A49255:233
The penitent pardoned a treatise wherein is handled the duty of confession of sin…
The penitent pardoned a treatise wherein is handled the duty of confession of sin and the privilege of the pardon of sin : together with a discourse of Christs ascension into heaven and of his coming again from heaven : wherein the opinion of the Chiliasts is considered and solidly confuted / being the sum and substance of several sermons preached by that faithful servant of Christ, Mr. Christopher Love ...The penitent pardoned a treatise wherein is handled the duty of confession of sin and the priviledge of the pardon of sin : together with a discourse of Christs ascension into heaven and of his coming again from heaven : wherein the opinion of the Chiliasts is considered and solidly confuted / being the sum and substance of several sermons preached by that faithful servant of Christ, Mr. Christopher Love ...
London: printed for John Rothwell, 1657
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Interpreters do give this sense of that promise: you read of two things, a white Stone, and a new name written in that stone; the white stone it is an expression borrowed from the practice of the Gentiles, who in their Judicature did use a white stone: If a malefactor was condemned, and had the sentence of death past upon him, there was given him a black stone in token of condemnation;1 but if a man had a white stone given him it was a token of absolution or pardon. Hence the Heathens named these stones [Greek or Hebrew] acquitting or condemning stones. And so the Poet, In ancient times with stones they did, In judgement seat proceed. By black the guilty were condemned, The just by white were freed.
Interpreters doe give this sense of that promise: you read of two things, a white Stone, and a new name written in that stone; the white stone it is an expression borrowed from the practice of the Gentiles, who in their Judicature did use a white stone: If a malefactour was condemned, and had the sentence of death past upon him, there was given him a black stone in token of condemnation;1 but if a man had a white stone given him it was a token of absolution or pardon. Hence the Heathens named these stones 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 acquitting or condemning stones. And so the Poet, In antient times with stones they did, In judgement seat proceed. By black the guilty were condemn'd, The just by white were freed.
- 1Ovid Metamorph. lib. 15.
In allusion to this,1 Christ doth here promise pardon of sin, which is meant by the stone; but what must be written on this white stone? there must be written on this white stone, a new Name, that is a renovation, the renewing of the heart: so that if so be the nature of a man be not renewed, the sin of a man is not pardoned; therefore oe not boast of having your white stone, if there be blank on that stone, if there be nothing written