A53678:1427
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.
None of these ways was the Lord Christ made a Priest. He was not dedicated unto his Office by the Sacrifice of Beasts, but Sanctified himself thereunto, when he Offered himself through the Eternal Spirit unto God, and was consummate in his own Blood. He was not of the Carnal Seed of Aaron, nor did, nor could claim any Succession unto the Priesthood by virtue of an Extraction from his Race. And no constitution of the Law in general, no Ordinance of it, did convey unto him either Right or Title unto the Priesthood.
It is therefore Evident, that he was in no sense made a Priest according to the Law of a Carnal Commandment; neither had he either Right, Power, or Authority to exercise the Sacerdotal Function in the observation of any Carnal Rites or Ordinances whatever: And we may observe,
That what seemed to be wanting unto Christ in his entrance into any of his Offices, or in the Discharge of them, was on the account of a greater Glory. Aaron was made a Priest with a great outward Solemnity. The Sacrifices which were Offered, and the Garments he put on, with his visible separation from the rest of the People, had a great Ceremonial Glory in them. There was nothing of all this, nor any thing like unto it, in the Consecration of the Lord Christ unto his Office. But yet indeed these things had no Glory, in comparison of that excelling Glory, which accompanied those invisible Acts of Divine Authority, Wisdom, and Grace which communicated his Office unto him. And indeed in the Worship of God, who is a Spirit, all outward Ceremony is a diminution and debasement of it. Hence were Ceremonies for Beauty and Glory multiplied under the Old Testament, but yet as the Apostle shows, were all but Carnal. But as the sending of Christ himself and his Investiture with all his Offices were by Secret and Invisible Acts of God and his Spirit, so all Evangelical Worship, as to the Glory of it, is Spiritual and Internal only. And the removal of the Old Pompous Ceremonies from our Worship is but the taking away of the Veil, which hindered from an insight and entrance into the Holy place.