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

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СКАЧАТЬ that might reasonably satisfy them; and not forcibly bear down their Opposition, which will make no sincere Converts of them. And I believe they would easily distress us with Difficulties and Objections to the Letter of this Story.

      St. Augustin himself[55] owns, that the whole of it might be perform'd by Magic Art; and we know, in these our Days, that some Jugglers are strange Artists at the Imitation of a Voice, and to make it as if it came from a far off, when it is uttered close by us, and can cast themselves too into different Forms and Shapes, without a Miracle, to the Surprise and Admiration of Spectators.

      But what, I trow, do our Divines mean by Jesus's Transfiguration. We read that his Countenance did shine like the Sun, and his Raiment was made as white as Snow, and that's all. And is this enough can we think, to demonstrate that Transaction, a miraculous Transfiguration? Philosophers will tell us, that the Reflections of the Light of the Sun will change the Appearance of Colours, and to none more than Whiteness; and Sceptics will say, that its no Wonder if the Countenance of Jesus look'd Rubicund, when the Sun might shine on it.

      The Word in the Original for transfigured, is μεταμορφωθη, that is, he was metamorphosed, transform'd, or, if you will, transfigured. And what is to be understood by a Metamorphosis, we are to learn not only from the natural Import of the Word, but from the ancient Use of it. Accordingly, it signifies nothing less than the Change or Transformation of a Person into the Forms, Shapes, and Essences of Creatures and Things of a quite different Species, Size, and Figure: But Jesus, it is conceived, was not so transfigured. Our Divines, I suppose, would not have him thought such a Posture-Master for the whole World. If I, or anyone else, should assert, that Jesus upon the Mount transform'd himself into a Calf, a Lyon, a Bear, a Ram, a Goat, an Hydra, a Stone, a Tree, and into many other Things of the animate and inanimate World, I dare say there would, among our orthodox Divines, be such Exclamations against me for Blasphemy, as the like were never heard of. They, to be sure, will not hear of such a Transfiguration; nor, like good plain believers, will bear any thing more than that Jesus's Countenance did shine like the Sun, and the Colour of his Vestments was changed; which whether it comes up to the Import of a Metamorphosis or not, they don't care.

      But to close with our Divines, and acknowledge that the glorious Change of Jesus's Countenance, and of the Colour of his Vestments, was a true and proper Transfiguration, and that it was as real and wonderful a Miracle as could be wrought: But then we may, I hope, ask them, what was the particular Reason and Use of this Miracle? Was it a Miracle only for the sake of a Miracle? That's an Absurdity in the Opinion of[56] St. Augustin, who says, what is reasonable to think, that all and every one of Jesus's Miracles had its particular End and Use; or he who is the Wisdom as well as Power of God, had never wrought them. And what, I pray, was the life of this Miracle? Of that the evangelical History is silent, and our Divines, with all their reasoning Faculties, can say nothing to it.

      And what did Moses and Elias on the Mount with Jesus? Was it in their own proper Persons that they appear'd? or were they only some Spectres and Apparitions in resemblance of them? It is said, that they were talking with Jesus; what then did they talk about? The three greatest Prophets and Philosophers of the Universe could not possibly meet and confer together, but on the most sublime, useful, and edifying Subject. Its strange that the Apostles, who over-heard their Confabulation, did not make a Report of it, and transmit it to Posterity for our Edification and Instruction. St. Luke, as our English Translation has it, seems to say that they talk'd together of Jesus's Decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem; but this can't be the Meaning of St. Luke's[57] Words, which so interpreted, are no less than a Barbarism, and, I appeal to our Greek Criticks, an Improper Expression of such Signification. We must then look for a more proper Construction of the Phrase in St. Luke, or we must remain in the Dark, as to the Subject, that Moses and Elias talked with Jesus about.

      But further, Why could not this Miracle have been wrought in the Valley as well as upon a Mountain, whither Jesus and his three Apostles ascended for the Work of it? Naughty Infidels will say, it was for the Advantage of a Cloud, which often moves and rests on the Tops of Mountains, to display his Pranks in. And why was it not done in the Presence of the Multitude, as well as of his three Apostles? The more Witnesses of a Miracle, the better it is attested, and the more reasonably credited; and there could not surely be too many Witnesses of this, any more than of others of Jesus's Miracles, if real ones. Ought not the unbelieving Multitude, for many Unbelievers unquestionably were amongst them, to have had a Sight and Hearing of this Miracle, as well as the Apostles? Who should rather see the Miracle, than those who wanted Conviction? Were they to take the Report of the Miracle upon the Word of the Apostles, who were Parties in the Cause? Our Divines may possibly say they ought: But Infidels and Free-Thinkers would cry out against them, for juggling Tricks, and pious Impostures.

      These are all Difficulties and hard Questions about the Miracle of Christ's Transfiguration, which our Clergy, who are Admirers of the Letter of that Story, are obliged to account for; and I believe it will be long enough before they give a proper and satisfactory Answer to many of them.

      Let's hear then what the Fathers say to this miraculous Story of Jesus's Transfiguration. And it is agreed amongst them, that the whole is but a Type,[58] Prefiguration, and[59] ænigmatical Resemblance of a future and more glorious and real Transfiguration. And whenever they speak of any Part of the Story, they never explain to us how the Matter went upon Mount Tabor, but tell us of what this or that Part of it is figurative and emblematical; and how it is to be understood, and will be fulfill'd in future Time. As thus, by the[60] six Days, they understood six Ages of the World, after which a real and mysterious Transfiguration will be exhibited to our intellectual Views. By Moses and Elias[61] talking with Jesus, they mean the Law and the Prophets, upon an allegorical Interpretation, bearing Testimony unto Christ as the Fulfiller of them. By the[62] Mountain on which this future Transfiguration will be exhibited, they understand the sublime and anagogical Sense of the Law and the Prophets. By his Transfiguration it self, they mean his taking upon him, and passing through the Forms of all the Types of him under the Law, as of a Lamb, a Lion, a Serpent, a Calf, a Rock, a Stone, and of many others, which he is to fulfil, and which will then be clearly discern'd by us. By the black Cloud[63] that at present obstructs this Vision, they understand the Letter of the Old Testament. By the white[64] Vestments of Jesus, they mean the Words of the Scriptures, which will then shine clear and bright. By the Voice out of the Cloud, they mean, with St. Peter, the Word of Prophecy, that will sound in the Ears of our Apprehensions. And lastly, they tell us, that the Way to attain to the Sight of this glorious Vision, is by ascending (not by local Motion, but by Reason) to the Tops of the Mountain of the mysterious and sublime Sense of the Law and the Prophets. If we continue in the Plains and Vallies[65] of the Letter, like the Multitude under the Mountain, we shall never see Jesus in his shining Vestments, nor how he was transform'd into the Types of the Law; nor Moses and Elias talking with him; nor the Law and the Prophets agreeing harmoniously in a Testimony to him.

      After this fashion do the Fathers, one or other of them, copiously treat on every Part of this Transfiguration of Jesus. I could collect an almost infinite Number of Passages out of their Writings to this Purpose: But from these few it is plain, they look'd on the Story of Christ's Transfiguration, but as a Figure and Parable; and they were certainly in the right on't, in as much as this their Sense of the Matter, and no other, will solve the Difficulties before started against the Letter, as any one may discern, if he attentively review and compare one with the other: As, for instance, this their Sense and Interpretation lets us into the Reason of Moses and Elias's appearing on the Mount with Jesus; and gives us to understand what they talk'd about, and that was, not on Jesus's Decease which he would accomplish at Jerusalem, as our Translation has it, but on the Prophecy of the Old Testament; particularly, as St. Luke СКАЧАТЬ