A53721:303
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 4 › 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.
that is, he will deal with sinners according to the Goodness of his own Gracious Nature. So Hos. 11. 9. I will not execute the fierceness of mine Anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God, and not Man. Were there no more Mercy, Grace, Compassion, to be showed in this case, than it is possible should be treasured up in the heart of a man, it would be impossible that Ephraim should be spared; But saith ⟨p. 98⟩he, I am God and not Man; Consider the infinite largeness, bounty, and goodness of the heart of God, and there is yet hope. When a sinner is in good earnest seeking after forgiveness, there is nothing he is more solicitous about than the heart of God towards him; nothing that he more labours to have a discovery of; There is nothing that Sin and Satan labour more to hide from him; This he rolls in his mind, and exercises his thoughts about; and if ever that voice of God, Isa. 27. 4. Fury is not in me, sound in his heart, he is relieved from his great distresses. And the fear of our hearts in this matter, our Saviour seems to intend the prevention or a removal of, John 16. 26, 27. I say not that I will pray the Father for you, for the Father himself loveth you. They had good thoughts of the tender heart and care of Christ himself, the Mediator, towards them; but what is the heart of the Father, what acceptance shall they find with him? Will Christ pray that they may find favour with him? Why, saith he, as to the Love of his heart there is no need of it; for the Father himself loveth you. If this then belongeth to forgiveness, as who ever hath sought for it, knoweth that it doth, it is certainly no common discovery to have it revealed unto us.
that is, he will deal with sinners according to the Goodness of his own Gracious Nature. So Hos. 11. 9. I will not execute the fierceness of mine Anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God, and not Man. Were there no more Mercy, Grace, Compassion, to be shewed in this case, than it is possible should be treasured up in the heart of a man, it would be impossible that Ephraim should be spared; But saith