as being "without Christ, having no hope, and without God in the world;"* "having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, thro' the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their minds." Every article of this description, denies to the children of men, in their natural state, the possession of saving faith. Being without faith in our natural state, we are also destitute of all power to work it in ourselves. Mankind are represented in the word of God, as being under a natural disability of acquiring, for themselves, this or any other saving grace. They are under a sentence of condemnation, and are cast into prison. Of them all the Redeemer asserts, "He that believeth not is condemned already;"‡ and when he comes to save them, this is his work, "To bring out the prisoners out of prison; and them that sit in darkness, out of the prison-house."§ Since the children of men are under the condemning sentence of the broken covenant, bound in the prison of justice by the cords of the threatening and curse of the law, fettered by the absolute dominion of sin, and chained under Satan's tyranny, it must be impossible for them to work faith in themselves. They are farther said to be under the power of estrangement and alienation from God. "The wicked are estranged from the womb." "And you that were sometimes alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works."¶A principle of moral estrangement and alienation from God, must totally disable its subject for the performance of spiritual actions, about Divine and holy things. To finish this proof, we need only observe, * Eph. 2: 12. Eph. 4: 18. John 3: 18. Psalm 58: 3. Col. 1: 21. that the Scripture affirms of men, that they are dead. "Even when we were dead in sins, he hath quickened us together with Christ."* It is a spiritual death that is here meant; for the miserable creature is said to be dead in trespasses and sins. This moral and spiritual death, under the power of which all mankind naturally are, deprives the creature of all the principles of spiritual life, subjects him to the influence of moral death, and puts him into the state of increasing in moral and spiritual corruption. As less than this cannot be included in the idea of death, and as mankind are by the Spirit of God, declared to be thus dead; certainly the acquiring of saving faith, which is the same with the sinner's spiritual quickening, must be infinitely superior to their most diligent and vigorous exertions. OBS. IV. Each of the persons of the adorable Trinity hath a peculiar work in the sinner's obtaining the grace of faith. The implantation of faith is not a work in which one of the Divine persons only is engaged; but in it all the three, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are concerned. The Scripture informs us that faith is the gift of God the Father, that it is procured by Christ the Mediator, and that it is the work of the Holy Spirit. Faith is the gift of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ to the children of men. Christ instructs the church in the knowledge of this truth, when he says, "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." And again, "Therefore, said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father."t With the doctrine of Christ, that of his apostle perfectly agrees: "By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God."* The act of God the Father, in giving faith to men, which is distinctly stated in these texts, must be something different from the meritorious procuring of it for them, and the efficacious bestowal of it upon them; for these are ascribed unto Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. This act, therefore, includes the Father's treasuring up, from everlasting, this saving faith, with all other new covenant blessings in the fulness of Christ for his people, together with his choosing them in him, from the same unbeginning date, to the actual enjoyment of this precious grace. In this view, faith in the soul of a believer sees itself as God's gift, from eternity, to the person in whom it dwells. This act of our eternal Father, in relation to faith, comprehends also his sending his Son, in the fulness of time, to procure it for his people; and his sending the Spirit of truth, at the day of conversion, to implant it in their souls. All that Jesus did in order to procure this blessing for men, and all the work of the Spirit in bestowing it upon them, they accomplish under a commission from, and by the appointment of, the Father; and, therefore, in and through Christ's purchase and the Spirit's work, the Father gives the grace of faith to his people. In a word, when faith is said to be the gift of God, we are warranted to believe that this grace, with all the blessings of salvation, flow to us from the rich and sovereign grace of the Father in Christ, and by the Spirit.. Faith is procured for the children of men by the Lord Christ. Of this we have ample and clear in * Eph. 2: 8. formation in the words of the apostle. "For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ to believe.”* This faith is given to the children of men by God the Father, in the behalf of Christ. It is bestowed upon them like all other saving blessings, for Jesus' sake. Faith is the gift of God unto his people, in the behalf of Christ's purchase. The work of our Mediator, in his obedience and sufferings unto the death, is the alone, proper meritorious cause of the gift of faith to any of Adam's race. God the Father had a special respect unto the righteousness to be wrought out by his eternal Son in our nature, in his gift of faith to his people, before the foundation of the world, in his eternal decree; and he has an equal respect unto the same righteousness, when he actually bestows it upon them, at the day of their effectual calling, by the power of his Spirit. Faith is a part of the rich inheritance of eternal life, which is to all believers, through the incarnation, obedience, suffering, and death of Christ, a purchased possession. Faith is the gift of the Father unto his people, in the behalf of Christ's intercession. He not only died to purchase faith for the objects of his everlasting love, but he lives before the throne of God, and sits in the midst of it, to make intercession for the transgressors. One of his special demands on their behalf, as he appears in the presence of God for them, is, that at the time appointed in the unchangeable decree of God, the blessing of saving faith shall be, by the royal order of God the Father, and by the powerful work of the Lord the Spirit, effectually communicated to them. No sooner is it sought than it is granted; for him the Father heareth always. It is need *Philippians 1: 29. ful only further to observe, that faith is the Father's gift unto men, in the behalf of Christ, both as it is given to them out of that fulness which is deposited in him; and as the Spirit, in bestowing faith on Christians, acts in virtue of a commission from the Lord Jesus, for Christ's promise to the church is in the following words:-"But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.' The peculiar act of the Holy Spirit, in order unto our obtaining faith, is that of actually bestowing it upon us. The nature and truth of the Spirit's work, in this matter, is explained and confirmed by the following Scriptures:-"To another is given faith by the same Spirit." "The fruit of the Spirit isfaith." "We having the same spirit of faith."S "And, because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father." These texts clearly prove that the Spirit of God hath a special work in the implantation of faith in the souls of men. This work he performs, as he bears the commission of the Father and Christ. He accomplishes this work in his glorious entry into the hearts of his people, and taking up his dwelling in them, by his personal inhabitation. The Spirit bestows faith on Christians, as it is by his personal act that the Divine power, which is common to each of the Divine persons, is exerted, for the implantation of grace in the soul, and this is called the renewing of the Holy Ghost. The word of faith, the gospel of our salvation, is, by the Spirit's personal |