from the Words of _Christ_, and the Practice of the Apostle, to keep on in the allegorical Method, till an Harmony between the Prophecy and its Accomplishment was made most clear. The _Bishop_ says in this his _Third Chapter_ of his _Vindication_, "That the Fathers and I have abusively cited this Passage of St. _Paul_, _The Letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth Life_, in Justification of our mystical Expositions;" whereupon the _Bishop_ gave us a large Explication out of his own Head, on that whole Verse; which (because of the Shallowness of my own Pate, or the Confusion of the Bishop's) I don't understand, and much question, whether the _Bishop_ understands himself. However, I will here paraphrastically give my _Readers_ the easy, plain, and intelligible Sense of the Fathers and my self on that whole Verse[398] thus, _Who hath made us able Ministers of the New Testament, not of the Letter_ [that is, not of the literal Sense of the Law and the Prophets, which is the _Old_ Testament] _but of the Spirit_, [that is, of the spiritual Sense of the Law and the Prophets, which is the _New_ Testament] _for_ [as the Testimony of _Jesus_, according to St. _John_, is the Spirit of Prophecy, so] _the Letter_ [that is, the literal Sense of the Law and Prophets] _killeth_ [that is, nulls the Testimony of _Jesus_ which is in them] _but the Spirit_ [that is, the spiritual Sense of the Law and Prophets] _giveth Life_ [to their prophetical Testimony.] This is most certainly the Sense of the Fathers on this Text; and I believe the _Bishop_ will not gainsay it, tho' he may dislike it. Hence the Fathers, when they spoke _properly_ and not _vulgarly_, call'd the spiritual Sense of the Law and the Prophets, the[399] _New Testament_, and asserted that there was or would be such an Agreement between the _Old_ and _New_ Testament; that is, between the Testament of the _Letter_, and the Testament of the _Spirit_ of the Scriptures, as that there would not be[400] one Tittle in the _one_, that would not be consonantly fulfilled in the _other_; and so far as I already apprehend this Harmony between these two Testaments, of the _Letter_, and of the _Spirit_, I must needs say with _Origen_[401] that it's _pleasant and ravishing to behold and contemplate it_, and hope in a short time to make the Bishop of St. _David_'s a Partaker of the same Pleasure. The same right Notion had the Fathers of the _Gospel_ of _Christ_, which they have of the _New Testament_. _Vulgarly_ speaking, the Writings of the Evangelists, and of the Apostles, were call'd the _Gospel_ of _Christ_: But properly speaking, Christ's _spiritual Accomplishment_ of the Law was the _Gospel_: Hence is the Meaning of their frequent saying, "That under the Law the Gospel was vail'd, and under the Gospel the Law was reveal'd." Hence they said, "That those Men had nothing of the _Gospel_, who understood not the Spirit of the _Law_." Hence they said, "The Gospel was hid to those, who had the