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A23660 The danger of enthusiasm discovered in an epistle to the Quakers : in which 'tis endeavoured, to convince them of being guilty of changing God's method of bringing men to salvation / by one who is no more an enemy to their opinions, than their opinions are enemies to them themselves. Allen, William, d. 1686. 1674 (1674) Wing A1058; ESTC R13150 64,102 137

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written in one of the Prophets I have written to them the great things of my Law and they have counted them as a strange thing Hos 8. 12. § 7. 5. The next Proposition is this That the Holy Scriptures extant in the Apostles days in conjunction with the Doctrine of the Christian Faith however made known by Writing or otherwise were then through that Grace of God which usually attends a due use of them able to make men wise to Salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. And that from a Child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus If by Scriptures here you will understand the Scriptures of the Old Testament only yet you may easily collect that if those Scriptures were in great part able to make men wise unto Salvation then when the Gospel was on foot then the Scriptures of the New Testament as containing the Christian Doctrine are able to do it much more and both in conjunction to be effectual to that end The Apostle acquainted the Christians then that the Mystery of the Gospel by the Scriptures of the Prophets is and that according to the Commandment of the everlasting God made known to all Nations for the obedience of Faith Rom. 16. 25 26. § 8. 6. The Holy Scriptures as the means which God works by are able not only to make men in a private capacity wise unto salvation but also to furnish men for the discharging of the publick Office of Teaching and Governing in the Church of God The Holy Scriptures given by inspiration of God are profitable for Doctrine Reproof Correction and Instruction in Righteousness so as to make the man of God to wit a publick Preacher perfect throughly furnished to all good works even to enable him to discharge his whole Duty towards the Souls of others 2 Tim. 3. 16. And St. Paul by his Writings instructed even Timothy himself how to behave himself in his Office and publick Capacity 1 Tim. 3. 14. These things write I unto thee that thou maist know how to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the Living God And for the better discharge of his Ministerial Office directs and enjoins him to give attendance to Reading and to Meditation or Study 1 Tim. 4. 13 15. Which sure would have been needless if he had been sufficiently able to have done all by the immediate Illumination and operation of God's Spirit as you fancy your Teachers are able to do § 9. 7. The same promise is made to the reading of the Word written and to the keeping of it as is to the hearing and keeping of it Rev. 1. 3. Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this Prophesie and keep those things which are written therein § 10. 8. The Scripture is said to say this or that which yet God said himself or by his Servants Rom. 9. 17. The Scripture saith unto Pharaoh even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might shew my power in thee Rom. 10. 11. The Scripture saith Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed Gal. 3. 22. The Scripture hath concluded all under sin What saith the Scripture Cast out the Bondwoman and her Son Gal. 4. 30. Which yet was the Saying of God himself Gen. 16. Another Scripture saith They shall look on him whom they have pierced John 19. 17. No Prophesie of the Scriptures is of private Interpretation 2 Pet. 1. 20. So that according to this look what God saith in and by the Scriptures touching such things as concern us is in effect the same as if he had spoken them to us himself immediately If any man think himself to be a Prophet or Spiritual let him acknowledge that the things I write unto you are the Commandments of the Lord said St Paul 1 Cor. 14. 37. You are wont to insinuate indeed as if the Scriptures were not of that use to us now as they were to them to whom they were first written But however they might more concern them than us in some particular cases proper to them yet in things of common concern they are as much for our use as they were for theirs For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our Learning Rom. 15. 4. What God said to Joshua I will never leave thee nor forsake thee the Apostle would have all faithful Christians relie on as if it had been spoken to themselves Heb. 13. 5. That which was first spoken to the Jews Lev. 26. The Apostle applies to the Believing Gentiles as much as if it had been spoken to them only 2 Cor. 6. 16. For ye are the Temple of the Living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people § 11. 9. We that have the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles brought down to us in the Scriptures may according to Scripture-Dialect be said to have Christ and his Apostles as truly as it was said of the Jews in our Saviour's days on Earth that they had Moses and the Prophets for it was by having in the Scriptures what they said and did that were said to have them And by hearing and believing the Scriptures of the New Testament we may as well be said to hear and believe Christ and his Apostles as they to hear and believe Moses and the Prophets which yet they were said to do when they did believe their Writings Luke 16. 29. They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them Ver. 31. If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead John 5. 46 47. Had ye believed Moses ye would have believed me for he wrote of me But if ye believe not his Writings how should ye believe my Words Christ promised his Apostles upon his giving them Commission to teach all Nations that he would be with them to the end of the world and he is so in one sense when he accompanies their Ministration by their Doctrine and Writings with the presence of his Grace and power in their continuation to the end of the world And as it is said of Moses Acts 15. 21. That he had those in every City that preached him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day inasmuch as his Books of the Law were read so for the same or like reason it may be as truly said that Christ hath those that preach him now when the Books of the New Testament written by inspiration of his Spirit are read among us and opened unto us every Lord's Day You may then safely conclude that those that have the Doctrine of Christ in his Gospel among them have Christ among them and all that receive and hold fast that do receive and hold fast him So saith St. John in his second Epist v. 9. He that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ he
Doctrine 2 John 10. And if any man teach otherwise saith St. Paul and consents not to wholesom words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Doctrine which is according to Godliness he is proud knowing nothing 1 Tim. 6. 3 4. These things being all so plain as what can be plainer it cannot but be highly ridiculous for such as are ignorant in the very A B C of Christianity as by your dissent in this plain Truth you appear to be to pretend to such Sublimity and Spirituality as to esteem all other Christians in the world of what denomination soever that are not of your way in comparison of your selves to be all in Darkness and Confusion § 4. The Second Proposition is this Although the first Promulgators of the Gospel were enabled by immediate Revelation from Christ to teach it unto others yet afterward God's ordinary way and method of transmitting the Knowledge and Faith of the Gospel downwards to others successively was by such mens teaching it to others as had themselves learned it of the Apostles or others that taught the same Doctrine as they did Thus Timothy and Titus though Evangelists were instructed by Paul in the Christian Faith and how they should behave themselves in their publick capacities as Evangelists or Bishops and this was done partly by Speech and partly by his Epistles to them 2 Tim. 1. 13. Hold fast the Form of sound words which thou hast heard of me 2 Tim. 3. 14 15. Continue in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them and that from a Child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures Titus learned the Christian Faith by Paul for which cause he stiles him his Son in the Common Faith Tit. 1. 4. And by his Epistle instructs him in the Election of Bishops which he was to place in the Cities of Crete And one of his Instructions about this Affair was that he should ordain such as held fast the faithful word as they had been taught Tit. 1. 9. And the same things which Timothy had learned of Paul he was to commit to faithful men and such as should be able to teach others 2 Tim. 2. 2. The things which thou hast heard of me among many Witnesses commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also § 5. 3. The same Doctrine and many of the same Miracles were committed to writing by the Apostles which were first preached and done by Christ and his Apostles and for the same end to wit to bring men to the Christian Belief and Life John 20. 31. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name 1 John 5. 13. These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have Eternal Life and that ye may believe on the Name of the Son of God That is that they might believe more groundedly and firmly and so constantly and perseveringly against all opposition and temptations to the contrary Luke 1. 3 4. It seemed good to me also having had perfect understanding of things from the very first to write unto thee most excellent Theophilus that thou mightest know the Certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed 2 Tim. 3. 15 16. The Scriptures given by inspiration of God are profitable for reproof correction and instruction in righteousness and able to make men wise unto salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus Rom. 16. 26. And by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the Commandment of the everlasting God made known to all Nations for the obedience of Faith God of old commanded the Law written to be read to all the Congregation of Israel that they might learn to fear him Deut. 31. 11 12. § 6. 4. The Apostle required the same regard to be given to what he taught by his Epistles as to what he taught by speech face to face 2 Thes 2. 15. Therefore stand fast and hold the Traditions which ye have been taught whether by word or our Epistle 1 Cor. 14. 37. If any man think himself to be a Prophet or spiritual let him acknowledge that the things which I write unto you are the Commandments of the Lord. And the Epistles written to particular Churches were intended for the benefit of all in those things which in their nature were of common concern unto all 1 Cor. 1. 2. Unto the Church of God at Corinth With all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours The two Epistles of St. Peter the first Epistle of John the Epistle of Jude and that of James are all General Epistles not directed to any particular Churches as such but to the Christians scattered abroad in the world And the Colossians were to read the Epistle sent to Laodicea and the Laodiceans to read that sent to the Colossians as well as those that were sent to both themselves respectively Col. 4 16. And St. John was commanded to send all the seven Epistles to each of the seven Churches in Asia and not only one Epistle to one Church and another to another And in Rev. Chap. 2 3. It is seven times said He that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches as every man in the world hath that is not deaf And Chap. 22. 18. I testifie to every man saith Christ that heareth the words of the Prophesie of this Book c. And there is great reason why the same regard should be given to what the Apostles and Evangelists wrote as to what they spake as long as they either wrote the same Doctrine or History upon the same evidence For the Doctrine is the same after it is written as it was before for its Being written doth not alter the Nature of it And therefore men must needs be as much concerned in their Belief or Disbelief Obedience or Disobedience to it when it is communicated to them by writing as when it is so by Preaching yea I had almost said or by immediate Revelation For 't is not the way and manner of communicating the will of God to us that makes it saving but our belief and serious consideration of it and yielding obedience to it how or by what means soever we come to know it Otherwise 't is possible men may have Revelations from God as Balaam had and as Judas and other workers of Iniquity that prophesied and cast out Devils in Christ's Name had or might have had and yet not be profited by them And if there be any less degree of evidence of Divine Truth when it is communicated to us by writing than when it was communicated to others by the Apostles preaching or to the Apostles themselves by immediate Revelation yet belief of it and obedience to it upon that less degree
and temperate to do to others as we would be done to our selves in point of equity fidelity and charity to be humble and meek patient and contented and the like are things that tend to the peace and satisfaction of the minde to the health of the body and long life to a mans Credit Reputation and thriving in the World and to the good of humane Society Besides their certain relation to a future happy State And there is no man that acts according to the best reason of his minde but would chuse these things though you should suppose him under no express command to do it and though there were no Heaven promised or Hell threatened But when you consider the great reward in another World that is promised to a faithful observance of the Laws of Christ and to a belief in him and the dreadful threatnings against such as despise and neglect them it makes them yet far more desirable and eligible because as it is natural for every man to desire the happiness and perfection of his own being so it is agreeable to the highest reason in man to chuse the means that tend thereto and such is our obedience to the Gospel And these rewards which are such mighty motives to obedience are far more clearly revealed and brought into open Light by the Gospel than they were before which makes the Gospel far more effectual to perswade to Holy Living than the Law could be The Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did by which we draw nigh unto God Heb. 7. 19. These two things forementioned then the easiness of understanding God's way and method of Salvation from the plainness and fulness of the revelation of it under the New Covenant by which it is fitted to every capacity and the ●nnate goodness of the Laws thereof in conjunction with the promise of eternal Life made to the observance of them by which they are also compleatly fitted to attract and draw mens wills to accept embrace and chuse them these I say are the things I conceive foretold in that Prophesie Jer. 31. here cited in Heb. 8. under those expressions of God's putting giving or conveying his Laws into the mind and writing them in the heart so that they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother c. And when it is so said it is not then said that they shall not be taught neither by Apostles Evangelists Pastors or Teachers but they shall not teach every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother And though the Phrase here used seem absolute in sound yet it may well be understood in a Comparative sence as other expessions in Scripture of like nature sometimes must be As when its said labour not for the meat that perisheth but for that meat which endureth to everlasting Life Joh. 6. 26. The meaning here of labour not is labour not so much And so again I desired Mercy and not Sacrifice Hos 6. 6. the meaning is I desired Mercy more than Sacrifice or Sacrifice not so much as Mercy So again Eph. 6. 12. we wrestle not with flesh and blood that is not only or not so much but against Principalities c. And so here when it is said they shall not ●●each every man his Neighbour c. The meaning may be that they shall not so much need to do it under the second Covenant as under the first But indeed the words and phrase here used seem to be a strain of elegance oft used in Scriptures when to set forth the greatness or great abundance and plenty of things expressions are used improperly and hyperbolically in reference thereto and so are not to be understood properly but figuratively As when it is said in reference to the same thing under the Gospel with that I have been now speaking of That the Earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea Isa 11. 9. I suppose you will not understand this in such a strict sence as if it foretold in Gospel-times that there should be no more knowledge of God wanting on the Earth than there is bare ground in the Sea or that David would have the World believe that he did weep a River yea Rivers full of Tears when he said mine eyes run down with Rivers of Tears because men keep not thy Laws Psalm 119. or that St. John did think in a strict sence that the world could not contain the books if all the signs which Jesus did should be written Joh. 20. And if not why should you so much as once imagine that these words of the Prophet should foretel that under the New Covenant there should be no need of teaching by mans Ministry when the whole current of the Scriptures of the New Testament both in precept and example shew the contrary The words of the Prophet here are only a prediction of the rich and plentiful means of Knowledge and Grace that was to be vouchsafed under the New Covenant more than under the Old § 19. One would think you have an aking Tooth against outward teaching when you build such Castles in the Air as ye do rather than none to batter it down But how comes it to pass that you use it so much your selves if there be no more need of it than you pretend I know that which you alledge to excuse your selves in this seeming contradiction is this or to this effect You say though men need not be taught by men what it is which they ought to know believe and do the light within teaching them this and being a Rule to them in these things yet in as much as men may and do rebel against this light its necessary to call upon and perswade them to obey it But in this Plea you suppose for truth that which is a manifest gross and most dangerous and pernicious error which is this That it is not as well necessary to teach men by the Scriptures and by the Ministry of men to know believe what is necessary to their salvation as it is to perswade them to do what is necessary thereto For contrary hereunto I have already proved that for men that live under the Gospel its necessary to their Salvation that they know and believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and Saviour of the World and that remission of sin is promised in his name to such as repent I have proved likewise that these things cannot be known but either by immediate revelation from God or by instruction from them that have had such Revelation or by them whose knowledge thereof hath been derived down successively by outward teaching from the first preachers of such Doctrine To which I will now add as followes In the Apostles days the Converts that were then made such were brought to the knowledge and belief of those great Articles of the Christian Faith fundamentally necessary to Salvation by hearing the
any worthy the Name of a Christian how weak soever but even of any that is worthy but of the Name of a man and not a And yet how are those Works in which these things are found applauded as the Works of a Prophet of the Lord by several men of great Note among you such as George Fox George Whitehead Francis Howgil and Josiah Co●le who adjoin their several Testimonials to them And wherfore do I lay these things before you but to give you occasion to reflect upon your selves and your way with a jealous eye and to convince you that ye know not of what Spirit ye are of but that while ye have thought ye have been walking in the Light ye have been walking in Darkness and that whilst ye have fancied your selves the most spiritual among Christians ye have discovered your selves to be but carnal If any man among you seemeth to be Religious and bridleth not his Tongue but deceiveth his own heart that man's Religion is vain Jam. 1. 26. If there be bitter Zeal glory not and lie not against the Truth for that wisdom is not from above as you are apt to boast it to be but from beneath and is Earthly Sensual and Devilish Jam. 3. 15. But it is not strange if men be left first or last to fall into unchristian practices who out of affectation of Novelty and Singularity in Doctrine and a desire to appear more sublime in their Notions than all that went before them have left the old beaten path of Christian Doctrine in which the several Generations of holy men have lived and walked from the Apostles time downwards For when men wax spiritually proud and wanton in rejecting the plain way and method which God hath chosen to bring men to saving Faith Repentance and a holy Life and to continue them in it and invent and chuse another in its stead and call it by the name of his and preach to and press it upon the people in his Name he takes no pleasure in their so doing nor doth he delight to vouchsafe his concurrent Grace and blessing therewith which he doth with his own way and method by which it becomes effectual to make men good and to keep them so And therefore as I said 't is no marvel if men by degrees lose in the goodness of their Frame and Temper which sometimes they had attained while they kept close to God's way and method in which he bestows it and degenerate into men of quite another Spirit and Temper when they forsake that and run into another of their own invention and choice The disobedient Jews who had declined from the better way of their Ancestors and grew into a worse spirit and temper they had a zeal of God still but not according to knowledge They did will and run for Justification and Life they followed after Righteousness and yet attained not to the Law of Righteousness and wherefore but because they sought it not by Faith which was the method of God's chusing but as it were by the works of the Law which was a method of their own chusing in opposition to God's Rom. 9. 31 32. § 2. And whether you are not guilty of rejecting God's way and method of converting men to and keeping them in the way of saving Faith Repentance and Evangelical Obedience and of inventing and chusing one of your own different from that comes now to to be considered I shall state your way in this by what you have published to the world in your own Books and for Brevity sake shall instance but in two Authors Ed. Burrough formerly and Mr. Pen of late who speak for you that which is otherwise well enough known to be your common Opinion In the Works of Ed. Burrough whom you are pleased to stile that true Prophet in the Title-Page which are published by you there are these Sayings In Page 252 thus His pure Spirit is put into the inward parts to be the Rule and Guide of Life in all things And again Only by the teaching of the Eternal Spirit is the Living God known in the Creature Again p. 408 It is promised saith he that the Spirit shall lead into all Truth and such do own the Scriptures but not as their Teacher for the Anointing dwells in them and they need no man to teach them but as that Anointing teacheth all things and they have no need of the Scripture to teach them for all the Children of God are taught of God and need not any other Teacher nor need not to say one to another Know the Lord. And yet all such do own the Scriptures to be the Testimony of that which they believe and have received And again in p. 834 The only perfect Rule of Conscience in the exercise to God is the Spirit of Christ and not any other thing And because something besides the Spirit of God exercises the Conscience therefore it is that here are so many Ways and Sects of Religion and kinds of Worship in Christendom and among Christians while the Spirit of Christ only is not the Rule of Judgment and exercise of Conscience to God and man Again pag. 861. The judgment in that matter Heresie must be just equal Holy and only by the Spirit of Christ which is infallible and gives infallibility of judgment and discerning into all Cases and Things Mr. Pen spends the Fourth Chapter of his late Book Entituled Reason against Railing to prove that the Light within and not the Scriptures is the Rule of Faith and Practice In p. 47. he saith We dare boldly affirm in the Name of the Lord that the great reason of our Belief concerning them the Scriptures is not any outward thing but that inward Testimony Record and heavenly Amen that we have frequently received from the Holy Light within us to the Truth and Faithfulness of those Sayings Again p. 48. Wherefore the Scriptures are so far from being the great Rule of Faith and Practice that the Light of Christ within us is both our Warrant and Rule for Faith in and Obedience to them Again p. 114. Let it be remembred saith he that Christ promised to send the Spirit of Truth to lead into all Truth as much as to say none are led into the Truth nor in the Truth but by the Holy Spirit of Truth or that their practice is a Lie or they are led into a Lie who are not led by the Spirit of Truth that alone leads into all the ways of Truth Where by Truth is not meant the meer Letter of the Scripture which notwithstanding is true but the living powerful Truth Christ the Way the Truth and the Life of which the Scripture is but a Record or Declaration And p. 115. Many may run into the practice of several outward things mentioned in the Scriptures to have been the practice of Saints in former Ages and yet not be led into the Truth for all that is but Will-Worship Imitation and Vnwarrantable Your
seen how it was The Spirit in some extraordinary gifts was poured on some of the Prophets of old but we never read that it was in such sort poured out on them that believed their Prophesie likewise as now it was upon those that received the Apostles Doctrine And therefore such a thing as this was foretold by the Prophets as peculiar to the coming of the Messias and as that by which he might be known to be come when the event of such Predictions took place even as it came to pass here The Prediction Joel 2. 28. was that in the last days the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh in the last days that is in the last days of the Jewish State or Common-wealth as may be evinced by the Context i● which Christ came as was foretold by his Prophets in which time also the Spirit was poured out in miraculous gifts and operations as a testimony that the Messias was come The Holy Spirit in the effects of it in these extraordinary gifts and operations is called the testifying of Christ or the witness which he bore touching his being the true Messiah and Saviour of the world John 15. 26 27. But when he the Comforter is come 〈◊〉 even the Spirit of Truth he shall testifie of me and ye also Apostles shall bear witness because ye ye have been with me from the beginning And again 1 John 5. 6. This is he that came by water and blood and it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is truth John 16. 8. And when he the Comforter is come he will convince the world of sin because they believe not on me saith Christ of Righteousness because I go to my Father was taken up into heaven and of Judgment because the Prince of this world is judged the Devil dethroned and cast down as he was when the Mouths of his Oracles were stopped and the Idol-Temples shut up and his Kingdom and Rule demolished by the preaching of the Gospel among the Heathen accompanied with these Miraculous Effects of the Spirit which bore down all before it as it were and therefore this is called the Demonstration of the Spirit and Power as opposed to Humane Oratory among Heathen Philosophers and the way of Humane Demonstration 1 Cor. 2. 4. This wonderful effusion of the Spirit in miraculous Gifts was that Baptism of the Spirit we read of which you with some others have in these days vainly pretended to under another Notion of being baptized with the Spirit But if you will but compare Mat. 3. 11. and Acts 1. 5. with Act. 2. 3 4. and 11. 15 16. you may easily discern your Error in applying it to any thing but to that extraordinary and miraculous effusion of the Spirit By all this you may see how one Scripture falls in with and explains another if you will but take hold of a right Notion of the end for which the plentiful effusion of the Spirit was foretold and promised Which was not to guide all Christians by its inward motions without outward teaching but to enable some to teach the right Faith and Life to others even to those of other Tongues in their own Language and to confirm their Doctrine thereby and by other operations of the Spirit to be from God And these extraordidary effects of the Spirit were greatly necessary to accompany the first promulgation and planting of the Gospel in the world to procure credit to it belief of it from the Jews who otherwise would not have been taken off from their old way of Levitical Ceremonial worship which they had received from God and from the Gentile-Nations who otherwise would not have been taken off from their Idolatrous and Superstitious way of Worship in which they had been deeply rooted by long and ancient Tradition received from their Forefathers And therefore St. Paul saith as was observed before that Tongues that is the gift of speaking divers Tongues on a sudden are a sign not to them that believe but to them that believe not 1 Cor. 14. 22. As the giving of the Law by Moses was accompanied with Signs and Wonders which were wrought by Moses both before and after the first promulgation of it to procure belief from the Jews that he was sent of God and that the Law given by him was from God So it was as necessary that the first promulgation of the Gospel by the Son of God himself and by those that were immediately sent by him should be for the same reason accompanied with more and greater Miracles and Wonders than those wrought by Moses were as Christ himself was greater than Moses and as the abrogation of the Old and the giving of the New Law was more than the giving of the Law only when there was no promulgate Law before in being And therefore our Saviour said of the Jews that would not receive his Doctrine but still stuck to the Letter of the Law of Moses If I had not done among them the works which none other man hath done they had not had sin John 15. 24. And as it was not necessary to continue those or the like Miracles and Wonders in the Jewish Church after the Law had been well established by them but that the Law being once committed to writing might be as it was their standing Rule of Worship and Conversation Even so after the Gospel had received a sufficient attestation to be from God by the continuance of those miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Church for some time till the Doctrine and History of the Gospel were committed to writing and those Writings owned as Authentick Records every where by the Church in all known parts of the world it was then no more necessary as the event shews to perpetuate Miracles in the Christian Church for the confirmation of the Gospel than it was to perpetuate them in the Jewish for the ratification of the Law but that the Doctrine and History of the Gospel in Books of the New Testament should be of like use to Christians as the Law and Prophets in Books was to the Jews of old The Prophets of old who though they were extraordinarily inspired did all along in their time call the Jews to obedience to the written Law of Moses and to Repentance for transgressing that And when prophesying in this sence was to cease from among them for several Ages God by Malachy the last of those Prophets gave it in charge to that People to remember the written Law of Moses as that by which they were to govern themselves Remember saith he the Law of Moses my Servant which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel with the Statutes and Judgments Mal. 4. 4. And it was foretold by Moses concerning Christ that a Prophet should be raised up by God like unto him Deut. 18. 15 18. And although Christ that Prophet was unlike unto Moses in many other things wherein our Lord excelled him yet he was truly