“It may not be improper, also, to observe to you, Sir, that when I presented Mr. Wesley with my ‘Vindication,’ I begged he would correct it, and take away whatever might be unkind or too sharp: urging that though I meant no unkindness, I was not a proper judge of what I had written under peculiarly delicate and trying circumstances, as well as in a great hurry; and did not, therefore, dare to trust either my pen, my head, or my heart. He was no sooner gone” (from Bristol) “than I sent a letter after him to repeat and urge the same request; and he wrote me word, that he had ‘expunged every tart expression.’ _If he has_ (for I have not yet seen what alterations his friendly pen has made) I am reconciled to the publication; and _that he has_, I have reason to hope from the letters of two judicious London friends, who calmed my fears, lest I should have treated you with unkindness. “One of them says, ’I reverence Mr. Shirley for his candid acknowledgment of his hastiness in judging. I commend the Calvinists at the Conference for their justice to Mr. Wesley, and their acquiescence in the Declaration of the Preachers in connexion with him. But is that Declaration, however dispersed, a remedy adequate to the evil done, not only to Mr. Wesley, but to the cause and work of God? Several Calvinists, in eagerness of malice, had dispersed their calumnies through the three kingdoms. A truly excellent person herself,[238] in her mistaken zeal, had represented him as _a papist unmasked, a heretic, an apostate_. A clergyman of the first reputation informs me _a Poem on his Apostacy_ is just coming out.[239] Letters have been sent to every serious Churchman and Dissenter through the land, together with the _Gospel Magazine_. Great are the shoutings, “_And now that he lieth let him rise up no more_.” This is all the cry. His dearest friends and children are staggered, and scarce know what to think. You, in your corner, cannot conceive the mischief that has been done, and is still doing. But your letters, in the hand of Providence, may answer the good ends you proposed by writing them. You have not been too severe to dear Mr. Shirley, moderate Calvinists themselves being judges, but very kind and friendly to set a good mistaken man right, and probably to preserve him from the like rashness as long as he lives. Be not troubled, therefore, but cast your care upon the Lord.’ “My other friend says, ‘Considering what harm the Circular Letter has done, and what a useless satisfaction Mr. Shirley has given by his vague acknowledgment, it is no more than just and equitable that your Letters should be published.’