378 Churchesformed in the World like clods ofearth.
Job 38,some is concealed from others, let it be rightly said; Who
'— will declare the system of the heavens, and who will make
the harmony of heaven to sleep? But this was then more
fully disclosed to us, when our Redeemer, appearing in the
mystery of the dispensation, both conferred mercy on the
unworthy, and excluded those from Him, who seemed to be
worthy. Whence it is here also fitly subjoined;
Ver. 38. When the dust was hardened into earth, and the
clods were bound together.
yi. 22. Whom do we understand by dust but sinners, who,
steadied by no weight of reason, are hurried away by the
Ps.1,4.blast of any temptation ? Of whom it is written ; Not so the
ungodly^ not so, but as the dust which the wind sweepeth
awayfrom the face of the earth. The dust therefore was
hardened into earth, when sinners, having been called in
the Church, were confirmed by the system of transmitted
faith : in order that they, who before, being fickle through
inconstancy, were raised up by the breath of temptation,
might afterwards remain unmoved against temptations, and,
constantly adhering to God, might hold a firm weight of
good living. But clods are composed of moisture and of
earth. The clods therefore are bound together in this earth,
because sinners, when called and watered by the grace of
the Holy Spirit, are joined together in the union of charity.
These clods are therefore bound together in the earth, when
people, who were before of different sentiments, as it were,
in the dispersion of the dust, having received afterwards the
grace of the Spirit, so agreed in that most peaceful concord
of unanimity, that, when there were three thousand, or again
Acts 4, fi^re thousand, it was said, as Scripture witnesses, That there
was 171 them one heart and one soul. The Lord therefore
daily binds together these clods in the earth, of one dust
indeed, but distinguished, as it were, by diflferent size ; be-
cause, having preserved the unity of the sacrament, He
collects together faithful people in the Church according to
the difference of their customs and languages. The Lord
already designated these clods at that time, when He
Mark 6, ordered them to sit down fifty or a hundred together, to eat
the bread and fishes.
23. But if we observe these clods in the Church accord-