A53678:1112
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.
Thirdly, What is ascribed unto these Persons ensues in the words, have a Commandment ⟨p. 127⟩to take Tithes of the People according to the Law. They had a Command to take Tithes, and they were to do it according to the Law; the one was their 1Warranty, and the other their Rule, for so are the Commandment and the Law here to be distinguished. (1.) They had a Commandment to take Tithes, that is, there was a Command or Institution enabling them so to do. For the Command in the first place respected the People, making it their Duty to pay all their Tithes unto the Levites. God did first take the Tithe to be his peculiar Portion, and thereby alienated it from the People that they had no Propriety in it. And the Tithe of the Land, saith he, is the Lord's, Lev. 27. 30. Hence those that with-held their Tithes are said to rob God, Mal. 3. 8. And wherever it can be manifested that God hath by an Institution of his own, taken the whole Tithe of any place into his own possession, there for any to detain them for their own Use, it is Sacrilege, and not else. But God having thus in the Land of Canaan taken them into his own Propriety, he Commanded the People to pay them to the Priests. This Command given unto the People to pay them, was a Command to the Priests to receive them. For what Men have a Right to do in the Church by Gods Institution, that they have a Command to do. The Right of the Priests unto Tithing was such, as that it was not at all their Liberty to forgo it at their pleasure, yea, it was their sin so to have done. The Command which Obliged others to pay them, Obliged them to receive them. And they who on slight pretences do forgo what is due to them with respect unto their Office, will on as slight when Occasion serves neglect what is due from them on the same account. And this fell out frequently with the Priests of old, they neglected their Wages that they might have Countenance in the Neglect of their Work. And we may hence observe, That
Thirdly, What is ascribed unto these Persons ensues in the words, have a Commandment ⟨p. 127⟩