but only a new Birth and true faith in Jesus Christ whereby we are made the Children of God without which Men are still of the World notwithstanding all their other Improvements And this very thing manifests that Universities cannot be the fountains of the true Ministery of the Gospel seeing all the Education in it Philosophical Moral and Theological cannot change mens Natures or deliver them from their Corruptions or translate them one hairs breadth out of this present evil World yea generally we see that by University-Education as things have hitherto been managed Youth is made more of the World than they were by Nature through the High Improvement of their corruptions by their daily converse with the Heathens their vain Philosophers and filthy and obscene Poets and by these Heathenish abominable Accomplishments are they made the more fit Teachers for the World and Worldly People and become the more suitable to them and obtain the greater Aptness and Ability to please them Wherefore it may be most truly said of that Ministery that flows meerly from the fountain of the Universities that it is Of the World And now when the Teachers are of one Nature and Principle of one Heart Minde and Consent with the Hearers there must needs be a Great Agreement between them for each one approves and loves that which is like himself and so the Worldly people must needs cleave to the Teachers that are of the World Yea farther and which is very considerable the World can indure and like any Doctrine though in the Letter never so Holy and Spiritual from such Teachers are of one Nature and Spirit with it self And He that speaks of the things of Christ without the Spirit of Christ and by the Spirit of the World can never by any such Doctrine be grievous to the World but rather acceptable Seeing there is more in the Nature of those Teachers to reconcile the World to them than in their Doctrine to set the World against them For the World cannot but agree with those Teachers that are of the World let their Doctrine in the Letter be what it will Whereas on the contrary the faithfull are not of the World but of another Seed Nature and Principle which is in direct Enmity to the World and so they speaking the things of Christ in the Spirit of Christ must needs be grievous and troublesom to them who have the Spirit of the World and the Friends of Christ crucified cannot but be grievous to the Friends of this World And this for the first Ground 2. The second Ground Why the Worldly People hear the Worldly Teachers is this Because they speak of the World For as they are so they speak out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh and so They that are of the World speak of the World and this we may conceive of in three particulars 1. The Worldly Teachers speak of the World that is they speak the Spiritual Word of God in a Carnal and Worldly Sense they speak of Divine things as of Humane things according to their Natural and Humane Minde Reason Knowledge Learning and Understanding of them And so they give forth Christ himself and his Kingdom and all his Things his Redemption Reconciliation Salvation as also Faith Hope Love and all the Graces of the Spirit and Riches of Christ they give forth all these things in a Carnal Understanding and Notion to the People And the World can like well enough of Christ his Kingdom and Things in a Worldly Sense they can bear or endure Faith and Repentance and the New Creature and the New Jerusalem in a Carnal Sense while in the true Spiritual Sense of them and as they are in Themselves and according to the Minde of Christ they are the greatest Enemies to them that can be Now Believers must know in this Matter That whoever speaks the Things of Gods Spirit by the spirit of a Man or Spiritual Things in a Humane Carnal and Worldly Sense is a false Prophet and Teacher of Antichrist Whoever reading or hearing the Gospel of God our Saviour doth understand and frame it after his own Humane Sense and doth not so understand it as the Lord hath spoken it He is a false Prophet understanding and speaking the Gospel after his own minde but contrary to Christs and these open their own Hearts to the People and not Gods Now when the People that are of the World hear the Teachers that are of the World speaking Spiritual Things in a Carnal and Worldly sense and according to such an Apprehension as they have already in their own Hearts they do exceedingly cleave to and embrace such Teachers and their Doctrine For such Doctrine man in his Natural Condition can well like of seeing it leads men only to a change of Outward Works and to a performance of Outward Worship which any man by his own natural abilities can perform aad the World can well endure to put on the fairest form of Godliness and the strictest so their Nature inwardly may remain the Same And thus the Worldly People comply readily with the Worldly Doctrine of the Worldly Teachers seeing it is after the sense and mind of Man But on the contrary Christ and his Seed as they are not of the World so neither do they speak of the World but being of God they speak the Things of God according to God they speak of the Things of God by the Spirit of God and so according to the Minde of God they speak of the Things of God in the Wisdom Righteousness Truth Light and Life of God and thus the World cannot endure the VVord nor Those that teach it 2. The Prophets of Antichrist speak of the World that is they turn the Word of God into Worldly and Carnal doctrine for Worldly Advantage sake they preach the spiritual Word of God carnally that they may make it serve their own Turns and Ends. That Word of the Gospel which God hath given only to serve the spiritual and eternal Welfare of his Church the Worldly Teachers frame and use this only thereby to serve their own Worldly Credit and Reputation their Worldly Profit and Preferment and their Worldly Authority and Dominion And thus that Word of Faith which in its own proper Nature and Working calls off all Men from this World and the Things of it to the Kingdom and Glory of God they make this very Word to sound carnally that by it they may seek Themselves and the Things of this present Life But Christ and his Seed who are of God they speak of God and not of the World seeking no Worldly thing at all by the Word of God which They teach and hold forth as is manifest in the Life of Christ and his Christians 3. The Ministers of Antichrist or worldly Teachers speak of the World that is they turn the Word of God into Worldly Doctrine that thereby they may avoid
them the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of Christ without which Spirit of Revelation Christ and the Father can never be known What can Humane Learning and the Studies of Men find out of the Mysterie of Christ which was hidden from Ages and Generations as Paul testifies till the Spirit revealed it Yea Christ hath taught that God hides these things of the Gospel from the Wise and Prudent that is the Studying and Learned Men and reveals them to Babes and that this is his Good Pleasure so to do And so no man can know Christ and his Gospel and what is the Faith Hope and Love of the Gospel but by the most present Teaching and Revelation of God Himself by his Spirit Wherefore to deny the Inspiration of Gods Spirit now and to ascribe all Knowledge of the Word of God to mens Studies and to Humane Learning is the most Gross and Palpable Doctrine of Antichrist and his Prophets whereas all the People of God are taught of God Himself in all the Things of God as Christ hath said Because no Man by his own Studies and Pains can attain thereunto And in this matter I shall also add the Testimony of Luther and Latimer Luther saith No man sees one jot or title in the Scriptures but He that hath the Spirit of God For all men have a Darkned Heart in such sort that if they could speak and knew how to bring forth all things of the Scripture yet have they not any true sense or right Knowledge of them For saith he the Spirit is required to the Understanding of the whole Scripture and of every part thereof And Latimer saith The Carnal and Philosophical understanding of the Scriptures is not that Wisdom of God which is hid from the Wise and revealed to Little Ones 9. ERROR That Humane Learning is as the Outworks to the Fort of the Gospel and as the outer Court to the Temple of the Gospel and so if you will keep the Fort well you must keep the Out-works strong and if you will preserve the inner you must look to the outer Court Answer How highly hath Mr. Simpson honoured Socrates Pythagoras Plato and Aristotle c. to make them a strong Guard for the Person of Christ And how highly hath he honoured their Learning to make it a defence for the Gospel And how weak and feeble hath he sought to render the Word of Faith that must be thus defended by the Arts Disciplines of Men as not being able to stand alone and to defend it self Doth this man truly believe in the Son of the Living God who makes Him such an helpless Idol or doth he believe the Word of the Gospel which hath given Eyes to the Blinde and Ears to the Deaf and Feet to the Lame which hath raised the Dead and cast our Devils and commanded the Winds and Waves and they have obeyed I say doth he believe this Word to be of God which hath done the very Works of God and yet openly affirms to the World that it cannot maintain it Self or subsist without the Help of Philosophy Is that Word which mightily and perfectly saves all the Elect and that in despight of the World and the Devil and the Gates of Hell not able to save it self without Humane Help Must that Word be secured by Aristotle which delivers all the Elect from Sin Death and Hell for ever Are Grammar Rhetorick Logick Ethicks Physicks Metaphysicks Mathematicks the Weapons whereby we must defend the Gospel Is Mr. Simpson so ill a Proficient in Christianity that he hath not read or doth not remember that of Paul Ephes. 6. 12. where he saith We wrestle not against Flesh and Blood but against Principalities against Powers against the Rulers of the Darkness of this world against Spiritual Wickedness in high places Wherefore take unto you the whole Armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the Evil Day and having done all to stand Stand therefore having your loyns girt about with Truth and having on the Brest-plate of Righteousness And your feet shod with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace Above all taking the shield of Faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Wicked And take the Helmet of Salvation and the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God Praying always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all Perseverance Here now are the true Christians Weapons whereby he defends Himself through the Word and defends the Word against all the World And the same Paul in 2 Cor. 10. 3. saith For though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh For the Weapons of our Warfare are not Carnal but Mighty through God to the pulling down of Strong Holds Casting down Imaginations and every High thing that exalteth it self against the Knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the Obedience of Christ And having in readiness to revenge all Disobedience So that the faithful do not defend the Gospel by Philosophy as is heat henishly suggested but by the Gospel they defend the Gospel and the Gospel hath in it self that Wisdom Righteousness Strength and those Vertues which are infinitely able to defend it self against all the World and against all the Powers of Darkness And how contrary is this Doctrine to Mr. Simpsons And thus much for his Outworks to the Gospel Now for his outer Court to the Gospel I know no other outer Court the Gospel ever had then the Law of Moses which Law was the Preparation to the Gospel and the School-Master to bring us unto Christ which Humane Learning never was But Humane Learning is the outer Court to Antichrists Temple it is the School-Master to bring men to Antichrist And thus would Mr. Simpson also turn the Law out of its place and set up Humane Learning in the stead of the Law and so would make void both Law and Gospel for Humane Learning sake Surely one would think he hath some considerable Advantage thereby that he thus sences for it 10. ERROR But what is the bottom saith he of all this that is of some mens appearing against Humane Learning as the Unction of the Ministry and against the Universities as the Fountain of the Ministry but this That some say They are one with Christ and as Christ hath the Divine nature in Him so every Believer also hath and he that hath God in Him need not go to any Man to Learn Whereas Joh. 17. Christ speaketh of Believers as at an infinite Distance from Himself He their Lord they his Servants He in Glory they in the World And if They be so united to Christ then it will follow that Christ is not the only begotten Son of God and that Christ and We should be Equal and He not our Lord c. Answer Now doth not all this declare a most woful
the Christian Religion and being afflicted in Mind he did withdraw Himself into a solitary Place where there met Him an old Antient Father of comely Visage and gentle behaviour who began to reason with Him and to tell him that there was no Knowledge of Truth among the Philosophers who neither knew God nor were ayded by his Holy Spirit And did farther reason with Him of the Immortality of the Soul of the Reward of the Godly and Punishment of the Wicked Then Justine being Satisfied with his Reasons yeilded to him and demanded of him How He might attain to that true Knowledge of God whereof he had spoken Who counselled Him to read the Scriptures adjoyning therewith Prayer c. And as this Justine left all other Learning and betook himself only to the Scriptures so in the understanding of the Scriptures he rejected all his Philosophy and Philosophical Apprehensions Saying that the Interpretation of the Scripture is to be accommodated to the Will of the Doctrine of the Spirit and not to Humane Reasonings And that he might be sure and safe in all things he had constant recourse to the Scriptures thus understood So that Justine Martyr being effectually Converted wholly left his Philosophy and betook himself to the Scriptures and taught them to the Church as He had been taught them of God by his Spirit Constantine the Emperor though he were the first that brought in the Mysterie of Iniquity into the Christian Church by mingling the Civil and Ecclesiastical states and Laws together there being in His time a great Increase of Christians through the Ministry of the Gospel and a great Confluence of them to his Imperial City for the Words sake he wrote to Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia in a special Letter Wherein he desired him with all Diligence and Speed to procure fifty Volums of the Scriptures to be written in parchment Well and Legibly and in such a bignenss or Volume as might be carried with greatest ease for the further teaching and instructing of Those that came to attain the Knowledge of the Christian Religion Judging it most meet that Christian People should be Instructed in the Doctrine of Christ only and not in Heathenish Philosophy And though afterwards when the Suffering Times of the Church began to be over Christians became more carnal and secure and that in the very days of Constantine and so began to decline the Word of Faith and to seek after Philosophy yet had God in all the Ages of his Church some of his Servants who did reject it and did cleave only to the Word Among which I shall only for the present produce the Testimonies of Berno who lived above six hundred years ago and Zuinglius of latter times Berno who lived about the year 1008. and was a man furnished with all sorts of Learning saith That he had for many years rejected as dung the figments of the Poets and the Histories of the Heathens and the study of Secular Letters and had converted the whole Intention of his Mind to the Word of God and the Divine Things contained therein And accordingly he taught no other Doctrine to any Huldricus Zuinglius also Pastor of Zurich in Helvetia a man who had been educated in all kind of Learning and was after through faith and the teaching of God an eminent Instrument in his Church he saith thus of himself When saith he I being yet a Youth was exercised in all sorts of Learning I can truly say that I did not profit less then the rest of my Equals But when about seven years ago I betook my self to the study of the Holy Scriptures then the things that I had before sucked in or learned from Philosophers and Divines did procure me so much Trouble that being then moved by the Authority of the Scriptures I judged that all those things were to be cast away and counted as dung and that the true Mind of God was only to be received from his pure and simple Word And therefore I began humbly to intreat the Lord that he would vouchsafe me his own Light By which means it shortly came to pass that the reading of the Holy Scriptures did much delight and please me and they being nakedly and alone propounded did flow unto me with more ease then if I had read them divided and distracted with variety of Comments And as he rejected Philosophy wholly and entertained the Word So did he only teach this Word to faithfull Christians who are the only true School of Christ in the World Now by all this it appears that the Schools of the Prophets and Apostles and of Christ himself the Head of them and of the most faithfull Christians that followed Christ in the first and latter Ages were in no sort like the Schools in the present Universities where Humane Learning according to the Statutes of the Universities prevails for the first seven years and they think Youths cannot be made good Christians except they be first made good Heathens The Schools of the Prophets and Apostles would not meddle with the Philosophy of the Heathen but led the children and youth presently to the Word of God and therein to the true Knowledge of God in Christ But these Schools first lead Youth from God and his Word several years together to the corrupt Reason Wisdom Notions Conceptions yea to the Idolatry Blasphemy Atheism Lusts Filthiness and Villanies of the cursed Heathen that thereby in a strange and Antichristian Method they may be the fitter to know and understand the Scriptures The Schools of the Prophets taught only Moses and the Prophets to the Jewish Youth and the Schools of the Apostles taught Christ only and his Gospel to the children of Christians But the Universities lead men both from Moses and from Christ both from the Law and the Gospel to the Heathen to make men hereby the more able Christians and Divines The Queen of the South neglecting the Magi or Wise men of the Heathen came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the Wisdom of Solomon And the Universities leave Christ who is Infinitely Greater and Wiser then Solomon and go to the utmost parts of the earth for Wisdom from the Heathen So that in these Universities there hath been the greatest Apostacy and Withdrawing from Christ and the greatest Dishonor and Disparagement offered to Him and his Gospel as ever was known in all the World For Is it not a matter of greatest Wonder and Amazement that after that Word which was with God and was God and is God blessed for ever hath been manifested in the flesh and that Flesh of His hath been justified by the Spirit to have the Fulness of the Godhead dwelling in it bodily and that This so Wonderfull a Person hath come to his Church in the same Common Nature with it filled with all the Righteousness Wisdom Truth Power Life Peace and Joy and all the things of God I say is it not strange
of Men at his Pleasure and in great Readiness and with much Ease shall gain it to Himself And Antichrist by such Men saith I. Hus doth make his Body or Church strong against the Saints of God and Welfavoured and Glorious that it may appear very taking to the World and may win in all Men to it that are not taught of God and renewed by his Spirit And thus Antichrist serves himself of all Learning and Learned men whereas Divine Learning and the Teaching of God He could never in any measure subject to Himself but is alwaies discovered resisted and overcome by it Martin Luther saith That whosoever it was whether Alexander of Hales or Thomas of Aquine who first instituted Universities he was a Star fallen from Heaven to Earth who received the Key of the bottomless Pit and opened it and brought forth into the Church Philosophy long ago dead and damned by the Doctrine of the Apostles and from the Smoak of the Bottomless Pit that is Philosophy came forth Locusts on the Earth that is saith he populus Universitatum è Philosophia natus the people of the Universities born and bred of Philosophy c. thus Luther Abbas Joachim Calaber who was long before these and flourished about the year 1230. in his Commentary on Jeremy the Prophet speaks to this purpose That the sixt Angel mentioned Rev. 9. opens the Bottomless Pit and brings out Philosophy into the Church and out of the Smoak of this Doctrine Lecusts proceeded and are spread over all the Church into every Fruitfull Place and these Locusts he saith are Scholastici Magistri qui nunc facie tenus blandiuntur ut decipiant nunc cauda tenus feriunt ut subvertant simplices incautos that is the Locusts are Scholars and Masters according to the Academical Degrees who sometimes flatter with their Countenances to deceive and sometimes strike with their Tails that they may subvert the Simple and Unadvised And to these Scholars and Masters the Ignorant and Common People resort and they open to them the old Cisterns of Heathenish Learning and Disciplines long ago stopt up by the Doctrine of the Apostles and these Cisterns they open by teaching Philosophy to the People But they shut up the Living Fountain of saving Water that is the Word of Faith But the Spirit of the Lord saith he in the following Prophets whom the Lord shall raise up idola studiorum carnalium visitabit shall visit the Idols of Carnal Studies maintained and kept up by Secular Stipends Further he saith that as Antichrist brings forth his Mark which is Philosophical Doctrine in the Church of Christ and by this Mark all his Teachers and People are known so there shall rise up against these such as have the Mark of Christ or the sign of Thau in their foreheads that is the Open and Manifest Doctrine of Christ Crucified And as the Signs of Moses destroyed the Signs of the Magicians so shall the Word or Preaching of the Cross destroy all Philosophical Doctrine and Humane and Secular Learning out of the Church And then the Children and Youth and men of all Ages Sorts and Conditions shall be taught no other Doctrine in the Church of Christ then that which is found in the Scriptures even in the Writings of the Prophets and Apostles and that not according to any Humane and Philosophical Understanding but according to the Teaching and Mind of the Spirit And God by all his true Servants shall destroy the Studies of carnal Doctors and Masters in Divinity and shall dissipate all Secular and Philosophical Learning by the Word of Truth in their mouths And so shall the Church be reformed aright when the Doctrine of Christ only shall be received and esteemed of and shall live and flourish among Christians And thus as Antichrist hath laid aside the Scriptures and all true Spiritual and Divine Learning out of his Schools and Universities and hath brought into them instead thereof Philosophy and Humane Learning and so these Schools are most unlike to the Schools of the Prophets so in due time when God shall undertake to reform his Church all this Sort of Learning shall be cast out again as dirt and dung and the plain Word of the Gospel only shall prevail and flourish among the Christian People Which Time the Lord hasten for his Elects sake 2. ERROR That they who have endeavoured to pull down Schools have always been Men who were found Enemies to Religion So Julian the Apostate shut up the doors of the Schools because he would have all Religion to go down Answer True it is that they who have sought the subversion of Christian Schools wherein the Doctrine of the Gospel is purely taught without the mixture of Philosophy and Heathenism They all have been and are very Enemies to the true Religion But they that seek to put down Heathenish Schools and to erect Christian or to reform the Schools of Heathen into Christian or to remove Heathenism out of Christian Schools They are not before God and Good Men Enemies to true Religion but the great Friends of it Nay they that call Heathenish Schools by the name of Christian that they may still remain with the better credit in their Heathenism without any true Reformation according to the Gospel I rather judge them to be Enemies to the true Religion and Friends only to their own Profit Preferment and Ends. Julian indeed did forbid that Christians should be instructed in the Disciplines of the Gentiles but saith Sozomen the Writer of the Ecclesiastical History he did this because he thought that by those Disciplines men might attain to a Great Faculty to perswade which Advantage he would not have the Christians to gain to the Help of their Religion Now certainly this was done as Socrates another Writer of the Ecclesiastical History doth acknowledge by the Singular Providence of God For seeing then Christians had begun to degenerate from the Gospel and to betake themselves to Heathenish Learning Julian attributed all the Glory and Excellency of Christianity to that Learning and so thought with Mr. Simpson that if Humane Learning were denied to Christians Christianity it Self would soon be at end Wherefore the Lord stirred up Julian to put down the Doctrine of the Heathen in the Schools of Christians that it might appear to all the World That as the true Christian Religion is not helped by Humane Learning so neither is it hindred by the Want of it And that there is more Light Knowledge Truth Wisdom Power Utterance given to Christians by the Unction of the Spirit alone which all receive who believe then through all Heathenish Disciplines And also that it might be manifest that true Christianity is founded on Faith in Christ and the Gift of his Spirit only and not at all on Humane Learning For what Humane Learning had Peter and John and yet in what Wisdom and Authority did they being Ignorant and Unlearned
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
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
to you and give you his own Spirit by which alone you can make a Right Judgement in this Matter Wherefore that he that reads may understand you must know that the false Prophets are not so easily discerned as you think for they seem to be true Prophets and Godly Holy Learned Orthodox men Men of Eminency and Renown in the Church and State and so to flesh and blood and the Wisdom and Religion of the world it will be a difficult yea an impossible thing to find them out for the false Prophets have several glorious Vails over them to hide and obscure them from common Knowledge Wherefore we declare unto you from the Word of the Lord touching these false Prophets who shall do so much mischief 1. That they shall not proceed or come forth from among the Jews or Turks or out of the barbarous Nations but they shall arise out of such as are called Christians 2. Seeing among Christians some are openly profane and evil others seem to be Religious and Godly the false Prophets shall be found among the better sort and therefore saith Christ they shall come in Sheeps clothing as if they were of Christs own flock and Paul saith they have a form of Godliness that is they shall be painted over gloriously with all appearances of truth righteousness honesty goodness and all the names of godliness 3. Seeing amongst those that seem to be the better Sort of Christians some give themselves to the Ministry of the Word and some do not the false Prophets shall be found among those Christians who take upon themselves to be Preachers as Paul testifies Acts 20. where having called together the Elders and Teachers of the Church of Ephesus he saith to them ex vobis ipsis out of your Own Selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them 4. And seeing among those who are Ministers some are light and vain and carnal and formal Persons and others are men of great Worth and Reputation and seem to be the pretious Members of Christ and even Pillars in the Church so that the Common People think that all Religion would go down with such Good men they having some Gifts and enlightnings of the Spirit and seeming more than ordinarily godly religious wise holy sober devout now the false Prophets shall be found among These And as they who opposed Christ at his first coming in the flesh seemed more wise and holy and eminent in the Church than the rest as the Scribes and Pharisees who sat in Moses Chair and had the outward Letter of the Word in all exactness and the outward Form of Religion in all strictness so they who do and shall most oppose Christ in his coming in his Spirit and shall contradict his Word and resist his Servants and Witnesses of his Truth do and shall appear more Wise Holy Learned and Godly than the rest of the Teachers of the Church And thus you see that the false Prophets of Antichrist shall arise among Christians and among such Christians as seem to be Godly and among such seeming Godly Christians as Preach the Word and among such Preachers of the Word as seem to be of greater Worth and Eminency then the rest and so in all these Regards it will be a hard matter to discern them 2. Again Such Persons of such appearance of Worth and Holiness as these do usually get to their side the Greatest and Highest Persons in the Kingdoms and Nations and do obtain not only their Countenance and Favor but also their Power and Authority for Themselves 3. By both these means to wit their seeming Holiness and their Interest with Worldly Powers they exceedingly enlarge their Credit and Reputation with the World and do get Multitudes of People and Nations to entertain them For Antichrist could not deceive the World with a company of foolish weak ignorant prophane contemptible Persons but he alwaies hath the Greatest Wisest Holiest and most Eminent in the visible Church for Him and by These he seduces and subjects to Himself even the Whole World Besides they that are against Him and his false Prophets are but a very handfull of Saints who have the Spirit of Christ and through his Spirit discern Them and oppose Them and for so doing are despised and hated of all the World Wherefore it is a harder matter to try these false Prophets then we are well aware of And yet as hard as it is the Apostle by the Spirit hath given us a manifest and certain Rule of Tryall And this is the third general thing I named The Third Point To wit The sufficient Rule whereby the true Church may thoroughly try the Spirits and Prophets how cunningly and subtilly soever they are disguised and this he layes down verse 3. Hereby know we the Spirit of God Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God and every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God c. Now this Scripture we may understand two wayes 1. Of a right Knowledge of Jesus Christ in his own Person 2. Of a true Receiving of this Christ into us by faith 1. Of the right Knowledge of Christ in his own Person 1. For whereas he saith Every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh c. this gives us to understand that he is true God and was before he came into the flesh 2. Whereas he saith every spirit that confesseth that Christ is come in the flesh this gives us to understand that he is true Man our very Brother partaker of the same flesh and blood with us 3. Whereas he saith every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh c. this also gives us to understand that in Him true God and true Man are united into One inseparable Person 4. Whereas he saith every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh c. this gives us occasion to consider the End of his Coming seeing God did not become Man in vain or for some slight Cause but that he might Redeem unto God all those whom the Father had Elected in Him and save them perfectly from the Law Sin Death and Hell And hence we may rise up to conceive of his Offices to wit of his Priestly Propheticall and Kingly Office and of the Infinite Vertue and Efficacy of them Now he that makes this confession of Jesus Christ from the revelation of the Father is of God and he that speaks otherwise is not of God 2. But Secondly We may understand this Scripture not only of the true Knowledge of Jesus Christ but also and especially of the true Receiving of Him by faith Every spirit saith he that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God that is he is of God
Ministers of Antichrist The Seventh Sign The true Prophets and Ministers of Christ do not force any body to hear them and obey their Doctrine against their Wils neither do they vex and trouble them with Secular Power who will not obey them and be subject to them but they leave all such People as they found them lest they should seem by their Doctrine to seek any Worldly thing Thus Christ when he taught the Gospel still cryed out He that hath ears to hear let him hear and he that had not ears to hear he did not punish him and again saith Christ If any man Will be my Disciple let him deny Himself and take up his cross and follow Me and still left men to their own Freedom whether they would be his Disciples or no. And as Christ did thus Himself so he left the same thing in command with all his true Disciples and when he sent them forth to Preach Matth. 10. he charged them saying Whoever will not receive You nor hear Your Words when you depart out of that house or City shake off the dust of your feet as a Testimony against them he doth not bid them if they be refused to betake themselves to the Secular Power to get Authority from thence to stay and abide there whether they will or no or otherwise to punish them but bids them only to shake off the dust of their feet that they might know they came not to them for the Love of Earthly things And when the Apostles out of a false zeal would have had Christ to have commanded fire to have come down from Heaven to have destroyed them that would not receive Him he plainly reproved them saying Ye know not of what Spirit ye are for the Son of Man is not come to destroy mens Lives but to save them It is recorded in the life of Simon and Jude the Apostles as both Gulielmus de sancto Amore and John Hus relate That when the Chief Ruler was very angry with those who defamed the Doctrine of those Apostles and in great zeal commanded a great Fire to be made that such Opposers might be cast into it The Apostles fell down before the Emperour saying We beseech you Sir let not Us be the Authors or Causers of this Destruction who are come to publish the Doctrine of eternal Salvation neither let Us who are sent to Revive those who are Dead through sin become the Killers of those who are Alive Wherefore those Teachers who for Worldly Advantage sake will force Themselves upon those men against their Wills who will not Willingly receive them and will provoke the Worldly Powers and Magistrates to punish those who will not hear and receive Them and their Doctrine they all are false Prophets and Ministers of Antichrist The Eighth Sign The true Teachers are content that Others should teach as well as They and would not make a Monopoly of the Ministry to themselves alone for Worldly Advantage sake Thus our Lord Jesus Christ did not content Himself to preach the Gospel alone but he sent forth Others as his Father sent forth him yea he pours forth his Spirit on all flesh that sons and daughters and servants and handmaids may prophesie and so Knowledge may cover the Earth as Waters the Seas and to make the world willing to receive such Teachers he saith He that receiveth You receiveth Me and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me. And when Eldad and Medad upon whom the Spirit of the Lord did rest did prophesie in the Camp of Israel without asking any License from Moses and one told Moses of it in great displeasure and Joshua thereupon wished Moses to forbid them to Prophesie then Moses the meek servant of the Lord replied Enviest thou for my sake would God saith he that all the Lords people were Prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them All Numb 11. 29. And so the Godly mind of any faithful Teacher desireth to be helped in the work of the Word that the pretious Truth of the Gospel which he himself alone cannot sufficiently express all mens tongues might declare And so they do not envy in Others those Spiritual Gifts which God hath given them but do wish that Every man had a Mouth and Wisdom given him to declare the Mysterie of the Gospel and the infinite Love Mercy Wisdom Truth Power Redemption and Salvation of God by Jesus Christ which cannot by all mens Tongues be sufficiently published in the World Farther as no worldly Prince or Magistrate hath such unlimited Power over the Goods of the people as to forbid them to give corporal Alms to them that stand in need as occasion is ministred no more hath any Power whether Ecclesiastical or Civil such Dominion over the Word and Truth of God written by the Spirit in the hearts of Believers but that they may at all times and upon all occasions minister spiritual Alms to them who stand in need by the teaching of the Gospel Wherefore those Teachers who are envious that any should preach the Word but Themselves and their own Tribe as they call it because they get great Worldly Advantage thereby whereas otherwise they would be contented that any should preach and so would have the civil Magistrate only to License Them to be Preachers because of their Degrees and Orders and to forbid all Others they all are false Teachers and Ministers of Antichrist The Ninth Sign The true Teachers do not only teach the Word but are also ready to seal to the Truth of it with their Estates Liberties and Lives Thus did Jesus Christ as was foretold by Isaiah Chap. 50. 5. where Christ saith by his Spirit The Lord hath opened mine ear and I was not rebellious neither turned away back I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them who plucked off the hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting And in the dayes of his flesh how willingly did he seal to the Truth of his New Testament Doctrine with his Suffering and suffered himself to be apprehended by the hands of men and to be crucified when he could have commanded Legions of Angels for his succor if he had pleased and would not have made use of his own infinite and almighty Power And this submission and willingness to suffer for the Truth Christ hath commanded all his Disciples saying He that will save his life shall lose it and he that will lose his life for my sake shall save it And if any man will be my Desciple let him deny himself take up the cross and follow me And again I send you forth as sheep among wolves and ye shall be brought before Kings and Rulers for my Names sake that is for the true and Spiritual Teaching of the Gospel Now as nothing will procure us more enmity than the spiritual holding forth of the Gospel which will cause the worldly Church to cast
the Vial poured on them is the true Word of God or the plain and simple Gospel which is the Word of Faith than which Nothing is more grievous to them who have been bred up in Philosophy and in the Knowledge Wisdom Learning Righteousness and Spirit of the World Now the primary event of the pouring forth of this Vial of the Word of God on this Seat is the darkning of Antichrists Kingdom as it is said his Kingdom was full of Darkness it was full of Darkness before but now it is discovered to be full of Darkness their Philosophy is Darkness and vain deceit their School Divinity Darkness and Antichristianism their Divinity Acts and Clerums Darkness their Professorships of Divinity Darkness yea all their Doctrine Faith Worship Works Church-Discipline Titles Ordination and all are discovered to be Darkness even gross Darkness by the word of Faith And then follows the secundary event of the pouring forth this Vial which is They gnawed their Tongues for pain and blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their pains and sores which the Word inflicted on Them that is they had not the ordinary anger of Men against the Word but the anger and wrath of Devils causing them to blaspheme again But yet for all these things they repented not of their Deeds as we see manifestly which yet would have been more profitable for them And this also discovers them to be false Prophets indeed and the right Ministers of Antichrist and this appertains to the sixth Sign of false Prophets which I gave before The Fourth General Point And now I proceed to the fourth Thing wherein the Apostle shews with Whom the false Prophets which come in the spirit of Antichrist should not prevail namely with None of the true Children of God and this is set down in ver 4. We are of God little children and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world Here now the Apostle shews the Victory which the truly faithfull and spiritual Christians do obtain over Antichrist and his false Prophets together with the Grounds of that Victory 1. The Victory is set down in these words Little children ye have overcome them 2. The Grounds of this Victory are two 1. Because the Faithfull are of God as Children of their Father Ye are of God little Children and have overcome them 2. Because that Spirit which the Faithfull have received and which dwells in them is stronger and mightier than that Spirit which the World receives and which dwells in them Greater is he that is in You than he that is in the World I shall first speak something of the Victory it self that is of that glorious Victory which all the true Children of God do obtain over Antichrist For though Antichrist and his Teachers do come in Christs Name as Christ hath foretold and in Sheeps Cloathing and though they transform themselves into the Apostles of Christ and come with all Deceivableness of Unrighteousness holding forth a false Christ the Head a false Church the Body a false Word a false Worship false Works false Ordinances and all these false things exceedingly like the True and in the very form and appearance of the True in such sort that they prevail with all the National Church and the Generality of the people of the World which all wonder after Them yet are they not able by all these things to prevail with any of the true Children of God as Christ hath taught us saying Many false Christs and false Prophets shall arise and shall come with lying Signs and Wonders able if it were possible to deceive the Elect And though they do deceive all Others yet is it not possible for them to deceive the Elect of God that is throughly and fully as they do deceive Others but the Faithful and Elect people of God do escape their Deceits and do overcome them yea though they be but little Children new in the Faith and young in Christ yet do they overcome all the false Prophets in the World For these little Children are so stript of their old Nature that they overcome the lusts of the Flesh the lusts of the Eye and the pride of Life which are not of God but of the World and through which only the Ministers of Antichrist are mighty and so these Teachers can find nothing in Them on which they can lay hold to prevail Besides as new born babes can discern and taste which is good and wholesome milk and sutable to them and can refuse what is otherwise and this instinct they have in their very nature as soon as they have a being to judge of their Food which is good for them and which is hurtful So the Children of God as soon as ever They by faith are made partakers of the Divine Nature they can immediately judge of the Milk of the Word and can surely taste and discern whether it be sincere or adulterated whether it be good or hurtful for them And so in the vertue of their New Nature they reject and overcome all the false Doctrine of the false Teachers And thus we have seen all along in the several Ages of the Reign of Antichrist that Christ hath alwayes had a People of his own though but few in number and mean in condition and despised of the World whom Antichrist never could prevail against neither by the subtilty of his Doctrine nor by the violence of his Tyranny but they have by their Faith and Patience and Word of their Testimony withstood Him and his Multitudes yea the whole World whom he hath all along seduced Thus in every Age hath Christ had so great Care of all those whom his Father hath given him that he hath lost none of Them no not one Single Person but by his Word and Spirit which he hath put into them and by his own Presence in them through his Word and Spirit he hath still preserved them and hath strenghthened them to oppose and resist Antichrist to the Death and to overcome as He overcame And so during all the Reign of Antichrist in the World whom hath he prevailed withall and deceived but only the World but not one Single person of the Elect children of God though he hath especially sought to prevail with Them But Jesus Christ who only knows who are his hath kept all along Those whom he hath Known that we might understand that the Care of the true Church is committed to Him alone from the Father and that all the Magistrates and Powers of the World are not at all Capable of such a Trust which would have been too Great for the very Angels of Heaven And though Antichrist during his Reign had inwrapped the Elect Themselves into all his Errors before Faith came as the first Adam had inwrapped them in all his Sin yet as God wrought Faith in them and gave them his Spirit so they by degrees
recovered out of the Errors of Antichrist and prevailed against them Lastly Seeing all the true Children of God do overcome Antichrist and his Ministers Antichrist hath no cause to boast of his Reign in the World nor the true Church of Christ to be discouraged at it Antichrist by all his subtilty and strength and by all his own Ecclesiastical Power and by all the Temporal Power of Princes whom he hath seduced hath conquered to Himself none but the World that is the people that were not of God And the true spiritual Church of Christs own building the new Jerusalem from above that sojourns in this World hath not lost one stone out of its Building nor one Member out of its Body by all that Antichrist and the Devil his Head could do And therefore Antichrist hath no cause to boast for He hath got none but his own and the true Church hath no cause to be discouraged for it hath lost none of its own and None ever went out from it but those that were not of it and all that were truly of it have ever continued with it And thus much briefly touching the Victory which the Faithful obtain aganst Antichrist and his Prophets Now the Grounds of this Victory here named are two 1. The first is Because they are of God Ye are of God little Children and have overcome them Antichrist and his false Prophets cannot prevail against the truly Faithful because They are of God as the Spirit also speaks elsewhere saying 1 Cor. 1. 30. Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus and they are of God as Children are of the Father as it is written Jam. 1. 18. Of his own will begat he us by the Word of Truth that we should be a kind of First Fruits of his Creatures So that as the Children of Men are of their Fathers through a Natural Generation and Being so the Faithful are of God through a Spiritual Generation and Being And as the Children of Men partake of the very Nature of their Fathers so do the Children of God partake of the Divine Nature the Faithful being born again not of corruptible but of incorruptible seed by the Word of God which lives and abides for ever That as Jesus Christ who according to his Humane Nature was a Man and in all things like to us sin excepted came to be of God and to be the Son of God through the coming and dwelling of the Living Word of God in his flesh according to the Love Will and Counsel of the Father so the same Living Word coming and dwelling in the Faithful his Members according to the same Love Will and Counsel of God They also come to be of God in Christ as Christ is of God according to his Humane Nature And as Christ being thus of God according to the Word of God that dwelt in his Humane Nature overcame the Devil the Head of Antichrist and Antichrist and his Body the Temple of the Devil So do all Christs Members overcome Antichrist and his Prophets through the same Living Word of God dwelling in Them or through the Word of Righteousness and Life its being incarnate in them that is its being written in their Hearts by the Spirit or put into their inward parts Wherefore Christ throughout that is from the Head it self to the lowest Member is called Immanuel God with us or which is all one God manifested in the flesh And for this Cause these faithful or little Children of God cannot be prevailed against inasmuch as they are of God and so have in them by true Union and Communion the Nature of God and the Word of God and the Spirit of God and the Righteousness of God and the Wisdom of God and the Power of God and the Life and Light of God and all the Things of God as the Apostle Paul saith in the New Creature all things are become New and all things that is all these New Things are of God that is they are the very Things of God And so these Faithful People cannot be prevailed against by Antichrist or by the Devil the Head of Antichrist but They do prevail against the Doctrine of Antichrist by the Doctrine of Christ against the Spirit of Antichrist by the Spirit of Christ against the Sin of Antichrist by the Righteousness of Christ against the Error of Antichrist by the Truth of Christ and against all the Things of Antichrist by the infinite and eternal Things of Christ. Wherefore you see that all they that are of God through a New birth and are the trne Children of that Heavenly Father and do partake of his Divine Nature and all his Divine Things they cannot be overcome of Antichrist and his Prophets but they do mightily overcome them all through that Immortal seed of the True and Living Word of God of which they are born and in which they live and act But They that are overcome by Antichrist and his Teachers through their deceivableness of Unrighteousness they never were the true Children of God but Hypocrites and Unbelievers under a form of Godliness that is as the Apostle stiles them Bastards or false Children who never had received the true Nature of God through Faith The Second Ground And now follows the second Ground why the Faithfull cannot be overcome by Antichrist and his Prophets to wit Because greater is he that is in You than he that is in the World And here the Apostle shews that the true faithful Christians are not only of God but also have God himself dwelling and abiding in them For they are built up by the Spirit to be the Habitation of God and God is in Them of a Truth and that not by created Habits of Grace as Antichrist and his Prophets have thought and taught but the true God is in them of a Truth and He dwells in them and walks in them as Himself hath said and the Tabernacle of God is with Men. And now as the Sun is never without its light and heat and all its Vertues and where-ever it goes all these go along with it being inseparable from it so where-ever the Lord God comes He comes with all his Righteousness Wisdom Power Peace Joy and all his infinite and eternal Things and where God Himself is there are all the Things of God And thus God in his Faithful People is Greater than He is that is in the World that is He is greater than Antichrist and the Devil his Head He is greater in his true Word than They in their pretended Word greater in his true Spirit than They in their pretended Spirit greater in his true Righteousness than They in their pretended Righteousness greater in his true Wisdom and Power than They in their pretended Wisdom and Power c. Greater is He that is in You than He that is in the World Now for certain the Less is overcome by the Greater and seeing God and his Spirit in his
Saints is Greater in Goodness Righteousness Wisdom and all Things than the Devil is in Antichrist and his Prophets therefore the Faithful in whom God dwels and manifests Himself must needs overcome Antichrist and the false Prophets in whom the Devil dwels and manifests himself Now hence we may learn several things And first we may learn That Antichrist can prevail against any Outward Form of Religion and Godliness against any Humane Vertues and Graces and Works and Prayers or any thing that is of Man or flows from Him though in never so great appearance of Holiness as we by sad experience have seen many Men of great seeming Religion famous for Preaching and Praying and reputed Pillars in the Church when they have come hither into the University where Antichrist and his Spirit have remained in their full strength notwithstanding the great Consumption which God hath brought on them by his Word in other parts how soon have they cased from that sense of the Gospel which they once seemed to have had and how suddenly have they been intangled and overcome with the Spirit of the University and of Antichrist for Worldly Honour and Advantage sake and so the highest and strongest formal Religion in the Church Antichrist can soon prevail against But Antichrist can never prevail against God in the Saints nor against the Righteousness Wisdom and Power of God in them all which are contained in his true Presence nor against the Faith Hope and Love of Saints which are the Works of God in them by his Spirit against these Antichrist cannot prevail For greater is He that is in Us than he that is in the World So then if thou hast any thing in thee that is truly of God or rather that is God Himself in thee That Antichrist cannot overcome by all his Arts and Power but he will easily overcome any thing else Antichrist cannot prevail against Immanuel which is God with Us nor against the Mysterie of Godliness in us which is God manefest in the flesh but every other thing though it seem never so Angelical he prevails against 2. We may learn hence That it is not an easie thing to overcome Antichrist and to get the Victory over that Beast and his Image and his Mark and the Number of his Name seeing Antichrists coming is after the working of Satan as the Apostle saith and through Antichrist the Devil Himself speaks works and acts yet as an Angel of light in all lying or false Power Wisdom and Righteousness and this he doth for the Damnation of Men and to bring Them all who have no true love to the Truth to perish with Himself for ever And his Operation of Error is so mighty and efficacious that it cannot be resisted and overcome by any in all the World but by those who are born of God and do partake of his Nature and Presence in them For the Power Wisdom and Righteousness of Antichrist and his Prophets which is so suteable to the Nature of the World and so glorious in its Eye cannot possibly be overcome but by the true Power Wisdom and Righteousness of God in his true Children or Prophets 3. Hence also let us learn not to be dismayed at Antichirist and his Prophets who have in all Ages got such Reputation Power and Glory to Themselves in the World because of their seeming Learning Righteousness and Religion seeing Christ in Us and in all his poor People is infinitely more mighty than They are and the Devil in them and nothing can prevail against Us except first it can prevail against Christ. Wherefore if We in our selves are never so weak and through our weakness never so fearful and trembling yet let us not be discouraged or faint seeing our might is not in Our selves but in Christ who dwels in Us and who is infinitely greater than He that dwells in the World He that dwells in Us through Faith is Greater than he that dwells in Them through Unbelief and in His strength let us abide by his Word and Doctrine even to Suffering and Death if need be and in all these Evils we shall overcome Them by whom we seem to be overcome as also Christ our Head did And thus much for the fourth General thing The Fifth Point The Apostle shews with whom Antichrist and his Teachers should prevail to wit with the Worldly and Carnal People vers 5. They are of the World therefore speak they of the World and the World hears them The World hears them Antichrist and his Prophets prevail with the World and Worldly People and do obtain their favour love and applause and They are their Auditors and delight in Them and their Doctrine Now by the World here is meant such People who though they have an outward Christianity and Religion yet inwardly remain in their Natural Condition and Corruption without any true renewing through Faith and the Spirit And all such People notwithstanding their seeming Religion and Righteousness do love Themselves and this World and the Things of it better than Jesus Christ and his Truth And these here are called the World and this World or these worldly Christians do hear and entertain the Teachers of Antichrist and their Doctrine Two Grounds of which the Apostle here gives us to wit Why these People cleave to these Teachers 1. The first is Because these Teachers are of the World 2. Because they speak of the World 1. They are of the World That is though by their Breeding and Profession their Degrees and Ordination they seem to be set at a great distance from the Common people and to be nearer the Kingdom of God and the Knowledge and Possession of it then the Common People of the World yet for all this They indeed and in truth are still of the World and all their liberall Education their manner of Life their Study Knowledge Learning Languages Sciences Degrees and Ordination doth not at all change their inward evil Nature Mind Will Affections nor the corrupt Disposition and Principle in which they were born but notwithstanding all these things they are still the very same throughout as when they came first into the World being destitute of a New Birth and Heavenly Nature Nay by all these things they are more taken into the Spirit of the World into the corruptions and evils of it into the pride lust covetousness and ambition of it by how much through such Indowments and Accomplishments they think Themselves better than other Men and so notwithstanding their Academical Degrees and Ecclesiastical Orders they are not less but more of the World even fully of the World And hence we may learn That it is not Study Parts Breeding Learning nor any Natural Indowments or acquired Accomplishments that will deliver any man out of this World or corrupt state of Mankind or that can change his Nature or give him the least Place or Interest in the Kingdom of God
Stoicks and other Sects of Philosophers but the Resurrection of Christ and his Kingdom and Judgement Acts 17. He also disputed daily in the School of one Tyrannus and that for two years together and perswaded only the things touching the Kingdom of God brought into the World by Jesus Christ Acts 19. And he so prevailed with his Doctrine that Many which used Curious Arts brought their Books together and burnt them before all men and the price of them was counted at Fifty Thousand pieces of Silver So that as the Gospel prevailed and the Name of Christ was magnified so did People renounce Philosophy and burn their Books of Curious Arts To recover which Books again out of their ashes if it might be our University would give as much Money if they could procure it from good Benefactors as they were then valued at by the Heathen So that as They through the efficacy of the Gospel of Heathens became Christians and threw away all other Learning and burnt their Books of Great Value lest they should infect others So on the contrary in our Universities of Pretended Christians Men usually become true Heathens never valuing the Precious Gospel of God our Saviour as they do other Heathenish and Philosophical Books Farther the same Paul dwelt after at Rome two whole Years in his own hired House and during all that time Preached only the Kingdom of God and taught those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness But taught not one Word of Philosophy He also at Corinth a great and famous City of Greece full of Philosophers and Orators taught nothing among them but Christ Crucified to the Jews a Stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness But to them that believe both of Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. And as he made no Use of Humane Learning all this while so in 1 Cor. 2. he plainly renounces it and rejects it saying Ver. 1. And I brethren when I came to you came not with Excellency of Speech or Wisdom declaring unto you the Testimony of God Ver. 2. For I determined not to know any thing among You save Jesus Christ and him Crucified Ver. 3. And I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling Ver. 4. And my speech and Preaching was not with enticing Words of Mans Wisdom but in Demonstration of the Spirit and Power Ver. 5. That your Faith should not stand in the Wisdom of Man but in the Power of God Ver. 6. Howbeit we speak Wisdom among them that are Perfect Yet not the Wisdom of this World nor of the Princes of this World which come to nought Ver. 7 But we speak the Wisdom of God in a Mysterie even the Hidden Wisdom which God Ordained before the World unto our Glory c. Ver. 13. Which things also we speak not in the Words which Mans Wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Spirit teacheth comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual things In a word this whole Chapter tends to the Utter Rejection of Philosophy which is the Wisdom of the World in the Kingdom of Christ which is the Kingdom of God He also in his Epistle to the Colossians chap. 2. gives forth another plain Testimony against Philosophy desiring vers 2. that the Hearts of the Believers might be comforted and that they might be knit together in Love and unto all riches of the full assurance of Understanding to the acknowledgement of the Mysterie of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge And this saith he I say lest any man should beguile you with Enticing Words Wherefore v. 8. saith he Beware lest any man spoyl you through Philosophy and Vain Deceit after the Tradition of men after the Rudiments or Elements of the world and not after Christ for in Him dwells the Fulness of the Godhead bodily and ye are Compleat in Him who is the Head of all Principality and Power Here is a sufficient Caution against Philosophy for the true Church for ever For what need we if we are true Christians to turn aside for Wisdom and Knowledge and Learning and curious Arts to the Heathen seeing God hath given Christ to us in Whom is treasured up all the Heights and Depths and Lengths and Bredths of Wisdom and Knowledge whereby the whole World was made and every Creature formed and fashioned and in which it hath its Being Subsistence and Operation Yea in this Christ dwells all the Fulness of the Infinite and Eternal God and he is the Head of all Principality and Power in Earth and Heaven and there is in Him alone infinitely enough to make us Wise and Learned for ever without calling in the Help and Contributions of the vain Philosophers and their foolish Wisdom It is enough for Christian Schools to be taught to know Christ by the Ministration of the Spirit and all other Learning that is out of Christ though it seem to be never so High and Deep all faithful Christians are to reject it as meer Sophistrie and Deceit And thus you see that the Apostles as well as Christ taught their Scholars and Disciples only the Gospel and spake not one word for Philosophy but directly against it And the following Fathers and next Teachers of the Christian Church after the Apostles they also obeyed the Command of Christ and followed the example of the Apostles in this matter For the Bishops and Presbyters that is the Overseers and Elders had tender regard to the Children of Christians and did teach Them as well as the People the pure Doctrine of the Gospel They held forth to them Christ Crucified and did exhort them to Faith new Obedience the Confession of Christ and patient Suffering and did not at all intermingle Philosophy with their Divinity but alwayes rejected and condemned it all along the first and purest times of the Christian Church till the Mysterie of Iniquity began to arise and did cunningly insinuate itself into the Church by the means of Humane Learning And here it will not be amiss to Relate what Justine Martyr saith of himself as to this matter who was before his Conversion to the Christian Faith a great Philosopher and lived about 150. years after Christs Nativity He in his Dialogue with Trypho relates How first he joyned Himself to that Sect of Philosophers called the Stoicks and after to the Peripateticks after to the Pythagorean Sect and after to the Platonists but had no Satisfaction in his Mind by all this Knowledge But at last he beholding the Torments and Sufferings of Christians and seeing Them bear them with such Comfort and Constancy he did thereby conceive that it was impossible for that kind of People to be subject to any Vice on carnality which Vices of their own Nature are not able to sustain any sharp Adversity much less the bitterness of Death And hereupon He began to love and search after
that He who alone comprehends the fulness of all things and in whom are hid all the Infinite Treasures of Divine and Heavenly Wisdom and Knowledge that He alone should not be counted sufficeent and enough no not by Those who pretend his Name to make us Wise to Salvation which is the only True Excellent and necessary Wisdom in the World and to make the man of God Perfect and the whole Church of God Compleat but to the great Dishonor of Christ yea to the very Rejection of Christ the children of Christians must be led from the Doctrine of Christ the Son of the Living God to the Doctrine and Disciplines of the Wretched Filthy Abominable Wicked and Damned Heathen and to spend the prime and flower of their Youth in these things Who but Antichrist Himself could have brought in and set up such an Abomination of Desolation in the Church of God And yet for the better credit of all things must These corrupt Heathenish Schools be called the Schools of the Prophets though Nothing but the Ignorance of the Law and Gospel be taught in Them and the Highest Enmity to Christ in all the World lives and flourishes in them And thus as the Christian Schools at first brought men from Heathenism to the Gospel so These Schools carry men from the Gospel to Heathenism as to their great Perfection And the Fruit of this Education of Youth is manifest For where hath the Gospel found less Favour and more Enmity at any time then from the Universities Ridly the Martyr with Cranmer and others being in Prison in Oxford for the Testimony of the Gospel writes thus to Bradford As yet saith he there was never Learned Man nor any Scholar or other that visited us since we came into Bocardo And in another Letter to him he saith And yet as we hear the Scholars bear us more heavily then the Townsmen A wonderfull thing among so Many never yet Scholar offered any of Us so far as I know any manner of favour either for or in Christs Cause Fox vol. 3. p. 442 443. Yea farther where shall you see Youth again in all the Nation so vain proud fantastical bold impudent Where shall you meet with such Mockers and Scoffers at God and his Gospel as here How many Hopefull Youths have here been sacrificed to the Heathen and their carefull Parents after much cost have received them home as full of Heathenish Manners as Doctrine And if some are lately become more civil and seemingly Religious yet is their Enmity to the Gospel in its true Spirituall Sense as it is the Word of Faith nothing abated For such as is the Doctrine among them such also of necessity must their Consciences and Lives be Wherefore the Universities according to their Statutes and usual Practice are not the Schools of the Prophets or of Christians but of Heathen Men and Plato and Aristotle have more credit in the University then Moses or Christ Himself And if after their course or running their Circle in Philosophy they betake themselves to Divinity yet do they so mingle spoil and corrupt it with Philosophy according to which they both understand the Scriptures and speak of them that their Divinity cannot be called the Doctrine of Christ but of Antichrist being wholly contrary to the Word of Faith And therefore Mr. Simpson was the more to blame to flatter them in their Evils and to deceive the World in appropriating to Them the glorious Title of the Schools of the Prophets Who are in all things so Contrary and Contradictory to Them Now the Sum and Certainty of this Matter is this That the Congregations of Believers where only the Word of the Gospel is truly taught according to the Ministration of the Spirit whether to Youth or Men They under the New Testament are answerable to the Schools of the Prophets under the Old who only taught Moses and the Prophets And the Universities wherein Philosophy is first taught the Youth and after Divinity and then both are mingled together to the utter perverting and corrupting the Gospel of Christ I say these Universities in the time of the Gospel are answerable to the High-Places in the time of the Law where a Doctrine and Worship prevailed which was not according to Gods Word but mans Will and where Judaism and Heathenism were mingled together into one Mungrel Religion most odious and abominable to God and his People And so the Universities in the time of the Gospel are only answerable to the High-Places in the time of the Law but not at all to the Schools of the Prophets as Mr. Simpson pretends And now for the Conclusion of this matter which I reckon to be of Great Concernment for the true Church to be thorowly instructed in I shall bring forth the Testimony of some Godly men of Whom some shew how the Schools and Universities of Christians came first to be Corrupted to wit by departing from the plain Word of the Gospel and bringing in Philosophy And another foretels the Reformation of the Schools of Christians again to wit by rejecting Philosophy again and bringing in the Word of Faith All which will serve as a Confirmation of what hath been already spoken Matthias Parisiensis a Bohemian by Nation who lived about the year 1380. wrote a large book against Antichrist wherein he affirms That Antichrist had seduced all Universities and Colledges of Learned men so that now they teach no sincere Doctrine neither give any true Light to Christians through their teaching to wit they being all corrupted through Philosophy and having through that corrupted all Divinity And John Hus that humble and faithful servant of Jesus Christ and blessed Martyr saith That Antichrist hath seduced all carnal Christians from Divine Wisdom which is full of Salvation and the Holy Spirit to the Wisdom and Science of Men and of the Princes of this World which Wisdom and Science he hath exceedingly inlarged and increased and made Authentical and very gainfull of Riches and Honors in this World that so by this means Divine Wisdom and Science might be neglected of Christians and grow old and be covered over and be accounted as Vile and Unprofitable by them And that only That which is High with Men to wit Humane Learning might be reckoned Glorious and Excellent and of great Authority with Christian People The same Hus saith That this Humane Learning Wisdom and Knowledge Antichrist doth perfectly subject to Himself and his Service He being more Mighty and Subtil through the Operation of Satan then all Worldly Men whom with all their Learning Disciplines and Abilities he strongly subjugates to Himself and doth especially serve Himself of These wherefore saith Job chap. 41. sub ipso erunt radii solis the Beams of the Sun shall be under Him that is the Holy Scripture and the chief Doctors and Teachers of it and He shall prepare Gold as dirt that is he shall have all the Wisdom and Learning
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 instead of Faith and infinite Opinions instead of Truth and the ayr also with the Smoak of the Pit that it may be understood not to be an Eclips of the Sun but the obscurity of the Ayr and Sun by the Smoak of the Pit ascending to wit Humane Doctrines obscuring Christ and his Faith as the Sun and Air. And out of the Smoak of the Pit there came forth Locusts on the Earth Here the People of the Universities bread 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 à 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 Conscience 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 hurt every green thing but some certain Place so it is here But only 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 only 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 only afflict a man with Vain Studies wherein he is alwaies learning and yet never coming to the Knowledge of the Truth For They who are killed with the Letter are quickned with the Eternal Spirit they are not 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 days 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 Battel 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 Theologie 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 entertain Antichrists Pomp into Christs Church Yet have they not true Crowns but as it were Crowns of Gold which yet they are very proud of and are much pufft up with them though usually they are set on the Head of Ignorance and Errour 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 Hair like the Hairs of Women For Philosophy brings forth effeminate Ministers given to case and luxury and in whom is nothing of Spirit nor of Manly Abilities in Christ. For the Hairs are Priests as you may see Psal. 68. Isa. 3. and in other Places And their teeth are like the Teeth of Lyons Consider only the Thomists instead of all other Divines whether they be not biting slanderous and devourers of all that speak a Word against Aristotles Divinity Yea the Thomists Scotists and Modern men bite one another among Themselves and sharpen against one another not any teeth but the teeth of Lyons neither is there any sort of Men which war more fiercely or with greater hatred then those Sects of Divines each of which desires to devour the Other that it may reign alone And they have Brest-plates as it were Brest-plates of Iron and this is the pertinacious and confident Presumption of Each Sect on the truth and soundness of his Opinion and by these Iron Brest-plates they are unconquerable And these are the Principles of each Sect. And the sound of their Wings was as the sound of Chariots and of many Horses running to Battel the Wings are the Words of those that dispute and conflict by which they do impetuously brawlingly and clamorously rush on one another and fight as we see in the Tumults of Disputants both by Words and Writings where neither yields to neither but Each one is Unconquerable For he signifies this pertinacious affection of Disputing by the rushing of Chariots and Horsemen And they had Tails like unto Scorpions and there were Stings in their Tails and their power was to hurt Men five Moneths Here he explains what before he had propounded to wit that the Fruit and End of this Divinity is nothing but evil Consciences during all the time of the Sensual Lives of Men. For that Divinity is an Abomination to those who are Spiritual because these are without the bounds of the five moneths in the Spirit of Liberty And they had a King over them which is the Angel of the Bottomless Pit whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek Apollyon Here we may learn that the Rector General of all Universities is not Christ nor the Holy Spirit nor any Angel of God but an Angel of the Bottomless Pit that is one that is Dead and is among the Dead and Damned Who is it then even that Light of