XI.  But before our time the Holy Apostle declared that the Law was but a shadow of things to come, Heb. x. 1. which are conceived by thought.  And God too, who in still older times gave oracles to Moses, said when giving laws concerning these things, See thou make all things according to the pattern shewed thee in the Mount, Exod. xxv. 40. when He shewed him the visible things as an adumbration of and design for the things that are invisible.  And I am persuaded that none of these things has been ordered in vain, none without a reason, none in a grovelling manner or unworthy of the legislation of God and the ministry of Moses, even though it be difficult in each type to find a theory descending to the most delicate details, to every point about the Tabernacle itself, and its measures and materials, and the Levites and Priests who carried them, and all the particulars which were enacted about the Sacrifices and the purifications and the Offerings; ἀφαίρεμα is given by the Lexicons as the Heave-Offering, and it is certainly used in that sense among others (all sacrificial) in the LXX.  Suicer, however, follows Suidas in regarding the word as quite general; he also quotes Zonaras’ definition, “Quod offertur ἀφαίρεμα dicitur, quod a toto mactatæ animantis corpore abstractum sit.”  Balsamon, according to the same authority, makes it the portion which was severed from the carcase of the victim and set apart for the Priest (i.e., the heave-offering, Lev. vii. 14, 32). and though these are only to be understood by those who rank with Moses in virtue, or have made the nearest approach to his learning.  For in that Mount itself God is seen by men; on the one hand through His own descent from His lofty abode, on the other through His drawing us up from our abasement on earth, that the Incomprehensible may be in some degree, and as far as is safe, comprehended by a mortal nature.  For in no other way is it possible for the denseness of a material body and an imprisoned mind to come into consciousness of God, except by His assistance.  Then therefore all men do not seem to have been deemed worthy of the same rank and position; but one of one place and one of another, each, I think, according to the measure of his own purification.  Some have even been altogether driven away, and only permitted to hear the Voice from on high, namely those whose dispositions are altogether like wild beasts, and who are unworthy of divine mysteries.