the matter of it setting aside the Ceremonial and Judicial Law it remains still obliging us in the dayes of the Gospel and the Apostle professeth to establish the Law even by the preaching of Faith 'T is true it was first of all given to the Jews that was their priviledge but now that it is given it is ours as well as theirs that therefore which seems to be peculiar to them in it was the manner of its delivery both being without promises and in that terrible manner given upon the Mount but yet still it was thus given because of transgressions to hinder transgressions they needed this terror at that time Children though they know their duty must have some terror to make them do it The Heir whilest he is a Child differeth nothing from a servant though he be Lord of all he is used like a servant harshly severely he is under Tutors and Governors till the time appointed by the Father Gal. 4.2 there is the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Apostle hath in his answer to the objection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But because this particular hath some affinity with the second general end mentioned why the Law was given with respect to transgressions I shall now enter upon that and it was this 2. The Law was added because of transgressions for the heightning and aggravating of transgressions Rom. 5.20 The Law entered that the offence might abound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subingressa est irrepsit the Holy Ghost is pleased frequently to use such words as should shew that the Law came in by the by for some considerable ends indeed that the Lord had in delivering it but not as the great establisht way for Justification for certainly that could not come in by the by but the Law came in thus it stole in subingressa est it crept in by stealth irrepsit so the Original signifies But what was the end of the Law when it thus entred why it entred because of transgressions that the offences of men might abound In the 12. ver of Râ—â— 5. 〈◊〉 read that sin entered into the World and 〈◊〉 that the Law entered the Law hunted it followed it stole in afterwards to discover sin for as ver 13. hath it Before or until the Law sin was in the world that is not before the Law did oblige but before the Law was delivered in such a solemn manner as it was upon Mount Sinai before the Law sin was in the world but sin was not imputed when there was no Law yet death reigned all this while till Moses his time which was the curse of the Law Now that men might know wherefore they suffered death and the curse it was sit the Law should come into the world in a solemn manner delivered that so sin might be imputed by men to themselves as it was by God to men witness death the curse of the Law which reigned from Adam to Moses from Adam that sinned to Moses that gave the Law sin did not appear to be sin till the Law entred therefore it is said Sin that it might appear sin working death in me by that which is good viz. the Law that sin by the Commandment might become out of measure sinfull So Rom. 3.20 the Apostle proves that the Law cannot justifie for by the Law is the knowledge of sin The Law is so far from justifying saith the Apostle that it only brings sin to light brings the knowledg of sin with it makes the offence to abound and if that be the way to justifie sinners to aggravate their sins bind on their guilts more then ever upon their consciences let any man judg therefore indeed the Law in the immediate great intent of it was a killing Letter an Administration of Death a Ministration of Condemnation a Ministration of Desperation and not of righteousness unto justification and accordingly it was delivered with thundering lightning upon Mount Sinai to shew the horrible fire darkness tempest that there was in the Law it self to all that should come near it to think to make use of it for a way of Justification as Moses put a Vail upon his face to shew the vailedness of his Dispensation so the Law was delivered with fire to shew the fieriness of the Law unto the conscience for the Law was not only terrible to the beholders of it when it was given upon Mount Sinai but this terribleness is in the Law it self to all that ever had to do with it feelingly ever since to all that ever came near it for justification Indeed for those that stand aloof off from it only play about it at a distance hope to be saved in a loose way by their works by their good doings and by their good meanings they may perhaps never feel the stinging fiery lashes of the Law but let any of these self-Justiciaries drive their Principle to an Head let them come up near to the Law let them advance toward Mount Sinai and approach it and challenge their Justification from God by the Law and they shall quickly find themselvs scorched and scalded sent away with sad hearts and affrightned consciences they'â— find the Law to be a ministration of Death and not of Righteousness I might here shew in several particulars how the Lâ—w doth discover sin it discovers habitual sin St Paul or the man personated in Rom. 7. had never found there had been such a bottomless depth such a lively body of death within him but for the Law when that came sin revived and he dyed Rom. 7.9 2. It discovers actual sin I had not known sin that is lustings to be sin except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet ver 7. But I shall not insist longer upon this particular The third end of the Law 's being â—â—ded I hasten to the third great end of the Law 's being added with respect to transgressions and that was for the finishing of transgressions and making an end of sin as the expressions are though somewhat otherwise used Dan. 9.24 What shall we think that when God had given promises to Abraham and confirmed a Covenant in Christ to him and his Seed that he now gave a law to drive all his people into despair this amounts all to one as if he had broken his promise and his covenant as I have before argued out of the Apostle Paul did the Lord only send his law that they might know their duty and be affrightned into their duty as the first particular carries it if they did not do their duty should the law aggravate their sin bind on their guilts upon their Conscience and so leave them under desparation and be a ministration of death to them Was this all the Law came for If this were all they might better have been without the law at a venture then have had it they might have done better with the promises alone This therefore was not all the end
Now this being the great means of transferring Justification from the Law to Faith I shall a little insist upon the Explication of it That which I have to say upon it will be contained in these two assertions 1. That Christ in his own person here upon earth undertook the Law and answered it in all that it had to say against us And whereas it was a killing letter he took out this condemning power of it for all believers 2. That this was done by Christ 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 in all ages before the Law under the Law and in the dayes of the Gospel to the end of the world so that the way of Justification by faith comes in kindly and in a comely manner without any neglect or violation of the Law I begin with the first assertion That Christ in his own person here upon earth undertook and answered the Law The first assertion That Christ undertook answered the law for us c. Now to prove and illustrate this assertion it will be usefull to us 1. To consider in what condition the Lord Christ found us when he came into the world as a Saviour We were therefore all of us Jewes and Gentiles We were all under the law when Christ came to save us prisoners to the Law I shall give the account of this in the Apostle's expressions which are somewhat mystical to which I hope I shall adde some light by laying them together and comparing them one with another Before Christ came and before faith came and so at the time when Christ came when faith came in the doctrinal discovery or at any time doth come to us in the hearty closing with it We were kept under the Law Gal. 3.23 the words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Law had set a guard upon us and as it follows we were shut up unto the faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we were all shut up as so many prisoners unto the Law and under its guard and custody and in Rom. 7.6 speaking of the Law the Apostle saith We were held by it that being dead that is the Law wherein we were HELD or by which we were detained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For though these places in the Galatians and Romanes may referr to the different dispensations of the Old Testament and New that before the dayes of the Gospel when faith came to be preached men were under a legal dispensation they were kept under the Law and shut up to the faith that was to be revealed yet I dare affirm that there is a deeper meaning then that at least a deeper truth then that if not in those places which is this That till Christ and the way of Justification by faith be made known to the soul the soul must needs be under a legal frame â—f heart towards God under fear and bondage â—ay and a further sense then this yet and that â—s this That till the virtue of the blood of Christ â—e applyed to the soul till actual Justification â—y or upon faith every man lies under the curse â—nd threatning and wrath of the Law the Law â—ath taken hold of us all an evident signe of â—hich is this That death hath passed upon all and â—hat is the reason why for that all have sinned â—om 5.12 And if any could plead exemption from this abnoxiousness to the Law it must be either the â—â—ntiles that had not the Law as the expression is â—â—m 2.14 that is had not the Law given to â—â—em or those that lived before the Law was â—ven by Moses now neither of these can plead â—is exemption therefore all mankinde were â—ptives to the Law when Christ undertook the â—ork of Redemption or rather until the desigâ—ation of Christ by the Father to this work For the first viz. the Gentiles the Apostle tells us that he had proved them under sin which is the transgression of the Law therefore under the Law and their thoughts within them did accuse for their breach of the Law which was written in their hearts Rom. 2.14 Neither were they free from this arrest of the Law who lived before the delivery of the Law by Moses for the Apostle tells us plainly Rom. 5.13 That untill the Law sin was in the world that is from Adam till the time that the Law was solemnly given by Moses sin was in the world now sin is the transgression of the Law and accordingly as sin was in the world all that space of time from Adam to Moses so Death reigned from Adam to Moses Now we know that death 〈◊〉 the wages of sin and the strength of sin is the Law 1 Cor. 15.56 Sin could never have brought in death but by the Law which bindes sin upon the sinner and with sin the punishment due to it therefore all that space of time from Adaâ— to Moses sin and death being in the world 〈◊〉 they were to be sure there was the Law in its power energy it was there in effect as sure 〈◊〉 it was in the hearts consciences of Heathens and the Grave was the Law 's Prison Death it's Arrest Sin it 's great Charge and Accusation by and upon which Death entred Sin entred in the world and death by sin upon the threatningâ— the Law Rom. 5.12 This was the state and condition therefore that Christ found us in wâ— were all under the Law as Prisoners and Captives therefore when the Father sent fort Christ upon the work of Redemption it is saâ— Gal. 4.4 God sent forth his Son made of a woman mâ—â— under the Law to redeem them that were under 〈◊〉 Law This was written to the Galatians who were Gentiles That we putting himself and the Galatians together might receive the adoption of Sons therefore the Gentiles were under the Law when Christ was sent forth for their redemption And our Saviour tells us what he was commissionated to by his Father Luke 4.18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted to preach DELIVERANCE TO THE CAPTIVES and recovering of sight to the blinde to set at liberty them that are bruised or bound as it is in Isai 61.1 to preach the acceptable year of the Lord that is the Year of Jubilee when all servants were set free thus Christ's coming was to proclaim a Year of Jubilee to the whole world that the Law 's Captives should be delivered and those that served God under the tyranny of the Law might receive a spirit of Adoption So now thus farr we are gone in our proof of the first assertion that when Christ came as a Saviour and Redeemer of his people he found them all under the Law as the lawfull Captives and Prisoners unto it by reason of their sins which were
is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 2dly The Law is taken in a sence all as large as this is strict and that is for the whole Old-Testament So it is likewise taken in several Scriptures Gal. 4.21 Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law do ye not hear the Law For it is written that Abraham had two sons c. where the whole Book of Genesis is made a part of the Law again in Rom. 3. the Apostle makes the Psalms a part of the Law where having quoted a great part of the 14. Psalm in the 19. ver saith he Now we know that whatsoever things the Law saith c. and so in other Scriptures Now to apply the distinction in answer to the last query The Law strictly taken for a Covenant of Works did only teach Christ virtually and by consequence as it taught them that they could not be justified by its righteousness and thus for ought I know the Law in its accusations taught Christ to the Gentiles as it convinced them of the insufficiency of their own righteousness But now the Law in the second sense as taken for the Scriptures of the Old Testament taught Christ formally and directly though more obscurely then the Gospel teacheth him viz. in Types and Prophecies it were endless to reckon up all the Types Promises and Prophesies of Christ that are in the Old-Testament This way indeed the Law could not teach Christ unto the Gentiles who had not the Scriptures of the Old-Testament It is now high time and yet in this place seasonable enough to answer some other parts of the objection which I proposed at large some pages since which pleads for the Law its being a way of Justification unto the Jews at least before the coming of Christ if not to us now and something of that which remains yet unanswered Obj. 2. The Law was given to the Iews as their covnant is this If the Law was not given to be a way of Justification why is it called a Covenant the Old-Testament or Covenant 2 Cor. 3.14 and the first Covenant Heb. 7.8 expresly said to be made with the Children of Israel when the Lord took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Aegypt For whatever you have argued about Adam's estate of innocency that God made a Covenant of Works with him and that if he would he might have been justified by Works by the Law that since him all men have sinned and the Law was no way of Justification to them Whatever you have argued to this purpose say the objectors yet we find not that the Law was given to Adam but onely to the children of Israel by Moses and given to them as a Covenant therefore called the old Covenant or first Covenant in Heb. 8. out of Jer. 31.31 32.33 34. Therefore it was given them as a way of Justification for certainly the Justification that they were to seeke of God they were to seek in the way of a Covenant therefore in the way of the Law which was their Covenant To this I answer some things by way of concession A. 1. By way of concession in two particulars afterwards some things more concluding And first of all I grant that the Law is no where to my remembrance said to be given to Adam but onely to the children of Israel I am sure usually when mention is made of the giving of the law Where the law is said to be given it is to the children of Israel not to Adam Yet Adam had the Law and it was a Covenant of works to him 1. He had the Law it is likewise noted in the same place as given to the children of Israel by Moses so 2 Cor. 3 7. Heb. 8.9 1 Joh. 17. For the Law was given by Moses Gal. 3.19 Wherefore then serveth the Law It was added because of transgressions and it was ordained by Angels upon Mount Sinai in the hands of a Mediator viz. Moses Though when I make this concession that the Law is not said to be given to Adam but to the children of Israel by Moses I still think it may be easily collected from the Scriptures that Adam had the Law too and that it was to him a Covenant of Works 1. That he had the Law for 1. if Adam as a creature had not the Law written in his heart how came the Gentiles who had not the Law given them by Moses to have it written in their hearts 2. Else as I urged it before it had been no sin for man in innocency to have killed whom he pleased to have lyed forsworn himself to have defiled his own body by Adultery or other uncleanness for where there is no Law there is no transgression 3. If Adam had not the Law before his fall how came he to have it written in his heart presently after as it is certain he had for all other men have it so written and I cannot think that Adam alone wanted this excellency of all mankind neither do I think that he got this advantage by his fall to have the effect of the Law written in his heart which he had not written there before therefore he had it written in his heart before the Fall 2 It was to him a Covenant of works 2. It was a Covenant of Works to Adam in innocency For Adam then had no need of Grace or Pardon before his fall and I have proved that the Law is in its own nature a Covenant of Works and Adam had the Law therefore it was a Covenant of Works to Adam I deny not but Adam might have some positive Laws in his Covenant of Works as we find one viz. that of the forbidden fruit My second Concession is this That the Law was given to the Jews as a Covenant 2d Concession and where-ever mention is made of the Old-Covenant or First Covenant the parties covenanted withall are the people of the Jews So it is in 2 Cor. 3.6.14 in the 6. ver we have mention made of the New-Covenant which is that made by Christ in preaching the Gospel and in the 14th of the Old-Testament or Covenant which is that made with the Jews So in Heb. 8.6 7. the first Covenant is that which Moses was the Mediator of the second or better Covenant is that which Christ is the Mediator of this must not cannot be denyed and I have been often offended at persons that when they make a distinction of the Covenants a first and second old and new they make the first that with Adam in innocency the second the Covenant of grace made with the faithful ever since this though it may be true Divinity yet is not Scriptural or if it be somewhat Scriptural yet it is onely to be drawn by consequence out of the Scripture But there is another determination in this business that is more plainly
Antinomian that is destructively so that is a Libertine for there is a partial Antinomianism as well as a partial Legality that is not destructive because he falls under an easie obvious conviction except he have gotten a brawny conscience for that his miscarriages are more gross whereas a Legalists faults are hidden and spiritual However I am sure there is both for the number of Legalists and their usual rootedness in that distemper reason for equal provision to be made about them to what there is to be made about the Antinomians Now finding that there was not at least not finding that there was equal care taken I adventured to say something about it I wish I may provoke some other to do it better they shall have my hearty prayers to the Lord for their assistance in such a work And besides these several reasons which I have mentioned as moving me to the composing of this Treatise especially that part of it which consists of the characters there was another very prevailing with me it was my own necessity of being well enlightened about this matter For I found dayly use use of some of the observations which I have here given thee in every prayer yea in the mannagement of my spirit all the day long I found the Law striving to get the mastery of my spirit that is sin by the severity of the commandemâ—nt would have destroyed all that little life and quickness which I had in the service of God would have made me unwilling to serve God to be averse unto him and his wayes yea to conceive a professed displeasure against God himself till I have been relieved by some of these considerations which I here tender unto thee for the same end with an earnest prayer that they may do thy soul good as I hope they have done mine And I doubt not but Luther being a good man and one of a great spirit had a considerable and worthy design in endeavouring to get the Law out of his conscience as his phrase is I mean getting it from its dominion over him though he might herein over-do it as it is certain he did over-speak it I shall here do him the right to quote a large and lively branch of his Discourse that is not as I apprehend lyable to exception it is in his Preface or Argument before his Commentary pag. 14. saith he When at any time the Law would ascend into thy conscience domineer there ibi domâ—naci say unto it Law or Lady Law as in some places he speaks Domina Lex wilt thou ascend into the Kingdom of my conscience rule there argue it of sin and take away my joy which I have by faith in Christ and bring me into desperation that I perish hoc praeter officium tuum facis here thou goest beyond thy Commission stay within thy own bounds consiste intra tuos limites exerce dominium in carnem and exercise dominion over my flesh which expression I do not well understand except it be that so farr as we are fleshly we are still under the Law and therefore as the Law was given to humble us at first so it hath the same use still as also to direct our lives exercise thy dominion over my flesh conscientiam autem ne atting as mihi but offer not to touch my conscience for I am baptized and called by the Gospel into the communion of righteousness and eternal life unto the Kingdom of Christ in which my conscience is quieted or doth acquiesce where there is no Law that is no Law for condemnation but meer remission of sins mera remissio peccatorum peace quietness joy salvation and eternal life ista ne interâ—nrbes mihi do not hinder me nor disturb me in the enjoyment possession of these things let not the Law which is an hard tyrant and cruel exactor reign in my conscience but Christ the Son of God the King of Peace and Righteousness the most sweet Saviour and Mediator And now I have have onely this to beg pardon of thee for that I have spoken to so great and weighty things in so unstudyed and undigested a dress and method but as an argument to prevail with thee for my pardon I assure thee that could I have promised my self an opportunity of printing these papers some two or three years hence and the Lord continued life I should have detained them in my own custody so long on purpose that they might have received a better formation If thou take offence at me for that I have taken liberty in something or other to vary from most of those few Authors that I quote in the Treatise I crave not thy pardon for it for neither will the Authors themselves have any reason to be angry when they consider and believe that if I had not valued them I should never have quoted them and but for that I valued the truth before them I should never have varied from them Once more Reader if thou shouldest think it undecent that there should be any thing in the following Advertisement for which I am so much beholden to the Reverend Author of it different from what is asserted in the body of the Book as for instance that the Author seemeth to judge that there is no repetition of the act of Justification as it signifies pardon that Works justifie only in sensu morali not in sensu forensi take this for thy satisfaction that I had full power from the Worthy Author of it to have left â—ut yea or put in what I pleased in the printing of it But I presumed not to adde or diminish one tittle as judging it but equity and justice that others especially the Learned should have the same liberty to differ from me that I take to differ from them Besides I account this so farr from being any lessening to the value of the testimony given me that I reckon it a greater advantage to receive it from a Learned man from whom I presumed to differ than if he had been perfectly of my minde Now the presence of God and of thy best understanding be with thee in the reading and so I bid thee farewell Thine in Christ Zach. Mayne An Advertisement unto the READER concerning the Author Subject and contents of the Treatise ensuing THE Treatise in thy hand whilest yet unread may possibly suffer in thy esteem through want of years in the Composer against which inconvenience I thought it might be some kinde of relief unto it to send it forth attended with a sober Preface drawn up by a Person whose years though but meanly improved are sufficient to discern between impertinencies and matters of weight and worth The Apostle in this brief address unto Timothie Let no man despise thy youth * 1 Tim. 4.12 supposeth two things 1. That youth is obnoxious to neglect or undervaluing by men 2. That young men may nonwithstanding redeem themselves from under this disadvantage and stave
the Cross and Christ nailed the Law to the Cross and all this without violence or affront offered to the Law it being but naturally consequent upon what the Law did first to Christ for if the Law set upon Christ as our Surety and do the utmost to him that it can it must needs follow that it hath no strength left against those for whom he undertook and so must die and expire by the same death that our Saviour dyed it being nailed to the Cross which is but a sigurative expression And yet I shall carry the Allegory a little further herein still following the Apostle Paul Is it any wonder now is it any unreasonable thing now that the Law is dead and taken out of the way that we should be married to another husband that we should reckon our selves to be no longer under the Law The woman which hath an husband saith the Apostle Rom. 7.23 is bound by the Law to her husband so long as he liveth but if the husband be dead she is loosed from the Law of her husband So then if while her husband liveth she be married to another man she shall be called an adulteress but if her husband be dead she is free from that Law so that she is no adulteress though she be married to another man ver 4. Wherefore my brethren ye also are become dead to the Law or the Law is become dead to you BY THE BODY OF CHRIST that ye should be warried to another even to him that is raised from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God The Law is every soul's first Husband since the fall so every one's actual sin the Law is an intolerable husband there is no living with it it so sets on guilt presseth the soul w th terrors nay instead of producing good works the natural fruit of this Marriage-relation of the Soul to the Law whilest in innocency it now produceth all manner of lusts according to the 5. ver of that 7. chap. When we were in the flesh the MOTIONS OF SINS WHICH WERE BY THE LAW did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Now God in much mercy to mankinde finding that if the Law and the conscience or soul of man keep together his creature will be lost and himself lose those fruits of good works which the soul was first created for he provides another husband for the soul which is Jesus Christ only Christ must redeem his Spouse from that tyrannical Husband which now it lives with else the Soul shall be but an Adulteress to pretend marriage to Christ that is the way of grace whilest the Law can make a just claim to her as a wife which it might have done as long as it lived The manner of the rescue I have before declared it was by suffering and yielding to the Law yet so as in it the Law destroyed it self and then is it lawfull for the Soul that was before wife to the Law to be married to another husband and who so fit as he that redeemed her Now the Soul shall have it's forbearance under failings which the Law would not endure and God shall have a kindly and ingenuous Service there will be fruits unto God and this is the passage from Works to Faith from the Law to Grace I though the Law saith the Apostle am dead to the Law that I might live to God Gal. 2.19 that is through what the Law hath done to Christ it hath nothing to do with me But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter Rom. 7.6 One Scripture more to this purpose it is Rom. 8.1 23.4 There is therefore now no condemnation to ohem which are in Christ Jesus who are married to Christ and have accepted the terms of the Gospel who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit for the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death this chiefly relates to sanctification that the inward law or power of corruption which was occasionally and accidentally strenghtned by the Law of God was now broken by that inward power spirit and life which is conveyed by the Gospel of Christ and is called the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus ver 3. for what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh that is it could neither justifie nor sanctifie both these did God bring to pass by sending his Son in the likeness of sinfull flesh when for sin that is Christ's making himself a Sin-offering so answering the Law God condemned Christ in the flesh that is destroyed it both in the guilt and power of it out of us that were sinners so it follows that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit that is that the Law might no longer accuse us being answered by our Saviour and that we might attain to that which is the chief designe of the Law to wit righteousness and holiness which if we had continued under the Law we could never have attained unto What so common now with the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romanes as to tell them that now they are not under the Law but under grace by this means namely the BODY OF CHRIST offered and that therefore there shall be no condemnation and that therefore sin shall not have dominion over them which are the two great effects of the death of Christ though the first chiefly belongs to that subject which I am upon viz. Justification Having given now all these things in an allegorical and mystical dress yet herein only following the Apostle I shall deliver the same thing somewhat plainly and so conclude this first particular The summe of all this is Man was made holy had a Law to live by to which there was a threatning annexed In the day thou eatest thou shalt die the death or shalt surely die * This threatning I take it is due by the Law to intended against all sins according to that of the Apostle The wages of sin is death Ro. 6.23 speaking of sin indefinitly besides wise Adam might have committed any other sin and not have dyed Man did eat and so was to die death accordingly entred by this sin into the world that is a natural death and for eternal death hereafter and the spiritual death of the soul here which consist's in alienations from God both which all men at age are obnoxious unto being sinners as for children I neither affirm nor deny any thing the Lord in mercy designing to deliver men from provided a Saviour who should first live a perfect life that so he might be the more acceptable Sacrifice and his terms of saving men must be these that he must freely offer himself up to