A53696:828
Exercitations on the Epistle to the Hebrews
Exercitations on the Epistle to the Hebrews also concerning the Messiah wherein the promises concerning him to be a spiritual redeemer of mankind are explained and vindicated, his coming and accomplishment of his work according to the promises is proved and confirmed, the person, or who he is, is declared, the whole economy of the mosaical law, rites, worship, and sacrifice is explained : and in all the doctrine of the person, office, and work of the Messiah is opened, the nature and demerit of the first sin is unfolded, the opinions and traditions of the ancient and modern Jews are examined, their objections against the Lord Christ and the Gospel are answered, the time of the coming of the Messiah is stated, and the great fundamental truths of the Gospel vindicated : with an exposition and discourses on the two first chapters of the said epistle to the Hebrews / by J. Owen ...Exercitations on the Epistle to the Hebrews also concerning the Messiah wherein the promises concerning him to be a spiritual redeemer of mankind are explained and vindicated, his coming and accomplishment of his work according to the promises is proved and confirmed, the person, or who he is, is declared, the whole oeconomy of the mosaical law, rites, worship, and sacrifice is explained : and in all the doctrine of the person, office, and work of the Messiah is opened, the nature and demerit of the first sin is unfolded, the opinions and traditions of the antient and modern Jews are examined, their objections against the Lord Christ and the Gospel are answered, the time of the coming of the Messiah is stated, and the great fundamental truths of the Gospel vindicated : with an exposition and discourses on the two first chapters of the said epistle to the Hebrews / by J. Owen ...
London: printed by Robert White for Nathaniel Ponder, 1668
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.
§ 10 But it is pleaded, secondly, by them, That it is for their sins that the coming of the Messiah is thus retarded and prolonged. But it is not about the coming of the Messiah, directly and immediately, that they are pressed withal in these considerations; that which we enquire about, is their present state, and their long continuance therein, with the reason of it; only aiming to find out and discover the true cause thereof: This, they say, is because of their sins; and this also in general we grant, But yet must further enquire, what they intend thereby: I ask therefore whether it be for the sins of their forefathers, who lived before the last final dispersion, or for their sins, who have since lived in their several Generations, that they are thus utterly forsaken. If they shall say, it is for the sins of their forefathers, as Manasseh plainly doth, Quest. 43. in Gen. p. 65. And sundry others of them do the same, then I desire to know whether they think God to be changed from what he was of old, or whether he be not still every way the same as to all the promises of the Covenant; supposing they will say that he is still the same, I desire to know whether he did not in former times, in the days of their Judges and Kings, especially in the Babylonian Captivity punish them for their sins, with that contemperation of Justice and mercy, which was agreeable unto the Tenor of the Covenant? This I suppose they will not deny, the Scripture speaking so fully unto it, and the Righteousness of God requiring it. I desire then to know what were the sins of their forefathers, before the destruction of the second Temple, and your final dispersion, which so much, according to the Rules of the Covenant, exceeded the sins of them who lived before the desolation of the first Temple, and the captivity that ensued; for we know that the sins of those former were punished only with a dispersion, which some of them saw the beginning and ending of; the duration of the whole of it not exceeding seventy years, after which they were returned again to their own Land.
§ 10 But it is pleaded, secondly, by them, That it is for their sins that the coming of the Messiah is thus retarded and prolonged. But it is not about the coming of the Messiah, directly and immediately, that they are pressed withall in these considerations; that which we enquire about, is their present state, and their long continuance therein, with the reason of it; only aiming to find out and discover the true cause thereof: This, they say, is because of their sins; and this also in general we grant, But yet must further enquire, what they intend thereby: I ask therefore whether it be for the sins of their forefathers, who lived before the last final dispersion, or for their sins, who have since lived in their several Generations, that they are thus utterly forsaken. If they shall say, it is for the sins of their forefathers, as Manasseh plainly doth, Quest. 43. in Gen. p. 65. And sundry others of them do the same, then I desire to know whether they think God to be changed from what he was of old, or whether he be not still every way the same as to all the promises of the Covenant; supposing they will say that he is still the same, I desire to know whether he did not in former times, in the daies of their Judges and Kings, especially in the Babylonian Captivity punish them for their sins, with that contemperation of Justice and mercy, which was agreeable unto the Tenor of the Covenant? This I suppose they will not deny, the Scripture speaking so fully unto it, and the Righteousness of God requiring it. I desire then to know what were the sins of their forefathers, before the destruction of the second Temple, and your final dispersion, which so much, according to the Rules of the Covenant, exceeded the sins of them who lived before the desolation of the first Temple, and the captivity that ensued; for we know that the sins of those former were punished only with a dispersion, which some of them saw the beginning and ending of; the duration of the whole of it not exceeding seventy years, after which they were returned again to their own Land.