A30137:91
A defence of the doctrine of justification, by faith in Jesus Christ
A defence of the doctrine of justification, by faith in Jesus Christ: showing, true Gospel-holiness flows from thence. Or, Mr. Fowler's pretended design of Christianity, proved to be nothing more then 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. By John Bunyan.A defence of the doctrine of justification, by faith in Jesus Christ: shewing, true Gospel-holiness flows from thence. Or, Mr. Fowler's pretended design of Christianity, proved to be nothing more then 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 wholesom 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. By John Bunyan.
London: printed for Francis Smith, 1673
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The sum is; this your Holiness both in root and act is no other then what is common to all the men on Earth; I mean so common as that for the first, is in their Nature, as the second is also part of themselves, they being Creatures whose prime or principal distinction from other, consisteth in that they are reasonable, and such as have reason as a thing essential to them; wherefore the excellency that you have discoursed of, is none other then the excellency and goodness that is of this World, such as in the first Principles of it is common to Heathens, Pagans, Turks, Infidels: and that as evidently dictates to those that have not heard the Gospel (I mean as to the Nature the good and evil) as it doth in them that sit under the sound thereof; and is the self same which our late ungodly Heretics the Quakers have made such a stir to promote and exalt, only in the description thereof you seem more ingenious then they: for whereas they erroneously call it Christ, the light of Christ, Faith, Grace, Hope, the Spirit, the Word that is nigh, &c. you give it the names due thereto, viz. A complexion or complication and combination of all the virtue of the Soul, the humane Nature, the dictates of it, the Principles of reason, such as are self evident, than which there is nothing Mankind doth naturally assent to, Page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. only here as I have said, you glorify your errors also, with Names any Titles that are not to be found, but in your own deluded Brains: As that the virtues of the Souls can keep themselves incommixed, that there is yet in us the purity of the humane Nature, of such a disposition, that can both by light and power give a man to see, and powerfully incline him to, and bring him under the government of all those good and practical principles, that are made known either by Revelation, Nature, or the use of Reason.
The sum is; this your Holiness both in root and act is no other then what is common to all the men on Earth; I mean so common as that for the first, is in their Nature, as the second is also part of themselves, they being Creatures whose prime or principal distinction from other, consisteth in that they are reasonable, and such as have reason as a thing essential to them; wherefore the excellency that you have discoursed of, is none other then the excellency and goodness that is of this World, such as in the first Principles of it is common to Heathens, Pagans, Turks, Infidels: and that as evidently dictates to those that have not heard the Gospel (I mean as to the Nature the good and evil) as it doth in them that sit under the sound thereof; and is the self same which our late ungodly Heriticks the Quakers have made such a stir to promote and exal, only in the description thereof you seem more ingenious then they: for whereas they erroniously call it Christ, the light of Christ, Faith, Grace, Hope, the Spirit, the Word that is nigh, &c. you give it the names due thereto, viz. A complexion or complication and combination of all the virtue of the Soul, the humane Nature, the dictates of it, the Principles of reason, such as are selfevident, than which there is nothing Mankind doth naturally assent to, Page 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. only here as I have said, you glorifie your errors also, with Names any Titles that are not to be found, but in your own deluded Brains: As that the virtues of the Souls can keep themselves incommixed, that there is yet in us the purity of the humane Nature, of such a disposition, that can both by light and power give a man to see, and powerfully incline him to, and bring him under the government of all those good and practical principles, that are made known either by Revelation, Nature, or the use of Reason.