On Faith.

From where else but from faith, because they believe that what they desire is good. What about hunters? Do they not often wait whole nights under the open sky, even when it is so cold that stones split? What do lovers not do? What evil does one not find that they deem desirable and endure to please their beloved? And yet they say they are blessed, because they have suffered so much for her sake. How so? One sees this power of faith not only in individual people, but also in entire nations. From where does it come that the Italians so easily refrain from drunkenness, or that the Swiss are so steadfast in battle that they would rather die than flee? Namely, from this: that they have so firmly convinced themselves that one must act thus. If they had now convinced themselves similarly in all virtues, they would fulfill the same equally in all virtues. Many more other things of this nature could be gathered, and these are the powers that living faith has in them.

Power of divine faith.

Let us now examine our faith and we shall see if the spirit of Christus Christ also dwells in us. Christus calls those blessed who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and has commanded that Mat. 5. 6. we should gather a treasure in heaven. Tell Mat. 6. 20. me, do you indeed feel such a thirst for righteous-Luc. 12. 33. ness as you once felt for water? Or such desire for the kingdom of God as the greedy feel for money? Do you also watch day and night to please God? Have you also spent a year or two at the cost of godvrucs godliness?

A small heart-shaped floral ornament sits here on the page.