A53721:188
A practical exposition on the 130th Psalm
A practical exposition on the 130th Psalm wherein the nature of the forgiveness of sin is declared, the truth and reality of it asserted, and the case of a soul distressed with the guilt of sin and relieved by a discovery of forgiveness with God is at large discoursed / by John Owen.
London: printed by Robert White for Nathaniel Ponder, 1669
AN EXPOSITION UPON PSALM CXXX. › General Scope of the whole Psalm. › Verse 3 › Section
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.
First, The principal efficient cause of it is the Holy Ghost. He it is who convinceth of sin, John 16. 8. He works indeed by means. He wrought it in David by the Ministry of Nathan; and he wrought it in Peter, by the look of Christ. But his work it is. No man can work it upon his own soul. It will not spring out of mens rational considerations. Though men may exercise their thoughts about such things, as one would think were enough to break the hearts of stones, yet if the Holy Ghost put not forth a peculiar efficacy of his own, this sense of sin will not be wrought or produced. As the waters at the Pool of Bethesda were not troubled, but when an Angel descended and moved them; no more will the Heart for sin, without a saving elapse of the Holy Ghost.
Secondly, It is a deep Apprehension of sin, and the evils of it. Sleight transient thoughts about them, amount not to the sense of which we speak. My sorrow, saith David, is continually before me, Psal. 38. 17. It pressed him always and greatly. Hence he compares this sense of sin wrought by the Holy Ghost, to arrows that stick in the flesh, v. 2. They pain sorely, and are always perplexing. Sin in this sense of it, lays hold on the soul, so that the sinner cannot look up, Psal. 40. 12. And it abides with him, making his sore run in the night without ceasing, Psal. 77. 2. and depriveth the soul of rest; my soul saith he, refused to be comforted. This Apprehension of sin, lies down, and rises with him in whom it is. Transient thoughts ⟨p. 57⟩attended with infrequent sighs and ejaculations, little become a returning soul. And
Secondly, It is a deep Apprehension of sin, and the evils of it. Sleight transient thoughts about them, amount not to the sense of which we speak. My sorrow, saith David, is continually before me,