CHAPTER XX.
PUBLICATIONS AND CORRESPONDENCE IN
1777.
IN the year 1777, Fletcher terminated his controversy with the Calvinists. He wrote:—
“To the best of my knowledge, I have not fixed one consequence upon the principles of my opponents, which does not fairly and necessarily flow from their doctrine. And I have endeavoured to do justice to their piety, declaring, again and again, my full persuasion that they abhor such consequences.”
His publications, in 1777, were the following:—
1. “The Doctrines of Grace and Justice equally essential to the pure Gospel: Being some Remarks on the mischievous divisions caused among Christians, by parting those doctrines. Being an Introduction to a Plan of Reconciliation between the Defenders of the Doctrines of Partial Grace, commonly called Calvinists; and the Defenders of the Doctrines of Impartial Justice, commonly called Arminians. By John Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, Salop. London: Printed by R. Hawes, 1777.” 12mo, 39 pp.
It is needless to furnish an outline of this able pamphlet, inasmuch as the doctrines it enforces and the doctrines it condemns are substantially the same as have been repeatedly introduced to the reader’s notice. There is one statement, however, which Fletcher’s admirers have generally overlooked, but which proves, beyond controversy, that Fletcher was, what is now-a-days called, a Millenarian. After dwelling on what he designates the “four dispensations,” namely, “Gentilism,” “Judaism,” “the Gospel of John the Baptist,” and “the perfect Gospel of Christ,” which “is Gentilism, Judaism, and the Baptism of John, arrived at their full maturity,” he proceeds to argue that “another Gospel dispensation” is yet to come. Hence the following:—
“In the Psalms, Prophets, Acts, Epistles, and especially in the Revelation, we have a variety of promises, that, ‘in the day of His’ displayed ‘power,’ Christ will ‘come in His glory, to judge among the heathen, to wound even kings in the day of His wrath, to root up the wicked, to fill the places with their dead bodies, to smite in sunder’ antichrist, and ‘the heads over divers countries,’ and to ‘lift up His’ triumphant ‘head’ on this very earth, where He once ‘bowed His’ wounded ‘head, and gave up the ghost.’ Compare Psalm cx. with Acts i. 11, 2 Thess. i. 10, Rev. xix., etc. In that great day, another Gospel dispensation shall take place. We have it now in prophecy, as the Jews had the Gospel of Christ’s first advent; but when Christ shall ‘come to destroy the wicked, to be’ actually ‘glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe,—in that day,’ ministers of the Gospel shall no more prophesy, but, speaking a plain historical truth, they shall lift up their voices as ‘the voice of many waters and mighty thunderings, saying, Allelujah! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth; the marriage of the Lamb is come; His wife,[wife,] the church of the first-born, has made herself ready; blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; he reigns with Christ a thousand years’ (Rev. xix. 20). ‘Blessed are the meek, for they do inherit the earth’ (Matt. x. 5). ‘The times of refreshing are come; and He has sent Jesus Christ, who before was preached unto you, whom the heavens did receive’ till this solemn season; but now are come ‘the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began’ (Acts iii. 19, etc.) May the Lord hasten this Gospel dispensation! and, till it take place, may, ‘the Spirit and the bride say, Come!’”
It must be granted that this is but remotely related to the Calvinian controversy; but, in a Life of Fletcher, it is too interesting to be omitted.
2. Fletcher’s second publication, in 1777, was a composite one, and embraced, First, “Bible Arminianism and Bible Calvinism: A two-fold Essay,—Part the First displaying the doctrines of Partial Grace, Part the Second, those of Impartial Justice.” 12mo., 84 pp. Secondly, “The Reconciliation; or, an Easy Method to unite the professing People of God, by placing the Doctrines of Grace and Justice in such a light as to make candid Arminians Bible-Calvinists; and the candid Calvinists, Bible-Arminians.” 12mo, 85 pp. Thirdly, to these was appended, “The Plan of Reconciliation,” the whole making a small 12mo volume of 187 pages. The pamphlets were dedicated to his friend “James Ireland, Esq., of Brislington, near Bristol,” as follows:—
“Dear Sir,—To whom could a plan of reconciliation between the Calvinists and Arminians be more properly dedicated, than to a son of peace, whose heart, hand, and house are open to Calvinists, Arminians, and neuters? You kindly receive the divines who contend for the doctrines of grace; and I want words to describe the Christian courtesy which you show me and other ministers who make a stand for the doctrines of justice. To you I am indebted for the honour of a friendly interview with the author[[390]] of the ‘Circular Letter,’ which I thought myself obliged to oppose; and, as you succeeded in that labour of love, it is natural for me to hope that by your influence, and by the patronage of such candid, generous peacemakers as the gentleman” (John Thornton, Esq.) “to whom I have often compared you, these reconciling sheets will be perused by some with more attention than if they had no name prefixed to them but that of your most obliged, affectionate friend and servant,