Thomas Janes, who from 1767 to 1770 was one of Wesley’s itinerants. His health not being equal to the rough work of a Methodist preacher he settled as the pastor of a dissenting congregation in Bristol. He died in 1773. He was a man of considerable abilities, and compiled and published a volume which he entitled “The Beauties of the Poets.” Footnote 273: One of the first masters of Wesley’s Kingswood School, but now an ordained clergyman of the Church of England, and curate of St. Werburgh in Bristol. He was an intimate friend of Lady Huntingdon. Footnote 274: The Band-meetings of the Methodists, consisting of persons selected from the Methodist classes. Fletcher dedicated his “Fourth Check to Antinomianism” “to all candid Calvinists in the Church of England.” An extract from this dedication may be useful, as giving, in a brief form, some of the doctrines which Fletcher had defended and enforced, and which had so hugely offended his Calvinistic friends. “They” [his opponents] “will try to frighten you from reading this book, by protesting that I throw down the foundation of Christianity and help Mr. Wesley to place _works_ and _merit_ on the Redeemer’s throne. To this dreadful charge I answer:—1. That I had rather my right hand should lose its cunning to all eternity, than use it a moment to detract from the Saviour’s _real_ glory. 2. That the strongest pleas I produce for holiness and good works are quotations from the Homilies of our own Church as well as from the Puritan divines, whom I cite preferably to others, because they held what you are taught to call the _doctrines of grace_. 3. That what I have said of those doctrines recommends itself to every unprejudiced person’s reason and conscience. 4. That my capital arguments in favour of practical Christianity are founded upon our second justification by the evidence of good works in the great day; a doctrine which my opponent himself cannot help assenting to. 5. That from first to last, when the _meritorious cause_ of our justification is considered, we set works aside; praying God _not to enter into judgment with us_, or _weigh our merits_, but to _pardon our offences_ for Christ’s sake; and gladly ascribing the whole of our salvation to His alone merits, as much as Calvin or Dr. Crisp does. 6. That when the word _meriting_, _deserving_, or _worthy_, which our Lord uses again and again, is applied to good works or good men, we mean absolutely nothing but _rewardable_, or qualified for the reception of a _gracious reward_. And 7. That even this _improper_ merit or rewardableness of good works is entirely derived from Christ’s _proper_ merit, who works what is good in us; and from the gracious promise of God, who has freely engaged Himself to recompense the fruits of righteousness, which His own free grace enables us to produce.”