mere forgiveness : forgiveness exempts from punishment ; but an imputation of the Redeemer's righteousness to us insures to us an eternal great reward ''. O how happy must that man be who is clothed in the unspotted robe of Christ's righteousness, and can, on the footing of that righteousness, claim all the glory and felicity of heaven ! He may look forward to death and judgment, not only without fear but with holy confidence and joy, assured, that in God's sight he stands " without spot or blemish." Who, we would ask, can be happy, like the man who has been begotten to a lively hope, that in and through Christ, there is reserved for him an incorruptible, and undefiled, and never-fading inheritance in heaven ?]
3. As a renovation of soul consequent on recon- ciliation with God —
[Though sin is pardoned, and righteousness is imputed, purely through the free grace of God to the chief of sinners, without any good works already performed by them*=, yet no pardoned sinner is left in an unholy state : on the contrary, he is "renewed in the spirit of his mind;" " a new heart is given unto him ; " and he is made " an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." If this were not the case, pardon itself could not make him happy. A soul under the dominion of sin could not be happy, even if it were in heaven : sin would eat his vitals, as doth a canker. It is the restoration of the soul to the Divine image that constitutes a very principal part of its felicity : for when we are " holy, as God is holy," then are we happy, as God is happy. We must be careful however not to confound those different sources of happiness. St. Paul was so jealous on this head, that when quoting the words of our text, he omitted these at the close of it, lest any one should imagine that our sanctification were in any respect the ground of our justification before God. Sanctification is the fruit and con- sequence of our having received a justifying righteousness: and, though it in no respect procures our reconciliation with God in the first instance, (for that is procured solely through faith in Christ,) yet it is as inseparably connected with justi- fying faith, as good fruit is with a good tree : nor can the soul be happy in a sense of the Divine favour, till it has this evi- dence of its acceptance with him.]
But David proceeds to inform us,
II. How he himself attained unto it —
For a long time he was altogether destitute of it —
" 2 Cor. V. 21.
'^ Mark the expressions, " the ungodly," " without works," Rom. iv. 5, 6.