church on earth, with all the productions thereof, are, and subsist. He is the one Life—the one Truth, and the foundation of all things. As such, He is in reference to his supreme divinity, or truth brought forth to view by the only-begotten Son of divine humanity, the chief corner stone—the foundation in man of all that is true in doctrine, in faith, and purity of life; thus, of all that constitutes heaven, and the church in him. In the prophecies relative to the Messiah, it is written, "Behold, I lay in Zion, for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone, a sure foundation." (Isa. xxviii. 16.) This first truth of all religion, that God is One, and that Jesus Christ is that One manifested God in His Divine Humanity, is the sure foundation. This stone, rejected by the world-loving Jews, is received at this day by all the faithful and the true. Of this truth it is said, "Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." This describes two kinds of reception of Truth; the first, by falling on the stone; the second, by the stone falling on the man. The first is its reception in the understanding, by the effect of which he is broken or disturbed as to his former thoughts in religious doctrines and faith; the second, when the stone falls on him, is the further reception of this truth in his affections and life: then he is ground to powder, or as the Greek reads, threshed or winnowed; that is, a total separation of the chaff from the wheat is made; or of all that is worthless and false in him, from all that is good and true, so that spiritual purification is effected, and the man saved and blessed. With the evil, the effect is altogether different; for the stone,
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