“I assure you, Sir, I do not love the warlike dress of the Vindicator, any more than David did the heavy armour of Saul. With gladness, therefore, I cast it aside to throw myself at your feet, and protest to you, that, though I thought it my _duty_ to write to you with the utmost _plainness_, _frankness_, and _honesty_, the design of doing it with _bitterness_ never entered my heart. However, for every ‘_bitter expression_’ that may have dropped from my sharp, vindicating pen, I ask you pardon; but it must be _in general_, for neither friends nor foes have yet _particularly_ pointed out to me _one_ such expression. “You condescend, Rev. Sir, to call me your ‘learned friend.’ _Learning_ is an accomplishment I never pretended to; but your _friendship_ is an honour I shall always highly esteem, and do at this time value above my own brother’s love. Appearances are a little against me: I feel I am a thorn in your flesh; but I am persuaded it is a _necessary_ one, and this persuasion reconciles me to the thankless and disagreeable part I act. I can assure you, my dear Sir, I love and honour you, as truly as I dislike the rashness of your well-meant zeal. The motto I thought myself obliged to follow was, ‘_E bello pax_;’ but that which I delight in is, ‘_In bello pax_.’ May we make them harmonize till we learn war and polemic divinity no more! “If in the meantime we offend our weak brethren, let us do something to lessen the offence till it is removed. Let us show them we make war without so much as shyness. Should you ever come to the next county, as you did last summer, honour me with a line, and I shall gladly wait upon you, and show you (if you permit me) the way to my pulpit, where I shall think myself highly favoured to see you ‘secure the foundation,’ and hear you enforce the doctrine of _justification by faith_, which you fear we attack. And should I ever be within thirty miles of the city where you reside, I shall go to submit myself to you, and beg leave to assist you in reading prayers for you, or giving the cup with you. Thus shall we convince the world how controversy may be conscientiously carried on without interruption of brotherly love; and I shall have the peculiar pleasure of testifying to you in person how sincerely I am, “Honoured and dear Sir, “Your submissive and obedient servant, in the bond of a _practical_ Gospel, “J. FLETCHER.” The third letter, to a large extent, is historical, and shows, with terrific faithfulness, that not a few of the so-called evangelical ministers and churches of a hundred years ago were far from what they should have been, and that Wesley’s “Minutes” and Fletcher’s “Checks” were greatly needed. Fletcher writes:—