зal, on this account, was a violation of the fundamental laws, which she herself had laid down for the regulation of the seminary, which held out equal encouragement to pious Protestants of all denominations. After such a departure from what had been the practice and the avowed principles of the Institution, Mr. Fletcher felt it his duty to resign his office. To the Countess he wrote as follows.-"Mr. Benson made a very just defence when he said, he did hold with me the possibility of salvation for all men; that mercy is offered to all, and yet may be received or rejected. If this be what your Ladyship calls Mr. Wesley's opinion, free will, and Arminianism, and if every Arminian must quit the College, I am actually discharged also; for in my view of things, I must hold that sentiment, if I believe the Bible is true, and that God is love. I am no party man. In the Lord I am your servant, and that of your every student; but I cannot give up the honour of being connected with my old friends. Mr. Wesley shall always be welcome to my pulpit, and I shall gladly bear my testimony in his, as well as that of Mr. Whitfield. But if your Ladyship forbid your students to preach for the one, and offer them to preach for the other at every turn and if a master is discarded for believing that Christ died for all ;-then prejudice reigns; charity is cruelly wounded; and party spirit shouts, prevails, and triumphs."

About this time Mr. Shirley sent Lady Huntingdon the minutes of Conference, published in 1770, in which Mr. Wesley maintains, that if a man is not faithful in the unrighteous mammon, God will not give him the true riches; that every believer, till he comes to glory, works for, as well as from life; and that whoever repents, should do works meet for repentance, in order to find favour with God. These sentiments were called horrible and abominable, and declared to be subversive of the Pillar on which the Church stands. Her Ladyship told Mr. Fletcher that she must ever burn against them, and whoever did not fully disavow them should quit the College. "After such a declaration,” he says, "I could no longer stay as an honest man. Last Friday I left them in peace, the servant, but no more the President of the College."

12. Soon after this the controversy about the minutes began. A circular went abroad, under the name of Mr. Shirley, inviting the Clergy of all denominations to assemble in a body at Bristol, to oppose Mr. Wesley and the Preachers when they should meet in Conference, and to oblige them to revoke the dreadful heresies contained in those minutes. Of the sentiments which had given so much offence Mr. Fletcher wrote a vindication, with a view, as he states,-" To remove Prejudice, check Rashness, defend the character of an eminent Minister

of Christ, prevent some important Scriptural Truths from being harshly branded as heretical, and stem the torrent of Antinomianism. After this went to the press there was some hope of a reconciliation; on this account Mr. Fletcher was anxious to prevent the publication. "I offered," he says, "to take the whole of the expense upon myself, though I should be obliged to sell my last shirt to defray it." As the hope of reconciliation soon vanished away, the vindication was published. Mr. Shirley then wrote his narrative in three letters, addressed to the Hon. and Rev. Author of the Vindication, which produced from Mr. Fletcher his Second Check to Antinomianism, and after this had made its appearance, his antagonist thought proper to quit the field. His Appeal to Matter of Fact and Common Sense, a Treatise on Original Sin and Human Depravity, was written before the commencement of this controversy, but was not published for some time after. Mr. Benson, speaking of this publication, says, "it was published to the conviction and edification of thousands. I hardly know a treatise that has been so universally read, or so eminently useful." When he began his controversy with the Calvinists he expected to be roughly handled, and in this he was not disappointed. He was soon exposed to a torrent of abuse; he was called an unmasked papist, and an apostate, a blasphemer, and an enemy to the Gospel. Mr. Hill was his next antagonist, who addressed five letters to him under the title of Pietas Oxoniensis. This produced his Third Check, in 1772. Mr. Hill pursued the controversy in six letters more, and his brother likewise wrote another pamphlet on the same side of the question. In these publications they charge Mr. Fletcher with throwing down the foundation of Christianity, and with. helping Mr. Wesley to place works and merit on the Redeemer's throne. He replied to them both in his Fourth Check, which he entitles Logica Genevensis, in which St. James's Pure Religion is defended against the charge, and established on the concessions of Mr. Richard, and Mr. Rowland Hill. Mr. Richard Hill next published what he called his finishing stroke; to which Mr. Fletcher replied by a treatise entitled Logica Genevensis continued, or the first part of the Fifth Check, with an Appendix upon the remaining difference between the Calvinists and the Anti-Calvinists, with respect to our Lord's doctrine of Justification by words, and St. James's doctrine of Justification by works, and not by faith only. About this time, Mr. Berridge, Vicar of Everton, entered the lists, and published his Christian world unmasked, containing many humourous oddities and eccentricities. To this Mr. Fletcher replied by a defence of sincere obedience, entitled Logica Genevensis continued, or the second part of the Fifth Check to Antinomianism. These two last were written in the latter end of the year

1773, and in the beginning of the year 1774, and published soon after. In the same year he published his treatise on Christian Perfection, which he called a Polemical Essay on the Twin Doctrines of Christian Imperfection, and a Death Purgatory. About this time he published the first part of an Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism, containing, 1,-An Essay on the danger of parting Faith and Works. 2,-Salvation by the covenant of Grace. 3,-The Rewardableness of Works, according to the covenant of Grace. 4,-An Essay on Truth. This work was followed by another, entitled Zelotes and Honestus reconciled; or, an Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism continued; including the first and second part of the Scripture Scales. The first part of the Scripture Scales was published in 1774, and the second part in 1775. Some time after Mr. Richard Hill had confessedly relinquished the contest, he thought proper to enter the field again, and published what he called a Creed for the Arminians. To this Mr. Fletcher replied by a Treatise which he calls the Fictitious and the Genuine Creed, with a preface, in which the author gives an account of Mr. Hill's new method of attack, and makes some reconciling concessions to the Calvinists, by means of which their strongest arguments are unnerved. His next opponent was Mr. Toplady, who published a Vindication of the Decrees, &c., which he called More Work for John Wesley. To which Mr. Fletcher returned an answer in 1776. Mr. Toplady published another work entitled, The Scheme of Christian and Philosophical Necessity, asserted in opposition to Mr. J. Wesley's tract on that subject. This, likewise, was answered by Fletcher, in 1777, under the title of Remarks on the Rev. Mr. Toplady's Scheme of Christian and Philosophical Necessity. He published another tract, which he calls The Doctrines of Grace and Justice equally essential to the Pure Gospel. This has since been published with his last controversial piece, entitled the Reconciliation, or an easy method to unite the professions of people of God.

13. Respecting these works of our author, Mr. Wesley says, "One knows not which to admire most-the purity of the language, the strength and clearness of the argument, or the mildness and sweetness of the spirit that breathes throughout the whole."

Mr. Benson recommended these publications to Dr. Dixon, Principal of Edmund Hall, Oxford, and received the following reply.-"When I first read your's, I must own I suspected your friendship for Mr. Fletcher had made you too lavish in your commendation of his writings; and that, when I came to read them, I should find some abatements necessary to be made. But, now I have read them, I am far from thinking you have spoken extravagantly; or, indeed, that too much can be said in commendation of them. I had not read his first letter, before I VOL. 1.

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was so charmed with the spirit, as well as the abilities of the writer. that the gushing tear could not be hindred from giving full testimony of my heartfelt satisfaction, &c."

To this testimony of his friends may be added that of the Christian Observer for June, 1805. The conductors of that work are not friendly either to Mr. Fletcher, or the cause in which he engaged; yet they speak of his works as follow:-" We have no hesitation in saying, that we believe Mr. Fletcher's motives for writing them to have been pure and upright. We also think that in his manner of conducting the controversy, he had decidedly the advantage of his antagonists. He was an acute and animated disputant; a brilliant imagination rendered his argumentation imposing and dazzling, while it enabled him to paint the doctrines of his adversaries in the darkest and most odious colours; and whatever may have been the merits of the cause which he defended, he was undoubtedly superior in talents and learning to all his opponents."

To these testimonies we may add, that the works of Mr. Fletcher comprise a body of polemical divinity of unrivalled excellence and durable utility. His fertile invention enabled him to throw an unusual splendour over every subject which he discussed. If we compare him with others who have written in defence of the same doctrines, it will appear that he was not more argumentative than Sellon, he was not more learned than Whitby, he was not more profound than Goodwin ; but he is more convincing than any of them. Whatever was the topic under consideration, every part of the scripture in relation to it, appeared to be at his command for proof and illustration. His striking metaphors and apt similitudes fix the attention of his readers and produce the liveliest emotions. His uncommon mildness and humility seemed to disqualify him for the field of controversy: but as soon as he was brought into action, his latent energies were at once aroused, and those extraordinary endowments developed, which he was not before known to possess, his friends were surprised and delighted, his enemies were astonished and confounded. Those errors and delusions which had been the bane and disgrace of the Christian cause, were so refuted and exposed, that they have never since been either so formidable or pernicious as they had been before. Of those who read his works, and still retain those errors which he attacked, we might almost say "neither would they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." While his writings furnish every student in divinity with such a valuable theological treasure, they have at the same time the greatest devotional tendency, while they inform the mind they improve the heart.

14. During the dispute between Great Britain and her colonies, Mr. Fletcher published a Vindication of Mr. Wesley's Calm Address and

another tract on the same subject, entitled American Patriotism further confronted with Reason, Scripture, and the Constitution; being observations on the dangerous politics taught by the Rev. Mr. Evans, and the Rev. Dr. Price. Speaking of these publications, Mr. Vaughan says, "I carried one of them to the Earl of D.; his Lordship carried it to the Chancellor, and the Chancellor handed it to the king. One was immediately commissioned from the chancellor to ask Mr. Fletcher, whether any perferment in the church would be acceptable, or whether he could do him any service? He answered, I want nothing but more grace."

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Before Mr. Fletcher finished his controversy, his health had been on the decline for some years, and among other expedients for his recovery he tried the waters at Bristol: from which place he wrote to a friend as follows, "I thank God I am not afraid of evil tidings, and my heart stands calm, believing in the Lord, and desiring him to do with me whatsoever he pleaseth. With respect to my body, I know not what to say, but the physician says he hopes I shall do well and so I hope and believe too, whether I recover or not. Health and sickness, life and death, are best when the Lord sends them; and all things work to gether for good to those that love God. I am forbid preaching; but blessed be God, I am not forbid by my heavenly physician to pray, believe, and love. This is sweet work, which heals, delights, and strengthens. Let us do it till we recover our spiritual strength; and then, whether we shall be seen on earth or not, will matter nothing."

Mr. Fletcher had a remarkable facility in raising spiritual observations from accidental circumstances. While he was sitting for his picture, he exhorted both the limner and all that were in the room, not only to get the outlines drawn, but the colouring also, of the image of Jesus on their hearts. He desired the cook to stir up the fire of divine love in his heart, that it might burn up all the rubbish therein, and raise a flame of holy affection. To the housemaid he said, I entreat you to sweep every corner of your heart, that it may be fit to receive your heavenly guest.

15. As all the means which had been tried did not restore him to health, his physicians recommended a sea voyage and his native air. In the latter end of December, 1777, he commenced another journey to Switzerland. His brother met him on the way and conducted him from Montpelier to Nyon, the place of his nativity. Here he lived in that which was his father's house, in the midst of his affectionate relations, who took care that he should neither want the best advice, nor any thing that could contribute to the recovery of his health. To Mr. Perronet he says, "This country is delightful; I invite you to come and see it, and share a delightful apartment, &c. I have a fine shady wood, near