A53678:527
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.
2. It is an effect of Faith. Faith worketh by Love, Gal. 5. 6. Hence as we observed before, Love to the Saints is so frequently added unto Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, as the effect and pledge of it. And although it proceeds in general from Faith as it respects the Commands and Promises of God, yet it derives immediately from Faith as acted on the Lord Jesus Christ. For he being the Head of the whole mystical Body, it is Faith in him that acts it self by Love towards all the Members. Holding him the Head by Faith, the whole Body edifies it self in Love, Ephes. 4. ⟨p. 103⟩15, 18. And the more sincere, active and firm our Faith in Christ is, the more abundant will our Love be towards all his Saints. For Faith in Christ doth first excite Love unto him, from whom, as it were, it descends unto all that it finds of him in any others. And our Love of the Saints, is but the Love of Christ represented and exhibited unto us in them. The Papists tell us that Love or Charity is the form or life of Faith, without which it is dead. It is so far true, that according to the Apostle James, where it is not, there Faith is dead. Not that it is the life of Faith, but that Faith wherever it is living will work by Love. Faith therefore is the life, the quickening, animating principle of Love, and not on the contrary. And that Love which proceedeth not from, which is not the effect of, which is not enlivened by Faith, is not that which the Gospel requireth.
3. Believers are knit together in an entire Affection. This is that Cement whereby the whole mystical Body of Christ is fitly joined together and compacted, Ephes. 4. 16. This mutual adherence is by the uniting, cementing efflux of Love. It is but an Image of the Body, or a dead carcass that men set up, where they would make a Bond for Professors of Christianity, consisting of outward Order, Rules, and Methods of Duties. A Church without it, is an heap of dead stones, and not living stones fitly compacted and built up a Temple unto God. Break this Bond of Perfection, and all spiritual Church Order ceaseth; for what remains is carnal and worldly. There may be Churches constituted in an outward humane Order, on supposed prudential Principles of Union, and external Duties of Communion, which may continue in their Order, such as it is, where there is no Spiritual Evangelical Love in exercise among the Members of them. But where Churches have no other Order, nor Bond of Communion but what is appointed by Christ, wherever this Love faileth, their whole Order will dissolve.