ing for the phenomena, without admitting the immediate presence and immediate action of an INCORPOREAL AGENT, who connects, moves, and disposes, all things, according to such rules and for such purposes as seem good to him."*

§ 38. It may be noticed here, that, though the faith of God's people, under the Christian dispensation, is, as such, a pure principle solely derived from the Holy Spirit; yet that certainly the faith of the antients, having less of evidence in the actual coming of the Messiah, was more strictly devoid of sense, and upon that account (as one says) eminently "bold and noble;" because these, " upon obscure prophecies and mystical types, raised their belief, and expected apparent impossibilities." But the power of God made that belief easy, firm,

Siris. § 237.

and

and practicable, which to man, with nothing but the force of his own reason and abilities, would for ever have been absolutely unattainable. It is almost unnecessary to instance the cases of Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Daniel, and others, in the vaious occurrences of their lives.

§ 39. By way of contrast to this luminous work of God, let us, for a moment, bring forward that dark shade of the free-will and working of mán; and we shall find it as cold and dismal as it is gloomy, and totally unfit to impart what is needful to us in the present fallen situation of our souls. For, if Faith, as some have asserted, originate from human reason, or be nothing more than a "peculiar exercise of reason;" then it depends upon rational motives or arguments, or upon that simple force, which truth, or perhaps verisimilitude only, may carry as a naked proposition to the mind.

Not

Not to dwell upon the total repugnancy of this tenet to the Scripture, which proves by numerous facts as well as descriptions, that the faith of real believers is the sole gift of God and the specia! operation of his Spirit; the consequences, which attend the principle, clearly demonstrate its fallacy or falsehood. For, if Faith stood in the wisdom of men, and not in the power of God; if, by argument or the deductions of reason, it received its birth, its growth, its establishment; by human wisdom or by crafty argument, and especially in minds not very able to meet difficult or involved discussions, such a faith might be easily and therefore often overthrown. God's poor and unlearned people, and such is the great bulk of them, would be in a terrible plight in a circumstance of this kind. But, most happily, the fact is, God hath made foolish the wisdom of this world; and, by

the

the foolishness of preaching, he is pleased to save them that believe. To these, most truly, Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Moreover, the things of God are spoken with most real advantage (as gold requires no gilding), not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; for, after all, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are, not naturally, but SPIRITUALLY DISCERNED. He must be born again; he must be renewed in the spirit of his mind; he must become a spiritual man; before he can truly understand or receive faithfully spiritual things. Thus, the proud reason of an unconverted heart is deeply humbled in this business of grace, and is not allowed, being fleshly and corrupt, to comprehend, and much less to glory in, the

things,

things, which lead to the presence of God.

§ 40. Again. If faith stood upon human reason, or derived all its energies, acts, and conclusions, from human reason, it would be subject to perpetual doubts, which imply a condition directly opposite to its own nàture. For, For, Faith (as Archbishop Leighton hath justly observed) elevates the soul, not only above sense and sensible things, but above reason itself. As reason corrects the errors that sense might occasion, so supernatural faith corrects the errors of natural reason, judging according to Faith leads the mind, in its very nature and tendency, to certitude, and to gain an establishment in God's truth beyond all contradiction; but reason must be in perpetual con

sense.*

*Com. on 1 Peter, c. i. v. 8, 9.

troversy