Hebrews 11:12-13

Heb. 11:12-13. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, (so many) as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of (them), and embraced (them), and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

From "Observations Concerning Faith"

In "Observations Concerning Faith" Edwards writes:

§ 17. Faith consisted in two things, viz., in being persuaded of and in embracing the promises: Hebrews 11:13, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." 1 Corinthians 13:7, "Charity believeth all things, hopeth all things." If the faith, hope, and charity, spoken of in this verse, be the same with those that he compared together in the last verse, then faith arises from a charitable disposition of heart, or from a principle of divine love. John 5:42, "But I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you," with the context. Deuteronomy 13:3, "Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul." 1 John 5:1, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him."

From "Freedom of the Will"

Abraham's faith, in Freedom of the Will, is obliquely related to Christ's:

10. If it was possible for Christ to have failed of doing the will of his Father and so to have failed of effectually working out redemption for sinners, then the salvation of all the saints, who were saved from the beginning of the world, to the death of Christ, was not built on a firm foundation. The Messiah and the redemption which he was to work out by his obedience unto death, was the foundation of the salvation of all the posterity of fallen man, that ever were saved. Therefore, if when the Old Testament saints had the pardon of their sins, and the favor of God promised them, and salvation bestowed upon them, still it was possible that the Messiah, when he came, might commit sin, then all this was on a foundation that was not firm and stable, but liable to fail; something which it was possible might never be. God did as it were trust to what his Son had engaged and promised to do in future time; and depended so much upon it, that He proceeded actually to save men on the account of it, as though it had been already done. But this trust and dependence of God, on the supposition of Christ's being liable to fail of doing his will, was leaning on a staff that was weak, and might possibly break. The saints of old trusted in the promises of a future redemption to be wrought out and completed by the Messiah, and built their comfort upon it: Abraham saw Christ's day and rejoiced; and he and the other patriarchs died in the faith of the promise of it (Hebrews 11:13). But on this supposition, their faith and their comfort, and their salvation, was built on a movable fallible foundation; Christ was not to them a tried stone, a sure foundation; as in Isaiah 28:16. David entirely rested on the covenant of God with him, concerning the future glorious dominion and salvation of the Messiah, of his seed; says, it was "all his salvation, and all his desire"; and comforts himself that this covenant was an "everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure" (2 Samuel 23:5). But if Christ's virtue might fail, he was mistaken: His great comfort was not built so sure, as he thought it was, being founded entirely on the determinations the free will of Christ's human soul; which was subject to no necessity, and might be determined either one way or the other. Also the dependence of those, who looked for redemption in Jerusalem, and waited for the consolation of Israel (Luke 2:25; Luke 2:38), and the confidence of the disciples of Jesus, who forsook all and followed Him, that they might enjoy the benefits of his future kingdom, was built on a sandy foundation.

11. The man Christ Jesus, before he had finished his course of obedience, and while in the midst of temptation and trials, was abundant in positively predicting his own future glory in his kingdom, and the enlargement of his church, the salvation of the Gentiles through him, etc. and in promises of blessings he would bestow on his true disciples in his future kingdom; on which promises he required the full dependence of his disciples (John 14). But the disciples would have had no ground for such dependence, if Christ had been liable to fail in his work: and Christ Himself would have been guilty of presumption, in so abounding in peremptory promises of great things, which depended on a mere contingence; viz. the determinations of his free will, consisting in a freedom ad utrumque, to either sin or holiness, standing in indifference, and incident, in thousands of future instances, to go either one way or the other.

From "The True Christian Life"