“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.
1 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.