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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50426	St. Paul's travailing pangs, with his legal-Galatians, or, A treatise of justification wherein these two dissertions are chiefly evinced viz. 1. That justification is not by the law, but by faith, 2. That yet men are generally prone to seek justification by the law : together with several characters assigned of a legal and evangical spirit : to which is added (by way of appendix) the manner of transferring justification from the law to faith / by Zach. Mayne ...	Mayne, Zachary, 1631-1694.	1662 (1662)	Wing M1485; ESTC R4815	251,017	422

assoiling of this difficulty I shall now address my self that is to the proof of my second assertion which was this What was done by Christ viz. 2 Assertion his undertaking and answering the law was done for all ages of the Church and so it was and is the great foundation of that Justification by faith which the Apostle Paul contends to have been the only way of Justification in all ages And for proof of this I offer these things to consideration 1. The Saines in all ages before the death of Christ had this way of Grace then as well as we have it now that I have proved at large in the beginning of this Treatise therefore whence had it they but from this death of Christ which was certainly to follow at a prefixt time If it be said they had their way of Grace purely from the goodness of God I oppose 1. That if so many thousands vvere saved before by meer grace vvithout the consideration of a Saviour vvhy had not the Lord continued the same grace unto the end of the vvorld vvhich we see he hath not continued Why are the vouchsafements of Gods Grace in pardon of two such quite different kinds so as to save his people for 4000. years without a Saviour and the rest by a Saviour Nay to save them without a Saviour whom yet he had by multitudes of Promises Prophesies and Prefigurations made to hope for a Saviour 2dly If the Lord could in a consistency with his veracity in threatning death to sin pardon sin without either the sinners death or his sureties and that the law would be so well enough contented and satisfied why would the Lord put our Saviour to so much trouble in suffering a death which he might as well have escaped and which he so earnestly desired if it were possible that he might escape and all this to take off the Law from being our Head and Husband 3dly It is said expresly That the Covenant was confirmed to Abraham of God in Christ Gal. 3.17 which methinks must necessarily imply thus much that the consideration of Christ went into the confirmation of this Covenant whether Abraham or any of the Saints under the Old-Testament knew it or no as it is plain Abraham did He rejoiced to see my day and saw it and was glad John 8.56 Now this Covenant with Abraham is that which the Apostle doth mightily insist upon to prove Justification by Faith to be antecedent to the giving of the Law and therefore not to be nulled by the coming of the Law and yet this Covenant was confirmed of God in Christ that is as I think was sounded upon this consideration that Christ should aftervvards come into the World and pay that price vvhich God vvould accept for the redemption of all believers * 1 Cor. 10.1 2 3 4. All the Fathers did drink of the some spiritual drink for the drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that rock was Christ Again 4thly Christ is said to be the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the World Rev. 13.8 vvhich to me signifies thus much that though he vvere not actually slain yet he vvas reckoned by God as slain then and so God vvas attoned for all the Saints of all ages ensuing or to follovv the other reading of the Words in Rev. 13.8 so that from the foundation of the world should refer to the vvriting the Saints Names in the Lamb's Book of Life and not to the Lamb 's being slain this vvill make more for my purpose for if they that vvere elected from the foundation of the World vvere all enrolled in the Lambs Book of life hovv should this come to pass but because they were all to be redeemed to God by the Lambs blood And if this opinion of personal Election be true that Scripture vvould serve to countenance this interpretation vvhich vve have Eph. 1.4 According as he hath chosen us in him that is Christ before the foundation of the world ver 5. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ c. And methinks Mr. Biddle who in a late Book of his which he calls An Essay to the explaining of the Revelations pag. 64. lays so much weight upon this passage in Rev. 13.8 for proof of personal Election as to say That this alone in his judgement seemeth sufficient to decide the so much agitated Controversie about Predestination might very well have gone one step further in his alteration of his mind by acknowledging the reason why all the Elect should be said to be written in the Lamb's Book of life to be this namely Because he was to pay the price of their Redemption as the most proper and pleasing Sacrifice for sins that ever was offered up to God But to proceed as Christ was slain in Divine designation and acceptation from the beginning of the world for I shall take liberty to follow that reading so when he came into the world to be slain actually it is said to be in the fulness of time Gal. 4 4 5. WHEN THE FULNESS OF TIME was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law c. Time went with this great birth of the Saviour of the World near 4000. years and then it was time Christ should be sent into the world to pay that debt which through the forbearance of God had been contracting for so long a space of time But 5thly for a pertinent and concluding Scripture-proof I shall insist a little upon Heb. 9.24 25. 26. For Christ is not entred into the holy place made with hands which are the figures of the true but into Heaven it self there to appear in the presence of God for us Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the High-Priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others for then must he often have suffered SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD but now ONCE IN THE END OF THE WORLD hath he appeared to put away fins by the sacrifice of himself Here are several differences which the Author of this Epistle observes betwixt Christ out High-Priest the High-Priest under the law who was the most eminent type of Christ The High-Priest under the law entred into the holy places made with hands ours into heaven it self The High-Priest under the law entred into the holy place often that is though but once in the year yet every year once which is often in many years ours but once in all Again the High-Priest entred with the blood of others ours by his own blood or the sacrifice of himself But yet herein there is a correspondence between our High-Priest and the legal High-Priest that as theirs went into the holy of Holies once in the end of the year for to make reconciliation for the sins of the year past so our High-Priest entred into Heaven with his own blood ONCE IN THE END OF THE WORLD to make attonement for

wits but will acknowledge that it is easier in it self to move a singer then to remove a Mountain The last objection is this But then you substitute Evangelical works in the room of Legal and so still you turn the Gospel The second objection answered which is called the Law of Faith into a Covenant of Works Now for this objection I confess it hath some weight in it though for those that make it they are usually soaring in high notions and strangely wedded unto their own apprehensions and are somewhat of an Antinomian strain yet I will acknowledge that it may be made by a sober man I should prevent my self in what I have to say in the following part of this Treatise if I should answer it at large in this place yet to give some taste of an answer here I make this distinction That there are indeed two wayes of running upon a Covenant of works either in whole or in part Two ways of running upon a Covenant of Works 1. Either upon a Covenant of Works purely and strictly so none durst touch or meddle with it 2. Upon it in part so as to mix it with the Gospel A. Now I answer therefore That indeed our great care is to be laid out about avoiding of these mixtures of legality in our treating with God for Justification and that is the great design of this Treatise to caveat us against these mixtures which we are very apt to be saulty in as I hope they shall see in the sequel of my Discourse that please to go on in it Hitherto we have seen that there is Gospel in the Law of Moses and what this Gospel in the Law is as also that the reason why it was delivered by Moses could be no other but to put his Disciples upon the way of believing for Justification There are many other places in Moses especially in the Book of Deut. that have much Gospel in them I shall onely add one Allegorical or Typical Argument which yet I think hath much evidence in it to prove that the Law of Moses had Gospel in it it is this That the Law of the two Tables when it was written the second time by Moses from the mouth of God or else by the singer of God himself are ordained by God to be put in the Ark and the Ark to be put under the Mercy-seat and Cherubims to cover the Mercy-Seat and the presence of God eminently promised to be found between those Cherubins Exod 25.21 22. Thou shalt put the Mercy-Seat above upon the Ark and in the Ark thou shalt put the Testimony that I shall give thee and there I will meet with thee and I will commune with thee from above the Mercy-Seat from between the two Cherubims which are upon the Ark of the ●estimony of All things c. Hence I frame this argument If the Law be hid in the Ark which alone seems to be an instrument of Salvation and this Ark placed under the Mercy-Seat the Greek word for which being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Rom 3 25. applyed to Christ and translated Propitiation whom God hath set forth to be a Propitation through Faith in his Blood and the presence of God eminently promised to them upon this Mercy-Seat or Throne of Grace then the Law which was in its own nature a Covenant of Works and to sinners a killing-letter was yet to the Israelites shrowded and covered with Grace and Mercy Mercy rejoicing against or triumphing over Judgement Jam. 2.13 and they defended and protected from the wrath and curse of it by a gracious presence of God with them that Christ's offering was interposed betwixt the Law and them and that this was in some sort though more darkly then to us signified and discovered to them and so that the law was never given them with this design that they should seek Justification by it as a Covenant of Works I have done with the objections of the Jews which may be made against my first Position that Justification is not cannot be by the Law that it is and must be by faith all which were made by occasion of the Old-Testament Dispensation chiefly the giving of the Law by Moses I shall before I conclude the more Doctrinal part of my Treatise only mention an objection which might be made on behalf of the Gentiles against Justification by Faith and for Justification by the Law And it is this You have said that the Law of our Creation is naturally a Covenat of Works The objection in behalf of the Gentiles against Justification by Faith and that the Gentiles had the Law or the effect and substance of it written in their hearts and we read not of any Promises that they had therefore either they could not be justified at all or they must be justified by the law I answer 1. All are not of Opinion that the Heathens were in a justifiable condition till Christ was explicitely and plainly preached to them and for those that are not of it they will meet with no difficulty in this Objection for if the Heathens could not be justified at all it ceaseth the enquiry which way they were to be justified 2. Some are of Opinion That God never made any creatures under an utter impossibility of pleasing him and being made happy by him 3. Therefore in a consonancy to my preceding Discourse I say If it can be made appear that the Heathens without the law of Moses and the Scriptures tures of the Old-Testament could not discover so much of the Goodness Grace Mercy and Love of God to mankind as upon which to ground a lively hope an unfeigned and operative faith that God was ready upon their repentance and amendment of life to forgive their sins and to be at peace with them the second opinion is to be avoided and the first received For I do verily believe that if the Heathens were any of them saved or in a possibility to be saved and justified it must be by their treating of God in the way of believing for that the law was rendred utterly weak and unable to ●ustifie so much as one sinner Now because I do not think it convenient in this place to engage in that controversie Whether or no the Gentiles were in a salvable condition I shall neither produce the Scriptures which seem to prove they had sufficient Gospel-light to produce Faith which they must have if they were saved nor the others which would seem to prove that they had no such light Now to conclude this first part having proved it ex hypothesi on the Gentiles part that if any of them were saved it must be by faith and absolutely as to the Jews notwithstanding all the objections to the contrary that they were under a Covenant of Grace and that the law was never given to them to put them upon seeking Justification by the works of it The first great Propositions which were under demonstration still