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

Чтение книги онлайн.

      here publish another Discourse on our Saviour's Miracles, which I am not only oblig'd to, by the Promise I made in my former; but am encouraged to it by the Reception which that met with. If any of our Clergy were, and besides them, few or none could be offended at my former Discourse, they should have printed their Exceptions to it, and, if possible, their Confutation of it, which might perhaps have prevented me the giving them any more Trouble of this Kind.

      In my former Discourse I fairly declar'd, that if the Clergy could disprove my Arguments against the Letter, and for the Spirit of the Miracles I there took to task, I would not only desist from the Prosecution of my Design, but own my self an impious Infidel and Blasphemer, and deserving of the worst Punishment: But since they are all mute and silent, even in this Cause, which in Honour and Interest they should have spoken out to, they ought not to be angry, if I proceed in it. I have given them time enough to make a Reply, if they had been of Ability to do it: What must I think then upon their Silence? Nothing less than that my Cause is impregnable, and my Arguments and Authorities in Defence of it irrefragable; and though they don't professedly yield to the Force of them; yet they have nothing to say in Abatement of their Strength, or it had certainly seen the Light before now.

      I go on then in my undertaking to write against the literal Story of our Saviour's Miracles, and against the Use that is commonly made of them to prove his divine Authority and Messiahship: And this I do, I solemnly again declare it, not for the Service of Infidelity, but for the Honour of the Holy Jesus, and to reduce the Clergy to the good old Way, and the only Way of proving his Messiahship, and that is, by the allegorical Interpretation of the Law and the Prophets. Therefore, without any more Preamble, I resume again the Consideration of the three Heads of Discourse, before proposed to be treated on to this Purpose. And they are,

      I. To shew, That the Miracles of healing all manner of Bodily Diseases, which Jesus was justly fam'd for, are none of the proper Miracles of the Messiah, neither are they so much as a good Proof of his divine Authority to found a Religion.

      II. That the literal History of many of the Miracles of Jesus, as recorded by the Evangelists, does imply Absurdities, Improbabilities, and Incredibilities; consequently they, either in whole or in part, were never wrought, as they are commonly believed now-a-days, but are only related as prophetical and parabolical Narratives of what would be mysteriously, and more wonderfully done by him.

      III. To consider, what Jesus means, when he appeals to his Miracles, as to a Testimony and Witness of his divine Authority; and to shew that he could not properly and ultimately refer to those, he then wrought in the Flesh, but to those mystical ones, which he would do in the Spirit, of which those wrought in the Flesh are but mere Types and Shadows.

      I have already spoken, what I then thought sufficient to the first of these Heads; and though I could now much enlarge my Reasons, and multiply Authorities upon it to the same Purpose; yet I shall not do it; but only, by Way of Introduction to my following Discourse, say, that if it had been intended by our Saviour, that any rational Argument for his divine Authority and Messiahship should be urged from his miraculous healing Power; the Diseases which he cured, would have been accurately described, and his Manner of Operation so cautiously express'd, as that we might have been sure the Work was supernatural, and out of the Power of Art and Nature to perform: But the Evangelists have taken no such Care in their Narrations of Christ's Miracles. As for Instance, Jesus is supposed often miraculously to cure Lameness; but there is no Account of the nature and degree of Lameness he cured; nor are we certain, whether the Skill of a Surgeon, or Nature it self, could not have done the Work without his Help. If the Evangelists had told us of Men, that wanted one or both their Legs, (and such miserable Objects of Christ's Power and Compassion, were undoubtedly in those Days as well as in ours) and how Jesus commanded Nature to extend itself to the entire Reparation of such Defects; here would have been stupendous Miracles indeed, which no Scepticism, nor Infidelity itself could have cavill'd at; nor could I, nor the Fathers themselves have told how to allegorize, and make Parables of them. But there is no such Miracle recorded of Christ, nor any thing equal to it; so far from it, that the best and greatest Miracles of Jesus, which must confessedly be those related at large, (for no Body can suppose he did greater than those more particularly specify'd) are liable to exception, being so blindly, and lamely, and imperfectly reported, as that, by Reasonings upon the Letter of the Stories of them, they may be dwindled away, and reduced to no Wonders, which brings me to treat again on the

      II. Second Head of my Discourse, and that is, to shew, that the literal History of the Miracles of Jesus, as recorded in the Evangelists, does imply Absurdities, Improbabilities and Incredibilities; consequently they, in whole or in part, were never wrought, but are only related as parabolical Narratives of what would be mysteriously, and more wonderfully done by him.

      To this Purpose I, in my former Discourse, took into Examination three of the Miracles of Jesus, viz. those, of his driving the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple; Of his exorcising the Devils out of the Madmen, and sending them into the Herd of Swine; and Of his Transfiguration on the Mount. How well I perform'd on these Miracles which have been admired for their literal Story, let others judge and say.

      I now will take into Consideration three others of Jesus's Miracles, viz. those, Of his healing a Woman that was afflicted with an Issue of Blood, twelve Years; Of his curing the Woman that labour'd under a Spirit of Infirmity, eighteen Years; and Of his telling the Samaritan Woman her Fortune of having had five husbands, and living then in Adultery with another Man: Which are, all three, reputedly most miraculous and admired Stories. The two former, they say, are Arguments of Jesus's mighty Power; and the latter, of his immense Knowledge: But how little of certain Power and Knowledge there is in any of them, according to the Letter, will be seen in the sequel of this Discourse. Infidels, I dare say, if they had not wanted Liberty, would e'er now have facetiously exposed those Stories. If I snatch that Work out of their Hands, our Clergy ought to be glad, because what I do in it, is to the Honour of the Holy Jesus, and to turn those pretendedly miraculous Stories into divine Mysteries.

      In my former Discourse I gave my Readers some Reason to expect, that in this I would treat on some of Jesus's Miracles, which I there mentioned, viz. On his turning Water into Wine at a Marriage in Cana of Galilee; and On his feeding of Thousands with a few Loaves and Fishes in the Wilderness; and On his Cure of the Paralytick, for whom the Roof of the House was broken up to СКАЧАТЬ