The World's Great Sermons, Volume 02: Hooker to South
Religion
The World's Great Sermons, Volume 02: Hooker to South
Sermons
It may be here imagined, that we draw men up to too high a pitch; and
certainly, if this be the sense of the words, and the meaning of the
Holy Ghost in this place, what will become of many that live in the
bosom of the Church? Will you therefore see the point confirmed by
reason? The ground of this doctrine stands thus: every faithful man
hath the same faith, for nature and for work, that Abraham had;
therefore, look what nature his faith was of, and what power it had;
of the same nature and power every true believer's faith is. Briefly
thus: the promises of God are the ground upon which all true faith
resteth; the Spirit of God it is that worketh this faith in all
believers; the power of the Spirit is that that putteth forth itself
in the hearts and lives of all the faithful; gather these together:
if all true believers have the same promises for the ground of their
faith; have one and the same spirit to work it; have' one and the same
power to draw out the abilities of faith, then certainly they can not
but have the very self-same actions, having the very self-same ground
of their actions.
Every particular believer (as the apostle Peter saith) "hath obtained
the like precious faith." Mark, that there is a great deal of copper
faith in the world--much counterfeit believing; but the saints do
all partake of "the like precious faith." As when a man hath but a
sixpence in silver, or a crown in gold, those small pieces, for the
nature, are as good as the greatest of the same metal; so it is with
the faith of God's elect. And look as it is in grafting; if there be
many scions of the same kind grafted into one stock, they all partake
alike of the virtue of the stock; just so it is here. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the stock, as it were, into which all the faithful are
grafted by the spirit of God and faith; therefore, whatsoever fruit
one beareth, another beareth also: howsoever, there may be degrees of
works, yet they are of the same nature. As a little apple is the same
in taste with a great one of the same tree, even so every faithful man
hath the same holiness of heart and life, because he hath the same
principle of holiness. The fruit indeed that one Christian bringeth
may be but poor and small in comparison with others, yet it is the
same in kind; the course of his life is not with so much power and
fulness of grace, it may be, as another's, yet there is the same true
grace, and the same practise, in the kind of it, for truth, however in
degree it differ.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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