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needs no Addition, for The Law of the Lord is Perfect; and

2dly. Is fo Evident that it needs no Infallible Judge for its Interpretation, for it makes Wife the Simple.

Both which I fhall endeavour to make out both from Scripture and Reason; and that breifly and didactically; entring as little into Controverfy as I well can.

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3dly. I fhall then fhew how he ought to be qualify'd, that would read the Scripture with profit; imply'd in this Word of the Text, the Simple.

ift. Then, We affirm That the Holy Scriptures contain in them all things neceffary to be believ'd or Practis'd, in order to the obtaining of Everlafting Salvation.

I. This Propofition might be undeniably prov'd by Induction, that is, by a bare recital and enumeration of all the Articles of Chriftian Faith, and all the Rules of Chriftian Obedience; and by fhewing where each, and every of them is particularly and expressly taught and commanded in feveral places of Holy Writ; but this would amount to no less than a whole Body of Divinity,

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and being too large an Undertaking for this Time and Place, I fhall wave it at present, leaving it to every Man's own Obfervation and Experience to fatisfy Himself of the Truth of it; and challenging the Adverfaries of the Truth of it to produce One fingle Point abfolutely neceffary to Salvation, relating either to Belief or Practice, which is not fomewhere or other clearly fet down and deliver'd to us in Scripture.

That the Law of Mofes was, as the Pfalmift here ftiles it, a Perfect Law, that is, that it contain'd all things that were neceffary for God's People the Jews to Believe and to do in order to obtaining the Promises of it, is plain from the frequent and preffing admonitions of Mofes to the Children of Ifrael to the moft Religious, ftrict, and Inviolable Obfervation of it; And that they might know that That was the entire Will of God, and to which Only he expected their Exact Obedience, how often through the whole Book of Deuteronomy do's he repeat, Thefe are the Teftimonies, and the Statutes, and the Judgments, and Hear O Ifrael, the Statutes and the Judgments which I speak in your ears this Day: Now these are the Commandments, Thefe and none elfe, the Statutes and the Judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that thou mightft

might ft fear the Lord to keep all his Statutes? And that none might doubt but that All his Statutes were herein contain'd, that nothing more was to be expected to make up the Perfection of the Law, or supply any imaginable defect in it; what a peremptory Caution do's he give? Ye shall not Add unto the Word that I command, neither shall ye Diminish ought from it, Deut. 4. 2. and again, repeating the fame prohibition, What thing foever I command you, obferve to do it, thou shalt not Add thereto, nor Diminish from zt. Chap. 12. 32. Since therefore no Additions might be made to it, it must be concluded to have been already Perfect: Perfect both as a full direction of Life and Manners, and as a compleat Sum of all they were to Believe and expect. To these Scriptures therefore it was that our Saviour while he was upon Earth, upon All occafions appeal'd, from These he convinc'd the Jews of their Unbelief, Thefe he commanded all to Search, Search the Scriptures for in Them Ye think ye have Eternal Life, and they are they that teftify of me. John 5. 39. It was to Thefe Scriptures that Father Abraham referr'd the Brethren of the Rich Glutton, as to a fure guide, to direct 'em to the perfect Bliss which he himself enjoy'd, and to secure them from that place of Torment

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where their Brother lay. They have Mofes and the Prophets let them hear Them. If these were not fufficient for their Converfion no other means would be available. If they hear not Mofes and the Prophets, neither will they be perfuaded tho One rofe from the Dead. It was to thefe Scriptures, as to a sufficient Rule exclufive of all Others, the Prophet Ifaiah commands to have recourse in all Cafes for Infallible Counsel and Direction, To the Law and to the Teftimony. Ifai. 8. 20.

Now if in the First Covenant and in the Old Law, there was fuch perfection; can we imagine that in the more full discovery which God has made of his Will, when in thefe laft Days he has spoke to us by his Son, there fhould be any thing wanting, any thing neceffary to Everlasting Life omitted, any defect left to be made up by Human Additions and Devices? No certainly, but as our Saviour fully inftructed his Apostles in every particular that was necessary to be Known, Believ'd, Hop'd, or Practis'd in order to the Salvation of his Church, as he himself Teftifys, fpeaking to the Father, I have manifefted thy Name unto the Men which thou gavest me out of the World, I have given unto Them the Words which thou gavest me and they have received them, and have known furely that I have come out from thee. John 17. 6, 8. and fpeaking to thofe Apostles them

felves,

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felves, All things that I have heard from my Father I have made known unto You, John 15.15. So they as faithfully deliver'd what they had been taught by their Great Master, keeping nothing back that was neceffary, nor adding any thing of their own; but difpenfing entirely, as faithful Stewards, all that Truth, and nothing but that Truth, which they had receiv'd from Chrift. And. This they did, both by their Preaching to thofe, with whom they were here converfant upon Earth; and alfo by Writing to all fucceeding Ages of the Faithful. For fince the extraordinary Gifts, with which they were endu'd from above, were to cease and dye with them, it was neceffary that they fhould leave behind them a full and compleat Summary of all the Doctrine they had receiv'd, and in Their Writings preach to the end of the World, and being Dead yet speak. To this End they were mov'd by the Holy Ghoft to Compose those Books which make up the Canon of the New Testament: and that nothing material might thro' Human frailty, out of Ignorance or Forgetfulness, Negligence or Inadvertency be omitted, Our Saviour gives 'em this Promife, The Comforter which is the Holy Ghoft whom the Father will fend in my Name, He fhall teach you All things, and bring All things to your remembrance, what foever I have faid unto You.

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John

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