{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_66910/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_66910","id":"gutenberg_66910","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/66910","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Biographies","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Fletcher, John, 1729-1785"],"text":"------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n Transcriber\u2019s Note:\n\nThis version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects.\nItalics are delimited with the \u2018_\u2019 character as _italic_.\n\nFootnotes have been moved to follow the paragraphs in which they are\nreferenced.\n\nThe occasional Greek word was printed without diacritical marks.\n\nMinor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please\nsee the transcriber\u2019s note at the end of this text for details regarding\nthe handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n WESLEY\u2019S DESIGNATED SUCCESSOR.\n\n[Illustration: J Fletcher/Madeley]\n\n WESLEY\u2019S DESIGNATED SUCCESSOR:\n\n =The Life, Letters, and Literary Labours=\n\n OF THE\n\n REV. JOHN WILLIAM FLETCHER,\n\n _Vicar of Madeley, Shropshire_.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n BY\n\n REV. L. TYERMAN,\n\n AUTHOR OF\n\n \u201cTHE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE REV. SAMUEL WESLEY, M.A., RECTOR OF EPWORTH;\u201d\n \u201cTHE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE REV. JOHN WESLEY, M.A.;\u201d\n \u201cTHE LIFE OF THE REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD, B.A.;\u201d\n AND \u201cTHE OXFORD METHODISTS.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n =New York:=\n PHILLIPS AND HUNT.\n\n =Cincinnati:=\n WALDEN AND STOWE.\n\n MDCCCLXXXIII.\n\n\n\n\n =I dedicate this Book to my Wife,=\n _Who has shared my joys and sorrows for nearly\n thirty years_.\n\n _L. TYERMAN._\n\n\n\n\n PREFACE.\n\n ---\n\n\n\u201cJean Guillaume de la Flechere,\u201d wrote Robert Southey, \u201cwas a man of\nrare talents, and rarer virtue. No age or country has ever produced a\nman of more fervent piety, or more perfect charity; no Church has ever\npossessed a more apostolic minister. He was a man of whom Methodism may\nwell be proud, as the most able of its defenders; and whom the Church of\nEngland may hold in remembrance, as one of the most pious and excellent\nof her sons.\u201d\n\n\u201cFletcher was a saint,\u201d said Isaac Taylor, \u201cas unearthly a being as\ncould tread the earth at all.\u201d\n\n\u201cFletcher,\u201d remarked Robert Hall, \u201cis a seraph who burns with the ardour\nof divine love. Spurning the fetters of mortality, he almost habitually\nseems to have anticipated the rapture of the beatific vision.\u201d\n\nDr. Dixon, one of the greatest of Methodist preachers, observed, \u201cI\nconceive Fletcher to be the most holy man who has been upon earth since\nthe apostolic age.\u201d\n\nNo apology is needed for publishing the life of such a man, unless it\ncan be shown that a life worthy of him is already in existence.\n\nExcepting the brief and exceedingly imperfect biography by the Rev.\nRobert Cox, in 1822, only two Lives of Fletcher have been published\nsince his death, ninety-seven years ago; namely, Wesley\u2019s in 1786, and\nBenson\u2019s in 1804.\n\nIt is true that, in 1790, the Rev. Joshua Gilpin, Vicar of Rockwardine,\nappended twenty-nine biographical \u201cNotes\u201d to different chapters of\nFletcher\u2019s \u201cPortrait of St. Paul;\u201d but the facts they contained, in\naddition to those which Wesley had already given, were not many.\n\nA year later, in 1791, the Rev. Melville Horne, Curate of Madeley,\npublished \u201cPosthumous Pieces of the late Rev. John William De La\nFlechere,\u201d a volume of 435 pages, nearly 400 of which are filled with\nFletcher\u2019s Letters to his friends. This volume has been of great service\nto me in the present work. Many quotations are made from it, and are\nindicated by the footnotes, \u201cLetters, 1791.\u201d\n\nWhen Fletcher died, some of his admirers wished Mr. Ireland to be his\nbiographer; others desired Fletcher\u2019s widow to undertake the task. Both\nof them judiciously declined. Wesley was then fixed upon. He asked Mr.\nIreland to supply him with materials, but Mr. Ireland refused: Mrs.\nFletcher, however, rendered him important help. In unpublished letters\nto Sarah Crosby, she writes:\u2014\n\n\u201cMr. Ireland knew and loved my dear husband as scarcely any other person\ndid; and if he chooses to print a journal of their travels and of the\ngreat spiritual labours of which he was an eye-witness, it would not be\nwrong. But this is not his intention. He only wishes to gather materials\nfor me. With a good deal of labour, I have collected some sweet\nfragments, on different subjects, from little pocket-books, but I have\nhanded them to Mr. Wesley, who, however, tells me he has done nothing\ntowards the Life, and that he has enough to occupy his time for a year\nto come. Indeed, he seems to be in doubt whether he will be able to\nwrite the Life at all. I hope the accounts I have given him will not be\nshortened; if they be, I shall repent that I did not print them myself.\u201d\n\nThis was written on June 20, 1786, and shows that ten months after\nFletcher\u2019s death, Wesley had not even begun Fletcher\u2019s biography.\nFourteen weeks afterwards, he made a start. An extract from his journal\nis worth quoting:\u2014\n\n\u201c1786. September 25. Monday. We took coach\u201d at Bristol, \u201cin the\nafternoon; and on Tuesday morning reached London. I now applied myself\nin earnest to the writing of Mr. Fletcher\u2019s Life, having procured the\nbest materials I could. To this I dedicated all the time I could spare\ntill November, from five in the morning till eight at night. These are\nmy studying hours; I cannot write longer in a day without hurting my\neyes.\u201d\n\nFor little more than a month the venerable biographer, now in the\neighty-fourth year of his age, devoted all the time he \u201ccould spare\u201d in\npreparing the Life of one whom he pronounced the most \u201cunblameable man,\nin every respect, that, within four-score years,\u201d he had \u201cfound either\nin Europe or America!\u201d The biography was finished in the month of\nNovember, and in December was published with the title \u201cA Short Account\nof the Life and Death of the Rev. John Fletcher. By the Rev. John\nWesley. _Sequor, non passibus \u00e6quis._ London, 1786.\u201d It certainly was a\n\u201c_Short Account_,\u201d\u2014a 12mo volume of 227 pages, which would have been\nmuch smaller if the type and the space between the lines had been\ndifferent. This was the first Life of Wesley\u2019s greatest friend, and his\n\u201cDesignated Successor\u201c! The veteran was far too busy to do justice to\nhis great \u201chelper.\u201d\n\nEighteen years elapsed before another and larger Life was given to the\npublic. This was undertaken in 1801 by the Rev. Joseph Benson, at the\nrequest of Fletcher\u2019s widow, and of the Methodist Conference of that\nyear. In 1804 it was published with the following title:\u2014\u201cThe Life of\nthe Rev. John W. de la Flechere, compiled from the Narratives of the\nReverend Mr. Wesley; the Biographical Notes of the Reverend Mr. Gilpin;\nfrom his own Letters; and other Authentic Documents, many of which were\nnever before published. By Joseph Benson.\u201d This is the only Life of\nFletcher which, _in a separate form_, has been circulated during the\nlast seventy-eight years.\n\nOf course, during this long period of nearly fourscore years, many new\nfacts and incidents concerning Fletcher have come to light; and, among\nthese new biographical materials, special mention must be made of the\nFletcher MSS. deposited in the Wesleyan Mission House, London, in 1862.\nSince then, the Methodist \u201cCommittee on Book Affairs\u201d has repeatedly\nexpressed the opinion that a new Life of Fletcher ought to be prepared,\nand, at least, two of the foremost men in Methodism have been requested\nto undertake the work. One of the two is dead, and the other seems to\nhave as much literary labour in hand as he is able to accomplish. Under\nsuch circumstances, I have had the temerity to attempt the task.\n\nI have carefully used _all_ the _biographical matter_ that I have found\nin the \u201cShort Account\u201d by Wesley; in the Letters published by Melville\nHorne; in Gilpin\u2019s \u201cNotes;\u201d in the Life by Benson; in the Fletcher MSS.,\njust mentioned; in other MSS. belonging to myself; in MSS. kindly lent\nto me; and in all the Methodist and other publications relating to\nFletcher with which I am acquainted.\n\nI have no artistic talent; and if I had, I should not employ it in\nwriting biographies. In such publications I am only desirous to see the\nman, not the artist\u2019s drapery. I want to know his doings, sayings, and\nsufferings, rather than to read philosophic discourses concerning them.\nMy aim, therefore, from first to last, has been to let Fletcher speak\nfor himself. His Letters are invaluable; the man who can read them\nwithout being profited is greatly to be pitied. The extracts from his\nsermons show how the first Methodists used to preach. The chapters\nrespecting the Calvinian controversy may, to some readers, be somewhat\ndry, but they could not be omitted, because that controversy was the\ngreat event in Fletcher\u2019s life, and hastened his death. Besides, it was\nby his publications on this subject that he rendered service to Wesley\nand the Methodist movement, which neither Wesley himself nor any other\nof Wesley\u2019s friends could have furnished. I have refrained from\ndiscussing the truths which Fletcher\u2019s pen defended; but I have said\nenough to indicate what the doctrines were which created Methodism, and\nwhich alone can perpetuate its spiritual life and power.\n\nThe portrait of Fletcher is taken from an exceedingly scarce engraving,\nin the Methodist Museum, at Centenary Hall, London.\n\nI think I may say, without exposing myself to the charge of arrogance or\nconceit, that, in this volume, the reader will find all the facts of any\nimportance that are known concerning Fletcher, and that here, more than\nin any previous publication, is illustrated the intellectual and saintly\ncharacter of one of the holiest men that ever lived.\n\n L. TYERMAN.\n\nSTANHOPE HOUSE, CLAPHAM PARK, S.W.\n _October 7, 1882._\n\n\n\n\n GENERAL CONTENTS\n\n ---\n\n INTRODUCTION.\n\n PAGE\n\n Wesley requests Fletcher to be his successor\u2014Others who might\n have been designated 1\u20133\n\n\n CHAPTER I.\n\n FROM FLETCHER\u2019S BIRTH TO HIS COMING TO ENGLAND IN 1752.\n\n Parentage\u2014Birthplace\u2014Early piety\u2014Remarkable deliverances from\n danger\u2014-Education at Geneva\u2014Removed to Lentzburg\u2014Wishes to be\n a soldier 4\u20139\n\n\n CHAPTER II.\n\n FROM HIS COMING TO ENGLAND TO HIS ORDINATION, 1752\u20131757.\n\n Arrives in London-Admitted to Mr. Burchell\u2019s school\u2014Becomes\n tutor to sons of Thomas Hill, Esq.\u2014Letter to his brother\n Henry\u2014Introduced to Methodists\u2014His conversion\u2014A millenarian\u2014A\n Catechumen\u2014Acquaintance with Mr. Vaughan\u2014Richard Edwards, his\n class-leader\u2014Letters to Wesley\u2014His ordination 10\u201327\n\n\n CHAPTER III.\n\n FROM HIS ORDINATION TO HIS SETTLEMENT AT MADELEY, 1757\u20131760.\n\n A favourite among the first Methodists\u2014Preaches in\n Shropshire\u2014Letter to Wesley\u2014Thomas Walsh\u2014Letter to his\n class-leader\u2014Introduced to Lady Huntingdon\u2014Preaching to\n French prisoners\u2014Letter to Charles Wesley\u2014Letter to Sarah\n Ryan\u2014Christian Perfection\u2014Fletcher and his foes\u2014Proposal to\n go to the West Indies\u2014Death of Thomas Walsh\u2014Letter to Charles\n Wesley\u2014A Convert\u2014Conversion of Mr. Richard\n Hill\u2014Temptation\u2014Letters to Charles Wesley\u2014Dorothy\n Furley\u2014Visits Lady Huntingdon\u2014Her ladyship\u2019s\n proposal\u2014Fletcher\u2019s first published sermon\u2014Earl\n Ferrars\u2014Glorious services at Everton\u2014Choosing a\n benefice\u2014Letters to Lady Huntingdon\u2014Commencement of ministry\n at Madeley 28\u201360\n\n\n CHAPTER IV.\n\n FIRST TWO YEARS AT MADELEY, 1760\u20131762.\n\n Madeley\u2014Branded a Methodist\u2014Increasing labours\u2014Madeley Wood and\n Coalbrook Dale\u2014Rev. Mr. Prothero\u2019s sermon\u2014The\n publicans\u2014Fletcher\u2019s first sermons at Madeley\u2014Mary\n Matthews\u2014Answers to an objection\u2014\u201cThe Rock Church\u201d\u2014Letter to\n a Papist\u2014Persecutions\u2014Letter to Rev. Mr. Hutton\u2014Testimony of\n Rev. Mr. Gilpin 61\u201383\n\n\n CHAPTER V.\n\n THREE QUIET SUCCESSFUL YEARS. 1762\u20131765.\n\n Fanaticism among the London Methodists\u2014Rules of Fletcher\u2019s\n Methodist Societies\u2014A troublesome member\u2014A quiet year\u2014Reasons\n for and against matrimony\u2014The furious butcher\u2014Letters to Miss\n Hatton\u2014Wesley\u2019s first visit to Madeley\u2014Simplicity of\n living\u2014Alexander Mather\u2014Fletcher at Breedon\u2014Fletcher\u2019s first\n pastoral letter\u2014Fletcher and his relatives 84\u2013105\n\n\n CHAPTER VI.\n\n TWO YEARS MORE. 1766\u20131767.\n\n Fletcher depressed\u2014Rejoicing on account of other men\u2019s\n success\u2014Letters to Miss Hatton and Miss Ireland\u2014Thanks for a\n present\u2014An excursion to Brighton, etc.\u2014Pastoral letter\u2014Miss\n Hatton dying\u2014Letter to Whitefield\u2014Lady Huntingdon at\n Madeley\u2014Captain Scott\u2014Fletcher in Yorkshire\u2014Letter to Lady\n Huntingdon\u2014Rev. Cradock Glascott\u2014Trevecca College\u2014Fletcher\n appointed chaplain of the Earl of Buchan\u2014James\n Glazebrook\u2014\u201cManifestations of the Son of God\u201d 106\u2013130\n\n\n CHAPTER VII.\n\n TREVECCA COLLEGE: VISIT TO SWITZERLAND, ETC. 1768\u20131770.\n\n Joseph Easterbrook\u2014Books for Trevecca College\u2014Letter on\n Conversation\u2014Expulsion of six students at Oxford\u2014Letter to\n Whitefield\u2014Opening of Trevecca College\u2014Letters to Mr. and\n Miss Ireland\u2014Rev. John Jones\u2014Mr. John Henderson, B.A.\u2014First\n anniversary of Trevecca College\u2014Rev. Walter\n Sellon\u2014Anti-Popery sermon\u2014Joseph Benson\u2014Letter to Mr.\n Ireland\u2014Visit to Switzerland 131\u2013163\n\n\n CHAPTER VIII.\n\n COMMENCEMENT OF THE CALVINIAN CONTROVERSY. 1770\u20131771.\n\n Letter to masters and students of Trevecca College\u2014Fletcher at\n Trevecca College\u2014Letter to Rev. David Simpson\u2014Wesley\u2019s\n Doctrinal Minutes\u2014Second anniversary of Trevecca\n College\u2014Wesley\u2019s sermon on the death of Whitefield\u2014Letter of\n Lady Glenorchy\u2014Joseph Benson dismissed from Trevecca\n College\u2014Fletcher\u2019s unpublished letter to Wesley\u2014Fletcher\n resigns his office at Trevecca\u2014Important unpublished\n manuscript\u2014The storm brewing\u2014Shirley\u2019s Circular\n Letter\u2014Fletcher\u2019s \u201cFirst Check to Antinomianism\u201d\u2014Shirley\u2019s\n \u201cNarrative\u201d\u2014Fletcher\u2019s Letter to Shirley\u2014Fletcher\u2019s\n Vindication of Wesley\u2019s \u201cMinutes\u201d 164\u2013205\n\n\n CHAPTER IX.\n\n \u201cSECOND CHECK TO ANTINOMIANISM.\u201d 1771.\n\n Letters in the _Gospel Magazine_\u2014Unpublished letter to Joseph\n Benson\u2014Prevalent Antinomianism\u2014Richard Hill\u2019s pamphlet\n respecting a conversation with a monk 206\u2013217\n\n\n CHAPTER X.\n\n \u201cTHIRD CHECK TO ANTINOMIANISM.\u201d 1772.\n\n Edward Elwall\u2014Unpublished letter to Sellon\u2014Letter to the Dublin\n Methodists\u2014Richard Hill\u2019s _Five Letters_\u2014Fletcher\u2019s reply to\n them\u2014Divine Grace given to all\u2014Good men doing the Devil\u2019s\n work\u2014Advices to Arminians 218\u2013233\n\n\n CHAPTER XI.\n \u201cFOURTH CHECK TO ANTINOMIANISM.\u201d 1772.\n\n Richard Hill\u2019s \u201c_Review of all the Doctrines taught by the Rev.\n J. Wesley_\u201c\u2014Richard Hill\u2019s \u201c_Six Letters_\u201d to\n Fletcher\u2014Rowland Hill\u2019s \u201c_Friendly Remarks_\u201d\u2014\u201c_Logica\n Genevensis_\u201d\u2014Wesley\u2019s \u201c_Remarks on Mr. Hill\u2019s\n Review_\u201d\u2014Unpublished letter by John Pawson\u2014Fletcher rebukes\n Rowland Hill\u2014Absurdities of Calvinism\u2014Free Will\u2014Unpublished\n letter by Richard Hill to Walter Sellon 234\u2013253\n\n\n CHAPTER XII.\n\n \u201cAPPEAL TO MATTER OF FACT AND COMMON SENSE.\u201d 1772.\n\n Manuscript lost\u2014Dedication\u2014Doctrine of Original Sin\u2014Colliers,\n bargemen, and iron-workers\u2014England\u2019s favourite amusements\u2014Ten\n inferences 254\u2013262\n\n\n CHAPTER XIII.\n WESLEY\u2019S DESIGNATED SUCCESSOR, ETC., ETC. 1773.\n Wesley requests Fletcher to be his successor\u2014Fletcher\u2019s\n reply\u2014Wesley respecting Fletcher and Whitefield\u2014Samuel\n Bradburn visits Fletcher\u2014Correspondence in 1773\u2014The penitent\n thief\u2014The earthquake\u2014Fletcher\u2019s sermon on it 263\u2013278\n\n\n CHAPTER XIV.\n\n \u201cTHE FINISHING STROKE,\u201d ETC. 1773.\n\n \u201c_The Finishing Stroke_\u201d\u2014\u201c_The Farrago Double\n Distilled_\u201d\u2014Berridge\u2019s \u201c_Christian World Unmasked_\u201d\u2014Letters\n by Berridge\u2014Richard Hill desiring peace\u2014Richard Hill\u2019s\n \u201c_Three Letters_\u201d to Fletcher\u2014\u201c_Creed for Arminians and\n Perfectionists_\u201d 279\u2013293\n\n\n CHAPTER XV.\n\n \u201cFIFTH CHECK TO ANTINOMIANISM.\u201d 1774.\n\n Toplady\u2019s letter to Ambrose Serle\u2014\u201c_Logica Genevensis\n continued_\u201d\u2014Remaining differences\u2014Fletcher answering\n Berridge\u2014Wesley on Fletcher\u2019s \u201c_Checks_\u201d\u2014Lady Huntingdon\n wishes an interview with Fletcher\u2014Fletcher\u2019s reply\u2014Fletcher\n writing and weary 294\u2013301\n\n\n CHAPTER XVI.\n\n FURTHER PUBLICATIONS IN 1774.\n\n \u201c_Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism_\u201d\u2014Doleful\n picture\u2014Letter to Lady Huntingdon\u2014Saving Faith\u2014The Athanasian\n Creed\u2014Letters to J. Benson and C. Wesley 302\u2013311\n\n\n CHAPTER XVII.\n\n PUBLICATIONS IN THE YEAR 1775.\n\n \u201c_Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism\n continued_\u201d\u2014\u201c_Scripture Scales_\u201d\u2014\u201c_The Fictitious and the\n Genuine Creed_\u201d\u2014The controversy has done Fletcher good\u2014Rev.\n Thomas Reader visits Fletcher\u2014Christian perfection\u2014Letter to\n J. Benson\u2014Wesley dangerously ill\u2014Charles Wesley writes to\n Fletcher\u2014Fletcher\u2019s reply\u2014\u201c_Checks to\n Antinomianism_\u201d\u2014Reconciliations\u2014Dr. Coke\u2019s Letter to\n Fletcher\u2014Letter to C. Wesley 312\u2013333\n\n\n CHAPTER XVIII.\n\n PUBLICATIONS IN THE YEAR 1776.\n\n Toplady\u2014Fletcher\u2019s \u201c_Answer to the Vindication of the\n Decrees_\u201d\u2014Toplady attacks Wesley\u2014Fletcher answers\n Toplady\u2014Review of six years\u2019 work\u2014Rev. Caleb Evans\u2019 letter on\n Wesley\u2019s \u201c_Calm Address_\u201d\u2014Fletcher\u2019s \u201c_Vindication of the\n Calm Address_\u201d\u2014Mr. Evans\u2019 \u201c_Reply_\u201d to Fletcher\u2019s\n \u201c_Vindication_\u201d\u2014Fletcher publishes \u201c_American Patriotism_\u201d\u2014A\n Public Fast\u2014\u201c_The Bible and the Sword_\u201d\u2014The _Monthly Review_\n on Fletcher\u2014Government desires to reward Fletcher 334\u2013353\n\n\n CHAPTER XIX.\n\n CORRESPONDENCE IN 1776.\n\n Fletcher\u2019s labours and abstinence\u2014Again objects to become\n Wesley\u2019s successor\u2014An excursion with Wesley\u2014Fletcher\n discouraged\u2014Unpublished letter by J. Benson\u2014Another work for\n the press\u2014\u201c_Driving_ Methodism and _Still_\n Mysticism\u201d\u2014Fletcher dangerously ill\u2014C. Wesley\u2019s hymn\u2014Michael\n Onions\u2014Letters\u2014Fletcher apparently dying\u2014An impromptu\n hymn\u2014Wesley escorts Fletcher to London\u2014Another excursion with\n Wesley\u2014Second visit to Berridge\u2014Fletcher and Venn at St.\n Neots\u2014Charles Greenwood\u2014Fletcher resides with him\u2014Letter \u201cto\n the parishioners of Madeley\u201d 354\u2013375\n\n\n CHAPTER XX.\n\n PUBLICATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE IN 1777.\n\n \u201c_The Doctrines of Grace and Justice equally Essential to the\n Pure Gospel_\u201d\u2014Fletcher a millenarian\u2014\u201c_Bible Arminianism and\n Bible Calvinism_\u201d\u2014\u201c_The Plan of Reconciliation_\u201d\u2014Another\n letter to his parishioners\u2014Letter to W. Wase\u2014Letters to Rev.\n V. Perronet and his daughter\u2014Fletcher visited by his\n friends\u2014Fletcher\u2019s letter to his bishop\u2014Charles Perronet\n dies\u2014Fletcher\u2019s sojourn at Stoke Newington\u2014Removes to Mr.\n Ireland\u2019s, at Brislington\u2014Meets Henry Venn\u2014Attends Wesley\u2019s\n Conference\u2014Rev. David Lloyd\u2014James Rogers visits\n Fletcher\u2014Letter to Rev. V. Perronet\u2014Unpublished letter to\n Miss Bosanquet\u2014Lady Mary Fitzgerald\u2014Letters to her and to\n Mrs. Thornton\u2014Preparing to leave England\u2014Farewell letters 376\u2013408\n\n\n CHAPTER XXI.\n\n A LONG RETIREMENT. 1778\u20131781.\n\n Journey to the south of France\u2014Unpublished letter to Miss\n Bosanquet\u2014Sermon concerning the New Birth\u2014Letters to Rev. Mr.\n Greaves, W. Perronet, the Wesley Brothers, and Dr.\n Conyers\u2014The Perronet estate in Switzerland\u2014Unpublished letter\n to Mr. Power\u2014Fletcher among children\u2014Fletcher and his\n nephew\u2014Messages to Madeley\u2014Preaching at an execution\u2014William\n Perronet joins Fletcher\u2014A perilous journey\u2014Letter to Mr.\n Ireland\u2014Letters to Madeley\u2014Other letters\u2014Trials in\n Switzerland\u2014An attack of rheumatism\u2014Letter to his\n curate\u2014National distress\u2014Methodist meeting house at Madeley\n Wood\u2014W. Perronet\u2019s unpublished letter\u2014In a \u201cmiserable\n lodging\u201d\u2014Loss of manuscripts\u2014Religion in Switzerland\u2014Letters\n to Madeley\u2014House of Fletcher\u2019s nativity\u2014Letters to W. Wase,\n J. Owen, and M. Onions\u2014Joins Mr. Ireland at Montpelier\u2014Return\n to England\u2014Thomas Rankin visits Fletcher at\n Brislington\u2014Unpublished letter to Miss Bosanquet 409\u2013450\n\n\n CHAPTER XXII.\n\n LITERARY WORK DONE IN RETIREMENT.\n\n \u201c_La Grace et la Nature_\u201d\u2014\u201c_The Portrait of St. Paul._\u201d 451\u2013459\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIII.\n\n THE FIRST THREE MONTHS AFTER THE RETURN TO MADELEY. 1781\n\n Affairs in confusion\u2014Letter to Wesley\u2014Rev. Cornelius\n Bayley\u2014Correspondence with Miss Loxdale\u2014Letters to Wesley and\n T. Rankin\u2014Attends Wesley\u2019s Conference at Leeds\u2014Joseph\n Pescod\u2019s letter\u2014Fletcher the guest of Miss Bosanquet\u2014A\n remarkable meeting at Leeds\u2014Sanctification\u2014Visits Sheffield 460\u2013472\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIV.\n\n FLETCHER\u2019S MARRIAGE. 1781.\n\n Letters to Miss Perronet and to Lady Mary Fitzgerald\u2014History of\n Miss Bosanquet\u2014Her Orphanage at Leyton\u2014Her fortune and her\n debts\u2014Her removal to Yorkshire\u2014She turns farmer and\n maltster\u2014Debts and difficulties\u2014Fletcher proposes to marry\n her\u2014Fletcher on celibacy\u2014Unpublished love-letter\u2014Unpublished\n letters to Miss Bosanquet\u2019s uncle and her brother\u2014Further\n correspondence\u2014Settling affairs in Yorkshire\u2014The wedding and\n letters respecting it 473\u2013500\n\n\n CHAPTER XXV.\n\n TWO YEARS OF MARRIED LIFE AT MADELEY. 1782\u20131783.\n\n How Fletcher began the year 1782\u2014Husband and wife go to\n Madeley\u2014Wesley visits them\u2014William Tranter\u2014Dr. Jobson and L.\n Tyerman at Madeley\u2014Letter to author of \u201cThe Fool of\n Quality\u201d\u2014The Methodists of Dublin invite Fletcher and his\n wife to visit them\u2014Mrs. Fletcher\u2019s letter to Wesley\u2014Fletcher\n has an accident which disables him\u2014Letter to Charles Wesley\u2014A\n new poem\u2014Nathaniel Gilbert and Melville Horne\u2014Letters to Mrs.\n Thornton and to John Valton\u2014Fletcher and his wife visit the\n Dublin Methodists\u2014Their successful labours\u2014Unpublished\n letter, thanking them for their services\u2014Unpublished pamphlet\n by Fletcher\u2014Fletcher begins Sunday schools at Madeley\u2014Rev. H.\n Venn visits Fletcher 501\u2013529\n\n\n CHAPTER XXVI.\n\n LAST DAYS ON EARTH. 1784\u20131785.\n\n Dr. Coke and his friends begin the Methodist Missionary\n Society\u2014Fletcher one of the first subscribers\u2014Unpublished\n letter by Dr. Coke\u2014Fletcher\u2019s unpublished letter to Rev. Mr.\n Bouverot\u2014Dr. Priestley\u2014Fletcher\u2019s \u201c_Rational Vindication of\n the Catholic Faith_\u201d\u2014Fletcher\u2019s \u201c_Socinianism\n Unscriptural_\u201d\u2014Fletcher\u2019s Millenarianism\u2014Unpublished letters\n to Mrs. Smyth and to Lady Mary Fitzgerald\u2014Fletcher at\n Wesley\u2019s Conference at Leeds\u2014Sermons preached\u2014Fletcher a\n peacemaker\u2014Remarkable scene\u2014Fletcher objected to\u2014Enoch Wood\n and Fletcher\u2019s discourse on Wesley\u2019s bust\u2014Fletcher in his\n \u201cSentry Box\u201d\u2014Letter to his god-son\u2014Rev. Charles Simeon visits\n Fletcher\u2014Modified millenarianism\u2014Letters to Rev. Peard\n Dickenson and Rev. Melville Horne\u2014Mrs. Fletcher ill of\n fever\u2014Letter to Lady Mary Fitzgerald\u2014Fletcher ill of\n fever\u2014Mrs. Fletcher\u2019s account of him\u2014Last service in Madeley\n Church\u2014Dying\u2014Death and burial\u2014Mrs. Fletcher\u2019s letter to C.\n Wesley\u2014Wesley preaches Fletcher\u2019s funeral sermon\u2014Testimonies\n concerning Fletcher\u2014Inscription on his tombstone\u2014Inscription\n on the tablet in City Road Chapel 530\u2013575\n\n\n\n\n _INTRODUCTION._\n\n\nEIGHTEEN years before his death, Wesley wrote the following letter to\nFletcher, Vicar of Madeley\u2014\n\n \u201c_January, 1773._\n\n \u201cDEAR SIR,\u2014What an amazing work has God wrought in these kingdoms, in\n less than forty years! And it not only continues, but increases,\n throughout England, Scotland, and Ireland; nay, it has lately spread\n into New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and Carolina. But the\n wise men of the world say, \u2018When Mr. Wesley drops, then all this is at\n an end!\u2019 And so it surely will, unless, before God calls him hence,\n one is found to stand in his place. For, \u03bf\u03c5\u03ba \u03b1\u03b3\u03b1\u03b8\u03bf\u03bd \u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03c5\u03ba\u03bf\u03b9\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03b9\u03b7. \u0395\u03b9\u03c2\n \u03ba\u03bf\u03b9\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b5\u03c3\u03c4\u03c9. I see more and more, unless there be one \u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03b5\u03c3\u03c4\u03c9\u03c2, the\n work can never be carried on. The body of the preachers are not\n united: nor will any part of them submit to the rest; so that either\n there must be one to preside over all, or the work will indeed come to\n an end.\n\n \u201cBut who is sufficient for these things? Qualified to preside both\n over the preachers and people? He must be a man of faith and love, and\n one that has a single eye to the advancement of the kingdom of God. He\n must have a clear understanding; a knowledge of men and things,\n particularly of the Methodist doctrine and discipline; a ready\n utterance; diligence and activity, with a tolerable share of health.\n There must be added to these favour with the people, with the\n Methodists in general. For, unless God turns their eyes and their\n hearts towards him, he will be quite incapable of the work. He must\n likewise have some degree of learning, because there are many\n adversaries, learned as well as unlearned, whose mouths must be\n stopped. But this cannot be done unless he be able to meet them on\n their own ground.\n\n \u201cBut has God provided one so qualified? Who is he? Thou art the man!\n God has given you a measure of loving faith, and a single eye to His\n glory. He has given you some knowledge of men and things, particularly\n of the old plan of Methodism. You are blessed with some health,\n activity, and diligence, together with a degree of learning. And to\n these He has lately added, by a way none could have foreseen, favour\n both with the preachers and the whole people. Come out in the name of\n God! Come to the help of the Lord against the mighty! Come while I am\n alive and capable of labour!\n\n \u2018_Dum superest Lachesi quod torqueat, et pedibus me\n Porto meis, nullo dextram subeunte bacillo._\u2019\n\n Come while I am able, God assisting, to build you up in faith, to\n ripen your gifts, and to introduce you to the people. _Nil tanti._\n What possible employment can you have, which is of so great\n importance?\n\n \u201cBut you will naturally say, \u2018I am not equal to the task; I have\n neither grace nor gifts for such an employment.\u2019 You say true; it is\n certain you have not. And who has? But do you not know Him who is able\n to give them? perhaps not at once, but rather day by day: as each is,\n so shall your strength be. \u2018But this implies,\u2019 you may say, \u2018a\n thousand crosses, such as I feel I am not able to bear.\u2019 You are not\n able to bear them _now_, and they are not now come. Whenever they do\n come, will He not send them in due number, weight, and measure? And\n will they not all be for your profit, that you may be a partaker of\n His holiness?\n\n \u201cWithout conferring, therefore, with flesh and blood, come and\n strengthen the hands, comfort the heart, and share the labour of\n\n \u201cYour affectionate friend and brother,\n \u201cJOHN WESLEY.\u201d[1]\n\nFootnote 1:\n\n Dr. Whitehead\u2019s \u201cLife of Wesley,\u201d vol. ii., p. 355.\n\nIn all respects, Wesley\u2019s letter is remarkable. He wished Methodism to\nbe perpetuated; but he was convinced that this could not be done unless\nthe ruling and administrative power could be confided, not to the\nConference, or to a committee of the Conference, but to a single person.\nHis description of the necessary qualifications of such a ruler is\nworthy of being studied. Especially ought Methodist preachers and the\nMethodist people all over the world, and in all generations, to notice\nthe fact that Wesley\u2019s first and pre-eminent qualification was that he\nwho \u201cpresided both over the preachers and people must be a man of faith\nand love, and one who had a single eye to the advancement of the kingdom\nof God.\u201d For thirty-eight years, since he left the Oxford University,\nWesley\u2019s labours had been herculean and incessant. His health had begun\nto fail; so much so, that, only a few months before he wrote to\nFletcher, his friends in London had become alarmed by signs of age and\ndebility, and had contributed to provide him a carriage in which to\npursue those extensive and laborious journeys, which hitherto he had\nmade on horseback. In Edinburgh, he had undergone a medical examination\nby Dr. Monro, Dr. Gregory, and Dr. Hamilton, after which he wrote:\n\u201c1772, May 18. They satisfied me what my disorder was; and told me there\nwas but one method of cure. Perhaps but one natural one; but I think God\nhas more than one method of healing either the soul or the body.\u201d\n\nUnder such circumstances, it is not surprising that Wesley wished to\nhave in training his successor; and he seems to have had no difficulty\nin nominating him. His brother Charles was living, and, among his\nitinerant preachers, there was a small band of remarkable men, including\nAlexander Mather, Thomas Olivers, George Shadford, John Pawson, Thomas\nHanby, William Thompson, Thomas Taylor, John Nelson, Thomas Rankin,\nChristopher Hopper, Joseph Benson, George Story, Thomas Rutherford,\nRichard Whatcoat, Joseph Pilmore, Francis Asbury, and others; but all\nthese were passed over, and the man he desired and nominated to be his\nsuccessor was the saintly Swiss, John William de la Flech\u00e8re, Vicar of\nMadeley.\n\nThe character and the life of such a man must be worthy of attention.\nWesley, a keen judge of men, thought him qualified to be the \u201c\u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03b5\u03c3\u03c4\u03c9\u03c2\u201d\nof the Methodists. His reply to Wesley\u2019s proposal need not be inserted\nhere. The position was the highest Wesley could offer him. Was he worthy\nof it? Let the reader of the following pages form his own opinion.\nEnough has been said to justify the present attempt to delineate the\nman.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER I.\n _FROM FLETCHER\u2019S BIRTH TO HIS COMING\n TO ENGLAND_\n IN 1752.\n\n\nJEAN GUILLAUME DE LA FLECH\u00c8RE was a descendant of one of the most\nrespectable families in Switzerland; a family, in fact, which was a\nbranch of an earldom of Savoy. After his marriage, Fletcher\u2019s wife found\nin his desk a seal. \u201cIs this yours?\u201d she asked. \u201cYes,\u201d replied the poor\ncountry parson; \u201cbut I have not used it for many years.\u201d \u201cWhy?\u201d \u201cBecause\nit bears a coronet, nearly such as is the insignia of your English\ndukes. Were I to use that seal, it might lead to frivolous inquiries\nabout my family, and subject me to the censure of valuing myself on such\ndistinctions.\u201d[2]\n\nFootnote 2:\n\n Cox\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d p. 140.\n\nFor some time the father of John Fletcher was a general officer in the\nFrench army, but, on his marriage, he retired from the service. Later in\nlife, he accepted a colonelcy in the militia of Switzerland.\n\nJohn, his father\u2019s youngest son, was born at Nyon, on September 12th,\n1729. His birthplace was a fine old mansion, that had withstood the\nstorms of centuries, and, like many of the ancient houses in\nSwitzerland, was entered by a spiral stone staircase, which opened into\na spacious hall. \u201cThe house where I was born,\u201d said Fletcher, \u201chas one\nof the finest prospects in the world. We have a shady wood, near the\nlake, where I can ride in the cool all the day, and enjoy the singing of\na multitude of birds.\u201d From one of the windows of Fletcher\u2019s ancestral\nhome, there was a magnificent view of hill and dale, vineyards and\npastures, stretching right away to the distant Jura mountains. At a few\npaces from the ch\u00e2teau, there was a terrace overlooking Lake Leman, with\nits clear blue waters and its gracefully-curved and richly-wooded bays.\nOn the right hand, at a distance of fifteen miles, was Geneva, the\ncradle of the Reformation; on the left, Lausanne and the celebrated\ncastle of Chillon. High up in the heavens were Alpine peaks, embosoming\nscenes the most beautiful; and, not far away, was Mont Blanc, robed in\nperpetual and unsullied snow.\n\nNot much is known of the early life of Fletcher. A few anecdotes\nconcerning him have been preserved by his biographers, and these shall\nbe given in as brief a form as possible.\n\nWesley relates that Fletcher, \u201cin his early childhood, had much of the\nfear of God, and great tenderness of conscience.\u201d One day, when he was\nabout seven years of age, his nurse, who had occasion to reprove him,\nsaid, \u201cYou are a naughty boy. Do you not know that the devil is to take\naway all naughty children?\u201d The maid\u2019s remark troubled him. He fell upon\nhis knees and began to pray, and did not cease till he believed God had\nforgiven him.\n\nHis filial obedience was exemplary, but, on one occasion, he,\nundesignedly, offended his mother, whom he dearly loved. The good lady\nwas speaking in too warm a manner to one of the family. Young Fletcher\nturned a reproving eye upon her. She was much displeased with what she\nconceived to be unfilial forwardness, and punished him. With a look of\ntender affection, he meekly replied, \u201cWhen I am smitten on one cheek,\nand especially by a hand I love so well, I am taught to turn the other\nalso.\u201d The mother\u2019s indignation was instantly turned into admiration of\nher boy.[3]\n\nFootnote 3:\n\n Gilpin\u2019s \u201cAccount of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nWhile yet a youth, he had several near escapes from an untimely death.\nOnce, when walking upon a high wall enclosing his father\u2019s garden, his\nfoot slipped, and he must have been killed had he not fallen into \u201ca\nlarge quantity of fresh-made mortar.\u201d\n\nAt another time, when swimming by himself in deep water, a strong\nribbon, which bound his hair, became loose, twisted about his leg, and\ntied him \u201cas it were neck and heels.\u201d \u201cI strove,\u201d said he, \u201cwith all my\nstrength to disengage myself, but to no purpose. No person being within\ncall, I gave myself up for lost; but when I had ceased struggling, the\nribbon loosed itself.\u201d\n\nOn another occasion, he and four other young gentlemen agreed to swim to\na rocky island, five miles from the shore. Young Fletcher and one of his\nadventurous friends succeeded in reaching the island, but the cliff was\nso steep and smooth that they found it impossible to scale its heights.\nAfter swimming round the islet again and again, they concluded that\ntheir being drowned was inevitable. Immediately after, however, they\ndiscovered a place of safety; and, in due time, a boat arrived and took\nthem home. The other three, when only half way to the island, were\nrescued by a boat just as they were sinking.\n\nA still more remarkable deliverance from a watery grave was the\nfollowing: Fletcher was a practised swimmer, and once plunged into a\nriver broader than the Thames at London Bridge, and very rapid. \u201cThe\nwater was extremely rough, and poured along like a galloping horse.\u201d He\nendeavoured to swim against it, but in vain, and was hurried far from\nhome. When almost exhausted, he looked for a resting-place, feeling he\nmust either escape from the water or sink. With great difficulty, he\napproached the shore, but found it \u201cso ragged and sharp that he saw, if\nhe attempted to land there, he would be torn to pieces.\u201d In his direful\nplight, he recommenced swimming. \u201cAt last,\u201d says he, \u201cdespairing of\nlife, I was cheered by the sight of a fine smooth creek, into which I\nwas swiftly carried by a violent stream. A building stood directly\nacross it, which I then did not know to be a powder-mill. The last thing\nI can remember was the striking of my breast against one of the piles\nwhereon it stood. I then lost my senses, and knew nothing more till I\nrose on the other side of the mill. When I came to myself, I was in a\ncalm, safe place, perfectly well, without any soreness or weariness at\nall. Nothing was amiss but the distance of my clothes, the stream having\ndriven me five miles from the place where I left them. Many persons\ngladly welcomed me on shore; one gentleman in particular, who said, \u2018I\nlooked at my watch when you went under the mill, and again when you rose\non the other side, and the time of your being immerged among the piles\nwas exactly twenty minutes.\u2019\u201d\n\nFletcher passed the early part of his life at Nyon, where he began his\neducation. With his two brothers, he was then removed to the university\nof Geneva, where he was distinguished equally by his superior abilities\nand his uncommon diligence. The two first prizes for which he stood a\ncandidate he carried away from a number of competitors, several of whom\nwere nearly related to the professors. He allowed himself but little\ntime either for recreation, refreshment, or sleep. After confining\nhimself closely to his studies all day, he would frequently consume the\ngreater part of the night in making notes of what he had found in the\ncourse of his reading worthy of observation.\n\nAfter quitting Geneva, he was sent by his father to Lentzburg, in the\ncanton of Berne, where, besides pursuing his other studies, he acquired\nthe German language. On his return to Nyon, he studied Hebrew, and\nimproved his knowledge of mathematics.\n\nFrom early childhood, Fletcher loved and served his Maker. He himself\nrelates: \u201cI think it was when I was seven years of age, that I first\nbegan to feel the love of God shed abroad in my heart, and that I\nresolved to give myself up to Him, and to the service of His Church, if\never I should be fit for it; but the corruption which is in the world,\nand that which was in my own heart, soon weakened, if not erased, those\nfirst characters which grace had written upon it.\u201d\n\n\u201cFrom a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures,\u201d wrote St. Paul to\nTimothy. The same might have been said to Fletcher. His early\nacquaintance with inspired truth guarded him, on the one hand, from the\nsnares of infidelity, and preserved him, on the other, from many of the\nvices peculiar to youth. It also qualified and emboldened him to reprove\nsin, and, with becoming modesty, to remonstrate with sinners. To\nillustrate this, his biographers relate an incident which occurred when\nhe was only fourteen years of age. A lady and her three sons visited his\nsister, Madame de Botens. The sons quarrelled, and the mother uttered a\nhasty imprecation. Young Fletcher was shocked, and, instantly starting\nfrom his chair, began to expound and enforce the apostolic admonition,\n\u201cProvoke not your children to wrath,\u201d etc.; and then reminded his\nastonished auditress that her imprecation might be realized; a\nvaticination that soon became a fact; for, on the same day, the lady\nembarked upon the lake, was overtaken with a tremendous storm, and was\nbrought to the point of perishing; and, soon after, two of her sons were\ndrowned; and the third was crushed to death at one of the gates of\nGeneva.\n\nFletcher had wished to be a Christian minister, and his parents had\nwished the same concerning him; but, soon after the occurrence just\nrelated, his plans of life were entirely altered. He writes: \u201cI went\nthrough my studies with a design of entering into orders; but,\nafterwards, upon serious reflection, feeling I was unequal to so great a\nburden, and disgusted by the necessity I should be under to subscribe\nthe doctrine of predestination, I yielded to the desire of my friends,\nwho would have me go into the army.\u201d[4]\n\nFootnote 4:\n\n _Arminian Magazine_, 1794, p. 219.\n\nThe friends here mentioned did not include his parents, for they were\nstrongly opposed to his turning soldier; but now, nearly at the age of\ntwenty, his theological reading gave place to the studying of the works\nof Cohorn and Vauban, the great military engineers. At this time,\nPortugal was sending troops to Brazil, to defend its interests there.\nAgainst the remonstrances of his parents, Fletcher went to Lisbon, there\ngathered a company of his own countrymen, accepted a captain\u2019s\ncommission, and engaged to serve the Portuguese on board a man-of-war,\nwhich was preparing with all speed to sail to the Brazilian coasts.\nMeanwhile, he wrote to his parents for a considerable sum of money, by\nmeans of which he expected to make a small fortune in the country he was\nabout to visit. \u201cThey refused him roughly: unmoved by this, he\ndetermined to go without the cash.\u201d Whilst waiting, however, for the\nship to sail, the maid, attending him at breakfast, let the tea-kettle\nfall upon his leg, and so scalded him, that he had to keep his bed.\n\u201cDuring that time,\u201d says Wesley, \u201cthe ship sailed for Brazil; but it was\nobserved that the ship was heard of no more.\u201d\n\nWesley continues: \u201cHow is this reconcileable with the account which has\nbeen given of his piety when he was a child? Very easily: it only shows\nthat his piety declined while he was at the university. And this is too\noften the case of other youths in our own universities.\u201d\n\nFletcher returned to Nyon, but his military ardour was not abated; and,\nbeing informed that his uncle, then a colonel in the Dutch service, had\nprocured a commission for him, he joyfully set out for Flanders. Here,\nhowever, he was again defeated in his purpose to become a soldier. Peace\nwas concluded; his uncle died; his hopes were blasted; and the military\nprofession was abandoned.\n\nThis, in substance, is all that is known of Fletcher, until he came to\nEngland, as Wesley says, in 1752.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER II.\n _FROM HIS COMING TO ENGLAND TO HIS\n ORDINATION._\n 1752 to 1757.\n\n\nAFTER the frustration of his hopes in Flanders, Fletcher, accompanied by\nother young gentlemen, embarked for England, for the purpose of\nacquiring the English language. At the Custom House in London they were\ntreated with the utmost surliness. Of course their portmanteaus were\nexamined,\u2014never a pleasant operation, but sometimes less politely done\nthan at others. In addition to this, their letters of recommendation\nwere taken from them, on the alleged ground that \u201call letters must be\nsent by post.\u201d They went to an inn, where they encountered another\ndifficulty. Unable to speak English, they were at a loss how to exchange\ntheir foreign into English money. Fletcher, going to the door, heard a\nwell-dressed Jew talking French. The difficulty was explained; and the\nJew replied, \u201cGive me your money, and I will get it changed.\u201d Fletcher,\nwithout the least suspicion, handed the gentleman his purse, containing\n\u00a390. Telling his friends what he had done, they exclaimed, \u201cYour money\u2019s\ngone.\u201d His friends were wrong. Before breakfast was ended the honest Jew\nreturned, and gave to Fletcher the full amount in English coin.\n\nTo assist him in the acquisition of the English language, Fletcher had\nbeen recommended to a Mr. Burchell, who kept a boarding-school at South\nMimms, a village about four miles from Hatfield, in Hertfordshire. He\nwas admitted into this establishment. Soon after, it was removed to\nHatfield, whither he also went. Here he remained with Mr. Burchell about\neighteen months, and pursued his studies with great diligence. He\nfrequently visited some of the first families in Hatfield; and, by his\neasy and genteel behaviour, and his sweetness of temper, he gained the\naffectionate esteem of all who knew him.\n\nOn leaving Mr. Burchell\u2019s academy, Fletcher was recommended by Mr.\nDechamps, a French minister, to Thomas Hill, Esq., of Tern Hall, in\nShropshire, as tutor to his two sons.[5] It was whilst in the service of\nthis gentleman that Fletcher was converted. The following is an extract\nfrom one of his letters to his brother Henry, at Nyon:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe news of your promotion has given me great pleasure. I feel a\n sincere satisfaction in the diligence with which you devote yourself\n to the good of society, and that you prefer a life of labour to one of\n indolent and useless inactivity. We may be instruments of some good in\n any condition of human life, if we faithfully fulfil its duties; and\n the more difficult our station may prove to be, the more of\n satisfaction is likely to result from acquitting ourselves well in it.\n The ambition which springs from this principle has nothing censurable\n in it, provided that a view to the glory of God be its motive. I\n delight to think that the advancement of the Divine glory is your\n principal end; in which case, as your influence extends over the whole\n city, the good you do may be very great. You will find a thousand\n opportunities of glorifying God by your diligence, integrity, and\n disinterestedness. Endeavour to find or make occasions of this sort;\n seize on them eagerly, and shrink not from entering into the minutest\n details, when the object is to do good to the bodies or souls of your\n neighbours. Imitate, as far as circumstances will admit, the charity\n of Christ; who went about doing good, and disdained not to converse\n with the most wretched. I dwell on this the more particularly, because\n the vanity and pride which reign in our native town appear to me\n directly opposed to the spirit of charity. If you rise above these,\n you will conduct yourself as a Christian, whose sole object is to\n advance the glory of God; and who thinks little of the esteem of man,\n except as it may place him in a position to do more good in the world.\n\n \u201cYour recreations, of which you have given me a brief sketch, are\n doubtless innocent, especially if they occupy no more of your time\n than a due attention to health, and the wants of our nature demand.\n Although you have often reproached me with being too austere, I am far\n from thinking that religion forbids the use of innocent recreations;\n because, being indifferent in themselves, they become useful when they\n are necessary for the relaxation of the body or the mind. I am not at\n all shocked at the tradition which informs us that St. John sometimes\n amused himself with a partridge which he had tamed. Happy are they\n who, as far as they are able, endeavour to turn their own recreations\n to the advantage of others, which may certainly, if not always, yet\n sometimes, be done. I sometimes polish shells with Mr. Hill, out of\n compliance with his wishes. This used formerly to put me in a bad\n humour, on account of the loss of time it occasioned. But I begin to\n find that pious thoughts may sanctify an occupation as insignificant\n as even this, and that a renouncing of one\u2019s own will from compliance\n with that of others is not without its utility.\n\n \u201cI am now going to reply to that part of your letter in which you\n testify your surprise at the change which has taken place in my manner\n of thinking, a change which appears to have struck you in the last\n letters which I wrote to my father. You cry out against the severity\n of the principles which I have laid down; and add that, without being\n a prophet, you boldly predict my giving way before long to enthusiasm\n and all manner of bodily austerities, led on by the principles I have\n assumed.\n\n \u201cI am the less astonished, my dear brother, that you should thus\n speak, because it is the language of ninety-nine Christians of the\n present day out of every hundred, and because I myself for a long time\n thought like you on this point. In a certain sense, indeed, I always\n thought highly of religion, though at the bottom no one perhaps had\n less of it than I. My infancy was vicious, and my youth still more so.\n At eighteen I fell into what may properly be termed \u2018enthusiasm;\u2019 for\n though I lived in many habitual sins, yet because I was regularly\n present at public worship, not only on the Sunday, but during the\n week, I imagined myself religious. I made long prayers morning and\n evening, as well as frequently during the day. I devoted to the study\n of the prophecies, and to books of a religious character, all the time\n I could spare from my other studies.\n\n \u201cMy feelings were easily excited, but my heart was rarely affected,\n and I was destitute of a sincere love to God, and consequently to my\n neighbour. All my hopes of salvation rested on my prayers, devotions,\n and a certain habit of saying, \u2018Lord, I am a great sinner; pardon me\n for the sake of Jesus Christ.\u2019 In the meantime I was ignorant of the\n fall and ruin in which every man is involved, the necessity of a\n Redeemer, and the way by which we may be rescued from the fall by\n receiving Christ with a living faith. I should have been quite\n confounded if any one had asked me the following questions: \u2018Do you\n know that you are dead in Adam? Do you live to yourself? Do you live\n in Christ and for Christ? Does God rule in your heart? Do you\n experience that peace of God which passeth all understanding? Is the\n love of God shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit?\u2019 I repeat\n it, my dear brother, these questions would have astonished and\n confounded me, as they must every one who relies on the form of\n religion, and neglects its power and influence.\n\n \u201cMy religion, alas! having a different foundation from that which is\n in Christ, was built merely on the sand; and no sooner did the winds\n and floods arise, than it tottered and fell to ruins. I formed an\n acquaintance with some Deists, at first with the design of converting\n them, and afterwards with the pretence of thoroughly examining their\n sentiments. But my heart, like that of Balaam, was not right with God.\n He abandoned me, and I enrolled myself in their party. A considerable\n change took place in my deportment. _Before_ I had a form of religion,\n and _now_ I lost it; but as to the state of my heart, it was precisely\n the same. I did not remain many weeks in this state; the Good Shepherd\n sought after me, a wandering sheep. Again I became professedly a\n Christian; that is, I resumed a regular attendance at church and the\n communion, and offered up frequent prayers in the name of Jesus\n Christ. There were also in my heart some sparks of true love to God,\n and some germs of genuine faith; but a connection with worldly\n characters, and an undue anxiety to promote my secular interests,\n prevented the growth of these Christian graces. Had I now been asked\n on what I founded my hopes of salvation, I should have replied, that I\n was not without some religion; that, so far from doing harm to any\n one, I wished well to all the world; that I resisted my passions; that\n I abstained from pleasures in which I had once indulged; and that if I\n was not so religious as some others, it was because such a degree of\n religion was unnecessary; that heaven might be obtained on easier\n terms; and that if I perished, the destruction of the generality of\n Christians was inevitable, which I could not believe was consistent\n with the mercy of God.\n\n \u201cI was in this state of mind when a dream, which I could not but\n consider as a warning from God, aroused me from my security.\u201d\n\nFootnote 5:\n\n The elder of these sons died on coming of age; the younger became M.P.\n for Shrewsbury, and afterwards for Shropshire. In 1784, he took his\n seat in the House of Lords, as Baron Berwick. The title still exists.\n The old Tern Hall has long been called Attingham House.\u2014Debrett\u2019s\n \u201cPeerage\u201d and Wesley\u2019s and Benson\u2019s \u201cLives\u201d of Fletcher.\n\nAt great length Fletcher here relates his dream respecting the final\njudgment, and then continues:\u2014\n\n \u201cFor some days, I was so dejected and harassed in mind as to be unable\n to apply myself to anything. While in this state, I attempted to copy\n some music, when a servant entered my chamber. Having noticed my\n employment, he said, \u2018I am surprised, Sir, that you, who know so many\n things, should forget what day this is, and that you should not be\n aware that the Lord\u2019s day should be sanctified in a very different\n manner.\u2019\n\n \u201cThe sterling character of the man, his deep humility, his zeal for\n the glory of God, his love to his neighbours, and especially his\n patience, which enabled him to receive with joy the insults he met\n with from the whole family for Christ\u2019s sake, and, above all, the\n secret energy which accompanied his words, deeply affected me, and\n convinced me more than ever of my real state. I was convinced, as it\n had been told me in my dream, that I was not renewed in the spirit of\n my mind, that I was not conformed to the image of God, and that\n without this the death of Christ would be of no avail for my\n salvation.\u201d[6]\n\nFootnote 6:\n\n The long letter from which the foregoing is extracted was first\n published in 1826, in a \u201cLife of Fletcher\u201d in the French language, and\n printed at Lausanne. In the same year, Mr. Benson printed it as an\n appendix to the ninth edition of his \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d In 1839, it\n was inserted in the _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_. The extract is\n partly taken from Benson\u2019s translation and partly from that in the\n magazine.\n\nAbout this period of his history, Fletcher seems to have become\nacquainted with the Methodists. Wesley says:\u2014\n\n \u201cI have heard two very different accounts of the manner wherein he had\n the first notice of the people called Methodists; but I think it\n reasonable to prefer to any other that which I received from his own\n mouth. This was as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen Mr. Hill went up to London to attend the Parliament, he took his\n family and Mr. Fletcher with him. While they stopped at St. Albans, he\n walked out into the town, and did not return till they were set out\n for London. A horse being left for him, he rode after, and overtook\n them in the evening. Mr. Hill asking him why he stayed behind, he\n said, \u2018As I was walking, I met with a poor old woman, who talked so\n sweetly of Jesus Christ that I knew not how the time passed away.\u2019 \u2018I\n shall wonder,\u2019 said Mrs. Hill, \u2018if our tutor does not turn Methodist\n by-and-by.\u2019 \u2018Methodist, Madame!\u2019 said he, \u2018pray, what is that?\u2019 She\n replied, \u2018Why, the Methodists are a people that do nothing but pray;\n they are praying all day and all night.\u2019 \u2018Are they?\u2019 said he; \u2018then,\n by the help of God, I will find them out.\u2019 He did find them out not\n long after, and was admitted into the society; and from this time,\n whenever he was in town, he met in Mr. Richard Edwards\u2019s class. This\n he found so profitable to his soul that he lost no opportunity of\n meeting; and he retained a peculiar regard for Mr. Edwards till the\n day of his death.\u201d[7]\n\nFootnote 7:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d p. 17.\n\nIt was not, however, in Mr. Edwards\u2019s class that Fletcher found peace\nwith God. A few months after his decease, a 12 mo. pamphlet of\nsixty-four pages was published by his widow, entitled \u201cA Letter to Mons.\nH. L. de la Fl\u00e9ch\u00e8re, Assessor Ballival of Nyon, in the Canton of Berne,\nSwitzerland, on the Death of his Brother, the Reverend John William de\nla Fl\u00e9ch\u00e8re, Twenty-five Years Vicar of Madeley, Shropshire.\u201d In that\nletter it is stated, that, \u201cfrom the time he heard the Methodists, he\nbecame more and more conscious that some inward change was necessary to\nmake him happy. He now began to \u2018strive with the utmost diligence\naccording to his light, hoping by _much doing_ to render himself\nacceptable to God.\u2019 But, one day, hearing a sermon preached by a\nclergyman, whose name was Green, he was convinced he did not understand\nthe nature of _saving faith_. \u2018Is it possible,\u2019 said he, \u2018that I who\nhave always been accounted so religious, who have made divinity my\nstudy, and received the premium of piety (so called) from the university\nfor my writings on divine subjects,\u2014is it possible that I am yet so\nignorant as not to know what faith is?\u2019 But the more he examined, the\nmore he was convinced of the momentous truth. He now became sensible of\ninbred sin, and sought, by the most rigorous austerities, to conquer an\nevil nature; but the more he strove, the more he saw and felt that all\nhis soul was sin.\u201d\n\nMrs. Fletcher continues the narrative of his conversion by giving the\nfollowing extract from his diary:\u2014\n\n \u201c1755. January 12.\u2014I received the sacrament, though my heart was as\n hard as a flint. The following day, I felt the tyranny of sin more\n than ever, and an uncommon coldness in my religious duties. I felt the\n burden of my corruptions heavier than ever. The more I prayed for\n conquest over sin, the more I was conquered. The thoughts which\n engrossed my mind were generally these: I am undone. I have wandered\n from God. I have trampled under foot the frequent convictions God has\n been pleased to work upon my heart. Instead of going straight to\n Christ, I have lost my time in fighting against sin with the dim light\n of reason, and the use of the means of grace. I fear my notions of\n Christ are only speculative, and do not reach the heart. I _never had\n faith_, and without faith it is impossible to please God. Then every\n thought, word, and work of mine have only been sin and wickedness\n before God, though ever so specious before men. All my righteousness\n is as filthy rags. I am a very devil, though of an inferior sort, and\n if I am not renewed before I go hence, hell will be my portion to all\n eternity.\n\n \u201cWhen I saw that all my endeavours availed nothing towards my\n conquering sin, I almost resolved to sin on, and to go at last to\n hell. But, I remember, there was a sort of sweetness even in the midst\n of this abominable thought. If I go to hell, said I, I will still love\n God there; and since I cannot be an instance of His mercy in heaven, I\n will be an instance of His justice among the devils; and if I put\n forth His glory one way or the other, I am content.\n\n \u201cBut I soon recovered the ground I had lost. Christ died for _all_,\n thought I; then He died for _me_; and, as I sincerely desire to be\n His, He will surely take me to Himself. He will surely let me know\n before I die that He died for me. But then, I thought, this may only\n be in my dying hour, and that is a long time to wait. But I answered\n thus: My Saviour was above thirty-three years working out my\n salvation; let me wait for Him as long, and then I may talk of\n impatience. Does God owe me anything? Is He bound to time and place?\n Do I deserve anything at His hands but damnation?\n\n \u201cSo I went on, sinning and repenting, and sinning again; but still\n calling on God\u2019s mercy through Christ. I was now beat out of all my\n strongholds of pride. I felt my helplessness, and lay at the foot of\n the throne of grace. I cried, though _coldly_, yet I believe\n _sincerely_, \u2018Lord, save me! Give me justifying faith in Thy blood!\n Cleanse me from my sins!\u2019 I seldom went to private prayer, but I\n thought, \u2018Perhaps this is the happy hour when I shall prevail with\n God;\u2019 but still I was disappointed.\n\n \u201cOn Sunday, January 19, 1755, I heard an excellent sermon on, \u2018Being\n justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus\n Christ.\u2019 I heard it attentively, but my heart was not moved. I was\n only more convinced that I was an unbeliever\u2014that I was not justified\n by faith\u2014and that I should never till then have peace with God. The\n hymn after the sermon suited the subject that had been treated of, but\n I could not join in singing it. I sat mourning, whilst others rejoiced\n in the Lord their Saviour.\n\n \u201cThe following day, I begged of God to show me all the wickedness of\n my heart, and to fit me for His mercy. I besought Him to increase my\n convictions, for I was afraid I did not _mourn_ enough for my sins.\n But I found relief in Mr. Wesley\u2019s Journal, where I learned that we\n should not build on what we feel; but that we should go to Christ with\n all our sins and all our hardness of heart.\n\n \u201cOn January 21, I began to write a confession of my sins, misery, and\n helplessness, together with a resolution to seek Christ even unto\n death; but, my business calling me away, I had no heart to go on with\n it. In the evening, I read the Scriptures, and found a sort of\n pleasure in seeing a picture of my wickedness so exactly drawn in the\n third chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and that of my condition\n in the seventh; and now I felt some hope that God would finish in me\n the work He had begun.\n\n \u201cOn Thursday, January 23, my fast-day, Satan beset me hard. I sinned\n grievously, and almost gave up all hope; I mourned deeply, but with a\n heart as hard as ever. I was on the brink of despair, and yet\n continued to fall into sin. In the evening, I went to my friend, Mr.\n B\u2014\u2014, and told him something of my state. He strove to administer\n comfort, but it did not suit my light. When we parted, he gave me some\n advice which suited me better. \u2018God,\u2019 said he, \u2018loves you, and if He\n denies you anything, it is for your good. You deserve nothing at His\n hands; wait then patiently for Him, and never give up your hope.\u2019 I\n went home resolved to follow this advice, though I should stay till\n death.\n\n \u201cI had proposed to meet the Lord the following Sunday at His table,\n and therefore looked out a sacramental hymn. I learned it by heart,\n and prayed it over many times, and then went to bed, commending myself\n to God with rather more hope and peace than I had felt for some time.\n But Satan waked while I slept. I thought I committed that night in my\n sleep grievous and abominable sins. I awoke amazed and confounded, and\n rising with a detestation of the corruption of my senses and\n imagination, I fell upon my knees, and prayed with more faith and less\n wanderings than usual, and afterwards set about my business with an\n uncommon cheerfulness. It was not long before I was tempted to fall\n into my besetting sin, but I found myself a new creature. My soul was\n not even ruffled. Having withstood two or three temptations, and\n feeling peace in my soul through the whole of them, I began to think\n it was the Lord\u2019s doing. Afterwards it was suggested to me that it was\n great presumption for such a sinner to hope for such a mercy. I prayed\n I might not be permitted to fall into a delusion; but the more I\n prayed, the more I saw it was real; for though sin stirred all the day\n long, I always overcame it in the name of the Lord.\n\n \u201cIn the evening I read some of the experiences of God\u2019s children, and\n found my case agreed with theirs, and suited the sermon I had heard on\n Justifying Faith. I called on the Lord for perseverance and an\n increase of faith, for still I felt some fear lest this should be all\n delusion. Having continued my supplication till near one in the\n morning, I then opened my Bible, and fell on these words, \u2018Cast thy\n burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain thee. He will not suffer the\n righteous to be moved.\u2019 Filled with joy, I fell again on my knees to\n beg of God that I might always cast my burden upon Him. I took up my\n Bible again, and fell on these words, \u2018I will be with thee; I will not\n fail thee, neither forsake thee; fear not, neither be dismayed.\u2019 My\n hope was now greatly increased, and I thought I saw myself conqueror\n over sin, hell, and all manner of affliction.\n\n \u201cWith this beautiful promise I shut my Bible, and as I shut it I cast\n my eye on the words, \u2018Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, I will do\n it.\u2019 So having asked perseverance and grace to serve God till death, I\n went cheerfully to take my rest.\u201d\n\nSuch is Fletcher\u2019s own account of his conversion. His widow added the\nfollowing:\u2014\n\n \u201cI subjoin what I have heard him speak concerning this time. He still\n pleaded with the Lord to take a fuller possession of his heart, and to\n give a fuller manifestation of His love, till one day, when in earnest\n prayer, and lying prostrate on his face, he saw, with the eye of\n faith, our Saviour on the cross, and at the same time these words were\n spoken with power to his heart:\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018Seiz\u2019d by the rage of sinful men,\n I see Christ bound and bruis\u2019d and slain;\n \u2019Tis done, the Martyr dies!\n His life to ransom ours is given,\n And lo! the fiercest fire of heaven\n Consumes the sacrifice.\n\n \u201c\u2018He suffers both from men and God;\n He bears the universal load\n Of guilt and misery!\n _He suffers to reverse our doom,\n And lo! my Lord is here become\n The bread of life to me._\u2019\n\n \u201cNow all his bonds were broken. His freed soul began to breathe a\n purer air. Sin was beneath his feet. He could triumph in the Lord.\n From this time, he walked in the ways of God, and, thinking he had not\n leisure enough in the day, he made it a constant rule to sit up two\n whole nights in the week for reading, prayer, and meditation. At the\n same time, he lived on nothing but vegetables, and on bread with milk\n and water. One end of his doing this was to avoid dining in company.\n Besides sitting up two entire nights every week, his custom was never\n to sleep so long as he could keep awake, and he always took a candle\n and book with him to bed. One night, being overcome with sleep before\n he had put out his candle, he dreamed that his curtain, pillow, and\n cap were on fire, but went out without doing him any harm. And truly\n so it was, for in the morning his curtain was found burnt, also a\n corner of his pillow, and a part of his cap, but not a hair of his\n head was singed.\n\n \u201cSome time after this, he was favoured with a further manifestation of\n the love of God, so powerful, that, he said, it appeared to him as if\n his body and soul would be separated. Now all his desires centred in\n one, that of devoting himself to the service of his precious Master,\n which he thought he could best do by entering into holy orders.\u201d[8]\n\nFootnote 8:\n\n Letter to Mons. H. L. de la Fl\u00e9ch\u00e8re, 1786, p. 13.\n\nTo complete the accounts of Fletcher\u2019s conversion, in 1755, an extract\nfrom another letter must be added. In that year, writing to his brother,\nhe insisted on the vanity of earthly pursuits, and then gave the\nfollowing description of the change that had taken place in himself:\u2014\n\n \u201cI speak from experience. I have been successively deluded by all\n those desires, and sometimes I have been the sport of them all at\n once. This will appear incredible, except to those who have discovered\n that the heart of unregenerate man is nothing more than a chaos of\n obscurity and a mass of contradictions. If you have any acquaintance\n with yourself, you will readily subscribe to this description of the\n human heart. Every unconverted man must necessarily be either a\n _voluptuary_, a _worldly-minded person_, or a _pharisaical\n philosopher_: or, perhaps, like myself, he may be all of these at the\n same time; and, what is still more extraordinary, he may be so not\n only without _believing_, but even without once _suspecting_ it;\n indeed, nothing is more common among men than an entire blindness to\n their own real characters. How often have I placed my happiness in\n mere chimeras! How often have I grounded my vain hope upon imaginary\n foundations! I have been constantly employed in framing designs for my\n own felicity; but my disappointments have been as frequent and various\n as my projects.\n\n \u201cIf, hitherto, my dear brother, you have beguiled yourself with\n prospects of the same visionary nature, never expect to be more\n successful in your future pursuits. One labour will only succeed\n another, making way for continual discontent and chagrin. Open your\n heart, and there you will discover the source of that painful\n inquietude to which, by your own confession, you have been long a\n prey. Examine its secret recesses, and you will discover there\n sufficient proof of the following truths: \u2018_The heart is deceitful\n above all things, and desperately wicked_;\u2019 \u2018_All have sinned, and\n come short of the glory of God_;\u2019 \u2018_The thoughts of man\u2019s heart are\n only evil, and that continually_;\u2019 \u2018_The natural man understandeth not\n the things of the Spirit of God_.\u2019 On the discovery of these and other\n important truths, you will be convinced that man is an apostate being,\n composed of a sensual, rebellious body, and a soul immersed in pride,\n self-love, and ignorance; nay more, you will perceive it a physical\n impossibility that man should ever become truly happy till he is cast,\n as it were, into a new mould, and created a second time.\n\n \u201cFor my own part, when I first began to know myself, I saw, I _felt_\n that man is an undefinable animal, partly of a bestial and partly of\n an infernal nature. The discovery shocked my self-love, and filled me\n with the utmost horror. I endeavoured for some time to throw a\n palliating disguise over the wretchedness of my condition, but the\n impression it had already made upon my heart was too deep to be\n erased. It was to no purpose that I reminded myself of the morality of\n my conduct; it was in vain that I recollected the many encomiums that\n had been passed upon my early piety and virtue; and it was to little\n avail that I sought to cast a mist before my eyes by reasonings like\n these: \u2018If conversion implies a total change, who has been converted\n in these days? Why dost thou imagine thyself worse than thou really\n art? Thou art a believer in God and in Christ; thou art a Christian;\n thou hast injured no person; thou art neither a drunkard nor an\n adulterer; thou hast discharged thy duties not only in a general way,\n but with more than ordinary exactness; thou art a strict attendant at\n church; thou art accustomed to pray more regularly than others, and\n frequently with a good degree of fervour; make thyself perfectly easy;\n moreover, Jesus Christ has suffered for thy sins, and His merit will\n supply everything lacking on thy part.\u2019\n\n \u201cIt was by reasonings of this nature that I endeavoured to conceal\n from myself the deplorable state of my heart; and I am ashamed, my\n dear brother, that I suffered myself so long to be deluded by the\n artifices of Satan. God Himself has invited me; a cloud of apostles,\n prophets, and martyrs have exhorted me; and my own conscience,\n animated by those sparks of grace which are latent in every heart, has\n urged me to enter in at the strait gate; but, notwithstanding all\n this, a subtle temper, a deluding world, and a deceived heart have\n constantly turned the balance, for above these twenty years, in favour\n of the broad way. I have passed the most lovely part of my life in the\n service of these tyrannical masters, and am ready to declare in the\n face of the universe that all my reward has consisted in disquietude\n and remorse. Happy had I listened to the earliest invitations of\n grace, and broken the iron yoke from off my neck.\u201d[9]\n\nFootnote 9:\n\n Gilpin\u2019s Translation of \u201cThe Portrait of St. Paul.\u201d\n\nThese extracts are long, but they are important. They contain all the\nknown facts connected with Fletcher\u2019s conversion.\n\nIn writing to his brother, Fletcher remarked,\u2014\u201cAt eighteen years of age,\nI devoted as much time as I could spare to read the prophecies of the\nHoly Bible;\u201d and it is a curious fact that, in the year of his\nconversion, he wrote a long letter to Wesley, in which he gave a\nsynopsis of the writings of \u201ca great divine abroad,\u201d who had \u201cspent\nfifty years in making himself perfectly master of the Oriental\nlanguages, and in comparing and explaining the various predictions\nscattered in the Old and New Testaments.\u201d Fletcher was well acquainted\nwith this gentleman, and had many times conversed with him on the\nsubjects of his lifelong study. Substantially, the young man had adopted\nthe aged man\u2019s views; and now, in a condensed form (filling, however,\nnineteen octavo printed pages), he presented them to Wesley. At the\ntime, terrific wars were being waged, and, a month before the date of\nFletcher\u2019s letter, the great earthquake at Lisbon had occurred. At such\nseasons, devout men almost instinctively begin to study prophecies, and\nhence no wonder that Fletcher now felt more than ordinarily interested\nin what, \u201cfor some years, had often been the subject of his\nmeditations.\u201d He believed that \u201cthe grand catastrophe of God\u2019s drama\ndrew near apace,\u201d and gave his reasons for such belief by referring\nfirst to Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s dream, \u201cwhich is a rough sketch of the world\u2019s\nfour universal revolutions;\u201d secondly, to Daniel\u2019s vision of the four\nbeasts; and thirdly, to Daniel\u2019s vision of the ram and he-goat, and the\ntwo thousand and three hundred days, at the end of which the \u201csanctuary\u201d\nwas to \u201cbe cleansed.\u201d Fletcher, by elaborate calculations, shows that\nthis cleansing was to take place between the years 1750 and 1770, and\nthe following extract will indicate what, in his opinion, the cleansing\nmeant:\u2014\n\n \u201cGod is now working such a work as has not been seen since the\n Apostles\u2019 days. He has sent some chosen servants of His, both in these\n kingdoms and abroad, who, by the manifest assistance of the Holy\n Spirit, have removed the filthy doctrine of justification by works,\n and the outward Christless performance of moral duties, which pollute\n the sanctuary and make it an abomination to the Lord. The Holy Ghost\n is given, and the love of God is shed abroad in the hearts of\n believers as in the days of old. I own that the cleansing is but\n begun; but this revolution[10] may, in all probability, be the\n forerunner of a greater. God has called; a few have obeyed His call.\n The generality still shut their eyes and ears against the tender\n invitations of their Lord, and continue to pollute the sanctuary and\n to look on the blood of the Lamb as an unholy thing. Shall not God\n carry on His work? Shall the creature still resist the Creator? and\n the arm of flesh be stronger than the living God? Not so. He will not\n always strive with obdurate hearts. What the gentle breathings of His\n Spirit cannot perform, He will do by war, sword and fire, plague and\n famine, tribulation and anguish. He is going to gird on His sword, and\n His right hand shall teach Him terrible things. Nations refuse the\n sceptre of His mercy; what remains, then, but to rule them with an\n iron sceptre, and break them in pieces like a potter\u2019s vessel?\u201d\n\nFootnote 10:\n\n Meaning the war then raging.\n\nFletcher concludes by arguing in favour of the doctrine, that, long\nbefore the general judgment Christ will appear on earth a second time to\nwork out His great redeeming purposes.\n\n \u201cGive me leave, Rev. Sir,\u201d says he, \u201cto propose to you a thing that\n many will look upon as a great paradox, but has yet sufficient ground\n in Scripture to raise the expectation of every Christian who sincerely\n looks for the coming of our Lord; I mean the great probability that,\n in the midst of this grand revolution, our Lord Jesus will suddenly\n come down from heaven, and go Himself conquering and to conquer; for\n what but the greatest prejudice can induce Christians to think that\n the coming of our Lord, spoken of in so plain terms by three\n evangelists, is His last coming before the universal judgment and the\n end of the world?\u201d[11]\n\nFootnote 11:\n\n _Arminian Magazine_, 1793, p. 411.\n\nThere cannot be a doubt that, at this period of his life, Fletcher was\nwhat is commonly called a Millenarian. Whether his views were right or\nwrong, the reader must determine for himself.\n\nWhen resident at Tern Hall, Fletcher attended the parish church at\nAtcham, a small village about five miles from Shrewsbury. Here the Rev.\nMr. Cartwright was the officiating minister,[12] and was accustomed to\ncatechise in public the children of his parishioners. On one occasion,\nhe invited the adults who needed instruction to appear in the ranks of\nthe catechumens, and told them that to do so would be no disgrace to\nthem. All, however, except Fletcher, either thought that to stand among\nthe young people would disgrace them, or that further instruction in\ntheir case was not needed. The accomplished young scholar from\nSwitzerland, the tutor of the two sons of their county member, had a\nlower opinion of his excellences than the village peasants had of\ntheirs; for, leaving his seat with an air of unaffected modesty, he took\nhis place among the children, and became a catechumen of the village\npastor.[13]\n\nFootnote 12:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d 2nd edit., p. 366.\n\nFootnote 13:\n\n Gilpin\u2019s note, in \u201cPortrait of St. Paul.\u201d\n\nAt Atcham, Fletcher became acquainted with Mr. Vaughan, an excise\nofficer, who gave to Wesley the following account of his deeply-revered\nfriend:\u2014\n\n \u201cIt was our ordinary custom, when the church service was over, to\n retire into the most lonely fields or meadows, where we frequently\n either kneeled down, or prostrated ourselves on the ground. At those\n happy seasons, I was a witness of such pleadings and wrestlings with\n God, such exercises of faith and love, as I have not known in any one\n ever since. The consolations, which we then received from God, induced\n us to appoint two or three nights in a week, when we duly met, after\n his pupils were asleep. We met also constantly on Sunday, between four\n and five in the morning. Sometimes I stepped into his study on other\n days. I rarely saw any book before him, besides the _Bible_ and the\n _Christian Pattern_.\u201d\n\n \u201cOur interviews for singing and conversation were seldom concluded\n without prayer, in which we were frequently joined by her who is now\n my wife (then a servant in the family), and by a poor widow in the\n village, who had known the power of God unto salvation, and who died\n some years ago, praising God with her latest breath. These were the\n only persons in the village whom he chose for his familiar friends;\n but he sometimes walked to Shrewsbury, to see Mrs. Glynne or Mr.\n Appleton. He also visited the poor in the neighbourhood who were sick;\n and, when no other person could be procured, performed even the\n meanest offices for them.\u201d\n\nBesides the godly friends mentioned in this interesting statement,\nFletcher had another acquaintance at Atcham, whom he visited to be\ninstructed in singing. This gentleman supplied Wesley with what\nfollows:\u2014\n\n \u201cI remember but little of that man of God, Mr. Fletcher, it being\n above nine-and-twenty years since I last saw him; but this I well\n remember, his conversation with me was always sweet and savoury. He\n was too wise to suffer any of his precious moments to be trifled away.\n When company dined at Mr. Hill\u2019s, he frequently retired into the\n garden, and contentedly dined on a piece of bread and a few bunches of\n currants. Indeed, in his whole manner of living he was a pattern of\n abstemiousness. Meantime, how great was his sweetness of temper and\n heavenly-mindedness! I never saw it equalled in any one. How often,\n when I parted with him at Tern Hall, have his eyes and hands been\n lifted up to heaven, to implore a blessing upon me, with fervour and\n devoutness unequalled by any I ever witnessed. I firmly believe he has\n not left in this land, or perhaps in any other, one luminary like\n himself.\u201d[14]\n\nFootnote 14:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nThese glimpses of Fletcher, at this early period of his life, are too\nvaluable and important to be omitted.\n\nIt is impossible to determine the exact date when he joined the\nMethodist Society in London, but there can be no doubt that it was as\nearly as the year 1756, and probably a year or two earlier. Hence the\nfollowing extract from a letter addressed to Mr. Richard Edwards, the\nleader of the London class in which Fletcher had been enrolled a\nmember:\u2014\n\n \u201cTERN, _October 19, 1756_.\n\n \u201cDEAREST BROTHER,\u2014This is to let you know that I am very well in body\n and pretty well in soul; but I have very few friends here, and God has\n been pleased to take away the chief of those few by a most comfortable\n death. My aged father also is gone the way of all flesh. For some\n years, I have written to him with as much freedom as I could have done\n to a son, though not with so much effect as I wished. But, last\n spring, God visited him with a severe illness, which brought him to a\n sense of himself; and, after a deep repentance, he died about a month\n ago, in the full assurance of faith.\u201d[15]\n\nFootnote 15:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nFletcher, at Geneva, had refused to enter the Christian ministry; now he\nentertained the most serious thoughts of devoting himself to it; but\nbefore doing so he wrote to Wesley, with whom he had become acquainted.\n\n \u201cTERN, _November 24, 1756_.\n\n \u201cREV. SIR,\u2014As I look on you as my spiritual guide, and cannot doubt of\n your patience to hear, and your experience to answer, a serious\n question proposed by any of your people, I freely lay my case before\n you.\n\n \u201cSince the first time I began to feel the love of God shed abroad in\n my heart, which was, I think, when seven years of age, I resolved to\n give myself up to Him and the service of His Church, if ever I was fit\n for it; but the corruption which is in the world, and that which was\n in my heart, soon weakened, if not erased, those first characters that\n grace had wrote upon it. However, I went through my studies with a\n design of going into Orders; but afterwards, upon serious reflection,\n feeling I was unequal for so great a burden, and disgusted by the\n necessity I should be under to subscribe to the doctrine of\n predestination, I yielded to the desire of my friends, who would have\n me go into the army. But just before I was quite engaged in a military\n employment, I met with such disappointments as occasioned my coming to\n England. Here I was called outwardly three times to go into Orders;\n but, upon praying to God that if those calls were not from Him they\n might come to nothing, something always blasted the designs of my\n friends; and in this I have often admired the goodness of God, who\n prevented me rushing into that important employment, as the horse does\n into the battle. I never was more thankful for this favour than since\n I heard the Gospel preached in its purity. Before, I had been afraid;\n but then I trembled to meddle with holy things, and resolved to work\n out my salvation privately, without engaging in a way of life which\n required so much more grace and gifts than I possessed. Yet, from time\n to time, I felt warm and strong desires to cast myself and all my\n inability upon the Lord, if I should be called again, knowing that He\n could help me, and show His strength in my weakness; and these desires\n were increased by some little success that attended my exhortations\n and letters to my friends.\n\n \u201cI think it necessary to let you know, Sir, that my patron often\n desired me to take Orders, and said he would soon help me to a living;\n to which I coldly answered, I was not fit, and that besides I did not\n know how to get a title. The thing was in that state when, about six\n weeks ago, a gentleman I hardly knew offered me a living, which, in\n all probability, will be vacant very soon; and a clergyman, that I\n never spoke to, gave me, of his own accord, the title of curate to one\n of his livings. Now, Sir, the question which I beg you to decide is,\n whether I must and can make use of that title to get into Orders? For\n with respect to the living, were it vacant, I have no mind to it,\n because I think I could preach with more fruit in my own country and\n in my own tongue.\n\n \u201cI am in suspense; on one side, my heart tells me I must try, and it\n tells me so whenever I feel any degree of the love of God and man;\n but, on the other, when I examine whether I am fit for it, I so\n plainly see my want of gifts, and especially of that _soul_ of all the\n labours of a minister of the Gospel\u2014_love_, _continual, universal,\n flaming love_, that my confidence disappears; I accuse myself of pride\n to dare to entertain the desire of supporting the ark of the Lord, and\n conclude that an extraordinary punishment will sooner or later\n overtake my rashness. As I am in both these frames successively, I\n must own, Sir, I do not see plainly which of the two ways before me I\n can take with safety, and I shall be glad to be ruled by you, because\n I trust God will direct you in giving me the advice you think will\n best conduce to His glory, the _only_ thing I would have in view in\n this affair. I know how precious is your time; I desire no long\n answer;\u2014_persist_ or _forbear_ will satisfy and influence, Sir, your\n unworthy servant,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[16]\n\nFootnote 16:\n\n \u201cThirteen Original Letters, written by the late Rev. John Fletcher.\n Bath, 1791,\u201d 12mo, p. 3.\n\nWesley\u2019s answer to this important letter has not been preserved. Perhaps\nno letter was written. Wesley was now in London. Parliament met eight\ndays after Fletcher wrote to him. Public affairs were in a critical\ncondition, and, no doubt, Mr. Hill would feel it a duty to be present at\nthe opening of the session. When he came to London to fulfil his\nparliamentary duties, it was his custom to bring his sons and their\ntutor with him. That Fletcher was now in London is evident from the\nfollowing letter, addressed to Wesley within three weeks after the date\nof his former one. Of course, he would have an interview with Wesley as\nearly as possible, and in all likelihood Wesley, at this interview, not\nonly advised him to be ordained, but likewise dissuaded him from his\npurpose to return to Switzerland. There is no reference in the letter to\nFletcher\u2019s proposed ordination, for, doubtless, that was a matter\nalready settled. Fletcher had been attending sacramental services in\nWesley\u2019s London chapels; and it had occurred to him that these services\nmight be much improved, and Wesley himself considerably relieved. To say\nthe least, the letter is full of interest, and contains a hint which, in\nlarge societies, might be profitably adopted.\n\n \u201c_December 13, 1756._\n\n \u201cSIR,\u2014When I have received the sacrament in your chapels, though I\n admired the order and decency with which that awful part of the divine\n worship was performed, I thought there was something wanting, which\n might make it still more profitable and solemn.\n\n \u201cAs the number of communicants is generally very great, the time spent\n in receiving is long enough for many, I am afraid, to feel their\n devotion languish, and their desires grow cold, for want of outward\n fuel. In order to prevent this, you interrupt, from time to time, the\n service of the table, to put up a short prayer, or to sing a verse or\n two of a hymn; and I do not doubt but many have found the benefit of\n that method. But, as you can spare very little time, you are obliged\n to be satisfied with scattering those few drops, instead of a\n continual rain. Would not that want be easily supplied, Sir, if you\n were to appoint the preachers who may be present to do what you cannot\n possibly do yourself, to pray and sing without interruption, as at a\n watchnight?\n\n \u201cThis would have several good effects: 1. Experience, as well as the\n nature of the thing itself, shows every sincere seeker that, as it is\n the fittest time to ask, and the most ordinary to receive grace, every\n moment ought to be improved to the best advantage. 2. Continual\n praying and singing would prevent the wanderings of many, who are not\n convinced of sin deeply enough, or influenced by grace strongly\n enough, to mourn and pray without interruption, if they are left to\n themselves. 3. It would increase the earnestness of believers; for\n though every one wrestles probably in his own heart both for himself\n and the congregation, yet their prayers would certainly have more\n power if united, and the general fire would increase the warmth of\n their affections. 4. In praying frequently for universal love, as the\n remembrance of Christ\u2019s bleeding love naturally directs us to do, you\n would add for many the benefit and comfort of a lovefeast to the\n advantages that attend the Holy Eucharist. 5. If the prayers were\n especially calculated for those that receive, is it not probable, Sir,\n that they would be extremely encouraged to act faith, to touch the hem\n of Christ\u2019s garment, to cast their burden upon Him, and to lay hold of\n eternal life, if they heard their weak petitions supported by the\n fervent prayers of their brethren, at the same time that they feed, or\n are going to feed, on the blessed signs of Christ\u2019s body and blood?\n\n \u201cIt may be objected:\u20141. That some may prefer to pour out their souls\n before God according to their different frames, whether it be\n deadness, desertion, joy, overflowings of humility, repentance, love,\n etc. And so they might; but I do not see how general prayer and\n singing would rob them of that liberty, if they thought it more\n acceptable to God and beneficial to themselves; and their praying in\n private would not hinder the bulk of the congregation from uniting\n with joy in the public service. 2. That this method might bring in a\n confusion greater than the advantages it seems to be attended with.\n But could not prudence obviate this? I am sure it could; for I have\n seen that, or something like it, performed in a congregation of a\n thousand communicants without the least confusion, and to the great\n edification and comfort of many.\n\n \u201cBut you are the best judge, Sir; and if I take the liberty of giving\n you this hint, to make of it what use you think fit, it is because you\n said lately in the Society that you heard willingly the observations\n of your people, and were ready to follow or improve them if they were\n just and reasonable.\n\n \u201cI am, Sir, your unworthy servant,\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[17]\n\nFootnote 17:\n\n _Methodist Magazine_, 1798, p. 93.\n\nWithin three months after this, Fletcher was ordained. On Sunday, March\n6, 1757, he received deacon\u2019s orders from the Bishop of Hereford; and\npriest\u2019s orders on the Sunday following from the Bishop of Bangor, in\nthe Chapel Royal at St. James\u2019s.[18]\n\nFootnote 18:\n\n Gilpin\u2019s \u201cPortrait of St. Paul.\u201d\n\nOn the day he was ordained priest, he hastened to Snowsfields Chapel, to\nassist Wesley in one of those heavy sacramental services referred to in\nthe foregoing letter. Wesley writes:\u2014\n\n \u201c1757, Sunday, March 13. Finding myself weak at Snowsfields, I prayed\n (if He saw good) that God would send me help at the chapel, and I had\n it. As soon as I had done preaching, Mr. Fletcher came, who had just\n been ordained priest, and hastened to the chapel on purpose to assist\n me in the administration of the Lord\u2019s supper, as he supposed me to be\n alone.\n\n \u201cSunday, March 20. Mr. Fletcher helped me again. How wonderful are the\n ways of God! When my bodily strength failed, and none in England were\n able and willing to assist me, He sent me help from the mountains of\n Switzerland, and an helpmeet for me in every respect; where could I\n have found such another?\u201d[19]\n\nFootnote 19:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cWorks,\u201d vol. ii., p. 376; and vol. vii., p. 415.\n\nThus did Fletcher begin his remarkable ministerial life in a Methodist\nmeeting-house.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER III.\n _FROM HIS ORDINATION TO HIS SETTLEMENT\n AT MADELEY._\n\n 1757 TO 1760.\n\n\nFOR three years after his ordination, Fletcher was without a Church\nappointment. How did he spend this interval? Wesley says:\u2014\n\n \u201cHe was now doubly diligent in preaching, not only in the chapels at\n West Street and Spitalfields, but wherever the providence of God\n opened a door to proclaim the everlasting Gospel. This he did\n frequently in French (as well as in English), of which all judges\n allowed him to be a complete master.\u201d[20]\n\nFootnote 20:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cWorks,\u201d vol. vii., p. 415.\n\nAs might be expected, Fletcher soon became a great favourite among the\nfirst Methodists. Almost at once, he was the highly esteemed friend of\nMiss Bosanquet (his future wife), Ann Tripp, Sarah Crosby, Sarah\nRyan,[21] Thomas Walsh, and others, whose Methodistic fame will never\nperish. After his death, in 1785, Mrs. Crosby wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cIt is now eight or nine and twenty years since I was first favoured\n with Mr. Fletcher\u2019s heavenly conversation, in company with Mr. Walsh\n and a few other friends, most of whom are now in the world of spirits.\n At these seasons, how frequently did we feel\u2014\n\n \u2018The o\u2019erwhelming power of saving grace!\u2019\n\n How frequently were we silenced thereby, while tears of love our souls\n o\u2019erflowed! It affects me while I recollect the humility, fervour of\n spirit, and strength of faith with which dear Mr. Fletcher so often\n poured out his soul before the Great Three One, at whose feet we have\n lain in holy shame and silence, till earth seemed turned to heaven. I\n heard this heavenly-minded servant of the Lord preach his first sermon\n in West Street chapel. I think his text was, \u2018_Repent, for the kingdom\n of heaven is at hand._\u2019 His spirit appeared in his whole attitude and\n action. He could not well find words in the English language to\n express himself; but he supplied that defect by offering up prayers,\n tears, and sighs. Nearly about this time he saw Miss Bosanquet, and\n began his acquaintance with her; but, although they highly esteemed\n each other, they had no correspondence for above twenty years.\u201d[22]\n\nFootnote 21:\n\n Tyerman\u2019s \u201cLife of Wesley,\u201d vol. ii., pp. 286, 289.\n\nFootnote 22:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d 2 edit., p. 320.\n\nFletcher still continued to be the tutor of the sons of Mr. Hill. During\nthe sitting of Parliament, he was in London; the remainder of the year\nwas chiefly spent at Tern Hall.[23] Whilst at the latter place, he\npreached, on June 19, 1757, for the first time in the church at Atcham,\ntaking as his text, \u201c_Ye adulterers and adultresses, know ye not that\nthe friendship of the world is enmity against God?_\u201d \u201cA very bold\nbeginning,\u201d wrote his friend Mr. Vaughan. \u201cThe congregation stood\namazed, and gazed upon him as if he had been a monster; but to me he\nappeared as a messenger sent from heaven. It was not soon that he was\ninvited again to preach in Atcham church, but he was invited to preach\nin others; first in Wroxeter, and afterwards at the Abbey Church in\nShrewsbury;[24] but I doubt whether he preached more than six times in\nthe six months he stayed in the country. On my saying I wished he had\nmore opportunities of preaching, he answered, \u2018The will of God be done;\nI am in His hands. If He does not call me to so much public duty, I have\nthe more time for study, prayer, and praise.\u2019\u201d[25]\n\nFootnote 23:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nFootnote 24:\n\n Benson says, \u201cHe also preached twice in St. Alkmond\u2019s Church in\n Shrewsbury.\u201d\n\nFootnote 25:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nIn the month of May, 1757, Wesley was in the north of England and\nFletcher was in London. The following letter to Wesley needs no further\nintroduction:\u2014\n\n \u201cLONDON, _May 26, 1757_.\n\n \u201cREV. SIR,\u2014If I did not write to you before Mrs. Wesley had asked me,\n it was not that I wanted a remembrancer within, but rather an\n encourager without. There is generally upon my heart such a sense of\n my unworthiness, that sometimes I dare hardly open my mouth before a\n child of God, and think it an unspeakable honour to stand before one\n who has recovered something of the image of God, or sincerely seeks\n after it. Is it possible that such a sinful worm as I should have the\n privilege to converse with one whose soul is besprinkled with the\n blood of my Lord? The thought amazes, confounds me, and fills my eyes\n with tears of humble joy. Judge, then, at what distance I must see\n myself from you if I am so much below the least of your children; and\n whether a remembrancer within suffices to make me presume to write to\n you, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear.\n\n \u201cI rejoice that you find everywhere an increase of praying souls. I\n doubt not that the prayer of the just has great power with God, but I\n cannot believe that it should hinder the fulfilling of Christ\u2019s\n gracious promises to His Church. He must, and certainly will, come at\n the time appointed, for He is not slack, as some men count slackness;\n and, although He would have all come to repentance, He has not\n forgotten to be true and just. Only He will come with more mercy, and\n will increase the light that shall be at eventide, according to His\n promise in Zech. xiv. 7. I should rather think that the visions are\n not yet plainly disclosed, and that the day and year in which the Lord\n will begin to make bare His arm openly, are still concealed from us.\n\n \u201cI must say concerning Mr. Walsh,[26] as he once said to me concerning\n God, \u2018I wish I could attend him everywhere, as Elisha attended\n Elijah.\u2019 But since the will of God calls me from him, I must submit,\n and drink the cup prepared for me. I have not seen him, unless for a\n few moments three or four times before divine service. We must meet at\n the throne of grace, or meet but seldom. Oh when will the communion of\n saints be complete? Lord, hasten the time, and let me have a place\n among them who love Thee, and love one another in sincerity!\n\n \u201cI set out in two days for the country. Oh may I be faithful;\n harmless, like a dove; wise, like a serpent; and bold, as a lion, for\n the common cause! O Lord, do not forsake me! Stand by the weakest of\n Thy servants, and enable Thy children to bear with me and to wrestle\n with Thee on my behalf!\n\n \u201cOh bear with me, dear Sir, and give me your blessing every day, and\n the Lord will return to you sevenfold.\n\n \u201cI am, Rev. Sir, your unworthy servant, J. FLETCHER.\u201d[27]\n\nFootnote 26:\n\n Thomas Walsh, one of the most remarkable of Wesley\u2019s Itinerants. To\n say nothing of his piety and usefulness, Wesley declared him to be the\n best Hebrew scholar he had ever met. He died two years after the date\n of Fletcher\u2019s letter.\n\nFootnote 27:\n\n \u201cThirteen Original Letters, written by the Rev. J. Fletcher, 1791,\u201d p.\n 8.\n\nThere is no need to dwell on Fletcher\u2019s humbleness, as displayed in this\nletter, for that was _one_ of his chief characteristics to the end of\nlife. It may be added, however, that the letter furnishes fresh proof\nthat Fletcher was one of the godly few who were expecting the speedy\nappearance of the incarnate and glorified Redeemer. It is probable that\nhis letter to Wesley on prophecy had led Wesley to advert to the same\nsubject, and that this was Fletcher\u2019s answer to one of Wesley\u2019s\ncritiques.\n\nThree weeks after the date of this letter, Fletcher preached his first\nsermon in _a church_. This was at Atcham, on June 19, as already stated.\nAs in the case of Wesley, churches, however, were soon closed against\nhim. To his friend and class-leader, Mr. Edwards, of London, he wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cI thank you for your encouraging observations. I want them, and use\n them by the grace of God. When I received yours, I had not had one\n opportunity of preaching; so incensed were all the clergy against me.\n One, however, let me have the use of his church\u2014the Abbey Church at\n Shrewsbury. I preached in the forenoon with some degree of the\n demonstration of the Spirit. The congregation was very numerous, and I\n believe one half, at least, desired to hear me again. But the minister\n would not let me have the pulpit any more. The next Sunday, the\n minister of a neighbouring parish lying a-dying, I was sent for to\n officiate for him. He died a few days after, and the chief man in the\n parish offered to make interest that I might succeed him; but I could\n not consent. The next Sunday I preached at Shrewsbury again, but in\n another church. The next day I set out for Bristol, and was much\n refreshed among the brethren. As I returned, I called at New\n Kingswood, about sixteen miles from Bristol. The minister offering me\n his church, I preached to a numerous congregation, gathered on half an\n hour\u2019s notice. I think the seed then sown will not be lost.\u201d[28]\n\nFootnote 28:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d 2nd edit., p. 38.\n\nEarly in the year 1758, Wesley introduced Fletcher to the Countess of\nHuntingdon. Her ladyship wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201c1758, March 19. I have seen Mr. Fletcher, and was both pleased and\n refreshed by the interview. He was accompanied by Mr. Wesley, who had\n frequently mentioned him in terms of high commendation, as had Mr.\n Whitefield, Mr. Charles Wesley, and others, so that I was anxious to\n become acquainted with one so devoted, and who appears to glory in\n nothing, save in the cross of our Divine Lord and Master. Hearing that\n he preached in French, his native language, I mentioned the case of\n the French prisoners at Tunbridge. May the Lord of the harvest bless\n his word, and send forth many such faithful ambassadors!\u201d[29]\n\nFootnote 29:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. i., p. 231.\n\nFletcher was becoming famous. Already, in his twenty-ninth year, he had\ngained the love and admiration of the Wesley brothers, of Whitefield,\nand of the Methodist great \u201celect lady.\u201d At her request, Fletcher hied\naway to Tunbridge, and preached to a congregation of prisoners on their\nparole, who were so deeply affected by the truth, which many of them had\nnot heard before, that they earnestly requested he would preach to them\nevery Sunday. They proceeded even further, for they signed and sent a\npetition to Sherlock, Bishop of London, begging him to allow Fletcher to\nofficiate as their weekly chaplain. Strangely enough, notwithstanding\nSherlock\u2019s high repute for piety, he peremptorily rejected the\nprisoners\u2019 petition. Wesley says: \u201cIf I had known this at the time, King\nGeorge should have known it, and I believe he would have given the\nBishop little thanks.\u201d[30]\n\nFootnote 30:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nFletcher, as usual, continued in London with his pupils until the\nprorogation of Parliament, when Mr. Hill and his family returned to\ntheir country home. The journey to Shropshire was made in the family\ncoach; but, unfortunately, Mr. Hill commenced it on the Sabbath-day.[31]\nThis was a trial to Fletcher. Hence the following letter to Charles\nWesley:\u2014\n\n \u201cTERN, _June 6, 1758_.\n\n \u201cREV. AND DEAR SIR,\u2014Before I took my leave of you, the Sunday I set\n out, and indeed almost all the time I was at the communion table, I\n felt some degree of condemnation, as if, by setting out on that day, I\n profaned the Sabbath, and the Lord\u2019s supper; whereupon those words\n came strongly to my mind, \u2018Therefore many among you are sick and weak,\n and some are dead.\u2019 I immediately found myself out of order, and had\n much ado to reach home after the service was over. Till the horses\n were at the door, I thought I should not be able to go; but found\n myself then a little strengthened. The next day, I was much worse, and\n they were obliged to make room for me in the coach. The day after, I\n was still worse, and really thought it would be my last. About noon,\n while the family was at dinner, I collected what little strength I had\n left; and, falling prostrate before the Lord, I besought Him not to\n cut me off among heathens, but to grant me the favour of comforting\n and being comforted by some Christian at my death. This request, so\n contrary to true resignation, I think reached the ear of the Lord. He\n rebuked the rage of the fever, and sensibly filled my soul with all\n peace in believing; so that I saw I was yet for the land of the\n living. Nay, a few hours after, I found myself as well as ever; and so\n I continue now by God\u2019s grace.\n\n \u201cWhat have I to do but to make good use of the health and leisure I\n have in this retreat? I see my duty, and I form resolutions; but,\n alas! I carry with me a wicked heart, which enters not into these\n projects; and Satan is never more assiduous and eager to injure us\n than in retirement. I feel, however, by the grace of God, determined\n to sustain all the attacks of the flesh and of the devil, and to seize\n the kingdom of heaven by force. The Lord has been particularly\n gracious to me, in putting it into my heart to pray for the brethren.\n I have experienced more power and more pleasure in this duty of\n intercession than I have ever done. You will rightly judge that you\n are not forgotten in these poor prayers; and I hope that you also\n sometimes remember me.\n\n \u201cI hope you have overcome the scruple which prevented you from giving\n Mr. Maxfield full liberty to labour for the Lord among us.[32] The\n interest of the brethren, and no other motive, makes me desire it.\n\n \u201cI shall not see you in Bristol;[33] the journey of my pupils not\n taking place at the time expected. May the Lord be with you more and\n more in your labours and in your devotions! Farewell!\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[34]\n\nFootnote 31:\n\n Wesley himself not infrequently set out on his long journey to the\n north on Sunday.\n\nFootnote 32:\n\n It is difficult to determine what is meant by this; most likely\n Fletcher wished Thomas Maxfield to preach in the neighbourhood of Tern\n Hall. Five years afterwards, Maxfield left Wesley, and became an\n ordained clergyman of the Church of England.\n\nFootnote 33:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Annual Conference was held in Bristol, in August, 1758.\n\nFootnote 34:\n\n Fletcher\u2019s \u201cWorks,\u201d vol. viii., p. 154.\n\nAt this period, Sarah Ryan, with whom Fletcher had become acquainted,\nwas acting as the housekeeper in Wesley\u2019s \u201cNew Room\u201d at Bristol.[35] To\nher Fletcher addressed the following hitherto unpublished letter:\u2014\n\n \u201cTERN, _October 12, 1758_.\n\n \u201cMY SISTER,\u2014Where shall I begin the sad account I must give you of my\n numberless infidelities from the time I left you? That very day,\n having been called to preach in a church on our way, the freedom with\n which the Lord enabled me to do it puffed me up in some measure. The\n clear sight of the prize of my high calling was clouded, and so it\n remained till I got home, when it pleased God to revive my hope full\n of immortality, and to enable me to hunger and thirst after the\n everlasting righteousness that shall be brought into the souls of\n those in whom faith shall have its perfect work. During a few days, I\n rejoiced because of the power I had over the sin that most easily\n beset me,\u2014I mean drowsiness; but, alas! my triumph was but short; for,\n if the enemy did not come in at this door, another, no less effectual,\n was opened to him. Just as I was going to resume my daily course of\n business, I was called to preach in a church at Salop, and was obliged\n to compose a sermon in the moments I should have spent in prayer.\n Hurry and the want of a single eye again drew a veil between the prize\n and my soul. In the meantime, Sunday came, and God rejected my impure\n service, and abhorred the labour of my polluted soul; and, while\n others imputed my not preaching to the fear of the minister who had\n invited me to his pulpit, and to the threatenings of a mob, I saw the\n wisdom and holiness of God, and rejoiced in that providence which does\n all without the assistance of hurrying Uzzah.\n\n \u201cIn general, I find I am surrounded with thousands of temptations, so\n much the more dangerous because they are disguised under the\n appearance of duties. I find, at times, such an alienation to\n religious duties as makes me almost question whether I have a grain of\n living faith. I think God has, this morning, shown me, in a clearer\n light than ever, that I must begin to hang upon frames no more, but\n learn to stand by a naked faith.\n\n \u201cYour unworthy brother,\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\n\n \u201cP.S.\u2014Direct to John Fletcher, under cover to Thomas Hill, Esq., M.P.,\n at Tern, near Shrewsbury.\n\n \u201cTo Mrs. Ryan,\n \u201cAt the New Room in the Horse Fair,\n \u201cBristol.\u201d\n\nFootnote 35:\n\n Previous to becoming Wesley\u2019s housekeeper, Sarah Ryan, Mary Clarke,\n and Sarah Crosby lived together, in a small house in Christopher\n Alley, Moorfields. It was here that Miss Bosanquet (afterwards\n Fletcher\u2019s wife) formed an acquaintance with Sarah Ryan, in 1757. (See\n \u201cLife of Mrs. Fletcher,\u201d by Henry Moore, pp. 17\u201320.)\n\nThus did these earnest first Methodists watch over themselves with a\ngodly jealousy; and thus, in addition to the Christian fellowship in\ntheir weekly class-meetings, did they tell their religious experience to\neach other in epistolary correspondence. To this fact, pre-eminently,\nMethodism is indebted for its rich biographies.\n\nImmediately after the date of the above letter, Fletcher must have set\nout for Bristol, for Wesley writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn the following week\u201d (the third week in October), \u201cI met Mr.\n Fletcher, and the other preachers that were in the house at Bristol,\n and spent a considerable time in close conversation on the head of\n Christian Perfection. I afterwards wrote down the general propositions\n wherein we all agreed.\u201d[36]\n\nFootnote 36:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\nNo doubt, these propositions were substantially the same as those which\nWesley, two months before, had presented to his Annual Conference, and\nwhich were:\u2014\n\n1. That Christian Perfection does not \u201cexclude all infirmities,\nignorance, and mistake.\u201d\n\n2. That those who think they have attained Christian Perfection, in\nspeaking their own experience, should \u201cspeak with great wariness, and\nwith the deepest humility and self-abasement before God.\u201d\n\n3. That young preachers, especially, should \u201cspeak of Perfection in\npublic, not too minutely or circumstantially, but rather in general and\nscriptural terms.\u201d\n\n4. That Christian Perfection \u201cimplies the loving God with all the heart,\nso that every evil temper is destroyed, and every thought, and word, and\nwork springs from, and is conducted to the end by, the pure love of God\nand our neighbour.\u201d[37]\n\nFootnote 37:\n\n \u201cMinutes of Conference\u201d (edition 1862), vol. i., p. 711.\n\nAt the close of the year, Fletcher, as usual, was, with the family of\nMr. Hill, in London, where he wrote the following to Charles Wesley.\nThere can be no doubt that the \u201chumiliation before he left Tern\u201d was the\nimputations cast upon him on account of his failing to preach in the\nchurch at Salop, mentioned in the foregoing letter to Sarah Ryan.\n\n \u201cLONDON, _December 12, 1758_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR SIR,\u2014Before I left Tern, the Lord gave me a medicine to\n prepare me to suffer what awaited me here. This humiliation prepared\n me so well that I was not surprised to learn a person in London had\n spread abroad many false and scandalous things of me during my\n absence; and that the minds of many were prejudiced against me. In one\n sense, I took a pleasure in thinking that I was going to be rejected\n by the children of God, and that my Saviour would become more dear\n under the idea that, as in heaven, so now on earth, I should have none\n but Him. The first time I appeared in the chapel many were so offended\n that it was with difficulty they could forbear interrupting me in\n prayer, to tell me, \u2018_Physician, heal thyself._\u2019 I was on the point of\n declining to officiate, fearing I should only give fresh offence;\n indeed, I should have done so had it not been for my friend Bernon,\n who pressed me to stand firm, representing the triumph my silence\n would give my enemies. His reasons appeared to me so cogent, that, as\n your brother did not reject my assistance, I read prayers, and engaged\n to preach sometimes of a morning; which I have accordingly continued\n to do.\u201d[38]\n\nFootnote 38:\n\n Letters, 1791.\n\nThis is an unpleasant but amusing episode, and presents these first\nMethodists in a frame of heart and mind far from commendable. Of course,\nFletcher was not faultless. Perhaps he was blameable in the sermon\naffair at Salop; but, as Wesley still permitted him to read prayers and\nto preach in the West Street chapel, London, it may be taken for granted\nthat his offence, if an offence had been committed, was a very venial\none. Some of the early Methodists had more zeal than charity.\n\nFletcher continued to officiate in West Street chapel, and, whilst doing\nso, a proposal was made which occasioned him considerable anxiety.\nNathaniel Gilbert inherited an estate in Antigua. For some years, he had\nbeen the Speaker in the House of Assembly of that island. In 1758, he\nwas in England, and resided at Wandsworth. Wesley, on January 17, 1758,\npreached in his house, and met two of his negro servants and a mulatto,\nwho appeared to be much awakened. In the month of November following,\nWesley baptized the two negroes. Mr. Gilbert returned to Antigua in the\nautumn of 1759, and, having become acquainted with Fletcher, was\ndesirous that he should go with him to the West Indian Islands, and\npreach to the planters and their slaves the \u201cglorious Gospel of the\nblessed God.\u201d Hence the following letter to Charles Wesley:\u2014\n\n \u201cLONDON, _March 22, 1759_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR SIR,\u2014Since your departure, I have lived more than ever like a\n hermit. It seems to me that I am an unprofitable weight upon the\n earth. I want to hide myself from all. I tremble when the Lord favours\n me with a sight of myself; I tremble to think of preaching only to\n dishonour God. To-morrow, I preach at West Street, with all the\n feelings of Jonah. Would to God I might be attended with his success!\n\n \u201cA proposal has lately been made to me to accompany Mr. Nathaniel\n Gilbert to the West Indies. I have weighed the matter, but, on one\n hand I feel that I have neither sufficient zeal, nor grace, nor\n talents to expose myself to the temptations and labours of a mission\n in the West Indies; and, on the other, I believe that if God calls me\n thither, the time is not yet come. I wish to be certain that I am\n converted myself before I leave my converted brethren to convert\n heathen. Pray let me know what you think of this business. If you\n condemn me to put the sea between us, the command would be a hard one,\n but I might possibly prevail on myself to give you that proof of the\n deference I pay to your judicious advice.\n\n \u201cI have taken possession of my little hired chamber. There I have\n _outward_ peace, and I wait for that which is within. I was this\n morning with Lady Huntingdon, who salutes you. Our conversation was\n deep, and full of the energy of faith on the part of the Countess; as\n to me, I sat like Saul at the feet of Gamaliel.\u201d[39]\n\nFootnote 39:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 83.\n\nCharles Wesley evidently was one of Fletcher\u2019s confidential advisers,\nand had great influence over him. Fortunately, that influence was not\nused to induce him to go to the West Indies. Had he gone, in all\nprobability his \u201cChecks to Antinomianism\u201d would never have been written,\nand his incalculable services to Wesley and to Methodism would not have\nbeen rendered.\n\nFrom the concluding part of Fletcher\u2019s letter, it would seem that he was\nnot now resident in Mr. Hill\u2019s London mansion, but had \u201ca little hired\nchamber\u201d of his own. The probability is, that, during the Easter\nholidays of Parliament, Mr. Hill had returned to Shropshire, and that\nFletcher had remained in London to officiate for the two Wesleys in West\nStreet chapel; and, perhaps, in the Foundery, and in the chapel at\nSpitalfields. Twelve months previously, the Methodist Societies\nconnected with these three places of worship had been blessed with the\nunspeakably precious ministry of the never-to-be-forgotten Thomas Walsh.\n\u201cLord,\u201d said he, when leaving them on February 19, 1758, \u201cLord, Thou\nhast given me much favour in the eyes of this people. They show it by\nwords and deeds; their prayers and tears. Reward them a thousandfold!\u201d\nSeventeen days after the date of Fletcher\u2019s foregoing letter, Thomas\nWalsh departed this life in Dublin, in the twenty-eighth year of his\nage. During his last days on earth, he was pre-eminently \u201cin heaviness,\u201d\n_great, distressing_ \u201cheaviness, through manifold temptations.\u201d At\nlength, Satan was defeated, victory came, Walsh rapturously exclaimed,\n\u201cHe is come! He is come! My Beloved is mine, and I am His! His for\never!\u201d And, uttering these words, he triumphantly expired.[40] Fletcher\nhad become acquainted with Walsh by attending his ministry in Wesley\u2019s\nLondon chapels. On hearing of his death, he wrote the following\nimpassioned letter to Charles Wesley:\u2014\n\n \u201cLONDON, _April\u2014, 1759_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR SIR,\u2014With a heart bowed down with grief, and eyes bathed with\n tears, occasioned by our late heavy loss\u2014I mean the death of Mr.\n Walsh\u2014I take my pen to pray you to intercede for me. What! that\n _sincere_, _laborious_, and _zealous_ servant of God! Was he saved\n only as \u2018_by fire_,\u2019 and his prayer not heard till the twelfth hour\n was just expiring? Oh where shall I appear! I, who am an unprofitable\n servant! Would to God my eyes were fountains of waters to weep for my\n sins! Would to God I might pass the rest of my days in crying, \u2018_Lord,\n have mercy upon me!_\u2019 \u2018_All is vanity_\u2019\u2014grace, talents, labours,\u2014if we\n compare them with the mighty stride we have to take from time into\n eternity! Lord, remember me, _now_ that Thou art in Thy kingdom!\n\n \u201cI have preached and administered the sacrament at West Street\n sometimes in the holidays. May God water the poor seed I have sown,\n and give it fruitfulness, though it be only in one soul! But I have\n seen so much weakness in my heart, both as a minister and a Christian,\n that I know not which is most to be pitied\u2014the man, the believer, or\n the preacher. Could I at last be _truly_ humbled, and _continue so\n always_, I should esteem myself happy in making this discovery. I\n preach _merely_ to keep the chapel open until God shall send a workman\n _after His own heart_. \u2018_Nos numeri sumus_,\u2019\u2014this is almost all I can\n say of myself. If I did not know myself a little better than I did\n formerly, I should tell you that I had ceased altogether from placing\n any confidence in my repentances; but I see my heart is so full of\n deceit that I cannot depend on my knowledge of myself.\n\n \u201cYou are not well! Are you, then, going to leave us, like poor Walsh?\n Ah! stay, and permit me to go first; that, when my soul leaves the\n body, you may commend it to the mercy of my Saviour. The day Mr. Walsh\n died, the Lord gave our brethren the spirit of supplication; and many\n unutterable groans were offered up for him at Spitalfields, where I\n was. Who shall render us the same kind offices? Is not our hour near?\n O, my God, when Thou comest, prepare us, and we shall be ready! You\n owe your children an elegy on Mr. Walsh\u2019s death, and you cannot employ\n your poetic talents on a better subject.\u201d[41]\n\nFootnote 40:\n\n Morgan\u2019s \u201cLife of Walsh.\u201d\n\nFootnote 41:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 85.\n\nIn this interesting letter, Fletcher prayed for success at West Street\nChapel, even if the success was limited to \u201conly one soul.\u201d His prayer\nwas answered. At this period, there lived, in the neighbourhood of\nCovent Garden, Owen and Alice Price, natives of Dolgelly, in North\nWales. One of their four children was named Mary, and was now fifteen\nyears of age. In 1750, when an earthquake alarmed all London, little\nMary was at school. The house in which the school was kept undulated;\nseveral windows were broken; the children were thrown down on their\nfaces; and a hoarse rumbling noise was heard for nearly a minute. Mary\nresolved, henceforth, to serve her Maker. She read the Bible; she\nprayed; but she was not happy. Some one recommended her to attend the\npreaching of the Methodists; but she hesitated to do this, because the\nMethodists were despised, and her parents were opposed to enthusiasts.\nAt length, Mary went to the chapel in West Street, Seven Dials. It was\non a Sunday morning; and in those days Methodist meeting-houses were\ncrowded on Sunday mornings, _at nine o\u2019clock_. Mary made her way down\nthe aisle; the minister, who was reading the prayers, she had never seen\nbefore; but his manner, his tones, and the glancing of his eyes, were\nirresistibly affecting. The minister was Fletcher, and there and then\nMary resolved to be a Methodist. The preaching and praying of Fletcher\nwere greatly blessed to her soul\u2019s profit; and, after a severe struggle,\nshe took courage to stay, at the close of the public service, to receive\nthe sacrament. At that period in the history of Methodism, no one was\nallowed to remain who had not a society ticket, or a note from the\nofficiating minister; and, accordingly, the faithful steward told the\nWelsh maiden she must either go to the vestry for a note, or quit the\nchapel. She went, and, with fear and trembling, asked Fletcher\u2019s\npermission to remain. \u201cCome,\u201d cried he, \u201ccome, my dear young friend,\ncome, and receive the memorials of your dying Lord. If sin is your\nburden, behold the Crucified. Partake of His broken body and shed blood,\nand sink into the bottomless ocean of His love.\u201d Of course, Mary stayed.\nFor three months afterwards, she sought the Lord diligently in the means\nof grace; and then, under a sermon preached by Thomas Maxfield, found\npeace with God, through faith in Jesus Christ. In 1782, Mary Price\nmarried Peter Kruse; Wesley appointed her to be the leader of a class at\nCity Road, where she and her husband worshipped; and, after being a\ngodly Methodist for fifty-nine years, she peacefully expired, Joseph\nBenson preaching her funeral sermon, and her corpse being interred in\nthe burial-ground behind the City Road Chapel.[42]\n\nFootnote 42:\n\n _Methodist Magazine_, 1818, pp. 360\u2013367.\n\nAnother convert may be mentioned here. Richard Hill (afterwards Sir\nRichard) was the eldest son of Sir Rowland Hill, the first baronet of a\ndistinguished and ancient family. Richard was now twenty-seven years of\nage. From childhood, he had been blest with the strivings of God\u2019s Holy\nSpirit, and of late had been unutterably anxious about his soul. He\nwrites:\u2014\n\n \u201cAbout October, 1757, I set myself to work with all the earnestness of\n a poor perishing mariner, who is every moment in expectation of\n shipwreck. I fasted, prayed, and meditated. I read the Scriptures,\n communicated, and gave much alms. But these things brought no peace to\n my soul; on the contrary, I saw, what I had never seen before, that\n all my works were mixed with sin and imperfection. My terrors\n increased, insomuch that I could neither eat nor sleep, and did not\n think it possible for me to live a week. Everybody observed how ill I\n looked, and I had much ado to conceal the straits I was in from all\n about me. After having suffered in this manner a short time, I made my\n case known to a clergyman; but all he said to me\u2014which indeed was not\n much to the purpose\u2014had little or no effect. What to do I knew not.\n Alas! I had no acquaintance with any one who seemed to have the least\n experience in such a case as mine. Those about me showed the greatest\n concern for my situation, and offered their remedies for my relief,\n such as company, physic, and exercise, which, in order to oblige them,\n I complied with; but my disorder was not to be removed by these carnal\n quackeries. What I wanted was a skilful physician for my soul; but\n where to find such an one I knew not.\n\n \u201cI recollected, however, that once, if not oftener, the Rev. Mr.\n Fletcher, then tutor to two neighbouring young gentlemen, had, in my\n hearing, been spoken of in a very disrespectful manner, for things\n which seemed to me to savour of a truly Christian spirit. I,\n therefore, determined to make my case known to him, and, accordingly,\n wrote him a letter, without mentioning my name, giving him some\n account of my situation, and begging him, for God\u2019s sake, to meet me\n that very night at an inn at Salop, in which place I then was. Though\n Mr. Fletcher had four or five miles to walk, yet he came punctually to\n the appointment, spoke to me in a very comfortable manner, and gave me\n to understand that he had very different thoughts of my state from\n what I had myself. After our discourse, he went to prayer with me,\n and, among the other petitions that he put up in my behalf, he prayed\n that I might not trust in my own righteousness; an expression the\n import of which I scarcely knew.\n\n \u201cAfter my conversation with Mr. Fletcher, I was rather easier; but\n this decrease of my terrors was of short duration. I allowed that the\n promises he would have me apply to myself belonged to the generality\n of sinners, but I thought they were not intended for me. I, therefore,\n wrote again to Mr. Fletcher, telling him that, however others might\n take comfort from the Scripture promises, I feared none of them\n belonged to me. I told him also, that I found my heart to be exceeding\n hard and wicked; and that, as all my duties proceeded from a dread of\n punishment, and not from the principles of faith and love, and were\n withal so very defective, I thought it was impossible God should ever\n accept them. In answer to this, the kind and sympathising Mr. Fletcher\n immediately wrote me a sweet and comfortable letter, telling me that\n the perusal of the account I had given him had caused him to shed\n tears of joy, because he saw the Lord had convinced me of the\n insufficiency of all my own doings to justify me before God, and of\n the necessity of a saving faith in the blood of Jesus. He also sent me\n \u2018The Life and Death of Mr. Thomas Halyburton,\u2019 which book I read with\n greatest eagerness.\u201d\n\nAfter this, Sir Richard Hill proceeds to relate how he found peace with\nGod on February 18, 1758; then how he relapsed into doubts and fears,\nand lost all his comfort; and then how he wrote to Fletcher in April,\n1759, and said:\u2014\n\n \u201cMy soul is again bowed down under the sense of the wrath of God. The\n broken law, with all its thunderings and lightnings, again stares me\n in the face. My hope seems to be giving up the ghost, and I see\n nothing before me but blackness and darkness for ever.\u201d\n\nOf course Fletcher replied to this letter. Before long, Sir Richard\nregained his lost faith and peace, and ever afterwards went on his way\nrejoicing.[43]\n\nFootnote 43:\n\n Sidney\u2019s \u201cLife of Sir Richard Hill,\u201d pp. 21\u201332.\n\nThus, to an important extent, was Fletcher used in the conversion of the\ndistinguished man, who, a few years later, became one of his sturdiest\nopponents in the great Calvinian controversy.\n\nIn the middle of June, 1759, Mr. Hill, M.P., and his family left London\nfor Shropshire, and, of course, Fletcher went with them. Up to the time\nof his departure, Fletcher continued to preach in Wesley\u2019s London\nchapels; but, in writing to Charles Wesley, under the date of June 1, he\nremarks, with his characteristic humbleness: \u201cI am here _umbra pro\ncorpore_. I preach as your substitute; come, and fill worthily an office\nof which I am unworthy.\u201d[44]\n\nFootnote 44:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 86.\n\nAt Tern Hall, Fletcher again enjoyed his beloved retirement, and gave\nhimself up to study, meditation, and prayer. Indeed, his whole life was\nnow a life of prayer. \u201cWherever we met,\u201d says Mr. Vaughan, \u201cif we were\nalone, his first salute was, \u2018Do I meet you praying?\u2019 And, if we were\nconversing on any point of Divinity, he would often break off abruptly,\nand ask, \u2018Where are our hearts now\u2019\u201d[45] Solitude, however, is often\ninvaded by Satan. It was in the garden, where were only two human\nbeings, that the devil gained his first victory on earth; and it was in\n\u201cthe _wilderness_\u201d that man\u2019s Redeemer was pre-eminently tempted by the\nsame accursed enemy. The following, addressed to Charles Wesley, is a\nstrange, but honest and instructive production.\n\nFootnote 45:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\n \u201cTERN, _July 19, 1759_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR SIR,\u2014Instead of apologizing for my silence, I will tell you\n that I have twenty times endeavoured to break it, but without effect.\n I will simply state the cause of it.\n\n \u201cThis is the fourth summer that I have been brought hither, in a\n peculiar manner, to be tempted of the devil in a wilderness; and I\n have improved so little by my past exercises, that I have not defended\n myself better than in the first year. Being arrived here, I began to\n spend my time as I had determined; one part in prayer, and the other\n in meditation on the Holy Scriptures. The Lord blessed my devotions,\n and I advanced from conquering to conquer, leading every thought\n captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ, when it pleased God to show\n me some of the folds of my heart. As I looked for nothing less than\n such a discovery, I was extremely surprised; so much so as to forget\n Christ. You may judge what was the consequence. A spiritual languor\n seized on all the powers of my soul, and I suffered myself to be\n carried away quietly by a current, with the rapidity of which I was\n unacquainted.\n\n \u201cNeither doubt nor despair troubled me for a moment; my temptation\n took another course. It appeared to me that God would be much more\n glorified by my damnation than by my salvation. It seemed altogether\n incompatible with the holiness, the justice, and the veracity of the\n Supreme Being to admit so stubborn an offender into His presence. I\n could do nothing but be astonished at the patience of God; and I would\n willingly have sung those verses of Desbaraux if I had had strength:\u2014\n\n \u2018Tonne, frappe, il est temps, rend moi guerre pour guerre,\n J\u2019adore, en perrissant, la raison qui t\u2019aigrit.\u2019[46]\n\nFootnote 46:\n\n \u201cThunder! strike! it is time; render me war for war!\n In perishing, I adore the reason which incenses Thee.\u201d\n\n \u201cDo not imagine, however, that I was in a state of evangelical\n repentance. No: a man who repents desires to be saved; but I desired\n it not. I was even impatient to go to my own place; and secretly\n wished that God would for a moment give me the exercise of His iron\n sceptre to break myself to pieces as a vessel to dishonour. A bitter\n and cruel zeal against myself, and all the sinners who were with me,\n filled all my thoughts and all my desires. The devil, who well knew\n how to improve the opportunity, blew, without ceasing, the sparks of\n some corruptions, which I thought were extinguished, or at the point\n of being so, till at last the fire began to appear without. This\n opened my eyes, and I felt it was time to implore succour.\n\n \u201cIt is now eight days since I endeavoured to pray, but almost without\n success. Yesterday, however, as I sang one of your hymns, the Lord\n lifted up my head, and commanded me to face my enemies. By His grace I\n am already a conqueror; and I doubt not that I shall soon be more than\n conqueror.\n\n \u201cAlthough I deserve it not, nevertheless hold up my hands till all\n these Amalekites be put to flight.\n\n \u201cI am, etc.,\n J. FLETCHER.\u201d[47]\n\nFootnote 47:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 88.\n\nCertainly this was strange, perhaps unparalleled experience. Paul wrote,\n\u201cI could wish that myself were accursed from Christ _for my brethren, my\nkinsmen according to the flesh_.\u201d John Fletcher seemed to wish for this,\nthat _God might be glorified_. \u201cA fit of melancholy,\u201d says the reader;\n\u201calmost insanity.\u201d That, however, is sooner said than proved. Fletcher\nhad a great work to do, and, as in the case of his Divine Master,\ntemptations helped to prepare him for it. Weeks after the date of the\nforegoing letter, he continued to write bitter things against himself.\nThe following letter has not before been published; it was addressed \u201cto\nMrs. Ryan, at the Room in the Horse-Fair, Bristol:\u201d\u2014\n\n \u201cTERN, _September 5, 1759_.\n\n \u201cMY SISTER,\u2014I have often been with you in spirit, desiring to follow\n you as you follow Christ; and I trust you have put up some petitions\n for me, that I may not run in vain, but may at last apprehend that for\n which I am apprehended.\n\n \u201cI have been taught many lessons\u2014by man, self, and Satan\u2014since I saw\n you, but doubt I am not much nearer wisdom, unless it is in this\n point\u2014that I am more foolish in my own eyes. I groan to be so often\n diverted from the pursuit of the one thing needful; but\n unfaithfulness, levity, unbelief, taint those groans, and make me\n question their sincerity and mine. Will you try once more to spur me\n out of my haltings? Send me an account of the struggles you went\n through before you found rest. What degree of joy, fear, hope, sorrow,\n doubting, fervency or coldness of desire in soul and body\u2014waking,\n working, and sleeping?\n\n \u201cRemember me to Miss Furley.[48] Were I less averse to writing, I\n would have written to her, to beg her not to faint at any time, but be\n a zealous follower of those who through faith and patience inherit the\n promises; but I trust she does not want the advice as often as I do.\n Let me know how she does in the Lord and in the flesh, and desire her\n to remember me at the throne of grace. Adieu.\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d\n\nFootnote 48:\n\n Dorothy Furley, the youngest daughter of John Furley, a Dutch and\n Turkey merchant, was born at West Ham in 1730. She was converted in\n early life, and became acquainted with the Countess of Huntingdon,\n Miss Bosanquet, the Wesley brothers, Miss Johnson, Mrs. Ryan, and many\n others of the first Methodists, by whom she was held in high esteem.\n In 1764, she was married to Mr. Downs, one of Wesley\u2019s local preachers\n in London. After her husband\u2019s death, she removed to Leeds, and died\n July 28, 1807. The written directions respecting her funeral concluded\n with these words: \u201cGlory, glory, glory be to my gracious God and\n Saviour! I live in the full assurance of faith and hope that I shall\n see my Saviour\u2019s face, and behold that glory which He had with the\n Father before all worlds, but which He left for my sake. To Him I owe\n all my salvation, here and to all eternity. To Him, with the Father\n and the Holy Ghost, be all honour, dominion, and majesty, now and\n through all ages! Amen. Hallelujah! Amen.\u201d\u2014_Methodist Magazine_, 1818,\n p. 222.\n\nCharles Wesley proposed that, during the ensuing Parliamentary session,\nFletcher should be paid for his services in the London chapels. In the\nsame spirit of self-abasement as is displayed in the foregoing letters,\nFletcher replied as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201c_September 14, 1759._\n\n \u201cMY DEAR SIR,\u2014A few days ago, the Lord gave me two or three lessons on\n poverty of spirit, but, alas! how have I forgotten them! I saw, I\n felt, that I was entirely void of wisdom and virtue. I was ashamed of\n myself; and I could say, with a degree of feeling which I cannot\n describe, \u2018_Nil ago; nil habeo; sum nil; in pulvero serpo._\u2019 I could\n _then_ say what Gregory Lopez was enabled to say at all times, \u2018There\n is no man of whom I have not a better opinion than of myself.\u2019 I could\n have placed myself under the feet of the most atrocious sinner, and\n have acknowledged him for a saint in comparison of myself. If ever I\n am humble and patient, if ever I enjoy solid peace of mind, it must be\n _in this very spirit_. Ah! why do I not find these virtues? Because I\n am filled with _self-sufficiency_, which blinds me and hinders me from\n doing justice to my own demerits. O pray that the spirit of Jesus may\n remove these scales from my eyes _for ever_, and compel me to retire\n into my own nothingness.\n\n \u201cTo what a _monstrous_ idea had you well-nigh given birth. What! the\n labours of _my_ ministry under you deserve a salary! I, who have done\n nothing but dishonour God hitherto, and am not in a condition to do\n anything else for the future! If, then, I am permitted to stand in the\n courts of the Lord\u2019s house, is it not for me to make an\n acknowledgment, rather than to receive one? If I ever receive anything\n of the Methodist Church, it shall be only as an indigent mendicant\n receives alms, without which he would perish. Such were some of the\n thoughts which passed through my mind with regard to the proposal you\n made to me in London; and I doubt whether my own vanity, or your\n goodness, will be able to efface the impressions they have left.\n\n \u201cI have great need of your advice relative to the letters which I\n receive from my relations, who unite in their invitations to me to\n return to my own country. One says, to settle my affairs there;\n another, to preach there; a third, to assist him to die. They press me\n to declare whether I renounce my family, and the demands I have upon\n it. My mother, in the strongest terms, commands me at least to go and\n see her. What answer shall I make? If she thought _as you do_, I\n should write to her, \u2018_Ubi Christiani, ibi patria_;\u2019 \u2018my mother, my\n brethren, my sisters, are those who do the will of my heavenly\n Father;\u2019 but she is not in a state of mind to digest such an answer. I\n have no inclination to yield to their desires, which appear to me\n merely _natural_, for I should lose precious time and incur expense.\n My presence is not _absolutely_ necessary to my concerns; and it is\n more probable that my relations will pervert me to vanity and\n interest, than that I shall convert them to genuine Christianity.\n Lastly, I should have no opportunity to exercise my ministry. Our\n Swiss ministers, who preach only once a week, would not look upon me\n with a more favourable eye than the ministers here, and would only\n cause me either to be laid in prison or to be immediately banished\n from the country.\n\n \u201cPermit me to thank you for the sentence from Kempis, with which you\n close your letter, by returning you another. \u2018You run no risk in\n considering yourself as the wickedest of men, but you are in _danger_\n if you prefer yourself to any one.\u2019\u201d[49]\n\nFootnote 49:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 91.\n\nA fortnight later, Fletcher wrote again to Charles Wesley as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cTERN, _September 29, 1759_.\n\n \u201cWhat you say about reducing a mother to despair has made me\n recollect, what I have often thought, that the particular fault of the\n Swiss is to be _without natural affection_. With respect to that\n preference which my mother shows me above her other children, I see\n clearly I am indebted for almost all the affection she expresses for\n me in her letters to my absence from her, which hinders her from\n seeing my faults. Nevertheless, I reproach myself severely, that I\n cannot interest myself in her welfare as much as I did in that of my\n deceased father. I am astonished at the difference. I believe the time\n is not yet come when my presence may be of service to her; and I\n flatter myself she will not be shocked at my refusal, which I have\n softened as much as I could.\n\n \u201cI fear you did not rightly understand what I wrote about the proposal\n you made me at London. So far from making conditions, I feel myself\n unworthy of receiving them. I trouble myself with no temporal things;\n my only fear is that of having too much, rather than too little, of\n the necessaries of life. I am weary of abundance. I could wish myself\n to be poor with my Saviour. Those whom He hath chosen to be rich in\n faith, appear to me objects of envy in the midst of their wants.\u201d[50]\n\nFootnote 50:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 95.\n\nFletcher wanted no salary for preaching in Methodist chapels; and, for\nthe present, he refused to return to Switzerland. His reason for the\nlatter might have been more filially expressed; but no one will doubt\nhis sincerity, or that his motives were not pure. The next letter,\nwritten two days later, was addressed to Sarah Ryan, Wesley\u2019s\nhousekeeper at Bristol, and to her friend, Dorothy Furley. It is too\nfull of eloquent piety to be abridged.\n\n \u201c_October 1, 1759._\n\n \u201cDEAR SISTERS,\u2014I have been putting off writing to you, lest the action\n of writing should divert my soul from the awful and delightful worship\n it is engaged in. But I now conclude I shall be no loser, if I invite\n you to love Him my soul loveth; to dread Him my soul dreadeth; to\n adore Him my soul adoreth.\n\n \u201cSink with me before the throne of grace; and, while the cherubim veil\n their faces, and cry out in tender fear and exquisite trembling,\n \u2018Holy! Holy! Holy!\u2019 let us put our mouths in the dust, and echo back\n the solemn sound, \u2018Holy! Holy! Holy!\u2019 Let us plunge ourselves in that\n ocean of purity. Let us try to fathom the depths of Divine mercy; and,\n convinced of the impossibility of such an attempt, let us lose\n ourselves in them. Let us be comprehended by God, if we cannot\n comprehend Him. Let us be supremely happy in God. Let the intenseness\n of our happiness border upon misery, because we can make Him no\n return. Let our head become waters, and our eyes a fountain of\n tears,\u2014_tears_ of humble repentance, of solemn joy, of silent\n admiration, of exalted adoration, of raptured desires, of inflamed\n transports, of speechless awe. My God and my all! Your God and your\n all! Our God and our all! Praise Him! With our souls blended into one\n by Divine love, let us with one mouth glorify the Father of our Lord\n Jesus Christ; our Father, who is over all, through all, and in us all.\n\n \u201cI charge you before the Lord Jesus, who giveth life and more abundant\n life; I entreat you by all the actings of faith, the stretchings of\n hope, the flames of love you have ever felt, sink to greater depths of\n self-abasing repentance; rise to greater heights of Christ-exalting\n joy. And let Him, who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all\n that you can ask or think, carry on, and fulfil in you the work of\n faith with power; with that power whereby He subdueth all things unto\n Himself. Be steadfast in hope, immovable in patience and love, always\n abounding in the outward and inward labour of love; and receive the\n end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.\n\n \u201cI am, dear sisters, your well-wisher,\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[51]\n\nFootnote 51:\n\n \u201cThirteen Original Letters,\u201d by Rev. John Fletcher, 1791, p. 9.\n\nMr. Benson inclines to think that it was at this period that Fletcher\nfirst preached at Madeley. The Rev. Mr. Chambers was the vicar, and\nfrequently desired the tutor of Mr. Hill\u2019s sons to assist him in his\nministerial duties. Tern Hall was ten miles from Madeley, and one of Mr.\nHill\u2019s grooms was ordered to have a horse ready for Fletcher\u2019s use every\nSunday morning. So great, however, was his aversion to giving trouble to\nany one, that, if the groom did not awake at the proper time, he seldom\nwould suffer him to be called; but prepared the horse for himself.[52]\n\nFootnote 52:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nParliament was opened on November 13, when, as usual, Mr. Hill and his\nfamily repaired to London. Two days afterwards, Fletcher wrote the\nfollowing to Charles Wesley:\u2014\n\n \u201cLONDON, _November 15, 1759_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR SIR,\u2014Your letter was not put into my hands till eight days\n after my arrival in London. I carried the enclosed to its address, and\n passed three hours with a modern prodigy,\u2014_an humble and pious\n countess_. I went with trembling, and in obedience to your orders; but\n I soon perceived a little of what the disciples felt when Christ said\n to them, \u2018_It is I, be not afraid._\u2019\n\n \u201cHer ladyship proposed to me something of what you hinted to me in\n your garden,\u2014namely, to celebrate the communion sometimes at her house\n of a morning, and to preach when occasion offered,\u2014in such a manner,\n however, as not to restrain my liberty, nor to prevent me assisting\n you, or preaching to the French refugees; and that only till\n Providence should clearly point out the path in which I should go.\n Charity, politeness, and reason accompanied her offer; and I confess,\n in spite of the resolution, which I had almost _absolutely_ formed, to\n fly the houses of the great, without even the exception of the\n Countess\u2019s, I found myself so greatly changed, that I should have\n accepted, on the spot, her ladyship\u2019s proposal; but my engagement with\n you withheld me; and, after thanking her, I said, when I had reflected\n on her obliging offer, I would do myself the honour of waiting upon\n her again.\n\n \u201cNevertheless, two difficulties stand in my way. Will it be consistent\n with the poverty of spirit, which I seek? Can I accept an office for\n which I have such small talents? And shall I not dishonour the cause\n of God, by stammering out the mysteries of the Gospel in a place where\n the most approved ministers of the Lord have preached with so much\n power, and so much success? What think you?\n\n \u201cI give myself up to your judicious counsels. I feel myself unworthy\n of them; much more still of the appellation of _friend_, with which\n you honour me. You are an _indulgent father_ to me, and the name of\n _son_ suits me better than that of _brother_.\u201d[53]\n\nFootnote 53:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 98.\n\nIt hardly need be added, that the \u201cmodern prodigy,\u201d the \u201chumble and\npious Countess,\u201d was Lady Huntingdon, to whom Wesley had introduced\nFletcher nearly two years before. Her ladyship\u2019s proposal really\namounted to this, that, without at all interfering with his preaching\nfor the Wesley brothers, and with his labours among the French prisoners\nand refugees, Fletcher should act as one of her domestic chaplains.\nCharles Wesley\u2019s reply to Fletcher\u2019s inquiries has not been preserved;\nbut there can be no doubt it was favourable, for such was Fletcher\u2019s\nprofound respect for Methodism\u2019s poet, that, if he had, in the least,\ndisapproved of the Countess\u2019s offer, it would most certainly have been\ndeclined. \u201cI am so assured of your salvation,\u201d wrote Fletcher, in the\nletter from which the foregoing is extracted, \u201cthat I ask no other place\nin heaven, than that I may have at your feet. I doubt even if Paradise\nwould be Paradise to me, unless it were shared with you.\u201d This language\nwas extravagant; but it shows the high admiration in which Fletcher, at\nthis time, held one who might be justly called his dearest and most\nconfidential friend. The proposal of the Countess of Huntingdon was\naccepted; and Fletcher opened his commission to the great and honourable\nin her ladyship\u2019s drawing-room, in the lowly spirit of St. Paul, \u201cUnto\nme, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that\nI should preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.\u201d During the ensuing\nwinter, he preached in Wesley\u2019s London chapels, as usual; and,\nalternately with the Wesley brothers and other clergymen, he preached in\nthe houses of Lady Huntingdon, Lady Gertrude Hotham, and Lady Frances\nShirley, generally once, and frequently twice, in every week.[54]\n\nFootnote 54:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. i., p. 233.\n\nThe French prisoners and refugees have been mentioned. Unfortunately,\nthere are no details preserved of the extent and success of Fletcher\u2019s\nlabours among those pitiable sojourners; but there can be no doubt that\nit was for their instruction and benefit, that Fletcher, in 1759,\npublished a sermon in the French language, entitled, \u201cDiscours sur la\nRegeneration. Imprime \u00e0 Londre l\u2019an 1759.\u201d 12mo, 48 pp. His sermon is\nfounded upon John iii. 3, \u201cJesus answered and said unto him, Verily,\nverily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the\nkingdom of God.\u201d At the end of the discourse are two short poems, in\nFrench, with the titles, \u201cSentiments d\u2019une Ame que la Grace r\u00e9g\u00e9n\u00e8re;\u201d\nand \u201cLe Bonheur de l\u2019homme R\u00e9g\u00e9n\u00e8re.\u201d The subject and substance of the\nwhole may be gathered from the brief preface, of which the following is\na translation:\u2014\n\n \u201cSome prejudiced persons having caused it to be reported that I preach\n a dangerous doctrine, you will be able to judge as to that, with a\n knowledge of the case, by reading this discourse on Regeneration.\n\n \u201cI beg you to read, in addition, some short pamphlets which have just\n appeared, and which are entitled, \u2018The Nature and Design of\n Christianity;\u2019[55] \u2018Salvation by Faith;\u2019[56] and \u2018Awake thou that\n sleepest.\u2019[57] I recommend these three works for your examination,\n because, although I am not the author of them, they contain the\n sentiments which I wish to see engraven in our hearts, as they were in\n the heart of St. Paul.\n\n \u201cIf you find here the religion of Christ, give the glory to God, and\n let it be found in the depths of your own souls; but, if you find\n anything contrary to the Holy Scriptures and the purity of\n Christianity, I pray you, in the name of the Lord, to point it out to\n me. Conduct so kind will sensibly oblige your servant in Christ,\n\n \u201cJ. DE LA FLECHERE.\u201d\n\nFootnote 55:\n\n An extract from Law\u2019s \u201cChristian Perfection,\u201d first published by\n Wesley in 1740; the sixth edition appeared in 1759.\n\nFootnote 56:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cSermon on Salvation by Faith,\u201d first published in 1738; and\n a tenth edition in 1756.\n\nFootnote 57:\n\n Charles Wesley\u2019s well-known sermon, preached before the University of\n Oxford, on April 4, 1742.\n\nWith the exception of a tract, entitled \u201cA Christmas Box for Journeymen\nand Apprentices,\u201d which, Wesley says, was printed and circulated in\n1758, this \u201cDiscours sur la Regeneration\u201d was Fletcher\u2019s earliest\npublication.\n\nDuring the first three months of 1760, Fletcher enjoyed sweet\nintercourse with his beloved and confidential friend, Charles Wesley.\nThe latter relates that he forgot his birthday till Fletcher\u2019s prayer\nput him in mind of it. He and Fletcher had conversations respecting the\ndoctrine of assurance, which they both held, but which they thought had\nnot been sufficiently guarded. In a letter, dated March 16, 1760,\nCharles observes,\u2014\u201cGod has remarkably owned the Word since Mr. Fletcher\nand I changed our manner of preaching it.\u201d[58]\n\nFootnote 58:\n\n C. Wesley\u2019s Journal, vol. ii., p. 227.\n\nAt this period, the Methodists of London took a profound interest in the\nfate of Earl Ferrars, brother of the Rev. Walter Shirley, and cousin of\nthe Countess of Huntingdon. This profligate nobleman had murdered his\nsteward, and was now awaiting his trial by the Peers of England. The\nunhappy culprit was executed on the 5th of May. Many were the prayers\noffered for his conversion. A day of fasting was kept at the Foundery.\n\n \u201cYesterday,\u201d wrote Charles Wesley, on April 4, \u201cmany met me in the\n chapel (West-street), to join in prayer for the murderer. Till 4 p.m.\n we continued looking upon Him whom we had pierced. I never remember a\n more solemn season. I carried Mr. Shirley and his sister to Mrs.\n Herritage\u2019s, where Mr. Fletcher helped us to pray for poor Barabbas,\n as he calls him. Again the spirit made intercession for him with\n groans unutterable. Our watch-night lasted from seven to half-past\n ten. My text was, \u2018Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? Behold,\n and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow,\u2019 etc.\n (Lamentations of Jeremiah i. 12). The Word was sent, I believe, to\n many hearts. Mr. Fletcher seconded it. We both prayed _after_ God,\n particularly for the criminal. The chapel was excessively crowded, and\n therefore very hot. Miss Shirley carried me to my lodgings. It was\n past eleven before John Fletcher and I got to rest.\u201d[59]\n\nFootnote 59:\n\n _Ibid._, vol. ii., p. 231.\n\nThe last words of this extract almost indicate that Charles Wesley and\nFletcher were living together, in the same house; but, be that as it\nmay, there cannot be a doubt of the warm friendship that existed between\nthem.\n\nBesides preaching in Wesley\u2019s London chapels, Fletcher occasionally\npreached for the Countess of Huntingdon, at Brighton.[60] He also\nvisited Berridge at Everton. Hence the following, addressed to Charles\nWesley:\u2014\n\n \u201cDUNSTABLE, _March 1, 1760_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR SIR,\u2014I have had a pleasant journey as to my body, but an\n unhappy one for my soul. Everything required that I should cry without\n ceasing, \u2018_Lord, be merciful to me a sinner!_\u2019 but, alas! I have not\n done so. The fine weather invites me to execute a design, I had half\n formed, of making a forced march to spend next Sunday at Everton, Mr.\n Berridge\u2019s parish. May the voice of the Lord there be heard by a poor\n child of Adam, who, like him, is still behind the trees of his\n stupidity and impenitence!\n\n \u201cIf I do not lose myself across the fields before I get there, and if\n the Lord is pleased to grant me the spirit of supplication, I will\n pray for you, until I can again pray with you. Don\u2019t forget me, I\n beseech you. I would fain be with you on those solemn occasions, when\n a thousand voices are raised to heaven to obtain those graces which I\n have not; but God\u2019s will be done!\n\n \u201cDon\u2019t forget to present my respects to the Countess. If I continue\n any time at Everton, I shall take the liberty of giving her some\n account of the work of God in these parts; if not, I will give it her\n in person. Adieu.\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[61]\n\nFootnote 60:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. i., p. 233.\n\nFootnote 61:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 100.\n\nStrange scenes had recently been witnessed at Everton and in the\nsurrounding country; and it is not surprising that Fletcher was desirous\nof seeing what the hand of God had wrought. His visit was a memorable\none. On arriving, he introduced himself to Berridge \u201cas a new convert,\nwho had taken the liberty to wait upon him for the benefit of his\ninstruction and advice.\u201d Berridge, perceiving he was a foreigner, asked\nwhat countryman he was.\n\n\u201cA Swiss, from the canton of Berne,\u201d was the reply.\n\n\u201cFrom Berne! then probably you can give me some account of a young\ncountryman of yours, John Fletcher, who has lately preached a few times\nfor the Messrs. Wesley, and of whose talents, learning, and piety, they\nboth speak in terms of high eulogy. Do you know him?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, sir, I know him intimately; and did those gentlemen know him as\nwell they would not speak so highly of him. He is more obliged to their\npartial friendship than to his own merits.\u201d\n\n\u201cYou surprise me,\u201d said Berridge.\n\n\u201cI have the best reason for speaking of John Fletcher as I do. I am John\nFletcher.\u201d\n\n\u201cIf you be John Fletcher,\u201d replied Berridge, \u201cyou must take my pulpit\nto-morrow.\u201d[62]\n\nFootnote 62:\n\n Cox\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d p. 25\n\nThus began Fletcher\u2019s acquaintance with Berridge. No doubt he preached\nat Everton, for strong-willed Berridge was wont to have his way. It is\nprobable that Fletcher communicated what he had seen and heard to the\nCountess of Huntingdon. At all events, it is said, her ladyship,\naccompanied by Martin Madan and Henry Venn, hastened to join him there.\nOn the morning after their arrival, at seven o\u2019clock, Berridge preached\nto an enormous congregation, assembled in a field near his church. At\neleven, in the church, Mr. Hicks read prayers, and Venn explained the\n\u201cjoy that is in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.\u201d In the\nafternoon, to an amazing multitude gathered from all parts of the\nsurrounding country, Martin Madan cried, in the open air, \u201cIf any man\nthirst, let him come unto me and drink.\u201d Next day, in the morning,\nFletcher read prayers, and Madan preached from \u201cYe must be born again,\u201d\nthe church being crowded to excess, and the windows filled within and\nwithout. In the afternoon, the prayers were read by Berridge, and Venn\nenforced the words, \u201cThis is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true\nGod, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.\u201d Large numbers being unable\nto gain admission to the church, Berridge addressed those outside from,\n\u201cSeek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.\u201d\nThe third day\u2019s services were even more remarkable than the previous\nones. It was calculated that, in the small village of Everton, ten\nthousand persons were assembled to hear the Word of God, and to join in\nHis holy services. The number is almost incredible; and picturesque must\nhave been the travelling tribes as they journeyed to this \u201chill of\nZion.\u201d Venn preached, of course, in the open air, from the text, \u201cThe\nharvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.\u201d The huge\ncongregation was deeply affected, and several persons, both men and\nwomen, fell to the ground and wept bitterly. The afternoon congregation\nwas even greater than that in the morning. At night, Berridge was the\npreacher, and selected as his text, \u201cBehold the Lamb of God, who taketh\naway the sin of the world.\u201d Towards the close of his sermon, five\npersons \u201csunk down as dead;\u201d and others cried with a loud and bitter\ncry, \u201cWhat must we do to be saved?\u201d Berridge concluded his discourse;\nand these memorable three days\u2019 services were finished by the assembled\nthousands, the Countess, and the five clergymen, all joining in singing\nWesley\u2019s noble hymn,\u2014\n\n \u201cArm of the Lord, awake, awake!\n Thine own immortal strength put on!\n With terror clothed, hell\u2019s kingdom shake,\n And cast Thy foes with fury down!\n\n \u201cAs in the ancient days appear!\n The sacred annals speak Thy fame:\n Be now omnipotently near,\n To endless ages still the same.\n\n \u201cThy arm, Lord, is not shortened now,\n It wants not now the power to save;\n Still present with Thy people, Thou\n Bear\u2019st them through life\u2019s disparted wave.\n\n \u201cBy death and hell pursued in vain,\n To Thee the ransomed seed shall come,\n Shouting their heavenly Sion gain,\n And pass through death triumphant home.\n\n \u201cThe pain of life shall there be o\u2019er,\n The anguish and distracting care,\n There sighing grief shall weep no more,\n And sin shall never enter there.\n\n \u201cWhere pure, essential joy is found,\n The Lord\u2019s redeemed their heads shall raise,\n With everlasting gladness crowned,\n And filled with love, and lost in praise.\u201d[63]\n\nFootnote 63:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. i., p. 400.\n\nWhat pen can adequately describe this grand outburst of scriptural faith\nand Christian exultation? It was a scene that has not oft been equalled;\nand, no doubt, helped to increasingly qualify Fletcher for the great\nwork that awaited him.\n\nFletcher\u2019s duties as a tutor were now ended. The two sons of Mr. Hill\nhad become undergraduates at Cambridge. Fletcher seems to have returned\nto Tern Hall; but, as a new Parliament was about to be elected, Mr. Hill\nobjected to the ordained tutor preaching in the neighbourhood of the\nHall, because his well-known Methodist proclivities might raise a\nstumbling-block at the polling-booths. Hence the following extract from\na letter addressed to the Countess of Huntingdon:\u2014\n\n \u201cTERN, _September 6, 1760_.\n\n \u201cThe fear Mr. Hill has, that I should lessen his interest at\n Shrewsbury at the next election,\u2014the shyness of the neighbouring\n clergy,\u2014and the want I feel of an ordination from the great Shepherd\n and Bishop of my soul, will probably prevent my preaching at all in\n the country. O may the Spirit of God preach the Gospel to my heart!\n\n \u201cGenerous as you are, Madam, I believe you would have saved me the\n shame of receiving the present you made me at Paddington, had you\n foreseen the uneasy thoughts it raised in my heart. \u2018Is not this\n making godliness a gain? Can I in conscience receive what is devoted\n to the poor when I am not in actual want?\u2019 I am not ashamed of living\n upon charity, but to receive it, without being an immediate object of\n charity, gives me more uneasiness than want could possibly do. And now\n I am deprived, for many months, of the unspeakable advantage of living\n upon Providence, and must live upon a stock, as well as the rich of\n this world! Is not this a lesson? And does not your generosity, Madam,\n bid me look to Jesus for _poverty of spirit_, without which all\n outward acts are nothing but pride, sin, misery, and lies?\n\n \u201cI am, with gratitude and shame, your ladyship\u2019s unworthy servant,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[64]\n\nFootnote 64:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. i., p. 234.\n\nFletcher was without employment. What was the best course to take? He\nmight have permanently united himself to the Wesley brothers; or he\nmight have devoted himself to the congregations of the Countess of\nHuntingdon. But another path was marked out for him by an unerring\nProvidence. He had been of great service to the sons of Mr. Hill; and\nMr. Hill was desirous of promoting his preferment. The living of Dunham,\nin Cheshire, was now vacant, and Mr. Hill informed Fletcher that it was\nat his service. \u201cThe parish,\u201d said he, \u201cis small, the duty light, the\nincome good (\u00a3400 per annum), and it is situated in a fine, healthy,\nsporting country.\u201d \u201cAlas!\u201d replied Fletcher, \u201calas, Sir, Dunham will not\nsuit me; there is too much money, and too little labour.\u201d \u201cFew clergymen\nmake such objections,\u201d rejoined Mr. Hill. \u201cIt is a pity to decline such\na living, especially as I know not that I can find you another. What\nshall we do? Would you like Madeley?\u201d \u201cThat, Sir,\u201d said Fletcher, \u201cwould\nbe the very place for me.\u201d \u201cMy object,\u201d answered Mr. Hill, \u201cis to make\nyou comfortable in your own way. If you prefer Madeley, I shall find no\ndifficulty in persuading Mr. Chambers to exchange it for Dunham, which\nis worth more than twice as much as Madeley.\u201d[65]\n\nFootnote 65:\n\n Cox\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d p. 32.\n\nAn arrangement was soon made. Mr. Hill\u2019s nephew was the patron of the\nMadeley living; and Mr. Hill himself the patron of that of Dunham. The\nuncle and nephew met at Shrewsbury races, and there, on a _racecourse_,\nof all places in the world, it was settled that the Madeley living\nshould be offered to Fletcher. The presentation was made; but Fletcher,\nat the last moment, hesitated to accept it, and wrote to his friend\nCharles Wesley as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cTERN, _September 26, 1760_.\n\n \u201cA fortnight ago, the minister of this parish, with whom I have had no\n connection for these two years, sent me word (I know not why) that his\n pulpit should be at my service at any time.\n\n \u201cSome days after, I ventured a visit of civility to the vicar of a\n neighbouring parish, who fell out with me, three years ago, for\n preaching faith in his church. He received me with the greatest\n kindness, and said often, he would have me take the care of souls\n somewhere or other.\n\n \u201cLast Sunday, the vicar of Madeley, to whom I was formally curate,\n coming to pay a visit here, expressed great regard for me; seemed to\n be quite reconciled: and assured me, that he would do all he could to\n serve me; of which he yesterday gave me a proof, by sending me a\n testimonial unasked.\n\n \u201cHe was no sooner gone, than news was brought that the old clergyman\u201d\n (at Dunham) \u201cdied suddenly the day before; and that same day, before I\n heard it, Mr. Hill, meeting, at the races, his nephew, who is patron\n of Madeley, told him, if he would present me to Madeley, he would give\n the vicar of that parish the living vacated by the old clergyman\u2019s\n death. This was immediately agreed to, as Mr. Hill himself informed me\n in the evening, wishing me joy.\n\n \u201cYou have repeatedly advised me not to resist Providence, but to\n follow its leadings. I am, however, inwardly in suspense. My heart\n revolts at the idea of being here alone, opposed by my superiors,\n hated by my neighbours, and despised by all the world. Without piety,\n without talents, without resolution, how shall I repel the assaults,\n and surmount the obstacles which I foresee, if I discharge my duty at\n Madeley with fidelity? On the other hand, to reject this presentation,\n to burn this certificate, and to leave in the desert the sheep whom\n the Lord has evidently brought me into the world to feed, appears to\n me nothing but obstinacy and refined self-love. I will hold a middle\n course between these extremes: I will be wholly _passive_ in the steps\n I must take; and _active_ in praying the Lord to deliver me from the\n evil one, and to conduct me in the way He would have me to go.\n\n \u201cIf you see anything better, inform me of it speedily; and, at the\n same time, remember me in all your prayers, that, if this matter be\n not of the Lord, the enmity of the Bishop of Lichfield, who must\n countersign my testimonials; the threats of the chaplain of the Bishop\n of Hereford, who was a witness to my preaching at West Street; the\n objections drawn from my not being naturalized; or some other\n obstacle, may prevent the kind intentions of Mr. Hill.\u201d[66]\n\nFootnote 66:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 106.\n\nWithin a week after the date of this communication, several of\nFletcher\u2019s anticipated obstacles were gone. Hence the following, from a\nletter addressed to the Countess of Huntingdon, who was visiting the\nRev. Benjamin and Lady Margaret Ingham, in Yorkshire:\u2014\n\n \u201c1760, October 3.\u2014Were I to have my choice, I would prefer waiting at\n the pool under your roof, or that of those who think like you, to any\n other way of life; and I will own to your ladyship, that the thought\n of giving this up is one of the chief difficulties I have now to\n encounter. But I seem to be a prisoner of Providence, who is going, in\n all probability, to cast my lot among the colliers and forge-men of\n Madeley. The two thousand souls of that parish, for whom I was called\n into the ministry, are many sheep in the wilderness, which I cannot\n sacrifice to my own private choice.\n\n \u201cWhen I was suffered to attend them, for a few days, some began to\n return to the Shepherd of their souls, and I found it then in my heart\n to spend and be spent for them. It is true, when I was sent away from\n them, that zeal cooled to such a degree, that I have wished a thousand\n times they might never be committed to my care; but the impression of\n the tears of those who, when I left them, ran after me crying, \u2018Who\n will now show us the way to heaven?\u2019 never quite wore off, and, upon\n second thoughts, I always concluded that, if the Lord made my way\n plain to their church, I could not run away from it without disobeying\n the order of Providence.\n\n \u201cThat time is come. The church is vacated; the presentation to it\n brought, unasked for, into my hands; the difficulty of getting proper\n testimonials, which I looked upon as insurmountable, vanishes at once;\n the three clergymen that had opposed me with the most bitterness,\n signed them; the Bishop of Lichfield countersigns them without the\n least objection; the lord of the manor, my great opposer, leaves the\n parish; and the very man (the vicar), who told me I should never\n preach in that church, now recommends me to it, and tells me he will\n induct me himself.\n\n \u201cAre not these intimations of the will of God? It seems so to me. What\n does your ladyship think? I long to go and consult you in Yorkshire,\n but cannot do it now, without giving up the point on which I want your\n advice.\u201d[67]\n\nFootnote 67:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. i., p. 237.\n\nThere is, or, at least, there used to be, in the parish vestry at\nMadeley, a book containing the following inscription:\u2014\u201cJohn Fletcher,\nclerk, was inducted to the vicarage of Madeley, the 17th of October,\n1760. John Fletcher, vicar.\u201d\n\nThe deed was done. Wesley had strongly opposed his acceptance of the\nMadeley living, telling him that to take a living was not his calling.\nCharles Wesley\u2019s advice is unknown; but, probably, it was the reverse of\nhis brother\u2019s. John desired and greatly needed the help of an ordained\nclergyman, not only to preach, but to administer the sacraments to the\nmultiplying Methodists. He tried to retain Fletcher, a minister to his\nown heart\u2019s content; but he failed. It was well he did. In the\nitinerancy, Fletcher\u2019s time for reading and study would have been\nextremely limited. At Madeley, he had abundance of leisure for both,\nand, during the next ten years, acquired that theological wealth, which,\nin the hour of need, enabled him to be of the greatest service to\nWesley, by the writing of his unanswerable \u201cChecks to Antinomianism.\u201d\n\nWesley\u2019s opposition is mentioned in the following extracts from two\nletters addressed to the Countess of Huntingdon:\u2014\n\n \u201d1760, October 28. All the little circumstances of my institution and\n induction have taken such an easy turn, that I question whether any\n clergyman ever got over them with less trouble. I preached last\n Sunday, for the first time, in my church, and shall continue to do so,\n though I propose staying with Mr. Hill till he leaves the country,\n which will be, I suppose, in a fortnight, partly to comply with him to\n the last, and partly to avoid falling out with my predecessor, who is\n still at Madeley, but who will remove about the same time.\n\n \u201dAmong many little providences, I shall mention one to your ladyship.\n The Bishop having unexpectedly sent me word to go to him for\n institution without delay, if I wished not to be at the trouble of\n following him to London, I set out in haste for Hereford, where I\n arrived the day before his lordship\u2019s departure. As I went along, I\n thought that if my going to Madeley was from the Lord, it was\n providential that I should thus be called to be instituted in the\n country, for were it to be in London, Sir Peter Rivers, the Bishop\u2019s\n chaplain, who examined me for orders, and who made so much noise last\n summer in West Street Chapel, where he found me preaching, would\n infallibly defeat the end of my journey, according to his\n threatenings. Thus did worldly wisdom work in my heart; but no\n divination can stand against the God of Jacob, who is a jealous God,\n and does not give His glory to another. A clergyman, named Sir Dutton\n Colt, came to see the Bishop just as I entered the palace, and the\n secretary, coming to him, said in my hearing, \u2018Sir Peter is just come\n from London to take possession of a prebend, which the Bishop has\n given him; he is now in the palace; how do you rank with him?\u2019 My\n surprise was great, for a moment, and my first thought was to ride\n away without institution; but, having gone too far to retreat, I had\n an instant strength from on high to be still and see the salvation of\n the Lord. My second thought was to thank God for sending this man from\n London in that point of time to defeat Mr. Hill\u2019s design; and, easily\n throwing up Madeley, I cried for strength to make a good confession\n before the high priest and the scribe; and I felt I had it, but I was\n not called to use it, for the Bishop was alone, the ceremony was over\n in ten minutes, and Sir Peter did not come in till after. I met him at\n the door of the Bishop\u2019s room, and a wig I had on that day prevented\n his recollecting who I was. Your ladyship cannot conceive how thankful\n I was for this little incident, not because I was not disappointed of\n a living, but because I saw and felt, that, had I been disappointed,\n it would have been no disappointment to me.\n\n \u201dIf I know anything of myself, I shall be much more ready to resign my\n benefice, when I have had a fair trial of my unprofitableness to the\n people committed to my care, than I was to accept it. Mr. John Wesley\n bids me do it without a trial. He will have me \u2018see the devil\u2019s snare,\n and fly from it at the peril of my soul.\u2019 I answer, I cannot see it in\n that light. He adds, \u2018Others may do well in a living; you cannot; it\n is not your calling.\u2019 I tell him, I readily own that I am not fit to\n plant or water any part of the Lord\u2019s vineyard; but that _if_ I am\n called at all, I am called to preach at Madeley, where I was first\n sent into the ministry, and where a chain of providences, I could not\n break, has again fastened me; and that, though I may be as\n unsuccessful as Noah, yet I am determined to try to be there a\n preacher of Christ\u2019s righteousness; and that, notwithstanding my\n inability, I am not without hopes, that He who reproved a prophet\u2019s\n madness by the mouth of an ass, may reprove a collier\u2019s profaneness\n even by my mouth.\n\n \u201dI reserve for another letter an account of my own soul, and of what\n begins to be as dear to me as my own soul\u2014_my parish_.\u201d[68]\n\nFootnote 68:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. i., p. 238.\n\nThe other letter, here promised, was written three weeks later. The\nfollowing is an extract from it:\u2014\n\n \u201cTERN, _November 19, 1760_.\n\n \u201cI have hitherto written my sermons, but I am carried so far beyond my\n notes when in the pulpit, that I propose preaching with only my\n sermon-case in my hand next Friday, when I shall venture on an evening\n lecture for the first time. I question whether I shall have above\n half-a-dozen hearers; but I am resolved to try.\n\n \u201cThe weather and the roads are so bad, that the way to the church is\n almost impracticable; nevertheless all the seats were full last\n Sunday. Some begin to come from adjacent parishes, and some more (as\n they say) _threaten_ to come when the season permits.\n\n \u201cI cannot yet discern any deep work, or indeed anything but what will\n always attend the crying down of man\u2019s righteousness, and the\n insisting upon Christ\u2019s\u2014I mean a general liking among the poor; and\n offence, ridicule, and opposition among the \u2018reputable\u2019 and \u2018wise\u2019\n people. Should the Lord vouchsafe to plant the Gospel in this county,\n my parish seems to be the best spot for the centre of such a work, as\n it lies among the most populous, profane, and ignorant.\n\n \u201cBut it is well if, after all, there is _any_ work in my parish. I\n despair even of this, when I look at myself, and quite fall in with\n Mr. John Wesley\u2019s opinion about me; though I sometimes hope the Lord\n has not sent me here for nothing. I am, however, fully determined to\n resign my living, if the Lord does not think me worthy to be His\n instrument. I abhor the title of a living for a living\u2019s sake; it is\n death to me.\n\n \u201cThere are three meetings in my parish\u2014a Papist, Quaker, and Baptist,\n and they begin to call the fourth _the Methodist_ one\u2014I mean the\n Church. But the bulk of the inhabitants are stupid heathens, who seem\n past all curiosity, as well as all sense of godliness. I am ready to\n run after them into their pits and forges, and I only wait for\n Providence to show me the way. I am often reduced to great perplexity;\n but the end of it is sweet. I am driven to the Lord, and He comforts,\n encourages, and teaches me. I sometimes feel that zeal which forced\n Paul to wish to be accursed for his brethren\u2019s sake; but I want to\n feel it without interruption. The devil, my friends, and my heart have\n pushed at me to make me fall into worldly cares and creature\n snares,\u2014first, by the thoughts of marrying; then, by the offers of\n several boarders, one of whom, a Christian youth, offered me \u00a360 a\n year; but I have been enabled to cry, \u2018_Nothing but Jesus, and the\n service of His people_;\u2019 and I trust the Lord will keep me in the same\n mind.\u201d[69]\n\nFootnote 69:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. i., p. 239.\n\nIn such a way and spirit did Fletcher begin his ministry of twenty-five\nyears\u2019 duration at Madeley. Comment on his simple and honest letters is\nunnecessary; it would be uninstructive meddling, which would try the\nreader\u2019s patience.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IV.\n _FIRST TWO YEARS AT MADELEY._\n\n FROM OCTOBER 17, 1760, TO NOVEMBER 22, 1762.\n\nALMOST of necessity, the life of a clergyman in a small country town is\nan uneventful and quiet one; and, therefore, the first ten years that\nFletcher spent at Madeley were unmarked by stirring incidents, such as\nwere perpetually occurring in the lives of his friends Wesley and\nWhitefield.\n\nMadeley is a market town in the county of Salop. It is beautifully\nsituated in a winding glen, through which the river Severn flows. In\n1800, fifteen years after Fletcher\u2019s death, it contained, according to\nthe parliamentary returns, 291 houses, and 4,758 inhabitants. The church\nis dedicated to St. Michael; and the parish includes Coalbrook Dale and\nMadeley Wood, noted for their coal mines and their iron-works. Colliers\nand iron-workers at Madeley, in the days of Fletcher, were quite as\nignorant and brutal as they were elsewhere. His mission was a trying\none; and its burdensomeness was not lessened by the fact that there was\nnot a single clergyman in the county of Salop who approved of his\nMethodist doctrines, or sympathized with his Methodist endeavours.\nFurther, he was without parochial experience. He had preached for the\nWesleys and for the Countess of Huntingdon; and, on a few rare\noccasions, he had been permitted to occupy the pulpits of the\nEstablished Church; but, notwithstanding the temporary assistance he had\nrendered to his Madeley predecessor, he had never held a curacy. In\nparish work he was a novice; but he was not dismayed. A few months\nbefore his induction, he had been with Berridge, who, with the exception\nof Mr. Hicks at Wrestlingworth, was as much without clerical sympathy\nand help in Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Huntingdonshire, as\nFletcher himself was now in Salop. Berridge had seen marvellous results\nof his denounced ministry, and why should not Fletcher see the same?\nHence, on January 6, 1761, he wrote as follows to the Countess of\nHuntingdon:\u2014\n\n \u201cI had a secret expectation to be the instrument of a work in this\n part of our Church; and I did not despair of being soon a _little\n Berridge_. Thus warmed with sparks of my own kindling, I looked out to\n see the rocks broken, and the waters flowing out; but, to the great\n disappointment of my hopes, I am now forced to look within, and see\n the need I have of being broken myself. If my being stationed in this\n howling wilderness is to answer no public end as to the Gospel of\n Christ, I will not give up the hope that it may answer a private end\n as to myself, in humbling me under a sense of unprofitableness.\n\n \u201cAs to my parish, all that I see in it, hitherto, is nothing but what\n one may expect from speaking plainly, and with some degree of\n earnestness; a crying out, \u2018He is a Methodist\u2014a downright Methodist!\u2019\n While some of the poorer say, \u2018Nay, but he speaketh the truth!\u2019 Some\n of the best farmers, and most of the respectable tradesmen, talk about\n turning me out of my living as a Methodist or a Baptist. My Friday\n lecture took better than I expected, and I propose to continue it till\n the congregation desert me. The number of hearers at that time is\n generally larger than that which my predecessor had on Sunday. The\n number of communicants is increased from thirty to above a hundred;\n and a few seem to seek grace in the means. I thank your ladyship for\n mentioning Mr. Jones as a curate. There is little probability of my\n ever wanting one. My oath obliges me to residence, and, when I am\n here, I can easily manage all the business, and only wait for\n opportunities of oftener bearing witness to the truth.\u201d[70]\n\nFootnote 70:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. i., p. 240.\n\nFletcher\u2019s troubles were various. He was dissatisfied with himself; a\nvisionary convert caused him anxiety; and many of his parishioners\nmaligned him. Writing to Charles Wesley on March 10, 1761, he remarked:\u2014\n\n \u201cI feel more and more that I neither _abide_ in Christ, nor Christ in\n me; nevertheless, I do not _so_ feel it, as to seek Him without\n intermission. \u2018_Oh wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from_\u2019\n this heart of unbelief? Blessed be God, who has promised me this\n deliverance, through our Lord Jesus Christ!\n\n \u201cMy new convert has, with great difficulty, escaped the wiles of the\n devil; who, by fifty visions, had set her on the pinnacle of the\n temple. Thanks be to God, she has come down without being cast\n headlong. I have had more trouble with her visions than with her\n unbelief. Two other persons profess that they have received the\n consolations of Divine love: I wait for their _fruits_.\n\n \u201cA few days ago, I was violently tempted to quit Madeley. The spirit\n of Jonah had so seized upon my heart that I had the insolence to\n murmur against the Lord; but the storm is now happily calmed, at least\n for a season. Alas! what stubbornness there is in the will of man; and\n with what strength does it combat the will of God under the _mask of\n piety_, when it can no longer do so with the uncovered, shameless face\n of vice! \u2018_If a man bridleth not his tongue_,\u2019 all his _outward\n \u2018religion is vain.\u2019_ May we not add to this, if a man bridleth not his\n will, which is the language of his desires, his _inward religion is\n vain_ also? The Lord does not, however, leave me altogether; and I\n have often a secret hope that He will one day touch my heart and lips\n with a live coal from the altar; and that then His word shall consume\n the stubble, and break to pieces the stone.\n\n \u201cThe question, which you mean to repeat at the end of the winter, is,\n I hope, whether you shall be welcome at Madeley? My answer is, you\n shall be welcome; for I have already lost almost all my reputation,\n and the little that remains does not deserve a competition with the\n pleasure I shall have in seeing you.\u201d[71]\n\nFootnote 71:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 107.\n\nNotwithstanding his dejection, and the opposition he had to encounter,\nFletcher continued to labour with unflagging diligence. To his Friday\nnight lecture he now added the catechising of children on Sunday\nafternoons, but relieved himself of the toil of preparing a second\nSunday sermon, by reading the sermons of other men. He also began to see\na prospect of commencing services at Madeley Wood and at Coalbrook Dale.\nHence, in another letter to Charles Wesley he wrote as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _April 27, 1761_.\n\n \u201cWhen I first came to Madeley, I was greatly mortified and discouraged\n by the smallness of my congregations; and I thought if some of our\n friends in London had seen my little company they would have triumphed\n in their own wisdom. But now, thank God, things are altered in that\n respect. Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of seeing some in the\n churchyard who could not get into the church.\n\n \u201cI began a few Sundays ago to preach in the afternoon, after\n catechising the children; but I do not preach my own sermons. Twice I\n read a sermon of Archbishop Usher\u2019s; and last Sunday one of the\n Homilies, taking the liberty of making some observations on such\n passages as confirmed what I had advanced in the morning; and, by this\n means, I stopped the mouths of many adversaries.\n\n \u201cI have frequently had a desire to exhort in Madeley Wood and\n Coalbrook Dale, two villages of my parish; but I have not dared to run\n before I saw an _open door_. It now, I think, begins to open. Two\n small Societies of about twenty persons have formed of themselves in\n those places, although the devil seems determined to overturn all. A\n young person, the daughter of one of my rich parishioners, has been\n thrown into despair, so that everybody thought her insane, and,\n indeed, I thought so too. Judge how our adversaries rejoiced; and, for\n my part, I was tempted to forsake my ministry, and take to my heels; I\n never suffered such affliction. Last Saturday, I humbled myself before\n the Lord on her account, by fasting and prayer; and I hope the Lord\n heard my prayer. Yesterday, she found herself well enough to come to\n church.\n\n \u201cYou will do well to engage your colliers at Kingswood to pray for\n their poor brethren at Madeley. May those at Madeley, one day, equal\n them _in faith_, as they _now do_ in that _wickedness_, for which they\n (the Kingswood colliers) were famous before you went among them.\n\n \u201cMr. Hill has written me a very obliging letter, to engage me to\n accompany the elder of my pupils to Switzerland; and if I had any\n other country than the place where I am, I should, perhaps, have been\n tempted to go. At present, however, I have no temptation that way, and\n I have declined the offer as politely as I could.\u201d[72]\n\nFootnote 72:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 109.\n\nThe case of the young woman just mentioned was to Fletcher a great\ntrial. In a letter written to Lady Huntingdon[73] on the same day as the\nforegoing letter to Charles Wesley, he states, that, previous to this,\nreports had been spread that he drove the people mad, and he had borne\nsuch scandals \u201cpatiently enough,\u201d but this \u201cglaring instance,\u201d which\nseemed to confirm the rumours circulated against him, had thrown him\ninto \u201cagonies of soul.\u201d To a great extent, Fletcher had yet to learn a\nlesson which the Wesleys and Whitefield had long ago been taught: \u201cIf ye\nbe reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of\nglory and of God resteth upon you\u201d (1 Peter iv. 14).\n\nFootnote 73:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. i., p. 241.\n\nThe scandals were continued; and even the pulpit was used in lampooning\nthe Madeley preacher. Hence the following, addressed to Charles Wesley:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _August 19, 1761_.\n\n \u201cI know not whether I mentioned to you a sermon preached at the\n Archdeacon\u2019s Visitation. It was almost all levelled at the points\n which are called the doctrines of Methodism, and, as the preacher is\n minister of a parish near mine, it is probable he had me in his eye.\n After the sermon, another clergyman addressed me with an air of\n triumph, and demanded what answer I could make. As several of my\n parishioners were present, besides the churchwardens, I thought it my\n duty to take the matter up; and I have done so by writing a long\n letter to the preacher, in which I have touched the principal mistakes\n of his discourse, with as much politeness and freedom as I was able;\n but I have had no answer. I could have wished for your advice before I\n sealed my letter; but, as I could not have it, I have been very\n cautious, entrenching myself behind the ramparts of Scripture, as well\n as those of our Homilies and Articles.\n\n \u201cI know not what to say to you of the state of my soul. I daily\n struggle in the Slough of Despond, and I endeavour every day to climb\n the Hill Difficulty. I need wisdom, mildness, and courage; and no man\n has less of them than I.\n\n \u201cAs to the state of my parish, the prospect is yet discouraging. New\n scandals succeed those that wear away; but \u2018_offences must come_.\u2019\n Happy shall I be if the offence cometh not by me. My churchwardens\n speak of hindering strangers from coming to the church, and of\n repelling them from the Lord\u2019s table; but on these points I am\n determined to make head against them. A club of eighty working men, in\n a neighbouring parish, being offended at their minister, determined to\n come in procession to my church, and requested me to preach a sermon\n for them; but I thought proper to decline doing so, and have thereby a\n little regained the good graces of the minister, at least for a\n time.\u201d[74]\n\nFootnote 74:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 111.\n\nThe preacher, at the Archdeacon\u2019s visitation, was the Rev. Mr.\nProthero;[75] and the \u201clong letter\u201d to him may be found in Fletcher\u2019s\ncollected works (vol. viii.), where it fills twenty-eight octavo pages,\nand is entitled a \u201cDefence of Experimental Religion.\u201d It is dated\n\u201cMadeley, July 25, 1761.\u201d\n\nFootnote 75:\n\n _Methodist Magazine_, 1821, p. 17.\n\nMr. Prothero\u2019s \u201celegant sermon,\u201d as Fletcher terms it, seems to have\nconsisted of two parts: a defence of revealed religion against Deists\nand Infidels; and a warning against religious superstition and\nenthusiasm. The first part gave Fletcher \u201cexceeding great satisfaction,\u201d\nand the _design_ of the second part was good, for, as Fletcher remarks,\n\u201cIt is the duty of a preacher to keep the sacred truths committed to\nhim, as well from being perverted by enthusiasts, as from being crushed\nby infidels. Boasting of communion with God, and peculiar favours from\nheaven, is hurtful to the cause of Christ, when people\u2019s lives show them\nto be actuated by a spirit of delusion; and setting up impulses in the\nroom of repentance, faith, hope, charity, obedience, has done no small\nmischief in the Church of God.\u201d\n\nBut, while Fletcher praises Mr. Prothero for \u201cthe goodness of his\ndesign,\u201d he passes strictures upon the execution of it. He condemns Mr.\nProthero for \u201crepresenting, in general, that virtue, benevolence,\ngood-nature, and morality, are the _way_ to salvation;\u201d and shows, that\naccording \u201cto the Word of God and the teaching of our Church,\u201d sinners\nare saved by the exercise of faith in Christ. He objected to Mr.\nProthero\u2019s doctrine, that, by nature, and without the assistance of\nDivine grace, man \u201chas the same power to enter the paths of virtue as to\nwalk across a room.\u201d He censured the way in which the preacher\ndiscountenanced the doctrine of the necessity of the new birth; and he\nmaintained, at great length, that to \u201cset aside all feelings in\nreligion, and to rank them with unaccountable impulses,\u201d is not\nconsistent with the teachings of the Bible, and with the Liturgy,\nArticles, and Homilies of the English Church.\n\nSoon after this, Fletcher was in another trouble. Hence the following\nletter written to Charles Wesley:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _October 12, 1761_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR SIR,\u2014You have always the goodness to encourage me, and your\n encouragements are not unseasonable; for discouragements follow one\n after another with very little intermission. Those which are of an\n inward nature are sufficiently known to you; but some others are\n peculiar to myself, especially those I have had for eight days past,\n during Madeley wake.\n\n \u201cSeeing that I could not suppress these bacchanals, I did all in my\n power to moderate their madness; but my endeavours have had little or\n no effect. You cannot well imagine how much the animosity of my\n parishioners is heightened, and with what boldness it discovers itself\n against me, because I preached against drunkenness, shows, and\n bull-baiting. The publicans and maltmen will not forgive me. They\n think that to preach against drunkenness, and to cut their purse, is\n the same thing.\n\n \u201cMy church begins not to be so well filled as it has been, and I\n account for it thus: the curiosity of some of my hearers is satisfied,\n and others are offended by the word; the roads are worse; and if it\n shall ever please the Lord to pour His Spirit upon us, the time is not\n yet come. The people, instead of saying, \u2018Let us go up to the house of\n the Lord,\u2019 exclaim, \u2018Why should we go and hear a Methodist?\u2019\n\n \u201cI should lose all patience with my flock if I had not more reason to\n be satisfied with them than with myself. My own barrenness furnishes\n me with excuses for theirs; and I wait the time when God shall give\n seed to the sower and increase to the seed sown. In waiting that time,\n I learn the meaning of this prayer, \u2018Thy will be done.\u2019\n\n \u201cBelieve me your sincere, though unworthy, friend,\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[76]\n\nFootnote 76:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 112.\n\nFletcher\u2019s faithful preaching offended the publicans, and, judging of\nhis sermons in general by the following specimens, it is not surprising\nthat his preaching offended others. The extracts are taken from a sermon\ndelivered in the month of December 1761, and first published in the\nDublin edition of the _Methodist Magazine_ for 1821 (pp. 249\u2013258).[77]\nThe text was, \u201cThou shalt speak My words to them, whether they will hear\nor whether they will forbear, for they are most rebellious\u201d (Ezek. ii.\n7). After challenging his congregation to assert their innocence,\nFletcher proceeded:\u2014\n\n \u201cSupposing you never allowed yourself to dishonour the name of God by\n customary swearing, or grossly to violate His Sabbaths, or commonly to\n neglect the solemnities of His public worship; supposing, again, that\n you have not injured your neighbours in their lives, their chastity,\n their character, or their property, either by violence or by fraud; or\n that you never scandalously debased your rational nature by that vile\n intemperance which sinks a man below the worst kind of brutes;\n supposing all this, can you pretend that you have not in smaller\n instances violated the rules of piety, of temperance, and of chastity?\n Does not your own heart prove you guilty of pride, of passion, of\n sensuality, of an excessive fondness for the world and its enjoyments;\n of murmuring, or at least secretly repining, against God under the\n strokes of an afflictive Providence; of misspending a great deal of\n your time; of abusing the gifts of God\u2019s bounty to vain, and, in some\n instances, to pernicious purposes; of mocking Him when you have\n pretended to engage in His worship, drawing near to Him with your lips\n while your heart has been far from Him? Does not your conscience\n condemn you of some one breach of the law at least? and by one breach\n of it, does not the Holy Ghost bear witness (James ii. 10) that you\n are become guilty of all, and are as incapable of being justified\n before God by any obedience of your own, as if you had committed ten\n thousand offences? But, in reality, there are ten thousand and more to\n be charged to your account. When you come to reflect on all your sins\n of negligence, as well as on your voluntary transgressions; on all the\n instances in which you have failed to do good when it was in your\n power to do it; on all the instances in which acts of devotion have\n been omitted, especially in secret; and on all those cases in which\n you have shown a stupid disregard to the honour of God, and to the\n temporal and eternal happiness of your fellow-creatures; when all\n these, I say, are reviewed, the number will swell beyond all\n possibility of account, and force you to cry out, \u2018I am rebellious,\n most rebellious; mine iniquities are more than the hairs of my head!\u2019\n They will appear in such a light before you that your own heart will\n charge you with countless multitudes; and how much more then that God,\n \u2018who is greater than your heart, and knoweth all things\u2019?\u201d\n\nFootnote 77:\n\n Fletcher seldom wrote his sermons, and more rarely read them. More\n than one hundred and forty sermons of Wesley\u2019s have been published,\n and at least sixty of Whitefield\u2019s; but of Fletcher\u2019s, who had much\n more leisure than either Wesley or Whitefield, only about a dozen. All\n the rest are mere outlines. The following are copied from Fletcher\u2019s\n MSS., and have not before been published. They may be taken as fair\n specimens of Fletcher\u2019s pulpit preparations and pulpit helps. They are\n skeletons of two sermons, preached from Matt. xxii. 36\u201339:\u2014 W \u201cI. Why\n we must love God.\n\n \u201cII. How we must love Him.\n\n \u201cIII. What we must do in order to love Him.\n\n \u201cHe is our Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, Sanctifier. He commands us to\n love Him. Out of His love there is no happiness. Love of God contains\n all. He loved us first.\n\n \u201cWith all our soul, heart, and strength. Above all things. More than\n our life, wives, children, estate, honour, ourselves.\n\n \u201cBe convinced we do not love Him. Abhor ourselves for our rebellion.\n Confess, repent, and believe. Keep a sense of our forgiveness. Pray to\n Him. Praise Him. Walk with Him. Seek but Him. Refuse all comfort\n unless we feel His love. Keep a constant communion with Him by seeing\n His glory in the face of Jesus Christ.\n\n \u201cHow have we fulfilled this great duty? Try yourselves. Pray an hour\n by yourselves. If you do not love, you hate. What fury to hate all\n that is good, great, and lovely! What madness to set our love on\n creatures! It must fall with them. Love God in Christ. Look to Christ.\n Believe in Christ, to love God. If you do not love Him, you are in\n your lives in the devil\u2019s state. You can no more go to heaven than the\n devil. Choose which you will love. The world calls. Let us give all\n for all.\u201c\n\n \u201cLove thy _neighbour_. All men; though never so distant in place,\n different in opinions, interests. Because made by the same hand;\n partakers of the same nature; bought with the same blood; capable of\n the same happiness.\n\n \u201cAs _ourselves_. Not judging; not thinking evil; not speaking evil;\n not defrauding; not coveting; doing them good; praying for them;\n honouring them\n\n \u201cBecause all made in image of God. None but in something better than\n ourselves; none but is a child of God, or may become so.\n\n \u201cPut the best construction on words or actions, much more upon\n thoughts. Relieve necessities. This is imitating God. What we give is\n lent to God.\n\n \u201cLove universally, constantly, impartially, sincerely; from a sense of\n Christ\u2019s love.\u201d\n\nThis was plain speaking, but very characteristic of the preaching of the\nChurch of England Methodists. Space will permit only one other extract\nfrom this sermon.\n\n \u201cAnd now, sinner, think seriously with yourself what defence you will\n make to all this? Will you fly in the face of God and that of your\n conscience so openly as to deny one of the charges of rebellion, yea,\n of aggravated rebellion, I have advanced against you? Have you not\n lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven? Have you not sided with\n His sworn enemies\u2014the world and the flesh? What part of your body,\n what faculty of your soul, have you not employed as an instrument of\n unrighteousness? When did you live one day before God with the\n dependence of a creature, the gratitude of a redeemed creature, the\n heavenly frame of a sanctified creature? Nay, when did you live one\n hour without violating God\u2019s known law, either in word, or thought, or\n action? Have not you done it almost continually by the vanity of your\n mind and the hardness of your heart, if not by the open immorality of\n your life? And, what infinitely aggravates your guilt, have you not\n despised and abused God\u2019s numberless mercies? Have you not affronted\n conscience, His deputy in your breast? Have you not resisted and\n grieved His Spirit? Yea, have you not trifled with Him in all your\n pretended submissions or solemn engagements? Thousands are, no doubt,\n already in hell whose guilt never equalled yours; and yet God has\n spared you to see almost the end of another year, and to hear now this\n plain representation of your case. And will you not yet consider?\n Shall nothing move you to shake off that amazing carelessness and\n stupid disregard of your salvation? Will you never begin to \u2018work it\n out with fear and trembling\u2019? Will you slumber in impenitency till\n eternal woes crush you into destruction? Is death, is judgment, is the\n bottomless pit so distant that you dare put off from week to week the\n day of your conversion? You have read in God\u2019s Word that there is\n mercy with Him that He may be feared; but where did you read that\n there is mercy with Him for those who fear Him not? Show me such a\n place; I shall not say anywhere in the Bible, but in any book written\n by a moral heathen. And yet you hope you can be saved in this way.\n\n \u201cSinner, despise me _here_ if thou wilt; call me _here_ an enthusiast,\n and laugh at the concern I feel for thy perishing soul; but\n _hereafter_ thou wilt do me justice, clear me before the Lord Jesus,\n and acknowledge that thy blood is upon thine own head, that thou art\n undone because thou wouldst be undone, because thou wouldst take\n neither warning nor reproof.\u201d\n\nTo give the reader a further idea of the faithfulness and searching\ncharacter of Fletcher\u2019s preaching at this early period of his Madeley\nministry, the subjoined extracts are given from sermons preached during\nthe first three months of 1762.\n\nIn January, 1762,[78] he delivered a discourse upon the words, \u201cYe will\nnot come unto Me, that ye might have life;\u201d in which he described \u201cfour\nclasses of sinners who will not come to Christ that they might have\nlife;\u201d and proved \u201cthat unbelief, or not coming to Christ for life, is\nthe most abominable and damning of all sins.\u201d One brief extract on the\nlatter point must suffice:\u2014\n\n \u201cUnbelief is a sin of so deep a dye that the devils in hell cannot\n commit the like. Our Saviour never prayed, wept, bled, and died for\n devils. He never said to them, \u2018Ye will not come unto Me, that ye\n might have life.\u2019 They can never be so madly ungrateful as to slight a\n Saviour. Mercy never wooed their stubborn, proud hearts as it does\n ours. They have abused grace, it is true, but they never trampled\n mercy underfoot. This more than diabolical sin is reserved for thee,\n careless sinner. Now thou hearest Christ compassionately say in the\n text, \u2018Ye will not come unto Me,\u2019 and thou remainest unmoved; but the\n time cometh when Jesus, who meekly entreats, shall sternly curse; when\n He who in tender patience says, \u2018Ye will not come unto Me,\u2019 shall\n thunder in righteous vengeance, \u2018Depart from Me, ye cursed; depart\n unto the second death,\u2014the fire prepared for the devil and his\n angels.\u2019 In vain wilt thou plead then as thou dost now, \u2018Lord, I am no\n adulterer; I am no extortioner; I used to eat at Thy table; I was\n baptized in Thy name; I was a true churchman; there are many worse\n than I am.\u2019 This will not admit thee into the kingdom of Christ. His\n answer will be, \u2018I know you not; you never came to Me for life.\u2019\u201d\n\nFootnote 78:\n\n _Methodist Magazine_, 1821, p. 651.\n\nPlain preaching such as this was not likely to please the easy-going\nPharisees of the age in which Fletcher lived, any more than it is likely\nto be popular among the same class of people at the present day. To\nutter such truths required courage then; and it requires courage now.\nFletcher, one of the gentlest of human beings, possessed this courage.\n\nNo doubt there were many occasions when his sermons were full of the\nrichest comfort to those who had truly repented, and unfeignedly\nbelieved Christ\u2019s holy Gospel; but he never failed faithfully to fulfil\nan Old Testament commission, binding upon the ministers of God\nthroughout all time: \u201cCry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a\ntrumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob\ntheir sins\u201d (Isa. lviii. 1).\n\nAt the risk of wearying the reader, further extracts must be given,\nexemplifying Fletcher\u2019s fearless fidelity.\n\nOn January 4, 1762, England declared war against Spain; and, a few days\nafter, proclamations were issued for a general fast to be observed in\nEngland, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, in the month of March.[79]\nFletcher, as a loyal Churchman, preached on this occasion;[80] his text\nwas Ezek. xxxiii. 7\u20139. After a few preliminary remarks respecting the\nking\u2019s \u201cpious proclamation,\u201d he proceeds to say,\u2014\n\n \u201cWe must attack, unmask, and overthrow vice with holy violence, and\n strike at the heart of sin with the boldness of John the Baptist, and\n in the spirit of Elijah. Without any apology for my plainness, I shall\n endeavour to convince the wicked man both of his wickedness and\n danger.\u201d\n\nFootnote 79:\n\n _London Magazine_, 1762, p. 48.\n\nFootnote 80:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1822, p. 153.\n\nFletcher begins with \u201cpractical atheists\u201d\n\n \u201cThousands there are, who, by gross ignorance, shameful neglect of\n instruction, and abominable contempt of godliness, are in the front of\n the battle, and next to the prince of darkness. Their heart is\n darkened by the mists of pride and the clouds of presumption, and they\n are such utter strangers to their want of spiritual light and divine\n grace, that they seldom or never call upon God for help with any\n solemnity. The unhappy heathenish families who are of that stamp meet\n regularly every day to eat, drink, and make provision for the flesh;\n but how seldom do they meet to read and pray. You will find almost as\n much godliness among the wild Indians as among these practical\n atheists. But why should I call them _atheists_? They have many gods.\n The world is their god; pleasure is their god; vanity is their god;\n money is their god; their belly is their god; to some or other of\n these idols, they sacrifice their hearts and their time. As for the\n God of heaven, the great and eternal Jehovah, they put Him off with a\n careless attendance on His public worship on Sunday morning, if the\n weather suits them; and it is well if to this they add sometimes the\n babbling over of the Lord\u2019s Prayer and the Creed, which, after all, in\n the manner in which they do it, is no better than a solemn mockery of\n the Saviour, whom they constantly crucify afresh. Do you belong to\n such a heathenish, prayerless family? If you do, suffer me to deliver\n my soul by telling you, that you are the very first person to whom I\n am bound to say, \u2018Thou shalt surely die.\u2019 Read your sentence in Psalm\n lxxix. 6. What! shall the indignation of the Lord fall upon prayerless\n families among the heathen, and shall it pass by the nominally\n Christian, but prayerless family to which you belong? No, no; the\n Judge of all the earth will do right; He will repay you to your face.\u201d\n\n \u201cThe wicked is often known, to others and to himself, by his\n injustice, oppression, cruelty, deceit, and unfair dealing. Did you\n ever make a prey of the poor and helpless? Are you like the\n horse-leech, crying, \u2018Give, give,\u2019 still wanting more profit, and\n never thinking you have enough? Do you take more care to lay up\n treasures on earth than in heaven? Have you got the unhappy secret of\n distilling silver out of the poor man\u2019s brow, and gold out of the\n tears of helpless widows and friendless orphans? Or, which is rather\n worse, do you, directly or indirectly, live by poisoning others, by\n encouraging the immoderate use of those refreshments, which, taken to\n excess, disorder the reason, ruin the soul, and prove no better than\n slow poison to the body? If your business calls you to buy or sell, do\n you use falsehood? do you equivocate? do you exaggerate or conceal the\n truth, in order to impose upon your neighbour, and make a profit of\n his necessity or credulity? If any of these marks be upon you, God\u2019s\n word singles you out, and drags you to the bar of Divine justice to\n hear your doom in the text, \u2018The wicked shall surely die.\u2019 O, see your\n danger; repent, and make restitution! Why should you meet the unjust\n steward in hell, when you may yet follow Zaccheus into heaven?\u201d\n\n \u201cThere is another fearful sin, which has in it no profit, no pleasure,\n no, not sensual sweetness enough to bait the hook of temptation. The\n only enticement to it is the diabolical disposition of the wicked man,\n and the horrid pride he takes in _cutting a figure_ among the children\n of Belial. I speak of oaths and curses,\u2014those arrows shot from the\n string of a hellish heart, and the bow of a Luciferian tongue, against\n heaven itself; these are some of the sparks of hell-fire, which, now\n and then, come out of the throat of a wicked man. Do they ever come\n out of thine? A year ago, I laid before you the horror of that sin,\n and besought you to leave it to Satan and his angels, and to act no\n more the part of an _incarnate devil_. Have you strictly complied with\n that request? Has not heaven been pierced with another fiery dart?\n Have not good men, or good angels (if any attend you still) shuddered\n at those imprecations, which you have used, perhaps without remorse?\u201d\n\n \u201cBut, perhaps, your conscience bears you witness that you are not a\n swearing Christian, or rather a swearing infidel. Well; but are you\n clear in the point of adultery, fornication, or uncleanness? Does not\n the guilt of some vile sin, which you have wickedly indulged in time\n past, and perhaps are still indulging, mark you for the member of a\n harlot, and not the member of Christ? Do you not kindle the wrath of\n heaven against yourself and your country, as the men and women of\n Gomorrah did against themselves and the other cities of the plain? If\n you cherish the sparks of wantonness, as they did, how can you but be\n made with them to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire? Do not flatter\n yourselves with the vain hope, that your sin is not so heinous as\n theirs. If it be less in degree, is it not infinitely greater in its\n aggravating circumstances? Were these poor Canaanites _Christians_?\n Had they Bibles and ministers? Had they sermons and sacraments? Did\n they ever vow, as you have done, to renounce the devil, and all the\n sinful lusts of the flesh? Did they ever hear of the Son of God\n sweating great drops of blood, in an agony of prayer, to quench the\n fire of human corruption? O acknowledge your guilt and danger, and, by\n deep repentance, prevent infallible destruction.\n\n \u201cI cannot pass in silence the detestable, though fashionable, sin,\n which has brought down the curse of heaven, and poured desolation and\n ruin upon the most flourishing kingdoms,\u2014I mean pride in apparel. Even\n in this place, where poverty, hard labour, and drudgery would, one\n should think, prevent a sin which Christianity cannot tolerate even in\n kings\u2019 houses, there are not wanting foolish virgins, who draw\n iniquity with cords of vanity, and betray the levity of their hearts\n by that of their dress. Yea, some women, who should be mothers in\n Israel, and adorn themselves with good works as holy and godly\n matrons, openly affect the opposite character. You may see them offer\n themselves first to the idol of vanity, and then sacrifice their\n children upon the same altar. As some sons of Belial teach their\n little ones to curse, before they can well speak, so these daughters\n of Jezebel drag their unhappy offspring, before they can walk, to the\n haunts of vanity and pride. They complain of evening lectures, but run\n to midnight dancings. O that such persons would let the prophet\u2019s\n words sink into their frothy minds, and fasten upon their careless\n hearts: \u2018Because the daughters of Sion are haughty, and walk with\n stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, the Lord will smite with a sore\n the crown of their head, and discover their shame: instead of well-set\n hair, there shall be baldness, and burning instead of beauty.\u2019\u201d\n\nThese abbreviated extracts of Fletcher\u2019s descriptions of \u201cthe wicked\u201d\nare followed by his _directions_ to humble themselves before Almighty\nGod; to confess their sins with deep sorrow, and to return to the Lord\nwith prayer and fasting; to meditate on the universality, commonness,\nand boldness of the nation\u2019s wickedness; to begin a visible and thorough\nreformation; and to seek personal salvation in Christ. The bold preacher\ncries:\u2014\n\n \u201cFrom the gilded palace to the thatched cottage, our guilt calls for\n vengeance. Wickedness is become so fashionable, that he who refuses to\n run with others into vanity, intemperance, or profaneness, is in\n danger of losing his character, on one hand; while, on the other, the\n son of Belial prides himself in excesses, glories in diabolical\n practices, and scoffs with impunity at religion and virtue. O England!\n England! happy, yet ungrateful island! Dost thou repay fruitfulness by\n profaneness,\u2014plenty by vanity,\u2014liberty by impiety,\u2014and the light of\n Christianity by excesses of immorality?\n\n \u201cAs you regard the prosperity of the king, the good of our Church, and\n the welfare of our country;\u2014as you would not bring a private curse\n upon yourself, your house, and your dearest friends;\u2014as you value the\n honour of Almighty God, and dread His awakened wrath;\u2014as you would not\n force Him to make our land a field of blood, or to break the staff of\n our bread, and send famine, pestilence, popery, or some other fearful\n judgment among us;\u2014I pray you, I beseech, I entreat each of you, my\n dear brethren! as upon my bended knees,\u2014in the name of our Lord Jesus,\n and by those bowels of Divine mercy against which we have madly kicked\n in times past, and which, nevertheless, still yearn over us,\u2014I entreat\n you not to rest in outward humiliation and reformation. Christians\n must go one step beyond the Ninevites. O seek then, with all true\n Christians, a righteousness superior to that of the Scribes and\n Pharisees. Seek it in Christ. Never rest, till you are sure of your\n interest in Him; till you feel the virtue of His blood applied to your\n hearts by the power of His Spirit. Without this, all the rest will\n stand you in little stead.\u201d[81]\n\nFootnote 81:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1822, p. 222.\n\nThis, in truth, was thunder and lightning preaching,\u2014no doubt greatly\nneeded then, as, indeed, it is greatly needed now; preaching likely to\ngive offence, but the faithfulness of which God always honours, and\ncrowns with marked success. It raised up against Fletcher bitter\nenemies; but it was the means of converting not a few of his godless\nparishioners.\n\nOne of these was Mary Matthews, who, listening to the reproaches cast\nupon Fletcher, was greatly prejudiced against him. At length, she went\nto hear him. Mary thought herself very good, but Fletcher showed she was\nvery vile. For two years, she was an earnest penitent, and then, by\nfaith in Christ, found peace with God. Mary was brought before\nmagistrates for opening her little house, in Madeley Wood, for\npreaching, but she continued faithful; and, in 1788, passed away to\nheaven, her last words being, \u201cI am almost at home. Farewell! God bless\nyou! God for ever bless you!\u201d\n\nAnother was Mary Barnard, who lived to the age of ninety, was very lame,\nbut always crawled to Madeley church when the weather would permit.\nTotally without education herself, she had a son who became a Methodist\nlocal preacher. Her death occurred in 1797, and her last message to\nFletcher\u2019s widow was,\u2014\u201cThe covenant is signed and sealed between my Lord\nand me. I am His by a marriage bond; and He is mine. And now I set to my\nseal, that the blood of Jesus cleanses from all sin.\u201d[82]\n\nFootnote 82:\n\n _Methodist Magazine_, 1800, pp. 219\u2013223.\n\nSuch conversions were among Fletcher\u2019s encouragements; and he greatly\nneeded them. His preaching saved some, but offended others. In one of\nhis unpublished manuscripts, dated \u201cMadeley, February 28, 1762,\u201d he\nnotes a somewhat remarkable occurrence:\u2014\n\n \u201cLast Sunday, only one objection was made against the doctrine I\n preached in this church, and that, I think, was a poor one, as it was\n supported by no argument and no Scripture. The sum of it was this, \u2018It\n is hard to say that one breach of the law brings a man under the\n curse, and exposes one out of Christ to the damnation of hell.\u2019 To\n this I answer by four arguments.\n\n \u201cThe first is taken from matters of fact in the Word of God. By one\n sin, and by the offence of one, condemnation came upon all men, namely\n by the one sin of Adam\u2019s eating the forbidden fruit. And a more awful\n example you have in the sudden destruction of Ananias and Sapphira his\n wife _for having told one single lie_.\n\n \u201cThe second argument is taken from common sense, which tells us that\n one leak in a ship unstopped will sink it in time, as certainly as a\n hundred; one piece broken out of a glass makes it a useless glass, as\n much as if it was dashed into twenty pieces; one stab of a dagger\n through the heart kills a man as much as a hundred would. And so one\n sin uncancelled by Christ\u2019s blood will as surely destroy an\n unconverted man as a hundred, though his destruction will not be so\n terrible as that of him who has committed a hundred.\n\n \u201cThe third argument is taken from the exactness of human laws and the\n practice of earthly judges. They all condemn a man for one single\n offence. If one can be proved it is enough. Let a murderer kill one\n man, he is to be hanged as well as if he had killed a hundred. Let a\n highwayman take one pound from one single person, the law condemns him\n for a felon, and sends him to the gallows, as well as if he had taken\n a thousand pounds from a thousand different travellers. The law of the\n land, to the breach of which the penalty is annexed, is as effectually\n broken by one act of felony as by a hundred; and the law of God is as\n much, though not so heinously, broken, by one sin as by a hundred:\n consequently the law of God curses and damns for one sin as well as\n for a hundred.\n\n \u201cThe fourth argument is taken from Deuteronomy xxvii. 26, \u2018Cursed be\n he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them.\u2019 Also,\n Galatians iii. 10, \u2018Cursed is every one that continueth not in all\n things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.\u2019 And\n James ii. 10, \u2018Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in\n one point, he is guilty of all.\u2019 He violates the law, despises the\n law, incurs the punishment threatened.\u201d\n\nPassing by Fletcher\u2019s arguments and logic, this fugitive manuscript is\nof some importance, as intimating not only that objections were made to\nFletcher\u2019s doctrines, but also that he was accustomed publicly to notice\nand answer them in his parish church.\n\nFletcher had other troubles besides those arising from objections to his\nteaching. In his Fast-day sermon, preached on March 12, 1762, he had\ncried:\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018Because of swearing the land mourneth.\u2019 If the prophet of old had\n lived in our degenerate days, he would have added, \u2018Because of perjury\n the land groaneth.\u2019 To go no farther than the place we inhabit, how\n many of us, who have been entrusted with public offices, have wilfully\n broken the oaths administered unto us? How many open and notorious\n drunkards, fighters, sabbath-breakers, blasphemers of God\u2019s Word, and\n cursers of men, have escaped deserved censure, I shall not say by the\n accidental neglect, but by the downright perjury of officers?\u201d\n\nThis bold accusation stimulated one of Fletcher\u2019s young parishioners to\nput the law in force against one of the culpable parish officers; by\nwhich act the young man brought himself into trouble, and also Fletcher,\nwho protected him.\n\nFurther, in the small house of Mary Matthews, built upon the rock in\nMadeley Wood, Fletcher had begun to hold preaching services; the\ncongregation assembling there had been called \u201cthe Rock Church;\u201d and\nMary Matthews had been fined \u00a320 for permitting such assemblies in her\nhumble dwelling. Fletcher refers to these incidents in the following\nletter to Charles Wesley:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _May 16, 1762_.\n\n \u201cSince my last, our troubles have increased. A young man having put in\n force the Act, for suppressing swearing, against a parish officer, he\n stirred up all the other half gentlemen to remove him from the parish.\n Here I interposed, and, to do so with effect, I took the young man\n into my service. By God\u2019s grace, I have been enabled to conduct\n myself, in this matter, so as to give them no handle against me; and,\n in spite of all their cabals, I have got the better of them.\n\n \u201cWhat has greatly encouraged them is the behaviour of a magistrate,\n who was at the first inclined to favour me, but afterwards turned\n against me with peculiar malevolence, and proceeded so far as to\n threaten me and all my flock of the Rock Church with imprisonment.\n Hitherto, the Lord has stood by me, and my little difficulties are\n nothing to me; but I fear I support them rather like a philosopher\n than a Christian. We were to have been mobbed with a drum last\n Tuesday, at the Rock Church; but their captain, a papist, behaved\n himself so very ill, that they were ashamed of him, and are made\n peaceable for the present.\u201d[83]\n\nFootnote 83:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 114\n\nFletcher wrote to this persecuting papist the following letter, which is\nnow for the first time published:\u2014\n\n \u201cSIR,\u2014The indecent and profane manner in which you broke upon those of\n my parishioners who came to me for private exhortations at Mrs.\n Matthews\u2019, lays me under an absolute obligation to present you at\n Ludlow Court as a person notoriously guilty\u20141, Of drunkenness; 2, of\n cursing; 3, of disturbing me in the discharge of the private labours\n of my ministry; 4, of profane disregard to the Liturgy of the\n Established Church; 5, of want of respect for the Royal Family, openly\n intimated in indecent interruption while I prayed for them, and\n obliging me to get up from my knees and make you go out of the room\n before I could conclude the collect in peace; and 6, of cursing, and\n making game of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity.\n\n \u201cThough I told you upon the spot, that you should be informed of for\n your profane behaviour, I think it my duty to acquaint you of it more\n particularly, that you may prepare your answers to the above mentioned\n charges.\n\n \u201cI assure you, Sir, that malice, or any private pique, is entirely out\n of the question. I heartily wish you well, and am ready to do you any\n service but that of sacrificing the interests of religion and virtue\n to open profaneness and immorality.\n\n \u201cThe following considerations weigh much with me to make me insist on\n the churchwardens putting you in their presentment; and they will, I\n hope, convince you that I act only according to the dictates of\n Christian prudence.\n\n \u201c1. Most of the things laid to your charge were grown into habit\n before they broke out in my presence. It is not the first time that\n you have been seen in liquor, and been heard to use profane\n expressions, and to make sport of the things of God, and turn my\n labours into ridicule.\n\n \u201c2. So public an offence absolutely demands a public punishment, and\n the officers, whom I have informed of your behaviour, must be perjured\n if they present you not, and an irreparable blow will be given to the\n honour of religion and morality.\n\n \u201c3. The regard I have for our Church, and the peace of the parish,\n obliges me to resist in you the persecuting spirit of opposition your\n Church is so noted for.\n\n \u201c4. Part of my business here as a clergyman of the Church of England\n is to withstand the propagation of your dangerous principles, and to\n oppose the increase of the blind persecuting zeal which some seem to\n breathe after you. If you are suffered openly to excite that profane\n zeal with impunity, how will your misled companions be confirmed in\n their errors. If you, who have so many laws to curb you, can offend\n with impunity, how daring will others grow in wickedness.\n\n \u201c5. A person of note in the parish has lately undergone the severity\n of the law for part of the above-mentioned charges. What intolerable\n partiality would it be in the officers and me to take no notice of you\n who are guilty of the whole.\n\n \u201cLastly. If I do not get you presented, I shall for ever deprive\n myself of the liberty of repressing profaneness, immorality, and\n persecution in my parish. Every drunkard, every swearer, every railer,\n etc., etc., will (and not without reason) say to me, \u2018You could spare\n Mr. Haughton, who was notoriously guilty of our errors; why should you\n be stricter with Protestants than with Papists?\u2019\n\n \u201cI flatter myself that these reasons will convince you that I am led\n by Christian prudence and a calm resolution to oppose triumphing\n profaneness, and not at all by any private views or uncharitable\n motives. And, wishing that, if you are convicted, the course of human\n laws may lead you to the harbour of temperance and piety,\n\n \u201cI remain, Sir, your humble and obedient servant,\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d\n\nOf course, opinions differ as to the expediency of trying to make men\nmoral by Acts of Parliament; but there can be no doubt of Fletcher\u2019s\nChristian sincerity in the action he took against Mr. Haughton. His\neffort, however, was a failure. Writing to Charles Wesley, in the month\nof July, 1762, he said:\u2014\n\n \u201cYour letter arrived some days too late, to prevent my taking a false\n step respecting the papist in question. Three weeks ago, I went to\n Ludlow to the Bishop\u2019s visitation, and I thought the occasion\n favourable for my purpose; but the churchwardens, when we were on the\n spot, refused to support me, and the court has paid no regard to my\n presentation. Thus I have gained some experience, though at my own\n cost. The sermon did not touch the string with which I was whipped at\n the last visitation; and I afterwards had the boldness to go and dine\n with the Bishop.\n\n \u201cMany of my parishioners are strangely disconcerted at my bringing my\n gown back from Ludlow. With respect to the magistrate I mentioned to\n you in my last, because he acted as judge of the circuit two years\n ago, he now believes himself as able a lawyer as Judge Foster; but,\n for the present, he contents himself with threatenings. I met him the\n other day, and, after he had called me Jesuit, etc., and menaced me\n with his cane, he assured me that he would soon put down our\n assemblies. How ridiculous is this impotent rage!\n\n \u201cI have attempted to form a Society, and, in spite of much opposition\n and many difficulties, I hope to succeed. I preach, I exhort, I pray;\n but, as yet, I seem to have cast the net on the wrong side of the\n ship. Lord Jesus, come Thyself, and furnish me with a Divine\n commission!\n\n \u201cFor some months past, I have laboured under an insuperable\n drowsiness: I could sleep day and night; and the hours which I ought\n to employ with Christ on the mount, I spend like Peter in the\n garden.\u201d[84]\n\nFootnote 84:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 115.\n\nPoor Fletcher\u2019s troubles continued and increased. A month later, he\nwrote again to Charles Wesley, as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cI have still trials of all sorts. First, spiritual ones. My heart is\n hard; I have not that contrition, that filial fear, that sweet, humble\n melting of heart before the Lord, which I consider essential to\n Christianity.\n\n \u201cSecondly, the opposition made to my ministry increases. A young\n clergyman, who lives in Madeley Wood, where he has great influence,\n has openly declared war against me, by pasting on the church door a\n paper, in which he charges me with rebellion, schism, and being a\n disturber of the public peace. He puts himself at the head of the\n gentlemen of the parish (as they term themselves), and, supported by\n the Recorder of Wenlock, he is determined to put in force the\n Conventicle Act against me. A few weeks ago, the widow who lives in\n the Rock Church, and a young man, who read and prayed in my absence,\n were taken up. I attended them before the magistrate, and the young\n clergyman with his troop were present. They called me Jesuit, etc.;\n and the magistrate tried to frighten me, by saying that he would put\n the Act in force, though we should assemble only in my own house. I\n pleaded my cause as well as I could; but, seeing he was determined to\n hear no reason, I told him he must do as he pleased, and that, if the\n Act in question concerned us, we were ready to suffer all its rigours.\n In his rage, he went the next day to Wenlock, and proposed to grant a\n warrant to have me apprehended; but, as the other magistrates were of\n opinion that the business did not come under their cognizance, but\n belonged to the Spiritual Court, he was obliged to swallow his spittle\n alone.\n\n \u201cMr. Madan,[85] whom I have consulted, tells me the Act may be\n enforced against the mistress of the house, the young man, and all who\n were present. The churchwardens talk of putting me in the Spiritual\n Court for meeting in houses, etc.; but what is worst of all, three\n false witnesses offer to prove upon oath that I am a liar; and some of\n _my followers_ (as they are called) have dishonoured their profession,\n to the great joy of our adversaries.\n\n \u201cIn the midst of these difficulties I have reason to bless the Lord,\n that my heart is not troubled. Forget me not in your prayers.\u201d[86]\n\nFootnote 85:\n\n The Rev. Martin Madan, who, before he became a clergyman, was a\n barrister-at-law.\n\nFootnote 86:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 117.\n\nAll this braggart persecution seems to have ended in threats. Fletcher\nwrote again to Charles Wesley, on November 22, 1762:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe debates about the illegality of exhorting in houses (although\n only in my own parish) grew some time ago to such a height, that I was\n obliged to lay my reasons before the Bishop; but his lordship very\n prudently sends me no answer. I think he knows not how to disapprove,\n and yet dares not approve this methodistical way of procedure.\u201d[87]\n\nFootnote 87:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 124.\n\nSuch is a bird\u2019s-eye view of Fletcher\u2019s ministry and ministerial trials\nduring the first two years after his appointment to the living of\nMadeley in 1760. As an earnest evangelical clergyman of the Church of\nEngland, he almost stood alone. Shropshire had produced one like-minded\nminister; but he, the Rev. Mr. Hatton, was now in the Isle of Man. To\nthis gentleman, Fletcher, in his solitude, wrote as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _August 4, 1762_.\n\n \u201cREV. SIR,\u2014There are so few of our profession in this county who are\n not ashamed of the cross of Christ, and of the Homilies and Articles\n of our Church, that it gave me no small pleasure to hear you are not\n led away with the generality into dry empty notions of morality and\n formality,\u2014the two legs on which fashionable religion stalks through\n this so-called Christian land. May the Lord Jesus convince us daily\n more and more, by His Spirit, of sin in ourselves, and of\n righteousness in Him! May we, in the strength of our dying Samson,\n pull down the buildings of self-righteousness, though the consequence\n should be to see all our hopes of preferment and esteem buried in the\n ruins! May we never be led to preach another Gospel than that of\n Christ! \u2018He that believeth shall be saved; he that believeth not shall\n be damned\u2019 (Mark xvi. 16).\n\n \u201cI hope, Sir, you will not be discouraged. Regard not the wind, but\n sow your seed early and late; and the Lord of the harvest will give\n the increase, as seemeth best to His heavenly wisdom. I meet with many\n trials in my parish, but our faithful Lord opens always a door for me\n to escape; and so He will for you.\n\n \u201cI should be thankful to Providence, if your way should be made plain\n into this neighbourhood. You owe yourself to Shropshire in particular;\n and no county needs hands for the spiritual harvest more than this\n does. I pray that the Lord of the harvest may thrust you among us.\n\n \u201cI bespeak a sermon when you come to Salop; trusting that you will not\n be ashamed to bear witness to the truth as it is in Jesus, from so\n despised a pulpit as that of, dear Sir, your affectionate and weak\n fellow servant in the Gospel,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[88]\n\nFootnote 88:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1829, p. 175.\n\nFletcher longed for clerical sympathy and co-operation; but he had to\nwait for them. In all respects his position was a trying one. The Rev.\nMr. Gilpin, who afterwards was well acquainted with him, writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cCelebrated for the extensive ironworks carried on within its limits,\n Madeley was remarkable for little else than the ignorance and\n profaneness of its inhabitants, among whom respect to man was as\n rarely to be observed as piety towards God. In this benighted place,\n the Sabbath was openly profaned, and the most holy things\n contemptuously trampled under foot; even the restraints of decency\n were violently broken through, and the external form of religion held\n up as a subject of ridicule.\n\n \u201cImmediately upon his settling in this populous village, Mr. Fletcher\n entered upon the duties of his vocation with an extraordinary degree\n of earnestness and zeal. He saw the difficulties of his situation, and\n the reproaches to which he should be exposed by a conscientious\n discharge of the pastoral office; but, as a steward of the manifold\n grace of God, he faithfully dispensed the word of life, according as\n every man had need; instructing the ignorant, reasoning with\n gainsayers, exhorting the immoral, and rebuking the obstinate. Not\n content with discharging the stated duties of the Sabbath, he counted\n every day as lost in which he was not actually employed in the service\n of the Church. As often as a small congregation could be collected, he\n joyfully proclaimed to them the acceptable year of the Lord, whether\n it were in the church, in a private house, or in the open air.\u201d\n\n \u201cIt was a common thing, in his parish, for young persons of both sexes\n to meet together for what was called recreation; and that recreation\n usually continued from evening to morning, consisting chiefly in\n dancing, revelling, drunkenness, and obscenity. These licentious\n assemblies he considered a disgrace to the Christian name, and\n determined to exert his ministerial authority for their total\n suppression. Frequently he burst in upon them with a holy indignation,\n making war upon Satan in places peculiarly appropriated to his\n service.\u201d\n\n \u201cHis enemies wrested his words, misrepresented his actions, and cast\n out his name as evil; but whether he was insulted in his person, or\n injured in his property; whether he was attacked with open abuse, or\n pursued by secret calumny, he walked amid the most violent assaults of\n his enemies, as a man invulnerable; and while his firmness discovered\n that he was unhurt, his forbearance testified that he was unoffended.\u201d\n\n \u201cHad he aimed at celebrity as a public speaker, furnished as he was\n with the united powers of learning, genius, and taste, he might have\n succeeded beyond many; but his design was to _convert_ and not to\n _captivate_ his hearers; to secure their eternal interests, and not to\n obtain their momentary applause. Hence his \u2018_speech and his preaching\n were not with enticing words of man\u2019s wisdom, but in demonstration of\n the Spirit and of power_.\u2019 He spake as in the presence of God, and\n taught as one having Divine authority. There was an energy in his\n preaching that was irresistible. His subjects, his language, his\n gestures, the tone of his voice, and the turn of his countenance, all\n conspired to fix the attention and affect the heart. Without aiming at\n sublimity, he was truly sublime; and uncommonly eloquent without\n affecting the orator.\u201d[89]\n\nFootnote 89:\n\n \u201cThe Portrait of St. Paul.\u201d\n\nSuch is the testimony of a gentleman who, for a season, lived in\nFletcher\u2019s house, and for many years lived in the neighbourhood of\nFletcher\u2019s parish. It would be worse than foolish to add anything to it,\nexcept the remarks of Fletcher\u2019s friend and first biographer, John\nWesley:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher settled at Madeley in the year 1760, and from the\n beginning he was a laborious workman in his Lord\u2019s vineyard. At his\n first settling there, the hearts of several were unaccountably set\n against him, insomuch that he was constrained to warn some of these\n that if they did not repent God would speedily cut them off. And the\n truth of these predictions was shown over and over by the signal\n accomplishment of them.[90] But no opposition could hinder him from\n going on his Master\u2019s work, and suppressing vice in every possible\n manner. Those sinners who endeavoured to hide themselves from him he\n pursued to every corner of his parish by all sorts of means, public\n and private, early and late, in season and out of season, entreating\n and warning them to flee from the wrath to come. Some made it an\n excuse for not attending church that they could not awake early enough\n to get their families ready. He provided for this also. Taking a bell\n in his hand, he set out every Sunday at five in the morning, and went\n round the most distant parts of the parish, inviting all the\n inhabitants to the house of God.\n\n \u201cYet, notwithstanding all the pains he took, he saw for some time\n little fruit of his labour; insomuch that he was more than once in\n doubt whether he had not mistaken his place; whether God had indeed\n called him to confine himself to one town, or to labour more at large\n in His vineyard. He was not free from this doubt when a multitude of\n people flocked together at a funeral. He seldom let these awful\n opportunities slip without giving a solemn exhortation. At the close\n of the exhortation which was then given, one man was so grievously\n offended that he could not refrain from breaking out into scurrilous,\n yea, menacing language. But, notwithstanding all his struggling\n against it, the Word fastened upon his heart. At first, indeed, he\n roared like a lion; but he soon wept like a child. Not long after, he\n came to Mr. Fletcher in the most humble manner, asking pardon for his\n outrageous behaviour, and begging an interest in his prayers. This was\n such a refreshment as he stood in need of. In a short time, this poor\n broken-hearted sinner was filled with joy unspeakable. He then spared\n no pains in exhorting his fellow-sinners to flee from the wrath to\n come.\n\n \u201cIt was not long after, when, one Sunday evening, Mr. Fletcher, after\n performing the usual duty at Madeley, was about to set out for Madeley\n Wood, to preach and catechise as usual. But just then notice was\n brought (which should have been given before) that a child was to be\n buried. His waiting till the child was brought prevented his going to\n the wood; and herein the providence of God appeared. For at this very\n time, many of the colliers, who neither feared God nor regarded men,\n were baiting a bull just by the meeting-house; and, having had plenty\n to drink, they had all agreed, as soon as he came, _to bait the\n parson_. Part of them were appointed to pull him off his horse, and\n the rest to set the dogs upon him. One of these very men afterwards\n confessed that he was with them when this agreement was made; and that\n afterwards, while they were in the most horrid manner cursing and\n swearing at their disappointment, a large china punch-bowl, which held\n above a gallon, without any apparent cause (for it was not touched by\n any person or thing) fell all to shivers. This so alarmed him that he\n forsook all his companions, and determined to save his own soul.\u201d[91]\n\nFootnote 90:\n\n Jonathan Crowther, President of the Methodist Conference in 1819,\n relates, in his unpublished autobiography, the following anecdote:\n \u201cMrs. Fletcher told me that one Sunday, after the forenoon service,\n Mr. Preston, a gentleman farmer near Madeley, very grossly insulted\n Mr. Fletcher in the churchyard, and evinced great enmity against his\n faithful ministry. In his sermon in the afternoon, Mr. Fletcher said,\n he had a powerful impression that before the next Sabbath God would\n give a signal mark of His displeasure against the enemies of His cause\n and truth. The week was drawing to a close; nothing remarkable had\n happened; but on Saturday night, Mr. Preston, when returning home from\n market in a state of intoxication, fell from his horse and died on the\n spot.\u201d\n\nFootnote 91:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER V.\n _THREE QUIET, SUCCESSFUL YEARS._\n\n 1762\u20131765.\n\n\nIN the autumn of 1762 Methodism in London was in perilous confusion. Two\nyears before, Wesley had appointed Thomas Maxfield, one of his first\npreachers, to meet a select band, who professed to be entirely\nsanctified. Some of the members of this band soon had dreams, visions\nand impressions, as they thought, from God; and Maxfield, instead of\nrepressing their whimsies, encouraged them, so that their vagaries were\nsoon regarded as proofs of the highest state of grace. Some of the\npreachers rebuked these visionaries. This excited resentment, and they\nrefused to hear their rebukers preach. They became the avowed followers\nof Maxfield, who told them they were not to be taught by man, and\nespecially by those who had less grace than themselves. George Bell,\nconverted in 1758, and sanctified in 1761, joined them, and became\nwilder than the wildest of them. The result was, when Wesley returned to\nLondon in October, 1762, he found the Society there in a disgraceful\nuproar, and the followers of Maxfield and Bell formed into a sort of\ndetached connexion.[92] They called themselves \u201cthe witnesses.\u201d Wesley\nand his brother were in great distress. The latter wrote to Fletcher,\nand received the following reply:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _September 20, 1762_.\n\n \u201c\u2018_Crede quod habes, et habes_,\u2019 is not very different from those\n words of Christ, \u2018_What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe\n that ye receive them, and ye shall have them_.\u2019 The humble reason of\n the believer, and the irrational presumption of the enthusiast, draw\n this doctrine to the right hand or the left; but to split the\n hair\u2014here lies the difficulty. I have told you that _I am no party\n man_; I am neither for nor against the witness for Christian\n perfection _without examination_. I complain of those who deceive\n themselves; I honour those who do honour to their profession; and I\n wish we could find out the right way of reconciling the most profound\n humility with the most lively hopes of grace. I think you insist on\n the one and Maxfield on the other; and I believe you both sincere in\n your views. God bless you both; and if either of you goes too far, may\n the Lord bring him back!\u201d[93]\n\nFootnote 92:\n\n For a fuller account of this unhappy schism, see Tyerman\u2019s \u201cLife and\n Times of Wesley,\u201d vol. ii., pp. 432\u2013444.\n\nFootnote 93:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 121.\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _November 22, 1762_.\n\n \u201cBrother Ley[94] arrived here yesterday, and confirms the melancholy\n news of many of our brethren overshooting sober and steady\n Christianity in London. I feel a great deal for you and the Church in\n these critical circumstances. Oh that I could stand in the gap! Oh\n that I could, by sacrificing myself, shut this immense abyss of\n enthusiasm which opens its mouth among us!\n\n \u201cThe corruption of the best things is always the worst of corruptions.\n Going into an extreme of this nature, or only winking at it, will give\n an eternal sanction to the vile aspersions cast on all sides on the\n purest doctrines of Christianity; and we shall sadly overthrow,\n overthrow in the _worst manner_, what we have endeavoured to build for\n many years.\n\n \u201cI have a particular regard for Maxfield and Bell\u2014both of them are my\n correspondents. I am strongly prejudiced in favour of the witnesses,\n and do not willingly receive what is said against them; but allowing\n that what is reported is one-half mere exaggeration, the tenth part of\n the rest shows that spiritual pride, presumption, arrogance,\n stubbornness, party spirit, uncharitableness, prophetic mistakes, in\n short, _every sinew_ of enthusiasm is now at work in many of that\n body. I do not credit any one\u2019s bare word, but I ground my sentiments\n on Bell\u2019s own letters.\n\n \u201cMay I presume to lay before you my mite of observation? Would it be\n wrong in me calmly to sit down, with some unprejudiced friends and\n lovers of both parties, and to fix with them the marks and symptoms of\n enthusiasm; and then insist, at first in love, and afterwards, if\n necessary, with all the weight of my authority, upon those who _have\n them_ or _plead for them_, either to stand to the sober rule of\n Christianity, or _openly_ to depart from us?\n\n \u201cFear not, dear Sir, the Lord will take care of the ark. Have faith in\n the Word, and leave the rest to Providence. \u2018_The Lord will provide_\u2019\n is a comfortable motto for a believer.\u201d[95]\n\nFootnote 94:\n\n One of Wesley\u2019s Itinerant Preachers.\n\nFootnote 95:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 126.\n\nThus by proposing to act as mediator between the Wesleys and their\ndistracted followers in London did Fletcher end the eventful year of\n1762. In the middle of the year he told Charles Wesley that he had\n\u201cattempted to form a Society,\u201d and hoped to succeed. He drew up rules\nfor this Society.[96] First of all, he described \u201cthe nature of a\nReligious Society,\u201d and quoted Malachi iii. 16, Psalm lxvi. 16; Luke\nviii. 1\u20133; Acts i. 15, ii. 42\u201347; Heb. iii. 12, 13, x. 25; Col. iii. 16;\n1 Cor. xiv. 29\u201331; 1 Thess. v. 11\u201314; James v. 16; and Jude i. 18\u201321.\n\u201cEncouraged by these texts,\u201d said he, \u201ca few of us design to unite in a\nReligious Society to support and animate each other in the ways of\ngodliness.\u201d He proceeds:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn order to be admitted into the Society, one only condition is\n previously required, namely, a sincere desire to flee from the wrath\n to come, and to seek salvation from the servitude of sin according to\n the Gospel, and the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England,\n especially the ninth, tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth, which\n are earnestly recommended to the perusal of every person who would be\n a member.\n\n \u201cIt is, however, expected that the sincerity of such a desire be\n evinced by putting on the form of godliness, which we apprehend to\n consist in three things: 1. Doing no harm, Isa. i. 16; Rom. xii. 9. 2.\n Doing good, Isa. i. 17; Rom. xii. 9. 3. Using the means of grace, Luke\n i. 16, Isa. lv. 6.\u201d\n\nFootnote 96:\n\n He also drew up the following rules of daily self-examination for\n himself:\u2014\n\n \u201c1. Did I awake spiritual, and was I watchful in keeping my mind from\n wandering this morning when I was rising?\n\n \u201c2. Have I this day got nearer to God in times of prayer, or have I\n given way to a lazy, idle spirit?\n\n \u201c3. Has my faith been weakened by unwatchfulness, or quickened by\n diligence this day?\n\n \u201c4. Have I this day walked by faith and eyed God in all things?\n\n \u201c5. Have I denied myself in all unkind words and thoughts; have I\n delighted in seeing others preferred before me?\n\n \u201c6. Have I made the most of my precious time, as far as I had light,\n strength, and opportunity?\n\n \u201c7. Have I kept the issues of my heart in the means of grace, so as to\n profit by them?\n\n \u201c8. What have I done this day for the souls and bodies of God\u2019s dear\n saints?\n\n \u201c9. Have I laid out anything to please myself when I might have saved\n the money for the cause of God?\n\n \u201c10. Have I governed well my tongue this day, remembering that \u2018in a\n multitude of words there wanteth not sin\u2019?\n\n \u201c11. In how many instances have I denied myself this day?\n\n \u201c12. Do my life and conversation adorn the Gospel of Jesus\n Christ?\u201d[97]\n\nFootnote 97:\n\n \u201cThirteen Original Letters, by the Rev. John Fletcher. Bath: 1791,\u201d p.\n 38.\n\nUnder the first of these rules Fletcher mentions \u201ctaking the Lord\u2019s name\nin vain, either by profane cursing, swearing, or trivial exclamations;\u201d\nsabbath-breaking; uncleanness; drunkenness, or tippling, or going into a\npublic house, or staying without necessity; fighting; quarrelling;\nbrawling; railing, uncharitable conversation; filthy talking; jesting;\nevil speaking; attendance at balls, plays, races, cock-fightings and\nbull-baitings; gaming; song-singing; reading unprofitable books;\nsoftness; needless indulgence; putting on gaudy and costly apparel;\nsmuggling; taking advantage of a neighbour, etc.\n\nUnder the second, he includes doing good to the bodies of men; doing\ngood to the souls of men; discountenancing profaneness and immorality;\ndiligence in business; taking up the cross daily, etc.\n\nUnder the third, he names, the public worship of God in the church; the\nministry of the Word either read or expounded; the Lord\u2019s Supper; family\nprayer; private prayer; Scripture reading; fasting; and singing hymns\nand psalms.\n\nIt is needless to tell _Methodist_ readers that Fletcher\u2019s _rules_ are\n_substantially_ the same as the rules which Wesley drew up and published\nfor the Methodists in 1743, and which, excepting two or three trivial\nalterations, introduced in 1744, are the same now as they were then.\nFletcher, however, attached an \u201cAppendix\u201d to his rules, to the following\neffect:\u2014\n\n 1. That any one practising the Rules \u201cis to give in his or her name to\n the Director of the Society and the major part of the members; and\n they shall be joyfully admitted, be they high or low, old or young,\n learned or unlearned.\u201d\n\n 2. If any member fell into sin, he must be expelled.\n\n 3. If the expelled member wished to be re-admitted, he must\n acknowledge his error, and if, after a trial of three months, he\n appeared to be reformed, his re-admission should take place.\n\n 4. The members were to meet together one evening every week between\n seven and eight o\u2019clock.\n\n 5. They were to watch over each other in love.\n\n 6. They were not to be angry with those who spoke against the Society.\n\nThe probability is that Fletcher did not print his Rules, as Wesley had\ndone. Indeed, there was no need for this, as his Societies were few in\nnumber, and existed within a comparatively small area. It was an easy\nthing for Fletcher to read the rules to each Society as occasion\nrequired, and, perhaps, they were inscribed in the registers of\nattendance. Three years after Fletcher\u2019s death, the Rev. Melville Horne,\nhis successor at Madeley, printed and published them, and stated, in a\nPreface, that Fletcher drew them up soon after his settlement at\nMadeley, and revised and corrected them about the year 1777.\n\nIn another production, entitled \u201cHeads of Examination for Adult\nChristians,\u201d Fletcher set up a higher standard than his \u201cRules\u201d\ncontained. The following is an abridgment of the questions he wished his\npeople to propose to themselves:\u2014\n\n \u201cDo I feel any pride? Am I dead to all desire of praise? If any\n despise me, do I like them the worse for it? Or if they love and\n approve me, do I love them more on that account? Is Christ the life of\n all my affections and designs, as my soul is the life of my body? Have\n I always the presence of God? Does no cloud come between God and the\n eye of my faith? Am I saved from the fear of man? Do I speak plainly\n to all, neither fearing their frowns, nor seeking their favours? Am I\n always ready to confess Christ, to suffer with His people, and to die\n for His sake? Do I deny myself at all times, and take up my cross? Am\n I willing to give up my ease and convenience to oblige others, or do I\n expect them to conform to my hours, ways, and customs? Are my bodily\n senses and outward things all sanctified to me? Am I poor in spirit?\n Have I no false shame in approaching God? Do I not lean to my own\n understanding? Do I esteem every one better than myself? Do I never\n take that glory to myself which belongs to Christ? Does meekness bear\n rule over all my tempers, affections, and desires? Do I possess\n resignation, seeing God does, and will do, all for my good? Am I\n temperate, using the world, and not abusing it? Am I courteous, not\n severe; suiting myself to all with sweetness; striving to give no one\n pain, but to gain and win all for their good? Am I vigilant, redeeming\n time, and taking every opportunity of doing good? Do I perform the\n most servile offices, such as require labour and humiliation, with\n cheerfulness? Do I love God with all my heart? Do I constantly present\n myself, my time, my substance, talents, and all I have, a living\n sacrifice? Is every thought brought into subjection to Christ? Do I\n love my neighbour as myself? Do I think no evil, listen to no\n groundless surmises, nor judge from appearances? How am I in my sleep?\n If Satan presents any evil imagination, does my will immediately\n resist or give way to it? Do I bear the infirmities of age or sickness\n without seeking to repair the decays of nature by strong liquors? Or\n do I make Christ my sole support, casting the burden of a feeble body\n into the arms of His mercy?\u201d[98]\n\nFootnote 98:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 434.\n\nThis was the life Fletcher himself strove to live; and this was the life\nhe urged his Methodists to live.\n\nFletcher\u2019s Methodist Society at _Madeley_ was formed as early as the\nyear 1762; and one of its members soon involved him in trouble. Hence\nthe following, taken from a letter addressed to Charles Wesley:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _January 5, 1763_.\n\n \u201cAs to my parish, we are just where we were. We look for our\n Pentecost, but we do not pray sufficiently to obtain it. We are left\n in tolerable quiet by all but the sergeant, who sent a constable to\n make enquiry concerning the life of His Majesty\u2019s subjects, upon\n information that the cry of murder had been heard in my house on\n Christmas Day.\n\n \u201cThis report originated in the cries of a young woman, who is of our\n Society, and whom Satan has bound for some months. It seems to me as\n if that old murderer proposed to ruin the success of my ministry at\n Madeley, as he did in London, in the French Church, by means of Miss\n A\u2014\u2014d.\n\n \u201cThe young woman here emaciates her body by fastings; falls into\n convulsions, sometimes in the church, and sometimes in our private\n assemblies; and is perpetually tempted to suicide. Her constitution is\n considerably weakened, as well as her understanding. What to do in\n this case I know not; for those who are tempted in this manner pay as\n little regard to reason as the miserable people in Bedlam. Prayer and\n fasting are our only resources. We propose to represent her case to\n the Lord on Tuesday next, and on all the following Tuesdays. Aid the\n weakness of our prayers with all the power of yours.\u201d[99]\n\nFootnote 99:\n\n _Ibid._, 1791, p. 127.\n\nThis was a greater trial to Fletcher than, at first sight, appears. It\nseems to have led him to entertain the thought of resigning his living.\nMore than six months afterwards, in another letter to Charles Wesley, he\nwrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _July 26, 1763_.\n\n \u201cEverything here is pretty quiet now. Many of our offences die away;\n though, not long ago, I had trials in abundance. One of them might\n have made me quit Madeley; but the young person I mentioned as being\n sorely tempted of the devil, is happily delivered.\u201d[100]\n\nFootnote 100:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 133.\n\nFletcher\u2019s life at Madeley, during the year 1763, seems to have been a\nquiet one. Maxfield\u2019s quarrel with Wesley still continued, and Fletcher\ntook an interest in it. Wesley\u2019s annoyance was great, and his\nforbearance with the London fanatics exposed him to the censure of his\nfriends. John Downes, in a letter to Joseph Cownley, wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cI consider the follies and extravagance of the witnesses as the\n devices of Satan, to cast a blemish upon a real work of God. The more\n I converse with the solid ones, the more I long to experience what\n they do. It is a state worthy of a Christian. As to the follies of the\n enthusiasts, Mr. Charles hears every week less or more. He threatens,\n but cannot find in his heart to put in execution. The consequence is,\n the talk of all the town, and entertainment for the newspapers.\u201d\n\nOn February 1, 1763, Charles Wesley wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cSatan has made sad havoc of the flock. Four years ago, I gave warning\n of the flood of enthusiasm which has now overflowed us.\u201d\n\nA week later John Wesley remarked:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe mask is thrown off. George Bell, John Dixon, etc., have quitted\n the Society. I wrote to Thomas Maxfield, but was not favoured with an\n answer. This morning I wrote a second time, and received an answer\n indeed! The substance is, \u2018You take too much upon you.\u2019\u201d[101]\n\nFootnote 101:\n\n Tyerman\u2019s \u201cLife and Times of Wesley,\u201d vol. ii., p. 462.\n\nThese brief extracts are given to indicate the great commotion that at\nthis time existed. The excitement was not confined to London. It was\nshared by Mr. Samuel Hatton and Miss Hatton, both of them Fletcher\u2019s\nfriends and correspondents, and who seem to have resided at the ancient\ntown of Wem, about twenty miles from Madeley.[102] In a letter to Miss\nHatton, Fletcher expressed his views, as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _March 14, 1763_.\n\n \u201cMr. Maxfield\u2019s reply to Mr. Wesley seems to me just in _some_ points,\n and in _others_ too severe. Mr. Wesley is, perhaps, too tenacious of\n some expressions, and too prone to credit what he wishes concerning\n some mistaken witnesses of the state of fathers in Christ. Mr.\n Maxfield, perhaps, esteems too little the inestimable privilege of\n being perfected in that love which casts out fear. But, in general, I\n conceive that it would be better for babes, or young men in Christ, to\n cry for a growth in grace, than to dispute whether fathers in Christ\n enjoy such privileges.\u201d[103]\n\nFootnote 102:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 182.\n\nFootnote 103:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 130.\n\nA few weeks later, in a letter to Mr. Samuel Hatton, Fletcher wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _April 22, 1763_.\n\n \u201cI am quite of your opinion about the mischief that some professors do\n in the Church of Christ under the mask of sanctity; but my Master bids\n me bear with the tares until the harvest, lest, in rooting them up, I\n should promiscuously pull up the wheat also. As to Mr. Wesley\u2019s system\n of perfection, it tends rather to promote humility than pride, if I\n may credit his description of it in the lines following:\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018Now let me gain perfection\u2019s height,\n Now let me into _nothing_ fall,\n Be _less than nothing_ in Thy sight,\n And feel that Christ is _all in all_!\u2019\n\n \u201cMore than this I do not desire, and I hope that, short of this,\n nothing will satisfy either my dear friend or me.\u201d[104]\n\nFootnote 104:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 132.\n\nThe following letter, to Charles Wesley, refers to the same disturbance;\nbut it also mentions another matter of great interest. Six years ago,\nFletcher had become acquainted with Miss Bosanquet. During the present\nyear, he had commenced a correspondence, in the highest degree\nreligious, with Miss Hatton. He was a lone man, living among colliers.\nHe had lately been with Charles Wesley. Charles was an eminently social\nman, and had suggested to Fletcher that he would do well to marry.\nFletcher replied as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _September 9, 1763_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR SIR,\u2014I see that we ought to learn continually to cast our\n burdens upon the Lord, who alone can bear them without fatigue and\n pain. If Maxfield returns, the Lord may correct his errors, and give\n him so to insist on the fruits of faith as to prevent antinomianism. I\n believe him sincere; and, though obstinate and suspicious, I am\n persuaded he has a true desire to know the will and live the life of\n God. I reply in the same words you quoted to me in one of your\n letters,\u2014\u2018Don\u2019t be afraid of a wreck, for Jesus is in the ship.\u2019 After\n the most violent storm, the Lord will, perhaps, all at once, bring our\n ship into the desired haven.\n\n \u201cYou ask me a very singular question with respect to women; I shall,\n however, answer it with a smile, as I suppose you asked it. You might\n have remarked that, for some days before I set off for Madeley, I\n considered matrimony with a different eye to what I had done; and the\n person who then presented herself to my imagination was Miss\n Bosanquet. Her image pursued me for some hours the last day, and that\n so warmly, that I should, perhaps, have lost my peace if a suspicion\n of the truth of Juvenal\u2019s proverb, \u2018_Veniunt a dote sagittae_,\u2019 had\n not made me blush, fight, and fly to Jesus, who delivered me at the\n same moment from her image and the idea of marriage. Since that time,\n I have been more than ever on my guard against admitting the idea of\n matrimony, sometimes by the consideration of the love of Jesus, which\n ought to be my whole felicity; and, at others, by the following\n reflections.\n\n \u201cIt is true that the Scripture says that a good wife is the gift of\n the Lord; and it is also true that there may be one in a thousand; but\n who would put in a lottery where are nine hundred and ninety-nine\n blanks to one prize? And, suppose I could find this Ph\u0153nix, this woman\n of a thousand, what should I gain by it? A distressing refusal. How\n could she choose such a man as I? If, notwithstanding all my\n self-love, I am compelled cordially to despise myself, could I be so\n wanting in generosity as to expect another to do that for me, which I\n cannot do for myself\u2014to engage to love, to esteem, and to honour me?\n\n \u201cI will throw on my paper some reflections which the last paragraphs\n of your letter gave rise to, and I beg you will weigh them with me in\n the balances of the sanctuary.\n\n \u201cReasons for and against matrimony.\n\n \u201c1. A tender friendship is, after the love of Christ, the greatest\n felicity of life; and a happy marriage is nothing but such a\n friendship between two persons of different sexes.\n\n \u201c2. A wife might deliver me from the difficulties of housekeeping,\n etc.\n\n \u201c3. Some objections and scandals may be avoided by marriage.\n\n \u201c4. A pious and zealous wife might be as useful as myself; nay, she\n might be much more so among my female parishioners, who greatly want\n an inspectress.\n\n \u201c1. Death will shortly end all particular friendships. The happier the\n state of marriage, the more afflicting is the widowhood; besides, we\n may try a friend and reject him after trial; but we cannot know a wife\n till it is too late to part with her.\n\n \u201c2. Marriage brings after it a hundred cares and expenses; children, a\n family, etc.\n\n \u201c3. If matrimony is not happy, it is the most fertile source of\n scandal.\n\n \u201c4. I have a thousand to one to fear that a wife, instead of being a\n help, may be indolent, and consequently useless; or humoursome,\n haughty, capricious, and consequently a heavy curse.\n\n \u201cFarewell! Yours,\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[105]\n\nFootnote 105:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 144.\n\nThis is a curious letter. Eighteen years after the time when it was\nwritten, Fletcher married Miss Bosanquet. Probably the \u201creasons _for_\nmatrimony\u201d had been, in substance, suggested by Charles Wesley.\nFletcher\u2019s \u201creasons _against_ matrimony\u201d were undoubtedly sincere, but\nthey were unintentionally selfish, and were unworthy of him. Experience\ntaught him wisdom.\n\nBefore proceeding further, a remarkable occurrence must be noted. The\nchurch at Madeley is dedicated to St. Michael, whose feast-day is\nSeptember 29. On that day, in 1763, Fletcher preached from Dan. iii. 14,\nand concluded his discourse in words like these:\u2014\n\n \u201cFrom the dedication of our church, from days set apart to be kept\n holy, Satan takes occasion to enforce the worship of his threefold\n image, profit, honour, pleasure. Now remember the duty of God\u2019s\n people, and quit yourselves like men. Some petty Nebuchadnezzars have\n sent to gather together, not princes, but drunken men; and have set\n up, not a golden image, no, nor a golden calf, but a living bull.[106]\n O ye that fear God, be not afraid of their terror; be not allured by\n their music; confess the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. \u2018No\n other God can deliver after this sort,\u2019 said the heathen; and give me\n leave to add, \u2018No other God can punish after this sort.\u2019 The burning\n furnace of His indignation is heated; and eternity is the duration of\n its torments.\u201d[107]\n\nFootnote 106:\n\n The reference obviously is to a bull-baiting.\n\nFootnote 107:\n\n Fletcher\u2019s Works, vol. viii., p. 76.\n\nThe way in which Fletcher was led to preach this sermon on \u201cthe\nWake-Sunday\u201d was told by himself, and the story, after his death, was\npublished in a small tract, entitled, \u201cThe Furious Butcher Humbled: a\ntrue and remarkable story, as related by the late Rev. Mr. Fletcher,\nVicar of Madeley.\u201d The substance of it was also inserted in the\n_Evangelical Magazine_ for the year 1798. From that account, the\nfollowing is taken.\n\n \u201cOne Sunday,\u201d said Mr. Fletcher, \u201cwhen I had done reading prayers at\n Madeley, I went up into the pulpit, intending to preach a sermon,\n which I had prepared for that purpose; but my mind was so confused,\n that I could not recollect either my text or any part of my sermon. I\n was afraid I should be obliged to come down without saying anything.\n But, having recollected myself a little, I thought I would say\n something on the First Lesson, which was the third chapter of the book\n of Daniel, containing the account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego\n being cast into the fiery furnace. I found, in doing this, such\n extraordinary assistance from God, and such a peculiar enlargement of\n heart, that I supposed there must be some peculiar cause of it. I\n therefore desired, if any of the congregation found anything\n particular, they would acquaint me with it in the ensuing week.\n\n \u201cIn consequence of this, the Wednesday after, a woman came and gave me\n the following account:\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018I have been for some time much concerned about my soul. I have\n attended the church at all opportunities, and have spent much time in\n private prayer. At this, my husband (who is a butcher) has been\n exceedingly enraged, and has threatened me severely as to what he\n would do to me if I did not leave off going to John Fletcher\u2019s church;\n yea, if I dared to go again to any religious meetings whatever. When I\n told him I could not in conscience refrain from going, at least, to\n the parish church, he became outrageous, and swore dreadfully, and\n said, if I went again, he would cut my throat as soon as I came back.\n This made me cry to God that He would support me; and, though I did\n not feel any great degree of comfort, yet, having a sure confidence in\n God, I determined to do my duty, and leave the event to Him. Last\n Sunday, after many struggles with the devil and my own heart, I came\n downstairs ready for church. My husband said he should not cut my\n throat, as he had intended, but he would heat the oven, and throw me\n into it, the moment I came home. Notwithstanding this threat, which he\n enforced with many bitter oaths, I went to church, praying all the way\n that God would strengthen me to suffer whatever might befall me. While\n you were speaking of the three children whom Nebuchadnezzar cast into\n the burning fiery furnace, I found all you said belonged to _me_. God\n applied every word to my heart; and, when the sermon was ended, I\n thought, if I had a thousand lives, I could lay them all down for Him.\n I felt so filled with His love that I hastened home, fully determined\n to give myself to whatsoever God pleased; nothing doubting that He\n either would take me to heaven, if He suffered me to be burnt to\n death; or that He would in some way deliver me, as He did His three\n servants that trusted in Him. When I got to my own door, I saw flames\n issuing from the oven, and I expected to be thrown into it\n immediately. I felt my heart rejoice, that, if it were so, the will of\n the Lord would be done. I opened the door, and, to my utter\n astonishment, saw my husband upon his knees, praying for the\n forgiveness of his sins. He caught me in his arms; earnestly begged my\n pardon; and has continued diligently seeking God ever since.\u2019\u201d\n\nSuch was the poor woman\u2019s story. After listening to it, Fletcher cried,\n\u201cNow I know why my sermon was taken from me, namely, that God might thus\nmagnify His mercy.\u201d\n\nNothing need be added, except that to attribute these strange\noccurrences to anything less than the direct interference of Him who has\nsupreme authority over all human minds and hearts would be infidelity of\nthe most impious kind.\n\nNothing is known of Fletcher\u2019s life during the year 1764. It is a\nsingular fact, that only three of his letters, belonging to this period,\nhave been published, and these were all addressed to his friend, at Wem,\nMiss Hatton. They are entirely devoid of incident; but are full of\npiety. The following are extracts:\u2014\n\n \u201cMadeley, March 5, 1764. Your dulness in private prayer arises from\n the want of familiar friendship with Jesus. To obviate it, go to your\n closet, as if you were going to meet your dearest friend; cast\n yourself at His feet; bemoan your coldness; extol His love to you; and\n let your heart break with a desire to love Him. Get _recollection_,\u2014a\n dwelling within ourselves,\u2014a being abstracted from the creature, and\n turned towards God. For want of such a frame, our times of prayer are\n frequently dry and useless; imagination prevails, and the heart\n wanders; whereas we pass easily from recollection to delightful\n prayer.\u201d[108]\n\n \u201cMadeley, September 3, 1764. With respect to the hindrances your\n worldly business lays in your way, the following means, in due\n subordination to faith in Jesus, may be of service to you you:\u2014\n\n \u201c1. Get up early and save time, before you go to business, to put on\n the _whole armour of God_, by close meditation and earnest prayer.\n\n \u201c2. Consider the temptation that most easily besets you, whether it be\n hurry, or vanity, or lightness, or want of recollection to do what you\n do as unto God.\n\n \u201c3. When your mind has been drawn aside, do not fret, or let yourself\n go down the stream of nature, as if it were vain to attempt to swim\n against it; but confess your fault, and calmly resume your former\n endeavour, but with more humility and watchfulness.\n\n \u201c4. Steal from business now and then, though for two or three minutes\n only, and, in the corner where you can be least observed, pour out\n your soul in confession; or utter a short ejaculation for power to\n watch, and to believe that Jesus can keep you watching.\u201d[109]\n\n \u201cMadeley, _December, 1764_. I am sensible how I want advice in a\n thousand particulars, and how incapable I am to direct anyone; but the\n following observations came to my mind on the reading of your letter,\n and I venture to send them.\n\n \u201cYou cannot expect to attain to such a carriage as will please all you\n converse with. The Son of God, the _original_ of all human perfection,\n was blamed, sometimes for His silence, and sometimes for His speaking;\n and shall the handmaid be above her Master?\n\n \u201cThere is no sin in wearing such things as you have by you, if they\n are necessary for _your station_, and characterize your _rank_.\n\n \u201cThere is no sin in _looking cheerful_. \u2018_Rejoice evermore_:\u2019 and, if\n it is our duty always to be _filled with joy_, it is our duty to\n _appear_ what we are in reality. I hope, however, your friends know\n how to distinguish between _cheerfulness_ and _levity_.\n\n \u201cBeware of stiff singularity in things _barely indifferent_: it is\n _self_ in disguise; and it is so much the more dangerous when it comes\n recommended by a serious, self-denying, religious appearance.\n\n \u201cI hope the short-comings of some about you will not prevent you\n eyeing the prize of a glorious conformity to our blessed Head. It is\n to be feared that not a few of those who profess to have attained it,\n have mistaken the way. They are still _something_; whereas I apprehend\n that an important step towards that conformity is to become _nothing_;\n or rather, with St. Paul,\u2014to become in our own eyes the _chief of\n sinners_, and the _least of saints_.\u201d[110]\n\nFootnote 108:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 147.\n\nFootnote 109:\n\n _Ibid._, 1791, p. 151.\n\nFootnote 110:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 153.\n\nThese fragmentary extracts are of some importance, because they indicate\nthe matters respecting which Fletcher was consulted, and also exhibit\nhis own habitual frame of mind.\n\nBefore leaving the year 1764, one incident must be mentioned, far too\ninteresting to be omitted. So far as there is evidence to show, there\nhad been no interview, and, indeed, no correspondence, between Fletcher\nand Wesley since the year 1760, when Fletcher, contrary to the advice of\nWesley, accepted the living of Madeley. There is not the slightest proof\nof any estrangement of affection having taken place; but Fletcher had\nbeen too much occupied to visit Wesley in London; and Wesley,\nconsidering the opposition Fletcher had to encounter, had, hitherto, not\ndeemed it expedient to visit Fletcher at Madeley. As to epistolary\ncorrespondence, Charles Wesley was Fletcher\u2019s chosen adviser; and that,\nfor the present, was quite enough. The Madeley persecutions had now\nsubsided; and, hence, in the month of July, 1764, the _Arch-Methodist_\nventured to invade the parish of the Madeley vicar. He wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201c1764, Saturday, July 21. I rode to Bilbrook, near Wolverhampton, and\n preached at between two and three. Thence we went on to Madeley, an\n exceedingly pleasant village, encompassed with trees and hills. It was\n a great comfort to me to converse once more with a Methodist of the\n _old type_, denying himself, taking up his cross, and resolved to\n be\u201d.bn 117.png\n\n \u201cSunday, July 22. At ten, Mr. Fletcher read prayers, and I preached on\n those words in the Gospel,\u201dThe church would nothing near contain the\n congregation; but a window near the pulpit being taken down, those who\n could not come in stood in the churchyard, and I believe all could\n hear. The congregation, they said, used to be much smaller in the\n afternoon than in the morning; but I could not discern the least\n difference, either in number or seriousness. I found employment enough\n for the intermediate hours in praying with various companies who hung\n about the house, insatiably hungering and thirsting after the good\n word. Mr. Grimshaw, at his first coming to Haworth, had not such a\n prospect as this. There are many adversaries indeed; but yet they\n cannot shut the open and effectual door.\n\n \u201cMonday, July 23. The church was pretty well filled even at five, and\n many stood in the churchyard. In the evening, I preached at\n Shrewsbury, to a large congregation, among whom were several men of\n fortune. I trust, though hitherto we seem to have been ploughing on\n the sand, there will at last be some fruit.\u201d[111]\n\nFootnote 111:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\nWesley\u2019s first visit to Madeley was, to himself, eminently satisfactory;\nand his report of it shows that, notwithstanding the \u201cmany adversaries,\u201d\nFletcher\u2019s labours had been crowned with great success.\n\nTruly might Wesley designate Fletcher \u201ca Methodist of the old type,\n_denying himself_, and taking up his cross.\u201d The following letter,\naddressed \u201cto Mr. Henry Perronet, at Mr. Wright\u2019s, at the Boot, in Old\nStreet, St. Luke\u2019s Parish, London,\u201d will partly illustrate Wesley\u2019s\nmeaning.\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _November 6, 1765_.\n\n \u201cSIR,\u2014I have received both your letter and Mr. Charles Wesley\u2019s, and\n shall be exceeding glad of an opportunity to oblige or serve you in\n anything in my power.\n\n \u201cAs you seem to me a stranger to the situation of the country, I would\n have you come down first, and choose for yourself a spot that may suit\n your taste. I live here in a little market-town, three or four miles\n from the foot of the Wrekin, at the south-east of that hill; so that\n you may easily take a walk or ride with me to some of the spots or\n villages where you may prefer to fix your abode, if this does not\n please you. I live alone in my house, having neither wife, child, nor\n servant. I can, therefore, without inconveniency, spare you a room in\n the meantime. If you choose to provide your food, you shall have\n conveniences for it; if you choose to table with a neighbour, as I do,\n you may.\n\n \u201cYou seem to be cut out for contemplation and retirement, Sir; I hope\n you have made choice of Jesus for the chief subject of your\n meditations. May you find much of His presence everywhere!\n\n \u201cIf you choose to venture into Shropshire, you may take the Shrewsbury\n coach at the Swan, in Lad Lane, somewhere in the city, and in two days\n and a half you will be at Shiffnal, eighteen miles short of\n Shrewsbury, and three from Madeley. If you send me word when you are\n to set out, I will send my mare to meet you at the Red Lion, in\n Shiffnal, the day that the coach passes through the town.\n\n \u201cThat the Lord may direct and prosper you in all things is the wish\n of, Sir, your affectionate servant in Christ,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[112]\n\nFootnote 112:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1825, p. 744.\n\nAs a farther illustration of Fletcher\u2019s simplicity of living, and of his\nhabitual piety, an incident may be introduced, belonging to _about_ this\nperiod, and published in a sermon preached on the occasion of the death\nof Fletcher\u2019s widow, in 1816, by the Rev. John Hodson. Mr. Hodson says:\u2014\n\n \u201cA few days ago, I was in company with a pious female, who, for many\n years, was intimately acquainted with Mr. Fletcher. She said Mr.\n Fletcher sometimes visited a boarding-school at Madeley. One morning\n he came in just as she and the other girls had sat down to breakfast.\n He said but little while the meal lasted, but when it was finished he\n spoke to each girl separately, and concluded by saying to the whole,\n \u2018I have waited some time on you this morning, that I might see you eat\n your breakfast; and I hope you will visit me to-morrow morning, and\n see how I eat mine.\u2019 He told them his breakfast hour was seven\n o\u2019clock, and obtained a promise that they would visit him. Next\n morning, they went at the time appointed, and seated themselves in the\n kitchen. Mr. Fletcher came in, quite rejoiced to see them. On the\n table stood a small basin of milk and sops of bread. Mr. Fletcher took\n the basin across the kitchen, and sat down on an old bench. He then\n took out his watch, laid it before him, and said, \u2018My dear girls,\n yesterday morning I waited on you a full hour, while you were at\n breakfast. I shall take as much time this morning in eating my\n breakfast as I usually do, if not rather more. Look at my watch!\u2019 and\n he immediately began to eat, and continued in conversation with them.\n When he had finished, he asked them how long he had been at breakfast.\n They said, \u2018Just a minute and a half, Sir.\u2019 \u2018Now, my dear girls,\u2019 said\n he, \u2018we have fifty-eight minutes of the hour left;\u2019 and he then began\n to sing,\u2014\n\n \u2018Our life is a dream!\n Our time as a stream\n Glides swiftly away,\n And the fugitive moment refuses to stay.\u2019\n\n After this, he gave them a lecture on the value of time, and the worth\n of the soul. They then all knelt down in prayer, after which he\n dismissed them with impressions on the mind the narrator never ceased\n to remember.\u201d\n\nAt Wesley\u2019s yearly Conference of 1765, Alexander Mather was appointed to\n\u201cSalop\u201d circuit, with William Minethorpe as his colleague. Mr. Mather\nwas now in the thirty-third year of his age. During the last eight\nyears, he had been an itinerant preacher, and had passed through strange\nand painful vicissitudes. In 1760 his circuit had been \u201cStaffordshire;\u201d\nin which circuit he had \u201cbuilt a preaching-house at Darlaston, and hired\na large building at Birmingham.\u201d He had extended his labours as far as\nShrewsbury, Coventry, Stroud, and Painswick; and, by Wesley\u2019s\ndirections, had visited the \u201cSocieties\u201d in Wales. At Birmingham, Mather\nand the poor Methodists had been repeatedly in danger of being murdered\nby persecuting crowds; and at Wolverhampton the mob had pulled down the\nnewly-built meeting-house; and had threatened to do the same at Dudley,\nDarlaston, and Wednesbury. He had also preached at several places in\nShropshire, and now, in 1765, the county was made a Methodist circuit,\nin which he was appointed to act as Wesley\u2019s \u201cAssistant.\u201d Fletcher had\nalready formed two or three Societies, which, without being so\ndesignated, were, _ipso facto_, Methodist Societies. He warmly welcomed\nMather, and was more than willing to be a Methodist co-worker. Hence the\nfollowing letter addressed to the brave itinerant:\u2014\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014I thank you for your last favour. If I answered not\n your former letter it was because I was in expectation of seeing\n you\u2014not from the least disregard. I am glad you enjoy peace at\n Wellington; and I hope you will do so at the Trench when you go there.\n My reasons for stopping there were not to seize upon the spot _first_,\n but to fulfil a promise I made to the people, of visiting them. I\n _desire_ you will call there as often as you have opportunity. An\n occasional exhortation from you or your companion,[113] at the\n Bank,[114] Dale,[115] etc., will be esteemed a favour; and I hope that\n my going, as Providence directs, to any of your places (leaving to you\n the management of the Societies), will be deemed no encroachment. In\n short, we need not make _two parties_; I know but _one_ heaven below,\n and that is Jesus\u2019s love. Let us both go and abide in it; and when we\n have gathered as many as we can to go with us, too many will still\n stay behind.\n\n \u201cI find there are in the ministry, as in the common experience of\n Christians, times which may be compared to winter. No great stir is\n made in the world of grace beside that of storms and offences, and the\n growth of the trees of the Lord are not showy; but when the tender\n buds of brotherly and redeeming love begin to fill, spring is at hand.\n The Lord give us harvest after seed time! Let us wait for fruit, as\n the husbandman; and remember, that he who believes does not make\n haste. The love of Christ be with us all. Pray for\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[116]\n\nFootnote 113:\n\n William Minethorpe, Mather\u2019s colleague.\n\nFootnote 114:\n\n A place about five miles from Madeley, where Fletcher had gathered a\n small Society.\n\nFootnote 115:\n\n Coalbrook Dale.\n\nFootnote 116:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 163.\n\nThus began Methodism in the county of Salop, which circuit, in 1766,\ncontained 587 members. It is only right to say, however, that, in the\nMinutes of Conference, the name of the circuit was, in that year,\nchanged to \u201cStaffordshire,\u201d\u2014a name which it retained till 1782, though\nit embraced a number of towns and villages in the county where the\nMadeley vicar lived and laboured.\n\nIn 1765 Fletcher made two evangelistic visits. The first of these was to\nBreedon, in Leicestershire. Walter Sellon had been one of the first\nmasters of Wesley\u2019s Kingswood school, had acted as one of Wesley\u2019s\npreachers, and, by the influence of the Countess of Huntingdon, had\nreceived episcopal ordination. At this period, he held two curacies, one\nat Smisby and the other at Breedon-on-the-Hill. His churches were\ngenerally crowded, and his ministry was attended with uncommon power. He\nlived in the house of Mr. Hall, of Tonge, the leader of Methodist\nSociety classes at Breedon, Worthington, and Diseworth, and who, after\nliving all his life in the house where he was born, peacefully fell\nasleep in Jesus in the year 1813, at the age of eighty-one.[117] Of\ncourse Fletcher\u2019s reputation was well known by Sellon; and now, in 1765,\nfor a brief season, they exchanged pulpits. Immense crowds assembled;\nand exceedingly picturesque must have been the sight of long processions\nof pious people climbing the lofty hill on the top of which Breedon\nchurch was built, and singing as they went their sweet songs of Zion.\nThe church was crammed when Fletcher preached; numbers stood outside;\nand as many as could clambered to the windows to look at the seraphic\nminister to whom they wished to listen.[118] Mr. Benson, in his \u201cLife of\nFletcher,\u201d relates an incident which must not be omitted here. Human\nnature is the same all the world over, and throughout all generations.\n\nFootnote 117:\n\n _Methodist Magazine_, 1818, pp. 49\u201357.\n\nFootnote 118:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1856, pp. 36\u201338.\n\nWe are told the clerk of Breedon church was offended because the crowds\nattending it increased his labour in cleaning it. Turning his\nworldly-wisdom to practical account, he began to charge persons, from\nother parishes, a penny each for admission, and stood at the church door\nto collect the money. Whilst he was doing this, Fletcher was prayerfully\nascending the steep hill, and reverentially contemplating the solemn\nservice upon which he was about to enter. One of the congregation went\nto meet him, and told him of the clerk\u2019s worldliness. Fletcher was\nshocked at the behaviour of his ecclesiastical subordinate, and\nhastening up the steep ascent, exclaimed, \u201cI\u2019ll stop his proceeding.\u201d\nThe clerk, however, was more nimble than the priest. Before Fletcher\ncould reach the money-gate the clerk was in his desk, ready to read\nresponses and perform all the other duties pertaining to his office.\nPerhaps he thought he had cleverly escaped detection and reproof, but\nthe sordid creature was mistaken. Fletcher went through the service, and\nthen remarked, \u201cFor sixteen years I have not been so moved as I have\nbeen to-day. I am told that the clerk beneath me has demanded, and has\nactually received, money from strangers before he would suffer them to\nenter the church. I desire all who have paid the money to come to me,\nand I will return what they have paid; and as to this iniquitous clerk,\nhis money perish with him!\u201d\n\nThis interesting story is not without its use, for it exhibits\nFletcher\u2019s almost stern fidelity, and also the spirit of parish clerks\nmore than a hundred years ago. It would be unfair, however, to ostracize\nthe Breedon official as one whose worldly wickedness is without a\nparallel; for there is little room to doubt that even at the present day\nlargess is often levied upon congregations, if not by responding clerks,\nby doorkeepers and other officials belonging to the ecclesiastical\nedifices of an age which thinks itself greatly in advance of its\npredecessors.\n\nFletcher made another and more important Gospel tour during the year\n1765. For the first time, he visited Bath and Bristol. In the former\ncity, Lady Huntingdon had erected a chapel, and had summoned six\nclergymen of the Church of England to assist at the opening; namely,\nWhitefield, Romaine, Venn, Madan, Shirley, and Townsend. This took place\non October 6, 1765.[119] Fletcher came after them, and preached to the\naristocratic congregations in her ladyship\u2019s meeting-house with\nextraordinary zeal and earnestness. The Countess wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cDeep and awful are the impressions made on every hand. Dear Mr.\n Fletcher\u2019s preaching is truly apostolic. The Divine blessing\n accompanies his word in a very remarkable manner. He is ever at his\n work, is amazingly followed, and is singularly owned of God.\u201d[120]\n\nFootnote 119:\n\n See \u201cLife of Whitefield,\u201d vol. ii., p. 489.\n\nFootnote 120:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. i., p. 469.\n\nDuring his stay at Bath, Fletcher wrote his _first pastoral letter_,\nwhich was addressed, \u201cTo those who love the Lord Jesus Christ in or\nabout Madeley. Peace be multiplied to you from God the Father, and from\nour Lord Jesus Christ, through the operations of the Holy Ghost. Amen.\u201d\nThe letter was dated \u201cBath, October 30, 1765,\u201d and the following is the\nsubstance of it:\u2014\n\n \u201cBy the help of Divine Providence, and the assistance of your prayers,\n I came safe hither last Saturday se\u2019nnight. I was and am still a good\n deal weighed down under the sense of my insufficiency to preach the\n unspeakable riches of Christ to poor dying souls. This place is the\n seat of Satan\u2019s gaudy throne; but the Lord hath nevertheless a few\n names here that are not ashamed of Him, both among the poor and among\n the rich. There are not many of the latter, but blessed be God for any\n one! It is a great miracle if one camel passes through the eye of a\n needle; or, in other words, if one rich person enters the kingdom of\n God. I thank God that none of you are rich in the things of this\n world. You are freed from a dreadful snare, even from Dives\u2019 portion\n in this world. May you know the happiness of your state! It is a mercy\n to be driven to the throne of grace even by bodily want, and to live\n in dependence on Divine mercy even for a morsel of bread.\n\n \u201cI have been sowing the seed, that the Lord hath given, both in Bath\n and Bristol; and, though I have not been able to discharge my office\n as I would, the Lord has in some measure stood by me, and overruled my\n foolishness and helplessness. I am much supported by the thought that\n \u2018you pray for me.\u2019 With regard to the state of my soul, I find,\n blessed be God! that as my day is, so is my strength to travel on,\n without minding much either good or bad report.\n\n \u201cMy absence from you answers two good ends in regard of me. I feel\n more my insufficiency, and the need of being daily ordained of Christ\n to preach His Gospel; and I shall value the more the worth of my\n privilege with you if I return safely to you. I had yesterday a most\n advantageous offer made me of going free of cost to my own country, to\n see my mother, brothers, and sisters in the flesh, whom I have not\n seen for near eighteen years; but I find my relations in the spirit\n are nearer and dearer to me than my relations in the flesh. I have\n therefore refused the kind offer, that I might return to you, and be\n comforted by the mutual faith of you and me.\n\n \u201cI hope, my dear brethren, that you improve much under the ministry of\n that faithful servant of God, Mr. Brown,[121] whom Providence blesses\n you with. Make haste to gather the honey of knowledge and grace as it\n drops from his lips; and may I find the hive of your heart so full of\n it at my return, that I may share with you in the heavenly store!\n\n \u201cIn order to this, entreat the Lord to stir up your hunger and thirst\n after the flesh and blood of Jesus, and to increase your desire for\n the sincere milk of the Word. When people are hungry they will find\n time to go to their meals; and a good appetite does not think a meal a\n day too much. Be not satisfied with knowing the way to heaven, but\n walk in it constantly and joyfully. Be thoroughly in earnest. You may\n impose upon your brethren by a formal attendance on the means of\n grace, but you cannot deceive the Searcher of hearts. Let Him then see\n your heart struggling towards Him; and if you fall through heaviness,\n sloth, or unbelief, do not make a bad matter worse by continuing\n hopeless in the ditch of sin and guilt. Up and away to the blood of\n Jesus! It will not only wash away the guilt of past sins, but\n strengthen you to trample all iniquity under foot in the time to come.\n Never forget that the soul of the diligent shall be made fat; and that\n the Lord will spue the lukewarm out of His mouth. Get, therefore, that\n love which makes you diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving\n the Lord.\n\n \u201cI beg you will not neglect the assembling of yourselves together,\n and, when you meet in Society, be neither backward nor forward to\n speak. Let every one esteem himself the meanest in the company, and be\n glad to sit at the feet of the lowest. If you are tempted against any\n one, yield not to the temptation; and pray for much of that love which\n hopeth all things, and puts the best constructions even upon the worst\n of things. I beg, for Christ\u2019s sake, I may find no division and no\n offence among you at my return. \u2018If there be any consolation in\n Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if\n any bowels of mercy, fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like-minded, having\n the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done\n through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem\n the others better than himself.\u2019\n\n \u201cI earnestly beg the continuance of your prayers for me, that the Lord\n may keep me from hurting His cause in these parts, and that when\n Providence shall bring me back among you (which I hope will be this\n day fortnight), I may be thoroughly furnished for every good word and\n work. That the blessing of God may crown all your hearts and your\n meetings, is the earnest prayer of, my very dear brethren,\n\n \u201cYour unworthy servant in the Gospel of our common Lord,\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\n\n \u201cP.S.\u2014I had not time to finish this letter yesterday, being called\n upon to preach in a market town in the neighbourhood. The dragon\n showed some of his spite and venom to little purpose. A gentleman\n churchwarden would hinder my getting into the pulpit, and, in order to\n this, cursed and swore, and took another gentleman by the collar in\n the middle of the church. Notwithstanding his rage, I preached. May\n the Lord raise in power what was sown in weakness!\u201d[122]\n\nFootnote 121:\n\n A clergyman whom James Ireland, Esq., of Brislington, near Bristol,\n had obtained to supply Fletcher\u2019s pulpit at Madeley. See a subsequent\n letter, dated April 27, 1767.\n\nFootnote 122:\n\n \u201cThirteen Original Letters.\u201d By the Rev. J. Fletcher. Bath: 1791, p.\n 10.\n\nFrom this interesting letter, it appears that Fletcher spent four\nSundays at Bath and Bristol. No doubt, he was the guest of the Countess\nof Huntingdon; but, at the same time, he formed an acquaintance with the\nexcellent James Ireland, Esq., of Brislington, with whom he commenced a\ncorrespondence two or three months afterwards, which was continued to\nthe end of life. There can hardly be a doubt that Mr. Ireland was the\ngentleman who offered to take Fletcher to Switzerland, free of cost. At\nthis time, Mr. Ireland\u2019s daughter was out of health, and for many years\nafterwards he was accustomed to go to the south of France for the\nbenefit of himself and his family.\n\nEighteen years had elapsed since Fletcher had seen his mother, his\nbrothers, and his sisters, and of course he wished to visit them; but\nthere was his work at Madeley, and that was enough to make him forego\nwhat, under other circumstances, must have been an unspeakable pleasure.\nSome will accuse him of the want of natural affection, and will say he\nowed duties to his distant and long unseen relatives, as well as to his\nparishioners. Probably, in answer to such a charge, he would have quoted\nthe words of his supreme Master: \u201cWho is my mother? and who are my\nbrethren? Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven,\nthe same is my brother, and sister, and mother.\u201d\n\nIt is evident, from Fletcher\u2019s pastoral epistle, that his preaching in\nthe west of England was not confined to Bath and Bristol; but, except\nthe disgraceful incident of the profane churchwarden swearing and almost\nfighting to keep him out of the pulpit of a church in some neighbouring\nmarket town, no details of his tour have been preserved. The letters and\njournals of Wesley and Whitefield abound with facts and adventures, full\nof interest and instruction: the letters of Fletcher were of another\ncharacter. They are rich in truth and piety; but not always in materials\nfor biography. His habitual self-abnegation kept in the shade thousands\nof facts which the curiosity of the Christian world would like to know.\n\nThe first two years he spent at Madeley were rough and stormy. He worked\nwith all his might, but with small results. The next three years were\ncomparatively calm and prosperous. Opposition gradually died. His\nlabours were attended with success. He formed several Societies of\nconverted people; and his friend Wesley made the county of Salop a\nMethodist circuit. For nearly five years he had confined his\nevangelistic efforts to his own immediate neighbourhood; after this, to\na considerable extent, he became an itinerant. Let us follow him.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VI.\n _TWO YEARS MORE._\n\n 1766 AND 1767.\n\n\nFLETCHER began the year 1766 in mournfulness, and yet full of love and\nloyalty to Christ. In a letter to Miss Hatton, he wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _January 13, 1766_.\n\n \u201cMADAM,\u2014This evening I have buried one of the warmest opposers of my\n ministry\u2014a stout, strong young man, aged twenty-four years. About\n three months ago, he came to the churchyard with a corpse, but refused\n to come into the church. When the burial was over, I went to him, and\n mildly expostulated with him. His constant answer was, that he had\n bound himself never to come to church while I was there; adding, that\n he would take the consequences. Seeing I got nothing, I left him,\n saying, with uncommon warmth, though, as far as I can remember,\n without the least touch of resentment, \u2018I am clear of your blood;\n henceforth it is upon your own head; you will not come to church upon\n your legs, prepare to come upon your _neighbours\u2019 shoulders_!\u2019 He\n wasted from that time, and, to my great surprise, has been buried on\n the spot where we were when the conversation passed between us. When I\n visited him in his sickness, he seemed _tame_, as a wolf in a trap. O\n may God have turned him into a sheep in his last hours!\n\n \u201cThis last year has been the worst I have had here,\u2014barren in\n convictions, fruitful in backslidings.\n\n \u201cI have filled my page, but not with the name of Jesus. Let your heart\n contain what my letter wants,\u2014_Jesus and His precious blood_,\u2014_Jesus\n and His free, glorious salvation_. Live to Him; breathe for Him; buy,\n sell, eat, drink, read, write for Him. Receive Him as _yours_\n altogether, and give Him your _whole_ self. Take us, Lord, into Thy\n gracious favour; stamp us with Thy glorious image, and conduct us to\n Thy eternal kingdom!\u201d[123]\n\nFootnote 123:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 165.\n\nFletcher was depressed. His labours at Madeley, during the past year,\nhad not been fruitful; and concerning his success even at Bath he was\ndoubtful. Mr. Brown, his temporary curate, however, seems to have been\nuseful; and so also were Wesley\u2019s itinerant evangelists; on account of\nwhich he thankfully rejoiced. In another letter to Miss Hatton, he\nwrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _May 27, 1766_.\n\n \u201cThe coming of Mr. Wesley\u2019s preachers into my parish gives me no\n uneasiness. As I am sensible that everybody does better, and is more\n acceptable than myself, I should be sorry to deprive any one of a\n blessing; and I rejoice that the work of God goes on, by _any\n instrument_, or in _any place_. How far it might have been expedient\n to have postponed preaching regularly in my parish, till the minister\n of \u2014\u2014 had been reconciled to the invasion of his; and how far this\n might have made my way smoother, I do not pretend to determine: time\n will show it, and in the meanwhile I find it good to have faith in\n Providence.\n\n \u201cI fear I have left as great a stink at Bath as Mr. Brown a sweet\n savour here. Everything is good to me that shows me my\n unprofitableness; but I desire to grieve, that the good of my private\n humiliation is so much overbalanced by the loss of many about\n me.\u201d[124]\n\nFootnote 124:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 169.\n\nThus did Fletcher depreciate himself. The truth is, he was in feeble\nhealth, and hardly knew it. At this time, also, two of his dear friends\nwere dying\u2014Miss Hatton, of Wem, and Miss Ireland, the only daughter of\nJames Ireland, Esq., of Brislington, Bristol. Miss Hatton had been at\nMadeley, and Miss Ireland was about to migrate to the south of France.\nTo these ladies, he wrote as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _June 21, 1766_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014I am much concerned to hear, by Mrs. Tower, that you\n are so weak; but my concern has greatly increased, since I was told\n that the foundation of your illness was laid at Madeley; and, I am\n afraid, by my imprudence in taking you to the woman with whom we\n received the sacrament. I ask God\u2019s pardon and yours for it; and I\n hope it will be the means of humbling me, and of making me more tender\n of my friends.\n\n \u201cThe advice you give me about my health is seasonable. I hope to\n follow it. I am not conscious of having neglected it; but I will\n endeavour that there be not so much as the shadow of a call for\n repeating it.\n\n \u201cIf the air at Wem does not agree with you, could you not come to\n Madeley? Though I am no nurse, and though I have been the contrary of\n one to you, I hope we should wait upon you with more tenderness than\n when you were here last. Mrs. Power would nurse you, and I would talk\n to you of the love of Jesus as well as I could. You know I perceived\n your bodily weakness when you were here, and charged you with a\n neglect of your body. If I was right, I hope you will follow the\n advice you give me.\n\n \u201cOffer yourself to God for life or death, for ease or pain, for\n strength or weakness. Let Him choose or refuse for you; only do you\n choose Him for your present and eternal portion.\u201d[125]\n\nFootnote 125:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 170.\n\nSeven months after this, Miss Hatton peacefully expired.[126] Miss\nIreland lived more than two years longer. To her, he wrote the\nfollowing:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _July \u2014, 1766_.\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014The poor account your father has brought us of\n your health, and his apprehensions of not seeing you any more, before\n that solemn day when all people, nations, and tongues shall stand\n together at the bar of God, make me venture to send you a few lines.\n\n \u201cFirst, then, my dear friend, let me beseech you not to flatter\n yourself with the hopes of living long here on earth. These hopes fill\n us with worldly thoughts, and make us backward to prepare for our\n change. I would not, for the world, entertain such thoughts about\n myself. I have now, in my parish, a young man who has been two years\n under the surgeon\u2019s hands. Since he was given up, about two months\n ago, he has fled to the Lord, and has found in Him that saving health,\n which a thousand times surpasses that with which the surgeon flattered\n him; and he now longs to be with Christ, which is far better.\n\n \u201cSecondly. Consider, my dear, how good the Lord is to call you to be\n transplanted into a better world, before you have taken deeper root in\n this sinful world. If it is hard to nature to die _now_, how much\n harder would it be if you lived to be the mother of a family, and to\n cleave to earth by the ties of new relations, schemes of gain, or\n prospects of success!\n\n \u201cThirdly. Reflect that, by your illness, the Lord, who forecasts for\n us, intimates that long life would not be for His glory, nor your\n happiness. I believe He takes many young people from the evil to come,\n and out of the way of those temptations, or misfortunes, which would\n have made them miserable in time and in eternity.\n\n \u201cFourthly. Your earthly father loves you much: witness the hundreds of\n miles he has gone for the benefit of your health; but your heavenly\n Father loves you a thousand times better; and He is all wisdom, as\n well as all goodness. Allow, then, such a loving, gracious Father to\n chose for you; and, if He chooses death, acquiesce, and say, \u2018Good is\n the will of the Lord! His choice must be best!\u2019\n\n \u201cFifthly. Weigh the sinfulness of sin, both original and actual, and\n firmly believe the wages of sin is death. This will make you patiently\n accept the punishment; especially if you consider that Jesus Christ,\n by dying for us, has taken away the sting of death, and turned the\n grave into a passage to a blessed eternity.\n\n \u201cSixthly. Try to get nearer to the dear Redeemer. He offers rest to\n the heavy laden, pardon to the guilty, strength to the feeble, and\n life to the dead.\n\n \u201cSeventhly. When you have considered your lost state, as a sinner,\n together with the greatness, the freeness, and the suitableness of\n Christ\u2019s salvation, believe in Him. Be not afraid to venture upon and\n trust in Him. Cast yourself on Him by frequent acts of reliance, and\n stay your soul on Him by means of His promises. Pray much for faith,\n and be not afraid of accepting, using, and thanking God for _a\n little_.\n\n \u201cEighthly. Beware of impatience, repining, and peevishness, which are\n the sins of sick people. Be gentle, easy to be pleased, and resigned\n as the bleeding Lamb of God. Wrong tempers indulged, grieve, if they\n do not quench, the Spirit.\n\n \u201cNinthly. Do not repine at being in a strange country, far from your\n friends; and, if your going to France does not answer the end proposed\n for your body, it will answer a spiritual end to your soul.\n\n \u201cTenthly. In praying, reading, hearing any person read, and\n meditating, do not consult feeble, fainting, weary flesh and blood;\n for, at this rate, death may find you idle, and supine, instead of\n striving to enter in at the strait gate; and, when your strength and\n vigour fail, remember that the Lord is the strength of your life and\n your portion for ever.\u201d[127]\n\nFootnote 126:\n\n _Ibid_, p. 190.\n\nFootnote 127:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 174.\n\nNot many even faithful ministers of Christ would have written in such a\nstrain as this to a young lady, the daughter of a wealthy merchant,\nleaving her native land, and apparently dying; but Fletcher, like all\nthe first Methodists, was intensely in earnest, and never thought of\nsacrificing fidelity for the sake of seeming courtesy.\n\nThe young lady\u2019s father had given Fletcher a hamper of wine, and a\nparcel of broadcloth to be made into a suit of clothes, kindly\nrequesting him not to send his coat again to be patched. In\nacknowledging this generous present, the needy and somewhat seedy Vicar\nwrote as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _July \u2014, 1766_.\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014You should have a little mercy on your friends,\n in not loading them with such burdens of beneficence. How would you\n like to be loaded with kindnesses you could not return? Were it not\n for a little of that grace which makes us not only willing, but happy\n to be nothing, to be obliged and dependent, your present would make me\n quite miserable. I submit to be clothed and nourished by you, as your\n servants are, without the happiness of serving you. To yield to this\n is as hard to friendship as it is to submit to be saved by free grace,\n without one scrap of our own righteousness. However, we are allowed,\n both in religion and friendship, to ease ourselves by thanks and\n prayers, till we have an opportunity of doing it by actions. I thank\n you then, my dear friend, and pray to God that you may receive His\n benefits as I do yours.\n\n \u201cYour broadcloth can lap me round two or three times; but the mantle\n of Divine love, the precious fine robe of Jesus\u2019s righteousness, can\n cover your soul a thousand times. The cloth, fine and good as it is,\n will not keep out a hard shower; but that garment of salvation will\n keep out even a shower of brimstone and fire. Your cloth will wear\n out; but that fine linen, the righteousness of saints, will appear\n with a finer lustre the more it is worn. The moth may fret your\n present, or the tailor may spoil it in cutting it; but the present,\n which Jesus has made you, is out of the reach of the spoiler, and\n ready for present wear. Let me beseech you, my dear friend, to accept\n of this heavenly present, as I accept of your earthly one. I did not\n send you one farthing to purchase it: it came unsought, unasked,\n unexpected, as the seed of the woman came. It came just as I was\n sending a tailor to buy me cloth for a new coat, and I hope when you\n next see me, it will be in your present; now let Jesus see you in His.\n Accept it freely. Wear no more the old rusty coat of nature and\n self-righteousness. Send no more to have it _patched_. Make your boast\n of an unbought suit, and love to wear the livery of Jesus.\n\n \u201cYou will then love His work. It will be your meat and drink to do it;\n and, that you may be vigorous in doing it, as I shall take a little of\n your wine for my stomach\u2019s sake, take you a good deal of the wine of\n the kingdom for your soul\u2019s sake. Every promise of the Gospel is a\n bottle, a cask that has a spring within, and can never be exhausted.\n Draw the cork of unbelief, and drink abundantly. Be not afraid of\n intoxication; and if an inflammation follows, it will only be that of\n Divine love. Be more free with the heavenly wine, than I have been\n with the earthly, which you sent me. I have not tasted it yet, but\n whose fault is it? Not yours certainly, but mine. If you do not drink\n daily out of the cup of salvation, whose fault is it? Not Jesus\u2019s, but\n yours. Jesus gives you His righteousness to cover your nakedness, and\n the consolations of His Spirit to cheer and invigorate your soul.\n Accept and use. Wear, drink, and live to God.\u201d[128]\n\nFootnote 128:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 178.\n\nFletcher was religious in everything, and all his faculties were\nsanctified. He could not even acknowledge the kindness of his friend\nwithout introducing religion; but, to do this gracefully, he exercises,\nnot his manly understanding, but his sportive fancy. \u201cFancy,\u201d said\nfanciful Thomas Fuller, \u201ccan adorn whatever it touches, can invest naked\nfact and dry reasoning with unlooked-for beauty, make flowerets bloom\neven on the brow of a precipice, and, when nothing better can be had,\ncan turn the very substance of the rock itself into moss and lichens.\u201d\nFew men have possessed a finer fancy than Fletcher did; but his was\nrarely used except for religious purposes. He might have been an\naccomplished allegorist; but he preferred to be a scriptural reasoner.\nHis creed was founded, not upon fancies, but upon facts. Hence, in the\nsame month that he wrote the foregoing letter to Mr. Ireland, he wrote\nas follows to Miss Hatton:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _July 17, 1766_.\n\n \u201cLet your faith be _rational_ as well as affectionate. God is good. He\n does not want us to take His word without proof. What expectations of\n the Messiah from the beginning of the world! What amazing miracles and\n wonders were wrought in favour of that people and family, from which\n He was to come! What prophecies fulfilled, that we might rationally\n believe! What displays of the Godhead in that heavenly man, Christ\n Jesus! _In Him dwelt_, of a truth, _the fulness of the Godhead\n bodily_. You see the power of God in His miracles; the goodness of God\n in His character; the justice and mercy of God in His death; the\n truth, and faithfulness, and glory of God in His resurrection, in the\n coming of His Spirit, and in the preaching of His everlasting Gospel.\n O, my friend, we may believe _rationally_. We may, with calm\n attention, view the emptiness of all other religions, and the fulness\n of assurance that ours affords.\u201d[129]\n\nFootnote 129:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 180.\n\nSoon after the date of this letter, Fletcher proceeded to London, to\nBrighton, and to Oathall, where he had sweet intercourse with the\nCountess of Huntingdon, Romaine, Venn, Sir Charles Hotham, and with a\ngentleman and lady from his own country, who were visiting the Countess,\nand Mr. and Mrs. Powys of Berwick, in Shropshire, Mr. Powys being a\ngentleman of high connections and of large fortune, and who had, about\nthis period, become conspicuous, in conjunction with Sir Richard Hill\nand Mr. Lee, of Cotery, for zeal in the cause of God and truth.[130]\n\nFootnote 130:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. i., p. 375.\n\nWhile staying with Lady Huntingdon at Oathall, Fletcher wrote another\npastoral letter, which could not have been more faithful, but might,\nperhaps with advantage, have been more gentle.\n\n \u201cOATHALL, SUSSEX, _September 23, 1766_.\n\n \u201cTo those who love or fear the Lord Jesus at Madeley, grace, peace,\n and love be multiplied unto you, from our God and Saviour Jesus\n Christ!\n\n \u201cProvidence, my dear brethren, called me so suddenly from among you,\n that I had no time to take my leave of you, and recommend myself to\n your prayers. But I hope the good Spirit of our God, who is the Spirit\n of love and supplication, has brought me to your remembrance, as the\n poorest and weakest of Christ\u2019s ministers, whose hands stand most in\n need of being strengthened and lifted up by your prayers. Pray on\n then, for yourselves, for one another, and for him whose glory it is\n to minister to you in spiritual things, and whose sorrow it is not to\n do it in a manner more suitable to the majesty of the Gospel, and more\n profitable to your souls. My heart is with you, nevertheless I bear\n patiently this bodily separation for three reasons.\n\n \u201c1. The variety of more faithful and able ministers, which you have\n during my absence, is more likely to be serviceable to you than my\n presence among you, and I would always prefer your profit to my own\n satisfaction.\n\n \u201c2. I hope Providence will give me those opportunities of conversing\n and praying with a greater variety of experienced Christians, which\n will tend to my own improvement, and, I trust, in the end, to yours.\n\n \u201c3. I flatter myself that, after some weeks\u2019 absence, my ministry will\n be recommended by the advantage of novelty, which (the more the pity)\n goes farther with some than the Word itself. In the meantime, I shall\n give you some advice, which, it may be, will prove both suitable and\n serviceable to you.\n\n \u201cEndeavour to improve daily under the ministry that Providence blesses\n you with. Be careful to attend it with diligence, faith, and prayer.\n Would it not be a great shame if, when ministers come thirty or forty\n miles to offer you peace and pardon, strength and comfort, in the name\n of God, any of you should slight the glorious message, or hear it as\n if it was nothing to you, and as if you heard it not? See then that\n you never come from a sermon without being more deeply convinced of\n sin and righteousness. In order to this,\u2014\n\n \u201cUse much prayer before you go to church. Consider that your next\n appearance there may be in a coffin, and entreat the Lord to give you\n now so to hunger and thirst after righteousness that you may be filled\n therewith. Hungry people never go fasting from a feast. Call to mind\n the text I preached from the last Sunday but one before I left\n you,\u2014\u2018Wherefore, laying aside all malice, and all guile, and\n hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as new born babes\n desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby\u2019 (1\n Peter ii. 1, 2).\n\n \u201cWhen you are under the Word, beware of sitting as judges, and not\n like criminals. Many judge of the manner, matter, voice, or person of\n the preacher. You, perhaps, judge all the congregation when you should\n judge yourselves guilty of eternal death and yet worthy of eternal\n life, through the worthiness of Him who stood and was condemned at\n Pilate\u2019s bar for you. The moment you have done crying to God as\n guilty, or thanking Christ as reprieved, criminals, you have reason to\n believe that this advice is levelled at you.\n\n \u201cWhen you have been at a means of grace and do not find yourselves\n sensibly quickened, let it be matter of deep humiliation to you. For\n want of repenting of their unbelief and hardness of heart, some get\n into a habit of deadness and indolence, so that they come to be as\n insensible and as little ashamed of themselves as stones.\n\n \u201cBeware of the inconsistent behaviour of those who complain that they\n are full of wandering in the evening under the Word when they have\n suffered their minds to wander from Christ all the day long. Oh! get\n acquainted with Him, that you may walk in Him and with Him. Whatsoever\n you do or say, especially in the things of God, do or say it as if\n Christ was before, behind, and on each side of you. Indeed, He is so,\n whether you consider it or not; for when He visibly appeared on earth,\n He called Himself \u2018the Son of Man which is in heaven;\u2019 how much more\n then is He present on earth now that He makes His immediate appearance\n in heaven? Make conscience then to maintain a sense of His blessed\n presence all the day long, and all the day long you will have a\n continual feast. For, can you conceive anything more delightful than\n to be always at the fountain of love, peace, beauty, and joy,\u2014at the\n spring of power, wisdom, goodness, and truth? Can there be a purer and\n more melting happiness than to be with the best of fathers, the\n kindest of brothers, the most generous of benefactors, and the\n tenderest of husbands? Now Jesus is all this and much more to the\n believing soul. Oh! believe, my friends, believe in Jesus now, through\n a continual now; and until you can thus believe, mourn over your\n unbelieving heart; drag it to Him as you can; think of the efficacy of\n His blood shed for the ungodly; and wait for the Spirit of faith from\n on high.\n\n \u201cSome of you wonder why you cannot believe, why you cannot see Jesus\n with the eye of your mind, and delight in Him with the affections of\n your heart. I apprehend the reason to be one of these, or perhaps\n altogether.\n\n \u201c1. You are not poor, lost, undone, helpless, despairing sinners in\n yourselves. You indulge spiritual and refined self-righteousness; you\n are not yet dead to the law, and quite slain by the commandment. Now\n the kingdom of heaven belongs to none but the poor in spirit. Jesus\n came to save none but the lost. What wonder then, if Jesus is little\n to you, and if you do not live in His kingdom of peace, righteousness,\n and joy in the Holy Ghost?\n\n \u201c2. Perhaps you spend your time in curious reasonings, instead of\n casting yourselves as forlorn sinners at the feet of Christ, leaving\n it to Him to bless you when and in the manner He pleases. Know that He\n is the wise and sovereign God, and that it is your duty to lie before\n Him as clay, as fools, as sinful nothings.\n\n \u201c3. Perhaps, also, some of you wilfully keep idols of one kind or\n another; you indulge some sin against light and knowledge, and it is\n neither matter of humiliation, nor of confession to you. The love of\n praise, that of the world, that of money, and that of sensual\n gratifications, when not lamented, are as implacable enemies to Christ\n as Judas and Herod were. How can ye believe, seeing ye seek the honour\n that cometh from men? Hew then your Agags in pieces before the Lord.\n Run from your Delilahs to Jesus resolutely. Cut off the right hand and\n pluck out the right eye that offends you. \u2018Come out from among them,\n and be separate, saith the Lord, and I will receive you.\u2019\n Nevertheless, when you strive, take care not to make yourself a\n righteousness of your own striving. Remember that justifying\n righteousness is finished and brought in, and that your goodness can\n no more add to it than your sins diminish it. Shout then, \u2018_the Lord\n your Righteousness_!\u2019 And, if you are undone sinners, humbly and yet\n boldly say, \u2018In the Lord have I righteousness and strength.\u2019\n\n \u201cWhen I was in London, I endeavoured to make the best of my time; that\n is to say, to hear, receive, and practise the Word. Accordingly, I\n went to Mr. Whitefield\u2019s Tabernacle, and heard him give his Society a\n most sweet exhortation upon love. He began by observing that when the\n Apostle St. John was old and past walking and preaching, he would not\n forsake the assembling himself with his brethren, as the manner of too\n many is, upon little or no pretence at all. On the contrary, he got\n himself carried to their meeting, and, with his last thread of voice,\n preached to them his final sermon made up of this one sentence, \u2018My\n little children, love one another.\u2019 I wish, I pray, I earnestly\n beseech you to follow that evangelical, apostolical advice; and till\n God makes you all little children, little in your own eyes, and simple\n as little children, give me leave to say, dear brethren, love one\n another, and, of course, judge not, provoke not, be not shy of one\n another, but bear one another\u2019s burdens, and so fulfil the law of\n Christ. Yea, bear with one another\u2019s infirmities, and do not easily\n cast off any one, no not for sin, except it be obstinately persisted\n in.\n\n \u201cMy sheet is full, and so is my heart of good wishes for and strong\n longing after you all. I have just room to tell you I hope to be with\n you in three or four weeks\u2019 time. Oh! let me have the comfort of\n finding you all believing and loving. Farewell, my dear brethren! The\n blessing of God be with you all! This is the earnest desire of\n\n \u201cYour unworthy minister,\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[131]\n\nFootnote 131:\n\n \u201cThirteen Original Letters,\u201d by Fletcher, published at Bath in 1791,\n p. 20.\n\nThis is a long but valuable letter\u2014valuable for the sentiments and\nadvice it contains, and also as showing Fletcher\u2019s loving and faithful\npassion to save the souls of his parishioners. Comment upon it would be\neasy, but is unnecessary. When he wrote it, on September 23, he intended\nto return to Madeley in \u201cthree or four weeks\u2019 time,\u201d but at the\nbeginning of November he was still in London. In a letter to Mr. Powys,\ndated the first of that month, Whitefield remarked, \u201cDear Mr. Fletcher\nis become a scandalous Tottenham Court preacher.\u201d[132] How long he\ncontinued to officiate in Whitefield\u2019s far-famed chapel it is impossible\nto tell; but at the beginning of 1767 he was at Madeley, and wrote to\nMiss Hatton as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _January 9, 1767_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014The dream of life will soon be over; the morning of\n eternity will soon succeed. Away then with all the shadows of time!\n Away from them to the _Eternal Substance\u2014to Jesus, the First and the\n Last, by whom, and for whom, all things consist_. If you take Jesus to\n be your head, by the mystery of faith, you will be united to the\n resurrection and the life. The bitterness of death is past, my dear\n friend. _Only_ look to Jesus. He died for you\u2014died in your place\u2014died\n under the frowns of heaven, that we might die under its smiles. Regard\n neither unbelief nor doubt. Fear neither sin nor hell. Choose neither\n life nor death. All these are swallowed up in the immensity of Christ,\n and are triumphed over in His cross. Fight the good fight of faith.\n Hold fast your confidence in the atoning, sanctifying blood of the\n Lamb of God. Confer no more with flesh and blood. Go, meet the\n bridegroom. Behold He cometh! Trim your lamp. Quit yourself like a\n soldier of Jesus. I _entreat_ you, as a companion in tribulation; I\n _charge_ you, as a minister, go, at every breath you draw, to Him, who\n says, \u2018Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out:\u2019 and \u2018He\n that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.\u2019\n Joyfully sing the believer\u2019s song, \u2018O death, where is thy sting? O\n grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God, who giveth us the\n victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ!\u2019 Let your surviving friends\n triumph over you, as one faithful unto death,\u2014as one triumphing in\n death itself.\u201d[133]\n\nFootnote 132:\n\n Whitefield\u2019s Works, vol. iii., p. 339.\n\nFootnote 133:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 189.\n\nThree weeks after this, the Christian lady thus addressed was dead.[134]\nFletcher, in a letter to Mr. Ireland, wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cPoor Miss Hatton died full of serenity, faith, and love. The four\n last hours of her life were better than all her sickness. When the\n pangs of death were upon her, the comforts of the Almighty bore her\n triumphantly through, and some of her last words were: \u2018Grieve not at\n my happiness. This world is no more to me than a bit of burnt paper.\n Grace! Grace! A sinner saved! I wish I could tell you half of what I\n feel and see. I am going to keep an everlasting Sabbath. O death,\n where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be to God,\n who giveth me the victory, through my Lord Jesus Christ!\u2019 It is very\n remarkable that she had hardly any joy in her illness; but God made\n her ample amends in her extremity. He keeps His strongest cordial for\n the time of need. Blessed, for ever blessed, be His holy name!\u201d[135]\n\nFootnote 134:\n\n _Ibid_, p. 190.\n\nFootnote 135:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 192.\n\nAs already stated, Fletcher, when in London, had preached in Tottenham\nCourt Road Chapel. Whitefield wrote a letter, thanking him for his\nservices. Fletcher\u2019s highly characteristic reply was as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cREV. AND DEAR SIR,\u2014I am confounded when I receive a letter from you.\n Present and eternal contempt from Christ and all His members is what I\n deserve. A sentence of death is my due; but, instead of it, I am\n favoured with lines of love. Your mentioning my poor ministrations\n among your congregation opens again a wound of shame, that was but\n half healed. I feel the need of asking God, you, and your hearers to\n pardon me, for weakening the glorious matter of the Gospel by my\n wretched broken manner, and for spoiling the heavenly power of it by\n the uncleanness of my heart and lips.\n\n \u201cI should be glad to be your curate some time this year; but I see no\n opening, nor the least prospect of any. What between the dead and\n living, a parish ties one down more than a wife. If I could go\n anywhere this year, it should be to Yorkshire, to accompany Lady\n Huntingdon, according to a design that I had half formed last year;\n but I fear I shall be debarred even from this. I set out, God willing,\n to-morrow morning for Trevecca, to meet her ladyship there, and to\n show her the way to Madeley, where she proposes to stay three or four\n days, on her way to Derbyshire.\n\n \u201cLast Sunday seven-night, Captain Scott preached to my congregation a\n sermon, which was more blessed, though preached only upon my\n horse-block, than a hundred of those I preach in the pulpit. I invited\n him to come and treat her ladyship next Sunday with another, now the\n place is consecrated. If you should ever favour Shropshire with your\n presence, you shall have the captain\u2019s, or the parson\u2019s, pulpit at\n your option. Many ask me, whether you will not come to have some fruit\n here also. What must I answer them? I, and many more, complain of a\n stagnation of the work. What must we do? Everything buds and blossoms\n about us, yet our winter is not over.\n\n \u201cPresent my Christian respects to Mrs. Whitefield, Mr. Hardy, Mr.\n Keen, Mr. Joyce, Mr. Croom, and Mr. Wright. Tell Mr. Keen I am a\n letter in his debt, and postpone writing it till I have had such a\n sight of Christ as to breathe His love through every line.\n\n \u201cI am, rev. and dear Sir, with sincere affection and respect, your\n willing, though halting and unworthy servant,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[136]\n\nFootnote 136:\n\n _Evangelical Magazine_, 1802, p. 346.\n\nCaptain Scott, the martial evangelist, mentioned in this letter, was a\nShropshire man, and belonged to an ancient and respectable family. He\nhad begun his military life as a cornet, and had been promoted to the\nrank of captain in the 7th regiment of dragoons. A short time before his\nfirst visit to Madeley, Fletcher, in a letter to the Countess of\nHuntingdon, remarked:\u2014\n\n \u201cI went last Monday to meet Captain Scott, one of the fruits that have\n grown for the Lord at Oathall,\u2014a captain of a truth\u2014a bold soldier of\n Christ. God has thrown down before him the middle wall of bigotry, and\n he boldly launches into an irregular usefulness. For some months, he\n has exhorted his dragoons daily; and, for some weeks, he has preached\n publicly in the Methodist Meeting House, in his regimentals, to\n numerous congregations, with good success. The stiff regular ones\n pursue him with hue and cry; but, I believe, he is quite beyond their\n reach. God keep him zealous and simple! I believe this _red coat_ will\n shame many a _black one_. I am sure he shames me.\u201d[137]\n\nFootnote 137:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. i., pp. 317, 318.\n\nIn the year 1767, the Countess of Huntingdon was much occupied in making\npreparations for the opening of her college at Trevecca, in Wales. From\nthe commencement of this important project, Fletcher was one of her\nladyship\u2019s chosen advisers. In the month of April, he met her at\nTrevecca, and escorted her to Madeley, where she spent several days on\nher way to Yorkshire. The visit was a memorable one. Her ladyship was\naccompanied by Lady Anne Erskine and Miss Orton. The rich Christian\ncommunion of these three noble ladies with the poor vicar may be\nimagined, but cannot be described. It was, probably, at this period that\nthe Countess was led to think of Fletcher as the future president of her\ncollege. At all events, in the following year, he was appointed to that\nimportant office.[138]\n\nFootnote 138:\n\n _Ibid_, vol. i., p. 288; ii., p. iv.\n\nCaptain Scott also was at Madeley, and though Fletcher, of course, could\nnot allow him the use of the pulpit of the parish church, he had him\nmounted upon the horse-block of the parish parsonage, where he preached\ntwice, on Sunday, to large congregations; and on the day following, in\nMadeley Wood, an immense concourse of people assembled to hear him, many\nof whom were drawn thither by curiosity, to see the famous Countess and\nthe preaching soldier.\n\nUp to the time of the Countess\u2019s visit, Fletcher was in doubt whether he\nwould be able to attend her in Yorkshire, but, before she left Madeley\nVicarage, it was arranged that he should follow her immediately after\nWhit-Sunday. Mr. Ireland wished him to visit Bristol, and certainly he\nhad some claim upon him; for, to say nothing of the valuable presents he\nhad sent, for the use of Fletcher and the poor of Madeley, he had\nsecured for them a most acceptable curate, to serve the parish during\nFletcher\u2019s absence. Fletcher, for the present, was obliged to decline\nhis friend\u2019s invitation. Hence the following letter to him:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _April 27, 1767_.\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014I have just received your letter, upon my\n arrival from Wales with dear Lady Huntingdon, who is, of a truth, a\n _tried stone_, built upon the _corner stone_, and such as you have\n seen her, such, I am persuaded, you will find her to the last,\u2014a soul\n devoted to Jesus, living by faith, going to Christ Himself by the\n Scriptures, instead of resting in the letter of the Gospel promises,\n as too many professors do.\n\n \u201cI thank you for your care to procure not only a supply for my church,\n but such an agreeable, acceptable, and profitable one as Mr. Brown. I\n know no one that should be more welcome than he. Tell him, with a\n thousand thanks for his condescension, that I deliver my charge over\n to him fully, and give him a _carte blanche_, to do or not to do, as\n the Lord will direct him. I have settled it, that I shall endeavour to\n overtake my lady at Kippax, in Yorkshire, against the Sunday after\n Whitsuntide.\n\n \u201cWith regard to the Bristol journey, I must first come from the north,\n before I dream of going to the south. God help us to steer immovably\n to the grand point of our salvation,\u2014_Jesus_, the _Crucified_! To Him\n I recommend myself, and you, and my noble guests. Love Him,\u2014praise\n Him,\u2014serve Him, who hath loved you, bought you, and died for\n you.\u201d[139]\n\nFootnote 139:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 196.\n\nIn the year 1767, Whit-Sunday occurred on June 7, and, during the week\nfollowing, Fletcher joined the Countess of Huntingdon at Huddersfield,\nwhere her ladyship was staying, for a few days, with Venn, at the\nvicarage. On Sunday, the 14th, he preached twice in Venn\u2019s church, to\nlarge and deeply attentive congregations. He then accompanied the\nCountess to Aberford, on a visit to Benjamin Ingham, who had married her\nniece, Lady Margaret Hastings. Whilst there, accompanied by the Rev.\nJoseph Townsend, Rector of Pewsey, in Wiltshire, who had preached at the\nopening of Lady Huntingdon\u2019s chapel at Bath, in 1765, the whole family\nparty at Aberford made an excursion to Haworth. Grimshaw, the\nbrave-hearted incumbent, to whom Yorkshire Methodism owes so much, had\ndied four years before, and had been succeeded by the Rev. Mr.\nRichardson, a good man, and evangelical in his principles, but averse to\nopen-air preaching, in which his predecessor had delighted. The intended\nvisit to Haworth having become known, and it being understood that\nFletcher and Mr. Townsend would preach, an immense multitude of people\nassembled to hear them. Application was made for the use of what was\ncalled \u201cMr. Whitefield\u2019s pulpit,\u201d that is, a scaffold erected by the\nside of Haworth church, and from which Whitefield was wont to thunder\nhis overwhelming sermons. Mr. Richardson refused the request. Lady\nHuntingdon remonstrated; and, though it is not stated that the scaffold\nwas brought out, it is known that both Fletcher and Townsend preached in\nthe churchyard.\n\nOn leaving Aberford, the Countess and her friends proceeded to Kippax,\non a visit to her niece, Mrs. Medhurst. Here, at the beginning of July,\nthey were joined by the Rev. Martin Madan; and now the village of Kippax\nbecame the centre of some of the most remarkable evangelistic efforts\nrecorded in Methodistic annals. For some weeks, Fletcher, of Madeley;\nMadan, from London; Venn, Vicar of Huddersfield; Conyers, Rector of\nHelmsley; Burnet, Vicar of Elland; Ryland, Curate of Huddersfield;\nBentley, Vicar of Kippax; and Powley, Vicar of Dewsbury, made frequent\nexcursions not only in the immediate neighbourhood of Kippax, but to\ndistant parts of the county, affectionately inviting the multitudes who\nflocked to hear them to flee from the wrath to come.[140] Unfortunately,\nthe details of these missionary labours seem to be irrecoverably lost;\nand it can only be added that, in consequence of being seized with a\nrather alarming illness, the Countess of Huntingdon was not able to take\npart in many of the services. After Fletcher\u2019s return to Madeley, he\nwrote to her ladyship as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR AND HONOURED LADY,\u2014The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,\n who tried Israel, and led them through many a wandering to the good\n land\u2014this faithful God has met with you; a _rod_ is in His hand, but\n that hand bears so _deep_ a print of love, that the design of His\n visitation cannot be mistaken. Nor does He come without the supporting\n _staff_. He kills to make alive. He wounds to heal. He afflicts to\n comfort, and to do it more deeply and effectually. My hearty prayer\n for your ladyship is, that you may drink the cup the Lord holds out to\n you as a new token of His unchangeable love. I call it unchangeable,\n because it is really so in its nature, though the appearances of it\n greatly vary for the trial of faith. \u2018I am God,\u2019 says He; \u2018I change\n not, therefore Israel is not consumed,\u2019 and Shadrach is kept in the\n burning fiery furnace.\n\n \u201cI have often heard your ladyship speak admirably upon knowing Christ,\n and the power of His resurrection, and _the fellowship of His\n sufferings_. The Lord will have you improve in that heavenly\n knowledge; therefore He gives you so long a lesson at this time. The\n lesson is hard, I grant; but the Master is _so loving_, the science so\n noble, and the scholar so used to severe exercises, that it is no\n wonder you are placed on the highest form. No cross\u2014no crown! The\n heavier the cross, the brighter the crown!\n\n \u201cTill I received Lady Anne\u2019s letter, I often wanted to persuade myself\n that your ladyship had got quite well soon after I left Kippax. I beg\n my best respects and warmest thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Medhurst, Miss\n Medhurst, and the dear company of your ladyship. Their kindness and\n patience towards me while at Kippax have laid me under a heavy burden\n of obligations, which I desire gratefully to acknowledge.\n\n \u201cThrough a mistake of our good friend Ireland, dear Mr. Glascott came\n here the day after I arrived from Yorkshire. He stayed only one day.\n This stripling will throw down Goliath. I blessed that cross and\n accident which brought me acquainted with a young soldier that made me\n so ashamed of myself. Mr. Hill[141] is gone to Brighton, where I hope\n he will be as useful as he is in Shropshire. Captain Scott set out\n last Monday for York, after making a great stir for good in\n Shrewsbury.\n\n \u201cI am loth to trouble Lady Anne with a request of a line, to know how\n your ladyship does, yet I know not well how to give up the hope that\n she will once more steal two minutes for it.\n\n \u201cI am, with peculiar thanks to Lady Anne for her letter, and to your\n ladyship for numberless favours, my lady, your most indebted and\n obliged servant,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[142]\n\nFootnote 140:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. i., pp. 290, 291.\n\nFootnote 141:\n\n Afterwards Sir Richard Hill, Bart., one of Fletcher\u2019s antagonists in\n the Calvinian controversy.\n\nFootnote 142:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. i., p. 296.\n\nNo further reference to the illness of the Countess of Huntingdon is\nneeded; but a few lines may be added concerning Mr. Glascott, whom Mr.\nIreland had sent to Madeley to officiate during Fletcher\u2019s supposed\nabsence. This young clergyman had been ordained at Oxford in 1765. For\ntwo years, he had served the curacy of Cheveley, in Berkshire, and had\nbeen recently dismissed. He was now introduced to Lady Huntingdon,\nbecame her assistant chaplain, and laboured in her connexion till 1781.\nMr. Ireland then presented him to the vicarage of Hatherleigh, in\nDevonshire. Here he prayed and preached for nearly fifty years; and here\nhe died, in the full triumph of the faith of Christ, on the 18th of\nAugust, 1830.[143]\n\nFootnote 143:\n\n _Ibid_, vol. ii., p. 464.\n\nFor years past, Fletcher and Whitefield had been sympathizing and\nwarm-hearted friends, but, up to the present, Whitefield had not been to\nMadeley. After Fletcher\u2019s departure from Yorkshire, Whitefield succeeded\nhim in that county, and glorious were the seasons which Lady Huntingdon\nand the great evangelist enjoyed at Kippax, Huddersfield, Leeds, and\nother places. Fletcher urged Whitefield to call at Madeley on his way to\nwhat he called his \u201cwinter quarters\u201d in London; but Whitefield found it\nimpracticable to comply with his friend\u2019s request.[144] Thus was lost an\nopportunity that did not recur. Whitefield never preached in Madeley\nchurch. He died in 1770.\n\nFootnote 144:\n\n _Ibid_, vol. i., p. 299.\n\nThe Countess of Huntingdon spent the winter of 1767 chiefly at Bath, and\nwas in constant correspondence with Fletcher concerning her college at\nTrevecca. Her proposal was to admit no young men except such as were\ntruly converted to God, and resolved to dedicate themselves to His\nservice. All admitted might stay three years, and be clothed, boarded,\nlodged, and educated gratuitously. Afterwards, those who desired it\nmight enter the Christian ministry, either in the Church of England or\namong Protestants of any other denomination. The scheme was generous,\nand as free from bigotry as it could be. Her ladyship had to select\nfirst of all a president, and her choice fell upon Fletcher. He accepted\nher invitation. It was impossible that he should be generally resident\nat Trevecca, much less constantly; his duty to his Madeley parishioners\nwould not admit of this; but he promised to attend as often as he\nconveniently could; to give advice respecting the appointment of masters\nand the admission of students; to revise the studies and conduct of the\nlatter, and to assist their piety, and judge of their qualifications for\nthe work of the ministry. All this was to be done without any fee or\nreward whatever.\n\nThe plan for the examination of candidates for admission was drawn up by\nher ladyship. It was then submitted to Romaine, Venn, Wesley, and\nothers, and received their approval. The Countess finally sent it to her\npresident elect, who returned the following answer:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _November 24, 1767_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR LADY,\u2014I received the proposals which your ladyship has drawn\n up for the examination of the young men who may appear proper\n candidates for the Trevecca academy; and I gratefully acknowledge your\n kindness in allowing me to propose suitable young men resident in my\n parish.\n\n \u201cOur Israel is small, my lady, and if among six hundred thousand only\n two faithful men were found of old, the Joshuas and Calebs cannot be\n numerous among us. After having perused the articles, and looked round\n about me, I designed to answer your ladyship, \u2018_Out of this Galilee\n ariseth no prophet_.\u2019 With this resolution I went to bed, but, in my\n sleep, was much taken up with the thought and remembrance of one of my\n young colliers, who told me, some months ago, that for four years he\n had been inwardly persuaded he should be called to speak for God. I\n looked upon the unusual impression of my dream as a call to speak to\n the young man, and at waking desired to do so at the first\n opportunity. To my great surprise, he came to Madeley that very\n morning, and I found upon enquiry that he had been as much drawn to\n come as I to speak to him. This encouraged me to speak of your\n ladyship\u2019s design, and I was satisfied by his conversation that I\n might venture to propose him to your ladyship for further examination.\n\n \u201cHis name is _James Glazebrook_, collier and getter of ironstone in\n Madeley wood. He is now twenty-three\u2014by look nineteen. He has been\n awakened seven years. He has been steady from the beginning of his\n profession, at least so far as to be kept outwardly unblameable, but\n has seemed to me to walk mostly in heaviness. What I told him was as\n oil put into a glimmering lamp, and he seems to revive upon hearing of\n the little outward call. Notwithstanding his strong desire to exhort,\n he has not yet attempted to do so; and his not being forward to run of\n himself, makes me have the better hope his call is from God. He has no\n mean gift in singing and prayer. His judgment and sense are superior\n to his station, and he does not seem to be discouraged by the severest\n part of your ladyship\u2019s proposals. One difficulty stood in the way. He\n maintains by his labour his aged mother; but this is made easy by his\n mother\u2019s leave, and the promise of an elder son to maintain her if he\n can have his brother\u2019s place in the pit.\n\n \u201cWith regard to the superintendency of the college, or the examination\n of the candidates, I know myself too well to dream about it;\n nevertheless, so far as my present calling and poor abilities will\n allow, I am ready to throw my mite into the treasury.\n\n \u201cSome of our conversations upon the manifestations of the Son of Man\n to the heart have led me into many an hour\u2019s consideration. The Holy\n Ghost alone can clear up the points to pursue. Nevertheless, I have\n found both comfort and profit in setting upon paper the reflections I\n have been enabled to make upon the mysterious subject; and they have,\n through mercy, set my soul more than ever against the rampant errors\n of Sandemanianism. Should Providence ever favour me with an\n opportunity, I would bespeak an hour of your ladyship\u2019s time to ratify\n my views of the point, under God.\n\n \u201cI am happily provided with a schoolmaster to my mind, and my ministry\n is the last under which I would advise any one intended for a preacher\n to sit. Nevertheless, if the young candidate, (Mr. Eastwood) mentioned\n in the letter, wants retirement and a prophet\u2019s room at my house he\n may have it, if he can cook for himself or find a table in the\n neighbourhood.\u201d[145]\n\nFootnote 145:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. ii., p. 82.\n\nThere is only one other incident, in the life of Fletcher, deserving\nattention and belonging to the year 1767; and as it can be summarily\ndispatched, it may be best to mention it at once, before returning to\ntwo matters in his letter to the Countess of Huntingdon, which will\nrequire more extended notice.\n\nOn December 1, the tenth Earl of Buchan died at Bath, and was succeeded\nby his son, who appointed Fletcher, Venn, and Berridge to be his\nchaplains. In a letter to Lady Huntingdon, referring to the appointment,\nFletcher wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cI have just received a letter from Lord Buchan, in which he says,\n \u2018Pray for me, that I also may be found faithful when our Master calls\n for me, and that I may live a martyr to redeeming love, and die a\n trophy and a monument of the reality of the despised influences of the\n Holy Ghost.\u2019 It is a singular honour to belong to so excellent a\n nobleman. Oh! how far below his grace is his nobility! I feel a strong\n desire to pray that he may be kept from the fickleness of youth[146]\n and the baits of ambition. I share in the happiness of Lady Buchan and\n Lady Anne Erskine upon the occasion. May God make them, together with\n your ladyship, a fourfold cord to draw sinners unto Jesus.\u201d[147]\n\nFootnote 146:\n\n The new earl was only twenty-four years of age.\n\nFootnote 147:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. ii., p. 19.\n\nFletcher evidently was pleased with his appointment. The emoluments of\nhis new office probably were small, perhaps _nil_; but, by means of it,\nhe became associated with one of the most pious and exemplary noblemen\nof the day.\n\nTo recur to Fletcher\u2019s former letter to the Countess of Huntingdon.\n\nHe nominated James Glazebrook as a fitting candidate to be examined for\nadmission into Lady Huntingdon\u2019s intended college. As already stated,\nGlazebrook was a poor, hardworking collier. He was without money and\nwithout learning; but he had two of the three things by which Wesley\ntested the Divine call of his itinerants to preach; namely, \u201c_grace_\u201d\nand \u201c_gifts_;\u201d and Fletcher had no doubt that when the opportunity\narrived, he would have the third\u2014\u201c_fruit_.\u201d Wesley\u2019s own definitions of\nthese three words were:\u2014\n\n \u201c_Grace_: a knowledge of God as a pardoning God; the love of God\n abiding in them; desiring and seeking nothing but God; and the being\n holy in all manner of conversation. _Gifts_: in some tolerable degree\n a clear, sound understanding; a right judgment in the things of God; a\n just conception of salvation by faith; and a degree of utterance so as\n to be able to speak justly, readily, clearly. _Fruit_: are any truly\n convinced of sin and converted to God by their preaching? As long as\n these three marks concur in any, we believe he is called of God to\n preach.\u201d\n\nWhether Fletcher adopted Wesley\u2019s threefold test, and applied it to\nJames Glazebrook, it is impossible to ascertain; but that his opinion of\nthe young man was correct, subsequent events fully proved. Glazebrook\nwas one of Fletcher\u2019s converts. He was one of the first students at\nTrevecca college, if not _the very first_. There he distinguished\nhimself equally by his superior abilities and his uncommon diligence. He\nallowed himself but little time for refreshment, rest, or recreation.\nHis piety was as remarkable as his gifts and diligence. He was soon sent\nforth to preach, and his labours were attended with considerable\nsuccess. For three years, he was thus employed in various parts of\nEngland. He then tired of the itinerant life, and desired the Countess\nof Huntingdon to procure him orders in the Established Church. With the\nassistance of Fletcher a title was obtained, and Glazebrook was ordained\ndeacon by the Bishop of Lichfield, in December 1771. Soon after his\nordination, he entered on the curacy of Smisby, in Derbyshire; after\nwhich he served the curacies of Rowley Regis, near Birmingham; Shawbury,\nShropshire; Ravenstone, in Derbyshire; and Hugglescote, in\nLeicestershire. In 1777, he was ordained priest by Dr. Hurd, Bishop of\nWorcester. Two years later, he married the eldest daughter of Thomas\nKirkland, Esq., M.D., of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, an intimate friend of the\nCountess of Huntingdon; and, soon after his marriage, became minister of\nSt. James\u2019s, Warrington. Ultimately, Lord Moira presented him to the\nvicarage of Belton, a village in Leicestershire, whose living even now\nis not worth more than about \u00a3180 a year. Here he continued till the\ntime of his decease; and here, as well as at Warrington and other\nplaces, he was made the honoured instrument of \u201cturning many to\nrighteousness.\u201d Besides his ministerial labours, he wrote and published\na \u201cTreatise on Extemporary Preaching,\u201d \u201cLetters on Infant Baptism,\u201d an\n\u201cAnswer to Gilbert Wakefield\u2019s Treatise on Baptism,\u201d and, after his\ndeath, his family published a volume of his sermons, which was well\nreceived by the public. Such, in brief, was the history of Fletcher\u2019s\nconvert and _proteg\u00e9_. Further particulars concerning him may be found\nin the _Evangelical Register_ for 1836.\n\nThe other matter, requiring attention, in Fletcher\u2019s letter to Lady\nHuntingdon, under the date of November 24, 1767, is his reference to the\nconversations he had had with her ladyship upon the \u201cManifestations of\nthe Son of Man to the heart,\u201d and the fact that he had devoutly studied\nthis mysterious subject for \u201cmany hours,\u201d and had put his thoughts \u201cupon\npaper.\u201d This important manuscript was not published until after\nFletcher\u2019s death. The editor of his collected works, in a brief preface,\nsays:\u2014\n\n \u201cFor the Letters on the Manifestation of Christ, the reader is obliged\n to Mrs. Fletcher. When they were written, or to whom they are\n addressed, is uncertain; but, from the beginning of the first letter,\n the decayed state of the manuscript, and the extreme smallness of the\n character, which could scarcely have been legible to the author in his\n latter years, they are supposed to have been the first essay of a\n genius afterwards so much admired. The reader is requested to remember\n that the pious author wrote only for himself and his friends; that\n these sheets want his perfecting hand; and that the editor thought\n himself entitled to take no liberties.\u201d\n\nFrom this preface, it is evident that the editor was not acquainted with\nthe foregoing letter to the Countess of Huntingdon; and it may be added,\nthat there is no need for the apology, that the \u201csheets want\u201d Fletcher\u2019s\n\u201cperfecting hand.\u201d\n\nThe Letters are six in number, and fill fifty-three octavo pages in\nFletcher\u2019s collected works.[148] It is extremely difficult to give, in a\nbrief form, the substance of these important papers; and yet the task\nmust be attempted, because the subject is one of great interest and\nbecause the Letters seem to have been among the earliest of his\ncompositions, that were afterwards published.\n\nFootnote 148:\n\n They were first published by the Rev. Melville Horne, in 1791, with\n the title, \u201cSix Letters on the Spiritual Manifestation of the Son of\n God.\u201d\n\nHis object is clearly stated in his opening paragraph:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen I had the pleasure of seeing you last, you seemed surprised to\n hear me say, that the Son of God, for purposes worthy of His wisdom,\n manifests Himself, sooner or later, to all His sincere followers, in a\n spiritual manner, which the world knows not of. The assertion appeared\n to you unscriptural, enthusiastical, and dangerous. What I then\n advanced to prove that it was scriptural, rational, and of the\n greatest importance, made you desire I would write you on the\n mysterious subject. I declined it, as being unequal to the task; but,\n having since considered that a mistake here may endanger your soul or\n mine, I sit down to comply with your request; and the end I propose by\n it is, either to give you a fair opportunity of pointing out my error,\n if I am wrong, or to engage you, if I am right, to seek what I esteem\n the most invaluable of all blessings,\u2014revelations of Christ to your\n own soul, productive of the experimental knowledge of Him, and the\n present enjoyment of His salvation.\u201d\n\n \u201cI shall not be able to establish the doctrine I maintain unless you\n allow me the existence of the proper senses, to which our Lord\n manifests Himself. The manifestation I contend for being of a\n spiritual nature, must be made to spiritual senses; and that such\n senses exist, and are opened in, and exercised by, regenerate souls,\n is what I design to prove in this letter\u201d (the first), \u201cby the joint\n testimony of Scripture, our Church, and reason.\u201d\n\nIn his second letter, Fletcher defines what he means, and does not mean,\nby the manifestations of the Son of God to the soul of man. In the third\nand fourth, he dwells on the uses of such manifestations. The fifth\ncontains a summary of the numerous appearances of the Son of God during\nthe Old Testament dispensation, and concludes with answers to the\nobjection that these appearances proved \u201conly, that God favoured the\npatriarchs and Jews with immediate revelations of Himself, because they\nhad neither the Gospel nor the Scriptures.\u201d Fletcher\u2019s fourth answer to\nthis objection is so characteristic that it must be quoted:\u2014\n\n \u201cIf, because we have the letter of Scripture, we must be deprived of\n all immediate manifestations of Christ and His spirit, we are great\n losers by that blessed book, and we might reasonably say, \u2018Lord, bring\n us back to the dispensation of Moses! Thy Jewish servants could\n formerly converse with Thee face to face; but now we can know nothing\n of Thee, but by their writings. They viewed Thy glory in various\n wonderful appearances; but we are indulged only with black lines\n telling us of Thy glory. They had the bright Shekinah, and we have\n only obscure descriptions of it. They were blessed with lively\n oracles; and we only with a dead letter. The ark of Thy covenant went\n before them, and struck terror into all their adversaries; but a book,\n of which our enemies make daily sport, is the only revelation of Thy\n power among us. They made their boast of Urim and Thummim, and\n received particular, immediate answers from between the cherubim; but\n we have only general ones, by means of Hebrew and Greek writings,\n which many do not understand. They conversed familiarly with Moses\n their mediator, with Aaron their high priest, and with Samuel their\n prophet; these holy men gave them unerring directions in doubtful\n cases; but, alas! the apostles and inspired men are all dead; and\n Thou, Jesus, our Mediator, Priest, and Prophet, canst not be consulted\n to any purpose, for Thou manifestest Thyself no more. As for Thy\n sacred book, Thou knowest that sometimes the want of money to purchase\n it, the want of learning to consult the original, the want of wisdom\n to understand the translation, the want of skill or sight to read it,\n prevent our improving it to the best advantage, and keep some from\n reaping any benefit from it at all. O Lord! if, because we have this\n blessed picture of Thee, we must have no discovery of the glorious\n original, have compassion on us, take back Thy precious book, and\n impart Thy more precious Self to us, as Thou didst to Thy ancient\n people!\u201d\n\nIn his sixth and last Letter, Fletcher proves \u201cthat the New Testament,\nas well as the Old, abounds with accounts of particular revelations of\nthe Son of God;\u201d and he concludes thus:\u2014\n\n \u201cHaving thus led you from Genesis to Revelation, I conclude by two\n inferences, which appear to me undeniable. The first, that it is\n evident our Lord, before His incarnation, during His stay on earth,\n and after His ascension into heaven, hath been pleased, in a variety\n of manners, to manifest Himself to the children of men, both for the\n benefit of the Church in general, and for the conversion of sinners\n and the establishment of saints in particular. Secondly, that the\n doctrine, which I maintain, is as old as Adam, as modern as St. John,\n the last of the inspired writers, and as scriptural as the Old and New\n Testaments, which is what I wanted to demonstrate.\u201d\n\nThis is an imperfect outline of Fletcher\u2019s production, but want of space\nprevents enlargement. Some, with a scornful jeer, will brand Fletcher as\na mystic; and others, sincerely in search of truth, but who have not\nexperienced that of which he speaks, will ask his meaning. Leaving the\nformer to their own infidel or pharisaic wisdom, it may be said in reply\nto the latter, Fletcher meant nothing more than what Christ Himself\nmeant in His sixth beatitude, \u201cBlessed are the pure in heart, for they\nshall _see God_;\u201d and again, in one of His latest utterances, \u201cHe that\nhath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he\nthat loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and\nwill _manifest Myself to him_.\u201d Or, again, Fletcher meant what St. Paul\nmeant in texts like the following:\u2014\u201cThe natural man receiveth not the\nthings of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither\ncan he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.\u201d \u201cGod, who\ncommanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts,\nto give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of\nJesus Christ.\u201d \u201cNow faith is the substance of things hoped for, the\nevidence of things not seen.\u201d\n\nIf it be asked, again, what is the meaning of these and such like texts?\nit may be answered, substantially,\u2014the meaning is the same as what is\nmeant by stanzas like the following, written by John or Charles Wesley,\nand selected from their Hymn Book, almost at random:\u2014\n\n \u201cSpirit of faith, come down,\n Reveal the things of God;\n And make to us the Godhead known,\n And witness with the blood.\n O that the world might know\n The all-atoning Lamb!\n Spirit of faith! descend and show\n The virtue of His name.\u201d\n\n \u201cCome, Holy Ghost, (for moved by Thee\n The prophets wrote and spoke),\n Unlock the truth, Thyself the key,\n Unseal the sacred Book.\n Expand Thy wings, celestial Dove,\n Brood o\u2019er our nature\u2019s night;\n Oh, our disordered spirits move,\n And let there now be light.\n God, through Himself, we then shall know,\n If Thou within us shine;\n And sound, with all Thy saints below,\n The depths of love divine.\u201d\n\n \u201cAuthor of faith, eternal word,\n Whose spirit breathes the active flame;\n Faith, like its finisher and Lord,\n To-day, as yesterday, the same:\n To Thee our humble hearts aspire,\n And ask the gift unspeakable:\n Increase in us the kindled fire,\n In us the work of faith fulfil.\n The things unknown to feeble sense,\n Unseen by reason\u2019s glimmering ray,\n With strong, commanding evidence,\n Their heavenly origin display.\n Faith lends its realizing light,\n The clouds disperse, the shadows fly;\n The Invisible appears in sight,\n And God is seen by mortal eye.\u201d\n\n \u201cO disclose Thy lovely face,\n Quicken all my drooping powers;\n Gasps my fainting soul for grace,\n As a thirsty land for showers;\n Haste, my Lord, no more delay!\n Come, my Saviour, come away!\n Dark and cheerless is the morn,\n Unaccompanied by Thee;\n Joyless is the day\u2019s return,\n Till Thy mercy\u2019s beams I see;\n Till Thou inward light impart,\n Glad my eyes and warm my heart.\n Visit, then, this soul of mine,\n Pierce the gloom of sin and grief;\n Fill me, Radiancy Divine,\n Scatter all my unbelief;\n More and more Thyself display,\n Shining to the perfect day.\u201d\n\nIf it be asked, again, what means all this? let the enquirer carefully\nand devoutly read Fletcher\u2019s Six Letters. He will be wiser and better\nfor his exercise; and will ascertain that Fletcher and Wesley were not,\nin the vulgar sense of the expression, bewildered and bewildering\nmystics, but spiritually enlightened, sober, scriptural divines, who,\nwith reverential and joyous hearts, could sing:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhat we have felt and seen,\n With confidence we tell;\n And publish to the sons of men\n The signs infallible.\n We by His Spirit prove\n And know the things of God,\n The things, which freely of His love\n He hath on us bestow\u2019d.\n His glory our design,\n We live our God to please;\n And rise, with filial fear divine\n To perfect holiness.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VII.\n _TREVECCA COLLEGE: VISIT TO SWITZERLAND, ETC._\n\n FROM JANUARY 3, 1768, TO JULY 1770.\n\n\nIN Fletcher\u2019s letter to Lady Huntingdon, dated November 24, 1767, it is\nintimated that the Countess had suggested to Fletcher that a certain\n\u201cMr. Eastwood\u201d could serve him as his village schoolmaster, and was\nanxious to do so, in order to have the benefit of Fletcher\u2019s ministry.\nThere can be no doubt that the name \u201cEastwood\u201d is a mistake, and that\n\u201cEasterbrook\u201d was meant.\n\nJoseph Easterbrook was a son of the bell-man of Bristol, and had been\neducated at Wesley\u2019s Kingswood School.[149] He was now about seventeen\nyears of age, and came to reside at Madeley.[150] Afterwards he obtained\nepiscopal ordination, and became Vicar of the Temple Church, Bristol,\nand Ordinary of Newgate Prison in that city. He continued faithful to\nWesley and to Methodism; and, it is said, he preached a sermon in every\nhouse in his large parish. He died in 1791, in the fortieth year of his\nage. This is not the place to give further details of his history; but\nit is hoped that those now related will add to the interest of what\nFletcher writes concerning him in the following letter to the Countess\nof Huntingdon, in reply to one she had addressed to him respecting\nsuitable books for the students of her intended college:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _January 3, 1768_.\n\n \u201cMY LADY,\u2014I thank your ladyship for having recommended to me\n Easterbrook. I hope he will be the captain of the school, and a great\n help to the master, as well as a spur to the students. He has good\n parts, a most happy memory, and a zeal that would gladden your\n ladyship\u2019s heart. He has preached no less than four times to-day; and\n seems, indeed, in his own element when he is seeking after the lost\n sheep of the house of Israel. He is employed every evening in the work\n of the Lord; and I give him the more opportunity to exercise his\n talent, as it appears he does it far better than I. I beg two things\n for him: first, that it may hold; secondly, that he may be kept\n humble. He would at first live upon potatoes and water; but, finding\n it may impair his health, I have got him to table with me, and shall\n gladly pay his board. He works for me, and the workman is worthy of\n his hire.\n\n \u201cOur young collier\u201d (Glazebrook) \u201cseems a little discouraged with\n regard to the hope of his being admitted one of your students. He\n thinks he stands no chance, if all must be qualified as he\u201d\n (Easterbrook) \u201cis.\n\n \u201cWith regard to books, I am in doubt what to write your ladyship.\n Having studied abroad, and used rather foreign than English books with\n my pupils\u201d (Mr. Hill\u2019s sons), \u201cI am not well enough acquainted with\n the books Great Britain affords to select the _best_ and most\n _concise_. Besides, a plan of studies must be fixed upon first, before\n proper books can be chosen. Grammar, logic, rhetoric, ecclesiastical\n history, and a little natural philosophy and geography, with a great\n deal of practical divinity, will be sufficient for those who do not\n care to dive into languages. Mr. Townsend and Charles Wesley might, by\n spending an hour or two together, make a proper choice; and I would\n recommend them not to forget Watt\u2019s \u2018Logic,\u2019 and his \u2018History of the\n Bible, by Questions and Answers,\u2019 which seem to me excellent books of\n the kind for clearness and order. Mr. Wesley\u2019s \u2018Natural Philosophy\u2019\n contains as much as is wanted, or more. Mason\u2019s \u2018Essay on\n Pronunciation\u2019 will be worth their attention. \u2018Henry and Gill on the\n Bible,\u2019 with the four volumes of Baxter\u2019s \u2018Practical Works,\u2019 Keach\u2019s\n \u2018Metaphors,\u2019 \u2018Taylor on the Types,\u2019 Gurnal\u2019s \u2018Christian Armour,\u2019\n \u2018Edwards on Preaching,\u2019 Johnson\u2019s English Dictionary, and Mr. Wesley\u2019s\n \u2018Christian Library,\u2019 may make part of the little library. The book of\n Baxter, I mention, I shall take care to send to Trevecca, as a mite\n towards the collection, together with Usher\u2019s \u2018Body of Divinity,\u2019\n Scapula\u2019s Greek Lexicon, and Littleton\u2019s Latin Dictionary.\n\n \u201cWith regard to those who propose to learn Latin and Greek, the master\n your ladyship will appoint may choose to follow his particular method.\n Mr. Wesley\u2019s books, printed for the use of Christian youths, seem to\n me short and proper, and their expense less, which, I suppose, should\n be consulted. Two or three dictionaries of Bailey or Dyke for those\n who learn English, with two or three Coles\u2019s Dictionaries,\n Shrevelins\u2019s, and Pasor\u2019s, for those who will learn Latin and Greek,\n may be a sufficient stock at first.\n\n \u201cMr. Edward Stillingfleet[151] is presented, by Mr. Hill, to the\n living of Shawbury, eight miles from Shrewsbury, and twenty from here.\n I thank the Lord for this fellow-helper.\n\n \u201cI am, your ladyship\u2019s unworthy servant,\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[152]\n\nFootnote 149:\n\n \u201cUnpublished Letter by John Pawson.\u201d\n\nFootnote 150:\n\n Misled by the author of the \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of\n Huntingdon,\u201d I have stated in my \u201cLife and Times of Wesley,\u201d that, at\n the opening of Trevecca College, Easterbrook was appointed to the\n office of master. This is a mistake. The master, as will be seen in\n succeeding pages, was a wonderful child, twelve years old! Perhaps,\n however, Easterbrook rendered some assistance.\u2014L. T.\n\nFootnote 151:\n\n A great-grandson of the celebrated bishop of that name. He proved\n himself to be a faithful friend to Venn, and the other evangelical\n clergymen of the age.\n\nFootnote 152:\n\n _Methodist Magazine_, 1821, p. 437.\n\nThe reader may learn two facts from Fletcher\u2019s letter. First, what were\nthe books in divinity he most loved and prized. It is to be feared that\nsuch books are no longer popular. In the case of many theological\nstudents, they have given place to the flimsy and even sceptical\nproductions of a later period. The more the pity. No wonder that so many\npulpits are spiritless, and that so many pews are starved.\n\nSecondly: It is also evident that Fletcher had already formed a sort of\ncircuit of preaching places, otherwise a youth like Easterbrook could\nhardly have found the opportunity to preach every evening in the week,\nand four times on Sunday. It is now impossible to ascertain what the\nplaces were; but Wesley\u2019s testimony may here be appropriately\nintroduced.\n\n \u201cFrom the beginning, Mr. Fletcher did not confine his labours to his\n own parish. For many years, he regularly preached at places, eight,\n ten, or sixteen miles off, returning the same night, though he seldom\n got home before one or two in the morning. At a little Society which\n he had gathered about six miles from Madeley, he preached two or three\n times a week, beginning at five in the morning.\u201d[153]\n\nFootnote 153:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nOf course, all this was ecclesiastically irregular, and a repetition of\nit would not be permitted now; but, fortunately for the people who \u201csat\nin darkness,\u201d it was, except in a few instances, only a peccadillo a\nhundred years ago, at which bishops, priests, and deacons found it a\nconvenience to themselves to wink.\n\nIt was at this time that Wesley wrote to Fletcher his unusually long and\nwell-known letter on conversation. The following are brief extracts from\nit:\u2014\n\n \u201cBIRMINGHAM, _March 20, 1768_.\n\n \u201cDEAR SIR,\u2014Mr. Easterbrook told me yesterday that you are sick of the\n conversation even of them who profess religion,\u2014that you find it quite\n unprofitable, if not hurtful, to converse with them three or four\n hours together, and are sometimes almost determined to shut yourself\n up, as the less evil of the two.\n\n \u201cI do not wonder at it at all, especially considering with whom you\n have chiefly conversed for some time past, namely, the hearers of Mr.\n Madan, or Mr. Bourian, perhaps I might add, of Mr. Whitefield. The\n conversing with these I have rarely found to be profitable to my soul.\n Rather it has damped my designs; it has cooled my resolutions; and I\n have consciously left them with a dry, dissipated spirit.\n\n \u201cAgain; you have, for some time, conversed a good deal with the\n genteel Methodists. Now it matters not a straw what doctrine they\n hear,\u2014whether they frequent the Lock or West Street,\u2014they are, almost\n all, salt which has lost its savour, if ever they had any. They are\n thoroughly conformed to the maxims, the spirit, the fashions, and\n customs of the world.\n\n \u201cBut were these or those of ever so excellent a spirit, you conversed\n with them too long. One had need to be an angel, not a man, to\n converse three or four hours at once, to any purpose.\n\n \u201cBut have you not a remedy for all this in your hands? In order to\n truly profitable conversation, may you not select persons clear of\n both Calvinism and Antinomianism? not fond of that luscious way of\n talking, but standing in awe of Him they love; who are vigorously\n working out their salvation, and are athirst for full redemption, and\n every moment expecting it, if not already enjoying it?\u201d[154]\n\nFootnote 154:\n\n Tyerman\u2019s \u201cLife and Times of Wesley,\u201d vol. iii., p. 4.\n\nApart from the subject of this letter, it is of importance, as showing\nthat the maelstrom of the Calvinian controversy was already stirring,\nand that Wesley was afraid of Fletcher being drawn into it. This would\nbe much more apparent could the letter be quoted here _in extenso_.\nSuffice it to add, that Fletcher was preserved from the spreading evils,\nand that it is difficult to tell how much he was indebted to Wesley\u2019s\nlong warning letter for his escape from danger.\n\nSo far as Fletcher was concerned, the great event of the year 1768 was\nthe opening of Lady Huntingdon\u2019s College at Trevecca. Wesley seemed to\ndisapprove of her ladyship\u2019s design. In a letter to his brother Charles,\nhe wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cEdinburgh, May 14, 1768.\u2014I am glad Mr. Fletcher has been with you.\n But, if the tutor fails, what will become of our College at Trevecca?\n Did you ever see anything more queer than their plan of institution?\n Pray, who penned it, man or woman? I am afraid the Visitor\u201d (Fletcher)\n \u201ctoo will fail.\u201d[155]\n\nFootnote 155:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Works, vol. xii., p. 126.\n\nMeanwhile, however, an occurrence had taken place, which appeared to\nmake the opening of Trevecca College increasingly desirable and\nimportant. On the 12th of March, six students belonging to Edmund Hall,\nOxford, were expelled the University, really and truly on the ground\nthat they were charged with being Methodists. The event, as may easily\nbe imagined, created a national sensation. Numbers of tracts and\npamphlets, _pro et con_, were published; and, among others, one by\nWhitefield, entitled, \u201cA Letter to the Reverend Dr. Durell,\nVice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford; occasioned by a late\nExpulsion of Six Students from Edmund Hall.\u201d Whitefield\u2019s letter was\ndated April 12, 1768, exactly a month after the expulsions took place.\nFletcher read it with approbation, and wrote to Whitefield, thanking him\nfor the service he had rendered to the cause of truth; and also\nreferring to a recent visit to Bristol, to the Rev. Cradock Glascott,\nwho had supplied for him at Madeley; and to the prospect there was of\nobtaining a suitable master, from Suffolk, for the College at Trevecca.\nFletcher\u2019s letter was as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _May 28, 1768_.\n\n \u201cREVEREND AND DEAR SIR,\u2014I thank you, though late, for the kind leave\n you gave me of trying to pipe where you trumpet the name of our dear\n Redeemer, in Bristol. I ask you, and my hearers there, and, above all,\n our gracious Lord, to pardon me for the wretched manner in which I\n performed, or rather spoiled, the glorious work.\n\n \u201cI thank you, also, for your letter to the Vice-Chancellor. Mr.\n Talbot[156] treated us with the reading of it at our meeting of the\n clergy at Birmingham; and I saw applause and satisfaction sitting upon\n every brow.\n\n \u201cLady Huntingdon, in a few lines I had lately, mentions that\n Providence raises a master for her school from Suffolk, who promises\n well. She desires he may be secured, if approved of. Perhaps you know\n him; and you are the best judge whether he is likely to answer. For my\n part, I am willing to put my smoking flax to the tapers of my brethren\n and fathers, when they endeavour to throw some light and order upon\n her ladyship\u2019s design; but I feel my place should be among the\n scholars, rather than among the Directors.\n\n \u201cMr. Glascott quitted himself as a faithful and able minister, during\n his stay here. Thousands attended him in the next parish, where he\n nobly took the field. Nevertheless, I see a curse of barrenness upon\n this neighbourhood, which makes me groan for a day of Pentecost. God\n hasten it in His time! You will please to remember that you are a\n debtor to our barbarians, as well as to the Greeks in London. When you\n come, my pulpit will be honoured, greatly honoured, to hold you, if my\n church cannot hold your congregation.\u201d[157]\n\nFootnote 156:\n\n No doubt, the Rev. William Talbot, LL.D., Vicar of Kineton, in\n Warwickshire.\n\nFootnote 157:\n\n Fletcher\u2019s Works, vol. viii., p. 255.\n\nWho \u201cthe master from Suffolk\u201d was, has never yet been stated. The matter\nis of little consequence. In the month of July, Wesley visited Fletcher,\nand, no doubt, they conversed concerning the College at Trevecca; but\nWesley\u2019s account of his visit is so brief as to be almost significant\nthat there was something in their interview that he would rather\nsuppress than publish. He simply writes: \u201c1768, Sunday, July 31. I\npreached for Mr. Fletcher in the morning; and in the evening at\nShrewsbury.\u201d[158] Within a month after this, the college was opened;\nbut, instead of being at Trevecca, Wesley was in Cornwall.\n\nFootnote 158:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\nThe opening took place on Wednesday, August 24, the anniversary of the\nbirthday of Lady Huntingdon. In all likelihood, Fletcher, the president,\nwas present; but no positive evidence of this has been published.\nIndeed, considering the importance of the event, the account of it is\nremarkably brief. The best, in fact, so far as I know, the only one ever\ngiven to the public, is an extract from Whitefield\u2019s Memorandum Book, as\nfollows:\u2014\n\n \u201cAugust 24, 1768. Opened good Lady Huntingdon\u2019s Chapel and College, in\n the parish of Talgarth, Brecknockshire, South Wales. Preached from\n Exodus xx. 24: \u2018In all places where I record My name, I will come unto\n thee, and I will bless thee.\u2019 August 25.\u2014Gave an exhortation to the\n Students, in the College-chapel, from Luke i. 15: \u2018He shall be great\n in the sight of the Lord.\u2019 Sunday, August 28.\u2014Preached in the court\n before the College (the congregation consisting of some thousands),\n from 1 Cor. iii. 11: \u2018Other foundation can no man lay, than that is\n laid, which is Jesus Christ.\u2019\u201d[159]\n\nFootnote 159:\n\n Gillies\u2019 \u201cLife of Whitefield.\u201d\n\nTo this must be added a single sentence, from a letter which Whitefield\nwrote to Mr. Keene, on August 30: \u201cWhat we have seen and felt at the\nCollege is unspeakable.\u201d[160]\n\nFootnote 160:\n\n Trevecca College was supported at the sole expense of the Countess of\n Huntingdon till her death, on June 17, 1791. \u201cHad her ability been\n equal to her desire for its continuance, she would have endowed it,\n and thereby have provided for its perpetuity.\u201d About four years before\n her decease, and with her full approval, provision was made for the\n future. Seven trustees were appointed to take care of the College\n after her ladyship\u2019s death; and a subscription was begun for its\n maintenance. This accumulated fund, in 1791, amounted to \u00a3585, 3 per\n cent. Consols. The lease of the Trevecca property had expired, and it\n was now determined to remove the college to Cheshunt, near London.\n Accordingly, the Trevecca house was given up at Lady-day, 1792; the\n furniture, the library, and the communion plate were taken to\n Cheshunt, where the new establishment was formally opened on August\n 24, the anniversary of the commencement of the abandoned one at\n Trevecca. A religious service, of nearly three hours and a-half\u2019s\n duration, was held; Lady Anne Agnes Erskine, executrix of the Countess\n of Huntingdon, presided; and seven or eight hundred persons were\n present. (\u201cThe Order observed at the opening of the Countess of\n Huntingdon\u2019s College at Cheshunt, London, 1792,\u201d 8vo., 86 pp.)\n\nThat is all. Is there an instance of any other Methodist Institution so\nimportant as this, the published details of whose opening services are\nso pitiably meagre?\n\nIt has been said, there is no _positive_ proof that Fletcher was at the\nopening of Trevecca College; but there is _incidental_ evidence that he\nwas, and that his friend James Ireland, Esq., was with him. This will be\nfound in the _second_ of the following letters addressed to Mr. Ireland\nand his dying daughter.\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _July 30, 1768_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014Uncertain as I am whether your daughter is yet alive,\n I know not what to say, but this,\u2014our Heavenly Father appoints all\n things for the best. If her days of suffering are prolonged, it is to\n honour her with a conformity to the crucified Jesus. If they are\n shortened, she will have drunk all her cup of affliction, and found,\n at the bottom of it, not the bitterness of her sins, but the\n consolations of our Saviour\u2019s Spirit.\n\n \u201cI had lately some views of death, and it appeared to me in the most\n brilliant colours. What is it to die, but to open our eyes after the\n disagreeable dream of life? It is to break the prison of corruptible\n flesh and blood, into which sin has cast us. It is to draw aside the\n curtain which prevents us seeing the Supreme Beauty and Goodness face\n to face. O my dear friend, how lovely is death, when we look at it in\n Jesus Christ! To die is one of the greatest privileges of the\n Christian.\n\n \u201cIf Miss Ireland is still living, tell her, a thousand times, that\n Jesus is the resurrection and the life; that He has vanquished and\n disarmed death; that He has brought life and immortality to light; and\n that all things are ours, whether life or death, eternity or time.\n These are great truths upon which she ought to repose her soul with\n full assurance. Everything is shadow, in comparison of the reality of\n the Gospel. If your daughter be dead, believe in Jesus, and you shall\n find her again in Him, who fills all in all, who encircles the\n material and spiritual world in His arms\u2014in the immense bosom of His\n Divinity.\n\n \u201cAdieu, my dear friend. Yours,\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[161]\n\nFootnote 161:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 198.\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _October 14, 1768_.\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014I think I told you at Trevecca,[162] that we had\n no farmers at Madeley who feared God and loved Jesus. This generation\n among us are buried in the furrows of their ploughs, or under the\n heaps of corn which fill their granaries. Now that I am on the spot, I\n do not see one who makes it necessary for me to change my opinion.\n Your bailiff cannot come from this Nazareth.\n\n \u201cIf the last efforts of the physicians fail with respect to Miss\n Ireland, it will be a consolation to you to know that they have been\n tried. Every thing dies. Things visible are all transitory; but\n invisible ones abide for ever. If Christ is our life and our\n resurrection, it is of little importance whether we die now, or thirty\n years hence.\n\n \u201cPresent my respects to your son, and tell him, that last week I\n buried three young persons who had died of a malignant fever; and who,\n on the second day of their illness, were deprived of their speech and\n senses, and, on the fifth, of their lives. Of what avail are youth and\n vigour when the Lord lifts His finger? And shall we sin against the\n eternal power, the infinite love, the inexorable justice, and the\n immense goodness of this God, who gives us, from moment to moment, the\n breath which is in our nostrils? No\u2014we will employ the precious gift\n in praising and blessing this good God, who is our Father in Jesus\n Christ.\n\n \u201cI hope you learn, as well as I, and better than I, to know Jesus in\n the Spirit. I have known Him after the flesh, and after the letter; I\n strive to know Him in the power of His Spirit. Under the Divine\n character of a quickening Spirit, He is everywhere. All that live,\n live in Him, and they who are spiritually alive have a double life.\n The Lord give us this second life more abundantly. Yours,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[163]\n\nFootnote 162:\n\n In all probability at the opening of the College on August 24.\n\nFootnote 163:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 199.\n\nThe next is an extract from a long letter, addressed to dying Miss\nIreland.\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _December 5, 1768_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR AFFLICTED FRIEND,\u2014I hear you are returned from the last\n journey you took in search of health. Your Heavenly Father sees fit to\n deny it you, not because He hateth you (_for whom the Lord loveth He\n chasteneth_), but because life and health might be fatal snares to\n your soul, out of which you could not escape, but by tedious illness,\n and an early death.\n\n \u201cYour father has crossed the sea for you; Jesus has done more. He has\n crossed the abyss that lies between heaven and earth\u2014between the\n Creator and the creature. He has waded through the sea of His tears,\n blood, and agonies, not to take you to the physician at Montpelier,\n but to become your physician and Saviour Himself. Oh, my friend, delay\n not cheerfully to surrender yourself to Him. Look not at your sins\n without beholding His blood and righteousness. Eye not death but to\n behold your gracious Saviour, saying, \u2018_Fear not, O thou of little\n faith: wherefore dost thou doubt?_\u2019 Consider not eternity but as the\n palace where you are going to enter with the Bridegroom of souls, and\n rest from all your sins and miseries. View not the condemning law of\n God but as made honourable by Him, who was made a curse for you. If\n you have no comfort, distrust not Jesus on that account; on the\n contrary, take advantage from it to give greater glory to God, by\n believing, as Abraham did, \u2018in hope against hope.\u2019 In this simple,\n Gospel way, wait the Lord\u2019s leisure, and He will comfort your heart.\n\n \u201cI hope you take care to have little or nothing else mentioned to you\n but His praises and promises. Your tongue and ears are going to be\n silent in the grave. Now, or never, you must use them to hear and\n speak good of His name. Comfort your weeping friends. Reprove the\n backsliders. Encourage seekers. Remember the praying, believing,\n preaching, though dying thief. Be not afraid to drop a word for Him\n who opens a fountain of blood for you. Suffer, live, die at His feet;\n and you will soon revive, sing, and reign in His bosom for evermore.\n Farewell, in the Conqueror of Death and Prince of Life.\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[164]\n\nFootnote 164:\n\n _Ibid_, 1791, p. 204.\n\nWithin three months after the date of this letter, Miss Ireland had left\na world of sin and suffering, and had entered into that rest which\nremains for the people of God.[165] Hence the following, addressed to\nher father:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _March 26, 1769_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014The Lord is desirous of making you a true disciple of\n His dear Son, the \u2018_Man of Sorrows_,\u2019 by sending you affliction upon\n affliction. A sister and a wife who appear to hasten to the grave in\n which you have so lately laid your only daughter, places you in\n circumstances of uncommon sorrow. But in this see the finger of Him\n who works all in all, and who commands us to forsake all to follow\n Him. Believe in Him. Believe that He does all for the best; and that\n all shall work for good to those who love Him. His goodness to your\n daughter ought to encourage your faith and confidence for Mrs.\n Ireland. Offer her upon the altar, and you shall see that, if it be\n best for her and you, His grace will suspend the blow which threatens\n you.\n\n \u201cYour rich present of meal came last week, and shall be distributed to\n the pious poor agreeably to your orders. We are happy to receive your\n bounty, but you are more happy in bestowing it upon us. Witness the\n words of Jesus, \u2018It is more blessed to give than to receive.\u2019\n Nevertheless, receive, by faith, the presents of the Lord, the gifts\n of His Spirit, and reject not the bread which cometh down from heaven,\n because the Lord gives it you with so much love.\n\n \u201cI shall be obliged to go to Switzerland this year or the next, if I\n live and the Lord permits. I have there a brother, a worthy man, who\n threatens to leave his wife and children to come and pay me a visit if\n I do not go and see him myself. It is some time since our gracious God\n convinced him of sin, and I have some of his letters which give me\n great pleasure. This circumstance has more weight with me than the\n settlement of my affairs.\u201d[166]\n\nFootnote 165:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 205.\n\nFootnote 166:\n\n _Ibid_, p. 206.\n\nMr. Ireland was a frequent benefactor to Fletcher and the poor of\nMadeley. Hence, in another letter to the same friend in need, Fletcher\nwrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cI think I wrote my last letter two days before I received your\n bounty\u2014a large hogshead of rice and two cheeses. Accept the thanks of\n your poor and mine. I distributed your gifts on Shrove Tuesday; and\n preached to a numerous congregation on \u2018Seek ye first the kingdom of\n God and His righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto\n you.\u2019 We prayed for our benefactor, that God would give him a\n hundredfold in this life, and eternal life, where life eternal will be\n no burden.\u201d[167]\n\nFootnote 167:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nHelp, like Mr. Ireland\u2019s, was always welcome. Many of Fletcher\u2019s\nparishioners were extremely poor, and to the utmost of his ability he\ncontributed to their necessities. One who knew him writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe profusion of his charity toward the poor and needy is scarcely\n credible. It constantly exhausted his purse; it frequently unfurnished\n his home; and sometimes left him destitute of the common necessaries\n of life. That he might feed the hungry, he led a life of abstinence\n and self-denial; and that he might cover the naked, he clothed himself\n in the most homely attire.\u201d[168]\n\nFootnote 168:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nFletcher was President, or, as Wesley chose to call him more correctly,\n_Visitor_ of Trevecca College. The office brought upon him considerable\nanxiety and labour. In the summer of 1769, John Jones made application\nto be appointed head master. Mr. Jones, from 1746 to 1767, had been one\nof Wesley\u2019s itinerant preachers. He was one of the first classical\nmasters of Kingswood School, and wrote the Latin Grammar which was used\nin that academy.[169] He was highly esteemed by Wesley, and after he\nleft Kingswood was generally stationed in Wesley\u2019s two most important\ncircuits, London and Bristol. In 1754, when there was great excitement\nrespecting a possible separation of the Methodists from the Church of\nEngland, Charles Wesley wished what he called \u201c_the sound preachers_\u201d to\nbe \u201c_qualified for orders_,\u201d and wrote to his brother, saying, \u201cI know\nnone fitter for training up the young men in learning than yourself or\nJ. Jones.\u201d Nine years after this, when Erasmus, a bishop of the Greek\nChurch, visited London, he, at Wesley\u2019s request, ordained Jones to\nassist the Arch-Methodist in administering the sacraments to his\nSocieties. Charles Wesley would not admit the validity of this\nordination, and consequently would not allow Mr. Jones to officiate as a\nclergyman. This was a severe trial to the newly-ordained preacher, and\nled him to leave the Methodists. He afterwards procured ordination from\nthe Bishop of London, and was presented to the living of Harwich, where\nhe continued to preach for many years, and where he ended his days in\npeace.[170] He never lost his love for Wesley. In 1775, when Wesley was\ndangerously ill in Ireland, he wrote to him from Harwich:\u2014\n\n \u201cI cannot express what I felt when I was informed you were both\n senseless and speechless; and it was like life from the dead when I\n heard you were out of danger and able to sit up. Time was when you\n would have taken my advice, at least in some things. Let me entreat,\n let me beseech you, to preach less frequently, and that only at the\n principal places,\u201d etc.[171]\n\nFootnote 169:\n\n Myles\u2019s \u201cChronological History of the Methodists.\u201d\n\nFootnote 170:\n\n Atmore\u2019s \u201cMethodist Memorial.\u201d\n\nFootnote 171:\n\n _Arminian Magazine_, 1787, p. 444.\n\nSuch was John Jones, Wesley\u2019s friend, and at one time held in high\nesteem by Wesley\u2019s brother Charles. His ambition to be employed in Lady\nHuntingdon\u2019s college at Trevecca was not inordinate. Fifteen years\nbefore, Charles Wesley had thought him qualified to train young men for\nthe ministry, and from one of his letters, written in 1777, and\npublished in the _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_ for 1837, it is evident\nthat Charles Wesley\u2019s opinion was well founded. The letter was addressed\nto a gentleman of Magdalene College, Cambridge, who was about to be\nordained, and wished Mr. Jones\u2019s advice respecting the composition of\nsermons and preaching them.\n\n \u201cPrayer,\u201d said he, \u201cshould always precede the composing of a\n discourse. In general, the explication of the text or context, if they\n need it, should not be too short. The propositions or doctrines should\n not be too long nor too many, and the clearer they are the better. The\n illustrations should be proper and lively; the proofs close and home;\n the motives strong and cogent; the inferences and application natural,\n and not laboured. For if we cannot persuade the passions, we shall go\n but a little way with most of our hearers. This was George\n Whitefield\u2019s peculiar talent; but I do not mean to persuade you to\n bawl as loud as he did, and yet I would advise you to raise your voice\n in the application of your discourse. Eight-and-thirty years ago I\n thought it an easy matter to prove most points in divinity. I have\n been learning the contrary ever since, and I find it now very\n difficult, by Scriptures properly understood and applied, to prove\n many things which I once thought quite clear. I find it necessary to\n understand the Scripture I bring in as a proof before I use it as\n such. I will add one thing more. You will find it very difficult to\n use such plain language as will be understood in most congregations.\n Avoid long periods as much as possible. Imitate C\u00e6sar rather than\n Cicero; leave the latter to Dr. Middleton and Samuel Furley. It is far\n better to be understood by our hearers than to be admired by getting\n out of their depth. To do all the good we can is our one business in\n life.\u201d\n\nMr. Jones was a man of sense, and piety, and experience; and yet\nFletcher hesitated in recommending him to be appointed a tutor in\nTrevecca College. Did Fletcher sympathize with his friend Charles Wesley\nin the repugnance which the latter felt to Mr. Jones\u2019s ordination by\nErasmus, the bishop of the Greek Church? Perhaps so; at all events, the\nfollowing letter to the Countess of Huntingdon was cautious, if not\ncold:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _July 1, 1769_.\n\n \u201cMY LADY,\u2014Mr. Jones\u2019s letter puzzled me a little. I did not know what\n answer to make to it. I have, however, sat down, and, after an\n introduction, I say to him\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018The first and grand point to be kept in view at Lady Huntingdon\u2019s\n College is to maintain and grow in the spirit of faith and power that\n breathes through the Acts of the Apostles, and was exemplified in the\n lives of the primitive Christians. The first and grand qualification\n required in a person called to be at the head of such a college is,\n then, a degree of faith and power from above, with an entire\n devotedness to God and His cause.\n\n \u201c\u2018The master, who is there at present, seems, on account of his youth,\n to be deficient in point of experience. Nor is he a proper master of\n the Greek, nor even of the harder classics; so that he can hardly\n maintain his superiority over those who read Cicero and Horace.\n Whether this inconveniency, Sir, would be avoided, supposing you were\n appointed to succeed him, I cannot judge by your letter. He is also\n unacquainted with divinity and the sciences, of which it is proper he\n should give the students some idea; and how far you may excel him in\n these points, Sir, is not in my power to determine. He has twenty-five\n guineas a year, with his board, room, and washing. I dare say the\n generous foundress would not hesitate to raise the salary of a master\n of superior merit, though she hopes none would undertake that office\n for the sake of money.\u2019\n\n \u201cAfter giving Mr. Jones a little account of the business of the\n College, I add\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018The variety of classes in it demands great assiduity and diligence\n in the master. I would not, therefore, advise anyone to engage without\n a proper trial. I have begged of Lady Huntingdon not to fix upon a\n master till she had allowed him to look about him, and see how he\n liked the place, people, and business; and, as you very properly\n observe, Sir, it would be improper _to engage, and then to repent of\n the undertaking_. I think that, if, upon consulting with the Lord in\n prayer, and with Mr. Maxfield in conversation, you find your heart\n free to embrace so peculiar an opportunity of being useful to your\n generation, it might be best to come and see how you like the\n business, and how it agrees with you; and should not matters prove\n agreeable on either side, I dare say Lady Huntingdon will pay your\n travelling expenses to Talgarth,[172] and back again.\u2019\n\n \u201cIn a letter to Mr. Maxfield,[173] I desired him to inform your\n ladyship how Mr. Jones\u2019s mind stands after reflecting on the contents\n of my letter to him, and whether he would go to make a trial. I add,\n that so much depends upon the aptness to teach, Christian experience,\n solidity, liveliness, and devotedness of a master, that no one can\n presume to judge of these things by a letter, or even by a day\u2019s\n conversation.\n\n \u201cIf your ladyship does not approve of this step, a line to Mr.\n Maxfield will rectify what you think amiss, and will oblige, my lady,\n your unworthy servant,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\n\n \u201cP.S.\u2014If your ladyship is so good as to spare a minister for three\n weeks, I shall be glad to wait upon the dear young men and their\n patroness at the College.\u201d[174]\n\nFootnote 172:\n\n Trevecca College was in the parish of Talgarth, South Wales. It was\n supposed to be part of an old castle erected in the reign of Henry the\n Second. The date over the entrance was 1176.\n\nFootnote 173:\n\n Thomas Maxfield, who had seceded from Wesley\u2019s Connexion in 1763, and\n had received episcopal ordination from the Bishop of Derry.\n\nFootnote 174:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. ii., p. 98.\n\nThis is an important letter, not only as exhibiting the views of\nFletcher, but as containing a curious chapter in the earliest history of\nTrevecca College. The College, as it was ostentatiously called, had been\nopened ten months. It had one master; and the author of the \u201cLife and\nTimes of the Countess of Huntingdon\u201d says Joseph Easterbrook was the\nperson who occupied this position; but adduces no proof in support of\nhis assertion. Another, and a far greater authority, attests that the\nmaster of the College was a child. Who was he?\n\nIn 1788, there was printed \u201cA Sermon, occasioned by the Death of the\ncelebrated Mr. J. Henderson, B.A., of Pembroke College, Oxford: Preached\nat St. George\u2019s, Kingswood, November 23; and at Temple Church, Bristol,\nNovember 30, 1788. By the Rev. William Agutter, M.A., of St. Mary\nMagdalen College, Oxford. Published at the request of the Congregations.\nBristol. 1788.\u201d 8vo, pp. 32. The text of the sermon is, \u201cMoses was\nlearned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.\u201d Mr. Agutter\u2019s eulogy of\nHenderson cannot here be quoted at full length: the following are brief\nextracts from it:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Henderson was born, as it were, a thinking being; and was never\n known to cry, or to express any infantine peevishness. The questions\n he asked, as soon as he was able to speak, astonished all who heard\n him.\u201d\n\n \u201cHis memory was so strong that he retained all he read; and his\n judgment so solid that he arranged, examined, and digested all that he\n remembered, and thus made it his own.\u201d\n\n \u201cAt a time that other children were employed in the drudgery of\n learning words, he was occupied in obtaining the knowledge of things.\n _While but a boy, he was engaged to teach the learned languages. At\n twelve years of age, he taught Greek and Latin in the College of\n Trevecca. The Governor of the College at that time was the Rev. Mr.\n Fletcher, late Vicar of Madeley._\u201d[175]\n\nFootnote 175:\n\n The _Arminian Magazine_, for 1793, confirms this statement.\n\nMr. Agutter proceeds to say, that, when Fletcher was dismissed from\nTrevecca, Henderson was dismissed with him.\n\nThis, then, was the master\u2014the only master of Trevecca College during\nthe first year of its existence\u2014a child, a wonderful child, twelve years\nold! A further account of this prodigy, or, as the _Monthly Review_, of\n1789, called him, \u201ca second Baratier,\u201d[176] may interest the reader.\n\nFootnote 176:\n\n Baratier was a German, born in 1721, and is said to have understood\n the German, French, Greek, and Latin languages when he was five years\n old. At the age of nine, he could not only translate the Hebrew\n Scriptures into Latin or French, but also re-translate these versions\n into Hebrew. Before he had completed his tenth year, he composed a\n Hebrew Lexicon of rare and difficult words, with curious critical\n remarks. In his thirteenth year he translated from the Hebrew \u201cRabbi\n Benjamin\u2019s Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa,\u201d and published them in\n two volumes, \u201cwith historical and critical notes and dissertations.\u201d\n He also, with remarkable success, applied himself to the study of\n philosophy, mathematics, ecclesiastical history, law, etc. He died in\n his twentieth year.\n\nHis father was a native of Ireland, and, from 1759 to 1771, was one of\nWesley\u2019s best itinerant preachers,\u2014a man of deep piety, great talent,\nand amiable disposition; but naturally of a timid and melancholy mind.\nOn relinquishing the itinerancy, he commenced a boarding-school at\nHannam, near Bristol; but two of his pupils having been drowned while\nbathing, his mind was so affected, that he abandoned his school, and\nopened, at the same place, an asylum for the insane, which Wesley\npronounced the best of the kind in the three kingdoms.\n\nJohn Henderson, his only child, was born at Bellgaran, near Limerick, in\n1757, and, as early as possible, was sent to Wesley\u2019s School, at\nKingswood. At the age of eight, he had made such proficiency in the\nLatin language, as to be able to teach it in the school. In his twelfth\nyear, as already stated, he became the Master in Trevecca College. When\nabout fourteen years of age, he left Trevecca, and, probably, spent the\nnext ten years with his father at Hannam. At twenty-four, he entered\nPembroke College, Oxford; and, in due time, took the degree of Bachelor\nof Arts. His thirst after knowledge was unbounded; and his amiable\ntemper and remarkable talents secured him the respect of all who knew\nhim. His learning was deep and multifarious. He was skilled in grammar,\nrhetoric, history, logic, ethics, metaphysics, and scholastic theology.\nHe studied medicine with great attention, and practised it among the\npoor, wherever he had a chance, gratuitously. He was well versed in\ngeometry, astronomy, and every branch of natural and experimental\nphilosophy, and also in civil and canon laws. Besides several of the\nmodern languages, he was master of the Greek and Latin tongues; and was\nintimately acquainted with Persic and Arabic. Scarcely a book could be\nmentioned, but he could give some account of it; nor any subject\nstarted, but he could engage in the discussion of it. His talents for\nconversation were so attractive, various, and multiform, that he was a\ncompanion equally acceptable to the philosopher and the man of the\nworld, to the gay, the learned, and illiterate, the young and the old of\nboth sexes. He attracted the notice of Dr. Johnson, was intimate with\nSir William Jones, Miss Hannah More, and other celebrities; and Mr.\nWilberforce offered him his patronage and a living, if he would reside\nin London.\n\nLike most geniuses, John Henderson was eccentric. When he first went to\nOxford, his clothes were made in a fashion peculiar to himself; he had\nno stock or neckcloth; and he wore his hair like that of a boy at\nschool. His mode of life was singular. He generally went to bed at\ndaybreak, and rose in the afternoon, except when he was obliged to\nattend the morning service of the college chapel. Before he retired to\nrest, he frequently stripped himself naked to the waist, took his\nstation at a pump near his rooms, sluiced his head and the upper part of\nhis body, pumped water over his shirt, and then, putting it on, went to\nbed. This he jocularly called \u201can excellent cold bath.\u201d He became an\nardent admirer of the nonsense of Jacob Behmen\u2019s wild philosophical\ndivinity; studied Lavater\u2019s \u201cPhysiognomy;\u201d and attained to a\nconsiderable knowledge of magic and astrology; and declared the\npossibility of holding correspondence with the spirits of the dead, upon\nthe strength of his own experience.\n\nHe died at Oxford, on November 2, 1788, and was buried at St. George\u2019s,\nKingswood. His father was so painfully affected by the loss of his\naffectionate and only child, that he caused the corpse to be taken up\nagain, several days after the interment, to satisfy himself that his son\nwas really dead.[177]\n\nFootnote 177:\n\n _Arminian Magazine_, 1793, pp. 140\u2013144.\n\nWesley had great love and respect for poor Henderson\u2019s father, and, a\nfew months after the young man\u2019s untimely death, he wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201c1789, March 13.\u2014I spent some time with poor Richard Henderson, deeply\n affected with the loss of his only son; who, with as great talents as\n most men in England, had lived two-and-thirty years, and done just\n nothing.\u201d[178]\n\nFootnote 178:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\nThis, however, was scarcely true. Henry Moore, in his \u201cLife of\nWesley,\u201d[179] relates an anecdote which is worth preserving, and which\nmust conclude this lengthened notice of the child professor at the\nCountess of Huntingdon\u2019s College at Trevecca. In reference to Wesley\u2019s\nentry in his Journal, Mr. Moore remarks:\u2014\n\n \u201cNot a vestige of Mr. Henderson\u2019s writings remains. This is owing to\n what some would call a cross providence. He used to visit his father\n at Hannam, near Bristol, in the summer vacation. He there studied\n intensely, and wrote largely. His MSS. he stored in a large trunk\n without a lock. Returning home, some time before his last illness, he\n flew to his treasure, but found the trunk empty. He enquired of Mrs.\n Henderson, who called up the servant, and asked for the papers in the\n trunk. The girl, who had been hired that year, replied with great\n simplicity, \u2018La! ma\u2019am, I thought they were good for nothing, and so I\n lighted the fire with them during the winter.\u2019 Mr. Henderson looked at\n his excellent mother-in-law for some time, but spoke not a word. He\n then went into his study, and was never known to mention the subject\n more.\u201d\n\nFootnote 179:\n\n Vol. ii., p. 360.\n\n\u201cOh! Diamond, Diamond! thou little knowest the mischief thou hast done!\u201d\nsaid Sir Isaac Newton to his favourite little dog, who, by upsetting a\ntaper on his desk, had set fire to the papers which contained the whole\nof his unpublished experiments, and thus reduced to ashes the labours of\nmany years. Poor Henderson, in his misfortune, \u201cspoke not a word.\u201d\nNewton lived thirty years after his great loss, but made no important\naddition to his scientific discoveries; Henderson died soon after his\nsad calamity; and hence Wesley\u2019s disparaging remark concerning him:\n\u201cWith as great talents as most men in England, he lived two-and-thirty\nyears, and did just nothing.\u201d Wesley must have been ignorant of the fact\nrelated by Mr. Moore; for, on no other ground can an apology be framed\nfor his unfair remark.\n\nIt is time to return to Fletcher. Wesley was not present at the opening\nof Trevecca College, in 1768, but he took part in the religious services\nheld at the first anniversary in 1769. Whitefield was unavoidably\nabsent, for he was preaching farewell sermons, and administering\nfarewell sacraments, to his London congregations, and, a week\nafterwards, set out on his final visit to America. But, even without\nhim, the Methodist gathering at Trevecca was _one_ of the most\nremarkable recorded in old Methodist history. Besides Wesley and\nFletcher, there were present Howell Harris, the founder of the Welsh\nMethodists; the Rev. Daniel Rowlands, rector of Llangeitho, with a\nsalary of \u00a310 a year, a preacher whose eloquence was overwhelming, and\nwhose meetings among the Welsh mountains can never be forgotten; the\nRev. William Williams, curate of Lanwithid, a brave-hearted man who had\nmet violent persecution without flinching, and a member of the first\nConference of the Calvinistic Methodists in Wales, in 1743; Howell\nDavies, rector of Prendergast, an intimate friend of Whitefield, a\npreacher whom thousands upon thousands flocked to hear, in fields, and\non commons and mountains, and the attendance at whose monthly sacraments\nwas so great that his church had to be emptied several times over to\nmake room for the remaining communicants waiting out of doors; the Rev.\nPeter Williams, another itinerant clergyman of the Established Church,\nwho joined the Methodists as early as the year 1741; and the Hon. and\nRev. Walter Shirley, brother of the notorious Earl Ferrers, first cousin\nof the Countess of Huntingdon, converted under the ministry of Venn, and\nnow an earnest minister of Christ; to whom must be added Lady\nHuntingdon, the Countess of Buchan, Lady Anne Erskine, and Miss Orton,\nand also the first students of Trevecca, headed by their juvenile\nmaster, John Henderson.\n\nThe services were held daily for a whole week, from the 19th to the 25th\nof August inclusive. Fletcher, Rowlands, and William Williams arrived at\nthe College on Friday, the 18th, and next morning Rowlands preached in\nthe chapel to a crowded congregation, from the words, \u201cLord, are there\nfew that be saved?\u201d In the afternoon, the Lord\u2019s Supper was\nadministered, Fletcher addressing the communicants and spectators, and\nWilliams giving out a hymn, which was sung with great enthusiasm. At\nnight, Howell Harris preached to a large congregation assembled in the\ncourt from the text, \u201cThe time is come that judgment must begin at the\nhouse of God.\u201d During the day, Walter Shirley and several lay preachers\narrived at Trevecca.\n\nOn Sunday, August 20, at ten in the morning, Fletcher read the Liturgy\nin the court, and Shirley preached on, \u201cAcquaint thyself now with Him,\nand be at peace.\u201d At one, the Lord\u2019s Supper was administered in the\nchapel, and Rowlands, Fletcher, and Williams gave addresses. During the\nafternoon, Fletcher preached in the court to an immense congregation,\nfrom, \u201cI am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.\u201d When his sermon was\nended, Rowlands, in the Welsh language, addressed the crowd from, \u201cIt is\nappointed unto men once to die.\u201d\n\nOn Monday and Tuesday the clergymen preached, and Howell Harris and\nseveral of the lay preachers joined in the services.\n\nOn Wednesday, August 23rd, Wesley came, accompanied by Howell Davies and\nPeter Williams.[180] Wesley writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cWednesday, August 23rd. I went on to Trevecca. Here we found a\n concourse of people from all parts, come to celebrate the Countess of\n Huntingdon\u2019s birthday, and the anniversary of her school, which was\n opened on the twenty-fourth of August, last year. I preached in the\n evening to as many as her chapel could well contain; which is\n extremely neat, or rather, elegant; as is the dining-room, the school,\n and all the house. About nine, Howell Harris desired me to give a\n short exhortation to his family. I did so; and then went back to my\n lady\u2019s, and laid me down in peace.\n\n \u201cThursday, August 24th. I administered the Lord\u2019s Supper to the\n family.[181] At ten, the public service began. Mr. Fletcher preached\n an exceeding lively sermon in the court, the chapel being far too\n small. After him, Mr. William Williams preached in Welsh till between\n one and two o\u2019clock. At two we dined. Meantime, a large number of\n people had baskets of bread and meat carried to them in the court. At\n three, I took my turn there; then Mr. Fletcher; and about five, the\n congregation was dismissed. Between seven and eight, the lovefeast\n began, at which, I believe, many were comforted. In the evening,\n several of us retired into the neighbouring wood, which is exceeding\n pleasantly laid out in walks, one of which leads to a little mount\n raised in the midst of a meadow that commands a delightful prospect.\n This is Howell Harris\u2019s work, who has likewise greatly enlarged and\n beautified his house; so that, with the gardens, orchards, walks, and\n pieces of water that surround it, it is a kind of little\n paradise.\u201d[182]\n\nFootnote 180:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. ii., pp. 98, 99.\n\nFootnote 181:\n\n The author of the \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon\u201d says,\n \u201cShirley assisted Wesley,\u201d and adds, \u201cThe sacrament was first\n administered to the clergyman, then to the students, and then to Lady\n Huntingdon, the Countess of Buchan, Lady Anne Erskine, Miss Orton, and\n the other members of the family.\u201d\n\nFootnote 182:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\nThis is not the place to enlarge upon Howell Harris\u2019s establishment,\nwhich adjoined Trevecca College. Suffice it to say, that here he had\ngathered together a family of more than a hundred persons, \u201call\ndiligent, all constantly employed, all fearing God and working\nrighteousness.\u201d[183]\n\nFootnote 183:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nThe lovefeast mentioned by Wesley was the concluding service on the\n_first anniversary day_, strictly speaking, of Trevecca College. At that\nlovefeast, Walter Shirley, Howell Davies, and Daniel Rowlands gave short\nexhortations, and Peter Williams and Howell Harris offered prayers. Lady\nHuntingdon observes:\u2014\n\n \u201cTruly our God was in the midst of us, and many felt Him eminently\n nigh. The gracious influence of His Spirit seemed to rest on every\n one. Words fail to describe the holy triumph with which the great\n congregation sang\u2014\n\n \u2018Captain of Thine enlisted host,\n Display thy glorious banner high,\u2019 etc.\n\n It was a season of refreshing from the presence of the Lord\u2014a time\n never to be forgotten.\u201d\n\nNext morning, Wesley set off for Bristol; but the services were\ncontinued. In the afternoon, Shirley took his stand on the scaffold in\nthe court, and addressed the multitude from the words, \u201cWherefore He is\nable also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him,\nseeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.\u201d\n\n \u201cFrom that time,\u201d wrote Lady Huntingdon, \u201cwe had public preaching\n every day at four o\u2019clock, whilst Mr. Shirley and Mr. Fletcher\n remained. Copious showers of Divine blessing have been felt on every\n side. Truly God is good to Israel. Continue Thy goodness, and in much\n greater abundance! O that I may be more and more useful to the souls\n of my fellow-creatures! I want to be, every moment, all life, all\n zeal, all activity for God, and ever on the stretch for closer\n communion with Him. My soul pants to live more to Him; and to be more\n holy in heart and life, that all my nature may show the glories of the\n Lamb.\u201d[184]\n\nFootnote 184:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. ii., pp. 98\u2013101.\n\nAlas! that these glorious scenes among the Welsh mountains should so\nsoon be followed by scenes of discord and of disputes. The great storm\nof the Calvinian controversy was already brewing.\n\nWalter Sellon occupies a rather unique position in Methodistic annals.\nHe died in 1792, at the age of seventy-seven; and yet of the first\nthirty, and the last twenty-two years of his life, hardly anything is\nknown. Dr. Abel Stevens, in his \u201cHistory of Methodism,\u201d says Sellon was\noriginally a baker; but I know of no authority for this, except\nToplady\u2019s, whose hatred and abuse of Sellon were such as to justify a\nhesitancy in believing a statement concerning his stout antagonist,\nwhich he intended to be injurious to his fame. Sellon was born in the\nyear 1715; but up to the year 1745 he had not been introduced to Wesley.\nIn a letter to Wesley, dated December 31, 1744, he states, that, until\nrecently, he had condemned him as \u201can innovator,\u201d and had \u201cpitied those\nwho followed\u201d him. But, having heard Wesley preach, and having read his\nsermon on \u201cScriptural Christianity,\u201d delivered before the Oxford\nUniversity on August 24, 1744, his opinions concerning him and his\nfollowers were entirely changed; and he now requested Wesley, when he\nhad an opportunity, to preach at Maidenhead, \u201cwhere drunkenness,\nadultery, profaneness, gaming, and almost every abominable vice, were\nnot only committed with greediness, but gloried in, and boasted\nof.\u201d[185] Whether Wesley went to Maidenhead, which seems to have been\nSellon\u2019s place of residence, is not known; but, three years and a half\nafterwards, when he opened his famous Kingswood School, Walter Sellon\nwas appointed the Headmaster \u201cfor the Classics.\u201d[186] About the year\n1754, Sellon received episcopal ordination, and became curate of the\nchurches of Smisby, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and of Breedon, where vast\nmultitudes flocked to hear him, \u201cnot only from adjacent towns and\nvillages, but frequently from places ten, fifteen, and twenty miles\ndistant.\u201d \u201cHe was a real Methodist,\u201d wrote Jonathan Edmondson, \u201cand\nhundreds were turned to God through his instrumentality.\u201d[187] Sellon\nenjoyed the confidential friendship of Wesley, and especially of\nWesley\u2019s brother Charles; and, about the time of his appointment to his\ncuracies, stood faithfully by them in their contentions with the most\nable and prominent of their itinerant preachers, concerning the\nseparation of the Methodists from the Established Church. All his\npublications were controversial; and all, except his first, were written\nspecially in defence of the anti-Calvinian doctrines Wesley taught. This\nis not the place to review Walter Sellon as an author. Suffice it to\nsay, that he was always powerful, rather than polite; and that, after\nhis first publication, in 1765, which was levelled at Socinianism, he\nprepared a second in 1768, which was entitled, \u201cArguments against the\nDoctrine of General Redemption considered.\u201d Without noticing, at\npresent, the subsequent writings of Sellon, it is enough to add, that,\nabout the year 1770, he was presented by the Earl of Huntingdon to the\nVicarage of Ledsham, in Yorkshire, where he lived and laboured until his\ndeath, on June 13, 1792.[188] In an unpublished manuscript, John Pawson\nsays:\u2014\n\n \u201cI do not believe Mr. Sellon was made the instrument of awakening a\n single soul after he came to Ledsham. He was tutor to young Mr.\n Medhurst, of Kippax, who lately murdered his wife, and would have\n murdered his mother some years ago, if my brother Tarboton had not\n rescued her at the hazard of his own life. While in that family, Mr.\n Sellon seemed to lose all spirit and life, and, as far as I could\n learn, had very little savour of godliness about him. He took not the\n least notice of the Methodists, no more than if he had never known\n them.\u201d\n\nFootnote 185:\n\n _Arminian Magazine_, 1778, p. 327.\n\nFootnote 186:\n\n Myles\u2019 \u201cChronological History of the Methodists.\u201d\n\nFootnote 187:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1856, p. 38.\n\nFootnote 188:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1856, p. 41.\n\nJohn Pawson was one of Wesley\u2019s most honest and hardworking itinerants;\nbut he sometimes was more severe in his strictures than was desirable.\nHis remark, however, concerning Sellon\u2019s abandonment of the Methodists\nwas probably correct; for Wesley, in a letter dated June 10, 1784, wrote\nto him: \u201cYou used to meet me when I came near you; but you seem, of\nlate, to have forgotten your old friend and brother.\u201d[189]\n\nFootnote 189:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Works, vol. xiii., p. 43.\n\nTo return to Fletcher. He and Sellon were well known to each other. Four\nyears ago, they had exchanged pulpits for a season, Sellon preaching at\nMadeley, and Fletcher at Smisby and Breedon-on-the-Hill. Now Sellon was\nentering the arena of controversy. The expulsion of the Methodist\nstudents from Oxford University, in 1768, had been the means,\nincidentally, of bringing some of the chief doctrines of Calvinism into\npublic notice. Sir Richard Hill, in defending the students, had warmly\nadvocated Calvinistic predestination. Dr. Nowell, in answering Sir\nRichard, had clearly shown that this predestination was not the doctrine\nof the Church of England. Toplady had rushed to the rescue of his\nfavourite dogma, and had published his translation of \u201cZauchius,\u201d and\nalso his \u201cLetter to Dr. Nowell.\u201d Sellon was the first of Wesley\u2019s\nfriends who entered the lists, by preparing and publishing his\n\u201cArguments against the Doctrine of General Redemption considered.\nLondon, 1769.\u201d 12mo. 178 pp. Wesley encouraged him, and so did\nFletcher. The former wrote as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cWAKEFIELD, _July 9, 1768_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014I am glad you have undertaken the \u2018Redemption\n Redeemed;\u2019 but you must in no wise forget Dr. Owen\u2019s answer to it:\n otherwise you will leave a loop-hole for all the Calvinists to creep\n out. The Doctor\u2019s evasions you must needs cut in pieces, either\n interweaving your answers with the body of the work, under each head,\n or adding them in marginal notes.\n\n \u201cYour ever affectionate brother,\n \u201cJ. WESLEY.\u201d[190]\n\nFootnote 190:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Works, vol. xiii. p. 41.\n\nAfter the book was published, Fletcher wrote to Sellon the following\nletter, plainly showing that the great Calvinian controversy, though as\nyet in its incipient state, was causing considerable commotion:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _October 7, 1769_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014I thank you for your letter and books. They came\n safe to hand, and I shall give you the amount at the first\n opportunity. I have inquired what the Calvinists think; but they\n choose to be silent,\u2014a sign that they have not any great thing to\n object. Mr. R\u2014\u2014[191] looked at your book here in my house, and\n objected to \u0395\u03bb\u03b5\u03b7\u03c3\u03c9 \u03bf\u03bd \u03b1\u03bd \u03b5\u03bb\u03b5\u03c9, Rom. ix. 15. He says, \u03b5\u03bb\u03b5\u03c9 is, \u2018I have\n mercy,\u2019 not \u2018I should have mercy.\u2019 I observed to Mr. Glascott, \u2018It is\n the subjunctive mood, and may take the sign should, would, or could,\n according to the analogy of faith.\u2019\n\n \u201cI long to see Coles[192] answered. My request to you is, that you\n would answer him in the cool manner you have the Synod;[193] and my\n prayer to God is, that you may be assisted for that important work.\n\n \u201cI know two strong Calvinist believers, who lately took their leave of\n this world with, \u2018I shall be damned.\u2019 O, what did all their\n professions of perseverance do for them? They left them in the lurch.\n May we have the power of God in our souls, and we shall readily leave\n unknown decrees to others.\n\n \u201cThe Lord give you patience with your brethren! The best way to\n confound them is, to preach that kingdom of God which they cast away,\n with real righteousness, and present peace and joy in believing; that\n is poison to the synodical kingdom.\n\n \u201cI despair of seeing you before I have seen Switzerland, which I\n design to visit next winter. Mr. Ireland takes me as far as Lyons in\n my way.\n\n \u201cThere are some disputes in Lady Huntingdon\u2019s College; but when the\n power of God comes, they drop them. The Calvinists are three to one.\n Your book I have sent them as a hard nut for them to crack.\n\n \u201cMay the Lord spare you, and make you a free, joyful soldier of the\n Lord Jesus; as tough against sin and unbelief as you are against\n Calvin and the Synod! The Lord has overruled your leaving Smisby for\n good. Let us trust in Him, and all will be well. Farewell.\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[194]\n\nFootnote 191:\n\n Probably Romaine, who was at Berwick, near Shrewsbury, on September 9,\n 1769, and wrote a letter full of his strongest Calvinism. (See\n Romaine\u2019s Works, vol. vi., p. 330. Edition 1813.)\n\nFootnote 192:\n\n Elisha Coles, a clerk to the East India Company, who died in 1688. His\n \u201cPractical Discourse of God\u2019s Sovereignty,\u201d here referred to, was\n answered by Sellon a year or two afterwards.\n\nFootnote 193:\n\n The Synod of Dort, held at Dort in 1618 and 1619, and consisting of\n thirty-eight Dutch and Walloon divines, five professors of the Dutch\n Universities, and twenty-one Lay-elders; besides twenty-eight foreign\n divines, from England and other countries. At this celebrated Synod,\n the five points of difference between the Calvinists and Arminians\n were decided in favour of the former. Sellon, in his able book,\n controverts this decision, at all events so far as the doctrine of\n predestination is concerned.\n\nFootnote 194:\n\n Fletcher\u2019s Works, vol. viii., p. 205.\n\nThis episode respecting Walter Sellon is not irrelevant, and is of\nconsiderable importance, inasmuch as it relates, in part, to the rise of\nthe great Calvinian controversy of the last century, in which Fletcher\nbecame one of the chief actors. Sellon\u2019s book, in favour of the doctrine\nof \u201cGeneral Redemption,\u201d was the first published by Wesley\u2019s adherents,\nand is exceedingly able; but this is not the place to analyse and give\nan account of it.\n\nSeventeen years had elapsed since Fletcher left his father\u2019s house in\nSwitzerland. He had now decided to pay a visit to the place of his\nnativity, and to travel as far as the south of France with his generous\nfriend, Mr. Ireland, of Brislington, Bristol. The following letter to\nMr. Ireland refers to this contemplated visit, and to another matter,\nwhich must be noticed:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _December 30, 1769_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014Last night, I received your obliging letter, and am\n ready to accompany you to Montpelier, provided you will go with me to\n Nyon. I shall raise about twenty guineas, and, with that sum, a\n gracious Providence, and your purse, I hope we shall want for nothing.\n If the Lord sends me, I should want nothing, though I had nothing, and\n though my fellow-traveller were no richer than myself.\n\n \u201cI hope to be at Bristol soon, to offer you my services to pack up.\n You desired to have a Swiss servant, and I offer myself to you in that\n capacity; for I shall be no more ashamed of serving you, as far as I\n am capable of doing, than I am of wearing your livery.\n\n \u201cTwo reasons (to say nothing of the pleasure of your company) engage\n me to go with you to Montpelier,\u2014a desire to visit some poor Huguenots\n in the south of France, and the need I have to recover a little French\n before I go to converse with my compatriots.\n\n \u201cThe priest at Madeley is going to open his mass-house, and I declared\n war on that account last Sunday, and propose to strip the whore of\n Babylon and expose her nakedness to-morrow. All the papists are in a\n great ferment, and have held meetings to consult on the occasion. One\n of their bloody bullies came \u2018to pick up a quarrel\u2019 with me, as he\n said, and what would have been the consequence had I not had company\n with me I know not. How far more rage may be kindled to-morrow I don\u2019t\n know; but I question whether it will be right for me to leave the\n field in these circumstances. I forgot to mention that two of our poor\n ignorant Churchmen are about to join the mass-house, which also is the\n cause of my having taken up arms.\u201d[195]\n\nFootnote 195:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 208.\n\nFletcher preached his anti-popery sermon as he intended, taking as his\ntext 1 Tim. iv. 1\u20133: \u201cNow the Spirit speaketh expressly that, in the\nlatter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing\nspirits and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having\ntheir conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and\ncommanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received\nwith thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.\u201d An outline\nof the sermon may be found in Fletcher\u2019s Collected Works, vol. vii., p.\n490. As the people were leaving the church, a man, who acted as the\nspokesman of the papists present, cried, \u201cThere was not a word of truth\nin the whole sermon;\u201d and then, turning to Fletcher, assured him that he\nwould shortly produce a gentleman who would refute all that he had said.\nThe threat was not fulfilled;[196] and Benson, in his \u201cLife of\nFletcher,\u201d first published in 1804, remarks:\u2014\n\n \u201cBy Mr. Fletcher\u2019s bold and prudent stand the designs of the papists\n were in a great measure frustrated, and they were prevented making any\n progress worth mentioning in Madeley. It is true there is even now a\n mass-house and a priest at Madeley, but I find, upon inquiry, there\n are not a dozen Popish families in the parish.\u201d\n\nFootnote 196:\n\n Fletcher\u2019s Works, vol. vii., p. 494.\n\nFletcher\u2019s intended visit to Switzerland was, for a little while,\ndeferred; because he deemed it his duty to await the threatened\nrefutation of his anti-popish sermon. Hence, early in January 1770, he\nwent to Trevecca; probably for the purpose of meeting Joseph Benson, who\nwas about to become head master of the college.\n\nJoseph Benson was now nearly twenty-two years of age, and for the last\nfour years had been the classical master of Wesley\u2019s school at\nKingswood, and was at present keeping terms at Oxford. His acquaintance\nwith Fletcher was slight, but his admiration of him great. He writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cI had only had two or three interviews with Mr. Fletcher, which were,\n I think, in the year 1768, when I was classical master at Kingswood\n school. As he occasionally made an excursion from Madeley to Bristol\n and Bath, in one of these excursions we invited him to preach at\n Kingswood. He came, and took as his text, \u2018Him that cometh unto Me I\n will in no wise cast out.\u2019 The people were exceedingly affected;\n indeed quite melted down. The tears streamed so fast from the eyes of\n the poor colliers that their black faces were washed by them. As to\n himself, he was carried out so far beyond his strength that, when he\n concluded, he put off his shirt, which was as wet as if it had been\n dipped in water. But this was nothing strange; whenever he preached it\n was generally the case. From this time, I conceived a particular\n esteem for him, chiefly on account of his piety; and wished much for a\n further acquaintance with him, a blessing which I soon after obtained;\n for through his means, and in consequence of Mr. Wesley\u2019s\n recommendation to the Countess of Huntingdon, I was made head master\n of the academy, or, as it was commonly called, the college, at\n Trevecca, though I could ill be spared from Kingswood, where I had\n acted in that capacity about four years. Being greatly wanted at\n Kingswood, and having likewise a term to keep at Oxford, I could only\n pay them a short visit for the present, which was in January 1770; but\n in the spring following, I went to reside there, and for some time was\n well satisfied with my situation.\u201d[197]\n\nFootnote 197:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nNo record exists of what transpired between Fletcher and Benson at\nTrevecca; but the following letter, written there, and addressed to Mr.\nIreland, deserves insertion:\u2014\n\n \u201cTREVECCA, _January 13, 1770_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014I know not what to think of our journey. My heart\n frequently recoils. I have lost all hope of being able to preach in\n French, and I think if I could they would not permit me. I become more\n stupid every day; my memory fails me in a surprising manner. I am good\n for nothing, but to go and bury myself in my parish. I have those\n touches of misanthropy which make solitude my element. Judge, then,\n whether I am fit to go into the world. On the other hand, I fear that\n your journey is undertaken partly from complaisance to me, and in\n consequence of the engagement we made to go together. I acquit you of\n your promise; and, if your business does not really demand your\n presence in France, I beg you will not think of going there on my\n account. The bare idea of giving you trouble would make the journey\n ten times more disagreeable to me than the season of the year.\n\n \u201cThe day after I wrote to you I preached the sermons against popery,\n which I had promised to my people; and Mr. S\u2014t\u2014r called out several\n times in the churchyard, as the people went out of church, that \u2018there\n was not one word of truth in the whole of my discourse, and that he\n would prove it.\u2019 He also told me that he would produce a gentleman who\n should answer my sermon and the pamphlet I had distributed. I was,\n therefore, obliged to declare in the church that I should not quit\n England, and was only going into Wales, from whence I would return\n soon to reply to the answer of Mr. S\u2014t\u2014r and the priest, if they\n should offer any. I am thus obliged to return to Madeley by my word so\n publicly pledged, as well as to raise a little money for my journey.\n Were it not for these circumstances, I believe I should pay you a\n visit at Bristol, notwithstanding my misanthropy.\n\n \u201cThe hamper which you mention, and for which I thank you, provided it\n be the last, arrived three days before my departure, but not knowing\n what it was, nor for whom it was intended, I put it into my cellar\n without opening it. I want the _living water_ rather than cider, and\n righteousness more than clothes. I fear, however, lest my unbelief\n should make me set aside the fountain whence it flows, as I did your\n hamper. Be that as it may, it is high time to open the treasures of\n Divine mercy, and to seek in the heart of Jesus for the springs of\n love, righteousness, and life. The Lord give us grace so to seek that\n we may find, and be enabled to say with the woman in the Gospel, \u2018I\n have found the piece of silver which I had lost.\u2019\n\n \u201cIf your affairs do not really call you to France I will wait until\n Providence and grace shall open a way to me to the mountains of\n Switzerland, if I am ever to see them again. Adieu! Give yourself\n _wholly_ to God. A divided heart, like a divided kingdom, falls\n naturally by its own gravity either into darkness or into sin. My\n heart\u2019s desire is that the love of Jesus may fill your soul, and that\n of your unworthy and greatly obliged servant,\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[198]\n\nFootnote 198:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 210.\n\nThe journey to Switzerland was deferred, but took place; though no one\nseems to know the exact date when it was begun or when it ended. In the\nmonth of July, however, Fletcher was again in England. Strangely enough,\nthere is no letter of his that refers to the extensive tour made by him\nand his friend Ireland; but the latter sent the following account to Mr.\nBenson:\u2014\n\n \u201cI was with Mr. Fletcher, day and night, nearly five months,\n travelling all over Italy and France. At that time, a popish priest\n resided in his parish, who attempted to mislead the poor people. Mr.\n Fletcher, therefore, throughout this journey, attended the sermons of\n the Roman Catholic clergy, visited their convents and monasteries, and\n conversed with all the most serious among them whom he met with, in\n order that he might know their sentiments concerning spiritual\n religion. He was so very particular in making observations respecting\n the gross and absurd practices of the priests and other clergy,\n especially while we were in Italy, that we were frequently in no small\n danger of our lives. He wished to attend the Pope\u2019s chapel at Rome,\n but I would not consent to accompany him till I had obtained a promise\n from him that he would forbear to speak by way of censure or reproof\n of what he saw or heard. He met with many men of science and learning,\n with whom he conversed freely on Gospel truths, which most of them\n opposed with violence. A few listened and were edified. His whole\n life, as you well know, was a sermon; all his conversations were\n sermons. Even his disputations with infidels were full of instruction.\n We met with a gentleman of fortune, an excellent classical scholar,\n with whom we continued near a fortnight at an hotel. He said he had\n travelled all over Europe, and had passed through all the Societies in\n England to find a person whose life corresponded with the Gospels and\n with Paul\u2019s Epistles. He asked me (for it was with me he first began\n to converse) if I knew any clergyman or dissenting minister in\n England, possessed of a stipend of \u00a3100 a year for the cure of souls,\n who would not leave them all if he were offered double that amount. I\n replied in the affirmative, and pointed to my friend Fletcher; when\n disputations commenced, which continued for many days.\u201d[199]\n\nFootnote 199:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nMr. Gilpin, in Fletcher\u2019s \u201cPortrait of St. Paul,\u201d adds to this account.\nHe says:\u2014\n\n \u201cThis debate was continued, by adjournment, for the space of a week.\n Whatever had been said upon the subject by the most celebrated writers\n was brought forward, and thoroughly discussed. Mr. Fletcher repeatedly\n overcame his antagonist, who regularly lost his temper and his cause\n together. Mr. Fletcher took a view of the Christian\u2019s enviable life,\n his consolation in trouble, and his tranquillity in danger; together\n with his superiority to all the evils of life and the horrors of\n death; interspersing his remarks with affectionate admonitions and\n powerful persuasives to a rational dependence upon the truths of the\n Gospel. At the conclusion of this memorable debate, the unsuccessful\n disputant conceived so exalted an idea of his opponent\u2019s character,\n that he never afterwards mentioned his name but with peculiar\n veneration and regard; and when they met again, eight years later, in\n Provence, where the gentleman lived in affluence, he showed Mr.\n Fletcher every possible civility, entertained him at his house in the\n most hospitable manner, and listened to his conversation on spiritual\n subjects with all imaginable attention and respect.\u201d\n\nMr. Gilpin mentions another incident of the same kind. Fletcher, in his\ntravels, met a young gentleman from Genoa, who had imbibed the infidel\nnotions of the day. They had a debate, which lasted several days, from\nmorning till night. The sceptic was vanquished, and was so struck with\nthe masterly skill of Fletcher, and his more than parental concern,\nthat, before they parted, he looked up to his instructor with reverence,\nlistened to him with admiration, and desired to be present at morning\nand evening prayer.[200]\n\nFootnote 200:\n\n \u201cPortrait of St. Paul.\u201d\n\nWhile at Marseilles, Mr. Ireland procured for Fletcher the use of a\nProtestant church in that neighbourhood; but the engagement to preach in\nit caused Fletcher great anxiety, probably because he had lost his\nfacility in speaking the French language. He prayed about it earnestly\nall the week; and when Sunday morning came, he entreated Mr. Ireland to\ninform the minister of the church that he was unable to fulfil his\nengagement. Mr. Ireland refused; and Fletcher was compelled to ascend\nthe pulpit, where he preached with such effect, that the whole\ncongregation, among whom were many ministers, were in tears.[201]\n\nHe determined, while in the south of France, to visit the Protestants in\nthe Cevennes mountains, whose fathers had suffered so severely in the\ncause of Christ; \u201cthe heretics of the Cevennes, those accursed\nremainders of the old Albigenses,\u201d as the Bull of Clement XI., dated\n1703, designated them. The journey was long and difficult, but no\nargument could prevail with him to abandon his resolution of attempting\nit on foot. \u201cShall I,\u201d said he to his friend Ireland, \u201cmake a visit on\nhorseback and at ease, to those poor cottagers, whose fathers were\nhunted along the rocks, like partridges upon the mountains? No: I will\nvisit them under the plainest appearance, with my staff in my hand.\u201d\nAccordingly, he set out alone, and, after travelling till it was nearly\ndark, he entered a small house, and begged the favour of being allowed\nto sit in a chair till morning. The master of the cottage, after some\nhesitation, consented. Conversation followed; the host and hostess were\ncharmed; the best provisions in their humble dwelling were given to the\ntraveller; and, before they retired to rest, prayer was proposed and\noffered. Early on the morrow, the strange visitant renewed his\nconversation and his prayers; father, mother, and children were melted\ninto tears; and the poor man himself told his neighbours that he had\nnearly refused to admit a stranger into his house, who was more an angel\nthan a man. The family were papists.\n\nContinuing his journey, Fletcher reached a small town, where he was\nentertained by a pious minister, to whom he had been recommended. The\nProtestants received him with open arms. He conversed with their elders;\nadmonished their youth; visited their sick; and preached with freedom\nand success. Many among them were comforted, and many built up in their\nmost holy faith.\n\nFootnote 201:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nAs he travelled over the mountains, he, one day, put up in a small\ndwelling, whose master could hardly speak without uttering an oath. Of\ncourse, Fletcher, in his own peculiar way, reproved the swearer; and,\nwith such effect, that the man confessed his sin; and ever afterwards,\nwhen in danger of falling into his old habit, nothing more was necessary\nto restrain him than to remember the saintly stranger who had once\nobtained a lodging beneath his humble roof.[202]\n\nFootnote 202:\n\n Gilpin\u2019s \u201cNotes to Portrait of St. Paul.\u201d\n\nFletcher and Mr. Ireland proceeded from France to Italy, and traversed\nthe celebrated Appian Way. As they approached it, Fletcher directed the\ndriver to stop; for, said he to Mr. Ireland, \u201cI cannot _ride_ over\nground where the Apostle Paul once _walked_, chained to a soldier.\u201d As\nsoon as he set his foot upon the old Roman road, he took off his hat;\nand, walking on with his eyes lifted up to heaven, he gave God thanks\nfor the glorious truths which Paul preached. He rejoiced that, in\nEngland, these truths were still published; and prayed that they might\nbe revived in Italy. He reviewed the life, the travels, the labours, and\nthe sufferings of the great Apostle, his remarks being intermixed with\nprayer and praise, and the man himself resembling an incarnation of\ndevotion.[203]\n\nFootnote 203:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nOn arriving in Switzerland, he was at once solicited by the clergy at\nNyon to occupy their pulpits. He complied with their requests; and,\nwherever he was announced to preach, multitudes from all quarters\nflocked to hear him. Even deists listened to him with admiration, and\nthe crowds seemed to think him more than human. Despisers of revelation\nwere overawed and confounded; formalists were roused; and careless\nsinners startled. One of his converts betook himself to sacred studies,\nand became a Protestant minister at Lyons. When the time for Fletcher\u2019s\ndeparture came, a good old minister, of more than threescore years and\nten, besought him, with indescribable earnestness, to stay a little\nlonger, even were it only for a single week; and, when he found that\nthis was impracticable, the old gentleman burst into tears, and,\naddressing Mr. Ireland, cried, \u201cOh, Sir, how unfortunate for my country!\nDuring my lifetime, it has produced but one angel of a man, and now it\nis our lot to lose him!\u201d At length the carriage, that was to bear away\nthe travellers, appeared; multitudes crowded round about it, anxious to\nreceive a last word or look; and not a few followed it for above two\nmiles, before they could summon sufficient resolution to bid farewell to\ntheir saintly compatriot whom they had learned to love so much.[204]\n\nFootnote 204:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nFletcher reached England about the time of midsummer 1770. His tour had\ndone him good, and had prepared him for the more than ordinary trials\nthat awaited him.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER VIII.\n _COMMENCEMENT OF THE CALVINIAN\n CONTROVERSY._\n\n 1770 AND 1771.\n\n\nDURING his absence from England, Fletcher wrote several letters to the\nmasters and students of the Countess of Huntingdon\u2019s College at\nTrevecca;[205] but none of these have been published, and, probably,\nnone of them now exist. Immediately after his return, and before he had\nan opportunity of visiting the College, he indited the following\nremarkable epistle:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _July 23, 1770_.\n\n \u201cTo the masters and students of Lady Huntingdon\u2019s College.\n\n \u201cGrace, mercy, and peace attend you, my dear brethren, from God our\n Father, and from our Lord and Brother Jesus Christ!\n\n \u201c_Brother_, do I say? Should I not rather have written _All_? Is not\n He _all and in all_? _All_ to believers, for He is their God, as the\n \u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03bf\u03c2 (_the Word_), and their Friend, Brother, Father, Spouse, etc.,\n etc., etc., as He is \u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 \u03c3\u03b1\u03c1\u03be (_the Word made flesh_).\n From Him, through Him, and in Him, I salute you in the Spirit. I\n believe He is here with me, and in me. I believe He is yonder with\n you, and in you; for \u2018in Him we live, move, and have,\u2019 not only our\n animal, but rational and spiritual, \u2018being.\u2019 May the powerful grain of\n faith remove the mountain of remaining unbelief, that you and I may\n see things as God sees them! When this is the case, we shall discover\n that the Creator is _All_ indeed, and that creatures, which we are\n wont to put in His place, are mere nothings, passing clouds that our\n Sun of Righteousness has thought fit to clothe Himself with, and paint\n some of His glories upon. In an instant, He could scatter them into\n their original nothing, or resorb them for ever, and stand without\n competitor, \u05d9\u05d7\u05d5\u05d4, the _Being_.\n\n \u201cBut suppose that all creatures should stand for ever, little\n signatures of God, what are they even in their most glorious estate,\n but as tapers kindled by His light, as well as formed by His power?\n Now conceive a Sun, a spiritual Sun, whose centre is everywhere, whose\n circumference can be found nowhere; a Sun whose lustre as much\n surpasses the brightness of the luminary that rules the day, as the\n Creator surpasses the creature; and say, What are the twinkling tapers\n of good men on earth,\u2014what is the smoking flax of wicked\n creatures,\u2014what the glittering stars of saints in heaven? Why, they\n are all lost in His transcendent glory, and if any one of these would\n set himself up as an object of esteem, regard, or admiration, he must\n indeed be mad with _self_ and _pride_. He must be, as dear Mr. Howell\n Harris has often told us, a foolish apostate, a devil.\n\n \u201cUnderstand this, believe this, and you will sink to unknown depths of\n self-horror, for having aspired at being _somebody_, self-humiliation\n at seeing yourself _nobody_, or what is worse an _evil-body_.\n\n \u201cBut I would not have you dwell even upon this evil, so as to lose\n sight of your Sun, unless it be to see Him covered, on this account,\n with our flesh and blood, and wrapt in the cloud of our nature. Then\n you will cry out with St. Paul, \u2018O the depth!\u2019 Then, finding the\n manhood is again resorbed into the Godhead, you will gladly renounce\n all selfish, separate existence in Adam and from Adam. You will take\n Christ to be your life; you will become His members by eating His\n flesh and drinking His blood; you will consider His flesh as your\n flesh, His bone as your bone, His Spirit as your spirit, His\n righteousness as your righteousness, His cross as your cross, and His\n crown (whether of thorns or glory) as your crown. You will reckon\n yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through\n this dear Redeemer. You will renounce propriety; you will heartily and\n gladly say, \u2018Not I, not I, but Christ liveth; and only _because He\n lives_, I do, and shall live also.\u2019\n\n \u201cWhen it is so with us, then we are creatures in our Creator, and\n redeemed creatures in our Redeemer. Then we understand and feel what\n He says, \u2018Without Me the Creator, ye are nothing; without Me the\n Saviour, ye can do nothing.\u2019 \u2018The moment I consider Christ and myself\n as two, I am gone,\u2019 says Luther; and I say so too. I am gone into\n self, and into Antichrist; for that which will be _something_, will\n not let Christ be _all_; and that which will not let Christ be all,\n must certainly be Antichrist. What a poor, jejune, dry thing is\n doctrinal Christianity, compared with the clear and _heartfelt assent_\n that the believer gives to these fundamental truths! What life, what\n strength, what comfort flow out from them! O my friends, let us\n believe, and we shall see, taste, and handle the Word of Life. When I\n stand in unbelief, I am like a drop of muddy water drying up in the\n sun of temptation. I can neither comfort, nor help, nor preserve\n myself. When I do believe and close in with Christ, I am like that\n same drop losing itself in a boundless, bottomless sea of purity,\n light, life, power, and love. There _my good_ and _my evil_ are\n equally nothing; equally swallowed up; and grace reigns through\n righteousness unto eternal life.\n\n \u201cThere I wish you all to be. There I beg you and I may meet with all\n God\u2019s children. I long to see you that I may impart unto you (should\n God make use of such a worm) some spiritual gift, and that I may be\n comforted by the mutual faith of you and me, and by your growth in\n grace, and in divine as well as human wisdom, during my long absence.\n I hope matters will be so contrived that I may be with you, to behold\n your order, before the anniversary. Meanwhile, I remain your\n affectionate fellow-labourer and servant in the Gospel of Christ,\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[206]\n\nFootnote 205:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201c\n\nFootnote 206:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201c\n\nNo wonder that the visits of a man breathing such a spirit were\nwelcomed. Mr. Benson, the head master of the College, writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cHe was received as an angel of God. It is not possible for me to\n describe the veneration in which we all held him. Like Elijah, in the\n schools of the prophets, he was revered; he was loved; he was almost\n adored; not only by every student, but by every member of the family.\n\n \u201cAnd indeed he was worthy. The reader will pardon me, if he thinks I\n exceed. My heart kindles while I write. Here it was that I saw, shall\n I say, an angel in human flesh? I should not far exceed the truth if I\n said so. But here I saw a descendant of fallen Adam, so fully raised\n above the ruins of the fall, that, though by the body he was tied down\n to earth, his _whole conversation was in heaven_. His _life_, from day\n to day, was _hid with Christ in God_. Prayer, praise, love, and zeal,\n all ardent, elevated above what one would think attainable in this\n state of frailty, were the element in which he continually lived. As\n to others, his one employment was, to call, entreat, and urge them, to\n ascend with him to the glorious source of being and blessedness. He\n had leisure, comparatively, for nothing else. Languages, arts,\n sciences, grammar, rhetoric, logic, even divinity itself, were all\n laid aside, when he appeared in the schoolroom among the students. His\n full heart would not suffer him to be silent. He _must_ speak, and\n they were readier to hearken to this servant and minister of Jesus\n Christ, than to attend to Sallust, Virgil, Cicero, or any Latin or\n Greek historian, poet, or philosopher they had been engaged in\n reading. And they seldom hearkened long, before they were all in\n tears, and every heart catched fire from the flame that burned in his\n soul.\n\n \u201cThese seasons generally terminated in this. Being convinced that to\n be \u2018filled with the Holy Ghost\u2019 was a better qualification for the\n ministry of the Gospel than any classical learning (though that too\n may be useful in its place), after speaking awhile in the schoolroom,\n he used frequently to say, \u2018As many of you as are athirst for the\n fulness of the Spirit, follow me into my room.\u2019 On this, many of us\n instantly followed him, and there continued till noon, _for two or\n three hours_, praying for one another, till we could bear to kneel no\n longer. This was done, not once or twice, but many times; and I have\n sometimes seen him, on these occasions\u2014once in particular\u2014so filled\n with the love of God, that he cried out, \u2018O my God, withhold Thy hand,\n or the vessel will burst!\u2019 But he afterwards told me, he was afraid he\n had grieved the Spirit of God, and that he ought to have prayed that\n the Lord would have enlarged the vessel, or have suffered it to break,\n that the soul might have had no further bar to its enjoyment of the\n Supreme Good.\n\n \u201cSuch was the ordinary employment of this man of God, while he\n remained at Trevecca. He preached the word of life to the students and\n family, and to as many of the neighbours as desired to be present. He\n was always employed, either in illustrating some important truth, or\n exhorting to some neglected duty, or administering some needful\n comfort, or relating some useful anecdote, or making some profitable\n remark. His devout soul, always burning with love and zeal, led him to\n intermingle prayer with all he uttered. His manner was so solemn and,\n at the same time, so mild and insinuating, that it was hardly possible\n for any one to be in his company without being struck with awe and\n charmed with love, as if in the presence of an angel or departed\n spirit. Indeed, I frequently thought, while attending to his heavenly\n discourse, that he was so different from the generality of mankind as\n to look more like Moses or Elijah, or some prophet or apostle come\n again from the dead, than a mortal man dwelling in a house of\n clay.\u201d[207]\n\nFootnote 207:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201c\n\nThis, to some, may appear excessive eulogy; and, therefore, the reader\nis reminded that Joseph Benson, who wrote it, was not a weak-minded\nfanatic, but a man of robust understanding, a classical scholar of no\nmean attainments, an able commentator on the Old and New Testaments, one\nof the most powerful and successful preachers of his times, and twice\nPresident of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference. Such a man was not\nlikely to write random words. He knew Fletcher, and, to the best of his\npower, described him accurately. And, further, it must be remembered\nthat Benson\u2019s testimony was endorsed by Wesley, who inserted it verbatim\nin his \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201c\n\nSuch was Fletcher; and yet this half-angelic man had soon to leave\nTrevecca! The reasons for this must now be given. The subject will be\nfar from pleasant; but, in a Life of Fletcher, it cannot be evaded. For\nsome time past, the storm of the Calvinian controversy had been brewing;\nnow the crisis came, and the storm burst with terrific violence.\n\nBefore proceeding, however, with the history of the controversy, there\nis a letter belonging to this period too interesting to be omitted.\nDavid Simpson, who had belonged to Rowland Hill\u2019s Methodist Society, at\nCambridge, had recently received episcopal ordination, and begun his\nfamous ministry. Like Wesley, Whitefield, Berridge, Rowland Hill, and\nothers, he was inclined to become, to some extent, an itinerant\npreacher, and, therefore, _irregular_. He was only twenty-four years of\nage, without experience, and in need of counsel. Accordingly, he wrote\nto Fletcher, who returned the following answer:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _August 4, 1770_.\n\n \u201cREVEREND AND DEAR SIR,\u2014I have sometimes preached in licensed places,\n but have never been censured for it. Perhaps it is because my\n superiors in the Church think me not worth their notice, and despair\n of shackling me with their unevangelical regularity. If the Bishop\n were to take me to task about this piece of irregularity, I would\n observe,\u2014\n\n \u201c1. That the canons of men cannot overthrow the canons of God. \u2018Preach\n the word. Be instant in season and out of season.\u2019 \u2018The time cometh,\n and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship,\u2019 particularly and\n exclusively of all other places, neither upon mount Gerizim, nor upon\n mount Zion; but they shall worship everywhere in spirit and in truth.\n The contrary canons are Jewish, and subversive of the liberty\n wherewith Christ hath made us free; yea, contrary to the right of\n Churchmen, which must, at least, include the privilege of dissenters.\n\n \u201c2. Before the Bishop shackled me with canons, he charged me to \u2018look\n for Christ\u2019s lost sheep that are dispersed abroad, and for His\n children who are in the midst of this wicked world;\u2019 and these sheep,\n etc., I will try to gather whenever I meet them. We have a general\n canon:\u2014\u2018While we have time, let us do good to all men, and especially\n to them who are of the household of faith.\u2019 \u2018Go into all the world,\n and preach the Gospel to every creature\u2019 willing to hear it.\n\n \u201cA Justice of the Peace would once prosecute me upon the Conventicle\n Act; but, when it came to the point, he durst not do it. Some of my\n parishioners went and complained to the Bishop about my conventicles.\n I wrote to the Registrar that I hoped his Lordship, who had given me\n the above-mentioned charge at my ordination, would not be against my\n following it; that I thought it hard the tipplers should have twenty\n or thirty tippling-houses, the papists one meeting-house, and the\n dissenters three or four, in my parish, undisturbed, and that I should\n be disturbed, because I would not have God\u2019s Word confined to one\n house; and that, with respect to the canons, it would be absurd to put\n them in force against preaching clergymen, when they were set aside\n with respect to catechising, tippling, gaming, and carding clergymen;\n that I did not desire his Lordship to patronize me, in an especial\n manner, in the use of my Christian liberty; but that I hoped he would\n connive at it.\n\n \u201cWhether they received my letter or not, I do not know; but they never\n attempted to molest me.\n\n \u201cBe modestly and steadily bold for God, and your enemies will be more\n afraid of you than you of them; or if God will honour you with the\n badge of persecution, He will comfort and bless you the more for it.\n May the God of all grace and power be with you more and more! Ask it,\n dear Sir, for your brother and servant in Christ,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[208]\n\nFootnote 208:\n\n Fletcher\u2019s Works, vol. viii., p. 257.\n\nFletcher had been only a few weeks at home, when Wesley opened the\nAnnual Conference of his Itinerant Preachers. This took place in London,\non August 7, 1770. The twenty-eighth question of that Conference was,\n\u201cWhat can be done to revive the work of God where it is decayed?\u201d In\nanswering this, it was resolved, 1. That there must be more visitation\nfrom house to house; 2. That the books Wesley had printed should be more\nwidely dispersed; 3. That there should be more field-preaching; 4. That\nthere should be preaching at five o\u2019clock in the morning wherever twenty\nhearers could be obtained; 5. That evils in congregational singing\nshould be corrected; 6. That four fast-days should be observed every\nyear; 7. That the Methodists must be taught to seek and expect, not only\n_gradual_, but \u201cinstantaneous sanctification\u201d; 8. That every Itinerant\nPreacher, \u201cin every large town, should spend an hour with the children\u201d\nof the Methodists every week; 9. That no itinerant preacher should be so\nappointed to preach on Sundays, as to keep him \u201cfrom church above two\nSundays in four.\u201d\n\nThe last answer to the question is the only one that concerns the Life\nof Fletcher, and must be given verbatim. Continuing to instruct and\ndirect his preachers, Wesley observed, lastly,\u2014\n\n \u201cTake heed to your doctrine.\n\n \u201cWe said, in 1744, \u2018We have leaned too much toward Calvinism.\u2019\n Wherein?\n\n \u201c1. With regard to _man\u2019s faithfulness_. Our Lord Himself taught us to\n use the expression, and we ought never to be ashamed of it. We ought\n steadily to assert, on His authority, that if a man is not \u2018faithful\n in the unrighteous mammon,\u2019 God will not give him \u2018_the true riches_.\u2019\n\n \u201c2. With regard to _working for life_. This also our Lord has\n expressly commanded us. \u2018Labour,\u2019 \u03b5\u03c1\u03b3\u03b1\u03b6\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b5, literally, \u2018work for the\n meat that endureth to everlasting life.\u2019 And, in fact, every believer,\n till he comes to glory, works for as well as _from_ life.\n\n \u201c3. We have received it as a maxim, that \u2018a man is to do nothing in\n order to justification.\u2019 Nothing can be more false. Whoever desires to\n find favour with God should \u2018cease from evil, and learn to do well.\u2019\n Whoever repents should do \u2018works meet for repentance.\u2019 And if this is\n not _in order_ to find favour, what does he do them for?\n\n \u201cReview the whole affair.\n\n \u201c1. Who of us is _now_ accepted of God?\n\n \u201cHe that now believes in Christ with a loving and obedient heart.\n\n \u201c2. But who among those who never heard of Christ?\n\n \u201cHe that feareth God, and worketh righteousness according to the light\n he has.\n\n \u201c3. Is this the same with \u2018he that is sincere\u2019?\n\n \u201cNearly, if not quite.\n\n \u201c4. Is not this \u2018salvation by works\u2019?\n\n \u201cNot by the _merit_ of works, but by works as a _condition_.\n\n \u201c5. What have we then been disputing about for these thirty years?\n\n \u201cI am afraid, _about words_.\n\n \u201c6. As to _merit_ itself, of which we have been so dreadfully afraid:\n we are rewarded \u2018according to our works,\u2019 yea, \u2018because of our works.\u2019\n How does this differ from _for the sake of our works_? And how differs\n this from _secundum merita operum_? As our works _deserve_. Can you\n split this hair? I doubt I cannot.\n\n \u201c7. The grand objection to one of the preceding propositions is drawn\n from a matter of fact. God does in fact justify those who, by their\n own confession, neither feared God nor wrought righteousness. Is this\n an exception to the general rule?\n\n \u201cIt is a doubt, God makes any exception at all. But how are we sure\n that the person in question never did fear God and work righteousness?\n His own saying so is not proof; for we know how all that are convinced\n of sin undervalue themselves in every respect.\n\n \u201c8. Does not talking of a justified or a sanctified _state_ tend to\n mislead men, almost naturally leading them to trust in what was done\n in one moment? Whereas we are every hour and every moment pleasing or\n displeasing to God, \u2018according to our works.\u2019 According to the whole\n of our inward tempers, and our outward behaviour.\u201d[209]\n\nFootnote 209:\n\n \u201cMinutes of the Methodist Conferences,\u201d vol. i., p. 97.\n\nFor the next five years (1770\u20131775), Fletcher made it his duty to\nexplain and defend these theological theses; and a review of this\nquinquennial controversy\u2014as concise as possible\u2014must now be attempted.\n\nEight days after the close of Wesley\u2019s Conference, Lady Huntingdon, with\nthe Rev. Walter Shirley and the Rev. Henry Venn, arrived at Mr.\nIreland\u2019s residence at Brislington, on their way to Trevecca to attend\nthe services in connection with the anniversary of the College. Wesley\nhad been at the anniversary a year ago, and had been invited to be at\nthe present one. Accordingly, he remained in Bristol with the\nexpectation of accompanying her ladyship to Wales, but, horrified by the\ndoctrinal minutes of his late Conference, she wrote to him saying that,\nuntil he renounced such doctrines, she must exclude him from all her\npulpits. Wesley returned no reply to this communication, but, next day,\ncalmly and quietly set out for Cornwall.[210]\n\nFootnote 210:\n\n It is said that when Shirley sent her ladyship a copy of Wesley\u2019s\n Doctrinal Minutes, she burnt it. (Bogue and Bennett\u2019s \u201cHistory of\n Dissenters.\u201c)\n\nThe day after this, the Countess, accompanied by Shirley and Venn, Lady\nAnne Erskine, Miss Orton, Mr. Ireland, and Mr. Lloyd, started for\nTrevecca, where Fletcher, the President of the College, was ready to\nreceive them. Here, also, were assembled three of the Methodist\nclergymen in Wales, William Williams, Peter Williams, and Daniel\nRowlands; likewise Howell Harris, and several other lay preachers and\nexhorters. On Wednesday, August 23, at nine in the morning, Shirley\nadministered the Lord\u2019s Supper; at ten, Fletcher preached; at two in the\nafternoon, Venn addressed the students; and at four, Howell Harris\naddressed a large congregation in the court of the College. On Thursday\nmorning, August 24, Venn administered the sacrament; at ten, Daniel\nRowlands and William Williams preached in the court; at two, Shirley\nexamined the students, and gave an exhortation; at four, Peter Williams\ndiscoursed in the chapel, and some of the lay preachers in the court. In\nthe evening Berridge arrived at the College.\n\nOn Friday, August 24, the anniversary day of the opening, a public\nprayer-meeting was held in the chapel, at six o\u2019clock in the morning,\nwhen Rowlands, Williams, Harris, and Berridge offered prayer; after\nwhich Fletcher, as President of the College, administered the Lord\u2019s\nSupper, first to ten clergymen, then to the students, then to Lady\nHuntingdon and her household, and then to the congregation in general.\nPublic service began at ten. A scaffold was erected in the court, on\nwhich sat all the clergy, dissenting ministers, lay preachers, and\nstudents. Fletcher read the liturgy of the Church of England, Peter\nWilliams offered extemporary prayer, the vast congregation sang most\nlustily the glorious hymn of heretical Wesley, beginning with the line,\n\n \u201cArm of the Lord, awake, awake!\u201c\n\nShirley preached from the words, \u201cFor after that, in the wisdom of God,\nit pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that\nbelieve.\u201d Then William Williams followed with a sermon in Welsh. At two,\nher ladyship\u2019s guests all dined, the people in the chapel and in the\ncourt continuing to sing and pray. At three, Berridge discoursed from,\n\u201cThey went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them,\nand confirming the word with signs following.\u201d After him, Daniel\nRowlands, in his own eloquent and powerful manner, addressed the\nmultitude in Welsh, taking as his text, \u201cWe preach Christ crucified.\u201d In\nthe evening, Venn delivered a sort of charge to the ministers, students,\nand lay preachers, from the text, \u201cPreach the word; be instant in\nseason, out of season;\u201d and Fletcher concluded the services of the\nanniversary by offering prayer.\n\nThe next morning, however, at seven o\u2019clock, these godly and earnest\npeople held another prayer-meeting in the chapel, in which Shirley,\nVenn, Berridge, and Fletcher took part. On the day following, Sunday,\nAugust 26, Venn and Berridge preached, and then this memorable\nassemblage dispersed, Lady Huntingdon proceeding, by way of Berwick and\nWorcester, to Bristol, where she met Charles Wesley, and, despite the\nheresy of his brother and the itinerants at the late Conference, took\nhim to Bath to preach several times in her chapel in that city.[211]\n\nFootnote 211:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. ii., pp. 106\u2013109.\n\nTruly, these were glorious days; but, mournful to relate, they were soon\nfollowed by days of strife and bitterness. Wesley was accused of having\nrenounced the doctrines of the Reformation. He was traduced as a\nPelagian, a Pharisee, a Papist, an Antichrist.[212] All this was unjust\nand untrue. In less than four months after the memorable Conference of\n1770, Wesley preached his \u201cSermon on the Death of Whitefield,\u201d in which\nhe said:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe fundamental point of Mr. Whitefield was, give God all the glory\n of whatever is good in man; and, in the business of salvation, set\n Christ as high, and man as low as possible. With this point, he and\n his friends at Oxford, the original Methodists (so-called) set out.\n Their grand principle was, there is no _power_ (by nature) and _no\n merit_ in man. They insisted, all power to think, speak, or act right,\n is in and from the Spirit of Christ; and all merit is (not in man, how\n high soever in grace, but merely) in the blood of Christ. So he and\n they taught: There is no power in man, till it is given him from\n above, to do one good work, to speak one good word, or to form one\n good desire. For it is not enough to say, all are _sick of sin_: no,\n we are all _dead in trespasses and sins_. It follows that all the\n children of men are _by nature children of wrath_. We are all _guilty\n before God_, liable to death temporal and eternal.\n\n \u201cAnd we are all helpless, both with regard to the power and to the\n guilt of sin. For _who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean_?\n None less than the Almighty. Who can raise those that are _dead_,\n spiritually dead in sin? None but He who raised us from the dust of\n the earth. But on what consideration will He do this? _Not for works\n of righteousness that we have done. The dead cannot praise Thee, O\n Lord!_ nor do anything for the sake of which they should be raised to\n life. Whatever therefore God does, He does it merely for the sake of\n His well-beloved Son: _He was wounded for our transgressions, He was\n bruised for our iniquities. He Himself bore all our sin in His own\n body upon the tree. He was delivered for our offences, and rose again\n for our justification._ Here then is the sole _meritorious cause_ of\n every blessing we do or can enjoy: in particular of our pardon and\n acceptance with God, of our free and full justification. But by what\n means do we become interested in what Christ has done and suffered?\n _Not by works, lest any man should boast_; but by faith alone. _We\n conclude_, says the Apostle, _that a man is justified by faith,\n without the works of the law_. And _to as many as_ thus _receive Him,\n giveth He power to become the sons of God: even to those that believe\n in His name, who are born, not of the will of man, but of God_.\n\n \u201cAnd _except a man be thus born again, he cannot see the kingdom of\n God._ But all who are thus _born of the Spirit_, have _the kingdom of\n God within_ them. Christ sets up His kingdom in their\n hearts\u2014_righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost_. That _mind\n is in them, which was in Christ Jesus_, enabling them to _walk as\n Christ also walked_. His indwelling Spirit makes them both holy in\n heart, and _holy in all manner of conversation_. But still, seeing all\n this is a free gift, through the righteousness and blood of Christ,\n there is eternally the same reason to remember, _He that glorieth, let\n him glory in the Lord_.\n\n \u201cYou are not ignorant, that these are the fundamental doctrines which\n he (Mr. Whitefield) everywhere insisted on. And may they not be summed\n up, as it were, in two words, _The new birth, and justification by\n faith_. These let us insist upon, with all boldness, at all times, and\n in all places. In public (those of us who are called thereto), and, at\n all opportunities, in private. Keep close to these good old\n unfashionable doctrines, how many soever contradict and blaspheme. Go\n on, my brethren, in the _name of the Lord, and in the power of His\n might_. With all care and diligence, _keep that safe which is\n committed to your trust_: knowing that _heaven and earth shall pass\n away_; but this truth _shall not pass away_.\u201d[213]\n\nFootnote 212:\n\n Fletcher\u2019s Works, vol. i., p. 209.\n\nFootnote 213:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cSermon on the Death of Whitefield,\u201d p. 26.\n\nThus did Wesley address the crowds of Calvinists, in Whitefield\u2019s two\nLondon chapels, on Sunday, November 18, 1770. There can be no doubt that\nhe meant this to be an answer to the misrepresentations and calumnies\nlaunched against him, on account of the doctrinal minutes of his recent\nConference. It ought to have been sufficient to silence his adversaries,\nbut it was not. Passion is more easily excited than appeased. In a\nletter to the Countess of Huntingdon, Lady Glenorchy[214] wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cEDINBURGH, _January 10, 1771_.\n\n \u201cYour ladyship\u2019s account of what occurred at Mr. Wesley\u2019s last\n Conference does not surprise me. I have since seen the Minutes, and\n must bear my feeble testimony against the sentiments contained in\n them. May the Lord God of Israel be with you, and enable you to make a\n firm stand in defence of a free-grace Gospel! Lady Anne\u2019s letter has\n told me all you have been doing in this momentous affair. When you\n next write to dear Mr. Shirley, give my kindest regards to him, and\n also to Mr. Venn, Mr. Fletcher, and Mr. Romaine. From what Lady Anne\n says, I fear very much for Mr. Fletcher that he will be carried off by\n Mr. Wesley\u2019s influence. What will be the end of this business I know\n not. I know Mr. Wesley is greatly displeased with me, though I have\n always countenanced his preachers; but now I find this cannot be done\n by me any longer. Nevertheless, I respect him highly, and pray that he\n may be led in the way of truth.\u201d[215]\n\nFootnote 214:\n\n Lady Glenorchy opened a number of chapels, both in Scotland and\n England, and did her utmost to supply them with evangelical ministers.\n She was, in fact, the Lady Huntingdon of Scotland.\n\nFootnote 215:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. i., p. 111.\n\nLady Glenorchy executed her conscientious threat. Lady Huntingdon had\nalready done the same. Further action was taken. Joseph Benson was\ndismissed from Trevecca College, because he adhered to the doctrines of\nWesley. The good Countess, however, gave him the following certificate:\u2014\n\n \u201cThis is to certify that Mr. Joseph Benson was master for the\n languages in my College at Talgarth for nine months, and that, during\n that time, from his capacity, sobriety, and diligence, he acquitted\n himself properly in that character; and I am ready at any time to\n testify this on his behalf whenever required.\n\n \u201cCollege, _January 17, 1771_.\n S. HUNTINGDON.\u201d[216]\n\nFootnote 216:\n\n Macdonald\u2019s \u201cLife of Benson.\u201d\n\nBenson was unexceptionable as a classical master; but, in her ladyship\u2019s\nopinion, he was a heretic in theological dogmas, because he did not\nbelieve the doctrine of absolute predestination.[217] Fletcher, the\npresident of the college, was dissatisfied with her ladyship\u2019s dismissal\nof the master, and wrote to her as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201c_January 7, 1771._\n\n \u201cMr. Benson made a very just defence when he said, he held with me the\n possibility of salvation for all men; that mercy is offered to all;\n and yet may be received or rejected. If this be what your ladyship\n calls Mr. Wesley\u2019s opinion, free-will, and Arminianism, and if \u2018every\n Arminian must quit the College,\u2019 I am actually discharged also; for,\n in my present view of things, I must hold that sentiment, if I believe\n that the Bible is true, and that God is love.\n\n \u201cFor my part, I am no party-man. In the Lord, I am your servant, and\n that of your every student; but I cannot give up the honour of being\n connected with my old friends, who, notwithstanding their failings,\n are entitled to my respect, gratitude, and assistance, could I\n occasionally give them any. Mr. Wesley shall always be welcome to my\n pulpit, and I shall gladly bear my testimony in his, as well as in Mr.\n Whitefield\u2019s. But if your ladyship forbid your students to preach for\n the one, and offer them to preach for the other at every turn; and if\n a master is discarded for believing that Christ died for all; then\n prejudice reigns, charity is cruelly wounded, and party spirit shouts,\n prevails, and triumphs.\u201d\n\nFootnote 217:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nOn the same day, Fletcher wrote to the dismissed Benson the following:\u2014\n\n \u201c_January 7, 1771._\n\n \u201cDEAR SIR,\u2014The same post brought me yours, and two from my lady, and\n one from Mr. Williams.[218] Their letters contained no charges, but\n general ones, which with me go for nothing. If the procedure you\n mention be fact, and your letter be a fair account of the transactions\n and words relative to your discharge, a false step has been taken. I\n write by this post to her ladyship on the affair, with all possible\n plainness. If the plan of the college be overthrown, I have nothing\n more to say to it. I will keep to my tent for one; the confined tool\n of any one party I never was, and never will be. If the blow that\n should have been struck at _the dead spirit_, is struck at _dead_\n Arminius, or _absent_ Mr. Wesley,\u2014if a master is turned away without\n any fault, it is time for me to stand up with firmness, or to\n withdraw.\n\n \u201cTake care, my dear Sir, not to make matters worse than they are; and\n cast a mantle of forgiving love over the circumstances that might\n injure the cause of God, so far as it is put into the hands of that\n eminent lady, who has so well deserved of the Church of Christ. Rather\n suffer in silence, than make a noise to cause the Philistines to\n triumph. Do not let go your expectation of a baptism from above. May\n you be supported in this and every other trial! Farewell!\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d\n\nFootnote 218:\n\n A clergyman, who, professing to be under serious impressions, had been\n permitted by her ladyship to stay a few weeks at the college; but was\n neither master nor student. Fletcher termed him \u201ca bird of passage.\u201d\n\nTwo days later, Fletcher wrote again to Benson as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201c_January 9, 1771._\n\n \u201cI am determined to stand or fall with the liberty of the College. As\n I entered it a free place, I must quit it the moment it is a harbour\n for party spirit.\n\n \u201cAs I am resolved to clear up this matter or quit my province, I beg\n you will help me to as many _facts_ and _words_, _truly done_, and\n _really spoken_, as you can; whereby I may show that false reports,\n groundless suspicions, party spirit against Mr. Wesley, arbitrary\n proceedings, and unscriptural impulses, hold the reins and manage\n affairs in the College; as also that the balance of opinions is not\n maintained, and Mr. Wesley\u2019s opinions are dreaded, and struck at, more\n than deadness of heart, and a wrong conduct.\n\n \u201cSo far as we can, let us keep this matter to ourselves. When you\n speak of it to others, rather endeavour to palliate than aggravate\n what has been wrong in your opposers. Remember that great lady has\n been an instrument of great good, and that there are great\n inconsistencies attending the greatest and best of men. Possess your\n soul in patience. See the salvation of God; and believe, though\n against hope, that light will spring out of darkness.\n\n \u201cI am, with concern for you and that poor College,\n \u201cYours, in Jesus,\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d\n\nOn February 20, Fletcher set out for the College;[219] and, on his\nreturn to Madeley, he wrote to Wesley the following hitherto unpublished\nletter:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _March 18, 1771_.\n\n \u201cREV. AND DEAR SIR,\u2014I was sorry not to have had it in my power to meet\n you in Shropshire,[220] and give you, by word of mouth, an account of\n what passed at Lady Huntingdon\u2019s College respecting you, at my last\n visit there.\n\n \u201cThe hasty admitting of subjects that did not appear to me proper; the\n sanguine hopes they would turn out against probability, the divisions\n at Brecknock and the Hay, and some things that I did not approve in\n Mr. Benson\u2019s dismission, gave me a disgust to the College.\n Nevertheless, I went to try to make the best of the matter; but I\n found at my arrival that the students had been armed by Mr. Shirley\n against the point I had, with some success, maintained when I was\n there before, namely, internal conversion by the power of the Holy\n Ghost dwelling in the heart by faith. He called it _perfection_, and\n as such baited it out of the place.\n\n \u201cI saw the College was no longer my place, as I was not likely to do\n or receive any good there, especially as Calvinism strongly prevailed.\n Under these circumstances, and humbling views of my insufficiency, I\n told my lady and all around me, I resigned the place of\n superintendent; nevertheless, I would stay awhile to supply the want\n of a master.\n\n \u201cIn the meantime, an extract of your last Minutes was sent to my lady,\n who wept much over it, through an honest fear that you had fairly and\n fully given up the grand point of the Methodists, free justification,\n _articulum stantis vel cadentis ecclesi\u00e6_. The heresy appeared\n horrible, worth being publicly opposed, and such as a true believer\n ought to be ready to burn against. I tried to soften matters, but in\n vain. The students were commanded to write their sentiments upon your\n doctrine of salvation by works, working for life, the merit of works,\n etc.; and whoever did not fully disavow it, was to quit the College. I\n wrote among the rest, and showed the absurdity of inferring from these\n Minutes that you had renounced the Protestant doctrine and the\n atonement. I defended your sentiments, by explaining them as I have\n heard you do, and only blamed the unguarded and not sufficiently\n explicit manner in which they were worded. I concluded by saying,\n that, as, after Lady Huntingdon\u2019s declaration, I could no longer stay\n in the College, but as an intruder, I _absolutely_ resigned my place,\n as I must appear to all around as great a heretic as yourself.\n\n \u201cThis step had a better effect than I expected. My lady weighed with\n candour what I had advanced, though she thought it too bad to be laid\n before the students. In short, I retired in peace and as peacemaker,\n the servant and no more the principal of the College. I advised Lady\n Huntingdon to choose a moderate Calvinist in my place, and recommended\n Mr. Rowland Hill. The College will take quite a Calvinist turn, and an\n itinerant ministry will go out of it to feed the Church of God of that\n sentimental denomination. I strongly recommended them to set fire to\n the harvest of the Philistines, and not to that of their fellow\n Israelites who cannot pronounce Shibboleth in their way. My lady\n seemed quite disposed for peace last Friday;[221] and she will write\n to you to beg you will explain yourself upon the Minutes, that she and\n the College may see you are not _an enemy to grace_, and may be\n friends at a distance, instead of open adversaries.\n\n \u201cAnd now, my dear Sir, I beseech you to put on all the bowels of mercy\n and condescension that are in Christ, to hope the College and its\n foundress mean well; and give them all the satisfaction you can. I\n need not bring to your remembrance the words of the Apostle, \u2018As much\n as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.\u2019 I trust they are graven\n on your heart, and that, should war ensue, your moderation will still\n appear to all men. The points that will most stop the mouth of our\n friend are the total fall of man, and his utter inability to do any\n good of himself; the absolute necessity of the grace and Spirit of God\n to raise even a good thought or desire in the heart; the Lord\n rewarding no work, or accepting of none, but so far as they proceed\n from His preventing, convincing, and converting grace; the blood and\n righteousness of Christ being the sole meritorious cause of our\n salvation, and the only spring of all acceptable works, whether we do\n them spontaneously from life or for more abundant life.\n\n \u201cI look upon Lady Huntingdon as an eminent servant of God, an honest,\n gracious person, but not above the reach of prejudice; and where\n prejudice misleads her, her warm heart makes her go rather too fast.\n It is in your power greatly to break, if not altogether to remove, the\n prejudice she has conceived against you, and to become all things to\n her, that you may not cause her to stumble in the greatness of her\n zeal for the Lord. The best way to get the Calvinists to allow us\n _something_, is to grant them _all_ we possibly can.\n\n \u201cAs your enemies will particularly watch your writings and sermons,\n and Satan your heart to find an occasion against you by\n self-righteousness and dependence upon your great works, my prayer is\n that you may fully disappoint them, by guarding the Gospel truth in\n your own heart and life and doctrine, as much from the legal as the\n antinomian extreme, between which it invariably lies.\n\n \u201cWith respect to me, I am not yet a Christian in the full sense of the\n word; but I follow after, if so be I may apprehend that for which I am\n apprehended of Christ. Take no notice of my scrawl. Pray for, and\n direct, Rev. and dear Sir, your affectionate friend and unworthy\n servant in Christ,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\n\n \u201cTo\n \u201cThe Rev. Mr. John Wesley,\n \u201cAt the Octagone,\n \u201cChester.\u201d (Salop postmark.)\n\nFootnote 219:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of Wesley,\u201d vol. iii., p. 88.\n\nFootnote 220:\n\n Wesley was at Wem only three days before this letter was written.\n\nFootnote 221:\n\n The day Wesley was at Wem, namely, March 15.\n\nFour days after the date of this letter, Fletcher wrote to Benson,\ngiving him some of the particulars just recited; but also mentioning\nother facts, too interesting and important to be omitted here.\n\n \u201c_March 22, 1771._\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND.\u2014On my arrival at the College, I found all very quiet,\n I fear through the enemy keeping his goods in peace. While I preached\n the next day, I found myself as much shackled as ever I was in my\n life; and, after private prayer, I concluded I was not in my place.\n The same day[222] I resigned my office to my lady; and, on Wednesday,\n to the students and the Lord. Nevertheless, I went on as usual, only I\n had no heart to give little charges to the students, as before. I\n should possibly have got over it as a temptation, if several\n circumstances had not confirmed me in my design. Two I shall mention.\n When Mr. Shirley was at the College, what you had written upon the\n \u2018baptism of the Holy Ghost\u2019 was taken to pieces. Mr. Shirley\n maintained that the prophecy of Joel (Acts ii.) had its complete\n fulfilment on the day of Pentecost; and thus he turned the stream of\n living waters into imperceptible dews, _nemine contradicente_, except\n two, who made one or two feeble objections; so that the point was, in\n my judgment, turned out of the College after you, and was abused under\n the name of \u2018Perfection.\u2019 This showed I was not likely to receive or\n do any good there.\n\n \u201cSome days after my arrival, however, I preached the good old doctrine\n before my Lady and Mr. H\u2014\u2014. The latter also talked of imperceptible\n influences, and the former thanked me; but, in my apprehension,\n spoiled all by going to the College the next day, to give a charge\n partly against _Perfection_, in my absence.\n\n \u201cLast Friday, I left them all in peace, the _servant_, but no more the\n _president of the College_. My lady behaved with great candour and\n condescension towards me in the affair. As for you, you are still out\n of her books, and are likely so to continue. Your last letters have\n only thrown oil on the fire. All was seen in the same light in which\n Mr. Wesley\u2019s letter appeared. You were accused of having alienated my\n heart from the College, but I have cleared you.\n\n \u201cI rejoice that your desires after a larger measure of the Holy Spirit\n increase. Part rather with your heart\u2019s blood than with them. Let me\n meet you at the throne of grace; and send me word how you dispose of\n yourself. If you are at a loss for a prophet\u2019s room, remember I have\n one here.\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[223]\n\nFootnote 222:\n\n Wesley says he \u201c_spent the day_ in fasting and prayer.\u201d (Wesley\u2019s\n Works, vol. vii., p. 416.)\n\nFootnote 223:\n\n Benson\u2019s Life, by Macdonald.\n\nTo these letters must be added a verbatim copy of an important document,\naltogether in Fletcher\u2019s own handwriting, and never published until now.\n\n\u201cAn account of John Fletcher\u2019s case, with the reasons that have induced\n him to resign the superintendency of the Countess of Huntingdon\u2019s\n College in Wales.\n\n \u201cI was first connected with Mr. Wesley, under whom, for love and\n gratitude\u2019s sake, I occasionally laboured some years.\n\n \u201cBy Mr. C. Wesley I had the honour of being presented to Lady\n Huntingdon, who kindly admitted me to the office of a private\n chaplain, and granted me full leave to assist my old friends as often\n as I would.\n\n \u201cBy means of her ladyship I was afterwards introduced to Mr.\n Whitefield, and had the honour of assisting him also both in London\n and Bristol, and found myself peculiarly happy in showing, by my equal\n readiness to throw my mite of assistance where it was accepted, that\n though I was the Lord\u2019s free man I delighted to be the common servant\n of all. I was glad also to have from time to time an opportunity of\n bearing a kind of practical testimony against the spirit of party and\n division, which, to my great grief, crumbled the Church of Christ\n around me.\n\n \u201cAfter taking a dangerous turn into the doctrines of election and\n reprobation, my sentiments settled at last into the anti-Calvinist\n way, in which Mr. Wesley was rooted. Notwithstanding this, it became a\n steady, invariable point with me never to be so attached to his, or\n any one party, as to be shy of, much less break with another.\n\n \u201cI had soon an opportunity of being closely tried in my spirit of\n catholic love. Mr. Maxfield separated from his and my old friend Mr.\n Wesley. I thought him rather in the wrong, and Mr. Wesley was my\n oldest acquaintance. Notwithstanding, I ventured upon the loss of his\n friendship, and of my connection with him, by publicly assisting Mr.\n Maxfield when the breach between them was widest, and the press\n groaned under the unkind productions of their unhappy division.[224]\n Though I touched Mr. Wesley\u2019s friendship in the tenderest part, he\n bore with me, and his patience increased my regard for him; nor is it\n at all abated now, though I have had little opportunity to show it\n him, having hardly exchanged one or two letters with him these many\n years.\n\n \u201cSoon after Lady Huntingdon founded her College, and partly by her\n unmerited esteem, partly by Providence, and partly by my desire to be\n a Gibeonite to God\u2019s people and hew wood if I could not draw water, I\n was brought to have a principal share in the management of it. The\n free spirit that breathed in the noble foundress\u2019s proposals, and the\n general terms of admittance, suited my catholic taste, and the liberty\n of sentiment granted to all that firmly maintained our total fall in\n Adam, attached me no less to the institution than its excellence and\n the prospect of its usefulness.\n\n \u201cScruples nevertheless rose in my mind. The first was a fear lest\n improper subjects, persons destitute either of grace or gifts, perhaps\n of both, were admitted with the greatest readiness, and kept upon the\n foundation with the most sanguine hopes that a day of Pentecost would\n make them what they did not appear to me to be as yet\u2014Christians and\n preachers. Flattering myself that it would be so, after some modest\n expostulations I submitted my judgment to that of the noble foundress,\n whose light I think in general as superior to mine as is her rank and\n grace.\n\n \u201cThe Brecknock division[225] broke out. I suddenly tried to prevent\n it, but it took place, and secretly wounded my catholic spirit.\n Nevertheless, hopes that the Lord might overrule it for good soon\n healed the wound. This brought on a rupture between my two dear and\n honoured friends, the foundress of the college and Mr. Wesley. An\n unkind, though I hope well-meant letter, was wrote on the occasion by\n one, and was unkindly received, yea, looked upon as highly insulting,\n by the other. I saw the advantage of the enemy. I blamed, and yet I\n loved them both. Where I could not soften matters I remained neuter.\n Hence, however, arose a difficulty how I should be faithful to my lady\n without being unfaithful to Mr. Wesley. Meantime, the prejudice seemed\n to me to rise, and somewhat sowed the seeds of the Hay division. Mr.\n Benson\u2019s dismission followed, and though I hope it was from the Lord,\n yet I could not help blaming the manner in which it was conducted.\n\n \u201cLady Huntingdon said on the occasion, nobody that held Mr. Wesley\u2019s\n opinions should stay in the College; every Arminian should quit the\n place. This wounded again my catholic spirit, and appeared to me a\n breach of the privilege most solemnly granted to the members of the\n College at the opening of it. I thought that my lady had no right to\n impose such a law\u2014a law so contrary to her first proposals\u2014till it had\n received a proper sanction by a majority of the votes both of masters\n and students, and till leave had been granted to those who could not\n in conscience come into it to withdraw quietly, without the odium of\n an expulsion. I observed that if this was the case, I looked upon\n myself as discharged, because I for one could no more believe that\n Christ did not taste death for every man, than I could believe God was\n not truth and love; and because all the sentiments of Mr. Wesley\n obnoxious to the Calvinist, except perfection, are inseparably\n connected with general redemption.\n\n \u201cWith regard to perfection itself, I believe that when Mr. Wesley is\n altogether consistent upon that subject, he means absolutely nothing\n by it but the full cluster of Gospel blessings, which Lady Huntingdon\n so warmly presses the students to pursue; namely, Gospel faith, the\n immediate revelation of Christ, the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the\n Spirit of adoption, the kingdom that cannot be moved, the element of\n forgiving love, deep and uninterrupted poverty of spirit, and, in a\n word, a standing upon Mount Sion and enjoying its great and glorious\n privileges. And I am fully persuaded that, in this respect, there is\n more misunderstanding between my lady and Mr. Wesley about words and\n modes of expression than about things and essential principles. All\n the difference between them seems to _me_ to consist in this: my lady\n is more for looking to the misery and depth of the fall; Mr. Wesley\n more for considering the power and effects of the recovery. My lady\n speaks glorious things of free grace; and Mr. Wesley inculcates the\n glorious use we ought to make of it. Both appear to me to maintain one\n and the same truth, and to guard it; my lady against the Legalists,\n Mr. Wesley against the Antinomians. If, therefore, they do not\n understand one another, and fall out by the way, I shall think it is a\n great pity, and shall continue to be, at least in my heart, the loving\n servant of both; though both will possibly think me prejudiced for not\n seeing just as they do.\n\n \u201cI was also grieved that my lady should have received for truth so\n absurd an imagination as that of Mr. Wesley being willing to give \u00a3100\n a-year to a rigid Calvinist in bondage, who just read prayers with a\n Welsh accent, and that wise Benson made the foolish proposal to him,\n when Benson, to my certain knowledge, feared his head was at times a\n little affected. And I began to fear lest my lady should, upon the\n most improbable assertions, receive unfavourable impressions against\n me, as she had done against her old friend Mr. Wesley, especially as\n my particular regard for him was still the same.\n\n \u201cBe that as it will, my regard for Lady Huntingdon and the students\n made me send her ladyship my sentimental creed, that, if she did not\n disapprove of it, I might come to the College; and I came, to my\n thinking and feeling, as free and as happy as ever, and was quite free\n on the Saturday evening and the next morning till noon, when the\n little commission and authority I had to exhort the students was quite\n taken away from me. As I preached in the chapel, an uncommon weight\n came upon me on a sudden, and it was not without much difficulty that\n I struggled under it through the rest of my sermon. As soon as the\n service was over, I retired to my room in very great heaviness and\n distress. I saw in the clearest light that I was not in my place, and\n must no longer preside in the College. From that time, I had no heart\n to speak to the students on the things of God. So clear and strong was\n my conviction that I mentioned it directly to Mr. Howell Harris, and\n that very evening to my lady, and to all the students on the next\n Wednesday; and as I concluded our morning meeting with prayer, I was\n led solemnly upon my knees to resign my charge to God, and to pray for\n a proper person to preside in my place.\n\n \u201cNevertheless my high regard for my lady, and my love for the\n students, prevented me from being faithful to my conviction, and I\n would have quenched it, if I had been able. But several things\n happened which gave me courage to be faithful.\n\n \u201cLady Huntingdon showed me a letter to Hook, which she had read to the\n students; and, though I admired the honesty and impartiality that\n appeared in it, I afterwards thought hard of that expression, that\n every one who held eternal justification must quit the College. This\n appeared to me as severe upon consistent Calvinists, as the like\n expression before upon consistent Arminians, as, I believe, every\n Predestinarian, who will not contradict himself, must hold himself\n eternally justified in God\u2019s sight.\n\n \u201cI had reason to fear Mr. Shirley, that great minister whom I honour\n much in the Lord, had said he would oppose through the world the\n doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, which I am bound in\n conscience to maintain among all professors, especially in the\n College. From these different views of things, I saw difficulties\n would perpetually arise to her ladyship, the College, and myself.\n\n \u201cI was also grieved that when he tried his well-meant zeal (though it\n was not, in my judgment, zeal according to knowledge) to explode the\n baptism of the Holy Ghost, and laugh it out of the College, after\n having dressed it in a fool\u2019s coat and called it Perfection, most of\n the students had tamely allowed him that Joel\u2019s prophecy was entirely\n fulfilled upon the hundred and twenty disciples on the day of\n Pentecost, that believers are to grow in grace by imperceptible dews,\n and that we can do very well without a remarkable shower of grace and\n Divine effusion of power, opening in us the well of living water that\n is to flow to everlasting life.\n\n \u201cAs it appeared to me they had, in a good degree, given up their\n little expectation of this Gospel blessing, and renounced the grand\n point which I apprehended was to be firmly maintained and vigorously\n pursued in the College, I did not feel the same liberty with them in\n prayer, and found that, as matters were and appeared likely to\n continue, my convictions and desires would rather be damped than\n cherished among them.\n\n \u201cNor, indeed, did I see, upon this new plan, any advantage this\n College was to have more than the academy at Abergavenny, itinerancy\n excepted; so that I feared many would get into the habit of preaching\n by rote, and of talking of the power without heartily waiting for it,\n which made me give up my hopes that those who have not gifts should\n ever be useful preachers, as a day of Pentecost and power from on high\n can alone supply the want of them.\n\n \u201cMy lady, likewise, appeared to me so excessively afraid of\n Perfection, that she seemed to take umbrage at a harmless expression I\n had used in a letter hastily written to a friend, \u2018_The fiery baptism\n will burn up self_,\u2019\u2014an expression which I had caught from Mr. Harris,\n who frequently uses it, though no one will accuse him of befriending\n Mr. Wesley\u2019s doctrine of Perfection. Whatsoever he means by it, I mean\n nothing but to convey the idea of a power that enables us to say, with\n a tolerable degree of propriety, as St. Paul, \u2018I live not, but Christ\n lives in me;\u2019 and I saw that, if I was faithful to my light,\n misapprehensions of the like kind, and well or ill grounded fears,\n would perpetually arise.\n\n \u201cBut what weighed most with me, next to what passed in my heart, the\n third Sunday in Lent, was the strong light in which I saw the great\n difficulty arising from the difference of sentiments between the\n students and myself. I had frequently observed that, if I tried to\n stir up those who appeared to be carnally secure, or spiritually\n asleep on their soft doctrinal pillows, they directly fancied I aimed\n at robbing them of one of their jewels, the doctrine of perseverance,\n though the Searcher of hearts knows I had not the least thought about\n it. By the same stratagem of the enemy, when I exhorted loiterers to\n leave the things that are behind, and press toward the mark for the\n prize of our high calling in Christ, they imagined I wanted to drive\n them to the brink of some horrible precipice, or into the jaws of some\n monster called Perfection, in which notion they were possibly\n confirmed not only by Mr. Shirley\u2019s positive assertions, but by\n frequent hints thrown out by her ladyship herself upon the danger of\n that imaginary bugbear. Alas! how needless it is to give charges\n against sinless Perfection to young men who believe no such thing is\n to be attained, and who live mostly under the power of the carnal\n mind. What must be the consequence if grace does not interpose? What,\n but a settling upon the lees of nature and formality, and a singing of\n a soft requiem to the drowsy hearts of those who are not really alive\n to God? What makes me think so, is the frequent opportunities I have\n had to observe that a word which may too indirectly countenance sin,\n by the craft and power of Satan and the prevalence of natural\n corruption, goes farther than twenty directly and powerfully thundered\n against it.\n\n \u201cAgain. The light of most Calvinists is such that they cannot believe\n a man knows anything of free grace who does not enter into all their\n sentiments. Of this, a moderate one gave me lately a particular\n instance, by telling me point blank, I was in a damnable heresy, and\n never knew anything of myself or of true grace, because I had said,\n sinners perish for resisting and quenching the Spirit of grace. Hence,\n I conclude, and not without a premise, that it would be as ridiculous\n in me to expect the majority of students to follow my directions, as\n it would be to hope that young men who have good eyes should follow a\n person whom they believe almost if not altogether blind.\n\n \u201cThings appeared to me in this light, when the uneasiness of my lady\n occasioned by Mr. Wesley\u2019s Minutes showed itself. I admired her zeal\n for the grand truths of the Gospel. Appearances were for her, and I\n could not excuse Mr. Wesley\u2019s unguarded expressions, any more than my\n lady\u2019s great warmth against them; her ladyship having mentioned again\n and again that they were horrible and abominable, and that she must\n burn against them, and at last added, that, whosoever in the College\n did not fully and without any evasion disavow them should not stay in\n her College, etc. Accordingly, an order came for the students and\n masters to write their sentiments upon them. I thought I would not lay\n that burden upon others without touching it myself, and, following the\n light in which I could see and trace Mr. Wesley\u2019s doctrines from a\n long acquaintance with his sentiments, I blamed the unguarded and not\n sufficiently explicit manner in which they were worded, but approving\n the doctrines themselves as agreeable to what appears to me the\n analogy of faith. All the College, I suppose, rose with one voice\n against them, which must make me appear strangely heterodox, if not\n altogether a heretic worse than Mr. Wesley. This consideration,\n together with my lady\u2019s repeated declaration that every student who\n did not disavow them should quit the College, gave me at last courage\n to do absolutely what I had done in a partial manner near a fortnight\n before, namely, to resign the office of Principal of the College,\n which I saw I could no longer discharge with honour, with a good\n conscience, or any probability of success.\n\n \u201cIf I know anything of my own heart, I can truly say, I have not taken\n this step from pique or chagrin, nor from any supposed unkindness in\n her ladyship or the students, whose undeserved regard and peculiar\n respect for me have made me feel the greatest reluctance to comply\n with what I esteem the order of the Lord and the explicit dictate of\n my own conscience, confirmed by the train of circumstances which I\n have mentioned.\n\n \u201cMy high esteem for her ladyship is not at all abated. My love to the\n students, and regard for the College are the same. Nay, I can truly\n say, my regard for them goads me away, as I see nothing but a scene of\n confusion, distraction, and jealousy if I stay. The whole of this\n affair appears to me to be from the Lord, and it is my sentiment,\n that, as the College has naturally been filled with Calvinists, is\n providentially founded near a Calvinist academy in Wales, a Calvinist\n country, an itinerant ministry is to go forth from it to feed chiefly\n the Church of God of that sentimental denomination. In order to this,\n a moderate, lively Calvinist must superintend, under the noble\n foundress, and, as a token that her ladyship is not dissatisfied with\n my conduct, I humbly beg she would give me leave to recommend my\n successor to her.\n\n \u201cMr. Whitefield is dead; some of his forlorn congregation have already\n been blessed under the ministry of the students; who is more proper to\n head them than he whom the religious world begins to call the young\n Whitefield, Mr. Rowland Hill? His remarkable sufferings for Christ\u2019s\n sake, entitle him to the honour of presiding over this work; and I\n hope the Lord will make him willing to accept an office for which he\n seems to be so well fitted by his popularity and success.\n\n \u201cIf it be objected that he is young, I reply, he is older than Mr.\n Whitefield was when he set out upon his great errand, and that the\n warmth of his heart, the ripeness of his zeal, and the amazing\n steadiness of his conduct for years, under the greatest difficulty\n both at home and abroad, together with the many seals God has already\n given to His ministry in various parts of the kingdom, ought greatly\n to turn the scale in his favour. And, indeed, what is an old Saul to a\n young David? And who deserves most the name and honour of a father?\n He, or myself? Without hesitating, I answer Mr. Rowland Hill, who has\n perhaps begotten more children to God in one discourse than I have in\n all my poor labour these fourteen years.\u201d\n\nFootnote 224:\n\n After many unhappy contentions, and much forbearance on Wesley\u2019s part,\n Thomas Maxfield seceded from Wesley in 1763. Maxfield has been far\n more highly honoured in Methodist histories and biographies than his\n merits warranted.\n\nFootnote 225:\n\n I have failed in my endeavour to ascertain what is meant by the\n \u201cBrecknock division.\u201d There can be no doubt, however, that Wesley met\n with great annoyance in that part of Wales. Previous to the opening of\n Trevecca College, he wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201c1767. September 2.\u2014I found the work of God in Pembrokeshire had been\n exceedingly hindered, chiefly by Mr. Davies\u2019s preachers, who had\n continually inveighed against ours, and thereby frightened abundance\n of people from hearing or coming near them. This had sometimes\n provoked them to retort, which always made a bad matter worse. The\n advice, therefore, which I gave them was:\u20141. Let all the people\n sacredly abstain from backbiting, tale-bearing, evil-speaking. 2. Let\n all our preachers abstain from returning railing for railing, either\n in public or in private, as well as from disputing. 3. Let them never\n preach controversy, but plain, practical, and experimental religion.\u201d\n\n A year and a half after Fletcher left Trevecca, Wesley wrote again in\n his journal:\u2014\n\n \u201c1772. August 14.\u2014About noon, at the request of my old friend Howell\n Harris, I preached at Trevecca, on the strait gate, and we found our\n hearts knit together as at the beginning. He said, \u2018I have borne with\n these pert, ignorant young men, vulgarly called students, till I\n cannot in conscience bear any longer. They preach barefaced\n reprobation, and so broad antinomianism, that I have been constrained\n to oppose them to the face, even in the public congregation.\u2019 It is no\n wonder they should preach thus. What better can be expected from raw\n lads of little understanding, little learning, and no experience?\u201d\n\nThis long document is endorsed \u201cLetter to Lady Huntingdon.\u201d It would be\neasy to make it the text for a long sermon; but want of space forbids\nthe attempt to do this. Besides, intelligent readers are quite competent\nto form just opinions respecting it. Suffice it to say, that it is of\nhigh importance, as containing, by far, the fullest account ever\npublished of the reasons why Fletcher took a step which led to great\nevents he never contemplated. Had he continued to be the Superintendent\nof the Trevecca College, it is probable that the Calvinian controversy\nwould not have grown to such wide dimensions. That, however, is not a\nproof of imprudence on Fletcher\u2019s part; for, as every one who knows the\nhistory of that controversy is well aware, it was impossible for the\ngreat religious movement of the last century to proceed without the\ndoctrines in Wesley\u2019s Minutes being thoroughly examined, discussed, and\nsettled.\n\nWesley preached his sermon on the death of Whitefield on November 18,\n1770. Six weeks afterwards, it was respectfully attacked in the January\nnumber of the Calvinists\u2019 periodical, the _Gospel Magazine_. Two months\nlater, the same magazine made a furious assault on Walter Sellon\u2019s\n\u201cDefence of God\u2019s Sovereignty,\u201d stigmatizing it as \u201cA mite of reprobate\nsilver, cast into the _Foundery_, and coming out thence, bearing the\nimpress of that pride, self-righteousness, and self-sufficiency, natural\nto men in their fallen unrenewed state.\u201d \u201cThis performance,\u201d continues\nthe reviewer, \u201cis extolled to the very skies by the Arminians. It is\ncalculated for their meridian, and well establishes the haughty system\nof their own works and faithfulness, in opposition to the grace of the\nGospel, and the faithfulness of a covenant God, in the finished\nsalvation of sinners by Jesus Christ.\u201d\n\nIn May, the same periodical printed Wesley\u2019s \u201cMinutes,\u201d and branded them\nas \u201cthe very doctrines of Popery, yea, of Popery unmasked.\u201d The number\nfor the month of June contained an article of twelve pages, entitled, \u201cA\nComment or Paraphrase on the Extract from the Minutes of the Rev. Mr.\nWesley, etc.\u201d The temper and the unfairness of the article may be judged\nby the paraphrase on the first Minute, \u201c_Take heed to your doctrine_.\u201d\nThat is, remarks the commentator,\u2014\n\n \u201cBeware, in your preaching, of ascribing the whole and sole glory of\n salvation, from first to last, to the free unmerited grace of God in\n Christ Jesus. Be cautious how you sink man below his dignity, rob him\n of his excellency, strip him of the power of His free-will and\n abilities to perform his part in the work of salvation, and so deprive\n him of all trust in himself, hope from himself, and boasting of\n himself; for hence will be an end of self-seeking, self-righteousness,\n and self-soothing. Then would he sink into self-despair. Take heed to\n this.\u201d\n\nMeanwhile, Fletcher wrote to Wesley as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _June 24, 1771_.[226]\n\n \u201cDEAR SIR,\u2014When I left Wales, where I had stood in the gap for peace,\n I thought my poor endeavours were not altogether vain. Lady Huntingdon\n said she would write civilly to you, and desire you to explain\n yourself about your \u2018Minutes.\u2019 I suppose you have not heard from her,\n for she wrote me word, since then, that she believed she must not\n meddle in the affair. At least, that is what I made of her letter.\n Upon receiving yours from Chester, I cut off that part of it where you\n expressed your belief of what is eminently called by us the doctrine\n of free grace, and sent it to the College, with a desire it might be\n sent to Lady Huntingdon. She has returned it to me, with a letter, in\n which she expresses the greatest disapprobation of it. The purport of\n her letter is, to charge you with tergiversation, and me with being\n the dupe of your impositions. She has also written in stronger terms\n to her College.\n\n \u201cThings I hoped would have remained there; but how am I surprised and\n grieved to see zeal borrowing the horn of discord, and sounding an\n alarm throughout the religious world against you. Mr. Hatton called\n upon me last night, and showed me a printed circular, which, I\n suppose, is, or will be, sent to the serious clergy and laity\n throughout the land. I have received none, as I have lost, I suppose,\n my reputation of being a \u2018_real Protestant_,\u2019 by what I wrote upon\n your \u2018Minutes\u2019 in Wales.\n\n \u201cThis is an exact copy of the printed letter\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018SIR,\u2014Whereas Mr. Wesley\u2019s Conference is to be held at Bristol, on\n Tuesday, the 6th of August next, it is proposed by Lady Huntingdon and\n many other Christian friends (real Protestants), to have a meeting at\n Bristol at the same time, of such principal persons, both clergy and\n laity, who disapprove of the underwritten \u2018Minutes;\u2019 and, as the same\n are thought injurious to the very _fundamental_ principles of\n Christianity, it is further proposed that they go in a body to the\n said Conference, and insist upon a formal recantation of the said\n Minutes; and, in case of a refusal, that they sign and publish their\n protest against them. Your presence, Sir, on this occasion, is\n particularly requested; but, if it should not suit your convenience to\n be there, it is desired that you will transmit your sentiments on the\n subject to such persons as you think proper to produce them. It is\n submitted to you, whether it would not be right, in the opposition to\n be made to such a _dreadful heresy_, to recommend it to as many of\n your Christian friends, as well of the dissenters as of the\n Established Church, as you can prevail on to be there, the cause being\n of so public a nature.\n\n \u201c\u2018I am, Sir, your obedient servant,\u2014WALTER SHIRLEY.\n\n \u201c\u2018P.S.\u2014Your answer is desired, directed to the Countess of Huntingdon;\n or the Rev. Mr. Shirley; or John Lloyd, Esq., in Bath; or Mr. James\n Ireland, merchant, Bristol; or to Thomas Powis, Esq., at Berwick, near\n Shrewsbury; or to Richard Hill, Esq., at Hawkstone, near Whitchurch,\n Shropshire. Lodgings will be provided. Inquire at Mr. Ireland\u2019s,\n Bristol.\u2019\n\n \u201cI think it my duty, dear Sir, to give you the earliest intelligence\n of this bold onset, and to assure you that, upon the evangelical\n principles mentioned in your last letter to me, I, for one, shall be\n glad to stand by you and your doctrine to the last, hoping that you\n will gladly remove stumbling-blocks out of the way of the weak, and\n alter such expressions as may create prejudice in the hearts of those\n who are inclined to admit it.\n\n \u201cI write to Mr. Shirley to expostulate with him, and to request him to\n call in his circular letter. He is the last man that should attack\n you. His sermons contain propositions much more heretical and\n anti-Calvinistical than your \u2018Minutes.\u2019 If my letters have not the\n desired effect, I shall probably, if you approve of them and correct\n them, make them public for your justification.\n\n \u201cI find Mr. Ireland is to write to make you _tamely recant_ without\n measuring swords, or breaking a pike with our _real Protestants_. I\n wrote to him also.\n\n \u201cI am, dear Sir, your unworthy servant in the Gospel,\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\n\n \u201cTo the Rev. Mr. John Wesley,\n \u201cAt his Preaching House in Dublin,\n \u201cIreland.\u201d\n\nFootnote 226:\n\n This letter is inserted in the \u201cLife and Times of Wesley,\u201d where it\n was published for the _first_ time. It is reproduced here, because\n Fletcher\u2019s life would not be complete without it.\u2014L. T.\n\nLady Huntingdon did not write to Wesley, but he wrote a long and\nfaithful letter to her, dated June 19, 1771, in which he insisted that\nthe doctrines he preached now were the same as he had preached for above\nthirty years.[227]\n\nShirley did not \u201ccall in his circular letter.\u201d It would have been more\nto the honour of himself and his friends had he done so; for, when\nWesley\u2019s Conference assembled on August 6, the response to it was\nridiculous. Of all \u201cthe serious clergy and laity throughout the land,\u201d\nonly Shirley himself, and the Rev. Cradock Glascott, and the Rev. Mr.\nOwen, ministers officiating in the Countess of Huntingdon\u2019s chapels,\ntogether with Messrs. Lloyd, Ireland, and Winter, and two students (!)\nfrom Trevecca College attended. After what had taken place, Wesley,\nwithout arrogance, might have disdained these insignificant self-elected\ndeputies; but he graciously allowed them to enter his Conference. First\nof all, Wesley prayed; then Shirley asked if the letters[228] of himself\nand the Countess of Huntingdon had been read to the Conference; and,\nbeing answered in the negative, he asked leave to read them himself,\nwhich was granted. A long conversation followed, and then Shirley\nproduced a written declaration which he wished the Conference to sign.\nWesley examined it, and made some alterations, which Shirley says were\n\u201cnot very material;\u201d and then Wesley and fifty-three of his itinerant\npreachers appended to it their signatures. The declaration was as\nfollows:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhereas the doctrinal points in the Minutes of a Conference, held in\n London, August 7, 1770, have been understood to favour justification\n by works; now the Rev. John Wesley and others assembled in Conference,\n do declare that we had no such meaning, and that we abhor the doctrine\n of Justification by Works as a most perilous and abominable doctrine:\n and, as the said Minutes are not sufficiently guarded in the way they\n are expressed, we hereby solemnly declare, in the sight of God, that\n we have no trust or confidence but in the alone merits of our Lord and\n Saviour Jesus Christ, for Justification or Salvation, either in life,\n death, or the day of judgment: and, though no one is a real Christian\n believer, (and consequently cannot be saved) who doth not good works,\n where there is time and opportunity, yet our works have no part in\n meriting or purchasing our salvation from first to last, either in\n whole or in part.\u201d\n\nFootnote 227:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of Wesley,\u201d vol. iii., p. 93.\n\nFootnote 228:\n\n The letter of the Countess, dated \u201cAugust 2, 1771,\u201d in substance was\n an apology for the apparently presumptuous way in which she and her\n friends had proposed to invade Wesley\u2019s Conference; accompanied with\n an excuse founded on the fact that they regarded Wesley\u2019s \u201cMinutes,\u201d\n of 1770, as \u201crepugnant to Scripture, the whole plan of man\u2019s salvation\n under the new covenant of grace, and also to the clear meaning of our\n Established Church, as well as to that of all other Protestant\n Churches.\u201d Shirley\u2019s letter was to the same effect. (See Shirley\u2019s\n \u201cNarrative of the Principal Circumstances relative to the Rev Mr.\n Wesley\u2019s late Conference, held in Bristol, August 6, 1771.\u201d)\n\nThis declaration being signed by Wesley and all the Itinerant Preachers\npresent (except Thomas Olivers), Shirley was required \u201cto make some\npublic acknowledgment that he had mistaken the meaning of the\n\u2018Minutes,\u2019\u201d At first he hesitated, but, \u201ca few days afterwards, sent\nWesley the following message, with which,\u201d says Shirley, \u201che was very\nwell pleased\u201d:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Shirley\u2019s Christian respects wait on Mr. Wesley. The declaration\n agreed to in Conference August 8, 1771, has convinced Mr. Shirley he\n had mistaken the meaning of the doctrinal points in the Minutes of the\n Conference, held in London August 7, 1770; and he hereby wishes to\n testify the full satisfaction he has in the said declaration, and his\n hearty concurrence and agreement with the same.\u201d\n\nIt might have been thought that here the fracas would have ended; and\nso, perhaps, it would, had it not been for an incident which must now be\nmentioned.\n\nFletcher had already written his \u201cFirst Check to Antinomianism.\u201d It was\nfinished on July 29,[229] and Wesley immediately put it into the hands\nof his printer, William Pine, of Bristol, to be printed and published;\nand the manuscript was being set up in type at the very time that\nShirley and his friends were at Wesley\u2019s Conference. The Conference\nbegan on Tuesday, August 6. Wesley writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cWe had more preachers than usual at the Conference, in consequence of\n Mr. Shirley\u2019s circular letter. At ten on _Thursday_ morning, he came\n with nine or ten of his friends. We conversed freely for about two\n hours, and I believe they were satisfied that we were not so \u2018dreadful\n heretics\u2019 as they imagined, but were tolerably sound in the\n faith.\u201d[230]\n\nFootnote 229:\n\n It is a notable fact that Wesley had spent the three previous days\n with Fletcher. Hence the following from Wesley\u2019s Journal:\u2014\n\n \u201c1771. _Friday_, July 26. I went on to Shrewsbury, where Mr. Fletcher\n met me.\u2014_Sunday_, 28. I preached at Madeley, morning and afternoon.\n The church would not near contain the congregation; but the window\n near the pulpit being open, those without could hear as well as those\n within.\u2014_Monday_, 29. I went on to Worcester.\u201d\n\n Probably Wesley took Fletcher\u2019s manuscript away with him.\n\nFootnote 230:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\nThe next day, Friday, August 9, Shirley was informed that Fletcher\u2019s\nmanuscript was being printed. He and his friends appealed to Wesley to\nstop the press. Mr. Ireland, in particular, who had already written to\nFletcher an account of the preceding day\u2019s amicable proceedings,\nentreated Wesley to wait till he (Ireland) could receive an answer to\nhis letter. He ventured to assure Wesley that if Fletcher were upon the\nspot he would suppress the publication; and he himself offered to defray\nall the expense that had been incurred. Wesley answered, \u201cI will\nconsider it;\u201d and, at the same time, he told his visitors that \u201che had\ncorrected all the _tart_ expressions in\u201d the manuscript.[231]\n\nFootnote 231:\n\n Shirley\u2019s \u201cNarrative.\u201d\n\nWesley spent Saturday and Sunday in Bristol; and then, on Monday, August\n12, he \u201cset out for Wales.\u201d Three days afterwards, Mr. Ireland received\na letter from Fletcher, who wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cI feel for poor dear Mr. Shirley, whom I have (considering the\n present circumstances) treated too severely in my \u2018Vindication of the\n Minutes.\u2019 My dear Sir, what must be done? I am ready to defray, by\n selling to my last shirt, the expense of the printing of my\n Vindication, and suppress it. Direct me, dear Sir. Consult with Mr.\n Shirley and Mr. Wesley about the matter. Be persuaded I am ready to do\n everything that will be brotherly in this unhappy affair.\u201d[232]\n\nFootnote 232:\n\n Shirley\u2019s \u201cNarrative.\u201d\n\nWesley having departed from Bristol, Mr. Ireland at once went to Mr.\nPine, the printer, and showed him Fletcher\u2019s letter; and the same\nevening Mr. Pine communicated its contents to the Bristol preachers. The\nnext morning, Friday, August 16, Mr. Ireland sent to the preachers a\n_copy_ of Fletcher\u2019s letter; and, in a letter from himself, told them\nthat Fletcher \u201csupposed the book was out; but, even in that case, he\nwished it to be suppressed.\u201d Mr. Ireland entreated them to defer the\npublication till they had further authority from Fletcher and Wesley,\n\u201cand engaged to be accountable for every consequence.\u201d[233]\n\nFootnote 233:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nWhile Mr. Ireland was making these strenuous efforts to suppress the\npublication, Wesley wrote to the Countess of Huntingdon as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201c1771. August 14.\u2014When I received your ladyship\u2019s letter of the 2nd\n inst., I immediately saw that it required an answer, only I waited\n till the hurry of Conference was over, that I might do nothing rashly.\n I know your ladyship would not servilely \u2018deny the truth;\u2019 neither\n would I; especially that great truth, justification by faith, for\n which I have given up all my worldly hopes, my friends, my reputation;\n yea, for which I have so often hazarded my life, and by the grace of\n God will do again. The principles established in the \u2018_Minutes_\u2019 I\n apprehend to be no way contrary to this; or to that faith which was\n once delivered to the saints. I believe whoever calmly considers Mr.\n Fletcher\u2019s letters will be convinced of this. I fear, therefore, \u2018zeal\n against those principles\u2019 is no less than zeal against the truth, and\n against the _honour_ of our Lord. The preservation of His honour\n appears so sacred to me, and has done for above these forty years,\n that I have counted, and do count, all things loss in comparison of\n it. But till Mr. Fletcher\u2019s printed letters are answered, I must think\n everything spoken against those \u2018_Minutes_\u2019 is totally destructive of\n _His honour_, and a palpable affront to Him both as our Prophet and\n Priest, but more especially as our King. Those letters, therefore,\n which could not be suppressed without betraying the honour of our\n Lord, largely prove that the \u2018_Minutes_\u2019 lay no other foundation than\n that which is laid in Scripture, and which I have been laying, and\n teaching others to lay, for between thirty and forty years. Indeed, it\n would be amazing that God should at this day prosper my labours, as\n much if not more than ever, by convincing as well as converting\n sinners, if I was \u2018_establishing another foundation, repugnant to the\n whole plan of man\u2019s salvation under the covenant of grace, as well as\n the clear meaning of our Established Church and all other Protestant\n Churches_.\u2019 This is a charge indeed! But I plead, not guilty; and till\n it is proved upon me, I must subscribe myself, my dear lady, your\n ladyship\u2019s affectionate but much injured servant,\n\n \u201cJOHN WESLEY.\u201d[234]\n\nFootnote 234:\n\n Whitehead\u2019s \u201cLife of Wesley,\u201d vol. ii., p. 350.\n\nThus, by Wesley\u2019s firmness, Fletcher\u2019s manuscript, without any delay,\nwas printed and published. Its title was, \u201cA Vindication of the Rev. Mr.\nWesley\u2019s Last Minutes: Occasioned by a circular printed Letter, inviting\nprincipal Persons, both Clergy and Laity, as well of the Dissenters as\nof the Established Church, who disapprove of those Minutes, to oppose\nthem in a Body, as a dreadful Heresy: And designed to remove Prejudice,\ncheck Rashness, promote Forbearance, defend the Character of an eminent\nMinister of Christ, and prevent some important Scriptural Truths from\nbeing hastily branded as heretical. In Five Letters, to the Hon. and\nRev. Author of the Circular Letter. By a Lover of Quietness and Liberty\nof Conscience. Bristol: Printed by W. Pine, in Wine Street, 1771.\u201d 12\nmo., 98 pp.\n\nThe publication roused again the Hon. and Rev. Walter Shirley, who\nimmediately prepared and published \u201cA Narrative of the principal\nCircumstances relative to the Rev. Mr. Wesley\u2019s late Conference, held in\nBristol, August the 6th, 1771, at which the Rev. Mr. Shirley, and\nothers, his Friends, were present. With a Declaration then agreed to by\nMr. Wesley, and Fifty-three of the Preachers in Connection with him. In\na Letter to a Friend. By the Rev. Mr. Shirley. Bath: 1771.\u201d 12mo., 24\npp.\n\nUpon the whole, Mr. Shirley\u2019s \u201cNarrative\u201d was truthful, fair, and\nrespectful.[235] It is dated \u201cBath, September 12, 1771.\u201d He apprised\nFletcher of its contents, and of his intention to publish it; and\nFletcher, in reply, wrote the following letter, which completes the\nhistory of the commencement of the great Calvinistical controversy:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _September 11, 1771_.\n\n \u201cREV. AND DEAR SIR,\u2014It is extremely proper, nay, it is highly\n necessary, that the public should be informed how much like a minister\n of the Prince of Peace, and a meek, humble, loving brother in the\n Gospel of Christ, you behaved at the Conference. Had I been there, I\n would gladly have taken upon me to proclaim these tidings of joy to\n the lovers of Zion\u2019s peace. Your conduct at that time of love is\n certainly the best excuse for the hasty step you had taken; as my\n desire of stopping my \u2018_Vindication_,\u2019 upon hearing of it, is the best\n apology I can make for my severity to you.\n\n \u201cI am not averse at all, Sir, to your publishing the passages you\n mention out of my letters to Mr. Ireland. They show my peculiar love\n and respect for you, which I shall at all times think an honour; and,\n at this juncture, shall feel a peculiar pleasure to see proclaimed to\n the world. They apologize for my calling myself \u2018_a lover of\n quietness_,\u2019 when I unfortunately prove _a son of contention_; and\n they demonstrate that I am not altogether void of the fear that\n becomes an awkward, inexperienced surgeon, when he ventures to open a\n vein in the arm of a person for whom he has the highest regard. How\n natural is it for him to tremble, lest by missing the intended vein,\n and pricking an unseen artery, he should have done irreparable\n mischief instead of an useful operation!\n\n \u201cBut while you do me the kindness of publishing those passages, permit\n me, Sir, to do Mr. Wesley the justice of informing him, I had also\n written to Mr. Ireland, that, \u2018whether my _Letters_ were suppressed or\n not, the \u2018_Minutes_\u2019 _must_ be vindicated,\u2014that Mr. Wesley owed it to\n the Church, to the _real Protestants_, to all his Societies, and to\n his own aspersed character,\u2014and that, after all, the controversy did\n not seem to me to be so much whether the \u2018_Minutes_\u2019 should stand, as\n whether the Antinomian Gospel of Dr. Crisp[236] should prevail over\n the practical Gospel of Jesus Christ.\n\n \u201cI must also, Sir, beg leave to let my vindicated friend know, that,\n in the very letter where I so earnestly entreated Mr. Ireland to stop\n the publication of my Letters to you, and offered to take the whole\n expense of the impression upon myself, though I should be obliged to\n sell my last shirt to defray it, I added that, \u2018If they were\n published, I must look upon it as a _necessary evil_, or\n _misfortune_.\u2019 Which of the two words I used I do not justly\n recollect: a _misfortune_ for you and me, who must appear inconsistent\n to the world;\u2014you, Sir, with your Sermons,[237] and I with my\n Title-page; and nevertheless _necessary_ to vindicate misrepresented\n truth, defend an eminent minister of Christ, and stem the torrent of\n Antinomianism.\n\n \u201cIt may not be improper, also, to observe to you, Sir, that when I\n presented Mr. Wesley with my \u2018Vindication,\u2019 I begged he would correct\n it, and take away whatever might be unkind or too sharp: urging that\n though I meant no unkindness, I was not a proper judge of what I had\n written under peculiarly delicate and trying circumstances, as well as\n in a great hurry; and did not, therefore, dare to trust either my pen,\n my head, or my heart. He was no sooner gone\u201d (from Bristol) \u201cthan I\n sent a letter after him to repeat and urge the same request; and he\n wrote me word, that he had \u2018expunged every tart expression.\u2019 _If he\n has_ (for I have not yet seen what alterations his friendly pen has\n made) I am reconciled to the publication; and _that he has_, I have\n reason to hope from the letters of two judicious London friends, who\n calmed my fears, lest I should have treated you with unkindness.\n\n \u201cOne of them says, \u2019I reverence Mr. Shirley for his candid\n acknowledgment of his hastiness in judging. I commend the Calvinists\n at the Conference for their justice to Mr. Wesley, and their\n acquiescence in the Declaration of the Preachers in connexion with\n him. But is that Declaration, however dispersed, a remedy adequate to\n the evil done, not only to Mr. Wesley, but to the cause and work of\n God? Several Calvinists, in eagerness of malice, had dispersed their\n calumnies through the three kingdoms. A truly excellent person\n herself,[238] in her mistaken zeal, had represented him as _a papist\n unmasked, a heretic, an apostate_. A clergyman of the first reputation\n informs me _a Poem on his Apostacy_ is just coming out.[239] Letters\n have been sent to every serious Churchman and Dissenter through the\n land, together with the _Gospel Magazine_. Great are the shoutings,\n \u201c_And now that he lieth let him rise up no more_.\u201d This is all the\n cry. His dearest friends and children are staggered, and scarce know\n what to think. You, in your corner, cannot conceive the mischief that\n has been done, and is still doing. But your letters, in the hand of\n Providence, may answer the good ends you proposed by writing them. You\n have not been too severe to dear Mr. Shirley, moderate Calvinists\n themselves being judges, but very kind and friendly to set a good\n mistaken man right, and probably to preserve him from the like\n rashness as long as he lives. Be not troubled, therefore, but cast\n your care upon the Lord.\u2019\n\n \u201cMy other friend says, \u2018Considering what harm the Circular Letter has\n done, and what a useless satisfaction Mr. Shirley has given by his\n vague acknowledgment, it is no more than just and equitable that your\n Letters should be published.\u2019\n\n \u201cNow, Sir, as I never saw that _acknowledgment_, nor the _softening\n corrections_ made by Mr. Wesley in my \u2018Vindication;\u2019 as I was not\n informed of some of the above-mentioned particulars when I was so\n eager to prevent the publication of my Letters; and as I have reason\n to think that, through the desire of an immediate peace, the festering\n wound was rather skinned over than probed to the bottom,\u2014all I can say\n about this publication is, what I wrote to our common friend, namely,\n that \u2018I must look upon it as a _necessary evil_.\u2019\n\n \u201cI am glad, Sir, you do not direct your letter to Mr. Olivers,[240]\n who was so busy in publishing my \u2018Vindication;\u2019 for, by a letter I\n have just received from Bristol, I am informed he did not hear how\n desirous I was to call it in, till he had actually given out, before a\n whole congregation, it would be sold. Besides, he would have pleaded\n with smartness that he never approved of a patched-up peace,\u2014that he\n bore his testimony against it at the time it was made,\u2014and that he had\n a personal right to produce _my_ arguments, since both parties refused\n to hear _his_ at the Conference.\n\n \u201cIf your Letter is friendly, Sir, and you print it in the same size as\n my \u2018Vindication,\u2019 I shall gladly buy \u00a310 worth of the copies, and\n order them to be stitched with my \u2018Vindication,\u2019 and given gratis to\n the purchasers of it; as well to do you justice, as to convince the\n world that we make a loving war; and also to demonstrate how much I\n regard your respectable character, and honour your dear person. Mr.\n Wesley\u2019s heart is, I am persuaded, too full of brotherly love to deny\n me the pleasure of thus showing you how sincerely I am, Rev. and dear\n Sir, your obedient servant,\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d\n\nFootnote 235:\n\n That there might be no misunderstanding between them, Fletcher, on the\n same day, sent Wesley \u201cthe substance, and almost the very words,\u201d of\n this letter to Shirley.\n\nFootnote 236:\n\n The Rev. Tobias Crisp, D.D., a divine of the Church of England, born\n in London in 1600, and who died in 1643. He was educated at Eton,\n thence he removed to Cambridge, and afterwards to Oriel College,\n Oxford. At the age of twenty-seven, he was appointed Rector of\n Brinkworth, in Wiltshire. Early in life, he was a favourer of the\n doctrines of Arminianism; afterwards, he became the champion of\n Antinomianism. His sermons, in three volumes, were printed after his\n death. It is said that, though the tenets he embraced seem to be a\n plea for licentiousness, he himself was remarkable for the purity and\n modesty of his manners.\n\nFootnote 237:\n\n A few years ago, Shirley had published \u201cTwelve Sermons, preached on\n several occasions,\u201d 12mo., 189 pp.\n\nFootnote 238:\n\n Lady Huntingdon.\n\nFootnote 239:\n\n This was published in the _Gospel Magazine_, in the same month as\n Wesley\u2019s Conference was held. It was signed \u201cCleon,\u201d and dated\n \u201cLondon, June 17, 1771.\u201d Speaking of Wesley, \u201cCleon\u201d says,\u2014\n\n \u201cPride prompts him on, and Satan now has gained\n A conquest o\u2019er perverted truth retained;\n At best perverted, glaring now appears,\n The pride of Rome, the lie of num\u2019rous years.\u201d\n\nFootnote 240:\n\n Thomas Olivers, who for several years, corrected proof sheets for\n Wesley.\n\nThe reader has now as full an account as can be given of the way in\nwhich the long and angry war between _Wesleyan_ Methodism and\n_Calvinian_ Methodism was begun. It is difficult to say, decidedly, who\nwas to blame for it. Wesley had a perfect right\u2014in fact, under existing\ncircumstances, he was almost bound by duty\u2014to publish his theological\ntheses; but it was unfortunate that, to use the words of himself and his\nfifty-three preachers, \u201c_they were not sufficiently guarded_ in the way\nthey were expressed.\u201d\n\nThe Countess of Huntingdon and her nephew, the Hon. and Rev. Walter\nShirley, had a perfect right to take counsel with their Calvinian\nfriends respecting Wesley\u2019s \u201cMinutes;\u201d but it was offensive arrogance to\npropose to \u201c_go in a body to_ Wesley\u2019s _Conference, and insist upon a\nformal recantation of the said Minutes_.\u201d Wesley was under no obligation\nto either Lady Huntingdon or Walter Shirley; and their issuing of the\n\u201cCircular Letter\u201d was pure impertinence, though, no doubt, they thought\nit a Christian duty.\n\nFletcher had a perfect right to explain and vindicate Wesley\u2019s\n\u2018Minutes,\u2019 and to send Wesley his manuscript to be printed and\npublished; and Wesley had a perfect right to avail himself of this\npermission.\n\nMr. Ireland had a perfect right to entreat Wesley\u2019s printer to delay the\npublication till he (Ireland) received an answer to the letter he had\nsent to Fletcher; and Fletcher, though, perhaps, showing too much\nflexibility of purpose, displayed Christian kindness of the highest\norder in his reply; but that reply arrived in Bristol too late, for\nWesley had already left for Wales, and Wesley\u2019s editor had publicly\nannounced that the \u201cVindication\u201d would be published. Besides, Fletcher\nhimself, within five weeks after the time when Wesley\u2019s Conference was\nheld, changed his opinion, told Mr. Ireland that \u201cthe \u2018Minutes\u2019 _must_\nbe vindicated,\u201d and informed Shirley himself that he was \u201creconciled to\nthe publication\u201d of his manuscript.\n\nNothing more need be said. Indeed, all, in substance, is said that can\nbe said; and it only remains to notice the 12mo pamphlet of 98 pages,\nthat gave such huge offence, and led to such serious consequences.\nFletcher presents:\u2014\n\n \u201cI. A general view of the Rev. Mr. Wesley\u2019s doctrines.\n\n \u201cII. An account of the commendable design of his \u2018Minutes.\u2019\n\n \u201cIII. A vindication of the propositions which they contain, by\n arguments taken from Scripture, reason, and experience; and by\n quotations from eminent Calvinist divines, who have said the same\n things in different words.\u201d\n\nOn the first of these points, he writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Wesley is accused of dreadful heresy; and may not I, an old\n friend and acquaintance of his, be permitted to speak a word in his\n favour? This step, I fear, will cost me my reputation (if I have any),\n and involve me in the same condemnation with him, whose cause,\n together with that of truth, I design to plead: but when humanity\n prompts, gratitude calls, and friendship excites; when reason invites,\n justice demands, truth requires, and conscience summons; he does not\n deserve the name of a Christian friend, who, for any consideration,\n hesitates to vindicate what he esteems truth, and to stand by an\n aggrieved friend, brother, and father.\n\n \u201c1. For above these sixteen years, I have heard him frequently in his\n chapels, and sometimes in my church; and I have familiarly conversed\n and corresponded with him, and have often perused his numerous works\n in verse and prose; and I can truly say, that, during all that time, I\n have heard him, upon every proper occasion, steadily maintain the\n total fall of man in Adam, and his utter inability to recover himself,\n or take one step towards his recovery, \u2018_without the grace of God\n preventing him, that he may have a good will, and working with him\n when he has that good will_.\u2019\n\n \u201c2. I must likewise testify that he faithfully points out Christ as\n the only way of salvation; and strongly recommends faith as the only\n means of receiving Him, and all the benefits of His righteous life and\n meritorious death; and truth obliges me to declare, that he frequently\n expresses his detestation of the errors of modern Pharisees, who laugh\n at original sin, set up the power of fallen man, cry down the\n operations of God\u2019s Spirit, deny the absolute necessity of the blood\n and righteousness of Christ, and refuse Him the glory of all the good\n that may be found in Jew or Gentile. You will not without difficulty\n find in England, and perhaps in all the world, a minister who has\n borne more frequent testimonies, either from the pulpit or the press,\n against those dangerous errors.\n\n \u201c3. The next fundamental doctrine of Christianity is that of holiness\n of heart and life; and no one can here accuse Mr. Wesley of leaning to\n the Antinomian delusion, which \u2018_makes void the law through_\u2019 a\n speculative and barren \u2018_faith_\u2019: on the contrary, he appears to be\n peculiarly set for the defence of practical religion; for, instead of\n representing Christ as the minister of sin, he sets Him forth as a\n complete \u2018Saviour from sin.\u2019 Not satisfied to preach holiness begun,\n he preaches finished holiness, and calls believers to such a degree of\n heart-purifying faith, as may enable them continually to \u2018_triumph in\n Christ_,\u2019 as being \u2018_made to them sanctification_,\u2019 as well as\n \u2018_righteousness_.\u2019 This he sometimes calls \u2018full sanctification,\u2019 the\n state of _fathers_ in Christ, or \u2018_the glorious liberty of the\n children of God_:\u2019 sometimes, a being \u2018_strengthened, stablished, and\n settled_;\u2019 or \u2018_being rooted and grounded in love_:\u2019 but most commonly\n he calls it, \u2018Christian _Perfection_;\u2019 a word which, though used by\n the Apostles in the same sense, cannot be used by him without raising\n the pity or indignation of one half of the religious world: some make\n it the subject of their pious sneers and godly lampoons; while others\n tell you roundly they \u2018abhor it above everything in the creation.\u2019\n\n \u201c4. But this is not all: he holds also general redemption, and its\n necessary consequences, which some account \u2018_dreadful heresies_.\u2019 He\n asserts, with St. Paul, that \u2018_Christ, by the grace of God, tasted\n death for every man_;\u2019 and this _grace_ he calls \u2018_free_,\u2019 as\n extending itself _freely_ to all. Nor can he help expressing his\n surprise at those pious ministers, who maintain that the Saviour keeps\n His grace, as they suppose He kept His blood, from the greatest part\n of mankind, and yet engross to themselves the title of \u2018_preachers of\n free grace_.\u2019\n\n \u201c5. As a consequence of the doctrine of general redemption, Mr. Wesley\n lays down two axioms, of which he never loses sight in his preaching.\n The first is, that \u2018_All our salvation is of God in Christ_,\u2019 and\n therefore _of grace_: all opportunities, invitations, inclination, and\n power to believe being bestowed upon us of mere grace,\u2014grace most\n absolutely free. But he proceeds farther; for, secondly, he asserts,\n with equal confidence, that, according to the Gospel dispensation,\n \u2018_All our damnation is of ourselves_,\u2019 by our obstinate unbelief and\n avoidable unfaithfulness. He is persuaded the most complete system of\n divinity is that in which neither of those two axioms is superseded:\n it is bold and unscriptural to set up the one at the expense of the\n other.\u201d\n\nThese _extracts_ from Fletcher\u2019s first letter are important, as showing\nwhat Fletcher conceived to be Wesley\u2019s fundamental doctrines; and it\nmust be borne in mind, that, Wesley having read and revised Fletcher\u2019s\nmanuscript, Fletcher\u2019s conception is stamped with Wesley\u2019s own\nauthority.\n\nFletcher proceeds to explain and to defend Wesley\u2019s \u201cMinutes,\u201d and to\nshow they were greatly needed. He says:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Wesley\u2019s _design_ was to guard his preachers and their hearers\n against Antinomian principles and practices, which spread like\n wild-fire in some of his Societies; where persons, who spoke in the\n most glorious manner of Christ, and their interest in His complete\n salvation, have been found living in the greatest immoralities, or\n indulging in the most unchristian tempers. Nor need I go far for a\n proof of this sad assertion. In one of his Societies, not many miles\n from my parish, a married man, who professed being in _a state of\n justification and sanctification_, growing wise above what is written,\n despised his brethren as legalists, and his teachers as persons not\n clear in the Gospel. He instilled his principles into a serious young\n woman; and what was the consequence? Why, they talked about \u2018finished\n salvation in Christ,\u2019 and \u2018the absurdity of perfection in the flesh,\u2019\n till a perfect child was conceived and born; and, to save appearances,\n the woman swore it to a travelling man that cannot be heard of. Thus,\n to avoid legality, they plunged into hypocrisy, fornication, adultery,\n perjury, and the depth of ranterism. Is it not hard that a minister\n should be traduced as guilty of _dreadful heresy_ for trying to put a\n stop to such dreadful practices? And is it not high time that he\n should cry to all that regard his warnings, \u2018_Take heed to your\n doctrine_\u2019?\u201d\n\nFletcher then proceeds to give a deplorable picture of many of the\nprofessing Christians of the age, which, it is to be hoped, was too\ndarkly drawn, though it is difficult to prove it was. The following\nextract shows that many of the Methodists were not better than their\nneighbours, and that it was of paramount importance that Wesley\u2019s\npreachers should _take heed to their doctrine_:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Wesley has many persons in his Societies, (and would to God there\n were none in ours!) who profess they were justified or sanctified in a\n moment; but, instead of trusting in the living God, so _trust in what\n was done in that moment_, as to give over taking up their cross\n _daily_, and _watching unto prayer with all perseverance_. The\n consequences are deplorable: they slide back into the spirit of the\n world; and their tempers are no more regulated by the meek, gentle,\n humble love of Jesus. Some inquire with the heathens, _What shall we\n eat, and what shall we drink_ to please ourselves? Others evidently\n _love the world; lay up treasures on earth_; or ask, _Wherewith shall\n we be fashionably clothed?_ Therefore, _the love of the Father is not\n in them_. And not a few are _led captive by the devil at his will_:\n influenced by his unhappy suggestions, they harbour bitterness,\n malice, and revenge: none is in the right but themselves, and \u2018wisdom\n shall die with them.\u2019\n\n \u201cNow, Sir, Mr. Wesley cannot but fear it is not well with persons who\n are in any of these cases: though everybody should join to extol them\n as \u2018dear children of God,\u2019 he is persuaded that _Satan has beguiled\n them, as he did Eve_; and he addresses them, as our Lord did the angel\n of the church of Sardis,\u2014\u2018I know thy works, that thou _hast a name,\n that thou livest; and art dead_,\u2019 or dying: \u2018_Repent, therefore, and\n strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die; for I have\n not found thy works perfect before God._\u2019\u201d\n\nWhen it is remembered that Fletcher\u2019s manuscript was read and revised by\nWesley, before it was printed, the foregoing description of \u201c_many\npersons_\u201d in Wesley\u2019s Societies is possessed of more than ordinary\ninterest. Only ten years had elapsed since the great revival of\nChristian perfection in those Societies, and yet such was the judgment\npronounced by Fletcher, and which Wesley sanctioned!\n\nAfter explaining and defending all the doctrines contained in Wesley\u2019s\n\u201cMinutes,\u201d Fletcher concludes his fourth letter as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cThus, Sir, have I looked out for the _heresy_, the _dreadful heresy_\n of Mr. Wesley\u2019s \u2018Minutes,\u2019 by bringing all the propositions they\n contain to the touchstone of Scripture and common sense; but, instead\n of finding it, I have found the very marrow of the Gospel of Christ. I\n have showed that the \u2018Minutes\u2019 contain nothing but what is truly\n scriptural; and nothing but what the best Calvinist divines have\n themselves, directly or indirectly, asserted; except, perhaps, the\n sixth proposition concerning the merit of works; and, with respect to\n this, I hope I have demonstrated, upon rational and evangelical\n principles, that Mr. Wesley, far from _bringing in a damnable heresy_,\n has done the Gospel justice, and Protestantism service, by candidly\n giving up an old prejudice, equally contrary to Scripture and good\n sense,\u2014a piece of bigotry which has long hardened the papists against\n the doctrine of salvation by the merit of Christ, and has added\n inconceivable strength to the Antinomian delusion among us.\n\n \u201cOne difficulty remains, and that is, to account for your attacking\n Mr. Wesley, though you could not wound him without stabbing yourself.\n Reserving my reflections upon this amazing step for another letter,\n\n \u201cI remain your astonished servant in the bonds of a peaceful Gospel,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d\n\nAs here indicated, the fifth and last letter contained that which most\noffended Shirley. In his \u201cNarrative,\u201d Shirley remarks:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Wesley assured us he had corrected all the _tart_ expressions in\n them\u201d (that is, in Fletcher\u2019s Letters). \u201cAlas! _Qualia verba, qu\u00e6\n facta!_ Whether there are _no tart_ expressions in the Letters, let\n every one that hath seen them judge. But, perhaps, this learned\n gentleman distinguishes between the _tart_ and the _bitter_. If all\n the _tart_ expressions are corrected, I am sure there are enough of\n the _bitter_ left.\n\n \u201cAs to the Letters themselves, I shall have \u2018the author\u2019s\u2019 pardon for\n noticing two particular charges against me.\n\n \u201c1. I am supposed to want candour; as if I had put a forced\n construction on the \u2018Minutes,\u2019 in order to bring Mr. Wesley in guilty.\n Mr. Fletcher has attempted a \u2018vindication\u2019 of them; and, by breaking\n them into sentences and half-sentences, and refining upon each of\n these detached particles, he has done more than I could have expected,\n even from his great abilities, in giving a new turn to the whole. But,\n after reading his learned and elaborate \u2018Vindication,\u2019 when I cast my\n eye over the \u2018Minutes,\u2019 and consider the whole as it stands in\n context, I must own, I am just where I was: nothing _but the\n \u2018Declaration\u2019_ could ever convince me that justification by works was\n not maintained and supported by the \u2018Minutes.\u2019\n\n \u201c2. The charge of _inconsistency_ is supported by quotations from my\n sermons. To this, I beg leave to observe, that the passages quoted are\n not altogether in point; neither do they maintain justification by\n works in such direct and express terms as the \u2018Minutes\u2019 appear to do.\n I must, however, own that they savour too strongly of mysticism and\n free-will; and all I can say, on my behalf in this respect, is, that\n they were written many years ago, at a time when I had more zeal than\n light; that my present ministry, as well as my present way of\n thinking, is very different; and that I have frequently expressed my\n disapprobation of those sermons, nay wished they had been burnt.\u201d\n\nShirley was nettled; and, after the imperious arrogance displayed in his\n\u201cCircular Letter,\u201d he deserved to be. Fletcher\u2019s fifth and last letter\nis caustical; but not more so than the occasion justified. The following\nis extracted from it:\u2014\n\n \u201cHON. AND REV. SIR,\u2014Having vindicated both some important doctrines of\n the Gospel, and an eminent servant of Christ from the charge of\n _dreadful heresy_, I will now take the liberty of a friend to\n expostulate a little with _you_.\n\n \u201cWhen Brutus, among other senators, rushed upon C\u00e6sar, the venerable\n general said, \u2018Art thou also among them? Even thou, my son?\u2019 May not\n Mr. Wesley address you, Sir, in the same words, and add, \u2018If a body of\n men must be raised to attack me, let some zealous follower of Dr.\n Crisp, some hot-headed vindicator of reprobation and eternal\n justification blow the trumpet, and put himself at their head; but let\n it not be _you_, who believe with me that we are moral agents; that\n God is love; that Jesus tasted death for every man; and that the Holy\n Spirit shall not always strive with sinners. If you do not regard my\n reputation, consider at least your own, and expose me not as a heretic\n for advancing propositions, the substance of which you have avowed\n before the sun.\u2019\n\n \u201cBut had those propositions, at length, appeared to you unsound, yea,\n and had you never maintained them yourself, should you not, as a\n Christian and a brother, have wrote to Mr. Wesley, acquainted him with\n your objections, and desired him to solve them and explain himself, or\n you should be obliged publicly to expose him?\n\n \u201cWas this condescension more than was due from you, Sir, and our other\n friends, to a grey-headed minister of Christ, an old general in the\n armies of Emmanuel, a father who has children capable of instructing\n even masters in Israel, and one whom God made the first and principal\n instrument of the late revival of internal religion in our Church?\n\n \u201cInstead of this friendly method, as if you were a Barak, _commanded\n by the Lord God of Israel_, you call _together the children of\n Naphthali and Zebulun_: you convene, from England and Wales, clergy\n and laity, Churchmen and Dissenters, to meet you at Bristol, where\n they are, it seems, to be entertained in good and free quarters. And\n for what grand expedition? Why, on a day appointed, you are to march\n up _in a body_, not to attack Sisera and his iron chariots, but an old\n Caleb, who, without meddling with you, quietly goes on to the conquest\n of Canaan; not to desire, in a friendly manner, after a fair debate of\n every proposition that appears dangerous, and, upon previous\n conviction, that what is exceptionable may be given up; but to do what\n I think was never done by nominal, much less by _real Protestants_. O\n let it not be told in Rome, lest the sons of the Inquisition rejoice!\n This mixed, this formidable body is to _insist upon_ Mr. Wesley and\n the preachers in his connexion, _formally recanting_ their \u2018Minutes,\u2019\n as _appearing injurious to the very fundamental principles of\n Christianity_, and being _dreadfully heretical_. And this,\n astonishing! without the least inquiry made into their meaning and\n design, without a shadow of authority from our superiors in Church or\n State, without an appeal _to the law and to the testimony_, without\n form of process, without judge or jury, without so much as allowing\n the poor heretics (who are condemned six weeks before they can\n possibly be heard) to answer for themselves!\n\n \u201cHow could you suppose, Sir, that Mr. Wesley and the preachers who\n assemble with him are such weak men, as tamely to acknowledge\n themselves heretics upon your _ipse dixit_? Suppose Mr. Wesley took it\n in his head to convene all the divines that disapprove the extract of\n Zanchius,[241] to go with him in a body to Mr. Toplady\u2019s chapel, and\n demand a formal recantation of that performance as heretical; yea, to\n insist upon it, before they had \u2018measured swords or broken a pike\n together,\u2019 would not the translator of Zanchius laugh at him, and ask\n whether he thought to frighten him by his protests, or bully him into\n orthodoxy?\n\n \u201cO, Sir, have we not fightings enough without, to employ all our time\n and strength? Must we also declare war and promote fightings within?\n Must we catch at every opportunity to stab one another, because the\n livery of truth which we wear is not turned up in the same manner?\n What can be more cruel than this? What can be more cutting to an old\n minister of Christ, than to be traduced as a dreadful heretic, in\n printed letters sent to the best men in the land, yea, through all\n England and Scotland, and signed by a person of your rank and piety?\n To have things that he knows not, that he never meant, laid to his\n charge, and dispersed far and near? While he is gone to a neighbouring\n kingdom,[242] to preach Jesus Christ, to have his friends prejudiced,\n his foes elevated, and the fruit of his extensive ministry at the\n point of being blasted? Put yourself in his place, Sir, and you will\n see that the wound is deep and reaches the very heart.\n\n \u201cOur Elijah[243] has lately been translated to heaven. Grey-headed\n Elisha is yet awhile continued upon earth. And shall we make a hurry\n and noise, to bring in railing accusations against him with more\n success? Shall the sons of prophets, shall even _children_ in grace\n and knowledge, openly traduce the venerable seer and his abundant\n labours? When they see him run upon his Lord\u2019s errands, shall they\n cry, not, \u2018_Go up, thou bald head_,\u2019 but, \u2018_Go up, thou heretic_\u2019? O\n Jesus of Nazareth, Thou rejected of men, Thou Who wast once called a\n deceiver of the people, suffer it not; lest the raging bear of\n persecution come suddenly out of the wood upon those sons of discord,\n and tear them in pieces.\u201d\n\nFootnote 241:\n\n In 1769, Toplady published \u201cThe Doctrine of Absolute Predestination\n Stated and Asserted. Translated, in great measure, from the Latin of\n Jerome Zanchius; with some Account of his Life prefixed.\u201d 8vo. 134 pp.\n An impious production, in the garb of piety.\n\nFootnote 242:\n\n Wesley was in Ireland from March 24 to July 22, 1771. It was during\n this period that Shirley sent forth his offensive \u201cCircular Letter.\u201d\n\nFootnote 243:\n\n Whitefield, who died September 30, 1770.\n\nRemembering the confidential and warm friendship that had existed\nbetween Fletcher and the Countess of Huntingdon and her nephew, Walter\nShirley, it must be admitted that these \u201cexpostulations\u201d were pungent;\nbut they were provoked by the arrogance of the offenders. It is true, as\nalready stated, that, on the evening before Wesley\u2019s Conference\nassembled, her ladyship and Shirley wrote letters to Wesley containing\nhalf-hearted apologies for their \u201carbitrary way of proceeding\u201d in the\n\u201cCircular Letter.\u201d \u201cIt must be acknowledged,\u201d said Shirley, \u201cthat, upon\nthe whole, the Circular Letter was too hastily drawn up and improperly\nexpressed; and, therefore, for the _offensive expressions_ in it, we\ndesire we may be hereby understood to make every suitable submission to\nyou, Sir, and to the gentlemen of the Conference.\u201d[244] The apology was\nproper; but it was not sufficient. The \u201cCircular Letter,\u201d branding\nWesley as a dreadful heretic, had been sent to a large number of\n\u201cprincipal persons, both clergy and laity,\u201d throughout the three\nkingdoms; whereas the letters of the Countess and her nephew were\nprivate ones, addressed only to Wesley and his preachers. Moreover, the\napology was accompanied with a threat.\n\nFootnote 244:\n\n Shirley\u2019s \u201cNarrative.\u201d\n\n \u201cI cannot but wish,\u201d wrote Shirley, \u201cthat the recantation of the\n Circular Letter may prevail as an example for the recantation of the\n \u2018Minutes.\u2019 If I should be unhappily disappointed in this respect, I\n shall feel myself bound in conscience to yield my public testimony\n against such doctrines as these, which appear to me subversive of the\n _fundamentals_ of Christianity.\u201d[245]\n\nFootnote 245:\n\n Shirley\u2019s \u201cNarrative.\u201d\n\nAnd, once more, the apology, such as it was, was sent too late, for\nFletcher had already written his \u201cVindication\u201d of Wesley\u2019s \u201cMinutes;\u201d\nthe manuscript had been sent to Wesley, and Wesley had revised it, and\ncommitted it to the press.\n\nThe war was begun, and we must follow it to its termination, _so far as\nFletcher is concerned_; for it is impossible, in a work like this, to\nnotice _all_ the pamphlets that were published. Those who wish for\nfurther information may turn to the \u201cLife and Times of Wesley.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER IX.\n _SECOND CHECK TO ANTINOMIANISM_\n\n 1771.\n\n\nWESLEY\u2019S \u201cMinutes\u201d and Shirley\u2019s \u201cCircular Letter\u201d created a commotion.\nThe Rev. Walter Sellon had recently published his \u201cChurch of England\nVindicated from the Charge of Absolute Predestination; as it is stated\nand asserted by the Translator of Jerome Zanchius\u201d [Toplady] \u201cin his\nLetter to the Rev. Dr. Nowell. Together with some Animadversions on his\nTranslation of Zanchius, his Letter to the Rev. Mr. John Wesley, and his\nSermon on 1 Tim. i. 10.\u201d This not over-courteous publication was\nreviewed in the August number of the _Gospel Magazine_ for 1771; and, no\ndoubt, the review had been read by the gentlemen who proposed to invade\nWesley\u2019s Conference. It began as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cA composition of low scurrility and illiberal abuse, for which this\n author and his coadjutors are remarkable. Not one Calvinist who comes\n in his way escapes. He is so much given up to slander and defamation,\n that he can no more refrain from defaming even the dead than from\n slandering the living.\u201d\n\nIts last paragraph was the following; and these two citations will\nenable the reader to form an opinion of the whole:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen we meet with erroneous systems set up in opposition to the Word\n of God, we speak our mind freely of them, and aim to show the\n dangerous tendency of them. But no sooner do we touch the cobweb\n system of self-righteous Pharisees, but they cry out, with their\n brethren of old to our Lord, \u2018Thou reproachest us also.\u2019 We cannot aim\n to dissect and expose their opinions, but they cry out of slandering\n their persons, and \u2018Oh, you have no love to Mr. John!\u2019 God bless Mr.\n John! But who is Mr. John? Is he the standard of truth, the pinnacle\n of orthodoxy, the touchstone by which truth is to be tried and known?\n What is Mr. John? What is Mr. Walter? Men, frail men, and miserable\n sinners like ourselves. All that we say of them is, As men, we love\n them; as miserable sinners, we wish their salvation; as\n fellow-creatures, we would not hurt a hair of their heads; whatever is\n in our power to do them good, we would cheerfully minister unto them.\u201d\n\nIn the September number of the same periodical, there was a letter,\nsigned \u201cSimplex,\u201d and dated \u201cAugust 3, 1771, From the Neighbourhood of\nthe Foundery,\u201d as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cSIR,\u2014I have just read your last number, and am amazed at the\n Declaration in it, as made by Mr. Wesley and his friends, at the late\n Conference at Bristol. I am amazed at the wisdom of that great man\n that he should devise a Declaration[246] couched in terms so ambiguous\n as to satisfy his opponents, whilst, in reality, it denies not one\n tittle clearly asserted in the \u2018Minutes;\u2019 and I am amazed at\n gentlemen, who might have been acquainted with the unfathomable policy\n of that dubious divine, not being more upon their guard than to have\n been put off by such an unmeaning confession.\n\n \u201cSince the Conference, and, of course, since the making of this\n Declaration, Mr. Fletcher has published a very warm, and not\n ill-written \u2018Vindication of the Minutes,\u2019 which, from his intimacy\n with Mr. Wesley, evidently shows that the gentleman in question never\n meant to recant what he had declared in the \u2018Minutes\u2019 when he signed\n the Declaration.[247]\n\n \u201cWhat can we think of this? You ask, What can we say to this? Why,\n gentlemen, you may say that the fox has had sagacity enough to elude\n his hunters. Or, in other words, that Mr. Wesley is, what I always\n took him to be, a very wise man.\n\n \u201cDoes this tend to clear up the affair? Yes. Taken in its connection\n with Fletcher\u2019s \u2018Vindication of the Minutes,\u2019 it very plainly clears\n it up to every man; and shows that however these gentlemen may abhor\n the doctrine of justification by the _merit_ of works, as most\n perilous and abominable, they are determined to abide by the doctrine\n of justification by works as a condition, which is all that is clearly\n expressed in the \u2018Minutes.\u2019 If Cranmer and his brethren had drunk half\n as deep into the spirit of Ignatius,\u201d [Loyala!] \u201cthey had never been\n brought to the stake for their doctrine; but might even have outwitted\n the eagle-eyed Bishops of London and Winchester.\u201d\n\nFootnote 246:\n\n This is a calumny. The Declaration was not drawn up by Wesley, but by\n Shirley. \u201cWesley,\u201d says Shirley, \u201cmade some, _not very material_,\n alterations in it.\u201d\n\nFootnote 247:\n\n Another misrepresentation; for Fletcher\u2019s manuscript was committed to\n the press before the Declaration was signed.\n\nAnother communication by \u201cSimplex\u201d must be noticed. Like his former\nletter, it was printed in the _Gospel Magazine_. It was dated \u201cFrom the\nNeighbourhood of the Foundery, October 9, 1771,\u201d and was addressed \u201cTo\nthe Rev. Mr. Wesley, Mr. Sellon, Mr. Fletcher, and Mr. Olivers.\u201d The\nfollowing are extracts from it:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Wesley is now an old man, and, according to the course of nature,\n must in a little time have done with a lying world. Let him, like an\n honest man, a Christian, that has heaven in his eye, and a sense of\n the Divine presence upon his heart, tell us plainly whether he really\n thinks that his continuance in the love of God, and the exercise of\n faith, is owing to his own good management, or to the sovereignty and\n freeness of the love of God and agency of the Holy Ghost?\u201d\n\nThe _temper_ of this production is painfully displayed in its concluding\nparagraph:\u2014\n\n \u201cShould any reply be made to this letter, and might I be indulged with\n liberty to choose my correspondent, I would most earnestly deprecate\n having anything to do with the Reverend Mr. Walter Sellon, as I am no\n adept in scolding, and am sorry to see the name of a Christian\n minister prefaced to such foul and futile productions as those, of Mr.\n Sellon\u2019s pen. Mr. Fletcher\u2019s pen is indeed more cleanly, but every\n whit as unfair; and him I object to because he is apt to exclaim\n against his opponents as enemies to Christian peace, even when he\n himself does what he can to stab their reputation to the heart. He is\n very apt grievously to complain of ill-usage from others, when, at the\n same time, like a madman, he himself keeps flinging abroad firebrands,\n arrows, and death amongst those who differ from him. Mr. Olivers\n should be my man, if in future he will guard against shocking common\n decency, as he has done in his letter to Mr. Toplady, where he is\n pleased to call Mr. Hervey\u2019s admirable letters to Mr. Wesley\n _scurrilous_: which _indecency_, although borrowed indeed from _Mr.\n Walter Sellon_, must needs have an influence fatal to Master Thomas\n Olivers\u2019 credit as a writer. As to the Rev. Mr. Wesley himself, I do\n not expect that he can spare so much time as to give a satisfactory\n answer to my querulous epistle, as it will require his being more\n explicit than he has hitherto accustomed himself to be.\u201d\n\nEnough has been said to show the bitterness of feeling which had already\nsprung up against Fletcher (to say nothing of Wesley, Sellon, and\nOlivers), and that it was not surprising he was induced to defend\nhimself against such infamous attacks as those of \u201cSimplex\u201d and his\nCalvinian friends.\n\nMeanwhile, Shirley was passing through the press his \u201cNarrative of the\nPrincipal Circumstances relating to the Rev. Mr. Wesley\u2019s late\nConference, held in Bristol August the 6th, 1771\u201d (8 vo., 24 pp.)\nFletcher refers to this in the following extract from an unpublished\nletter addressed to Joseph Benson, and kindly lent by Mr. G. J.\nStevenson:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _August 24, 1771_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014How much water may rush out of a little opening! What\n are our dear lady\u2019s jealousies come to? Ah, poor College! They are\n without a master, but not without a mistress. Their conduct and\n charges of heresy stirred me up to write in defence of the \u2018Minutes.\u2019\n The pamphlet is gone abroad _unseasonably_ in its present dress. The\n _toga_ would now suit it, but it wears the _chlamys_. By this means,\n the voice of the arguments will be lost in the cry of treachery.\n\n \u201cI received this morning a most kind letter from Mr. Shirley, whom I\n now pity much. He will pass by me; but I fear Mr. Olivers will have\n some cutting lashes. Mr. Shirley is gone to Wales, probably to consult\n what to do in the present case. What a world! Methinks I dream when I\n reflect that I have written on controversy; the last subject I thought\n I should have meddled with. I expect to be smartly taken in hand and\n soundly drubbed for it. Lord, prepare me for it, and for everything\n that may make me cease from man, and above all from your unworthy\n friend,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\n\n \u201cP.S. My kindest love to Mr. Mather.[248] I hope you are happy in each\n other\u2019s company. May you be both blessed, as being one heart, and one\n soul, and colleagues in Jesus!\u201d\n\nFootnote 248:\n\n Mr. Mather and Mr. Benson were now stationed in Wesley\u2019s London\n Circuit.\n\nInstead of inflicting on Thomas Olivers what Fletcher calls \u201csome\ncutting lashes,\u201d Shirley treated the sturdy Welshman with forbearance;\nand if he used severity at all, not Wesley\u2019s itinerant, but the Vicar of\nMadeley was his victim.\n\nFletcher immediately prepared a reply to Shirley\u2019s \u201cNarrative;\u201d and,\nbefore the year was ended, published it, with the title, \u201cA Second Check\nto Antinomianism; occasioned by a Late Narrative, in Three Letters to\nthe Hon. and Rev. Author. By the Vindicator of the Reverend Mr. Wesley\u2019s\nMinutes.\u201d 12mo, 120 pp. This \u201cSecond Check,\u201d like the former one, was\nrevised by Wesley,[249] and, therefore, was issued with his approval.\n\nFootnote 249:\n\n See \u201cThe Second Part of the Fifth Check to Antinomianism,\u201d p. 11,\n First Edition.\n\nFletcher\u2019s first letter to Shirley begins as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn my last private communication, I observed, Rev. Sir, that, if your\n \u2018Narrative\u2019 was kind, I would buy a number of copies, and give them\n gratis to the purchasers of my book, that they might see all you can\n possibly produce in your own defence, and do you all the justice your\n proper behaviour at the Conference deserves. But, as it appears to me\n there are some important mistakes in that performance, I neither dare\n recommend it _absolutely_ to my friends, nor wish it, in the religious\n world, the _full_ success you desire.\n\n \u201cI do not complain of its severity; on the contrary, considering the\n sharpness of my fifth letter, I gratefully acknowledge it is _kinder_\n than I had reason to expect. But permit me to tell you, Sir, I look\n for _justice_ to the scriptural arguments I advance in defence of\n truth, before I look for _kindness_ to my insignificant person, and\n could be much sooner satisfied with the _former_, than with the\n _latter_ alone. As I do not admire the fashionable method of advancing\n general charges without supporting them by particular proofs, I shall\n take the liberty of pointing out some mistakes in your \u2018Narrative,\u2019\n and, by that means, endeavour to do justice to Mr. Wesley\u2019s\n \u2018Declaration,\u2019 your own \u2018Sermons,\u2019 my \u2018Vindication,\u2019 and, above all,\n to the cause of practical religion.\u201d\n\nFletcher then proceeds to quote numerous texts of Scripture in support\nof the doctrine of a second justification by works, and argues that it\n\u201cwill rouse Antinomians out of their carnal security, stir up believers\nto follow hard after holiness, and reconcile fatal differences among\nChristians, and seeming contradictions in the Scripture.\u201d\n\nIn sundry passages he treats the Antinomians with deserved severity;\nbut, in a long foot-note, observes:\u2014\n\n \u201cI beg I may not be understood to level the following paragraphs, or\n any part of these letters, at my pious _Calvinist_ brethren. God knows\n how deeply I reverence many, who are immovably fixed in, what some\n call, _the doctrines of grace_; how gladly (as conscious of their\n genuine conversion and eminent usefulness) I would lie in the dust at\n their feet to honour our Lord in His dear members; and how often I\n have thought it a peculiar infelicity to dissent from such excellent\n men, with whom I wanted both to live and die, and with whom I hope\n soon to reign for ever.\n\n \u201cAs these _real_ children of God lament the bad use Antinomians make\n of their principles, I hope they will not be offended if I bear my\n testimony against a growing evil, which they have frequently opposed\n themselves. While the _Calvinists_ guard the _foundation_ against\n _Pharisees_, they will, I hope, allow the _Remonstrants_ to guard the\n _superstructure_ against _Antinomians_. If in doing these good offices\n to the Church, we find ourselves obliged to bear a little hard upon\n the peculiar sentiments of our opposite friends, let us do it in such\n a manner as not to break the bonds of peace and brotherly kindness; so\n shall our honest reproof become matter of useful exercise to that\n _love_ which _thinketh no evil_, _hopeth all things_, _rejoiceth_ even\n _in the_ galling _truth_, and is neither _quenched by many waters_,\n nor damped by any opposition.\u201d\n\nIn his second letter, Fletcher protests against Shirley recanting the\ndoctrines contained in his published sermons, and concludes as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cI assure you, Sir, I do not love the warlike dress of the Vindicator,\n any more than David did the heavy armour of Saul. With gladness,\n therefore, I cast it aside to throw myself at your feet, and protest\n to you, that, though I thought it my _duty_ to write to you with the\n utmost _plainness_, _frankness_, and _honesty_, the design of doing it\n with _bitterness_ never entered my heart. However, for every \u2018_bitter\n expression_\u2019 that may have dropped from my sharp, vindicating pen, I\n ask you pardon; but it must be _in general_, for neither friends nor\n foes have yet _particularly_ pointed out to me _one_ such expression.\n\n \u201cYou condescend, Rev. Sir, to call me your \u2018learned friend.\u2019\n _Learning_ is an accomplishment I never pretended to; but your\n _friendship_ is an honour I shall always highly esteem, and do at this\n time value above my own brother\u2019s love. Appearances are a little\n against me: I feel I am a thorn in your flesh; but I am persuaded it\n is a _necessary_ one, and this persuasion reconciles me to the\n thankless and disagreeable part I act. I can assure you, my dear Sir,\n I love and honour you, as truly as I dislike the rashness of your\n well-meant zeal. The motto I thought myself obliged to follow was, \u2018_E\n bello pax_;\u2019 but that which I delight in is, \u2018_In bello pax_.\u2019 May we\n make them harmonize till we learn war and polemic divinity no more!\n\n \u201cIf in the meantime we offend our weak brethren, let us do something\n to lessen the offence till it is removed. Let us show them we make war\n without so much as shyness. Should you ever come to the next county,\n as you did last summer, honour me with a line, and I shall gladly wait\n upon you, and show you (if you permit me) the way to my pulpit, where\n I shall think myself highly favoured to see you \u2018secure the\n foundation,\u2019 and hear you enforce the doctrine of _justification by\n faith_, which you fear we attack. And should I ever be within thirty\n miles of the city where you reside, I shall go to submit myself to\n you, and beg leave to assist you in reading prayers for you, or giving\n the cup with you. Thus shall we convince the world how controversy may\n be conscientiously carried on without interruption of brotherly love;\n and I shall have the peculiar pleasure of testifying to you in person\n how sincerely I am,\n\n \u201cHonoured and dear Sir,\n \u201cYour submissive and obedient servant, in the bond of a\n _practical_\n Gospel,\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d\n\nThe third letter, to a large extent, is historical, and shows, with\nterrific faithfulness, that not a few of the so-called evangelical\nministers and churches of a hundred years ago were far from what they\nshould have been, and that Wesley\u2019s \u201cMinutes\u201d and Fletcher\u2019s \u201cChecks\u201d\nwere greatly needed. Fletcher writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cFor some years, I have suspected there is more imaginary than\n _unfeigned faith_ in most of those who pass for believers. With a\n mixture of indignation and grief, have I seen them carelessly follow\n the stream of corrupt nature, against which they should have manfully\n wrestled. When they should have exclaimed against their\n _Antinomianism_, I have heard them cry out against the _legality_ of\n their wicked hearts; which, they said, still suggested they were to\n _do something_ in order to salvation. Glad was I, therefore, when I\n had attentively considered Mr. Wesley\u2019s \u2018Minutes,\u2019 to find they were\n levelled at the very errors, which gave rise to an evil I had long\n lamented in secret, but had wanted courage to resist and attack.\u201d\n\n \u201cDo not imagine, Rev. Sir, I cry up God\u2019s law, to drown the late cries\n of _heresy_ and _apostacy_. I appeal to matter of fact and to your own\n observations. Consider the religious world, and say if \u2018Antinomianism\u2019\n is not, in general, a motto better adapted to the state of professing\n congregations, societies, families, and individuals, than \u2018_Holiness\n unto the Lord_.\u2019\n\n \u201cBegin with _congregations_, and cast your eyes upon the _hearers_. In\n general, they have curious \u2018_itching ears_,\u2019 and \u2018_will not endure\n sound doctrine_.\u2019 They say they \u2018will have nothing but Christ;\u2019 and\n who could blame them if they would have Christ in all His offices?\n Christ, with all His parables and sermons, cautions and precepts,\n reproofs and expostulations, exhortations and threatenings? Who would\n find fault with them, if they would have Christ with His poverty and\n self-denial, His reproach and cross, His spirit and graces, His\n prophets and apostles, His plain apparel and mean followers? But,\n alas! it is not so. They will have _what_ they please of Christ, and\n that too _as_ they please. They admire Him in one chapter, and know\n not what to make of Him in another. If He asserts His authority as a\n Lawgiver, they are ready to treat Him with as little ceremony as they\n do Moses. If He says, \u2018_Keep my commandments, I am a King_;\u2019 like the\n Jews of old, they rise against the awful declaration; or they _crown\n Him_ as a _surety_, the better to \u2018_set Him at nought_\u2019 as a\n _monarch_. If He adds to His ministers, \u2018Go, and teach all nations _to\n observe all things_ whatsoever I have _commanded_ you;\u2019 they complain,\n \u2018This is _the law_; give us _the gospel_, we can relish nothing but\n the gospel.\u2019\u201d\n\n \u201cHence it is that some preachers must choose comfortable subjects to\n please their hearers; just as those, who make an entertainment for\n nice persons, are obliged to study what will suit their difficult\n taste. A multitude of important Scriptures can be produced, on which\n no minister, who is unwilling to lose his reputation as an evangelical\n preacher, must dare to speak in some pulpits, unless it is to explain\n away or enervate their meaning.\u201d\n\n \u201cWhence springs this almost general Antinomianism of our\n congregations? Shall I conceal the sore because it festers in my own\n breast? Shall I be partial? No! In the name of Him who is no respecter\n of persons, I will confess my sin, and that of many of my brethren.\n Though I am the least and the most unworthy of them all, I will follow\n the dictates of my conscience, and use the authority of a minister of\n Christ.\n\n \u201cIs not the Antinomianism of hearers fomented by that of preachers?\n Does it not become us to take the greatest part of the blame upon\n ourselves, according to the old adage, \u2018Like priest, like people\u2019? Is\n it surprising that some of us should have an Antinomian audience? Do\n we not make or keep it so? When did we preach such a practical sermon\n as that of our Lord on the mount, or write such close letters as the\n epistles of St. John? Alas! I doubt it is but seldom. Not living so\n near to God ourselves as we should, we are afraid to come near the\n consciences of our people. Some prefer popularity to plain-dealing. We\n love to see a crowd of worldly-minded hearers, rather than a \u2018_little\n flock_,\u2019 \u2018_a peculiar people, zealous of good works_.\u2019 Luther\u2019s advice\n to Melancthon, \u2018So preach that those who do not fall out of love with\n their sins, may fall out with thee,\u2019 is more and more unfashionable.\n Under pretence of drawing our hearers by love, some of us softly rock\n the cradle of carnal security in which they sleep. The old Puritans\n strongly insisted upon _personal holiness_, and the first Methodists\n upon the _new birth_; but these doctrines seem to grow out of date.\n The Gospel is cast into another mould. People, it seems, may now be\n \u2018_in Christ_\u2019 without being \u2018_new creatures_,\u2019 or new creatures\n without casting \u2018_old things_\u2019 away. They may be God\u2019s children\n without God\u2019s image; and be \u2018_born of the Spirit_\u2019 without \u2018_the\n fruits of the Spirit_.\u2019 If our unregenerate hearers get orthodox ideas\n about the way of salvation in their heads, evangelical phrases\n concerning Jesus\u2019 love in their mouths, and a warm zeal for our party\n and favourite forms in their hearts, without any more ado, we help\n them to rank themselves among the children of God. But, alas! this\n self-adoption into the family of Christ will no more pass in heaven,\n than self-imputation of Christ\u2019s righteousness.\u201d\n\n \u201cHow few of our celebrated pulpits are there where more has not been\n said, _at times_, for sin than against it! With what an air of\n positiveness and assurance has that Barabbas, that murderer of Christ\n and souls, been pleaded for! \u2018It will humble us, make us watchful,\n stir up our diligence, quicken our graces, endear Christ.\u2019 That is, in\n plain English, pride will beget humility, sloth will spur us on to\n diligence, rust will brighten our armour, and unbelief, the very soul\n of every sinful temper, is to do the work of faith! Jesus, who\n cleansed the lepers with a word or a touch, cannot, with all the force\n of His Spirit, and virtue of His blood, expel the leprosy of sin; it\n is too inveterate. Death, that foul monster, the offspring of sin,\n shall have the important honour of killing his father. This is\n confidently asserted by those who cry, \u2018Nothing but Christ!\u2019 They\n allow Him to lop off the branches; but Death, the great Saviour Death,\n is to destroy the root of sin. In the meantime, _the temple of God_\n shall _have agreement with idols_, and _Christ concord with Belial:\n the Lamb of God shall lie down with the roaring Lion in our heart_.\u201d\n\n \u201cTo speak the melancholy truth, how few individuals are free from\n practical Antinomianism! Setting aside their attendance on the\n ministry of the Word, where is the material difference between several\n of our genteel believers and other people? Do not we see the sumptuous\n furniture in their apartments, and fashionable elegance in their\n dress? What sums of money do they frequently lay out in costly\n superfluities to adorn their persons, houses, and gardens! In our\n fashionable churches and chapels, you may find people professing to\n believe the Bible, who so conform to this present world as to wear\n gold, pearls, and precious stones, when no distinction of office or\n state obliges them to it, in direct opposition to the words of two\n Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul. Multitudes of professors, far from\n being convinced of their sin in this respect, ridicule Mr. Wesley for\n bearing his testimony against it. The opposition he dares to make to\n that growing branch of vanity affords matter of pious mirth to a\n thousand Antinomians. Isaiah could openly reprove the _haughty\n daughters of Zion_, who _walked with stretched forth necks, wanton\n eyes, and tinkling feet_: he could expose _the bravery of their\n fashionable ornaments, their round tires like the moon, their chains,\n bracelets, head-bands, rings and ear-rings_; but some of our humble\n Christian ladies will not bear a reproof from Mr. Wesley on the head\n of dress. They even laugh at him as a _pitiful legalist_, and yet, oh,\n the inconsistency of the Antinomian spirit! they call Isaiah the\n _evangelical prophet_!\n\n \u201cFinery is often attended with an expensive table, at least with such\n delicacies as our purse can reach. St. Paul _kept his body under_, and\n was _in fastings often_; and our Lord gives us directions about the\n proper manner of _fasting_. But the apostle did not _know_ the easy\n way to heaven taught by Dr. Crisp; and our Lord did not _approve_ of\n it, or He would have saved Himself the trouble of His directions. In\n general, we look upon fasting much as we do upon penitential\n flagellation. Both equally raise our pity; we leave them both to\n popish devotees. Some of our good old Church people will yet fast on\n Good Friday: but our fashionable believers begin to cast away that\n last scrap of self-denial. Their faith, which should produce, animate,\n and regulate works of mortification, goes a shorter way to work; it\n explodes them all.\u201d\n\nFletcher continues to write in the same strain, through many succeeding\npages; but one more extract must suffice.\n\n \u201cIf _these shall go into eternal punishment_; if such will be the end\n of all the impenitent Nicolaitans; if our churches and chapels swarm\n with them; if they crowd our communion tables; if they are found in\n most of our houses, and too many of our pulpits; if the seeds of their\n fatal disorder are in all our breasts; if they produce Antinomianism\n around us in all its forms; if we see bold Antinomians in _principle_,\n bare-faced Antinomians in _practice_, and sly _pharisaical\n Antinomians_,[250] who speak well of the law, to break it with greater\n advantage,\u2014should not every one _examine himself whether he is in the\n faith_, and whether he has a _holy Christ_ in his heart, as well as a\n _sweet Jesus_ upon his tongue; lest he should one day swell the tribe\n of Antinomian reprobates? Does it not become every minister of Christ\n to drop his prejudices, and consider whether he ought not to imitate\n the old watchman, who, fifteen months ago, gave a _legal alarm_ to all\n the watchmen that are in connexion with him? And should we not do the\n Church excellent service, if, agreeing to lift up our voices against\n the common enemy, we gave God no rest in prayer, and our hearers in\n preaching, till we all _did our first works_, and _our latter end_,\n like Job\u2019s, _exceeded our beginning_?\n\n \u201cNear forty years ago, some of the ministers of Christ, in our Church,\n were called out of the extreme of self-righteousness. Flying from it,\n we have run into the opposite, with equal violence. Now that we have\n learned wisdom by what we have suffered in going beyond the limits of\n truth both ways, let us return to a just scriptural medium. Let us\n equally maintain the two evangelical axioms on which the Gospel is\n founded: 1. \u2018All our salvation is of God, by free grace, through the\n alone merits of Christ.\u2019 And, 2. \u2018All our damnation is of ourselves,\n through our avoidable unfaithfulness.\u2019\u201d\n\nFootnote 250:\n\n It may be well to say, once for all, that all these quotations, with\n their _differences of type_, are taken from the _first editions_ of\n Fletcher\u2019s publications. The differences are not preserved in recent\n editions.\n\nFletcher\u2019s pictures are dark: I incline to _think_ a little too dark,\nthough I cannot _prove_ they are. At all events, were existing facts\nsuch as he states them to have been, it was high time to sound an alarm\nin Zion.\n\nIn a postscript to his \u201cThree Letters,\u201d Fletcher refers to a pamphlet\npublished by Richard Hill, Esq., respecting a conversation which he and\nothers had held with a monk in Paris.[251] Having quoted Mr. Hill\u2019s\nremark, that, according to the monk, \u201cPopery is about the mid-way\nbetween Protestantism and Mr. J. Wesley,\u201d Fletcher proceeds to say:\u2014\n\n \u201cWe desire to be confronted with all the pious Protestant divines.\n But, who would believe it? the suffrage of a papist is brought against\n us! Astonishing! that our opposers should think it worth their while\n to raise one recruit against us in the immense city of Paris, where\n fifty thousand might be raised against the Bible itself!\n\n \u201cSo long as Christ, the prophets, and apostles are for us, together\n with the multitude of the Puritan divines of the last century, we\n shall smile at an army of Popish friars. The knotted whips, that hang\n by their side, will no more frighten us from our Bibles, than the\n _ipse dixit_ of a Benedictine monk will make us explode, as heretical,\n propositions which are demonstrated to be scriptural.\n\n \u201cI hope the gentlemen concerned in the \u2018Conversation,\u2019 lately\n published, will excuse the liberty of this postscript. I reverence\n their piety, rejoice in their labours, and honour their warm zeal for\n the Protestant cause; but that very zeal, if not accompanied with a\n close attention to every part of the Gospel truth, may betray them\n into mistakes, which may spread as far as their respectable names. I\n think it therefore my duty to publish these strictures, lest any of my\n readers should pay more regard to the good-natured friar, who has been\n pressed into the service of Dr. Crisp, than to St. John, St. Paul, St.\n James, and Jesus Christ, on whose plain declarations I have shown that\n the \u2018Minutes\u2019\u201d (of Mr. Wesley) \u201care founded.\u201d\n\nFootnote 251:\n\n Its title was \u201cA Conversation between Richard Hill, Esq., the Rev. Mr.\n Madan, and Father Walsh, Superior of a Convent of Benedictine Monks at\n Paris, held at the same Convent, July 13, 1771, in the presence of\n Thomas Powis, Esq., and others, relative to some Doctrinal Minutes\n advanced by the Rev. Mr. John Wesley and others, at a Conference held\n in London, August 7, 1770. To which are added some Remarks by the\n Editor.\u201d Fletcher\u2019s name is not mentioned in the pamphlet; but because\n he chose to refer to it in his \u201cSecond Check to Antinomianism,\u201d it is\n here introduced to the reader\u2019s notice. Hereafter, in order to avoid,\n as far as possible, a repetition of the history of the Calvinian\n controversy, as published in the \u201cLife and Times of Wesley,\u201d no\n publications on the subject will be discussed, except those in which\n Fletcher was attacked, or which he answered.\u2014L. T.\n\nSo ends all that need be said here concerning Fletcher\u2019s \u201cSecond Check\nto Antinomianism.\u201d To appreciate its style, its temper, and its\narguments, the reader must peruse it for himself; and, by doing so, his\nmind will be enriched, and his soul profited.\n\nAn extract from one of Fletcher\u2019s letters may fitly close this section\nof his biography. The letter was addressed to the Rev. Joseph Benson,\nand was dated \u201cDecember 5, 1771.\u201d\n\n \u201cThere is undoubtedly such a thing as the _full assurance of faith_.\n Be not discouraged on account of thousands, who stop short of it. It\n is our own fault if we do not attain it. God would give us ample\n satisfaction if we did but deeply feel our wants. Both you and I want\n a deeper awakening, which will produce a death to outward things and\n speculative knowledge. Let us shut our eyes to the gilded clouds\n without us: let us draw inward, and search after God, if haply we may\n find Him. Let us hold fast our confidence, though we are often\n constrained against hope, to believe in hope. But let us not rest in\n our confidence, as thousands do; let it help us to struggle and wait,\n till He come. Let us habituate ourselves to live inwardly. This will\n solemnize us, and prevent our trifling with the things of God. We may\n be thankful for what we have without resting in it. We may strive, and\n yet not trust in our striving; but expect all from Divine grace.\u201d[252]\n\nFootnote 252:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nIn such a frame of mind and heart Fletcher carried on his polemic\nwarfare.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER X.\n \u201c_THIRD CHECK TO ANTINOMIANISM._\u201d\n\n 1772.\n\n\nWHEN Fletcher finished his \u201cSecond Check to Antinomianism,\u201d in \u201cThree\nLetters\u201d to Walter Shirley, he began a \u201cVindication of the Doctrine of\nChristian Perfection.\u201d This, however, for a time, was laid aside; but\nwas afterwards completed, and embodied in his \u201cLast Check to\nAntinomianism.\u201d The reason for this postponement was a somewhat sudden\ndetermination to write upon the Unitarian Controversy, which was now as\nprominent as the Calvinian one. A brief biographical episode will\nexplain the matter more fully.\n\nEdward Elwall was born at Sedgley, in Staffordshire. He settled in\nbusiness at Wolverhampton, where he acquired the reputation of great\nintegrity in his dealings. He had not enjoyed the advantages of a\nlearned education, but he possessed a serious and inquisitive turn of\nmind, and had good natural abilities. One of his first publications was\nintended to prove that the fourth commandment, appointing the _seventh_\nday of the week to be observed as the Sabbath, was binding on all\ngenerations. As long as he continued in business, he constantly shut up\nhis shop on that day, and as regularly opened it on the succeeding one.\nFor this he was called a Jew. About the year 1714, he became\ndistinguished as an Unitarian, and published, \u201cA true Testimony for God\nand His sacred Law, being a Defence of the first Commandment of God,\nagainst all Trinitarians under Heaven.\u201d This drew on him the resentment\nof the neighbouring clergy, who procured an indictment against him for\nheresy and blasphemy, on which he was tried at Stafford Assizes. He\npleaded his own cause, and was acquitted. After this, he removed to\nLondon, and became a member of the Seventh-day Baptist Church at\nMill-yard, Goodman\u2019s Fields. Towards the end of life, he attended the\nmeetings of the Quakers, and was sometimes permitted to speak at them.\nHe died in London, at an advanced age, about the year 1745.\n\nElwall\u2019s work \u201cagainst all Trinitarians under Heaven\u201d had recently been\nre-published, and Fletcher was requested to answer it. Hence the\nfollowing, hitherto unpublished, letter, addressed to \u201cthe Rev. Walter\nSellon, at Ledsham, near Ferry-Bridge, Yorkshire.\u201d\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _January 7, 1772_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014I thank you for yours. I hope Glazebrook[253] will be\n more moderate, on account of some rubs which his new Calvinistic zeal\n has procured him.\n\n \u201cMy reason for troubling you soon with an answer is to make a request.\n I have laid by my Third \u2014\u2014[254], which is a vindication of the\n doctrine of Christian perfection. A pamphlet (the third edition) has\n lately been published at Birmingham, and meets with great success. The\n author is E. Elwall, a Socinian Quaker, who was tried for blasphemy at\n Stafford, and came off with flying colours, after fully denying the\n Godhead of Christ, and His atonement.\n\n \u201cSome serious people have desired me to answer the book. As I suppose\n your _Dr. Preese_[255]\u201d (sic) \u201cis one of his stamp, I want to see by\n your candle as well as my own. Could you send me, by the post, what\n you have published against him? By cutting the margin close, you might\n bring it to a tolerable size for a packet; and I should not grudge\n paying the postage. If you cannot do this, send me, at least, your\n best answer to the objection taken from John xvii. 3, and to the words\n \u2018_only God_,\u2019 which seem to exclude Jesus Christ.\n\n \u201cWe must fight the Antinomians while the Calvinists put weapons into\n their hands against the truth. Mr. Hill has taken Mr. Wesley in hand\n very roughly. I have been with him. His answer to my \u2018Vindication\u2019 is\n expected every day, and is out, I suppose, in London. God give us\n wisdom! Set your razor against Mason, for what we mean as keenness\n (which is allowable) is directly construed as bitterness.\n\n \u201cWhen you send the packet, put upon the direction, \u2018_Not by London,\n but by + Post Bag, Manchester and Salop_,\u2019 or else they will make me\n pay double.\n\n \u201cI preach much, and see little fruit. The Holy Ghost is not given\n among us. These are hard times. God help us to more gospel and life,\n but not my lady\u2019s gospel!\n\n \u201cI am yours in a hurry,\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d\n\nFootnote 253:\n\n The poor collier whom Fletcher so greatly befriended at Madeley, and\n who was one of the first students at Trevecca, in 1768.\n\nFootnote 254:\n\n The words are illegible, but, no doubt, his \u201cThird Check to\n Antinomianism\u201d is meant.\n\nFootnote 255:\n\n Probably meant for the celebrated Dr. Price, of whom more will have to\n be said anon.\n\nNot to mention other matters referred to in this letter, there can be no\ndoubt that Fletcher now began to write his Anti-Socinian Treatises; but,\nas will be seen hereafter, he never finished them. Other things, even\nmore pressing, claimed his attention, and he was obliged to postpone his\nattack on the citadel of _religious infidelity_.\n\n\u201cI long to be out of controversy,\u201d said Fletcher to Joseph Benson, in a\nletter dated February 1772,[256] and yet he continued it. He could not\nhelp himself. To say nothing of the duty he owed to Christ and Gospel\ntruth, it was impossible, at present, to retire from the field of\nconflict without exposing himself to the taunt of recreant timidity.\nBesides, though his opponents had been vanquished, they would, in that\ncase, have appeared victorious. No doubt, also, he was encouraged to\nproceed by his bespattered but beloved friend Wesley. In a letter to\nLady Maxwell, Wesley wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cLONDON, _February 8, 1772_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR LADY,\u2014I commend you for meddling with points of controversy\n as little as possible. It is abundantly easier to lose our love in\n that rough field, than to find truth. This consideration has made me\n exceedingly thankful to God for giving me a respite from polemical\n labours. I am glad He has given to others both the power and the will\n to answer them that trouble me; so that I may not always be forced to\n hold my weapons in one hand, while I am building with the other. I\n rejoice, likewise, not only in the abilities, but in the temper, of\n Mr. Fletcher. He writes as he lives. I cannot say that I know such\n another clergyman in England or Ireland. He is all fire, but it is the\n fire of love. His writings, like his constant conversation, breathe\n nothing else, to those who read him with an impartial eye. And,\n although Mr. Shirley scruples not to charge him with using subtilty\n and metaphysical distinctions, yet he abundantly clears himself of\n this charge, in the \u2018Second Check to Antinomianism.\u2019 Such the last\n letters are styled, and with great propriety; for such they have\n really been. They have given a considerable check to those who were\n everywhere making void the law through faith; setting \u2018the\n righteousness of Christ\u2019 in opposition to the law of Christ, and\n teaching that without holiness any man may see the Lord.\u201d[257]\n\nFootnote 256:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nFootnote 257:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Works, vol. xii., p. 326.\n\nAll, however, were not of Wesley\u2019s opinion. In Ireland, Walter Shirley\nwas a great favourite among the Methodists, for there he had preached\nwith much success. Fletcher\u2019s first and second \u201cChecks\u201d were addressed\nto Shirley; and the Irish Methodists, who, as yet, had neither heard nor\nseen their author, were divided in their sentiments respecting them. The\nDublin Society wrote two letters to him, in answer to which he sent them\nthe following:\u2014\n\n \u201cTo the Methodist Society at Dublin.\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _March, 1772_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BRETHREN,\u2014Mercy and love be multiplied unto you, from Him who\n was and is to come, the Almighty!\n\n \u201cI should have acknowledged before now the favour of the two letters\n with which you honoured me, if I had not conveyed my thanks to you\n immediately by means of brother Morgan.[258] But thanks at second-hand\n do not satisfy my gratitude; permit me, therefore, to present them, if\n not in person, at least by some grateful lines personally written.\n\n \u201cI am much obliged to those of you who approve my little attempt to\n vindicate practical religion and the character of an eminent servant\n of Christ, who ministered unto you in holy things, and whom some of\n our mistaken friends in England exposed as the author of dreadful\n heresy. The thanks which some of you unexpectedly bestowed upon me on\n that occasion, I have laid at the feet of Jesus, to whom all praise\n belongs, who is the author of every good gift, and from whom comes all\n the help done upon the earth.\n\n \u201cWhen I took up my pen, I aimed at discharging my duty towards God and\n His misapprehended truth; towards my honoured father in Christ, Mr.\n Wesley, and his misunderstood \u2018Minutes\u2019; and though all the world\n should have blamed me, they would never have robbed me of the\n satisfaction of having at least attempted to clear my conscience.\n\n \u201cThe manner in which part of you have refused me their thanks, is too\n civil and brotherly not to deserve mine. I wish many of our English\n brethren had been as moderate as you in their disapprobation of my\n letters to the Rev. Mr. Shirley. You will see in a \u2018Second Check to\n Antinomianism\u2019 some things that may reconcile you to the first; and I\n have just sent to the press a \u2018Third Check,\u2019 to what appears to me the\n favourite delusion of the Church; which I trust will cast more light\n on the delicate subject about which we divide.\n\n \u201cIf we cannot see things in the same light, I hope we never shall, I\n beg we never may, disagree in love.\n\n \u201cI am glad you agreed to disagree about the giving or refusing me your\n undeserved thanks. Let every little rub of opposition heighten our\n love; every little clashing of sentiment make the heavenly spark show\n itself, and kindle our souls into that charity which hopeth all\n things, endureth all things, thinketh no evil, and is not provoked.\n\n \u201cIf I have been obliged to bear a little hardly upon my dear honoured\n brother, Mr. Shirley, I beg that nothing I have written to him on\n account of his precipitancy, rashness, or hurry, may prevent you from\n looking upon him with the love and respect due to a minister of\n Christ. Recommending him and myself to your prayers, and taking the\n liberty to recommend to you mutual forbearance, a daily increase of\n brotherly love, and a continual growth in the genuine liberty of the\n Gospel, I remain, my dear brethren, your obliged, affectionate, and\n obedient brother and servant,\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[259]\n\nFootnote 258:\n\n One of Wesley\u2019s itinerant preachers, well-read and popular, but now\n enervated, and settled in Dublin.\n\nFootnote 259:\n\n \u201cThirteen Original Letters written by the Rev. J. Fletcher.\u201d Bath,\n 1791, p. 22.\n\nIt has been already stated that at the commencement of the year 1772,\nFletcher was writing his \u201cVindication of the Doctrine of Christian\nPerfection;\u201d and that this was laid aside for the purpose of writing\nagainst Socinianism. Very soon, however, he had to devote his attention\nto another subject. In the foregoing letter, dated \u201cMarch, 1772,\u201d he\ntells the Methodist Society at Dublin that he had sent his \u201cThird Check\nto Antinomianism\u201d to the press; and this is confirmed by the following\nextract from a letter by Wesley to his brother Charles:\u2014\n\n \u201cBIRMINGHAM, _March 17, 1772_.\n\n \u201cI am to-day to meet Mr. Fletcher at Billbrook. Part of the \u2018Third\n Check\u2019 is printing; the rest I have ready. In this he draws the sword\n and throws away the scabbard. Yet, I doubt not, they will forgive him\n all, if he will but promise to write no more.\u201d[260]\n\nFootnote 260:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Works, vol. xii., p. 128.\n\nFletcher\u2019s parochial duties were heavy, and yet he seems to have written\nhis \u201cThird Check to Antinomianism\u201d in about a month. It must have been a\nstrain to accomplish this. The work is no flimsy production, but is full\nof Scriptural arguments, which could not be framed, arranged, and\nadequately expressed without a vast amount of labour; and the book\nitself was of no mean size, consisting, as it did, of one hundred and\nfourteen small typed and closely printed pages. The following was its\ntitle: \u201cA Third Check to Antinomianism; in a Letter to the Author of\n\u201cPietas Oxoniensis:\u201d By the Vindicator of the Rev. Mr. Wesley\u2019s Minutes.\n\u2018Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and _Scriptural_\ndoctrine; for the time will come when they will not endure sound\ndoctrine,\u2019 2 Tim. iv. 2, 3. \u2018_Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they\nmay be sound in the faith_; but _let brotherly love continue_,\u2019 Tit. i.\n13, Heb. xiii. 1. Bristol: Printed by W. Pine in Wine Street, 1772.\u201d\n\nWhy was it written and published? Fletcher had replied to the \u201cCircular\nLetter\u201d and the \u201cNarrative\u201d of Shirley, and in doing so had vindicated\nWesley\u2019s \u201cMinutes.\u201d Shirley was now silent, but other antagonists\nstarted up. A small 8vo. pamphlet was published, with the title \u201cA\nLetter to the Rev. Mr. Fletcher, of Madeley, on the Differences\nsubsisting between him and the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Shirley.\u201d The author\nsubscribed himself \u201cAn enemy to no man, but a friend to religion;\u201d and\nhis letter was dated \u201cBath, February 3, 1772.\u201d This religious gentleman\nalleged that, under the existing circumstances, the publication of\nFletcher\u2019s answer to Shirley\u2019s \u201cCircular Letter\u201d \u201cwas highly censurable,\nyea, criminal.\u201d He accused Fletcher of \u201cwantonly scattering firebrands,\narrows, and death;\u201d his defence of Wesley\u2019s \u201cMinutes\u201d was \u201cflimsy;\u201d and\nhe was actuated by \u201cpersonal envy or enmity more than by a love to\nChrist and a godly zeal to promote truth.\u201d Fletcher, properly enough,\ndeclined to notice the virulent and frothy pamphlet of this Bath\nreligionist; but another publication, issued about the same time,\ndemanded his attention. Its author was his friend and neighbour, Richard\nHill, Esq., and its title as follows: \u201cFive Letters to the Reverend Mr.\nF\u2014\u2014r, relative to his Vindication of the Minutes of the Reverend Mr.\nJohn Wesley. Intended chiefly for the comfort of mourning backsliders,\nand such as may have been distressed and perplexed by reading Mr.\nWesley\u2019s Minutes, or the Vindication of them. By a Friend. London:\n1772.\u201d 8vo., 40 pp.[261]\n\nFootnote 261:\n\n A second edition, \u201crevised and much enlarged,\u201d was published about the\n same time as Fletcher\u2019s \u201cThird Check.\u201d The first edition consisted of\n forty pages, the second of fifty-two. There is nothing of importance,\n however, in the second issue which is not in the first, except a few\n acrid references to Wesley. The following may be taken as a specimen:\n \u201cI shall make no remarks upon the poor, loose, flimsy manner in which\n the \u2018Minutes\u2019 are worded; but I cannot help observing that it seems\n almost impossible for Mr. Wesley to write a page without contradicting\n himself\u201d (p. 50).\n\nMr. Hill\u2019s first letter is dated \u201cDecember 2, 1771.\u201d[262] His pamphlet\nis remarkable for two things\u2014_only two_:\u2014First, the highest Christian\nurbanity towards Fletcher; and secondly, the writer\u2019s curious theology.\nA few extracts from Mr. Hill\u2019s letters will suffice to show that\nFletcher\u2019s task of answering his courteous opponent was not a difficult\nundertaking.\n\nFootnote 262:\n\n In the second edition it is dated \u201cFeb., 1772.\u201d\n\n \u201cGod alone knows the sorrow of heart wherewith I address you; and how\n much the fear of casting stumbling-blocks before some who are really\n sincere, and the apprehensions of giving malicious joy to others who\n desire no greater satisfaction than to see the children of the Prince\n of Peace divided among themselves, had well-nigh prevailed upon me to\n pour out my soul in silence instead of publicly taking up the pen\n against you. But when I perceived the solicitude with which Mr.\n Wesley\u2019s preachers recommended your letters to Mr. Shirley in their\n respective congregations, and, above all, how many of God\u2019s people had\n been perplexed and distressed by reading them,\u2014I say, when I perceived\n this to be the case, and had prayed to the Giver of all wisdom for\n direction, I could not but esteem it my indispensable duty to send out\n a few observations on your book, especially as no other person, that I\n know of, had made any reply to the doctrinal parts of it from the time\n of its publication. With regard to the \u2018_Circular Letter_,\u2019 I shall\n studiously avoid the very mention of it; as whether the sending of it\n were in itself a wrong step or a right one, is of no consequence in\n the matter of salvation. Neither shall I follow you page by page, but\n taking the \u2019Minutes\u2019 in the order they stand, shall dwell upon them,\n more or less, as appears necessary.\u201d\n\nThe plan here propounded is carried out, but want of space renders it\nimpossible to give an outline of Mr. Hill\u2019s theology. The following\nquotations must be taken as specimens of others which might be given:\u2014\n\n \u201cYour argument is this; that, \u2018_believing is previous to\n justification_.\u2019 But, dear Sir, this is begging the question; and,\n permit me to say, that I deny the assertion. Waving all disputes\n concerning eternal justification, or justification in the mind and\n purpose of God, I maintain, that, believing cannot possibly be\n previous to justification; and you must yourself maintain the same,\n unless you will adopt the phrase of _an unjustified believer_; whereas\n the Holy Ghost teaches that _all who believe are justified_. We may as\n well suppose that a man eats before he takes any food, and that he\n sees before he receives the light of the sun, as that he believes\n before he is justified: for believing, and feeding upon Christ, are\n not more inseparably connected than eating and taking bodily food, or\n than seeing and receiving light are inseparably connected. Yea, true\n faith can no more subsist without its object Christ, than there can be\n a marriage without a husband. From hence, I conclude, that the\n doctrine of believing before justification, and thereby making the\n grace of faith a conditional work, is not less contrary to reason than\n it is to Scripture itself.\u201d\n\n \u201cI most sincerely abhor the Minute, \u2018that we are every hour and every\n moment pleasing or displeasing to God, according to our works;\n according to the whole of our inward tempers, and our outward\n behaviour;\u2019 and, yet, I equally abhor the assertion, \u2018that David did\n not _displease_ God more when he committed adultery with Bathsheba,\n and imbrued his hands in her husband\u2019s blood, than when he danced\n before the ark.\u2019 I know, from Scripture authority, that when David\n committed the sin you allude to, the thing which he had done\n _displeased the Lord_. But, though I believe that David\u2019s _sin_\n displeased the Lord, must I therefore believe that David\u2019s _person_\n came under the curse of the law? and that, because he was ungrateful,\n God, whose gifts and callings are without repentance, was unfaithful?\n Surely no. David was still a son, though a perverse one. Like\n backsliding Ephraim, he was still a pleasant child, though he went on\n frowardly.\u201d\n\n \u201cEither Christ has fulfilled the whole law, and borne the curse, or He\n has not. If He has not, no soul can ever be saved; if He has, then all\n debts and claims against His people, be they more or be they less, be\n they small or be they great, be they before or be they after\n conversion, are for ever and for ever cancelled. All trespasses are\n forgiven them. They are justified from all things. They already have\n everlasting life. They are now (virtually) sat down in heavenly places\n with Christ their Forerunner; and as soon shall Satan pluck His crown\n from His head, as His purchase from His hand.\u201d\n\nSuch were some of the absurd and pernicious doctrines propounded by Mr.\nHill, and which Fletcher felt it his duty to refute. Towards Wesley,\nthere is, in Mr. Hill\u2019s pamphlet, an occasional stroke of bitterness,\nas, for instance, where he asserts that \u201cthere is a much nearer\nresemblance between the doctrines of Mr. John Wesley and mother Church\u201d,\n(Popery) \u201cthan the popish Superior chose to acknowledge;\u201d[263] but\ntowards Fletcher, Mr. Hill, throughout, displays the most respectful\nkindness, and concludes his fifth and last letter thus:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnd now, dear Sir, I cannot conclude these letters without expressing\n my earnest desire that the contents of them may never cause any\n decrease of love and Christian fellowship between us. Pardon then, my\n dear Sir, I ardently beseech you, O pardon all that you have found\n amiss in the unworthy author of these epistles; and much, I am sure,\n your charity will have to overlook. If we cannot see things alike now,\n I hope the time is not far off when we shall be thoroughly united in\n sentiment, as well as in heart, and each of us, casting our crowns\n before the throne, shall join our voices in that one harmonious song\n of praise, with which the regions of bliss shall echo without\n intermission, and without end, \u2018Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to\n receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and\n glory, and blessing.\u2019 \u2018Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be\n unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and\n ever.\u2019\n\n \u201cIn the meanwhile, let me acknowledge before the world that there is\n not a man living to whom I am more indebted for repeated instances of\n affection, and labours of love, than I am to dear Mr. Fletcher; and,\n therefore, notwithstanding all differences of judgment between us, I\n trust he will always give me leave to subscribe myself his most\n affectionate friend and brother, in the bonds of the Gospel of peace,\n\n \u201cThe Author of _Pietas Oxoniensis_.\u201d\n\nFootnote 263:\n\n The reference here is to Father Walsh, the Benedictine monk at Paris;\n and, it may be added, that, in a foot-note, Mr. Hill acknowledges\n himself to have been the author of the \u201cConversation\u201d with that\n gentleman, recently published.\n\nThis was worthy of Mr. Hill, who, eleven years afterwards, succeeded to\nthe title and estates of his father, and became Sir Richard Hill, Bart.\n\nThough Mr. Hill\u2019s _first_ letter to Fletcher was dated as recently as\nDecember 2, 1771, the whole _five_ were published, and Fletcher\u2019s answer\nto them committed to the press as early as the month of March,[264]\n1772. Fletcher begins his \u201cThird Check to Antinomianism\u201d as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cHONOURED AND DEAR SIR,\u2014Accept my sincere thanks for the Christian\n courtesy with which you treat me in your five letters.\n\n \u201cSome of our friends will undoubtedly blame us for not yet dropping\n the contest; but others will candidly consider that controversy,\n though not desirable in itself, yet properly managed, has, a hundred\n times, rescued truth, groaning under the lash of triumphant error. We\n are indebted to our Lord\u2019s controversies with the Pharisees and\n Scribes for a considerable part of the four Gospels; and, to the end\n of the world, the Church will bless God for the spirited manner in\n which St. Paul, in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians, defended\n the controverted point of a believer\u2019s present justification by faith;\n as well as for the steadiness with which St. James, St. John, St.\n Peter, and St. Jude carried on their important controversy with the\n Nicolaitans, who abased St. Paul\u2019s doctrine to Antinomian purposes.\n\n \u201cHad it not been for controversy, Romish priests would, to this day,\n feed us with Latin masses and a wafer-god. Some bold propositions,\n advanced by Luther against the doctrine of indulgences, unexpectedly\n brought on the Reformation. They were so irrationally attacked by the\n infatuated papists, and so scripturally defended by the resolute\n Protestants, that these kingdoms opened their eyes, and saw thousands\n of images and errors fall before the ark of evangelical truth.\n\n \u201cFrom what I have advanced in my _Second Check_, it appears, if I am\n not mistaken, that we stand now as much in need of a reformation from\n Antinomianism, as our ancestors did of a reformation from Popery; and\n I am not without hope that the extraordinary attack which has been\n made upon Mr. Wesley\u2019s anti-Crispian propositions, and the manner in\n which they are defended, will open the eyes of many, and check the\n rapid progress of so enchanting and pernicious an evil. This hope\n inspires me with fresh courage; and, turning from the Hon. and Rev.\n Mr. Shirley, I presume to face (I trust in the spirit of love and\n meekness) my new respectable opponent.\u201d\n\nFootnote 264:\n\n The date, at the end of the Third Check, is \u201cMadeley, February 3,\n 1772.\u201d\n\nFletcher\u2019s first purpose, in this important controversy, was to attack\nAntinomianism; now he was obliged to attack Calvinism, which, though the\nparent of Antinomianism, did not in the present instance approve of it.\nIt is needless to recapitulate Fletcher\u2019s arguments in favour of the two\ndoctrines, that all mankind are redeemed by the infinite sacrifice of\nthe incarnate Son of God, and that, through the same sacrifice, \u201c_the_\nmanifestation of the Spirit is given to _every man_ to profit withal\u201d (1\nCor. xii. 7). A few brief extracts, however, will help to illustrate his\nspirit, and his style of writing.\n\n \u201cThe grace of God is as _the wind_, which _bloweth where it listeth_;\n and _it listeth_ to blow, with more or less force successively, all\n over the earth. You can as soon meet with a man that never felt the\n wind, or _heard the sound thereof_, as with one that never felt the\n Divine breathings, or heard _the still small voice_, which we call the\n grace of God. To suppose the Lord gives us a thousand tokens of _His\n eternal power and Godhead_, without giving us a capacity to consider,\n and grace to improve them, is not less absurd than to imagine that\n when He bestowed upon Adam all the trees of paradise for food, He gave\n him no eyes to see, no hands to gather, and no mouth to eat their\n delicious fruits.\u201d\n\n \u201cWaiving the case of infants, idiots, and those who have _sinned the\n sin unto death_, was there ever a sinner under no obligation to repent\n and to believe in a merciful God? Oh, ye opposers of _free grace_,\n search the universe with Calvin\u2019s candle, and among your reprobated\n millions, find out the person who never had a merciful God; and show\n us the unfortunate creature, whom a sovereign God bound over to\n absolute despair of His mercy from the womb. If there is no such\n person in the world; if all men are bound to repent and to believe in\n a merciful God, there is an end of Calvinism. An unprejudiced man can\n require no stronger proof that all are redeemed from the curse of the\n Adamic law, which admitted of no repentance; and that the covenant of\n grace, which admits of, and makes provision for it, freely extends to\n all mankind.\n\n \u201c_Out of Christ\u2019s fulness all have received grace_, a _little leaven_\n of saving power, an inward monitor, a divine reprover, a ray of _true_\n heavenly _light_, which manifests first moral, and then spiritual good\n and evil. St. John _bears witness of that light_, and declares _it\n was_ the spiritual _life of man_, the true light _which enlighteneth_\n not only _every man_ that comes into the Church, but _every man that\n comes into the world_\u2014without excepting those who are yet _in\n darkness. For the light shineth in darkness_, even when _the darkness\n comprehends it not_. The Baptist also bore _witness of that light,\n that all men through it_, not through him, _might believe_; \u03c6\u03c9\u03c2,\n _light_, being the last antecedent, and agreeing perfectly with \u03b4\u03b9\u2019\n \u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5.\u201d\n\nThe reader has already seen Mr. Hill\u2019s strange and pernicious doctrine\nrespecting eternal justification. Fletcher treats this Calvinistic dream\nwith terrible though polite severity. Without attempting to condense his\narguments, the following extract will serve to show his perfect victory\nover his respected opponent:\u2014\n\n \u201cYou go on, \u2018If Christ fulfilled the whole law and bore the curse,\n then all debts and claims against His people, be they more or be they\n less, be they small or be they great, be they before or be they after\n conversion, are for ever and for ever cancelled.\u2019\n\n \u201cYour doctrine drags after it all the absurdities of eternal, absolute\n justification. It sets aside the use of repentance and faith, in order\n to pardon and acceptance. It represents the sins of the elect as\n forgiven not only before they are confessed, but even before they are\n committed. It supposes that all the penitents who have believed that\n they were once _children of wrath_, and that God was displeased at\n them when they lived in sin, have believed a lie. It makes the\n preaching of the Gospel one of the most absurd, wicked, and barbarous\n things in the world. For what can be more absurd than to say, \u2018Repent\n ye, and believe the Gospel;\u2019 \u2018He that believeth not shall be damned;\u2019\n if a certain number can _never repent or believe_, and a certain\n number can _never_ be damned?\u201d\n\nIn concluding his Treatise, Fletcher remarks:\u2014\n\n \u201cIf I have addressed my _Three Checks_ to the Rev. Mr. Shirley and\n yourself\u201d (Mr. Richard Hill), \u201cGod is my witness it was not to reflect\n upon two of the most eminent characters in the circle of my religious\n acquaintance. Forcible circumstances have over-ruled my inclinations.\n _Decipimur specie recti._ Thinking to attack error, you have attacked\n the very truth which Providence calls me to defend: and the attack\n appears to me so much the more dangerous as your laborious zeal and\n eminent piety are more worthy of public regard, than the boisterous\n rant and loose insinuations of twenty _practical_ Antinomians. The\n tempter is not so great a novice in anti-Christian politics as to\n engage only _such_ to plead for _doctrinal_ Antinomianism. This would\n soon spoil the trade. It is his masterpiece of wisdom to get _good\n men_ to do him that eminent service. He knows that their _good_ lives\n will make way for their _bad_ principles. Nor does he ever deceive\n with more decency and success than under the respectable cloak of\n their genuine piety.\n\n \u201cIf a wicked man pleads for sin, _foenun habet in cornu_, he carries\n the mark on his forehead; we stand upon our guard. But when a good man\n gives us to understand that _there are no lengths God\u2019s people may not\n run, nor any depths they may not fall into_, without losing _the\n character of men after God\u2019s own heart_, that _many will praise God\n for_ our _denial of Christ_, that _sin and corruption work for good_,\n that _a fall into adultery will drive us nearer to Christ_, and _make\n us sing louder to the praise of free grace_; when he quotes Scripture\n too, in order to support these assertions, calling them the pure\n Gospel, and representing the opposite doctrine as the Pelagian heresy,\n worse than popery itself,\u2014he _casts the_ Antinomian _net on the right\n side of the ship_, and is likely to enclose a great multitude of\n unwary men; especially if some of the _best_ hands in the kingdom\n drive the frighted shoal into the net, and help to drag it to shore.\n\n \u201cThis is, honoured Sir, what you have done, not designedly, but\n thinking to do God service. Hence the steadiness with which I have\n looked in the face a man of God, whose feet I should be glad to wash\n at any time, under a lively sense of my great inferiority. I beg you\n not to consider the unceremonious plainness of a Swiss mountaineer as\n the sarcastic insolence of an incorrigible Arminian.\n\n \u201cBy a mistake, fashionable among religious people, you have unhappily\n paid more regard to Dr. Crisp than to St. James. And, as you have\n pleaded the dangerous cause of the impenitent monarch, I have\n addressed you with the honest boldness of the expostulating prophet. I\n have said to my honoured opponent, \u2018_Thou art the man!_\u2019\n\n \u201cI owe much respect to you, but more to truth, to conscience, and to\n God. If, in trying to discharge my duty towards them, I have\n inadvertently betrayed any want of respect to you, I humbly ask your\n pardon; and I can assure you, in the face of the whole world, that\n notwithstanding your strong attachment to the peculiarities of Dr.\n Crisp, as there is no family in the world to which I am under greater\n obligations than yours, so there are few gentlemen for whom I have so\n peculiar an esteem, as for the respectable author of _Pietas\n Oxoniensis_.\u201d\n\n \u201cBefore I lay down my pen,\u201d says Fletcher, in a \u201cPostscript,\u201d \u201cI beg\n leave to address, a moment, the _true_ believers who espouse Calvin\u2019s\n sentiments. Think not, honoured brethren, that I have no eyes to see\n the eminent services which many of you render to the Church of Christ;\n no heart to bless God for the Christian graces which shine in your\n exemplary conduct; no pen to testify, that, by letting your light\n shine before men, you adorn the Gospel of God our Saviour, as many of\n your predecessors have done before you. I am not only persuaded that\n your opinions are consistent with a genuine conversion but I take\n heaven to witness how much I prefer a Calvinist who loves God to a\n Remonstrant who does not. If I have, therefore, taken the liberty of\n exposing your favourite mistakes, do me the justice to believe that it\n was not to pour contempt upon your respectable persons; but to set\n your peculiarities in such a light as might either engage you to\n renounce them, or check the forwardness with which some have lately\n recommended them as the only _doctrines of grace_, and the _pure\n Gospel_ of Jesus Christ; unkindly representing their remonstrant\n brethren as enemies to free grace, and abettors of a dreadful heresy.\n\n \u201cAnd you, my remonstrant brethren, permit me to offer you some\n seasonable advices. 1. More than ever, let us confirm our love to our\n Calvinist brethren. If our arguments gall them, let us not envenom the\n sore by maliciously triumphing over them. Nothing is more likely to\n provoke their displeasure, and drive them from what we believe to be\n the truth. 2. Do not rejoice in the _mistakes_ of our opponents, but\n in the _detection_ of error. Desire not that _we_, but that _truth_\n may prevail. Let us not only be willing that our brethren should win\n the day if they have _truth_ on their side; but let us make it matter\n of solemn, earnest, and constant prayer. 3. Let us strictly observe\n the rules of decency and kindness, taking care not to treat any of our\n opponents in the same manner that they have treated Mr. Wesley. The\n men of the world sometimes hint that he is a papist, and a Jesuit; but\n good, mistaken men have gone much farther in the present controversy.\n They have published to the world, that they _verily believe his\n principles are too rotten for even a papist to rest upon_; that he\n _wades through the quagmires of Pelagianism_, deals in\n _inconsistencies, manifest contradictions, and strange\n prevarications_; that if _a contrast were drawn from his various\n assertions upon the doctrine of sinless perfection, a little piece\n might extend into a folio volume_; and that they are _more than ever\n convinced of his prevaricating disposition_. Not satisfied with going\n to a Benedictine monk, in Paris, for help against his _dreadful\n heresy_, they have wittily extracted an argument, _ad hominem_, from\n _the comfortable dish of tea he drinks with Mrs. Wesley_; and, to\n complete the demonstration of their respect for that grey-headed,\n laborious minister of Christ, they have brought him upon the stage of\n controversy in a dress of their own contriving, and made him declare\n to the world, that, _whenever he and fifty-three of his\n fellow-labourers say one thing, they mean quite another_. And what has\n he done to deserve this usage at _their_ hands? Which of _them_ has he\n treated unjustly or unkindly? Even in the course of this controversy,\n has he injured any man? May he not say to this hour, _Tu pugnas; ego\n vapulo tantum_? Let us avoid this warmth, my brethren; remembering\n that personal reflections will never pass for convincing arguments\n with the judicious and humane.\n\n \u201cI have endeavoured to follow this advice with regard to Dr. Crisp;\n nevertheless, lest you should rank him with _practical_ Antinomians, I\n once more gladly protest my belief that he was a _good_ man; and\n desire that none of you would condemn _all_ his sermons, much less his\n _character_, on account of his unguarded antinomian propositions.\n\n \u201c4. If you would help us to remove the prejudices of our brethren, not\n only grant with a good grace, but strongly insist upon the great\n truths for which they make so noble a stand. Steadily assert, with\n them, that the scraps of morality and formality, by which Pharisees\n and deists pretend to merit the Divine favour, are only _filthy rags_\n in the sight of a holy God; and that no righteousness is current in\n heaven but the _righteousness which is of God by faith_. If they have\n set their hearts upon calling it _the imputed righteousness of\n Christ_, though the expression is not strictly scriptural, let it\n pass; but give them to understand, that as _Divine_ imputation of\n righteousness is a most glorious _reality_, so human imputation is a\n most delusive _dream_; and that of this sort is undoubtedly the\n _Calvinian imputation_ of righteousness to a man, who actually defiles\n his neighbour\u2019s bed, and betrays innocent blood. A dangerous\n contrivance this! not less subversive of common heathenish morality,\n than of St. James\u2019s _pure and undefiled religion_.\n\n \u201cAgain, our Calvinist brethren excel in setting forth a _part_ of\n Christ\u2019s priestly office; I mean the immaculate purity of His most\n holy life, and the all-atoning, all-meritorious sacrifice of His\n bloody death. Here imitate, and, if possible, surpass them. Shout a\n _finished atonement_ louder than they. If they call this complete\n atonement _finished salvation_, or _the finished work of Christ_,\n indulge them still: for peace\u2019s sake, let those expressions pass;\n nevertheless, at proper times, give them to understand that it is\n absolutely contrary to reason, Scripture, and Christian experience to\n think that _all_ Christ\u2019s mediatorial work is _finished_. Insinuate\n you should be very miserable if He had nothing more to do _for_ you\n and _in_ you. Tell them, as they can bear it, that He works _daily_ as\n a _Prophet_ to enlighten you; as a _Priest_ to make intercession for\n you; as a _King_ to subdue your enemies; as a _Redeemer_ to deliver\n you out of all your troubles; and as a _Saviour_ to help you to work\n out your own salvation; and hint that, in all these respects, Christ\u2019s\n work is no more finished than the working of our own salvation is\n completed.\n\n \u201cThe judicious will understand you; as for bigots, they are proof\n against Scripture and good sense. Nevertheless, mild irony, sharply\n pointing a scriptural argument, may yet pass between the joints of\n their impenetrable armour, and make them feel either some shame, or\n some weariness of contention. But this is a dangerous method, which I\n would recommend to very few. None should dip his pen in the wine of\n irony, till he has dipped it in the oil of love; and even then, he\n should not use it without constant prayer, and as much caution as a\n surgeon lances an impostume. If he goes too deep, he does mischief; if\n not deep enough, he loses his time; the virulent humour is not\n discharged, but irritated by the skin-deep operation. And \u2018who is\n sufficient for these things?\u2019 Gracious God of wisdom and love! if Thou\n callest us to this difficult and thankless office, let all our\n sufficiency be of Thee! and should the operation succeed, Thine and\n Thine alone shall be all the glory.\u201d\n\nSuch advices were Christian and opportune. No doubt, they were meant for\nmen like Thomas Olivers and Walter Sellon. Wesley, in a tract of twelve\npages, had, in 1770, attacked Toplady\u2019s \u201cAbridgement of Zanchius on\nPredestination.\u201d Toplady, in the same year, had replied to this, in a\nmost bitter and scurrilous \u201cLetter to the Rev. Mr. John Wesley.\u201d Not\nhaving leisure for this kind of work, Wesley had requested Olivers to\nanswer Toplady. Olivers, in 1771, had published his \u201cLetter to the\nReverend Mr. Toplady\u201d (12mo, 60 pp.), and had treated Toplady with an\namount of well-deserved tartness, which quite justified Fletcher in\ngiving the above advice.\n\nThen, again, Walter Sellon, in the same year, 1771, had published his\n\u201cChurch of England Vindicated from the Charge of Absolute\nPredestination, as is stated and asserted by the Translator of Jerome\nZanchius, in his Letter to the Rev. Dr. Nowell. Together with Some\nAnimadversions on his Translation of Zanchius, his Letter to the Rev.\nMr. John Wesley, and his Sermon on 1 Tim. i. 10.\u201d 12mo, 129 pp. In his\nsmall country parish, Ledsham, in Yorkshire, Sellon had dealt Toplady\u2019s\npredestination theory heavy blows; and, it must be added, he had not\nbeen sparing in virulence. He began with telling the abusive vicar of\nBroad Hembury, \u201cI shall deal plainly with you; more plainly, perhaps,\nthan you might _desire_; yet not so plainly as you might _justly\nexpect_. I would not say a word _barely_ to enrage you; and yet, I doubt\nnot, but I shall _enrage_ you, because there is no coping with such\nwriters as you, without speaking a little in your own manner; and I have\nalways observed, those that are most prone to _give_ offence are also\nmost prone to _take_ it.\u201d Sellon fulfilled his threatening promise, and\nconcluded: \u201cExcuse my plainness, Sir, if I tell you farther, you seem\nmuch to stand in need of learning the lesson dictated by Solon of\nAthens, \u2018_Know thyself_;\u2019 and of praying heartily that prayer prescribed\nby our Church, \u2018_From all blindness of heart; from pride, vainglory, and\nhypocrisy; from envy, hatred, and malice, and all uncharitableness,\u2014Good\nLord, deliver us!_\u2019\u201d\n\nFletcher, in this irritating controversy, never lost his temper. Some of\nhis coadjutors and opponents did; and hence the Christian and needed\ncautions and advices at the end of his \u201cThird Check to Antinomianism.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XI.\n \u201c_FOURTH CHECK TO ANTINOMIANISM._\u201d\n\n 1772.\n\n\nTHE issue of Fletcher\u2019s \u201cThird Check\u201d was immediately followed by \u201cA\nReview of all the Doctrines taught by the Rev. Mr. John Wesley;\ncontaining a full and particular Answer to a Book entitled, \u2018A Second\nCheck to Antinomianism. In Six Letters, to the Author of that Book.\nWherein the Doctrines of a Twofold Justification, Free-Will, Man\u2019s\nMerit, Sinless Perfection, Finished Salvation, and Real Antinomianism\nare particularly discussed; and the Puritan Divines vindicated from the\nCharges brought against them of holding Mr. Wesley\u2019s Doctrines.\u2019 To\nwhich is added \u2018A Farrago.\u2019 London, 1772.\u201d 8vo, 151 pp. The letters\nare all signed \u201cThe Author of P.O.,\u201d meaning, of course, Richard Hill.\n\nAlmost at the same time that the book, with this ponderous title, was\npublished, Mr. Richard Hill committed to the press an 8vo tract of\nsixteen pages, entitled, \u201cSome Remarks on a Pamphlet, entitled, A Third\nCheck to Antinomianism. By the Author of \u2018_Pietas Oxoniensis_.\u2019\u201d\n\nOf the second of these publications nothing need be said. Considerable\nbitterness towards Wesley is displayed, and a modicum of severity\ntowards Fletcher; but, perhaps, not more than might be naturally\nexpected; for men dislike to be vanquished.\n\nHis first and much larger pamphlet, containing, besides the \u201cFarrago,\u201d\n\u201cSix Letters\u201d addressed to Fletcher, must have more attention. The\n\u201cLetters\u201d relate, not to the \u201c_Third_,\u201d but the \u201cSecond Check\u201d of\nFletcher, and were published only a few days before the appearance of\nthe \u201cRemarks\u201d just noticed. Mr. Hill thus commences his first letter:\u2014\n\n \u201cREVEREND SIR,\u2014After many debates with myself, and much solicitation\n from my friends, you now hear from me again on your _Second Check to\n Antinomianism_. I make no other apology for writing, than that I think\n there is an absolute necessity an answer should be given to it. But,\n whilst I make my animadversions on your letters, may the Divine Author\n of love and meekness preserve me from the unhappy spirit in which they\n are written! Oh, my dear Sir, I never could have supposed that sneer,\n banter, and sarcasm, yea notorious falsehood, calumny, and gross\n perversions, would have appeared before the world under the sanction\n of your venerable name.\u201d\n\nIn making such accusations, Mr. Hill ought to have known he was himself\nguilty of \u201cnotorious falsehood and calumny;\u201d but he was angry, and anger\nis always blindfolding.\n\nMr. Hill next proceeds to denounce Wesley\u2019s \u201cdoctrine of _a second\njustification by works_;\u201d and asserts that \u201cit has no existence in the\nWord of God, nor in any Protestant Church under heaven;\u201d but that, in\nthis matter, \u201cMr. Wesley and Mr. Fletcher have the whole Council of\nTrent on their side.\u201d\n\nWith considerable ability, but with great bitterness and even reviling,\nespecially so far as Wesley is concerned, Mr. Hill endeavours to refute\nFletcher\u2019s arguments in support of the doctrine just named, and then\nremarks:\u2014\n\n \u201cI intended to have made several other extracts from your first\n letter; but as I really cannot find many lines together free from\n gross misrepresentations and perversions, and hardly one single\n paragraph exempt from cutting sneers and low sarcasms, I confess I\n have not patience to transcribe them; especially when I consider that\n they are addressed to one\u201d (Walter Shirley) \u201cwho, notwithstanding your\n former unkind behaviour, hath treated you with all the politeness of a\n gentleman, and the humility of a Christian.\u201d\n\nThis was an ebullition of bad temper. The charges are untrue, and the\nspirit is unchristian. Fletcher employed irony, but, as all candid\nreaders of his Checks must acknowledge, it was always polite and\ndecorous. None but irritated men, like Mr. Hill, can find \u201clow\nsarcasms;\u201d and as for \u201cgross misrepresentations and perversions,\u201d they\nhave no existence.\n\nIn his Second Letter, Mr. Hill takes up the doctrine of free-will, and\npronounces Fletcher\u2019s statements, in support of the free agency of man,\nto be \u201cas totally void of solid scriptural argument, as they are replete\nwith calumny, gross perversions, and equivocations.\u201d\n\nIn his Third Letter, Mr. Hill discusses what he is pleased to call\n_Sinless_ Perfection,\u2014a doctrine which neither Wesley nor Fletcher ever\ntaught. _Christian_ Perfection[265] they enforced and defended; but\n_Sinless_ Perfection, using the word in its strict and literal sense,\nwas not a dogma of theirs, but a verbal invention, adopted from\nWhitefield and others, by Mr. Hill and his angry friends, who desired to\nmake their opponents the target of ridicule and scorn.\n\nFootnote 265:\n\n The reader who wishes to know what is meant by this is strongly\n recommended to read Wesley\u2019s invaluable treatise, entitled, \u201cA Plain\n Account of Christian Perfection;\u201d his equally important and scriptural\n sermon on \u201cChristian Perfection,\u201d and his other irrefutable sermons on\n the same subject.\n\nMr. Hill begins with several revolting anecdotes respecting people who\nprofessed themselves to be _perfect_ Christians,\u2014stories which probably\nwere true; but stories concerning _perfect_ fanatics whom Wesley and\nFletcher would have condemned as strongly as Mr. Hill. His Letter\nterminates with a series of the same sort of nauseous anecdotes. In a\ncertain sense, it is smart, and Mr. Hill thought it so; for, in\nconcluding it, he remarks:\u2014\n\n \u201cNow, my dear Sir, I have given you a little in your own way; but,\n notwithstanding you have set me the example in this manner of writing,\n I shall be glad to set you the example of mutual forgiveness. By\n cutting and slashing, we shall never convince each other of our\n errors; and the end of our controversy will be, that the world will\n laugh at you for taking the sword of banter, the shield of perversion,\n the helmet of prejudice, and the breastplate of acrimony, in order to\n fight for the doctrine of sinless perfection; and I myself shall be\n laughed at, in my turn, for losing so much precious time in answering\n you.\u201d\n\nMr. Hill\u2019s fourth letter is a brief one, and is devoted to what he calls\nFletcher\u2019s \u201cheavy bombs of bitter sneer and cutting sarcasm,\u201d hurled at\nthe doctrine of \u201c_the finished salvation of Christ_.\u201d\n\nThe fifth and sixth letters, and also the postscript, are not\ntheological, but simply abusive. Fletcher is said to \u201chave traduced all\nthe most celebrated ministers of the Gospel\u201d of that day; and to have\n\u201cthrown stumbling-blocks into the way of thousands.\u201d A \u201cwretched spirit\nof low sarcasm and slanderous banter runs throughout\u201d his whole\nwritings. Wesley and Fletcher had \u201cadopted a scheme of religion gathered\nout of Pelagianism, Semi-Pelagianism, Arminianism, Popery, Mysticism,\nand Quakerism.\u201d\n\nThe \u201cFarrago of Hot and Cold Medicines, by the Rev. Mr. John Wesley,\nextracted from his own Publications,\u201d is, of course, principally\nlevelled against Wesley. The spirit of it may be gathered from an\nextract from Bishop Hall, on the title-page of Mr. Hill\u2019s ill-natured\npamphlet:\u2014\n\n \u201cI would I knew where to find you; then I could take a direct aim.\n Whereas now I must rove and conjecture. To-day you are in the tents of\n the Romanists; to-morrow, in ours; next day, between both, against\n both. Our adversaries think you ours, we theirs; your conscience finds\n you with both and neither. I flatter you not; this of yours is the\n worst of all tempers. _Will you be a church alone?_ Alas! how full are\n you of contradictions to yourself! How full of contrary purposes! How\n oft do you chide with yourself? How oft do you fight with yourself?\u201d\n\nOf course, all this was provoking. Had Fletcher been of a much less\ncombative disposition than he really was, it would have been impossible\nfor him, as a man of honesty and honour, to lay aside his pen. Mr.\nHill\u2019s accusations were serious ones, involving Fletcher\u2019s moral\ncharacter; and a reply to them was imperative. But, before Fletcher\u2019s\n\u201cFourth Check to Antinomianism\u201d is introduced to the reader\u2019s notice,\nanother publication, which preceded it, must be mentioned. This was\nentitled \u201cFriendly Remarks occasioned by the Spirit and Doctrines\ncontained in the Rev. Mr. Fletcher\u2019s Vindication, and more particularly\nin his Second Check to Antinomianism, to which is added a postscript,\noccasioned by his Third Check. In a letter to the Author, by\n***********. A.M. London: 1772.\u201d 8vo. 71 pp. The letter is dated,\n\u201cLondon, July 4, 1772,\u201d and the asterisks stand for the name of Rowland\nHill, Mr. Richard Hill\u2019s impulsive and eccentric brother, who had taken\nhis degree at Cambridge, had been refused orders by half-a-dozen\nbishops, and was now nearly twenty-seven years of age. Berridge and\nWhitefield had been his friends, and even Wesley had approved of his\npreaching among his Societies.[266] At present, he was in London,\ndiscoursing to immense congregations in Whitefield\u2019s two Metropolitan\nChapels, and was resident in the Tabernacle House, in Moorfields.[267]\nThere, no doubt, the pamphlet was written, which must now be noticed.\n\nHe begins with a reference to his extensive preaching tours; and states\nthat he was frequently invited to preach in the meeting-houses of\nWesley\u2019s Societies, and that this occasioned him considerable\nperplexity, for to preach against Wesley\u2019s \u201csentiments in his own\ncongregations would be unfair.\u201d He continues:\u2014\n\n \u201cAnd yet, when I consider how many excellent Christians are contained\n in Mr. Wesley\u2019s Societies, whom I love as my own soul, and to whom I\n have frequently given promises of my assistance and labours, how will\n it grieve me to be constrained to withdraw from them, whom I so much\n honour and respect.\u201d\n\nRowland Hill proceeds to say, that \u201chitherto he had declined having the\nleast share in the late contentions.\u201d He was at Bristol in 1771, when\nMr. Shirley and his friends invaded Wesley\u2019s Conference, but he refused\nto join them, and left the city, for, he remarks, \u201cPeace I love, but\ncontroversy I hate.\u201d He continues:\u2014\n\n \u201cUpon my return to Bristol, I saw your first publication.[268] As I\n dearly loved your character, I read it with great prejudice in your\n favour; but still, the _tartness_ of the style, as well as the bad\n doctrine it contained, concerned me; but, as I plainly perceived your\n intention was to make the \u2018_Minutes_\u2019 speak as much Gospel as\n possible, though I was sorry for the performance, I felt a loving pity\n for the author. About the same time, I called upon Mr. Wesley, then in\n Bristol, and, in strong terms, expressed to him my concern about his\n \u2018_Minutes_.\u2019 He told me that he looked upon the whole of them as\n truth, and that he should vindicate them as such.\n\n \u201cStill my determination was to appear in no open separation from Mr.\n Wesley; hoping that time would soften the edge of the dispute, and\n restore calmness and composure among contending parties; but your\n _second_ publication[269] compels me to believe that to be neutral any\n longer will be criminal. You have now done sufficient to darken every\n gleam of hope of future tranquillity, by publishing _such_ doctrine,\n and in _such_ a spirit, as has kindled no small flame in the religious\n world.\u201d\n\nFootnote 266:\n\n Sidney\u2019s \u201cLife of Rowland Hill,\u201d p. 56.\n\nFootnote 267:\n\n _Ibid_, p. 70.\n\nFootnote 268:\n\n The \u201cVindication\u201d of Wesley\u2019s Minutes.\n\nFootnote 269:\n\n \u201cSecond Check to Antinomianism, in Three Letters,\u201d to Mr. Shirley.\n\nNo doubt Rowland Hill was perfectly sincere when he said he hated\ncontroversy, and loved peace; and yet, such is the tendency of polemical\nwriting, Rowland Hill and his brother Richard became the principal\nfomentors of this controversial warfare.\n\nHaving given what he calls \u201ca simple narration of facts,\u201d Mr. Rowland\nHill proceeds to say:\u2014\n\n \u201cI will now make some strictures principally upon your last\n performance. This I pray God I may be enabled to do with meekness and\n judgment. I know there is no _argument_ in _banter_, nor _conclusion_\n in _sarcasm_, nor _divinity_ in a _sneer_: such weapons I wish totally\n to discard; they are _pitiful_ even for the world, but they are\n _scandalous_ when used by a Christian. I hate such feeble aids, and\n will scorn to use them; they would defile my soul, and stab the cause\n I mean to maintain. The meek and dove-like disposition of Christ, I\n humbly hope will teach me, while I write, to _pity_, not to _abuse_,\n the mistaken; and meekly to deliver my sentiments, without having\n recourse to the _low arts_ of _slander_ and _reflection_.\u201d\n\nRowland Hill had good intentions; but whether he fulfilled them will be\nseen in the succeeding extracts.\n\n \u201cAfter having first dressed up Mr. Shirley according to your own\n fancy, and branded him with the opprobrious _name_ of _Antinomian_,\n you place him at the head of a set of monsters invented by yourself;\n and, after having thus raised a hideous and unthought-of ghost, you\n remand it to the shades by your own spells and incantations of\n _banter_ and _contempt_.\u201d\n\n \u201cAfter having said so much as to place us in a manner even amongst\n _murderers_, on account of our principles of grace, it really shocks\n and almost disheartens me from following you any further. I will,\n therefore, now omit reminding you of the numberless _sneers_,\n _taunts_, and _sarcasms_, which so dreadfully decorate the whole of\n your performance; they are nothing better than the infernal _terms of\n darkness_; it is _hateful_ to transcribe them; _let darkness be their\n doom_.\u201d\n\n \u201cConsider in what detestable colours you have pictured us before the\n world. There is scarce an abomination but what we are charged with;\n and our enemies triumph at the supposed discovery. You are the man,\n they say, that has been among the _Calvinists_, has found out their\n hypocrisy, and are now publishing against them. Numbers of them, to my\n knowledge, carry about your book in ill-natured triumph, and cast in\n our teeth, as certain truth, the _dreadful slanders_ you have\n _invented_. In short, Sir, you have brought over us such a day of\n _blasphemy_ and _rebuke_ as we never felt before.\u201d\n\n \u201cOur characters now lie bleeding before you; we smart severely under\n the cruelty of your pen; and complain loudly against your great\n injustice. You have given us up to be trampled upon by the world, who,\n from your _pretended_ discoveries, looks upon us all as hypocrites\n detected under the mask of religion. If you think us in error, for\n Christ\u2019s sake, _sneer_ at us no more; though it may be _sport_ to you,\n it is, in a manner, _death_ to us. Learn the more Christian lesson to\n pity us, and pray for us, and try to set us right in love.\u201d\n\nRowland Hill, no doubt, intended to avoid in his pamphlet \u201c_the low art\nof slander_;\u201d but he failed in carrying out his purpose. Any one who has\nread, with candour, Fletcher\u2019s first and second Checks to Antinomianism,\nmust admit that Mr. Hill\u2019s accusations are unfounded. Where had Fletcher\nslandered Rowland Hill, or any of his Calvinistic friends? It is true\nthat he had treated some of the _doctrines_ of the Calvinists with\n\u201c_banter_\u201d and with \u201c_sarcasm_;\u201d but his Calvinian friends, against\nwhose tenets he had written, had, uniformly, been treated with\nrespectful affection. Impetuous Rowland improperly applied Fletcher\u2019s\n\u201c_banter_\u201d and \u201c_sarcasm_,\u201d not to _doctrines_, as Fletcher had\nintended, but to the _men_ who held them, himself and his godly friends\nincluded; a thing from which Fletcher\u2019s loving soul revolted.\n\nThe remainder of Rowland Hill\u2019s \u201cFriendly Remarks\u201d chiefly consists of\nanimadversions, intended to show \u201cthe glaring inconsistencies and\npalpable mistakes\u201d of Fletcher, in the doctrines he had defended and\nenforced. It would be an almost endless task to dwell upon the\ntheological criticisms of Fletcher and his opponents. As might be\nexpected, Rowland Hill, in attacking Fletcher\u2019s tenets, is often smart;\nand, it must be added, often bitter.\n\nA reply to the pamphlets of Richard Hill and his brother Rowland became\na necessity. Fletcher could not remain silent under such unfounded and\nundeserved imputations. Hence, though weary of the warfare, he at once\nresumed his pen, and began to prepare his \u201cFourth Check to\nAntinomianism.\u201d The postscript of Rowland Hill\u2019s \u201cFriendly Remarks,\u201d\ndated \u201cJuly 4, 1772,\u201d states that the \u201cThird Check\u201d had just \u201cmade its\nappearance.\u201d The fourth was published before the year was ended, and\nbore the title of \u201cLogica Genevensis; or, a Fourth Check to\nAntinomianism, in which St. James\u2019s Pure Religion is defended against\nthe Charges, and established upon the Concessions of Mr. Richard and Mr.\nRowland Hill. In a Series of Letters to those Gentlemen, by the\nVindicator of the Minutes. Bristol: Printed by William Pine,\n1772.\u201d 12mo. 245 pp. The letters are thirteen in number, and all of\nthem are addressed to Mr. Richard Hill, except the ninth, which is\naddressed \u201cto Mr. Rowland Hill,\u201d and the tenth and eleventh written to\nthe two brothers conjointly. The thirteenth, and last, is dated,\n\u201cMadeley, Nov. 15, 1772.\u201d[270]\n\nFootnote 270:\n\n The semi-infidel _Monthly Review_, which could hardly exist without\n sneering at evangelical religion, remarked concerning this Fourth\n Check to Antinomianism:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher continues to push the Calvinists with unremitting\n vigour. He here encounters two formidable adversaries at once. The\n veteran Wesley, who now, perhaps, thinks it time to retire from the\n well-fought field, is fortunate in having so zealous an auxiliary.\u201d\n (_Monthly Review_, 1773, p. 240.)\n\nMeanwhile, Wesley published \u201cSome Remarks on Mr. Hill\u2019s Review of all\nthe Doctrines taught by Mr. John Wesley.\u201d This is not the place to\nanalyse Wesley\u2019s 12mo. pamphlet of 54 pages, but the following extract\nfrom it may be acceptable:\u2014\n\n \u201cWith regard to Mr. Hill\u2019s objections to Mr. Fletcher, I refer all\n candid men to his own writings\u2014his letters, entitled a \u2018First, Second,\n and Third Check to Antinomianism;\u2019 the rather, because there are very\n few of his arguments which Mr. Hill even _attempts_ to answer. \u2019Tis\n true he promises \u2018a full and particular answer to Mr. Fletcher\u2019s\n \u201cSecond Check to Antinomianism\u201d;\u2019 but it will puzzle any one to find\n where that answer is except in the title-page. And if anything more is\n needful to be done, Mr. Fletcher is still able to answer for himself.\n But if he does, I would recommend to his consideration the advice\n formerly given by a wise man to his friend, \u2018See that you humble not\n yourself to that man; it would hurt both him and the cause of God.\u2019\n \u2019Tis pity but he had considered it sooner, and he might have escaped\n some keen reflections. But he did not. He imagined when he spoke or\n wrote in the simplicity of his heart, that his opponents would have\n received his words in the same spirit wherein they were spoken; but\n they turn them all into poison. He not only _loses his sweet words_,\n but they are turned into bitterness\u2014are interpreted as mere _sneer_\n and _sarcasm_! A good lesson for _me_. I had designed to have\n transcribed Mr. Fletcher\u2019s character of Mr. Hill, and to have added a\n little thereto, in hope of softening his spirit. But I see it is in\n vain; as well might one hope to soften\n\n \u2018Inexorable Pluto, king of shades.\u2019\n\n Since he is capable of putting such a construction even upon Mr.\n Fletcher\u2019s gentleness and mildness; since he ascribes even to him \u2018a\n pen dipped in gall,\u2019 what will he not ascribe to _me_? I have done\n therefore with humbling myself to these men\u2014to Mr. Hill and his\n associates. I have humbled myself to them for these thirty years, but\n will do it no more. I have done with attempting to soften their\n spirits; it is all lost labour\u201d (pp. 3, 4).\n\nHaving come to such a determination, it need not be added that Wesley\u2019s\npamphlet was one of the most trenchant he ever published.\n\nWesley was in Shropshire in the month of August, and probably had an\ninterview with Fletcher. It is not unlikely that Fletcher accompanied\nWesley in his journey to Bristol; but if this were not the case, it is\ncertain that he soon after followed him. Hence the following hitherto\nunpublished letter, written by John Pawson, an itinerant preacher of ten\nyears\u2019 standing:\u2014\n\n \u201cBRISTOL, _September 29, 1772_.\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014Mr. Wesley came here on Saturday, August 29, and\n has been with us ever since, but intends to leave Bristol next Monday\u201d\n [October 5]. \u201cHe seems to be as zealous and active in his Master\u2019s\n service as ever, and quite in good health. We have also had the great\n Mr. Fletcher here, but he is now returned to Madeley. He seems to be\n an eminent saint indeed. I had the satisfaction to hear him twice. He\n is a lively, zealous preacher; the power of God seems to attend his\n word; yet I admire him much more as a writer than as a preacher. Being\n a foreigner, there is a kind of roughness attends his language that is\n not grateful to an English hearer; and the English not being his\n mother-tongue, he sometimes seems to be at a loss for words. Yet he\n certainly is a great and blessed man.\n\n \u201cWe have had very large congregations to hear both Mr. Wesley and Mr.\n Fletcher, especially the latter; and I hope we shall see the fruit of\n their preaching in a little time. I trust that our gracious Lord will\n be with us, and that we shall have a prosperous year; though I\n apprehend it will be attended with greater difficulties than ever to\n keep the people together in Bristol. We have the Tabernacle[273] on\n one hand, and Mr. Janes,[274] who has a meeting in Tucker Street, on\n the other. Mr. Roquet[271] also is disaffected towards us. He has been\n in London for some time with his dear friend Mr. Hill. One night he\n preached in the Foundery, where he gave universal offence by using\n many Calvinistical phrases, and by telling the whole congregation that\n he knew there were whores and bawds even in the Bands[272] in Bristol.\n He said, \u2018These eyes have seen it, and this heart has groaned on\n account of it.\u2019 How he will be when he returns I know not; but these\n are the accounts we hear from London. Were it not that so many of our\n people are so exceedingly unstable, we need not fear any of these\n things; but you well know that many of them have got itching ears, and\n will run about, say or do what we will.\n\n \u201cMr. Wesley has just published his answer to Mr. Hill. I suppose it\n will make the Calvinists exceeding angry; but I think Mr. Fletcher\u2019s\n \u2018Fourth Check,\u2019 which is now in the press, will make them much more\n so, as he does not spare them at all, but endeavours to show, in the\n clearest manner, the horrible consequences of their beloved opinions.\n He is writing something upon Perfection, the former part of which I\n have seen; and I think he will set that doctrine in so Scriptural a\n light, as to stop the mouths of gainsayers.\u201d\n\nFootnote 271:\n\n Whitefield had a Tabernacle at Kingswood; and Lady Huntingdon, in\n 1753, built one in Bristol, which Whitefield opened.\n\nFootnote 272:\n\n Thomas Janes, who from 1767 to 1770 was one of Wesley\u2019s itinerants.\n His health not being equal to the rough work of a Methodist preacher\n he settled as the pastor of a dissenting congregation in Bristol. He\n died in 1773. He was a man of considerable abilities, and compiled and\n published a volume which he entitled \u201cThe Beauties of the Poets.\u201d\n\nFootnote 273:\n\n One of the first masters of Wesley\u2019s Kingswood School, but now an\n ordained clergyman of the Church of England, and curate of St.\n Werburgh in Bristol. He was an intimate friend of Lady Huntingdon.\n\nFootnote 274:\n\n The Band-meetings of the Methodists, consisting of persons selected\n from the Methodist classes.\n\nFletcher dedicated his \u201cFourth Check to Antinomianism\u201d \u201cto all candid\nCalvinists in the Church of England.\u201d An extract from this dedication\nmay be useful, as giving, in a brief form, some of the doctrines which\nFletcher had defended and enforced, and which had so hugely offended his\nCalvinistic friends.\n\n \u201cThey\u201d [his opponents] \u201cwill try to frighten you from reading this\n book, by protesting that I throw down the foundation of Christianity\n and help Mr. Wesley to place _works_ and _merit_ on the Redeemer\u2019s\n throne. To this dreadful charge I answer:\u20141. That I had rather my\n right hand should lose its cunning to all eternity, than use it a\n moment to detract from the Saviour\u2019s _real_ glory. 2. That the\n strongest pleas I produce for holiness and good works are quotations\n from the Homilies of our own Church as well as from the Puritan\n divines, whom I cite preferably to others, because they held what you\n are taught to call the _doctrines of grace_. 3. That what I have said\n of those doctrines recommends itself to every unprejudiced person\u2019s\n reason and conscience. 4. That my capital arguments in favour of\n practical Christianity are founded upon our second justification by\n the evidence of good works in the great day; a doctrine which my\n opponent himself cannot help assenting to. 5. That from first to last,\n when the _meritorious cause_ of our justification is considered, we\n set works aside; praying God _not to enter into judgment with us_, or\n _weigh our merits_, but to _pardon our offences_ for Christ\u2019s sake;\n and gladly ascribing the whole of our salvation to His alone merits,\n as much as Calvin or Dr. Crisp does. 6. That when the word _meriting_,\n _deserving_, or _worthy_, which our Lord uses again and again, is\n applied to good works or good men, we mean absolutely nothing but\n _rewardable_, or qualified for the reception of a _gracious reward_.\n And 7. That even this _improper_ merit or rewardableness of good works\n is entirely derived from Christ\u2019s _proper_ merit, who works what is\n good in us; and from the gracious promise of God, who has freely\n engaged Himself to recompense the fruits of righteousness, which His\n own free grace enables us to produce.\u201d\n\nIn the first eight of his letters, Fletcher quotes copiously from the\nLiturgy, Articles, and Homilies of the Church of England, and from the\nwritings of Puritan divines. He also minutely examines Mr. Richard\nHill\u2019s objections to his doctrines and to his Scriptural expositions. Up\nto this point there is a comparative absence of his cutting irony; but\nthere is a great amount of powerful and triumphant writing.\n\nIn his ninth letter, addressed to Rowland Hill, he naturally enough lays\naside the restraint he had put upon himself. Richard Hill was now a man\nof matured life, forty years of age; his brother Rowland was a young man\nof only twenty-seven. The former had not been sparing in the use of\nacrimonious epithets; the latter had been lavish. No wonder that\nFletcher spared not his youthful opponent. He wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhat reason have you to assert, as you do, that I \u2018_have grossly\n misrepresented the Scriptures_,\u2019 and \u2018made _universal havoc of every\n truth of the Gospel_\u2019? The first of these charges is heavy, the second\n dreadful. Let us see by what arguments they are supported. After\n throwing away a good part of your book in passing a long, Calvinian,\n juvenile sentence upon my spirit as a writer, you come at last to the\n point, and attempt to explain some of the Scriptures which you suppose\n I have \u2018misrepresented.\u2019\u201d\n\nFletcher proceeds to examine what he calls \u201cthe arguments\u201d of Rowland\nHill; and then concludes, as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cHaving answered your objections to what you justly call \u2018the\n principal cause of the controversy among us,\u2019 I may make one or two\n observations upon the _friendliness_ of your \u2018_Friendly Remarks_.\u2019\n\n \u201cCandid reader, if thou hast read my Checks without prejudice, and\n attentively compared them with the Word of God, wouldest thou ever\n think that the following lines contain an extract from the _friendly_\n sentence, which my young opponent passes upon them?\u2014\u2018Hard names,\n banter, sarcasm, sneer, abuse, bravado, low arts of slander,\n slanderous accusation, opprobrious name, ill-natured satire, odious,\n deformed, detestable colours, unfair and ungenerous treatment, terms\n void of truth, unmerciful condemnations, false humility, irritating\n spirit, provoking, uncharitable style, continual sneers, most odious\n appellations, abusive words, notorious scandalizing, lines too\n dreadful to be transcribed, unworthy of an answer, beneath contempt,\n most indecent ridicule, a wretched conclusion, as bitter as gall,\n _and_ slanders which ought even to make a Turk blush.\u2019\n\n \u201cIf thou canst not yet see, gentle reader, into the nature of Mr.\n Rowland Hill\u2019s \u2018_Remarks_,\u2019 peruse the following _friendly_ sentences.\n \u2018In regard to the fopperies of religion, you certainly differ from the\n Popish priest of Madeley. You have made universal havoc of every truth\n of the Gospel. You have invented dreadful slanders. You plentifully\n stigmatize many with the most unkindly language. You have blackened\n our principles, and scandalized our practice. You place us in a manner\n among murderers. It shocks me to follow you. Our characters lie\n bleeding under the cruelty of your pen, and complain loudly against\n your great injustice. Blush for the characters you have injured by the\n rashness and bitterness of your pen. You have invented a set of\n monsters, and raised a hideous ghost, by your own spells and\n incantations of banter and contempt. Numberless sneers, taunts, and\n sarcasms dreadfully decorate the whole of your performance: they are\n nothing better than infernal terms of darkness, which it is hateful to\n transcribe.\u2019\n\n \u201cWhen I cast my eyes upon this extract, I cannot help crying out, \u2018If\n this is my antagonist\u2019s _friendliness_, alas! what will be his\n _displeasure_? And what have I done to deserve these tokens of\n Calvinian benevolence? Why are these flowers of Geneva rhetoric so\n plentifully heaped upon my head?\u2019\n\n \u201cSir, I do not intimate that I have done nothing displeasing to you.\n Far from insinuating it, I shall present my readers with a list of the\n manifold, but well-meant provocations, which have procured me your\n public correspondence. I say, _well-meant provocations_; for all I\n want to _provoke_ any one _to_ is _love and good works_.\n\n \u201c1. I have written my Checks with the _confidence_ with which the\n clear dictates of reason, and the full testimonies of Scripture,\n usually inspire those who love what they esteem truth more than they\n do their dearest friends.\n\n \u201c2. After speaking most honourably of _many Calvinists_, even of all\n that are _pious_, I have taken the liberty to insinuate, that the\n schemes of _finished salvation_, and _imputed righteousness_, will no\n more save a Calvinist guilty of _practical_ Antinomianism, than the\n doctrine of _general redemption_ will save an ungodly remonstrant.\n Thus I have made no difference between the _backsliding elect_ of the\n Lock,[275] and the _apostates_ of the Foundery, when death overtakes\n them in their sins, and in their blood.\n\n \u201c3. I have maintained that our Lord did not speak an untruth when He\n said, _In the day of judgment, by thy words shalt thou be justified_;\n and that St. Paul did not propagate heresy when he wrote, _Work out\n your own salvation_.\n\n \u201c4. I have sprinkled with the salt of irony your favourite doctrine\n (\u2018Friendly Remarks,\u2019 p. 39), \u2018Salvation wholly depends upon the\n purpose of God according to election, without any respect to what may\n be in them,\u2019 _i.e._ _the elect_. Now, Sir, as by the doctrine of\n undeniable consequences, he who receives a guinea with the _king\u2019s\n head_ on the one side cannot but receive the _lions_ on the other\n side; so he that admits the preceding proposition, cannot but admit\n the inseparable counterpart, namely, the following proposition, which\n every attentive and unprejudiced person sees written in blood upon\n that side of Calvin\u2019s standard which is generally kept out of sight,\n \u2018Damnation wholly depends upon the purpose of God according to\n reprobation, without respect to what may be in the reprobates.\u2019 Here\n is no \u2018inventing a monstrous creed,\u2019 but merely turning the leaf of\n your own, and reading what is written there, namely, _damnation\n finished_, evidently answering to _finished salvation_.\u201d\n\nFootnote 275:\n\n The Lock Hospital, where Martin Madan was Chaplain.\n\nFletcher admits that he had used irony in his Checks, not, however,\nbecause he liked it, but because he found it needful. He writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cIf I make use of irony in my Checks, it is not from \u2018_spleen_,\u2019 but\n _reason_. It appears to _me_ that the subject requires it, and that\n _ridiculous error_ is to be turned out of the temple of truth, not\n only with scriptural argument, which is _the sword of the Spirit_, but\n also with _mild irony_, which is a proper scourge for a glaring and\n obstinate mistake.\u201d\n\nHolding such a view, he introduces, in one of the two letters addressed\nto Richard and Rowland Hill unitedly, an illustration of the absurdities\ninvolved in Calvinism, which, perhaps, is as severe as anything that his\nChecks contain. The extract is long, but must be given unabridged.\n\n \u201cYou decry \u2018illustrations,\u2019 and I do not wonder at it; for they carry\n light into Babel, where it is not desired. The father of error begets\n _darkness_ and _confusion_. From darkness and confusion springs\n _Calvinism_, who, wrapping himself up in some garments he has stolen\n from the truth, deceives the nations, and gets himself reverenced in a\n dark temple, as if he were the pure and free Gospel.\n\n \u201cTo bring him to a _shameful_ end, we need not stab him with the\n dagger of \u2018_calumny_,\u2019 or put him upon the rack of _persecution_. Let\n him only be dragged out of his obscurity, and brought unmasked to open\n light. The silent beams of truth will pierce him through! Light alone\n will torture him to death, as the meridian sun does a bird of night\n that cannot fly from the gentle operation of its beams.\n\n \u201cMay the following _illustration_ dart at least one luminous beam into\n the profound darkness in which your venerable Diana delights to dwell!\n And may it show the Christian world that we do not \u2018_slander you_,\u2019\n when we assert, you inadvertently _destroy God\u2019s law_, and cast the\n Redeemer\u2019s _crown to the ground_: and that when you say, \u2018_In point of\n justification_\u2019 (and consequently of condemnation) \u2018_we have nothing\n to do with the law: we are under the law as a rule of life_,\u2019 but not\n as a rule of judgment, you might as well say, \u2018We are under no law,\n and consequently no longer accountable for our actions.\u2019\n\n \u201cThe King, whom I _suppose_ in love with your doctrines of free grace\n and free wrath, by the advice of a predestinarian council and\n parliament, issues out a _Gospel_ proclamation, directed, \u2018To all his\n dear subjects, and _elect_ people, the _English_.\u2019 By this evangelical\n manifesto they are informed, \u2018That in consideration of the Prince of\n Wales\u2019s meritorious intercession, and perfect obedience to the laws of\n England, all the penalties annexed to the breaking of those laws are\n now abolished with respect to _Englishmen_: That His Majesty freely\n pardons all his subjects, who have been, are, or shall be guilty of\n adultery, murder, or treason: That all their crimes, \u201cpast, present,\n and to come, are for ever and for ever cancelled:\u201d\u2019 That,\n nevertheless, his loving subjects, who remain strangers to their\n privileges, shall still be served with sham warrants according to law,\n and frightened out of their wits, till they have learned to plead they\n are _Englishmen_ (_i.e._ elect): And then they shall set at defiance\n all legalists, that is, all those who shall dare to deal with them\n according to law: And that, excepting the case of the above-mentioned\n _false_ prosecution of his chosen people, none of them shall ever be\n molested for the breach of any law.\u2019\n\n \u201cBy the same supreme authority, it is likewise enacted, that all the\n laws shall continue in force against foreigners, (_i.e._ reprobates)\n whom the King and the Prince hate with everlasting hatred, and to whom\n they have agreed never to show mercy: That, accordingly, they shall be\n prosecuted to the utmost rigour of every statute, till they are all\n hanged or burned out of the way: And that, supposing no personal\n offence can be proved against them, it shall be lawful to hang them in\n chains for the crime of one of their forefathers, to set forth the\n King\u2019s wonderful justice, display his glorious sovereignty, and make\n his chosen people relish the better their sweet, distinguishing\n privileges as _Englishmen_.\n\n \u201cMoreover, His Majesty, who loves order and harmony, charges his\n loving subjects to consider still the statutes of England, which are\n in force against foreigners, as very good _rules of life_ for the\n English, which they will do _well_ to follow, but BETTER to break;\n because every breach of those rules will _work for their good_, and\n _make them sing louder_ the faithfulness of the King, the goodness of\n the Prince, and the sweetness of this Gospel proclamation.\n\n \u201cAgain, as nothing is so displeasing to the King as _legality_, which\n he hates even more than extortion and whoredom; lest any of his dear\n people, who have acted the part of a strumpet, robber, murderer, or\n traitor, should, through the remains of their inbred corruption, and\n ridiculous _legality_, mourn too deeply for breaking some of their\n _rules of life_, our gracious Monarch solemnly assures them, that,\n though he highly disapproves of adultery and murder, yet these\n breaches of _rules_ are not worse, in his sight, than a wandering\n thought in speaking to him, or a moment\u2019s dulness in his service: That\n robbers, therefore, and traitors, adulterers and murderers, who are\n free-born _Englishmen_, need not be at all uneasy about losing his\n royal favour; this being utterly impossible, because they always stand\n complete in the honesty, loyalty, chastity, and charity of the Prince.\n\n \u201cMoreover, because the King changes not, whatever lengths the\n _English_ go in immorality, he will always look upon them as his\n _pleasant children_, his _dear people_, and men after his own heart;\n and that, on the other hand, whatsoever lengths foreigners go in pious\n morality, his gracious Majesty is determined still to consider them as\n _hypocrites_, _vessels of wrath_, and _cursed children_, for whom is\n reserved the blackness of darkness for ever; because he always views\n them completely guilty, and absolutely condemned in a certain _robe of\n unrighteousness_, woven thousands of years ago by one of their\n ancestors. This dreadful _sanbenito_[276] His Majesty has thought fit\n to put upon them by imputation; and in it, it is his good pleasure\n that they should hang in adamantine chains, or burn in fire\n unquenchable.\n\n \u201cFinally, as foreigners are dangerous people, and may stir up His\n Majesty\u2019s subjects to rebellion, the _English_ are informed that if\n any one of them, were he to come over from Geneva itself, shall dare\n to insinuate that this most gracious gospel proclamation is not\n according to equity, morality, and godliness, the first Englishman\n that meets him shall have full leave to brand him as a papist, without\n judge or jury, in the forehead or on the back, as he thinks best; and\n that, till he is farther proceeded with according to the utmost\n severity of the law, the chosen nation shall be informed, in the\n _Gospel Magazine_, to beware of him as a man who \u2018scatters firebrands,\n arrows, and deaths,\u2019 and _makes universal havoc of every_ article of\n this sweet gospel proclamation.\n\n \u201cGiven at Geneva, and signed by four of His Majesty\u2019s principal\n secretaries of state for the predestination department.\n\n \u201cJOHN CALVIN. THE AUTHOR OF \u2018P. O.\u2019[277]\n DR. CRISP. ROWLAND HILL.\u201d\n\nFootnote 276:\n\n A frock, painted with flames and devils, in which heretics were burnt\n by the Inquisition.\n\nFootnote 277:\n\n Richard Hill, the author of _Pietas Oxoniensis_.\n\nTo those not acquainted with the Calvinian controversy, this\n\u201cillustration\u201d may appear ungenerous and unfair; but in reality, the\ndoctrines it burlesques had all been asserted by Calvinists, and the\ntheological points involved in them had all been exposed and\ncontroverted by Fletcher, in his \u201cChecks to Antinomianism.\u201d No doubt the\nexposure was unpleasant, but the author of the Checks was not to be\nblamed for this. His work was done with an aching heart in the defence\nof truth and righteousness.\n\nFletcher\u2019s twelfth Letter, addressed to Richard Hill alone, dwells\naltogether on the doctrine of Imputed Righteousness, which Fletcher\ndescribes as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cConsistent Calvinists believe that if a man is elected, God\n absolutely imputes to him Christ\u2019s personal righteousness, _i.e._, the\n perfect obedience unto death which Christ performed upon earth. This\n is reckoned to him for obedience and righteousness, even while he is\n actually disobedient, and before he has a grain of inherent\n righteousness. They consider this imputation, as an unconditional and\n eternal act of grace, by which, not only a sinner\u2019s past sins, but his\n crimes _present_ and _to come_, be they more or be they less, be they\n small or be they great, are for ever and for ever covered. _He is_\n eternally _justified from all things_. And, therefore, under this\n imputation, he is perfectly righteous before God, even while he\n commits adultery or murder. Or, to use your own expression, whatever\n _lengths he runs_, whatever _depths he falls into_, \u2018_he always stands\n absolved, always complete in the everlasting righteousness of the\n Redeemer_.\u2019\u201d\n\nThis, to many Calvinists of the present day, will seem to be an\nextravagant caricature of one of their favourite dogmas, but it must not\nbe overlooked that a great part of Fletcher\u2019s descriptive definition is\nactually taken from the published writings of Richard Hill. No wonder,\ntherefore, that Fletcher, with stinging irony, proceeds to say:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn point of justification, it matters not how unrighteous a believer\n actually is in himself; because the robe of Christ\u2019s personal\n righteousness, which, at his peril, he must not attempt to patch up\n with any personal righteousness of his own, is more than sufficient to\n adorn him from head to foot; and he must be sure to appear before God\n in no other. In this rich garment of _finished salvation_, the\n greatest apostates shine brighter than angels, though they are \u2018_in\n themselves black_\u2019 as the old murderer, and filthy as the brute that\n wallows in the mire. This \u2018best robe,\u2019 as it is called, is\n full-trimmed with such phylacteries as these,\u2014\u2018Once in grace, always\n in grace;\u2019 \u2018Once justified, eternally justified;\u2019 \u2018Once washed, always\n fair, undefiled, and without spot.\u2019 And so great are the privileges of\n those who have it on, that they can range through all the bogs of sin,\n wade through all the puddles of iniquity, and roll themselves in the\n thickest mire of wickedness, without contracting the least spot of\n guilt, or speck of defilement.\u201d\n\nOf course, Fletcher found no difficulty in demolishing such luscious and\npernicious nonsense as this.\n\n \u201cIf this doctrine is true,\u201d says he, \u201cthe Divine perfections suffer a\n general eclipse; one half of the Bible is erased; St. James\u2019s Epistle\n is made void; defiled religion justly passes for \u2018_pure gospel_;\u2019 the\n Calvinian doctrine of perseverance is true; and barefaced\n Antinomianism is properly recommended as \u2018_the doctrines of grace_.\u2019\u201d\n\nFletcher\u2019s last letter, also addressed to \u201cRichard Hill, Esq.\u201d alone,\ndeals with the doctrine of Free-will. His definition of the Methodist\ndoctrine deserves quotation.\n\n \u201cWe never supposed that the natural will of fallen man is free _to\n good_, before it is more or less touched and rectified by grace. All\n we assert is, that, whether a man chooses good or evil, his _will_ is\n _free_, or it does not deserve the name of _will_. It is as far from\n us to think that man, unassisted by Divine grace, is sufficient to\n will spiritual good; as to suppose that when he wills it by grace he\n does not will it _freely_. And, therefore, agreeably to our Tenth\n Article, which you quote against us without the least reason, we\n steadily assert that _we have no power to do good works, without the\n grace of God preventing us_, not that we may have a _free_ will, for\n this we always had in the above-mentioned sense, but _that we may have\n a good will_; believing that, as confirmed saints and angels have a\n _free_ will, though they have no _evil_ will, so abandoned reprobates\n and devils have a _free_ will, though they have no _good_ will.\u201d\n\nThese may appear to the cursory reader metaphysical niceties of no\npractical importance; but, a hundred years ago, they were considered\ndoctrines of vital interest. The difference between Fletcher and his\nCalvinian friends is well stated by himself:\u2014\n\n \u201cFrom our mutual concessions, it is evident we agree, 1. That the will\n is always _free_; 2. That the will of man, considered as fallen in\n Adam, and unassisted by the grace of God, is only _free to evil_; and,\n 3. That when he is _free to good_, free to choose life, he has this\n from redeeming grace.\n\n \u201cBut, although we agree in those material points, the difference\n between us is still very considerable; for, we assert, that through\n the Mediator promised to all mankind in Adam, God, by His free grace,\n restores to ALL _mankind_ a talent of _free will to good_, by which\n they are put in a capacity of _choosing life or death_, that is, of\n acquitting themselves well or ill, at their option, in their present\n state of trial.\n\n \u201cThis _you_ utterly deny, maintaining that man is not in a state of\n probation; and that as Christ died for none but the elect, none but\n they can ever have any degree of saving grace, that is, _any free will\n to good_. Hence, you conclude that _all_ the elect are in a state of\n _finished salvation_; and _necessarily_, _infallibly_, and\n _irresistibly_ choose life; while _all_ the reprobates are shut up in\n a state of _finished_ damnation; and _necessarily_, _infallibly_, and\n _irresistibly_ choose death.\n\n \u201cWe are obliged to oppose this doctrine, because it appears to us a\n doctrine of _wrath_, rather than a doctrine of _grace_. If we are not\n mistaken, it is opposite to the general tenor of the Scriptures,\n injurious to all the Divine perfections, and subversive of this\n fundamental truth of natural and revealed religion, _God shall judge\n the world in righteousness_. It is calculated to strengthen the carnal\n security of Laodicean professors, raise horrid anxieties in the minds\n of doubting Christians, and give damned spirits just ground to\n blaspheme to all eternity. Again, it withdraws from thinking sinners\n and judicious saints the helps which God has given them, by multitudes\n of conditional promises and threatenings, designed to work upon their\n _hopes_ and _fears_. And, while it unnecessarily stumbles men of sense\n and hardens infidels, it affords wicked men rational excuses to\n continue in their sins, and gives desperate offenders full room to\n charge not only Adam, but God Himself, with all their enormities.\u201d\n\nIn this piteous way did the evangelical revivalists of the last century\nbecome divided. It was a mournful scene; but, in the long run, it was\nover-ruled for good. Error was crushed, and truth rose triumphant.\nMeanwhile, on one side at least, great bitterness was engendered, and\nlamentable epithets were used. In the hottest of the fray, however,\nFletcher, the chief combatant, never lost his temper. Hence, in\nconcluding his \u201cFourth Check to Antinomianism,\u201d he wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cAlthough we severely expose the mistakes of godly Calvinists, we\n sincerely love their persons, truly reverence their piety, and\n cordially rejoice in the success which attends their evangelical\n labours. And, although we cannot admit their _logic_, while they\n defend a bad cause with bad arguments, we should do them great\n injustice if we did not acknowledge that there have been, and are\n still among them, men eminent for good sense and good learning\u2014men as\n remarkable for their skill in the art of logic, as for their deep\n acquaintance with the oracles of God. We thank them for their pious\n labours; we ask the continuance, or the renewal, of their valuable\n love. We invite them to our pulpits; and assure them that, if they\n admit us into theirs, we shall do by them as we would be done\n by,\u2014avoiding to touch there, or among their own people occasionally\n committed to our charge, upon the points of doctrine debated between\n us; and reserving to ourselves the liberty of bearing our full\n testimony in our own pulpits, and from the press, against\n Antinomianism and Pharisaism in all their shapes.\u201d\n\nThere were other combatants in the field whose power over themselves was\nnot so great and so praiseworthy. Walter Sellon was one of them, to whom\nRichard Hill addressed the following, hitherto unpublished, letter, just\nabout the time when the Fourth Check of Fletcher first appeared:\u2014\n\n \u201cHAWKSTONE, _December 24, 1772_.\n\n \u201cDEAR SIR,\u2014It will answer no end for you and me to continue our\n disputes, except that of stirring up the old man in us both. I believe\n you have the grace of God, and I am sure you are blest with a good\n understanding, which is well cultivated by acquired knowledge. With\n these endowments and qualifications, I trust it will please God to\n make you abundantly useful in the cause of Christ. I heartily forgive\n whatever has savoured more of Walter Sellon than of Jesus Christ in\n your two letters to me; and I beg the same on behalf of poor Richard\n Hill. Come, my dear Sir, let us pray for each other. If ever I have\n the pleasure of seeing you in the flesh, be assured that I shall\n embrace you in the bonds of brotherly love; if not, I trust we shall\n one day meet in a better place, where there will be no other\n contention between us than who shall sing loudest, \u2018Grace, grace unto\n it!\u2019 Without undervaluing myself in any respect, this will certainly\n be the privilege of that amazing monument of mercy who desires always\n to subscribe himself,\n\n \u201cVery dear Sir, your sincere and affectionate friend, in the best of\n bonds,\n\n RICHARD HILL.\u201d\n\n \u201cTo the Rev. Mr. Sellon,\n Ledsham, near Ferry Bridge,\n Yorkshire.\u201d\n\nThis polemical chapter cannot be more fitly concluded than with these\nbreathings of Christian love, to which may be added an extract from a\nletter which Fletcher wrote to Mr. Charles Perronet, who was suffering\ngreat affliction of body and mind:\u2014\n\n \u201c1772, September 7.\u2014MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014No cross, no crown; the\n heavier the cross, the brighter the crown.\n\n \u201c\u2018O for a firm and lasting faith,\n To credit all the Almighty saith!\u2019\n\n \u201cFaith, I mean the _evidence of things not seen_, is a powerful\n cordial to support and exhilarate us under the heaviest pressures of\n pain and temptation. By faith, we live upon the _invisible, eternal_\n God; we believe that _in Him_ we live, move, and have our being;\n insensibly we slide from _self_ into _God_, from the visible into the\n invisible, from the carnal into the spiritual, from time into\n eternity. Here our spirits are ever young; they live in and upon the\n very fountain of strength, sprightliness, and joy. Oh! my dear friend,\n let us rest more upon the _truth as it is in Jesus_. Of late, I have\n been brought to feed more upon Jesus as _the truth_. I see more in Him\n in that character than I ever did. I see Christ _the truth_ of my\n life, friends, relations, sense, food, raiment, light, fire,\n resting-place. All out of Him are but shadows. All _in Him_ are\n blessed sacraments; I mean visible signs of the fountain, or vehicles\n to convey the streams of inward grace.\u201d[278]\n\nFootnote 278:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XII.\n _\u201cAPPEAL TO MATTER OF FACT AND COMMON\n SENSE.\u201d_\n\n 1772.\n\n\nTHE present chapter is a somewhat inconvenient break in the history of\nthe Calvinian controversy; but in maintaining chronological order, the\ninconvenience cannot be avoided.\n\nFletcher\u2019s \u201cFourth Check to Antinomianism\u201d was finished on November 15,\n1772, and was published before the year was terminated. On a fly-leaf at\nthe end of the _first_ edition the following advertisement was printed:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn a few days will be published, price two shillings, by the same\n author, \u2018An Appeal to Matter of Fact and Common Sense; Or, A Rational\n Demonstration of Man\u2019s corrupt and lost Estate.\u2019\u201d\n\nIn some respects, this is Fletcher\u2019s ablest publication, and certainly\nit has been his most popular. A \u201csecond edition, revised and enlarged,\u201d\nwas printed a few months after the first, and, since then, it has been\nscores of times re-issued. As early as the year 1804, Joseph Benson,\nFletcher\u2019s biographer, remarked concerning it, \u201cI hardly know a treatise\nthat has been so universally read, or made so eminently useful.\u201d Even\nthe _Monthly Review_ had nought to say against it. In the number for\nMarch, 1773, the editor\u2019s notice of it was the following:\u2014\n\n \u201cAlthough we cannot subscribe to all Mr. Fletcher\u2019s religious\n opinions, we think there are abundance of good things in his writings;\n and we have no doubt that he is warmly animated by a sincere and pious\n regard for the salvation of the souls that are committed to his\n charge, as well as for the spiritual welfare of mankind in general.\u201d\n\nIt is worthy of remark that besides being vended at Wesley\u2019s Foundery in\nLondon, the first edition was also \u201csold at the _workhouse_ in Madeley\nWood, Shropshire, _for the benefit of the poor_.\u201d When the second\nedition was published, the _workhouse_, for some unknown reason, was not\nadvertised. Probably parochial officials had interdicted the sale.\n\nFletcher seems to have spent more time upon his \u201cAppeal to Matter of\nFact and Common Sense\u201d than he did upon any of his \u201cChecks to\nAntinomianism.\u201d Joseph Benson saw it in manuscript, and read most of it,\na year before its publication. Fletcher took it to Bristol and left it\nthere; but, before it was committed to the press, he requested that it\nmight be returned to him at Madeley, to be further revised and improved.\nFor many weeks, the manuscript was unheard of, \u201cbut,\u201d says Benson, \u201che\nwas quite easy under the apprehended loss, which certainly would not\nhave been a small one, as any person will judge who considers how much\nthought and time such a work must have cost him. It was found, however,\nby-and-by, had the finishing hand put to it, and was published to the\nconviction and edification of thousands.\u201d[279]\n\nFootnote 279:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nFletcher\u2019s dedication of his book, highly characteristic, and embodying\nbiographical facts, deserves attention.\n\n \u201cTo the principal inhabitants of the parish of Madeley, in the county\n of Salop.\n\n \u201cGENTLEMEN,\u2014You are no less entitled to my private labours than the\n inferior class of my parishioners. As you do not choose to partake\n with them of my evening instructions, I take the liberty to present\n you with some of my morning meditations. May these well-meant\n endeavours of my pen be more acceptable to you than those of my\n tongue! And may you carefully read in your closets what you have\n perhaps inattentively heard in the church! I appeal to the Searcher of\n hearts that I had rather impart truths than receive tithes. You kindly\n bestow the latter upon me; grant me, I pray, the satisfaction of\n seeing you favourably receive the former, from, gentlemen, your\n affectionate minister and obedient servant,\n\n \u201cMadeley, 1772.\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d\n\nFletcher\u2019s principal tithe payers would not attend his evening services,\nand yet he was more anxious to teach them \u201cthe truth as it is in Jesus,\u201d\nthan to receive their pelf. He loved their souls, though they were too\nhigh and mighty\u2014that is, too worldly and ignorant\u2014to appreciate his\nministry.\n\nFletcher rightly regarded the doctrine which he irrefutably establishes\nas of the highest importance. By large numbers of men, who considered\nthemselves good Christians, it was treated with indifference, and in\nmany instances it was flatly denied. With the exception of his \u201cNotes on\nthe Old and New Testaments,\u201d the largest as well as the ablest book\nWesley ever wrote was on the same subject. His \u201cDoctrine of Original Sin\naccording to Scripture, Reason, and Experience,\u201d was first published in\n1757; and now, fifteen years later, his friend Fletcher, doubtless with\nhis approval, used his great talents to the utmost in defending the same\ndogma. In both books, to some extent, the same line of argumentation is\nfollowed; but, of course, Fletcher\u2019s style is very different from that\nof Wesley. Both of them insisted that the doctrine is essential to the\nChristian religion, and that if it is not true, the Christian religion\nis not needed. In his preface Wesley wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cIf we take away this foundation, that man is by nature foolish and\n sinful, \u2018fallen short of the glorious image of God,\u2019 the Christian\n system falls at once; nor will it deserve so honourable an appellation\n as that of a \u2018cunningly devised fable.\u2019\u201d\n\nFletcher began his book with the same assertion. His first paragraph is\nas follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn every religion, there is a principal truth or error, which, like\n the first link of a chain, necessarily draws after it all the parts\n with which it is essentially connected. This leading principle in\n Christianity, distinguished from Deism, is the doctrine of our corrupt\n and lost estate; for if man is not _at variance_ with his Creator,\n what need of a _Mediator_ between God and him? If he is not a\n _depraved, undone_ creature, what necessity of so wonderful a\n _Restorer_ and _Saviour_ as the Son of God? If he is not _enslaved_ to\n sin, why is he _redeemed_ by Jesus Christ? If he is not _polluted_,\n why must he be _washed in the blood of_ that immaculate _Lamb_? If his\n soul is not _disordered_, what occasion is there for such a divine\n _Physician_? If he is not _helpless_ and _miserable_, why is he\n perpetually invited to secure the _assistance_ and _consolations_ of\n the Holy Spirit? And, in a word, if he is not _born in sin_, why is a\n _new birth_ so absolutely necessary, that Christ declares, with the\n most solemn asseverations, _without it no man can see the kingdom of\n God_?\n\n \u201cThis doctrine then being of such importance that genuine Christianity\n stands or falls with it, it may be proper to state it at large; and as\n this cannot be done in stronger and plainer words than those of the\n sacred writers and our pious Reformers, I beg leave to collect them\n and present the reader with a picture of our natural estate, drawn at\n full length by those ancient and masterly hands.\u201d\n\nFletcher proceeds to do this, and with irrefutable arguments establishes\nhis doctrine; but in this part of his work there is no need to follow\nhim. Indeed, his summary of Scripture proofs and his quotations from the\nArticles, Homilies, and Liturgy of the Church of England, do not fill\nmore than about a dozen pages. His \u201csecond part\u201d he begins as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cAs no man is bound to believe what is contrary to common sense, if\n the above-stated doctrine appears irrational, Scriptures, Articles,\n Homilies, and Liturgy are quoted in vain. When men of parts are\n pressed with their authority, they start from it as an imposition on\n their reason, and make as honourable a retreat as they possibly can.\n\n \u201cSome, to extricate themselves at once, set the Bible aside as full of\n incredible assertions. Others, with more modesty, plead that the\n Scriptures have been frequently misunderstood, and are so in the\n present case. They put grammar, criticism, and common sense to the\n rack, to show that when the inspired writers say the human _heart is\n desperately wicked_, they mean that it is extremely good; or at least\n like blank paper, ready to receive either the characters of virtue or\n of vice. With respect to the testimony of our Reformers, they would\n have you to understand that in this enlightened age we must leave\n their harsh, uncharitable sentiments to the old Puritans and the\n present Methodists.\n\n \u201cThat such objectors may subscribe as a solemn truth what they have\n hitherto rejected as a dangerous error, and that humbled sinners may\n see the propriety of a heart-felt repentance, and the absolute need of\n an Almighty Redeemer, they are here presented with some proofs of our\n depravity, taken from the astonishing severity of God\u2019s dispensations\n towards mankind.\u201d\n\nLimited space renders it impossible to give an outline of Fletcher\u2019s\nthirty-six arguments, all founded upon the following axiom:\u2014\n\n \u201cIf we consider the Supreme Being as creating a world for the\n manifestation of His glory, the display of His perfections, and the\n communication of His happiness to an intelligent creature, whom He\n would attach to Himself by the strongest ties of gratitude and love,\n we at once perceive that He never could form this earth and man in\n their present disordered, deplorable condition.\u201d\n\nAn extract from the ninth argument will not be out of place, furnishing,\nas it does, a doleful picture of a large number of Fletcher\u2019s\nparishioners\u2014the colliers, the bargemen, and the iron-workers.\n\n \u201cTo go no farther than this populous parish; with what hardships and\n dangers do our indigent neighbours earn their bread! See those who\n ransack the bowels of the earth to get the black mineral we burn; how\n little is their lot preferable to the Spanish felons who work the\n golden mines?\n\n \u201cThey take their leave of the light of the sun, and, suspended by a\n rope, are let down many fathoms perpendicularly towards the centre of\n the globe; they traverse the rocks through which they have dug their\n horizontal ways. The murderer\u2019s cell is a palace in comparison of the\n black spot to which they repair; the vagrant\u2019s posture in the stocks\n is preferable to that in which they labour.\n\n \u201cForm, if you can, an idea of the misery of men kneeling, stooping, or\n lying on one side, to toil all day in a confined place, where a child\n could hardly stand; whilst a younger company, with their hands and\n feet on the black dusty ground, and a chain about their body, creep,\n and drag along, like four-footed beasts, heavy loads of the dirty\n mineral, through ways almost impassable to the curious observer.\n\n \u201cIn these low and dreary vaults, all the elements seem combined\n against them. Destructive damps, and clouds of noxious dust, infect\n the air they breathe. Sometimes water incessantly distils on their\n naked bodies; or, bursting upon them in streams, drowns them, and\n deluges their work. At other times, pieces of detached rocks crush\n them to death; or the earth, breaking in upon them, buries them alive.\n And frequently sulphureous vapours, kindled in an instant by the light\n of their candles, form subterraneous thunder and lightning. What a\n dreadful phenomenon! How impetuous is the blast! How fierce the\n rolling flames! How intolerable the noisome smell! How dreadful the\n continued roar! How violent and fatal the explosion!\n\n \u201cWonderful providence! Some of the unhappy men have time to prostrate\n themselves; the fiery scourge grazes their backs; the ground shields\n their breasts; they escape. See them wound up out of the blazing\n dungeon, and say if _these are not brands plucked out of the fire_. A\n pestiferous steam and clouds of suffocating smoke pursue them. Half\n dead themselves, they hold their dead or dying companions in their\n trembling arms. Merciful God of Shadrach! Kind Protector of Meshach!\n Mighty Deliverer of Abednego! Patient Preserver of rebellious Jonah!\n Will not _these_ utter a song\u2014a song of praise to Thee? praise ardent\n as the flames they escape\u2014lasting as the life Thou prolongest? Alas,\n they refuse! And some\u2014O tell it not among the heathens, lest they for\n ever abhor the name of _Christian_\u2014some return to the very pits where\n they have been branded with sulphureous fire by the warning hand of\n Providence, and there, sporting themselves again with the most\n infernal wishes, call aloud for a fire that cannot be quenched, and\n challenge the Almighty to cast them into hell, that bottomless pit\n whence there is no return.\n\n \u201cLeave these black men at their perilous work, and see yonder\n barge-men haling that loaded vessel against wind and stream. Since the\n dawn of day, they have wrestled with the impetuous current; and now\n that it almost overpowers them, how do they exert all their remaining\n strength, and strain their every nerve? How are they bathed in sweat\n and rain? Fastened to their lines as horses to their traces, wherein\n do they differ from the laborious brutes? Not in an erect posture of\n the body, for, in the intenseness of their toil, they bend forward,\n their head is foremost, and their hands upon the ground. If there is\n any difference, it consists in this: horses are indulged with a collar\n to save their breasts; and these, as if theirs were not worth saving,\n draw without one; the beasts tug in patient silence and mutual\n harmony; but the men with loud contention and horrible imprecations. O\n sin, what hast thou done? Is it not enough that these drudges should\n toil like brutes? must they also curse one another like devils?\n\n \u201cIf you have gone beyond the hearing of their impious oaths, stop to\n consider the sons of Vulcan confined to these forges and furnaces. Is\n their lot much preferable? A sultry air and clouds of smoke and dust\n are the elements in which they labour. The confused noise of water\n falling, steam hissing, fire-engines working, wheels turning, files\n creaking, hammers beating, ore bursting, and bellows roaring, form the\n dismal concert that strikes the ears; while a continual eruption of\n flames, ascending from the mouth of their artificial volcanoes, dazzle\n their eyes with a horrible glare. Massy bars of hot iron are the heavy\n tools they handle, cylinders of the first magnitude the enormous\n weights they heave, vessels full of melted metal the dangerous loads\n they carry, streams of the same burning fluid the fiery rivers which\n they conduct into the deep cavities of their subterraneous moulds, and\n millions of flying sparks with a thousand drops of liquid, hissing\n iron, the horrible showers to which they are exposed. See them cast:\n you would think them in a bath and not in a furnace; they bedew the\n burning sand with their streaming sweat; nor are their wet garments\n dried up, either by the fierce fires they attend, or the fiery streams\n which they manage. Certainly, of all men, these have best reason to\n remember the just sentence of an offended God: \u2018In the sweat of thy\n face shalt thou eat thy bread all the days of thy life.\u2019\u201d\n\nThis long extract is given, not as a specimen of Fletcher\u2019s style of\nwriting, for it is hardly that, but as a truthful description of a large\nnumber of the poor creatures of whom he had the pastoral oversight. Many\na passage of the highest kind of eloquence might be cited; but the\nreader is recommended to buy and peruse the book himself. The following\nis presented, solely because it refers to growing evils, alarmingly\nprevalent among people who think themselves religious:\u2014\n\n \u201cBut all are not employed in sin and wickedness, for many go through a\n constant round of _innocent diversions_; and these, at least, must be\n _innocent_ and _happy_. Let us then consider the amusements of\n mankind, and see how far _our own_ pleasures demonstrate our\n _innocence_ and _happiness_.\n\n \u201cHow excessively foolish are the plays of children! How full of\n mischief and cruelty the sports of boys! How vain, foppish, and frothy\n the joys of young people! And how much below the dignity of upright,\n pure creatures, the snares that persons of different sexes lay for\n each other! When they are together, is not this their favourite\n amusement, till they are deservedly caught in the net which they\n imprudently spread? But see them asunder.\n\n \u201cHere a circle of idle women, supping a decoction of Indian herbs,\n talk or laugh all together, like so many chirping birds, or chattering\n monkeys, and, scandal excepted, every way to as good a purpose. And\n there, a club of graver men blow, by the hour, clouds of stinking\n smoke out of their mouths, or wash it down their throats with repeated\n draughts of intoxicating liquors. The strong fumes have already\n reached their heads, and, while some stagger home, others triumphantly\n keep the field of excess; though one is already stamped with the\n heaviness of the ox, another worked up to the fierceness and roar of\n the lion, and a third brought down to the filthiness of the vomiting\n dog.\n\n \u201cLeave them at their _manly_ sport, to follow those musical sounds,\n mixed with a noise of stamping, and you will find others profusely\n perspiring, and violently fatiguing themselves, in skipping up and\n down a room for a whole night, and ridiculously turning their backs\n and faces to each other a hundred different ways. Would not a man of\n sense prefer running ten miles upon an _useful_ errand, to this\n useless manner of losing his rest, heating his blood, exhausting his\n spirits, unfitting himself for the duties of the following day, and\n laying the foundation of a putrid fever or a consumption, by breathing\n the midnight air corrupted by clouds of dust, by the unwholesome fumes\n of candles, and by the more pernicious steam that issues from the\n bodies of many persons, who use the strong exercise in a confined\n place.\n\n \u201cIn the next room they are more quiet, but are they more rationally\n employed? Why do they so earnestly rattle those ivory cubes; and so\n anxiously study those packs of loose and spotted leaves? Is happiness\n graven upon the one, or stamped upon the other? Answer, ye gamesters,\n who curse your stars, as ye go home with an empty purse and a heart\n full of rage.\n\n \u201c\u2018We hope there is no harm in taking an innocent game at cards,\u2019 reply\n a ridiculous party of superannuated ladies; \u2018gain is not our aim; we\n only play to kill time.\u2019 You are not then so well employed as the\n foolish heathen emperor, who amused himself in killing troublesome\n flies and wearisome time together. The delight of rational creatures,\n much more of Christians on the brink of the grave, is to redeem,\n improve, and solidly enjoy time; but yours, alas! consists in the bare\n irreparable _loss_ of that invaluable treasure. Oh! what account will\n you give of the souls you neglect, and the talents you bury?\n\n \u201cAnd are _public_ diversions better evidence of our innocence and\n happiness?\u201d\n\nFletcher then proceeds to descant, in the same style, on theatrical\nperformances, annual wakes, horse-racing, cock-fighting, man-fighting,\nand dog-fighting; and then concludes his \u201cTwenty-third Argument,\u201d as\nfollows:\u2014\n\n \u201cThese are thy favourite amusements, O England, thou centre of the\n civilized world, where reformed Christianity, deep-thinking wisdom,\n and polite learning, with all its refinements, have fixed their abode!\n But, in the name of common sense, how can we clear them from the\n imputation of absurdity, folly, and madness? And by what means can\n they be reconciled, I will not say to the religion of the meek Jesus,\n but to the philosophy of a Plato, or the calm reason of any thinking\n man? How perverted must be the taste, how irrational and cruel the\n diversions of barbarians, in other parts of the globe! And how\n applicable to all the wise man\u2019s observation: \u2018Foolishness is bound up\n in the heart of a child, and madness in the breasts of the sons of\n men!\u2019\u201d\n\nFurther extensive extracts from Fletcher\u2019s invaluable book need not be\ngiven here. What he calls his \u201cShort Defence of the Oracles of God\u201d\ncannot be perused by any candid reader without the conviction being\nproduced that infidelity, in all its phases, is the most unreasonable\ntheory in existence. From his thirty-six arguments,\u2014unanswerable\narguments,\u2014he deduces ten inferences, namely:\u2014\n\n \u201c1. If we are by nature in a corrupt and lost estate, the grand\n business of ministers is to warn us of our imminent danger. 2. If we\n are naturally depraved and condemned creatures, self-righteousness and\n pride are the most absurd and monstrous of all our sins. 3. If the\n corruption of mankind is universal and inveterate, no mere creature\n can deliver them from it. 4. If our guilt is immense, it cannot be\n expiated without a sacrifice of an infinite dignity. 5. If our\n spiritual maladies are both numerous and mortal, we cannot recover the\n spiritual health that we enjoyed in our first parents, but by the\n powerful help of our heavenly Physician, the second Adam. 6. If our\n nature is so completely fallen and totally helpless, that, in\n spiritual things, \u2018we are not sufficient of ourselves to think any\n thing\u2019 truly good \u2018as of ourselves,\u2019 it is plain we stand in absolute\n need of the Spirit\u2019s assistance to enable us to pray, repent, believe,\n love, and obey aright. 7. If we are really and truly born in sin, our\n regeneration cannot be a mere metaphor, or a vain ceremony, but real\n and positive. 8. If the fall of mankind in Adam does not consist in a\n capricious imputation of his personal guilt, but in a real, present\n participation of his depravity, impotence, and misery, the salvation\n that believers have in Christ is not a capricious imputation of His\n personal righteousness, but a real, present participation of His\n purity, power, and blessedness, together with pardon and acceptance.\n 9. If the corrupt nature, which sinners derive from Adam,\n spontaneously produces all the wickedness that overspreads the earth,\n the holy nature which believers receive from Christ is spontaneously\n productive of all the fruits of righteousness described in the oracles\n of God. 10. If corruption and sin work so powerfully and sensibly in\n the hearts of the unregenerate, we may, without deserving the name of\n enthusiasts, affirm that the regenerate are sensible of the powerful\n effects of Divine grace in their souls; or, to use the words of our\n Seventeenth Article, we may say, \u2018They feel in themselves the workings\n of the Spirit of Christ.\u2019\u201d\n\nWhen it is added that the doctrines, from which these inferences are\ndrawn, are plainly stated, and fully proved, a good general idea of\nFletcher\u2019s book will be given. His \u201cConcluding Address to the Serious\nReader, who inquires, What must I do to be saved?\u201d has been read by\nmyriads, and cannot be read too much. The last two paragraphs of his\ntreatise must be quoted:\u2014\n\n \u201c_This_ book is chiefly recommended to disbelieving moralists, who\n deride the doctrine of salvation by grace _through faith_ in the day\n of conversion, merely because they are not properly acquainted with\n our fallen and lost estate. And the _Checks_ are chiefly designed for\n disbelieving Antinomians, who rise against the doctrine of a\n believer\u2019s salvation by grace _through the works_ of faith in the\n great day, merely because they do not consider the indispensable\n necessity of evangelical obedience, and the nature of the day of\n judgment.\n\n \u201cIn the _Appeal_, the careless, self-conceited sinner is awakened and\n humbled. In the _Address_, the serious, humbled sinner is raised up\n and comforted. And in the _Checks_, the foolish virgin is re-awakened,\n the Laodicean believer reproved, the prodigal son lashed back to his\n father\u2019s house, and the upright believer animated to mend his pace in\n the way of _faith working by love_, and to _perfect holiness in the\n fear of God_.\u201d\n\nSuch is Fletcher\u2019s own accurate account of the important works he had\nhitherto committed to the press.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIII.\n _WESLEY\u2019S DESIGNATED SUCCESSOR: THE\n PENITENT THIEF: A DREADFUL PHENOMENON,\n ETC., ETC._\n\n 1773.\n\n\nTO preserve chronological order, another chapter must be interjected\nbefore the history of the Calvinian controversy is resumed.\n\nIn the month of January, 1773, Wesley sent to Fletcher the remarkable\nletter with which the present work commences. He wished Fletcher to\nrelinquish his vicarage, and to put himself into training to become,\nafter Wesley\u2019s death, the \u201c\u03c9\u03c1\u03bf\u03b5\u03c3\u03c4\u03c9\u03c2\u201d of the Methodists. Wesley\u2019s health,\napparently, was failing. He was full of anxiety. \u201cThe body of the\npreachers,\u201d he wrote, \u201care not united: nor will any part of them submit\nto the rest; so that either there must be one to preside over all, or\nthe work will indeed come to an end.\u201d Subsequent events proved Wesley\u2019s\nfears to be unfounded; but, for the time being, they were real, and\ndisquieted him. He wished to train his successor, and to introduce him\nto the people. He specified what he considered to be the necessary\nqualifications of such a man, and regarded Fletcher as the only one of\nhis wide acquaintance as possessing them. \u201cWithout conferring,\ntherefore, with flesh and blood,\u201d said he, \u201ccome and strengthen the\nhands, comfort the heart, and share the labour of your affectionate\nfriend and brother, John Wesley.\u201d\n\nFletcher\u2019s reply to Wesley\u2019s most important proposal was as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY,\n\n .\n\n \u201cREV. AND DEAR SIR,\u2014I hope the Lord, who has so wonderfully stood by\n you hitherto, will preserve you to see many of your sheep, and me\n among them, enter into rest. Should Providence call you first, I shall\n do my best, by the Lord\u2019s assistance, to help your brother to gather\n the wreck, and keep together those who are not absolutely bent to\n throw away the Methodist doctrines and discipline, as soon as he that\n now letteth is removed out of the way. Every help will then be\n necessary, and I shall not be backward to throw in my mite.\n\n \u201cIn the meantime, you sometimes need an assistant to serve tables, and\n occasionally to fill up a gap. Providence visibly appointed _me_ to\n that office many years ago. And though it no less evidently called me\n hither, yet I have not been without doubt, especially for some years\n past, whether it would not be expedient that I should resume my office\n as your deacon; not with any view of presiding over the Methodists\n after you; but to ease you in your old age, and to be in the way of\n recovering, and, perhaps, doing more good. I have sometimes thought\n how shameful it was that no clergyman should join you, to keep in the\n Church the work God has enabled you to carry on therein. And, as the\n little estate I have in my own country is sufficient for my\n maintenance, I have thought I would, one day or other, offer you and\n the Methodists my free service. While my love of retirement made me\n linger, I was providentially led to do something in Lady Huntingdon\u2019s\n plan; but, being shut out there, it appears to me I am again called to\n my first work.\n\n \u201cNevertheless, I would not leave this place, without a fuller\n persuasion that the time is _quite_ come. Not that God uses me much\n here, but I have not yet sufficiently cleared my conscience from the\n blood of all men. Meantime, I beg the Lord to guide me by His counsel,\n and make me willing to go anywhere, or nowhere, to be anything, or\n nothing.\n\n \u201cHelp by your prayers, till you can bless by word of mouth, Rev. and\n dear Sir, your willing, though unprofitable servant in the Gospel,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[280]\n\nFootnote 280:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d p. 66.\n\nFletcher did not decline Wesley\u2019s proposal; but he deferred coming to a\ndecision until \u201cthe time was quite come.\u201d Whether the proposal was\nafterwards _formally_ renewed, it is difficult to determine; but Dr.\nWhitehead, who, from 1764 to 1769, had been one of the itinerant\npreachers, and who was well acquainted with both Wesley and his friend\nFletcher, remarks concerning Wesley\u2019s request:\u2014\n\n \u201cThis warm and sincere invitation to a situation not only respected\n but even reverenced by so large a body of people, must have been\n highly flattering to Mr. Fletcher; especially as it came from a person\n he most sincerely loved; whose superior abilities, learning, and\n labours he admired; and to whose success in the ministry he wished to\n give every assistance in his power. But he well knew the\n embarrassments Mr. Wesley met with in the government of the preachers,\n though he alone, under the providence of God, had given existence to\n their present character, influence, and usefulness. He was also well\n acquainted with the mutual jealousies the preachers had of each other,\n and with their jarring interests: and, above all, with the general\n determination which prevailed among them not to be under the control\n of any one man after the death of Mr. Wesley. Under these\n circumstances, he saw nothing before him but darkness, storms, and\n tempests, with the most threatening dangers, especially if he should\n live to be alone in the office. He therefore determined not to launch\n his little bark on so tempestuous an ocean.\n\n \u201cI cannot, however, but lament that he did not accept Mr. Wesley\u2019s\n invitation, as he would have done much good while he lived, and have\n prevented many of the evils which have since taken place.\u201d[281]\n\nFootnote 281:\n\n Whitehead\u2019s \u201cLife of Wesley,\u201d vol. ii., p. 356.\n\nThe evils which Dr. Whitehead deprecated were the resolutions enacted by\nthe Methodist Conferences, held after Wesley\u2019s decease, respecting the\npreachers being allowed to administer the sacraments to their Societies,\nto hold services in Methodist chapels \u201cin church hours,\u201d and other\nkindred matters. Of all this, Dr. Whitehead, an able and honest man,\nstrongly disapproved, and hence his regret that Fletcher, by declining\nWesley\u2019s invitation, had not helped to, at least, postpone such serious\nchanges.\n\nWesley foresaw the probability, and indeed the certainty, of such\nchanges being made, and he also lamented Fletcher\u2019s decision. Thirteen\nyears afterwards, in commenting upon Fletcher\u2019s letter to himself, he\nwrote:\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018Providence,\u2019 says he, \u2018visibly appointed me to that office\u2019\n [Wesley\u2019s assistant] \u2018many years ago.\u2019 Is it any wonder then that he\n should now be _in doubt_ whether he did right in confining himself to\n one spot? The more I reflect upon it, the more I am convinced he had\n great reason to doubt this. I can never believe it was the will of God\n that such a burning and shining light should be _hid under a bushel_.\n No; instead of being confined to a country village, it ought to have\n shone in every corner of our land. He was full as much called to sound\n an alarm through all the nation as Mr. Whitefield himself. Nay,\n abundantly more so; seeing he was far better qualified for that\n important work. He had a more striking person, equally good breeding,\n an equally winning address, together with a richer flow of fancy, a\n stronger understanding; a far greater treasure of learning, both in\n languages, philosophy, philology, and divinity; and, above all (which\n I can speak with fuller assurance, because I had a thorough knowledge\n both of one and the other), a more deep and constant communion with\n the Father, and with the Son, Jesus Christ.\n\n \u201cAnd yet let not any one imagine that I depreciate Mr. Whitefield, or\n undervalue the grace of God and the extraordinary gifts which his\n great Master vouchsafed unto him. I believe he was highly favoured of\n God; yea, that he was one of the most eminent ministers that has\n appeared in England, or perhaps in the world, during the present\n century. Yet I must own I have known many fully equal to Mr.\n Whitefield, both in holy tempers and holiness of conversation; but one\n equal herein to Mr. Fletcher I have not known; no, not in a life of\n fourscore years.\u201d[282]\n\nFootnote 282:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d p. 68.\n\nNo wonder that Wesley lamented the course taken by his wished-for\nsuccessor; but it is rather difficult to say why Wesley should cast upon\nhim loving blame for confining his light \u201cto a country village.\u201d\nFletcher\u2019s hands were full of literary works, by means of which he had\ndefended, and continued to defend, the doctrines which it was the object\nof Wesley\u2019s life to propagate. Besides, in about a year after Wesley\nmade his proposal, Fletcher\u2019s health began to fail, and never after that\nwas his physical vigour such as to enable him to undertake the laborious\nitinerancy which Wesley contemplated and desired. Upon the whole, it is\nan open question whether Fletcher did not render greater service to\nWesley and the Methodists by continuing his literary defence of their\ngreat and glorious doctrines than he would have done if he had accepted\nWesley\u2019s invitation to go into training to become his successor.\n\nIn other ways, however, besides his writings, he rendered great\nassistance to his friend. It was just after the time when Wesley wrote\nhis important letter that an incident occurred which is worth relating.\n\nSamuel Bradburn, a soldier\u2019s son, was born at Gibraltar in 1751. At\ntwelve years of age he was brought to England; at nineteen became a\nMethodist; and at twenty-one began to preach. During his residence at\nGibraltar, he was sent to school at a penny a week; but, on the terms\nbeing raised to three-halfpence, his mother took him away, finding it\ninconvenient to be at such an expense for her son\u2019s education. This was\nall the schooling that he had; but he was taught to read at home, and\nbefore he was eight years old had committed the histories of Joseph and\nSamson to memory. On coming to England, his parents settled at Chester,\nand he himself was apprenticed to a shoemaker. In the week preceding\nEaster, in 1773, he set off to Madeley to have an interview with\nFletcher, whose \u201cChecks\u201d he had been reading. On approaching the\nvicarage, he saw a man working in the garden, who, addressing the young\nshoemaker, said, \u201cYou see, my brother, a fulfilment of the curse, \u2018In\nthe sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.\u2019\u201d Bradburn, stating who he\nwas, said he had not been at Madeley before, and wished to be introduced\nto Mr. Fletcher. \u201cI am John Fletcher,\u201d replied the amateur gardener.\nBradburn, for the moment, was embarrassed; but on saying that he had\ncome to consult the vicar of Madeley respecting his being called to\nengage in the Christian ministry, Fletcher, with his characteristic\ngenerosity, led him into his house, and requested him to become his\nguest. The invitation was gratefully accepted, and during his stay the\nyoung shoemaker was treated with paternal kindness. Bradburn, like his\nhost, was an early riser, and every morning was employed in finding the\ntexts of Scripture which Fletcher wished to use in the \u201cCheck\u201d he was\nthen writing, and in listening to Fletcher\u2019s exposition of them. When\ntwo or three hours had thus been spent, the students went into the\ngarden of the vicarage and had a spell at any kind of work that needed\nattention. After this followed the plain gruel breakfast and domestic\ndevotion. Then several more hours were employed in the vicar\u2019s study;\nafter which the master and the pupil set out to visit the parishioners.\nEvery night in the week young Bradburn preached in colliers\u2019 cottages,\nor in the Methodist meeting-house, Fletcher standing by his side, and\ngenerally supplementing the sermon with additional remarks, delivered\nwith delicate tenderness, and always concluded by a prayer. To the end\nof life, Bradburn thankfully acknowledged that he greatly owed his\nsubsequent eminence to this Madeley visit. When he was leaving, the\nkind-hearted vicar said, \u201cMy little David, go! and if you preach forty\nyears, and save only a single soul, don\u2019t think your time and labour\nhave been lost.\u201d Bradburn always spoke of his early friend as \u201cSaint\nFletcher;\u201d and often said, that when he looked at the vicar of Madeley\nhe was almost ready to think the Lord Jesus Christ stood before him in\nthe person of His servant; and in hours of depression, when he found it\ndifficult to pray, he was wont to sigh and cry, \u201cGod of Mr. Fletcher,\nbless me!\u201d[283]\n\nFootnote 283:\n\n Miss Bradburn\u2019s MSS., and MS. by Mr. Harrison, of Chester.\n\nThe Methodist reader need not be told that Fletcher\u2019s humble pupil rose\nto great eminence. Unquestionably he was the greatest pulpit orator that\nWesley ever had. Dr. Adam Clarke, who knew him well, once said to a\nyoung preacher, who wished his opinion concerning Bradburn, \u201cI have\nnever heard his equal; I can furnish you with no adequate idea of his\npowers as an orator; we have not a man among us that will support\nanything like a comparison with him. Another Bradburn must be created,\nand you must hear him for yourself, before you can receive a\nsatisfactory answer to your inquiry.\u201d\n\nIn 1817, all the sermons that Bradburn had published, whether separately\nor in the _Methodist Magazine_, were collected, and published in a 12\nmo. volume of 332 pages; but, as Dr. Abel Stevens well observes, \u201cThe\neloquence of Bradburn, like that of Whitefield, could not be printed.\u201d\n\nJohn Fletcher rendered no small service to John Wesley and the\nMethodists by his brief training of the young shoemaker in 1773.\n\nWhile writing his \u201cChecks,\u201d Fletcher seems to have been obliged to\ncurtail his correspondence with his friends. At all events, his\npublished letters belonging to this period are few in number. The\nfollowing were written in 1773. The first was addressed to his friend\nMr. Vaughan, the officer of Excise at Atcham, with whom he became\nacquainted while he had the charge of the sons of Mr. Hill:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY,\n\n .\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014At the beginning of the week I received your\n kind letter, and your kind present at the end of it. For both I\n heartily thank you. Nevertheless, I could wish it were your last\n present, for I find it more blessed to give than to receive; and in\n point of the good things of this life my body does not want much, and\n I can do with what is more common, and cheaper, than the rarities you\n ply me with.\n\n \u201cYour bounty upon bounty reminds me of the repeated mercies of our\n God. They follow one another as wave does wave at sea; and all to waft\n us to the pleasing shore of confidence and gratitude, where we can not\n only cast anchor near, but calmly stand on the Rock of Ages, and defy\n the rage of tempests. But you complain, you are not _there_; billows\n of temptation drive you from the haven where you would be, and you cry\n out still, \u2018_Oh wretched man! who shall deliver me?_\u2019\n\n \u201cHere I would ask, Are you willing, _really willing_, to be delivered?\n Is your sin, is the prevalence of temptation, a burden too heavy for\n you to bear? If it is, if your complaint is not a kind of religious\n compliment, be of good cheer\u2014only believe. Look up! for your\n redemption draweth near. He is near that delivers, that justifies,\n that sanctifies you. Cast your soul upon Him. An act of faith will\n help you to a lift; but _one_ act of faith will not do. _Faith must be\n our life_; I mean _in conjunction with its grand object_. You cannot\n live by one breath; you must breathe on, and draw the electric, vital\n fire into your lungs together with the air. So you must believe, and\n draw the Divine power, the fire of Jesu\u2019s love, together with the\n truth of the Gospel, which is the blessed element in which believers\n live.\n\n \u201cMy kind Christian love to Mrs. Vaughan. Tell her I am filled with joy\n in thinking that, though we no more serve the same earthly\n master,[284] yet we still serve the same heavenly one; who will, ere\n long, admit us to sit with Abraham himself, if we hold fast our\n confidence to the end.\n\n \u201cBeware of the world. If you have losses, be not cast down, nor root\n in the earth with more might and main to repair them. If prosperity\n smiles upon you, you are in double danger. Think, my friend, that\n earthly prosperity is like a coloured cloud, which passes away and is\n soon lost in the shades of night and death. Beware of hurry. Martha,\n Martha, one thing is needful! Choose it, stand to your choice, and the\n good part shall not be taken from you by sickness or death. God bless\n you and yours with all that makes for His glory and your peace.\n\n \u201cI am, my dear friend, yours, etc.,\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[285]\n\nFootnote 284:\n\n From this, it would appear that Mrs. Vaughan, previous to her\n marriage, had been in the employ of Mr. Hill, of Tern Hall.\n\nFootnote 285:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 216.\n\nThe following extracts are taken from a letter addressed to James\nIreland, Esq., of Brislington, who had suggested to Fletcher the\nexpediency of publishing in the French language his \u201cAppeal to Matter of\nFact and Common Sense.\u201d\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _September 21, 1773_.\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014I have considered what you say about the\n translation of my \u2018Appeal;\u2019 and I think I might do it some day; nay, I\n tried to turn a paragraph or two the day after I received your letter,\n but found it would be a difficult, if not an impossible work for me. I\n am sure I could not do it abroad. On a journey, I am just like a cask\n of wine\u2014I am good for nothing till I have some time to settle.\n\n \u201cWhat you say about Mr. Wesley adds weight to your kind arguments. My\n spiritual circumstances are what I must look at. I tremble lest\n outward things should hurt me. The multiplicity of objects and\n avocations, which attend travelling, is not suited to my case. I\n think, all things considered, I should sin against my conscience in\n going, unless I had a call from _necessity_, or from _clearer_\n providences.\n\n \u201cMy last \u2018Check\u2019 will be as much in behalf of free grace as of\n holiness; so I hope, upon that plan, all the candid and moderate will\n be able to shake hands. It will be of a reconciling nature; and I call\n it an \u2018Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism.\u2019\n\n \u201cI see life so short, and time passes away with such rapidity, that I\n should be very glad to spend it in solemn prayer; but it is necessary\n that a man should have some exterior occupation. The chief thing is to\n employ ourselves profitably. My throat is not formed for the labours\n of preaching. When I have preached three or four times together, it\n inflames and fills up; and the efforts, which I am then obliged to\n make, heat my blood. Thus, I am, by nature, as well as by the\n circumstances I am in, obliged to employ my time in writing a little.\n O that I may be enabled to do it to the glory of God!\n\n \u201cLet us love this good God, who hath \u2018so loved the world, that He gave\n His Only-begotten Son that we might not perish, but have everlasting\n life.\u2019 How sweet is it, on our knees, to receive this Jesus, this\n heavenly gift, and to offer our praises and thanks to our heavenly\n Father! The Lord teaches me four lessons; the first is to be thankful\n that I am not in hell; the second, to become _nothing_ before Him; the\n third, to _receive_ the gift of God; and the fourth is to feel my want\n of the _Spirit_ of Jesus, and to wait for it. These four lessons are\n very deep. O when shall I have learned them! Let us go together to the\n school of Jesus, and learn to be meek and lowly in heart. Adieu!\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[286]\n\nFootnote 286:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 218.\n\nThe above is the first time that Fletcher complains of his throat. This\naffection, in itself, apart from the other reason he mentions, was quite\nsufficient to justify his hesitancy in complying with Wesley\u2019s request\nto devote himself to the itinerancy, and to train himself to become\nWesley\u2019s successor.\n\nBefore returning to the Calvinian controversy, two other incidents,\nbelonging to the year 1773, must be mentioned.\n\n \u201cJohn Wilkes,\u201d says Fletcher, \u201cwas born at Darlaston. His father dying\n when he was a child, his mother bound him an apprentice to a collier,\n who delighted in cock-fighting, and who was killed by a quantity of\n coals falling upon him in the pit. The collier\u2019s widow, being unable\n to manage Wilkes, released him from his apprenticeship for a trifling\n sum of money. He began to steal fowls, that he might have the pleasure\n of fighting those that would fight, and eating those that would not.\n Two or three years ago he was committed to Stafford jail, and soon\n after publicly whipped for that offence. From breaking into\n hen-roosts, he proceeded to break into and to rob the dwelling-house\n of a widow at Darlaston; and, going upon the highway, he robbed a man\n of his watch and some money. He was taken, and recommitted to Stafford\n jail. He took his trial at the last assizes; and, being found guilty\n of the above-mentioned robberies, received sentence of death, with\n another young man, who had set fire to some barns, and a stack of\n hay.\u201d\n\nJohn Wilkes\u2019 eldest sister was Fletcher\u2019s servant, and to her the\nconvict wrote the following:\u2014\n\n \u201cSTAFFORD JAIL, _March 17, 1773_.\n\n \u201cThis informs you of my being a convict under sentence of death. I beg\n you will endeavour to prevail on Mr. Fletcher to grant me his interest\n for a reprieve, by getting me recommended to his majesty\u2019s mercy. And\n I tenderly beg you will come over and see me here in a few days, who\n am your poor unfortunate brother,\n\n \u201cJOHN WILKES.\u201d\n\nFletcher declined to interfere, but wrote a long letter to the convict,\ndated \u201cMadeley, _March 23, 1773_.\u201d He says:\u2014\n\n \u201cJOHN WILKES,\u2014Your sister desiring me to make application to some\n person in power, to get you reprieved for transportation, I take this\n first opportunity of informing you that I was once concerned in saving\n a young man from the gallows, because he was condemned for his first\n offence, which was robbing his master of money, and that I had no\n thanks, but many upbraidings for my pains; the poor creature having\n turned out very bad, done much mischief before he left England, and\n being spared, I fear, only to hurt his fellow-creatures, and fill up\n the measure of his iniquities.\n\n \u201cBesides, you know, John, that your crimes are of the most capital\n nature. You are not only a housebreaker, but a highwayman, and a very\n notorious offender. You know you have committed crimes enough to hang\n two or three men, perhaps half-a-dozen. And so far as I can gather\n from a variety of circumstances, you are the very person that broke\n open my house over the way, and robbed the poor widow who lives in it.\n If you committed that robbery, I desire you to confess it before you\n leave this world; for \u2018he that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall\n obtain mercy;\u2019 while he that tells lies to conceal them, pulls down\n double vengeance upon his guilty head.\n\n \u201cBut whether you committed that robbery or not, I earnestly desire\n that you will submit to your sentence. I neither can nor will meddle\n in that affair; nor have I any probability of success if I did. Apply\n then yourself, night and day, to the King of heaven for grace and\n mercy. If you cry to Him from the bottom of your heart, as a condemned\n dying man, who deserves hell as well as the gallows; if you sincerely\n confess your crimes, and beg the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, to\n intercede for you, it is not too late to get your soul reprieved. He\n will speak for you to God Almighty; He will pardon all your sins; He\n will wash you in His most precious blood; He will stand by you in your\n extremity; He will deliver you out of the hands of the hellish\n executioner; and, though you have lived the life of the wicked, He\n will help you to die the death of the penitent. He can feel for poor\n condemned thieves; for He himself was condemned to be hanged on a\n tree; not indeed for His own sins, for He never transgressed, but for\n your crimes and mine.\u201d\n\n \u201cOn Saturday, March 27,\u201d continues Fletcher in his narrative, \u201cI gave\n a few lines for the keeper of Stafford jail, to Sarah Wilkes, the\n malefactor\u2019s sister, and to Elizabeth Childs, a serious woman, whom\n she had got to bear her company; and, when I had recommended in prayer\n the condemned criminals to the Redeemer\u2019s compassion, and their feeble\n visitors to the protection of Him Who can give wisdom to the simple,\n they set out to see John Wilkes, and administer some spiritual comfort\n to him before he launched into eternity.\u201d\n\nThe poor women met with a rough reception at Stafford prison. The\njailer, a fair specimen of officials in other prisons, at that period,\nsaid, \u201cWhat do you want with John Wilkes? to preach him a sermon, and\nsing psalms? I know very well what you are, a parcel of canting\nhypocrites.\u201d\n\nSarah Wilkes and Elizabeth Childs showed themselves to be apt pupils of\nthe Vicar of Madeley. In the Journal of their nine days\u2019 visit they\nwrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cWe were much discouraged at the jailer\u2019s behaviour. So we agreed to\n lay the matter before God in prayer, and beg of Him that He would\n touch the jailer\u2019s heart, and cause him to let us in. The next\n morning, which was Sunday, after begging hard for grace, wisdom, and\n courage, we went to the prison; and, to our great surprise, the\n turnkey opened the door, and, without speaking a word, took us\n straight to the condemned men, and let us be with them as long as we\n thought proper; a liberty which we were allowed twice a day till they\n suffered.\u201d\n\nJohn Wilkes confessed to the two women that he had robbed the house at\nMadeley, in which the poor widow lived. He became a penitent. The nine\ndays\u2019 Journal of his sister and Elizabeth Childs concludes thus:\u2014\n\n \u201cSaturday, April 3, the day of his execution, John Wilkes was\n exceeding happy, and employed in breathing out prayers and praises to\n God. In the morning, we spent about two hours with him and his\n fellow-prisoner, praying and praising together in their dungeon, with\n much brokenness of heart, and many tears of joy and sorrow; for we\n were both persuaded that John Wilkes had saving faith, and an unshaken\n well-grounded confidence that God would take him to glory.\n\n \u201cAbout two hours before the execution, which was between four and five\n in the afternoon, his sister asked, \u2018Dost thou find thyself happy in\n the Lord?\u2019 To which he answered, \u2018Yes, I do, I do, more and more.\u2019\n\n \u201cWhen they were come to the place of execution, John Wilkes\u2019s\n companion desired the spectators, especially young people, to take\n warning by them; which was the more affecting, as he was supposed to\n be only about twenty years old, and John Wilkes was not above\n nineteen. They sang and prayed some time under the gallows; and the\n last words John Wilkes was heard to speak were, \u2018Lord, from this place\n receive me into Thy heavenly kingdom!\u2019\u201d\n\nSome will condemn Fletcher\u2019s action, or rather inaction, in the case of\nJohn Wilkes; but, a hundred years ago, public opinion respecting crimes,\ncriminals, and criminal punishment was widely different from the public\nopinion of the present day. It certainly seems to be a savage thing to\nhang a youth of nineteen years of age for thieving; but the law of the\nland authorized this; and Fletcher evidently had but little hope of any\ngood arising from reprievement in a case like that of Wilkes. Perhaps he\nwas right, or perhaps he was wrong. At all events, Wilkes became a\npenitent thief, and, as such, his sister and his sister\u2019s master had\nreason to rejoice and to give thanks. Fletcher immediately published a\npamphlet on the occasion with the title, \u201cThe Penitent Thief; or, a\nNarrative of Two Women, fearing God, who Visited in Prison a Highwayman,\nexecuted at Stafford, April 3, 1773. With a Letter to a Condemned\nMalefactor. And a Penitential Office, for either a true Churchman, or a\ndying Criminal, extracted from the Scriptures and the Established\nLiturgy.\u201d\n\nNothing more need be said, except that the \u201cPenitential Office\u201d was\ncompiled \u201centirely from the Scriptures and the Liturgy of the Church of\nEngland;\u201d that it was suitable for either a living sinner or a dying\nthief; and that, to excite, exercise, and increase his own repentance,\nFletcher himself was accustomed to use it in his private devotions.\n\nA few weeks after the execution of John Wilkes another event occurred,\nwhich must be noticed. The following is taken from _Lloyd\u2019s Evening\nPost_, of June 11, 1773:\u2014\n\n \u201cAn authentic account of the earthquake at the Birches, about a mile\n above the bottom of Coalbrookdale, Shropshire.\n\n \u201cIn the dead of the night, between Tuesday the 25th and Wednesday the\n 26th ult., Samuel Wilcocks\u2019s wife, who lived in a small house at the\n Birches, was sitting up in bed, to take care of one of her children,\n who was ill, when she perceived the bed shake under her, and observed\n some balm tea in a cup to be so agitated that it was spilled.\n\n \u201cOn Thursday morning, the 27th, Samuel Wilcocks and John Roberts (who\n likewise lived in the house at the Birches) got up about four o\u2019clock,\n and, opening their window to see what the weather was, observed a\n crack in the ground four or five inches wide, and a field sown with\n oats heaving and rolling like waves of water. The trees moved as if\n blown with wind, though the air was calm and serene. The Severn (in\n which at that time was a considerable flood) was much agitated, and\n seemed to run upwards. The house shook; and, in a great fright,\n Wilcocks and Roberts roused the rest of the family, and ran out of\n doors. Immediately, about thirty acres of land, with the hedges and\n trees standing, moved with great force and swiftness towards the\n Severn. Near the river was a small wood, in which grew twenty large\n oaks. The wood was pushed with such velocity into the channel of the\n Severn, that it drove the bed of the river on the opposite shore many\n feet above the surface of the water, where it lodged, as did one side\n of the wood. The current of the river was instantly stopped. This\n occasioned a great inundation above, and so sudden a fall below, that\n many fish were left on dry land. The river took its course over a\n large meadow, and in three days wore a navigable channel. A turnpike\n road was moved more than thirty yards. A barn was carried about the\n same distance, and was left as a heap of rubbish in a large chasm. The\n house\u201d (in which Wilcocks lived) \u201creceived but little damage; but the\n garden hedge was removed about fifty yards. Several long and deep\n chasms are formed in the upper part of the land from fourteen to\n upwards of thirty yards wide, in which are many pyramids of earth\n standing, with the green turf remaining on the tops of some of them.\n The land on both sides the river is the property of Walter Acton\n Moseley, Esq., who, we hear, has sustained a damage of six or seven\n hundred pounds.\n\n \u201cOn Friday, the 28th, the Rev. Mr. Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley,\n preached a sermon upon the ground, to an audience of more than one\n thousand people. In a most pathetic discourse, he expatiated on the\n works of Divine Providence; recommended his hearers to prepare for the\n last great and awful day; and expressed the hope that the present\n dreadful scene would prove a sufficient warning to them.\n\n \u201cT. ADDENBROOKE.\n\n \u201cCoalbrooke Dale,\n June 4, 1773..png\n \u201d\n\nSo long an extract from a newspaper would hardly have been proper in a\n\u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d but for the fact that Fletcher himself immediately\npublished a bulky pamphlet of 104 pages, on the same event. Its long\ntitle was the following: \u201cA Dreadful Phenomenon described and improved.\nBeing a Particular Account of the Sudden Stoppage of the River Severn,\nand of the Terrible Desolation that happened at the Birches, between\nCoalbrook Dale and Buildwas Bridge, in Shropshire, on Thursday morning,\nMay 27, 1773. And the Substance of a Sermon, preached the next day, on\nthe ruins, to a vast concourse of spectators. By John Fletcher, Vicar of\nMadeley, in Shropshire, and Chaplain to the Right Hon. the Earl of\nBuchan. Shrewsbury, 1773. Price, One Shilling.\u201d\n\nThirty-three pages of Fletcher\u2019s publication are filled with a\ndescription of the \u201cDreadful Phenomenon.\u201d This is dated \u201cMadeley, July\n6, 1773.\u201d No useful purpose would be served by quoting Fletcher\u2019s\naccount of what he heard and saw; but the following extract will show\nhow he was led to preach his sermon:\u2014\n\n \u201cShould the reader desire to know why I preached upon the ruins, I\n will ingenuously tell him. The day the earth opened at the Birches, as\n I considered one of the chasms, several of my parishioners gathered\n around me. I observed to them, that, the sight before us was a\n remarkable confirmation of the first argument of a book called, \u2018An\n Appeal to Matter of Fact, or a Rational Demonstration of Man\u2019s Fallen\n and Lost Estate,\u2019 which I had just published, as a last effort to\n awaken to a sense of the fear of God the careless gentlemen of my\n parish, to whom it is dedicated. Having a few copies about me, which I\n was going to present to some of them, I begged leave to read that\n argument.\n\n \u201cI concluded my reading and remarks by thanksgiving and prayer; and,\n perceiving that seriousness sat upon all faces, I told the people,\n that, if they would come again the next evening to the same place, I\n would endeavour to improve the loud call to repentance, which God had\n given us that day.\n\n \u201cThey readily consented; and when I came, at the time appointed, to my\n great surprise, I found a vast concourse of people, and among them\n several of my parishioners, who had never been at church in all their\n life. After a prayer and thanksgiving suitable to the uncommon\n circumstances, I preached a sermon, of which, so far as I can\n recollect, the reader may find the substance, with some additions, in\n the following pages. May it have a better effect upon him than it had\n upon some of the gentlemen who heard it! Instead of a prayer-book,\n they pulled out their favourite companion, a bottle; and imparted the\n strong contents to each other, as heartily as I did the awful contents\n of my text to the _decent_ part of the congregation. Gentle reader,\n receive them as cordially as they did their stupifying antidote, and I\n ask no more.\u201d\n\nThis, certainly, was a disgraceful scene, but not so disgraceful as that\nwhich occurred a few days afterwards, and which Fletcher, in a\nfoot-note, relates. Among the many thousands, who came to view the\nresults of the earthquake, were a company from Bridgnorth, headed by a\nyoung clergyman, who \u201cbrought music along with them, and set a-dancing\nupon the very place where the awful earthquake had happened.\u201d\n\nThe text of Fletcher\u2019s almost impromptu sermon was Numb. xvi. 30\u201434. The\nsermon itself occupies seventy pages. Addressing the irreverent\n\u201cgentlemen\u201d before him, the bold preacher cried:\u2014\n\n \u201cO ye Christian Dathans, ye lofty Abirams, ye, who, like those proud\n Israelites, are in your respective parishes \u2018_princes of the assembly,\n famous in the congregation, men of renown_,\u2019 the eyes of this populous\n neighbourhood are upon you, especially the eyes of poor illiterate\n colliers, waggoners, and watermen. Do you not consider that they mind\n your _examples_, rather than God\u2019s precepts? Are you not aware that\n they follow you as a bleating flock follows the first wandering sheep?\n Because they cannot read the sacred pages, or even tell the first\n letters of the alphabet, think you they cannot read _secret contempt\n of Almighty God_ on the sleeves, in which they sometimes see you laugh\n at godliness? And suppose ye, they cannot make out _open pollution of\n His Sabbaths_ when they see the remarkable seats, which you so\n frequently leave empty at church? Do you not know that the lessons of\n practical atheism, which you thus give them in the free school of bad\n example, they learn without delay, practise without remorse, and teach\n others with unwearied diligence? Alas! the pattern of indevotion,\n which you set in the house of God, carries, before you are aware, its\n baneful influence through a hundred private houses. Oh! how many are\n now numbered among the dead, who have taken to the ways of destruction\n by following _you_! How many are yet unborn, upon whom a curse will be\n entailed, in consequence of the spreading plague of irreligion, which\n their parents have caught from _you_! And shall not their blood be,\n more or less, required at your hands? \u2018Shall not I visit for these\n things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation\n as this?\u2019\u201d\n\nThis was fearless speaking, and not likely to increase Fletcher\u2019s\npopularity among his rich, dissolute parishioners. The following extract\nis struck upon another key:\u2014\n\n \u201cAlthough we cannot all \u2018_sing the song of the Lamb_,\u2019 yet, glory be\n to God! we all consider the patience of our offended Creator, who,\n upon these ruins, invites us to repent and live. The earth, in the\n days of Moses, opened her mouth, and dreadfully swallowed up two\n families. The earth yesterday opened her mouth, probably far wider,\n and yet the only two families that lived here were suffered to make\n their escape. Allelujah! Praise the Lord! Multitudes of fishes have\n perished on dry ground, and myriads of land insects in the waters; and\n yet we, sinful insects before God, have neither been drowned in\n yesterday\u2019s flood, nor buried in these chasms: Allelujah! God\u2019s\n tremendous axe has been lifted up; some of yonder green trees have\n been struck; and we, who are dry trees, we, cumberers of the ground,\n are graciously spared; Allelujah! The house of Dathan and Abiram, with\n all that appertained unto them, descended into the pit of destruction;\n and we, who are loaded with mountains of sins, stand yet upon firm\n ground, with all our friends. Allelujah! God, who might have commanded\n the earth to swallow up a thronged play-house, the royal exchange, a\n crowded cathedral, the parliament house, or the king\u2019s palace, has\n graciously commanded an empty barn to sink, and give us the alarm.\n Allelujah! He might have ordered such a tract of land as this, to\n heave, move, and open in the centre of our populous cities; but mercy\n has inclined Him to fix upon this solitary place. Allelujah! He might\n have suffered the road and the river to be overthrown, when cursing\n drivers passed with their horses, and blaspheming watermen with their\n barges; but His compassion made Him strike the warning blow with all\n possible tenderness. \u2018O that men would therefore praise the Lord for\n His goodness, and declare the wonders that He does for the children of\n men!\u2019\u201d\n\nThese two extracts from the sermon preached on this remarkable occasion\nmust suffice; but one of Fletcher\u2019s foot-notes may be added:\u2014\n\n \u201cA woman, thirty-five years of age, passing before a looking-glass the\n day after she heard this sermon, was surprised to see an unusual\n paleness upon her face. She called her husband, told him she was a\n dying woman, and actually died in a quarter of an hour. She heard me\n on the Friday, and I buried her the Monday following. Another\n middle-aged person, who was also among my hearers, was buried the next\n day in the next parish. How soon may we be called to give an account\n of what we speak or hear, write or _read_!\u201d\n\nThe anti-evangelical _Monthly Review_ of November, 1773, in noticing\nFletcher\u2019s publication, remarked:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher, who is a man of learning and considerable abilities,\n has given us a curious account of this phenomenon, which has been so\n frequently mentioned in our newspapers. He has minutely, but in very\n flowery language, described the awful appearances left by this\n extraordinary convulsion of the earth; and he fairly states the\n different opinions which were formed in regard to the cause of so\n wonderful an event. Mr. Fletcher tells us that he piously chose to\n take advantage of the seriousness stamped, by this alarming\n occurrence, on the minds of the country people, in order to press upon\n them a proper sense of the _first_ or _moral_ cause of so tremendous a\n dispensation; and this he has done in a manner as rational as could be\n well expected from the peculiarity of the occasion and the known\n enthusiastic spirit of the preacher.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIV.\n _\u201cTHE FINISHING STROKE,\u201d \u201cTHE CHRISTIAN\n WORLD UNMASKED,\u201d \u201cMR. RICHARD HILL\u2019S\n THREE LETTERS.\u201d_\n\n 1773.\n\n\nAFTER this long and awkward interruption, there must now be a return to\nthe wearisome Calvinian controversy.\n\nEarly in the year 1773, Mr. Richard Hill published an 8vo. pamphlet of\n57 pages, with the title, \u201cThe Finishing Stroke: containing some\nStrictures on the Rev. Mr. Fletcher\u2019s Pamphlet, entitled Logica\nGenevensis, or a Fourth Check to Antinomianism.\u201d\n\n \u201cThe Finishing Stroke!\u201d remarked the _Monthly Review_ for March, 1773.\n \u201cNo\u2014we are afraid not! We shall certainly have _more last words_ from\n Shropshire. Here is a fresh attack on the Vicar of Madeley. Mr. Hill\n does not seem at all inclined to let Mr. Fletcher remain master of the\n field, for want of an opponent, \u2018notwithstanding the resolution he had\n formed of being silent.\u2019\u2014_Vide advert._ prefixed to the \u2018Finishing\n Stroke.\u2019\u201d\n\nMr. Hill\u2019s pamphlet is dated January 2, 1773, and addressed to Fletcher.\nHe begins by saying:\u2014\n\n \u201cLast Saturday, and not before, I received your _Logica Genevensis_,\n or _Fourth Check to Antinomianism_; and am truly sorry to find that\n neither the spirit of the piece, nor the doctrine it contains, is a\n jot better than what appeared in the former Checks.\u201d\n\nMr. Richard Hill was angrier than ever. Want of space renders it\nimpossible to examine his theology; and to quote his calumnious\naccusations is unsavoury work; and yet the latter must be done, for the\nemployment of these slanders was, at least, one of the reasons why the\ncontroversy was continued. Perhaps, Fletcher was not averse to fighting.\nHe liked an honourable contest, especially if it was likely to repress\nevil, or to promote good. To do this had been his chief, almost his only\nobject during the last two years; but now his own reputation was at\nstake, and he was bound to defend himself, as well as to defend the\ndoctrines he had expounded and enforced.\n\n \u201cThe purest treasure mortal times afford,\n Is spotless reputation; that away,\n Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.\u201d\n\nOn the ninth page of his pamphlet, Richard Hill politely asks poor\nFletcher, \u201cCan you wonder, Sir, that we look upon you as a spiritual\ncalumniator, and that we accuse you of vile falsehood and gross\nperversion?\u201d\n\nOn the next page, Mr. Hill remarks:\u2014\n\n \u201cI know, Sir, that it was a warm attachment to your friend, which\n occasioned you to run the lengths you have done. But dear as that\n friend is to you, truth ought to be dearer still; yet the maxim, which\n you seem all along to pursue, is, that Mr. Wesley _must be\n vindicated_; yea, though all the ministers in the kingdom, yourself\n not excepted, should fall to the ground. But what makes us still more\n sensibly feel the power of your pen is that our tenets are most\n shamefully (would I could say unintentionally) misrepresented, in\n order to prejudice the world against us, and to make them believe we\n hold sentiments which from our inmost souls we most cordially detest;\n particularly with regard to the doctrines of election and\n perseverance, which you have made to stand upon a pillory as high as\n Haman\u2019s gallows, dressed up in a frightful garb of your own invention,\n and then pelted them till all your mud and dirt was exhausted.\n\n \u201cMr. Wesley has nothing to do but hold up his finger in order to\n prevent thousands of his followers from ever looking into anything\n that is written against his own faction, and to make them believe that\n the _Four Checks_ (as they are called) contain the _medulla_ of the\n Christian religion. Be this as it will, the unfair quotations you have\n made, and the shocking misrepresentations and calumnies you have been\n guilty of, will, for the future, prevent me from looking into any of\n your books, if you should write a thousand volumes. So here the\n controversy must end; at least it shall end for me.\u201d\n\n \u201cI cannot, however, conclude without again acknowledging that, in the\n sight of men, your life is exemplary, and your walk outwardly\n blameless\u201d (p. 41).\n\nMr. Richard Hill added a \u201cPostscript\u201d of ten pages to his long letter,\nthe postscript chiefly consisting of extracts from one of Fletcher\u2019s\nsermons, preached in Madeley Church, eleven years before, and of which\nMr. Hill happened to possess a manuscript copy. The text was Rom. xi. 5,\n6. Mr. Hill says he regards this sermon as \u201cthe best confutation\u201d of\nWesley\u2019s \u201cMinutes,\u201d and of Fletcher\u2019s \u201cChecks;\u201d and that, because he so\nregarded it, he had actually sent it to press; but, doubting the\nfairness and uprightness of such a proceeding without obtaining the\npreacher\u2019s permission, he had \u201cstopped the publication.\u201d Mr. Hill,\nhowever, now published _extracts_ from the sermon, without Fletcher\u2019s\npermission; and this induced Fletcher to _re-preach_ his sermon with\nadditions and explanations. This was done in Madeley Church, on May 23,\n1773, and the sermon, thus revised, was published in the First Part of\nFletcher\u2019s \u201cEqual Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism,\u201d in 1774.\n\nIt would be easy to pick out of Mr. Hill\u2019s \u201cFinishing Stroke\u201d not a few\nmost shameful opprobriums. Fletcher is accused of \u201cdescending to the\npoor illiberal arts of forgery and defamation, in order to _blacken_ his\nopponents, and to establish his own pernicious principles.\u201d \u201cHe had used\nhigh-flown sarcastic declamation, base forgeries, and gross\nmisrepresentations.\u201d\n\nSuch were some of the acerbities of Richard Hill. He was the slanderer;\nnot Fletcher. The latter was too much a gentleman, to say nothing of his\nbeing a Christian, to indulge in such scurrilous vituperation. The two\nmen had been engaged in a theological combat; Hill had been utterly\nvanquished; and, instead of meekly acknowledging his defeat, he\ndishonourably abused his victorious opponent. With respect to his\nconversion, he was more indebted to Fletcher than to any other man; but\nthis was now forgotten. The Vicar of Madeley, whom he had so greatly\nloved, had become the object of his scorn.\n\nImmediately after the publication of his \u201cFinishing Stroke,\u201d Mr. Richard\nHill committed to the press another 8vo pamphlet, of 63 pages, entitled,\n\u201cLogica Wesleiensis; or, The Farrago Double Distilled. With an Heroic\nPoem in Praise of Mr. John Wesley.\u201d Mr. Hill, in addressing Wesley,\nsays:\u2014\n\n \u201cI have never seen you above four or five times in my whole life; once\n in the pulpit at West Street Chapel; once at a friend\u2019s house; and\n once or twice, at my request, you were so kind as to drink a\n _forbidden dish of tea_ with me, when I lodged in Vine Street, St.\n James\u2019s, as I wanted to speak to you concerning a poor man in your\n connections.\u201c\n\nBy his own confession, it is evident that Mr. Hill\u2019s personal knowledge\nof Wesley was very slight, and yet, in his \u201cLogica Wesleiensis,\u201d he\nabuses him more ferociously than he had abused Fletcher in his\n\u201cFinishing Stroke.\u201d Of the contumely hurled at Wesley, nothing will be\nsaid here, but two or three extracts concerning Fletcher must be\nintroduced:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher affirms that all the Protestant Churches, the old\n Calvinist ministers, and Puritan divines, are on the side of the\n \u2018Minutes.\u2019 Mr. Hill makes it appear, as clear as the sun, that this is\n a point-blank falsehood as ever was written\u201d (p. 7).\n\n \u201cMr. Wesley revised, corrected, and gave his own _imprimatur_ to all\n Mr. Fletcher\u2019s _Checks_, throughout which, Mr. John is the Alpha and\n the Omega\u201d (p. 53).[287]\n\n \u201cSince the foregoing pages were finished in manuscript, I have seen\n Mr. Fletcher\u2019s \u2018_Logica Genevensis_, or _Fourth Check to\n Antinomianism_.\u2019 Though I fully intended to have been silent, the many\n perversions and misrepresentations which I have detected under the\n cover of much professed candour, will oblige me once more to enter the\n lists with my able antagonist; but, despairing of my own skill, I must\n beg leave to call in the Vicar of Madeley, to be my second; and\n happily for this purpose I have preserved a sermon of his, which was\n preached by him only a few years ago, in his own parish church, from\n Rom. xi. 5, 6. I think it is by far the best refutation of the\n unscriptural doctrine contained in the \u2018Minutes,\u2019 and in all the\n \u2018Checks,\u2019 which I have yet seen. As this sermon was publicly delivered\n before a very numerous congregation, and copies of it handed about, by\n the preacher\u2019s own permission; and as he tells us that he is\n determined, _God being his helper, to preach the doctrine therein\n contained, till his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth_,\u2014no\n reasonable person can think that there is the least unfairness in my\n availing myself of so powerful an ally; and I solemnly declare, upon\n the word of a Christian, that, in the few extracts I may make from it,\n I will not alter the least jot or tittle from the manuscript, and only\n make some marginal notes and observations upon it\u201d (p. 59).\n\nFootnote 287:\n\n This was not true, at all events, so far as the \u201cFourth Check\u201d was\n concerned. See Wesley\u2019s Works, vol. x., p. 400.\n\nMr. Richard Hill might think there was nothing unfair in publishing\nanother man\u2019s manuscript without his permission; but men of honour will\ndisagree with him. Even if the manuscript had contained doctrines at\nvariance with some propounded in Fletcher\u2019s \u201cChecks,\u201d what then? Eleven\nyears had elapsed since the sermon was composed and preached; and surely\nFletcher was not to be blamed and lashed if, during such a lengthened\nperiod, he had modified some of his theological opinions. Fletcher had\nno choice left to him but to re-examine his old sermon, and ascertain if\nit contained anything contrary to the doctrines advocated in his\n\u201cChecks.\u201d\n\nMeanwhile, another opponent had entered the battle-field. Just at this\njuncture, honest, and good, though eccentric, John Berridge, Vicar of\nEverton, published his well-known book, entitled, \u201cThe Christian World\nUnmasked. Pray Come and Peep.\u201d 12mo, 229 pp. The doctrines so quaintly\ntaught by Berridge were the doctrines of Richard Hill and his\nCalvinistic friends; but Berridge was too loving a Christian to display\nRichard Hill\u2019s acrimonious spirit. The names of Wesley and Fletcher were\nnot once mentioned in the whole of his performance; though, of course,\ntheir tenets were attacked. No one could find fault with this; but\nFletcher felt it his duty to answer his dear old friend at Everton.\nWriting to John Thornton, Esq., on August 18, 1773, Berridge remarked:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn a letter, just received from Mr. Fletcher, he says, \u2018What you have\n said about sincere obedience has touched the apple of God\u2019s eye, and\n is the very core of Antinomianism.[288] You have done your best to\n disparage sincere obedience, and, in a pamphlet ready for the press, I\n have freely exposed what you have written.\u2019 Then he cries out, in a\n declamatory style, \u2018For God\u2019s sake, let us only speak against\n insincere and Pharisaical obedience.\u2019 Indeed, I thought I had been\n writing against insincere obedience throughout the pamphlet; and that\n every one, who has eyes, must see it clearly; but I suppose Mr.\n Fletcher\u2019s spectacles invert objects, and make people walk with their\n heads downwards.\u201d[289]\n\nFootnote 288:\n\n In a letter to the Rev. John Newton, of Olney, dated September 20,\n 1773, Berridge said, in his own quaint style, \u201cThe Vicar of Madeley\n has sent me word that my prattle, in my pamphlet of \u2018Sincere\n Obedience,\u2019 \u2018is the core of Antinomianism, has exposed St. James, and\n touched the apple of God\u2019s eye,\u2019 and that he intends to put my head in\n the pillory, and my nose in the barnacles for so doing.\u201d (\u201cWorks of\n Berridge; and Life by Whittingham,\u201d p. 386.)\n\nFootnote 289:\n\n \u201cWorks of Berridge; and Life by Whittingham,\u201d p. 382.\n\nIn another letter to the same gentleman, dated thirteen days afterwards,\nBerridge observed:\u2014\n\n \u201dI thank you for the friendly admonition you gave me respecting Mr.\n Fletcher. It made me look into my heart, and I found some resentment\n there. What a lurking devil this pride is! How soon he takes fire, and\n yet hides his head so demurely in the embers, that we do not easily\n discover him! I think it is advisable to write to Mr. Fletcher, though\n despairing of success. His pamphlet will certainly be published now it\n is finished. Indeed, I have written to him aforetime more than once,\n and besought him to drop all controversy; but he seems to regard such\n entreaties as flowing rather from a fear of his pen than a desire of\n peace. His heart is somewhat exalted by his writings, and no wonder.\n He is also endowed with great acuteness, which, though much admired by\n the world, is a great obstacle to a quiet childlike spirit. And he is\n at present eagerly seeking after legal perfection, which naturally\n produceth controversial heat. As Gospel and peace, so law and\n controversy go hand in hand together. How can lawyers live without\n strife? In such a situation, I know, from my own former sad\n experience, he will take the Scotch thistle for his motto, _Noli me\n tangere_. But his heart seemeth very upright, and his labours are\n abundant; and I trust the Master will serve him, by-and-by, as he has\n served me,\u2014put him into a pickling tub, and drench him there soundly.\n When he comes out, dripping all over, he will be glad to cry, \u2018Grace,\n grace,\u2019 and \u2018a little child may lead him.\u2019 We learn nothing truly of\n ourselves, or of grace, but in a furnace.\n\n \u201cWhatever Mr. Fletcher may write against my pamphlet, I am determined\n to make no reply. I dare not trust my own wicked heart in a\n controversy. If my pamphlet is faulty, let it be overthrown; if sound,\n it will rise above any learned rubbish that is cast upon it. Indeed,\n what signifies my pamphlet, or its author? While it was publishing, I\n was heartily weary of it; and have really been sick of it since, and\n concluded it had done no good because it had met with no\n opposition.\u201d[290]\n\nFootnote 290:\n\n \u201cWorks of Berridge; and Life by Whittingham,\u201d p. 384.\n\nBerridge did write to Fletcher. Hence, in another letter to Mr.\nThornton, he said:\u2014\n\n \u201cEverton, September 25, 1773. I have written to Mr. Fletcher, and told\n him what was my intention in speaking against sincere obedience, and\n that my intention was manifest enough from the whole drift of my\n pamphlet. I have also acquainted him that I am an enemy to\n controversy, and that if his tract is published, I shall not rise up\n to fight with him, but will be a dead man before he kills me. I\n further told him I was afraid that Mr. Toplady[291] and himself were\n setting the Christian world on fire, and the carnal world in laughter,\n and wished they could both desist from controversy. A letter seemed\n needful, yet I wrote to him without any hope of success, and it\n appears there is not any. Mr. Jones, an expelled Oxonian, has just\n been with him, and called upon me last Saturday. Mr. Fletcher showed\n him what he had written against my pamphlet. It has been revised by\n Mr. Wesley, and is to be published shortly.\u201d[292]\n\nFootnote 291:\n\n In the preceding year, Toplady had published his scurrilous pamphlet,\n with the title, \u201cMore Work for Mr. John Wesley; or, A Vindication of\n the Decrees and Providence of God from the Defamations of a late\n printed paper, entitled, \u2018The Consequence Proved.\u2019\u201d\n\nFootnote 292:\n\n \u201cWorks of Berridge; and Life by Whittingham,\u201d p. 387.\n\nStrangely enough, while Berridge was requesting peace from Everton,\nRichard Hill was doing the same from Hawkstone. Berridge\u2019s three letters\nto Mr. Thornton cover the space between August 13, 1773, and September\n25, 1773; and Richard Hill\u2019s three letters to Fletcher, now to be\nintroduced, cover the space between July 31, 1773, and December 23,\n1773. Fletcher answered them privately; but his answers have never been\npublished. Mr. Hill\u2019s letters, too important to be omitted, were as\nfollows:\u2014\n\n \u201cHAWKSTONE, _July 31, 1773_.\n\n \u201cREV. AND DEAR SIR,\u2014I am credibly informed that you wish to have done\n with controversy, and that you are resolved to publish nothing more on\n the subject of the late disputes. Upon the strength of this\n information, as well as to maintain my own desire of promoting peace,\n I shall write to my bookseller in London, to sell no more of any of my\n pamphlets which relate to the \u2018Minutes;\u2019 and for whatever may have\n savoured too much of my own spirit, either in my answers to you, or to\n Mr. Wesley, I sincerely crave the forgiveness of you both, and should\n be most heartily glad if no person whatever were to add another word\n to what has been already said on either side.\n\n \u201dAnd permit me to hint, that if some restraint could be laid upon\n several of Mr. Wesley\u2019s preachers, particularly upon one Perronet (of\n whose superlatively abusive and insolent little piece,[293] I believe,\n Mr. Charles Wesley testified his abhorrence from the pulpit), I think,\n under God, it might be a salutary means of preventing the poison of\n vain janglings from spreading any further. But, though it is the\n desire of my soul to live in harmony, love, and friendship with you,\n dear Sir, yet, if God has ever shown me anything of my own heart, or\n of the truths of His Word, I must, and still do think that your\n principles are exceedingly erroneous; and of this, I ever cherish a\n secret hope that God will convince you, in the course of His dealings\n with your soul.\n\n \u201cWishing you abundance of grace, mercy, and peace, I beg leave to\n subscribe myself, Rev. and dear Sir, your sincere friend in the Gospel\n of Immanuel,\n\n \u201cR. HILL.\n\n \u201cP.S.\u2014I wish, dear Sir, you would make Mr. Wesley acquainted with the\n contents of this letter; and, if I stop the sale of my books, I hope\n that of the four \u2018Checks\u2019 will be stopped also.\u201d\n\nFootnote 293:\n\n Probably Edward Perronet\u2019s \u201cSmall Collection in Verse: containing a\n Hymn to the Holy Ghost; an Epigram from the Italian,\u201d etc. Printed in\n 1772. 12mo, 16 pp.\n\nThis letter of Mr. Richard Hill, at the first reading, seems to be\npeaceable and friendly; but there is reason to fear that the principle\nthat prompted it was cowardice rather than courtesy. Mr. Hill had been\nvanquished more than once; and, naturally enough, he now wished to\nretire from the arena. This, however, his opponents could not permit,\nwithout sending a shaft after him. In his publications just issued, the\n\u201cFinishing Stroke,\u201d and the \u201cFarrago Double-Distilled,\u201d to say nothing\nof his previous ones, he had most uncharitably accused Fletcher and\nWesley not only of ignorances and mistakes, but of sins. He had called\nFletcher a \u201ccalumniator;\u201d he had charged him with practising \u201cforgery\nand defamation,\u201d and \u201cgross misrepresentations,\u201d and \u201cslander.\u201d In the\n\u201cFarrago Double Distilled,\u201d he had accused Wesley of using \u201cquirks,\nquibbles, evasions, and false quotations;\u201d and had designated him \u201ca\nchameleon.\u201d His \u201cHeroic Poem in Praise of Mr. John Wesley\u201d was a\ndisgraceful production, too coarse and vulgar to be quoted. Was it\nreasonable to wish or expect that no answer should be made to such\nimputations? Reputation was as dear in the case of John Fletcher and\nJohn Wesley as in that of Richard Hill; and, so far as the work of God\nand the interests of the Church of Christ were concerned, vastly more\nimportant. Besides, when Mr. Hill says he was \u201ccredibly informed\u201d that\nFletcher was \u201cresolved to publish nothing more on the subject of the\nlate disputes,\u201d he was the victim of a delusion, for Fletcher was\nalready preparing his \u201cFifth Check to Antinomianism.\u201d\n\nFletcher\u2019s reply to Mr. Hill\u2019s first letter has never been published,\nbut its import may be gathered from Mr. Hill\u2019s second letter to\nFletcher, which was as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201c_August, 1773._\n\n \u201cREV. AND DEAR SIR,\u2014Attendance at the assizes, and multiplicity of\n business in my office as a Justice of the Peace, have prevented my\n returning a more speedy answer to your letter, in which I find you\n complain of my having treated you with severity.\n\n \u201dThis obliges me to request you to call to mind the four \u2018Checks,\u2019 and\n then to say what right the author of them has to complain of severity.\n Read the sneering mock proclamation given by the four secretaries of\n state of the predestinarian department; read the charges brought\n against our celebrated pulpits; and, if you can still justify what you\n have advanced, you may then with better reason accuse me of severity.\n It pains me to bring these things to your remembrance, as I was\n determined, when I wrote last, to avoid every shadow of any accusation\n against you for what had passed; and I think you must acknowledge that\n my letter was friendly; but your introduction of the subject obliges\n me to say what I have. I wish I had any grounds to recall what I have\n said concerning your having laid very great misrepresentations before\n the public, in your quotations from Mr. Wesley\u2019s \u2018Minutes,\u2019 and in the\n harmony you would make your readers believe there is between the\n Reformers and Puritans, and Mr. Wesley and yourself; for it is most\n sure that your principles and theirs are as wide as east from west.\n\n \u201dHow far it may be fair to alter the title of your sermon[294] from\n what it stands in the manuscript, must be left to yourself; I have no\n objection to it as you propose to print it. As to your explanatory\n notes and additions in brackets, you know, Sir, that by these you may\n easily make the sermon itself speak what language you see proper.\n Clarke and Priestly, by explanatory notes and additions in brackets,\n can explain away the divinity of Christ; Socinus, His atonement; and\n Taylor, the corruption of human nature.\n\n \u201dAs you intend to introduce my worthless name into your next\n publication, I must beg to decline the obliging offer you make of my\n perusing your MSS. I am, Rev. and dear Sir,\n\n \u201cYour sincere friend for Christ\u2019s sake,\n \u201cRICHARD HILL.\u201d\n\nFootnote 294:\n\n The sermon preached in Madeley Church, on May 23, 1773, and afterwards\n published in the \u201cFifth Check to Antinomianism.\u201d\n\nMr. Hill\u2019s last letter is the best of the three. It was written soon\nafter his mother\u2019s death, and a short time before Fletcher\u2019s \u201cFirst Part\nof the Fifth Check to Antinomianism\u201d was published. Fletcher offered to\nallow Mr. Hill to read the work in manuscript, but, as Mr. Hill himself\nstates, the offer was declined.\n\n \u201cHAWKSTONE, _December 23, 1773_.\n\n \u201cREV. AND DEAR SIR,\u2014I take the liberty of requesting you to distribute\n among the poor of Madeley the enclosed two guineas, in such way and\n manner as you shall judge fit and proper.\n\n \u201cI sent your last letter to my brother Rowland, who is now at\n Tottenham Court chapel, and suppose he received it. However, I waive\n saying anything of the subject of it, as it is my design to have\n totally done with the controversy, which I am firmly persuaded has not\n done me any good. Excuse me if I say, I wish you to examine closely\n whether it has done you any. For my own part, I desire to be humbled\n before God, as well as to ask your forgiveness and Mr. Wesley\u2019s (to\n whom I purpose making a visit of peace and love when I go to London),\n for everything that has savoured of wrong or of my own spirit, in what\n I have written relative to his \u2018Minutes;\u2019 and, though I believe your\n sentiments to be erroneous, yet I esteem and honour you for all you\n have said against sin; and for the stand you have made for practical\n religion in this Laodicean, Antinomian age; and truly concerned should\n I be, if any expressions have dropped from my pen, which might make\n the readers think lightly of sin, under the notion of honouring the\n Saviour from sin. But as God can bear me witness that I had no\n intentions of this sort, so I am certain that whosoever makes Christ\n all his salvation, can never at the same time make Him a minister of\n sin; and I trust the hour will come when, under a deep sense of your\n own sinfulness and nothingness, you will be glad to lay hold of some\n of those comfortable Gospel truths, which now you look upon as\n dangerous poison.\n\n \u201cIn consequence of my former letter to you, I wrote to my bookseller\n in London, and told Mr. Eddowes in Shrewsbury, to stop the sale of all\n my publications concerning the controversy between us; and, unless God\n shows me that it is a matter of duty so to do, I shall not revoke this\n order; it being my earnest desire for the time to come, if it be\n possible, to live peaceably with all men; and, though I cannot approve\n some of Mr. Wesley\u2019s doctrines, because I believe them to be contrary\n to Scripture, and am sure they are contrary to my own experience, yet,\n as I am persuaded that many who are the excellent of the earth are in\n his connexion, I wish to confirm my love towards them on account of\n the grace that is in them; and, whilst I reject their errors, still to\n esteem their persons; and never to say or do anything that may hurt\n that common cause for which we all ought to be contending, or which\n may grieve the weakest or meanest of Christ\u2019s people.\n\n \u201cThese, dear Sir, are my present sentiments and intentions, and you\n have my free permission to declare them upon the house-top.\n\n \u201cAn afflictive breach, which God has lately been pleased to make in\n our family, by depriving me of a most tender and affectionate mother,\n calls upon me to beg your prayers, that the sudden stroke may be\n sanctified to me and to us all. It loudly bids me remember that I am\n but a stranger and pilgrim here below. May the Lord give me a\n pilgrim\u2019s spirit! and may He give us both a right judgment in all\n things!\n\n \u201cPermit me to subscribe myself, Rev. and dear Sir, your sincere friend\n and servant in Christ,\n\n \u201cRICHARD HILL.\u201d\n\nThe Christian spirit of this letter cannot be excelled. What a contrast\nto that of the \u201cFinishing Stroke,\u201d published at the beginning of the\nyear! Mr. Hill gave Fletcher full permission to make known the facts\nthat the controversy had done him no good; that he desired to be humbled\nbefore God, and to ask forgiveness of Fletcher and Wesley for everything\nthat had \u201csavoured of wrong,\u201d or of his \u201cown spirit,\u201d in his writings;\nthat he had stopped the sale of his publications; and that he regarded\nmany of Wesley\u2019s people as \u201cthe excellent of the earth.\u201d\n\nThere can be no doubt that Fletcher availed himself of Mr. Hill\u2019s\npermission. The facts did honour to Mr. Hill; but, as is often the case,\nin the course of circulation, the facts were perverted. By no fault of\nFletcher, it was reported that Mr. Hill had recanted the _doctrines_ he\nhad so stoutly maintained. This was utterly untrue; and led Mr. Hill to\nsend his three letters to the press.[295] No one could have found fault\nwith this; but, unfortunately, Mr. Hill prefixed a preface to his\nletters, and appended an appendix.\n\nFootnote 295:\n\n The title was, \u201cThree Letters, written by Richard Hill, Esq., to the\n Rev. J. Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, in the year 1773; setting forth\n Mr. Hill\u2019s Reasons for declining any further controversy relative to\n Mr. Wesley\u2019s Principles. Shrewsbury.\u201d 8vo., 30 pp.\n\nIn his preface, he remarks, that when Wesley heard from Fletcher that he\n(Mr. Hill) had suppressed the sale of his publications, he wrote Mr.\nHill \u201ca short and civil letter,\u201d in which he said, he himself intended\nto write nothing more on the controversy between them, and expressed the\nhope that all, in the future, would be love and peace. This\ncommunication gratified Mr. Hill, and soon afterwards, when he went to\nLondon, he had an interview with Wesley at West-street chapel, and\nassured him of his intentions to retire from the warfare, and said he\nwished that nothing more should be said on the subject by any one.\nWesley took him by the hand; showed a loving, pacific disposition; and,\nsays Mr. Hill, \u201cwe parted very good friends.\u201d\n\nBesides this personal narrative, however, the preface renewed the\nslanderous attacks on Fletcher, accusing him of misrepresenting facts,\nof using \u201cartifices in his manner of making quotations;\u201d and\n\u201cdeclamation, chicanery, evasion, false glosses, and pious frauds, to\nthrow dust into the eyes of his readers.\u201d Not content with this, he made\nan onslaught on Thomas Olivers, Wesley\u2019s trenchant Itinerant, who (in\n1774) had just published a 12mo book of 168 pages, entitled \u201cA Scourge\nto Calumny. In Two Parts. Inscribed to Richard Hill, Esq.\u201d He sneeringly\ncalls him \u201cone Thomas Oliver, alias Olivers, a journeyman cordwainer,\nwho had written a pamphlet against him (Mr. Hill), which, though in\nitself _black in the grain_, was afterwards _lacquered up_, _new soled_,\nand _heel-tapped_ by his master before it was exposed for sale.\u201d\n\n \u201cI shall not,\u201d continues Mr. Hill, \u201ctake the least notice of him, or\n read a line of his composition,[296] any more than, if I was\n travelling on the road, I would stop to lash, or even order my footman\n to lash, every impertinent little quadruped in a village, that should\n come out and bark at me; but would willingly let the contemptible\n animal have the satisfaction of thinking he had driven me out of\n sight.\u201d\n\nFootnote 296:\n\n If Mr. Hill had not read Thomas Oliver\u2019s little book, how is it that\n he can so graphically describe it?\n\nThis was despicable bombast; for the Welsh shoemaker, as a controversial\nwriter, was quite equal to him who, in due time, became a Shropshire\nbaronet. Mr. Hill proceeds to say that he cannot read any more of\nFletcher\u2019s books, and, therefore, cannot write any more answers to them;\nbut, because it was now currently reported that he had recanted the\ndoctrines which he had defended, he had revoked his orders to stop the\nsale of his publications, and that his \u201cFive Letters to Fletcher,\u201d his\n\u201cReview of Wesley\u2019s Doctrines,\u201d his \u201cFarrago Double Distilled,\u201d his\n\u201cParis Conversation,\u201d and his \u201cFinishing Stroke,\u201d might now be bought as\nheretofore.\n\nThe Appendix to Mr. Hill\u2019s Three Letters suggests a proposed title to\nFletcher\u2019s works, and sets forth \u201cA Creed for Arminians and\nPerfectionists,\u201d as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cARTICLE I.\n\n \u201cI believe that Jesus Christ died for the whole human race, and that\n He had no more love towards those who now are, or hereafter shall be,\n in glory, than for those who now are, or hereafter shall be, lifting\n up their eyes in torments; and that the one are no more indebted to\n His grace than the other.\n\n \u201cARTICLE II.\n\n \u201cI believe that Divine grace is indiscriminately given to all men; and\n that God, foreseeing that by far the greater part of the world would\n reject this grace, doth, nevertheless, bestow it upon them in order to\n heighten their torments and to increase their damnation in hell.\n\n \u201cARTICLE III.\n\n \u201cI believe it depends wholly on the will of the creature whether he\n shall or shall not receive any benefit from Divine grace.\n\n \u201cARTICLE IV.\n\n \u201cThough the Scripture tells me that the carnal mind is enmity against\n God, yet I believe there is something in the heart of every natural\n man that can nourish and cherish the grace of God; and that the sole\n reason why this grace is effectual in some and not in others, is\n entirely owing to themselves and to their own faithfulness, and not to\n the distinguishing love and favour of God.\n\n \u201cARTICLE V.\n\n \u201cI believe that God sincerely wishes for the salvation of many who\n never will be saved; consequently, that it is entirely owing to want\n of ability in God that what He so earnestly willeth is not\n accomplished.\n\n \u201cARTICLE VI.\n\n \u201cI believe that the Redeemer not only shed His precious blood, but\n prayed for the salvation of many souls who are now in hell;\n consequently, that His blood was shed in vain, and His prayer rejected\n of His Father; and that, therefore, He told a great untruth when He\n said, \u2018I know that Thou hearest me always.\u2019\n\n \u201cARTICLE VII.\n\n \u201cI believe that God, foreseeing some men\u2019s nature will improve the\n grace which is given them, and that they will repent, believe, and be\n very good, elects them unto salvation.\n\n \u201cARTICLE VIII.\n\n \u201cI believe that the love and favour of Him with whom is no\n variableness and shadow of turning, and whose gifts and callings are\n without repentance, may vary, change, and turn every hour and every\n moment, according to the behaviour of the creature.\n\n \u201cARTICLE IX.\n\n \u201cI believe that the seed of the Word, by which God\u2019s children are born\n again, is a corruptible seed; and that, so far from enduring for ever\n (as that mistaken apostle Peter rashly affirms), it is frequently\n rooted out of the hearts of those in whom it was sown.\n\n \u201cARTICLE X.\n\n \u201cI believe that Christ does not always give unto His sheep eternal\n life; but that they often perish, and are, by the power of Satan,\n frequently plucked out of His hand.\n\n \u201cARTICLE XI.\n\n \u201cThough I have solemnly subscribed to the Thirty-Nine Articles of the\n Church of England, and have affirmed that I believe them from my\n heart, yet I think our Reformers were profoundly ignorant of true\n Christianity, when they declared, in the Ninth Article, that \u2018the\n infection of nature doth remain in them which are regenerate;\u2019 and, in\n the Fifteenth, that \u2018all we, the rest (Christ only excepted), although\n baptized and born again in Christ, yet offend in many things; and _if\n we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in\n us_.\u2019 This I totally deny, because it cuts up, root and branch, my\n favourite doctrine of _Perfection_; and, therefore, let Peter, Paul,\n James, or John, say what they will; and let reformers and martyrs join\n their syren song, their eyes were at best but half opened, for want of\n a little _Foundery_ eye-salve; therefore, I cannot look upon them as\n adult believers, and fathers in Christ.\u201d\n\nThe Eleven Articles were subscribed, \u201cJ. F.,\u201d \u201cJ. W.,\u201d and \u201cW. S.;\u201d\nwhich may be taken as the initial letters of the names of John Fletcher,\nJohn Wesley, and Walter Sellon.\n\n \u201cWhat! more _finishing strokes_!\u201d remarked the _Monthly Review_ of\n January, 1775, in its notice of Mr. Hill\u2019s new pamphlet. \u201cThis\n retiring champion, however, like the Parthians of old, is not less\n formidable in his retreat than in a direct attack. He here lets fly at\n the _Arminians_ and _Perfectionists_ one of his sharpest pointed\n arrows. He styles it \u2018_their creed_.\u2019 He says he has \u2018composed it from\n their sentiments;\u2019 and he adds that he \u2018can scarcely read it without\n horror.\u2019 Yet he thinks himself justified in publishing it, as Mr.\n Fletcher still continued the controversy with so much warmth.\u201d\n\nAll this is deeply to be regretted. Mr. Hill had declared his\ndetermination to abandon this painful warfare, and yet here he provokes\na continuance of it. It is true that, meanwhile, Fletcher had published\nhis \u201cAnswer to the Finishing Stroke\u201d of Mr. Hill; but Fletcher had done\nthis, not because he desired the controversy to be prolonged, but\nbecause \u201cThe Finishing Stroke\u201d contained so many grave attacks on\nFletcher\u2019s moral character, that Fletcher\u2019s honour could not be\nmaintained without an \u201cAnswer\u201d being written. At this point the war\nmight have ended; but, by appending the \u201cCreed for Arminians and\nPerfectionists\u201d to his Three Letters, Mr. Hill re-opened the sluice, and\n\u201cthe waters of strife\u201d flowed as fiercely as ever.\n\nFrom a Calvinian point of view, the \u201cCreed\u201d is drawn up with great\nability; but Mr. Hill was well aware that it was a misrepresentation of\nthe sentiments of Fletcher and Wesley. Besides, the thing itself was in\nbad taste. It must be acknowledged that Fletcher had published his\n\u201cGospel Proclamation: Given at _Geneva_, and signed by four of his\nMajesty\u2019s principal Secretaries of State for the Predestinarian\nDepartment!\u201d but there was no need that Mr. Richard Hill should copy\nFletcher\u2019s objectionable example.\n\nIt is now time, however, to turn to Fletcher\u2019s masterly replies.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XV.\n \u201c_FIFTH CHECK TO ANTINOMIANISM._\u201d\n\n 1774.\n\n\nIN a characteristic letter addressed to Ambrose Serle, Esq., and dated\n\u201cJanuary 11, 1774,\u201d Augustus Toplady observed:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher may fire off as soon as he pleases. The weapons of his\n warfare can never wound the truths of God, any more than a handful of\n feathers can batter down my church tower. I shall, however, be glad to\n see his performance when it appears. Mr. Shirley told me, when I was\n last at Bath, that Fletcher is to succeed Pope Wesley, as\n commander-in-chief of the Societies, if he should survive his\n holiness. No wonder, therefore, that the Cardinal of Madeley is such a\n zealous stickler for the cause. One would think that the Swiss were\n universally fated to fight for pay.\u201d[297]\n\nFootnote 297:\n\n \u201cComplete Works of Toplady.\u201d\n\nToplady\u2019s mendacious sneer that Fletcher was fighting \u201cfor pay\u201d may be\nscornfully passed over. This letter might refer to Fletcher\u2019s \u201cAnswer to\nthe Rev. Mr. Toplady\u2019s Vindication of the Decrees,\u201d which Fletcher\nfinished in the month of October, 1775; or it might refer to the\nexpected publication of the \u201cFifth Check to Antinomianism.\u201d The \u201cFirst\nPart\u201d of this was completed at Madeley, September 13, 1773; but was not\npublished until the beginning of 1774. The following was its title:\n\u201c_Logica Genevensis_ continued: or the First Part of the Fifth Check to\nAntinomianism, containing an Answer to \u2018_The Finishing Stroke_\u2019 of\nRichard Hill, Esq. In which some remarks upon _Mr. Fulsome\u2019s_ Antinomian\nCreed, published by the Rev. Mr. Berridge, are occasionally introduced.\nWith an Appendix upon the remaining difference between the Calvinists\nand the Anti-Calvinists, with respect to our Lord\u2019s doctrine of\n_Justification by words_, and St. James\u2019s doctrine of _Justification by\nworks, and not by faith only_. London: 1774.\u201d 12mo., 48 pp.\n\nFletcher\u2019s \u201cAnswer\u201d to Richard Hill\u2019s \u201cFinishing Stroke,\u201d and his\n\u201cRemarks upon _Mr. Fulsome\u2019s_ Antinomian Creed,\u201d are able, and\ncharacteristic of the writer; but contain no biographical facts worth\nmentioning. Two extracts, however, from the \u201cAppendix,\u201d upon the\nremaining differences between the Calvinists and the anti-Calvinists,\nmay be useful; inasmuch as, in a condensed form, they exhibit the point\nto which, in Fletcher\u2019s opinion, the controversy had brought both\nparties with respect to the principal of Wesley\u2019s \u201cMinutes\u201d of 1770.\nFletcher writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cOn both sides, we agree to maintain, in opposition to Socinians and\n Deists, that the grand, the primary, and properly meritorious cause of\n our justification, from first to last, both in the day of conversion\n and in the day of judgment, is only the precious atonement and the\n infinite merits of our Lord Jesus Christ. We all agree likewise that\n in the day of conversion faith is the _instrumental cause_ of our\n justification before God. Nay, if I mistake not, we come one step\n nearer each other, for we equally hold that, after conversion, the\n works of faith are in this world, and will be in the day of judgment,\n the _evidencing cause_ of our justification; that is, the works of\n faith (under the above-mentioned primary cause of our salvation, and\n in subordination to the faith that gives them birth), are now, and\n will be in the great day, the _evidence_ that shall instrumentally\n _cause_ our justification as believers. Thus Mr. Hill says [_Review_,\n p. 149], \u2018Neither Mr. Shirley, nor I, nor any Calvinist that I ever\n heard of, denies that, though a sinner be _justified in the sight of\n God by Christ alone_, he is _declaratively justified by works, both\n here and at the day of judgment_.\u2019 And the Rev. Mr. Madan, in his\n sermon on \u2018_justification by works stated, explained, and reconciled\n with justification by faith_,\u2019 says [p. 29], \u2018By Christ only are we\n _meritoriously_ justified, and by faith only are we _instrumentally_\n justified _in the sight of God_; but by works, and not by faith only,\n are we _declaratively justified before men and angels_.\u2019 From these\n two quotations, which could easily be multiplied to twenty, it is\n evident that pious Calvinists hold the doctrine of a _justification_\n by the works of faith; or, as Mr. Madan expresses it, after St. James,\n _by works, and not by faith only_.\n\n \u201cIt remains now to show wherein we disagree. At first sight, the\n difference seems trifling; but, upon close examination, it appears\n that the whole antinomian gulf still remains fixed between us. Read\n the preceding quotations, weigh the clauses which I have put in\n capitals, compare them with what the Rev. Mr. Berridge says in his\n \u2018_Christian World Unmasked_\u2019 (p. 26), of \u2018_an absolute impossibility\n of being justified in any manner_ by our works,\u2019 namely, _before God_;\n and you will see that though pious Calvinists allow we are justified\n by works _before men and angels_, yet they deny our being _ever_\n justified by works _before God_, in whose sight they suppose we are\n for ever justified by _Christ alone_,\u2019 _i.e._, only by Christ\u2019s good\n works and sufferings, absolutely imputed to us from the very first\n moment in which we make a single act of true faith, if not from all\n eternity. Thus works are entirely excluded from having any hand either\n in our intermediate or final justification _before God_; and thus they\n are still represented as _totally needless_ to our _eternal_\n salvation. Now, in direct opposition to the above-mentioned\n distinction, we anti-Calvinists believe that adult persons cannot be\n saved without being justified _by faith_ as _sinners_, according to\n the light of their dispensation; and _by works_ as _believers_,\n according to the time and opportunities they have of working. We\n assert that the _works_ of faith are not less necessary to our\n justification _before God_ as believers, than _faith_ itself is\n necessary to our justification _before Him_ as sinners. And we\n maintain that when faith does not produce good works (much more when\n it produces the worst works, such as adultery, hypocrisy, treachery,\n murder, etc.), it dies, and justifies no more; seeing it is a _living_\n and not a _dead_ faith that justifies us as sinners; even as they are\n _living_ and not dead works that justify us as believers.\u201d\n\nThus did these good men quarrel. Berridge was a man of eminent piety and\nof great wit, but he could scarcely be considered a great theologian;\nand it may be fairly doubted whether he ever held the doctrines which\nFletcher, perhaps somewhat hardly, deduces from a few of his unguarded\nwords.\n\nIn his next pamphlet, which was published March 1, 1774,[298] Fletcher\ntreats poor Berridge with yet greater severity. The whole work was\ndevoted to an exposure of the objectionable and the weak points in\nBerridge\u2019s \u201cChristian World Unmasked.\u201d Its title was \u201c_Logica\nGenevensis_ continued. Or the Second Part of the Fifth Check to\nAntinomianism; containing a Defence of \u2018Jack o\u2019 lanthorn,\u2019 and \u2018the\nPaper-kite,\u2019 _i.e._, Sincere Obedience;\u2014of the \u2018Cobweb,\u2019 _i.e._, The\nevangelical law of liberty; and of the \u2018Valiant Sergeant I. F.,\u2019 _i.e._,\nThe conditionality of Perseverance, attacked by the Rev. Mr. Berridge,\nM.A., Vicar of Everton, and late Fellow of Clare-hall, Cambridge, in his\nbook called \u2018The Christian World Unmasked.\u2019 London: 1774.\u201d 12 mo., 44\npp.\n\nFootnote 298:\n\n _Lloyd\u2019s Evening Post_, March 2, 1774.\n\nBerridge was well aware of Fletcher\u2019s intention to attack his book, for\nFletcher himself, seven months before, had told him that what he had\n\u201csaid about sincere obedience was the very core of Antinomianism,\u201d and\nthat he must freely expose what he had written. Berridge, in letters to\nJohn Thornton, Esq., and the Rev. John Newton, complained of this, and\nsaid Fletcher had misapprehended his meaning. He also wrote to Fletcher\nto the same effect, and told him that, if he published his attack, he\n(Berridge) would not answer it. There can be no doubt that Berridge\nnever _intended_ to \u201cdisparage sincere obedience\u201d to the law of God; but\nhis similes, allegories, figures, and loose language, might be construed\nby Antinomian readers in such a sense. Fletcher believed Berridge to be\na sincere, earnest, obedient Christian; but he also believed that\nBerridge\u2019s well-meant book might be turned to a bad account by men with\nwhose Antinomian sentiments Berridge had no sympathy. In the\nintroduction to his pamphlet, Fletcher writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cBefore I mention Mr. Berridge\u2019s mistakes, I must do justice to his\n person. It is by no means my design to represent him as a divine, who\n either leads a loose life, or _intends_ to hurt the Redeemer\u2019s\n interest. His conduct as a Christian is exemplary; his labours as a\n minister are great; and I am persuaded that the wrong touches which he\n gives to the ark of godliness are not only undesigned, but _intended_\n to do God service.\n\n \u201cThere are so many things commendable in the pious vicar of Everton,\n and so much truth in his \u2018Christian World Unmasked,\u2019 that I find it a\n hardship to expose the unguarded parts of that performance. But the\n cause of this hardship is the ground of my apology. Mr. Berridge is a\n good, an excellent man; therefore the Antinomian errors which go\n abroad into the world with his letters of recommendation, speak in his\n evangelical strain, and are armed with the poignancy of his wit,\n cannot be too soon pointed out and too carefully guarded against. I\n flatter myself that this consideration will procure me his pardon for\n taking the liberty of dispatching his \u2018valiant sergeant\u2019 with some\n doses of rational and Scriptural antidote for those who have drunk\n into the pleasing mistakes of his book, and want his piety to hinder\n them from carrying speculative into practical Antinomianism.\u201d\n\nIt would weary the reader to follow Fletcher in his minute, sometimes\npungent, and always irrefutable criticisms on Berridge\u2019s well-known\nbook. There is often plain speaking, but there is no acidity. Berridge\nis routed, but he is invariably treated as a Christian and a gentleman.\nFletcher\u2019s \u201cConclusion\u201d is as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cWere I to conclude these strictures upon the dangerous tenets,\n inadvertently advanced and happily contradicted, in \u2018The Christian\n World Unmasked,\u2019 without professing my brotherly love and sincere\n respect for the ingenious and pious author, I should wrong him,\n myself, and the cause which I defend. I only do him justice when I say\n that few, very few, of our elders equal him in devotedness to Christ,\n zeal, diligence, and ministerial success. His indefatigable labours in\n the word and doctrine entitle him to a double share of honour; and I\n invite all my readers to esteem him highly in love for his Master\u2019s\n and his work\u2019s sake; entreating them not to undervalue his vital piety\n on account of his Antinomian opinions; and beseeching them to consider\n that his errors are so much the more excusable as they do not\n influence his moral conduct, and that he refutes them himself far more\n than his favourite scheme of doctrine allows him to do. Add to this\n that those very errors spring, in a great degree, from the idea that\n he honours Christ by receiving, and does God service by propagating\n them.\n\n \u201cThe desire of catching the attention of his readers has made him\n choose a witty, facetious manner of writing, for which he has a\n peculiar turn; and the necessity I am under of standing his _indirect_\n attack[299] obliges me to meet him upon his own ground, and to\n encounter him with his own weapons. I beg that what passes for\n evangelical humour in him may not be called indecent levity in me. A\n sharp pen may be guided by a kind heart; and such, I am persuaded, is\n that of my much-esteemed antagonist, whom I publicly invite to my\n pulpit; protesting that I should be edified and overjoyed to hear him\n enforce there the _guarded_ substance of his book, which,\n notwithstanding the vein of solifidianism I have taken the liberty to\n open, contains many great and glorious truths.\u201d\n\nFootnote 299:\n\n As previously stated, Fletcher\u2019s name was not mentioned in Berridge\u2019s\n book, but the book was intended to ridicule and denounce the doctrines\n which Fletcher, in his \u201c_Checks_,\u201d had defended.\n\nIn all his publications, Fletcher had not only Wesley\u2019s approval, but\nhis high commendation. In three several letters, written during the\npresent year, 1774, Wesley thus expressed his opinion of Fletcher:\u2014\n\n \u201cMarch 1, 1774.\u2014He\u201d [James Perfect], \u201cpreaches salvation by faith in\n the same manner that my brother and I have done; and as Mr. Fletcher\n (one of the finest writers of the age) has beautifully explained it.\n None of us talk of being accepted for our works; that is the Calvinist\n slander. But we all maintain we are not saved without works; that\n works are a condition (though not the meritorious cause) of final\n salvation. It is by faith in the righteousness and blood of Christ\n that we are enabled to do all good works; and it is for the sake of\n these that all who fear God and work righteousness are accepted of\n Him.\u201d[300]\n\n \u201cMay 2, 1774. Until Mr.\u201d (Richard) \u201cHill and his associates puzzled\n the cause, it was as plain as plain could be. The Methodists always\n held, and have declared a thousand times, that the death of Christ is\n the meritorious cause of our salvation, that is, of pardon, holiness,\n and glory; loving, obedient faith is the condition of glory. This Mr.\n Fletcher has so illustrated and confirmed, as, I think, scarcely any\n one has done before since the Apostles.\u201d[301]\n\n \u201cDecember 28, 1774. If we could once bring all our preachers,\n itinerant and local, uniformly and steadily to insist on those two\n points, \u2018Christ dying for us,\u2019 and \u2018Christ reigning in us,\u2019 we should\n shake the trembling gates of hell. I think most of them are now\n exceeding clear herein, and the rest come nearer and nearer;\n especially since they have read Mr. Fletcher\u2019s \u2018Checks,\u2019 which have\n removed many difficulties out of the way.\u201d[302]\n\nFootnote 300:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Works, vol xii., p. 372.\n\nFootnote 301:\n\n _Ibid_, p. 373.\n\nFootnote 302:\n\n _Ibid_, p. 430.\n\nSuch was one of the services which Fletcher, \u201cone of the finest writers\nof the age,\u201d had rendered to Wesley\u2019s preachers and people as early as\nthe year 1774. They had been in danger of departing from the truth, or,\nat least, stumbling at it: by Fletcher\u2019s help, they were confirmed in\nthe Christian faith, and henceforth earnestly contended for it.\n\nAs already seen, in 1773 Mr. Richard Hill had extended to Fletcher the\nolive branch of peace; and now the Countess of Huntingdon seems to have\ndone the same. Three years before, she had virtually dismissed him from\nher Calvinistic College at Trevecca, because he would not renounce what\nwere called the \u201c_horrible and abominable_\u201d doctrinal \u201cMinutes\u201d of\nWesley\u2019s Conference in 1770. Since then, he had been incessantly\nemployed in explaining and defending these \u201cMinutes;\u201d and, in every\ninstance, had vanquished his opponents. Her ladyship, with her\nstrong-mindedness, seemed to perceive this, and wished to have an\ninterview with her disbanded president. She was staying at Bath, and\nthrough James Ireland, Esq., of Bristol, the intimate friend of both,\nher wish appears to have been conveyed to Fletcher; who, in reply, wrote\nto Mr. Ireland as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _February 6, 1774_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014In the present circumstances, it was a great piece of\n condescension in dear Lady Huntingdon to be willing to see me\n privately: but for her to permit me to wait upon her _openly_ denotes\n such generosity, such courage, and a mind so much superior to the\n narrowness that clogs the charity of most professors, that it would\n have amazed me, if everything that is noble and magnanimous were not\n to be expected from her ladyship. It is well for her that spirits are\n imprisoned in flesh and blood, or I might by this time (and it is but\n an hour since I received your letter) have troubled her ten times with\n my apparition, to wish her joy of being above the dangerous snare of\n professors\u2014the smiles and frowns of the religious world; and to thank\n her a thousand times for not being ashamed of her old servant, and for\n cordially forgiving him all that is past, upon the score of the Lord\u2019s\n love, and of my honest meaning.\n\n \u201cBut though, on reading your letter, my mind has travelled so fast to\n Bath, yet an embargo is laid upon my body\u2014\u2018I must not go yet.\u2019 I am\n the more inclined to take the hint, for two reasons. I will tell you\n all my heart about it. The more I see her ladyship\u2019s generosity, and\n admire the faithfulness of the friendship that she has for many years\n honoured me with, the more I ought to take care not to bring burdens\n upon her. It might lessen her influence with those she is connected\n with; and might grieve some of her friends, who possibly would look\n upon her condescension as an affront to them. This is the first\n reason.\n\n \u201cThe second respects myself. _I must follow my light._ A necessity is\n laid upon me to clear my conscience with respect to the _Antinomian\n world_, and to point out the stumbling-block that keeps many serious\n people from embracing the real doctrines of free grace. I cannot do\n this without advancing some truths, which I know her ladyship receives\n as well as myself, but which, by my manner of unfolding them, will, at\n first sight, appear dreadful touches to the Gospel of the day. I am\n just sending to the press \u2018A Scriptural Essay upon the Astonishing\n Rewardableness of the Works of Faith.\u2019 Though it consists only of\n plain Scriptures, and plain arguments, without anything personal, I\n think it will raise more dust of prejudice against me than my\n preceding publications. With respect to myself, I do not mind it; but\n I am bound in love to mind it with respect to her ladyship. My respect\n for her ladyship, therefore, together with the preceding reason,\n determine me to defer paying my respects _personally_ to her, till\n after the publication of my \u2018Essay,\u2019 and \u2018Scripture Scales;\u2019 and, if\n she does not then revoke the kind leave she gives me, I shall most\n gladly make the best of my way to assure her in person, as I do now by\n this indirect means, that I am, and shall for ever be her dutiful\n servant in what appears to me the plain Gospel of our common Lord.\n\n \u201cWith love to yourself, and dutiful love to our noble friend, I am,\n etc.,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[303]\n\nFootnote 303:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 221.\n\nNothing need be said respecting Fletcher\u2019s considerate kindness in\ndeclining, for the present, an interview with the Countess of\nHuntingdon, lest he should become the means of bringing upon her\nundeserved reproach from some of her bigoted and narrow-hearted friends.\nIt was like the man, and worthy of him.\n\nIn another letter to Mr. Ireland, Fletcher further refers to the\nreturning friendliness of the Countess, and to his controversial and\nexhausting labours, of which he was becoming weary:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _March 27, 1774_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR SIR,\u2014I think I wrote my last two days before I received your\n bounty\u2014a large hogshead of rice and two cheeses. Accept the thanks of\n myself and of my poor flock. I distributed it on Shrove-Tuesday, and\n preached to a numerous congregation on \u2018Seek ye first the kingdom of\n God and His righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto\n you.\u2019 We prayed for our benefactor, that God would give him a\n hundredfold in this life, and eternal life, where life eternal will be\n no burden. I saw then, what I have not often seen on such occasions,\n gladness without the appearance of envying or grudging.\n\n \u201cI get very slowly out of the mire of my controversy, and yet I hope\n to get over it, if God spares my life, in two or three pieces more.\n Since I wrote last, I have added to my \u2018Equal Check\u2019 a piece which I\n call \u2018An Essay on Truth; or, a Rational Vindication of the Doctrine of\n Salvation by Faith,\u2019 which I have taken the liberty to dedicate to\n Lady Huntingdon, to have an opportunity of clearing her ladyship from\n the charge of Antinomianism. I have taken this step in the simplicity\n of my heart, and as due from me, in my circumstances, to the character\n of her ladyship.\n\n \u201cI have just spirit enough to enjoy my solitude, and to bless God that\n I am out of the hurry of the world\u2014even the spiritual world. I tarry\n gladly in my Jerusalem, till the kingdom of God comes with power. Till\n then, it matters not where I am: only as my chief call is here, here I\n gladly stay, till God fits me for the pulpit or the _grave_. I still\n spend my mornings in scribbling. Though I grudge so much time in\n writing, yet a man must do something; and I may as well investigate\n truth as do anything else, except solemn praying and visiting my\n flock. I shall be glad to have done with my present avocation, that I\n may give myself up more to those two things.\n\n \u201cO how life goes! I walked, now I gallop into eternity. The bowl of\n life goes rapidly down the steep hill of time. Let us be wise: embrace\n we Jesus and the resurrection. Let us trim our lamps, and give\n ourselves afresh to Him that bought us, till we can do it without\n reserve. Adieu!\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[304]\n\nFootnote 304:\n\n Letters, 1791, p 223.\n\n\n CHAPTER XVI.\n _FURTHER PUBLICATIONS IN THE YEAR_\n\n 1774.\n\n\nIN _Lloyd\u2019s Evening Post_ for March 2, 1774, there appeared the\nfollowing advertisement:\u2014\n\n \u201c_In the Press._ An Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism; and\n the Scripture Scales to weigh Gospel Truth; both by the Rev. Mr. John\n Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, Shropshire.\u201d\n\n\u201c_The Scripture Scales_,\u201d however, were published separately, and not\nuntil the year was ending. First of all, Fletcher issued a 12mo. volume\nof 264 pages, entitled, \u201cThe First Part of an Equal Check to Pharisaism\nand Antinomianism, containing, I. An Historical Essay on the Danger of\nparting Faith and Works. II. Salvation by the Covenant of Grace, A\nDiscourse preached in the Parish Church of Madeley, April 18, and May 9,\n1773. III. A Scriptural Essay on the astonishing Rewardableness of\nWorks, according to the Covenant of Grace. IV. An Essay on Truth, or, A\nrational Vindication of the Doctrine of Salvation by Faith, with a\ndedicatory Epistle to the Right Hon. the Countess of Huntingdon. By the\nAuthor of the Checks to Antinomianism. Shrewsbury: Printed by J.\nEddowes: and sold at the Foundery; and by J. Buckland, in Paternoster\nRow, London; by T. Mills in Bath; and S. Aris in Birmingham. 1774.\u201d\n\nFletcher\u2019s Preface is dated, Madeley, May 21, 1774. The following\nextracts from it convey an idea of the scope of his book:\u2014\n\n \u201cI. The first piece of this Check was designed for a preface to the\n Discourse that follows it; but as it swelled far beyond my intention,\n I present it to the reader under the name of _An Historical Essay_,\n which makes way for the tracts that follow.\n\n \u201cII. With respect to the Discourse, I must mention what engages me to\n publish it. In 1771, I saw the propositions called the \u2018_Minutes_.\u2019\n Their author invited me to \u2018_review the whole affair_.\u2019 I did so; and\n soon found that I had \u2018leaned too much toward Calvinism,\u2019 which, after\n mature consideration, appeared to me exactly to coincide with\n _speculative_ Antinomianism; and the same year I publicly acknowledged\n my error.[305]\n\n \u201cWhen I had thus openly confessed that I was involved in the guilt of\n _many of my brethren_, and that I had so leaned towards _speculative_\n as not to have made a proper stand against _practical_ Antinomianism,\n who could have thought that one of my most formidable opponents[306]\n would have attempted to screen his mistakes behind some passages of a\n manuscript sermon which I preached twelve years ago, and of which, by\n some means or other, he has got a copy?\n\n \u201cI am very far from recanting that old discourse. I still think the\n doctrine it contains excellent, in the main, and very proper to be\n enforced, though in a more guarded manner, in a congregation of\n hearers violently prejudiced against the first gospel axiom.[307]\n Therefore, out of regard for the grand, leading truth of Christianity,\n and in compliance with Mr. Hill\u2019s _earnest entreaty_ (\u2018Finishing\n Stroke,\u2019 p. 45), I send my sermon into the world upon the following\n reasonable conditions: 1. That I shall be allowed to publish it, as I\n preached it a year ago in my church, namely, with _additions in\n brackets_, to make it at once a _fuller_ Check to Pharisaism, and a\n _finishing_ Check to Antinomianism. 2. That the largest addition shall\n be in favour of _free grace_. 3. That nobody shall accuse me of\n _forgery_, for thus adding my present light to that which I had\n formerly; and for thus bringing out of my little treasure of\n experience _things new and old_. 4. That the press shall not groan\n with the charge of _disingenuity_, if I throw into Notes some\n unguarded expressions, which I formerly used without scruple, and\n which my more enlightened conscience does not suffer me to use at\n present. 5. That my opponent\u2019s call to print my sermon will procure me\n the pardon of the public, for presenting them with a plain, _blunt_,\n discourse, composed for an audience chiefly made up of colliers and\n rustics. And, lastly, that, as I understand English a little better\n than I did twelve years ago, I shall be permitted to rectify a few\n French idioms, which I find in my old manuscript; and to _connect_ my\n thoughts a little more like an Englishman, where I can do it without\n the least misrepresentation of the sense.\n\n \u201cIII. With regard to the \u2018_Scriptural Essay_\u2019 upon the rewardableness\n or evangelical worthiness of works, I shall just observe that it\n attacks the grand mistake of Solifidians countenanced by three or four\n words of my old sermon. I pour a flood of Scriptures upon it; and,\n after receiving the fire of my objector, I return it in a variety of\n scriptural and rational answers, about the solidity of which the\n public must decide.\n\n \u201cIV. The \u2018_Essay on Truth_\u2019 will, I hope, reconcile judicious\n moralists to the doctrine of salvation _by faith_, and considerate\n Solifidians to the doctrine of salvation _by_ the _works_ of faith;\n reason and Scripture concurring to show the constant dependence of\n works upon faith; and the wonderful agreement of the doctrine of\n present salvation by TRUE _faith_, with the doctrine of eternal\n salvation by GOOD _works_.\n\n \u201cI hope that I do not dissent, in my observations upon _faith_, either\n from our Church, or approved Gospel ministers. In their _highest_\n definitions of that grace, they consider it _only_ according to the\n fulness of the _Christian_ dispensation; but my subject has obliged me\n to consider it also according to the dispensations of John the\n Baptist, Moses, and Noah. Believers under these _inferior_\n dispensations have not always _assurance_, nor is the assurance they\n sometimes have so bright as that of adult Christians, Matt. xi. 11.\n But, undoubtedly, assurance is inseparably connected with the faith of\n the _Christian_ dispensation, which was not _fully_ opened till Christ\n opened _His_ glorious baptism on the Day of Pentecost, and till His\n spiritual kingdom was set up with power in the hearts of His people.\n Nobody, therefore, can truly believe, according to _this_\n dispensation, without being _immediately_ conscious both of the\n forgiveness of sins, and of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. This is a\n most important truth, derided indeed by fallen Churchmen, and denied\n by Laodicean Dissenters; but, of late years gloriously revived by Mr.\n Wesley and the Ministers connected with him.\u201d\n\nFootnote 305:\n\n In the \u201cSecond Check to Antinomianism.\u201d\n\nFootnote 306:\n\n Mr. Richard Hill.\n\nFootnote 307:\n\n Thus defined by Fletcher in his \u201cDoctrines of Grace and Justice:\u201d \u201cOur\n salvation is of God; or, There is free grace in God; which, through\n Christ, freely places all men in a state of temporary redemption,\n justification, or salvation, according to the various Gospel\n dispensations, and crowns those who are faithful unto death with an\n eternal redemption, justification, or salvation.\u201d\n\n His definition of the second Gospel axiom is, \u201cOur damnation is of\n ourselves: or, There is a free-will in man; by which he may, through\n the grace freely imparted to him in the day of temporary salvation,\n work out his own eternal salvation; or he may, through the natural\n power which angels had to sin in heaven, and our first parents in\n paradise, choose to sin away the day of temporary salvation. And by\n thus working out his damnation, he may provoke just wrath, which is\n the same as despised free grace, to punish him with eternal\n destruction.\u201d\n\nFrom these extracts, the reader may gather the difficult and important\ndoctrines discussed by Fletcher in his book of pamphlets. In a work like\nthis it is impossible to follow him in his careful statements of truth,\nin the arguments by which he proves them, and in his answers to\nobjections raised against them; but a few remarks respecting some of\nthese publications must be attempted.\n\nIn a prelude to his sermon first delivered in 1762, and now amended,\nFletcher gives a doleful picture of what he himself had witnessed during\nthe interval. He says:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe substance of the following Discourse was committed to paper many\n years ago, to convince the Pharisees and papists of my parish that\n there is no salvation by the faithless works of the law, but by a\n living faith in Jesus Christ. With shame I confess that I did not\n _then_ see the need of guarding the doctrine of _faith_ against the\n despisers of _works_. I was chiefly bent upon pulling up the tares of\n Pharisaism: those of Antinomianism were not yet sprung up in the\n field, which I began to cultivate: or my want of experience hindered\n me from discerning them. But since, what a crop of them have I\n perceived and bewailed!\n\n \u201cAlas! they have, in a great degree, ruined the success of my\n ministry. I have seen numbers of lazy seekers, enjoying the dull\n pleasure of sloth on the couch of wilful unbelief, under pretence that\n God was to do all in them without them. I have seen some lie flat in\n the mire of sin, absurdly boasting that they could not fall; and\n others make the means of grace means of idle gossiping or sly\n courtship. I have seen some turn their religious profession into a way\n of gratifying covetousness or indolence; and others, their skill in\n church music, their knowledge, and their zeal, into various nets to\n catch esteem, admiration, and praise. Some I have seen making\n _yesterday\u2019s_ faith a reason to laugh at the cross _to-day_; and\n others drawing, from their misapprehensions of the atonement,\n arguments to be less importunate in secret prayer, and more\n conformable to this evil world than once they were. Nay, I have seen\n some professing believers backward to do those works of mercy, which I\n have sometimes found persons, who made no profession of godliness,\n quite ready to perform. And\u2014oh! tell it in Sion, that watchfulness may\n not be neglected by believers, that fearfulness may seize upon\n backsliders, and that trembling may break the bones of hypocrites and\n apostates\u2014I have seen those who had equally shined by their gifts and\n graces strike the moral world with horror by the grossest\n Antinomianism, and disgrace the doctrine of _salvation through faith_\n by the deepest plunges into scandalous sins.\u201d\n\nAs already stated, Fletcher\u2019s \u201cEssay on Truth; or, Rational Vindication\nof the Doctrine of Salvation by Faith,\u201d was dedicated to his quondam\nfriend and patroness, the Countess of Huntingdon, who again desired his\nfriendship, his counsel, and his prayers. In his \u201cDedicatory Epistle\u201d he\nsays:\u2014\n\n \u201cMY LADY,\u2014Because I think it my duty to defend the _works of faith_\n against the triumphant errors of the Solifidians, some of your\n ladyship\u2019s friends conclude that I am an enemy to the doctrine of\n _salvation by faith_, and their conclusion amounts to such\n exclamations as these: \u2018How could a lady, so zealous for God\u2019s glory\n and the Redeemer\u2019s grace, commit the superintendency of a seminary of\n pious learning to a man that opposes the _fundamental_ doctrine of\n Protestantism! How could she put her sheep under the care of such a\n wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing!\u2019 This conclusion, my lady, has grieved me\n for your sake; and, to remove the blot that it indirectly fixes upon\n you, as well as to balance my \u2018Scriptural Essay on the Rewardableness\u2019\n of the works of faith, I publish, and humbly dedicate to your\n ladyship, this last piece of my \u2019_Equal Check to Pharisaism and\n Antinomianism_.\u2019 May the kindness which enabled you to bear for years\n with the coarseness of my ministrations incline you favourably to\n receive this little token of my unfeigned attachment to Protestantism,\n and of my lasting respect for your ladyship!\n\n \u201cYour aversion to all that looks like controversy can never make you\n think that an _Equal Check_ to the two grand delusions, which have\n crept into the Church, is needless in our days. I flatter myself,\n therefore, that though you may blame my _performance_, you will\n approve of my _design_. And indeed what true Christian can be\n absolutely neuter in this controversy? If _God has a controversy_ with\n all _Pharisees_ and _Antinomians_, have not all God\u2019s children a\n controversy with _Pharisaism_ and _Antinomianism_? Have you not, for\n one, my lady? Do you not check in private what I attempt to check in\n public? Does not the religious world know that you abhor, attack, and\n pursue _Pharisaism_ in its most artful disguises? And have I not\n frequently heard you express, in the strongest terms, your detestation\n of _Antinomianism_, and lament the number of sleeping professors, whom\n that Delilah robs of their strength? Nor would you, I am persuaded, my\n lady, have countenanced the opposition which was made against the\n \u2018Minutes,\u2019 if your commendable, though (as it appears to me) at that\n time, too precipitate zeal against Pharisaism had not prevented your\n seeing that they contain the Scripture truths, which are fittest to\n stop the rapid progress of Antinomianism.\n\n \u201cHowever, if you still think, my lady, that I mistake with respect to\n the importance of those propositions, you know I am not mistaken when\n I declare, before the world, that a _powerful, practical, actually\n saving_ faith is the only faith I ever heard your ladyship recommend,\n as worthy to be contended for. And so long as you plead only for such\n a faith, so long as you abhor the winter-faith that saves the\n Solifidians, in their own conceit, while they commit adultery, murder,\n and incest, if they choose to carry Antinomianism to such a dreadful\n length; so long as you are afraid to maintain, either directly or\n indirectly, that the _evidence_ and _comfort_ of justifying faith may\n be suspended by sin, but that the _righteousness_ of faith, and the\n _justification_ which it instrumentally procures, can never be lost,\n no, not by the most enormous and complicated crimes,\u2014whatever\n diversity there may be between your ladyship\u2019s sentiments and mine, it\n can never be fundamental. I preach salvation by a faith that\n _actually_ works by obedient love, and your ladyship witnesses\n salvation by an _actually_ operative faith; nor can I, to this day,\n see any material difference between those phrases in the present\n controversy. I remain, with my former respect and devotedness, my\n lady, your ladyship\u2019s most obliged and obedient servant in the Gospel,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\n\n \u201cMadeley, _March 12, 1774_.\u201d\n\nFletcher\u2019s \u201cEssay on Truth\u201d is one of his ablest and most important\nworks. It is full of his own peculiar genius, and\u2014what cannot be said\nconcerning all his writings\u2014it is very readable. The following brief\nextracts from it may be acceptable and useful:\u2014\n\n _Saving faith._ \u201cWhat is _saving_ faith?[308] I dare not say that it\n is \u2018believing heartily\u2019 my sins are forgiven me for Christ\u2019s sake;\n for, if I live in sin, that belief is a _destructive_ conceit, and\n not _saving_ faith. Neither dare I say, that \u2018saving faith is _only_\n a sure trust and confidence that Christ loved me, and gave Himself\n for me;\u2019[309] for, if I did, I should almost damn all mankind for\n four thousand years. Such definitions of saving faith are, I fear,\n too _narrow_ to be just, and too _unguarded_ to keep out\n Solifidianism.[310] To avoid such mistakes; to contradict no\n Scriptures; to put no black mark of _damnation_ upon any man, that\n in any nation fears God and works of righteousness; to leave no room\n for Solifidianism, and to present the reader with a definition of\n faith adequate to _the everlasting Gospel_, I would choose to say,\n that justifying or saving faith is _believing_ the saving truth\n _with the heart unto_ internal, and (as we have opportunity) _unto_\n external _righteousness_, according to our light and dispensation.\n To St. Paul\u2019s words, Rom. x. 10, I add the epithets _internal_ and\n _external_, in order to exclude, according to 1 John iii. 7, 8, the\n filthy imputation, under which fallen believers may, if we credit\n the Antinomians, commit internal and external adultery, mental and\n bodily murder, without the least reasonable fear of endangering\n their faith, their interest in God\u2019s favour, and their inamissable\n title to a throne of glory.\u201d\n\n _Faith the gift of God, and the act of man._ \u201cHow is faith the gift of\n God? Some persons think that faith is as much out of our power as the\n lightning that shoots from a distant cloud; they suppose that God\n drives sinners to the fountain of Christ\u2019s blood, as irresistibly as\n the infernal _legion_ drove the herd of swine into the sea of\n Galilee.\u201d\n\nFootnote 308:\n\n As usual, these extracts are made from the _original_ edition, and the\n _italics_ are Fletcher\u2019s own.\n\nFootnote 309:\n\n In a foot-note, Fletcher remarks, \u201cWhen the Church of England and Mr.\n Wesley give us particular definitions of faith, it is plain that they\n consider it according to the _Christian_ dispensation; the privileges\n of which must be principally insisted upon among Christians.\u201d\n\nFootnote 310:\n\n Solifidianism, now a favourite word with Fletcher, is thus defined by\n him, in his \u201cFifth Check to Antinomianism:\u201d\u2014\u201cSolifidianism is the\n doctrine of Solifidians; and the Solifidians are men who, because\n sinners are justified _sola fide_, \u2018by sole faith,\u2019 in the day of\n conversion, infer, as Mr. Berridge, that \u2018believing is the total term\n of all salvation,\u2019 and conclude, as Mr. Hill, that the doctrine of\n final justification by the works of faith in the great day is \u2018full of\n rottenness and deadly poison.\u2019 It is a softer word for Antinomianism.\u201d\n\nAfter amply refuting this \u201c_absurd_\u201d idea, Fletcher proceeds:\u2014\n\n \u201cHaving thus exposed the erroneous sense in which some people suppose\n that _faith is the gift of God_, I beg leave to mention in what sense\n it appears to me to be so. _Believing_ is the gift of the _God of\n Grace_, as _breathing_, _moving_, and _eating_ are the gifts of _the\n God of Nature_. He gives me lungs and air, that I may breathe; He\n gives me life and muscles, that I may move; He bestows upon me food\n and a mouth, that I may eat; but He neither _breathes_, _moves_, nor\n _eats_ for me. Nay, when I think proper, I can accelerate my\n breathing, motion, and eating: and, if I please, I may _fast_, _lie\n down_, or _hang myself_, and, by that means, put an end to my\n _eating_, _moving_, and _breathing_. _Faith_ is the gift of God to\n believers, as _sight_ is to you. The parent of good freely gives you\n the light of the sun, and organs proper to receive it. Everything\n around you bids you use your eyes and see; nevertheless, you may not\n only drop your curtains, but close your eyes also. This is exactly the\n case with regard to faith. Free grace removes, in part, the total\n blindness which Adam\u2019s fall brought upon us; free grace gently sends\n us some beams of truth, which is the light of _the sun of\n righteousness_; it disposes the eye of our understanding to see those\n beams; it excites us, in various ways, to welcome them; it blesses us\n with many, perhaps with all the means of faith, such as opportunities\n to hear, read, enquire, and power to consider, assent, consent,\n resolve, and re-resolve to believe the truth. But, after all,\n _believing_ is as much our own act as _seeing_. We may in general do,\n suspend, or omit the _act_ of faith. Nay, we may do by the eye of our\n faith, what some report Democritus did by his bodily eyes. Being tired\n of seeing the follies of mankind, to rid himself of that disagreeable\n sight, he put his eyes out. We may be so averse from _the light, which\n enlightens every man_ that _comes into the world_; we may so dread it\n because our works are evil, as to exemplify, like the Pharisees, such\n awful declarations as these: _Their eyes have they closed, lest they\n should see: wherefore God gave them up to a reprobate mind_, and,\n _they were blinded_.\u201d\n\nIt need not be added, that Fletcher abundantly sustains these figurative\narguments by scriptural quotations.\n\nTwo extracts more. In his description of \u201c_saving faith_,\u201d Fletcher\nrefuses to put the \u201cblack mark of damnation upon any man, that in any\nnation fears God and works righteousness.\u201d In his \u201cAppendix to Prevent\nObjections,\u201d he explains his meaning, as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cI make no more difference between the faith of a righteous heathen,\n and the faith of a father in Christ, than I do between daybreak and\n meridian light:\u2014That the light of a sincere Jew is as much one with\n the light of a sincere Christian, as the light of the sun in a cold,\n cloudy day in March is one with the light of the sun in a fine day in\n May:\u2014And that the difference between the saving faith peculiar to the\n sincere disciples of Noah, Moses, John the Baptist, and Jesus Christ,\n consists in a variety of _degrees_, and not in a diversity of\n _species_; saving faith, under all the dispensations, agreeing in the\n following essentials: 1. It is begotten by the revelation of some\n saving truth presented by free grace, impressed by the Spirit, and\n received by the believer\u2019s prevented free agency. 2. It has the same\n original cause in all, that is, the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. 3.\n It _actually_ saves all, though in various degrees. 4. It sets all\n upon _working righteousness; some bearing fruit thirty, some sixty,\n and some a hundredfold_. And 5. Through Christ, it will bring all that\n do not make shipwreck of it to one or another of the \u2018_many\n mansions_,\u2019 which our Lord is gone to prepare in heaven for His\n _believing_, _obedient_ people.\n\n \u201cAnd here honesty obliges me to lay before the public an objection,\n which I had for some time against the _appendages_ of the Athanasian\n Creed. I admire the scriptural manner in which it sets forth the\n Divine Unity in Trinity, and the Divine Trinity in Unity; but I can no\n longer use its damnatory clauses. It abruptly takes us to the very top\n of the _Christian_ dispensation, considered in a doctrinal light. This\n dispensation it calls _the Catholic faith_; and, without mentioning\n the faith of the inferior dispensations, as our other Creeds do, it\n makes us declare, that \u2018_except everyone keep that faith_\u2019 (the faith\n of the highest dispensation) \u2018_whole_ and _undefiled, he cannot be\n saved; without doubt, he shall perish everlastingly_.\u2019 This dreadful\n denunciation is true with regard to proud, ungodly infidels, who, in\n the midst of all the means of _Christian_ faith, obstinately,\n maliciously, and finally set their hearts against the doctrine of\n Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; equally despising the Son\u2019s atonement,\n and the Spirit\u2019s inspiration. But I will no more invade Christ\u2019s\n tribunal, and pronounce that the fearful punishment of damnation shall\n \u2018_without doubt_\u2019 be inflicted upon \u2018_every_\u2019 Unitarian, Arian, Jew,\n Turk, and heathen, _that fears God and works righteousness_, though he\n does not _hold the faith_ of the Athanasian Creed _whole_. For, if you\n except the last Article, thousands, yea, millions, are never called to\n hold it _at all_; and therefore shall never perish for not _holding it\n whole_. At all hazards, then, I hope I shall never use again those\n damnatory clauses, without taking the liberty of guarding them\n agreeably to the doctrine of the dispensations. And if Zelotes presses\n me with my subscriptions, I reply beforehand, that the same Church,\n who required me to subscribe to St. Athanasius\u2019s Creed, enjoins me\n also to believe this clause of St. Peter\u2019s Creed, \u2018_In every nation,\n he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him_.\u2019\n And, if those two creeds are irreconcilable, I think it more\n reasonable that Athanasius should bow to Peter, warmed by the Spirit\n of love, than that Peter should bow to Athanasius, heated by\n controversial opposition.\u201d\n\nSome will object to Fletcher\u2019s teaching. Be it so: the writer\u2019s business\nis neither to defend nor to condemn; but simply to show, as far as\npossible, what Fletcher\u2019s opinions were. John Wesley approved them. \u201cMr.\nFletcher,\u201d says he, in a letter dated January 17, 1775, \u201chas given us a\nwonderful view of the different dispensations. I believe that difficult\nsubject was never placed in so clear a light before. It seems God has\nraised him up for this very thing\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018To vindicate eternal Providence,\n And justify the ways of God to man.\u2019\u201d[311]\n\nFootnote 311:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Works, vol. xiii., p. 52.\n\nFletcher himself, evidently, felt great interest in his \u201cEssay on\nTruth.\u201d In a letter, dated March 20, 1774, and addressed to the Rev.\nJoseph Benson, he observed:\u2014\n\n \u201cI do not repent having engaged in the present controversy, for,\n though I think my little publications cannot reclaim those who are\n given up to believe the lie of the day, yet, they may here and there\n stop one from swallowing it at all, or from swallowing it so deeply as\n otherwise he might have done. In preaching, I do not meddle with the\n points discussed, unless my text leads me to it, and then I think them\n important enough not to be ashamed of them before my people.\n\n \u201cI am just finishing an \u2018Essay on Truth,\u2019 which I dedicate to Lady\n Huntingdon, wherein you will see my latest views of that important\n subject. My apprehensions of things have not changed since I saw you\n last; save that in one thing I have seen my error. An over-eager\n attention to the doctrine of the Spirit has made me, in some degree,\n overlook the medium by which the Spirit works\u2014I mean the _Word of\n Truth_, which is the word by which the heavenly fire warms us. I\n rather expected lightning, than a steady fire by means of fuel. I\n mention my error to you lest you should be involved therein.\n\n \u201cMy controversy weighs upon my hands; but I must go through with it;\n which I hope will be done in two or three pieces more: one of which,\n \u2018Scripture Scales to Weigh the Gold of Gospel Truth,\u2019 may be more\n useful than the Checks, as being more literally scriptural.\n\n \u201cI have exchanged a couple of friendly letters with Lady Huntingdon,\n who gives me leave to see her publicly; but I think it best to\n postpone that honour till I have cleared my mind.\u201d[312]\n\nFootnote 312:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nCharles Wesley read and criticized the \u201cEssay on Truth,\u201d upon which\nFletcher wrote him as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cI am glad you did not altogether disapprove my \u2018_Essay on Truth_.\u2019\n The letter, I grant, profiteth little, until the Spirit animate it. I\n had, some weeks ago, one of those touches which realize, or rather\n spiritualize the letter; and it convinced me more than ever that what\n I say in that tract, of the _Spirit_ and of _faith_, is _truth_. I am\n also persuaded that the _faith_ and _Spirit_, which belong to\n _perfect_ Christianity, are at a very low ebb, even among believers.\n When the Son of Man cometh to set up His kingdom, shall He find\n _Christian_ faith upon the earth? Yes; but, I fear, as little as He\n found of Jewish faith, when He came in the flesh. I believe you cannot\n rest with the easy Antinomian, or the busy Pharisee. You and I have\n nothing to do but to die to all that is of a sinful nature, and to\n pray for the power of an endless life. God make us faithful to our\n convictions, and keep us from the snares of outward things. You are in\n danger from music, children, poetry; and I from speculation,\n controversy, sloth, etc. Let us _watch_ against the deceitfulness of\n self and sin in all their appearances.\n\n \u201cWhat power of the Spirit do you find among the believers in London?\n What openings of the kingdom? Is the well springing up in many hearts?\n Are many souls dissatisfied, and looking for the kingdom of God in\n power? Watchman! what of the night? What of the day? What of the dawn?\n\n \u201cI feel the force of what you say about the danger of so encouraging\n the inferior dispensations, as to make people rest short of the faith\n which belongs to perfect Christianity. I have tried to obviate it in\n some parts of the \u2018_Equal Check_,\u2019 and hope to do it more effectually\n in my reply to Mr. Hill\u2019s _Creed for Perfectionists_. Probably, I\n shall get nothing by my polemic labours, but loss of friends, and\n charges of \u2018novel chimeras\u2019 on _both_ sides. I expect a letter from\n you on the subject. Write with openness, and do not fear to discourage\n me by speaking your disapprobation of what you dislike. My aim is to\n be found at the feet of all, bearing and forbearing until truth and\n love bring better days.\n\n \u201cI am, rev. and dear Sir, your most affectionate brother and son in\n the Gospel,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[313]\n\nFootnote 313:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 224.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVII.\n _PUBLICATIONS IN THE YEAR_\n\n 1775.\n\n\nON November 12, 1774, Fletcher wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe author of the \u2018_Checks_\u2019 has promised to his readers an answer to\n the Rev. Mr. Toplady\u2019s piece, entitled, \u2018_More Work for Mr.\n Wesley_.\u2019[314] His reason for postponing the finishing of _that part_\n of his \u2018_Logica Genevensis_\u2019 was the importance of the \u2018_Equal\n Check_,\u2019 which closes the controversy with Mr. Hill. He saw life so\n uncertain, that, of two things which he was obliged to do, he thought\n it his duty to set about that which appeared to him the more useful.\n He considered also that it was proper to have quite done with Mr.\n Hill, before he faced so able a writer as Mr. Toplady. And he hoped,\n that, to lay before the judicious a complete system of truth, which,\n like the sun, recommends itself by its own lustre, was perhaps the\n best method to prove that error, which shines only as a meteor, is\n nothing but a mock-sun. However, he fully designs to perform his\n engagement in a short time, if his life is spared.\u201d\n\nFootnote 314:\n\n This was published in 1772, and will be noticed shortly.\n\nThis was prefixed to the _first_ edition of the following work, which,\nat that time, was in the press: \u201cZelotes and Honestus[315] Reconciled;\nor, an Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism Continued: Being the\nFirst Part of the Scripture Scales to weigh the Gold of Gospel Truth,\u2014to\nbalance a multitude of opposite Scriptures,\u2014to prove the Gospel-Marriage\nof _Free-Grace_ and _Free-will_,\u2014and to restore primitive harmony to the\nGospel of the day. With a Preface, containing some Strictures upon the\nThree Letters of Richard Hill, Esq.; which have been lately published.\u201d\n\nFootnote 315:\n\n \u201cZelotes,\u201d says Fletcher, \u201crepresents any zealous Solifidian, who\n looks upon the doctrine of free-will as heretical: Honestus, any\n zealous moralist, who looks upon the doctrine of free grace as\n enthusiastical.\u201d\n\nThis was Fletcher\u2019s largest work. It was published in two parts, but it\nwas continuously paged, the whole making a 12 mo. vol. of 444 pages.\n\nMr. Hill\u2019s \u201cThree Letters\u201d were published in 1773, just after the\npublication of his \u201cFinishing Stroke.\u201d The letters have been given in a\nprevious chapter. Fletcher had answered them privately; and now, in a\npreface to his present work, he replied publicly. After stating that Mr.\nHill\u2019s pamphlet \u201chad been hawked about the parish of Madeley\u201d by the\nnewsman, he proceeds to say:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Hill quits the field; but it is like a brave Parthian. He not\n only shoots his own arrows as he retires, but borrows those also of\n two persons, whom he calls \u2018_a very eminent minister in the Church of\n England_\u2019 and \u2018_a lay gentleman of great learning and abilities_.\u2019 As\n I see neither argument nor Scripture in the performances of those two\n new auxiliaries, I shall take no notice of their ingrafted\n productions.\n\n \u201cWith respect to Mr. Hill\u2019s arguments, they are the same which he\n advanced in his \u2018_Finishing Stroke_;\u2019 nor need we wonder at his not\n scrupling to produce them _over again_, just as if they had been\n overlooked by his opponent, for in the first page of his book he says,\n \u2018_I have not read a single page which treats on the subject since I\n wrote_ my FINISHING STROKE.\u2019\n\n \u201cAs Mr. Hill\u2019s arguments are the same, so are also his personal\n charges. After passing some compliments upon me as an \u2018_able defender_\n of Mr. Wesley\u2019s principles,\u2019 he continues to represent me as\n \u2018_prostituting noble endowments to the advancing of a party_.\u2019 He\n affirms, without shadow of proof, that he has \u2018_detected many\n misrepresentations of facts throughout_\u2019 my \u2018_publications_.\u2019 He\n accuses me of using \u2018_unbecoming artifices, much declamation,\n chicanery, and evasion_;\u2019 and says, \u2018_upon these accounts I really\n cannot, with any degree of satisfaction, read the works of one who, I\n am in continual suspicion_, is _endeavouring to mislead me by false\n glosses and pious frauds_.\u2019\n\n \u201cI cannot but still love and honour Mr. Hill on _many_, _very_ many,\n accounts. Though his warm attachment to what _he_ calls \u2018the doctrines\n of grace,\u2019 and what _we_ call \u2018the doctrines of _limited_ grace and\n _free wrath_,\u2019 robs him from time to time of _part_ of the moderation,\n patience, and meekness of wisdom which adorn the _complete_ Christian\n character, I cannot but consider him as a very valuable person. I do\n not doubt but when the paroxysm of his Calvinistic zeal shall be over,\n he will be as great an ornament to the Church of England in the\n capacity of a gentleman, as he is to civil society in the capacity of\n a magistrate. And justice, as well as love, obliges me to say that in\n the mean time he is, in several respects, a pattern for all gentlemen\n of fortune; few equalling him in devoting a large fortune to the\n relief of the poor, and their leisure hours to the support of what\n they esteem the truth. Happy would it be for him, and for the peace of\n the Church, if to all his good qualities he always added _the ornament\n of a meek and quiet spirit_; and if he so far suspected his orthodoxy\n as to condescend to weigh himself in the \u2018_Scripture Scales_.\u2019\u201d\n\nFletcher\u2019s preface to his \u201cScripture Scales\u201d is \u201chumbly addressed to the\ntrue Protestants in Great Britain and Ireland.\u201d\n\n \u201cThe Reformers,\u201d says he, \u201c_protested_ three things in general:\u20141.\n That right reason has an important place in matters of faith. 2. That\n all matters of faith may and must be decided by Scripture, understood\n reasonably and consistently with the context. 3. That antiquity and\n fathers, traditions and councils, canons and the Church, lose their\n authority when they depart from sober reason and plain Scripture.\n These three general _protests_ are the very ground of our religion\n when it is contradistinguished from Popery. They who stand to them\n deserve, in my humble opinion, the title of _true Protestants_.\n\n \u201cIf the preceding account is just, _true_ Protestants are all\n _candid_; Christian candour being nothing but a readiness to hear\n right _reason_ and plain _Scripture_. Of all the tempers which true\n Protestants abhor, none seems to them more detestable than that of\n those _gnostics_, those pretenders to superior illumination, who,\n under the common pretence of _orthodoxy_ or _infallibility_, shut\n their eyes against the light, think plain Scripture beneath their\n notice, enter their protest against reason, and steel their breasts\n against conviction. Alas! how many professors there are who, like St.\n Stephen\u2019s opponents, judges, and executioners, are neither able to\n resist nor willing to admit the truth; who make their defence by\n _stopping their ears, and crying out, \u2018The temple of the Lord, the\n temple of the Lord are we!\u2019_ who thrust the supposed heretic out of\n their sanhedrim; who, from the press, the pulpit, or the doctor\u2019s\n chair, send volleys of hard insinuations or soft assertions, in hope\n that they will pass for solid arguments; and who, when they have no\n more stones or snowballs to throw at the supposed Philistine,\n prudently avoid drawing \u2018_the sword of the Spirit_,\u2019 retire behind the\n walls of their fancied orthodoxy, raise a rampart of slanderous\n contempt against the truth that besieges them, and obstinately refuse\n either candidly to give up, or manfully contend for, the unscriptural\n tenets which they will impose upon others as pure Gospel.\n\n \u201cWhether some of my opponents, good men as they are, have not a little\n inclined to the error of those sons of prejudice, I leave the candid\n reader to decide. They have neither answered nor yielded to the\n arguments of my \u2018Checks.\u2019 They are shut up in their own city. Strong\n and high are thy walls, O mystical Jericho! Thy battlements reach into\n the clouds, but _truth_, the spiritual ark of God, is stronger, and\n shall prevail. The bearing of it patiently around thy ramparts, and\n the blowing of rams\u2019 horns in the name of the Lord, will yet shake the\n very foundations of thy towers. Oh that I had the honour of\n successfully mixing my feeble voice with the blasts of the champions\n who encompass the devoted city! Oh that the irresistible shout,\n _Reason and Scripture\u2014Christ and the Truth_\u2014were universal! If this\n were the case, how soon would Jericho and Babylon\u2014Antinomianism and\n Pharisaism\u2014fall together.\n\n \u201cThese two anti-Christian fortresses are equally attacked in the\n following pages.\n\n \u201cThe controversy is one of the most important which was ever set on\n foot. The GRAND inquiry, \u2018_What shall I do to be saved?_\u2019 is entirely\n suspended on this GREATER question, \u2018_Have I anything_ TO DO _to be\n eternally saved?_\u2019 A question this which admits of three answers:\u20141.\n That of the _mere Solifidian_, who says, If we are _elect_, we have\n nothing to do in order to eternal salvation, unless it be to believe\n that Christ has done all for us, and then to sing _finished\n salvation_; and if we are not _elect_, whether we do nothing, little,\n or much, eternal ruin is our _inevitable_ portion. 2. That of the\n _mere moralist_, who is as great a stranger to the doctrine of _free\n grace_ as to that of free wrath; and tells you that there is no free,\n initial salvation for us, and that we must work ourselves into a state\n of initial salvation by dint of care, diligence, and faithfulness. And\n 3. That of their _reconciler_, whom I consider as a rational Bible\n Christian, and who asserts (1) that Christ has done the part of a\n Sacrificing Priest and teaching Prophet upon earth, and does still\n that of an Interceding and Royal Priest in heaven, whence He sends His\n Holy Spirit to act as an enlightener, sanctifier, comforter, and\n helper in our hearts; (2) that _the free gift_ of initial salvation,\n and of one or more talents of saving grace, \u2018_is come upon all_\u2019\n through the God-man Christ, who \u2018_is the Saviour of all men,\n especially of them that believe_;\u2019 and (3) that our free will,\n assisted by that saving grace imparted to us in the free gift, is\n enabled to work with God in a subordinate manner, so that we may\n freely (_without necessity_) do the part of penitent, obedient, and\n persevering believers, according to the Gospel dispensation we are\n under.\n\n \u201cThis is the plan of this work, in which I equally fight for faith and\n works, for gratuitous mercy and impartial justice; reconciling all\n along Christ our _Saviour_ with Christ our _Judge_, heated Augustin\n with heated Pelagius, free grace with free will, Divine goodness with\n human obedience, the faithfulness of God\u2019s promises with the veracity\n of His threatenings, _first_ with _second_ causes, the original merits\n of Christ with the derived worthiness of His members, and God\u2019s\n foreknowledge with our free agency.\n\n \u201cThe plan, I think, is generous; standing at the utmost distance from\n the extremes of bigots. It is deep and extensive; taking in the most\n interesting subjects, such as the origin of evil, liberty, and\n necessity, the law of Moses and the Gospel of Christ, general and\n particular redemption, the apostacy and perseverance of the saints,\n and the election and reprobation maintained by St. Paul. I entirely\n rest the cause upon _Protestant_ ground; that is, upon _Reason_ and\n _Scripture_. Nevertheless, to show our antagonists that we are not\n afraid to meet them upon any ground, I prove, by sufficient\n testimonies from the fathers and the Reformers, that the most eminent\n divines in the primitive Church and our own, have passed the straits\n which I point out; especially when they weighed the heavy anchor of\n prejudice, had a good gale of Divine wisdom, and steered by the\n Christian mariner\u2019s compass, \u2018_the Word of God_,\u2019 more than by the\n _false lights_ hung out by party men.\u201d\n\nIt is hoped that these quotations from the preface of Fletcher\u2019s book\nwill induce the reader to peruse and study the book itself. To analyse\nit here is impracticable; and if one extract were given, hundreds ought\nto follow. In this frothy age, the book to many will seem dry and\ntedious; but to a man sincerely and earnestly in search of sacred truth\nit will prove a mine full of invaluable treasures.\n\nAt the end of the _first_ edition, the following was printed:\u2014\n\n \u201cAdvertisement.\n\n \u201cThe key to the controversy, which is designed to be ended by the\n \u2018_Scripture Scales_,\u2019 proving too long for this place, the publication\n of it is postponed. It _may_ one day open the way for _An Essay on the\n XVIIth Article_, under the following title: \u2018The Doctrines of Grace\n Reconciled to the Doctrines of Justice. Being an Essay on Election and\n Reprobation, in which the defects of _Pelagianism_, _Calvinism_, and\n _Arminianism_ are impartially pointed out, and primitive, scriptural\n harmony is more fully restored to the Gospel of the day.\u2019\u201d\n\nThis was not published until the year 1777; but it is mentioned here to\nshow that, in substance, it was already written, and, thereby, to show\nthe activity of Fletcher\u2019s mind, and the accumulated labours which soon\nbroke down his health.\n\nNo sooner was the publication of his \u201cScripture Scales,\u201d or \u201cEqual Check\nto Pharisaism and Antinomianism,\u201d completed, than he committed to the\npress the following: \u201cThe Fictitious and the Genuine Creed: Being \u2018A\nCreed for Arminians,\u2019 composed by Richard Hill, Esq.; to which is\nopposed \u2018A Creed for those who believe that _Christ tasted death for\nevery man_.\u2019 By the author of the \u2018Checks to Antinomianism.\u2019 London,\n1775.\u201d 12mo, 52 pp.\n\nThe reader will remember that, in bad taste, Fletcher, in 1772, had\npublished, in his \u201cFourth Check to Antinomianism,\u201d a \u201csweet gospel\nproclamation: Given at Geneva, and signed by four of His Majesty\u2019s\nprincipal Secretaries of State for the Predestination Department\u2014John\nCalvin, Dr. Crisp, The Author of P.O.\u201d (Richard Hill), \u201cand Rowland\nHill.\u201d This provoked Richard Hill; and, when he published his \u201cThree\nLetters written to the Rev. J. Fletcher, in the year 1773,\u201d he, in\nequally bad taste, attached an \u201cAppendix\u201d to his Letters, entitled, \u201cA\nCreed for Arminians and Perfectionists.\u201d Now, in 1775, Fletcher felt it\nhis duty to examine the Creed so ingeniously drawn up by Mr. Hill, and\nto expose its fallacies. The following is an extract from Fletcher\u2019s\npreface:\u2014\n\n \u201cWith regard to our extensive views of Christ\u2019s redemption by price,\n Mr. Hill calls us _Arminians_: and with respect to our believing that\n there is no perfect faith, no perfect repentance in the grave; that\n the _Christian_ graces of repentance, faith, hope, patience, etc.,\n must be perfected _here_ or never; and with respect to our\n _confidence_ that Christ\u2019s blood, fully applied by His Spirit, and\n apprehended by faith, can cleanse our hearts from all unrighteousness\n before we go into the purgatory of the _Calvinists_, or into that of\n the _papists_, that is, before we go into the valley of the shadow of\n death, or into the suburbs of hell\u2014with respect to this _belief_ and\n _confidence_, I say, Mr. Hill calls us _Perfectionists_; and,\n appearing once more upon the stage of our controversy, he has lately\n presented the public with what he calls, \u2018_A Creed for Arminians and\n Perfectionists_\u2019, which he introduces in these words: \u2018_The following\n confession of faith, however shocking, not to say blasphemous, it may\n appear to the humble Christian, must inevitably be adopted, if not in\n express words_, yet, _in substance, by every Arminian_ and\n _Perfectionist whatsoever; though the last article of it chiefly\n concerns such as are ordained ministers in the Church of England_.\u2019\n And, as among such ministers, Mr. J. Wesley, Mr. W. Sellon, and myself\n peculiarly oppose Mr. Hill\u2019s Calvinian doctrines of _absolute\n election_ and _reprobation_, and of a _death-purgatory_, he has put\n the initial letters of our names to his Creed; hoping, no doubt, to\n make us peculiarly ashamed of our principles. And, indeed, so should\n we be, if any \u2018_blasphemous_\u2019 or \u2018_shocking_\u2019 consequence\n \u2018_inevitably_\u2019 flowed from them.\u201d\n\nProbably, by this time, the reader is tired of Creeds. He has had\nFletcher\u2019s Creed for an Antinomian; Mr. Richard Hill\u2019s Creed for\nArminians and Perfectionists; and now he has, in \u201cThe Fictitious and the\nGenuine Creed,\u201d Fletcher\u2019s Creed for Methodists. The last may be dry\nreading, but it contains truths of the utmost importance,\u2014truths which\nFletcher spent the greatest part of his literary life in endeavouring to\nexplain and to defend; and, speaking generally, truths which Wesley\nhimself endorsed, embraced, and taught. Fletcher concludes his pamphlet\nwith the following scrap of autobiography:\u2014\n\n \u201cI shall close this answer to the Creed, which Mr. Hill has composed\n _for Arminians_, by an observation which is not foreign to our\n controversy. In one of the \u2018Three Letters\u2019 which introduce the\n Fictitious Creed, Mr. Hill says, \u2018_Controversy, I am persuaded, has\n not done me any good_;\u2019 and he exhorts me to examine myself closely\n whether I cannot make the same confession. I own that it would have\n done me harm, if I had blindly contended for my opinions. Nay, if I\n had shut my eyes against the light of truth;\u2014if I had set the plainest\n Scriptures aside, as if they were not worth my notice;\u2014if I had\n overlooked the strongest arguments of my opponents;\u2014if I had advanced\n groundless charges against them;\u2014if I had refused to do justice to\n their good meaning or piety;\u2014and, above all, if I had taken my leave\n of them by injuring their moral character, by publishing over and over\n again arguments, which they have properly answered, without taking the\n least notice of their answers;\u2014if I had made a solemn promise not to\n read one of their books, though they should publish a thousand\n volumes;\u2014if, continuing to write against them, I had fixed upon them\n (as \u2018_unavoidable_\u2019 consequences) absurd tenets, which have no more\n necessary connexion with their principles than the doctrine of general\n redemption has with Calvinian reprobation. If I had done this, I say,\n controversy would have wounded my conscience or my reason; and,\n without adding anything to my light, it would have immovably fixed me\n in my prejudices, and perhaps branded me before the world for an\n _Arminian bigot_. But, as matters are, I hope I may make the following\n acknowledgments without betraying the impertinence of proud boasting.\n\n \u201cAlthough I have often been sorry that controversy should take up so\n much of the time which I might, with much more satisfaction to myself,\n have employed in devotional exercises; and although I have lamented,\n and do still lament, my low attainments in the _meekness of wisdom_,\n which should constantly guide the pen of every controversial writer;\n yet, I rejoice that I have been enabled to persist in my resolution,\n either to wipe off, or to share the reproach of those who have\n hazarded their reputation in defence of pure and undefiled religion.\n And, if I am not mistaken, my repeated attempts have been attended\n with these happy effects:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn vindicating the _moral_ doctrines of grace, I hope that, as a\n _man_, I have learned to think more closely, and to investigate truth\n more ardently, than I did before.\n\n \u201cAs a _divine_, I see more clearly the gaps and stiles, at which\n mistaken good men have turned out of the narrow way of truth, to the\n right hand and to the left.\n\n \u201cAs a _Protestant_, I hope I have much more esteem for the Scriptures\n in general, and in particular for those practical parts of them, which\n the Calvinists had insensibly taught me to overlook, or despise. And\n this increasing esteem is, I trust, accompanied with a deeper\n conviction of the truth of Christianity, and with a greater readiness\n to defend the Gospel against infidels, Pharisees, and Antinomians.\n\n \u201cAs a _Preacher_, I hope I can now do more justice to a text by\n reconciling it with seemingly contrary Scriptures.\n\n \u201cAs an _Anti-Calvinist_, I have learned to do the Calvinists justice,\n in granting that there is an _election of distinguishing grace_ for\n God\u2019s peculiar people, and a _particular redemption_ for all believers\n who are faithful unto death. I can more easily excuse pious\n Calvinists, who, through prejudice, mistake _that_ Scriptural election\n for _their_ Antinomian election; and who consider _that_ particular\n redemption as the only redemption mentioned in the Scriptures. Nay, I\n can, without scruple, allow Mr. Hill that his doctrines of _finished\n salvation_ and _irresistible_ grace are _true_ with respect to all\n those who die in their infancy.\n\n \u201cAs one who is called an _Arminian_, I have found out some flaws in\n _Arminianism_, and evidenced my impartiality in pointing them out, as\n well as the flaws of Calvinism.\n\n \u201cAs a _Witness_ for the truth of the Gospel, I hope I have learned to\n bear reproach from all sorts of people with more undaunted courage.\n And I humbly trust, that, were I called to seal with my blood the\n truth of the _doctrines of grace_ and _of justice_, against the\n _Pharisees_ and _Antinomians_, I could (Divine grace supporting me to\n the last) do it more rationally, and of consequence with greater\n steadiness.\n\n \u201cAs a _Follower of Christ_, I hope I have learned to disregard my\n dearest friends for my Heavenly Prophet; or, to speak the language of\n our Lord, I hope I have learned to _forsake father, mother, and\n brothers for Christ\u2019s sake, and the Gospel\u2019s_.\n\n \u201cAs a _Disputant_, I have learned that solid arguments, and plain\n Scriptures, make no more impression upon bigotry, than the charmer\u2019s\n voice does upon the deaf adder; and, by that means, I hope, I depend\n less upon the powers of reason, the letter of the Scriptures, and the\n candour of professors, than I formerly did.\n\n \u201cAs a _Believer_, I have been brought to see and feel that the power\n of the Spirit of truth, which teaches men to be _of one heart, and of\n one mind_, and makes them _think and speak the same_, is at a very low\n ebb in the religious world.\n\n \u201cAs a _Member of the Church of England_, I have learned to be pleased\n with our holy Mother, for giving us floods of pure morality to wash\n away the few remaining Calvinian freckles that remain upon her face.\n\n \u201cAs a _Christian_, I hope I have learned, in some degree, to exercise\n that charity, which teaches us boldly to oppose a dangerous error\n without ceasing to honour and love its abettors, so far as they\n resemble our Lord.\n\n \u201cAnd, lastly, as a _Writer_, I have learned to feel the truth of\n Solomon\u2019s observation, \u2018_Of making many books there is no end, and\n much study is a weariness of the flesh: Let us hear the conclusion of\n the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments; for this is the\n whole duty of man_;\u2019 and the sum of the _Anti-Solifidian_ truth, which\n I endeavour to vindicate.\n\n \u201cI do not say that I have learned any of these lessons as I should\n have done; but I hope I have learned so much of them as to say that,\n in these respects, my controversial toil has not been altogether in\n vain in the Lord.\u201d\n\nThe reader must excuse these long extracts; for there seems to be no\nbetter way of giving a correct and full idea of Fletcher\u2019s views and\ncharacter.\n\nAt the end of the first edition of his pamphlet, Fletcher inserted the\nfollowing \u201cAdvertisement\u201d:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Hill\u2019s \u2018_Creed for Arminians_\u2019 is followed by his plea for the\n _inbred man of sin_. This indirect and witty plea he calls, \u2018_A Creed\n for Perfectionists_.\u2019 But, as that part of his performance has no\n immediate connection with the doctrines vindicated in the preceding\n pages, I design to make my remarks upon it in a separate Tract.\u201d\n\nThis \u201cTract,\u201d as Fletcher calls it, seems to have been already written,\nfor it was forthwith published, and entitled, \u201cThe Last Check to\nAntinomianism. A Polemical Essay on the Twin Doctrines of Christian\nImperfection and a Death Purgatory,\u201d By the Author of the Checks.\nLondon: 1775. 12mo., 328 pp.\n\nAt this time, the Rev. Thomas Reader, a Dissenting Minister, at Taunton,\nheld a position similar to that which had been held by Doddridge, at\nNorthampton. He was the President of a College for training Independent\nMinisters, and was a zealous Calvinist. When Fletcher\u2019s new book was\npublished, Mr. Reader read it, and was so angry with its contents that\nhe started off to Madeley, a long journey, to rebuke the author for his\nheresy. Arriving at his destination, he hastened to the vicarage,\nknocked loudly at the door, told the servant who he was, and requested\nan interview with the Vicar. Fletcher, knowing him by name, ran from his\nstudy to receive his visitor, and spreading out his hands, exclaimed,\n\u201cCome in, come in, thou blessed of the Lord! Am I so honoured as to\nreceive a visit from so esteemed a servant of my Master? Let us have a\nlittle prayer, while refreshments are getting ready.\u201d Mr. Reader was\npuzzled. He remained three days, but was utterly unable to muster\nsufficient courage to even intimate the object of his visit. Afterwards\nhe stated that he never enjoyed three days of such spiritual and\nprofitable intercourse in all his life.[316]\n\nFootnote 316:\n\n \u201cMethodism in North Devon,\u201d p. 115.\n\nFletcher\u2019s books, prayers, conversations, and tempers were a glorious\nmanifestation of the truths he taught in his elaborate and able treatise\non Christian Perfection,\u2014a treatise never equalled, except by the\ntreatise and the sermons of Wesley on the same subject. Wesley and\nFletcher are easily understood; modern writers on this all-important\ndoctrine are too often mystics, or, rather, mystifiers. The former\nexpounded Scripture, the latter disastrously obscure Scripture by what\nthey consider to be philosophy. The Methodists need no new exposition of\nthis old Methodist truth. Never can it be more plainly stated and more\nindisputably proved, than it is in the \u201cPlain Account\u201d of Wesley, and\nthe \u201cPolemical Essay\u201d of his friend Fletcher. Well would it be if the\npresent race of Methodists would read these, in preference to the\nbewildering trash so injuriously read in the stead of them. Truth never\nchanges! and changes of society can never justify the _new_ settings\nforth of truth, nowadays so ignorantly demanded.\n\nA brief analysis of Fletcher\u2019s invaluable book, and a few extracts from\nit, must be given.\n\nIn reference to the word \u201cPerfection,\u201d which occasioned so much offence,\nFletcher writes:\u2014\n\n \u201c_Christian Perfection!_ Why should the harmless phrase offend us?\n _Perfection!_ Why should that lovely word frighten us? The word\n _predestinate_ occurs but four times in all the Scriptures; and the\n word _predestination_ not once; and yet Mr. Hill would justly exclaim\n against us, if we showed our wit, by calling out for \u2018_a little\n Foundery_\u2019 (or Tabernacle) \u2018eye-salve\u2019 to help us to see the word\n _predestination once_ in _all_ the Bible. Not so the word\n _perfection_. It occurs, with its derivatives, as frequently as most\n words in the Scripture; and not seldom in the very same sense in which\n we take it; nevertheless, we do not lay an undue stress upon the\n expression; and, if we thought that our condescension would answer any\n good end, we would give up that harmless and significant word.\u201d\n\nIn reply to the unfair and untrue taunt that Wesley and Fletcher taught\nthe doctrine of _sinless_ perfection, Fletcher makes an admirable\nquotation from Wesley:\u2014\n\n \u201cTo explain myself a little farther on this head: 1. Not only SIN,\n _properly so called_, that is, a _voluntary_ transgression of a known\n law, but _sin_ IMPROPERLY so called, that is, an _involuntary_\n transgression of a divine law, known or unknown, needs the atoning\n blood. 2. I believe there is no such perfection in this life, as\n excludes these _involuntary_ transgressions, which I apprehend to be\n naturally consequent on the ignorance and mistakes inseparable from\n mortality. 3. Therefore, SINLESS _perfection_ is a phrase I never use,\n lest I should seem to contradict myself. 4. I believe a person filled\n with the love of God is still liable to these involuntary\n transgressions. 5. Such transgressions you may call _sins_ if you\n please; I do not, for the reasons above-mentioned.\u201d\n\nFletcher then proceeds to prove that \u201cPious Calvinists have had, _at\ntimes_, nearly the same views of Christian Perfection\u201d that he and\nWesley had.\n\n \u201cThey dissent from us,\u201d says he, \u201cbecause they confound the\n anti-evangelical law of innocence and the evangelical law of\n liberty\u2014peccability and sin\u2014Adamic and Christian Perfection; and\n because they do not consider that Christian Perfection, falling\n infinitely short of God\u2019s _absolute_ perfection, admits of a daily\n _growth_.\u201d\n\nThe third section of Fletcher\u2019s work is occupied with answers to popular\nobjections; and the fourth amply proves that the doctrine for which he\nis contending is a doctrine taught in the formularies of the Church of\nEngland.\n\nMr. Hill, in the Eleventh Article of his \u201cFictitious Creed,\u201d had made\nFletcher, Wesley, and Walter Sellon, not only deny \u201cThe Thirty-nine\nArticles of the Church of England,\u201d which they had \u201csolemnly\nsubscribed,\u201d but also the _truthful_ teaching of four Apostolical\nwriters in the New Testament. With excessively bad taste, he had\nrepresented them as saying, \u201cLet Peter, Paul, James, and John say what\nthey will, and let the Reformers and Martyrs join their syren-song,\ntheir eyes were at best but half opened, for want of a little Foundery\neye-salve.\u201d Accordingly, the fifth and five following sections of\nFletcher\u2019s book are devoted to a refutation of this scandalous and\nalmost profane slander. A large number of texts, from the Epistles of\nthese four inspired writers, are most ably examined and explained,\u2014texts\nincontestably proving that the doctrine of Christian Perfection was a\ndoctrine taught by \u201cPeter, Paul, James, and John.\u201d\n\nIn the eleventh section of his book, Fletcher triumphantly answers the\nobjections, founded upon certain texts in the writings of Solomon,\nIsaiah, and Job; and in the twelfth he adduces \u201ca variety of arguments\nto prove the _absurdity_ of the twin doctrines of _Christian\nImperfection_ and a _Death-Purgatory_.\u201d In this, he furnishes a\ndefinition of Christian Perfection worthy of being quoted, namely:\u2014\n\n \u201c_Christian Perfection_ is nothing but the _depth_ of evangelical\n repentance, the _full_ assurance of faith, and the _pure_ love of God\n and man shed abroad in a _faithful_ believer\u2019s heart, by the Holy\n Ghost given unto him, to cleanse him, and to keep him clean, _from all\n filthiness of the flesh and Spirit_; and to enable him to _fulfil the\n law of Christ_ according to the talents he is entrusted with, and the\n circumstances in which he is placed in _this_ world.\u201d\n\nIn the next section (the thirteenth) Fletcher dwells upon \u201cthe\n_mischievousness_ of the doctrines of _Christian Imperfection, and a\nDeath Purgatory_.\u201d He concludes his scathing arguments on this subject\nas follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe modish doctrine of Christian imperfection and death-purgatory is\n so contrived that carnal men will always prefer the purgatory of the\n Calvinists to that of the Papists. For the Papists prescribe I know\n not how many cups of divine wrath and dire vengeance, which are to be\n drunk by the souls of believers who die _half_-purged, or _three\n parts_ cleansed. These _half-damned_, or a _quarter-damned_ creatures\n must go through a severe discipline, and fiery salvation in the very\n suburbs of hell, before they can be perfectly purified. But our\n opponents have found out a way to deliver _half-hearted_ believers out\n of all fear in this respect. Such believers need not _utterly abolish\n the body of sin_ in this world. The inbred man of sin not only _may_,\n but he _shall_ live as long as we do. You will possibly ask: \u2018What is\n to become of this sinful guest? Shall he take us to hell, or shall we\n take him to heaven? If he cannot die in this world, will Christ\n destroy him in the next?\u2019 No: here Christ is almost left out of the\n question. Our indwelling adversary is not to be destroyed by the\n brightness of the Redeemer\u2019s spiritual appearing, but by the gloom of\n the appearance of death. The king of terrors comes to the assistance\n of Jesus\u2019s sanctifying grace, and instantaneously delivers the carnal\n believer from indwelling pride, unbelief, covetousness, peevishness,\n uncharitableness, love of the world, and inordinate affection. The\n dying sinner\u2019s breath does the capital work of the Spirit of holiness.\n By the most astonishing of all miracles, the faint, infectious, last\n gasp of a sinful believer blows away, in the twinkling of an eye, the\n great mountain of inward corruption, which all the means of grace, all\n the faith, prayers, and sacraments of twenty, perhaps of forty years,\n were never able to remove. If this doctrine is true, how greatly was\n St. Paul mistaken when he said, \u2018_The sting of death is sin_.\u2019 Should\n he not have said, _Death is the cure of sin_, instead of saying, \u2018_Sin\n is the sting_ of death\u2019? And should not his praises flow\n thus,\u2014\u2018_Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through death_; our\n great and only deliverer from our greatest and fiercest enemy,\n _indwelling sin_\u2019?\u201d\n\nThe fourteenth section of Fletcher\u2019s book is employed in answering the\nfalse and pernicious statements contained in Toplady\u2019s \u201cCaveat against\nUnsound Doctrine,\u201d and Martin Madan\u2019s \u201cEssay on Galatians v. 17.\u201d In the\ntwo following sections, Fletcher proves that his doctrine of Christian\nperfection \u201ccannot be justly reproached as Popish, and Pelagian; and\nshows the distinction which exists\u201d between _sins_ and _innocent\ninfirmities_. Then he concludes his invaluable book with four Addresses:\n1. \u201cTo perfect Christian Pharisees; 2. To prejudiced Imperfectionists;\n3. To imperfect Perfectionists; and 4. To perfect Christians.\u201d These\naddresses will always rank among the most powerful productions of\nFletcher\u2019s pen; but, for want of space, only one extract from them can\nbe given here; and even that is, to a large extent, an extract from\nWesley\u2019s Sermon on \u201cThe Scripture Way of Salvation.\u201d It is, however, of\nthe highest importance, as containing an answer to the question, How are\nwe to be \u201csanctified, saved from sin, and perfected in love?\u201d Fletcher\nwrites:\u2014\n\n \u201cI have already pointed out the close connexion there is between an\n act of _faith_ which _fully_ apprehends the sanctifying promise of the\n Father, and the power of the Spirit of Christ which makes an end of\n moral corruption by forcing the lingering man of sin _instantaneously_\n to breathe out his last. Mr. Wesley, in the above quoted sermon,\n touches upon this delicate subject in so clear and concise a manner,\n that, while his discourse is before me, for the sake of those who have\n it not in hand, I shall transcribe the whole passage, and, by this\n means, put the seal of that eminent divine to what I have advanced, in\n the preceding pages, about sanctifying faith, and the quick\n destruction of sin.\n\n \u201c\u2018Does God work this great work in the soul _gradually_ or\n _instantaneously_? Perhaps it may be gradually wrought in some, I mean\n in this sense: They do not advert to the particular moment, wherein\n sin ceases to be. But it is infinitely desirable, were it the will of\n God, that it should be done instantaneously; that the Lord should\n destroy sin by the _breath of His mouth_, in a moment, in the\n twinkling of an eye. And so He generally does,\u2014a plain fact, of which\n there is evidence enough to satisfy any unprejudiced person. _Thou_\n therefore look for it every moment. Look for it in the way above\n described;[317] in all those _good works_, whereunto thou art created\n anew in Christ Jesus. There is then no danger; you can be no worse, if\n you are no better for that expectation. For were you to be\n disappointed of your hope, still you lose nothing. But you shall not\n be disappointed of your hope; it will come, and will not tarry. Look\n for it then every day, every hour, every moment. Why not this hour,\n this moment? Certainly you may look for it _now_, if you believe it is\n by faith. And by this token you may surely know whether you seek it by\n faith or works. If by works, you want something to be done _first_,\n _before_ you are sanctified. You think, \u2018I must first _be_ or do thus\n or thus.\u2019 Then you are seeking it by works unto this day. If you seek\n it by faith, you may expect it _as you are_; and, if as you are, then\n expect it _now_. It is of importance to observe that there is an\n inseparable connexion between these three points, expect it by\n _faith_, expect it _as you are_, and expect it _now_. To deny one of\n them is to deny them all; to allow one is to allow them all. Do _you_\n believe we are sanctified _by faith_? Be true then to your principle;\n and look for this blessing just as you are, neither better, nor worse;\n as a poor sinner, that has still nothing to pay, nothing to plead,\n but\u2014_Christ died_. And if you look for it _as you are_, then expect it\n _now_. Stay for nothing, why should you? Christ is ready, and He is\n all you want. He is waiting for you; He is at the door! Let your\n inmost soul cry out,\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018Come in, come in, Thou heavenly guest!\n Nor hence again remove:\n But sup with me, and let the feast\n Be everlasting love.\u2019\u201d (p. 288).\n\nFootnote 317:\n\n After most ably arguing the matter, Wesley, in the sermon here\n referred to, concludes \u201cthat faith is the only condition which is\n _immediately_ and _proximately_ necessary to sanctification;\u201d and that\n the \u201cfaith whereby we are sanctified\u2014saved from sin, and perfected in\n love, is a divine evidence and conviction, first, that God hath\n promised it in the Holy Scripture; secondly, that what God hath\n promised, He is able to perform; thirdly, that He is able and willing\n to do it now; and, fourthly, a divine evidence and conviction that He\n doeth it. In that hour,\u201d continues Wesley, \u201cit is done; God says to\n the inmost soul, \u2018According to thy faith, be it unto thee!\u2019 Then the\n soul is pure from every spot of sin; it is clean \u2018from all\n unrighteousness.\u2019 The believer then experiences the deep meaning of\n those solemn words, \u2018If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we\n have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His\n Son cleanseth us from all sin.\u2019\u201d\n\nWell would it be, for the Church and the world, if these views of Wesley\nand his friend Fletcher were held by all the Methodists of the present\nage, or even by a thousandth part of them. How often are they preached\nin Methodist pulpits? Not so often as they ought to be! \u201cWhere Christian\nperfection is not strongly and explicitly preached,\u201d said Wesley, \u201cthere\nis seldom any remarkable blessing from God; and, consequently, little\naddition to the Society, and little life in the members of it.\u201d[318]\n\nFootnote 318:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Works, vol. xii., p. 252.\n\nThe year 1775 was to Fletcher one of the busiest in his life. He was\nsteeped in controversy; but he rose in piety. In a letter to his friend\nJoseph Benson, he wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cI have had two printers at my heels, besides my common business, and\n this is enough to make me trespass upon the patience of my friends. I\n have published the first part of my \u2018_Scales_,\u2019 which has gone through\n a second edition in London, before I could get the second part printed\n in Salop, where it will be published in about six weeks. I have also\n published a creed for the Arminians, where you will see that, if I\n have not answered your critical remarks upon my Essay on Truth, I have\n improved by them, yea publicly recanted the two expressions you\n mentioned as improper.\n\n \u201cI am so tied up here, both by my parish duty and controversial\n writings, that I cannot hope to see you unless you come into these\n parts.[319] In the meantime, let us meet at the throne of grace. In\n Jesus, time and distance are lost. He is an universal, eternal life of\n righteousness, peace, and joy. I am glad you have some encouragement\n in Scotland. The Lord grant you more and more! Use yourself, however,\n to go against wind and tide, as I do; and take care that our wise\n dogmatical friends in the north do not rob you of your childlike\n simplicity. Remember that the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are\n revealed to babes. You may be afraid of being a fool, without being\n afraid of being a babe. You may be childlike without being childish.\n Simplicity of intention and purity of affection will go through the\n world, through hell itself. In the meantime, let us see that we do not\n so look at our little publications, or to other people, as to forget\n that Christ is our Object, our Sun, our Shield. To His inspiration,\n comfort, and protection, I earnestly recommend your soul; and the\n labours of your _heart_, tongue, and pen to His blessing.\u201d[320]\n\nFootnote 319:\n\n Joseph Benson was appointed to the Edinburgh Circuit at the Conference\n of 1774; and to the Newcastle Circuit at the Conference of 1775.\n\nFootnote 320:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nAt this period, Wesley was dangerously ill in Ireland. Charles Wesley\nhad no hope of his brother\u2019s recovery. The Methodists throughout the\nkingdom were in consternation. In a letter to Joseph Bradford, Wesley\u2019s\nfaithful companion, Charles Wesley wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cBristol, June 29, 1775. Your letter has cut off all hope of my\n brother\u2019s recovery. The people here, and in London, and every place,\n are swallowed up in sorrow. But sorrow and death will soon be\n swallowed up in life everlasting. You will be careful of my brother\u2019s\n papers, etc., till you see his executors. God shall reward your\n fidelity and love. I seem scarce separated from him whom I shall so\n very soon overtake. We were united in our lives, and in our death not\n divided.\u201d[321]\n\nFootnote 321:\n\n Tyerman\u2019s \u201cLife and Times of Wesley,\u201d vol. iii. p. 204.\n\nIn his deep distress, Charles Wesley wrote to Fletcher, who replied as\nfollows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _July 2, 1775_.\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014The same post which brought me yours, brought\n me a letter from Ireland, informing me of the danger of your dear\n brother, my dear father, and of his being very happy in, and resigned\n to, the will of God. What can you and I do? What, but stand still, and\n see the salvation of God? The nations are before Him but as the dust\n that cleaves to a balance; and the greatest instruments have been\n removed. Abraham is dead; the fathers are dead; and if John come first\n to the sepulchre, you and I will soon descend into it. The brightest,\n the most burning and shining lights, like the Baptist, Mr. Whitefield,\n and your brother, were kindled to make the people rejoice in them,\n \u2018for a season,\u2019 says our Lord. \u2018For a season.\u2019 The expression is worth\n our notice. It is just as if our Lord had said, \u2018I give you inferior\n lights, that ye may rejoice in them for a season. But I reserve to\n myself the glory of shining for ever. The most burning lights shall\n fail on earth; but I, your Sun, will shine to all eternity.\u2019\n\n \u201cCome, my dear brother, let the danger of our lights make us look to\n our Sun more steadily; and should God quench the light of our\n Jerusalem below, let us rejoice that it is to make it burn brighter in\n the Jerusalem which is above; and let us triumph in the\n inextinguishable light of our Sun, in the impenetrable strength of our\n Shield, and in the immovableness of our Rock.\n\n \u201cAmidst my concern for the Church in general, and for Mr. Wesley\u2019s\n Societies in particular, I cannot but acknowledge the goodness of God\n in so wonderfully keeping him for so many years, and in preserving him\n to undergo such labours as would have killed you and me ten times\n over. The Lord may yet hear prayer and add a span to his useful life.\n But forasmuch as the immortality of the body does not belong to this\n state, and he has fulfilled the ordinary term of human life, in hoping\n the best, we must prepare ourselves for the worst. The God of all\n grace and power will strengthen you on the occasion.\n\n \u201cShould your brother fail on earth, you are called not only to bear up\n under the loss of so near a relative, but, for the sake of your common\n children in the Lord, you should endeavour to fill up the gap\n according to your strength. The Methodists will not expect from you\n your brother\u2019s labours; but they have, I think, a right to expect that\n you will preside over them while God spares you in the land of the\n living. A committee of the oldest and steadiest preachers may help you\n to bear the burden and to keep up a proper discipline both among the\n people and the rest of the preachers; and if at any time you should\n want my mite of assistance, I hope I shall throw it into the treasury\n with the simplicity and readiness of the poor widow, who cheerfully\n offered her next to nothing. Do not faint. The Lord God of Israel will\n give you additional strength for the day; and His angels, yea, His\n praying people, will bear you up in their hands, that you hurt not\n your foot against a stone; yea, that if need be, you may leap over a\n wall.\n\n \u201cI am by this time grey-headed as well as you, and some of my\n parishioners tell me that the inroads of time are uncommonly visible\n upon my face. Indeed, I feel as well as see it myself, and learn what\n only time, trials, and experience can teach. Should your brother be\n called to his reward, I would not be free to go to London till you and\n the preachers had settled all matters. My going just at such a time\u201d\n [as this] \u201cwould carry the appearance of vanity, which I abhor. It\n would seem as if I wanted to be somebody among the Methodists.\n\n \u201cWe here heartily join the prayers of the brethren for your brother,\n for you, and the Societies. Paper fails, not love. Be careful for\n nothing. Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you.\n Farewell in Christ.\u201d[322]\n\nFootnote 322:\n\n Jackson\u2019s \u201cLife of C. Wesley,\u201d vol. ii., p. 302.\n\nTwo and a half years before this dangerous illness, Wesley had requested\nFletcher to be his successor in presiding over the Methodists. Perhaps\nCharles Wesley was aware of this. At all events, he appears to have\nwished Fletcher to come to London in the great crisis which had now\noccurred. Fletcher modestly declined; and, fortunately for both, no\nsuccessor of Wesley was needed until several years after both were dead.\n\nFletcher\u2019s \u201cChecks to Antinomianism\u201d were ended. For four years, he had\ntaxed his energies to the utmost; but the work he undertook in 1771 was\nnow nearly concluded. The doctrines of Wesley\u2019s \u201cMinutes\u201d had been\ncarefully explained, minutely defended, and lovingly enforced.\n\n \u201cIn his \u2018Checks to Antinomianism,\u2019\u201d wrote Wesley, \u201cone knows not which\n to admire most\u2014the _purity_ of the language, the _strength_ and\n _clearness_ of the argument, or the _mildness_ and _sweetness_ of the\n spirit that breathes throughout the whole. Insomuch that I nothing\n wonder at a serious clergyman, who being resolved to live and die in\n his own opinion, when he was pressed to read them replied, \u2018No, I will\n never read Mr. Fletcher\u2019s \u201cChecks,\u201d for if I did, I should be of his\n mind.\u2019\u201d[323]\n\nFootnote 323:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nOf course, contrary opinions have been expressed. The author of \u201cThe\nLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon\u201d tells his readers that,\u2014\n\n \u201cFletcher dazzled with eloquence instead of reasoning, and substituted\n tropes for arguments. He was too loquacious for a deep reasoner, and\n too impassioned to investigate duly the most profound and awful themes\n which can occupy the human understanding.\u201d\n\nIsaac Taylor, also, in his \u201cWesley and Methodism,\u201d takes the same\nposition. He acknowledges that,\u2014\n\n \u201cIn a genuine sense, Fletcher was a saint; a saint such as the Church\n of every age has produced a few samples. Sanctity and purity of\n manners were his distinctive characteristics. He was as unearthly a\n being as could tread the earth at all; and his Methodism was\n Christianity as little lowered by admixture of human infirmity as we\n may hope to find it anywhere on earth.\u201d But while \u201cas a theologian he\n possessed acquaintance enough with doctrinal literature and with the\n Scriptures to give him always a point or two of advantage in relation\n to his antagonists, he was no such reasoner, he was no such master of\n Biblical criticism, as might have made it possible for him to overstep\n the limits of his appointed task, or, as a theological writer, to\n survive his day.\u201d[324]\n\nFootnote 324:\n\n Robert Southey wrote, \u201cMr. Fletcher\u2019s manner is diffuse, and the\n florid parts and the unction betray their French origin; but the\n reasoning is acute and clear, the spirit of his writings is beautiful,\n and he was a master of the subject in all its bearings.\u201d\n\nThe first of these critics was too much of a Calvinist to do justice to\nFletcher, an Arminian; and it is not rash to say respecting the second,\nthat it is extremely doubtful whether he had carefully perused the\nwritings he condemns. At all events, his assertion that \u201cas a\ntheological writer\u201d Fletcher did not \u201csurvive his day,\u201d is utterly\nuntrue. Fletcher\u2019s \u201cChecks\u201d are as much read today as they were a\nhundred years ago. The demand for them increases almost every year, both\nin England and in America; and they are found in every land where\nMethodism has been founded. At the time when they were first published,\nthey occasioned exasperation among the Calvinian Methodists, but that\nwas not the fault of their distinguished author. What was called\n\u201cbitterness\u201d in Fletcher was not bitterness of temper, but \u201cof unwelcome\ndoctrine, set forth with all the advantages of language, confidence, and\nargument.\u201d Soon after they were completed, a Dissenting minister at\nBristol called upon Fletcher, when, to all human appearance, he was\ndying, and rudely said, \u201cYou had better have been confined to your bed\nby palsy than have written so many bitter things against the dear\nchildren of God.\u201d \u201cMy brother,\u201d replied the invalid, \u201cI hope I have not\nbeen bitter. Certainly I did not mean to be so; but I wanted more love\nthen, and I feel I want more now.\u201d[325] Fletcher\u2019s soft answer silenced\nhis sour assailant, and sent him away, it is to be hoped, a wiser and\nbetter man.\n\nFootnote 325:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1823, p. 107.\n\nIt is a pleasant fact to put on record that Fletcher and his opponents\nin the Calvinian controversy lived long enough to be affectionately\nreconciled to each other. Shirley, the first in the field, had, at\nleast, one brotherly interview with Fletcher, in Ireland.[326] In the\nMethodist Museum at the Centenary Hall, London, there is an\nunpublished letter, which Mr. Richard Hill wrote to Fletcher in 1784,\nfull of Christian affection. Rowland Hill, with admirable candour,\nsaid of his own writings, \u201cA softer style and spirit would better have\nbecome me;\u201d and he also suppressed the sale of one of his severest\npublications.[327] Then as it respects dear old Berridge at Everton,\nit will be seen, in a succeeding chapter, that he and Fletcher were\nmore than reconciled to each other. Their meeting at Everton, in the\nmonth of December, 1776, is one of the most charming incidents\nrecorded in Methodistic annals.\n\nFootnote 326:\n\n Stevens\u2019s \u201cHistory of Methodism.\u201d\n\nFootnote 327:\n\n Sidney\u2019s \u201cLife of Rev. Rowland Hill.\u201d\n\nAnother name must be introduced. Dr. Thomas Coke was now twenty-eight\nyears of age. He had taken his degrees at Oxford, had received episcopal\nordination, and was now curate at South Petherton. As yet, he had not\nbeen introduced to Wesley; but he had read his sermons and journals, and\nalso the \u201cChecks\u201d of Fletcher,\u2014all kindly lent to him by the Rev. Mr.\nBrown, a clergyman residing in the neighbourhood of Taunton. A year\nelapsed before Wesley met him, but in the meantime, the young curate\nwrote the following letter[328] to Fletcher:\u2014\n\n \u201cSOUTH PETHERTON, NEAR CREWKERNE, SOMERSET,\n \u201c_August 28, 1775_.\n\n \u201cREV. SIR,\u2014I take the liberty, though unknown to you, but not\n unacquainted with your admirable publications, of writing you a letter\n of sincerest thanks for the spiritual instruction, as well as\n entertainment, they have afforded me; and for the spirit of candour\n and Christian charity which breathes throughout your writings. The\n charming character which my best of earthly friends (the Rev. Mr.\n Brown, of Kingston, near Taunton), has given me of you, emboldens me\n to hope that, though my situation in life be only that of a poor\n curate of a parish, you will excuse this liberty I have taken of\n addressing you in the fulness of my heart.\n\n \u201cYou are indubitably, Sir, a sincere friend of the Gospel of Jesus\n Christ. I also am an humble admirer of the blessed Jesus, and it is on\n that foundation only I would wish, and it is on that only I am sure I\n can recommend myself to you.\n\n \u201cYour excellent \u2018Checks to Antinomianism\u2019 have riveted me in an\n abhorrence and detestation of the peculiar tenets of Calvin, and the\n monstrous errors into which those great and good men, Bishops Hopkins\n and Beveridge, have run, have frequently filled me with wonder.\n\n \u201cYour \u2018Essay on Truth\u2019 has been more particularly blessed to me. Your\n \u2018Scripture Scales\u2019 I am just going to read with great attention. Many\n thanks to you for your treatise on the \u2018Fallen State of Man.\u2019 It has\n been of service to me, and of much more, I have reason to think, to\n many of my congregation.\n\n \u201cO, Sir, I have frequently prayed to my God that He will make you a\n great pillar of His Church. In return, I do humbly beg that you will\n pray for me. I am sure you will grant me the favour when I inform you\n that (as nearly as I can guess) a thousand or more immortal souls come\n to me on every Lord\u2019s Day, in the afternoon, to receive their portion\n of the manna of the Word, the bread of everlasting life.\n\n \u201cI will so far transgress against the public and your dear flock as to\n request an answer. I am almost afraid to hope for more. May the God\n who loves you, and whom you love, make you a great instrument of His\n glory in this life, and grant you the height of your ambition in the\n next.\n\n \u201cI am, Rev. Sir, with great respect, your much obliged and very humble\n servant,\n\n \u201cTHOMAS COKE.\u201d\n\nFootnote 328:\n\n The letter is copied, verbatim, from the _original_, in the Wesleyan\n Mission House collection, Bishopsgate Street, London.\n\nLittle, at this time, did the obscure Dr. Coke imagine that, eight years\nafterwards, Fletcher would be one of the first twenty-six subscribers to\nthe Methodist \u201cSociety for the Establishment of Missions among the\nHeathen,\u201d which Coke and a few of his friends then instituted.\n\nOne more fact respecting the \u201cChecks to Antinomianism\u201d must be added.\nThe Rev. Thomas Jackson, a good authority, remarks:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Charles Wesley took a lively interest in the rise and progress of\n this\u201d [the Calvinian] \u201ccontroversy, though his name has rarely been\n connected with it. He corresponded with his friend, the Vicar of\n Madeley, and encouraged him in his arduous undertaking. Mr. Fletcher\n transmitted his manuscripts to him for revision, begging of him to\n expunge every expression that was calculated to give unnecessary pain,\n and to pay especial attention to the grammar and theology of the\n whole. He also confided to Mr. Charles Wesley the task of conducting\n them through the press, the correction of which was inconvenient to\n himself, because of his distance from London. The fact is, that nearly\n everything that Mr. Fletcher published, not even excepting his\n political tracts and his treatise on original sin, passed under the\n eye and hand of Mr. Charles Wesley before it was given to the world.\n Not that the compositions of his friend needed much emendation, but\n his criticisms gave Mr. Fletcher confidence, and were highly valued.\n In 1775, Mr. Fletcher said to him, \u2018Nobody helps me but you; and you\n know how little you do it. Deprive me not of that little. Your every\n hint is a blessing to me.\u2019\u201d[329]\n\nFootnote 329:\n\n Jackson\u2019s \u201cLife of C. Wesley,\u201d vol. ii., p. 294.\n\nA letter to Charles Wesley will fitly close the present chapter.\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _December 4, 1775_.\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014I see the end of my controversial race, and I\n have such courage to finish it, that I think it my _bounden_ duty to\n run and strike my blow, and fire my gun, before the water of\n discouragement has quite wetted the powder of my activity. This makes\n me seem to neglect my dearest correspondents.\n\n \u201cOld age comes faster upon me than upon you. I am already so\n grey-headed, that I wrote to my brother to know if I am not fifty-six\n instead of forty-six. The wheel of time moves so rapidly, that I seem\n to be in a new element; and yet, praised be God! my strength is\n preserved far better than I could expect. I came home last night at\n eleven o\u2019clock tolerably well, after reading prayers and preaching\n twice and giving the sacrament in my own church, and preaching again\n and meeting a few people in Society at the next market-town.\n\n \u201cThe Lord is wonderfully gracious to me, and, what is more to me than\n many favours, He helps me to see His mercies in a clearer light. In\n years past, I did not dare to be thankful for mercies, which now make\n me _shout for joy_. I had been taught to call them _common mercies_,\n and I made as little of them as apostates do of the blood of Christ,\n when they call it a _common thing_. But now the veil begins to rend,\n and I invite you and all the world to praise God for His patience,\n truth, and lovingkindness, which have followed me all my days. O how I\n hate the delusion, which has robbed me of so many comforts!\n\n \u201cFarewell! I am, etc.,\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[330]\n\nFootnote 330:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 226.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XVIII.\n _PUBLICATIONS IN THE YEAR_\n\n 1776.\n\n\nEXCEPT his posthumous works, the remainder of Fletcher\u2019s writings were\nissued during the next two years, 1776 and 1777. These will be briefly\nnoticed in the present chapter. During the last four years, his\nantagonists had been Walter Shirley, Richard Hill, Rowland Hill, and\nJohn Berridge. Now he encountered three others\u2014Augustus Montague\nToplady, the well-known Vicar of Broad Hembury, in Devonshire; Caleb\nEvans, an eminent Baptist minister at Bristol; and, in connection with\nMr. Evans, the celebrated Rev. Richard Price, D.D., an Arian minister,\nat Hackney, London.\n\nMethodist readers are so familiar with the life and character of\nToplady, as to render it unnecessary to refer to them in the present\npages. Suffice it to say, that this remarkable and strangely constituted\nman seems to have been almost as much prejudiced against Fletcher as he\nwas against Wesley. \u201cI was lately asked,\u201d said he, \u201cwhat my opinion is\nof Mr. John Fletcher\u2019s writings. My answer was, that, in the very few\npages I had perused, the _serious_ passages were dulness double\ncondensed; and the _lighter_ passages, impudence double distilled.\u201d[331]\n\nFootnote 331:\n\n Toplady\u2019s \u201cPosthumous Works,\u201d 1780, p. 234.\n\nIn 1770, Wesley published his tract, entitled, \u201cThe Doctrine of Absolute\nPredestination Stated and Asserted.\u201d This was a faithful abridgment of\nToplady\u2019s translation of Zanchius\u2019s once famous book,[332] and concluded\nwith the well-known paragraph:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe sum of all is this: one in twenty (suppose) of mankind are\n elected; nineteen in twenty are reprobated. The elect shall be saved,\n do what they will; the reprobate shall be damned, do what they can.\n Reader, believe this, or be damned. Witness my hand,\n\n \u201cA\u2014\u2014 T\u2014\u2014.\u201d\n\nFootnote 332:\n\n Toplady\u2019s Translation was published at the end of the year 1769.\n\nToplady was terribly enraged, and immediately published \u201cA Letter to the\nRev. Mr. John Wesley: relative to his pretended Abridgment of Zanchius\non Predestination.\u201d In 1771, Wesley replied to this, in his tract\nentitled, \u201cThe Consequence Proved,\u201d\u2014the object of which was to establish\nthe paragraph which had occasioned Toplady such huge offence. A year\nlater, Toplady published his \u201cMore Work for Mr. John Wesley; or, A\nVindication of the Decrees and Providence of God from the Defamation of\na late printed paper, entitled, \u2018The Consequence Proved.\u2019\u201d Wesley had no\ntime and no inclination to continue the controversy; but handed over the\nangry Vicar of Broad Hembury to the tender mercies of Thomas Olivers and\nFletcher. Olivers\u2019 tart pamphlet need not be further mentioned; but, in\nreference to Fletcher, it may be added, that, in a letter to Mr. Richard\nHill, dated \u201cMarch 12, 1773,\u201d Toplady wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cI am told that Mr. Fletcher has it in contemplation to make an attack\n on _me_ too. He is welcome. I am ready for him. Nor shall I, in that\n case, altogether imitate the examples of yourself and your brother;\n unless Mr. Fletcher should treat me with more decency than he has,\n hitherto, observed towards others. Tenderness, \u2019tis very evident, has\n no effect on Mr. Wesley and his pretended _family of love_. Witness\n the rancour with which Mr. Hervey\u2019s[333] memory and works are treated\n by that lovely family. For my own part, I shall never attempt to hew\n such millstones with a feather. They must be served as nettles; press\n them close, and they cannot sting. Yet have they my prayers and my\n best wishes for their present and future salvation. But not one hair\u2019s\n breadth of the Gospel will I ever offer at their shrine, or sacrifice\n to their idol.\u201d[334]\n\nFootnote 333:\n\n The well-known Rev. James Hervey.\n\nFootnote 334:\n\n Toplady\u2019s \u201cPosthumous Works,\u201d 1780, p. 343.\n\nToplady\u2019s information that Fletcher intended to \u201cattack\u201d him was quite\ncorrect; but, for the present, Fletcher was so occupied with his \u201cChecks\nto Antinomianism,\u201d that two years elapsed before he could devote\nattention to his new antagonist.\n\nToplady had no need to tell Mr. Richard Hill, in 1773, that, in any\nfuture replies he might make to the attacks of Wesley, Fletcher, or\ntheir friends, he would not be sparing in the language that he used;\nfor, in his \u201cLetter\u201d to Wesley in 1770, and his \u201cMore Work for Wesley\u201d\nin 1772, he had employed abuse which is, perhaps, unparalleled in\nreligious literature, and for which it is difficult to account. Wesley\nwas charged, by this young man of thirty years, with using \u201call the\nsophistry of a Jesuit, and the dictatorial authority of a pope.\u201d He had\ndescended to his \u201ccustomary resource of false quotations, despicable\ninvective, and unsupported dogmatisms.\u201d His \u201cphraseology\u201d was \u201cas\npregnant with craft as his conduct\u201d was \u201cdestitute of honour.\u201d \u201cBy his\ndeep-laid, but soon detected, cunning,\u2014by his avowed vacuity of candour,\ntruth, and shame, he has, in the general estimation of all unprejudiced\npeople, gotten a wound and dishonour and reproach which all his whining\nand winding sophistry will never be able to wipe away.\u201d \u201cPerversion and\nfalsification are essential figures in this man\u2019s rhetoric.\u201d \u201cUnless God\ngive Mr. Wesley repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, the\nunparalleled perverseness with which he labours to blacken some\ndoctrines of Christianity will be the burden of his soul in the hour of\ndeath and in the day of judgment.\u201d\n\nThese are really mild\u2014_very mild_\u2014specimens of Toplady\u2019s unaccountable\nabuse of Wesley. How the same man could write, \u201cRock of ages, cleft for\nme,\u201d and other hymns quite as exquisite, it is difficult to conceive.\n\nFletcher\u2019s long-expected reply was published in 1776, with the following\ntitle-page, \u201cAn Answer to the Rev. Mr. Toplady\u2019s \u2018Vindication of the\nDecrees,\u2019 etc. By the Author of the Checks. London: Printed in the year\n1776.\u201d 12mo, 133 pp.\n\nFletcher disposes of Toplady\u2019s abusive language in his \u201cIntroduction.\u201d\nHe writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cIf Mr. Toplady, in his controversial heat, has forgotten what he owed\n to Mr. Wesley and to himself, this is no reason why I should forget\n the title of my book, which calls me to point out the bad arguments of\n our opponents, and not their ill humour. If I absurdly spent my time\n in passing a censure upon Mr. Toplady\u2019s spirit, he would, with reason,\n say, as he does in the introduction to his \u2018Historical Proof,\u2019[335]\n page 35, \u2018What has my pride or my humility to do with the argument in\n hand? Whether I am haughty or meek, is of no more consequence either\n to that, or to the public, than whether I am tall or short.\u2019 Besides,\n having, again and again, myself requested our opponents not to\n wiredraw the controversy by personal reflections, but to weigh with\n candour the arguments which are offered, I should be inexcusable if I\n did not set them the example. Should it be said that Mr. Wesley\u2019s\n character, which Mr. Toplady has so severely attacked, is at stake,\n and that I ought purposely to stand up in his defence; I reply, that\n the personal charges which Mr. Toplady interweaves with his arguments\n have been already fully answered by Mr. Olivers;[336] and that these\n charges being chiefly founded upon Mr. Toplady\u2019s logical mistakes,\n they will, of their own accord, fall to the ground, as soon as the\n mistakes on which they rest shall be exposed. May the God of truth and\n love grant, that, if Mr. Toplady has the honour of producing the best\n arguments, I, for one, may have the advantage of yielding to them! To\n be conquered by truth and love, is to prove conqueror over our two\n greatest enemies,\u2014error and sin.\u201d\n\nFootnote 335:\n\n Toplady\u2019s \u201cHistoric Proof of the Doctrinal Calvinism of the Church of\n England;\u201d published, in two volumes, in 1774.\n\nFootnote 336:\n\n In \u201cA Letter to the Rev. Mr. Toplady, occasioned by his late Letter to\n Mr. Wesley. By Thomas Olivers, 1771.\u201d 12mo, 60 pp.\n\nWhat a contrast between Fletcher and Toplady! Both were men of genius;\nboth were scholars; both were clergymen of the Church of England; both\nwere polemics; but one was meek in heart\u2014the other just the opposite;\none was a gentleman\u2014the other, notwithstanding his ability and\neloquence, was a traducer.\n\nAs already stated, the short paragraph which Wesley appended to his\nabridgment of Toplady\u2019s translation of Zanchius\u2019s \u201cDoctrine of Absolute\nPredestination Stated and Asserted\u201d infuriated the Vicar of Broad\nHembury to an almost incredible degree. Toplady employed, what Fletcher\ncalls, seventy-three \u201c_arguments_,\u201d but which might more correctly be\ncalled _dogmatisms_, in replying to Wesley\u2019s exposure of Calvinian\npredestination. Fletcher, in his \u201c_Answer_,\u201d deals with these, one by\none, seriatim. Toplady was overmatched, and his \u201carguments\u201d were shown\nto be fallacies. Throughout his able book, Fletcher never loses his\ntemper, and never indulges in vituperation. The strongest language he\nuses is found in his concluding paragraphs, as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cI humbly hope that I have, in the preceding pages, contended for the\n truth of the Gospel, and the honour of God\u2019s perfections. My\n conscience bears me witness, that I have endeavoured to do it with the\n sincerity of a candid inquirer after truth; and that I have not,\n knowingly, leaped over one material difficulty which Mr. Toplady has\n thrown in the way of the laborious divine whose evangelical principles\n I vindicate. And now, judicious reader, if I have done my part as a\n detecter of the fallacies by which the modern doctrines of grace are\n \u2018kept upon their legs,\u2019 let me prevail upon thee to do thy part as a\n judge, and to say if the right leg of Calvinism, that is, the lawless\n election of an unscriptural grace, so draws thy admiration as to make\n thee overlook the deformity of the left leg, that is, the absurd,\n unholy, sin-ensuring, hell-procuring, merciless, and unjust\n reprobation which Mr. Toplady has attempted to vindicate. Shall thy\n reason, thy conscience, thy feelings, thy Bible, and, what is more\n than this, shall all the perfections of thy God, and the veracity of\n thy Saviour, be sacrificed on the altar of a reprobation which none of\n the prophets, apostles, and early fathers ever heard of?\u2014a barbarous\n reprobation which heated Augustine drew from the horrible error of\n Manichean necessity, and clothed with some Scripture expressions\n detached from the context, and wrested from their original meaning?\u2014a\n Pharisaic reprobation, which the Church of Rome took from him, and\n which some of our reformers unhappily brought from that corrupted\n Society into the Protestant Churches?\u2014in a word, a reprobation which\n disgraces Christianity, when that holy religion is considered as a\n system of evangelical doctrine, as much as our most enormous crimes\n disgrace it, when it is considered as a system of pure morality? Shall\n such a reprobation, I say, find a place in thy creed? yea, among thy\n doctrines of grace? God forbid!\n\n \u201cI hope better things of thy candour, good sense, and piety. If\n prejudice, human authority, and voluntary humility, seduce many good\n men into a profound reverence for that stupendous dogma, be not\n carried away by their number, or biassed by their shouts. Be not\n afraid to \u2018be pilloried in a preface, flogged at a pamphlet\u2019s tail,\u2019\n and treated as a knave, a felon, or a blasphemer through the whole of\n the next vindication of the deified[337] decrees, which are commonly\n called \u2018Calvinism.\u2019 This may be thy lot, if thou darest to bear thy\n plain testimony against the Antinomian idol of the day.\u201d\n\nFootnote 337:\n\n \u201cMr. Toplady calls them \u2018the decrees of God;\u2019 and it is an axiom among\n Calvinists, that \u2018God\u2019s decrees are God Himself.\u2019\u201d\n\nFletcher\u2019s conflict with Toplady was continued. Hence the following\n\u201cAdvertisement,\u201d affixed to the _first edition_ of the book just\ndismissed:\u2014\n\n \u201cSince these sheets have been prepared for the press, I have seen a\n new performance of Mr. Toplady, in defence of the doctrine which is\n exposed in the preceding pages. As there are, in that piece, some\n _new_ arguments, the plausibility of which may puzzle many readers;\n and as I think it my duty _fully_ to vindicate the truth, and\n _completely_ to detect error; I design to answer that book also, in a\n little tract, which will be a supplement to this, and which will\n probably see the light under the following title, \u2018A Reply to the\n Principal Arguments by which the Calvinists and the Fatalists Support\n the Spreading Doctrine of _Absolute Necessity_. In some Remarks on the\n Rev. Mr. Toplady\u2019s \u2018Scheme of Philosophical Necessity.\u2019\u201d\n\nTo understand this, it must be stated, that, in 1774, Wesley published a\n12mo pamphlet of 33 pages, entitled, \u201cThoughts upon Necessity.\u201d This was\none of Wesley\u2019s ablest publications, and, to use Wesley\u2019s own words, in\nhis address \u201cto the Reader,\u201d it was meant to rebut the teaching of an\n\u201cEssay on Liberty and Necessity,\u201d[338] which he had lately read. \u201cI\nwould fain,\u201d says he, \u201cplace mankind in a fairer point of view than that\nwriter\u201d (the author) \u201chas done: as I cannot believe the noblest creature\nin the visible world to be only a fine piece of clock-work.\u201d Toplady was\nnot once mentioned in Wesley\u2019s tract; but he immediately set to work to\nanswer it, and, in the following year, his strange production was issued\nwith the following title: \u201cThe Scheme of Christian and Philosophical\nNecessity Asserted. In Opposition to Mr. John Wesley\u2019s Tract on that\nSubject. With a Dissertation concerning the Sensible Qualitys of Matter:\nand the Doctrine of Color in particular. By Augustus Toplady, Vicar of\nBroad Hembury. London, 1775.\u201d 8vo, 216 pp.\n\nFootnote 338:\n\n This Essay had been published, in Edinburgh, some years before.\n\nWesley, as already stated, had not even named Toplady in his\npublication, much less abused him; but the opportunity of again reviling\nWesley was too tempting to be neglected. In his preface, he gives an\nextract from a letter, written by a London clergyman, who had sent him\nWesley\u2019s tract:\u2014\n\n \u201cI went last night to the Foundery, expecting to hear Pope _John_; but\n was disappointed. After hearing a Welshman,[339] for an hour and\n twenty minutes, on Psalm lxxxiv. 11, preach up all the heresies\n (_sic_) of the place, a man, who sat in the pulpit, told him to \u2018_Give\n over_:\u2019 for he seemed to bid fair for another half hour, at least. But\n he came to a conclusion, as desired. Then this man, who seemed to be a\n local preacher,[340] stood up with a pamphlet in his hand, and\n addressed the auditory in the following manner:\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018I am desired to publish a pamphlet upon _Necessity_ and\n _Free-Will_,\u2014the best I know of in the English tongue,\u2014by _Mr. John\n Wesley_, price _threepence_. I had purposed to say a _good deal_ upon\n it; but the _time_ is elapsed. But, in this threepenny pamphlet, you\n have _all_ the disputes that have been bandy\u2019d about so lately; and\n you will get your minds more established by _this threepenny_\n pamphlet, than by reading _all_ the books that have been written for\n and against. It is to be had at both doors, as you go out.\u2019\u201d\n\nFootnote 339:\n\n Query? Thomas Olivers, corrector of the press for Wesley.\n\nFootnote 340:\n\n Query? John Atlay, the book-steward.\n\nIt is not unlikely that this narration is true; for, in those days,\nMethodist preachers preached long sermons, and, from the pulpit,\nrecommended the people to purchase Methodist publications. Toplady takes\noccasion to call the occurrence \u201ca droll sort of mountebank scene,\u201d and\npretends to bewail \u201cthe unreasonable and unseasonable prolixity of the\nlong-winded holder-forth, which cruelly, injudiciously, and despitefully\nprevented poor _Zany_ from puffing off, with the amplitude he intended,\nthe multiplex virtues of the doctor\u2019s threepenny free-will powder.\u201d He\ncontinues:\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018_Never do that by delegation_,\u2019 says an old proverb, \u2018_which you can\n as well do in propria persona_. Had Doctor John himself got upon the\n stage, and sung\u2014\n\n \u2018Come, buy my fine powders; come buy dem of me;\n Hare be de best powders dat ever you see:\u2019\n\n who knows, but the threepenny doses might have gone off _at both\n doors_,\u2019 as rapidly as peas from a pop-gun?\u201d\n\nToplady, in a bantering tone, proceeds to give the \u201c_chief ingredients\nof the famous Moorfields powder_,\u201d namely:\u2014\n\n \u201cAn equal portion of gross _Heathenism_, _Mahometism_, _Popery_,\n _Manichaeism_, _Ranterism_, and _Antinomianism_; cull\u2019d, dry\u2019d, and\n pulveriz\u2019d, _secundem artem_: and, above all, mingled with as much\n palpable _Atheism_ as you can possibly scrape together from every\n quarter.\u201d (Preface.)\n\nIn Chapter I., Toplady continues this unworthy, dishonourable abuse. He\nwrites:\u2014\n\n \u201c_Aliquis in omnibus, nullus in singulis._ The man, who concerns\n himself in everything, bids fair not to make a figure in anything. Mr.\n John Wesley is, precisely, this _aliquis in omnibus_; for, is there a\n single subject in which he has not endeavoured to shine? He is also,\n as precisely, a _nullus in singulis_; for, has he shone in any one\n subject which he ever attempted to handle? Upon what principle can\n these two circumstances be accounted for? Only upon that very\n principle, at which he so dolefully shakes his head, viz., the\n principle of _necessity_. The poor gentleman is, _necessarily_, an\n universal meddler; and, as _necessarily_, an universal miscarryer. Can\n he _avoid_ being either the one or the other? No.\u201d (p. 10.)\n\nIn a subsequent page, Toplady asserts:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Wesley, in one respect, is _as much_, and, in another respect,\n _abundantly more_ a _Manichae_, than either Scythian, Budda, or Manes.\n By a very singular mixture of _Manichaeism_, _Pelagianism_, _Popery_,\n _Socinianism_, _Ranterism_, and _Atheism_, he has, I believe, now got\n to his ultimatum. Probably, he would go still further, if he could.\n But, I really think, he has no farther to go. Happy settlement, after\n forty years\u2019 infinity of shiftings and flittings hither and thither!\n\n \u201c\u2018Thus weathercocks, which, for awhile,\n Have turn\u2019d about with every blast,\u2014\n Grown old, and destitute of oil,\n Rust to a point, and fix at last!\u2019\u201d (p. 131.)\n\nAgain, on page 168, Toplady\u2019s reader is told that\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Wesley is the lamest, the blindest, and the most\n self-contradictory waster of ink and paper, that ever pretended to the\n name of reasoner. \u2019Tis almost a disgrace to refute him.\u201d\n\nAgain, on p. 172, Toplady writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Wesley\u2019s heat and prophaneness are such, that he dares to scold\n his Maker with as little ceremony, and with as much scurrility, as an\n enraged fish-woman would be-din the ears of a \u2019prentice wench.\u201d\n\nWas Toplady a _Christian_? It is difficult to answer that question. A\nmore monstrous combination of opposing qualities has seldom figured on\nthe stage of human life. He was now thirty-four years of age.[341] Three\nyears and a-half later he was dead.\n\nFootnote 341:\n\n Wesley was more than seventy!\n\nIt is needless to furnish an outline of Toplady\u2019s bold book. What he\nattempted to expound and prove will be found in the following extracts:\u2014\n\n \u201cI own myself very fond of _definitions_. I therefore pr\u00e6mise[342]\n _what_ the _necessity_ is, whose cause I have undertaken to plead. I\n would define necessity to be _that, by which, whatever comes to pass\n cannot but_ come _to pass_ (all circumstances taken into the account);\n _and can come to pass_ in _no other way or manner_ than it does\u201d (p.\n 12).\n\nFootnote 342:\n\n In this, and in all the foregoing extracts, the spelling of words is\n _literally_ given.\u2014L. T.\n\nAgain, on page 157, he writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cFor my own part, I solemnly profess, before God, angels, and men,\n that I am _not conscious_ of my being endued with that\n self-determining power, which Arminianism ascribes to me as an\n individual of the human species. Nay, I am _clearly certain_ that I\n have it not. I am also equally certain that I _do not wish_ to have\n it; and that, were it possible for my Creator to make me an offer of\n transferring the determination of any one event, from His own will to\n mine, it would be both my duty and my wisdom to entreat that the\n sceptre might still remain with Himself, and that I might have nothing\n to do in the direction of a single incident, or of so much as a single\n circumstance.\u201d\n\nThe principles wrapped up in the definition and the confession of\nToplady are what he tries to vindicate; and to refute them was the task\nFletcher undertook. Fletcher\u2019s pamphlet was published in 1777, with the\nfollowing title: \u201cA Reply to the Principal Arguments by which the\nCalvinists and Fatalists support the Doctrine of Absolute Necessity:\nbeing Remarks on the Rev. Mr. Toplady\u2019s \u2018Scheme of Christian and\nPhilosophical Necessity.\u2019 By John Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, Salop.\nLondon, 1777.\u201d 12mo, 80 pp.\n\nFletcher, with his talent of quiet cutting irony, might have rebuked the\nslang of Toplady; but, like a Christian and a gentleman, he, with\nindignant silence, allows it to pass unnoticed. The task of vanquishing\nToplady was not difficult, for seldom has a more absurd theological work\nthan \u201cThe Scheme of Christian and Philosophical Necessity\u201d been\ncommitted to the press. Fletcher\u2019s \u201creply\u201d was perfectly unanswerable:\npoor Toplady was silenced.\n\nIt would tire the reader to analyse Fletcher\u2019s work; and two extracts\nfrom it must suffice, the first showing with what ease Fletcher dealt\nwith the absurdities of Toplady\u2019s philosophy; and the second exhibiting\nhis desire to live in peace and love with even the rabid Calvinists.\n\nIn Chapter III. of his book, Toplady wrote as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cIt seems most agreeable to the radical simplicity, which God has\n observed in all His works, to suppose, that, _in themselves_, all\n human souls are _equal_. I can easily believe, that the soul of an\n oyster-woman has, naturally, the unexpanded powers of Grotius, or of\n Sir Isaac Newton; and that what conduces to raise the philosopher, the\n poet, the politician, or the linguist, so much above the ignorant and\n stupid of mankind, is, not only the circumstance of intellectual\n cultivation, but, still more than that, his having the happiness to\n occupy a better house, _i.e._ a _body_ more commodiously _organized_\n than they. The soul of a _Monthly Reviewer_, if imprisoned within the\n same mud walls which are tenanted by the soul of _Mr. John Wesley_,\n would, similarly circumstanced, reason and act, I verily think,\n exactly like the Bishop of Moorfields. And I know some very sensible\n people, who even go so far as to suppose, that, were a human soul shut\n up in the skull of a _cat_, puss would, notwithstanding, move prone on\n all fours, purr when stroked, spit when pinched, and birds and mice\n would be her darling objects of pursuit. Though I cannot carry matters\n to so extreme a length as this, yet, I repeat my opinion, very much\n depends on corporeal organization.\n\n \u201cI just now hinted the conjecture of some that a human spirit,\n incarcerated in the brain of a cat, would, probably, both think and\n behave as that animal now does. But how would the soul of a cat acquit\n itself, if enclosed in the brain of a man? We cannot resolve this\n question with _certainty_, any more than the other. We may, however,\n even on _this_ occasion, address every one of our human brethren in\n the words of that great philosophic necessitarian, St. Paul, and ask,\n _Who maketh thee to differ_ from the lowest of the brute creation? Thy\n _Maker\u2019s_ free will, not thine. _And what_ pre-eminence _hast thou,\n which thou didst_ not _receive_ from Him? Not the least, nor the\n shadow of any.\u201d\n\n \u201cAdmirable divinity!\u201d wrote Fletcher. \u201cSo Mr. Toplady leaves the\n orthodox in doubt,\u20141. Whether, when their souls and the souls of cats\n shall be let out of their respective brains or prisons, the souls of\n cats will not be equal to the souls of men. 2. Whether, supposing the\n soul of a cat had been put in the brain of St. Paul, or of a Monthly\n Reviewer, the soul of puss would not have made as great an Apostle as\n the soul of Saul of Tarsus; as good a critic as the soul of the most\n sensible Reviewer. And, 3. Whether, in case the \u2018human spirit\u2019 of\n Isaiah \u2018was shut up in the skull of a cat, puss would not,\n notwithstanding, move prone on all fours, purr when stroked, spit when\n pinched, and birds and mice be her darling objects of pursuit.\u2019 Is not\n this a pretty large stride, for the first, towards the doctrine of the\n sameness of the souls of men with the souls of cats and frogs?\n Wretched Calvinism, new-fangled doctrines of grace, where are you\n leading your deluded admirers, your principal vindicators? Is it not\n enough, that you have spoiled the fountain of living waters, by\n turning into it the muddy streams of _Zeno\u2019s_ errors? Are ye also\n going to poison it by the absurdities of _Pythagoras\u2019s_ philosophy?\n What a side-stroke is here inadvertently given to these capital\n doctrines, \u2018God breathed into\u2019 Adam \u2018the breath of life, and he became\n a living soul;\u2019 a soul made \u2018in the image of God,\u2019 and not in the\n image of a cat! \u2018The spirit of the beast goeth downward to the earth;\n but the spirit of man goeth upward; it returns to God who gave it,\u2019\n with an intention to judge and reward it according to its moral works.\n\n \u201cBut I must do Mr. Toplady justice; he does not yet recommend this\n doctrine as absolutely certain. However, from his capital doctrine,\n that human souls have no free-will, no inward principle of\n self-determination; and from his avowed opinion, that the soul of one\n man, placed in the body of another man, \u2018would, similarly\n circumstanced, reason and act exactly like\u2019 the man in whose _mud\n walls_ it is lodged; it evidently follows, 1. That, had the human soul\n of Christ been placed in the body and circumstances of _Nero_, it\n would have been exactly as wicked and atrocious as the soul of that\n bloody monster was. And 2. That if Nero\u2019s soul had been placed in\n Christ\u2019s body, and in His trying circumstances, it would have been\n exactly as virtuous and immaculate as that of the Redeemer; the\n consequence is undeniable. Thus, the merit of the man Christ did not,\n in the least, spring from His righteous soul, but from His \u2018_mud\n walls_\u2019 and from the happiness which His soul had of being lodged in a\n \u2018_brain peculiarly modified_.\u2019 Nor did the demerit of Nero flow from\n his free agency and self-perversion, but only from his \u2018_mud walls_,\u2019\n and from the infelicity which his necessitated soul had of being\n lodged in \u2018_an ill-constructed vehicle_,\u2019 and placed on that throne on\n which Titus soon after deserved to be called \u2018the darling of mankind.\u2019\n See, O ye engrossers of orthodoxy, to what absurd lengths your\n aversion to the liberty of the will, and to evangelical worthiness,\n leads your unwary souls! And yet, if we believe Mr. Toplady, your\n scheme, which is big with these inevitable consequences, is \u2018Christian\n philosophy,\u2019 and our doctrine of free will is \u2018philosophy run mad,\u2019 p.\n 30.\u201d\n\nDid cat ever play with mouse more perfectly and amusingly than did the\nVicar of Madeley with the Vicar of Broad Hembury?\n\nThe next extract, which is the conclusion of Fletcher\u2019s triumphant\n\u201cReply\u201d to Toplady, shows his intense desire to live in love and peace\nwith his opponents:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Wesley and I are ready to testify upon oath, that we humbly\n submit to God\u2019s sovereignty, and joyfully glory in the freeness of\n Gospel grace, which has mercifully distinguished us from countless\n myriads of our fellow-creatures, by gratuitously bestowing upon us\n numberless favours, of a spiritual and temporal nature, which he has\n thought proper absolutely to withhold from our fellow-creatures. To\n meet the Calvinists on their own ground, we go so far as to allow\n there is a partial, gratuitous election and reprobation. By this\n election, Christians are admitted to the enjoyment of privileges far\n superior to those of the Jews; and, according to this reprobation,\n myriads of heathen are absolutely cut off from all the prerogatives\n which accompany God\u2019s covenants of peculiar grace. In a word, we grant\n to the Calvinists everything they contend for, except the doctrine of\n _absolute necessity_; nay, we even grant the necessary, unavoidable\n salvation of all that die in their infancy. And our love of peace\n would make us go farther to meet Mr. Toplady, if we could do it\n without giving up the justice, mercy, truth, and wisdom of God,\n together with the truth of the Scriptures, the equity of God\u2019s\n paradisaical and mediatorial laws, the propriety of the day of\n judgment, and the reasonableness of the sentences of absolution and\n condemnation, which the Righteous Judge will then pronounce. We hope,\n therefore, that the prejudices of our Calvinian brethren will subside;\n and that, instead of accounting us inveterate enemies to truth, they\n will do us the justice to say, that we have done our best to hinder\n them from inadvertently betraying some of the greatest truths of\n Christianity into the hands of the Manichees, Materialists, Infidels,\n and Antinomians of the age. May the Lord hasten the happy day in which\n we shall no more waste our precious time in attacking or defending the\n truths of our holy religion; but bestow every moment in the sweet\n exercises of Divine and brotherly love!\u201d\n\nDuring the last six years, Fletcher had most laboriously devoted the\nwhole of the time he could conscientiously spare from the faithful\ndischarge of his parochial duties, to an earnest and elaborate\nexplanation and defence of the Anti-Calvinian doctrines, formally\nannounced by his friend Wesley, at the Conference of 1770. Wesley was\nwithout leisure for this. If he had attempted it, he would have been\nobliged to content himself with the publication of brief, sententious\ntracts; and this would have been insufficient. Most of the Methodist\nclergymen of the day, including Whitefield, Hervey, Romaine, Berridge,\nShirley, Toplady, and many others, had become sincere and laborious\nCalvinists. Their publications were widely spread, and their views\nextensively embraced. Wesley saw and felt that an antidote was needed;\nand especially as the Countess of Huntingdon had recently opened her\ncollege at Trevecca to multiply the number of such ministers. Hence,\nthe declaration of his \u201cMinutes,\u201d and hence, the fierce controversial\nwar that immediately followed. Fletcher had been educated at Geneva,\nwhere Calvin had propounded his creed, and his form of Church\ngovernment. Fletcher was not, professedly, a theological student at\nGeneva; but he was a regular attendant at Divine services, as well as\na diligent reader of the Holy Scriptures, and there can be no doubt\nthat he was, to a considerable extent, even in his youth, acquainted\nwith the Calvinian theology. At all events, when the controversy\ncommenced, in 1770, there was no one, among Wesley\u2019s helpers, so\ncompetent to enter the arena, on his behalf, as his friend Fletcher.\nHitherto, Fletcher had been accustomed to make little evangelistic\ntours, to London, to Wales, and to other places; but now, for six\nyears, he confined himself within his own parish, that he might have\ntime to defend Wesley. Up to the present, his letters to his friends\nhad been somewhat numerous; now, to write a letter was one of his rare\nexercises. He was committed to a great work; and everything, excepting\nthe pastoral duties of his parish, must give way to it. Of the style\nof his writings, the reader has had numerous specimens. It is always\nperspicuous, lively, chaste, though occasionally prolix. Many of his\nfigures are apt, striking, convincing; but others would have been more\nimpressive had they been less elaborate. His arguments are fair,\nlegitimate, and generally unanswerable. His spirit, without exception,\nis saintly. He never becomes personal; never deals in invective; never\nassails character; never impugns motives. Among the Wesleyan\nMethodists, he settled for ever all the questions of the Calvinian\ncontroversy. For many a long year, Methodist preachers\u2014itinerant and\nlocal\u2014drew their arguments and illustrations from his invaluable\n\u201cChecks;\u201d and, perhaps, it is not too much to say, that not a few of\nthe Calvinists themselves were led by his immortal productions to\nexplain, and modify, and, to some extent, to change their\nunwarrantable doctrines. To his memory, the Methodist Churches owe\nundying veneration; for he did for Wesley\u2019s theology what no other man\nthan himself, at that period, could have done. John Wesley travelled,\nformed Societies, and governed them. Charles Wesley composed\nunequalled hymns for the Methodists to sing; and John Fletcher, a\nnative of Calvinian Switzerland, explained, elaborated, and defended\nthe doctrines they heartily believed.\n\nHitherto, his opponents had been Walter Shirley, Richard Hill and his\nbrother Rowland, honest Berridge, and clever but censorious Toplady. The\nlast, for invective, was the worst. Twenty years before, he had heard\nJames Morris, one of Wesley\u2019s itinerants, preach in a barn at Codymain,\nand soon afterwards was converted. Two years later, while a student in\nTrinity College, Dublin, he wrote an admirable letter to Wesley,\nthanking him for his \u201ckind\u201d cautions and advices. When and why he became\nthe bitter foe of Wesley it is difficult to determine. He died on August\n11, 1778, in the thirty-eighth year of his age, and was buried in a\ngrave, thirteen feet deep, under the gallery of Whitefield\u2019s chapel, in\nTottenham Court Road.\n\nFletcher\u2019s next antagonist was the Rev. Caleb Evans, a Baptist minister\nat Bristol; a man of good sense, a diligent student, a faithful pastor,\nand now thirty-seven years of age. At this period, the English colonists\nin America were in rebellion. On May 10, 1775, a Congress of the\nthirteen States met at Philadelphia, and appointed George Washington as\ntheir Commander-in-Chief. He took command of the army before Boston,\nwhere the English had ten thousand men. A few days after his arrival,\nthe terrible battle at Bunker\u2019s Hill was fought; and a bloody war soon\nspread over the whole seaboard, and even into Canada, where the American\ncolonists besieged Quebec. In the year 1775, Wesley abridged Dr.\nJohnson\u2019s famous pamphlet, entitled, \u201cTaxation no Tyranny,\u201d and\npublished it as his own, without the least reference as to its origin.\nMr. Evans warmly sympathized with the colonists, and published \u201cA Letter\nto the Rev. John Wesley, occasioned by his \u2018Calm Address.\u2019\u201d Wesley\u2019s\nreply to this was the republication of his pirated pamphlet, with a\npreface prefixed, in which he said, \u201cAll the arguments\u201d [of Evans]\n\u201cmight be contained in a nutshell.\u201d Political as well as theological\ncontroversy is always irritating. Angry tracts and pamphlets, almost\nwithout number, were committed to the press; but all of them, except\nthose in which Fletcher was concerned, must here be passed in silence.\nFletcher now, strangely enough, turned politician. Early in the year\n1776, he published the following: \u201cA Vindication of the Rev. Mr.\nWesley\u2019s \u2018Calm Address to our American Colonists:\u2019 In some Letters to\nMr. Caleb Evans: By John Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, Salop. London:\nPrinted and sold at the Foundery.\u201d 12mo, 70 pp.[343]\n\nFootnote 343:\n\n In the same year, another edition was published in \u201cDublin: Printed\n for W. Whitestone, No. 33, Skinner Row.\u201d\n\nIn a letter to Joseph Benson, he said:\u2014\n\n \u201cI have unaccountably launched into Christian politics; a branch of\n divinity too much neglected by some and too much attended to by\n others. If you have seen my \u2018Vindication of Mr. Wesley\u2019s Calm\n Address,\u2019 and can make sense of that badly printed piece, I shall be\n thankful for your very dispraise.\u201d\n\nTo James Ireland, Esq., he wrote on February 3, 1776:\u2014\n\n \u201cMy little political piece is published in London. You thank me for it\n beforehand; I believe they are the only thanks I shall have. It is\n well you sent them before you read the book; and yet, whatever\n contempt it brings upon me, I still think I have written the truth. If\n I have been wrong in writing, I hope I shall not be so excessively\n wrong as not to be thankful for any reproof candidly levelled at what\n I have written. I prepare myself to be like my Lord in my little\n measure; I mean, to be \u2018_Despised and rejected of men; a man of\n sorrows, and acquainted with griefs_,\u2019\u2014most reviled for what I mean\n best.\u201d\n\nEvidence will soon be adduced that Fletcher\u2019s apprehensions of coming\nreproach were realized.\n\nIt may fairly be doubted whether Wesley and Fletcher acted wisely in\nrushing into the fierce political strife that then existed. Their\nmotives were pure; and, perhaps, Mr. Benson, living at the time, and a\ncompetent observer of men and things, was correct when he said,\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher\u2019s publications upon the question which divided Great\n Britain and her Colonies, as well as Mr. Wesley\u2019s \u2018Calm Address,\u2019\n certainly were of great use; not indeed to prevent the continuation\n and further progress of the war, and stop the effusion of blood\n abroad, but to allay the spirits of disloyalty and insurrection which\n were beginning to show themselves at home.\u201d\n\nStill, it must be admitted, that the high and holy vocation of Wesley\nand Fletcher was not to rebuke and correct political errors, but to\nrevive, spread, and defend the great Gospel truths which had been so\nlong neglected and forgotten.\n\nNo useful end would be answered by giving an outline of Fletcher\u2019s\narguments in his \u201cVindication of Wesley\u2019s \u2018Calm Address.\u2019\u201d Many of them\nmay be more easily sneered at than answered. They show the versatility\nof Fletcher\u2019s genius; and, remembering the fewness of the newspapers\nthen published, they create surprise at the extent of Fletcher\u2019s\npolitical information. He often uses strong language, but he is never\nungentlemanly or abusive. He was loyal to the throne and government of\nEngland, but he was not a blind opponent of civil liberty, or that\nexemption from the arbitrary will of others which is secured by\nequitable and established laws. In concluding his first letter to Mr.\nEvans he wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cI declare that I am as much in love with _liberty_ as with _loyalty_;\n and that I write a heartfelt truth when I subscribe myself, Rev. Sir,\n your affectionate fellow-labourer in the Gospel, a republican by birth\n and education, and a subject of Great Britain by love of liberty and\n free choice.\u201d\n\nAs soon as Fletcher\u2019s pamphlet appeared, Mr. Evans hastened to answer\nit, and employed Wesley\u2019s old friend, William Pine, of Bristol, as his\nprinter and publisher. The title of his new production was \u201cA Reply to\nthe Rev. Mr. Fletcher\u2019s \u2018Vindication\u2019 of Mr. Wesley\u2019s \u2018Calm Address to\nour American Colonists.\u2019 By Caleb Evans, M.A.\u201d 12mo, 103 pp.\n\nMr. Evans\u2019s reply was full of bad temper. The first twenty-three pages\nwere devoted to abusive remarks on the change which had taken place in\nWesley\u2019s political opinions, and to a mistake which Wesley honestly\nconfessed he had made in denying that he had seen a book on \u201cthe\nexclusive right of the Colonies to tax themselves.\u201d He acknowledges that\nhe had seen the book, but adds: \u201cI had so entirely forgotten it, that\neven when I saw it again I recollected nothing of it till I had read\nseveral pages.\u201d Mr. Evans, in an angry spirit, uses this lapse of memory\nto the utmost in an endeavour to brand Wesley as a liar, and concludes\nhis first letter to Fletcher thus:\u2014\n\n \u201cHaving thus given you, Sir, a faithful narrative of the rise,\n progress, and conclusion of the dispute betwixt me and Mr. Wesley, you\n are welcome to re-enter on the vindication of _your friend_, as you\n style him, as soon as you please. And should you find yourself unequal\n to the _Herculean_ task, you may call in the assistance of the amazing\n Mr. _Thomas Olivers_, that mirror of Christian meekness and modesty,\n and with his logic and your oratory, aided by scraps of mutilated\n letters, you will perform wonders.\u201d\n\nMr. Evans begins his second letter by politely telling Fletcher that in\nreading his \u201cVindication of Wesley\u2019s \u2018Calm Address\u2019\u201d he had been greatly\ndisappointed.\n\n \u201cFor,\u201d says he, \u201cinstead of argument, I met with nothing but\n declamation; instead of precision, artful colouring; instead of proof,\n presumption; instead of consistency, contradiction; instead of\n reasoning, a string of sophistries. Your letters abound, Sir, as every\n intelligent reader will easily discover, with the _petitio principii_,\n the _fallacia accidentis_, the _non causa pro causa_, and those many\n other pretty inventions by which, as the Schoolmen very well know, a\n question may be embarrassed when it cannot be answered.\u201d\n\nIn succeeding pages, Mr. Evans charges Fletcher with using \u201cloose,\ninconsistent, vague declamation;\u201d and adds:\u2014\n\n \u201cThis may confound the ignorant and superficial; but you cannot\n yourself suppose it ever can convince the intelligent and impartial.\n Your chief aim seems to be _spargere voces in vulgam ambiguas_, and\n thereby artfully to persuade them that all those who are enemies to\n the measures of the ministry respecting America are Republicans,\n king-haters, Calvinists, Anabaptists, Antinomians, and everything that\n is bad.\u201d\n\nPoor Fletcher! He was indeed realizing the reproach he had apprehended;\nand yet he was not satisfied. Hence his publication of the following:\n\u201cAmerican Patriotism: Farther confronted with Reason, Scripture, and the\nConstitution: Being Observations on the Dangerous Politicks taught by\nthe Rev. Mr. Evans, M.A., and the Rev. Dr. Price.[344] With a Scriptural\nPlea for the Revolted Colonies. By J. Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley.\u201d 1776.\n12mo, 138 pp.\n\nFootnote 344:\n\n Mr. Evans, in his \u201cReply,\u201d had made several quotations from what he\n calls \u201cDr. Price\u2019s most excellent pamphlet, just published,\u201d and\n entitled, \u201cObservations on the Nature of Civil Liberty.\u201d\n\n \u201cThe author,\u201d writes Fletcher in his preface, \u201cdares not flatter\n himself to have the knowledge of logic and divinity, which are\n requisite to do his subject the justice it deserves; but, having for\n some years opposed _false orthodoxy_, he may have acquired a little\n skill to oppose _false patriotism_; and, having defended _evangelical\n obedience to God_ against the indirect attacks of some ministers of\n the Church of England, he humbly hopes that he may step forth a second\n time and defend _constiutional obedience to the king_ against some\n ministers who dissent from the Established Church. Those whom he\n encounters in these sheets are the leading ecclesiastical patriots of\n the two greatest cities in the kingdom; Mr. Evans being the champion\n of the minority in Bristol, as Dr. Price is in London.\u201d\n\nOf course, Fletcher\u2019s book is able; but, excepting so far as it teaches\nthat loyalty is a Christian duty, it is, to a great extent, out of date.\n\nOn October 30, 1776, a royal proclamation was issued, ordering \u201ca public\nfast and humiliation to be observed throughout England and the kingdom\nof Ireland, upon Friday the 13th of December next, for the purpose of\nimploring the Almighty speedily to deliver the King\u2019s loyal subjects\nwithin his colonies and provinces in North America, from the violence,\ninjustice, and tyranny of those daring rebels who had assumed to\nthemselves the exercise of arbitrary power; to open the eyes of those\nwho had been deluded, by specious falsehoods, into acts of treason and\nrebellion; to turn the hearts of the authors of these calamities; and to\nrestore his people in those distracted provinces and colonies to the\nhappy condition of being free subjects in a free state, under which\nheretofore they had flourished so long, and prospered so much.\u201d[345]\n\nFootnote 345:\n\n Annual Register, 1776.\n\nThis had Fletcher\u2019s hearty approbation, and he at once wrote and\npublished a 12mo pamphlet of 22 pages, dated \u201cLondon, December 6, 1776,\u201d\nwith the title, \u201cThe Bible and the Sword; or, The Appointment of the\nGeneral Fast Vindicated: In an Address to the Common People, concerning\nthe Propriety of Repressing obstinate Licentiousness with the Sword, and\nof Fasting when the Sword is drawn for that Purpose. London: Printed by\nR. Hawes, and sold at the Foundery, in Moorfields, and at the Rev. Mr.\nWesley\u2019s Preaching Houses in Town and Country. 1776.\u201d[346] One half of\nthis pamphlet, however, was simply a reprint of extracts from his\n\u201cAmerican Patriotism;\u201d the other half is devoted to the task of proving,\nfrom Scripture, that, under certain circumstances, war is lawful.\n\nFootnote 346:\n\n Almost without exception, all Fletcher\u2019s publications had on their\n title-pages the advertisement, \u201cSold at the Foundery, in Moorfields,\n and at the Rev. Mr. Wesley\u2019s preaching-houses in town and country.\u201d\n\nAs he expected, Fletcher, by his political publications, brought upon\nhimself political wrath and censure, of which the following extracts,\ntaken from the _Monthly Review_, are specimens:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher has been distinguished in the late theological\n controversies between Mr. Wesley and his followers, on the one part,\n and the Antinomians, or Calvinists, on the other. In these disputes,\n the Shropshire vicar made no inconsiderable figure; and we have freely\n and impartially done justice to his abilities. In _politics_, however,\n we have nothing to say in his favour. We are, indeed, sorry to observe\n that he is a mere Sacheverell; a preacher of those slavish and justly\n exploded Jacobitical doctrines, for which the memory of Sacheverell\n and his abettors will ever be held in equal contempt and abhorrence by\n every true friend to the liberties of mankind.\u201d[347]\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher\u2019s present performance\u201d (_American Patriotism_) \u201cis, like\n his former piece on this subject, wordy, specious, and artful. He\n alternately attacks the champions on the other side of the question,\n Dr. Price and Mr. Evans; and he evidently thinks himself a match for\n them both. We are almost tired of the fruitless contest; but one word\n with Mr. Fletcher before we part. He is a little chagrined at our\n styling him a _mere Sacheverell_; and he takes pains, in this\n publication, to show his equal abhorrence of _regal_ or of _mobbish_\n tyranny. We are glad to find this rev. gentleman thus disclaiming\n those principles, to which many of his positions and arguments\n obviously lead; and we charitably hope that he was not aware of the\n full extent and tendency of their operation. Mr. Fletcher is, by all\n report, a good man; but he will never, we suspect, obtain a _good\n report_ merely for his _politics_, except with those who have already\n embraced the same system; for mankind are too much guided by Swift\u2019s\n rule of pronouncing those _right_ who think as we do, and every one\n _wrong_ who differs from us. Poor encouragement, by the way, for our\n author to expend his ink, and wear out his pens, in order to convert\n those political heretics, the advocates for America.\u201d[348]\n\nFootnote 347:\n\n _Monthly Review_, 1776, vol. liv., p. 325.\n\nFootnote 348:\n\n _Ibid_, 1776, vol. lv, p. 155.\n\nThe sneers of the Monthly Reviewers were unjust. Fletcher, in reply to\ntheir unmerited taunt, remarked:\u2014\n\n \u201cI am no more \u2018_a mere Sacheverell_\u2019 than I am a _mere Price_. Dr.\n Sacheverell ran as fiercely into the _high monarchical_ extreme as Dr.\n Price does into the _high republican_ extreme. I have endeavoured to\n keep at an equal distance from their opposite mistakes, by contending\n only for the just medium, which the Holy Scriptures and our excellent\n constitution point out. If Dr. Sacheverell were alive, and his\n erroneous, enthusiastical, mobbing politics endangered the public\n tranquillity, as the patriotism of Mr. Evans and Dr. Price does at\n present, I would oppose the _high churchman_ as much as I now do the\n two _high dissenters_.\u201d[349]\n\nFootnote 349:\n\n \u201cAmerican Patriotism,\u201d p. 130.\n\nNotwithstanding the depreciatory opinions of Mr. Evans, Dr. Price, and\nthe Monthly Reviewers, the government of King George III. desired to\nreward Fletcher for the service he had rendered them. His old friend,\nMr. Vaughan, informed Wesley that he took one of Fletcher\u2019s political\npamphlets to the Earl of Dartmouth, at that time Secretary of State for\nthe Colonies. Lord Dartmouth carried it to the Lord Chancellor, who\nhanded it to King George. The result was an official was immediately\ncommissioned to ask Fletcher whether any preferment in the Church would\nbe acceptable to him? or whether the Lord Chancellor could do him any\nservice? Fletcher replied, no doubt to the amazement of all concerned,\n\u201cI want nothing, but more grace.\u201d[350]\n\nFootnote 350:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nThis was characteristic of the man. \u201cThe love of money, the root of all\nevil,\u201d was a sin from which Fletcher was entirely exempt.\n\n \u201cOn the 10th of May, 1774,\u201d says Mr. Vaughan, \u201cMr. Fletcher wrote me\n thus: \u2018My brother has sent me the rent of the little place I have\n abroad, \u00a380, which I was to receive from Mr. Chauvet and Co., in\n London. But, instead of sending the draught for the money, I have sent\n it back to Switzerland, with orders to distribute it among the poor.\n As money is rather higher there than here, that mite will go farther\n abroad than it would in my parish.\u2019\u201d[351]\n\nFootnote 351:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nMr. Vaughan continues:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn 1776, he deposited with me a bill of \u00a3105, being, as I understood,\n the yearly produce of his estate in Switzerland. This was his fund for\n charitable uses; but it lasted only a few months, when he drew upon me\n for the balance, which was \u00a324, to complete the preaching-house in\n Madeley Wood.\u201d[352]\n\nMen, said Cicero, resemble the gods in nothing so much as in doing good\nto their fellow-creatures.\n\nFootnote 352:\n\n _Ibid._\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XIX.\n _CORRESPONDENCE IN 1776._\n\n\nFLETCHER\u2019S health was failing; and no wonder. Wesley writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cHe was more and more abundant in his ministerial labours, both in\n public and private; not contenting himself with preaching, but\n visiting his flock in every corner of his parish. And this work he\n attended to early and late, whether the weather was fair or foul;\n regarding neither heat nor cold, rain nor snow, whether he was on\n horseback or on foot. But this further weakened his constitution;\n which was still more effectually done by his intense and uninterrupted\n studies, in which he frequently continued, without scarce any\n intermission, fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen hours a day. But still he\n did not allow himself such food as was necessary to sustain nature. He\n seldom took any regular meals except he had company; otherwise, twice\n or thrice in four-and-twenty hours he ate some bread and cheese, or\n fruit. Instead of this, he sometimes took a draught of milk, and then\n wrote on again. When one reproved him for not affording himself a\n sufficiency of necessary food, he replied, \u2018Not allow myself food! Why\n our food seldom costs my housekeeper and me less than two shillings a\n week.\u2019\u201d[353]\n\nFootnote 353:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nDuring the Calvinian controversy, Fletcher\u2019s letters to his friends seem\nto have been comparatively few. At all events, few have been preserved.\nNow he resumed his epistolary correspondence; and the present chapter\nwill mainly consist of these outpourings of his heart to those whom he\ndearly loved.\n\nIn a letter, dated January 9, 1776, and published in the \u201cLife and Times\nof Wesley,\u201d Fletcher refers to a renewed proposal to become Wesley\u2019s\nsuccessor. To prepare him for this, Wesley requested that he would\naccompany him in his evangelistic tours, so that he might be commended\nto the Methodist Societies they visited. Fletcher replied that he was\nwilling to accompany Wesley as a travelling assistant; but he strongly\nobjected to being nominated Wesley\u2019s _successor_. Besides other reasons,\nwhich he adduced, he remarked, that such a nomination would lead people\nto suspect, and say, that what he had written, \u201cfor truth and\nconscience\u2019 sake,\u201d in defence of Wesley\u2019s doctrines, had all been done\nfor the purpose of becoming, what Toplady had called, \u201cthe Bishop of\nMoorfields.\u201d There is no need to quote this letter at full length; but\nit is an important one, as showing that the proposal which Wesley had\nmade to Fletcher, three years before, was not a passing whim, but a\nfixed idea, on the realization of which he had set his heart.[354]\n\nFootnote 354:\n\n Others, besides Wesley, had fixed upon Fletcher as Wesley\u2019s successor.\n Joseph Benson, in 1775, shortly after Wesley\u2019s dangerous illness in\n Ireland, wrote to him, saying, \u201cIn case of Mr. Wesley\u2019s death, your\n help would be wanted, in the government of the Societies, and in\n conducting the work of God.\u201d To this, Fletcher replied, \u201cGod has\n lately shaken Mr. Wesley over the grave; but, I believe, from the\n strength of his constitution and the weakness of mine, he will survive\n me; so that I do not scheme about helping to make up the gap, when\n that great tree shall fall. Sufficient for the day will that trouble\n be; nor will the Divine power be then insufficient to help the people\n in time of need.\u201d (Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d)\n\nIt may be added, that Fletcher, in the same letter, informs Wesley,\nthat, by the last post, he had sent him a manuscript, entitled, \u201cA\nSecond Check to Civil Antinomianism;\u201d being an extract from the Church\nof England Homily on Rebellion; and he expresses the opinion that it\nmight be well to print and circulate it, not only for the general good,\nbut, also, \u201cto shame Mr. Roquet,\u201d one of the first masters of Wesley\u2019s\nschool, at Kingswood, but now a clergyman of the Church of England, who,\nin the controversy respecting the American rebellion, had turned against\nhis old friend Wesley, and had rendered assistance to Wesley\u2019s\ndissenting opponent, Caleb Evans. Wesley seems to have had more regard\nfor Mr. Roquet\u2019s reputation, than even gentle-minded Fletcher had, for\nFletcher\u2019s manuscript was not published.\n\nFletcher refused to be commended as Wesley\u2019s successor; but he evidently\nthought of travelling. Hence, in a letter to his friend James Ireland,\nEsq., he wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cMadeley, February 3, 1776. Upon the news of your illness, I and many\n more prayed that you might be supported under your pressures, and that\n they might yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. We shall now\n turn our prayers into praises for your happy recovery, and for the\n support the Lord has granted you under your trial. There are lessons\n which we can never learn but under the cross: we must suffer with\n Christ if we will be glorified with Him. I hope you will take care\n that it may not be said of you, as it was of Hezekiah, \u2018He rendered\n not unto the Lord, according to the benefit\u2019 of his recovery. May we\n see the propriety and profit of rendering Him our bodies and our\n souls,\u2014the sacrifices of humble, praising, obedient love,\u2014and warm,\n active, cheerful thanksgiving!\n\n \u201cA young clergyman offers to assist me: if he does, I may make an\n excursion somewhere this spring; where it will be, I don\u2019t know. It\n may be into _eternity_, for I dare not depend upon to-morrow; but\n should it be your way, I shall inform you of a variety of family\n trials, which the Lord has sent me\u2014all for _good_, to break my will in\n every possible respect.\u201d[355]\n\nFootnote 355:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 227.\n\nIn reference to this excursion, Wesley writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cHis health being more than ever impaired by a violent cough,\n accompanied with spitting of blood, I told him, nothing was so likely\n to restore his health as a long journey. I, therefore, proposed his\n taking a journey of some months with me, through various parts of\n England and Scotland; telling him, \u2018When you are tired, or like it\n best, you may come into my carriage; but, remember, that riding on\n horseback is the best of all exercises for _you_, so far as your\n strength will permit.\u2019 He looked upon this as a call from Providence,\n and very willingly accepted of the proposal. We set out, as I am\n accustomed to do, early in the spring, and travelled by moderate\n journeys, suited to his strength, eleven or twelve hundred miles.[356]\n When we returned to London, in the latter end of the year, he was\n considerably better; and I verily believe, if he had travelled with\n me, partly in the chaise and partly on horseback, only a few months\n longer, he would have quite recovered his health.\u201d[357]\n\nFootnote 356:\n\n I cannot trace this journey.\u2014L.T.\n\nFootnote 357:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nAt this period, the end of 1775, or the beginning of 1776, Joseph Benson\nwas stationed in the circuit of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and to him Fletcher\nwrote as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cThough I am pretty well in body, I break fast. I have been put into\n such pinching, grinding circumstances for near a year, by a series of\n providential and domestic trials, as have given me some deadly blows.\n Mr. Wesley kindly invited me some weeks ago to travel with him and\n visit some of his Societies. The controversy is partly over, and I\n feel an inclination to break one of my chains,\u2014parochial\n retirement,\u2014which may be a nest for self. A young minister, in\n deacon\u2019s orders, has offered to be my curate; and, if he can live in\n this wilderness, I shall have some liberty to leave it. I commit the\n matter entirely to the Lord.\n\n \u201cThe few professors I see in these parts are so far from what I could\n wish them and myself to be, that I cannot but cry out, \u2018Lord, how long\n wilt Thou give Thine heritage to desolation or barrenness? How long\n shall the heathen say, where is now their indwelling God?\u2019 I hope it\n is better with you in the north. What are your heart, your pen, your\n tongue doing? Are they receiving, sealing, spreading the truth\n everywhere within your sphere? Are you dead to praise or dispraise?\n Could you quietly pass for a mere fool, and have gross nonsense\n fathered upon you without any uneasy reflection of self? The Lord\n bless you! Beware of your grand enemy, earthly wisdom, and unbelieving\n reasonings. You will never overcome but by childlike, loving\n simplicity.\u201d[358]\n\nFootnote 358:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nWesley set out, on his \u201c_long journey_,\u201d from London, on Sunday evening,\nMarch 3, 1776, and reached Bristol two days afterwards. On Wednesday,\nMarch 6, he went to Taunton, and \u201copened the new preaching-house.\u201d On\nThursday, he returned to Bristol; and, on the Monday following, started\nfor the north, visiting his Societies at Stroud, Painswick, Tewkesbury,\nWorcester, and other places, until, on March 25, he arrived at\nBirmingham.[359] Mr. Benson says Fletcher joined Wesley \u201cat London, or\nmore probably at Bristol, and accompanied him on his journeys through\nGloucestershire, and Worcestershire, and a part of Warwickshire,\nStaffordshire, and Shropshire. He did not, however, proceed further\nnorth with Mr. Wesley, at that time, but stopped at Madeley, for reasons\nwhich he mentioned to me in the following letter, written soon after:\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018MY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014I would have answered your letter before now, had I\n not been overdone with writing. I have just concluded an answer to Mr.\n Evans and Dr. Price; a work which I have undertaken with a desire to\n serve the cause of religion, as well as that of loyalty. This work has\n prevented me from following Mr. Wesley. Besides, as the clergyman who\n is here with me (a student from Edmund Hall[360]), has just accepted a\n place near Manchester, I shall still be without a curate.\n\n \u201c\u2018I see so little fruit in these parts that I am almost disheartened,\n both with respect to the power of the Word, and the experience of the\n professors I converse with. I am closely followed with the thought\n that the kingdom in the Holy Ghost is almost lost; and that faith in\n the dispensation of the Spirit is at a very low ebb. But it may be, I\n think so on account of my little experience, and the weakness of the\n faith of those whom I meet. It may be better in all other places. I\n shall be glad to travel a little to see the goodness of the land. God\n deliver us from all extremes, and make and keep us humble, loving,\n disinterested, and zealous! I preached, before Mr. Greaves came, as\n much as my strength could well admit, although to little purpose; but\n I must not complain. If one person receive a good desire in ten years,\n by my instrumentality, it is a greater honour than I deserve\u2014an honour\n for which I could not be too thankful. Let us bless the Lord for all\n things. We have reasons innumerable to do it. Bless Him on my account,\n as well as your own; and the God of peace be with you.\u2019\u201d[361]\n\nFootnote 359:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\nFootnote 360:\n\n The College, at Oxford, to which the Countess of Huntingdon had been\n accustomed to send godly young men, to prepare them for Orders, and\n from which six of her students had been expelled, in 1768.\n\nFootnote 361:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nBefore proceeding further, it may be added, that Joseph Benson doubted\nthe propriety of Wesley and Fletcher turning their attention to\npolitics. In an unpublished letter, dated \u201cNewcastle, May 21, 1776,\u201d he\nwrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cThese are \u2018perilous times\u2019 indeed, and threaten to be more perilous\n still. You see what a famous politician our friend Fletcher is become.\n Though I exceedingly approve both of the \u2018Calm Address\u2019 and its\n \u2018Vindication,\u2019 I fear these subjects only detain the authors from more\n valuable and important work. We expected Mr. Fletcher here along with\n Mr. Wesley; but I understand, by a letter from him yesterday, that he\n has been prevented, by his having to answer Dr. Price and Mr. Evans.\n And there is more work for him still. A friend of ours, in London, has\n sent Mr. Cownley and me a pamphlet, which, in some important points,\n takes Mr. Fletcher\u2019s \u2018Vindication\u2019 thoroughly to pieces. I fear he\n will find it no easy thing to reply to some of its arguments. As for\n Price, his ideas of liberty are beyond measure extravagant; and Mr.\n Fletcher and Mr. Wesley will find it no very difficult matter to reply\n to _him_. But, the principal thing to be thought, talked, and wrote\n about, is the _baptism of the Spirit_, or the _inward kingdom of God_.\n Oh! my friend, this is but little known among us!\u201d\n\nTo his old friend, Mr. Vaughan, Fletcher wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _March 21, 1776_.\n\n \u201cDEAR SIR,\u2014Your barrel of cider came safe to hand. How could you think\n to make me such a present? But I must rather thank you for your love\n and generosity, than scold you for your excessive profusion. You\n should have stayed till cider was ten shillings a hogshead, but in\n such a year as this\u2014! However, the Lord reward you, and return it to\n you, in streams of living water, and plenty of the wine of His\n kingdom!\n\n \u201cI thought I should soon have done with controversy; but now I give up\n the hope of having done with it before I die. There are three sorts of\n people I must continually attack, or defend myself against\u2014Gallios,\n Pharisees, and Antinomians. I hope I shall die in harness fighting\n against some of them. I do not, however, forget, that the Gallio, the\n Simon, and the Nicholas _within_, are far more dangerous to me than\n those without. In my own heart, that immense field, I must _first_\n fight the Lord\u2019s battles and my own. Help me here; join me in this\n field. All Christians are here militia-men, if they are not professed\n soldiers. O, my friend, I need wisdom\u2014_meekness of wisdom_! A heart\n full of it is better than all your cider vault full of the most\n generous liquors; and it is in Christ for us. O! go and ask for you\n and me; and I shall ask for me and you. May we not be ashamed, nor\n afraid to come, and beg every moment for wine and milk\u2014grace and\n wisdom!\n\n \u201cBeware, my friend, of the world. Let not its cares, nor the\n deceitfulness of its riches, keep or draw you from Jesus. Before you\n handle the birdlime, be sure you dip your heart and hand in the oil of\n grace. Time flies. Years of plenty and of scarcity, of peace and war,\n disappear before the eternity to which we are all hastening.\n\n \u201cRemember me kindly to Mrs. Vaughan. That the Lord would abundantly\n bless you both, in your souls, bodies, concerns, and children, is the\n sincere wish of your affectionate friend,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[362]\n\nFootnote 362:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 229.\n\nThe following letter, to Charles Wesley, refers, among other things, to\nanother of Fletcher\u2019s publications, which has yet to be noticed:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _May 11, 1776_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014What are you doing in London? Are you ripening as\n fast for the grave as I am? How should we lay out every moment for\n God! For some days, I have had the symptoms of an inward consumptive\n decay\u2014spitting of blood, etc. Thank God! I look at our last enemy with\n great calmness. I hope, however, that the Lord will spare me to\n publish my end of the controversy, which is _A Double Dissertation\n upon the Doctrines of Grace and Justice_. This piece will, I flatter\n myself, reconcile all the _candid_ Calvinists and _candid_ Arminians,\n and be a means of pointing out the way in which peace and harmony may\n be restored to the Church.\n\n \u201cI still look for an outpouring of the Spirit, inwardly and outwardly.\n Should I die before that great day, I shall have the consolation to\n see it from afar. Thank God! I enjoy uninterrupted peace in the midst\n of my trials, which are, sometimes, not a few. Joy also I possess; but\n I look for joy of a superior nature. I feel myself, in a good degree,\n dead to praise and dispraise: I hope, at least, that it is so; because\n I do not feel that the one lifts me up, or that the other dejects me.\n I want to see a Pentecost Christian Church; and, if it is not to be\n seen at this time upon earth, I am willing to go and see that glorious\n wonder in heaven. How is it with you? Are you ready to seize the crown\n in the name of the Redeemer _reigning_ in your heart? We run a race\n towards the grave. John is likely to outrun you, unless you have a\n swift foot.\n\n \u201cI had lately a letter from one of the preachers, who finds great\n fault with me, for having published, in my book on Perfection, your\n hymn called _The Last Wish_. He calls it dangerous mysticism. My\n _private_ thoughts are, that the truth lies between _driving_\n Methodism and _still_ mysticism. What think you? Read the addresses\n which I have added to that piece, and tell me your thoughts.\n\n \u201cLet us pray that God would renew our youth, as that of the eagle,\n that we may bear fruit in our old age. I hope I shall see you _before_\n my death: if not, let us rejoice at the thought of meeting in\n heaven.\u201d[363]\n\nFootnote 363:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 231.\n\nThe censured hymn was the following\u2014\n\n \u201cTo do, or not to do; to have,\n Or not to have, I leave to Thee:\n To be, or not to be, I leave:\n Thy only will be done in me.\n All my requests are lost in one:\n Father, Thy only will be done.\n\n \u201cSuffice that, for the season past,\n Myself in things Divine I sought,\n For comforts cried with eager haste,\n And murmur\u2019d that I found them not:\n I leave it now to Thee alone,\n Father, Thy only will be done.\n\n \u201cThy gifts I clamour for no more,\n Or selfishly Thy grace require,\n An evil heart to varnish o\u2019er;\n Jesus, the Giver, I desire;\n After the flesh no longer known:\n Father, Thy only will be done.\n\n \u201cWelcome alike the crown or cross;\n Trouble I cannot ask, nor peace,\n Nor toil, nor rest, nor gain, nor loss,\n Nor joy, nor grief, nor pain, nor ease,\n Nor life, nor death; but ever groan,\n Father, Thy only will be done.\u201d\n\nThis was what Wesley\u2019s Itinerant Preacher called \u201c_dangerous_\nmysticism,\u201d and Fletcher, \u201c_still_ mysticism.\u201d Whether Fletcher himself\nexperienced this \u201cdestruction of self-will,\u201d and \u201cabsolute resignation,\nwhich characterises a perfect believer,\u201d it is difficult to determine;\nbut it may safely be affirmed that he was struggling to attain to such a\nstate of holiness. \u201cThis hymn,\u201d said he, \u201csuits all the believers who\nare at the bottom of Mount Sion, and begin to join the spirits of just\nmen made perfect.\u201d And then, as a specimen of what he calls \u201c_driving_\nMethodism,\u201d he adds:\u2014\n\n \u201cBut when the triumphal chariot of perfect love _gloriously_ carries\n you to the top of perfection\u2019s hill;\u2014when you are raised far above the\n _common_ heights of the perfect,\u2014when you are almost translated into\n glory like Elijah, _then_ you may sing another hymn of the same\n Christian poet\u201d (Charles Wesley) \u201cwith the Rev. Mr. Madan, and the\n numerous body of imperfectionists who use his collection of Psalms,\n etc.\u201d\n\nThis, of course, was a quiet satire on Martin Madan and his Calvinistic\ncongregation; but, passing that, the \u201c_driving_ hymn was as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cWho in Jesus confide,\n They are bold to outride\n The storms of affliction beneath:\n With the prophet they soar\n To that heavenly shore,\n And out-fly all the arrows of death.\n\n \u201cBy faith _we are come_\n To our _permanent home_;\n By hope we _the rapture improve_:\n By love we _still rise_,\n And _look down_ on the skies\u2014\n For the _heaven of heavens is love_!\n\n \u201cWho on earth can conceive\n How happy _we live_\n In the city of God the great King!\n What a concert of praise,\n When our Jesus\u2019s grace\n The whole heavenly company sing!\n\n \u201cWhat a rapturous song,\n When the glorified throng\n In the spirit of harmony join!\n Join all the glad choirs,\n Hearts, voices, and lyres,\n And the burden is mercy divine!\u201d[364]\n\nFootnote 364:\n\n Fletcher\u2019s \u201cLast Check to Antinomianism,\u201d p. 323.\n\nWhy these long quotations? Simply to show that real Christian Perfection\nis, according to the \u201c_private_ thoughts\u201d of Fletcher, one of the\nholiest of the old Methodists, a something that \u201clies between\u201d the\n\u201cdriving Methodism and _still_ mysticism\u201d embodied in the two remarkable\nhymns just cited.\n\nSoon after the date of the last letter (May 11, 1776) Fletcher\u2019s health\nso entirely failed, that he was compelled to leave his parish and repair\nto the hot wells at Bristol. His friend, Charles Wesley, on June 30,\nembodied the feelings of his full heart in the following touching hymn:\u2014\n\n \u201cJesus, Thy feeble servant see!\n Sick is the man beloved by Thee:\n Thy name to magnify,\n To spread Thy Gospel-truths again,\n His precious soul in life detain,\n Nor suffer him to die.\n\n \u201cThe fervent prayer Thou oft hast heard,\n Thy glorious arm in mercy bared;\n Thy wonder-working power\n Appear\u2019d in all Thy people\u2019s sight,\n And stopp\u2019d the Spirit in its flight,\n Or bade the grave restore.\n\n \u201cIn faith we ask a fresh reprieve:\n Frequent in deaths he still shall live,\n If Thou pronounce the word;\n Shall spend for Thee, his strength renew\u2019d,\n Witness of the all-cleansing blood,\n Forerunner of his Lord.\n\n \u201cThe Spirit that raised Thee from the dead,\n Be in its quick\u2019ning virtue shed,\n His mortal flesh to raise,\n To consecrate Thy human shrine,\n And fill with energy divine\n Thy minister of grace.\n\n \u201cBody and soul at once revive;\n The prayer of faith in which we strive,\n So shall we all proclaim,\n According to Thy gracious will,\n Omnipotent the sick to heal,\n From age to age the same.\u201d[365]\n\nFootnote 365:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1835, p. 576.\n\nFifteen years ago (soon after he came to Madeley), at Christmas time, in\na dark night, Fletcher, on the top of Lincoln-hill woods, was at a loss\nwhich way to take to reach his vicarage at Madeley. Providentially, he\nmet a working man of Coalbrookdale, Michael Onions by name, who was on\nhis way to Broseley to fetch a fiddler for a dancing party in Michael\u2019s\nhouse. Fletcher told him he had lost his road to Madeley, and asked him\nto put him right. Good-tempered Michael went half-a-mile out of his way\nto render the muffled stranger the necessary guidance. Conversation\nensued; Michael explained the object of his journey to Broseley;\nFletcher warned him of his sin and danger; Michael became alarmed, and,\ninstead of proceeding to Broseley to secure the services of the fiddler,\nreturned to his dwelling at Coalbrookdale. On his entering, the\nassembled dancers asked, \u201cHave you brought the fiddler?\u201d \u201cNo,\u201d said\nMichael. \u201cIs he not at home?\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d \u201cHave you not been to\nBroseley?\u201d \u201cNo.\u201d \u201cWhy? What\u2019s the matter? You look ill, and are all of a\ntremble.\u201d Michael then stated that he had met some one on the top of\nLincoln-hill woods; but whether man or angel he knew not; and, after\nrelating the conversation between them, added, \u201cI dare not go to\nBroseley\u2014I would not for the world.\u201d Next Sunday morning, Michael and\nsome of his dancing friends went to Madeley church; and there, in the\nvoice of Fletcher, he recognized the mysterious traveller he had met\nwith on Lincoln-hill. Michael was converted, and became one of the first\nMethodists in Coalbrookdale.[366] To this humble, but faithful Christian\nfriend, and to his fellow Methodists, Fletcher now wrote as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cBRISTOL, _July 11, 1776_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014Having just seen, at the Wells, Mr. Darby, who is\n going back to the Dale, I gladly seize the opportunity of letting you\n know what the Lord is doing for my soul and body.\n\n \u201cWith respect to my soul, I feel a degree of righteousness, peace, and\n joy, and wait for the establishment of His internal kingdom in the\n Holy Ghost. The hope of my being rooted and grounded in the love, that\n casts out slavish fear, grows more lively every day. I am not afraid\n of any evil tidings, and my heart stands calm, believing in the Lord,\n and desiring Him to do with me whatsoever He pleaseth.\n\n \u201cWith respect to my body, I know not what to say; but the physician\n says he hopes I shall do well; and so I hope, and believe too, whether\n I recover my strength or not. Health and sickness, life and death, are\n best when the Lord sends them. All things work together for good to\n those that love God.\n\n \u201cI am forbid preaching; but, blessed be God! I am not forbid, by my\n heavenly Physician, to pray, believe, and love. This is a sweet work,\n which heals, delights, and strengthens.\n\n \u201cI hope you bear me on your hearts, as I do you on mine. My wish for\n you is that you may be possessors of an inward kingdom of grace; that\n you may so hunger and thirst after righteousness as to be filled. Oh!\n be hearty in the cause of religion. Be _humbly_ zealous for your own\n salvation, and for God\u2019s glory; nor forget to care for the salvation\n of each other. Keep yourselves in the love of God; and keep one\n another by _example_, _reproof_, _exhortation_, _encouragement_,\n _social prayer_, and _a faithful use of all the means of grace_. Use\n yourselves to bow at the feet of Christ. Go to Him continually for the\n holy anointing of His Spirit, who will be a Teacher always near,\n always with you and in you. If you have that _inward_ Instructor, you\n will suffer no material loss when your outward teachers are removed.\n Make the most of dear Mr. Greaves[367] while you have him. While you\n have the light of God\u2019s word, believe in the light, that you may be\n children of the light, fitted for the kingdom of eternal light, where\n I charge you to meet your affectionate brother and minister,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[368]\n\nFootnote 366:\n\n _Wesleyan Times_, March 3, 1856, p. 138.\n\nFootnote 367:\n\n Who had again become Fletcher\u2019s curate.\n\nFootnote 368:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 14.\n\nTo Charles Perronet, son of the venerable Vicar of Shoreham, Fletcher\nwrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cBRISTOL, _July 12, 1776_.\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014I gladly thank you for your last favour. The\n Lord keeps me hanging by a thread. He weighs me in the balance for\n life and death; I trust Him for the choice. He knows, far better than\n I, what is best; and I leave all to His unerring wisdom. I am calm,\n and wait, with submission, for what the Lord will say concerning me. I\n wait to be baptized into _all His fulness_, and trust the word\u2014_the\n word of His grace_.\u201d[369]\n\nFootnote 369:\n\n _Ibid_, p. 231.\n\nExactly a month after the date of this letter, holy Charles Perronet\nhimself fell asleep in Jesus. \u201cMy dear Charles,\u201d wrote his venerable\nfather, \u201cafter wearing out a weakly constitution in the most unwearied\nendeavours to bring many to Christ, breathed out his pious soul in the\nremarkable words of his dear Lord, \u2018Father, into Thy hands I commend my\nspirit.\u2019\u201d \u201cI have uninterrupted fellowship with God,\u201d cried the dying\nsaint; \u201cand Christ is all in all to me.\u201d[370] As soon as Fletcher heard\nof the death of this godly man, he wrote to the bereaved father as\nfollows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMethinks I see you, right honoured Sir, mounted, as another Moses, on\n the top of Pisgah, and through the telescope of faith descrying the\n promised land; or, rather, in the present instance, I observe you,\n like another Joshua, on the banks of Jordan, viewing all Israel, with\n your son among them, passing over the river to their great\n possessions. Permit me, therefore, in consideration of your years and\n office, to exclaim, in the language of young Elisha to his ancient\n seer, \u2018My father! My father! The chariots of Israel and the horsemen\n thereof.\u2019\n\n \u201c\u2018There, there they are, and there is your son!\n Whom faith pursues, and eager hope discerns,\n In yon bright chariot, as a cherub borne\n On wings of love, to uncreated realms\n Of deathless joy, and everlasting peace.\u2019\u201d[371]\n\nFootnote 370:\n\n Atmore\u2019s \u201cMethodist Memorial.\u201d\n\nFootnote 371:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nOn the day Charles Perronet died, Wesley was in Bristol, and wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201c1776. August 12.\u2014I found Mr. Fletcher a little better, and proposed\n his taking a journey with me to Cornwall; nothing being so likely to\n restore his health as a journey of four or five hundred miles. But his\n physician would in no wise consent, so I gave up the point.\u201d[372]\n\nFootnote 372:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\nInstead of going to Cornwall Fletcher returned to Madeley, where he\nwrote two letters to his friend, James Ireland, Esq., from which the\nfollowing are extracts:\u2014\n\n \u201cMadeley, August 18, 1776. My breast is very weak, but, if it please\n God, it will in time recover strength. Mr. Greaves will take all the\n duty upon himself, and I shall continue to take rest, exercise, and\n the food which was recommended to me. The Lord grant me to rest myself\n on Christ, to exercise myself in charity, and to feed upon the bread\n of life, which God has given us in Jesus Christ.\n\n \u201cI thank you, my dear friend, for all your favours and all your\n attention to me. What returns shall I make? I will drink the cup of\n thanksgiving, and I will bless the name of the Lord. I will thank my\n dear friend and wish him all the temporal blessings he conferred upon\n me, and all those spiritual ones which were not in his power to\n bestow. Live in health; live piously; live content; live in Christ;\n live for eternity; live to make your wife, your children, your\n servants, your neighbours happy. And may the God of all grace give\n back a hundredfold to you and your dear wife all the kindnesses with\n which you have loaded me.\u201d[373]\n\n \u201cMadeley, August 24, 1776. My dear friend, I have received the news of\n your _loss_, and of the _gain_ of your younger daughter. She has\n entered into port, and has left you on a tempestuous sea. I recommend\n to Mrs. Ireland the resignation of David when he lost his son; and do\n you give her the example. The day of death is preferable to that of\n our birth; with respect to infants, the maxim of Solomon is\n indubitable. 0 what an honour is it to be the father and mother of a\n little cherub who hovers round the throne of God in heavenly glory!\n\n \u201cRoquet[374] dead and buried! The jolly man who last summer shook his\n head at me as at a dying man! How frail are we! God help us to live\n _to-day_! to-morrow is the fool\u2019s day.\n\n \u201cI have not, at present, the least idea that I am called to quit my\n post here. I see no probability of being useful in Switzerland. My\n call is here; I am sure of it. If I undertook the journey, it would be\n merely to accompany you. I dare not gratify friendship by taking such\n a step. I have no faith in the prescriptions of your physician; and I\n think if health be better for us than sickness, we may enjoy it as\n well here as in France or Italy. If sickness be best for us, why shun\n it? Everything is good when it comes from God. Nothing but a baptism\n of fire and the most evident openings of Providence can engage me in\n such a journey. If I reject your obliging offer to procure me a\n substitute, attribute it to my fear of taking a false step, of\n quitting my post without command, and of engaging in a warfare to\n which the Lord does not call me.\u201d[375]\n\nFootnote 373:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 232.\n\nFootnote 374:\n\n The Rev. James Roquet, who, in 1775, had turned against his old friend\n Wesley respecting the rebellion in America.\n\nFootnote 375:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 234.\n\nA fortnight later, Fletcher wrote again to Mr. Ireland:\u2014\n\n \u201cMadeley, September 7, 1776. My dear friend, my health is better than\n when I wrote last. I have not yet preached; rather from a sense of\n duty to my friends, and high thoughts of the labours of Mr. Greaves\n (who does the work of an evangelist to better purpose than I), than to\n spare myself; for, if I am not mistaken, I am as able to do my work\n now as I was a year ago.\n\n \u201cA fortnight ago, I paid a visit to West Bromwich. I ran away from the\n kindness of my parishioners, who oppressed me with tokens of their\n love. To me there is nothing so extremely trying as excessive\n kindness. I am of the king\u2019s mind when the people showed their love to\n him on his journey to Portsmouth: \u2018I can bear,\u2019 he said, \u2018the hissings\n of a London mob, but these shouts of joy are too much for me.\u2019 You, my\n dear friend, Mrs. Ireland, Mrs. Norman, and all your family, have put\n me to that severe trial, to which all trials caused by the hard words\n that have been spoken against me are nothing.\n\n \u201cAt our age, a recovery can be but a short reprieve. Let us then give\n up ourselves daily to the Lord, as people who have no confidence in\n the flesh, and do not trust to to-morrow. I find my weakness,\n unprofitableness, and wretchedness daily more and more; and the more I\n find them, the more help I have to sink into self-abhorrence. Nor do I\n despair to sink so in it as to die to self and revive in my God.\u201d[376]\n\nFootnote 376:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 236.\n\nFletcher began to hope that he would soon be able to resume his work. To\nCharles Wesley he wrote as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _September 15, 1776_.\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014I lately consulted a pious gentleman, near\n Lichfield, famous for his skill in the disorders of the breast. He\n assured me I am in no immediate danger of a consumption of the lungs;\n and that my disorder is upon the nerves, in consequence of too close\n thinking. He permitted me to write and preach in moderation; and gave\n me medicines, which, I think, are of service in taking off my feverish\n heats. My spitting of blood is stopped, and I may yet be spared to\n travel with you as an invalid.\n\n \u201cIf God adds one inch to my span I see my calling. I desire to know\n nothing but Christ, and Him crucified, revealed in the Spirit. I long\n to feel the _utmost power_ of the Spirit\u2019s dispensation, and I will\n endeavour to bear my testimony to the glory of that dispensation both\n with my pen and tongue. Some of our injudicious or inattentive friends\n will probably charge me with _novelty_ for it; but, be that as it\n will, let us meekly stand for the truth as it is in Jesus, and trust\n the Lord for everything. I thank God I feel so dead to popular\n applause that, I trust, I should not be afraid to maintain a truth\n against all the world; and yet I dread to dissent from any child of\n God, and feel ready to condescend to every one. O what depths of\n humble love, and what heights of Gospel truth, do I sometimes see! I\n want to sink into the former and rise into the latter. Help me by your\n example, letters, and prayers.\u201d[377]\n\nFootnote 377:\n\n _Ibid_, p. 237.\n\nAt the same period of time, Fletcher wrote to Joseph Benson, giving him\nan account of the state of his health and of his literary projects.\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014Your kind letter has followed me from Bristol\n to Madeley, where I have been for some weeks. My health is better than\n it was in August, but it is far from being established. Close thinking\n and writing had brought upon me a slow fever, with a cough and\n spitting of blood, which a physician took for symptoms of a\n consumption of the lungs; whereas they were only symptoms of a\n consumption of the nerves and solids. He put me accordingly upon the\n lowest diet, and had me blooded four times, which made much against\n me. I am, however, greatly recovered since I have begun to eat meat\n again. My cough and spitting of blood have left me, but want of sleep\n and a slow fever keep me still very low. If the Lord pleases, He can\n in a moment restore my strength; but He needs not a worm. I thank Him\n for having kept me perfectly resigned to His will, and calm in the\n awful scene which I have passed through.\n\n \u201cI design to conclude my last controversial piece as I shall be able,\n and hope it will give my friends some satisfaction; because it will\n show the cause of all our doctrinal errors, and will place the\n doctrine of election and reprobation upon its proper basis. I finish\n also my essay on the \u2018Dispensation of the Spirit,\u2019[378] which is the\n thing I want most to see your thoughts upon. Pray for light and power,\n truth and love; and impart to me a share of your experiences, to\n quicken my dulness of apprehension and feeling. If God spare me a\n little, it will be to bear my testimony to the doctrine of perfect\n spiritual Christianity. May we be personal witnesses of this glorious\n dispensation, and be so inflamed with love as to kindle all around us.\n\n \u201cGive my kind love and thanks to all enquiring friends. If I live over\n the winter, I shall, should Providence open the way, visit you all\u201d\n [at Newcastle-on-Tyne], \u201cand assure you that I am in Christ your\n affectionate brother and servant.\u201d[379]\n\nFootnote 378:\n\n This essay was not published separately, but was probably embodied in\n the \u201cPortrait of St. Paul,\u201d to be noticed anon.\n\nFootnote 379:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nThree weeks after the date of these letters, poor Fletcher\u2019s hope of\nrecovery was terribly shaken. On October 5, 1776, his disorder\nunexpectedly and violently returned, and his friends around him thought\nhe was about to die. Some one, perhaps his curate, Mr. Greaves,\nimmediately improvised a beautiful hymn, which was sung, by a distressed\ncongregation, in Madeley church, on the following day, Friday, October\n6. The hymn is too full of affection and piety to be omitted. It was as\nfollows:\u2014\n\n \u201cO Thou, before whose gracious throne\n We bow our suppliant spirits down,\n View the sad breast and streaming eye,\n And let our sorrows pierce the sky.\n\n \u201cThou know\u2019st the anxious cares we feel,\n And all our trembling lips would tell;\n Thou only canst assuage our grief,\n And yield our woe-fraught hearts relief.\n\n \u201cThough we have sinned, and justly dread\n The vengeance hovering o\u2019er our head,\n Yet, Power benign! Thy servant spare,\n Nor turn aside Thy people\u2019s prayer.\n\n \u201cAvert the swift-descending stroke,\n Nor smite the shepherd of the flock;\n Lest o\u2019er the barren waste we stray,\n To prowling wolves an easy prey.\n\n \u201cRestore him, sinking to the grave;\n Stretch out Thy arm, make haste to save;\n Back to our hopes and wishes give,\n And bid our friend and father live.\n\n \u201cBound to each soul with sacred ties,\n In every breast his image lies;\n Thy pitying aid, O God, impart,\n Nor rend him from each bleeding heart.\n\n \u201cYet, if our supplications fail,\n And prayers and tears cannot prevail,\n Condemned, on this dark desert coast,\n To mourn our much-loved leader lost,\u2014\n\n \u201cBe Thou his strength, be Thou his stay,\n Support him through the gloomy way;\n Comfort his soul, surround his bed,\n And guide him through the dreary shade.\n\n \u201cAround him may Thy angels wait,\n Deck\u2019d with their robes of heavenly state,\n To teach his happy soul to rise,\n And waft him to his native skies.\u201d[380]\n\nFootnote 380:\n\n _The Local Preacher\u2019s Magazine_, 1852, p. 113.\n\nAs soon as possible, Wesley made his way to Madeley, and escorted\nFletcher to London. On November 13, they set out for Norwich, and nine\ndays afterwards Wesley wrote, \u201cI brought Mr. Fletcher back to London\nconsiderably better than when he set out.\u201d Among other places, they\nvisited Lowestoft, where Wesley opened the new Preaching-house, and\nwhere Fletcher preached on Wednesday morning, November 20.[381] Whilst\nhere, he wrote the following to Mr. Benson:\u2014\n\n \u201cLOWESTOFT, _November 21, 1776_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014Mr. Wesley having invited me to travel with him, to\n see if change of air and motion will be a means of restoring me to a\n share of my former health, I have accompanied him through Oxfordshire,\n Northamptonshire, and Norfolk; and I hope I am rather better than\n worse. I find it good to be with this extraordinary servant of God. I\n think his diligence and wisdom are matchless. It is a good school for\n me, only I am too old a scholar to make proficiency. However, let us\n live to God to-day, and trust Him for to-morrow; so that, whether we\n are laid up in a sick bed or a damp grave, or whether we are yet able\n to act, we may be able to say,\n\n \u201c\u2018God is the sea of love,\n Where all my pleasures roll,\n The circle where my passions move,\n And centre of my soul.\u2019\u201d[382]\n\nFootnote 381:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\nFootnote 382:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nAnother characteristic letter must be introduced. Certain good\nMethodists at Hull and York having invited him, when able, to visit the\ngreat Methodist county, Fletcher wrote to them as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cTo Messrs. Hare, Terry, Fox, and Good, at Hull;\u2014and Messrs. Preston,\n Simpson, and Ramsden, at York.\n\n \u201cLONDON, _November 12, 1776_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BRETHREN,\u2014I thank you for your kind letters and invitations\n to visit you, and the brethren about you. I have often found an\n attraction in Yorkshire. My desire was indeed a little selfish; I\n wanted to improve by the conversation of my unknown brethren. If God\n bids me be strong again, I shall be glad to try if He will be pleased\n to comfort us by the mutual faith both of you and me. My desire is,\n that Christ may be glorified both in my life and death. If I have any\n desire to live at any time, it is principally to be a witness, in word\n and deed, of the dispensation of _power from on high_; and to point\n out that kingdom which does not consist in word, but in _power_, even\n in _righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost_, the _Spirit of\n power_. I am writing an Essay upon that important part of the\n Christian doctrine.\n\n \u201cShould I be spared to visit you, the keep of a horse, and the poor\n rider, will be all the burden I should lay on you; and that will be\n more than my Heavenly Master indulged Himself in. I am just setting\n out for Norwich with Mr. Wesley, whose renewed strength and immense\n labours astonish me. What a pattern for preachers! His redeeming the\n time is, if I mistake not, matchless.\n\n \u201cShould I never have the pleasure of thanking you in person for your\n brotherly regard, I beg you will endeavour to meet me in the kingdom\n of our Father, where distance of time and place is lost in the fulness\n of Him who is _all in all_. The way ye know,\u2014the penitential way of a\n heart-felt faith working by obedient love.\u201d[383]\n\nFootnote 383:\n\n _Methodist Magazine_, 1801, p. 43.\n\nEarly in the month of December, Fletcher visited Mr. Gorham, at St.\nNeots. One of his inducements to undertake this journey was to have an\nopportunity of conversing with Berridge, Vicar of Everton, and with\nHenry Venn, who, a few years before, had left Huddersfield, and settled\nin a small country village, as Rector of Yelling. Mr. Gorham\u2019s son\naccompanied Fletcher to Everton. Sixteen years had elapsed since\nFletcher\u2019s former visit there; and, during that interval, Berridge had\npublished his \u201cChristian World Unmasked;\u201d and Fletcher had severely\nhandled its Calvinian doctrines in his \u201cFifth Check to Antinomianism;\u201d\nbut there was no room for malice in Christian hearts like theirs. The\ninstant Fletcher entered the parsonage at Everton, Berridge rose up, ran\nto meet him, embraced him with folded arms, and cried, \u201cMy dear brother,\nhow could we write against each other, when we both aim at the same\nthing\u2014the glory of God, and the good of souls! My book lies quietly on\nthe shelf,\u2014and there let it lie.\u201d For two hours, the loving polemics had\nan unbroken conversation; when Berridge said, \u201cWe must not part without\npraying.\u201d Down they fell upon their knees. Full of the great truth then\noccupying his mind, and which probably had been the chief subject of\nconversation with his friend, Fletcher began to pray for an effusion of\nthe Spirit, and for greater degrees of sanctification and usefulness.\nBerridge followed, with a prayer full of love and faith. The two seemed\nas if it were impossible to separate; and Fletcher had to be _torn_\naway, to keep an appointment, at St. Neots, with the Rector of Yelling.\nVenn was charmed with Fletcher, and became so absorbed in the\nconversation, that Fletcher had to remind him, playfully, of the meal\nbefore him. A year afterwards, they met again, at Bristol, lodged\ntogether for six weeks in the same house, and Venn, on his return to\nYelling, declared, from his pulpit, that Fletcher was \u201clike an angel on\nearth.\u201d\n\nNotwithstanding considerable opposition, Fletcher was permitted to\npreach once in St. Neots Church, and took, as his text, \u201cWe love Him,\nbecause He first loved us.\u201d Many hung upon the lips of the preacher; but\nthree or four of his hearers, in great dudgeon, left before his sermon\nwas ended. \u201cI will not be tedious,\u201d cried Fletcher, as the discontented\nwere retreating, \u201cbut oh that I might persuade you to love Him, who\nfirst loved us!\u201d About thirty of his congregation followed him to his\nlodgings, where, at their request, he preached again, most of those that\nwere present being powerfully affected.\n\nConsidering the state of his health, this preaching exercise was hardly\nprudent; but Fletcher had less regard for his health than for what he\nconceived to be his duty. The season was the depth of winter; but he\nmaintained his accustomed early rising. One morning, before four\no\u2019clock, Mr. Gorham stole gently into his chamber, and kindled his fire.\nThe crackling of the wood awoke him; and, instantly, showing the frame\nof mind in which he habitually lived, whether awake or asleep, he cried,\n\u201cIs it you, my kind host, with your candle and fire? May the Lord light\nthe candle of faith and the fire of love in our hearts!\u201d When nearly\nfifty years had elapsed, Mr. Gorham said, \u201cI have never forgotten this\nsalutation; and often do I step into the room, and look at the spot\nwhere I received the dear saint\u2019s thanks, and heard his prayer.\u201d[384]\n\nFootnote 384:\n\n Appendix to Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nAt this time, there resided at the suburban village of Stoke Newington a\ngentleman who must have a brief notice. His father, James Greenwood, was\none of the earliest members of the Methodist Society, at the Foundery,\nLondon; and he himself was one of the first trustees of Wesley\u2019s chapel,\nin City Road. He had a lucrative business, as an upholsterer, in Rood\nLane and Fenchurch Street; and died, at the age of fifty-six, in 1783,\nhis remains being put into one of the early-dug graves in the burial\nground of City Road Chapel.[385] Wesley\u2019s mention of his death is worth\nquoting:\u2014\n\n \u201c_1783, February 21._\u2014To-day Charles Greenwood went to rest. He had\n been a melancholy man all his days, full of doubts and fears, and\n continually writing bitter things against himself. When he was first\n taken ill, he said he should die, and was miserable through fear of\n death; but, two days before he died, the clouds dispersed, and he was\n unspeakably happy, telling his friends, \u2018God has revealed to me things\n which it is impossible for man to utter.\u2019 Just when he died, such\n glory filled the room, that it seemed to be a little heaven; none\n could grieve or shed a tear, but all present appeared to be partakers\n of his joy.\u201d[386]\n\nFootnote 385:\n\n Stevenson\u2019s \u201cCity Road Chapel.\u201d\n\nFootnote 386:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\nIn the necrology of the Methodists, there are but few brighter death-bed\nscenes than that of Charles Greenwood, of Stoke Newington.[387]\n\nFootnote 387:\n\n See an account of it in the _Arminian Magazine_ for 1783.\n\nOn his return from St. Neots, on December 16, Fletcher took up his\nresidence in the house of this worthy man. Wesley disapproved of this,\nand wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cI verily believe, if Mr. Fletcher had travelled with me, partly in\n the chaise, and partly on horseback, only a few months longer, he\n would quite have recovered his health. But this those about him would\n not permit: so being detained in London by his kind but injudicious\n friends, while I pursued my journeys, his spitting of blood, with all\n the other symptoms, returned, and rapidly increased, till the\n physicians pronounced him to be far advanced in a true, pulmonary\n consumption.\u201d[388]\n\nFootnote 388:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nFletcher continued to reside with Mr. Greenwood till about the beginning\nof the month of May, 1777; but, before proceeding to that year, extracts\nmust be given from a remarkable letter, which he wrote \u201cto the\nparishioners of Madeley.\u201d This was one of his last efforts in the year\n1776:\u2014\n\n \u201cNEWINGTON, _December 28, 1776_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR PARISHIONERS,\u2014I hoped to have spent the Christmas holidays\n with you, and to have ministered to you in holy things; but the\n weakness of my body confining me here, I humbly submit to the Divine\n dispensation. I ease the trouble of my absence by reflecting on the\n pleasure I have felt, in years past, while singing with you, \u2018Unto us\n a child is born, unto us a Son is given.\u2019 This truth is as true now as\n it was then. Let us receive it with all readiness, and it will unite\n us.\n\n \u201cIn order to this, may the eye of your understanding be more and more\n opened to see your need of a Redeemer; and to behold the suitableness,\n freeness, and fulness of the redemption, which was wrought out by the\n Son of God, and which is applied by the Spirit through faith! The wish\n which glows in my soul is so ardent and powerful, that it brings me\n down on my knees, while I write, and, in that supplicating posture, I\n entreat you all to consider and improve the day of your visitation,\n and to prepare, in good earnest, to meet, with joy, your God and your\n unworthy pastor in another world. I beseech you, by all the\n ministerial and providential calls you have had for these seventeen\n years, harden not your hearts. Let the longsuffering of God towards\n us, who survive the hundreds I have buried, lead us all to repentance.\n Dismiss your sins, and embrace Jesus Christ, who wept for you in the\n manger, bled for you in Gethsemane, hung for you on the cross, and now\n pleads for you on His mediatorial throne. By all that is dear to you,\n meet me not on the great day in your sins, enemies to Christ by\n _unbelief_, and to God by _wicked works_.\n\n \u201cThe sum of all I have preached to you is contained in four\n propositions. First, heartily repent of your sins, original and\n actual. Secondly, believe the Gospel of Christ in sincerity and truth.\n Thirdly, in the power which true faith gives, run the way of God\u2019s\n commandments before God and men. Fourthly, by continuing to take up\n your cross, and to receive the pure milk of God\u2019s word, grow in grace,\n and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.\n\n \u201cShould God bid me stay on earth a little longer, and should He renew\n my strength to do among you the work of a pastor, I hope I shall prove\n a more humble, zealous, and diligent minister than I have hitherto\n been. Some of you have supposed that I made more ado about eternity\n and your precious souls than they were worth; but how great was your\n mistake. Alas! it is my grief and shame that I have not been, both in\n public and private, a thousand times more earnest and importunate with\n you about your spiritual concerns. Pardon me, my dear friends,\u2014pardon\n me my ignorances and negligences in this respect. And as I most humbly\n ask your forgiveness, so I most heartily forgive any of you, who may,\n at any time, have made no account of my little labours.\n\n \u201cThe more nearly I consider death and the grave, judgment and\n eternity, the more I feel that I have preached to you the truth, and\n that the truth is solid as the rock of ages. Although I hope to see\n much more of the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living than I\n do see, yet, blessed be the Divine mercy! I see enough to keep my mind\n at all times unruffled, and to make me willing calmly to resign my\n soul into the hands of my faithful Creator, my loving Redeemer, and my\n sanctifying Comforter, _this moment_, or _the next_, if He calls for\n it. I desire your public thanks for all the favours He showeth me\n continually, with respect to both my soul and body. Help me to be\n thankful; for it is a _pleasant thing_ to be thankful. Permit me also\n to bespeak an interest in your prayers. Ask that my faith may be\n willing to receive _all_ that God\u2019s grace is willing to bestow. Ask\n that I may _meekly_ suffer, and _zealously_ do all the will of God;\n and that, living or dying, I may say, with the witness of God\u2019s\n Spirit, \u2018For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.\u2019\n\n \u201cIf God calls me from earth, I beg He may appoint a more faithful\n shepherd over you. You need not fear that He will not: you see that,\n for these many months, you have not only had no famine of the word,\n but the richest plenty; and what God has done for months, He can do\n for years; yea, for all the years of your life. Only pray; \u2018ask and\n you shall receive.\u2019 Meet me at the throne of grace, and you shall meet\n at the throne of glory your affectionate, obliged, and unworthy\n minister,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[389]\n\nFootnote 389:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 21.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XX.\n _PUBLICATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE IN\n 1777._\n\n\nIN the year 1777, Fletcher terminated his controversy with the\nCalvinists. He wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cTo the best of my knowledge, I have not fixed one consequence upon\n the principles of my opponents, which does not fairly and necessarily\n flow from their doctrine. And I have endeavoured to do justice to\n their piety, declaring, again and again, my full persuasion that they\n abhor such consequences.\u201d\n\nHis publications, in 1777, were the following:\u2014\n\n1. \u201cThe Doctrines of Grace and Justice equally essential to the pure\nGospel: Being some Remarks on the mischievous divisions caused among\nChristians, by parting those doctrines. Being an Introduction to a Plan\nof Reconciliation between the Defenders of the Doctrines of _Partial\nGrace_, commonly called _Calvinists_; and the Defenders of the Doctrines\nof _Impartial Justice_, commonly called _Arminians_. By John Fletcher,\nVicar of Madeley, Salop. London: Printed by R. Hawes, 1777.\u201d 12mo, 39\npp.\n\nIt is needless to furnish an outline of this able pamphlet, inasmuch as\nthe doctrines it enforces and the doctrines it condemns are\nsubstantially the same as have been repeatedly introduced to the\nreader\u2019s notice. There is one statement, however, which Fletcher\u2019s\nadmirers have generally overlooked, but which proves, beyond\ncontroversy, that Fletcher was, what is now-a-days called, a\nMillenarian. After dwelling on what he designates the \u201cfour\ndispensations,\u201d namely, \u201cGentilism,\u201d \u201cJudaism,\u201d \u201cthe Gospel of John the\nBaptist,\u201d and \u201cthe perfect Gospel of Christ,\u201d which \u201cis Gentilism,\nJudaism, and the Baptism of John, arrived at their full maturity,\u201d he\nproceeds to argue that \u201canother Gospel dispensation\u201d is yet to come.\nHence the following:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn the Psalms, Prophets, Acts, Epistles, and especially in the\n Revelation, we have a variety of promises, that, \u2018in the day of His\u2019\n displayed \u2018power,\u2019 Christ will \u2018come in His glory, to judge among the\n heathen, to wound even kings in the day of His wrath, to root up the\n wicked, to fill the places with their dead bodies, to smite in sunder\u2019\n antichrist, and \u2018the heads over divers countries,\u2019 and to \u2018lift up\n His\u2019 triumphant \u2018head\u2019 on this very earth, where He once \u2018bowed His\u2019\n wounded \u2018head, and gave up the ghost.\u2019 Compare Psalm cx. with Acts i.\n 11, 2 Thess. i. 10, Rev. xix., etc. In that great day, another Gospel\n dispensation shall take place. We have it now in prophecy, as the Jews\n had the Gospel of Christ\u2019s first advent; but when Christ shall \u2018come\n to destroy the wicked, to be\u2019 actually \u2018glorified in His saints, and\n admired in all them that believe,\u2014in that day,\u2019 ministers of the\n Gospel shall no more prophesy, but, speaking a plain historical truth,\n they shall lift up their voices as \u2018the voice of many waters and\n mighty thunderings, saying, Allelujah! for the Lord God Omnipotent\n reigneth; the marriage of the Lamb is come; His wife, the church of\n the first-born, has made herself ready; blessed and holy is he that\n hath part in the first resurrection; he reigns with Christ a thousand\n years\u2019 (Rev. xix. 20). \u2018Blessed are the meek, for they do inherit the\n earth\u2019 (Matt. x. 5). \u2018The times of refreshing are come; and He has\n sent Jesus Christ, who before was preached unto you, whom the heavens\n did receive\u2019 till this solemn season; but now are come \u2018the times of\n restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all\n His holy prophets since the world began\u2019 (Acts iii. 19, etc.) May the\n Lord hasten this Gospel dispensation! and, till it take place, may,\n \u2018the Spirit and the bride say, Come!\u2019\u201d\n\nIt must be granted that this is but remotely related to the Calvinian\ncontroversy; but, in a Life of Fletcher, it is too interesting to be\nomitted.\n\n2. Fletcher\u2019s second publication, in 1777, was a composite one, and\nembraced, First, \u201cBible Arminianism and Bible Calvinism: A two-fold\nEssay,\u2014Part the First displaying the doctrines of Partial Grace, Part\nthe Second, those of Impartial Justice.\u201d 12mo., 84 pp. Secondly, \u201cThe\nReconciliation; or, an Easy Method to unite the professing People of\nGod, by placing the Doctrines of Grace and Justice in such a light as to\nmake candid _Arminians_ Bible-Calvinists; and the candid Calvinists,\nBible-Arminians.\u201d 12mo, 85 pp. Thirdly, to these was appended, \u201cThe\n_Plan_ of Reconciliation,\u201d the whole making a small 12mo volume of 187\npages. The pamphlets were dedicated to his friend \u201cJames Ireland, Esq.,\nof Brislington, near Bristol,\u201d as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cDEAR SIR,\u2014To whom could a plan of reconciliation between the\n Calvinists and Arminians be more properly dedicated, than to a son of\n peace, whose heart, hand, and house are open to Calvinists, Arminians,\n and neuters? You kindly receive the divines who contend for the\n doctrines of grace; and I want words to describe the Christian\n courtesy which you show me and other ministers who make a stand for\n the doctrines of justice. To you I am indebted for the honour of a\n friendly interview with the author[390] of the \u2018Circular Letter,\u2019\n which I thought myself obliged to oppose; and, as you succeeded in\n that labour of love, it is natural for me to hope that by your\n influence, and by the patronage of such candid, generous peacemakers\n as the gentleman\u201d (John Thornton, Esq.) \u201cto whom I have often compared\n you, these reconciling sheets will be perused by some with more\n attention than if they had no name prefixed to them but that of your\n most obliged, affectionate friend and servant,\n\n J. FLETCHER.\n\n \u201cNEWINGTON, _April 16, 1777_.\u201d\n\nFootnote 390:\n\n The Rev. Walter Shirley.\n\nIt is a well-known fact that men like Romaine were often the guests of\nMr. Ireland; and that Berridge, Venn, and others of the same way of\nthinking were always welcome guests in the mansion of Mr. Thornton.\nBoth, however, were large-hearted men, and wherever they met with\nundoubted piety, whether in a Calvinist or an Arminian brother, they\nwere thankful and glad.\n\nNo record of the \u201cfriendly interview\u201d between Fletcher and Walter\nShirley now exists; but, bearing in mind the position which Mr. Shirley\noccupied, there cannot be a doubt that the result of their \u201cinterview\u201d\nwould be considerable, and in harmony with the object at which Fletcher\nwas now strenuously aiming.\n\nThe task which Fletcher undertook was arduous, and he knew it. He\nwrites:\u2014\n\n \u201cSome persons will urge that truth should never be sacrificed to love\n and peace; that the Calvinists and the Arminians holding doctrines\n diametrically opposite, one party, at least, must be totally in the\n wrong; and, as the other party ought not to be reconciled to error,\n the agreement, I propose, is impossible: it will never take place,\n unless the Calvinists can be prevailed upon to give up unconditional\n election, and their favourite doctrines of partial grace; or the\n Arminians can be persuaded to part with conditional election, and\n their favourite doctrines of impartial justice; and as this is too\n great a sacrifice to be expected from either party, it is in vain to\n attempt bringing about a reconciliation between them.\n\n \u201cThis objection is weighty; but, far from discouraging me, it affords\n me an opportunity of laying before my readers the ground of the hope I\n entertain, to reconcile the Calvinists and the Arminians. I should,\n indeed, utterly despair of effecting it, were I obliged to prove that\n either party is entirely in the wrong; but I expect some success,\n because my grand design is to demonstrate that both parties have an\n important truth on their side.\u201d\n\nFletcher proceeds to give his own view on the Calvinian side of the\nquestion, as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe partial election and reprobation of free grace is the gracious\n and wise choice which God, as a sovereign and arbitrary Benefactor,\n makes or refuses to make of some persons, churches, cities, and\n nations, to bestow upon them, for His own mercy\u2019s sake, more favours\n than He does upon others. It is the partiality with which He imparts\n His talents of nature, providence, and grace, to His creatures or\n servants; giving five talents to some, two to others, and one to\n others; not only without respect to their works, or acquired\n worthiness of any sort, but frequently in opposition to all personal\n demerit.\u201d\n\nThis admirable definition of a sound doctrine is sustained by references\nto Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and other Old Testament personages;\nalso to the cities of Jerusalem, Chorazin, and Bethsaida; to the\ncountries of Egypt, Judea, Syria, and England, etc.\n\nThen, turning to the Arminian side of the controversy, Fletcher gives\nthe following equally correct definition:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe impartial election and reprobation of justice is the righteous\n and wise choice which God, as an equitable and unbribed Judge, makes,\n or refuses to make, of some persons, churches, cities, and nations,\n judicially to bestow upon them, for Christ\u2019s sake, gracious rewards,\n according to His evangelical promises; or judicially to inflict upon\n them, for righteousness\u2019 sake, condign punishments, according to His\n reasonable threatenings.\u201d\n\nThis definition is also supported by a large number of Scripture\nexamples, showing Fletcher\u2019s perfect knowledge of the holy books. He\nthen writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cRigid Calvinists and rigid Arminians are both in the wrong; the\n former in obscuring the doctrines of impartial justice, and the latter\n in clouding the doctrines of partial grace. But moderate Calvinists\n and candid Arminians are very near each other, and very near the\n truth; the difference there is between them being more owing to\n confusion, want of proper explanation, and misapprehension of each\n other\u2019s sentiments, than to any real, inimical opposition to the\n truth, or to one another.\u201d\n\nFletcher next propounds his \u201cPlan of Reconciliation.\u201d\n\nFirst of all, he adduces the well-known plan of union, which Wesley,\nthirteen years before, had ineffectually proposed to the evangelical\nclergymen of the Church of England, including Romaine, Shirley, Newton,\nVenn, and Berridge; after which he proceeds to observe:\u2014\n\n \u201cI do not see why such a plan might not be, in some degree, admitted\n by all the ministers of the Gospel, whether they belong to or dissent\n from the Establishment. I would extend my brotherly love to all\n Christians in general, but more particularly to all Protestants, and\n most particularly to all the Protestants of the Established Church;\n but God forbid that I should exclude from my brotherly affection, and\n occasional assistance, any true minister of Christ, because he casts\n the Gospel net among the Presbyterians, the Independents, the Quakers,\n or the Baptists! So far as they cordially aim at the conversion of\n sinners, I will offer them the right hand of fellowship, and\n communicate with them in spirit. Might not good men and sincere\n ministers form themselves into a Society of reconcilers, whatever be\n their denomination and mode of worship? There is a Society for\n promoting religious knowledge among the poor; some of its members are\n Churchmen and others Dissenters; some are Calvinists and others\n Arminians; and yet it flourishes, and the design of it is happily\n answered. Might not such a Society be formed for promoting peace and\n love among professors? Is not charity preferable to knowledge? There\n is another respectable Society for promoting the Christian faith among\n the heathen; and why should there not be a Society for promoting\n unanimity and toleration among Christians? Ought not the welfare of\n our fellow-Christians to lie as near our hearts as that of the\n heathen?\n\n \u201cMany gentlemen, some laymen and others clergymen, some Churchmen and\n others Dissenters, wanted lately to procure the repeal of our articles\n of religion. Notwithstanding the diversity of their employments,\n principles, and denominations, they united, wrote circular letters,\n drew up petitions, and used all their interest with men in power to\n bring about their design. Again, some warm men thought it proper to\n blow up the fire of discontent in the breasts of our American\n fellow-subjects. How did they go about the dangerous work? With what\n ardour did they speak and write, preach and print, fast and pray,\n publish manifestoes and make them circulate, associate and strengthen\n their associations, and at last venture their fortunes, reputations,\n and lives, in the execution of their warlike project! Go, ye men of\n peace, and do at least half as much to carry on your friendly design.\n Associate, pray, preach, and print for the furtherance of peace.\n\n \u201cMight not moderate Calvinists send, with success, circular letters to\n their rigid Calvinian brethren; and moderate Arminians to their rigid\n Arminian brethren, to check rashness and recommend meekness,\n moderation, and love? Might not the Calvinist ministers who patronise\n the doctrines of grace display also the doctrines of justice, and open\n their pulpits to those Arminian ministers who do it with caution? And\n might not the Arminian ministers, who patronise the doctrines of\n justice, make more of the doctrines of grace, preach as nearly as they\n can like the judicious Calvinists, admit them into their pulpits, and\n rejoice at every opportunity of showing them their esteem and\n confidence? Might not such moderate Calvinists and Arminians as live\n in the same towns, have from time to time a general sacrament, and\n invite one another to it, to cement brotherly love by publicly\n confessing the same Christ, by jointly taking Him for their common\n head, and by acknowledging one another as fellow-members of His\n mystical body?\n\n \u201cThe sin of the want of union with our pious Calvinian or Arminian\n brethren is attended with peculiar aggravations. We are not only\n fellow-creatures, but fellow-subjects, fellow-Christians,\n fellow-Protestants, and fellow-sufferers, in reputation at least, for\n maintaining the capital doctrines of salvation by faith in Christ, and\n of regeneration by the Spirit of God. How absurd is it for persons,\n who thus share in the reproach, patience, and kingdom of Christ, to\n embitter each other\u2019s comforts, and add to the load of contempt, which\n the men of the world cast upon them! Let Pagans, Mahometans, Jews,\n Papists, and Deists do this work. We may reasonably expect it from\n them. But for such Calvinists and Arminians as the world lumps\n together under the name of Methodists, on account of their peculiar\n profession of godliness,\u2014for such companions in tribulation to \u2018bite\n and devour\u2019 each other is highly unreasonable and peculiarly\n scandalous.\u201d\n\nIn such a spirit did the Arminian polemic address his Calvinian\nopponents. The following is extracted from his concluding remarks:\u2014\n\n \u201cGod is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of\n Jesus Christ, in whom there is neither Greek nor Jew, neither bond nor\n free, neither Calvinist nor Arminian, but Christ is all in all. Grant\n me my humble, perhaps my dying request, reject not my plea for peace.\n If it be not strong, it is earnest; for, considering my bodily\n weakness, I write it at the hazard of my life: _animamque in vulnere\n pono_.\n\n \u201cBut why should I drop a hint about so insignificant a life, when I\n can move you to accept of terms of reconciliation by the life and\n death, by the resurrection and ascension, of our Lord Jesus Christ. I\n recall the frivolous hint; and, by the unknown agonies of Him whom you\n love, by His second coming, and by our gathering together unto Him, I\n beseech you, put on, as the Protestant \u2018elect of God, bowels of\n mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering,\n forbearing one another, and forgiving one another; even as Christ\n loved and forgave you, so do ye.\u2019 Instead of absurdly charging one\n another with heresy, embrace one another, and triumph together in\n Christ. Bless God, ye Arminians, for raising such men as the pious\n Calvinists, to make a firm stand against Pharisaic delusions, and to\n maintain, with you, the doctrine of man\u2019s fallen state, and of God\u2019s\n partial grace, which the Pelagians attack with all their might. And,\n ye Calvinists, rejoice that heaven has raised you such allies as the\n godly Arminians, to oppose Manichean delusions, and to contend for the\n doctrines of holiness and justice, which the Antinomians seem sworn to\n destroy. Pharisaism will never yield but to the power of\n Bible-Calvinism and the doctrines of grace. Nor can Antinomianism be\n conquered without the help of Bible-Arminianism and the doctrines of\n justice. When Pharisaism and Antinomianism shall be destroyed, the\n Church will be sanctified, and ready to be presented to Christ a\n glorious Church, \u2018not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.\u2019\n Then shall we sing with truth what we now sing without propriety,\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018Love, like death, has all destroy\u2019d,\n Render\u2019d all distinctions void;\n Names, and sects, and parties fall,\n Thou, O Christ, art all in all.\u2019\u201d\n\nNothing more need be said respecting Fletcher\u2019s praiseworthy effort to\nput an end to the contentions then so rampant. No doubt, his object, to\nsome extent, was realized; but, for many a long year afterwards, not a\nfew of the Calvinists and Arminians bore a striking resemblance to the\nancient Jews and Samaritans. They worshipped the same God, but did not\nlove each other.\n\nFletcher spent four months, from December 16, 1776, to April 16, 1777,\nin the hospitable home of his Methodist friends, Mr. and Mrs. Charles\nGreenwood, at Stoke Newington; and never did he forget their remarkable\nkindness to him. Here he wrote a long pastoral letter to his\nparishioners on December 28, 1776; and, sixteen days afterwards,\nanother, from which the following extracts are taken:\u2014\n\n \u201cNEWINGTON, _January 13, 1777_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR COMPANIONS IN TRIBULATION,\u2014All the children of God I love;\n but, of all the children of God, none have so great a right to my love\n as you. Your stated or occasional attendance on my poor ministry, as\n well as the bonds of neighbourhood, and the many happy hours I have\n spent with you before the throne of grace, endear you peculiarly to\n me.\n\n \u201cWith tears of grateful joy, I recollect the awful moments when we\n have bound ourselves to stand to our baptismal vow: to renounce all\n sin, to believe all the articles of the Christian faith, and to keep\n God\u2019s commandments to the end of our life. Asking pardon of God for\n not keeping that vow better, I determine, with new courage and\n delight, to love our _Covenant God_,[391] Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,\n with all my mind, heart, and strength; with all the powers of my\n understanding, will, and affections.\n\n \u201cIn my weak state of health, I find much comfort from my relation to\n my _Covenant God_: I mean (1) My clear, explicit knowledge of the\n Father as my Creator and Father; who so loved the world, you and me,\n as to give His only-begotten Son, that we should not perish, but have\n everlasting life. (2) I mean my relation to the adorable Person, who,\n with the strength of His Godhead, and the strength of His pure\n manhood, took away my sin. O how my soul exults in that dear Mediator!\n O the comfort of cleaving to Christ by faith, and of finding Christ is\n our all in all!\n\n \u201cI sometimes feel a desire of being buried where you are buried, and\n of having my bones lie in a common earthen bed with yours; but I soon\n resign that wish, and exult in thinking that, whatever distance there\n may be between our graves, we can now bury our sins, cares, doubts,\n and fears, in the one grave of our divine Saviour. If I, your poor\n unworthy shepherd, am smitten, be not scattered; but rather be more\n closely gathered unto Christ, and keep near each other in faith and\n love, till you all receive our second Comforter and Advocate, the Holy\n Ghost, the third Person in our _Covenant God_. He is with you; but, if\n you plead the promise of the Father, \u2018which,\u2019 says Christ, \u2018you have\n heard of me, He will be _in_ you.\u2019 He will fill your souls with His\n light, love, and glory, according to that verse, which we have so\n often sung together,\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018Refining fire, go through my heart,\n Illuminate my soul,\n Scatter thy life through every part,\n And sanctify the whole.\u2019\n\n \u201cThis indwelling of the Comforter perfects the mystery of\n sanctification in the believer\u2019s soul. This is the highest blessing of\n the Christian covenant on earth. Rejoicing in God our Creator, in God\n our Redeemer, let us look for the full comfort of God our Sanctifier.\n So shall we live and die in the faith, going on from faith to faith,\n from strength to strength, from comfort to comfort, till Christ is all\n in all to us all.\n\n \u201cI earnestly recommend to you my dear brother Greaves. Show him all\n the love you have shown to me, and, if possible, show him more, who is\n so much more deserving.\u201d[392]\n\nFootnote 391:\n\n Wesley had held, in London, the usual \u201cCovenant Service,\u201d on\n Wednesday, January 1st. Probably, Fletcher had attended it, and,\n perhaps, taken part in it.\n\nFootnote 392:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 30.\n\nThe letter from which these extracts are taken was forwarded to the care\nof Mr. Wase, who, probably, was a Methodist Local Preacher. Mr. Wase\nwished to be employed by the Church of England in America. Fletcher\ndisapproved of this. Hence the following to Mr. Wase, written on the\nsame day as the pastoral letter to the parishioners of Madeley. In fact,\nthe pastoral letter was appended to it.\n\n \u201cNEWINGTON, _January 13, 1777_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014I am two letters in your debt. I would have answered\n them before now, but, venturing to ride out in the frost, the air was\n too sharp for my weak lungs, and opened my wounds, which has thrown me\n back again.\n\n \u201cI am glad to see, by your last, that you take up your shield again.\n You will never prove a gainer by casting it away. Voluntary humility,\n despondency, or even a defeat, should never make you give up your\n confidence.\n\n \u201cTake no hasty steps about removing. Your family and estate seem to me\n to tie you where you are, unless you have a very striking call to\n remove. You must not be above being employed in a little way. The\n great Mr. Grimshaw\u201d (of Haworth) \u201cwas not above walking some miles to\n preach to seven or eight persons; and what are we when compared to\n him? Our neighbours will want you more when Mr. Greaves and I are\n gone. In the meantime, grow in meek, humble, patient, and resigned\n love; and your temper, person, and labours will be more acceptable to\n all around you. I saw last week a gentleman from America, who said,\n all the church-livings there are in the gift of the Governor; and\n those who get them are brought up at the American Colleges, and come\n over for ordination to the Bishop of London. Supposing the peace were\n made, and missionaries were wanted, you might be employed in America;\n but of the latter I see little prospect; and you need not seek trials\n beyond the seas, seeing yours at home are as much as you can stand\n under.\n\n \u201cI have many things to say to you about your soul; but you will find\n the substance of them in two of Mr. Wesley\u2019s sermons, the one\n entitled, \u2018The Devices of Satan,\u2019 and the other, \u2018The Repentance of\n Believers.\u2019 I wish you would read one of them every day, till you have\n reaped all the benefit that can be got from them. Nor eat your morsel\n alone, but let all be benefited by the contents.\n\n \u201cWhen you meet with our serious friends at Broseley, Madeley, Madeley\n Wood, the Dale, Dawley-Green, Wheater, Aston, Sheriff-Hales, and the\n two Banks, give my kindest love to them, and read them the following\n scrawl.[393]\n\n \u201cMy kind love to Mrs. Wase, and all your and my friends by name. Thank\n Michael Onions, and I. Owen; I shall answer their letters when I can,\n if God spare me.\n\n \u201cYour affectionate brother,\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[394]\n\nFootnote 393:\n\n The Pastoral letter already mentioned. The places here named were,\n probably, Fletcher\u2019s _Methodist_ Circuit, in each of which Methodist\n Societies had been formed.\n\nFootnote 394:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 23; and _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1846, p. 141.\n\nThe good \u201cArchbishop of Methodism,\u201d the Rev. Vincent Perronet, Vicar of\nShoreham, Kent, and his noble daughter, invited Fletcher to visit them;\nto whom Fletcher replied in the two following letters:\u2014\n\n \u201cNEWINGTON, _January 19, 1777_.\n\n \u201cDEAR FATHER IN CHRIST,\u2014I beg you to accept my multiplied thanks for\n your repeated favours. You have twice entertained me, a worthless\n stranger; and, not yet tired of the burden, you again kindly invite me\n to share in the comforts of your house and family. Kind Providence\n leaves me no room, at present, to hang a third burden upon you. The\n good air and accommodations here, and the nearness to a variety of\n helps, joined to the kindness of my friends and the weakness of my\n body, forbid me to remove at present. God reward your labour of love\n and fatherly offers! Should the Lord raise me up, I shall be better\n able to reap the benefit of your instructions, a pleasure which I\n promise myself some time, if the Lord pleases.\n\n \u201cI have of late thought much upon a method of reconciling the\n Calvinists and Arminians. I have seen some Calvinian ministers, who\n seem inclined to a plan of pacification. I wish I had strength enough\n to draw the sketch of it for you. I think the thing is by no means\n impracticable, if we would but look one another in the face, and pull\n together at the feet of Him \u2018who makes men to be of one mind in a\n house,\u2019 and who once made all believers to be of one soul in the\n Church. Let us pray, hope, wait, and be ready to promote the blessing\n of reconciliation; in which none could be more glad to second you,\n than, honoured and dear Sir, your affectionate, obliged son in the\n Gospel,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[395]\n\nFootnote 395:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 239.\n\nIn another letter, soon to be introduced, it will be seen that, among\nthe \u201cCalvinian ministers,\u201d whom Fletcher had seen, were the Rev. Walter\nShirley, the Rev. Rowland Hill, and the Rev. Dr. Peckwell.\n\nIn his letter to Miss Perronet, Fletcher dwells upon the great truth\nwhich then filled his mind and heart, and which was the chief topic of\nhis conversation with his friends,\u2014the mission of the Spirit, and His\nsanctifying work. It was written on the same day as the letter to her\nfather:\u2014\n\n \u201cNEWINGTON, _January 19, 1777_.\n\n \u201cDEAR MADAM,\u2014I thank you for your care and kind nursing of me when at\n Shoreham; and, especially, for the few lines with which you have\n favoured me. They are so much the more agreeable to me, as they treat\n of the one thing needful for the recovery of our souls,\u2014\u2018the spirit of\n power, of love, and of a sound mind;\u2019 together with our need of it,\n and the grand promise that this need shall be abundantly\n supplied,\u2014supplied by an outpouring of that \u2018Spirit of life in Christ\n Jesus, which makes us free from the law of sin and death.\u2019 May we\n hunger and thirst after righteousness in the Holy Ghost, and we shall\n be filled! May we so come to our first Paraclete, Advocate, and\n Comforter, as to receive the Second, as an _indwelling and overflowing\n fountain_ of light, life, and love!\n\n \u201cI trust my view of this mystery is scriptural. The Father so loved\n the world as to give us the first Advocate, Paraclete, and Comforter,\n whom we love and receive as our Redeemer. The first Advocate has told\n us, it was expedient that He should leave us, because, in that case,\n He would send another Advocate, Paraclete, or Comforter, to _abide\n with us_, and be _in us_ for ever, as our _Sanctifier_, our Urim and\n Thummim, _our lights and perfections_, our oracle and guide. This is\n the grand promise to Christians,\u2014called _the promise of the Father_,\n and brought by the Son. O may it be sealed on our hearts by _the\n Spirit of promise_! May we ever cry\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018Seal thou our breasts, and let us wear\n That pledge of love for ever there!\u2019\n\n \u201cThen shall we be filled with pure, perfect love; for the love of the\n Spirit perfects that of the Father and Son, and accomplishes the\n mystery of God in the believing soul.\n\n \u201cCome then, let us look for it; this great salvation draws nigh. Let\n us thank God more thankfully, more joyfully, more humbly, more\n penitently, for Christ our first Comforter; and, hanging on His word,\n let us ardently pray for the _fulness_ of His Spirit,\u2014for the\n indwelling of our second Comforter, who will lead us into all truth,\n all love, all power. Let us join the few who _besiege_ the throne of\n grace, and not cease putting the Lord in remembrance, till He has\n again raised Himself a _Pentecostal Church_ in the earth,\u2014I mean a\n church of such believers as are all of one heart and one soul.\u201d[396]\n\nFootnote 396:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 240.\n\nFletcher\u2019s friends were most ardently attached to him; and no wonder\nthat they were. The man seemed to be an incarnation of humble, loving\npiety. All, in his serious illness, were eager to help him. Ten days\nafter the date of his letters to Mr. and Miss Perronet, he wrote, as\nfollows, to Mr. Ireland:\u2014\n\n \u201cNEWINGTON, _January 29, 1777_.\n\n \u201cThanks be to God, and to my dear friend, for favours upon favours,\n for undeserved love and the most endearing tokens of it!\n\n \u201cI have received your obliging letters, full of kind offers; and your\n jar, full of excellent grapes. May God open to you the book of life,\n and seal upon your heart all the offers and promises it contains! May\n the treasures of Christ\u2019s love, and all the fruits of the Spirit, be\n open to my dear friend, and unwearied benefactor!\n\n \u201cLast Sunday, Providence sent me Dr. Turner, who, under God, saved my\n life, twenty-three years ago, in a dangerous illness; and I am\n inclined to try what _his_ method will do. He orders me asses\u2019 milk,\n chicken, etc.; forbids me riding, and recommends the greatest\n quietness. He prohibits the use of Bristol water; advises some water\n of a purgative nature; and tries to promote expectoration by a method\n that so far answers, though I spit by it more blood than before.\n\n \u201cWith respect to my soul, I find it good to be in the balance,\u2014awfully\n weighed every day for life or death. I thank God, the latter has lost\n its sting, and endears to me the Prince of Life. But O! I want Christ,\n my resurrection, to be a thousand times more dear to me; and I doubt\n not He will be so, when I am _filled_ with the Spirit of wisdom and\n revelation in the knowledge of Him. Let us wait for that glory,\n praising God for all we have received, and trusting Him for all we\n have not yet received. Let our faith do justice to His veracity; our\n hope to His goodness; and our love to all His perfections. It is good\n to trust in the Lord; and His saints like well to hope in Him.\n\n \u201cI am provided here with every necessary and convenient blessing for\n my state. The great have done me the honour of calling,\u2014Mr. Shirley,\n Mr. Rowland Hill, Mr. Peckwell, etc.[397] I exhort them to promote\n peace in the Church, which they take kindly. Lady Huntingdon also has\n written me a kind letter. This world to me is now become a _world of\n love_.\u201d[398]\n\nFootnote 397:\n\n Berridge, of Everton, also came to Fletcher at Stoke Newington.\n\n \u201cThey met and parted in the spirit of Christian love; and I believe\n saw each other no more in the body.\u201d (The Works of the Rev. John\n Berridge, A.M.; with a Memoir of his Life, by Rev. R. Whittingham, p.\n 63.)\n\n Another, who visited him, was Dr. Price, who, afterwards, said, \u201cI was\n introduced to the company of a man, whose air and countenance bespoke\n him fitted rather for the society of angels, than for the conversation\n of men.\u201d (Cox\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d p. 114.)\n\nFootnote 398:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 242.\n\nMadeley was the centre of a kind of Methodist circuit, which, however,\nhad no Methodist meeting-house. Services were held in cottages; chapels\ndid not exist. In the midst of his affliction, Fletcher and his friends\nprojected the building of one in Madeley Wood.[399] As will be seen in\nsubsequent letters, the execution of the scheme brought upon him\nconsiderable anxiety. Robert Palmer was the builder, and the entire cost\nwas \u00a3296 17_s._ 5_d._, including \u00a31 4_s._ 2_d._ \u201cpaid for drink for the\nmen with the teams,\u201d and \u00a33 12_s._ paid for \u201csixteen stones of malt, for\ndrink for the workmen.\u201d[400] The following letter, addressed to Mr.\nWase, refers to this humble edifice:\u2014\n\n \u201cNEWINGTON, _February 18, 1777_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014My dear friend Ireland brought me, last week, Sir\n John Elliott, who is esteemed the greatest physician in London, in\n consumptive cases. He gave hopes of my recovery, upon using proper\n diet and means. I was bled yesterday for the third time. I calmly\n leave all to God, and use the means without trusting in them. Death\n has lost its sting. I know not what hurry of spirit is, or unbelieving\n fears, under my most terrifying symptoms. Glory be to God, for this\n unspeakable mercy! Help me to praise Him for it.\n\n \u201cWith respect to our intended room, I beg Mr. Palmer, Mr. Lloyd, and\n yourself to consult about it, and that Mr. Palmer would contract for\n the whole. I shall contribute \u00a3100, including \u00a310 I have had for it\n from Mr. Ireland, and \u00a310 from Mr. Thornton.\u201d[401]\n\nFootnote 399:\n\n The chapel was enlarged a short time before Fletcher\u2019s death in 1785.\n On the morning of the day when his friends began to hew the stones for\n the enlargement, he went to the quarry, and said, \u201cFirst of all, let\n us pray.\u201d The workers knelt upon the rock; Fletcher prayed in a way\n that few besides himself could pray; and then, till duty called him\n elsewhere, assisted in shaping the stones for the extension of the\n building. (Crowther\u2019s \u201cPortraiture of Methodism,\u201d p. 96.)\n\nFootnote 400:\n\n MS. in Fletcher\u2019s own handwriting.\n\nFootnote 401:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 24.\n\nIn other ways, Fletcher evinced his profound interest in the welfare of\nhis Madeley friends. Mr. Greaves occupied his pulpit, and preached, with\ngreat acceptance, to his parishioners; but Mr. Greaves was not a priest,\nand, therefore, was not qualified to administer the holy sacraments. To\nmeet the case, Fletcher wrote as follows to the Bishop of Hereford:\u2014\n\n \u201cSTOKE NEWINGTON, _March 22, 1777_.\n\n \u201cMy LORD,\u2014It is near a year since I was taken ill with a cough,\n spitting of blood, and hectic fever. This complication of disorders\n obliged me to go to Bristol last summer, for the benefit of the\n waters; and it now detains me here, where I stay on account of the\n greater mildness of the climate, and the help I can have from the\n London physicians, who, as well as those of Bristol, absolutely forbid\n me doing duty.\n\n \u201cIt is with great difficulty that I have got my church properly\n served. My chief assistant has been Mr. Greaves, a young clergyman of\n the next diocese, who is only in deacon\u2019s orders, and who, considering\n my weak state of health, has kindly left his curacy to oblige and help\n me. I give him a title, and do humbly recommend him to your lordship,\n begging you would admit him to the holy order of priest; without which\n he cannot properly supply my church, my parishioners having always\n been used to a monthly sacrament, and dying people, in so populous a\n part of the diocese, frequently wanting to have the ordinance\n administered to them.\n\n \u201cI am sorry to be obliged to trouble your lordship on this occasion;\n but hope, my lord, you will not deny me a favour which few clergymen\n in your lordship\u2019s diocese can want as much as your lordship\u2019s dutiful\n son and obedient servant,\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[402]\n\nFootnote 402:\n\n Unpublished MS.\n\nWith this letter, Fletcher sent the following certificate:\u2014\n\n \u201cTo the Right Reverend Father in God, James Lord Bishop of Hereford.\n\n \u201cThese are to certify to your lordship that I, John Fletcher, Vicar of\n Madeley, in the county of Salop and your lordship\u2019s diocese of\n Hereford, do hereby nominate and appoint Alexander Benjamin Greaves,\n late Curate of Glossop, in Derbyshire, to perform the office of a\n Curate in my church of Madeley aforesaid; and do promise to allow him\n the yearly sum of \u00a342 for his maintenance in the same; and to continue\n him to officiate in my said church until he shall be otherwise\n provided of some ecclesiastical preferment, unless, by fault by him\n committed, he shall be lawfully removed from the same. And I hereby\n solemnly declare that I do not fraudulently give this certificate to\n entitle the said Alexander Benjamin Greaves to receive Holy Orders,\n but with a real intention to employ him in my said church, according\n to what is before expressed.\n\n \u201cWitness my hand this twenty-second day of March, in the year of our\n Lord 1777,\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[403]\n\nFootnote 403:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nThe Perronet family at Shoreham dearly loved poor Fletcher. He had been\ntheir guest, and they had seen his spirit. Damaris Perronet was\noccasionally one of his correspondents; and William Perronet was now his\nloving medical attendant. The saintly Charles Perronet had died in the\nmonth of August, 1776, but was most tenderly remembered by all who knew\nhim. To Miss Perronet, Fletcher now wrote as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cNEWINGTON, _April 21, 1777_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014A thousand thanks to you for your kind, comfortable\n lines. The prospect of going to see Jesus and His glorified members,\n and among them your dear departed brother, my now _everliving friend_,\n is enough to make me quietly and joyfully submit to leave all my\n Shoreham friends, and all the excellent ones of the earth. But why do\n I talk of leaving any of Christ\u2019s members by going to be more\n intimately united to the Head?\n\n \u201c\u2018We all are one who Him receive,\n And each with each agree;\n In Him the _One_, the _truth_ we live,\n Blest _point_ of unity!\u2019\n\n \u201cA point this which fills heaven and earth, which runs through time\n and eternity. In it sickness is lost in health, and death in life.\n There let us ever meet.\n\n \u201cI cannot tell you how much I am obliged to your dear brother for all\n his kind brotherly attendance as a physician. He has given me his\n time, his long walks, his remedies. He has brought me Dr. Turner\n several times, and will not allow me to reimburse his expenses. Help\n me to thank him for all his profusion of love, for I cannot\n sufficiently do it myself.\n\n \u201cMy duty to your father; I throw myself in spirit at his feet and ask\n his blessing, and an interest in his prayers. Tell him that the Lord\n is gracious to me; does not suffer the enemy to disturb my peace; and\n gives me, in prospect, the victory over death. _Absolute resignation_\n to the Divine will baffles a thousand temptations, and _confidence_ in\n our Saviour carries us sweetly through a thousand trials.\u201d[404]\n\nFootnote 404:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 246.\n\nThe time of Fletcher\u2019s happy sojourn with Mr. and Mrs. Greenwood at\nStoke Newington was now ended. One of the family wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen he first came, he was, by Dr. Fothergill\u2019s advice, under the\n strictest observance of two things\u2014rest and silence. These, together\n with a milk diet, were supposed to be the only probable means of his\n recovery. In consequence of these directions, he spoke exceeding\n little. If ever he spoke more than usual, it did not fail to increase\n his spitting of blood, of which indeed he was seldom quite clear,\n although it was not violent. Therefore, a great part of his time was\n spent in being read to; but it was not possible to restrain him\n altogether from speaking. His natural vivacity, with his intense love\n of Jesus, impelled him to speak; but on being reminded of his rule,\n with a cheerful smile he was all submission, consenting by signs only\n to stir up those about him to pray and praise. Those who had the\n privilege of observing his spirit and conduct, will not scruple to say\n that he was a living comment on his own account of Christian\n perfection. When he was able to converse, his favourite subject was,\n _the promise of the Father, the gift of the Holy Ghost_, including the\n rich peculiar blessing of union with the Father and the Son, mentioned\n in the prayer of our Lord, recorded in John xvii. \u2018We must not be\n content,\u2019 said he, \u2018to be only cleansed from sin; we must be filled\n with the Spirit.\u2019 One asking him, What was to be experienced in the\n full accomplishment of _the promise_ of the Father? \u2018O,\u2019 said he,\n \u2018what shall I say? All the sweetness of the drawings of the Father,\n all the love of the Son, all the rich effusions of peace and joy in\n the Holy Ghost, more than ever can be expressed are comprehended here!\n To attain it, the Spirit maketh intercession in the soul, like a God\n wrestling with a God.\u2019\n\n \u201cIn some of these favoured moments of converse, he mentioned several\n circumstances, which, as none knew them but himself, would otherwise\n have been buried in oblivion. \u2018In the beginning,\u2019 said he, \u2018of my\n spiritual course, I heard the voice of God in an articulate, but\n inexpressibly awful sound, go through my soul in those words, _If any\n man will be My disciple, let him deny himself._ At a later date, I was\n favoured, like Moses, with a supernatural discovery of the glory of\n God, in an ineffable converse with Him, face to face; so that whether\n I was then in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell.\u2019\n\n \u201cOn another occasion he said, \u2018About the time of my entering into the\n ministry, I one evening wandered into a wood, musing on the importance\n of the office I was going to undertake. I then began to pour out my\n soul in prayer; when such a sense of the justice of God fell upon me,\n and such a sense of His displeasure at sin, as absorbed all my powers,\n and filled me with the agony of prayer for poor lost sinners. I\n continued therein till the dawn of day; and I considered this as\n designed of God, to impress upon me more deeply the meaning of those\n solemn words, _Therefore, knowing the terrors of the Lord, we persuade\n men._\u2019\n\n \u201cOne end of his retiring to Newington was that he might hide himself\n from company; but this design was in nowise answered, for company came\n from every side. He was continually visited by high and low, and by\n persons of various denominations; one of whom being asked, when he\n went away, what he thought of Mr. Fletcher, said, \u2018I went to see a man\n who had one foot in the grave; but I found a man who had one foot in\n heaven.\u2019 Among them who now visited him were several of his beloved\n and honoured opponents, to whom he confirmed his love by the most\n respectful and affectionate behaviour; but he did not give up any part\n of the truth for which he had publicly contended; although some, from\n whom one would have expected better things, did not scruple to affirm\n the contrary.\n\n \u201cIt was not without some difficulty that Mr. Ireland prevailed upon\n him to sit for his picture. While the limner was drawing the outlines\n of it he was exhorting both him and all that were in the room not only\n to get the outlines drawn, but the colourings also of the image of\n Jesus on their hearts. He had a very remarkable facility in making\n allusions of this kind. To give an instance. Being ordered to be let\n blood, while his blood was running into the cup he took occasion to\n expatiate on the precious blood-shedding of the Lamb of God. And even\n when he did not speak at all, the seraphic spirit which beamed from\n his languid face, during those months of pain and weakness, was\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018A lecture silent, yet of sovereign use.\u2019\u201d\n\nTo this interesting account, probably written by Mr. Greenwood himself,\nWesley adds:\u2014\n\n \u201cIt is necessary to be observed that this facility of raising useful\n observations from the most trifling incidents, was one of those\n peculiarities in Mr. Fletcher which cannot be proposed to our\n imitation. In him, it partly resulted from nature, and was partly a\n supernatural gift. But what was becoming and graceful in Mr. Fletcher,\n would be disgustful almost in any other.\u201d[405]\n\nFootnote 405:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nIn the month of May, 1777, Fletcher left the hospitable home of Mr.\nGreenwood, at Stoke Newington, and went to his kind friend Mr. Ireland,\nat Brislington, near Bristol. In a letter dated \u201cMay 28, 1777,\u201d and\naddressed to his \u201cvery dear friends and benefactors Charles and Mary\nGreenwood,\u201d he wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cI thought myself a little better last Sunday, but I have since spit\n more blood than I had done for weeks before. Glory be to God for every\n providence! His will be done in me by health or sickness, by life or\n death! All from Him is, and I trust will always be, welcome to your\n obliged pensioner,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[406]\n\nFootnote 406:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 248.\n\nTo Michael Onions, one of the poor Methodists at Coalbrookdale, Fletcher\nwrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cBATH, _July 8, 1777_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014I heartily thank you for your kind letter; and, by\n you, I desire to give my best thanks to the dear companions in\n tribulation whom you meet, and who so kindly remember me. If I should\n be spared to minister to you again, my desire is to do it with more\n humility, zeal, diligence, and love. I hope to see you before the\n summer is ended, if it please God to give me strength for the journey.\n I am, in some respects, better than when I came here, and was enabled\n to bury a corpse last Sunday to oblige the minister of the parish;\n but, whether occasioned by that little exertion or something else, bad\n symptoms have returned since. Be that as it may, all is well; for He,\n who does all things well, rules and over-rules all.\n\n \u201cI have stood the heats we have had these two days better than I\n expected. I desire you will help me to bless the Author of all good\n for this and every other blessing of this life; but above all for the\n lively hope of the next, and for Christ, our common hope, peace, joy,\n wisdom, righteousness, salvation, and all. Don\u2019t let me want the\n reviving cordial of hearing that you stand together firm in the faith.\n Look much at Jesus. Be much in private prayer. Forsake not the\n assembling of yourselves together in little companies, as well as in\n public. Walk in the sight of death and eternity, and ever pray for\n your affectionate, but unworthy minister,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[407]\n\n \u201cP.S.\u2014Let none of your little companies want. If any do, you are\n welcome to my house. Take any part of the furniture there, and make\n use of it for their relief. And this shall be your full title for so\n doing,\n\n \u201cWitness my hand, JOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[408]\n\nFootnote 407:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 26.\n\nFootnote 408:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nAt this time, the Rev. Henry Venn was preaching in the chapel of the\nCountess of Huntingdon at Bath; and Fletcher attended his ministry. Her\nladyship wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cDear Mr. Venn has been preaching most successfully at Bath to\n overflowing congregations. Captain Scott and Mr. Fletcher have been\n there, and heard him preach in the chapel. The latter is far gone in a\n consumptive disorder, but is alive to God, and ripening fast for\n glory. We have exchanged several letters lately. As a last resource,\n he is to accompany Mr. Ireland to the south of France.\u201d[409]\n\nFootnote 409:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. ii., p. 71.\n\nWhen Mr. Venn had completed his services at Bath, he removed to the\nhouse of Mr. Ireland, at Brislington, where Fletcher was an honoured\nguest. Speaking of this visit, after Fletcher\u2019s death, to a brother\nclergyman, Venn remarked:\u2014\n\n \u201cSir, Mr. Fletcher was a luminary\u2014a _luminary_ did I say? He was a\n _sun_! I have known all the great men for these fifty years, but I\n have known none like him. I was intimately acquainted with him, and\n was under the same roof with him once for six weeks; during which time\n I never heard him say a single word which was not proper to be spoken,\n and which had not a tendency to minister grace to the hearers. One\n time, meeting him when he was very ill, I said, \u2018I am sorry to find\n you so ill.\u2019 Mr. Fletcher answered, with the greatest sweetness,\n \u2018Sorry, Sir, why are you sorry? It is the chastisement of our heavenly\n Father, and I rejoice in it. I love the rod of my God, and rejoice\n therein as an expression of His love towards me.\u2019 Never,\u201d continued\n Mr. Venn, \u201cdid I hear Mr. Fletcher speak ill of any one. He would pray\n for those who walked disorderly, but he would not publish their\n faults.\u201d[410]\n\nFootnote 410:\n\n \u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol. ii., p. 72.\n\nIn a letter to the Rev. J. Stillingfleet, Mr. Venn remarked:\u2014\n\n \u201cI have been six weeks with the extraordinary and very excellent Mr.\n Fletcher. Oh that I might be like him! I strictly observed him, but, I\n assure you, I never heard him speak anything but what was becoming a\n pastor of Christ\u2019s Church;\u2014not a single unbecoming word of himself, or\n of his antagonists, or of his friends. All his conversation tended to\n excite to greater love and thankfulness, for the benefits of\n redemption; whilst his whole deportment breathed humility and love. We\n had many conversations. I told him, most freely, that I was shocked at\n many things in his \u2018Checks;\u2019 and pointed them out to him. We widely\n differ about the efficacy of Christ\u2019s death, the nature of\n justification, and the perfection of the saints; but I believe we\n could live years together, as we did, in great love. He heard me\n twice; and I was chaplain both morning and evening in the family, as\n his lungs would not suffer him to speak long or loud. He desired his\n love, by me, to all his Calvinistic brethren; and begged their pardon\n for the asperity with which he had written. I am persuaded, as I told\n him, that, if he were to live with some of those whom he has been\n taught to conceive of as Antinomians, and hear them preach, he would\n be much more reconciled to them.\u201d[411]\n\nFootnote 411:\n\n \u201cLife of Rev. Henry Venn, M.A.,\u201d p. 240.\n\nMr. Venn\u2019s last remarks were quite unneeded, for Fletcher always readily\nallowed that the hearts and lives of his opponents were far better than\ntheir creed.\n\nAt the close of the month of July, Wesley came to Bristol, to hold his\nannual conference with his preachers, and wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cWednesday, July 30. I spent an hour or two with Mr. Fletcher,\n restored to life in answer to many prayers. How many providential ends\n have been answered by his illness! And perhaps still greater will be\n answered by his recovery.\u201d[412]\n\nFootnote 412:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\nThe \u201cprovidential ends\u201d meant by Wesley were, probably, the steps taken\nby Fletcher to bring to an end the Calvinian controversy, which had so\ngreatly disturbed the Methodist movement during the last six years.\n\nWesley\u2019s conference began on Tuesday, August 5, and ended on Friday,\nAugust 8.[413] It was short, but important. Its most interesting event,\nhowever, was the attendance of Fletcher. Thomas Taylor remarked, in his\nunpublished diary,\u2014\n\n \u201cOn August 7, that great and good man Mr. Fletcher came into the\n conference. My eyes flowed with tears at the sight of him. He spoke to\n us in a very respectful manner, and took a solemn farewell. Dear, good\n man! I never saw so many tears shed in my life.\u201d\n\nFootnote 413:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\nFletcher\u2019s valued friend, Joseph Benson, wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cAugust 8. We have had an edifying conference. Mr. Fletcher\u2019s visit\n to-day and yesterday has been attended with a blessing. His\n appearance, his exhortations, and his prayers, broke most of our\n hearts, and filled us with shame and self-abasement, for our little\n improvement.\u201d[414]\n\nFootnote 414:\n\n Macdonald\u2019s \u201cLife of Benson,\u201d p. 62.\n\nIn his \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d Benson says:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher happened to be passing by the door of the stable,\n belonging to our chapel in Broadmead, when I was lighting from my\n horse, \u2018on my arrival in Bristol.\u2019 I shall never forget with what a\n heavenly air, and sweet countenance, he instantly came to me in the\n stable, and, in a most solemn manner, put his hands upon my head, as\n if he had been ordaining me for the sacred office of the ministry, and\n prayed most fervently for and blessed me in the name of the Lord.\u201d\n\nBy far the best account, however, of Fletcher in connection with the\nBristol Conference, was written, not by one of Wesley\u2019s sturdy\nItinerants, but by a young Welshman, who was present, for the purpose of\noffering himself for the Itinerant work. On account of his delicate\nhealth and feeble voice, the offer of David Lloyd was not accepted; but,\nsome years afterwards, he was ordained by Bishop Horsley, who gave him\nthe living of Llanbister, which, even now, is not worth more than \u00a3150 a\nyear. The parsonage was a plain stone building, the door of which opened\ninto the main room of the house,\u2014its floor consisting of stone slabs,\nits fireplace wide, with benches in the corners, and the fire on the\nhearth made principally of turf. On the same floor was another\napartment, which served as kitchen, and above were two humble bed-rooms.\n\u201cSuch,\u201d wrote the late Rev. James Dixon, D.D., who, at the commencement\nof his ministry, was often the delighted guest of Mr. Lloyd,\u2014\u201cSuch was\nthe residence of a philosopher, a poet, and a divine, who seemed to\nenjoy, with unmixed contentment, the inheritance given him by\nProvidence.\u201d Mr. Lloyd\u2019s wife was a good old Methodist; their house was\nthe home of Methodist itinerant preachers; out of his small income, Mr.\nLloyd subscribed \u00a310 a year to the Methodist and Church Missionary\nSocieties; presented to each a donation of \u00a3500; by his will, directed\nthat the residue of his property should be equally divided between these\ntwo Societies; and built a Methodist chapel in his parish, secured it to\nthe Connexion by deed, and gave to it an endowment, \u201cthat Methodist\npreaching,\u201d as he said, \u201cmight continue in the parish as long as water\nshould run.\u201d[415]\n\nFootnote 415:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine._ Sixpenny Edition, 1863, pp. 1\u20138.\n\nThis remarkable man, for whom Dr. Dixon had the highest admiration,\nwrote as follows to the Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke:\u2014\n\n \u201cLLANBISTER, NEAR KNIGHTON, RADNORSHIRE,\n\n \u201c_November 7, 1821_.\n\n \u201cREV. AND DEAR SIR,\u2014At the conference of the Methodist preachers, held\n at Bristol in the year 1777, an interview took place between the Rev.\n Mr. Wesley and the Rev. John Fletcher, of Madeley. I was both an eye-\n and ear-witness to the facts I here relate. The Rev. Mr. Fletcher had\n for a long time laboured under the effects of a deep-rooted\n consumption, which was then adjudged to be rapidly advancing to its\n final crisis. He was advised by the faculty to make the tour of the\n Continent, and to breathe his native air. He resided, at that time,\n with Mr. Ireland, a gentleman of known celebrity for the exercise of\n catholic love towards all such as possessed the essential attributes\n of great and good men. On the forenoon of a day, when the sitting of\n the Conference was drawing to a close, tidings announced the approach\n of Mr. Fletcher. As he entered the vestibule of the New Room,\n supported by Mr. Ireland, I can never forget the visible impulse of\n esteem which his venerable presence excited in the house. The whole\n assembly stood up, as if moved by an electric shock. Mr. Wesley rose,\n _ex cathedr\u00e2_, and advanced a few paces to receive his highly\n respected friend and reverend brother, whose visage seemed strongly to\n bode that he stood on the verge of the grave; while his eyes,\n sparkling with seraphic love, indicated that he dwelt in the suburbs\n of heaven. In this his languid but happy state, he addressed the\n Conference, on their work and his own views, in a strain of holy and\n pathetic eloquence, which no language of mine can adequately express.\n The influence of his spirit and pathos seemed to bear down all before\n it. I never saw such an instantaneous effect produced in a religious\n assembly, either before or since. He had scarcely pronounced a dozen\n sentences before a hundred preachers, to speak in round numbers, were\n immersed in tears. Time can never efface from my mind the recollection\n and image of what I then felt and saw. Such a scene I never expect to\n witness again on this side eternity. Mr. Wesley, in order to relieve\n his languid friend from the fatigue and injury which might arise from\n a too long and arduous exertion of the lungs through much speaking,\n abruptly kneeled down at his side, the whole congress of preachers\n doing the same, while, in a concise and energetic manner, he prayed\n for Mr. Fletcher\u2019s restoration to health and a longer exercise of his\n ministerial labours. Mr. Wesley closed his prayer with the following\n prophetic promise, pronounced in his peculiar manner, and with a\n confidence and emphasis which seemed to thrill through every heart,\n \u2018HE SHALL NOT DIE, BUT LIVE, AND DECLARE THE WORKS OF THE LORD.\u2019 The\n event verified the prediction. Mr. Fletcher lived for eight succeeding\n years, exerting all the zeal of a primitive missionary, and enjoying\n all the esteem of a holy patriarch.\n\n \u201cI am, dear Sir, with high regard and esteem, your sincere friend and\n humble servant,\n\n \u201cDAVID LLOYD.\u201d[416]\n\nFootnote 416:\n\n \u201cLife of Adam Clarke, LL.D.,\u201d by Rev. Samuel Dunn, p. 127.\n\nRemembering the position which Fletcher had occupied, during the last\nsix years, as the valiant and greatly abused expounder and defender of\nWesley\u2019s Anti-Calvinian doctrines, and also bearing in mind the\nheavenly-mindedness in which Fletcher was now living, and, apparently,\ndying, there is no room to wonder at Mr. Lloyd\u2019s account, or to doubt of\nits being strictly accurate. Who can adequately conceive the influence\nof Fletcher\u2019s visit on the piety and usefulness of Wesley\u2019s conclave of\nItinerant Preachers? This is one of the secrets to be revealed\nhereafter.\n\nAnother incident, belonging to this period, must be introduced. James\nRogers was now a young Itinerant of five years\u2019 standing, but already\npossessed the confidence and esteem of Wesley, and afterwards had the\nhonour of seeing Wesley die. No doubt, all of Wesley\u2019s Preachers, at\nthis time assembled in Bristol, would have been delighted to be\nintroduced to poor Fletcher at Brislington; but, on account of his state\nof health, this was a privilege not many were permitted to enjoy. James\nRogers was one of the favoured few, and he shall be allowed, in his own\nartless way, to tell the story of his interview, and of an open-air\nsacramental service. During the previous year, he had been stationed in\nEdinburgh; now he was appointed to Cornwall. He writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn the year 1777, I was appointed to labour in the east of Cornwall.\n A journey of between four and five hundred miles was no small fatigue,\n in my then weak state of body; but the Lord was with me. I took my\n appointment as from God, and set out in His name, and found sweet\n communion with Him in the way.\n\n \u201cI had long desired to see that most eminently pious man of God, Mr.\n Fletcher; and now an opportunity offered. Stopping at Bristol a few\n days, to rest myself and horse, I heard of his being at Mr. Ireland\u2019s,\n about three miles off, and, with two of my brethren, took a ride to\n see him. When we came there, he was returning from a ride, which he\n was advised by his physician to take every day. Dismounting from his\n horse, he came to us with arms spread open, and eyes lifted up to\n heaven. His apostolic appearance, with the whole of his deportment,\n greatly affected me. The first words he spoke, while yet standing in\n the stable by his horse, were a part of the sixteenth chapter of St.\n John\u2019s Gospel. He pointed out from thence the descent of the Holy\n Ghost, as the great promise of the Father, and the privilege of all\n New Testament believers, in a manner I had never heard before. My soul\n was dissolved into tenderness, and became as melting wax before the\n fire.\n\n \u201cAs an invidious report had been spread, that he had renounced what he\n had lately written against Calvinism, I took the liberty to mention\n the report, and asked him what he thought had given rise to it? He\n replied, he could not tell, except that he had refrained from speaking\n on controverted points since he came to Mr. Ireland\u2019s: partly, by\n reason of the poor state of his health; and partly, because he did not\n wish to grieve his kind friend, by making his house a field of\n controversy; but he assured us, he had not seen cause to repent of\n what he had written in defence of the Rev. Mr. Wesley\u2019s \u2018Minutes.\u2019\n And, though he believed his close application to study had been the\n means of reducing his body to the state in which we then saw it, yet,\n he said, if he fell a victim, it was in a good cause.\n\n \u201cAfter a little conversation upon his darling topic, the _universal\n love of God in Christ Jesus_, we were about to take our leave, when\n Mr. Ireland sent his footman into the yard with a bottle of red wine,\n and some slices of bread upon a waiter. We all uncovered our heads,\n while Mr. Fletcher craved a blessing upon the same; which he had no\n sooner done, than he handed first the bread to each, and, lifting up\n his eyes to heaven, pronounced these words, \u2018The body of our Lord\n Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul\n unto everlasting life.\u2019 Afterwards, handing the wine, he repeated in\n like manner, \u2018The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ,\u2019 etc. Such a\n sacrament I never had before. A sense of the Divine presence rested\n upon us all; and we were melted into floods of tears. His worthy\n friend, Mr. Ireland, grieved to see him exhaust his little strength by\n so much speaking, took him by the arm, and almost forced him into the\n house; while he kept looking wistfully, and speaking to us, as long as\n we could see him. We then mounted our horses, and rode away. That hour\n more than repaid me for my whole journey from Edinburgh to\n Cornwall.\u201d[417]\n\nFootnote 417:\n\n \u201cExperience and Labours of James Rogers,\u201d written by himself, 1796, p.\n 22.\n\nThe scene so simply described is worthy of being painted by an artistic\nMethodist.\n\nAbout the same time, Fletcher wrote as follows to the venerable Vicar of\nShoreham, the Rev. Vincent Perronet.\n\n \u201c1777, September 6. My very dear father,\u2014I humbly thank you for the\n honour and consolation of your two kind letters. Your vouchsafing to\n remember a poor, unprofitable worm, is to me a sure token that my\n heavenly Father remembers me. He is God, and therefore I am not\n consumed. He is a _merciful, all-gracious God_, and therefore I am\n blessed with sympathizing friends and gracious helpers on all sides. O\n Sir! if in this disordered, imperfect state of the Church, I meet with\n so much kindness, what shall I not meet with, when the millennium you\n pray for shall begin? O that the happy thought, the glorious hope may\n animate me to perfect holiness in the fear of God; that I may be\n accounted worthy to escape the terrible judgments, which will make way\n for that happy state of things, and that I may have a part in the\n first resurrection, if I am numbered among the dead before that happy\n period begin!\n\n \u201c\u2018Oh! for a firm and lasting faith,\n To credit all the Almighty saith!\n To embrace the promise of His Son,\n And call that glorious rest our own!\u2019\n\n \u201cWe are saved by hope at this time; but hope that is seen is not hope.\n Let us abound, then, in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost: so\n shall we antedate the millennium, take the kingdom, and enjoy\n beforehand the rest, which remains for the people of God.\n\n \u201cOne of my parishioners brought a horse, last week, to carry me home;\n and desired to walk by my side all the way. By the advice of your dear\n son, Mr. William Perronet, who still continues to bestow upon me all\n the help I could expect from the most loving brother, I sent the man\n back. I thank God, I am a little stronger than when I came here. I\n kiss the rod, lean on the staff, and wait the end. I yesterday saw a\n physician, who told me my case is not yet an absolutely lost case. But\n the prospect of languishing two or three years longer, a burden to\n everybody, a help to none, would be very painful, if the will of God\n and the covenant of life in Christ Jesus did not sanctify all\n circumstances, and dispel every gloom. I remember, with grateful joy,\n the happy days I spent at Shoreham: _Tecum vivere amem; tecum obeam\n lubens_. But, what is better still, I shall live with the Lord and\n with you for ever and ever.\n\n \u201cYour obliged servant and affectionate son,\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[418]\n\nFootnote 418:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nThe next letter has not before been published. It was addressed to the\nlady who afterwards became his wife:\u2014\n\n \u201cBRISTOL, _October 20, 1777_.\n\n \u201cDEAR MADAM,\u2014The hope of thanking you in person for the favour of your\n friendly directions, as well as bodily weakness, has prevented me\n sending you a letter full of grateful acknowledgments. But, as\n Providence may postpone your intended journey to Bath, and hasten mine\n into Spain, or into eternity, I trouble you with these lines to\n testify how indebted I am to you for thinking of admitting me into the\n number of your patients. I have not tried your remedy yet, because the\n gentlemen of the faculty, who have attended me here, say, that, though\n it might be very good for persons of a cold, phlegmatic habit of body,\n it is improper for those who are, like myself, of a dry, bilious\n habit. I have taken the bark and rhubarb for some days, and I thought\n yesterday that the former medicine had removed the spitting of blood;\n but to-night it has again made its appearance. However, I think I can\n speak a little better, though I cannot bear the motion of a horse so\n well as I could two months ago.\n\n \u201cAll is well that comes from our heavenly Friend and Physician. Shall\n we receive the sweet at His hands, and not the bitter? Is not His\n every dispensation of providence and grace to be received with\n thankfulness? I would not get well against His will for all the world,\n and for what I esteem more than all the world,\u2014the pleasure of seeing\n those whom He has chosen out of the world. If Providence parts us on\n earth, we shall meet in heaven.\n\n \u201cI have had it, however, in my thoughts to antedate that pleasure with\n respect to you and your devoted family:[419] I was once going to take\n the pen to ask your leave to enter and die under your friendly roof;\n but the fear of troubling you and taking a step contrary to the\n leadings of Providence, made me decline. If you have not a poor\n Lazarus at your door to trouble you, you have Lazarus\u2019s Friend in your\n sight and heart, to comfort and save you. May He, every day, appear\n more glorious in your sight, and may you, every hour, drink deeper\n into His Spirit!\n\n \u201cMy Christian love waits upon Mrs. Crosby, Miss Hurrel, and Miss\n Ritchie.[420] I hope the Lord binds you each day closer to Himself and\n to each other, and enables you to see and experience the glory of the\n promise made to the daughters and handmaids, as well as to the sons\n and servants of the Lord. Oh, what a day when we shall all be so\n filled with power from on high, as to go forth and prophesy, and water\n the Lord\u2019s drooping plants and barren parched garden with _rivers of\n living water flowing from our own souls_; and when an ardent fire of\n Divine love will make us put our candle to the chaff of sin, and fire\n all the harvests and tents of the Laodiceans! As Abraham saw the day\n of _Christ_, our _first Comforter_, and was glad, so I see the day of\n the _Spirit_, our _other Comforter_, and rejoice. May you live to\n enjoy it! May you and yours hasten it by the pleadings of mighty\n prayer! To thank the _Father_ for the unspeakable gift of His Son; and\n to look to both for the fulness of that other _gift of God_, for that\n _well of living water_ which Christ offered to the woman of Samaria,\n is a blessed work, in which I beg you would assist your obliged\n brother,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\n\n \u201cMiss Bosanquet,\n \u201cAt Cross Hall,\n \u201cNear _Leads_,\n \u201cYorkshire, by Manchester.\u201d\n Bristol postmark.\n\nFootnote 419:\n\n Miss Bosanquet kept an orphanage, wholly at her own expense.\n\nFootnote 420:\n\n Three grand old Methodists, and, at least, one of them a preacheress.\n\nIn another letter to Miss Bosanquet, written about the same time, he\nremarked:\u2014\n\n \u201cI calmly wait, in unshaken resignation, for the full salvation of\n God: ready to trust Him, to venture on His faithful love and on the\n sure mercies of David, either at midnight, noonday, or cock-crowing:\n for my time is in His hand, and His time is best, and shall be my\n time. Death has lost his sting; and I know not what hurry of spirits\n is, or what are unbelieving fears, under the most trying\n circumstances. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift.\u201d[421]\n\nFootnote 421:\n\n Mrs. Fletcher\u2019s \u201cLetter to Mons. H. L. De la Flechere,\u201d 1786, p. 35.\n\nAt the same period, Fletcher commenced a correspondence with another\ndistinguished lady, the Right Hon. Lady Mary Fitzgerald, daughter of the\nEarl of Bristol, and aunt of Lord Liverpool. She had been married to\nGeorge Fitzgerald, Esq., and, for about twelve years past, had been an\nexemplary member of the Methodist Society. The friendship between her\nand Wesley was great, and Wesley visited her only nine days before his\ndeath. In 1815, at the age of ninety, her clothing caught fire, and she\ndied, her last words being, \u201cCome, Lord Jesus, my blessed Redeemer, come\nand receive my spirit!\u201d In conformity with a clause in her will, her\nremains were interred in the burial ground at the front of City Road\nChapel; and, in memory of her, there is a plain white marble tablet in\nthat sacred edifice.[422] The following is an extract from Fletcher\u2019s\nletter to this Methodist lady:\u2014\n\n \u201c_October 21, 1777._\n\n \u201cHONOURED AND DEAR MADAM,\u2014The honour of your Christian letter humbles\n me; and the idea of your taking half-a-dozen steps, much more that of\n your taking a journey, to consult so mean a creature as myself, lays\n me in the dust. My brothers and sisters invite me once more to breathe\n my native air, and the physicians recommend to me a journey to the\n continent. If I go, I shall probably pass through London, and, in that\n case, I could have the honour of waiting upon you. I say, probably,\n because I shall have to accompany my friend and a serious family, who\n intend to spend the winter in the south of France, or in Spain; and I\n do not yet know whether they design to embark at Dover, or at some\n port in the west of England.\n\n \u201cYou have been afflicted as well as myself. May our maladies yield the\n peaceable fruits of righteousness, complete deadness to the world, and\n increased faith in the mercy, love, and power of Him, who supports\n under the greatest trials, and can make our extremity of weakness an\n opportunity of displaying the greatness of His power!\n\n \u201cI have taken the bark for some days, and it seems to have been\n blessed to the removal of my spitting of blood. Time will decide\n whether it be a real removal, or only a suspension of that symptom.\n Either will prove a blessing, as His will is our health. To live\n singly to God, the best method is to desire it in _meekness_; to\n spread the desire in _quietness_ before Him who inspires it; to offer\n Him _now_ all we have and are, _as we can_; and to open our mouth of\n expectation wide, that He may fill it with all His fulness, or that He\n may _try our patience_, and teach us to know our _total helplessness_.\n With respect to the weeping frame of repentance, and the joyous one of\n faith, they are both good alternately; but the latter is the better of\n the two, because it enables us to do, and suffer, and praise, which\n honours Christ more. Both are happily mixed. May they be so in you,\n Madam, and in your unworthy and obliged servant,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[423]\n\nFootnote 422:\n\n Stevenson\u2019s \u201cCity Road Chapel.\u201d\n\nFootnote 423:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 256.\n\nTo another lady, Mrs. Thornton, Fletcher wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cI spend more time in giving my friends an account of my health, than\n the matter is worth. You will see by the enclosed, which I beg you to\n send to the post, when you have shown it to Mr. John and Charles\n Wesley, how their poor servant does. I am kept in sweet peace, and am\n looking for the triumphant joy of my Lord, and for the fulness\n expressed in these words, which sweetly filled the sleepless hours of\n last night,\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018Drawn\u2014and redeem\u2019d\u2014and seal\u2019d,\n I bless the One and Three;\n With Father, Son, and Spirit fill\u2019d\n To all eternity.\u2019\n\n \u201cWith respect to my body, I sleep less, and spit more blood than I did\n when you were here, nor can I bear the least trot of an easy horse. If\n this continues many days, instead of thinking to go and see my friends\n on the continent, I shall turn my steps to my earthly home, to be\n ready to lay my bones in my churchyard. Two of my parishioners came to\n convey me safe home, and had persuaded me to go with them in a\n post-chaise; but I had so bad a night before the day that I was to set\n out, that I gave it up. I have nothing to look at but Jesus and the\n grave. May I so look at them, as to live in my Resurrection and my\n life; and die in all the meekness and holiness of my Lord and my\n all.\u201d[424]\n\nFootnote 424:\n\n Letters, 1791, pp. 249, 253.\n\nFletcher having decided to go to the continent, it became necessary to\narrange monetary and other matters before he started. To two of his\nfriends at Madeley, Mr. Thomas York and Mr. Daniel Edmunds, he wrote as\nfollows:\u2014\n\n \u201cBRISTOL, _November, 1777_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIENDS,\u2014The debt of gratitude I owe to a dying sister, who\n once took a long journey to see me, when I was ill in Germany, and\n whom I just stopped from coming, last winter, to Newington to nurse\n me,\u2014the unanimous advice of the physicians whom I have consulted,\u2014and\n the opportunity of travelling with serious friends,\u2014have at last\n determined me to remove to a warmer climate. As it is very doubtful\n whether I shall be able to stand the journey; and, if I do, whether I\n shall be able to come back to England; and, if I come back, whether I\n shall be able to serve my church, it is right to make what provision I\n can to have it properly served while I live, and to secure some\n spiritual assistance to my serious parishioners when I shall die.\n\n \u201cI have attempted to build a house in Madeley Wood, about the centre\n of my parish, where I should be glad the children might be taught to\n read and write in the day, and the grown-up people might hear the Word\n of God in the evening, when they can get an Evangelist to preach it to\n them; and where the serious people might assemble for social worship\n when they have no teacher. The expense of that building, and paying\n for the ground it stands upon, have involved me in some difficulties;\n especially as my ill health has put on me the additional expense of an\n assistant.\n\n \u201cIf I had strength, I would serve my church alone, board as cheaply as\n I could, and save what I was able to do from the produce of the living\n to clear the debt, and leave that little token of my love, free from\n encumbrances, to my parishioners.\n\n \u201cBut, as Providence orders things otherwise, I have another object,\n which is to secure a faithful minister to serve the church while I\n live. Providence has sent me dear Mr. Greaves, who loves the people,\n and is loved by them. I should be glad to make him comfortable; and,\n as all the care of my flock, by my illness, devolves upon him, I would\n not hesitate for a moment to let him have all the profit of the\n living, if it were not for the debt contracted about the room. My\n difficulty lies, then, between what I owe to my fellow-labourer, and\n what I owe to my parishioners, whom I should be sorry to have burdened\n with a debt contracted for the room.\n\n \u201cMy agreement with Mr. Greaves was to allow him forty guineas a year,\n out of which I was to deduct twelve for his board; but, as I cannot\n board him when I go abroad, I design to allow him, during my absence,\n \u00a350 a-year, together with the use of my house, furniture, garden, and\n my horse, if he chooses to keep one; reserving the use of a room, and\n a stall in the stable, to entertain the preachers who help us in their\n Round: not doubting but that the serious people will gladly find them\n and their horses proper necessaries.\n\n \u201cBut I know so little what my income may be, that I am not sure it\n will yield Mr. Greaves \u00a350, after paying all the expenses of the\n living. Now I beg you will consult together, and see whether the\n Vicar\u2019s income, _i.e._, tithes, etc., etc., will discharge all the\n expenses of the living, and leave a residue sufficient to pay a\n stipend of \u00a350. I except the royalty, which I have appropriated to the\n expense of the Room. If it be, well; if there be any surplus, let it\n be applied to the Room; if there be anything short, then Mr. Greaves\n may have the whole, and take his chance in that respect, as it will be\n only taking the Vicar\u2019s chance; for I doubt if sometimes, after\n necessary charges defrayed, the Vicars have had a clear \u00a350.\n\n \u201cI beg you will let me know how the balance of my account stands,\n that, some way or other, I may order it to be paid immediately; for,\n if the balance is against me, I could not leave England comfortably\n without having settled the payment. A letter will settle this business\n as well as if twenty friends were at the trouble of taking a journey;\n and talking is far worse for me than reading or writing.\n\n \u201cTen thousand pardons, my dear friends, for troubling you with this\n scrawl about worldly matters. I am quite tired with writing, but I\n cannot lay by my pen without desiring my best Christian love to all my\n dear companions in tribulation, and neighbours in Shropshire;\n especially to Mrs. York, Miss Simpson, Mrs. Harper, Mr. Scott, Winny\n Edmunds, and all enquiring friends. Thank Molly for her good\n management, and tell her I recommend her to our common Heavenly\n Master. If she wants to go to London, or to come to Bristol, I shall\n give her such a character as will help her to some good place. I\n heartily thank Daniel, both as churchwarden and as receiver and\n house-steward; and I beg Mr. York to pay him a proper salary.\n\n \u201cI am, in the best bonds, your affectionate neighbour, friend, and\n minister,\n\n J. FLETCHER.\u201d[425]\n\nFootnote 425:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 34.\n\nA letter on small matters, so far as the reader is concerned; but a\nletter unveiling Fletcher\u2019s heart, and exhibiting his perfect\nunworldliness. The following, extracted from a letter to Mr. William\nWase, reveals other characteristics:\u2014\n\n \u201cBRISTOL, _November, 1777_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014Go to Mrs. Cound, and tell her, I charge her, in the\n name of God, to give up the world, to set out with all speed for\n heaven, and to join the few about her who fear God. If she refuses,\n call again; call weekly, if not daily, and warn her from me till she\n is ripe for glory. Tell the brethren at Broseley that I did my body an\n injury the last time I preached to them on the Green; but, if they\n took the warning, I do not repine. Give my love to George Crannage;\n tell him to make haste to Christ, and not to doze away his last days.\n\n \u201cThe physician has not yet given me up; but, I bless God, I do not\n wait for his farewell, to give myself up to my God and Saviour. I\n write by stealth, as my friends here would have me forbear writing,\n and even talking; but I will never part with my privilege of writing\n and shouting, _\u2018Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory\u2019 over sin,\n death, and the grave \u2018through Jesus Christ.\u2019_ To Him be glory for ever\n and ever! Amen!\u201d[426]\n\nFootnote 426:\n\n _Ibid_, p. 36.\n\nTo his congregation in Madeley Church, Fletcher wrote as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cBRISTOL, _November 26, 1777_.\n\n \u201cTo the Brethren who hear the Word of God in the parish church of\n Madeley.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BRETHREN,\u2014I thank you for the declaration of your\n affectionate remembrance, which you sent me by John Owen, the\n messenger of your brotherly love.\n\n \u201cAs various reasons prevent my coming to take leave of you in \u201cerson,\n permit me to do it by letter. The hope of recovering a little\n strength, to serve you again in the Gospel, makes me take the advice\n of the physicians, who say that removing to a drier air and warmer\n climate may be of great service to my health.\n\n \u201cI am more and more persuaded that I have not declared unto you\n cunningly devised fables, and that the Gospel I have had the honour of\n preaching, though feebly, among you, is the power of God to salvation,\n to every one who believes it.\n\n \u201cWant of time does not permit me to give you more than the following\n directions. Have, every day, lower thoughts of yourselves, higher\n thoughts of Christ, kinder thoughts of your brethren, and more hopeful\n thoughts of all around you. Love to assemble in the great\n congregation; but, above all, love to pray to your Father in secret;\n consider your Saviour; and listen for your Sanctifier. Wait all day\n long for His glorious appearing within you; and, when you are\n together, by suitable prayers, proper hymns, and enlivening\n exhortations, keep up your earnest expectation of His pardoning and\n sanctifying love. Let not a drop satisfy you; desire an ocean. Do not\n eat your morsel by yourselves, like selfish, niggardly people, but be\n ready to share it with all. Let every one with whom you converse be\n the better for your conversation. Be burning and shining lights\n wherever you are. Set the fire of divine love to the hellish stubble\n of sin. Be valiant for the truth. Be champions for love. Be sons of\n thunder against sin; and sons of consolation towards humbled sinners.\n Be faithful to your God, your king, and your masters. Let not the good\n ways of God be blasphemed through any of you.\n\n \u201cYou have need of patience, as well as of faith and power. You must\n learn to _suffer_, as well as _do_ the will of God. Think it not\n strange to pass through fiery trials. Let your faith be firm in a\n tempest. Let your hope in Christ be as a sure anchor cast within the\n veil; and your patient love will soon outride the storm. God is the\n same merciful and faithful God, \u2018_yesterday, to-day, and for ever_.\u2019\n Believe in His threefold name. Rejoice in every degree of His great\n salvation. Triumph in hope of the glory which shall be revealed. Do\n not forget to be thankful for a cup of water; much less for being out\n of hell, for the means of grace, the forgiveness of sins, the blood of\n Jesus, the communion of saints on earth, and the future glorification\n of saints in heaven. Strongly, heartily believe every Gospel truth,\n especially the latter part of the Apostles\u2019 Creed. Believe it till\n your faith becomes the substance of the eternal life you hope for; and\n then, come life, come death, either or both will be welcome to you,\n as, through grace, I find they are to me.\n\n \u201cIf I am no more permitted to minister to you in the land of the\n living, I rejoice at the thought that I shall, perhaps, be allowed to\n accompany the angels, who, if you continue in the faith, will be\n commissioned to carry your souls into Abraham\u2019s bosom. If our bodies\n do not moulder away in the same grave, our spirits shall be sweetly\n lost in the same sea of divine and brotherly love. I hope to see you\n again in the flesh; but my sweetest and firmest hope is to meet you\n where there are no parting seas, no interposing mountains, no\n sickness, no death, no fear of loving too much, no shame for loving\n too little.\n\n \u201cI earnestly recommend you to the pastoral care of the great Shepherd\n and Bishop of souls, to the brotherly care of one another, and to the\n ministerial care of my substitute. Should I be spared to come back,\n let me have the joy of finding you all of one heart and one soul;\n continuing steadfast in the Apostles\u2019 doctrine, in fellowship one with\n another, and in communion with our sin-pardoning and sin-abhorring\n God.\u201d[427]\n\nFootnote 427:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 40.\n\nImmediately after the date of this pastoral epistle, in company with Mr.\nIreland, two of his daughters, and another family, Fletcher left\nBrislington for the south of France. During a halt at Reading, he wrote\nthe following to the Rev. Vincent Perronet, the venerable vicar of\nShoreham:\u2014\n\n \u201cREADING, _December 2, 1777_.\n\n \u201cHONOURED AND DEAR SIR,\u2014I acknowledge, though late, the favour of your\n letter. I have given up the thought of going to my parish, and am now\n on the road to a warmer climate. The Lord may bless as much the change\n of air, as He has blessed the last remedy your son prescribed for me\u2014I\n mean the bark. If I should mend a little, I would begin to have faith\n in your prophecy. In the meantime, let us have faith in Christ, more\n faith day by day, till all the sayings of Christ are verified to us\n and in us. Should I go to Geneva, I shall enquire after the Swiss\n friends of my dear benefactors at Shoreham, to whose prayers I humbly\n recommend myself and my dear fellow-travellers, one of whom, my little\n god-daughter, is but eight weeks old.\u201d[428]\n\nFootnote 428:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nAt the same time, and on the same sheet, he wrote as follows to Miss\nDamaris Perronet:\u2014\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014I snatch a moment upon the road to acknowledge the\n favour of your letter, and to wish you joy in seeing the Lord is\n faithful in rewarding as well as punishing. I once met a gentleman, an\n infidel, abroad, who said, \u2018Men have no faith: if they believed that\n by forsaking houses, lands, and friends, they should receive a\n hundredfold, they would instantly renounce all: for who would not\n carry all his money to the bank of heaven, to receive a hundredfold\n interest?\u2019 The Papists have made so bad a use of the doctrine of the\n rewardableness of works, that we dare neither preach it, nor hold it\n in a scriptural manner. For my part, I think that if it were properly\n received, it would make a great alteration in the professing world.\n _You_ dare receive it; try the mighty use of it; and when you have\n fully experienced it, do not keep your light to yourself, but impart\n it to all within the reach of your tongue and pen. I am glad you see\n that every reward, bestowed upon a reprieved sinner, has free-grace\n for its foundation, and the blood of Christ for its mark. May the\n richest rewards of Divine grace be yours in consequence of the most\n exalted faithfulness; and let me beseech you to pray that I may follow\n you, as you follow Christ, till our reward be full.\u201d[429]\n\nFootnote 429:\n\n _Methodist Magazine_, 1804, p. 520.\n\nThus did Fletcher leave England, reiterating one of the great truths\nthat he had been explaining and defending during the last six years. On\nthe next day after the date of his letter, he arrived at Stoke\nNewington. Wesley writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cWednesday, _December 3, 1777_. I visited as many of the sick as I\n could in the north-east part of the town; and spent the evening at\n Newington, with Mr. Fletcher, almost miraculously recovering from his\n consumption. On Thursday, December 4, he set out, with Mr. Ireland,\n for the south of France.\u201d[430]\n\nFootnote 430:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXI.\n _A LONG RETIREMENT._\n\n 778\u20131781.\n\n\nWHEN the travellers arrived at Dover, Fletcher wrote as follows to his\nhospitable friends at Stoke Newington:\u2014\n\n \u201cTen thousand blessings light upon the heads and hearts of my dear\n benefactors, Charles and Mary Greenwood! May their quiet retreat at\n Newington become a Bethel to them! Their poor pensioner travels on,\n though slowly, towards the grave. His journey to the sea seems to him\n to have hastened, rather than retarded, his progress to his old\n mother\u2014Earth. May every Providential blast blow him nearer to the\n heavenly haven of his Saviour\u2019s breast; where he hopes to meet all his\n benefactors! O, my dear friends, what shall I render? What to Jesus?\n what to you? May He, who invites the heavy-laden, take upon Him all\n the burdens of kindness you have heaped on your Lazarus! And may\n angels, when you die, find me in Abraham\u2019s bosom, and bring you into\n _mine_, that by all the kindness which may be shown in heaven, I may\n try to requite that you have shown to your obliged brother,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[431]\n\nFootnote 431:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 249.\n\nLeaving Calais on December 12, 1777, the travellers pursued their way to\nthe South of France. Mr. Ireland thus described the journey:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen we departed from Calais, the north wind was very high, and\n penetrated us even in the chaise. We put up at Bretuil, and the next\n day got to Abbeville, whence we were forced, by the miserable\n accommodation we met with, to set out, though it was Sunday. Hitherto\n Mr. Fletcher and I had led the way, but now the other chaises got\n before us. Nine miles from Abbeville our axletree gave way through the\n hard frost, and we were left to the piercing cold on the side of a\n hill, without shelter. After waiting an hour and a half, we sent the\n axletree and wheels back to be repaired; and, leaving the body of the\n chaise under a guard, procured another to carry us to the next town.\n On the 15th, our chaise arrived in good repair. The country was\n covered with snow, but travelling steadily forward, we reached Dijon\n on the 27th. During the whole journey, Mr. Fletcher showed marks of\n recovery. He bore both the fatigue and cold as well as the best of us.\n On the 31st, we put up at Lyons, and solemnly closed the year, bowing\n our knees before the throne, which indeed we did all together every\n day. January 4, 1778, we left Lyons, and came on the 9th to Aix. Here\n we rest, the weather being exceedingly fine and warm. Mr. Fletcher\n walks out daily. He is now able to read and pray with us every morning\n and evening. He has no remains of his cough nor of the weakness in his\n breast. His natural colour is restored, and the sallowness quite gone.\n His appetite is good, and he takes a little wine.\u201d\n\nIn another letter Mr. Ireland wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cSoon after our arrival here, I rode out most days with my dear and\n valued friend. Now and then he complained of the uneasiness of the\n horse, and there were some remains of soreness in his breast; but this\n soon went off. The beginning of February was warm, and the warmth,\n when he walked in the fields, relaxed him; but when the wind got north\n or east, he was braced again. His appetite is good; his complexion as\n healthy as it was eleven years ago. As his strength increases, he\n increases the length of his rides. Last Tuesday, he set out on a\n journey of a hundred and twelve miles. The first day he travelled\n forty miles without feeling any fatigue; and the third day fifty-five.\n He bore the journey as well as I did; and was as well and as active at\n the end of it as at the beginning. During the day, he cried out, \u2018Help\n me to praise the Lord for His goodness; I never expected to see this\n day.\u2019 He accepted a pressing invitation to preach to the Protestants\n here; and he fulfilled his engagement on Sunday morning, taking as his\n text, \u2018Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.\u2019 Both the\n French and English were greatly affected; the word went to the hearts\n of both saints and sinners. His voice is now as good as ever it was;\n and he has an earnest invitation to preach near Montpelier, where we\n are going. You would be astonished at the entreaties of pastors as\n well as people. He has received a letter from a minister in the Levine\n Mountains, who intends to come to Montpelier, sixty miles, to press\n him to go and preach to his flock. He purposes to spend the next\n summer in his own country, and the following winter in these\n parts.\u201d[432]\n\nFootnote 432:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nIt was probably at this time that Fletcher and Mr. Ireland made a tour\nthrough Italy, and visited Rome, concerning which visit Wesley writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhile he was at Rome, as Mr. Ireland and he were one day going\n through the streets in a coach, they were informed the Pope was\n coming, and it would be required of them to kneel while he went by, as\n all the people did; if they did not, in all probability the mob would\n knock them on the head. But this they flatly refused to do; judging\n the paying such honour to a man was idolatry. The coachman was\n terrified, but turned aside into a narrow way. The Pope was in an open\n landau, waved his hands, and frequently repeated, \u2018God bless you all!\u2019\n Mr. Fletcher\u2019s spirit was greatly stirred, and he longed to bear a\n public testimony against anti-Christ; and he would have done it had he\n been able to speak Italian. He could hardly refrain from doing it in\n Latin, till he considered that only the priests could understand\n him.\u201d[433]\n\nFootnote 433:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nWhile in the south of France, Fletcher wrote to Miss Bosanquet the\nfollowing letter, which is now for the first time published:\u2014\n\n \u201cMARSEILLES, _March 7, 1778_.\n\n \u201cDEAR MADAM,\u2014Your letter did not reach me till after it had lain here,\n at the post office, several days.\n\n \u201cI cannot be answerable for what the person you mention thinks of Mr.\n Wesley or me, or our sentiments. Nothing is more common than to see\n people drawing rash inferences from premises which are partly false\n and partly true. I can only answer for myself, and for what I deem to\n be the truth.\n\n \u201cIf you ask me what I think to be the truth with respect to Christian\n perfection, I reply, my sentiments are exposed to the world in my\n essay on \u2018Christian Perfection,\u2019 and in my essay on \u2018Truth,\u2019 where I\n lay the stress of the doctrine on the great _promise of the Father_,\n and on the _Christian fulness of the Spirit_. This I have done more\n particularly in a treatise on the \u2018Birth of the Spirit;\u2019 which\n treatise is not yet published. I do not rest the doctrine of Christian\n perfection on the _absence of sin_,\u2014that is the perfection of a dove\n or a lamb; nor on the _loving God with all one\u2019s power_, for I believe\n all perfect Gentiles and Jews have done so; but on the _fulness_ of\n that superior, nobler, warmer, and _more powerful_ love, which the\n Apostle calls the _love of the Spirit_, or _the love of God shed\n abroad by the Holy Ghost_, given to the Christian believers, who,\n since the Day of Pentecost, go on to the perfection of the Christian\n dispensation.\n\n \u201cYou will find my views of this matter in Mr. Wesley\u2019s sermons on\n Christian Perfection and on Spiritual Christianity; with this\n difference, that I would distinguish more exactly between the\n believers baptized with the Pentecostal power of the Holy Ghost, and\n the believer who, like the Apostles after our Lord\u2019s ascension, is not\n yet filled with that power.\n\n \u201cI own to you, Madam, that I have been much surprised to see the gross\n inattention to, and unbelief of, the promise of the Father among\n believers of various classes. It is the sun among the stars, and yet\n some can hardly distinguish it. When I preached it to the Calvinists\n in Wales, they called it Mr. Wesley\u2019s _whim_. When I have spoken of it\n to our brethren, some have called it Lady Huntingdon\u2019s _whim_; and\n others have looked upon it as a _new thing_; which to me is the\n strongest proof that this capital Gospel doctrine is as much under a\n cloud now as the doctrine of justification by faith was at the time of\n the Reformation.\n\n \u201cShould you go back by way of London, my essay on the Birth by which\n we enter into the Kingdom in the Holy Ghost is in the hands of Miss\n Thornton, Mrs. Greenwood\u2019s sister, who will give it you if you think\n worth while to look into it. I build my faith not on my experience,\n though this increases it, but upon the revealed truth of God. Go,\n Madam, and do the same, and pray for your affectionate brother and\n servant,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\n\n \u201cMiss Bosanquet,\n \u201cat Mrs. Southcot\u2019s,\n \u201cBroad Mead,\n \u201cBristol.\u201d\n\nThe \u201ctreatise,\u201d or rather sermon, referred to in this letter, was\nwritten in French, and was not published during the lifetime of\nFletcher; but in 1794, Henry Moore, one of Wesley\u2019s first biographers,\ntranslated and printed it, with the title, \u201cThe New Birth. A Discourse\nwritten in French, by the Rev. John Fletcher, late Vicar of Madeley,\nSalop.\u201d 8vo, 39 pp. This was one of the most remarkable productions of\nFletcher\u2019s pen; and great would be the service rendered to the cause of\nChrist if, in this day of loose thinking and carnal living, it were\nreprinted in a separate form, and read by the myriads who call\nthemselves Methodists. Though mere quotations from it cannot do justice\nto it, yet two or three may be acceptable.\n\n _Regeneration._\u2014\u201cWhat is the state of a soul that is born again; and\n in what does regeneration consist? In general, we may say, it is that\n great change by which man passes from a state of nature to a state of\n grace. He was an animal man; in being born again he becomes a\n spiritual man. His natural birth had made him like to fallen Adam\u2014to\n the old man, against whom God had pronounced the sentence of death,\n seeing it is the wages of sin; but his spiritual birth makes him like\n to Jesus Christ\u2014to the new man\u2014which is created according to God in\n righteousness and true holiness. He was before born a child of\n wrath\u2014proud, sensual, and unbelieving, full of the love of the world\n and of self-love, a lover of money and of earthly glory and pleasure,\n rather than a lover of God; but, by regeneration, he is become a child\n and an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ. The humility, the\n purity, the love of Jesus, is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy\n Spirit which is given to him, making him bear the image of the _Second\n Adam_. He is in Christ a new creature; old things are passed away, all\n things are become new. All the powers and faculties of his soul are\n renovated. His understanding, heretofore covered with darkness, is\n illuminated by the experimental knowledge which he has of God and of\n His Son Jesus Christ. His conscience, asleep and insensible, awakes\n and speaks with a fidelity irreproachable. His hard heart is softened\n and broken. His will, stubborn and perverse, yields, and becomes\n conformable to the will of God. His passions, unruly, and earthly, and\n sensual, submit to the conduct of grace, and turn of themselves to\n objects invisible and heavenly. And the members of his body, servants\n more or less to iniquity, are now employed in the service of\n righteousness unto holiness.\u201d\n\n _Why regeneration is necessary._\u2014\u201cTo rejoice in the pleasures that are\n at God\u2019s right hand, it is needful to have senses and a taste that\n correspond thereto. The swine trample pearls under their feet. The\n elevated discourse of a philosopher is insupportable to a stupid\n mechanic; and an ignorant peasant, introduced into a circle of men of\n learning and taste, is disgusted, sighs after his village, and\n declares no hour ever appeared to him so long. It would be the same to\n a man who is not regenerated, if we could suppose that God would so\n far forget His truth as to open to him the gate of heaven. He would be\n incapable of those transports of love which make the happiness of the\n glorified saints. It would be insupportable for him now to meditate\n one hour on the perfections of God; what then shall He do among the\n _cherubim_ and _seraphim_, and _the spirits of just men made perfect_,\n who draw from thence their ravishing delights? He loves the pleasures\n and comforts of an animal life; but are these the same with the\n exercises of the spiritual life? His conversations, his readings, his\n amusements, as void of edification as of usefulness, rarely fatigue\n him; but an hour of meditation or prayer is insufferable. If he be not\n born again, not only he cannot be in a state to rejoice in the\n pleasures of Paradise, any more than a deaf man to receive with\n transport the most exquisite music; but the ravishing delights of\n angels would cause in him an insupportable distaste. Yes, he would\n banish himself from the presence of God, rather than pass an eternity\n in prostrating himself before the throne, and crying day and night,\n _Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, who is, and who was, and who\n is to come!_ We conclude that the gate of heaven must be opened upon\n earth by regeneration, and by the love of God, or that it will remain\n shut for ever; and that a local paradise would be only a sorrowful\n prison, to a man not regenerated, because, carrying nothing thither\n but depraved and earthly appetites and passions, and finding nothing\n there but spiritual and celestial objects, disgust and dissatisfaction\n would be the consequence; and, like Satan, his own mind would be his\n hell.\u201d\n\nPerorations are too often rhetorical flourishes, and nothing more; but,\nin the case of Fletcher, they were the outpourings of a heart\novercharged with feeling. The following is the last paragraph in the\nremarkable \u201cTreatise\u201d from which the foregoing extracts are taken:\u2014\n\n \u201cI conjure you by the majesty of that God before whom angels rejoice\n with trembling;\u2014by the terror of the Lord, who may speak to you in\n thunder, and this instant require your soul of you;\u2014by the tender\n mercies, the bowels of compassion of your heavenly Father, which are\n moved in your favour, all ungrateful as you are!\u2014I conjure you by the\n incarnation of the Eternal Word, by whom you were created;\u2014by the\n humiliation, the pains, the temptations, the tears, the bloody sweat,\n the agony, the cries of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ!\u2014I\n conjure you by the bonds, the insults, the scourgings, the robes of\n derision, the crown of thorns, the ponderous cross, the nails, the\n instruments of death which pierced His torn body; by the arrows of the\n Almighty, the poison of which drank up His spirit; by that mysterious\n stroke of Divine wrath, and by those unknown terrors which forced Him\n to exclaim, \u2018My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!\u2019\u2014I conjure you\n by the interests of your immortal soul, and by the unseen accidents\n which may precipitate you into eternity;\u2014by the bed of death, upon\n which you will soon be stretched, and by the useless sighs which you\n will then pour out, if your peace be not made with God!\u2014I conjure you\n by the sword of Divine justice, and by the sceptre of grace;\u2014by the\n sound of the last trumpet, and by the sudden appearance of the Lord\n Jesus Christ, with ten thousand of His holy angels;\u2014by that august\n tribunal, at which you will appear with me, and which shall decide our\n lot for ever;\u2014by the vain despair of hardened sinners, and by the\n unknown transports of regenerate souls!\u2014I conjure you from this\n instant work out your salvation with fear and trembling! Enter by the\n door into the sheepfold. Sell all to purchase the pearl of great\n price. Count all things dung and dross in comparison of the excellency\n of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Let Him not go till He blesses you\n with that faith which justifies, and that sanctification without which\n no man shall see the Lord. And, soon transported from this vale of\n tears into the mansions of the just made perfect, you shall cast your\n crown of immortal glory at the feet of Him that sitteth upon the\n throne, and before the Lamb who has redeemed us by His blood: to whom\n be the blessing, and the honour, and the glory, and the power for ever\n and ever! Amen.\u201d\n\nIt is time to return to Fletcher in the south of France. At the close of\nhis sojourn here, he wrote as follows to his curate, Mr. Greaves:\u2014\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014I received a letter yesterday from my second\n brother, who acquaints me, that he was to set out the 23rd of last\n month, to come hither\u201d (Montpelier), \u201cand take me to my native\n country, where my sick sister wants greatly to see me; so that, if it\n please God, I shall, next week, leave this place. The winter has been\n uncommonly rainy and windy; and even last week we had half an inch of\n snow. The climate has, nevertheless, agreed with me better than\n England, and, as a proof of it, I need only tell you, that I rode last\n Friday, from Hieres, the orange gardens of France, hither, which is\n nearly fifty miles, and was well enough to preach last Sunday in\n French at the Protestant Church. Two English clergymen came to hear\n me, and one of them takes these lines to England, where I hope they\n will find you in health of body and soul, growing in strength of\n faith, in firmness of hope, and in fervency of love to God and man,\n and especially to those whom you are tempted to think hardly of, if\n any such there be. O my dear brother, no religion will do us or our\n people any good, but that which \u2018works by love,\u2019\u2014humble, childlike,\n obedient love. May that religion fill our souls, and influence all our\n tempers, words, and actions, and may the leaven leaven the whole lump!\n May St. James\u2019s peaceable religion spread through all our parish!\n\n \u201cI hope you are settled to your satisfaction; and I shall be glad to\n do what is in my power to make your stay at Madeley agreeable. I wish\n you may have as much success as we desire; but, whatever success we\n have, we must cast our bread upon the waters, though we should see as\n little fruit as he that said of old, \u2018I have laboured in vain:\u2019 for\n our reward will be with the Lord, if not with men.\u201d[434]\n\nFootnote 434:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nIn company with his brother, Fletcher left Montpelier, and arrived at\nNyon, the place of his nativity, where, in the house once occupied by\nhis father, he received the utmost attention from his affectionate\nrelatives, and had medical advice equal to any to be obtained in Europe.\nOne of his first acts was to write \u201cto the Societies in and about\nMadeley.\u201d He addressed them as \u201cMy dear, very dear brethren;\u201d charged\nthem all to meet him in heaven, \u201cwith all the mind that was in Christ;\u201d\nand sent his \u201clove and thanks to Mr. Murlin and Mr. Roberts,\u201d the two\nMethodist preachers stationed at Chester, showing that Madeley, at this\nperiod, was a part of the Chester circuit.[435]\n\nFootnote 435:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 43.\n\nSoon afterwards, he wrote to his beloved medical adviser, in England,\nMr. William Perronet, as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cNYON, _May 15, 1778_.\n\n \u201cThe climate, and prospect, and fine roads, and pure air I enjoy here,\n had contributed to strengthen me a little; when, about a month ago,\n something I was chewing got into my windpipe, and caused a fit of\n coughing which lasted half-an-hour. I then began to spit blood again,\n and ever since I have had a bad cough, which has sometimes exercised\n me violently for an hour after my first sleep. My cough, however, has\n been better the last two days, and I hope it will go off. I have\n bought a quiet horse, whose easy pace I can bear; and I ride much. I\n have not ventured upon preaching since I came hither: it would be\n impossible for me now to go through it. If the weather should grow\n hot, I may, at any time, go to the hills, the foot of which is five or\n six miles distant. I drink goats\u2019 milk, and have left off meat since\n the cough came on, but design eating a little again at dinner.\u201d[436]\n\nFootnote 436:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nTwo days after the date of this letter, Fletcher was at Macon, whither\nhe had gone to meet his friend Mr. Ireland, on his return from\nMontpelier to England. Whilst he was here, he wrote two letters, which\nmust be quoted. The first, addressed to \u201cThe Rev. Messrs. John and\nCharles Wesley,\u201d was as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMACON, IN BURGUNDY, _May 17, 1778_.\n\n \u201cREV. AND DEAR SIRS,\u2014I hope while I lie by, the Lord continues to\n renew your vigour, and sends you to water His vineyard, and to stand\n in the gap against error and vice.\n\n \u201cI preached twice at Marseilles, but was not permitted to follow the\n blow. There are few noble, inquisitive Bereans in these parts. The\n ministers in the town of my nativity have been very civil. They have\n offered me the pulpit; but, I fear, if I could accept the offer, it\n would soon be recalled. I am loath to quit this part of the field\n without casting a stone at that giant, sin, who stalks about with\n uncommon boldness. I shall, therefore, stay some months longer, to see\n if the Lord will give me strength to venture an attack.\n\n \u201cGambling and dress, sinful pleasure and love of money, unbelief and\n false philosophy, lightness of spirit, fear of man, and love of the\n world, are the principal sins by which Satan binds his captives in\n these parts. Materialism is not rare; Deism and Socinianism are very\n common; and a set of Free-thinkers, great admirers of Voltaire[437]\n and Rosseau, Bayle and Mirabeau, seem bent upon destroying\n Christianity and government. If we believe them, the world is the dupe\n of kings and priests. Religion is fanaticism and superstition.\n Subordination is slavery. Christian morality is absurd, unnatural, and\n impracticable; and Christianity the most bloody religion that ever\n was. And here it is certain, that, by the example of Christians _so\n called_, and by our continual disputes, they have a great advantage,\n and do the truth immense mischief. _Popery will certainly fall in\n France, in this or the next century_; and I have no doubt God will use\n those vain men to bring about a reformation here, as he used Henry the\n Eighth to do that work in England; so the madness of His enemies\n shall, at last, turn to His praise, and to the futherance of His\n kingdom.\n\n \u201cIn the meantime, it becomes all lovers of the truth to make their\n heavenly tempers, and humble, peaceful love to shine before all men,\n that those mighty adversaries, seeing the good works of professors,\n may glorify their Father who is in heaven, and no more blaspheme that\n worthy name, by which we are all called Christians.\n\n \u201cIf you ask, what system these men adopt? I answer, some build on\n Deism a morality founded on _self-preservation_, _self-interest_, and\n _self-honour_. Others laugh at all morality, except that which being\n neglected _violently_ disturbs society. And external order is the\n decent covering of Fatalism, while Materialism is their system.\n\n \u201cOh, dear Sirs, let me entreat you, in these dangerous days, to use\n your wide influence, with unabated zeal, against the scheme of these\n modern Celsuses, Porphyries, and Julians, by calling all professors to\n think and speak the same things, to love and embrace one another, and\n to firmly resist those daring men; many of whom are already in\n England, headed by the admirers of Mr. Hume and Mr. Hobbes. But it is\n needless to say this to those who have made, and continue to make,\n such a stand for vital Christianity; so that I have nothing to do but\n pray that the Lord may abundantly support and strengthen you, and make\n you a continued comfort to His enlightened people, loving reprovers of\n those who mix light with darkness, and a terror to the perverse.\n\n \u201cI need not tell you, Sirs, that the hour in which Providence shall\n make my way plain to return to England, to unite with those who feel\n or seek the power of Christian godliness, will be welcome to me. O\n favoured Britons! Happy would it be for them, if they knew their\n Gospel privileges!\n\n \u201cMy relations in Adam are all very kind to me; but the spiritual\n relations, whom God has raised me in England, exceed them yet. Thanks\n be to Christ, and to His blasphemed religion!\n\n \u201cI am, Rev. Sirs, your affectionate son, and obliged servant in the\n Gospel,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[438]\n\nFootnote 437:\n\n Thirteen days after the date of this letter, Voltaire, in Paris, took\n a large dose of opium, without the advice of his physicians, and died.\n\nFootnote 438:\n\n _Arminian Magazine_, 1788, p. 384.\n\nOn the day after the date of this letter, Fletcher wrote the following\nto the Rev. Dr. Conyers, another Methodist Clergyman, to whom he had\nsent his \u201c_Reconciliation; or, an easy Method to unite the people of\nGod_,\u201d published in 1777:\u2014\n\n \u201cMACON, IN BURGUNDY, _May 18, 1778_.\n\n \u201cHON. AND DEAR SIR,\u2014I left orders, with a friend, to send you a little\n book called \u2018_The Reconciliation_,\u2019 in which I endeavour to bring\n nearer the children of God, who are divided about their _partial_\n views of divine truths. I know not whether that tract has, in any\n degree, answered its design; but I believe truth can be reconciled\n with itself, and the candid children of God one with another. O that\n some _abler_ hand, and _more loving_ heart, would undertake to mend my\n plan, or draw one more agreeable to the Word of God! My eyes are upon\n _you_, dear Sir, and those who are like-minded with you, for this\n work. Disappoint not my hope. Stand forth, and make way for\n reconciling love, by removing, so far as lies in you, what is in the\n way of brotherly union.\n\n \u201cO Sir! the work is worthy of you. If you saw with what boldness the\n false philosophers of the continent, who are the apostles of the age,\n attack Christianity, and represent it as one of the worst religions in\n the world, and fit only to make the professors of it murder one\n another, or at least to contend among themselves, and how they urge\n our disputes to make the Gospel of Christ the jest of nations, and the\n abhorrence of all flesh, you would break through your natural\n timidity, and invite all our brethren in the ministry to unite and\n form a close battalion, and face the common enemy.\n\n \u201cO dear Sir! take courage. Be bold for reconciling truth. Be bold for\n peace. You can do all things through Christ strengthening you; and, as\n _Doctor Conyers_, you can do many things, a great many more than you\n think. What if you go, Sir, in Christ\u2019s name, to all the Gospel\n ministers of your acquaintance, exhort them as a father, entreat them\n as a brother, and bring them, or as many of them as you can, together?\n Think you that your labour would be in vain in the Lord? Impossible,\n Sir! O despair not. If you want a coach, or a friend to accompany you,\n when you go upon this errand of love, remember there is a _Thornton_\n in London, and an _Ireland_ in Bristol, who will wish you God speed;\n and God will raise many more to concur in the peaceful work.\n\n \u201cLet me humbly entreat you to go to work, and to persevere in it. I\n wish I had strength to be, at least, your postilion when you go. I\n would drive, if not like Jehu, at least with some degree of cheerful\n swiftness, while Christ smiled on the Christian attempt. But I am\n confident you can do all in the absence of him, who is, with brotherly\n love, and dutiful respect, Hon. and dear Sir, your obedient servant in\n the Gospel,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[439]\n\nFootnote 439:\n\n _Arminian Magazine_, 1788, p. 386.\n\nDr. Conyers, to whom this letter was addressed, was a notable man. Born\nat Helmsley, Yorkshire, in 1725, he, in due time, became the Vicar of\nthat extensive parish. His conversion there, and his labours, were\nremarkable. In 1765, he married Mrs. Knipe, a rich and pious widow, the\nsister of the well-known John Thornton, Esq., of Clapham. Three years\nbefore the foregoing letter was written, Mr. Thornton presented him to\nthe living of St. Paul\u2019s, Deptford; and here he died in 1786, eight\nmonths after the death of Fletcher.[440] At the beginning of his\nevangelical career, he was warmly attached to Wesley, and a firm\nbeliever in the doctrines of the Arminians. Afterwards, he was, to some\nextent, influenced by certain of the Calvinian Ministers, with whom he\nheld converse; but, like his brother-in-law, John Thornton, he was a\nlover of all good men; and, occupying a kind of neutral position between\nthe contending parties, Fletcher deemed him well qualified to bring\nabout the reconciliation of the two.\n\nFootnote 440:\n\n _Evangelical Magazine_, 1794.\n\nAt this period, the venerable Vicar of Shoreham had been recently\ninformed that he was entitled to a valuable estate in Switzerland, and\nWilliam Perronet, Fletcher\u2019s medical adviser in England, had undertaken\nto visit Switzerland to enforce his father\u2019s rights. Before doing so,\nhowever, he wrote to Fletcher, requesting his advice; and Fletcher\u2019s\nreply was as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cNYON, _June 2, 1778_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014When I wrote to you last, I mentioned two ladies of\n your family who have married two brothers, Messrs. Monod. Since then,\n they have requested me to send your father the enclosed memorial,\n which I hope will prove of use to your family. As the bad writing and\n the language may make the understanding of it difficult, I forward you\n the substance of it, and of the letter of the ladies\u2019 lawyer.\n\n \u201cWhile I invite you to make your title clear to a precarious estate on\n earth, permit me, my dear Sir, to remind you of the heavenly\n inheritance entailed on believers. The will, the New Testament by\n which we can recover it, is proved. The Court is just and equitable;\n the Judge is gracious and loving. To enter into possession of a part\n of the estate here, and of the whole hereafter, we need only believe\n and prove _evangelically_ that we are believers. Let us then set about\n it _now_, with earnestness, with perseverance, and with a full\n assurance that, through grace, we shall carry our cause. Alas! what\n are estates and crowns to grace and glory?\n\n \u201cI have had a pull back since I wrote last. After I left Mr. Ireland\n at Macon, to shorten my journey and enjoy new prospects, I ventured to\n cross the mountains which separate France from this country. On the\n third day of the journey, I found a large hill, whose winding roads\n were so steep that, though we fed the horses with bread and wine, they\n could scarcely draw the chaise, and I was obliged to walk in all the\n steepest places. The climbing lasted several hours; the sun was hot; I\n perspired violently; and the next day I spit blood again. I have\n chiefly kept to goat\u2019s milk ever since; I find myself better; and my\n cough is neither frequent nor violent.\n\n \u201cThis is a delightful country. If you come to see it, and to claim the\n estate, bring all the papers and memorials you can collect; and share\n a pleasant apartment, and one of the finest prospects in the world, in\n the house where I was born. I design to try this fine air some months\n longer. We have a fine shady wood near the lake, where I can ride in\n the cool all the day, and enjoy the singing of a multitude of birds.\n But this, though sweet, does not come up to the singing of my dear\n friends in England. There I meet them in spirit several hours in the\n day.\u201d[441]\n\nFootnote 441:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 263, and Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nThe ensuing letter, kindly lent by the Rev. Dr. Knowles, of Tunbridge\nWells, has not before been published. It was addressed to \u201cMr. Power,\nDruggist, in Broadmead, Bristol, Angleterre.\u201d\n\n \u201cNYON, _June 20, 1778_.\n\n \u201cDEAR SIR,\u2014A journey and my constant rides have hindered me\n acknowledging sooner the favour of your observations and criticisms,\n which I received some time ago. If I had my little publications here,\n to turn to the pages you quote, I would immediately make notes, and\n alter or rectify what you object to, as a preparation for a more\n correct edition, should the work be ever reprinted. I wish all my\n friends had taken as much pains about my works as you have, Sir; they\n would by this time be more correct. Accept my sincere thanks for the\n favour; and, if I live to see England again, we shall (please God)\n talk the matter over fully.\n\n \u201cI am obliged to you for your caution about preaching. I have followed\n it, and have not yet preached in this country, though I believe I\n shall soon venture again upon it, but with care and in a sparing\n manner. I hope at least the Lord will give me grace so to do.\n\n \u201cI heartily rejoice that Mrs. Power has been carried safely, a second\n time, through the danger of child-bearing. May she and the two fruits\n of her body live to the glory of God, and to your comfort! Remember me\n kindly to her; and give my blessing to my god-son, whose will, I hope,\n you continue to break with the wisdom, patience, and steadiness which\n become a parent.\n\n \u201cI sent your mother a few lines by Mr. Ireland. I hope she received\n them; but I shall never get an answer, if what he writes me is true.\n Is she dead indeed? Sometimes I hope it is a rumour without\n foundation; and yet his account that she died at Bath, where your\n letter mentions she was gone, makes me fear he was well-informed. If\n she is no more, you have lost a tender mother, and I a kind friend;\n but the Lord will make up all our losses, and has already made them up\n by giving us His Son. May we receive Him, and with Him all that is\n excellent among the living and the dead! As she has been for many\n years a woman of sorrow,\u2014a true Hannah\u2014wading almost constantly\n through a sea of temptations, they may have followed her to the last,\n and she may have escaped out of many tribulations, as the saints\n mentioned in the Revelation. A line about it, and about your welfare,\n and that of my god-son, will greatly oblige, dear Sir, your obedient\n and already obliged servant,\n\n J. FLETCHER.\n\n \u201cMy love to your brother, when you see him.\u201d\n\nThe next letter, written to Mr. Ireland, contains a sylvan scene worthy\nof being painted:\u2014\n\n \u201cNYON, _July 15, 1778_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014I have ventured to preach once, and to expound once\n in the church. Our ministers are very kind, and preach to the purpose.\n A young one of this town gave us lately a very excellent gospel\n sermon.\n\n \u201cGrown-up people stand fast in their stupidity, or in their\n self-righteousness. The day I preached, I met some children in my wood\n gathering strawberries. I spoke to them about our _common_ Father. We\n felt a touch of brotherly affection. They said they would sing to\n their Father, as well as the birds; and followed me, attempting to\n make such melody as you know is commonly made in these parts. I\n outrode them, but some of them had the patience to follow me home; and\n said they would speak with me. The people of the house stopped them,\n saying, I would not be troubled with children. They cried, and said,\n _they were sure I would not say so, for I was their good brother_. The\n next day, when I heard this, I enquired after them, and invited them\n to come and see me; which they have done every day since. I make them\n little hymns, which they sing. Some of them are unde, sweet drawings.\n Yesterday, I wept for joy on hearing one of them speak, as an\n experienced believer in Bristol would have done, of conviction of sin,\n and of the joy unspeakable in Christ that followed. Last Sunday, I met\n them in the wood; there were a hundred of them, and as many adults.\n Our first pastor has since desired me to desist from preaching in the\n wood (for I had exhorted), for fear of giving umbrage; and I have\n complied, from a concurrence of circumstances which are not worth\n mentioning; I therefore now meet them in my father\u2019s yard.\u201d[442]\n\nFootnote 442:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 264.\n\nWhat a contrast to this scene of gentleness among children is the\nfollowing!\n\nFletcher had a nephew, who had been in the Sardinian army, where his\nungentlemanly and profligate conduct had given such general offence to\nhis brother officers that they determined to compel him to leave their\ncorps, or to fight them all in succession. After engaging in two or\nthree duels, with various success, the young bravo left the service, and\nnow, during Fletcher\u2019s present visit, he returned to Switzerland. His\nresources were soon spent in profligacy; and, gaining access to his\nuncle, General De Gons, he presented a loaded pistol, and said, \u201cUncle\nDe Gons, if you do not give me a draft on your banker for five hundred\ncrowns, I will shoot you.\u201d The General was a brave man, but, seeing\nhimself in the power of a desperado capable of any mischief, he wrote\nthe draft. \u201cUncle,\u201d said the young fellow, \u201cyou must do another thing;\nyou must promise me, on your honour, to use no means to recover the\ndraft, or to bring me to justice.\u201d The General promised, and the bandit\nrode away triumphantly. Passing the door of his uncle Fletcher, he\ncalled upon him, and told him General De Gons had generously given him\nfive hundred crowns. Fletcher doubted the truthfulness of this\nstatement. The draft was produced. \u201cLet me see it,\u201d said Fletcher. It\nwas handed to him. Fletcher examined it, and remarked, \u201cIt is indeed my\nbrother\u2019s writing, and it astonishes me; because my brother is not\nwealthy, and I know that he justly disapproves your conduct, and that\nyou are the last in the family to whom he would make such a present.\u201d\nThen, folding the draft and putting it into his pocket, Fletcher added,\n\u201cIt strikes me, young man, that you have obtained this draft improperly;\nand, in honesty, I cannot return it without my brother\u2019s approbation.\u201d\nOut came the pistol, and was levelled at Fletcher\u2019s breast. \u201cReturn it,\u201d\ncried the young scoundrel, \u201cor I will take your life.\u201d \u201cMy life,\u201d calmly\nreplied Fletcher, \u201cis secure in the protection of the Almighty Power who\nguards it; nor will He suffer it to be the forfeit of your rashness, or\nmy integrity. Do you think that I, who have been a minister of God for\nfive-and-twenty years, am afraid of death? It is for you to fear death,\nwho have every reason to fear it. You are a gamester and a cheat, yet\ncall yourself a gentleman! You are the seducer of female innocence, and\nstill you say that you are a gentleman! You are a duellist and your hand\nis red with blood, and for this you call yourself a man of honour! Look\nthere, Sir! look there! See, the broad eye of heaven is upon us. Tremble\nin the presence of your Maker, who can in a moment kill your body, and\nfor ever damn your soul!\u201d The culprit turned pale; then he argued,\nthreatened, and entreated. Sometimes, taking out his pistol, he fixed\nhimself against the door to prevent egress; and, at other times, closed\non frail Fletcher, menacing him with instantaneous death. All was of no\navail. The poor country parson was as valorous as the most heroic\nsoldier. He gave no alarm to the family; he sought no weapon; he\nattempted no escape; he simply conversed with the calmness of a hero and\na saint. At length, the young fellow began to be affected; and now,\nhaving gained the victory, Fletcher addressed him in another strain: \u201cI\ncannot return my brother\u2019s draft,\u201d said he; \u201cyet I feel for your\ndistress, and will endeavour to relieve it. My brother Gons, at my\nrequest, I am sure will give you a hundred crowns; I will do the same;\nperhaps my brother Henry will do as much; and I hope your own family\nwill make up the five hundred crowns among them.\u201d Fletcher then fell\nupon his knees, and began to pray; uncle and nephew parted, and the\nfamily, by Fletcher\u2019s mediation, furnished the young scapegrace with the\nfive hundred crowns he had feloniously attempted to extort.[443]\n\nFootnote 443:\n\n Cox\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d p. 129.\n\nAmidst such scenes, Fletcher did not forget his friends at Madeley. On\nJuly 18, he wrote three messages:\u2014\n\n _To his curate, the Rev. Mr. Greaves._\u2014\u201cI trust you lay yourself out\n for the good of the flock committed to your care. I shall be glad to\n hear that they grow in grace, and humble love.\u201d\n\n _To the congregation in Madeley church._\u2014\u201cJohn Fletcher begs a farther\n interest in the prayers of the congregation of Madeley; and desires\n those, who assemble to serve God in the church, to help him to return\n public thanks to Almighty God for many mercies received; especially,\n for being able to do a little ministerial duty. He humbly beseeches\n them to serve God as Christians, and to love one another as brethren;\n neglecting no means of grace, and rejoicing in all the hopes of\n glory.\u201d\n\n _To the Methodist Societies \u201cin Madeley, Dawley, and the Banks.\u201d_\u2014\u201cWe\n are all called to grow in grace, and, consequently, in love, which is\n the greatest of all Christian graces. Your prayers for my soul and my\n body have not been without answer. Blessed be God! Glory be to His\n rich mercy in Christ, I live yet _the life of faith_; as to my body, I\n recover some strength. God bless you all, with all the blessings\n brought to the Church by Christ Jesus, and by the other Comforter! My\n love to the preachers\u201d (John Murlin and Robert Roberts), \u201cwhom I beg\n you will thank in my name.\u201d[444]\n\nFootnote 444:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 45.\n\nTwo months later (September 15), he wrote to his friend Thomas York:\u2014\n\n \u201cBlessed be the God of all consolation, though I have still very\n trying and feverish nights, I am kept in peace of mind; resigned to\n His will, who afflicts me for my good, and justly sets me aside for my\n unprofitableness. His grace within, and His people without, turn my\n trying circumstances into matter of praise. Give my love to all your\n dear family; to the two or three who may yet remember me at Shiffnal;\n and, also, to Daniel, and desire him, when he gathers the Easter dues,\n to give my love and thanks to _all_ my parishioners.\u201c[445]\n\nFootnote 445:\n\n _Ibid_, p. 45.\n\nNo doubt Fletcher\u2019s statement to Mr. York, respecting himself, was\nstrictly true; but, still, there must have been a considerable\nimprovement in his health since he left England. Hence the following\ninteresting letter, written to Mr. Ireland only ten days later:\u2014\n\n \u201cNYON, _September 25, 1778_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014I am just returned from an excursion I have made with\n my brother, through the fine vale in the midst of the high hills which\n divide France from this country. In that vale we found three lakes,\n one on French ground, and two on Swiss: the largest is six miles long\n and two wide. It is the part of the country where industry is most\n apparent, and where population thrives best. The inhabitants are\n chiefly woodmen, coopers, watchmakers, and jewellers. They told me,\n they had the best singing, and the best preacher, in the country. I\n asked, if any sinners were converted under his ministry? They stared,\n and asked, what I meant by conversion? When I had explained myself,\n they said, \u2018We do not live in the time of miracles.\u2019\n\n \u201cI was better satisfied in passing through a part of the vale which\n belongs to the King of France. I saw a prodigious concourse of people,\n and supposed they kept a fair, but was agreeably surprised to find\n three missionaries in the midst of them, who went about as itinerant\n preachers to help the regular clergy. They had been there some days,\n and were three brothers, and preached morning and evening. The evening\n service opened with what they called _a conference_. One of the\n missionaries took the pulpit, and the parish priest proposed questions\n to him, which he answered at full length and in a very edifying\n manner. The subject was the unlawfulness and the mischief of those\n methods by which persons of different sexes lay snares for each other,\n and corrupt each other\u2019s morals. The subject was treated with\n delicacy, propriety, and truth. The method was admirably well\n calculated to draw and fix the attention of a mixed multitude. This\n _conference_ being ended, another missionary took the pulpit. His text\n was our Lord\u2019s description of the day of judgment. Before the sermon,\n all those who, for the press, could kneel, did, and sang a French hymn\n to beg a blessing on the word; and indeed it was blessed. An awful\n attention was visible upon most, and, during a good part of the\n discourse, the voice of the preacher was almost lost in the cries and\n bitter wailings of the audience. When the outcry began, the preacher\n was describing the departure of the wicked into eternal fire. They\n urged that God was merciful, and that Jesus Christ had shed His blood\n for them. \u2018But that mercy you have slighted, and now is the time of\n justice. That blood you have trodden under foot, and now it cries for\n vengeance. Know your day. Slight the Father\u2019s mercy and the Son\u2019s\n blood no longer.\u2019 I have seen but once or twice congregations as much\n affected in England.\n\n \u201cOne of our ministers being ill, I ventured, a second time, into the\n pulpit last Sunday; and, the Sunday before, I preached, six miles off,\n to two thousand people in the yard of a jail, where they were come to\n see a murderer before his execution. I was a little abused by the\n bailiff on the occasion, and was refused the liberty of attending the\n poor man to the scaffold, where he was to be broken on the wheel. I\n hope he died penitent. The day before he suffered, he said he had\n broken his irons, and that, as he deserved to die, he desired new ones\n to be put on, lest he should be tempted to make his escape.\n\n \u201cYou ask, what I design to do? I propose, if it be the Lord\u2019s will, to\n spend the winter here. In the spring, I shall, if nothing prevents,\n return to England with you, or with Mr. Perronet, if his affairs are\n settled, or alone, if other ways fail. In the meanwhile, I rejoice\n with you in Jesus, and in the glorious hope of that complete salvation\n His faithfulness has promised, and His power can never be at a loss to\n bestow. We must be saved by faith and hope till we are saved by\n perfect love, and made partakers of heavenly glory. I am truly a\n _stranger_ here. As strangers let us go where we shall meet the\n assembly of the righteous gathered in Jesus.\u201c[446]\n\nFootnote 446:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 268.\n\nMr. William Perronet arrived at Nyon in the month of December, and, in\nletters to his father, related:\u2014\n\n \u201cHowever engaged Mr. Fletcher is the greater part of the day, he is\n generally so kind as to spend a little time with me in the evening in\n prayer and conversation. His chief delight seems to be in meeting his\n little society of children. He is exceedingly fond of them, and they\n appear to be as fond of him. He seldom walks abroad or rides out, but\n some of them follow him, singing the hymns they have learned, and\n conversing with him by the way. But you must not suppose that he is\n permitted to enjoy this happiness unmolested. Not only do the\n drunkards make songs on him and his little companions, but many of the\n clergy loudly complain of such irregular proceedings. However, he is\n upon good terms with three ministers of the place; all of whom are\n serious men, and desirous of promoting true religion.\n\n \u201cHe is better, I think, than when he left England; but he frequently\n puts his strength to too severe a trial, by meeting his Society of\n children, and some grown persons; and other exercises of a like\n nature. When he ventures to preach, his spitting of blood returns; and\n whenever this happens, his strength and spirits decay\n surprisingly.\u201d[447]\n\nFootnote 447:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher\u201d.\n\nFletcher and his brother translated all the papers of William Perronet\ninto French, and, in other ways, assisted him, in reference to the\nestate which he had gone to Switzerland to obtain. Notwithstanding the\ndelicate state of Fletcher\u2019s health, the three set out, in the wintry\nweather of that December month, to visit Chateau d\u2019Oex, where the\nproperty was situated. The distance from Nyon was fifty-seven miles.\nWhen they had made about a quarter of the journey, \u201cthe horses were\ntired out, the coachman refused to proceed further,\u201d and they were\nobliged to return home again.[448] A few days later, they made another\nattempt, and arrived at their destination on January 10, 1779. Five days\nafterwards, they were again at Nyon.\n\nFootnote 448:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nIn Fletcher\u2019s state of health, such a journey was perilous; but his love\nto the Perronet family was such that, to him, no labour and risk, on\ntheir behalf, were too great. In letters to his venerable father, at\nShoreham, William Perronet states, that none of them having been to\nChateau d\u2019Oex before, they were obliged to employ a guide, and that \u201con\naccount of the badness of the ways,\u201d they had \u201cto go some leagues\nabout,\u201d which made their journey about eighty miles. Their coach had to\npass \u201cover mountains of snow and rocks of ice.\u201d When nine miles from\nChateau d\u2019Oex, they were obliged to exchange their coach for \u201can open\nsledge;\u201d and now they \u201ctravelled through narrow passes, cut through the\nsnow, which, on both sides, was many feet above their heads; on the\nsides of mountains, whose summits the eye could scarcely reach; and\nfrequently on the brink of precipices, at the bottoms of which they\ncould hear the waters roar like thunder.\u201d In one place, Fletcher and\nWilliam Perronet, being obliged to walk, their feet slipped: Fletcher\n\u201creceived a violent blow on the back part of the head;\u201d and William\nPerronet \u201csprained\u201d his \u201cwrist.\u201d In crossing the Alps, they had to lie\n\u201ctwo nights in beds that were not only damp, but musty and without\ncurtains;\u201d and, \u201cbeing in a Popish canton, and Friday and Saturday being\nmeagre days,\u201d they \u201cwere almost starved with hunger as well as cold.\u201d\n\u201cThe weather was extremely severe, and it was scarce in the power of\nclothes, or even of fire, to keep\u201d them \u201cwarm.\u201d William Perronet\nconcludes his narrative of their adventures as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhether I succeed in my temporal business or not, I shall ever\n remember, with pleasure and thankfulness, the opportunities I have\n been blessed with in spending so much time in company with our\n inestimable friend; who, wherever he goes, preaches the Gospel, both\n by his words and example; nay, by his very looks, not only to his\n friends, but to all whom he meets: so that, on the top of the frozen\n Alps, and in the dreary vale of Chateau d\u2019Oex, good seed has been\n sown. At Chateau d\u2019Oex, he was visited by some of the principal\n inhabitants, who stood around him, in deep attention, for almost an\n hour, while he exhorted and prayed.\u201d[449]\n\nFootnote 449:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nIn a postscript to this letter, Fletcher wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cI have had the pleasure of accompanying your son to your father\u2019s\n birthplace. It is a charming country for those who have a taste for\n highland prospects; but what is it to our heavenly Father\u2019s _Hill of\n Sion_? Thither may we all travel, summer and winter, and there may we\n all have a happy meeting, and find an eternal inheritance!\u201d\n\nThree weeks later, Fletcher wrote the following to Mr. Ireland:\u2014\n\n \u201cNYON, _February 2, 1779_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014I am sorry to hear that you are still tried by\n illness; but our good, heavenly Father is wise; His will be done; His\n name be praised!\n\n \u201cI am better, thank God! and ride out every day, when the slippery\n roads will permit me to venture without the risk of breaking my\n horse\u2019s legs and my own neck. You will ask me how I spend my time? I\n pray, have patience, rejoice, and write, when I can; I saw wood in the\n house when I cannot go out; and eat grapes, of which I have always a\n basket by me.\n\n \u201cOur little Lord-Lieutenant has forbidden the ministers to let me\n exhort in the parsonage, because it is the _sovereign\u2019s house_. My\n second brother has addressed a memorial to him, in which he informs\n him that he will give up neither his religious nor civil liberty, and\n will open his house for the Word of God. According, we have since met\n at his house.\n\n \u201cOn Sunday, we met at the young clergyman\u2019s who writes against the\n conduct of the clergy; but I fear we fence against a wall of brass.\n However, I am quite persuaded that Providence calls me to leave a\n testimony to my French brethren, and it may be of some use when I\n shall be no more. I have been comforted by the apology of a minister\n at Yverdon, who was persecuted at the beginning of this century under\n the name of Pietist; and I have become acquainted with a faithful\n minister of Geneva, but he dares no more offer me his pulpit than my\n brother-in-law at Lausanne.\n\n \u201cSeveral young women seem to have received the Word in the love of it,\n and four or five grown-up ones; but not one man, except the young\n hopeful clergyman I mention, who helps me at my little meetings, and\n begins to preach extempore. The truths I chiefly insist upon, when I\n talk to the people who will hear me, are those which I feed upon\n myself as my daily bread. \u2018God, our Maker and Preserver, though\n invisible, is _here_ and _everywhere_. He is our chief good, because\n all beauty and all goodness centre in and flow from Him. He is\n especially _love_; and love in us, being His image, is the sum and\n substance of all moral and spiritual excellence\u2014of all true and\n lasting bliss. In Adam we are all estranged from love and from God;\n but the Second Adam\u2014Jesus, Emanuel, God with us,\u2014is come to make us\n know and enjoy again our God as the God of love and the chief good.\n All who receive Jesus receive power to become the sons of God,\u2019 etc.,\n etc.\n\n \u201cI hope I shall be able to set out for England with Mr. Perronet, in\n April or May. O that I may find that dear island in peace within and\n without![450] Well, I hope you make peace in the Church if you cannot\n make peace with the patriots.\n\n \u201cThe coats and shoes you gave me have lasted _all this while_, and are\n yet good; so that I need not draw upon your banker. Thank God, and\n you, for a thousand favours! God bless and comfort you, my dear\n friend! We are poor creatures, but we have a good God to cast all our\n burdens upon, and who often burdens us that we may have constant and\n free recourse to His bounty, power, and faithfulness. Stand fast in\n the faith. Believe _lovingly_, and all will be well.\u201d[451]\n\nFootnote 450:\n\n The war with the American Colonists was now raging, and England was\n greatly excited.\n\nFootnote 451:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 271.\n\nTo his friend and Methodist helper among the Madeley Societies, William\nWase, Fletcher wrote as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cNYON, _February 11, 1779_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014I have just received yours of January 24, and rejoice\n to hear of the welfare of your friends, whom I long much to see; but\n there is no blessing _here_ without some alloy of grief, and such was\n to me the account of the poor state of health of dear Mrs. Wase. Tell\n her I should be glad to hold up her hands in her fight of affliction;\n but, if the poor, unprofitable, weak servant is afar off, the Master,\n who is rich in mercy, who fills the whole world with His goodness and\n patience, is near to her and to all His afflicted ones. I recommend to\n her two remedies. One is a cheerful resignation to the will of God,\n whereby her animal spirits will be greatly raised or sweetly\n refreshed. The other is, four lumps of heavenly sugar, to be taken\n every half hour, day and night, when she does not sleep. I make a\n constant use of them, to my great comfort. They have quickened my soul\n when I was dying, and I doubt not they will have the same effect upon\n hers. They are: \u2018God so loved the world,\u2019 etc. \u2018If any man sin,\u2019 etc.\n \u2018It is a faithful saying,\u2019 etc. \u2018Come unto Me, all ye that are weary,\u2019\n etc.\n\n \u201cTell my little god-daughter, Patty Cartwright, she is big enough and\n bad enough to take these heavenly pills. Tell her mother to take them\n regularly with her. What a shame it is to have such a remedy and not\n to make more use of it!\n\n \u201cRemember me in much love to dear Mr. Hatton. Thank brother Costerdine\n and his fellow-labourer[452] for their occasional help. May the Lord\n vouchsafe to consecrate our little Zoar[453] by calling one sinner and\n establishing another saint! How abundantly shall we be repaid for our\n little expense and trouble! Thank the brethren you have mentioned;\n salute them kindly from me, not forgetting John Tranter and our\n friends at the Fore Bank\u2014Thomas Pool and Thomas Banks, and our friends\n at Dawley Green. You may see in the enclosed that I am not without\n hopes of telling you in May how much I am yours,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[454]\n\nFootnote 452:\n\n James Barry and Robert Costerdine, the two Methodist itinerant\n preachers stationed in the Chester circuit, of which Madeley and its\n neighbourhood were a part.\n\nFootnote 453:\n\n The meeting-house Fletcher had recently erected in Madeley Wood, and\n which is now a part of the Wesleyan Chapel there.\n\nFootnote 454:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 47, and the _Christian Miscellany_, 1877, p. 333.\n\n\u201cThe enclosed\u201d communication bore the same date as this letter to\nWilliam Wase, of Broseley, and was addressed \u201cTo the Brethren in and\nabout Madeley;\u201d _i.e._, the Methodists:\u2014\n\n \u201cMY DEAR COMPANIONS IN TRIBULATION,\u2014Peace and mercy, faith, hope, and\n love be multiplied to you all from the Father of mercies through the\n Lord Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of grace! I thank you for your kind\n remembrance of me in your prayers. I am yet spared to pray for you. O\n that I had more power with God! I would bring down heaven into all\n your hearts. Strive together in love for the living faith, the\n glorious hope, the sanctifying love once delivered to the saints. Look\n to Jesus. Move on; run yourselves in the heavenly race, and let each\n sweetly draw his brother along, till the whole company appears before\n the redeeming God in Sion.\n\n \u201cI hope God will, in His mercy, spare me to see you in the flesh; and\n if I cannot labour for you, I shall gladly suffer with you. If you\n will put health into my flesh, joy into my heart, and life into my\n whole frame, be of _one heart_ and of _one soul_. Count nothing your\n _own_ but your _sin_ and _shame_; and bury that dreadful property in\n the grave of our Saviour. Let all you are and have be His who bought\n you. Dig hard in the _Gospel_ mines for hidden treasure. Blow hard the\n furnace of prayer with the bellows of faith until you are melted into\n love, and the dross of sin is purged out of every heart. Get together\n into Jesus, the heavenly ark, and sweetly sail into the ocean of\n eternity; so shall you be true miners, furnacemen, and bargemen.\n Farewell, in Jesus! Tell Mrs. Cound I shall greatly rejoice if she\n remembers Lot\u2019s wife.\u201d[455]\n\nFootnote 455:\n\n Letters, p. 48, and _ibid_, p. 334.\n\nSix weeks after the date of this letter to the Madeley Methodists,\nWesley visited them, and wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201c1779. March 25, _Thursday_. I preached in the new house which Mr.\n Fletcher has built in Madeley Wood. The people here exactly resemble\n those at Kingswood, only they are more simple and teachable. But, for\n want of discipline, the immense pains which he has taken with them has\n not done them the good which might have been expected. I preached at\n Shrewsbury in the evening, and next day, about noon, in the\n assembly-room at Broseley. It was well we were in the shade, for the\n sun shone as hot as it usually does at midsummer. We walked from\n thence to Coalbrook Dale, and took a view of the bridge which is\n shortly to be thrown over the Severn. It is one arch, a hundred feet\n long, fifty-two high, and eighteen wide; all of cast-iron, weighing\n many hundred tons. I doubt whether the Colossus at Rhodes weighed much\n more.\u201d[456]\n\nFootnote 456:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\nFletcher\u2019s health was still feeble, but he longed to be back to his\nparishioners and to the Methodists surrounding Madeley. Hence the\nfollowing to the Vicar of Shoreham:\u2014\n\n \u201c1779, March 29. I am still weak in body, but able to ride out and\n exhort some children. Well, the time shall come when, in a better\n state, we shall be able to glorify our heavenly Father. In the\n meantime, let us do it either in the stocks of weakness or in the\n fires of tribulation; and on our death-bed may we sing, with hearts\n overflowing with humble love, \u2018The Resurrection and the Life, the\n Friend and Saviour of sinners, loved me and gave Himself for me; and I\n am going to see Him and to thank Him, face to face, for His matchless\n love!\u2019\n\n \u201cI hope the prospect respecting the inheritance of your fathers in\n this country clears up a little, and I trust the matter will be\n decided without a lawsuit. As soon as the affair is brought to some\n conclusion, we design to set out for England. The will of the Lord be\n done in all things!\u201d[457]\n\nFootnote 457:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nThis was written in the week before Easter. The Puritanical Calvinists\nof Switzerland of course denounced the observance of holy days, and\nhence, at Nyon, there was no service on Good Friday, April 2; but\nFletcher and William Perronet, who all their life had been accustomed to\ncommemorate the death of the incarnate Son of God, crossed the lake into\nSavoy, to hear a celebrated Capuchin.\n\n \u201cHe made,\u201d says Mr. Perronet, \u201ca very good discourse, and he and his\n brethren invited us to dine with them. This we declined; but, after\n dinner, we paid our respects to them, when Mr. Fletcher spent two or\n three hours with them in serious and friendly conversation.\u201d[458]\n\nFootnote 458:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nFletcher had expressed a hope that he would be able to return to his\nflock at Madeley in April or May, but his hope was not realized. The\nreasons for this will be found in the following extracts from his\nletters. To his curate, the Rev. Mr. Greaves, he said:\u2014\n\n \u201cNyon, May 18, 1779. My dear fellow-labourer,\u2014My departure being\n delayed some weeks gives me much concern, although, from the\n confidence I have in your pastoral diligence, I am easy about the\n flock you feed. Last week, a Visitation was held here, and the clergy\n of the town took my part against the Visitor and others, who said I\n was of a sect everywhere spoken against. The conversation about it\n held so long, and was so trying to my grain of humility, that I went\n out. The matter, however, ended peaceably by a vote that they should\n invite me to dinner. God ever save us from jealous and persecuting\n zeal.\n\n \u201cI hope, my dear friend, you go on comfortably, doing more and more\n the work of an evangelist. Remember my love to as many of my\n parishioners as you meet with, and especially to all our good\n neighbours and to the Society.\u201d[459]\n\nFootnote 459:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 49.\n\nOn the same day, he wrote to Michael Onions as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cI have complied with the request of my friends to stay a little\n longer among them, as it was backed by a small Society of pious people\n gathered here. Three weeks ago, they got about me, and on their knees,\n with many tears, besought me to stay till they were a little stronger\n and able to stand alone; nor would they rise till they had got me to\n comply. However, yesterday, I spoke with a carrier, from Geneva, to\n take me to London, who said he would take us at a fortnight\u2019s notice.\n\n \u201cMy love to your fellow-leaders, and, by them, to the companies you\n meet in prayer; also to the preachers who help in the\n Round[460].\u201d[461]\n\nFootnote 460:\n\n The name often given by the old Methodists to a Methodist Circuit.\n\nFootnote 461:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 51.\n\nOn May 22, William Perronet, in a letter to his father, observed:\u2014\n\n \u201cOn the 9th of this month, Mr. Fletcher preached in the church, on 2\n Cor. v. 20\u2014\u2018We are ambassadors for Christ,\u2019 etc. He spoke with a\n strong and clear voice for more than three-quarters of an hour, and\n did not find himself hurt by it. He has preached four times in the\n church since I have been here, and might have preached much oftener if\n his health would have allowed him; for, by his friendly and prudent\n conduct towards the three ministers of the place, he is upon good\n terms with them now, although, at his first coming hither, they were\n afraid to own him, on account of his _irregular conduct_; for such\n they deemed his exhorting the children, and holding meetings in\n private houses.\u201d[462]\n\nFootnote 462:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nOn the same day, Fletcher remarked to the same venerable minister:\u2014\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR BROTHER, AND HONOURED FATHER,\u2014I rejoice that you are yet\n preserved to be a witness of the grace and saving health of Jesus. Let\n us rejoice that when _our_ strength shall decay, _His_ will remain\n entire for ever, and, in His strength, we, who take Him for our life,\n shall be strong. Our Redeemer liveth; and, when sickness and death\n shall have brought down our flesh to the earth, we shall, by His\n resurrection\u2019s power, rise and live for ever with Him in heavenly\n places; for the new earth will be a heaven, or a glorious province in\n the kingdom of heaven. The meek shall inherit it; and that inheritance\n will be fairer than yours at Chateau d\u2019Oex, and surer too.\n\n \u201cI hope to accompany your son soon to England.\u201d[463]\n\nFootnote 463:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nThe following, also, was written at the same time, and was addressed to\nhis honoured host and friend, Mr. Charles Greenwood, of Stoke\nNewington:\u2014\n\n \u201cNYON, _May 22, 1779_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014\u201cI am yet alive, able to ride out, and now and then\n to instruct a few children. I hope Mr. Perronet will soon have settled\n his affairs, and then, please God, I shall inform you, by word of\n mouth, how much I am indebted to you, Mrs. Greenwood and Mrs.\n Thornton. Thank and salute, on my behalf, Mr. John and Mr. Charles\n Wesley, Dr. Coke, and Mr. Atlay.[464] Thanks be to God for His\n unspeakable gifts,\u2014His Son, His Spirit, and His Word! And thanks be to\n His people, for their kindness towards the poor, the sick, the\n stranger, and especially towards me! But, at this time, a sleepless\n night and a constant toothache unfit me for almost everything but\n lying down under the cross, kissing the rod, and rejoicing in hope of\n a better state, in this world or in the next. Perhaps weakness and\n pain are the best for me in this world. Well, the Lord will choose for\n me, and I fully set my heart and seal to His choice. Let us not faint\n in the day of adversity. The Lord tries us, that our faith may be\n purged of all the dross of self-will, and may work by that love, which\n beareth all things, and thinketh evil of nothing. Our calling is to\n follow the crucified, and we must be crucified with Him, until body\n and soul know the power of His resurrection, and pain and death are\n done away.\n\n \u201cI hope my dear friend will make, with me, a constant choice of the\n following mottoes of St. Paul,\u2014_Christ is gain in life and death\u2014Our\n life is hid with Christ in God\u2014If we suffer with Him, we shall also\n reign with Him\u2014We glory in tribulation\u2014God will give us rest with\n Christ in that day\u2014We are saved by hope._ To the Lord our God,\n Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, let us give glory _in the fires_.\n Amen.\u201d[465]\n\nFootnote 464:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Book Steward, who, nine years afterwards, seceded from the\n Methodists, and took possession of a chapel which they had built at\n Dewsbury.\n\nFootnote 465:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 272.\n\nBesides his own physical weakness and suffering, Fletcher had other\ntrials in Switzerland. In a letter, written about the same time as the\nforegoing, he remarked:\u2014\n\n \u201cLet us bear with patience the decays of nature; let us see, without\n fear, the approach of death. We must put off this sickly, corruptible\n body, in order to put on the immortal and glorious one. I have some\n hopes that my poor sister will yet be my sister in Christ. Her\n self-righteousness, I hope, breaks as fast as her body. I am come\n hither to see death make havoc among my friends. I wear mourning for\n my father\u2019s brother, and for my brother\u2019s son. The same mourning will\n serve for my dying sister, if I do not go before her. She lies on the\n same bed where my father and mother died, and where she and I were\n born. How near is life to death! But, blessed be God, Christ, the\n Resurrection, is nearer to the weak, dying believer!\u201d[466]\n\nFootnote 466:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nFletcher, notwithstanding his longing to get back to his flock at\nMadeley, was still detained in Switzerland. Hence the following,\naddressed to Mr. Thomas York:\u2014\n\n \u201cNYON, _Ibid._.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR SIR,\u2014Providence is still gracious to me, and raises me\n friends on all sides. May God reward them all, and may you have _a\n double reward_ for all your kindness! I hope I am getting a little\n strength. The Lord has blessed to me a species of black cherry, which\n I have eaten in large quantities. I have had a return of my spitting\n blood; but, for a fortnight past, I have catechized the children of\n the town every day; and I do not find much inconvenience from that\n exercise. Some of them seem to be under sweet drawings of the Father,\n and a few of their mothers begin to come, and desire me with tears in\n their eyes to stay in this country. They urge much my being born here,\n and I reply, that I was _born again_ in England; that is, _of course_,\n the country which, to me, is the dearer of the two.\n\n \u201cMy friends have prevailed on me to publish \u2018A Poem on the Praises of\n God,\u2019 which I wrote many years ago. The revising it for the press is\n at once a business and a pleasure, which I go through on horseback.\n Help me, by your prayers, to ask a blessing on this little attempt.\n\n \u201cI wish I could procure you an estate in this fine country, as I hope\n to do Mr. Perronet, one of the physicians who showed me so much love\n when I lay sick at Newington. His grandfather was a Swiss, who was\n naturalized in the reign of Queen Anne. By calling upon some of his\n relations, I have found that he is entitled to an estate of some\n \u00a31000, of which he is come to take possession. So Providence prepares\n for me a friend, a kind physician, and a fellow-traveller, to\n accompany me back to England; where one of my chief pleasures will be\n to embrace you, and to assure you, how much I am, my dear friend, your\n obliged servant,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[467]\n\nFootnote 467:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 53.\n\nAlas! little did Fletcher think that William Perronet would not return\nto England.\n\n\u201cProvidence,\u201d said Fletcher, in the letter just quoted, \u201craises me\nfriends on all sides.\u201d He soon had need of them. In the month of\nSeptember, William Perronet wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher has been wont to preach, now and then, in the church\n here (Nyon), at the request of one or other of the ministers; but,\n some time ago, he was summoned before the Seigneur Bailiff, who\n sharply reprehended him for preaching against Sabbath-breaking and\n stage plays. The former, he said, implied a censure on the magistrates\n in general, as if they neglected their duty. And the latter he\n considered as a personal reflection on himself, he having just then\n sent for a company of French Comedians to come to Nyon. Accordingly,\n he forbade Mr. Fletcher to exercise, any more, any of the functions of\n a minister in this country. However, one of the Ministers here has\n given him a room in his own house to preach in; and here Mr. Fletcher\n meets a few serious persons, particularly a number of children, two or\n three times a week. Hitherto, his lordship has not interfered with\n respect to this mode of exhortation; and both the number and the\n seriousness of the congregation increase daily.\u201d[468]\n\nFootnote 468:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nReferring to the same incident, Fletcher wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cOur Lord Lieutenant, being stirred up by some of the clergy, and\n believing firmly that I am banished from England, took the alarm, and\n forbade the ministers to let me exhort in their houses; threatening\n them with the power of the Senate if they did. They all yielded, but\n are now ashamed of it. A young clergyman, a true Timothy, has opened\n me his house, where I exhort twice a week; and the other clergymen,\n encouraged by his boldness, come to our meetings.\u201d\n\nWilliam Perronet completes this story by relating that the minister, who\nbegan this discreditable opposition, died suddenly, as he was dressing\nto go to church; and that his successor continued the same intolerant\nbehaviour towards poor, well-meaning Fletcher. Mr. Perronet adds:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher now thinks himself obliged, before he leaves his native\n country, to bear a public testimony to the truth. When his writing\n will be finished, I cannot say, for it multiplies under his fertile\n pen; so that, I fear, we shall be obliged to spend another winter in\n this severe climate.\u201d[469]\n\nFootnote 469:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nThere can be little doubt that the \u201cpublic testimony,\u201d which Fletcher\nwas now composing was his \u201cPortrait of St. Paul,\u201d to be noticed anon.\n\nSoon after this, Fletcher had an attack of rheumatism, and wrote as\nfollows to William Perronet, who had gone to Lausanne. After relating\nthat the pain in his left shoulder had deprived him of sleep, and almost\ncrippled him, he added:\u2014\n\n \u201cI have partly recovered the use of my shoulder; but it is still very\n weak. I drink a decoction of pine-apple, which is as warm as guaiacum.\n My writing does not go on; but the will of the Lord is done, and that\n is enough. I would press you to come back soon, if I were not\n persuaded you are better where you are. I have been afraid that our\n bad meat here would make you lose your flesh; and, for the honour of\n Switzerland, I should be glad you had some to carry back to England,\n if we live to go and see our friends there. I had last Sunday\n (December 19), a great trial in my family. I see the Lord will not use\n me in this country for good, and, when we shall have finished our\n little matters, I shall be glad to go to my spiritual friends, and to\n my flock; so much the more, as Mr. Ireland mentions my curate\u2019s danger\n of being in a consumption. My compliments and thanks wait on Miss\n Perronet. She was very obliging to share her drops with me. May we all\n share the springs of grace and glory together! If you will come a few\n leagues southward, and try the weather here, your room waits for you,\n and I shall be glad to see you. In the meantime, keep yourself warm by\n the Word of God within, and a good fire without. The Lord direct us in\n all things! Oh for quietness and English friends!\u201d[470]\n\nFootnote 470:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher;\u201d and _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1825,\n p. 744.\n\nTwo days after writing this, Fletcher addressed his curate, Mr. Greaves,\nas follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cNYON, _December 25, 1779_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014Glory be to God for His unspeakable gift! May that\n Jesus, that eternal, all-creating, all-supporting, all-atoning,\n all-comforting Word, which was with God, and is God, and came, in the\n likeness of sinful flesh, to dwell among men, and to be our Emmanuel,\n God with us,\u2014may He, by a lively faith, be formed in our hearts; and,\n by a warm love, lie and grow in the manger of our emptiness, filling\n it always with the bread that comes down from heaven!\n\n \u201cThough absent in body, I am with you and the flock in spirit. You are\n now at the Lord\u2019s table. O may all the dear people, you have just now\n preached to, receive Jesus in the pledge of His dying love, and go\n home with this lively conviction, \u2018God has given _me_ eternal life,\n and this life is _in His Son_!\u2019\n\n \u201cGlory be to God in heaven! Peace on earth! Love and good-will\n everywhere! Especially in the place where Providence has called us to\n cry, \u2018_Behold! what manner of love the Father has testified to us, in\n Jesus, that we, children of wrath, should be made children of God_, by\n that only-begotten Son of the Most High, who was born for our\n regeneration, crucified for our atonement, raised for our\n justification, and who now triumphs in heaven for our sanctification,\n for our full redemption, and for our eternal glorification. To Him be\n glory for ever and ever;\u2019 and may all, who fear and love Him about\n you, say, for ever, Amen! Hallelujah!\n\n \u201cOut of the fulness of my heart, I invite them to do so; but how\n shallow is my fulness to His! What a drop, compared to an ocean\n without bottom or shore! Let us, then, receive continually from Him,\n who is the overflowing and ever-present source of pardoning,\n sanctifying, and exhilarating grace; and, from the foot of the Wrekin,\n where you are, to the foot of the Alps, where I am, let us echo back\n to each other the joyful, thankful cry of the primitive Christians,\n which was the text here this morning, \u2018_Out of His fulness, we have\n all received grace for grace._\u2019\n\n \u201cI long to hear from you and the flock. How do you go on? Let me know\n that you cast _joyfully_ all your burdens on the Lord. Mr. Ireland\n sends me word, that Mr. Romaine told him you are not very well. Take\n care of yourself. Lay nothing to heart. Should your breast be weak,\n preach but once on Sundays; for you know the evening sermon is not a\n part of our _stated_ duty. I say this, that you may not _over-do_, and\n lie by, as I do. God direct, sustain, and comfort you in all things!\n\n \u201cGive my pastoral love to all my flock. May all see, and see more\n abundantly, the salvation of God! May national distress be sanctified\n unto them; and may they all be loyal subjects of the King of kings,\n and of His Anointed, our King! May the approaching new year be to them\n a year of peace and Gospel grace! I hope Molly takes good care of you.\n God bless her!\u201d[471]\n\nFootnote 471:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 56.\n\nFletcher refers to the \u201cnational distress.\u201d This was great. Parliament\nwas excited. Ireland was in a state of veiled rebellion. England rang\nwith reports of threatened invasion. The war with the American colonists\nhad already added sixty-three millions to the national debt. Trade was\nparalysed, and taxes were intolerable. Popery had been established in\nCanada, and had received encouragement in England. The Protestant\nAssociation had sprung into existence, and the Gordon riots were at\nhand. In the midst of this state of things, Fletcher wrote to a\nnobleman, whose name is not given, but who, probably, was Lord North, as\nfollows:\u2014\n\n \u201cNYON, _December 15, 1779_.\n\n \u201cMY LORD,\u2014If the American Colonies and the West India Islands are rent\n from the Crown, there will not grow one ear of corn the less in Great\n Britain. We shall still have the necessaries of life, and, what is\n more, the Gospel, and liberty to hear it. If the great springs of\n trade and wealth are cut off, good men will bear that loss without\n much sorrow; for springs of wealth are always springs of luxury,\n which, sooner or later, destroy the empires corrupted by wealth. Moral\n good may come out of our losses. I wish you may see it in England.\n People on the Continent imagine they see it already in the English on\n their travels, who are said to behave with more wisdom and less\n haughtiness than they used to do.\u201d[472]\n\nFootnote 472:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 273.\n\nLord North, King George the Third\u2019s Prime Minister, was, at this time,\nharassed by the American rebellion, incessantly assailed by the\nOpposition, and frequently threatened with impeachment. Probably,\nFletcher\u2019s letter, of which the above is only a part, was intended to\nhelp him in his troubles. Though a foreigner by birth, John de la\nFlechere was a most loyal and devoted subject of King George. Hence,\nalso, the following, taken from a letter to his curate, Mr. Greaves:\u2014\n\n \u201cMarch 7, 1780. I long to hear from you. I hope you are well, and grow\n in the love of Christ, and of the souls bought with His blood, and\n committed to your care. I recommend to you the most helpless of the\n flock,\u2014I mean the _children_ and the _sick_. They most want your help,\n and they are the most likely to benefit by it; for affliction softens\n the heart, and children are not yet quite hardened through the\n deceitfulness of sin.\n\n \u201cI beg you will not fail, when you have opportunity, to recommend to\n our flock, to honour the King, to study to be quiet, and to hold up\n the hands of the Government by which we are protected.\u201d[473]\n\nFootnote 473:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 57.\n\nOn the same day, Fletcher wrote to his friend and helper, Mr. William\nWase, on another matter which was causing him considerable anxiety. His\nMethodist meeting-house in Madeley Wood had cost much more than he\nexpected. The letter to Mr. Wase needs no further explanation, except\nthat the work, ready to be printed, was, probably, his poem, in French,\nentitled, \u201cLa Louange.\u201d\n\n \u201cNYON, _March 7, 1780_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014I am sorry the building has cost so much more than I\n intended; but, as the mischief is done, it is a matter to exercise\n patience, resignation, and self-denial; and it will be a caution in\n the future. I am going to sell part of my little estate here to\n discharge the debt. I had laid by \u00a350, to print a small work, which I\n wanted to distribute here; but, as I must be just, before I presume to\n offer that mite to _the God of truth_, I abandon the design, and send\n that sum to Mr. York.\n\n \u201cMoney is so scarce here, at this time, that I shall sell at a very\n great loss; but necessity and justice are two great laws, which must\n be obeyed. As I design, on my return to England, to pinch until I have\n got rid of this debt, I may go and live in one of the cottages\n belonging to the vicar, if we could let the vicarage for a few pounds;\n and, in that case, I dare say Mr. Greaves would be so good as to take\n the other little house.\n\n \u201cMy dear friend, let us die to sin. Hold fast Jesus, the way, the\n truth, and the life. Walk by faith in Him; and not by the sight and\n passions of the old Adam. I hope the sun of affliction, which burns\n poor England and us, will ripen us all for glory. Give my best love to\n all our friends in Christ, and tell them that the hope of seeing them\n does me good.\u201d[474]\n\nFootnote 474:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 58.\n\nFletcher was hard at work; the weather was cold; and, for the present,\nexercise out of doors was impracticable. The following, taken from an\nunpublished letter written by William Perronet, contains an amusing\nscene:\u2014\n\n \u201cNyon, March 1, 1780. As this is Mr. Fletcher\u2019s native village, no\n wonder that it agrees with him; otherwise, it must be very trying to\n so tender a constitution as his; for the weather here is much hotter\n in summer, and much colder in winter, than in England; and the\n transitions from intense heat to extreme cold are often very sudden.\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher was once told by two physicians (somewhere), that the\n benefit of exercise, for consumptive persons, must be estimated by the\n violence of it; consequently, that riding on horseback was better than\n going in a carriage, that walking was better than riding, running than\n walking, and jumping better than all of them put together. Our worthy\n friend has scrupulously followed this maxim; so that, whenever he does\n not take his little hasty rides (which by-the-bye frequently occurs),\n he allows himself, for exercise, not more than three minutes, from his\n studies, just as dinner is being served, and then, like harlequin, he\n takes about half a score such violent leaps and plunges across the\n room, that I am _sometimes_ in pain for the floor, and _always_ for\n his bones.\u201d\n\nDuring the year 1779, Fletcher and William Perronet had lodged in the\nsame house in Nyon; now, as might be expected from the foregoing\nextract, William Perronet\u2019s state of health obliged him to seek a more\nsalubrious situation. He went to Lausanne; Fletcher remained at Nyon;\nand was thus pictured by his friend in the month of July next ensuing:\u2014\n\n \u201cAbout half a year ago, we broke up housekeeping at Nyon. Poor dear\n Mr. Fletcher, with difficulty, procured a miserable lodging in the\n neighbourhood; and I was obliged to go to Lausanne, which is seven\n leagues from Nyon. I submitted the more willingly to this, because he\n talked of spending some time at Lausanne. I have been disappointed in\n this respect; but, once or twice, I have had the pleasure of seeing\n him at Nyon. I found him to-day sitting in his small apartment,\n surrounded with books and papers, writing, or, as he expressed it,\n \u2018finishing the _first part_\u2019 of one of his pieces. When the _whole_ is\n likely to be finished, one cannot pretend to say.\u201d[475]\n\nFootnote 475:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nFletcher intended to return to England in the month of September, but\ntwo occurrences prevented him. First of all, he mislaid a portion of the\nmanuscript which he wished to publish before he left Switzerland, and\nhad to re-write what was missing.\n\n \u201cThe misfortune I hinted at,\u201d said he to William Perronet, \u201cwas the\n mislaying of a considerable part of my manuscript. After giving it up\n as lost, I fell to work again; went through the double toil; and, when\n I had done, last night, I accidentally found what I had mislaid. This\n has thrown me back a great deal. The Lord\u2019s will be done in all\n things! I thank God, I have been kept from fretting on the occasion;\n though I would not for a great deal have such another trial.\u201d[476]\n\nFootnote 476:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nAdded to this, and, perhaps, partly in consequence of it, his health\nrelapsed. These, and other matters, are referred to in the following\nletter, addressed to his curate, Mr. Greaves:\u2014\n\n \u201cNYON, _September 15, 1780_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FELLOW-LABOURER,\u2014I had fixed the time of my departure for\n this month; but now two hindrances stand in my way. When I came to\n collect the parts of my manuscript, I found the most considerable part\n wanting; and, after a thousand searches, I was obliged to write it\n over again. This accident compelled me to put off my journey; and now\n the change of weather has brought back some symptoms of my disorder. I\n speak, or rather whisper, with difficulty; but I hope the quantity of\n grapes I begin to eat will have as good an effect upon me as in the\n last two autumns.\n\n \u201cHave patience then a little while. If things are not as you could\n wish, you can do but as I have done for many years,\u2014_learn patience by\n the things which you suffer_. Crossing our will, getting the better of\n our inclinations, and growing in experience, are no mean advantages,\n and they may all be yours.\n\n \u201cMr. Ireland writes me word that if I return to England now, the\n winter will undo all I have been doing for my health for many years.\n However, I have not quite laid aside the design of spending the winter\n with you; but don\u2019t expect me till you see me. I am, nevertheless,\n firmly purposed that, if I do not set out this autumn, I shall do so\n next spring, as early as I can.\n\n \u201cTill I had this relapse, I was able to exhort, in a private room,\n three times a week; but the Lord Lieutenant will not allow me to get\n into a pulpit, though they permit the schoolmasters, who are laymen,\n to put on a band and read the Church prayers; so high runs the\n prejudice. The clergy, however, tell me that if I will renounce my\n ordination, and get Presbyterian Orders among them, they will allow me\n to preach, and on these terms one of the ministers of this town offers\n me his curacy. A young clergyman of Geneva, tutor to my nephew,\n appears to me a truly converted man; and he is so pleased when I tell\n him there are converted souls in England, that he will go with me to\n learn English, and converse with the British Christians. He wrote last\n summer, with such force, to some of the clergy, who are stirring up\n the fire of persecution, that he made them ashamed, and we have since\n had peace from that quarter.\n\n \u201cThere is little genuine piety in these parts; nevertheless, there is\n yet some of _the form_ of it; so far as to go to the Lord\u2019s table\n regularly four times a year. There meet the adulterers, the drunkards,\n the swearers, the infidels, and even the materialists. They have no\n idea of the double damnation that awaits hypocrites. They look upon\n the partaking of that sacrament as a ceremony enjoined by the\n magistrate. At Zurich, the first town of this country, they have\n lately beheaded a clergyman who wanted to betray his country to the\n Emperor, to whom it chiefly belonged. It is the town of the great\n reformer, Zuinglius; yet there they poisoned the sacramental wine a\n few years ago. I mention this to show you there is great need to bear\n a testimony against the faults of the clergy here; and, if I cannot do\n it from the pulpit, I must try to do it from the press. Their canons,\n which were composed by two hundred and thirty pastors, at the time of\n the Reformation, are so spiritual and apostolic that I design to\n translate them into English, if I am spared.\n\n \u201cFarewell, my dear brother. Take care, _good, constant, care_ of the\n flock committed to your charge; especially _the sick_ and _the young_.\n Salute all our dear parishioners. Let me still have a part in your\n prayers, public and private; and rejoice in the Lord, as, through\n grace, I am enabled to do in all my little tribulations.\u201d[477]\n\nFootnote 477:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 60.\n\nOn the same day, Fletcher wrote to Mr. Thomas York:\u2014\n\n \u201cI have been so well, that my friends here thought of giving me a\n wife; but what should I do with a _Swiss wife_ at Madeley? I want\n rather an English nurse; but more still a mighty Saviour, and, thanks\n be to God! that I have. Help me to rejoice in that never-dying,\n never-moving Friend.\n\n \u201cHaving heard that my dear friend Ireland has discharged the greatest\n part of my debt, I have not sent the money; but I hope to bring with\n me \u00a3100, to reimburse my friends in part, till I can do it altogether.\n But I shall never be able to pay you the debt of kindness I have\n contracted with you. I look to Jesus, my Surety, for that. May He\n repay you a thousand-fold!\u201d[478]\n\nFootnote 478:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 62.\n\nTo William Wase, the good old Methodist, Fletcher wrote, at the same\ntime:\u2014\n\n \u201cGive my love and thanks to the preachers\u201d (William Boothby and\n Jonathan Hern) \u201cwho come to help us. Enforce my exhortation to the\n Societies in much love. Go and comfort, from me, Mrs. Palmer and Mrs.\n Cartwright; and, since God has placed you all in a widowed state,\n agree to take Jesus for a never-dying Friend and Bridegroom. Your\n Maker is your husband. He is all in all. What, then, have you lost?\n Christ is _yours_ and _all things with Him_. The resurrection day will\n soon come. Prepare yourselves for the marriage feast of the Lamb; and\n till then, rejoice in the _expectation_ of that day. I sympathize with\n our sickly friends, widow Matthews, M. Blummer, E. Whittaker, I. York,\n and S. Aston. Salute them kindly from me. Help them to trim their\n lamps, and to wait for the Bridegroom. Thank Thomas and Nelly Fennel\n for their love to the\u201d (Methodist) \u201cpreachers, and give them mine, and\n also give it to the little companies they meet with, to call for\n strength, comfort, and help, in time of need. Fare ye all well in\n Jesus! I say, again, farewell!\u201d[479]\n\nFootnote 479:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 61.\n\nFletcher\u2019s \u201cExhortation\u201d to the Methodist Societies was as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cTo the Societies in and about Madeley.\n\n \u201cGrace and peace, truth and love, be multiplied to you all. Stand fast\n in the Lord, my dear brethren. Stand fast in Jesus; stand fast to one\n another; stand fast to the vow we have so often renewed together, upon\n our knees, and at the Lord\u2019s table. Don\u2019t be _so unloving, so\n cowardly_, as to let one of your little company fall into the hands of\n the world and the devil; and agree to crucify the body of sin\n altogether.\n\n \u201cI am still in a strait between the work which Providence cuts out for\n me here, and the love which draws me to you. When I shall have the\n pleasure of seeing you, let it not be embittered by the sorrow of\n finding any of you half-hearted and lukewarm. Let me find you all\n strong in the Lord, and increased in humble love. Salute from me all\n who followed with us fifteen years ago. Care still for your old\n brethren. Let there be no Cain among you, no Esau, no Lot\u2019s wife. Let\n the love of David and Jonathan, heightened by that of Martha, Mary,\n Lazarus, and our Lord, shine in all your _thoughts_, your _tempers_,\n your _words_, your _looks_, and your _actions_. If you love one\n another, your little meetings will be a renewed feast; and the God of\n love, who is peculiarly present where two or three are gathered\n together in the name of Jesus, will abundantly bless you. Bear me\n still upon your breasts in prayer, as I do you upon mine; and rejoice\n with me that the Lord, who made, redeemed, and comforts us, _bears us\n all upon His_. I am yours in Him,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[480]\n\nFootnote 480:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 63.\n\nFor some time after his arrival in Switzerland, Fletcher lived in the\nhouse where he was born, a respectable old building, erected on an\nelevated site at the extremity of the town. Close at hand was the shady\nwood, where he used to read, meditate, and pray, and meet his flock of\nlittle children. Near the house was a terrace, from which the whole of\nthe glorious lake of Geneva was visible; and, in the distance, might be\nseen the city itself. Towering above all, there was the unutterably\ngrand Mont Blanc. No wonder Fletcher spoke of the \u201cpleasant apartment\u201d\nwhere he was born, as having \u201cone of the finest prospects in the world.\u201d\nFor some reason, however, he now exchanged the house of his nativity for\nanother not so enchanting. Hence the following letter to William\nPerronet, who was residing at Lausanne:\u2014\n\n \u201cNYON, _October 3, 1780_.\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014I thank you for your letters. They have given me\n much pleasure, as I see that you will at last end your business, and\n get ready to set out in the spring with Mr. Ireland, who comes with\n his family, I know not where; but I think he will spend the winter at\n or about Avignon. If you will go and join him, I shall be glad to go\n also, for the _stream under this house_ does not make it very\n wholesome.\n\n \u201cMy brother thinks, as well as myself, that you may conclude upon the\n terms you mention. \u2018Better a dinner of herbs with peace, than a\n stalled ox and noise therewith.\u2019\n\n \u201cI hope to go to Lausanne, directly after vintage, to offer a\n manuscript to the censors, to see if they will allow its being\n published; so I do not invite you to share my _damp bed_. My sister\n was so kind as to look for another house, but we find none to let\n under a year. We are here travellers, so we must expect some\n difficulties and a good many inconveniences.\n\n \u201cIf Mr. Ireland goes to Marseilles, you might go and see your cousin\n there. Lift up your heart, and see by faith our Lord and Saviour, our\n heavenly Kinsman and Brother; and when you rise there, take by the\n hand of prayer your affectionate friend,\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[481]\n\nFootnote 481:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1830, p. 831.\n\nSoon after this, William Perronet was seized with mortal illness. In a\nletter to the Vicar of Shoreham, Fletcher wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cDecember 5, 1780. Our wise and good God sees fit to try my dear\n friend, your son, with a want of appetite and uneasiness in his\n bowels. He also often returns the little food he takes. Some time ago,\n he came to Nyon, from Lausanne, and we went together to Geneva, where\n we settled your affair with three of the Geneva co-heirs, upon the\n same footing as he had settled with those of Chateau d\u2019Oex. He bears\n his weakness with much patience and resignation.\u201d[482]\n\nFootnote 482:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nFletcher was now employed in finishing the poem, which he wished to\npublish before he left Switzerland; but he delighted in spending as much\ntime with his dying friend as possible.\n\n \u201cEvery night,\u201d says William Perronet, in a letter dated January 22,\n 1781, \u201cafter praying with me, he sings this verse at parting:\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018Then let our humble faith address\n His mercy and His power;\n We shall obtain delivering grace\n In the distressing hour.\u2019\u201d[483]\n\nFootnote 483:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nWithin three weeks after this, Fletcher\u2019s book was finished, and the\nbusiness of William Perronet was ended. Fletcher wished to set out for\nEngland, but was still detained in Switzerland. Hence the following,\naddressed to Mr. Wase:\u2014\n\n \u201cNYON, _February 14, 1781_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014I thank you for your kind remembrance of me. I need\n not be urged to return; brotherly love draws me to Madeley, and\n circumstances drive me hence.\n\n \u201cI am exceeding glad that there is a revival on your side the water\u201d\n [the river Severn], \u201cand that you are obliged to enlarge your\n Room.[484] I wish I could contribute to shake the dry bones in my\n parish, but I have no confidence in the flesh. What I could not do\n when I was in my strength, I have little prospect of doing now that my\n strength is broken. However, I don\u2019t despair, for the work is not\n _mine_ but the _Lord\u2019s_. If the few who love the Gospel would be\n simple and zealous, God would again hear their prayers for those who\n are content to go on in the broad way. I thank you for your view of\n the iron bridge.[485]\n\n \u201cMy friend Ireland invites me to join him in the South of France; and\n I long to see whether I could not have more liberty to preach the Word\n among Papists than among Protestants. But it is so little that I can\n do, that I doubt much whether it is worth while going so far upon so\n little a chance. If I were stronger, and had more time, the fear of\n _being hanged_ should not detain me. I trust to set out next month,\n and to be in England in May; it won\u2019t be my fault if it is not in\n April.\n\n \u201cI am here in the midst of rumours of war. The burghers of Geneva have\n disarmed the garrison, and taken possession of one of the gates. I\n had, however, the luck to get in, and to bring away my nephew, who is\n a student there. Troops are preparing to block them up. The Lord may,\n at this time, punish the repeated backslidings of those Laodicean\n Christians, most of whom have become infidels. This event may a little\n retard my journey, as I must pass through Geneva. It also puts off the\n printing of my manuscript, for there is nothing going on in that\n unhappy town but disputes, and fights, and mounting of guards.\n\n \u201cRemember me in much love to Mr. Greaves, Mr. Gilpin, and the\u201d\n [Methodist] \u201cpreachers who labour with us.\u201d[486]\n\nFootnote 484:\n\n The Methodist meeting-house.\n\nFootnote 485:\n\n The bridge across the Severn at Coalbrookdale, the first iron bridge\n erected in England; cast in 1779, under the direction of Mr. Abraham\n Darby.\n\nFootnote 486:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 67.\n\nAt the same date, Fletcher wrote to Mr. John Owen, his schoolmaster at\nMadeley, as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cNyon, February 14, 1781. I thank you, my dear brother, for your kind\n lines. I hope you help both Mr. Greaves and the\u201d [Methodist]\n \u201cpreachers to stir up the people in my parish. Be _much_ in prayer.\n Take counsel with Michael Onions, Mrs. Palmer, and Molly Cartwright\n about the most effectual means to recover the backsliders, and to keep\n together to Christ and to each other those who still hold their\n shield. Salute them kindly from me, and tell them that I hope they\n will give me a good account of their little companies\u201d [Methodist\n classes] \u201cand of themselves.\n\n \u201cIf I were not a minister, I would be a _schoolmaster_, to have the\n pleasure of bringing up children in the fear of the Lord. That\n pleasure is yours; relish it, and it will comfort and strengthen you\n in your work. The joy of the Lord and of charity is our strength.\n Salute the children from me, and tell them I long to show them the way\n to happiness and heaven. Have you mastered the stiffness and shyness\n of your temper? Charity gives _a meekness, an affability, a child-like\n simplicity and openness_, which nature has denied you. Let me find you\n shining by these virtues, and you will revive me much. God bless your\n labour about the sheep and the lambs!\n\n \u201cRead the following note to all who fear God and love Jesus and each\n other, assembling in Madeley church:\u2014\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BRETHREN,\u2014My heart leaps with joy at the thought of coming to\n see you and bless the Lord with you. Let us not stay to praise Him\n till we see each other. Let us see Him in His Son, in His works, and\n in all the members of Christ. How slow will post-horses go in\n comparison of love! Meet me, as I do you, in _spirit_; and we shall\n not stay till April or May to bless God together. _Now_ will be the\n time of union and love.\u201d[487]\n\nFootnote 487:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 65.\n\nFor another month Fletcher was detained at Nyon, when he wrote to\nMichael Onions the following:\u2014\n\n \u201cNYON, _March 1781_.\n\n \u201cI thank you, my dear brother, for your kind remembrance of me, and\n for your letters. I hope to bring my fuller thanks to you in person.\n\n \u201cHold up your hands. Confirm the feeble knees. Set up an Ebenezer\n every hour of the day. In everything give thanks; and, in order to\n this, pray without ceasing, and rejoice evermore. My heart sympathizes\n with poor Molly Cartwright. Tell her, from me, that her husband lives\n in Him who is the Resurrection. In Christ there is no death, but the\n victory over death. O! let us live in Him, to Him, for Him, who more\n than repairs all our losses. My love to your wife. Tell her she\n promised me to be Jesus\u2019s, as well as yours. My love to John Owen and\n all our other\u201d [Methodist] \u201cleaders, and by them to the few who do not\n tire by the way. With regard to the others, despair of none. Charity\n hopeth all things, and brings many things to pass. All things are\n _possible_ to him that believeth; all things are _easy_ to him that\n loveth. God be with you, and make you faithful unto death! This is my\n prayer for you, and all the Society, and all my dear parishioners, to\n whom I beg to be remembered. I have no place to write their names, but\n I pray they may all be written _in the book of life_. God is merciful,\n gracious, and faithful. I set my seal to His lovingkindness. Witness\n my heart and hand,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[488]\n\nFootnote 488:\n\n _Ibid_, p. 68.\n\nFletcher had promised to join Mr. Ireland at Montpelier; but, meanwhile,\nWilliam Perronet, who had returned to Lausanne, was so much worse in\nhealth, that it was impossible for him to accompany his friend. Two days\nbefore leaving Switzerland, Fletcher visited him, and, in a letter to\nthe aged Vicar of Shoreham, wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cMiss Perronet and her mother[489] are as kind to him as my dear\n friends at Stoke Newington were to me when I lay sick there. His mind\n is quite easy; he is sweetly resigned to the will of God.\u201d[490]\n\nFootnote 489:\n\n Probably William Perronet\u2019s aunt and cousin; certainly not his mother\n and sister.\n\nFootnote 490:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nAt Montpelier, Fletcher overtaxed his strength; and at Lyons, on his way\nto England, wrote as follows to his sick and dying friend, whom he had\nbeen obliged to leave behind him:\u2014\n\n \u201cLYONS, _April 6, 1781_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014We are both weak, both afflicted; but Jesus careth\n for us. He is everywhere, and here He has all power to deliver us; and\n He may do it by ways we little think of: \u2018As Thou wilt, when Thou\n wilt, and where Thou wilt,\u2019 said Baxter: let us say the same. It was\n of the Lord you did not come with me: you would have been sick as I\n am. I am overdone with riding and preaching. I preached twice in the\n fields. I carry home with me much weakness and a pain in the back,\n which I fear will end in the gravel. The Lord\u2019s will be done! I know I\n am called to suffer and die. The journey tires me; but, through mercy,\n I bear it. Let us believe and rejoice in the Lord Jesus.\u201d[491]\n\nFootnote 491:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nThree weeks after this, Fletcher preached in City Road Chapel, London,\nand, the next day (April 28), set out to the hospitable home of his\nfriend, Mr. Ireland, at Brislington. At this time, one of the Methodist\npreachers, stationed in the Bristol circuit, was Thomas Rankin, who had\nspent nearly five years in America, and who, in 1778, had been driven\nhome by the American rebellion. Hearing of Fletcher\u2019s arrival at\nBrislington, Rankin went to visit him, and wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cI had such an interview with him as I shall never forget. I had not\n seen him for upwards of ten years. His looks, his salutation, and his\n address, struck me with wonder, solemnity, and joy. We retired into\n Mr. Ireland\u2019s garden; and he began to inquire concerning the work of\n God in America. I gave him a full account of everything that he wished\n to know. During this relation, he stopped me six times, and, in the\n shadow of the trees, poured out his soul to God, for the prosperity of\n the work, and for our brethren there. He several times called upon me,\n also, to commend them to God in prayer. This was an hour never to be\n forgotten. Before we parted, I engaged him to come to Bristol, on the\n Monday following, to meet the select band in the forenoon, and to\n preach in the evening. During the hour he spent with the select band,\n the room appeared as \u2018the house of God, and the gate of heaven.\u2019 At\n night, he preached from, \u2018We are bound to give thanks alway to God for\n you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning\n chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and\n belief of the truth.\u2019 The whole congregation was in tears. He spoke\n like one who had but just left the converse of God and angels. The\n different conversations I had with him, and his prayers and preaching,\n during the few days he stayed at Bristol and Brislington, were\n attended with such effects upon me, that, for some months afterwards,\n not a cloud intervened between God and my soul, no, not for one hour.\n Of all the men I ever knew, I never saw such love to God and man, such\n deadness to the world, such entire consecratedness to Jesus, as in\n him. It often appeared to me that his every breath was prayer and\n praise. He lived more like a disembodied spirit than a human\n being.\u201d[492]\n\nFootnote 492:\n\n Thomas Rankin\u2019s MS. Journal.\n\nWhen at Marseilles, on his way to Switzerland, in March, 1778, Fletcher\nwrote a long letter,[493] to Miss Bosanquet, on Christian Perfection,\nand respecting his unpublished Essay on the New Birth. Miss Bosanquet\nreplied to that, in a letter dated August 30, 1778. Strange to say, this\nletter was not put into Fletcher\u2019s hands until nearly three years\nafterwards. During this interval, there seems to have been no\ncorrespondence between him and the lady who was speedily to become his\nwife. On his return from Switzerland, he wrote her the following, which\nis now for the first time published:\u2014\n\n \u201cBRISLINGTON, NEAR BRISTOL, _May 1, 1781_.\n\n \u201cDEAR MADAM,\u2014Your kind favour dated August 30, 1778, having been\n mislaid in a drawer and forgotten, did not come into my hands till\n this morning. I hope my speedy taking of the pen, to acknowledge so\n unexpected a favour, will atone for the forgetfulness of my friend.\n\n \u201cYou speak, Madam, of a _letter from Bath_; I do not recollect, at\n present, your having favoured me with one from that place. Is it my\n lot to be tried, or disappointed in this respect? Well, the hairs of\n our heads, and the letters of our friends, are all numbered: not one\n of the former falls, not one of the latter miscarries, without the\n will of Him, to whose orders we have long since fully and cheerfully\n subscribed.\n\n \u201cI have sincerely aimed at truth in writing the Essay you have been so\n kind as to peruse.[494] If I am not mistaken, Dr. Coke told me, when I\n passed through London, that he had it; but I went out of town in such\n a hurry that I had not time to take it with me. I feel the propriety\n of your remarks, and shall make the alterations you mention, as soon\n as I shall have the manuscript.\n\n \u201cI had thought of what you name, respecting a _less plan_ of the\n doctrine of the New Birth,\u2014a plan calculated to make way for the\n larger essay, and to guide into the truth those who have never taken\n one step without the leading strings of prejudice, and who cannot\n judge of a doctrine if it be not brought within the narrow compass and\n focus of their understanding. I shall be glad of an opportunity of\n consulting you about that sketch, if I live to make it. I love\n _truth_, because I love _Jesus_; but I am, every way, too feeble an\n instrument to defend and hold it forth with success. Your thought\n about it makes me pray with earnestness that I may, in some degree,\n answer your too favourable opinion of the importance of my little\n attempts to vindicate, or clear up, some part of the Gospel truths.\n\n \u201cAlas! what am I? A cracked voice crying in the wilderness;\u2014a blunted\n pen scribbling in a village. Thanks be to grace, however, I sincerely\n desire to be a living shadow of the Divine Man, who is truth and love\n incarnate. I sincerely desire to embrace those great and precious\n promises given unto us, whereby we may become partakers of the Divine\n nature. I will not rest in the first Comforter, so as to slight that\n _other Comforter_, who is to abide with us for ever. I want not only\n to see Jesus _altogether lovely_, but to feel Him _altogether powerful\n and wise_, both in myself and in all my fellow-Christians. Restless,\n resigned for this, I wait for this. My vehement soul is on the\n stretch. Some tell me I carry my views too high; but how can that be,\n if God can do in us exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or\n think? Is not the soul joined completely to the Lord, _one spirit with\n Him_? Are we not called to come to the measure of the stature of the\n fulness of Christ? Is a dwarf\u2019s state of grace the full prize of our\n high calling? If this hope preys upon my feeble frame, I dare not cast\n it off: let me rather die a martyr to it than lose it. Why should\n there not be true martyrs for the hope, as well as for the faith of\n the Gospel? At all events, let us wait for the great salvation of God\n the Spirit. Against hope, let us believe in hope that we shall see\n _the royal priesthood_ clothed with Divine righteousness, and all\n God\u2019s saints rejoice and sing.\n\n \u201cThe openness with which you mention what some _might_ call _your\n enthusiasm_, makes me reveal to you, Madam, what some call _mine_. I\n own I do not believe that Scripture repealed, \u2018Your young men shall\n see visions; your old men shall dream dreams.\u2019 \u2018These signs shall\n follow them that believe,\u2019 etc. (See Mark xvi. 17, 18). \u2018My sons and\n my daughters shall prophesy.\u2019 \u2018Desire spiritual gifts, but rather that\n ye may prophesy\u2019 (1 Cor. xiv. 2). Shall I offend you, if I ask you in\n simplicity the following questions? Do you know any soul filled with\n all the fulness of God? Anyone walking as Christ also walked, and able\n to say, in truth, \u2018As He was, so are we in this world?\u2019 Do you know\n any knit together in love, sharing all the riches of _the full\n assurance of understanding_, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of\n God, and of Christ in us the hope of glory (Col. i. 27; ii. 2)? Or,\n are the professors about you (far from having the full assurance of\n understanding with respect to this mystery) ready to say, when one\n speaks of this mystery, \u2018Thou bringest strange things to our ears\u2019?\n\n \u201cIf you condescend to favour me with an answer, please to direct it to\n me at Madeley, Salop. There I hope to be next week. In the meantime, I\n pray the Lord to give us an understanding, that we may know more of\n Him, and be completely in His Son Jesus Christ, that is, in the true,\n Divine, and eternal life. May the living unction be and abide with\n you! I ask it ardently for you; condescend to ask it also for, dear\n Madam, your obliged friend and servant in the Gospel,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\n\n \u201cP.S.\u2014The third part, which I designed to add[495] to the \u2018Essay on\n the New Birth,\u2019 was an application to the disciples of Moses, of John,\n and of Jesus glorified; to those who have the fear of God, the faith\n of the Son, and the love of the Spirit. My health is mended, thanks be\n to God! but my lungs remain weak. Please to remember me in Christian\n love to Sister Crosby.\n\n \u201cMiss Bosanquet,\n \u201cAt Cross Hall,\n \u201cNear _Leads (sic)_,\n \u201cYorkshire.\u201d\n\nFootnote 493:\n\n See the letter dated \u201cMarch 7, 1778.\u201d\n\nFootnote 494:\n\n His \u201cEssay on the New Birth.\u201d\n\nFootnote 495:\n\n This was not added.\n\nA few days after the date of this letter, Fletcher, accompanied by Mr.\nIreland, returned to Madeley, having been absent from his flock since\nNovember 1776,\u2014four years and a-half.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXII.\n _LITERARY WORK DONE IN RETIREMENT._\n\n\nFLETCHER\u2019S long seclusion from public life is well described in two\nlines of the poet Thompson:\n\n \u201c_Retirement_, rural quiet, friendship, books,\n Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven.\u201d\n\nThe four and a-half years, during which he was away from Madeley, were\nspent in great weakness, but not in idleness. To say nothing of the\nworks he published, while he remained in England, namely, his \u201cAnswer to\nthe Rev. Mr. Toplady\u2019s \u2018Vindication of the Divine Decrees;\u2019\u201d his\n\u201cVindication of the Rev. Mr. Wesley\u2019s \u2018Calm Address to our American\nColonies;\u2019\u201d his \u201cAmerican Patriotism;\u201d his \u201cDoctrines of Grace and\nJustice;\u201d and his \u201cPlan of Reconciliation;\u201d he was employed, whilst in\nSwitzerland, upon two of the most remarkable productions of his fertile\ngenius.\n\nThe first was a poem, in the French language, and was published in\nGeneva, with the title \u201cLa Louange;\u201d\u2014a paraphrastic expansion of Psalm\ncxlviii. The work was conceived in England, but was written in\nSwitzerland. Fletcher says he \u201cwas favoured with the critical remarks of\nmany persons distinguished for their learning, taste, and the works with\nwhich they had enriched the Church, and the Republic of Letters. At the\nend of certain Cantos, are Notes, or small Dissertations, serving to\nexplain, or illustrate, some of the truths inserted in the body of the\nwork.\u201d According to the custom of the country and the age, before the\nbook could be published, it had to be submitted to an official appointed\nto read manuscripts, previous to their being printed; and the following\nwas the approbation given to Fletcher\u2019s Poem:\u2014\n\n \u201cI have read this work, which, in my judgment, everywhere breathes\n Piety, Faith, and Christian Charity.\n\n \u201cDE BONS, _Censeur_.\u201d\n\nAfter his return to England, Fletcher enlarged the work, and, in 1785,\npublished an edition, still in the French language, with the title:\u2014\u201cLa\nGrace et la Nature, Po\u00ebme\u2014Seconde Edition plus compl\u00e9te. A Londre. De\nl\u2019Imprimerie de R. Hindmarsh, Clerkenwell Close; Chez T. Longman, dans\nPaternoster Row; \u00e0 Dublin Chez J. Charrnier, dans Kapel Street; et pr\u00e8s\ndu Pont de fer, in Shropshire, 1785,\u201d 8vo 442 pp. By permission, the\nbook was dedicated, \u201cA la Reine de la Grande Bretagne.\u201d The dedication,\ndated \u201c\u00e0 Madeley pr\u00e8s de Coalbrook-dale, dans la Comt\u00e9 de Salop, le 6 de\nSept. 1784,\u201d was characteristic, and as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADAM,\u2014The parish, which, in the centre of your kingdom, produced an\n iron bridge,[496] being always fruitful in singularities, has now\n produced a French poem: His Majesty gave a favourable reception to the\n model of our bridge, and will Your Majesty refuse the dedication of\n our poem? The solidity of an iron bridge sustained by two rocks\n renders useless the support of a Royal hand; but a work on devotion\n has not the same solidity.\n\n \u201cA French Poem in England will always require support; but, if the\n subject be religious, a powerful protection becomes doubly necessary;\n and where can I find, among mortals, a more firm security than your\n august name? Your court, Madam, admits the French language; your\n generous heart cherishes moral virtues; your exalted mind is pleased\n to encourage the cultivation of the fine Arts, among which poetry\n occupies the first rank. And, if a Queen of England permitted Voltaire\n to dedicate to her the praises of a French Monarch,[497] your piety,\n Madam, will not refuse those of the King of kings, celebrated in a\n poem, which has for its argument the divine song of a Sovereign, and\n the third Canto of which regards Kings and Princes.\n\n \u201cMay your Majesty, constantly surrounded with the most precious\n benedictions, never stand in need of the consolations offered to the\n afflicted in the ninth Canto! And, when you have long beheld that\n happy and sweet peace flourish, which is celebrated in this poem,[498]\n may you, without sorrow, exchange your heavy crown for one of those\n brilliant diamonds reserved for princes, who serve God, and cause\n righteousness to flourish in the earth! These are the ardent prayers\n of him who has the honour to be, with that profound respect, which\n virtue truly merits when united to greatness,\n\n \u201cMadam, your majesty\u2019s most humble and devoted servant,\n \u201cJ. W. FLETCHER.\u201d\n\nFootnote 496:\n\n The bridge across the Severn, at Coalbrook Dale, regarded as one of\n the wonders of the age.\n\nFootnote 497:\n\n Voltaire\u2019s \u201cHenriade,\u201d printed in London in 1726, was dedicated to the\n Queen of George I.\n\nFootnote 498:\n\n \u201cAn Essay on the Peace of 1783,\u201d also written in French, and now\n incorporated with \u201cLa Grace et la Nature.\u201d\n\nIn his preface, Fletcher says:\u2014\n\n \u201cA former edition of this poem was entitled \u2018_Praise_,\u2019[499] because\n the writer\u2019s principal design was to impress his readers with the\n force of these words, \u2018_Offer to the Lord the sacrifice of praise._\u2019\n It is now presented to the public with alterations, and the addition\n of ten new Cantos, under the title of \u2018_Grace and Nature_;\u2019 or a\n descant on creation, as productive of the praise due to the great\n Creator.\u201d\n\nFootnote 499:\n\n The title, in French, was \u201cLa Louange.\u201d\n\nThe book is a remarkable one. Every creature of God, animate and\ninanimate, except devils and damned men in hell, seems to be called upon\nto unite in offering praise to God. That Fletcher throbbed with the\npoetic fire cannot, in fairness, be denied. Perhaps some of his thoughts\nare fanciful; and his work, in other respects, may be imperfect; but\nmany of his conceptions and utterances are worthy not only of being\nread, but of being remembered. The following quotations, taken from a\ntranslation of it by the Rev. Miles Martindale, may furnish a faint idea\nof its style and merits.\n\nLike other poets, Fletcher begins with prayer for supernatural\ninspiration:\u2014\n\n \u201cThou Glorious Power, whom thrones supernal praise,\n Eternal source of life, of love, and grace;\n While joyful throngs surround Thy shining seat,\n Behold a worm low-bending at Thy feet!\n His darkness chase with Thy all-cheering ray;\n On his weak reason shed celestial day;\n His breast transform with renovating fire,\n With harmony divine his soul inspire.\u201d\n\nIt has been already stated that a wood adjoined the house where Fletcher\nresided at Nyon, and that this was one of his favourite resorts for\nprayer, reading, and meditation, and that here he was accustomed to\ninstruct his congregation of little children. There can be no doubt that\nthe ensuing lines are descriptive of Fletcher\u2019s enjoyments in this\nsylvan cathedral:\u2014\n\n \u201cYe solemn woods, where music loves to dwell,\n Whose zephyrs breathe the sweet balsamic smell;\n Here kindles piety divinely bright,\n The heart replete with love and joyous light.\n To crown the lay, the feather\u2019d nations raise\n Their notes with mine, to sound the Eternal\u2019s praise;\n While innocence inspires the sacred song,\n Ten thousand throats the swelling theme prolong.\n Amid these happy groves, see Eden shine,\n Than Bourbons\u2019 pompous gardens, more divine.\n Fly the vile orchestra, where impious tongues\n Soft warble vice in loose lascivious songs.\n \u2019Tis here, \u2019mid zephyrs\u2019 mild and melting strains,\n Lost Paradise her pristine bliss regains.\u201d\n\nOne more quotation must suffice. It is taken from a long description of\nthe Lake of Geneva. After apostrophizing the divine Creator, who has \u201cin\nheaven\u201d His \u201cdwelling-place,\u201d Fletcher proceeds:\u2014\n\n \u201cThy bless\u2019d serenity, Thy palace fair,\n The sleeping waters of this lake declare.\n To give mankind an emblem of Thy might,\n An image of Thy skill supremely bright,\n Thy plastic hand drew the rough rocks around,\n And scoop\u2019d the wondrous vale, a gulf profound;\n Where winding Rhone his active force resigns,\n And, in wild fields of ice, resplendent shines.\n To shadow heaven, and the fair scene unfold,\n This lake with azure glows, and burnished gold;\n What brilliant rays, what awful glories stand,\n To show the wonders of Thy mighty hand!\u201d\n\nTo several of the cantos of his poem, Fletcher attaches lengthened\nnotes, in prose; most of them levelled against the infidelity of\nVoltaire, Rosseau, and the Unitarians.\n\nLeaving the poem, \u201cLa Grace et la Nature,\u201d another of Fletcher\u2019s works\nin Switzerland must be briefly noticed. This also was written in the\nFrench language; and after Fletcher\u2019s death was translated, and\npublished with the following title: \u201cThe Portrait of St. Paul; or, the\ntrue Model for Christians and Pastors: translated from the French\nManuscript of the late Rev. John William de la Flechere, Vicar of\nMadeley. To which is added, Some Account of the Author, by the Rev.\nJoshua Gilpin, Vicar of Rockwardine, in the County of Salop. In two\nvolumes. Shrewsbury. 1790.\u201d 12mo, pp. 377 and 330.\n\nMr. Gilpin was an ardent admirer of Fletcher, as his biographical\n\u201cNotes\u201d amply show. He had been a resident in Fletcher\u2019s vicarage, and\nhad enjoyed the unspeakable benefit of his example, prayers, and\ninstruction. He writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cBefore I was of sufficient age to take holy orders, I thankfully\n embraced the offered privilege of spending a few months beneath the\n roof of this exemplary man; and I well remember how solemn an\n impression was made upon my heart by the manner in which he received\n me. He met me at his door with a look of inexpressible benignity; and,\n conducting me by the hand into his house, intimated a desire of\n leading me immediately into the presence of that God to whom the\n government of his little family was ultimately submitted. Instantly he\n fell upon his knees and poured out an earnest prayer that my present\n visit might be rendered both advantageous and comfortable, and that\n our society might be crowned by an intimate fellowship with Christ.\n This may serve as a specimen of the manner in which he was accustomed\n to receive his guests.\n\n \u201cIn his social prayers, he paid but little attention to those rules\n which have been laid down with respect to the composition and order of\n such devotional exercises. His words flowed spontaneously, and without\n premeditation, though always wonderfully adapted to the occasion.\n Nothing impertinent, artificial, or superfluous appeared in his\n addresses to the Deity. His prayers were the prayers of faith; always\n fervent, often effectual, and invariably a mingled flow of\n supplication and gratitude, humility and confidence, resignation and\n fervour, adoration and love.\n\n \u201cOf his secret supplications, He alone can judge \u2018who seeth in\n secret.\u2019 His closet was his favourite retirement, to which he\n constantly retreated whenever his public duties allowed him a season\n of leisure. Here, in times of uncommon distress, he continued during\n whole nights in prayer before God; and that part of the wall, against\n which he was accustomed to kneel, appeared deeply stained with the\n breath he had spent in fervent worship.\u201d\n\nIn the preface to his translation, Mr. Gilpin remarks:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe following work was begun, and nearly completed, in the course of\n Mr. Fletcher\u2019s last residence at Nyon; where it formed a valuable part\n of his private labours during a long and painful confinement from\n public duty.[500] On his return to England, he suffered the manuscript\n to lie by him, intending, at his leisure, to translate and prepare it\n for the press. After his decease, Mrs. Fletcher discovered it, and the\n translator, finding it a work of no common importance, was readily\n induced to render it into English. _The Portrait of St. Paul_ was\n originally intended for publication in the author\u2019s native country, to\n which its arguments and quotations apply with peculiar propriety. It\n contains Mr. Fletcher\u2019s last and best thoughts upon some of the most\n important subjects that can occupy the human mind.\u201d\n\nFootnote 500:\n\n Mrs. Fletcher says, her husband told her the manuscript \u201cwas a rough\n draft, written in his illness when abroad, and which he intended to\n re-write and to improve.\u201d (\u201cMrs. Fletcher\u2019s Life,\u201d by H. Moore, p.\n 395.)\n\nUnfortunately, Fletcher\u2019s \u201cPortrait of St. Paul\u201d has, at the present\nday, but few readers. At the beginning of the century, it was one of the\ntext-books of the Methodist itinerant preachers; and, even within the\nlast forty years, the _Methodist Magazine_ spoke of it as an \u201cadmirable\nwork\u201d and an \u201cinestimable volume.\u201d[501] Methodists, now-a-days, too\noften prefer ornament to truth.\n\nFootnote 501:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1845, p. 74.\n\nThe traits of St. Paul upon which Fletcher descants are the following:\nhis early piety; his Christian piety; his intimate union with Christ\nby faith; his extraordinary vocation to the holy ministry, and in what\nthat ministry chiefly consists; his entire devotion to Jesus Christ;\nhis strength and his arms; his power to bind, to loose, and to bless\nin the name of the Lord; the earnestness with which he began and\ncontinued to fill up the duties of his vocation; the manner in which\nhe divided his time between prayer, preaching, and thanksgiving; the\nfidelity with which he announced the severe threatenings and\nconsolatory promises of the Gospel; his profound humility; the\ningenuous manner in which he acknowledged and repaired his errors; his\ndetestation of party spirit and divisions; his rejection of praise;\nhis universal love; his particular love to the faithful; his love to\nthose whose faith was wavering; his love to his countrymen and his\nenemies; his love to those whom he knew only by report; his charity\ntowards the poor; his charity towards sinners; the condescension of\nhis humble charity; his courage in defence of truth; his prudence in\nfrustrating the designs of his enemies; his tenderness toward others,\nand his severity toward himself; his love never degenerated into\ncowardice; his perfect disinterestedness; his condescension in\nlabouring with his own hands; his respect for the holy estate of\nmatrimony; the ardour of his love; his generous fears and succeeding\nconsolation; the grand subject of his glorying; his patience and\nfortitude; his firmness before magistrates; his courage in consoling\nhis persecuted brethren; his humble confidence in producing the seals\nof his ministry; his readiness to seal with his blood the truths of\nthe Gospel; the sweet suspense of his choice between life and death;\nthe constancy of his zeal and diligence to the end of his course; his\ntriumphs over the evils of life and the terrors of death.\n\nAfter this follows \u201cThe Portrait of Lukewarm Ministers and False\nApostles;\u201d then Fletcher answers \u201cObjections\u201d to the \u201cPortrait of St.\nPaul;\u201d and next, with consummate ability, states \u201cThe Doctrines of an\nEvangelical Pastor;\u201d and concludes with \u201cAn Essay on the Connexion of\nDoctrines with Morality,\u201d in answer to the infidel philosophy of\nVoltaire and Rosseau, recently deceased. The last two sections are\ninvaluable, and exhibit Fletcher in all the strength of his sanctified\ngenius.\n\nTo make selections from so comprehensive a work as this is difficult,\nbut the following specimens may be acceptable and useful:\u2014\n\n _The faithful pastor._\u2014\u201cThe disposition of a faithful pastor is, in\n every respect, diametrically opposed to that of a worldly minister. If\n you observe the conversation of an ecclesiastic who is influenced by\n the spirit of the world, you will hear him intimating either that he\n has, or that he would not be sorry to have, the precedency among his\n brethren; to live in a state of affluence and splendour, and to secure\n to himself such distinguished appointments as would increase both his\n dignity and his income, without making any extraordinary addition to\n his pastoral labours. You will find him anxious to be admitted into\n the best companies, and occasionally forming parties for the chase, or\n some other vain amusement. While the true pastor cries out, in the\n self-renouncing language of the great Apostle, \u2018God forbid that I\n should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the\n world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.\u2019 Oh! ye, who preside\n over the household of God, learn of the Apostle Paul to manifest your\n real superiority. Surpass your inferiors in humility, in charity, in\n zeal, in your painful labours for the salvation of sinners, in your\n invincible courage to encounter those dangers which threaten your\n brethren, and by your unwearied patience in bearing those persecutions\n which the faithful disciples of Christ are perpetually called to\n endure from a corrupt world. Thus shall you honourably replace the\n first Christian prelates, and happily restore the Church to its\n primitive dignity.\u201d\n\n _Writing sermons, and reading or delivering them._\u2014\u201cHe, who spake as\n never man spake, rejected the arts of our modern orators, delivering\n His discourses in a style of easy simplicity, and unaffected zeal. We\n do not find that St. Paul and the other Apostles imposed upon\n themselves the troublesome servitude of penning down their discourses.\n And we are well assured that, when the Seventy and the Twelve were\n commissioned to publish the Gospel, no directions of this nature were\n given in either case.\u201d\n\n \u201cWhat advantage has accrued to the Church, by renouncing the apostolic\n method of publishing the Gospel? We have indolence and artifice, in\n the place of sincerity and vigilance. Those public discourses, which\n were anciently the effects of conviction and zeal, are now become the\n weakly exercises of learning and art. \u2018_We believe, and therefore\n speak_,\u2019 is an expression, that has grown entirely obsolete among\n modern pastors. Nothing is more common among us than to say, \u2018As we\n have sermons prepared upon a variety of subjects, we are ready to\n deliver them, as opportunity offers.\u2019\n\n \u201cMany inconveniences arise from this method of preaching. While the\n physician of souls is labouring to compose a learned dissertation upon\n some plain passage of Scripture, he has but little leisure to visit\n those languishing patients, who need his immediate assistance. He\n thinks it sufficient to attend upon them every Sabbath-day, in the\n place appointed for public duty: but he recollects not, that those, to\n whom his counsel is peculiarly necessary, are the very persons who\n refuse to meet him there. His unprofitable employments at home leave\n him no opportunity to go in pursuit of his wandering sheep. He meets\n them, it is true, at stated periods, in the common fold; but it is\n equally true that, during every successive interval, he discovers the\n coldest indifference with respect to their spiritual welfare. From\n this unbecoming conduct of many a minister, one would naturally\n imagine, that the flock were rather called to seek out their indolent\n pastor, than that he was purposely hired to pursue every straying\n sheep.\n\n \u201cSince the orator\u2019s art has taken the place of the energy of faith,\n what happy effects has it produced upon the minds of men? Have we\n discovered more frequent conversions among us? Are formal professors\n more generally seized with a religious fear? Do the wicked depart from\n the Church, to bewail their transgressions in private; and believers\n to visit the mourners in their affliction? Is it not rather to be\n lamented that we are, at this day, equally distant from Christian\n charity, and primitive simplicity?\n\n \u201cReading approved sermons is generally supposed to be preaching the\n Gospel. If this were really so, we need but look out some schoolboy of\n tolerable capacity; and, after instructing him to read, with proper\n emphasis and gesture, the sermons of Tillotson, Sherlock, or Saurin,\n we shall have made him an excellent minister of the Word of God. But,\n if preaching the Gospel is to publish among sinners that repentance\n and salvation, which we have experienced in ourselves, it is evident\n that experience and sympathy are more necessary to the due performance\n of this work, than all the accuracy and elocution that can possibly be\n acquired.\n\n \u201cWhen this sacred experience and this generous sympathy began to lose\n their prevalence in the Church, their place was gradually supplied by\n the trifling substitutes of study and affectation. Carnal prudence has\n now for many ages solicitously endeavoured to adapt itself to the\n taste of the wise and the learned. But, while \u2018_the offence of the\n cross_\u2019 is avoided, neither the wise nor the ignorant are effectually\n converted.\n\n \u201cIn consequence of the same error, the ornaments of theatrical\n eloquence have been sought after, with a shameful solicitude. And what\n has been the fruit of so much useless toil? _Preachers_, after all,\n have played their part with much less applause than _comedians_; and\n their curious auditories are still running from the pulpit to the\n stage, for the purpose of hearing fables repeated with a degree of\n sensibility, which the messengers of truth can neither _feel_, nor\n _feign_.\u201d\n\nFor want of space, further extracts from Fletcher\u2019s invaluable, but\nneglected, book cannot be given here. Those, however, already presented\ndeserve attention. Though written a hundred years ago, they are sadly\nappropriate to the state of things at the present day.\n\nAs already stated, both \u201cLa Grace et la Nature,\u201d and the \u201cPortrait of\nSt. Paul,\u201d were written in the French language, a strong presumptive\nproof that he intended to publish _both_ of them in his native country.\nSo far as the \u201cPortrait of St. Paul\u201d is concerned, that intention was\nnot fulfilled.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIII.\n _THE FIRST THREE MONTHS AFTER FLETCHER\u2019S\n RETURN TO MADELEY._\n\n 1781.\n\n\nFLETCHER recommenced his ministry at Madeley on Sunday, May 27,\n1781.[502] During his absence of four years and a-half, religion, in his\nparish, had not prospered. In a letter to his hospitable friend, Charles\nGreenwood, at Stoke Newington, he wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cMadeley, June 12, 1781. I stayed longer at Brislington than I\n designed. Mr. Ireland was ill, and would nevertheless come hither with\n me; so that I was obliged to stay till he was better. And, indeed, it\n was well I did not come without him; for he has helped me to regulate\n my outward affairs, which were in great confusion. Mr. Greaves leaves\n me; and I will either leave Madeley, or have an assistant able to stir\n among the people: for I had much rather be gone than stay here, to see\n the dead bury their dead. A cloud is over my poor parish; but, alas!\n it is not the luminous cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night.\n Even the few remaining professors stared at me the other day, when I\n preached to them on these words, \u2018Ye shall receive the Holy Ghost; for\n the promise is unto you.\u2019 Well, the promise is unto _us_: if others\n despise it, still let us believe and hope. Nothing enlarges the heart\n and awakens the soul more than that believing, loving\n expectation.\u201d[503]\n\nFootnote 502:\n\n _Methodist Magazine_, 1811, p. 312.\n\nFootnote 503:\n\n Fletcher\u2019s \u201cLife,\u201d by Wesley.\n\nThe following, addressed to Wesley, refers to the same subject, and also\nto other matters:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _June 6, 1781_.\n\n \u201cREV. AND DEAR SIR,\u2014I rejoice to hear that your spiritual bow abides\n in strength. I would have wished you joy about it since my arrival, if\n I knew where a letter could overtake you.[504] I heartily thank you\n for the directions you give me to hinder my bow, so far split, from\n breaking quite. Now I must imitate your prudence, or the opportunity\n of doing it will soon be lost for good.\n\n \u201cI would do something in the Lord\u2019s vineyard, but I have not strength.\n I can hardly, without over-doing myself, visit the sick of my parish.\n I was better when I left Switzerland than I am now. I had a great pull\n back, in venturing to preach in the fields, in the Cevennes, to about\n two thousand French Protestants. I rode thirty miles to that place,\n from Montpelier, on horseback, but was obliged to be brought back in a\n carriage. And now that I am here, I can neither serve my church, nor\n get it properly served. Mr. Greaves owns, the place is not fit for\n him, nor he for it. He will go when I can get somebody to help me.\n Could you spare me Brother Bayley?[507] It would be a charity. Unless\n I can get a curate zealous enough to stir among the people, I will\n give up the place: it would be little comfort to me to stay here to\n see the dead bury the dead. I thank God, however, for resignation to\n His will. As soon as I shall discern it clearly, I shall follow it;\n for, I trust, I have learned in what state soever I am, therewith to\n be content.\n\n \u201cWhat a blessing is Christ to the soul, and health to the body! When\n you go to, or come from the Conference, be so good as to remember that\n you have now a pilgrim\u2019s house in the way from Shrewsbury to Broseley;\n and do not climb our hills without baiting. At our first interview, I\n shall ask your thoughts about a French work or two I have upon the\n anvil; but which I fear I shall not have time to finish. Be that as it\n will, God needs not the hand of Uzzah, nor my finger, to keep up His\n ark.\n\n \u201cI read, with pleasure and edification, your _Arminian Magazine_.[506]\n Your storehouse is inexhaustible. The Lord strengthen you to\n _Nestor\u2019s_ years, or rather to the useful length of St. John\u2019s life!\n It is worth living to serve the Church, and to teach Christians to\n love one another.\n\n \u201cI am, rev. and dear Sir, your affectionate, though unprofitable\n servant,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[505]\n\nFootnote 504:\n\n The veteran evangelist was now visiting the Isle of Man, \u201ceast, south,\n north, and west,\u201d and said, \u201cI was thoroughly convinced that we have\n no such circuit as this, either in England, Scotland, or Ireland.\u201d\n (Wesley\u2019s Journal.)\n\nFootnote 505:\n\n The Rev. Cornelius Bayley, at this time one of the Masters of Wesley\u2019s\n School at Kingswood. Cornelius Bailey was born near Whitchurch, in\n Shropshire, about the year 1752. He was an excellent Hebrew scholar,\n and published a Hebrew grammar, which procured him a doctor\u2019s degree\n from a foreign university. Afterwards, when he took the same degree,\n D.D., at Cambridge, he delivered a Latin sermon, which was much\n applauded. As will soon be seen, he became Fletcher\u2019s curate. On\n leaving Madeley, he went to Manchester, where he became the founder\n and the minister of St. James\u2019s Church. This is not the place to give\n a detailed account of this remarkable man. Suffice it to say, he died,\n in Manchester, on April 2, 1812, his last words being, \u201cO my Saviour!\n The Lord is with me!\u201d His remains were interred in a vault of his own\n church; more than forty clergymen attended his funeral; the church was\n crowded, and more than a thousand of his friends had to stand outside.\n The Rev. John Crosse, afterwards so well-known in Bradford, preached\n the funeral sermon. (_Christian Observer_, 1812, p. 477.)\n\nFootnote 506:\n\n Wesley began to publish this magazine during Fletcher\u2019s absence on the\n continent.\n\nFootnote 507:\n\n _Arminian Magazine_, 1782, p. 48.\n\nWesley\u2019s approaching Conference was to be held at Leeds, and to Joseph\nBenson, who had recently been married, Fletcher wrote as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cI am, at present, without an assistant here, but hope soon to have\n Mr. Bayley, one of the masters of Kingswood School. If he come, I\n shall be at liberty to go to Leeds, and I hope God will strengthen me\n for the journey. A godly wife is a peculiar blessing from the Lord. I\n wish you joy for such a loan. Possess it with godly fear and holy joy;\n and the God who gave her you help you both to see your doubled piety\n take root in the heart of the child that crowns your union. So prays,\n my dear brother, your affectionate friend,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[508]\n\nFootnote 508:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nMeanwhile, Fletcher had begun a correspondence with a lady hitherto\nunknown to him; or rather she had begun a correspondence with him. Miss\nAnn Loxdale, daughter of Joseph Loxdale, Esq., of Shrewsbury, was now\nabout twenty-six years of age. Two years before the date of her letter\nto Fletcher, she had been converted. In reply to her communication, he\nsaid:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _May 24, 1781_.\n\n \u201cDEAR MADAM,\u2014I embrace the first opportunity of thanking my unknown\n _friend_ for her kind Christian letter. As I believe you are sincere,\n and mean what your pen has traced upon paper, I may rejoice over a\n greater treasure than that of the Indies\u2014I mean, the _treasure of a\n Christian friend_; for nothing but Christianity could give you courage\n to express any degree of friendship for so contemptible a neighbour. I\n shall preach here next Sunday, please God. If you can, and if you are\n not afraid of dining upon a bit of cold meat, come and dine with your\n new and yet _old friend_, who, though he cannot converse long with his\n friends, on account of his weakness, will find a quarter of an hour to\n assure you, that, in the faith, hope, and love of the Gospel, he is,\n\n \u201cMadam, your obliged friend and obedient servant,\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[509]\n\nFootnote 509:\n\n _Methodist Magazine_, 1811, p.312.\n\nThere cannot be a doubt respecting Miss Loxdale\u2019s ardent piety; but she\nwas in danger of falling into some of the errors of the mystics. She had\nwritten to Wesley, asking his advice respecting the works of Madam\nBourignon, which she had been reading. Wesley, in his reply, dated \u201cJune\n10, 1781,\u201d told her that Madam Bourignon\u2019s \u201cnew and peculiar\nexpressions\u201d were \u201conly shadows,\u201d not \u201can excellence, but a capital\ndefect.\u201d Wesley continued,\u2014\n\n \u201cAs I apprehend your mind must be a little confused by reading those\n uncommon treatises, I wish you would give another deliberate reading\n to the \u2018Plain Account of Christian Perfection.\u2019 You may be assured\n there is no religion under heaven higher or deeper than that which is\n there described. I desire nothing, I will accept of nothing, but the\n common faith and common salvation; and I want you to be only just such\n a common Christian as Jenny Cooper was.\u201d[510]\n\nFootnote 510:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Works, vol. xiii., p. 121.\n\nMeantime, Miss Loxdale and Fletcher had met and conversed with each\nother; for, in a long letter to her, dated twelve days after Wesley\u2019s,\nhe gave her what he considered suitable advice, and said, \u201cI never\ndoubted your sincerity, my dear friend; and can, without wavering,\nconfess you _a member of my Lord, a child of my heavenly Father, and a\nfellow-heir of the kingdom of heaven_, purchased for penitent\nbelievers.\u201d[511]\n\nFootnote 511:\n\n _Methodist Magazine_, 1811, p. 312.\n\nThis epistolary and _viv\u00e2 voce_ intercourse grew into a sincere\nfriendship, but nothing more than that. Miss Loxdale became one of the\nmost holy and devoted Methodists of the last century; and, in 1811, at\nthe age of fifty-six, married the Rev. Dr. Coke. A year afterwards, she\ndied at York, and was buried in Dr. Coke\u2019s family vault at Brecon.[512]\n\nFootnote 512:\n\n Drew\u2019s \u201cLife of Coke,\u201d p. 346.\n\nJust at the time when Fletcher was writing his letters to Miss Loxdale,\nand giving her, most sincerely, the best advice he could, his heart was\nfull of Miss Bosanquet, and, as will soon be seen, at the beginning of\nthe month of June, he proposed to marry her. The reply was not\nunfavourable, and Fletcher at once decided to attend Wesley\u2019s Conference\nat Leeds, in the neighbourhood of which Miss Bosanquet resided. The\nfollowing letter, addressed to Wesley, announces this decision, and\nrefers to the case of Miss Loxdale, and to an interesting incident in\nSwitzerland:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _June 24, 1781_.\n\n \u201cREV. AND DEAR SIR,\u2014As to Miss Loxdale, I believe her to be a simple,\n holy follower of the Lord. Nothing throws _unscriptural_ mysticism\n down like holding out the promise of the Father, and the fulness of\n the Spirit, to be received _now_, _by faith_ in the two Promisers, the\n _Father_ and the _Son_. Ah! what is the _penal fire_ of the mystics,\n to the _burning love_ of the _Spirit_, revealing the glorious power of\n the _Father_ and the _Son_, according to John xiv. 26, and filling us\n with all the fulness of God? Plain Scripture is better than all mystic\n refinements.\n\n \u201cWhen I was at Nyon, near Geneva, three ministers received the Word,\n and preached the Truth. When persecution arose because of the Word,\n the two pastors were afraid; but the curate of the first pastor, a\n burgess of the town, stood by me. This Timothy opened his house, when\n the pastors shut both their pulpits and houses; and I heard him preach\n a discourse before I came away, worthy of _you_, Sir, upon the heights\n and depths of holiness. He wrote an apology for me, which I sent to\n the head of the persecuting Clergy, and so stopped the torrent of\n wrath. He made observations upon the mischief done to Christianity by\n bad Clergy, such as George Fox and you, Sir, would not disown. When I\n told him of you and the Methodists, he expressed a great desire to\n come to England, to hear you, to see the English brethren, and to\n learn the English language, that he might read your works, and,\n perhaps, translate some of them. He can have no living in his own\n country, because he will not _swear to prosecute all who propagate\n Arminian tenets_; which is more honest than many of the Clergy, many\n of whom are _Arians_, _Socinians_, or _Deists_, and do not scruple to\n take the _Calvinian Oaths_.\n\n \u201cI shall endeavour to wait upon you at Leeds, at the time of the\n Conference: in the meantime, I am, Rev. and dear Sir, your obedient\n Servant, and affectionate Son in the Gospel,\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[513]\n\nFootnote 513:\n\n _Arminian Magazine_, 1782, p. 49.\n\nAnother of Fletcher\u2019s letters, belonging to this period, is too valuable\nto be omitted. His interview with Thomas Rankin, at Brislington, has\nbeen related. He now wrote to Rankin, as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _June 25, 1781_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014I thank you for your kind letter to me. I found\n myself of _one heart_ with you, both as a preacher and believer,\n before I left Bristol, and I am glad you find freedom to speak to me\n as your friend in Christ.\n\n \u201cBy what you mention of your experience, I am confirmed in the\n thought, 1. That it is often harder to keep in the way of faith and\n light than to get into it. 2. That speculation and reasoning hinder us\n to get into that way, and lead us out of it when we are in it. 3. The\n only business of those who come to God, as a Redeemer or Sanctifier,\n must be to feel their want of redemption and sanctifying \u2018power from\n on high,\u2019 and to come for it by simple, cordial, working faith.\n Easily, the heart gets into a false rest before our last enemy is\n overcome. Hence arises a relapsing, in an imperceptible degree, into\n indolence and carnal security; hence a dreaming that we are rich and\n increased in goods.\n\n \u201cThis is one of the causes of the declension you perceive among some\n of the Methodists. Another is the _outward rest_ they have. Another\n may be the judging of the greatness of the work by the numbers in\n Society. Be the consequence what it will, those who see the evil\n should honestly bear their testimony against it, first in their own\n souls, next by their life, and thirdly by their plain and constant\n reproofs and exhortations.\n\n \u201cThe work of justification seems stopped, in some degree, because the\n glory and necessity of the pardon of sins, to be _received_ and\n _enjoyed now by faith_, is not pressed enough upon _sinners_; and the\n need of _retaining it_ upon _believers_. The work of sanctification is\n hindered, if I am not mistaken, by the same reason, and by holding out\n the being _delivered from sin_ as the mark to be aimed at, instead of\n being _rooted in Christ_, and _filled with the fulness of God_, and\n with _power from on high_. The dispensation of the Spirit is\n confounded with that of the Son, and the former not being held forth\n clearly enough, formal and lukewarm believers in Jesus Christ suppose\n they have the gift of the Holy Ghost. Hence the increase of _carnal_\n professors, see Acts viii. 16. And hence so few _spiritual_ men.\n\n \u201cLet us pray, hope, love, believe for ourselves, and call for the\n display of the Lord\u2019s arm. My love to your dear fellow-labourer, Mr.\n Pawson. Pray for your affectionate brother,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[514]\n\nFootnote 514:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nThe sentiments expressed in this valuable letter were important a\nhundred years ago; and are far more important now. Methodists, and\nespecially Methodist Preachers, ought to lay them seriously to heart.\nHolding them, Fletcher proceeded to the Methodist Conference of 1781,\nwhich began at Leeds on Tuesday, August 7, and concerning which Wesley\nwrites as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201c1781. Sunday, _August 5_. At the old church in Leeds, we had eighteen\n clergymen, and about eleven hundred communicants. I preached there at\n three; the church was thoroughly filled; and I believe most could\n hear, while I explained the \u2018new covenant\u2019 which God has now made with\n the Israel of God.\n\n \u201cMonday, 6th. I desired Mr. Fletcher, Dr. Coke, and four more of our\n brethren, to meet every evening, that we might consult together on any\n difficulty that occurred. On _Tuesday_ our Conference began, at which\n were present about seventy preachers, whom I had severally invited to\n come and assist me with their advice, in carrying on the great work of\n God. _Wednesday_, 8th. I desired Mr. Fletcher to preach. I do not\n wonder he should be so popular; not only because he preaches with all\n his might, but because the power of God attends both his preaching and\n prayer. On _Monday_ and _Tuesday_ (August 13 and 14) we finished the\n remaining business of the Conference, and ended it with solemn prayer\n and thanksgiving.\u201d[515]\n\nFootnote 515:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\nNotwithstanding the evils even then existing, and which were lamented by\nFletcher in the foregoing letter, these were glorious days, and their\nconferences memorable \u201ctimes of refreshing from the presence of the\nLord.\u201d Mr. Gorham, of St. Neots, was at the Conference of 1781, and\nwrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher preached at five in the morning, from 2 Peter i. 4.\n Notwithstanding the earliness of the hour, at least two thousand\n persons were present, who appeared to listen to him with the deepest\n attention.\u201d\n\nJoseph Pescod, one of Wesley\u2019s itinerant preachers, in a letter to his\nwife, remarked:\u2014\n\n \u201cI arrived at Leeds on Saturday evening; and on Sunday morning, at\n five o\u2019clock, I had the happiness to hear that venerable servant of\n God, Mr. Fletcher. Never did I see any man more like what I suppose\n the ancient Apostles to have been. His text was 2 Peter i. 4: \u2018Whereby\n are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.\u2019 He spoke\n particularly of the three great promises of God to man. The leading\n promise of the Old Testament, he remarked, was, \u2018The seed of the woman\n shall bruise the serpent\u2019s head.\u2019 On this promise, he observed, the\n saints lived four thousand years, and were saved through the Messiah\n to come. The other two, he said, were New Testament promises. First,\n the promise of the Holy Ghost, whom our Lord told His disciples He\n would send after His ascension. The dispensation of the Spirit is to\n renew us after the image of God; which implies light, and power, and\n love. The third promise, on which he dwelt, was that of the\n resurrection of the body. I think I never heard a sermon to be\n compared with it. I wish I could tell you every word. I had, also, the\n happiness to receive from his hand the bread in the sacrament of the\n Lord\u2019s Supper. The ordinance was administered in the old church, by\n Mr. Wesley, Mr. Fletcher, and nine other clergymen. Mr. Wesley\n preached in the afternoon, in the church, from Hebrews viii.\n 10\u201312.\u201d[516]\n\nFootnote 516:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1829, p. 528.\n\nWesley\u2019s Conference finished its business on August 14; but Fletcher,\nthe happy guest of Miss Bosanquet, at Cross Hall, continued in the\nneighbourhood about three weeks longer, \u201cpreaching,\u201d says his delighted\nhostess, \u201cin different places, with much power.\u201d[517] A record of one of\nthe meetings that Fletcher attended fortunately exists, and is here\ngiven almost without abridgment.\n\nFootnote 517:\n\n Moore\u2019s \u201cLife of Mrs. Fletcher,\u201d p. 141.\n\nJames Rogers was, at this time, stationed at Sheffield; but, no doubt,\nboth he and his far-famed wife, \u201cHester Ann,\u201d attended the Conference at\nLeeds. After its sittings were ended, she, like Fletcher, still\nremained. On August 24, Fletcher came with Miss Bosanquet, and Mrs.\nCrosby, to dine at Mr. Smith\u2019s, in Park Row, and to meet the Select\nSociety. Mrs. Rogers writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen I entered the room, where they were assembled, the heavenly man\n was giving out the following verses, with such animation as I have\n seldom witnessed\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018Near us, assisting Jesus, stand;\n Give us the op\u2019ning heavens to see;\n Thee to behold at God\u2019s right hand,\n And yield our parting souls to Thee.\n\n \u201c\u2018My Father, O my Father, hear,\n And send the fiery chariot down;\n Let Israel\u2019s flaming steeds appear,\n And whirl us to the starry crown.\n\n \u201c\u2018We, we would die for Jesus too;\n Through tortures, fires, and seas of blood,\n All triumphantly break through,\n And plunge into the depths of God.\u2019\n\n \u201cAfter this, Mr. Fletcher poured out his full soul in prayer to God.\n Indeed, his every breath seemed to be prayer, or praise, or spiritual\n instruction; and every word that fell from his lips appeared to be\n accompanied by unction from above.\n\n \u201cAfter dinner, I took an opportunity to beg him to explain an\n expression he had used in a letter to Miss Loxdale;[518] namely, that,\n on all who are renewed in love, God bestows the gift of prophecy. He\n called for the Bible; then read and explained Acts ii.; observing,\n that, to prophesy in the sense _he_ meant, was, to magnify God with\n the _new heart_ of love, and the _new tongue_ of praise, as they did,\n who, on the day of Pentecost, were filled with the Holy Ghost. He\n insisted that believers now are called upon to prove the same\n baptismal fire; that the day of Pentecost was the opening of the\n dispensation of the Spirit,\u2014the great promise of the Father; and that\n the _latter day glory_, which he believed was near at hand, should far\n exceed the first effusion of the Spirit. Seeing then that they, on the\n day of Pentecost, bore witness to the grace of our Lord, so should\n _we_; and, like them, spread the flame of love.\n\n \u201cAfter singing a hymn, he cried, \u2018O to be filled with the Holy Ghost!\n I want to be filled! O, my friends, let us wrestle for a more abundant\n outpouring of the Spirit!\u2019 To me, he said, \u2018Come, my sister, will\n _you_ covenant with me this day, to pray for _the fulness of the\n Spirit_? Will _you_ be a witness for Jesus?\u2019 I answered, with flowing\n tears, \u2018In the strength of Jesus I will.\u2019 He cried, \u2018Glory, glory be\n to God! Lord, strengthen Thy handmaid to keep this covenant, even unto\n death!\u2019\n\n \u201cHe then said, \u2018My dear brethren and sisters, God is here! I feel Him\n in this place; but I would hide my face in the dust, because I have\n been ashamed to declare what He has done for _me_. For many years, I\n have grieved His Spirit; I am deeply humbled; and He has again\n restored my soul.\u2019 Last Wednesday evening, He spoke to me by these\n words, \u2018_Reckon yourselves, therefore, to be dead indeed unto sin; but\n alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord._\u2019 I obeyed the voice of\n God: I now obey it; and tell you all, to the praise of His love,\u2014_I am\n freed from sin._ Yes, I rejoice to declare it, and to be a witness to\n the glory of His grace, that _I am dead unto sin, and alive unto God,\n through Jesus Christ_, who is my Lord and King! I received this\n blessing four or five times before; but I lost it, by not observing\n the order of God; who has told us, _With the heart man believeth unto\n righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation._\n But the enemy offered his bait, under various colours, to keep me from\n a public declaration of what God had wrought.\u2019\n\n \u201c\u2018When I first received this grace, Satan bid me wait awhile, till I\n saw more of the _fruits_: I resolved to do so; but I soon began to\n doubt of the _witness_, which, before, I had felt in my heart; and, in\n a little time, I was sensible I had lost both. A second time, after\n receiving this salvation, I was kept from being a witness for my Lord,\n by the suggestion, \u2018Thou art a public character\u2014the eyes of _all_ are\n upon thee\u2014and if, as before, by _any_ means thou lose the blessing, it\n will be a dishonour to the doctrine of _heart-holiness_.\u2019 I held my\n peace, and again forfeited the gift of God. At another time, I was\n prevailed upon to hide it, by reasoning, \u2018How few, even of the\n _children of God_, will receive this testimony; many of them supposing\n every transgression of the Adamic law is sin; and, therefore, if I\n profess to be _free_ from sin, _all_ these will give my profession the\n lie; because I am _not_ free in _their_ sense: I am not free from\n ignorance, mistakes, and various infirmities; I will, therefore, enjoy\n what God has wrought in me; but I will not say, _I am perfect in\n love._ Alas! I soon found again, _He that hideth his Lord\u2019s talent,\n and improveth it not, from that unprofitable servant shall be taken\n away even that he hath._\n\n \u201c\u2018Now, my brethren, you see my folly. I have confessed it in your\n presence; and _now_ I resolve before you all to confess my Master. I\n will confess Him to all the world. And I declare unto you, in the\n presence of God, the Holy Trinity, I am now _dead indeed unto sin_. I\n do not say, _I am crucified with Christ_, because some of our\n well-meaning brethren say, by _this_ can only be meant _a gradual\n dying_; but I profess unto you, _I am dead unto sin, and alive unto\n God_: and, remember, all this is _through Jesus Christ our Lord_. _He_\n is my Prophet, Priest, and King\u2014my indwelling Holiness\u2014my _all in\n all_. I wait for the fulfilment of that prayer, _That they all may be\n one, as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be\n one in us: and that they may be one, even as we are one._ O for that\n pure baptismal flame! O for the fulness of the dispensation of the\n Holy Ghost! Pray, pray, pray for this! This shall make us all of one\n heart, and of one soul. Pray for _gifts_\u2014for the gift of utterance;\n and confess your royal Master. A man without gifts is like a king in\n disguise: he appears as a subject only. You are _kings and priests\n unto God_! Put on, therefore, your robes, and wear on your _garter,\n holiness to the Lord_.\u2019\n\n \u201cA few days after this, I heard Mr. Fletcher preach upon the same\n subject; inviting all, who felt their need of full redemption, to\n believe _now_ for this great salvation. He observed, \u2018As when you\n reckon with your creditor, or with your host, and, as when you have\n paid all, you reckon yourselves free, so now reckon with God. _Jesus_\n has paid all: He has paid for _thee_!\u2014has purchased _thy pardon_ and\n _holiness_; therefore, it is now God\u2019s command, _Reckon thyself dead\n indeed unto sin_; and thou art alive unto God from this hour! O,\n begin, begin to reckon now! Fear not: believe, believe, believe! and\n continue to believe every moment! So shalt thou continue _free_; for\n it is retained, as it is received, by _faith alone_. And, whosoever\n thou art that perseveringly believeth, it will be as fire in thy\n bosom, and constrain thee to confess with thy mouth _thy Lord and\n King, Jesus_. And, in spreading the sacred flame of love, thou shalt\n be saved to the uttermost.\u2019\n\n \u201cHe also dwelt largely on those words, \u2018Where sin abounded, grace did\n much more abound.\u2019 He asked, \u2018How did sin abound? Had it not\n overpowered your whole soul? Were not all your passions, tempers,\n propensities, and affections, inordinate and evil? Did not pride,\n anger, self-will, and unbelief, all reign over you? And, when the\n Spirit of God strove with you, did you not repel all His convictions,\n and put Him far from you? Well, my brethren, ye were _then_ the\n servants of sin, and were free from righteousness; but now, being made\n free from sin, ye become servants to God; and holiness shall\n overspread your whole soul, so that all your tempers and passions\n shall be henceforth regulated and governed by Him who now sitteth upon\n the throne of your heart, making all things new. As you once resisted\n the Holy Spirit, so now you shall have power to resist all the subtle\n frauds or fierce attacks of Satan.\u2019\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher then, with lifted hands, cried, \u2018Who will thus be saved?\n Who will believe the report? You are only in an improper sense called\n believers who reject this. Who is a believer? One who believes a few\n things which his God has spoken? Nay, but one who believes all that\n ever proceeded out of His mouth. Here then is the word of the Lord:\n _As sin abounded, grace shall much more abound_! As no _good thing_\n was in you by nature, so now _no evil_ thing shall remain. Do you\n believe this? Or are you a _half_ believer only? Come! Jesus is\n offered to thee as a _perfect Saviour_. Take Him, and He will make\n thee a _perfect saint_. O ye _half_ believers, will you still plead\n for the murderers of your Lord? Which of these will you hide as a\n serpent in your bosom? Shall it be anger, pride, self-will, or\n _accursed_ unbelief? O be no longer befooled! Bring these enemies to\n thy Lord, and let Him slay them.\u2019\u201d[519]\n\nFootnote 518:\n\n The letter already referred to, and dated June 22, 1781. See it in\n _Methodist Magazine_, 1811, p. 312.\n\nFootnote 519:\n\n Dr. Coke\u2019s funeral sermon on the death of Mrs. H. A. Rogers, 1795; and\n \u201cExperience and Letters of Mrs. Hester Ann Rogers.\u201d\n\nMrs. Rogers was not a shorthand writer. She wrote from memory; and\nthough what she relates in the foregoing extracts is, no doubt,\n_substantially_ correct, yet Fletcher must not be held accountable for\n_every word_ she uses. The narrative, however, is very valuable, because\nit exhibits Fletcher at a most important epoch of his life, and exhibits\nhim in his free-and-easy religious dishabille among his friends. Wesley\nsays:\u2014\n\n \u201cThere is a peculiar difficulty in giving a full account of either the\n life or character of Mr. Fletcher, because we have scarce any light\n from himself. He was upon all occasions very uncommonly reserved in\n speaking of himself, whether in writing or conversation. He hardly\n ever said anything concerning himself, unless it slipped from him\n unawares. And, among the great number of papers which he has left,\n there is scarce a page (except the account of his conversion to God),\n relative either to his own inward experience, or the transactions of\n his life. So that the most of the information we have is gathered up,\n either from short hints scattered up and down in his letters, from\n what he had occasionally dropped among his friends, or from what one\n and another remembered concerning him.\n\n \u201cThis defect was indeed, in some measure, supplied by the entire\n intimacy which subsisted between him and Mrs. Fletcher. He did not\n willingly, much less designedly, conceal anything from her. They had\n no secrets with regard to each other, but had indeed one house, one\n purse, and one heart. Before her, it was his invariable rule to _think\n aloud_; always to open the window in his breast. And to this we are\n indebted for the knowledge of many particulars which must otherwise\n have been buried in oblivion.\u201d[520]\n\nFootnote 520:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nNo doubt this statement is perfectly accurate. Fletcher, like Wesley\nhimself, was never a talkative religious professor; and the outpourings\nof his heart, related by Hester Ann Rogers, may be regarded as\nexceptional.\n\nNothing more need be added to the present chapter except the incident\nthat, both in going to Leeds and returning to Madeley, Fletcher preached\nat Sheffield, where the husband of Hester Ann Rogers was at that time\nWesley\u2019s \u201cAssistant.\u201d He was the guest of Mr. Thomas Holy. The following\nis taken from an unpublished memoir of Mr. Holy, written by the late\nRev. James Everett:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe sainted Fletcher was twice an inmate of Mr. Holy\u2019s house. This\n extraordinary man preached twice in Norfolk Street chapel, on going to\n and returning from the Conference at Leeds, in 1781. One of of his\n texts was, \u2018The kingdom of God is within you;\u2019 and the other, \u2018Behold,\n now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.\u2019 On\n both occasions, the chapel was crowded, and several clergymen were\n present. When he was introduced to Mr. Holy, his salutation was,\n \u2018Peace be to thee, my brother;\u2019 and, on crossing Mr. Holy\u2019s threshold,\n he said, \u2018Peace be to this house.\u2019 Mrs. Brammah, the widow of an old\n itinerant preacher, and one of Mr. Holy\u2019s pensioners, was present, and\n observed that Mr. Fletcher frequently repeated the latter text, as if\n desirous to impress the company with its importance and its\n blessedness. \u2018Mr. Fletcher\u2019s conversation,\u2019 remarked Mr. Holy, \u2018was\n always instructive and impressive; and I felt while I was with him as\n if I were in the presence of a superior being.\u2019 During his stay in\n Sheffield, Mr. Fletcher bathed every morning in a river, about half a\n mile distant from Mr. Holy\u2019s residence. His host always accompanied\n him, and was much struck with his excellent swimming.\u201d\n\nThis is a trivial matter, but trifles concerning \u201cmighty men, men of\nrenown,\u201d are worth preserving.\n\nA journey from Madeley to Leeds, a hundred years ago, was a somewhat\nserious affair. In an unpublished letter, addressed to Mr. Ireland,\nFletcher tells his friend that the journey occupied two days and a half,\nand that his new saddle was so hard that, to save himself from\nsuffering, he was obliged to put the hair-skins, used for the protection\nof his chest, into his \u201cbreeches.\u201d In the same letter, he gives an\naccount of the suicide of his \u201catheistical nephew;\u201d and concludes as\nfollows:\u2014\n\n \u201cIf Mr. Romaine be still with you, please to remember me in much love\n to him. I went yesterday to Salop, saw Mr. De Courcy,[521] and invited\n Mr. Rowland Hill to preach here to cement love.\u201d\n\nFootnote 521:\n\n At that time the incumbent of the parish of St. Alkmond, Shrewsbury.\n (\u201cLife of Rev. R. Hill,\u201d by Sidney, p. 137.)\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXIV.\n _FLETCHER\u2019S MARRIAGE._\n\n 1781.\n\n\nFLETCHER spent a happy month among the \u201celect\u201d ladies of Methodism in\nthe North of England; to wit, Miss Bosanquet, Hester Ann Rogers, Sarah\nCrosby, and their friends; and, on his return to Madeley, he had to\ncorrespond with two others in the south, Miss Perronet and Lady Mary\nFitzgerald. To the former he wrote as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _September 4, 1781_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014You want \u2018some _thoughts_ on the love of God;\u2019 and I\n want the warmest _feelings_ of it. Let us believe His creating, feel\n His preserving, admire His redeeming, and triumph in His sanctifying\n love. _Loving_ is the best way to grow in love. Let us then look at\n the love of our heavenly Father, shining in the face of our elder\n Brother, and we shall be changed into love\u2014His image and nature\u2014from\n one _glorious_ and _glorifying_ degree of _love_ to another. Love\n always delights in the object loved. \u2018Delight thou in the Lord,\u2019 then,\n and \u2018thou shalt have thy heart\u2019s desire;\u2019 for we can desire nothing\n more than the _supreme good_ and _infinite bliss_; both are in God.\n When, therefore, we love God truly, we _delight_ in what _He is_; we\n share in His infinite happiness; and, by divine sympathy, His throne\n of glory becomes _ours_; for true love rejoices in all the joy of the\n object to which it cleaves.\n\n \u201cAdd to this, that when we love God we have always our hearts\u2019 desire;\n for we love _His will_, His desires become ours, and ours are always\n perfectly resigned to His. Now as God does whatsoever He pleases, both\n in heaven and earth, His lovers have always their hearts\u2019 desire,\n forasmuch as they always have _His will_, which is theirs. Submitting\n our private will to His is only preferring a greater good to a less,\n and we are called to do it in afflictions.\n\n \u201cFarewell, my dear friend, and excuse these reflections, which you\n could make much better than your humble servant,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[522]\n\nFootnote 522:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 277.\n\nAn excellent love-letter, from one who was now the declared lover of\nMary Bosanquet.\n\nLady Mary Fitzgerald wished to visit Fletcher at Madeley, and to her he\nwrote the following:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _September 3, 1781_.\n\n \u201cMY MUCH-HONOURED LADY,\u2014Two days ago I came here, after an absence of\n above a month; and yesterday I received your letter, without date,\n which has been, I am told, waiting here some time.\n\n \u201cWhat a pity I did not rejoice sooner in the good news you send\n me,\u2014that you desire to be _entirely_ devoted to God. Indeed,\n complaints follow; but _heaven_ is in that holy desire. If you\n cultivate it, it will produce all that conformity to a holy God, which\n love can bring to a human soul. As for your complaints, they are the\n natural expressions of that repentance which precedes the coming of\n the Comforter, who is to abide with us for ever. I am ready to\n rejoice, or to mourn with my honoured friend; and I have abundant\n cause to do both with respect to myself, my ministrations, the Church,\n and my people.\n\n \u201cAnd will you, indeed, find it in your heart to honour my house with\n your presence, and perfume also with your prayers the plain apartment\n occupied by your friend Johnson?[523] I wonder at nothing on earth,\n when I consider the condescension with which Emmanuel came down from\n heaven and filled a stable with His glory. Your time, my condescending\n friend, will suit me best. You will be queen in my hermitage; the Lord\n will rule in our hearts; and you will command, under Him, within our\n walls. You smile, perhaps, at the vastness of your new empire; but if\n you can be content and happy in God in my homely solitude, you will\n make greater advances towards bliss than if you obtained the\n Principality of Wales. But if you cannot be happy with Jesus, prayer,\n praise, godly conversation, and retirement, expect a disappointment.\n However, my honoured friend, if you come, come as the serious\n Catholics go on a pilgrimage, as French noblemen go to the Carthusian\n Convent at La Trappe, as the French king\u2019s aunts went to the\n Carmelites,\u2014come and do _evangelical penance_. Our good friend Johnson\n will tell you of an upper room where we crucify our old man, and have\n had many a visit from the new. If you do not bring her with you, bring\n her faith, which brought Him down, and then you shall not pine for the\n company of earthly princes. The Prince of Peace Himself will keep His\n court in our cottage, and your heart shall be one of His favourite\n thrones.\u201d[524]\n\nFootnote 523:\n\n Probably Ann Johnson, who was a member of the Methodist Society in\n London sixty years; a class-leader, thirty-seven; who died at the age\n of eighty in 1828, and whose remains were interred in the\n burial-ground of City Road Chapel. See Stevenson\u2019s \u201cCity Road Chapel,\u201d\n p. 458.\n\nFootnote 524:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 276.\n\nFrom these Christian ladies, the reader\u2019s attention must now be directed\nto another.\n\nMary Bosanquet, oddly enough, was born in the same month, and on the\nsame day of the month, as Fletcher; but there was this difference\u2014she\nwas ten years younger than he. Her birth took place in 1739, the year in\nwhich Methodism was cradled. Her father was \u201cone of the chief merchants\nin London,\u201d[525] and \u201clord of the manor of Leytonstone, in Essex.\u201d[526]\nThe place of her nativity was Forest House, a fine old mansion, three\nstories high, still standing in its own beautiful and spacious grounds,\nabout a mile from Leyton, and still owned by a member of the Bosanquet\nfamily (S. R. Bosanquet, Esq.), who has recently given a plot of ground\nin the main street of the town on which to build the \u201cMary Fletcher\nMemorial Chapel.\u201d\n\nFootnote 525:\n\n \u201cLife of Rev. H. Venn,\u201d p. 376.\n\nFootnote 526:\n\n \u201cSermon on the death of Mrs. Fletcher,\u201d by John Hodson, p. 47.\n\nBy means of a Methodist servant, Mary Bosanquet found peace with God,\nthrough faith in Jesus Christ, when she was only eight years old. At the\nage of thirteen, she became acquainted with Mrs. Lefevre, whose\nadmirable \u201cLetters on Religious Subjects\u201d used to be one of the\nfavourite books of the early Methodists; and concerning which Wesley\nhimself testified: \u201cThe \u2018Letters\u2019 are patterns of truly polite\nepistolary correspondence; expressing the noblest sentiments in the most\nelegant manner, in the purest, yea, and finest language.\u201d[527] At the\nhouse of Mrs. Lefevre, Miss Bosanquet was introduced to a number of\ngodly people, many of them Methodists. When fourteen years of age, she\nwas confirmed in St. Paul\u2019s Cathedral, and began to receive the\nsacrament of the Lord\u2019s Supper.\n\nFootnote 527:\n\n Preface to the Letters.\n\nSoon after this, her father and mother thought her \u201crighteous over\nmuch,\u201d and great uneasiness, on both sides, followed. The parents were\nmembers of the Church of England; but, like many other professedly\nChristian people, they loved gaiety and worldly pleasure. Their daughter\ngrieved them, because she attired herself plainly, and objected to go to\nballs and theatres. In the midst of this unpleasantness, she became\nacquainted with Sarah Ryan and Sarah Crosby, and, at their humble\ndwelling, in Christopher Alley, Moorfields, was accustomed to meet\ncompanies of the Old Foundery Methodists. Meanwhile, the unhappiness at\nhome increased.\n\nAt the age of twenty-one, Miss Bosanquet came into possession of \u201ca\nsmall fortune;\u201d and, for her own comfort and that of her family, she\nleft the parental home, and rented two unfurnished rooms in the house of\nMrs. Gold, in Hoxton Square. She \u201chired a sober girl;\u201d her mother gave\nher two beds; and she was driven to her lodgings in her father\u2019s coach.\nShe reached her new home about eight o\u2019clock at night. She had no\ncandle. The people of the house she had never seen. She borrowed a\ntable; and the window seat served her as a chair. Her supper consisted\nof bread, \u201crank salt butter, and water;\u201d but she says, she \u201ccould truly\nsay, \u2018_I eat my meat with gladness and singleness of heart_.\u2019 The\nbedstead was not, as yet, put up, and, therefore, she laid upon the\nfloor; \u201cand the windows\u201d of the bedless bedroom \u201chaving no shutters, and\nit being a bright moonlight night,\u201d she remarks, \u201cthe sweet solemnity\nthereof well agreed with the tranquillity of my spirit.\u201d\n\nHer \u201cmaid was dull and ignorant, though good;\u201d and she herself \u201cknew\nlittle more of the world than\u201d did her maid, \u201chaving been used to so\ndifferent a way of life.\u201d Just at this juncture, ill-health obliged\nSarah Ryan to leave Wesley\u2019s meeting-house in Bristol, and to return to\nLondon, where she lodged with her sister. Here her illness became\nserious; and Miss Bosanquet served, as her nurse, \u201cnight and day.\u201d\n\u201cAfter a time,\u201d writes Miss Bosanquet, \u201cthe Lord was pleased to restore\nher to health; and, having one heart, one mind, and one purse, we agreed\nthat one habitation also would be most profitable;\u201d and, accordingly,\nthe two now resided together at Hoxton.\n\nOn March 24, 1763, Miss Bosanquet and Sarah Ryan removed from Hoxton to\nLeytonstone, and occupied a house belonging to the former. Miss\nBosanquet told her father that she intended to have Methodist preaching\nin her house; her father made no objection, but remarked, \u201cIf a mob\nshould pull your house about your ears, I cannot hinder them.\u201d She and\nSarah Ryan began to hold meetings, on Thursday nights, at which they\n\u201cread a chapter, and sometimes spoke from it.\u201d They also gathered a\nMethodist class, of twenty-five members; and, in due time, Wesley sent\nhis Itinerant, John Murlin, to preach to them. Thus began Methodism at\nLeytonstone. \u201cSometimes on Sundays, when the nights were dark, a mob\nwould collect at the gate\u201d of Miss Bosanquet\u2019s domestic cathedral, \u201cand\nthrow dirt at the people as they went out; after which, they used to\ncome into the yard, and, putting their faces to a window, which was\nwithout shutters, would roar and howl like wild beasts.\u201d\n\nAt the first, Miss Bosanquet\u2019s family at Leytonstone consisted of\nherself, her maid, Sarah Ryan, and \u201cSally Lawrence,[528] a child about\nfour years old, whom\u201d she had \u201ctaken from the side of her mother\u2019s\ncoffin.\u201d In a little while, five other orphans were admitted; and it\nbecame necessary to employ Ann Tripp[529] to serve as their governess.\nMiss Bosanquet writes: \u201cSome serious women also were added to our\nhousehold, and each had their duties and employments assigned them. In\nthe whole, we received thirty-five children, and thirty-four grown\npersons, but not all at one time.\u201d Thus did Miss Bosanquet turn her\ndwelling into a chapel, an orphanage, and a poor-house. All in the\nhouse, herself included, wore the same kind of dress, made of \u201ca dark\npurple cotton;\u201d and all dined at the same table, which was \u201cfive yards\nlong,\u201d and stood in the hall. Here also they all assembled \u201cfor morning\nand evening devotion, and on several other occasions.\u201d\n\nFootnote 528:\n\n Sarah Lawrence was the niece of Sarah Ryan. She lived with her\n benefactress until her death, which occurred at Madeley, on December\n 3, 1800. Like Mrs. Fletcher, for several years, she was a\n _preacheress_, and very useful.\n\nFootnote 529:\n\n Ann Tripp was converted under the ministry of Wesley and Thomas\n Maxfield. After the marriage of Miss Bosanquet and her removal to\n Madeley, she settled at Leeds, and, at the time of her death, in 1823,\n was one of the oldest leaders of the Leeds Society. (_Wesleyan\n Methodist Magazine_, 1823, p. 706.)\n\nMiss Bosanquet soon found that her family was larger than her income\ncould maintain; but even this did not discourage her, as she was at\nperfect liberty to spend her capital.\n\nMost of the children when admitted to her house \u201cwere naked, full of\nvermin, and some of them were afflicted with disagreeable distempers.\nThe first thing was to clean and clothe them, and attend to their\nhealth; which usually was followed with much success.\u201d\n\n \u201cThe eldest of the children arose between four and five; the younger\n not much later. At half-an-hour after six,\u201d says Miss Bosanquet, \u201cwe\n had family prayer; at seven, we breakfasted together on herb tea, or\n milk porridge. The small children then went into the garden till\n eight. At eight, the bell rang for school, which continued till\n twelve. Then, after a few minutes spent in prayer, the children came\n down to us, when we either walked out with them, or, if the weather\n did not permit, we found them some employment in the house,\n endeavouring, at the same time, to give them both instruction and\n recreation. At one, we dined; about two, the bell rang again for\n school; and, at five, they returned to us, and were employed as before\n till supper time. Then, after family prayer, they were washed, and\n were put to bed at eight. Four or five of the bigger girls were each\n week kept out of the school, by turns, and employed in house-work,\n cooking, etc., that they might be accustomed to every sort of\n business; and there was work enough in so large a family. Several of\n the children were very young, though I do not remember we had any\n under two years, except one of about a month old, which was laid, very\n neatly dressed, one night late at our door; but it lived only a\n fortnight, being full of humours, probably derived from its parents.\n\n \u201cWe had, I think, never more than ten grown persons in the family at\n one time, who were not invalids; nor do I remember above five or six\n altogether in health. The children also, for the first few years,\n suffered under various disorders; for we did not refuse either old or\n young, on account of their being sick or helpless.\u201d\n\nMiss Bosanquet, as might be expected, was soon involved in pecuniary\nembarrassments. Just about this period, a young lady of fortune, Miss\nLewen, came to board and lodge with her, and also brought two children\nof whom she had taken charge. After residing about half a year in this\nunique retreat at Leytonstone,\u2014chapel, orphanage, school, poor-house,\nand infirmary all combined in one,\u2014Miss Lewen wished to make a new will,\nand to bequeath her hostess \u201ca large sum of money.\u201d Miss Bosanquet\nobjected, because Miss Lewen had already \u201cleft the bulk of her estate\n(which was large) to charitable uses.\u201d In 1766, Miss Lewen became\nsuddenly very ill; and, one night, while some of the inmates of the\nhouse were watching at her side, she cried, \u201cGive me pen and paper; I\ncannot die easy, unless I write something of my mind concerning Sister\nBosanquet having \u00a32,000.\u201d Pen and paper were supplied, and the writing\nwas written; but, of course, it was illegal and worthless. Miss Lewen\ndied; but Miss Bosanquet, instead of receiving the \u00a32,000, which Miss\nLewen wished her to have, received not a farthing, and was considerably\nout of pocket on her dead friend\u2019s account.\n\nAbout the beginning of 1765, Miss Bosanquet\u2019s father died; and nine\nmonths afterwards her mother. By his will, her father bequeathed her\n\u00a34,500, to be invested by her trustees for her benefit; and, when she\nmarried with their approval and consent, this amount of money was to be\ntransferred to herself, and to be absolutely at her own disposal.[530]\n\nFootnote 530:\n\n \u201cProbate of Mr. Bosanquet\u2019s Will.\u201d\n\nFrom a letter, written by S. Bosanquet, Esq., and dated \u201cForest House,\nOctober 15, 1781,\u201d it appears that Miss Bosanquet had altogether a\nfortune of not less than \u00a310,500,\u2014a large sum, when it is remembered\nthat money then was about three or four times the value of money now.\nMr. Bosanquet\u2019s letter was addressed to his sister, and in it he says:\u2014\n\n \u00a3\n \u201cYou had Leytonstone estate, valued at 3,000\n You had from my grandmother 2,500\n You had the savings of Leyton estate till you came 500\n of age\n You had by my father\u2019s will 4,500\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n \u00a310,500\u201d [531]\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\n\nFootnote 531:\n\n Unpublished letter.\n\nWith the exception of her father\u2019s bequest, the whole of this money was\nat her own disposal, and, at the time of her marriage, was entirely\nspent, not on herself, but solely on behalf of others. Added to this,\nshe was also, to a serious amount, in debt; but more of this anon.\n\nAbout three years after the death of Miss Bosanquet\u2019s father, Richard\nTaylor, a good and well-meaning man, \u201cleft his wife and young family\u201d in\nYorkshire, \u201cand came to London in hope of settling with his creditors.\u201d\nSarah Crosby, who was now resident in Miss Bosanquet\u2019s house, and John\nMurlin, one of the itinerant preachers stationed in the London Circuit,\nrecommended Taylor, the improvident debtor, to Miss Bosanquet\u2019s notice,\nand, for some time, he also became a member of her motley household.\nThis unfortunate event created a world of trouble. By her father\u2019s\nbequest, Miss Bosanquet\u2019s income was increased; but her income was not\nequal to her expenses. Added to this, Sarah Ryan\u2019s health entirely\nfailed; and, partly on her account, and also for other reasons, Miss\nBosanquet entertained the thought of removing her family to Yorkshire.\nAccordingly, on June 7, 1768, she and her two friends, Sarah Ryan and\nSarah Crosby, set out, in a chaise, on this long and tiresome journey,\nRichard Taylor accompanying them on horseback. For seven weeks, they\nlived in the house of Taylor\u2019s father-in-law, when they procured a house\nfor themselves at Gildersome, a village in the parish of Batley, and\nabout four miles and a half from Leeds. At the same time (on August 17,\n1768), Sarah Ryan died; and this event augmented Miss Bosanquet\u2019s\nanxieties, and affected her health. She writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cMy health began to fail. For three years, I had had much fatigue in\n nursing my dear friend. I grew large, and had dropsical symptoms. My\n soul, also, was in a low and cold state. My path was strewed with many\n perplexities. My family consisted of thirty persons, some of whom were\n rather unruly. I saw the need of taking the reins into my own hands,\n and supplying the place of my friend Ryan. But this determination was\n very difficult to execute; and I daily and hourly felt my\n insufficiency. While she was alive, I considered her as a mother, and\n desired her to allot me my employments, as she did in the case of the\n young women. These were, 1. An attention to the spiritual affairs of\n the family. 2. Taking care for their sustenance. 3. Instructing the\n children. 4. Meeting each member of the family, one by one, at fixed\n times. 5. Superintending, by turns, the more public meetings of the\n Society. 6. Attending my friend in her frequent illnesses; with the\n direction and management of the sick. But the care of the kitchen,\n buying stores, managing the needlework, and many other things\n belonging to housekeeping, I was quite unaccustomed to. While I lived\n in my father\u2019s house, I saw very little of domestic affairs, because\n we lived rather high.\n\n \u201cBeside, the manner of life in Yorkshire was entirely different from\n what I had been used to about London. Here wheat was to be bought to\n be made into flour; bread to be made; cows to be managed; and\n men-servants to be directed. And when I had provided as well as I\n could, some persons in my family would despisingly say, my victuals\n were not worth eating, and that I knew not how to order anything. The\n house was large, and there was land to it; but, one day, Richard\n Taylor, whom I had employed in ordering the out-door affairs, brought\n me word of a farm very cheap, on which were malt-kilns, a small house,\n and many out-buildings. The farm was large, and he thought if, besides\n the farm-house, we were to build one big enough for our family, it\n would be cheaper than to rent a house. I went to Leeds to consult the\n most judicious of my friends; in particular Mr. R\u2014\u2014, a man well\n acquainted with business, and the most intimate friend I had in\n Yorkshire. He replied, \u2018Had you waited a dozen years, you might not\n have met with such an opportunity. Richard Taylor knows well how to\n manage, if you do not; and I have no doubt the farm will clear you\n \u00a3150 a year, which will be good interest for your money.\n\n \u201cI prayed for light, bought the estate, formed the plan for the house,\n and set about it. But I found building no cheaper in Yorkshire than in\n the south, or but little so. It cost a good deal more than was at\n first proposed. The farm took much money to stock it, and to bring it\n into order; and, as I had not sufficient for all the expenses, I was\n obliged to take up money on interest, which I hoped to pay off at the\n rate of \u00a350 a year. The malt-kilns seemed to answer well, and cleared\n the first year \u00a350, above all expenses.\n\n \u201cI found my mind much united to Brother and Sister Taylor. I strove to\n remove their burdens, and went in person to their creditors. After\n meeting with some opposition, I got their affairs settled, at the\n expense of between two and three hundred pounds.\n\n \u201cMy perplexities increased. The farm had sunk a very large sum to\n bring it into order, and the kilns took much money to work them, a\n great deal of which lay scattered up and down in debts, owing to me\n from lesser maltsters. I also saw that Richard Taylor went too far;\n that he was inclined to venture much; that he kept too many men; and\n that he gave a great deal too much credit.\n\n \u201cI lessened my family all I could, by putting out some of the bigger\n children to trades, or servants\u2019 places; but much expense attended it.\n Richard Taylor also had several children, while with me, so that the\n family still consisted of twenty-five persons; the majority of whom\n were grown persons. Losses continually occurred. I consulted Mr. \u2014\u2014,\n and other friends about my situation; but most of them were for some\n further exertion in trade. That I knew would not do. Some said, \u2018Turn\n away all the members of your family: you have enough to live on alone\n with a servant or two;\u2019 but I could not see how that could be done,\n for several of them were old, sickly, or helpless. Mr. \u2014\u2014 said, \u2018There\n is but one way for you; put the farm into the hands of Richard Taylor,\n entirely separate from yourself; let him have the stock just as it is,\n and work the kilns as he can raise the money. Let him pay you \u00a360 a\n year, and take his family to the end of the house. I agreed to this,\n and Richard Taylor paid his rent regularly: but, as he was to have the\n farm free of debt, I found a good deal to pay which he had not brought\n to account; so that, before all was settled, I had again to take up\n money on interest, which was no small affliction to me. Could I have\n sold the place, I would have chosen it rather.\n\n \u201cWe went on tolerably for three years. Mr. \u2014\u2014 thought the farm\n increased in heart; the stock also improved, and all was cheerful,\n except in my own mind, which foreboded deep waters. This was soon\n realized. In the beginning of the fourth year, Taylor was \u00a3600 in\n debt. I thought, I am not obliged to pay his debt; let him break, and\n bear his own burden; but I soon saw that I must either give up the\n stock, which would be sold for half its value, or I must pay the\n money. Besides, I was now informed, that, when he ceased to act as my\n agent, I ought to have advertised it, that no one might trust him\n through confidence in me.\u201d\n\nThus, through wretched Richard Taylor, Miss Bosanquet found herself in a\nmost serious entanglement. At the first, she felt she was not bound to\npay Taylor\u2019s debt; but Taylor\u2019s wife, big with child, came to her\nwringing her hands, and entreating her to save her husband from being\nsent to prison. The result was, Miss Bosanquet paid the debt, by\naccepting the offer of a loan of \u00a3600 from Mr. \u2014\u2014, who became a partner\nwith her in the farm and malt-kilns, and took the management of the\nwhole. This, however, did not end her anxieties. She writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn my deep troubles, a thought occurred to my mind. \u2018Perhaps Mr.\n Fletcher is to be my deliverer;\u2019 but I started from the idea, lest it\n should be a stratagem of Satan. We had not seen or heard from each\n other for more than fifteen years. Besides, I was now (in August,\n 1777), told that Mr. Fletcher was dying. As I was, one day, in prayer,\n offering him up to the Lord, these words occurred to me,\u2014\u2018The prayer\n of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.\u2019 I\n thought if the Lord should raise him up, and should bring him back\n from Switzerland to England, and he should propose to marry me, could\n I doubt its being of God? I felt an unaccountable liberty to ask,\u20141.\n That Mr. Fletcher might be raised up. 2. That he might be brought back\n to England. 3. That he might write to me on the subject before he saw\n me, though we had been so many years asunder, without so much as a\n message passing on any subject. 4. That he might tell me, in his\n letter, that (marrying me) had been the subject of his thoughts and\n prayers for years. It also occurred to me, that, should this take\n place in the end of 1781, it would be a still greater confirmation, as\n Providence seemed to point me to that season as a time of hope.\u201d\n\nMiss Bosanquet\u2019s troubles were continued. Her new partnership was\ndisastrous, and Mr. \u2014\u2014\u2019s management a failure. He had told her she would\nreceive \u00a3100 a-year towards paying off the debts she owed to himself and\nothers; but the farm, instead of yielding a profit, was worked at a\nloss. The interest she had to pay so reduced her income, that it became\nimpossible to keep more than half her family with what remained. She\nwrites:\u2014\n\n \u201cAs to the kilns, I had neither money nor courage to work them. I\n strove, I worked hard, I prayed; and, at length, I proposed to the\n members of my family to disperse, and learn some little business; and\n I would allow to each of them what I could. It was a most painful\n thing; but I saw there was no way but first to sell the place, and\n then disperse.\n\n \u201cJust at this time, a gentleman proposed to buy the place, stock,\n lease, and everything. He was a man both of fortune and of honour, and\n really wished to help me out of my difficulties; and the price he\n offered would bring me through all, and leave me a good income. The\n bargain was in part made; but, alas! he took a fever, and, in a few\n days, died. I now saw but one way\u2014to advertise Cross Hall, and sell it\n for what I could; and, paying the purchase money away as far as it\n would go, strive yearly to lessen the remaining part of the debt by my\n income, reserving only \u00a350 per year to live on, and to help my\n friends. But I recollected that I might not live long enough thus to\n pay the debt by my income. I then proposed to myself to keep only \u00a320\n per year; nay, I thought, how can I have a right even to twenty?\n Justice is before mercy. One day, as I was standing at a window,\n musing on this subject, I saw a poor man driving asses laden with\n sand, by which he gained his bread. As I looked on him, I thought, I\n am perfectly willing to take up the business of that man. If I can\n preserve unsold one of the freehold cottages, the asses might graze on\n the common, and I could follow them with something to sell. There were\n but few trades which my conscience would suffer me to follow; and my\n abilities were equal to still fewer; but to anything in the world\n would I turn, that was not sinful, rather than remain in debt.\u201d\n\n \u201cThe 7th of June, 1781, was the day that began my fourteenth year in\n Yorkshire. I saw difficulties, as mountains, rise all around me; but\n the very next day, June the 8th, I received a letter from Mr.\n Fletcher, in which he told me, that he had, for twenty-five years,\n found a regard for me, which was still as sincere as ever; and, though\n it might appear odd that he should write on such a subject, when but\n just returned from abroad, and more so without seeing me first, he\n could only say, that his mind was so strongly drawn to do it, he\n believed it to be the order of Providence.\u201d[532]\n\nFootnote 532:\n\n These statements are partly taken from \u201cA Letter to the Rev. Mr. John\n Wesley. By a Gentlewoman, 1764\u201d (Miss Bosanquet); and partly from the\n \u201cLife of Mrs. Mary Fletcher. By Henry Moore, 1818.\u201d\n\nThus began Fletcher\u2019s courtship, which ended five months afterwards in\nhis marrying Mary Bosanquet.\n\nThe foregoing is a strange story. Of set purpose, nothing has been said\nof Miss Bosanquet\u2019s earnest piety, gospel labours, and spiritual\nsuccesses, both in the south of England and in Yorkshire. The object has\nbeen to show to what straits a young lady of fortune was brought, by\ninjudicious generosity, by foolish advisers, and, perhaps, it may be\nadded, by crafty mendicants. Eighteen years before this, in a letter to\nCharles Wesley, Fletcher confessed that he regarded Miss Bosanquet with\nadmiration;[533] and that Miss Bosanquet regarded Fletcher with equal\nadmiration the foregoing extracts amply prove; as does also a letter,\nwhich she addressed to Wesley, nearly six years before her marriage, and\nfrom which the following is taken:\u2014\n\n \u201cCROSS HALL, _February 7, 1776_.\n\n \u201cREV. SIR,\u2014I thank you for your kind favour of January 27. It yielded\n us much satisfaction; for never before could we get any account to be\n depended on.\n\n \u201cI am exceedingly thankful Mr. Fletcher is with Mrs. Greenwood. She\n will tenderly care for him: and, having a spiritual mind, will be\n sensible of the honour God does her, in giving her such an\n opportunity.\n\n \u201cHow wise are all the ways of God, in keeping His faithful servant in\n that retired spot\u201d (Stoke Newington), \u201cwhile those precious works are\n completed, by which he will yet speak to us, though in glory: and now\n to enable him to bring them out, while his exemplary life and\n conversation add a lustre to the truths he has so powerfully defended.\n\n \u201cWe could have liked to have seen him once more; but the will of the\n Lord be done! Should it happen that this sickness is not unto death,\n we shall rejoice in having an opportunity of assisting him in anything\n which lies in our power. Should this favour be denied us, we must be\n content; and beseech God to reward those who may supply our lack of\n service.\n\n \u201cThe blessed account you give of the state of his mind filled my soul\n with sacred joy, as also those of my friends. While I was reading it,\n it was a solemn season of faith and love, and we could not help\n saying, \u2018Ah, Lord! Let not this shining light be so soon\n extinguished!\u2019\n\n \u201cA few weeks ago, I once more read the \u2018_Equal Check_\u2019 and felt an\n unction in it above all I had ever found before. The \u2018_Essay on\n Truth_,\u2019 with the Appendix, is as marrow and fatness to my soul. O may\n all the height and depth of every Gospel promise be written on his\n heart!\u201d[534]\n\nFootnote 533:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 143.\n\nFootnote 534:\n\n _Arminian Magazine_, 1788, p. 48.\n\nDid Fletcher ever see this loving, admiring letter? Perhaps he did. At\nall events, Wesley\u2019s most intimate and confidential friendship with both\nFletcher and Miss Bosanquet was such as to justify utterances, which,\nunder other circumstances, would have been almost impertinent. In his\nsermon on the death of Fletcher, Wesley remarked, \u201cMiss Bosanquet was\nthe only person in England whom I judged to be worthy of Mr. Fletcher;\u201d\nand again, in a letter to Hester Ann Rogers, written a month after the\nmarriage took place, he observed, \u201cI should not have been willing that\nMiss Bosanquet should have been joined to any other person than Mr.\nFletcher.\u201d[535] To some, such language may seem unusual, but, in\nreality, it was natural; for Wesley had long been regarded as their\nfather in Christ, both by Fletcher and his wife; and, no doubt, both of\nthem had consulted him with respect to the step they proposed to take.\n\nFootnote 535:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Works, vol. xiii., p. 78.\n\nAfter all, Fletcher\u2019s matrimonial offer was a curious incident. He was\nnow fifty-two years of age. For the last four years and a-half, he had\nbeen absent from his parish, and so seriously ill, that, again and\nagain, his friends expected him to die. Some of his views, also, of\nministers marrying at all were rather peculiar, though rational and\nsound. In his \u201cPortrait of St. Paul,\u201d composed in Switzerland, and\nrevised and finished after his return to Madeley, Fletcher wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen a man is perpetually called to travel from place to place,\n prudence requires that he should not encumber himself with those\n domestic cares, which must occasion many unavoidable delays in the\n prosecution of his business: or, if he derives his maintenance from\n the generosity of the poor, charity should constrain him to burden\n them as little as possible. St. Paul could not prevail upon himself to\n expose a woman and children to those innumerable dangers, which he was\n constantly obliged to encounter. The first peril, from which he made\n his escape, was that which compelled him to descend from the wall of\n Damascus in a basket: now if a family had shared with him in the same\n danger, what an addition would they have made to his affliction and\n his care! Is it not evident, that, in such circumstances, every man,\n who is not obliged to marry from reasons either physical or moral, is\n called to imitate the example of this disinterested Apostle, from the\n same motives of prudence and charity. This indefatigable preacher,\n always on a mission, judged it advisable to continue in a single state\n to the end of his days: but, had he been fixed in a particular church;\n had he there felt how much it concerns a minister neither to tempt\n others, nor to be tempted himself; and had he known how much\n assistance a modest, provident, and pious woman is capable of\n affording a pastor, by inspecting the women of his flock, he would\n then probably have advised every resident pastor to enter into the\n marriage state, provided they should fix upon regenerate persons,\n capable of edifying the Church.\u201d\n\nProbably, while writing this, Fletcher was thinking of Wesley and his\nitinerant preachers, and also of the difference between them and\nhimself, as the Vicar of Madeley. Be that as it may, from the doctrine\nhe has laid down, he deduces the following principles:\u2014\n\n \u201c1. In times of great trouble and grievous persecutions, the followers\n of Christ should abstain from marriage, unless obliged thereto by\n particular and powerful reasons. 2. The faithful, who mean to embrace\n the nuptial state, should be careful, on no account, to connect\n themselves with any persons, except such as are remarkable for their\n seriousness and piety. 3. Missionaries ought not to marry, unless\n there is an absolute necessity. 4. A bishop, or resident pastor, is\n usually called to the marriage state. 5. A minister of the Gospel, who\n is able to live in a state of celibacy _for the kingdom of heaven\u2019s\n sake_, that he may have no other care except that of preaching the\n Gospel and attending upon the members of Christ\u2019s mystical body,\u2014such\n a one is undoubtedly called to continue in a single state.\u201d\n\nMany will disapprove of some of Fletcher\u2019s deductions; but it is easier\nto disapprove than to refute.\n\nOn the 8th of June, 1781, Miss Bosanquet received Fletcher\u2019s offer of\nmarriage. They had long admired each other, but, when they first became\nacquainted, Fletcher regarded Miss Bosanquet\u2019s fortune as an insuperable\nbarrier to their union; and Miss Bosanquet was too much occupied with\nher philanthropic schemes to think of being married. Now, Fletcher, to a\ngreat extent, was an invalid, and, as much as any man alive, needed a\npious and loving nurse. Miss Bosanquet, also, was in a quagmire of\nfinancial embarrassments, and greatly needed a tender, judicious friend.\n\nFletcher\u2019s letter, despatched early in the month of June, led to a\ncorrespondence which lasted till August 1, when Fletcher arrived in\nYorkshire to attend Wesley\u2019s Conference at Leeds. Miss Bosanquet\nwrites:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher came to Cross Hall, and abode there a month; preaching\n in different places with much power. Having opened our whole hearts to\n each other, both on temporals and spirituals, we believed it to be the\n order of God that we should become one, when He should make our way\n plain.\u201d[536]\n\nFootnote 536:\n\n \u201cMrs. Fletcher\u2019s Life.\u201d\n\nProperly enough, Fletcher wished, before marrying Miss Bosanquet, to\nconsult her family, and to obtain their approval. To this she consented;\nand, three weeks after his return to Madeley, Fletcher wrote the\nfollowing, hitherto unpublished, letters. Some will condemn the printing\nof this private correspondence; but as it contains nothing but what is\nhonourable to all the parties concerned, and as it exhibits the Vicar of\nMadeley in a new position, most readers will be thankful for it.\n\nThe first letter was addressed to Miss Bosanquet, and shows the ardour\nof her wooer:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _September 22, 1781_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAREST FRIEND,\u2014I have received thy dear letter, with the one\n enclosed from thy brother. I shall send it back to thee by Mr.\n Brisco,[537] who will call here on his way to Birstal.\n\n \u201cO Polly! generous, faithful Polly! dost thou indeed permit me to\n write to thy friends, and to ask the invaluable gift of thy hand? That\n hand, that is _half_ mine, shall be wholly mine. I have, to-day,\n written two letters,\u2014one to thy uncle, the other to thy elder brother.\n Correct them, and, when thou hast, forward them with much prayer and\n love. Back them with some of thy sweet arguments. Thou knowest how to\n come at thy friends. I don\u2019t: I have only followed my instinct for\n thee in this new business.\n\n \u201cPolly! I read thy letter, and wondered at the expression in it,\u2014\u2018_If\n you think me worth writing for_.\u2019 Ah! my holy, my loving, my lovely,\n my precious friend, I think thee worth writing for _with my vital\n blood_: I am only sorry that I had not thee beside me to write with\n _thy wisdom_. However, I write by the _first_ post: direct the letters\n properly; and excuse my _sending them by thee_, as I don\u2019t remember\n the names and streets.\n\n \u201c\u2018Difficulties!\u2019 If thou hast any, I shall gladly share them with\n thee, and think myself well repaid with the pleasure of praying and\n praising _with thee_, and _for thee_. Therefore, do not talk of\n _struggling through alone_. I charge thee, by thy faithfulness, let me\n be alone as little time as thou canst.\n\n \u201c\u2018Three thousand pounds\u2019 with thee! My dear, if thou art mine, and\n canst live in our cottage here, praising and blessing God, I shall\n rejoice more than Mephibosheth, when, through joy, he said, \u2018Let Ziba\n take all, forasmuch as my lord the king is come back in peace\u2019 (2 Sam.\n xix. 30). Let not thy wisdom, Polly, make thee suspect and surmise\n evil. Let thy charity make thee hope all things for thy friends.\n\n \u201cI thank thee for that believing sentence,\u2014\u2018But, all shall be right.\u2019\n The worst thy friends can do is to keep thy money, which I look upon\n as dung and dross in comparison of thee. Ah Polly! with the _treasure_\n of _thy_ friendship, and the _unsearchable_ riches of Christ, how rich\n thinkest thou I am? Count\u2014cast up\u2014but thou wilt never make out the\n amazing sum.\n\n \u201cSo thou wilt keep \u2018two years\u2019 from me to bring me some money! Oh,\n Polly! that is a saying more worthy of Change Alley than of the\n paradise of love. Let me comfort thee a little. If thou lovest me half\n as much as I do thee, thou wilt think thyself rich. _Thou_ art worth\n to me a _million_; and cannot _I_ be worth thy \u00a35,000?\n\n \u201cI embrace thee in spirit, and more than mix my soul with thine.\n Farewell!\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d\n\nFootnote 537:\n\n Thomas Brisco, a fine old Methodist Itinerant Preacher, at that time\n the Superintendent of the Birstal Circuit.\n\nThe two letters referred to in this sweethearting epistle, and addressed\nto Miss Bosanquet\u2019s uncle, Claudius Bosanquet, Esq., and to her brother,\nS. Bosanquet, Esq., were the following:\u2014\n\n \u201cTo Claudius Bosanquet, Esq.\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _September 22, 1781_.\n\n \u201cSIR,\u2014Permit a stranger to claim some moments of the time you\n consecrate to your neighbours\u2019 happiness and the welfare of your own\n family.\n\n \u201cI was born in the Pays de Vaud at Nyon, a town about fifteen miles\n north of Geneva, on the borders of the lake. My father, in his youth,\n was an officer in the French service, which he left to marry. He was\n afterwards a colonel in the militia of his country, and a judge or\n assessor to the lord-lieutenant of the town where he lived. I am the\n youngest of his eight children. Having some desires to be a clergyman,\n I was, for seven years, sent to Geneva to pursue my studies. But after\n I had stayed there seven years, a fear of being unfit for the\n Christian ministry, and the enticing offers of my father\u2019s brother,\n who was a lieutenant-colonel in the Dutch service, made me for a time\n prefer the sword to the gown. I left the academy\u201d [at Geneva] \u201cand\n went to Flanders to join my eldest brother, who was an officer in the\n Dutch service; but, before I could enter the army, the peace was made,\n and my uncle, on whom my hopes depended, left the service.\n\n \u201cSeeing my way to military preferment blocked up by these two events,\n I came to England, to get more perfect in the English tongue, which I\n had begun to learn at Geneva. Some months after I was come over, Mr.\n Des Champs, a French minister, to whom I had been recommended,\n procured me the place of tutor to the son of Mr. Hill, member of\n Parliament for Shrewsbury. In his family I lived some years, and\n applied myself to the study of divinity; and, at his request, and by\n his interest, I got into Orders; a calling which now suited my more\n serious turn of mind.\n\n \u201cIt was soon after my ordination that I saw Miss Mary Bosanquet, your\n pious niece. I had resolved not to marry, but the sweetness of her\n temper, and her devotedness to God, made me think that if ever I broke\n through my resolution, it would be to cast my lot with one like her.\n\n \u201cNot long after, at Mr. Hill\u2019s request, his nephew, Mr. Kinaston,\n member for Montgomery, presented me to the living of Madeley, a little\n market-town in the county of Salop, worth about \u00a3100 per annum; and\n here I have chiefly lived, sequestered from the world, as your amiable\n niece has done at Leyton and at Cross Hall.\n\n \u201cAfter having corresponded some years with her on various subjects,\n last spring, on my return from a journey to the continent, I ventured\n to mention to her my first thoughts about a closer union with\n her,\u2014thoughts which I had kept to myself for nearly twenty-five years.\n After maturely discussing the point, your pious niece has given me\n room to hope she will give me her hand, if you, Sir, whom she honours\n as a father, give your consent to our union. I earnestly ask it, Sir;\n and beg you will share the pleasure of uniting two persons who, from a\n remarkable agreement of taste, sentiments, and pursuits, as well as\n from a particular sympathy, seem formed for each other by the God of\n nature and of grace.\n\n \u201cI wish, Sir, I had a fortune equal to Miss Bosanquet\u2019s deserts; but I\n hope I have one suitable to her piety, and to the moderate wishes of\n that godliness which, together with contentment, is a great gain. I\n have only about \u00a31,500 worth of property in my native country, and\n about \u00a3400 or \u00a3500 more in my parish, besides the income of my living,\n and a house much better than those with which most country clergymen\n are obliged to put up.\n\n \u201cWhatever be your pious niece\u2019s fortune, I assure you, Sir, I seek her\n person, not her property; and to convince you of it, I request that\n before she gives me her hand, her whole fortune may be secured to her\n by a proper settlement.\n\n \u201cWith respect to my character, and the truth of what I have here\n advanced, I beg leave to refer you, Sir, to four creditable persons.\n With regard to my conduct, and what I affirm of myself as Vicar of\n Madeley, you may get proper informations from Thomas Hill, Esq., now\n in Salop, the old gentleman in whose house or neighbourhood I have\n lived very near thirty years; and from his son, Noel Hill, Esq.,\n member for Shropshire, the gentleman to whom I was tutor. With respect\n to what I have mentioned of myself as a native of Switzerland, you\n may, Sir, procure proper informations from two clergymen now in that\n country, Mr. De Bons and Mr. Tavan, whom I saw last Christmas at\n Lausanne, and whom you have probably seen in London, when they served\n French churches there.\n\n \u201cI would, Sir, have waited upon you in person, in London, if some\n journeys which my curate must take did not oblige me to stay here to\n serve my own church.\n\n \u201cI shall have the honour to write upon the same subject to Miss\n Bosanquet\u2019s brothers, and shall take the liberty of referring them to\n this letter, for some account of him who aspires to the hand of their\n pious sister; and who, with respect to temporal happiness, desires\n nothing so ardently as to have your leave to add the name of nephew to\n that of, Sir, your most humble and obedient servant,\n\n \u201cJOHN DELAFLECHERE.\n\n \u201cP.S.\u2014Soon after I came to England, my English friends, complaining of\n the length of my Swiss name, began to contract it by dropping the\n French syllables of it. So they called me Fletcher; and by that name I\n have been known among the English ever since. If you favour me with an\n answer, Sir, it will find me if it is directed thus:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher,\n \u201cVicar of Madeley,\n \u201cNear Shiffnal,\n \u201cShropshire.\u201d\n\nThe letter addressed to Miss Bosanquet\u2019s brother was as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, NEAR SHIFFNAL, SHROPSHIRE,\n \u201c_September 22, 1781_.\n\n \u201cSIR,\u2014Aspiring to the happiness of being united to your pious sister,\n Miss Bosanquet, and to the honour of being, by her means, connected\n with your family, I should be wanting both to my duty and my\n inclination if I proceeded in my addresses to her without informing\n you of my design, and asking your approbation of it.\n\n \u201cBy this post I send to Claudius Bosanquet, Esq., some account of\n myself, which I hope he will communicate to you, Sir, and to your\n brother. I shall only add two things.\n\n \u201cAmong the reasons which hindered me from making my addresses to your\n amiable sister, when first I felt that sympathy which binds my soul to\n hers, the superiority of her fortune was not the least. Since that\n time, debts, which unforeseen circumstances led her to contract, have\n considerably lessened that difficulty; and the prudent fear of\n contracting new ones seems to make it expedient for her to get into a\n state where she may, without difficulty and with propriety, bring her\n expensive housekeeping within narrower bounds. That end will at once\n be attained if she favours me with her hand.\n\n \u201cFurther, in extricating herself from some difficulties, she will\n crown the wishes of the oldest and warmest of her friends; and\n contribute not to my happiness only, but to that of my numerous flock.\n You are too well acquainted with your pious sister\u2019s turn of mind not\n to know that Providence designed her for a clergyman\u2019s partner and\n fellow-helper. Her instructions, her employment, her very pleasures\n from her childhood, have led her to assist her neighbours in temporal\n as well as in spiritual matters. She has even been blamed for the\n warmth of her zeal. But what seemed rather awkward and improper in a\n single woman, will become highly expedient and highly commendable in a\n clergyman\u2019s wife. The _secondary_ inspection and care of the children\n and women of a flock of two thousand souls will then naturally devolve\n to her share, and in some sense become her duty.\n\n \u201cI hope that if you, Sir, your worthy uncle, your brother, and Mrs.\n Gassen[538] weigh these particulars you will consent to our union, and\n by that means contribute more than I can express to the happiness,\n Sir, of your most humble and most obedient servant,\n\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d\n\nFootnote 538:\n\n Miss Bosanquet\u2019s married sister. The two sisters began their\n _religious_ life together at a very early age.\n\nIn due time, in a letter, dated \u201cForest House, October 2, 1781,\u201d S.\nBosanquet, Esq., informed Fletcher that he approved of the proposed\nmarriage; but added:\u2014\n\n \u201cMy sister\u2019s fortune is so encumbered, that nothing but the sale of\n all her landed estate can free her from her difficulties; and, if that\n portion of her fortune, which came to her by my father\u2019s will, had not\n been tied up, she would have been ruined.\u201d[539]\n\nFootnote 539:\n\n Unpublished letter.\n\nA fortnight later, Mr. S. Bosanquet wrote to his sister, and gave her an\naccount of her fortune, amounting in the aggregate to \u00a310,500. He then\ntold her that she had already squandered the whole of this amount, with\nthe exception of \u00a34,500 settled on trustees, for her benefit, by her\nfather\u2019s will. He continued:\u2014\n\n \u201cOne reason why my father secured this money, by leaving it on trust,\n was, lest, by your placing too great confidence in those with whom you\n were connected, and by your endeavouring to do more good than your\n circumstances would afford, you might be left destitute.\u201d\n\nHe then added:\u2014\n\n \u201cI cannot conclude without remarking that, although you are encumbered\n with debts, you must be, at least, an equal match for Mr. Fletcher.\n Your two estates[540] have always been considered as fully equal to\n your debts; but, suppose they should not turn out to be so, the\n difference cannot be very great; and, as the remainder of your income\n exceeds \u00a3200 a year, it at least equals Mr. Fletcher\u2019s income, such as\n it has been stated to me; besides the consideration that the greater\n part of his income dies with him, and the capital of yours survives in\n case there should be children, for their benefit.\u201d[541]\n\nFootnote 540:\n\n The Leytonstone estate, valued at \u00a33,000; and that bequeathed by her\n grandmother, valued at \u00a32,500.\n\nFootnote 541:\n\n Unpublished letter.\n\nAt the same time, Miss Bosanquet\u2019s brother William, in a letter dated\n\u201cLime Street, London, October 16, 1781,\u201d replied to her wail that she\ncould \u201ccarry Mr. Fletcher nothing but debts,\u201d and stated that he was in\nfavour of her marrying Fletcher.[542]\n\nFootnote 542:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nBefore taking leave of the Bosanquet family, it may be added, that Mr.\nS. Bosanquet sent his sister, as his wedding present, a pair of silver\ncandlesticks;[543] and that her brother William, in a letter dated\n\u201cNovember 27, 1781,\u201d and addressed \u201cMrs. Fletcher, Cross Hall, Morley\nCommon, near Leeds,\u201d wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cI cannot but hope the greatest happiness will attend your union with\n a gentleman to whom, by general report, the highest praise is due.\n Permit me to wish you joy on this occasion, and to add my best\n respects to Mr. Fletcher, assuring him that I shall be happy to\n cultivate his acquaintance, and to show him every attention in my\n power.\u201d[544]\n\nFootnote 543:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nFootnote 544:\n\n _Ibid._\n\nWith this loving letter, Mr. William Bosanquet forwarded to his sister a\nnuptial present of \u00a3100.\n\nAnother fact must be mentioned. William Bosanquet loved his sister, and,\nnot only now, but in aftertime, he showed the genuineness of his\naffection by his deeds. The uncle, Claudius Bosanquet, in his last will\nand testament, bequeathed to Miss Bosanquet\u2019s two brothers \u00a318,000 each;\nbut Miss Bosanquet and her sister Gassen were unnamed. At the uncle\u2019s\ndeath, their brother William, ever generous and open-handed, gave them\n\u00a3500 each; when Fletcher died, he presented to the widow \u00a340 a year to\nrelieve the wants of the poor of Madeley; and when he himself died, in\n1813, he bequeathed her the sum of \u00a32,000.\n\nThese details have not been given without a reason. Some ill-informed\nMethodists have a sort of floating idea that Fletcher\u2019s marriage was an\nunequal one\u2014that is, they seem to think that the Bosanquet family was\nmuch more respectable than that of Fletcher; and that Miss Bosanquet\u2019s\nfortune was much greater than the fortune of the man who became her\nloving and devoted husband. Enough has been said to show the inaccuracy\nof this. Fletcher\u2019s family was quite equal, in point of respectability,\nto the Bosanquet family, and, perhaps, superior; and his yearly income\nwas not less than that of the lady who rejoiced to become his wife.\nNever was there a marriage more free from mercenariness than that of\nJohn Fletcher, of Madeley, and Mary Bosanquet, of Cross Hall, Yorkshire.\nIt was, in the highest and purest sense, a love-match. The letters, just\ngiven, exhibit Fletcher\u2019s affection, disinterestedness, honour, and\nrespect for others. Miss Bosanquet had still a remnant of her fortune;\nbut he wished the whole of this to be settled upon herself. He wished to\nmarry her, but, before carrying out his wish, as a courteous gentleman,\nhe asked for the approbation of her family, thereby setting a good\nexample to his inferiors and juniors. She wished to marry him; but,\nshrinking from the idea of involving him in her pecuniary\nembarrassments, she proposed to postpone the marriage till her affairs\nwere in a more settled state. Her family were consulted by Fletcher; and\nthey responded in the most kind and straightforward manner. In genius,\ntalent, and learning, Fletcher was immensely Miss Bosanquet\u2019s superior;\nbut, for pure, ardent, disinterested, unselfish love, it is impossible\nto decide which of the two was entitled to bear the palm.\n\nConsent to the marriage having been obtained from the Bosanquet family,\nFletcher made an arrangement to spend the remainder of the year with his\naffianced in Yorkshire. The well-known Rev. John Crosse,[545] Vicar of\nBradford, took Fletcher\u2019s pulpit at Madeley, and Fletcher took Mr.\nCrosse\u2019s at Bradford.[546] To some, this may seem somewhat strange; but\nit must be borne in mind that Miss Bosanquet\u2019s temporal affairs were in\na most entangled state, and that it was of great importance that her\nCross Hall property should be sold, and all her business assets and\ndebts in Yorkshire satisfactorily settled before her removal to Madeley.\nFletcher went to help his intended bride, and did help her; for her\nbrother William, in a letter, written to her a fortnight after her\nmarriage, observed, \u201cYou have done very well in disposing of your\nplace.\u201d[547] For months past, she had been longing and trying to turn\nher troublesome property into money: now she succeeded in doing so. A\nweek after Fletcher\u2019s arrival, \u201ca gentleman came quite unexpectedly, and\nbought\u201d the Cross Hall[548] estate \u201cfor \u00a31,620; and, three days\nafterwards, another took the stock, etc.\u201d Arrangements were also made\nfor the locating of her domestic dependants; and she was enabled to\nwrite:\u2014\n\n \u201cAll was now so far settled, that I did not need to sell Leytonstone\n estate. My income would afford to allow my dispersed family \u00a355 per\n year; pay the interest of the money still owing; and yet leave me such\n an annual sum as was about equal to my dear Mr. Fletcher\u2019s; and, in\n case of my death, there was in Leytonstone more than would pay all.\n So, on Monday, the 12th of November, 1781, in Batley Church, we\n covenanted in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy\n Ghost, to bear each other\u2019s burdens, and to become one for ever.\u201d[549]\n\nFootnote 545:\n\n Mr. Crosse had been acquainted with Miss Bosanquet when she resided at\n Leytonstone, and, from that time to this, a warm friendship had\n existed between them. (\u201cLife of Crosse,\u201d by Morgan, p. 8.)\n\nFootnote 546:\n\n \u201cLife of Rev. John Crosse,\u201d by Morgan, p. 9.\n\nFootnote 547:\n\n Unpublished letter.\n\nFootnote 548:\n\n Cross Hall still exists; at all events, it did a few years ago, when\n the present writer visited it\u2014a square, substantial, two-story\n edifice, built of stone, shaded with trees, and having a good garden\n behind it.\n\nFootnote 549:\n\n \u201cMrs. Fletcher\u2019s Life,\u201d by H. Moore, p. 142.\n\nFletcher reached Cross Hall towards the end of October, 1781, and\ncontinued there till January 2, 1782, when he and his bride set out for\nMadeley. A glimpse of this brief interval, and of his unique wedding,\nmay interest the reader.\n\nOf course, Fletcher had to preach every Sunday in Mr. Crosse\u2019s church;\nbut, in addition to this, he also preached in Methodist chapels. Samuel\nBradburn, at that time Wesley\u2019s \u201cAssistant\u201d in the Bradford Circuit,\nwrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher is married to Miss Bosanquet. Such a pair! I am inclined\n to think there never was a holier, or a happier, couple, since Adam\n ate the forbidden fruit. At all events, I can say, such a man and\n woman I never knew married before. He has preached in two of our\n houses at Halifax and Bradford; and I think that there never were two\n better sermons preached in England.\u201d[550]\n\nFootnote 550:\n\n Unpublished letter.\n\nThis, from one of the greatest of Methodism\u2019s pulpit orators, was no\nordinary praise.\n\nMrs. Crosby was one of the members of Miss Bosanquet\u2019s family, and\nwrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher\u2019s general conversation, while at Cross Hall, was\n praising God, and speaking of the love of our dear Redeemer. He took\n opportunities of speaking to every one in the family, concerning the\n state of their souls, and of giving them suitable directions. At other\n times, he met us all together, and exhorted us. Our daily meals were\n like sacraments. When he drank to any one, it was, \u2018Heavenly health!\u2019\n or \u2018The cup of salvation!\u2019 At, or after each meal, he generally began,\n or called upon us to begin, to sing\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018Still, O my soul, prolong\n The never-ceasing song!\n Christ my theme, my hope, my joy!\n His be all my happy days!\n Praise my every hour employ:\n Every breath be spent in praise!\u2019\n\n \u201cThus did he walk with God, filled with the Spirit: confirming his\n love to all the family, and caring for both their spiritual and\n temporal concerns. He preached in many places while in Yorkshire, and\n to numerous congregations. Many were blest thereby; some convinced of\n sin; others comforted. Whenever he either preached or conversed, the\n comforts of the Holy Ghost were multiplied.\n\n \u201cMonday, _November 12_, was the day appointed for the marriage. On the\n morning of this day, several friends met together. They reached Cross\n Hall before family prayers. Mr. Fletcher was dressed in his\n canonicals. After giving out one of Mr. Wesley\u2019s marriage hymns, he\n read Rev. xix. 7, 8, 9, \u2018Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honour\n to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made\n herself ready. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in\n fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness\n of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are\n called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me,\n These are the true sayings of God.\u2019 Mr. Fletcher then spoke from these\n verses, in such a manner as greatly tended to spiritualize the\n solemnities of the day. He said, \u2018We invite you to our wedding; but\n the Holy Ghost invites you to the marriage of the Lamb. The bride, the\n Lamb\u2019s wife, represents the whole Church, triumphant and militant\n united together. You may all be the Bride, and Jesus will condescend\n to be the Bridegroom. Make yourselves ready by being filled with the\n Spirit.\u2019 He then engaged in prayer, and said, \u2018Lord, thou knowest we\n would not take this step, if we had not eternity in view, and if we\n were not as willing to be carried into the churchyard, as to go into\n the church.\u2019 At breakfast, he remarked, \u2018The postilions are now ready\n to carry us to the church; but death will soon be here to carry us to\n the marriage supper of the Lamb.\u2019\n\n \u201cOn the way to Batley Church, which was nearly two miles distant, he\n spoke much of the mystery represented by marriage, namely the union\n between Christ and His Church. They were married in the face of the\n congregation: the doors were opened, and everyone came in that would.\n We then returned home, and spent a considerable time in singing and\n prayer. There were nearly twenty of us. I then presented Mrs. Fletcher\n with some wedding hymns. She looked over them, and gave them to Mr.\n Fletcher. He read the Scripture text at the top, namely, \u2018Husbands,\n love your wives, as Christ loved the Church.\u2019 Then turning to the\n company, he said, \u2018My God, what a task! Help me, my friends, by your\n prayers, to fulfil it. As Christ loved the Church! He laid aside His\n glory for the Church; He submitted to be born into our world; to be\n clothed with a human body, subject to all our sinless infirmities; He\n endured shame, contempt, pain, yea, death itself for His Church! O my\n God, none is able to fulfil this task, without Thine Almighty aid!\n Help me, O my God! Pray for me, O my friends!\u2019\n\n \u201cHe next read, \u2018Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands.\u2019 Mrs.\n Fletcher added, \u2018As unto the Lord.\u2019 \u2018Well, my dear,\u2019 returned Mr.\n Fletcher, \u2018only in the Lord. And if ever I wish you to do anything\n otherwise, resist me with all your might.\u2019\n\n \u201cFrom dinner, which was a spiritual meal as well as a natural one,\n until tea-time, our time was chiefly spent in prayer or singing. After\n singing the covenant hymn, Mr. Fletcher went to Mrs. Fletcher, and\n said to her, \u2018Well, my dearest friend, will you unite with me in\n joining ourselves in a perpetual covenant to the Lord? Will you with\n me serve Him in His members? Will you help me to bring souls to the\n Blessed Redeemer? And, in every possible way, this day lay yourself\n under the strongest ties you can, to help me to glorify my gracious\n Lord? She answered, \u2018May my God help me so to do!\u2019\n\n \u201cIn the evening, Mr. Valton[551] preached in the hall, from, \u2018What\n shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits? I will take the cup\n of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.\u2019 His words did not\n fall to the ground; many were greatly refreshed. After the preaching,\n there was a sweet contest among us: every one thought, \u2018I, in\n particular, owe the greatest debt of praise;\u2019 at length we agreed to\n sing,\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018I\u2019ll praise my Maker, while I\u2019ve breath,\n And when my voice is lost in death,\n Praise shall employ my nobler powers:\n My days of praise shall ne\u2019er be past,\n While life, and thought, and being last,\n Or immortality endures.\u2019\u201d[552]\n\nFootnote 551:\n\n John Valton, one of Wesley\u2019s Preachers, then in the seventh year of\n his itinerancy, and labouring in the Birstal Circuit. He wrote: \u201cOn\n the 12th of November, 1781, Mr. Fletcher stole hallowed fire from my\n people, by taking away Miss Bosanquet. I and a few friends accompanied\n them to Batley Church. Surely, such a blessed wedding I never knew\n before. By request, I improved the occasion in the evening, from these\n words, \u2018What shall we render to the Lord for all His benefits? I will\n take the cup of salvation, and call upon His name.\u2019 It was a\n refreshing time; and many prayers were offered that eternal blessings\n might crown the devoted pair.\u201d (\u201cLife of the Rev. John Valton,\u201d p.\n 104.)\n\nFootnote 552:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nIs there on record another wedding day such as this? To criticise the\naccount would spoil it. It may, however, interest the reader to give a\nverbatim copy of the marriage certificate:\u2014\n\n \u201cNo. 112. John William Fletcher, of the parish of Madeley, in the\n county of Salop, Clerk, and Mary Bosanquet, of this parish, were\n married in this church (Batley) by license, this twelfth day of\n November, in the year 1781, by me, John Deighton, Curate.\n\n \u201cThis marriage was solemnized between us, John William Fletcher, or De\n la Flechere, and Mary Bosanquet, in the presence of William Smith and\n Ann Tripp.\u201d\n\nTwelve days after the marriage, Wesley wrote to Fletcher the following\ncharacteristic letter:\u2014\n\n \u201cLONDON, _November 24, 1781_.\n\n \u201cDEAR SIR,\u2014There is not a person to whom I would have wished Miss\n Bosanquet joined besides you. But this union, I am thoroughly\n persuaded, is of God; and so are all the children of God with whom I\n have spoken. Mr. Bosanquet\u2019s being so agreeable to it, I look upon as\n a token for good; and so was the ready disposing of the house and\n stock, which otherwise would have been a great encumbrance.\n\n \u201cFrom the first day which you spend together at Madeley, I hope you\n will lay down an exactly regular plan of living; something like that\n of the happy family at Leytonstone. Let your light shine to all that\n are round about you. And let Sister Fletcher do as much as she can for\n God, and no more. To His care I commit you both, and am, my dear\n friends,\n\n \u201cYour very affectionate brother,\n \u201cJOHN WESLEY.\u201d[553]\n\nFootnote 553:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Works, vol. xii., p. 154.\n\nA curious letter to be written to a man on his being married; but Wesley\nand Fletcher were far too earnest, and were engaged in far too great a\nwork, to permit them to write commonplace and empty congratulations.\n\nOne of the first acts of Fletcher, after his marriage, was to make a\nsettlement of his own monetary matters. The following is an exact copy\nof his will, written by himself:\u2014\n\n \u201cThis is the last Will and Testament of John William Fletcher, Vicar\n of Madeley, in the County of Salop, whereby I give and bequeath to my\n dear wife, Mary Fletcher, all my personal estate, of what nature or\n kind soever, in the kingdom of Great Britain, for her own use and\n benefit.\n\n \u201cWith regard to my personal estate in Switzerland, I give and bequeath\n it all to my second brother, Henry de la Fletcher, assessor to the\n Lord Bailie, at Nyon, in the Canton of Berne, on condition that he or\n his heirs will take care to pay to my said dear wife, Mary Fletcher,\n or order, the income or produce of that personal estate during the\n term of her natural life; and, in case my said brother or his heirs do\n not fulfil this condition, according to the tenour of this Will, then\n my said wife shall sell, or cause to be sold, that my said personal\n estate in Switzerland, for her own use and benefit; and get the money\n over to England, on condition that she shall pay one hundred crowns to\n the poor of Nyon, in the said Canton of Berne.[554]\n\n \u201cAnd I do hereby appoint my said dear wife sole executrix of this my\n last Will and Testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my\n hand and seal this 24th of December, 1781.\n\n \u201cJOHN WILLIAM FLETCHER, OR DE LA FLECHERE.\n\n \u201cSigned and sealed by the Testator, and by him declared to be his last\n Will and Testament, in the presence of us,\n\n \u201cJOHN VALTON.\n \u201cRICHARD TAYLOR.\n \u201cTHOMAS\n GARFORTH.\u201d[555]\n\nFootnote 554:\n\n Fletcher\u2019s relatives in Switzerland most faithfully fulfilled this\n part of Fletcher\u2019s Will. In an unpublished letter to Mrs. Crosby,\n dated June 20, 1786, his widow wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cMy brother Henry possesses so much of the spirit of my dear husband,\n that his care of me exceeds all imagination. The family have sent me a\n bond, laying in their own estates as security to forward me the whole\n produce every year. I do not yet know exactly what it will be; but it\n is far better than I thought; and so is everything in which my dearest\n Mr. Fletcher has been concerned.\u201d\n\nFootnote 555:\n\n _The Wesley Banner_, 1850, p. 314.\n\nFletcher\u2019s marriage was, in all respects, a happy one. He was thankful\nfor his wife, and proud of her. Hence the following letter to \u201cThe Hon.\nMrs. C\u2014\u2014:\u201d\n\n \u201cCROSS HALL, YORKSHIRE, _December 26, 1781_.\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014Your favour of the 4th instant did not reach me\n until a considerable time after date, through my being still absent\n from Madeley; a clergyman of this neighbourhood having made an\n exchange with me, to facilitate my settling some temporal affairs in\n this county.\n\n \u201cThe kind part you take in my happiness demands my warmest thanks; and\n I beg you will accept them, multiplied by those which my dear partner\n presents to you. Yes, my dear friend, I am married in my old age, and\n have a new opportunity of considering a great mystery, in the most\n perfect type of our Lord\u2019s mystical union with His Church. I have now\n a new call to pray for a fulness of Christ\u2019s holy, gentle, meek,\n loving Spirit, that I may love my wife, as He loved His spouse, the\n Church. But the emblem is greatly deficient: the Lamb is worthy of His\n spouse, and more than worthy; whereas I must acknowledge myself\n unworthy of the yoke-fellow, whom heaven has reserved for me. She is a\n person after my own heart; and, I make no doubt, we shall increase the\n number of the happy marriages in the Church militant.\n\n \u201cIndeed, they are not so many, but it may be worth a Christian\u2019s while\n to add one more to the number. God declared it was not good that man,\n a social being, should live alone, and, therefore, He gave him a\n help-meet for him. For the same reason, our Lord sent forth His\n disciples two and two. Had I searched the three kingdoms, I could not\n have found one brother willing to share gratis my weal, woe, and\n labours, and complaisant enough to unite his fortunes to mine; but God\n has found me a partner, _a sister, a wife_, to use St. Paul\u2019s\n language, who is not afraid to face with me the colliers and bargemen\n of my parish, until death part us.\n\n \u201cBuried together in our country village, we shall help one another to\n trim our lamps, and wait for the coming of the heavenly\n Bridegroom.\u201d[556]\n\nFootnote 556:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 281.\n\nBefore leaving this memorable year, 1781, it must be added that, twenty\ndays after Fletcher\u2019s marriage, his beloved friend and travelling\ncompanion, William Perronet, died, on his way to England, at Douay.\nThree months before this event took place, Fletcher remarked, in a\nletter to William Perronet\u2019s venerable father:\u2014\n\n \u201cMadeley, September 4, 1781. I have been for some weeks in Yorkshire,\n chiefly at the house of an old friend of mine, Miss Bosanquet, whose\n happy family put me in mind of yours. At my return home, I have found\n a letter from my brother, who informs me that my dear friend, your\n son, continues very weak. He is now at Gimel, a fine village between\n Lausanne and Geneva, where Miss Perronet\u2019s sister is settled. There he\n rides, and drinks ass\u2019s milk, and breathes the purest air. Mrs.\n Perronet is there with her two daughters, so that if the illness of my\n dear friend should grow more grievous, he will not want for good\n attendance and the most tender nursing.\u201d[557]\n\nFootnote 557:\n\n _Methodist Magazine_, 1817, p. 864.\n\nNow, in another letter to the father of William Perronet, Fletcher\nwrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cI condole with you, Rev. and dear Sir, about the death of my dear\n friend and your dear son. We shall one day see why our heavenly Father\n made your sons go before you, and my kind physician before me. About\n the time he died, so far as I can find by your kind letter, a strong\n concern about him fell upon me by day and by night, insomuch that I\n could not help waking my wife to join me in praying for him; and at\n once that concern ceased, nor have I since had any such spiritual\n feeling, whence I concluded that the conflict I supposed my friend to\n be in was ended. But how surprised was I to find it was _by death_!\n Well, whether Paul or Apollos, or life or _death_, all things are ours\n through Jesus, who knows how to bring good out of evil, and how to\n blow us into the harbour by a cross wind, or even by a dreadful\n storm.\u201d[558]\n\nFootnote 558:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXV.\n _TWO YEARS OF MARRIED LIFE AT MADELEY._\n\n 1782 AND 1783.\n\n\n\n\nIN a letter to an aristocratic friend in London, Fletcher began the year\n1782 as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cJanuary 1, 1782. I live, blessed be God, to devote myself again to\n His blessed service in this world or in the next, and to wish my dear\n friends all the blessings of a year of jubilee. Whatever this year\n brings forth, may it bring us the fullest measures of salvation\n attainable on earth, and the most complete preparation for heaven.\n\n \u201cI have a solemn call to gird my loins and keep my lamp burning.\n Strangely restored to health and strength (considering my years), I\n have ventured to preach of late as often as I did formerly; and after\n having read prayers and preached twice on Christmas-day, I did, last\n Sunday, what I had never done,\u2014I continued doing duty from ten o\u2019clock\n in the morning till after four in the afternoon. This was owing to\n christenings, churchings, and the sacrament, which I administered to a\n church full of people,[559] so that I was obliged to go from the\n communion table to begin the evening service, and then to visit some\n sick. This has brought back upon me one of my old, dangerous symptoms;\n so I have flattered myself in vain that I should be able to do the\n whole duty of my own parish. My dear wife is nursing me with the\n tenderest care; gives me up to God with the greatest resignation; and\n helps me to rejoice that life and death, health and sickness, work for\n our good, and are all _ours_, as blessed means to forward us in our\n journey to heaven.\n\n \u201cWe intend to set out for Madeley to-morrow. The prospect of a\n winter\u2019s journey is not sweet; but the prospect of meeting you, and\n your dear sister, and Lady Mary Fitzgerald, and all our other\n companions in tribulation in heaven, is delightful. If Lady Huntingdon\n is in London, I beg you to present my duty to her, with my best\n wishes.\u201d[560]\n\nFootnote 559:\n\n No doubt this six hours\u2019 continuous service took place in the parish\n church, Bradford.\n\nFootnote 560:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 283.\n\nFletcher and his bride left Cross Hall on Wednesday, January 2, 1782.\nMrs. Fletcher wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201c1782, January 2. We set out for Madeley. Where shall I begin my song\n of praise? What a turn is there in all my affairs! From what a depth\n of sorrow, distress, and perplexity am I delivered! How shall I find\n language to express the goodness of the Lord! I know no want but that\n of more grace. I have a husband, in everything suited to me. He bears\n with all my faults and failings in a manner that continually reminds\n me of the text, \u2018Love your wives, as Christ loved the Church.\u2019 His\n constant endeavour is to make me happy; his strongest desire is for my\n spiritual growth. He is, in every sense of the word, the man my\n highest reason chooses to obey. I am also happy in a servant[561] whom\n I took from the side of her mother\u2019s coffin when she was four years\n old. She loves us as if we were her parents, and is also truly devoted\n to God.\u201d[562]\n\nFootnote 561:\n\n Sarah Lawrence.\n\nFootnote 562:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nOn January 6, Fletcher and his wife spent their first Sunday at Madeley.\nSeventeen years afterwards, Mrs. Fletcher remarked:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe first Sabbath after I came to Madeley my dear husband took me\n into the kitchen, where his people were assembled to partake of\n refreshment between the times of worship. He introduced me to them,\n saying, \u2018I have not married this wife for myself only, but for your\n sakes also.\u2019\u201d\n\nAnd then the happy throng sang the hymn beginning with the verse\u2014\n\n \u201cBlow ye the trumpet, blow\n The gladly solemn sound;\n Let all the nations know,\n To earth\u2019s remotest bound;\n The year of jubilee is come!\n Return, ye ransomed sinners, home.\u201d\n\nA few weeks after this, Wesley paid his friends a visit of one day and\ntwo nights. He says:\u2014\n\n \u201c1782. Saturday, March 23. It was with a good deal of difficulty that\n we got\u201d [from Kidderminster] \u201cto Bridgenorth, much of the road being\n blocked up with snow. In the afternoon, we had another kind of\n difficulty; the roads were so rough and so deep that we were in\n danger, every now and then, of leaving our wheels behind us. But, by\n adding two horses to my own, at length we got safe to Madeley.\n\n \u201cBoth Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher complained that, after all the pains they\n had taken they could not prevail on the people to join in Society; no,\n nor even to meet in class. Resolved to try, I preached to a crowded\n audience on \u2018I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.\u2019 I followed the\n blow in the afternoon by strongly applying those words, \u2018Awake, thou\n that sleepest;\u2019 and then enforcing the necessity of Christian\n fellowship on all who desired either to awake or keep awake. I then\n desired those that were willing to join together for this purpose to\n call upon me and Mr. Fletcher after service. Ninety-four or\n ninety-five persons did so\u2014about as many men as women. We explained to\n them the nature of a Christian Society, and they willingly joined\n therein.\u201d[563]\n\nFootnote 563:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\nMethodist preachers, for some time past, had preached in Madeley Wood,\nCoalbrookdale, and other adjacent places, and here Society Classes seem\nto have been formed; but, up to the present, the Methodist people at\nMadeley had refused to meet in class. Henceforth, it was different. This\naltered state of things was owing partly to Wesley and to Fletcher, but\nchiefly to Fletcher\u2019s devoted wife.\n\nAt the time of Wesley\u2019s visit, there was living at Little Dawley, near\nMadeley, a child nearly four years old, who, nineteen years afterwards,\nbecame a Methodist Itinerant Preacher, and who, in 1879, died in the one\nhundred and first year of his age\u2014the tall, stalwart, grand old William\nTranter. Naturally, Mr. Tranter loved Madeley, and affectionately\ncherished the memory of Fletcher and his wife. In an article published\nforty-five years ago, he wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen Mr. Wesley\u2019s preachers came to the neighbourhood of Madeley, Mr.\n Fletcher hospitably received those laborious servants of God into his\n house; the vicarage kitchen, before consecrated by his prayers, was\n now further consecrated by their earnest and faithful preaching; the\n Vicar of Madeley himself being one of their humblest and most\n prayerful hearers. The kitchen becoming too small, a barn on the\n premises was neatly fitted up for a preaching room. In this place, the\n Methodist travelling preachers, and the curate of the parish,\n regularly preached the Word of God. Here, also, Mrs. Fletcher, after\n the removal of her holy husband to his heavenly rest, held her\n meetings for exposition of the Scriptures, religious experience, and\n prayer. Surviving her husband many years\u201d (thirty), \u201cshe lived a widow\n indeed, doing good to all around her, and winning the veneration and\n love of rich and poor, not only in the village and parish of Madeley,\n and in the adjoining parishes, but in all places where she was known,\n and to which the fame of her piety and charity had extended. The\n rector not only allowed her to remain in the vicarage-house,\n undisturbed during life, but allowed her to choose the curate by whom\n the duties of the living were to be performed; assigning as his\n reason, that she knew better than himself what would suit and benefit\n the parishioners. Besides exercising publicly, at stated times, in the\n vicarage room, she occasionally visited Madeley Wood, Coalbrookdale,\n Coalport, and other places more distant, at which times the chapels\n were usually crowded with delighted and profited hearers. To her\n house, the Itinerant Preachers continued to come to the end of her\n earthly sojourn. Here they always found a hearty welcome, and a\n delightful home. Several lovely Societies were formed, others were\n augmented, hundreds of souls were converted, Christian believers were\n edified and blessed, the fruit of Mr. Fletcher\u2019s ministry was\n preserved, and Madeley became the rendezvous for religious persons and\n purposes\u2014a privileged, honoured place,\u2014a sort of Christian Jerusalem.\n It was not uncommon to see two, three, or more clergymen, pious and\n able men, from neighbouring and even distant parishes, among the\n congregation at her week-night lectures. On the Sabbath, the pious\n people, living at the distance of from one to four miles from Madeley,\n usually arrived in time for her morning meeting, at nine o\u2019clock; and,\n from there, they went to the parish church close at hand. At noon,\n respectable strangers, visiting Madeley for religious purposes, were\n usually invited to dine with her at the vicarage; the poor, living too\n far off to allow them to return from their own houses for the after\n services of the day, partook, if so disposed, of her hospitalities in\n the vicarage-kitchen; others, having brought their provisions with\n them, were seen, in fine weather, in little companies in the fields,\n engaged in heavenly conversation and prayer; and others of the\n respectable portion of these pious people, had, in an apartment to\n themselves, a cheap family dinner provided at the village inn. On the\n ringing of a bell, at one o\u2019clock, all assembled at Mrs. Fletcher\u2019s\n meeting, when she was accustomed to read the life of some eminently\n holy man, and make remarks upon it; then they adjourned to the church,\n for the afternoon service there, and sermon; after which they repaired\n to their respective homes, and attended their own meeting-houses, at\n one or other of which the Curate of Madeley officiated every Sabbath\n evening, as well as occasionally on the week-days, always announcing\n at the close of the afternoon service in the church, the chapel in\n which he would preach that evening. This plan was adopted by Mr.\n Fletcher, and was followed by his evangelical and pious successors,\n for upwards of forty years.\u201d[564]\n\nFootnote 564:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1837, p. 903.\n\nThe godly reader will easily forgive this rich digression, and will be\ninclined to sing, with Charles Wesley:\u2014\n\n \u201cMeek, simple followers of the Lamb,\n They lived, and spake, and thought the same;\n They joyfully conspired to raise\n Their ceaseless sacrifice of praise.\n\n \u201cWith grace abundantly endued,\n A pure, believing multitude,\n They all were of one heart and soul,\n And only love inspired the whole.\n\n \u201cO what an age of golden days!\n O what a choice, peculiar race!\n Washed in the Lamb\u2019s all-cleansing blood,\n Anointed kings and priests to God!\u201d[565]\n\nFootnote 565:\n\n Deep indentations in the stone pillars of the vicarage gate still\n exist, occasioned by the Sunday visitors to Madeley sharpening their\n knives to eat their dinners. (Randall\u2019s \u201cLives and Usefulness of the\n Rev. J. and Mary Fletcher,\u201d p. 33.)\n\nMadeley will long continue to be a kind of Mecca to the Methodists. Many\nyears ago, the present writer, in company with the late Rev. Dr. Jobson,\nvisited it. They met with the utmost courtesy, the lady of the Vicar\nshowing them everything likely to interest a Methodist. She had a lock\nof Fletcher\u2019s silky hair, which she greatly prized. They were taken into\nFletcher\u2019s study, about nine feet by twelve in size, and had pointed out\nto them a portion of the wall, still stained with Fletcher\u2019s breathings\nwhile engaged in prayer. The old barn-chapel was no longer in existence,\nbut, near to its site, there was a small building, containing its\npulpit, brass lamps, and prayer-book, together with the small oaken\ncommunion table at which Fletcher celebrated his last sacrament. The\nvicarage, a respectable old edifice, had beautiful gardens and grounds\nattached to it; and the parish church, built upon the site of the small\nold church, in which Fletcher ministered to crowded congregations,\ncontained several mementoes to remind visitors of its memorable vicar.\nThe steps leading both to the reading-desk and pulpit were those which\nFletcher used to tread; and, in a small vestry, was preserved the\nregister of all the baptisms, marriages, and deaths during his\nincumbency, and showing that his last baptism was on July 29, 1785, six\nweeks before his death. The old church, in which Fletcher preached,\nwould hold five hundred; the present one, built in 1794, will seat about\na thousand; and, since its erection, two others have been built in other\nparts of the parish. Besides these, the following Wesleyan Methodist\nchapels have been built: one in Court Street, Madeley, holding eight\nhundred; another, of the same size, in Madeley Wood; another, half the\nsize, in Coalbrookdale; and a fourth at Coalport, capable of containing\ntwo hundred. And to these may be added two chapels, at Madeley and\nMadeley Wood, belonging to the Methodist New Connexion; and another\nbelonging to the Primitive Methodists.\n\nIt is time to return to Fletcher. Among the first Methodists in Ireland\nwere Henry and Robert Brooke, who, up to the year 1758, resided in the\nneighbourhood of Rantavan. Henry became the far-famed author of \u201cThe\nFool of Quality; or, The History of Henry, Earl of Moreland;\u201d published,\nin five volumes, 1766\u20131770; and of other ably-written books, which\ngained him the friendship of Pope, Swift, and several more of the\nliterati of his age. He married a young lady, to whom he was guardian,\nwhen she was thirteen years of age, by whom he had seventeen children,\nonly two of whom survived him, when he died in 1783. His brother Robert\nhad three children: Henry, the eldest, who, for about forty years, was\none of the leading Methodists in Dublin; Robert, the second, a colonel\nin the army; and Thomas Digby, the youngest, also connected with the\nDublin Methodist Society. In the year 1772, Henry wrote to Fletcher;\nFletcher mistook the nephew for the uncle, whose \u201cFool of Quality\u201d had\nrecently been completed; and this amusing mistake led Fletcher to\naddress to the famous author the following valuable epistle:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _September 6, 1772_.\n\n \u201cDEAR SIR,\u2014I cannot tell you how often I have thought of thanking you\n for your kind letter. My controversy made me put it off some time,\n and, when I was going one day to answer you, a clergyman called upon\n me, read your letter, said you were a sensible author, and, if I would\n let him have it, he would let me have your \u2018Fool of Quality,\u2019 of which\n I had never heard. I forgot to take your address; but, after some\n months, my friend has sent me back your unexpected and welcome favour;\n and I now know in what street you live. A thousand thanks for your\n letter. May this sheet convey them from my heart to yours; and thence\n may they fall, like a thousand drops, into that immense ocean of\n goodness, truth, and love, whence come all the streams, which gladden\n the universe of God!\n\n \u201cI thankfully accept the pleasure, profit, and honour of your\n correspondence. But I must not deceive you; I have not yet learned the\n blessed precept of our Lord in respect of writing and receiving\n letters. I still find it more blessed to _receive_, than to _give_;\n and, till I have got out of this selfishness, never depend on a letter\n from me till you see it, and be persuaded, nevertheless, that one from\n you will always be welcome.\n\n \u201cI see, by your works, that you love truth, and that you will force\n your way, through all the barriers of prejudice, to embrace it in its\n meanest dress. That makes me love you. I hope to improve by your\n example and your lessons. One thing I want truly to learn, that is,\n that creatures and visible things are but _shadows_, and that God is\n God, Jehovah, the true, eternal Substance. To live practically in this\n truth is to live in the suburbs of heaven. Really to believe that in\n God we live, move, and have our being, is to find and enjoy the root\n of our existence: it is to slide from self into our original\n principle; from the carnal into the spiritual; from the visible into\n the invisible; from time into eternity. Give me, at your leisure, some\n directions, how to cease from busying myself about the husks of\n things, and how to break through the shell, so that I may come to the\n kernel of resurrection, life, and power, that lies hidden from the\n unbeliever\u2019s sight.\n\n \u201cAbout _feelings_. Pray, my dear Sir, are you possessed of all the\n feelings of your Clinton, Clement, and Harry? Are they natural to you,\n I mean, previous to what we generally call conversion? I have often\n thought that some of the feelings you describe depend a good deal upon\n the fineness of the nerves, and bodily organs; and, as I am rather of\n a Stoic turn, I have, sometimes, comforted myself in thinking, that my\n want of feelings might, in a degree, proceed from the dulness of Swiss\n nerves. If I am not mistaken, Providence directs me to you to have\n this important question solved. May not some persons have as much true\n faith, love, humanity, and pity, as others who are ten times more\n affected, at least for a season? And what directions would you give to\n a Christian Stoic, if these two ideas are not absolutely incompatible?\n\n \u201cMy Stoicism helps me, I think, to weather out a storm of displeasure,\n which my little pamphlets have raised against me. You see, I at once\n consult you as an old friend and spiritual casuist; nor know I how to\n testify better to you how unreservedly I begin to be, my very dear\n friend,\n\n \u201cYours in the Lord,\n \u201cJ. FLETCHER.\u201d[566]\n\nFootnote 566:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 214.\n\nProbably \u201cThe Fool of Quality\u201d was the only novel Fletcher ever read;\nbut it taught him to respect its author. It is more than doubtful,\nhowever, whether Fletcher\u2019s letter ever reached the gentleman for whom\nit was intended. At all events, there is no evidence whatever that any\ncorrespondence took place between Henry Brooke, senior, and the Vicar of\nMadeley. Of course, Fletcher\u2019s communication reached the nephew of\nBrooke, and, nearly ten years afterwards, he and others wrote to\nFletcher, requesting him and his newly-wedded wife to visit the\nMethodists in Dublin. Fletcher replied:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _April 20, 1782_.\n\n \u201cDEAR SIR,\u2014Last Saturday, I received your kind invitation to take a\n journey to Dublin, with my wife; and we join in sincere thanks for the\n kind and generous offer which accompanies that invitation.\n\n \u201cTwo reasons, at this time, concur to make me postpone the accepting\n of it. Not to mention my state of health, I have been so long absent\n from my parish, that my parishioners have a just claim to my stated\n labours for some time; and Mr. Bayley, my curate, being wanted at\n Kingswood School, I must serve my own church myself, and the duty is\n so continual that I dare not go twenty miles from home, much less to a\n neighbouring kingdom. Providence may, if it be for the glory of God,\n make a way for me to go, and return my thanks in person. In the\n meantime, I beg you, Sir, to present them to all our brethren, who set\n their hands to your kind letter.\n\n \u201cIf I took you, Sir, for the author of \u2018The Fool of Quality,\u2019[567] I\n thought I saw his style in the style of your letter; however, I was\n not much mistaken. Your pen is nearly allied to his, as your blood is\n to his. May one Spirit, the humble, loving Spirit of Jesus, make us\n all of one heart and soul! May we, notwithstanding the channel which\n separates our bodies, rejoice that one truth unites our souls, and\n that the common faith and love make us join daily in Christ our Head!\n So prays, dear Sir, your affectionate and obliged brother and servant,\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[568]\n\nFootnote 567:\n\n Two years before this, Wesley had published his abridged edition of\n \u201cThe Fool of Quality,\u201d in two volumes, 12mo.\n\nFootnote 568:\n\n Original Letter.\n\nFletcher and his wife remained at Madeley, and the latter wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cMay 30, 1782. I have the kindest and tenderest of husbands; of so\n spiritual a man, and so spiritual a union, I had no adequate\n conception. He is every way suited to me, all I could wish. The work\n among souls increases.\u201d[569]\n\nFootnote 569:\n\n \u201cMrs. Fletcher\u2019s Life,\u201d by H. Moore.\n\nA few weeks later, in a letter to Wesley, she said:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _July 7, 1782_.\n\n \u201cVERY DEAR SIR,\u2014I find a desire of informing you how we go on. The\n people you joined, when here, are, I trust, coming forward. I have not\n conversed with the men; but the women are more in number than at that\n time. Some have been clearly justified, I think five; and three or\n four are restored to that communion with God, which they had for some\n years lost. A few are athirst for a clean heart; and, on the whole,\n there is a good increase of freedom and liberty in our class-meetings.\n We have now also a band,[570] into which I gather the most lively; all\n that are newly blest, or that have any light into sanctification; and\n we have much of the presence of God with us.\n\n \u201cMy dear Mr. Fletcher spares no pains. I know not which is greater,\n his earnest desire for souls, or his patience in bearing with their\n infirmities and dulness. His preaching is exceeding lively; and our\n sacraments are more like those in the chapels of London than any I\n have seen since I left it. Yet, I find a great difference between the\n people here and those in Yorkshire: however, the Lord has little ones\n here also.\n\n \u201cLast Friday, after riding two hours in the rain, we came to a good\n congregation, where there was neither house nor church to cover us;\n but I have not seen more of the Yorkshire attention since I left that\n county, nor had a more solemn time; though we were under a wet cloud\n all the while, and our poor servant waiting for us, who brought us\n safe home by ten o\u2019clock the same night. This is one of the old\n congregations which my husband has visited for years; and where he\n joined (in Society) sixty persons. Next Friday, we are to see them\n again, and he purposes to enquire into the state of those which\n remain. There are, in many parts about here, some serious hearers, and\n we wish them all to be brought into a regular discipline. My husband\n has been at near \u00a3500 expense in building a small Preaching-house,\n that, if he should be removed, they may have a fold to prevent them\n from being scattered. But were they joined (in Society) _now_, it\n would be far more likely to answer the end. On this subject we wish to\n have a little conversation with you.\n\n \u201cI am your affectionate servant,\n \u201cMARY FLETCHER.\u201c[571]\n\nFootnote 570:\n\n A term well understood by Methodists: a meeting of the most spiritual\n people who met in class.\n\nFootnote 571:\n\n _Arminian Magazine_, 1790, p. 391.\n\nTwo months after this, Fletcher was temporarily disabled by an accident,\nmentioned in a long letter to Lady Mary Fitzgerald, from which the\nfollowing is extracted:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _August 28, 1782_.\n\n \u201cMY HONOURED FRIEND,\u2014The Lord has peculiar favours in store for your\n ladyship, and for me; the proof is, that we are _afflicted_. Have you\n been in a weak state of health? I have had the honour to drink of your\n cup. The influenza laid me down; and, when I was partly well, I broke\n my shin against a bench, in consequence of which I am confined by a\n bad leg to my bed, where I write this.\n\n \u201cYou still complain of _vile self_. Let vile self be reduced to order,\n and, though he be a bad master, he will become _an excellent servant_.\n Do this, by letting the Lord, the Maker, the Preserver, the Redeemer,\n the Lover of your soul, ascend upon the throne of your thoughts, will,\n and affections. Who deserves to engross them better than He does? Is\n not He your first Lord, your best Husband, your most faithful Friend,\n and your greatest Benefactor? Oh! allow Jehovah, the Supreme Being, to\n be to you what He deserves to be, _All in all_. One lively act of\n faith, one assent and consent to this delightful truth, that your\n Father, who is in heaven, loves you a thousand times more than you\n love your idol (for God\u2019s love is, like Himself, _infinite_ and\n boundless), will set your heart at liberty, and even make it dance for\n joy. What, if to this ravishing consideration, you add the\n transporting truth, that the Son of God, fairer than the sons of men\n and brighter than the angels, has loved you unto death, to the death\n of the cross, and loves you still more than all your friends do, were\n their love collected into _one_ heart, could you help thinking, with a\n degree of joyous gratitude, of such an instance of Divine\n condescension? No, your _vile self_ would be _ennobled_, _raised_,\n _expanded_, and set at liberty by this evangelical thought. Self would\n be nobody; Emmanuel would be all in all. You would be so employed in\n praising your Father\u2019s mercy, and your Saviour\u2019s love and tenderness,\n that you would have but little time to speak either of _good or bad\n self_. When self is forgotten, _as nothing_ before God, you put self\n in its proper place; and you make room for the heavenly Being, whose\n holy and happy existence you are to shadow out. If you have left off\n attending on the Princess,[572] attend on the Prince of Peace with\n double diligence.\n\n \u201cShall we ever have the honour of seeing you, my lady? My wife, who\n joins in respectful love and thanks to your ladyship, for your\n remembrance of her, says, she will do her best to render our cold\n house safe for you, if not convenient. You would have had a repeated\n invitation from us, if a concern for your health, heightened by the\n bad weather, had not checked our desires to have an opportunity of\n assuring you how much we are devoted to your service. But the roads\n and weather beginning to mend, we venture to offer you the best\n apartment in our hermitage. I wish it were large enough to take in\n dear Mrs. G\u2014\u2014,[573] and our dear friends in St. James\u2019s Place; but we\n have only two small rooms; to which, however, you would be received\n with two enlarged hearts,\u2014I mean those of your ladyship\u2019s obedient,\n devoted servants,\n\n \u201cJOHN AND MARY FLETCHER.\u201d[574]\n\nFootnote 572:\n\n Probably, Princess Elizabeth Caroline, the third daughter of George\n the Second, one of the most excellent of women. She died, in St.\n James\u2019s Palace, in 1787.\n\nFootnote 573:\n\n Probably Mrs. Grinfield, \u201cone of C\u00e6sar\u2019s household,\u201d as Whitefield\n called her, an attendant at St. James\u2019s Palace.\n\nFootnote 574:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 287.\n\nHow long Fletcher was laid aside from his public work there is no\nevidence to show. His position was somewhat trying, for the work was\nheavy, and Mr. Bayley, his curate, had been obliged to return to\nWesley\u2019s school at Kingswood. This and other matters are referred to in\nthe following letter to Charles Wesley:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _December 19, 1782_.\n\n \u201cREV. AND DEAR SIR,\u2014I thank you for your hint about exemplifying the\n love of Christ and His Church. I hope we do. I was afraid, at first,\n to say much of the matter; but, having lived thirteen months in my new\n state, I can tell you, Providence has reserved a _prize_ for me, and\n that my wife is far better to me than the Church to Christ, so that if\n the parallel fails, it will be on my side.\n\n \u201cBe so good as to peruse the enclosed sheets. Mr. De Luc, to whom they\n are addressed, is reader to the Queen, and the author of some volumes\n of Letters to her: he is a true philosopher. I flatter myself, he will\n present my letter to the Queen. Do you find anything improper in the\n addition I have made to my poem? I wish I were near you for your\n criticisms; you would direct me, both as a _poet_ and a _Frenchman_.\n\n \u201cI have yet strength enough to do my parish duty without the help of a\n curate. O that the Lord would help me to do it acceptably and\n profitably! The colliers began to rise in this neighbourhood: happily\n the cockatrice\u2019s egg was crushed, before the serpent came out.\n However, I got many a hearty curse from the colliers, for the plain\n words I spoke on that occasion. I want to see days of power both\n _within_ and _without_; but, meantime, I would follow closely my light\n in the narrow path.\n\n \u201cMy wife joins me in respectful love to Mrs. Wesley and yourself; and,\n requesting an interest in your prayers for us, I remain, my dear Sir,\n your affectionate, obliged brother, servant, and son in the Gospel,\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[575]\n\nFootnote 575:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 288.\n\nThe \u201cpoem,\u201d mentioned in this letter, was \u201cLa Grace et la Nature,\u201d which\nFletcher had composed in Switzerland, and published in Geneva. He had\nnow enlarged it, and wished to publish a second edition of it, and to\ndedicate the book to the Queen of King George the Third. This was done a\nfew months before he died; but, previous to committing his sheets to the\npress, he submitted them to the criticism of Charles Wesley, Methodism\u2019s\nunequalled hymnologist.\n\nThis, however, was not the only poem on which Fletcher was now engaged.\nOn November 30, 1782, the preliminaries of the peace with America were\nsigned; and, on January 20, 1783, peace was concluded with France and\nSpain. The termination of the long and disastrous war gave no one\ngreater joy than it did Fletcher. He celebrated it in another poem,\nwritten also in French, and dedicated to the Archbishop of Paris.[576]\nThis was published, but is now extremely scarce. Fletcher enlarged it;\nand, in 1785, Mr. Gilpin translated it into English, and intended to\ndedicate his translation to the author; but, just as this English\nedition was being printed, Fletcher died, and the dedication, dated\nexactly a fortnight after Fletcher\u2019s death, was, \u201cTo the Honoured Mrs.\nMary de la Flechere, of Madeley, in Shropshire.\u201d The title of the poem\nwas, \u201cAn Essay upon the Peace of 1783. Dedicated to the Archbishop of\nParis. Translated from the French of the Rev. J. Fletcher, late Vicar of\nMadeley. By the Rev. J. Gilpin, Vicar of Wrockwardine, Salop. London:\nPrinted by R. Hindmarsh, 1785.\u201d 4to, 79 pp.\n\nWant of space renders it impossible to furnish extracts from this\npoetical production. In rhyme and rhythm, Fletcher, or, more probably,\nhis translator, was far from perfect; but that the Vicar, bred among the\ninspiring scenery of Switzerland, was possessed of real poetic genius,\nthere cannot be a doubt. His descriptions of a naval battle, and of a\nfight on land, and of the bombarding of Gibraltar, are very graphic. So\nalso are his definitions of the passions which war too frequently\nevokes.\n\nThough hardly worth mentioning, it may be stated, that the only thing\npublished by Fletcher, in the year 1782, was the following: \u201cA Race for\nEternal Life: being an Extract from the Heavenly Footman. A Sermon on 1\nCor. ix. 24: written by the Author of the \u2018Pilgrim\u2019s Progress.\u2019 By the\nRev. Mr. Fletcher. London: printed by R. Hindmarsh.\u201d 12mo, 16 pp.\nFletcher says:\u2014\n\n \u201cThis extract is published,\u20141. To stir up lazy and inconsistent\n Arminian professors, who assert that we should work out our own\n salvation with all diligence, and yet neglect doing it. And, 2. To\n convince of partiality the contentious Calvinists, who quarrel with\n their brethren for preaching _consistently_ the very same doctrine,\n which is _inconsistently_ maintained by their orthodox teachers, among\n whom pious John Bunyan stands in the first rank.\u201d\n\nFootnote 576:\n\n Fletcher\u2019s dedication is dated, \u201cMadeley, Salop, January 28, 1784.\u201d\n\nAbout this time, two young men were introduced to Fletcher, whom he\nhelped to the utmost of his power, and who, soon afterwards, attained\ndistinction, as clergymen of the Church of England.\n\nOne of these was Nathaniel Gilbert, the eldest son of Nathaniel Gilbert,\nEsq., Speaker of the House of Assembly in Antigua, and who formed the\nfirst Methodist Society in the West Indies. In 1759, he had requested\nFletcher to accompany him to the Western Archipelago; but Fletcher had\ndeclined, on the ground that he had neither \u201csufficient zeal, nor grace,\nnor talents\u201d for such missionary work. His son, Nathaniel, was sent to\nEngland at the age of seven (about the year 1761), and, three years\nlater, was placed under the care of the Rev. Mr. Hatton, of Water\u2019s\nUpton, in Shropshire, where he acquired a knowledge of the Latin and\nGreek languages. On returning to Antigua, he found that the estate of\nhis father was overwhelmed with debt, and that the subsistence of the\nfamily depended on a small jointure belonging to his mother. He came\nback to England; settled in the parish of Madeley; enjoyed the\nadvantages of Fletcher\u2019s ministry and counsels; and devoted himself to\nGod. On receiving episcopal ordination, the places of his ministerial\nlabours were Bristol, London, Budworth, Sierra Leone, Aveley, and\nBledlow. He was an eminently good and useful man; and peacefully fell\nasleep in Jesus, in 1807, in the forty-sixth year of his age.[577]\n\nFootnote 577:\n\n _Christian Observer_, 1807, pp. 768\u2013772.\n\nThe other youth, who greatly benefited by Fletcher\u2019s example and advice,\nwas Melville Horne, who, for a few years, was one of Wesley\u2019s Itinerant\nPreachers, and then was ordained for the ministry of the Church of\nEngland. Melville Horne was a remarkable man, of whom it would be an\neasy and pleasant task to write a more than ordinary biography. Suffice\nit to say here, that, a year after Fletcher\u2019s death, he became the\nofficiating minister in Fletcher\u2019s church; that, in 1792, he and his\nfriend Gilbert went as missionaries to Sierra Leone; that, on his return\nin 1794, he was appointed Chaplain of Magdalen Chapel, Bristol; and then\nbecame Vicar of Olney.[578] This is not the place to record his\nsubsequent career of distinguished usefulness; but the testimony of such\na man, concerning Fletcher, is worthy of being quoted. Many years after\nhis first introduction to Fletcher, he wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cOn all my visits to Mr. Fletcher, I derived the highest pleasure and\n edification. I not only had the opportunity of hearing many excellent\n sermons, but of seeing him in the privacies of life; and I know not\n which most to venerate,\u2014his public or his private character. Grave and\n dignified in his deportment and manners, he yet excelled in all the\n courtesies of the accomplished gentleman. In every company, he\n appeared as the least, the last, and the servant of all. From head to\n foot, he was clothed with humility; while the heavenly-mindedness of\n an angel shone from his countenance, and sparkled in his eyes. His\n religion was without labour, and without effort; for Christianity was\n not only his great business, but his very element and nature. As a\n mortal man, he doubtless had his errors and failings; but what they\n were, they who knew him best would find it difficult to say; for he\n appeared as an instrument of heavenly minstrelsy always attuned to the\n Master\u2019s touch.\n\n \u201cIn every view, he was a great man, and entitled to rank in the very\n first class of ministers; but it was his _goodness_ that raised him\n above all the ministers of his day.\n\n \u201cOn my occasional visits to Madeley, I was struck with several things.\n Once, when preaching on Noah as a type of Christ, he was in the midst\n of a most animated description of the terrible day of the Lord, when\n he suddenly paused. Every feature of his expressive countenance was\n marked with painful feeling; and, striking his forehead with the palm\n of his hand, he exclaimed, \u2018Wretched man that I am! Beloved brethren,\n it often cuts me to the soul, as it does at this moment, to reflect,\n that, while I have been endeavouring, by the force of truth, by the\n beauty of holiness, and even by the terrors of the Lord, to bring you\n to walk in the peaceable paths of righteousness, I am, with respect to\n many of you who reject the Gospel, only tying millstones round your\n necks, to sink you deeper in perdition!\u2019 The whole congregation was\n electrified, and it was some time before he could resume his subject.\n\n \u201cOn another occasion, after the morning service, he asked if any of\n the congregation could give him the address of a sick man whom he was\n desired to visit. He was answered, \u2018He is dead, Sir.\u2019 \u2018Dead! dead!\u2019 he\n exclaimed; \u2018another soul launched into eternity! What can I do for him\n now? Why, my friends, will you so frequently serve me in this manner?\n I am not informed you are ill till I find you dying, or hear that you\n are dead.\u2019 Then sitting down, he covered his head with his gown, and,\n when the congregation had retired, walked home crushed with sorrow.\n\n \u201cOne New Year\u2019s Day, Gilbert and myself dined with him, as did also a\n pious young man and his wife. After he had entertained us with much\n pious and instructive conversation, as we all stood around the fire\n and were ready to separate, he took Gilbert\u2019s hand and mine and joined\n them together, and said, \u2018You two young men are united by blood, by\n friendship, and by your destination to the blessed service of the\n sanctuary.\u2019 Then, turning to the young man and his wife, he remarked,\n \u2018Do you also, whom God has joined in the tenderest of earthly bonds,\n join hands, and I will take that of my beloved wife.\u2019 This being done,\n he continued, \u2018And now what shall we render unto the Lord for all His\n benefits? What blessings have we received! What mercies have followed\n us the last year! This is the first day of a new year. Let us give our\n whole soul to God. Let us start afresh on the road to immortality.\n Forgetting the things that are behind, let us press toward the mark\n for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.\u2019 And then,\n lifting his eyes to heaven, he prayed for the whole of us most\n fervently and affectionately.\u201d[579]\n\nFootnote 578:\n\n Unpublished letters.\n\nFootnote 579:\n\n Cox\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d p. 147.\n\nAfter this account of the covenant service in Fletcher\u2019s vicarage, Mr.\nHorne proceeds to relate other anecdotes which came within his own\npersonal knowledge. He writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cIn the contests of humility, kindness, and affection, it was\n impossible to surpass Mr. Fletcher. On one occasion, the Rev. Moseley\n Cheek had been preaching in his parish; and, on their way home to\n Madeley, in a dark night, and along a deep, dirty road, Mr. Fletcher\n carefully held the lantern to Mr. Cheek, while he himself walked\n through the mire. Mr. Cheek made fruitless attempts to take the\n lantern from him; Mr. Fletcher replying to his protests, \u2018What, my\n brother, have you been holding up the glorious light of the Gospel,\n and will you not permit me to hold this dim taper to your feet?\u2019\n\n \u201cAt another time, the Rev. Mr. Gilpin perceiving a funeral waiting at\n the church gate, took the surplice and commenced the service; but he\n had hardly got into the desk when Mr. Fletcher, who had been visiting\n a sick person, came into the church, and gently drawing away a lad who\n was officiating in the absence of the clerk, took his place. After the\n service was ended, he observed that he could not bear to see the place\n of an inferior servant of the Church improperly filled up without\n attempting to supply it himself with a greater degree of decorum and\n reverence.\n\n \u201cOnce, when my coat was dusty with riding, he insisted on brushing it,\n but objected to let me perform the same office for himself. Mrs.\n Fletcher, who perceived our contest, said, with a smile, \u2018Then suffer\n me to do it; for I assure you, my dear, you need it as much as Mr.\n Horne.\u2019 \u2018If you please, my love,\u2019 was the reply, \u2018you shall do it, for\n you are a part of myself.\u2019\u201d[580]\n\n \u201cSome of these anecdotes,\u201d says Mr. Cox, \u201cmay, at first sight, appear\n too trivial for publication; but they are highly descriptive of Mr.\n Fletcher\u2019s general demeanour; and, as Rosseau observes, \u2018The\n physiognomy does not show itself in great features, nor the character\n of a man in great actions. It is in trifles that the natural\n disposition discovers itself.\u2019\u201d[581]\n\nFootnote 580:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 149.\n\nFootnote 581:\n\n Cox\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d p. 150.\n\nWhile Fletcher was forming new friendships with young Nathaniel Gilbert\nand Melville Horne, his old friends were rapidly dying. His generous\nhost, Mr. Charles Greenwood, of Stoke Newington, triumphantly exchanged\nmortality for eternal life on February 21, 1783, on which occasion\nFletcher wrote the following to Mrs. Thornton:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _March 3, 1783_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014Yesterday, I received your melancholy joyful letter\n as I came from the sacrament, where the grace of God had armed me to\n meet the news. And is my merciful host gone to reap the fruit of his\n mercy to me? I thought I should have been permitted to go first, and\n welcome him into everlasting habitations; but Providence has ordered\n it otherwise, and I am left behind to say, with you and dear Mrs.\n Greenwood, \u2018The Lord gave and has taken away; blessed be the name of\n the Lord.\u2019 The glory with which Mr. Greenwood\u2019s setting sun was\n gilded, is the greatest comfort by which heaven could alleviate his\n loss. Let me die as he died, and let my last end be like his! I was so\n affected by your account that I could not help reading part of your\n letter at church in the afternoon, and desiring all the congregation\n to join me in thanksgiving for the late mercies God has vouchsafed to\n my generous benefactor. On such occasions, let sighs be lost in\n praise, and repining in humble submission and thankful acquiescence. I\n hope dear Mrs. Greenwood mixes tears of joy with tears of sorrow. Who\n would not be landed on the other side of the stream of time if he were\n sure of such a passage? Who would wish his best friend back on the\n shores of sorrow so triumphantly left by Mr. Greenwood?\n\n \u201cSo Mr. and Mrs. Perronet are no more; and Lazarus is still alive!\n What scenes does this world afford! But the most amazing is that of\n Emmanuel crucified, and offering us pardons and crowns of glory!\u201d[582]\n\nFootnote 582:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 290.\n\nAnother letter, written three months after this, was addressed to John\nValton, the Methodist itinerant, who preached at Cross Hall to the\nwedding party on the evening of Fletcher\u2019s marriage.\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _July, 1783_.\n\n \u201cOur dear friend\u2019s acceptable favour gave us much pleasure, though we\n have been so long in thanking him for it.\n\n \u201cNever did we imagine till lately how great your trial has been about\n the house at Birstal.[583] But how gracious is the Lord! How has He\n here paid you by the refreshing shower which has since distilled as\n the dew on the grass. O what comfortable accounts have reached us of\n the wonderful revival in your circuit.[584] In this my heart does\n indeed rejoice.\n\n \u201cGod is good unto us also. He has not left us without encouragement.\n For some time past, we have scarcely had a week in which one or more\n has not been set at liberty. But we are called, I believe, to leave\n them for a little while, and to spend a few weeks in Dublin. They\n complain of this, but the will of the Lord must be done. When He\n calls, even life itself must not be esteemed too dear.\n\n \u201cYou will be thankful to hear that my best earthly friend continues in\n tolerable health, though neither of us is strong. We are more and more\n sensible of the loving kindness of the Lord in casting our lot\n together. Every day helps us to praise Him more and more for His\n condescension and goodness to such unworthy worms. I speak thus freely\n to you because you were a witness of the beginning of our pilgrimage\n together. I see many professors, and many really in earnest; but,\n alas! very seldom any who can warm one\u2019s heart with the deep things of\n God. O for a deeper baptism of the Spirit! I want that promise _more\n fully_ accomplished, \u2018I and my Father will come, and will make our\n abode with you.\u2019\n\n \u201cPraying that the Lord may be with you all at the ensuing Conference,\n we remain, dear brother, your affectionate friends,\n\n \u201cJOHN AND MARY FLETCHER.\u201d[585][586]\n\nFootnote 583:\n\n The Methodist meeting-house, erected, under the auspices of John\n Nelson, about the year 1751. The trouble, at this time, arose out of\n the demand of the trustees to elect, after Wesley\u2019s death, their own\n preachers, and to order them to preach in Birstal chapel twice every\n Sunday, every Christmas Day, New Year\u2019s Day, and Good Friday, and also\n every Thursday night. (See \u201cLife and Times of Wesley,\u201d vol. iii., pp.\n 373\u2013383.)\n\nFootnote 584:\n\n See an account of this remarkable work of God in the \u201cLife and Labours\n of the Rev. John Valton, edited by Joseph Sutcliffe, A.M., 1830,\u201d pp.\n 104\u2013114.\n\nFootnote 585:\n\n _Methodist Magazine_, 1798, p. 598.\n\nFootnote 586:\n\n It is said that, after his marriage, Fletcher, when writing to his\n _friends_, always subscribed his letters \u201c_John and Mary Fletcher_.\u201d\n (See \u201cSix Letters of the late Rev. J. Fletcher. Bath, 1788.\u201d 12mo, 20\n pp.)\n\nThe foregoing letter mentions an intended visit to Dublin. It has been\nalready stated that Fletcher received an invitation from the Dublin\nMethodists to visit them in 1782; and that he was then obliged to\ndecline their invitation. Now his way to Ireland seemed open. Mrs.\nFletcher writes:\u2014\n\n \u201c1783, August 5. Since May 22\u201d [the date of the last entry in her\n journal], \u201ca fever has been in the parish, which took off many whom we\n saw it our duty to attend. It brought eternity very near, and that\n always does me good. It came into our family, and Sally\u201d [Lawrence]\n \u201cwas attacked with it; but God raised her up again in a wonderful\n manner. Soon after her recovery, Dr. Coke came, on his way from\n Dublin, and brought letters to each of us. We went to church, where\n the doctor preached. When we returned home, I followed my dear to his\n study, and told him if he saw it his call to go to Dublin, I saw it\n mine to go with him. Since that day, we have been preparing for our\n journey. My dear husband\u2019s health is not very good. What the Lord will\n do with us I know not. We are, however, ready for setting off.\u201d\n\nFive weeks after this, Mrs. Fletcher wrote again in her journal as\nfollows:\u2014\n\n \u201c1783, September 12, William Street, Dublin. This day of our birth\n calls for solemn praise. I say OUR birth, because, as far as we can\n learn, my dear Mr. Fletcher was born on the same day ten years before\n me.\n\n \u201cWith the prayers and blessings of many of our friends, we set off\n from Madeley on Tuesday, August 12. At night, we were affectionately\n received by Mrs. Glynne, of Shrewsbury, whose love to the children of\n God does not grow cold. My dear husband preached on the danger of\n being _ashamed of the Gospel_.\n\n \u201cThe next day, we pursued our journey as far as Llangollen, in Wales,\n where we abode all night. Enquiring, as we walked about the town,\n whether they had any praying people among them, the poor things\n answered us in the best manner they could, and said, \u2018Yes, Sir, there\n are some people who pray in houses at the other end of the town, but\n we know not what they be. This very night a man is to preach in their\n chapel.\u2019 We went to the place, and found a few poor people gathered in\n a building which, I believe, was part of an old house. The preacher\n seemed very earnest, but we could not understand a word he said,\n except _ogoniant_ and _gwaed_\u2014glory and blood; which, with much\n emphasis, he often repeated. After we were returned to our inn, a few,\n who could understand English, came to us, and desired my dear to give\n them a sermon in the morning, which he did, on these words, \u2018This is\n His commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus\n Christ, and love one another, as He hath given us commandment.\u2019 It was\n a good time, and several were present who understood English.\n\n \u201cWe then sent off for Conway, and, on Friday afternoon, reached\n Holyhead. Mr. Fletcher was very poorly, and a swelling on his face now\n broke, which gave him much inconvenience; but, on Saturday morning, we\n embarked. Mr. Fletcher was not affected by the sea, but I was very\n ill. About one o\u2019clock on Sunday morning, we cast anchor three miles\n from Dublin; and, at five, reached the Hotel on Dublin Quay.\n\n \u201cWe now abide with our hospitable friends, Mr. and Mrs. Smyth, in\n William Street, and have seen much of the Lord\u2019s hand in bringing us\n hither. My dear husband has been favoured with much unction in\n preaching the word. The present (Methodist) preachers in Dublin,\n brothers Rutherford and Jackson, are simple, pious men, and respect\n that command, \u2018In honour preferring one another.\u2019 They heartily\n rejoice in the message my dear husband delivers among them. I feel\n much liberty in meeting the classes. Here are a few truly athirst for\n full salvation. Our kind and generous host and hostess allow us all\n freedom in their house, for the glory of God, and the good of His\n people; and, as their servants also are pious, upright persons, we can\n here worship with them in calm and brotherly love.\u201d\n\nBefore referring to the testimonies of other persons, it may be best to\ncomplete what Mrs. Fletcher has to say concerning this evangelistic\nvisit to the sister island. She writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cMadeley, _October 30_. On the 7th of this month, we left Dublin, and\n embarked for Holyhead. In the night, the wind grew high. My husband,\n myself, and also Sally, were so ill, we could scarce speak, or look\n towards each other. Since our return, I have closely examined what I\n have lost or got in these last three months. I praise the Lord that we\n went to Dublin, and that for various reasons. There are some there\n with whom I found much fellowship; at whose feet I sat, and, I trust,\n learned many useful lessons. My dear Mr. Fletcher preached in several\n places besides the (Methodist) Preaching-house in White-Friars-street,\n both to the French and English, and we had some remarkable proofs that\n he was called there by God.\n\n \u201cSince our return, my dear husband has taken another journey of about\n two hundred miles,[587] from which he has suffered a good deal. His\n face is not yet well; but the unwearied patience, wherewith he goes\n through all, is to me a continual lesson.\n\n \u201c_November 12._ We see another anniversary of our blessed union, and\n are yet more happy, and more tender towards each other; and, what is\n better, our souls get nearer God. We are more spiritual, and live more\n for eternity.\u201d[588]\n\nFootnote 587:\n\n This was a journey to Bristol, whither he escorted his hostess, Mrs.\n Smyth, Lady Mary Fitzgerald, and the eldest daughter of the Rev.\n Edward Smyth. (\u201cLife and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,\u201d vol.\n ii., p. 195.)\n\nFootnote 588:\n\n \u201cMrs. Fletcher\u2019s Life,\u201d by H. Moore, p. 155.\n\nHenry Moore, Wesley\u2019s sturdy Itinerant, was appointed to the Dublin\nCircuit, three years after Fletcher\u2019s visit, and, in 1818, wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cNever did I see such deep impressions made on the people of Dublin as\n by the truly evangelical labours of Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher, except,\n perhaps, in the very short visits of Mr. Wesley. A great revival of\n pure religion followed in the Dublin Society. That Society had usually\n consisted of about 500 persons, but it soon increased to upwards of\n 1000, and has never since fallen below that number. Such longing after\n entire conformity to the Son of God I never beheld. How wide this\n sacred influence might have extended, who can tell, if a poor\n sectarian spirit had not limited Mr. Fletcher\u2019s labours. On his\n arrival in Dublin, his host, Mr. Smyth, a distinguished and most\n respectable gentleman, applied to the rector of St. Andrew\u2019s Parish,\n in which he lived, to allow Mr. Fletcher to preach in his church, and\n this was immediately granted. The church was crowded to excess. Mr.\n Fletcher\u2019s text was, \u2018Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.\u2019\n His earnestness and power astonished the congregation, some of whom\n seemed to doubt if he were not more than human. But, alas! it was soon\n known that he preached on the evening of that same day at the\n Methodist Preaching-house; and the pulpits of the churches were\n immediately closed against him, with the exception of that of the\n French Church. The first time he preached there, his text was Hebrews\n x. 32, when he brought before the congregation the faith of their\n ancestors. When some of them were asked, \u2018Why did you go to hear Mr.\n Fletcher, when you could not understand a word he said?\u2019 they\n answered, \u2018We went to look at him, for heaven seemed to beam from his\n countenance.\u2019\u201d[589]\n\nFootnote 589:\n\n \u201cMrs. Fletcher\u2019s Life,\u201d by H. Moore, p. 154.\n\nMr. Henry Brooke,[590] who took a leading part in inviting Fletcher to\nvisit Dublin, wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201c_1783, September 6._ The same grace and power which attend Mr.\n Fletcher\u2019s pulpit lectures, and gather innumerable crowds of\n hungering, thirsting souls to flock to his ministry, also attend his\n conversation in private. He seems never\u2014no, never\u2014for a moment, to\n turn his eye from the one great object of our faith and love; and he\n continually stirs up all around him to love and praise. He appears to\n live and breathe nothing else.\u201d\n\nFootnote 590:\n\n Mr. Brooke is described, in Wesley\u2019s \u201cLast Will and Testament,\u201d as a\n \u201cPainter.\u201d\n\nIn another letter, to his father, Mr. Brooke observed:\u2014\n\n \u201cI wish it were in my power to convey to you the substance and energy\n of those precious and excellent discourses, with which we are\n frequently favoured from Mr. Fletcher. His words are living sparks,\n rushing from the furnace of divine love glowing in his heart.\u201d\n\nMr. Brooke, in a letter to the Rev. J. Gilpin, the translator of\nFletcher\u2019s \u201cPortrait of St. Paul,\u201d remarked:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhen Mr. Fletcher was about to leave us, knowing the scanty pittance\n he received from his parish, we thought it but an act of common\n honesty to refund him the expense he had been at in coming to Dublin,\n and to bear his charges back again to Madeley. Accordingly, after he\n had preached on the last evening of his stay among us, the stewards\n and trustees united to press his acceptance of a small purse, not as a\n present, but as a debt justly due to him. But he firmly and absolutely\n refused it. At length, being very urgent with him and importunate to\n an excess, he took the purse in his hand, and said, \u2018Do you really\n force it upon me? Must I accept it? Is it entirely mine? and may I do\n what I please with it?\u2019 \u2018Yes, yes,\u2019 we all replied. \u2018God be praised\n then! God be praised!\u2019 cried he, raising his eyes towards heaven.\n \u2018What a mercy is here! I heard some of you complaining that your\n Poor\u2019s Fund was never so low before; take this purse; God has sent it\n to you; raised it among yourselves; and bestowed it upon your poor.\n You cannot deny me; it is sacred to them. God be praised! I thank you,\n I heartily thank you, my dear kind brethren.\u2019\u201d[591]\n\nFootnote 591:\n\n \u201cLife of Mr. Henry Brooke,\u201d by Isaac D\u2019Olier, LL.D., pp. 102\u2013121.\n\nA number of other anecdotes respecting this memorable visit, all more or\nless authentic, might be inserted; but enough has been said to show that\nit must always be one of the great events in the history of Methodism in\nDublin.\n\nSoon after the return to Madeley of Fletcher and his wife, they received\nthe following, hitherto unpublished letter, signed by one hundred and\nfifty-one members of the Dublin Methodist Society, the signature of\n\u201cHenry Brooke\u201d standing first.\n\n \u201c_1783, October._\n\n \u201cREV. AND VERY DEAR SIR AND MADAM,\u2014Your kindness in accepting our\n united invitation, your labour of love in crossing the sea to visit\n us, and your spending body and soul for our profit while among us,\n demand a return of acknowledgment and gratitude, which we find\n ourselves, jointly and severally, as unable to express as to repay.\n\n \u201cConfession of our debt is the utmost extent of our ability. As for\n reward, we must call upon Him to answer for us, who has already paid\n the mighty debt due by the whole world. May He, then, even that\n Master, the sound of whose feet was heard behind you, and the power of\n whose Spirit clothed your word in private and in public,\u2014may He\n abundantly reward both your bodies and souls, and, according to the\n measure you have meted out, measure to you again a hundred-fold,\n pressed down, shaken together, and running over into your own bosoms\n in time and eternity.\n\n \u201cYour liberality to the sick poor, in the generous donation of\n twenty-five guineas, has gladdened the hearts of numbers, besides\n those who are partakers of your alms; for you have nobly honoured the\n Lord by your free ministry, and set your seal to His Word with your\n substance. May you be watered again and again abundantly for it!\n\n \u201cWe can only pray for the prosperity of your labours where the\n adorable providence of God has cast your lot in His vineyard; and hope\n that the Lord may give the people to see and know (in mercy and not in\n judgment) that a prophet has been among them.\n\n \u201cLastly, we entreat that, after the example of St. Paul, you will\n remember us all in your daily and nightly addresses to the throne of\n grace, that the precious seed, which has been sown, may bring forth\n its hundred-fold increase, to our joint happiness in the kingdom of\n God.\u201d\n\nIn the month of November, a reply was sent to this, from which the\nfollowing extract is taken:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _November, 1783_.\n\n \u201cTo the Society in Dublin.\n\n \u201cTo all the dear Brethren, who, after kindly inviting John and Mary\n Fletcher, patiently bearing with them and their infirmities, and\n entertaining them in the most hospitable manner, have added, to all\n their former favours, that of thanking them for their most pleasant\n and profitable journey.\n\n \u201cWe had felt shame enough under the sense of your kindness and\n patience towards us, and of our unprofitableness towards you, when at\n Dublin. We owed you the letter of thanks you have gratuitously sent to\n us. But in all things, you will have the pre-eminence, and we are glad\n to drink the cup of humility at your feet. If your profuse liberality\n toward _us_ abounded to the comfort of our poor brethren, we doubly\n rejoice on _your_ account, and on _theirs_.\n\n \u201cWhen we see so many of your dear names, we rejoice in hope that they\n are enrolled on the list of the dear people, whom our great High\n Priest bears, not on the breastplate as Aaron, but on His bleeding\n hands, and in His very heart, which is the overflowing and\n ever-flowing fountain of divine and brotherly love. Let our worthless\n names still find a place in your memory, when you remember your\n brethren distant in the flesh, but near in the Spirit. Among such,\n vouchsafe to reckon your very affectionate and truly obliged servants\n in Christ,\n\n \u201cJOHN AND MARY FLETCHER.\u201d\n\nTo their Irish host, William Smyth, Esq., Fletcher wrote as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _November, 1783_.\n\n \u201cDEAR SIR,\u2014The many and great favours with which you loaded us, during\n our long stay under your hospitable roof, have been, are now, and, we\n trust, ever shall be deeply engraven on our hearts. You united, for\n us, Irish hospitality, English cordiality, and French politeness. And\n now, Sir, what shall we say?\n\n \u201cYou are our generous benefactor, and we are your affectionate, though\n unprofitable servants. In one sense, we are on a level with those to\n whom you show charity in the streets: we can do nothing but pray for\n you and yours. You kindly received us for Christ\u2019s sake; may God\n receive you freely for His sake also! You bore with our infirmities;\n the Lord bear with yours! You let your servant serve us; the Lord give\n all His servants and His angels charge concerning you! You gave us a\n most comfortable apartment, next your own chamber; the Lord grant you\n eternal rest with Himself in His heavenly mansions! You fed us with\n the richest food; may the Giver of every perfect gift fit you for a\n place at His table, and may you rank there with Abraham, Isaac, and\n Jacob! You gave us wines; may you drink, with Christ Himself, the\n fruit of the vine, new in your Father\u2019s kingdom!\u201d[592]\n\nFootnote 592:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 293.\n\nIt has been asserted, that, \u201ctowards the close of his life,\u201d Fletcher\n\u201cabstained entirely from wine and strong drink;\u201d[593] but the evidence\nin favour of this is dubious, and, certainly, the last sentence of the\nforegoing letter seems to disprove it. Throughout the whole of his life,\nhe was exceedingly temperate in eating and drinking; but it may fairly\nbe doubted whether Fletcher was ever a \u201cteetotaler.\u201d[594] It is a\ncurious fact, however, that in this very year, 1783, he wrote a pamphlet\nbearing upon the subject of drunkenness and other matters, which he\nintended to be published, but which, I believe, never was. It was sent\nto \u201cMr. Hindmarsh, printer, in Baker\u2019s Court, Holborn Bars, London,\u201d\ntogether with a letter of instructions as to the printing of it, dated,\n\u201cMadeley, November 20, 1783.\u201d When printed, Mr. Hindmarsh was requested\nto send, as soon as possible, a copy to every member of Parliament. The\ntitle was, \u201cThree National Grievances,\u2014the Increase of Taxes, the\nHardships of Unequal Taxation, and the Continual Rise of the Poor\u2019s\nRates: with the Causes and Remedies of these Evils: Humbly Submitted to\nthe Consideration of the Legislature, in a Letter to the Right Honorable\nLord John Cavendish, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and one of the Lords\nof the Treasury. London: November, 1783.\u201d\n\nFootnote 593:\n\n _Local Preachers\u2019 Magazine_, 1853, p. 172.\n\nFootnote 594:\n\n Jonathan Crowther, President of the Methodist Conference in 1819,\n says, in his unpublished autobiography:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Yates, of Madeley, told me that, one cold, snowy, frosty day,\n when Mr. Fletcher called at his house, as he was sallying out to visit\n his parishioners, he asked him to take a little punch, which was then\n upon the table, after dinner. Mr. Fletcher consented, but said,\n \u2018First, let us ask a blessing: it makes it twice as good.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe temptation is strong to insert this remarkable production _in\nextenso_; but to do so, in a chapter like the present, would be an\ninconvenient excrescence; besides, want of space makes it impossible.\nSuffice it to say, that, under the heading of the first \u201cGrievance,\u201d\nFletcher argues, that, the decrease of the national revenue, and\nconsequent increase of the national taxation, were occasioned by \u201cthe\namazing progress of smuggling.\u201d He says, \u201cNo one can deny that vast\nquantities of foreign brandy, rum, gin, tobacco, snuff, tea, wines of\nall sorts, and a variety of other articles, are fraudulently imported\nand that these, on the sea-coast, are sold at \u201chalf the price which they\ncost the conscientious merchant.\u201d \u201cMany thousands of lawless men are\nperpetually forming or executing schemes, to defraud the Government, and\nreduce us to beggary.\u201d Fletcher says, it was once his opinion that\n\u201csmuggling might be prevented, by the combined services of the army and\nnavy; but,\u201d he adds, \u201cas most of the inferior Custom House officers on\nthe coast, with \u00a350 a year, live in splendour, and as the evil is deeply\nrooted, I am now convinced that the only way to check it is to take off\nthe duties, to lessen the number of officers in both Customs and Excise,\nand to advance the salaries of those who are retained. If I prove that,\nby lessening the duties, the revenue will be increased and smuggling\nsuppressed, there can be no objection to the adoption of the plan\nproposed.\u201d Fletcher enters into many details to establish his theory;\nand thus, long before the days of Peel and Gladstone, took the part of\n_free-traders_.\n\nHis chapter on _unequal taxation_ must be passed; but some of his\nstatements, in the _third_, deserve notice. He insists that\u2014\n\n \u201cThe continual increase of the Poor Rates is occasioned by the\n corrupted morals of the lower classes of the people, who are seduced\n into idleness and neglect of their families, in the public-houses to\n be met with at every turn. There are also multitudes of _private_\n retailers of _smuggled_ spirits, who, by enticing their neighbours\n into drunkenness, entail ruin on them and their families. In some\n parishes, the number of these lawless retailers far exceeds that of\n the publicans. But to speak only of _licensed_ houses, what multitudes\n of these are found all over England! In some places, almost every\n fifth house is one of those nurseries of vice.\u201d\n\nTerrible is the picture which Fletcher draws, respecting the ruinous\nconsequences of drunkenness; and his arguments would help Sir Wilfrid\nLawson to make a most effective speech on \u201cLocal Option\u201d in the House of\nCommons.\n\n \u201cIf,\u201d continues Fletcher, \u201cthese paltry public-houses are the bane of\n the nation, let the legislative power interfere in England, as it has\n done in Holland. Let two-thirds of these nuisances be suppressed; and\n by raising the licenses of the others, so as to indemnify the revenue,\n let the law put it out of the power of the _idle poor_ to set up these\n petty schools of idleness and vice. Then people of character will no\n longer be afraid to become publicans.\u201d\n\nIn a \u201cpostscript,\u201d Fletcher refers to a pamphlet which states that\u2014\n\n \u201cSixty thousand of the ablest young men in the kingdom, and one\n hundred thousand horses, are employed in smuggling, whilst one hundred\n thousand women and children make it their business to hawk about the\n country the articles which the men have smuggled. If these one hundred\n and sixty thousand people were employed in fishing, agriculture,\n spinning, etc., their labour would amount annually to \u00a32,464,000, to\n which must be added the sum of \u00a31,820,000, the cost of keeping the one\n hundred thousand horses used by smugglers.... The Dutch catch fish, on\n our coasts, to the yearly amount of one million sterling.... Fishing\n and smuggling never flourish together.... In Scotland, there are\n upwards of ten thousand private stills,\u201d etc., etc.\n\nThus Fletcher, the polemical divine, turned social reformer; and his\nefforts to correct the crying evils of the age were not confined to the\nemployment of his pen. In his own parish, there were eighteen public\nhouses,\u2014all of them \u201cnurseries for sin, particularly on Sunday\nevenings.\u201d He had long desired to correct these abuses; but had seldom\nbeen favoured with the services of a churchwarden willing to second his\nendeavours. Now he had one, who was resolved to act according to the\noath he had taken. Fletcher visited several of these dens of iniquity\nevery Sunday, and all of them in their turn. In every one of them, he\nbore a faithful testimony against their wickedness; and, in some\ninstances, his efforts were attended with much success.[595]\n\nFootnote 595:\n\n \u201cLetter to Mons. H. L. De la Flechere,\u201d 1786, p. 16.\n\nAt this period, trade was bad, taxes were crushing, and corn was dear.\nKing George the Third, in his speech to \u201cMy Lords and Gentlemen,\u201d the\nmembers of the two Houses of Parliament, remarked, \u201cThe scarcity, and\nconsequent high price of corn, requires your instant interposition.\u201d\nCorn was scarce, and, in many instances, it was bought and hoarded by\nexecrable speculators, for the purpose of raising the price of it, and\nincreasing their own blood-soaked profits. Fletcher was indignant, and\nproposed the formation of an association of persons of unblemished\ncharacter:\u2014\n\n \u201c1. To prosecute legally all engrossers and forestallers of the\n necessaries of life.\n\n \u201c2. If there be any laws against those who cause an artificial\n scarcity, by monopolizing the necessaries of life,\u2014to apply to the\n magistrates to put such laws in force against the offenders,\u2014and, if,\n through fear or favour, the magistrates refuse, to apply for redress\n to Quarter Sessions, or to the Court of King\u2019s Bench.\n\n \u201c3. That the members of the Association subscribe, according to their\n ability, towards defraying the expense of detecting, and legally\n prosecuting the offenders.\u201d\n\nFletcher added:\u2014\n\n \u201cIf such a plan is entered upon, and carried on in this county\u201d\n (Salop), \u201cI will gladly become a subscriber of a guinea, _provided no\n illegal steps be taken by the associates_.\u201d\n\nThis is copied from an unpublished manuscript in Fletcher\u2019s own\nhandwriting. The following also is taken from another original\nmanuscript, written by Fletcher:\u2014\n\n \u201cIt is proposed\u2014\n\n \u201c1. That Sunday Schools be set up in this parish, for such children as\n are employed all the week, and for those whose education has been\n neglected.\n\n \u201c2. That, in those schools, children shall be taught to read and\n write, and shall be instructed in the principles of morality and\n piety.\n\n \u201c3. That, in the Dale, in Madeley, and in Madeley Wood, there shall be\n a school for boys, and another for girls,\u2014six schools in all.\n\n \u201c4. That \u00a320 be raised, by subscription, for this charity; namely, \u00a314\n for the salaries of six teachers; which, at the rate of one shilling,\n per time, for fifty-two Sunday afternoons, excepting Easter-Day and\n Whit-Sunday, will amount to fifty shillings each teacher. The\n remaining \u00a36 shall be laid out in tables, benches, books, paper, pens,\n and ink.\n\n \u201c5. That, if the expenses incurred should run higher than is here\n supposed, the subscribers shall be acquainted with it, and their\n charity shall be again solicited.\n\n \u201c6. That, whosoever shall subscribe a guinea towards this charity\n shall be a director of it.\n\n \u201c7. That, at a parish meeting, two treasurers shall be appointed to\n ask and to receive the contributions of those who shall be willing to\n encourage this charity.\n\n \u201c8. That, three or four inspectors shall be appointed to visit these\n schools, to see that the children attend regularly, and that the\n masters do their duty by the children, and to make their report to the\n directors.\n\n \u201c9. That, a book shall be provided by the treasurers, in which they,\n or a secretary whom they shall appoint, shall yearly enter the sums\n subscribed, and the manner in which they are laid out; and that such\n book shall be laid before the subscribers when they shall desire it.\n\n \u201c10. That, another book shall be provided, in which the names of the\n masters and the scholars, belonging to each school, shall be entered.\n\n \u201c11. And lastly, that, to encourage emulation, at a solemn visitation\n of these schools, once or twice a year, some premium shall be given to\n the children who distinguish themselves by their assiduity and\n improvement.\u201d\n\nThis was rather elaborate legislation for the administration of a\ncharity fund of \u00a320 a year; but money, in 1783, was scarce, and the\nSunday School institution was then in its infancy.\n\nFor some years, Fletcher had had a school at Madeley, which he himself\ntaught every day; and he had also established a similar school in\nMadeley Wood. Now he commenced his Sunday Schools, being, in this\nrespect, almost contemporaneous with Raikes at Gloucester.\n\n \u201cThree hundred children were soon gathered, whom he took every\n opportunity of instructing, by regular meetings, for some time before\n the schools were opened; and these meetings he attended to the very\n last Thursday before his fatal illness. He gave the children little\n hymn-books; and pointed them to some friend or neighbour, who would\n teach them the hymns, and instruct them to sing. Many of the little\n creatures would scarcely allow themselves time to eat or sleep, for\n the desire they had of learning their lessons. In every meeting, after\n inquiring who had made the greatest proficiency, he never forgot to\n distinguish it by a little reward.\u201d\n\n \u201cHis proposals to the parish were received with the greatest\n unanimity. Many, both of the rich and trading people, lent their\n helping hand, not only to defray the expense of teachers, but to raise\n a very convenient school-house in Coalbrookdale.\u201d[596]\n\nFootnote 596:\n\n \u201cLetter to Mons. H. L. De la Flechere, 1786, pp. 17 and 18.\n\nThe \u201cProposals\u201d were prefaced with a statement of \u201cthe advantages likely\nto arise from Sunday Schools,\u201d which was as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cOur parochial and national depravity turns upon two hinges,\u2014the\n _profanation_ of the Lord\u2019s day, and the _immorality_ which flows from\n neglecting the education of children. Till these two great inlets of\n wickedness are stopped, we must expect to see our workhouses full of\n aged parents forsaken by their prodigal children; of wives deserted by\n their faithless husbands; or of the wretched offspring of lewd women,\n and idle and drunken men. Nay, we may expect to see the jails, and\n even the gallows, stocked with unhappy wretches, ready to fall a\n sacrifice to the safety of their neighbours, and the penal laws of\n their country.\n\n \u201cPersons concerned for the welfare of the next generation, and\n well-wishers to the Church and State, have already set us a fine\n example in Stroud, Gloucester, Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol,\n and in several country parishes. They have attempted to remedy these\n evils by setting up Sunday Schools, which, by keeping children from\n corrupting one another, by promoting their attendance on Divine\n worship, and by laying the first principles of useful knowledge in\n their minds, and of true piety in their hearts,\u2014bid fair for a public\n reformation of manners; and seem well calculated to nip in the bud the\n vices of _ignorance and impiety_, so common among the lower and more\n numerous classes of the people.\u201d[597]\n\nFootnote 597:\n\n \u201cLetter to Mons. H. L. De la Flechere,\u201d 1786, p. 20.\n\nIt may be added, that the last productions of Fletcher\u2019s pen were an\nunfinished catechism, to be used in his Sunday Schools; prayers to be\nread by the children; and \u201cHints\u201d to the teachers. Among the last\nmentioned, were instructions respecting the correction of any child\n\u201cguilty of lying, swearing, Sabbath-breaking, stealing, fighting, or\ndisobedience;\u201d and recommendations that the teachers should \u201cattend the\nscholars to Divine worship\u201d; that they should \u201cnot break up too early in\nthe evening, _that_ being the time in which children are most likely to\nrun into temptation;\u201d and that \u201cpious persons\u201d should be induced to\n\u201cvisit and interrogate the children, in order that the whole might be\ncarried on as a business sanctified by the Word of God, by prayer, and\nby Christian admonition.\u201d[598]\n\nFootnote 598:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 63.\n\nIt would not be difficult to enlarge on facts and principles such as\nthese; but the intelligent reader can do this himself.\n\nBefore leaving the year 1783, one more incident must be introduced. At\nthe close of the year, the celebrated Rev. Henry Venn visited Fletcher,\nat Madeley, and wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher is a genius, and a man of fire\u2014all on the stretch to do\n good\u2014to lose not a day, not an hour. He is married to a lady worthy of\n him, Miss Bosanquet, a lady with whom I was acquainted twenty-nine\n years ago. She was then sixteen, and bred up in all the pride of life;\n her father being one of the chief merchants of London. By the grace of\n God, she, at that time, renounced the world, and gave up herself to\n the Lord. Since then, she has bred up seventy-four destitute young\n girls for service, and seen them placed out to her satisfaction; and,\n instead of dressing, visiting, and conforming to all the vain and\n expensive customs of the world, she has been wholly employed in doing\n good. I left this happy house as Cecil, Secretary to Queen Elizabeth,\n left Bernard Gilpin\u2019s, saying, \u2018There dwells as much happiness as can\n be known on earth.\u2019\u201d[599]\n\nFootnote 599:\n\n \u201cLife of Rev. Henry Venn,\u201d p. 377.\n\n\n\n\n CHAPTER XXVI.\n _LAST DAYS ON EARTH._\n\n 1784\u20131785.\n\n\nFLETCHER took a profound interest, not only in Sunday Schools, which\nwere being opened in various places, but in an institution which has\nlong been the greatest of which the Methodists can boast. In 1783, Dr.\nCoke and a few of his friends drew up \u201cA Plan of the Society for the\nEstablishment of Missions among the Heathen.\u201d This curious and most\ninteresting document is too long to be inserted here. Suffice it to say,\nthere is reason to believe that Fletcher was one of Coke\u2019s counsellors.\nIt has been already stated that, in the summer of 1783, the Doctor, on\nhis way from Dublin, called at Madeley, and preached in Fletcher\u2019s\nchurch. Soon after this, Fletcher and his wife went to Dublin; and now,\nat the beginning of the year 1784, Coke forwarded to Fletcher the\naforesaid \u201cPlan,\u201d and a list of his missionary subscribers, twenty-six\nin number, seven of whom resided in Dublin. Is it chimerical to suppose\nthat the formation of this Missionary Society was a subject of\nconversation between Coke and Fletcher, when the former was at Madeley,\nand that it was mainly through Fletcher\u2019s influence that so many of its\nfirst subscribers were Dublin Methodists? It is a curious fact that\nneither of the Wesleys appeared in the list of contributors, the reason\nperhaps of which might be that they had not been consulted in drawing up\nthe \u201cPlan.\u201d Fletcher, however, subscribed \u00a32 2_s._ 0_d._ of the first\nyear\u2019s income, which amounted to \u00a366 3_s._ 0_d._, and to him Coke sent\nthe \u201cPlan\u201d and the report, and also the following letter appended:\u2014\n\n \u201cNear PLYMOUTH, _January 6, 1784_.\n\n\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR SIR,\u2014Lest _Mr. Parker_ should neglect to send you one of\n our Plans for the establishing of foreign Missions, I take the liberty\n of doing it. Ten subscribers more, of two guineas per annum, have\n favoured me with their names. If _you_ can get a few subscribers more,\n we shall be obliged to you.\n\n \u201cWe have now a very wonderful outpouring of the Spirit in the West of\n Cornwall. I have been obliged to make a winter campaign of it, and\n preach here and there out of doors.\n\n \u201cI beg my affectionate respects to Mrs. Fletcher. I entreat you to\n pray for\n\n \u201cYour most affectionate Friend and Brother,\n \u201cTHOMAS COKE.\u201d\n\nAt this period, Fletcher was engaged in the last of his literary works.\nThe following, hitherto unpublished letter, may serve as an introduction\nto the essays Fletcher was now writing. It was addressed to the \u201cRev.\nMr. Bouverot, Geneva;\u201d and, though without date, was evidently written a\nfew days before Fletcher\u2019s memorable visit to Dublin:\u2014\n\n \u201cThe Society of Christian Philosophers, which you mention, seems, in\n this day, to be a useful Institution. The most redoubtable attacks\n upon religion come from our modern Sadducees, who say there is neither\n angel nor spirit; and the famous Dr. Priestly openly maintains that we\n have no soul, or, at least, that it is no other than the animal\n spirits. It may be, therefore, that God, who never leaves Himself\n without witnesses, has permitted this Society for the maintenance of a\n metaphysical doctrine so opposite to that of materialism. \u2018Prove all\n things; hold fast that which is good.\u2019\n\n \u201cA Swedish gentleman, called Baron Swedenborg,[600] published many\n pieces in England, and declared he had conversed with angels and\n spirits for more than forty years, and that with as much familiarity\n as with men. Some of his works have been translated into English.\n There is one, of which I have the original Latin by me, entitled,\n \u2018Mirabilia Coeli et Inferni,\u2019 and which I mean to send you as soon as\n I shall find a convenient opportunity. It is certain, if believers\n were more detached from earthly things, and more concentred in Christ\n by faith, they would converse with angels and with the spirits of the\n departed saints, as the Patriarchs and first Christians were\n accustomed to do. There would, indeed, in this, be some danger of\n following after piety, with a view to such an advantage, through a\n species of curiosity, which, if it ought not to be called the _back\n door_, yet would not deserve to be entitled the _front_, which\n consists in an humble faith disengaged from sense and from all\n self-seeking,\u201d etc., etc.\n\n \u201cI have not yet had leisure to cast my eyes over mys\u2019 Next week, at\n the invitation of many who love the Word of God, I mean to make a tour\n into Ireland, from whence I propose returning before winter. Mr.\n Wesley, who is eighty years of age, is now on a tour in the Low\n Countries, where he preaches, even at Amsterdam.\n\n \u201cAssist me to bless God, who has sustained me hitherto, and who is my\n light and my salvation in Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and\n ever! Remember me before God in your prayers, as I have a continual\n remembrance of you in mine.\u201d\n\nFootnote 600:\n\n Swedenborg died in 1772.\n\nFletcher\u2019s bold speculation, respecting the possibility of conversing\nwith angels and the spirits of departed saints, may be passed in\nsilence. The reader\u2019s attention must now be asked to the famous Dr.\nPriestley.\n\nThis remarkable man was born at Fieldhead, near Leeds, in 1733. While a\nstudent at the Dissenting Academy, kept by Dr. Ashworth, at Daventry, he\nbecame an Arian. His subsequent career need not here be traced. It is\nenough to say, that, about the year 1767, while he was the minister of a\nlarge congregation of Dissenters at Leeds, he embraced Socinianism; and\nthat, about 1781, he wrote and published his \u201cHistory of the Corruptions\nof Christianity,\u201d\u2014some of the teachings of which work Fletcher felt it\nhis duty to refute. Dr. Priestley died at Philadelphia, in the United\nStates of America, in 1804.\n\nIt has been already stated, that, early in the year 1785, Fletcher\npublished a second and enlarged edition of his poem, entitled, \u201cLa Grace\net la Nature.\u201d At the end of that work, the following advertisement was\ninserted: \u201cPr\u00eat \u00e0 \u00eatre publi\u00e9 en Anglois: A Rational Vindication of the\nCatholic Faith, respecting the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost:\nbeing the First Part of a Scriptural Vindication of Christ\u2019s Divinity.\nInscribed to the Rev. Dr. Priestley.\u201d\n\nThe Rev. Joseph Benson, the quondam tutor of Lady Huntingdon\u2019s Trevecca\nCollege, when Fletcher was its president, says this \u201cRational\nVindication\u201d was left by Fletcher \u201cnot quite finished;\u201d which assertion\nseems to clash with Fletcher\u2019s own advertisement just given. There can\nbe no doubt it was as finished as Fletcher meant it to be; though not as\ncomplete as Mr. Benson thought it ought to be, and as he himself tried\nto make it. In addition to this, however, Fletcher began a second essay,\nentitled, \u201cSocinianism Unscriptural; or, the Prophets and Apostles\nvindicated from the Charge of holding the Doctrine of Christ\u2019s mere\nHumanity: being the Second Part of a Vindication of His Divinity.\nInscribed to the Rev. Dr. Priestley.\u201d The first of these was intended to\nbe an answer to Priestley\u2019s assertion that \u201cthe doctrine of the Trinity\nis irrational;\u201d and the second to refute his equally unfounded dogma,\nthat, the doctrine of Christ\u2019s \u201cdivinity has no proper foundation in the\nOld Testament,\u2014the prophets speaking of the Messiah only as a man like\nthemselves;\u201d nor in the \u201cNew Testament,\u2014the Apostles never giving our\nLord any higher title than that of a man approved of God.\u201d In Mr.\nBenson\u2019s opinion, both of the essays were left unfinished; and it is\ncertain that neither of them was published in Fletcher\u2019s lifetime.\nRightly or wrongly, Mr. Benson\u2014a very able theologian\u2014undertook, after\nFletcher\u2019s death, to write supplements to both, and then published them;\nand these irrefutable productions of Mr. Benson\u2019s pen have, ever since\n1818, when he was the Methodist Connexional Editor, been improperly\nincorporated in Fletcher\u2019s \u201cCollected Works.\u201d Mr. Benson\u2019s additions to\nFletcher\u2019s essays are invaluable; but they ought, in fairness to both\nauthors, to be published separately. On this subject, however, nothing\nmore need be added. Fletcher\u2019s replies to Priestley, which were printed\na few years subsequent to his death,[601] were revised by Wesley, who\nwrites, in his Journal:\u2014\n\n \u201c1784, Saturday, March 27. I went to Madeley; and, at Mr. Fletcher\u2019s\n desire, revised his letters to Dr. Priestley. I think there is hardly\n another man in England so fit to encounter him.\u2014Sunday, 28.\n Notwithstanding the severe weather, the church was more than filled. I\n preached on part of the Epistle (Heb. ix. 13, etc.); in the afternoon,\n ons\u2019 and I believe God applied it to many hearts.\u201d\n\nFootnote 601:\n\n The titles were:\u20141. \u201cA Rational Vindication of the Catholic Faith:\n being the First Part of a Vindication of Christ\u2019s Divinity; inscribed\n to the Rev. Dr. Priestley, by J. Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, Salop.\n Left imperfect by the Author, and now _revised_ and _finished_, at\n Mrs. Fletcher\u2019s request, by Joseph Benson, Hull.\u201d 12mo, 223 pp. No\n date, but published in 1788 or 1789. The work consists of fourteen\n chapters, only four of which were written by Fletcher. The remaining\n ten were Mr. Benson\u2019s productions.\n\n 2. \u201cSocinianism Unscriptural; or, the Prophets and Apostles vindicated\n from the Charge of holding the Doctrine of Christ\u2019s _mere Humanity_:\n being the Second Part of a Vindication of His Divinity: inscribed to\n the Rev. Dr. Priestley, by the late Rev. John Fletcher, Vicar of\n Madeley, Salop. To which is added, a Demonstration of the want of\n Common Sense in the New Testament Writers, etc., etc., in a Series of\n Letters to the Rev. Mr. Wesley, by Joseph Benson. Birmingham: 1791.\u201d\n 12mo, 239 pp. Fletcher\u2019s part of the volume occupies 118 pages.\n\nNever has there been a time when there was more need of essays like\nthose of Fletcher than that which is now passing. Socinianism, in\nvarious shapes, even among many who think themselves orthodox, is\nrampant; and the Methodist Book Committee would render incalculable\nservice to the cause of Christian truth, by publishing in a separate\nform, and at as cheap a price as possible, Fletcher\u2019s two unanswerable\nreplies to the redoubtable Dr. Priestley.\n\nIn his \u201cExpostulatory Letter,\u201d Fletcher writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cWhile you invite archdeacons and bishops to defend their church and\n the divinity of their Saviour, may the voice of a poor country vicar\n be heard amidst the groans of the press which repeats your challenges?\n Will not your sense of honour feel too great a disappointment in\n seeing so mean a person step forth to present you with an\n expostulatory letter, and to break a spear with you, on the very\n ground where you think yourself invincible,\u2014philosophy, reason, and\n common sense?\n\n \u201cConscious of the variety of your learning, and the greatness of your\n reputation, I apologize for my boldness, by observing, that the Church\n is my mother; that the feeblest child has a right to cry out when his\n mother is stabbed to the heart; and that, when the Divine crown of our\n Lord is publicly struck at, the least of believers may show his\n astonishment at the antichristian deed.\n\n \u201cWhen the Socinians of the last century said that it was impossible to\n believe God and man were united in the person of our Lord, the\n Catholics replied, it was as easy to believe that God and man make one\n Christ, as to believe that the immortal soul and the mortal body are\n one man. And Dr. Sherlock added, that the best way for the Socinians\n to set aside this argument against the mystery of our Lord\u2019s\n incarnation, was to deny the union of soul and body, because they\n could not understand it; and openly to maintain, that man is a body\n without a soul, a compound of mere matter.\n\n \u201cWhen that judicious divine dropped this hint, he little thought that\n some philosophers of our day would be so desperately bent upon\n divesting Christ of His Divine glory, that they would be content to\n die like dogs, without leaving any surviving part of themselves, so\n that they might win the day against the Catholic Church, and the\n divinity of our Lord.\n\n \u201cI am sorry to observe that you have the dangerous honour to be at the\n head of these bold philosophers. Dr. Berkeley was so singular as to\n deny the existence of matter. According to his doctrine, there is\n nothing but spirit in the world, and matter exists only in our ideas.\n As a rival of his singularity, you run into the opposite extreme; you\n annihilate our souls; you turn us into mere machines; we are nothing\n but matter; and if you allow us any spirit, it is only such as can be\n distilled like spirits of wine. Thus, if we believe you both, being\n ground not only to atoms but to absolute nonentity between the two\n millstones of your preposterous and contrary mistakes, we have neither\n form nor substance, neither body nor soul!\n\n \u201cGlad am I, Sir, that when you made so free with the souls of men you\n did not pass your philosophical sponge over the existence of the\n Father of spirits, the great Soul which gives life and motion to the\n universe. But, though you spare the Father\u2019s dignity, you attack the\n Son\u2019s divinity; you deny the sanctifying influences of the Holy Ghost;\n and, by hasty strides, you carry us back to a dwarf, mongrel\n Christianity, made up of materialism, Judaism, and the baptism of\n John.\n\n \u201cTo gain this inglorious end, in yours\u2019 you collect the capital errors\n invented by fallen Christians in the corrupt ages of Christianity;\n then, taking some of the most precious Gospel truths, you blend them\n with these errors, and rendering them all equally odious, you turn\n them promiscuously out of the Church as the \u2018Corruptions of\n Christianity.\u2019 Thus you cleanse the temple of truth as our Lord would\n have cleansed that of Jerusalem, if he had thrown down the tables of\n show-bread as well as the tables of the money changers, and if He had\n turned out the cherubim of glory as He did the beasts which defiled\n that holy place. In short, you treat our Lord\u2019s divinity as the Jews\n treated His humanity when they numbered Him with felons, that the mob\n might cry with a show of piety, \u2018Away with Him! Crucify Him!\u2019 with the\n thieves, His accursed companions!\u201d\n\nOn the mysterious and holy doctrine of the Trinity in unity, Fletcher\nwrites:\u2014\n\n \u201cThat there is a Supreme, Infinite, and Eternal Mind by which the\n world was made, is evident from the works of creation and providence.\n Every leaf of the trees which cover a thousand hills, every spire of\n the grass which clothes a thousand vales, echoes, \u2018There is a God.\u2019\n But the peculiar mode of His existence is far above our reach. Of this\n we only know what He plainly reveals to us, and what we may infer from\n what He hath plainly revealed; for sooner shall the vilest insect find\n out the nature of man, than the brightest man shall of himself\n discover the nature of God.\n\n \u201cIt is agreed on all hands that the Supreme Being, compared with all\n other beings, is One,\u2014one Creator over numberless creatures, one\n Infinite Being over myriads of finite beings, one Eternal Intelligence\n over millions of temporary intelligences. The distance between the\n things made and Him that made them being boundless, the living God\n must stand for ever far higher above all that lives, than the sun\n stands superior to all the beams it emits, and to all the tapers\n lighted at its fire. In this sense, true Christians are all\n Unitarians: God having plainly revealed His unity by the prophets, by\n the Apostles, and by our Lord Himself, there is no doubt about this\n point. And may the hand which writes these sheets wither a thousand\n times over rather than it should designedly write one word against\n this glorious and ever-adorable unity!\n\n \u201cBut although the Supreme Being is One when He is compared to all\n created beings, shall we quarrel with Him when He informs us that\n notwithstanding he has no second in the universe of creatures, yet, in\n Himself, He exists in a wonderful manner, insomuch that His own\n eternal and perfect essence subsists, without division or separation,\n under three adorable distinctions, which are called sometimes \u2018the\n Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost;\u2019 and sometimes \u2018the Father, the\n Word, and the Spirit\u2019? \u2018Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed\n it, Why hast Thou made me thus?\u2019 or, Why dost Thou exist after such a\n manner?\u201d\n\nFletcher then proceeds to describe the different opponents of his\ndoctrine; namely,\u2014\n\n \u201c_Tritheists_, who so unscripturally distinguish the Divine Persons as\n to divide and separate them into three deities; and who, by this\n means, run into polytheism, or the belief of many gods. _Ditheists_,\n generally called Arians, who worship two gods, a great god and a\n little god; the former uncreate, the latter created; the former God by\n nature, and the latter only by courtesy. _Deists_, who so\n unscripturally maintain the unity of the Divine essence as to admit\n but one Divine subsistence;\u201d and who include Jews, Mahometans,\n Infidels, and Socinians.\n\nFletcher next undertakes to show and prove that God the Father has a\nproper Son, by whom He made the world; that our Lord Jesus Christ\nclaimed the divine honour of being this Son; that He is the Redeemer and\nSaviour of lost mankind; that He is to be the final and universal Judge;\nand that divine worship was paid to Him by patriarchs, prophets, and\nApostles, and is His undoubted right.\n\nFletcher\u2019s second pamphlet, entitled \u201cSocinianism Unscriptural,\u201d\nconsists of eight letters, addressed to Dr. Priestley, in which he shows\nthat Socinians err when they assert that the prophets always spoke of\nthe Messiah as of a mere man like themselves. He proves that our first\nparents expected a _Divine_ Messiah, and that the _Divine Person_ who\nappeared to the patriarchs, and to Moses, was Jehovah, the Son, or\nChrist in His pre-existent state; that the foundation of the proofs of\nChrist\u2019s divinity, in the writings of the prophets, is laid in the three\noriginal prophecies (Gen. iii. 15, xxii. 16, etc., and xlix. 8\u201310),\nrecorded by Moses concerning the Messiah; that all the prophets bear\nwitness to His Godhead, as do also the Evangelists and Apostles.\n\nThis is a meagre outline of Fletcher\u2019s exceedingly able pamphlet, but\nnothing more can be here attempted. Two brief extracts, however, may be\nadded, illustrative of his style:\u2014\n\n \u201cI have proved that the king of Israel who brought his people out of\n Egypt was Christ, in His pre-existent nature. Moses was the prime\n minister of this great King; Joshua, the general of His armies; the\n tabernacle, His palace; the mercy-seat, His throne; the ark, His royal\n standard; the priests, His officers; the Levites, His guards; and the\n shekinah, the visible display of His presence.\u201d\n\n \u201cRead, dear Sir, the Scriptures without the veil of your system, and\n you will see that the Messiah, the wonderful Person whom you so\n constantly endeavour to degrade, was to be a mediating Prophet, like\n Moses; an atoning Priest, like Aaron; a pacific King, like Solomon; a\n royal Prophet, like David; a kingly Priest, like Melchisedec; the\n Everlasting Father, as the Logos by whom all things were created; and\n the Mighty God, as the proper Son of Him with whom He shares, in the\n unity of the Divine Spirit, the supreme title of \u2018Jehovah, Lord of\n hosts.\u2019\u201d\n\nIt has been already shown in a letter which Fletcher addressed to Wesley\nin 1755, the year of his conversion, that he was what is commonly called\na Millenarian. Twenty-nine years had elapsed since then. During this\nlong interval, no man had been a more diligent and devout student of the\nHoly Scriptures than himself, and yet his Millenarian belief remained\nunchanged. Hence the following remarkable passage in his \u201cSocinianism\nUnscriptural.\u201d After quoting and paraphrasing Isa. lxvi. 15\u201324, Fletcher\nproceeds to say:\u2014\n\n \u201cHere ends Isaiah\u2019s account of that glorious reign of Jehovah-Shiloh,\n which the fathers called the \u2018Millennium,\u2019 as being to last a thousand\n years, and during which it is probable our Lord will use these\n extraordinary means to keep all the nations in the way of\n obedience:\u20141. A constant display of His goodness over all the earth,\n but particularly in and about Jerusalem, where the Lord will manifest\n His glory, and bless His happy subjects with new manifestations of His\n presence every Lord\u2019s day and every new moon. 2. A distinguishing\n interposition of Providence which will withhold the Messiah\u2019s wonted\n blessings from the disobedient (Zech. xiv. 17). 3. The constant\n endeavours of the saints, martyrs, patriarchs, prophets, and Apostles,\n raised from the dead and conversing with men, as Moses and Elijah did\n with our Lord\u2019s disciples upon the mount, where they were indulged\n with a view of His glorified person, and of His \u2018kingdom come with\n power.\u2019 These glorified high priests and kings, as ministers and\n lieutenants of the Messiah, will rule all churches and states with\n unerring wisdom and unwarped fidelity. 4. The care that the Lord\n Himself will take to set apart for the ministry, under His glorified\n saints, those who in every nation shall distinguish themselves by\n their virtue and piety. This seems to be the meaning of His own words:\n \u2018And when they shall come out of all nations to My holy mountain, I\n will take of them for priests and Levites, saith the Lord,\u2019 Isaiah\n lxvi. 20, 21. 5. A standing display of the ministration of\n condemnation, as appears from Isaiah lxvi. 24, and from other parallel\n Scriptures. 6. At the same time that the ministration of condemnation\n will powerfully work upon the fears of mankind to keep men in the way\n of duty, an occasional display of the ministration of righteous mercy\n will work upon their hopes. How will those hopes be fired when they\n shall \u2018see the Lamb\u2019 of God \u2018standing on the Mount Sion, and with Him\u2019\n His \u2018hundred and forty-four thousand\u2019 worthies, \u2018having His Father\u2019s\n name,\u2019 Divine Majesty, Irresistible Power, Ineffable Love, and Bliss\n Inexpressible, \u2018written on their foreheads!\u2019 (Rev. xiv). But, 7. What\n will peculiarly tend to keep men from lapsing into rebellion against\n God will be the long life of the godly, and the untimely death of\n those who shall offer to tread the paths of iniquity. The godly shall\n attain to the years of antediluvian patriarchs, and the wicked shall\n not live out half their days; they shall not live above a hundred\n years; or, to speak after our manner, they shall die in their\n childhood. This seems to be Isaiah\u2019s meaning in Isaiah lxv. 17\u201325.\u201d\n\nLeaving it to others to advocate or to attack these interpretations of\nScripture, the present writer will only add, that thus full of firm\nunwavering faith in the Divine majesty and glorious kingship of his Lord\nand Saviour Jesus Christ, the devout and reverent Fletcher drew near to\nthe mysterious spirit-world.\n\nIn harmony with all this, Fletcher wrote to his friend, Mr. Henry\nBrooke, of Dublin, as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _April 27, 1784_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014Mercy, peace, and perfect love attend you, and your\n dear partner, and the dear friends who live under your roof; and with\n whom I beg you may abide under the cross, till, with John, Mary, and\n Salome, you _all_ can say, \u2018We are crucified with Him, and the life we\n now live, we live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and\n gave Himself for us.\u2019\n\n \u201cWith respect to the glory of the Lord, _it is at hand_; whatever\n false wisdom and unbelief may whisper to our hearts. It can be no\n farther off than the presence of Him, who _fills all in all_.\n\n \u201cWith respect to what you say of the kingdom not coming with the\n outward pomp, which is observable by the men of the world, it is\n strictly true; but that there is an _inward_ display of _power_ and\n _glory_ under Pentecostal Christianity is undeniable, both from our\n Lord\u2019s _promises_ to His imperfect disciples, and from their\n _experiences_ after the kingdom of God was come to them with power. To\n wait in deep resignation, and with a constant attention to what the\n Lord will please to do or say concerning us and His Church; and to\n leave to Him _the times and seasons_, is what I am chiefly called to\n do; taking care to avoid falling into either _speculation_ careless of\n _action_, or into the _activity_ which is devoid of _spirituality_. I\n _would_ not have a lamp without oil; and I _could_ not have oil\n without a lamp, and a vessel to hold it in for myself, and to\n communicate it to others.\n\n \u201cFare you all well in Christ! So prays\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[602]\n\nFootnote 602:\n\n \u201cThirteen Original Letters of the Rev. John Fletcher.\u201d Bath, 1791, p.\n 36.\n\nOn the day that Fletcher penned the foregoing, his wife wrote as follows\nto Mrs. Smyth, their hostess in Dublin. The letter, however, was signed,\n\u201cJohn and Mary Fletcher,\u201d and has not before been published. It\nfurnishes a glimpse of the Madeley Methodists:\u2014\n\n \u201c_April 27, 1784._\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR MADAM,\u2014If anything I said in my last was attended with a\n blessing, I give glory to my adorable Father. I am ready to wonder\n that He ever works by so poor a worm.\n\n \u201cI wish you had been with us yesterday morning, in our upper chamber,\n to hear the simple tales of our dear women. Do you remember a little\n woman, who sat in the window of the room when you met the class, and\n who expressed great desire for more of the life of God? It was she who\n lived on horse-beans so many weeks, while suckling twins, for fear of\n running into debt for bread. She has, since then, been greatly\n exercised by poverty, temptation, and illness; but, in all, her desire\n for the pure image of God seemed to rise above every other wish; and,\n about a fortnight ago, the Lord poured out upon her such an abundance\n of His Spirit, that nature almost sank beneath it. She told us\n yesterday, that every moment she seems to be so surrounded with God,\n and so penetrated with His love, that, said she, \u2018I cannot help, many\n times in the day, stopping in the midst of my work, when alone, to\n shout aloud, Glory! Glory! Glory! My very heart is glad. Yes, my heart\n is _so glad_, I could shout from morning till night; but, oh! I can\n think of no words to tell what I see and feel of Jesus. I _can_ choose\n nothing: I know _no will_\u2014_no choice_: the will of God is my all.\u2019 Had\n you heard her speak, and also two others who have just found the Lord,\n you would have wept tears of love and joy.\n\n \u201cOur love to Dr. Coke; and thank him for his two letters, which we\n have received.\n\n \u201cBegging our tender regards to all our dear Christian friends, we\n remain, with kindest remembrance and grateful acknowledgment to our\n dear Mr. and Mrs. Smyth, their sincere though unworthy friends,\n\n \u201cJOHN AND MARY FLETCHER.\u201d\n\nThe next is a letter which, I believe, has not before been published. It\nwas addressed to a sister of Lady Mary Fitzgerald, and is full of faith\nin Christ:\u2014\n\n \u201cChrist Jesus is alone the desirable, the everlasting distinction and\n honour of men. All other advantages are like the down on the thistle,\n blown away in a moment. Riches are incapable of satisfying; friends\n are changeable; dear relations are taken away with a stroke; but, amid\n all the changes of life, Christ is a Rock. To see Him by faith, to lay\n hold on Him, to rely on Him, to live upon Him, this\u2014this is the refuge\n from the storm, the shadow from the heat.\n\n \u201cIn order that you may obtain it, nothing more or less is required, on\n your part, than a full and frequent confession of your own abominable\n heart; and kneeling, as a true beggar, at the door of mercy, declaring\n you come there only expecting notice and relief because God our\n Saviour came to redeem incarnate devils and to convert them into\n saints.\n\n \u201cI think you take a sure method to perplex yourself if you look at\n yourself for proof of faith. Others must see it in your works; but you\n must feel it in your heart. The glory of Jesus is, by faith, realized\n to the mind in some such manner as an infinitely grand and beauteous\n object in the firmament of heaven arrests the spectator on itself. It\n captivates him; and, by the pleasure it imparts, he is led on to view\n it. So it is with Jesus, our peace, strength, righteousness,\n salvation.\n\n \u201cFor my own part, I am often tempted to suspect whether I am not\n speaking great swelling words of Christ, and yet am myself nothing\n more than sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal; and I find that the\n only successful way of answering this doubt is an immediate address to\n Jesus Christ, and prayer to Him, to this effect: \u2018Whosoever cometh\n unto Thee, Thou wilt in no wise cast out. Lord, have I not come unto\n Thee? Am I not depending on Thee for life, as a brand plucked out of\n the fire? See if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in\n the way everlasting!\u2019\n\n \u201cMy eyes look to the blessed Jesus; my heart longs to be more in His\n service; I mourn my corruptions; they are many and great. When I look\n at Him, and contemplate His finished salvation, I admire, I adore, in\n some measure I love. When I look at myself, my heart rises at the\n sight,\u2014black and selfish, proud and carnal, covetous and unclean. I\n want all things that are good; but, oh! I have a blessed Lord Christ,\n in whom all fulness dwells for me, and for my dear friend to whom I am\n writing,\u2014a fulness of pardon, wisdom, holiness, strength, peace,\n salvation, righteousness,\u2014a fulness of mercy, goodness, truth,\u2014all\n this, and ten thousand times more, without condition, without\n qualification, without workings, without servings, only for receiving.\n O blessed free grace of God! What a gift! And for whom? My dear\n friend, for you. What says the everlasting God? \u2018Believe He gave His\n Son for sinners.\u2019 Can God lie? Impossible! Can we have a better\n foundation to build upon than the promise and the oath of God?\n\n \u201cMy very dear friend, I know you will not be angry at my preachment. I\n aim all I say at my own heart. I stand more in need of it than you;\n and I always feel my heart refreshed when I am talking or thinking of\n the blessed Jesus. But oh! how little I know of Him! O Thou light of\n the world, enlighten me! Teach me to know more of Thy infinite,\n unsearchable riches, that I may love Thee with an increasing love, and\n serve Thee with an increasing zeal till Thou bring me to glory!\u201d\n\nGratitude was one of Fletcher\u2019s characteristics. Hence, when the son of\nhis dead friend, Mr. Charles Greenwood, of Stoke Newington, visited him\nat Madeley, he wrote to the loving widow:\u2014\n\n \u201cMadeley, June 20, 1784. The sight of Mr. Greenwood, in his son, has\n brought some of my Newington scenes to my remembrance, and I beg leave\n to convey my tribute of thanks by his hands. Thanks! Thanks! What,\n nothing but words? There is my humbling case. I wish to requite your\n manifold kindnesses, but I cannot. I must be satisfied to be ever your\n insolvent debtor. Nature and grace do not love it. Proud nature lies\n uneasy under great obligations; and thankful grace would be glad to\n put something in the scale opposite to that which you have filled with\n so many favours. But what shall I put? I wish I could send you all the\n Bank of England, and all the Gospel of Christ; but the first is not\n mine, and the second is already _yours_.\u201d[603]\n\nFootnote 603:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 300.\n\nWesley\u2019s annual Conference, in 1784, was held at Leeds. He writes, in\nhis Journal:\u2014\n\n \u201c1784, Tuesday, _July 27_. Our Conference began; at which four of our\n brethren, after long debate (in which Mr. Fletcher[604] took much\n pains), acknowledged their fault, and all that was past was forgotten.\n Thursday, July 29, being the public Thanksgiving Day, as there was not\n room for us in the old church, I read prayers, as well as preached, at\n our Room. I admired the whole service for the day. The prayers,\n Scriptures, and every part of it, pointed at one thing: \u2018Beloved, if\n God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.\u2019 Having five\n clergymen to assist me, we administered the Lord\u2019s Supper, as was\n supposed, to sixteen or seventeen hundred persons. Sunday, August 1.\n We were fifteen clergymen at the old church. Tuesday, August 3. Our\n Conference concluded in much love, to the great disappointment of\n all.\u201d\n\nFootnote 604:\n\n Before attending the Conference, Fletcher visited Miss Ritchie, who\n wrote: \u201c1784, July 16. Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher visited Otley. I was\n truly blessed and edified by their society. Our house was full of\n company.\u201d (\u201cMemoir of Mrs. Mortimer,\u201d by Agnes Bulmer, p. 97.)\n\nSuch is Wesley\u2019s brief account of one of the most important Conferences\nhe ever held, and the last which Fletcher had the opportunity of\nattending. During the year, Dr. Coke had begun the Methodist Foreign\nMissionary Society; and Wesley had signed and sealed his famous \u201cDeed of\nDeclaration,\u201d constituting, for all time to come, the Legal Conference\nof the Methodists, and defining the powers and duties of its members.\nCharles Atmore, who was present, relates,[605] that, on the Sunday\nevening before the Conference opened, the congregation, assembled to\nhear Wesley, was four times greater than the chapel could contain, and,\ntherefore, Wesley \u201cpreached in a field adjoining, on the judgment of the\ngreat day.\u201d On Monday morning, Fletcher \u201cpreached an excellent sermon\nfrom Matt. v. 13\u201316, \u2018Ye are the salt of the earth,\u2019\u201d etc. At night,\nWesley took for his text, \u201cGive the king Thy judgments, O God, and Thy\nrighteousness unto the king\u2019s son.\u201d On Tuesday morning, at five o\u2019clock,\nHenry Moore delivered a sermon founded upon \u201cCasting all your care upon\nHim; for He careth for you.\u201d At the conclusion of the service, Wesley\n\u201copened the Conference;\u201d and, in the evening of the day, preached from,\n\u201cEven the very hairs of your head are all numbered,\u201d etc. Next morning,\nJuly 28, at five o\u2019clock, the text of Thomas Taylor was, \u201cWhat then?\nnotwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is\npreached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.\u201d At night,\nWesley preached from, \u201cThou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy\nheart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.\u201d Thursday, July 29,\n\u201cwas a high day indeed.\u201d At five a.m. Thomas Hanby discoursed on \u201cMy\ngrace is sufficient for thee,\u201d etc. In the forenoon, Wesley expounded\nand enforced 1 Cor. xiii. 1\u20134, \u201cThough I speak with the tongues of men\nand of angels, and have not charity,\u201d etc. Then followed the sacramental\nservice, in which Wesley was assisted by Fletcher, Coke, Cornelius\nBayley, who had been Fletcher\u2019s curate, Mr. Dillon, an ordained\nclergyman from Ireland, and the well-known David Simpson, of\nMacclesfield, the services of the day being concluded with another\nsermon from Wesley, on the text, \u201cThis is the first and great\ncommandment.\u201d At five a.m. on Friday, July 30, Joseph Pilmoor preached\nfrom \u201cI have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right\nhand, I shall not be moved\u201d; and, at night, Fletcher, from, \u201cThese all\nhaving obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:\nGod having provided some better thing for us, that they without us\nshould not be made perfect.\u201d[606] At seven o\u2019clock on Sunday morning,\nAugust 1, Fletcher preached again, taking as his text 1 Kings xiii. 26,\nselected from the first lesson for the day: \u201cIt is the man of God, who\nwas disobedient unto the word of the Lord: therefore the Lord hath\ndelivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him,\naccording to the word of the Lord, which he spake unto him.\u201d Joseph\nBenson, who was present, writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher drew such a picture of the degradation and misery of a\n backsliding minister, and of the corruption and injury he introduced\n into the Church of Christ, as produced a general and deep sensation,\n not easily to be forgotten.\u201d\n\nFootnote 605:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1845, p. 12.\n\nFootnote 606:\n\n Respecting this sermon, John Beaumont, father of the celebrated Rev.\n Dr. Joseph Beaumont, wrote: \u201cMr. Fletcher dwelt much on the context,\n which speaks of the faith and works of the ancient worthies, and\n strongly enforced what he termed a _working faith_. I was blessed\n beyond description, and thought him certainly the most angelic man I\n had ever heard.\u201d (\u201cThe Experience and Travels of John Beaumont.\u201d)\n\nAnd Henry Moore, another of Fletcher\u2019s auditors, remarks:\u2014\n\n \u201cI was extremely impressed with the whole service: the shadow of the\n Divine presence was seen among us, and His going forth was in our\n sanctuary.\u201d\n\nNext morning, Mr. Moore himself had to preach. He writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cI went to the chapel at the hour appointed, and, to my dismay, found\n the venerable Mr. Fletcher in the pulpit, leaning upon his staff. My\n first impression was to run away; but a moment\u2019s reflection changed my\n purpose. I ascended the pulpit and gave out the hymn; while I did so,\n my knees smote one against the other: I knelt down to pray, and indeed\n lifted my heart with my voice, that I might be endued with power and\n wisdom from on high: my soul was calmed, and I took my text, and\n continued the service, fully set free from fear, and strengthened in\n my resolution ever to obey the voice of duty.\u201d[607]\n\nFootnote 607:\n\n \u201cLife of Henry Moore,\u201d by Mrs. Smith, p. 321.\n\nAt five o\u2019clock on the following morning, Wesley, eighty-one years of\nage, again preached, selecting a text admirably adapted to be a sequel\nto that chosen by Fletcher on the previous Sunday; and also peculiarly\nsuited to what had taken place in the Conference: \u201cAnd Jeremiah said\nunto the house of the Rechabites, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God\nof Israel: Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your\nfather, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that he\nhath commanded you; therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of\nIsrael; Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before\nme for ever\u201d (Jer. xxxv. 18, 19). The Conference was concluded on\nTuesday, August 3; and next morning, at five o\u2019clock, Wesley delivered\nanother sermon, and immediately afterwards took the coach for Wales. His\nlast text, at this remarkable Conference, was, \u201cTake heed unto thyself,\nand unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt\nboth save thyself, and them that hear thee.\u201d[608]\n\nFootnote 608:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1845, p. 14.\n\nA purpose is intended to be served by these minute statements, namely,\nto convey an idea of what Methodist Conferences were in the olden times,\nand to indicate the chief preachers, and the _kind_ of texts they took.\n\nIt is a well-known fact that the great event of the Conference of 1784\nwas the rebellion raised in Wesley\u2019s camp of preachers. In his \u201cDeed of\nDeclaration,\u201d he had appointed his brother Charles, Dr. Coke, James\nCreighton, and ninety-seven of his itinerants to be, after his decease,\nhis legalized successors, and to exercise the powers he had exercised\nfrom the beginning. By confining the number of the members of the legal\nConference to a hundred, he necessarily excluded not fewer than\nninety-two, whom he had employed in circuit work; and, among these,\nthere were several who had claims quite equal to many of the elected\nones, as, to wit, Thomas Lee, John Atlay, John Pritchard, John Pool,\nJohn Hampson, sen., John Hampson, jun., William Eells, and Joseph\nPillmoor. Previous to the Conference being held, certain of the\nnon-elected preachers published a protest against Wesley\u2019s partiality.\nThe crisis was a serious one. Fletcher was not included in the hundred,\nprobably because he desired to be left out; but he was intensely anxious\nrespecting apprehended results. Mrs. Fletcher wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cO how deeply was he affected for the welfare of his brethren, when we\n were at Leeds, in the year 1784! When disputes arose among them, his\n soul groaned beneath the burden. By two or three o\u2019clock in the\n morning, I was sure to hear him breathing out prayers for the peace\n and prosperity of Sion; and when I said to him, I was afraid this\n would hurt his health, and that I wished him to sleep more, he would\n answer, \u2018O Polly, the cause of God lies near my heart.\u2019\u201d\n\nAt the opening of the Conference, on July 27, Wesley mentioned the \u201cDeed\nof Declaration,\u201d and the \u201cAppeal\u201d which had been published against it:\u2014\n\n \u201cHe showed that, from the commencement of Methodism, the annual\n Conferences had always consisted of persons whom he had desired to\n meet for the purpose of conferring with him. He insisted, that he had\n a right to name the members of the Legal Conference, and to fix their\n number. The \u2018Appeal,\u2019\u201d he said, \u201crepresented him as unjust,\n oppressive, and tyrannical, which he was not; the authors of it had\n betrayed him; and, by doing so, had hurt the minds of many, and\n kindled a flame throughout the kingdom. Hence, he required that they\n should acknowledge their fault, and be sorry for it, or he could have\n no further connection with them.\u201d[609]\n\nFootnote 609:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife,\u201d by Macdonald, p. 160.\n\nFor seven days, the dispute remained unsettled. Fletcher acted as\nmediator.\n\n \u201cNever,\u201d says Charles Atmore, \u201cshall I forget the ardour and\n earnestness with which Mr. Fletcher expostulated, even on his knees,\n both with Mr. Wesley and the preachers. To the former, he said, \u2018My\n father! my father! they have offended, but they are your children!\u2019 To\n the latter, he exclaimed, \u2018My brethren! my brethren! he is your\n father!\u2019 and then, portraying the work in which they were unitedly\n engaged, he fell again on his knees, and with fervour and devotion\n engaged in prayer. The Conference was bathed in tears; many sobbed\n aloud.\u201d[610]\n\nFootnote 610:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1845, p. 15.\n\nThis appears to have been on the last day but one that the Conference\nsat. Hence Joseph Benson writes:\u2014\n\n \u201cAugust 2. Our brethren, who had been concerned in the \u2018Appeal,\u2019\n rejoiced our hearts, by acknowledging their fault, and making\n submission. In consequence of their doing so, they were admitted among\n their brethren, and appointed to Circuits.\u201d[611]\n\nFootnote 611:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife,\u201d by Macdonald, p. 160.\n\nIt may be added, that, the principal appellants\u2014John Hampson, sen., and\nJohn Hampson, jun., Joseph Pillmoor, John Atlay, and William Eells\u2014soon\nafterwards left the Connexion.\n\nTwo other incidents, concerning the Conference, must be mentioned.\n\nIt is a well-known fact, that, one of the most important questions asked\nat Wesley\u2019s Conferences was, \u201cAre there any objections to any of our\npreachers?\u201d Upon the question being put, the names of all (Wesley\u2019s name\nincluded), were read seriatim. When this part of the business of the\nConference, in 1784, was reached, Fletcher rose from his seat, to\nwithdraw from the chapel.\n\n \u201cHe was eagerly recalled, and asked why he would leave them?\n \u2018Because,\u2019 said he, \u2018it is improper, and painful to my feelings, for\n me to hear the minute failings of my brethren canvassed, unless my own\n character be submitted to the same scrutiny.\u2019 They promised, if he\n would stay, that his character should be investigated. On these terms,\n he consented to remain; and, when his name was read, an aged preacher\n rose, bowed to him, and said, \u2018I have but one thing to object to Mr.\n Fletcher; God has given him a richer talent than his humility will\n suffer him duly to appreciate. In confining himself to Madeley, he\n puts his light, comparatively, under a bushel; whereas, if he would\n come out more among us, he would draw immense congregations, and would\n do much more good.\u2019 In answer to this, Mr. Fletcher stated the tender\n and sacred ties which bound him to his parish; its numerous\n population; the daily calls for his services; the difficulty of\n finding a proper substitute; his increasing infirmities, which\n disqualified him for horse exercise; his unwillingness to leave Mrs.\n Fletcher at home; and the expense of travelling in carriages. In reply\n to his last argument, another preacher arose, and observed that the\n expense of his journeys would be cheerfully paid; and that, though he\n knew and highly approved Mr. Fletcher\u2019s disinterestedness and delicacy\n in pecuniary transactions, yet he feared there was a mixture of pride\n in his objection; for that by no importunity could he be prevailed on\n to accept a present to defray his expenses on his late visit to\n Ireland. \u2018A little explanation,\u2019 replied Mr. Fletcher, \u2018will set that\n matter right. When I was invited to visit my friends at Dublin, I had\n every desire to accept their invitation; but I wanted money for the\n journey, and knew not how to obtain it. In this situation, I laid the\n matter before the Lord, humbly requesting that, if the journey were a\n providential opening to do good, I might have the means of performing\n it. Shortly afterwards, I received an unexpected sum of money, and\n took my journey. While in Dublin, I heard our friends commiserating\n the distresses of the poor, and lamenting the inadequate means they\n had to relieve them. When, therefore, they offered me a handsome\n present, what could I do? The necessary expenses of my journey had\n already been supplied; my general income was quite sufficient; I\n needed nothing. Had I received the money, I should have given it away.\n The poor of Dublin most needed, and were most worthy of, the money of\n their generous countrymen. How then could I hesitate to beg that it\n might be applied to their relief? You see, brethren, I could not in\n conscience do otherwise than I did.\u2019\u201d[612]\n\nFootnote 612:\n\n Benson\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher.\u201d\n\nAfter these explanations, the honest old Methodist preachers, of course,\nrecorded no objection to the \u201c_character_\u201d of John Fletcher; but Wesley,\nnearly a year afterwards, wrote to his brother Charles:\u2014\n\n \u201c1785, June 2. About once a quarter, I hear from Mr. and Mrs.\n Fletcher. I grudge his sitting still; but who can help it? I love ease\n as well as he does; but I dare not take it while I believe there is\n another world.\u201d[613]\n\nFootnote 613:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Works, vol. xii., p. 142.\n\nFletcher\u2019s examination, on this occasion, took place by special\narrangement: if he had lived, perhaps, it would afterwards have been a\nmatter of course; for, about the middle of the Conference, he rose, and,\naddressing Wesley, said:\u2014\n\n \u201cI fear my successor will not be interested in the work of God, and my\n flock may suffer. I have done what I could. I have built a chapel in\n Madeley Wood, and I hope, Sir, you will continue to supply it, and\n that Madeley may still be part of a Methodist Circuit. If you please,\n I should be glad to be put down in the \u2018Minutes\u2019 as a supernumerary.\u201d\n\nWesley was not easily moved, but even he could hardly bear this, and the\npreachers burst into tears.[614]\n\nFootnote 614:\n\n Mrs. Fletcher\u2019s \u201cLife,\u201d by H. Moore, p. 183.\n\nThe other incident, to be mentioned, was of a different kind, and is a\ngood illustration of the remarkable allegorical talent which Fletcher\npossessed, and often exercised, not only in his published works, but in\nhis correspondence, and in conversation among his friends.\n\nOn March 31, 1784, Wesley visited Burslem, where Mr. Enoch Wood resided,\na Methodist, and an artist of great ability. Mr. Wood prevailed on\nWesley to permit him to model a bust from his person; and a considerable\nnumber of copies were executed. The likeness was so striking, that, when\nWesley looked at the bust, he said to Mr. Wood, \u201cIf you touch it again,\nyou will mar it.\u201d Every wrinkle, dimple, and vein of the face and\nforehead were marked with perfect accuracy. Four months afterwards, Mr.\nWood went to the Conference at Leeds, and soon became one of the most\npopular men there. Samuel Bardsley hoisted the artist on his shoulder;\nat the moment, Fletcher was passing through the grave-yard, and was\ntold, by the applauding preachers, the name of the hero, so ludicrously\nexhibited. Fletcher paused a moment, and then said, \u201cAre you the young\nman who made that beautiful likeness of Mr. Wesley?\u201d Being answered in\nthe affirmative, and having been made acquainted with the whole process\nof making the bust, he stood on a grave, and, putting his hand on the\nartist\u2019s shoulder, he began to spiritualize what he had heard, by using\nit to illustrate the work of God, in the _new_ creation of the human\nsoul, by the power of the Holy Ghost. He spoke of the rough and\nunpromising materials,\u2014the corrupt nature derived from fallen Adam; he\nshowed how this, by the energy of the Holy Spirit, is softened and\nmelted down into godly sorrow; how it becomes _plastic_ in the hands of\nthe Divine Artist; how it is cast into a new mould: and how it is formed\nafter the likeness of Christ. His extemporaneous address lasted twenty\nminutes, and was never forgotten by those who heard it.[615]\n\nFootnote 615:\n\n _Christian Miscellany_, 1848, p. 230.\n\nIt may be added that, some years afterwards, Dr. Adam Clarke obtained\nfrom Mr. Wood the loan of the original mould, and had a bust cast in\nsolid brass, which is now in the possession of Mr. G. J. Stevenson. This\nwas lent to the sculptor who chiselled the marble effigy of Wesley, now\nplaced in the entrance-hall of the Wesleyan Theological Institution,\nRichmond. The face and head of the effigy were obtained from it.[616]\n\nFootnote 616:\n\n Stevenson\u2019s \u201cMemorials of the Wesley Family,\u201d p. 349.\n\nOn his return to Madeley, Fletcher wrote to his friend, Mr. Ireland, as\nfollows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _September 13, 1784_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014I keep in my sentry-box till Providence removes me.\n My situation is _quite suited_ to my little strength. I may do as much\n or as little as I please, according to my weakness; and I have an\n advantage, which I can have nowhere else in such a degree,\u2014my little\n field of action is just at my own door, so that if I happen to overdo\n myself, I have but to step from my pulpit to my bed, and from my bed\n to my grave. If I had a body full of vigour, and a purse full of\n money, I should like well enough to travel about as Mr. Wesley does;\n but as Providence does not call me to it, I readily submit. The snail\n does best in its shell; were it to aim at galloping, like the\n racehorse, it would be ridiculous indeed. My wife is quite of my mind\n with respect to the call we have to a sedentary life. We are two poor\n invalids, who between us make _half_ a labourer.\n\n \u201cWe shall have tea cheap and light very dear;[617] I don\u2019t admire the\n change. Twenty thousand chambers walled up, and filled with foul air,\n are converted into so many dungeons for the industrious artizan, who,\n being compelled by this murderous tax, denies himself the benefit of\n _light_ and _air_. Blessed be God! the light of heaven and the air of\n the spiritual world are still free.\n\n \u201cMy dear partner sweetly helps me to drink the dregs of life, and to\n carry with ease the daily cross. We are not long for this world\u2014we\n _see_ it, we _feel_ it; and, by looking at death and his conqueror, we\n fight beforehand our last battle with that last enemy whom our dear\n Lord has overcome for us. That we may triumph over him with an humble,\n Christian courage is the prayer of, my dear friend, yours,\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[618]\n\nFootnote 617:\n\n On June 21, Pitt moved several resolutions to put an end to smuggling\n by reducing the duty upon tea from 50 to 12\u00bd per cent.; and to\n increase the window tax in proportion. These resolutions were passed,\n though not without much debate.\n\nFootnote 618:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 302.\n\nFletcher\u2019s apprehension of the nearness of death, so far as he was\nconcerned, was realized; but his wife did not die until thirty-one years\nafter this, not a year of which passed without her keeping the\nanniversary of their wedding-day. In the present year she wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201c1784, November 12. We have been married three years this day. A good\n day it has been to me! While reflecting on the wonderful goodness of\n God in my providential union with my dear husband (so far, so very\n far, beyond my warmest wishes), my heart was enlarged with desire to\n render to my God a suitable return for all His mercies!\u201d[619]\n\nFootnote 619:\n\n \u201cMrs. Fletcher\u2019s Life,\u201d by H. Moore, p. 158.\n\nOn her birthday, two months previously, she had written in her journal:\u2014\n\n \u201cSeptember 12. This day I am forty-five years old. I have had such a\n sense of the goodness of God toward me as I cannot express. I am\n filled with favours. I have the best of husbands, who daily grows more\n and more spiritual, and I think more healthful, being far better than\n when we first married. My call also is so clear, and I have such\n liberty in the work, and such sweet encouragement among the people. My\n servant, too, is much improved, and as faithful as if she were my own\n child. An income quite comfortable, and a good deal to help the poor\n with! O what shall I render to the Lord for all the mercies He hath\n shown unto me!\u201d\n\nIn this happy home, Fletcher wrote the following happy letter to a\nyouth, his godson, by name John Fennel:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _November 28, 1784_.\n\n \u201cDEAR JOHN,\u2014I rejoice to hear that you think of a better world; and of\n that better part which Mary, and your mother\u2014another Mary\u2014chose before\n you. May all her prayers, and, above all, may the dew of heaven, come\n down upon your soul in solemn thoughts, heavenly desires, and strong\n resolutions to be the Lord\u2019s, cost what it will. Let the language of\n your heart and lips be, \u2018I will be a follower of Christ, a child of\n God, an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.\u2019 A noble promise this! of\n which I have so peculiar a right to put you in mind. In order to be\n this happy and holy soul, you must not forget that your Christian\n name, your Christian vow, and ten thousand reasons beside, bind you to\n turn your back upon the world, the flesh, and the devil; and to set\n yourself to look steadfastly to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, your\n Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.\n\n \u201cDear John, you have no time to lose. We have calls here to the young\n without end. I lately buried, in our churchyard, two brothers and\n sisters in the same grave. Be you also ready! I was praying for you\n some nights ago on my bed, in my sleepless hours; and I asked for you\n the faith of righteous Abel, the chastity of Joseph, the early piety\n of Samuel, the right choice of young Solomon, the self-denial and\n abstinence of Daniel, together with the early zeal and undaunted\n courage of his three friends; but, above all, I asked that you might\n follow John the Baptist and John the Apostle as they followed our\n Lord. Back, earnestly back my prayers. So shall you be faithful,\n diligent, godly; a blessing to all around you, and a comfort to your\n affectionate old friend and minister,\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[620]\n\nFootnote 620:\n\n _The Youth\u2019s Instructor_, 1835, p. 305.\n\nAt this period, the Rev. Charles Simeon, a young man of twenty-five, and\nfull of faith and zeal, was rising into great popularity among the\nMethodist clergymen of the day. He was an intimate friend of Berridge\nand of Henry Venn; and had recently visited Riland at Birmingham,\nCadogan at Reading, Pentycross at Wallingford, and Robinson at\nLeicester;[621] and now, toward the end of 1784, he came to Fletcher at\nMadeley. As soon as he entered the vicarage, Fletcher took him by the\nhand and brought him into the parlour, where the two engaged in prayer.\nThat being ended, Fletcher asked Simeon to preach in the church. After\nsome hesitation, Simeon consented; and away went Fletcher, bell in hand,\nthrough the village, and, ringing as loudly as he could, told the people\nthey must attend church, for a young clergyman from Cambridge had come\nto preach to them.\n\nFootnote 621:\n\n \u201cSimeon\u2019s Memoirs,\u201d by W. Carus, M.A.\n\nAfter the service in the church, Fletcher and his visitor went for a\nwalk, in the course of which they entered the ironworks. Simeon was\nsurprised at the aptitude of Fletcher to turn everything he saw to\nspiritual profit. To one of the ironworkers, hammering on an anvil, he\nremarked, \u201cO, pray to God that He may hammer that hard heart of yours.\u201d\nTo another, who was heating a bar of iron, \u201cAh! thus it is that God\ntries His children in the furnace of affliction.\u201d And to a third, who\nwas drawing a furnace, \u201cSee, Thomas! if _you_ can make such a furnace as\nthat, think what a furnace God can make for sinners.\u201d[622]\n\nFootnote 622:\n\n _Christian Miscellany_, 1848, p. 326.\n\nSoon after this, Wesley wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201c1784, Monday, December 20. I went to Hinxworth, where I had the\n satisfaction of meeting Mr. Simeon, Fellow of King\u2019s College in\n Cambridge. He has spent some time with Mr. Fletcher, at Madeley: two\n kindred souls; much resembling each other both in fervour of spirit\n and in the earnestness of their address. He gave me the pleasing\n information that there are three parishes in Cambridge wherein true\n Scriptural religion is preached, and several young gentlemen who are\n happy partakers of it.\u201d[623]\n\nFootnote 623:\n\n Wesley\u2019s Journal.\n\nFletcher, the Madeley revivalist, was closing his last year on earth;\nSimeon, the Cambridge one, lived and laboured for more than half a\ncentury afterwards; and who can say that in Simeon\u2019s life and labours\nthe influence of Fletcher\u2019s spirit and example was not an element?\n\nA few more extracts from Fletcher\u2019s letters, and then the end will come.\nAlready he seemed to be waiting to \u201cgather up his feet,\u201d and die. In a\nletter to Mrs. Thornton, a friend of the Greenwood family, at Stoke\nNewington, he wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cMadeley, _January 21, 1785_. I make just shift to fill up my little\n sentry box, by the help of my dear partner. Had we more strength, we\n should have opportunity enough to exert it. O that we were but truly\n faithful in our little place! Your great stage of London is too high\n for people of little ability and little strength; and, therefore, we\n are afraid of venturing upon it. We should be glad to rise high in\n usefulness; but God, who needs us not, calls us to sink in deep\n resignation and humility. His will be done!\u201d[624]\n\nFootnote 624:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 303.\n\nThree weeks later, he wrote to the Right Hon. Lady Mary Fitzgerald, as\nfollows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMadeley, February 11, 1785. Who are we, my lady, that we should not\n be swallowed up by the holy, loving, living Spirit, who fills heaven\n and earth? Whether we consider it or not, there He is, a true, holy,\n loving, merciful God. Assent to it, my lady, believe it; rejoice in\n it. Let Him be God, _all in all_; your God in Christ Jesus. What an\n ocean of love to swim in\u2014to dive into!\u201d[625]\n\nFootnote 625:\n\n _Ibid._, p. 304.\n\nFrom Fletcher\u2019s letter to Wesley in 1755, and his \u201cSocinianism\nUnscriptural,\u201d written during the last years of his life, it is\nundeniably evident that Fletcher was a Millenarian. The following\nletter, to Mr. Henry Brooke, of Dublin, refers to the same subject, but\nshows that he was not so confident with respect to some of his views as\nhe had been heretofore\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _February 28, 1785_.[626]\n\n \u201cMY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014We are all shadows. Your mortal parent has passed\n away; and we must pass away after him. A lesson I learn daily, is to\n see things and persons in their _invisible root_, and in their\n _eternal principle_; where they are not subject to change, decay, and\n death; but where they blossom and shine in the prim\u00e6val excellence\n allotted them by their gracious Creator. By this means, I learn to\n walk by faith, and not by sight. Tracing His image, in all the\n footsteps of nature, and finding out that which is of God _in\n ourselves_, is the true wisdom, genuine godliness. I hope you will\n never be afraid, nor ashamed of it. I see no danger in these studies\n and meditations, provided we still keep the end in view\u2014the _all_ of\n God, and the _shadowy nothingness_ of all that is visible.\n\n \u201cWith respect to the great Pentecostal display of the Spirit\u2019s glory,\n I still look for it within and without; and to look for it aright is\n the lesson I am learning. I am now led to be afraid of that in my\n nature, which would be for pomp, show, and visible glory. I am afraid\n of falling, by such an expectation, into what I call a spiritual\n Judaizing; into a looking for Christ\u2019s coming in my own pompous\n conceit, which might make me reject Him, if _His_ wisdom, to crucify\n _mine_, chose to come in a meaner way: if, instead of coming in His\n Father\u2019s glory, He chose to come meek, riding, not on the cherubim,\n but on the foal of an ass. Our Saviour said, with respect to His going\n to the feast, \u2018My time is not yet come:\u2019 whether His time to come and\n turn the thieves and buyers out of the outward church is yet come, I\n know not. I doubt Jerusalem, and the holy place, are yet given to be\n trodden under foot by the Gentiles. But _my_ Jerusalem! why it is not\n swallowed up of that which comes down from heaven, is a question which\n I wait to be solved by the teaching of the great Prophet, who is alone\n possessed of Urim and Thummim. The mighty power to wrestle with Him is\n all divine: and I often pray,\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018That mighty faith on me bestow,\n Which cannot ask in vain,\n Which holds and will not let Thee go,\n Till I my suit obtain:\n\n \u201c\u2018Till Thou into my soul inspire\n That perfect love unknown,\n And tell my infinite desire,\n Whate\u2019er Thou wilt be done.\u2019\n\n \u201cIn short, the Lord crucifies my _wisdom_ and my _will_ every way; but\n I must be crucified as the _thieves_. _All my bones must be broken_;\n for there is still in me that impatience of wisdom, which would stir,\n when the tempter says, \u2018Come down from the cross.\u2019 It is not for us to\n know the times and seasons, the manner and mystical means of God\u2019s\n working; but only to hunger and thirst, and lie passive before the\n great Potter. I begin to be content to be a vessel of _clay_ or of\n _wood_, so that I may be emptied of self, and filled with my God, my\n all.\n\n \u201cI am exceeding glad that your dear partner goes on simply and\n believingly. Such a companion is a great blessing; for when two shall\n agree touching one thing in prayer, it shall be done. My wife and I\n endeavour to fathom the meaning of that deep promise. Join us, and let\n us search after that which exceeds _knowledge_\u2014I mean the wisdom, and\n the power, the love, and the faithfulness of God.\n\n \u201cAdieu! _Be God\u2019s_, as the French say, and see God is _yours_ in\n Christ, for you,[627] for brothers Dugdale, Shannon, Pickering, Mrs.\n Blashford, etc.\n\n \u201cWe are your obliged friends,\n \u201cJOHN AND MARY FLETCHER.\u201d[628]\n\nFootnote 626:\n\n In an unpublished letter, dated, \u201cSunday Evening, _February 27,\n 1785_,\u201d and signed \u201cJohn and Mary Fletcher,\u201d but evidently written by\n the latter, it is said:\u2014\u201cMy dear Mr. Fletcher has had a bad cold; but\n is better. He is all alive, and living for eternity.\u201d\n\nFootnote 627:\n\n These names are in the _original_ letter.\n\nFootnote 628:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 307.\n\nIt must be confessed that there is a little mysticism in Fletcher\u2019s\nletter; but let it pass. The next was written a month later. The Rev.\nPeard Dickenson was now in the twenty-sixth year of his age. He had been\nordained a deacon, on June 16, 1783, and, a few months afterwards, had\nbeen ordained a priest by the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was now the\nCurate of the venerable Vicar of Shoreham, the Rev. Vincent Perronet,\nand wrote to Fletcher, asking his advice respecting pastoral visitation.\nFletcher replied, as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _March 29, 1785_.\n\n \u201cDEAR SIR,\u2014I did not answer your obliging letter, because I thought it\n would be presumption in me to advise you, when you have my reverend\n father, Mr. Perronet, to advise with. To send a line, in those\n circumstances, appeared to me like \u2018sending coals to Newcastle.\u2019\n\n \u201cHowever, having now an opportunity to forward a letter to London, I\n shall say what I have thought on the subject. It is exceeding well to\n visit from house to house, even the Infidels, to feel their pulse, and\n to see whether they do not begin to entertain more favourable thoughts\n of \u2018the pearl of great price\u2019 than grunting \u2018swine\u2019 or snarling \u2018dogs\u2019\n generally do. Such visits, half upon the footing of Christian love,\n and half upon the footing of human civility, may tend to remove\n prejudices. In some cases, writing a letter with tenderness, or giving\n a little tract suited to the circumstances of the person, may clear\n our own conscience, though it should do him no good.\n\n \u201cMy love, respects, and duty, to your venerable Vicar, who, I am told,\n is now your grandfather.[629] I hope the report is well grounded; and,\n if it is, I wish you joy on entering into so respectable a family; and\n I wish you and your partner all the help and comfort I find in mine;\n who, as well as myself, desires to be kindly remembered to all the\n dear family at Shoreham.\n\n \u201cI am, dear Sir, your affectionate brother and servant in Christ,\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[630]\n\nFootnote 629:\n\n This was a premature statement. Mr. Dickenson did not marry Miss\n Briggs, Mr. Perronet\u2019s grand-daughter, until three years later.\n\nFootnote 630:\n\n _Wesleyan Methodist Magazine_, 1825, p. 745.\n\nThe Rev. Melville Horne was one of Fletcher\u2019s protegees. At Wesley\u2019s\nConference, in 1784, he had been \u201cadmitted on trial,\u201d as a Methodist\nItinerant Preacher, and appointed to the Liverpool circuit. It is well\nknown that, after this, he obtained episcopal ordination, became curate\nat Madeley, published a collection of Fletcher\u2019s letters in 1791, went\nas a missionary to Western Africa, and, on his return to England, rose\nto considerable distinction. Fletcher had lent the young itinerant\ncertain books, and now wrote to him the following letter, which refers\nto a practice which must have been of recent adoption. Romaine made it a\nrule to read nothing but the Bible; wisely or unwisely, Fletcher had\nbegun, to some extent, to copy his example:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _May 10, 1785_.\n\n \u201cDEAR BROTHER,\u2014I am sorry you should have been uneasy about the books.\n I received them safely, after they had lain for some days at Salop. I\n seldom look into any book but my Bible; not out of contempt, as if I\n thought they cannot teach me what I do not know; but because, \u2018_Vita\n brevis, ars longa_,\u2019 I may never look into them again.\n\n \u201cGo on improving yourself by reading, but above all by _meditation_\n and _prayer_: and allow our Lord to refine you in the fire of\n temptation. Where you see a want, at home or abroad, within or\n without, look upon that want as a warning to avoid the cause of the\n leanness you perceive, and a call to secure the blessings which are\n ready to take their flight; for sometimes \u2018_the true riches_,\u2019 like\n those of this world, make themselves wings and flee away. The heavenly\n dove may be grieved, and take its flight to humbler and more peaceful\n roofs. I am glad you do not want hard or violent measures: I hope you\n will never countenance them, no, not against what you dislike. I\n believe things will turn out very well at the Conference, and I shall\n be a witness of it, if the Lord gives me a commission to be a\n spectator of the order and quietness of those who shall be there. If\n not, I shall help you by prayer to draw the blessing of love upon our\n friends.[631]\n\n \u201cIn being moderate, humble, and truly desirous to be a Christian,\u2014that\n is, to be the _least_, the _last_, and the _servant_ of all, we avoid\n running ourselves into difficulties; we escape many temptations, and\n many mortifying disappointments. For my part, as I expect nothing from\n men, they cannot disappoint me; and, as I expect all good things from\n God, in the _time_, _way_, _measure_, and _manner_ it pleaseth Him to\n bestow, here I cannot be disappointed; because He does, and will do,\n all things well.\n\n \u201cI trust you labour for God and souls, not for praise and self. When\n the latter are our aim, God, in mercy, blesses us with barrenness,\n that we may give up Barabbas, and release the humble Jesus, whom we\n crucify afresh by setting the thief on the throne, and the Lord of\n glory as our footstool: for so do those who preach Christ out of\n contention, or that they may have the praise of men.\n\n \u201cThat God may bless you and your labours is the prayer of your old\n brother,\n\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[632]\n\nFootnote 631:\n\n Evidently, Fletcher hoped to attend Wesley\u2019s Conference, begun in\n London on July 26, 1785, but his hope was not fulfilled.\n\nFootnote 632:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 309.\n\nA capital letter for a young Methodist preacher, like Melville Horne,\nwho, six years afterwards, published it for the benefit of all Methodist\nprobationers.\n\nAt this time, fever was raging at Madeley. Mr. W. Bosanquet, in an\nunpublished letter, addressed to his sister, Mrs. Fletcher, and dated\n\u201cBishopsgate Street, May 16, 1785,\u201d observed:\u2014\n\n \u201cI am very happy to hear that both you and Mr. Fletcher have escaped\n the fevers, having been so much among them. The poor must feel\n themselves greatly obliged for this; for it is of much more use to\n visit them when sick than even to give them money.\u201d\n\nThe revered Vicar of Shoreham, the Rev. Vincent Perronet, died exactly a\nweek before the date of this letter, and was buried on May 14, by\nCharles Wesley, who wrote to Mrs. Fletcher, as follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cMARYLEBONE, _May 24, 1785_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR SISTER,\u2014If you love Mr. Fletcher, you ought to love the poor\n Methodists; for to their prayers you owe him, and he you. I found\n words, and the people faith, while we heard, at Bristol\u201d (in 1776),\n \u201cthat our friend was just departing.[633] You have been the instrument\n of adding some years to his valuable life. Remember, for the short\n time that I shall want your prayers, my dear friend, your old faithful\n servant,\n\n \u201cC. WESLEY.\u201d\n\nFootnote 633:\n\n The reference is to the hymn quoted at page 362 of the present work.\n\nAnd then, on the same sheet, the poet of Methodism wrote to Fletcher\nhimself the following:\u2014\n\n \u201cMY VERY DEAR BROTHER,\u2014You ought to have paid the last office, instead\n of me, to our most venerable Archbishop at Shoreham. On Sunday, I\n deposited the sacred ashes in his partner\u2019s grave, and preached twice.\n His death was such as his life promised. For many years, he breathed\n the pure spirit of love. The survivor who follows him nearest is\n _longo proximus intervallo_.\n\n \u201cA fortnight ago, I preached the condemned sermon to above twenty\n criminals. Every one of them, I have good grounds to believe, died\n penitent. Twenty more must die next week.\n\n \u201cSally presents her duty and love: the rest join. Direct to me in\n Marylebone, and help me to depart in peace.\u201d[634]\n\nFootnote 634:\n\n \u201cMemoir of Mrs. Mortimer,\u201d p. 101.\n\nThis, probably, was the last letter which Fletcher received from his old\nand loving friend. Within three years afterwards, Charles Wesley did\n\u201cdepart in peace.\u201d Fletcher\u2019s last letters, written eight weeks after\nthe date of the foregoing, were addressed to James Ireland, Esq., and to\nLady Mary Fitzgerald. It has been already stated that fever was fatally\nprevalent at Madeley in the summer of 1785, and an extract from a letter\nwritten by William Bosanquet, Esq., expressing his happiness that\nFletcher and his wife had escaped the pestilence, has been already\ngiven. Soon after that, the sister of Mr. Bosanquet caught the\ninfection; and Fletcher wrote as follows to Mr. Ireland:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _July 19, 1785_.\n\n \u201cMY DEAR FRIEND,\u2014Blessed be God, we are still alive, and, in the midst\n of many infirmities, we enjoy a degree of health, spiritually and\n bodily. O how good was the Lord, to come as Son of man to live here\n for us, and to come in His Spirit to live in us for ever! This is a\n mystery of godliness. The Lord make us _full_ witnesses of it!\n\n \u201cA week ago, I was tried to the quick by a fever with which my dear\n wife was afflicted. Two persons, whom she had visited, having been\n carried off, within a pistol-shot of our house, I dreaded her being\n the third. But the Lord has heard prayer, and she is spared. Oh, what\n is life! \u2018On what a slender thread hang everlasting things!\u2019 My\n comfort, however, is, that this _thread_ is as strong as the will of\n God, and the word of His grace, which cannot be broken.\n\n \u201cThat grace and peace, love and thankful joy, may ever attend you is\n the wish of your most obliged friends,\n\n \u201cJOHN AND MARY FLETCHER.\u201d[635]\n\nFootnote 635:\n\n Letters, 1791, p. 310.\n\nThe day after this, he wrote the following to the Right Honorable Lady\nMary Fitzgerald:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _July 20, 1785_.\n\n \u201cHON. AND DEAR LADY,\u2014We have received your kind letter, and have\n mournfully acquiesced in the will of our heavenly Father, who, by\n various infirmities and providences, weans us from ourselves and our\n friends, that we may be His without reserve. It was, perhaps, a\n peculiar mercy that Providence blocked up your way to this place this\n summer. A bad putrid fever carries off several people in these parts.\n Two of our neighbours died of it last week; and my wife, who had\n visited them, was taken in so violent a manner, that I was obliged to\n offer her up to God in good earnest, as an oblation worthy a son of\n Abraham. I hope the worst is over; but her weakness will long preach\n to me, as well as my own.\n\n \u201cDying people, we live in the midst of dying people. O let us live in\n sight of a dying, rising Saviour; and the prospect of death will\n become first tolerable, and then joyous! Or, if we weep, as our Lord,\n at the grave of our friends, or at the side of their deathbeds, we\n shall triumph in hope that all will be for the glory of God, and the\n good of our souls.\n\n \u201cI am, my dear lady, etc.,\n \u201cJOHN FLETCHER.\u201d[636]\n\nFootnote 636:\n\n Fletcher\u2019s Works, vol. viii., p. 329.\n\nTwenty-five days after writing this, his last letter, Fletcher himself\nwas dead. His wife, who had so narrowly escaped becoming a victim to the\nprevailing fever, shall tell the remainder of his earthly story. The day\nafter the funeral, she wrote a letter to Wesley, a copy of which she\nimmediately gave to Fletcher\u2019s \u201cold friend, Winifred Edmunds, whose\nson,\u201d says she, \u201cprints it for the satisfaction of many who have made\napplications for some account of God\u2019s dealings with my beloved husband.\nI consider this a debt I owe to his dear orphans at Madeley; and, as it\nis probable I may be called away by the same fever, perhaps this may be\nthe last office of love I can yield them.\u201d The title of the publication\nwas, \u201cA Letter to the Rev. Mr. Wesley, on the Death of the Rev. Mr.\nFletcher, Vicar of Madeley, in Shropshire. Madeley: Printed by J.\nEdmunds.\u201d 16mo, 16 pp. About the same time, however, Mrs. Fletcher\nwrote a much longer account, which was printed with the following title:\n\u201cA Letter to Mons. H. L. de la Flechere, Assessor Ballival of Nyon, in\nthe Canton of Berne, Switzerland, on the Death of his Brother, the\nReverend John William De la Flechere, Twenty-five Years Vicar of\nMadeley, Shropshire. London, 1786.\u201d 12mo, 64 pp. From these two\npublications, the following account is taken. Writing to Fletcher\u2019s\nbrother, the mourning widow said:\u2014\n\n \u201cAs there is no one to whom my dearest husband was more closely united\n than yourself, so there is no one who can more tenderly sympathize\n with me in a loss _so mutual_. You have expressed a desire to receive\n from my own pen some account of a life the most angelic I have ever\n known; and I will endeavour to comply with your request as far as my\n weak state of body and torn nerves will permit.\n\n \u201cFrom the beginning, he was a laborious workman in his Lord\u2019s\n vineyard, till he had spent himself in the best of services and was\n ripening fast for glory. Those sinners who fled from him he pursued to\n every corner of his parish by all sorts of ways, public and private,\n early and late, in season and out of season, entreating and warning\n them to flee from the wrath to come. Some made it an excuse for not\n attending the service on Sunday _mornings_ that they did not awake\n early enough to get their families ready. He promised to be their\n watchman; and, taking a bell in his hand, was accustomed, at five in\n the morning, to go round the more distant parts of the parish,\n reminding the inhabitants of their invitation to the house of God.\n\n \u201cBut he did not confine his labours to this parish. For many years, he\n regularly preached at places eight, ten, or sixteen miles distant,\n returning home the same night, though he seldom reached it before one\n or two in the morning. At a little Society, which he had gathered\n about six miles from Madeley, he preached two or three times in a week\n at five in the morning. As to visiting the sick, this was a duty for\n which he was ever ready. If he heard the knocker in the middle of the\n coldest winter night, his window was instantly thrown up, and the\n uniform answer was, \u2018_I will attend you immediately_.\u2019\n\n \u201cHis frequent journeys to Trevecca, where he superintended a college\n of young men designed for the ministry, added much to his other\n fatigues,\u2014riding on bad roads and wading through waters. Very often,\n in travelling through Wales, he was obliged to lie in damp and\n unsuitable lodgings; which, I have heard him observe, gave a deep\n stroke to his constitution.\n\n \u201cWith regard to the _success_ of his labours, it is a subject on which\n he has so often stopped my mouth that I will only say, besides the\n great reformation that has taken place in this parish, as to outward\n behaviour, he has left behind him a goodly company of upright, earnest\n people, whom he had gathered into little Societies, and who now mourn,\n as sheep bereaved of their dear shepherd.\n\n \u201cNever did I behold any one more dead to the things of the world. I\n have heard him say he was never happier than when he had given away\n the last penny he had in the house. If at any time I had gold in the\n drawer, it seemed to afford him no comfort; but if he could find a\n handful of small silver when going out to visit the sick, he would\n express as much pleasure over it as a miser would in discovering a bag\n of hidden treasure. He was never better pleased with my employment\n than when he had set me to prepare food or physic for the poor. He\n could hardly relish his dinner if some sick neighbour had not a part;\n nor could I sometimes keep the linen in his drawers for the same\n reason. On Sabbath days, he provided refreshments for numbers of\n people who came from a distance to hear the Word, and his house was\n devoted to their convenience. Once a poor widow, who feared God, being\n brought into difficulties, he immediately took all his pewter from the\n kitchen shelves, saying, \u2018This I can do without; it will relieve your\n want, and a wooden trencher serves me better.\u2019 Sometimes, in epidemic\n disorders, when the neighbours were afraid to nurse the sick, he has\n gone from house to house seeking help for them; and, when none could\n be found, has offered to sit up with the sick himself. In his younger\n years, he was ready to weep when five or six letters were brought, at\n threepence or fourpence a-piece, and he, perhaps, had only a shilling\n in the house to distribute among the poor to whom he was going.\n Frequently would he say to me, \u2018O Mary, cannot we do without beer? Let\n us drink water, and buy less meat, that our necessities may give way\n to the extremities of the poor.\u2019 But with all his charity, he was\n careful to avoid debts. While he gave all he could, he made it a rule\n to pay ready money for everything, believing this was the only way to\n keep the mind free from cares.\n\n \u201cHe always had a steady, firm reliance upon the love and faithfulness\n of God. Sometimes, when I have expressed a fear of trials, he would\n answer, \u2018The Lord orders all, and I leave everything to Him. I always\n seem conscious He gives His angels charge concerning us, and therefore\n think we are equally safe everywhere.\u2019 He had many remarkable\n deliverances. Sometimes, both himself and his horse, in dark nights,\n have fallen down steep places, and yet both have been preserved. Once,\n I believe in Wales, in passing over a wooden bridge it broke asunder,\n and he and his mare sank into the river, but both got safe to land.\n\n \u201cA little before his last illness, being on his knees in prayer for\n light whether he should go to London or not,[637] the answer seemed to\n him, \u2018No, not to London, but to your grave.\u2019 Acquainting me with this,\n he said, with a heavenly smile, \u2018Satan would represent this as\n something awful, _the cold grave, the cold grave_!\u2019 On the following\n Sabbath (which I think was the next day), the anthem sung in the\n church was the Twenty-third Psalm. On his return home, he observed how\n the words of the Psalm had been blest to him; and from that time he\n seemed to be without the least temptation.\n\n \u201cStill, there was scarce a night but some part of it was spent in\n groans for the souls and bodies of those committed to his care. I\n really dreaded his hearing either of the sins or sufferings of any of\n his people before he went to bed, knowing how strong the impression\n would be upon his mind.\n\n \u201cIn the last years of his life, he never, except once, travelled far\n from home without being in danger of a relapse into his consumption;\n and after his return, he would be weeks before he recovered his usual\n strength. He also sometimes said to me that, though he had been\n engaged in the work of the Lord in various places and situations, the\n seasons of his closest communion with God were always in his own house\n and church.\n\n \u201cWith regard to his communion with God, he constantly endeavoured to\n maintain an uninterrupted sense of the Divine presence. In order to\n this, he was slow of speech, and had the greatest government of his\n words. He acted, he spake, he thought, as under the immediate eye of\n God. Thus setting God always before him, he remained unmoved, at all\n times possessing internal recollection. I never saw him diverted\n therefrom on any occasion whatever. I travelled with him above a\n thousand miles, during which journeys neither change of company,\n place, nor circumstances ever seemed to make the least difference in\n his fixed attention to the presence of God. He was always striving to\n raise his own and every other spirit into close and immediate\n intercourse with God; and I can say, with truth, that all his union\n with me was so mingled with prayer and praise, that every employment\n and every meal were perfumed therewith.\n\n \u201cSome time ago, when the fever began to rage among us, he preached a\n sermon on visiting the sick; in which he seemed to be carried out of\n himself, observing, \u2018What do you fear? You are afraid of catching the\n distemper, and of dying with those who have it. O fear no more! What\n an honour to die in your Master\u2019s service! If this were permitted to\n me, I should esteem it a singular favour.\u2019\n\n \u201cDuring the last few months, though his health and strength sensibly\n increased, he was constantly crying out for dying grace. Often would\n he say, \u2018O Mary, I am afraid lest we should have our good things here.\n Let us look up. Let us live above all. We have one foot in the grave.\u2019\n He scarcely ever lay down or rose up without repeating\u2014\n\n \u201cI nothing have, I nothing am;\n My treasure\u2019s in the bleeding Lamb,\n Both now and evermore.\n\n \u201cThere was scarce an hour in which he was not calling upon me to drop\n every thought and every care, that we might attend to nothing but\n drinking deeper into God. We spent much time in prayer for the fulness\n of the Spirit, and were led to an act of _abandonment_ (as we called\n it) of our whole selves into the hands of God, to do or to suffer\n whatever was pleasing to Him.\n\n \u201cOn Thursday, August 4, he was occupied in the work of God from three\n in the afternoon till nine at night; when he came home, and said, \u2018I\n have taken cold.\u2019 On Friday and Saturday, he was poorly; but went out\n part of each day, and seemed uncommonly drawn out in prayer.\n\n \u201cOn Saturday night, his fever first appeared very strong. I begged him\n not to go to the church in the morning; but to let a pious\n brother,[638] who was with us, preach in the yard; but he told me, it\n was the will of the Lord that he should go. When I met a little\n company of our pious women, on Sunday morning, I begged they would\n pray that he might be strengthened. In reading the prayers, he almost\n fainted. I got through the crowd, with a friend, and entreated him to\n come out of the desk, as did some others; but, in his sweet manner, he\n let us know we were not to interrupt the order of God. I then retired\n to my pew. All around me were in tears. When he was a little\n refreshed, by the windows being opened and a nosegay thrown into the\n desk by a friend, he proceeded with the service. Going into the\n pulpit, he preached with a strength and recollection which surprised\n us all. In his first prayer, he said, \u2018Lord, Thou wilt manifest Thy\n strength in weakness. We confer not with flesh and blood; but put our\n trust under the shadow of Thy wings.\u2019\n\n \u201cHis text was, \u2018O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast. How excellent\n is Thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their\n trust under the shadow of Thy wings.\u2019 After sermon, he went up the\n aisle to the communion-table, with these words, \u2018I am going to throw\n myself under the wings of the cherubim, before the mercy-seat.\u2019 The\n congregation was large, and the service lasted till nearly two\n o\u2019clock. Sometimes he could scarcely stand, and was often obliged to\n stop for want of power to speak. The people were deeply affected.\n Weeping was on every side. Notwithstanding his extreme weakness, he\n gave out several verses of hymns, and uttered various lively sentences\n of exhortation.\n\n \u201cAs soon as the service was over, we hurried him away to bed, where he\n immediately fainted. He then dropped into a sleep for some time; and,\n when he awoke, he cried out, with a pleasant smile, \u2018Now, my dear,\n thou seest I am no worse for doing the Lord\u2019s work. He never fails me\n when I trust in Him.\u2019 He dozed most of the evening, now and then\n awaking full of the praises of God. At night, his fever returned, and\n his strength decreased amazingly.\n\n \u201cOn Monday and Tuesday, he lay on a couch in the study, was at times\n very restless, but often slept. When awake, he was delighted in\n hearing me read hymns, and tracts on faith and love. His words were\n animating, and his patience beyond expression. I asked, \u2018Hast thou any\n conviction that the Lord is about to take thee?\u2019 He answered, \u2018No, not\n in particular; only I always see death so near, that we both seem to\n stand on the verge of eternity.\u2019 Sometimes he would say, \u2018O Polly!\n shall I ever see the day when thou must be carried out to be buried? I\n shrink at giving my dear Polly to the worms.\u2019 Awaking on one occasion,\n he said, \u2018It was Israel\u2019s fault that they asked _for signs_. We will\n not do so; but, abandoning our whole selves into the hands of God, we\n will there lie patiently, assured that He will do all things well.\u2019\n\n \u201cOn Wednesday, August 10, he told me, he had received such a\n manifestation of the full meaning of the words, \u2018_God is love_,\u2019 as he\n could not tell. \u2018It _fills me_,\u2019 he said, \u2018it _fills me_ every moment.\n O Polly! my dear Polly! _God is love!_ Shout! Shout aloud! Oh! it so\n fills me, that I want a gust of praise to go to the ends of the earth.\n But it seems as if I could not speak much longer. Let us fix upon a\n sign between ourselves\u2019 (tapping me twice with his finger). \u2018By this I\n mean _God is love, and we will draw each other into God. Observe! by\n this we will draw each other into God._\u2019 Sally coming in, he cried, \u2018O\n Sally! _God is love!_ Shout, both of you! I want to hear you shout His\n praise!\u2019 All this time, his medical attendant hoped he was in no\n danger. He knew his disease to be the fever; but, as he had no bad\n headache, slept much without the least delirium, and had an almost\n regular pulse, the symptoms were thought to be favourable.\n\n \u201cOn Thursday, August 11, his speech began to fail; but to his friendly\n doctor he would not be silent while he had any power to speak, often\n saying, \u2018O Sir, you take much thought for my body; give me leave to\n take thought for your soul.\u2019 When I could scarcely understand anything\n he said, I spoke the words, \u2018_God is love!_\u2019 Instantly he caught them,\n and broke out in a rapture, \u2018God is _love, love, love_! O for the gust\n of praise I want to sound!\u2019 Here his voice again failed. If I named\n his sufferings, he would smile, and make the sign.\n\n \u201cOn Friday, August 12, finding his body covered with spots, I so far\n understood them as to feel a sword pierce through my soul. As I knelt\n by his bed, with my hand in his, intreating the Lord to be with us in\n this tremendous hour, he strove to say many things, but could not. At\n length, pressing my hand, and often repeating the sign, he breathed\n out, \u2018Head of the Church, be head to my wife!\u2019 Sally said to him, \u2018My\n dear master, do you know _me_?\u2019 He replied, \u2018Sally, God will put His\n right hand under you.\u2019 She added, \u2018O my dear master, should you be\n taken away, what a disconsolate creature will my poor mistress be!\u2019 He\n answered, \u2018God will be her all in all.\u2019 He had always delighted in the\n lines\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018Jesu\u2019s blood, through earth and skies,\n Mercy, free, boundless mercy cries.\u2019\n\n \u201cWhen I repeated them to him, he cried, \u2018_Boundless, boundless!_\u2019 and\n added, though with great difficulty\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018Mercy\u2019s _full_ power _I soon_ shall prove,\n Lov\u2019d with an everlasting love.\u2019\n\n \u201cOn the afternoon of Saturday, August 13, while a few Christian\n friends were standing near his bed, he stretched out his hand to each\n of them, and, to a minister, remarked, \u2018Are you ready to assist\n to-morrow?\u2019 One asked, \u2018Do you think the Lord will raise you up?\u2019 He\n strove to answer, \u2018Raise in resur... raise in resur....\u2019 To another,\n who put the same question, he replied, \u2018I leave it all to God.\u2019 I\n said, \u2018My dear creature, I ask not for myself, but for the sake of\n others. If Jesus is very present with thee, lift thy right hand.\u2019 He\n did so. I added, \u2018If the prospect of glory opens before thee, repeat\n the sign.\u2019 He raised his hand again; and, in half a minute, a second\n time. After this, his dear hands moved no more; but, on my asking,\n \u2018Art thou in much pain?\u2019 he answered, \u2018No.\u2019\n\n \u201cFrom this time, he entered into a kind of sleep, though with his eyes\n open and fixed. Twenty-four hours, my dearly beloved breathed like a\n person in common sleep; and then, at thirty-five minutes past ten on\n Sunday night, August 14, his precious soul entered into the joy of his\n Lord, in the fifty-sixth year of his age. I was scarce a minute at a\n time from him, night or day, during his illness, and I can truly say\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018No cloud did arise, to darken the skies,\n Or hide for one moment his Lord from his eyes.\u2019\n\n \u201cAnd here I break off my mournful story. On my bleeding heart, his\n fair picture of heavenly excellence will be for ever drawn. When I\n call to mind his ardent zeal, his laborious endeavours to seek and\n save the lost, his diligence in the employment of his time, his\n Christlike condescension towards me, and his uninterrupted converse\n with heaven, I may well be allowed to add, my loss is beyond the power\n of words to paint.\n\n \u201cOn August 17, his dear remains were deposited in Madeley churchyard;\n amid the tears and lamentations of thousands, who flocked about the\n bier of their dead pastor. Between the house and the church, they sung\n these verses:\u2014\n\n \u201c\u2018With heavenly weapons he hath fought\n The battles of the Lord:\n Finish\u2019d his course, and kept the faith,\n And gain\u2019d the great reward.\n\n \u201c\u2018God hath laid up in heaven for him\n A crown which cannot fade;\n The righteous Judge, at that great day,\n Shall place it on his head.\u2019\n\n \u201cThe service was performed by the Rev. Mr. Hatton, Rector of\n Waters-Upton, whom the Lord moved, in a pathetic manner, to speak to\n the weeping flock. At my request, he read the following paper:\u2014[639]\n\n \u201c\u2018It was the desire of my beloved husband to be buried in this plain\n manner, and, out of tenderness, he begged that I might not be present.\n In all things I would obey him.\n\n \u201c\u2018Permit me, by the mouth of a friend, to bear my testimony, to the\n glory of God, that I never knew anyone walk so closely with God as he\n did. The Lord gave him a conscience tender as the apple of an eye. He\n literally preferred the interest of every one to his own. He shared\n _his all_ with the poor, who lay so close his heart, that, when his\n speech was so gone that he could utter nothing without difficulty, he\n cried out, \u201c_O my Poor!_ What will become of my Poor?\u201d He was blessed\n with so great a degree of humility as is scarcely to be found. I am\n witness, how often he has taken real pleasure in being treated with\n contempt. It seemed the very food of his soul, to be little and\n unknown. When he said to me, \u201cThou wilt write a line or two to my\n brother in Switzerland, if I die,\u201d I replied, \u201cMy dear, dear love, I\n will write him all the Lord\u2019s dealings with thee.\u201d \u201cNo, no,\u201d said he,\n \u201cwrite nothing about me. I only desire to be forgotten. _God is all._\u201d\n\n \u201c\u2018His diligent visitation of the sick laid the foundation of the\n spotted fever of which he died; and his vehement desire to take his\n last leave of _you_, with dying lips and hands, gave (it is supposed)\n the finishing stroke, by preparing his blood for putrefaction. Thus\n did he live and die your servant.\n\n \u201c\u2018He walked with death always in sight. About two months ago, he came\n to me and said, \u201cMy dear love, I know not how it is, but I have a\n strange impression death is very near us, as if it would be a sudden\n stroke upon one of us; and it draws out my soul in prayer that we may\n be ready.\u201d He then broke out, \u201cLord, prepare the soul Thou wilt call;\n and, O stand by the poor disconsolate one who shall be left behind!\u201d\n\n \u201c\u2018Three years, nine months, and two days, I have possessed my\n _heavenly-minded husband_; but now the sun of my earthly joy is _set\n for ever_.\u2019\u201d\n\nFootnote 637:\n\n No doubt to attend Wesley\u2019s Conference, which began on July 26.\n\nFootnote 638:\n\n No doubt, one of Wesley\u2019s preachers.\n\nFootnote 639:\n\n Mr. Hatton also preached a funeral sermon, founded on Hebrews xiii. 7.\n\nThis is a very artless story; but it is not less valuable because of\nthat. Mrs. Fletcher sent a copy to Charles Wesley, together with the\nfollowing note:\u2014\n\n \u201cMADELEY, _August 24, 1785_.\n\n \u201cDEAR SIR,\u2014Enclosed you have an account of my feelings when I thought\n myself dying, as did most about me. I prayed for strength to do\n justice to my dearest, dearest love. I wrote it in one day, but could\n not go over it a second time. Take it, then, as it flowed from my full\n heart, without a second thought, and pray for your deeply distressed\n friend. I cannot find your brother. I wrote to him at first, but have\n got no answer.\u201d[640]\n\nFootnote 640:\n\n Jackson\u2019s \u201cLife of C. Wesley,\u201d vol. ii., p. 432.\n\nWesley, in his eighty-third year, was in the west of England, travelling\nand preaching with surprising energy. On the day of Fletcher\u2019s death, he\npreached twice at Salisbury; then hastened to Shaftesbury, Castle-Carey,\nShepton-Mallet, Taunton, Collumpton, Exeter, and Plymouth; then went\nright through Cornwall; and, on September 3, got to Bristol, in the\nneighbourhood of which city he spent a month. On October 3, he came to\nLondon; then made what he calls \u201ca little excursion\u201d into Hertfordshire,\nanother into Oxfordshire, and a third into Norfolk. Here, at Norwich, on\nOctober 24, he found time to write a sermon on the death of Fletcher,\nwhich he delivered in London on November 6. The sermon was published\nimmediately, with the following address \u201cTo the reader\u201d prefixed[641]:\u2014\n\n \u201cA consciousness of my own inability to describe, in a manner worthy\n of the subject, such a person as Mr. Fletcher, was one great reason of\n my not writing this sooner. I judged, only an _Apelles_ was proper to\n paint an _Alexander_. But I, at length, submitted to importunity, and\n hastily put together some memorials of this great man: intending, if\n God permit, when I have more leisure and more materials, to write a\n fuller account of his life.\n\n \u201cJOHN WESLEY.\n\n \u201cLondon, _November 9, 1785_.\u201d\n\nFootnote 641:\n\n The title was, \u201cA Sermon preached on the Occasion of the Death of the\n Rev. Mr. John Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, Shropshire. By John Wesley,\n A.M.\u201d 12mo. 32 pp.\n\nThe concluding paragraph of Wesley\u2019s sermon must be quoted:\u2014\n\n \u201cFor many years, I despaired of finding any inhabitant of Great\n Britain that could stand in any degree of comparison with Gregory\n Lopez, or Monsieur de Renty. But let any impartial person judge, if\n Mr. Fletcher was at all inferior to them? Did he not experience as\n deep communion with God, and as high a measure of inward holiness, as\n was experienced either by one or the other of those burning and\n shining lights? And it is certain his outward holiness shone before\n men, with full as bright a lustre as theirs. But if any should attempt\n to draw a parallel between them, there are two circumstances that\n deserve consideration. One is, we are not assured that the writers of\n _their_ Lives did not extenuate, if not suppress, what was amiss in\n them. And some things amiss we are assured there were, namely, many\n touches of superstition, and some of idolatry, in worshipping Saints,\n the Virgin Mary in particular. But I have not suppressed or extenuated\n anything in Mr. Fletcher\u2019s character. For indeed I knew nothing that\n was amiss, nothing that needed to be extenuated, much less suppressed.\n A second circumstance is, that the Writers of _their_ Lives could not\n have so full a knowledge of them, as both Mrs. Fletcher and I had of\n Mr. Fletcher, being both eye and ear-witnesses of his whole conduct.\n Consequently, we know that his life was not sullied with any mixture\n of either idolatry or superstition. I was intimately acquainted with\n him for above thirty years. I conversed with him morning, noon, and\n night, without the least reserve, during a journey of many hundred\n miles. And, in all that time, I never heard him speak one improper\n word, nor saw him do an improper action.\u2014To conclude. Many exemplary\n men have I known, holy in heart and life, within fourscore years. But\n one equal to him I have not known: one so inwardly and outwardly\n devoted to God. So unblameable a character in every respect, I have\n not found either in Europe or America. And I scarce expect to find\n another such, on this side eternity.\u201d\n\nHuman praise could not be higher than this; and yet even the _Monthly\nReview_, which had so often and so unjustly denounced the Methodists, in\nits notice of Wesley\u2019s sermon, remarked:\u2014\n\n \u201cMr. Fletcher was one of the most considerable among the Methodist\n ministers of the Wesleyan division. We have long been acquainted with\n his good character; and we firmly believe that the high encomiums here\n passed on him were justly merited in their fullest extent.\u201d[642]\n\nFootnote 642:\n\n _Monthly Review_, 1786, p. 79.\n\nScores of other eulogies have been written, but only four shall be added\nhere, and these by persons who were well acquainted with the man of whom\nthey speak.\n\nThe Rev. Joshua Gilpin\u2019s elaborate biographical \u201cNotes,\u201d interspersed in\nFletcher\u2019s \u201cPortrait of St. Paul,\u201d are too numerous and lengthened to be\nintroduced, but an extract from the last of them (the twenty-ninth) must\nbe given:\u2014\n\n \u201cOn the day of Mr. Fletcher\u2019s departure, as I was preparing to attend\n my own church, which was at the distance of nine miles from Madeley, I\n received a message from Mrs. Fletcher, requesting my immediate\n attendance at the vicarage. I instantly followed the messenger, and\n found Mr. Fletcher with every symptom of approaching dissolution upon\n him. I had ever looked up to this man of God with an extraordinary\n degree of affection and reverence; and, on this afflicting occasion,\n my heart was uncommonly affected and depressed. It was now in vain to\n recollect that public duty required my presence in another place.\n Unfitted for every duty, except that of silently watching the bed of\n death, I found it impossible to withdraw from the solemn scene. I had\n received from this evangelical teacher, in days that were past, many\n excellent precepts with respect to _holy living_; and now I desired to\n receive from him the last important lesson with respect to _holy\n dying_. And truly this concluding lesson was of inestimable worth,\n since so much patience and resignation, so much peace and composure,\n were scarcely ever discovered in the same circumstances before.\n\n \u201cWhile their pastor was breathing out his soul into the hands of a\n faithful Creator, his people were offering up their joint\n supplications on his behalf in the house of God. Little, however, was\n seen among them but affliction and tears.[643] The whole village wore\n an air of consternation and sadness, and not one joyful song was heard\n among its inhabitants. Hasty messengers were passing to and fro with\n anxious enquiries and confused reports; and the members of every\n family sat together in silence that day, awaiting, with trembling\n expectation, the issue of every hour. After the conclusion of the\n evening service, several of the poor, who came from distant parts, and\n who were usually entertained under Mr. Fletcher\u2019s roof, still lingered\n about the house, and seemed unable to tear themselves away from the\n place without a sight of their expiring pastor. Secretly informed of\n their desire, I obtained them the permission they wished; and the door\n of the chamber being set open, immediately before which Mr. Fletcher\n was sitting upright in his bed, with the curtains undrawn, they slowly\n moved, one by one, along the gallery, severally pausing as they passed\n by the door, and casting in a look of mingled supplication and\n anguish. It was, indeed, an affecting sight.\n\n \u201cAnd now the hour speedily approached that was to put a solemn\n termination to our hopes and fears. His weakness very perceptibly\n increased, but his countenance continued unaltered to the last. Mrs.\n Fletcher was kneeling by the side other departing husband, the medical\n attendant sat at his head, while I sorrowfully waited near his feet.\n Uncertain whether or not he was totally separated from us, we pressed\n nearer; but his warfare was accomplished, and the happy spirit had\n taken its everlasting flight.\u201d\n\nFootnote 643:\n\n Another writer, who was present, relates that the congregation sang,\n or tried to sing, the affecting hymn which was composed and used at\n the time of Fletcher\u2019s dangerous illness in 1776 (see pp. 362 and\n 368). He further says, \u201cI never was witness to a scene so impressive\n and pathetic. Every breast felt, every countenance expressed, one\n common sentiment. Tears, sobs, and suppressed groans showed how\n sincerely the people esteemed their venerable pastor. When the hymn\n was sung, there was a general burst of sorrow. Even those who had\n spurned his instructions, deprecated his death as a public loss, and\n expressed their grief with uncommon agitation.\u201d (_Methodist Magazine_,\n 1802, p. 572.)\n\nJames Ireland, Esq., was one of Fletcher\u2019s most loving and well-beloved\nfriends. In an unpublished letter, addressed to Mrs. Fletcher, and dated\n\u201cBrislington, November 6, 1785,\u201d he says, Wesley had informed him he was\nabout to write the \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d and had asked him to supply\nmaterials. In his reply, he had said, \u201cI cannot assist _you_ to write\nthe life of my dear friend, though I have ever respected and honoured\nyou.\u201d Mr. Ireland adds, that whatever information he can furnish he will\nsend to Mrs. Fletcher, and leave it to her to use as she thinks best. He\nthen proceeds:\u2014\n\n \u201cI have often felt that I would have divided my last shilling with Mr.\n Fletcher. We were once for months together, day and night; and when we\n parted, we both wept. Such a soul I never knew; such a great man, in\n every sense of the word. He was too great to bear the name of any\n sect. Mr. Townsend, with whom I lately parted, speaks of him as the\n greatest man that has lived in this century, and begs his life may not\n be penned in haste.\u201d\n\nIn another unpublished letter, also addressed to Mrs. Fletcher, and\ndated \u201cOctober 6, 1786,\u201d Mr. Ireland wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cI never saw Mr. Fletcher\u2019s equal. On him great grace was bestowed.\n What deadness to the world! What spiritual mindedness! What zeal for\n souls! What communion with God! What intercourse with heaven! What\n humility at the feet of Jesus! What moderation towards all men! What\n love for the poor! In short, he possessed the mind which was in Christ\n Jesus.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Rev. Henry Venn, after reading Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d wrote\nas follows to Lady Mary Fitzgerald:\u2014\n\n \u201cYelling, March 3, 1787. Mr. Fletcher\u2019s _humility_ was so unfeigned\n and so deep, that when I thanked him for two sermons he had one day\n preached to my people at Huddersfield, he answered as no man ever did\n to me. With eyes and hands uplifted, he exclaimed, \u2018Pardon, pardon,\n pardon, O my God!\u2019 The words went to my very soul. Great grace was\n upon this blessed servant of Christ.\n\n \u201c_Love to man_ and bowels of mercies displayed in him a noble\n imitation of his Incarnate God. He indeed thought a day lost, and\n could find no rest in his soul, unless he was doing good to the bodies\n and souls of men.\n\n \u201c_Love to the Lord._\u2014How did it govern and flourish in dear Mr.\n Fletcher! His admirable consort tells us, he scarcely was awake in the\n night a moment without lifting up his soul to God in holy aspirations.\n\n \u201cI have seen Mr. Fletcher, for six weeks together, under a hectic\n fever, sometimes spitting blood, when night after night he could rest\n very little\u2014_well pleased to suffer_\u2014never complaining, never but\n cheerful. Once, when I asked him how he did, \u2018Oh!\u2019 said he, \u2018how light\n is the chastisement I suffer! How heavy the strokes I deserve! I love\n the rod of my heavenly Father!\u2019 Like his Saviour, he could continue in\n prayer, in the wood, all night long; and, like Him, lie prostrate on\n the ground, pleading for grace to fulfil his ministry.\u201d[644]\n\nFootnote 644:\n\n \u201cLife of Rev. H. Venn,\u201d pp. 578\u2013584.\n\nBetween Fletcher and Joseph Benson there was a most intimate and\nconfidential friendship. Benson, in a letter to Wesley, wrote:\u2014\n\n \u201cAs to _drawing_ the character of that great and good man, Mr.\n Fletcher, it is what I will not attempt. I have been looking over many\n of his letters, and observe in them all, what I have a thousand times\n observed in his conversation and behaviour, the plainest marks of\n every Christian grace and virtue.\n\n \u201cPerhaps, if he followed his Master more closely in one thing than\n another, it was in _humility_. He was constantly upon his guard lest\n any expression should drop, either from his lips or pen, which tended\n to make anyone think well of him; either on account of his family, or\n learning, or parts, or usefulness. He took as much pains to _conceal\n his_ excellences, as others do to _show theirs_.\n\n \u201cHe was a man of a _serious spirit_, one that stood at the utmost\n distance from levity of every kind. Though he was constantly cheerful,\n as rejoicing in hope of his heavenly inheritance, yet he had too deep\n a sense of his own wants, and the wants of the Church of God, as also\n of the sins and miseries of mankind, to be at any time light or\n trifling.\n\n \u201cIn _hungering and thirsting after righteousness_, he was peculiarly\n worthy of our imitation. He never rested in anything he had either\n experienced or done in spiritual matters. He was a true Christian\n racer, always on the stretch for higher and better things. Though his\n attainments, both in experience and usefulness, were far above the\n common standard, yet the language of his conversation and behaviour\n always was, \u2018Not as though I had already attained, either were already\n perfected; but I follow after, if by any means I may apprehend that\n for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.\u2019 He had his eye upon a\n full conformity to the Son of God; or what the Apostle terms, \u2018the\n measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.\u2019 Nor could he be\n satisfied with anything less.\n\n \u201cHe was _meek_, like his Master, as well as _lowly in heart_. Not that\n he was so by nature, but of a fiery, passionate spirit; insomuch that\n he has frequently thrown himself on the floor, and lain there most of\n the night bathed in tears, imploring victory over his own temper. And\n he did obtain the victory, in a very eminent degree. For twenty years\n and upwards before his death, no one ever saw him out of temper, or\n heard him utter a rash expression, on any provocation whatever.[645]\n And he did not want provocation, and that sometimes in a high degree;\n especially from those whose religious sentiments he thought it his\n duty to oppose. But none of these things moved him: no, not in the\n least degree. The keenest word he used was, \u2018What a world, what a\n religious world we live in!\u2019 I have often thought the testimony, that\n Bishop Burnet bears of Archbishop Leighton, might be borne of him with\n equal propriety: \u2018After an intimate acquaintance of many years, and\n after being with him by night and by day, at home and abroad, in\n public and in private, on sundry occasions and in various affairs,\u2014I\n must say, I never heard an idle word drop from his lips, nor any\n conversation which was not to the use of edifying. I never saw him in\n any temper, in which I myself would not have wished to be found at\n death.\u2019 Any one, who has been intimately acquainted with Mr. Fletcher,\n will say the same of him: and they who knew him best will say it with\n the most assurance.\n\n \u201cHence arose his readiness to bear with the weaknesses, and forgive\n the faults of others: which was the more remarkable, considering his\n flaming zeal against sin, and his concern for the glory of God. Such\n hatred to sin, and such love to the sinner, I never saw joined\n together before.\n\n \u201cHe never mentioned the faults of an absent person, unless absolute\n duty required it. And then he spoke with the utmost tenderness,\n extenuating, rather than aggravating. None could draw his picture more\n exactly than St. Paul has done, in the thirteenth chapter of the first\n Epistle to the Corinthians. \u2018He suffered long and was kind; he envied\n not; acted not rashly; was not puffed up; did not behave himself\n unseemly; sought not his own; was not easily provoked; he thought no\n evil; rejoiced not in iniquity, but rejoiced in the truth; he covered\n all things; believed all things; hoped all things; and endured all\n things.\u2019 It would be easy to enlarge on all these particulars, and\n show how they were exemplified in him; but, waiving this, I would only\n observe, that, with regard to two of them, _kindness_ to others, and\n _not seeking his own_, he had few equals.\n\n \u201cHis _kindness_ to others was such, that he bestowed his all upon\n them: his time, his talents, his substance. His knowledge, his\n eloquence, his health, his money, were employed, day by day, for the\n good of mankind. He prayed, he wrote, he preached, he visited the sick\n and well, he conversed, he gave, he laboured, he suffered, winter and\n summer, night and day: he endangered, nay, destroyed his health, and\n in the end gave his life also for the profit of his neighbours, that\n they might be saved from everlasting death. He denied himself even of\n such food as was necessary for him, that he might have to give to them\n that had none. And when he was constrained to change his manner of\n living, still his diet was plain and simple. And so were his clothing\n and furniture, that he might save all that was possible for his poor\n neighbours.\n\n \u201cHe _sought not his own_ in any sense: not his own honour, but the\n honour of God, in all he said or did. He sought not his own interest,\n but the interest of his Lord, spreading knowledge, holiness, and\n happiness, as far as he possibly could. He sought not his own\n pleasure, but studied to \u2018please all men, for their good to\n edification;\u2019 and to please Him that had called him to His kingdom and\n glory.\n\n \u201cBut I do not attempt his full character. I will only add, \u2018_He was\n blameless and harmless, a son of God, without rebuke, in the midst of\n a crooked and perverse generation: shining among them as a light in\n the world._\u2019\u201d\n\nFootnote 645:\n\n Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d p. 173.\n\nBoth Wesley and Benson insert this eulogium in their lives of Fletcher;\nbut Wesley adds:\u2014\n\n \u201cI think one talent wherewith God had endued Mr. Fletcher has not been\n sufficiently noted yet. I mean his _courtesy_; in which there was not\n the least touch either of art or affectation. It was pure and genuine,\n and sweetly constrained him to behave to everyone (although\n particularly to inferiors), in a manner not to be described: with so\n inexpressible a mixture of humility, love, and respect. This directed\n his words, the tone of his voice, his looks, his whole attitude, his\n every motion.\n\n \u201c\u2018Grace was in all his steps, heaven in his eye,\n In all his gestures sanctity and love.\u2019\u201d\n\nThe entry of Fletcher\u2019s death, in the register of Madeley parish church,\nis a brief obituary:\u2014\n\n \u201cMemorandum.\n\n \u201cJohn Fletcher, Clerk, died on Sunday evening, August 14, 1785. He was\n one of the most apostolic men of the age in which he lived. His\n abilities were extraordinary, and his labours were unparalleled. He\n was a burning and shining light; and as his life had been a common\n blessing to the inhabitants of this parish, so the death of this great\n man was lamented by them as a common and irreparable loss.\n\n \u201cThis little testimony was inserted by one who sincerely loved and\n honoured him.\n\n \u201cJOSHUA GILPIN, VICAR OF ROCKWARDINE.\u201d\n\nThe inscription on his tombstone was written by his widow, and is as\nfollows[646]:\u2014\n\n \u201cHERE LIES THE BODY OF\n THE REV. JOHN WILLIAM DE LA FLECHERE,\n VICAR OF MADELEY,\n WHO WAS BORN AT NYON, IN SWITZERLAND,\n SEPTEMBER THE 12TH, 1729,\n AND FINISHED HIS COURSE, AUGUST THE 14TH, 1785,\n IN THIS VILLAGE;\n WHERE HIS UNEXAMPLED LABOURS\n WILL LONG BE REMEMBERED.\n\n HE EXERCISED HIS MINISTRY FOR THE SPACE OF\n TWENTY-FIVE YEARS,\n IN THIS PARISH,\n WITH UNCOMMON ZEAL AND ABILITY.\n\n MANY BELIEVED HIS REPORT, AND BECAME\n HIS JOY AND CROWN OF REJOICING;\n WHILE OTHERS CONSTRAINED HIM TO TAKE UP\n THE LAMENTATION OF THE PROPHET,\n\n \u2018ALL THE DAY LONG HAVE I STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS\n UNTO A DISOBEDIENT AND GAINSAYING PEOPLE:\n YET SURELY MY JUDGMENT IS WITH THE LORD,\n AND MY WORK WITH MY GOD.\u2019\n\n ---\n\n \u201c\u2018_He being dead, yet speaketh._\u2019\u201d\n\nFootnote 646:\n\n The inscription, given at the end of Wesley\u2019s \u201cLife of Fletcher,\u201d is\n slightly different. In an unpublished letter, to Mrs. Crosby, dated\n August 16, 1788, Mrs. Fletcher wrote: \u201cWhat was written on my dear\u2019s\n tomb was different from my directions, though done with a good design\n to mend my language. I saw it not to be as good as my own, and had it\n altered\u201d (then follows the inscription). \u201cCompare this with that in\n Mr. Wesley\u2019s \u2018Life,\u2019 and give Mr. Downes a copy of the right one.\n Every one was much pleased with the change; and, indeed, I was never\n at ease till it was done; but there were so many anxious to have it\n right that they spoiled it.\u201d\n\nAnother monument of Fletcher must be mentioned, erected in Methodism\u2019s\n\u201cWestminster Abbey\u201d\u2014the sacred old chapel in City Road, London. It is\nplaced on the right-hand side of the communion table, immediately under\na monument of Wesley. The sculpture at the top of it is a representation\nof the Ark of the Covenant. At one side are volumes, inscribed with the\nwords, \u201cChecks,\u201d and \u201cPortrait of St. Paul.\u201d At the other side is an\nexpanded scroll, with the motto, \u201cWith the meekness of wisdom.\u201d At the\nbottom is a dove, hovering over pens and a roll of paper. The\ninscription on the tablet, composed by the Rev. Richard Watson,[647] is\nas follows:\u2014\n\n \u201cSACRED TO THE MEMORY OF\n THE REV. JOHN WILLIAM DE LA FLECHERE,\n VICAR OF MADELEY IN SHROPSHIRE;\n BORN AT NYON, IN SWITZERLAND, THE XII. OF SEPTEMBER,\n A.D. MDCCXXIX; DIED THE XIV. OF AUGUST, MDCCLXXXV.\n\n A MAN EMINENT FOR GENIUS, ELOQUENCE, AND THEOLOGICAL LEARNING;\n STILL MORE DISTINGUISHED FOR SANCTITY OF MANNERS, AND THE VIRTUES OF\n PRIMITIVE\n CHRISTIANITY.\n ADORNED WITH \u2018WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE PURE, WHATSOEVER THINGS ARE LOVELY,\u2019\n AND BRINGING FORTH \u2018THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT,\u2019 IN SINGULAR RICHNESS AND\n MATURITY.\n THE MEASURE OF EVERY OTHER GRACE IN HIM WAS EXCEEDED BY HIS DEEP AND\n UNAFFECTED\n HUMILITY.\n OF ENLARGED VIEWS AS TO THE MERIT OF THE ATONEMENT,\n AND OF THOSE GRACIOUS RIGHTS WITH WHICH IT INVESTS ALL WHO BELIEVE,\n HE HAD \u2018BOLDNESS TO ENTER INTO THE HOLIEST BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS,\u2019\n AND IN REVERENT AND TRANSPORTING CONTEMPLATIONS,\u2014THE HABIT OF HIS DEVOUT\n AND\n HALLOWED SPIRIT,\u2014\n THERE DWELT AS BENEATH THE WINGS OF THE CHERUBIM,\n BEHOLDING \u2018THE GLORY OF GOD IN THE FACE OF JESUS CHRIST,\u2019 AND WAS\n \u2018CHANGED INTO\n THE SAME IMAGE;\u2019\n TEACHING BY HIS OWN ATTAINMENTS, MORE THAN EVEN BY HIS WRITINGS, THE\n FULNESS OF\n EVANGELICAL PROMISES,\n AND WITH WHAT INTIMACY OF COMMUNION MAN MAY WALK WITH GOD.\n\n HE WAS THE FRIEND AND COADJUTOR OF THE REV. JOHN WESLEY,\n WHOSE APOSTOLIC VIEWS OF THE DOCTRINES OF GENERAL REDEMPTION,\n JUSTIFICATION BY\n FAITH, AND CHRISTIAN PERFECTION, HE SUCCESSFULLY DEFENDED,\n LEAVING TO FUTURE AGES AN ABLE EXPOSITION OF \u2018THE TRUTH WHICH IS\n ACCORDING TO\n GODLINESS,\u2019\n AND ERECTING AN IMPREGNABLE RAMPART AGAINST PHARISAIC AND ANTINOMIAN\n ERROR,\n IN A SERIES OF WORKS, DISTINGUISHED BY THE BEAUTY OF THEIR STYLE, BY\n FORCE OF\n ARGUMENT,\n AND BY A GENTLE AND CATHOLIC SPIRIT; AFFORDING AN EDIFYING EXAMPLE OF\n \u2018SPEAKING\n THE TRUTH IN LOVE,\u2019\n IN A LONG AND ARDENT CONTROVERSY.\n\n FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS, THE PARISH OF MADELEY WAS THE SCENE OF HIS\n UNEXAMPLED\n PASTORAL LABOURS;\n AND HE WAS THERE INTERRED, AMIDST THE TEARS AND LAMENTATIONS OF\n THOUSANDS,\n THE TESTIMONY OF THEIR HEARTS TO HIS EXALTED PIETY, AND TO HIS UNWEARIED\n EXERTIONS\n FOR THEIR SALVATION:\n BUT HIS MEMORY TRIUMPHED OVER DEATH;\n AND HIS SAINTLY EXAMPLE EXERTS INCREASING INFLUENCE IN THE CHURCHES OF\n CHRIST,\n THROUGH THE STUDY OF HIS WRITINGS, AND THE PUBLICATION OF HIS BIOGRAPHY.\n\n IN TOKEN OF THEIR VENERATION FOR HIS CHARACTER,\n AND IN GRATITUDE FOR THE SERVICES RENDERED BY HIM TO THE CAUSE OF TRUTH,\n THIS MONUMENT WAS ERECTED BY THE TRUSTEES OF THIS CHAPEL, A.D.\n MDCCCXXII.\u201d\n\nFootnote 647:\n\n Jackson\u2019s \u201cCentenary of Methodism,\u201d p. 186.\n\nNo wonder that Wesley desired and requested Fletcher to be his\nsuccessor; and no wonder that, while among his numerous publications\nthere is only _one biography written by himself_, that conspicuous\nexception is \u201cA Short Account of the Life and Death of the Rev. John\nFletcher.\u201c\n\nFletcher was distinguished for his genius; his learning; and his\nbiblical and theological knowledge; but let all Methodists, throughout\nthe world and as long as Methodism lasts, remember, in all their\nchurch-meetings and church-appointments, that \u201cWesley\u2019s Designated\nSuccessor\u201d was _pre-eminently_,\u2014\u201cA GOOD MAN, AND FULL OF THE HOLY GHOST\nAND OF FAITH.\u201d\n\n\n THE END\n\n\n\n\n\n Hazell, Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury.\n\n\n INDEX.\n\n\n NAMES OF PERSONS AND PLACES.\n\n Aberford, 119\n\n Abergavenny, 184\n\n Agutter, Rev. William, 144, 145\n\n Appian Way, 162\n\n Appleton, Mr., 22\n\n Asbury, Francis, 3\n\n Ashworth, Dr., 532\n\n Atcham, 21, 22, 29, 31\n\n Atlay, John, 340, 433, 545, 546\n\n Atmore, Charles, 542, 545\n\n Baratier, M., 145\n\n Bardsley, Samuel, 548\n\n Barnard, Mary, 74\n\n Barry, James, 424\n\n Bath, 102, 121, 172, 393, 420\n\n Batley, 494, 496, 497\n\n Bayley, Rev. Cornelius, 461, 462, 508, 542\n\n Beaumont, John, 543\n\n Beaumont, Dr. Joseph, 543\n\n Bell, George, 84, 85, 90\n\n Benson, Joseph, 3, 39, 157, 159, 166, 167, 175\u2013177, 179, 182, 183, 209,\n 216, 220, 254, 255, 310, 326, 348, 355\u2013358, 367, 370, 395, 462, 532,\n 533, 543, 546, 570\u2013572\n\n Bentley, Rev. Mr., 119\n\n Berkeley, Dr., 534\n\n Berridge, Rev. John, 51\u201353, 62, 172, 283\u2013285, 294, 298, 307, 330, 334,\n 345, 371, 387\n\n Berwick, 111, 154\n\n Birches, The, 274\n\n Birstal, 487, 517\n\n Boothby, William, 442\n\n Bosanquet, Miss, 15, 28, 93, 126, 400, 401, 410, 448, 463, 467,\n 479\u2013497, 499, 529\n\n Bosanquet, Claudius, Esq., 488, 492\n\n Bosanquet, S., Esq., 479, 488, 490\u2013492\n\n Bosanquet, S. R., Esq., 475\n\n Bosanquet, William, Esq., 492, 494, 556\n\n Bourignon, Madam, 463\n\n Bouverot, Rev. Mr., 531\n\n Bradburn, Samuel, 266\u2013268, 494\n\n Bradford, 493, 494, 501\n\n Bradford, Joseph, 327\n\n Brammah, Mrs., 471\n\n Brecknock, 181\n\n Breedon, 100, 152\n\n Brighton, 51, 111, 120\n\n Brisco, Thomas, 487\n\n Bristol, 31, 33, 34, 102, 131, 144, 158, 172, 180, 238, 242, 255, 330,\n 357, 388, 394\u2013397, 519\n\n Bristol, Earl of, 401\n\n Brooke, Robert, 506, 507\n\n Brooke, Henry, 506, 507, 520, 521, 538, 552\n\n Broseley, 363, 405, 430\n\n Brown, Rev. Mr., 103, 107, 118, 331\n\n Buchan, Earl of, 123, 275\n\n Burchell, Mr., 10\n\n Burnet, Rev. Mr., 119\n\n Burslem, 548\n\n Cartwright, Rev. Mr., 21\n\n Cartwright, Molly, 442, 445, 446\n\n Chambers, Rev. Mr., 47, 55\n\n Chateau d\u2019Oex, 426, 427\n\n Cheek, Rev. Moseley, 515\n\n Cheshunt College, 137\n\n Chester, 267, 415, 429\n\n Childs, Elizabeth, 272\n\n Clarke, Dr. Adam, 268, 396, 548\n\n Clarke, Mary, 33\n\n Coalbrook Dale, 63, 64, 99, 363, 392, 430, 445, 527\n\n Coke, Rev. Dr., 331\u2013333, 433, 463, 466, 518, 530, 531, 542, 544\n\n Coles, Elisha, 155\n\n Conyers, Rev. Dr., 119, 417\n\n Costerdine, Robert, 429\n\n Cound, Mrs., 405, 430\n\n Cownley, Joseph, 90, 358\n\n Creighton, Rev. James, 544\n\n Crisp, Rev. Dr., 194, 202, 214\n\n Crosby, Sarah, 28, 33, 400, 467, 473, 475, 479, 480, 495, 573\n\n Crosse, Rev. John, 461, 493\n\n Cross Hall, 467, 486, 489, 494, 495, 502\n\n Crowther, Jonathan, 82, 523\n\n Dartmouth, Earl of, 353\n\n Daventry, 532\n\n Davies, Rev. Howell, 149\u2013151\n\n Dawley, 429, 503\n\n De Bons, Mr., 489\n\n De Champs, Mr., 11, 488\n\n De Courcy, Rev. Mr., 472\n\n Deighton, Rev. John, 497\n\n De Luc, Mr., 511\n\n Deptford, 418\n\n Dewsbury, 433\n\n Dickenson, Rev. Peard, 554\n\n Dillon, Rev. Mr., 543\n\n Dixon, Dr. James, 396\n\n Dort, Synod of, 155\n\n Downes, John, 90\n\n Downs, Mr., 44\n\n Downs, John, 44\n\n Dublin, 221, 506, 508, 517\u2013522, 530\n\n Dunham, 54\n\n Easterbrook, Rev. Joseph, 131\u2013134, 144\n\n Eddowes, Mr., 288\n\n Edmondson, Jonathan, 152\n\n Edmunds, Daniel, 403\n\n Edmunds, Winifred, 558\n\n Edwards, Richard, 14, 23, 31\n\n Eells, William, 545, 546\n\n Elliott, Sir John, 388\n\n Elwall, Edward, 218, 219\n\n Erskine, Lady Anne, 117, 120, 137, 149, 171, 174\n\n Evans, Caleb, 334, 347\u2013353, 357, 358\n\n Everton, 51, 371\n\n Fennel, John, 550\n\n Ferrars, Earl of, 50\n\n Fitzgerald, Lady Mary, 401, 473, 474, 501, 509, 540, 552, 558, 569\n\n Fletcher, Henry, 11, 14, 18, 498, 559\n\n Fletcher, Mrs., 502\u2013504, 508, 512, 517\u2013519, 521, 522, 539, 550, 553,\n 556, 558\u2013565, 568, 569, 573\n\n Fothergill, Dr., 390\n\n Fox, Mr., 370\n\n Furley, Miss, 44, 46\n\n Garforth, Thomas, 498\n\n Geneva, 7, 445, 454\n\n Genoa, 160\n\n Gilbert, Nathaniel, Esq., 36, 513\n\n Gilbert, Rev. Nathaniel, 513, 514\n\n Gildersome, 480\n\n Gilpin, Rev. Joshua, 81, 160, 445, 455, 512, 515, 520, 567, 572\n\n Glascott, Rev. Cradock, 120, 121, 135, 136, 154, 189\n\n Glazebrook, Rev. James, 122, 124\n\n Glenorchy, Lady, 174, 175\n\n Glossop, 389\n\n Glynne, Mrs., 22, 518\n\n Gold, Mrs., 476\n\n Good, Mr., 370\n\n Gorham, Mr., 371, 372, 466\n\n Greaves, Rev. Alexander B., 365, 366, 368, 384, 388, 389, 404, 414,\n 423, 431, 436, 438, 440, 445, 460, 461\n\n Green, Rev. Mr., 14\n\n Greenwood, Charles, 372, 373, 382, 390, 392, 409, 432, 433, 460, 516,\n 541\n\n Greenwood, James, 372\n\n Grimshaw, Rev. William, 97, 119, 384\n\n Halifax, 494\n\n Hampson, John, senior, 545, 546\n\n Hampson, John, junior, 545, 546\n\n Hanby, Thomas, 3, 542\n\n Hare, Mr., 370\n\n Harris, Howell, 148\u2013151, 171, 182\u2013184\n\n Harwich, 141\n\n Hatfield, 10\n\n Hatherleigh, 121\n\n Hatton, Miss, 90, 91, 95, 106\u2013108, 111, 115\n\n Hatton, Rev. Mr., 80, 513, 564, 565\n\n Hatton, Samuel, 90, 91, 188, 429\n\n Haughton, Mr., 78\n\n Haworth, 119\n\n Hay, 182\n\n Helmsley, 418\n\n Henderson, John, 144\u2013148\n\n Henderson, Richard, 145\u2013147, 149\n\n Hereford, Bishop of, 58, 389\n\n Hern, Jonathan, 442\n\n Hervey, Rev. James, 345\n\n Hicks, Rev. Mr., 52\n\n Hill, Noel, Esq., 489\n\n Hill, Sir Richard, 40, 111, 120, 154, 189, 215, 219, 223\u2013237, 241, 244,\n 248\u2013252, 279\u2013282, 285\u2013295, 299, 303, 307, 311\u2013313, 316\u2013320, 322,\n 330, 334, 335\n\n Hill, Rev. Rowland, 178, 186, 237, 241, 244, 245, 248, 287, 330, 334,\n 385, 387, 472\n\n Hill, Thomas, Esq., 11, 14, 22, 25, 29, 32, 35, 37, 41, 47, 54, 55, 58,\n 64, 488, 489\n\n Hodson, John, 98\n\n Holy, Thomas, 471\n\n Hopper, Christopher, 3\n\n Horne, Rev. Melville, 88, 126, 513\u2013516, 555\n\n Hotham, Sir Charles, 111\n\n Hotham, Lady Gertrude, 49\n\n Hoxton Square, 476\n\n Huddersfield, 119, 121\n\n Hull, 370\n\n Hurrel, Miss, 400\n\n Huntingdon, Countess of, 31, 32, 37, 44, 48\u201352, 56, 57, 59, 62, 64,\n 102, 111, 116\u2013122, 125, 131, 134, 136, 137, 143, 149, 151, 155, 157,\n 164, 171, 172, 174, 175, 178\u2013190, 192, 197, 209, 264, 299\u2013302, 305,\n 310, 345, 357, 387, 393, 501\n\n Ingham, Rev. Benjamin, 119\n\n Ireland, James, Esq., 103, 104, 109, 115, 118, 120, 121, 137, 138, 140,\n 155, 156, 158, 160\u2013162, 171, 189, 191, 192, 194, 197, 269, 299, 301,\n 348, 355, 365, 366, 378, 387, 388, 392, 393, 399, 407, 409, 410,\n 416\u2013421, 424, 427, 436, 440, 444, 445, 447, 450, 460, 472, 549, 557,\n 569\n\n Ireland, Miss, 107, 108, 138, 139\n\n Jackson, Daniel, 519\n\n Jackson, Thomas, 332\n\n Janes, Thomas, 242, 243\n\n Jobson, Dr., 505\n\n Johnson, Ann, 474\n\n Johnson, Dr., 146, 347\n\n Jones, Rev. John, 141\u2013144\n\n Jones, Sir William, 146\n\n Keen, Mr., 117, 137\n\n Kinaston, Mr., 489\n\n Kingswood, 31, 64, 131, 144, 147, 152, 157, 462\n\n Kippax, 118\u2013120\n\n Knipe, Mrs., 418\n\n Knowles, Dr., 420\n\n Kruse, Mrs., 39\n\n Kruse, Peter, 39\n\n Lausanne, 435, 439, 440, 443, 447, 489\n\n Lawrence, Sarah, 477, 518, 563\n\n Ledsham, 153\n\n Lee, Mr., 111\n\n Lee, Thomas, 545\n\n Leeds, 121, 465\u2013470, 477, 481, 532, 541, 545\u2013549\n\n Lefevre, Mrs., 475\n\n Lentzburg, 7\n\n Lewen, Miss, 478, 479\n\n Ley, Rev. William, 85\n\n Leytonstone, 475, 476, 479, 489, 491\n\n Liverpool, Lord, 401\n\n Llanbister, 395\n\n Llangollen, 518\n\n Lloyd, Rev. David, 395\n\n Lloyd, John, 171, 188\n\n London, 11, 36\u201339, 41, 47, 49, 50, 84, 111, 114, 180, 242, 447, 573\n\n Lowestoft, 369\n\n Loxdale, Miss Ann, 462\u2013464, 468\n\n Ludlow, 78\n\n Lyons, 447\n\n Macon, 416, 417, 419\n\n Madan, Rev. Martin, 52, 79, 119, 134, 215, 246, 324, 361\n\n Madeley, 47, 55, 57\u201362, 76, 89, 93, 158, 191, 255, 258, 369, 373, 382,\n 389, 405, 415, 423, 429, 430, 450, 460, 489, 492, 502, 505, 526,\n 527, 530, 539, 551\n\n Madeley Wood, 63, 64, 74, 76, 79, 83, 118, 255, 388, 403, 429, 430,\n 438, 526, 527, 547\n\n Maidenhead, 152\n\n Manchester, 461\n\n Marseilles, 160, 416, 448\n\n Mather, Alexander, 3, 99, 209\n\n Matthews, Mary, 74, 76, 77\n\n Maxfield, Rev. Thomas, 33, 39, 84, 85, 90, 91, 144, 180, 181\n\n Maxwell, Lady, 220\n\n Medhurst, Mrs., 119, 120\n\n Minethorpe, William, 99\n\n Montpelier, 155, 410, 414, 416, 447, 461\n\n Moore, Henry, 412, 519, 542, 543\n\n More, Miss Hannah, 146\n\n Morris, James, 347\n\n Murlin, John, 415, 477, 479\n\n Nelson, John, 3, 517\n\n Newcastle-on-Tyne, 356\n\n Newton, Rev. John, 283\n\n North, Lord, 437, 438\n\n Norwich, 369\n\n Nowell, Rev. Dr., 154, 206, 232\n\n Nyon, 4, 7, 9, 156, 162, 415, 421, 424\u2013427, 431, 434\u2013436, 439, 443\u2013446,\n 453, 455, 464, 488, 498\n\n Oathall, 111, 112, 117\n\n Olivers, Thomas, 3, 190, 208, 209, 232, 290, 335, 337, 339\n\n Onions, Michael, 363, 385, 392, 432, 445, 446\n\n Orton, Miss, 117, 171\n\n Otley, 541\n\n Owen, Rev. Mr., 189\n\n Owen, John, 445, 446\n\n Palmer, Robert, 388\n\n Pawson, John, 3, 153, 242\n\n Peckwell, Rev. Dr., 385, 387\n\n Perronet, Charles, 252, 364, 365, 390\n\n Perronet, Miss Damaris, 385, 389, 390, 407, 473\n\n Perronet, Edward, 285\n\n Perronet, Henry, 97\n\n Perronet, Rev. Vincent, 364, 365, 385, 390, 407, 419, 430, 432, 447,\n 499, 500, 554, 556\n\n Perronet, William, 389, 399, 415, 419, 425\u2013428, 431\u2013435, 439, 440, 444,\n 447, 499, 500\n\n Pescod, Joseph, 466\n\n Pewsey, 119\n\n Pilmoor, Joseph, 3, 543, 545, 546\n\n Pine, William, 191, 192, 349\n\n Pool, John, 545\n\n Power, Mr., 420\n\n Powley, Rev. Mr., 119\n\n Powys, Thomas, Esq., 111, 115, 189, 215\n\n Preston, Mr., 370\n\n Price, Dr., 219, 334, 350\u2013353, 357, 358, 387\n\n Price, Owen, 38\n\n Priestley, Dr., 531\u2013537\n\n Pritchard, John, 545\n\n Prothero, Rev. Mr., 65\n\n Ramsden, Mr., 370\n\n Rankin, Thomas, 3, 447, 464\n\n Reader, Thomas, 320\n\n Reading, 407\n\n Richardson, Rev. Mr., 119\n\n Ritchie, Miss, 400, 541\n\n Roberts, John, 274\n\n Rock Church, 76, 79\n\n Rogers, Hester Ann, 467\u2013471, 473, 485\n\n Rogers, James, 397, 467\n\n Romaine, Rev. William, 111, 122, 154, 174, 345, 472\n\n Rome, 410\n\n Roquet, Rev. James, 242, 243, 355, 366\n\n Rowlands, Rev. Daniel, 148, 149, 151, 171, 172\n\n Rutherford, Thomas, 3, 519\n\n Ryan, Sarah, 28, 33, 35, 43, 46, 475\u2013477, 480\n\n Ryland, Rev. Mr., 119\n\n Scott, Captain, 116\u2013118, 120\n\n Sellon, Rev. Walter, 101, 151, 187, 206\u2013208, 219, 232, 252, 292\n\n Serle, Ambrose, 294\n\n Shadford, George, 3\n\n Sheffield, 467, 471\n\n Sherlock, Bishop, 32, 534\n\n Shirley, Lady Frances, 49\n\n Shirley, Rev. Walter, 50, 149\u2013151, 171, 172, 174, 177, 179, 183, 185,\n 188\u2013197, 201\u2013204, 207, 209\u2013215, 220\u2013223, 229, 238, 239, 334, 345,\n 378, 385, 387\n\n Shoreham, 385, 407\n\n Shrewsbury, 22, 29, 31, 34, 97, 120, 136, 191, 288, 430, 518\n\n Simeon, Rev. Charles, 551, 552\n\n Simpson, Mr., 370\n\n Simpson, Rev. David, 168, 543\n\n Smisby, 152\n\n Smith, William, 467, 497\n\n Smyth, Mrs., 518, 519, 539\n\n Smyth, William, 518, 520, 522\n\n South Mimms, 10\n\n Southey, Robert, 329\n\n St. Albans, 14\n\n St. Neots, 371, 372, 466\n\n Stevenson, G. J., 209, 549\n\n Stillingfleet, Rev. Edward, 133, 394\n\n Stoke Newington, 372, 373, 382, 391, 403, 408, 409, 484, 552\n\n Story, George, 3\n\n Swedenborg, Baron, 531\n\n Taunton, 320, 357\n\n Tavan, Mr., 489\n\n Taylor, Isaac, 329\n\n Taylor, Richard, 479\u2013482, 498\n\n Taylor, Thomas, 3, 395, 542\n\n Terry, Mr., 370\n\n Thompson, William, 3\n\n Thornton, Mrs., 402, 433, 516, 552\n\n Thornton, John, Esq., 283, 284, 378, 388, 418\n\n Toplady, Rev. Augustus, 154, 203, 206, 208, 232, 284, 294, 312, 324,\n 334\u2013347, 451\n\n Townsend, Rev. Joseph, 119, 132\n\n Tranter, William, 503\n\n Trevecca College, 116, 117, 121, 131, 134\u2013137, 141, 144, 145, 148\u2013151,\n 157, 158, 164, 171, 175\u2013186, 209, 559\n\n Tripp, Ann, 28, 477, 497\n\n Tunbridge, 31, 32\n\n Turner, Dr., 387\n\n Valton, John, 496, 498, 516\n\n Vaughan, Mr., 22, 29, 42, 268, 269, 353, 358\n\n Venn, Rev. Henry, 52, 111, 119, 122, 133, 171, 172, 174, 371, 393, 394,\n 529, 569\n\n Voltaire, 416, 452, 457\n\n Walsh, Father, 215\n\n Walsh, Thomas, 28, 30, 37, 38\n\n Wandsworth, 36\n\n Wase, William, 384, 388, 405, 429, 438, 442, 444\n\n Washington, General George, 347\n\n Watson, Richard, 574\n\n Wellington, 99\n\n Wem, 90, 95, 107, 177\n\n Wenlock, 79\n\n Wesley, Rev. Charles, 31, 32, 35\u201338, 41, 42, 44, 45, 47, 48, 50, 51,\n 55, 57, 62\u201364, 66, 76, 78\u201380, 84, 89\u201391, 96, 97, 129, 132, 141, 142,\n 152, 172, 180, 222, 285, 310, 327, 328, 346, 359\u2013362, 367, 402, 433,\n 484, 511, 544, 556, 557, 565\n\n Wesley, Rev. John, 1\u20133, 9, 16, 20, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29, 32, 34, 36, 50,\n 57, 59, 67, 82, 84, 90, 91, 96, 122, 129, 132\u2013134, 136, 141, 148,\n 150\u2013154, 157, 169, 173\u2013177, 180\u2013209, 220, 222, 224, 225, 231, 232,\n 234\u2013238, 241\u2013243, 256, 263\u2013266, 270, 280\u2013282, 285\u2013289, 298, 304,\n 307, 310, 321, 322, 324\u2013329, 335, 336, 339\u2013349, 351\u2013358, 369, 370,\n 372, 373, 380, 384, 392, 394, 395, 402, 408, 410, 411, 430, 433,\n 451, 460, 463, 465, 477, 484, 485, 497, 502, 508, 532, 533, 541\u2013549,\n 551, 558, 566, 570, 572, 575\n\n West Bromwich, 366\n\n Whatcoat, Richard, 3\n\n Whitefield, Rev. George, 31, 67, 114\u2013116, 119, 121, 134\u2013136, 148, 173,\n 174, 180, 186, 187, 204, 265, 345\n\n Whitehead, Dr. John, 264, 265\n\n Wilberforce, William, Esq., 146\n\n Wilcocks, Samuel, 274\n\n Wilkes, John, 270\u2013273\n\n Wilkes, Sarah, 272\n\n Williams, Rev. Peter, 149, 150, 171, 172\n\n Williams, Rev. William, 148-150, 171, 172\n\n Wood, Enoch, 548\n\n Wroxeter, 29\n\n Yates, Mr., 523\n\n Yelling, 371\n\n York, 120, 370\n\n York, Thomas, 403, 405, 424, 434, 438, 441\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n Transcriber\u2019s Note\n\nThe footnotes references in the text were erratic, frequently\nmisaligning with the notes on each page, or missing altogether. The\nlatter\u2019s placement in the text is done here on a best-guess basis.\n\nFootnotes have been re-sequenced numerically to be unique across the\nentire text.\n\nThe third full paragraph on p. 246 has a confusion of quotation near its\nend. It is unclear, by the context, where the last nested quotation\nshould end, and so the confusion remains.\n\nA similar confusion appears at the top of p. 296. A closing single quote\nappears at \u201cwe are for ever justified by _Christ alone_,[\u2019]\u201d. Either it\nis itself spurious, or the opening of that nested quotation is missing.\n\nNear the bottom of p. 467, an extra space precedes the words \u2018here\ngiven\u2019 at the beginning of a line. The lengthy quotation that follows is\nassumed to be the description referenced, and the extra space has been\nremoved.\n\nIn the Index, the entries for Bouverot and Downes have been placed in\ntheir proper alphabetic order.\n\nErrors deemed most likely to be the printer\u2019s have been corrected, and\nare noted here. The references are to the page and line in the original.\n\n xiv.36 \u201c_Driving_ Methodism and _Still_ Mysticism[\u201d] Added.\n 19.34 I endeavoured to conc[ ea/eal] Replaced.\n 40.5 a distinguished and ancient family[.] Added.\n 41.1 [\u201c]After my conversation Added.\n 41.39 [\u2018/\u201c]I am here Replaced.\n 42.9 and ask, \u2018Where are our hearts now?[\u2019]\u201d Inserted.\n 67.28 [\u201c]He is our Creator Added.\n 90.27 the ancient town of We[nn/m] Replaced.\n 98.40 [\u201c]\u2018Our life is a dream! Added.\n 105.22 Opposition gradually died[.] Added.\n 149.2 Howell Davies, rector of Prend[er]gast Inserted.\n 151.11 [\u201c]\u2018Captain of Thine enlisted host, Removed.\n 155.9 [\u201c]The Lord give you patience Added.\n 158.35 so [pu]blicly pledged Restored.\n 179.38 under the name of \u2018Perfection.[\u2019] Added.\n 193.29 to the Hon[.] and Rev. Author Added.\n 201.22 [\u201c]One difficulty remains Added.\n 224.6 and second[l]y Inserted.\n 225.46 and mother Church[\u2019/\u201d] Replaced.\n 245.37 so plentifully heaped upon my head?[\u2019] Added.\n 248.27 This d[r]eadful _sanbenito_ Inserted.\n 254.2 [\u201c]APPEAL TO MATTER OF FACT Added.\n 287.15 quotations from Mr. Wesley\u2019s \u2018Minutes,[\u201d/\u2019] Replaced.\n 307.33 their [inamissable] title _sic_\n 320.23 and a Death Purgatory,[\u201d] Added.\n 325.8 _good wo[r]ks_ Inserted.\n 340.24 [\u201c]\u2018Come, buy my fine powders; come buy dem of Removed.\n me;\n 354.20 two shillings a week.[\u2019]\u201d Inserted.\n 377.19 His wife,[\u2019] the church of the first-born, Removed.\n 387.39 [\u201c]They met and parted Added.\u201d\n 417.13 is the decen[t] covering Restored.\n 423.38 [\u2018/\u201c]We are all called Replaced.\n 464.3 \u201cMADELEY, _Ju[u/n]e 24, 1781_. Inverted.\n 464.33 and affectionate Son in the Gospel[./,] Replaced.\n 469.10 and is [ ]here given almost without Removed.\n abridgment.\n 476.20 the tranquillity of my spirit.[\u201d] Added.\n 478.43 concerning Sister Bosanquet having \u00a32,000.[\u201d] Added.\n 482.7 sold for half it[s] value Added.\n 484.35 \u201cA few weeks ag[s/o], I once more read Replaced.\n 496.18 O my God! Pray for me, O my friends![\u2019] Added.\n 522.25 drink the cup of humility at your feet[.] Added.\n 525.23 horses use[s/d] by smugglers Replaced.\n 543.8 I shall not be moved[\u201d] Added.\n 545.37 To the [ /l]atter, he exclaimed Restored.\n 546.13 Joseph Pillmoor, John Atlay, and William Inserted.\n Ee[l]ls\n 577.29 B[a/u]rnet, Rev. Mr., 119 Replaced.","title":"Wesley's Designated Successor: The Life, Letters, and Literary Labours of the Rev. John William Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, Shropshire","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":258545}