The Jews before the Roman captivity, distinguished the sacred books into the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa, or holy writings; and read only the Law and the Prophets in their Synagogues.  And Christ and his Apostles laid the stress of religion upon the Law and the Prophets, Matt. vii. 12. xxii. 4. Luke xvi. 16, 29, 31. xxiv. 44. Acts xxiv. 14. xxvi. 22. Rom. iii. 21.  By the Hagiographa they meant the historical books called Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, the book of Job, the Psalms, the books of Solomon, and the Lamentations.  The Samaritans read only the Pentateuch:  and when Jehosaphat sent men to teach in the cities, they had with them only the book of the Law; for the Prophecies now extant were not then written.  And upon the return from the Babylonian captivity, Ezra read only the book of the Law to the people, from morning to noon on the first day of the seventh month; and from day to day in the feast of Tabernacles:  for he had not yet collected the writings of the Prophets into the volume now extant; but instituted the reading of them after the collection was made.  By reading the Law and the Prophets in the Synagogues, those books have been kept freer from corruption than the Hagiographa.

In the infancy of the nation of Israel, when God had given them a Law, and made a covenant with them to be their God if they would keep his commandments, he sent Prophets to reclaim them, as often as they revolted to the worship of other Gods:  and upon their returning to him, they sometimes renewed the covenant which they had broken.  These Prophets he continued to send, till the days of Ezra:  but after their Prophecies were read in the Synagogues, those Prophecies were thought sufficient.  For if the people would not hear Moses and the old Prophets, they would hear no new ones, no not tho they should rise from the dead.  At length when a new truth was to be preached to the Gentiles, namely, that Jesus was the Christ, God sent new Prophets and Teachers:  but after their writings were also received and read in the Synagogues of the Christians, Prophecy ceased a second time.  We have Moses, the Prophets, and Apostles, and the words of Christ himself; and if we will not hear them, we shall be more inexcusable than the Jews. For the Prophets and Apostles have foretold, that as Israel often revolted and brake the covenant, and upon repentance renewed it; so there should be a falling away among the Christians, soon after the days of the Apostles; and that in the latter days God would destroy the impenitent revolters, and make a new covenant with his people.  And the giving ear to the Prophets is a fundamental character of the true Church.  For God has so ordered the