11. All God’s _laws_ are _God’s word_; but all _God’s word_ is not his _law_. _I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt_, is the word of God; it is no law. Neither is all that, which for the better declaring of _God’s word_ is pronounced or written together with it, instantly to be taken for _God’s word_. For, _Thus saith the Lord_, is not the voice of God, but of the preacher or prophet. All that, and only that, is the word of God, which a true prophet hath declared God to have spoken. Now the writings of the prophets, comprehending as well those things which God, as which the prophet himself speaks, are therefore called the word of God, because they contain the word of God. Now because all that, and that alone, is the _word of God_, which is recommended to us for such by a true prophet, it cannot be known what _God’s word_ is, before we know who is the true prophet; nor can we believe _God’s word_, before we believe the prophet. Moses was believed by the people of Israel for two things; his _miracles_ and his _faith_. For how great and most evident miracles soever he had wrought, yet would they not have trusted him, at least he was not to have been trusted, if he had called them out of Egypt to any other worship than the worship of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob their fathers. For it had been contrary to the _covenant_ made by themselves with God. In like manner two things there are; to wit, _supernatural prediction of things to come_, which is a mighty miracle; and _faith in the God of Abraham, their deliverer out of Egypt_; which God proposed to all the Jews to be kept for marks of a true prophet. He that wants either of these, is no prophet; nor is it to be received for God’s word, which he obtrudes for such. If faith be wanting, he is rejected in these words, (Deut. xiii. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5): _If there arise among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign, or a wonder; and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, &c. that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death._ If prediction of events be wanting, he is condemned by these, (Deut. xviii. 21, 22): _And if thou say in thine heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken? When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken; but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously._ Now, that that is the word of God which is published for such by a true prophet; and that he was held to be a true prophet among the Jews, whose faith was true, and to whose predictions the events answered; is without controversy. But what it is, to follow other gods, and whether the events which are affirmed to answer their predictions, do truly answer them or not, may admit many controversies; especially in predictions which obscurely and enigmatically foretel