it a favour if you would proceed to fhew who is the principal agent, or by whom faith is wrought in the foul!

Truth. I anfwer, by the Omnipotent JEHOVAH.

First, As it is a creating act; I mean, creating that in the mind, or caufing that to exift in the foul which was never there before; therefore we are faid by the HOLY GHOST to be created anew in Chrift Jesus. Now as creation is the work of Omnipotence. and as faith is an act of creation, or bringing that into being which never did exift before, it proves the author of it to be JEHOVAH.

Second, Faith is life; the juft, faith the Prophet, fhall live by faith; and the Apoftle faith, the life which I live in the flesh, is by faith. Now as it is not in our power to give or maintain the life of the fmalleft, or meanest infect or reptile upon the earth, no more is it in our power to give ourselves that life which we never had in innocency. Befides, if we confider that we are by nature dead in trefpaffes and fins, it is utterly impoffible for us to put forth the leaft fpiritual act; a dead man may as foon labour for riches, honour, and profits in life, as a foul that is dead in trefpaffes and fins, act faith, or give life and being unto it, therefore whenever it is wrought it must be of GOD.

Third, Faith is the fubftance of things hoped for; now that which we hope for is in Heaven and happiness, in all its confummate felicity. Now if we could give ourfelves faith, which is the fubftance of these things hoped for, then we should be the authors of our own happinefs; when, on the other hand, GOD is faid, by the Apoftle James, to be the author and giver of every good and perfect gift, and then fure of faith which is the fubftance of every gift, and that which incontestibly proves it to be JEHOVAH's gift, Eph. ii. 8. For by grace ye are Javed through faith; and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God. If it be the creature's gift, why is it afcribed to GOD? But if it be God's distinguishing gift, why fhould he not have the glory of it? I am here speaking of a spiritual, or fupernatural faith, which, in the

Fourth place, Is particularly applied to him, Col. ii. 12. Buried with him in baptifm, ye also are rifen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who bath raifed him from the dead. Now then if faith be of the operation of GOD, it fhews that any operation fhort of Omnipotence can never accomplish it; for if it be of the operation of GOD, it cannot be of the opera

tion of the creature. Here you fee, that faith is in the creature as the fubject, but the efficient cause of it is GOD; and that GOD the Spirit is the agent, is plain from John xvi. 10. And he (i. e.) the LORD the Spirit, the Comforter, shall convince the world of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye fee me no more. Perhaps you may think this contrary to what CHRIST faith, no man can come unto me, except the Father, which fent me, draw him. But the anfwer is plain, if you confider that all the work, which either the Father or the Son doth in, by, or upon his people here, is done by the agency of the eternal Spirit, fo as it is the Father's property to elect, the Son to redeem, it is the Spirit's work to regenerate and fanctify, and fo to work that faith which is of the operation of God, or that which is of a justifying nature.

I own there are fome, among the deceived of mankind, who imagine that they have power to repent and believe, but if the Apostle had not power to do that good which he defired to do, after grace was communicated to his foul, when he faid, the will is prefent with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not; how vain is man to think, that he has power to do good, I mean fpiritual acts, antecedent to grace. And our LORD faid, to his difciples, to whom grace was communicated, without me ye can do nothing. If they could, without divine aids from CHRIST, after grace was received, do nothing that was heavenly, fpiritually or evangelically good, fhall proud man think that he can, before grace is communicated to his soul, do fomething towards his own falvation? to fuch I may juftly fay, that they err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God. Friendly. What kinds of faith are there contained in the word of GOD?

Truth. First, There a is faith of an hiftorical nature, which confifteth in giving affent to the word of the LORD, believing in a general way, that any paffage, or particular part of the word of GOD is truth, fuch as that of the Ninevites, who believed the preaching of Jonah, and as a fruit of their faith, they humbled themselves, and repented, &c. Now this faith and repentance was produced from their own inherent faculties, without any special influences of divine grace. Cain believed the word of the LORD, when he reproved him for the murder of his brother Abel; and Saul, when Samuel, by the direc tion of the LORD, told him, that the LORD would rend the kingdom from his houfe, believed it; and all this faith was produced from nature. In this fenfe the Devils are capable of be

lieving, as the Apostle James faith, the Devils alfo believe and tremble. Such faith as this may be produced from Sinai's lightening shining upon the natural confcience of any man, commanding an acknowledgment of the truth of what GOD has declared in his word, without leaving the mind in the poffeffion of the leaft bleffing therein promised. I may believe the truth of the riches of the Indies, the valuable treasures of the golden mountains of Peru, upon the report, without having the leaft intereft therein or benefit therefrom; fo a natural man may much more, from the authority of the word of GOD, believe all the truths contained in the fcriptures, without enjoying any faving-benefit therefrom.

Second, There is what is called a temporary faith, because it is fleeting and perifhing; though it arifeth to a higher degree than a bare hiftorical faith, as from carnal confiderations of ease, pleasures, and happiness, it advanceth to joy, in hopes of the actual enjoyment of it; but it not being grounded upon experience, and a principle of divine grace, it withered away. Thus Herod heard John the Baptift gladly; and the stony ground hearers, in the parable, received the word with joy, yet for want of root, (i. e.) a principle of divine grace, they fell away. Thus the heart of man may be elated with joy, from hearing what great and glorious things the gofpel declares, being moved by carnal confiderations, and when this is the cafe, it will prove a perifhing or temporary faith.

Third, There is in the word of God the faith of miracles, but as this gift was peculiar to the gofpel, under the Apostle's ministration, and to extend no further, it is needless to infift any further on that head.

Fourth, There is a divine, fpiritual, and justifying faith, which is a faving grace (fo far as it lays hold of falvation) wrought by the fpirit of GOD in the foul, by fupernatural operations, by which the foul embraceth CHRIST with profound humility and joy, as Prophet, Prieft, and King, and relies alone upon his righteoufnels for acceptance before GOD, which excites adoration, affection, and obedience. The Apostle calls it, the fubftance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not feen, as it affures us of the reality of eternal, invifible things, and produceth a confident fatisfaction of foul, that GOD will infallibly perform what he has promifed, whereby the believer is as confident of them, as though they were in his actual poffeffion.

Friendly. By what means is faith begot in the foul?

Truth. The ufual way which the HOLY GHOST takes in begetting faith, is by the preaching of the gospel, as the Apoftle fays, Rom. x. 17. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. The report must first be made before there is any likelihood of its being believed, for how shall they hear without a preacher? The declaration of the gospel is as necessary to faith therein, as faith is to falvation, on which account our LORD faith, the time is coming, and now is, when the dead fhall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear fhall live. And this is to be understood of the voice of CHRIST, in his word preached, by the power and demonftration of his fpirit; for we find life annexed to the hearing, whereby we know that it implies more than the external found of the word preached, for this life is a life of faith, Gal. ii. 20. whereas the external found of the gofpel, or the word of God barely preached, quickeneth no man, as faith the Apoftle, 2 Cor. xi. 6. Whe alfa hath made us able minifters of the New Teftament, not of the letter (i. e. of the verbal found) but of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the fpirit giveth life. By which we fee the neceffity of hearing the external report of the word, in order to obtain the internal power, for faith comes by hearing. And here it is worthy of our obfervation, that the word of itfelf can do nothing in point of our falvation, but as the spirit makes it effectual, by almighty power, then, and not till then, it is the miniftration of life, for faith the Apostle, to the Theffalonians, our gofpel came not to you in word only, but in power, and in the (demonftration) of the Holy Ghoft, and in much affurance, More particularly,

First, Every part of the precious faith of God's elect is begot in the foul by the means of the gospel, as the foul is thereby led to believe the evil that there is in fin, (which is a particu lar article in the faith of God's elect) according to the defcription given of it, and the teftimony borne against it in the word of GOD; nay, faith the Apoftle, I had not known fin, but by the law; I had not known luft, except the law had faid, thou fhalt not covet. Now before the foul is brought under the inAuence of the fpirit, in the word, fin is dead, and therefore its mifery, by fin, is not believed in. But when the foul is taught to believe that the law is holy, that GOD hates the workers of iniquity, then fin immediately realizeth itself to the mind, and the foul believes its mifery by fin, Now this faith in the law of Gop, is commonly antecedent to faith in CHRIST as a Saviour.

Second, It is only by the word of GOD, in the hands of the eternal fpirit, that the foul gains a rational belief in God. What confufed notions the brighteft of the Heathen Philofophers had of GOD, may ferve to convince us of this! It is rare that you can meet with any thing by Polytheifm in the best of their writings; but how fhould it be otherwife, feeing they had not the external word to inftruct them, nor the internal spirit to guide them into all truth? For the word itself, without, or abftracted from the Spirit's teachings, will not furnish us with a rational belief of GOD, witness the cafe, the lamentable cafe, of our modern Arians and Socinians, who have the external word, which correcteth their reason, and furnisheth them with more confiftent notions than the ancient Pagans had of the Deity, but having not the spirit to illuminate their understandings, they cannot fee into the mystery of God, of the Father, and of Chrift. But the Spirit, by the word, doth give a rational and confiftent belief in GoD, not only in his effential, but in his moral perfections. Reason itself will furnish a man with confiftent ideas of the effential perfections of GoD, but his moral perfections are only to be viewed in the light of his word and fpirit. Now faith in God, as a Judge and Lawgiver, is abfolutely neceffary to precede faith in CHRIST as a Saviour, Heb. xi. 6. For he that cometh to God muft believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of all them that feek him.

Friendly. Cannot the general knowledge of CHRIST, as a Saviour, declared in the word of GOD, be attained before faith is wrought in the foul for life and falvation?

- Truth. Yes, for I apprehend that the HOLY GHOST never maketh application of pardon and peace to the foul, before he makes CHRIST defirable in his character of a Saviour, as he is difplayed in the word of GOD, according to his own defcription, Hof. xiii. 4. For there is, faith he, no Saviour befides me; and according to the church's defcription, Ifa. xlv. 24. In the Lord have I righteousness and frength; and Peter faith Acts iv. 12. There is falvation in no other, for there is no other name given among men, by which we can be faved. The HOLY GHOST thus difplaying the general character of CHRIST, as a Saviour, and likewife what he hath done in the quality and office of a Saviour, doth kindle in the foul ardent defires after CHRIST and falvation by him.

Friendly. Is not the encouragement of the soul at first fixed and grounded upon the general invitations and calls of CHRIST in his word, fuch as, Ho! every one that thirfteth, come ye to the waters! If any man thirft, fays CHRIST, let him come unto