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.