Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ

1. WHAT he did, what Obedience he yielded unto the Law of God, in the Discharge of his Office (with respect whereunto he said, Lo, I come to do thy Will, O God, yea; thy Law is in my Heart) it was all on his own free choice or Election, and was resolved thereinto alone. It is our Duty to endeavour after Freedom, Willingness, and Cheerfulness in all our Obedience. Obedience hath its formal Nature from our Wills. So much as there is of our Wills, in what we do towards God, so much there is of Obedience, and no more. Howbeit, we are antecedently unto all Acts of our own Wills obliged unto all that is called Obedience. From the very Constitution of our Natures, we are necessarily ⟨p. 84⟩subject unto the Law of God. All that is left unto us, is a voluntary Compliance with unavoidable Commands; with him it was not so. An Act of his own Will and Choice preceded all Obligation as unto Obedience. He obeyed because he would, before because he ought. He said, Lo, I come to do thy Will, O God, before he was obliged to do that Will. By his own Choice, and that in an Act of Infinite Condescension and Love, as we have showed, he was made of a woman, and thereby made under the Law. In his Divine Person he was Lord of the Law, above it, no more obnoxious unto its Commands, than its Curse. Neither was he afterwards in himself on his own Account unobnoxious unto its Curse, merely because he was Innocent, but also because he was every way above the Law it self, and all its force.

1. WHAT he did, what Obedience he yielded unto the Law of God, in the Discharge of his Office (with respect whereunto he said, Lo, I come to do thy Will, O God, yea; thy Law is in my Heart) it was all on his own free choice or Election, and was resolved thereinto alone. It is our Duty to endeavor after Freedom, Willingness, and Chearfulness in all our Obedience. Obedience hath its formal Nature from our Wills. So much as there is of our Wills, in what we do towards God, so much there is of Obedience, and no more. Howbeit, we are antecedently unto all Acts of our own Wills obliged unto all that is called Obedience. From the very Constitution of our Natures, we are necessarily ⟨p. 84⟩subject unto the Law of God. All that is left unto us, is a voluntary Compliance with unavoidable Commands; with him it was not so. An Act of his own Will and Choice preceded all Obligation as unto Obedience. He obeyed because he would, before because he ought. He said, Lo, I come to do thy Will, O God, before he was obliged to do that Will. By his own Choice, and that in an Act of Infinite Condescention and Love, as we have shewed, he was made of a woman, and thereby made under the Law. In his Divine Person he was Lord of the Law, above it, no more obnoxious unto its Commands, than its Curse. Neither was he afterwards in himself on his own Account unobnoxious unto its Curse, merely because he was Innocent, but also because he was every way above the Law it self, and all its force.