EPISTOLA AD HEBRAEOS

• 643A

First of all it must be seen why the apostle Paul, in the writing of this epistle, did not keep his own custom, of setting down either the word of his own name or the dignity of his order. This is the cause: that, writing to those who had believed out of the circumcision, being as it were the apostle of the Gentiles and not of the Hebrews, and knowing also their pride, and himself showing his own humility, he was unwilling to put forward the merit of his office. In like manner also the apostle John, by reason of humility, did not for the same reason set his own name before his epistle. But this epistle, written to the Hebrews, the Apostle is reported to have sent in the Hebrew tongue: whose sense and order Luke the evangelist retained, and after the departure of the blessed apostle Paul composed it in the Greek 643Btongue.

VERS. 1.-- Of old. It is not new. God, who is unchangeable then and now. Speaking. He says: speaking, in the present, because what was then is even now. To the fathers. That is, to those who are fathers to us in flesh and in the worship of God. In the prophets. For not they themselves, but God in them. In divers manners. That is, many times to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and the rest, and often to the same men. And in many ways. Because now by dreams, as to Daniel: now by an open voice, as to Moses: now by inward inspiration, as to David.

VERS. 2.-- In the Son, who is greater than the prophets. For he is the fulfiller and sanctifier of the prophets. Thus then he is a prophet, in that he is also the Lord of the prophets. 643CSo too Christ is an angel, in that he is also the Lord of the angels. He appointed unchangeably. Heir of all things, that is, possessor of every creature. For Jacob is no longer the portion of the Lord, and Israel his part: but absolutely all the nations of the world.

VERS. 3.-- Who being the brightness of his glory, etc. Here he commends Christ according to his divine nature, showing him coeternal and coequal with the Father, and of the same substance with him, but other in person.

The figure of his substance. Behold, otherwise, personally, as a figure from him whose figure it is. But equal, because not unlike, as he himself says: The Father is in me; and: He that seeth me, seeth my Father also (Joan. XIV). Note that these names, namely light, glory, are sometimes referred to the divine nature, sometimes to the person. 643DAnd when they are referred to the person; they are referred now to the Father, now to the Son. For we say: The Father is light, and the Son is light. Likewise the Father is glory, the Son glory, and these two are one glory and one light, not two. And the Son is called glory of glory, as light of light, and beginning of beginning, and God of God, yet not two gods, but one, not two beginnings, but one. But brightness and figure, as image also, are properly referred to the person of the Son and are said relatively.

644AAnd upholding all things, etc. It was said above that through him he made all things. Here he now attributes to him the sum of authority, from this, that with authority he governs and holds together all things. For as all things were created by him, so through him, who is unchangeable, they are preserved. For the omnipotence of the Creator is the cause of subsisting to every creature, and if that power should at any time cease from ruling the things it founded, at once the form and nature of all things would fall together.

Purgation. After he has shown the excellence of him by whom he created and governs all things, here he commends the kindness of his humility. For he puts us in mind of the cross and the resurrection and the ascension, where he says: He sitteth, etc. On high. In saying this, he does not shut God up in a place: but shows the man Christ loftier than all 644Band more eminent than all. So also by the right hand he did not give God a shape, but showed the likeness of honour. For he that hath confessed [Confessus; read consessus, "the sitting together"] shows nothing else but equality of honour.

VERS. 4.-- So much better. Yet in the psalm he says: He was made a little less than the angels (Psal. VIII). [Vulg. Ps 8:6 Minuisti eum paulominus ab angelis, "thou hast made him a little less than the angels"] Here he is said to be better than the same. And as that was said according to his human nature, so this too could be understood to have been said according to the divine, were it not that made is added, by which it is opened that here he speaks of him according to the flesh. For according to that whereby he is acknowledged consubstantial with the substance of the Father, he was not made, but born: the discourse therefore is of him according to his human nature, according to which he was both less than the angels in his passion, and greater and better also in the fulness of grace, 644Cof which the angels themselves also receive by measure.

A more differing name. While he was mortal, he had a differing name, because the angels ministered to him. After he was immortal, more differing still. And because he could have this, and not for them, he adds than they, that is, greatly differing from the name of the angels, this is the name which is above every name, namely God, or Son, which is truly worthier than that by which they are called angels, that is, messengers. For the name of Son shows what is proper, not adoption, because unless he were the proper Son, the Apostle could not from this assert the greatness of his honour. But the proper Son is begotten of the Father himself. But if he were Son by the grace of adoption, he would be less not only than the Father, but even than the angels.

644DVERS. 5.-- To day. Lest the generation should seem past, he said to day. For although that day also may be understood on which Christ was born according to his manhood, yet because to day signifies presence, and in eternity nothing is past as though it had ceased to be, nor future as though it were not yet, but present only: because whatsoever is eternal, always is: it is more divinely taken of the everlasting generation of the Wisdom of God, which the most sincere and catholic faith preaches.

645AI will be to him. That is, his honour, or to that man who was to be born of the Virgin. Yet this can also be taken as said according to the flesh, for the flesh communicates with higher things, as the Godhead also with lowly ones.

VERS. 6.-- Again he bringeth in, visible by the flesh assumed, him who before was invisible in the world, which assumption is called a going forth from the Father: the bringing in unto the inheritance, where he is commanded to be adored.

And let them adore. And again the Father says of the same Son: When he bringeth in. That is, when he shows him to be within, even unto the hearts of men, to be led, by faith; what does he say? And let them adore. The angels adore, because they obey his command and reverence him.

VERS. 7.-- Angels. Spirit is the name of a nature; angel, of an office. For those whom God founded as spirits, 645Bby sending them as messengers he makes angels. And he uses them all for the unchangeable determination of his own sentence, whether the good by his grace, or the evil by their own will. And by this the will of God is the first and highest cause of all bodily forms and motions. For nothing is done visibly which is not either commanded or permitted, according to ineffable justice, out of the inner, invisible and intelligible hall of the supreme Emperor. Or those spirits are called angels when they are sent to announce light things: but when they are sent for vengeance, as in Sodom, they are called a burning fire. So too the ministers of the Church are fire while our vices are burned away, but angels while they announce the word of God.

VERS. 8.-- To the Son. Here he commends Christ by his dignity together 645Cwith his power. For ever. Because he shall reign always, and the last judgment shall stand always; whence: These shall go into everlasting fire, and those into life everlasting (Matth. XXV). [Vulg. Mt 25:46 in supplicium aeternum … justi autem, "into everlasting punishment … but the just"]

VERS. 9.-- He hath anointed thee. According to his manhood, because the Godhead lacked nothing. The anointed signifies a king or a priest. God is repeated out of great love. Or according to Augustine: The one case is the vocative, the other the nominative, thus: O thou God the Son, thy God hath anointed thee, namely, the Father. In Latin it is thought to be the same case, but in Greek the distinction is most evident: whereby the one is understood as nominative, the other as vocative.

VERS. 10.-- And thou. After the excellence of his manhood, he returns again to the eternity of the Son. In the beginning. Because the Creator exists before the things created, without any beginning. 645DOf thy hands. The power of commanding, that is, the might of his will, is called a hand, because all things were made as he willed.

VERS. 11.-- They shall perish. From that which they are, when the creatures shall be changed for the better. But thou shalt continue. So that, as he is eternal before all things, so, because he continues, he will be the same after all things are changed. They shall grow old. That is said to grow old which is worn away after the manner of a garment, as human flesh is, which nevertheless shall be changed for the better.

VERS. 12.-- And as a vesture. It signifies the change of heaven. Whence: I saw a new heaven and a new earth (Apoc. XXI). Thou shalt change them, etc. Because the works of God shall stand under eternity, lest they return to corruption. But thou, wholly unchangeable.

VERS. 13.-- To which of the angels. He sets himself to treat 646Aof the glory of his manhood. Sit thou. To the victorious Son one that hath confessed [confessus; read consessus, "a session, a sitting together"] is offered by the Father. Of thy feet. By the feet eternal stability is signified, that is, unto eternity, where, his footsteps as it were set down, he stands firm by the power of his omnipotence.

VERS. 14.-- Are they not all, etc. As if he should say: Assuredly. Understand therefore how great an honour is ours, that God sends his angels to us as ministers to friends. For although there is much difference between angels and men, yet he has made them near to us, because they are zealous for our salvation, run to and fro for our sake, discharge their own office on our behalf, this is the angelic work, the duty of the angelic function, that all things be done for the salvation of one's neighbours. But this is rather the work of Christ, because he commanded the angels, who are above us, to render their ministry unto our salvation.

• 646B

VERS. 1.-- Therefore. After he has spoken many things of the Son of God which avail for his commendation, he exhorts those to whom he writes diligently to take heed and to keep the things which were announced to them through him. And to this tend all the things set down before, by which he proved that Christ was greater than the prophets and the angels. More abundantly, than the things which were said of the law, or of the prophets, or of the angels. The Apostle passed over in silence the name of the law, because in the demonstration which he makes in what follows he makes this also plain.

We flow utterly away. We flow through the penalties of mortal nature, we flow out, by adding sins, we flow utterly away into eternal damnation. Hence he urges that the words of Christ 646Cmust be heard, by reason of the punishment which shall be for those who neglect them.

VERS. 2.-- And every transgression. He says every, that there may be a punishment for each several sin; for not only shall every transgressor who is guilty of many pay the penalty. A just reward. [Vulg. Heb 2:2 justam mercedis retributionem, "a just recompense of reward"] So he speaks, lest justice should be thought to perish through mercy. But that he says recompense, this is referred to the quantity of the punishment, which shall be equal to the sin: because according as the sin is greater or less, the punishment shall be greater or less. But that he says: of reward, this is referred to the quality of the punishment, so that he who has perished by the fire of lust may be tormented by the fire of everlasting burning.

VERS. 4.-- And by distributions of the Spirit. By this he signifies the abundance of graces, which was not among the ancients, nor such great signs, nor wonders so diverse, 646Dby which he shows that credence was not simply given them, but through logs [ligna; read signa, "signs"] and wonders. And therefore, when we believe, it is declared that we believe not them, but God.

VERS. 6.-- What is man. This can be read wonderingly, so that by man and the Son of man Christ the man is understood. Of whom God was mindful in his conception, giving immunity from sin. And he visited him in the resurrection, giving the glory of immortality. This can also be read with contempt, for the earthly man: for Adam was a man, but not the son of a man, as those are called men who bear his image. But he that hath borne the image of Christ, these are rather called sons of men. And that one is called the old man; this one, the new. Man therefore in this place is the earthly; but the Son 647Aof man, the heavenly. And that one is far sundered from God, but this one is present. And therefore he is mindful of that one as of one set afar off. This one he visits, whom he enlightens with his countenance, that is, with the presence of his grace. Thou visitest him: the Father visited man through the Son of man, as a sick man through a physician.

VERS. 7.-- With glory. With the brightness of immortality with honour, in that thus every knee is bowed. Over the works of thy hands, the worthier ones, namely angels and men, which by excellence are called the works of his hands.

VERS. 8.-- But in that. He expounds the meaning of David. David says (Psal. VIII): Thou hast subjected all things: But in that Scripture hath subjected, that is, hath shown to be subjected, all things, he hath left nothing, that is, he hath excepted nothing out of all.

VERS. 9.-- But him, etc. The angels can be said to be greater than man 647Bbecause they are greater than the body of man. They are greater also in mind, but only in this, that by the desert of original sin the body weighs down the mind itself, but this, not in Christ. But whereas it seems to thee that nothing great is said of God the Father, if he is greater than the form of a servant, than which the angels also are seen to be greater; thou dost not think rightly, nor dost thou attend what place human nature holds among things, which was founded to the image of God: to which nevertheless no injury was done when Christ was saying: The Father is greater than I (Joan. XIV); who preferred God the Father not to his flesh only, but even to the human mind which he bore, which without doubt is acknowledged to be the form of a servant, since the whole creature serves the Creator.

Because of the passion. Here he now begins to show that the words of Christ are to be heard not 647Cfor his power only, or for vengeance, but for the love wherewith he loved us, that he might die for us.

VERS. 10.-- The author. Christ. Of their salvation, that is, of the sons. For he is son by nature, whose heirs we shall be, we who are sons by adoption. See how great he is in the midst of us: both he is a son, and we are sons. But there is a difference, in that he saves, we are saved. He sanctifies, we are sanctified. Now Scripture joins us together, now it puts us apart. Many, he says, sons, here it joined together: the author of their salvation, here it distinguished. Through his passion. Because unless Christ died, man would not be redeemed, and unredeemed would perish. And if that were so, all things would have been made in vain. For the rest serve man, man God. Nor would God be glorified in 647Dany, since all things were made for this. The predestination concerning the sons to be brought in would also be false. To perfect. This he began in the resurrection, when he was exalted with the glory of immortality. And it was increased in the ascension, when he ascended to the right hand of the Father. And it shall be completed in the judgment, when all things shall be subjected to him, and he shall be all in all (I Cor. XV). [Vulg. I Cor 15:28 ut sit Deus omnia in omnibus, "that God may be all in all"]

For he, etc. (AUG.) He proves that it was fitting that Christ should suffer for our deliverance, etc., as far as since it is agreed that he knew both natures through himself.

All of one. But he as the proper Son, we as adopted. When he says: he is not ashamed to call them brethren, [Vulg. Heb 2:11 non confunditur fratres eos vocare, "is not confounded to call them brethren"] he shows that our brotherhood is not to him of nature, 648Abut of mercy. Which he proves by the prophet, lest it be thought new.

VERS. 14.-- Because therefore. As if: Since all were of one, and because the children who were to be sanctified had communicated in flesh, that is, were men of soul and body, which is taken by the blood, corruptible; therefore he also, Christ. He partook of the same, namely the children, or of the same, that is, of flesh and blood, and this in like manner, that is, passible and mortal, that he might be able to die, and so destroy the devil, and through death make void the law, and by grace make free the Jews who through fear of punishments were slaves of the law. Through death. A marvel, what? Death was the arms whereby the devil conquered, and by it the devil was conquered by Christ.

648BVERS. 16.-- Nowhere. He partook of the same that he might sanctify men. And rightly is this cause added, because if he were not to deliver them, he would not partake with them. Which appears in the angels, because nowhere, that is, in no scripture, is he read to have taken hold of angels. He taketh hold. The Apostle said: he taketh hold, and not he took up, as if: He overtook one fleeing far off. In which the dignity of human nature can be understood, and the mercy and grace wherewith he did this, and the care which he had for us. For human nature fleeing before him, and fleeing far off (for we were far off); pursuing he took hold of it, not to the angelic, but to human nature was this dignity given, that God should be joined to it in one person.

VERS. 17.-- In all things. Because he was born, brought up, 648Che grew; he suffered, he died. He who above was called the figure of the Father's substance.

VERS. 18.-- For in that. That is, in the flesh which he took he suffered many cruel things. And he knows by experience what that tribulation of those who suffer is. Who are tempted. God tempts that he may prove, the devil that he may deceive, man that he may know what he knows not.

VERS. 1.-- Wherefore, brethren. He infers it from all that has gone before; as if: Because he is mighty, because he suffered for us, and he is able to help.

VERS. 2.-- Who is faithful. He begins to compare Christ with Moses, as above with the prophets and the angels, so that he is faithful above Moses, because he sought not his own, but the Father's glory, 648Dnor did he hide his commandments. Which Christ is faithful to the Father (as Moses was) in all the house of the Jews and of the Gentiles.

VERS. 3.-- Of ampler glory. As if: That he was faithful, the outcome itself declares: because he is worthy of glory, as Moses was: and indeed of an ampler glory above Moses, that is, than Moses, or being above Moses in deserving.

VERS. 4.-- For every house, etc. He built it, I say, for it cannot come to be of itself, but by some one. Was it then by Christ? Truly, because it is God who makes the house, and all things. But he that created all things, the house also. Is God. For of both houses, both of that which Moses ruled and of that which Christ raised up, God is the maker.

649AVERS. 5.-- And Moses. He shows Christ worthy of ampler glory than Moses, because Christ is the builder of the house, but not Moses. Here he shows another reason also, namely that Christ is the son, Moses a servant, who also delivered carnal things to carnal men, but Christ spiritual things.

VERS. 7.-- Wherefore. When above he had commended Christ in many things above the angels and the prophets, he subjoined that we ought to observe the things we have heard from him; so now also, he himself being commended above Moses, he begins to terrify them, lest they be unbelieving toward Christ, by the likeness of the fathers; and lest they lose the rest, he coaxes them, by the opportunity of the time. To day. Now he speaks through himself, who before spoke through heralds: if then you were hard, now be soft.

649BVERS. 8.-- Harden not your hearts; that is, be not rebellious and stubborn toward God, but obedient.

VERS. 9.-- They proved; that is, they searched out for curiosity's sake.

VERS. 10.-- Offended. [Vulg. Heb 3:10 infensus, "enraged"] Exceedingly and implacably angered. Enraged. Or near at hand, by applying the scourges of correction.

VERS. 11.-- In my wrath. God is said to grow angry by the figure anthropopathos. If they shall enter into my rest. It is an aposiopesis, that is, they shall not enter.

VERS. 12.-- An evil heart of unbelief. That you should think Christ does not suffice without the law, which is evil, because thus man rushes into many sins. Nor is this a light thing, because this is a heart of departing from the living God.

649CVERS. 13.-- Whilst to day; that is, the time of grace, and that of which the prophet spoke above in the psalms, because grace unto salvation is now bestowed on believers no less than when Christ himself was bodily present. By the deceitfulness of sin, that is, of the devil, who is the cause of sin.

VERS. 14.-- For we are made partakers of Christ. You ought to exhort one another, and not to be hard, because what we were not, we have been made by grace, having part with Christ in the inheritance: yet on this condition, if the beginning of his substance, that is, of faith, which is the beginning of good things, through which God exists, in us, and through which we are made gods and partake of the divine substance, we keep firm unto the end.

VERS. 16.-- For some who heard. He says this for this reason, lest anyone think it enough to hear of the rest, because 649Dthey also all heard, but not all heard, but not all arrived.

VERS. 2.-- It did not profit, etc. For having gone out of Egypt, when they had traversed much of the way, and had received many tokens of the power of God in Egypt, in the Red Sea, in the desert, they took counsel to send spies who should look into the nature of the land. Which they heard. To the explorers; who brought back evil things, they believed not; or distinguish it thus, of the faith taken from those things which they heard.

VERS. 3.-- And indeed. Here he treats what it signifies concerning the first rest. By the works. Because he had said that it had been announced 650Aconcerning the rest, he says when: namely, before the law, after the completion of the works of the seven days, by the rest of the sabbath; and under the law, when it was designated by the land of promise; and in the time, of grace, the Holy Spirit saying in David: to day, etc., as if, it has been announced concerning that rest, and thus indeed when the fulfilment of that true rest had not yet been signified, because no one had as yet obtained the rest. Being perfected. Which was when man was made, for whom all things were made, and he himself was made for the glorifying of God.

VERS. 4.-- And he rested the seventh day. dia In six days he made all things, so that afterward nothing should be made save out of the matter then made, and after the likeness of the things made. On the seventh day he rested, which therefore signifies rest. So too in the sixth age Christ the man was born into the world for labour, 650Band having suffered on the sixth day and at the sixth hour of the day, on the seventh he rested. So too we, while we live under the works of the six days, labour; going out thence, we rest: if only our works be found very good.

VERS. 5.-- And in this. Of the second rest, which is signified by the figure of the rest of the land of promise.

VERS. 7.-- A certain day, To day. Of the third that is signified, and when it is given, though obscurely, which through Christ is promised to believers. After so long a time. But in this it is plain that this is another rest, of which David says to day, than that to which Josue led. For if it were that one, David would not speak of another; therefore it is certain that there is another to which Christ leads, which was signified by that Palestine.

VERS. 8.-- Unto them, the children of Israel, to whom it had before been announced 650Cconcerning the rest by a sign, that is, the land of promise; had given rest, never, that is, at no time; thereafter, that is, in the time following; would he speak of another day, that is, of the time of grace, in which it was to be given. Or, he would never afterward speak of another, namely rest, besides the land of promise. By saying, on this day, he means the same as he had said above, to day, etc.

VERS. 9.-- A sabbath-rest; that is, the true rest signified by the sabbath (that is, the festal gladness of full quiet) on which the Lord rested and which was observed in the law. For then we shall be perfectly at leisure, refreshed by a greater grace, and full of God. And we shall know perfectly that he is God. There we shall be at leisure, we shall see, and we shall love. We shall love and we shall praise: behold what shall be in 650Dthe end without end. For what other end is ours, save to come to the kingdom of which there is no end?

VERS. 11.-- Into the same example. Or, into such punishment as they had through unbelief; he says example that we may have our mind there, lest we likewise fall away.

VERS. 12.-- The word of God. Which came from the royal seats. Living. Whom the unbelieving think dead. Reaching. Coming with entire consideration unto the separation of the soul, that is, of sensuality, and of the spirit, that is, of reason. The division of the soul. By the soul we live with the beasts, by the spirit we understand with the angels. And therefore by the soul are understood carnal sins, that is, those which are done by an act of the body, as lust. But by the spirit, spiritual ones, 651Athat is, those which are of the mind, as pride. But the word of God discerns between carnal sins and spiritual: who acts, what he acts, with what mind. And of the spirit. The word of God reaches with an inseparable knowledge, because it knows how sensuality is divided from reason, and itself from itself, when, being more given over to the lowest things, it is lower, or, called back from them, worthier. So too it sees how the spirit is divided from itself, whether while it gapes after God, thinking of the divine vision, or while lower down it considers heavenly things, or lower still on earth treats of worldly things to be rightly done, or how the spirit, that is, reason, is separated from sensuality, when that which is lower in itself surpasses that which is higher in her.

Of the joints also. A joint is called the joining of sensuality itself and of reason, which the Son 651Bof God sees; namely how they cohere with one another in something, or this and that, that is, reason and sensuality, how in their differences they agree with one another, when the higher difference of sensuality by consenting agrees with the differences of reason. Or the lower difference of reason, pressed down and captive, sometimes consents to the lower difference of sensuality. Of the marrow. Marrow, which is the inner part, is here said to be whatsoever is more inward and more subtle in the soul or in the spirit, which the Son of God also sees. For he discerns thoughts, that is, what diverse things diverse men think. He discerns also the intentions of those thoughts, whither each tends, to good or to evil. And, that I may say more, no creature earthly or heavenly is invisible to him, but all things are naked and uncovered, because on every side fully seen. Likewise he calls joints 651Cthe conjunctions of thoughts: marrows, the intentions of them.

VERS. 14.-- Having therefore. Here he begins to speak of Christ the high priest, how he is sufficient, and how he is worthier than the old priest. Whom also he changes, and the law which is under him, by his own better law, and how he is necessary to us for justice and salvation.

VERS. 15.-- For we have not, etc. As if: Let us hold fast, and we ought to hold fast, because, since he is mighty, he is also merciful, having, as it were, experienced our infirmity. Who cannot, etc. It is impossible for a man who has not had experience of affliction, and has not sensibly borne all things, to know the afflictions of the afflicted. But Christ knows, not only in that he is God, 651Daccording to which he knows all things, but in that he is man and has borne like things.

VERS. 16.-- In seasonable aid. Now is the time of help, now is the time of gifts, when those who sin after baptism can through grace find repentance. But when the bride-chamber shall have been shut, when the king shall have come in to see those that recline, so that they who have been worthy of it shall have come to the bosom of the patriarch, then for the wicked it shall be the time of despair. But now, while the contest still remains and the palm hangs, there must be no despairing, but we must draw near with confidence, that is, without doubting, that by grace one may draw near, and seasonable aid be found. For there is a time which is not fitting.

• 652A

VERS. 1.-- For every high priest. Because spiritual things do not so bring in the weak: as bodily things; from these he begins, wishing to show that the New Testament is better than the Old. But some things he sets down as common to Christ with the priests, some higher, pertaining to Christ alone. Some, further, more lowly, suiting those priests only.

VERS. 2.-- For that he himself also. Take away here the occasion of exalting oneself above others.

VERS. 4.-- Neither doth any man, etc. He strikes the covetous, who are not called, but thrust themselves forward.

VERS. 5.-- He did not glorify himself. The Son was glorified by the Father, when he said: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matth. III). 652BWhich glorification was foretold long before through the Prophet: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee (Psal. II).

VERS. 6.-- Thou art a priest. Now Christ is a priest, not according to that whereby he was born of the Father, God with God, coeternal with him that begat him: but on account of the flesh consumed, on account of the victim which he offered for us. According to the order of Melchisedech, who was not temporal, Scripture keeping silence as to the beginning and the end of his life, in a figure of Christ who lacks beginning and end. And as he offered in bread and wine and once, so also Christ under the species of bread and wine gave his body and his blood to the disciples.

VERS. 7.-- Prayers and supplications. He speaks of the action and the life of Christ, whose every action is the instruction of the faithful, and a prayer to God. Whatever Christ did, 652Cthey were prayers and supplications for all. The shedding of his blood was a mighty cry, in which he was heard, for the reverence of that same passion. The reverence is this, that being without sin he suffered for charity alone. He was heard. By this it is plain that through him we can obtain mercy, since he is now at the right hand of the Father.

VERS. 8.-- He learned, etc. That is, he willingly took upon himself obedience even unto death.

VERS. 9.-- To all that obey him. So greatly does the passion avail, that it suffices for all unto salvation, which salvation can well be through him, because he himself is called, etc. He was made the cause of salvation, not of any sort of salvation, but of eternal; nor to few, but to all; yet on this condition, that they obey him. For otherwise they will not be able 652Dto obtain salvation. And he himself can well be the cause of salvation to the rest, since he was called by God a high priest, as he also himself showed in very deed by his works that he was such. For because he fulfilled the office of a high priest, and was obedient to the Father in all things, and in himself came to so great a consummation of all good things that it sufficed even for the salvation of others, therefore he was called by God a high priest, and this, according to the order of Melchisedech, namely, that all the order of divinity might be considered in him which could be considered in Melchisedech.

VERS. 11.-- Not to be interpreted. The discourse concerning the incarnate Son is hard to interpret, because you are weak in sense for understanding the deep mysteries.

VERS. 12.-- For whereas ye ought. He inserts a rebuke 653Aconcerning their weakness, that they may labour to understand high things of Christ. Which are the elements of the beginning. The beginning of the discourses is simple teaching. Its elements are the matter of which it treats, as the nativity, the passion.

VERS. 13.-- For every one, etc. He who does not take in this: The Word was made flesh, how shall he take in: In the beginning was the Word? Every discourse upon this matter, wherein it is dealt with that it be not only believed but also understood, and that what is said be known, is burdensome: it more easily weighs them down than feeds them. Whence it comes about that spiritual men do not altogether keep silence of these things to the carnal, on account of the catholic faith, which is to be preached to all. Nor yet let them so forsake them that, wishing to bring these things through to an understanding not capable of them, they more easily make the discourse to be loathed in the truth than the truth to be perceived in the discourse.

• 653B

VERS. 1.-- Wherefore. When they had been harshly rebuked and blamed, in that they wish always to learn these same things, again he coaxes them by numbering himself with them, exhorting them to perfection. The word of the beginning of Christ, wherein the untaught are to be catechized, as is the Symbol of faith and the Lord's prayer. Not again, that is, not formerly, that as they fell before, they should fall again. Or, not again laying, let us so lay now, that there be no need to lay further. Foundation. What he before called the word of the beginning, here he calls the foundation, in that it is first set before those coming to the Christian religion, so that upon this may be built what belongs to perfection. This foundation is divided into six, which 653Care: the beginning or penance, faith, the doctrine of baptisms, the imposition of hands, resurrection, and judgment. Whosoever converts any to the faith, first makes them repent, believe in God, be baptized unto remission, be confirmed through the imposition, and await the resurrection and the day of judgment.

VERS. 4.-- Impossible. But lest anyone suppose that a second or a third baptism can be had after sins, he adds: Impossible, not merely difficult, lest anyone should trust in this. Those who, that is, even those who have had these good things. Much less those utterly evil.

VERS. 6.-- To be renewed, by baptism, whose power stands in the cross of Christ, whence there follows: Crucifying again. Because in baptism we are conformed to his death and to his burial. He who thinks to be baptized a second time, 653Da second time crucifies Christ (so far as in him lies), which is to have him for a show and a mockery, as he died once; so we in baptism die once to sins, not a second or a third time.

VERS. 7.-- Often coming. He says often coming, because if it is rare, it does not suffice: if it is constant, it grows cheap. The rain. Holy doctrine, the dew of the heavens, which the heavens rain upon the thirsting earth, that is, the preachers of the word of truth. Bringing forth grass. He signifies that they had often drunk in, through the law and the prophets, the word of heavenly doctrine, who not even so were ready to bring forth the buds of faith. By whom it is tilled. The tillers of the earth are they who with the spiritual ploughshare cut through the thickets, and with the sickle of the word of God cut away hurtful things. Or those by whom it is tilled. are 654Athose same men who till themselves in good works, having imitated, that is, their elders, according to that: And they brought forth the fruit of nativity, because they imitate their fathers, who begot them in the faith.

VERS. 9.-- We trust. Because as to the present the Apostle has nothing whereby to praise them; he lifts them up from the hope of things to come, to which he entices them by things past, and he refreshes their spirits and strengthens them, calling old things back into their mind, and makes them reckon that God has not forgotten the good things which they did. For as their former good things had been made dead and void through the evils that followed, so those same shall live again through penance and through other good things following.

VERS. 10.-- Of the work. He has testified great things of them. And he commends three good things in them, namely that 654Bthey made all their own things common to the saints. Behold the work, and this out of love, which informs actions; behold the eagerness, and this unto the glory of God; behold a pure and right intention.

VERS. 11.-- We desire. He shows much love toward them, and shows the same care about each one, and bears care alike for the greater and for the lesser, and loves all.

VERS. 13.-- For to Abraham, etc. He says three things: that the promise was made; and that it was confirmed by an oath; and that it was already fulfilled in Abraham.

VERS. 14.-- Unless blessing, etc. There is an aposiopesis here, that is, a breaking off. As if: If I shall not do this, let me not be believed concerning anything.

VERS. 17.-- Wherein God, willing more abundantly. As if he should say: 654CBut if a man, who is a liar, is believed by an oath, how much more must God be believed, who cannot lie?

VERS. 18.-- We flee for refuge. He flees to hope who by the hope of blessedness despises tribulations.

VERS. 19.-- Which as. As an anchor holds a ship, so hope holds the soul, lest it be sunk in the salt sea of this world by consenting to iniquity; and firm, lest it so much as totter.

(AUG.) Cast thy care upon God, etc., as far as if for a time it is tossed, its anchor is hope.

VERS. 20.-- Forerunner. To this end did Christ run before, that we might follow. Who is well called a runner, because no fault hindered him, according to that: He hath rejoiced as a giant to run the way (Psal. XVIII). 654DAnd elsewhere: In the way of sinners he hath not stood (Ibid. I). And a forerunner, because he ran before us, and for us.

A priest of the most high God. (CHRYS., hom. 35, in Gen.) Now he was perhaps a priest ordained by himself, for such were the priests in that time. Or because he was further advanced in age, he was reverenced by his own people. Or because he too was zealous to sacrifice, as also Noah, Abel Abraham, when they offered sacrifices.

VERS. 3.-- Neither beginning, etc., nor having end of life. Christ absolutely did not have a beginning nor an end. For ever. He says it thus because Scripture keeps silence that anyone had succeeded him. Or he speaks mystically of the priesthood of Christ.

655AVERS. 4.-- But behold, etc. He dwells upon commending the dignity. Melchisedech and the excellence of his priesthood; preferring him to Abraham himself, the father of all, and to all the Levites.

VERS. 5.-- And indeed of the sons of Levi, etc. As if: And from this behold how great he is, because some indeed of the sons of Levi, through this, that they receive the sacrifice (for otherwise they would not dare), have a commandment in the law, without whose authority they would never presume to take tithes.

VERS. 8.-- He testifieth. As I do, or, the same in many places. He liveth. For he bore the type of our high priest, whose excellence of power is shown through his likeness. For through Melchisedech, in whom the figure went before, the priesthood of Christ is distinguished from the 655Bpriesthood of Levi; but in the figure of Christ it is said that Melchisedech liveth. Whence he is called a priest for ever, who offered himself, not out of any necessity, but out of the will of his own power.

VERS. 11.-- Under him. Because the law is in the hand of the priest, and through him is fulfilled the law which is said to consummate. This translation was prefigured in Samuel, who out of the tribe of Ephraim was chosen priest by the Lord, the sons of Heli being reproved, the Lord saying: He that shall honour me, I will honour him; and he that dishonoureth me, etc.

VERS. 12.-- For the priesthood being translated, etc. That another should rise, he proves thereafter both by the tribe and by the rite. By the tribe there: For he of whom these things, etc. By the rite there: And it is yet far more, etc. For the priesthood being translated. Because therefore the law and the priesthood were given alike, and by the same, and under the same promise, 655Cwhat is said of the one must needs be understood of the other also.

VERS. 14.-- For it is manifest, etc. From tribe to tribe the priesthood was translated, from the priestly to the royal, that the same tribe might be priestly and royal. And behold the mystery: first that tribe was royal, afterwards it was made priestly. So Christ was always king; but he was made priest when he took flesh, when he offered the sacrifice.

VERS. 16.-- Not according to the law. That is, according [secundum; read non secundum, the lemma's negation governing the gloss] to the carnal understanding of the law, that he should act according to carnal observances; but according to the power of the law itself, that is, the spiritual understanding, which they that follow out have life eternal. There is a difference between priesthood, and priesthood. That one carnal, this spiritual. 655DThat one temporal, this eternal.

VERS. 22.-- By so much. From the praise of the priest he infers the commendation of the law. Of a better. Because it promises better things, that is, eternal; but the Old Testament, temporal things.

VERS. 24.-- But this man, etc. As Christ remains, so also the law which he brought, in which is true remission of sins, and perpetual grace, which, because the old law could not give, it was shut out. And that it remains for ever he shows from the high priest, who is one, which he would not be, unless he were immortal, as in the law there were many, because they were mortal.

VERS. 25.-- Whereby he is able also to save. Having shown that through the priesthood of Christ the old priesthood and the law are destroyed, 656Ahe commends his act by putting down, by contrast, the working of the old priesthood.

VERS. 26.-- Holy, inwardly. Innocent, in hands. Undefiled, in body. Separated from sinners, that is, free from all sin.

VERS. 27.-- Who hath not, etc. Since he is such, he has not need to offer daily. The Apostle did not say this as though Christ ever stood in need of it, but that he might remove from him what belongs to others. For this he did once, in offering himself. So great is the sacrifice, that although it is one and offered once, yet it suffices unto eternity.

VERS. 28.-- For the law maketh men, etc. They have need to offer daily, because they are weak; he, offering himself once, suffices for all, because he 656Bis perfect.

VERS. 1.-- The chief point. (CHRYS.) The apostle Paul mingles lowly things with lofty, always following his Master, etc., as far as whom it behoves to discharge the office of a priest.

Such an one we have. Here the chief point begins; and it ends there: God and not man. In the heavens. Or above the material heavens. Or, above thrones and dominations.

VERS. 2.-- A minister of the holies. Because he ministers to the saints increase of virtues, and life eternal. Or, in the heavens he ministers the glory signified through the holy of holies. A minister of the true tabernacle. That is, of the truth, which the old tabernacle prefigured; namely justice in the present Church, glory in 656Cthe Church to come. Which, the true tabernacle, God hath pitched, [Vulg. Hbr 8:2 quod fixit Dominus, "which the Lord hath pitched"] that it may remain for ever; but the shadowy one was not fixed, but portable; and not man: this he adds because God set up the old one also, but through a man as minister.

VERS. 3.-- That he may offer. And since it is necessary that he have somewhat to offer; either that will be upon the earth, or heavenly: but not upon the earth, because if it were this, he would now not be a priest; therefore what he offers is heavenly.

VERS. 4.-- When he was, etc. If then he were, etc. Because every one who offers, if there were some earthly man who could cleanse the human race, there would be no priest according to the order of Melchisedech, because they who offered the things of the law would be enough; but because they were mortal and sinners, and therefore not able to cleanse the human race, 656DChrist came, who should suffice. But now, that is, in the last age, Christ has obtained a better ministry of the priesthood, by as much as his law is better. Now from the priesthood and the sacrifice he passes to the difference of the Testaments.

VERS. 5.-- It was answered, etc. Not when he was beginning, because he had already expressed many things by figures, but when he could not of himself consummate it, he consulted the Lord, who taught him of the figures, as also of the truth.

VERS. 6.-- And of a better Testament, etc. Now from the sacrifice and the priesthood he passes to the difference of the Testaments, preferring the New to the Old; in that the New was established in better promises.

VERS. 7.-- For if that former. He proves that the Testament 657Aof Christ is better than the Old: for that one is not free from fault, this is free. For if it had been free from fault, a second would not be given, but it is given. And so it appears that the one was imperfect, this perfect. Had been faultless, then indeed. He says this in such a way as though it had fault itself. Which is seen, while it commands without grace, and makes transgressors. Would be sought, by the Lord, who first instructed and brought up little by little, that afterwards he might give the perfect.

VERS. 9.-- Which I made to their fathers. And because he had made a special one for certain persons, he determines it. Which I made in the day, that is, in the time of the law, which was given after the going forth out of Egypt. What therefore he said to Abraham before the law: In thy seed shall all nations be blessed (Gen. XXII), he afterwards fulfilled in the Gospel. For that 657Bpromise was spiritual and pertained specially to grace. They continued not in the Testament. He imputes it to their own fault that they continued not in the Testament, lest the law which they then received should seem to be blamed. For it is that same law which Christ came not to loose, but to fulfil. Yet it does not justify without grace, on account of the harm of the old man, which, because it is not healed by the letter that commands and threatens, that is called Old; this, New: on account of the newness of the spirit which heals from the vice of oldness, which he plainly opens when he says: This is the Testament, etc.

VERS. 10.-- Giving my laws into minds. Not in tables of stone, not in ink, but in the Spirit, by whose presence (who is the finger of God) charity is poured forth in hearts, which is the fulness of the law. Since indeed the just 657Care not terrified from without, but within they love justice. Giving laws: Behold the Testament. I will write above. As if: which ought to be above, and to rule over them. And I will be to them a God. That is, they shall live from me and to me, and in time to come they shall see me, which is perfection, that one should not teach another. This is the difference of the Old and the New, that the one is on stone, this on the heart; there the reward is earth; here the vision of God.

VERS. 11.-- He shall not teach. What lay hidden in the letter, and the people learned through the traditions of the masters, this the Spirit at his coming taught the apostles, and this is what the Prophet says: Each one shall not teach his neighbour, because all shall know (Jer. XXXI); as it is said in the Gospel: Then he opened to them the understanding (Luc. XXIV), etc. The greater. Understand the greater either in time: as the former, 657Dwho awaited us that come after in the receiving of the penny; or more worthy in knowledge, or in virtue, namely they who were able to understand the incorporeal and unchangeable light, so far as one can in this life: which nevertheless the lesser were able to believe. When therefore that which is perfect shall have come, and that which is in part shall have been done away, then he who, having taken flesh, appeared to flesh, shall show himself to those that love him. Then all shall know him from the least even to the greatest, because even the least shall then know perfectly, when he shall have been instructed by himself, not by a greater.

VERS. 1.-- He had. Thus far he has shown the difference of the Testaments, 658Aand that the New surpasses the Old, and changes it. Now he shows the same thing from the fashion of the tabernacle itself. A holy place, not spiritual, but: Worldly. Because it was thought holy by men. And truly it had a worldly holy place, because a first tabernacle and a second.

VERS. 2.-- For the holy tabernacle. [Vulg. Hbr 9:2 Tabernaculum enim factum est primum, "For the first tabernacle was made"] The first tabernacle had within it the altar of incense; before the doors, under the open sky, the altar of holocausts: or, that which is without signifies the Old Testament, and is a figure of a figure; within signifies the New

VERS. 5.-- Cherubim. By the Cherubim is signified the fulness of knowledge; by the propitiatory above the ark, Christ, because to Christ himself it was specially given by God the Father, that he should be a propitiation for 658Bour sins.

VERS. 7.-- In the year. Because it was entered every year, it was signified that perfection had not yet come. For his own and the people's ignorance. Christ offered for his own people, but for himself he did not, save in his members. Whence he himself says: The words of my sins (Psal. XXI). For he calls our sins his own, because he took them upon himself, not to have them, but to blot them out.

VERS. 8.-- Not yet made manifest. Heaven is still inaccessible to mortals according to the condition of the body, but before, even according to their souls. Yet the resurrection is to be patiently awaited, in which the access into heaven shall lie open through Christ to bodies also. The way of the saints. The way of the saints is Christ, or the spiritual understanding of the law, through which one ascends 658Cinto the inner parts of heaven.

VERS. 9.-- Which is a parable. But that these things concerning the sacrifices to be consummated either in the first or in the second tabernacle were said according to their signification, he opens, adding: which is a parable, etc.

VERS. 10.-- Until the time of correction; that is, until the time of grace, in which those were to be corrected unto better who until then were under a pedagogue, whom the law could not make perfect, yet at that time it ought not to cease.

VERS. 11.-- By a greater. Christ entered the tabernacle, that is, heaven. By the name of the sign, that is, of the tabernacle, the Apostle designates the thing signified, that is, heaven, which is well called, by a greater, because it holds more than that earthly one, and more perfect, because there is 658Dperfect blessedness.

VERS. 12.-- Into the holies. He expounds what he had said: A tabernacle not made with hands, the holy of holies, that is, heavenly things.

VERS. 13.-- For if the blood. That through Christ there could be redemption, he proves from the lesser, because through those things of the law there was made a bodily cleansing. Of goats. The goat signifies Christ, through the likeness of the flesh of sin. Christ is called a bull, because with the horns of the two Testaments he tosses his enemies. Unto the cleansing of the flesh, that is, that the flesh might be cleansed on account of the precept of the law; but in Christ is perfection.

VERS. 14.-- He offered himself. Christ, the mediator between God and men, is the giver of the New Testament: 659Aas high priest he is to us the giver of the new law. Unspotted. His blood is unspotted.

From dead works; that is, sins, which he who touches is defiled, as he who touched a dead body was defiled; nor does he enter into heaven, as neither did that man into the temple. To the living. Yet the death of Christ was necessary in the redemption not only of the Gentiles, but also of those transgressions which the law showed, it did not loose. So great was our sin, that we could not be saved unless the Only-begotten of God should die for us, who were debtors of death; but so he made us worthy of the Testament and of the promised inheritance, and thus the Testament was made firm.

VERS. 15.-- A death intervening. Between the Old Testament and the New (in which not only the sacraments are divided, 659Bbut the promises also) the distinction is the passion of Christ, in whose death it is certain that not earthly things are promised, but eternal. For in the death of the Only-begotten great things must needs be hoped for.

VERS. 16.-- For where. Christ is the giver of the New Testament, a death intervening, but now, unto the confirmation of the Testament, Christ could die, as he proves from the custom of human law.

VERS. 19.-- Wool. The charity of Christ is wool to us, whereof we may make a garment.

VERS. 22.-- And without shedding of blood, etc. This determination is therefore added, because through the water of sprinkling which was made from the ashes of the red heifer, there was sometimes made a remission of sins, when blood was not shed, and yet it had been shed in the immolation 659Cof the heifer. But in those sacrifices, although they were rather fittingly imposed upon a perverse people than offered to a God desiring them, yet they were a figure of the truth, which is Christ, by whose blood we have been redeemed and cleansed, because our cleansing and God's propitiation is nothing to us without blood.

VERS. 23.-- But the heavenly things themselves. Christ, who was signified in certain of them, needed not to be cleansed, but all that are his do need it; nevertheless his signs, which in the tabernacle afforded the use of the ministry, were cleansed with blood.

VERS. 25.-- Nor that he should offer himself often, etc. He has proved that Christ by his own victim cleansed the heavenly things; now he proves that by better victims, that is, that his victim was worthier and more effectual than all others: because 659Dthose, often repeated, were without consummation, this, offered once, brings back to our country.

VERS. 26.-- Otherwise, etc. If, offered once, he did not suffice to exhaust the sins of all that believe in him, he must have suffered oftener from the beginning of the world; and that this might not be, he suffered once in the consummation of the ages. In the consummation. That is, in the last age, in which all those things are fulfilled which before were imperfect, and therefore there was no need that he should begin to suffer from the beginning of the world.

VERS. 27.-- And as. The natural law shows this, which has been proved by the unfitting. To die once. It is not to be understood that Christ was offered by any necessity of his own sin, even once, 660Abut rather by will alone. But as a man once dead by necessity and by the law of nature dies no more, so also Christ, offered once by the same law, cannot die any more. But after this. After dying once, judgment remains, in which all shall receive according as they have deserved; but it does not remain that they should rise again, and die anew.

VERS. 28.-- He shall appear without sin. So that then there shall not be a victim for sin, but justice in rewarding, or in condemning. But if there shall not be a victim even in the day of wrath, much less in other times. Or without sin, that is, without the likeness of the flesh of sin, but rather in glorious flesh.

VERS. 1.-- For a shadow. He has proved that Christ 660Bdied once; but why? or once? Because the law could not make men perfect, therefore a lamb without spot was to be offered. Not the very image. That is, the truth, as in a painting, so long as one is laying on the colours, there is a kind of underlay. Or the underlay is a kind of shadow, and not an image; but when one has dipped the very flowers of the colours, then an image is made. They that approach. Although the high priests offered unceasingly, year by year, in the holy of holies with the same victims, yet by their own victims they could never be made perfect.

VERS. 2.-- The worshippers once, etc. The one victim of Christ makes men perfect; and if thousands sin they need no other, because it suffices for all things, and washes every conscience from sins; which the old victim does not, for if it did this, there would be no need for it to be repeated. Just as a medicine, if it 660Cbe strong, and effectual for health, and able to drive off every sickness, works the whole cure when once applied; but if it is always being applied, it is a plain sign that it has not conferred health; and therefore, because by those sacrifices no one was cured, they were offered frequently.

VERS. 3.-- A remembrance, not an absolution; an accusation of weakness, not a showing of power; therefore, that weakness might be shown, and that a memory of sins might be made, God commanded that those things should always be offered.

VERS. 5.-- Thou wouldst not. From the time of the passion, in which is the consummation of all victims, those things began to displease. He never destroyed them before, but was subject to them, when he was presented in the temple with victims. But a body thou hast fitted to me. The signs are taken away, because the truth has been shown forth, then was the time that 660Dthose should be taken away, and the truth should come. Nor was the Lord ever delighted in those odours, save in the faith and the desire of him that offered. Yet he commanded these things to be offered to himself, rather than that they should be offered to idols; and he imposed them for servitude, not for justification, and that they might be a figure of what was to come.

VERS. 6.-- They have not pleased. In those figures the truth was foretold. They celebrate figures, many knowing the thing of the figure, but more not knowing it, which figures must cease when the thing has been shown forth.

VERS. 7.-- Then. When I saw that all those things displeased, and that a body fit for this was given to me. I said: Behold I come, to offer myself, that I may do and fulfil thy will, because thou art my God. Therefore I come 661Ato fulfil thy thy will, because so it is written, and prefigured concerning me in the counsel of the Godhead, which is my head, I who am the book of the human race according as I am man, in which book let men read all things necessary for them, and therefore there is no need of the law.

VERS. 8.-- Saying above. As if he should say: This authority notes not only that the old victims did not make men perfect, but that the victim of Christ alone did; but also the taking away of the Old Testament, and the establishing of the New, if the words be diligently noted; because, saying above, thou wouldst not have those things, he adds: Then I said. For behold, he takes away the first sacrifice and with it the Old Testament, and appoints as stable the new sacrifice and with it the New Testament.

VERS. 10.-- Sanctified, etc. The purgation of sins 661Bhaving been made, we are reconciled to God.

VERS. 11.-- And every, etc. Lest the blood offered by the high priests once in the year should seem to have profited less, and the sacrifices made daily by the priests to make men perfect, he adds this, as if he should say: The high priest, offering year by year, does not come to consummation, so also every priest offers continually, and yet by these things is never consummated.

VERS. 12.-- He sitteth on the right hand. Well can he consummate who so deserved to be exalted.

VERS. 13.-- As to the rest. That is, concerning that which remains, namely the glory of the good and the punishment of the wicked. A footstool. Because, even if they now resist him, and seem not to be made subject, then they shall appear to all as subject to him, by whose command they shall lie under punishments.

VERS. 15.-- And he also beareth witness to us, etc. The Holy Spirit testifies that he has consummated for ever them that are sanctified, and that in the New Testament God will not remember sins. After that. As if he should say: After he had said that which is not of force for our proof, he added other things which confirm both the things we say: namely giving laws, which pertains to consummation; and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more, which pertains to sanctification.

VERS. 16.-- I will write over. He does not say I will write, but I will write over, because those laws are over the strength of men, in the fulfilling of which none shall suffice, save by the help of grace. In these words it is said that he consummates by virtues, then he subjoins concerning sanctification.

661DVERS. 18.-- But where, etc. Not only can it be seen from this authority that Jesus sanctifies and consummates, but also that an oblation is now, after the time of grace, not to be made for sins, when remission has been made.

VERS. 20.-- Through the veil. Our faith is veiled, because faith has no merit where human reason supplies proof.

VERS. 22.-- In fulness of faith. Our faith is perfect, since none of these things is now visible, neither priest nor victim. Sprinkled in heart. [Vulg. aspersi corda, "having hearts sprinkled"] By this it is shown that not faith alone, but life with virtue is sought. Washed with water, that is, with baptism.

VERS. 23.-- For he is faithful. As God is faithful in 662Ahis promises, so he wills that we be faithful to him in our promises. Let us therefore have faith and confession, so far as in us lies.

VERS. 24.-- And let us consider, etc. The perfect man by exhorting others, the lesser by imitating the perfect. Thence the Apostle exhorts to those things which befit faith.

VERS. 25.-- As the manner is. He blames those who rend the unity of charity, as though they could not dwell among others because of their own sanctity; who rather ought by their own example to have comforted them. But comforting. He comforts one that labours who persists equally in the labour, because the lightening of a labour is the effort, or the striving, of him that labours with him, as happens on a journey.

VERS. 26.-- For to us sinning wilfully. That is, while we remain in the will of sinning, Christ, who is the victim for sins, does not profit 662Bus even in this present time. Whereby it is plain that neither in the time to come. After receiving the knowledge of the truth, that is, although we had come to the faith, on account of which some are secure, as though they should never perish. He does not say, to them that will, but wilfully, because he is wilful who is assiduous in a thing; he is willing, who is so for a time. Or also, if we should sin by will, not to say by act. There is now left no sacrifice for sins; as in the old law it was granted that victims should be offered more often for sin. For Christ is not again to be immolated for sins, which was done once, and there is no need of a second time. But there is rather need to remain in faith and in truth. But if he does not do this, judgment awaits thee, unless thou be renewed through penance.

VERS. 28.-- Under two or three witnesses. Being convicted. 662CWhat then of those against whom the angels bear witness, and the saints, and their own conscience?

VERS. 29.-- Hath trodden under foot, etc. He treads Christ under foot who sins freely, without fear and without penance; and he who partakes unworthily esteems the blood polluted, if, being cleansed by it, he returns to his vomit and neglects to repent. He is injurious to the Spirit who does not receive his benefit thankfully. Hath esteemed polluted. Such is he who believes that sins are forgiven through carnal observances, from which the blood of Christ draws us back, and so he is polluted and pollutes us, if he draws us back from that from which remission is.

And to the Spirit of grace. That is, to the Holy Spirit freely given; or, he does despite to him who gives grace; he who ascribes to carnal observances the remission which the Spirit himself makes, or who casts him off from himself 662Dby living evilly.

VERS. 30.-- Revenge to me, etc. This is said of enemies, who do evil, but not of those who suffer evil. And here he also comforts them, saying that God remains for ever, and lives. Accordingly, even if now the tyrants do not receive what has been promised them; yet afterwards they shall receive it, and so it behoves them to groan together, but not us. For we fall into their hands, but they into the hands of God. For neither is it he that suffers who suffers any evil, but he that does it; nor is it he that is helped who receives the benefit, but he that bestows the benefit. Knowing these things therefore, let us be made patient to bear evils, and ready to do good.

663AVERS. 31.-- Call ye to mind. He invites them by their former deeds

(CHRYS.) Just as the best of physicians, when they have cut others, etc., as far as but that ye may fall into the hands of God, call ye to mind, etc.

The former, etc. If as novices they endured, it is base if now they fail. A great fight, etc. They had sufferings, both from their own pains and from the pains of others, with whom they suffered together.

VERS. 33.-- And on the one hand indeed, etc. As if: You endure a fight of sufferings, both in your own sufferings and in your compassion for others, and these are the two parts of the sufferings that contend against us. A spectacle. Reproach is grievous, it is more grievous when it is made a spectacle to men, and one is upbraided not in secret.

663BVERS. 38.-- He liveth. (AUG.) Ye just, ye upright, rejoice in the Lord, for it becometh you, etc., as far as and he raises up him that fails, and crowns him that conquers.

VERS. 39.-- But we, etc. That is, we are not the sons of pagans, but of faithful prophets.

VERS. 1.-- Now faith is. Here is the praise and commendation of faith, whose description he sets down. In which he notes three things, namely: what it effects in us, that it is the foundation of all good things, and that it is also of things that appear not. Concerning which it has been more fully said in the Epistle to the Romans: Faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, that is, the cause which will one day make the things to be hoped for subsist in us; which is to say: it will make us 663Cobtain the good things to come. And faith is properly called substance, because it stands under the things to be hoped for, and makes them to be in believers in the other life. And it is the foundation of all good things, which no one can change, and without which there is no good building; or, it already makes the things to be hoped for to be in the heart of the believer. The evidence, that is, the certitude of things which appear not, and if anyone doubt of it, the proof, where the resurrection to come is further proved; because so believed the patriarchs, the apostles, and the other saints. Faith is the cause of the things to be hoped for, because it is the cause of the justice through which they are to be hoped for. And this is: In this a testimony, of justice, because on account of faith God testified that they were just. The ancients: He says this, not that they were ancients in age, but the forerunners of these, and so it is plain that faith is not new, but is to be held, since the ancients held it.

663DVERS. 3.-- By faith we understand. He uses examples for the commendation of faith, to show that faith is of things that appear not.

VERS. 4.-- By faith a more plentiful sacrifice. He shows that the ancient fathers obtained the testimony of justice through faith, setting down another example for the commendation of justice. Being dead he yet speaketh. That is, he is matter for us of speaking, that we may give an example from his faith. For death has not extinguished the fame of his faith. From the faith and the patience of those who went before he comforts these men. Abel still speaks, because by his own example he admonishes others to be just. Death indeed slew him, but it did not slay with him his glory and his memory.

(AUG.) Neither did Henoch and Elias wither with old age through so long an age, 664Anor yet, etc., as far as before he had deserved to go out thence because of sin.

VERS. 6.-- That he is. To be belongs properly to God: because he immutably is.

VERS. 7.-- By faith Noe, etc. And of the justice, etc. That is, he was just from faith, as his fathers were, for unless he had been just, God would not have commanded this to him.

VERS. 8.-- By faith he who liveth. [Vulg. Hbr 11:8 Fide qui vocatur Abraham, "By faith he that is called Abraham"] Here he comes down to the fathers of the Jews and shows in them, as in those before, that all justice had its origin from faith. And he sets down the example of Abraham. He obeyed, God saying to him: « Go out from thy land, and from thy kindred. » This he had already done. For this was said to him when he had already gone out from the land of the Chaldeans, and was already settled in Mesopotamia. Therefore the Lord turned away not his body, but his mind from his 664Bown land, that he should not wish to return. For he had not gone out thence in mind, but was held by the desire of returning; which desire had to be cut off, God commanding and helping, and he himself obeying.

VERS. 11.-- Because she believed him faithful. She laughed at first, though from joy, yet not with full faith: but afterwards, by the words of the angel, she was made firm in faith. Abraham also had laughed, when a son was promised to him, but that laughter was of wonder and of joy, not of doubt.

VERS. 12.-- From one. From a womb, or from Abraham, being dead. He calls Sara's womb dead for the work of conceiving, as regards the aged husband; or he calls Abraham himself dead for the work of begetting, namely as regards the aged woman. As the stars. This he says as regards the good, that is, those who by the light of virtues and 664Cby multitude are likened to the stars. And as the sand. This he says as regards the wicked, that is, those who by instability and by number are likened to the sand. The sea is heathendom itself: the shore, its rites; to which some Jews were made near, yet not in heathendom.

VERS. 13.-- And saluting them. He uses a word transferred from sailors, who look out from afar upon the cities they have longed for, and which, before they enter them, they greet beforehand with a salutation. From the metaphor of sailors, therefore, he says, And saluting them; that is, rejoicing in them and desiring them, as sailors do when cities are seen from afar. And therefore they confessed that they themselves were pilgrims, who have nothing in a foreign country. Strangers. These are not of the country, and those men confessed that they were not of the world, nor that they had anything in the world, and therefore they confessed this. 664DBut they who say this give to understand that they seek another country, which they themselves wished to signify. And lest anyone should think that they sought after that from which they had gone out, it is subjoined: And if indeed, etc.

VERS. 17.-- When he was tried. God did not try Abraham as one who was ignorant of his faith, but that Abraham himself and the world might know the truth and the firmness of his faith.

VERS. 19.-- And for a parable. By faith Abraham offered not only in the deed, but also in the signification. For he understood that Christ was signified, whose Godhead does not die; but the ram caught by the horns among the briers, that is, the flesh labouring among the Jews on the horns of the cross, could be offered to God, having been crowned beforehand with Jewish thorns.

665AVERS. 20.-- Isaac. He had faith here, not only that the blessed one should be the better, but he also believed that the Christian people would supplant the blessing made and promised to the Jews.

VERS. 21.-- He adored the top, etc. Perhaps he had taken the rod from his son, when the son was swearing faith to him, and while he held it, after the words of him that swore, he straightway adored God. For he was not ashamed to bear for so long the ensign of his son's power, where a figure of a great thing to come was foreshadowed, and of the kingdom of Christ that was to be among the nations.

VERS. 22.-- He gave commandment concerning his bones. Adjuring the children of Israel that they should carry them away into the land of promise, and lay them up in the sepulchre of their fathers, namely in the double cave, in which are buried Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the rest and the fathers, where also 665BAdam and Eve were resting. Which they willed for this reason, because they foresaw that Christ would be born in that land, that they might rise again with him.

VERS. 26.-- The reproach of Christ. This he said, either because Moses suffered for Christ, or because he signified the reproaches of Christ to come: or, because Moses endured them from his own brethren whom he wished to set free, as Christ did from his own whom he had come to redeem. Those men said to Christ: Thou hast a devil (Joan VII). And these to Moses: Wilt thou kill us, as thou didst kill the Egyptian (Exod. II) [Vulg. Ex 2:14 num occidere me tu vis, sicut heri occidisti Aegyptium, "wilt thou kill me, as thou didst yesterday kill the Egyptian"] Which yet he bore patiently, as Christ also did.

VERS. 27.-- Not fearing. That he had first fled into the land of Madian was not fear, but faith; in that he believed that he would be delivered by God. He would not remain there, lest it should be 665Ca cause of boasting, if he should cast himself into open danger, and tempt God, which is devilish. For the saints, so long as they have something they may do, ought not to tempt God, as the Lord also gave place to the Jews, who also commanded his own: If they shall persecute you in one city, flee into another (Matth. X). [Vulg. Mt 10:23 Cum autem persequentur vos in civitate ista, fugite in aliam, "And when they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another"]

VERS. 28.-- By faith he celebrated the Pasch. By this assuredly, because he so believed that the people were to be saved: they indeed from Pharao, we from the devil.

VERS. 29.-- They passed through the Red Sea, etc. So through baptism the faithful pass over, their sins being remitted; the Egyptians, as it were, being drowned with the devil the prince of darkness.

VERS. 30.-- By the going round of seven days being completed by the Levites bearing the ark of God, and sounding with brazen trumpets.

665DVERS. 31.-- Receiving the spies with peace, etc. As if: So ought you also, by believing, to receive the two Testaments through the apostles sent by Christ as spies, and so you shall not perish with the unbelievers.

VERS. 32.-- Of Gedeon. He, having received the sign of the fleece from the Lord, went against the Madianites with three hundred men, and overcame them by night. Samson. He, as is read in the book of Judges, vehemently afflicted the Philistines. Jephte. He, when he was going to the battle against the enemies, vowed to the Lord that, if he should obtain a triumph over the enemies, on returning he would offer to God whatever should first meet him: and his daughter met him, whom he immolated.

666AVERS. 33.-- Who by faith. Although he declines to say what each one did, yet he says what certain men wrought by faith. Renewed promises. The Apostle says renewed promises and not promises, because many promises were made to David, as to Abraham. Wisely he avoids the recital of the histories, lest he prolong his discourse, touching briefly on certain things. For neither was he altogether silent, nor in speaking was he made burdensome, he fled thickness and length, lest he weary the hearer.

VERS. 35.-- And others were racked, etc. In those Fathers of the Old Testament there were examples of patience, though rare, from the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, whose blood the Lord says is to be required of those who should persist in the iniquity of their fathers (by whom those men were slain). And in the New 666BTestament, there have not been wanting men strong in temporal happiness, in which we experience the mercy of God.

VERS. 38.-- Of whom the world was not worthy. That is, of whose manner of life the world was not worthy, and therefore let them not be held cheap for the tribulations they endured: or, they were so cheap in men's eyes that they were thought not to be worthy to stand or to dwell among them. And both they and those before them did not at once receive the promised life, until Christ. Why not, is subjoined:

VERS. 40.-- God providing some better thing for us. Inasmuch as he would assume our nature, and would more gloriously rejoice with us. If they held the faith, who so long awaited us and rest, much more let us hold it, who receive it immediately after death.

• 666C

VERS. 1.-- And therefore we also. After the commendation of faith, he returns to that which he had begun, exhorting to patience in many ways, and chiefly by the example of Christ himself. A cloud. That is, the multitude of the saints, who are witnesses of faith, who as clouds refresh us by their own example in the heat of tribulations, and rain upon us with their doctrines.

VERS. 2.-- Who, having joy set before him, etc. So ought we, eternal joy being set before us and confusion set aside, to run; or, joy of a temporal kingdom being set before him, when the crowds wished to take him by force to make him king, and he would not, because it was the way of humility.

VERS. 3.-- Fainting. To faint is, through fear of tribulation, 666Dto deny the faith. Therefore you ought not to faint, for neither have you forgotten the consolation, nor ought you to forget it.

VERS. 6.-- Every son. Even the only-begotten, who was without sin. If therefore thou art excepted from the suffering of scourges, thou art excepted from the number of sons. That only-begotten, born of the Father's substance, equal to the Father in the form of God, the Word by which all things were made, had not where he might be scourged. But for this he was clothed with flesh, that he might not be without a scourge. He who scourges the only-begotten who is without sin, does he leave the adopted who is with sin? The only-begotten, without sin, yet not without a scourge, set forth an example to us in his sufferings. Therefore we ought not to be troubled, when some holy man endures grievous and unworthy 667Athings, if we have not forgotten what the Just One of the just, and the Holy One of holies, endured. And attend here to the justice and the mercy of God. Justice is in that he scourges. But mercy in that he receives.

VERS. 8.-- Therefore adulterers. Note that he is not rightly called a father who has begotten from adultery, because those begotten of him are not called lawful sons.

VERS. 9.-- We reverenced. To reverence is to pay honour with fear.

VERS. 10.-- And they indeed. Here another reason is shown, why we ought to obey God. Unto that which is profitable, namely, in receiving his sanctification.

VERS. 11.-- Discipline. This in Greek is called παιδεία, that is, instruction through troubles, when a man suffers evils for his own sins, that he may be corrected, as it is understood here. 667BThere is also a discipline which is called knowledge, and has taken its name from learning, and in Greek is called ἐπιστημὴ.

VERS. 12.-- The hands. That is, the affection of charity, wherewith you once embraced God, lift up again on high to God; and the knees, that is, the strength which is loosened, charity having grown cold.

VERS. 13.-- The steps. That your faith may walk aright, by confessing what it believes, and, if there be need, by suffering. Faith is rightly called a foot, because it carries the whole. So straight steps, that no one may turn aside from the true way of faith, as he does who receives carnal observances, for this is to err. And let him not halt, as he does who staggers through fear of suffering, but let him be healed, if he has erred or feared; or, straight steps are a right intention in works.

VERS. 14.-- Holiness. That is, chastity of mind 667Cand of body; whence: Blessed are the clean of heart, for (Matth. V), etc. Without which no man shall see God. Behold how he has terrified the lover of the good, that is, of the vision of God. He did not say, he shall be cast into the fire; or, he shall be given to unwearying tormentors (which things nevertheless are true); but wishing thee to be a lover of the good, that is, of the vision of God, not one that dreads evil, he says: without which no man, etc. By that very thing which thou desirest, he terrifies thee.

VERS. 15.-- Looking diligently, etc. Do not doubt that you can be so patient, because the grace of God is at hand; but that you be not wanting to it, in this way you can retain grace. Lest any root, etc. The delight of sin is truly called bitterness, and therefore is to be shunned. The root of bitterness, an evil thought, which brings forth not sweet fruits, that is, works, but bitter ones, by which the way to heaven is hindered.

667DVERS. 16.-- Lest any fornicator, etc. Here he shows how they ought to look to it, that no root of bitterness spring up, by the parts in which he marks some of them. The first birthright. Or his first-born rights. Here he calls the first birthright the honour and the dignity of the priesthood, because before the priesthood of Aaron all the first-born were priests, as Sem was: and this was a great dignity, because he took a greater portion both of the substance and of the paternal inheritance. And he shone the richer in the adornment of garments, and to him the blessing was given. Behold how far from religion was Esau, who for his belly gave away the blessing. Whose deed he therefore recalls, that he may dissuade from likeness to him.

VERS. 18.-- For you are not come. He had said, that no one 668Ashould be wanting to grace in these ways which he subjoined, for grace is prepared, and this is: For you are not come to the harshness of the law, which he describes, that on the contrary the sweetness of grace may be understood, not to fire, but to the Holy Spirit, who is a fire consuming sins, to whom one goes not by motion of the body, but by spirit. A whirlwind. A whirlwind is a force of winds with hail and rain, and it signifies the onset of vices, which through the law were the more condemned. But now one comes to serenity through the grace of the Spirit. Darkness. This he sets down because the law was obscure, now the understanding is clear. A storm, which is greater than a whirlwind, and is a tempest which drives whithersoever it will. This is the servitude of sin according to the working which through the law drew men: but now there is rest from imperfect vices.

668BVERS. 19.-- The sound of the trumpet. A trumpet is a sign of movement to war, and it is the movement of delight, which is extinguished not through the law, but through grace. The voice of words. A voice of this kind is the precept and the threatening of the law, which the people thought grievous and intolerable, because it was precept alone, without grace to help.

VERS. 20.-- For they did not bear. Because without grace they were insufficient for keeping the precepts. And if a beast, etc. The mountain is the divinity; the beast, a failure of reason, which is when a word of blasphemy is uttered against God. To touch is to offend. Therefore the beast touches the mountain who offends God by blasphemy, whom the law commands to be stoned without mercy; but in the Church, if he wishes to return, he is mercifully received.

668CVERS. 22.-- But you are come. These things depend on what goes before, where he says to what things they have come after the removal of those, and he does not set down the contraries of those things which are understood from the opposite, as was assigned above, but the first thing which follows from them, that by this he may the more persuade that grace is to be held. To Sion. That is, to those who on high behold God, which beholding is a great reward. And to the city of God. This he says, because God dwells in them when he justifies them.

VERS. 23.-- Who are written. As if he should say: Do not doubt to come to the angels, because your forerunners have come, and this is: Who are written, that is, they are written with those who are in heaven, that is, they are in their order.

VERS. 26.-- Yet once, etc. As if he should say: They have already 668Dbeen moved, but yet once I will move them: by once he notes that they are not to be moved further. But also the heaven, which is the lower, namely the airy: whence they are called birds of the heaven. But almost all this windy air, which Scripture calls heaven or the heavens: these lowest ones assuredly, not those highest (where the sun and the moon and the stars are set), Scripture here says are to be moved, and elsewhere, are to perish, because of a certain great change of themselves.

VERS. 27.-- Which are immoveable. As if he should say: That indeed they are, because whatever they shall be, either in their principal essences or in forms taken from without, according to that they shall be immoveable.

VERS. 28.-- Therefore an immoveable kingdom. Because God 669Apromises an immoveable heaven and earth, it is plain that we have grace, without which we could not come to that promise, but through it we receive that immoveable kingdom, that therefore no one may be wanting to grace.

Let us have grace. [Vulg. Hbr 12:28 habemus gratiam, "we have grace"] That is, faith, hope and charity in holy working; or: Let us have grace, that is, let us give thanks for all things, murmuring in nothing, because so is God well served.

VERS. 29.-- Our God is a fire. That is, the Holy Spirit, who is that gift and grace, because he is freely given to us.

VERS. 1, 2.-- Charity. From this place the Apostle instructs morally, as if he should say: Because charity is to be had, let it remain in you, and be not 669Bforgetful of hospitality. For by this certain ones have lain hid, as Lot, not knowing that they were angels, yet knowing who was in them.

VERS. 3.-- As though bound together with them, that is, as you would wish help to be given to you if you were bound, or labouring.

VERS. 5.-- Let your manners be. After the Hebrews had lost their own goods, they wished to gather again: which the Apostle forbids. But lest they should say: What if necessaries should fail? he subjoins a consolation. Without covetousness. The covetous man is he who is tenacious in giving, greedy in receiving. I will not leave thee. This God says to everyone that hopes in him, as to Josue, so he is with us, that we may confidently say, etc. Nor forsake. He would be forsaken who should perish of hunger: but because this is not so, let not a man be greedy.

669CVERS. 6.-- I will not fear, etc. Every adversary is a man, even the devil, who is a man from his office, namely in that he deceives man.

VERS. 7.-- Be mindful, etc. Because it is long to speak of each one, he admonishes them to follow their masters.

VERS. 8.-- Jesus Christ, etc. This pertains to the sentence above, where he testified that God had said: I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee. For it could seem to them that this promise pertained to Josue only, to which he answers, that he will help us also as he helped him. As if: It is not to be doubted, because he who yesterday, that is in the past, helped Josue, today, that is in the present, helps, and will help those to come throughout all ages.

VERS. 10.-- We have an altar, etc. We must not be zealous 669Dfor meats, because we have an altar, that is the body of Christ, in faith of which prayers and works offered are acceptable to God, whereof they have no power to eat, etc. The tabernacle, etc. That is, the observances of the law, as they who distinguish meats and keep other legal things of this kind, which he marks by the name of the tabernacle, because they were imposed for a time; or, our body is rightly called a tabernacle, because we must abide in it for a time, and therefore it must not be served in desires serviendium.

VERS. 11.-- For whose, etc. By a double allegory, of which one is of the Old and the other of the New Testament, he proves that the body of Christ is not to be eaten by those who serve the tabernacle. For to this end 670Athe bodies of the animals are burnt outside the camp, and therefore Christ suffered outside the gate, that we, who wish to be cleansed from sins by his body and blood, being about to suffer reproaches and straits, may forsake the delights of the tabernacle. Of the animals. Christ was signified by those animals.

VERS. 12.-- The gate. The gate of the city is the senses of the body, in none of which did Christ sin: and therefore he suffered without. And let us, the door of the senses being shut to vices, suffer without.

VERS. 15.-- By him therefore. Who is the way for us, from whom we take our example, let us run to martyrdom. Of them that trust. (AUG.) [Vulg. Hbr 13:15 confitentium, "of them that confess"] Ye therefore that fear the Lord, praise him, etc., as far as of which invisible sacrifice that visible rite was the sign.

670BVERS. 16.-- Of beneficence. The opinion of the depraved concerning gluttony being made void, he returns to morals. Of beneficence, that is, of bounty toward others. And if your substance has been taken away, yet out of those things which you have give alms. This he had said above: Not forsaking the assembly.

VERS. 17.-- That with joy. Let us assuredly do these things with joy, when we see men profit in the words of God. For then does the labourer work with joy in the fields, when he looks upon the trees, and sees fruit; when he looks upon the crop, and sees abundance. Then he understands that not without cause has he laboured, not without cause has he bent his back, not without cause has he worn his hands, not without cause has he borne cold and heat.

It is not expedient for you. I do not say: it is not expedient for them, because it profits them also to be made sorrowful concerning you. For those 670Cprelates, when they are made sorrowful over your evils, that very sorrow is expedient for them, but not for you. Therefore let us, prelates and subjects alike, work good in the Lord's field, that we may alike rejoice over the reward.

VERS. 18.-- Pray for us. He strikes the pride and the elation of mind of certain bishops, who disdain to beg their subjects to pour out prayers for them. We have a good conscience, that is, our conscience does not accuse us, nor are we conscious to ourselves that we have laid snares for you, we have brought forth nothing with dissimulation, we have done nothing for the sake of gain. Therefore judge nothing amiss. In all things. The Apostle was accused of neglecting his own nation, but he shows that he has affection toward all Jews and 670DGentiles, over whose past good things he rejoices, and for whom he wishes better things in time to come.

VERS. 21.-- Doing, in you, etc. For you can have nothing of good, unless he go before and follow after.

VERS. 22.-- For in few words, etc. As if: No one can refuse the length of the discourse, for this indeed was what the adversaries did, and therefore he touches on this covertly.

Salute all them that are set before you. As he writes generally to all ominibus, so generally he wishes health to all, prelates and subjects. For to salute is to wish health.