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
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
and the Gospel and this under pretence of the Glory of God and Good of Christian people which is the BEASTS MARK in every Age and under every Change of Outward Form Whoever shall receive this mark IN THEIR FOREHEAD that is to profess this Doctrine only Or IN THEIR HAND that is to execute it according to Laws which the Nations have been seduced to make to this purpose The same shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his Indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and in the presence of the Lamb and the smoak of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever Wherefore You Faithful Ones have great cause to be very well advised in these things seeing the chief Designe of Antichrist is to seduce the Elect seeing he hath no Body else in all the World that dare oppose Him or know how to do it but You and He knows if He can prevail with You all the World besides will follow Him headlong as the Gadarens swine ran into the sea and were choaked Now I have adventured through the Inspiration of the Almighty to undertake Openly and Plainly against the Clergy and Universities which in their Present State are the Residue of the Hour and Power of Darkness upon the Nations And the Lord of his Grace hath helped me through this Work by his Spirit of Counsel and Might And so I have freely and willingly exposed my Self for Christ and his Truths sake to all the reproaches slanders revilings contradictions and if their power shall serve Persecutions of the Universities and Clergy and of all those People high and low bond and free who have received their Mark and Worship them choosing rather to suffer with Christ and with You his Seed all manner of Tribulations then to reign with Them and much rather imbracing Christian Communion with poor plain Husbandmen and Tradsmen who believe in Christ and have received his Spirit then with the Heads of Universities and Highest and Stateliest of the Clergy who under a specious form of Godliness do yet live in true Enmity and Opposition to the Gospel I do indeed freely acknowledge that I have often been ready to complain to God in the anguish of my Spirit that he had called Me a very Bruised Reed to a more difficult Task in one Regard then either Wickliffe Hus or Luther those strong Pillars in the House of God to wit Because much of the gross Body of Antichristianism against which They chiefly ingageed being done away by their Ministry there still remains the cunning and subtil Soul and Spirit thereof which yet is All in All in Antichrists Kingdom though it be farther removed from the Knowledge and Notice of the Common Sort of Christians And so the Mysterie of Iniquity is now become more Mysterious and Deceiving then in their Times and as Perfect and Bitter Enmity against Christ and his Spirit and the true Temple of God the Spiritual Church as ever was in all Their Times doth now prevail under the Name of Orthodox Doctrine and the Reformation of Religion by the late Assembly of Divines which the Clergy are all now ready to set up if they could gain the Secular Arm to strengthen them thereunto of which now they have greatest Hopes and without which their Religion can find no high place in this World Now herein the old Mysterie of Iniquity is renewed amongst these Men that they would have an outward Letter and Ministery without the Spirit of Christ to be the Doctrine and Ministry of the New Testament which is the Ministration of the Spirit and not of the Letter and would have the Secular Magistrate to have Right and Power to enforce men to such a Religion as Himself judges True by the Help and Counsel of those Ministers which Himself judges Orthodox as if some Men were able to teach spiritual things and all to understand them by Natural Reason made use of and improved which yet these Men deny in Terminis whilst they assert it in the Principle For they will not leave it to the Father to draw whom He pleaseth to the Son neither will they leave it to the Spirit to choose what Living stones he pleaseth to build them together to be the Habitation of God but the Ecclesiastical state having seduced the Temporal do make them believe that the Magistrates Worldly Power in union with their worldly Religion may make a National Church of all that they between Themselves please and may allow and set up such a Doctrine for Orthodox which these Men who are in Academical Degrees and Ecclesiastical Orders do approve for Such though the Spirit of God in all Believers testifies that these Men have not the mind of Christ but of Antichrist in all they teach and act and counsel in their Assemblies Churches Doctrine Ordinances Works Duties Dayes Times Fastings Thanksgivings and Every Thing else Yet these having the outward Carcass or Appearance of Religion though destitute of the inward Soul of it which is true Faith and the Spirit of God do cozen not only the meaner People but the very Magistrates of the World who are glad to hear that the Clergy have given them such high Power in the Kingdom of Christ and made them Magistrates in both Worlds though indeed in the end it be not for the Magistrates Advantage but wholly for the Clergies And thus is the Mysterie of Iniquity grown more Mysterious now then heretofore But this is our Comfort and Help that God still causes his Light to shine forth proportionably to his People to discover every new Change and Form of the Mysterie of Iniquity And though the Mysterie of Iniquity in every age is mysterious enough to cozen all the Unbelieving World though never so wise and learned yet is it never able to deceive the Faithful who have always sufficient Light from God to discover it and sufficient Grace to overcome it And now You faithful and beloved Ones to whom I have spoken all this stand You fast and depart not from Christ his Word and Work all which You know in faith for any Good or Evil things that may befall you in this short life but finish in Faith and Patience the Work which God hath given you to do in your several Places waiting for the Glory which shall be given you at the Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ in Whom I remain though most unworthy Your humble and faithful Servant in the Gospell W. D. THE TRYALL OF SPIRITS 1 John 4. 1. Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone forth into the world 2. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God 3. And every Spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God and
the Vial poured on them is the true Word of God or the plain and simple Gospel which is the Word of Faith than which Nothing is more grievous to them who have been bred up in Philosophy and in the Knowledge Wisdom Learning Righteousness and Spirit of the World Now the primary event of the pouring forth of this Vial of the Word of God on this Seat is the darkning of Antichrists Kingdom as it is said his Kingdom was full of Darkness it was full of Darkness before but now it is discovered to be full of Darkness their Philosophy is Darkness and vain deceit their School Divinity Darkness and Antichristianism their Divinity Acts and Clerums Darkness their Professorships of Divinity Darkness yea all their Doctrine Faith Worship Works Church-Discipline Titles Ordination and all are discovered to be Darkness even gross Darkness by the word of Faith And then follows the secundary event of the pouring forth this Vial which is They gnawed their Tongues for pain and blasphemed the God of Heaven because of their pains and sores which the Word inflicted on Them that is they had not the ordinary anger of Men against the Word but the anger and wrath of Devils causing them to blaspheme again But yet for all these things they repented not of their Deeds as we see manifestly which yet would have been more profitable for them And this also discovers them to be false Prophets indeed and the right Ministers of Antichrist and this appertains to the sixth Sign of false Prophets which I gave before The Fourth General Point And now I proceed to the fourth Thing wherein the Apostle shews with Whom the false Prophets which come in the spirit of Antichrist should not prevail namely with None of the true Children of God and this is set down in ver 4. We are of God little children and have overcome them because greater is he that is in you then he that is in the world Here now the Apostle shews the Victory which the truly faithfull and spiritual Christians do obtain over Antichrist and his false Prophets together with the Grounds of that Victory 1. The Victory is set down in these words Little children ye have overcome them 2. The Grounds of this Victory are two 1. Because the Faithfull are of God as Children of their Father Ye are of God little Children and have overcome them 2. Because that Spirit which the Faithfull have received and which dwells in them is stronger and mightier than that Spirit which the World receives and which dwells in them Greater is he that is in You than he that is in the World I shall first speak something of the Victory it self that is of that glorious Victory which all the true Children of God do obtain over Antichrist For though Antichrist and his Teachers do come in Christs Name as Christ hath foretold and in Sheeps Cloathing and though they transform themselves into the Apostles of Christ and come with all Deceivableness of Unrighteousness holding forth a false Christ the Head a false Church the Body a false Word a false Worship false Works false Ordinances and all these false things exceedingly like the True and in the very form and appearance of the True in such sort that they prevail with all the National Church and the Generality of the people of the World which all wonder after Them yet are they not able by all these things to prevail with any of the true Children of God as Christ hath taught us saying Many false Christs and false Prophets shall arise and shall come with lying Signs and Wonders able if it were possible to deceive the Elect And though they do deceive all Others yet is it not possible for them to deceive the Elect of God that is throughly and fully as they do deceive Others but the Faithful and Elect people of God do escape their Deceits and do overcome them yea though they be but little Children new in the Faith and young in Christ yet do they overcome all the false Prophets in the World For these little Children are so stript of their old Nature that they overcome the lusts of the Flesh the lusts of the Eye and the pride of Life which are not of God but of the World and through which only the Ministers of Antichrist are mighty and so these Teachers can find nothing in Them on which they can lay hold to prevail Besides as new born babes can discern and taste which is good and wholesome milk and sutable to them and can refuse what is otherwise and this instinct they have in their very nature as soon as they have a being to judge of their Food which is good for them and which is hurtful So the Children of God as soon as ever They by faith are made partakers of the Divine Nature they can immediately judge of the Milk of the Word and can surely taste and discern whether it be sincere or adulterated whether it be good or hurtful for them And so in the vertue of their New Nature they reject and overcome all the false Doctrine of the false Teachers And thus we have seen all along in the several Ages of the Reign of Antichrist that Christ hath alwayes had a People of his own though but few in number and mean in condition and despised of the World whom Antichrist never could prevail against neither by the subtilty of his Doctrine nor by the violence of his Tyranny but they have by their Faith and Patience and Word of their Testimony withstood Him and his Multitudes yea the whole World whom he hath all along seduced Thus in every Age hath Christ had so great Care of all those whom his Father hath given him that he hath lost none of Them no not one Single Person but by his Word and Spirit which he hath put into them and by his own Presence in them through his Word and Spirit he hath still preserved them and hath strenghthened them to oppose and resist Antichrist to the Death and to overcome as He overcame And so during all the Reign of Antichrist in the World whom hath he prevailed withall and deceived but only the World but not one Single person of the Elect children of God though he hath especially sought to prevail with Them But Jesus Christ who only knows who are his hath kept all along Those whom he hath Known that we might understand that the Care of the true Church is committed to Him alone from the Father and that all the Magistrates and Powers of the World are not at all Capable of such a Trust which would have been too Great for the very Angels of Heaven And though Antichrist during his Reign had inwrapped the Elect Themselves into all his Errors before Faith came as the first Adam had inwrapped them in all his Sin yet as God wrought Faith in them and gave them his Spirit so they by degrees
Saints is Greater in Goodness Righteousness Wisdom and all Things than the Devil is in Antichrist and his Prophets therefore the Faithful in whom God dwels and manifests Himself must needs overcome Antichrist and the false Prophets in whom the Devil dwels and manifests himself Now hence we may learn several things And first we may learn That Antichrist can prevail against any Outward Form of Religion and Godliness against any Humane Vertues and Graces and Works and Prayers or any thing that is of Man or flows from Him though in never so great appearance of Holiness as we by sad experience have seen many Men of great seeming Religion famous for Preaching and Praying and reputed Pillars in the Church when they have come hither into the University where Antichrist and his Spirit have remained in their full strength notwithstanding the great Consumption which God hath brought on them by his Word in other parts how soon have they cased from that sense of the Gospel which they once seemed to have had and how suddenly have they been intangled and overcome with the Spirit of the University and of Antichrist for Worldly Honour and Advantage sake and so the highest and strongest formal Religion in the Church Antichrist can soon prevail against But Antichrist can never prevail against God in the Saints nor against the Righteousness Wisdom and Power of God in them all which are contained in his true Presence nor against the Faith Hope and Love of Saints which are the Works of God in them by his Spirit against these Antichrist cannot prevail For greater is He that is in Us than he that is in the World So then if thou hast any thing in thee that is truly of God or rather that is God Himself in thee That Antichrist cannot overcome by all his Arts and Power but he will easily overcome any thing else Antichrist cannot prevail against Immanuel which is God with Us nor against the Mysterie of Godliness in us which is God manefest in the flesh but every other thing though it seem never so Angelical he prevails against 2. We may learn hence That it is not an easie thing to overcome Antichrist and to get the Victory over that Beast and his Image and his Mark and the Number of his Name seeing Antichrists coming is after the working of Satan as the Apostle saith and through Antichrist the Devil Himself speaks works and acts yet as an Angel of light in all lying or false Power Wisdom and Righteousness and this he doth for the Damnation of Men and to bring Them all who have no true love to the Truth to perish with Himself for ever And his Operation of Error is so mighty and efficacious that it cannot be resisted and overcome by any in all the World but by those who are born of God and do partake of his Nature and Presence in them For the Power Wisdom and Righteousness of Antichrist and his Prophets which is so suteable to the Nature of the World and so glorious in its Eye cannot possibly be overcome but by the true Power Wisdom and Righteousness of God in his true Children or Prophets 3. Hence also let us learn not to be dismayed at Antichirist and his Prophets who have in all Ages got such Reputation Power and Glory to Themselves in the World because of their seeming Learning Righteousness and Religion seeing Christ in Us and in all his poor People is infinitely more mighty than They are and the Devil in them and nothing can prevail against Us except first it can prevail against Christ. Wherefore if We in our selves are never so weak and through our weakness never so fearful and trembling yet let us not be discouraged or faint seeing our might is not in Our selves but in Christ who dwels in Us and who is infinitely greater than He that dwells in the World He that dwells in Us through Faith is Greater than he that dwells in Them through Unbelief and in His strength let us abide by his Word and Doctrine even to Suffering and Death if need be and in all these Evils we shall overcome Them by whom we seem to be overcome as also Christ our Head did And thus much for the fourth General thing The Fifth Point The Apostle shews with whom Antichrist and his Teachers should prevail to wit with the Worldly and Carnal People vers 5. They are of the World therefore speak they of the World and the World hears them The World hears them Antichrist and his Prophets prevail with the World and Worldly People and do obtain their favour love and applause and They are their Auditors and delight in Them and their Doctrine Now by the World here is meant such People who though they have an outward Christianity and Religion yet inwardly remain in their Natural Condition and Corruption without any true renewing through Faith and the Spirit And all such People notwithstanding their seeming Religion and Righteousness do love Themselves and this World and the Things of it better than Jesus Christ and his Truth And these here are called the World and this World or these worldly Christians do hear and entertain the Teachers of Antichrist and their Doctrine Two Grounds of which the Apostle here gives us to wit Why these People cleave to these Teachers 1. The first is Because these Teachers are of the World 2. Because they speak of the World 1. They are of the World That is though by their Breeding and Profession their Degrees and Ordination they seem to be set at a great distance from the Common people and to be nearer the Kingdom of God and the Knowledge and Possession of it then the Common People of the World yet for all this They indeed and in truth are still of the World and all their liberall Education their manner of Life their Study Knowledge Learning Languages Sciences Degrees and Ordination doth not at all change their inward evil Nature Mind Will Affections nor the corrupt Disposition and Principle in which they were born but notwithstanding all these things they are still the very same throughout as when they came first into the World being destitute of a New Birth and Heavenly Nature Nay by all these things they are more taken into the Spirit of the World into the corruptions and evils of it into the pride lust covetousness and ambition of it by how much through such Indowments and Accomplishments they think Themselves better than other Men and so notwithstanding their Academical Degrees and Ecclesiastical Orders they are not less but more of the World even fully of the World And hence we may learn That it is not Study Parts Breeding Learning nor any Natural Indowments or acquired Accomplishments that will deliver any man out of this World or corrupt state of Mankind or that can change his Nature or give him the least Place or Interest in the Kingdom of God