“I am exceedingly thankful Mr. Fletcher is with Mrs. Greenwood. She will tenderly care for him: and, having a spiritual mind, will be sensible of the honour God does her, in giving her such an opportunity.
“How wise are all the ways of God, in keeping His faithful servant in that retired spot” (Stoke Newington), “while those precious works are completed, by which he will yet speak to us, though in glory: and now to enable him to bring them out, while his exemplary life and conversation add a lustre to the truths he has so powerfully defended.
“We could have liked to have seen him once more; but the will of the Lord be done! Should it happen that this sickness is not unto death, we shall rejoice in having an opportunity of assisting him in anything which lies in our power. Should this favour be denied us, we must be content; and beseech God to reward those who may supply our lack of service.
“The blessed account you give of the state of his mind filled my soul with sacred joy, as also those of my friends. While I was reading it, it was a solemn season of faith and love, and we could not help saying, ‘Ah, Lord! Let not this shining light be so soon extinguished!’
“A few weeks ago[ago], I once more read the ‘Equal Check’ and felt an unction in it above all I had ever found before. The ‘Essay on Truth,’ with the Appendix, is as marrow and fatness to my soul. O may all the height and depth of every Gospel promise be written on his heart!”[[534]]
Did Fletcher ever see this loving, admiring letter? Perhaps he did. At all events, Wesley’s most intimate and confidential friendship with both Fletcher and Miss Bosanquet was such as to justify utterances, which, under other circumstances, would have been almost impertinent. In his sermon on the death of Fletcher, Wesley remarked, “Miss Bosanquet was the only person in England whom I judged to be worthy of Mr. Fletcher;” and again, in a letter to Hester Ann Rogers, written a month after the marriage took place, he observed, “I should not have been willing that Miss Bosanquet should have been joined to any other person than Mr. Fletcher.”[[535]] To some, such language may seem unusual, but, in reality, it was natural; for Wesley had long been regarded as their father in Christ, both by Fletcher and his wife; and, no doubt, both of them had consulted him with respect to the step they proposed to take.
After all, Fletcher’s matrimonial offer was a curious incident. He was now fifty-two years of age. For the last four years and a-half, he had been absent from his parish, and so seriously ill, that, again and again, his friends expected him to die. Some of his views, also, of ministers marrying at all were rather peculiar, though rational and sound. In his “Portrait of St. Paul,” composed in Switzerland, and revised and finished after his return to Madeley, Fletcher wrote:—
“When a man is perpetually called to travel from place to place, prudence requires that he should not encumber himself with those domestic cares, which must occasion many unavoidable delays in the prosecution of his business: or, if he derives his maintenance from the generosity of the poor, charity should constrain him to burden them as little as possible. St. Paul could not prevail upon himself to expose a woman and children to those innumerable dangers, which he was constantly obliged to encounter. The first peril, from which he made his escape, was that which compelled him to descend from the wall of Damascus in a basket: now if a family had shared with him in the same danger, what an addition would they have made to his affliction and his care! Is it not evident, that, in such circumstances, every man, who is not obliged to marry from reasons either physical or moral, is called to imitate the example of this disinterested Apostle, from the same motives of prudence and charity. This indefatigable preacher, always on a mission, judged it advisable to continue in a single state to the end of his days: but, had he been fixed in a particular church; had he there felt how much it concerns a minister neither to tempt others, nor to be tempted himself; and had he known how much assistance a modest, provident, and pious woman is capable of affording a pastor, by inspecting the women of his flock, he would then probably have advised every resident pastor to enter into the marriage state, provided they should fix upon regenerate persons, capable of edifying the Church.”
Probably, while writing this, Fletcher was thinking of Wesley and his itinerant preachers, and also of the difference between them and himself, as the Vicar of Madeley. Be that as it may, from the doctrine he has laid down, he deduces the following principles:—
“1. In times of great trouble and grievous persecutions, the followers of Christ should abstain from marriage, unless obliged thereto by particular and powerful reasons. 2. The faithful, who mean to embrace the nuptial state, should be careful, on no account, to connect themselves with any persons, except such as are remarkable for their seriousness and piety. 3. Missionaries ought not to marry, unless there is an absolute necessity. 4. A bishop, or resident pastor, is usually called to the marriage state. 5. A minister of the Gospel, who is able to live in a state of celibacy for the kingdom of heaven’s sake, that he may have no other care except that of preaching the Gospel and attending upon the members of Christ’s mystical body,—such a one is undoubtedly called to continue in a single state.”