Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Faith a Thing of the Heart, Not of the Body; How It is Common and One and the Same in All Believers. The Faith of Believers is One, No Otherwise than the Will of Those Who Will is One.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter 2.—Faith a
Thing of the Heart, Not of the Body; How It is Common and One and
the Same in All Believers. The Faith of Believers is One, No
Otherwise than the Will of Those Who Will is One.
5. But faith, of which we are
compelled, by reason of the arrangement of our subject, to dispute
somewhat more at length in this book: faith I say, which they who
have are called the faithful, and they who have not, unbelievers,
as were those who did not receive the Son of God coming to His own;
although it is wrought in us by hearing, yet does not belong to
that sense of the body which is called hearing, since it is not a
sound; nor to the eyes of this our flesh, since it is neither color
nor bodily form; nor to that which is called touch, since it has
nothing of bulk; nor to any sense of the body at all, since it is a
thing of the heart, not of the body; nor is it without apart from
us, but deeply seated within us; nor does any man see it in
another, but each one in himself. Lastly, it is a thing that can
both be feigned by pretence, and be thought to be in him in whom it
is not. Therefore every one sees his own faith in himself; but does
not see, but believes, that it is in another; and believes this the
more firmly, the more he knows the fruits of it, which faith is
wont to work by love.795
And therefore this faith is common
to all of whom the evangelist subjoins, “But as many as received
Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God;”
common I say, not as any form of a bodily object is common, as
regards sight, to the eyes of all to whom it is present, for in
some way the gaze of all that behold it is informed by the same one
form; but as the human countenance can be said to be common to all
men; for this is so said that yet each certainly has his own. We
say certainly with perfect truth, that the faith of believers is
impressed from one doctrine upon the heart of each several person
who believes the same thing. But that which is believed is a
different thing from the faith by which it is believed. For the
former is in things which are said either to be, or to have been or
to be about to be; but the latter is in the mind of the believer,
and is visible to him only whose it is; although not indeed itself
but a faith like it, is also in others. For it is not one in
number, but in kind; yet on account of the likeness, and the
absence of all difference, we rather call it one than many. For
when, too, we see two men exceedingly alike, we wonder, and say
that both have one countenance. It is therefore more easily said
that the souls were many,—a several soul, of course, for each
several person—of whom we read in the Acts of the Apostles, that
they were of one soul,796
—than it is, where the apostle
speaks of “one faith,”797
for any one to venture to say that
there are as many faiths as there are faithful. And yet He who
says, “O woman, great is thy faith;”798
and to another, “O thou of little
faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”799
intimates that each has his own
faith. But the like faith of believers is said to be one, in the
same way as a like will of those who will is said to be one; since
in the case also of those who have the same will, the will of each
is visible to himself, but that of the other is not visible,
although he wills the same thing; and if it intimate itself by any
signs, it is believed rather than seen. But each being conscious of
his own mind certainly does not believe, but manifestly sees
outright, that this is his own will.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
