“My kind Christian love to Mrs. Vaughan. Tell her I am filled with joy in thinking that, though we no more serve the same earthly master,[[284]] yet we still serve the same heavenly one; who will, ere long, admit us to sit with Abraham himself, if we hold fast our confidence to the end.
“Beware of the world. If you have losses, be not cast down, nor root in the earth with more might and main to repair them. If prosperity smiles upon you, you are in double danger. Think, my friend, that earthly prosperity is like a coloured cloud, which passes away and is soon lost in the shades of night and death. Beware of hurry. Martha, Martha, one thing is needful! Choose it, stand to your choice, and the good part shall not be taken from you by sickness or death. God bless you and yours with all that makes for His glory and your peace.
“I am, my dear friend, yours, etc.,
“J. Fletcher.”[[285]]
The following extracts are taken from a letter addressed to James Ireland, Esq., of Brislington, who had suggested to Fletcher the expediency of publishing in the French language his “Appeal to Matter of Fact and Common Sense.”
“Madeley, September 21, 1773.
“My Very Dear Friend,—I have considered what you say about the translation of my ‘Appeal;’ and I think I might do it some day; nay, I tried to turn a paragraph or two the day after I received your letter, but found it would be a difficult, if not an impossible work for me. I am sure I could not do it abroad. On a journey, I am just like a cask of wine—I am good for nothing till I have some time to settle.
“What you say about Mr. Wesley adds weight to your kind arguments. My spiritual circumstances are what I must look at. I tremble lest outward things should hurt me. The multiplicity of objects and avocations, which attend travelling, is not suited to my case. I think, all things considered, I should sin against my conscience in going, unless I had a call from necessity, or from clearer providences.
“My last ‘Check’ will be as much in behalf of free grace as of holiness; so I hope, upon that plan, all the candid and moderate will be able to shake hands. It will be of a reconciling nature; and I call it an ‘Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism.’
“I see life so short, and time passes away with such rapidity, that I should be very glad to spend it in solemn prayer; but it is necessary that a man should have some exterior occupation. The chief thing is to employ ourselves profitably. My throat is not formed for the labours of preaching. When I have preached three or four times together, it inflames and fills up; and the efforts, which I am then obliged to make, heat my blood. Thus, I am, by nature, as well as by the circumstances I am in, obliged to employ my time in writing a little. O that I may be enabled to do it to the glory of God!