they cannot believe; faith being the gift of God, it must be wrought in
them; how then can they go to God for this, and make use of Christ for
this end, that their souls may be wrought up to a believing and
consenting to the bargain, and hearty accepting of the offer?

To this I would say these things:

1. It is true, that "faith is the gift of God," Eph. ii. 8, and that it
is "he alone who worketh in us, both to will and to do," Phil. i. 29,
"and none cometh to the Son, but whom the Father draweth," John vi. 44;
and it is a great matter, and no small advancement, to win to the real
faith, and through conviction of this our impotency. For thereby the
soul will be brought to a greater measure of humiliation, and of
despairing of salvation in itself, which is no small advantage unto a
poor soul that would be saved.

2. Though faith be not in our power, yet it is our duty. Our impotency
to perform our duty, doth not loose our obligation to the duty; so that
our not believing is our sin; and for this God may justly condemn us.
His wrath abideth on all who believe not in his Son Jesus, and will not
accept of the offer of salvation through the crucified Mediator. And
though faith, as all other acts of grace, be efficiently the work of the
Spirit, yet it is formally our work: we do believe; but it is the Spirit
that worketh faith in us.

3. The ordinary way of the Spirit's working faith in us, is by pressing
home the duty upon us, whereby we are brought to a despairing in
ourselves, and to a looking out to him, whose grace alone it is that can
work it in the soul, for that necessary help and breathing, without
which the soul will not come.