tial part of what he did utter. But the Apostle spake by inspiration of God ; and if we attentively consider his statement, we shall not only find it unexception- able, but shall feel greatly indebted to him for throwing much additional light upon a most inter- esting and important passage of Holy Writ.
To unfold these words so that they may be clearly and fully understood, I will,
I. Explain their true import —
This will appear if we consider David's words,
1. According to the plain meaning of the terms themselves —
[" Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered." It is an acknowledged truth, that sin, by whomsoever committed, involves the soul in guilt, and subjects it to God's heavy displeasure. And how terrible his wrath is, no words can express, no imagination can conceive. But, if a man have attained the forgiveness of his sins, his obligation to punishment is cancelled, and he is liberated from all the miseries to which, without such forgiveness, he must have been subjected to all eternity. Now who that con- templates this great deliverance, must not congratulate the man on his escape? Who must not account him " blessed?" To have the punishment due to his offences mitigated, or to have them shortened to the space of ten thousand years, would be a state of comparative blessedness ; but to have it altogether remitted, must surely entitle the man to conceive of himself as truly " blessed."]
2. According to the construction put upon them by St. Paul —
[St. Paul says, that David in these words " described the blessedness of the man, to whom God imputeth righteousness without worksV Now this does not appear in the words themselves, nor should we ever have known that such an idea was comprehended in them, if we had not been assured of it by God himself, that is, by an Apostle writing under his imme- diate inspiration. But, being so instructed, we know for certain that this construction of the words is unquestionably correct.
The fact is, that no one ever has his sins pardoned without having at the same time the righteousness of Christ imputed to him for his acceptance before God. We sometimes distin-
b ver. 6.