A PEN OF POWER.
Early in the new year of 1771 the happy relations of Fletcher and
Wesley with the Countess of Huntingdon were shattered by unfortunate
differences in theology, Mr. Fletcher, held by certain utterances of
Wesley against Calvinistic doctrine, finding himself, as a result,
obliged to resign his Presidency of Trevecca College. Circumstances,
regretted most of all by himself, drew Fletcher into a long Calvinian
controversy, and to the publication of his famous "Checks to
Antinomianism," and remarkable and closely-reasoned vindication of the
doctrines by which he held, abounding in the plainest of plain speech.
The Calvinian controversy was long and bitter, being succeeded by a
Unitarian controversy, which became equally prominent. Both
disturbances were productive of much discussion, of many pamphlets, of
"Vindications," and "Answers," and "Circulars," and "Letters." Into
this word-war Fletcher was drawn much against his own preference, but
when once the fight had been entered upon, it was almost impossible
for him to extricate himself until it was fought out.
"What a world!" he wrote to Benson; "methinks I dream when I reflect
that I have written on controversy; the last subject I thought I
should have meddled with. I expect to be smartly taken in hand and
soundly drubbed for it. Lord, prepare me for it, and for everything
that may make me cease from man, and, above all, from your unworthy
servant."
Enemies there were, not a few, who rejoiced at an opportunity of
hurling abuse at a good man--some of the sharp and stinging things
they said amounted to actual slander. To know how keen was the fight,
how bitter and provoking the attacks made, one must read the
correspondence and pamphlets then issued; but in the midst of it all
Wesley was able to write of his friend:--
"I rejoice not only in the abilities, but in the temper, of Mr.
Fletcher. He writes as he lives. I cannot say that I know such another
clergyman in England or Ireland. He is all fire, but it is the fire of
love. His writings, like his constant conversation, breathe nothing
else, to those who read him with an impartial eye."
The controversy was much to be deplored on account of the personal
element brought in at all points, yet Fletcher's clear and eloquent
writings in his "Checks" was a fine service rendered to the Christian
faith. Once more to quote Wesley:--
"In his 'Checks to Antinomianism,' one knows not which to admire most
--the _purity_ of the language, the _strength_ and _clearness_
of the argument, or the _mildness_ and _sweetness_ of the
spirit that breathes through the whole. Insomuch that I nothing
wonder at a serious clergyman, who, being resolved to live and die
in his own opinion, when he was pressed to read them, replied, 'No,
I will never read Mr. Fletcher's "Checks," for if I did I should be
of his mind.'"
In January, 1773, a memorial letter was written to the Vicar of
Madeley by John Wesley, asking him to become his successor as leader
and head of the Methodist people. Indeed, the venerable Father of
Methodism would have had his instant aid, for his letter concludes:--
"Without conferring, therefore, with flesh and blood, come and
strengthen the hands, comfort the heart, and share the labour of "Your
affectionate friend and brother, "JOHN WESLEY."
Fletcher's response was tentative; not wholly a refusal, yet not an
acceptance:--
"I would not leave this place," he concluded, in reply, "without a
fuller persuasion that the time is _quite_ come. Not that God
uses me much here, but I have not yet sufficiently cleared my
conscience from the blood of all men. Meantime, I beg the Lord to
guide me by His counsel, and make me willing to go anywhere, or
nowhere, to be anything, or nothing.
"Help by your prayers till you can bless by word of mouth, Rev. and
dear Sir, your willing, though unprofitable servant in the Gospel.
"J. FLETCHER."
Wesley was greatly against his saintly friend hiding his light under
the bushel of a country vicarage. Thirteen years later he wrote his
own opinion of Fletcher's mission:--
"He was full as much called to sound an alarm through all the nation
as Mr. Whitefield himself. Nay, abundantly more so, seeing he was far
better qualified for that important work. He had a more striking
person, equally good breeding, an equally winning address, together
with a richer flow of fancy, a stronger understanding; a far greater
treasure of learning, both in languages, philosophy, philology, and
divinity; and, above all (which I can speak with fuller assurance,
because I had a thorough knowledge both of one and the other), a more
deep and constant communion with the Father, and with the Son, Jesus
Christ."
Before a year had passed Fletcher's health began to fail, and he was
glad to devote himself to the writing which proved so useful and
convincing. To Mr. Ireland he wrote:--
"My throat is not formed for the labours of preaching. When I have
preached three or four times together it inflames and fills up; and
the efforts which I am then obliged to make heat my blood. Thus I am,
by nature, as well as by the circumstances I am in, obliged to employ
my time in writing a little. O that I may be enabled to do it to the
glory of God!"
Perhaps nothing he wrote more fully conduced to that lofty purpose
than his famous "Polemical Essay on the Twin Doctrines of Christian
Imperfection and a Death Purgatory"; than which few clearer, more
convincing, or more able vindications of Scriptural holiness have ever
been written. Can aught be plainer than the definition of Christian
perfection which follows:--
"...Christian perfection is nothing but the depth of evangelical
repentance, the full assurance of faith, and the pure love of God and
man shed abroad in a faithful believer's heart, by the Holy Ghost
given unto him, to cleanse him, and to keep him clean, 'from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit'; and to enable him to fulfil the
law of Christ' according to the talents he is entrusted with, and the
circumstances in which he is placed in this world.... This is evident
from the descriptions of Christian perfection which we find in the New
Testament."
In a practical, almost homely, manner, Fletcher deals with questions
we often hear put to-day. For instance :--
"_How many baptisms, or effusions of the sanctifying Spirit, are
necessary to cleanse a believer from all sin, and to kindle his soul
into perfect love?..._ If you asked your physician how many doses
of physic you must take before all the crudities of your stomach can
be carried off, and your appetite perfectly restored, he would
probably answer you that this depends upon the nature of those
crudities, the strength of the medicine, and the manner in which your
constitution will allow it to operate, and that, in general, you must
repeat the dose, as you can bear, till the remedy has fully answered
the desired end. I return a similar answer: If one powerful baptism of
the Spirit 'seals you unto the day of redemption,' and 'cleanses you
from all' moral 'filthiness,' so much the better. If two or more are
necessary, the Lord can repeat them.
"_Which is the way to Christian perfection? Shall we go to it by
internal stillness, agreeably to the direction of Moses and David ...
or shall we press after it by an internal wrestling according to the
commands of Christ?..._ The way to perfection is by the due
combination of prevenient, assisting free grace, and of submissive,
assisted free will.... 'God worketh in you to will and to do,' says
St. Paul. Here he describes the passive office of faith, which submits
to, and acquiesces in, every divine dispensation and operation.
'Therefore work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,' and,
of consequence, with haste, diligence, ardour, and faithfulness....
Would ye then wait aright for Christian perfection? Impartially admit
the two Gospel axioms, and faithfully reduce them to practice. In
order to this, let them meet in your hearts, as the two legs of a pair
of compasses meet in the rivet which makes them one compound
instrument.... When your heart quietly rests in God by faith, as it
steadily acts the part of a passive receiver, it resembles the leg of
the compasses which rests in the centre of a circle; and then the
poet's expressions, 'restless, resigned' ("_Restless, resigned, for
God I wait; for God my vehement soul stands still_."--Wesley),
describes its fixedness in God. But when your heart swiftly moves
towards God by faith, as it acts the part of a diligent worker; when
your ardent soul follows after God, as a thirsty deer does after the
water-brooks, it may be compared to the leg of the compasses which
traces the circumference of a circle; and then these words of the
poet, 'restless' and 'vehement,' properly belong to it.
"Is Christian perfection to be instantaneously brought down to us? or
are we gradually to grow up to it? Shall we be made perfect in love by
an habit of holiness suddenly infused into us, or by acts of feeble
faith and feeble love so frequently repeated as to become strong,
habitual, and evangelically natural to us?"
Such are the difficulties with which Fletcher deals, patiently and
fully turning them inside out, comparing and contrasting, defining and
enlarging, leading the reader step by step to the conclusion that
Christian perfection is essentially the perfection of _love_,
love, "the highest gift of God, humble, gentle, patient love," shed
abroad in the heart of the believer by the perpetual anointing of the
Holy Spirit.
As he finds his climax in Wesley's words, let us read them in the
sense of his own quotation:--
"All visions, revelations, manifestations whatever, are little things
compared to love.... The Heaven of heavens is love. There is nothing
higher in religion; there is, in effect, nothing else. If you look for
anything but more love, you are looking wide of the mark, you are
getting out of the royal way. And when you are asking others, 'Have
you received this or that blessing?' if you mean any thing but more
love, you mean wrong; you are leading them out of the way, and putting
them upon a false scent. Settle it, then, in your heart, that, from
the moment God has saved you from all sin you are to aim at nothing
but more of that love described in 1 Cor. xiii. You can go no higher
than this till you are carried into Abraham's bosom."
One of the Greenwood family, with whom Fletcher frequently stayed,
made a reference to this production of his thought, which it were well
to remember: "Whoever has had the privilege of observing Mr.
Fletcher's conduct will not scruple to say that _he was a living
comment on his own account of Christian perfection_.... As far as
man is able to judge, he did possess perfect humility, perfect
resignation, and perfect love."