2. Real faith is nothing else than an acknowledgment that a thing is so because it is true. For someone who possesses a real faith thinks and says, "This is true. Therefore I believe it." For faith is a faith in the truth, and truth is the object of faith.

By the same token, if the same person does not understand a thing to be true, he says, "I do not know whether it is true. Therefore I do not yet believe it. How am I to believe what I do not comprehend? Perhaps it is not true."

343. [335.] 1) What faith is.

2) That there is a conjunction of faith with good works, there being as much faith as there is life.

3) That life is the soul of faith.

4) That faith by itself is not faith, being lifeless.

5) That it is the dragon, ¹ that it is the he-goat, ² that it is Philistia, that it is Cain, that it is Reuben.

6) What faith is, that it is truth.

7) How sterile it is at the present time and not constituting religion.

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