At the same period of time, Fletcher wrote to Joseph Benson, giving him an account of the state of his health and of his literary projects.
“My Very Dear Brother,—Your kind letter has followed me from Bristol to Madeley, where I have been for some weeks. My health is better than it was in August, but it is far from being established. Close thinking and writing had brought upon me a slow fever, with a cough and spitting of blood, which a physician took for symptoms of a consumption of the lungs; whereas they were only symptoms of a consumption of the nerves and solids. He put me accordingly upon the lowest diet, and had me blooded four times, which made much against me. I am, however, greatly recovered since I have begun to eat meat again. My cough and spitting of blood have left me, but want of sleep and a slow fever keep me still very low. If the Lord pleases, He can in a moment restore my strength; but He needs not a worm. I thank Him for having kept me perfectly resigned to His will, and calm in the awful scene which I have passed through.
“I design to conclude my last controversial piece as I shall be able, and hope it will give my friends some satisfaction; because it will show the cause of all our doctrinal errors, and will place the doctrine of election and reprobation upon its proper basis. I finish also my essay on the ‘Dispensation of the Spirit,’[[378]] which is the thing I want most to see your thoughts upon. Pray for light and power, truth and love; and impart to me a share of your experiences, to quicken my dulness of apprehension and feeling. If God spare me a little, it will be to bear my testimony to the doctrine of perfect spiritual Christianity. May we be personal witnesses of this glorious dispensation, and be so inflamed with love as to kindle all around us.
“Give my kind love and thanks to all enquiring friends. If I live over the winter, I shall, should Providence open the way, visit you all” [at Newcastle-on-Tyne], “and assure you that I am in Christ your affectionate brother and servant.”[[379]]
Three weeks after the date of these letters, poor Fletcher’s hope of recovery was terribly shaken. On October 5, 1776, his disorder unexpectedly and violently returned, and his friends around him thought he was about to die. Some one, perhaps his curate, Mr. Greaves, immediately improvised a beautiful hymn, which was sung, by a distressed congregation, in Madeley church, on the following day, Friday, October 6. The hymn is too full of affection and piety to be omitted. It was as follows:—
“O Thou, before whose gracious throne
We bow our suppliant spirits down,
View the sad breast and streaming eye,
And let our sorrows pierce the sky.
“Thou know’st the anxious cares we feel,