In such a spirit did the Arminian polemic address his Calvinian opponents. The following is extracted from his concluding remarks:—
“God is my record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ, in whom there is neither Greek nor Jew, neither bond nor free, neither Calvinist nor Arminian, but Christ is all in all. Grant me my humble, perhaps my dying request, reject not my plea for peace. If it be not strong, it is earnest; for, considering my bodily weakness, I write it at the hazard of my life: animamque in vulnere pono.
“But why should I drop a hint about so insignificant a life, when I can move you to accept of terms of reconciliation by the life and death, by the resurrection and ascension, of our Lord Jesus Christ. I recall the frivolous hint; and, by the unknown agonies of Him whom you love, by His second coming, and by our gathering together unto Him, I beseech you, put on, as the Protestant ‘elect of God, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another; even as Christ loved and forgave you, so do ye.’ Instead of absurdly charging one another with heresy, embrace one another, and triumph together in Christ. Bless God, ye Arminians, for raising such men as the pious Calvinists, to make a firm stand against Pharisaic delusions, and to maintain, with you, the doctrine of man’s fallen state, and of God’s partial grace, which the Pelagians attack with all their might. And, ye Calvinists, rejoice that heaven has raised you such allies as the godly Arminians, to oppose Manichean delusions, and to contend for the doctrines of holiness and justice, which the Antinomians seem sworn to destroy. Pharisaism will never yield but to the power of Bible-Calvinism and the doctrines of grace. Nor can Antinomianism be conquered without the help of Bible-Arminianism and the doctrines of justice. When Pharisaism and Antinomianism shall be destroyed, the Church will be sanctified, and ready to be presented to Christ a glorious Church, ‘not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.’ Then shall we sing with truth what we now sing without propriety,—
“‘Love, like death, has all destroy’d,
Render’d all distinctions void;
Names, and sects, and parties fall,
Thou, O Christ, art all in all.’”
Nothing more need be said respecting Fletcher’s praiseworthy effort to put an end to the contentions then so rampant. No doubt, his object, to some extent, was realized; but, for many a long year afterwards, not a few of the Calvinists and Arminians bore a striking resemblance to the ancient Jews and Samaritans. They worshipped the same God, but did not love each other.
Fletcher spent four months, from December 16, 1776, to April 16, 1777, in the hospitable home of his Methodist friends, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Greenwood, at Stoke Newington; and never did he forget their remarkable kindness to him. Here he wrote a long pastoral letter to his parishioners on December 28, 1776; and, sixteen days afterwards, another, from which the following extracts are taken:—
“Newington, January 13, 1777.