(1.) [1.] Faith will be increased and strengthened by it. Invi- sible things are the proper objects of faith. It is “the evidence of things not seen,” Heb. xi. 1. Wherefore, in our thoughts of them faith is in its proper exercise; which is the principal means of its growth and increase. And hereon two things will ensue:—
Ist. The soul will come unto a more satisfactory, abiding sense of the reality of them. Things of imagination, which maintain a value
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of themselves by darkness, will not bear a diligent search into them. They lose of their reputation on every serious inquiry. If rational men would but give themselves the liberty of free indagation by their own thoughts, it would quickly cashier the fool’s paradise of Moham- med, the purgatory of the Papists, and all such creatures of imagina- tion and superstition. But where things are real and substantial, the more they are inquired into, the more they evidence their being and subsistence. It is not, therefore, every profession of a faith of a future state of blessedness that will realize it in our minds; and therefore, for the most part, it is rather a notion that men have of heavenly things, which they do not contradict, than any solid satis- faction in or spiritual sense of their reality: for these are things that “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor will enter into the heart of man to conceive,’—whose existence, nature, and real state, are not easily comprehended. But through the continual exercise of holy thoughts about them, the soul obtains an entrance into the midst of them, finding in them both durable substance and riches. There is no way, therefore, to strengthen faith unto any degree but by a daily contemplation on the things themselves. They who do not think of them frequently shall never believe them sincerely. They admit not of any collateral evidence, where they do not evidence themselves unto our souls. Faith, as we said, thus exercised, will give them a subsist- ence; not in themselves, which they have antecedent thereunto, but in us, in our hearts, in the minds of them that do believe. Imagi- nation creates its own object; faith finds it prepared beforehand. It will not leave a bare notion of them in the understanding, but give them a spiritual subsistence in the heart, as Christ himself dwells in our hearts by faith. And there are two things that will discover this subsistence of them in us:—(lst.) When we find them in a continual readiness to rise up in owr minds on all occasions wherein the thoughts and remembrance of them are needful and useful unto us. There are many seasons (some whereof shal] be im- mediately spoken unto) and many duties, wherein and whereunto the faith and thoughts of things invisible and eternal are needful unto us, so as that we cannot fill up those seasons nor perform those duties in a due manner without them. If on all such occasions they do, from the inward frame of our minds, present themselves unto us, or, through our acquaintance and familiarity with them, we recur in our thoughts unto them, they seem to have a real subsistence given unto them in our souls. But if on such occasions, wherein alone they will yield us help and relief, we accustom ourselves to other thoughts, if those concerning them are, as it were, out of the way, and arise not in our minds of their own accord, we are yet strangers unto this effect of faith. (2dly.) They are realized unto us, they have a subsistence
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in us, when the soul continually longeth to be in them. When they have given such a relish unto our hearts, as the first-fruits of glory,
that we cannot but desire on all opportune occasions to be in the full enjoyment of them, faith seems to have had its effectual work herein upon us. For want of these things do many among us walk in disconsolation all their days.
2dly. It will gradually give the heart an acquaintance with the especial nature and use of these things. General thoughts and notions of heaven and glory do but fluctuate up and down in the mind, and very little influence it unto other duties; but assiduous contemplation will give the mind such distinct apprehensions of heavenly things as shall duly affect it with the glory of them.
The more we discern of the glory and excellency of them in their own nature; of their suitableness unto ours, as our only proper rest and blessedness, as the perfection and complement of what is already begun in us by grace; of the restless tendency of all gracious dispositions and inclinations of our hearts towards their enjoyment,— the more will faith be established in its cleaving unto them. So in the contemplation of these things consists the principal food of fwith, whereby it is nourished and strengthened. And we are not to expect much work where there is not provision of proper food for them that labour. No wonder if we find faith faint and weak in the work it hath to do, which ofttimes is great and weighty, if we neglect to guide it daily unto that which should administer strength unto it.