TO THE

REV. DR. RANDOLPH,

VICE-CHANCELLOR

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD,

AND

PRESIDENT OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE.

WHEN I delivered these discourses, I had no design to make them public; but I have been since compelled to it. I understand they gave great offence, especially to you, and I was in consequence thereof refused the university pulpit. In justice, not to myself, for I desire to be out of the question, but to the great doctrine here treated of, namely, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus, as the only ground of our acceptance and justification before God the Father, I have sent to the press what was delivered from the pulpit. I leave the friends of our church to judge, whether there be any thing herein advanced contrary to scripture, and to the doctrines of the reformation. If not, I am safe. If there be, you are bound to make it appear. You have a good pen, and you have great

leisure. Make use of them; and I hope and pray you may use them for your good and

mine.

I am, with my constant and hearty prayers for the university's prosperity,

Mr. Vice-Chancellor,

Your humble Servant in Christ,

WILLIAM ROMAINE.

THE

LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

SERMON I.

ISAIAH xlv. 8.

Drop down ye heavens from above, and let the skies pour domn righteousness; let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together. I the Lord have created it.

WHILE man is in the body he must receive his instruction from the bodily senses. He cannot of himself form an idea of any thing spiritual, but as it is compared to, and illustrated by, some material object. And this method of instruction God has followed in the scripture, both in the language, and in the composition. The language is entirely suited to man in his present state, every Hebrew word signifying first some material object, and thereby conveying the idea of some correspondent spiritual object. And the scripture-composition abounds with images and illustrations of divine things taken from nature. The evangelical prophet is a remarkable instance of this kind of writing. He represents the various parts of the kingdom of grace under their expressive and familiar pictures in nature. He sets spiritual things as it were before our eyes, under the images which God had established in his created works, in order to bring them down to our understandings. And every illustration of this kind,

being God's own application of natural things, must be considered as infallible truth. The spiritual application is as certain as the outward fact from which it is taken. God would not use the book of nature to illustrate the book of grace, unless the illustration was just and instructive: for it is not consistent with his perfections to propose to his creatures for truth, what would deceive, or to reveal, what did not tend to edify them.

In this light, let us consider the beautiful image in the text. God is here recommending to us the fundamental doctrine of the gospel. He proposes it in clear and plain terms; and to convince our understandings, and to win our affections, he sets it before our eyes under a very affecting picture. He represents the doctrine under one of the most common and familiar occurrences in nature. Thither he sends us for instruction in righteousness-And may the Spirit of the Lord enable every one of you to apply the instruction for the good of your souls, while I am

First, Opening the true sense and meaning of the words. And then,

Secondly, Making some practical remarks upon them. And first, The words are a scripture-image and application of a well-known fact in nature. The earth is. supposed to be deprived of the rain of heaven. It has no refreshing showers, no enlivening dew to saturate the thirsty soil; and for want of their fruitful influence the earth is entirely barren. It produces nothing either for use or ornament. While it was laying in this state, God gave the word, and the clouds descended, and the earth opened to receive the fruitful drops of rain, which they poured down, and by their prolific virtue such effects. followed, as the Psalmist has beautifully described in these words, "He watereth the hills from above, where"by the earth is filled with the fruit of thy works. "He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb "for the service of man, that he may bring forth food "out of the earth, and wine that maketh glad the heart.

66

"of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread "which strengtheneth man's heart. The high trees are "satisfied, even the cedars of Libanus, which he hath planted." These are the certain consequences of warm and gentle showers. When they are animated with the light of the sun in the spring season of the year, they never fail to bring forth rich products of the earth, from the lowest herb to the highest cedar on Libanus. Under this plain and familiar image God intends to teach us the most important truth of Christianity. Because it is the most necessary to be believed, he has therefore made it the most easy to be understood. The principal point of view in which he would' have us to consider the image in the text is this: The earth without rain lays barren and desolate, the rain descends from heaven, and is dropped down from the elouds, and when it comes in plentiful showers, and there is clear shining after it, then it always produces fruitfulness. Hither the holy Spirit sends us for instruction in righteousness-Righteousness is to the soul, what the rain and dew are to the thirsty ground. The heavens were to drop this righteousness from above, and the skies were to pour it down, while man's heart being opened thankfully receives the heavenly gift. He has no hand, no merit in procuring the gift, but has only to accept it, as the dry parched ground does the enlivening drops of rain, which change its withered barren face into pleasing verdure and rich fruitfulness. In order to understand clearly what the all-wise Spirit would teach us under this sweet image, we should have a perfect idea of the word righteousness, upon which the whole stress of the passage turns. In the Old: Testament it is a mercantile term, taken from the method of trading in the early ages of the world, when business was carried on, and money paid and received by weight. The fair trader kept an even balance in paying and receiving, therefore he was a just or righteous man. And hence justice, which is the emblem of this fair trading, is always painted with an