We have dealt very corruptly against you, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances, which you commanded your servant Moses.
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Bede
AD 735
Now after the wall was built, and I had set in place the doors and appointed the gatekeepers and the singers and the Levites, I commanded Hanani my brother, and so on until it says, 'The gates of Jerusalem are not to be opened until the sun is hot'.2 In the spiritual sense too, whenever the walls of the Church have been built by gathering new nations to the faith or by setting straight those who have erred, immediately the doors of regular discipline3 must be set in place so that the ancient enemy, who prowls around like a roaring lion,4 might not in any place be able to invade the fold of the faithful. Gatekeepers, singers, and Levites must be appointed to guard these same doors; it is clear that the character of all these accords with holy teachers. For the gatekeepers are those who have received the keys to the kingdom of heaven5 so that they might receive those who are worthy and humble but prevent the proud and the impure from entry into the heavenly city by saying: You have no part or lot in this business, for your heart is not right before God.6 The singers are those who with a devout voice preach the sweetness of this same heavenly homeland to their hearers; the Levites are those who always remain vigilant in regard to the observance of divine worship. Now Nehemiah ordered that The gates of Jerusalem are not to be opened until the sun is hot (that is, throughout the whole night), doubtless either in case the enemy invaded under the cover of darkness or else in case any of the citizens were to go out incautiously and be captured by the enemy and killed. Likewise, throughout the night of this age also, guardians of souls must act diligently to ensure that the observance of devout living is not neglected, allowing the devil to sneak in to disturb the company of the faithful or to seize and destroy one of their number. /1025/ But “365” when the sun of righteousness1 appears and the light of future blessed-ness shines forth, no longer will there be a need for barriers of selfrestraint,1 because adversaries will no longer be given the ability to attack or tempt the faithful, since they will be condemned to eternal punishment along with their leader. Hence in his Apocalypse John says about the future glory of the holy city: And its gates will not be shut ever, for there will be no night in that place.2
