A53721:784
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.
These things I say then, are not to be judged of by spiritual sense, but we are to live by faith about them. And no soul ought to conclude, that because it hath not the one, it hath not the other; that because it hath not Joy and Peace, it hath no interest in pardon and forgiveness. ⟨p. 307⟩RULE VII. The seventh Rule. Mix not foundation and building work together. The eighth spend no time in heartless complaints, &c. Mix not too much foundation and building work together. Our foundation in dealing with God is Christ alone, mere Grace and Pardon in him. 1Our Building is in and by Holiness and Obedience, as the fruits of that faith by which we have received the Atonement. And great mistakes there are in this matter which bring great entanglements on the souls of men. Some are all their days laying of the foundation, and are never able to build upon it unto any comfort to themselves, or usefulness unto others. And the Reason is, because they will be mixing with the foundation; stones that are fit only for the following building. They will be bringing their Obedience, duties, mortification of sin, and the like, unto the foundation. These are precious stones to build with; but unmeet to be first laid to bear upon them the whole weight of the building. The foundation is to be laid, as was said, in mere Grace, Mercy, Pardon in the blood of Christ. This the soul is to accept of, and to rest in merely as it is Grace, without the consideration of any thing in its self, but that it is sinful and obnoxious unto ruin: This it finds a difficulty in, and would gladly have something of its own to mix with it: It cannot tell how to fix these foundation stones without some cement of its own endeavours and duty. And because these things will not mix, they spend a fruitless labour about it all their days. But if the foundation be of Grace, it is not at all of works; for otherwise grace is no more grace. If any thing of our own be mixed with Grace in this matter, it utterly destroys the nature of Grace; which if it be not alone, it is not at all. But doth not this tend to licentiousness? doth not this render Obedience, Holiness, Duties, Mortification of sin, and good works, needless? God forbid; yea this is the only way to order them aright unto the glory of God. Have we nothing ⟨p. 308⟩to do but to lay the foundation?