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

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4. Many important truths are not clearly delivered in any one

single testimony or proposition in the Scripture, but the mind of

God concerning them, is to be gathered and learned by compar

ing of several Scriptures, in order and respect to one another,

1. The faithfulness of God in his promises, is not to be measured

by the faith or obedience of men at any one season, in any one

generation; nor by their sins whereby they come short of them,

Hor by any providential dispensations towards them,

2. The promises of God are such as belong only to the grace of

the covenant, or such as respect also the outward administration

of it in this world,

3. Some, yea many promises of God, may have a full accomplish-

ment, when very few, or it may be none at all, know or take

notice that so they are accomplished,

4. Some promises of God, as to their full accomplishment, may

be confined unto some certain time and season, although they

may have, and indeed have, their use and benefit in all seasons,

and until this come, there can be no failure charged, though

they be not fulfilled,

5. There are many promises, whose signal accomplishment God

hath not limited to any especial season, but keeps it in his own

will, to act according to them towards his church, as is best

suited to his wisdom and love,

6. Some concerns of the glory of God in the world, may suspend

the full and outward accomplishment of some promises for a season, 317

7. When the accomplishment of promises seemeth to be deferred,

we are not to faint in our duty,

1. In reading and hearing the Scripture, we ought to consider`

God speaking in it and by it unto us,

2. Divine inspiration, or the authority of God speaking in and by

the penmen of the Scripture, is the ground and foundation of

our faith, and is that which gives them authority over our con-

sciences and efficacy in them,

3. The holy Scripture is an inexhaustible treasury or repository of

spiritual mysteries, and sacred truths,

4. Many important truths lie deep and secret in the Scripture, and

stand in need of a very diligent search, and hard digging in

their investigation, and for their finding out,

5. For searching the Scriptures aright, there is required a peculiar,

humble, and teachable frame of spirit,

6. Earnest prayer for the guidance, direction, assistance, and illu-

mination of the Holy Ghost, to enable us to find out, discern,

and understand the deep things of God,

7. Endeavour in all inquirings into the word, to mind and aim at

the same ends which God hath in the giving and granting of it

8. They that would search the Scriptures, to find out the sacred

truths that lie hid in them, ought to take care that they enter-

tain no corrupt lusts in their hearts or minds,

9. Sedulity and constancy in this duty, are great helps to a profita-

ble discharge of it,

12. The proper grammatical sense of the words themselves is duly

to be inquired into and pondered,

11. A due consideration of the nature of the discourse wherein

any words are used,

10. In our search after truth, our minds are greatly to be influen-

ced and guided by the analogy of faith,

1. There is no true rest for the souls of men, but only in Jesus

Christ by the gospel,

2. Other things will not give rest to the souls of men,

3. The gospel church-state is a state of spiritual rest in Christ,

4. It is a great mercy and privilege to have a day of rest and wor-

ship given unto us,

1. Believers under the New Testament have lost nothing; no pri-

vilege that was enjoyed by them under the Old,

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2. It is the people of God alone, who have a right unto all the pri-

vileges of the gospel; and who, in a due manner can perform

all the duties of it,

3. The people of God, as such, have work to do, and labour in-

cumbent on them,

4. God hath graciously given his people an entrance into rest, du-

ring their state of work and labour, to sweeten it unto them,

and to enable them for it,

5. Believers may, and do, find assured rest in a due attendance un-
to, and performance of the duties of the gospel,

ib.

6. There is a weekly sacred rest appointed for believers under the

1. The whole church, all the duties, worship and privileges of it,

are founded in the person, authority and actions of Jesus Christ, 354

2. The first day of the week, the day of the resurrection of Christ,

when he rested from his works, is appointed and determined for

a day of rest or Sabbath unto the church, to be constantly ob-

served in the room of the seventh day, appointed and observed

from the foundation of the world, under the Old Testament,

1. That great oppositions will, and do, arise against men in the

work of entering into God's rest,

2. That as the utmost of our labours and endeavours are requir

ed to our obtaining an entrance into the rest of Christ, so it doth

very well deserve that they should be laid out therein,

3. There is a present excellency in, and a present reward attend-

ing, gospel faith and obedience,

4. Precedent judgments on others, are monitory ordinances to us, 364

5. It is better to have an example, than to be made an example of

divine displeasure,

6. We ought to have no expectation of escaping vengeance under

the guilt of those sins, which others, in a like manner guilty of,

have not escaped,

. It is the way of the Spirit of God, to excite us unto especial

duties, by proposing unto us, and reminding us of such proper-

ties of God, as the consideration whereof may in an especial

manner incline us unto them,

2. The life and power of Christ, are continually exercised about

the concerns of the souls of professors,

3. The power of Christ in his word is irresistible, as to whatever

effects he doth design in it,

4. Though men may close and hide things from themselves and

others, yet they cannot exclude the power of Christ in his word

from piercing into them,

5. The Lord Christ discerneth all inward and spiritual things, in

order to his present and future judgment of those things, and the

persons in whom they are,

6. It is no trouble or labour to the Word of God, to discern all

creatures, and all that is of them and in them, seeing that there

is nothing but is evidently apparent, open and naked under his

all-seeing eye,

7. It is a great and difficult matter, really and practically to con-

vince professors of the practical judging omniscience of Jesus

Christ in the word of God,

s. That the beginnings or entrances into declensions in profession,

or backslidings from Christ and the ways of the gospel, are se-

cret, deep, and hardly discoverable,

9. A due and holy consideration at all times of the all-seeing eye

of Jesus Christ, is a great preservative against backslidings or

declensions in profession,

10. A due and holy consideration of the omnisciency of Christ,

is a great encouragement unto the meanest and weakest belie

vers, who are upright and sincere in their faith and obedience, 407

1. That great opposition is, and always will be made, unto the per-

manency of believers in their profession,

2. It is our duty, in the midst of all oppositions, to hold our profes-

sion firm and stedfast unto the end,

3. Believers have great encouragement unto, and assistance in the

constancy of their profession, by and from the priesthood of Je

1. The church of God hath a standing, perpetual advantage, in

the union of our nature to the person of the Son of God, as he

is our high Priest,

1. There is, there will be a season, many a season, in the course of

our profession and walking before God, wherein we do or shall

stand in need of especial aid and assistance,

2. That there is with God in Christ, God on his throne of grace,

a spring of suitable and seasonable help for all times and occa-

sions of difficulty,

3. All help, succour or spiritual assistance in our straits and diffi-

culties, proceed from mere mercy and grace,

4. When we have, through Christ, obtained mercy for our persons,

we need not fear but that we shall have suitable and seasonable

help for our duties,

5. The way to obtain help from God, is by a due gospel applica-
tion of our souls for it to the throne of grace,

6. Great discouragements are used to interpose themselves in our

minds and against our faith, when we stand in need of espe-

cial help from God, and would make an application unto him

7. Faith's consideration of the interposition of Christ in our be-

half as our high Priest, is the only way to remove discourage-

ments, and to give us boldness in our access unto God,

S. That in all our approaches unto God, we are to consider him

as on a throne,

1. Christ's participation of our nature, as necessary unto him for

the bearing and discharge of the office of a high priest on our

behalf, is a great ground of consolation unto believers, a mani-

fest evidence that he is and will be tender and compassionate

2. It was the entrance of sin that made the office of the priesthood

3. It was of infinite grace that such an appointment was made,

4. The priest is described by the especial discharge of his duty, or

exercise of his office which is his offering both gifts and sacri-

5. Where there is no proper propitiatory sacrifice, there is no pro-

6. Jesus Christ alone is the high Priest of his people,

7. It was a great privilege which the church enjoyed of old, in

the representation which it had by God's appointment of the

priesthood and sacrifice of Christ, in their own typical priests.

and sacrifices,

Much more glorious is our privilege under the gospel, since our

ib.

Lord Jesus hath taken upon him and actually discharged this

part of his office, in offering an absolutely perfect and complete

sacrifice for sin,

9. What is to be done with God on the account of sin, that it

may be expiated and pardoned, and that the people of God who

have sinned, may be accepted with him and blessed, is all actual-

ly done for them by Jesus Christ their high Priest, in the sacri-

fice for sin which he offered on their behalf,

1. Compassion and forbearance with meekness, in those from

whom we expect help and relief, is the great motive and encou-

ragement unto faith, assistance, and expectation of them,

2. We live, the life of our souls is principally maintained, upon this

compassionateness of our high Priest,

3. Though every sin hath in it the whole nature of sin, rendering

sinners obnoxious unto the curse of the law, yet as there are seve-

ral kinds of sins, so there are several degrees of sin, some be-

ing accompanied with a greater guilt than others,

4. Our ignorance is both our calamity, our sin, and an occasion of

many sins unto us,

5. Sin is a wandering from the way,

6. No sort of sinners are excluded from an interest in the care and

love of our compassionate high Priest, but only those who ex-

clude themselves by their unbelief,

7. It is well for us, and enough for us, that the Lord Christ was

encompassed with the sinless infirmities of our nature,

8. God can teach a sanctified use of sinful infirmities, as he did in

and unto the priests under the law,

1. The absolute holiness and spotless innocence of the Lord

Christ in his offering of himself, had a signal influence into the

efficacy of his sacrifice, and is a great encouragement unto our

faith and consolation,

2. Whosoever dealeth with God or man about the sins of others,

should look well, in the first place, unto his own,

3. No dignity of person or place, no duty, no merit, can deliver

sinners from standing in need of a sacrifice for sin,

4. It was a part of the darkness and bondage of the church under

the Old Testament, that their high priests had need to offer sa-

crifices for themselves and for their own sins,

VERSE 4.

1. It is an act of sovereignty in God, to call whom he pleaseth.

unto his work and especial service, and eminently so, when it is

unto any place of honour and dignity in his house,

2. The highest excellency and utmost necessity of any work to be

done for God in this world, will not warrant our undertaking of

it, or engaging in it, unless we are called thereunto,

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