ii 72 FoacivENuss OF SIN. implies more than pardon. The word is constantly ap- plied to sin, and expresses every thing that concurs to its pardon or remission. It implies the mind and will of pardoning, or God's gracious readiness to forgive. " Thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive ;" that is, benign and meek, or sparing and propitious. It also regards the act of par. cloning, or actual forgiveness itself. " Who forgiveth all thine iniquities ;" actually discharges thee of them. This is the word God uses in the covenant, in that great promise of grace and pardon, Jer. 31 : 34. It is war- rantable for us, yea, necessary, to take the word in the utmost extent of its signification and use. It is a word of favor, and requires an interpretation tending towards the enlargement of it. We see it may be rendered pro- pitiation, or grace; and also pardon; and may denote these three things : The gracious, tender, merciful heart and will of God, who is the God of pardons and forgiveness. A respect unto Jesus Christ, the only propitiation for sin, as he is expressly called, Rom. 3 : 25 ; 1 John, 2 : 2, mediating between the gracious heart of God and the actual pardon of sinners : all forgiveness is founded ou propitiation. It also denotes condonation, or forgiveness, as we are made partakers of it : comprising it both actively, as it is an act of grace in God; and passively, as terminated in our souls, with the deliverance that attends it. In this sense, as it looks downwards, and in its effects re- spects us, it is of mere grace; and as it looks upwards to its, causes, and respects the Lord Christ, it is from propitiation, or atonement, as this is that pardon which is administered in the covenant of grace. The import of these words in their connection in this psalm, and their relation to the state of the soul here mentioned, seems to be this :
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