But the other mystical Way of interpreting these three Miracles is by making them Types of three great Events at the Time of Christ's spiritual Advent. Accordingly the raising of Jairus's Daughter is a Type of the Conversion of the Jews at that Day, as Eusebius Gallicanus[303] and venerable Bede[304] and others expound it. By Jairus, the Ruler of a Synagogue; is meant Moses[305]; and by his Daughter is to be understood the Jewish Church, which, being at present in a State of Spiritual Death, will be revived and converted in the Perfection of Time. And to the mystical Resurrection or Restitution of the Jewish Synagogue, call'd Jairus's Daughter, will Jesus come[306] at the same Time he heals the Woman of the Church of her Issue of Blood. And this is the Reason that the Stories of these two Miracles are blended together by the Evangelists, with their synchronical Numbers of the Age of the Girl and of the Disease of the Woman; because they are Types of that blessed Scene of Affairs at the Conversion of the Jews, when the Fulness of the Gentiles is come in. Concerning which blessed state of the Church, Origen[307] says, Jesus wrought many Miracles, by Way of Type and Figure.
Among all the Miracles that Jesus wrought, and are recorded by the Evangelists, I think, as far as I have had Occasion to observe, the Fathers are most scanty in their Interpretations of that of the Widow of Naim's Son: Excepting what is before noted of his being a figure of a Sinner dead in actual, tho' not habitual Sin, I find very little. But if Origen's Comments on this Miracle had been extant, I dare say he would have given us this following Interpretation of it. This Widow, he would have call'd the Church; and her only Son or masculine Offspring, he would have call'd the Spiritual Sense of the Scriptures, which is now dead, and that the Ministers of the Letter, who are his Bearers, are for interring him within the Earth of the Letter: But Jesus, upon his Spiritual Advent will put a stop to the Intention of such Bearers, by reviving the Spiritual Sense of the Scriptures; and by restoring it, like a quicken'd Son, to the Comfort of his Mother, the Church; who has been in a sorrowful and lamentable Condition upon the Death and Want of it: This, I am sure, would be Origen's Interpretation of this Miracle, which, if I had Room here, by a little Circumlocution, I could prove.
As to Lazarus's Resurrection, it is in the Opinion of the Fathers[308] a Type of the general and mystical Resurrection of Mankind in the Perfection of Time. But this is a most copious Subject; and unless I could here throughly handle it, I had much better say nothing.
And thus have I done with the three Resurrection Stories. If the Convocation, next Session, would determine by an Orthodox Vote, whether Jesus rais'd any more, than the said three Persons, from the dead or not; I would present them with a new and more entertaining Chain of Thoughts against these Miracles; such a Chain of Thoughts, as, upon the Conclusion, let them hold which Side of the Question, they please, will necessarily induce us to hold the mystical Meaning of these Miracles, or to grant that Jesus rais'd none from the dead at all.
My next and last Discourse on Jesus's Miracles shall be against the Letter of the Story of his own Resurrection, in which, if our Bishops will keep their Temper and Patience, till I publish it, I'll cut out such a Piece of Work for our Boylean Lectures, as shall hold them tug, so long as the Ministry of the Letter and an Hireling Priesthood shall last. If Christ be not risen, then, according to the Inference of St. Paul, is their Preaching vain; and why should the People be any longer charg'd with the Maintenance of an ignorant and idle Order of Men, to no Use and Purpose?
If I had not had Experience of it, I could never have believed that, for all the ludicrous Nature of these Discourses, our dignified Clergy could have been so foolish or malicious as to prosecute me for an Infidel and Blasphemer upon them. How a Man may be mistaken in himself! I took my self for a real Advocate for the Truth of Christianity; and was so vain as to imagine these Discourses tended to a Demonstration of Jesus's Messiahship: And tho' the Bishop of London may be of a contrary Opinion, yet I am still so conceited of my Ability to defend our Religion, that I'll stake my Life against his Bishoprick, which I'll not be troubled with, if I win it, that he can't form an Objection against Christianity, which I can't solidly confute, and make our Readers merry too, with his Weakness and Impertinence in it. But perhaps it may be unbecoming of his Lordship's Character, and against the Grain, to make an Objection to that Religion, which he finds much temporal, as well as some spiritual Comfort in the Profession of; I will therefore descend to another Proposal, viz. If he'll but publish an Answer to the Jewish Rabbi's Letter in this Discourse, and vouchsafe me the pleasure of a Reply to him; then (to save the Civil Magistrate's Trouble) I will suffer any Punishment that in his Clemency he shall think fit to inflict on me, for what's past. Oh, what a Hazard do I here run of Life or Liberty!
Some Christians, in my Case, would think it a sad Misfortune to be odiously represented as an Infidel and Blasphemer; but I, in Temper and Principle, despise such Obloquies, Slanders and Defamations; and would not give a Rush to remove them, so long as I had the Answer of a good Conscience that I was undeserving of them: But considering, that it is the Duty of a Christian to seek the Peace and Friendship of all about him, and especially of our good Bishops, who, in Compassion to the Danger they think my Soul is in, have taken zealous and laudable Pains with the Civil Magistrate for my Conviction and Conversion; I do here, for the sake of a Reconciliation with their Lordships and other good People, make a formal and solemn Confession of my Christian Faith, which tho' I don't express in the Words of the Apostical, Nicene or Athanasian Creeds; yet will do it in such Terms as will be a Demonstration that at the Bottom I am found as a Roch. Be it known then to all Christian People, that
Imprimis, I believe upon the Authority of the Fathers, that the Ministry of the Letter of the Old and New Testament is downright Antichristianism.
Item, I believe upon the Authority of the Fathers, that the Miracles of Jesus, as they are recorded by the Evangelists, litterally understood, are the lying Wonders of Antichrist.
Item, I believe upon the Authority of the Fathers, that all opposition and Contradiction to spiritual and allegorical Interpretations of the Scripture, is the Sin of Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost.