and the life;” because “no man cometh unto the Father,” who is the fountain of life, “but by him;”(1428) because he alone knows the Father, and reveals him to believers.(1429)
For this reason Paul asserts, that he esteemed nothing worthy of being known but Jesus Christ;(1430) and in the twentieth chapter of the Acts declares, that he had preached faith in Christ; and in another place, he introduces Christ speaking in the following manner: “I send thee unto the Gentiles, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith, that is in me.”(1431) This apostle tells us, that the glory of God is visible to us in his person, or (which conveys the same idea) that “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” shines “in his face.”(1432) It is true, that faith relates to the one God; but there must also be added a knowledge of Jesus Christ, whom he has sent.(1433) For God himself would be altogether concealed from us, if we were not illuminated by the brightness of Christ. For this purpose the Father has deposited all his treasures with his only begotten Son, that he might reveal himself in him; and that, by such a communication of blessings, he might express a true image of his glory. For as it has been observed, that we require to be drawn by the Spirit, that we may be excited to seek Christ, so we should also be apprized, that the invisible Father is to be sought only in this image. On which subject, Augustine, treating of the object of faith, beautifully remarks, “that we ought to know whither we should go, and in what way;” and immediately after he concludes, “that he who unites Deity and humanity in one person, is the way most secure from all errors; for that it is God towards whom we tend, and man by whom we go; but that both together can be found only in Christ.” Nor does Paul, when he speaks of faith in God, intend to subvert what he so frequently inculcates concerning faith, whose stability is wholly in Christ. And Peter most suitably connects them together, when he says, that “by him we believe in God.”(1434)
II. This evil, then, as well as innumerable others, must be imputed to the schoolmen, who have, as it were, concealed Christ, by drawing a veil over him; whereas, unless our views be immediately and steadily directed to him, we shall always be wandering through labyrinths without end. They not only, by their obscure definition, diminish, and almost annihilate, all the importance of faith, but have fabricated the notion of implicit faith, a term with which they have honoured the grossest ignorance, and most perniciously deluded the miserable multitude. Indeed, to express the fact more truly and plainly, this notion has not only buried the true faith in oblivion, but has entirely destroyed it. Is this faith—to understand nothing, but obediently to submit our understanding to the Church? Faith consists not in ignorance, but in knowledge; and that not only of God, but also of the Divine will. For we do not obtain salvation by our promptitude to embrace as truth whatever the Church may have prescribed, or by our transferring to her the province of inquiry and of knowledge. But when we know God to be a propitious Father to us, through the reconciliation effected by Christ, and that Christ is given to us for righteousness, sanctification, and life,—by this knowledge, I say, not by renouncing our understanding, we obtain an entrance into the kingdom of heaven. For, when the apostle says, that “with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation,”(1435) he indicates, that it is not sufficient for a man implicitly to credit what he neither understands, nor even examines; but he requires an explicit knowledge of the Divine goodness, in which our righteousness consists.