ith Mr. Wesley and his
Conference at all? But this obvious objection does not appear to have
been raised. It would seem that there was a sort of vague understanding
that the friends of the Evangelical movement, whether Calvinist or
Arminian, were in some sense answerable to one another for their
proceedings. The Calvinists evidently thought it not only permissible
but their bounden duty not merely to disavow but to condemn, and, if
possible, bring about the suppression of the obnoxious Minutes. Mr.
Shirley said publicly 'he termed peace in such a case a shameful
indolence, and silence no less than treachery.'[781] John Wesley did not
refuse to justify to the Calvinists what he had asserted. He wrote to
Lady Huntingdon in June 1771 (the Conference did not meet till August),
referring her to his 'Sermons on Salvation by Faith,' published in 1738,
and requesting that the 'Minutes of Conference might be interpreted by
the sermons referred to.' Lady Huntingdon felt her duty to be clear. She
wrote to Charles Wesley, declaring that the proper explanation of the
Minutes was 'Popery unmasked.' 'Thinking,' she added, 'that those ought
to be deemed Papists who did not disavow them, I readily complied with a
proposal of an open disavowal of them.'[782]

All this augured ill for the harmony of the impending Conference; but it
passed off far better than could possibly have been expected. Very few
of the Calvinists who were invited to attend responded to the appeal.
Christian feeling got the better of controversial bitterness on both
sides. John Wesley, with a noble candour, drew up a declaration, which
was signed by himself and fifty-three of his preachers, stating that,
'as the Minutes have been understood to favour justification by works,
we, the Rev. John Wesley and others, declare we had no such meaning, and
that we abhor the doctrine of justification by works as a most perilous
and abominable doctrine. As the Minutes are not sufficiently guarded in
the way they are expressed, we declare we have no trust but in the
merits of Christ for justification or salvation. And though no one is a
real Christian believer (and therefore cannot be saved) who doth not
good works when there is time and opportunity, yet our works have no
part in meriting or purchasing our justification from first to last, in
whole or in part.'[783] Lady Huntingdon and her relative Mr. Shirley
were not wanting, on their part, in Christian courtesy. 'As Christians,'