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 vniversities (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 ...

The first sign then, whereby the true Prophets* 1.1 may be discerned from the false, is this:

First, the true Prophets are all sent of God. So was Moses, whom God sent to the children of Israel, and bid him tell* 1.2 them, that I AM, even the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, hath sent him to them; and he gave him a proportion∣able measure of his Presence, to cause them to believe it. And Christ a greater Prophet then Moses, even the Head of all the children of God, said by Isaiah, chap. 48. 16.

Come ye near unto me, heare ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning, and now the Lord and his Spirit hath sent me. And everywhere in the Gospel, He still declares, how he came not of Himself, but his Father sent him.

And as the Father sent Christ, so Christ sends all his Seed, the true Ministers of the Gospel, as is manifest, John 20. 21. where Christ said to his Disciples, As my Father sent Me, so send I You; which he spake not only touching Them, but touching All that should believe in his Name through their Word; And Paul also saith, Rom. 10. 15. How shall they teach except they be sent? So that true Preaching comes from* 1.3 true Sending, and this comes from the Grace of God.

Now I desire you farther to take notice, that God hath reckoned the Choise of his Ministers, one of the weightiest things that belong unto his Kingdom; wherefore he would* 1.4 never commit the trust of this to any Sort of Men whatso∣ever. Yea, Christ himself did not choose his Disciples at his own Humane Will, but only at the Will of God, and there∣fore was much in Prayer before he chose them.

And the Apostles themselves durst not of Themselves, when they were all met together, choose any one into the room of Judas, but they betook themselves to Prayer, and desired the Lord to shew whom He had chosen. And Acts 13. The Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them. And Paul tells the Galatians, that he was an Apostle, not of Men, nor by Men, but by Je∣sus Christ and God the Father.

By all which Scriptures we may perceive what care the Lord hath alwaies had, to send his own Ministers Himself into his own Church, and would have his true Church receive no Ministers but such as He sends them.

And the great and chief sending into the Church is from* 1.5 God Himself, as we see in Moses, and all the Prophets, and in Christ Himself the Head of them, and in all the Apostles, and in all Believers.

Now the proof of a mans sending from God is this, to be* 1.6 annointed with the Spirit: as John 20. 22. When Christ said to his Disciples, as my Father sent me, so send I you; He

breathed upon them, and said, Receive the holy Spirit: For his Father sent him only by pouring out his Spirit on him; and he sends them so only; and he that saith, The Unction of the Spirit alone is not sufficient for the Ministry of the New Testa∣ment,* 1.7 he denies Christ and his Apostles to have been sufficient Ministers, and he perverts the Scripture, and seduces the People.

Now the true Teachers through the pouring forth of the Spirit on them, they do truly know Christ Himself, and the great Mysterie of the Gospel, and all the things that are free∣ly given us of God; and they are also filled with love to their Brethren, and are enabled to confess the Truth, and to do thereafter, and to contemn the World, and patiently to suffer rebukes, &c. all which is a sufficient Proof of any ones Sending from God.

And thus the true Prophets are all sent of God, which is their great comfort and support in all trouble and difficul∣ties, because he that sends them, is still with them. Lo (saith Christ) I am with you alwaies, to the end of the world.

But now on the contrary, the false Prophets and Mini∣sters* 1.8 of Antichrist are not sent of God, but are sent and ap∣pointed by Men, and that through their own desire, and seeking. And of such the Lord complains, Jer. 23. 21. I have not sent these Prophets, yet they ran; I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied: but because I sent them not, neither commanded them, they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord, v. 32.

And Christ saith, Many false Christs, and false Prophets shall arise: i. e. are not sent of God, but shall arise of Them∣selves. And Paul saith to the Elders of the Church of Ephe∣sus, Acts 20. Out of your selves shall men arise, speaking per∣verse things, to draw Disciples after them. They arise of Them∣selves, they are not sent of God.

Now such Teachers as these do usually spring up in the Church, through Academical Degrees, and Ecclesiastical Ordination; which two things have poured forth into the Church whole swarms of false Prophets, and Antichristian

Ministers, never sent of God, nor annointed of his Spirit, to the irreparable damage, prejudice, and ruine of the People and Nations who have received them, with their false and poysonfull Doctrine.

Wherefore all those Teachers who are not sent of the Lord and his Spirit, but arise of Themselves, and come into the Church in the strength and might of their Degrees and Orders, they are all false Prophets.

Notes

• * 1.1

  1. Sign.
• * 1.2

  The true Pro∣phets are sent of Christ.
• * 1.3

  ☞
• * 1.4

  God hath not committed the choise of his Ministers to any sort of men.
• * 1.5

  He sends them himself.
• * 1.6

  The proof of his sending them.
• * 1.7

  ☜
• * 1.8

  The false Pro∣phets run without send∣ing.