Earth; I have finished the Work which thou baft given me to do.

But this will farther appear, if we con fider,

Secondly, That he yielded the most perfect Obedience to the Divine Commands in all Things. The most demonstrative Proof of real Piety, or right Affections and Difpofitions towards God, is a Course of abfolute unreferved Subjection and Obedience to his Authority and Laws: And in this our Lord Jefus Chrift was eminent beyond all Parallel; for he never finned or tranfgreffed the Divine Law in any fingle Inftance. That which is spoken of the Meffiak, Pfalm xl. 7, 8, was eminently fulfilled in him: Then faid I, Lo, I come; in the Volume of the Book it is written of me: I delight to do thy Will, O my God: Yea, thy Law is within my Heart. His Coming into the World, his Taking upon him our Nature, and that in a mean and humble Guise, was itself a wonderful Act of Obedience to his heavenly Father: And he is introduced as faying, in the Paffage now cited, Mine Ears haft thou opened, or rather, as it is properly rendered in the Margin, Mine Ears haft thou digged or bored; which is fpoken in Allufion to the Cuftom of boring the Ears of Servants who willingly bound themselves to their Mafters all their

Lives

Lives long. See Exod. xxi. 5, 6. We are told that, in the Fulness of Time, God fent forth his Son made of a Woman, made under the Law. Gal. iv. 4. He was born in Subjection to the Moral Law, in common with the rest of Mankind; and to the. Mofaical Law, in common with the Ifraelites, of whom he fprung according to the Flesh; as well as to the peculiar Law he was under as Mediator; all which he perfectly fulfilled in every Inftance. In Obedience to God he exercised, for many Years, the Virtues of a private Life, and was fubject unto his Parents. Luke ii. 51, thus living in a unobferved Obscurity, till the Time came that was appointed by the Divine Wisdom for his public Appearance and Manifeftation to the World: And then, when he entered on the public Difcharge of his Ministry, ftill he kept in all Things clofe to the Divine Appointment and Command. The Father which bath fent me (faith he) bath given me a Commandment, what I should Jay, and what I should speak. And I know that his Commandment is Life everlasting: Whatfoever I Speak therefore, even as the Father bath faid unto me, fo I fpeak. That is a remarkable Declaration which he maketh to his Disciples, John xv. 10, If ye keep my Commandments, ye shall abide in Love; even as I have kept my Father's Com

my

mand

mandments, and abide in his Love. Where he mentions this as one Ground of the wonderful Love of his heavenly Father towards him, that he kept his Commandments; he kept them conftantly, univerfally, and without the leaft Failure and Defect: He always did thofe Things which pleafed

bim.

But the most amazing Inftance of our Saviour's Obedience was his Obedience unto Death, of which St. Paul fpeaks, Phil. ii. 8, where he faith, that, being found in Fashion as a Man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto Death, even the Death of the Cross; i.e. his fubmitting to that cruel and ignominious Death, with all the Sufferings that attended it, was in Obedience to his heavenly Father. Our Lord Jefus Chrift, having reprefented himself under the Character of the good Shepherd that giveth his Life for the Sheep, John x. 11, 15, adds, Ver. 17, 18, Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my Life, that I might take it again. No Man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have Power to lay it down, and I have Power to take it again. This Commandment have I received of my Father, i. e. this Commandment that I should lay down my Life for the Sheep: For of this he had been speaking. To the fame he refers,

when

when he faith, in his admirable Farewel Discourse to his Disciples, at his Entrance on his laft Sufferings, That the World may know that 1 love the Father, and, as the Father gave me Commandment, even fo I do. John xiv. 31. i. e. I am now going to give up my Life a Ranfom for finful Men, as my Father commanded me; which will be the higheft Proof of the Greatness of my Love and Obedience to him. This is that Obedience to which the Apostle particularly refers, Rom. v. 19. And which he oppofeth to the Disobedience of Adam: As by one Man's Difobedience many were made Sinners; fo by the Obedience of one shall many be made righteous. And indeed, if we seriously confider the amazing Humiliations and Abasement, the dolorous Agonies and Paffions to which he fubmitted, and at the fame Time confider the Dignity of his Perfon, his Obedience will appear, all Things confidered, to be the most wonderful that ever was. But what might be offered here will come in properly under the next Head I propofe to confider, viz.

Thirdly, That he exercised, at all Times, a most intire and unreferved Refignation to the Divine Will, and that in the most difficult Inftances. He hath taught us by his own perfect Example to make it our most earnest Defire that the Will of God

God

may be fulfilled, rather than our own: I feek not mine own Will, faith he, but the Will of the Father which hath fent me. John v. 30. It appeared through the Whole of his facred Life, that his Will was abfolutely and always fubjected and conformed to the Divine: But never was his Refignation to the Father's Will fo exercised and displayed as in his last Sufferings. We may justly conclude, from the Accounts given us by the Evangelifts, that his Sufferings had fomething in them great and grievous, beyond what we are able to conceive: Even in his Entrance upon them, while he was yet in the Garden, we are told he began to be fore amazed, and to be very heavy, and faid, My Soul is exceeding forrowful even unto Death. Mark xiv. 33, 34. He is represented as being in an Agony, and his Sweat was as it were great Drops of Blood falling down to the Ground. Luke xxii. 44. All this fhewed a Sorrow and Distress beyond all Parallel, and that he was under grievous amazing Preffures, diftinct from his outward bodily Sufferings, and which were vaftly more infupportable than they. Thus it pleafed God to order it for wife and valuable Ends, one of which was to render his Submiffion and Refignation more illuftrious. The inexpreffible Greatnefs of bis Diftrefs, and his abfolute SubVOL. IV.

X

miffion