love of this world and the pleafures of it: If our Gofpel be hid, fays St. Paul, it is hid to them that are loft: in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, left the light of the glorious Gospel of Chrift, who is the image of God, fhould fhine unto them.

But, fecondly, faith fignifies likewife truft and reliance on God; and includes a confident hope and expectation, that God will perform his promises made to us in his Son. It is described as an active principle of religion, influencing the mind to obedience to the law of God. This is the faith through which we are faved, and is affirmed by St. Paul tó be the gift of God: to this faith we owe our growth and progress in all kinds of Chriftian graces and virtues; this is the foundation of them, and this it is that makes them acceptable to God, that they are done in faith. That faith is perfect which is attended with a good confcience, void of offence towards God and towards man. Thefe two St. Paul couples together in his advice to Timothy, enjoining him to hold the faith and a good confcience, which Some having put away, concerning faith have made Shipwreck fo that faith cannot ftand without a good confcience; that is, it is no faith which does not purge the confcience from dead works, and perfect holiness in the fear of God. Now all that reason can do, is to affent or diffent to any doctrine; but obedience must come from the will. Wicked men often believe; but, like the devils, they tremble at the majefty of God, and do not love or delight in him, or feek to do his will. Faith then is made up of the concurrence of the will and the under

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ftanding. The understanding is ftill the rule to judge truth by; but the will is not the right rule of action, and therefore the affiftance of the Spirit, to induce the will to follow the understanding, is neceffary in the perfect work of faith: and this work is afcribed to the Spirit in Scripture. Our Saviour, fpeaking to his difciples, tells them, I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth in me, and I in him, the fame bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing. Chrift abideth in his members by his Holy Spirit; and therefore we are told, that our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghoft. So then our Saviour's doctrine is, that without the affiftance of his Spirit we can do nothing, but with it we may bring forth fruit. To bring forth fruit, in the phrafe of Scripture, is to be obedient to the laws of God, and to be employed in the works of righteoufness so that faith cannot be perfected, or become the governing principle of our lives, without the affiftance of the Spirit, to fubdue our wills to the law of holiness. Faith in this sense is reckoned among the fruits of the Spirit, both in the Epiftle to the Galatians, and in that to the Corinthians: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long fuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. So, in the Epiftle to the Philippians, the Apostle tells them, It is given unto them in the behalf of Chrift, not only to believe on him, but also to fuffer for his fake: where the Apostle's doctrine is manifeftly this; that both to believe in Chrift, and to fuffer for Chrift, are the gifts of God through his Holy Spirit. I fhall not multiply quotations upon this head, which lie ready to any diligent inquirer's fearch; but fhall spend the time

that remains in fuggesting to you fome proper obfervations on this fubject.

And, first, our afcribing faith to the operation of the Spirit does not make our faith cease to be a reasonable act of the mind: and yet this furmise is apt to affect men; and they think it is for want of reason to prove our religion, that we require the gift of faith to make it go down. But the cafe is far otherwise the Apostle advises us, always to be ready to give to every one that afketh it of us, a reafon of the faith that is in us; confequently, reafon and faith, or reafon and the gift of the Spirit, are confiftent; or else it would not be poffible for those who receive faith by the Spirit, to give a reafon of the faith that is in them. Befides, a revelation fufficiently attefted, that is, fufficiently proved to reafon, is prefuppofed to the work of faith; for the gift of faith adminifters no new arguments for religion and therefore, if it be not a reasonable religion before we have faith, it cannot be fo afterwards. The firft work of faith upon the minds of men, as I proved by comparison of feveral parts of Scripture, is to dispose them to liften after and obey the will of God. Lydia's heart was opened by grace; this did not make her, right or wrong, take up with the Apostle's doctrine, but it is faid, that She attended to the words that were Spoken by Paul. Now, the more you attend to a thing that has no reafon in it, the lefs you will like it: let the Spirit therefore fupply the grace of attention in the greatest measure; if there wants reafon or evidence in the things we attend to, attention will ferve no other purpose than to fhew us thefe defects: fo that this

gift of the Spirit neither influences the reafon of man, nor the reafon of the thing; confequently, this gift of the Spirit is no ways inconfiftent with reason. So neither is that other gift of the Spirit, by which we are difpofed to a readiness to obey the will of God; for my being ready to obey the will of God cannot make a doctrine to be the will of God, which is not the will of God; or make me fee arguments to prove a doctrine where there are none: confequently, let a man be ever fo ready to obey the will of God, it cannot affect his judg ment in difcerning what is the will of God, or difturb the exercise of reason in searching for the doctrine which does contain the will of God. And therefore this gift of the Spirit likewife leaves a man free to examine the proofs of religion, and does not influence his mind one way or other in judging the truth for a man who is willing to do the will of God muft neceffarily be very unwilling to do what is not his will; and therefore will be very loth to take up with any doctrine for the will of God, which is not sufficiently proved to be fo. This grace therefore only puts him upon fearching and examining the pretences of religion, upon the exercife of reafon, to discern where truth lies: and this, I suppose, will be allowed to be the most reasonable thing a man can do. Thus, you see, the affent of the mind to the truth of religion is an act of reason, and must be so notwithstanding the gifts and affiftances of the Spirit. And as reason is not disturbed by the gifts of the Spirit, which are previous to the affent of the mind; fo, I hope, it will not be thought it can be influenced by those that are con

fequent to it. Faith is not perfected but through obedience. The power to obey and to love God we ascribe to the Spirit. Now you cannot obey God, till you know what is the will of God; therefore you must firft judge of religion, before this gift can operate: and therefore this gift cannot affect your reafon one way or other. After you have proved and confented to the truth of the Gofpel, it is highly reasonable you should obey it. But though reason, upon due application, can discern the truth, yet it cannot govern the corrupt will: and therefore it is one thing to judge with reason, another thing to act with reason: and the grace of obedience is given us by the Spirit, that we may not only think, but act, like reasonable creatures.

I do not remember that God ever promised to force or fubdue our reason to the belief of the Gofpel by his Spirit: if he had taken this method, he might have faved the trouble of working figns and wonders and miracles, and all other arguments might have been spared, which are only appeals to reason, and would have been needless, had the Spirit been given to particular perfons for the conviction of their minds. The Apoftle often prays, in behalf of his converts, that God would enlighten their minds and understandings; that he would increase their knowledge; that he would give them a right judgment in all things. But I think it will be agreed, that the more enlightened a man's mind is, the larger the compass of knowledge and understanding, and the better his judgment is, the more acute he will be in diftinguishing truth from falsehood; confequently, the better able to judge of religion,