Ezra 5:7

And it pleased them that the matter should be referred to Darius, etc., until the end of the letter. This letter that Thathannai writes to Darius is very different from the letter that Rehum and Samsai wrote to Artaxerxes. For that letter was filled with accusations against the people of Jerusalem, whereas this one is full of praise not only of the people but also of Almighty God. Indeed, it begins thus: "To King Darius, all peace. Let it be known to the king, that we went to the province of Judea, to the house of the great God, which is being built with unpolished stone, and timber is being laid in the walls, and this work is being diligently built, and it grows in their hands. Therefore, we questioned these elders, and thus we said to them: Who gave you the authority to build this house? etc." In these words, it is also noteworthy how it is said, the house of God is built with unpolished stone; since it is evident that such a work could only have been done with polished stones. But "unpolished stone" should be understood to mean new stone, which they indeed found unpolished, but by polishing, they made it fit for building the house of the Lord: for even if some of the old stones, which, as Jeremiah lamentingly shows (Lamentations 4), were scattered at the head of every street, remained, it is nonetheless doubtful that new stones had to be polished, from which the work of the temple could be completed. In which indeed there is an evident mystery, since we see the Church of God being built, not only from those who repentantly return to the life of holiness which they previously lost by sinning; but also from those who recently have been called to faith, composed under the instruction of teachers like the rule of craftsmen, and placed in the building of the house of the Lord in a suitable order. Although it can also be rightly understood this way, that the temple was built of both old and new stones, of long-polished and more recently unpolished stones; since from both peoples, namely the Jews and the Gentiles, one Church of Christ is gathered; one, which was long polished in knowledge and observance of God's law; the other, which was enslaved to idolatry, had shed the deformity of a rustic and earthly mind by no industry of spiritual architects, by no cult of piety. And what follows in the same letter: And timber is placed in the walls. The timber that was…