r stone,
and of the whole building, is the doctrine of the prophets and apostles,
as holding out Jesus Christ to souls, "the rock on which our house shall
be builded," not the apostles or prophets, far less pastors and teachers
since,--for they are but at best, "workers together with God, and employed
in the building of the house," nor yet their doctrine, but as it holds out
that "sure foundation" that God has laid in Zion, (Isa. xxviii. 16.) which
is Jesus Christ for "other foundation can no man lay." And then, "the
corner stone" is that same Jesus Christ, who reaches from the bottom even
to the top of the building, and immediately touches every stone, and both
quickens it in itself, and unites them together.

Well then, here is a sure foundation to build our eternal happiness upon,
the word of God, that endures for ever, holds it out to us. All men are
building upon something. Every man is about some establishment of his
hopes,--lays some foundation of his confidence which he may stand upon.
They are one of the two that Christ speaks of, Luke vi. 48, 49; one builds
on the rock, another on the sand. Now as the foundation is, so is the
house. A changeable foundation makes a falling house, a sure foundation
makes an unchangeable house, a house without a foundation will prove
quickly no house. Now whatsoever men build their hope and confidence
upon,--besides the word of God, his sure promise and sure covenant, and
Jesus Christ in them,--they build upon no foundation, or upon a sandy
foundation. "All flesh is grass, and the flower and perfection of it is as
the flower of the field." Here is the name and character of all created
perfections,--of the most excellent endowments of mind,--of all the specious
actions of man it is all but vanishing and vanity! "Every man at his best
estate is such, yea, altogether such." You who have no more to build upon
but your prosperity and wealth, O that is but sand and dung! Would any man
build a house upon a dunghill? You who have no other hope but in your own
good prayers and meanings,--your own reformations and repentances,--your
professions and practices--know this, that your hope is like a spider's
house, like the web that she has laboriously exercised herself about all
the week over, and then when you lean upon that house it shall fall
through, and not sustain your weight. Whatsoever it be, besides this
"living stone," Jesus Christ, who is the very substance of the word and
promises,