The Worlds Great Sermons, Volume 2 | Page 7

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.
Let us now come to see what benefit we may make to ourselves of this
point, thus proved and confirmed; and, certainly, the use of this
doctrine is of great consequence. In the first place, it is a just ground of
examination. For if it be true (as can not be denied, the reasons being so
strong, and arguments so plain) that every son of Abraham followeth
the steps of Abraham, then here you may clearly perceive who it is that
hath saving faith indeed, who they be that are true saints and the sons
of Abraham. By the light of this truth, by the rule of this doctrine, if
you would square your courses, and look into your conversations, you
can not but discern whether you have faith or no. That man whose faith
showeth itself and putteth itself forth in its several conditions,
agreeably to, the faith of Abraham, that man that followeth the
footsteps of the faith of Abraham, let him be esteemed a faithful man,
let him be reckoned for a true believer.
You that are gentlemen and tradesmen, I appeal to your souls whether
the Lord and His cause is not the loser this way? Doth not prayer pay
for it? Doth not the Word pay for it? Are not the ordinances always
losers when anything of your own cometh in competition? Is it not
evident, then, that you are not under the command of the Word? How
do you tremble at the wrath and threatenings of a mortal man? and yet,
when you hear the Lord thunder judgments out of His Word, who is
humbled? When He calls for fasting, and weeping, and mourning, who
regards it? Abraham, my brethren, did not thus: these were none of his
steps; no, no: he went a hundred miles off this course. The Lord no
sooner said to him, "Forsake thy country and thy kindred, and thy
father's house," but he forsook all, neither friend nor father prevailed to
detain him from obedience, but he stooped willingly to God's
command.
There are a sort that come short of being the sons of Abraham, and they
are the close-hearted hypocrites. These are a generation that are of a
more refined kind than the last, but howsoever they carry the matter
very covertly, yea, and are exceeding cunning; yet the truth will make

them known. Many a hypocrite may come thus far, to be content to part
with anything, and outwardly to suffer for the cause of God, to part
with divers pleasures and lusts, and to perform many holy services. But
here is the difference between Abraham and these men: Abraham
forsook his goods and all, but your close-hearted hypocrites have
always some god or other that they do homage to--their ease, or their
wealth, or some secret lust, something or other they have set up as an
idol within them--and so long as they may have and enjoy that, they
will part with anything else. But thou must know that, if thou be one of
Abraham's children, thou must come away from thy gods--the god of
pride, of self-love, of vainglory--and leave worshiping of these, and be
content to be alone by God and His truth. This shall suffice for the first
use; I can not proceed further in the pressing thereof, because I would
shut up all with the time.
The second use is a word of instruction, and it shall be but a word or
two; that if all the saints of God must walk in the same way of life and
salvation that Abraham did, then there is no byway to bring a man to
happiness. Look, what way Abraham went, you must go; there are no
more ways: the same course that he took must be a copy for you to
follow, a rule, as it were, for you to square your whole conversation by.