Now upon all this, whether the _Bishop_, modestly speaking, has not been unjust, uncharitable, and insincere, to represent me as an _Infidel_, I appeal to all learned and ingenuous Gentlemen. I am a Christian, though not upon the _litteral_ Scheme, which I nauseate, yet upon the _allegorical_ one. And by the following easy and short Argument it may be proved that I am most certainly a Christian. I heartily and zealously contend for the allegorical Interpretation of the Scriptures, which the _Bishop_ allows to be true of me; consequently I must, and do believe the Scriptures to be of divine Inspiration, or I could not think there were such Mysteries and Prophecy latent under the Letter of them. Whether then a Believer of the divine Inspiration of the Scriptures can be an Infidel (O most monstrous Paradox!) or any other than a Christian, judge Readers. Nay, if _Origen_'s and St. _Augustin_'s Testimony on my Behalf may be admitted, I am more truly a Christian and Disciple of the Holy Jesus, than any _litteral Schemist_ can be. _Origen_ says,[347] That the Perfection of Christianity consists in a mystical Interpretation of the Old and New Testament, of the Historical, as well as other Parts of it. And St. _Augustin_ says,[348] That they who attain to the Understanding of the spiritual Signification of Jesus's Miracles, are the best Doctors in his School. The _Bishop_ understands this Argument as well as any Man, and therefore I charge it home upon him, as a wilful and malicious Slander, to call and account me an Infidel in his _Dedication_, on purpose to incense the Government against me at this Juncture. But the _Bishop_ moreover calls me, as above, an _Apostate Clergyman_; And why so? Because I have deserted the _Ministry of the Letter_, and betaken my self to the _Ministry of the Spirit_ of the Scriptures. That's like the Wit and Reasoning of his Pate! The _Bishop_ is old enough, and has read enough to know that _Apostacy_, in the Sense of the Fathers, is a Desertion of the _Ministry of the Spirit_, and a Falling into the _Ministry of the Letter_ of the Scriptures; whereupon I make bold to retort upon the _Bishop_, and say of him, and his Episcopal Brethren, that they are _Apostate Bishops_. But to humour the _Bishop_ in his fond _Dedication_, I will suppose my self to be, what I am the farthest of any Man living from being, an _Infidel_ and _Apostate_; yet