“Thousands there are, who, by gross ignorance, shameful neglect of instruction, and abominable contempt of godliness, are in the front of the battle, and next to the prince of darkness. Their heart is darkened by the mists of pride and the clouds of presumption, and they are such utter strangers to their want of spiritual light and divine grace, that they seldom or never call upon God for help with any solemnity. The unhappy heathenish families who are of that stamp meet regularly every day to eat, drink, and make provision for the flesh; but how seldom do they meet to read and pray. You will find almost as much godliness among the wild Indians as among these practical atheists. But why should I call them atheists? They have many gods. The world is their god; pleasure is their god; vanity is their god; money is their god; their belly is their god; to some or other of these idols, they sacrifice their hearts and their time. As for the God of heaven, the great and eternal Jehovah, they put Him off with a careless attendance on His public worship on Sunday morning, if the weather suits them; and it is well if to this they add sometimes the babbling over of the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed, which, after all, in the manner in which they do it, is no better than a solemn mockery of the Saviour, whom they constantly crucify afresh. Do you belong to such a heathenish, prayerless family? If you do, suffer me to deliver my soul by telling you, that you are the very first person to whom I am bound to say, ‘Thou shalt surely die.’ Read your sentence in Psalm lxxix. 6. What! shall the indignation of the Lord fall upon prayerless families among the heathen, and shall it pass by the nominally Christian, but prayerless family to which you belong? No, no; the Judge of all the earth will do right; He will repay you to your face.”
“The wicked is often known, to others and to himself, by his injustice, oppression, cruelty, deceit, and unfair dealing. Did you ever make a prey of the poor and helpless? Are you like the horse-leech, crying, ‘Give, give,’ still wanting more profit, and never thinking you have enough? Do you take more care to lay up treasures on earth than in heaven? Have you got the unhappy secret of distilling silver out of the poor man’s brow, and gold out of the tears of helpless widows and friendless orphans? Or, which is rather worse, do you, directly or indirectly, live by poisoning others, by encouraging the immoderate use of those refreshments, which, taken to excess, disorder the reason, ruin the soul, and prove no better than slow poison to the body? If your business calls you to buy or sell, do you use falsehood? do you equivocate? do you exaggerate or conceal the truth, in order to impose upon your neighbour, and make a profit of his necessity or credulity? If any of these marks be upon you, God’s word singles you out, and drags you to the bar of Divine justice to hear your doom in the text, ‘The wicked shall surely die.’ O, see your danger; repent, and make restitution! Why should you meet the unjust steward in hell, when you may yet follow Zaccheus into heaven?”
“There is another fearful sin, which has in it no profit, no pleasure, no, not sensual sweetness enough to bait the hook of temptation. The only enticement to it is the diabolical disposition of the wicked man, and the horrid pride he takes in cutting a figure among the children of Belial. I speak of oaths and curses,—those arrows shot from the string of a hellish heart, and the bow of a Luciferian tongue, against heaven itself; these are some of the sparks of hell-fire, which, now and then, come out of the throat of a wicked man. Do they ever come out of thine? A year ago, I laid before you the horror of that sin, and besought you to leave it to Satan and his angels, and to act no more the part of an incarnate devil. Have you strictly complied with that request? Has not heaven been pierced with another fiery dart? Have not good men, or good angels (if any attend you still) shuddered at those imprecations, which you have used, perhaps without remorse?”
“But, perhaps, your conscience bears you witness that you are not a swearing Christian, or rather a swearing infidel. Well; but are you clear in the point of adultery, fornication, or uncleanness? Does not the guilt of some vile sin, which you have wickedly indulged in time past, and perhaps are still indulging, mark you for the member of a harlot, and not the member of Christ? Do you not kindle the wrath of heaven against yourself and your country, as the men and women of Gomorrah did against themselves and the other cities of the plain? If you cherish the sparks of wantonness, as they did, how can you but be made with them to suffer the vengeance of eternal fire? Do not flatter yourselves with the vain hope, that your sin is not so heinous as theirs. If it be less in degree, is it not infinitely greater in its aggravating circumstances? Were these poor Canaanites Christians? Had they Bibles and ministers? Had they sermons and sacraments? Did they ever vow, as you have done, to renounce the devil, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh? Did they ever hear of the Son of God sweating great drops of blood, in an agony of prayer, to quench the fire of human corruption? O acknowledge your guilt and danger, and, by deep repentance, prevent infallible destruction.
“I cannot pass in silence the detestable, though fashionable, sin, which has brought down the curse of heaven, and poured desolation and ruin upon the most flourishing kingdoms,—I mean pride in apparel. Even in this place, where poverty, hard labour, and drudgery would, one should think, prevent a sin which Christianity cannot tolerate even in kings’ houses, there are not wanting foolish virgins, who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and betray the levity of their hearts by that of their dress. Yea, some women, who should be mothers in Israel, and adorn themselves with good works as holy and godly matrons, openly affect the opposite character. You may see them offer themselves first to the idol of vanity, and then sacrifice their children upon the same altar. As some sons of Belial teach their little ones to curse, before they can well speak, so these daughters of Jezebel drag their unhappy offspring, before they can walk, to the haunts of vanity and pride. They complain of evening lectures, but run to midnight dancings. O that such persons would let the prophet’s words sink into their frothy minds, and fasten upon their careless hearts: ‘Because the daughters of Sion are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth necks and wanton eyes, the Lord will smite with a sore the crown of their head, and discover their shame: instead of well-set hair, there shall be baldness, and burning instead of beauty.’”
These abbreviated extracts of Fletcher’s descriptions of “the wicked” are followed by his directions to humble themselves before Almighty God; to confess their sins with deep sorrow, and to return to the Lord with prayer and fasting; to meditate on the universality, commonness, and boldness of the nation’s wickedness; to begin a visible and thorough reformation; and to seek personal salvation in Christ. The bold preacher cries:—
“From the gilded palace to the thatched cottage, our guilt calls for vengeance. Wickedness is become so fashionable, that he who refuses to run with others into vanity, intemperance, or profaneness, is in danger of losing his character, on one hand; while, on the other, the son of Belial prides himself in excesses, glories in diabolical practices, and scoffs with impunity at religion and virtue. O England! England! happy, yet ungrateful island! Dost thou repay fruitfulness by profaneness,—plenty by vanity,—liberty by impiety,—and the light of Christianity by excesses of immorality?
“As you regard the prosperity of the king, the good of our Church, and the welfare of our country;—as you would not bring a private curse upon yourself, your house, and your dearest friends;—as you value the honour of Almighty God, and dread His awakened wrath;—as you would not force Him to make our land a field of blood, or to break the staff of our bread, and send famine, pestilence, popery, or some other fearful judgment among us;—I pray you, I beseech, I entreat each of you, my dear brethren! as upon my bended knees,—in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by those bowels of Divine mercy against which we have madly kicked in times past, and which, nevertheless, still yearn over us,—I entreat you not to rest in outward humiliation and reformation. Christians must go one step beyond the Ninevites. O seek then, with all true Christians, a righteousness superior to that of the Scribes and Pharisees. Seek it in Christ. Never rest, till you are sure of your interest in Him; till you feel the virtue of His blood applied to your hearts by the power of His Spirit. Without this, all the rest will stand you in little stead.”[[81]]
This, in truth, was thunder and lightning preaching,—no doubt greatly needed then, as, indeed, it is greatly needed now; preaching likely to give offence, but the faithfulness of which God always honours, and crowns with marked success. It raised up against Fletcher bitter enemies; but it was the means of converting not a few of his godless parishioners.
One of these was Mary Matthews, who, listening to the reproaches cast upon Fletcher, was greatly prejudiced against him. At length, she went to hear him. Mary thought herself very good, but Fletcher showed she was very vile. For two years, she was an earnest penitent, and then, by faith in Christ, found peace with God. Mary was brought before magistrates for opening her little house, in Madeley Wood, for preaching, but she continued faithful; and, in 1788, passed away to heaven, her last words being, “I am almost at home. Farewell! God bless you! God for ever bless you!”