ophecy, and thus to create the impression
that it was a mere Jewish sect of men deceived by fanciful
interpretations.

The work produced considerable alarm; more from the solemn interest and
sacredness of the inquiries which it opened, than from any danger arising
from excellence in its form, or ability in the mode of putting. It
anticipated subsequent speculations,(426) by regarding Christianity as
true ideally, not historically, and by insinuating the incorrectness of
the apostolic adoption of the mystical system of interpreting the ancient
scripture.

A writer came forward as moderator(427) between Collins and his opponents,
who himself afterwards became still more noted, by directing an attack on
miracles, similar to that of Collins on prophecy;--the unhappy
Woolston.(428) A fellow of a college(429) at Cambridge, in holy orders, he
was for many years a diligent student of the fathers, and imbibed from
them an extravagant attachment to the allegorical sense of scripture.
Finding that his views met with no support in that reasoning age, he broke
out into unmeasured insult and contempt against his brother clergy, as
slaves to the letter of scripture.(430) Deprived of his fellowship,(431)
and distracted by penury, he extended his hatred from the ministers to the
religion which they ministered. And when, in reply to Collins's assertion,
that Christianity reposed solely on prophecy, the Christian apologists
fell back on miracles, he wrote in 1727 and the two following years his
celebrated _Discourses on the Miracles_. (22) They were published as
pamphlets; in each one of which he examined a few of the miracles of
Christ, trying to show such inconsistencies as to make it appear that they
must be regarded as untrustworthy if taken literally; and hence he
advocated a figurative interpretation of them; asserting that the history
of the life of Jesus is an emblematical representation of his spiritual
life in the soul of man.(432) The gospels thus become a system of mystical
theology, instead of a literal history. In defence of this method he
claimed the example of the ancient church,(433) ignoring the fact that the
fathers admitted a literal as well as a figurative meaning. Whether he
really retained towards the close of his life the spiritual
interpretation,(434) or merely used it as an excuse for a more secure
advance to the assault of the historic reality of scripture, is very
uncertain.

The letters were written with a