Posthumous literature usually carries little weight. It often assumes
virtues to which the deceased were strangers, and not unfrequently libels
the dead. The simple epitaph on the plain iron plate which covers Mr.
Fletcher’s remains in the Madeley churchyard is not of this class, but is
so modest an expression of facts that it requires to be read by the light
which the records of contemporaries throw upon it, and which will be
found to be more on a level with the merits and virtues of the deceased.
The _Shrewsbury Chronicle_ of August, 1785, in recording the death of Mr.
Fletcher had the following:—
“On the 14th instant, departed this life, the Rev. John Fletcher,
Vicar of Madeley, in this county, to the inexpressible grief and
concern of his parishioners, and of all who had the happiness of
knowing him. If we speak of him as a man, and a gentleman, he was
possessed of every virtue and every accomplishment, which adorns and
dignifies human nature. If we attempt to speak of him as a Minister
of the Gospel, it will be extremely difficult to give the world a
just idea of _this great Character_. His deep learning, his exalted
piety, his never-ceasing labours to discharge the important duties of
his function, together with the abilities and good effect with which
he discharged those duties are best known, and will never be
forgotten, in that vineyard in which he laboured. His charity, his
universal benevolence, his meekness, and exemplary goodness, are
scarcely equalled amongst the sons of men. Anxious, to the last
moment of his life, to discharge the sacred duties of his office, he
performed the service of the church, and administered the holy
sacrament to upwards of two hundred communicants, the Sunday
preceding his death, confiding in that Almighty Power, which had
given him life, and resigning that life into the hands of Him who
gave it, with that composure of mind, and those joyful hopes of a
happy resurrection, which ever accompany the last moments of the
just.”
“Fletcher is a seraph who burns with the ardour of divine love; and
spurning the fetters of mortality, he almost habitually seems to have
anticipated the rapture of the beatific vision.”—_Robert Hall_.
“A pattern of holiness, scarce to be paralleled in a
century.”—_Minutes of Wesleyan Conference_, 7, 183.
“I was intimately acquainted with him for above thirty years. I
never heard him speak one improper word, nor saw him do any improper
action. So unblamable a character, in every respect, I have not
found, and I scarce expect to find such another on this side of
eternity.”—_John Wesley_.
“Fletcher, I conceive to be the most holy man who has been upon earth
since the apostolic age.”—_Dr. Dixon_.
“No age or country has ever produced a man of more fervid piety, or
more perfect charity; no Church has ever possessed a more apostolic
minister.”—_Robert Southey_.
“He was a saint, a saint such as the Church of every age has produced
a few samples, as unearthly a being as could tread the earth at
all.”—_Isaac Taylor_.
“Almost an angel in human flesh, prayer, praise, love, and zeal were
the element in which he lived. His one employment was to call,
entreat, and urge others to ascend with him to the glorious Source of
being and blessedness.”—_Joseph Benson_.