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cause_n	sin_n	suffer_v	suffering_n	2,120	5	9.4937	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61377	The mystical union of believers with Christ, or, A treatise wherein that great mystery and priviledge of the saints union with the Son of God is opened in the nature, properties, and necessity of it, the way how it is wrought, and the principal Scripture-similitudes whereby it is illustrated, together with a practical application of the whole / by Rowland Stedman ...	Stedman, Rowland, 1630?-1673.	1668 (1668)	Wing S5375; ESTC R22384	295,630	498

only that we may be provoked thereby to live in a constant dependance upon God for further grace to help in the time of need but likewise that we may be stirred up to give all the glory of There is Actual 1. Exciting grace 2. Co-operating grace 3. Resisting grace 4. Supporting grace 5. Restoring grace 6. Increasing grace 7. Stablishing grace 1. There is Exciting grace whereby the principle of holiness is awakened and stirred up and put into a readiness unto that which is good For although there are habits of grace alwayes resident in the hearts of the godly yet those habits are not alwayes in a present aptness and preparedness unto the matters of godliness What a listlessness and heaviness is oftentimes upon the heart of a sincere Christian So that he hath grace to seek when he is called to the exercise of it he is not in a readiness to bring it forth into act And therefore we have need frequently to quicken our hearts and to awaken and stir up the grace of God that is within us It was the complaint of the Lord against his people that they did not stir up themselves to take hold of him Isa 64.7 There needeth exciting grace and assistance to stir us up unto practical holiness that our loyns may be girt and our lamps burning and our selves in procinctu in a readiness to every good work as the exhortation is Luk. 12.35 Tit. 3.1 How much is David in prayer that God would quicken him Psal 119.37 Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken thou me in thy way Psal 80.18 Quicken us and we will call upon thy name Psal 86.11 Vnite mine heart to fear thy name q. d. Gather the forces of my soul together that they may conspire as 〈…〉 be wandring and out of the way when I have use for them then they are to seek O Lord call them in and put them into a readiness Now this exciting influence proceedeth from Christ and is given forth unto them that are ingraffed into him It is he that knocketh at the door of the heart to awaken believers out of their security and to put them into a posture that they may be ready to follow him whithersoever he shall lead them Cant. 5.2 2. There is Co-operating grace or assistance to do the will of God whereby the new creature is set on work and inabled to walk in the way of Gods commandments For Sirs herein lieth a vast difference between the principles of sin which are naturally seated in the soul and the habits of holiness which in the new birth are introduced into the soul The principles of sin can work of themselves without any forreign assistance to reduce them into act If there were no devil to tempt us unto ungodliness the corrupt heart of man would be a tempter to it self Jam. 1.14 and would rush on into wickedness of its own accord But the habits of grace cannot act of themselves there must be renewed strength imparted to set them on work which we may fitly call co-operating grace Psal 119.35 Make me to go in the path of thy commandments for therein do I delight Though David had a spirit of new life within him yet he could not actually walk in the path of God's precepts till by an additional force he was set a going Cant. 4.16 Awake O North wind and come thou South-wind blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out By the garden understand a sanctified soul and by the spices in this garden may be meant the 〈…〉 〈…〉 sistance of the Spirit it is educed into act And this co-operating assistance is in Christ and issued forth unto them that are one with him 2 Tim. 2.1 Thon therefore my Son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus That is Get assistance from him out of his fulness to strengthen thee to the discharge of the work of the Lord. 3. There is resisting grace to oppose temptations unto sin and to vanquish and overcome the assaults of the devil Although in the first work of conversion there is a secret antipathy set up in the spirit against sin yet if you would be actually free from the taint of it there must be further strength to help you in grapling with temptations unto sin And this also is in Christ to be communicated unto his members Eph. 6.10 The Apostle doth exhort us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Not to enter the lists in our own strength but to put on the whole armour of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil And the spiritual combate maintained by a child of God is called The fight of faith because sin is especially opposed by the exercise of faith and the victory obtained through faith in Jesus by which fresh supplies of strength are fetcht down from him 1 Tim. 6.12 4. The fourth sort of actual strength is supporting grace for the bearing such burdens as are laid upon us Strength to inable us with an holy quietness and submission to endure afflictions and hardships 〈…〉 thy to suffer in his cause and you have ability miniffred to carry you through sufferings to keep your hearts from sinking in the day of tribulation and adversity As you are called to suffer so through the supplies of Christ's Spirit you are impowered and fortified thereunto 5. Restoring grace To recover us out of that deadness into which we are apt to fall and to call us back from those decayes unto which believers are subject For though habitual grace shall never be quite lost yet the vigour of it may be much abated in which respect a Believer may be said to lose his first love Rev. 2.4 And though grace remain yet in this sense it may be said to be ready to die Rev. 3 2. Now for the restoring of a mans soul to its former life and activity and reviving upon the new man its ancient lustre and beauty there must be fresh strength communicated Which reviving strength is stored up in the Son and given forth to them that have the Son It is by the fresh beams of the Sun of righteousness that the clouds are dispelled and the mists are driven away and the soul of a Christian is made to look forth as the morning according as it is expressed Cant. 6.10 6. There is increasing grace for augmentation of the principle of holiness that the new man may artive at his full growth and stature unto which he is appointed And it is by grace which is in Jesus Christ the head and by fresh influence out of his fulness that the body maketh increase unto the edifying of it self Eph. 4.16 7. Lastly establishing and confirming grace whereby Believers are fixed and settled unto the end And this likewise is from Christ by vertue of union with him It is in Jesus Christ we are preserved Jude 1. Being rooted in him we become established in the

love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment that is as I take the meaning of the Apostle to be in the day of mans judgment when we are called before mens tribunal seats for the profession of Christ and required to give an account of our faith in Christ then we that are true believers will do it boldly we are not ashamed to own him for our Lord and Master Why Because we love him and this is the top of our love to make us stick fast unto him in times of tryal Or this is the perfection of our love the putting it to its proper use it was one of the ends for which this grace was planted within us that it might cause us to abide with Christ and not to shrink away from him when we are brought before mens judgment seats * The latter clause of the 17. v. Because as he is so are we in this world is rendred in the Syriack in the time past Because as he was so are we in this world As if the meaning were this Why should not we be bold to stand to the cause of Christ If we suffer for him it is but what he did for our sakes We are thereby rendred conformable unto him He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and shall we not willingly partake of his sufferings Vide Marian. in loc I am the rather confirmed in this interpretation from the following words v. 18. There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear as if he had said if persons love Christ sincerely which is Evangelical perfection if they love him really and in good earnest they will not be terrified with the threatnings of men but they will acknowledge him for their Master in the midst of an adulterous and sinful generation and though they should be dealt with for it even as they dealt with Christ Why Because they dearly love him and that love keepeth under their carnal fear and causeth them to go on with courage amidst all oppositions * The Gnosticks whom as some think the Apostle here confutes held that Christians in danger might to save their lives deny Christ outwardly Provided that they owned him in their-hearts To confute which devillish opinion St. John asserts the necessity of confessing Jesus v. 15. answerable to Matth. 10.32 33. And here he sheweth that denying Christ for fear of death was utterly inconsistent with love to him For many waters cannot quench love neither can the flonds drown it Cant. 8.7 And therefore when Peter had denyed his Master once and again for fear of danger what is the question that our Saviour puts to him after his Resurrection See Joh. 21.15 16 17. Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me more than these Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me He said to him the third time Simon Son of Jonas lovest thou me as if Christ had said haste thou not cause to question the integrity of thy love towards me Should not thy love have kept thee from disowning thy Lord even in the High-Priests-Hall though in times of danger Is there not reason for thee to search into the reality of thy love where was it at that time when thy carnal fear did so prevail 3. That love of Christ which will be evidential of our ingrafture into him must be a superlative love When we give the Lord Jesus the top of our affections and the uppermost seat in our hearts and place nothing above him or in competition with him When persons plead that they love Christ and it is pity he should live will some carnal people say that doth not love the Lord Jesus but they love the world better they love the Son of God but they have more love for their lusts and the pleasures of sin this is indeed to reject and despise him For Mat. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loveth son or danghter more than me is not worthy of me Luk. 14.26 If any man come to me and ha●e not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple If he doth not hate them that is if he have not a lesser affection for them than for me which in comparison with a greater love is a kind of hatted if he be not ready to cast them away even with detestation and to trample them under his feet when they come in competition with Christ as we are wont to do that which we hate and abhor he cannot be my disciple saith our Saviour For a Believers love to Christ must be a superlative love so as to account all things but loss and dung for Christ's sake and to part with all things to win Christ And to this purpose you must be much in studying the worth of Christ and be careful to get an insight into his excellency For as in secular negotiations men will never part with a great price for a commodity except they know the worth of that commodity so in spiritual affairs you will never be willing to sustain any great loss for Christ unless you know the excellency of him As your apprehensions of Christ's worth are such will be your readiness to venture and lose for Christ's sake Unless the Merchant had been acquainted with the preciousness of the pearl he would never have sold all that he had to buy it Mat. 13.45 46. 4. It must be a love of complacency and satisfaction when there is an holy acquiescence of the soul in Christ and a sweet contentment that ariseth from the enjoyment of Christ When it is the joy and rejoycing of a mans heart to be conversing with him * Amor est delectatio cordis alicujus ad aliquid propter desiderium in appetendo gaudium perfruendo Per desiderium cürrens requiescens per gaudium Else when persons say they love Christ but perhaps think not a serious thought of him from one end of the day to the other seldom or never have him in their meditations care little for any spiritual intercourse with him that is but a pretended love If a man love the Lord Jesus indeed he will long after converse with him it will be as marrow and fatness to his soul to be in his society Psal 63.1 2 3 8. O God thou art my God early wil I seek thee my soul thirsteth for thee my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no water is c. And v. 8. My soul followeth hard after thee It is love to Christ which maketh Believers so prize the Ordinances wherein they are wont to meet with him that is the reason why they take it so heavily to be deprived of those priviledges and that they can hardly bear the withdrawment of his presence but their spirits are ready to sink within them See what effect it had upon the Spouse Cant. 5.6

the uttermost 2 Cor. 5.14 Do we make void the law through faith God forbid yea we establish the law Rom. 3.31 But now as it is a Covenant of life and doth promise justification unto the observers of it so the death of Christ doth deaden us unto the law it is of notable force and efficacy to take off a man from building and bottoming upon his own legal performances For this very topick the Apostle argueth with the Galatians cap. 3.1 O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified among you Mark it the great matter wherein the Galatians fell from the truth of the Gospel was by adhaering to the law and seeking righteousness therein Now saith the Apostle a man would have thought the doctrine of Christ's death and crucifixion might have been a strong fence against that error unless you had been under a kind of fascination and witchcraft upon your spirits Hath the great fundamental principle of the death of Christ been so plainly and faithfully preached unto you and set forth amongst you in such lively colours as if he had been crucified before your eyes and are you still so foolish as to rest upon the law Certainly this is an argument of abundant sottishness and madness or else you have quite forgotten the doctrine of Christ's death and neglect to make a due improvement thereof The death of Christ will be of notable use to deaden a man to the law by making a threefold discovery 1. By discovering the sinfulness and damnableness of the evil of sin or transgressionof the law of God in that it could be expiated at no lesser rate than by the crucifying of the Son of God It is not any corruptible thing as silver and gold could make satisfaction for sin but the precious blood of the Son of God and therefore certainly it is an evil of a very heinous nature Thus my brethren a real sight of the greatness of the evil of sin would sooner convince a man of the insufficiency of all his legal righteousness to satisfie for the wrong that is done unto God by it If men think to recompence the Lord by any obedience of their own for the sins whereof they are guilty it is because they have low and slight thoughts of the evil of their sins Now the death of Christ may serve to rectifie such thoughts and to set forth the damnableness of the nature of sin And indeed it was one of the ends which God aimed at in the death of Christ as to save the sinners so to damn the sin Rom. 8.3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh He condemned it that is he made it thereby to appear what a deadly destructive and damnable nature it is of how odious and abominable a thing it is in his sight * He condemned it of that capital crime that it was the meritorious cause of the death of Christ who was most innocent Engl. Annot. By what way was this made to appear Why because nothing could appease his wrath but the crucifying of the Lord Jesus Undoubtedly it must needs be a very accursed thing for which Christ himself was made a curse 2. The death of Christ is of use to deaden a sinner to the law by making discovery of the inexorableness of the justice of God of his severity and strictness in requiring the utmost farthing that is due for satisfaction He did not spare his own Son when he had iniquity laid upon him but he was put to a painful cursed ignominious and reproachful death so that let not the children of men ever expect to be spared if they lie under the guilt of the least ungodliness God the Father did not abate his own beloved Son any part of the punishment surely he will never make abatement unto his adversaries And this was another end of Christ's death to set forth the exactness and inexorableness of the justice of God that he will by no means clear the guilty Rom. 3.25 26. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus * Deus justitiam suam dicitur oftendisse quia non aliter remisit peccata hominum quam pretio iusto redemptionis accepto non ab ipsis hominibus sed a Christo pro nobis satisfaciente Justum ergo se Deus exhibuit in nostro justificatione liberalem seu gratiosum Justitia fuit relatione ad Christum gratia vero relatione ad nos Tolet in Rom. 3. Lastly the death of Christ will serve to take off a man from seeking justification by the law by making a full discovery that there is no other way imaginable to make reconciliation for sin and to deliver sinners from the wrath to come but the death of Christ only For Sirs if there had been any other way could have been found out undoubtedly God would have spared the dearly beloved of his soul he would never have striken and bruised his only begotten Son For as the Apostle argueth If there had been a law given which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the law Gal. 3.21 q. d. Had that way been sufficient to save men and women from everlasting destruction God would have taken that way and prevented the sorrows and sufferings of his Son He would never have sent him into the world in such a low and despicable condition nor have brought him into such strairs and agonies as made him sweat drops of blood not would he have poured out upon him the vials of his wrath for the accomplishment of that which might have been otherwise accomplished So that to test for justification upon the law is in effect to frustrate and make void the grace of God in the death of the Mediator For if righteousness come by the law then Christ is dead in vain Gal. 2.21 Thus much for the fifth Proposition touching the way of a sinners union or conjunction with the Lord Jesus 6. Propos 6. The way of the actual conjunction between Christ and his people when they are thus divorced from sin and deadned to the Law may be conceived thus The Lord Christ by his Spirit taketh possession of them and dwelleth in them and Believers through faith of the operation of the Spirit take hold of Christ and get into him and so they are knit together and become one For this conjunction you must understand is a mutual conjunction * Abide in me and I in you And again He that abideth in me and I in him By which

Christ's mind is placed and act in the like manner as his acteth Their hearts must be moulded into the same frame with his heart and so I might instance throughout the whole man Christ must be formed in them Gal. 4.19 And Phil. 2.5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus They must be so clothed with his divine qualities that it may be said they have put on the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 13.14 2. There must be conformity to the sufferings of his death in a spiritual sense As Christ died for sin so Believers must die unto sin As our Lord Jesus was put to a painful lingring and ignominious death in like sort must their corruptions be mortified and killed For Mark it Sirs The death and crucifixion of our Lord Jesus is not only the meritorious cause through which sin is mortified and a strong evangelical reason why it should be mortified but it is also the pattern and exemplar according to which it is done In the very same way and manner as Christ was put to death for us so are our lusts and corruptions to be crucified within us Hereby we are rendred conformable unto his death Phil. 3.9 and planted together into the ●●keness of his death Rom. 6.5 3. There must be conform●y to the Lord Jesus in his resurrection and ascension into heaven As he rose again from the dead and went up into heaven never to return to corruption any more so must the hearts of believers be raised unto spiritual objects and their affections set upon things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God Col. 3.1 Their hearts must be withdrawn from sin and the world never to be ingaged upon them any more but they must live as persons that are revived and made partakers of a new life Rom. 6.4 As he was raised from the dead by the glory of the father even so must we also walk in newness of life 4. Believers must be made conformable unto Christ in the holiness of his conversation They must tread in his steps doing the same work as he did and acting upon the same principles and motives as he acted upon and carrying on the same designs as Christ carried on and serving the Lord in the like manner with cheerfulness delight and alacrity as he served him Eph. 5.2 Walk in love as Christ also loved us And Rom. 15.1 2 3. We ought not to please our selves but every one his neighbour for his good to edification for Christ also pleased not himself c. 5. They must expect to be made conformable to Christ in the troubles and persecutions that befel him upon the earth Therefore it is called a suffering with him that is the same things and in like manner as he suffered Rom. 8.17 If we will be faithful unto Christ we must look to meet with the like usage as he met with and to go through many tribulations into the Kingdom of God This is the second thing to be noted under this comparison 3. According to the purport and tenour of this similitude taken from the foundation and the building Our faith which is the uniting grace is a resting upon Christ and his righteousness The stones are joyned to the foundation by being laid upon it and there resting So when we lay the stress of our salvation upon Christ and cast our burden upon him and there stay our selves as upon a rock thereby we are united unto Jesus and made one with him By nature we are as rough unpolished stones in a quarry without any relation to Christ Now the work of conviction may be compared to the unsettling of these stones and humiliation and legal terrors upon the heart are the hewing of these stones By the first they are removed out of the Quarry and by the other their ruggedness is pared away The grace of conversion is as the fitting and polishing the stones for the building and faith is a putting them upon the foundation and their resting upon it As by the cement of love the stones are coupled one to another so by faith they are knit unto the foundation By the Spirit they are brought unto Christ and so stay upon him Isa 50.10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his servant and walketh in darkness and hath no light Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God Rom. 9.33 Behold I lay in Sion stumbling stone and rock of offence and whosoever believeth on him shall not be confounded Mark it As Christ is a foundation to his people so he is a rock of offence to them that are disobedient they split themselves against this rock they stumble and fall and are broken in pieces If you would be saved by him you must by faith rest upon this foundation For whosoever believeth in him shall not be confounded 1 Pet. 2.4 5. To whom coming as unto a living stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and precious Ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house c. See likewise Eph. 2.21 22. This is all that I shall speak under the sixth general Head for the illustration of this Mystery of Union with Christ by those similitudes which the holy Ghost hath made choice of to this purpose That which remains further is the Application of the Point CHAP. X. Inferences drawn from the Doctrine of Union with Christ The excellency and dignity of Believers The peculiarity of the providence of God towards them The miserable estate of Christless sinners FOr Application or practical improvement of this Doctrine I will manage it under these three Heads By way of 1. Information 2. Examination 3. Exhortation 1. By way of Information What are the practical Inferences which may be deduced from this Point of a Believers union with the Son of God and the necessity thereof I will not aim at the ingrossing of all that might be taken in upon this fruitful and spiritual subject Only I shall select these three Inferences which naturally arise from what hath been delivered 1. If believers are united unto Christ and made one with him in order to their salvation then hence I gather That they are the most honourable and most excellent persons upon the face of the earth Why Because they are united unto the Son of God and accordingly they should have the greatest esteem of us and be most precious and lovely in our eyes It is the character of a man that shall see the Lord in Sion that he contemneth a vile person but he honoureth them that fear the Lord Psal 15.1 4. Now here is that which maketh them right honourable above all their fellow-creatures they are intimately joyned unto Christ So that the Saints which are in the earth are the excellent of the earht Psal 16.3 more excellent than their neighbours than all that dwell round about them Prov. 12.26 You know the excellency or worthlessness of any