A53678:91
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 1, 2: Verse 1, 2.
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.
The sins of unregenerate persons whereof Repentance was to be expressed before Baptism, are called dead works, in respect of their Nature and their End. For as to their Nature they proceed from a principle under the Power of Spiritual death; they are the works of Persons dead in Trespasses and Sins. All the moral actings of such Persons with respect unto a supernatural End are dead works, being not enlivened by a vital Principle of spiritual Life. And it is necessary that a Person be spiritually living before his works will be so. Our walking in Holy Obedience is called the Life of God. Ephes. 4. 18. That is the Life which God requires, which by his especial Grace he worketh in us, whose Acts have him for their Object and their End. Where this Life is not, persons are dead, and so are their works, even all that they do with respect unto the Living God. And they are called so, 2dly, with respect unto their End; they are mortua because mortifera; dead because deadly; they procure death and end in death. Sin when it is finished bringeth forth Death. Jam. 1. 15. They proceed from death Spiritual, and end in death Eternal. On the same account are they called unfruitful works of Darkness. Ephes. 5. 11. They proceed from a principle of Spiritual Darkness, and end in Darkness Everlasting. We may therefore know what was taught them concerning these dead works; namely, their Nature and their Merit. And this includes the whole Doctrine of the Law, with Conviction of sin thereby. They were taught that they were sinners by Nature, dead in sins, and thence Children of wrath. Ephes. 2. 1, 2, 3. That in that Estate the Law of God condemned both them and their works, denouncing Death and Eternal destruction against them. And in this sense with respect unto the Law of God, these dead works do comprise their whole course in this world, as they did, their best as well as their worst. But yet there is no doubt an especial respect unto those great outward Enormities which they lived in during their Judaism, even after the manner of the Gentiles. For such the Apostle Peter writing unto these Hebrews describes their Conversation to have been, 1 Pet. 3. 3. as we showed before. And from thence he describes what a blessed Deliverance they had by the Gospel. 1 Pet 1. 18, 20, 21.