“I have just received a letter from Lord Buchan, in which he says, ‘Pray for me, that I also may be found faithful when our Master calls for me, and that I may live a martyr to redeeming love, and die a trophy and a monument of the reality of the despised influences of the Holy Ghost.’ It is a singular honour to belong to so excellent a nobleman. Oh! how far below his grace is his nobility! I feel a strong desire to pray that he may be kept from the fickleness of youth[146] and the baits of ambition. I share in the happiness of Lady Buchan and Lady Anne Erskine upon the occasion. May God make them, together with your ladyship, a fourfold cord to draw sinners unto Jesus.”[147]
Fletcher evidently was pleased with his appointment. The emoluments of his new office probably were small, perhaps nil; but, by means of it, he became associated with one of the most pious and exemplary noblemen of the day.
To recur to Fletcher’s former letter to the Countess of Huntingdon.
He nominated James Glazebrook as a fitting candidate to be examined for admission into Lady Huntingdon’s intended college. As already stated, Glazebrook was a poor, hardworking collier. He was without money and without learning; but he had two of the three things by which Wesley tested the Divine call of his itinerants to preach; namely, “grace” and “gifts;” and Fletcher had no doubt that when the opportunity arrived, he would have the third—“fruit.” Wesley’s own definitions of these three words were:—
“Grace: a knowledge of God as a pardoning God; the love of God abiding in them; desiring and seeking nothing but God; and the being holy in all manner of conversation. Gifts: in some tolerable degree a clear, sound understanding; a right judgment in the things of God; a just conception of salvation by faith; and a degree of utterance so as to be able to speak justly, readily, clearly. Fruit: are any truly convinced of sin and converted to God by their preaching? As long as these three marks concur in any, we believe he is called of God to preach.”
Whether Fletcher adopted Wesley’s threefold test, and applied it to James Glazebrook, it is impossible to ascertain; but that his opinion of the young man was correct, subsequent events fully proved. Glazebrook was one of Fletcher’s converts. He was one of the first students at Trevecca college, if not the very first. There he distinguished himself equally by his superior abilities and his uncommon diligence. He allowed himself but little time for refreshment, rest, or recreation. His piety was as remarkable as his gifts and diligence. He was soon sent forth to preach, and his labours were attended with considerable success. For three years, he was thus employed in various parts of England. He then tired of the itinerant life, and desired the Countess of Huntingdon to procure him orders in the Established Church. With the assistance of Fletcher a title was obtained, and Glazebrook was ordained deacon by the Bishop of Lichfield, in December 1771. Soon after his ordination, he entered on the curacy of Smisby, in Derbyshire; after which he served the curacies of Rowley Regis, near Birmingham; Shawbury, Shropshire; Ravenstone, in Derbyshire; and Hugglescote, in Leicestershire. In 1777, he was ordained priest by Dr. Hurd, Bishop of Worcester. Two years later, he married the eldest daughter of Thomas Kirkland, Esq., M.D., of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, an intimate friend of the Countess of Huntingdon; and, soon after his marriage, became minister of St. James’s, Warrington. Ultimately, Lord Moira presented him to the vicarage of Belton, a village in Leicestershire, whose living even now is not worth more than about £180 a year. Here he continued till the time of his decease; and here, as well as at Warrington and other places, he was made the honoured instrument of “turning many to righteousness.” Besides his ministerial labours, he wrote and published a “Treatise on Extemporary Preaching,” “Letters on Infant Baptism,” an “Answer to Gilbert Wakefield’s Treatise on Baptism,” and, after his death, his family published a volume of his sermons, which was well received by the public. Such, in brief, was the history of Fletcher’s convert and protegé. Further particulars concerning him may be found in the Evangelical Register for 1836.
The other matter, requiring attention, in Fletcher’s letter to Lady Huntingdon, under the date of November 24, 1767, is his reference to the conversations he had had with her ladyship upon the “Manifestations of the Son of Man to the heart,” and the fact that he had devoutly studied this mysterious subject for “many hours,” and had put his thoughts “upon paper.” This important manuscript was not published until after Fletcher’s death. The editor of his collected works, in a brief preface, says:—
“For the Letters on the Manifestation of Christ, the reader is obliged to Mrs. Fletcher. When they were written, or to whom they are addressed, is uncertain; but, from the beginning of the first letter, the decayed state of the manuscript, and the extreme smallness of the character, which could scarcely have been legible to the author in his latter years, they are supposed to have been the first essay of a genius afterwards so much admired. The reader is requested to remember that the pious author wrote only for himself and his friends; that these sheets want his perfecting hand; and that the editor thought himself entitled to take no liberties.”
From this preface, it is evident that the editor was not acquainted with the foregoing letter to the Countess of Huntingdon; and it may be added, that there is no need for the apology, that the “sheets want” Fletcher’s “perfecting hand.”
The Letters are six in number, and fill fifty-three octavo pages in Fletcher’s collected works.[148] It is extremely difficult to give, in a brief form, the substance of these important papers; and yet the task must be attempted, because the subject is one of great interest and because the Letters seem to have been among the earliest of his compositions, that were afterwards published.
His object is clearly stated in his opening paragraph:—
“When I had the pleasure of seeing you last, you seemed surprised to hear me say, that the Son of God, for purposes worthy of His wisdom, manifests Himself, sooner or later, to all His sincere followers, in a spiritual manner, which the world knows not of. The assertion appeared to you unscriptural, enthusiastical, and dangerous. What I then advanced to prove that it was scriptural, rational, and of the greatest importance, made you desire I would write you on the mysterious subject. I declined it, as being unequal to the task; but, having since considered that a mistake here may endanger your soul or mine, I sit down to comply with your request; and the end I propose by it is, either to give you a fair opportunity of pointing out my error, if I am wrong, or to engage you, if I am right, to seek what I esteem the most invaluable of all blessings,—revelations of Christ to your own soul, productive of the experimental knowledge of Him, and the present enjoyment of His salvation.”
“I shall not be able to establish the doctrine I maintain unless you allow me the existence of the proper senses, to which our Lord manifests Himself. The manifestation I contend for being of a spiritual nature, must be made to spiritual senses; and that such senses exist, and are opened in, and exercised by, regenerate souls, is what I design to prove in this letter” (the first), “by the joint testimony of Scripture, our Church, and reason.”
In his second letter, Fletcher defines what he means, and does not mean, by the manifestations of the Son of God to the soul of man. In the third and fourth, he dwells on the uses of such manifestations. The fifth contains a summary of the numerous appearances of the Son of God during the Old Testament dispensation, and concludes with answers to the objection that these appearances proved “only, that God favoured the patriarchs and Jews with immediate revelations of Himself, because they had neither the Gospel nor the Scriptures.” Fletcher’s fourth answer to this objection is so characteristic that it must be quoted:—
“If, because we have the letter of Scripture, we must be deprived of all immediate manifestations of Christ and His spirit, we are great losers by that blessed book, and we might reasonably say, ‘Lord, bring us back to the dispensation of Moses! Thy Jewish servants could formerly converse with Thee face to face; but now we can know nothing of Thee, but by their writings. They viewed Thy glory in various wonderful appearances; but we are indulged only with black lines telling us of Thy glory. They had the bright Shekinah, and we have only obscure descriptions of it. They were blessed with lively oracles; and we only with a dead letter. The ark of Thy covenant went before them, and struck terror into all their adversaries; but a book, of which our enemies make daily sport, is the only revelation of Thy power among us. They made their boast of Urim and Thummim, and received particular, immediate answers from between the cherubim; but we have only general ones, by means of Hebrew and Greek writings, which many do not understand. They conversed familiarly with Moses their mediator, with Aaron their high priest, and with Samuel their prophet; these holy men gave them unerring directions in doubtful cases; but, alas! the apostles and inspired men are all dead; and Thou, Jesus, our Mediator, Priest, and Prophet, canst not be consulted to any purpose, for Thou manifestest Thyself no more. As for Thy sacred book, Thou knowest that sometimes the want of money to purchase it, the want of learning to consult the original, the want of wisdom to understand the translation, the want of skill or sight to read it, prevent our improving it to the best advantage, and keep some from reaping any benefit from it at all. O Lord! if, because we have this blessed picture of Thee, we must have no discovery of the glorious original, have compassion on us, take back Thy precious book, and impart Thy more precious Self to us, as Thou didst to Thy ancient people!”
In his sixth and last Letter, Fletcher proves “that the New Testament, as well as the Old, abounds with accounts of particular revelations of the Son of God;” and he concludes thus:—
“Having thus led you from Genesis to Revelation, I conclude by two inferences, which appear to me undeniable. The first, that it is evident our Lord, before His incarnation, during His stay on earth, and after His ascension into heaven, hath been pleased, in a variety of manners, to manifest Himself to the children of men, both for the benefit of the Church in general, and for the conversion of sinners and the establishment of saints in particular. Secondly, that the doctrine, which I maintain, is as old as Adam, as modern as St. John, the last of the inspired writers, and as scriptural as the Old and New Testaments, which is what I wanted to demonstrate.”
This is an imperfect outline of Fletcher’s production, but want of space prevents enlargement. Some, with a scornful jeer, will brand Fletcher as a mystic; and others, sincerely in search of truth, but who have not experienced that of which he speaks, will ask his meaning. Leaving the former to their own infidel or pharisaic wisdom, it may be said in reply to the latter, Fletcher meant nothing more than what Christ Himself meant in His sixth beatitude, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God;” and again, in one of His latest utterances, “He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me; and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.” Or, again, Fletcher meant what St. Paul meant in texts like the following:—“The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” “God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
If it be asked, again, what is the meaning of these and such like texts? it may be answered, substantially,—the meaning is the same as what is meant by stanzas like the following, written by John or Charles Wesley, and selected from their Hymn Book, almost at random:—
If it be asked, again, what means all this? let the enquirer carefully and devoutly read Fletcher’s Six Letters. He will be wiser and better for his exercise; and will ascertain that Fletcher and Wesley were not, in the vulgar sense of the expression, bewildered and bewildering mystics, but spiritually enlightened, sober, scriptural divines, who, with reverential and joyous hearts, could sing:—
123. Letters, 1791, p. 165.
124. Letters, 1791, p. 169.
125. Letters, 1791, p. 170.
126. Ibid, p. 190.
127. Letters, 1791, p. 174.
128. Letters, 1791, p. 178.
129. Letters, 1791, p. 180.
130. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., p. 375.
131. “Thirteen Original Letters,” by Fletcher, published at Bath in 1791, p. 20.
132. Whitefield’s Works, vol. iii., p. 339.
133. Letters, 1791, p. 189.
134. Ibid, p. 190.
135. Letters, 1791, p. 192.
136. Evangelical Magazine, 1802, p. 346.
137. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., pp. 317, 318.
138. Ibid, vol. i., p. 288; ii., p. iv.
139. Letters, 1791, p. 196.
140. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., pp. 290, 291.
141. Afterwards Sir Richard Hill, Bart., one of Fletcher’s antagonists in the Calvinian controversy.
142. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. i., p. 296.
143. Ibid, vol. ii., p. 464.
144. Ibid, vol. i., p. 299.
145. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. ii., p. 82.
146. The new earl was only twenty-four years of age.
147. “Life and Times of the Countess of Huntingdon,” vol. ii., p. 19.
148. They were first published by the Rev. Melville Horne, in 1791, with the title, “Six Letters on the Spiritual Manifestation of the Son of God.”