CHAP. ΧΙ. The Apostle's Third Argument, for encouraging the Chriflians of Judea to Perfeverance in their Profession, under all their Perfecutions, viz. The numerous Examples of all the Patriarchs and Holy Men recorded in Scripture, or in the Apocryphal Writings, as the most eminent Servants of God. That they all were justified by the fame Principle of Faith in God's Revelation; for fuffering under the fame Hopes of future and invisible Blessings, that Christianity now propofeth: And, for the very fame, shall they, and all good Chriftians, be finally and compleatly rewarded together at the Great Day of Judgment. OW faith is the N substance 1. Said ‡, I Chrift, and a refolute Profeffion of his Religion, that must procure your Salvation. And whereas 29. the Jewish Zealots are wont to affright you, by confidently affirming, That to embrace Chriftianity, is to Apoftatize from Mofes and from God: It will be enough to filence that vain Pretence, to confider, that to be a Christian, is the Exercise and Result of no other Principle of Faith, but what justified all the Patriarchs and holy Men of Old; viz. Such a rational and Steddy Belief, either of Things long fince past, or of the invisible Blessings of a future Life, proportionable to the Evidences God has given us of them, as will actuate us into Obedience, and make us ready to fuffer for the Profession of fuch a Belief, it was a steddy Faith in A. D. 63. 2 For * Ver. 1. The fubftance of things hoped fert υπόςασις, της firm Affurance, or Expectation. So this Word is truly render'd Pfal. xxxix. 7. Ruth i. 12. Ezek. xix. 5. in the LXX. and Chap. iii. 14. of this Epiftle. Chap. x. Sec. Jobni, 1, Chrift || the Word and 3, 4. λόγο. Dispensations of it ? 4. By faith Abel of- which he obtained our Services acceptable 5. By faith Enoch was tranflated, that he should not fee death, and was not found, because God had tran flated him: for before 2. For this great Virtue the Ancestors of your Nation stand recorded, as fuch eminent Examples of Piety and true Religion. 3. What is it, but Divine Revelation, that makes us absolutely certain, that the World * was not by Chance, nor a fortuitous Jumble of pre-existing Matter, but made in Time, by the Power and Command + of God, and put into this beauteous Form wherein we now see it, by Son of God, who governs all the 4. The serious Belief of Divine Revelation rendered the Sacrifice of Abel acceptable, and the Want of it caused Cain's to be rejected. God demonstrating his Acceptance of him as a pious and good Man, by caufing Fire from ‡ Heaven to confume his Sacrifice. And though Abel be dead, yet is his Sacrifice a standing Evidence, That this is the Principle that makes to God. 5. As a Reward of this very fame Virtue, was Enoch translated from Earth, without dying according to the common Courfe of Nature. Gen. v. 22, 24. his tranflation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. 6 But without faith 6. And indeed, nothing is plainer, it is impoffible to than that a firm Perswafion of the ** See ver. 1. please him: for he Existence of God (tho' he be * invithat cometh to God, fible to us) and a lively Hope and Aflurance, proportionable to the Knowledge Men have of his Nature and Will, that he will reward all must believe that he † ̓Ενεπρησε. Verfion, Theodof. See Gen. xv. 17. Lev. ix. 24, Plal. xx. 3. all his true and fincere Worshippers (tho' that Reward be A. D. 63.. future and at a distance) is the first and most necessary Principle of all true Religion. 7 By faith Noah being warned of God of things not feen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and 7. Upon this it was, that Noah prepared the Ark, saved himself from the Destruction of this World, and obtained the Happiness of the next; while the rest of Mankind were justly left to perish in their unreasonable Infidelity. became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. 8 By faith * Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 8 & 9. By this, Abraham left his native Country, went and dwelt as a Stranger, in a mean and obscure Manner, in a foreign Land; even before he knew what the Land was, or was acquainted with the Promise, that his Posterity should fully poffefs and enjoy it, Gen. xii. 1. with Gen. xxvi. 3.-xxviii. 13. 9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Ifaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the fame promife. 10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. on the certain and 11 Through faith alfo Sarah herself received strength to conceive feed, and was delivered of a child 10. It was sufficient to that reafonable and good Man, that God had promised him, in general, To be his shield and exceeding great reward, Gen. xv. 1. And his Eye was upunchangeable State of future Happiness. 11 & 12. In Reward of the same Faith in the repeated Promise of God, Sarah was enabled to conceive and bear a Son, when both the and her Husband were naturally incapable of when she was paft age, such a thing, through their great Age: Ver. 8. Abraham when he was called, or ὁ καλομέν ~ pro 12 Therefore sprang A. D. 63. because she judged him Age: And from them came an infaithful who had numerable Posterity, which, withmised. out an extraordinary Act of Divine Power, could no more have been expected from two fuch Superanuated People, than if they had been actually Dead *. * See Mat. xxii. 32. there even of one, 13 These all died sea shore innumerable. 14 For they that say a + country. 15 And truly if they had been mind- have had opportunity to have returned 16 But now they defire a better coun try, that is an hea- called their God; for he hath prepared for 13 & 14. All these forementioned Worthies died in this noble Principle; full of the Hopes, and poffefs'd with the Profpect of Future and Eternal Felicities. Upon these Distant Joys they acted; for These they gave up all Worldly Enjoyments, and looked upon the present Life as nothing but a Paflage into a better State. such things, declare plainly that they seek 15 & 16. For it is very clear, it could not be Temporal Hopes, these great Souls were acted by; because Abraham, for Instance, had a much more faff and natural Prospect of That Kind, in his own Native Country, than he could be supposed to have in a Foreign Land, among a barbarous and uncultivated People. Nor could it amount to much, for God to stile Himself Their God*, i. e. in an Eminent Sense, their Great Protector and Rewarder; if he had nothing * Ver. 12. Even of one, up, from that fingle Perfon, and from Him in a manner dead. So the Word ἑις is used Galat. iii. 20, and in many other Passages. + Ver. 14. That they feek a Country - A very flat Translation ! It is Πατρίδα, A Country of their Father's, their native and proper Home: So Heaven is the proper Country or Habitation of Good Men, the Place where (God) their Father dwells. nothing to bestow on them but a few Temporal Blefsfings; A.D. 63. and those too, mix'd up with many Troubles and Afflictions common to Human Life. All their Proceedings, therefore, bespeak their main and ultimate Hopes to have been, in the Future and invisible Glories of another World; even the very fame that the Gospel now more explicitly proposes to us Chriftians. 17 By faith Abraham when he was tried, offered up Ifaac : and he that had re 17 & 18. To proceed therefore: This serious Perfwafion of the Divine Truth and Providence, made Abraham, at the Instance of the ceived the promises, Divine Command, ready, with his own Hands, to Sacrifice the very Son, in whom alone he expected to see the Great Promise fulfilled to him. offered up his only begotten Son : 18 Of whom it was faid, that in Isaac shall thy feed be called. 19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead: from whence alfo he received him in a figure. 19. Most dutifully and rationally considering, that the fame Divine Power, that caused Ifaac to be Conceived and Born, in a Manner as wonderful as that of raising the Dead to Life again, could either restore him to him again, or else fulfil the Promise in some other Way, that would be as good and happy for Him. And accordingly, as the Birth of Ifaac from the dead Womb of Sarah was a Gift of new and miraculous Life; so the Rescue of Ifaac, by the Voice of an Angel, was the fame Thing to Abraham as if he had been actually flain, and then restored to Life. 20 By faith Ifaac blessed Jacob and Efau concerning things to come. 20 & 21. With this firm Aflurance, That God would make good all his Benedictions (tho' perhaps he knew not precisely When) did Ifaac, 21 By faith Jacob in a Prophetical Way, and with Religious Reverence, pronounce the Bleffings on his Sons Jacob and Efau ; as Jacob did afterwards upon Ephraim and Manafsses ||. when he was dying, blessed both the fons of Joseph, and worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff. 22 By T || Gen. xlvii. 22 So 30. * Ver. 21. Leaning upon the Top of his Staff. In the Hebrew it is, Ifrael bowed himself upon his Bed's Head. The Word מטה, by the change of one Point, fignifying either a Bed, or a Staff, |