wrote Lady Huntingdon, 'we wish to retract what a more deliberate
consideration might have prevented, as we would as little wish to
defend even truth itself presumptuously as we would submit servilely to
deny it.' Mr. Shirley wrote to the same effect.

But, alas! the troubles were by no means at an end. Fletcher had written
a vindication of the Minutes, which Wesley published. Wesley has been
severely blamed for his inconsistency in acting thus, 'after having
publicly drawn up and signed a recantation [explanation?] of the
obnoxious principles contained in the Minutes.'[784] This censure might
seem to be justified by a letter which Fletcher wrote to Lady
Huntingdon. 'When,' he says, 'I took up my pen in vindication of Mr.
Wesley's sentiments, it never entered my heart that my doing so would
have separated me from those I love and esteem. Would to God I had never
done it! To your ladyship it has caused incalculable pain and
unhappiness, and my conscience hath often stung me with bitter and
heartcutting reproaches.'[785] But, on the other hand, Fletcher himself,
in a preface to his 'Second Check to Antinomianism,' entirely exonerated
Wesley from all blame in the matter, and practically proved his
approbation of his friend's conduct by continuing the controversy in his
behalf.

The dogs of war were now let slip. In 1772 Sir Richard Hill and his
brother Rowland measured swords with Fletcher, and drew forth from him
his Third and Fourth Checks. In 1773 Sir R. Hill gave what he termed his
'Finishing Stroke;' Berridge, the eccentric Vicar of Everton, rushed
into the fray with his 'Christian World Unmasked;' and Toplady, the
ablest of all who wrote on the Calvinist side, published a pamphlet
under the suggestive title of 'More Work for John Wesley.' The next year
(1774) there was a sort of armistice between the combatants, their
attention being diverted from theological to political subjects, owing
to the troubles in America. But in 1775 Toplady again took the field,
publishing his 'Historic Proof of the Calvinism of the Church of
England.' Mr. Sellon, a clergyman, and Mr. Olivers, the manager of
Wesley's printing, appeared on the Arminian side. The very titles of
some of the works published sufficiently indicate their character.
'Farrago Double Distilled,' 'An Old Fox Tarred and Feathered,' 'Pope
John,' tell their own tale.

In fact, the kindest thing that could be done to the authors of this
bitter writing (who were real