which the Greek should have said For the Question between them being touching Paul and Plato the Greek endeavoured to prove that Paul was rude and unlearned but the Christian through his simplicity did endeavor to prove that Paul was more learned and eluquent then Plato And so the Greek should obtain the Victory if the Christians Reasons should prevail For if Paul were more learned then Plato then might men object that he overcame not the world through Grace but through Eloquence Wherefore that which the Christian spake made for the Greek and that which the Greek spake made for the Christian Wherefore he saith when the Greeks shall say the Apostles were rude and unlearned poor mean simple obscure persons let us acknowledge it as the truth For this is not their reproach but their glory that being such they yet overcame the Learned men the Wise men the Philosophers the Rhetoricians the Orators the Princes and all the world as if they had not been men For when any thing is done above the State and power of Nature this doth exceedingly manifest and magnifie the Grace of God And so it appears that Chrysostom was of another mind in this matter touching Paul then Mr. Simpson and that Paul was of another mind touching himself Now seeing Mr. Simpson doth here insinuate that Humane Learning fits a man to the Ministry of the Gospel and seeing this also is the Opinion of all the carnal and unbelieving people I do desire them to consider what some Godly men have spoken clearly from the word of God in this matter Chrysostom who knew the Mysterie of the Gospel more clearly then any of the Ancient Writers in his Comment on the first Epistle to the Corinthians doth wholly exclude Humane Learning from contributing any thing either to the speaking or receiving the Gospel For saith he to believe in Him that was Crucified and Buried and to be fully perswaded that he rose again and sits at the right hand of God and hath all power in Heaven and Earth given to him and that he is made of God to the whole Church Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption this Doctrine stands not in need of Humane Wisdom and Reasonings but of faith only and that both in them that speak it and in them that receive it For the Apostles did not proceed in this matter in outward wisdom but in faith and so became more wise and excellent then the worldly wise and so much the more as it is a greater matter to receive the things of God by faith then to be perswaded into them by the force of Argument He adds also That to the receiving the Doctrine of the Gospel neither is the Wise man profited thing by his Wisdom neither is the plain man hindred any thing by his Ignorance Yea if I may speak a wonderfull thing saith he Ignorance is more fit and ready to receive the Gospel then Wisdom And a Shepherd and a Plowman will sooner receive the Gospel and submit to it then a Schollar who lives in the strength of Humane wisdom and Reason He farther saith there that where the wisdom of God is as it is in the Gospel there is no need of mans wisdom as where the Sun is there is no need of a Candle And he concludes there this matter thus That the Preaching of the Gospel is a heavenly thing and that Humane VVisdom and Learning cannot help herein but rather hinder And that therefore when Christ sent forth the first Teachers of the Gospel he took not wise and learned Philosophers that the Cross of Christ might not be made void and that the faith of Christians should not stand in the wisdom of man but in the power of God But he chose plain Fishermen Tent-makers Publicans Obscure Simple Poor Contemptible Ignorant and Vnlearned men And these overcame Kings Princes People Nations Greeks Philosophers Orators Sophisters they overcame the antient Manners Customs and the very Religion of the world also their Laws Judgements divers sorts of punishments and innumerable kinds of deaths and by all this saith he it was manifest that their preaching was not in Humane wâ—sdom but in the Grace of God And thus doth Chrysostom affirm and prove that Humane Learning doth not fit men to the Ministry of the Gospel but is rather a hindrance thereunto and that the Grace of God only fits them for this heavenly work Hear also what Wickliff saith to this matter in his book entituled The Path way to perfect knowledge where he sheweth that it is not Humane Learning that helps to understand the Scriptures and to profit in the study of them but something more high and heavenly His own words as these He whose heart is full of love comprehendeth without any error the manifold abundance and largest teaching of Gods Scripture For Paul saith the fulness of the Law is Charity and in another place the end of the Law is Charity of clean heart and good conscience and of faith unfeigned And Christ saith Thou shalt love thy Lord God of all thy heart and of all thy soul and of all thy mind and thy Neighbor as thy self For in these two Commandments hangeth all the Law and the Prophets And as the root of all evil is Covetousness so the root of all good is Love Charity by which we love God and the Neighbour holdeth surely all the greatness and largness of Gods speeches Therefore if we have not leisure to search all the holy Scriptures and to pierce into all the privities of them hold thou love whereon all things hang and so shalt thou hold that which thou learnest there and also that which thou learnest not For if thou know Charity thou knowest something whereon also that hangeth which thou knowest not And in that that thou understandest in Scripture love is open and in that that thou understandest not love is hid Therefore he that holdeth love in vertues or good life holdeth both that which is open and that which is hid in Gods word And after speaking to the Clergy he saith Therefore worldly fools do ye first repent of your sins and forsake pride and covetousness and be ye meek and fear ye God in all things and love your neighbour as your self and then shall ye profit in the study of Holy Writ And this is a far other way to understand the Scriptures then Humane Learning And after he speaking of the Abominations of the Vniversity of Oxford saith thus The fourth Abomination is that it is now purposed to hinder Christian men from learning freely Gods Law till they have spent nine or ten years at Art or Philosophy which comprehendeth many strong errors of Heathen men against the Christian Belief It seemeth well that God will not cease from vengeance till it and other things be punished sore For it seemeth that worldly Clerks and feignedly Religious do this under pretence that simple men of wit and knowledge know not
they make sport with the Scriptures and cast lotts upon them as upon the Garments of Christ every one dividing to himself a share of them according to his own humane and Philosophical apprehension And he saith that the Doctors of these Universities are by the same providence called Doctores Scholastici i. e. Ludicri vel Illusorii School-Doctors that is mocking or May game Doctors Again he saith those most glorious Mothers of studies the Universities stink before God with most loathsome abomination These Universities are those Antichristian Souldiers who put a Reed into Christs right hand instead of a Scepter and this reed is Philosophy that vain deceit or as the Apostle else where terms it the Operation of Error by which Philosophy saith he the unhappy people of Christ began to be governed that is to be seduced and to be led away from the Gospel of God And this vain Reed they put into his right hand by preferring Learning before Godliness saying according to their usual manner of speaking he is a Learned and a godly man hereby making Learning to take place of Godliness And yet this Philosophy is nothing but a weak Reed which counterfeits a Scepter rather then represents it and so is nothing but vain deceit for there is nothing propounded in such Doctrine but vanity and lying though under the title of Knowledge and Religion In a word he calls them Antichristi Lupanaria the Stews of Antichrist Melancthon also terms the Universities Domos mendacii Houses of lyes and saith it is manifest that they are all heretical by their School Divinity which all the Schools in Europe have received from the University of Paris and are thereby infected with heresie and he saith the students in the Universities are not the people of the Gospel nor yet of the Law but are the people of Aristotles Morals And thus it is manifest that others have spoken freely and sharply against the Universities before now And therefore wise and Godly Christians will have no just cause to be offended at me who have spoken in like maner having the same cause Object Now if any shall Object that they all spake against Popish Universities and that our Universities are otherwise now then they were then and so there is not the same cause to speak against them now as there was heretofore Answ. To this I answer That though the outward form of gross Popery be taken away from them as also from the rest of the People of this Nation God having put it into the hearts of the Civil power to reject it after the light of the Gospel had begun to shine to them yet are the heart bowels bones marrow sinews and blood of the Universities the self-same now as heretofore and though the outside of it hath passed under a very little change yet the inner parts of it remain as before in the full strength of Antichrists Kingdom and that without any alteration at all For the self-same Statutes of the Universities and Colledges still remain with them in force which were at first given to them by their Popish Founders through the help of Antichrist and these Statutes are of such Authority with them that they depart from the Rule of Christs Gospel to walk by the rules of sinful men for worldly stipends and rewards Farther the same Philosophy or Heathenism and the same School-divinity or Antichristianism are yet instilled into the youth and students as were many hundred years ago in the darkest times of Popery and these things are all in all in the University Learning and Education insomuch that no man is of any esteem and reckoning with them know he the Gospel of Christ never so soundly and truly if he be not as they speak a good Philosopher and School-divine So that the University for its inside is the self-same now as it was in Wickliff Hus or Luthers time being informed and possessed with the same Heathenish and Antichristian Doctrine now as then Yea many of the self-same outward and Antichristian forms and follies still remain with them more then with any other people in the Nation again even to their Hoods Caps Scarlet Robes Doctoral Ring Kiss Gloves their Doctoral Dinner and Musique neither could they ever yet to this day find in their hearts to lay aside their very Praevaricator which is some notable Varlet picked out of the University and brought forth in the presence of all the Heads Students Schollars and all the great resort of Ministers and People at their publique Commencement to make shipwrack of Faith and a good conscience before them all and in open defiance of the Gospel which stands in faith and love to abuse and deride and jeer and reproach all sorts of persons of all ages sexes professions and this presently after their Divinity Acts which is a wickedness the very Heathen would be ashamed of and which plainly declares what kind of Divinity is taught and learned in the University which can endure allow countenance and be merry at that which so highly contradicts Gods Word and grieves his Spirit yet because it makes them merry after a full dinner and puts more joy into their hearts then the holy Scriptures they could hitherto dispense with all to this day And so however Religion for the outward form hath been much reformed in these Nations yet the Universities as the strongest Holds that Antichrist hath had amongst us have still remained much what the same not only as to the inward substance of all things to wit their Statutes Philosophy and Divinity but also in a great measure to their outward forms as they were in their first Antichristian Institution Wherefore it was necessary also that I should be plain and free for Christs sake and his Churches against these as Luther calls them stews of Antichrist and Dens of Thieves who have been and still are the constant and fruitfull seed of Antichrists Kingdom in the world out of which it might suddainly on all occasions and opportunities grow up afresh how greatly soever it had been before wasted and destroyed among the people by the clear word of God and his mighty Providences and Works accompanying it Now as it was necessary this work should be done so through the Grace of Christ was I made willing to do it seeing no body else more fit and able did appear And well knowing that he that provokes the Universities and Clergy against him provokes Principalities and Powers and the Rulers of the Darkness of this world against him as is evident in the example of Wickliff Hus Luther Tindal and others I have therefore according to Christs Counsel sate down and counted the cost of this undertaking and after all do say the Lord is on my side I will not fear what man can do unto me And so I commit thee Christian Reader to that Grace which is from God to keep thee in this new hour of Temptation if the Lord suffer it to come forth upon the earth 4.
be foretold Rev. 9. which Scripture it is worth the while to rehearse and a little to unfold for John saith The first Angel sounded and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit c. I will here make tryal a little with my own apprehension Now certain it is that by Angels through all the Apocalyps is meant the Overseers of Churches as doth plainly appear out of the second and third chapters where it is written to the Angel of Ephesus Smyrna and others Further that other sort of Angels which sounds the Trumpet of which there are seven mentioned chap. 8. cannot agree to any but the Roman Bishop seeing no others are said to sound with Trumpet Now to sound with Trumpet can be nothing else as appears by the consequence of the Text and the following effects then to make Decrees which none ever arrogated to himself besides the Bishop of the Roman Church Neither is it said in vain that they prepared themselves to sound seeâ—ng chiefly in these Popes there hath been an impatient fury and unquiet Tyranny to make Laws and thereby to subject others to themselves But let us come to our first Angel who was the first among three who were to bring three woes upon the earth and this is He who did first institute and confirm Universities whom it is not easie for me to name Histories so varying in this matter But let him be whosoever he was he was a star fallen from heaven to earth whether it were Alexander of Hales or which I rather think St. Thomas who onely after the Universities were approved and this Angel had sounded was either the first or chief Author of bringing in Philosophy into the Christian world being the most Aristotelian yea plainly Aristotle himself to whom as to the Earth he fell from Christ the Heaven having obtained the authority of that most wicked Angel approving such studies And he received the key of the bottomless pit and opened it and brought forth to us Philosophy long ago dead and damned by the Doctrine of the Apostles and from thence ascended the smoak of that pit that is the meer words and opinions of Aristotle and the Philosophers as the smoak of that great Fornace for then Philosophy prevailed and became of large extent and power so that Aristotle was made equal with Christ in respect of Authority and Faith And hereby was the Sun darkned even Christ the Sun of Righteousness and Truth Moral vertues being brought in in stead of Faith and infinite Opinions instead of Truth and the ayre also with the smoak of the pit that it may be understood not to be an Eclipse of the Sun but the obscurity of the Ayre and Sun by the smoak of the pit ascending to wit humane Doctrines obscuring Christ and his Faith as the Sun and Aire And out of the smoak of the pit there came forth Locusts on the earth Here the people of the Universities bred and born of Philosophy are called Locusts by a most fit name because they are without a King that is Christ and flie in companies as is said Prov. 3. and also because they waste and burn up all green things where-ever they light and so the Grammarians think they have their name Locustae Locusts a loco usto vastato from the place which they burn and waste And so this people of the Universities consumes and burns up all the green pasture of Christ that is the fruit of Faith And power was given to them as the scorpions of the earth have power to wit to wound the Consciences of men because the green fruit of Faith being wasted which heals the Consciences of men it cannot be but the Conscience must be hurt and prejudiced And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth nor any green thing that is that they should not hurt the Elect. For they do not hurt all neither do natural Locusts huâ—t every green thing but some certain place so it is here But onely those men who have not the mark or seal of God in their foreheads that is some grass they should hurt to wit those who have not Faith which is the mark of God which we carry in a pure Conscience and free conversation And it was commanded them that they should not kill them but onely should torment them five months This seems to be spoken of Moral Doctrine which seeing it teaches us the knowledge of sin like the Law of God it doth not kill but onely afflict a man with vain studies wherein he is always learning and yet never coming to the knowledge of the truth for they being killed with the Letter are quickned with the eternal Spirit onely they are tormented five months that is the whole time of their sensual life in which moral Vertues reign And we see by experience that all Moral Divines are of a most evil and unhappy Conscience full of scruples and unquietness and have power neither of good nor evil and therefore it follows And their torment is as the torment of a Scorpion when it strikes a man Behold here a wounded conscience for here he expounds what he had said before that they are not savingly killed nor spiritually quickned And in those dayes men shall seek death and shall not finde it and shall desire to dye and death shall flee from them to wit the death of sin which doth too much live in the conscience and yet is not rightly known for if it were known presently it being slain would perish but this cannot Aristotles Ethicks do but it is the office of the Letter and the Spirit And the shapes of the Locusts were like to horses prepared to battle to wit of Scholastical disputation and conflict He describes the war by this Allegory for they are ready to argue pro contra as they speak And on their heads were as it were crowns of gold that is the Names and Titles of Degrees as Magister noster eximius sacrae Theologiae humilis indignus professor c. that is Our famous Master and the humble and unworthy professor of sacred Theology and the like And these crowned ones John Hus called Hypocritas Coronatos Crowned Hypocrites and by reason of these Crowns they have Authority and power among the multitudes of carnal Christians who are willing to entertaine Antichrists pompe into Christs Church Yet have they not true crowns but as it were Crowns of Gold which they are very proud of and are much pufft up with them though usually they are set on the head of Ignorance and Error And their faces are like the faces of men because their doctrine and life is governed not by the spirit of faith but by the dictate of natural reason and by the light of nature illuminated by Aristotle And they had hairs like the hairs of women For Philosophy brings