ct the mutual love and
personal esteem in which the contending parties held each other.

At the annual conference of his ministers, held in August, 1770 (the
year of Whitefield's death), John Wesley drew up his fateful minute on
Calvinism. Intended solely for the guidance of his own preachers, Wesley
apparently had not contemplated the use to which these statements might
be put in controversy; if so, they would in all probability have been
more carefully guarded. He also expected them to be considered _as a
whole_, and could hardly have foreseen the use soon to be made of
fragments torn from their context. However this may be, soon after their
publication the sky was overcast, and Wesley found himself in the centre
of an embittered theological controversy, in which, after he had in vain
striven to maintain peace by explanation and concession, he vigorously
maintained what he held to be the truth. He did this the more because
the Calvinism of the eighteenth century found itself face to face with a
dangerous Antinomianism. This was rife among the Moravians; some of
Wesley's own preachers adopted it; John Nelson fought it to the death in
Yorkshire; and it was in the face of this state of affairs that the
minute was penned.

Lady Huntingdon from the first took great umbrage at the teaching of the
minute. She apprehended "that the fundamental truths of the Gospel were
struck at and considering Mr. Wesley's consequence in the religious
world, as standing at the head of such numerous societies, thought it
incumbent on them to show their abhorrence of such doctrines." She
further declared "that whoever did not wholly disavow them should quit
her college."

Wesley, on the other hand, thought the time had come when it was his
duty to act the part of a faithful pastor towards the good Countess.
"For several years I had been deeply convinced that I had not done my
duty with regard to that valuable woman; that I had not told her what I
was convinced no one else would dare to do, and what I knew she would
hear from no other person, but _possibly_ might hear from _me_. But
being unwilling to give her pain I put it off from time to time. At
length I dare not delay any longer lest death should call one of us
hence; so I at once delivered my own soul by telling her all that was in
my heart."

Lady Huntingdon on her part acted promptly and vigorously. Mr. Benson
having defended the minute, was dismissed from Trevecca. Fletcher, by
wh