PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Works of John Owen — Volume 19
John Owen · 284,889 words · 276 reading sections
Section 121
SECT. 3, 4.] AND SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 239 such as were offered in the times of approaching wars, after victories, and upon the solemn covenanting of nations or rulers; who yet in process of time also made use of stated solemn sacrifices, and of those that were confined to the interests of private families. 3. It dot…
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SECT. 5, 6.] AND SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 241 as such, and which they were by the light of nature directéd unto. So was it among the Israelites when the twelve original families, being multiplied into so many numerous tribes, were,. by common consent, united into one people or nation, without any polity, rule, or order pe…
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SECT. 7.] AND SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 943 1 born of the father only, and not to the first-born of the mother, if her husband had had a son by another wife before. And if a man had more wives at the same time, he that was the first-born of any of them was to have the privilege of the birthright, against all disad- vantage…
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9. Yet all that hath been spoken, or that may further be pleaded to the same purpose, doth not necessarily conclude that the right unto sacrificing by way of office was enclosed to the first-born before the giving of the law; and afterwards we-know how it was disposed of by divine institution. There was, therefore, in …
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And when, among the Remans, the care of sacred things had been devolved on their kings, upon their removal the people created priests by suffrage among themselves, and one under the name of “rex sacrorum,” that by the continuance of the name therein the office might not in any thing be missed, the civil power being ful…
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“ Rex Anius, rex idem hominum Pheebique sacerdos.” And the most ancient reports among the heathen, both in the East- ern and Grecian traditions, mention these offices as distinetly exer- cised by diverse persons. Homer hath his priests as well as his kings, though that which then was peculiar to them was divination, a…
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; SECT. 13.] AND SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 251 will pass on among the captives in their triumph for so great an achievement. But certain it is that men are exceedingly apt to take up with learned conjectures out of heathen writers, though pressing hard on the reputation of sacred truth. 13. An instance hereof, if I mista…
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SECT. 13.] AND SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 253 plain a respect to Joseph as that he must shut his eyes who sees him not therein, especially since the times agree well enough. (4.) Jo- seph had the exercise of all regal power committed unto him, who was one of the shepherds, and made laws and statutes, yea, changed the whole …
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14. But to return. The 95, or “priests,” mentioned among the Egyptians, were probably princes of the people at the first. And translators are yet dubious whether they should render the word in its places “ priests” or “ princes.” At first they were de- signed by common consent to take care of the “sacra” which be- > …
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SECT. 16.] AND SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 257 eminent exaltation ensued thereon, it is not improbable but that they bore a peculiar malice towards all the Israelites, being, more- over, instigated and provoked by the knowledge and worship of the true God that was among them. This made them vigorously engage in an opposition…
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SECT. 16.] AND SACRIFICE OF CHRIST. 259 remainders of them were only a kind of priest that attended unto sacrificing, lib. xvii. ; and he says that one Cheremon, who went along with Ailius Gallus, the governor of Egypt, undertaking still to prac- tise their arts, was ridiculous unto all for his ignorance and arro- gan…
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_ worship in this world. And take this off from the basis whereon God hath fixed it, and all human substitutions of any thing in the like kind to the same purposes will quickly discover their own vanity. Nor without the advantage which it affords, . , 264 TO THE READER. as it is the sacred repository of all sanctif…
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266 DIFFERENCES CONCERNING [EXERC. I. that state of peace and quietness wherein all things were made of God. Yea, with the fruits and effects of this perverse apostasy, and relinquishment of that universally harmonious state of things wherein we were created, not only is the whole world as it lies in evil filled, and …
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4. The controversies about the Sabbath (as we call it at present for distinction’s sake, and to determine a subject of our discourse), 268 DIFFERENCES CONCERNING [EXERC. I. which have been publicly agitated, are universal; as unto all its con- cerns. Neither name nor thing is by all agreed on. For whereas most Christ…
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270 DIFFERENCES CONCERNING [EXERC. I. under the new testament, as the Sabbath of the Lord, on what ground it is so to be observed. (12.) Whether of the fourth com- mandment as unto one day in seven, or only as unto some part or portion of time, or whether without any respect unto that command, as purely ceremonial: fo…
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uire. 7. And thus is it come to pass, that although God made man up- right, and gave him the Sabbath, or day of rest, as a token of that condition, and pledge of a future eternal rest with himself, yet, through his finding out many imventions, that very day is become amongst us an occasion and means of much disquietme…
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8. The principles that I shall proceed upon, or the rules that I shall proceed by, are,—(1.) Express testimonies of Scripture, which are not wanting in this cause. Where this light doth not go before us, our best course is to sit still; and where the word of God doth not speak in the things of God, it is our wisdom to …
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(4.) The custom and practice of the church of God im all ages is to be inquired into. I intend not merely the church of Christ under the gospel, but the whole church from the beginning of the world, in the various dispensations of the will and grace of God unto it,— before the giving of the law, under the yoke of it, a…
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10. From its occasion, sanctification, and use, it was called nav, 278 OF THE NAME OF [EXERC. I. and awn oY, “the Sabbath,” and “the Sabbath-day.” The occa- sion of this name is expressed, Gen. 11. 3, “ God blessed the seventh day, N32 j2 ‘3 ,”—“ because he rested” (“shabath”) “that day.” It is called rest, the rest,…
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280 OF THE NAME OF [EXERC. 1 termine, seeing I know nothing of these things. And on the same account, of their rest falling on the day under that planetary deno- mination, many of the heathen thought they dedicated the day and the religion of it unto Saturn. So Tacitus, Hist., lib. v.: “Ali honorem eum Saturno haberi.…
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282 OF THE NAME OF [EXERC. I. sabbath.” Theophylact gives us another day, but on the same rea- son. Saith he, O/ Iovdator ricuy topriy odCCurov dvdualorr dudravors yep rs chCCuroy, TloAAdns oby darnure 4 coprh ev 7H wapaoneun, Hal excrovv Thy wapucnevny TKCCurov Oi viv Eoprgjyve eira vd xvpiag ThCCaroy dvoucZov deurep…
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14. All the eastern nations also, amongst whom the planetary de- nomination of the days of the week first began, have, since their cast- ing off that kind of idolatry, rejected the use of those names; being therein more religious, or more superstitious, than the most of Chris- tians. So is it done by the Arabians and P…
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286 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. [EXERC. II. subjects and objects of its work and worship. And it is, or may be, called his, “the Lord’s day,” because enjoined and appointed to be observed by him or his authority over the church. So the ordi- ‘nance of the supper is called “ the supper of the Lord” on the same acco…
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288 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. [ EXERC. IT. out of all sorts of their authors, and those duly alleged, according to their own sense and conceptions. 3. Marah was the first station that the children of Israel fixed in the wilderness of Shur, five days after their coming up out of the Red sea. Before their coming …
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VOL. XIX. 19 290 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. [EXERC. II. memorial is not peculiarly annexed unto them on their own dis- tinct account, but equally upon that of the other commandments whereunto they do refer. (3.) There is yet an especial reason for the peculiar appropriation of these two precepts by that memorial…
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5. Neither is this opinion amongst them universal. Some of their most famous masters are otherwise minded; for they both judge that the Sabbath was instituted in paradise, and that the law of it was equally obligatory unto all nations in the world. Of this mind are 292 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. [EXERC. 1. Maimo…
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294 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. [EXERC. II. tend that in these words of Moses, Gen. ii. 8, “ And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work,” a prolepsis is to be admitted; that is, that what is there occasionally inserted in the narrative, and to be read in …
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296 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH, [ EXERC. II time for’succeeding generations. This is plain in the words, or nothing can be thought to be plainly expressed. And if there be any appear- ance of difficulty in these words, “ God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it,” it is wholly taken away in the explication gi…
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(1.) 7223, “ He blessed it.” God’s blessing, as the Jews say, and they say well therein, is naw n5p\n,—“ an addition of good.” It re- lates to some thing that hath a real present existence, to which it makes an addition of some further good than it was before partaker of. Hereof, as we said, the day in this place was t…
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9. Wherefore, granting the sense of the words contended for, there is yet another exception put in to invalidate this testimony as to the original of a seventh day’s sabbatical rest from the foundation of the world. And this is taken, not from the signification of the words, but the connection and disposition of them i…
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302 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. [ EXERC. II. which fixeth immovably the beginning of the sabbatical rest. The full vindication of this testimony the reader may find in the Expo- sition itself, whither he is referred. And I do suppose that no cause can be confirmed with more clear and undeniable testimonies. The ob…
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304 OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. [ EXERC. IT. therein obtained a good report, gives us the highest assurance. Now, of all obedience unto God faith is the principle and founda- tion, without which it is impossible to please him, Heb. xi. 6. This faith doth always (and must always so do) respect the command and promi…
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* 13. Neither was the number of seven only in general sacred VOL. XIX. 20 306 OF THE ORIGINAL OF T:iE SABBATH. [EXERC. I. amongst them, but there are testimonies produced out of the most ancient writers amongst the heathen expressing a notion of a seventh day’s sacred feast and rest. Many of these were of old collec…
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15. The hebdomadal revolution of time, generally admitted in the world, is also a great testimony unto the original institution of the Sabbath. Of old it was catholic, and is at present received among those nations whose converse was not begun until of late with any SECT. 15.] OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. 309 of t…
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SECT. 16.] OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. olt reason of the assignation of the planetary names to the days of the week; which he affirms to have had its original from the Egyptians. And two reasons he tells us that he had heard of the especial assig- nation of their several names unto the several days, in the order w…
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SECT. 17, 18.] OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. 313 Epunveberas ECOowdc, by an error common to many of the ancients, who could not distinguish between 3Y and Y2Y. It is also to this pur- pose observed by Rivet and Selden, from Salmasius, out of Georgius Syncellus, in his Chronology, that the patriarchs reckoned the tim…
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(2.) For those expressions insisted on, of “work,” “servile work,” “work for six days,” of “servants and handmaids,” of “the stranger within the gates,” they were necessary explications of the command in its application unto that people, and yet such as had a just pro- portion unto what was enjoined at the first giving…
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SECT. 19.] OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. 317 hath not done so unto any nation,” namely, not in the same man- ner; for none will deny but that nine precepts at least were given unto all mankind in Adam. 19. It is added by the same learned author, “ Praterea (p. 51) si quies septimi diei omnibus ab origine mundi homi…
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SECT. 20.] OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. 319 ledged among the heathen themselves,—it is not anywhere asserted or intimated in the decalogical compendium of it, unless it be in that prohibition. It sufticeth, then, that even among the Gentiles God vindicated the authority of his own Sabbaths, by condemning their impi…
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For my part, as I have said, I will not, nor, for the security of the principle laid down, need I to contend that the seventh day was ob- served as a sacred feast amongst them. It is enough that there were such notices of it in the world as could proceed from no other SECT. 21, 22.] OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. 321…
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23. Another ground of their hatred was, that the Jews, whilst the temple stood, gathered great sums of money out of all their pro- vinces, which they sent unto the sacred treasury. So the same per- son informs us in the same place: “Cum aurum Judzeorum nomine, quotannis ex Italia, et ex omnibus vestris provinciis Hiero…
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25. But it is further pleaded (p. 54), “That indeed the Gentiles could be no way obliged to the observation of the fourth command- ment, seeing they had no indication of it, nor any means to free them : SECT. 25, 26.] OF THE ORIGINAL OF THE SABBATH. 825 from their ignorance of the being of any such law. That they ha…
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EXERCITATION III. OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. 1. Of the causes of the Sabbath. 2. God the absolute original cause of it— Distinction of divine laws into moral and positive. 3. Divine laws of a mixed nature; partly moral, partly positive. 4. Opinion of some that the law of the Sabbath was purely positive—Difficultie…
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SECT. 2-4.] OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. 329 be altered by his authority; the latter he hath fixed a perpetuity and unchangeableness unto, during the state and condition of his church in this world. The other sort of laws are perpetual and un- alterable in themselves, so far as they are of that sort,—that is, moral. …
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SECT. 5, 6.] OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. 331 be one day in seven, it will be a matter of no small difficulty to find out what is purely positive therein. 5. Others building on this foundation, that the dedication of some part of our time to the worship of God is a duty natural or moral, as required by the law of ou…
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Moreover, in this worship it is required, by the same law of our being, that we should serve God with all that we do receive from SECT. 7-9.] OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. 333 him. No man can think otherwise. For is there any thing that we have received from God that shall yield him no revenue of glory, whereof we ou…
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Moreover, in this worship it is required, by the same law of our being, that we should serve God with all that we do receive from a SECT. 7-9. ] OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. 333 him. No man can think otherwise. For is there any thing that we have received from God that shall yield him no revenue of glory, whereof w…
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First, He was made a rational creature, and thereby necessarily in a moral dependence on God: for being endowed with intellectual faculties, in an immortal soul, capable of eternal blessedness or © misery, able to know God, and to regard him as the first cause and last end of all, as the author of his being and object …
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"Egbey dARGAous, tres 0b Dlaen tocly ta’ wirois-— « They devour one another, because they have no right or law amongst them.’’ Hence the prophet complaining of force and violence amongst men, with a neglect of right, justice, and equity, says, “Men are as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no rul…
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13. The event of things, in the disagreement of the wisest men about the dictates of reason, utterly everts this opinion. The law of nature, whatever it be, must in itself be one, uniform, unalterable, the same in and unto all; for by these properties it differs from all other laws. But if it have no higher nor more no…
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15. By the law of nature, then, I intend, not a law which our nature gives unto all our actions, but a law given unto our nature, as a rule and measure unto our moral actions. It is “lex natura naturantis,” and not “nature naturate.” It respects the efficient cause of nature, and not the effects of it. And this respect…
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17. And whereas the innate light and principles of his own mind informed him that some time was to be set apart to the solemn wor- ship of God, as he was a rational creature made to give glory unto him, so the instruction he received by the works and rest of God, as made under a covenant, taught him that one day in sev…
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346 OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. [ EXERC, IIL servation do consequentially introduce the whole covenant of works, and are become debtors unto the whole law; for the works of God which preceded the seventh day precisely were those whereby man was initiated into and instructed in the covenant of works, and the day itse…
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22. Thus, then, were the foundations of the old world laid, and the covenant of man’s obedience established, when all the sons of God sang for joy, even in the first rest of God, and in the expression of it by the sanctification of a sacred rest, made to return unto him a revenue of glory in man’s observance of it. And…
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25. Moreover, men are to worship God in assemblies and socie- ties, such as he appoints, or such as by his providence they are cast into. This will not be denied, seeing it stands upon as good, yea, better evidence, than the associations of mankind for ends political unto their own good by government and order, which a…
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27. Further to manifest this, we may inquire what is necessary unto any duty of obedience towards God, to evince it to be a re- quisite of the law of our creation. And here our diligence is re- quired; for it must be said again expressly, what was before inti- mated, that it isa childish mistake to imagine that whateve…
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30. (3.) What all men are taught by the works of creation them- selves, their order, harmony, and mutual respect to each other, with reference unto their duty towards God and among themselves, is of the law of nature, although there be not an absolute distinct notion of it inbred in the mind discoverable. It is enough …
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with many observances of the gospel. We may, for example, in- stance in excommunication, according to the common received notion » ofit. There is a positive command in the gospel for the exercise of the sentence of it in the churches of Christ. But this hinders not but that it is natural for all societies of men to exc…
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SECT. 33, 34.] OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH, 357 influenced unto all their stated sacred or religious solemnities, both feasts and abstinences, by the remainders of an innate persuasion that such a rest was to be observed. Besides, we know that the present indications of nature, as corrupt, are no just rule and measur…
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SECT. 35-37. ] OF THE CAUSES OF THE SABBATH. 359 founded in the law of nature, and had its force from thence. We may then confidently assert, that what God requireth equally in all estates of the church, that is moral, and of an everlasting obligation unto us and all men. And this is the state of matters with the Sabb…
1,070 wordsSource & rights
Public-domain historical edition (1850–1870); OCR text from Internet Archive. OCR may contain scanning/transcription errors. Verify quotations against page images when precision matters.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.