Annotation CXCI

”Himself believed, and his whole house.” — John 4:53

Michael Medina, defending against Soto’s reprehensions the exposition of John Ferus adduced here, writes thus: “HERE Ferus, after many [things] excellently noted, had taught that a certain mystery lies hidden here — [namely] that the Evangelist, narrating the faith of the ruler [centurio], related nothing of the faith of the rest of the Capernaites; just as, after the miracle of the turning of water into wine, the faith of the disciples alone is related, when it is said, ‘And his disciples believed in him.’ He judges that in these passages the fewness of the true faithful is intimated, and that it is taught [that] true faith is [only] a settled [rata] [faith]. ‘The greater part,’ he says, ‘even if it see and hear, yet remains in sin.’” These words Dominic Soto interprets (as is his wont) [as] a Lutheran error, and believes the Author here approves [the notion] whereby it is said that no sinner truly believes; and so he says: “He seems here to repeat the error [namely] that no one of those who is in sins truly believes — assuredly, since he explains the fewness of those who truly believe in no other way than by saying that there are [those] who, even if they see and hear, yet remain in sins, as if he should say [that] therefore they do not believe, because they remain in sins.” Thus far he [Soto].

But what faith is called the true faith of Christ and of all Christians, we have shown in the preceding [pages] by manifold reasoning. For the true faith is [the faith] of Christian truth, of which we Christians always speak, which — since it consists together with a fervent and efficacious love — always, if it can, goes forth into works, and, in fine, [is] that [faith] which Paul calls the [faith] working¹ through love. Hence the Christian reader gathers that sinners, who, remaining obstinate, do not live by the Christian discipline, in no way have true faith — since they are destitute of love, which is the other part of Christian faith. As, therefore, they are not true Christians, so neither do they possess in themselves the true Christian faith, which not only shuns sins, but produces the fruits of eternal salvation. But lest that barren faith which is called “demonic” be retained whole by these [men]: for obstinate and hardened sinners do not seem to have any reckoning of the other life, nor to believe for certain that God’s justice will be severe against sinful men. For they do believe, but with a certain languid and nerveless faith which — as we have said in the preceding — in men of this sort degenerates into the nature of [mere] opinion. For assuredly it belongs to the nature of faith [to have] the certitude of the divine promises and threats — which certitude such sinners have little of, or none. But the un-evident knowledge which remains in them, being destitute of certitude, passes over into the nature of opinion, as we said in the preceding — not that I teach that a barren and unformed faith is formally extinguished by sin (which the Lutheran madness teaches), but that, by the obstinacy of sins (which sometimes grows languid, and is turned into a worse opinion), nay sometimes, quite pressed down by the magnitude of sins, [it comes] to vanish. Therefore, even if the Author had openly said that none of those who is in sins truly believes, he would have wounded nothing of the catholic decrees of faith — although he would wound Soto, who [thereby] betrays that he is ignorant of these Christian manners of speaking; and it ought to have been marked that the Author was speaking of these obstinate [sinners], since he did not say [absolutely that] whoever is in sin does not truly believe, but [of those] in sins — according to the manner of speaking by which we understand many [men to be] defiled by the filth of sins.