FAITH
459
FAITH
the seat of faith, as Bellarmine cxpresslj' puts it in his contrast between the Protestant and the Konian ideas of faitli: "ha3retici Mem frhiciam esse deliniunt; Ca- tholic! lidem in intelltctu sedeni habere volunt" (De Just/f. i, 4). How thorouglily extenial a thing this faith may become in practice is evinced by the fact that the recitation of a creed, in Romanist hmguage, is called an "act of faith" (Bergier, Diet, de Theolorjie^ iii, 54). ( 2.) That, accordingly, the Council of Trent makes faitii only the " beginning of human salvation" (saluds huniame in:tiu7)i), and " the root of all justirication" (?v(- dix omnis justijicatioms). If faith is simply an intel- lectual act, it is fitly described as only the "begin- ning"' of justification, and not its instrument. So Moh- ler, in commenting on tliis passage, expressly says that " Roman Catliolics consider faith as the reunion with God in Chi-ist (specially by means of the fiicult}' of knowledge, illuminated and strengthened by grace" (^Symbolism, N. Y. 1844, p. 204). In the same vein is the definition given by the Catechism of Trent, viz. that the "faith necessary to salvation is that faith by ■whicli we yield our entire assent to whatever has been revealed I>y almightj' God" (Baltimore edit. p. 19). It is plain that the notion of faith, as Protestants Iiold it, and as they believe that Paul held it, is totally want- ing in the Roman doctrine. Naturally, too, M'ith tliis conception of faith, the Romanists denj' that faith alone justilies, afhrming, in the wa}' of tlie Scholastics (see above), that faitli must be informed by cliarity, as the germ of new obedience, a gift bestowed first in bap- tism, and renewed by confession and absolution. So J. n. Newman (^Difficuliies of Anglicanism, cited bj- Hare, Contest uith Rome, p. 113) declares that Roman " Catholics hohl that faith and love, faith and obedi- ence, faith and works, are simply separable, and ordi- narily separated in fact; that faitli does not implj^ love, obedience, or works ; that the firmest faith, so as to move mountains, may exist without love — that is, true faith, as truly faith in the strict sense of the word as the faith of a martyr or a doctor." On this Hare remarks : "This belief is not faith. To many persons, indeed, it may appear that this is little more than a dispute about words ; that we use the worCi faith in one sense, and the Romanist in another, and that it is not worth wliile to argue about the matter. But when we call to mind how great are the power and the bless- ings promised to faith bj' tlie Gospel, it surel}' is a question of the highest moment whether that power and those blessings belong to a lifeless, inert, inani- mate notion, or to a living, energetic principle. This is the great controversy between Romanism and Pro- testantism. Their stay is the opiis nperatum, omsjides operans — faith, the gift of God, ajiprehending him through Christ, renewing the whole man, and becom- ing the living spring of his feelings, and thoughts, and actions" (Contest uith Rome, note I). A letter of Bun- sen's in 1840 illustrates the Roman idea of faith, as it had taken root in the mind of J. II. Newman before he •went over to Rome. A pastor in Antwerp (named Spurlein) was troubled about einscopal ordination, and came to England for light. He M-as invited to break- fast at Newman's, and found him and a number of his friends ready to hear him. " He unburdened his heart to them, and they gave their decision — the verdict of a Newmanic jury on a case of conscience, viz. that ' Pas- tor Sporleni, as a Continental Christian, was subject to the authority of the bishop of Antwerp.' He objected that by that bishop he would be excommunicated as a heretic. ' Of course ; but you will conform to his decis- ion.' ' How can I do that,' exclaimed Sporlein, ' with- out abjuring my faith?' 'But your faith is heresy.' ' How ? Do you mean that I am to embrace the er- rors of Rome, and to alijure the faith of the Gospel .'' ' There is no faith but that of tlie Church.' ' But my faith is in Christ crucified.' ' You are mistaken ; you are not saved bj' Christ, but by tlie Church' " {Memoir of Bunsen, by his AVidow, London, 1868, i, 614).
(IV.) Later Protestantism. — 1. Whatever minor dif- ferences may have arisen in Protestant theology as to faith, all evangelical theologians agree in the follow- ing points : 1. That saving faith not onlj- recognises the supernatural, but also accepts and trusts ahsolittdif on Jesus Christ, tlie Son of God, as Saviour ; 2. that this saving power is the gift of God ; 3. that it invari- ably brings forth good works ; 4. that the faith which appropriates the merits of Christ must be a living faith; 5. that it is not the faith, nor the vitality of the faith, which justilies and saves man, but it is tlie ol- ject of the faith, i. e. the merits of Christ the Redeem- er, and therefore that it is an error to attach a saving quality to any merelj' sulijective faith. The earlier Reformers and Confessions made assnrance an essen- tial part of saving faith, but this doctrine was not long held. See Assurance; Justification.