A53678:1211
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 9, 10: VER. 9, 10.
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.
And the fore-going Observation will expedite two difficult Questions which Expositors raise unto themselves on this Verse. The first whereof is, whether Christ himself may not as well as Levi be said to pay Tithes in Abraham, as being in his Loins? which would utterly frustrate the Design of the Apostle. The Second is, how or in what sense one may be said to do any thing in another, which may be reckoned or imputed unto him?
And the fore-going Observation will expedite two difficult Questions which Expositors raise unto themselves on this Verse. The first whereof is, whether Christ himself may not as well as Levi be said to pay Tithes in Abraham, as being in his Loyns? which would utterly frustrate the Design of the Apostle. The Second is, how or in what sence one may be said to do any thing in another, which may be reckoned or imputed unto him?
For the first of these, Austin and others have well Laboured in the solution of it: The Sum of what they say is, That the Lord Christ was not in Abraham as Levi was, not in his Nature as it was Corrupted; nor did he educe or derive his Nature from him by Carnal Generation or the Common way of the Propagation of Mankind. And these things do constitute a sufficient Difference and distance between them in this Matter. But yet with these Considerations and on the Supposition of them, there is another which contains the true and proper Reason of this Difference. And that is, that the Lord Christ was never in Abraham as a foederate, as one taken into Covenant with him, and so Represented by him, as Levi was. Abraham was taken into Covenant with Christ, as the Head, Sponsor, Surety, and Mediator of the New Covenant, with Respect whereunto he says of himself and the Elect, Behold I and the Children which the Lord hath given me. Hereon he was the Representative of Abraham and all that Believe, and what he did is imputed unto them. But he was never taken into Covenant with Abraham, nor was capable of so being, seeing unto him it was a Covenant of Pardon and Justification by Faith, which he was no way concerned in but as the Procurer of them for others. Wherefore what Abraham did cannot be imputed unto him, so as he should be esteemed to have done them in him.