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

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 says, on Moses's Book of Exodus, and how he would fulfill it at the New Jerusalem.

      Whether any, besides my self, does really apprehend, and is willing to understand this Story of Christ's Transfiguration, as I do, I neither know nor care. I am not bound to find others Ears, Eyes, and Capacities. What I have said is enough to shew the Sense of the Fathers about this Matter. If any dislike their concurrent Opinion of Jesus's Transfiguration's being an Emblem, an Enigma, and figurative Representation of a future and most glorious Transfiguration, such a one as they speak of; let him account for the Difficulties and Objections which I have before raised against the Letter of this Story. In the mean time I shall think it, literally, an absurd, improbable, and incredible one, and no other than a prophetical and parabolical Narrative of what will be mysteriously and more wonderfully done by Jesus.

      And thus I have considered three of the Miracles of our Saviour, and shewn how they are Absurdities, according to the Letter, consequently do make nothing for his Authority and Messiahship. I can and will do as much by his other Miracles; for I would not have any one think I am gotten to the End of my Tedder, but for some Reasons best known to my self, I publish these Remarks on these three first. After the Clergy have chew'd upon these a while, I will take into Examination some others of Jesus's Miracles, which for their literal Story are admired by them. As for Instance,

      I will take to task his Miracle[66] of changing Water into Wine at a Marriage in Cana of Galilee; which was the beginning of Jesus's Miracles, and should by right have been first spoken to; but I am almost too grave to handle the Letter of this Story as I ought; and if I had treated it as ludicrously as it deserves, I don't know but at setting out, I should have put the Clergy quite out of all Temper. I would not now for the World be so impious and profane, as to believe, with our Divines, what is contain'd and imply'd in the Letter of this Story. If Apollonius Tyanæus, and not Jesus, had been the Author of this Miracle, we should often have reproached his Memory with it. It is said of Apollonius Tyanæus, that a Table was all on a sudden, at his Command, miraculously spread with Variety of nice Dishes for the Entertainment of himself and his Guests; which Miracle, our Divines can tell him, makes not at all to his Credit, in as much as it was done for the Service and Pleasure of luxurious Appetites. But if Apollonius had done, as our Jesus did at this Wedding, they would have said much worse of him; and that, modestly speaking, he delighted to make his Friends thoroughly merry, or he would not be at the Pains of a Miracle to turn so much Water into Wine, after they had before well drank. If the Fathers then don't help us out at the mystical and true Meaning of this Miracle, such farther Objections may be form'd against the Letter, as may make our Divines asham'd of it.

      I will also take into Examination Jesus's Miracle[67] of feeding many Thousands in the Wilderness with a few Loaves and Fishes; which, according to the Letter, are most romantick Tales. I don't in the least question Jesus's Power to magnify or multiply the Loaves, and, if he pleass'd, to meliorate the Bread: But that many Thousands of Men, Women, and Children, should follow him into the Wilderness, and stay with him three Days and Nights too, without eating, is a little against Sense and Reason. Whether the Wilderness was near to, or far from the People's Habitations, the Difficulties attending the Story are equally great. I wonder how Jesus amused them all the while, that they had the Patience to stay with him without Food; but I much more wonder, that no Victuallers besides the Lad with his Loaves and Fishes, of whom, and his Occupation, whether it was that of a Baker or Fishmonger; and of his Neglect of his Master's Business here; and of the Reason that he met with no hungry Chapmen for his Bread before, we shall make some Enquiry; but particularly why he alone, I say, and no other Victuallers, no other Retalers of Cakes and Gingerbread followed the Camp. In short, for all the imaginary Greatness of the Miracle (which there is a way to reduce and lessen) of Jesus's feeding his Thousands with a few Loaves, there must be some Fascination or Enchantment (condemn'd by the Laws of the Jews as well as of other Nations) in the Matter; or the People if they had stay'd one Day, would not two, much less three to faint, but would, especially the Women and Children, have been for returning the first Night home. We must then seek to the Fathers (who say the five Books of Moses are the five Barley Loaves, &c. and the septiform'd Spirit, the seven Loaves, &c.) for a good Notion of this Miracle, and if they don't make it a Parable; do what our Divines can, it will turn to the Dishonour of the holy Jesus.

      I will also consider the Miracle of Jesus's[68] curing the Man sick of the Palsy, for whom the Roof of the House was broken up, to let him down into the Room where Jesus was, because his Bearers could not enter in at the Door for the Press of the People. This literally is such a Rodomontado, that were Men to stretch for a Wager, against Reason and Truth, none could out-do it. Where was the Humanity of the People, and wherefore did they so tumultuate against the Door of the House? Its strange they had not so much Compassion on the Paralytick, as to give way to him: Its more strange that his Bearers could get to the Top of the House with him and his Bed too, when they could not get to the Door, nor the Sides of it: Its yet stranger, that the good Man of the House would suffer his House to be broken up, when it could not be long ere the Tumult of the