0 God, according to his promes {Deut. 18,15} that he wolde neuer leaue his Church destitute of a Prophet, hathe from time to time accomplished the same: whose office was not onely to declare vnto the people the things to come, whereof thei had a special reuelation, but also to interpret & declare the Law, and to applie particulary the doctrine, conteined brifely therein, to the vtilitie & profite of those, to whome thei thoght it chiefly to apperteine, and as the time and state of things required. And principally in the declaration of the Lawe they had respect to thre things, which were the greound of their doctrine: First to the doctrine conteined briefly in the two tables: secondely to the promises & threatenings of the Law: & thirdely, to the couenant of grace & reconciliation grounded vpon our Sauiour Jesus Christ, who is the end of the Law. Whereunto thei nether added nor diminished, but faithfully expounded the sense and meaning thereof. And according as God gaue them vnderstanding of things, thei applied the promises particularly for the comfort of the Church and the members thereof, and also denounced the meanaces against the enemies of the same: not for anie care or regard to the enemies, but to assure the Church of their sauegarde by the destruction of their enemies. And as touching the doctrine of reconciliation they haue more clearely intreated it then Moses, and set forthe more liuely Jesus Christ, in whome this couenant of reconciliation was made. In all these things Isaiah did excel all the Prophetes, and was most diligent to set out the same, with most vehement admonitions, reprehensions, and consoldations: euer applying the doctrine, as he sawe that the disease of the people required. He declareth also manie notable prophecies which he had receiued of God, as touching the promes of the Messiah, his office, and his kingdome. Also of the fauour of God toward his Church, the vocation of the Gentiles, and their vnion with the Jewes. Which are as moste principal pointes conteined in this boke, and a gathering of his sermons that he preached. Which after certeine daies that thei had stand vpon the Temple dore (for the maner of the Prophetes was to set vp the summe of their doctrine for certeine dayes that the people might the better marke it, as {Isa. 8,1, & Habak. 2,2) the Priests toke it downe and reserved it among their resisters: and so by Gods prouidence these bokes were preserved as a monument to the Church for euer. As touching his persone and time, he was of the Kings stocke: for Amoz his father was a brother to Azaiah King of Judah, as the best writers agre, and prophecied more then 64 yeres from the time of vzziah vnto the reigne of Manasseh, whose father in lawe he was (as the Ebrewes write) and of whome he was put to death. And in reading of the Propheis this one thing among other is to be observed, that thei speake of things to come as thogh thei were now past, because of the certeintie thereof, and that thei colde not but come to passe, because God had ordeined them in his secret counsel, and so reueiled them to his Prophetes.