been stirred up to cry for pardon and deliverance? You have heard of Christ under the character of a Saviour; but I put it to your consciences, have you seriously viewed him under that character? And from a full persuasion of his correspondency, when considered in this view, to all the necessities of your case, and all the exigencies of your souls, have you entered into any treaty with him? Recollect it seriously. Have you ever presented yourselves before God, with an humble and cordial regard to Christ? And do you know what it is secretly and sincerely to repose your souls upon the merit of his obedience, and the efficacy of his blood, with humble acknowledgment of your own guilt, with entire resignation of your own righteousness, as utterly unworthy of being mentioned before God, and with a cordial and joyful resolution to devote yourselves to his service as long as you have any being, and through time and eternity to testify your gratitude by a constant series of obedience?

If you can trace such a process of thought and experience as this, you have great reason to conclude, that you experimentally know what faith is; and that through faith you are in the way to salvation. Yet it is always to be remembered, that Faith is to be shewn by its works*. Give me leave therefore farther to enquire,

(2.) Whether you can trace "the genuine effects of it in your hearts and lives?"

You believe in Christ: But has that faith in him produced a continued and habitual intercourse with him? I speak not of an intercourse absolutely uninterrupted; for that, the present state of human life will not admit. But has it produced frequently repeated and direct acts of application to him, and converse with him? One can hardly imagine how it is possible for a true believer, to suffer these to be long, and often intermitted; especially to such a degree, that days and weeks and months should pass, as if the business between Christ and his soul were quite finished, and he and his Lord were parted by consent, till death, or some very urgent and extraordinary circumstance, renewed the interviews between them.-I would ask farther, Has this faith to which you pretend, produced a resemblance to Christ's example, and an obedience to his precepts, in the course of your lives? You know that true faith is operative; and you know, in the general, the genius and design of christianity. I would demand of your consciences how far you comply with it?

are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.

I have already shewn you, from these words, in what sense we may be said to be saved through faith ;-And I have also proved, that in consequence of this, it is evident we must be saved by grace; since faith being incapable of satisfying the demands of God's injured justice, can much less merit such a recompence as eternal life; nor can it indeed have any efficacy, or any place at all in this affair, otherwise than by God's free constitution and gracious appointment.—I then concluded with observing, that this argument would have a convincing force, even though faith were ever so entirely an act of our own; or that we had no more support or assistance from God in forming and exerting it, than we have in any of the common actions of natural life. But I am now to shew, that even this is not the case; but that a new proof of our being saved by grace arises from considering,

III. The argument which the apostle suggests in the close of the text, that even this faith is not of ourselves; but it is the gift of God.

I am sensible that some endeavour to invalidate and supersede all this part of the argument, by giving another turn to this last clause, referring it in general to our salvation by faith, as if it had been said, "Our being thus saved by grace, through faith, as I have just now said, is not of ourselves, but it is the gift of God." But I apprehend, that an impartial reader would not be willing to allow of this interpretation; which makes the latter clause a mere repetition of what was said before, and a repetition of it in less proper and expressive words. None could imagine, that our being saved through faith was of ourselves; or that we ever could ourselves constitute and appoint such a way of salvation, which was indeed fixed so long before we had a being. But faith being really our own act, it was highly pertinent to observe, that the excellency of this act is not to be arrogated to ourselves, but is to be ascribed to God. All that are acquainted with the genius of the original must acknowledge, this is a construction which it will very fairly ad-. mit. And we And we shall prove, in the process of this argument, that other scriptures expressly declare the truth, which this interpretation makes to be the meaning of the words.

Faith may be called the gift of God, as it is God that reveals the great objects of faith, that brings the mind to attend to them, that conquers our natural aversion to the gos

pel method of salvation, and so implants faith in the soul;-and also as it is he that carries it on to more perfect degrees, and improves its vigour and activity.

1. Faith may be called the gift of God, "as it is God, who reveals the great objects of faith."

Human reason is but weak and imperfect, and has indeed interwoven the traces of its own weakness, with many of the fairest monuments of its strength. Even in its most advanced state, among the most learned and polite nations of antiquity, it is deplorably evident, how far it was from discovering the several branches of natural religion in its purity, extent, and order. And to speak freely, it shone more brightly in almost every other view, than in that which is its noblest end; I mean, what relates to God, and immortality. It has indeed produced many admirable poems, and composed many moving orations: It has woven many exquisite threads of argument, with which the subtilest disputants have entangled each other, and have often entangled themselves: And much more useful it has been, in adorning the face of the earth, in subduing the sea, in managing the winds, and meting out the heavens. But this rich vein of knowledge, this mine of holy and divine treasure, lies too deep for human discovery.-If any ask, Where shall this wisdom be found, and where is the place of this understanding? It must be granted, that it is a path, which the vulture's eye hath not seen +: Man knoweth not the price thereof, neither is it found in the land of the living. The depth of human science says, It is not in me: And the sea, with all the most improved countries that lie upon it, must say, it is not with me: For Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him . There were no principles on which to proceed, in the investigation of this important knowledge: None could ever have learned, that God had formed counsels of mercy and peace towards apostate creatures: None could ever, on natural principles, have discovered the very existence of the Son, and the Spirit. How much less then could they have known, or imagined, that the Son of God should have undertaken to redeem us with his own precious blood; and the Spirit be sent to manage affairs, as the great agent of the Redeemer's kingdom; in consequence of whose gracious acts and influences, the soul should be savingly renewed and + Ver. 7.

Job xxviii. 12.

Ver. 13, 14.

§ 1 Cor. ii. 9.

transformed, and then carried on with a growing pace in the way to heaven, till it was received to the separate state of holy and triumphant spirits at death, and to complete glory at the resurrection of the dead? All the men upon earth could never, by their own natural sagacity, have discovered any of these particulars; how much less then could the whole system have been discovered ?-But God himself has graciously revealed them by his Spirit *: And as he was pleased miraculously to interpose to give this revelation to the world; so he has interposed by remarkable providences to send to us such clear notices of it; and to send these notices so early too, as to throw the prejudice of education among us this way, rather than the contrary. And considering how powerful those prejudices are, and how many have fallen into ruin by them, this will appear no small matter to a considerate person; especially when he surveys the state of the world in general, and considers how few nations and countries there are, in which this is the case; and in what various forms of most pernicious and destructive errors the generality of mankind are trained up from their tenderest infancy.-I would conclude this head with observing, that "whatever particular advantages we have enjoyed, they are all to be traced up to the distinguishing goodness of God to us. If wise and pious parents, if skilful, zealous, and faithful ministers, have been the instruments of working faith in our souls, This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts +; who taught their minds to conceive, and their lips to speak, and who opened our hearts to receive instruction. And this leads me to add,

2. That as God reveals the great objects of faith, so “it is he also that inclines the mind to attend to them :" On which account faith may be further said to be the gift of God.

The great objects of faith are, and by their nature must be, to us invisible; while those of sense strike so strongly on the mind, that it is no wonder we are apt often to forget the other. And when a man is conscious to himself, that the first recollection and acquaintance with them must be painful, and must be attended with remorse and fear, how necessary soever that pain may be, it is too natural to draw back from it. And we may easily conceive that Satan, the great enemy of men's

* 1 Cor. ii. 10.

Isa. xxviii. 29,

VOL. II.

4 C

eternal happiness, will exert all his artifices to prejudice them against it and to divert them from it.

Accordingly I make no doubt but that many of you, and especially young persons, have experienced this. You have found, that when you first began to be sensible you were in a lost and miserable state; when you began first to hearken to the tidings of deliverance by Christ, and to enquire into the way of salvation exhibited in the gospel, many circumstances arose to take off your attention from them. You found Satan endeavouring to steal away the good seed out of your hearts, lest you should believe and be saved; and joining the efforts of various of his instruments, to allure, or to terrify you from religion. To what then will you ascribe it, that you have been able to break through all these snares? To what will you ascribe it, that when you had perhaps laboured to stifle convictions in your own hearts, they have returned upon you with greater power than before? And though you have endeavoured all you could to shift them off, yet you have found them every where pursuing you; keeping your eyes from sleep during the watches of the night, or breaking in upon you in the morning with the returning light; or following you perhaps into those scenes of business, or of vain conversation, to which you have fled as a refuge from them? You must undoubtedly ascribe it to the God of the spirits of all flesh, that you have thus been taught to Consider your ways; and that your spirits have been so deeply impressed with concerns, which multitudes, whom the world reckons among the wisest of mankind, are entirely thoughtless about, and which perhaps you yourselves were once among the first to despise.

3. Faith may be further called the gift of God, as "it is he that conquers the natural aversion which there is in men's hearts to the gospel method of salvation, when it comes to be understood and apprehended."

That method is so wise, so rational, and so gracious, that one would imagine every reasonable creature should embrace it with delight. Yet the degenerate heart of man draws its strongest objections against it, from those things which are really its greatest glory.

It is the way of humility, and of holiness: And a haughty and licentious heart rises against it in each of these views. To be stripped of all the pride of human nature, to stand guilty