The preaching tours named were followed by many others London, Brighton, and Oathall were visited, in the first of which he officiated for Whitefield in Tottenham Court Road Chapel.
We may judge by a letter to Whitefield that he would have gone yet more frequently if he could, as he remarks, “I should be glad to be your curate some time this year, but I see no opening, nor the least prospect of any What between the dead and the living, a parish ties one down more than a wife.”
He was not without distinguished visitors at the vicarage, however, hostess though he had none; the Countess of Huntingdon, accompanied by Lady Anne Erskine and Miss Orton, accepted the frugal provision for comfort with which John Wesley had previously contented himself; the scarlet coat and gold lace of a famous officer of Dragoons (Captain Scott) was seen in his garden—a man, by the way, who preached daily to his soldiers, and frequently exhorted in a Methodist meeting-house in the full blaze of his regimentals—and was mounted by Fletcher upon his horse-block to address large crowds which gathered to hear him Whitefield was also expected, but could not then avail himself of the invitation, and, later on, he differed very seriously from the Vicar regarding the doctrine of free salvation which it was ever his glory to preach.
Before and beyond everything else John Fletcher was a seeker after God. To assist himself in this supreme endeavour he drew up the following rules for nightly use:—
1 Did I awake spiritual, and was I watchful in keeping my mind from wandering this morning when I was rising?
2 Have I this day got nearer to God in times of prayer, or have I given way to a lazy, idle spirit?
3 Has my faith been weakened by unwatchfulness, or quickened by diligence this day?
4 Have I this day walked by faith and eyed God in all things?
5 Have I denied myself in all unkind words and thoughts? Have I delighted in seeing others preferred before me?
6 Have I made the most of my precious time, as far as I had light, strength, and opportunity?