On his return from St. Neots, on December 16, Fletcher took up his residence in the house of this worthy man. Wesley disapproved of this, and wrote:—
“I verily believe, if Mr. Fletcher had travelled with me, partly in the chaise, and partly on horseback, only a few months longer, he would quite have recovered his health. But this those about him would not permit: so being detained in London by his kind but injudicious friends, while I pursued my journeys, his spitting of blood, with all the other symptoms, returned, and rapidly increased, till the physicians pronounced him to be far advanced in a true, pulmonary consumption.”[[388]]
Fletcher continued to reside with Mr. Greenwood till about the beginning of the month of May, 1777; but, before proceeding to that year, extracts must be given from a remarkable letter, which he wrote “to the parishioners of Madeley.” This was one of his last efforts in the year 1776:—
“Newington, December 28, 1776.
“My Dear Parishioners,—I hoped to have spent the Christmas holidays with you, and to have ministered to you in holy things; but the weakness of my body confining me here, I humbly submit to the Divine dispensation. I ease the trouble of my absence by reflecting on the pleasure I have felt, in years past, while singing with you, ‘Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given.’ This truth is as true now as it was then. Let us receive it with all readiness, and it will unite us.
“In order to this, may the eye of your understanding be more and more opened to see your need of a Redeemer; and to behold the suitableness, freeness, and fulness of the redemption, which was wrought out by the Son of God, and which is applied by the Spirit through faith! The wish which glows in my soul is so ardent and powerful, that it brings me down on my knees, while I write, and, in that supplicating posture, I entreat you all to consider and improve the day of your visitation, and to prepare, in good earnest, to meet, with joy, your God and your unworthy pastor in another world. I beseech you, by all the ministerial and providential calls you have had for these seventeen years, harden not your hearts. Let the longsuffering of God towards us, who survive the hundreds I have buried, lead us all to repentance. Dismiss your sins, and embrace Jesus Christ, who wept for you in the manger, bled for you in Gethsemane, hung for you on the cross, and now pleads for you on His mediatorial throne. By all that is dear to you, meet me not on the great day in your sins, enemies to Christ by unbelief, and to God by wicked works.
“The sum of all I have preached to you is contained in four propositions. First, heartily repent of your sins, original and actual. Secondly, believe the Gospel of Christ in sincerity and truth. Thirdly, in the power which true faith gives, run the way of God’s commandments before God and men. Fourthly, by continuing to take up your cross, and to receive the pure milk of God’s word, grow in grace, and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
“Should God bid me stay on earth a little longer, and should He renew my strength to do among you the work of a pastor, I hope I shall prove a more humble, zealous, and diligent minister than I have hitherto been. Some of you have supposed that I made more ado about eternity and your precious souls than they were worth; but how great was your mistake. Alas! it is my grief and shame that I have not been, both in public and private, a thousand times more earnest and importunate with you about your spiritual concerns. Pardon me, my dear friends,—pardon me my ignorances and negligences in this respect. And as I most humbly ask your forgiveness, so I most heartily forgive any of you, who may, at any time, have made no account of my little labours.
“The more nearly I consider death and the grave, judgment and eternity, the more I feel that I have preached to you the truth, and that the truth is solid as the rock of ages. Although I hope to see much more of the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living than I do see, yet, blessed be the Divine mercy! I see enough to keep my mind at all times unruffled, and to make me willing calmly to resign my soul into the hands of my faithful Creator, my loving Redeemer, and my sanctifying Comforter, this moment, or the next, if He calls for it. I desire your public thanks for all the favours He showeth me continually, with respect to both my soul and body. Help me to be thankful; for it is a pleasant thing to be thankful. Permit me also to bespeak an interest in your prayers. Ask that my faith may be willing to receive all that God’s grace is willing to bestow. Ask that I may meekly suffer, and zealously do all the will of God; and that, living or dying, I may say, with the witness of God’s Spirit, ‘For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.’
“If God calls me from earth, I beg He may appoint a more faithful shepherd over you. You need not fear that He will not: you see that, for these many months, you have not only had no famine of the word, but the richest plenty; and what God has done for months, He can do for years; yea, for all the years of your life. Only pray; ‘ask and you shall receive.’ Meet me at the throne of grace, and you shall meet at the throne of glory your affectionate, obliged, and unworthy minister,