CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

¹3. From this Covenant and agreement it is that Christs work is truly and properly obedience: for it may be asked, How could Christ be said to obey, seeing he could not but do Gods will? there was an inward necessity from the Hypostatical union, and as we do not say, the service that Angels and Saints do in heaven is properly obedience, for then that should be rewarded with a new heaven,² and so in infinitum, Why then can it be said, that Christs doing and suffering is obedience?³ To this we Answer, The Scripture doth expressly call it obedience, and such an obedience as hath a reward annexed to it: Hence John 10.8. Christ calls it the Commandment which he had received from his Father. And whereas it's said, Christ necessarily obeyed, and so it could not be otherwise, it's true, supposing his will to be a Mediator, then such was his holiness, that he could not but be faithful, yet this was not a natural necessity, as the fire burneth, but a necessity of immutability, arising from the perfection of his nature, neither is to sin, of the essence of liberty, but it's a defect, and doth accompany only a mutable liberty in what is good. Let it therefore be firmly believed, that all which Christ did,⁴ it was truly and properly obedience to the Law of God, Rom. 5.19. By the obedience of one, &c.

¹3. From this Covenant and agreement it is that Christs work is truly and properly obedience: for it may be asked, How could Christ be said to obey, seeing he could not but do Gods will? there was an inward necessity from the Hypostaticall union, and as we do not say, the service that Angels and Saints do in heaven is properly obedience, for then that should be rewarded with a new heaven,² and so in infinitum, Why then can it be said, that Christs doing and suffering is obedience?