Him. Accordingly God, Who is
worshipped, is confined to no bodily place: wherefore there was no
need, on His part, for a tabernacle or temple to be set up. But men,
who worship Him, are corporeal beings: and for their sake there was
need for a special tabernacle or temple to be set up for the worship
of God, for two reasons. First, that through coming together with the
thought that the place was set aside for the worship of God, they
might approach thither with greater reverence. Secondly, that certain
things relating to the excellence of Christ's Divine or human nature
might be signified by the arrangement of various details in such
temple or tabernacle.

To this Solomon refers (3 Kings 8:27) when he says: "If heaven and
the heavens of heavens cannot contain Thee, how much less this house
which I have built" for Thee? And further on (3 Kings 8:29, 20) he
adds: "That Thy eyes may be open upon this house . . . of which Thou
hast said: My name shall be there; . . . that Thou mayest hearken to
the supplication of Thy servant and of Thy people Israel." From this
it is evident that the house of the sanctuary was set up, not in
order to contain God, as abiding therein locally, but that God might
be made known there by means of things done and said there; and that
those who prayed there might, through reverence for the place, pray
more devoutly, so as to be heard more readily.

Reply Obj. 2: Before the coming of Christ, the state of the Old Law
was not changed as regards the fulfilment of the Law, which was
effected in Christ alone: but it was changed as regards the condition
of the people that were under the Law. Because, at first, the people
were in the desert, having no fixed abode: afterwards they were
engaged in various wars with the neighboring nations; and lastly, at
the time of David and Solomon, the state of that people was one of
great peace. And then for the first time the temple was built in the
place which Abraham, instructed by God, had chosen for the purpose of
sacrifice. For it is written (Gen. 22:2) that the Lord commanded
Abraham to "offer" his son "for a holocaust upon one of the mountains
which I will show thee": and it is related further on (Gen. 22:14)
that "he calleth the name of that place, The Lord seeth," as though,
according to the Divine prevision, that place were chosen for the
worship of God. Hence it is written (Deut. 12:5, 6): "You shall come
to the place which the Lord your God shall choose