FAITH
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FAITH
much to say that, apart from this principle and prac- tice of belief, man, even in the full exercise of all his other intellectual powers, would be enveloped in such a cloud of ignorance on even the most ordinarj' sub- jects, that an arrest would lie laid upon all the affairs of civilized life, and there must be an end of all social harmony and order. It is bj' this means that we ob- tain a certainty, not of sight, not of demonstration, not of direct and immediate intuition, but yet a real and efficient cert lintj' in many matters of high prac- tical im]iortanc3 concerning which we must otherwise be hopelessly ignorant and in the dark. This prin- ciple lies at the found ition of human affections anu familv ties, of agricultural and commercial activity, and of a large portion of our most valuable knowledge in science, and our highest attainments in art. Above all, it is thus that we obtain our knowledge of many tilings divine, and especiallj' of relations subsisting between God and ourselves ; an acquaintance with which, as we shall hereafter see, is of the utmost im- portance to us, while 3'et, independently of the exer- cise -of faith, it is utterlj' beyond the reach of every man living" (Rogers, Reason and Faith; Riddle, Bamp- toH Lectures, 1852, lect. i). Faith ''is that operation of the soul in which we are convinced of the existence of what is not before us, of what is not under sense or any other directly cognitive power. It is certainly a native energ}' of the mind, quite as much as knowl- edge is, or conception is, or imagination is, or feeling is. Every human being entertains, and must enter- tain, faith of some kind. He who would insist on al- ways having immediate knowledge must needs go out of the world, for he is unfit for this world, and yet he believes in no other. It is in consequence of possess- ing the general capacity that man is enabled to enter- tiin specific forms of faith. By a native principle he is Ijd to believe in that of which he can have no ade- quate conception — in the infinity of space and time, and, on evidence of his existence being presented, in thi infinity of God. This enables him to rise to a faith in all those great religious verities which God has been pleased to reveal" (McCosh, Intuitions of the Mind, pt. iii, bk. ii, ch. v ; see also pt. ii, bk. ii, cli. iv).
Guizot, Med. et Etudes Morales (transl. in Jom-nal of Sucre I Literature, xii, 430 sq.), has a thoughtful es- say in which he distinguishes nnlurul beliefs from faith as follows : "No one can doubt that the word faith has an especial meaning, which is not proi)erly represented \>y belief, conviction, or certitude. Custom and uni- versal opinion confirm this view. There are many simple and customary phrases in which the word faith could not be replaced bj' any otiier. Almost all lan- guages have a specially appropriated word to express that which in English is expressed by faith, and which is essentially diff"crent from all analogous words. This ■word, then, corresponds to a state of the human soul ; it expresses a moral fact which has rendered such a • word nacessaiy. We commonly understand by faith a certain belief of facts and dogmas — religious facts and dogmas. In fact, the word has no other sense ■when employing it absolute.l}' and i)V itself — we speak of thefahh. That is not, Iiowever, its unique, nor even its fundamental sense; it has one more extensive, and from whiidi the religious sense is derived. AVe say, I iiave iwW faith in 3'our words ; tliis man ha.?, faith in himself, in his power, etc. This emploj'ment of the word in civil matters, so to speak, has become more frecpient in our days ; it is not, however, of modern in- vention ; nor have religious ideas ever been an exclu- sive sphere, out of which the notions and the ■word faith were -without application. It is, then, proved by the testimony of language and common opinion. First, that the -word faith designates a certain inte- rim' stat(! of him ■who believes, and not merel}' a cer- t lin kind of belief. Secondly, that it is, however, to a certain species of lielief — religious l.'clief — that it has been at first and most generally applied. Now
our natural beliefs germinate in the mind of man, without the co-operation of his reflection and his will. Our scientific beliefs, on the other hand, are the fruit of voluntary study. Jiw^ faith partakes of, and at the same time differs from, natural and scientific beliefs. It is, like the latter, individual and particular; like the former, it is firm, complete, active, and sovereign. Considered in itself, and independent of all comparison with this or that analogous condition, faith is the full securitj' of the man in the possession of his belief: a possession freed as much from labor as from doubt; in the midst of which every thought of the path by which it has been reached disappears, and leaves no other sentiment but that of the natural and pre-established harmony between the human mind and truth."
II. Christian Faith. — So far as faith is a voluntary act, quality, or habit of man, it is psychologically the same in the theological sense as in common life ; the difference lies in the objects of the faith. In order to venerate or love a fellow-man, we must believe in his worthiness ; so, for the fear and love of God, which are fundamental elements of the Christian life, faith must pre-exist. But this direction of the soul towards God does not spring from the natural working of the human mind ; it is the gift of God (Eph. ii, 8), and is ■wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit through the word of the Gospel and the free grace of Christ (Rom. X, 17 ; 1 Cor. i, "21). Fides donum dei est, per quod Chris- tum redemptorem nostrum in verho Evanr/elii recte afj- noscimus {Form. Concord, iii, 11). Not that the Holy Spirit endues the soul with any new faculty for the single purpose of receiving Gospel truth ; but it quick- ens and directs an existing faculty, at the Si-.me time presenting to it an appropriate object. Tlie true faith, thus excited, is an operation at once of the intellect, the heart, and the will. As said above, tliis faith, so far as it saves man in Christendom, is specifically trust in Christ as a personal Saviour. In further treating it, we give, (I.) The uses of the words ttIgtic, faith, and TTia-nno, I believe, in the Scriptures (condensed from Cremer, Worterbuch d. N. Test. Grdcitdt, Gotha, 1866, 8vo). (II.) A history of the idea of faith in Chris- tian tlieologj' up to the Reformation. (III.) The Prot- estant and Romanist doctrines of fjiith in contr.ist and comparison ■v\-ith eacli other. (IV.) Later Protastant statements of the doctrine.