242 Of the Efficient Caufe God, then might the Lord be faid to believe; when we aEi Faith, Teeing the Anion of believ- ing proceeds from him ? I anfwer, Did our Believing proceed from God, as the material, or formal, immediate Caufe, there might be Ground for this: But Believing flows fromGod efficiently, not for- mally, nor immediately,but mediately. God is the efficient Çaufe,not the Subje& of Faith in which it is. Nor doth the Neceffity of divine Grace ppredeterminating us to believe, infer, That Unbelief is not our Sin : For our Impoten- cy is our Sin, and the Want of Faith is a Privation of that Form, which the Soul's debite PerfeEion ought to have. 'Tis our Sin that we cannot' believe. Nor are we mere paffive Blocks andStones in believing, though without Grace we can- not believe : For tho', as to the firít Re- ception of Grace, we be paffive, yet when furred up to believe, we aáively believe, agimas. As when a Man with a red hot Iron boreth a Piece of Wood, tho' the Iron cannot bore the Wood unlefs it be ta- ken up, and applied thereto by force Agent yet when it is applied,the Fire bath an ac- tive Power. SECT.
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