The Christian in Complete Armour - Gurnall - XLI - Direction Eight continued

Required reading
The Christian in Complete Armour by William Gurnall (Available from Amazon or free here) - Continue Direction Eight by reading First Branch of First General Part.

My summary

Today we continue Direction Eight: 'Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.' (Eph. 6:16)

Gurnall unpacks with four particulars what it means that faith is 'above all'.  Faith is preeminent because of:

(i) the great inquiry that God makes after faith above all other graces;

(ii) the commendations that are given to faith above other graces;

(iii) the high office that faith is set in above other graces, in the business of our justification before God;

(iv) the mighty influence that faith hath upon all her sister-graces.

Then, as faith is preeminent, Gurnall gives us two applications:

(i) if faith is the chief of graces this may help us to conceive of the horrible nature of unbelief;

(ii) if faith is the chief of graces, let this make us the more curious and careful that we be not cheated in our faith.

What grabbed me

I was helped by Gurnall's stark description of unbelief: 'The strength of this whole body of sin lies in this lock of unbelief. There is no mastering of a sinner while unbelief is in power. This will carry all arguments away, whether they be from law or gospel, that are pressed upon him, as easily as Samson did the doors, posts, with bar and all, from the city of Gaza, Judges 16:2. It is a sin that doth keep the field—one of the last of all the others; that which the sinner is last convinced of, and the saint ordinarily last conqueror of. It is one of the chief strengths and fastnesses unto which the devil retreats when other sins are routed. O how oft do we hear a poor sinner confess and bewail other sins he hath lived in formerly, with brinish tears, but will not hearken yet to the offer of mercy in Christ. Bid him believe on Christ, and he shall be saved—which was the doctrine Paul and Silas preached to the trembling jailor, Acts 16:31—alas! he dares not, he will not; you can hardly persuade him it is his duty to do so. The devil hath now betaken himself to this city of gates and bars, where he stands upon his guard; and, the more strongly to fortify himself in it, he hath the most specious pretenses for it of any other sin. It is a sin that he makes the humbled soul commit out of fear of sinning, and so stabs the good name of God, for fear of dishonouring him by a saucy presumptuous faith. Indeed it is a sin by which Satan intends to put the greatest scorn upon God, and unfold all his cankered malice against him at once. It is by faith that the saints 'have obtained a good report.' Yea, it is by the saints' faith that God hath a good report in the world. And, by unbelief, the devil doth his worst to raise an evil report of God in the world; as if he were not what his own promise and his saints' faith witness him to be. In a word, it is a sin that hell gapes for of all the others.'

Unbelief is the greatest fruit Satan can produce in his people.

Next week's readingContinue Direction Eight by reading Second Branch of First General Part.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.