My days of praise shall ne’er be past,
While life, and thought, and being last,
Or immortality endures.’”[[552]]
Is there on record another wedding day such as this? To criticise the account would spoil it. It may, however, interest the reader to give a verbatim copy of the marriage certificate:—
“No. 112. John William Fletcher, of the parish of Madeley, in the county of Salop, Clerk, and Mary Bosanquet, of this parish, were married in this church (Batley) by license, this twelfth day of November, in the year 1781, by me, John Deighton, Curate.
“This marriage was solemnized between us, John William Fletcher, or De la Flechere, and Mary Bosanquet, in the presence of William Smith and Ann Tripp.”
Twelve days after the marriage, Wesley wrote to Fletcher the following characteristic letter:—
“London, November 24, 1781.
“Dear Sir,—There is not a person to whom I would have wished Miss Bosanquet joined besides you. But this union, I am thoroughly persuaded, is of God; and so are all the children of God with whom I have spoken. Mr. Bosanquet’s being so agreeable to it, I look upon as a token for good; and so was the ready disposing of the house and stock, which otherwise would have been a great encumbrance.
“From the first day which you spend together at Madeley, I hope you will lay down an exactly regular plan of living; something like that of the happy family at Leytonstone. Let your light shine to all that are round about you. And let Sister Fletcher do as much as she can for God, and no more. To His care I commit you both, and am, my dear friends,