47. What is the hope of which this futile passion of yours is in pursuit? What is the assurance of your salvation which emboldens you with blasphemous licence of tongue to maintain that Christ is a creature, and not a Son? It was your duty to know this mystery, from the Gospels, and to hold the knowledge fast. For though the Lord can do all things, yet He resolved that every one who prays for His effectual help must earn it by a true confession of Himself. Not, indeed, that the suppliant’s confession could augment the power of Him, Who is the Power of God; but the earning was to be the reward of faith. So, when He asked Martha, who was entreating Him for Lazarus, whether she believed that they who had believed in Him should not die eternally, her answer expressed the trust of her soul;—Yea, Lord, I believe that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, Who art come into this world328    St. John xi. 27.. This confession is eternal life; this faith has immortality. Martha, praying for her brother’s life, was asked whether she believed this. She did so believe. What life does the denier expect, from whom does he hope to receive it, when this belief, and this only, is eternal life? For great is the mystery of this faith, and perfect the blessedness which is the fruit of this confession.

47. Ad sanitatem merendam fides filii Dei praeexigitur. ---Quas, oro, spes, inanis furor, expetis? Et qua 0195B salutis tuae fiducia creaturam esse Christum potius quam filium blasphemo ore contendis? Oportuerat te ex Evangeliis nosse ac tenere fidei hujus sacramentum. Nam cum Dominus possit omnia, tamen in unoquoque eorum, qui orabant operationis suae effectum, meritum esse voluit confessionis. Neque enim ei virtutem, qui Dei Virtus est, confessio orantis addebat: sed fidei erat praemium, hoc mereri. Namque cum Martham rogantem pro Lazaro interrogavit, an eos qui in se credidissent mori non crederet in aeternum, ad illa conscientiae suae fidem elocuta est dicens, Utique, Domine, ego credidi quia tu es Christus filius Dei, qui in hunc mundum venisti (Joan. XI, 17); confessio haec aeternitas est, et fides ista non moritur. Martha deprecans fratris sui vitam, interrogata an ita 0195C crederet, ita credidit. Quam, rogo, vel a quo vitam exspectat hoc denegans, cum sola sit vita sic credere? Magnum est enim fidei hujus sacramentum, et perfecta confessionis istius beatitudo est.