Six Discourses on the Miracles of Our Saviour, and Defences of His Discourses

by Thomas Woolston

I have indeed written against the literal Stories of Jesus's Miracles, which I still nauseate and abominate the Confinement of Mens Thoughts to it; but if our Clergy would but a little bear with me, they shall see, I alone do Honour to their literal Stories, by making them beautiful Emblems of future and more wonderful Operations. I have indeed call'd Jesus an Impostor, Juggler, Fortune teller (and what not?) by way of Objection against the Letter of his Miracles; but I alone shall do him Honour, in those very Miracles, which he wrought in the Flesh, by proving him to be the Wisdom, as well as Power of God, and that God was in him of a Truth, and endued him with a divine Prescience of Futurities, or he could not then have wrought such curious and admirable Models and Prefigurations of his mysterious Works at his second Advent.

Whether the Bishop of St. David's, and others, can as yet certainly discern the foresaid Consequence of Christ's mystical Accomplishment of his Miracles upon his spiritual Advent, I can't guess; but if they'll favour me with their Opinion on my Rabbi's Objection above, which will lead us to the allegorical Interpretation of the Law, they shall soon clearly see it.

And now I would have the Bishop of St. David's to compare this Part of my Defence with the Third Chapter of his Vindication, which treats on the Practice of the Fathers in interpreting the Scriptures in a mystical and allegorical Method, and consider whether He or I write the most like a Christian of an orthodox and primitive Faith and Practice. The Bishop says[397] "That it is certain, that without such Assistance (of the Spirit) as St. Paul enjoy'd, the mystical Expositions of the Scripture by Origen and other Fathers, tho' made in Imitation of St. Paul, have no such Authority as that of St. Paul stampt on them." What, in the Name of Wonder, does the Bishop here mean? Tho' St. Paul has not allegoriz'd the whole Law, but only some few Parts; yet he expressly says, often enough, that the whole is a Figure and Shadow of Things to come under Christ; and our Saviour himself, as the Fathers understood him, intimates often, that all Things that were written in the Law and the Prophets, are Types and Prophecy of him, and that he came to fulfil them to a Tittle. Is not here Authority enough for the Fathers to allegorize the whole Law and the Prophets, in order to shew the Agreement between the Type and Antitype; between the Shadow and the Substance; between the Figure and the Thing figured; and between the Prophecy and its Accomplishment. And whether the Fathers, in their allegorical Expositions, rightly or not, hit off the Sense of the Prophecy; (for it must be confess'd they variously allegorized this and that Passage of Scripture) yet it was their and our Duty and Office, from the Words of Christ, and the Practice of the Apostle, to keep on in the allegorical Method, till an Harmony between the Prophecy and its Accomplishment was made most clear.

The Bishop says in this his Third Chapter of his Vindication, "That the Fathers and I have abusively cited this Passage of St. Paul, The Letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth Life, in Justification of our mystical Expositions;" whereupon the Bishop gave us a large Explication out of his own Head, on that whole Verse; which (because of the Shallowness of my own Pate, or the Confusion of the Bishop's) I don't understand, and much question, whether the Bishop understands himself. However, I will here paraphrastically give my Readers the easy, plain, and intelligible Sense of the Fathers and my self on that whole Verse[398] thus, Who hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament, not of the Letter [that is, not of the literal Sense of the Law and the Prophets, which is the Old Testament] but of the Spirit, [that is, of the spiritual Sense of the Law and the Prophets, which is the New Testament] for [as the Testimony of Jesus, according to St. John, is the Spirit of Prophecy, so] the Letter [that is, the literal Sense of the Law and Prophets] killeth [that is, nulls the Testimony of Jesus which is in them] but the Spirit [that is, the spiritual Sense of the Law and Prophets] giveth Life [to their prophetical Testimony.] This is most certainly the Sense of the Fathers on this Text; and I believe the Bishop will not gainsay it, tho' he may dislike it. Hence the Fathers, when they spoke properly and not vulgarly, call'd the spiritual Sense of the Law and the Prophets, the[399] New Testament, and asserted that there was or would be such an Agreement between the Old and New Testament; that is, between the Testament of the Letter, and the Testament of the Spirit of the Scriptures, as that there would not be[400] one Tittle in the one, that would not be consonantly fulfilled in the other; and so far as I already apprehend this Harmony between these two Testaments, of the Letter, and of the Spirit, I must needs say with Origen[401] that it's pleasant and ravishing to behold and contemplate it, and hope in a short time to make the Bishop of St. David's a Partaker of the same Pleasure. The same right Notion had the Fathers of the Gospel of Christ, which they have of the New Testament. Vulgarly speaking, the Writings of the Evangelists, and of the Apostles, were call'd the Gospel of Christ: But properly speaking, Christ's spiritual Accomplishment of the Law was the Gospel: Hence is the Meaning of their frequent saying, "That under the Law the Gospel was vail'd, and under the Gospel the Law was reveal'd." Hence they said, "That those Men had nothing of the Gospel, who understood not the Spirit of the Law." Hence they said, "The Gospel was hid to those, who had the Veil of the Letter upon their Hearts in reading of the Old Testament." Hence it was too, that they said, "That the Gospel was but in Part, and that too in a very little Part, reveal'd at Christ's first Coming; the full Revelation of it being reserv'd for his second and more glorious Advent, which the World is now in great Want of, for the curing of their spiritual Blindness, Deafness, and Lameness; that is, for the Correction of their gross Ignorance and Errors in Religion; for the Healing of their Divisions; for the Manifestation of Truth; for the Conversion of Jews and Gentiles; and for the Reformation of the Manners of Mankind.

Dear Jesu, to what a sad Purpose have our Hired Priesthood and Ministers of the Letter, of all Denominations, hitherto studied and preach'd, even till they have lost the true, primitive, and Apostolical Notion of "the Gospel; "of Revelation; and "of the New Testament!

The Bishop of London has of late publish'd two Pastoral Letters on the Certainty, Necessity, and Use of Revelation, against Infidels, particularly against my self, whom he (God help his Understanding!) takes for a Favourer of Infidelity: And to do the Man Justice, I believe he's sincere, and laments at his Heart the Unbelief of this Age: But however, when the true Gospel, otherwise call'd the Revelation of the Law and the Prophets, or the New Testament (which will be fatal to the Ministry of the Letter, and an hired Priesthood) shall be republished, restored, and repreach'd, I dare say, without Censoriousness, or pretending to a prophetick Spirit, that He, of all the Inhabitants of London and Westminster, will be the greatest Enemy to it; and for no other Reason than his own, "because of his Unwillingness to part with his worldly Interests, which will induce him to embrace any Arguments against it, and to cherish any Doubts and Scruples concerning it."

Whether the Bishop of St. David's intends to proceed in this Controversy against me, as he has begun, I know not. He promised us his Second Volume last Winter, but has adjourn'd the Publication of it to the next, and I am apt to think he'll defer it to latter Lammas: For being, I suppose, sensible, that his First Volume is built on the false Bottom of my supposed Infidelity, he'll hardly trouble the World with another of that kind. But however, I'll not release him out of the Controversy. I shall insist upon his letting me know his Opinion on my Rabbi's Objection against Jesus's Messiahship, herein contain'd, which if he'll favour me with, I'll forgive him all the Virulence, and pass by all the Impertinence (to say no worse) of his Vindication: Otherwise I shall be tempted to do an unpleasant Work to myself, as well as an ungrateful one to him; that is, further to expostulate with him for his false Accusations, Misrepresentations, and other ill Usage of me.

When I review my Discourses on Miracles, and consider not only their visible Tendency to the Proof of Jesus's Messiahship, but my solemn Declarations of the Belief of Christianity; I wonder that such a Number of Writers against me should all of them (excepting Mr. Laurence[402] whom I here thank and praise for his Ingenuity) take me for an Infidel. I don't indeed much wonder, that the inferior Tribe of Levi (such is their egregious Ignorance!) should take me for one; but that such presumed great Scholars, as are the Bishops of London and St. David's, should so mistake me, is astonishing. And I am not as yet fully satisfied, whether it be their Ignorance or their Malice, thus to accuse me of Infidelity: If it was really Ignorance in them, they'll soon be convinced of their Error; and then, like good Christians, they'll make me Satisfaction for the Injuries done me. But if it was Malice, and in Revenge on me for writing so much against an Hired-Priesthood, then they'll go on, and die hard, without any Remorse for the Troubles, Sufferings and Expences they have put me to.

As I am really a Christian, and shall, by God's Help, demonstrate the Messiahship of Jesus, to which my Discourses on his Miracles were subservient; so I will make bold to tell the Bishops concern'd, that I am as certainly persecuted, as ever any Christian was since the Days of the Apostles: And they will do well to consider, whether they have not everlastingly disgraced themselves, and done some Dishonour to the best Civil Administration, that ever Nation was bless'd with, by engaging them in the Persecution of the most sincere Advocate for the Truth of Christianity, that ever set Pen to Paper.

I am so far from being an Infidel, that, notwithstanding my Discourses on Miracles, I am an implicit Believer, and most devout Admirer of Doctrines, Historical Facts, and Traditions of the primitive Church, adhering to many Notions of the Fathers, besides their allegorical Scheme (as will be seen in the Sequel of this Controversy) which the Divines of these last Ages have rejected, as so many Weaknesses and Mistakes in them. And when I come more fully to open my Mind, it will be well if the Clergy don't change their Note about me; and instead of accusing me of Infidelity, ridicule me for too much Credulity, and even Superstition; or I would not espouse such and such Doctrines and Traditions, which all learned and Protestant Criticks have discarded. Some of these old Notions I'll keep to myself, for fear of being over-much laught at by the Clergy for them, but others upon Occasion I will divulge; and don't care if I tell my Readers here one of them, thus: