A sermon preached before the Right Honourable House of Lords, in the Abbey Church…A sermon preached before the Right Honorable House of Lords, in the Abbey Church…

4 Conclus. Sometimes we believe on Christ as moral agents, and then we may both know Christ and our own state, if the light of the Spirit concur to make the promises visible to our spiritual senses: not only as true, but also as good and sweet, for we see colours, and apprehend them both as colours, and as pleasant and delectable: so a man may see a great heap of Gold which belongeth to another man, he sees it as of such a colour, and as it offereth it self to the eye; but because it is not his own, nor hath he any hope it can be ⟨p. 51⟩his own; he seeth it possibly with grief: but if it were offered and given to him, he should then see it as good and acceptable: now the grounds of a weak faith, is a weak evidence of our interest in Christ; small and weak evidence produceth weak acts of believing: it is true there is sometime little evidence of knowledge, where there is strong adherence, and strong faith, as many unlettered Martyrs of no great knowledge in the Scriptures, have dyed with great adherence and strength of faith: but there is a twofold evidence, one literal, another spiritual, it is unpossible there can be a strong faith, but there must be a strong spiritual evidence proportionable thereunto to convey it, for faith walketh not without eyes, and therefore the weakness of spiritual evidence of our interest in Christ (as here the Apostles see not but Christ hath forgotten them, and cares not that they perish) must produce a weak faith. Again faith cometh not only from discourse, and the moral persuasion of the holy Ghost making use of sanctified reason,¹ but also sometime from a mere spiritual instinct, as where there is no discourse, especially when we first believe, and have nothing but a mere command, and knows not whether the promise and the Saviour belongeth to us or not, even as the infant that can make no use of discourse relieth and trusteth to the mother or nurse for milk, by mere instinct, having neither promise nor experience for it, and the young Chickens confide in the covering of the Hens wings, and the Lambs for food from the dam merely by natural instinct:

4 Conclus. Sometimes wee beleeve on Christ as morall agents, and then wee may both know Christ and our own state, if the light of the Spirit concurre to make the promises visible to our spirituall senses: not onely as true, but also as good and sweet, for wee see colours, and apprehend them both as colours, and as pleasant and delectable: so a man may see a great heape of Gold which belongeth to another man, hee sees it as of such a colour, and as it offereth it self to the eye; but because it is not his owne, nor hath hee any hope it can bee