A53678:529
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.
4. This mutual Love among Believers, springs from and is animated by their mutual Interest in Christ, with their Participation of the same Divine Nature thereby. It is from their Union in Christ the Head, that all the Members of the Body do mutually contribute what they derive from him unto the edification of the whole, in the exercise of Love. Hereby are they all brought into the nearest Relation to one another, which is the most effectual motive and powerful attractive unto Love. For as the Lord Christ saith of every one that doth the will of God, the same is my Brother and Sister, and Mother, Matth. 12. 18. he is dearly beloved by him, as standing in the nearest Relation unto him; so are all Believers by virtue of their common Interest in Christ their Head, as Brothers, Sisters, and Mothers to each other; as Members of the same Body which is yet nearer, whence the most intense Affection must arise. And they have thereby the same new spiritual nature in them all. In Love natural, he that doth most love and prize himself, commonly doth least love and prize others. And the reason is, because he loves not himself for any thing which is common unto him with others, but his self-love is the ordering and centring of all things unto his own satisfaction. But with this Spiritual Love he that Loves himself most, that is, doth most prize and value the Image of God in himself, doth most Love others in whom it is. And we may know whether we cherish and improve Grace in our own Hearts, by that Love which we have unto them in whom it doth manifest it self. 1 Joh. 5. 1.
5. This Love in the first place acts it self by valuation, esteem, and delight. So the Psalmist affirms, that all his delight was in the Saints and in the excellent in the Earth, Psal. 16. 3. The Apostle carries this unto the height in that Instance, wherein we ought to lay down our lives for the Brethren,