Faith is passive

The reception of that gift is faith: faith means not doing something but receiving something; it means not the earning of a reward but the acceptance of a gift. A man can never be said to obtain a thing for himself if he obtains it by faith; indeed to say that he obtains it by faith is only another way of saying that he does not obtain it for himself but permits another to obtain it for him. Faith, in other words, is not active but passive; and to say that we are saved by faith is to say that we do not save ourselves but are saved only by the one in whom our faith is reposed; the faith of mam presupposes the sovereign grace of God. - J. Gresham Machen, What is Faith, pg. 195

"And so at every mention of mercy we must remember that this requires faith, which accepts the promise of mercy. Similarly, at every mention of faith we are thinking of its object, the promised mercy. For faith does not justify or save because it is a good work in itself, but only because it accepts the promised mercy." - Apology of thr Augsburg Confession, The book of Concord, pg. 114

Wherefore it is necessary to come to this remedy; that believers should conclude that they cannot hope for an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven on any other foundation, but because,  being ingrafted into the body of Christ, they are gratuitously accounted righteous. For with respect to justification, faith is a thing merely passive, bringing nothing of our own to conciliate the favour of God, but reserving what we need from Christ. - John Calvin, The Institutes, 3. 13. 5. Pg. 688

"Now faith is called justifying, only as it hath justification for its object, and as it goes out to Christ for justification; so that all that shall be spoken must be confines to this alone, as the intendment of the next." -Thomas Goodwin, Christ the Object of Faith, pg. 13

Archibald Alexander also says our faith is not the righteousness which is the ground of justification and that those who say it is are pure Arminians. He says, "The theory of justification whixh considers the act of believing the ground of our acceptance with God is, perhaps, the most plausible of any of our erroneous schemes of justification, for the single reason that it has the appearance of scriptural support. This is pure Arminianism, as held and inculcated by Arminius himself; also Limborch, and by Whitby." - A Treatise on Justification by Faith, pg. 14

"It is Christ's blood that stamps all virtue upon our faith. No virtue or influence whatever can be added by our faith, to or upon that blood. Observe, how in Rom. 5:9, it is 'justified by his blood,' and faith not at all expressed." - Joseph Hussey, God's Operations of Grace, Pg. 162 - 163

"Faith is the tongue that begs pardon? Faith is the hand that receives it, it is the eye that seeth it; but it is no price to buy it. Faith useth the gospel-plea for pardon; but itself, neither in habit nor act, is the plea itself. That is only Christ's blood. Christ's blood goes for the remission of your sins, if ever they be forgiven; and is the only plea to be heard at the throne of grace." - Robert Traill, Sermons concerning the Throne of Grace, pg. 31, Vol 1

In the same volume work, Traill says, "That faith in Jesus Christ doth justify (although by the way it is to be noted, that it is never written in the word, that faith justifieth actively, but always passively: that a man is justified by faith, and that God justifieth men by, and through faith; yet admitting the phrase) only as a mere instrument receiving that imputed righteousness of Christ, for which we are justified." - Robert Trail, The Doctrine of Justification Vindicated, Pg. 277