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

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.

Firstly, if someone has truly not sinned, he therefore owes nothing, and in this way is to be understood what we have already cited from the Book of Wisdom: “ Who shall accuse thee, if the nations perish, which thou hast made?” For even if all men were to perish, they would not perish through the fault of God and so this could not be imputed to God. And in the same way above we expounded David’s words:  “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord hath not imputed sin,” that is, he who has done nothing evil of his own will, is on this account neither a criminal nor a sinner before God. Secondly, if sin has been forgiven and condoned, there is nothing to be imputed, and this is what is understood in all the sentences cited above; and thus do many interpret this text of the Psalm: “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord hath not imputed sin,” that is, blessed is the man whom God does not wish to call to account for his sin, for He has already forgiven it; now, we do not reject this exposition but we judge the previous one to be superior, because it fits better with the following words: “ In whose spirit there is no guile.” 

The third mode of imputation that the heretics teach is that sin is not imputed, even if it stays in the soul of the sinner, but is instead not considered a sin by God; but this cannot be proved by any example in Scripture and can in fact be disproved because of what it says in various places, and especially in Psalm V: “ Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity: Thou wilt destroy all that speak a lie;”[1] for if God hates and wants to destroy the wicked, assuredly sin is imputed to them while iniquity remains in them.

[1] Thou hatest all the workers of iniquity: Thou wilt destroy all that speak a lie. The bloody and the deceitful man the Lord will abhor. Odisti omnes qui operantur iniquitatem; perdes omnes qui loquuntur mendacium. Virum sanguinum et dolosum abominabitur Dominus. [Ps. v. 7]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.