his Wisdom neither is the Plain man hindered any thing by his Ignorance Yea if I may speak a wonderfull thing saith he Ignorance is more fit and ready to receive the Gospel then Wisdom And a Shepherd and a Plowman will sooner receive the Gospel and submit to it then a Scholar who lives in the strength of Humane Wisdom and Reason He farther saith there that where the Wisdom of God is as it is in the Gospel there is no need of Mans Wisdom as where the Sun is there is no need of a Candle And he concludes there this Matter thus That the Preaching of the Gospel is a Heavenly Thing and that Humane Wisdom and Learning cannot help herein but rather hinder And that therefore when Christ sent forth the first Teachers of the Gospel he took not Wise and Learned Philosophers that the Cross of Christ might not be made void and that the Faith of Christians should not stand in the Wisdom of Man but in the Power of God But he chose plain Fishermen Tent-makers Publicans Obscure Simple Poor Contemptible Ignorant and Unlearned Men And These overcame Kings Princes People Nations Greeks Philosophers Orators Sophisters they overcame the antient Manners Customs and the very Religion of the World also their Laws Judgements divers sorts of Punishments and innumerable kinds of Deaths and by all this saith he it was Manifest that their Preaching was not in Humane Wisdom but in the Grace of God And thus doth Chrysostom affirm and prove that Humane Learning doth not fit men to the Ministry of the Gospel but is rather a Hindrance thereunto and that the Grace of God only fits them for this Heavenly Work Hear also what Wickliff saith to this matter in his Book entituled The Path way to Perfect Knowledge where he sheweth that it is not Humane Learning that helps to understand the Scriptures and to profit in the study of Them but something more High and Heavenly His own words are these He whose heart is full of Love comprehendeth without any Error the manifold abundance and largest Teaching of Gods Scripture For Paul saith the fulness of the Law is Charity and in another place the End of the Law is Charity of clean Heart and good Conscience and of Faith unfeigned And Christ saith Thou shalt love thy Lord God of all thy Heart and of all thy Soul and of all thy Mind and thy Neighbour as thy self For in these two Commandments hangeth all the Law and the Prophets And as the root of all evil is Covetousness so the root of all good is Love Charity by which we love God and the Neighbour holdeth surely all the Greatness and Largeness of Gods Speeches Therefore if we have not leisure to search all the Holy Scriptures and to pierce into all the Privities of them hold thou Love whereon all things hang and so shalt thou hold that which thou learnest there and also that which thou learnest not For if thou know Charity thou knowest something whereon also that hangeth which thou knowest not And in that that thou understandest in Scripture Love is open and in that that thou understandest not Love is hid Therefore he that holdeth Love in Vertues or Good Life holdeth both that which is open and that which is hid in Gods Word And after speaking to the Clergy he saith Therefore Worldly Fools do ye first repent of your sins and forsake Pride and Covetousness and be ye meek and fear ye God in all things and love your Neighbour as your Self and then shall ye profit in the study of Holy Writ And this is a far other way to understand the Scriptures then Humane Learning And after he speaking of the Abominations of the University of Oxford saith thus The fourth Abomination is that it is now purposed to hinder Christian Men from learning freely Gods Law till they have spent nine or ten Years at Art or Philosophy which compredendeth many strong Errors of Heathen men against the Christian Belief It seemeth well that God will not cease from Vengeance till it and other things be punished sore For it seemeth that Worldly Clerks and feignedly Religious do this under pretence that simple Men of Wit and Knowledge know not Gods Law to preach it generally against sins in the Realm But wit ye Worldly Clerks and feignedly Religious that God both can and may if it liketh him speed Simple Men out of the University as much to know the Holy Scriptures as Masters in the University Wherefore he saith it is no great matter though Men of Good Will be not poysoned with Heathen mens Error nine or ten years together But let them live well and study the Holy Scriptures and preach truly and freely against open sins till death Thus He. Whereby he declares that the Scriptures are not to be understood by Humane Learning but by Faith and Love And that Humane Learning doth not prepare men to the Knowledge of the Word but rather corrupt them with Heathen mens Errors Tindal also that Apostle of England as Fox calleth him and blessed Martyr speaks thus to this matter They will say yet more shamefully meaning the Clergy That no man can understand the Scriptures without Philautia that is to say Philosophy A man must first be well seen in Aristotle ere he can understand the Scripture say they Now saith he Aristotles Doctrine is that the World was without Beginning and shall be without End and that the first Man never was and the last never shall be And that God doth all of Necessity neither careth what we do Without this Doctrine saith he Ironically how could we understand the Scripture that saith God Created the World of nought and God worketh all things of His free will and for a secret Purpose and that we shall Rise again and God will have Accounts of all that we have done in this life Aristotle saith Give a man a Law and he hath Power of Himself to do or fulfill the Law and becometh Righteous with working Righteously But Paul and the Scripture saith That the Law doth but utter sin only and helpeth not Neither hath any man power to do the Law till the Spirit of God be given him through faith in Christ. Is it not a madness then to say that we could not understand the Scripture without Aristotle Moreover Aristotles Felicity and Blessedness standeth in avoiding all Tribulations and in Riches Health Honor Worship Friends and Authority which felicity pleaseth our Spirituality well Now without these and a thousand such like points couldst thou not understand Scripture which saith that Righteousness cometh by Christ and not of Mans Will And how that Vertues are the Fruits and Gifts of Gods Spirit and that Christ blesseth us in Tribulations Persecution and Adversity How I say couldst thou understand the Scriptures without Philosophy in as much as Paul Col. 2. warned them to be ware lest any man spoil them that is to say
this is that Spirit of Antichrist whereof you have heard that it should come and even now already it is in the world 4. Ye are of God little Children and have overcome them because Greater is he that is in You then he that is in the World 5. They are of the World therefore speak they of the World and the World hears Them 6. We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error IN this Scripture we may take Notice of these Six things 1. The Apostle gives notice to the Beloved Congregation of Spirituall Christians of a Great Evil risen up in the world which if not carefully heeded might occasion some great Trouble and Danger to them Many false Prophets saith he are gone out into the world V. 1. 2. He prescribes them a sufficient Remedy against this Evil saying Believe not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God 3. That the Faithfull might be able to make a right Judgement of Spirits he gives them one short Rule of Tryall which yet comprehends in its self all Rules vers 2. and 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. 4. He shews them with Whom these false Prophets who have the Spirit of Antichrist should not prevail to wit with none of the true Children of God vers 4. Ye are of God little Children and have overcome them because Greater is he that is in You than he that is in the World 5. He shews them with whom the false Prophets should prevail to wit with the World and Carnal People vers 5. They are of the World therefore speak they of the World and the World heareth them The World seeking its own Things receives Antichrist and his Prophets 6. He shews how the Spirit of Truth and Error may be known in the People as well as in the Teachers to wit by the Peoples cleaving either to the Teachers of Truth or to the Teachers of Error vers 6. We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us he that is not of God heareth not us hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error These six things are held forth to us in this Scripture and they are all very Profitable and Necessary for the true Church to be acquainted withal especially in these last of the last Times I shall begin with the First which is 1. Point The Great and Dangerous Evil of which the Apostle gives notice to the Church of Believers and that is The going out of false Prophets into the World Many false Prophets are gone out into the world ANd here it is to be noted that from the very beginning of the world there have been two Seeds or Generations of Men very contrary the One to the Other as is evident in Gen. 3. 15. where God saith to the Serpent I will put enmity between Thee and the Woman and between thy Seed and her Seed so that the Serpent hath his Seed as well as the Woman her Seed and this was the Womans Curse to have her sorrows and Conceptions multiplyed and to bring forth the Serpents Seed as well as her Own that is the Children or Seed of the first Blessing and both these Contrary Seeds do partake of one and the same common Nature or Humanity And one of these Seeds are called the Sons of God the other the Sons of Man Gen. 6. 6. And Both these being the children of one Adam according to the Flesh are yet distinguished by several Spirits that dwell in them and inspire them For the Spirit of God that is the Spirit of Righteousness and Truth doth inspire the One and these are truly called the Children of God as Paul saith Rom. 8. as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God And the Spirit of Satan which is the Spirit of Wickedness and Error doth inspire the Other and these are truly called the sons of Men who all have sinned and are deprived of the Glory of God Now these two Different and Contrary Spirits which have dwelt in these two distinct Seeds have begun to act presently from the very beginning of the world each one according to his own Nature and to trade and traffick about Mankind and out of it to bring forth Children to Themselves like to Themselves in all things and so One hath endeavoured to beget and bring forth the Children of God and of Truth the Other the children of Men and of Error And to this end the One hath held forth the Truth of God by the true Spirit of God the Other hath held forth Error and Falshood yet as it were the Truth The One hath endeavoured to bring Man unto God through true Faith and Repentance the Other to turn Men from God through Sin The One hath sought to work Salvation in Men the Other Destruction Now the False Spirit hath been the most Common in the World and hath had the greatest Opportunities and Advantages to multiply it self seeing it finds the whole World already lying in Wickedness and fully prepared to receive it self But the true Spirit hath been found in very few and that from the beginning for there have been but few true Prophets who have had the true Spirit and have spoken the true Word as you may see all along in Scriptures especially in the times of Elijah and Micajah but Christ saith Many false Prophets shall arise and deceive Many and Peter saith in his second Epistle Chap. 2. vers 1 2. That as there were false Prophets among the People that is the Jews so there shall be false Doctors and Teachers among the Christians who should privily bring in damnable Heresies and that Many should follow their pernicious wayes So that as there have been many false Prophets from the beginning so especially in the daies of the New Testament for the more Christ hath appeared by his Spirit to lead men into Truth the more hath the Devill appeared by his Spirit to lead men into Error and this is properly called Antichrist For Flesh and Blood is not Antichrist but a Spirit contrary to Christs Spirit that dwells in Flesh and Blood and chiefly among those that profess the Christian Religion This is Antichrist No Spirit in the Jews or Gentiles is properly called Antichrist but the Spirit of Satan in false Christians appearing as an Angel of light this is Antichrist Before Christ came in the flesh the Devill was an evil Spirit and a Lyar and a Murderer and the Unclean Spirit and Prince of this world but he was not properly Antichrist because Christ was not then come in the flesh
Spirit and also Christ saith of all the faithfull that it is not they that speak but the Spirit of their Father that speaks in them yea and the whole Gospel is called the Ministration of the Spirit Now the true Prophets speaking the Word of God by and in his Spirit do also speak it in the Right Sence and after the true mind of Christ as Paul saith of himself and of other believers who had received the Spirit We have the mind of Christ. But the false Prophets though they speak the word of the letter exactly and that accordingly to the very Originall and curiosity of Criticisms yet speaking it without the Spirit they are false Prophets before God and his true Church seeing all Right Prophesie hath proceeded from the Spirit in all Ages of the World but especially it must so proceed in the dayes of the New Testament wherein God hath promised the largest effusion of his Spirit And they speaking the Word of the Letter without the Spirit do wholly mistake the Mind of Christ in all and under the outward Letter of the Word of God do only bring in the Mind of Man And this is one of the greatest Delusions and most mischievous snares that can be laid in the Church to bring in the Word of Christ without the Mind of Christ yea to bring in the Word of Christ against the Mind of Christ and according to the Mind of Antichrist this is the effectuall Operation of Error whereby all Hypocrites and false Christians are deceived and that without all hope of recovery And thus you see that the true Prophets bring the true Word and bring it also by the true Spirit and this manifests them to be of God but the false either bring not the true Word or if they bring the Word in the Letter yet they bring it without the Spirit and thus it is manifest they are not of God Object But some will object here If a man preach the Word in the Letter even good sound and orthodox Doctrine no doubt but such a man is to be heard and he may do much good in the Church though he want Christs Spirit This I have heard from very many who have thought they have said something Answ. But to this I answer That they who want Christs Spirit which is the Spirit of Prophesie though they preach the exact Letter of the Word yet are false Prophets and not to be heard by the Sheep 1. Because under the New Testament we are not to regard the Letter without the Spirit but the Spirit as well as the Letter yea the Spirit more then the Letter and therfore Paul saith that Christ shall destroy Antichrist with the Spirit of his Mouth and the Brightness of his Coming he scarce takes any notice of the Letter but calls the true preaching of the Gospel the Spirit of Christs Mouth or the Ministration of the Spirit And therefore the spiritual People cannot joyn to that Ministry where the Spirit of Christ is wanting though there be the Outward Letter of the Word in it 2. They that preach only the Outward Letter of the Word without the true Spirit they make all things Outward in the Church and so carry the people with whom they prevail only to Outward Things to an Outward Word to Outward Worship Outward Ordinances Outward Church Outward Government c. whereas in the true Kingdom of Christ all things are Inward and Spirituall and all the true Religion of Christ is written in the Soul and Spirit of man by the Spirit of God and the Believer is the only Book in which God Himself writes his New Testament 3. They who preach the Outward Letter of the Word though never so truly without the Spirit do as hath been said wholy mistake the Mind of Christ in the Word for want of the Spirit which is the only true and infallible Interpreter of his Mind and so under the Outward Letter of the Word preach their own Mind and not Christs Mind and do make all the Scriptures serve their own Turns even their own Worldly Ends and Advantages and nothing else 4. They that preach the Outward Letter of the Word without the Spirit can with such a Word both live Themselves in all the inward Evils of corrupted Nature and allow Others to do so too And thus the Gospel which in the Spirit of it is the Judgement of sin is made in the Letter of it the Covering for sin and the Encourager of it seeing such Men who have the Letter of the Word in their mouth do live in the inward Corruptions of their Hearts more securely and quietly than other Men. 5. Last of all let us know that whoever doth agree with Christ never so exactly in the Letter and yet differs from him in Spirit is very Antichrist And therefore when the Devils in him that was possessed said to Christ We know thee who thou art the holy One of God and so agreed very exactly with the Gospel in the Letter yet Christ forbad them to speak because they spake not by a right Spirit And Christ hath said Whoever is not with me that is in the Spirit is against me though he have the same outward Letter of the Word with him And so as Christ builds up his Church by his Spirit through his Word so Antichrist builds up his Church by the Word without the Spirit and Christs Church and Antichrists do often differ very little or nothing in Word or Letter yet do alwayes infinitely differ in Spirit Wherefore to conclude Let us know that that Church that hath the Word if it wants the Spirit is Antichrists Church and that that Ministry that useth the Word and wants the Spirit is Antichrists Ministry and that all works duties prayings preaching fasting thanksgiving c. without Christs Spirit are nothing but the very kingdom of Antichrist and the Abomination of Desolation And so I proceed to the second generall Rule of Tryall which I propounded whereby we may discern the true Prophets of Christ from the false Prophets of Antichrist and that is By the Truth of the Life of Christ in reference to his Office in the Word And here I shall give you many Tryals how you may certainly know and discern the false Prophets of Antichrist from the true humble and faithfull Ministers of Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ before whom we are all present this day and before whose Tribunal we shall all be Judged He knows that I shall not purposely speak any thing at this time either to please Myself or to displease You But I shall desire to speak all out of very faithfulness to Him who hath remembred Me when I was in low condition for his Mercy endureth for ever The first sign then whereby the true Prophets may be discerned from the false is this First the true Prophets are all sent of God So was Moses whom God
preach no more in that Name they answered Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard Acts 4. vers 19. And so Wickliffe John Hus and Luther who were sent of God did take all their Authority from God alone and so were bold and confident each of them in their time against the whole World But now the false Prophets who come of Themselves and by the sending of Men they do all by the Authority and Warrant of Man and accordingly do joyn themselves together by secular Power to bring about their Doctrines and Designs in the Church and from the Civill Authority they procure Leave and Power to publish their Doctrine and set up their Discipline in the Church and to suppress what ever is contrary thereto and without this worldly License and Authority they neither can nor dare do any thing and are never bold but when the Authority of Man is for them But the true Prophets as hath been said do only take their Authority from Christ for what they teach and are bold in his Name only to hold it forth and so after they have published the Word in faith in the same faith they leave the maintenance and defending of it to Him alone whose Word it is and they neither publish it for Mans commanding nor smother it for Mans forbidding Wherefore those Teachers who have not their Warrant from Christ for their Doctrine and are not bold in his Name alone but do derive all their Authority and Encouragement from Men to speak and act in the things of God they are all false Prophets and Ministers of Antichrist The Third Sign The true and faithful Teachers as they are sent of God and take their Authority from God so in all their Doctrine they only hold forth Jesus Christ. And this they have learned from God Himself For the Father speaking immediatly from Heaven preached nothing but Christ saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him And this he spake thrice from the excellent Glory manifesting that He Himsef had no Higher Thing nor no Other Thing to declare to the World than his Son Jesus Christ in whom alone are hid all the Treasures of all true and spiritual Wisdom and Knowledge The Son also in all his Ministry only declared who Himself was whom the Father had given to the Elect Church saying Psal. 2. I will publish the Decree whereof the Lord hath said unto me Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And in all his Ministry only declared Who he was and to what End his Father had given him saying I am the bread of life which cometh down from Heaven he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth in me shall never thirst And I am the Way the Truth and the Life no man cometh to the Father but by me And all his Doctrine and Works were to this end that we might believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that believing in him we might have Eternal Life The Apostles also of the Lord after they had received the Spirit did go up and down the World only preaching Jesus and Repentance and Remission of sins in his Name And Paul a laborious Preacher through the Grace of God did renounce and reject all his Worldly Learning and all his Humane Accomplishments and Excellencies in the Ministry of the Gospel and preached nothing but the right Knowledge of Christ and right Faith in Him as He himself testifies Phil. 3. 7 c. saying What things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless and I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in Him not having mine own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by faith That I may know Him and the power of His Resurrection and the fellowship of His Sufferings and be made conformable to Him in his Death if by any means I might attain to the Resurrection from the Dead And he also tells the Corinthians that he desired to know nothing amongst them but Jesus Christ and him crucified And thus the true Teachers preach nothing but Christ and Him they preach not according to their own Humane Conceptions and Apprehensions but according to the Revelation they have received from the Father by the Spirit But on the contrary the false Teachers preach nothing less than Christ and faith in him but they chiefly teach the Law and Morall Doctrine and Works or else Philosophy and Philosophical Subtilties and Speculations which yet the Apostle hath expresly forbidden Col. 2. 8. saying to the faithful Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and Vain Deceit after the Tradition of Men after the 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 And so we need not turn from Christ to Philosophy that vain Deceit Wherefore they who preach not the Mysterie of Christ through the Revelation of the Father and the Spirit but Moral Vertues and Vain Philosophy instead of Christ are all of them false Prophets and Ministers of Antichrist The Fourth Sign The true Ministers and Prophets of Christ as they only hold forth Christ so they hold him forth only for the Love of God and their Brother and not for any worldly Profit or Gain Thus Christ taught his Disciples out of the Love of God as he saith I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my Heart that is his Love to God And also out of Love to his Brother for having Loved his own he Loved them to the end and out of this Love taught Them as he saith I have called you Friends for whatsoever I have heard from my Father I have declared unto You. And as he taught out of love Himself so he hath commanded all His Seed to teach one another out of the same Love and hath given them his Spirit which is Love that thereby they might love both Him and their Brethren and therefore Christ knowing how difficult a Work it was to feed his Sheep with the right and found Doctrine of the Gospel and that none could or would perform this except they loved Christ from their very Heart root said thrice to Peter Peter dost thou Love me dost thou Love me dost thou Love me then feed my sheep my lambs my sheep and Paul saith The Love of Christ constrained him to teach the Gospel and the fruit of the Spirit in all Believers being Love in this Brotherly Love
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
to the Word of God in the Spiritual Sense of it which is only known by Temptation Prayer and Gods own Teaching And hereupon they want the true light by which only Antichrist can be discerned For Antichrist comes in so great subtilty and likeness to Christ that he cannot be perceived but by Christians much acquainted with the Word and much mortified and quickned through it 2. Such carnal Christians as they neglect the Word in the spirituality of it so also they do love this World and this quenches in their hearts the love of God as John saith If any man love this World the love of the Father is not in him now they whose Hearts are inwardly destitute of the true love of God and yet do outwardly profess and worship God all these are a fit Prey for Antichrist And thus the World loving and seeking it self and its own things receives Antichrist whilst it cannot discern Him Wherefore the Scriptures do every where give Christians so many warnings against Covetousness which takes from men all true desire after Christ and all regard sense and knowledge of Antichrist Christ therefore said to his Disciples Take heed and beware of Covetousness for where the Treasure is there will the Heart be also c. And thus all they who are Lovers of Themselves and of this World the greater outward Profession they make of Religion the more ready are they to receive and entertain the Ministers of Antichrist and their Doctrine seeing They are and speak of the World 3. Seeing the World hears Antichrist and his Teachers We are to take notice That the carnal and Antichristian Ministers have a Numerous Auditory all the Worldly People cleaving and joyning to them because they speak that which is in their Hearts And therefore it is said Revel 17. 15. That the waters whereon the great Whore that is the Ecclesiastical State which chiefly consists in the Clergy sitteth are People and Multitudes and Nations and Tongues So that the false Prophets have all the World to hear them except the Faithful and Spiritual people and Multitude is a certain Sign of their Church And Rev l. 15. v. 7. It is said that Power was given to Antichrist over all Kindreds and Tongues and Nations and that all that dwell on the earth shall worship him whose Names are not written in the Lambs book of Life So that Antichrist by degrees and by his several Forms and Appearances one still more deceitful than another doth win to Himself all mankind but the very Elect. And so from time to time hitherto he hath gotten to Himself National Churches even the Generality of all the People of whole Nations Kingdoms and Common-wealths to hear his Teachers and to receive and submit to his Doctrine and Discipline as most true and Orthodox And thus hath Antichrist Multitudes even the whole World to follow his Teachers and to submit to them But let not the true Church and little Flock of crucified Jesus be offended hereat seeing they are but the World who hear Antichrists Teachers that is they are such People 1. Whose inward Nature is earthly carnal divelish 2. Such who love an outward Form of Religion and Godliness whilst they are bitter Enemies to the Power of it 3. Such who love such a Doctrine and Religion as may stand with their old corrupt Nature and may beautifie and surport it and so may make them painted Sepulchers outwardly fair whilst they are inwardly abominable 4. Such who love the World in the sense of their own Mind but hate and abhor it in the sense of Christs Mind and reckon it so to be the greatest Error and Heresie in the World 5. Such as so profess Christ and his Gospel as to make them serve their own Worldly Ends and Advantages without the least regard or respect had to Christs true Kingdom 6. Such as love Themselves and their Own Things the provisions of the flesh and a quiet easie and commodious life better than Christ Jesus and his Things 7. In a word they are such as under the glorious Profession and subtil Pretence of Christs Church are truly and inwardly the Church of the Devil and Antichrist Such a people and no other hath Antichrist to hear Him and to embrace and depend on Him and his Doctrine Ministry and Ordinances that is the Multitude of false and carnal Christians which are almost the whole World of the outward Professors of the Gospel and Christianity For as Antichrist and his Prophets are of the World and speak of the World so also the World hears them And thus much for the fifth Point The Sixth Point In the sixth place the Apostle shews How the Spirit of Truth and Error may be known in the People as well as in the Teachers to wit by the Peoples cleaving to the Teachers of Truth or to the Teachers of Error saying vers 6. We are of God He that knoweth God heareth Us He that is not of God heareth not Us hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error We are of God to wit according to his New Workmanship in Christ Jesus through which we partake of the true Nature of God in Christ as Members as Christ Himself doth partake of that Nature as Head and being thus of God we cannot but confess God his Name and Truth in our Heart Month and Life He that knoweth God heareth Us that is he that knoweth God through the teaching of God knoweth Us who are born and taught of God because we speak to them of God and the Things of God as God himself hath taught Them of Himself and of his Things and therefore They readily receive from Us that Testimony of the Truth which God himself either hath already inwardly taught them or doth teach them by his Spirit whilst we yet speak by that Spirit And so they hear Us by being satisfied and acquiescing or being at rest in the true and wholsom and saving Doctrine of Jesus Christ which we teach Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth to wit in the Hearers when they cleave to the Truth of the Spirit or to the Truth as it is and dwels in Jesus published by the Teachers of Truth It follows He that is not of God heareth not Us That is He that is not of God through a New Birth and the Renewing of the Spirit and so is destitute of the Divine Nature or of the Eternal Word and Spirit which through his Unbelief have no place in his Heart He that thus is not of God but contrarily is of the Devil through Sin Error Darkness Death Enmity to God and his whole evil Nature He heareth not Us that is he doth not taste and relish and approve and receive and embrace and love the Word of Faith and Mysterie of Christ and his Gospel which we teach but doth rather hate oppose reproach and persecute our Doctrine And hereby know we also the Spirit of Error to wit in
God freely taught the Youth who came willingly to them to learn especially in the corrupt times of Israel and Judah I say they taught them only the Knowledge of the Books of Moses and of the other Prophets then extant and no Heathenish Knowledge or Disciplines of the Gentiles at all And these kinde of Schools began early in the Church For the Fathers before the Flood and the Patriarchs after all taught their Children and Families the Word of God And so each of their Families was such a School And that we may not be at uncertainties in this matter it is manifest what Doctrine they taught by that which God himself saith of Abraham Gen. 18. 19. I know Abraham saith God that he will command his Children and Houshold after him that they keep the Way of the Lord and to do Justice and Judgement This was the sum of Abrahams Doctrine to his Family And this is farther confirmed by that of Asaph Psal. 78. 2 3 4. where he saith I will open my mouth in a Parable I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known and our Fathers have told us We will not hide them from their Children shewing to the Generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and the wonderfull works that he hath done Where we plainly see what Doctrine the Children received from their Parents and the Parents taught their children from one Generation to another to wit not Vain Philosophy and the Disciplines of the Heathens but the Praises of the Lord and his Strength and Wonderful Works This also is manifest by the practice of Jehosaphat King of Judah who sent his Princes with the Levites up and down throughout Judah and they only took the Book of the Law of the Lord with them and no Heathenish Authors and taught the People 2 Chron. 17. And Ezra after the Peoples return from Babylon took only the Book of the Law of Moses and read it to them and the Levites also read in the Book of the Law of God distinctly to the People and gave them the Sense and caused them to Understand it Nehem. 8. And this also James the Apostle witnesseth Acts 15. 21. saying Moses of old time hath in every City them that Preach Him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day So that the faithfull Prophets of the Lord during all the Old-Testament had the chief care in their Schools to keep the Word of the Lord among them in a Right Sense according to the minde of the Spirit For seeing the Lords People are his Portion they knew they were to be carefully Educated and Instructed in the Right Knowledge of the Scriptures to prepare them for the Lord and to make them meet for his Kingdom And the keeping of the Word and Doctrine of God pure is one of the Greatest Matters of all in the Church of God For as the Word is such is the Worship such is the Faith such is the Conscience such is All. Wherefore the Holy Men of God would by no means bring in the Philosophy or Doctrine of the Heathens into their Schools to teach that to their Sons or Scholars but only the true faithfull and unmixed Word of God ` And if against this it be Objected That Moses was learned in all the Learning of the Egyptians To this I Reply But did Moses ever teach any of that Learning in the Church or publish any of the Doctrines of it Or did he command or encourage any of the People of God to learn it Or did any other of the Prophets of the Lord in any Age teach their Sons or Scholars any of the Egyptian Philosophy which was the Antientest or the Smaragdine Table of Hermes Trismegistus the pretended Scholar of Moses so much boasted of or any Heathenish Author whatsoever of which there were many then extant I say let them prove that but one Heathenish Author was read by any of the Prophets to their Scholars and then they will have some colour for the present Universities and their Practice But this they can never do during all the Old Testament And now for the New-Testament it is well known that Christ himself who was the Son of God made of a woman was the first and chief Teacher of this Doctrine Even the Son out of the bosom of the Father full of Grace and Truth and He set up the first Christian School and taught his twelve Apostles whom at his own pleasure He chose to Himself And what the Doctrine was which He taught them is manifest in the Gospel in all which there is not One Word of Heathenish Philosophy or of the Doctrine and Traditions of Men but He only taught them the Words of Eternal life which no Man nor Angel could teach He teaches that Word which is the Power Wisdom and Righteousness of God through which Sin is forgiven and Righteousness is given Death is destroyed and Life is brought in Hell is put out and Heaven is planted in all them that do believe He teaches a Word through which the World is renewed and Men are made like Angels and are made meet to partake of the Inheritance of Saints He teaches a Word wherein is contained all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge that are in God Himself And so Christ taught in his School no vain Philosophy or Heathenish Doctrine and yet he came from God and went to God and is a pattern for Doctrine to all true Christians that are his Disciples indeed To whom he commanded when he left the world and went to his Father that they should teach all Nations and gather one Christian School out of them all by teaching them to observe and do Whatsoever he had commanded them to wit in the Gospel and nothing else or more He commanded them to teach all that and only that and promised himself to be with them to the end of the World in all such Doctrine And the Apostles accordingly not by any help of Humane Learning but when they had received the Spirit went forth to teach the Nations and to set up Christian Schools everywhere by their Doctrine and They all only taught Jesus and the Resurrection from the dead Thus Peter first taught the Men of Judea and Inhabitants of Jerusalem That God had made Jesus whom they had crucified both Lord and Christ having raised Him from the dead because it was not possible for Him to be holden of Death who was the Lord and Author of Life And Steven disputing with the Libertines Cirenians and Alexandrians and divers Philosophers of Cilicia and Asia did hold forth to them nothing but Christ and that He should put an end to the Temple and Law and should change all the Customs of Moses And They were not able to resist the Wisdom and Spirit by which He spake Acts 6. And Paul at the University of Athens reproved there Heathenism and taught Nothing among the Epicureans and
Day is coming when Iniquity shall have an End And thus have I done with these Things There were many Other things in that Sermon as contrary to the Gospel which for brevities sake I have omitted Now what a sad Thing is it that such poysonful Doctrine should be poured forth into an University Congregation and that by the Ministry of such a Man And if the Ceremonies of the Law were in use under the Gospel how ought we to rendour Garments at the Hearing of these Things And now O blessed Lord Jesus who wast Crucified Dead and Buried but yet art risen from the Dead by the Eternal Spirit and art ascended on High to fill all things have Mercy on thy poor Church which is so grievously rent and torn this day by Wolves in Sheeps Cloathing and is thus hurt and consumed by poysonful Doctrines of Men who seek Themselves and their own Things to the Harm and Ruine of thy poor People O thou Son of the Living God who art the Way the Truth and the Life how shall the Kingdom of Antichrist be brought down when the Hands of such Men who seem Pillars in the Church are stretched forth so strongly to hold it up And how shall the Days of Antichrist be shortned when his Kingdom is coming forth again in the Greatest Deceiveableness of Unrighteousness that hath ever yet appeared in the World to delude the Nations O Lord remember all thy Promises and make haste to destroy Babylon the Great with all its mysteries of Righteousness and Unrighteousness and let it sink as a Milstone in the Sea without any hope or possibility of a Resurrection And seeing there is no hand of Man stretched out for this Work but all Hands are against it do thou destroy it O Lord without hand even with the Spirit of thy mouth and brightness of thy Coming according to the Truth of thy Promises and the unutterable Sighs and Groans of thy Spirit occasioned thereby in the Hearts of all thy faithful and Elect. Even so Lord And let thy Kingdom come and make no long tarrying AMEN A TESTIMONY From the WORD Against DIVINITY-DEGREES IN THE Vniversity OR Any Academical Degrees made use of for the Ministry of the Gospel THE Universities whose very Soul and Life do lie in Humane Learning and School-Divinity that they might gain the greater Profit to themselves and Glory to their Children have after the example of the Heathen given their children Degrees in Divinity as They in Arts and the Glorious Titles of Batchelors Masters and Doctors in Divinity as so many Crowns of Gold upon their Heads to win them Honour and Reputation with all People who have been under the Delusion of Antichrist And in the confirming of these Graduations or Degrees which also is done for a sum of Money they give the Graduates License and Power to Preach and to Expound the Scriptures and that by the sole Authority of the University For the Vice-Chancelor admitting a Bachelour in Divinity to his Degree useth these Words in the Name of the University We admit you to declare all the Apostolical Epistles in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost And so the Batchelour in Divinity hath Power according to his Degree only to deal with the Apostolical Epistles but must go no farther And admitting a Doctor to his Degree the Vice-Chancelour saith thus We admit you to Interpret and Profess all the Holy Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost And thus doth the University through power received from Antichrist give men chiefly for Money Divinity-Degrees and through those Degrees it gives Authority and priviledge to Batchelors in Divinity to expound part of the Scriptures and to Doctors to expound and profess all the Scriptures and they that gain these Degrees to Themselves are as there is good reason the Great Men in account with the University and also with the Carnal People of Antichrist how destitute soever they be of the Faith and Spirit of the Gospel Wherefore I cannot choose but give in my Testimony against this Glorious and Gainful Priviledge of the Universities to wit their conferring upon their Children Degrees in Divinity and creating them Masters in that Mysterie which none can teach but God Himself and which none can learn but true Believers who are born of God and are his true Disciples And so I do openly affirm that Degrees in Divinity for I meddle with none else given by the Universities to their Children are plainly and grosly Antichristian being most manifestly contrary to the Word of the Gospel and the Light that shines in the New Testament For first In the Gospel of God our Saviour we learn That only a New and Heavenly Birth makes Men to be of the true Church and that the pouring forth of the Spirit on these Children of God according to the measure of the Gift of God makes Christians of several Degrees in this Church and not Academical Graduations Secondly In this Gospel also we are taught that all the true Ministers of Christ are Equal and not One Superior to Another as these Degrees make them Thirdly In this Gospel also we are taught that the true Greatness amongst Christs true Disciples doth not stand in Academical Degrees or Worldly Honour and Dignities but in the Faithfuls near and exact following of Christ in Word and Conversation and that the sons of Zebedee in desiring Superiority and Pre-eminence above the other Disciples contrary to the Life and Doctrine of Christ did grievously offend and were therefore sharply rebuked of Christ. Fourthly Yea here we hear Christ himself forbidding this very Thing to his Disciples that Antichrist and his Prophets might have no cloak for doing the contrary where his Gospel is truely taught and published For Matth. 23. Christ doth forbid his Disciples before all the Multitude to be as the Jewish Rabbies or Doctors who saith Christ do their works to be seen of Men and disguise themselves with different Garments or Habits from others that they might be the more taken notice of and have the more respect and do love the uppermost Rooms at Feasts and the chief Seats in the Synagogues and greetings in the Markets and to be called of men Doctor Doctor but saith Christ to his Disciples Be not ye called Doctors for one is your Master even Christ and Ye all are Brethren and so equal Whence it is evident that this Practice of Universities and Colledges in giving men Degrees in Divinity as they call it and Titles Habits and Dignities accordingly is contrary to the express Command of Jesus Christ and so is a meer Invention of Antichrist to put Honour and Reputation on his Ministers It is also manifest that this practice of the Universities hath all along made many Doctors in the Church which yet never were Christs true Disciples It is also manifest that these Degrees and Titles do cause men
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