fact stood?"

"Did you do so this morning at breakfast?" asked Freeborn.

"I did not suspect my bread," answered Charles.

"Then why suspect faith?" asked Freeborn.

"Because it is, so to say, a new substance,"--Freeborn sighed,--"because
I am not used to it, nay, because I suspect it. I must say _suspect_ it;
because, though I don't know much about the matter, I know perfectly
well, from what has taken place in my father's parish, what excesses
this doctrine may lead to, unless it is guarded. You say that it is a
doctrine for the poor; now they are very likely to mistake one thing for
another; so indeed is every one. If, then, we are told, that we have but
to apprehend Christ's merits, and need not trouble ourselves about
anything else; that justification has taken place, and works will
follow; that all is done, and that salvation is complete, while we do
but continue to have faith; I think we ought to be pretty sure that we
_have_ faith, real faith, a real apprehension, before we shut up our
books and make holiday."

Freeborn was secretly annoyed that he had got into an argument, or
pained, as he would express it, at the pride of Charles's natural man,
or the blindness of his carnal reason; but there was no help for it, he
must give him an answer.

"There are, I know, many kinds of faith," he said; "and of course you
must be on your guard against mistaking false faith for true faith. Many
persons, as you most truly say, make this mistake; and most important is
it, all important I should say, to go right. First, it is evident that
it is not mere belief in facts, in the being of a God, or in the
historical event that Christ has come and gone. Nor is it the submission
of the reason to mysteries; nor, again, is it that sort of trust which
is required for exercising the gift of miracles. Nor is it knowledge and
acceptance of the contents of the Bible. I say, it is not knowledge, it
is not assent of the intellect, it is not historical faith, it is not
dead faith: true justifying faith is none of these--it is seated in the
heart and affections." He paused, then added: "Now, I suppose, for
practical purposes, I have described pretty well what justifying faith
is."

Charles hesitated: "By describing what it is _not_, you mean," said he;
"justifying faith, then, is, I suppose, living faith."

"Not so fast," answered Freeborn.

"Why," said Charles, "if it's not dead faith, it's living faith."

"It's neither dead fai