A53721:792
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.
He chargeth God to be his Enemy, one that watched for all opportunities and advantages against him, that seemed to be glad at his halting, and take care that none of his sins should be missing when he intended to deal with him. Had this indeed been the Case with him, he had perished unto Eternity, as elsewhere he acknowledged. Of the other, we have an Instance in the Church, Lament. 3. 18. I said my strength and my hope is perished from the Lord. Present Grace in spiritual strength, and future expectation of mercy are all gone. And what is got by this? secret hard thoughts of God himself are hereby ingenerated; as v. 8. When I cry and shout, he shutteth out my Prayers, v. 44. thou hast covered thy self with a Cloud that our Prayers should not pass through. These things are grievous unto God to bear, and no way useful to the soul in its Condition. Yea they more and more unfit•• for every duty that may lye in a tendency to its relief & deliverance. So was it with Jonah Chap. 2. 4. I said I am cast out of thy sight; all is lost and gone with me, as good give over as Contend, I do but labour in vain; perish I must as one cast out of the sight of God. The like complaints fell also from Heman in his distress, Psal. 88. The General who heard one of his Soldiers cry out upon a fresh onset of the Enemy, Now we are undone, Now we are ruined, called him Traitor and told him it was not so, whilst he could wield his Sword. It is not for every private Soldier on every danger, to make a Judgement of the battle. That is the ⟨p. 316⟩work of the General. Jesus Christ is the Captain of our Salvation, he hath undertaken the leading and conduct of our souls through all our difficulties. Our Duty is to fight and contend; his Work is to take care of the Event; and to him it is to be committed. That then you make a due use of this Rule, keep always in your minds these two Considerations. 11. That it is not for you to take the Judgement of Christ out of his hand, and to be passing sentence upon your own souls. Judgement as to the state and condition of men is committed unto Christ, and to him it is to be left. This we were directed unto into our first Rule, and it is of special use in the case under consideration. Self-judging in reference unto sin, and the demerit of it, is our duty.