A53678:1491
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 18, 19: VER. 18, 19.
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.
But as the Application of this Exposition unto this passage in the Apostle's Discourse, is not consistent with the Design of it, as will afterwards appear: So indeed the Exposition it self is not defensible. For it is plain, that by the Laws and Statutes mentioned, ver. 11. not any part of them, but the whole System of Ordinances and Commandments, which God gave by Moses, is intended. And the two words in the Text [Greek or Hebrew] and [Greek or Hebrew] do express the whole Law Ceremonial and Judicial. And it was not from this or that part, but from the whole Law that the People, as far as they were Carnal, looked for Righteousness and Salvation, Rom. 10. 5. Gal. 3. 12. And as these Laws and Statutes mentioned ver. 11. contained the whole Law given by Moses, so those intended, ver. 25. whereof it is said, that they were not Good, nor could they live in the keeping of them, cannot be the Laws and Statutes of God considered in themselves. For it is inconsistent with the Holiness, Goodness, and Wisdom of God, to give Laws, which in themselves and their own Nature, should not be Good, but Evil. Nor on Supposition that he had given them Statutes that were not Good, and Judgments wherein they should not live, could he plead as he doth, that his ways were equal, and that their ways were unequal. For in these Laws he evidently promised that those who did them should live therein. Where is the Equality, Equity, and Righteousness if it were otherwise? Wherefore if the Statutes of God be intended in the place, it must be with respect unto the People, their Unbelief and Obstinacy, that it is said of them, that they were not Good; being made useless unto them by Reason of Sin. In that sense the Apostle says, that the Commandment which was Ordained unto life, he found to be unto Death, Rom. 7. 10. But I rather Judge, that having charged the People with neglect and contempt of the Laws and Judgments of God which were Good, Gods giving them up Judicially unto ways of Idolatry and false Worship, which they made as Laws and Judgments unto themselves, and willingly walked after the Commandment, as Hos. 5. 11. is here so expressed. But there is no Ground for such a Distinction between the Laws. and Judgments of God in themselves, that some of them should be Good, and some of them should be not Good; that in some of them Men might live, but not in others.