soon after elevated to the see of Gloucester. It was entitled The
Design of Christianity, and professed to prove that the object of
the Saviour was merely to place man in a similar position to that
of Adam before the fall. It is an extremely learned production,
full of Greek and Latin quotations; but, in Bunyan's estimation, it
aimed a deadly blow at the foundations of Christianity. To restore
man to Adam's innocency, and then to leave him to cope with Satanic
subtlety, was to cut off all hopes of salvation. It was brought
to him in February 1672, and in the very short period of forty-two
days, Fowler's theory was most completely demolished by Bunyan's
Defence of the Doctrine of Justification, 4to, dated from prison,
the 27th of the 12th Month, 1671 (27th March, 1672). This was
answered by a small 4to volume, entitled Dirt Wiped Off. Bunyan had
used some harsh epithets; but the clergyman, or his curate, beat
the tinker in abusive language. He had been by this time promoted
to the rectory of Cripplegate. For an account of this controversy,
the reader is referred to the introduction to Bunyan's work
on Justification, and to that to the Pilgrim's Progress.[266] The
impression it made upon the public mind is well expressed in a rude
rhyme, made by an anonymous author, in his Assembly of Moderate
Divines:


'There's a moderate Doctour at Cripplegate dwells,
Whom Smythes his curate in trimming excells;
But Bunyan a tinker hath tickled his gills.'


The last work that he wrote in prison was the confession of his
faith, and reason of his practice as to mixed communion, not with