The Institution of Christian Religion

If these holy fathers looked for (as undoubtedly they did) a blessed §13life at the hand of God, truly they both thought and saw it to be an other manner of blessedness, than the blessedness of earthly li•e. Which thing the Apostle also doth show excellently well: Abraham (saith he) direct by faith in the land of promise as in a strange land,¹ dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob partners with him of the same inheritance. For they looked for a city set upon a good foundation, the maker and builder whereof is God. All these are dead in faith, not receiving the things promised, but looking at them a far of, and believing and confessing that they were guests and strangers upon the land. Whereby they declare that they sought for a country. And if they had ben moved with desire of that land from whence they came, they had power to return. But they sought for a better, that is the heavenly country. Wherefore God is not a shamed to be called their God, forasmuch as he hath prepared them a city. For they had ben duller than blocks, to follow promises to earnestly▪ whereof there appeared no hope in earth, unless they had looked for the ⟨image 152⟩fulfilling of them else where. But this he chiefly enforceth, and that not without good reason, that they called this life a journey from home, even as Moses reporteth. For if they were strangers and foreigners in the land of Canaan, where is the Lords promise whereby they were made heirs of it?² He showeth plainly therefore, that the Lords promise, concerning the possession thereof, had a further respect. Wherefore they purchased not one foot in the land of Canaan, but for burial, whereby they testified, that they did not hope that they should receive the fruit of the promise till after death. And that is the cause why Jacob so much esteemed to be buried there,³ that he compelled his son Joseph to promise it him, and to swear to perform it: and why Joseph willed his bones,⁴