CHAPTER XIX.
CORRESPONDENCE IN 1776.
FLETCHER’S health was failing; and no wonder. Wesley writes:—
“He was more and more abundant in his ministerial labours, both in public and private; not contenting himself with preaching, but visiting his flock in every corner of his parish. And this work he attended to early and late, whether the weather was fair or foul; regarding neither heat nor cold, rain nor snow, whether he was on horseback or on foot. But this further weakened his constitution; which was still more effectually done by his intense and uninterrupted studies, in which he frequently continued, without scarce any intermission, fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen hours a day. But still he did not allow himself such food as was necessary to sustain nature. He seldom took any regular meals except he had company; otherwise, twice or thrice in four-and-twenty hours he ate some bread and cheese, or fruit. Instead of this, he sometimes took a draught of milk, and then wrote on again. When one reproved him for not affording himself a sufficiency of necessary food, he replied, ‘Not allow myself food! Why our food seldom costs my housekeeper and me less than two shillings a week.’[week.’]”[[353]]
During the Calvinian controversy, Fletcher’s letters to his friends seem to have been comparatively few. At all events, few have been preserved. Now he resumed his epistolary correspondence; and the present chapter will mainly consist of these outpourings of his heart to those whom he dearly loved.
In a letter, dated January 9, 1776, and published in the “Life and Times of Wesley,” Fletcher refers to a renewed proposal to become Wesley’s successor. To prepare him for this, Wesley requested that he would accompany him in his evangelistic tours, so that he might be commended to the Methodist Societies they visited. Fletcher replied that he was willing to accompany Wesley as a travelling assistant; but he strongly objected to being nominated Wesley’s successor. Besides other reasons, which he adduced, he remarked, that such a nomination would lead people to suspect, and say, that what he had written, “for truth and conscience’ sake,” in defence of Wesley’s doctrines, had all been done for the purpose of becoming, what Toplady had called, “the Bishop of Moorfields.” There is no need to quote this letter at full length; but it is an important one, as showing that the proposal which Wesley had made to Fletcher, three years before, was not a passing whim, but a fixed idea, on the realization of which he had set his heart.[[354]]
It may be added, that Fletcher, in the same letter, informs Wesley, that, by the last post, he had sent him a manuscript, entitled, “A Second Check to Civil Antinomianism;” being an extract from the Church of England Homily on Rebellion; and he expresses the opinion that it might be well to print and circulate it, not only for the general good, but, also, “to shame Mr. Roquet,” one of the first masters of Wesley’s school, at Kingswood, but now a clergyman of the Church of England, who, in the controversy respecting the American rebellion, had turned against his old friend Wesley, and had rendered assistance to Wesley’s dissenting opponent, Caleb Evans. Wesley seems to have had more regard for Mr. Roquet’s reputation, than even gentle-minded Fletcher had, for Fletcher’s manuscript was not published.
Fletcher refused to be commended as Wesley’s successor; but he evidently thought of travelling. Hence, in a letter to his friend James Ireland, Esq., he wrote:—
“Madeley, February 3, 1776. Upon the news of your illness, I and many more prayed that you might be supported under your pressures, and that they might yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. We shall now turn our prayers into praises for your happy recovery, and for the support the Lord has granted you under your trial. There are lessons which we can never learn but under the cross: we must suffer with Christ if we will be glorified with Him. I hope you will take care that it may not be said of you, as it was of Hezekiah, ‘He rendered not unto the Lord, according to the benefit’ of his recovery. May we see the propriety and profit of rendering Him our bodies and our souls,—the sacrifices of humble, praising, obedient love,—and warm, active, cheerful thanksgiving!
“A young clergyman offers to assist me: if he does, I may make an excursion somewhere this spring; where it will be, I don’t know. It may be into eternity, for I dare not depend upon to-morrow; but should it be your way, I shall inform you of a variety of family trials, which the Lord has sent me—all for good, to break my will in every possible respect.”[[355]]
In reference to this excursion, Wesley writes:—