Miscellanies 7.5.29

It remains, then, that it is established by itself. And how will anything beget itself? Or how will what exists establish itself in being? Did it, being previously unestablished, establish itself? But then it would not even have existed, since what does not exist is unestablished. And how could what is thought to have been established later make itself into what it already was, existing beforehand? And that to which all existing things belong, how could it need anything? But if the divine has human form, it will need the same things as a human being: food, shelter, a house, and everything that goes with them; for those of the same shape and the same passions will need the same way of life. But if “temple” is taken in two senses, both God himself and the structure built in his honor, how should we not properly call the church, made holy for the honor of God according to knowledge, a temple of God, worth much and built not by mechanical craft, nor fashioned by the hand of a charlatan, but made into a shrine by the will of God? For I now call not the place but the assembly of the elect the church. This temple is better for receiving the greatness of God's dignity. For the living being worth much is consecrated, through its surpassing holiness, to the one who is worth everything, or rather to him with whom nothing is of equal worth. And this would be the one who knows, worth much, precious to God, in whom God is enshrined, that is, in whom knowledge of God is consecrated. Here too we might find the likeness, the divine and holy statue, in the righteous soul, when it is itself blessed, having been purified beforehand, and does blessed works. Here too is both what is established and what is being established: the one in those who already know, the other in those who are able to become so, even if they are not yet worthy to receive the understanding of God. For everyone who is going to believe is already faithful to God, a virtuous statue set up for his honor and dedicated to God.