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SECT. IX.

Of the Allegorical Fathers, and their
Authority.

BUT

UT, in this Controverfy concern- The Obing the Senfe of Jefus's Miracles, jections. 66 our fafeft way is to have recourfe to "the Authority of the Fathers; those “holy, venerable, and learned Preach"ers of the Gofpel, in the first Ages of "the Church, who took our Religion "from the Hands of the Apostles and

Apoftolick Men; who died fome of "them, and fuffer'd for the Doctrine "they taught; who profeffedly and confelfedly were endu'd with divine and "extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit, and, "confequently, cannot be fupposed to "be Corrupters of Christianity, or "Teachers of falfe Notions concerning "the Miracles of Chrift, or so much • 66 as mistaken about the Apoftolical and "Evangelical Senfe and Nature of them. "Now all these holy and learned Men "(as it were with one Confent) agree, "that the Scriptures of the new, as "well as the old Teftament, are to be

"inter

"interpreted in an allegorical Senfe; "that, what ever Jefus did in the Flef, "was but Typical and Symbolical, of "what he would do in the Spirit; and "that the feveral bodily Difeafes, which "he healed, were no other than Figures "of the Spiritual Diseases of the Soul.. "And, accordingly, they obferve, that "the feveral Perfons, faid to be raised "by Jefus, were, in all Ages, an Em"blem of fuch as are dead in Trefpaffes "and Sin, and, by the Power of divine "Grace, quicken'd to a Life of Righ"teoufnefs; that the feveral Paralyticks "he cur'd, were an Image of Perfons; "diffolute in their Morals, and unftable "in their Faith and Principles; and "that the two Women, one with her

Iffue of Blood, and the other with her "Spirit of Infirmity, were Parabolical, "either of the Church's Impurity and Corruption, in point of Faith and Man

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ners, or of her adherence to the lite"ral Interpretations of the Scriptures, fo, "as not to raise herself to the Contem"plation of their Spiritual and Sublime "Meaning. Nay, they reject the lite “ ral, and adopt the myftical Meaning,

"in feveral other Inftances. The Mar "riage in Cana in Galilee, with them

is a Type of the Conjunction of Chrift "and his Church, where Chrift is the "Bride

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Bridegroom, and Mofes the Governour of the Feaft: His Transfiguration on "the Mount, is an Image and Exhibi❝tion of our future and celeftial Glory; "and his cafting the Buyers and Sellers ແ out of the Temple, a Figure and Re"femblance of his future Ejection of "fuch selfish Ecclefiafticks out of the "Church, as make Gain and Merchan "dize of the Word of God. In fhort, "if we will adhere to the Senfe of the "Fathers, we must be oblig'd to fay, "That the four Gofpels are, in no "Part, a literal Story, but a Syftem of

myftical Philofophy, or Theology ; "that the Hiftory of Jefus's Life, as "recorded by the Evangelifts, is an "Emblematical Reprefentation of his "Spiritual Life in the Soul of Man, "and his outward Miracles, Figures of "his more myfterious Operations.

to the Fa4

İt can never be denied indeed, but The Rethat great Refpect and Veneration is due fpet due to the Authority of the Fathers, and thers, and that those especially, who lived in the why. earliest Ages of Chriftianity, are highly beneficial to us in many Refpects. They are proper Witnesses of the Truth of the Miracles of Jefus, after the ftri&teft Enquiries made about them, and of the Authority

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Bp. Smallbroke's Vind. p. 123.

a

thority of those Books, which the Church receiv'd as Sacred, and wherein the Account of those Facts was recorded. They are proper Witnesses of the Miracles wrought in the Church, and of the Gifts of the Spirit, which (as they inform us) continu'd in the Second Century. They inftruct us in several Usages, not fo plainly exprefs'd in Scripture; the Obfervation of the Lord's Day, the three Orders of the Clergy, the Government of the Church by Bishops, &c. And they give us an Account of the Books, fucceffively received into the Canon of Scrip ture,and by what means they have been preferv'd uncorrupt, and tranfmitted pure to future Ages. Nay, they are likewife of great ufe to us in relation to the Doctrines of the Church, for they acquaint us what the Syftem of the Catholick Faith then was; and, in regard to the Expofition of Scripture, muft be allow'd to have no fmall Advantage, in that they were nearer the Fountain itfelf. But the Fathers, we must know, came but late to the Expofition of the Scripture; except the imperfect Commentaries of Origen, very little was wrote, at least, very little has defcended to us, that was wrote, before the fourth Century, when a falfe Tafte, and the Influence of fome great Examples, drew

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legorical

drew many more into the modifh (which was then the allegorical) way of Writing. Origen was the first that distinguish'd The Orihimself this Way, for which Reafon he is gin of Alnot unjustly stil'd, The Father of mystical Interpre Interpreters; nor is it improbable (what tations. Porphyry, cited by Eufebius, tells us) "That being converfant in the Wri"tings of Cheramon the Stoick, who ex"plain'd the Egyptian Hieroglyphicks) "and of Cornutus (a Stoick too, who a"dapted the Greek Mythology to the

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Knowledge of Nature) he might learn "from them the Art of allegorizing the "Scriptures, agreeably to the Cuftoms "of the Greeks in explaining their My"Ateries." "Tis certain, that the Platonick Philofophy was then in high Efteem; and, having fome Notions not altogether unlike Chriftian Doctrines, was become the popular Study. Origen, by his Works, fhews what Acquaintance he had with Books of this kind ; and as their Manner was to deal much in Allegory, 'tis very prefumeable, that his Familiarity with them might have fome Influence on his Myftical Expofitions of the Scripture: But this is not all.

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b Bp. Smallbrooke's Vind. p. 26. Eccl. L. 6. c. 19.

"The

Eufeb. Hift.

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