he knew well enough that where one would read through or any considerable part of his Book very many would read this Catalogue in the front of it nor could he be ignorant how much it is his interest that the Reader should not see this part and that he would bless himself that I. B. should be so shameless a Creature as to reckon that up among Doctrines destructive of Christianity and much more that he would stand amazed to think that Mr. F. should be accused as a Trampler under foot of the bloud of the Son of God as he is in the very Title page and an Idolizer of man's own Righteousness when he asserts that sincerely Righteous Persons are dealt with by God as if they were perfectly Righteous for the sake of Christ's Righteousness For one more Instance take Error the Fifth which I heedlesly passed over when I wrote the first Four but 't is time enough now to make I. B. most dearly repent of his fathering that doctrine on Mr. F. It is this The Precept of coming to God by Christ is in its own nature a thing indifferent and absolutely considered neither good nor evil He knew how this would be entertained and that every body that thought him but an indifferently honest man would cry out shame on the venter of such an assertion and he in his book doth on every turn make a fearful out-cry with this doctrine stopping his Ears and crying Blasphemy Blasphemy But what if Mr. F. hath no such passage in his whole Book What is I. B. then Reader if he hath I 'le be thy Bond-slave I. B. refers thee to p. 7 8 9. But as was before said all that is said of going to God by Christ is but this that it is enjoyned by a Divine Positive Law and who ever said that it is enjoyned by the moral Law Now because Mr. F. two pages before saith that Positive Precepts are the declarations of the arbitrary will of God whereby he restrains our liberty for great and wise reasons in things that are of an indifferent nature and absolutely considered neither good nor evil he takes occasion from thence to Calumniate him by making him assert a Doctrine which doth not so much as follow from any thing he hath written What! because the objects of the Positive Precepts or the things they Command are said to be in themselves indifferent c. which every body saith as well as Mr. F. may it be inferred thence that therefore any positive Precept it self is indifferent and particularly that of coming to God by Christ whose Skull is so thick as not to discern that this is mad arguing Are Precepts and the Objects of them the same thing But would the Reader know what is the worst consequence that follows from thence I answer not that any divine Precept can be in it self indifferent much less that of going to God by Christ 't is Blasphemy I acknowledg most willingly and so will Mr. F. too to say it is but this follows that therefore going to God by Christ considered without respect to God's command that we should do so is of an indifferent nature and did ever any mortal deny this will I. B. himself say that it would have been our duty to go to God by Christ although he had never declared it to be his will that we should do so although God had never ordained him to be our Mediator And though God's ordaining that Christ should be so was a declaration of his infinite Wisdom as well as goodness yet dare any say that God was bound to it that is before he had bound himself and that God had been unwise or unjust and unholy if he had not appointed Christ our Mediator But the duties of the law of Nature such as loving of God Justice Mercy c. these are such as it would disparage God's holiness to give men liberty to perform them or not God cannot that is he cannot will to give us leave to be disobedient to him to hate him or not to love him to be unjust that is to take away from another what is his he not first altering the property and making it none of his or to commit murther that is to kill our neighbour out of malice c. Contradictions are not objects of any Power and 't is the greatest of Contradictions that a Creature can be under no obligation to love and honour his Creator c. And therefore seeing God hath made his Son Jesus Christ our Mediator and told us so the law of Nature it self now commands us to go to God by him because it commands us to obey God in all things nothing being more a natural dictate than that God must be universally obeyed but if God had done otherwise if he had never signified it to be his Pleasure that Christ should mediate between him and us no dictate of nature would have told us that we ought to go to God by him nor could it have been our duty I should be ashamed to insist so long upon so plain a thing But I hope my Reader will excuse me when he considers whom I deal with I now challenge this man to make one tittle more than what I have said of any thing Mr. F. hath written concerning Going to God by Christ but this is no more than every man in his wits will readily assent to I also appeal to those that are most fond of this I. B. whether or no he does not most barbarously abuse Mr. F. in making such hideous clamours as he doth of his Blasphemous Doctrines and most of all of this I appeal even to the most prejudiced of all his profelytes and desire them to take a measure of his Conscience and Sincerity by these doings Most of the things I have laid to his charge you see are the plainest matters of fact the truth of which any one will presently perceive that compares his representation of Mr. F's Doctrines with the Book out of which he pretends he had them But 't is no wonder that he that casts such base Slurs on all Righteousness but what 's imputative as I. B. doth in abundance of places in his Book should make any bones of these matters yet I cannot but admire that so insolently proud a Creature as he is fam'd to be should have no more concern for his own reputation than to publish to call a Spade a Spade such manifest and apparent lies God keep us from that Religion that gives liberty to such things as these Thus Reader I have given thee I think thou wilt say a sufficient taste both of this mans gross ignorance and unchristian Spirit and I assure thee I have remarkt upon nothing in his account of Mr. F's Doctrines destructive of Christianity but what obviously occurred to me but I 'le warrant thee if when thou hast nothing else to do thou 'lt consider them thy self thou wilt find that I have left thee scope enough for more
discoveries of I. B's honesty and ingenuity And who now sees not that the Holy Scriptures themselves cannot be secure from being charged with a great number of impious and blasphemous expressions by this presumptious man should his impudence once rise so high as to deal by them as he hath done by the Sayings of Mr. F. Indeed to serve their own turns of them neither he as I can largely shew nor others like him do stick at so serving the Sacred Oracles and no body can warrant us that they shall never be so fearfully audacious as to make use of the same wicked arts to render them as hateful to the world as they endeavour to make those pious books and men that discover the extreme naughtiness of their Principles and Practices The Apostle hath told us that Evil men and Seducers shall wax worse and worse and if so God alone can tell us where they shall stop If any Reader now expects that I should next proceed to examine the book it self I must tell him I have done enough in all reason to make him perceive without farther assistance how I. B. from the beginning to the end hath bewrayed his ignorance and dishonesty For though he pretends to have confuted effectually the Doctrines he so rageth against this is the Sum of his whole performance 1. Spitting his venome at them all in general 2. Urging wofully silly arguments against several of them 3. Wretchedly misrepresenting many of them putting them into Bears Skins and then rudely baiting them 4. Making Doctrines for Mr. F. which he never dream'â— of Setting up men of Straw and then fighting with them 5. Exclaiming and raving at the most horrible rate against Mr. F's Person 6. Intermixing a many non-sensical and wicked opinions of his own 7. Running over and over innumerable times the very same things Now for the First Fifth Sixth I will give more than a taste of them together in the close of all And as for the Seventh viz. his running over and over the very same things it cannot be expected that I should do any more than desire the Reader if he won't believe me to receive satisfaction from his own eyes So that it may be thought there remains now to shew the Second Third and Fourth but the Third and Fourth I have already shewn sufficiently in too many instances for his credit and a great part of his Pamphlet is founded upon those very inventions and misrepresentations of his that have been discovered and for the Second viz. the arguments he urgeth against several of Mr. F's Doctrines they are so miserably Silly that they deserve not to have one sine bestowed upon them But yet because I will chuse rather to offend on the right than on the left hand I will as briefly as may be shew both how unable and unwilling this poor man is to do Mr. F. right in several other particulars and also answer those arguments whereby he opposeth his main Doctrines After he had begun his Pamphlet with a most obligingly civil Address to his beloved Mr. F. which shall be seen anon he next falls foul upon his Descriptions of Holiness and not to take notice of the failure of sense in his Setting down the Second and Third as not deserving the name of faults in this man he claps in between the Third and Last one of his own devising You farther saith he call it a Principle or habit of Soul originally dictates of humane nature Profound sense believe it But to pass this by too he cites p. 8. for it But what is there said is only this that the Divine Moral laws are either those that were first written in mens hearts and originally dictates of humane nature or necessary conclusions and deductions from them So that Holiness and the Moral laws are with him the same This I will not also charge I. B's dishonesty but on his woful ignorance You see he is so used to talk and scrible non-sense that he cannot easily write sense when prepared to his hand and therefore we may guess how well he understands it Is not this a right goodly Tool to make a Preacher of But who so bold as blind Bayard Next observe that From Mr. F's Descriptions of Holiness by an Healthful Complexion of Soul and the Purity of the humane nature he would make us believe he hath asserted that mens natures since the fall as I have already intimated continue sound and whole and thereupon cryes out that no man by nature hath any soundness in him and sets himself to prove the corruption of nature and a mighty bawling he makes about this But doth not Mr. F. affirm that men by their Apostasie from God and sinking into Brutish sensuality have sadly dispossessed themselves of this most excellent temper and are become like the beasts that perish This he doth presently after his Descriptions of Holiness Nay does he not suppose that this soundness and Purity is lost in making it the design of his Book to demonstrate that it was Christ's grand business to restore it He saith that this Purity and Healthful Complexion are things a great way off from the Spirit of grace and the gracious workings of the Spirit A fine chime But doth not Mr. F. in the very first Page say that the holiness he so describes is a complication of all the vertues whereby he understands what the Gospel doth by vertues viz. the graces of Gods holy Spirit And doth he not say in his Descriptions of Holiness that 't is such a temper of the inward man as causeth men to be actuated by all those good principles that are made known by Revelation that is to obey all the Laws of God and are not all the graces of the Spirit virtually contained in such a temper as causeth men so to do He saith it must be concluded that the Divine Nature Mr. F. talks of is no other than the dictates of humane nature If this Fellow were now at my Elbow I would know of him what the word Dictates means 't is plain that a Goose understands that Phrase as well as he and therefore he infers that non-sense from Mr. F's Descriptions But who sees not that that which is to be concluded from them in this good sense viz. That a Divine Nature doth enable him that is indued with it according to the measure he hath of it to obey not only the dictates of Nature but also whatsoever laws are made known by Divine Revelation I. B. could not but know this if he ever considered those descriptions and if he did not what a sad Creature is he to undertake I won't say to confute but to inveigh against them After he had spent almost another Page again in crying out of the Corruption of nature and bringing Scripture to prove it as if Mr. F. had most plainly denied what he as plainly asserts as words can do it he comes to these words in one of the descriptions keeps
s. book so that the bare shewing how wofully he hath performed that one undertaking would have been a sufficient confirmation and defence of it But though I have not found so much as one thing in it that deserves to have a serious reply made to it I have so far denyed my self as not only to say enough to undermine but also to give an utter overthrow to the whole of it And to shew that so far as it opposeth The Design of Christianity 't is composed of nothing else but the most horrid absurdities belyings and revilings of that Treatise Nay it fully appeareth from what I have written that never did any writing more flatly that is in more evident consequences oppose the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ Iesus than this that he stileth a defence of it And that were Mr. F. a Iulian Celsus or Porphyry an utter enemy to Christianity as he wickedly accuseth him he could never have wished to have a greater dishonor done unto it than this man in his book hath done So that should I have considered every absurd and base passage from one end to the other of it and given it its due remark I should have made my self a most unmerciful drudg and swelled these leaves to a large Volume and been guilty of the most profuse and unaccountable expence of my time and Paper For I sedately and consideratively profess that I never read that I remember any thing that was half so full thrapt and crowded with both non-sensical and wicked stuff To conclude if any Reader is now able to think that there needs more than I have written or so much either to wipe off the dirt that is flung upon the Design of Christianity I must be so free with him as plainly to tell him that he is honor'd far beyond his merits in having one wise word bestowed upon him A Catalogue of some few of the abundance of absurd and most wicked Doctrinals and Assertions that are contained in John Bunyans Pamphlet against the Design of Christianity 1. HE calls this Paul's definition of a man There is none righteous no not one there is none that understandeth c. page 4. Mark as he most absurdly calls this Paul's definition so he calls it too his definition of a man not of a wicked man And sutably to this fine doctrine 2. He makes no real distinction between the humane Nature and Sin p. 3. As if Sin were not the corruption of our nature but essential to it 3. He Saith that of mans supreme faculty the Scripture teacheth that man in his best estate is altogether vanity Psal. 39. 5. p. 5. When as David speaks there only of mans bodily frailty But I might have spared this as being but a peccadillo in this man 4. He saith that the Command of the Law was not the great and principal argument with Christ no not in its first and highest principles to do or continue to do it p. 14. Then the first reason of our Saviours obedience was not the Command of God 5. He interprets those words of the Apostle of moral duties viz. They speak of the world and the world heareth them 1 John 4. 5. p. 19. 6. He saith that the new man is dead to the Law as to principles of nature and interprets that of the Apostle you are become dead to the law of the moral as well as Ceremonial law and further saith that a man must first be dead to your principles both of nature and the law If he will serve in a new spirit if he would bring forth fruit unto God p. 22 The only sense of which sayings whatever he meant by them is this that a man must cease to be a man and turn beast nay and Devil too before he can bring forth fruit unto God 7. He interprets those words in 1 Cor. 15. 46. and after that which is Spiritual of Spiritual holiness p. 23 Whereas the words are only spoken of an immortal body 8. He saith that the holiness of Adam in his best estate even that which he lost and we in him it was no other than that which was natural even the sinless state of a natural man p. 24 Thus he makes Adam a mere Brute as to holiness but in this he contradicts himself elsewhere as hath been shewn 9. He saith that even the inward holiness that is in Saints it is none other than that which dwelleth in the person of the Son of God in heaven p. 27 Then there are no graces of the holy Spirit wrought in us then our holiness is perfect and infinite and then according to his rate of arguing with Mr. F. p. 66. Christ's righteousness is by Faith in himself and an imputative righteousness 10. He saith that Christ dyed to put us into a personal possession of pardon before we know it p. 33 He that hath read his or this Pamphlet knows his meaning in this saying viz. that Christ dyed to put men into a personal possession of pardon while they continue in their wickedness 11. He Saith that for Christ to come to establish this righteousness viz. the righteousness which we have lost is all one as if he should be sent from Heaven to overthrow and abrogate the Eternal purpose of Grace which the father had purposed should be manifested to the world by Christ. p. 37. Let the Reader match me this Saying for the horrid wickedness of it out of any other books than this mans if he can 12. The wrath that the Law is said to work Rom. 4. 15. he interprets to be murmure and anger against the Lord. p. 39 Whenas the next words shew that the meaning is it renders men for their disobedience to it lyable to the judgment of God 13. He saith that that Repentance which hath its rise originally from the dictates of our own nature is called the sorrow of the world and must be again repented of p. 40. So that to be sorry for my sins because my reason tells me that they are an unworthy requital of Gods goodness to me is the worldly Sorrow condemned by the Apostle and must be again repented of 14. He saith that he that looks to or seeks after that holiness we have lost is as sure to be damned and go to hell as he that transgresseth the law because that is not the righteousness of God the righteousness of Christ the righteousness of faith nor that to which the promise is made p. 42. So that according to this devilish doctrine to endeavour to bring our hearts to the love of God above all and to the hatred and abhorrence of all sin is as ready or sure a way to hell as living in disobedience to all Gods Commandments And take notice that it is Proved that that is the Righteousness of God of Christ and of Faith 15. He saith That it is a foolish and an heathenish thing nay worse to think that the son of God should only or especially
fulfil or perfect the law and the prophets by giving more and higher instances of moral duties than were before expresly given This would have been but the lading of men with heavy burthens p. 46. Observe that those words and the Prophets are of his own adding But whereas he saith that our Saviours giving more and higher instances of moral duties c. would be but the lading of men with heavy burthens he should have said it would have been the lading of Hypocrites such as himself with heavy burthens none but such can think them so 16. Christs Exposition he saith of the Law was more to shew thee the perfection of his own obedience than to drive thee back to the holiness thou hadst lost p. 47 Can any Ranter talk at a madder rate Read but Matth. 5. and then believe this wretched assertion if you can could S. Paul be of his mind when he said Rom. 2. 13. not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the Doers of the Law shall be justified 17. He saith that in Heaven there shall not be in us only a likeness to but the very nature of God p. 63 For this he cites as hath been shewed that of the Apostle Heirs of God That is Heirs of his nature or substance Here is Blasphemy with a witness 18. He saith the dictates of humane nature are never urged in the New Testament but in order to shew men they have forgotten to act as men p. 72. That is they are not urged that they may be obeyed and yet almost all the precepts of the Gospel are dictates of humane nature He himself saith somewhere that trust in God is one and so are love to God and our neighbour humility meekness patience purity c. all such as we are told are our duty by the dictates of nature Never did wicked creature more industriously set himself to make the Gospel precepts mere insignificant and vain things 19. Whereas Christ is called a Prince and a Saviour he thus interprets it that is a Prince as a Saviour because the righteousness by which he saves beareth rule in Heaven and Earth p. 77 I want words to express my amazement at and detestation of his as senseless as wicked perverting this place to make it favour his Ranting doctrine Thus Reader thou seest he is as good at abusing and wresting of Scripture as of Mr. F's words God grant that his timely repentance may prevent his doing it to his own destruction 20. He saith that the obedience or inclination to obedience that is before faith or the understanding of the Gospel is so far from being an excellent preparative or good qualification for faith and the knowledge of the Gospel that in its own nature which is more than in its consequences it is a great obstruction thereunto p. 96 Still like himself a blessed faith that must be in the mean time that is obstructed by a readiness to obey whatsoever God reveals and would the Reader see what his Faith is let him go back to page 17. of his book there as hath been shewn 21. He saith God hath forgiven him that is enabled to believe and what is it with him to believe he tells you in the next words that is to trust to and venture the Eternal concerns of his Soul upon the righteousness that is no where to be found but in the person of the son of God p. 17 This is all and as much as any one can expect from him 22. He saith that for a man to confine himself only to the life of the Lord Iesus for an example or to think it enough to make him in his life a pattern for us to follow leaveth us through our shortness in the end with the Devil and his Angels for want of faith in the doctrine of Remission of Sins p. 108 1. How sottish is this Ranter For faith in Christ and his whole Gospel is enjoyned as a means to bring us to the blessed state of likeness to him as is fully proved in the Design of Christianity and we may not once suppose that we can obtain this likeness without that Faith 2. But how desperately wicked is it likewise as if a man may be damned that is exactly like Christ and hath all that done in him for the sake of which Faith in Christ is required That is is enabled from holy principles to perform all holy obedience But this is another discovery of his wickedness in contemning moral Righteousness and advancing only imputative and I never knew a brutish creature do it like him Nay he cannot forbear somewhere in his book to speak contemptuously of our Saviours life in asserting that Mr. F. hath given a mere heathenish account of it where he as is to be seen in the beginning of this Pamphlet gives the four Evangelists account of it I do assure the Reader that this I have read in his Book but I do not now remember the page Observe that I do not call these two and twenty doctrines nor yet distinct assertions for I have not nor will I so much trouble my self about them as to consider to how many or few heads they may be reduced the mere transcribing them must needs be trouble and discomposure enough to any man that hath the least affection for the Gospel of Christ and true goodness I could present not a few more but never was horse more tired at a mill than I am at this work and I assure the Reader as I shall answer it at the great day that I have been most severely just to him in this Catalogue as he may quickly see so far have I been from dealing with his Sayings as 't is shewn he hath dealt with Mr. Fowlers And now I conjure the followers of him and his Brethren as they have any the least regard for their Souls that for the future they abandon them as those that feed their hearers with the deadliest poison instead of the sincere milk of the word and the most wholesome food of the Gospel of Christ I say I conjure them to avoid such as they will Answer it at the dreadful day of our Saviours appearing with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodlily committed and of all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him against the blessed doctrines of his Glorious Gospel and his faithful ministers And now I will present you with another Catalogue of the hard speeches of this man of whom whether he be one of St. Iudes ungodly Sinners or no the Reader is by this time well able to judge or at least will be anon A Catalogue of some of John Bunyan's horrible Revilings and most Abominable Scurrilities 1. IN the Title page he tells us that the design of Mr. F's Book is proved to be nothing more than to trample under foot the blood of the Son of
light Scratches thou art for Neck or nothing Thou hast a mouth for MACHIAVIL'S money who hath taught such as thy self this rule Fortiter Calumniare c. which because thou hast little kindness for the Language of the Beast take thus in English Slander lustily and something will stick Thou couldst scarcely hope that any one that knows or hath but heard of Mr. F. nay though he should be one of thine own herd can find in his heart to think him such a Monster of men such a Devil incarnate as thou wouldst make him but yet to be sure thou concludest that all that don't think thee so will at least be suspicious that so loud and hideous an out-cry is not made for nothing and that he hath written a too erroneous book if not such a damnably heretical one and therefore that 't is dangerous to read it and hear or converse with the Author of it But we will now consider what foundation is laid in that Treatise of Mr. F's for this Fellow to build so black a charge on and in order thereunto I shall not need to do any thing more than give the Reader a short view of the Sum and Substance of the Doctrinal part of it which I will do for the sake of those that are strangers to it And I promise to do it with all sincerity and impartiality and if I perform not let me be stigmatized by any that shall compare the following account with the Book it self for a man of no Conscience and a most false person The whole Title of the Book is The Design of Christianity or a plain demonstration and improvement of this proposition that the induing men with inward real Righteousness or true Holiness was the Ultimate end of our Saviour's coming into the world and is the great Intendment of his Blessed Gospel The business of the first Chapter is an Explication of the nature of true Holiness wherein after it is said to be by various forms of speech exprest in Scripture such as Godliness Righteousness Conversion and turning from Sin Partaking of a Divine Nature c. and that it is originally seated in the Soul and Spirit and is a Complication of all vertues there are four general and Comprehensive descriptions given of it all which differ only in words not at all in Sense And they all amount to thus much as any one of but a competent understanding will at first sight perceive viz. That true Holiness is such an inward living principle as so far as it prevails causeth the person that is indued with it to behave himself as becomes him that is to avoid and hate whatsoever is any wayes known to be morally evil and to love and prosecute whatsoever is good or to be under the government of all those good practical principles or Laws which are made known either by Revelation that is by the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament or by Nature or the use of Reason When Holiness is called a healthful complexion of Soul c. the purity of the humane nature c. and a divine or Godlike nature c. there is no more said than what is included in this description Next between the third and last description there is a somewhat more express and distinct account of the nature of Holiness but this I shall have occasion hereafter to take notice of In the close of this Chapter it is said that nothing is more natural to the Souls of men as they came out of God's hands than this excellent temper but by their Apostasie from God and sinking into brutish sensuality they sadly dispossessed themselves of it and so became like the beasts which perish but it pleased God in infinite goodness not to give us over so but when we had destroyed our selves in him was our help found and in order thereunto he sent his only begotten Son to us The Second Chapter is spent in proving that the great errand Christ came upon was to put us again into possession of that holiness which we had lost and this is proved by a Climax of seven particulars all which are implyed in these Scriptures which I entreat the Reader to turn to Matt. 3. 1 2. and Luke 1. 16 17. Mal. 3. 1 2 3. Matt. 1. 21. Luke 1. 72 c. Luke 2. 32. Matt. 3. 11 12. Matt. 9. 13. Matt. 5. 17. Acts 3. 26. Acts 5. 31. 1 Iohn 3. 8. Titus 2. 12. 1 Iohn 3. 5. In the third Chapter is shewn that holiness is the only design that is in reference to us of the Christian Precepts and 't is particularly shewn that they require 1. The most extensive holiness that is such as respects God our Neighbour and our selves 2. The most intensive not only negative but positive that is not only such as consists in doing no evil but also in doing good not only holiness of words and actions but likewise of thoughts and affections not only such a holiness as puts upon performing good actions but also such as puts upon performing them in a right manner with right ends or from good principles causing us to do every duty as to the Lord and not as to men to do all to the glory of God c. Lastly this Chapter concludes with the answer of an Objection The Objection is that all sober Christians acknowledge that the Gospel precepts do not require indefective and unspotted holiness or at least that Christ will accept of that which is far short of perfect and therefore he seems not to be so great a friend to it as is asserted The Answer is that 1. The attainment of perfect holiness is in this state impossible to us 2. That Christ will accept of nothing short of sincerity and diligent serious endeavours to abstain from all Sin 3. That no less than our absolutely perfect holiness is designed by Christ though not to be effected in this yet in the other world The Fourth Chapter sheweth that the promises and Threatnings of the Gospel have the promoting of holiness for their only design That the promises have 't is proved from 2 Pet. 1. 4. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Rom. 12. 1. And 't is further shewed that 1. These promises are either limited to holy persons or made use of as motives to holiness as 1 Tim. 4. 8. Matt. 5. 8. v. 3 5 7. Rom. 27. Rev. 3. 21. ch 2. 20. And whereas the promises of pardon and Eternal life are made to believing 't is said that nothing is more evidently declared than that this faith is such as purifieth the heart and is productive of good works 2. 'T is shewed that the Nature of these Promises is such as is alone sufficient to satisfie us that holiness is the design of them This 't is shewed is manifestly true concerning the principal promises which are reduced to 3 heads 1. That of the holy Spirit 2. Of Remission of sin 3. Of Eternal happiness in the enjoyment of God For the first viz. the
as Forty to at least Four hundred But I must have another remark upon this goodly Catalogue namely that I. B. hath very falsly represented and more than so invented Doctrines for Mr. F. which is the part of a marvellously honest man As for instance What think you of his very first namely That the first Principles of Morals those first written in mens hearts are the essential the indispensable and fundamental points of the Gospel For this he cites p. 8. 281 282. But there is no such thing and all that can be gathered thence is but this that these are Fundamentals and in p. 282. there is numbred with Righteousness Charity c. the preferring God and Christ Iesus before all the world and this is set before those too But I. B. hath so worded this as to make the Reader think that Mr. F. hath asserted so horrid a Doctrine as that those are the only Fundamentals of the Gospel But what Mr. F. doth assert I. B. if he be in his wits whatever he thinks will not dare to deny The Second is like the First viz. That these first Principles are to be followed principally as they are made known to us by the dictates of humane nature and that this obedience is the first and best sort of obedience that we Christians can perform Observe 1. That this is non-sence and no where written by Mr. F. he knows not what dictates mean that saith that the first principles are made known by them For they are the dictates of humane nature themselves But 2. observe what is far more unpardonable that the whole is a pure forgery consult the place he refers to p. 8 9 10. The Third That there is such a thing as a soundness of soul and the Purity of the humane nature in the world This he cites p. 6. for but neither there or elsewhere is this asserted otherwise than thus That true holiness is the purity of the humane nature and a sound Complexion of Soul now all that follows hence is that where holiness is there is purity of nature c. that is in what degree soever a man is holy his nature is pure and doth not our Saviour intimate as much when he calls holy men and that on this side heaven too pure in heart Matt. 5. 8. what is the difference between purity of Nature and purity of heart But the vilest thing is this that I. B. would by wording it thus make the Reader believe that Mr. F. denyes the corruption of nature as will be seen anon The very next again is his pure invention viz. That the Law in the first Principles of it is more obliging on the hearts of Christians than is that of coming to God by Christ p. 7 8 9 10. Mr. F. abhors this doctrine nor is there any thing in those or any other pages of his said to tempt any well-minded man to gather so wretched an Inference from it The most that is said concerning going to God by Christ is but this that 't is a duty enjoyned by a divine positive Law not by the law of nature and of all men I hope I. B. won't say it is who like a wofully ignorant Creature so often speaks contemptuously of this Law But because Mr. F. said some pages before that the law of nature is of an eternal and indispensable obligation but not positive laws he fastens on him that wicked Doctrine whereas nothing more so much as seems to follow from thence than that therefore God can dispense with our obedience to his positive laws not that we are less obliged to obey them than the laws of nature while they are in force and I never knew any man in the world that ever questioned this Observe Reader that this that he here so vilely abuseth Mr. F. in he repeats innumerable times over in his Book and 't is one of the Blasphemies he chargeth on him but how dares that man look God in the face that is no more tender of his Brothers reputation as so without any ground to accuse him of the horridest of all wickednesses Again he invents the Tenth Error viz. That Christ's fulfilling the Law for us was by giving more perfect and higher instances of moral duties than were before expresly given p. 17. Doth not this man know that he hath put in these words for us and that Mr. F. did only repeat that of our Saviour I came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it and then expounded that word fulfil by the word perfect intimating that the Greek hath that signification and adding in the margent that in Rom. 15. 19. and Col. 1. 25. it is rendred to preach fully For another instance of his wicked dealing take Error the 26. That he shall be his Apollo that can give him a sufficient reason why justifying Faith should consist in recumbency and relyance on Christ's merits for the pardon of Sins p. 224. observe here the most palpable knavery of this citation 1. He sets down but one half of the Sentence 2. The half he conceals is the principal mark this is Mr. F's whole saying He shall be my Apollo that can give me a sufficient reason why justifying Faith ought only to consist in recumbency and relyance on Christ's merits for the Pardon of Sin and not also on his power for the mortification of it Is not there a vast difference between this whole Sentence and his clipt one But 3. to make it sound yet more odiously he leaves the word the principal word only out of that part he sets down And he makes Mr. F. say he shall be his Apollo that can give a sufficient reason why justifying faith should consist in relyance on Christ's merits when his saying is should ONLY consist in relyance on Christ's merits And canst thou think this Reader a wicked saying 'T is as wicked as he that hath thus notoriously abused it is honest what but a dear love of sin can make any one have a less value for that grace of God that is through Christ discovered in killing it than for that grace that is expressed in the pardon of it And what but hypocrisie can perswade any man that it is not as necessary a condition to our acceptance with God to trust in Christ's power for the subduing of our lusts as in Christ's merits for the forgiveness of them Another instance of this mans insufferable baseness is to be found in his 28. Citation out of p. 225. The imputation of Christ's Righteousness consisteth in dealing with sincerely Righteous persons as if they were perfectly so There my Gentleman stops with an c. and leaveth out the main business If you consult the place you 'l find this the left-out-part of the Sentence for the sake and upon the account of Christ's Righteousness I do not remember whether he hath it right any where in the body of his Book but if he hath it signifies little for
considered without respect to the command of God but the command of God hath made going to him by Christ a duty of absolute and indispensable necessity and such a grand fundamental and essential of the Gospel as that there is none greater So that 't is damnable for any one to whom the Gospel is revealed to omit this duty He saith that an indifferent thing in it self is next to nothing and then the bloud of Christ is of no value at all and afterwards he thus taunts it How indifferent as indifferent as the blood of a silly Sheep c. But thou most unsufferable abusive and provoking man take this answer once for all whatsoever is commanded us by the great God how indifferent soever it was before ceaseth then to be indifferent but is of as absolute necessity to be done by us as 't is not to incur the penalty of eternal damnation And I tell you once again that no man in his wits ever could think any other than that going to God by Christ is made a duty by a Positive Law of God only nor did I ever hear of any one that was so mad as to deny this nay you your self will not dare to say that this duty is commanded by the Law of Nature or the Moral Law nay you more than once say it is not Go now and confess that you are either most shamefully ignorant as not knowing the difference between a moral and positive Law or else that you do most wittingly and designedly calumniate and defame your brother All men of any understanding will tell you that one of these is most true of you when they read this and therefore take your own choice But he that reads this whole Pamphlet will not cannot doubt if he be not grosly prejudiced that you are not less malicious than you are ignorant After abundance of repetitions vile railing and the most foolish cavills that ever man read which I will not trouble my self with he comes p. 60. to tell Mr. F. that his saying that 't is an impossible thing that a wicked man should have Gods pardon and that Christ's Righteousness should be imputed to an unrighteous man proclaim him to be ignorant of Jesus Christ and then he undertakes thus to confute him Saith he God doth not pardon painted Sinners but such as are really so That is granted but it is when they are sincerely through his grace willing and desirous to leave their Sins and then they do not in this life cease to be Sinners but they cease to be such as are called wicked and ungodly by which phrases is meant Presumptuous Sinners Then he tells Mr. F. impertinently that Christ dyed for Sinners but he must say he dyed so for Sinners as to give them a pardon while they live and delight in sin and refuse to be reformed or he saith nothing to the purpose But where is this said I declare no where but the contrary in abundance of places Is it not said Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Acts 3. 19. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of Sins Acts 2. 38. Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give Repentance to Israel and forgiveness of Sins Repentance first and then forgiveness Acts 5. 31. Let the wicked forsake his way c. and let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will or he then will abundantly Pardon Isai. 55. 7. Wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well c. and what follows Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as Snow c. Is. 1. 16. Acts 26. 18. I send thee to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God that they may receive forgiveness of Sins c. Have I wrested these Scriptures to which I can add innumerable more and don 't they as plainly speak turning from Sin to be a necessary condition of pardon as words can do it what blindness have they contracted that don't see this But I. B. hath a Text for his turn which all his brethren cry up mightily namely that in Rom. 4. 5. God justifieth the ungodly But doth not every body see that that text will contradict hundreds of other Scriptures if it be otherwise to be understood than thus God justifies those that were once ungodly not while they are ungodly God doth not nay he cannot pass a false judgment and declare those Righteous that are utterly void of Righteousness God's nature is so holy that he no less abominates to be a justifier of the wicked while they continue so than to condemn the Righteous He hath declared No peace to the wicked Now take notice Reader that there is no doctrine delivered in M. F's book that he is so outragiously mad at as at this doctrine Now suppose it should be false as 't is as true as the Gospel what danger can there be in asserting that men by the free grace of God are delivered from the Power of Sin before that is in order of nature he delivers them from the guilt of it And who but the Devil or one devoted to his Service can curse that man with Bell Book and Candle that delivers this doctrine Nay who but a man that loves his lusts with all his heart and cannot endure to think of parting with them would not be ready to embrace this doctrine as soon as 't is sufficiently proposed to him And once more who that hath any love for inward real Righteousness would desire to be dealt with as if he were a perfectly Righteous man merely because he hath so strong a fancy as to imagine Christs Righteousness is imputed to him And nothing but this fancy is the Faith of this I. B. He declares p. 17. to omit other places that Faith in the justification of a Sinner from the curse and wrath of God respecteth only the mercy of God and forgiveness of Sin for the sake of Christ. So that he that hath but confidence enough strongly to believe though he hath no more reason so to do than because he believes so that his Sins are forgiven hath justifying faith Again saith he in the next words God for Christs sake hath forgiven him that is inabled to believe that is to trust to and venture the Eternal concern of his Soul upon the Righteousness that is no where to be found but in the person of the Son of God The destroyer of Souls cannot invent more destructive Doctrine Nor is that to be heeded that they say that Holiness will by way of gratitude be the consequent of such a faith for 1. we know by experience that that is false for we see
and Tongues leave to be such unruly evils and even helps to fill them with the most deadly poison That puts its professors upon thus persecuting Christ's Ministers for RIGHTEOUSNES sake for the sake of inward and real Righteousness without which nothing can commend a Religion let wretched Hypocrites think never so despicably and basely of it and inveigh never so villainously against those that promote it Thus thou hast seen Reader how this Raging wave like his fellows in S. Iude fometh out his own shame And let him take for an answer to all the same that was given to his Great Master that hath assisted him in this Employment by Michael the Arch-Angel Iude 9. But one word more to this sad object of pity and then I shall have done with him If your Pride and Stomack will not suffer you to make now an acknowledgement of your most wicked behaviour towards Mr. F. and his Treatise as open and publick as you have made your Sin do not so cheat your own Soul as to hope for forgiveness upon any account whatsoever at the hands of God which God for Christ's sake by first qualifying you for it bestow upon you Amen An Abstract of several of the Excellent Propositions contained in that Tract of M. Baxter's wherein he hath defended Mr. Fowlers Design of Christianity His 27th Proposition THe Sum of Holiness and Morality which is all one is the Love of God as God including absolute Resignation and subjection and the love of man and all things for God appearing in them and served by them His 50. Nothing is more sure in Christianity than that Christ came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost and to bring home straying Prodigals to God and to destroy the works of the flesh and Devil and to bring man back to the love and obedience of his Maker and to cure him of his worldly love And so that Holiness or the love of God is the end of our Redemption and our Faith Part of his 51 52 53. We are pardoned what is past that love may make us sin so no more and justification is an antecedent means to our fuller Holiness and obedience to God which I have largely opened in my Confession of Faith It is certain that justification and Sanctification go on hand in hand together and it is a notorious error of such as say that justification is perfect as soon as it begins And it is certain that Sanctification as it is the work of God is one part of the executive pardon of our sins because it is the taking off of a very great penalty which is the privation of the Spirit of Grace His 54. Nothing is more injurious to Christ than to feign that he is a Patron of Sin or came to excuse men by free justification from obedience to their Creators law of Nature or to make sin less odious to Mankind seeing he dyed to redeem us from all iniquity and to purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works His 55. And it is an intolerable Blasphemy against God to imagine that Christ came to make the Divine Nature more friendly or reconcileable to sin or to love complacentially an ungodly person as if he were Godly as being such by the imputation of Christ's Righteousness to him and to repute any man to be what he is not to take a wicked man for a Saint because that Christ was holy for him whatever malicious Papists say the Protestants abhor such Doctrine Therefore John Bunyan is no Protestant His 56. And as far are we from believing that Christ was a sinner or that God ever supposed him to be a Sinner or hated or punished him as a Sinner or that ever our sin did really become his sin or that God reputed it so to have been For no false judgment can belong to God Part of his 57 and 58. But we believe that Christ dyed for our sins as a Sacrifice Ransom Propitiation Attonement c. And though we believe not that God doth judge us to have done all the Righteousness that Christ did nor to have possessed the same individual Righteousness that Christ had for God never erreth nor accounteth us as Righteous as Christ himself nor yet useth us in all respects as he would have done if we had been as Righteous as Christ himself nor do we think it a thing possible that the same individual Righteousness that was in Christ being an accident can be in itself and really given to us and made ours yet do we believe that his habitual perfection with his active Righteousness and his Sacrifice or Sufferings all set together and advanced in value by their conjunction with his Divine Righteousness were the true meritorious procuring cause of our Pardon Justification Adoption Sanctification and Salvation c. And thus Christ's Righteousness is imputed and given to us not immediately in it self but in the effects and fruits As a Ransome is said to be given to a Captive because it is given for him though strictly the Ransome is given to another and only the fruits of it to him His 59. Those Ignorant Self-conceited Contentious Teachers that seek the reputation of Orthodox zeal in the things which they never understood and instead of clear apprehending sound Scripture-doctrine and plainly expounding it to the Church do take on trust and for company false or insignificant confounding notions and proudly make them the instruments of their furious Censures and revilings and of dividing the Church by raising slanders against those that presume to be wiser than they and so by back-biting tell their hearers how erroneous and dangerous this and that man's doctrine is because they never had wisdom study and patience to understand it such I say are the men that in all ages have been the Fire-brands in the Church and zealously promoted Christ's Kingdom by dividing it and will hardly ever have peace here themselves nor endure their Brethrens or the Churches Peace His 65. Those Churches especially that lament the laps of Discipline and the confounding of the holy and profane and those that are constituted by unwarrantable Scrutinies after the holiness of Members beyond the test that was appointed by Christ should not dishonour themselves nor bring their doctrine or persons into suspicion by being the hasty Censurers and condemners of such writings as drive harder for the promoting of holiness than themselves His 67. He knoweth not the hurtful miscarriages of our times who knoweth not what the mistaken notions about free-grace have done against free-grace it self and how the Gospel hath been supplanted by an erroneous crying up the Gospel and crying down the Law and how justification hath been abused by mens seeming to extol it and sanctification injured by such pretexts And he that with one eye looks on that disease and its effects and with the other looks on the Book you tell me of viz. The Design of Christianity and such like will quickly see what Sore this Plaister was provided for and how much excellent matter there is in it which the aforesaid Persons and diseases need Part of his 69. And as to Mr. Fowlers Consectaries or Inferences ch 20. 22 23. what would you wish more accommodate to an honest concord which is our strength and beauty and to the healing of deforming and destroying abuses than the practising the motion that our union be placed in things necessary to holiness c. Whose judgment Reader dost thou think is to be preferred concerning these Inferences whether this worthy able Divine or poor J. B' s. who makes a very Turk of Mr. Fowler upon the account of them Part of his last Proposition To conclude undoubtedly Holiness is the life and beauty of the Soul The Spirit of Holiness is Christ's Agent to do his work in us and our Pledg and earnest and first Fruit of Heaven It is Christ's work and subordinately ours to cleanse us from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit c. Christ the Spirit the Word the Ministry mercies afflictions and all things are to bring home our hearts to God and to work together for our good by making us partakers of his Holiness Our Holiness is our Love of God who is most holy And our Love of God and reception of his Love is our Heaven and everlasting Happiness Thus thou seest Reader that if Mr. Fowler be so Devilish a wretch as I. B. makes him this Learned Divine may shake hands with him Matt. 23. 16 24 26 27 28. Wo unto you ye blind guides which strain at a gnat and swallow a Camel Thou blind Pharisee cleanse first that which is within the Cup and Platter that the outside of them may be clean also Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees hypocrites c. Ye outwardly appear righteous unto men but within ye are full of Hypocrisie and Iniquity Matt. 15. 14. And if the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the diteh 2 Tim. 3. 8. 9. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was Read also the foregoing verses THE END ☞ 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 1. 2. 3. 4. 6. 1. * Observe that he chalengeth Mr F. to produce but one piece of a text that in the least looks towards a proof that christ came to restore the holiness we had lost p. 36. and I think I have answered his challenge 2. 3. 4. 5. 7. 1. 2. 8. 9. 1. 2. 10. 1. 11. 12. 13. â—â— 14. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.