A53721:758
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.
RULE I. 1Be not Judges of your own Condition, but let Christ judge. You are invited to take the comfort of this Gospel Truth, That there is Forgiveness with God. You say not for you; so said Jacob; My way is hid from the Lord, Isa. 40. 27. and Zion said so too, chap. 49. 14. The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. But did they make a right Judgement of themselves? We find in those places that God was otherwise minded. This false Judgement made by Souls in their entanglements, of their own Condition, is oft-times a most unconquerable hinderance unto the bettering of it. They fill themselves with thoughts of their own about it, and on them they dwell, instead of looking out after a Remedy. Misgiving thoughts of their distempers, are commonly a great part of some mens sickness. Many diseases are apt to cloud the thoughts, and to cause misapprehensions concerning their own nature, and danger. And these delusions are a real part of the persons sickness. Nature is no less impaired and weakened by them, the Efficacy of Remedies no less obstructed, than by any other real distemper. In such cases we persuade men to acquiesce in the Judgement of their skilful Physician, not always to be wasting themselves in and by their own tainted imaginations, and so despond upon their own mistakes; but to rest in what is informed them by him, who is acquainted with the causes and tendency of their indisposition better than themselves. It is oft-times one part of the Souls depths, to have false apprehensions of its Condition. Sin is a madness; Eccles. 9. 3. so far as any one is under the power of it, he is under the power of madness. Madness doth not sooner, nor ⟨p. 278⟩more effectually discover it self in any way or thing, than in possessing them in whom it is, with strange conceits and apprehensions of themselves. So doth this madness of sin, according unto its degrees, and prevalency. Hence some cry Peace, peace, when sudden destruction is at hand, 1 Thess. 5. 3. It is that madness, under whose power they are, which gives them such groundless Imaginations of themselves and their own Condition. And some say they are lost for ever, when God is with them. Do you then your duty, and let Christ judge of your state. Your Concernment is too great, to make it a reasonable demand, to commit the Judgement of your condition to any other.