IN a characteristic letter addressed to Ambrose Serle, Esq., and dated “January 11, 1774,” Augustus Toplady observed:—
“Mr. Fletcher may fire off as soon as he pleases. The weapons of his warfare can never wound the truths of God, any more than a handful of feathers can batter down my church tower. I shall, however, be glad to see his performance when it appears. Mr. Shirley told me, when I was last at Bath, that Fletcher is to succeed Pope Wesley, as commander-in-chief of the Societies, if he should survive his holiness. No wonder, therefore, that the Cardinal of Madeley is such a zealous stickler for the cause. One would think that the Swiss were universally fated to fight for pay.”[297]
Toplady’s mendacious sneer that Fletcher was fighting “for pay” may be scornfully passed over. This letter might refer to Fletcher’s “Answer to the Rev. Mr. Toplady’s Vindication of the Decrees,” which Fletcher finished in the month of October, 1775; or it might refer to the expected publication of the “Fifth Check to Antinomianism.” The “First Part” of this was completed at Madeley, September 13, 1773; but was not published until the beginning of 1774. The following was its title: “Logica Genevensis continued: or the First Part of the Fifth Check to Antinomianism, containing an Answer to ‘The Finishing Stroke’ of Richard Hill, Esq. In which some remarks upon Mr. Fulsome’s Antinomian Creed, published by the Rev. Mr. Berridge, are occasionally introduced. With an Appendix upon the remaining difference between the Calvinists and the Anti-Calvinists, with respect to our Lord’s doctrine of Justification by words, and St. James’s doctrine of Justification by works, and not by faith only. London: 1774.” 12mo., 48 pp.
Fletcher’s “Answer” to Richard Hill’s “Finishing Stroke,” and his “Remarks upon Mr. Fulsome’s Antinomian Creed,” are able, and characteristic of the writer; but contain no biographical facts worth mentioning. Two extracts, however, from the “Appendix,” upon the remaining differences between the Calvinists and the anti-Calvinists, may be useful; inasmuch as, in a condensed form, they exhibit the point to which, in Fletcher’s opinion, the controversy had brought both parties with respect to the principal of Wesley’s “Minutes” of 1770. Fletcher writes:—
“On both sides, we agree to maintain, in opposition to Socinians and Deists, that the grand, the primary, and properly meritorious cause of our justification, from first to last, both in the day of conversion and in the day of judgment, is only the precious atonement and the infinite merits of our Lord Jesus Christ. We all agree likewise that in the day of conversion faith is the instrumental cause of our justification before God. Nay, if I mistake not, we come one step nearer each other, for we equally hold that, after conversion, the works of faith are in this world, and will be in the day of judgment, the evidencing cause of our justification; that is, the works of faith (under the above-mentioned primary cause of our salvation, and in subordination to the faith that gives them birth), are now, and will be in the great day, the evidence that shall instrumentally cause our justification as believers. Thus Mr. Hill says [Review, p. 149], ‘Neither Mr. Shirley, nor I, nor any Calvinist that I ever heard of, denies that, though a sinner be justified in the sight of God by Christ alone, he is declaratively justified by works, both here and at the day of judgment.’ And the Rev. Mr. Madan, in his sermon on ‘justification by works stated, explained, and reconciled with justification by faith,’ says [p. 29], ‘By Christ only are we meritoriously justified, and by faith only are we instrumentally justified in the sight of God; but by works, and not by faith only, are we declaratively justified before men and angels.’ From these two quotations, which could easily be multiplied to twenty, it is evident that pious Calvinists hold the doctrine of a justification by the works of faith; or, as Mr. Madan expresses it, after St. James, by works, and not by faith only.
“It remains now to show wherein we disagree. At first sight, the difference seems trifling; but, upon close examination, it appears that the whole antinomian gulf still remains fixed between us. Read the preceding quotations, weigh the clauses which I have put in capitals, compare them with what the Rev. Mr. Berridge says in his ‘Christian World Unmasked’ (p. 26), of ‘an absolute impossibility of being justified in any manner by our works,’ namely, before God; and you will see that though pious Calvinists allow we are justified by works before men and angels, yet they deny our being ever justified by works before God, in whose sight they suppose we are for ever justified by Christ alone,’ i.e., only by Christ’s good works and sufferings, absolutely imputed to us from the very first moment in which we make a single act of true faith, if not from all eternity. Thus works are entirely excluded from having any hand either in our intermediate or final justification before God; and thus they are still represented as totally needless to our eternal salvation. Now, in direct opposition to the above-mentioned distinction, we anti-Calvinists believe that adult persons cannot be saved without being justified by faith as sinners, according to the light of their dispensation; and by works as believers, according to the time and opportunities they have of working. We assert that the works of faith are not less necessary to our justification before God as believers, than faith itself is necessary to our justification before Him as sinners. And we maintain that when faith does not produce good works (much more when it produces the worst works, such as adultery, hypocrisy, treachery, murder, etc.), it dies, and justifies no more; seeing it is a living and not a dead faith that justifies us as sinners; even as they are living and not dead works that justify us as believers.”
Thus did these good men quarrel. Berridge was a man of eminent piety and of great wit, but he could scarcely be considered a great theologian; and it may be fairly doubted whether he ever held the doctrines which Fletcher, perhaps somewhat hardly, deduces from a few of his unguarded words.
In his next pamphlet, which was published March 1, 1774,[298] Fletcher treats poor Berridge with yet greater severity. The whole work was devoted to an exposure of the objectionable and the weak points in Berridge’s “Christian World Unmasked.” Its title was “Logica Genevensis continued. Or the Second Part of the Fifth Check to Antinomianism; containing a Defence of ‘Jack o’ lanthorn,’ and ‘the Paper-kite,’ i.e., Sincere Obedience;—of the ‘Cobweb,’ i.e., The evangelical law of liberty; and of the ‘Valiant Sergeant I. F.,’ i.e., The conditionality of Perseverance, attacked by the Rev. Mr. Berridge, M.A., Vicar of Everton, and late Fellow of Clare-hall, Cambridge, in his book called ‘The Christian World Unmasked.’ London: 1774.” 12 mo., 44 pp.
Berridge was well aware of Fletcher’s intention to attack his book, for Fletcher himself, seven months before, had told him that what he had “said about sincere obedience was the very core of Antinomianism,” and that he must freely expose what he had written. Berridge, in letters to John Thornton, Esq., and the Rev. John Newton, complained of this, and said Fletcher had misapprehended his meaning. He also wrote to Fletcher to the same effect, and told him that, if he published his attack, he (Berridge) would not answer it. There can be no doubt that Berridge never intended to “disparage sincere obedience” to the law of God; but his similes, allegories, figures, and loose language, might be construed by Antinomian readers in such a sense. Fletcher believed Berridge to be a sincere, earnest, obedient Christian; but he also believed that Berridge’s well-meant book might be turned to a bad account by men with whose Antinomian sentiments Berridge had no sympathy. In the introduction to his pamphlet, Fletcher writes:—
“Before I mention Mr. Berridge’s mistakes, I must do justice to his person. It is by no means my design to represent him as a divine, who either leads a loose life, or intends to hurt the Redeemer’s interest. His conduct as a Christian is exemplary; his labours as a minister are great; and I am persuaded that the wrong touches which he gives to the ark of godliness are not only undesigned, but intended to do God service.
“There are so many things commendable in the pious vicar of Everton, and so much truth in his ‘Christian World Unmasked,’ that I find it a hardship to expose the unguarded parts of that performance. But the cause of this hardship is the ground of my apology. Mr. Berridge is a good, an excellent man; therefore the Antinomian errors which go abroad into the world with his letters of recommendation, speak in his evangelical strain, and are armed with the poignancy of his wit, cannot be too soon pointed out and too carefully guarded against. I flatter myself that this consideration will procure me his pardon for taking the liberty of dispatching his ‘valiant sergeant’ with some doses of rational and Scriptural antidote for those who have drunk into the pleasing mistakes of his book, and want his piety to hinder them from carrying speculative into practical Antinomianism.”
It would weary the reader to follow Fletcher in his minute, sometimes pungent, and always irrefutable criticisms on Berridge’s well-known book. There is often plain speaking, but there is no acidity. Berridge is routed, but he is invariably treated as a Christian and a gentleman. Fletcher’s “Conclusion” is as follows:—
“Were I to conclude these strictures upon the dangerous tenets, inadvertently advanced and happily contradicted, in ‘The Christian World Unmasked,’ without professing my brotherly love and sincere respect for the ingenious and pious author, I should wrong him, myself, and the cause which I defend. I only do him justice when I say that few, very few, of our elders equal him in devotedness to Christ, zeal, diligence, and ministerial success. His indefatigable labours in the word and doctrine entitle him to a double share of honour; and I invite all my readers to esteem him highly in love for his Master’s and his work’s sake; entreating them not to undervalue his vital piety on account of his Antinomian opinions; and beseeching them to consider that his errors are so much the more excusable as they do not influence his moral conduct, and that he refutes them himself far more than his favourite scheme of doctrine allows him to do. Add to this that those very errors spring, in a great degree, from the idea that he honours Christ by receiving, and does God service by propagating them.
“The desire of catching the attention of his readers has made him choose a witty, facetious manner of writing, for which he has a peculiar turn; and the necessity I am under of standing his indirect attack[299] obliges me to meet him upon his own ground, and to encounter him with his own weapons. I beg that what passes for evangelical humour in him may not be called indecent levity in me. A sharp pen may be guided by a kind heart; and such, I am persuaded, is that of my much-esteemed antagonist, whom I publicly invite to my pulpit; protesting that I should be edified and overjoyed to hear him enforce there the guarded substance of his book, which, notwithstanding the vein of solifidianism I have taken the liberty to open, contains many great and glorious truths.”
In all his publications, Fletcher had not only Wesley’s approval, but his high commendation. In three several letters, written during the present year, 1774, Wesley thus expressed his opinion of Fletcher:—
“March 1, 1774.—He” [James Perfect], “preaches salvation by faith in the same manner that my brother and I have done; and as Mr. Fletcher (one of the finest writers of the age) has beautifully explained it. None of us talk of being accepted for our works; that is the Calvinist slander. But we all maintain we are not saved without works; that works are a condition (though not the meritorious cause) of final salvation. It is by faith in the righteousness and blood of Christ that we are enabled to do all good works; and it is for the sake of these that all who fear God and work righteousness are accepted of Him.”[300]
“May 2, 1774. Until Mr.” (Richard) “Hill and his associates puzzled the cause, it was as plain as plain could be. The Methodists always held, and have declared a thousand times, that the death of Christ is the meritorious cause of our salvation, that is, of pardon, holiness, and glory; loving, obedient faith is the condition of glory. This Mr. Fletcher has so illustrated and confirmed, as, I think, scarcely any one has done before since the Apostles.”[301]
“December 28, 1774. If we could once bring all our preachers, itinerant and local, uniformly and steadily to insist on those two points, ‘Christ dying for us,’ and ‘Christ reigning in us,’ we should shake the trembling gates of hell. I think most of them are now exceeding clear herein, and the rest come nearer and nearer; especially since they have read Mr. Fletcher’s ‘Checks,’ which have removed many difficulties out of the way.”[302]
Such was one of the services which Fletcher, “one of the finest writers of the age,” had rendered to Wesley’s preachers and people as early as the year 1774. They had been in danger of departing from the truth, or, at least, stumbling at it: by Fletcher’s help, they were confirmed in the Christian faith, and henceforth earnestly contended for it.
As already seen, in 1773 Mr. Richard Hill had extended to Fletcher the olive branch of peace; and now the Countess of Huntingdon seems to have done the same. Three years before, she had virtually dismissed him from her Calvinistic College at Trevecca, because he would not renounce what were called the “horrible and abominable” doctrinal “Minutes” of Wesley’s Conference in 1770. Since then, he had been incessantly employed in explaining and defending these “Minutes;” and, in every instance, had vanquished his opponents. Her ladyship, with her strong-mindedness, seemed to perceive this, and wished to have an interview with her disbanded president. She was staying at Bath, and through James Ireland, Esq., of Bristol, the intimate friend of both, her wish appears to have been conveyed to Fletcher; who, in reply, wrote to Mr. Ireland as follows:—
“My Dear Friend,—In the present circumstances, it was a great piece of condescension in dear Lady Huntingdon to be willing to see me privately: but for her to permit me to wait upon her openly denotes such generosity, such courage, and a mind so much superior to the narrowness that clogs the charity of most professors, that it would have amazed me, if everything that is noble and magnanimous were not to be expected from her ladyship. It is well for her that spirits are imprisoned in flesh and blood, or I might by this time (and it is but an hour since I received your letter) have troubled her ten times with my apparition, to wish her joy of being above the dangerous snare of professors—the smiles and frowns of the religious world; and to thank her a thousand times for not being ashamed of her old servant, and for cordially forgiving him all that is past, upon the score of the Lord’s love, and of my honest meaning.
“But though, on reading your letter, my mind has travelled so fast to Bath, yet an embargo is laid upon my body—‘I must not go yet.’ I am the more inclined to take the hint, for two reasons. I will tell you all my heart about it. The more I see her ladyship’s generosity, and admire the faithfulness of the friendship that she has for many years honoured me with, the more I ought to take care not to bring burdens upon her. It might lessen her influence with those she is connected with; and might grieve some of her friends, who possibly would look upon her condescension as an affront to them. This is the first reason.
“The second respects myself. I must follow my light. A necessity is laid upon me to clear my conscience with respect to the Antinomian world, and to point out the stumbling-block that keeps many serious people from embracing the real doctrines of free grace. I cannot do this without advancing some truths, which I know her ladyship receives as well as myself, but which, by my manner of unfolding them, will, at first sight, appear dreadful touches to the Gospel of the day. I am just sending to the press ‘A Scriptural Essay upon the Astonishing Rewardableness of the Works of Faith.’ Though it consists only of plain Scriptures, and plain arguments, without anything personal, I think it will raise more dust of prejudice against me than my preceding publications. With respect to myself, I do not mind it; but I am bound in love to mind it with respect to her ladyship. My respect for her ladyship, therefore, together with the preceding reason, determine me to defer paying my respects personally to her, till after the publication of my ‘Essay,’ and ‘Scripture Scales;’ and, if she does not then revoke the kind leave she gives me, I shall most gladly make the best of my way to assure her in person, as I do now by this indirect means, that I am, and shall for ever be her dutiful servant in what appears to me the plain Gospel of our common Lord.
“With love to yourself, and dutiful love to our noble friend, I am, etc.,
Nothing need be said respecting Fletcher’s considerate kindness in declining, for the present, an interview with the Countess of Huntingdon, lest he should become the means of bringing upon her undeserved reproach from some of her bigoted and narrow-hearted friends. It was like the man, and worthy of him.
In another letter to Mr. Ireland, Fletcher further refers to the returning friendliness of the Countess, and to his controversial and exhausting labours, of which he was becoming weary:—
“My Dear Sir,—I think I wrote my last two days before I received your bounty—a large hogshead of rice and two cheeses. Accept the thanks of myself and of my poor flock. I distributed it on Shrove-Tuesday, and preached to a numerous congregation on ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all other things shall be added unto you.’ We prayed for our benefactor, that God would give him a hundredfold in this life, and eternal life, where life eternal will be no burden. I saw then, what I have not often seen on such occasions, gladness without the appearance of envying or grudging.
“I get very slowly out of the mire of my controversy, and yet I hope to get over it, if God spares my life, in two or three pieces more. Since I wrote last, I have added to my ‘Equal Check’ a piece which I call ‘An Essay on Truth; or, a Rational Vindication of the Doctrine of Salvation by Faith,’ which I have taken the liberty to dedicate to Lady Huntingdon, to have an opportunity of clearing her ladyship from the charge of Antinomianism. I have taken this step in the simplicity of my heart, and as due from me, in my circumstances, to the character of her ladyship.
“I have just spirit enough to enjoy my solitude, and to bless God that I am out of the hurry of the world—even the spiritual world. I tarry gladly in my Jerusalem, till the kingdom of God comes with power. Till then, it matters not where I am: only as my chief call is here, here I gladly stay, till God fits me for the pulpit or the grave. I still spend my mornings in scribbling. Though I grudge so much time in writing, yet a man must do something; and I may as well investigate truth as do anything else, except solemn praying and visiting my flock. I shall be glad to have done with my present avocation, that I may give myself up more to those two things.
“O how life goes! I walked, now I gallop into eternity. The bowl of life goes rapidly down the steep hill of time. Let us be wise: embrace we Jesus and the resurrection. Let us trim our lamps, and give ourselves afresh to Him that bought us, till we can do it without reserve. Adieu!
297. “Complete Works of Toplady.”
298. Lloyd’s Evening Post, March 2, 1774.
299. As previously stated, Fletcher’s name was not mentioned in Berridge’s book, but the book was intended to ridicule and denounce the doctrines which Fletcher, in his “Checks,” had defended.
300. Wesley’s Works, vol xii., p. 372.
301. Ibid, p. 373.
302. Ibid, p. 430.
303. Letters, 1791, p. 221.
304. Letters, 1791, p 223.