perfect enough, we are always thinking to add something of our own to it. Our fallen nature is ever tempting us to this absurdity, and the holy Spirit has not offered us a more forcible argument throughout the scripture, than the striking image in the text. Our guilty souls are compared to the dry withered ground, which has been long deprived of the fruitful rain and dew of heaven. When they were laying parched and burnt up with drought, it pleased God to command the heavens to distil the refreshing drops of dew, and the clouds to pour down their genial and enlivening showers, which the earth opening its mouth thankfully received. Now the righteousness of Christ is bestowed, as these sweet influences of heaven, are, freely -The earth has no hand, no merit in bringing down the dew or the rain, nor have we any in bringing down the righteousness of Christ. And the fruits, which the rain and dew enable the earth to bring forth, are produced by their prolific virtue, animated with the genial warmth of the sun for the earth is entirely passive and inactive, and only acts as it is acted upon. In like manner every good gift and grace is from above; they are the fruits of righteousness, which could never have grown in our barren hearts, unless Christ had sent his Spirit from on high to plant and to water them with the continual dew of his blessing. When he with-holds his influence, they inmediately wither and die. When he rains and shines upon them, then they flourish. This is the beautiful illustration in the text. Let the heavens drop down the righteousness of Christ from above, like the dew, and let the skies pour it down, like fruitful showers upon a thirsty ground"Let the earth open, let man open his heart, and then "they shall bring forth salvation;" they, i. e. the righteousness which is from above, poured down upon and received into man's heart, shall therein take root, and shall enable it to bring forth fruit abundantly, even present and eternal salvation. Salvation is not of man. It belongeth unto the Lord. It is one of the infinitely

perfect works of God: for there is no Saviour besides him-none that can deliver man from the enemies of his peace, but the same almighty Being who created the heavens and the earth, and who still supports them by the word of his power. And when he, by whom all things were made for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, then his name was called Jesus, because he was to save his people from their sins. Salvation on his part was finished, when having fully satisfied the demands of law and justice by his obedience and sufferings, and thereby wrought out an all-perfect righteousness for us, he ascended with great glory to his kingdom in heaven. But he did not leave us comfortless. The Holy Ghost the Comforter has now the conducting of the work of salvation. And when he humbles the sinner under a sense of his unrighteousness by nature and life, and enables him to wait at the throne of grace for a free pardon, when God the Father accepts him through the merits of his Son, and justifies him, then it is the office of the holy Spirit to bear his testimony with the sinner's spirit that he is a child of God. With the act of justification thus evidenced and applied he receives justifying faith, and is brought into a state of salvation; for the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. There is no salvation without righteousness, and it is of the Lord's free grace that he is received as righteous, through the righteousness of Christ imputed to him by faith. Christ's righteousness can be made ours only by imputation. As our sins were actually im puted to him, so his righteousness is actually imputed to us. The Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all, and therefore he was wounded for our transgressions, and was bruised for our iniquities. As he thus took our sins upon himself, so we by faith take his righteousness upon us, and by it are saved.

And when the heavens have dropt down righteousness, and the barren heart of sinful man has opened

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and received it, and with it salvation, then together with salvation, the prophet says, "righteousness shall spring up together." Until righteousness and salvation be in the soul, nothing good springs up: it pro duces no good works, any more than the earth brings forth fruit without the rain and dew of heaven, but when righteousness comes from above it manifests itself by its effects, as rain does. It does not remain in the man, as an inactive barren principle, but it is mighty in operation to enable him to bring forth fruit. As soon as it is poured down from on high, and received into the heart, it takes root and springs up with every fair blossom, and produces all the ripe fruits of holiness. He that before was dead to God, and to the things of God, having received justification to life, hereby glorifies his heavenly Father, that he bears much fruit. Righteousness changes him, as much as rain does the dry barren ground.. As it makes the wilderness and the solitary place to rejoice, and to blossom like the rose, to blossom abundantly, and to rejoice even with joy and singing, so does righteousness act in the barren wilderness of the sinner's heart, bringing with it the reviving streams of grace, and causing every sweet and holy temper to spring up. The grace, which flows from righteousness, renews and sanctifies the heart, makes it dead to sin, and alive unto God. This grace enables us to put off the old man of sin with his corrupt deeds, and to put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. This new man is created in Christ Jesus unto good works, and he produces them daily more in number, and of a richer kind-watered with the fruitful dew of heaven, they are continually springing up, and growing to the glory of God, and to the good of men, and they are continually administering that comfort to the justified soul, which the prophet has described in these sweet expressions "The work of righteousness shall be peace, " and the effect of righteousness quietness and assur"ance for ever," (Isaiah xxxii. 17.) If any man has

peace

with God it must arise from righteousness, from being justified by faith, and if any man has quietness and assurance for ever, it must be the effect of that righteousness which God has created. It must not arise from going about to establish our own righteous ness, but from submitting ourselves to the righteousness of God, of which he says in the last words of the text, "I the Lord have created it." I Jehovah, who created all things, have created this righteousness for the unrighteous and the ungodly. It is a new creation. And to create is my incommunicable attribute. You may as soon create a world out of nothing, as create that righteousness, with which sinners must be clothed, if ever they stand before me without spot of sin unto salvation. No righteousness but what is of my creation can present you unblameable and unreproveable in my sight. This is the immutable decree of Jehovah. He that cannot change in himself, nor alter the thing that is gone out of his mouth, has determined, that the righteousness by which we are accounted just before him, is not our own righteousness, but the righteousness of God. It is a righteousness which comes from heaven, and does not grow out of this earth. It is the free gift of God, and not attained by the work of man. It is a righteousness of God's own creation, an infinitely perfect and unspotted righteousness. When a man is able to create a planetary system, then he may create such a righteousness for himself. If the one would be the height of presumption and blasphemy, so is the other. That man never saw the corruption and plague of his own heart, who dreams of working out for himself a righteousness, in which he may appear faultless at the bar of justice. Sin and pride have so blinded his eyes, that he knows not himself. He sees not how corrupt his nature nor how corrupt his life is, nor yet how corrupt his very best duties are. He is also ignorant of the perfect nature of God's law, which is as holy as God is holy, and which will not receive sincere for uninterrupted obedience, but cuts off all claim to legal righte

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ousness for one single offence, even in thought; and he is not acquainted with the gospel method of salvation, which discovers to us, how sinners, corrupt in nature and life, and under condemnation, may be pardoned and justified by the righteousness of the God-man Jesus Christ, imputed unto them by faith. If scripture authority could convince, and scripture images could explain this important doctrine, one might hope the text would leave no doubt in any serious mind.

I shall endeavour to remove the common difficulties concerning the doctrine under my second general head, wherein I proposed to make some practical remarks upon the words of the text: but the time will not permit me to enlarge upon them at present. And therefore leaving them for the subject of another discourse, I would only observe how beautifully these great truths of the gospel are illustrated in the text.

First we read that the righteousness of Christ is an heavenly gift-Drop down ye heavens from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. And then the sinner has only to receive it as a free gift, he has no merit in bringing it down-Let the earth open and receive the heavenly gift. And when this righteousness is received by faith, then it brings the sinner into a state of salvation-and let them bring forth salvation. And when he is placed in this state, then he will bring forth the fruits of the Spirit in all goodness, and righ teousness, and truth-and let righteousness spring up together. I the Lord have created it to justify the unrighteous, that being made free from sin, and be come servants to God, they might have their fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.