them do now too shamelesly make broad their Phylacteries and inlarge the borders of their garments and love the chief chairs in the Schools and to be saluted in the Markets and to be called of men Doctor And by this they go in the apparrel and harness of the Mystical body of Antichrist because it is written that he is the King of all the children of Pride And the Crown of Pride of these children of Pride shall be troden down And thus as it is manifest what Religion founded the Vniversities so it is as manifest what Religion will in the appointed time destroy these Foundations if they be not truly and thoroughly Reformed For surely as they are if the work of Christ go forward in the world as it necessarily must do notwithstanding the present defection in the appointed time they can no more be held up then the house built on the sand in the time of Tempest For the true Spiritual Church is built on the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone and so it is firmly founded upon a Rock and can never fall But the Vniversities are built on the Philosophers and Heathen Plato and Aristotle being the chief corner stones and so they are built upon the sand and neither can their own hands uphold them nor the Secular Arm establish them in that day wherein the Lord alone shall be exalted But it is not men of moral and civil Religion and Righteousness who will do this work and execute this vengeance for the Inchauntments of the Vniversities are too strong and mighty for all Humane Spirits But the called chosen and faithfull Ones of Christ when he shall summon them and call them to his foot they shall not stand on-Complements Formalities and Niceties nor regard frindship or enmity but through the Power of Faith shall break through all that can be said and objected by the Wisdom Policy Prudence and Religion of man and shall execute the righteous Judgements of the Lord on these Mothers of Harlots and Fornications of the Nations And whereas he saith their Destruction will never be but of themselves I do verily believe that For seeing their Root is rottenness their Fruit must needs be Destruction Yea the Lord will raise up his word in the midst of them to destroy them For the more the word of the Lord shall blow upon the Vniversity the more shall this Grass wither and the flower thereof that is Humane Learning fade away till it be at last quite dryed up And this is the Burden of the Vniversity whose day is coming when iniquity shall have an end And thus have I done with these things There were many other things in that Sâ—rmon as contrary to the Gospel which for brevities sake I have omitted Now what a sad thing is it that such poysonfull Doctrine should be poured forth into an Vniversity Congregation and that by the Ministry of such a man and if the Ceremonies of the Law were in use under the Gospel how ought we to rend our Garments at the bearing of these things And now blessed Lord Jesus who wast crucified dead and buried but art risen from the Dead by the Eternal Spirit and art ascended on high to fill all things have mercy on thy poor Church which is so grievously rent and torn this day by Wolves in Sheeps cloathing and is thus hurt and consumed by poysonable Doctrine of men who seek themselves and their own things to the harm and ruin of thy poor people O thou Son of the Living God who are the way the truth and the life how shall the Kingdom of Antichrist be brought down when the hands of such men who seem Pillars in the Church are stretched forth so strongly to hold it up And how shall the days of Antichrist be shortned when his Kingdom is coming forth again in the greatest deceivableness of unrighteousness that hath ever yet appeared in the World to delude the Nations O Lord remember all thy Promises and make haste to destroy Babylon the Great with all its Mysteries of Righteousness and Vnrighteousness and let it sink as a Milstone in the Sea without any hope or possibility of a Resurrection And seeing there is no hand of man stretched out for this work but all hands are against it do thou destroy it O Lord without hand even with the Spirit of thy mouth and brightness of thy coming according to the Truth of thy Promises and the unutterable sighs and groanes of thy Spirit occasioned thereby in the hearts of all thy faithfull and elect Even so Lord And let thy Kingdom come and make no long tarrying AMEN A TESTIMONY From the WORD Against DIVINITY-DEGRES IN THE University OR Any Academical Degrees made usâ— of for the Ministry of the GOSPEL THe Universities whose soul and life do lye in humane Learning and School-Divinity that they might gaine the greater profit to themselves and glory to their children have after the example of the heathen given their children Degrees in Dâ—vinity as they in Art and the glorious Titles of Batchelors Masters and Doctors in Divinity as so many Crowns of Gold upon their heads to win them honour and reputation with all people who have been under the delusion of Antichrist And in the confirming of these Graduations or Degrees which also is done for a sum of money they give the Graduates license and power to preach and to expound the Scriptures and that by the sole Authority of the University For the Vice-chancelor admitting a Bachelour in Divinity to his Degree useth these words in the name of the University We admit you to declare all the Apostolical Epistles in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost And so the Batchelour in Divinity hath Power according to his Degree only to deal with the Apostolical Epistles but must go no farther And admitting a Doctor to his Degree the Vice-chancelor saith thus We admit you to interpret and profess all the holy Scriptures both of the old and new Testament in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost And thus doth the University through power received from Antichrist give men chiefly for money Divinity-Degrees and through those Degrees it gives Authority and priviledge to Batchelors in Divinity to expound part of the Scriptures and to Doctors to expound and profess all the Scriptures and they that gaine these Degrees to themselves are as there is good reason the great men in account with the University and also with the carnal people of Antichrist how destitute soever they be of the faith and spirit of the Gospel Wherefore I cannot chuse but give in my Testimony against this glorious and gainful priviledge of the Universities to wit their conferring upon their children Degrees in Divinity and creating them Masters in that Mystery which none can teach but God himself and which none can learn but true believers who are borne of God and are his true Disciples And
the world by wisdom that is its Philosophy knew not God how can it by that wisdom reveal God and his things which it never knew Nay the Apostle doth clearly testifie against this carnal and corrupt Doctrine in 1 Cor. 2.7 8. saying We speak the wisdom of God in a mysterie even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory which none of the Princes of this world knew and by Princes of this world he means not only wordly Powers as Chrysostome affirms but also Philosophers and Orators who often obtained the chief Government among the nations God hath wrapped up his Gospel saith Paul into such hidden wisdom that they are never able to search into it or to discover the least part of it seeing God contrived it all and appointed it before the world unto our glory and all their knowledge is but from the world Yea he adds Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have ever entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him In which words God hath shut out the natural man for ever with all his study knowledge abilities and attainments from the having any right understanding of his Kingdom or the things of it For the eye of man hath not seen them at any time nor his eare heard them nor hath any knowledge of them entered into his heart so far is this Doctrine from truth that the Knowledg of heavenly things cannot come to us but by things on earth But the Apostle shews how the faithfull come to know these high holy spiritual and eternal things which lie infinitely beyond the knowledge and discovery of all men to wit by the Spirit saying But God hath revealed them to us by the Spirit for the Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God So that the people of God know the things of the Gospel not by earthly things as Mr. Simpson affirms nor by Philosophy and outward wisdom which only reaches to earthly things but by the Spirit Farther if all Divinity be swadled in Humane Learning then I do affirm that all such Divinity hath no great Depth seeing the bottom of Humane Learning is easily fathomed But can any Christian Heart think that all true Divinity which comprehends in it the heighth and breadth and length and depth of the love of God which passeth knowledge and all the unsearchable riches of Christ and all the infinite and incomprehensible Treasures of his wisdom power and righteousness of his love goodness truth faithfulness and of all the fulness of the Godhead wherewith he is filled can be contained and wrapped up in the narrow and scant bounds of Humane Learning How much truer Doctrine had it been to have taught that all true Divinity is contained in God and his word and that we can know nothing of God aright but by his word which holy men have spoken by the Spirit and believers do receive by faith and out of this word All the Learning in the world doth not contain in it self neither can it reveal to us aright the least thing of God or of his Mind and Will But I conceive he might speak thus that all Divinity is wrapped up in Humane Learning to deterr the common people from the study and enquiry after it and to cause them still to expect all Divinity from the Clergy who by their education have attained to that Humane Learning which the plain people are destitute of For it is the old and new design of Antichrist to make the People depend on the Clergy for all Divinity though the people have the Scriptures as near them and the Grace of God usually nearer to them then they seeing God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble Again if all Divinity be swadled in Humane Learning then must it sadly follow that all who want Humane Learning must needs also want Divinity And then how shall poor plain people who live in lawfull callings and have not the leisure to attain Humane Learning how shall they do to be saved Or what help must they have to teach them Divinity who have not opportunity to gain Humane Learning And yet farther if all Divinity be swadled in Humane Learning then Christ and his Apostles had no true Divinity for they had no Humane Learning to swaddle it in nor would have none Shall we say now according to Mr. Simpsons Doctrine that they had no Divinity I do with all boldness affirm that this Doctrine is contrary to the Christian faith 4. ERROR That Paul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel and God took him so fitted to wit with Humane Learning and made him an able Instrument in his Church Answer Not so But God took Paul not a good Schollar and so made him an able Preacher but he took him as a Blasphemer and Persecutor and as a cruel and inraged enemy against Christ and his Truth and People and magnified the riches of his mercy by converting such an one and Paul having much forgiven him loved much and through his great love was the fitter to preach the Gospel according to that of Christ to Peter Peter dost thou love me feed my Sheep Yea Paul himself ascribes his painful and profitable preaching not to his Learning and Education under Gamaliel which also was or ought to have been only in the Law and Prophets as hath been proved but to the free Grace of God bestowed on him saying I laboured more abundantly then they all yet not I but the Grace of God in me So that Paul became so excellent a Preacher not by his fitting through Humane Learning but through the Grace of God And here I shall mind Mr. Simpson of a passage which I have read in Chrysostome which comes home to this matter in hand it is in the third Homily on the first Epistle to the Corinthians where he saith That God had no need at the beginning of the Gospel of Learned men and Sophisters to preach the Gospel and to convince the world with Syllogisms but did only use the word of faith in the mouths of plain Handicrafts men and Artificers Wherefore saith he when the Greeks shall accuse the Disciples of Christ as ignorant of Letters and unlearned let us our selves who are Christians accuse them more Neither let any one say that Paul was wise and learned but let us say Their men were wise and learned but ours were rude and ignorant For in thus doing according to the truth we shall have the greater advantage against them For if Paul were unlearned and yet overcame learned Plato his Victory was the greater and the Grace of God the more glorious * Now this I say saith he because the other day I heard a certain Christian discoursing ridiculously with a Greek each of them in their Discourse prejudicing their own cause For the Greek spake that which the Christian should have said and the Christian spake that
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 Christian 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 a readiness to revenge all Disobedience So that the faithful do not defend the Gospel by Philosophy as is heathenishly 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 fences 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 Vnction of the Ministry and against the Vniversities 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 Ignorance of and enmity to the Gospel of God our Saviour For is our Vnion with Christ the Foundation of error or have true Believers no real Vnion 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 pretious 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 Christian in Christ Again Joh. 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 Joh. 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 thee hast sent me and hast loved them 〈◊〉 thou hast loved me Here now is no infinite distance between Christ and Believers but a wonderfull 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 Vnited And yet doth not this Vnion 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 had 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 alwayes 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 Clergie keep these cups to themselves as heretofore 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 Clergie and sometimes drank to them in a Cup of Hebrew sometimes in a Cup of Greek and sometimes in a Cup of Latine 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
this evil should arise but in the end of the world when the world through the prevailing of sin being loaden with the wrath of God should draw neer to hell and damnation For the miserable people must needs hear those things taught and delivered out of the Pulpits which those Molochites have learned in the Universities And they have learned nothing but the highest blasphemies of God Neither is it lawful to have anywhere any other Pastor then these In Jeremiah that valley is called Gehinnom from whence Christ took that word Gehenna which what it signifies I do not well know but it seems to me to come from Janah which signifies to eat up or to pill or waste as Tyrants or Usurers do pill and suck out the people so that Gehinnom is the valley of pilling or wasting the people for these being set over the people as shepherds ought to feed them with the word of life and they in stead thereof do insensibly waste and devour them in their body goods and soul with the pestilent Doctrines of Universitâ—es And such Teachers do the Univesities those Sâ—nagogues of perdition give us Thus Luther These now are Luthers own words which I have made legible to English men Wherein it is manifest that he condemns the Universities in the very institution and constitution of them and chiefly in their chief studies Humane Learning and School-Divinity and also as to that gross popish Opinion that they are the Fountain and Nurseries of the Ministery and that none are fit to teach or so fit to teach as those that have been educated in them Yea though these be raw foolish ignorant fellows yet being University-Graduates must they be set over Towns and Parishes and the miserable people must not onely hear them and their doltish Doctrine brought from the Uniâ—ersities but also must be constrained by secular power and Laws to pay them well for such pains which tends onely to the ruine of their souls for ever and no hand is yet strongly and resolutely stretched out to deliver the people from this intolerable bondage For the necks of the people of the world have never endured so grievous a yoak from any Tyrants as from the Doctrine and Domination of the Clergy For worldly Tyrants have onely afflicted mens bodies and temporal estates which reached but to this short life but these spiritual Tyrants the Clergy or false Ministery when they have got countenance strength and ayd from the wordly Magistrates how have they with their Academical Philosophical Heathenish Divinity infected poysoned and destroyed the people to eternal death and no body durst shun them upon pain of temporal death or punishments But now through the great goodness of God and his mighty Providences and Works from heaven it is a more happy age and happy shall they be who being called forth shall do the work of God against all discouragements and difficulties and shall not with Ephraim being harnessed turn their backs in the day of battel And now to return to our business again touching the Universities let none object that Luther speaks against Popish Universities only for this is but a weak and simple Defence and altogether unable to ward off the mighty blow of Gods word from their heads and hearts For the things condemned in the foregoing Testimonies of Luther are the self same for the substance of them as do live prevaile and flourish in our present Universities as hath been before declared and I leave it to every faithful Christian to judge the truth in this matter But men would faine preserve their Titles Degrees Authority Dignity State Stipends and therefore for defence of these things they must needs say something though it be to never so little purpose but yet by such discourse they sufficiently declare how cool and icie they are for Christs interest and how zealous for their own But certaine it is that as the Universities were set up at first as nurseries for Antichrists kingdome men being therein so educated according to the undertaking of Charles the great in Philosophy and School-Divinity that it might be said to them Vos estis sal terrae lux mundi Ye are the salt of the earth and the light of the world which yet onely agrees to the faithful who are born of God so have they still remained the same hitherto in substance though not without some small change of outward form For first the Philosophy taught and studied in the University is the very same that it was at first and this Philosophy is nothing but the Religion of the heathen for what the Law was to the Jews and the Gospel is to the Christians Philosophy was and is to the heathen and in this study the poor lads wast the flower and cream of their lives to no purpose but to make them more heathenish corrupt and bold then they were by nature And 2. For their Divinity which they usually learn in the Universities out of the Fathers Schoolmen and Systems and in which they are trained up to dispute either for it or against it in the Schools it being in seriousnesâ— all one to them what they hold and maintaine in Religion seeing all is but opinion to them and which they after teach to the peole with special regard to their own profit and advantage this is not the true word and Ministery of the Gospel For the Gospel is the word of faith which word is the word in our hearts according to the tenor of the New Covenant wherein God saith I will write my law in their hearts and put it in their inward parts But now the University-Divines the Truth being indeed dead in their hearts and having no presence nor power there they take it up out of the books and writings of men wherein it hath been buryed and by this means bring forth a dead Doctrine to the world which other men have spoken but they have no experience of and not the word of life which hath quickened them but onely a dead Letter raised up like the lâ—ving Letter which they present to them as the Wâ—tâ—h of Endor raised up a dead Samuel in the outward habit and appearance of the living Samuel and presented him to Saul so these University-Divines bring forth the outward garments and appearance of the Truth to the people when they do best but the substance soul and life of the truth they cannot bring forth because they have not the lâ—ving word of God in their hearts but have onely a dead word which they gather out of the books and writings of men And this is the University-Dâ—vinity And Lastly The Preachers which the Universities send forth are usually in the greatest enmity to Christ and his Gospel of all other men whatsoever and do bring greatest prejudice to Christs Kingdom and advantage to Antichrists For when men without learning and yet without the Spirit of Christ will undertake to teach the people as many also now do
Again if any shall Object in reading this Reply that I my self make use of Humane Learning whilst I speak against it I Answer what part of Philosophy is here made use of or who of the Heathens are here quoted I have chiefly made use of the Testimony of some faithfull Christians who have lived in several ages and yet have all witnessed by the same Spirit the same Truth And it is no more Humane Learning to quote Believers in the Church since Christ then to quote the Patriarks and Prophets before Christ or the Apostles and Evangelists which immediatly followed him 5. And last of all If any say I my self relate to the University why then do I speak against it thus I answer that I neither do nor will relate to the University as it is polluted with any of the Abominations herein mentioned But as by the Providence of God alone I have been brought to that Relation in which I now stand and continue in it against the wills and workings of many so through his good pleasure I will remain till he shall otherwise dispose of me and during my sojurning with them I will not fail to testifie against their evil and to endeavor to win all those whom God shall perswade to receive his Truth from Heathenism to the Gospel and from Antichrist to Christ Wherefore let none be offended that I am made willing to hazard and part with my worldly accommodations for Christs Names sake but let them rather praise the Grace of God which hath enabled me to witness a good confession what ever worldly disadvantage I might run into thereby Wherefore welcome the Kingdom Righteousness Power Wisdom Word of Christ though they swallow up all my earthly accommodations For such love hath the Lord put into my heart that I would not willingly conceal any thing of his most precious Truth either to gain or to preserve to my self the whole World And so righteous Father not my will be done nor theirs but Thy will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven FINIS Isa. 62.1 For Sions sake I will not hold my peace and for Jerusalems sake I will not rest until the Righteousness thereof go forth as brightness and the Salvation thereof as a Lamp that burns MAster Sydrach Simpson the last Commencement preaching to the Vniversity Congregation in Cambridge and to many others especially Ministers there gathered together at that time from several parts of the Nation among other things he let fall in that discourse of his these gross and Antichristian Errors The Rehearsal of the Errors 1. He brought in that Scripture 2 Kings 6. v. 1 2. which was his Text the words whereof are these And the Sons of the Prophets said unto Elisha Behold now the place where we dwel with thee is too strait for us let us go we pray thee unto Jordan and take thence every man a beam and let us make us a place where we may dwel and he answered Go yee This Scripture he used to prove the Lawfulness and Religiousness of the present Vniversities and the usefulness and necessity of humane Learning to the Church and Ministery of the New Testament And what the Scripture speaks of those Schools he brought to countenance encourage and justifie these adding that if it were objected That that was the Old Testament He did answer That the old and the new were not distinct Testaments but Administrations thereby holding forth that the Vniversities now are answerable to the Schools of the Prophets that were then and that the Vniversities are as agreeable to the New Testament as the Schools of the Prophets to the Old 2. That they who have endeavoured to pull down Schools have alwaies 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 3. That the knowledge of heavenly things cannot come to us but by things on earth and that all Divinity is swadled in Humane Learning 4. That Paul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel and that God took him so fitted and made him an able Minister of his Church 5. That mens hatred to God doth as well appear in their hatred to Humane Learning as if they hated the Scriptures 6. That if the spirit teach without means men may as well be without the Ordinances as without the Vniversities and Humane Learning 7. That men now are not to receive the spirit in that immediate way to understand the Scriptures in which it was given to them who wrote the Scriptures 8. That men now are to get knowledge by studies and humane Learning and not by inspiration 9. 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 outworks strong and if you will preserve the inward you must look to the outward Court 10. But what is the bottom of all this to wit of some mens appearing against Humane Learning as the unction of the Ministerie and against the Vniversities as the Fountain of the Ministerie but this that some say They are one with Christ and as Christ hath the Divine nature in him so every believer hath and he that hath God in him need not go to any man to learn whereas John 17. Christ speaketh of believers as at an infinite distance from him And if believers be so united to Christ as they say they will follow that Christ should not be the only begotten of God and that Christ and we should be equal and be not our Lord c. 11. Arts and Tongues are the Cups in which God drinks to us 12. We shall never keep up Religion if we do not keep up Learning but when Learning goes down Religion goes down too 13. Seeing Religious Foundations are so Antient then keep them up Your Destruction will never be but from your selves These Notes were take from Mr. Simpsons mouth and delivered to me by an honest hand and affirmed to be true for the substance of them and I also heard several others who were hearers of that Sermon relating the same things Now because I find that this Doctrine hath not only grieved the hearts of the faithful but also strengthened the hands of the carnal and evil People The things which he then delivered being usually the thoughts of their hearts and words of their mouths I thought it my duty being set in my place for the defence of the Gospel to give a Publike Reply to such gross Errors so publikely delivered to the danger of so many and which one would never have thought should have proceeded from such a man especially after the day of the Gospel hath so far dawned and the Antichristian shadows are so far retreated and flowen away And so I shall begin with the first of these Errors and proceed in the Order in which they are set down 1.
that indeed there is nothing in greater enmity to Christ Crucified nor more contrary to the word of the Cross then that Yea nothing in all the world hath been such an Introducer Favourer Supporter and Inlarger of Antichrists Kingdom as Humane Reason Learning and Philosophy This hath brought in all the Hypocrisie Superstition false Doctrine false Worship Sects Schismes Divisions which have at any time prevailed in the Church during all the Reign of Antichrist And the Gospel of Christ and the true belief and practice of it hath not had at any time a greater and more subtile and plausible Enemy then this Yea farther the gross ignorance and blindness of the rude world hath not so perverted and falsified the word of the Gospel nor rendred it such contradiction and resistance nor hath brought such annoyance to the faithfull who have received and confessed it as Humane Science hath done For this hath enabled men stoutly to oppose the truth and subtilly to defend error as the truth this hath made men bold and cunning to suppress Gods mind from the World and to hold forth their own mind to them as if it were Gods under the pretence of the outward letter of the word and a multitude of other evils have sprung from this corrupt fountain Wherefore the Apostle Paul is so far from encouraging Christians to betake themselves to Humane Learning to fit them for the Gospel that He by the Spirit utterly forbids Christians Heathenish Philosophy lest they should be spoyled through the vanity of it and be led away from Christ And thus in this matter hath Mr. Simpson manifestly departed from the Doctrine of the Scriptures and of faithfull men who have spoken from it 5. ERROR That mens Hatred to God doth as well appear in their hatred to Humane Learning as if they hated the Scriptures Answer I conceive Mr. Simpsons heart was hot within him out of his great Zeal to Humane Learning the great goddess by which the Vniversity lives when he thus spake And it appears he is very tender of the Reputation and Glory of it who thus vindicates it at as high a rate as the very Scriptures But Sir do you know no more difference between the most precious word of our eternal Lord God and his Son Jesus Christ and the foolish corrupt and stinking Doctrine of men is there no more difference in your Divinity between the word of Righteousness Life and Salvation which God hath spoken by Christ and Christ by his servants and the word and Doctrines of wretched men full of sin death and destruction And if the Law it self given by the Ministration of Angels loseth its glory before the Gospel as the Apostle testifies How much more doth Heathenish Philosophy brought forth partly from the corrupt Reason of man and partly from the Inspiration of the Devil become â—oathsom abominable before it for ever And cannot we be enemies to this say yâ—u without hating the blessed word of God Nay the blessed word of God where it prevails in truth doth make men to hate this and to count it loss and dung and filth and the most loathsom baseness in the world in comparison of it self Wherefore through the grace of Christ we will so love the Scriptures which are Divine Learning as to hate Humane and Heathenish Learning for their sakes seeing it hath put a Veil of Darkness in the Church over this glorious Sun the word of faith 6. ERROR That if the Spirit teach without means men may as well be without the Ordinances as without the Vniversities and Humane Learning Answer We do not say that the Spirit usually teacheth without means in the Church of Christ But we say he teacheth by means of his own appointing And how will Mr. Simpson prove by any Scripture that Vniversities and Humane Learning are Means which the Spirit of God useth to teach his Church by where did ever the Lord speak one word that he would use the Disciplines of the Gentiles as means whereby to teach men to know the Mysterie of Christ Wherefore this is strange Doctrine that Arts and Sciences are the means wherebâ— the Spirit teacheth the Church For sure I am the Lord never taught his Church either of the Old or the New Testament by these Means Only Antichrist hath taught his Church after this manner and hath set up Humane Learning as an Ordinance of God yea as an Ordinance of the New Testament to learn Christ by that Christians might be trained upto know Christ the wisdom of God by Humane Learning the wisdâ—â—â— of the world which is in direct enmity to God The chief Ordinances whereby God helps his Church are the word of faith and the prayer of faith And by the Ministration of the Spirit he begins and carries on the Salvation of this Spiritual People And these Ordinances the true Church cannot want neither doth God do any thing in his Church without them But the Spiritual Church for ought that I could ever yet read in the word may well want their Divine Ordinance of Humane Learning and yet not want any Ordinance of God that he hath appointed and sanctified for the Vse of his true Church 7. ERROR That men now are not to receive the Spirit in that immediate way to understand the Scriptures in which it was given to them who wrote the Scriptures Answer Surely Mr. Simpson will not deny that the Spirit is given to that whole Church which is the body of Christ seeing Paul saith if any man have not Christs Spirit he is none of his he is no member of his Now the Spirit is alwayes given to whomsoever it is given by the Father and the Son as Christ taught his Disciples promising them that the Father would send the Spirit to them in his Name and also that he Himself would send it to them from the Father And was this promise only made to them and not to all the faithful also who should believe in Christ through their word doth not Paul say Rom. 12.13 of the whole Church that by one Spirit we are all baptized into one body and are all made to drink into one Spirit He saith also to the Galatians Chap. 4. because ye are Sons God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father And thus it is manifest that the whole Church of Believers and every true member thereof do receive the Spirit of God And do they not receive in alike immediatly from God Who can give the Spirit of God to man but God himself when God promised to pour out his Spirit in the last dayes upon all flesh did he name any difference in the pouring of it out saying some shall receive it immediately and some mediately No but all that are counted worthy to receive the Spirit of God do receive it alike immediately from him neither hath Christ left any Lieutenant or Deputy in the world to give his Spirit to
forth effeminate Ministers given to ease and luxury and in whom is nothing of spirit nor of manly abilities in Christ For the haired 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 in stead 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 desire to devour the other that it may reign alone And they have brestplates as it were brestplates 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 brestplates 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 battle the wings are the words of these 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 yeelds 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 tailes like unto Scorpions and there were stings in their tails and their power was to hurt men five months Here he explaines 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 months 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 nature to wit Aristotle who doth truely reign in the Universities as Abaddon and Apollyon that is a Waster and Destroyer of the Church For we have said that an Angel signifies a Teacher or a Doctor in the Church And certain it is that Aristotle who is dead and damn'd is at this day the great Doctor of all the Universities rather then Christ for he reignâ— alone being exalted by the Authority and study of Thomas reviving freewill and teaching moral vertues and natural Philosophy to wit the three-headed Cerberus or three-bodied Gerion Behold the first no which the Church hath from the Romish Antichrist by the Ministery of Saint Thomas and they whose duty it was chiefly to have prohibited and extinguished these things they chiefly have erected and established them Thus Luther word for word in the forenamed place He also in his book De abroganda missa privata speaking of the Idol Mâ—loch saith thus Moses and Jeremy have described the worship of this Idol to be after this manner that they did burn or offer to him their children in the fire supposing that hereby they did perform the greatest and highest service to God inasmuch as after the example of Abraham they do not spare their own children though they do this not onely not being called as Abraham was but also without faith in the highest wickedness and therefore the Psalmist testifies Psal. 78. That they offered not their children to God but to Devils For whatsoever is not done by the call and command of God is not done to God but devils who suggest this though it be done under pretence of the name of God Now hereby saith he I conceive the Universities to be represented in which the best and choicest part of Christian youth is offered as it were in burnt sacrifice to God that there they may be instructed and be made as it were wholly divine For the common people believe there is no place under heaven in which youth can be better instructed so that even religious people have recourse hither For to learn any thing out of the University is to learn nothing but to have studyed in the University is to know all things There all Divine and Humane things are beleived to be taught for no man sends his son hither with any other opinion then this that he can nowhere be better sent They think they performe the highest service to God that they offer their sons to be formed according to the instruction of godliness that thereby they may become profitable and useful Ministers Preachers Governors who may wholly become Gods own portion and be useful both to God and men And hereto appertains the name Moloch which signifies a King or kingly because this kinde of study doth honour them with Degrees and Promotions and renders them fit and able to govern others For we see that all that are preferred to Governments are taken out of Universities and he that is not a Graduate or Member of an University is not qualified for preferment or to be set over any people but let the Ass first be crowned to wit with a Degree and then let him reign And parents do not see and they that do see do not regard that youth are usually here destroyed though rude and vile manners none commonly forbidding them Yea fornications luxury and other manifest sins do but mildly destroy them but that they are indued and possessed with Philosophical heathenish humane wicked and impious opinions this is the fire of Moloch which no tears can sufficiently bewail seeing through this they especially are devoured and perish who are the most studious and modest youth in Universities So great is the fury of God upon this Valley of Tophet and Hinnom that they perish more grievously who learn most and live modestly then they who learn nothing and are corrupted with lusts For these learn nothing which is to be unlearned again seeing they know they do evil whereas the other suck in poyson which happily or never they do vomit up again holding that for good which is evil and instructing those with the like opinions whom they take to teach And to these pits of Hell it is to be imputed that the Sun of the Gospel is obscured with the smoak of the pit for out of this smoak proceed those Locusts which possess all Chairs and Pulpits and administer all Governments that Satan from the beginning of the world could devise nothing in all the world more strong and pernicious to waste Faith and the Gospel then Universities Neither was it meet that