Mr. Richard Hill was angrier than ever. Want of space renders it impossible to examine his theology; and to quote his calumnious accusations is unsavoury work; and yet the latter must be done, for the employment of these slanders was, at least, one of the reasons why the controversy was continued. Perhaps, Fletcher was not averse to fighting. He liked an honourable contest, especially if it was likely to repress evil, or to promote good. To do this had been his chief, almost his only object during the last two years; but now his own reputation was at stake, and he was bound to defend himself, as well as to defend the doctrines he had expounded and enforced. “The purest treasure mortal times afford, Is spotless reputation; that away, Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.” On the ninth page of his pamphlet, Richard Hill politely asks poor Fletcher, “Can you wonder, Sir, that we look upon you as a spiritual calumniator, and that we accuse you of vile falsehood and gross perversion?” On the next page, Mr. Hill remarks:— “I know, Sir, that it was a warm attachment to your friend, which occasioned you to run the lengths you have done. But dear as that friend is to you, truth ought to be dearer still; yet the maxim, which you seem all along to pursue, is, that Mr. Wesley _must be vindicated_; yea, though all the ministers in the kingdom, yourself not excepted, should fall to the ground. But what makes us still more sensibly feel the power of your pen is that our tenets are most shamefully (would I could say unintentionally) misrepresented, in order to prejudice the world against us, and to make them believe we hold sentiments which from our inmost souls we most cordially detest; particularly with regard to the doctrines of election and perseverance, which you have made to stand upon a pillory as high as Haman’s gallows, dressed up in a frightful garb of your own invention, and then pelted them till all your mud and dirt was exhausted. “Mr. Wesley has nothing to do but hold up his finger in order to prevent thousands of his followers from ever looking into anything that is written against his own faction, and to make them believe that the _Four Checks_ (as they are called) contain the _medulla_ of the Christian religion. Be this as it will, the unfair quotations you have made, and the shocking misrepresentations and calumnies you have been guilty of, will, for the future, prevent me from looking into any of your books, if you should write a thousand volumes. So here the controversy must end; at least it shall end for me.” “I cannot, however, conclude without again acknowledging that, in the sight of men, your life is exemplary, and your walk outwardly blameless” (p. 41).