“If thou canst not yet see, gentle reader, into the nature of Mr. Rowland Hill’s ‘_Remarks_,’ peruse the following _friendly_ sentences. ‘In regard to the fopperies of religion, you certainly differ from the Popish priest of Madeley. You have made universal havoc of every truth of the Gospel. You have invented dreadful slanders. You plentifully stigmatize many with the most unkindly language. You have blackened our principles, and scandalized our practice. You place us in a manner among murderers. It shocks me to follow you. Our characters lie bleeding under the cruelty of your pen, and complain loudly against your great injustice. Blush for the characters you have injured by the rashness and bitterness of your pen. You have invented a set of monsters, and raised a hideous ghost, by your own spells and incantations of banter and contempt. Numberless sneers, taunts, and sarcasms dreadfully decorate the whole of your performance: they are nothing better than infernal terms of darkness, which it is hateful to transcribe.’ “When I cast my eyes upon this extract, I cannot help crying out, ‘If this is my antagonist’s _friendliness_, alas! what will be his _displeasure_? And what have I done to deserve these tokens of Calvinian benevolence? Why are these flowers of Geneva rhetoric so plentifully heaped upon my head?’ “Sir, I do not intimate that I have done nothing displeasing to you. Far from insinuating it, I shall present my readers with a list of the manifold, but well-meant provocations, which have procured me your public correspondence. I say, _well-meant provocations_; for all I want to _provoke_ any one _to_ is _love and good works_. “1. I have written my Checks with the _confidence_ with which the clear dictates of reason, and the full testimonies of Scripture, usually inspire those who love what they esteem truth more than they do their dearest friends. “2. After speaking most honourably of _many Calvinists_, even of all that are _pious_, I have taken the liberty to insinuate, that the schemes of _finished salvation_, and _imputed righteousness_, will no more save a Calvinist guilty of _practical_ Antinomianism, than the doctrine of _general redemption_ will save an ungodly remonstrant. Thus I have made no difference between the _backsliding elect_ of the Lock,[275] and the _apostates_ of the Foundery, when death overtakes them in their sins, and in their blood. “3. I have maintained that our Lord did not speak an untruth when He said, _In the day of judgment, by thy words shalt thou be justified_; and that St. Paul did not propagate heresy when he wrote, _Work out your own salvation_.