The passages from the several Confessions will be given more full}' in the art. Justification; we cite here a few. Augdiurg Confession. — "Men are justi- fied freely for Christ's sake through faith when they believe that tliey are received into favor, and their sins are remitted for Christ's sake; tliis faith doth God impute for righteousness upon him" (Art. iv). Tiie nature of saving faith is set forth in Art. xx : " It is to be observed here that a mere historical belief, such as wicked men and devils have, is not licre m;!ant, who also believe in the history of the suffer- ings of Christ, and in his resurrection from the dead; but that genuine faith is here meant which causeth us to believe tliat we can obtain grace and forgiveness of sins through Christ, and which giveth us the confi- dence tl'.at through Christ we have a merciful God, which also gives us the assurance to know God, to call upon him, and to have him always in remembrance, so that the believer is not without God, as are the Gentiles" (compare the Apologgfor the Confession, art. ii, iii). Heidelberg Catechism. — Qu. 21. " What is true fiith? Ans. It is not only a certain knowledge whcreliy I hold for truth all that (loil lias revealed to us in his word, init also a lieartj' trust, wliich the Holy Gliost works in me by the Gospel, that not only to others, but to me also, forgiveness of sins, everlast- ing righteousness, and salvation are frcelj' given In- God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ's merit." Remonstrants' Confession (xi, 1). — "Faith in Christ is a firm assent (assusits) of the mind to the word of God, joined with true trust (fduciui) in Christ, so that we not only faithfully- receive Chuist's doc- trine as true and divine, but rest wholl}' on Christ him- self for salvation." West7ninst£r Covfessivn (10, 14). —
"Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification : yet it ... is no dead faith, but worketh by love. By this faith a Christian believetli to be true whatsoever is revealed in the word . . . but the principal acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eter- nal life, bj' virtue of the covenant of grace. This faith is different in degrees, weak or strong ; may be often and many ways assailed and weakened, but gets the victory, growing up in many to the attainment of a full assurance tlirough Christ." In all the Confes- sions, both Lutheran and Reformed, faith is held to be a laying hold on Christ, by whom we are saved (and not liy our own works, or by any work of sanctifica- tion done in us).
2. Roman Catholic Doctrijie. — The Augsburg Con- fession (Art. xx) speaks of the long desuetude of the doctrine of faith in the Church, and the substitution of childish and needless works (fasts, pilgrimages, etc.). as the great cause of its corruption, and furnish- ing the chief occasion for the reformation of doctrine, "Our adversaries now," thej^ saj' (A.D. 1530), "do not preach concerning these unprofitable works as they were wont : moreover, they have now learned to make mention of faith, about which, in former times, entire silence was observed. 1 hey now teach tliat we are not justified before God by works alone, but join faith in Christ thereto, and say faith and works justify us before God ; which doctrine imparts more consola- tion than mere confidence in good works." This was the chief theological dispute of the lieformation, and was also the main topic of theological discussion at the Council of Trent (1545-G3). A few of the divines there (the archbishop of Sienna, the bishop of Cava, and others) held that faith alone justifies ; but this an- cient doctrine was too inconsistent with the sacerdotal sj'stem to find favor with the majority. " Great pains were taken to discuss thoroughly the assertion that 'man is justified bj- faith,' and to affix some determi- nate meaning to that expression ; but the task was not easy. Some busied themselves in searching for the different senses in which the word 'f.iLh' is used in Scripture, which they made to amount to fifteen, but knew not in which it is employed when applied to jus- tification. At length, after much disputing, it was agreed that faith is the lielief of all things which God has revealed, or the Church has commanded to be be- lieved. It was distinguished into two sorts : the one said to exist even in sinners, and which was termed ttJ formed, barren, and dead; the other peculiar to the just, and working by charitj', and thence caWed form- ed, efficacious, and liring faith. Still, as father Paul observes, ' they touched not the principal point of the difficulty, which was to ascertain whether a man is justified before he works righteousness, or whether he is justified li/ his works of righteousness" (Cramp, Text-hooh of Poperji, ch. vii).
The decision of the Council is as follows (sess. vi, c, viii) : "When the apostle says that man is justified ' by faith,' and 'freely,' these words are to be under- stood in that sense in which the Catholic Chin-ch li.ath always held and explained them, namely, that we are said to be justified ' by faith' because faith is the be- ginning of human salvation, the foundation and root of all justification, without whicli it is impossible to please God, and come into the fellowsliip of his chil- dren ; and that we are said to be justified ' freely,' be- cause nothing which precedes justification, whether faitli or works, can deserve the grace thereof." Here two things are to be noted: (1.) That the Roman idea of f lith in general is that of the acceptance of the body of doctrine taught by the Church: "La foi neces- saire i)our la justification est la foi Catholique d'apri;s laquelle nous croyons ce que Dieu a rcvele h son eglise" (Drioux, note to his edit, of Aquinas's Siimvia, vi, COO) ; thus substantially making the intellect alone