A53678:1492
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.
Secondly, I Answer, That the whole Law may be considered two ways. (1.) Absolutely in it self. (2.) With Respect. (1.) Unto the End for which it was given. (2.) Unto the Persons unto whom it was given.
In it self, no Reflection can be made upon it, because it was an effect of the Wisdom, Holiness, and Truth of God. But in the Respects mentioned it manifests its own weakness and unprofitableness. For they were Sinners unto whom it was given, and both defiled and guilty antecedently unto the giving of this Law, being so by Nature, and thereon Children of Wrath: Two things they stood in need of in this Condition.
1. Sanctification by an Inherent Purity and Holiness, with a Complete Righteousness from thence. This the Moral Law was at first the Rule and Measure of; and would have always effected it by its Observance. It could never indeed take away any defilement of Sin from the Soul, but it could have prevented any such defilement. But now with respect unto the Persons unto whom it was given, it became weak and unprofitable unto any such end. It became so, saith the Apostle, by Reason of the Flesh, Rom. 8. 3. For although in it self it was a perfect Rule of Righteousness, Rom. 10. 5. Gal. 3. 12. 21. yet it could not be a cause or means of Righteousness unto them who were disenabled by the entrance of Sin to comply with it, and fulfil it. Wherefore the Moral Law, which was in it self Efficacious and Useful, was now become unto Sinners, as unto the Ends of Holiness and Righteousness, weak and unprofitable: For by the deeds of the Law shall no Flesh be Justified.