A53678:1345
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.
2. That the Efficacy of all Ordinances or Institutions of Worship depends on the will of God alone. Whilst it was his will that the Priesthood should abide in the Family of Levi, it was Useful and Effectual unto all the Ends whereunto it was designed. But when he would make an Alteration therein, it was in vain for any to look for either Benefit or Advantage by it. And although we are not now to expect any change in the Institutions of Divine Worship, yet all our Expectations from them, are to be resolved into the will of God.
3. Divine Institutions cease not without an express Divine Abrogation. Where they are once granted and erected by the Authority of God, they can never cease without an express Act of the same Authority taking of them away. So was it with the Institutions of the Aaronical Priesthood, as the Apostle declares. And this one consideration is enough to confirm the grant of the initial Seal of the Covenant unto the present Seed of Believers, which was once given by God himself, in the way of an Institution, and never by him revoked.
4. God will never abrogate or take away any Institution or Ordinance of Worship unto the loss or disadvantage of the Church. He would not remove or abolish the Priesthood of Levi, until that which was incomparably more Excellent was introduced and established.