Hebrews — Chapter 11

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.