A53678:1019
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.
2. If the strict Legal course of Tithing be intended, it cannot be proved from this Text, nor from any other Instance before the Law. For Abraham gave only the Tenth of the Spoils which were not Tithable by Law. For if the places taken or destroyed in War, were Anathematized, as Jericho was and also Amalek, no Portion was to be reserved under a pretence of Sacrifice or any other Sacred Use, as Saul found to his Cost. And if they were not Anathematized, all the Spoils were left entirely unto the People that went to War, without any Sacred Decimation. So the Reubenites and the Gadites at their Return over Jordan into their own Land ⟨p. 110⟩carried all their Rich Spoils and Cattle with them, no Tithe being mentioned, Josh. 22. 8. Although there is no Question but many of them Offered their Free-will Offerings at the Tabernacle. And when God would have a Sacred Portion out of the Spoils, as he would have in the Wilderness, out of those that were taken from the Midianites, to manifest that they fell not under the Law of Tithes, he took not the Tenth part, but one Portion of 500 from the Soldiers, and one of 50 from the People, Numb. 31. 28, 29, 30. Wherefore the giving of the Tenth of the Spoils, was not from the Obligation of any Law, but was an Act of Free-will and Choice in the Offerer. But yet there was so great an Equity herein also, Namely, that God should have an acknowledgement in the Fruits of those Successes which he gave in War, that out of the Spoils of his and his Peoples Enemies David made his Provision for the Building of the Temple. And the Captains of the Host that went against Midian, after a Tribute was raised for the Lord out of the Spoils according unto the Proportions mentioned, when they found the Goodness of God in the Preservation of their Soldiers, whereof there was not one lost, they made a new voluntary Oblation unto God out of their Spoils, Numb. 31. 48, 49, 50. And as for the Instance of Jacob, who Vowed unto God the Tenth of all, it is so far from proving that the Tenth was due by virtue of any Law, that it proves the contrary. For had it been so, it could not have been the matter of an Extraordinary Vow, whereby he could express his Obedience unto God.