Faith the Title for Justification
a sermon by John Henry Newman
"Many shall come from the east and west, and shall
sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven."
Matt. viii. 11.
OUR Lord here says, what He frequently says elsewhere, that the Gentiles,
who were heretofore thought reprobate, should inherit the favour of God
with Abraham and the other patriarchs. Moreover, He says, that they would
gain that great privilege through faith; for the words immediately preceding
the text are, "Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith,"
that is, as that of the Centurion, "no, not in Israel;" then He adds, "and
I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and west, and shall
sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven."
St. Paul, it is scarcely necessary to observe, declares the same thing
most emphatically; so that he may be called the Apostle, as of the Gentiles,
so of faith:—as for instance, "the Scripture, foreseeing that God would
justify the heathen through faith, preached before the Gospel unto Abraham,
saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of
faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." [Gal. iii. 8,9.] In the history
of Cornelius's baptism, the same great truth is declared by St. Peter,
with some accidental variety of expression. "In every nation he that feareth
Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him." [Acts x. 35.]
Now here the question may be asked, and has been asked,—If all that
is necessary for acceptance with God be faith in Christ, how is Church
Communion, how are Sacraments, necessary? It is taught in Church, that
the grace of Christ is not a mere favourable regard with which He views
us, a mere state of acceptance and external imputation of His merits given
to faith, but that it is a real and spiritual principle residing in the
Church, and communicated from the Church into the heart of individuals,
and extended far and wide, according as they come for it to the Church,
and diffused all over the earth by their joining the Church. This is what
is taught by the Church itself of its own gift; and the question is, How
is this consistent with the impression legitimately produced on the mind
by such passages of Scripture as the text and others such as I have cited?
They seem to speak as if the great gift of Christ were His favourable account
of us, and the means of it were faith; whereas we seem to speak of it as
being an inward renewal in us, and of the means of it being an union with
the Church. They seem to speak of it as what any one may gain for himself;
and have by himself; we speak of it as a certain benefit, one and the same
for all, gained by coming to it and for it. They seem to speak of the way
of life as being something individual and solitary; we speak of it as a
social and united enterprise, and a journey in company.
To this it may be replied, that it is unfair and dangerous to insist
on certain texts to the exclusion of others; that true though it be, that
some texts speak of faith and nothing else, still others speak of Church
communion and nothing else, as being the way of salvation; and if so, both,
both faith and Church communion, are necessary, and that one will not save
without the other; that our duty is to come to Christ in faith, through
the Church,—and if we do this, we shall observe the rule given us both
in the one set of texts, and in the other,—and that they deal with Scripture
as violently, who think to be saved by faith without Church fellowship,
as those who think to be saved by Church fellowship without faith. For
instance, if our Lord says, "All things are possible to him that believeth,"
yet He elsewhere says, "If he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto
thee as a heathen man and a publican." If He says, "Believe, and ye shall
have," yet elsewhere, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." If St. Paul says, that we are
justified by faith without the works of the Law, still he expressly assures
us, that Christ saves us "by the laver of regeneration," "that as many
as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ," and there is "one
baptism, one body, one spirit," as well as "one faith," and that the Church
is "the pillar and ground of the truth." Further, if St. Peter says, that
every one is accepted with God who fears Him and works righteousness, yet
he elsewhere says that "baptism saves us," and exhorts his hearers to be
baptized, in order to the remission of their sins, and the gift of the
Holy Ghost.
And further, it may be shown, that nothing can be more natural than
this union of various distinct means, in order to gain some particular
benefit, and that there is nothing forced in thus interpreting the one
set of expressions in harmony with the other; and nothing in the impression
conveyed by the one inconsistent with the impression conveyed by the other.
We have cases of this kind every day, and we use similar forms of speech
every day. For instance, were a person to say that he would give some benefit,
food or clothing, to any poor person who wanted it, would any one say that
he broke his promise, if he appointed some particular place where the food
or the clothing was to be got, and where those who desired it must go for
it? And would it be thought reasonable, if a poor person accosted him abruptly
in the public way, and insisted on his giving it directly from himself,
without his having to go to the place appointed? and why, forsooth?—on
the ground that the other had said that he would give to any one who asked
of him. As then a charitable person might say, "Ask, and ye shall have,"
and yet might not mean to excuse those who asked from the necessity of
going to some place, and at some hour, when and where he dispensed his
charity; so in like manner Christ may say by Himself or His Apostles, "Ask,
and ye shall receive." "Believe, and ye shall be saved," and yet may mean
to enjoin upon us certain rules, and to appoint a certain treasure-house,
for our gaining that gift to which our asking and our faith are sufficient
to entitle us.
This is so plain, that it is hardly necessary to say so much about it;
but it may be objected, that it is more true in itself, than to the present
purpose: for there are passages of Scripture, it may be said, which speak
so largely and absolutely, that to suppose any conditions implied in them
which are not specified, any other means of gaining God's favour besides
simple faith, is doing violence to their language. For instance, suppose
a rich man promised an alms to his poor neighbour, and then, when the latter
came for it, said, "I promised you indeed an alms, and as a free gift—and
I mean to give it you—nevertheless, I shall exact one condition, which
I did not then mention, but which I meant nevertheless, and which is not
inconsistent in set terms with what I said, and this one condition is,
that you should walk some five hundred miles for my bounty, to some place
where I have stored it, or that you should first learn a foreign language,
and petition me in it;"—every one would feel that such conduct was a mockery
in the rich man, and a cruelty to the poor one. Now, it is contended by
the persons I speak of, that faith is so prominently spoken of in certain
passages of Scripture, as the means of gaining the benefits of Christ's
death, that it must be meant to be the only means; the silence observed
in such passages concerning other means being equivalent to a denial of
any other; and therefore, that in very truth we must be justified by faith
only in a full and absolute and real sense (if the word of Scripture be
sure), not in a certain sense merely, or in a certain point of view, but
in a sense peculiar and proper, by a prerogative which no other means possesses,
whether rite, or work, or temper of mind.
For example, it is said by St. Paul without restriction, "There is no
difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the Name
of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they
have not believed? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have
not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" And then the Apostle
concludes; "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of
God." Surely, it may be said, these words plainly do imply that the knowledge
of the truth is all that is necessary for any person's application of it
to himself. Give him a book, the Bible; give him the revealed doctrine,
or what St. Paul calls the word of God; give him a preacher;—he requires
nothing more. He may at will seize, claim, appropriate, use the promise.
He has but to call, and he will be answered; he has but to believe, and
he is justified. "For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." [Rom. x. 10-17.]
Again; how wide, it may be said, how comprehensive, how simple are the
words, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock,
and it shall be opened unto you; for every one that asketh receiveth, and
he that looketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened."
[Matt. vii. 7, 8.] Is Scripture, it may be said, for plain men or not?—does
it speak to the artless, guileless, and simple-minded, or does it require
a refined and cultivated intellect to understand it? If to the poor the
Gospel is preached, can we doubt that it is meant to convey that meaning
which at first sight it has?—that all to whom the sound of the Gospel comes
have but to call on God, to ask, to pray, to believe, and according to
their faith so shall it be done unto them?
And such, too, it may be added, was St. Paul's language to the jailor
at Philippi; he said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved, and thy house." [Acts xvi. 31.]
There is certainly much in such considerations, and they are by no means
lightly to be put aside. They do seem, with some explanation, to be true.
I mean, it does seem as if every one to whom the message of life came,
had an offer of it; had, if he chose to avail himself of it, an interest
in it, a right to take it to himself; that his hearing is his warrant,
his knowledge is his evidence, that his believing is his power. This would
seem to be a broad truth, whatever else is true; and in the present most
miserable state of Christendom there is comfort in believing it. I proceed,
then, to explain in what sense it is true, what it implies, and what it
does not involve, and what follows from it.
I say, then, that hearing and believing,—that is, knowing, confessing,
and asking,—give us under the covenant of grace a title, nay, are the sole
necessary right and title to receive the gifts purchased for us by our
Lord Jesus on the Cross. And now observe, first, what this does not imply.
1. It does not imply any thing about the time or mode of our justification.
Faith is our right and title to be justified, the sole right and title
necessary; but has a person forthwith that, to which he has a right? is
nothing more necessary for the possession and enjoyment of things than
a just title to them? Is it so in human matters? is not a right the first
thing indeed, but is it all that is necessary for having, holding, and
using? Are there no forms to be gone through, no necessary instruments
of possession? Or, take again the case of the children of Christian parents.
The infant children of Christians have a right to be made Christians; but
are they made Christians merely by the right to be so made? if so, why
do we baptize them? Faith, then, in the general scheme of the Gospel, is
what their very birth and origin is in the particular case of the children
of Christians. It constitutes a claim in our case that we should be made
Christians; it is an evidence, an inward spiritual token from God that
He means us to be made Christians; it is a promise from Him who is the
Author and Finisher of our faith, that He means us, that He wills us, to
be Christians. To him that hath, more shall be given. Him whom God gifts
with faith, will He also in due time gift with evangelical, justifying
grace: but the first gift does not give the second gift, it does not involve
it; it does but prepare for it, it does but constitute a title to it.
Again: good works form our title for heaven; but does a person who is
fruitful in good works and prepared for the next world at once die? or
rather, I should ask, is he without death translated at once both soul
and body into heaven? is there nothing to wait for? nothing to go through,
even in the case of those who are ready for death? are there no persons
detained in the flesh, who, if they died yesterday or a year since, would
go to heaven? are there no saints upon earth? Surely, then, to have a title
is not the same thing as to be in possession; and all the texts which can
be brought to prove that faith is our title to be justified, fail to prove
of themselves that it involves in it our justification, unless indeed children
are Christians without baptism because their parents were Christians, and
Saints are in heaven before death because they are fit for heaven. If,
I say, the texts in question do but show that faith is our sole title to
be justified, they prove nothing about any thing else. A title to a certain
benefit is still a title, whether the benefit has been conferred or not.
It does not cease to be the title because we have the benefit, nor is it
less of a title because we have not yet received it. It is not at all bound
to past, present, or future. It is that on which we once received, or by
which we now hold, or for which we are still claiming the benefit, as the
case may be. If, then, the texts in question merely say that he who has
faith has a right to the benefit of redemption, they merely say (which
is indeed much, but is all they do say) that he who believes shall to a
certainty at some time and by some means be justified. And that they say
this, and no more, is plain from those texts to which reference has already
been made. For instance, "Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord
shall be saved;" a promise is given, but the how, the when, the where,
the by what, these particulars are by the very form of the proposition
left uncertain. Time is not mentioned, nor mode;—but a promise given, that
it shall be.
But, on the other hand, if we say that faith is the mode or the time
as well as the title, we may as well say, too, that it is the Author of
our justification. We may as well say it supersedes Christ's Atonement
as a meritorious cause, as Baptism as an instrument. And so again of the
text; it says, that many shall come from the East and West, and sit down
in the kingdom of heaven. Is coming the same as sitting down? coming stands
for faith, sitting down for baptism; coming is our title, sitting down
is possession. Coming goes before, leads to, sitting down; but it is not
sitting down. A title is one thing, and possession is another. And the
same might be shown of the other texts which are commonly cited in the
question.
2. This becomes still more clear, on considering that whereas faith
is in some passages made the means of gaining acceptance, prayer is, in
other places, spoken of as the means; and, moreover, prayer is evidently
the expression of faith, so that whatever is true of prayer is true of
faith also. Now it is too plain to insist upon, that, though success is
certainly promised to prayer in the event, yet the time of succeeding is
not promised, and so far from it being immediate, we are expressly told
to pray again and again, to continue instant in prayer, in order to succeed.
For instance, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Here salvation is, as it were,
put in our own power; to hear the invitation is our sufficient title for
coming; to pray for the gift is the sure and certain means of receiving
it. Most true; but does the word seek imply one act, and one only? does
it imply that we gain at once what we ask for? The contrary: we are elsewhere
told to "strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many will seek to enter
in," that is, seek without striving, "and shall not be able ." [Luke xiii.
24.] Again; "He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always
to pray, and not to faint." [Luke xviii. 1.] It is not one act of prayer,
then, or two, but a course and continuance of prayer, which entitle us
to God's mercy; and therefore, in like manner, it is not one act of faith
which justifies us, or two acts, but to live in faith and to walk in faith
is our title; and to begin to have faith is to enter the road leading,
infallibly leading, to justification, by a series of events or conditions,
of which faith is the first and sole on our part. I say that the message
"Believe, and thou shalt have," "Call, and thou shalt be saved," as little
imply that one act of faith, one call, is all that is requisite, as "Ask,
and it shall be given you," implies that we can gain answers to prayer
at the mere willing. Sometimes, doubtless, God mercifully answers upon
one prayer, and sometimes He justifies on one act of faith; but I am speaking
of what we have a right to gather from such passages; and I say, that all
they can prove is this, that he who has faith has a promise from God that
he shall, shall in God's own way, in God's own time, shall certainly and
surely in the event, be justified; that, as he who begins to pray will
sooner or later obtain, so he who believes shall, unless he "draw back,"
be justified.
3. But this is made a matter of certainty by the instances which we
find given us in the New Testament of justification by faith. We find that
faith was not thought enough, but was made to lead on to other conditions.
A man was not thought to have all, to have obtained, on believing, but
to have a title whereby to find and obtain. For instance, even in a case
which admits of being otherwise interpreted in some respects, so much as
this is certain. Cornelius was a special instance of faith; but did this
faith suffice to make him a justified Christian? No; it did but give him
a title to it. It moved the God of mercy to work miracles for him. There
was this circumstance, special and remarkable in his case, that the first
spiritual gift was not given through baptism, but still it was not given
at once upon his faith. So far from it, he had to send to an Apostle before
it was given.
Take again the instance of St. Paul himself. By faith he obeyed the
heavenly vision, and went into Damascus, and waited. But he had to wait,
he was not justified. He waited three days—he prayed; then Ananias was
sent; and he said, "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling
on the Name of the Lord." [Acts xxii. 16.] To believe, to confess, to pray,
to call, were the sufficient title for the gift; but baptism was the instrument
of receiving it. St. Paul having faith, was sure, in God's great mercy,
eventually of receiving baptism, but not at once.
Again, consider the case of the Ethiopian Eunuch. "Faith cometh by hearing;
and hearing by the word of God." This was fulfilled in his case. He read
the Prophet Isaiah concerning Christ's atoning sufferings. He heard Philip
preaching on the sacred text. He had faith in Christ. He had a title to
justification; but he was baptized in order to receive it. Hear his own
words declaring it. "See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?"
[Acts viii. 36.] You see, baptism was the great end which he was seeking;
why, except that it conveyed the gift of life? Would it have been rational
to have been so earnest for a dead ordinance, for a mere outward rite?
especially since now he had heard, and had believed. Would he have asked
about "hindrances" to a mere outward rite, when he had already obtained
the inward gift? No, he sought baptism because it was worth seeking. And
Philip treats it as such: he says, "Thou mayest, if." He puts a condition.
Men do not put conditions before worthless things. A condition is a price;—men
do not buy nothing with something. The Eunuch was going to receive a gift,
else there had been no delay, no scrutiny, no engagement. Now what was
the condition? "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." If
thou believest. "And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God." Faith, then, was the title, the sole title. "And he
commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the
water, both Philip and the Eunuch; and he baptized him." At length it was
finished. The deed was done—the gift was given—justification was accomplished—and
therefore, "when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the
Lord caught away Philip." He did not take him away before; He did not think
it enough for Philip to preach. Philip preached and baptized; and then
he was caught away. Had he but preached, and not baptized, and the Eunuch
still had had faith, then doubtless, in God's great mercy and good providence,
another messenger from Him would have baptized him; the Eunuch would not
have gone without baptism; he would not have been frustrated of the fruit
of his faith; only he would not have had it so soon. He would still have
had the title, the claim to baptism. But God "finished the work, and cut
it short in righteousness." [Rom. ix. 28.] He justified the believing soul
through water; and then Philip, his instrument, was caught away, and the
Christian "went on his way rejoicing."
One more instance: St. Paul said to the jailor, "Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,"—and then he and Silas "spake unto
him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house." [Acts xvi.
30-34.] Here, then, "faith came by hearing, and hearing by the word of
God." Accordingly, the promise was unto him and his; and what next? Let
St. Peter tell us what, on the day of Pentecost. "The promise," he says,
"is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even
as many as the Lord our God shall call;" and therefore, "be baptized."
This was the issue—be baptized—why? "for the remission of sins, and ye
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." What St. Peter said to the Jews,
that St. Paul did to the jailor, or rather St. Silas did it; for St. Paul
says of himself, that he was not sent to baptize, but to preach the Gospel.
He did not baptize, because so great a gift was baptism, that the Apostles
wished to avoid the chance of seeming to baptize in their own name, and
of seeming to be setting up themselves for the meritorious means through
which men are saved. St. Paul says, then, "I thank my God that I baptized
none of you," except one or two whom he mentions, "lest any should say
that I had baptized in mine own name." [1 Cor. i. 14, 15.] As water is
a feeble element, so the minister chosen was the feeblest vessel in the
Church, to show that all was of God. Accordingly, the Apostle generally
had with him some friend, who, while a companion and comfort to him, administered
those offices which he did not take upon himself. Philip was a deacon,
and baptized; St. Paul was an Apostle, and did not baptize; and, therefore,
I say, it is more likely, in the case before us, that Silas baptized the
jailor, and not St. Paul. However, baptized he was and all his; and then,
and not before, took place in him the same inward change which happened
to the Eunuch, "he rejoiced, believing in God with all his house." He had
believed before baptism, but he did not rejoice before baptism—he rejoiced
after baptism. Men rejoice when they have found what they seek. Both the
noble Ethiopian and the humble jailor rejoiced on their being baptized.
Faith gave a title: baptism gave possession. Faith procured them what nothing
else would procure, and baptism conveyed it.
Enough has been said to explain in what sense faith is what nothing
else is, and does what nothing else can do. He who has the means of hearing
the Gospel, and believes in it heartily, has not a means of gaining, but
a title to receive justification; he has within him a warrant, not that
God has justified him, but that He will justify him. And this was so fully
understood and received by the early Church of Christ, that, supposing
a person, who was candidate and under preparation for baptism, happened
to die before its administration, it was believed that that person on his
death was put by God's mercy into that state of salvation, into which he
would have entered by baptism. Or, again, suppose a person was martyred
for his faith and not baptized, then, too, his salvation was considered
to be secured in like manner without baptism. For where a man has true
faith, Christ, we humbly trust, would rather work a miracle for his justification,
than deprive him of that which He graciously considers as his right. He
that hath begun a good work in us, will perform it in some way or other
and bring it to perfection. He will, by His providence, create Churches
and Ministers of Baptism round about the souls whom He visits; or He will
lead them from Ethiopia to Jerusalem, and send Philip to meet them; or
He will speak in dreams by His Angel, and send unto Joppa for Peter; or
in a prison He will even make a spring of water gush forth miraculously
from the rock at an Apostle's voice; or He will, if all other means are
suspended, reconcile the soul to Him without the appointed ordinance at
the moment of dissolution. In some way or other, where He gives faith,
He will open a way for saving grace. For whom He foreknows, them He predestinates;
and whom He predestinates, them He calls; and whom He calls, them He justifies;
and whom He justifies, them He glorifies.
And now it is plain what a consolatory light these considerations throw
upon the present disordered state of Christendom. I trust there is no presumption
in thus interpreting Scripture, and in thus judging of the state of things
which we see; and if not, we may be thankful in being able to do so. It
is most true, then, and never to be explained away, that the grace of the
Gospel is lodged in a divinely appointed body, and spreads from it. It
diffuses itself like leaven over the world, according to the parable, by
a continuity and progression; not found here, and found there, in a detached
isolated way, but here, and there, and whereever it is, as portions of
one whole. As well may the branches of a tree be strewed on the earth,
and the trunk be in the ground, and the leaves be whirled in the air, and
the fruit be at the bottom of the stream, and yet all be one whole living
tree, as the Church be divided. It is impossible. None who are external
to it are included in it; it is quite a truism to say this. Neither faith
nor any thing else can make that to be, which is not. Wishing will not
serve instead of coming, and faith cannot serve in the place of baptism.
None are justified but those who are grafted into the justified body; and
faith is not an instrument of grafting, but a title to be grafted. It is
baptism, "whereby, as an instrument, they that receive it rightly," that
is, by faith, "are grafted into the Church." And with the Church go all
its privileges; and on communion with it depends the inflowing into the
soul of its privileges. He who never has entered into the Church has not
the privileges; he who has seceded from it, or sinned grievously in it,
or is born in a schismatical branch or heretical sect, to him the privileges
are suspended. There are great numbers, then, all about us, vast multitudes,
who, for one reason or other, through their own fault or the fault of their
fathers, are in a position which fails of the enjoyment of the privileges
of regeneration. The power of the Spirit, the cleanness and lustre of the
new creature, the intercourse with heaven, the light of God's countenance,
the fulness of justification, are not participated by these masses of men,
at least according to the provisions of the Gospel covenant. But in spite
of this, we may humbly, yet confidently say, that where there is true faith,
there justification shall be; there it is promised, it is due, it is coming,
somehow, somewhile. Whether, as the Saints of the Old Testament waited,
and were not gifted with Gospel justification till Christ's first coming,
these faithful souls will be received into the glory and grace of the Church
at His second coming; or whether they enter into the kingdom upon death;
or whether, by an extraordinary dispensation unknown to us and to themselves,
they receive the gift here; or whether in this world their eyes shall at
length be opened, and the Church revealed to them, as the true treasure-house
of grace and home of refuge to all believers, and they be led to seek it,
and renounce the sect of their birth or of their choice,—any how, they
have a title; if they call, they shall be answered,—if they knock, it shall
be opened to them. Who have this true faith we cannot tell, any more than
when God rewards it; no, nor what measure of assistance, what power of
spiritual influence He gives to those who nevertheless, like the Jews,
have not the peculiar gifts and endowments of the Covenant of the Gospel.
Yet it is a great comfort to believe that God's favour is not limited to
the bounds of His heritage, but that, in the Church or out of the Church,
every one that calleth on the Name of the Lord with a pure and perfect
heart shall be saved.
And thus the possession of the Holy Scriptures is an inestimable gift
in a country, to those who use it rightly, whether they belong to the Church
or not, and so far we may well rejoice in their circulation; not that possession
justifies, or reading, or knowing; not that the Bible is our religion,
according to the strange phrase, which however has, alas, too true a meaning
in fact; but the Bible is the means, through God's secret help, towards
faith, and faith is the means towards justification. And as reading does
not involve faith, yet is the way to it, so faith, though it does not involve
justification, yet is a sure title to it. And thus by reading Scripture,
thousands, we may trust, who are not baptized, yet are virtually catechumens,
and in heart and spirit candidates for the cleansing Sacrament. Thousands
who are in unconscious heresy or unwilling schism, still are, through faith,
in the state of Cornelius, when his prayers and alms went up before God.
Thousands who are obliged to partake of the elements of Holy Communion
unconsecrated, or administered with doubtful rites, yet have that within
them which the fault or ignorance of the minister cannot take away,—a preparation
of heart. Thousands who are in branches of the Church which profane men
have stripped of holy ordinances, though the two Sacraments themselves
remain to it, may through their faith receive in the Sacraments those graces
besides, which were wont to be given through those lost ordinances. And
thousands, who have been born and trained in separation, become, through
their faith, divinely enlightened to seek and to join that One Holy and
Catholic Body, in which God's presence abides. Such is the power of faith,
not to disparage ordinances, but to secure graces.
Lastly, at the same time it is plain, and the face of Christendom shows
it, how mournful is that spiritual state, even though happy in the end,
in which, contrary to Christ's will, faith is disjoined from justification.
Christ willed that justification should come at once upon faith through
the Sacrament of Baptism. Satan has so disordered Christendom, that numbers
perhaps have faith without as yet having justification; an interval; not
of days, as in Cornelius's case, but of years, nay, perhaps of a life,
lying between the two. We see the consequence of such an anomalous state
all around us. How miserable is the inconsistency of even our good men!
how excellent in some points, how very faulty in others! How clear and
edifying seems the faith of many who yet are very poorly advanced in sanctification!
how is faith (strange to say) combined with profaneness, or with pride,
or with despondency, or with headstrong blindness to the truth! What does
all this show but that God's Spirit indeed is striving among us, but that
the Church of the living God is hardly here; that beams of His favour are
shed on us, but that the Sun of Righteousness is hid; that He has hid His
face; that we have aids, but not Gospel graces; signs and evidences of
mercy, but not justification; faith producing such fruits as it best may
in the wide world, in a wild uncertain way, just as sweet plants might
flower, and rich trees bear, on the outside of Eden.
But let us bless and praise God, my brethren, if He has placed us, as
we trust, within the bounds of His kingdom; let us pray Him that we may
avail ourselves of this inestimable privilege; let us pray Him to bring
all others into it, to give light where He gives faith, and to join to
the city of the Living God all those whose faces are turned thitherward.
