A53678:796
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 6 › Exegesis of verses 17, 18, 19, 20: Verse 17, 18, 19, 20.
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) The Counsel of God is the Eternal purpose of his Will, called his Counsel because of the infinite Wisdom wherewith it is always accompanied. So that 1which is called the good pleasure which he had purposed in himself, Ephes. 1. 9. is termed the Counsel of his Will, ver. 11. Counsel among men, is a rational deliberation about causes, means, effects, and ends according to the Nature of things advised about, and the proper Interests of them who do deliberate. In this sense Counsel, is not to be attributed unto God. For as the infinite Sovereign Wisdom of his Being admits not of his taking Counsel with any other; so the infinite simplicity of his Nature and Understanding comprehending all things in one single Act of his Mind, allows not of formal Counsel or Deliberation. The first therefore of these the Scripture explodes, Isa. 40. 13. Rom. 11. 34. and although in the latter way God be frequently introduced as one deliberating or taking Counsel with himself, it is not the manner of doing, but the effect, or the thing done is intended. So it is in like manner where God is said to hearken, to hear, to see, whereby his infinite Knowledge and Understanding of all things are intended, those being the Mediums whereby we who are to be instructed do come to know and understand, what so we do. Whereas therefore the End of Counsel, or all rational Deliberation, is to find out the true and stable Directions of Wisdom, the Acts of the Will of God being accompanied with infinite Wisdom are called his Counsel. For we are not to look upon the Purposes and Decrees of God as mere Acts of Will and Pleasure, but as those which are effects of infinite Wisdom, and ⟨p. 157⟩therefore most reasonable, although the reasons of them be sometimes unknown unto us. Hence the Apostle issueth his discourse of Gods Eternal Decrees of Election and Reprobation in an admiration of the infinite Wisdom of God whence they proceeded, and wherewith they were accompanied, Rom. 11. 33, 34, 35, 36.