them by pillars, much better than those without, made from the inner and mystic teachings of the Scripture.
Adorning the whole temple with a great vestibule of the glory of the one universal King and only God, and placing on either side of the authority of the Father Christ and the Holy Spirit as second lights, he exhibits abundantly and gloriously throughout the entire building the clearness and splendor of the truth of the rest in all its details. … For not only soul and understanding, but their body also is made glorious by the blooming ornament of purity and modesty.
And in this temple there are also thrones, and a great number of seats and benches, in all those souls in which sit the Holy Spirit’s gifts, such as were anciently seen by the sacred apostles, and those who were with them, when there ‘appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire, and sat upon each one of them.’ But in the leader of all Christ himself dwells in his fullness, and in those that occupy the second rank after him, in proportion as each is able to contain the power of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. And the souls of some of those, namely, who are committed to each of them for instruction and care—may be seats for angels.
The great and august altar is the holy of holies of the soul of the common priest of all. Standing at the right of it, Jesus himself, the great High Priest of the universe, the Only Begotten of God, receives the sweet incense from all, and the bloodless and immaterial sacrifices offered in their prayers, and bears them to the heavenly Father and God of the universe. And he himself first worships him, and alone gives to the Father the reverence which is his due, beseeching him also to continue always kind and propitious to us all.
— Eusebius. Church History X.IV. NPNF201