FLETCHER took a profound interest, not only in Sunday Schools, which were being opened in various places, but in an institution which has long been the greatest of which the Methodists can boast. In 1783, Dr. Coke and a few of his friends drew up “A Plan of the Society for the Establishment of Missions among the Heathen.” This curious and most interesting document is too long to be inserted here. Suffice it to say, there is reason to believe that Fletcher was one of Coke’s counsellors. It has been already stated that, in the summer of 1783, the Doctor, on his way from Dublin, called at Madeley, and preached in Fletcher’s church. Soon after this, Fletcher and his wife went to Dublin; and now, at the beginning of the year 1784, Coke forwarded to Fletcher the aforesaid “Plan,” and a list of his missionary subscribers, twenty-six in number, seven of whom resided in Dublin. Is it chimerical to suppose that the formation of this Missionary Society was a subject of conversation between Coke and Fletcher, when the former was at Madeley, and that it was mainly through Fletcher’s influence that so many of its first subscribers were Dublin Methodists? It is a curious fact that neither of the Wesleys appeared in the list of contributors, the reason perhaps of which might be that they had not been consulted in drawing up the “Plan.” Fletcher, however, subscribed £2 2s. 0d. of the first year’s income, which amounted to £66 3s. 0d., and to him Coke sent the “Plan” and the report, and also the following letter appended:—
“My Very Dear Sir,—Lest Mr. Parker should neglect to send you one of our Plans for the establishing of foreign Missions, I take the liberty of doing it. Ten subscribers more, of two guineas per annum, have favoured me with their names. If you can get a few subscribers more, we shall be obliged to you.
“We have now a very wonderful outpouring of the Spirit in the West of Cornwall. I have been obliged to make a winter campaign of it, and preach here and there out of doors.
“I beg my affectionate respects to Mrs. Fletcher. I entreat you to pray for
At this period, Fletcher was engaged in the last of his literary works. The following, hitherto unpublished letter, may serve as an introduction to the essays Fletcher was now writing. It was addressed to the “Rev. Mr. Bouverot, Geneva;” and, though without date, was evidently written a few days before Fletcher’s memorable visit to Dublin:—
“The Society of Christian Philosophers, which you mention, seems, in this day, to be a useful Institution. The most redoubtable attacks upon religion come from our modern Sadducees, who say there is neither angel nor spirit; and the famous Dr. Priestly openly maintains that we have no soul, or, at least, that it is no other than the animal spirits. It may be, therefore, that God, who never leaves Himself without witnesses, has permitted this Society for the maintenance of a metaphysical doctrine so opposite to that of materialism. ‘Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.’
“A Swedish gentleman, called Baron Swedenborg,[600] published many pieces in England, and declared he had conversed with angels and spirits for more than forty years, and that with as much familiarity as with men. Some of his works have been translated into English. There is one, of which I have the original Latin by me, entitled, ‘Mirabilia Coeli et Inferni,’ and which I mean to send you as soon as I shall find a convenient opportunity. It is certain, if believers were more detached from earthly things, and more concentred in Christ by faith, they would converse with angels and with the spirits of the departed saints, as the Patriarchs and first Christians were accustomed to do. There would, indeed, in this, be some danger of following after piety, with a view to such an advantage, through a species of curiosity, which, if it ought not to be called the back door, yet would not deserve to be entitled the front, which consists in an humble faith disengaged from sense and from all self-seeking,” etc., etc.
“I have not yet had leisure to cast my eyes over mys’ Next week, at the invitation of many who love the Word of God, I mean to make a tour into Ireland, from whence I propose returning before winter. Mr. Wesley, who is eighty years of age, is now on a tour in the Low Countries, where he preaches, even at Amsterdam.
“Assist me to bless God, who has sustained me hitherto, and who is my light and my salvation in Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever! Remember me before God in your prayers, as I have a continual remembrance of you in mine.”
Fletcher’s bold speculation, respecting the possibility of conversing with angels and the spirits of departed saints, may be passed in silence. The reader’s attention must now be asked to the famous Dr. Priestley.
This remarkable man was born at Fieldhead, near Leeds, in 1733. While a student at the Dissenting Academy, kept by Dr. Ashworth, at Daventry, he became an Arian. His subsequent career need not here be traced. It is enough to say, that, about the year 1767, while he was the minister of a large congregation of Dissenters at Leeds, he embraced Socinianism; and that, about 1781, he wrote and published his “History of the Corruptions of Christianity,”—some of the teachings of which work Fletcher felt it his duty to refute. Dr. Priestley died at Philadelphia, in the United States of America, in 1804.
It has been already stated, that, early in the year 1785, Fletcher published a second and enlarged edition of his poem, entitled, “La Grace et la Nature.” At the end of that work, the following advertisement was inserted: “Prêt à être publié en Anglois: A Rational Vindication of the Catholic Faith, respecting the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: being the First Part of a Scriptural Vindication of Christ’s Divinity. Inscribed to the Rev. Dr. Priestley.”
The Rev. Joseph Benson, the quondam tutor of Lady Huntingdon’s Trevecca College, when Fletcher was its president, says this “Rational Vindication” was left by Fletcher “not quite finished;” which assertion seems to clash with Fletcher’s own advertisement just given. There can be no doubt it was as finished as Fletcher meant it to be; though not as complete as Mr. Benson thought it ought to be, and as he himself tried to make it. In addition to this, however, Fletcher began a second essay, entitled, “Socinianism Unscriptural; or, the Prophets and Apostles vindicated from the Charge of holding the Doctrine of Christ’s mere Humanity: being the Second Part of a Vindication of His Divinity. Inscribed to the Rev. Dr. Priestley.” The first of these was intended to be an answer to Priestley’s assertion that “the doctrine of the Trinity is irrational;” and the second to refute his equally unfounded dogma, that, the doctrine of Christ’s “divinity has no proper foundation in the Old Testament,—the prophets speaking of the Messiah only as a man like themselves;” nor in the “New Testament,—the Apostles never giving our Lord any higher title than that of a man approved of God.” In Mr. Benson’s opinion, both of the essays were left unfinished; and it is certain that neither of them was published in Fletcher’s lifetime. Rightly or wrongly, Mr. Benson—a very able theologian—undertook, after Fletcher’s death, to write supplements to both, and then published them; and these irrefutable productions of Mr. Benson’s pen have, ever since 1818, when he was the Methodist Connexional Editor, been improperly incorporated in Fletcher’s “Collected Works.” Mr. Benson’s additions to Fletcher’s essays are invaluable; but they ought, in fairness to both authors, to be published separately. On this subject, however, nothing more need be added. Fletcher’s replies to Priestley, which were printed a few years subsequent to his death,[601] were revised by Wesley, who writes, in his Journal:—
“1784, Saturday, March 27. I went to Madeley; and, at Mr. Fletcher’s desire, revised his letters to Dr. Priestley. I think there is hardly another man in England so fit to encounter him.—Sunday, 28. Notwithstanding the severe weather, the church was more than filled. I preached on part of the Epistle (Heb. ix. 13, etc.); in the afternoon, ons’ and I believe God applied it to many hearts.”
Never has there been a time when there was more need of essays like those of Fletcher than that which is now passing. Socinianism, in various shapes, even among many who think themselves orthodox, is rampant; and the Methodist Book Committee would render incalculable service to the cause of Christian truth, by publishing in a separate form, and at as cheap a price as possible, Fletcher’s two unanswerable replies to the redoubtable Dr. Priestley.
In his “Expostulatory Letter,” Fletcher writes:—
“While you invite archdeacons and bishops to defend their church and the divinity of their Saviour, may the voice of a poor country vicar be heard amidst the groans of the press which repeats your challenges? Will not your sense of honour feel too great a disappointment in seeing so mean a person step forth to present you with an expostulatory letter, and to break a spear with you, on the very ground where you think yourself invincible,—philosophy, reason, and common sense?
“Conscious of the variety of your learning, and the greatness of your reputation, I apologize for my boldness, by observing, that the Church is my mother; that the feeblest child has a right to cry out when his mother is stabbed to the heart; and that, when the Divine crown of our Lord is publicly struck at, the least of believers may show his astonishment at the antichristian deed.
“When the Socinians of the last century said that it was impossible to believe God and man were united in the person of our Lord, the Catholics replied, it was as easy to believe that God and man make one Christ, as to believe that the immortal soul and the mortal body are one man. And Dr. Sherlock added, that the best way for the Socinians to set aside this argument against the mystery of our Lord’s incarnation, was to deny the union of soul and body, because they could not understand it; and openly to maintain, that man is a body without a soul, a compound of mere matter.
“When that judicious divine dropped this hint, he little thought that some philosophers of our day would be so desperately bent upon divesting Christ of His Divine glory, that they would be content to die like dogs, without leaving any surviving part of themselves, so that they might win the day against the Catholic Church, and the divinity of our Lord.
“I am sorry to observe that you have the dangerous honour to be at the head of these bold philosophers. Dr. Berkeley was so singular as to deny the existence of matter. According to his doctrine, there is nothing but spirit in the world, and matter exists only in our ideas. As a rival of his singularity, you run into the opposite extreme; you annihilate our souls; you turn us into mere machines; we are nothing but matter; and if you allow us any spirit, it is only such as can be distilled like spirits of wine. Thus, if we believe you both, being ground not only to atoms but to absolute nonentity between the two millstones of your preposterous and contrary mistakes, we have neither form nor substance, neither body nor soul!
“Glad am I, Sir, that when you made so free with the souls of men you did not pass your philosophical sponge over the existence of the Father of spirits, the great Soul which gives life and motion to the universe. But, though you spare the Father’s dignity, you attack the Son’s divinity; you deny the sanctifying influences of the Holy Ghost; and, by hasty strides, you carry us back to a dwarf, mongrel Christianity, made up of materialism, Judaism, and the baptism of John.
“To gain this inglorious end, in yours’ you collect the capital errors invented by fallen Christians in the corrupt ages of Christianity; then, taking some of the most precious Gospel truths, you blend them with these errors, and rendering them all equally odious, you turn them promiscuously out of the Church as the ‘Corruptions of Christianity.’ Thus you cleanse the temple of truth as our Lord would have cleansed that of Jerusalem, if he had thrown down the tables of show-bread as well as the tables of the money changers, and if He had turned out the cherubim of glory as He did the beasts which defiled that holy place. In short, you treat our Lord’s divinity as the Jews treated His humanity when they numbered Him with felons, that the mob might cry with a show of piety, ‘Away with Him! Crucify Him!’ with the thieves, His accursed companions!”
On the mysterious and holy doctrine of the Trinity in unity, Fletcher writes:—
“That there is a Supreme, Infinite, and Eternal Mind by which the world was made, is evident from the works of creation and providence. Every leaf of the trees which cover a thousand hills, every spire of the grass which clothes a thousand vales, echoes, ‘There is a God.’ But the peculiar mode of His existence is far above our reach. Of this we only know what He plainly reveals to us, and what we may infer from what He hath plainly revealed; for sooner shall the vilest insect find out the nature of man, than the brightest man shall of himself discover the nature of God.
“It is agreed on all hands that the Supreme Being, compared with all other beings, is One,—one Creator over numberless creatures, one Infinite Being over myriads of finite beings, one Eternal Intelligence over millions of temporary intelligences. The distance between the things made and Him that made them being boundless, the living God must stand for ever far higher above all that lives, than the sun stands superior to all the beams it emits, and to all the tapers lighted at its fire. In this sense, true Christians are all Unitarians: God having plainly revealed His unity by the prophets, by the Apostles, and by our Lord Himself, there is no doubt about this point. And may the hand which writes these sheets wither a thousand times over rather than it should designedly write one word against this glorious and ever-adorable unity!
“But although the Supreme Being is One when He is compared to all created beings, shall we quarrel with Him when He informs us that notwithstanding he has no second in the universe of creatures, yet, in Himself, He exists in a wonderful manner, insomuch that His own eternal and perfect essence subsists, without division or separation, under three adorable distinctions, which are called sometimes ‘the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost;’ and sometimes ‘the Father, the Word, and the Spirit’? ‘Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus?’ or, Why dost Thou exist after such a manner?”
Fletcher then proceeds to describe the different opponents of his doctrine; namely,—
“Tritheists, who so unscripturally distinguish the Divine Persons as to divide and separate them into three deities; and who, by this means, run into polytheism, or the belief of many gods. Ditheists, generally called Arians, who worship two gods, a great god and a little god; the former uncreate, the latter created; the former God by nature, and the latter only by courtesy. Deists, who so unscripturally maintain the unity of the Divine essence as to admit but one Divine subsistence;” and who include Jews, Mahometans, Infidels, and Socinians.
Fletcher next undertakes to show and prove that God the Father has a proper Son, by whom He made the world; that our Lord Jesus Christ claimed the divine honour of being this Son; that He is the Redeemer and Saviour of lost mankind; that He is to be the final and universal Judge; and that divine worship was paid to Him by patriarchs, prophets, and Apostles, and is His undoubted right.
Fletcher’s second pamphlet, entitled “Socinianism Unscriptural,” consists of eight letters, addressed to Dr. Priestley, in which he shows that Socinians err when they assert that the prophets always spoke of the Messiah as of a mere man like themselves. He proves that our first parents expected a Divine Messiah, and that the Divine Person who appeared to the patriarchs, and to Moses, was Jehovah, the Son, or Christ in His pre-existent state; that the foundation of the proofs of Christ’s divinity, in the writings of the prophets, is laid in the three original prophecies (Gen. iii. 15, xxii. 16, etc., and xlix. 8–10), recorded by Moses concerning the Messiah; that all the prophets bear witness to His Godhead, as do also the Evangelists and Apostles.
This is a meagre outline of Fletcher’s exceedingly able pamphlet, but nothing more can be here attempted. Two brief extracts, however, may be added, illustrative of his style:—
“I have proved that the king of Israel who brought his people out of Egypt was Christ, in His pre-existent nature. Moses was the prime minister of this great King; Joshua, the general of His armies; the tabernacle, His palace; the mercy-seat, His throne; the ark, His royal standard; the priests, His officers; the Levites, His guards; and the shekinah, the visible display of His presence.”
“Read, dear Sir, the Scriptures without the veil of your system, and you will see that the Messiah, the wonderful Person whom you so constantly endeavour to degrade, was to be a mediating Prophet, like Moses; an atoning Priest, like Aaron; a pacific King, like Solomon; a royal Prophet, like David; a kingly Priest, like Melchisedec; the Everlasting Father, as the Logos by whom all things were created; and the Mighty God, as the proper Son of Him with whom He shares, in the unity of the Divine Spirit, the supreme title of ‘Jehovah, Lord of hosts.’”
It has been already shown in a letter which Fletcher addressed to Wesley in 1755, the year of his conversion, that he was what is commonly called a Millenarian. Twenty-nine years had elapsed since then. During this long interval, no man had been a more diligent and devout student of the Holy Scriptures than himself, and yet his Millenarian belief remained unchanged. Hence the following remarkable passage in his “Socinianism Unscriptural.” After quoting and paraphrasing Isa. lxvi. 15–24, Fletcher proceeds to say:—
“Here ends Isaiah’s account of that glorious reign of Jehovah-Shiloh, which the fathers called the ‘Millennium,’ as being to last a thousand years, and during which it is probable our Lord will use these extraordinary means to keep all the nations in the way of obedience:—1. A constant display of His goodness over all the earth, but particularly in and about Jerusalem, where the Lord will manifest His glory, and bless His happy subjects with new manifestations of His presence every Lord’s day and every new moon. 2. A distinguishing interposition of Providence which will withhold the Messiah’s wonted blessings from the disobedient (Zech. xiv. 17). 3. The constant endeavours of the saints, martyrs, patriarchs, prophets, and Apostles, raised from the dead and conversing with men, as Moses and Elijah did with our Lord’s disciples upon the mount, where they were indulged with a view of His glorified person, and of His ‘kingdom come with power.’ These glorified high priests and kings, as ministers and lieutenants of the Messiah, will rule all churches and states with unerring wisdom and unwarped fidelity. 4. The care that the Lord Himself will take to set apart for the ministry, under His glorified saints, those who in every nation shall distinguish themselves by their virtue and piety. This seems to be the meaning of His own words: ‘And when they shall come out of all nations to My holy mountain, I will take of them for priests and Levites, saith the Lord,’ Isaiah lxvi. 20, 21. 5. A standing display of the ministration of condemnation, as appears from Isaiah lxvi. 24, and from other parallel Scriptures. 6. At the same time that the ministration of condemnation will powerfully work upon the fears of mankind to keep men in the way of duty, an occasional display of the ministration of righteous mercy will work upon their hopes. How will those hopes be fired when they shall ‘see the Lamb’ of God ‘standing on the Mount Sion, and with Him’ His ‘hundred and forty-four thousand’ worthies, ‘having His Father’s name,’ Divine Majesty, Irresistible Power, Ineffable Love, and Bliss Inexpressible, ‘written on their foreheads!’ (Rev. xiv). But, 7. What will peculiarly tend to keep men from lapsing into rebellion against God will be the long life of the godly, and the untimely death of those who shall offer to tread the paths of iniquity. The godly shall attain to the years of antediluvian patriarchs, and the wicked shall not live out half their days; they shall not live above a hundred years; or, to speak after our manner, they shall die in their childhood. This seems to be Isaiah’s meaning in Isaiah lxv. 17–25.”
Leaving it to others to advocate or to attack these interpretations of Scripture, the present writer will only add, that thus full of firm unwavering faith in the Divine majesty and glorious kingship of his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the devout and reverent Fletcher drew near to the mysterious spirit-world.
In harmony with all this, Fletcher wrote to his friend, Mr. Henry Brooke, of Dublin, as follows:—
“My Dear Brother,—Mercy, peace, and perfect love attend you, and your dear partner, and the dear friends who live under your roof; and with whom I beg you may abide under the cross, till, with John, Mary, and Salome, you all can say, ‘We are crucified with Him, and the life we now live, we live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave Himself for us.’
“With respect to the glory of the Lord, it is at hand; whatever false wisdom and unbelief may whisper to our hearts. It can be no farther off than the presence of Him, who fills all in all.
“With respect to what you say of the kingdom not coming with the outward pomp, which is observable by the men of the world, it is strictly true; but that there is an inward display of power and glory under Pentecostal Christianity is undeniable, both from our Lord’s promises to His imperfect disciples, and from their experiences after the kingdom of God was come to them with power. To wait in deep resignation, and with a constant attention to what the Lord will please to do or say concerning us and His Church; and to leave to Him the times and seasons, is what I am chiefly called to do; taking care to avoid falling into either speculation careless of action, or into the activity which is devoid of spirituality. I would not have a lamp without oil; and I could not have oil without a lamp, and a vessel to hold it in for myself, and to communicate it to others.
On the day that Fletcher penned the foregoing, his wife wrote as follows to Mrs. Smyth, their hostess in Dublin. The letter, however, was signed, “John and Mary Fletcher,” and has not before been published. It furnishes a glimpse of the Madeley Methodists:—
“My Very Dear Madam,—If anything I said in my last was attended with a blessing, I give glory to my adorable Father. I am ready to wonder that He ever works by so poor a worm.
“I wish you had been with us yesterday morning, in our upper chamber, to hear the simple tales of our dear women. Do you remember a little woman, who sat in the window of the room when you met the class, and who expressed great desire for more of the life of God? It was she who lived on horse-beans so many weeks, while suckling twins, for fear of running into debt for bread. She has, since then, been greatly exercised by poverty, temptation, and illness; but, in all, her desire for the pure image of God seemed to rise above every other wish; and, about a fortnight ago, the Lord poured out upon her such an abundance of His Spirit, that nature almost sank beneath it. She told us yesterday, that every moment she seems to be so surrounded with God, and so penetrated with His love, that, said she, ‘I cannot help, many times in the day, stopping in the midst of my work, when alone, to shout aloud, Glory! Glory! Glory! My very heart is glad. Yes, my heart is so glad, I could shout from morning till night; but, oh! I can think of no words to tell what I see and feel of Jesus. I can choose nothing: I know no will—no choice: the will of God is my all.’ Had you heard her speak, and also two others who have just found the Lord, you would have wept tears of love and joy.
“Our love to Dr. Coke; and thank him for his two letters, which we have received.
“Begging our tender regards to all our dear Christian friends, we remain, with kindest remembrance and grateful acknowledgment to our dear Mr. and Mrs. Smyth, their sincere though unworthy friends,
The next is a letter which, I believe, has not before been published. It was addressed to a sister of Lady Mary Fitzgerald, and is full of faith in Christ:—
“Christ Jesus is alone the desirable, the everlasting distinction and honour of men. All other advantages are like the down on the thistle, blown away in a moment. Riches are incapable of satisfying; friends are changeable; dear relations are taken away with a stroke; but, amid all the changes of life, Christ is a Rock. To see Him by faith, to lay hold on Him, to rely on Him, to live upon Him, this—this is the refuge from the storm, the shadow from the heat.
“In order that you may obtain it, nothing more or less is required, on your part, than a full and frequent confession of your own abominable heart; and kneeling, as a true beggar, at the door of mercy, declaring you come there only expecting notice and relief because God our Saviour came to redeem incarnate devils and to convert them into saints.
“I think you take a sure method to perplex yourself if you look at yourself for proof of faith. Others must see it in your works; but you must feel it in your heart. The glory of Jesus is, by faith, realized to the mind in some such manner as an infinitely grand and beauteous object in the firmament of heaven arrests the spectator on itself. It captivates him; and, by the pleasure it imparts, he is led on to view it. So it is with Jesus, our peace, strength, righteousness, salvation.
“For my own part, I am often tempted to suspect whether I am not speaking great swelling words of Christ, and yet am myself nothing more than sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal; and I find that the only successful way of answering this doubt is an immediate address to Jesus Christ, and prayer to Him, to this effect: ‘Whosoever cometh unto Thee, Thou wilt in no wise cast out. Lord, have I not come unto Thee? Am I not depending on Thee for life, as a brand plucked out of the fire? See if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!’
“My eyes look to the blessed Jesus; my heart longs to be more in His service; I mourn my corruptions; they are many and great. When I look at Him, and contemplate His finished salvation, I admire, I adore, in some measure I love. When I look at myself, my heart rises at the sight,—black and selfish, proud and carnal, covetous and unclean. I want all things that are good; but, oh! I have a blessed Lord Christ, in whom all fulness dwells for me, and for my dear friend to whom I am writing,—a fulness of pardon, wisdom, holiness, strength, peace, salvation, righteousness,—a fulness of mercy, goodness, truth,—all this, and ten thousand times more, without condition, without qualification, without workings, without servings, only for receiving. O blessed free grace of God! What a gift! And for whom? My dear friend, for you. What says the everlasting God? ‘Believe He gave His Son for sinners.’ Can God lie? Impossible! Can we have a better foundation to build upon than the promise and the oath of God?
“My very dear friend, I know you will not be angry at my preachment. I aim all I say at my own heart. I stand more in need of it than you; and I always feel my heart refreshed when I am talking or thinking of the blessed Jesus. But oh! how little I know of Him! O Thou light of the world, enlighten me! Teach me to know more of Thy infinite, unsearchable riches, that I may love Thee with an increasing love, and serve Thee with an increasing zeal till Thou bring me to glory!”
Gratitude was one of Fletcher’s characteristics. Hence, when the son of his dead friend, Mr. Charles Greenwood, of Stoke Newington, visited him at Madeley, he wrote to the loving widow:—
“Madeley, June 20, 1784. The sight of Mr. Greenwood, in his son, has brought some of my Newington scenes to my remembrance, and I beg leave to convey my tribute of thanks by his hands. Thanks! Thanks! What, nothing but words? There is my humbling case. I wish to requite your manifold kindnesses, but I cannot. I must be satisfied to be ever your insolvent debtor. Nature and grace do not love it. Proud nature lies uneasy under great obligations; and thankful grace would be glad to put something in the scale opposite to that which you have filled with so many favours. But what shall I put? I wish I could send you all the Bank of England, and all the Gospel of Christ; but the first is not mine, and the second is already yours.”[603]
Wesley’s annual Conference, in 1784, was held at Leeds. He writes, in his Journal:—
“1784, Tuesday, July 27. Our Conference began; at which four of our brethren, after long debate (in which Mr. Fletcher[604] took much pains), acknowledged their fault, and all that was past was forgotten. Thursday, July 29, being the public Thanksgiving Day, as there was not room for us in the old church, I read prayers, as well as preached, at our Room. I admired the whole service for the day. The prayers, Scriptures, and every part of it, pointed at one thing: ‘Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.’ Having five clergymen to assist me, we administered the Lord’s Supper, as was supposed, to sixteen or seventeen hundred persons. Sunday, August 1. We were fifteen clergymen at the old church. Tuesday, August 3. Our Conference concluded in much love, to the great disappointment of all.”
Such is Wesley’s brief account of one of the most important Conferences he ever held, and the last which Fletcher had the opportunity of attending. During the year, Dr. Coke had begun the Methodist Foreign Missionary Society; and Wesley had signed and sealed his famous “Deed of Declaration,” constituting, for all time to come, the Legal Conference of the Methodists, and defining the powers and duties of its members. Charles Atmore, who was present, relates,[605] that, on the Sunday evening before the Conference opened, the congregation, assembled to hear Wesley, was four times greater than the chapel could contain, and, therefore, Wesley “preached in a field adjoining, on the judgment of the great day.” On Monday morning, Fletcher “preached an excellent sermon from Matt. v. 13–16, ‘Ye are the salt of the earth,’” etc. At night, Wesley took for his text, “Give the king Thy judgments, O God, and Thy righteousness unto the king’s son.” On Tuesday morning, at five o’clock, Henry Moore delivered a sermon founded upon “Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.” At the conclusion of the service, Wesley “opened the Conference;” and, in the evening of the day, preached from, “Even the very hairs of your head are all numbered,” etc. Next morning, July 28, at five o’clock, the text of Thomas Taylor was, “What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.” At night, Wesley preached from, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” Thursday, July 29, “was a high day indeed.” At five a.m. Thomas Hanby discoursed on “My grace is sufficient for thee,” etc. In the forenoon, Wesley expounded and enforced 1 Cor. xiii. 1–4, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity,” etc. Then followed the sacramental service, in which Wesley was assisted by Fletcher, Coke, Cornelius Bayley, who had been Fletcher’s curate, Mr. Dillon, an ordained clergyman from Ireland, and the well-known David Simpson, of Macclesfield, the services of the day being concluded with another sermon from Wesley, on the text, “This is the first and great commandment.” At five a.m. on Friday, July 30, Joseph Pilmoor preached from “I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved”moved”; and, at night, Fletcher, from, “These all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.”[606] At seven o’clock on Sunday morning, August 1, Fletcher preached again, taking as his text 1 Kings xiii. 26, selected from the first lesson for the day: “It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the Lord: therefore the Lord hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake unto him.” Joseph Benson, who was present, writes:—
“Mr. Fletcher drew such a picture of the degradation and misery of a backsliding minister, and of the corruption and injury he introduced into the Church of Christ, as produced a general and deep sensation, not easily to be forgotten.”
And Henry Moore, another of Fletcher’s auditors, remarks:—
“I was extremely impressed with the whole service: the shadow of the Divine presence was seen among us, and His going forth was in our sanctuary.”
Next morning, Mr. Moore himself had to preach. He writes:—
“I went to the chapel at the hour appointed, and, to my dismay, found the venerable Mr. Fletcher in the pulpit, leaning upon his staff. My first impression was to run away; but a moment’s reflection changed my purpose. I ascended the pulpit and gave out the hymn; while I did so, my knees smote one against the other: I knelt down to pray, and indeed lifted my heart with my voice, that I might be endued with power and wisdom from on high: my soul was calmed, and I took my text, and continued the service, fully set free from fear, and strengthened in my resolution ever to obey the voice of duty.”[607]
At five o’clock on the following morning, Wesley, eighty-one years of age, again preached, selecting a text admirably adapted to be a sequel to that chosen by Fletcher on the previous Sunday; and also peculiarly suited to what had taken place in the Conference: “And Jeremiah said unto the house of the Rechabites, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because ye have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according unto all that he hath commanded you; therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever” (Jer. xxxv. 18, 19). The Conference was concluded on Tuesday, August 3; and next morning, at five o’clock, Wesley delivered another sermon, and immediately afterwards took the coach for Wales. His last text, at this remarkable Conference, was, “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.”[608]
A purpose is intended to be served by these minute statements, namely, to convey an idea of what Methodist Conferences were in the olden times, and to indicate the chief preachers, and the kind of texts they took.
It is a well-known fact that the great event of the Conference of 1784 was the rebellion raised in Wesley’s camp of preachers. In his “Deed of Declaration,” he had appointed his brother Charles, Dr. Coke, James Creighton, and ninety-seven of his itinerants to be, after his decease, his legalized successors, and to exercise the powers he had exercised from the beginning. By confining the number of the members of the legal Conference to a hundred, he necessarily excluded not fewer than ninety-two, whom he had employed in circuit work; and, among these, there were several who had claims quite equal to many of the elected ones, as, to wit, Thomas Lee, John Atlay, John Pritchard, John Pool, John Hampson, sen., John Hampson, jun., William Eells, and Joseph Pillmoor. Previous to the Conference being held, certain of the non-elected preachers published a protest against Wesley’s partiality. The crisis was a serious one. Fletcher was not included in the hundred, probably because he desired to be left out; but he was intensely anxious respecting apprehended results. Mrs. Fletcher wrote:—
“O how deeply was he affected for the welfare of his brethren, when we were at Leeds, in the year 1784! When disputes arose among them, his soul groaned beneath the burden. By two or three o’clock in the morning, I was sure to hear him breathing out prayers for the peace and prosperity of Sion; and when I said to him, I was afraid this would hurt his health, and that I wished him to sleep more, he would answer, ‘O Polly, the cause of God lies near my heart.’”
At the opening of the Conference, on July 27, Wesley mentioned the “Deed of Declaration,” and the “Appeal” which had been published against it:—
“He showed that, from the commencement of Methodism, the annual Conferences had always consisted of persons whom he had desired to meet for the purpose of conferring with him. He insisted, that he had a right to name the members of the Legal Conference, and to fix their number. The ‘Appeal,’” he said, “represented him as unjust, oppressive, and tyrannical, which he was not; the authors of it had betrayed him; and, by doing so, had hurt the minds of many, and kindled a flame throughout the kingdom. Hence, he required that they should acknowledge their fault, and be sorry for it, or he could have no further connection with them.”[609]
For seven days, the dispute remained unsettled. Fletcher acted as mediator.
“Never,” says Charles Atmore, “shall I forget the ardour and earnestness with which Mr. Fletcher expostulated, even on his knees, both with Mr. Wesley and the preachers. To the former, he said, ‘My father! my father! they have offended, but they are your children!’ To the latterlatter, he exclaimed, ‘My brethren! my brethren! he is your father!’ and then, portraying the work in which they were unitedly engaged, he fell again on his knees, and with fervour and devotion engaged in prayer. The Conference was bathed in tears; many sobbed aloud.”[610]
This appears to have been on the last day but one that the Conference sat. Hence Joseph Benson writes:—
“August 2. Our brethren, who had been concerned in the ‘Appeal,’ rejoiced our hearts, by acknowledging their fault, and making submission. In consequence of their doing so, they were admitted among their brethren, and appointed to Circuits.”[611]
It may be added, that, the principal appellants—John Hampson, sen., and John Hampson, jun., Joseph Pillmoor, John Atlay, and William EellsEells—soon afterwards left the Connexion.
Two other incidents, concerning the Conference, must be mentioned.
It is a well-known fact, that, one of the most important questions asked at Wesley’s Conferences was, “Are there any objections to any of our preachers?” Upon the question being put, the names of all (Wesley’s name included), were read seriatim. When this part of the business of the Conference, in 1784, was reached, Fletcher rose from his seat, to withdraw from the chapel.
“He was eagerly recalled, and asked why he would leave them? ‘Because,’ said he, ‘it is improper, and painful to my feelings, for me to hear the minute failings of my brethren canvassed, unless my own character be submitted to the same scrutiny.’ They promised, if he would stay, that his character should be investigated. On these terms, he consented to remain; and, when his name was read, an aged preacher rose, bowed to him, and said, ‘I have but one thing to object to Mr. Fletcher; God has given him a richer talent than his humility will suffer him duly to appreciate. In confining himself to Madeley, he puts his light, comparatively, under a bushel; whereas, if he would come out more among us, he would draw immense congregations, and would do much more good.’ In answer to this, Mr. Fletcher stated the tender and sacred ties which bound him to his parish; its numerous population; the daily calls for his services; the difficulty of finding a proper substitute; his increasing infirmities, which disqualified him for horse exercise; his unwillingness to leave Mrs. Fletcher at home; and the expense of travelling in carriages. In reply to his last argument, another preacher arose, and observed that the expense of his journeys would be cheerfully paid; and that, though he knew and highly approved Mr. Fletcher’s disinterestedness and delicacy in pecuniary transactions, yet he feared there was a mixture of pride in his objection; for that by no importunity could he be prevailed on to accept a present to defray his expenses on his late visit to Ireland. ‘A little explanation,’ replied Mr. Fletcher, ‘will set that matter right. When I was invited to visit my friends at Dublin, I had every desire to accept their invitation; but I wanted money for the journey, and knew not how to obtain it. In this situation, I laid the matter before the Lord, humbly requesting that, if the journey were a providential opening to do good, I might have the means of performing it. Shortly afterwards, I received an unexpected sum of money, and took my journey. While in Dublin, I heard our friends commiserating the distresses of the poor, and lamenting the inadequate means they had to relieve them. When, therefore, they offered me a handsome present, what could I do? The necessary expenses of my journey had already been supplied; my general income was quite sufficient; I needed nothing. Had I received the money, I should have given it away. The poor of Dublin most needed, and were most worthy of, the money of their generous countrymen. How then could I hesitate to beg that it might be applied to their relief? You see, brethren, I could not in conscience do otherwise than I did.’”[612]
After these explanations, the honest old Methodist preachers, of course, recorded no objection to the “character” of John Fletcher; but Wesley, nearly a year afterwards, wrote to his brother Charles:—