“If I have been obliged to bear a little hardly upon my dear honoured brother, Mr. Shirley, I beg that nothing I have written to him on account of his precipitancy, rashness, or hurry, may prevent you from looking upon him with the love and respect due to a minister of Christ. Recommending him and myself to your prayers, and taking the liberty to recommend to you mutual forbearance, a daily increase of brotherly love, and a continual growth in the genuine liberty of the Gospel, I remain, my dear brethren, your obliged, affectionate, and obedient brother and servant,

“John Fletcher.”[[259]]

It has been already stated that at the commencement of the year 1772, Fletcher was writing his “Vindication of the Doctrine of Christian Perfection;” and that this was laid aside for the purpose of writing against Socinianism. Very soon, however, he had to devote his attention to another subject. In the foregoing letter, dated “March, 1772,” he tells the Methodist Society at Dublin that he had sent his “Third Check to Antinomianism” to the press; and this is confirmed by the following extract from a letter by Wesley to his brother Charles:—

“Birmingham, March 17, 1772.

“I am to-day to meet Mr. Fletcher at Billbrook. Part of the ‘Third Check’ is printing; the rest I have ready. In this he draws the sword and throws away the scabbard. Yet, I doubt not, they will forgive him all, if he will but promise to write no more.”[[260]]

Fletcher’s parochial duties were heavy, and yet he seems to have written his “Third Check to Antinomianism” in about a month. It must have been a strain to accomplish this. The work is no flimsy production, but is full of Scriptural arguments, which could not be framed, arranged, and adequately expressed without a vast amount of labour; and the book itself was of no mean size, consisting, as it did, of one hundred and fourteen small typed and closely printed pages. The following was its title: “A Third Check to Antinomianism; in a Letter to the Author of “Pietas Oxoniensis:” By the Vindicator of the Rev. Mr. Wesley’s Minutes. ‘Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and Scriptural doctrine; for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,’ 2 Tim. iv. 2, 3. ‘Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith; but let brotherly love continue,’ Tit. i. 13, Heb. xiii. 1. Bristol: Printed by W. Pine in Wine Street, 1772.”

Why was it written and published? Fletcher had replied to the “Circular Letter” and the “Narrative” of Shirley, and in doing so had vindicated Wesley’s “Minutes.” Shirley was now silent, but other antagonists started up. A small 8vo. pamphlet was published, with the title “A Letter to the Rev. Mr. Fletcher, of Madeley, on the Differences subsisting between him and the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Shirley.” The author subscribed himself “An enemy to no man, but a friend to religion;” and his letter was dated “Bath, February 3, 1772.” This religious gentleman alleged that, under the existing circumstances, the publication of Fletcher’s answer to Shirley’s “Circular Letter” “was highly censurable, yea, criminal.” He accused Fletcher of “wantonly scattering firebrands, arrows, and death;” his defence of Wesley’s “Minutes” was “flimsy;” and he was actuated by “personal envy or enmity more than by a love to Christ and a godly zeal to promote truth.” Fletcher, properly enough, declined to notice the virulent and frothy pamphlet of this Bath religionist; but another publication, issued about the same time, demanded his attention. Its author was his friend and neighbour, Richard Hill, Esq., and its title as follows: “Five Letters to the Reverend Mr. F——r, relative to his Vindication of the Minutes of the Reverend Mr. John Wesley. Intended chiefly for the comfort of mourning backsliders, and such as may have been distressed and perplexed by reading Mr. Wesley’s Minutes, or the Vindication of them. By a Friend. London: 1772.” 8vo., 40 pp.[[261]]

Mr. Hill’s first letter is dated “December 2, 1771.”[[262]] His pamphlet is remarkable for two things—only two:—First, the highest Christian urbanity towards Fletcher; and secondly[secondly], the writer’s curious theology. A few extracts from Mr. Hill’s letters will suffice to show that Fletcher’s task of answering his courteous opponent was not a difficult undertaking.

“God alone knows the sorrow of heart wherewith I address you; and how much the fear of casting stumbling-blocks before some who are really sincere, and the apprehensions of giving malicious joy to others who desire no greater satisfaction than to see the children of the Prince of Peace divided among themselves, had well-nigh prevailed upon me to pour out my soul in silence instead of publicly taking up the pen against you. But when I perceived the solicitude with which Mr. Wesley’s preachers recommended your letters to Mr. Shirley in their respective congregations, and, above all, how many of God’s people had been perplexed and distressed by reading them,—I say, when I perceived this to be the case, and had prayed to the Giver of all wisdom for direction, I could not but esteem it my indispensable duty to send out a few observations on your book, especially as no other person, that I know of, had made any reply to the doctrinal parts of it from the time of its publication. With regard to the ‘Circular Letter,’ I shall studiously avoid the very mention of it; as whether the sending of it were in itself a wrong step or a right one, is of no consequence in the matter of salvation. Neither shall I follow you page by page, but taking the ’Minutes’ in the order they stand, shall dwell upon them, more or less, as appears necessary.”

The plan here propounded is carried out, but want of space renders it impossible to give an outline of Mr. Hill’s theology. The following quotations must be taken as specimens of others which might be given:—