A53721:663
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.
If any shall say, that they thank God, they are no such Publicans as those mentioned; they are no drunkards, no swearers, no unclean persons, nor the like, so that they are not concerned in this consideration. Their lives and their duties give another account of them: then yet consider further,
That the Pharisees were all that you say of your selves; and yet the greatest despisers of forgiveness that ever were in the world, ⟨p. 241⟩and that because they hated the light, on this account, that their deeds were evil. And for your duties you mention, what I pray is the root and spring of them? are they influenced from this Faith of forgiveness you boast of or no? May it not be feared that it is utterly otherwise? you do not perform them because you love the Gospel, but because you fear the Law. If the truth were known, I doubt it would appear, that you get nothing by your believing of pardon, but an encouragement unto sin. Your Goodness such as it is, springs from another root. It may be also that you ward your selves by it against the strokes of Conscience, or the guilt of particular sins, this is as bad as the other. It is as good be encouraged unto sin, to commit it, as be encouraged under sin, so as to be kept from humiliation for it. None under Heaven are more remote from the belief of Grace and Pardon, than such persons are: All their Righteousness is from the Law, and their Sin in a great measure from the Gospel.
8. They that believe forgiveness in a due manner, believe it for the Ends and Purposes for which it is revealed of God. This will further improve and carry on the former consideration. If God reveals any thing for one end and purpose, and men use it quite unto another; they do not receive the Word of God, nor believe the thing revealed, but steal the Word and delude their own souls.