Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

3. That the end of this Active Obedience of Christ, cannot be assigned to be, that He might be fitted for his death and Oblation. §. 16 For He answered all types, and was every way [Greek or Hebrew] fit to be made an offering for sin, by his union, and Habitual Grace; so that if the obedience Christ performed, be not reckoned to us and done upon our account, there is no just cause to be assigned, why He should live here in the world so long as He did, in perfect obedience to all the Laws of God. Had He dyed before, there had been perfect Innocence, and perfect Holiness, by ⟨p. 183⟩his habitual Grace, and infinite virtue and worth from the dignity of his Person: and surely He yielded not that long course of all manner of Obedience, but for some great and special purpose, in reference to our Salvation.

3. That the end of this Active Obedience of Christ, cannot be assigned to be, that He might be fitted for his death and Oblation. §. 16 For He answered all types, and was every way 〈non-Latin alphabet〉 fit to be made an offering for sinne, by his vnion, and Habituall Grace; so that if the obedience Christ performed, be not reckoned to us and done upon our account, there is no just cause to be assigned, why He should live here in the world so long as He did, in perfect obedience to all the Lawes of God. Had He dyed before, there had been perfect Innocence, and perfect Holinesse, by ⟨p. 183⟩his habituall Grace, and infinite vertue and worth from the dignity of his Person: and surely He yeelded not that long course of all manner of Obedience, but for some great and speciall purpose, in reference to our Salvation.

4. That, had not the Obedience of Christ been for us, (in §. 17 what sense we shall see instantly) it might in his life have been required of him, to yield obedience to the Law of Nature, the alone Law which he could be liable to as a man; for an innocent man in a Covenant of Works, as he was, needs no other Law; nor did God ever give any other Law to any such person; (the Law of Creation is all that an innocent creature is liable to, with what Symbols of that Law God is pleased to add.) And yet to this Law also was his subjection voluntary; & that not only consequentially, because he was borne upon his own choice, not by any natural course, but also because as Mediator God and Man, he was not by the institution of that Law obliged unto it, being as it were exempted, and lifted above that Law by the Hypostatical Union: yet when I say his subjection hereunto was voluntary, I do not intend that it was merely arbitrary and at choice, whither he would yield obedience unto it or no; but on supposition of his undertaking to be a Mediator,