he was told that there was "impatience"
in the very idea of desiring certainty.

At another time he asked whether the anathemas of the Athanasian Creed
applied to all its clauses; for instance, whether it is necessary to
salvation to hold that there is "_unus aeternus_" as the Latin has it; or
"such as the Father, ... such the Holy Ghost;" or that the Holy Ghost
is "by Himself God and Lord;" or that Christ is one "by the taking of
the manhood into God?" He could get no answer. Mr. Upton said that he
did not like extreme questions; that he could not and did not wish to
answer them; that the Creed was written against heresies, which no
longer existed, as a sort of _protest_. Reding asked whether this meant
that the Creed did not contain a distinctive view of its own, which
alone was safe, but was merely a negation of error. The clauses, he
observed, were positive, not negative. He could get no answer farther
than that the Creed taught that the doctrines of "the Trinity" and "the
Incarnation" were "necessary to salvation," it being apparently left
uncertain _what_ those doctrines consisted in. One day he asked how
grievous sins were to be forgiven which were committed after baptism,
whether by faith, or not at all in this life. He was answered that the
Articles said nothing on the subject; that the Romish doctrine of pardon
and purgatory was false; and that it was well to avoid both curious
questions and subtle answers.

Another question turned up at another lecture, viz. whether the Real
Presence meant a Presence of Christ in the elements, or in the soul,
i.e. in the faith of the recipient; in other words, whether the Presence
was really such, or a mere name. Mr. Upton pronounced it an open
question. Another day Charles asked whether Christ was present in fact,
or only in effect. Mr. Upton answered decidedly "in effect," which
seemed to Reding to mean no real presence at all.

He had had some difficulty in receiving the doctrine of eternal
punishment; it had seemed to him the hardest doctrine of Revelation.
Then he said to himself, "But what is faith in its very notion but an
acceptance of the word of God when reason seems to oppose it? How is it
faith at all if there is nothing to try it?" This thought fully
satisfied him. The only question was, _Is_ it part of the revealed word?
"I can believe it," he said, "if I know for certain that I _ought_ to
believe it; but if I am not bound to believe it, I can't believe it."