A53678:1013
A continuation of the exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the…
A continuation of the exposition of the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Hebrews viz, on the sixth, seventh, eight, ninth, and tenth chapters : wherein together with the explication of the text and context, the priesthood of Christ ... are declared, explained and confirmed : as also, the pleas of the Jews for the continuance and perpetuity of their legal worship, with the doctrine of the principal writers of the Socinians about these things, are examined and disproved / by J. Owen ...
London: printed for Nathaniel Ponder, 1680
Exegesis of chapter 7 › Exegesis of verses 1, 2, 3: Ver. 1, 2, 3.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
This receiving of Tithes by Melchizedek was a Sacerdotal Act. For, (1.) The Tenth thus given was firstly given unto God; and he who received them received them as Gods Officer in his Name. Where there was none in Office so to receive them, they were immediately to be Offered unto God in Sacrifice according unto their Capacity. So Jacob vowed the Tenth unto God, Gen. 28. 22. which he was himself to Offer, there being no other Priest to receive it at his hand, and no doubt but he did it accordingly, when God minded him to pay his Vow at Bethel, Gen. 35. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. And (2.) The things that were fit of this sort, were actually to be Offered in Sacrifice unto God. This Saul knew, when he made that his pretence of sparing and bringing away the fat Cattle of the Amalekites, 1 Sam. 15. 15. And I no way doubt but that these Tenths that Abraham gave, at least such of them as were meet for that Service, although it be not expressed, were Offered in Sacrifice unto God by Melchizedek. For whereas he was a King he stood in no need of any Contribution from Abraham; nor was it Honourable to receive any thing in way of Compensation for his Munificence in bringing forth Bread and Wine, which was to Sell his Kindness and spoil his Bounty, nor would Abraham have deprived the King of Sodom and others of any of their Goods, to give them unto another. Wherefore he received them as a Priest to Offer what was meet in Sacrifice to God, whereon no doubt according to the Customs of those times, there was a Feast wherein they eat Bread together and were mutually Refreshed. (3.) This Matter was afterwards precisely determined in the Law, wherein all Tithes were appropriated unto the Priest. I Observe these things, only to show that the Apostle had just Ground to infer from hence the Sacerdotal Power of Melchizedek and his Preeminence in that Office above Abraham. For ⟨p. 108⟩every thing in the Scripture is Significant and hath its especial Design, the whole being inlaid with Truth by Infinite Wisdom, whether we apprehend it or no. Without this Light given by the Holy Spirit himself, how should we have conceived, that this giving the Tenth of the Spoils to Melchizedek was designed to prove his Greatness and Dignity above Abraham and all the Levitical Priests on that Account, as the Great Type and Representative of Jesus Christ.