Faith as a habit is, accordingly, infused in baptism or in justification, and renders us capable of eliciting acts of faith (148); not, however, in the sense that as soon as the child comes to the use of reason acts of faith are spontaneously elicited by him. On the contrary, even to the baptized the revealed truths which they are to believe must be proposed, and they, too, must have evidences adapted to their capacity that God has spoken, in order that under the influence of actual grace they may elicit an act of faith in any given truth. But in the case of the baptized the acts of faith do not proceed from actual grace only, as is the case with those who have not yet received the grace of sanctification; they proceed also from the infused virtue of faith as from an inherent, supernatural faculty.

Inasmuch as we understand by faith not only divinė but also Catholic faith-that faith which we owe not only to God, but also to the Church (71)—we may describe it as a virtue whereby we hold as true what God has revealed and the Catholic Church proposes to our belief.

233. Faith is necessary for salvation, not merely in virtue of a divine precept, but also of its nature--as a necessary means of salvation.

That which is necessary in virtue of a divine precept is necessary for him only who knows of the existence of such precept. But what is necessary of itself, or of its own nature, is necessary also for him to whom the existence of the precept is unknown. That which is of itself necessary for salvation is also commanded by God by the very reason of its necessity. The necessity of faith imposed upon us by divine precept extends to all that God has revealed; that which rests upon the nature of faith extends only to certain fundamental truths (cf. 163, 179, 192, 208).

1. Faith is necessary in virtue of a divine precept. (a) That man is bound to accept a given revelation recognized as such has been already shown (8). But a revelation is accepted through faith, since faith is nothing else than the assent of the understanding on the authority of God (222). (b) By the very fact that the apostles and their successors in the teachingoffice have been commissioned to preach the gospel as the word of God to all men (41), all are bound to accept it as such. But to accept the teaching of the gospel as God's word is to believe it on the authority of God. (c) The obligation to believe is, moreover, expressly inculcated by Christ: "He that believeth not shall be condemned" (Mark xvi. 16).

2. Faith is, moreover, necessary of its very nature, as a means of salvation-in other words, every adult, whether he

has already received the grace of justification in baptism or not, must actually and explicitly believe certain truths in order to attain to salvation. (a) This is the express teaching of the Apostle. "By faith Henoch was translated, ... for before his translation he had testimony that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and is a rewarder to them that seek Him" (Heb. xi. 5, 6). The divine complacence and faith are here put on the same level; both are considered as equally necessary; but without the divine complacence, without the adoption of the children of God, it is absolutely impossible to be saved; therefore, without faith it is equally impossible to be saved. (b) Moreover, man cannot rationally direct his actions towards his last end unless it is known to him. But as our last end is supernatural it can be known only through faith (7); therefore, faith is of itself necessary. (c) Eternal happiness is to be merited as a reward (153). But in order that our actions may be fit to merit a supernatural reward they must be supernatural themselves; for the means must be proportioned to the end. But our actions are made supernatural by grace and by faith (226). (d) Justification, or sanctifying grace, is doubtless absolutely necessary for salvation. But, according to the Council of Trent (Sess. VI. c. 8), faith is the "beginning of salvation and the foundation and root of justification." Therefore, according to the teaching of the sacred council, faith is absolutely necessary as a means of justification for every one who has attained the use of reason.

As may be seen from the words of the Apostle above cited (Heb. xi. 6), that faith which is absolutely necessary as a means of salva Sion must extend to these two truths: that there is a God, and that He is our supernatural rewarder.

By that faith which is necessary for salvation is understood faith in the strict sense of the word-the assent of the understanding on the authority of God. Therefore a conviction resting upon natural revelation, or the light of reason, that there is a God is not suffi cient for salvation. For the Apostle, where he speaks of the necessity of faith, evidently refers to faith in the strict sense, as is manifest from the context. The arguments advanced prove this same truth. Since God desires the salvation of all we must suppose that He in

some way gives also to the heathens means sufficient to enable them to come to the faith, and that it is only by their own fault that they are excluded from the light of faith (145).

234. Faith of its very nature must be universal, and firm above every other conviction; to attain its end it must also be a living faith, viz., enlivened by good works.

I. Of its very nature faith requires universality and absolute firmness.

1. Universality. Faith is universal when it extends to all that God has revealed and the Church proposes for our belief.

A truth may be believed explicitly or implicitly. That truth is believed explicitly which is expressly known and believed in itself. A truth is believed only implicitly if it is not known and believed expressly in itself, but as contained in another truth; for instance, we explicitly believe that God is our supernatural rewarder; in this truth is implicitly contained and believed that our everlasting happiness consists in the beatific vision. We believe explicitly that the Church has been instituted by God as the supreme teacher of revelation; in this truth is contained that the Church is infallible in its definitions; therefore the latter is implicitly believed in the former.

a. Our duty towards God and towards the Church imposes upon us the obligation of faith. God is the infallible truth; the Church is our God appointed teacher. Every one must, therefore, be prepared, as soon as he has recognized by revela tion that God is his supernatural rewarder, to submit to every other truth contained in revelation; for the same infinite truthfulness of God that moved him to believe the first truth is no less the motive of assenting to every other truth of revelation. Every one, moreover, who has recognized the Church as his God given teacher must be ready to accept whatever the Church may teach, since it propose ery truth with the same infallible certainty. Therefore every one must, in the first truth which he has learned and believed, implicitly believe every other revealed truth; and whoever has once recognized the Church as the divinely commissioned. teacher of man must be prepared to accept all dogmas proposed by it; in other words, every one is bound implicitly to believe all the truths revealed by God and proposed by the Church. Should he make one exception he would thereby

deny the supreme ruthfulness of God and tue infailibility promised to the Church.

b. Every truth revealed by God and proposed by the Church, as soon as it becomes known to us, must be explicitly believed By every revealed truth God speaks to us, to the end that we may believe and submit our understanding to Him. In every definition, on the other hand, the Church confronts us as the vicegerent of God; the exercise of the infallible teaching. office on the part of the Church supposes the obligation o submission on our part.

The assumption that revelation contains some truths which are to be believed as fundamental articles, and others which may be denied, or at least regarded as indifferent, is, therefore, repugnant to the nature of faith and revelation. We may speak of fundamental dogmas only in so far as certain truths form the foundation upon which others rest. Thus, for instance, upon the doctrine of original sin rests the dogma of the necessity of redemption. The necessity of believing certain truths may be said to be greater or less in this sense, that faith in some is required not only in virtue of a divine precept, but also as a means of salvation (233), or in the sense that the knowledge and, accordingly, the explicit belief of certain truths is of greater importance for Christian life.

2. Firmness. Faith must be proportioned to the motive upon which it rests; it must have the same firmness as the motive itself. But the motive of faith is the authority of God. As certain, therefore, as it is that God cannot deceiva us, nor be deceived Himself, so firm must be our faith.

Faith is, therefore, firmer than the certainty produced by the evidences (motiva credibilitatis) upon which rests our religion as a divine revelation (22 sq.). As soon as the certainty is obtained that God has spoken, the will, aroused and sustained by grace, moves the understanding to elicit, not on the motives of credibility, but on the authority of God (motivum fidei), the act of faith, which comprises at once the object and the motive, and conceives the truth as revealed by God. The certainty that God has spoken is a necessary condition for the assent of faith, which is elicited on the divine authority. Thus, for instance, we accept on the authority of a historian those facts recorded by him, but the certainty that said historian is the author of the work is a necessary condition for our believing the historian himself. Since the motive of our faith-the authority of God-is absolutely certain, our faith is also absolutely certain, although the evidences of the divinity of revelation effect only moral certitude (9).

With this firmness and constancy of faith is not incompatible an

investigation of the grounds upon which our faith rests, provided only faith itself is not interrupted or suspended. The Catholic is, therefore, at liberty to examine the grounds of his faith, while at the same time he continues to believe; he is not free, however, to discontinue his belief with a view to examine the grounds of his faith, and then to decide whether he is to continue to believe or not. For, since the grounds upon which the truth of the Catholic religion rests are absolutely certain, and since God, who has imposed the obligation of faith, continues to give His grace for its fulfilment, it follows that such interruption of faith would not only be irrational, but would also be a grave violation of duty and an outrage against the all-truthful God. The case is different with those who belong to a non Catholic sect. For, in the first place, there is no sufficient evidence for the divinity of such a sect and for the truth of its specific doctrine, as in the case of the Catholic Church and its teaching; nor does God, on the other hand, give His grace to men to persevere in error, but rather to seek the truth (Vat. de fide III. can. 6).

Notwithstanding the firmness and constancy of faith and the certainty of the motives of credibility, yet faith remains a free act (Vat. de fide III. can. 5). For the understanding has always the power to regard rather the obscurity connected with faith than the light which shines forth from the motives of credibility. Moreover, the will is free to move the understanding either, in accordance with divine grace, to assent to the truth, or, contrary to the influence of grace, to withhold its assent. Hence it is that pride, vain curiosity, infidel and godless reading, etc., pervert the understanding, while vice is commonly the cause why the will rebels against that restraint which faith imposes upon the passions. Moreover, the neglect of religious duties takes away that true devotion of the heart which strengthens and sustains the will; and thus grace, without which faith cannot be preserved, is likewise diminished.

II. Faith in regard to its end must be living and efficacious. Living and efficacious is that faith which moves us to do what it prescribes, or which is connected with good works; otherwise it is called a dead faith. "For even as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead" (James ii. 26). Faith teaches us that God is our end. However important this knowledge is in itself, it is not, however, sufficient for salvation; for with the necessary knowledge must be combined the earnest endeavor to reach our end, and, consequently, the use of the necessary means to this effect (231).

A dead faith, however, although it is not sufficient for salvation, is still an inestimable good; for it continues to be the foundation of salvation and the root of justification. Therefore a man