We will again speak more concerning faith, because the exposition of this gospel has a good deduction. The master of the family, who was gone to rest with his children, is Christ, who sits in heaven with his apostles, and with martyrs, and with all the saints whom he fetched in this life. We should call to Christ, and pray for the three loaves. Though he do not forthwith grant them to us, we should not on that account desist from prayer. He delays, and yet will give. He delays, that we may be desirous, and dearly hold the grace of God. Whatsoever a man gets easily is not so precious as that which is gotten with difficulty. Jesus said, "If he continue knocking, the master of the family will arise, because of the other's importunity, and grant him what he asks, not for friendship, but for his clamour." He said, "Not for friendship," because no man were worthy either of that faith, or of eternal life, if God's mercy were not the {251} greater towards mankind. We should knock, and call to Christ, because he will give to us, as he himself said, "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you." To everyone who fervently asks, and ceases not from prayer, God will grant everlasting life. He then said another parable. "What father will give his child a stone, if he ask for bread? or a serpent, if he ask for a fish? or a scorpion, if he ask for an egg?" God is our Father through his mercy, and the fish betokens faith, and the egg holy hope, the bread true love. These three things God gives to his chosen; for no man can have God's kingdom, unless he have these three things. He must rightly believe, and have hope in God, and true love to God and to men, if he will come to God's kingdom. The fish betokens faith, because its nature is, that the more it is tossed by the waves, the stronger it is, and the more vigorously it strikes. In like manner the believing man, the more he is afflicted for his faith, the stronger will be his faith, wherever it is sound. If it sink under persecution, it is then not faith, but is hypocrisy. The egg betokens hope, seeing that birds teem not like other animals, but first it is an egg, and the mother then with hope cherishes the egg to a young bird. In like manner our hope comes not yet to that which it hopes, but is, as it were, an egg. When it has that which is promised it, it is a bird. Bread betokens true love, which of all virtues is greatest, as bread is of all food the principal. Faith is a great virtue, and a great virtue is true hope; yet love excels them, forasmuch as it is ever to eternity, and the other two will end. We now believe in God, and we hope in him: but after we come to his kingdom, as he has promised us, then will faith be ended, for we shall then see what we now believe. Our hope will also be ended, because we shall be in possession of what we had previously hoped for; but love will never decay: therefore is it the most excellent of them.