A53678:465
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.
It is our Duty to come unto the best satisfaction we may in the Spiritual Condition of 1them with whom we are to have Spiritual Communion. There is not any thing of our mutual Duties, that the Gospel more presseth, or more supposeth. And it is necessary both unto Ministers and private Christians. For the former, they are concerned in the Advice of the Wise man, Prov. 27. 23. Be thou diligent to know the state of thy Flock. They are not only to provide good pasture, and feeding for them, but they must know their State and Condition, that what they provide for them may be suitable and seasonable. And unto this End there were at first some in the Church, who had the immediate inspection of the state and walking of the members of it, and were thereby enabled, as Moses said to his Father in Law, Numb. 10. 31. to be instead of Eyes unto the Teachers to look into the condition of all sorts of persons. Nor can they without it discharge any one Duty of their Office in a due manner. For Ministers to walk towards their people at peradventure, and to fight uncertainly as men beating the Air, without an Acquaintance with their state, and ⟨p. 88⟩especial consideration of their condition, and what therein is suited unto their Edification, as is the manner of many, will leave them at a great uncertainty how to give up their account. See Heb. 13. 14. Unless a man have some good satisfaction, concerning the Spiritual condition of those that are committed unto his charge, he can never approve himself among them, A workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth, to give unto all their proportion. And the work of the Ministry is not by any means more evacuated and rendered ineffectual, than when men have not a certain design to deal with their Hearers according unto what they are persuaded that their Spiritual state doth require. How shall they Instruct, How shall they warn, How shall they comfort any, but on a supposition of an Acquaintance with the state and condition wherein they are? A general preaching at random without a special scope directed by the persuasion mentioned, turns the whole work for the most part both in Preachers and Hearers into an useless formality. In brief, this persuasion principally regulates the whole work of the Ministry.