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.

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.