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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37498	The tryal of spirits both in teachers & hearers wherein is held forth the clear discovery and certain downfal of the carnal and antichristian clergie of these nations / testified from the Word of God to the university-congregation in Cambridge by William Dell ; whereunto is added A plain and necessary confutation of divers gross errors delivered by Mr. Sydrach Simpson in a sermon preached to the same congregation at the commencement, Anno 1653 ; wherein (among other things) is declared, that the vniversities (according to their present statutes and practices) are not (as he affirmed) answerable to the schools of the prophets in the time of the law, but rather to the idolatrous high places ...	Dell, William, d. 1664.; Simpson, Sidrach, 1600?-1655. A plain and necessary confutation of divers gross and antichristian errors.	1660 (1660)	Wing D933; ESTC R219079	121,760	168

The Devil was the Devil before and did dwell and work in Evil Men but from the beginning of the Christian Church he is called Antichrist and that not every where but in the Church or Kingdom of Christ For Antichrist is a Spirit that dissolves Jesus and that not openly but subtilly and cunningly yea under the name and pretence of Jesus he is wholy contrary to Him Wherefore the discerning of Spirits as it hath been necessary from the beginning of the World so also is it especially necessary in the daies of the Gospel wherein the Mysterie of Iniquity is become most Mysterious through the operation of Antichrist in those Many false Prophets which are gone forth into the world And so we proceed to the second Point 2. Point And that is That Sufficient Remedy which the Apostle prescribes to the true Church against that great Evil of many false Prophets being gone out into the world Now the Remedy the Apostle prescribes to the faithfull against these false Prophets is not that they should stir up the Secular Power to imprison banish or burn Them that so they might be rid of Them for this is Antichrists proper Remedy against those that oppose Him but the Apostle shews a more Christian Remedy which is this Believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God and this Remedy alone is sufficient for the true spiritual Church of the faithful in every Age to preserve it safe and sound against all false Teachers whatsoever and their false Doctrines neither doth it desire or need any other Wherefore in this Case the Apostle contents himself to give only this Caution to the Faithfull Believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God Believe not euery Spirit c. that is every one that speaketh of Spiritual Things Whence it is plain that we neither ought rashly and hastily to believe every mans Doctrine nor yet rashly and unadvisedly to censure and condemn it till it be heard and known what it is but it is a Christians duty to prove All Things and to hold fast that which is Good upon Proof as Paul adviseth wherefore John also adds here But try the Spirits whether they be of God Whence we note That Christians have Right and Power to try and judge the Spirits and Doctrines of their Teachers and this is evident by many plain Scriptures as Matth. 7. 15. Beware of false Prophets saith Christ to the faithful which come unto you in Sheeps cloathing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves ye shall know them by their fruits Matth. 16. 6. Jesus said to them Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisie Matth. 24. 4. Jesus said take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my Name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many John 10. My Sheep hear my voice and know my voice and a stranger will they not hear but flee from him for they know not that is own not the voice of strangers And all that came before me are Thieves and Robbers but the Sheep did not hear them By all which Scriptures and many more that might be added it is manifest that the faithful the true Sheep of Christ have Right and Power to judge of the Spirits and Doctrines of the Teachers Let Fathers Schoolmen Doctors Councels Assemblies of Divines Universities Ministers propound and publish what Doctrine they please the Sheep of Christ the faithful Flock have Power and Authority from Christ Himself to try and judge whether the Things they speak be of Christ or of Themselves and of Antichrist And this Power the faithful People ought not to part with neither for any fear nor for any favour Yea it most nearly concerns the faithful to try the Spirits and judge the Doctrines of the Teachers for these two Considerations among others First Because we must each one give an account for Our selves before the Judgement seat of Christ wherefore it concerns every one of us to look to our own Eternal Condition and not to leave this care to Others for us In Death and Judgement Each one must answer for Himself and therefore we ought to be as certain of the Word of God on which we build our immortal Souls as we are sure we live and are Creatures we ought I say to be sure Our selves and not to trust any body for us in this great Matter whereon depends either eternal Life or eternal Death Secondly It concerns us to try the Spirits and Doctrines because otherwise we may easily mistake and instead of Antichrist and his Disciples dash against Christ himself and his precious Saints Yea we have seen how the World and worldly Church not being able to try the Spirits and Doctrines have contradicted and crucified the Son of God himself and have reproached and persecuted all his People who are baptized into one Spirit with him and doing this they have thought they have done God good service too and all because they were not able to judge of the Spirit and Truth of Christ in Himself and his Members but have followed the Judgment and Councel of the chief Guides in the outward Church who have caused them to erre and to mistake Truth for Error and Error for Truth Christ for Antichrist and Antichrist for Christ. Wherefore it concerns every one to be wise to salvation for Himself and to try the Spirits for himself and not to content himself to say thus said Augustine Ambrose Hierom c. or this was the Judgement of the Fathers or thus have the Councels and Universities determined or thus do our Ministers teach us but if thou art one of Christs flock thou must have skill to know and judge for Thy self which is Christs Spirit and Doctrine and which is Antichrists otherwise thou wilt certainly miscarry in this great Matter and be undone for ever If thou build on Men in these things and canst not judge for Thy self thou wilt be sure to be undone But now this Power of Trying Spirits and Judging Doctrines which Christ hath given his true Flock and which they ought to have upon so good Grounds the Teachers of the false and Antichristian Church that is the Common Clergy distinguished by several Names Titles and Degrees have robbed them of and have falsely and treacherously arrogated to themselves the Power of trying Spirits and Judging Doctrines and have said that it belongs to the Clergy or National Ministry and their Councils and Assemblies of Divines to Judge of Spirits whether they be right or false and to Judge of Doctrines whether they be agreeable to Gods Word or no and that all Christians ought to expect their Judgement and Determination and to submit to it and to depend on it as on an Oracle from Heaven yea though it be not only without but also against their own particular Judgement And these men I mean the Clergy through the Ecclesiastical

men Reprove Convince and Silence the Greatest and Ablest men of the Jews And what Humane Learning had Steven and yet he confuted the Libertines and Cyrenians and Alexandrians and all the Philosophers of Cilicia and Asia which disputed with him and they all were not able to resist not the Humane Learning but the Wisdom and Spirit by which he spake And Christ hath promised all his People that when for his Names sake they should be brought before Kings anh Rulers who usually have the greatest accomplishments of Humane Learning that then They should not study before hand what to say for He would give them in that very hour a Mouth and Wisdom which None of their Adversaries should be able to resist And the Power and Vertue of the Gospel and the Wisdom Knowledge and Utterance of Gods Spirit is more gloriously manifest in Plain Men then in Learned Men For in the One the Grace and Vertues of the Spirit are attributed to Humane Learning But in the Other to God only who dwells in them Wherefore that the Wisdom and Knowledge and Light and Power of the Word of Faith in true Christians might not be attributed to Humane Learning God stirred up an Enemy to Christian Religion to be so serviceable to it as to hinder Heathenish Doctrine from being taught in the Schools of Christians that so the Church might be restored to be as in the dayes of its Youth when there flourished in it only the simple and plain Word of Faith without any intermingling Philosophy or Humane Doctrine And if Constantine had made such an Order in his time Julian had not had such an opportunity to have renounced Christianity and turned Heathen for Julian being instructed in the Philosophy and Disciplines of the Heathen by Libanius his Tutor by this means He came to love Philosophy better then the Gospel and so by degrees turned from Christianity to Heathenism Which may be a fair Warning to all Christians that they suffer not their Children to be so educated lest at last with Julian they at least in their hearts loath and reject the Gospel and become with him Apostates and Pagans And hence it is most evident that Heathenish Philosophy is so far from being a Profitable Study for the Children of Christians that it is very Dangerous for them to be so educated as Socrates is forced to confess where he saith For Christians to be thorowly instructed in the Disciplines of the Gentiles there is none will grant that this is Profitable to the Christian Religion For it is not without Danger for Christians to be taught in the Learning of the Heathens seeing this teacheth that there are Many Gods And therefore saith he the Doctrine of the Heathen is not approved by Christ or any of his Apostles or Disciples Wherefore said Luther My Counsel is that a Youth should shun Philosophy and School-Divinity as the Death of his Soul 3. ERROR That the Knowledge of Heavenly things cannot come to us but by things on Earth and that all Divinity is swadled in Humane Learning Answer I conceive that all Christians at the first reading of this will acknowledge that this Doctrine is not Divine but Philosophical The Philosophers say that nothing is in the Understanding but that which is first in the Sence which is proportionable to that which Mr. Simpson speaks and yet they know not what they say when they say so But let us consider if this be so That the Knowledge of Heavenly Things cannot come to us but by things on Earth then how shall we know the Mysterie of God even the Father and the Mysterie of Christ who is God manifest in the flesh Or how shall the Mysterie of Faith and of our Union with Christ through Faith into One Flesh and Spirit with Him be known Or the New Birth and New Creature which hath all things New in it and all those New things the Things of God Or how shall the free Justification of a Sinner through the Death of Christ and his Reconciliation to God be known with all the rest of the Things of the Gospel seeing Nothing on Earth can reveal the least part of these things And if the World by Wisdom that is its Philosophy knew not God how can it by that Wisdom reveal God and his things which it never knew Nay the Apostle doth clearly testifie against this Carnal and Corrupt Doctrine in 1 Cor. 2. 7 8. saying We speak the Wisdom of God in a Mysterie even the Hidden Wisdom which God ordained before the World unto our Glory which None of the Princes of this World knew and by Princes of this World he means not only Worldly Powers as Chrysostome affirms but also Philosophers and Orators who often obtained the chief Government among the Nations God hath wrapped up his Gospel saith Paul into such Hidden Wisdom that they are never able to search into it or to discover the least part of it seeing God contrived it all and appointed it before the World unto our Glory and all Their Knowledge is but from the World Yea he adds Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have ever entered into the Heart of Man the Things which God hath prepared for them that love Him In which words God hath shut out the Natural Man for ever with all his study knowledge abilities and attainments from the having any Right Understanding of his Kingdom or the Things of it For the Eye of Man hath not seen them at any time nor his Ear heard them nor hath any Knowledge of them entered into his Heart so far is this Doctrine from truth that The Knowledge of Heavenly Things cannot come to us but by Things on Earth But the Apostle shews how the Faithfull come to know these high holy spiritual and eternal things which lie infinitely beyond the Knowledge and Discovery of all Men to wit by the Spirit saying But God hath revealed them to Us by the Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the Deep Things of God So that the People of God know the things of the Gospel not by Earthly Things as Mr. Simpson affirms nor by Philosophy and outward Wisdom which only reaches to Earthly Things but by the Spirit Farther If all Divinity be swadled in Humane Learning then I do affirm that all such Divinity hath no great Depth seeing the bottom of Humane Learning is easily fathomed But can any Christian Heart think that all true Divinity which comprehends in it the Heighth and Bredth and Length and Depth of the Love of God which passeth Knowledge and all the Unsearchable Riches of Christ and all the infinite and incomprehensible Treasures of his Wisdom Power and Righteousness of his Love Goodness Truth Faithfulness and of all the Fulness of the Godhead wherewith he is filled can be contained and wrapped up in the Narrow and Scant Bounds of Humane Learning How much truer Doctrine had it been to

Ministry when they have got Countenance Strength and Ayd from the Worldly Magistrates how have they with their Academical Philosophical Heathenish Divinity infected poysoned and destroyed the People to Eternal Death and No Body durst shun Them upon Pain of Temporal Death or Punishments But now through the great Goodness of God and his mighty Providences and Works from Heaven it is a more Happy Age and Happy shall They be who being called forth shall do the Work of God against all Discouragements and Difficulties and shall not with Ephraim being harnessed turn their Backs in the Day of Battle And now to return to our Business again touching the Universities let none object that Luther speaks against Popish Universities only for this is but a weak and simple Defence and altogether unable to ward off the Mighty Blow of Gods Word from their Heads and Hearts For the Things condemned in the foregoing Testimonies of Luther are the Self Same for the Substance of them as do live prevail and flourish in our present Universities as hath been before declared and I leave it to every faithful Christian to judge the Truth in this Matter But men would fain preserve their Titles Degrees Authority Dignity State Stipends and therefore for Defence of These Things they must needs say Something though it be to never so little Purpose but yet by such Discourse they sufficiently declare how cool and icie they are for Christs Interest and how zealous for their Own But certain it is that as the Universities were set up at first as Nurseries for Antichrists Kingdom Men being therein so educated according to the undertaking of Charles the Great in Philosophy and School-Divinity that it might be said to them Vos estis Sal Terrae Lux Mundi Ye are the Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World which yet only agrees to the Faithful who are born of God so have they still remained the Same hitherto in Substance though not without some small Change of Outward Form 2. For first the Philosophy taught and studied in the University is the very Same that it was at first and this Philosophy is nothing but the Religion of the Heathen For what the Law was to the Jews and the Gospel is to the Christians Philosophy was and is to the Heathen and in this Study the poor Lads waste the flower and cream of their Lives to no purpose but to make them more Heathenish Corrupt and Bold in Evil then they were by Nature And For their Divinity which they usually learn in the Universities out of the Fathers Schoolmen and Systems and in which they are trained up to Dispute either for it or against it in the Schools it being in seriousness all one to Them what they hold and maintain in Religion seeing all is but Opinion to them and which they after teach to the People with special Regard to their own Profit and Advantage this is not the true Word and Ministry of the Gospel For the Gospel is the Word of Faith which Word is the Word in our Hearts according to the Tenor of the New Covenant wherein God saith I will write my Law in their Hearts and put it in their Inward Parts But now the University-Divines the Truth being indeed dead in their Hearts and having no Presence nor Power there they take it up out of the Books and Writings of Men wherein it hath been buryed and by this Means bring forth a dead Doctrine to the World which Other Men have spoken but Themselves have no Experience of and not the Word of Life which hath quickened them but only a Dead Letter raised up like the Living Letter which they present to them as the Witch of Endor raised up a Dead Samuel in the outward Habit and Appearance of the Living Samuel and presented him to Saul so these University-Divines bring forth the outward Garments and Appearance of the Truth to the People when they do best but the Substance Soul and Life of the Truth they cannot bring forth because they have not the Living Word of God in their Hearts but have only a Dead Word which they gather out of the Books and Writings of Men. And this is the University-Divinity And Lastly The Preachers which the Universities send forth are usually in the greatest Enmity to Christ and his Gospel of all other Men whatsoever and do bring greatest Prejudice to Christs Kingdom and greatest Advantage to Antichrists For when Men without Learning and yet without the Spirit of Christ will undertake to teach the People as many also now do their Ignorance is manifest to all and is judged of all and they through their Rudeness can never long deceive the World but now when Men are as destitute of the Spirit as They and yet have Humane Learning and the Letter of the Word in a Philosophical sense to help them this is that that exceedingly endangers and deceives the World the People supposing the Doctrine of the Gospel according to Philosophical Learning to be the Ministration of the Spirit and to be sufficiently enough to instruct the Church And so Antichrists Kingdom is set up with Credit and Renown by These whereas the Ignorant Teachers who are destitute of the Spirit are able to do Him no considerable Service But Christ will not have the Learned Men to be Teachers in his Church through their Learning and as little will he have Ignorant Men to teach in his Church because of their Ignorance but whether Men be Learned or Ignorant according to the World it is no matter in Christs Church where each Man is to speak in the Spirit of Christ which makes both the Ignorant and the Learned alike wise in Christ and so the Learned Man becomes Ignorant in the Church to be Learned in Christ and the Ignorant Man without Worldly Learning forthwith becomes Wise in Christ and the Learned and the Ignorant meet together only in the Wisdom of Christ which is the Wisdom of God and swallows up at once all the Learning and Ignorance of the World alike and will have all Wise alone in it Self Wherefore all Universities being left and forsaken as to this Matter let Learned and Ignorant Men come alike to Christ to be made Wise in Him who is made unto us of God our only Wisdom FINIS THE Right Reformation of Learning Schools and Universities according to the State of the Gospel and the True Light that shines therein THough I do not pretend to that Wisdom which might direct the World farther then the Word of God is with me yet shall I be bold as one who desires to be faithful to Christ and profitable to his true Church to offer my apprehensions and advice to the Called Chosen and Faithful Ones of Christ that either now are or hereafter may be in Authority in these Nations touching the instructing Youth and ordering Schools 1. First therefore as to this matter I do judge there neither

Nature to wit Aristotle who doth truly reign in the Universities as Abaddon and Apollyon that is a Waster and Destroyer of the Church For we have said that an Angel signifies a Teacher or a Doctor in the Church And certain it is that Aristotle who is Dead and Damned is at this day the great Doctor of all the Universities rather then Christ for He reigns alone being exalted by the Authority and Study of Thomas reviving Freewill and teaching Moral Vertues and natural Philosophy to wit the three-headed Cerberus or three-bodied Gerion Behold the first Wo which the Church hath from the Romish Antichrist by the Ministry of Saint Thomas and They whose duty it was chiefly to have prohibited and extinguished these things they chiefly have erected and established them Thus Luther word for word in the forenamed place He also in his book De abroganda missa privata speaking of the Idol Moloch faith thus Moses and Jeremy have described the Worship of this Idol to be after this manner That they did burn or offer to Him their Children in the fire supposing that hereby they did perform the greatest and highest Service to God inasmuch as after the example of Abraham they do not spare their own Children though they do this not only not being called as Abraham was but also without Faith and in the highest Wickedness and therefore the Psalmist testifies Psal. 78. That they offered not their Children to God but to Devils For whatsoever is not done by the Call and Command of God is not done to God but Devils who suggest this though it be done under Pretence of the Name of God Now hereby saith he I conceive the Universities to be represented in which the best and choicest Part of Christian Youth is offered as it were in Burnt Sacrifice to God that there they may be instructed and be made as it were wholy Divine For the Common People believe there is no Place under Heaven in which Youth can be better instructed so that even Religious People have recourse hither For to learn any Thing out of the University is to learn Nothing but to have studied in the University is to know all Things There all Divine and Humane Things are believed to be taught for no man sends his Son hither with any other Opinion then this that he can no where be better sent They think they perform the Highest Service to God that they offer their Sons to be formed according to the Instruction of Godliness that thereby they may become profitable and useful Ministers Preachers Governours who may wholly become Gods own Portion and be useful both to God and Men. And hereto appertains the name Moloch which signifies a King or Kingly because this kind of Study doth honour them with Degrees and Promotions and renders them fit and able to Govern Others For we see that all that are preferred to Governments are taken out of Universities and he that is not a Graduate or Member of an University is not qualified for Preferment or to be set over any People but let the Ass first be crowned to wit with a Degree and then let him reign And Parents do not see and They that do see do not regard that Youth are usually here destroyed through rude and vile Manners none commonly forbidding them Yea Fornication Luxury and other manifest sins do but mildly destroy them but that they are indued and possessed with Philosophical Heathenish Humane Wicked and Impious Opinions this is the fire of Moloch which no tears can sufficiently bewail seeing through this they especially are devoured and perish who are the most studious and modest Youth in Universities So great is the Fury of God upon this Valley of Tophet and Hinnom that they perish more grievously who learn most and live modestly then they who learn nothing and are corrupted with lusts For These learn Nothing which is to be unlearned again seeing they know they do Evil whereas the other suck in Poyson which happily or never they do vomit up again holding that for Good which is Evil and instructing Those with the like Opinions whom they take to teach And to these Pits of Hell it is to be imputed that the Sun of the Gospel is obscured with the Smoak of the Pit for out of this Smoak proceed those Locusts which possess all Chairs and Pulpits and administer all Governments that Satan from the beginning of the World could devise Nothing in all the World more strong and pernicious to waste Faith and the Gospel then Universities Neither was it meet that this Evil should arise but in the End of the World when the World through the prevailing of Sin being loaden with the Wrath of God should draw near to Hell and Damnation For the miserable People must needs hear those Things taught and delivered out of the Pulpits which those Molochites have learned in the Universities And they have learned nothing but the Highest Blasphemies of God Neither is it lawful to have any where any other Pastor then These In Jeremiah that Valley is called Gehinnom from whence Christ took that word Gehenna which what it signifies I do not well know but it seems to me to come from Janah which signifies to eat up or to pill or waste as Tyrants or Usurers do pill and suck out the People so that Gehinnom is the Valley of pilling or wasting the People For These being set over the People as Shepherds ought to feed them with the Word of Life and They in stead thereof do insensibly waste and devour them in their Body Goods and Soul with the pestilent Doctrines of Universities And such Teachers do the Universities those Synagogues of Perdition give us Thus Luther These now are Luthers own Words which I have made legible to English Men. Wherein it is manifest that He condemns the Universities in the very Institution and Constitution of Them and chiefly in their Chief Studies Humane Learning and School-Divinity and also as to that gross Popish Opinion that they are the Fountain and Nurseries of the Ministry and that None are fit to Teach or so fit to Teach as Those that have been educated in Them Yea though these be Raw Foolish Ignorant Fellows yet being University Graduates must they be set over Towns and Parishes and the miserable People must not only hear Them and their doltish Doctrine brought from the Universities but also must be constrained by Secular Power and Laws to pay them well for such Pains which tends only to the ruine of their Souls for ever and no Hand is yet strongly and resolutely stretched out to deliver the People from this intolerable Bondage For the Necks of the People of the World have never endured so grievous a Yoak from any Tyrants as from the Doctrine and Domination of the Clergy For Worldly Tyrants have only afflicted mens Bodies and Temporal Estates which reacheth but to this short Life but these spiritual Tyrants the Clergy or false