The Scriptures declare that by faith the Christian "embraces the promises," " is persuaded of the promises," " out of weakness is made strong," " waxes valiant in fight," " confesses himself a stranger and pilgrim seeking a better country." As faith in a threatening necessarily involves fear, so faith in a promise neces- sarily involves trust.
Besides, faith rests upon the trustworthiness of God, and therefore necessarily involves trust, Heb. x., 23, and the whole of the 11th chapter,
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22. How may it be shown that this view of faith does not confound faith and hope ?
To our doctrine that saving faith involves trust, the Komanist objects that this confounds faith and hope, which the Scriptures distinguish (1 Cor. xiii., 13), since hope is only strong trust. But hope is not merely strong trust. Trust rests upon the grounds of assurance, while hope reaches forward to the object of which assurance is given. Trust is the foundation of hope. Hope is the fruit of trust. The more confiding the trust, the more assured the hope.
23. What are the different opinions as to the relation between faith and love ?
1st. The Komanists, in order to maintain their doctrine that faith alone is not saving, distinguish between a formed, or perfect, and an unformed faith. They acknowledge that faith is distinct from love, but maintain that love is essential to render faith meri- torious and effectual as the instrument of our salvation.
2d. Some have regarded love as the root out of which faith springs.
3d. The true view is that love is the immediate and necessary effect of faith. Faith includes the spiritual apprehension of the beauty and excellence of the truth, and an act of the will embrac- ing it and relying upon it. Yet these graces can not be analyti- cally separated, since they mutually involve one another. There can be no love without faith, nor any faith without love. Faith apprehends the loveliness of the object, the heart spontaneously loves it. Thus " faith works by love," since these affections are the source of those motives that control the will.
The Komish doctrine is inconsistent with the essential prin- ciples of the gospel. Faith is not a work, nor can it have, when formed or unformed, any merit, it is essentially a self-emptying act, which saves by laying hold of the merits of Christ. It leads to works, and proves itself by its fruits, but in its relation to jus- tification it is in its very nature a strong protest against the merits of all human works, Gal. iii., 10, 11 ; Eph. ii., 8, 9.
The Protestant doctrine that love is the fruit of faith is estab- lished by what the Scriptures declare concerning faith, that it " sanctifies," " works by love," " overcomes the world," Gal. v.,
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6 ; Acts xxvi., 18 ; 1 John v., 4. This is accomplished thus — by faith we are united to Christ, Eph. iii.; 17, and so become partakers of his Spirit, 1 John iii.; 24, one of the fruits of the Spirit is love, Gal. v., 22, and love is the principle of all obe- dience, Kom. xiii., 10.
24. What is the oty'ect of saving faith ?
The spiritual illumination of the understanding and renewal of the affections, which lays the foundation for the souls acting faith in any one portion of the testimony of God, lays the foun- dation for its acting faith in all that testimony. The whole re- vealed word of God, then, as far as known to the individual, to the exclusion of all traditions, doctrines of men, and pretended private revelations, is the object of saving faith. That particular act of faith, however, which unites to Christ, called, by way of distinction, justifying faith, has for its object the person and work of Christ as Mediator, John vii., 38 ; Acts xvi., 31.
25. What is meant by an article of faith as distinguished from a matter of opinion ?
The Romanists hold that every dogma decided by the church to be true, whether derived from Scripture or tradition, is, upon pain of damnation, to be believed by every Christian as an article of faith, if known to him by an explicit, if not known by an im- plicit faith. On the other hand, with respect to all subjects not decided by the church, every man is left free to believe or not as a matter of opinion.
26. What is the Anglican or Puseyite criterion for distin- guishing those doctrines which must be known and believed in order to salvation ?
They agree with the Romanists (see above, question 6) that knowledge is not essential to faith. As to the rule of faith, how- ever, they differ. The Romanist makes that rule the teaching of the Papal church. The Puseyites, on the other hand, make it the uniform testimony of tradition running in the line of the suc- cession of apostolic bishops.
27. What is the common Protestant doctrine as tofundamen-
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tals in religion, and by what evidence can such fundamentals be ascertained ?