ON November 12, 1774, Fletcher wrote:—
“The author of the ‘Checks’ has promised to his readers an answer to the Rev. Mr. Toplady’s piece, entitled, ‘More Work for Mr. Wesley.’[[314]] His reason for postponing the finishing of that part of his ‘Logica Genevensis’ was the importance of the ‘Equal Check,’ which closes the controversy with Mr. Hill. He saw life so uncertain, that, of two things which he was obliged to do, he thought it his duty to set about that which appeared to him the more useful. He considered also that it was proper to have quite done with Mr. Hill, before he faced so able a writer as Mr. Toplady. And he hoped, that, to lay before the judicious a complete system of truth, which, like the sun, recommends itself by its own lustre, was perhaps the best method to prove that error, which shines only as a meteor, is nothing but a mock-sun. However, he fully designs to perform his engagement in a short time, if his life is spared.”
This was prefixed to the first edition of the following work, which, at that time, was in the press: “Zelotes and Honestus[[315]] Reconciled; or, an Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism Continued: Being the First Part of the Scripture Scales to weigh the Gold of Gospel Truth,—to balance a multitude of opposite Scriptures,—to prove the Gospel-Marriage of Free-Grace and Free-will,—and to restore primitive harmony to the Gospel of the day. With a Preface, containing some Strictures upon the Three Letters of Richard Hill, Esq.; which have been lately published.”
This was Fletcher’s largest work. It was published in two parts, but it was continuously paged, the whole making a 12 mo. vol. of 444 pages.
Mr. Hill’s “Three Letters” were published in 1773, just after the publication of his “Finishing Stroke.” The letters have been given in a previous chapter. Fletcher had answered them privately; and now, in a preface to his present work, he replied publicly. After stating that Mr. Hill’s pamphlet “had been hawked about the parish of Madeley” by the newsman, he proceeds to say:—
“Mr. Hill quits the field; but it is like a brave Parthian. He not only shoots his own arrows as he retires, but borrows those also of two persons, whom he calls ‘a very eminent minister in the Church of England’ and ‘a lay gentleman of great learning and abilities.’ As I see neither argument nor Scripture in the performances of those two new auxiliaries, I shall take no notice of their ingrafted productions.
“With respect to Mr. Hill’s arguments, they are the same which he advanced in his ‘Finishing Stroke;’ nor need we wonder at his not scrupling to produce them over again, just as if they had been overlooked by his opponent, for in the first page of his book he says, ‘I have not read a single page which treats on the subject since I wrote my Finishing Stroke.’
“As Mr. Hill’s arguments are the same, so are also his personal charges. After passing some compliments upon me as an ‘able defender of Mr. Wesley’s principles,’ he continues to represent me as ‘prostituting noble endowments to the advancing of a party.’ He affirms, without shadow of proof, that he has ‘detected many misrepresentations of facts throughout’ my ‘publications.’ He accuses me of using ‘unbecoming artifices, much declamation, chicanery, and evasion;’ and says, ‘upon these accounts I really cannot, with any degree of satisfaction, read the works of one who, I am in continual suspicion, is endeavouring to mislead me by false glosses and pious frauds.’
“I cannot but still love and honour Mr. Hill on many, very many, accounts. Though his warm attachment to what he calls ‘the doctrines of grace,’ and what we call ‘the doctrines of limited grace and free wrath,’ robs him from time to time of part of the moderation, patience, and meekness of wisdom which adorn the complete Christian character, I cannot but consider him as a very valuable person. I do not doubt but when the paroxysm of his Calvinistic zeal shall be over, he will be as great an ornament to the Church of England in the capacity of a gentleman, as he is to civil society in the capacity of a magistrate. And justice, as well as love, obliges me to say that in the mean time he is, in several respects, a pattern for all gentlemen of fortune; few equalling him in devoting a large fortune to the relief of the poor, and their leisure hours to the support of what they esteem the truth. Happy would it be for him, and for the peace of the Church, if to all his good qualities he always added the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit; and if he so far suspected his orthodoxy as to condescend to weigh himself in the ‘Scripture Scales.’”
Fletcher’s preface to his “Scripture Scales” is “humbly addressed to the true Protestants in Great Britain and Ireland.”