“I am very far from recanting that old discourse. I still think the doctrine it contains excellent, in the main, and very proper to be enforced, though in a more guarded manner, in a congregation of hearers violently prejudiced against the first gospel axiom.[[307]] Therefore, out of regard for the grand, leading truth of Christianity, and in compliance with Mr. Hill’s earnest entreaty (‘Finishing Stroke,’ p. 45), I send my sermon into the world upon the following reasonable conditions: 1. That I shall be allowed to publish it, as I preached it a year ago in my church, namely, with additions in brackets, to make it at once a fuller Check to Pharisaism, and a finishing Check to Antinomianism. 2. That the largest addition shall be in favour of free grace. 3. That nobody shall accuse me of forgery, for thus adding my present light to that which I had formerly; and for thus bringing out of my little treasure of experience things new and old. 4. That the press shall not groan with the charge of disingenuity, if I throw into Notes some unguarded expressions, which I formerly used without scruple, and which my more enlightened conscience does not suffer me to use at present. 5. That my opponent’s call to print my sermon will procure me the pardon of the public, for presenting them with a plain, blunt, discourse, composed for an audience chiefly made up of colliers and rustics. And, lastly, that, as I understand English a little better than I did twelve years ago, I shall be permitted to rectify a few French idioms, which I find in my old manuscript; and to connect my thoughts a little more like an Englishman, where I can do it without the least misrepresentation of the sense.
“III. With regard to the ‘Scriptural Essay’ upon the rewardableness or evangelical worthiness of works, I shall just observe that it attacks the grand mistake of Solifidians countenanced by three or four words of my old sermon. I pour a flood of Scriptures upon it; and, after receiving the fire of my objector, I return it in a variety of scriptural and rational answers, about the solidity of which the public must decide.
“IV. The ‘Essay on Truth’ will, I hope, reconcile judicious moralists to the doctrine of salvation by faith, and considerate Solifidians to the doctrine of salvation by the works of faith; reason and Scripture concurring to show the constant dependence of works upon faith; and the wonderful agreement of the doctrine of present salvation by TRUE faith, with the doctrine of eternal salvation by GOOD works.
“I hope that I do not dissent, in my observations upon faith, either from our Church, or approved Gospel ministers. In their highest definitions of that grace, they consider it only according to the fulness of the Christian dispensation; but my subject has obliged me to consider it also according to the dispensations of John the Baptist, Moses, and Noah. Believers under these inferior dispensations have not always assurance, nor is the assurance they sometimes have so bright as that of adult Christians, Matt. xi. 11. But, undoubtedly, assurance is inseparably connected with the faith of the Christian dispensation, which was not fully opened till Christ opened His glorious baptism on the Day of Pentecost, and till His spiritual kingdom was set up with power in the hearts of His people. Nobody, therefore, can truly believe, according to this dispensation, without being immediately conscious both of the forgiveness of sins, and of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. This is a most important truth, derided indeed by fallen Churchmen, and denied by Laodicean Dissenters; but, of late years gloriously revived by Mr. Wesley and the Ministers connected with him.”
From these extracts, the reader may gather the difficult and important doctrines discussed by Fletcher in his book of pamphlets. In a work like this it is impossible to follow him in his careful statements of truth, in the arguments by which he proves them, and in his answers to objections raised against them; but a few remarks respecting some of these publications must be attempted.
In a prelude to his sermon first delivered in 1762, and now amended, Fletcher gives a doleful picture of what he himself had witnessed during the interval. He says:—
“The substance of the following Discourse was committed to paper many years ago, to convince the Pharisees and papists of my parish that there is no salvation by the faithless works of the law, but by a living faith in Jesus Christ. With shame I confess that I did not then see the need of guarding the doctrine of faith against the despisers of works. I was chiefly bent upon pulling up the tares of Pharisaism: those of Antinomianism were not yet sprung up in the field, which I began to cultivate: or my want of experience hindered me from discerning them. But since, what a crop of them have I perceived and bewailed!
“Alas! they have, in a great degree, ruined the success of my ministry. I have seen numbers of lazy seekers, enjoying the dull pleasure of sloth on the couch of wilful unbelief, under pretence that God was to do all in them without them. I have seen some lie flat in the mire of sin, absurdly boasting that they could not fall; and others make the means of grace means of idle gossiping or sly courtship. I have seen some turn their religious profession into a way of gratifying covetousness or indolence; and others, their skill in church music, their knowledge, and their zeal, into various nets to catch esteem, admiration, and praise. Some I have seen making yesterday’s faith a reason to laugh at the cross to-day; and others drawing, from their misapprehensions of the atonement, arguments to be less importunate in secret prayer, and more conformable to this evil world than once they were. Nay, I have seen some professing believers backward to do those works of mercy, which I have sometimes found persons, who made no profession of godliness, quite ready to perform. And—oh! tell it in Sion, that watchfulness may not be neglected by believers, that fearfulness may seize upon backsliders, and that trembling may break the bones of hypocrites and apostates—I have seen those who had equally shined by their gifts and graces strike the moral world with horror by the grossest Antinomianism, and disgrace the doctrine of salvation through faith by the deepest plunges into scandalous sins.”
As already stated, Fletcher’s “Essay on Truth; or, Rational Vindication of the Doctrine of Salvation by Faith,” was dedicated to his quondam friend and patroness, the Countess of Huntingdon, who again desired his friendship, his counsel, and his prayers. In his “Dedicatory Epistle” he says:—
“My Lady,—Because I think it my duty to defend the works of faith against the triumphant errors of the Solifidians, some of your ladyship’s friends conclude that I am an enemy to the doctrine of salvation by faith, and their conclusion amounts to such exclamations as these: ‘How could a lady, so zealous for God’s glory and the Redeemer’s grace, commit the superintendency of a seminary of pious learning to a man that opposes the fundamental doctrine of Protestantism! How could she put her sheep under the care of such a wolf in sheep’s clothing!’ This conclusion, my lady, has grieved me for your sake; and, to remove the blot that it indirectly fixes upon you, as well as to balance my ‘Scriptural Essay on the Rewardableness’ of the works of faith, I publish, and humbly dedicate to your ladyship, this last piece of my ’Equal Check to Pharisaism and Antinomianism.’ May the kindness which enabled you to bear for years with the coarseness of my ministrations incline you favourably to receive this little token of my unfeigned attachment to Protestantism, and of my lasting respect for your ladyship!