“Finally, as foreigners are dangerous people, and may stir up His Majesty’s subjects to rebellion, the _English_ are informed that if any one of them, were he to come over from Geneva itself, shall dare to insinuate that this most gracious gospel proclamation is not according to equity, morality, and godliness, the first Englishman that meets him shall have full leave to brand him as a papist, without judge or jury, in the forehead or on the back, as he thinks best; and that, till he is farther proceeded with according to the utmost severity of the law, the chosen nation shall be informed, in the _Gospel Magazine_, to beware of him as a man who ‘scatters firebrands, arrows, and deaths,’ and _makes universal havoc of every_ article of this sweet gospel proclamation. “Given at Geneva, and signed by four of His Majesty’s principal secretaries of state for the predestination department. “JOHN CALVIN. THE AUTHOR OF ‘P. O.’[277] DR. CRISP. ROWLAND HILL.” Footnote 276: A frock, painted with flames and devils, in which heretics were burnt by the Inquisition. Footnote 277: Richard Hill, the author of _Pietas Oxoniensis_. To those not acquainted with the Calvinian controversy, this “illustration” may appear ungenerous and unfair; but in reality, the doctrines it burlesques had all been asserted by Calvinists, and the theological points involved in them had all been exposed and controverted by Fletcher, in his “Checks to Antinomianism.” No doubt the exposure was unpleasant, but the author of the Checks was not to be blamed for this. His work was done with an aching heart in the defence of truth and righteousness. Fletcher’s twelfth Letter, addressed to Richard Hill alone, dwells altogether on the doctrine of Imputed Righteousness, which Fletcher describes as follows:— “Consistent Calvinists believe that if a man is elected, God absolutely imputes to him Christ’s personal righteousness, _i.e._, the perfect obedience unto death which Christ performed upon earth. This is reckoned to him for obedience and righteousness, even while he is actually disobedient, and before he has a grain of inherent righteousness. They consider this imputation, as an unconditional and eternal act of grace, by which, not only a sinner’s past sins, but his crimes _present_ and _to come_, be they more or be they less, be they small or be they great, are for ever and for ever covered. _He is_ eternally _justified from all things_. And, therefore, under this imputation, he is perfectly righteous before God, even while he commits adultery or murder. Or, to use your own expression, whatever _lengths he runs_, whatever _depths he falls into_, ‘_he always stands absolved, always complete in the everlasting righteousness of the Redeemer_.’”