But what Time of Day was it that Jesus came to the Figtree? It was in the Morning. And of what Day? That is uncertain as to the Letter, but according to the mystical Extent of the Three Years, whether we understand the Figtree as a Type of the Church, or of all Mankind of all Ages, it will be on the Morning of the great Sabbath, when, upon the Appearance of the Light of Christ, like the Rising of the Sun, an unfruitful and erroneous Church must needs wither away. And the Disciples on the said Morning will, as Origen[178] says, with their intellectual Eyes behold her waste with Admiration. And then too, they under Christ will do what is done to the Figtree, of the Church, and remove Mountains of Antichristian Power, that exalt themselves against him; as the Fathers interpret, and I need not explain.
And what is meant by the Means, which St. Luke speaks of, to make the Figtree of the Church fruitful on the Sabbatical Year; the Year it is to be let alone to bear Fruit in? There must be digging about it, that is[179] into the Earth of the Letter of the Scriptures, and dunging of it, that is calling[180] to Remembrance her Sins and Errors of the Time past, which rationally speaking will make the Church to bring forth good Fruit.
After this Fashion is the rest of the Parable of the Figtree to be allegorized out of the Fathers. St. Gregory[181] the Great and St. Augustin, make these two Stories or Parables, viz. of the Figtree, and of the Woman with her Spirit of Infirmity, as they are blended together in St. Luke, to be Figures of the same Mystery. The eighteen Years of the Woman's Infirmity and the three Years of the Figtree's Unfruitfulness, they will have to be mystically synchronical. And the Woman's Incurvity to the Earth is, they say, significative of the same Thing with the Unfruitfulness of the Figtree. And the Erection of the Woman on the Sabbath is of the same Import with the Reservation of the Tree for Fruitfulness on that Day. And let any one see, if they don't admirally agree, as I have interpreted these two Parables.
Before I dismiss this Story of the Figtree, I can't but adore the Providence of God, that the Miracle has been hitherto placed in the withering away of the Tree. If the Miracle had been a plain Story of a dead and wither'd Tree's being made to bring forth Leaves and Fruit on a sudden; this would have been such a manifestly supernatural Work, and so agreeable to modern Notionists about Miracles, that Mens Thoughts would have been so absorpt in the Consideration of the Letter, as they would never have extended them to the Contemplation of the Mystery. And our Divines would have made such a Noise, in our Ears of the Excellency and Marvellousness of such a Miracle, as that there would be no bearing of it. But But as the Evangelists have in a good Measure suppress'd all mention of the after Fruitfulness of the Tree; and the Story, by Misconstruction, is clog'd with the foresaid Difficulties and Absurdities, we are of Necessity driven to the search after Mystery for good Sense and Truth in it.
And thus have I spoken enough to the Miracle of Jesus's cursing the Figtree, which according to the Letter is a foolish and absurd Story: But the mystical Operation, of which the Letter is a Shadow, will be ravishing, marvellous and stupendous; and not only a Proof of Christ's Power, and Presence in his Church, but a Demonstration of his Messiahship, in as much as an infinite Number of Prophecys upon Prophecys, will thereupon be discern'd to be accomplish'd, or the Church can't bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit, that is Spiritual Interpretations of the Scriptures, like ripe Figs. And so I pass to an
8. Eighth Miracle of Jesus, and that is,[182] "of his healing a Man of an Infirmity, of thirty eight Years Duration, at the Pool of Bethesda, that had five Porches, in which lay a great Multitude of impotent Folk, blind, halt, withered, waiting the troubling of the Waters, upon the Descent of an Angel, who gave a Sanative Virtue to them, to the curing of any one, be his Distemper of what kind soever, who first stept down into them."
This whole Story is what our Saviour calls a Camel of a monstrous Size for Absurdities, Improbabilities and Incredibilities, which our Divines, and their implicit Followers of these last Ages, have swallowed without chewing; whilst they have been straining at Knats in Theology, and hesitating at frivolous and indifferent Things of the Church, of no Consequence.
As to Jesus's Miracle in this Story, which consisted in his healing a Man, of no body knows what Infirmity, there neither is nor can be proved any Thing supernatural in it, or there had been an express Description of the Disease, without which it is impossible to say, there was a miraculous Cure wrought. As far as one may reasonably guess, this Man's Infirmity was more Lazyness than Lameness, and Jesus only shamed him out of his pretended Illness, by bidden him to take up his Stool and walk off, and not lie any longer, like a lazy Lubbard and Dissembler, among the Diseased, who were real Objects of Pity and Compassion: Or, if he was no Dissembler, he was only fancyfully sick, and Jesus by some proper and seasonable Talk touch'd his Heart, to his Relief; and so, by the Help of his own Imagination, he was cured, and went his Way. This is the worst that can be made of this infirm Man's Case; and the best that can be said of Jesus's Power in the Cure of him, as will appear, by and by, upon Examination into it. But the other Parts of the Story of the healing Virtue of the Waters, upon the Descent of an Angel into them, is not only void of all good Foundation in History, but is a Contradiction to common Sense and Reason, as will be manifest after an Inquiry into the Particulars of it.
St. John was the beloved Disciple of our Lord, and I hope he lov'd his Master: or he was worse than an Heathen, who loves those who love him: But this Story, and some others, that are peculiar to his Gospel, such as, of Jesus's telling the Samaritan Woman her Fortune; of his healing the blind Man with Eye-Salve made of Clay and Spittle; Of his turning Water into Wine for the Use of Men, who had before well drank; and of his raising Lazarus from the Dead, are enough to tempt us to think, that he wilfully design'd, either to blast the Reputation of his Master, or to try how far the Credulity of Men who through blind Love were running apace into Christianity, might be imposed on; or he had never related such idle Tales, which, if the Priesthood, who should be the philosophical Part of Mankind, had not been amply hired into the Belief of them, would certainly have been rejected with Indignation and Scorn before now.
St. John wrote his Gospel many Years after the other Evangelists: What then should have been his peculiar Business? Certainly nothing more, than to add some remarkable Passages of Life, to Jesus's Honour, which they had omitted; and to confirm the Truths which they had before reported of him. But St. John is so far from doing this, that the Stories, he has particularly added, are not only derogatory to the Honour of Jesus, but spoil his Fame for a Worker of Miracles, which the other Evangelists would raise him to. By reading the other Evangelists, one would think, that Jesus was a Healer of all manner of Diseases, however incurable by Art and Nature, and that where-ever he came, all the sick and the maim'd (excepting a few Infidels) were perfectly cured by him. But this Story before us will be like a Demonstration, that Jesus was no such Worker of Miracles and Healer of Diseases, as he is commonly believed to have been; and that he wrought not near the Number of Cures, he is supposed to have done, much less any great ones. The best Conception that an impartial Reader of the Gospel can form of Jesus, is, that he was a tolerable good natural Orator, and could handsomely harangue the People off hand, and was according to the Philosophy of the Times, a good Cabalist; and his Admirers finding him endewed with the Gift of Utterance, which was thought by them more than human, they fancy'd he must have the Gift of healing too, and would have him to exercise it; which he did with Success, upon the Fancies and Imaginations of many, who magnified his divine Power for it. And the Apostles afterwards, to help forward the Credulity and Delusion of the People, amplified his Fame with extravagant Assertions and strange Stories of Miracles, passing the Belief of considerate and wise Men. Whether this Representation of the Case, according to the Letter of the Gospels, be false and improbable, let my Readers judge by the Story before us, which I come now to dissect, and make a particular Examination into the several Parts of it. Accordingly it is to be observ'd