A history of the work of redemption. Containing the outlines of a body of…

I THE first distribution of the acts of Christ's righteousness is with respect to the laws which Christ obeyed in that righteousness which he performed. But here it must be observed in general, that all the precepts which Christ obeyed may be reduced to one laws and that is that which the Apostle calls the law of works. Rom. iii.27. Every command that Christ obeyed may be reduced to that great and everlasting law of God that is contained in the covenant of works, that eternal rule of right which God had established between himself and mankind. Christ came into the world to fulfil and answer the covenant of works; that is, the covenant that is to stand forever as a rule of judgment▪ and that is the covenant that we had broken, and that was the covenant that must be fulfilled.

I THE first distribution of the acts of Christ's righteousness is with respect to the laws which Christ obeyed in that righteousness which he performed. But here it must be observed in general, that all the precepts which Christ obeyed may be reduced to one laws and that is that which the Apostle calls the law of works. Rom. iii.27. Every command that Christ obeyed may be reduced to that great and everlasting law of God that is contained in the covenant of works, that eternal rule of right which God had estab•ished between himself and mankind. Christ came into the world to fulfil and answer the covenant of works; that is, the covenant that is to stand forever as a rule of judgment▪ and that is the covenant that we had broken, and that was the covenant that must be fulfilled.

This law of works indeed includes all the laws of God which ever have been given to mankind; for it is • general rule of the law of works, and indeed of the law of […] ▪ That God is to be obeyed, and that he must be submitted to in whatever positive precept he is pleased to give us. It is a rule of the law of woks, That men should obey their […] parents: and it is certainly as much a rule of the sme law, That we should obey our heavenly Father: and so the law of woks requires obedience to all positive commands of God. It required Adam's obedience to that positive command, Not to eat of the forbidden fruit; and it required obedience of the Jews to all the positive commands of their institution. When God commanded Jonah to arise and go to Nineveh, the law of works required him to obey: and so it required Christ's obedience to all the positive commands which God gave him.