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and rejected their Prophecies with rage and indignation; but were afterwards, by the Event of Things, fo fully convinced (which was likewife foretold, Ezek. xxxiii. 33.) of their Divine Inspiration and Authority, that adthey wholly depended and relyed upon them, and lived in an uncomfortable Exile, upon the fole Hopes and Expectations of seeing the reft of their Prophecies fulfilled. And there fore the Pofterity of thofe who had flain the Prophets, had the highest veneration for the Memory of thefe Prophets whom their Forefathers had killed; they built and adorned their Sepulchres, and chofe to die any cle Death, rather than renounce the Authority of their Books, or part with them, even when they had for their Doctrine, and changed their Religion for vain Traditions, and fuperftitious Obfervances; and when it was fo reproachful to them to erect Monuments of perpetual acknowledgment, That they were the Children of them which killed the Prophets, Matth. xxiii. 31. they referred themselves to thefe Prophets for the Autho rity of their Religion, and acknowledged, that they had neither Prophecies nor Miracles after the Captivity,

at

CHAP.

CHAP. XI.

Of the Dependance of the feveral Parts of the Scriptures upon each others and that the Old Teftament proves the New, and the New again proves the Old, as the Caufe and the Effect.

I

Tis a thing altogether incredible, that the Inhabitants of fo fmall a part of the World as Judæa is, fhould lay a Defign of impofing upon the rest of Mankind, which could prove fo fuccefsful for fo many thousand Years together; and that they fhould be fuch Mafters of Deceit, and the World fo fond of receiving Revelations from them, that at laft, though the greatest part of that People dif claimed the Books, which some few, and those the most unlearned among them, would impofe for Infpired Writings; yet the Authority of these Books fhould be more acknowledged in all Parts of the World, than thofe had ever been, in which they all unanimously agreed, and the reft fhould be received for the fake of thefe, more than ever they had been upon their own account which is the cafe of the Books of the Old and New Teftament. If the Jews (even the meanest and most ignorant of them) could do this merely by their own Wit and Advice, they must have a Genius Device fuperiour

fuperiour to that of all Mankind befides. For what imaginable Reafon is there, why the Oracles of all the Heathen Nations fhould never be much regarded, and now, in a manner, utterly loft, and that the Books of the Jews fhould ftill be preferved in their full Authority; but the Power and Advan tage of Truth in thefe, and the want of it in them?

And the Evidence of this Truth is most obfervable, in the mutual Dependance which all the Parts of the Scriptures, have one upon another. They were penn'd by Men of dif ferent Countreys, different Ages, different Conditions and Callings and Interefts, from the King to the poor Fisherman; and yet all carry on the fame Defign: They are not like the Oracles of the Heathen Gods, which muft ftand or fall by themselves; but there is an admirable Series and Connexion between all the Writings of the Holy Scriptures, by which the feveral Parts of them give a mutual fup port and atteftation to each other. The Pen tateuch of Mofes contains the firft Lineaments, and evident Types and Prophecies of all that is contained in the reft: He foretold, That a fucceffion of Prophets fhould arife, and that at laft the Great Prophet fhould be fent, who is Chrift; and he foretold all that was to befall the Jews, from his own time, to the Destruction of Jerufalem. And as Mofes has given us the general State of the Jews, for

all

all Generations; fo the feveral Prophets, who were fent from time to time, according to his Predictions, foretold particular Events, and more especially they foretold and defcribed the Times of the Gofpel. This was the great Defign of all Prophecies, and the thing that God had spoken by the Prophets, which have been fince the world began, Luk.1.70. For in Chrift was the Accomplishment of all the Types and Prophecies in the Old Tefta

ment.

And this Dependance and Coherence be tween all the Parts of the Scriptures, in the Matter and Defign of them, which is as great as the dependance of one part of any Book written by the fame Author can be upon another, gives great ftrength and confirmation to the whole; fince it is an Evidence, that it was all Infpired by the fame Infallible Spirit; and if one part of Scripture be proved to be true, all muft of true, all must be fo: for befides the particular Evidence which may be brought for any part separately, we must confider the Connexion which it has with the reft, and the Evidence which is derived upon it by this, Connexion. If the Pentateuch be once proved to be of Divine Authority, then the Prophers who fucceeded Mofes must be Divinely Infpired; because he foretold the fucceffion of fuch Prophets? And if the Prophecies and Miracles of the Prophets were Divine, the Pentateuch must be fo; because they all along

acknow

acknowledged and appealed to it, as containing God's Covenant with his People the Jews, and being therefore the ground and founda tion of their own Miffion. If Mofes and the Prophets be from God, the Gospel must be from him, if that be foretold by them: And if the Prophecies and Miracles of our Saviour and his Difciples prove their Divine Authority, the Writings of Mofes and the Prophets must be likewife of the fame Authority; because they acknowledge them for fuch, and prove their own Authority from them, as well as from the Miracles that they themfelves wrought. And if the Prophecies and Miracles either of Mofes or of the Prophets, or of our Saviour and his Apostles taken by themselves, and apart from the reft, be sufficient, they must needs be more convincing, when they are confidered together, in their united Force and Light.

I might further obferve, That Miracles without Prophecies, or Prophecies without Miracles, or that one evident Miracle, or one evident Prophecy; at leaft, That either the Miracles or Prophecies of fome one Perfon, in the feveral Ages in which fo many Pro phets lived, would have been a fufficient ground of Faith, and that therefore they muft all be much rather fo in conjunction: But I fhall only defire it may be remembred, That whatever Evidence has been brought in Proof of the Divine Authority of the Books of

Mofes,