Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	faith_n	heart_n	unfeigned_a	1,237	5	10.9662	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

his Wisdom neither is the Plain man hindered 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 Scholar 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 Wisdom 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 Unlearned 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 Wisdom 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 are 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 Neighbour 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 Largeness 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 University 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 compredendeth 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 Gods Law to preach it generally against sins in the Realm But wit ye Worldly Clerks and feignedly Religious that God both can and may if it liketh him speed Simple Men out of the University as much to know the Holy Scriptures as Masters in the University Wherefore he saith it is no great matter though Men of Good Will be not poysoned with Heathen mens Error nine or ten years together But let them live well and study the Holy Scriptures and preach truly and freely against open sins till death Thus He. Whereby he declares that the Scriptures are not to be understood by Humane Learning but by Faith and Love And that Humane Learning doth not prepare men to the Knowledge of the Word but rather corrupt them with Heathen mens Errors Tindal also that Apostle of England as Fox calleth him and blessed Martyr speaks thus to this matter They will say yet more shamefully meaning the Clergy That no man can understand the Scriptures without Philautia that is to say Philosophy A man must first be well seen in Aristotle ere he can understand the Scripture say they Now saith he Aristotles Doctrine is that the World was without Beginning and shall be without End and that the first Man never was and the last never shall be And that God doth all of Necessity neither careth what we do Without this Doctrine saith he Ironically how could we understand the Scripture that saith God Created the World of nought and God worketh all things of His free will and for a secret Purpose and that we shall Rise again and God will have Accounts of all that we have done in this life Aristotle saith Give a man a Law and he hath Power of Himself to do or fulfill the Law and becometh Righteous with working Righteously But Paul and the Scripture saith That the Law doth but utter sin only and helpeth not Neither hath any man power to do the Law till the Spirit of God be given him through faith in Christ. Is it not a madness then to say that we could not understand the Scripture without Aristotle Moreover Aristotles Felicity and Blessedness standeth in avoiding all Tribulations and in Riches Health Honor Worship Friends and Authority which felicity pleaseth our Spirituality well Now without these and a thousand such like points couldst thou not understand Scripture which saith that Righteousness cometh by Christ and not of Mans Will And how that Vertues are the Fruits and Gifts of Gods Spirit and that Christ blesseth us in Tribulations Persecution and Adversity How I say couldst thou understand the Scriptures without Philosophy in as much as Paul Col. 2. warned them to be ware lest any man spoil them that is to say

and the Gospel and this under pretence of the Glory of God and Good of Christian people which is the BEASTS MARK in every Age and under every Change of Outward Form Whoever shall receive this mark IN THEIR FOREHEAD that is to profess this Doctrine only Or IN THEIR HAND that is to execute it according to Laws which the Nations have been seduced to make to this purpose The same shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his Indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and the smoak of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever Wherefore You Faithful Ones have great cause to be very well advised in these things seeing the chief Designe of Antichrist is to seduce the Elect seeing he hath no Body else in all the World that dare oppose Him or know how to do it but You and He knows if He can prevail with You all the World besides will follow Him headlong as the Gadarens swine ran into the sea and were choaked Now I have adventured through the Inspiration of the Almighty to undertake Openly and Plainly against the Clergy and Universities which in their Present State are the Residue of the Hour and Power of Darkness upon the Nations And the Lord of his Grace hath helped me through this Work by his Spirit of Counsel and Might And so I have freely and willingly exposed my Self for Christ and his Truths sake to all the reproaches slanders revilings contradictions and if their power shall serve Persecutions of the Universities and Clergy and of all those People high and low bond and free who have received their Mark and Worship them choosing rather to suffer with Christ and with You his Seed all manner of Tribulations then to reign with Them and much rather imbracing Christian Communion with poor plain Husbandmen and Tradsmen who believe in Christ and have received his Spirit then with the Heads of Universities and Highest and Stateliest of the Clergy who under a specious form of Godliness do yet live in true Enmity and Opposition to the Gospel I do indeed freely acknowledge that I have often been ready to complain to God in the anguish of my Spirit that he had called Me a very Bruised Reed to a more difficult Task in one Regard then either Wickliffe Hus or Luther those strong Pillars in the House of God to wit Because much of the gross Body of Antichristianism against which They chiefly ingageed being done away by their Ministry there still remains the cunning and subtil Soul and Spirit thereof which yet is All in All in Antichrists Kingdom though it be farther removed from the Knowledge and Notice of the Common Sort of Christians And so the Mysterie of Iniquity is now become more Mysterious and Deceiving then in their Times and as Perfect and Bitter Enmity against Christ and his Spirit and the true Temple of God the Spiritual Church as ever was in all Their Times doth now prevail under the Name of Orthodox Doctrine and the Reformation of Religion by the late Assembly of Divines which the Clergy are all now ready to set up if they could gain the Secular Arm to strengthen them thereunto of which now they have greatest Hopes and without which their Religion can find no high place in this World Now herein the old Mysterie of Iniquity is renewed amongst these Men that they would have an outward Letter and Ministery without the Spirit of Christ to be the Doctrine and Ministry of the New Testament which is the Ministration of the Spirit and not of the Letter and would have the Secular Magistrate to have Right and Power to enforce men to such a Religion as Himself judges True by the Help and Counsel of those Ministers which Himself judges Orthodox as if some Men were able to teach spiritual things and all to understand them by Natural Reason made use of and improved which yet these Men deny in Terminis whilst they assert it in the Principle For they will not leave it to the Father to draw whom He pleaseth to the Son neither will they leave it to the Spirit to choose what Living stones he pleaseth to build them together to be the Habitation of God but the Ecclesiastical state having seduced the Temporal do make them believe that the Magistrates Worldly Power in union with their worldly Religion may make a National Church of all that they between Themselves please and may allow and set up such a Doctrine for Orthodox which these Men who are in Academical Degrees and Ecclesiastical Orders do approve for Such though the Spirit of God in all Believers testifies that these Men have not the mind of Christ but of Antichrist in all they teach and act and counsel in their Assemblies Churches Doctrine Ordinances Works Duties Dayes Times Fastings Thanksgivings and Every Thing else Yet these having the outward Carcass or Appearance of Religion though destitute of the inward Soul of it which is true Faith and the Spirit of God do cozen not only the meaner People but the very Magistrates of the World who are glad to hear that the Clergy have given them such high Power in the Kingdom of Christ and made them Magistrates in both Worlds though indeed in the end it be not for the Magistrates Advantage but wholly for the Clergies And thus is the Mysterie of Iniquity grown more Mysterious now then heretofore But this is our Comfort and Help that God still causes his Light to shine forth proportionably to his People to discover every new Change and Form of the Mysterie of Iniquity And though the Mysterie of Iniquity in every age is mysterious enough to cozen all the Unbelieving World though never so wise and learned yet is it never able to deceive the Faithful who have always sufficient Light from God to discover it and sufficient Grace to overcome it And now You faithful and beloved Ones to whom I have spoken all this stand You fast and depart not from Christ his Word and Work all which You know in faith for any Good or Evil things that may befall you in this short life but finish in Faith and Patience the Work which God hath given you to do in your several Places waiting for the Glory which shall be given you at the Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ in Whom I remain though most unworthy Your humble and faithful Servant in the Gospell W. D. THE TRYALL OF SPIRITS 1 John 4. 1. Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone forth into the world 2. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God 3. And every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God and

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