“Things, I hoped, would have remained there; but how am I surprised and grieved to see zeal borrowing the horn of discord, and sounding an alarm throughout the religious world against you. Mr. Hutton called upon me last night, and showed me a printed circular, which I suppose is, or will be, sent to the serious clergy and laity throughout the land. I have received none, as I have lost, I suppose, my reputation of being a ‘_real protestant_,’ by what I wrote upon your minutes in Wales. “This is an exact copy of the printed letter. [Here follows Shirley’s circular as above.] “I think it my duty, dear sir, to give you the earliest intelligence of this bold onset, and to assure you that upon the evangelical principles, mentioned in your last letter to me, I, for one, shall be glad to stand by you and your doctrine to the last, hoping that you will gladly remove stumbling blocks out of the way of the weak, and alter such expressions as may create prejudice in the hearts of those who are inclined to admit it. “I write to Mr. Shirley to expostulate with him, and to request him to call in his circular letter. He is the last man that should attack you. His sermons contain propositions much more heretical and anti-Calvinistical than your minutes. If my letters have not the desired effect, I shall probably, if you approve of them and correct them, make them public for your justification. “I find Mr. Ireland is to write to make you _tamely recant_ without measuring swords, or breaking a pike with our _real protestants_. I wrote to him also. “I am, dear sir, your unworthy servant in the gospel, “JOHN FLETCHER. “To the Rev. Mr. John Wesley, at his Preaching House in Dublin, Ireland.” There was chivalry in this,--the real, genuine chivalry of a noble mind and generous heart. The Swiss mountaineer was not the man to see a friend _bullied_ without rushing to his rescue. Wesley was not without sympathy. A few days later, his faithful friend, Vincent Perronet, the vicar of Shoreham, who was also of Swiss extraction, wrote to him as follows. “SHOREHAM, _July 9, 1771_. “MY VERY DEAR BROTHER,--I am truly concerned, that so laborious a servant of Christ should be attacked in so violent a manner. Insulted by some, without the least decency, or regard to common decorum; and threatened by others with a synodical sentence. “Had I been honoured with an invitation from a great personage, for whom I have a very high esteem, I should have told her ladyship, that I have no greater veneration for synods than the most excellent Bishop Nazianzen had formerly, whose great learning and Christian virtues could not screen him from the usual violence of those assemblies, and who therefore desired to see no more of them.