Note 477 — Chapter XV

Sect. III., chap. xv.; see also chap. xiii. Fowler’s Discourse on the Principles of certain Moderate Divines, &c., was published 1679. In 1671, he published The Design of Christianity, in which he dwelt upon the restoration of righteousness in man as the chief purpose of the Gospel. He was answered in the following year by John Bunyan. The reply is entitled, “A defence of the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ Jesus; showing true Gospel holiness flows from thence; or Mr. Fowler’s pretended Design of Christianity, proved to be nothing more, than to trample under foot the blood of the Son of God; and the idolizing of man’s own righteousness: as also how while he pretends to be a minister of the Church of England, he overthroweth the wholesome doctrine contained in the 10th, 11th, and 13th of the Thirty-nine Articles of the same, and that he falleth in with the Quaker and Romanist against them.” The bad temper of the book is indicated in this long title. Bunyan points out Fowler’s defects, and defends important doctrines which Fowler impugns; but he deals in a good deal of fierce and coarse invective. In this respect, Fowler equalled him, when he published a rejoinder.