“I am much obliged to those of you who approve my little attempt to vindicate practical religion and the character of an eminent servant of Christ, who ministered unto you in holy things, and whom some of our mistaken friends in England exposed as the author of dreadful heresy. The thanks which some of you unexpectedly bestowed upon me on that occasion, I have laid at the feet of Jesus, to whom all praise belongs, who is the author of every good gift, and from whom comes all the help done upon the earth. “When I took up my pen, I aimed at discharging my duty towards God and His misapprehended truth; towards my honoured father in Christ, Mr. Wesley, and his misunderstood ‘Minutes’; and though all the world should have blamed me, they would never have robbed me of the satisfaction of having at least attempted to clear my conscience. “The manner in which part of you have refused me their thanks, is too civil and brotherly not to deserve mine. I wish many of our English brethren had been as moderate as you in their disapprobation of my letters to the Rev. Mr. Shirley. You will see in a ‘Second Check to Antinomianism’ some things that may reconcile you to the first; and I have just sent to the press a ‘Third Check,’ to what appears to me the favourite delusion of the Church; which I trust will cast more light on the delicate subject about which we divide. “If we cannot see things in the same light, I hope we never shall, I beg we never may, disagree in love. “I am glad you agreed to disagree about the giving or refusing me your undeserved thanks. Let every little rub of opposition heighten our love; every little clashing of sentiment make the heavenly spark show itself, and kindle our souls into that charity which hopeth all things, endureth all things, thinketh no evil, and is not provoked. “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] Footnote 258: One of Wesley’s itinerant preachers, well-read and popular, but now enervated, and settled in Dublin. Footnote 259: “Thirteen Original Letters written by the Rev. J. Fletcher.” Bath, 1791, p. 22.