Six Discourses on the Miracles of our Saviour Part 5

[Ill.u.s.tration]

A SECOND DISCOURSE ON THE MIRACLES OF OUR _SAVIOUR_, &c.

I here publish another _Discourse_ on our Saviour's Miracles, which I 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 Messiahs.h.i.+p: 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 Messiahs.h.i.+p, 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 _Messiahs.h.i.+p_ 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 Compa.s.sion, 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 s.n.a.t.c.h 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 _Haemorrhage_, 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 a???????sa, that is, _obnoxious to bleeding_; St. _Mark_ and St. _Luke_ say of her, that ??sa e? ?e?ate a?at??, she was in an efflux or running of Blood. But neither one nor the other of the _Evangelists_ signify of what Degree her _Haemorrhage_ 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 a.s.serted 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 _Haemorrhage_ 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 _Haemorrhage_ 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 _Haemorrhages_ 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 _Haemorrhage_ 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 b.l.o.o.d.y 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 _Haemorrhage_ 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 superst.i.tious Veneration for the _Pope_, and their Opinion of the Sanct.i.ty 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 _Haemorrhage_ like this before us? What would _Protestants_ have said to it? Why, "that a foolish, credulous, and superst.i.tious 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 _Haemorrhage_ 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 n.a.z.ianzen_, and[89] _Eusebius Gallica.n.u.s_, 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 _Haemorrhage_ 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] _Irenaeus_, 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 _Haemorrhage_ 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 _Haemorrhage_ 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 Gallica.n.u.s_ 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.

The Woman _spent all her Living_, all her yearly Income, upon her 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 Pract.i.tioners 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 G.o.d 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 languis.h.i.+ng 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 Circ.u.mstance 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 _Messiahs.h.i.+p_, 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 _Haemorrhage_ 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 a.s.sert, 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 pa.s.s 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 _Daemon_ 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 Sanct.i.ty 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 _Daemon_, 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 p?e?a e???sa as?e?e?a?, _that had a Spirit of Weakness_, that is, was poor-Spirited and pusilanimous; and if she was s????pt??sa, _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 a.s.serted, 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 _p.r.o.ne_ 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 caelestial, spiritual, and sublime Sense of them.