am not only oblig'd to, by the Promise I made in my former; but am
encouraged to it by the Reception which _that_ met with. If any of our
_Clergy_ were, and besides them, few or none could be offended at my
former _Discourse_, they should have printed their Exceptions to it,
and, if possible, their Confutation of it, which might perhaps have
prevented me the giving them any more Trouble of this Kind.
In my former _Discourse_ I fairly declar'd, that if the _Clergy_ could
disprove my Arguments against the _Letter_, and for the _Spirit_ of
the Miracles I there took to task, I would not only desist from the
Prosecution of my Design, but own my self an impious _Infidel_ and
_Blasphemer_, and deserving of the worst Punishment: But since they
are all mute and silent, even in this Cause, which in Honour and
Interest they should have spoken out to, they ought not to be angry,
if I proceed in it. I have given them time enough to make a Reply, if
they had been of Ability to do it: What must I think then upon their
Silence? Nothing less than that my Cause is impregnable, and my
Arguments and Authorities in Defence of it irrefragable; and though
they don't professedly yield to the Force of them; yet they have
nothing to say in Abatement of their Strength, or it had certainly
seen the Light before now.
I go on then in my undertaking to write against the literal Story of
our Saviour's Miracles, and against the Use that is commonly made of
them to prove his divine Authority and Messiahship: And this I do, I
solemnly again declare it, not for the Service of Infidelity, but for
the Honour of the Holy Jesus, and to reduce the _Clergy_ to the good
_old Way_, and the _only Way_ of proving his Messiahship, and that is,
by the allegorical Interpretation of the Law and the Prophets.
Therefore, without any more Preamble, I resume again the Consideration
of the three Heads of Discourse, before proposed to be treated on to
this Purpose. And they are,
I. To shew, That the Miracles of healing all manner of Bodily
Diseases, which _Jesus_ was justly fam'd for, are none of the proper
Miracles of the _Messiah_, neither are they so much as a good Proof of
his divine Authority to found a Religion.
II. That the literal History of many of the Miracles of _Jesus_, as
recorded by the _Evangelists_, does imply Absurdities, Improbabilities,
and Incredibilities; consequently they, either in whole or in part, were
never wrought, as they are commonly believed now-a-days, but are only
related as prophetical and parabolical Narratives of what would be
mysteriously, and more wonderfully done by him.
III. To consider, what _Jesus_ means, when he appeals to his Miracles,
as to a Testimony and Witness of his divine Authority; and to shew
that he could not properly and ultimately refer to those, he then
wrought in the _Flesh_, but to those mystical ones, which he would do
in the _Spirit_, of which those wrought in the Flesh are but mere
Types and Shadows.
I have already spoken, what I then thought sufficient to the first of
these Heads; and though I could now much enlarge my Reasons, and
multiply Authorities upon it to the same Purpose; yet I shall not do
it; but only, by Way of Introduction to my following _Discourse_, say,
that if it had been intended by our Saviour, that any rational
Argument for his divine Authority and _Messiahship_ should be urged
from his miraculous healing Power; the Diseases which he cured, would
have been accurately described, and his Manner of Operation so
cautiously express'd, as that we might have been sure the Work was
supernatural, and out of the Power of Art and Nature to perform: But
the _Evangelists_ have taken no such Care in their Narrations of
Christ's Miracles. As for Instance, _Jesus_ is supposed often
miraculously to cure _Lameness_; but there is no Account of the nature
and degree of Lameness he cured; nor are we certain, whether the Skill
of a _Surgeon_, or Nature it self, could not have done the Work
without his Help. If the _Evangelists_ had told us of Men, that wanted
one or both their Legs, (and such miserable Objects of Christ's Power
and Compassion, were undoubtedly in those Days as well as in ours) and
how _Jesus_ commanded Nature to extend itself to the entire Reparation
of such Defects; here would have been stupendous Miracles indeed,
which no Scepticism, nor Infidelity itself could have cavill'd at; nor
could I, nor the Fathers themselves have told how to allegorize, and
make Parables of them. But there is no _such_ Miracle recorded of
Christ, nor any thing equal to it; so far from it, that the best and
greatest Miracles of _Jesus_, which must confessedly be those related
at large, (for no Body can suppose he did greater than those more
particularly specify'd) are liable to exception, being so blindly, and
lamely, and imperfectly reported, as that, by Reasonings upon the
Letter of the Stories of them, they may be dwindled away, and reduced
to no Wonders, which brings me to treat again on the
II. Second Head of my Discourse, and that is, to shew, that the
literal History of the Miracles of _Jesus_, as recorded in the
_Evangelists_, does imply Absurdities, Improbabilities and
Incredibilities; consequently they, in whole or in part, were never
wrought, but are only related as parabolical Narratives of what would
be mysteriously, and more wonderfully done by him.
To this Purpose I, in my former Discourse, took into Examination
_three_ of the Miracles of Jesus, _viz._ those, of _his driving the
Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple_; Of _his exorcising the Devils
out of the Madmen, and sending them into the Herd of Swine;_ and _Of
his Transfiguration on the Mount_. How well I perform'd on these
Miracles which have been admired for their literal Story, let others
judge and say.
I now will take into Consideration three others of _Jesus_'s Miracles,
_viz._ those, Of _his healing a Woman that was afflicted with an Issue
of Blood, twelve Years_; Of _his curing the Woman that labour'd under
a Spirit of Infirmity, eighteen Years_; and Of _his telling the_
Samaritan _Woman her Fortune of having had five husbands, and living
then in Adultery with another Man_: Which are, all three, reputedly
most miraculous and admired Stories. The two former, they say, are
Arguments of _Jesus_'s mighty Power; and the latter, of his immense
Knowledge: But how little of certain Power and Knowledge there is in
any of them, according to the Letter, will be seen in the sequel of
this Discourse. Infidels, I dare say, if they had not wanted Liberty,
would e'er now have facetiously exposed those Stories. If I snatch
that Work out of their Hands, our _Clergy_ ought to be glad, because
what I do in it, is to the Honour of the Holy _Jesus_, and to turn
those pretendedly miraculous Stories into divine Mysteries.
In my former Discourse I gave my _Readers_ some Reason to expect, that
in _this_ I would treat on some of _Jesus_'s Miracles, which I there
mentioned, _viz._ _On his turning Water into Wine at a Marriage in_
Cana _of_ Galilee; and _On his feeding of Thousands with a few Loaves
and Fishes in the Wilderness_; and _On his Cure of the Paralytick, for
whom the Roof of the House was broken up to let him down into the Room
where_ Jesus _was_, &c. And I then really did design to speak to these
Miracles, but upon Consideration, finding them most ludicrous Subjects
according to the Letter, I forbear it at present, having no
Inclination to put the _Clergy_ quite out of all Temper. If any should
say, this is Fear and Cowardice in me, I can't help it: But, for all
that, now I have the _Clergy_ in a tolerable good Humour for Liberty,
I'll endeavour to keep them in it, and not disturb them by an hasty
and unnecessary Provocation of them. Who knows not, that the _Clergy_,
like an untamed _Colt_, that I have a mind to ride, may be apt to
winch and kick, and may give me a Fall before I come at the end of my
Journey, to the Disappointment of my Readers? They shall therefore be
gently handled and stroak'd, till they are a little more inur'd to the
Bit and Saddle: And for their Sakes will I postpone such Miracles as
are most obnoxious to Ridicule, and at present chuse the aforesaid
_three_, that of almost any in the Gospel may be most inoffensively
treated on. I begin then,
1. To speak to that Miracle of _Jesus_'s[79] healing a _Woman diseased
with an Issue of Blood, twelve Years_. To please our _Divines_, I will
allow as much of the Truth of the Letter of this Story, as they can
desire. The Fathers themselves, who are for turning the whole History
of _Jesus_'s Life into Allegory and Mystery, don't deny that a Woman
was cured of an _Hæmorrhage_, after the Manner that is here described
by the Evangelists. St. _Augustin_ says[80] of this Miracle, _that it
was done, as it is related_; and I have a greater Veneration for his
Authority, than to gainsay it. But for all that, _Infidels_ may and
will take into Examination the nature of this Miracle, and if possible
make little or nothing of it. And if I do this for them, it is not to
do Service to Infidelity, but to turn Mens Heads to the mystical Use
of it, for which it is recorded.
As there is a particular Narration of this Miracle, among the few
others, that are specified; so Reason should tell us, that if the
Letter of the Story of _Christ_'s Miracles, as our _Divines_ hold, is
only to be regarded, this is one of the greatest that Jesus wrought,
or it would not be related by itself, but thrown into the Lump of all
manner of Diseases, which He heal'd. And how then shall we come to the
Knowledge of the greatness of this Miracle? Why, there are but two
Ways to it, and they are,
_First_, By considering the nature of the Disease, or the lamentable
Condition of the Patient before Cure. And
_Secondly_, By considering the Manner or Means by which the Cure was
performed.
If one or both of these Considerations don't manifest the Certainty of
a Miracle, _Infidels_ may conclude there was none in it.
_First_, As to the nature of the Disease of this Woman, we are much in
the Dark about it, and very uncertain of what Kind and Degree it was.
St. _Matthew_ writing of it, says the Woman was [Greek: aimorroousa],
that is, _obnoxious to bleeding_; St. _Mark_ and St. _Luke_ say of her,
that [Greek: ousa en reumate aimatos], she was in an efflux or running
of Blood. But neither one nor the other of the _Evangelists_ signify of
what Degree her _Hæmorrhage_ was, nor from what part of her Body it
proceeded, nor how often or seldom she was addicted to it. It might be,
for ought we know, only a little bleeding at the Nose, that now and then
she was subject to: Or it might be an obnoxiousness to an Evacuation of
Blood by Siege or Urine: Or it was, not improbably, of the menstruous
Kind. Any of these might be the Case of this Woman for what's written;
and I don't find that any of our _Divines_ have determined of what sort
it was. But a great Miracle is wrought, they think, in her Cure, without
knowing the Disease; which _Infidels_ will say is asserted at Random and
without Reason, in as much as it is necessary to know the nature of the
Distemper, or none truly and properly can say, there was a great, much
less a miraculous Cure wrought.
But supposing this _Hæmorrhage_ proceeded from what Part of the Body
our _Divines_ think fit; How will they make a grievous Distemper of it
in order to a Miracle? The Woman subsisted too long under her Issue of
Blood, and bore it too well, for any to make her Case very grievous.
_Beza_[81] will have it, that is was a constant and incessant Effusion
of Blood that the Woman labour'd with. But this could not be, nor was
it possible, as I suppose _Physicians_ will agree, for Nature to
endure it so long, or the Woman to live twelve Days, much less twelve
Years under it.
No more then, than some slight Indisposition can reasonably and
naturally be made of this Woman's Distemper. And it would be well, if
Infidels would rest here with their Objections against it. But what if
they should say, that this _Hæmorrhage_ was rather of Advantage to the
Health of the Patient, than of Danger to her, and that the Woman was
more _nice_ than _wise_, or she would never have sought so much for
Help and Cure of it? Some _Hæmorrhages_ are better kept open than
stop'd and dry'd up; and if _Infidels_ should say, that _this_ was a
Preservative of the Life of the Woman, like an _Issue_, at which
Nature discharges itself of bad Humours, Who can contradict them? Nay,
if they should say that _Jesus_'s Cure of this Woman's _Hæmorrhage_
was a Precipitation of her Death, for she died some time after it,
rather than a Prolongation of her Life, for she lived twelve Years
under it, and was of good Strength, when she applied to our Saviour
for Cure, or she could never have born the press of the People to come
at him; Who can gainsay them? It is true she was very sollicitous for
a Cure, and uneasy under her Distemper, or she would never have spent
all she had on _Physicians_; which is a Sign, some may say, that her
Disease was grievous, irksome, and dangerous, as well as incurable by
Art. But _Infidels_ will say, not so; for there are some slight
cutaneous Distempers, sometimes issuing with a little purulent and
bloody Matter, that nice Women will be at a great Expence for Relief,
and are always tampering, and often advising about them, though to no
Purpose: And if they should say that this was the worth of the Case of
this Woman, Who can disprove it?
In short then here is an uncertain Distemper both in Nature and
Degree; how then can there be any Certainty of a Miracle in the Cure
of it? Mr. _Moore_, the _Apothecary_, accurately describes the
Diseases he pretends to have cured; and he is in the right on't so to
do, or he could not recommend his Art, and aggrandize his own Fame. So
the Bodily Disease of this Woman should have been clearly and fully
represented to our Understanding, or we can form no Conception of
Christ's Power in the Cure of it. And I can't but think that the
_Evangelists_, especially St. _Luke_ the _Physician_, had made a
better Story of this Woman's Case, if Christ's Authority and Power had
been to be urg'd from the Letter of it. It's enough to make us think,
Christ cured no extraordinary and grievous Maladies, or the
_Evangelists_ would never have instanced in this, that so much
Exception is to be made to. As then, reasonably speaking, there was no
extraordinary Disease in this Woman cured, and consequently no great
Miracle wrought; so let us now,
_Secondly_, Consider the Manner of the Cure, and whether any Miracle
is to be thence proved. _The Woman said within her self,[82] that if
she could but touch the Hem of Jesus's Garment, she should be made
whole._ And I can't but commend her, at this distance of Time, for the
Power of her Faith, Persuasion, or Imagination in the Case, which was
a good Preparative for Relief, and without which, it's certain, she
had continued under her Disease. The Power of Imagination, it's well
known, will work Wonders, see Visions, produce Monsters, and heal
Diseases, as Experience and History doth testify. There being many
Instances to be given of Cures performed by frivolous Applications,
Charms, and Spells, which are unaccountable any other Way, than by the
Imagination of the Patient. Against the Reason and Judgment of a
_Physician_, sometimes the diseased will take his own Medicines and
Benefit. And I don't doubt, but Stories may be told of Cures wrought,
the Imagination of the Patient helping, by as mean a Trifle, as the
Touch of Christ's Garments, and no Miracle talk'd on for it. Even in
the ordinary, natural, and rational Use of Physick, it is requisite,
that the Patient have a good Opinion of his _Physician_ and of his
Medicines. A good Heart in the Sick, tends not only to his Support,
but helps the Operation of Prescriptions. As despair and dejection of
Mind sometimes kills, where otherwise reasonably speaking, proper
Medicines would cure; so a good Conceit in the Patient at other times,
whether the Medicines be pertinent or not, is almost all in all. And
if Infidels should say that this was the Case of this Woman in the
Gospel; if they should say as St. _John of Jerusalem_[83] did, _that
her own Imagination cured herself_; and should urge the Probability of
it, because _Jesus_ could do no Cures and[84] Miracles against
Unbelief, Who can help it? In this Case our _Divines_ must prove, that
this Woman's _Hæmorrhage_ was of that kind, that no Faith nor Fancy
in herself could help her without the Divine Power; but this is
impossible for them to do, unless there had been a more certain
Description of her Disease, than the _Evangelists_ have given of it.
Our _Divines_ will indeed tell us, what I believe, that it was the
Divine Power co-operating with the Faith and Imagination of the Woman
that cured her; because Jesus says _that Virtue had gone out of him_
to the healing of her: And I wish _Infidels_ would acquiesce here, and
not say, that _Jesus_'s Virtue hung very loose on him, or the Woman's
Faith, like a Fascination, could never have extracted it against his
Will and Knowledge: But what if they should say, that _Jesus_, being
secretly appriz'd of the Woman's Faith, and Touch of him, took the
Hint; and to comfort and confirm her in her Conceit, and to help the
Cure forward, said, _Virtue was gone out of him?_ This would be an
untoward Suggestion, which if Infidels should make, our Divines must
look for a Reply to it.
It is said of the _Pope_, when he was last at _Benevento_, that he
wrought three Miracles, which our Protestant _Clergy_, I dare say,
believe nothing at all of. But, for all that, it is not improbable, but
that some diseased People, considering their superstitious Veneration
for the _Pope_, and their Opinion of the Sanctity of the _Present_,
might be persuaded of his Gift of Miracles, and desirous of his Exercise
of it; and if they fancyfully or actually received Benefit by his Touch,
I don't wonder, without a Miracle. And what if we had been told of the
_Popes_ curing an _Hæmorrhage_ like this before us? What would
_Protestants_ have said to it? Why, "that a foolish, credulous, and
superstitious Woman had fancy'd herself cured of some slight
Indisposition; and the crafty _Pope_ and his Adherents, aspiring after
popular Applause, magnified the presumed Cure into a Miracle. If they
would have us _Protestants_ to believe the Miracle, they should have
given us an exacter Description of her Disease, and then we could better
have judg'd of it". The Application of such a supposed Story of a
Miracle wrought by the _Pope_, is easy; and if _Infidels_, _Jews_, and
_Mahometans_ who have no better Opinion of _Jesus_, than we have of the
_Pope_, should make it, there's no Help for it.
And thus have I made my Descants on this supposed Miracle before us
and argued, as much as I could, against the Miraculousness of it, both
from the _Nature_ of the Disease, and the _Manner_ of the Cure of it.
Whether any one shall think I have said any thing to the Purpose or
not, is all one to me. My Design in what I have done, is not to do
Service to Infidelity, but, upon the Command and Encouragement of the
Fathers, to turn Mens Thoughts to the mystical Meaning of the said
Miracle, which I come now to give an Account of.
None of the Fathers (excepting St. _Chrysostom_[85], who writes here
more like an _Orator_ than a _Physician_) ever trouble themselves, when
they speak of this Miracle, about the Nature of the Disease, literally,
in this Woman, or the greatness of the Cure of it; but alone bend their
Studies to the mystical Interpretation, for the sake of which, this
Evangelical Story was written, and originally transacted.
Accordingly, they tell us that this Woman is a Type[86] of the Church of
the _Gentiles_ in after Times. And as to her _Hæmorrhage_ or _Issue of
Blood_, they understand it of the[87] Impurity and Corruption of the
Church by ill Principles and bad Morals, that the would _flow with_.
Some of the Fathers, as[88] _Gregory Nazianzen_, and[89] _Eusebius
Gallicanus_, will have the _Issue of Blood_ to be a Type of the scarlet
Sin of Blood-guiltiness in the Church: If so, we must understand it of
the Effusion of Christian Blood by War and Persecution.
The _twelve Years_ of the Woman's Affliction with her _Hæmorrhage_ is
a typical Number of the Church's impure State for above _twelve
Hundred Years_. And whether some of the primitive Church did not, by
the said _twelve Years_ of the Woman, understand _twelve Ages_, I
appeal to[90] _Irenæus_, to whom I refer my Readers, Accordingly this
typify'd Woman of the Church, should be the same with the Woman[91] in
the Wilderness, that, as St. _John_ says, was twelve Hundred and sixty
Days or Years there sustained; and by whom many Protestants, as well
as the Fathers, understand the Church universal. When the said twelve
Hundred and sixty Days or Years of the Church's being in the
Wilderness, did commence or will end, is none of my Business to
enquire or ascertain. But as this Woman in the Gospel is said after
_twelve Years_ Affliction, to be cured of her Disease by _Jesus_; so
it is the Opinion of the Fathers, that the Church universal, after
_twelve Hundred Years_ of her Wilderness State, will be purified and
sanctified by the Gifts of the Spirit of Christ, and enter upon a more
holy, peaceable, and happy Condition, absolutely freed from her _Issue
of Blood_, which, through Persecution and War, she has for many Ages
labour'd under. It is not my Concern to collect all the Authorities of
the Fathers to this Purpose; but only say, that if at the End of
twelve Hundred and sixty Days or Years, the Church, like the Woman, be
not cur'd of her _Hæmorrhage_ and mystical _Wounds_ and _Sores_; if
her present impure and unsound State be not chang'd into an holy,
healthy, and peaceable one; many good _Protestants_, as well as the
Fathers, are mistaken, and abundance of Prophecies of the Old and New
Testament, that have been hereunto urged, will lose their Credit.
But who are meant by the _Physicians_ of the Woman, that have had the
mystical _Hæmorrhage_ and Diseases of the Church Under Cure all this
while? Who should, but pretended Ministers, of the Gospel? Ministers
of the Gospel are not only by the Fathers call'd metaphorically[92]
spiritual _Physicians_; but our _Divines_ and Preachers of all
Denominations like the Metaphor, and think themselves able
_Physicians_ at the Diseases of the Church, which they are forward to
prescribe and apply Medicines to, whenever, in their Opinion, she
stands in need of them. Whether our _Divines_ like to be accounted the
_Physicians_ of the Text before us, I much question; but it is certain
that[93] _Eusebius Gallicanus_ expressly says, that our _Divines_ and
pretended Philosophers are meant by them; and venerable _Bede_[94]
upon the Place is of the same Mind too.
The Woman of the Gospel is said[95] to _suffer many Things of many
Physicians, and was nothing better'd, but rather grew worse_; that is,
she grew worse not in time only, but through the Use of her
_Physicians_, who were her[96] Tormentors. So the Diseases of the
Church in time have increased, for all the Use she has made of her
spiritual Physicians, _the Clergy_. In every Age has the Church been
degenerating in Morals and Principles, as any one knows, that is able
to make an Estimate of Religion in times past; and all along have her
ecclesiastical _Quack Doctors_ contributed to her ill State of Health.
As many Physicians with their different Applications tormented the
poor Woman; so our many _Empericks_ in Theology with their different
_Schemes_ of Church Government and various _Systems_ of Divinity,
like so many Prescriptions for Cure, have increased the Divisions,
widen'd the Wounds, and inflamed the Sores of the Church. And if the
Woman's _Issue of Blood_ be, according to the Fathers, a particular
Type of the Blood of the Church, that is shed in Persecution and War;
our Theological Pretenders to Physick, have been so far from providing
and prescribing a good _Stiptic_ in this Case that they have been the
Occasion of the Effusion of much Christian Blood; there having been
many a War and Persecution, that these _Incision_ Doctors, who should
be all _Balsam_, have been the Cause of.