The following truly admirable discourse is, I think, the concluding sermon of a series unhappily not preserved.
Ib.
p.584.
If it were so in matters of faith, then, as all men have equal certainty of this, so no believer should be more scrupulous and doubtful than another. But we find the contrary. The angels and spirits of the righteous in heaven have certainty most evident of things spiritual: but this they have by the light of glory. That which we see by the light of grace, though it be indeed more certain; yet it is not to us so evidently certain, as that which sense or the light of nature will not suffer a man to doubt of.
Hooker's meaning is right; but he falls into a sad confusion of words, blending the thing and the relation of the mind to the thing. The fourth moon of Jupiter is certain in itself; but evident only to the astronomer with his telescope.
Ib.
p. 585-588.
The other, which we call the certainty of adherence, is when the heart doth cleave and stick unto that which it doth believe. This certainty is greater in us than the other ... (down to) the fourth question resteth, and so an end of this point.
These paragraphs should be written in gold. O! may these precious words be written on my heart!
- That we all need to be redeemed, and that therefore we are all in captivity to an evil:
- That there is a Redeemer:
- That the redemption relatively to each individual captive is, if not effected under certain conditions, yet manifestable as far as is fitting for the soul by certain signs and consequents: — and
- That these signs are in myself; that the conditions under which the redemption offered to all men is promised to the individual, are fulfilled in myself;