As you might have guessed

from my Old Lutheran quotes - I recently picked up Gerhard's Locus:  On the Church.  This is part of a series that CPH is providing for us of Gerhard's magisterial Loci Theologici, but I must say that in my reading so far in this massive volume (over 700 pages of text!), it is the best so far BY FAR.  I particularly delight to find that there's hardly an angle on the questions that arise that Gerhard hasn't anticipated and offered answers for (yes, he'd considered that communio santorum might be neuter, not masculine, for example!).  The volume is well, well worth its rather pricey tag.  I have the feeling it will keep me occupied well into the fall.  Oh, and here's a gem from Chemnitz that Gerhard cites that Chemnitz threw out on a text I'll be preaching on next week at the Higher Things conference in Bloomington - it's from Chemnitz:

This is a beautiful and pleasant picture.  The blessed city of Jerusalem in heaven is built of living stones.  By nature those stones are unpolished.  They are polished, however, by various poundings and pressures and crosses in this world.  Then each is fitted and arranged into its individual place by the hands of the craftsman.  The cornerstone and foundation is Christ Himself, whom the heavenly Father has sent, so that the stones, which would die by themselves, are placed upon Him and receive life and breath, and so that He stands as a firm foundation for the church against the very gates of hell.  Also, because He is the cornerstone, He joins the walls together firmly by His embrace so that the building can never fall apart nor develop cracks.