A53678:1294
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.
The Apostle takes it here for granted, that God designed a [Greek or Hebrew], or state of Perfection unto the Church; and that as unto its Worship as well as unto its Faith and Obedience. We find by the Event that it answered not the Divine Wisdom and Goodness to bind up the Church during its whole Sojourning in this World, unto a Worship so Carnal, Burdensome, so imperfect, so unsuited to express his Grace and Kindness towards it, or its sense thereof. And who can but pity the woeful condition of the present Jews, who can conceive of no greater Blessedness than the Restoration of this burdensome Service. So true is it what the Apostle says, the Veil is upon them unto this present day, yea, Blindness is on their minds that they can see no Beauty but only in things Carnal, and like their fore-fathers who preferred the Bondage of Egypt because of their Flesh-pots, before all the Liberty and Blessings of Canaan; so do they their old Bondage-state, because of some Temporal Advantages it was attended withal, before the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God.
The Apostle takes it here for granted, that God designed a 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, or state of Perfection unto the Church; and that as unto its Worship as well as unto its Faith and Obedience. We find by the Event that it answered not the Divine VVisdom and Goodness to bind up the Church during its whole Sojourning in this VVorld, unto a VVorship so Carnal, Burdensome, so imperfect, so unsuited to express his Grace and Kindness towards it, or its sense thereof. And who can but pity the woeful condition of the present Jews, who can conceive of no greater Blessedness than the Restauration of this burdensome Service. So true is it what the Apostle says, the Vail is upon them unto this present day, yea, Blindness is on their minds that they can see no Beauty but only in things Carnal, and like their fore-fathers who preferred the Bondage of Egypt because of their Flesh-pots, before all the Liberty and Blessings of Canaan; so do they their old Bondage-state, because of some Temporal Advantages it was attended withal, before the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God.
In Opposition hereunto there is a worship under the Gospel which hath such Properties as are constitutive also of this Perfection. By Gospel-worship, I understand the whole Way and Order of that Solemn Worship of God, which the Lord Christ hath Commanded to be observed in his Churches, with all the Ordinances and Institutions of it; and all the private Worship of Believers, in their whole Access unto God. The Internal Glory and Dignity of this Worship must be referred unto its proper place, which is Chap. 10. 19, 20, 21, 22. Here I shall only mention some few things, wherein its Excellency consists in opposition unto the defects of that under the Law, on the account whereof it is Constitutive of that Evangelical Perfection whereof we treat.