Hope, too, is based on faith. Accordingly the followers of Basilides define faith to be, the assent of the soul to any of those things, that do not affect the senses through not being present. And hope is the expectation of the possession of good. Necessarily, then, is expectation founded on faith. Now he is faithful who keeps inviolably what is entrusted to him; and we are entrusted with the utterances respecting God and the divine words, the commands along with the execution of the injunctions. This is the faithful servant, who is praised by the Lord. And when it is said, "God is faithful," it is intimated that He is worthy to be believed when declaring aught. Now His Word declares; and "God" Himself is "faithful." How, then, if to believe is to suppose, do the philosophers think that what proceeds from themselves is sure? For the voluntary assent to a preceding demonstration is not supposition, but it is assent to something sure. Who is more powerful than God? Now unbelief is the feeble negative supposition of one opposed to Him: as incredulity is a condition which admits faith with difficulty. Faith is the voluntary supposition and anticipation of pre-comprehension. Expectation is an opinion about the future, and expectation about other things is opinion about uncertainty. Confidence is a strong judgment about a thing. Wherefore we believe Him in whom we have confidence unto divine glory and salvation. And we confide in Him, who is God alone, whom we know, that those things nobly [promised to us, and for this end benevolently created and bestowed by Him on us, will not fail.

The faith is generated in the flash, and wrestleth so long with God till it overcometh and gets the victory.

As the peculiar faculty of the eye is to see form and colour, and of the ear to hear sweet tones and voices, so is aspiration peculiar to the soul....

Whatever may be the form a devotee seeks to worship with faith— in that form alone I make his faith unwavering.

These things should seem to thee, Asclepius, if thou dost understand them, true; but if thou dost not understand, things not to be believed. To...

Therefore the stedfast Faith and Confidence thus brings us into God again: For it gets the divine Center of Regeneration in the Holy Ghost, or else th...

And while the Faith of the Living [at the Time of thy Forefathers] was yet somewhat good and pure, [as] to the Kingdom of God still, and they did not ...

The "knowledge of certainty" and the "eye of certainty". Our body and substance are snow, doomed to perish, God is He who buys them, for "God hath...

Then man desires the fulfillment of God's decrees; And this too spontaneously, not in hope of reward, He desires not even his own life for himself,...

'He who meditates on hope as Brahman, all his desires are fulfilled by hope, his prayers are not in vain; he is, as it were, lord and master as far...

Suppose you are about to eat food and someone tells you a serpent has spat venom on it, you would probably refrain and rather endure the pangs of hung...

Timaeus: to what we previously affirmed, the import of the “likely” account, I will essay (as I did before) to give as “likely” an exposition as any...

Possessed of that faith, he worships that form and from it attains his desires, which are, in reality, granted by Me alone.

It is through superstition men thus impiously speak. For all the things that are, Asclepius, all are in God, are brought by God to be, and do depend o...

From this God I take my knowledge, and from no other thing, neither will I know any other thing than that same God, and the same it is which makes...

And it is not hard for the holy Souls, which are departed from the Body, to appear to a strong Faith of one that is living; for the firm Faith of the ...

Now, if anyone wants to believe the words set down (here), let him go from what is hidden to the end of what is visible, and this Thought will instruc...

Christ said, “He that believeth not,” or will not or cannot believe, “shall be damned.” It is so of a truth; for a man, while he is in this present...

I have no more than one body, which nevertheless is mortal and corruptible, I willingly venture that; if the light and knowledge of my God do but rema...

"Say, thou good Christian; manifest thyself; What is the Faith?" Whereat I raised my brow Unto that light wherefrom was this breathed forth. Then turn...

Certain men say that we ought to be without will, wisdom, love, desire, knowledge, and the like. Hereby is not to be understood that there is to be...