Physicians, and as it seems to a bad Purpose; so very great and large
Revenues of the Church, are expended on her ecclesiastical Doctors in
spiritual Physick: And to what End and Purpose? Why, to open and widen
the bleeding Wounds of the Church, which they should heal and salve
up. It is now about _twelve Hundred Years_, like the _twelve Years_ of
the Woman, that the _Clergy_, our Practitioners in Theological
Physick, have received of the Church vast Fees, Stipends and
Gratuities (for before that time her _Doctors_ prescrib'd freely) to
take care of her Health and Welfare; but unless God provide in due
time a Medicine of his own, she is likely to continue in a diseased
and sorrowful Condition for all them.
One would think that the Woman of the Gospel might have had more Wit
than to lay out all she was worth upon _Physicians_ to no good
Purpose; one would think that after some Experience of their
Insufficiency to cure her, she might have forborn seeing them, and
reserved the Remains of her Estate for better Uses: So the Fees and
Revenues of the Church, after due Experience of the Inability of her
spiritual Doctors to heal her Sores, might have been in my Opinion
better employ'd, and the Church of Christ more out of Danger of Wounds
and Sickness, by Sin and Error. Certain it is, that many an _Issue of
Blood_, through Persecution and War, had been prevented; if such
barbarous and blood thirsty Doctors of Ecclesiastical Physick, had
never been so fee'd and hired to take care of the Welfare of the
Church, which, for all their Spiritual Medicines, will continue in a
languishing Condition, till heal'd by the Virtue and Graces of the
Spirit of Christ in his foresaid appointed Time.
So much then to the mystical Interpretation of the Story of the Cure
of the _Issue of Blood_ in this Woman. Every minute Circumstance of
it is thus to be allegorized, if need was. Whether the _Clergy_ will
like this parabolical Explication of it, I neither know nor care. They
have their Liberty with _Atheists_ and _Infidels_ to believe as little
of it as they think fit; and I hope they'll give me leave with the
Fathers of the Church to believe as much of it as I please. But
whether they approve of this allegorical Interpretation of this
supposed Miracle or not; they must own, that if the Church, after the
foresaid _twelve Ages_, should be purified and sanctified; if her
Errors and Corruptions, of which the Woman's _Uncleanness_ is a Type,
should be heal'd; if War and Persecution, typified by her _Issue of
Blood_, should then entirely cease; if all Christians should then be
united in Principle, Heart and Affection, and made to walk in a
peaceable and quiet State, as the Woman was[97] _bid to go in Peace_;
if the Church should then _come behind_ Jesus (which[98] is a Figure
of future Time) and rightly touch by Faith, and apprehend his[99]
Garments or Words of Prophecy, about which Christians have hitherto
been _pressing_ and urgent; and if the Gifts of the Spirit, like
_Virtue on the Woman_, should then be poured forth upon the Church to
the absolute Cure of her present Diseases, we must, I say, allow the
Story of this Woman to be an admirable Emblem and typical
Representation; and the Accomplishment of it most miraculous and
stupendous; and not only an indisputable Proof of the Power and
Presence of Christ with his Church, but a Demonstration of his
_Messiahship_, in as much as an almost infinite Number of Prophecies
of the Old Testament, will thereupon receive that Accomplishment,
which hitherto, by no shadow of Reason, can be pretended to.
After such a mystical Healing of the _Hæmorrhage_ of the Church, there's
no doubt on't, but the Story of this Woman in the Gospel will be allow'd
to be typical and emblematical. In the mean time, without making a
Parable of the Story of her, I assert, there is little or nothing of a
Miracle to be made of her Cure, unless we were at a greater Certainty
about the Nature of her Disease, and the Manner, rationally speaking,
of _Jesus_'s healing of it. And so I pass to the Consideration of
2. Another Story of a miraculous Cure perform'd by _Jesus_ on another
Woman, and that is on her, who[100] _had a Spirit of Infirmity, eighteen
Years, and was bow'd together, and could in no wise lift up
herself----being bound of Satan_, &c. This too, as I suppose, is with
our _Divines_ a great Miracle, and one of the greatest that _Jesus_
wrought, or it had not been specify'd, but cast indiscriminately into
the Number of all manner of Diseases, which he heal'd. And for the sake
of the Letter, and to please our _Divines_, whom I would not offend
wilfully, I will allow, that _Jesus_ might lay his Hands on, and speak
comfortably to such a drooping, stooping, and vaporous Woman, full of
Fancies of the _Devil_'s Temptation and Power over her; and she might
thereupon recover, and be afterwards of a more cheerful Heart, and erect
Countenance, freed from the whimsical Imagination of being
_Satan-ridden_: And what of all that? Where's the Miracle? If the Story
of such a Miracle had been related of any _Impostor_ in Religion, of an
_Arch-Heretick_, or _Popish Exorcist_, our _Divines_ would have flouted
at it; they would have told us, there was nothing supernatural and
uncommon in the Event, nor any thing at all to be wonder'd at in it.
Taking the _Devil_ out of this Story, and there's no more in it, than
what's common for a simple, melancholy, and drooping Woman, to be
chear'd and elated upon the comfortable Advice and Admonition of a
reputedly wise and good Man. And the putting the _Devil_ into the Story,
in another Case, our _Divines_ would have said was only the Fancy of the
Woman, or the Device of the _Miracle-Monger_, to magnify his own Art and
Power. And if _Infidels_, _Jews_, and _Mahometans_, should say so of
this Story of _Jesus_, they would be no more unreasonable in their
Conjectures and Solutions of this Miracle, than we should have been in
another and parallel Case.
The _Pope_, when last at _Benevento_, is said to have exorciz'd a
_Dæmon_ out of a young Maid, which our _Divines_ no more believe than
_Infidels_ do. But it is not at all impossible or improbable, that a
young Woman might be troubled with Vapours, and go droopingly upon it,
whom the holy Father, of whose Prayers and Sanctity she had a good
Opinion, might relieve with his Talk, and give another Turn to her
Thoughts and Temper: And if she fancy'd herself before possess'd with a
_Dæmon_, or rather, if the _Pope_'s Partizans persuaded her so, it's not
unlikely to make a Miracle on't. Just so may _Infidels_, with their
Descants on this Miracle before us, reduce and lessen it: And what must
we Believers do then? Why, we must find out a Way to ascertain the Truth
and Greatness of the Miracle, or give it up. We must determine certainly
what was the Woman's Distemper, and how the Cure of it by ordinary Means
was impossible, or make no more Words about it.
And how can we come at the Knowledge of this Woman's Disease, but by the
original Words of the _Evangelist_. St. _Luke_ says, she was one [Greek:
pneuma echousa astheneias], _that had a Spirit of Weakness_, that is,
was poor-Spirited and pusilanimous; and if she was [Greek: synkyptousa],
_bow'd down_ upon't, its no more than might be expected of a
disconsolate, melancholy and dejected Person. Here then is the Disease
of the Woman: If it had been worse, St. _Luke_, the Physician, if he was
of Sufficiency in his Art, should better have express'd himself; so as
to give us another Conception of it. And if _Satan_ had not been
brought into the Tale, whom it is easy, by reasoning as above, to
exorcise out of it, here is a no more grievous Distemper, than what upon
the comfortable Exhortations of a wise Man may be cured. And do what our
Divines can, they can make literally no more of this Story.
It is said, that for _eighteen Years_ the Woman labour'd under this
Disease. And she might be _hippish_ and _drooping_ for a longer time,
and be no less easily at last cured. It's pity the _Evangelist_ had
not told us how old this Woman was, when the Distemper first seiz'd
her; then we could have made better Conjectures about the Nature and
Cure of it. If there was any room to suppose, either from the Words of
Scripture or extra-scriptural History, that she was about _fifty_ or
_sixty_, when she first began to droop and the _Devil_ got upon her
Back; here had been Scope for a most stupendous Miracle; and our
_Divines_ might have asserted, what no Body could have contradicted,
that _Jesus_ had made an old Woman, who was _bow'd down_, not only
under the Weight of _Satan_, but under the Burthen of seventy or
eighty Years, young again; and had restored her to the Health, Vigor,
and Beauty of one of fifteen. Here would have been a mighty Miracle
indeed. And I don't doubt, but our _Divines_ would willingly get into
such a Notion of this Miracle, and would heartily espouse it, but for
the Offence they must needs give to decrepid old Women, who may be out
of Conceit with themselves upon it, as if they carried the _Devil_ on
their Shoulders, as the Cause of their Decripedness and Incurvity. And
such an Offence would be of ill Consequence.
Reasonably then speaking, there was not much in the Disease and Cure
of this Woman. Excepting that Part, which _Satan_ bears, in the Story,
there is nothing wonderful in it. And supposing _Jesus_ might exorcise
the _Devil_ out of this Woman, or dismount him from off her Shoulders;
yet even this makes nothing for his Divine Power and Authority, in as
much as many _Exorcists_ among the _Jews_ and even among _Papists_, if
Protestants had not more Wit than to believe it, could do as much. And
after all, I don't believe the _Evangelist_ intended, that our Saviour
should be had in Admiration for the Letter of this Miracle, or St.
_Luke_ would accurately have described the Disease, so as to put it
out of the Power of Nature and Art to heal it, and of the Wit of
_Infidels_ to cavil at the miraculous Cure of it. Neither do I find
that the Fathers of the Church ever trouble themselves about the
Letter of this Story, which is some Argument, that no great Heed is to
be given to it; but are only curious about the Mystery, for which this
Miracle was related, and which I come now to give an Account of.
As the Fathers said of the Woman with her _Issue of Blood_, that she
was a Type of the Church; so they say of this Woman with her _Spirit
of Infirmity_, that she is a[101] Figure of the Church too.
As the Woman was _bow'd together_; so the Church, as the Fathers do
interpret, may be said to be[102] _bow'd down_ to the Earth, when she
is _prone_ and _bent_ to, and _intent on_ the literal or earthly
Interpretations of the Scriptures; and _can in no wise lift up her
self_, like the Woman, _that is_, can't raise her Thoughts to the
Contemplation of the cælestial, spiritual, and sublime Sense of them.
Hence we see the Propriety of the Name of the Woman's Disease, call'd
[Greek: pneuma astheneias], a _Spirit of Weakness_, which is not
properly significative of any bodily Distemper, but succinctly is very
expressive of the Church's _Weakness_ at the _Spirit_ of Prophecy,
which at this Day she labours under.
As it was _eighteen Years_ that the Woman was griev'd with her _Spirit
of Infirmity_, for so long had her Distemper been growing on her; so it
is almost eighteen (hundred) Years, or the eighteenth Century of Years,
that this _Infirmity_ of the Church at the _Spirit_ of Prophecy has been
coming on her: And she is now so _bent_ to the Earth of the Letter, that
nothing less than the Hand and Power of Jesus, that erected the Woman,
can raise her to mystical, divine, and sublime Contemplations on the Law
and Prophets. St. _Augustin_[103] will have these _eighteen Years_ of
the Woman's _Infirmity_, as she is a Type of the Church, to be
synchronical with the[104] _three Years_ of the Fig-Tree's
Unfruitfulness. I don't rightly apprehend his mystical Arithmetic. But
this is certain, upon the Authority of the Fathers, that those two
Numbers, with the _twelve Years_ of the Woman's _Issue of Blood_, are
all conterminous and will end together: Consequently at the same time,
that the Woman of the Church will be cured of her _Issue of Blood_, she
will be heal'd of her _Infirmity_ at the _Spirit_ of Prophecy; _that
is_, at the Conclusion of certain grand Periods of Time she will enter
upon a blessed State of _Peace_ and _Vision_; which is the concurrent
Doctrine of the Fathers, as any one may discern, that has dip'd into
them, and is a good Confirmation of our present Exposition, and mystical
Application of the miraculous Story before us.
St. _Luke_ says, that the Woman could not lift up herself [Greek: eis
to panteles], _v._ 11. which, without animadverting on our _English_
Translation, should be rendered, _until all was perfected_, or until
the _Perfection of Time_, which, the Apostle[105] and the Fathers
agree, is the Time for the Church to be cured of her _Weakness_, and
to be endu'd with _Power_ at the Spirit of Prophecy.
As the Woman was heal'd by _Jesus_ on the Sabbath-Day; so the Church,
upon the ample Authorities of the Fathers, which Men of Reading will
excuse me the Production of, is certainly to be heal'd of her _spiritual
Infirmity_, at the Understanding of Prophecy against the mystical
and[106] grand Sabbath, which, according to the Fathers, commences at
the Expiration of her eighteen (hundred) Years _Weakness_.
But the _Ruler of the Synagogue is said to be moved with Indignation,
v._ 14. at this charitable Work of _Jesus_, in healing of the Woman,
because it was done on the Sabbath-Day; which in my Opinion can't be
literally true: Though I am willing enough, to please our _Divines_,
to allow as much as may be of the Letter of this Story, yet I except
against this Part of it. _Origen_ says, there are some things of the
Gospel related as Facts, which were not done; and I believe this of
the Ruler of the Synagogue to be one of them. Human Nature, I think,
is not capable of such base and unnatural Resentment. Works of
Necessity, and requisite Offices of Kindness and Charity to Man and
Beast, were allow'd by the Law, and practised by the _Jews_ on the
Sabbath: And the Cure of this Woman, though on the Sabbath-Day, was
such an Act of Beneficence and Compassion in the Holy _Jesus_, that I
can't but think _bad_, as well as _good_ Men, would rather glorify
God, that had given such Power unto Man, than find fault with it. But
in the Mystery of this Part of the Story, there is clear Sense and
Truth. Who then is this _Archisynagogus_, or Ruler of the Synagogue,
that will be full of Indignation at the healing of the Church of her
foresaid _Infirmity_ at the _Spirit_ of Prophecy? _Origen_ says that
the[107] right Interpretation of the Names of Persons and Places in
Scripture is of good Use to the mystical Application. Accordingly
_Archisynagogus_ does signify the _Chiefs of our Congregations_: And
who should they be then but the Clergy? And if this ben't enough to
fix this Name and Character upon them, then let _Theophanes Cerameus_
speak here, who says, that the _Archisynagogus_, is a[108] _Type of
all Priests_, who will be against the foresaid miraculous healing of
the Church. And why will the _Clergy_ be mov'd 'with Indignation at
the curing the Church of her _Infirm_, and restoring her to a _sound_
Spirit of Prophecy? Because as St. _Augustin_ says,[109] they are not
only _bow'd down_ to the Letter themselves; but because this
_Infirmity_ of the Church will be a Reproach to them, in as much as it
is a Proof of their Apostacy and Insufficiency at Prophecy; and the
Cure of it will be attended with such Consequences, as affect their
Reputation and Interests. Who can question but the _Clergy_, who are
the _Archisynagogus_ of the Text, and who are for the Church's
_bending_ and _stooping_ to the low Sense of the Letter of the
Scripture, will be averse to her being rais'd, _lifted up_, and
erected to the Contemplation of the sublime, anagogical, and heavenly
Sense of it? Such an Healing and Erection of the Church will vex them
at the Heart, as it will bring _Shame_ and loss of Interest along with
it; and they will undoubtedly be _Adversaries_ to this good Work of
_Christ_, which, upon the Testimony of all Antiquity, is to be done on
or against the Evangelical and great Sabbath.
Our Saviour is supposed to reprove the _Ruler_ of the _Synagogue_, for
his _Indignation_ at the Cure of the Woman on the Sabbath-Day, saying,
_v._ 15. _Thou Hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the Sabbath
loose his Ox or his Ass from the Stall, and lead him away to Watering?
And ought not this Woman to be loos'd from this Bond on the
Sabbath-Day?_ There is Force in this Argument according to the Letter:
And the _Ruler_ of the _Synagogue_, and other _Jesus_'s Adversaries
hereupon, might well be _asham'd_ for finding Fault with such a
merciful and beneficent Work done on the _Sabbath_; when they
themselves did Works on the _Sabbath_ of much less Consequence. But
to[110] the Mystery. What may be said to our Ministers of the Letter,
of whom the _Archisynagogus_ is a Type, for their Averseness to the
healing of the Church in like manner? Why, that they are _Hypocrites_,
that is, superficial Criticks on the Scriptures, and don't consider
that _the Law is spiritual_, and how against the Evangelical Sabbath
every Man is to be released from his Bondage and Servility to
irrational Principles (for which he has been like an _Ox_ and an
_Ass_) and to be conducted to drink of the Waters of Divine Wisdom:
For this grand Sabbath will be a Day of absolute Liberty, perfect
_Rest_, immense Knowledge, real Vision and Contemplation on God and
his Providence, as the antient _Jews_ and Fathers so copiously
declare, that they who are ignorant herein, may be _ashamed_;
consequently they might know, that the Church is to be cured of her
_Spirit of Weakness_ at Prophecy on that Day.
But _Satan_ is said to have _v._ 16. _bound_, and, as is supposed,
_bow'd down_ this Woman; the literal Truth of which I much question:
But how then has _Satan bound and bow'd down_ the Church? This,
seemingly, is the great Difficulty in the mystical Application of this
Story, and must be the great Curiosity of my Readers to know how I
will account for it. If the Fathers don't help me out at this dead
Lift, and that clearly and intelligibly too, I shall abate of my
Veneration for them. If they don't tell me, and make me to apprehend,
what this _Satan_ is, that for many Ages has _bound_ and oppress'd the
Church after the supposed Manner of the typical Woman, I had better
have held my Peace, and said nothing to this parabolical Miracle.
The Writings of the _Evangelists_ so abound with Stories of _Satan_,
_Belzebub_, the _Devil_, and of greater and less Number of _Devils_,
and of _Dæmons_ and of _unclean Spirits_, more than any Histories
before, as one would think, if these Stories were literally to be
understood, that was the Age in which Christ came, that _Hell_ first
broke loose, and then primarily infested Mankind; and that upon the
Destruction of _Judæa_ and Propagation of the Gospel, the _Devils_
accompanied the _Jews_ in their Dispersion, or the _Apostles_ in their
Travels, and have been the Tempters, Seducers, and Tormentors of
other Nations ever since.
_Arnobius_[111] says, _That before Christ, Devils were things unknown
to the World_; by which _Arnobius_ must mean, either that they were
hardly talk'd of before, or that their Nature was not understood, till
Christ inform'd us of it. In both these Senses, I believe, _Arnobius_
may be taken, _viz._ that there was not only little Talk of _Satan_
and the _Devil_, but less of his Nature apprehended, before _Christ_
by his Parables and parabolical Miracles, rightly interpreted,
instructed us in it. And if after Ages have departed from the true and
original Doctrine of _Devils_, making a literal Story of that, which
is only mystical and cabalistical; and have formed to themselves
_Ideas_ of hideous and horrible Fiends, _Mormos_ and _Hobgoblins_, it
shall not disturb me.
As to the Place and State of _Hell_, many are the Notions of _Divines_
of several Ages past, as well as of the present. I shall not recount
them all here, much less refute any of them. But there is an antient,
rational, and cabalistical Notion of Hell, which I have learned of the
Fathers, who signify, that the babylonish and bewilder'd State of
Christ's Church may be call'd _Hell_, because, as the Word [Greek:
adês] does import, it is a State _without Vision_. Hence _Origen_
says,[112] that whoever can form to himself an _Idea_ of the Church in
time to come, when she will be dignified with the Title of the _New
Jerusalem_, for her Peace and Vision may understand what is meant by
_Hell_, and all that is written of it.
As then the Fathers had a cabalistical Notion of _Hell_, which modern
_Divines_ are Strangers to; so they had of _Satan_, and the _Devil_
and his Angels. I own myself at a Loss for an express Testimony out of
the Fathers about _Satan_ in the Text before us; but according to
their Explications of _Satan_ in other Places, nothing more is meant
by him here than, "That furious Principle and Temper in Man that is
not only averse to Liberty in Religion, but for binding, restraining,
and tying down the Church and Christian People to certain Opinions and
Ways of Worship." In such a State of Bondage has the Woman of the
Church been kept, by such a _Satan_, in one Order of Men or other,
for all Ages past. And that this is a right and primitive Notion of
_Satan_, I could prove by Authorities enough. _Origen_ tells us[113]
of the Names of Kings in prophetical Scripture, which would be Enemies
to Christ's Church; but such Kings never did, nor would personally
exist; their Names, according to Interpretation, standing only for so
many Sins and Vices, reigning in Mankind. To the same Purpose he
says[114] _human Vices are Devils_: And _Satan_ himself, (as the Word
signifies _Adversary_) is with him[115] and the antient _Jews_ too, no
other than an _Aversness_ in Man to the Will of God. I could quote
other Fathers to this Purpose; but being sparing of my Pains at
present, I refer my Readers to my former[116] _Discourse_, in which
they will see the Opinion of the Fathers about the _Devils_ in the
Madman, and afterwards in the Herd of Swine; from which let them
judge, whether the Fathers could have any other Notion of _Satan_
here, than what I have represented. It is certain, and may be easily
prov'd, that by _Satan_, the _Dragon_ and the _Devil_, mentioned in
the _Revelations_, nothing more is to be understood, than a furious,
persecuting, satanical, and diabolical Temper in Man; and if what St.
_John_ writes of _Satan_ be cabalistical and allegorical; the other
Assertions of the Evangelists and Apostles about _him_ will of Course
come under that Denomination; or the primitive Rule of Interpretation
of Scripture according to the natural Signification of the Names of
Persons and Places is not good.