The more robust hang their heads and droop. This is the true picture of the natural man destitute of Christ's righteousness. No grace can grow, no virtue can flourish in him. His heart is a parched up wilderness, in which nothing good can spring, until Christ's righteousness be rained upon it. If the fact be true in nature, this doctrine must be equally true in grace. If nothing can grow without the rain and dew of heaven, then nothing can grow without the righteousness of Christ: for he who cannot deceive uses this illustration to teach us the necessity of Christ's righteousness. Ye heavens, drop down the dew, says he, and let the skies pour out righteousness. Its original is from heaven, and it comes to us from thence to overthrow the pride of natural religion, and morality, and whatever ascribes to fallen man the will and the power of making himself righteous before God. That which makes us righteous is not in any faculty of nature, but is entirely the free gift of grace. And it is owing to men's vain glory and pride, which of all vices is most universally grafted in all mankind, that men know not themselves, and will not look up to heaven for that righteousness which they want. Hence it is, that we hear so much about natural and moral religion, which pay their court to the pride of our fallen nature, and hence coines that execrable position upon which they are built, viz. "That man has in himself the rule of right and obliga"tions to follow it." Is not this insulting God to his face? He says, that all men are gone out of the right way, the moralist gives him the lie, and says, No, I have still in myself the rule of right. What rule of right has he in himself, whom God has pronounced unrighteous and abominable altogether? Has the unrighteous man the rule of righteousness in himself? What sort of a rule is it by which an unrighteous man walks? And what obligations has he in himself to follow the rule of right, of whom, God says, there is none that doeth good, no not one? Can he have at the same time in himself obligations to follow the rule of right,

the thoughts of the imaginations of whose heart are only evil continually? It is impossible. Until Christ's righteousness be poured down upon him from heaven, he is blind and dark in the things of God, he has no rule of right, and he has obligations, and strong ones to follow the rule of wrong, but none to follow what is right. This is God's account of fallen man. How different is it from the flattering view in which our moral teachers love to paint and dress the fancied dignity of their nature. Pride, ignorant of itself, makes them believe that they are still great and noble beings; and they cannot bear the just character which our church has drawn of them in the conclusion of the homily on the misery of man. "Hitherto we have "heard what we are of ourselves, very sinful, wretch"ed and damnable. Again, we have heard, how that ❝of ourselves, and by ourselves we are not able either ❝to think a good thought, or work a good deed, so "that we can find in ourselves no hope of salvation, "but rather whatsoever maketh unto our destruction." We must have this humbling view of ourselves, if ever we see reason to seek righteousness from heaven. May God humble us all, and convince us deeply of our want of righteousness, that we may apply to him for it— knowing where it may be had, we shall apply for it properly, which leads me to consider,

3dly. How it is to be attained.

tion.

The place of its growth may point out unto us the true method of attaining it. It is of heavenly extracYou cannot ascend to heaven to bring it down. But may not your prayers and good works ascend to merit it? No, they cannot. Until Christ's righteousness be imputed to you by faith, your prayers are an abomination, and your fancied good works are nothing but sin. So says the scripture, "Whatsoever is not "of faith is sin." So says our church in her articles, "Works done before the grace of Christ, and the in❝spiration of his Spirit, are not pleasant to God, nei"ther do they make men meet to receive

grace

-Yea

"rather, for that they are not done, as God hath "willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt "not but they have the nature of sin." We doubt not but the best of them are only so many splendid sins. They may adorn a man's outward conversation, may gain him the honour of men, but in the eyes of God they are of no price: because they flow from an unregenerate heart. So that works done before we receive Christ's righteousness can do nothing towards meriting it, and works done after receiving it can add nothing to it. It is a free gift, therefore works done before cannot merit it. It waits for no qualification, no condition in the receiver, because it is given to the most unworthy, and is given to supply the want of all qualifications and conditions-it is given to the unrighteous and to the ungodly. And it wants no works done after receiving to add to it, because it is infinitely perfect. It is the righteousness of God, and will prove itself to be from God by its fruits, which fruits evidence us to be righteous, but do not make us so; for if they were to make us righteous, but in part, that would be going about to establish our own righteousness, and not submitting to the righteousness of God.

This is the doctrine of scripture. After the apostle had established it by various proofs, he thus sums them all up-Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law. Our church

has made the same conclusion in her 11th article, where she teaches, "That we are accounted righteous before "God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour "Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or "deservings. Wherefore that we are justified by faith

only, is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of "comfort, as more largely is expressed in the homily of "justification." In which homily we have these words: "Justification is not the office of man, but of God: "for man cannot make himself righteous by his own "works, neither in part nor in the whole, for that were "the greatest arrogancy and presumption of man, that

"antichrist could set up against God, to affirm, that a "man might, by his own works, take away and purge "his own sins, and so justify himself. But justifica❝tion is the office of God only, and is not a thing which 66 we render unto him, but which we receive of him; "not which we give to him, but which we take of him "by his free mercy, and by the only merits of his most "dearly beloved Son, our only redeemer, saviour, and "justifier, Jesus Christ."

In the following part of the same homily are these words:

"The very true meaning of this proposition or say"ing, We be justified by faith in Christ only, is this, "We put our faith in Christ, that we be justified by "him only, that we be justified by God's free mercy, "and the merits of our Saviour Christ only, and by 66 no virtue or good works of our own, that is in us, "or that we can be able, to have or to do, for to deserve "the same: Christ himself only being the cause meri"torious thereof."

If then all working and boasting be thus excluded, both by scripture and by the authority of our own church, how is this righteousness to be attained? The prophet teaches us in the text. We receive it as the

thirsty ground does the rain. Can we do any thing towards bringing down the gentle dew, or the fruitful rain of heaven? When the earth is parched and burnt up, can we command the clouds above to descend and saturate the thirsty soil? No. We are not equal to these things: any more than we can bring down the righteousness of Christ when we please. It is God's to give, ours to receive, as the dry ground does the rain. When God pours down from on high abundance of righteousness, what can we do but receive it, as a free gift, and be thankful? This is the main point, and much stress should be laid upon it. We all want righteousness alike, being all alike sinners. Christ has infinite and perfect righteousness to give, and when we desire it, we should be sure to seek it in the way where

in God has appointed to bestow it. Now he always bestows it freely-not upon those who merit it, for then it would not be free-Merit and free grace are opposites, but he bestows it upon the unrighteous and ungodly. He bestows it upon them who want it most, and who are sensible they can do the least to attain it. If then you desire righteousness, go as unrighteous and ungodly to the Lord Jesus, and he will clothe you with chis all-perfect righteousness. He requires no qualification but to acknowledge that you have none. If you are sensible of your wants, that is a prevailing motive enough with him to supply them. To find that you want righteousness, is the proper way and means to attain it-Hear what your God promises you" Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled"-Ye shall be filled with it, because ye hunger and thirst after it, not because ye deserve it, and have merited it by your good works, but because you are made sensible that you cannot deserve or merit it. This is the established method of God's acting" For he filleth the hungry with good things, "but the rich Pharisee he sendeth empty away-He filleth them who hunger and thirst after righteousness with the good things of grace, and with the best things of glory-but he sendeth him, who says, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, such a proud Pharisee he sendeth empty away.

It is exceedingly difficult to convince men that this is the gospel method of salvation. Their pride will not submit to it-no not to be saved-by the righteousness of God-they will try, even after they are convinced of the necessity of God's righteousness, to add something of their own to it. Their fond conceit of themselves wont let them see how entirely their nature is corrupted, and how corrupt their best works are. Vitious self-love raises a thousand objections against free justification through Christ's righteousness: but there has been one made by men of corrupt minds in every age, and which they are still making, though God himself