Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	mortify_v	repentance_n	subdue_a	30	3	16.9251	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

of my fathers have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger I will arise and go to my father When he came to himself that is when he entered into debate with his own spirit * Ut nemo tenat in se descendere Per. sat when he communed with his own heart touching his deplorable condition then he quickly resolveth to abide amongst the swine no longer he will feed no more upon husks he will rather be as the meanest servant in his fathers house a door-keeper in the house of God than dwell in the tents of wickedness Before that time he gave up himself in subjection to his lusts and did not consider what he was doing he did not bethink himself as the expression is 1 Kings 8.47 If they shall bethink themselves and repent This is the second act in order to a divorce from sin An act of Consideration 3. There is a work of Humiliation and Compunction whereby the spirit is made to mourn and ●ament in the sense of sin and withal to tremble in apprehension of the danger of it This is that pricking to the heart which is the usual forerunner of conversion Acts 2.37 Now when they heard this they were pricked to the heart and they said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles men and brethren what shall we do Now their consciences are wounded and they mourn in reflection upon their evil wayes They are as an heavy load and burden uptheir spirits What shall we do q.d. We are utterly ruined and undone except the grace of God step in for our recovery Can you shew us any way to escape we are ready to close with any directions prescribed When God doth bless mens souls in turning them from their iniquities he doth first cause them to grieve and be in bitterness for those iniquities and stirreth up in them a dread and fear of his judgments * Quos non expugnat ratio eos mansuefacit motui For mark it Sirs although it be love unto God and sense of the love of God which have a mighty influence to cause a converted person to cleave unto the Lord yet it is a dread and fear of wrath and judgment which bringeth a sinner in the first conversion unto God Thus you know the Jaylor came in trembing Acts 16.29 30. And when Christ doth shoot out his sharp arrows into mens hearts then the people fall down under him Psal 45.5 It may well be understood of these arrows of compunction and terror * Haec dicuntur typicè de evangelicâ administratione Christi Malv in Psal 45. Cordaque vul●ificis figens inimica sagittis Sponte sibi cogis valides precumbere gentes Buchan The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rendred shall fall down may well be be meant of an act of adoration So it is used in Deut. 9.25 in Chald. Dan. 2.46 Dan. 3.7 whereby the perversness of mens hearts is overcome and subdued of enemies they are made friends and brought into to a ready subjection unto his government That 's the third work 4. The grace of Repentance is poured out upon the soul whereby the heart is crucified unto sin and the reigning power of sin is removed and a standing aversness and antipathy put into the spirit against it When this is done then the divorce is compleated and the sinner is set at liberty from his corruptions that he may be joyned unto Christ For it is not all the arguments and perswasions in the world that can effectually prevail upon a man to cast off his iniquities and bring him from under the power of sin until the Spirit of God doth set home those arguments and doth deaden sin in the heart * Alii partes formales regenerationis duas constituunt mortificationem veteris vivificationem novi hominis Et haec illam necessario praesupponit à qua non re sed ratione tantum distincta est Wend. Syst majus Restraints of providence may keep a man from the outward acts of sin but still the heart is glewed to it As Balaam durst not comply with Balaack actually to curse the Israelites but fain he would have done it his heart followed the wages of unrighteousness 2 Pet. 2.15 But now the spirit of Repentance taketh down the dominion of sin and breaketh * I distinguish between the grace of Repentance in the first workings of it upon the heart and the exercise of Repentance in the further mortifying and subduing of sin the bonds of the Covenant whereby the sinner was held fast in subjection to it and then he doth say What have I to do any more with my idols Therefore believers are said to be dead to sin Rom. 6.1 2. and to have their old man crucified with Christ that they may no longer serve sin Rom. 6.6 Thus they are set free from sin that they may be united to Christ and become the servants of God through Christ Rom. 6.22 This may serve for opening the fourth Proposition 5. Propos 5. To deaden a person unto the Law and to take him off from seeking justification by the Law that he may be united or married to the Lord Jesus God doth especially make use of two means 1. The Law it self 2. The body of Christ that is the sufferings which he underwent in his body For this you have the Scripture express Gal. 2.19 For I through the Law am dead to the Law q. d. by studying the Law it self I see it can never avail to give me acceptation with the most high Whatever expectations I have formerly had that way I now utterly renounce them and the Law it self hath sufficiently instructed me in this Lesson 2. For the sufferings of Christ that place is obvious Rom. 7.4 Wherefore my brethren ye are also become dead to the Law * Mori legi est illi renuntiare ab ejus imperio manumitti ita ut nihil habeamus in eâ fiduciae Ne offenderet Judaeos verbi asperitate si dixisset legem esse mortuam deflexione usus est dicens nos legi esse mortuos Non ergo bene vivendi regula quam lex praescribit abrogata est sed qualitas illa quae libertati per Christum parta opponitur Nempe dum summam perfectionem requirit quia non praestamus constringit nos sub aternae mortis reatu Calv. by the body of Christ that ye should be married to anther even to him that is raised from the dead q.d. This instruction God hath given us from Golgotha that by the works of the Law no flesh can be justified indeed our hearts have been hankering after that way of life and acceptance nay we have ben closely linked thereunto but the body of Christ hath made a separation between them The body of Christ i. e. the passion of Christ in his body The doctrine of Christ's death and crucifixion if rightly improved will shew a man the Law 's utter insufficiency to give a

you will undoubtedly fall short of the righteousness of Jesus Christ you do quite put your selves from under his shadow If you rest upon the works of the Law never think to receive benefit by the death of the Mediator of the covenant of peace and reconciliation Christ is become of none effect unto you Now Sirs justification by works is mans natural element upon which his soul is fixed and where he delights to dwell Although the Law is disabled to minister relief unto fallen sinners yet there is a proness in them to follow after it still and to rest their souls upon that foundation This is plain from the pains the Apostle Paul taketh in his Epistles to unsettle men from this bottom to take them off from leaning upon this broken reed especially in his Epistles to Rom. and Gal. Besides you read expresly of mens desires to be under the Law Gal. 4.21 Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law q. d. I perceive that hitherward your spirits have a tendency there is a natural inclination in you to split your selves upon this rock as there is in a stone to deseend downwards towards its center As the Law is a rule of life so it is written upon the heart of a Believer but unregenerate persons cleave to it as it is a covenant of works they make use of it so as to seek justification from thence And this mostly ariseth from that monstrous pride which is fast rooted and rivered in mens hearts they would fain advance something of themselves and are loath to give the glory of their salvation to another It is an harder thing to close with the grace of God and to glorifie free grace in salvation than most persons imagine This is the second Proposition That unconverted sinners are not only separated from Christ but actually joyned unto such objects as are utterly incompatible with their being in Christ 3. Propos 3. Hence it clearly followeth as a third Proposition That the first work which is wrought upon the spirit of a man in order to his conjunction and oneness with the Lord Jesus it is the separation or withdrawment of his soul from these objects unto which he is joyned in opposition unto Christ Till this work be done the finner is not in a neer capacity of having the Son of God of being joyned to the Redeemer First a bill of divorcement must be written and the former husbands put away before the soul can be married to another husband to him that is raised from the dead For Sirs Christ will not be a sharer with another if he have the soul at all he will have it altogether if persons have the Son really they must have him only So that first the soul must be wrought upon to renounce those things which stand in competition with the Lord Jesus that they may be in a preparedness to be knit unto him Psal 45.10 11. Hearken O daughter and consider and incline thine car forget also thine own people and thy fathers house so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty They are words spoken of the mystical marriage betwixt Christ and his Church * Hoc de Ecclesiâ quam ut Christi regis uxorem depingit Vides de Christo esse sermonem qui enim de Solomone diceret Quoniam ipse est Dominus Deus cuus Marian. in loc and they amount to thus much q. d. If you will have Christ you must forsake all things for Christ if you will be joyned unto him you must be parted from all besides him as a virgin that will be espoused to an husband must forsake father and mother and cleave to her husband First you must be broken off from the old stock if you will be ingraffed in the true vine This is a special part of that self denial which is required in the followers of Jesus Mar. 8.34 Whosoever will come after me let him deny himself He must den● his carnal self and say to his corruptions get ye hence he must deny his legal self by renouncing all confidence in the flesh in his own righteousness as to justification in the sight of God he must be dead to sin and the Law if he will be married to the Son of God See the proof of each 1. He must be dead to sin Gal. 5.24 They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts * Carnens pro radice posuit concupiscentias pro fructibus Caro enim est ipsa naturae corruptae vitiositas unde mala omnia prodeunt Calv. in loc Such as are united to his person must be planted together into the likeness of his death as he died for sin so must they be dead unto sin as Christ was crucified in the flesh so must their corruptions be crucified in them The principle or body of sin must be subdued and the lustings and workings of it must be set against else it will be in vain to pretend that they are knit unto Christ 2. He must be dead to the Law because it is impossible for a man to be coupled to both together It was a defectiveness herein which was the cause of the utter undoing of the carnal Israelites they were fast joyned unto the Law and they could not be taken off from seeking life upon those terms and therefore though they followed after righteousness yet they did not attain it they fell short of righteousness How came it to pass that they fell short of what they sought after Why Because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the Law Rom. 9.31 32. That 's the third Proposition The first work that is wrought upon the spirit of a man in a tendency to his conjunction and oneness with Christ is the separation of his soul from sin and the Law to which he is naturally joyned in opposition to Christ 4. Propos 4. The divorce and separation of a sinner from his iniquity which is of indispensable necessity to the reception of Christ and union with him is principally accomplished by a fourfold act 1. The eyes of the understanding are opened to see the evil of sin 2. The heart is awakened to consider the consequents of that evil 3. The spirit is made to tremble in apprehension of the danger of continuing in sin 4. The grace of mortification is poured out for the subduing of corruption and a secret antipathy put into the soul against it When this work is wrought then the sinner is set free from bondage unto his lusts and is at liberty to be married to another I will briefly touch upon these four steps or acts of the holy Ghost whereby tho divorce is made 1. There is an act of Conviction whereby the eyes of the understanding are enlightened to see the evil of sin and that with application to a mans self and his own transgressions and iniquities For indeed general notions of the evil of sin will never have a

shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That 's the second thing I intended for the confirmation of this property of a Believers union with Christ viz. the inseparableness of it 3. A little to vindicate this point from the grand exceptions thas are made against it I will lay down only two rules Rule 1. This doctrine of the perseverance of a sincere Believer in the faith or the inseparableness of his union with Christ is so far in it self from being as enemy to practical holiness and new obedience that if rightly improved it will be a mighty incentive and provocative thereunto It will have a powerful influence to inlarge a mans heart to run the steps of God's commandments and to cause him to take heed unto himself to continue upright and undefiled in the way of the Lord. This assertion I maintain to obviate the main cavil and objection that is made against this comfortable truth For there is an aspersion cast upon it as if it were not a doctrine according to godliness as if it did minister occasion to slothfulness and carelessness and carnal security They will be ready to say who are the opposers of this truth if a person be in Christ so as to be sure he shall in no case be separated from him then they will be apt to think they may live as they list that they may take what liberty they please to indulge the flesh and satisfie their lusts and walk in a way of licentiousness seeing whatever they do they shall abide in a state of grace and come safe to heaven at the last Thus a door say they would be opened to all manner of wickedness But mind it Sirs It is a calumny falsely laid to the charge of this doctrine For in it self it is a strong argument and motive unto holiness It is a consideration that may have a tendency to the mortifying sin and awakening the Spirit if rightly pressed on the soul and thus it will be improved by a gracious heart * Hac igitur certitudo perseverantiae non potest consistere cum deliberate proposito peccandi nedum tale quid causari Piis exercitiis procreatur conservatur eadem etiam invicem procreat conservat auget Ames Coron 'T is true there is not the most wholsom herb but a toad or spider may suck poyson from it there is not the most heavenly doctrine but a carnal heart will pervert it unto evil especially such truths as are purely evangelical that hold forth the free grace of God Jude 4. They turn the grace of God into lasciviousness that is not only the experience which they have of the grace of God in the exercise of it in their preservation and affording to them means and seasons for working out their salvation but it seemeth principally to be meant of the doctrine of the grace of God There is no doctrine more influential in its native tendency to the subduing of sin and crucifying the flesh and quickning to a closs walking with God But ungodly men wrest it and writhe it to countenance their filthiness So hath it befallen this particular point of the Saints perseverance though in its proper causality it will help to cleanse a man from all the filthiness of the flesh and spirit and make him vigorously to pursue the designes of holiness See what use the Apostle Peter makes of it 1 Pet. 1.5 13. He had before told them that they were elect according to the foreknowledge of God v. 2. and that this grace of election had broken forth in their regeneration from whence they had a lively hope of enjoying the inheritance prepared for the Saints v. 3 4. And then he doth assure them that they were kept by the power of God is the state of grace that they might not fall short of actually possessing what they hoped for v. y. c. And in the close of all he subjoyneth this exhortation v. 13. Wherefore gird up the loyns of your minds be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts in your ignorance but as he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation q. d. If God hath graciously taken care of the concernment of your souls will not you be diligent to advance the glory of his grace Will not you be ashamed to sin against him who hath in every respect dealt so bountifully with you If the Lord has not been unmindful of securing your salvation will not you mind his honour and follow his conduct Should not this mightily prevail upon you never to cast off this God but to cleave unto him unto the end O set diligently and industriously about your work be ready and prepared for all the wayes of holiness and to continue stedfast and unmoveable therein Do not walk as the generality of people walk nor as your selves have formerly walked for God hath called you out of the world and prepared for you a kingdom and taketh care of your preservation that you may come to the enjoyment of it This is the proper use of this doctrine which will plainly appear if you seriously weigh these four things 1. That God hath not promised to preserve his people in the state of grace and union with Jesus Christ whether they be holy or no or however they walk But the promise is to keep them in the exercise of grace in the ways of holiness that so they may not be separated from him If any represent it in another dress it is not the Scripture doctrine of perseverance but they endeavour to cast a slurre upon it We do not teach that God hath ingaged to bring his people safely to heaven let them live as they list or that he will keep them from falling away from Christ though they cast off the fear of the Lord and run to all excess of riot But God hath ingaged to inable them to live the life of the just and to cause them to fear his Name and through the Spirit to mortifie the deeds of the body that so they may never draw back to perdition 1 Pet. 1.5 Ye are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation It is not said God will keep them by his almighty power whether they believe or no but he will suodue their unbelief and set their faith on work in order to their being secured Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear into their hearts that they shall not depart from me Mark it is not said They shall never depart from G●d though they slight his word and despise his Majesty and reject the fear of his Name But he will maintain in their hearts an holy aw and dread of him that so they may never be cast out of his favour 2. Consider That the