Again, on the other side; his active obedience ⟨p. 156⟩was passive; he suffered himself to be closed in his Mothers womb, and when he was born he suffered himself to be laid in a manger: and although being God over all, blessed for ever, he was subject to no Law, yet now he suffered himself to be obedient unto his Father: now for great Princes to live in other Dominions, to observe their Rules, and be guided by their Laws, it is a suffering. This did the Lord Jesus; for he had a special commandment to observe both Law, and Gospel; and in this the Divine Nature doth suffer as much, as for the Creator to become a creature, and to take upon him the terms of hardship which become a creature: It is no debasement unto Angels, nor unto Saints, to be obedient; but for the Creator to be obedient unto the Law of God given unto the creature, in this he greatly humbleth himself; when he saith, Thus it behooveth us to fulfil all righteousness, Mat. 3.15. And this is such kind of passion as hath all things tending to satisfaction in it. And by all this you may see, that from the first to the last the Lord Jesus is a Ransom; take him in his Cradle, and he is a Ransom; take him throughout all the course of his life, and he is passive, and in all his sufferings he is active: He went up and down doing good, and suffering evil all his life long; and thus he is a Ransom: but above all, when as he came to wrestle with the wrath of his Father, he did therein exceed all the rest of his sufferings: It was much indeed for the Son of God to make himself a servant; but when he that is the Son of the eternal ⟨p. 157⟩God, and in regard of his God-head equal with the Father, shall now stand to wrestle with the unsupportable wrath of God, and to cry out, My soul is in an agony unto the very death, and through anguish thereof to sweat drops of blood; and though his heart as it were seems to recoil, so that if it were possible he desires the cup might pass from him, yet he is carried before Pontius Pilate, and is there condemned, and afterward suffereth the death of the Cross: this was the chiefest part of the ransom, which the Lord did intend to pay to the justice of his Father; wherein he did also undergo the very pangs of Hell for our sins, and so gave himself a Ransom for us. And had not all this been, we should never have been redeemed from the terrors of the Law.
Again, on the other side; his active obedience ⟨p. 156⟩was passive; he suffered himself to be closed in his Mothers womb, and when he was born he suffered himself to be laid in a manger: and although being God over all, blessed for ever, he was subject to no Law, yet now he suffered himself to be obedient unto his Father: now for great Princes to live in other Dominions, to observe their Rules, and be guided by their Laws, it is a suffering. This did the Lord Jesus; for he had a special commandment to observe both Law, and Gospel; and in this the Divine Nature doth suffer as much, as for the Creator to become a creature, and to take upon him the terms of hardship which become a creature: It is no debasement unto Angels, nor unto Saints, to be obedient; but for the Creator to be obedient unto the Law of God given unto the creature, in this he greatly humbleth himself; when he saith, Thus it behooveth us to fulfil all righteousness, Mat. 3.15. And this is such kind of passion as hath all things tending to satisfaction in it. And by all this you may see, that from the first to the last the Lord Jesus is a Ransom; take him in his Cradle, and he is a Ransom; take him throughout all the course of his life, and he is passive, and in all his sufferings he is active: He went up and down doing good, and suffering evil all his life long; and thus he is a Ransom: but above all, when as he came to wrestle with the wrath of his Father, he did therein exceed all the rest of his sufferings: It was much indeed for the Son of God to make himself a servant; but when he that is the Son of the eternal ⟨p. 157⟩God, and in regard of his God-head equal with the Father, shall now stand to wrestle with the unsupportable wrath of God, and to cry out, My soul is in an agony unto the very death, and through anguish thereof to sweat drops of bloud; and though his heart as it were seems to recoil, so that if it were possible he desires the cup might pass from him, yet he is carried before Pontius Pilate, and is there condemned, and afterward suffereth the death of the Cross: this was the chiefest part of the ransom, which the Lord did intend to pay to the justice of his Father; wherein he did also undergo the very pangs of Hell for our sins, and so gave himself a Ransom for us. And had not all this been, we should never have been redeemed from the terrours of the Law.
