Bellarmine on Psalm 31: verses 1 & 2 - Part V

Today we continue St Robert Bellarmine's commentaries on Psalm 31, the second in the series of Penitential Psalms.

The Latin is reproduced courtesy of the Digital Collection site  - UANL and is accompanied by my fairly literal translation. The Scripture excerpts (Douay Rheims/Vulgate) are taken from the DRBO site but the verse numbering follows that of Bellarmine’s Latin text.

Where footnotes are included, the text follows each verse.

Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

Beati quorum remissae sunt iniquitates, et quorum tecta sunt peccata.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord hath not imputed sin, and in whose spirit there is no guile.

Beatus vir cui non imputavit Dominus peccatum, nec est in spiritu ejus dolus.

Who can believe that God, being a just judge and someone who does not have regard to persons, would not impute sin but justice at the very time when a man is still focused on sordid sin and who, according to the preferred understanding of the Lutherans, sins no matter what he does. St Justin Martyr correctly says in his dialogue cum Tryphone, refuting an error similar to the Lutherans’ error: “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord hath not imputed sin,” referring, that is, to the penitent whose sins God has forgiven, not as you, deceiving in your preaching, and others who assert similar errors to yours, maintain when saying that even if men were sinners, God understands this and does not impute sin to them. What we have said about the non-imputation of sin may be shown to apply to he imputation of justice, at the opposite end of the spectrum. For justice is not imputed in Scripture  when a man who is not just is imputed to be just; but a man is to be reputed just only by the divine judgement which is infallible on the question of whether a man is truly just. This is certainly shown in Genesis xv: “ Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice,”[1] which is cited by St Paul in Romans iv and by the Apostle James (see chapter ii); it signifies nothing more than that act of believing was a work of justice in Abraham and was as such ascribed to him by God. Again, it says in Psalm cv: “Then Phinees stood up, and pacified him: and the slaughter ceased. And it was reputed to him unto justice, to generation and generation for evermore.”[2] What does this signify other than that the zeal of Phinees, by which he slaughtered certain wicked men, was a most just act and held to be such by God; so that in consequence He conferred the priesthood on his sons and descendants for a very long time.

[1] Abram believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice. Credidit Abram Deo, et reputatum est illi ad justitiam. [Gen. xv. 6]

[2] Then Phinees stood up, and pacified him: and the slaughter ceased. Et stetit Phinees, et placavit, et cessavit quassatio. And it was reputed to him unto justice, to generation and generation for evermore. Et reputatum est ei in justitiam, in generationem et generationem usque in sempiternum. [Ps. cv. 30,31]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.