which the Greek should have said For the Question between them being touching Paul and Plato the Greek endeavoured to prove that Paul was rude and unlearned but the Christian through his simplicity did endeavor to prove that Paul was more learned and eluquent then Plato And so the Greek should obtain the Victory if the Christians Reasons should prevail For if Paul were more learned then Plato then might men object that he overcame not the world through Grace but through Eloquence Wherefore that which the Christian spake made for the Greek and that which the Greek spake made for the Christian Wherefore he saith when the Greeks shall say the Apostles were rude and unlearned poor mean simple obscure persons let us acknowledge it as the truth For this is not their reproach but their glory that being such they yet overcame the Learned men the Wise men the Philosophers the Rhetoricians the Orators the Princes and all the world as if they had not been men For when any thing is done above the State and power of Nature this doth exceedingly manifest and magnifie the Grace of God And so it appears that Chrysostom was of another mind in this matter touching Paul then Mr. Simpson and that Paul was of another mind touching himself Now seeing Mr. Simpson doth here insinuate that Humane Learning fits a man to the Ministry of the Gospel and seeing this also is the Opinion of all the carnal and unbelieving people I do desire them to consider what some Godly men have spoken clearly from the word of God in this matter Chrysostom who knew the Mysterie of the Gospel more clearly then any of the Ancient Writers in his Comment on the first Epistle to the Corinthians doth wholly exclude Humane Learning from contributing any thing either to the speaking or receiving the Gospel For saith he to believe in Him that was Crucified and Buried and to be fully perswaded that he rose again and sits at the right hand of God and hath all power in Heaven and Earth given to him and that he is made of God to the whole Church Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption this Doctrine stands not in need of Humane Wisdom and Reasonings but of faith only and that both in them that speak it and in them that receive it For the Apostles did not proceed in this matter in outward wisdom but in faith and so became more wise and excellent then the worldly wise and so much the more as it is a greater matter to receive the things of God by faith then to be perswaded into them by the force of Argument He adds also That to the receiving the Doctrine of the Gospel neither is the Wise man profited thing by his Wisdom neither is the plain man hindred any thing by his Ignorance Yea if I may speak a wonderfull thing saith he Ignorance is more fit and ready to receive the Gospel then Wisdom And a Shepherd and a Plowman will sooner receive the Gospel and submit to it then a Schollar who lives in the strength of Humane wisdom and Reason He farther saith there that where the wisdom of God is as it is in the Gospel there is no need of mans wisdom as where the Sun is there is no need of a Candle And he concludes there this matter thus That the Preaching of the Gospel is a heavenly thing and that Humane VVisdom and Learning cannot help herein but rather hinder And that therefore when Christ sent forth the first Teachers of the Gospel he took not wise and learned Philosophers that the Cross of Christ might not be made void and that the faith of Christians should not stand in the wisdom of man but in the power of God But he chose plain Fishermen Tent-makers Publicans Obscure Simple Poor Contemptible Ignorant and Vnlearned men And these overcame Kings Princes People Nations Greeks Philosophers Orators Sophisters they overcame the antient Manners Customs and the very Religion of the world also their Laws Judgements divers sorts of punishments and innumerable kinds of deaths and by all this saith he it was manifest that their preaching was not in Humane wâ—sdom but in the Grace of God And thus doth Chrysostom affirm and prove that Humane Learning doth not fit men to the Ministry of the Gospel but is rather a hindrance thereunto and that the Grace of God only fits them for this heavenly work Hear also what Wickliff saith to this matter in his book entituled The Path way to perfect knowledge where he sheweth that it is not Humane Learning that helps to understand the Scriptures and to profit in the study of them but something more high and heavenly His own words as these He whose heart is full of love comprehendeth without any error the manifold abundance and largest teaching of Gods Scripture For Paul saith the fulness of the Law is Charity and in another place the end of the Law is Charity of clean heart and good conscience and of faith unfeigned And Christ saith Thou shalt love thy Lord God of all thy heart and of all thy soul and of all thy mind and thy Neighbor as thy self For in these two Commandments hangeth all the Law and the Prophets And as the root of all evil is Covetousness so the root of all good is Love Charity by which we love God and the Neighbour holdeth surely all the greatness and largness of Gods speeches Therefore if we have not leisure to search all the holy Scriptures and to pierce into all the privities of them hold thou love whereon all things hang and so shalt thou hold that which thou learnest there and also that which thou learnest not For if thou know Charity thou knowest something whereon also that hangeth which thou knowest not And in that that thou understandest in Scripture love is open and in that that thou understandest not love is hid Therefore he that holdeth love in vertues or good life holdeth both that which is open and that which is hid in Gods word And after speaking to the Clergy he saith Therefore worldly fools do ye first repent of your sins and forsake pride and covetousness and be ye meek and fear ye God in all things and love your neighbour as your self and then shall ye profit in the study of Holy Writ And this is a far other way to understand the Scriptures then Humane Learning And after he speaking of the Abominations of the Vniversity of Oxford saith thus The fourth Abomination is that it is now purposed to hinder Christian men from learning freely Gods Law till they have spent nine or ten years at Art or Philosophy which comprehendeth many strong errors of Heathen men against the Christian Belief It seemeth well that God will not cease from vengeance till it and other things be punished sore For it seemeth that worldly Clerks and feignedly Religious do this under pretence that simple men of wit and knowledge know not
ERROR He brought that Scripture 2 King 6.1.2 Touching the Sons of the Prophets asking leave of Elisha to go and build at Jordan to prove the Lawfulness and Religiousness of the Vniversities in their present Vse and Customs c. Answer To this I Reply that there is a vast difference between those Schools and these Vniversities as in many other things so chiefly in this That in those Schools of the Prophets named by him the holy men of 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 Patriarks 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 Household after him that they keep the way of the Lord and to do Justice and Judgement This was the summe 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 wonderfull works This also is manifest by the practise of Jehosaphat King of Judah who sent his Princes with the Levites up and down throughout Judah and they onely took the Book of the Law of the Lord with them and no Heathnish Authors and taught the People 2 Chron. 17. And Ezra after the Prophets return from Babilon took onely 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 mind 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 VVorship 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 onely 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 many ages teach their Sons or Scholars any of the Egyptian Philosophy which was the Antientest or the Sinaradine Table of Hermes Trismegistus the pretended Scholar of Moses so much boasted of or any Heathnish Author whatsoever of which there were many then extant I say let them prove that but one Heathnish Author was read by any of the Prophets to their Scholars and then they will have some colour 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 Act. 6. And Paul at the Vniversity of Athens reproved their Heathenism and taught nothing among the Epicureans and Stoicks and other sects of Philosophers but the Resurrection of Christ and his Kingdom and judgement Act. 17. He also disputed daily in the School of one Tyrannus and that for two years together and perswaded onely the things touching the Kingdom of God brought into the world by Jesus Christ Act. 19. And he so prevailed with his Doctrine that many which used curious Arts brought their books together and burnt them before all men and the prior of them was counted at fifty thousand pieces of silver So that as the Gospel prâ—vailed and the Name of Christ was magnified so did people renounce Philosophy and burn their books of curious Arts For which Books our Vniversity would give as much mony if they could procure it from good Benefactors as they were valued at So that as they through the efficacy of the Gospel of Heathens became Christians and threw away all other Learning and burnt their Books of great value least they should infect others So on the contrary in our Vniversities of pretended Christians men usually become true Heathens never valuing the precious Gospel of God our Saviour as they do other Heathnish and Philosophical Books Farther the same Paul dwelt after at Rome two whole years in his own hired house and during all that time Preached onely the Kingdom of God and taught those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness But taught not one word of Philosophy He also at Corinth a great and famous City of Greece full of Philosophers and Orators taught nothing among them but Christ Crucified to the Jews a Stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness But to them that believe both of Jews and Greeks Christ the power of
God and the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1. And as he made no use of Humane learning all this while So in 1 Cor. 2. he plainly renounces it and rejects it saying Ver. 1. And I brethren when I came to you came not with excellency of speech or wisdom declaring unto you the Testimony of God Ver. 2. For I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him Crucified Ver. 3. And I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling Ver. 4. And my speech and preaching was not with entising words of mans wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and Power Ver. 5. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man but in the power of God Ver. 6. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect Yet not the wisdom of this world nor of the Princes of this world which come to nought Ver. 7. But we speak the wisdom of God in a Mysterie even the hidden wisdom which God Ordained before the world unto our glory c. Ver. 13. Which things also we speak not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth but which the holy spirit teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual things In a word this whole Chapter tends to the utter rejection of Philosophy which is the wisdom of the world in the Kingdom of Christ which is the Kingdom of God He also in his Epistle to the Collossians chap. 2. gives forth another plain Testimony against Philosophy desiring ver. 2. that the hearts of the believers might be comforted and that they might be kniâ— together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the Mysterie of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the Treasures of wisdom and Knowledge And this saith he I say least any man should beguile you with entising words Wherefore v. 8 saith he Beware least any man spoyl you through Philosophy and vain deceit after the Tradition of men after the Rudiments or Elements of the world and not after Christ for in him dwells the fulness of the Godhead bodily and ye are compleat in Him who is the Head of all Principality and Power Here is a sufficient caution again Philosophy for the true Church for ever For what need we if we are true Christians to turn aside for Wisdom and Knowledge and Learning and curious Arts to the Heathen seeing God hath given Christ to us in whom is treasured up all the heights and depths and lengths and breadths of Wisdom and Knowledge whereby the whole world was made and every Creature formed and fashioned and in which it hath its being subsistence and operation Yea in this Christ dwells all the fulness of the Infinite and eternal God and he is the head of all Principality and Power in earth and Heaven and there is in him alone infinitely enough to make us wise and learned for ever without calling in the help and contributions of the vain Philosophers and their foolish wisdom It is enough for Christian Schools to be taught to know Christ by the Ministration of the Spirit and all other Learning that is out of Christ though it seem to be never so high and deep all faithfull Christians are to reject it as meer Sophistrie and Deceit And thus you see that the Apostles aswell as Christ taught their Scholars and Disciples only the Gospel and spake not one word for Philosophy but directly against it And the following Fathers and next Teachers of the Christian Church after the Apostles they also obeyed the command of Christ and followed the example of the Apostles in this matter For the Bishops and Presbyters that is the Overseers and Elders had tender regard to the children of Christians and did teach them aswell as the people the pure Doctrine of the Gospel They held forth to them Christ Crucified and did exhort them to faith new Obedience the Confession of Christ and patient suffering and did not at all â—ntermingle Philosophy with their Divinity but alwayes rejected and condemned it all along the first and purest times of the Christian Church till the Mysterie of iniquity began to arise and did cunningly insinuate it self into the Church by the means of Humane Learning And here it will not be amiss to Relate what Justine Martyr saith of himself as to this matter who was before his Conversion to the Christian Faith a great Philosopher and lived about 150. years after Christs Nativity He in his Dialogue which Tryâ—ho relates How first he joyned himself to that Sect of Philosophers called the Stoicks and after to the Peripateticks after to the Pythagorean Sect and after to the Platonists but had no satisfaction in his mind by all this knowledge But at last he beholding the torments and sufferings of Christians and seeing them bear them with such comfort and constancy he did thereby conceive that it was impossible for that kind of people to be subject to any vice or carnality which vices of their own nature are not able to sustain any sharp adversity much less the bitterness of death And hereupon he began to love and search after 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 behavior 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 aided 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 thisâ—ustine left all other Learning and betook himself only to theâ—criptures 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 Coâ—verted wholly leâ—t 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 Citie for the Words sake he wrote to Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia in a special Letter Wherein he desired him withall
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