The works of the reverend and faithful servant of Jesus Christ M. Richard Greenham,…The workes of the reuerend and faithfull seruant af Iesus Christ M. Richard Greenham,…

There may be also another argument, why this place should not be literally understood, and that is drawn from the interpretation of the like places of Scripture. Exod. 19. Moses telleth the people, that the Lord hath called them to be Kings, Priests, and Prophets. This is repeated by the Apostle Peter in the new Testament, & by John in the Apocalypse, and is applied as in this place generally to all Christians. Now the Jews did never think, that every man was a King sitting in a throne, thereby overthrowing the political estate▪ they thought not, that every man was a Priest, taking that office of the Priest upon him, but that they had the liberty of their consciences, & were freed from the bondage of men, & of sin, as also that now through Christ they might offer up first their prayers, then their souls and bodies to be an holy and acceptable sacrifice to him. Neither do we at this day think any otherwise of the kingly Priesthood of Christians. And why then should we think grossly and literally, that indeed we are become Prophets having that special calling, and so take away that order of Teachers and learners, which God hath ordained. For as we be Priests, so are we Prophets: if the speech must be qualified in the one, why ought it not so to be in the other? Again, we say of prophecies, as we say of miracles. Before the word was written the Lord taught his people by visions and by dreams: and that he might prepare them to receive his doctrine and confirm them in it, he both wrought miracles himself, and gave power to others likewise to work, as we may see in Mose• ▪ Elijah, and Elisha: yea he gave power to do miracles, when the Law was written, because the Gospel was not yet revealed; and when the Gospel was revealed, he continued his gift, because the holy Spirit was not yet given; yea and when the Spirit was poured out upon the Apostles, yet this gift was in the Church, that as yet the Spirit had not gotten credit. But when the Gospel was revealed, the spirit sent down, and confirmed by signs and wonders, then the use of miracles ceased; not that there are no miracles at all now (for we do not shorten the hands of the Lord) but yet they be but few, and those extraordinary. Now the rules whereby we shall try them whether they be of God or no, be these:

There may be also another argument, why this place should not be literally vnderstood, and that is drawne from the interpretation of the like places of Scripture.