at last Crucified him between two Thieves by the common consent of all the People and destroyed the Son of God as if he had been the Son of Perdition And in all this bitter suffering no body afforded him the least pitty or compassion but the common People mocked him and said he saved others but cannnot save himself if thou be the Son of God come down from the Cross And this usage Christ complains of to his Father Psalm 22. 6. where he saith that He by his cries had no deliverance which yet Others who had trusted in God obtained but saith he I am a worm and no man a reproach of men and despised of the People All they that see me laugh me to scorn they shout out the lip they shake the head saying be trusted in God that he would deliver him let him deliver him if he delight in him And Isaiah saith that by reason of this strange suffering of Christ many were astonished at him his visage was marr'd more then any mans and his face more then the sons of men and through this suffering of Christ all the World were so extreamly offended that Christ crucified was to the Iews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness And thus was and is the VVorld and Worldly Church offended at the true Christ whom the Scriptures hold forth Indeed the false Church have fancied to themselves such a Christ as flesh and blood can like of well enough a Christ fashioned after the mind and will and Wisdom and Prudence and Righteousness of man and such a Christ they extol and magnifie to wit for their own worldly advantage sake as the Papists have fancied the por Virgin his Mother who kept Iosephs house and provided his diet and layd her hands to the performance of his ordinary household affairs to be a gallant Lady and have clothed her in Silke and Sattin and rich attire and such a Mother of Christ they do highly esteem whereas the poor Virgin the true believer who lived in the plain and laborious imployment of a Family they would even scorn to regard such an one No more will the carnal Church regard or value the true Christ in his mean condition and marred Visage And thus much for their Offense at Christ himself 2. The World and Worldly Church are offended at Christs true 2. They are offended at his his true Word VVord Because Christ under the New Testament hath given forth a New VVord which is the VVord of the Gospel And this also they are offended at in many regards as 1. Because it is the word of Faith the word of Faith and not 1. Because it is the Word of faith of Sense the Word of Faith and not of VVorks For this VVord of Faith is wholly a Spiritual Word and hath nothing in it that is sutable to flesh and blood Nothing in it that pleaseth the Fancy or Reason or Understanding of man it hath nothing in it 2. Because it exalts Christ alone and God in Christ wherein a Natural or Carnal heart can take pleasure but is throughout a Word of Faith 2. They are offended at the New word of the New Testament because it exalts Christ alone and in him the Power of God and the Wisdom of God and the Righteousness of God and the Things of God and cries down all the Things of the World in which men trust and delight and all the common Religion and Righteousness of the World and makes Christ all in all and God in Christ and all other things nothing So Paul 1 Cor. 1. preached to them that did believe Christ the power of God and Christ the wisdom of God and nothing else 3. They are offended at this Word because it cannot be learned as humane Arts and Sciences can to wit by the teaching of man 3. Because it can only be learned by the Teaching of God together with their own pains and endeavors but only by the teaching of God and his Spirit as it is written They that is the true children of the Spiritual Church shall be all taught of God he therefore that hath heard and learned of my father cometh to me All my divinity said Luther consisteth in this that I believe that Christ only is the Lord touching whom the scriptures speak and neither my Grammer nor Hebrew tongue taught me this but it is the work of the holy spirit Now when God teacheth us his word Himself we have an other When God teacheth us his Word we know it otherwise then other men understanding of it then other men who hear and read the same outward words and yet want that inward Teaching For then have we the spiritual meaning of the Word and the very mind of Christ in it which others want that are not so taught And this offends the carnal Christians grievously that the spiritual Christians have another knowledge and understanding of the Word then they VVhereupon they thus break out what say they are you the only men who have the word of God and is all wisdom and knowledge comprehended in your brests and do you know more of the Mysterie of of Christ then the grave and learned men who have studied the Scriptures all their life and will you with your pretended teaching overthrow that Orthodox sense of the Scriptures that we have had so many yeers and thus they are greatly offended 4. They are offended at this word because it discovers the 4. Because it discovers the wickedness of the World and worldly Church wickedness of the world and worldly Church at a very high rate The world doth not seem the thousand part so wicked anywhere as it doth where the Gospel comes For where this cleer light of God shines and the word comes in any degree of truth and Power there not only the wickedness of the world appears out of measure wicked but also the Religion and Righteousness and Works and Duties of the carnal Christians are manifested to be gross hypocrisie and the deceivableness of unrighteousness and wholly contrary to Christ the righteousness of God and so nothing else but a more plausible way to Death and Hell Where the Word of Christ or the Gospel of God comes in power Many who seemed good are discovered to be very evil by the light of the Word there many who before seemed very Godly and Religious people and very good Christians and very quiet and peaceable men do presently become full of wrath and rage and cursed enmity against it and call it Error and Heresie and Blasphemy and so do no less then spit in the very face of the Truth and Gospel of Christ which he hath manifested above all his name And no man could ever have imagined they had been such children of the Devil before the word came And thus by the coming of the Word in the Spiritual Sense and Doctrine of it many that did once seem to be Christs Friends are manifested to be
THE Stumbling-Stone OR A Discourse touching that offence which the World and Worldly Church do take against 1. Christ Himself 2. His true Word 3. His true Worship 4. His true Church 5. His true Government 6. His true Ministry Wherein the UNIVERSITY is reproved by the WORD of GOD. Delivered partly to the University-Congregation in Cambridge partly to another in the same Town Together with A brief touch in the Epistle for the present on the late quarrelsom weak and erroneous Animadversions of one Mr. Chambers called Doctor in Divinity and Pastor of Pewsy in Wiltshire By William Dell Minister of the Gospel and Master of Gonvil and Caius Colledge in Cambridge Mihi plane omnium jucundissima facies ista in rebus est videre ob verbum Dei studia dissentiones fieri is enim est Verbi Dei cursus casus eventus nam dicit non veni pacem mittere sed gladium Luther LONDON Printed by R. W. for Giles Calvert and are to be sold at the Black-spread Eagle at the West end of Pauls 1653. To the Reader HEre I present thee with this Discourse which met with such notable Opposition and Contradiction from the Vniversity of Cambridge to whom it was delivered and also from such of the Town then present who are baptized into the University spirit And yet every point of this Doctrine will appear to spiritual men to be the Word and Truth of God and if need shall require I can yet more fully prove it to be so by the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles and by the Doctrine of Christ himself the Head of both and that against not only One but All Universities and also against the Gates of Hell and Powers of darkness And by this gross Opposition against the plain Gospel thou maist judge and discern that this Vniversity which hath beeen counted one of the Eyes of the Nation SEEING SEES NOT and which hath been counted a Fountain of Knowledge and good Learning HEARING HEARS NOT NEITHER UNDERSTANDS Whereby we may conceive that gray Haâ—rs are upon it and that the time of its departure is near except it REPENT I had thought also at this time to have given a farther Testimony for Jesus against the Mysterie of iniquity which hath hitherto prevailed in the Ecclesiastical State and in the Vniversities the Head and Heart of it but that this work under my hands multiplied into too great a Proportion for an Epistle And also because I intend to add threunto my Testimony against that Mysterie of Iniquity which hath hitherto also prevailed in the civilState Antichrist having with his deceivableness of unrighteousness seduced and deluded both ever since the Reign of Constantine And this twofold Testimonie through Grace given and hoped to be given I intend very shortly to publish For I Judge it most necessary for the true Church to be acquainted herewith especially after so many of the Seals have been opened and also seeing the time of the Restitution of all things makes haste upon us and we hope is even at the doors Wherefore we continually intreat that the Arm of the Lord would awaken and put on strength not only as in Ancient times and in the days of old but more also to wit as his Spirit by his Prophets hath foretold he will do in the last time when he will reveal his Arm for Christ and his seed in his greatest Might and Glory And let the Remembrancers of the Lord not keep silence till the cursed Kingdom of Antichrist with all its Religion Works Duties Doctrines counterfeit Law and Gospel false Clergy false Church false Power and Jurisdiction or Discipline false Ordinances and false all things be utterly overcome with the Spirit of Christs mouth and the Brightness of his coming And till the true spiritual Church that through Faith Hope and Love lives out of this World and the Elements thereof in the Kingdom of Gods dear Son be made an Eternal Excellency and the Ioy of Generations and till they who have afflicted it and domineered over it be made to come humbly bending to it and to lick the dust of its feet as the Lord hath promised Farther I thought good at this time to advertise thee of the Animadversions of Mr. Humfry Chambers called Doctor in Divinity and Pastor of Pewsy in the County of Wilts on a discourse published by me entituled The Crucified and quickned Christian In which Animadversions as he calls them after Mr. Christopher Loves Example who was one of his Forerunners in this opposition to the Truth he hath Doctor-like contradicted the manifest Truth and the very Substance Marrow and Mysterie of the Gospel which being made void which yet is impossible as to the true Church there would be neither true Righteousness nor Life nor Redemption nor Salvation nor the true Christ nor the true God in Christ left remaining to Believers All which I make account in due time to make appear by the Scriptures for I allow no Doctrine that is not according Christ is the only Law-giver and the Spirit is the only Law Interpreter to the Doctrine of Christ and the writings of his Apostles and Prophets which are a most sure and infallible word if they be understood according to Christs mind and not according to Mans. Now when I read those Animadversions I found them very Captious Slight Weak and grosly erroneous and somewhat like the Animadversions of the Sorbonists on some of Luthers writings And this hath not been my Judgement only but also it hath been represented to me from godly and understanding Christians that this great undertaking of this Doctor is judged such by them that it deserves no more Refutation his Animadversions compared only with the Discourse it self being sufficiently for ever already confuted by it And truly I cannot but bless God who hath given his Truth so weak an Enemy and Error and Darkness so weak a Patron But by this the true Church may judge also what a sad Ministry these poor Nations have received from Antichrists Ordination when the chief Doctors the very Scribes and Pharisees among the Clergy do not know the very first Principles of the Gospel in any spiritual light or by any Teaching from God but all their cold faint and uncertain Doctrine they scrape from Fathers and Schoolmen and from other Ordinary Systemes of Divinity without any presence of Faith or anointing of the Spirit whereby all their Doctrine becomes carnal and corrupt and contrary to Christs mind and agreeable to Antichrists So that I cannot choose but conclude with John Hus THAT ALL THE CLERGY MUST BE QUITE TAKEN AVVAY ERE THE Ioan. Hus libr. de vita Reg. Antichrist cap. 37. CHURCH OF CHRIST CAN HAVE ANY TRUE REFORMATION Another thing hath happened in this matter which makes me wonder and that is that those few Shreds of weakness and Error published by Mr. Chambers should be so honourably licensed by so famous a Divine as the present Vicechancellor of
sweet Saviour that in him is nothing but love and mercy and goodness and compassion and kindness to such as are in distress and in grievous fears and agonies from the sense of sin and wrath and from the presence of Death and Hell working in them And we must believe Christ to be such an one as the Gospel represents him that we may come to him with comfort and put our whole trust in him in all times of sin and sorrow and in all hours of darkness and temptation and let us never entertain any other thoughts of Christ then these but let us hold him unchangeably for such an one as the Gospel reveals him what ever the Law or our evil consciences or the Devil shall suggest to the contrary and then in all our distresses we shall not be affraid of Christ as of a severe Lawgiver and an unexorable Iudge but may run to him as to our mercifull and powerfull Saviour whose proper Office is among the afflicted And thus we see that Christ is known by his Works and what kinde of works they are Secondly Christ would be known by his Word 2. Christ known by his Word And as Christ is known by his Works so also by his Word and therefore he saith Go shew Iohn the things you see and hear and the things you hear as well as the things you see and that is that the poor have the Gospel preached to them For Christs works and Christs Word do alwayes go together Christs works and word go always together Christs Life is alwayes accompanied with Christs Doctrine and his works with his Word The best works that any man can do without the word of the Gospel accompanying them are not Christs Works and the most glorius word that any man can hold forth without the works of Christ accompanying it is not Christs word but Christs works and Christs word go alwayes together both in himself the Head and in the true Church his body Wherefore Christ saith Go shew to Iohn the things you see and hear the things you see the blind receive their sight c. the things you hear and the poor have the Gospel preached to them Now the Gospel is the free promise of God in which nothing The Gospel what it is but meer love mercy and grace is offered in Iesus Christ to them that believe though they be never so great and grievous Sinners in themselves And nothing is more joyfull then this to the soul that is under the sense of Sin and wrath and he that receives this Word of Grace by true faith doth not weigh a feather all the terrors of the Law Sin Death and Hell So that all the outward works of Christ are a small matter if compared to the Gospel Now this Gospel is preached to the Poor that is to the Poor in It is preached to the poor Spirit and these are such who do not love nor desire nor delight in present things but are so afflicted and oppressed in their heart consciences with the sense of sin and wrath that they regard not the world nor the Riches Pleasures and Honors of it but all they mind or care for is Iesus Christ and in Him the love of God and the Remission of sin and the gift of the Spirit These are the Poor to whom Christ Preaches the Gospel and they only regard and entertain the Gospel whil'st the Lovers of this world and the Lovers of themselves and this present life care not for it And thus is Christ known by preaching the Gospel to the poor Christ known by the Gospel as Moses by the Law Moses his Ministry was full of wrath terror and death to sinners but Christs ministry holds forth nothing to the greatest sinners in the world that are sensible of sin but the free Grace and Mercy of God to them even to them in pardoning their sin and Christ known by the Word in the Church his body aswel as in himself the Head giving them righteousness and by this word Christ is well known to the whole true Church of God And as Christ is known by his Word in himself the Head so also in the Church his Body for whereever Christ is present there is his Word aswell as his works and where Christs true Word is not neither is his presence there Wherefore all the faithfull as they have received the Gospel themselves so they hold forth the same Gospel to others upon all opportunities according to the Covenant which God made with Christ touching his Seed which is mentioned Isa 51. ver 21. As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my Spirit which is upon thee and the words which I have put into thy mouth that is the Gospel shall never depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seeds seed from henceforth and for ever By which Scripture we may learn that the Ministry of the New-Testament is a common Ministry belonging equally and alike to all the seed of Christ that is to all true believers for when Christ dwells in their hearts by faith who shall hinder Christ in them from speaking the Word of God by them For God doth not consider men as the World doth to wit as they are Tradesmen or Gentlemen or Schollars or Clergy-men but God considers men either as Believers or Unbelievers he considers men as Believers or Vnbelievers And if they be Vnbelievers then are they destitute of the true presence of Christ and of the true Word of Christ what ever their outward condition be in the World yea though they be Schollars and Clergy-men and if they are Believers then have they Christs true presence and word with them what ever their outward condition is in the world yea though they be Gentlemen or Tradesmen and every one of them saith with David and with Paul I believed therefore have I spoken So that we are not to conceive of the spiritual Church according The true Ministry is only of Believers to any outward state or condition in the world but according to Faith through which Christ dwells in the hearts of believers and if Christ the living word of God dwel in them he will not keep silence And this confession of the word before the world Christ requires of all believers alike saying He that confesseth me before men him will I confess before my father and before his Angels and there is no true and right confessing Christ without holding forth the word and Doctrine of the Gospel So then every one that is of God speaks Gods word and he that speaks it not is not of God for in all the true children of God the Spirit of their father speaks in them And thus the true presence of Christ is known by the word of the Gospel in the Church his body and in every one of his Members aswell as in himself the head This
Doctrine the carnal Church is a great enemy to and The carnal Church offended at this Doctrine will not suffer Christ to speak by whom he pleaseth that so all men may be necessitated to hear its Clergy whether they speak the word of Christ or no but of this more hereafter And thus you have seen how Christ gives forth himself to be known by his works and by his word and without these two we can have no certain Testimony of him in the world Now Christ having returned this full and satisfactory Answer The Conclusion of Christs Answer to Iohn to Iohn to declare to him who he was adds this in the conclusion And blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me For notwithstanding the works and word of Christ which are The World offended at Christ notwithstanding his works and Word the works and word of God in the flesh yet the Wisdom and Prudence of the flesh and the Religion and Righteousness of the World which do not much regard those things do finde much matter of scandal and offense in Iesus Christ wherefore Christ saith Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me Now in discoursing touching the Offence which is taken against This Offence discoursed of Christ by men I shall observe this Order I shall shew 1. Who they are that are offended at Christ 2. What those things are whereat they are offended and why they are offended at them 3. What a great evil it is to be so offended 4. What a great blessednes it is not to be so offended and 5. Make some Vse of all 1. Point Who they are that are offended at Christ 1. Who offended at Christ 1. The whole World And here I affirm first that the whole world in general is offended at Christ for they living without the word and Spirit of faith must needs be offended at Christ by all those scandals which are raised up against Christ by the Devil and men and they all having a false apprehension of Christ do suck in as readily as a spring doth water what ever aspersions and reproaches are raised against him and so must needs be offended at him and therefore saith Christ Mat. 18 ver 7. wo be to the world because of offences for Offences must needs come and the world will needs receive them and therefore wo be to the world So that the whole World that is whosoever are not true believers and born of God are all offended at Christ and his Gospel and all the children of the first Adam are offended at the second Adam who is wholly unlike to them yea and in all things most contrary to them 2. Yea secondly Not only the common people of the World And herein the chief and choice men of the World vulgar and contemptible men are offended at Christ but also all the chief and choice men of the world Kings of the earth and Rulers and Judges and Magistrates as in Psalm 2. and all the best and learnedst and wisest and greatest and most honourable men these all are offended at Christ 1 Cor. 2. 8. which none of the Princes of this world knew he means it of Philosophers aswell as of secular Powers and not knowing him they Crucified him 2. Not the World only are offended at Christ but also the Worldly and carnal Church the Outward Visible National Church 2. The Worldly Church this is very much offended at him This we see in Christs time that the only Visible Church of God in the World the Church of the Jews for the Church of the Old Testament was a Visible Church but the Church of the New Testament is a Spiritual Church and not visible I say the Jewish Church which had the Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalmes and observed all the outward Ordinances of God exactly they were all Offended at Christ and made an Order that whosoever acknowledged him should be excommunicated and cast out of the Synagogue And this Offence was foretold by Isai chap. 8. ver 14. where he saith of Christ And he shall be for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of Offence to both Houses of Israel for a ginne and for a snare to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem So that not Babylon only but Ierusalem and not the Heathen only but both the Houses of Israel were offended at Christ and this makes the evil yet more grievous And yet this is not all but secondly and not only the carnal Christians but the carnal Clergy are offended at Christ and not And herein the Ministers and chief Rulers only the common people of the National Church but the chief Rulers the most eminent and in appearance most Godly and Holy and Orthodox of the Clergy are above all others most grievously offended at Christ This also we see done in Christs time when the Scribes and Pharisees and Rulers of the People men of great reputation and renown for Religion and Righteousness these were chiefly and above the rest of the Church offended at Christ and as Christ everywhere was most sharp against them and did most reprove them so they did most bitterly oppose Christ And this also was foretold by the Spirit of Prophesie Psalm 118. 22. The stone which the Builders refused is become the Head of the corner this rejected stone is Christ himself and these Builders were the chief Rulers and Governors of the Church and accordinly both Christ and the Apostles applyed this Scripture to them as you may see Mat 21. 42. and Act. 4. 11. So that the Builders that teach and instruct and govern the Church and are reputed the best and most profitable and necessary men in it yea the very Pillars of the Church so that all would come to nought and to ruine without them these are the men that are most offended at Christ These are the Husbandmen mentioned by Christ Mat. 21. that conspired against the Son of the Lord of the Vineyard and killed him and these have been and still are * Nullus est alius Antichristus in mundo neque venturus quam Sacerdotes 10. Hus. By Priests he means the Clergy who challenge to themselves a proper and singular Priest-hood distinct and apart from other Christians the chief and great outward Antichrist in the World Now when the People see the Rulers and Governors of the Church who are thought to have more Knowledge Learning Light and Religion then others offended at Christ this exceedingly increases their Offence and when they see the Builders rejecting and throwing away this Stone this causes them to reject him also with the greater indignation And thus you see that this Offence at Christ is a great and a large evil and is spread over all the World and Worldly Church and very few there are who do escape it And this for the first thing 2. Point At what things in Christ they are Offended and why they are 2. General At what offended in
after as Believers received the Spirit so they became Ministers of the New Testament as we see in the Acts of the Apostles and in the first 300. years after Christ For there is but one only Ministry of the New Testament which is common to all men alike who have received the Spirit of God and to none else though never so excellently qualified with Natural Abilities and Humane Learning For the things of the Gospel are altogether invisible things and The things of the Gospel cannot be known but by the teaching of the Spirit cannot be known but by the teaching of the Spirit though a man have all the Wisdom and Knowledge in the World as Paul declares 1 Cor. 2. ver 8 9 10. Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor the Heart of man understood the things which God hath prepared for them that love him but God hath revealed them to Vs believers by the Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God For what man knoweth the things of a man but the spirit of a man that is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Now we have received not the Spirit of the World which for its highest perfection hath only humane Wisdom and Knowledge but the Spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God Where we learn that the things of the Gospel and of the Kingdom of God are not known at all nor discerned in the least measure but by Gods Spirit which Spirit is given to all that believe and this Spirit alone is sufficient both to enable us to know clearly and certainly the things of God and also to publish them unto others and nothing of Man or the Creature can add to it Wherefore when Christ chose his Ministers according to his Fathers Councel he chose not the Wise and Learned but plain simple men that it might appear to all the World throughout all ages how infinitely able the Vnction of his Spirit alone is without any addition of any thing else for the Ministry of the New Testament and Christ upon the serious consideration of this strange choice of God by Him breaks forth into this Thanksgiving Mat. 11. 25. I thank thee Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things that is the Word of Faith and Mystery of Christ and his Kingdom from the Wise and Prudent and hast revealed them to babes even so Father because it pleased thee And David admiring this wonderfull dispensation speaks thus in the joy of his heart Psal 8. ver 1 2. O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy Name in all the World who hast set thy Glory above the Heavens and then showing wherein this high Glory of God appears saith Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger God useth no other Instrument to overcome the greatest Enemies and Avengers that arise in the World and worldly Church then the strength he ordaines out of the mouths of babes and sucklings that is true believers who live only on the sincere milke of the Word The Lord had all the World before him to have chosen out of it whom he pleased to be the Instruments by whom he would hold forth his Word and Gospel to all Nations Yet in his infinite wisdom and gracious Councel and good Pleasure he would pass by the Wise and Learned men and great Philosophers and subtile Disputants as Paul affirms 1 Cor. 1. 19. that God hath said I will destroy the Wisdom of the Wise and bring to nothing the Vnderstanding of the Prudent God is so far from making use of Humane Wisdom and Prudence in the Gospel of his Son that he quite destroyes it and brings it to nothing Wherefore Paul adds v. 20. Where is the wise where is the learned or lettered man where is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Disputer of this world hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe By the foolishness of preaching that is by the Word of Faith out of the mouth of Babes and Sucklings which the World reckons foolishness by this alone doth God bring about the Salvation of the Elect. Now at these things how grievously are the Worldly wise and deep learned ones as they esteem themselves offended that Gods Spirit alone should be a sufficient Vnction for the Ministry of the New Testament and that God should on set purpose lay aside the Wise and Prudent men and choose babes and out of their mouth ordain his great strength to set up Christs Kingdom in the world and to destroy Antichrists Yea this Doctrine will chiefly offend the * University â—nd all in it of all Degrees Objection By the Univerty Vniversity For you will say If this be so What need is there then of our Philosophy and of our Arts and Sciences to the Ministry of the New Testament And what need is there of our Acts and Cleâ—ums And what need is there of our Scarlet and Tippets And what need is there of our Hoods and Caps c. If the Vnction of the Spirit alone be sufficient for the right Ministry and Christ do perfect his praise by the mouths of Babes and sucklings then what need is there of all these things I Answer No need at all as to Christs Kingdom and the Ministry Answer to it of that For it is one of the grossest errors that ever reigned under Antichrists Kingdom to affirm that Vniversities are the fountain of the Minsters of the Gospel which do only proceed out Quò indubiè taxat Academias in quibus tales homines creantur è quibus prodicrunt omnes in orbem praedicatores c. Totus enim orbis in hac sententia est hos fontes esse è quibus scaturiant qui docere populum debeant Hic est error horrendus abominandus ut nihil aeque aversandumulla ex re quam ex Academiis prodierit c. Luth. in loc Objection of Christs flock And because you will be greatly offended at me for speaking thus you shall hear what Luther saith to this matter on 2 Pet. 2. 1. upon these words but there were false Prophets among the people as there shall be false Teachers among you the word Peter uses here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 false Doctors or false Masters and Luther saith it came to pass by the singular Councel of God that our Teachers should be called Doctors and Masters that it my appear to all whom Peter here means and he farther saith that Peter hereby doth undoubtedly tax the Vniversities in which such men are created and out of which have proceeded all the Preachers in the World so that