Book: A Learned and Comfortable Sermon of the Certainty and Perpetuity of Faith in the Elect

Overview

Richard Hooker's "A Learned and Comfortable Sermon of the Certainty and Perpetuity of Faith in the Elect", published in 1612 after his death, sets out to steady troubled consciences by arguing that true, saving faith, given by God to the elect, endures to the end. While acknowledging that a believer’s sense of assurance can rise and fall, the sermon insists that the reality of faith, as God’s gift, is secure because it rests on the immutability of God’s promise in Christ and the sealing work of the Holy Spirit.

Core Thesis

The sermon distinguishes between the certainty of the thing believed and the believer’s subjective assurance. God’s covenant in Christ is infallible, and the faith that unites the elect to Christ is preserved by God’s power. Yet the believer’s inward feeling of assurance may be shaken by sin, temptation, spiritual dryness, or the assaults of Satan. Such fluctuations do not disprove the life of faith but reveal its dependence on God rather than on human constancy.

Scriptural Grounding

Hooker anchors his argument in passages that emphasize divine preservation, such as Christ’s promise that none shall pluck his sheep from his hand, Paul’s assurance that nothing separates believers from the love of God, and Peter’s teaching that the faithful are kept by God’s power unto salvation. He also treats warning texts soberly, explaining that Scripture distinguishes between temporary, external experiences of grace and the inward, regenerating work that produces persevering faith. Apostasy describes those who never possessed the root of faith, not the final ruin of the truly regenerate.

Faith, Assurance, and the Means of Grace

Faith, in this account, is a living trust in Christ formed by the Spirit through the Word. Its certainty lies not in the believer’s strength but in the object, Christ’s finished work and God’s unbreakable promise. Assurance grows as the Spirit witnesses with the believer’s spirit, nurtured by the preached Word, prayer, and the sacraments. Works of obedience and growth in holiness do not cause or complete justification; they testify to the reality of faith and strengthen assurance, directing the believer back to Christ rather than to self-reliance.

Pastoral Consolation and Admonition

The sermon’s comfort is directed to those alarmed by their sins, their coldness in devotion, or the silence of God. Hooker counsels them to distinguish despairing unbelief from humbled faith. The elect may fall grievously, as David and Peter did, yet the seed of God remains and is revived by repentance. God sometimes withholds the felt sweetness of grace to humble and discipline, not to destroy. The proper response is not to look inward for grounds of worthiness but outward to the promises, using the means of grace diligently and refusing both despair and careless presumption.

Controversy, Tone, and Aim

The tone balances doctrinal firmness with pastoral gentleness. Hooker rejects the notion that true believers can finally fall from grace, judging it to impugn God’s fidelity. At the same time, he refuses cheap assurance, warning that presumption mistakes privilege for license. The elect persevere not by a bare decree abstracted from life, but by God’s ongoing preservation through ordinary means, daily repentance, and renewed faith in Christ. The sermon’s aim is the reorientation of confidence: the heart is turned from itself to Christ’s righteousness, from fluctuating feelings to unchangeable promises, and from fear’s paralysis to grateful obedience.

Legacy

As a concise statement of Reformed assurance and perseverance, the sermon became a touchstone for Anglican discussions of predestination and pastoral care. Its enduring appeal lies in a double emphasis: the absolute reliability of God’s covenant in Christ, and the tender recognition of the believer’s uneven pilgrimage, held fast by a hand stronger than their own.