XX. PUBLICATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE IN 1777.…

XX. PUBLICATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE IN 1777.

IN the year 1777, Fletcher terminated his controversy with the Calvinists. He wrote:—

“To the best of my knowledge, I have not fixed one consequence upon the principles of my opponents, which does not fairly and necessarily flow from their doctrine. And I have endeavoured to do justice to their piety, declaring, again and again, my full persuasion that they abhor such consequences.”

His publications, in 1777, were the following:—

1. “The Doctrines of Grace and Justice equally essential to the pure Gospel: Being some Remarks on the mischievous divisions caused among Christians, by parting those doctrines. Being an Introduction to a Plan of Reconciliation between the Defenders of the Doctrines of Partial Grace, commonly called Calvinists; and the Defenders of the Doctrines of Impartial Justice, commonly called Arminians. By John Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, Salop. London: Printed by R. Hawes, 1777.” 12mo, 39 pp.

It is needless to furnish an outline of this able pamphlet, inasmuch as the doctrines it enforces and the doctrines it condemns are substantially the same as have been repeatedly introduced to the reader’s notice. There is one statement, however, which Fletcher’s admirers have generally overlooked, but which proves, beyond controversy, that Fletcher was, what is now-a-days called, a Millenarian. After dwelling on what he designates the “four dispensations,” namely, “Gentilism,” “Judaism,” “the Gospel of John the Baptist,” and “the perfect Gospel of Christ,” which “is Gentilism, Judaism, and the Baptism of John, arrived at their full maturity,” he proceeds to argue that “another Gospel dispensation” is yet to come. Hence the following:—

“In the Psalms, Prophets, Acts, Epistles, and especially in the Revelation, we have a variety of promises, that, ‘in the day of His’ displayed ‘power,’ Christ will ‘come in His glory, to judge among the heathen, to wound even kings in the day of His wrath, to root up the wicked, to fill the places with their dead bodies, to smite in sunder’ antichrist, and ‘the heads over divers countries,’ and to ‘lift up His’ triumphant ‘head’ on this very earth, where He once ‘bowed His’ wounded ‘head, and gave up the ghost.’ Compare Psalm cx. with Acts i. 11, 2 Thess. i. 10, Rev. xix., etc. In that great day, another Gospel dispensation shall take place. We have it now in prophecy, as the Jews had the Gospel of Christ’s first advent; but when Christ shall ‘come to destroy the wicked, to be’ actually ‘glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe,—in that day,’ ministers of the Gospel shall no more prophesy, but, speaking a plain historical truth, they shall lift up their voices as ‘the voice of many waters and mighty thunderings, saying, Allelujah! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth; the marriage of the Lamb is come; His wife, the church of the first-born, has made herself ready; blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; he reigns with Christ a thousand years’ (Rev. xix. 20). ‘Blessed are the meek, for they do inherit the earth’ (Matt. x. 5). ‘The times of refreshing are come; and He has sent Jesus Christ, who before was preached unto you, whom the heavens did receive’ till this solemn season; but now are come ‘the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began’ (Acts iii. 19, etc.) May the Lord hasten this Gospel dispensation! and, till it take place, may, ‘the Spirit and the bride say, Come!’”

It must be granted that this is but remotely related to the Calvinian controversy; but, in a Life of Fletcher, it is too interesting to be omitted.

2. Fletcher’s second publication, in 1777, was a composite one, and embraced, First, “Bible Arminianism and Bible Calvinism: A two-fold Essay,—Part the First displaying the doctrines of Partial Grace, Part the Second, those of Impartial Justice.” 12mo., 84 pp. Secondly, “The Reconciliation; or, an Easy Method to unite the professing People of God, by placing the Doctrines of Grace and Justice in such a light as to make candid Arminians Bible-Calvinists; and the candid Calvinists, Bible-Arminians.” 12mo, 85 pp. Thirdly, to these was appended, “The Plan of Reconciliation,” the whole making a small 12mo volume of 187 pages. The pamphlets were dedicated to his friend “James Ireland, Esq., of Brislington, near Bristol,” as follows:—

“DEAR SIR,—To whom could a plan of reconciliation between the Calvinists and Arminians be more properly dedicated, than to a son of peace, whose heart, hand, and house are open to Calvinists, Arminians, and neuters? You kindly receive the divines who contend for the doctrines of grace; and I want words to describe the Christian courtesy which you show me and other ministers who make a stand for the doctrines of justice. To you I am indebted for the honour of a friendly interview with the author[390] of the ‘Circular Letter,’ which I thought myself obliged to oppose; and, as you succeeded in that labour of love, it is natural for me to hope that by your influence, and by the patronage of such candid, generous peacemakers as the gentleman” (John Thornton, Esq.) “to whom I have often compared you, these reconciling sheets will be perused by some with more attention than if they had no name prefixed to them but that of your most obliged, affectionate friend and servant,

J. FLETCHER.

“NEWINGTON, April 16, 1777.”

Footnote 390:

The Rev. Walter Shirley.

It is a well-known fact that men like Romaine were often the guests of Mr. Ireland; and that Berridge, Venn, and others of the same way of thinking were always welcome guests in the mansion of Mr. Thornton. Both, however, were large-hearted men, and wherever they met with undoubted piety, whether in a Calvinist or an Arminian brother, they were thankful and glad.

No record of the “friendly interview” between Fletcher and Walter Shirley now exists; but, bearing in mind the position which Mr. Shirley occupied, there cannot be a doubt that the result of their “interview” would be considerable, and in harmony with the object at which Fletcher was now strenuously aiming.

The task which Fletcher undertook was arduous, and he knew it. He writes:—

“Some persons will urge that truth should never be sacrificed to love and peace; that the Calvinists and the Arminians holding doctrines diametrically opposite, one party, at least, must be totally in the wrong; and, as the other party ought not to be reconciled to error, the agreement, I propose, is impossible: it will never take place, unless the Calvinists can be prevailed upon to give up unconditional election, and their favourite doctrines of partial grace; or the Arminians can be persuaded to part with conditional election, and their favourite doctrines of impartial justice; and as this is too great a sacrifice to be expected from either party, it is in vain to attempt bringing about a reconciliation between them.

“This objection is weighty; but, far from discouraging me, it affords me an opportunity of laying before my readers the ground of the hope I entertain, to reconcile the Calvinists and the Arminians. I should, indeed, utterly despair of effecting it, were I obliged to prove that either party is entirely in the wrong; but I expect some success, because my grand design is to demonstrate that both parties have an important truth on their side.”

Fletcher proceeds to give his own view on the Calvinian side of the question, as follows:—

“The partial election and reprobation of free grace is the gracious and wise choice which God, as a sovereign and arbitrary Benefactor, makes or refuses to make of some persons, churches, cities, and nations, to bestow upon them, for His own mercy’s sake, more favours than He does upon others. It is the partiality with which He imparts His talents of nature, providence, and grace, to His creatures or servants; giving five talents to some, two to others, and one to others; not only without respect to their works, or acquired worthiness of any sort, but frequently in opposition to all personal demerit.”

This admirable definition of a sound doctrine is sustained by references to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and other Old Testament personages; also to the cities of Jerusalem, Chorazin, and Bethsaida; to the countries of Egypt, Judea, Syria, and England, etc.

Then, turning to the Arminian side of the controversy, Fletcher gives the following equally correct definition:—

“The impartial election and reprobation of justice is the righteous and wise choice which God, as an equitable and unbribed Judge, makes, or refuses to make, of some persons, churches, cities, and nations, judicially to bestow upon them, for Christ’s sake, gracious rewards, according to His evangelical promises; or judicially to inflict upon them, for righteousness’ sake, condign punishments, according to His reasonable threatenings.”

This definition is also supported by a large number of Scripture examples, showing Fletcher’s perfect knowledge of the holy books. He then writes:—

“Rigid Calvinists and rigid Arminians are both in the wrong; the former in obscuring the doctrines of impartial justice, and the latter in clouding the doctrines of partial grace. But moderate Calvinists and candid Arminians are very near each other, and very near the truth; the difference there is between them being more owing to confusion, want of proper explanation, and misapprehension of each other’s sentiments, than to any real, inimical opposition to the truth, or to one another.”

Fletcher next propounds his “Plan of Reconciliation.”

First of all, he adduces the well-known plan of union, which Wesley, thirteen years before, had ineffectually proposed to the evangelical clergymen of the Church of England, including Romaine, Shirley, Newton, Venn, and Berridge; after which he proceeds to observe:—

“I do not see why such a plan might not be, in some degree, admitted by all the ministers of the Gospel, whether they belong to or dissent from the Establishment. I would extend my brotherly love to all Christians in general, but more particularly to all Protestants, and most particularly to all the Protestants of the Established Church; but God forbid that I should exclude from my brotherly affection, and occasional assistance, any true minister of Christ, because he casts the Gospel net among the Presbyterians, the Independents, the Quakers, or the Baptists! So far as they cordially aim at the conversion of sinners, I will offer them the right hand of fellowship, and communicate with them in spirit. Might not good men and sincere ministers form themselves into a Society of reconcilers, whatever be their denomination and mode of worship? There is a Society for promoting religious knowledge among the poor; some of its members are Churchmen and others Dissenters; some are Calvinists and others Arminians; and yet it flourishes, and the design of it is happily answered. Might not such a Society be formed for promoting peace and love among professors? Is not charity preferable to knowledge? There is another respectable Society for promoting the Christian faith among the heathen; and why should there not be a Society for promoting unanimity and toleration among Christians? Ought not the welfare of our fellow-Christians to lie as near our hearts as that of the heathen?

“Many gentlemen, some laymen and others clergymen, some Churchmen and others Dissenters, wanted lately to procure the repeal of our articles of religion. Notwithstanding the diversity of their employments, principles, and denominations, they united, wrote circular letters, drew up petitions, and used all their interest with men in power to bring about their design. Again, some warm men thought it proper to blow up the fire of discontent in the breasts of our American fellow-subjects. How did they go about the dangerous work? With what ardour did they speak and write, preach and print, fast and pray, publish manifestoes and make them circulate, associate and strengthen their associations, and at last venture their fortunes, reputations, and lives, in the execution of their warlike project! Go, ye men of peace, and do at least half as much to carry on your friendly design. Associate, pray, preach, and print for the furtherance of peace.

“Might not moderate Calvinists send, with success, circular letters to their rigid Calvinian brethren; and moderate Arminians to their rigid Arminian brethren, to check rashness and recommend meekness, moderation, and love? Might not the Calvinist ministers who patronise the doctrines of grace display also the doctrines of justice, and open their pulpits to those Arminian ministers who do it with caution? And might not the Arminian ministers, who patronise the doctrines of justice, make more of the doctrines of grace, preach as nearly as they can like the judicious Calvinists, admit them into their pulpits, and rejoice at every opportunity of showing them their esteem and confidence? Might not such moderate Calvinists and Arminians as live in the same towns, have from time to time a general sacrament, and invite one another to it, to cement brotherly love by publicly confessing the same Christ, by jointly taking Him for their common head, and by acknowledging one another as fellow-members of His mystical body?

“The sin of the want of union with our pious Calvinian or Arminian brethren is attended with peculiar aggravations. We are not only fellow-creatures, but fellow-subjects, fellow-Christians, fellow-Protestants, and fellow-sufferers, in reputation at least, for maintaining the capital doctrines of salvation by faith in Christ, and of regeneration by the Spirit of God. How absurd is it for persons, who thus share in the reproach, patience, and kingdom of Christ, to embitter each other’s comforts, and add to the load of contempt, which the men of the world cast upon them! Let Pagans, Mahometans, Jews, Papists, and Deists do this work. We may reasonably expect it from them. But for such Calvinists and Arminians as the world lumps together under the name of Methodists, on account of their peculiar profession of godliness,—for such companions in tribulation to ‘bite and devour’ each other is highly unreasonable and peculiarly scandalous.”

In such a spirit did the Arminian polemic address his Calvinian opponents. The following is extracted from his concluding remarks:—

“God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ, in whom there is neither Greek nor Jew, neither bond nor free, neither Calvinist nor Arminian, but Christ is all in all. Grant me my humble, perhaps my dying request, reject not my plea for peace. If it be not strong, it is earnest; for, considering my bodily weakness, I write it at the hazard of my life: animamque in vulnere pono.

“But why should I drop a hint about so insignificant a life, when I can move you to accept of terms of reconciliation by the life and death, by the resurrection and ascension, of our Lord Jesus Christ. I recall the frivolous hint; and, by the unknown agonies of Him whom you love, by His second coming, and by our gathering together unto Him, I beseech you, put on, as the Protestant ‘elect of God, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another; even as Christ loved and forgave you, so do ye.’ Instead of absurdly charging one another with heresy, embrace one another, and triumph together in Christ. Bless God, ye Arminians, for raising such men as the pious Calvinists, to make a firm stand against Pharisaic delusions, and to maintain, with you, the doctrine of man’s fallen state, and of God’s partial grace, which the Pelagians attack with all their might. And, ye Calvinists, rejoice that heaven has raised you such allies as the godly Arminians, to oppose Manichean delusions, and to contend for the doctrines of holiness and justice, which the Antinomians seem sworn to destroy. Pharisaism will never yield but to the power of Bible-Calvinism and the doctrines of grace. Nor can Antinomianism be conquered without the help of Bible-Arminianism and the doctrines of justice. When Pharisaism and Antinomianism shall be destroyed, the Church will be sanctified, and ready to be presented to Christ a glorious Church, ‘not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.’ Then shall we sing with truth what we now sing without propriety,—

“‘Love, like death, has all destroy’d, Render’d all distinctions void; Names, and sects, and parties fall, Thou, O Christ, art all in all.’”

Nothing more need be said respecting Fletcher’s praiseworthy effort to put an end to the contentions then so rampant. No doubt, his object, to some extent, was realized; but, for many a long year afterwards, not a few of the Calvinists and Arminians bore a striking resemblance to the ancient Jews and Samaritans. They worshipped the same God, but did not love each other.

Fletcher spent four months, from December 16, 1776, to April 16, 1777, in the hospitable home of his Methodist friends, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Greenwood, at Stoke Newington; and never did he forget their remarkable kindness to him. Here he wrote a long pastoral letter to his parishioners on December 28, 1776; and, sixteen days afterwards, another, from which the following extracts are taken:—

“NEWINGTON, January 13, 1777.

“MY DEAR COMPANIONS IN TRIBULATION,—All the children of God I love; but, of all the children of God, none have so great a right to my love as you. Your stated or occasional attendance on my poor ministry, as well as the bonds of neighbourhood, and the many happy hours I have spent with you before the throne of grace, endear you peculiarly to me.

“With tears of grateful joy, I recollect the awful moments when we have bound ourselves to stand to our baptismal vow: to renounce all sin, to believe all the articles of the Christian faith, and to keep God’s commandments to the end of our life. Asking pardon of God for not keeping that vow better, I determine, with new courage and delight, to love our Covenant God,[391] Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, with all my mind, heart, and strength; with all the powers of my understanding, will, and affections.

“In my weak state of health, I find much comfort from my relation to my Covenant God: I mean (1) My clear, explicit knowledge of the Father as my Creator and Father; who so loved the world, you and me, as to give His only-begotten Son, that we should not perish, but have everlasting life. (2) I mean my relation to the adorable Person, who, with the strength of His Godhead, and the strength of His pure manhood, took away my sin. O how my soul exults in that dear Mediator! O the comfort of cleaving to Christ by faith, and of finding Christ is our all in all!

“I sometimes feel a desire of being buried where you are buried, and of having my bones lie in a common earthen bed with yours; but I soon resign that wish, and exult in thinking that, whatever distance there may be between our graves, we can now bury our sins, cares, doubts, and fears, in the one grave of our divine Saviour. If I, your poor unworthy shepherd, am smitten, be not scattered; but rather be more closely gathered unto Christ, and keep near each other in faith and love, till you all receive our second Comforter and Advocate, the Holy Ghost, the third Person in our Covenant God. He is with you; but, if you plead the promise of the Father, ‘which,’ says Christ, ‘you have heard of me, He will be in you.’ He will fill your souls with His light, love, and glory, according to that verse, which we have so often sung together,—

“‘Refining fire, go through my heart, Illuminate my soul, Scatter thy life through every part, And sanctify the whole.’

“This indwelling of the Comforter perfects the mystery of sanctification in the believer’s soul. This is the highest blessing of the Christian covenant on earth. Rejoicing in God our Creator, in God our Redeemer, let us look for the full comfort of God our Sanctifier. So shall we live and die in the faith, going on from faith to faith, from strength to strength, from comfort to comfort, till Christ is all in all to us all.

“I earnestly recommend to you my dear brother Greaves. Show him all the love you have shown to me, and, if possible, show him more, who is so much more deserving.”[392]

Footnote 391:

Wesley had held, in London, the usual “Covenant Service,” on Wednesday, January 1st. Probably, Fletcher had attended it, and, perhaps, taken part in it.

Footnote 392:

Letters, 1791, p. 30.

The letter from which these extracts are taken was forwarded to the care of Mr. Wase, who, probably, was a Methodist Local Preacher. Mr. Wase wished to be employed by the Church of England in America. Fletcher disapproved of this. Hence the following to Mr. Wase, written on the same day as the pastoral letter to the parishioners of Madeley. In fact, the pastoral letter was appended to it.

“NEWINGTON, January 13, 1777.

“MY DEAR BROTHER,—I am two letters in your debt. I would have answered them before now, but, venturing to ride out in the frost, the air was too sharp for my weak lungs, and opened my wounds, which has thrown me back again.

“I am glad to see, by your last, that you take up your shield again. You will never prove a gainer by casting it away. Voluntary humility, despondency, or even a defeat, should never make you give up your confidence.

“Take no hasty steps about removing. Your family and estate seem to me to tie you where you are, unless you have a very striking call to remove. You must not be above being employed in a little way. The great Mr. Grimshaw” (of Haworth) “was not above walking some miles to preach to seven or eight persons; and what are we when compared to him? Our neighbours will want you more when Mr. Greaves and I are gone. In the meantime, grow in meek, humble, patient, and resigned love; and your temper, person, and labours will be more acceptable to all around you. I saw last week a gentleman from America, who said, all the church-livings there are in the gift of the Governor; and those who get them are brought up at the American Colleges, and come over for ordination to the Bishop of London. Supposing the peace were made, and missionaries were wanted, you might be employed in America; but of the latter I see little prospect; and you need not seek trials beyond the seas, seeing yours at home are as much as you can stand under.

“I have many things to say to you about your soul; but you will find the substance of them in two of Mr. Wesley’s sermons, the one entitled, ‘The Devices of Satan,’ and the other, ‘The Repentance of Believers.’ I wish you would read one of them every day, till you have reaped all the benefit that can be got from them. Nor eat your morsel alone, but let all be benefited by the contents.

“When you meet with our serious friends at Broseley, Madeley, Madeley Wood, the Dale, Dawley-Green, Wheater, Aston, Sheriff-Hales, and the two Banks, give my kindest love to them, and read them the following scrawl.[393]

“My kind love to Mrs. Wase, and all your and my friends by name. Thank Michael Onions, and I. Owen; I shall answer their letters when I can, if God spare me.

“Your affectionate brother, “J. FLETCHER.”[394]

Footnote 393:

The Pastoral letter already mentioned. The places here named were, probably, Fletcher’s Methodist Circuit, in each of which Methodist Societies had been formed.

Footnote 394:

Letters, 1791, p. 23; and Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1846, p. 141.

The good “Archbishop of Methodism,” the Rev. Vincent Perronet, Vicar of Shoreham, Kent, and his noble daughter, invited Fletcher to visit them; to whom Fletcher replied in the two following letters:—

“NEWINGTON, January 19, 1777.

“DEAR FATHER IN CHRIST,—I beg you to accept my multiplied thanks for your repeated favours. You have twice entertained me, a worthless stranger; and, not yet tired of the burden, you again kindly invite me to share in the comforts of your house and family. Kind Providence leaves me no room, at present, to hang a third burden upon you. The good air and accommodations here, and the nearness to a variety of helps, joined to the kindness of my friends and the weakness of my body, forbid me to remove at present. God reward your labour of love and fatherly offers! Should the Lord raise me up, I shall be better able to reap the benefit of your instructions, a pleasure which I promise myself some time, if the Lord pleases.

“I have of late thought much upon a method of reconciling the Calvinists and Arminians. I have seen some Calvinian ministers, who seem inclined to a plan of pacification. I wish I had strength enough to draw the sketch of it for you. I think the thing is by no means impracticable, if we would but look one another in the face, and pull together at the feet of Him ‘who makes men to be of one mind in a house,’ and who once made all believers to be of one soul in the Church. Let us pray, hope, wait, and be ready to promote the blessing of reconciliation; in which none could be more glad to second you, than, honoured and dear Sir, your affectionate, obliged son in the Gospel,

“J. FLETCHER.”[395]

Footnote 395:

Letters, 1791, p. 239.

In another letter, soon to be introduced, it will be seen that, among the “Calvinian ministers,” whom Fletcher had seen, were the Rev. Walter Shirley, the Rev. Rowland Hill, and the Rev. Dr. Peckwell.

In his letter to Miss Perronet, Fletcher dwells upon the great truth which then filled his mind and heart, and which was the chief topic of his conversation with his friends,—the mission of the Spirit, and His sanctifying work. It was written on the same day as the letter to her father:—

“NEWINGTON, January 19, 1777.

“DEAR MADAM,—I thank you for your care and kind nursing of me when at Shoreham; and, especially, for the few lines with which you have favoured me. They are so much the more agreeable to me, as they treat of the one thing needful for the recovery of our souls,—‘the spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind;’ together with our need of it, and the grand promise that this need shall be abundantly supplied,—supplied by an outpouring of that ‘Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which makes us free from the law of sin and death.’ May we hunger and thirst after righteousness in the Holy Ghost, and we shall be filled! May we so come to our first Paraclete, Advocate, and Comforter, as to receive the Second, as an indwelling and overflowing fountain of light, life, and love!

“I trust my view of this mystery is scriptural. The Father so loved the world as to give us the first Advocate, Paraclete, and Comforter, whom we love and receive as our Redeemer. The first Advocate has told us, it was expedient that He should leave us, because, in that case, He would send another Advocate, Paraclete, or Comforter, to abide with us, and be in us for ever, as our Sanctifier, our Urim and Thummim, our lights and perfections, our oracle and guide. This is the grand promise to Christians,—called the promise of the Father, and brought by the Son. O may it be sealed on our hearts by the Spirit of promise! May we ever cry—

“‘Seal thou our breasts, and let us wear That pledge of love for ever there!’

“Then shall we be filled with pure, perfect love; for the love of the Spirit perfects that of the Father and Son, and accomplishes the mystery of God in the believing soul.

“Come then, let us look for it; this great salvation draws nigh. Let us thank God more thankfully, more joyfully, more humbly, more penitently, for Christ our first Comforter; and, hanging on His word, let us ardently pray for the fulness of His Spirit,—for the indwelling of our second Comforter, who will lead us into all truth, all love, all power. Let us join the few who besiege the throne of grace, and not cease putting the Lord in remembrance, till He has again raised Himself a Pentecostal Church in the earth,—I mean a church of such believers as are all of one heart and one soul.”[396]

Footnote 396:

Letters, 1791, p. 240.

Fletcher’s friends were most ardently attached to him; and no wonder that they were. The man seemed to be an incarnation of humble, loving piety. All, in his serious illness, were eager to help him. Ten days after the date of his letters to Mr. and Miss Perronet, he wrote, as follows, to Mr. Ireland:—

“NEWINGTON, January 29, 1777.

“Thanks be to God, and to my dear friend, for favours upon favours, for undeserved love and the most endearing tokens of it!

“I have received your obliging letters, full of kind offers; and your jar, full of excellent grapes. May God open to you the book of life, and seal upon your heart all the offers and promises it contains! May the treasures of Christ’s love, and all the fruits of the Spirit, be open to my dear friend, and unwearied benefactor!

“Last Sunday, Providence sent me Dr. Turner, who, under God, saved my life, twenty-three years ago, in a dangerous illness; and I am inclined to try what his method will do. He orders me asses’ milk, chicken, etc.; forbids me riding, and recommends the greatest quietness. He prohibits the use of Bristol water; advises some water of a purgative nature; and tries to promote expectoration by a method that so far answers, though I spit by it more blood than before.

“With respect to my soul, I find it good to be in the balance,—awfully weighed every day for life or death. I thank God, the latter has lost its sting, and endears to me the Prince of Life. But O! I want Christ, my resurrection, to be a thousand times more dear to me; and I doubt not He will be so, when I am filled with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Let us wait for that glory, praising God for all we have received, and trusting Him for all we have not yet received. Let our faith do justice to His veracity; our hope to His goodness; and our love to all His perfections. It is good to trust in the Lord; and His saints like well to hope in Him.

“I am provided here with every necessary and convenient blessing for my state. The great have done me the honour of calling,—Mr. Shirley, Mr. Rowland Hill, Mr. Peckwell, etc.[397] I exhort them to promote peace in the Church, which they take kindly. Lady Huntingdon also has written me a kind letter. This world to me is now become a world of love.”[398]

Footnote 397:

Berridge, of Everton, also came to Fletcher at Stoke Newington.

“They met and parted in the spirit of Christian love; and I believe saw each other no more in the body.” (The Works of the Rev. John Berridge, A.M.; with a Memoir of his Life, by Rev. R. Whittingham, p. 63.)

Another, who visited him, was Dr. Price, who, afterwards, said, “I was introduced to the company of a man, whose air and countenance bespoke him fitted rather for the society of angels, than for the conversation of men.” (Cox’s “Life of Fletcher,” p. 114.)

Footnote 398:

Letters, 1791, p. 242.

Madeley was the centre of a kind of Methodist circuit, which, however, had no Methodist meeting-house. Services were held in cottages; chapels did not exist. In the midst of his affliction, Fletcher and his friends projected the building of one in Madeley Wood.[399] As will be seen in subsequent letters, the execution of the scheme brought upon him considerable anxiety. Robert Palmer was the builder, and the entire cost was £296 17_s._ 5_d._, including £1 4_s._ 2_d._ “paid for drink for the men with the teams,” and £3 12_s._ paid for “sixteen stones of malt, for drink for the workmen.”[400] The following letter, addressed to Mr. Wase, refers to this humble edifice:—

“NEWINGTON, February 18, 1777.

“MY DEAR BROTHER,—My dear friend Ireland brought me, last week, Sir John Elliott, who is esteemed the greatest physician in London, in consumptive cases. He gave hopes of my recovery, upon using proper diet and means. I was bled yesterday for the third time. I calmly leave all to God, and use the means without trusting in them. Death has lost its sting. I know not what hurry of spirit is, or unbelieving fears, under my most terrifying symptoms. Glory be to God, for this unspeakable mercy! Help me to praise Him for it.

“With respect to our intended room, I beg Mr. Palmer, Mr. Lloyd, and yourself to consult about it, and that Mr. Palmer would contract for the whole. I shall contribute £100, including £10 I have had for it from Mr. Ireland, and £10 from Mr. Thornton.”[401]

Footnote 399:

The chapel was enlarged a short time before Fletcher’s death in 1785. On the morning of the day when his friends began to hew the stones for the enlargement, he went to the quarry, and said, “First of all, let us pray.” The workers knelt upon the rock; Fletcher prayed in a way that few besides himself could pray; and then, till duty called him elsewhere, assisted in shaping the stones for the extension of the building. (Crowther’s “Portraiture of Methodism,” p. 96.)

Footnote 400:

MS. in Fletcher’s own handwriting.

Footnote 401:

Letters, 1791, p. 24.

In other ways, Fletcher evinced his profound interest in the welfare of his Madeley friends. Mr. Greaves occupied his pulpit, and preached, with great acceptance, to his parishioners; but Mr. Greaves was not a priest, and, therefore, was not qualified to administer the holy sacraments. To meet the case, Fletcher wrote as follows to the Bishop of Hereford:—

“STOKE NEWINGTON, March 22, 1777.

“My LORD,—It is near a year since I was taken ill with a cough, spitting of blood, and hectic fever. This complication of disorders obliged me to go to Bristol last summer, for the benefit of the waters; and it now detains me here, where I stay on account of the greater mildness of the climate, and the help I can have from the London physicians, who, as well as those of Bristol, absolutely forbid me doing duty.

“It is with great difficulty that I have got my church properly served. My chief assistant has been Mr. Greaves, a young clergyman of the next diocese, who is only in deacon’s orders, and who, considering my weak state of health, has kindly left his curacy to oblige and help me. I give him a title, and do humbly recommend him to your lordship, begging you would admit him to the holy order of priest; without which he cannot properly supply my church, my parishioners having always been used to a monthly sacrament, and dying people, in so populous a part of the diocese, frequently wanting to have the ordinance administered to them.

“I am sorry to be obliged to trouble your lordship on this occasion; but hope, my lord, you will not deny me a favour which few clergymen in your lordship’s diocese can want as much as your lordship’s dutiful son and obedient servant,

“JOHN FLETCHER.”[402]

Footnote 402:

Unpublished MS.

With this letter, Fletcher sent the following certificate:—

“To the Right Reverend Father in God, James Lord Bishop of Hereford.

“These are to certify to your lordship that I, John Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, in the county of Salop and your lordship’s diocese of Hereford, do hereby nominate and appoint Alexander Benjamin Greaves, late Curate of Glossop, in Derbyshire, to perform the office of a Curate in my church of Madeley aforesaid; and do promise to allow him the yearly sum of £42 for his maintenance in the same; and to continue him to officiate in my said church until he shall be otherwise provided of some ecclesiastical preferment, unless, by fault by him committed, he shall be lawfully removed from the same. And I hereby solemnly declare that I do not fraudulently give this certificate to entitle the said Alexander Benjamin Greaves to receive Holy Orders, but with a real intention to employ him in my said church, according to what is before expressed.

“Witness my hand this twenty-second day of March, in the year of our Lord 1777,

“JOHN FLETCHER.”[403]

Footnote 403:

Ibid.

The Perronet family at Shoreham dearly loved poor Fletcher. He had been their guest, and they had seen his spirit. Damaris Perronet was occasionally one of his correspondents; and William Perronet was now his loving medical attendant. The saintly Charles Perronet had died in the month of August, 1776, but was most tenderly remembered by all who knew him. To Miss Perronet, Fletcher now wrote as follows:—

“NEWINGTON, April 21, 1777.

“MY DEAR FRIEND,—A thousand thanks to you for your kind, comfortable lines. The prospect of going to see Jesus and His glorified members, and among them your dear departed brother, my now everliving friend, is enough to make me quietly and joyfully submit to leave all my Shoreham friends, and all the excellent ones of the earth. But why do I talk of leaving any of Christ’s members by going to be more intimately united to the Head?

“‘We all are one who Him receive, And each with each agree; In Him the One, the truth we live, Blest point of unity!’

“A point this which fills heaven and earth, which runs through time and eternity. In it sickness is lost in health, and death in life. There let us ever meet.

“I cannot tell you how much I am obliged to your dear brother for all his kind brotherly attendance as a physician. He has given me his time, his long walks, his remedies. He has brought me Dr. Turner several times, and will not allow me to reimburse his expenses. Help me to thank him for all his profusion of love, for I cannot sufficiently do it myself.

“My duty to your father; I throw myself in spirit at his feet and ask his blessing, and an interest in his prayers. Tell him that the Lord is gracious to me; does not suffer the enemy to disturb my peace; and gives me, in prospect, the victory over death. Absolute resignation to the Divine will baffles a thousand temptations, and confidence in our Saviour carries us sweetly through a thousand trials.”[404]

Footnote 404:

Letters, 1791, p. 246.

The time of Fletcher’s happy sojourn with Mr. and Mrs. Greenwood at Stoke Newington was now ended. One of the family wrote:—

“When he first came, he was, by Dr. Fothergill’s advice, under the strictest observance of two things—rest and silence. These, together with a milk diet, were supposed to be the only probable means of his recovery. In consequence of these directions, he spoke exceeding little. If ever he spoke more than usual, it did not fail to increase his spitting of blood, of which indeed he was seldom quite clear, although it was not violent. Therefore, a great part of his time was spent in being read to; but it was not possible to restrain him altogether from speaking. His natural vivacity, with his intense love of Jesus, impelled him to speak; but on being reminded of his rule, with a cheerful smile he was all submission, consenting by signs only to stir up those about him to pray and praise. Those who had the privilege of observing his spirit and conduct, will not scruple to say that he was a living comment on his own account of Christian perfection. When he was able to converse, his favourite subject was, the promise of the Father, the gift of the Holy Ghost, including the rich peculiar blessing of union with the Father and the Son, mentioned in the prayer of our Lord, recorded in John xvii. ‘We must not be content,’ said he, ‘to be only cleansed from sin; we must be filled with the Spirit.’ One asking him, What was to be experienced in the full accomplishment of the promise of the Father? ‘O,’ said he, ‘what shall I say? All the sweetness of the drawings of the Father, all the love of the Son, all the rich effusions of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, more than ever can be expressed are comprehended here! To attain it, the Spirit maketh intercession in the soul, like a God wrestling with a God.’

“In some of these favoured moments of converse, he mentioned several circumstances, which, as none knew them but himself, would otherwise have been buried in oblivion. ‘In the beginning,’ said he, ‘of my spiritual course, I heard the voice of God in an articulate, but inexpressibly awful sound, go through my soul in those words, If any man will be My disciple, let him deny himself. At a later date, I was favoured, like Moses, with a supernatural discovery of the glory of God, in an ineffable converse with Him, face to face; so that whether I was then in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell.’

“On another occasion he said, ‘About the time of my entering into the ministry, I one evening wandered into a wood, musing on the importance of the office I was going to undertake. I then began to pour out my soul in prayer; when such a sense of the justice of God fell upon me, and such a sense of His displeasure at sin, as absorbed all my powers, and filled me with the agony of prayer for poor lost sinners. I continued therein till the dawn of day; and I considered this as designed of God, to impress upon me more deeply the meaning of those solemn words, Therefore, knowing the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men.’

“One end of his retiring to Newington was that he might hide himself from company; but this design was in nowise answered, for company came from every side. He was continually visited by high and low, and by persons of various denominations; one of whom being asked, when he went away, what he thought of Mr. Fletcher, said, ‘I went to see a man who had one foot in the grave; but I found a man who had one foot in heaven.’ Among them who now visited him were several of his beloved and honoured opponents, to whom he confirmed his love by the most respectful and affectionate behaviour; but he did not give up any part of the truth for which he had publicly contended; although some, from whom one would have expected better things, did not scruple to affirm the contrary.

“It was not without some difficulty that Mr. Ireland prevailed upon him to sit for his picture. While the limner was drawing the outlines of it he was exhorting both him and all that were in the room not only to get the outlines drawn, but the colourings also of the image of Jesus on their hearts. He had a very remarkable facility in making allusions of this kind. To give an instance. Being ordered to be let blood, while his blood was running into the cup he took occasion to expatiate on the precious blood-shedding of the Lamb of God. And even when he did not speak at all, the seraphic spirit which beamed from his languid face, during those months of pain and weakness, was—

“‘A lecture silent, yet of sovereign use.’”

To this interesting account, probably written by Mr. Greenwood himself, Wesley adds:—

“It is necessary to be observed that this facility of raising useful observations from the most trifling incidents, was one of those peculiarities in Mr. Fletcher which cannot be proposed to our imitation. In him, it partly resulted from nature, and was partly a supernatural gift. But what was becoming and graceful in Mr. Fletcher, would be disgustful almost in any other.”[405]

Footnote 405:

Wesley’s “Life of Fletcher.”

In the month of May, 1777, Fletcher left the hospitable home of Mr. Greenwood, at Stoke Newington, and went to his kind friend Mr. Ireland, at Brislington, near Bristol. In a letter dated “May 28, 1777,” and addressed to his “very dear friends and benefactors Charles and Mary Greenwood,” he wrote:—

“I thought myself a little better last Sunday, but I have since spit more blood than I had done for weeks before. Glory be to God for every providence! His will be done in me by health or sickness, by life or death! All from Him is, and I trust will always be, welcome to your obliged pensioner,

“J. FLETCHER.”[406]

Footnote 406:

Letters, 1791, p. 248.

To Michael Onions, one of the poor Methodists at Coalbrookdale, Fletcher wrote:—

“BATH, July 8, 1777.

“MY DEAR BROTHER,—I heartily thank you for your kind letter; and, by you, I desire to give my best thanks to the dear companions in tribulation whom you meet, and who so kindly remember me. If I should be spared to minister to you again, my desire is to do it with more humility, zeal, diligence, and love. I hope to see you before the summer is ended, if it please God to give me strength for the journey. I am, in some respects, better than when I came here, and was enabled to bury a corpse last Sunday to oblige the minister of the parish; but, whether occasioned by that little exertion or something else, bad symptoms have returned since. Be that as it may, all is well; for He, who does all things well, rules and over-rules all.

“I have stood the heats we have had these two days better than I expected. I desire you will help me to bless the Author of all good for this and every other blessing of this life; but above all for the lively hope of the next, and for Christ, our common hope, peace, joy, wisdom, righteousness, salvation, and all. Don’t let me want the reviving cordial of hearing that you stand together firm in the faith. Look much at Jesus. Be much in private prayer. Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together in little companies, as well as in public. Walk in the sight of death and eternity, and ever pray for your affectionate, but unworthy minister,

“J. FLETCHER.”[407]

“P.S.—Let none of your little companies want. If any do, you are welcome to my house. Take any part of the furniture there, and make use of it for their relief. And this shall be your full title for so doing,

“Witness my hand, JOHN FLETCHER.”[408]

Footnote 407:

Letters, 1791, p. 26.

Footnote 408:

Wesley’s “Life of Fletcher.”

At this time, the Rev. Henry Venn was preaching in the chapel of the Countess of Huntingdon at Bath; and Fletcher attended his ministry. Her ladyship wrote:—

“Dear Mr. Venn has been preaching most successfully at Bath to overflowing congregations. Captain Scott and Mr. Fletcher have been there, and heard him preach in the chapel. The latter is far gone in a consumptive disorder, but is alive to God, and ripening fast for glory. We have exchanged several letters lately. As a last resource, he is to accompany Mr. Ireland to the south of France.”[409]

Footnote 409:

“Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. ii., p. 71.

When Mr. Venn had completed his services at Bath, he removed to the house of Mr. Ireland, at Brislington, where Fletcher was an honoured guest. Speaking of this visit, after Fletcher’s death, to a brother clergyman, Venn remarked:—

“Sir, Mr. Fletcher was a luminary—a luminary did I say? He was a sun! I have known all the great men for these fifty years, but I have known none like him. I was intimately acquainted with him, and was under the same roof with him once for six weeks; during which time I never heard him say a single word which was not proper to be spoken, and which had not a tendency to minister grace to the hearers. One time, meeting him when he was very ill, I said, ‘I am sorry to find you so ill.’ Mr. Fletcher answered, with the greatest sweetness, ‘Sorry, Sir, why are you sorry? It is the chastisement of our heavenly Father, and I rejoice in it. I love the rod of my God, and rejoice therein as an expression of His love towards me.’ Never,” continued Mr. Venn, “did I hear Mr. Fletcher speak ill of any one. He would pray for those who walked disorderly, but he would not publish their faults.”[410]

Footnote 410:

“Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. ii., p. 72.

In a letter to the Rev. J. Stillingfleet, Mr. Venn remarked:—

“I have been six weeks with the extraordinary and very excellent Mr. Fletcher. Oh that I might be like him! I strictly observed him, but, I assure you, I never heard him speak anything but what was becoming a pastor of Christ’s Church;—not a single unbecoming word of himself, or of his antagonists, or of his friends. All his conversation tended to excite to greater love and thankfulness, for the benefits of redemption; whilst his whole deportment breathed humility and love. We had many conversations. I told him, most freely, that I was shocked at many things in his ‘Checks;’ and pointed them out to him. We widely differ about the efficacy of Christ’s death, the nature of justification, and the perfection of the saints; but I believe we could live years together, as we did, in great love. He heard me twice; and I was chaplain both morning and evening in the family, as his lungs would not suffer him to speak long or loud. He desired his love, by me, to all his Calvinistic brethren; and begged their pardon for the asperity with which he had written. I am persuaded, as I told him, that, if he were to live with some of those whom he has been taught to conceive of as Antinomians, and hear them preach, he would be much more reconciled to them.”[411]

Footnote 411:

“Life of Rev. Henry Venn, M.A.,” p. 240.

Mr. Venn’s last remarks were quite unneeded, for Fletcher always readily allowed that the hearts and lives of his opponents were far better than their creed.

At the close of the month of July, Wesley came to Bristol, to hold his annual conference with his preachers, and wrote:—

“Wednesday, July 30. I spent an hour or two with Mr. Fletcher, restored to life in answer to many prayers. How many providential ends have been answered by his illness! And perhaps still greater will be answered by his recovery.”[412]

Footnote 412:

Wesley’s Journal.

The “providential ends” meant by Wesley were, probably, the steps taken by Fletcher to bring to an end the Calvinian controversy, which had so greatly disturbed the Methodist movement during the last six years.

Wesley’s conference began on Tuesday, August 5, and ended on Friday, August 8.[413] It was short, but important. Its most interesting event, however, was the attendance of Fletcher. Thomas Taylor remarked, in his unpublished diary,—

“On August 7, that great and good man Mr. Fletcher came into the conference. My eyes flowed with tears at the sight of him. He spoke to us in a very respectful manner, and took a solemn farewell. Dear, good man! I never saw so many tears shed in my life.”

Footnote 413:

Wesley’s Journal.

Fletcher’s valued friend, Joseph Benson, wrote:—

“August 8. We have had an edifying conference. Mr. Fletcher’s visit to-day and yesterday has been attended with a blessing. His appearance, his exhortations, and his prayers, broke most of our hearts, and filled us with shame and self-abasement, for our little improvement.”[414]

Footnote 414:

Macdonald’s “Life of Benson,” p. 62.

In his “Life of Fletcher,” Benson says:—

“Mr. Fletcher happened to be passing by the door of the stable, belonging to our chapel in Broadmead, when I was lighting from my horse, ‘on my arrival in Bristol.’ I shall never forget with what a heavenly air, and sweet countenance, he instantly came to me in the stable, and, in a most solemn manner, put his hands upon my head, as if he had been ordaining me for the sacred office of the ministry, and prayed most fervently for and blessed me in the name of the Lord.”

By far the best account, however, of Fletcher in connection with the Bristol Conference, was written, not by one of Wesley’s sturdy Itinerants, but by a young Welshman, who was present, for the purpose of offering himself for the Itinerant work. On account of his delicate health and feeble voice, the offer of David Lloyd was not accepted; but, some years afterwards, he was ordained by Bishop Horsley, who gave him the living of Llanbister, which, even now, is not worth more than £150 a year. The parsonage was a plain stone building, the door of which opened into the main room of the house,—its floor consisting of stone slabs, its fireplace wide, with benches in the corners, and the fire on the hearth made principally of turf. On the same floor was another apartment, which served as kitchen, and above were two humble bed-rooms. “Such,” wrote the late Rev. James Dixon, D.D., who, at the commencement of his ministry, was often the delighted guest of Mr. Lloyd,—“Such was the residence of a philosopher, a poet, and a divine, who seemed to enjoy, with unmixed contentment, the inheritance given him by Providence.” Mr. Lloyd’s wife was a good old Methodist; their house was the home of Methodist itinerant preachers; out of his small income, Mr. Lloyd subscribed £10 a year to the Methodist and Church Missionary Societies; presented to each a donation of £500; by his will, directed that the residue of his property should be equally divided between these two Societies; and built a Methodist chapel in his parish, secured it to the Connexion by deed, and gave to it an endowment, “that Methodist preaching,” as he said, “might continue in the parish as long as water should run.”[415]

Footnote 415:

Wesleyan Methodist Magazine. Sixpenny Edition, 1863, pp. 1–8.

This remarkable man, for whom Dr. Dixon had the highest admiration, wrote as follows to the Rev. Dr. Adam Clarke:—

“LLANBISTER, NEAR KNIGHTON, RADNORSHIRE,

“November 7, 1821.

“REV. AND DEAR SIR,—At the conference of the Methodist preachers, held at Bristol in the year 1777, an interview took place between the Rev. Mr. Wesley and the Rev. John Fletcher, of Madeley. I was both an eye- and ear-witness to the facts I here relate. The Rev. Mr. Fletcher had for a long time laboured under the effects of a deep-rooted consumption, which was then adjudged to be rapidly advancing to its final crisis. He was advised by the faculty to make the tour of the Continent, and to breathe his native air. He resided, at that time, with Mr. Ireland, a gentleman of known celebrity for the exercise of catholic love towards all such as possessed the essential attributes of great and good men. On the forenoon of a day, when the sitting of the Conference was drawing to a close, tidings announced the approach of Mr. Fletcher. As he entered the vestibule of the New Room, supported by Mr. Ireland, I can never forget the visible impulse of esteem which his venerable presence excited in the house. The whole assembly stood up, as if moved by an electric shock. Mr. Wesley rose, ex cathedrâ, and advanced a few paces to receive his highly respected friend and reverend brother, whose visage seemed strongly to bode that he stood on the verge of the grave; while his eyes, sparkling with seraphic love, indicated that he dwelt in the suburbs of heaven. In this his languid but happy state, he addressed the Conference, on their work and his own views, in a strain of holy and pathetic eloquence, which no language of mine can adequately express. The influence of his spirit and pathos seemed to bear down all before it. I never saw such an instantaneous effect produced in a religious assembly, either before or since. He had scarcely pronounced a dozen sentences before a hundred preachers, to speak in round numbers, were immersed in tears. Time can never efface from my mind the recollection and image of what I then felt and saw. Such a scene I never expect to witness again on this side eternity. Mr. Wesley, in order to relieve his languid friend from the fatigue and injury which might arise from a too long and arduous exertion of the lungs through much speaking, abruptly kneeled down at his side, the whole congress of preachers doing the same, while, in a concise and energetic manner, he prayed for Mr. Fletcher’s restoration to health and a longer exercise of his ministerial labours. Mr. Wesley closed his prayer with the following prophetic promise, pronounced in his peculiar manner, and with a confidence and emphasis which seemed to thrill through every heart, ‘HE SHALL NOT DIE, BUT LIVE, AND DECLARE THE WORKS OF THE LORD.’ The event verified the prediction. Mr. Fletcher lived for eight succeeding years, exerting all the zeal of a primitive missionary, and enjoying all the esteem of a holy patriarch.

“I am, dear Sir, with high regard and esteem, your sincere friend and humble servant,

“DAVID LLOYD.”[416]

Footnote 416:

“Life of Adam Clarke, LL.D.,” by Rev. Samuel Dunn, p. 127.

Remembering the position which Fletcher had occupied, during the last six years, as the valiant and greatly abused expounder and defender of Wesley’s Anti-Calvinian doctrines, and also bearing in mind the heavenly-mindedness in which Fletcher was now living, and, apparently, dying, there is no room to wonder at Mr. Lloyd’s account, or to doubt of its being strictly accurate. Who can adequately conceive the influence of Fletcher’s visit on the piety and usefulness of Wesley’s conclave of Itinerant Preachers? This is one of the secrets to be revealed hereafter.

Another incident, belonging to this period, must be introduced. James Rogers was now a young Itinerant of five years’ standing, but already possessed the confidence and esteem of Wesley, and afterwards had the honour of seeing Wesley die. No doubt, all of Wesley’s Preachers, at this time assembled in Bristol, would have been delighted to be introduced to poor Fletcher at Brislington; but, on account of his state of health, this was a privilege not many were permitted to enjoy. James Rogers was one of the favoured few, and he shall be allowed, in his own artless way, to tell the story of his interview, and of an open-air sacramental service. During the previous year, he had been stationed in Edinburgh; now he was appointed to Cornwall. He writes:—

“In the year 1777, I was appointed to labour in the east of Cornwall. A journey of between four and five hundred miles was no small fatigue, in my then weak state of body; but the Lord was with me. I took my appointment as from God, and set out in His name, and found sweet communion with Him in the way.

“I had long desired to see that most eminently pious man of God, Mr. Fletcher; and now an opportunity offered. Stopping at Bristol a few days, to rest myself and horse, I heard of his being at Mr. Ireland’s, about three miles off, and, with two of my brethren, took a ride to see him. When we came there, he was returning from a ride, which he was advised by his physician to take every day. Dismounting from his horse, he came to us with arms spread open, and eyes lifted up to heaven. His apostolic appearance, with the whole of his deportment, greatly affected me. The first words he spoke, while yet standing in the stable by his horse, were a part of the sixteenth chapter of St. John’s Gospel. He pointed out from thence the descent of the Holy Ghost, as the great promise of the Father, and the privilege of all New Testament believers, in a manner I had never heard before. My soul was dissolved into tenderness, and became as melting wax before the fire.

“As an invidious report had been spread, that he had renounced what he had lately written against Calvinism, I took the liberty to mention the report, and asked him what he thought had given rise to it? He replied, he could not tell, except that he had refrained from speaking on controverted points since he came to Mr. Ireland’s: partly, by reason of the poor state of his health; and partly, because he did not wish to grieve his kind friend, by making his house a field of controversy; but he assured us, he had not seen cause to repent of what he had written in defence of the Rev. Mr. Wesley’s ‘Minutes.’ And, though he believed his close application to study had been the means of reducing his body to the state in which we then saw it, yet, he said, if he fell a victim, it was in a good cause.

“After a little conversation upon his darling topic, the universal love of God in Christ Jesus, we were about to take our leave, when Mr. Ireland sent his footman into the yard with a bottle of red wine, and some slices of bread upon a waiter. We all uncovered our heads, while Mr. Fletcher craved a blessing upon the same; which he had no sooner done, than he handed first the bread to each, and, lifting up his eyes to heaven, pronounced these words, ‘The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life.’ Afterwards, handing the wine, he repeated in like manner, ‘The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ etc. Such a sacrament I never had before. A sense of the Divine presence rested upon us all; and we were melted into floods of tears. His worthy friend, Mr. Ireland, grieved to see him exhaust his little strength by so much speaking, took him by the arm, and almost forced him into the house; while he kept looking wistfully, and speaking to us, as long as we could see him. We then mounted our horses, and rode away. That hour more than repaid me for my whole journey from Edinburgh to Cornwall.”[417]

Footnote 417:

“Experience and Labours of James Rogers,” written by himself, 1796, p. 22.

The scene so simply described is worthy of being painted by an artistic Methodist.

About the same time, Fletcher wrote as follows to the venerable Vicar of Shoreham, the Rev. Vincent Perronet.

“1777, September 6. My very dear father,—I humbly thank you for the honour and consolation of your two kind letters. Your vouchsafing to remember a poor, unprofitable worm, is to me a sure token that my heavenly Father remembers me. He is God, and therefore I am not consumed. He is a merciful, all-gracious God, and therefore I am blessed with sympathizing friends and gracious helpers on all sides. O Sir! if in this disordered, imperfect state of the Church, I meet with so much kindness, what shall I not meet with, when the millennium you pray for shall begin? O that the happy thought, the glorious hope may animate me to perfect holiness in the fear of God; that I may be accounted worthy to escape the terrible judgments, which will make way for that happy state of things, and that I may have a part in the first resurrection, if I am numbered among the dead before that happy period begin!

“‘Oh! for a firm and lasting faith, To credit all the Almighty saith! To embrace the promise of His Son, And call that glorious rest our own!’

“We are saved by hope at this time; but hope that is seen is not hope. Let us abound, then, in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost: so shall we antedate the millennium, take the kingdom, and enjoy beforehand the rest, which remains for the people of God.

“One of my parishioners brought a horse, last week, to carry me home; and desired to walk by my side all the way. By the advice of your dear son, Mr. William Perronet, who still continues to bestow upon me all the help I could expect from the most loving brother, I sent the man back. I thank God, I am a little stronger than when I came here. I kiss the rod, lean on the staff, and wait the end. I yesterday saw a physician, who told me my case is not yet an absolutely lost case. But the prospect of languishing two or three years longer, a burden to everybody, a help to none, would be very painful, if the will of God and the covenant of life in Christ Jesus did not sanctify all circumstances, and dispel every gloom. I remember, with grateful joy, the happy days I spent at Shoreham: Tecum vivere amem; tecum obeam lubens. But, what is better still, I shall live with the Lord and with you for ever and ever.

“Your obliged servant and affectionate son, “J. FLETCHER.”[418]

Footnote 418:

Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”

The next letter has not before been published. It was addressed to the lady who afterwards became his wife:—

“BRISTOL, October 20, 1777.

“DEAR MADAM,—The hope of thanking you in person for the favour of your friendly directions, as well as bodily weakness, has prevented me sending you a letter full of grateful acknowledgments. But, as Providence may postpone your intended journey to Bath, and hasten mine into Spain, or into eternity, I trouble you with these lines to testify how indebted I am to you for thinking of admitting me into the number of your patients. I have not tried your remedy yet, because the gentlemen of the faculty, who have attended me here, say, that, though it might be very good for persons of a cold, phlegmatic habit of body, it is improper for those who are, like myself, of a dry, bilious habit. I have taken the bark and rhubarb for some days, and I thought yesterday that the former medicine had removed the spitting of blood; but to-night it has again made its appearance. However, I think I can speak a little better, though I cannot bear the motion of a horse so well as I could two months ago.

“All is well that comes from our heavenly Friend and Physician. Shall we receive the sweet at His hands, and not the bitter? Is not His every dispensation of providence and grace to be received with thankfulness? I would not get well against His will for all the world, and for what I esteem more than all the world,—the pleasure of seeing those whom He has chosen out of the world. If Providence parts us on earth, we shall meet in heaven.

“I have had it, however, in my thoughts to antedate that pleasure with respect to you and your devoted family:[419] I was once going to take the pen to ask your leave to enter and die under your friendly roof; but the fear of troubling you and taking a step contrary to the leadings of Providence, made me decline. If you have not a poor Lazarus at your door to trouble you, you have Lazarus’s Friend in your sight and heart, to comfort and save you. May He, every day, appear more glorious in your sight, and may you, every hour, drink deeper into His Spirit!

“My Christian love waits upon Mrs. Crosby, Miss Hurrel, and Miss Ritchie.[420] I hope the Lord binds you each day closer to Himself and to each other, and enables you to see and experience the glory of the promise made to the daughters and handmaids, as well as to the sons and servants of the Lord. Oh, what a day when we shall all be so filled with power from on high, as to go forth and prophesy, and water the Lord’s drooping plants and barren parched garden with rivers of living water flowing from our own souls; and when an ardent fire of Divine love will make us put our candle to the chaff of sin, and fire all the harvests and tents of the Laodiceans! As Abraham saw the day of Christ, our first Comforter, and was glad, so I see the day of the Spirit, our other Comforter, and rejoice. May you live to enjoy it! May you and yours hasten it by the pleadings of mighty prayer! To thank the Father for the unspeakable gift of His Son; and to look to both for the fulness of that other gift of God, for that well of living water which Christ offered to the woman of Samaria, is a blessed work, in which I beg you would assist your obliged brother,

“J. FLETCHER.

“Miss Bosanquet, “At Cross Hall, “Near Leads, “Yorkshire, by Manchester.” Bristol postmark.

Footnote 419:

Miss Bosanquet kept an orphanage, wholly at her own expense.

Footnote 420:

Three grand old Methodists, and, at least, one of them a preacheress.

In another letter to Miss Bosanquet, written about the same time, he remarked:—

“I calmly wait, in unshaken resignation, for the full salvation of God: ready to trust Him, to venture on His faithful love and on the sure mercies of David, either at midnight, noonday, or cock-crowing: for my time is in His hand, and His time is best, and shall be my time. Death has lost his sting; and I know not what hurry of spirits is, or what are unbelieving fears, under the most trying circumstances. Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift.”[421]

Footnote 421:

Mrs. Fletcher’s “Letter to Mons. H. L. De la Flechere,” 1786, p. 35.

At the same period, Fletcher commenced a correspondence with another distinguished lady, the Right Hon. Lady Mary Fitzgerald, daughter of the Earl of Bristol, and aunt of Lord Liverpool. She had been married to George Fitzgerald, Esq., and, for about twelve years past, had been an exemplary member of the Methodist Society. The friendship between her and Wesley was great, and Wesley visited her only nine days before his death. In 1815, at the age of ninety, her clothing caught fire, and she died, her last words being, “Come, Lord Jesus, my blessed Redeemer, come and receive my spirit!” In conformity with a clause in her will, her remains were interred in the burial ground at the front of City Road Chapel; and, in memory of her, there is a plain white marble tablet in that sacred edifice.[422] The following is an extract from Fletcher’s letter to this Methodist lady:—

“October 21, 1777.

“HONOURED AND DEAR MADAM,—The honour of your Christian letter humbles me; and the idea of your taking half-a-dozen steps, much more that of your taking a journey, to consult so mean a creature as myself, lays me in the dust. My brothers and sisters invite me once more to breathe my native air, and the physicians recommend to me a journey to the continent. If I go, I shall probably pass through London, and, in that case, I could have the honour of waiting upon you. I say, probably, because I shall have to accompany my friend and a serious family, who intend to spend the winter in the south of France, or in Spain; and I do not yet know whether they design to embark at Dover, or at some port in the west of England.

“You have been afflicted as well as myself. May our maladies yield the peaceable fruits of righteousness, complete deadness to the world, and increased faith in the mercy, love, and power of Him, who supports under the greatest trials, and can make our extremity of weakness an opportunity of displaying the greatness of His power!

“I have taken the bark for some days, and it seems to have been blessed to the removal of my spitting of blood. Time will decide whether it be a real removal, or only a suspension of that symptom. Either will prove a blessing, as His will is our health. To live singly to God, the best method is to desire it in meekness; to spread the desire in quietness before Him who inspires it; to offer Him now all we have and are, as we can; and to open our mouth of expectation wide, that He may fill it with all His fulness, or that He may try our patience, and teach us to know our total helplessness. With respect to the weeping frame of repentance, and the joyous one of faith, they are both good alternately; but the latter is the better of the two, because it enables us to do, and suffer, and praise, which honours Christ more. Both are happily mixed. May they be so in you, Madam, and in your unworthy and obliged servant,

“J. FLETCHER.”[423]

Footnote 422:

Stevenson’s “City Road Chapel.”

Footnote 423:

Letters, 1791, p. 256.

To another lady, Mrs. Thornton, Fletcher wrote:—

“I spend more time in giving my friends an account of my health, than the matter is worth. You will see by the enclosed, which I beg you to send to the post, when you have shown it to Mr. John and Charles Wesley, how their poor servant does. I am kept in sweet peace, and am looking for the triumphant joy of my Lord, and for the fulness expressed in these words, which sweetly filled the sleepless hours of last night,—

“‘Drawn—and redeem’d—and seal’d, I bless the One and Three; With Father, Son, and Spirit fill’d To all eternity.’

“With respect to my body, I sleep less, and spit more blood than I did when you were here, nor can I bear the least trot of an easy horse. If this continues many days, instead of thinking to go and see my friends on the continent, I shall turn my steps to my earthly home, to be ready to lay my bones in my churchyard. Two of my parishioners came to convey me safe home, and had persuaded me to go with them in a post-chaise; but I had so bad a night before the day that I was to set out, that I gave it up. I have nothing to look at but Jesus and the grave. May I so look at them, as to live in my Resurrection and my life; and die in all the meekness and holiness of my Lord and my all.”[424]

Footnote 424:

Letters, 1791, pp. 249, 253.

Fletcher having decided to go to the continent, it became necessary to arrange monetary and other matters before he started. To two of his friends at Madeley, Mr. Thomas York and Mr. Daniel Edmunds, he wrote as follows:—

“BRISTOL, November, 1777.

“MY DEAR FRIENDS,—The debt of gratitude I owe to a dying sister, who once took a long journey to see me, when I was ill in Germany, and whom I just stopped from coming, last winter, to Newington to nurse me,—the unanimous advice of the physicians whom I have consulted,—and the opportunity of travelling with serious friends,—have at last determined me to remove to a warmer climate. As it is very doubtful whether I shall be able to stand the journey; and, if I do, whether I shall be able to come back to England; and, if I come back, whether I shall be able to serve my church, it is right to make what provision I can to have it properly served while I live, and to secure some spiritual assistance to my serious parishioners when I shall die.

“I have attempted to build a house in Madeley Wood, about the centre of my parish, where I should be glad the children might be taught to read and write in the day, and the grown-up people might hear the Word of God in the evening, when they can get an Evangelist to preach it to them; and where the serious people might assemble for social worship when they have no teacher. The expense of that building, and paying for the ground it stands upon, have involved me in some difficulties; especially as my ill health has put on me the additional expense of an assistant.

“If I had strength, I would serve my church alone, board as cheaply as I could, and save what I was able to do from the produce of the living to clear the debt, and leave that little token of my love, free from encumbrances, to my parishioners.

“But, as Providence orders things otherwise, I have another object, which is to secure a faithful minister to serve the church while I live. Providence has sent me dear Mr. Greaves, who loves the people, and is loved by them. I should be glad to make him comfortable; and, as all the care of my flock, by my illness, devolves upon him, I would not hesitate for a moment to let him have all the profit of the living, if it were not for the debt contracted about the room. My difficulty lies, then, between what I owe to my fellow-labourer, and what I owe to my parishioners, whom I should be sorry to have burdened with a debt contracted for the room.

“My agreement with Mr. Greaves was to allow him forty guineas a year, out of which I was to deduct twelve for his board; but, as I cannot board him when I go abroad, I design to allow him, during my absence, £50 a-year, together with the use of my house, furniture, garden, and my horse, if he chooses to keep one; reserving the use of a room, and a stall in the stable, to entertain the preachers who help us in their Round: not doubting but that the serious people will gladly find them and their horses proper necessaries.

“But I know so little what my income may be, that I am not sure it will yield Mr. Greaves £50, after paying all the expenses of the living. Now I beg you will consult together, and see whether the Vicar’s income, i.e., tithes, etc., etc., will discharge all the expenses of the living, and leave a residue sufficient to pay a stipend of £50. I except the royalty, which I have appropriated to the expense of the Room. If it be, well; if there be any surplus, let it be applied to the Room; if there be anything short, then Mr. Greaves may have the whole, and take his chance in that respect, as it will be only taking the Vicar’s chance; for I doubt if sometimes, after necessary charges defrayed, the Vicars have had a clear £50.

“I beg you will let me know how the balance of my account stands, that, some way or other, I may order it to be paid immediately; for, if the balance is against me, I could not leave England comfortably without having settled the payment. A letter will settle this business as well as if twenty friends were at the trouble of taking a journey; and talking is far worse for me than reading or writing.

“Ten thousand pardons, my dear friends, for troubling you with this scrawl about worldly matters. I am quite tired with writing, but I cannot lay by my pen without desiring my best Christian love to all my dear companions in tribulation, and neighbours in Shropshire; especially to Mrs. York, Miss Simpson, Mrs. Harper, Mr. Scott, Winny Edmunds, and all enquiring friends. Thank Molly for her good management, and tell her I recommend her to our common Heavenly Master. If she wants to go to London, or to come to Bristol, I shall give her such a character as will help her to some good place. I heartily thank Daniel, both as churchwarden and as receiver and house-steward; and I beg Mr. York to pay him a proper salary.

“I am, in the best bonds, your affectionate neighbour, friend, and minister,

J. FLETCHER.”[425]

Footnote 425:

Letters, 1791, p. 34.

A letter on small matters, so far as the reader is concerned; but a letter unveiling Fletcher’s heart, and exhibiting his perfect unworldliness. The following, extracted from a letter to Mr. William Wase, reveals other characteristics:—

“BRISTOL, November, 1777.

“MY DEAR BROTHER,—Go to Mrs. Cound, and tell her, I charge her, in the name of God, to give up the world, to set out with all speed for heaven, and to join the few about her who fear God. If she refuses, call again; call weekly, if not daily, and warn her from me till she is ripe for glory. Tell the brethren at Broseley that I did my body an injury the last time I preached to them on the Green; but, if they took the warning, I do not repine. Give my love to George Crannage; tell him to make haste to Christ, and not to doze away his last days.

“The physician has not yet given me up; but, I bless God, I do not wait for his farewell, to give myself up to my God and Saviour. I write by stealth, as my friends here would have me forbear writing, and even talking; but I will never part with my privilege of writing and shouting, ‘Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory’ over sin, death, and the grave ‘through Jesus Christ.’ To Him be glory for ever and ever! Amen!”[426]

Footnote 426:

Ibid, p. 36.

To his congregation in Madeley Church, Fletcher wrote as follows:—

“BRISTOL, November 26, 1777.

“To the Brethren who hear the Word of God in the parish church of Madeley.

“MY DEAR BRETHREN,—I thank you for the declaration of your affectionate remembrance, which you sent me by John Owen, the messenger of your brotherly love.

“As various reasons prevent my coming to take leave of you in “erson, permit me to do it by letter. The hope of recovering a little strength, to serve you again in the Gospel, makes me take the advice of the physicians, who say that removing to a drier air and warmer climate may be of great service to my health.

“I am more and more persuaded that I have not declared unto you cunningly devised fables, and that the Gospel I have had the honour of preaching, though feebly, among you, is the power of God to salvation, to every one who believes it.

“Want of time does not permit me to give you more than the following directions. Have, every day, lower thoughts of yourselves, higher thoughts of Christ, kinder thoughts of your brethren, and more hopeful thoughts of all around you. Love to assemble in the great congregation; but, above all, love to pray to your Father in secret; consider your Saviour; and listen for your Sanctifier. Wait all day long for His glorious appearing within you; and, when you are together, by suitable prayers, proper hymns, and enlivening exhortations, keep up your earnest expectation of His pardoning and sanctifying love. Let not a drop satisfy you; desire an ocean. Do not eat your morsel by yourselves, like selfish, niggardly people, but be ready to share it with all. Let every one with whom you converse be the better for your conversation. Be burning and shining lights wherever you are. Set the fire of divine love to the hellish stubble of sin. Be valiant for the truth. Be champions for love. Be sons of thunder against sin; and sons of consolation towards humbled sinners. Be faithful to your God, your king, and your masters. Let not the good ways of God be blasphemed through any of you.

“You have need of patience, as well as of faith and power. You must learn to suffer, as well as do the will of God. Think it not strange to pass through fiery trials. Let your faith be firm in a tempest. Let your hope in Christ be as a sure anchor cast within the veil; and your patient love will soon outride the storm. God is the same merciful and faithful God, ‘yesterday, to-day, and for ever.’ Believe in His threefold name. Rejoice in every degree of His great salvation. Triumph in hope of the glory which shall be revealed. Do not forget to be thankful for a cup of water; much less for being out of hell, for the means of grace, the forgiveness of sins, the blood of Jesus, the communion of saints on earth, and the future glorification of saints in heaven. Strongly, heartily believe every Gospel truth, especially the latter part of the Apostles’ Creed. Believe it till your faith becomes the substance of the eternal life you hope for; and then, come life, come death, either or both will be welcome to you, as, through grace, I find they are to me.

“If I am no more permitted to minister to you in the land of the living, I rejoice at the thought that I shall, perhaps, be allowed to accompany the angels, who, if you continue in the faith, will be commissioned to carry your souls into Abraham’s bosom. If our bodies do not moulder away in the same grave, our spirits shall be sweetly lost in the same sea of divine and brotherly love. I hope to see you again in the flesh; but my sweetest and firmest hope is to meet you where there are no parting seas, no interposing mountains, no sickness, no death, no fear of loving too much, no shame for loving too little.

“I earnestly recommend you to the pastoral care of the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, to the brotherly care of one another, and to the ministerial care of my substitute. Should I be spared to come back, let me have the joy of finding you all of one heart and one soul; continuing steadfast in the Apostles’ doctrine, in fellowship one with another, and in communion with our sin-pardoning and sin-abhorring God.”[427]

Footnote 427:

Letters, 1791, p. 40.

Immediately after the date of this pastoral epistle, in company with Mr. Ireland, two of his daughters, and another family, Fletcher left Brislington for the south of France. During a halt at Reading, he wrote the following to the Rev. Vincent Perronet, the venerable vicar of Shoreham:—

“READING, December 2, 1777.

“HONOURED AND DEAR SIR,—I acknowledge, though late, the favour of your letter. I have given up the thought of going to my parish, and am now on the road to a warmer climate. The Lord may bless as much the change of air, as He has blessed the last remedy your son prescribed for me—I mean the bark. If I should mend a little, I would begin to have faith in your prophecy. In the meantime, let us have faith in Christ, more faith day by day, till all the sayings of Christ are verified to us and in us. Should I go to Geneva, I shall enquire after the Swiss friends of my dear benefactors at Shoreham, to whose prayers I humbly recommend myself and my dear fellow-travellers, one of whom, my little god-daughter, is but eight weeks old.”[428]

Footnote 428:

Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”

At the same time, and on the same sheet, he wrote as follows to Miss Damaris Perronet:—

“MY DEAR FRIEND,—I snatch a moment upon the road to acknowledge the favour of your letter, and to wish you joy in seeing the Lord is faithful in rewarding as well as punishing. I once met a gentleman, an infidel, abroad, who said, ‘Men have no faith: if they believed that by forsaking houses, lands, and friends, they should receive a hundredfold, they would instantly renounce all: for who would not carry all his money to the bank of heaven, to receive a hundredfold interest?’ The Papists have made so bad a use of the doctrine of the rewardableness of works, that we dare neither preach it, nor hold it in a scriptural manner. For my part, I think that if it were properly received, it would make a great alteration in the professing world. You dare receive it; try the mighty use of it; and when you have fully experienced it, do not keep your light to yourself, but impart it to all within the reach of your tongue and pen. I am glad you see that every reward, bestowed upon a reprieved sinner, has free-grace for its foundation, and the blood of Christ for its mark. May the richest rewards of Divine grace be yours in consequence of the most exalted faithfulness; and let me beseech you to pray that I may follow you, as you follow Christ, till our reward be full.”[429]

Footnote 429:

Methodist Magazine, 1804, p. 520.

Thus did Fletcher leave England, reiterating one of the great truths that he had been explaining and defending during the last six years. On the next day after the date of his letter, he arrived at Stoke Newington. Wesley writes:—

“Wednesday, December 3, 1777. I visited as many of the sick as I could in the north-east part of the town; and spent the evening at Newington, with Mr. Fletcher, almost miraculously recovering from his consumption. On Thursday, December 4, he set out, with Mr. Ireland, for the south of France.”[430]

Footnote 430:

Wesley’s Journal.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

XXI. A LONG RETIREMENT.

778–1781.

WHEN the travellers arrived at Dover, Fletcher wrote as follows to his hospitable friends at Stoke Newington:—

“Ten thousand blessings light upon the heads and hearts of my dear benefactors, Charles and Mary Greenwood! May their quiet retreat at Newington become a Bethel to them! Their poor pensioner travels on, though slowly, towards the grave. His journey to the sea seems to him to have hastened, rather than retarded, his progress to his old mother—Earth. May every Providential blast blow him nearer to the heavenly haven of his Saviour’s breast; where he hopes to meet all his benefactors! O, my dear friends, what shall I render? What to Jesus? what to you? May He, who invites the heavy-laden, take upon Him all the burdens of kindness you have heaped on your Lazarus! And may angels, when you die, find me in Abraham’s bosom, and bring you into mine, that by all the kindness which may be shown in heaven, I may try to requite that you have shown to your obliged brother,

“J. FLETCHER.”[431]

Footnote 431:

Letters, 1791, p. 249.

Leaving Calais on December 12, 1777, the travellers pursued their way to the South of France. Mr. Ireland thus described the journey:—

“When we departed from Calais, the north wind was very high, and penetrated us even in the chaise. We put up at Bretuil, and the next day got to Abbeville, whence we were forced, by the miserable accommodation we met with, to set out, though it was Sunday. Hitherto Mr. Fletcher and I had led the way, but now the other chaises got before us. Nine miles from Abbeville our axletree gave way through the hard frost, and we were left to the piercing cold on the side of a hill, without shelter. After waiting an hour and a half, we sent the axletree and wheels back to be repaired; and, leaving the body of the chaise under a guard, procured another to carry us to the next town. On the 15th, our chaise arrived in good repair. The country was covered with snow, but travelling steadily forward, we reached Dijon on the 27th. During the whole journey, Mr. Fletcher showed marks of recovery. He bore both the fatigue and cold as well as the best of us. On the 31st, we put up at Lyons, and solemnly closed the year, bowing our knees before the throne, which indeed we did all together every day. January 4, 1778, we left Lyons, and came on the 9th to Aix. Here we rest, the weather being exceedingly fine and warm. Mr. Fletcher walks out daily. He is now able to read and pray with us every morning and evening. He has no remains of his cough nor of the weakness in his breast. His natural colour is restored, and the sallowness quite gone. His appetite is good, and he takes a little wine.”

In another letter Mr. Ireland wrote:—

“Soon after our arrival here, I rode out most days with my dear and valued friend. Now and then he complained of the uneasiness of the horse, and there were some remains of soreness in his breast; but this soon went off. The beginning of February was warm, and the warmth, when he walked in the fields, relaxed him; but when the wind got north or east, he was braced again. His appetite is good; his complexion as healthy as it was eleven years ago. As his strength increases, he increases the length of his rides. Last Tuesday, he set out on a journey of a hundred and twelve miles. The first day he travelled forty miles without feeling any fatigue; and the third day fifty-five. He bore the journey as well as I did; and was as well and as active at the end of it as at the beginning. During the day, he cried out, ‘Help me to praise the Lord for His goodness; I never expected to see this day.’ He accepted a pressing invitation to preach to the Protestants here; and he fulfilled his engagement on Sunday morning, taking as his text, ‘Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.’ Both the French and English were greatly affected; the word went to the hearts of both saints and sinners. His voice is now as good as ever it was; and he has an earnest invitation to preach near Montpelier, where we are going. You would be astonished at the entreaties of pastors as well as people. He has received a letter from a minister in the Levine Mountains, who intends to come to Montpelier, sixty miles, to press him to go and preach to his flock. He purposes to spend the next summer in his own country, and the following winter in these parts.”[432]

Footnote 432:

Wesley’s “Life of Fletcher.”

It was probably at this time that Fletcher and Mr. Ireland made a tour through Italy, and visited Rome, concerning which visit Wesley writes:—

“While he was at Rome, as Mr. Ireland and he were one day going through the streets in a coach, they were informed the Pope was coming, and it would be required of them to kneel while he went by, as all the people did; if they did not, in all probability the mob would knock them on the head. But this they flatly refused to do; judging the paying such honour to a man was idolatry. The coachman was terrified, but turned aside into a narrow way. The Pope was in an open landau, waved his hands, and frequently repeated, ‘God bless you all!’ Mr. Fletcher’s spirit was greatly stirred, and he longed to bear a public testimony against anti-Christ; and he would have done it had he been able to speak Italian. He could hardly refrain from doing it in Latin, till he considered that only the priests could understand him.”[433]

Footnote 433:

Wesley’s “Life of Fletcher.”

While in the south of France, Fletcher wrote to Miss Bosanquet the following letter, which is now for the first time published:—

“MARSEILLES, March 7, 1778.

“DEAR MADAM,—Your letter did not reach me till after it had lain here, at the post office, several days.

“I cannot be answerable for what the person you mention thinks of Mr. Wesley or me, or our sentiments. Nothing is more common than to see people drawing rash inferences from premises which are partly false and partly true. I can only answer for myself, and for what I deem to be the truth.

“If you ask me what I think to be the truth with respect to Christian perfection, I reply, my sentiments are exposed to the world in my essay on ‘Christian Perfection,’ and in my essay on ‘Truth,’ where I lay the stress of the doctrine on the great promise of the Father, and on the Christian fulness of the Spirit. This I have done more particularly in a treatise on the ‘Birth of the Spirit;’ which treatise is not yet published. I do not rest the doctrine of Christian perfection on the absence of sin,—that is the perfection of a dove or a lamb; nor on the loving God with all one’s power, for I believe all perfect Gentiles and Jews have done so; but on the fulness of that superior, nobler, warmer, and more powerful love, which the Apostle calls the love of the Spirit, or the love of God shed abroad by the Holy Ghost, given to the Christian believers, who, since the Day of Pentecost, go on to the perfection of the Christian dispensation.

“You will find my views of this matter in Mr. Wesley’s sermons on Christian Perfection and on Spiritual Christianity; with this difference, that I would distinguish more exactly between the believers baptized with the Pentecostal power of the Holy Ghost, and the believer who, like the Apostles after our Lord’s ascension, is not yet filled with that power.

“I own to you, Madam, that I have been much surprised to see the gross inattention to, and unbelief of, the promise of the Father among believers of various classes. It is the sun among the stars, and yet some can hardly distinguish it. When I preached it to the Calvinists in Wales, they called it Mr. Wesley’s whim. When I have spoken of it to our brethren, some have called it Lady Huntingdon’s whim; and others have looked upon it as a new thing; which to me is the strongest proof that this capital Gospel doctrine is as much under a cloud now as the doctrine of justification by faith was at the time of the Reformation.

“Should you go back by way of London, my essay on the Birth by which we enter into the Kingdom in the Holy Ghost is in the hands of Miss Thornton, Mrs. Greenwood’s sister, who will give it you if you think worth while to look into it. I build my faith not on my experience, though this increases it, but upon the revealed truth of God. Go, Madam, and do the same, and pray for your affectionate brother and servant,

“J. FLETCHER.

“Miss Bosanquet, “at Mrs. Southcot’s, “Broad Mead, “Bristol.”

The “treatise,” or rather sermon, referred to in this letter, was written in French, and was not published during the lifetime of Fletcher; but in 1794, Henry Moore, one of Wesley’s first biographers, translated and printed it, with the title, “The New Birth. A Discourse written in French, by the Rev. John Fletcher, late Vicar of Madeley, Salop.” 8vo, 39 pp. This was one of the most remarkable productions of Fletcher’s pen; and great would be the service rendered to the cause of Christ if, in this day of loose thinking and carnal living, it were reprinted in a separate form, and read by the myriads who call themselves Methodists. Though mere quotations from it cannot do justice to it, yet two or three may be acceptable.

Regeneration.—“What is the state of a soul that is born again; and in what does regeneration consist? In general, we may say, it is that great change by which man passes from a state of nature to a state of grace. He was an animal man; in being born again he becomes a spiritual man. His natural birth had made him like to fallen Adam—to the old man, against whom God had pronounced the sentence of death, seeing it is the wages of sin; but his spiritual birth makes him like to Jesus Christ—to the new man—which is created according to God in righteousness and true holiness. He was before born a child of wrath—proud, sensual, and unbelieving, full of the love of the world and of self-love, a lover of money and of earthly glory and pleasure, rather than a lover of God; but, by regeneration, he is become a child and an heir of God, and a joint heir with Christ. The humility, the purity, the love of Jesus, is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit which is given to him, making him bear the image of the Second Adam. He is in Christ a new creature; old things are passed away, all things are become new. All the powers and faculties of his soul are renovated. His understanding, heretofore covered with darkness, is illuminated by the experimental knowledge which he has of God and of His Son Jesus Christ. His conscience, asleep and insensible, awakes and speaks with a fidelity irreproachable. His hard heart is softened and broken. His will, stubborn and perverse, yields, and becomes conformable to the will of God. His passions, unruly, and earthly, and sensual, submit to the conduct of grace, and turn of themselves to objects invisible and heavenly. And the members of his body, servants more or less to iniquity, are now employed in the service of righteousness unto holiness.”

Why regeneration is necessary.—“To rejoice in the pleasures that are at God’s right hand, it is needful to have senses and a taste that correspond thereto. The swine trample pearls under their feet. The elevated discourse of a philosopher is insupportable to a stupid mechanic; and an ignorant peasant, introduced into a circle of men of learning and taste, is disgusted, sighs after his village, and declares no hour ever appeared to him so long. It would be the same to a man who is not regenerated, if we could suppose that God would so far forget His truth as to open to him the gate of heaven. He would be incapable of those transports of love which make the happiness of the glorified saints. It would be insupportable for him now to meditate one hour on the perfections of God; what then shall He do among the cherubim and seraphim, and the spirits of just men made perfect, who draw from thence their ravishing delights? He loves the pleasures and comforts of an animal life; but are these the same with the exercises of the spiritual life? His conversations, his readings, his amusements, as void of edification as of usefulness, rarely fatigue him; but an hour of meditation or prayer is insufferable. If he be not born again, not only he cannot be in a state to rejoice in the pleasures of Paradise, any more than a deaf man to receive with transport the most exquisite music; but the ravishing delights of angels would cause in him an insupportable distaste. Yes, he would banish himself from the presence of God, rather than pass an eternity in prostrating himself before the throne, and crying day and night, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, who is, and who was, and who is to come! We conclude that the gate of heaven must be opened upon earth by regeneration, and by the love of God, or that it will remain shut for ever; and that a local paradise would be only a sorrowful prison, to a man not regenerated, because, carrying nothing thither but depraved and earthly appetites and passions, and finding nothing there but spiritual and celestial objects, disgust and dissatisfaction would be the consequence; and, like Satan, his own mind would be his hell.”

Perorations are too often rhetorical flourishes, and nothing more; but, in the case of Fletcher, they were the outpourings of a heart overcharged with feeling. The following is the last paragraph in the remarkable “Treatise” from which the foregoing extracts are taken:—

“I conjure you by the majesty of that God before whom angels rejoice with trembling;—by the terror of the Lord, who may speak to you in thunder, and this instant require your soul of you;—by the tender mercies, the bowels of compassion of your heavenly Father, which are moved in your favour, all ungrateful as you are!—I conjure you by the incarnation of the Eternal Word, by whom you were created;—by the humiliation, the pains, the temptations, the tears, the bloody sweat, the agony, the cries of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ!—I conjure you by the bonds, the insults, the scourgings, the robes of derision, the crown of thorns, the ponderous cross, the nails, the instruments of death which pierced His torn body; by the arrows of the Almighty, the poison of which drank up His spirit; by that mysterious stroke of Divine wrath, and by those unknown terrors which forced Him to exclaim, ‘My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!’—I conjure you by the interests of your immortal soul, and by the unseen accidents which may precipitate you into eternity;—by the bed of death, upon which you will soon be stretched, and by the useless sighs which you will then pour out, if your peace be not made with God!—I conjure you by the sword of Divine justice, and by the sceptre of grace;—by the sound of the last trumpet, and by the sudden appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ, with ten thousand of His holy angels;—by that august tribunal, at which you will appear with me, and which shall decide our lot for ever;—by the vain despair of hardened sinners, and by the unknown transports of regenerate souls!—I conjure you from this instant work out your salvation with fear and trembling! Enter by the door into the sheepfold. Sell all to purchase the pearl of great price. Count all things dung and dross in comparison of the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Let Him not go till He blesses you with that faith which justifies, and that sanctification without which no man shall see the Lord. And, soon transported from this vale of tears into the mansions of the just made perfect, you shall cast your crown of immortal glory at the feet of Him that sitteth upon the throne, and before the Lamb who has redeemed us by His blood: to whom be the blessing, and the honour, and the glory, and the power for ever and ever! Amen.”

It is time to return to Fletcher in the south of France. At the close of his sojourn here, he wrote as follows to his curate, Mr. Greaves:—

“MY VERY DEAR BROTHER,—I received a letter yesterday from my second brother, who acquaints me, that he was to set out the 23rd of last month, to come hither” (Montpelier), “and take me to my native country, where my sick sister wants greatly to see me; so that, if it please God, I shall, next week, leave this place. The winter has been uncommonly rainy and windy; and even last week we had half an inch of snow. The climate has, nevertheless, agreed with me better than England, and, as a proof of it, I need only tell you, that I rode last Friday, from Hieres, the orange gardens of France, hither, which is nearly fifty miles, and was well enough to preach last Sunday in French at the Protestant Church. Two English clergymen came to hear me, and one of them takes these lines to England, where I hope they will find you in health of body and soul, growing in strength of faith, in firmness of hope, and in fervency of love to God and man, and especially to those whom you are tempted to think hardly of, if any such there be. O my dear brother, no religion will do us or our people any good, but that which ‘works by love,’—humble, childlike, obedient love. May that religion fill our souls, and influence all our tempers, words, and actions, and may the leaven leaven the whole lump! May St. James’s peaceable religion spread through all our parish!

“I hope you are settled to your satisfaction; and I shall be glad to do what is in my power to make your stay at Madeley agreeable. I wish you may have as much success as we desire; but, whatever success we have, we must cast our bread upon the waters, though we should see as little fruit as he that said of old, ‘I have laboured in vain:’ for our reward will be with the Lord, if not with men.”[434]

Footnote 434:

Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”

In company with his brother, Fletcher left Montpelier, and arrived at Nyon, the place of his nativity, where, in the house once occupied by his father, he received the utmost attention from his affectionate relatives, and had medical advice equal to any to be obtained in Europe. One of his first acts was to write “to the Societies in and about Madeley.” He addressed them as “My dear, very dear brethren;” charged them all to meet him in heaven, “with all the mind that was in Christ;” and sent his “love and thanks to Mr. Murlin and Mr. Roberts,” the two Methodist preachers stationed at Chester, showing that Madeley, at this period, was a part of the Chester circuit.[435]

Footnote 435:

Letters, 1791, p. 43.

Soon afterwards, he wrote to his beloved medical adviser, in England, Mr. William Perronet, as follows:—

“NYON, May 15, 1778.

“The climate, and prospect, and fine roads, and pure air I enjoy here, had contributed to strengthen me a little; when, about a month ago, something I was chewing got into my windpipe, and caused a fit of coughing which lasted half-an-hour. I then began to spit blood again, and ever since I have had a bad cough, which has sometimes exercised me violently for an hour after my first sleep. My cough, however, has been better the last two days, and I hope it will go off. I have bought a quiet horse, whose easy pace I can bear; and I ride much. I have not ventured upon preaching since I came hither: it would be impossible for me now to go through it. If the weather should grow hot, I may, at any time, go to the hills, the foot of which is five or six miles distant. I drink goats’ milk, and have left off meat since the cough came on, but design eating a little again at dinner.”[436]

Footnote 436:

Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”

Two days after the date of this letter, Fletcher was at Macon, whither he had gone to meet his friend Mr. Ireland, on his return from Montpelier to England. Whilst he was here, he wrote two letters, which must be quoted. The first, addressed to “The Rev. Messrs. John and Charles Wesley,” was as follows:—

“MACON, IN BURGUNDY, May 17, 1778.

“REV. AND DEAR SIRS,—I hope while I lie by, the Lord continues to renew your vigour, and sends you to water His vineyard, and to stand in the gap against error and vice.

“I preached twice at Marseilles, but was not permitted to follow the blow. There are few noble, inquisitive Bereans in these parts. The ministers in the town of my nativity have been very civil. They have offered me the pulpit; but, I fear, if I could accept the offer, it would soon be recalled. I am loath to quit this part of the field without casting a stone at that giant, sin, who stalks about with uncommon boldness. I shall, therefore, stay some months longer, to see if the Lord will give me strength to venture an attack.

“Gambling and dress, sinful pleasure and love of money, unbelief and false philosophy, lightness of spirit, fear of man, and love of the world, are the principal sins by which Satan binds his captives in these parts. Materialism is not rare; Deism and Socinianism are very common; and a set of Free-thinkers, great admirers of Voltaire[437] and Rosseau, Bayle and Mirabeau, seem bent upon destroying Christianity and government. If we believe them, the world is the dupe of kings and priests. Religion is fanaticism and superstition. Subordination is slavery. Christian morality is absurd, unnatural, and impracticable; and Christianity the most bloody religion that ever was. And here it is certain, that, by the example of Christians so called, and by our continual disputes, they have a great advantage, and do the truth immense mischief. Popery will certainly fall in France, in this or the next century; and I have no doubt God will use those vain men to bring about a reformation here, as he used Henry the Eighth to do that work in England; so the madness of His enemies shall, at last, turn to His praise, and to the futherance of His kingdom.

“In the meantime, it becomes all lovers of the truth to make their heavenly tempers, and humble, peaceful love to shine before all men, that those mighty adversaries, seeing the good works of professors, may glorify their Father who is in heaven, and no more blaspheme that worthy name, by which we are all called Christians.

“If you ask, what system these men adopt? I answer, some build on Deism a morality founded on self-preservation, self-interest, and self-honour. Others laugh at all morality, except that which being neglected violently disturbs society. And external order is the decent covering of Fatalism, while Materialism is their system.

“Oh, dear Sirs, let me entreat you, in these dangerous days, to use your wide influence, with unabated zeal, against the scheme of these modern Celsuses, Porphyries, and Julians, by calling all professors to think and speak the same things, to love and embrace one another, and to firmly resist those daring men; many of whom are already in England, headed by the admirers of Mr. Hume and Mr. Hobbes. But it is needless to say this to those who have made, and continue to make, such a stand for vital Christianity; so that I have nothing to do but pray that the Lord may abundantly support and strengthen you, and make you a continued comfort to His enlightened people, loving reprovers of those who mix light with darkness, and a terror to the perverse.

“I need not tell you, Sirs, that the hour in which Providence shall make my way plain to return to England, to unite with those who feel or seek the power of Christian godliness, will be welcome to me. O favoured Britons! Happy would it be for them, if they knew their Gospel privileges!

“My relations in Adam are all very kind to me; but the spiritual relations, whom God has raised me in England, exceed them yet. Thanks be to Christ, and to His blasphemed religion!

“I am, Rev. Sirs, your affectionate son, and obliged servant in the Gospel,

“J. FLETCHER.”[438]

Footnote 437:

Thirteen days after the date of this letter, Voltaire, in Paris, took a large dose of opium, without the advice of his physicians, and died.

Footnote 438:

Arminian Magazine, 1788, p. 384.

On the day after the date of this letter, Fletcher wrote the following to the Rev. Dr. Conyers, another Methodist Clergyman, to whom he had sent his “Reconciliation; or, an easy Method to unite the people of God,” published in 1777:—

“MACON, IN BURGUNDY, May 18, 1778.

“HON. AND DEAR SIR,—I left orders, with a friend, to send you a little book called ‘The Reconciliation,’ in which I endeavour to bring nearer the children of God, who are divided about their partial views of divine truths. I know not whether that tract has, in any degree, answered its design; but I believe truth can be reconciled with itself, and the candid children of God one with another. O that some abler hand, and more loving heart, would undertake to mend my plan, or draw one more agreeable to the Word of God! My eyes are upon you, dear Sir, and those who are like-minded with you, for this work. Disappoint not my hope. Stand forth, and make way for reconciling love, by removing, so far as lies in you, what is in the way of brotherly union.

“O Sir! the work is worthy of you. If you saw with what boldness the false philosophers of the continent, who are the apostles of the age, attack Christianity, and represent it as one of the worst religions in the world, and fit only to make the professors of it murder one another, or at least to contend among themselves, and how they urge our disputes to make the Gospel of Christ the jest of nations, and the abhorrence of all flesh, you would break through your natural timidity, and invite all our brethren in the ministry to unite and form a close battalion, and face the common enemy.

“O dear Sir! take courage. Be bold for reconciling truth. Be bold for peace. You can do all things through Christ strengthening you; and, as Doctor Conyers, you can do many things, a great many more than you think. What if you go, Sir, in Christ’s name, to all the Gospel ministers of your acquaintance, exhort them as a father, entreat them as a brother, and bring them, or as many of them as you can, together? Think you that your labour would be in vain in the Lord? Impossible, Sir! O despair not. If you want a coach, or a friend to accompany you, when you go upon this errand of love, remember there is a Thornton in London, and an Ireland in Bristol, who will wish you God speed; and God will raise many more to concur in the peaceful work.

“Let me humbly entreat you to go to work, and to persevere in it. I wish I had strength to be, at least, your postilion when you go. I would drive, if not like Jehu, at least with some degree of cheerful swiftness, while Christ smiled on the Christian attempt. But I am confident you can do all in the absence of him, who is, with brotherly love, and dutiful respect, Hon. and dear Sir, your obedient servant in the Gospel,

“J. FLETCHER.”[439]

Footnote 439:

Arminian Magazine, 1788, p. 386.

Dr. Conyers, to whom this letter was addressed, was a notable man. Born at Helmsley, Yorkshire, in 1725, he, in due time, became the Vicar of that extensive parish. His conversion there, and his labours, were remarkable. In 1765, he married Mrs. Knipe, a rich and pious widow, the sister of the well-known John Thornton, Esq., of Clapham. Three years before the foregoing letter was written, Mr. Thornton presented him to the living of St. Paul’s, Deptford; and here he died in 1786, eight months after the death of Fletcher.[440] At the beginning of his evangelical career, he was warmly attached to Wesley, and a firm believer in the doctrines of the Arminians. Afterwards, he was, to some extent, influenced by certain of the Calvinian Ministers, with whom he held converse; but, like his brother-in-law, John Thornton, he was a lover of all good men; and, occupying a kind of neutral position between the contending parties, Fletcher deemed him well qualified to bring about the reconciliation of the two.

Footnote 440:

Evangelical Magazine, 1794.

At this period, the venerable Vicar of Shoreham had been recently informed that he was entitled to a valuable estate in Switzerland, and William Perronet, Fletcher’s medical adviser in England, had undertaken to visit Switzerland to enforce his father’s rights. Before doing so, however, he wrote to Fletcher, requesting his advice; and Fletcher’s reply was as follows:—

“NYON, June 2, 1778.

“MY DEAR FRIEND,—When I wrote to you last, I mentioned two ladies of your family who have married two brothers, Messrs. Monod. Since then, they have requested me to send your father the enclosed memorial, which I hope will prove of use to your family. As the bad writing and the language may make the understanding of it difficult, I forward you the substance of it, and of the letter of the ladies’ lawyer.

“While I invite you to make your title clear to a precarious estate on earth, permit me, my dear Sir, to remind you of the heavenly inheritance entailed on believers. The will, the New Testament by which we can recover it, is proved. The Court is just and equitable; the Judge is gracious and loving. To enter into possession of a part of the estate here, and of the whole hereafter, we need only believe and prove evangelically that we are believers. Let us then set about it now, with earnestness, with perseverance, and with a full assurance that, through grace, we shall carry our cause. Alas! what are estates and crowns to grace and glory?

“I have had a pull back since I wrote last. After I left Mr. Ireland at Macon, to shorten my journey and enjoy new prospects, I ventured to cross the mountains which separate France from this country. On the third day of the journey, I found a large hill, whose winding roads were so steep that, though we fed the horses with bread and wine, they could scarcely draw the chaise, and I was obliged to walk in all the steepest places. The climbing lasted several hours; the sun was hot; I perspired violently; and the next day I spit blood again. I have chiefly kept to goat’s milk ever since; I find myself better; and my cough is neither frequent nor violent.

“This is a delightful country. If you come to see it, and to claim the estate, bring all the papers and memorials you can collect; and share a pleasant apartment, and one of the finest prospects in the world, in the house where I was born. I design to try this fine air some months longer. We have a fine shady wood near the lake, where I can ride in the cool all the day, and enjoy the singing of a multitude of birds. But this, though sweet, does not come up to the singing of my dear friends in England. There I meet them in spirit several hours in the day.”[441]

Footnote 441:

Letters, 1791, p. 263, and Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”

The ensuing letter, kindly lent by the Rev. Dr. Knowles, of Tunbridge Wells, has not before been published. It was addressed to “Mr. Power, Druggist, in Broadmead, Bristol, Angleterre.”

“NYON, June 20, 1778.

“DEAR SIR,—A journey and my constant rides have hindered me acknowledging sooner the favour of your observations and criticisms, which I received some time ago. If I had my little publications here, to turn to the pages you quote, I would immediately make notes, and alter or rectify what you object to, as a preparation for a more correct edition, should the work be ever reprinted. I wish all my friends had taken as much pains about my works as you have, Sir; they would by this time be more correct. Accept my sincere thanks for the favour; and, if I live to see England again, we shall (please God) talk the matter over fully.

“I am obliged to you for your caution about preaching. I have followed it, and have not yet preached in this country, though I believe I shall soon venture again upon it, but with care and in a sparing manner. I hope at least the Lord will give me grace so to do.

“I heartily rejoice that Mrs. Power has been carried safely, a second time, through the danger of child-bearing. May she and the two fruits of her body live to the glory of God, and to your comfort! Remember me kindly to her; and give my blessing to my god-son, whose will, I hope, you continue to break with the wisdom, patience, and steadiness which become a parent.

“I sent your mother a few lines by Mr. Ireland. I hope she received them; but I shall never get an answer, if what he writes me is true. Is she dead indeed? Sometimes I hope it is a rumour without foundation; and yet his account that she died at Bath, where your letter mentions she was gone, makes me fear he was well-informed. If she is no more, you have lost a tender mother, and I a kind friend; but the Lord will make up all our losses, and has already made them up by giving us His Son. May we receive Him, and with Him all that is excellent among the living and the dead! As she has been for many years a woman of sorrow,—a true Hannah—wading almost constantly through a sea of temptations, they may have followed her to the last, and she may have escaped out of many tribulations, as the saints mentioned in the Revelation. A line about it, and about your welfare, and that of my god-son, will greatly oblige, dear Sir, your obedient and already obliged servant,

J. FLETCHER.

“My love to your brother, when you see him.”

The next letter, written to Mr. Ireland, contains a sylvan scene worthy of being painted:—

“NYON, July 15, 1778.

“MY DEAR FRIEND,—I have ventured to preach once, and to expound once in the church. Our ministers are very kind, and preach to the purpose. A young one of this town gave us lately a very excellent gospel sermon.

“Grown-up people stand fast in their stupidity, or in their self-righteousness. The day I preached, I met some children in my wood gathering strawberries. I spoke to them about our common Father. We felt a touch of brotherly affection. They said they would sing to their Father, as well as the birds; and followed me, attempting to make such melody as you know is commonly made in these parts. I outrode them, but some of them had the patience to follow me home; and said they would speak with me. The people of the house stopped them, saying, I would not be troubled with children. They cried, and said, they were sure I would not say so, for I was their good brother. The next day, when I heard this, I enquired after them, and invited them to come and see me; which they have done every day since. I make them little hymns, which they sing. Some of them are unde, sweet drawings. Yesterday, I wept for joy on hearing one of them speak, as an experienced believer in Bristol would have done, of conviction of sin, and of the joy unspeakable in Christ that followed. Last Sunday, I met them in the wood; there were a hundred of them, and as many adults. Our first pastor has since desired me to desist from preaching in the wood (for I had exhorted), for fear of giving umbrage; and I have complied, from a concurrence of circumstances which are not worth mentioning; I therefore now meet them in my father’s yard.”[442]

Footnote 442:

Letters, 1791, p. 264.

What a contrast to this scene of gentleness among children is the following!

Fletcher had a nephew, who had been in the Sardinian army, where his ungentlemanly and profligate conduct had given such general offence to his brother officers that they determined to compel him to leave their corps, or to fight them all in succession. After engaging in two or three duels, with various success, the young bravo left the service, and now, during Fletcher’s present visit, he returned to Switzerland. His resources were soon spent in profligacy; and, gaining access to his uncle, General De Gons, he presented a loaded pistol, and said, “Uncle De Gons, if you do not give me a draft on your banker for five hundred crowns, I will shoot you.” The General was a brave man, but, seeing himself in the power of a desperado capable of any mischief, he wrote the draft. “Uncle,” said the young fellow, “you must do another thing; you must promise me, on your honour, to use no means to recover the draft, or to bring me to justice.” The General promised, and the bandit rode away triumphantly. Passing the door of his uncle Fletcher, he called upon him, and told him General De Gons had generously given him five hundred crowns. Fletcher doubted the truthfulness of this statement. The draft was produced. “Let me see it,” said Fletcher. It was handed to him. Fletcher examined it, and remarked, “It is indeed my brother’s writing, and it astonishes me; because my brother is not wealthy, and I know that he justly disapproves your conduct, and that you are the last in the family to whom he would make such a present.” Then, folding the draft and putting it into his pocket, Fletcher added, “It strikes me, young man, that you have obtained this draft improperly; and, in honesty, I cannot return it without my brother’s approbation.” Out came the pistol, and was levelled at Fletcher’s breast. “Return it,” cried the young scoundrel, “or I will take your life.” “My life,” calmly replied Fletcher, “is secure in the protection of the Almighty Power who guards it; nor will He suffer it to be the forfeit of your rashness, or my integrity. Do you think that I, who have been a minister of God for five-and-twenty years, am afraid of death? It is for you to fear death, who have every reason to fear it. You are a gamester and a cheat, yet call yourself a gentleman! You are the seducer of female innocence, and still you say that you are a gentleman! You are a duellist and your hand is red with blood, and for this you call yourself a man of honour! Look there, Sir! look there! See, the broad eye of heaven is upon us. Tremble in the presence of your Maker, who can in a moment kill your body, and for ever damn your soul!” The culprit turned pale; then he argued, threatened, and entreated. Sometimes, taking out his pistol, he fixed himself against the door to prevent egress; and, at other times, closed on frail Fletcher, menacing him with instantaneous death. All was of no avail. The poor country parson was as valorous as the most heroic soldier. He gave no alarm to the family; he sought no weapon; he attempted no escape; he simply conversed with the calmness of a hero and a saint. At length, the young fellow began to be affected; and now, having gained the victory, Fletcher addressed him in another strain: “I cannot return my brother’s draft,” said he; “yet I feel for your distress, and will endeavour to relieve it. My brother Gons, at my request, I am sure will give you a hundred crowns; I will do the same; perhaps my brother Henry will do as much; and I hope your own family will make up the five hundred crowns among them.” Fletcher then fell upon his knees, and began to pray; uncle and nephew parted, and the family, by Fletcher’s mediation, furnished the young scapegrace with the five hundred crowns he had feloniously attempted to extort.[443]

Footnote 443:

Cox’s “Life of Fletcher,” p. 129.

Amidst such scenes, Fletcher did not forget his friends at Madeley. On July 18, he wrote three messages:—

To his curate, the Rev. Mr. Greaves.—“I trust you lay yourself out for the good of the flock committed to your care. I shall be glad to hear that they grow in grace, and humble love.”

To the congregation in Madeley church.—“John Fletcher begs a farther interest in the prayers of the congregation of Madeley; and desires those, who assemble to serve God in the church, to help him to return public thanks to Almighty God for many mercies received; especially, for being able to do a little ministerial duty. He humbly beseeches them to serve God as Christians, and to love one another as brethren; neglecting no means of grace, and rejoicing in all the hopes of glory.”

To the Methodist Societies “in Madeley, Dawley, and the Banks.”—“We are all called to grow in grace, and, consequently, in love, which is the greatest of all Christian graces. Your prayers for my soul and my body have not been without answer. Blessed be God! Glory be to His rich mercy in Christ, I live yet the life of faith; as to my body, I recover some strength. God bless you all, with all the blessings brought to the Church by Christ Jesus, and by the other Comforter! My love to the preachers” (John Murlin and Robert Roberts), “whom I beg you will thank in my name.”[444]

Footnote 444:

Letters, 1791, p. 45.

Two months later (September 15), he wrote to his friend Thomas York:—

“Blessed be the God of all consolation, though I have still very trying and feverish nights, I am kept in peace of mind; resigned to His will, who afflicts me for my good, and justly sets me aside for my unprofitableness. His grace within, and His people without, turn my trying circumstances into matter of praise. Give my love to all your dear family; to the two or three who may yet remember me at Shiffnal; and, also, to Daniel, and desire him, when he gathers the Easter dues, to give my love and thanks to all my parishioners.“[445]

Footnote 445:

Ibid, p. 45.

No doubt Fletcher’s statement to Mr. York, respecting himself, was strictly true; but, still, there must have been a considerable improvement in his health since he left England. Hence the following interesting letter, written to Mr. Ireland only ten days later:—

“NYON, September 25, 1778.

“MY DEAR FRIEND,—I am just returned from an excursion I have made with my brother, through the fine vale in the midst of the high hills which divide France from this country. In that vale we found three lakes, one on French ground, and two on Swiss: the largest is six miles long and two wide. It is the part of the country where industry is most apparent, and where population thrives best. The inhabitants are chiefly woodmen, coopers, watchmakers, and jewellers. They told me, they had the best singing, and the best preacher, in the country. I asked, if any sinners were converted under his ministry? They stared, and asked, what I meant by conversion? When I had explained myself, they said, ‘We do not live in the time of miracles.’

“I was better satisfied in passing through a part of the vale which belongs to the King of France. I saw a prodigious concourse of people, and supposed they kept a fair, but was agreeably surprised to find three missionaries in the midst of them, who went about as itinerant preachers to help the regular clergy. They had been there some days, and were three brothers, and preached morning and evening. The evening service opened with what they called a conference. One of the missionaries took the pulpit, and the parish priest proposed questions to him, which he answered at full length and in a very edifying manner. The subject was the unlawfulness and the mischief of those methods by which persons of different sexes lay snares for each other, and corrupt each other’s morals. The subject was treated with delicacy, propriety, and truth. The method was admirably well calculated to draw and fix the attention of a mixed multitude. This conference being ended, another missionary took the pulpit. His text was our Lord’s description of the day of judgment. Before the sermon, all those who, for the press, could kneel, did, and sang a French hymn to beg a blessing on the word; and indeed it was blessed. An awful attention was visible upon most, and, during a good part of the discourse, the voice of the preacher was almost lost in the cries and bitter wailings of the audience. When the outcry began, the preacher was describing the departure of the wicked into eternal fire. They urged that God was merciful, and that Jesus Christ had shed His blood for them. ‘But that mercy you have slighted, and now is the time of justice. That blood you have trodden under foot, and now it cries for vengeance. Know your day. Slight the Father’s mercy and the Son’s blood no longer.’ I have seen but once or twice congregations as much affected in England.

“One of our ministers being ill, I ventured, a second time, into the pulpit last Sunday; and, the Sunday before, I preached, six miles off, to two thousand people in the yard of a jail, where they were come to see a murderer before his execution. I was a little abused by the bailiff on the occasion, and was refused the liberty of attending the poor man to the scaffold, where he was to be broken on the wheel. I hope he died penitent. The day before he suffered, he said he had broken his irons, and that, as he deserved to die, he desired new ones to be put on, lest he should be tempted to make his escape.

“You ask, what I design to do? I propose, if it be the Lord’s will, to spend the winter here. In the spring, I shall, if nothing prevents, return to England with you, or with Mr. Perronet, if his affairs are settled, or alone, if other ways fail. In the meanwhile, I rejoice with you in Jesus, and in the glorious hope of that complete salvation His faithfulness has promised, and His power can never be at a loss to bestow. We must be saved by faith and hope till we are saved by perfect love, and made partakers of heavenly glory. I am truly a stranger here. As strangers let us go where we shall meet the assembly of the righteous gathered in Jesus.“[446]

Footnote 446:

Letters, 1791, p. 268.

Mr. William Perronet arrived at Nyon in the month of December, and, in letters to his father, related:—

“However engaged Mr. Fletcher is the greater part of the day, he is generally so kind as to spend a little time with me in the evening in prayer and conversation. His chief delight seems to be in meeting his little society of children. He is exceedingly fond of them, and they appear to be as fond of him. He seldom walks abroad or rides out, but some of them follow him, singing the hymns they have learned, and conversing with him by the way. But you must not suppose that he is permitted to enjoy this happiness unmolested. Not only do the drunkards make songs on him and his little companions, but many of the clergy loudly complain of such irregular proceedings. However, he is upon good terms with three ministers of the place; all of whom are serious men, and desirous of promoting true religion.

“He is better, I think, than when he left England; but he frequently puts his strength to too severe a trial, by meeting his Society of children, and some grown persons; and other exercises of a like nature. When he ventures to preach, his spitting of blood returns; and whenever this happens, his strength and spirits decay surprisingly.”[447]

Footnote 447:

Benson’s “Life of Fletcher”.

Fletcher and his brother translated all the papers of William Perronet into French, and, in other ways, assisted him, in reference to the estate which he had gone to Switzerland to obtain. Notwithstanding the delicate state of Fletcher’s health, the three set out, in the wintry weather of that December month, to visit Chateau d’Oex, where the property was situated. The distance from Nyon was fifty-seven miles. When they had made about a quarter of the journey, “the horses were tired out, the coachman refused to proceed further,” and they were obliged to return home again.[448] A few days later, they made another attempt, and arrived at their destination on January 10, 1779. Five days afterwards, they were again at Nyon.

Footnote 448:

Ibid.

In Fletcher’s state of health, such a journey was perilous; but his love to the Perronet family was such that, to him, no labour and risk, on their behalf, were too great. In letters to his venerable father, at Shoreham, William Perronet states, that none of them having been to Chateau d’Oex before, they were obliged to employ a guide, and that “on account of the badness of the ways,” they had “to go some leagues about,” which made their journey about eighty miles. Their coach had to pass “over mountains of snow and rocks of ice.” When nine miles from Chateau d’Oex, they were obliged to exchange their coach for “an open sledge;” and now they “travelled through narrow passes, cut through the snow, which, on both sides, was many feet above their heads; on the sides of mountains, whose summits the eye could scarcely reach; and frequently on the brink of precipices, at the bottoms of which they could hear the waters roar like thunder.” In one place, Fletcher and William Perronet, being obliged to walk, their feet slipped: Fletcher “received a violent blow on the back part of the head;” and William Perronet “sprained” his “wrist.” In crossing the Alps, they had to lie “two nights in beds that were not only damp, but musty and without curtains;” and, “being in a Popish canton, and Friday and Saturday being meagre days,” they “were almost starved with hunger as well as cold.” “The weather was extremely severe, and it was scarce in the power of clothes, or even of fire, to keep” them “warm.” William Perronet concludes his narrative of their adventures as follows:—

“Whether I succeed in my temporal business or not, I shall ever remember, with pleasure and thankfulness, the opportunities I have been blessed with in spending so much time in company with our inestimable friend; who, wherever he goes, preaches the Gospel, both by his words and example; nay, by his very looks, not only to his friends, but to all whom he meets: so that, on the top of the frozen Alps, and in the dreary vale of Chateau d’Oex, good seed has been sown. At Chateau d’Oex, he was visited by some of the principal inhabitants, who stood around him, in deep attention, for almost an hour, while he exhorted and prayed.”[449]

Footnote 449:

Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”

In a postscript to this letter, Fletcher wrote:—

“I have had the pleasure of accompanying your son to your father’s birthplace. It is a charming country for those who have a taste for highland prospects; but what is it to our heavenly Father’s Hill of Sion? Thither may we all travel, summer and winter, and there may we all have a happy meeting, and find an eternal inheritance!”

Three weeks later, Fletcher wrote the following to Mr. Ireland:—

“NYON, February 2, 1779.

“MY DEAR FRIEND,—I am sorry to hear that you are still tried by illness; but our good, heavenly Father is wise; His will be done; His name be praised!

“I am better, thank God! and ride out every day, when the slippery roads will permit me to venture without the risk of breaking my horse’s legs and my own neck. You will ask me how I spend my time? I pray, have patience, rejoice, and write, when I can; I saw wood in the house when I cannot go out; and eat grapes, of which I have always a basket by me.

“Our little Lord-Lieutenant has forbidden the ministers to let me exhort in the parsonage, because it is the sovereign’s house. My second brother has addressed a memorial to him, in which he informs him that he will give up neither his religious nor civil liberty, and will open his house for the Word of God. According, we have since met at his house.

“On Sunday, we met at the young clergyman’s who writes against the conduct of the clergy; but I fear we fence against a wall of brass. However, I am quite persuaded that Providence calls me to leave a testimony to my French brethren, and it may be of some use when I shall be no more. I have been comforted by the apology of a minister at Yverdon, who was persecuted at the beginning of this century under the name of Pietist; and I have become acquainted with a faithful minister of Geneva, but he dares no more offer me his pulpit than my brother-in-law at Lausanne.

“Several young women seem to have received the Word in the love of it, and four or five grown-up ones; but not one man, except the young hopeful clergyman I mention, who helps me at my little meetings, and begins to preach extempore. The truths I chiefly insist upon, when I talk to the people who will hear me, are those which I feed upon myself as my daily bread. ‘God, our Maker and Preserver, though invisible, is here and everywhere. He is our chief good, because all beauty and all goodness centre in and flow from Him. He is especially love; and love in us, being His image, is the sum and substance of all moral and spiritual excellence—of all true and lasting bliss. In Adam we are all estranged from love and from God; but the Second Adam—Jesus, Emanuel, God with us,—is come to make us know and enjoy again our God as the God of love and the chief good. All who receive Jesus receive power to become the sons of God,’ etc., etc.

“I hope I shall be able to set out for England with Mr. Perronet, in April or May. O that I may find that dear island in peace within and without![450] Well, I hope you make peace in the Church if you cannot make peace with the patriots.

“The coats and shoes you gave me have lasted all this while, and are yet good; so that I need not draw upon your banker. Thank God, and you, for a thousand favours! God bless and comfort you, my dear friend! We are poor creatures, but we have a good God to cast all our burdens upon, and who often burdens us that we may have constant and free recourse to His bounty, power, and faithfulness. Stand fast in the faith. Believe lovingly, and all will be well.”[451]

Footnote 450:

The war with the American Colonists was now raging, and England was greatly excited.

Footnote 451:

Letters, 1791, p. 271.

To his friend and Methodist helper among the Madeley Societies, William Wase, Fletcher wrote as follows:—

“NYON, February 11, 1779.

“MY DEAR FRIEND,—I have just received yours of January 24, and rejoice to hear of the welfare of your friends, whom I long much to see; but there is no blessing here without some alloy of grief, and such was to me the account of the poor state of health of dear Mrs. Wase. Tell her I should be glad to hold up her hands in her fight of affliction; but, if the poor, unprofitable, weak servant is afar off, the Master, who is rich in mercy, who fills the whole world with His goodness and patience, is near to her and to all His afflicted ones. I recommend to her two remedies. One is a cheerful resignation to the will of God, whereby her animal spirits will be greatly raised or sweetly refreshed. The other is, four lumps of heavenly sugar, to be taken every half hour, day and night, when she does not sleep. I make a constant use of them, to my great comfort. They have quickened my soul when I was dying, and I doubt not they will have the same effect upon hers. They are: ‘God so loved the world,’ etc. ‘If any man sin,’ etc. ‘It is a faithful saying,’ etc. ‘Come unto Me, all ye that are weary,’ etc.

“Tell my little god-daughter, Patty Cartwright, she is big enough and bad enough to take these heavenly pills. Tell her mother to take them regularly with her. What a shame it is to have such a remedy and not to make more use of it!

“Remember me in much love to dear Mr. Hatton. Thank brother Costerdine and his fellow-labourer[452] for their occasional help. May the Lord vouchsafe to consecrate our little Zoar[453] by calling one sinner and establishing another saint! How abundantly shall we be repaid for our little expense and trouble! Thank the brethren you have mentioned; salute them kindly from me, not forgetting John Tranter and our friends at the Fore Bank—Thomas Pool and Thomas Banks, and our friends at Dawley Green. You may see in the enclosed that I am not without hopes of telling you in May how much I am yours,

“J. FLETCHER.”[454]

Footnote 452:

James Barry and Robert Costerdine, the two Methodist itinerant preachers stationed in the Chester circuit, of which Madeley and its neighbourhood were a part.

Footnote 453:

The meeting-house Fletcher had recently erected in Madeley Wood, and which is now a part of the Wesleyan Chapel there.

Footnote 454:

Letters, 1791, p. 47, and the Christian Miscellany, 1877, p. 333.

“The enclosed” communication bore the same date as this letter to William Wase, of Broseley, and was addressed “To the Brethren in and about Madeley;” i.e., the Methodists:—

“MY DEAR COMPANIONS IN TRIBULATION,—Peace and mercy, faith, hope, and love be multiplied to you all from the Father of mercies through the Lord Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of grace! I thank you for your kind remembrance of me in your prayers. I am yet spared to pray for you. O that I had more power with God! I would bring down heaven into all your hearts. Strive together in love for the living faith, the glorious hope, the sanctifying love once delivered to the saints. Look to Jesus. Move on; run yourselves in the heavenly race, and let each sweetly draw his brother along, till the whole company appears before the redeeming God in Sion.

“I hope God will, in His mercy, spare me to see you in the flesh; and if I cannot labour for you, I shall gladly suffer with you. If you will put health into my flesh, joy into my heart, and life into my whole frame, be of one heart and of one soul. Count nothing your own but your sin and shame; and bury that dreadful property in the grave of our Saviour. Let all you are and have be His who bought you. Dig hard in the Gospel mines for hidden treasure. Blow hard the furnace of prayer with the bellows of faith until you are melted into love, and the dross of sin is purged out of every heart. Get together into Jesus, the heavenly ark, and sweetly sail into the ocean of eternity; so shall you be true miners, furnacemen, and bargemen. Farewell, in Jesus! Tell Mrs. Cound I shall greatly rejoice if she remembers Lot’s wife.”[455]

Footnote 455:

Letters, p. 48, and ibid, p. 334.

Six weeks after the date of this letter to the Madeley Methodists, Wesley visited them, and wrote:—

“1779. March 25, Thursday. I preached in the new house which Mr. Fletcher has built in Madeley Wood. The people here exactly resemble those at Kingswood, only they are more simple and teachable. But, for want of discipline, the immense pains which he has taken with them has not done them the good which might have been expected. I preached at Shrewsbury in the evening, and next day, about noon, in the assembly-room at Broseley. It was well we were in the shade, for the sun shone as hot as it usually does at midsummer. We walked from thence to Coalbrook Dale, and took a view of the bridge which is shortly to be thrown over the Severn. It is one arch, a hundred feet long, fifty-two high, and eighteen wide; all of cast-iron, weighing many hundred tons. I doubt whether the Colossus at Rhodes weighed much more.”[456]

Footnote 456:

Wesley’s Journal.

Fletcher’s health was still feeble, but he longed to be back to his parishioners and to the Methodists surrounding Madeley. Hence the following to the Vicar of Shoreham:—

“1779, March 29. I am still weak in body, but able to ride out and exhort some children. Well, the time shall come when, in a better state, we shall be able to glorify our heavenly Father. In the meantime, let us do it either in the stocks of weakness or in the fires of tribulation; and on our death-bed may we sing, with hearts overflowing with humble love, ‘The Resurrection and the Life, the Friend and Saviour of sinners, loved me and gave Himself for me; and I am going to see Him and to thank Him, face to face, for His matchless love!’

“I hope the prospect respecting the inheritance of your fathers in this country clears up a little, and I trust the matter will be decided without a lawsuit. As soon as the affair is brought to some conclusion, we design to set out for England. The will of the Lord be done in all things!”[457]

Footnote 457:

Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”

This was written in the week before Easter. The Puritanical Calvinists of Switzerland of course denounced the observance of holy days, and hence, at Nyon, there was no service on Good Friday, April 2; but Fletcher and William Perronet, who all their life had been accustomed to commemorate the death of the incarnate Son of God, crossed the lake into Savoy, to hear a celebrated Capuchin.

“He made,” says Mr. Perronet, “a very good discourse, and he and his brethren invited us to dine with them. This we declined; but, after dinner, we paid our respects to them, when Mr. Fletcher spent two or three hours with them in serious and friendly conversation.”[458]

Footnote 458:

Ibid.

Fletcher had expressed a hope that he would be able to return to his flock at Madeley in April or May, but his hope was not realized. The reasons for this will be found in the following extracts from his letters. To his curate, the Rev. Mr. Greaves, he said:—

“Nyon, May 18, 1779. My dear fellow-labourer,—My departure being delayed some weeks gives me much concern, although, from the confidence I have in your pastoral diligence, I am easy about the flock you feed. Last week, a Visitation was held here, and the clergy of the town took my part against the Visitor and others, who said I was of a sect everywhere spoken against. The conversation about it held so long, and was so trying to my grain of humility, that I went out. The matter, however, ended peaceably by a vote that they should invite me to dinner. God ever save us from jealous and persecuting zeal.

“I hope, my dear friend, you go on comfortably, doing more and more the work of an evangelist. Remember my love to as many of my parishioners as you meet with, and especially to all our good neighbours and to the Society.”[459]

Footnote 459:

Letters, 1791, p. 49.

On the same day, he wrote to Michael Onions as follows:—

“I have complied with the request of my friends to stay a little longer among them, as it was backed by a small Society of pious people gathered here. Three weeks ago, they got about me, and on their knees, with many tears, besought me to stay till they were a little stronger and able to stand alone; nor would they rise till they had got me to comply. However, yesterday, I spoke with a carrier, from Geneva, to take me to London, who said he would take us at a fortnight’s notice.

“My love to your fellow-leaders, and, by them, to the companies you meet in prayer; also to the preachers who help in the Round[460].”[461]

Footnote 460:

The name often given by the old Methodists to a Methodist Circuit.

Footnote 461:

Letters, 1791, p. 51.

On May 22, William Perronet, in a letter to his father, observed:—

“On the 9th of this month, Mr. Fletcher preached in the church, on 2 Cor. v. 20—‘We are ambassadors for Christ,’ etc. He spoke with a strong and clear voice for more than three-quarters of an hour, and did not find himself hurt by it. He has preached four times in the church since I have been here, and might have preached much oftener if his health would have allowed him; for, by his friendly and prudent conduct towards the three ministers of the place, he is upon good terms with them now, although, at his first coming hither, they were afraid to own him, on account of his irregular conduct; for such they deemed his exhorting the children, and holding meetings in private houses.”[462]

Footnote 462:

Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”

On the same day, Fletcher remarked to the same venerable minister:—

“MY VERY DEAR BROTHER, AND HONOURED FATHER,—I rejoice that you are yet preserved to be a witness of the grace and saving health of Jesus. Let us rejoice that when our strength shall decay, His will remain entire for ever, and, in His strength, we, who take Him for our life, shall be strong. Our Redeemer liveth; and, when sickness and death shall have brought down our flesh to the earth, we shall, by His resurrection’s power, rise and live for ever with Him in heavenly places; for the new earth will be a heaven, or a glorious province in the kingdom of heaven. The meek shall inherit it; and that inheritance will be fairer than yours at Chateau d’Oex, and surer too.

“I hope to accompany your son soon to England.”[463]

Footnote 463:

Ibid.

The following, also, was written at the same time, and was addressed to his honoured host and friend, Mr. Charles Greenwood, of Stoke Newington:—

“NYON, May 22, 1779.

“MY DEAR FRIEND,—“I am yet alive, able to ride out, and now and then to instruct a few children. I hope Mr. Perronet will soon have settled his affairs, and then, please God, I shall inform you, by word of mouth, how much I am indebted to you, Mrs. Greenwood and Mrs. Thornton. Thank and salute, on my behalf, Mr. John and Mr. Charles Wesley, Dr. Coke, and Mr. Atlay.[464] Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gifts,—His Son, His Spirit, and His Word! And thanks be to His people, for their kindness towards the poor, the sick, the stranger, and especially towards me! But, at this time, a sleepless night and a constant toothache unfit me for almost everything but lying down under the cross, kissing the rod, and rejoicing in hope of a better state, in this world or in the next. Perhaps weakness and pain are the best for me in this world. Well, the Lord will choose for me, and I fully set my heart and seal to His choice. Let us not faint in the day of adversity. The Lord tries us, that our faith may be purged of all the dross of self-will, and may work by that love, which beareth all things, and thinketh evil of nothing. Our calling is to follow the crucified, and we must be crucified with Him, until body and soul know the power of His resurrection, and pain and death are done away.

“I hope my dear friend will make, with me, a constant choice of the following mottoes of St. Paul,—Christ is gain in life and death—Our life is hid with Christ in God—If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him—We glory in tribulation—God will give us rest with Christ in that day—We are saved by hope. To the Lord our God, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier, let us give glory in the fires. Amen.”[465]

Footnote 464:

Wesley’s Book Steward, who, nine years afterwards, seceded from the Methodists, and took possession of a chapel which they had built at Dewsbury.

Footnote 465:

Letters, 1791, p. 272.

Besides his own physical weakness and suffering, Fletcher had other trials in Switzerland. In a letter, written about the same time as the foregoing, he remarked:—

“Let us bear with patience the decays of nature; let us see, without fear, the approach of death. We must put off this sickly, corruptible body, in order to put on the immortal and glorious one. I have some hopes that my poor sister will yet be my sister in Christ. Her self-righteousness, I hope, breaks as fast as her body. I am come hither to see death make havoc among my friends. I wear mourning for my father’s brother, and for my brother’s son. The same mourning will serve for my dying sister, if I do not go before her. She lies on the same bed where my father and mother died, and where she and I were born. How near is life to death! But, blessed be God, Christ, the Resurrection, is nearer to the weak, dying believer!”[466]

Footnote 466:

Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”

Fletcher, notwithstanding his longing to get back to his flock at Madeley, was still detained in Switzerland. Hence the following, addressed to Mr. Thomas York:—

“NYON, Ibid..

“MY DEAR SIR,—Providence is still gracious to me, and raises me friends on all sides. May God reward them all, and may you have a double reward for all your kindness! I hope I am getting a little strength. The Lord has blessed to me a species of black cherry, which I have eaten in large quantities. I have had a return of my spitting blood; but, for a fortnight past, I have catechized the children of the town every day; and I do not find much inconvenience from that exercise. Some of them seem to be under sweet drawings of the Father, and a few of their mothers begin to come, and desire me with tears in their eyes to stay in this country. They urge much my being born here, and I reply, that I was born again in England; that is, of course, the country which, to me, is the dearer of the two.

“My friends have prevailed on me to publish ‘A Poem on the Praises of God,’ which I wrote many years ago. The revising it for the press is at once a business and a pleasure, which I go through on horseback. Help me, by your prayers, to ask a blessing on this little attempt.

“I wish I could procure you an estate in this fine country, as I hope to do Mr. Perronet, one of the physicians who showed me so much love when I lay sick at Newington. His grandfather was a Swiss, who was naturalized in the reign of Queen Anne. By calling upon some of his relations, I have found that he is entitled to an estate of some £1000, of which he is come to take possession. So Providence prepares for me a friend, a kind physician, and a fellow-traveller, to accompany me back to England; where one of my chief pleasures will be to embrace you, and to assure you, how much I am, my dear friend, your obliged servant,

“J. FLETCHER.”[467]

Footnote 467:

Letters, 1791, p. 53.

Alas! little did Fletcher think that William Perronet would not return to England.

“Providence,” said Fletcher, in the letter just quoted, “raises me friends on all sides.” He soon had need of them. In the month of September, William Perronet wrote:—

“Mr. Fletcher has been wont to preach, now and then, in the church here (Nyon), at the request of one or other of the ministers; but, some time ago, he was summoned before the Seigneur Bailiff, who sharply reprehended him for preaching against Sabbath-breaking and stage plays. The former, he said, implied a censure on the magistrates in general, as if they neglected their duty. And the latter he considered as a personal reflection on himself, he having just then sent for a company of French Comedians to come to Nyon. Accordingly, he forbade Mr. Fletcher to exercise, any more, any of the functions of a minister in this country. However, one of the Ministers here has given him a room in his own house to preach in; and here Mr. Fletcher meets a few serious persons, particularly a number of children, two or three times a week. Hitherto, his lordship has not interfered with respect to this mode of exhortation; and both the number and the seriousness of the congregation increase daily.”[468]

Footnote 468:

Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”

Referring to the same incident, Fletcher wrote:—

“Our Lord Lieutenant, being stirred up by some of the clergy, and believing firmly that I am banished from England, took the alarm, and forbade the ministers to let me exhort in their houses; threatening them with the power of the Senate if they did. They all yielded, but are now ashamed of it. A young clergyman, a true Timothy, has opened me his house, where I exhort twice a week; and the other clergymen, encouraged by his boldness, come to our meetings.”

William Perronet completes this story by relating that the minister, who began this discreditable opposition, died suddenly, as he was dressing to go to church; and that his successor continued the same intolerant behaviour towards poor, well-meaning Fletcher. Mr. Perronet adds:—

“Mr. Fletcher now thinks himself obliged, before he leaves his native country, to bear a public testimony to the truth. When his writing will be finished, I cannot say, for it multiplies under his fertile pen; so that, I fear, we shall be obliged to spend another winter in this severe climate.”[469]

Footnote 469:

Ibid.

There can be little doubt that the “public testimony,” which Fletcher was now composing was his “Portrait of St. Paul,” to be noticed anon.

Soon after this, Fletcher had an attack of rheumatism, and wrote as follows to William Perronet, who had gone to Lausanne. After relating that the pain in his left shoulder had deprived him of sleep, and almost crippled him, he added:—

“I have partly recovered the use of my shoulder; but it is still very weak. I drink a decoction of pine-apple, which is as warm as guaiacum. My writing does not go on; but the will of the Lord is done, and that is enough. I would press you to come back soon, if I were not persuaded you are better where you are. I have been afraid that our bad meat here would make you lose your flesh; and, for the honour of Switzerland, I should be glad you had some to carry back to England, if we live to go and see our friends there. I had last Sunday (December 19), a great trial in my family. I see the Lord will not use me in this country for good, and, when we shall have finished our little matters, I shall be glad to go to my spiritual friends, and to my flock; so much the more, as Mr. Ireland mentions my curate’s danger of being in a consumption. My compliments and thanks wait on Miss Perronet. She was very obliging to share her drops with me. May we all share the springs of grace and glory together! If you will come a few leagues southward, and try the weather here, your room waits for you, and I shall be glad to see you. In the meantime, keep yourself warm by the Word of God within, and a good fire without. The Lord direct us in all things! Oh for quietness and English friends!”[470]

Footnote 470:

Benson’s “Life of Fletcher;” and Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1825, p. 744.

Two days after writing this, Fletcher addressed his curate, Mr. Greaves, as follows:—

“NYON, December 25, 1779.

“MY DEAR BROTHER,—Glory be to God for His unspeakable gift! May that Jesus, that eternal, all-creating, all-supporting, all-atoning, all-comforting Word, which was with God, and is God, and came, in the likeness of sinful flesh, to dwell among men, and to be our Emmanuel, God with us,—may He, by a lively faith, be formed in our hearts; and, by a warm love, lie and grow in the manger of our emptiness, filling it always with the bread that comes down from heaven!

“Though absent in body, I am with you and the flock in spirit. You are now at the Lord’s table. O may all the dear people, you have just now preached to, receive Jesus in the pledge of His dying love, and go home with this lively conviction, ‘God has given me eternal life, and this life is in His Son!’

“Glory be to God in heaven! Peace on earth! Love and good-will everywhere! Especially in the place where Providence has called us to cry, ‘Behold! what manner of love the Father has testified to us, in Jesus, that we, children of wrath, should be made children of God, by that only-begotten Son of the Most High, who was born for our regeneration, crucified for our atonement, raised for our justification, and who now triumphs in heaven for our sanctification, for our full redemption, and for our eternal glorification. To Him be glory for ever and ever;’ and may all, who fear and love Him about you, say, for ever, Amen! Hallelujah!

“Out of the fulness of my heart, I invite them to do so; but how shallow is my fulness to His! What a drop, compared to an ocean without bottom or shore! Let us, then, receive continually from Him, who is the overflowing and ever-present source of pardoning, sanctifying, and exhilarating grace; and, from the foot of the Wrekin, where you are, to the foot of the Alps, where I am, let us echo back to each other the joyful, thankful cry of the primitive Christians, which was the text here this morning, ‘Out of His fulness, we have all received grace for grace.’

“I long to hear from you and the flock. How do you go on? Let me know that you cast joyfully all your burdens on the Lord. Mr. Ireland sends me word, that Mr. Romaine told him you are not very well. Take care of yourself. Lay nothing to heart. Should your breast be weak, preach but once on Sundays; for you know the evening sermon is not a part of our stated duty. I say this, that you may not over-do, and lie by, as I do. God direct, sustain, and comfort you in all things!

“Give my pastoral love to all my flock. May all see, and see more abundantly, the salvation of God! May national distress be sanctified unto them; and may they all be loyal subjects of the King of kings, and of His Anointed, our King! May the approaching new year be to them a year of peace and Gospel grace! I hope Molly takes good care of you. God bless her!”[471]

Footnote 471:

Letters, 1791, p. 56.

Fletcher refers to the “national distress.” This was great. Parliament was excited. Ireland was in a state of veiled rebellion. England rang with reports of threatened invasion. The war with the American colonists had already added sixty-three millions to the national debt. Trade was paralysed, and taxes were intolerable. Popery had been established in Canada, and had received encouragement in England. The Protestant Association had sprung into existence, and the Gordon riots were at hand. In the midst of this state of things, Fletcher wrote to a nobleman, whose name is not given, but who, probably, was Lord North, as follows:—

“NYON, December 15, 1779.

“MY LORD,—If the American Colonies and the West India Islands are rent from the Crown, there will not grow one ear of corn the less in Great Britain. We shall still have the necessaries of life, and, what is more, the Gospel, and liberty to hear it. If the great springs of trade and wealth are cut off, good men will bear that loss without much sorrow; for springs of wealth are always springs of luxury, which, sooner or later, destroy the empires corrupted by wealth. Moral good may come out of our losses. I wish you may see it in England. People on the Continent imagine they see it already in the English on their travels, who are said to behave with more wisdom and less haughtiness than they used to do.”[472]

Footnote 472:

Letters, 1791, p. 273.

Lord North, King George the Third’s Prime Minister, was, at this time, harassed by the American rebellion, incessantly assailed by the Opposition, and frequently threatened with impeachment. Probably, Fletcher’s letter, of which the above is only a part, was intended to help him in his troubles. Though a foreigner by birth, John de la Flechere was a most loyal and devoted subject of King George. Hence, also, the following, taken from a letter to his curate, Mr. Greaves:—

“March 7, 1780. I long to hear from you. I hope you are well, and grow in the love of Christ, and of the souls bought with His blood, and committed to your care. I recommend to you the most helpless of the flock,—I mean the children and the sick. They most want your help, and they are the most likely to benefit by it; for affliction softens the heart, and children are not yet quite hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

“I beg you will not fail, when you have opportunity, to recommend to our flock, to honour the King, to study to be quiet, and to hold up the hands of the Government by which we are protected.”[473]

Footnote 473:

Ibid., p. 57.

On the same day, Fletcher wrote to his friend and helper, Mr. William Wase, on another matter which was causing him considerable anxiety. His Methodist meeting-house in Madeley Wood had cost much more than he expected. The letter to Mr. Wase needs no further explanation, except that the work, ready to be printed, was, probably, his poem, in French, entitled, “La Louange.”

“NYON, March 7, 1780.

“MY DEAR BROTHER,—I am sorry the building has cost so much more than I intended; but, as the mischief is done, it is a matter to exercise patience, resignation, and self-denial; and it will be a caution in the future. I am going to sell part of my little estate here to discharge the debt. I had laid by £50, to print a small work, which I wanted to distribute here; but, as I must be just, before I presume to offer that mite to the God of truth, I abandon the design, and send that sum to Mr. York.

“Money is so scarce here, at this time, that I shall sell at a very great loss; but necessity and justice are two great laws, which must be obeyed. As I design, on my return to England, to pinch until I have got rid of this debt, I may go and live in one of the cottages belonging to the vicar, if we could let the vicarage for a few pounds; and, in that case, I dare say Mr. Greaves would be so good as to take the other little house.

“My dear friend, let us die to sin. Hold fast Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. Walk by faith in Him; and not by the sight and passions of the old Adam. I hope the sun of affliction, which burns poor England and us, will ripen us all for glory. Give my best love to all our friends in Christ, and tell them that the hope of seeing them does me good.”[474]

Footnote 474:

Letters, 1791, p. 58.

Fletcher was hard at work; the weather was cold; and, for the present, exercise out of doors was impracticable. The following, taken from an unpublished letter written by William Perronet, contains an amusing scene:—

“Nyon, March 1, 1780. As this is Mr. Fletcher’s native village, no wonder that it agrees with him; otherwise, it must be very trying to so tender a constitution as his; for the weather here is much hotter in summer, and much colder in winter, than in England; and the transitions from intense heat to extreme cold are often very sudden.

“Mr. Fletcher was once told by two physicians (somewhere), that the benefit of exercise, for consumptive persons, must be estimated by the violence of it; consequently, that riding on horseback was better than going in a carriage, that walking was better than riding, running than walking, and jumping better than all of them put together. Our worthy friend has scrupulously followed this maxim; so that, whenever he does not take his little hasty rides (which by-the-bye frequently occurs), he allows himself, for exercise, not more than three minutes, from his studies, just as dinner is being served, and then, like harlequin, he takes about half a score such violent leaps and plunges across the room, that I am sometimes in pain for the floor, and always for his bones.”

During the year 1779, Fletcher and William Perronet had lodged in the same house in Nyon; now, as might be expected from the foregoing extract, William Perronet’s state of health obliged him to seek a more salubrious situation. He went to Lausanne; Fletcher remained at Nyon; and was thus pictured by his friend in the month of July next ensuing:—

“About half a year ago, we broke up housekeeping at Nyon. Poor dear Mr. Fletcher, with difficulty, procured a miserable lodging in the neighbourhood; and I was obliged to go to Lausanne, which is seven leagues from Nyon. I submitted the more willingly to this, because he talked of spending some time at Lausanne. I have been disappointed in this respect; but, once or twice, I have had the pleasure of seeing him at Nyon. I found him to-day sitting in his small apartment, surrounded with books and papers, writing, or, as he expressed it, ‘finishing the first part’ of one of his pieces. When the whole is likely to be finished, one cannot pretend to say.”[475]

Footnote 475:

Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”

Fletcher intended to return to England in the month of September, but two occurrences prevented him. First of all, he mislaid a portion of the manuscript which he wished to publish before he left Switzerland, and had to re-write what was missing.

“The misfortune I hinted at,” said he to William Perronet, “was the mislaying of a considerable part of my manuscript. After giving it up as lost, I fell to work again; went through the double toil; and, when I had done, last night, I accidentally found what I had mislaid. This has thrown me back a great deal. The Lord’s will be done in all things! I thank God, I have been kept from fretting on the occasion; though I would not for a great deal have such another trial.”[476]

Footnote 476:

Ibid.

Added to this, and, perhaps, partly in consequence of it, his health relapsed. These, and other matters, are referred to in the following letter, addressed to his curate, Mr. Greaves:—

“NYON, September 15, 1780.

“MY DEAR FELLOW-LABOURER,—I had fixed the time of my departure for this month; but now two hindrances stand in my way. When I came to collect the parts of my manuscript, I found the most considerable part wanting; and, after a thousand searches, I was obliged to write it over again. This accident compelled me to put off my journey; and now the change of weather has brought back some symptoms of my disorder. I speak, or rather whisper, with difficulty; but I hope the quantity of grapes I begin to eat will have as good an effect upon me as in the last two autumns.

“Have patience then a little while. If things are not as you could wish, you can do but as I have done for many years,—learn patience by the things which you suffer. Crossing our will, getting the better of our inclinations, and growing in experience, are no mean advantages, and they may all be yours.

“Mr. Ireland writes me word that if I return to England now, the winter will undo all I have been doing for my health for many years. However, I have not quite laid aside the design of spending the winter with you; but don’t expect me till you see me. I am, nevertheless, firmly purposed that, if I do not set out this autumn, I shall do so next spring, as early as I can.

“Till I had this relapse, I was able to exhort, in a private room, three times a week; but the Lord Lieutenant will not allow me to get into a pulpit, though they permit the schoolmasters, who are laymen, to put on a band and read the Church prayers; so high runs the prejudice. The clergy, however, tell me that if I will renounce my ordination, and get Presbyterian Orders among them, they will allow me to preach, and on these terms one of the ministers of this town offers me his curacy. A young clergyman of Geneva, tutor to my nephew, appears to me a truly converted man; and he is so pleased when I tell him there are converted souls in England, that he will go with me to learn English, and converse with the British Christians. He wrote last summer, with such force, to some of the clergy, who are stirring up the fire of persecution, that he made them ashamed, and we have since had peace from that quarter.

“There is little genuine piety in these parts; nevertheless, there is yet some of the form of it; so far as to go to the Lord’s table regularly four times a year. There meet the adulterers, the drunkards, the swearers, the infidels, and even the materialists. They have no idea of the double damnation that awaits hypocrites. They look upon the partaking of that sacrament as a ceremony enjoined by the magistrate. At Zurich, the first town of this country, they have lately beheaded a clergyman who wanted to betray his country to the Emperor, to whom it chiefly belonged. It is the town of the great reformer, Zuinglius; yet there they poisoned the sacramental wine a few years ago. I mention this to show you there is great need to bear a testimony against the faults of the clergy here; and, if I cannot do it from the pulpit, I must try to do it from the press. Their canons, which were composed by two hundred and thirty pastors, at the time of the Reformation, are so spiritual and apostolic that I design to translate them into English, if I am spared.

“Farewell, my dear brother. Take care, good, constant, care of the flock committed to your charge; especially the sick and the young. Salute all our dear parishioners. Let me still have a part in your prayers, public and private; and rejoice in the Lord, as, through grace, I am enabled to do in all my little tribulations.”[477]

Footnote 477:

Letters, 1791, p. 60.

On the same day, Fletcher wrote to Mr. Thomas York:—

“I have been so well, that my friends here thought of giving me a wife; but what should I do with a Swiss wife at Madeley? I want rather an English nurse; but more still a mighty Saviour, and, thanks be to God! that I have. Help me to rejoice in that never-dying, never-moving Friend.

“Having heard that my dear friend Ireland has discharged the greatest part of my debt, I have not sent the money; but I hope to bring with me £100, to reimburse my friends in part, till I can do it altogether. But I shall never be able to pay you the debt of kindness I have contracted with you. I look to Jesus, my Surety, for that. May He repay you a thousand-fold!”[478]

Footnote 478:

Letters, 1791, p. 62.

To William Wase, the good old Methodist, Fletcher wrote, at the same time:—

“Give my love and thanks to the preachers” (William Boothby and Jonathan Hern) “who come to help us. Enforce my exhortation to the Societies in much love. Go and comfort, from me, Mrs. Palmer and Mrs. Cartwright; and, since God has placed you all in a widowed state, agree to take Jesus for a never-dying Friend and Bridegroom. Your Maker is your husband. He is all in all. What, then, have you lost? Christ is yours and all things with Him. The resurrection day will soon come. Prepare yourselves for the marriage feast of the Lamb; and till then, rejoice in the expectation of that day. I sympathize with our sickly friends, widow Matthews, M. Blummer, E. Whittaker, I. York, and S. Aston. Salute them kindly from me. Help them to trim their lamps, and to wait for the Bridegroom. Thank Thomas and Nelly Fennel for their love to the” (Methodist) “preachers, and give them mine, and also give it to the little companies they meet with, to call for strength, comfort, and help, in time of need. Fare ye all well in Jesus! I say, again, farewell!”[479]

Footnote 479:

Ibid., p. 61.

Fletcher’s “Exhortation” to the Methodist Societies was as follows:—

“To the Societies in and about Madeley.

“Grace and peace, truth and love, be multiplied to you all. Stand fast in the Lord, my dear brethren. Stand fast in Jesus; stand fast to one another; stand fast to the vow we have so often renewed together, upon our knees, and at the Lord’s table. Don’t be so unloving, so cowardly, as to let one of your little company fall into the hands of the world and the devil; and agree to crucify the body of sin altogether.

“I am still in a strait between the work which Providence cuts out for me here, and the love which draws me to you. When I shall have the pleasure of seeing you, let it not be embittered by the sorrow of finding any of you half-hearted and lukewarm. Let me find you all strong in the Lord, and increased in humble love. Salute from me all who followed with us fifteen years ago. Care still for your old brethren. Let there be no Cain among you, no Esau, no Lot’s wife. Let the love of David and Jonathan, heightened by that of Martha, Mary, Lazarus, and our Lord, shine in all your thoughts, your tempers, your words, your looks, and your actions. If you love one another, your little meetings will be a renewed feast; and the God of love, who is peculiarly present where two or three are gathered together in the name of Jesus, will abundantly bless you. Bear me still upon your breasts in prayer, as I do you upon mine; and rejoice with me that the Lord, who made, redeemed, and comforts us, bears us all upon His. I am yours in Him,

“J. FLETCHER.”[480]

Footnote 480:

Letters, 1791, p. 63.

For some time after his arrival in Switzerland, Fletcher lived in the house where he was born, a respectable old building, erected on an elevated site at the extremity of the town. Close at hand was the shady wood, where he used to read, meditate, and pray, and meet his flock of little children. Near the house was a terrace, from which the whole of the glorious lake of Geneva was visible; and, in the distance, might be seen the city itself. Towering above all, there was the unutterably grand Mont Blanc. No wonder Fletcher spoke of the “pleasant apartment” where he was born, as having “one of the finest prospects in the world.” For some reason, however, he now exchanged the house of his nativity for another not so enchanting. Hence the following letter to William Perronet, who was residing at Lausanne:—

“NYON, October 3, 1780.

“MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,—I thank you for your letters. They have given me much pleasure, as I see that you will at last end your business, and get ready to set out in the spring with Mr. Ireland, who comes with his family, I know not where; but I think he will spend the winter at or about Avignon. If you will go and join him, I shall be glad to go also, for the stream under this house does not make it very wholesome.

“My brother thinks, as well as myself, that you may conclude upon the terms you mention. ‘Better a dinner of herbs with peace, than a stalled ox and noise therewith.’

“I hope to go to Lausanne, directly after vintage, to offer a manuscript to the censors, to see if they will allow its being published; so I do not invite you to share my damp bed. My sister was so kind as to look for another house, but we find none to let under a year. We are here travellers, so we must expect some difficulties and a good many inconveniences.

“If Mr. Ireland goes to Marseilles, you might go and see your cousin there. Lift up your heart, and see by faith our Lord and Saviour, our heavenly Kinsman and Brother; and when you rise there, take by the hand of prayer your affectionate friend,

“JOHN FLETCHER.”[481]

Footnote 481:

Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1830, p. 831.

Soon after this, William Perronet was seized with mortal illness. In a letter to the Vicar of Shoreham, Fletcher wrote:—

“December 5, 1780. Our wise and good God sees fit to try my dear friend, your son, with a want of appetite and uneasiness in his bowels. He also often returns the little food he takes. Some time ago, he came to Nyon, from Lausanne, and we went together to Geneva, where we settled your affair with three of the Geneva co-heirs, upon the same footing as he had settled with those of Chateau d’Oex. He bears his weakness with much patience and resignation.”[482]

Footnote 482:

Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”

Fletcher was now employed in finishing the poem, which he wished to publish before he left Switzerland; but he delighted in spending as much time with his dying friend as possible.

“Every night,” says William Perronet, in a letter dated January 22, 1781, “after praying with me, he sings this verse at parting:—

“‘Then let our humble faith address His mercy and His power; We shall obtain delivering grace In the distressing hour.’”[483]

Footnote 483:

Ibid.

Within three weeks after this, Fletcher’s book was finished, and the business of William Perronet was ended. Fletcher wished to set out for England, but was still detained in Switzerland. Hence the following, addressed to Mr. Wase:—

“NYON, February 14, 1781.

“MY DEAR FRIEND,—I thank you for your kind remembrance of me. I need not be urged to return; brotherly love draws me to Madeley, and circumstances drive me hence.

“I am exceeding glad that there is a revival on your side the water” [the river Severn], “and that you are obliged to enlarge your Room.[484] I wish I could contribute to shake the dry bones in my parish, but I have no confidence in the flesh. What I could not do when I was in my strength, I have little prospect of doing now that my strength is broken. However, I don’t despair, for the work is not mine but the Lord’s. If the few who love the Gospel would be simple and zealous, God would again hear their prayers for those who are content to go on in the broad way. I thank you for your view of the iron bridge.[485]

“My friend Ireland invites me to join him in the South of France; and I long to see whether I could not have more liberty to preach the Word among Papists than among Protestants. But it is so little that I can do, that I doubt much whether it is worth while going so far upon so little a chance. If I were stronger, and had more time, the fear of being hanged should not detain me. I trust to set out next month, and to be in England in May; it won’t be my fault if it is not in April.

“I am here in the midst of rumours of war. The burghers of Geneva have disarmed the garrison, and taken possession of one of the gates. I had, however, the luck to get in, and to bring away my nephew, who is a student there. Troops are preparing to block them up. The Lord may, at this time, punish the repeated backslidings of those Laodicean Christians, most of whom have become infidels. This event may a little retard my journey, as I must pass through Geneva. It also puts off the printing of my manuscript, for there is nothing going on in that unhappy town but disputes, and fights, and mounting of guards.

“Remember me in much love to Mr. Greaves, Mr. Gilpin, and the” [Methodist] “preachers who labour with us.”[486]

Footnote 484:

The Methodist meeting-house.

Footnote 485:

The bridge across the Severn at Coalbrookdale, the first iron bridge erected in England; cast in 1779, under the direction of Mr. Abraham Darby.

Footnote 486:

Letters, 1791, p. 67.

At the same date, Fletcher wrote to Mr. John Owen, his schoolmaster at Madeley, as follows:—

“Nyon, February 14, 1781. I thank you, my dear brother, for your kind lines. I hope you help both Mr. Greaves and the” [Methodist] “preachers to stir up the people in my parish. Be much in prayer. Take counsel with Michael Onions, Mrs. Palmer, and Molly Cartwright about the most effectual means to recover the backsliders, and to keep together to Christ and to each other those who still hold their shield. Salute them kindly from me, and tell them that I hope they will give me a good account of their little companies” [Methodist classes] “and of themselves.

“If I were not a minister, I would be a schoolmaster, to have the pleasure of bringing up children in the fear of the Lord. That pleasure is yours; relish it, and it will comfort and strengthen you in your work. The joy of the Lord and of charity is our strength. Salute the children from me, and tell them I long to show them the way to happiness and heaven. Have you mastered the stiffness and shyness of your temper? Charity gives a meekness, an affability, a child-like simplicity and openness, which nature has denied you. Let me find you shining by these virtues, and you will revive me much. God bless your labour about the sheep and the lambs!

“Read the following note to all who fear God and love Jesus and each other, assembling in Madeley church:—

“MY DEAR BRETHREN,—My heart leaps with joy at the thought of coming to see you and bless the Lord with you. Let us not stay to praise Him till we see each other. Let us see Him in His Son, in His works, and in all the members of Christ. How slow will post-horses go in comparison of love! Meet me, as I do you, in spirit; and we shall not stay till April or May to bless God together. Now will be the time of union and love.”[487]

Footnote 487:

Letters, 1791, p. 65.

For another month Fletcher was detained at Nyon, when he wrote to Michael Onions the following:—

“NYON, March 1781.

“I thank you, my dear brother, for your kind remembrance of me, and for your letters. I hope to bring my fuller thanks to you in person.

“Hold up your hands. Confirm the feeble knees. Set up an Ebenezer every hour of the day. In everything give thanks; and, in order to this, pray without ceasing, and rejoice evermore. My heart sympathizes with poor Molly Cartwright. Tell her, from me, that her husband lives in Him who is the Resurrection. In Christ there is no death, but the victory over death. O! let us live in Him, to Him, for Him, who more than repairs all our losses. My love to your wife. Tell her she promised me to be Jesus’s, as well as yours. My love to John Owen and all our other” [Methodist] “leaders, and by them to the few who do not tire by the way. With regard to the others, despair of none. Charity hopeth all things, and brings many things to pass. All things are possible to him that believeth; all things are easy to him that loveth. God be with you, and make you faithful unto death! This is my prayer for you, and all the Society, and all my dear parishioners, to whom I beg to be remembered. I have no place to write their names, but I pray they may all be written in the book of life. God is merciful, gracious, and faithful. I set my seal to His lovingkindness. Witness my heart and hand,

“J. FLETCHER.”[488]

Footnote 488:

Ibid, p. 68.

Fletcher had promised to join Mr. Ireland at Montpelier; but, meanwhile, William Perronet, who had returned to Lausanne, was so much worse in health, that it was impossible for him to accompany his friend. Two days before leaving Switzerland, Fletcher visited him, and, in a letter to the aged Vicar of Shoreham, wrote:—

“Miss Perronet and her mother[489] are as kind to him as my dear friends at Stoke Newington were to me when I lay sick there. His mind is quite easy; he is sweetly resigned to the will of God.”[490]

Footnote 489:

Probably William Perronet’s aunt and cousin; certainly not his mother and sister.

Footnote 490:

Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”

At Montpelier, Fletcher overtaxed his strength; and at Lyons, on his way to England, wrote as follows to his sick and dying friend, whom he had been obliged to leave behind him:—

“LYONS, April 6, 1781.

“MY DEAR FRIEND,—We are both weak, both afflicted; but Jesus careth for us. He is everywhere, and here He has all power to deliver us; and He may do it by ways we little think of: ‘As Thou wilt, when Thou wilt, and where Thou wilt,’ said Baxter: let us say the same. It was of the Lord you did not come with me: you would have been sick as I am. I am overdone with riding and preaching. I preached twice in the fields. I carry home with me much weakness and a pain in the back, which I fear will end in the gravel. The Lord’s will be done! I know I am called to suffer and die. The journey tires me; but, through mercy, I bear it. Let us believe and rejoice in the Lord Jesus.”[491]

Footnote 491:

Ibid.

Three weeks after this, Fletcher preached in City Road Chapel, London, and, the next day (April 28), set out to the hospitable home of his friend, Mr. Ireland, at Brislington. At this time, one of the Methodist preachers, stationed in the Bristol circuit, was Thomas Rankin, who had spent nearly five years in America, and who, in 1778, had been driven home by the American rebellion. Hearing of Fletcher’s arrival at Brislington, Rankin went to visit him, and wrote:—

“I had such an interview with him as I shall never forget. I had not seen him for upwards of ten years. His looks, his salutation, and his address, struck me with wonder, solemnity, and joy. We retired into Mr. Ireland’s garden; and he began to inquire concerning the work of God in America. I gave him a full account of everything that he wished to know. During this relation, he stopped me six times, and, in the shadow of the trees, poured out his soul to God, for the prosperity of the work, and for our brethren there. He several times called upon me, also, to commend them to God in prayer. This was an hour never to be forgotten. Before we parted, I engaged him to come to Bristol, on the Monday following, to meet the select band in the forenoon, and to preach in the evening. During the hour he spent with the select band, the room appeared as ‘the house of God, and the gate of heaven.’ At night, he preached from, ‘We are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.’ The whole congregation was in tears. He spoke like one who had but just left the converse of God and angels. The different conversations I had with him, and his prayers and preaching, during the few days he stayed at Bristol and Brislington, were attended with such effects upon me, that, for some months afterwards, not a cloud intervened between God and my soul, no, not for one hour. Of all the men I ever knew, I never saw such love to God and man, such deadness to the world, such entire consecratedness to Jesus, as in him. It often appeared to me that his every breath was prayer and praise. He lived more like a disembodied spirit than a human being.”[492]

Footnote 492:

Thomas Rankin’s MS. Journal.

When at Marseilles, on his way to Switzerland, in March, 1778, Fletcher wrote a long letter,[493] to Miss Bosanquet, on Christian Perfection, and respecting his unpublished Essay on the New Birth. Miss Bosanquet replied to that, in a letter dated August 30, 1778. Strange to say, this letter was not put into Fletcher’s hands until nearly three years afterwards. During this interval, there seems to have been no correspondence between him and the lady who was speedily to become his wife. On his return from Switzerland, he wrote her the following, which is now for the first time published:—

“BRISLINGTON, NEAR BRISTOL, May 1, 1781.

“DEAR MADAM,—Your kind favour dated August 30, 1778, having been mislaid in a drawer and forgotten, did not come into my hands till this morning. I hope my speedy taking of the pen, to acknowledge so unexpected a favour, will atone for the forgetfulness of my friend.

“You speak, Madam, of a letter from Bath; I do not recollect, at present, your having favoured me with one from that place. Is it my lot to be tried, or disappointed in this respect? Well, the hairs of our heads, and the letters of our friends, are all numbered: not one of the former falls, not one of the latter miscarries, without the will of Him, to whose orders we have long since fully and cheerfully subscribed.

“I have sincerely aimed at truth in writing the Essay you have been so kind as to peruse.[494] If I am not mistaken, Dr. Coke told me, when I passed through London, that he had it; but I went out of town in such a hurry that I had not time to take it with me. I feel the propriety of your remarks, and shall make the alterations you mention, as soon as I shall have the manuscript.

“I had thought of what you name, respecting a less plan of the doctrine of the New Birth,—a plan calculated to make way for the larger essay, and to guide into the truth those who have never taken one step without the leading strings of prejudice, and who cannot judge of a doctrine if it be not brought within the narrow compass and focus of their understanding. I shall be glad of an opportunity of consulting you about that sketch, if I live to make it. I love truth, because I love Jesus; but I am, every way, too feeble an instrument to defend and hold it forth with success. Your thought about it makes me pray with earnestness that I may, in some degree, answer your too favourable opinion of the importance of my little attempts to vindicate, or clear up, some part of the Gospel truths.

“Alas! what am I? A cracked voice crying in the wilderness;—a blunted pen scribbling in a village. Thanks be to grace, however, I sincerely desire to be a living shadow of the Divine Man, who is truth and love incarnate. I sincerely desire to embrace those great and precious promises given unto us, whereby we may become partakers of the Divine nature. I will not rest in the first Comforter, so as to slight that other Comforter, who is to abide with us for ever. I want not only to see Jesus altogether lovely, but to feel Him altogether powerful and wise, both in myself and in all my fellow-Christians. Restless, resigned for this, I wait for this. My vehement soul is on the stretch. Some tell me I carry my views too high; but how can that be, if God can do in us exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think? Is not the soul joined completely to the Lord, one spirit with Him? Are we not called to come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ? Is a dwarf’s state of grace the full prize of our high calling? If this hope preys upon my feeble frame, I dare not cast it off: let me rather die a martyr to it than lose it. Why should there not be true martyrs for the hope, as well as for the faith of the Gospel? At all events, let us wait for the great salvation of God the Spirit. Against hope, let us believe in hope that we shall see the royal priesthood clothed with Divine righteousness, and all God’s saints rejoice and sing.

“The openness with which you mention what some might call your enthusiasm, makes me reveal to you, Madam, what some call mine. I own I do not believe that Scripture repealed, ‘Your young men shall see visions; your old men shall dream dreams.’ ‘These signs shall follow them that believe,’ etc. (See Mark xvi. 17, 18). ‘My sons and my daughters shall prophesy.’ ‘Desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy’ (1 Cor. xiv. 2). Shall I offend you, if I ask you in simplicity the following questions? Do you know any soul filled with all the fulness of God? Anyone walking as Christ also walked, and able to say, in truth, ‘As He was, so are we in this world?’ Do you know any knit together in love, sharing all the riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of Christ in us the hope of glory (Col. i. 27; ii. 2)? Or, are the professors about you (far from having the full assurance of understanding with respect to this mystery) ready to say, when one speaks of this mystery, ‘Thou bringest strange things to our ears’?

“If you condescend to favour me with an answer, please to direct it to me at Madeley, Salop. There I hope to be next week. In the meantime, I pray the Lord to give us an understanding, that we may know more of Him, and be completely in His Son Jesus Christ, that is, in the true, Divine, and eternal life. May the living unction be and abide with you! I ask it ardently for you; condescend to ask it also for, dear Madam, your obliged friend and servant in the Gospel,

“J. FLETCHER.

“P.S.—The third part, which I designed to add[495] to the ‘Essay on the New Birth,’ was an application to the disciples of Moses, of John, and of Jesus glorified; to those who have the fear of God, the faith of the Son, and the love of the Spirit. My health is mended, thanks be to God! but my lungs remain weak. Please to remember me in Christian love to Sister Crosby.

“Miss Bosanquet, “At Cross Hall, “Near Leads (sic), “Yorkshire.”

Footnote 493:

See the letter dated “March 7, 1778.”

Footnote 494:

His “Essay on the New Birth.”

Footnote 495:

This was not added.

A few days after the date of this letter, Fletcher, accompanied by Mr. Ireland, returned to Madeley, having been absent from his flock since November 1776,—four years and a-half.

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XXII. LITERARY WORK DONE IN RETIREMENT.

FLETCHER’S long seclusion from public life is well described in two lines of the poet Thompson:

“Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books, Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven.”

The four and a-half years, during which he was away from Madeley, were spent in great weakness, but not in idleness. To say nothing of the works he published, while he remained in England, namely, his “Answer to the Rev. Mr. Toplady’s ‘Vindication of the Divine Decrees;’” his “Vindication of the Rev. Mr. Wesley’s ‘Calm Address to our American Colonies;’” his “American Patriotism;” his “Doctrines of Grace and Justice;” and his “Plan of Reconciliation;” he was employed, whilst in Switzerland, upon two of the most remarkable productions of his fertile genius.

The first was a poem, in the French language, and was published in Geneva, with the title “La Louange;”—a paraphrastic expansion of Psalm cxlviii. The work was conceived in England, but was written in Switzerland. Fletcher says he “was favoured with the critical remarks of many persons distinguished for their learning, taste, and the works with which they had enriched the Church, and the Republic of Letters. At the end of certain Cantos, are Notes, or small Dissertations, serving to explain, or illustrate, some of the truths inserted in the body of the work.” According to the custom of the country and the age, before the book could be published, it had to be submitted to an official appointed to read manuscripts, previous to their being printed; and the following was the approbation given to Fletcher’s Poem:—

“I have read this work, which, in my judgment, everywhere breathes Piety, Faith, and Christian Charity.

“DE BONS, Censeur.”

After his return to England, Fletcher enlarged the work, and, in 1785, published an edition, still in the French language, with the title:—“La Grace et la Nature, Poëme—Seconde Edition plus compléte. A Londre. De l’Imprimerie de R. Hindmarsh, Clerkenwell Close; Chez T. Longman, dans Paternoster Row; à Dublin Chez J. Charrnier, dans Kapel Street; et près du Pont de fer, in Shropshire, 1785,” 8vo 442 pp. By permission, the book was dedicated, “A la Reine de la Grande Bretagne.” The dedication, dated “à Madeley près de Coalbrook-dale, dans la Comté de Salop, le 6 de Sept. 1784,” was characteristic, and as follows:—

“MADAM,—The parish, which, in the centre of your kingdom, produced an iron bridge,[496] being always fruitful in singularities, has now produced a French poem: His Majesty gave a favourable reception to the model of our bridge, and will Your Majesty refuse the dedication of our poem? The solidity of an iron bridge sustained by two rocks renders useless the support of a Royal hand; but a work on devotion has not the same solidity.

“A French Poem in England will always require support; but, if the subject be religious, a powerful protection becomes doubly necessary; and where can I find, among mortals, a more firm security than your august name? Your court, Madam, admits the French language; your generous heart cherishes moral virtues; your exalted mind is pleased to encourage the cultivation of the fine Arts, among which poetry occupies the first rank. And, if a Queen of England permitted Voltaire to dedicate to her the praises of a French Monarch,[497] your piety, Madam, will not refuse those of the King of kings, celebrated in a poem, which has for its argument the divine song of a Sovereign, and the third Canto of which regards Kings and Princes.

“May your Majesty, constantly surrounded with the most precious benedictions, never stand in need of the consolations offered to the afflicted in the ninth Canto! And, when you have long beheld that happy and sweet peace flourish, which is celebrated in this poem,[498] may you, without sorrow, exchange your heavy crown for one of those brilliant diamonds reserved for princes, who serve God, and cause righteousness to flourish in the earth! These are the ardent prayers of him who has the honour to be, with that profound respect, which virtue truly merits when united to greatness,

“Madam, your majesty’s most humble and devoted servant, “J. W. FLETCHER.”

Footnote 496:

The bridge across the Severn, at Coalbrook Dale, regarded as one of the wonders of the age.

Footnote 497:

Voltaire’s “Henriade,” printed in London in 1726, was dedicated to the Queen of George I.

Footnote 498:

“An Essay on the Peace of 1783,” also written in French, and now incorporated with “La Grace et la Nature.”

In his preface, Fletcher says:—

“A former edition of this poem was entitled ‘Praise,’[499] because the writer’s principal design was to impress his readers with the force of these words, ‘Offer to the Lord the sacrifice of praise.’ It is now presented to the public with alterations, and the addition of ten new Cantos, under the title of ‘Grace and Nature;’ or a descant on creation, as productive of the praise due to the great Creator.”

Footnote 499:

The title, in French, was “La Louange.”

The book is a remarkable one. Every creature of God, animate and inanimate, except devils and damned men in hell, seems to be called upon to unite in offering praise to God. That Fletcher throbbed with the poetic fire cannot, in fairness, be denied. Perhaps some of his thoughts are fanciful; and his work, in other respects, may be imperfect; but many of his conceptions and utterances are worthy not only of being read, but of being remembered. The following quotations, taken from a translation of it by the Rev. Miles Martindale, may furnish a faint idea of its style and merits.

Like other poets, Fletcher begins with prayer for supernatural inspiration:—

“Thou Glorious Power, whom thrones supernal praise, Eternal source of life, of love, and grace; While joyful throngs surround Thy shining seat, Behold a worm low-bending at Thy feet! His darkness chase with Thy all-cheering ray; On his weak reason shed celestial day; His breast transform with renovating fire, With harmony divine his soul inspire.”

It has been already stated that a wood adjoined the house where Fletcher resided at Nyon, and that this was one of his favourite resorts for prayer, reading, and meditation, and that here he was accustomed to instruct his congregation of little children. There can be no doubt that the ensuing lines are descriptive of Fletcher’s enjoyments in this sylvan cathedral:—

“Ye solemn woods, where music loves to dwell, Whose zephyrs breathe the sweet balsamic smell; Here kindles piety divinely bright, The heart replete with love and joyous light. To crown the lay, the feather’d nations raise Their notes with mine, to sound the Eternal’s praise; While innocence inspires the sacred song, Ten thousand throats the swelling theme prolong. Amid these happy groves, see Eden shine, Than Bourbons’ pompous gardens, more divine. Fly the vile orchestra, where impious tongues Soft warble vice in loose lascivious songs. ’Tis here, ’mid zephyrs’ mild and melting strains, Lost Paradise her pristine bliss regains.”

One more quotation must suffice. It is taken from a long description of the Lake of Geneva. After apostrophizing the divine Creator, who has “in heaven” His “dwelling-place,” Fletcher proceeds:—

“Thy bless’d serenity, Thy palace fair, The sleeping waters of this lake declare. To give mankind an emblem of Thy might, An image of Thy skill supremely bright, Thy plastic hand drew the rough rocks around, And scoop’d the wondrous vale, a gulf profound; Where winding Rhone his active force resigns, And, in wild fields of ice, resplendent shines. To shadow heaven, and the fair scene unfold, This lake with azure glows, and burnished gold; What brilliant rays, what awful glories stand, To show the wonders of Thy mighty hand!”

To several of the cantos of his poem, Fletcher attaches lengthened notes, in prose; most of them levelled against the infidelity of Voltaire, Rosseau, and the Unitarians.

Leaving the poem, “La Grace et la Nature,” another of Fletcher’s works in Switzerland must be briefly noticed. This also was written in the French language; and after Fletcher’s death was translated, and published with the following title: “The Portrait of St. Paul; or, the true Model for Christians and Pastors: translated from the French Manuscript of the late Rev. John William de la Flechere, Vicar of Madeley. To which is added, Some Account of the Author, by the Rev. Joshua Gilpin, Vicar of Rockwardine, in the County of Salop. In two volumes. Shrewsbury. 1790.” 12mo, pp. 377 and 330.

Mr. Gilpin was an ardent admirer of Fletcher, as his biographical “Notes” amply show. He had been a resident in Fletcher’s vicarage, and had enjoyed the unspeakable benefit of his example, prayers, and instruction. He writes:—

“Before I was of sufficient age to take holy orders, I thankfully embraced the offered privilege of spending a few months beneath the roof of this exemplary man; and I well remember how solemn an impression was made upon my heart by the manner in which he received me. He met me at his door with a look of inexpressible benignity; and, conducting me by the hand into his house, intimated a desire of leading me immediately into the presence of that God to whom the government of his little family was ultimately submitted. Instantly he fell upon his knees and poured out an earnest prayer that my present visit might be rendered both advantageous and comfortable, and that our society might be crowned by an intimate fellowship with Christ. This may serve as a specimen of the manner in which he was accustomed to receive his guests.

“In his social prayers, he paid but little attention to those rules which have been laid down with respect to the composition and order of such devotional exercises. His words flowed spontaneously, and without premeditation, though always wonderfully adapted to the occasion. Nothing impertinent, artificial, or superfluous appeared in his addresses to the Deity. His prayers were the prayers of faith; always fervent, often effectual, and invariably a mingled flow of supplication and gratitude, humility and confidence, resignation and fervour, adoration and love.

“Of his secret supplications, He alone can judge ‘who seeth in secret.’ His closet was his favourite retirement, to which he constantly retreated whenever his public duties allowed him a season of leisure. Here, in times of uncommon distress, he continued during whole nights in prayer before God; and that part of the wall, against which he was accustomed to kneel, appeared deeply stained with the breath he had spent in fervent worship.”

In the preface to his translation, Mr. Gilpin remarks:—

“The following work was begun, and nearly completed, in the course of Mr. Fletcher’s last residence at Nyon; where it formed a valuable part of his private labours during a long and painful confinement from public duty.[500] On his return to England, he suffered the manuscript to lie by him, intending, at his leisure, to translate and prepare it for the press. After his decease, Mrs. Fletcher discovered it, and the translator, finding it a work of no common importance, was readily induced to render it into English. The Portrait of St. Paul was originally intended for publication in the author’s native country, to which its arguments and quotations apply with peculiar propriety. It contains Mr. Fletcher’s last and best thoughts upon some of the most important subjects that can occupy the human mind.”

Footnote 500:

Mrs. Fletcher says, her husband told her the manuscript “was a rough draft, written in his illness when abroad, and which he intended to re-write and to improve.” (“Mrs. Fletcher’s Life,” by H. Moore, p. 395.)

Unfortunately, Fletcher’s “Portrait of St. Paul” has, at the present day, but few readers. At the beginning of the century, it was one of the text-books of the Methodist itinerant preachers; and, even within the last forty years, the Methodist Magazine spoke of it as an “admirable work” and an “inestimable volume.”[501] Methodists, now-a-days, too often prefer ornament to truth.

Footnote 501:

Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1845, p. 74.

The traits of St. Paul upon which Fletcher descants are the following: his early piety; his Christian piety; his intimate union with Christ by faith; his extraordinary vocation to the holy ministry, and in what that ministry chiefly consists; his entire devotion to Jesus Christ; his strength and his arms; his power to bind, to loose, and to bless in the name of the Lord; the earnestness with which he began and continued to fill up the duties of his vocation; the manner in which he divided his time between prayer, preaching, and thanksgiving; the fidelity with which he announced the severe threatenings and consolatory promises of the Gospel; his profound humility; the ingenuous manner in which he acknowledged and repaired his errors; his detestation of party spirit and divisions; his rejection of praise; his universal love; his particular love to the faithful; his love to those whose faith was wavering; his love to his countrymen and his enemies; his love to those whom he knew only by report; his charity towards the poor; his charity towards sinners; the condescension of his humble charity; his courage in defence of truth; his prudence in frustrating the designs of his enemies; his tenderness toward others, and his severity toward himself; his love never degenerated into cowardice; his perfect disinterestedness; his condescension in labouring with his own hands; his respect for the holy estate of matrimony; the ardour of his love; his generous fears and succeeding consolation; the grand subject of his glorying; his patience and fortitude; his firmness before magistrates; his courage in consoling his persecuted brethren; his humble confidence in producing the seals of his ministry; his readiness to seal with his blood the truths of the Gospel; the sweet suspense of his choice between life and death; the constancy of his zeal and diligence to the end of his course; his triumphs over the evils of life and the terrors of death.

After this follows “The Portrait of Lukewarm Ministers and False Apostles;” then Fletcher answers “Objections” to the “Portrait of St. Paul;” and next, with consummate ability, states “The Doctrines of an Evangelical Pastor;” and concludes with “An Essay on the Connexion of Doctrines with Morality,” in answer to the infidel philosophy of Voltaire and Rosseau, recently deceased. The last two sections are invaluable, and exhibit Fletcher in all the strength of his sanctified genius.

To make selections from so comprehensive a work as this is difficult, but the following specimens may be acceptable and useful:—

The faithful pastor.—“The disposition of a faithful pastor is, in every respect, diametrically opposed to that of a worldly minister. If you observe the conversation of an ecclesiastic who is influenced by the spirit of the world, you will hear him intimating either that he has, or that he would not be sorry to have, the precedency among his brethren; to live in a state of affluence and splendour, and to secure to himself such distinguished appointments as would increase both his dignity and his income, without making any extraordinary addition to his pastoral labours. You will find him anxious to be admitted into the best companies, and occasionally forming parties for the chase, or some other vain amusement. While the true pastor cries out, in the self-renouncing language of the great Apostle, ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.’ Oh! ye, who preside over the household of God, learn of the Apostle Paul to manifest your real superiority. Surpass your inferiors in humility, in charity, in zeal, in your painful labours for the salvation of sinners, in your invincible courage to encounter those dangers which threaten your brethren, and by your unwearied patience in bearing those persecutions which the faithful disciples of Christ are perpetually called to endure from a corrupt world. Thus shall you honourably replace the first Christian prelates, and happily restore the Church to its primitive dignity.”

Writing sermons, and reading or delivering them.—“He, who spake as never man spake, rejected the arts of our modern orators, delivering His discourses in a style of easy simplicity, and unaffected zeal. We do not find that St. Paul and the other Apostles imposed upon themselves the troublesome servitude of penning down their discourses. And we are well assured that, when the Seventy and the Twelve were commissioned to publish the Gospel, no directions of this nature were given in either case.”

“What advantage has accrued to the Church, by renouncing the apostolic method of publishing the Gospel? We have indolence and artifice, in the place of sincerity and vigilance. Those public discourses, which were anciently the effects of conviction and zeal, are now become the weakly exercises of learning and art. ‘We believe, and therefore speak,’ is an expression, that has grown entirely obsolete among modern pastors. Nothing is more common among us than to say, ‘As we have sermons prepared upon a variety of subjects, we are ready to deliver them, as opportunity offers.’

“Many inconveniences arise from this method of preaching. While the physician of souls is labouring to compose a learned dissertation upon some plain passage of Scripture, he has but little leisure to visit those languishing patients, who need his immediate assistance. He thinks it sufficient to attend upon them every Sabbath-day, in the place appointed for public duty: but he recollects not, that those, to whom his counsel is peculiarly necessary, are the very persons who refuse to meet him there. His unprofitable employments at home leave him no opportunity to go in pursuit of his wandering sheep. He meets them, it is true, at stated periods, in the common fold; but it is equally true that, during every successive interval, he discovers the coldest indifference with respect to their spiritual welfare. From this unbecoming conduct of many a minister, one would naturally imagine, that the flock were rather called to seek out their indolent pastor, than that he was purposely hired to pursue every straying sheep.

“Since the orator’s art has taken the place of the energy of faith, what happy effects has it produced upon the minds of men? Have we discovered more frequent conversions among us? Are formal professors more generally seized with a religious fear? Do the wicked depart from the Church, to bewail their transgressions in private; and believers to visit the mourners in their affliction? Is it not rather to be lamented that we are, at this day, equally distant from Christian charity, and primitive simplicity?

“Reading approved sermons is generally supposed to be preaching the Gospel. If this were really so, we need but look out some schoolboy of tolerable capacity; and, after instructing him to read, with proper emphasis and gesture, the sermons of Tillotson, Sherlock, or Saurin, we shall have made him an excellent minister of the Word of God. But, if preaching the Gospel is to publish among sinners that repentance and salvation, which we have experienced in ourselves, it is evident that experience and sympathy are more necessary to the due performance of this work, than all the accuracy and elocution that can possibly be acquired.

“When this sacred experience and this generous sympathy began to lose their prevalence in the Church, their place was gradually supplied by the trifling substitutes of study and affectation. Carnal prudence has now for many ages solicitously endeavoured to adapt itself to the taste of the wise and the learned. But, while ‘the offence of the cross’ is avoided, neither the wise nor the ignorant are effectually converted.

“In consequence of the same error, the ornaments of theatrical eloquence have been sought after, with a shameful solicitude. And what has been the fruit of so much useless toil? Preachers, after all, have played their part with much less applause than comedians; and their curious auditories are still running from the pulpit to the stage, for the purpose of hearing fables repeated with a degree of sensibility, which the messengers of truth can neither feel, nor feign.”

For want of space, further extracts from Fletcher’s invaluable, but neglected, book cannot be given here. Those, however, already presented deserve attention. Though written a hundred years ago, they are sadly appropriate to the state of things at the present day.

As already stated, both “La Grace et la Nature,” and the “Portrait of St. Paul,” were written in the French language, a strong presumptive proof that he intended to publish both of them in his native country. So far as the “Portrait of St. Paul” is concerned, that intention was not fulfilled.

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