“We are obliged to oppose this doctrine, because it appears to us a doctrine of _wrath_, rather than a doctrine of _grace_. If we are not mistaken, it is opposite to the general tenor of the Scriptures, injurious to all the Divine perfections, and subversive of this fundamental truth of natural and revealed religion, _God shall judge the world in righteousness_. It is calculated to strengthen the carnal security of Laodicean professors, raise horrid anxieties in the minds of doubting Christians, and give damned spirits just ground to blaspheme to all eternity. Again, it withdraws from thinking sinners and judicious saints the helps which God has given them, by multitudes of conditional promises and threatenings, designed to work upon their _hopes_ and _fears_. And, while it unnecessarily stumbles men of sense and hardens infidels, it affords wicked men rational excuses to continue in their sins, and gives desperate offenders full room to charge not only Adam, but God Himself, with all their enormities.” In this piteous way did the evangelical revivalists of the last century become divided. It was a mournful scene; but, in the long run, it was over-ruled for good. Error was crushed, and truth rose triumphant. Meanwhile, on one side at least, great bitterness was engendered, and lamentable epithets were used. In the hottest of the fray, however, Fletcher, the chief combatant, never lost his temper. Hence, in concluding his “Fourth Check to Antinomianism,” he wrote:— “Although we severely expose the mistakes of godly Calvinists, we sincerely love their persons, truly reverence their piety, and cordially rejoice in the success which attends their evangelical labours. And, although we cannot admit their _logic_, while they defend a bad cause with bad arguments, we should do them great injustice if we did not acknowledge that there have been, and are still among them, men eminent for good sense and good learning—men as remarkable for their skill in the art of logic, as for their deep acquaintance with the oracles of God. We thank them for their pious labours; we ask the continuance, or the renewal, of their valuable love. We invite them to our pulpits; and assure them that, if they admit us into theirs, we shall do by them as we would be done by,—avoiding to touch there, or among their own people occasionally committed to our charge, upon the points of doctrine debated between us; and reserving to ourselves the liberty of bearing our full testimony in our own pulpits, and from the press, against Antinomianism and Pharisaism in all their shapes.” There were other combatants in the field whose power over themselves was not so great and so praiseworthy. Walter Sellon was one of them, to whom Richard Hill addressed the following, hitherto unpublished, letter, just about the time when the Fourth Check of Fletcher first appeared:—