II.

Deut. xiii. 1, 2, 3.

BOOK tend signs and wonders, to draw them off from the religion established by the law of Moses. And so likewise under the Gospel, after that was established by the unparalleled miracles of our Saviour and his Apostles, we find frequent cautions against being deceived by those who came with pretences of doing great miracles. But this is so far from infringing the credibility of such a testimony, which is confirmed by miracles, that it yields a strong confirmation to the truth of what I now assert; for the doctrine is supposed to be already established by miracles, according to which we are to judge of the spirits of such pretenders. Now it stands to the greatest reason, that, when a religion is once established by uncontrolled miracles, we should not hearken to every whiffling conjurer, that will pretend to do great feats, to draw us off from the truth established. In which case, the surest way to discover the imposture is, to compare his pretended miracles with those true and real ones which were done by Moses and Christ; and the ground of it is, because every person is no competent judge of the truth of a miracle; for the devil, by his power and subtlety, may easily deceive all such as will be led by the nose by him, in expectation of some wonders to be done by him: and therefore, as long as we have no ground to question the certainty of those miracles which were wrought by Christ or Moses, I am bound to adhere to the doctrine established by those miracles, and to make them my rule of judging all persons who shall pretend to work miracles. Because, i. I do not know how far God may give men over to be deceived by lying wonders, who will not receive the truth in the love of it; i. e. those that think not the Christian religion sufficiently confirmed by the miracles wrought at the first promulgation of it. God in justice may permit the devil to go further than otherwise he could, and leave such persons to their own credulity, to believe every imposture and illusion of their senses for true miracles. 2. That doctrine which was confirmed by undoubted miracles, hath assured us of the coming of lying wonders, whereby many should be deceived. Now this part of the doctrine of the Gospel is as certainly true as any of the rest, for it was confirmed by the same miracles that the other was; and besides that, the very coming of such miracles is an evidence of the truth of it, it falling out so exactly according to what was foretold so many hundred years since. Now if this doctrine be true, then am I certain the intent of these miracles is to deceive, and that those are de

III.

ceived who hearken to them; and what reason then have CHAP. I to believe them? 3. To what end do these miracles serve? Are they to confirm the truths contained in Scripture? But what need they any confirmation now, when we are assured by the miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles, that the doctrine by them preached came from God; and so hath been received upon the credit of those miracles ever since? Were these truths sufficiently proved to be from God before, or no? If not, then all former ages have believed without sufficient ground for faith; if they were, then what ground can there be to confirm us in them now? Certainly God, who never doth any thing but for very great purposes, will never alter the course of nature, merely for satisfaction of men's vain curiosities.

But it may be, it will be said, it was something not fully revealed in Scripture which is thus confirmed by miracles: but where hath the Scripture told us that any thing not fully revealed therein should be afterwards confirmed? Was the Scripture an infallible rule of faith while this was wanting in it? Did Christ and his Apostles discharge their places, when they left something unrevealed to us? Was this a duty before these miracles, or no? If it was, what need miracles to confirm it? If not, Christ hath not told us all necessary conditions of salvation. For whatever is required as a duty, is such; as the neglect of it runs men upon damnation. Lastly, men's faith will be left at continual uncertainties; for we know not, according to this principle, when we have all that is necessary to be believed, or do all that is necessary to be practised in order to salvation. For if God may still make new articles of faith, or constitute new duties by fresh miracles, I must go and enquire what miracles are wrought in every place, to see that I miss nothing that may be necessary for me, in order to my happiness in another world.

If men pretend to deliver any doctrine contrary to the Scripture, then it is not only necessary that they confirm it by miracles, but they must manifest the falsity of those miracles on which that doctrine is believed, or else they must use another miracle to prove that God will set his seal to confirm both parts of a contradiction to be true: which being the hardest task of all, had need be proved by very sufficient and undoubted miracles; such as may be able to make us believe those are miracles, and are not, at the same time; and so the strength of the argu

VII.

BOOK ment is utterly destroyed by the medium produced to II. prove it by.

By this discourse these two things are clear; First, that no pretences of miracles are to be hearkened to, when the doctrine we are to believe is already established by them, if those miracles tend in the least to the derogation of the truth of what was established by those former miracles. Secondly, that when the full doctrine we are to believe is established by miracles, there is no necessity at all of new miracles for confirmation of any of the truths therein delivered. And therefore it is a most unreasonable thing to demand miracles of those, to prove the truth of the doctrine they deliver, who do first solemnly profess to deliver nothing but what was confirmed by miracles in the first delivery of it, and is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament; and secondly, do not pretend to any immediate commission from heaven, but do nothing but what in their consciences they think every true Christian is bound to do: much more all magistrates and ministers, who believe the truth of what they profess: which is in their places to reform all errors and abuses which are crept into the doctrine or practice of Christianity, through the corruption of men or times. And therefore it is a most unjust and unreasonable demand of the Papists, when they require miracles from our first Reformers, to prove the truth of their doctrine with. Had they pretended to have come with an immediate commission from heaven to have added to the doctrine of the Gospel, there had been some plea for such a demand; but it was quite otherwise with them their only design was to whip the buyers and sellers out of the Temple, to purge the Church from its abuses. And although that by Jerome was thought to be one of our Saviour's greatest miracles; yet this by us is conceived to be no other than the duty of all magistrates, ministers, and private Christians; these by their prayers, ministers by their doctrine, and magistrates by their just authority.

CHAP. IV.

The Fidelity of the Prophets succeeding Moses.

1. An Order of Prophets to succeed Moses, by God's own Appointment in the Law of Moses. II. The Schools of the Prophets; III. the Original and Institution of them. IV. The Cities of the Levites. The Occasion of their first Institution. V. The Places of the Schools of the Prophets, and the Tendency of the Institution there to a prophetical Office. VI. Of the Music used in the Schools of the Prophets. VII. The Roman Assamenta, and the Greek Hymns in their solemn Worship. VIII. The two Sorts of Prophets among the Jews, lieger and extraordinary. Ordinary Prophets taken out of the Schools, proved by Amos and Saul.

IV.

I.

BUT although now under the Gospel (the revelation of CHAP. God's will being completed by Christ and his Apostles) we have no reason either to expect new revelations, or new miracles for confirming the old; yet under the law, God training up his people by degrees till the coming of Christ, there was a necessity of a new supply of divine messengers, called Prophets, to prepare the people, and make way for the coming of Christ. As to whom these two things are considerable.

First, Those prophets, whose work was to inform the people of their duties, or to reprove them for their sins, or to prepare them for the coming of the Messias, (which were their chief tasks,) had no need to confirm the truth of their doctrine or commission from heaven, by the working of miracles among them. And that on these

two accounts.

First, Because God did not consummate the revelation of his mind and will to the Jews by the ministry of Moses, but appointed a succession of prophets to be among them, to make known his mind unto them. Now in this case, when the prophetical office was established among them, what necessity was there that every one that came to them upon an errand from God, should prove his testimony to be true by miracles, when in the discharge of his office he delivered nothing dissonant from the law of Moses? It is one argument God intended a succession of prophets, when he laid down such

BOOK rules in his law for the judging of them, whether they II. were truly inspired or no, Deut. xviii. 21, 22. And in that same place God doth promise a succession of prophets, Deut. xviii. 15, 18. A prophet will the Lord God raise up unto thee like unto me; to him shall ye hearken. Which words though in their full and complete sense they do relate to Christ, (who is the great prophet of the Church,) yet whoever attends to the full scope of the words, will easily perceive that the immediate sense of them doth relate to an order of prophets which should succeed Moses among the Jews; between whom and Moses there would be a great similitude as to their birth, calling, and doctrine, though not a just equality, which is excluded, Deut. xxxiv. 10, 11: and the chief reason why it is said there that the other prophets fell so much short of Moses, is in regard of the signs and wonders which he wrought, as is there largely expressed. Nor may it seem strange, that by a prophet should be understood an order or succession of prophets, when it is acknowledged by most Protestants that by o 'Avrixpisos, the Antichrist, is understood a rank and succession of several persons in the same name and function. And that it is to be understood in those words concerning a succession. of prophets, will appear by the occasion of their being brought in; for ver. 14. God prohibits them to hearken, after the manner of their neighbour-nations, to observers of times and Diviners, and then brings in the following words, ver. 15. as to the reason of that prohibition, that God would raise up a prophet among themselves like unto V. Arabic. Moses; and to him should they hearken. Now let any rational man judge whether it were so probable an arguloc. P. Fa- ment to keep them from hearkening to Diviners of other gium, Pet. nations, that there should a prophet arise 2000 years after Mart. Loc. like unto Moses, as that he would raise up a continued 1. cap. 3. succession of prophets among themselves, to whom they should hearken. Thus Origen, in his excellent book Origen.con.against Celsus, shews the necessity of the prophetical office among the Jews from hence; For, saith he, it being written in their law that the Gentiles hearkened unto oraSpencer. cles and divinations; but God would not suffer it to be so among them, it presently follows, A prophet will the Lord God raise up in the midst of thee, &c. Therefore, saith he, when the nations round about them had their oracles, and several ways of divination, all which were strictly prohibited among the Jews, if the Jews had no way of foreknowing things to come, it had been almost impossible, considering

vers. et

Calv. in

Com. Class.

sect. 12.

Celsum, lib. i. p. 28. Ed.

Deut. xviii. 14.