In expressing his views upon this all-important subject, Bunyan was
simply guided by a sense of duty. Fear of the consequences, or of
offending his enemies, never entered his mind. He felt that they
were in the hands of his heavenly Father, and that all their malice
must be over-ruled for good. Notwithstanding his solemn warning
not to speak irreverently of the book, his refusal to use which had
subjected him to severe privations and the fear of a halter, this
Christian hero was not daunted, but gives his opinion of it with
all that freedom and liberty which he considered essential to excite
in his fellow-men inquiries as to its origin and imposition.

It is not my province to enter into the controversy whether in
public worship a form of prayer ought to be used. Let every one
be persuaded in his own mind; but to pass a law denouncing those
that refuse to use a prescribed form as worthy of imprisonment,
transportation, or death, is an attack upon the first principles
of Christianity. To punish those who spoke irreverently of it, was
almost an acknowledgment that it would not bear investigation. To
speak of the book as in his serious judgment it deserved, was not
that mark of sectarianism which Romaine exhibited when he called
the beautiful hymns of Dr. Watts, which are used so much in public
worship among Dissenters, 'Watts' jingle,' and 'Watts' whims!'[248]
No answer appears to have been published to Bunyan's extremely
interesting volume until twelve years after the author's death,
when a reply appeared under the title of Liturgies Vindicated by the
Dissenters, or the Lawfulness of Forms of Prayer proved against John
Bunyan and the Dissenters. 1700. This is a very rare and curious
volume. The author, as usual in such controversies, deals wholesale
in invective, and displays all the ability of a sophist.