the sun. Now the sun shines with equal brightness when it is behind a cloud, or when this part of the globe is left in midnight darkness ; only it is not visible to us till it actually appears above the horizon, or till the clouds that veil it from our eyes are dissipated. So the love of God has shone from all eternity ; " He has loved us," says the prophet, " with an everlasting love." But this love was behind a cloud till our Lord had finished his course upon earth ; and then it appeared in all its splendour : so that now we can trace redemption to its proper source ; and instead of imagining, as some have done, that the Father was filled with wrath, and needed to be pacified by the Son, we view even Christ himself as the Father's gift, and ascribe every blessing to its proper cause, the love of God.
It is true, however, that much was necessary to be done, before this love of God could shed forth its beams upon us. We proceed therefore to set before you,
II. The procuring cause of our redemption —
This in my text is set forth both negatively and positively : it was not any works of righteousness which we have done, but it was Jesus Christ : they who are saved will no doubt abound in works of righteousness; but these works are not the procuring cause of our redemption. What good works did Adam perform before God promised to send him a Saviour ? What good works can any man do, before God endues him with his Holy Spirit ? Or even after our conversion, what works of ours can challenge so glorious a reward ? Yea, when do we perform any work whatever, which is not miserably defective, and which does not need the mercy of God to pardon it ? Every one who knows the spirituality of God's law, and the defects that are in our best performances, will say with the Apostle Paul, " I desire to be found, not having my own righteousness, but the righteous- ness which is of God by faith in Christ." We may well acknowledge, therefore, as in the text, that