The Institution of Christian Religion

Because it seemed that the nature of faith could not otherwise better or §41more plainly be declared than by the substance of the promise upon which it resteth as upon her proper foundation, so that if the promise be taken away, faith by & by falleth down or rather vanisheth away: therefore we toke our definition from thence, which yet varieth not from y• definition, or rather description of the Apostle,¹ that he applieth to his discourse, where he saith that faith is a substance of things to be hoped for, & a certainty of things that are not seen. For by this word Hypostasis substance (for y• term he useth) he meaneth as it were, an upholding stay, whereupon the godly mind leaneth & resteth. As if he should say ye faith is a certain & assured possession of those things that are promised us of God, unless a man had rather to take Hypostasis for affiance, which I mislike not, albeit I follow y• which is more commonly received.² Again, to signify ye even to the last day when the books shall be opened, they are higher than those things that may be perceived with our senses, or seen with our •ies, or handled with our hands, & that the same are no otherwise possessed by us, but if we go beyond the capacity of our own wit, & bend our understanding above all things that are in the world, yea & climb above our selves, he hath therefore added that this assuredness of possession, is of things that lie in hope, & therefore are not seen.³ For plain appearance (as Paul writeth) is not hope, neither hope we •or those things y• we see. And when he calleth it a certainty or proof (or as Augustine hath oft translated it) a conjunction of things not present:⁴ for in Greek it is Elenchos, he saith as much as if he did say, that it is an evident showing of things not appearing, a seeing of things not seen,