after the flesh ye shall die but if thro' the spirit ye do mortifie the deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 8.6 13. and again he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Gal. 6.8 and again in the latter respect only Rom. 7.5 The motions of sin do work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death And indeed I am apt to believe that all the reveal'd Precepts of God are only Warnings of the Events of Things what will fatally follow the kind of our Moral Behaviour or Actions and the bent of our Minds one way or t'other not what is arbitrarily dispens'd upon them and methinks this more answers the wisdom of God when things are so constituted that Mens Fortunes attend the Habitudes they are under and follow their free Actions or the Dispositions they have brought into their Minds by that means This renders God as kind to us as we will be to our selves he thus putting our Happiness in our own hands that thro' the Helps he has afforded us in his beloved Son we may obtain it to what degree we please and this acquits him of Severity which some call Injustice on the account of eternal Punishments for Temporary Faults when these are the Fates of Mens Aversion to him the wicked Temper they have voluntarily acquir'd and made in themselves I do not deny but that there will be both positive Rewards and Punishments but these are still founded and have their Cause in our own Tempers And I cannot think but the contrary Doctrine that the Heavenly Felicites are merely with respect to a tenour of Obedience that may be such an outside business without deriving its effect to the Heart and not on the ground of such an Effect or internal Habit I cannot think but this lessens the Notion of the Divine Wisdom as it takes away the relation of the two States this and that of Heaven to one another not making their Happiness both of a piece the same Temper or Principle with their proper Enjoyments carry'd on to their perfection there and as it puts the Circumstances of the next World Blessedness or Misery only upon an arbitrary Decree of God not so corresponding with the Natures of things or consequential to them Nor seems it a consistent or agreeable Proceeding with a free Creature that he should have any Events attending him but what are as it were necessary upon him the Results of that Temper he has form'd in him But that we may even have the experience of this Doctrine or observe it in others we plainly see that Habits of Life determine the sort and found the most affecting Relish or Sense of all the Enjoyments we have nay that this Relish commonly lasts not to say always after the proper time is over of pursuing those Acts from whence it was as Plutarch tells us concerning the old Olympick Wrestlers who had safely come off from so many hazards that they mainly delighted to be Spectators of those savage Exercises when years had depriv'd them of the Honour as they esteem'd it of being Parties themselves viz. of spilling their own Blood or that of others in them And we may every day sadly remark in worn out Debauchees among our selves how their Vices stick in their decrepid Natures and what polluted Souls they carry about with them and if this be so as to Vitious Courses when People are disabl'd from acting any more the wicked Instance much more will it hold with regard to the Habits of a Holy Life where the capacity of the Vertuous Act not only continues but is ever increas'd with a farther complacency that must likewise attend it Thus we lay the Foundation of our after State whether Happiness or Misery from our own Behaviour Heaven possesses us according to our Improvements of a Gospel Vertue or Hell seizes us while we persist in our Evil Courses these begin here the one and the other how they will increase or enlarge of themselves in a Spiritual World tho' we may pretty well guess at this part and what positive degrees may be added to either of them what Light and Glory or what inflicted Punishment we cannot tell farther than Revelation teaches us but be sure they are both dispens'd being said to be Recompenses and eternal too upon the ground of the use of our Wills or our voluntary Behaviour as that has wrought certain Dispositions in us or to speak the Pythagorean Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierocl p. 314. as by our growth and increase in Holiness the Assimilation That founds to all good Spirits Angels and God we prepare our selves to be Partners with them in the freest Communications of that infinite Being whereon depends all the Happiness of created Natures as well theirs as ours We are thus to be quickned thro' the Efficacy of the Spirit and our earnest Diligence or Strivings with him a Christian Temper a Habit of the highest Gospel-Righteousness is thus to be obtain'd or laid in our Minds And I think no more can be urg'd to engage us to the attainment thereof than that 't will make us as knowing in the best kind and as happy as we can possibly be or our Natures will admit of both here and hereafter unless that will more prevail that the neglect of this or the contrary Habit from a course of Sin will render us miserable to the same degrees which is a matter of equal Truth and a more forcible Argument with most People tho' it express a great Depravity and Disingenuity in them That therefore by all the most prevailing Means and Motives that can be offer'd a reasonable Creature we may arrive at a State of Holiness even according to the Doctrines of our blessed Saviour God of his infinite Mercy grant thro' the Mediation of this blessed Saviour and in the helps of the eternal Spirit to whom three Persons and one undivided Essence or Nature be eternally ascrib'd by us and every Creature in Heaven and Earth all Honour Glory Thanksgiving and Praise Amen Amen THE END
Insults instead thereof 't will more than support them that they have done their part been Friendly and Bountiful as they were able and not deserv'd such usage from any I say not only these Advantages attend Beneficence where Men are so loosned from Self and the World as to be able to procure them and be Possessors of them but one far greater is still behind our Minds are improv'd and gradually carry'd on by the proper Acts of this great Gospel-Affection of Charity to farther Attainments of the Habit thereof and so still can admit of freer Communications of God's good Spirit or Grace into them which if they can admit be sure they shall enjoy These Advantages questionless in all respects the first Christians experienc'd who so bravely surmounted the intanglements of Property the great Bane of most Vertues among Christians and resign'd it up among all their Brethren equally distributing or bequeathing their Estates as every one had need more to others than they left for their own share if those needed more This Christian Principle moves the Man upon the generous grounds of Value or Esteem of his own Kind and Friendship towards it and as its Instances are repeated continually promotes that happy Temper in him as free from all Suspicions as private Designs As to the behaviour of Heathens towards their Brethren or whose Actions proceed not on the Gospel-doctrines such a Principle in their Soul all their Politics and Morals in this respect are influenc'd from a Jealousie of Humane Nature to fence as well as they can against Insults and Injuries and offer less Hardships to other People on this alone slavish score that they return not greater or retaliate upon them Good Humour and Benignity towards their Creator's and their own Image which acts the Christian is no Motive with them This is the Spirit of the Leviathan and other Materialists as I may so call them of the Epicurean Herd who have writ of Governments and put their Systems of Ethics upon us that have their Foundations in Sense only viz. Reason hindred as to its true prospects and warp'd by it And as to the Duties respecting God the Man thus retriev'd into the freedom of his Reason from its Servitude to Sense and thus capable of the Influences of the Spirit of Grace and thus enliven'd or quickn'd thereby he can easily bafle all the attacks of Atheism carry his Faith and Assurance above the Region of Matter believe an eternal Omnipresent Spirit no ways liable to Bodily Eyes and other Immortal Spirits likewise created by him that can only be the subjects of Reason and Thought one whereof he knows is lodg'd or confin'd within his feeble outside his Tabernacle of Clay and performs all the intelligent Acts there Discerning their reasonableness the relation they bear to the Nature of Man he will readily observe every Rule of the Gospel the strictest Precepts of Righteousness and Vertue and having purify'd his Mind by that means brought down the stubborn Principle of Flesh the Seat of haughty Conceit and Pride and no Interest of his laying cross to the most comfortable Notion of an Almighty Good and Just Being he will not only entertain this great Doctrine without the least diffidence but extremely triumph in it build all his Trust or Affiances upon it and make it the support of his whole Life whatever Circumstances he be concern'd among giving up his Assent to whatever is reveal'd after his Conviction of the Revelation it self tho' he no ways comprehends the internal Reason or Mode thereof as not only that one Spirit existing from nothing or without any Cause pervades the Universe is present in every part thereof to observe and govern all Events but that there are three complete Subsistences distinguish'd every one by personal Acts in the strictest unity of a spiritual Being This he is fully persuaded of being plainly deliver'd in the inspir'd Books notwithstanding that he cannot account for it by any Faculties he has the Carnal Part being well subdu'd as I observ'd before in which Arrogance is founded there is nothing to oppose God but the Mind presently submits to whatever he declares even concerning the unconceivable Mysteries of his Nature as every Creature that must needs be finite in its Powers the highest Seraphin thinking wisely and understanding it self will certainly do Such a Person so acting above the Principle of Sense and he only can be duly Conversant in Spiritual Exercises with a just Intention address God offer up a more fervent Supplication to him entertain himself suitably in Contemplation of him the study of his All-perfect Being or Nature as as he 's more deliver'd from the importunity of the Fleshy Appetites that so obstruct these blissful Instances whence he will enlarge the Faculties of his Soul thro' this right determination this due use of them that they shall be able to discern more of God in their own mere act while they attain their native Aspirings more Yet nevertheless but a small part of this Sacred Knowledge is thus obtain'd in this happy Person being so qualify'd in his own Temper the holy Spirit will diffuse himself freely upon him and still by farther improv'd Beams as this Christian Habit is more advanc'd till his own weak Faculties be as it were absorpt in the Rays of this Comforter and he only see and act thro' Him as far as God can reveal himself to a Virtuous Soul a Saint of His or work by him and produce the Fruits of Holiness in him consistently with the Freedom of a voluntary Creature that must have its Behaviour reckoned to it self This blessed Spirit will then be another vital Form within him wholy over-ruling his own Spirit which being more recover'd into its pure Nature and less subject to the will of the Flesh the Root of Disobedience or Corrupt Desire must be more easily governable by him under his Conduct in all things more securely led thro' his clearer Suggestions to every Instance of a Gospel-Behaviour So that such a Person may say with St. Paul 'T is not he that lives but this blessed Inspirer this Spirit of Christ that lives in him Gal. 2.20 This would be the circumstance of all Men if this gently operating but invincible might where it is duly comply'd withal were not hindred mainly as to most People altogether in some by unmortify'd Carnal Desires For this Heavenly Advocate our Lord obtain'd for us acting conformably to our free Constitution in still small Voices gentle Whispers to our Souls or Breathings upon them such as leave the Compliance entirely at our Pleasure and the Action our own with the Retributions belonging to it his workings can no ways possibly be perceiv'd among reigning Affections Appetites set in their full Strength whether to sensual Delights or Profits nor he attain any of his blessed Effects in those Persons where these are after such a manner as our Saviour tells us most part of People being such that the world cannot receive him
being fully deliver'd by such Miraculous Testimony as cannot reasonably be deny'd so that those who will not be induc'd in the exercise of their Freedom to study this Revelation which God be thanked he has given us in Writing and observe or practice the Terms of their Happiness it proposes can never certainly be prevail'd upon by any other Courses that Heaven can design nor do I mean that this Spirit should dictate words to People which perhaps he never did either to Prophets or Apostles only presenting a Scheme of Divine Truths to their Minds but leaving the Language to themselves to be express'd according to their different ways of Education and the prevailing Temper in them as we may observe their Figures and Stile ever answer'd these I say I do not mean that the Spirit should dictate words to People enable them to speak even the known Doctrines or Rules of the Gospel after an Extempore manner which would supersede their own Faculties and probably be an occasion of their Neglects in Heavenly Knowledge as it would greatly administer to Spiritual Pride and Contempt of others both which we may see the example of in a sort of Men among us that only conceit these things of themselves But my meaning is that the Spirit communicates such Light and Grace such clearer Informations of all saving Truths with respect to the Understanding such stronger Motives towards the rectifying of the Will upon our compliance with the means afforded us our due perusal of the Sacred Volumes the Dictates of this Spirit our honest Endeavours in the ways of Godliness according to the Precepts deliver'd in those Volumes as will secure us from any dangerous Error in point of Doctrine and enable us against all our evil Affections for every Vertue of a Christian Life we ever obediently following his Guidance and comporting with him This I mean by the larger Gifts of the holy Spirit in a Gospel-state that being dispens'd on our due Concourse with his first Motions a Vertuous Temper by that means after some measure obtain'd in our Minds they are only in order to our farther attainment of that Temper to afford our infirm lapsed Natures proper Assistances for that end not to operate in fluent Discourses or particular Revelations when we already have a complete Book given forth by this Spirit of our Faith and Practice that is of our whole Duty what God enjoyns us or is requir'd of us in the nature of Things with regard to our eternal Bliss and especially we cannot suppose this holy Inspirer thus to operate after this manner where Men imploy not their main Industry do not diligently Meditate in this Heavenly Book which Moses with respect to the Old Testament commanded his Charge the Israelites to do Night and Day Deut. 6.7.11.19 nor prepare their Minds by a more eminent degree of Gospel-Morals or Holiness of Life as some People who must be Conscious of their Defects in both these Instances unreasonably maintain of themselves and others that they are enabl'd whether to Preach or to Pray and I am apt to think as much without Fore-thought or Study too as the Apostles were And then as to this Doctrine of Habits the establishing the Spiritual Life the Heavenly Felicities and Joys upon them which I all-along here do as I do likewise the more liberal Gifts of the blessed Comforter in our Souls tho' this may not possibly be admitted by all but a pure Obedience not as it any ways disposes us for them accounted the Term of those great Rewards yet this Doctrine I think however it may be rejected plainly appears to be the Import of the Gospel-Law as this is not satisfy'd with outward Performances Opus operatum bare Acts of Obedience but every where condemns such giving them their deserv'd Stile of Hypocrisie when they are alone and requiring a compliance of the reasonable part a reconcilement of the Heart to its several Precepts that these be observ'd or conform'd withal in our very Thoughts which would be quite a needless Discipline unless an inward frame thus attainable were necessary for the Graces our Lord purchased the Joys he proposes And besides our blessed Saviour expresly says he repeats it to us that we must be born again or else we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God John 1.13.3.3 5. that is as he explains it we are to obtain a new Nature quite in opposition to the Desires of Flesh have another Temper advanc'd in our Spirits according to the Mind and Will of God so as that we may be capable of his Heavenly Bliss And the Apostles frequently tell us in Emblematical Phrases with reference to Christ that we must put off the Body of the Sins of the Flesh be altogether dead to them buried with our blessed Redeemer in Baptism when taking upon us his holy Profession we are to renounce those abominable Practices and likewise thro' the Faith of the operation of God his Almighty Power declaring it self in our honest Endeavours We must be raised with him to righteousness of Life Col. 2.12 Rom. 6.3 That we must crucifie the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts whatever proceeds from that evil Principle Gal. 5.24 that we being Dead as Christians should be to these Worldly Enjoyments and our true Life hid with Christ in God we must mortifie the Members of our Unregenerate Man which are set upon the Earth Earthly Interests or Pleasures there recounted by that Apostle Col. 3.3 5. This old Man we are injoyn'd again to put off which is corrupt according to the deceitful Lusts and to put on the new Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Eph. 4.22 24. Col. 3.9 10. we must be transform'd by the renewing of our Minds Rom. 12.2 All which places being so many Testimonies of the holy Spirit besides the plain Assertion of our Saviour evidently set forth that 't is something beyond a mere Obedience which duly distinguishing may be accounted the Effect thereof where sincerely perform'd from just Motives viz. a Habit of Piety as our Minds are recover'd from the Affections of Body a Spiritualiz'd Temper with such sort of Appetites or Desires in it that disposes Men for their eternal Bliss not the pure Instances of Obedience only which may possibly be perform'd even habitually too thro' a kind of Mechanism or for sinister Purposes without any amendment of Spirit or reformation in the Soul the sensual Nature with its proper Offspring still being the reigning Principle in such Persons And the Apostle expresly confirms this that it must be a Habit of Christian Purity a Triumph or Mastery over the Desires of Flesh that founds the Disposition for our true Happiness declaring likewise that an Indulgence of these lower Appetites is the Genuine Cause of our eternal Sufferings the fruitful Parent or Seed-plot of our Miseries whence they naturally spring To be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and Peace And again if ye live
A Description of the Unregenerate and the truly Christian Temper or State IN A SERMON PREACH'D before the University of Cambridge ON COMMENCEMENT SUNDAY In the Forenoon June 30. 1700. By JOHN GASKARTH D. D. Sometimes Fellow of Pembroke-Hall now Vicar of Alhallows Barking London 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Greg. Nyss Orat. Catechet 40. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. Paed. l. 3. c. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 12.14 CAMBRIDGE Printed at the UNIVERSITY PRESS for Edmund Jeffery Bookseller in Cambridge 1700. Ephes II. 1. And you hath he quickned who were dead in in trespasses and sins THE Apostle applies this as a general Doctrine not only to the Gentiles but even to the best of those Educated under the Mosaic Discipline himself and his other Fellow-Apostles ver 3. which he likewise declares Tit. 3.3 The word Quickned here is not in the original Greek but the parallel place Col. 2.13 plainly proves that our Author had it now in his mind likewise that 't is well supply'd by our Translators Indeed we find it expresly set down nearer hand even in a continu'd Sentence with the Text and as it were a Repetition of it ver 5. So that we may be sure of our English rendring of these words And as on the one part they belong to all whether in a mere State of Nature or under the Legal Dispensation or those that rest in a formal profession of the Gospel only not being enliven'd by the Grace and Spirit that Christ purchased or as they denote on the other that smaller number of true Christians who from a sinful course of Life according to the corrupt desires of Flesh are recover'd by the Spirit of holiness Rom. 1.4 the great Life-giving Gospel-principle into a Vertuous Demeanour the proper Exercises of our reasonable kind Justice Godliness Temperance Humility in their most exalted Christian degree as the Text has this Latitude or Comprehension in it I shall first explain both these Phrases Dead in sins and enlivened or quickned which divide the two Worlds of Mankind the Ungodly and the Righteous pretenders only and true Believers and then proceed on proper Heads of discourse from them First then dead in sins or thro' their effect cannot here refer to this Animal Life tho' Death often in this sense a shorter period of this Animal-Life than our natural Frame would otherwise arrive at is the consequence of a course of Sin but dead in this place must have another relation to a higher Life and Nature in us which Sin destroys And that is indeed a Spiritual Sensation a just Perception and relish of the Soul as to its proper Objects while it exercises its Faculties more separately from Body that portion of Matter with which it is vitally conjoyn'd not in pursuance of sensual Propensions or â—nder the influence of these but retaining its Liberty or Dominion over them with the true Apprehensions at first given it and by this means chusing or determining it self to right Moral Instances it becomes more capable of the displays of Grace and is more freely acted by them This is the true Life of Man when his Reasonable part lives in him he judges and tasts by his Mind alone and his best Faculties and then enjoys the plentiful effusions and beams of the Spirit and so in His Light sees Light that is knows things with the fullest evidence even in the demonstration of this blessed Agent as I may so speak This true Life is destroy'd by Sin or Men are dead to it thro' the habits thereof while the Mind thus descends from its pure Acts and forms its Judgments only with regard to the Ideas of Sense and in confusion with them and so must also be depriv'd of the freer influences of Divine Grace by that means Now Quickned is when from this sunk this liveless State by a true Repentance and thro' the Communications of the holy Spirit the privilege of Repentance and strength to perform it being both purchased for us by the meritorious Sacrifice of Christ quickned is when from this sunk this liveless State we are thus restor'd to an uncaptivated use of our Minds the true Apprehensions the right Judgments belonging to them and have the Rays of Grace more freely acting our Minds or Spirits to deliver them more from the straitness of Sense enlarge their Capacities beyond themselves and carry them to several advances of Knowledge in the way of Godliness that could be no proper Acquirements of theirs or result from them however honestly prepar'd and exercis'd Thus we attain the utmost advantages of reasonable Creatures or become Christians indeed Let us now see how these two Principles which define the Unregenerate and the Regenerate State Dead in sin and dead to sin so frequent Phrases in the New Testament how each of these will act or operate in the several Obligations Mankind are under with respect to themselves the other individuals of Humane Nature their Brethren and God as likewise take notice of the Fates and Consequences that attend these both And this lower Principle when it determines or governs the Man only prompts to the pleasures of Sense as corrupt Nature has the strongest Byass or stands most inclin'd in several Persons Some it drives on to the grossest Satisfactions an eager pursuance of the Affections of Flesh Lusts properly so call'd That most war against the Soul most hinder its native Aspirings and Powers and even degrade it from the eminency of its Nature its Spiritual Kind that it can employ none of its Faculties on its proper Objects not even on the eternal Being himself whose Image it is and in Communion with whom its truest its chiefest felicity consists but only use them with respect to the Body wherein 't is so immersed to invent some new sensual Entertainments or more enjoy the experienc'd Instances of this Brutish sort or Apologize for them And this the Heathen World who had the Rules of Morality of their own making not being bless'd with Revelation an inspir'd Law true Reason declar'd and enacted by God affords us a dismal example of even in some who were of the most refin'd Thoughts the most rais'd Philosophy among them And 't would be well if many enjoying the advantages of the Gospel in an utter rejection of these advantages and despite of the Spirit of Grace too that more largely accompanies this Dispensation did not still both pursue and defend or maintain such wicked Courses And the reason of these Men is not only thus warp'd to patronize Sin and imploy it self in Fruitless searches of still some new sensual Delights the lawful and allow'd Instances whereof that are without Remorses also ever affording the greatest I say the reason of these Men is not only thus warped but in a great measure defac'd and lost while they so far consent give themselves up to Carnal Relishes confus'd Satisfactions arising from Body as both to destroy those Relishes or Satisfactions thro' too vehement Indulgence of