A supplement to the several discourses upon various divine subjects

5. Exercise Faith. As the habit of Faith is attended with habitual Sanctification, so the acts of Faith are accompanied with a progress in the degrees of it. That Faith which brings Christ to dwell in our Souls, will make us often think of our inmate. Faith doth realize divine things, and make absent objects as present; and so furnisheth fancy with richer streams to bathe it self in, than any other principle in the world. As there is a necessity of the use of fancy, while the soul is linked to the body; so there is also a necessity of a corrective for it.¹ Reason doth in part regulate it, but 'tis too weak to do it perfectly, because fancy in most men is stronger than reason; man being the highest of imaginative beings, and the lowest of intelligent; fancy is in its exaltation more than in creatures beneath him, and reason in its detriment more than in creatures above him; and therefore the imagination needs a more skilful guide than reason. Fancy is like fire, a good Servant but a bad Master; if it march under the conduct of faith, it may be highly serviceable, and by putting lively colours upon divine truth may steal away our affections to it.² Faith is the evidence of things not seen. viz. not by a corporeal, but intellectual eye; and so it will supply the office of sense: 'Tis the substance of things hoped for; and if hope be an attendant on faith, our thoughts will surely follow our expectations. The remedy David used, when he was almost stifled with disquieting thoughts, was to excite his soul to a hope and confidence in God, Psal. 42.5. and when they returned upon him, he useth the same diversion, v. 11. The peace of God, i. e. the reconciliation made by a Mediator between God and us believingly apprehended, will keep [or garrison] our hearts and minds [or thoughts] against all anxious assaults both from within and without^†. When any vain conceit creeps up in you, act faith on the intercession of Christ; and consider, Is Christ thinking of me now in Heaven, and pleading for me, and shall I squander away my thoughts on trifles, which will cost me both tears and blushes? Believingly meditate on the promises; they are a means to cleanse us from the filthiness of the spirit, as well as that of the flesh