Ptectoüo iTAftb. 7 nee liberum arbitrium vitiare potuit, there was not fo much as a bruife of free -will in the fall ; we have a free power of our own to believe,but what faith the Scripture ? Vnto you ixceeía;o it it gratuitoufly given to believe, Phil. I. 29. and faith is called the Spirit of Faith, 2 Cor. . 13. becaufe it is not from our own fpirit ; and in exprefs terms, the grace of God, Atli r r. 23 it lodges in mans heart, as a beam ofthat eter- nal grace which is in Gods : and to make this clear I (hall offer three things. Firfi, This precious faith is a thing above the natural faculty of man. There is in man a natu- ral faith or believingfaculty , and the very Phi - ofophers would call for it from their Scholars; but as it is in the fall of a houfe, not this or that beam falls, but all comes down at once : fo it was in the fall of man, not this or that natural faculty fell, but all together , and among the reif, the believing faculty fell alfo : hence as it lyes in the duff and rubbith of the fall, it centers in the creature, and without the elevation of grace, it can in no wife lift up it felf to God and Chrift. We are begotten again to a lively hope by the refurreEtion of jefus Chrift faith the Apoftle, r Pet. r.3. Obferve, there muft be a touch from Chrift in glory, or elfe there will be no elevation ; Chrift muff fall apprehend us, Phil.3.1_2. or elfe our believing faculty is but as a dead hand , unable to apprehend him. Secondly, This precious faith is a thing a- bove moral virtue. There is a vafl difference B 4 be-
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