Secondly, To those glorious expressions of Gods not remembering of their sins any more, Jer. xxxi. 34 ; Isa. xliii. 25. ' And I will not remember thy sins : and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying. Know ye the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the gi-eatest of them, eaith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.' So the apostle, ' For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more,' Heb. viii. 12.
And again, the same apostle saith, * This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more,' Heb. x. 17. ^
The meaning is, their iniquities shall be quite forgotten: I will never mention them more, I will never take notice of them more, they shall never hear more of them from me. Though God hath an iron memory to remember the sins of the wicked, yet he hath no memory to remember the sins of the righteous.
Thirdly, His not bringing their sins into judgment doth most and best agree with those blessed expressions of his casting their sins into the depth of the sea, and of his casting them behindhis back. ' He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us, he will subdue our iniqui- ties, and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea,' Mic. A-ii. 19. Where sin is once pardoned, the remission stands never to be repealed.- Pardoned sin shall never come in account against the par- doned man before God any more ; for so much doth this borrowed speech import. If a thing were cast into a river, it might be brought up again ; or if it were cast upon the sea, it might be discerned and taken up again ; but when it is cast into the depths, the bottom of the sea, it can never be buoyed up again.
By the metaphor in the text, the Lord would have us to know that sins pardoned shall rise no more, they shall never be seen
^ That which Cicero said flatteringly of Caesar, is truly affirmed of God, Nihil ob- livisci solet prater injurias, ho forgetteth nothing but the wrongs that daily are done him by his.
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more, they shall never come on the account more. ^ He will so drown their sins that they shall never come up before him the second time.
And so much that other scripture imports, ' Behold, for peace I had great bitterness ; but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption ; for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back,' Isa. xxxviii. 17. These last words are a borrowed speech, taken from the manner of men, who are wont to cast behind their backs such things as they have no mind to see, regard, or remember. A gracious soul hath always his sins before his face, ' I acknowledge my transgres- sions, and my sin is ever before me,' Ps. li. 3, and therefore no wonder if the Lord cast them behind his back. The father soon forgets, and casts behind his back those faults that the child remembers, and hath always in his eyes ; so doth the Father of spirits.
Fourthly, His not bringing their sins into judgment doth best agree with that sioeet and choice expression of Gods pardoning the sins of his people.
' And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me ; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me,' Jer. xxxiii. 8. So in Micah, ' Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage ? ' — as though he would not see it, but wink at it — * he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy,' Mic. vii. 18. The Hebrew word — nose from nasa — that is here rendered pardoneth, signifies a taking away. When God pardons sin, he takes it sheer away ; that if it should be sought for, yet it could not be found, as the prophet speaks, Jer. 1. 20, ' In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found, for I will pardon them whom I reserve ; ' and these words, ' and passeth by,' in the afore-cited seventh of Micah and the ISth verse, according to the Hebrew Vignoher Gnal is, ' and passeth over,' ' God passeth over the transgression of his heritage,' that is, he takes no notice of it ; as a man in a deep muse, or as one that hath haste of business, seeth not things before him, his mind being busied about other matters, he neglects all to mind his business.
As David, when he saw in Mephibosheth the feature of his friend Jonathan, took no notice of his lameness, or any other defect or deformity ; so God, beholding in his people the glorious image of his Son, winks at all their faults and deformities, Isa. xl. 1, 2, which made Luther say, ' Do with me what thou wilt, since thou hast pardoned my sin;' and what is it to pardon sin, but not to mention sin?
Fifthhj, His not bringing their sins into the judgment of discussion and discovery doth best agree to those expressions of forgiving and covering, ' Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered,' Ps. xxxii. 1. In the original, it is in the plural, blessednesses ; so here is a plurality of blessings, a chain of pearls.
The like expression you have in the 85th Psahn and the 2d verse, ' Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast
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covered all their sin, Selah.' For the understanding of these scrip- tures aright, take notice that to cover is a metaphorical expression. Covering is such an action which is opposed to disclosure ; to be covered, it is to be so hid and closed as not to appear. i Some make the metaphor from filthy loathsome objects which are covered from our eyes as dead carcasses are buried under the ground ; some from garments, that are put upon us to cover our nakedness ; others from the Egyptians that were drowned in the Ked Sea, and so covered with water ; others from . a great gulf in the earth, that is filled up and covered with earth injected into it ; and others make it, in the last place, an allusive expression to the mercy-seat, over which was a covering.
Now all these metaphors in the general tend to shew this, that the Lord will not look, he will not see, he will not take notice of the sins he hath pardoned, to call them any more to a judicial account.