against any other class of sinners whatever? Be it remembered then, that the Gospel is " a doctrine according to godliness;" and that " the grace of God which bringeth salvation teaches us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live righteously, soberly, and godlily in this present world." And we now declare before all, that they who profess the Gospel in words, and deny it in their works, will have a less tolerable portion in the day of judgment than Tyre and Sidon, or even Sodom and Gomorrha.]
Rom. iv. 7, 8. Blessed are they ivhose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sina.
TO enter into the real scope of these words, it will be proper to compare them with the Psalm from whence they are cited. In themselves, they are simple, and easy to be understood : but taken in their connexion with the context before us, and with the interpretation put upon them by the Apostle, they are involved in considerable difficulty : and more especially, when we observe the peculiar omission of the closing words of David, which seem necessary to a just exhibition of his mind, and a full comprehen- sion of his meaning, we are rather surprised at the way in which they are here referred to, and at the obscurity that is thrown around them. On com- paring the two passages together, we find the Apostle, in appearance at least, adding to David's words what he never distinctly uttered, and omitting a very essen-
a The Author's uniform rule has been, where passages in the Old Testament are cited in the New Testament (which in some instances occurs several times), to treat them only once. Here he deviates from his accustomed plan, because, in his Discourse on Ps. xxxii. 1 — 6. his object was to trace David's experience as there delineated : whereas the two first verses of that Psalm which are here cited, being of singular importance in relation to Christian experience in general, he treats them here again : and, if this Discourse be made use of by any one, the two first verses of Ps. xxxii. may be adopted as the text, in preference to them as here cited by the Apostle. In that case, however, the Exordium must be a little changed.