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Show What Is Faith? What is faith? We answer, in the words of the great Cardinal Newman, who gives the following definition, or rather description, of the first of the theological virtues: "Faith is not a mere conviction in reason: it is a firm assent. It is a clear certainty, greater than any other certainty; cer-tainty; and this is wrought in the mind by the grace of God. and by it alone. As. then, men may be eoinvinced, and not act according to their conviction, so may they be convinced and not believe be-lieve according to their conviction. They may confess that the argument is against them, that they have nothing to say for themselves, and that to believe be-lieve is to be happy; and yet. after all, they avow they cannot believe, they do not know why, but they cannot; they acquiesce in unbelief, and they turn away from God and His church. Their reason is convinced, and their doubts are moral ones, arising in the root from a fault of the will. "In a word, the arguments for religion reli-gion do not compel any one to believe, just as arguments for good conduct to not compel any one to obey. Obedience is the consequence of willing to obey, and faith is the consequence of willing will-ing to believe; we may see what is right, whether in matters of faith or obedience," of ourselves, but we cannot will what is right without the grace of God. Here is the difference between other exercises of reason and arguments argu-ments for the truth of religion. It requires no act of faith to assent to the truth that two and two make four; we cannot help assenting to it, and hence there is no merit in believing that the church is from God: for though there are abundant reason to prove it to us, yet we can, without an absurdity, absurd-ity, quarrel with the conclusion; we may complain that it is not clearer: we may doubt it, if we will; and grace alone can turn a bad will into a good one." |