“Your letter arrived some days too late, to prevent my taking a false step respecting the papist in question. Three weeks ago, I went to Ludlow to the Bishop’s visitation, and I thought the occasion favourable for my purpose; but the churchwardens, when we were on the spot, refused to support me, and the court has paid no regard to my presentation. Thus I have gained some experience, though at my own cost. The sermon did not touch the string with which I was whipped at the last visitation; and I afterwards had the boldness to go and dine with the Bishop.
“Many of my parishioners are strangely disconcerted at my bringing my gown back from Ludlow. With respect to the magistrate I mentioned to you in my last, because he acted as judge of the circuit two years ago, he now believes himself as able a lawyer as Judge Foster; but, for the present, he contents himself with threatenings. I met him the other day, and, after he had called me Jesuit, etc., and menaced me with his cane, he assured me that he would soon put down our assemblies. How ridiculous is this impotent rage!
“I have attempted to form a Society, and, in spite of much opposition and many difficulties, I hope to succeed. I preach, I exhort, I pray; but, as yet, I seem to have cast the net on the wrong side of the ship. Lord Jesus, come Thyself, and furnish me with a Divine commission!
“For some months past, I have laboured under an insuperable drowsiness: I could sleep day and night; and the hours which I ought to employ with Christ on the mount, I spend like Peter in the garden.”[84]
Poor Fletcher’s troubles continued and increased. A month later, he wrote again to Charles Wesley, as follows:—
“I have still trials of all sorts. First, spiritual ones. My heart is hard; I have not that contrition, that filial fear, that sweet, humble melting of heart before the Lord, which I consider essential to Christianity.
“Secondly, the opposition made to my ministry increases. A young clergyman, who lives in Madeley Wood, where he has great influence, has openly declared war against me, by pasting on the church door a paper, in which he charges me with rebellion, schism, and being a disturber of the public peace. He puts himself at the head of the gentlemen of the parish (as they term themselves), and, supported by the Recorder of Wenlock, he is determined to put in force the Conventicle Act against me. A few weeks ago, the widow who lives in the Rock Church, and a young man, who read and prayed in my absence, were taken up. I attended them before the magistrate, and the young clergyman with his troop were present. They called me Jesuit, etc.; and the magistrate tried to frighten me, by saying that he would put the Act in force, though we should assemble only in my own house. I pleaded my cause as well as I could; but, seeing he was determined to hear no reason, I told him he must do as he pleased, and that, if the Act in question concerned us, we were ready to suffer all its rigours. In his rage, he went the next day to Wenlock, and proposed to grant a warrant to have me apprehended; but, as the other magistrates were of opinion that the business did not come under their cognizance, but belonged to the Spiritual Court, he was obliged to swallow his spittle alone.
“Mr. Madan,[85] whom I have consulted, tells me the Act may be enforced against the mistress of the house, the young man, and all who were present. The churchwardens talk of putting me in the Spiritual Court for meeting in houses, etc.; but what is worst of all, three false witnesses offer to prove upon oath that I am a liar; and some of my followers (as they are called) have dishonoured their profession, to the great joy of our adversaries.
“In the midst of these difficulties I have reason to bless the Lord, that my heart is not troubled. Forget me not in your prayers.”[86]
All this braggart persecution seems to have ended in threats. Fletcher wrote again to Charles Wesley, on November 22, 1762:—
“The debates about the illegality of exhorting in houses (although only in my own parish) grew some time ago to such a height, that I was obliged to lay my reasons before the Bishop; but his lordship very prudently sends me no answer. I think he knows not how to disapprove, and yet dares not approve this methodistical way of procedure.”[87]
Such is a bird’s-eye view of Fletcher’s ministry and ministerial trials during the first two years after his appointment to the living of Madeley in 1760. As an earnest evangelical clergyman of the Church of England, he almost stood alone. Shropshire had produced one like-minded minister; but he, the Rev. Mr. Hatton, was now in the Isle of Man. To this gentleman, Fletcher, in his solitude, wrote as follows:—
“Rev. Sir,—There are so few of our profession in this county who are not ashamed of the cross of Christ, and of the Homilies and Articles of our Church, that it gave me no small pleasure to hear you are not led away with the generality into dry empty notions of morality and formality,—the two legs on which fashionable religion stalks through this so-called Christian land. May the Lord Jesus convince us daily more and more, by His Spirit, of sin in ourselves, and of righteousness in Him! May we, in the strength of our dying Samson, pull down the buildings of self-righteousness, though the consequence should be to see all our hopes of preferment and esteem buried in the ruins! May we never be led to preach another Gospel than that of Christ! ‘He that believeth shall be saved; he that believeth not shall be damned’ (Mark xvi. 16).
“I hope, Sir, you will not be discouraged. Regard not the wind, but sow your seed early and late; and the Lord of the harvest will give the increase, as seemeth best to His heavenly wisdom. I meet with many trials in my parish, but our faithful Lord opens always a door for me to escape; and so He will for you.
“I should be thankful to Providence, if your way should be made plain into this neighbourhood. You owe yourself to Shropshire in particular; and no county needs hands for the spiritual harvest more than this does. I pray that the Lord of the harvest may thrust you among us.
“I bespeak a sermon when you come to Salop; trusting that you will not be ashamed to bear witness to the truth as it is in Jesus, from so despised a pulpit as that of, dear Sir, your affectionate and weak fellow servant in the Gospel,
Fletcher longed for clerical sympathy and co-operation; but he had to wait for them. In all respects his position was a trying one. The Rev. Mr. Gilpin, who afterwards was well acquainted with him, writes:—
“Celebrated for the extensive ironworks carried on within its limits, Madeley was remarkable for little else than the ignorance and profaneness of its inhabitants, among whom respect to man was as rarely to be observed as piety towards God. In this benighted place, the Sabbath was openly profaned, and the most holy things contemptuously trampled under foot; even the restraints of decency were violently broken through, and the external form of religion held up as a subject of ridicule.
“Immediately upon his settling in this populous village, Mr. Fletcher entered upon the duties of his vocation with an extraordinary degree of earnestness and zeal. He saw the difficulties of his situation, and the reproaches to which he should be exposed by a conscientious discharge of the pastoral office; but, as a steward of the manifold grace of God, he faithfully dispensed the word of life, according as every man had need; instructing the ignorant, reasoning with gainsayers, exhorting the immoral, and rebuking the obstinate. Not content with discharging the stated duties of the Sabbath, he counted every day as lost in which he was not actually employed in the service of the Church. As often as a small congregation could be collected, he joyfully proclaimed to them the acceptable year of the Lord, whether it were in the church, in a private house, or in the open air.”
“It was a common thing, in his parish, for young persons of both sexes to meet together for what was called recreation; and that recreation usually continued from evening to morning, consisting chiefly in dancing, revelling, drunkenness, and obscenity. These licentious assemblies he considered a disgrace to the Christian name, and determined to exert his ministerial authority for their total suppression. Frequently he burst in upon them with a holy indignation, making war upon Satan in places peculiarly appropriated to his service.”
“His enemies wrested his words, misrepresented his actions, and cast out his name as evil; but whether he was insulted in his person, or injured in his property; whether he was attacked with open abuse, or pursued by secret calumny, he walked amid the most violent assaults of his enemies, as a man invulnerable; and while his firmness discovered that he was unhurt, his forbearance testified that he was unoffended.”
“Had he aimed at celebrity as a public speaker, furnished as he was with the united powers of learning, genius, and taste, he might have succeeded beyond many; but his design was to convert and not to captivate his hearers; to secure their eternal interests, and not to obtain their momentary applause. Hence his ‘speech and his preaching were not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.’ He spake as in the presence of God, and taught as one having Divine authority. There was an energy in his preaching that was irresistible. His subjects, his language, his gestures, the tone of his voice, and the turn of his countenance, all conspired to fix the attention and affect the heart. Without aiming at sublimity, he was truly sublime; and uncommonly eloquent without affecting the orator.”[89]
Such is the testimony of a gentleman who, for a season, lived in Fletcher’s house, and for many years lived in the neighbourhood of Fletcher’s parish. It would be worse than foolish to add anything to it, except the remarks of Fletcher’s friend and first biographer, John Wesley:—
“Mr. Fletcher settled at Madeley in the year 1760, and from the beginning he was a laborious workman in his Lord’s vineyard. At his first settling there, the hearts of several were unaccountably set against him, insomuch that he was constrained to warn some of these that if they did not repent God would speedily cut them off. And the truth of these predictions was shown over and over by the signal accomplishment of them.[90] But no opposition could hinder him from going on his Master’s work, and suppressing vice in every possible manner. Those sinners who endeavoured to hide themselves from him he pursued to every corner of his parish by all sorts of means, public and private, early and late, in season and out of season, entreating and warning them to flee from the wrath to come. Some made it an excuse for not attending church that they could not awake early enough to get their families ready. He provided for this also. Taking a bell in his hand, he set out every Sunday at five in the morning, and went round the most distant parts of the parish, inviting all the inhabitants to the house of God.
“Yet, notwithstanding all the pains he took, he saw for some time little fruit of his labour; insomuch that he was more than once in doubt whether he had not mistaken his place; whether God had indeed called him to confine himself to one town, or to labour more at large in His vineyard. He was not free from this doubt when a multitude of people flocked together at a funeral. He seldom let these awful opportunities slip without giving a solemn exhortation. At the close of the exhortation which was then given, one man was so grievously offended that he could not refrain from breaking out into scurrilous, yea, menacing language. But, notwithstanding all his struggling against it, the Word fastened upon his heart. At first, indeed, he roared like a lion; but he soon wept like a child. Not long after, he came to Mr. Fletcher in the most humble manner, asking pardon for his outrageous behaviour, and begging an interest in his prayers. This was such a refreshment as he stood in need of. In a short time, this poor broken-hearted sinner was filled with joy unspeakable. He then spared no pains in exhorting his fellow-sinners to flee from the wrath to come.
“It was not long after, when, one Sunday evening, Mr. Fletcher, after performing the usual duty at Madeley, was about to set out for Madeley Wood, to preach and catechise as usual. But just then notice was brought (which should have been given before) that a child was to be buried. His waiting till the child was brought prevented his going to the wood; and herein the providence of God appeared. For at this very time, many of the colliers, who neither feared God nor regarded men, were baiting a bull just by the meeting-house; and, having had plenty to drink, they had all agreed, as soon as he came, to bait the parson. Part of them were appointed to pull him off his horse, and the rest to set the dogs upon him. One of these very men afterwards confessed that he was with them when this agreement was made; and that afterwards, while they were in the most horrid manner cursing and swearing at their disappointment, a large china punch-bowl, which held above a gallon, without any apparent cause (for it was not touched by any person or thing) fell all to shivers. This so alarmed him that he forsook all his companions, and determined to save his own soul.”[91]
1. Dr. Whitehead’s “Life of Wesley,” vol. ii., p. 355.
2. Cox’s “Life of Fletcher,” p. 140.
3. Gilpin’s “Account of Fletcher.”
4. Arminian Magazine, 1794, p. 219.
5. The elder of these sons died on coming of age; the younger became M.P. for Shrewsbury, and afterwards for Shropshire. In 1784, he took his seat in the House of Lords, as Baron Berwick. The title still exists. The old Tern Hall has long been called Attingham House.—Debrett’s “Peerage” and Wesley’s and Benson’s “Lives” of Fletcher.
6. The long letter from which the foregoing is extracted was first published in 1826, in a “Life of Fletcher” in the French language, and printed at Lausanne. In the same year, Mr. Benson printed it as an appendix to the ninth edition of his “Life of Fletcher.” In 1839, it was inserted in the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine. The extract is partly taken from Benson’s translation and partly from that in the magazine.
7. Wesley’s “Life of Fletcher,” p. 17.
8. Letter to Mons. H. L. de la Fléchère, 1786, p. 13.
9. Gilpin’s Translation of “The Portrait of St. Paul.”
10. Meaning the war then raging.
11. Arminian Magazine, 1793, p. 411.
12. Benson’s “Life of Fletcher,” 2nd edit., p. 366.
13. Gilpin’s note, in “Portrait of St. Paul.”
14. Wesley’s “Life of Fletcher.”
15. Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”
16. “Thirteen Original Letters, written by the late Rev. John Fletcher. Bath, 1791,” 12mo, p. 3.
17. Methodist Magazine, 1798, p. 93.
18. Gilpin’s “Portrait of St. Paul.”
19. Wesley’s “Works,” vol. ii., p. 376; and vol. vii., p. 415.
20. Wesley’s “Works,” vol. vii., p. 415.
21. Tyerman’s “Life of Wesley,” vol. ii., pp. 286, 289.
22. Benson’s “Life of Fletcher,” 2 edit., p. 320.
23. Wesley’s “Life of Fletcher.”
24. Benson says, “He also preached twice in St. Alkmond’s Church in Shrewsbury.”
25. Wesley’s “Life of Fletcher.”
26. Thomas Walsh, one of the most remarkable of Wesley’s Itinerants. To say nothing of his piety and usefulness, Wesley declared him to be the best Hebrew scholar he had ever met. He died two years after the date of Fletcher’s letter.
27. “Thirteen Original Letters, written by the Rev. J. Fletcher, 1791,” p. 8.
28. Benson’s “Life of Fletcher,” 2nd edit., p. 38.
29. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., p. 231.
30. Wesley’s “Life of Fletcher.”
31. Wesley himself not infrequently set out on his long journey to the north on Sunday.
32. It is difficult to determine what is meant by this; most likely Fletcher wished Thomas Maxfield to preach in the neighbourhood of Tern Hall. Five years afterwards, Maxfield left Wesley, and became an ordained clergyman of the Church of England.
33. Wesley’s Annual Conference was held in Bristol, in August, 1758.
34. Fletcher’s “Works,” vol. viii., p. 154.
35. Previous to becoming Wesley’s housekeeper, Sarah Ryan, Mary Clarke, and Sarah Crosby lived together, in a small house in Christopher Alley, Moorfields. It was here that Miss Bosanquet (afterwards Fletcher’s wife) formed an acquaintance with Sarah Ryan, in 1757. (See “Life of Mrs. Fletcher,” by Henry Moore, pp. 17–20.)
36. Wesley’s Journal.
37. “Minutes of Conference” (edition 1862), vol. i., p. 711.
38. Letters, 1791.
39. Letters, 1791, p. 83.
40. Morgan’s “Life of Walsh.”
41. Letters, 1791, p. 85.
42. Methodist Magazine, 1818, pp. 360–367.
43. Sidney’s “Life of Sir Richard Hill,” pp. 21–32.
44. Letters, 1791, p. 86.
45. Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”
46.
47. Letters, 1791, p. 88.
48. Dorothy Furley, the youngest daughter of John Furley, a Dutch and Turkey merchant, was born at West Ham in 1730. She was converted in early life, and became acquainted with the Countess of Huntingdon, Miss Bosanquet, the Wesley brothers, Miss Johnson, Mrs. Ryan, and many others of the first Methodists, by whom she was held in high esteem. In 1764, she was married to Mr. Downs, one of Wesley’s local preachers in London. After her husband’s death, she removed to Leeds, and died July 28, 1807. The written directions respecting her funeral concluded with these words: “Glory, glory, glory be to my gracious God and Saviour! I live in the full assurance of faith and hope that I shall see my Saviour’s face, and behold that glory which He had with the Father before all worlds, but which He left for my sake. To Him I owe all my salvation, here and to all eternity. To Him, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour, dominion, and majesty, now and through all ages! Amen. Hallelujah! Amen.”—Methodist Magazine, 1818, p. 222.
49. Letters, 1791, p. 91.
50. Letters, 1791, p. 95.
51. “Thirteen Original Letters,” by Rev. John Fletcher, 1791, p. 9.
52. Benson’s “Life of Fletcher.”
53. Letters, 1791, p. 98.
54. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., p. 233.
55. An extract from Law’s “Christian Perfection,” first published by Wesley in 1740; the sixth edition appeared in 1759.
56. Wesley’s “Sermon on Salvation by Faith,” first published in 1738; and a tenth edition in 1756.
57. Charles Wesley’s well-known sermon, preached before the University of Oxford, on April 4, 1742.
58. C. Wesley’s Journal, vol. ii., p. 227.
59. Ibid., vol. ii., p. 231.
60. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., p. 233.
61. Letters, 1791, p. 100.
62. Cox’s “Life of Fletcher,” p. 25
63. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., p. 400.
64. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., p. 234.
65. Cox’s “Life of Fletcher,” p. 32.
66. Letters, 1791, p. 106.
67. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., p. 237.
68. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., p. 238.
69. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., p. 239.
70. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., p. 240.
71. Letters, 1791, p. 107.
72. Letters, 1791, p. 109.
73. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., p. 241.
74. Letters, 1791, p. 111.
75. Methodist Magazine, 1821, p. 17.
76. Letters, 1791, p. 112.
77. Fletcher seldom wrote his sermons, and more rarely read them. More than one hundred and forty sermons of Wesley’s have been published, and at least sixty of Whitefield’s; but of Fletcher’s, who had much more leisure than either Wesley or Whitefield, only about a dozen. All the rest are mere outlines. The following are copied from Fletcher’s MSS., and have not before been published. They may be taken as fair specimens of Fletcher’s pulpit preparations and pulpit helps. They are skeletons of two sermons, preached from Matt. xxii. 36–39:— W “I. Why we must love God.
“II. How we must love Him.
“III. What we must do in order to love Him.
“He“He is our Creator, Preserver, Redeemer, Sanctifier. He commands us to love Him. Out of His love there is no happiness. Love of God contains all. He loved us first.
“With all our soul, heart, and strength. Above all things. More than our life, wives, children, estate, honour, ourselves.
“Be convinced we do not love Him. Abhor ourselves for our rebellion. Confess, repent, and believe. Keep a sense of our forgiveness. Pray to Him. Praise Him. Walk with Him. Seek but Him. Refuse all comfort unless we feel His love. Keep a constant communion with Him by seeing His glory in the face of Jesus Christ.
“How have we fulfilled this great duty? Try yourselves. Pray an hour by yourselves. If you do not love, you hate. What fury to hate all that is good, great, and lovely! What madness to set our love on creatures! It must fall with them. Love God in Christ. Look to Christ. Believe in Christ, to love God. If you do not love Him, you are in your lives in the devil’s state. You can no more go to heaven than the devil. Choose which you will love. The world calls. Let us give all for all.“
“Love thy neighbour. All men; though never so distant in place, different in opinions, interests. Because made by the same hand; partakers of the same nature; bought with the same blood; capable of the same happiness.
“As ourselves. Not judging; not thinking evil; not speaking evil; not defrauding; not coveting; doing them good; praying for them; honouring them
“Because all made in image of God. None but in something better than ourselves; none but is a child of God, or may become so.
“Put the best construction on words or actions, much more upon thoughts. Relieve necessities. This is imitating God. What we give is lent to God.
“Love universally, constantly, impartially, sincerely; from a sense of Christ’s love.”
78. Methodist Magazine, 1821, p. 651.
79. London Magazine, 1762, p. 48.
80. Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1822, p. 153.
81. Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1822, p. 222.
82. Methodist Magazine, 1800, pp. 219–223.
83. Letters, 1791, p. 114
84. Letters, 1791, p. 115.
85. The Rev. Martin Madan, who, before he became a clergyman, was a barrister-at-law.
86. Letters, 1791, p. 117.
87. Letters, 1791, p. 124.
88. Wesleyan Methodist Magazine, 1829, p. 175.
89. “The Portrait of St. Paul.”
90. Jonathan Crowther, President of the Methodist Conference in 1819, relates, in his unpublished autobiography, the following anecdote: “Mrs. Fletcher told me that one Sunday, after the forenoon service, Mr. Preston, a gentleman farmer near Madeley, very grossly insulted Mr. Fletcher in the churchyard, and evinced great enmity against his faithful ministry. In his sermon in the afternoon, Mr. Fletcher said, he had a powerful impression that before the next Sabbath God would give a signal mark of His displeasure against the enemies of His cause and truth. The week was drawing to a close; nothing remarkable had happened; but on Saturday night, Mr. Preston, when returning home from market in a state of intoxication, fell from his horse and died on the spot.”
91. Wesley’s “Life of Fletcher.”