Justification consisting in the Presence of Christ within us, and that Presence manifesting itself in newness of heart and conduct, the question arises, where, under such a view of the doctrine, Faith is found, what is its position, what are its bearings upon the points already settled, and how are its claims satisfied as acknowledged in our Formularies? This is the subject which shall now engage our attention.
Our eleventh Article says that “we are justified by Faith only;” agreeably with which we are told in the Homily on the Passion, that Faith is the one mean and instrument of justification. “As it profiteth a man nothing,” says its very perspicuous author, “to have salve, unless it be well applied to the part affected, so the death of Christ shall stand us in no force, unless we apply it to ourselves in such sort as God hath appointed. Almighty God commonly worketh by means, and in this thing He has also ordained a certain mean whereby we may take fruit and profit to our souls’ health. What mean is that? forsooth it is faith. Not an unconstant or wavering faith, but a sure, stedfast, grounded, and unfeigned faith. ‘God sent His Son into the world,’ says St. John. To what end? ‘That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have life everlasting.’ Mark these words, ‘that whosoever believeth in Him.’ Here is the mean, whereby we must apply the fruits of Christ’s death unto our deadly wound. Here is the mean, whereby we must obtain eternal life, namely faith.” Then, after quoting other texts of Scripture, he continues, “By this, then, we may well perceive that the only mean and instrument of salvation required on our parts is faith, that is to say, a sure trust and confidence in the mercies of God.” He adds, towards the end of the homily, “Let us, then, use that mean which God hath appointed in His word, to wit, the mean of faith, which is the only instrument of salvation now left unto us. Let us stedfastly behold Christ crucified with the eyes of our heart;” and so he concludes in a very serious and impressive strain.
In the judgment, then, of this Homily, faith is certainly in some distinct and important sense the sole mean and instrument of justification. The question is, in what sense.
2.
Now, on the one hand, I observe, what all will allow, that the faith spoken of is not any faith, but a lively faith. This indeed is implied in the passage just quoted, which speaks as concerning “not an unconstant or wavering faith, but a sure, stedfast, grounded, and unfeigned faith.” Faith which does not trust, as the devil’s faith,—or faith which does not love, though it could “remove mountains,“—or faith which cannot work, such as his to whom “to will is present,” but “not to perform that which is good,“—all such faith does not justify. It is, then, not mere faith, but faith under certain circumstances or conditions, faith when it trusts, loves, and lives, a fruitful faith, which is the sole mean and instrument of justification.
On the other hand, I do not understand faith to be a general term, meaning nothing more or less than trust, love, life, and all other excellences of the new mind or creature together. When the Homily calls it “the sole mean,” it speaks by way of contrast with other graces. The writer would not call it the sole mean, if it were the sole grace. By faith is not meant religiousness generally, nor obedience, nor spiritual life, nor love, nor hope, nor trust; whatever is meant, something is meant distinct from all these. I do not deny that faith often stands for these in Scripture, in the Homilies themselves, and elsewhere; nay, I will not deny that the Homily before us, as being a popular discourse, does speak of faith, as if it were something more than faith, viz. trust, confidence, hope, and perseverance, because it is really inseparable from them, and one with them; still, when it is called the sole instrument of justification, it must stand in contrast with them, and be contemplated in itself as being one certain property, habit, or act, of the mind. This is explicitly stated by another Homily, when it says that faith “doth not shut out repentance, hope, love, dread, and the fear of God, to be joined with faith in every man that is justified; but it shutteth them out from the office of justifying.” 1
Here I draw an important conclusion; that the instrumental power of Faith cannot interfere with the instrumental power of Baptism; because Faith is the sole justifier, not in contrast to all means and agencies whatever, (for it is not surely in contrast to our Lord’s merits, or God’s mercy), but to all other graces. When, then, Faith is called the sole instrument, this means the sole internal instrument, not the sole instrument of any kind.