them do now too shamelesly make broad their Phylacteries and inlarge the borders of their garments and love the chief chairs in the Schools and to be saluted in the Markets and to be called of men Doctor And by this they go in the apparrel and harness of the Mystical body of Antichrist because it is written that he is the King of all the children of Pride And the Crown of Pride of these children of Pride shall be troden down And thus as it is manifest what Religion founded the Vniversities so it is as manifest what Religion will in the appointed time destroy these Foundations if they be not truly and thoroughly Reformed For surely as they are if the work of Christ go forward in the world as it necessarily must do notwithstanding the present defection in the appointed time they can no more be held up then the house built on the sand in the time of Tempest For the true Spiritual Church is built on the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone and so it is firmly founded upon a Rock and can never fall But the Vniversities are built on the Philosophers and Heathen Plato and Aristotle being the chief corner stones and so they are built upon the sand and neither can their own hands uphold them nor the Secular Arm establish them in that day wherein the Lord alone shall be exalted But it is not men of moral and civil Religion and Righteousness who will do this work and execute this vengeance for the Inchauntments of the Vniversities are too strong and mighty for all Humane Spirits But the called chosen and faithfull Ones of Christ when he shall summon them and call them to his foot they shall not stand on-Complements Formalities and Niceties nor regard frindship or enmity but through the Power of Faith shall break through all that can be said and objected by the Wisdom Policy Prudence and Religion of man and shall execute the righteous Judgements of the Lord on these Mothers of Harlots and Fornications of the Nations And whereas he saith their Destruction will never be but of themselves I do verily believe that For seeing their Root is rottenness their Fruit must needs be Destruction Yea the Lord will raise up his word in the midst of them to destroy them For the more the word of the Lord shall blow upon the Vniversity the more shall this Grass wither and the flower thereof that is Humane Learning fade away till it be at last quite dryed up And this is the Burden of the Vniversity whose day is coming when iniquity shall have an end And thus have I done with these things There were many other things in that Sâ—rmon as contrary to the Gospel which for brevities sake I have omitted Now what a sad thing is it that such poysonfull Doctrine should be poured forth into an Vniversity 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 rend our Garments at the bearing of these things And now blessed Lord Jesus who wast crucified dead and buried but 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 poysonable Doctrine of men who seek themselves and their own things to the harm and ruin of thy poor people O thou Son of the Living God who are 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 deceivableness 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 Vnrighteousness 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 groanes of thy Spirit occasioned thereby in the hearts of all thy faithfull and elect Even so Lord And let thy Kingdom come and make no long tarrying AMEN A TESTIMONY From the WORD Against DIVINITY-DEGRES IN THE University OR Any Academical Degrees made usâ— of for the Ministry of the GOSPEL THe Universities whose soul and life do lye in humane Learning and School-Divinity that they might gaine the greater profit to themselves and glory to their children have after the example of the heathen given their children Degrees in Dâ—vinity as they in Art 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-chancelor 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 gaine 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 chuse 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 Mystery which none can teach but God himself and which none can learn but true believers who are borne of God and are his true Disciples And
diligence and speed to procure fifty Volums of the Scriptures to be written in parchment well and Legibly and in such a bigness or Volume as might be carried with greatest ease for she 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 And though afterwards when the suffering times of the Church began to be over Christians became more carâ—â—l 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 latteâ— 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 aâ—â—ung 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 in the word of God and the Divine things contained therein And accordingly he taught no other Doctrine to any Hularicus Zuinglius also Pastor of Zâ—rich in Helvetâ—ae â—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 sacked 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 minde 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 Scripture 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 faithful Câ—ristians 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 Vniversities where humane Learning according to the Statutes of the Vniversities prevails for the first seven years and they think youth 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 Vniversities lead men both from Moses and from Christ both from the Law and the Gospel to the Heathen to make men hereby able Christians and Divines The Queen of the South came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon And the Vniversities leave Christ who is Infinitely greater and wiser then Solomon and go to the utmost parts of the earth for wisdom there So that in these Vniversities there hath been the greatest Apostacy and withdrawing from Christ and the greatest dishonour and disparagement offered to him and his Gospel as ever was known 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 wonderfull 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 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 sufficient 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 be 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 summe 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 Vniversities 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 Vniversities in the time of the Gospel are answerable to the High-Places in
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 wordly 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 eare heard them nor hath any knowledge of them entered into his heart so far is this Doctrine from truth that the Knowledg 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 breadth 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 have taught that all true Divinity is contained in God and his word and that we can know nothing of God aright but by his word which holy men have spoken by the Spirit and believers do receive by faith and out of this word All the Learning in the world doth not contain in it self neither can it reveal to us aright the least thing of God or of his Mind and Will But I conceive he might speak thus that all Divinity is wrapped up in Humane Learning to deterr the common people from the study and enquiry after it and to cause them still to expect all Divinity from the Clergy who by their education have attained to that Humane Learning which the plain people are destitute of For it is the old and new design of Antichrist to make the People depend on the Clergy for all Divinity though the people have the Scriptures as near them and the Grace of God usually nearer to them then they seeing God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble Again if all Divinity be swadled in Humane Learning then must it sadly follow that all who want Humane Learning must needs also want Divinity And then how shall poor plain people who live in lawfull callings and have not the leisure to attain Humane Learning how shall they do to be saved Or what help must they have to teach them Divinity who have not opportunity to gain Humane Learning And yet farther if all Divinity be swadled in Humane Learning then Christ and his Apostles had no true Divinity for they had no Humane Learning to swaddle it in nor would have none Shall we say now according to Mr. Simpsons Doctrine that they had no Divinity I do with all boldness affirm that this Doctrine is contrary to the Christian faith 4. ERROR That Paul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel and God took him so fitted to wit with Humane Learning and made him an able Instrument in his Church Answer Not so But God took Paul not a good Schollar and so made him an able Preacher but he took him as a Blasphemer and Persecutor and as a cruel and inraged enemy against Christ and his Truth and People and magnified the riches of his mercy by converting such an one and Paul having much forgiven him loved much and through his great love was the fitter to preach the Gospel according to that of Christ to Peter Peter dost thou love me feed my Sheep Yea Paul himself ascribes his painful and profitable preaching not to his Learning and Education under Gamaliel which also was or ought to have been only in the Law and Prophets as hath been proved but to the free Grace of God bestowed on him saying I laboured more abundantly then they all yet not I but the Grace of God in me So that Paul became so excellent a Preacher not by his fitting through Humane Learning but through the Grace of God And here I shall mind Mr. Simpson of a passage which I have read in Chrysostome which comes home to this matter in hand it is in the third Homily on the first Epistle to the Corinthians where he saith That God had no need at the beginning of the Gospel of Learned men and Sophisters to preach the Gospel and to convince the world with Syllogisms but did only use the word of faith in the mouths of plain Handicrafts men and Artificers Wherefore saith he when the Greeks shall accuse the Disciples of Christ as ignorant of Letters and unlearned let us our selves who are Christians accuse them more Neither let any one say that Paul was wise and learned but let us say Their men were wise and learned but ours were rude and ignorant For in thus doing according to the truth we shall have the greater advantage against them For if Paul were unlearned and yet overcame learned Plato his Victory was the greater and the Grace of God the more glorious * Now this I say saith he because the other day I heard a certain Christian discoursing ridiculously with a Greek each of them in their Discourse prejudicing their own cause For the Greek spake that which the Christian should have said and the Christian spake that
and royal priesthood to show forth the vertues of him that hath called them out of darkness into his marvelous light as Peter testifies and they all speak as they do believe and have experience and their Sonship Unction and Victory over temptation is as sufficient a ground for them to teach as it was for Christ to teach and so they without any regard of the Laws of Antichrist or Orders of the Clergy go forth to teach the everlasting Gospel as Christ did before them and this is the fourth degree of the faithful in the Church 5. Christs fifth and last degree which he took in the Church was this that he having both preached and lived the word whereat the world and worldly Church were wholly offended and inraged did at the last willingly confirme his Doctrine with his death and seal to the truth of it with his blood exposing himself to the most shameful and ignominious death of the cross to confirme his Gospel to his Church and this was the highest and most glorious Degree that Christ took in his Church as Christ testifies when speaking of his suffering he saith Now is the hour come that the Son of man should be glorified And this fifth degree also all the truely faithful do take with Christ either in deed if need require or in preparation and readiness and that whilst they live in outward peace All the blessed Martyrs have taken this highest degree in the Church with Christ and all the rest of his seed have been and are ready to take it also when it is the good will of their heavenly Father seeing they can say in the same faith and spirit with Christ even in this matter Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me yet not my will but thine be done for they are come to do the will of him that sent them even to the laying down their lives Now these are the onely degrees that Christ himself took in the Church and which all the Saints take with him and the true spiritual Church of believers allows and approves no other Degrees but these And what now are the University-Degrees in Divinity to these they are Degrees in Antichrists Church onely and every heathen or humane creature Turke or Infidel may take them aswel as they with a little time and paines and money Wherefore that I may turn my speech a little to the University do thou University lay this to heart how much thou hast departed from the Gospel of Christ in this matter as well as in all the rest and hast received the Doctrine and Laws and Methods and Manners of Antichrist wherewith thou hast deceived thy self aswell as the Nations And thou University hast like thy own mother Babylon Mystery written on thy forehead for thou hast taken to thy self this title ALMA MATER the beautiful mother which onely belongs to Jerusalem from above and though thou hast brought forth a company of prodigious children heathenish foolish vaine vile and abominable yet hast thou called them learned and given them Degrees in Divinity contrary to the Degrees in the Gospel and hast sent them forth into every City County Town and Village as Ministers of Christ yea as Sons of the morning though unbelievers and destitute of the spirit And thus hast thou deceived the Nations and given them a false Ministery in stead of a true and by this false Ministery a false word in stead of the Gospel and the world hath not at any time received a greater wo nor more grievous plague then from thee Wherefore thus saith the word of the Lord The day of thy vengeance is coming and the yeers wherein thou shalt be made desolate and thy dainty and goodly things shall depart from thee and thou shalt finde them no more at all and the voice of Musitians and Pipers shall no more be heard in thee for in thee is found the blood of Prophets and of Saints and of all that have been slaine upon the earth thy humane learning to wit thy Philosophy and School-Divinity the false Ministery that they have set up and the false Christians that have proceeded from that Ministery have devised and executed all these murders and massacres on the true Saints of God FINIS Quis est sapiens intelliget haec The Testimony of Martin Luther upon the whole matter To wit touching Vniversities Humane Learning or Philosophy Vniversity-Degrees c. MArtin Luther in his Answer to Ambrosius Catharinus expounding the Vision concerning Antichrist Dan. 8. speaks thus The twelfth and last face of Antichrist is that Chaos and open gate of Hell yet very comely to behold to wit the Universities into which perjurie and the abuse of Gods Name are the entrance and the progress is a free and most licentious conversation in all manner of wickedness And yet under these sins and destructions Science and Sapience are promised Yea Titles and Degrees are given in stead of rewards But what do they perform at length First the more choice youth of christian people are here prostituted and are cast into the open throat of Hell that I verily think this destruction was figured by the Idol Moloch to whom anciently they made their choice children to pasâ— through the fire Afterwards Aristotle being read to them and not rightly understood the wits of christian youth are exercised with heathenish and humane learning yea are quite blinded and oppressed with it And in stead of the Word of God the doctrine of Antichrist is delivered that it may seem the devil himself could not bring forth a more subtile and effectual Invention and engine Eutterly to extinguish the Gospel then to set up Universities Wherein under the pretence of Christian Doctrine nothing should be taught but that which is most contrary to the Christian Faith And if at any time it seems good to call forth the choicest to the Government of the Churches they call them out of these Stews and Dens And truly to me this last face of Antichrist seems to be the most hurtful of all because this hath the pretence of the Word when all the rest have onely the colour of Example and this is plainly Schola Hidoth the School of Propositions of which anon For it is incomparably the greatest prejudice under the colour of the Word to teach things contrary to the Word seeing the face of Eâ—amples is formed and strengthened by the face of the Word which otherwise would soon come to nothing if the Word should reign in its genuine sense and also seeing the pretence of Examples doth onely deceive the manners but the pretence of the Word overthrows the Word But if by any Grace of God the Universities should receive the Word to wit instead of Philosophy and School-Divinity how soon would the Papacy with all its faces or appearances perish seeing this face to wit the Universities is the prop bones and whole strength of that kingdom of faces This deceitful face seems to