Six Discourses on the Miracles of our Saviour Part 27

How long it will be, before I publish another, and _second_ Part of my _Defence_, is uncertain, for a Reason, that I need not again mention.

But if it please G.o.d, that I enjoy Life, Health, and Liberty, I'll go on with my Designs. I am resolv'd to give the _Letter_ of the Scriptures no Rest, so long as I am able by Reason and Authority to disturb it. If our Ministers of the _Letter_ will not ascend with me, the sublime and allegorical _Mountain_ of divine Contemplation, they than have no Comfort nor Enjoyment of themselves in the low _Valley_ of the _Letter_, if I can disquiet them. Notwithstanding what the _Bishop_ has written in _Vindication_ of _Jesus_'s Miracles, the litteral Story of them, by the Leave of G.o.d, and of the Civil Magistrate, shall be afresh attack'd, and perhaps with more _Ridicule_, than I used before. What should I flinch for? The litteral Story of _Jesus_'s Miracles is not, in the Opinion of the Fathers, as well as of my self, agreeable to Sense and Reason; neither can _Jesus_'s Authority and Messiahs.h.i.+p be founded on the _Letter_ of them. I am not for the _Messiahs.h.i.+p_ of a carnal _Jesus_, who cured the bodily Diseases of Blindness and Lameness; but for Messiahs.h.i.+p of the spiritual _Jesus_, who will cure the Blindness and Lameness of our Understandings. I am for the Messiahs.h.i.+p of the spiritual _Jesus_, who will expel the mercenary Preachers out of his Church, after the manner that _Jesus_ in the Flesh is supposed to have driven the Sellers out of the Temple, which litterally is but a sorry Story. I am for the Messiahs.h.i.+p of the spiritual _Jesus_, who exorcised the furious and persecuting Devils out of the Mad-men of _Jews_ and _Gentiles_; and tho' he permitted them to enter into a Herd of Ecclesiastical Swine, yet will precipitate them into the Sea of Divine Knowledge. I am for the spiritual _Jesus_, who will cure the _Woman_ of the Church, of her _Issue of Blood_, that is shed in Persecution and War; which her Ecclesiastical Physicians, and Quack-Doctors of the _Clergy_, have not been able to do, tho' they have received large Fees and Revenues to that End. I am for a spiritual _Messiah_, who will cure the Woman of the Church of her _Infirmity_, at the Spirit of Prophecy, of whose Infirmity this Age is her _eighteenth_ Year. So could I write of all _Jesus_'s Miracles; for the whole Evangelical History is Figure and Shadow of the spiritual _Jesus_, whom we should _know to be in us of a Truth, unless we be Reprobates_. The _Clergy_, if they are not wilfully blind, may hence see my Christian Faith and Principles; and be a.s.sured, that what I do in this Controversy, is with a View to the Honour of G.o.d, the Advancement of Truth, the Edification of the Church, and Demonstration of the Messiahs.h.i.+p of the Holy _Jesus_, to whom be Glory for ever. _Amen._

~_FINIS._~

FOOTNOTES:

[338] His Sermon before the Societies for Reformation; and his Charge to the Clergy.

[339] In his Dedication.

[340] Page 35.

[341] _Vindication of three Miracles_, p. 76, 77.

[342] c.u.m venerit ergo Elias exponendo Legem _Spiritaliter_, convert.i.t Corda Patrum ad filios. _De Civit. Dei._ Lib. XX. c. 29.

[343] Litteram Legis sequentes in Infidelitatem & vanas Superst.i.tiones incurrunt. _In Matt. Tract._ 26.

[344] In Dedication of Third _Discourse_.

[345] Page 177.

[346] _Discourse_ the Fifth, _p._ 69.

[347] Inveniatur enim in Christianismo non minor (nequid dicam arrogantius) fide Ratio & Enarratio Propheticorum aenigmatum, parabolarumque evangelicarum, aliarumque innumerarum figurarum, quae vel in _Gestis_ continentur vel Legibus. _Cont. Celsum. Lib._ I.

[348] Quidam corporalia ejus Miracula stupentes, majora intueri non norunt. Quidam vero ea, quae gesta audiunt in Corporibus, nunc amplius in animis admirantur,----Tales nos esse debemus in Schola Christi. _In Serm._ xcviii.

[349] In _Discourse_ the Sixth.

[350] _Mystery of G.o.dliness_, B. x. c. 2.

[351] 1 Tim. v. 8.

[352] _Defence of Christianity_, p. 347.

[353] Ibid. p. 353.

[354] Est adhuc alia Pugna his omnibus violentior; quod ii, quod Legem secundum Carnem intelligunt, adversantur his, qui secundum spiritum sentiunt, & persequuntur eos. _In Genesiae Hom._ vii.

[355] In Fifth _Discourse_, p. 67.

[356] In his Preface, _p._ 17, 18.

Mr. _WOOLSTON_'s

DEFENCE

OF HIS

DISCOURSES

ON THE

MIRACLES of our _Saviour_.

Against the BISHOPS of St. _David_'s and _London_, and his other Adversaries.

PART II.

_Nec Religionis est cogere Religionem, quae sponte suscipi debeat, non Vi._ Tertull.

_LONDON_:

Printed for the AUTHOR, and Sold by him next Door to the _Star_, in _Aldermanbury_, and by the Booksellers of _London_ and _Westminster_.

MDCCx.x.x.

[_Price One s.h.i.+lling._]

[Ill.u.s.tration]

TO THE

RIGHT HONOURABLE

Sir _Robert Raymond_, Kt.

Lord Chief Justice of the Court of _King's Bench_.

MY LORD,

That I am no Flatterer of _Patrons_, appears by my other _Dedications_: If therefore I should tell your _Lords.h.i.+p_, what I can in Sincerity, that I think you as wise and good a Magistrate, as any of your _Predecessors_ in that _High Court_ of _Justice_, you may be a.s.sured, I don't dissemble.

Tho' I was so unfortunate, _My Lord_, as to receive a Sentence in your Court, which I wish'd to avoid; yet I have no worse Opinion of your Wisdom and Justice. Your Conduct towards me, from first to last, has rather heighten'd than lessen'd my Esteem and Veneration for you. I observ'd in you such a Tenderness for our religious Liberties; such an Aversion to Persecution; and such Moderation towards my self, that if I had been absolutely acquitted, it would have been but with somewhat more Satisfaction.

And if I now write to clear my self of all Suspicions of Infidelity, for which I was sentenced; your _Lords.h.i.+p_, I humbly presume, will not think the worse of me. It is not expected that the Innocent should confess Guilt, in a Compliment to any Court of Justice: Nor does the Condemnation of the Guiltless, at any time almost, so much affect the Justice of the Magistrate, as the Honesty of the Evidence: So I, _My Lord_, know how to lay the Blame entirely on my Ecclesiastical Accusers, and believe your _Lords.h.i.+p_ will be rather pleas'd than offended at any good Defence I can make for my self.

From the Beginning of the Prosecution against me, _my Lord_, I hardly believed, that any Sentence would be pa.s.s'd on me, till the Day I received it: And the Reason was, not only because the good Tendency of my _Discourses_ was so visible, that I thought it could not be overlook'd by the Wise and Learned; but because I imagin'd our _Bishops_ would have better consulted their Reputation, than to let Matters come to this Issue.

That it is a Transgression of the Law of the Land to write against Christianity, establish'd in it, I'll not question, since I have your _Lords.h.i.+p_'s Word for it: But for all that, I could wish, for the Sake of Christianity, that such a Liberty was indulg'd to _Infidels_.