Wesley's Designated Successor / The Life, Letters, and Literary Labours of the Rev. John William Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, Shropshire

“A composition of low scurrility and illiberal abuse, for which this author and his coadjutors are remarkable. Not one Calvinist who comes in his way escapes. He is so much given up to slander and defamation, that he can no more refrain from defaming even the dead than from slandering the living.”

“When we meet with erroneous systems set up in opposition to the Word of God, we speak our mind freely of them, and aim to show the dangerous tendency of them. But no sooner do we touch the cobweb system of self-righteous Pharisees, but they cry out, with their brethren of old to our Lord, ‘Thou reproachest us also.’ We cannot aim to dissect and expose their opinions, but they cry out of slandering their persons, and ‘Oh, you have no love to Mr. John!’ God bless Mr. John! But who is Mr. John? Is he the standard of truth, the pinnacle of orthodoxy, the touchstone by which truth is to be tried and known? What is Mr. John? What is Mr. Walter? Men, frail men, and miserable sinners like ourselves. All that we say of them is, As men, we love them; as miserable sinners, we wish their salvation; as fellow-creatures, we would not hurt a hair of their heads; whatever is in our power to do them good, we would cheerfully minister unto them.”

“Sir,—I have just read your last number, and am amazed at the Declaration in it, as made by Mr. Wesley and his friends, at the late Conference at Bristol. I am amazed at the wisdom of that great man that he should devise a Declaration^[246] couched in terms so ambiguous as to satisfy his opponents, whilst, in reality, it denies not one tittle clearly asserted in the ‘Minutes;’ and I am amazed at gentlemen, who might have been acquainted with the unfathomable policy of that dubious divine, not being more upon their guard than to have been put off by such an unmeaning confession.

“Since the Conference, and, of course, since the making of this Declaration, Mr. Fletcher has published a very warm, and not ill-written ‘Vindication of the Minutes,’ which, from his intimacy with Mr. Wesley, evidently shows that the gentleman in question never meant to recant what he had declared in the ‘Minutes’ when he signed the Declaration.^[247]

“What can we think of this? You ask, What can we say to this? Why, gentlemen, you may say that the fox has had sagacity enough to elude his hunters. Or, in other words, that Mr. Wesley is, what I always took him to be, a very wise man.

“Does this tend to clear up the affair? Yes. Taken in its connection with Fletcher’s ‘Vindication of the Minutes,’ it very plainly clears it up to every man; and shows that however these gentlemen may abhor the doctrine of justification by the merit of works, as most perilous and abominable, they are determined to abide by the doctrine of justification by works as a condition, which is all that is clearly expressed in the ‘Minutes.’ If Cranmer and his brethren had drunk half as deep into the spirit of Ignatius,” [Loyala!] “they had never been brought to the stake for their doctrine; but might even have outwitted the eagle-eyed Bishops of London and Winchester.”

“Mr. Wesley is now an old man, and, according to the course of nature, must in a little time have done with a lying world. Let him, like an honest man, a Christian, that has heaven in his eye, and a sense of the Divine presence upon his heart, tell us plainly whether he really thinks that his continuance in the love of God, and the exercise of faith, is owing to his own good management, or to the sovereignty and freeness of the love of God and agency of the Holy Ghost?”

“Should any reply be made to this letter, and might I be indulged with liberty to choose my correspondent, I would most earnestly deprecate having anything to do with the Reverend Mr. Walter Sellon, as I am no adept in scolding, and am sorry to see the name of a Christian minister prefaced to such foul and futile productions as those, of Mr. Sellon’s pen. Mr. Fletcher’s pen is indeed more cleanly, but every whit as unfair; and him I object to because he is apt to exclaim against his opponents as enemies to Christian peace, even when he himself does what he can to stab their reputation to the heart. He is very apt grievously to complain of ill-usage from others, when, at the same time, like a madman, he himself keeps flinging abroad firebrands, arrows, and death amongst those who differ from him. Mr. Olivers should be my man, if in future he will guard against shocking common decency, as he has done in his letter to Mr. Toplady, where he is pleased to call Mr. Hervey’s admirable letters to Mr. Wesley scurrilous: which indecency, although borrowed indeed from Mr. Walter Sellon, must needs have an influence fatal to Master Thomas Olivers’ credit as a writer. As to the Rev. Mr. Wesley himself, I do not expect that he can spare so much time as to give a satisfactory answer to my querulous epistle, as it will require his being more explicit than he has hitherto accustomed himself to be.”

“My Dear Friend,—How much water may rush out of a little opening! What are our dear lady’s jealousies come to? Ah, poor College! They are without a master, but not without a mistress. Their conduct and charges of heresy stirred me up to write in defence of the ‘Minutes.’ The pamphlet is gone abroad unseasonably in its present dress. The toga would now suit it, but it wears the chlamys. By this means, the voice of the arguments will be lost in the cry of treachery.

“I received this morning a most kind letter from Mr. Shirley, whom I now pity much. He will pass by me; but I fear Mr. Olivers will have some cutting lashes. Mr. Shirley is gone to Wales, probably to consult what to do in the present case. What a world! Methinks I dream when I reflect that I have written on controversy; the last subject I thought I should have meddled with. I expect to be smartly taken in hand and soundly drubbed for it. Lord, prepare me for it, and for everything that may make me cease from man, and above all from your unworthy friend,

“P.S. My kindest love to Mr. Mather.^[248] I hope you are happy in each other’s company. May you be both blessed, as being one heart, and one soul, and colleagues in Jesus!”

“In my last private communication, I observed, Rev. Sir, that, if your ‘Narrative’ was kind, I would buy a number of copies, and give them gratis to the purchasers of my book, that they might see all you can possibly produce in your own defence, and do you all the justice your proper behaviour at the Conference deserves. But, as it appears to me there are some important mistakes in that performance, I neither dare recommend it absolutely to my friends, nor wish it, in the religious world, the full success you desire.

“I do not complain of its severity; on the contrary, considering the sharpness of my fifth letter, I gratefully acknowledge it is kinder than I had reason to expect. But permit me to tell you, Sir, I look for justice to the scriptural arguments I advance in defence of truth, before I look for kindness to my insignificant person, and could be much sooner satisfied with the former, than with the latter alone. As I do not admire the fashionable method of advancing general charges without supporting them by particular proofs, I shall take the liberty of pointing out some mistakes in your ‘Narrative,’ and, by that means, endeavour to do justice to Mr. Wesley’s ‘Declaration,’ your own ‘Sermons,’ my ‘Vindication,’ and, above all, to the cause of practical religion.”

“I beg I may not be understood to level the following paragraphs, or any part of these letters, at my pious Calvinist brethren. God knows how deeply I reverence many, who are immovably fixed in, what some call, the doctrines of grace; how gladly (as conscious of their genuine conversion and eminent usefulness) I would lie in the dust at their feet to honour our Lord in His dear members; and how often I have thought it a peculiar infelicity to dissent from such excellent men, with whom I wanted both to live and die, and with whom I hope soon to reign for ever.

“As these real children of God lament the bad use Antinomians make of their principles, I hope they will not be offended if I bear my testimony against a growing evil, which they have frequently opposed themselves. While the Calvinists guard the foundation against Pharisees, they will, I hope, allow the Remonstrants to guard the superstructure against Antinomians. If in doing these good offices to the Church, we find ourselves obliged to bear a little hard upon the peculiar sentiments of our opposite friends, let us do it in such a manner as not to break the bonds of peace and brotherly kindness; so shall our honest reproof become matter of useful exercise to that love which thinketh no evil, hopeth all things, rejoiceth even in the galling truth, and is neither quenched by many waters, nor damped by any opposition.”

“I assure you, Sir, I do not love the warlike dress of the Vindicator, any more than David did the heavy armour of Saul. With gladness, therefore, I cast it aside to throw myself at your feet, and protest to you, that, though I thought it my duty to write to you with the utmost plainness, frankness, and honesty, the design of doing it with bitterness never entered my heart. However, for every ‘bitter expression’ that may have dropped from my sharp, vindicating pen, I ask you pardon; but it must be in general, for neither friends nor foes have yet particularly pointed out to me one such expression.

“You condescend, Rev. Sir, to call me your ‘learned friend.’ Learning is an accomplishment I never pretended to; but your friendship is an honour I shall always highly esteem, and do at this time value above my own brother’s love. Appearances are a little against me: I feel I am a thorn in your flesh; but I am persuaded it is a necessary one, and this persuasion reconciles me to the thankless and disagreeable part I act. I can assure you, my dear Sir, I love and honour you, as truly as I dislike the rashness of your well-meant zeal. The motto I thought myself obliged to follow was, ‘E bello pax;’ but that which I delight in is, ‘In bello pax.’ May we make them harmonize till we learn war and polemic divinity no more!

“If in the meantime we offend our weak brethren, let us do something to lessen the offence till it is removed. Let us show them we make war without so much as shyness. Should you ever come to the next county, as you did last summer, honour me with a line, and I shall gladly wait upon you, and show you (if you permit me) the way to my pulpit, where I shall think myself highly favoured to see you ‘secure the foundation,’ and hear you enforce the doctrine of justification by faith, which you fear we attack. And should I ever be within thirty miles of the city where you reside, I shall go to submit myself to you, and beg leave to assist you in reading prayers for you, or giving the cup with you. Thus shall we convince the world how controversy may be conscientiously carried on without interruption of brotherly love; and I shall have the peculiar pleasure of testifying to you in person how sincerely I am,

“For some years, I have suspected there is more imaginary than unfeigned faith in most of those who pass for believers. With a mixture of indignation and grief, have I seen them carelessly follow the stream of corrupt nature, against which they should have manfully wrestled. When they should have exclaimed against their Antinomianism, I have heard them cry out against the legality of their wicked hearts; which, they said, still suggested they were to do something in order to salvation. Glad was I, therefore, when I had attentively considered Mr. Wesley’s ‘Minutes,’ to find they were levelled at the very errors, which gave rise to an evil I had long lamented in secret, but had wanted courage to resist and attack.”

“Do not imagine, Rev. Sir, I cry up God’s law, to drown the late cries of heresy and apostacy. I appeal to matter of fact and to your own observations. Consider the religious world, and say if ‘Antinomianism’ is not, in general, a motto better adapted to the state of professing congregations, societies, families, and individuals, than ‘Holiness unto the Lord.’

“Begin with congregations, and cast your eyes upon the hearers. In general, they have curious ‘itching ears,’ and ‘will not endure sound doctrine.’ They say they ‘will have nothing but Christ;’ and who could blame them if they would have Christ in all His offices? Christ, with all His parables and sermons, cautions and precepts, reproofs and expostulations, exhortations and threatenings? Who would find fault with them, if they would have Christ with His poverty and self-denial, His reproach and cross, His spirit and graces, His prophets and apostles, His plain apparel and mean followers? But, alas! it is not so. They will have what they please of Christ, and that too as they please. They admire Him in one chapter, and know not what to make of Him in another. If He asserts His authority as a Lawgiver, they are ready to treat Him with as little ceremony as they do Moses. If He says, ‘Keep my commandments, I am a King;’ like the Jews of old, they rise against the awful declaration; or they crown Him as a surety, the better to ‘set Him at nought’ as a monarch. If He adds to His ministers, ‘Go, and teach all nations to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you;’ they complain, ‘This is the law; give us the gospel, we can relish nothing but the gospel.’”

“Hence it is that some preachers must choose comfortable subjects to please their hearers; just as those, who make an entertainment for nice persons, are obliged to study what will suit their difficult taste. A multitude of important Scriptures can be produced, on which no minister, who is unwilling to lose his reputation as an evangelical preacher, must dare to speak in some pulpits, unless it is to explain away or enervate their meaning.”

“Whence springs this almost general Antinomianism of our congregations? Shall I conceal the sore because it festers in my own breast? Shall I be partial? No! In the name of Him who is no respecter of persons, I will confess my sin, and that of many of my brethren. Though I am the least and the most unworthy of them all, I will follow the dictates of my conscience, and use the authority of a minister of Christ.

“Is not the Antinomianism of hearers fomented by that of preachers? Does it not become us to take the greatest part of the blame upon ourselves, according to the old adage, ‘Like priest, like people’? Is it surprising that some of us should have an Antinomian audience? Do we not make or keep it so? When did we preach such a practical sermon as that of our Lord on the mount, or write such close letters as the epistles of St. John? Alas! I doubt it is but seldom. Not living so near to God ourselves as we should, we are afraid to come near the consciences of our people. Some prefer popularity to plain-dealing. We love to see a crowd of worldly-minded hearers, rather than a ‘little flock,’ ‘a peculiar people, zealous of good works.’ Luther’s advice to Melancthon, ‘So preach that those who do not fall out of love with their sins, may fall out with thee,’ is more and more unfashionable. Under pretence of drawing our hearers by love, some of us softly rock the cradle of carnal security in which they sleep. The old Puritans strongly insisted upon personal holiness, and the first Methodists upon the new birth; but these doctrines seem to grow out of date. The Gospel is cast into another mould. People, it seems, may now be ‘in Christ’ without being ‘new creatures,’ or new creatures without casting ‘old things’ away. They may be God’s children without God’s image; and be ‘born of the Spirit’ without ‘the fruits of the Spirit.’ If our unregenerate hearers get orthodox ideas about the way of salvation in their heads, evangelical phrases concerning Jesus’ love in their mouths, and a warm zeal for our party and favourite forms in their hearts, without any more ado, we help them to rank themselves among the children of God. But, alas! this self-adoption into the family of Christ will no more pass in heaven, than self-imputation of Christ’s righteousness.”

“How few of our celebrated pulpits are there where more has not been said, at times, for sin than against it! With what an air of positiveness and assurance has that Barabbas, that murderer of Christ and souls, been pleaded for! ‘It will humble us, make us watchful, stir up our diligence, quicken our graces, endear Christ.’ That is, in plain English, pride will beget humility, sloth will spur us on to diligence, rust will brighten our armour, and unbelief, the very soul of every sinful temper, is to do the work of faith! Jesus, who cleansed the lepers with a word or a touch, cannot, with all the force of His Spirit, and virtue of His blood, expel the leprosy of sin; it is too inveterate. Death, that foul monster, the offspring of sin, shall have the important honour of killing his father. This is confidently asserted by those who cry, ‘Nothing but Christ!’ They allow Him to lop off the branches; but Death, the great Saviour Death, is to destroy the root of sin. In the meantime, the temple of God shall have agreement with idols, and Christ concord with Belial: the Lamb of God shall lie down with the roaring Lion in our heart.”

“To speak the melancholy truth, how few individuals are free from practical Antinomianism! Setting aside their attendance on the ministry of the Word, where is the material difference between several of our genteel believers and other people? Do not we see the sumptuous furniture in their apartments, and fashionable elegance in their dress? What sums of money do they frequently lay out in costly superfluities to adorn their persons, houses, and gardens! In our fashionable churches and chapels, you may find people professing to believe the Bible, who so conform to this present world as to wear gold, pearls, and precious stones, when no distinction of office or state obliges them to it, in direct opposition to the words of two Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul. Multitudes of professors, far from being convinced of their sin in this respect, ridicule Mr. Wesley for bearing his testimony against it. The opposition he dares to make to that growing branch of vanity affords matter of pious mirth to a thousand Antinomians. Isaiah could openly reprove the haughty daughters of Zion, who walked with stretched forth necks, wanton eyes, and tinkling feet: he could expose the bravery of their fashionable ornaments, their round tires like the moon, their chains, bracelets, head-bands, rings and ear-rings; but some of our humble Christian ladies will not bear a reproof from Mr. Wesley on the head of dress. They even laugh at him as a pitiful legalist, and yet, oh, the inconsistency of the Antinomian spirit! they call Isaiah the evangelical prophet!

“Finery is often attended with an expensive table, at least with such delicacies as our purse can reach. St. Paul kept his body under, and was in fastings often; and our Lord gives us directions about the proper manner of fasting. But the apostle did not know the easy way to heaven taught by Dr. Crisp; and our Lord did not approve of it, or He would have saved Himself the trouble of His directions. In general, we look upon fasting much as we do upon penitential flagellation. Both equally raise our pity; we leave them both to popish devotees. Some of our good old Church people will yet fast on Good Friday: but our fashionable believers begin to cast away that last scrap of self-denial. Their faith, which should produce, animate, and regulate works of mortification, goes a shorter way to work; it explodes them all.”

“If these shall go into eternal punishment; if such will be the end of all the impenitent Nicolaitans; if our churches and chapels swarm with them; if they crowd our communion tables; if they are found in most of our houses, and too many of our pulpits; if the seeds of their fatal disorder are in all our breasts; if they produce Antinomianism around us in all its forms; if we see bold Antinomians in principle, bare-faced Antinomians in practice, and sly pharisaical Antinomians,^[250] who speak well of the law, to break it with greater advantage,—should not every one examine himself whether he is in the faith, and whether he has a holy Christ in his heart, as well as a sweet Jesus upon his tongue; lest he should one day swell the tribe of Antinomian reprobates? Does it not become every minister of Christ to drop his prejudices, and consider whether he ought not to imitate the old watchman, who, fifteen months ago, gave a legal alarm to all the watchmen that are in connexion with him? And should we not do the Church excellent service, if, agreeing to lift up our voices against the common enemy, we gave God no rest in prayer, and our hearers in preaching, till we all did our first works, and our latter end, like Job’s, exceeded our beginning?

“Near forty years ago, some of the ministers of Christ, in our Church, were called out of the extreme of self-righteousness. Flying from it, we have run into the opposite, with equal violence. Now that we have learned wisdom by what we have suffered in going beyond the limits of truth both ways, let us return to a just scriptural medium. Let us equally maintain the two evangelical axioms on which the Gospel is founded: 1. ‘All our salvation is of God, by free grace, through the alone merits of Christ.’ And, 2. ‘All our damnation is of ourselves, through our avoidable unfaithfulness.’”

“We desire to be confronted with all the pious Protestant divines. But, who would believe it? the suffrage of a papist is brought against us! Astonishing! that our opposers should think it worth their while to raise one recruit against us in the immense city of Paris, where fifty thousand might be raised against the Bible itself!

“So long as Christ, the prophets, and apostles are for us, together with the multitude of the Puritan divines of the last century, we shall smile at an army of Popish friars. The knotted whips, that hang by their side, will no more frighten us from our Bibles, than the ipse dixit of a Benedictine monk will make us explode, as heretical, propositions which are demonstrated to be scriptural.

“I hope the gentlemen concerned in the ‘Conversation,’ lately published, will excuse the liberty of this postscript. I reverence their piety, rejoice in their labours, and honour their warm zeal for the Protestant cause; but that very zeal, if not accompanied with a close attention to every part of the Gospel truth, may betray them into mistakes, which may spread as far as their respectable names. I think it therefore my duty to publish these strictures, lest any of my readers should pay more regard to the good-natured friar, who has been pressed into the service of Dr. Crisp, than to St. John, St. Paul, St. James, and Jesus Christ, on whose plain declarations I have shown that the ‘Minutes’” (of Mr. Wesley) “are founded.”

“There is undoubtedly such a thing as the full assurance of faith. Be not discouraged on account of thousands, who stop short of it. It is our own fault if we do not attain it. God would give us ample satisfaction if we did but deeply feel our wants. Both you and I want a deeper awakening, which will produce a death to outward things and speculative knowledge. Let us shut our eyes to the gilded clouds without us: let us draw inward, and search after God, if haply we may find Him. Let us hold fast our confidence, though we are often constrained against hope, to believe in hope. But let us not rest in our confidence, as thousands do; let it help us to struggle and wait, till He come. Let us habituate ourselves to live inwardly. This will solemnize us, and prevent our trifling with the things of God. We may be thankful for what we have without resting in it. We may strive, and yet not trust in our striving; but expect all from Divine grace.”^[252]