A53721:626
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.
First, That this forgiveness that is with God, is such as becomes him, such as is suitable to his Greatness, Goodness, and all other Excellencies of his Nature, such as that therein he will be known to be God. What he says concerning some of the works of his Providence, be still and know that I am God; may be much more said concerning this great Effect of his Grace: Still your souls, and know that he is God. It is not like that narrow, difficult, halving and manacled forgiveness that is found amongst men, when any such thing is found amongst them. But it is full, free, boundless, bottomless, absolute, such as becomes his Nature and Excellencies. It is in a word, forgiveness that is with God, and by the exercise whereof he will be known so to be. And hence,
First, That this forgiveness that is with God, is such as becomes him, such as is suitable to his Greatness, Goodness, and all other Excellencies of his Nature, such as that therein he will be known to be God. What he sayes concerning some of the works of his Providence, be still and know that I am God; may be much more said concerning this great Effect of his Grace: Still your souls, and know that he is God. It is not like that narrow, difficult, halving and manacled forgiveness that is found amongst men, when any such thing is found amongst them. But it is full, free, boundless, bottomless, absolute, such as becomes his Nature and Excellencies. It is in a word, forgiveness that is with God, and by the exercise whereofhe will be known so to be. And hence,
1. God himself doth really separate and distinguish his forgiveness, from any thing that our thoughts and imaginations can reach unto, and that because it is his, and like himself. It is an object for faith alone; which can rest in that, which it cannot comprehend. It is never safer, than when it is as it were overwhelmed with infiniteness. But set mere rational thoughts, or the imaginations of our minds at work about ⟨p. 223⟩such things, and they fall unconceivably short of them. They can neither conceive of them aright, nor use them unto their proper end and purpose. Were not forgiveness in God somewhat beyond what men could imagine, no flesh could be saved. This himself expresseth,