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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39367	Reflections upon several passages in a book entitled, The reasonableness of a personal reformation, and the necessity of conversion with a letter to Mr. John Galpine, concerning his printed encomium of J.F.	Elys, Edmund, ca. 1634-ca. 1707.; Galpine, John.	1692 (1692)	Wing E688; ESTC R41123	6,865	24

Evident as it is that Our SAVIOUR had said Without Me ●●fe Can Do Nothing Agreeable to that ●aying of Our Blessed LORD and the whole Tenor of the Gospel are these words in the CATECHISM of the ●hurch of England after the Explica●●on of Our Duty towards God and ●ur Duty towards our Neighbour My good Child know this that ●hou art Not able to do these things of Thy self nor to walk in the Commandments of thy God and to serve him without his special Grace which ●hou must learn at All times to call for ●●y diligent Prayer Let me hear ●herefore if thou canst say the Lords ●rayer What desirest thou of God in this Prayer Answ. I desire my Lord God our Heavenly Father who is the Giver of All Goodness to send his Grace unto me and to all People that we may worship him serve him and obey him as we ought to do I do not find in all his Book one word Against those Hereticks who in so many Books lately Publisht and to heighten the Abomination upon Pretence of Pure Religion Blaspheme the Godhead of our Blessed SAVIOUR and of the HOLY GHOST And yet most certainly These Men as much as any other sort of Sinners if not much more Provoke the Wrath of GOD Against this Sinful Nation Since I.F. and his Companions make such Boasts of HOLINESS as if they were the only Persons that Contend for the Promoting of it in the World this I Affirm and Challenge any Non-Conformist to say any thing against it if h● will not Submit to my Assertion Tha● the Holiness or Sanctity of Man in th●● Life is no Other thing but that Ki●● of Belief of THE ARTICLES O● THE CHRISTIAN FAITH B● which the HOLY GHOST worketh in his Heart those Holy Desires which are Exprest in the LORDS PRAYER Now let any man of Common Sense Judge whether these Persons are the chief Promoters of Holiness who call the Ecclesiastical Injunctions for the Use of the CREED and the LORDS PRAYER in Religious Assemblies Toys and Trifles Against All the False Censures and Contumelious Speeches and Backbitings of this sort of Men I constantly APPEAL to Our Blessed LORD Saying from the bottome of my Heart COME LORD JESUS TO Mr. JOHN GALPINE Concerning His Printed Encomium Of J. F. YOUR undertaking to Adorn the Memory of such a PESTILENT Schismatick puts me in mind of what I wrote about Ten Years since concerning a Person that had a Fancy to shew the like Kindness to the Memory of T. HOBBS My words were these To Adorn the Memory of T. H. what is it but to Provide that the Corps of one that Dyed of the Plague may lye in State that People coming to Behold it may contract the Infection You say that I. F. was well acquainted with the Mysteries of the Gospel and in special with that admirable Mystery of Man's Redemption by Jesus Christ. How well he was acquainted with the Mystery of the Gospel we shall take Liberty to Judge who have Observ'd the Satanical Falsehood of a great part of the Doctrine he has deliver'd in his Writings particularly in the Book which he Impudently Entitles The Fountain of Life Open'd In the 182 pag. of that Book he has these very words There are not a whole World no not half but the far less part of the World Redeem'd with the Blood of Christ. If he that Believed this was well acquainted with the Mystery of the Gospel of that admirable Mystery of Man's Redemption by Jesus Christ then certainly the Blessed Apostle was very Erroneous who Says Expresly HE is the Propitiation for our Sins and not for ours only but also for the Sins of the WHOLE WORLD Since it is the Practice of so many of those that Deny the Truth of the Gospel as I. F. did to Accuse us as if we did derogate from the Doctrine of the Necessity of the Divine Assistance to Do any thing in order to our Salvation who Acknowledge that we have Learnt to Believe in God the Son who hath Redeemed us and ALL MANKIND I shall shew you that J. F. shew'd himself to be Guilty of this Pernicious Error in his Answer to the 20 th Question in the Sea-man's Catechism But I have no Strength of my own to come to Christ by and is it not absurd to urge me upon impossibilities in order to my Salvation This is indeed a Question of the Greatest Importance to the Souls of Men. The Answer that is given to it by all True Christians is this That though of Our selves or in Our own Natural Strength we are not Able to Do any thing Acceptable to God we May Do All things Through CHRIST Enabling us And CHRIST Offers the Assistance of His Holy Spirit to All those who upon the Hearing of the Gospel are Sensible of Their own Impotency to Come to CHRIST or to Walk in the Ways of God The Answer which I. F. gives to this Question is Contrary to the Sense of All True Christians for He w d Perswade a man to Act in order to his Salvation in His own Natural Strength You are more absurd says He in pleading and pretending your Impotency against your Duty To which I Reply that No man shall ever be Able to Perform any Duty that he owes unto God 'till he shall be Convinc'd that Of Himself or in His own Natural Strength he can Do Nothing but SIN For you think says He you have a Power to come to Christ else how do you quiet your Consciences with promises and resolves of Conversion hereafter Answ. They Follow the Father of Lies who Quiet their Consciences with any thing but a Sincere Resolution by the Help of CHRIST to Abstain from All Known Sin and to Perform All Known Duty both towards God and towards Man Nothing can be more Absurd than for one who Professes himself to be a Preacher of the Gospel to Disswade men from Believing that of themselves or Without the Divine Assistance they are altogether Unable to Perform any Duty to Do any thing Acceptable unto God You say He did what lay in him to live Peacebly with all Men. Let them Judge whether you speak the Truth who Consider the Malicious Reproaches he casts on the Church of England in the last Book he Publisht and in his Book Entitled Husbandry Spiritualiz'd and in the Sermon you have Publisht Entitled The Character of an Evangelical Pastor Husb. Spirit p. 94. This Book was Printed in the Year of Our Lord 1669 in which thus He Rails at the Church of England Tho there be Preaching Prayer and other Ordinances left at least the names and shadows of them yet the presence of God is not with them There is no marrow in the bone no milk in the breast and so as to Soul-subsistence 't is all one as if there were no such things In the Sermon you have Publisht your Evangelical Pastor that had FOUR WIVES Harps upon the same string 'T is manifest that the Minister

he inveighs against are the English Clergy in that he Marks them by the Character of those that Live upon the Profits And in that he gave the Whole Church of England the same Character in such plain terms in the Year 1669. There is no marrow in the bone no milk in the breast c. Is not this the same with what he now tells us viz. They Preach they Pray because they must do so but none are the better for their Prayers or Preaching They seem to labour an hour or two in a week but their labours turn to no account Nor can be expected to turn to any good account whilst they are neither animated by Faithfulness nor guided by Prudence Agricola writing De Amantibus Subterraneis tells us of a certain kind of Spirits that converse in Minerals and much infest those that work in them They seem to busy themselves according to the custome of Workmen They will digg and cleanse melt and sever the Metals Yet when they are gone the Workmen do not find that there is any thing done I Challenge You and All your Brethren to Say any thing Like Truth Against what I Say in Defence of the Church of England viz. That it is most Evident that those Men are Guilty of Abominable Iniquity who Endeavour to Seduce any People from the Communion of this Church in which the Fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion are so clearly and fully Exprest and those most Important Expressions so frequently Repeated that Persons of the lowest Intellectuals who do not Rebel against the Light in frequenting our Religious Assemblies may more easily attain to the Knowledge of all things that are Necessary to their Salvation than by Hearing or Reading the best Sermons that have been or shall be Preacht by any of the Non-Conformists to the End of the World Which Assertion is as Evident as it is That any Illiterate Persons may more easily Meditate on Truths plainly Exprest and frequently Suggested to their Remembrance than Collect the same Truths out of divers large Discourses if they were therein Imply'd So that it can hardly be imagined how any Man can be in any thing more Serviceable to the Destroyer of Souls than by Teaching People to Despise our Catechism and Common Prayer As to Your most SLANDEROUS Insinuation that We who have Warn'd the Country against the Wicked Errors that have been Publisht by I. F. do not heartily desire the Prosperity of the Church of Christ and of the Souls of Men we APPEAL to the Iudge of All Men Considering that within a very short Time we must Appear Before His Iudgment Seat And we all Concurr with Dr. MAVRICE in the Ardency of that Devotion which He Expresses in his Book Entitled A Defence of Diocesan Episcopacy pag. 443. Lord How long shall mean Delusions be permitted to have so powerful and prevailing influence How long shall the Woolf possess the Sheep against their Shepherds and break into the Folds under the disguise of Sheeps-Cloathing How long shall the deluded have eyes and not see and the Souls for which Christ Died be under the Power of Deceivers How long will it be e're the Hypocrite be disrobed and the People see through the disguise of those who abuse them Surely there will come a time when God will hear the Prayers and Expostulations of his Servants When the faithful Shepherd shall gather together those that are scattered and bring back those that are gone astray When he shall carry them on his shoulders rejoycing and triumphing in the disappointment of the beasts of prey But who shall live when this comes to pass Blessed surely shall their Eyes be who shall enioy the sight a joyful and pleasant thing beyond expression it will be to see Brethren dwell together in Vnity I Pray God to Bless You and to Turn You from your Iniquities And to Bring into the Way of Truth al● those that Err and are Deceiv'd by You. Your Servant and the Servant of All Men for Christ's Sake E. E POSTSCRIPT YOU say that all that have seriously perus'd Mr. Flavel's Books must needs suffrage with you that He was a Man of a sound and solid Iudgment I have perus'd divers of his Books with this Serious Consideration That I must give Account to Almighty God what Censure I pass on them Amongst many Remarkable Passages I have taken particular notice of this in his Husbandry Spiritualiz'd p. 187. When Fruits are shaken down from their Trees then the Husbandman separates them the far greatest part for the Pound and some few he reserves for an Hoard which are brought to his Table and eaten with pleasure This excellently shadows forth that great separation which Christ will make in the end of the World when some shall be cast into the Wine-press of the Almighty's wrath and others preserved for glory Those fruits which are preserved on the tree or in the hoard are comparatively but an handful to those that are broken in the pound Alass 't is scarce One of a Thousand and such a small remnant of Elected Souls hath God reserved for Glory Can you in good earnest conceive it was Judiciously done of this Famous Man thus to Compare the Wrath of God against the Damned and his Mercy to those that are Sav'd to the Pounding and Hoarding of Apples To any man that so Blasphemes the Divine Philanthropy as to say that God has Absolutely Reprobated All Mankind except such a small Number as One of a Thousand I shall give no other Answer but this The LORD Rebuke Thee FINIS

REFLECTIONS Upon Several Passages in a Book ENTITLED The Reasonableness of a Personal Reformation And The Necessity of Conversion With a LETTER to Mr. JOHN GALPINE Concerning his Printed Encomium of I. F. The Speech of Dead Men commonly proves more Effectual more Profitable or more Dangerous then that of the Living Dr. HAKEWIL in the Epistle Dedicatory of his Answer to Dr. Carier Printed in the Year 1692. TO THE READER THO' I had much rather this Paper had been Publisht whilst that Person whose Wicked Errors it Refutes was Living yet since it can be Testified by divers Honest men that it was written whilst He was Living And since it is to Me so Evident that the Book I mention tho it carries such a shew of Godliness is full of Deadly Poyson to the Souls of Men I think it my Duty to Give out to the World an Antidote Against it I earnestly beseech the Reader to Consider that it cannot be long before He and I shall Appear before the Iudgment-Seat of CHRIST to give Account of our Censures of all that we Hear or Read REFLECTIONS c. THE Reasonableness of Personal Reformation c. P. 4. We little know how far Unsanctified Reason may be prevail'd upon to quit its Throne and resign its Scepter into the hands of Lust and Appetite I. F. Unsanctified Reason is Always Subject to some Lust or Inordinate Appetite P. 5. Appeals to Reason may produce Reformation in some men sooner than Appeals to the Scriptures or Principles of Faith I. F. This is Contrary to the Common Sense of All True Christians and the Express word of JESUS CHRIST who says Without Me Ye Can Do nothing And by the Mouth of his Holy Apostle Without Faith it is Impossible to Please God And certainly it is the same thing to produce Reformation in any man and to Perswade him Effectually to do those things which are Pleasing unto GOD which cannot be Done Without Faith P. 9. It Reason stands ready to offer its service to thee to Save thee from or to receive thee out of those Mischiefs thou hast or mayst run thy self into if thou will but hear and obey its advice I. F. 'T is evident He speaks of Reason in Contradistinction to Religion for thus He begins this Section The Persons whose Reformation I particularly design by this method being men that exercise more Reason than Religion I. F. Now it can be no other than a most Detestable Heresy to Assert that Reason any farther then as it is Regulated by the Principles of Faith can ever Save a man from those Mischiefs which he would run himself into P. 20. Notwithstanding the present Captivity of Reason under usurping and domineering Lusts so long as it hath a permanent and fixed Root and Principle in their Nature 't is possible it may recover its Throne and Empire over them again I. F. Unsanctified Reason may turn its Subjection from one Lust to another but can never have a True Victory over any one Lust but by Subjecting it self to the Principles of Faith that is to say by ceasing to be Vnsanctified and Partaking of the True Light which is the Power of God unto Salvation P. 21. Reason would only regulate and legitimate your Delights and Religion Sanctify them I. F. 'T is very Injurious to the Souls of men Professing Christianity to possess them with a conceit that they may Lawfully or According to the Will of God Act by Two Distinct Principles under the Notion of Reason and Religion For Christianity Obliges All men Whatsoever they Do in Word or Deed to Do All to the Glory of God which is the Principal Points of Right Reason P. 99. What is the matter when all is sifted and examin'd why the matter is this some will be more serious strict and conscientious than others think fit or necessary for them to be I. F. This is a most Devilish False Insinuation And we the True Sons of the Church of England APPEAL to Our Blessed LORD the True Head of the Holy Catholick Church to Judge between Us and this most Impudent Schismatick and his Companions We Aver Before God Angels and Men that their Schism has been the Cause of many Abominations particularly That it has been an Encouragement to the Anti-Trinitarians to Publish their BLASPHEMIES What BLASPHEMIES their Neglect of the LORDS PRAYER has Occasion'd is also Manifest to the World P. 130. Such as you are whose whole Lives have been polluted with Profaness and All Impiety You cannot think as others do that you need no Repentance or Reformation In this respect therefore you lie nearer to the Door of Hope and Mercy than other Sinners do I. F. By other Sinners he must needs mean those that have not been so Great Sinners And whether the Greater or Lesser Sinners that is to say whether those that are More or those that are Less Averse from True Godliness are Nearest to the Kingdome of God let any man Judge who is neither Brutishly Stupid nor Diabolically Impudent P. 139. This is the change I am here pressing him to P. 140. It is not in any Man's power to convert himself Yet he Can Do and Forbear to Do many things the Doing or Forbearing of which has a true tho remote tendency to his Conversion and not Doing or Forbearing of them his Destruction is of himself I. F. His Destruction is not of himself Because he Forbears to Act or Do any thing in his own Natural Power or Without the Divine Assistance but Because he Rejects the Divine Assistance which by the Father of Mercies is Graciously Offer'd unto him 'T is Evident by J. F's saying This is the change I am pressing him to Compar'd with these words He Can do or Forbear to do many things c. That he Encourages men to Act towards their Salvation in Their own Natural Strength Whereas Our Preaching is this That we Can do Nothing but Sin Without the Help of JESUS CHRIST but 't is Always Possible for those that Trust in him to Abstain by his Assistance from All Known Sin Now whether this Way of Preaching or I. F's Way be the True Preaching of the Gospel I leave to the Judgment of Any man of Common Honesty that has Read the Holy Scriptures P. 140. Nor do I know any reason why you cannot compose your selves when engaged in God's Publick or Private Worship to a close and serious attendance to those Duties I. F. Indeed he might have said I know no reason why Any man when he makes Confession of the Christian Faith and says the Lords Prayer should not Do it Sincerely which if he Do he is Converted But to Suppose as 't is Evident he does that the Persons to whom he speaks continue Vnconverted and yet to say to them Nor do I know any reason why you Cannot c. is Intolerable Ignorance in one that Pretends to be a Minister of the Gospel For the Reason which he says he Knows not is as