He exhorteth them by the definition of faith, to sticke vnto God, though they see not yet his
reward: shewing that al the Saints afore-time did the like, being al constant in faith, though
not one of them receiued the promise, that is, the inheritance in heauen: but they and we now after
the comming of Christ receiue it together.
1. AND faith is,
✟
By this word substance is meant, that faith is the ground of our hope.
the substance of things to be hoped for,
✟
ἔλεγχος.
the argument of things not
appearing.
2. For in this the old men obtained testimonie.
3.
*
Gen. 1,13.
By faith, we vnderstand that the worlds were framed by the word of God: that of
inuisible things visible things might be made.
4.
*
Gen. 4,4.
By faith, Abel offered a greater host to God then Cain:
*
Mt. 23,35.
by which he obtained
testimonie that he was iust, God giuing testimonie to his guifts, and by it, he being dead, yet
speaketh.
5.
*
Gen. 5,24. Ec. 44,16.
By faith
✟
Here it appeareth that Henoch yet liueth and is not dead: against the Caluinists. See the
annot. Apoc. chap. 11.
Henoch was translated, that he should not see death, and he was not found:
because God translated him. For before his translation he had testimonie that he pleased God.
6. But withouth faith it is impossible to please God. For he that commeth to God, must
beleeue that he is, and is a
✟
We must beleeue that God wil reward al our good workes: for he is a rewarder of true
iustice, not an accepter or imputer of that that is not.
rewarder to them that seeke him.
7.
*
Gen. 6,13. Eccl. 44,17
By faith, Noe hauing receiued an answer concerning those things which as yet were
not seen, fearing, framed the arke for the sauing of his house, by the which he condemned the
world: and was instituted heire of the iustice which is by faith.
8.
*
Gen. 12,4. 13,1.
By faith, he that is called, Abraham, obeied to goe forth into the place which he
was to receiue for inheritance: and he went forth, not knowing whither he went.
9. By faith, he abode in the land of promise, as in a strange land, dwelling in
cottages with Isaac & Iacob the coheires of the same of promise.
10. For he expected the citie that hath foundations: whose artificer and maker is God.
11.
*
Gen. 17,19. 18,10. 21,2.
Eccl. 44,22.
By faith, Sara also her self being barren, receiued vertue in conceauing of seed,
yea past the time of age: because she beleeued that he was faithful which had promised.
12. For the which cause euen of one (and him quite dead) there rose as the starres of
heauen in multitude, and as the sand that is by the sea shore innumerable.
13. According to faith died al these, not hauing receiued the promises, but beholding
them a farre off, and saluting them, and confessing that they are pilgrimes & strangers vpon the
earth.
14. For they that say these things, doe signifie that they seeke a countrie.
15. And indeed if they had been mindful of the same from whence they came forth, they
had time verily to returne.
16. But now they desire a better, that is to say, a heauenly. Therfore God is not
confounded to be called their God. For he hath prepared them a citie.
17.
*
Gen. 22,9.
By faith, Abraham offered Isaac, when he was tempted: and his onlie-begotten did
he offer who had receiued the promises:
18. (to whom it was said,
*
Gen. 21,12. Rom. 9,7.
That in Isaac shal seed be called to thee.)
19. accounting that God is able to raise vp euen from the dead. Whereupon he receiued
him also
✟
That is, in figure and mysterie of Christ dead, & aliue againe.
for a parable.
20.
*
Gen. 27,27. 36.
By faith, also of things to come, Isaac blessed Iacob and Esau.
21.
*
Gen. 48,15.
By faith, Iacob dying, blessed euery one of the sonnes of Ioseph: and adored the
top of his rod.
22.
*
Gen. 47,31.
By faith, Iospeh dying, made mention of the going forth of the children of Israel:
and gaue commandement
✟
The Translation of Relikes or Saints bodies, & the due regard and honour we ought to
haue to the same, are proued hereby.
concerning his bones.
23.
*
Gen. 50,24,25.
By faith, Moyses being borne, was hid three moneths by his parents: because they
saw him a proper infant, and they feared not
*
Exo. 2,2.
the Kings edict.
24.
*
Exo. 1,16.
By faith, Moyses being made great, denied himself to be the sonne of Pharao's
daughter:
25. rather chosing to be afflicted with the people of God, then to haue the pleasure
of temporal sinne,
26. esteeming the reproche of Christ, greater riches then the treasure of the
Ægyptians. For
✟
The Protestants that deny we may or ought to doe good in respect or for reward in
heauen, are confuted.
he looked vnto the remuneration.
27.
*
Exo. 12,37.
By faith, he left Ægypt: not fearing the fiercenes of the King. For him that is
inuisible he susteined as if he had seen him.
28. By faith, he celebrated the Pasche, & the sheading of the bloud: that he which
destroyed the first-borne, might not touch them.
29. By faith they passed the red sea as it were by the drie land: which the
Ægyptians assaying, were deuoured.
30.
*
Ios: 6,20.
By faith the walles of Iericho fel downe, by the circuiting of seuen daies.
31.
*
Ios. 6,23,25. 2,3.
By faith, Rahab the harlot perished not with the incredulous, receiuing the spies
with peace.
32. And what shal I yet say? For the time wil faile me telling of Gedeon, Barac,
Sampson, Iephte, Dauid, Samuel, & the Prophets:
33.
⋮
The Epistle for SS. Fabian and Sebastian Ian. 20. S. Symphorosa cum septem filiis. Iul.
18.
And for many Martyrs.
who by faith ouercame Kingdoms, wrought iustice, obteined promises, stopped the
mouths of Lions,
34. extinguished the force of fire, repelled the edge of the sword, recouered of their
infirmitie, were made strong in battel, turned away the camp of forrainers:
35. women receiued of resurrection their dead, and others were racked, not accepting
redemption, that they might find a better resurrection.
36. And others had trial of mokeries and stripes, moreouer also of bands and prisons:
37. they were stoned, they were hewed, they were tempted, they died in the slaughter of
the sword, they went about in sheep-skinnes, in goats skinnes, needy, in distresse, afflicted:
38. of whom the world was not worthie; wandering in deserts, in mountaines & dennes,
and in caues of the earth.
39. And al these being approued by the testimonie of faith, receiued not the promise,
40. God for vs prouiding some better thing, that they without vs should not be
consummate.
ANNOTATIONS.
CHAP. XI.
1. Faith is. ) Not only or a special faith.
By this description of faith, and by al the commendation thereof through the whole chapter,
you may wel perceiue that the Apostle knew not the forged special faith of the Protestants,
whereby euery one of these new Sect-Maisters and their followers beleeue their sinnes are
remitted, and that themselues shal be saued, though their sectes be cleane contrarie one to
another.
1. Not appearing. ) Faith is of things not seen: as in the B. Sacrament.
This is the praise of faith, saith S. Augustin, if that which is beleeued, be
not seen. For what great thing is it, if that be beleeued, which is seen? according to that
sentence of our Lord when he rebuked his disciple, saying: Because thou hast seen me Thomas,
thou hast beleeued: blessed are they that haue not seen and haue beleeued. Aug. in euang. Io.
tract. 79. Which may be a rebuke also and a check to al those faithles speaches, I would
see him, tast him, touch him and feele his very flesh in the Sacrament, otherwise I wil not
beleeue.
6. He that commeth. ) Nothing profitable or meritorious without faith.
Faith is the foundation and ground of al other vertues and worship of God, without which no
man can please God. Therfore if one be a Iewe, a Heathen, or an heretike, that is to say,
be without the Catholike faith, al his workes shal profit him no whit to saluation.
21. Adored the tope of his rod. ) The citations in the new Testament, not only
according to the Hebrew, but to the Septuaginta.
The learned may see here that the Apostle doth not tye himself to the Hebrew in the
place of Genesis whence it is alleaged, but followeth the Septuaginta, though it differ from
the Hebrew, as also the other Apostles and Euange-gelists & our Sauiour himself did:
neither were they curious (as men now adaies) to examine al by the Hebrew only, because they
writing and speaking by the Holy Ghost, knew very wel that this translation * is the sense
of the Holy Ghoft alfo, and as true, and as directly intended as the other: and therfore
also that trandation continued alwaies authentical in the Greek Church, notwithstanding the
diuersitie thereof from the Hebrew.
Gen. 47, v. 31.
* Aug. de ciu. Dei li. 15. c. 14.
The vulgar Latin translation.
Euen so we that be Catholikes, follow with al the Latin
fathers the authentical Latin tranflation, though it be not alwaies agreable to the Hebrew
or Greek that now is. But Caluin is not only very saucie, but very ignorant, when he saith
that the Septuaginta were deceiued, and yet that the Apostle without curiosity was content to
follow them: because it is euident that the Hebrew being then without points, * might be
translated the one way as wel as the other. Which they vnderstood so wel (and therfore were not
deceiued) that within three lines after, in the beginning of the next chapter, they translate
the same word. as he would haue it in this place.
* ῥάβδος, rod.
κλίνη, bed.
Adoration of creatures, and namely of holy things.
Againe obserue in those words, He adored the top of his rod, that adoration (as the
Scripture vseth this word) may be done to creatures, or to God at and before a creature: as, at
or before the Arke of the Testament in old time, now at or before the crucifixe, relikes,
images: and in the Psalmes 98.131. Adore ye his foot-stoole. Adore ye toward his holy mount.
We wil adore toward the place where his feet stood: or (which by the Hebrew phrase is al
one) Adore ye his holy mount. We wil adore the place where his feet stood; as also *
the Greek Fathers, S. Damascene. li. 1. de imaginibus, & Leontius cited of him, yea S.
Chrysostom also doe handel these places, and namely that of the Apostle which we now speake of,
interpreting the Greek as our Latin hath, and as we doe, He adored the rod or the top of his
red, that is, the scepter of Ioseph now Prince of AEgypt, so fulfilling Iosephs
dreames which foretold the same Gen. 37. and withal signifying as it were by this
prophetical fact * the Kingdom of Israel or of the ten Tribes that was to come of Ioseph
by Ephram his yonger sonne in the first King Ietoboam. Thus the Greek Fathers.
Whereunto may by added, that al this was done in type and figure of Christes scepter &
Kingdom, whom he adored by and in his Crosse, as he did Ioseph by or in his rod and
scepter: and therfore the Apostle saith, he did it by faith, as hauing respect
toward things to come.
* Ios. 7,6.
* Oecum. in collect.
* 3. Reg. 11,12.
Corrupt translation against Dulia.
By al which it is euident, that it is false which the Caluinists teach, that we may not adore
image, crucifixe, or any visible creature, that is, we may not adore God at or by such
creatures, nor kneel before them: and therfore their corrupt translation of this place for the
same purpose is intolerable, saying thus, (LEANING) vpon his stafe he adored (GOD,)
adding no lesse then two words more then is in the Greek. Which though it might be the sense
of the place and S. Augustin so expoundeth it, yet they should not make his exposition the text
of holy Scripture, specially whereas he only of al the ancient Fathers (as Beza confesseth) so
expoundeth.
33. Wrought iustice. ) Not faith only.
Men are not iust by beleefe only, as the Protestants affirme, but by by working iustice. And
we may note that in al this long commendation of faith in the fathers and holy persons, their
good workes are also specially recounted, as Rahabs harbouring the spies, Abrahams offering his
sonne (which their workes S. Iames doth incultate,) Noes making the Arke Gen. 6. Abels
better oblation then Cains Gen. 4. & Hebr. 11. v. 4. and so-forth. Therfore S. Clement
Alexandrinus saith, that the said persons & others were iuft by faith aad obedience, by faith
and hospitality, by faith and patience, by faith and humility.
Iac. 2.
Li. 4. Stro pag. 240.
No workes of the Patriarkes or any other profitable, but by their faith in Christ: Which is
alwaies the Apostles meaning in commending faith.
The Apostles purpose then is nothings els, but to proue to the Hebrewes (who made so
great account of their Patriarches and forefathers and their famous actes) that al these
glorious personages and their workes were commendable and acceptable only through
the faith they had of Christ, vcithout which faith none of al their liues & workes should
haue profited them any whit: the Gentils doing many noble actes (as Heretikes may also doe)
which are of no estimation before God, because they lacke faith. And that is the scope of
S. Paules Epistle to the Romanes, and of al other passages where he commendeth faith: further
prouing specially in this Epistle to the Hebrewes, that al their Sacrifices were nothing els
but figures and attestations of the Christian faith in Christ and his death. Al which high
resolution & conclusion against the Iewes and Gentils, that the Christian faith is the true
faith & religion, the Heretikes of our time ignorantly and brutishly abuse against Christian
workes, Sacrifice and Sacraments, which the Apostle meant specially to commend and establish
by his high commendation of the faith in Christ.
40. Without vs should not. ) The Patriarches and other iust not in heauen before
Christ.
The Fathers before Christ should not be accomplished, that
is, not admitted to the heauenly ioyes, vision, and fruition of God, til the Apostles and
other of the new law were associate to them, and the way to euerlasting glorie opened
by our Lordes death and Ascension. Neither shal either they or we be fully perfected in
glorie both of body and soul, til thc general resurrection: God's prouidence being so, that we
should not one be consummated without another, al being of one faith, and redeemced by one
Lord Christ.