“Honoured and Dear Sir,—I acknowledge, though late, the favour of your letter. I have given up the thought of going to my parish, and am now on the road to a warmer climate. The Lord may bless as much the change of air, as He has blessed the last remedy your son prescribed for me—I mean the bark. If I should mend a little, I would begin to have faith in your prophecy. In the meantime, let us have faith in Christ, more faith day by day, till all the sayings of Christ are verified to us and in us. Should I go to Geneva, I shall enquire after the Swiss friends of my dear benefactors at Shoreham, to whose prayers I humbly recommend myself and my dear fellow-travellers, one of whom, my little god-daughter, is but eight weeks old.”[[428]]
At the same time, and on the same sheet, he wrote as follows to Miss Damaris Perronet:—
“My Dear Friend,—I snatch a moment upon the road to acknowledge the favour of your letter, and to wish you joy in seeing the Lord is faithful in rewarding as well as punishing. I once met a gentleman, an infidel, abroad, who said, ‘Men have no faith: if they believed that by forsaking houses, lands, and friends, they should receive a hundredfold, they would instantly renounce all: for who would not carry all his money to the bank of heaven, to receive a hundredfold interest?’ The Papists have made so bad a use of the doctrine of the rewardableness of works, that we dare neither preach it, nor hold it in a scriptural manner. For my part, I think that if it were properly received, it would make a great alteration in the professing world. You dare receive it; try the mighty use of it; and when you have fully experienced it, do not keep your light to yourself, but impart it to all within the reach of your tongue and pen. I am glad you see that every reward, bestowed upon a reprieved sinner, has free-grace for its foundation, and the blood of Christ for its mark. May the richest rewards of Divine grace be yours in consequence of the most exalted faithfulness; and let me beseech you to pray that I may follow you, as you follow Christ, till our reward be full.”[[429]]
Thus did Fletcher leave England, reiterating one of the great truths that he had been explaining and defending during the last six years. On the next day after the date of his letter, he arrived at Stoke Newington. Wesley writes:—
“Wednesday, December 3, 1777. I visited as many of the sick as I could in the north-east part of the town; and spent the evening at Newington, with Mr. Fletcher, almost miraculously recovering from his consumption. On Thursday, December 4, he set out, with Mr. Ireland, for the south of France.”[[430]]
[390]. The Rev. Walter Shirley.
[391]. Wesley had held, in London, the usual “Covenant Service,” on Wednesday, January 1st. Probably, Fletcher had attended it, and, perhaps, taken part in it.
[392]. Letters, 1791, p. 30.
[393]. The Pastoral letter already mentioned. The places here named were, probably, Fletcher’s Methodist Circuit, in each of which Methodist Societies had been formed.