The Fathers, upon whose Authority I form'd my preceding Invective against the Letter, so universally betake themselves to the mystical Interpretation of this Story, that it may be question'd, whether any of them, more than myself, believ'd any Thing at all of the Letter of it. St. _Chrysostom_, who is as much a litteral Interpreter of the Scriptures as any of them, here intirely discards the Letter, saying admirably thus,[189] _what a strange Way and Story of healing the Diseased is here? but what is the Mystery of it? that we are to look to. The Matter could not be so simply and unadvisedly transacted litterally, as it is related. There must be somewhat future here, as by a Type and Figure, signify'd; or the Story, it is so incredible in itself, will give Offence to many._ St. _Chrysostom_ was certainly in the right on't; and I wonder, for which no Reason but want of Liberty can be given, that _Infidels_ have not before now, with their Jests and Cavils, ridiculed this Story. St. _Augustin_, to the same Purpose, says,[190] _Can any one believe, that these Waters of Bethesda were wont to be troubled in this Fashion, and that there was not Mystery, and a spiritual Signification in it?_ Yes, I could tell St. _Augustin_, that our modern _Divines_ seem to believe it, tho' he, if he was now alive, would laugh at them for it. But to come to the profound Mystery signified by this Story, which to use the Words of[191] St. _Augustin_, as God shall enable me, I will now speak to. Our _English_ Version says, _There is at Jerusalem by the Sheep-Market, a Pool_. How our _Translators_ came by the Notion of a _Market_ here, I can't imagine, since there is nothing to favour it in the Original, which stands thus, [Greek: epi tê probatikê kolymbêthra]: By [Greek: kolymbêthra], the Fathers understand[192] Baptism, or the spiritual _Laver_ of Regeneration; and who is that for, but the Flock of Christ, signified by [Greek: probatikê]? So we have another and clearer Interpretation of these two Words. And as to _Bethesda_, that is a mystical Name of the Church, which according to the Signification of _Bethesda_, is the House of Grace. And if it is said to be at _Jerusalem_, it is not to be understood of the Old _Jerusalem_, but of the _New_ and Apocalyptical _Jerusalem_, at the Entrance into which the Flock of Christ will be baptiz'd by the Waters of the Spirit, as in a mystical Laver. _Bethesda_ is said to have five _Porches_, that is, as the Fathers[193] agree, the five Books of _Moses_, which are as so many Doors of Entrance into the House of Wisdom, or of the Grace of _Christ_.