A53678:1981
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.
1. An high federal Solemnity. Things confirmed by an Oath are peculiarly Sacred; and are distinguished from all things that are not so; And therefore the Interposition of an Oath was originally (it may be, solely) used in the confirmation of Covenants about things of moment, and wherein several Parties were highly concerned.
2. An Oath declares the immutability of that Counsel whence the matter sworn unto doth proceed. In the giving of the Law, God declared his will, so far as to what he would have the People at present obliged unto. But he did not by any ⟨p. 270⟩means declare that he had in his unchangeable counsel determined, that the kind of worship, and state of the Church then erected, should continue for ever. Yea, he did many ways intimate that he did reserve unto himself the power of altering the whole. But now the Immutability of Gods Counsel is declared by his Oath. What was this Oath of God, and how the Lord Christ was made a Priest thereby, hath been before at large declared. The Apostle takes notice of it here only as it was given out in prophecy by David which was but a Solemn Declaration of the Eternal compact between the Father and the Son.
2. The Difference of the Time wherein these Priesthoods were ordained, is included on the one hand and expressed on the other. For the former, it was when the Law was given, whereby they were made Priests: the latter was [Greek or Hebrew], 1after the Law, or the giving of it. This, I confess, doth not appear at first view to be to the advantage of the Apostles Design, namely, that this Oath was after the Law. For in another place he expressly argues on the other hand, that what is first in such cases hath the Preeminence; and cannot be disannulled by what doth ensue.