THIS is precisely “the faith of the creed.” It is of themselves and not of God. And being only of themselves, it is impotent to bring to them any virtue to change the life; it is powerless to work in them any good. Being incapable of working, it is a faith that is dead. And those who hold it, realising that it is lifeless and so unable to do anything for them, are obliged to give it the appearance of life by doing great things for it in the multiplication of dead works. For works that are not of faith, that are not wrought by the faith itself, are dead works. They are worse than valueless, for “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Any faith that is not able to itself to produce, to work, but works of God in him who professes it, is a dead faith. It is “the faith of the creed.” It is the “faith” of the devils. It is the “faith” of the Papacy. And when such “faith” is passed off for Christianity, it is the mystery of iniquity, wherever it is found. And therefore it is that the Scripture, immediately after describing this “faith” of the devils, exclaims: “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” And then cites Abraham and calls to all, “Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?” James 2:20, 22. Thus the works by which faith was made perfect, were wrought by the faith itself. When the faith is living, the works of faith appear just as certainly as when the tree is living the fruit appears in its season.BEST June 17, 1895, page 187.1

The only thing that will be accepted in the judgment is works. The only works that will be accept in the judgment are works of righteousness. And the only righteousness that will be accepted or countenanced in any way whatever in the judgment is the righteousness of God. And this righteousness is a free gift to men, and is wrought in man by faith alone—“even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference.”BEST June 17, 1895, page 187.2

It is true that “the church” says that “this faith,” “the faith of the creed,” this faith of the devils, “leads to trusting in Christ, and to all other virtues.” But it is a notable fact that it has not done this for the devils. And it is just as notable and just as apparent that “this faith” has not, in all these hundreds of years, led the Catholic Church to trusting in Christ nor to any other virtues.BEST June 17, 1895, page 166.1

FAITH ILLUSTRATED

Rome gives an illustration to show the difference between the faith of Christ and “the faith of the creed,” and here it is:—BEST June 17, 1895, page 166.2

“To show the unfairness of taking the word faith, occurring in the Holy Scripture, in this new Protestant sense of trust in Christ for pardon, to the exclusion of any other dispositions or means, and not in the Catholic sense of belief in revealed truths, ... allow me to use the following illustration: Suppose a man afflicted with a grave disease sends for a physician of repute. The physician comes and prescribes, and to inspire the patient with more confidence, tells him, ‘Only believe in me and you will be cured.’ Can we suppose that the poor sufferer, on the departure of the physician, would say: ‘I shall take no medicine, for the physician said: Only believe and you will be cured?’ This way of reasoning and acting seems impossible to be adopted in regard to the cure of the body, but respecting the cure of the soul it is an unhappy matter of fact that thousands of persons fall into this sad mistake.—Catholic Belief, pp. 374, 375.BEST June 17, 1895, page 166.3

Now there is not the least doubt that this statement perfectly illustrates the difference between the faith of Christ and Catholic faith, for it proceeds altogether upon the view that there is no more power or virtue in the word of God than there is in the word of a man; that the word of Christ, the heavenly Physician, has no more power to cure than has the word of an earthly physician. And that is indeed just the difference between true faith, the faith of God, and Catholic faith, “the faith of the creed.”BEST June 17, 1895, page 166.4

THE FAITH A POWER TO WORK

True faith finds in the word of God, the word of the heavenly Physician, the living, creative, power of God to accomplish all that that word says. When the centurion asked Jesus to cure his sick servant, Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.” But the centurion said, “Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.” And Jesus himself decided this to be “faith,” and even “so great faith” as he had not found in Israel, and then said to the centurion, “Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.” Matthew 8:5-13.BEST June 17, 1895, page 166.5

A nobleman also came to Jesus beseeching him: “Sir, come down ere my child die. Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.” And when the man neared his home “his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth; and himself believed, and his whole house.” John 4:46-53.BEST June 17, 1895, page 166.6

This is faith, genuine faith. It finds in the word of God itself all sufficiency to accomplish all that the word expresses. And over and over again, in fact in all the cases recorded in the New Testament, it was believing the word spoken and thus receiving the power of that word to accomplish of itself the thing that was spoken—it was this faith that healed the sick, restored the palsied, made the impotent to talk, and forgave the sinner. This is believing God. This is faith.BEST June 17, 1895, page 166.7

But when the word of God is held to be as powerless as the word of a man; when the word of Jesus Christ is held to be as empty of healing virtue as is the word of a mere human physician; when the word of the living God is thus reduced to the level of the word of men, and to all intents and purposes is received as the word of men, and the words of men themselves, formulated into a creed, are really put in the place of the word of God; then such belief, such faith, is only of themselves and is as powerless and as empty of saving virtue as are the men themselves. It is the same story over again, of the effort of men to save themselves by themselves from themselves. And this “faith” that is altogether from men themselves, that stands only in the words and wisdom of men, this “faith of the creed” that is identical with the “faith” of the devils—this, by her own showing, by her own boast, and by her own illustration, is the faith of the Catholic Church. Very good. We accept her showing in the case. Undoubtedly it is the truth. The illustration is perfectly satisfactory.BEST June 17, 1895, page 166.8

June 10, 1895

June 24, 1895