Faith And Salvation

Secundo quaesisti loco, utrum sola sufficiat ad salutem fides et unitae scientia trinitatis. In rebus divinis non solum credendi ratio requiritur, sed placendi. Fides ergo nuda meritis inanis et vacua est, sicut apostolis dicit: quid prodest, si fidem quis dicat se habere, opera autem non habeat? Numquid potest fides servare eum? Sequitur enim et dicit: Fides, si non habeat opera, mortua est in semet ipsa. Sed dicit quis: tu fidem habes et ego opera habeo; ostende mihi fidem tuam sine operius et ego ostendam tibi ex operibus fidem meam. Secundum haec sufficere per se sola credulitas non probatur. Name Deum scire et credere etiam diabolus invenitur, sicit idem Apostolus dicit: Tu credis, quoniam unus est Deus, benefacis, nam et daemones credunt et contremiscunt. Vis autem scire, O Homo inanis, quoniam fides sine operibus mortua est? Abraham pater noster nonne ex operibus iustificatus est? Et ne spem nostram in sola fidei parte ponamus, ita conclusit: sicut enim corpus sine spiritu mortuum est, ita et fides sine operibus mortua est, sine quibus inanem esse hominem dixit. Multum similum testimoniorum studio brevitatis omittimus. Apostolos Paulus, de cuius pectore quasi de templo suo Dominus loquebatur, numquid solam fidem sibi iudicavit ad superanda mundi mala posse conpetere ita dicens: Castigo corpus meum et in servitutem redigo, ne forte, cum aliis praedicavero, ipse reprobus efficiar? Ecce per vitia corporis reprobus fieri metuit, iam probatus per mortifera carnalium contagia passionum vas contumeliae fieri pertimescit, qui iam vas electionis effectus est. Sanctus Faustus Reiensis, Epistula V, To Paulinus Source: Fausti Reiensis Praeter sermones...184.24

Your second question is whether faith alone suffices for salvation and knowledge of the united Trinity. In things Divine not only is the matter of belief required, but pleasing. Faith, therefore, stripped of merits is inane and empty, as the Apostle says: 'What does it profit, if someone says he has faith and he has not works? Is his faith able to protect him?' 1 And continuing he says: 'Faith if it have not works is dead in itself. But someone says: 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith without works and I shall show to you my faith from my works.' 2 According to these things let it suffice that belief alone does not satisfy. For even the devil is found to know and believe God, as indeed the Apostle says: 'You believe that God is one, you do well, for even the demons believe and tremble. Do you wish to know, O empty man, that faith without works is dead? Was Abraham our father not justified by works?' 3 And lest we place our hope in faith alone, so he concludes: 'As the body without the spirit is dead, so even faith without works is dead,' 4 without which he names a man empty. The support of many similar witnesses I omit on account of brevity. But the Apostle Paul, speaking on the heart as the temple of the Lord, does he indicate that faith alone was able to overcome the evils of the world, when he says: 'I discipline my body and I bring it into subjection, lest perhaps when I preach to others, I make myself a cause of reproach?' 5 See that through the faults of the body he fears to become a reproach, one already approved yet fearing through the death-bearing influence of the flesh's passions to be become a vase of disgrace, who had been made a vase of election. 6 Saint Faustus of Riez, from Letter 5, To Paulinus 1 Jam 2.14 2 Jam 2.17-18 3 Jam 2.19-21 4 Jam 2.26 5 1 Cor 9.27 6 Rom 9.21