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
The Tryal of Spirits Both in TEACHERS HEARERS Wherein is held forth The clear Discovery and certain Downfal OF THE Carnal and Antichristian Clergie of These NATIONS Testified from the Word of God to the University-Congregation in Cambridge By WILLIAM DELL Whereunto is added A plain and necessary Confutation of divers gross Errors DELIVERED BY Mr SYDRACH SIMPSON In a Sermon preached to the same Congregation at the COMMENCEMENT Anno 1653. Wherein among other things is declared That the Universities according to their present Statutes and Practices are not as he affirmed answerable to the Schools of the Prophets in the time of the Law but rather to the Idolatrous High Places And that Humane Learning is not a Preparation appointed by Christ either for the Right Understanding or Right Teaching the Gospel With a brief Testimony against Divinity-Degrees in the Universities As also Luthers Testimony at large upon the whole Matter And lastly The right Reformation of Learning Schools and Universities according to the state of the Gospel and the Light that shines therein All necessary for the Instruction and Direction of the faithful in these last times London Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black spread-Eagle at the West-end of Pauls 1660. To all the truly Faithfull the very little Flock of Christ in these Nations now despised and almost worn out according to the Prophesies for the Word of God and Testimony which they hold Grace be multiplyed unto you and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Head and Hope I Could not choose but distinguish You thus from all the rest of the People of these Nations of what Condition or Quality soever seeing God Himself hath first done it having chosen you to Himself in Christ and set you apart for Himself as a Peculiar People zealous of good works And I have chosen to speak this only to You because You are all taught of God and have heard and learned from Him the Truth as it is in Jesus and because You have an inward Unction from God whereby You know the Truth from Error though it be never so much reproached by Carnal Christians and whereby you know Error from the Truth though it be never so much exalted and magnified by them You are those Spiritual Men who judge All things because you have received the Word and Spirit of Judgement in Christ from the Father Besides You are the Men whom God will use in his Greatest and most Glorious Works which he hath yet to do in the World to wit in the Destruction of the Kingdom of Antichrist and in the Setting up and inlarging the Kingdom of Christ which Things are not to be done by the Might and Power of worldly Magistrates which it may be you have not received and if you had it would not be helpful here but by the Spirit of the Lord which You all have received in some measure Yea farther none but You will be contented to live only by Faith and to follow Christ in Untrodden Paths and to undertake impossible Works to flesh and blood and none but You will be willing to have the residue of Christs Life and Works and of his Sufferings and Death fulfilled in your mortal bodies It grieves me much to see so Many Men as I have known once hopeful in the Army and elsewhere to be now so full gorged with the flesh of Kings and Nobles and Captains and Mighty Men that is with their Estates Mannors Houses Parks Lands c. that they can now be contented to take their ease and to comply with the World and worldly Church and the Teachers thereof and can perswade themselves that there is enough done for their time after it hath fared thus well with them and can leave the Remainder to Men that are as plain and mean as Themselves were at first forgetting Him who remembred Them when they were in Low Condition But they that were indeed Righteous among them are Righteous still and they that were indeed Holy are Holy still and Prosperity hath only slain the Fools as the Scriptures speak But You Christians are Called Chosen and Faithful and You will still be found with the Lamb on mount Sion and with the rest who have his Name and his Fathers Name written in their Foreheads and you dare still own the Ancient Truth Cause and Work of Christ how great disadvantage soever is for the present risen up against it through the Apostasie of Carnal Christians the Lovers of this World And You all know that all that hath been done hitherto by the Sword is but the Preparation of Christs way to his Work and that the Work it self is still behind and to be done by those Worthies of the Lord who love Jesus Christ and his Kingdom and Coming a thousand times better then the present World and all the best things of it yea then their own Lives Wherefore I advise You all to whom now I speak to take heed that you neither drink nor sip of the Clergies Cup which carries in it the Wine of the wrath of the fornication of Antichrist lest having drunk thereof you fall asleep through the strength of their Inchantments and so are rendred unable to follow Christ any farther For many Powers and Magistrates of the world once hopeful have been thus overcome and seduced into Antichrists cause against Christ to their utter ruine in the end And how have the present Clergy with their most Plausible Men attempted some of this Present Power yea some of the very Chiefest and most Godly in the Army and have put them into some that I say not great Danger Wherefore remember you that word of the Lord spoken by his Angel Rev. 14. 9 10. If any man worship the Beast and his Image and receive his Mark in his forehead or in his hand the same shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation c. IF ANY MAN WORSHIP THE BEAST that is the Antichristian Church of the Pope and his Prelates and Clergy which is called the Beast because of its Fierceness and Cruelty against the Saints Or HIS IMAGE that is the Church of the Bishops and Presbyters which in a lesser Volume and less Letters doth answer the Other and is directly like it Whoever shall WORSHIP THESE that is highly esteem them for their Humane Learning and School-Divinity and Sacredness of their Orders and count them worthy all Honour and Respect and worldly Maintenance and also to have Power in matters of Religion to allow and determine of Doctrine and to appoint and institute in matters of Government and being Worldly Powers do subject Themselves and all the worldly People under them to these mens Religion Authority Doctrine Discipline c. Whoever shall thus worship them Or SHALL RECEIVE HIS MARK that is this Principle that It is lawful to punish and persecute men in Matters that meerly relate to Faith
the Hearers when they do not receive the Word of Truth from the Teachers of Truth but do contrarily cleave to Humane and Philosophical or Moral or Formal and National Doctrine published and held forth by the Teachers of Error Now hence it is evident That there are two Heads or chief Teachers in the World which are Christ and Antichrist and also that there are two Seeds or Generations which flow from them begotten by their Doctrine The One is Christs Seed or the Elect and Faithful the Other is Antichrists Seed or the Reprobate and Unbelievers And each Sort of these People do joyn Themselves to their several and proper Heads and by this they are certainly distinguished known and discerned Antichrist and his false Teachers who are the Head of the Malignant Church and People they come in great Pomp and Glory as to the eye of the World being beautified and dignified with Degrees Names and Titles being exalted to great Honour Authority and Power being full of fleshly Wisdom Rhetorical Eloquence and Philosophical Learning and so to Humane Judgement They are most considerable Persons in the Church and very Angels of Light in appearance And they being thus adorned and beautified to the pleasing and content of the World all the World come in and commit fornication with Them and do hear and conceive Them and are conquered by their Inchantments But Christ and his Teachers come in true Humility and Self-denial and Meekness and Lowlyness and without the Titles and Glory of the false Teachers which they utterly despise and refuse and without all Excellency of Speech and Wisdom and Learning of this World and These do contradict the Religion and Righteousness of the World and speak the Truth which is of God by the Spirit which is of God and these Teachers all the true Sheep of Christ the faithful flock do own and acknowledge and they come and hear the Words of their lips being assured that it is not They that speak but the Spirit of their Father which speaks in Them For the Body and Members of Christ do necessarily cleave to Christ their Head and the Body and Members of Antichrist do in like manner necessarily cleave to Antichrist their Head And as the Body and Members of Christ do cleave to Christ their Head and to those that are in his Spirit and will not nor cannot joyn to Antichrist and to those that are in his Spirit so also the Body and Members of Antichrist do cleave to Antichrist their Head and those that are in his Spirit and will not nor cannot joyn to Christ and to those that are in his Spirit For such as the Body it self is such a Head will it choose to it self and so a Spiritual Heavenly and Faithful People will joyn Themselves to such a Teacher or rather to Christ Himself in and through him And a carnal worldly and unbelieving People will joyn Themselves to such a Teacher and to Antichrist Himself in and through him Wherefore as they that hear the true Teachers and Christ in them and do joyn and cleave by faith to the Word and Doctrine which they hear knowing that it is of God as all Such are certainly of God even his true Children and People and the true Sheep of Christ in as much as they know his Voice and cleave to it So they that hear the false Teachers and Antichrist in them and do cleave to their Doctrine and Ministry and do like commend and applaud that all such are not of God but of their father the Devil and the true and natural Members and People of Antichrist And this very Doctrine Christ Himself hath clearly taught in his Gospel as John 5. 43. where he saith to the Jews I am come in my Fathers Name and ye receive me not another shall come in his Own Name and Him ye will receive That is the Unbelieving Jews would not come and cleave to Christ as their Head though coming in the Name of God that is in the true Power Wisdom and Righteousness of God because they were none of Christs own Sheep But Antichrist coming in his own Name that is in his own Power Wisdom and Righteousness they receive Him and joyn to Him as to their own true and Natural Head And again John 8. 47. Christ saith to the Jews He that is of God heareth Gods Word ye therefore hear it not because ye are not of God Whence it appears that to hear and cleave to the true Word of God taught and held forth by Christ and his Prophets is a manifest Token that men are of God but to turn away from it and to despise it and to embrace another Doctrine is as manifest a Sign that they are not of God but of the Devil as Christ saith to the same people ver 44. Ye are of your Father the Devil for there is no Truth in Him and he abides not in the Truth no more do Ye Again John 10. v. 4. 5. Christ saith His own Sheep follow Him the true Shepherd because they know his Voice and a stranger will They not follow but flee from Him because they know the Voice of Strangers Wherefore they that hear the Word of Faith in the true Teachers of the Gospel They have in them the Spirit of Truth but they that dislike and disrelish that Word and joyn to the Teachers and Doctrine of Antichrist They all have in them the Spirit of Error And therefore it concerns us more than the World is aware of to take heed Whom we hear For if we cleave to the Teachers of Truth as hath been declared then have we the Spirit of Truth but if to the Teachers of Error then are we of the Spirit of Error And thus this Scripture teacheth us how to know and discern the Spirit both of Christ and of Antichrist and that both in the Teachers and in the Hearers both which are of great Use to the true Church of God in all Times but especially in these Last Times And these things I have spoken and testified freely according to the measure of grace given knowing that they will be as acceptable to the true Friends and Members of Christ crucified as they are troublesome and displeasing to the Members of Antichrist FINIS A Plain and Necessary CONFUTATION Of divers gross and Antichristian Errors DELIVERED To the University Congregation At the Publick Commencement Anno. 1653. By Mr. Sydrach Simpson Master of Pembroke HALL in CAMBRIDGE Potentior est veritas quam eloquentia potior spiritus quam ingenium major fides quam eruditio ut Paulus ait Stultum Dei sapientius est hominibus Luther Epist. ad Caspar Bornerum Profes Lipsens Non est istud temeritas sed fides neque inconsideratio sed ratio neque furor sed fiducia Hillarius lib. contr Constantium Augustum LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert and are to be sold at the Sign of the Black-spread-Eagle near the West-end of Pauls 1660. An Apologie to the
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
Ignorance of and Enmity to the Gospel of God our Saviour For is our Union with Christ the Foundation of Error or have true Believers no real Union with Christ but imaginary Do not the Saints partake of the Divine Nature doth not Peter expresly affirm it 2 Pet. 1. 4. where he saith exceeding Great and Precious Promises are made to us that We thereby should be made partakers of the Divine Nature and what is the Divine Nature but the very Nature of God See Luther on the place Again are Believers as he affirms at an infinite distance from Christ If this were true what sad news would it be to the Church of God How can this Doctrine agree with these Scriptures that Christ may dwell in your Hearts by faith and Christ in You the hope of Glory and of Him are Ye in Christ Jesus Again saith Christ I am the true Vine and ye are the Branches and so as the Vine is in the Branches and as the Branches are in the Vine so is Christ in Christians and so are Christians in Christ. Again John 14. 20. At that day ye shall know saith Christ Himself that you need not doubt of the Doctrine that I am in my Father and You in Me and I in you And again John 17. 21. saith Christ I pray not for These alone that is who now believe but also for All that shall hereafter believe in me through their Word That they all may be One as thou Father art in Me and I in Thee that They may be One as we are One I in Them and Thou in Me that They may be made perfect in One that the World may know thou hast sent me and hast loved Them as thou hast loved Me. Here now is no infinite Distance between Christ and Believers but a Wonderful and Admirable Nearness and Oneness which the learned Ignorance of Philosophy understands not nor the ignorant Knowledge of any carnal Christian. But sure this Word of God is true and the Saints receive it in faith and will not be deluded with any Philosophical Sophistical or Antichristian Glosses of False Teachers And thus doth the Holy Word of God affirm plainly enough that Christ and his Christians are most neerly United And yet doth not this Union make an Equality and rob Christ of his due Glory seeing Christ is the Head and They his Members Christ the First Born and they his Brethren And so as Christ hath the Preheminence in all things above them all as becomes the Head and First Born so They have Communion with Him in all things as becomes his Members and Brethren And whereas he jests and saith He that hath God in Him needs not go to Man to learn I do affirm this is true enough and the Scripture hath affirmed it in several places Isaiah saith to the Spiritual Church All thy Children shall be taught of the Lord And Christ saith it is written They shall be all taught of God He therefore that hath heard and learned of my Father cometh to Me. And John saith 1 John 2. 27. The Annointing which Ye have received from Him abideth in you and Ye need not that any Man teach you but as the same Annointing teacheth you all things and is Truth and is no Lye And this Doctrine is so manifest from the Scriptures that He is of Antichrist that denies it For God inwardly teaches all his People by his Spirit his own Self and They so hear the Word by the Ministry of Man that it is alwaies God that teaches them and not Man 11. ERROR Arts and Tongues are the Cups in which God drinks to us Answer In what a sad condition then are the Common and Plain People that they cannot Pledge him But only the Learned Clergy keep these Cups to Themselves as heretofote they kept the Cup in the Sacrament But what strange Phrase is this Savouring of the Ranters Religion as if God was the familiar Companion of the Clergy and sometimes drank to them in a Cup of Hebrew sometimes in a Cup of Greek and sometimes in a Cup of Latine and as if sometimes he drank to them in a Cup of Logick and sometimes in a Cup of Ethicks sometimes in a Cup of Metaphysicks Is not this truly Profana vocum novitas a Prophane Newness of Speech never before heard of to my Knowledge in the Church of God and which the Apostle utterly condemns 12. ERROR We shall never keep up Religion if we do not keep up Learning but when Learning goes down Religion goes down too Answer The Church is founded on Christ and Christ and His Church it seems are both founded on Humane Learning It is no wonder now that Mr. Simpson lays so great stress on it everywhere And that Men of his Religion term the University Fundamentum Ecclesiae the Foundation of the Church And if Humane Learning do indeed uphold all Christian Religion let all Men and Magistrates come forth and uphold it in the Name of God But surely the Religion of the Gospel depends wholly on Christ as Christ on God and there is no need of Humane Learning to support this except God and Christ are insufficient We have a sure Word and Doctrine of the Gospel that remains firm for ever and inviolable and inconquerable in and through Christ and his Spirit and the Father and all the World shall shatter in pieces and Humane Learning go down to Hell and This shall stand fast for ever Heaven and Earth shall pass away and not one jot or Tittle of my Word saith Christ. Believers know that not one Point of their Religion depends on Humane Learning But all on Christ Himself who is the true and Living Word Wherefore these are the fears of Antichrist and his Prophets that their Religion will go down with Humane Learning because it was set up by it But the true Religion of the Gospel of God our Saviour was at first set up without it and hath hitherto remained without it and will abide so for ever And to this the Spirit and the Bride give witness 13. ERROR Seeing Religious Foundations are so Antient then keep them up Your Destruction will never be but from Your Selves Answer Religious Foundations What Religion founded the Universities is well known For by the Counsel of four Monks the Scholars of Bede to wit Rabanus Albinus Claudius and John Scotus the University which had been translated from Athens to Rome was translated by Charls the Great from Rome to Paris An. 791. And for our English Universities of Cambridge and Oxford Thus it is recorded That the Study of Cambridge was instituted Anno 630. By Sigisbert King of the East Angles who after changed his Purple or Kingly Robes for a Fryars Cool or Hood And the Lectures here were begun by four Monks of which Brother or Fryar Ode as they termed him read Grammar according to Priscians Doctrine Terricus an acute Sophister
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
The Devil was the Devil before and did dwell and work in Evil Men but from the beginning of the Christian Church he is called Antichrist and that not every where but in the Church or Kingdom of Christ For Antichrist is a Spirit that dissolves Jesus and that not openly but subtilly and cunningly yea under the name and pretence of Jesus he is wholy contrary to Him Wherefore the discerning of Spirits as it hath been necessary from the beginning of the World so also is it especially necessary in the daies of the Gospel wherein the Mysterie of Iniquity is become most Mysterious through the operation of Antichrist in those Many false Prophets which are gone forth into the world And so we proceed to the second Point 2. Point And that is That Sufficient Remedy which the Apostle prescribes to the true Church against that great Evil of many false Prophets being gone out into the world Now the Remedy the Apostle prescribes to the faithfull against these false Prophets is not that they should stir up the Secular Power to imprison banish or burn Them that so they might be rid of Them for this is Antichrists proper Remedy against those that oppose Him but the Apostle shews a more Christian Remedy which is this Believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God and this Remedy alone is sufficient for the true spiritual Church of the faithful in every Age to preserve it safe and sound against all false Teachers whatsoever and their false Doctrines neither doth it desire or need any other Wherefore in this Case the Apostle contents himself to give only this Caution to the Faithfull Believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God Believe not euery Spirit c. that is every one that speaketh of Spiritual Things Whence it is plain that we neither ought rashly and hastily to believe every mans Doctrine nor yet rashly and unadvisedly to censure and condemn it till it be heard and known what it is but it is a Christians duty to prove All Things and to hold fast that which is Good upon Proof as Paul adviseth wherefore John also adds here But try the Spirits whether they be of God Whence we note That Christians have Right and Power to try and judge the Spirits and Doctrines of their Teachers and this is evident by many plain Scriptures as Matth. 7. 15. Beware of false Prophets saith Christ to the faithful which come unto you in Sheeps cloathing but inwardly they are ravening Wolves ye shall know them by their fruits Matth. 16. 6. Jesus said to them Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisie Matth. 24. 4. Jesus said take heed that no man deceive you for many shall come in my Name saying I am Christ and shall deceive many John 10. My Sheep hear my voice and know my voice and a stranger will they not hear but flee from him for they know not that is own not the voice of strangers And all that came before me are Thieves and Robbers but the Sheep did not hear them By all which Scriptures and many more that might be added it is manifest that the faithful the true Sheep of Christ have Right and Power to judge of the Spirits and Doctrines of the Teachers Let Fathers Schoolmen Doctors Councels Assemblies of Divines Universities Ministers propound and publish what Doctrine they please the Sheep of Christ the faithful Flock have Power and Authority from Christ Himself to try and judge whether the Things they speak be of Christ or of Themselves and of Antichrist And this Power the faithful People ought not to part with neither for any fear nor for any favour Yea it most nearly concerns the faithful to try the Spirits and judge the Doctrines of the Teachers for these two Considerations among others First Because we must each one give an account for Our selves before the Judgement seat of Christ wherefore it concerns every one of us to look to our own Eternal Condition and not to leave this care to Others for us In Death and Judgement Each one must answer for Himself and therefore we ought to be as certain of the Word of God on which we build our immortal Souls as we are sure we live and are Creatures we ought I say to be sure Our selves and not to trust any body for us in this great Matter whereon depends either eternal Life or eternal Death Secondly It concerns us to try the Spirits and Doctrines because otherwise we may easily mistake and instead of Antichrist and his Disciples dash against Christ himself and his precious Saints Yea we have seen how the World and worldly Church not being able to try the Spirits and Doctrines have contradicted and crucified the Son of God himself and have reproached and persecuted all his People who are baptized into one Spirit with him and doing this they have thought they have done God good service too and all because they were not able to judge of the Spirit and Truth of Christ in Himself and his Members but have followed the Judgment and Councel of the chief Guides in the outward Church who have caused them to erre and to mistake Truth for Error and Error for Truth Christ for Antichrist and Antichrist for Christ. Wherefore it concerns every one to be wise to salvation for Himself and to try the Spirits for himself and not to content himself to say thus said Augustine Ambrose Hierom c. or this was the Judgement of the Fathers or thus have the Councels and Universities determined or thus do our Ministers teach us but if thou art one of Christs flock thou must have skill to know and judge for Thy self which is Christs Spirit and Doctrine and which is Antichrists otherwise thou wilt certainly miscarry in this great Matter and be undone for ever If thou build on Men in these things and canst not judge for Thy self thou wilt be sure to be undone But now this Power of Trying Spirits and Judging Doctrines which Christ hath given his true Flock and which they ought to have upon so good Grounds the Teachers of the false and Antichristian Church that is the Common Clergy distinguished by several Names Titles and Degrees have robbed them of and have falsely and treacherously arrogated to themselves the Power of trying Spirits and Judging Doctrines and have said that it belongs to the Clergy or National Ministry and their Councils and Assemblies of Divines to Judge of Spirits whether they be right or false and to Judge of Doctrines whether they be agreeable to Gods Word or no and that all Christians ought to expect their Judgement and Determination and to submit to it and to depend on it as on an Oracle from Heaven yea though it be not only without but also against their own particular Judgement And these men I mean the Clergy through the Ecclesiastical
and Temporal Power which they had gotten have stricken great fear into the whole World and have miserably vexed innumerable Consciences with a grievous and lasting bondage and have even driven them to Despair whilst none durst approve or own any Spirit or Doctrine though never so manifestly of Christ and his Gospel without their Allowance and Approbation so mightily hath the power of Antichrist prevailed in the World and that against the express Word of Christ. Now the ground of this their Antichristian Pride and Usurpation is This that they arrogate to Themselves that They are the Guides and Shepherds of all Christian men and are to teach them the Gospel which they are only to receive from their lips whereas Christ hath promised his true Church that they shall be all taught of God and shall hear and learn Themselves from the Father and hath also promised to send to them the Spirit to lead them in all Truth and to give them an Annointing to teach them All Things Now they by robbing the Faithful of this Power and arrogating it to Themselves have made themselves contrary to Christs Command Lords and Masters in the Church of God and have usurped to themselves Superiority and Authority over other Believers and have subjected all the World to their Opinion and Judgement in the things of God by which means they have set wide open the flood-gates to Antichrist and his Kingdom to break in upon the World and to overflow it whilst they had robbed all Christian People of their own Judgement in all the Things of God and had made them to depend wholly on the Judgement of the Clergy And had not Christian People thus unchristianly delivered up their Judgements to the Clergy and that in the very Highest Points of Religion Christianity had not been so miserably blinded and corrupted as it is and the Mysterie of Iniquity had not so much prevailed in the World as now it hath For when Christians would not try the Spirits whether They were of God and the Doctrines whether they were the Word of God or no but thought this a matter too High for them and would refer and submit all to the Judgement of their Ministers then Antichrist the Apostle of the Devill came forth boldly and proudly exalted Himself above all that is called God and his Kingdom above all the Kingdoms of the World having first put out both the Eyes of Christians by taking away from them their Right and Power of trying Spirits and judging Doctrines But when true Christians shall search the Scriptures as God I trust hath now fully put into their hearts to do and shall justly and lawfully take to themselves the Power which God hath given them to try Spirits and Doctrines then Antichrist and his Agents the carnal Clergy must soon be brought down for the Faithfull by that Word shall soon perceive that They are not of God nor their Doctrine of that right Gospel which is after the Mind of Christ. Well then by what hath been said You who are of Christs true Sheep may perceive that it is evident by the Word that faithful Christians have Right and Power to try Spirits and Doctrines though Antichrist for many Ages hath robbed them of this Priviledge For that I may speak a little more to this matter the Tryall of Spirits doth unquestionably belong to all Men who have received the Spirit of God for to this Spirit of God which dwells in the faithfull the Gift of Discerning Spirits is inseparably annexed and the Spirit of Christ which truly dwells in all true Christians cannot deceive nor be deceived in the Tryall of Spirits So that this now is a Common Grace that in some measure belongs to all true Christians who have received the Unction that teacheth them all things and is true and is no lie And though there be in the Church Diversities of Gifts from the same Spirit which are given to some and not to others as Tongues and Interpretation of Tongues and Miracles and Gifts of healing c. mentioned by Paul 1 Cor. 12. yet this gift of Trying Spirits is given to All in some measure that have received the Spirit For as in the Natural Body there are several Gifts given to several Members which are not given to all the members as Seeing to the Eye Hearing to the Ear Walking to the foot c. but Feeling is given to all the Members so also in the Body of Christ that is the spiritual Church several Gifts are given to several Saints but the Tryall of Spirits and Doctrines to all Saints who have received the Spirit and if any have not Christs Spirit he is none of His and if any have Christs Spirit he can in some measure discern and judge of all Spirits in the World and the more any man receives Christs Spirit the more able is he to judge of all Other Spirits Wherefore they who are true Believers and have received Christs Spirit their Judgement is to be preferred in the Tryall of Spirits before the Judgement of a whole Council of Clergy men And they only who can try Spirits by the Spirit of God and Doctrines by the Word of God written in their hearts by the Spirit are fit to commend Ministers to the Work of God that is the Congregations of the faithful and not Universities and Assemblies of Divines And thus you may perceive that seeing many false Prophets are gone out into the World it concerns the faithful as they tender their own everlasting Salvation not to believe every Spirit that speaks of Christ and his Kingdom and his Things but to Try the Spirits whether they be of God Object But now it may be some will be ready to say We ought indeed to try the Spirits seeing there are many falfe Prophets in the world but we hope there are no such Persons among us but only some upstart Men with their new Light who with their Novelties and Fancies trouble the Nation and would fain turn all things upside down and we know these well enough already and do sufficiently despise them Answ. It is very like you do but yet let me say to you Men Brethren and Fathers understand Your selves and know what you do in this matter For at the beginning of the Reformation by the Ministry of Luther Zuinglius Calvin and divers others pretious servants of Jesus Christ the Popish Clergy applyed all these Scriptures Try the Spirits whether they be of God for many false Prophets are gone out into the world and beware of false Prophets which come to you in sheeps clothing but inwardly are ravening wolves I say these and the like places of Scriptures they applied to these Godly Men and yet they Themselves were the false Prophets indeed and the Other whom they termed such were true Ones Wherefore it is possible for You to be mistaken as well as They and no doubt but you will be mistaken except the Lord be gracious
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
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
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
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
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
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