A53678:1109
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
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.
1. Because all the Levites did receive Tithes by the Law, yea, Tithes in the first place was paid unto them in common. But because their Dignity among the People was less conspicuous than that of the Priests; and the design of the Apostle is not merely to argue from the giving of Tithes unto any, but the giving of them unto them as Priests, as Abraham gave Tithes of all to Melchizedek as Priest of the High God, he thus expresseth it, The Sons of Levi, who receive the Office of the Priesthood. For though all the Sons of Levi received Tithes, yet all of them did not receive the Priesthood, with which sort of Persons alone he was concerned.
1. Because all the Levites did receive Tithes by the Law, yea, Tithes in the first place was paid unto them in common. But because their Dignity among the People was less conspicuous than that of the Priests; and the design of the Apostle is not meerly to argue from the giving of Tithes unto any, but the giving of them unto them as Priests, as Abraham gave Tithes of all to Melchisedec as Priest of the High God, he thus expresseth it, The Sons of Levi, who receive the Office of the Priesthood. For though all the Sons of Levi received Tithes, yet all of them did not receive the Priesthood, with which sort of Persons alone he was concerned.
2. He doth thus express it to introduce the mention of Levi, whom he was afterwards to mention on the same Occasion, and to lay the weight of him and the whole Tribe under the same Argument.
3. He minds them by the way of another Dignity of the Priesthood, in that not all the Posterity of Abraham, no, nor yet of Levi were partakers thereof, but it was a Privilege granted only to one part of them, even the Family of Aaron. And these are the Persons in whom he makes his Instance. Thus God distributes Dignity and Preeminence in the Church as he pleaseth. Not all the posterity of Abraham but only those of Levi were set apart to receive Tithes, and not all the posterity of Levi but only the Family of Aaron did receive the Priesthood. And this Order of his Sovereign pleasure God required of them all to submit unto and acquiesce in,