246. 6. Many kings after Solomon were permitted to profane the temple and the holy things of the Church. This was because the people represented the Church and the king was their head. Because the nation of Israel and Judah was such that they could not represent the Church for long as they were idolaters at heart, therefore they gradually departed from representative worship by perverting all things of the Church till at length it was devastated. This was represented by the profanations of the temple by the kings and by their idolatries. The actual devastation of the Church was represented by the destruction of the temple itself and by the carrying away of the people of Israel and by the captivity of the people of Judah in Babylon. Such was the cause of this permission; and whatever is done from any cause is done from the Divine Providence according to one of its laws.