Faith's object is what God has revealed; Bellarmine misstates it; primary and secondary objects; explicit and implicit faith; revelation measures explicitness; implicit faith is no pretext for ignorance

But that the nature of faith may be more fully understood, it is necessary to discuss its object and subject, cause and effects a little more widely. And indeed from what has been said it is plain that the object of faith is the things that have been revealed by God, and insofar as they have been revealed by God. So that the material object of faith is the things contained in the word of God; but the formal object is the divine authority and truth itself.

Therefore Bellarmine does not dispute rightly against our writers, as though they altogether restricted the object of saving faith to the bare promise of remission of sins. For we set the object of that faith as not only the things promised in the Gospel, but also whatever else is taught, narrated, and commanded in the word of God. Which the Apostle teaches in Hebrews 11, where speaking of justifying faith he says that by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which appear (Hebrews 11:3). And likewise that Noah by faith believed the divine warning about the coming flood, by which, being moved with fear, he built an ark for the saving of his house (Hebrews 11:7).

But here it must be noted that not all things which are set before our faith belong equally to its object. For just as in the objects of the human sciences some things are those whose knowledge is chiefly intended, and those are called the principal object — as, for example, in Logic the syllogism and demonstration — while others are proposed only for the elucidation of those former things, and so that they may be known more easily and more richly, and these are the secondary and less principal object of the science: so also the matter stands in the doctrine of faith. For some things are set before faith primarily and chiefly, and some secondarily and less chiefly. Now that principal object is the things without which one cannot arrive at salvation, nor can life be rightly ordered: such as those called the articles of faith, summing up the mysteries of salvation, and also the divine precepts. But the word of God contains many other things which pertain only to the confirmation of those and to a fuller knowledge of them — as, for example, the various histories and miracles narrated in the Scriptures — and those are the secondary object of faith.

Further, the things that belong to the principal object of faith must be believed distinctly; for the rest it is enough if they are believed confusedly. Those things are believed distinctly which faith apprehends separately and one by one. And this is the faith which is called explicit. Confusedly, those which are not apprehended in particular, but only in some common principle in which they are contained: and this is the faith which they call implicit. For example, one who believes that the book of Judges is divinely inspired, and yet has not read it, nor heard anything from it recited: he indeed believes that the histories contained there are true, but implicitly and confusedly. But one who reads those histories, and knows one by one what is narrated in that book about Samson and Gideon and the other leaders of the Israelite people, has an explicit and distinct faith of them.

But since God has not at once and once for all manifested the whole doctrine of redemption and salvation to men, but in many ways and in many parts — and first more obscurely, then more clearly — it follows that according to the various differences of times faith ought to have been more or less explicit. For revelation is the measure of faith: and the more things are distinctly revealed, the more things faith must be extended to. And therefore from us, to whom the Gospel has been clearly made known, an explicit faith of many articles is required as necessary, for which under the Old Testament an implicit faith formerly sufficed.

But here too it must be observed that when we say an implicit faith of many things contained in the word of God is sufficient, this ought not to be taken as though it were praiseworthy to rest in any sort of knowledge of the principal heads of faith, and as though no fuller knowledge were to be sought. For although a distinct faith of a few articles is required as plainly necessary to salvation, yet this also is certain: that each person is bound to use every effort, according to the manner of his calling, to advance more and more in the doctrine of salvation, and to be more fully and richly instructed in the word of God. To which the Apostle diligently exhorts the faithful (Colossians 2:2 and 3:16). And therefore those gravely err and sin who, under the pretext of implicit faith, foster the stupid and crass ignorance of the people.