bed, or prophefy'd of, the State of his Kingdom, which was foon to come. I will, fays he (a) to his Difciples, appoint you a Kingdom, that ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdom, and fit on Thrones, judging the twelve Tribes of Ifrael. But This he feems to have done, in the ampleft Manner, in a Paffage recorded by IRENEUS, upon the Authority of PAPIAS and fome old Men, who had it from St. JOHN, that our Lord (b) fhould fay, The Days fhall come, in which there fhall be Vines, which shall feverally have ten thoufand Branches, and every of thofe Branches Shall have ten thousand leffer Branches, and every of thefe Branches fhall have ten thoufand Twigs, and every one of thefe Twigs shall have ten thousand Clufters of Grapes, and in every one of these Clufters there shall be ten thousand Grapes, and every one of these Grapes being prefs'd fhall yield two hundred and feventy five Gallons of Wine; and when one fhall take hold of one of thefe facred Bunches, another Bunch fhall cry out, I am a better Bunch, take me, and bless the Lord by me. I omit what our Lord adds, of every Grain of Wheat, and of Apples, Seeds, and Herbs. The few Denyers of a Kingdom immediately to come, among the primitive Chriftians, attempted (c) to allegorize the Places produced for it, and upon that Account were call'd Allegorifts; as on the contrary PAPIAS, JUSTIN MARTYR, IRENEUS, ORIGEN, EUSE (a) Luke 22. 29. 30. (b) Irenæus, 1. 5. c. 33. (c) See Whitby's Treatife of the Millennium: BIUS, EPIPHANIUS, and others, who believed it foon to come, were call'd Difciples of the Letter. And all Chriftians may now be juftly ftyled Allegorifts; fince (d) none of them agree with the primitive Chriftians in the literal Interpretation of these Matters. But the Revelation of St. JOHN is certainly a Mafter-piece of mystical-Prophecy, being (e) written, as it is faid, in the cabalistick Style; and no Doubt but it will appear fo; when Things, the most remote from the literal Senfe of the Words used, appear intended to be foretold; and shall come to pafs, and by coming to pass shall fhew the Sense of the Prophefies contain❜d therein, perhaps to the Disappointment of every Interpreter that it has hitherto had. [4] Fourthly, the primitive Fathers or Authors before JEROM do apply Paffages of the PROPHETS in the fame typical Manner with the Apostles, who were Models to them in that Refpect; though they may not (any more than the Apostles) directly fay, they apply thofe Paffages typically; which they might think needless to obferve to the Reader, who could not fail to obferve it himself. Among other Inftances that might be given out of the Catholick Epistle of BARNABAS (whom Mr. W. feems to give up (f) as an (d) Whitby's Treat. p. 254. (e) Rhenford Opera Philolog. Diff. 1. Conftit. p. 33. 34. 67. Ib. Essay on Apoftol. allegorical allegorical Interpreter of Prophefies of the Old Teftament, and whofe Epistle he deems canonical Scripture) take That, which follows. He cites thefe Words of ISAIAH, as containing (g) a Prophefy both of the Cross and of him that was crucify'd upon it, "I have "ftretch'd out my Hands all the Day long to a People difobedient, and fpeaking against 66 my righteous Way." Which Paffage, as it lies in ISAIAH, has not, in its literal and obvious Sense, the leaft Relation to JESÚS firetching out his Hands on the Cross, but with its Context feems to bear this Senfe. " (b) Tho' "the Jews deserve it not, yet I will redeem "them from Captivity, and would never have "fuffer'd them to fall into fuch Misfortunes "had they had any Regard to my Com"mands; but I fpread out my Hands every Day to a rebellious People, who were obsti nately refolved to follow the Conduct of "their corrupt Imaginations; I call'd upon "them by the Voice of my Prophets, and earneftly intreated them to be guided by me;" and fo he goes on drawing fuch a Character of the Jews, as cannot be apply'd to them at any Time after their Return into their own Country. JUSTIN MARTYR (i) cites the before-mention'd Paffage of ISAIAH to the fame Purpofe with BARNABAS; as also the following (g) Wake's Apoftol. Fathers. p. 179. 186. See Irenæus. 1. 4. c. 66. (b) White in Locum. (i) Reeves's Juftin Apol. p. 68. е (k) Paffage (k) Paffage of the fame Prophet, "Unto us a "Child is born, and a young Man given, and "the Government fhall be upon his Shoul"ders;" which, he says, is a prophetick Def cription of the Power of the Cross, to which JESUS apply'd his Shoulder at his Crucifixion; though the Paffage, as it ftands in ISAIAH, relates in its obvious and primary Senfe to HEZEKIAH, and that Part of it, whereon JusTIN lays Strefs, most manifeftly relates to the bearing the Office of a civil Magiftrate, and not to carrying of a Crofs. JUSTIN (1) alfo makes MOSES to (m) prophefy of CHRIST in these Words, Binding bis Foal unto the Vine, and washing his Garments in the Blood of the Grapes. Which are, according to him, a fignificative Symbol of what CHRIST was to do and fuffer; for there flood the Foal of an Afs ty'd to a Vine at the Entrance of a certain Village, which he order'd his Difciples to go and bring him, and bring him, upon which he got and rode into Jerufalem, where the stately Temple of the Jews then was. And to fulfil the Sequel of the PROPHESY he was afterwards crucify'd. For washing his Garments in the Blood of the Grapes, prefigured the Paffion he was to undergo, purifying by his Blood fuch as (k) Ifaiah 9. 6. See alfo Origen in John. p. 42. Bafil. Tom. 2. p. 212. Alliq; Patres. See Grotius and White in Loc. & Clerici Hift. Ecclef. p. 623. (1) Reeves, Ib. p. 64. (m) Gen. 45. 11. See other Explications, of the Fathers, of this Place cited by Whitby, in Stricturæ Patrum. p. 13, &c. Should Should believe in him; for what, by the PROPHET, the divine Spirit calls his Garments, are the Faithful, in whom the Logos, the Seed of God, dwells. The Blood of the Grapes typifies, that he, who was to come, should have Blood, but not of human, but of divine Generation.- -And as Man had no Hand in making the Blood of the Grape, but God only, fo This is an Emblem, that the Blood of the Logos was of no human Extraction, but defcended from the Power of the most High. Upon this Paffage, as it again occurs and is urged by JUSTIN in his Dialogue with Trypho, the ingenious and learned Mr. THIRLBY makes the following Remark, very pertinent to the Quef tion of the Fathers applying the Prophefies of the Old Teftament allegorically, whereof I am now treating. (n) Eandem Interpretationem ad Gentiles quoq; convertendos adhibuit Apol. I. p. 52. fatis eam quidem ridiculam bac atate plerifq; vifuram, at iis autem Temporibus tolerabilem. Judæi certe non habebant quod aut reprehenderent aut riderent, id quod norunt omnes qui Ingenium & Doctrinam Judæorum non penitus ignorant. Sed neq; Ethnicis, five doctis five indoctis, allegorica veterum Scriptorum, præfertim facrorum & VATICINORUM, Explanatio, mirum aut novum videri poterat. The fame JUSTIN (0) affords many more Inftances of the like Kind in his first Apology; (n) Thirlby in Juftin Martyr, p. 246, (0) Reeves, Ib, 68- |