A53721:420
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.
Indeed saith of forgiveness, as hath been showed, hath many degrees. There is of them, that which is indispensably necessary to render Repentance acceptable. What it is in particular, I do not dispute. It is not an Assurance of the Acceptance of our persons in general. It is not that the particular sin wherewith it may be, the soul is perplexed, is forgiven. A general, so it be a Gospel discovery that there is forgiveness in God, will suffice. The Church expresseth it, Hos. 14. 3. In thee the fatherless findeth mercy, and Joel 2. 14. Who knows but he will return and repent. I have this ground, saith the soul; God is in himself gracious and merciful; the fatherless, the destitute and helpless that come to him by Christ, find mercy in him. None in Heaven and earth can evince but that he may return to me also. Now let a mans convictions be never so great, sharp, wounding, his sorrow never so abundant, overflowing, abiding, his confession never so full, free or open, if this one thing be wanting, all is nothing but what tends to death.
Indeed saith of forgiveness, as hath been shewed, hath many degrees. There is of them, that which is indispensibly necessary to render Repentance acceptable. What it is in particular, I do not dispute. It is not an Assurance of the Acceptance of our persons in general. It is not that the particular sin wherewith it may be, the soul is perplexed, is forgiven. A general, so it be a Gospel discovery that there is forgiveness in God, will suffice. The Church expresseth it, Hos. 14. 3. In thee the fatherless findeth mercy, and Joel 2. 14. Who knows but he will return and repent. I have this ground, saith the soul; God is in himself gracious and merciful; the fatherless, the destitute and helpless that come to him by Christ, find mercy in him. None in Heaven and earth can evince but that he may return to me also. Now let a mans convictions be never so great, sharp, wounding, his sorrow never so abundant, overflowing, abiding, his confession never so full, free or open, if this one thing be wanting, all is nothing but what tends to death.