An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews: With Preliminary Exercitations - John Owen - Google Libros

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1. The more of Christ, by the way of representation or exhibition,

any institutions of divine worship do contain or express, the more

sacred and holy are they in their use and exercise,

2. It is Christ alone, who in himself is really the Most Holy, the

spring and fountain of all holiness upto the church,

3. The time of the burning of the incense, was after the sacrifice.

of the sin-offering,

4. The incense was kindled with fire taken from the altar, where

the blood of the sacrifices was newly offered,

5. The mediatory intercession of Jesus Christ, was a sweet savour

unto God, and efficacious for the salvation of the church,

6. The efficacy of Christ's intercession, dependeth on his oblation, ib.

7. The glory of these types did no way answer the glory of the

antitype, or that which was represented by them,

s. We are always to reckon, that the efficacy and prevalency of

all our prayers, depends on the incense which is in the hand of

our merciful high priest,

9. Although the sovereign will and pleasure of God be the only

reason and original cause of all instituted worship, yet there is,

and ever was, in all his institutions, such an evidence of divine

wisdom and goodness, as gives them beauty, desirableness and

usefulness, unto their proper end,

10. All the counsels of God concerning his worship in this world,

and his eternal glory in the salvation of the church, do centre

in the person and mediation of Christ,

1. A continual application unto God by Christ, and a continual ap-

plication of the benefits of the mediation of Christ by faith, are

the springs of the light, life and comfort of the church,

1. A spiritual illumination of the mind, is indispensably necessary

unto our walking with God,

2. Those who would be preserved from sin, must take care that

spiritual light do always bear sway in their minds,

3. They ought constantly to watch against the prevalency of cor-

rupt prejudices and affections in their mind,

4. When the light of the mind is solicited by temptations, to sus-

pend its conduct and determination on present circumstances, to

know that sin lies at the door, this is its last address for admission, ib.

5. If error grow strong in the heart through the love of sin, truth

will grow weak in the mind, as to the preservation of the soul

6. Nothing ought to influence the soul more unto repentance, sor

row, and humiliation for sin, than a due apprehension of the

shameful error and mistake that is in it,

1. The divine ordinances and institutions of worship, are filled

it.

with wisdom sufficient for the instruction of the church in all

the mysteries of faith and obedience,

2. It is our duty, with all humble diligence, to inquire into the

mind of the Holy Ghost in all ordinances and institutions of di-

3. Although the Lord Christ was not actually exhibited in the

flesh under the old testament, nor had actually offered himself

unto God for us, yet had believers then an actual access into the

grace and favour of God, though the way, the cause and means

of it, was not manifestly declared unto them,

4. The design of the Holy Ghost in the tabernacle, and in all its

ordinances and institutions of worship, was to direct the faith of

believers unto what was signified by them,

5. Typical institutions, attended diligently unto, were sufficient to

direct the faith of the church unto the expectation of the real

expiation of sin, and acceptance with God thereon,

6. Though the standing of the first tabernacle was a great mercy

and privilege, yet the removal of it was a greater,

7. The divine wisdom in the economy and disposal of the revela-

tion of the way into the holiest, or of grace and acceptance with

himself, is a blessed object of our contemplation,

s. The clear manifestation of the way of redemption, of the ex-

piation of sin, and peace with God thereon, is the great privi-

lege of the gospel,

9. There is no access into the gracious presence of God, but by

the sacrifice of Christ alone,

VERSE 9.

1 There is a state of perfect peace with God to be attained under

imperfect obedience,

2. Nothing can give perfect peace of conscience with God, but

what can make atonement for sin,

1. There is nothing in its own nature so mean and abject, but the

will and authority of God can render it of sacred use and sa-

cred efficacy, where he is pleased to ordain and appoint it,

2. The fixing of times and seasons, for the state of things in the

church, is solely in the hand of God, and at his sovereign dispo

3. It is a great part of the blessed liberty, which the Lord Christ

brought into the church, namely, its freedom and liberty from

legal impositions, and every thing of the like nature in the wor

4. The time of the coming of Christ, was the time of the general

final reformation of the worship of God, wherein all things

were unchangeably directed unto their proper use,

1. The bringing forth and accomplishing the glorious effects of

the hidden wisdom of God, were the true and real good things

intended for, and promised to the church, from the beginning of

2. These things alone are absolutely good to the church, all other

things are good or evil as they are used or abused,

3. So excellent are these good things, that the performance and

procuring of them, was the cause of the coming of the Son of

God, with his susception and discharge of his sacerdotal office,

4. Such a price and value did God put on these things, so good

are they in his eyes, that he made them the subject of his pro-

mises to the church, from the foundation of the world,

5. The human nature of Christ, wherein he discharged the duties of

his sacerdotal office in making atonement for sin, is the greatest,

the most perfect and excellent ordinance of God, far excelling

those that were most excellent under the Old Testament,

6. The Son of God undertaking to be the high priest of the

church, it was of necessity that he should come by, or have a

tabernacle, wherein to discharge that office,

7. God is so far from being obliged unto any means for the effect-

ing of the holy counsels of his will, that he can, when he pleas-

eth, exceed the whole order and course of the first creation of

all things, and his providence in the rule thereof,

1. The entrance of our Lord Jesus Christ as our high priest into

heaven, to appear in the presence of God for us, and to save us

thereby to the uttermost, was a thing so great and glorious, as

could not be accomplished but by his own blood,

2. Whatever difficulties lay in the way of Christ, as unto the ac-

complishment and perfection of the work of our redemption,

he would not decline them, nor desist from his undertaking,

whatever it cost him,

3. There was a holy place meet to receive the Lord Christ, after

the sacrifice of himself; and a suitable reception fo: such a per-

son, after so glorious a performance,

4. If the Lord Christ entered not into the holy place until he had

finished his work, we may not expect an entrance thereinto, un-

til we have finished ours,

1. There is such an evidence of wisdom and righteousness, unto a

spiritual eye, in the whole mystery of our redemption, sanctifi-

cation and salvation by Christ, as gives an immoveable founda-

tion unto faith to rest upon, in its receiving of it,

2. The efficacy of all the offices of Christ towards the church, de-

pends on the dignity of his person,

3. There is nothing more destructive to the whole faith of the

gospel, than by any means to evacuate the immediate efficacy of

the blood of Christ,

4. Christ's offering himself, was the greatest expression of his in-

expressible love,

5. It is evident how vain and insufficient are all other ways of the
expiation of sin, with the purging of our consciences before God, ib.

6. Faith hath ground of triumph in the certain efficacy of the

blood of Christ for the expiation of sin,

7. Nothing could expiate sin, and free conscience from dead

works, but the blood of Christ alone, and that in the offering

himself to God through the eternal Spirit,

s. It was God as the supreme ruler and lawgiver, with whom

atonement for sin was to be made,

9. The souls and consciences of men, are wholly polluted, before

they are purged by the blood of Christ,

10. Even the best works of men, antecedently to the purging of

their consciences by the blood of Christ, are but dead works,

11. Justification and sanctification are inseparably conjoined, in

the design of God's grace by the blood of Christ,

12. Gospel worship is such in its spirituality and holiness, as be-

cometh the living God,

1. It is an act of mere sovereign grace in God, to provide such a

blessed inheritance for any of them, who had sinfully cast away

what they were before intrusted withal,

2. All our interest in the gospel inheritance, depends on our re-

ceiving the promise by faith,

3. The conveyance and actual communication of the eternal inhe-

ritance by promise to be received by faith alone, tends exceed-

ingly unto the exaltation of the glory of God, and the security

of the salvation of them that do believe,

4. Effectual vocation, is the only way of entrance into the eternal

5. Though God will give grace and glory unto his elect, yet he

will do it in such a way, as wherein and whereby he may be

glorified also himself,

6. Such is the malignant nature of sin, of all transgression of the

law, that unless it be removed, unless it be taken out of the

way, no person can enjoy the promise of the eternal inheritance, 342

7. It was the work of God alone to contrive, and it was the effect

of infinite wisdom and grace, to provide a way for the removal

of sin, that it might not be an everlasting obstacle against the

communication of an eternal inheritance unto them that are

8. A new testament providing an eternal inheritance in sovereign

grace, the constitution of a mediator, such a mediator for that

testament in infinite wisdom and love, the death of that testator

for the redemption of transgressions, to fulfil the law and satis-

fy the justice of God, with the communication of that inheri-

tance by promise, to be received by faith in all them that are

called, are the substance of the mystery of the gospel,

9. The efficacy of the mediation and death of Christ, extended

itself to all the called under the old testament, is an evident de-

monstration of his divine nature, his pre-existence to all these

things, and the eternal covenant between the Father and him

10. The first covenant did only forbid and condemn transgressions;

redemption from them, is by the new testament alone,

11. The glory and efficacy of the new covenant, and the assurance

of the communication of an eternal inheritance by virtue of it,

depend hereon, that it was made a testament by the death of

the mediator, which is farther proved in the following verses,

1. It is a great and gracious condescension in the Holy Spirit, to

give encouragement and confirmation unto our faith, by a repre-

sentation of the truth and reality of spiritual things, in those

which are temporal and agreeing with them in their general na-

ture, whereby they are presented unto the common understand-

2. There is an irrevocable grant of the whole inheritance of grace

and glory, made unto the elect in the new covenant,

3. As the grant of these things is free and absolute, so the enjoy

ment of them is secured from all interveniencies, by the death

of the testator,

1. The foundation of a church-state among any people, wherein

God is to be honoured in ordinances of instituted worship,

is laid in a solemn covenant between him and them,

2. Approbation of the terms of the covenant, consent unto them,

and solemn acceptance of them, are required on our part,

unto the establishment of any covenant between God and us,

and our participation of the benefits of it,

3. It was the way of God from the beginning, to take children of

covenanters into the same covenant with their parents,

4. It is by the authority of God alone, that any thing can be ef-

fectually and unchangeably dedicated unto sacred use, so as to

have force and efficacy given unto it thereby,

1. There can be no covenant between God and men, but in the

hand or by virtue of a mediator,

2. A mediator may be either only an internuntius, a messenger, a

days-man; or also a surety and an undertaker,

3. None can interpose between God and a people

office, unless he be called of God and approved of the people,

4. A covenant that consisted in mere precepts, without an exhibi-

tion of spiritual strength to enable unto obedience, could never

5. In all our dealings with God, respect must be had unto every one

of his precepts,

6. The first eminent use of the writing of the book of the law,

that is, of any part of the Scripture, (for this book was the

first that was written), was that it might be read unto the people, 369

7. This book was both written and read in the language which

the people understood and commonly spake,

8. God never required the observance of any rites or duties of

worship, without a previous warrant from his word,

9. The writing of this book was an eminent privilege, now first

it.

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