The truly blessed man, or, The way to be happy here, and forever being…

THE Pardoned Man is one in whose Spirit there is no Guile. It was observed in opening of the Text, that these last words of it, are put for the evidence of such a person, whose happiness is described from his pardoned state: or a Characteristical note by which a man may know himself to be such an one. Pardon of sin, in a Theological sense, properly refers to the great benefit of Justification: for though, among men• is one thing to Justify a person, and another thing to pardon him: a man is then only Justified at a Civil Bar, when he is legally found innocent, or not Guilty of the Crime he was Indicted for; whereas a pardon supposeth the man to have been found Guilty, and a Sentence accordingly to have past upon him to suffer according to the Law; and then the supreme power doth, upon prerogative, acquit him from the Sentence, and set him at liberty, without any satisfaction given for the Crime: whereas God, in pardoning the Sinner, looks upon him in his Surety, at whose hands his Justice hath received Satisfaction, and accordingly acquits him Judicially, as, 2 Cor. 5. 21. And so the Justice, as well as the Mercy of God doth herein display it self, 1 Joh. 1. 9. It is true, if we look upon the man in