“The mask is thrown off. George Bell, John Dixon, etc., have quitted the Society. I wrote to Thomas Maxfield, but was not favoured with an answer. This morning I wrote a second time, and received an answer indeed! The substance is, ‘You take too much upon you.’”[101] Footnote 101: Tyerman’s “Life and Times of Wesley,” vol. ii., p. 462. These brief extracts are given to indicate the great commotion that at this time existed. The excitement was not confined to London. It was shared by Mr. Samuel Hatton and Miss Hatton, both of them Fletcher’s friends and correspondents, and who seem to have resided at the ancient town of Wem, about twenty miles from Madeley.[102] In a letter to Miss Hatton, Fletcher expressed his views, as follows:— “MADELEY, _March 14, 1763_. “Mr. Maxfield’s reply to Mr. Wesley seems to me just in _some_ points, and in _others_ too severe. Mr. Wesley is, perhaps, too tenacious of some expressions, and too prone to credit what he wishes concerning some mistaken witnesses of the state of fathers in Christ. Mr. Maxfield, perhaps, esteems too little the inestimable privilege of being perfected in that love which casts out fear. But, in general, I conceive that it would be better for babes, or young men in Christ, to cry for a growth in grace, than to dispute whether fathers in Christ enjoy such privileges.”[103] Footnote 102: Letters, 1791, p. 182. Footnote 103: Letters, 1791, p. 130. A few weeks later, in a letter to Mr. Samuel Hatton, Fletcher wrote:— “MADELEY, _April 22, 1763_. “I am quite of your opinion about the mischief that some professors do in the Church of Christ under the mask of sanctity; but my Master bids me bear with the tares until the harvest, lest, in rooting them up, I should promiscuously pull up the wheat also. As to Mr. Wesley’s system of perfection, it tends rather to promote humility than pride, if I may credit his description of it in the lines following:— “‘Now let me gain perfection’s height, Now let me into _nothing_ fall, Be _less than nothing_ in Thy sight, And feel that Christ is _all in all_!’ “More than this I do not desire, and I hope that, short of this, nothing will satisfy either my dear friend or me.”[104] Footnote 104: _Ibid._, p. 132. The following letter, to Charles Wesley, refers to the same disturbance; but it also mentions another matter of great interest. Six years ago, Fletcher had become acquainted with Miss Bosanquet. During the present year, he had commenced a correspondence, in the highest degree religious, with Miss Hatton. He was a lone man, living among colliers. He had lately been with Charles Wesley. Charles was an eminently social man, and had suggested to Fletcher that he would do well to marry. Fletcher replied as follows:—