“My Very Dear Sir,—Lest Mr. Parker should neglect to send you one of our Plans for the establishing of foreign Missions, I take the liberty of doing it. Ten subscribers more, of two guineas per annum, have favoured me with their names. If you can get a few subscribers more, we shall be obliged to you.
“We have now a very wonderful outpouring of the Spirit in the West of Cornwall. I have been obliged to make a winter campaign of it, and preach here and there out of doors.
“I beg my affectionate respects to Mrs. Fletcher. I entreat you to pray for
“Your most affectionate Friend and Brother,
“Thomas Coke.”
At this period, Fletcher was engaged in the last of his literary works. The following, hitherto unpublished letter, may serve as an introduction to the essays Fletcher was now writing. It was addressed to the “Rev. Mr. Bouverot, Geneva;” and, though without date, was evidently written a few days before Fletcher’s memorable visit to Dublin:—
“The Society of Christian Philosophers, which you mention, seems, in this day, to be a useful Institution. The most redoubtable attacks upon religion come from our modern Sadducees, who say there is neither angel nor spirit; and the famous Dr. Priestly openly maintains that we have no soul, or, at least, that it is no other than the animal spirits. It may be, therefore, that God, who never leaves Himself without witnesses, has permitted this Society for the maintenance of a metaphysical doctrine so opposite to that of materialism. ‘Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.’
“A Swedish gentleman, called Baron Swedenborg,[[600]] published many pieces in England, and declared he had conversed with angels and spirits for more than forty years, and that with as much familiarity as with men. Some of his works have been translated into English. There is one, of which I have the original Latin by me, entitled, ‘Mirabilia Coeli et Inferni,’ and which I mean to send you as soon as I shall find a convenient opportunity. It is certain, if believers were more detached from earthly things, and more concentred in Christ by faith, they would converse with angels and with the spirits of the departed saints, as the Patriarchs and first Christians were accustomed to do. There would, indeed, in this, be some danger of following after piety, with a view to such an advantage, through a species of curiosity, which, if it ought not to be called the back door, yet would not deserve to be entitled the front, which consists in an humble faith disengaged from sense and from all self-seeking,” etc., etc.
“I have not yet had leisure to cast my eyes over mys’ Next week, at the invitation of many who love the Word of God, I mean to make a tour into Ireland, from whence I propose returning before winter. Mr. Wesley, who is eighty years of age, is now on a tour in the Low Countries, where he preaches, even at Amsterdam.
“Assist me to bless God, who has sustained me hitherto, and who is my light and my salvation in Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever! Remember me before God in your prayers, as I have a continual remembrance of you in mine.”