A53678:1281
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.
3. He hath clearly declared unto the utmost of our Capacities in this World that future state of Blessedness and Glory, which he will lead all his Disciples into. All the concernments hereof under the Levitical Priesthood, were represented only under the obscure Types and Shadows of Earthly things. But he hath abolished Death, and brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel, 2 Tim. 1. 10. He destroyed and abolished him who had the Power of Death, in taking away the Curse from it, Chap. 2. 14. And he abolished Death it self in the removal of those dark shades which it cast on Immortality and Eternal Life; and hath opened an abundant entrance into the Kingdom of God and Glory. He hath unveiled the uncreated Beauties of the King of Glory, and opened the Everlasting Doors, to give an insight into those Mansions of Rest, Peace, and Blessedness which are prepared for Believers in the Everlasting Enjoyment of God. And these things constitute no small part of that consummate state of the Church which God designed, and which the Levitical Priesthood could no way effect.
6 There is also an especial Joy belonging unto this state. For this Kingdom of God is Righteousness, and Peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost. Neither was this attainable by the Levitical Priesthood. Indeed many of the Saints of the Old Testament did greatly Rejoice in the Lord, and had the Joy of his Salvation abiding with ⟨p. 167⟩them. See Psal. 51. 12. Isa. 25. 9. Hab. 3. 17, 18. But they had it not by virtue of the Levitical Priesthood. Isaiah tells us that the ground of it was the swallowing up of Death in Victory, ver. 8. which was no otherwise to be done, but by the Death and Resurrection of Christ. It was by an Influence of Efficacy from the Priesthood that was to be introduced, that they had their Joy: Whence Abraham saw the Day of Christ, and Rejoiced to see it. The Prospect of the Day of Christ was the sole Foundation of all their Spiritual Joy, that was purely so. But as unto their own present state, they were allowed and called to Rejoice in the abundance of Temporal things; though the Psalmist in a Spirit of Prophecy, prefers the Joy arising from the light of God's Countenance in Christ, above all of that sort,