A53721:459
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.
4. Let us therefore consider what is the true and proper end of this patience of God towards the world, enduring it in sin and wickedness, for so long a season, and suffering one Generation to be multiplied after another. Shall we think that God hath no other design, in all this Patience towards mankind in all Generations, but merely to suffer them all and every one without Exception, to sin against him, dishonour him, provoke ⟨p. 159⟩him, that so he may at length everlastingly destroy them all? It is confessed that this is the Consequent, the event of it with the most, through their perverse wickedness, with their love of sin and pleasure. But is this the design of God? his only design? hath he no other purpose but merely to forbear them a while in their folly, and then to avenge himself upon them? Is this his intendment not only towards those who are obstinate in their Darkness, Ignorance and Rebellion against him, whose damnation is just and sleepeth not; but also towards those whom he stirs up by his Grace to seek after a Remedy and Deliverance from the state of sin and death? God forbid; yea, such an apprehension would be contrary to all those notions of the infinite Wisdom and Goodness of God which are ingrafted upon our hearts by nature, and which all his works manifest and declare. Whatever therefore it be, this cannot be the design of God, in his patience towards the world. It cannot be, but that he must long since have cut off the whole race of mankind, if he had no other thoughts and purposes towards them.
4. Let us therefore consider what is the true and proper end of this patience of God towards the world, enduring it in sin and wickedness, for so long a season, and suffering one Generation to be multiplyed after another. Shall we think that God hath no other design, in all this Patience towards mankind in all Generations, but meerly to suffer them all and every one without Exception, to sin against him, dishonour him, provoke ⟨p. 159⟩him, that so he may at length everlastingly destroy them all? It is confessed that this is the Consequent, the event of it with the most, through their perverse wickedness, with their love of sin and pleasure. But is this the design of God? his only design? hath he no other purpose but meerly to forbear them a while in their folly, and then to avenge himself upon them? Is this his intendment not only towards those who are obstinate in their Darkness, Ignorance and Rebellion against him, whose damnation is just and sleepeth not; but also towards those whom he stirs up by his Grace to seek after a Remedy and Deliverance from the state of sin and death? God forbid; yea, such an apprehension would be contrary to all those notions of the infinite Wisdom and Goodness of God which are ingrafted upon our hearts by nature, and which all his works manifest and declare. Whatever therefore it be, this cannot be the design of God, in his patience towards the world. It cannot be, but that he must long since have cut off the whole race of mankind, if he had no other thoughts and purposes towards them.