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

Books

1. God's ordination or appointment gives rules, measures and ends,

unto all sacred offices and employments,

2. There is no approach unto God, without continual respect unto

sacrifice and atonement,

3. There was no salvation to be had for us, no, not by Jesus Christ

himself, without his sacrifice and oblation,

4. As God designed unto the Lord Christ the work which he had

to do, so he provided for him, and furnished him with whatever

was necessary thereunto,

5. The Lord Christ being to save the church in the way of office,

he was not to be spared in any thing necessary thereunto,

6. Whatever state or condition we are called unto, what is neces-

sary unto that state, is indispensably required of us,

1. God's institutions, rightly stated, do never interfere,

2. The discharge of all the parts and duties of the priestly office

of Christ, in their proper order, was needful unto the salvation

1. God alone limits the signification and use of all his own insti-

2. It is an honour to be employed in any sacred service that be-

longs unto the worship of God, though it be of an inferior na-

ture unto other parts of it,

3. So great was the glory of heavenly ministration in the media-

tion of Jesus Christ, that God would not at once bring it forth

in the church, until he had prepared the minds of men by types,

shadows, examples, and representations of it,

4. Our utmost care and diligence in the consideration of the mind

of God, is required in all that we do about his worship,

1. God, in his infinite wisdom, gives proper times and seasons to

all his dispensations to, and towards the church,

2. The whole office of Christ was designed to the accomplishment

of the will and dispensation of the grace of God,

3. The condescension of the Son of God to undertake the office

of the ministry on our behalf, is unspeakable, and for ever to

4. The Lord Christ, by undertaking this office of the ministry,

hath consecrated and made honourable that office unto all that

are rightly called unto it, and do rightly discharge it,

5. The exaltation of the human nature of Christ, into the office

of this glorious ministry, depended solely on the sovereign wis-

dom, grace and love of God,

6. It is our duty and our safety to acquiesce universally and abso-

lutely in the ministry of Jesus Christ,

7. The provision of a mediator between God and man, was an ef-

fect of infinite wisdom and grace,

8. There is infinite grace in every divine covenant, inasmuch as it

is established on promises,

9. The promises of the covenant of grace, are better than those

of any other covenant,

10. Although one state of the church hath had great advantages

and privileges above another, yet no state had whereof to com-

plain, while they observed the terms prescribed unto them,

11. The state of the gospel, or of the church under the new tes-

tament, is accompanied with the highest spiritual privileges and

advantages that it is capable of in this world,

1. Whatever God had done before for the church, yet he ceased

not in his wisdom and grace, until he had made it partaker of

the best and most blessed condition whereof in this world it is

2. Let those unto whom the terms of the new covenant are pro-

posed in the gospel, take heed to themselves, that they sincere-

ly embrace and improve them, for there is neither promise nor

hopes of any farther or fuller administration of grace,

1. God hath oft-times just cause to complain of his people, when

yet he will not utterly cast them off,

2. It is the duty of the church to take deep notice of God's com

plaints of them,

3. God often surpriseth the church with promises of grace and

4. He saith,' that is,

ON, saith the Lord,' is the formal

object of our faith and obedience,

5. Where God placeth a note of observation and attention, we

should carefully fix our faith and consideration,

6. The things and concerns of the new covenant, are all of them

objects of the best of our consideration,

7. There is a time limited and fixed for the accomplishment of all

the promises of God, and all the purposes of his grace towards

8. The new covenant, as collecting into one all the promises of

grace given from the foundation of the world, accomplished in

the actual exhibition of Christ, and confirmed in his death, and

by the sacrifice of his blood, and thereby becoming the sole rule

of new spiritual ordinances of worship suited thereunto, was the

great object of the faith of the saints of the old testament, and

is the great foundation of all our present mercies,

9. All the efficacy and glory of the new covenant, do originally

arise from, and are resolved into, the Author and supreme Cause

of it, which is God himself,

10. The covenant of grace in Christ, is made only with the Israel

of God, the church of the elect,

11. Those who are first and most advanced as to outward privi-

leges, are oftentimes last and least advantaged by the grace and

1. The
grace and glory of the new covenant, are much set off and

manifested, by the comparing of it with the old,

2. All God's works are equally good and holy in themselves, but

as unto the use and advantage of the church, he is pleased to

make some of them means of communicating more grace than

3. Though God makes an alteration in any of his works, ordi-

nances of worship, or institutions, yet he never changeth his

intention, or the purpose of his will,

4. The disposal of mercies and privileges as unto times, persons,

seasons, is wholly in the hand and power of God,

5. Sins have their aggravations from mercies received,

6. Nothing but effectual grace will secure our covenant-obedience

7. No covenant between God and man ever was, or ever could be,

stable and effectual, as unto the ends of it, that was not made

and confirmed in Christ,

8. No external administration of a covenant of God's own making,

no obligation of mercy on the minds of men, can enable them

unto stedfastness in covenant-obedience, without an effectual in-

fluence of grace from and by Jesus Christ,

9. God, in making a covenant with any, in proposing the terms of

it, retains his right and authority to deal with persons according

to their deportment in and towards that covenant,

10. God's casting men out of his special care upon the breach of

his covenant, is the highest judgment that in this world can fall

on any persons,

1. The covenant of grace, as reduced into the form of a testament,

confirmed by the blood of Christ, doth not depend on any condi

tion or qualification in our persons, but in a free grant and dona-

tion of God, and so are all the good things prepared in it,

2. The precepts of the old covenant, are all turned into promises

3. All things in the new covenant, being proposed unto us by the
way of promise, it is by faith alone that we may attain a parti-
cipation of them,

ib.

-

4. Sense of the loss of an interest in, and participation of, the be-

nefits of the old covenant, is the best preparation for receiving

the mercies of the new,

5. God himself, in and by his own sovereign wisdom, grace, good-

ness, all-sufficiency and power, is to be considered as the only

cause and author of the new covenant,

6. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the new covenant, in its

being, existence, and healing efficacy, is as large and extensive

to repair our natures, as sin is, in its residence and power, to de-

7. All the beginnings and entrances into the saving knowledge of

God, and thereon of obedience unto him, are effects of the grace

of the covenant,

$. The work of grace in the new covenant, passeth on the whole

soul in all its faculties, powers and affections, unto their change

and renovation,

9. To take away the necessity and efficacy of renewing, changing,
sanctifying grace, consisting in an internal, efficacious operation

of the principles, habits, and acts of internal grace and obedi-

ence, is plainly to overthrow and reject the new covenant,

10. We bring nothing to the new covenant but our hearts, as ta-

bles to be written in, with the sense of the insufficiency of the

precepts and promises of the law, with respect to our own abi.

lity to comply with them,

11. The Lord Christ, God and man, undertaking to be the medi

ator between God and man, and a surety on our behalf, is the

spring and head of the new covenant, which is made and esta-

blished with us in him,

12. As nothing less than God becoming our God, could relieve,

help, and save us, so nothing more can be required thereunto,

13. The efficacy, security, and glory of this covenant, depend ori-

ginally on the nature of God, immediately and actually on the

mediation of Christ,

14. It is from the engagement of the properties of the divine na-

ture, that this covenant is ordered in all things, and sure,

15. As the grace of this covenant is inexpressible, so are the obli-

gations it puts upon us unto obedience,

16. God doth as well undertake for our being his people, as he

17. Those whom God makes a covenant withal, are his in a pecu-

18. The instructive ministry of the old testament, as it was such,

and as it had respect to the carnal rites thereof, was a ministry

of the letter, and not of the Spirit, which did not really effect

in the hearts of men the things which it taught,

19. There is a duty incumbent on every man to instruct others,

according to his ability and opportunity, in the knowledge of

20. It is the Spirit of grace alone, as promised in the new cove-

nant, which frees the church from a laborious, but ineffectual

way of teaching,

21. There was a hidden treasure of divine wisdom, of the know-

ledge of God, laid up in the mystical revelations and institutions

of the old testament, which the people were not then able to

look into, nor to comprehend,

22. The whole knowledge of God in Christ, is both plainly re-

vealed, and savingly communicated, by virtue of the new cove-

nant, unto them who do believe,

24. Where there is not some degree of saving knowledge, there

no interest in the new covenant can be pretended,

23. There are, and ever were, different degrees of persons in the

church, as unto the saving knowledge of God,

25. The full and clear declaration of God, as he is to be known

of us in this life, is a privilege reserved for, and belonging unto,

the days of the new testament,

26. To know God as he is revealed in Christ, is the highest privi-

lege whereof in this life we can be made partakers,

27. Persons destitute of this saving knowledge, are utter strangers

unto the covenant of grace,

28. Free, sovereign and undeserved grace in the pardon of sin, is

the original spring and foundation of all covenant mercies and

29. The new covenant is made only with them who effectually

and eventually are made partakers of the grace of it,

30. The aggravations of sin are great and many, which the con-

sciences of convinced sinners ought to have regard unto,

31. There is grace and mercy in the new covenant provided for all

sorts of sins, and all aggravations of them, if this grace and

mercy be received in a due manner,

32. Aggravations of sin do glorify grace in pardon,

33. We cannot understand aright the glory and excellency of par-

doning mercy, unless we are convinced of the greatness and

vileness of our sins, in all their aggravations,

1. Every covenant of God had its proper privileges and advan-

2. There was never any covenant between God and man, but it

had some ordinances, or arbitrary institutions of external divine

worship, annexed unto it,

3. It is a hard and rare thing, to have the minds of men kept up-

right with God, in the observance of the institutions of divine

4. Divine institution alone, is that which renders any thing accep-

table unto God,

5. God can animate outward carnal things with a hidden invisible

spring of glory and efficacy,

6. All divine service or worship must be resolved into divine ordi-

nation or institution,

7. A worldly sanctuary is enough for them whose service is worldly, ib.

1. Every part of God's house, and the place wherein he will dwell,

is filled and adorned with pledges of his presence, and means of

communicating his grace,

2. The communication of sacred light from Christ in the gifts of

the Spirit, is absolutely necessary unto the due and acceptable

performance of all holy offices and duties of worship in the

3. No man, by his utmost endeavours in the use of outward means,
can obtain the least beam of saving light, unless it be communi-
cated unto him by Christ, who is the only fountain and cause of it, ib.

« Eelmine Jätka »