Puritan Nuggets of Gold # 30

Faith (continued)

The soul is the life of the body, Faith is the life of the soul. Christ is the life of faith. (John Flavel)

As the act of healing through the eyes of the Israelites and the brazen serpent went together; so, in the act of justifying, these two, faith and Christ, have a mutual relation, and must always concur - faith as the action which apprehendeth, Christ as the object which is apprehended; so that neither the passion of Christ saveth without faith, nor doth faith help unless it be in Christ, its object. (Daniel Cawdray)

We must understand that faith does not justify and save us by itself ... but as an instrument, whereby we lay hold of and apply to ourselves Christ with His righteousness and merits, by which only we appear just before God. A small and weak hand, if it be able to reach up the meat to the mouth, as well performs its duty for the nourishment of the body as one of great strength, because it is not the strength of the hand but the goodness of the meat which nourishes the body. (George Downame)

How shall I depend on Him for raising my body from the dust; and saving my soul at last; if I distrust Him for a crust of bread, towards my preservation. (Joseph Hall)

Faith is of Rachel's humor: "Give me children or else I die." (Thomas Adams)

If faith were assurance, then a man's sins would be pardoned before he believes, for he must necessarily be pardoned before he can know he is pardoned. The candle must be lighted before I can see it is lighted. The child must be born before I can be assured it is born. The object must be before the act. Assurance is rather the fruit, than faith itself. It is in faith as the flower is in the root; faith in time, after must communion with God, acquaintance with the Word, and experience of His dealings with the soul, may flourish into assurance. But as the root truly lives before the flower appears, and continues when that hath shed its beautiful leaves, and is gone again: so doth true justifying faith live before assurance comes and after it disappears. (William Gurnall)