de
that storm, and in that day have confidence before God,--have wherewith to
answer in Jesus Christ, all the challenges of divine justice, and the
accusations of conscience. "He that trusts in him shall be as mount Sion,
which cannot be moved." You see all things else change, and therefore
men's hopes and joys perish. Even here the temptations and revolutions of
the times undermine their confidence and joy, and the blasts of the
northern wind of affliction blow away their hopes.

Now as Christ is "the foundation," so he is "the corner stone" of the
building. It is Christ who hath removed that "partition wall between Jews
and Gentiles, even the ceremonies of the one, and the atheism of the
other." "He is our peace, who hath made both one." The two sides of the
house of God are united by this corner-stone, Jesus Christ. Thus we, who
were the temples of Satan, are made the temples of God. Thus poor stranger
Gentiles, who had no interest in the covenant of promises, come to share
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to be founded upon the doctrine of the
prophets who taught the Jewish church. Christ is the bond of Christians;
this is "the head" into which all the members should grow up into a body.
Distance of place, difference of nations, distinction of languages, all
these cannot separate the members of Jesus Christ, they are more
one--though consisting of divers nations, tongues, and customs and
dispositions--than the people of one nation, or children of one family, for
one Lord, one spirit, unites all. Alas, that all are not united in
affection and judgment! Why do the sides of this house contend, and
wrestle one against another, when there is such a cornerstone joining them
together? Are there not many Christians who cannot endure to look upon one
another, who are yet both placed in one building of the temple of God?
Alas, this is sad and shameful! But that which I would especially have
observed in this, is, that Jesus Christ is such a foundation that reacheth
throughout the whole building, and immediately toucheth every stone of the
building. It is such a foundation as riseth from the bottom to the top,
and therefore Jesus Christ is both "the author and finisher of our faith,"
"the beginning and the end." The first stone and the last stone of our
building must rise upon him, and by him, the least degree of grace and the
greatest perfection of it, both are in him, and therefore Christians
should be most dependent creatu