“HAWKSTONE, _December 24, 1772_. “DEAR SIR,—It will answer no end for you and me to continue our disputes, except that of stirring up the old man in us both. I believe you have the grace of God, and I am sure you are blest with a good understanding, which is well cultivated by acquired knowledge. With these endowments and qualifications, I trust it will please God to make you abundantly useful in the cause of Christ. I heartily forgive whatever has savoured more of Walter Sellon than of Jesus Christ in your two letters to me; and I beg the same on behalf of poor Richard Hill. Come, my dear Sir, let us pray for each other. If ever I have the pleasure of seeing you in the flesh, be assured that I shall embrace you in the bonds of brotherly love; if not, I trust we shall one day meet in a better place, where there will be no other contention between us than who shall sing loudest, ‘Grace, grace unto it!’ Without undervaluing myself in any respect, this will certainly be the privilege of that amazing monument of mercy who desires always to subscribe himself, “Very dear Sir, your sincere and affectionate friend, in the best of bonds, RICHARD HILL.” “To the Rev. Mr. Sellon, Ledsham, near Ferry Bridge, Yorkshire.” This polemical chapter cannot be more fitly concluded than with these breathings of Christian love, to which may be added an extract from a letter which Fletcher wrote to Mr. Charles Perronet, who was suffering great affliction of body and mind:— “1772, September 7.—MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,—No cross, no crown; the heavier the cross, the brighter the crown. “‘O for a firm and lasting faith, To credit all the Almighty saith!’ “Faith, I mean the _evidence of things not seen_, is a powerful cordial to support and exhilarate us under the heaviest pressures of pain and temptation. By faith, we live upon the _invisible, eternal_ God; we believe that _in Him_ we live, move, and have our being; insensibly we slide from _self_ into _God_, from the visible into the invisible, from the carnal into the spiritual, from time into eternity. Here our spirits are ever young; they live in and upon the very fountain of strength, sprightliness, and joy. Oh! my dear friend, let us rest more upon the _truth as it is in Jesus_. Of late, I have been brought to feed more upon Jesus as _the truth_. I see more in Him in that character than I ever did. I see Christ _the truth_ of my life, friends, relations, sense, food, raiment, light, fire, resting-place. All out of Him are but shadows. All _in Him_ are blessed sacraments; I mean visible signs of the fountain, or vehicles to convey the streams of inward grace.”[278] Footnote 278: Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”