answering said to her, O woman, [1] great is thy faith: be it done to thee as thou wilt: And her daughter was made hole from that houre. ✠
29And when Jesus was passed from thence, he came beside the sea of Galilee: & ascending into the mountaine, sate there. 30And there came to him great multitudes, having with them dumme persons, blind, lame, feeble, and many others: and they cast them downe at his feete, and he cured them: 31so that the multitudes marveled seeing the dumme speake, the lame walke, the blind see: and they magnified the God of Israel. 32And Mar. 8, 1.* Jesus called togeather his Disciples, and said: I pitie the multitude because three dayes now they continue with me, & have not what to eate: and dimisse them fasting I wil not, lest they faint in the way. 33And the Disciples say unto him: whence then may we get so many loaves in the desert as to fil so great a multitude? 34And Jesus said to them: How many loaves have you? But they said, Seaven, & a few litle fishes. 35And he commanded the multitude to sit downe upon the ground. 36And taking the Seaven loaves & the fishes, and giving thankes, he brake, & gave to his Disciples, and [2] the Disciples gave to the People. 37And they did al eat, and had their fill. And that which was left of the fragments they tooke up, seaven baskets ful. 38And there were that did eate, foure thousand men, beside children & women.
39And having dimissed the multitude, he went up into a boate, and came into the coastes of Magedan.
ANNOTATIONS
Chap. XV.
8. With their lips.) This is to be understood properly of such as have ever God in their mouth, the Word of our Lord, the Scriptures, the Ghospel, but in their hart and al their life be in deed Godles. It may be applied also to such as say their prayers without attention or elevation of mind to God, whether he understand the prayers or no, that saith them. For many a poore Christian man that understandeth not the wordes he speaketh, hath his hart neerer Heaven, more fervor & devotion, more edification to himself, more profit in spirit 1. Cor. 14.(as the Apostle speaketh) & lesse distractions, then not only al Heretikes which have no true feeling of such things, but then many learned Catholikes. And therefore it is not to be understood of praying in unknown tongues, as Heretikes sometime expound it, farre wide from the circumstance of the place and Christes intention, speaking of the hypocritical Jewes.
9. Commandements of men.) Such only are here called traditions, doctrines, or commandements of men, which be either repugnant to Gods lawes, as this of defrauding their parents under pretense of religion: or which at the lest be frivolous, unprofitable, and impertinent to pietie or true worship, as that other sort of so often washing hands, and vessels, without regard of inward puritie of hart and mind. The difference between the Jewish traditions here reprehended, and the Churches Apostolical traditions.Let no man therefore be abused with the Protestants perverse application of this place against the holy lawes, canons, and precepts of the Church and our spiritual Governours, concerning fastes, festivities, and other rules of discipline, and due order in life, and in the service of God. For such are not repugnant but consonant to Gods Word & al pietie, & our Lord is truly honoured, worshiped, and served both by the making and also by the observing of them. 2. Thes. 2, 15.
1. Cor. 11.* S. Paul gave commandement both by his epistles, and by word of mouth, even in such matters wherin Christ had prescribed nothing at al, & he chargeth the Faithful to observe the same. Act. 15.* The Apostles & Priests at Hierusalem made lawes, and the Christians were bound to obey them. a Aug. Ser. de temp.
See 1. Cor. 16, 2.a The keeping of Sunday in steed of the Sabboth is the tradition of the Apostles: and dare the Heretikes deny the due observation therof to be an
- ↑ It were a strange case that Christ should commend in this woman a sole faith without good workes, that is to say, a dead faith such as could not worke by love, and which S. James doubted not to cal the faith of Christians but of Divels. Aug de Fid. & Op. c. 16.
- ↑ Here we see againe that the People must not be their owne carvers, nor receave the Sacraments or other spiritual sustenance immediatly of Christ, or at their owne hand, but of their spiritual governers.
