“John Fletcher.”[[194]]
This episode respecting Walter Sellon is not irrelevant, and is of considerable importance, inasmuch as it relates, in part, to the rise of the great Calvinian controversy of the last century, in which Fletcher became one of the chief actors. Sellon’s book, in favour of the doctrine of “General Redemption,” was the first published by Wesley’s adherents, and is exceedingly able; but this is not the place to analyse and give an account of it.
Seventeen years had elapsed since Fletcher left his father’s house in Switzerland. He had now decided to pay a visit to the place of his nativity, and to travel as far as the south of France with his generous friend, Mr. Ireland, of Brislington, Bristol. The following letter to Mr. Ireland refers to this contemplated visit, and to another matter, which must be noticed:—
“Madeley, December 30, 1769.
“My Dear Friend,—Last night, I received your obliging letter, and am ready to accompany you to Montpelier, provided you will go with me to Nyon. I shall raise about twenty guineas, and, with that sum, a gracious Providence, and your purse, I hope we shall want for nothing. If the Lord sends me, I should want nothing, though I had nothing, and though my fellow-traveller were no richer than myself.
“I hope to be at Bristol soon, to offer you my services to pack up. You desired to have a Swiss servant, and I offer myself to you in that capacity; for I shall be no more ashamed of serving you, as far as I am capable of doing, than I am of wearing your livery.
“Two reasons (to say nothing of the pleasure of your company) engage me to go with you to Montpelier,—a desire to visit some poor Huguenots in the south of France, and the need I have to recover a little French before I go to converse with my compatriots.
“The priest at Madeley is going to open his mass-house, and I declared war on that account last Sunday, and propose to strip the whore of Babylon and expose her nakedness to-morrow. All the papists are in a great ferment, and have held meetings to consult on the occasion. One of their bloody bullies came ‘to pick up a quarrel’ with me, as he said, and what would have been the consequence had I not had company with me I know not. How far more rage may be kindled to-morrow I don’t know; but I question whether it will be right for me to leave the field in these circumstances. I forgot to mention that two of our poor ignorant Churchmen are about to join the mass-house, which also is the cause of my having taken up arms.”[[195]]
Fletcher preached his anti-popery sermon as he intended, taking as his text 1 Tim. iv. 1–3: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that, in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.” An outline of the sermon may be found in Fletcher’s Collected Works, vol. vii., p. 490. As the people were leaving the church, a man, who acted as the spokesman of the papists present, cried, “There was not a word of truth in the whole sermon;” and then, turning to Fletcher, assured him that he would shortly produce a gentleman who would refute all that he had said. The threat was not fulfilled;[[196]] and Benson, in his “Life of Fletcher,” first published in 1804, remarks:—
“By Mr. Fletcher’s bold and prudent stand the designs of the papists were in a great measure frustrated, and they were prevented making any progress worth mentioning in Madeley. It is true there is even now a mass-house and a priest at Madeley, but I find, upon inquiry, there are not a dozen Popish families in the parish.”