But, I _reply'd_, how came you to be committed here? Indeed I know nothing of the Cause, _said he_, unless it be for having perhaps spoke a little too freely of the Mystery of the Incarnation; for I remember, I talk'd of that Matter publickly three or four Days before my Imprisonment. Mean time 'tis an Article that I shall never be silent about; for tho' I call my self a Christian, and am really so, I am far from designing it to the Prejudice of the Author of all things. Jesus Christ himself, if he were here, wou'd clear me. How great a Man soever this Divine Prophet was, 'tis sufficient to believe him the Son of God, by way of Eminence, and 'tis affronting him, to think him capable of attributing that Title to himself by Nature. It may also be affirm'd that he is truly our Mediator, because he has pointed out the way of Salvation to us, and the Means of keeping in that way. His Morals were undeniably pure, his Life holy, and his Doctrines divine, and he confirm'd the Truth of them by his Death; but that he is God Almighty, and Everlasting, the same Essence as the Father, and yet personally distinct from him, and engender'd from all Eternity, conceiv'd immediately of the Holy Ghost, or of God himself, and born of an immaculate Virgin, is what he has not pretended to, tho' others, with the greatest Injustice in the World, put those Words into his Mouth. 'Tis very true, as I have heard my Master say an hundred times, that the Scripture introduces God saying to him, _Thou art my Son_, but then it adds immediately after, _This Day have I begotten thee_. And as to the Word Virgin, 'tis certain, that in the original Language it also signifies a young Woman. Besides there are many Expositors who say, that the appropriating those Passages to Jesus Christ is doing Violence to the Text.
Finally, I must tell you, that the very Miracles, which are ascrib'd to this Great Person, are not to be understood literally, but in an improper and figurative Sense, as all the Parables of the Gospel are understood in. Thus, for Example, the Story of the Temptation, which appears to be ridiculous and impossible, if taken literally, means nothing but that the Kings and Princes of the Earth, who are as high as the Mountains above other Mortals, the Clergy, those Directors of Consciences, who preach in the Temples and sacrifice at the Altars, are equally liable to Trials and Temptations with the poor illiterate people in the Deserts, but that there is nothing which ought to divert them from their Duty, and to hinder them from paying their Homage to the Monarch of Heaven and Earth. The Persons possess'd with Devils mean repenting Sinners, and the Swine, into which the Devils that possess'd them were sent, signify Wretches abandon'd to all manner of Uncleanness, and plung'd over head and ears in Wickedness. The Faith of a Believer appears from the Example of _Peter_, when he walk'd up on the Waters, and his Unbelief from his sinking; his Virtue from his resolving to follow his Master in the most evident Dangers; and his Infirmity from his denying him the very Instant that a silly Woman accus'd him of being one of his Company when he fell into the Hands of his Enemies. In a word, all the extraordinary Events, as the Cure of Cripples, Blindness, Palsies, and such other Ailments, as well as the Resurrection of the Dead, mention'd in the History of the Life of Christ, are to be understood in a spiritual Sense; for then there is no Difficulty in explaining the Scripture, and they to whom it appears ridiculous or mysterious, will find it intelligble and easy; and so is the Old Testament, when we consider it only as a Compound of Emblems, Allegories, Metaphors, Hyperboles, Types and Comparisons invented for the Comfort and Instruction of the Children of God.