Faith

“A man shall as soon force fruit out of a branch broken off from the tree and withered, as work righteousness without believing in, and uniting with Christ.”

“Persuade yourselves, that the faith of the gospel is beyond the power of nature; that there is a necessity of a power from on high to bring you to believe.”

“There is no true believing or trusting to the report of the gospel, but what is the effect of the working of a divine power on the soul for that end.”

“A righteous man may make a righteous work, but no work of an unrighteous man can make him righteous. Now we become righteous only by faith, through the righteousness of Christ imputed to us.”

“A weak faith can lay hold on a strong Christ.”

“True faith will trust God's heart where it cannot trace His hand!”

“Nothing is so certain as that which is certain after doubts. Shaking settles and roots.”

“You can never depend too much upon God, nor too little upon the creature.”

“While doubt cannot be expelled, it can be subdued.”

“Faith receiveth the promise, embraceth it, and comforteth the soul unspeakably with it.”

“Believe God's love and power more than you believe your own feelings and experiences. Your rock is Christ, and it is not the rock that ebbs and flows but the sea.”

“How soon would faith freeze without a cross!”

“I hang by a thread, but it is (if I may so speak) of Christ's spinning.”

“There are no sins God's people are more subject to than unbelief and impatience.”

“Faith is full of good works. It believes as if it did not work, and it works as if it did not believe.”

“The two great graces essential to a saint in this life are faith and repentance. These are the two wings by which he flies to heaven.”

“Neither deficiencies nor disappointments, losses nor crosses, can cause disquieting discontents in that bosom where faith is commander in chief.”

“The prayer that is faithless is fruitless.”

“When promises are verified, God's truth is magnified.”

“He who does not believe God's promises, will never love him.”

“Trust him where you cannot trace him.”

“Be like Noah's dove. She made use of her wings to fly, but trusted in the ark for safety.”

“Faith goes up the stairs that love has built and looks out the windows which hope has opened.”

“If Christ is not all to you He is nothing to you. He will never go into partnership as a part Saviour of men.”

“A little faith will bring your soul to heaven; a great faith will bring heaven to your soul.”

“Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of excitement.”

“When you see no present advantage, walk by faith and not by sight.”

“As for His failing you, never dream of it, hate the thought of it. The God who has been sufficient until now, should be trusted to the end.”

“Faith is not a blind thing; for faith begins with knowledge. It is not a speculative thing; for faith believes facts of which it is sure.”

“It is not great faith, but true faith, that saves; and the salvation lies not in the faith, but in the Christ in whom faith trusts.”

“Our motto is, 'With God, anywhere; without God, nowhere.”

“Faith never makes herself her own plea, she rests all her argument upon the blood of Christ.”

“I do not preach doubtingly, for I do not live doubtingly.”

“It is not great faith but true faith that saves.”

“When we cannot trace God's hand, we must simply trust His heart.”

“Faith is the road, but communion with Jesus is the well from which the pilgrim drinks.”

“If you will have Jesus, He has you already.”

“Faith exists in different persons in various degrees, according to the amount of their knowledge or growth in grace.”

“Faith is as precious to die by as to live by.”

“To a great extent in spiritual things we get what we expect of the Lord.”

“We may explain faith till nobody understands it.”

“Happy is he who believes the promise and feels assured of its fulfillment, leaving all else in the hands of infinite wisdom and love.”

“Faith is as much the gift of God as is the Saviour upon whom that faith relies.”

“If people loved good works as much as they pretend to, they would love the faith which produces them.”

“Faith is the work of God's grace in us. No man can say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost.”

“In all works of faith we may count upon Jesus' fellowship.”

“Do you not see that the word, 'God with us,' puts impossibility out of all existence?”

“God's promises were never meant to be thrown aside as wastepaper; He intended that they should be used.”

“It is not a brave thing to trust God. To true believers, it is a sweet necessity.”

“Faith grows by the exercise of prayer.”

“My faith rests not in what I am, or feel, or know, but in what Christ is, in what he has done, and in what he is doing for me.”

“No water tastes so sweet as that which springs amid the desert sand. And no faith is so precious as that which triumphs through adversity.”

“To trust God in the light is nothing, but to trust him in the dark, that is faith.”

“Till men have faith in Christ, their best services are but glorious sins.”

“As the body lives by breathing, so the soul lives by believing.”

“Though there is nothing more dangerous, yet there is nothing more ordinary, than for weak saints to make their sense and feeling the judge of their condition. We must strive to walk by faith.”

“Faith is the champion of Grace, and Love the nurse; but Humility is the beauty of Grace.”

“Every thing that a man leans upon but God, will be a dart that will certainly pierce his heart through and through. He who leans only upon Christ, lives the highest, choicest, safest, and sweetest life.”

“Carnal reason is an enemy to faith: it is ever crossing and contradicting it. It will never be well with thee, Christian, so long as thou art swayed by carnal reason, and you rely more upon thy five senses, than upon the four Evangelists.”

“Much faith will yield unto us here our heaven, but any faith, if true, will yield us heaven hereafter.”

“We trust as we love, and we trust where we love; if you love Christ much surely you will trust Him much.”

“Faith has this excellency, that it is able to bring life out of death, light out of darkness. It has a kind of creating virtue.”

“Though you want the comfortable sense and assurance of this, yet be not discouraged; but do you exercise faith, go out of yourselves, rely upon Christ and that mercy which is to be found in God.”

“Prayer is nothing but the promise reversed, or God's Word formed into an argument, and retorted by faith upon God again.”

“We must come to good works by faith, and not to faith by good works.”

“The Christian must trust in a withdrawing God.”

“We live by faith, and faith lives by exercise.”

“Christ is the door that opens into God's presence and lets the soul into His very bosom. Faith is the key that unlocks the door. The Spirit is He who makes this key.”

“Weak faith will as surely land the Christian in Heaven as strong faith, for it is impossible the least grain of true grace should perish.”

“The Christian in prayer comes up close to God, with a humble boldness of faith, and takes hold of him, wrestles with him; yea, will not let him go without a blessing.”

“Furnish thyself with arguments from the promises to enforce thy prayers, and make them prevalent with God. The promises are the ground of faith, and faith, when strengthened, will make thee fervent.”

“Justifying faith is not a naked assent to the truths of the gospel.”

“We do not live by feeling, but by faith: it is the duty of a Christian to begin with faith, and so to rise up to feeling: you would begin with feeling, and so come down to faith; but you must begin with faith, and so rise up to feeling.”

“A strong Christian will use that for his edification which seems to be against him; but the weak Christian will use that against himself which is in truth for him.”

“A direct act of saving faith is that by which a lost sinner goes out of himself to Christ for help.”

“The plain old Protestant doctrine is that the place of faith in justification is only that of a hand or instrument.”

“Faith is a lost, helpless condemned sinner's casting himself on Christ for salvation.”

“Never man perished with his face towards Jesus Christ.”

“but the bond is conditional, according to the tenor of the covenant of grace: for we are bound to believe in Christ, if we would come to life everlasting”

“He offereth them to many, and they are sufficient to save all mankind; but all shall not be saved thereby, because by faith they will not receive them.”

“If Christ be chosen for the foundation of our supply, he will not fail us.”

“Steadfastness in believing doth not exclude all temptations from without. When we say a tree is firmly rooted, we do not say the wind never blows upon it.”

“No man shall ever behold the glory of Christ by sight hereafter who does not in some measure behold it here by faith.”

“Lay down then your reasonings; take up the love of the Father upon a pure act of believing, and that will open your soul to let it out unto the Lord in the communion of love.”

“To save sinners through believing, shall be found to be a far more admirable work than to create the world of nothing.”

“Faith, if it be a living faith, will be a working faith.”

“See in the meantime that your faith brings forth obedience, and God in due time will cause it to bring forth peace.”

“For the most part we live upon successes, not promises; unless we see and feel the print of victories, we will not believe.”

“There is no true gospel fruit without faith and repentance.”

“No repentance is acceptable with God but what is built on the faith of forgiveness.”

“Though an host of men should encompass me, 'my heart shall not fear; though war rise against me, in this I will be confident.' Here is great courage for the time to come.”

“The spirit of man never riseth to its original glory, till it be carried up on the wings of faith and love to its original copy.”

“Again, a man may know his faith to be true by his willingness to search himself, and to be searched by others.”

“To deny, therefore, that the faith of the Old Testament saints was a faith in the Messiah and his redemption, is to deny that they had any knowledge of the import of the revelations and promises of which they were the recipients.”

“Now, though Christ's obedience be the principal, and our faith the secondary condition; yet, usually, in propounding the Covenant of Grace, the former is silenced, and the latter only mentioned.”

“There is no more to do , either believe and be saved, or believe not and be damned.”

“We may go to the Lord's table every Sunday of our lives, and yet never eat Christ's body and drink Christ's blood by faith.”

“It was with the belief of this gospel that our life began; thus let it go on.”

“I don't mean a mere historical faith, only believing the history and report which the gospel gives of Jesus Christ—what He has done and suffered.”

“Nothing can have a greater force upon the heart, to sanctify it, than faith.”

“And what is faith but the "gift of God," and the work of the eternal Spirit in the soul?”

“Whilst the things of grace are a wonder to a man, as at first they are, presumption joins and ekes out faith.”

“I may as well think to climb up to heaven, and take hold of Christ there, and go down into the deep, and come up with Christ there in my heart, as to believe this.”

“See what a great work grace is, what a distance there is between nature and faith.”

“If faith and works concurre as collaterall causes in our Justification before God, as the Papists contend; but the faith which James excludes from Justification, is no faith at all.”

“Have good thoughts of God and make good interpretations of His dealings toward you.”

“I have cause now to trust Christ's promise more than His gloom.”

“Here is a worth of the Lord indeed, bright and glorious in the shining beauty of his faith, set out unto us in the full expressions of it by the Holy Ghost himself.”

“So all the promises that God hath made to any of his people, though never so long ago, faith fetches out the comfort of them, as if they were made now to us.”

“And may repentance and faith, faith and repentance—be ever uppermost, foremost, the chief and principal articles, in the creed of our souls!”

“This is the reason why Christians that have light that is little for quantity, but heavenly for quality, persevere, when men of larger apprehensions sink.”

“Why? 'He hath loved me, and given himself for me;' and I feel so much to my soul's comfort, therefore I will wholly depend upon him, in life, in death, and for ever.”

“But now there are other of God’s saints that trade with God for great things—for immortality and glory and a kingdom, and the crown of eternal life.”

“And, thus to lay out, is to lay up, to lay up uncertain riches in a safe repository: God's promises shall be thy security, and every star in heaven a seal set upon the treasury-door, which none can break or violate.”

“He is made the exemplar of justification to all in future ages, for whose perpetual instruction this is recorded: that he believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

“But the reward is wholly of grace to us, as it is of debt unto Christ; for "to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness," ver. 5.”

“A Christian's faith may anchor safely upon the rock of God's power.”

“The disciples were very weak now; and yet, notwithstanding all their infirmities, they loved Christ; they cast themselves upon him, and had not chosen another Saviour.”

“Hence in the sixth place from all these it follows, that faith is an overcoming grace: this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, saith Saint John, Epistle 1 chap. 5. v. 4.”

“Is it not shamefully undervaluing the great God, and too much magnifying poor impotent man—to fear and tremble at creatures, while God is in the midst of us?”

“Faith is an intelligent grace; though there can be knowledge without faith—yet there can be no faith without knowledge.”

“Trust in God does not destroy feelings of alarm, though they restrain them from overwhelming force.”

“Noah, being moved by fear, "prepared an ark," wherein he saved himself and his family.”

“Nor is it asserted that faith and sight necessarily destroy each other; but we may say that faith has now fewer obstacles to overcome than if Christ were here.”

“He that hath the Son hath life: and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.’ This is the great record of God the Father concerning his Son; and he that believes not the record God gives of his Son, makes God a liar.”

“As for such as say that they have the pardon of their sins and yet live in them still, they deceive themselves and have no faith at all.”

“Reynolds puts it very beautifully: "Every promise seized upon in faith leads a man to Christ and to the consideration of our union with him.”

“The promises are made to encourage faith, not to nourish sloth.”

“Set yourselves to receive the gospel as the Lord's word to you, which worketh effectually in you that believe.”

“O how sweet is that peace which faith breeds! it is a plant of the heavenly paradise; it is a Christian's festival! it is his music: it is as Chrysostom speaks, the anticipation of heaven. 5.”

“The answer is, "The word of faith." The Gospel-tidings about Christ; that word, which faith bears—prizes—welcomes—clings to—lives by—that record, from which delightedly it draws strength—peace—joy—comfort—glory.”

“Faith will do all that Christ commands, depending upon him for strength; and who so depends upon Christ for strength in one duty, will depend upon him for strength in another.”

“If all obedience in doing and suffering, that is pleasing, comes from faith and assurance, then what shall we think of such works as proceed not from it?”

“Therefore it is said of Abraham that he sought a city that had foundations.”

“There is the door of faith, the door which the grace of God hath opened to the Gentiles.”

“Saving faith hath Christ for its object, and so may the faith have that is not saving.”

“And since we can see so little, we must believe the more; and by believing, give glory to God.”

“Can any Man promise us anything better than Heaven? or, can any Man threaten us with anything worse than Hell?”

“Charnock says, "He who has many things to trust to, is in suspense which he should take hold of; but when there is but one left, with what greediness will he clasp about that.”

“If we will be any thing in ourselves, faith tells us then it is nothing to us; for it only fills them that are empty, and makes them all by grace who are nothing by self.”

“We may of course have doubts or difficulties in ascertaining what is the true weaning of a text or portion of Scripture: but we must always commit ourselves without reserve to the true meaning, whatever it may be.”

“A Christian, by the eye of faith, through the telescope of the promise—may see into heaven.”

“And seeing the end is certain, we are thus afresh to enter into this ark, Jesus Christ.”

“So charges Christ himself: "You will not come to me, that you might have life." So charge the apostles: "You judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life." Unbelief persisted in, seals our perdition.”

“Go forth, and meet the Bridegroom in a way of believing; for sad, sad, will be the event, if you do not, after all that has been said.”

“Into these two is the whole will of God divided; it consists either in things to be believed by us, or in things to be done by us.”

“And that is, an high esteem of Christ and his covenant, an ardent desire of union and communion with him, a longing for his righteousness, as a hungry man longs for meat, or a thirsty man for drink.”

“A door made into the ark will do you no good, unless you enter in and make good your entrance at the door.”

“What made Abraham forget his father's house, going he knew not whither, but that he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God, and therefore he was a stranger at home?”

“Whereby is meant, that cleaving to Christ by faith and obedience, whereby we do profess him to be our Saviour, and do put our confidence in him.”

“That true faith, wherever it is, worketh and frameth the heart to friendlike dispositions unto God, and brings forth friendlike carriage in the life towards God.”

“Of old for thousands of years the pious believed in a Savior to come.”

“The only way I can see another person’s faith is by observing his works.”

“And pray consider, how can ye take him or receive him as your Saviour, if he is not yours indeed?”

“Where no light comes, there is an influence, though not discerned; and much more can there be influence of strength and power and hidden comfort, though there be no sight.”

“When the mind of the hearer is good, it easily assents to the word of truth, says Chrysostom.”

“But at present the Church sees her Bridegroom only by the eye of faith.”

“My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?”

“However briefly the message had been spoken, it left man inexcusable if he persisted in cherishing aught like a doubt.”

“He that hath the strongest faith on the power of God, simply so considered, he hath a more precious faith than he that hath a weaker faith in that power.”

“As receiving Christ passively, the sinner that was spiritually dead, is quickened; so being quickened, he receives Christ actively.”

“There is no more to do, either believe and be saved, or believe not and be damned.”

“May we, while we repent, believe; and while we believe, repent!”

“We are bid to contend earnestly, to strive as in an agony for the faith—that is, the doctrine of faith.”

“And he who will receive the Atonement of the cross as a little child, as a humble disciple at the feet of Jesus, shall know of this doctrine whether it be of God, or whether we speak it of ourselves.”

“For office: faith is the Christian's logic; hope his rhetoric.”

“Thou comest to take Jesus Christ, with all the life of Christ, and all that belongs unto him.”

“First, the object of Abraham’s faith was double: one less principal, that he should have issue in his old age; the second more principal, that the Messiah his redeemer should descend of his loins.”

“The Reformers taught that “justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone.” True faith is never alone.”

“I deny not but finall unbeleef hath an aggravation that it is the nearest barre and iron gate between the sinner and the only Saviour of sinners, but yet the putting of such a barre is a sin against the Law.”

“Believe in Christ, and you are linked with the bliss of eternity.”

“Oh come with hungerings after Christ and be assured of satisfaction!”

“Thus, taking as true the good news of the finished sacrifice, we rest there.”

“You must renounce your own righteousness as imperfect and insufficient, apprehending and applying, resting and trusting in Christ's perfect righteousness. 4.”

“Just so, the hypocrite’s faith will break with the hammer of persecution.”

“As he hath ordained Jesus Christ to be the great medium or means betwixt us and himself, so he hath ordained faith as the principal instrument in us to treat with Christ.”

“Now, then, to affirm the first (or indeed any) act of faith justifying, to be a belief that a man is justified, is to make justification the antecedent to such a faith, for a thing must be before we believe it to be.”

“As Luther said, there is more force in pronouns, meum and tuum‚ than in any words.”

“The Apostle in Heb. 11. teaches that the hopes of the patriarchs were not confined to the present life, but were fixed on a future state of existence.”

“For though Christ was made a curse to redeem us from the curse — yet those only have the saving benefits of that redemption, who have found faith in, and sincere love to, Jesus Christ.”

“Faith works by love in all duties; and it works by hope in this duty.”

“Thus martyrs' fires have been welcomed, and the excruciating stake been rapturously clasped.”

“Behold the truth—bathe in this stream—trust in this death—plead this atoning cross.”

“We ought therefore to bewail our unbelief, and labour for this grace, which is so active and useful, so much the rather, because it is most miserable to be in a storm without a shelter.”

“That which overcomes the world must be superhuman, of almighty power.”

“Faith perceives what is to be done, hope gives alacrity to the doing it.”

“Lastly, The only way to satisfy this covenant, is by faith to lay hold upon Jesus Christ the surety, and to plead his obedience and death.”

“In believing God's testimony to the blood; it becomes sprinkled upon us; and from that moment we are safe.”

“Why did He choose faith of all graces by which to save a man?”

“I have told you that I receive the whole as an awful mystery; not a fit subject for reasoning, but only for faith.”

“Blessed are those who are kept by truth. 'Though I cannot dispute for the truth, yet I can die for the truth,' said a blessed martyr.”

“And therefore do not stay for anything else: If thou dost but venture upon Faith, thou needest not take care as those Women did, who shall roll away the stone.”

“Let us, then, by faith, carry in our minds the examples that are recorded in the Scripture.”

“If the devil cannot destroy our faith—yet if he can disturb it, if he can hinder and stop its actings, he knows all the other graces will be lame and inactive.”

“James speaks of justification before men, which is not only by the profession of faith, but also by works.”

“Even so, after men have fought the good fight of faith and kept good conscience in this life, then in the life to come they receive the crown of glory.”

“It was not mere faith or trust in God, or simply piety, which was required, but faith in the promised Redeemer, or faith in the promise of redemption through the Messiah.”

“This is evident, because we are admitted, yea, commanded, to trust in the righteousness that saveth us.”

“So you should carry along and bear along in your eye the sight and knowledge of Christ, so that at least a presence of Him accompanies you, which faith makes.”

“Noah being moved with fear, prepared an ark." In which he provided as much for the rest and quiet of his mind, as he did for the safety of his person and family.”

“Employ him in your every case, put all your cases in his hand, lay your help where the Father hath laid it.”

“Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and leave not unto thine own understanding.”

“Faith pulls off the mask from his face and sees a loving heart under contrary appearances.”

“We must be content ‘to become fools, that we may be wise,’ 1 Cor. iv. 10.”

“I find Him to be all that Scripture states, and glowing saints relate, and my enormous need requires.”

“If you have a saving interest in Jesus Christ, then you have FAITH.”

“The heart misgives secretly that God does not hear, nor will he grant.”

“How strong was the love of the Apostles unto Christ— when they left all and followed Him, especially after the resurrection of Christ and His ascension into heaven.”

“If the sun were down at this instant, if there were a glass that took in the beams of it above the earth, I might always see the sun in that glass.”

“Last of all, all thy good actions must be out of faith, which engrafts a man into Christ.”

“Again, to believe is one thing, and to believe in this or that is another thing; and it contains in it three points or actions of a believer: (1) to know a thing; (2) to acknowledge the same; (3) to put trust and confidence in it.”

“And when we find ourselves to hate and leave sin in some measure, then fasten our souls by faith, as much as may be, upon the mercy of God in Jesus Christ.”

“When the flood was coming, Noah preached the righteousness of faith to the world, that they might escape, if they would attend unto it; but it was rejected by them.”

“Faith will furnish us with examples of the saints of God, whom he hath helped and assisted to go through sufferings, and who are now crowned and at rest in heaven.”

“Strengthen such, that is, encourage them, by casting in a promise, by casting in your experiences, or by casting in the experiences of other saints, that so they may be supported.”

“Thou comest to believe in Jesus Christ; let me ask thee this question, What is it thou aimest at in thy coming to him? what wouldest thou have from him? what wouldest thou have with him? what is thy intent, thy business with him?”

“Baptism alone is no mark of God’s child, but baptism joined with faith.”

“To trust God in part, and the creature in part, is to set one foot upon a rock, and the other upon a quicksand.”

“Possibly we cannot discern this at present, but rather prejudge the works of God, and say all these things are against us; but hereafter we shall see, and with joy acknowledge them to be the happy instruments of our salvation.”

“Believe in Christ, and you are welcomed as God's child—God's heir.”

“Those who put their trust in him, shall be like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved.”

“You know men will condemn you, if you be true to God: if, therefore, you must needs have the favour of men, you must take it alone without God's favour.”

“He has to come as at first, a poor, empty, helpless sinner, hanging on a full, rich, and all-sufficient Savior.”

“If faith be not an apprehension that Christ is mine, wherein then lies that special application and appropriation of Christ, and the promise which is made to be in faith, and urged upon believers?”

“To empty out of a man’s heart his false faith, and to convince him he is an unbeliever, how hard is it!”

“And as Paul contends that men are justified without the aid of works, so James will not allow any to be regarded as justified who are destitute of good works. [33] At issue here is the question of genuine faith.”

“He who believes enters into possession of all that it contains.”

“Prayer is nothing but the promise reversed, or God's Word formed into an argument.”

“The latter days of churches are always perilous days, days full of danger.”

“Unless we are upon our watch and guard, and cry mightily unto God for help and assistance, we shall be all overtaken with perils and dangers in the days wherein we live.”

“Working for life, a man naturally understands; but believing for life, he understands not.”

“Let no man deceive himself: he that has no sight of the glory of Christ here, shall never have any of it hereafter unto his advantage.”

“A steady spiritual view of the glory of Christ by faith will give them a gracious revival from inward decays, and fresh springs of grace.”