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

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granted unto the church, leading unto a more perfect and stable

condition than formerly it had enjoyed,

10. The blood of the covenant will not benefit or advantage us,

without an especial and particular application of it unto our

own souls and consciences,

1. The condescension of God in making a covenant with men,

especially in the ways of the confirmation of it, is a blessed ob-

ject of all holy admiration,

1. In all things wherein we have to do with God, whereby we ap-

proach unto him, it is the blood of Christ, and the application

of it unto our consciences, that gives us a gracious acceptance

2. Even holy things and institutions, that are in themselves clean

and unpolluted, are relatively defiled by the unholiness of them.

3. There was a great variety of legal purifications,

4. This variety argues, that in ourselves we are ready to be pollut

ed on all occasions,

5. This variety of institutions, was a great part of the bondage-

state of the church under the old testament,

6. The great mystery wherein God instructed the church from the

foundation of the world, especially by and under legal institu-

tions, was that all purging of sin was to be by blood,

7. This is the great demonstration of the demerit of sin, of the

holiness, righteousness, and grace of God,

1. The glory and efficacy of all ordinances of divine worship,

which consist in outward observance (as it is with the sacra-

ments of the gospel) consist in this, that they represent and ex-

hibit heavenly things unto us,

2. We ought to have a due consideration to the holiness of God

in his worship and service,

3. The one sacrifice of Christ, with what ensued thereon, was the

only means to render effectual all the counsels of God, con-

cerning the redemption and salvation of the church,

4. Neither could heavenly things have been made meet for us, or

our use, nor we have been meet for their enjoyment, had they

not been dedicated, and we been purged by the sacrifice of

5. Every eternal mercy, every spiritual privilege, is both purchas-

ed for us, and sprinkled unto us, by the blood of Christ,

6. There is such an uncleanness in our natures, our persons, our

duties and worship, that unless they and we are all sprinkled

with the blood of Christ, neither we nor they can have any ac-

ceptance with God,

7. The sacrifice of Christ, is the one only everlasting fountain

and spring of all sanctification and sacred dedication,

ib.

1. The distinct offices of Christ, give direction and encourage-

2. Christ, accepted of God in our behalf, is the spring of all spi-

ritual consolation,

1. Such is the absolute perfection of the one offering of Christ,

that it stands in need of, that it will admit of, no repetition in

2. This one offering of Christ, is always effectual unto all the

ends of it, even no less than it was in the day and hour when it

was actually offered,

3. The great call and direction of the gospel, is to guide faith,

and keep it up unto this one offering of Christ, as the spring of

all grace and mercy,

4. Whatever had the greatest glory in the old legal institutions,

carried along with it, the evidence of its own imperfection,

compared with the thing signified in Christ and his office, -

1. It was inconsistent with the wisdom, goodness, grace and love of

God, that Christ should often suffer in that way which was ne-

cessary to the offering of himself, namely, by his death and

blood-shedding,

2. It was impossible from the dignity of his person,

3. It was altogether needless, and would have been useless,

4. As the sufferings of Christ were necessary unto the expiation

of sin, so he suffered neither more nor oftener than was neces-

sary,

5. The assured salvation of the church of old, from the founda-

tion of the world, by virtue of the one offering of Christ, is a

strong confirmation of the faith of the church, at present to

look for, and expect everlasting salvation thereby,

ib.

6. It is the prerogative of God, and the effect of his wisdom, to

determine the times and seasons of the dispensation of himself

and his grace to the church,

7. God had a design of infinite wisdom and grace in his sending

of Christ, and his appearance in the world thereon, which

could not be frustrated,

8. Sin had erected a dominion, a tyranny over all men as by a

9. No power of man, of any mere creature, was able to evacuate,

disannul, or abolish this law of sin,

10. The destruction and dissolution of this law and power of sin,

was the great end of the coming of Christ for the discharge of

his priestly office in the sacrifice of himself,

11. It is the glory of Christ, it is the safety of the church, that

by his one offering, by the sacrifice of himself once for all, he

hath abolished sin as to the law and condemning power of it,

1. God hath eminently suited our relief, the means and causes of

our spiritual deliverance, to our misery, the means and causes of

it; as that his own wisdom and grace may be exalted, and our

faith established,

2. Death in the first constitution of it, was penal,

3. It is still penal, eternally penal to all unbelievers,

4. The death of ali is equally determined and certain in God's

5. The ground of the expiation of sin by the offering of Christ,

is this, that therein he bare the guilt and punishment due unto it, 424

6. It is the great exercise of faith, to live on the invisible actings

of Christ on the behalf of the church,

7. Christ's appearance the second time, his return from heaven to

complete the salvation of the church, is the great fundamental

principle of our faith and hope, the great testimony we have to

give against all his and our adversaries,

8. Faith concerning the second coming of Christ, is sufficient to

support the souls of believers, and to give them satisfactory con-

solation in all difficulties, trials and distresses,

9. All true believers do live in a waiting, longing expectation of

the coming of Christ,

10. To such alone as look for him, will the Lord Christ appear

unto salvation,

F1. Then will be the great distinction among mankind, when

Christ shall appear unto the everlasting confusion of some, and

the eternal salvation of others,

12. At the second appearance of Christ, there will be an end of

all the business about sin, both on his part and ours,

13. The communication of actual salvation unto all believers,

unto the glory of God, is the final end of the office of Christ,

1. Whatever there may be in any religious institutions, and the

diligent observance of them, if they come short of exhibiting

Christ himself unto believers, with the benefits of his mediation,

they cannot make us perfect, nor give us acceptance with God, 435

2. Whatever hath the least representation of Christ, or relation un-

to him, the obscurest way of teaching the things concerning his

person and grace, whilst it is in force, hath a glory in it,

3. Christ and his grace were the only good things, that were abso-

lutely so from the foundation of the world, or the giving of the

4. There is a great difference between the shadow of good things

to come, and the good things themselves, actually exhibited and

granted unto the church,

5. The principal interest and design of them that come to God, is

to have assured evidence of the perfect expiation of sin,

6. What cannot be effected, for the expiation of sin, at once, by

any duty or sacrifice, cannot be effected by its reiteration or re-

7. The repetition of the same sacrifices, doth of itself demonstrate

their insufficiency to the ends sought after,

8. God alone limiteth the ends and efficacy of his own institutions, 442

1. The discharge of conscience from its condemning right and

power, by virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, is the foundation of

all the other privileges which we receive by the gospel,

2. All peace with God is resolved into a purging atonement made

3. It is by a principle of gospel-light alone, that conscience is di-
rected to condemn all sin, and yet to acquit all sinners that are
purged,

4. An obligation unto such ordinances of worship as could not ex-

piate sin, nor testify that it was perfectly expiated, was part of

the bondage of the church under the old testament,

5. It belongs unto the light and wisdom of faith, so to remember

sin, and make confession of it, as not therein, or thereby, to seek

after a new atonement for it, which is made once for all,

1. It is possible that things may usefully represent, what it is im-

possible that in and by themselves they should effect,

2. There may be great and eminent uses of divine ordinances and

institutions, although it be impossible that by themselves, in their

most exact and diligent use, they should work out our acceptance

3. It was utterly impossible that sin should be taken away before

God, and from the conscience of the sinner, but by the blood of

4. The declaration of the insufficiency of all other ways for the ex-

piation of sin, is an evidence of the holiness, righteousness and

severity of God against sin, with the unavoidable ruin of all un-

ib.

5. Herein also consists the great demonstration of the love; grace

and mercy of God, with an encouragement to faith, in that, when

the old sacrifices neither would nor could perfectly expiate sin,

he would not suffer the work itself to fail, but provided a way

that should be infallibly effective of it,
ib.

1. We have the solemn word of Christ, in the declaration he made

of his readiness and willingness to undertake the work of the

expiation of sin, proposed unto our faith, and engaged as a sure

anchor of our souls,

2. The Lord Christ had an infinite prospect of all that he was to

do and suffer in the world, in the discharge of his office and un-

3. No sacrifices of the law, not all of them together, were a means

for the expiation of sin, suited to the glory of God, or necessities

of the souls of men,

4. Our utmost diligence, with the most sedulous improvement of

the light and wisdom of faith, is necessary in our search into, and

inquiry after the mind and will of God in the revelation he makes

5. The constant use of sacrifices to signify those things, which they

could not effect or really exhibit to the worshippers, was a great

part of the bondage that the church was kept in under the old

6. God may in his wisdom appoint and accept of ordinances and

duties to one end, which he will refuse and reject, when they

are applied to another,

7. The supreme contrivance of the salvation of the church, is in

a peculiar manner ascribed unto the person of the Father,

8. The furniture of the Lord Christ, (though he were the Son, and

in his divine person the Lord of all), for the discharge of his

work of mediation, was the peculiar act of the Father,

9. Whatever God designs, appoints and calls any unto, he will pro-

vide for them all that is needful unto the duties of obedience,

whereunto they are so appointed and called,

10. Not only the love and grace of God in sending his Son, are

continually to be admired and glorified, but the acting of this

infinite wisdom, in fitting and preparing his human nature, so as

to render it every way meet unto the work which it was design-

ed for, ought to be the especial object of our holy contemplation, 475

11. The ineffable, but yet distinct operation of the Father, Son and

Spirit, in, about, and towards, the human nature assumed by the

Son, are, as an uncontrollable evidence of their distinct subsis-

tence in the same individual divine essence; so a guidance unto

faith, as unto all their distinct actings towards us in the applica-

tion of the work of redemption unto our souls,

12. It is the will of God, that the church should take especial no-

tice of this sacred truth, that nothing can expiate or take away

sin, but the blood of Christ alone,

13. Whatever may be the use or efficacy of any ordinances of wor-

ship, yet if they are employed or trusted unto for such ends as

God hath not designed them unto, he accepts not of our persons
in them, nor approves of the things themselves,

14. The foundation of the whole glorious work of the salvation of

`the church, was laid in the sovereign will, pleasure and grace of

God, even the Father,

ib.

15. The coming of Christ in the flesh, was in the wisdom, righte-

ousness, and holiness of God, necessary for to fulfil his will, that

we might be saved unto his glory,

16. The fundamental motive unto the Lord Christ in his under-

taking the work of mediation, was the will and glory of God,

17. God's records in the roll of his book, are the foundation and

warrant of the faith of the church in the head and members,

18. The Lord Christ, in all that he did and suffered, had continu-

al respect unto what was written of him,

19. In the record of these words, " Lo I come," &c. 1. God was

glorified in his truth and faithfulness. 2. Christ was secured

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