External

the Meffi

ah.

Saviour's Intellects? And yet this, and no other is the Senfe of his Reply, upon the Suppofition, that his Miracles are to be understood not in a literal, but myftical Senfe only; whereas, upon a contrary Suppofition, the Reply will be rational, fatisfactory, and convincing:

Ye come to enquire, whether I be the Meffiah, or Saviour of the World, 'whom the Prophet Isaiah writes of; ye fee me do the fame Miracles, which Ifaiah foretold the Meffiah fhould do; and therefore, upon the Evidence and ( Conviction of thefe, ye may return affured that I am he.

The Queftion then is not, whether Miracles bodily or Spiritual Cures are the more proper for wonderful and godlike Operations, but, whether real and external Miracles, or such as are spiritual and allegorical only, were, at this time, proper for our Saviour to exhibit, in order to prove himfelf to be the promifed Meffiah. Myfti cal Miracles, and the Cure of Diseases that are purely Spiritual, are perceivable only by an omniscient Eye; they

mere Non-entities to a common Spectator, and affect him no more, than if they were none at all; but 9 a real Miracle pierces quite through

the

Bp. Chandler's Defence, p. 437. Stanhope's Ep. & Gofp. vol. 2. p. 69.

the Soul, ftrikes all the Faculties at once, and by offering it felf to our bodily Senfes, becomes an Argument for the meaneft Capacity to judge of. Without difputing then the Point of Preference between internal and external Operations, the plain Cafe is, that, fince our Saviour's Bufinefs was to convince the People of his divine Miffion, there could be no poffibility of doing this, without exhibiting fome Sign or other, that was external and visible: He might have talked of his mystical and allegorical Cures to Eternity, and yet not made one Profelyte; the Queftion, the untoward Question would have ftill returned upon him, Master, What Sign fhewest. thou, that we may fee, and believe? "These refined and airy Notions of Spiritual Difeafes and myftical Cures, "we are not all acquainted with;

I

they are not the proper Evidences "whereby the Prophets of Old proved "their divine Miffion; Our Fathers did "eat Manna in the Wilderness, and many were the Wonders, which Mofes wrought in the Sight of all the People; what we want therefore of thee is ocu"lar Demonftration, and to be con“vinced immediately by fome real and "fubftantial Miracle, not by those di

John vi. 30.

"ftant

"ftant and vifionary Things, which
"will not happen until thy fecond and
"Spiritual Advent, that thou art in reali-
ty a Messenger fent from God.

The Ab- And indeed, if we confider the Ef-
furditiesof fects of our Saviour's Miracles, and
the con- the many immediate Convictions they
trarySup-
pofition. occafioned, we muft needs be ashamed

of this allegorical Notion. For can we

f

fuppofe, that, when the People were
amazed to fee the ftupendious Things
he did, they were really amazed at no-
thing? That, when they asked one
another, whether the Meffiah, when he
came, would do greater Works than these,
they did not mean real, but only imagi-
nary Works? That, when the Multi-
tudes came to be healed, upon feeing
the marvellous Cures he wrought on
others, they had really feen nothing to
encourage them to come? That, when
the Leper came to thank him for his
Mercies in healing him, he was not real-
ly healed, but came to return Thanks
for nothing? Or that when the Jews,
fearing the Succefs of his Miracles, called
a Council, in order to prevent it, they
were afraid of Shadows only, and pro-
perly confulted about nothing? Thefe
and
many more Conclufions, which fol-
low upon the wild Notion of Miracles
wholly

t

Bp. Gibson's firft paftoral Letter, p. 33. Page 35.

wholly myftical and allegorical, without any literal Meaning, are fuch grofs and fhocking Abfurdities, that nothing, one would think, but either great Weakness of Understanding, or great Diforder of Mind, ftrong Affectation of Singularity, or very ftrong Prejudices against the Chriftian Religion, could lead a Man into; and therefore to fum up the other Branch of this Argument.

of this

0

ther part of

the Argu

Since the 35th Chapter of Isaiah's The fum Prophefy is fuppofed, by all Interpreters, to relate to the Meffiah, and, notwithstanding some figurative Paffages ment. in it (a Thing very common in prophetick Writings) was, both by the Tradition of the ancient Jews, the Senfe of the Jews in our Saviour's Time, and the Use which our Saviour himself makes of it, thought to denote, in a true and literal Senfe, the Actions and Miracles of the Meffiah Since many of our Saviour's Miracles were of the fame Kind and Character, with what the Prophet afcribes to the Meffiah, and, being outward and visible Works, were the only proper Evidences of his divine Commiffion and Authority: Since the Notion of myftical and invifible Miracles (befides the strange and chimerical oddness of it) is attended with many Abfurdities, and Contra

▾ Page 32.

Contradictions to Scripture; makes our Saviour's Appeal to his Works impertinent, and his Answer to the Disciples of John ridiculous; juftifies the Jews in their Demand of more Signs, and condemns the Judgment of fuch, as were converted upon no better Evidence; befides, that it deftroys at once all Arguments in behalf of Chriftianity drawn from Miracles, w fince Miracles can be no Teftimony at all, if they be not true and real: Since the Arguments, I fay, on the one Side are fo clear, and the Abfurdities and Contradictions on the other fo grofs and palpable, it must neceffarily follow, that our bleffed Saviour, in healing all manner of Sicknefs, and all manner of Difeafes among the People, according to the Prophefies concerning the Meffiah, did, in reality, the Miracles of the Meffiah, and confequently, came with a Divine Authority to found and introduce a Religion into the World:

X

Bp. Gibson's firft Paft. Lette", p. 25. Matt. iv. 23.

SECT