Fletcher of Madeley Part 5

"When I was in London I endeavoured to make the most of my time, that is to say, to hear, receive, and practise the word. Accordingly I went to Mr. Whitefield's tabernacle, and heard him give his society a most excellent exhortation upon love. He began by observing, that 'when St. John was old, and past walking and preaching, he would not forsake the a.s.sembling himself with the brethren, as the manner of too many is, upon little or no pretence at all. On the contrary, he got himself carried to their meeting, and, with his last thread of voice, preached to them his final sermon, consisting of this one sentence, "My little children, love one another."' I wish, I pray, I earnestly beseech you to follow that evangelical, apostolical advice.... Bear with one another's infirmities, and do not easily cast off any one; no, not for sin, except it be obstinately persisted in."

From unpublished ma.n.u.scripts of Fletcher we find that in the latter part of the year 1764 he was engaged in a somewhat remarkable controversy within his own parish. His opponent was a Mrs. Anne Darby, a member of the Society of Friends, and the subjects discussed included the Athanasian Creed, the doctrine of the Trinity, the Sacraments, and the Christian Ministry. His account of its origin is as follows:

"On Thursday, November 22nd, 1764, Mrs. Darby, a female teacher among the people called Quakers, came into a house where the Vicar of Madeley was instructing his parishioners.

He had given previous notice of his design to answer the objections made by dissenters and infidels against the Church of England; and he happened at her coming to defend the doctrine of the blessed Trinity, as contained in Athanasius's Creed.

"It was not long before the lady began the attack, and having given us a scriptural account of the Trinity, she blamed us for two things:

"1st. For dwelling upon that point rather than enforcing practical duties.

"2nd. For admitting St. Athanasius's Creed, as in her opinion it is full of gross misrepresentations of the G.o.dhead."

A verbal discussion followed, which is carefully recorded. Mrs. Darby afterwards brought the six following questions, and put them to the vicar, who, in turn, furnishes a written reply.

"1_st Query_. Dost thou believe that thy Church, or as it is called, the Church of England, is the Church of Christ?

"2_nd Query_. Dost thou believe that thou art a minister of Christ?

"3_rd Query_. But Christ's ministers had all their trade.

Was not Paul a tentmaker? And is thy maintenance such as suits a minister of the gospel?

"4_th Query_. The ministers of Christ preach the gospel freely. '_Freely ye have received, freely give_,' says Christ. Dost thou do so?

"5_th Query_. Is the baptism thou baptizest with, the baptism of Him who baptized with the Holy Ghost?

"_6th Query_. Dost thou believe that the supper thou celebratest is the supper of which Christ said, '_I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open, I will come in, and sup with him, and he with Me_'?"

In discussing these queries Fletcher took great pains. He deals with no less than fifteen "objections" under one of them. Instead of a.s.serting his authority, or that of the Church, he set himself to answer every reasonable question, including some that would hardly be considered such, to give satisfaction, if possible, to his opponents, and protect his people from what appeared to him serious perversions of truth. The labour involved would have sufficed to produce a book, but he had no literary aim in the matter. His ma.n.u.script was submitted to Mrs. Darby, and then, bound in a stout leathern cover, circulated among his parishioners. As we have quoted its opening pa.s.sage, we will give an extract from its close, in which the Vicar of Madeley and Mrs. Darby take leave of one another.

"I hope the reader by this time laments with me the _bad_ use that Mrs. Darby makes of a _good_ understanding. How much better were it for her, and us all, if, instead of quibbling and wresting the Scriptures, as these sheets show she hath done, she would second the endeavours of the vicar in promoting a reformation of _essentials_ in the parish with respect to principles and manners!

"But if she is still _moved by the spirit of contention_ to make fresh a.s.saults upon us, and to obtrude George Fox's peculiar tenets, to the disparagement of St. Paul's doctrines, we cannot but wish she may have a _better memory_ to _remember_ our answers, and _more candour_ to do our arguments _justice_.

"In the meantime if the Vicar hath avoided the force of any of her objections, or omitted answering any, and if he has mistaken her in anything, he is ready to acknowledge it, as soon as she hath made it appear; and he hopes that if she acts by him as he hath a.s.sured her by words of mouth he would do by her, she will recall the copies of her partial ma.n.u.script, and correct them, according to the mistakes I have pointed out therein, before she makes them circulate any further."

To this is appended in Mrs. Darby's writing:

"Being called upon for this ma.n.u.script before I had considered it all over properly, I therefore have got it copied; and after examination (if worth notice) shall communicate my sentiments hereupon to John Fletcher and sober people. A. Darby."

What further came of this controversy, whether anything further came of it, we cannot tell. With Mrs. Darby's postscript before us it would not be safe to conclude that the last word had been spoken.

Among the labours belonging to this period was the organization of a "Society of Ministers of the Gospel," for which Fletcher drew up rules and regulations. Although, as we have seen, at the beginning of his work in Madeley he had met with a good deal of opposition from neighbouring clergy, he found it possible a few years later to form a clerical a.s.sociation for the promotion of spiritual life and ministerial efficiency. The society was to meet at Worcester, in the private house of some reputable person, twice in the year, on the Tuesday and Wednesday next before the full of the moon, in the months of May and September. The meeting was to begin at ten o'clock, dinner at two; the expense to be defrayed by an equal contribution of the whole society, "_absentees not excepted_." The topics for conversation and inquiry are set forth in considerable detail. They include "public preaching, the case of religious societies, the catechizing of children and instruction of youth, the case of personal inspection and personal visiting of the flock, the case of ruling their own houses well, the case of visiting the sick, the case of their own particular experiences and personal conduct."

Every member of the society was "recommended to take down brief minutes of the business transacted by the society, for his future recollection of it and meditation upon it."

The following are Fletcher's notes of the meeting held on May 12th, 1767:

"1. How far is it proper to preach against particular sins, and to enforce particular duties, and how to do this in a gospel-like manner.

"_Answer._ Very proper to stated congregations. Many convinced of sin by it; many kept decent by it. Believers themselves made watchful. Preach so as not to encourage pharisees.

"2. Whether we are to preach the law, and morality, and why?

"_Answer._ Yes: three reasons. (1) To inform believers; (2) To convince false moralists; (3) To stop the mouth of the adversaries, and confound antinomians.

"3. How far is it proper to mention and improve particular cases, and the experience of particular people, in funeral sermons and other discourses, to try to awaken the careless?

"_Answer._ Extraordinary cases known to all may be improved--with tenderness, wisdom, avoiding the appearance of sentencing any one, and saying what we say of them in Scripture words, and with suppositions.

"4. (Digression.) Whether charity and duty oblige us to say over all the dead, 'we hope they rest in Christ.' (Settled.) (A hardship) and may be omitted because not insisted on as absolutely indispensable.

"6. What's the proper length of a sermon for hearers and speaker?

"_Answer._ A stranger may be heard for an hour; a stated minister from 30 to 50 minutes.

"7. What to do to keep within these bounds?

"_Answer._ Pray, digest the point, have few heads, be not long upon them. If you have been too full upon the first, be less so upon the last.

"8. When a minister hath studied a subject with design to preach on it, and is shut up in his heart and clouded in his mind at preaching time, and another text presents itself, and liberty is offered to speak from it, is it enthusiasm to do it?

"_Answer._ Trial may be made, and if the preacher finds freedom and the people edification, the matter was from above.

"9. Whether we may allegorize Scripture, and how far?

"_Answer._ So far as the Holy Ghost hath allegorized we may safely do the same; but we must be very sparing of anything that exceeds Scripture warrant. Avoid taking historical allegorical texts to raise doctrines upon. Such texts may be brought by way of comparison or ill.u.s.tration of some other weighty pa.s.sages which contain the doctrine plainly.

"10. Societies.

"_Disadvantages._ They raise a jealousy in those who do not belong to them, increase their prejudice, make them think the minister partial, and watch over the society for evil.

"_Advantages._ They are scriptural, comfortable, profitable, the only means of keeping up some discipline."

Such were the questions discussed, and the opinions expressed in the "Society of Ministers of the Gospel," organized, and probably founded, by Fletcher. The society was one of those innumerable results of the Revival, by which its spirit and principles were widely diffused through the Church. A generation later such a.s.sociations were common amongst the Evangelical clergy. Of these the Eclectic Society, founded by John Newton and Richard Cecil in 1783, is well-known to us through the "Notes," extending from 1798 to 1814, published by Archdeacon Pratt.[8]

At the close of his first seven years at Madeley, Fletcher's chief difficulties had either disappeared, or were greatly diminished. Though he still lamented the comparative unfruitfulness of his labours, he had, in truth, much to rejoice over. Many of the unG.o.dly had been converted through his ministry, some of whom were now walking worthy of Christ, while others had died in the Lord. He was now generally esteemed, and by the better part of his flock greatly beloved. He had gained experience in the administration of his parish and the direction of souls. In preaching, catechizing, visiting, and holding religious meetings he was indefatigable, and spared no pains to guard his people from doctrinal error or spiritual decline. The organization that gradually rose under his hand was not of the modern parochial type, but well suited to the circ.u.mstances of the people and of the time. He established regular preaching-places, not only in his own parish, but eight, ten, or more miles away, and formed societies for Christian instruction and fellowship. From time to time his hands were strengthened and his heart encouraged by visits from his friends and fellow labourers. Wesley's first visit was in July, 1764, and is thus referred to in his "Journal":

"I rode to Bilbrook, near Wolverhampton, and preached at between two and three. Thence we went on to Madeley, an exceedingly pleasant village, encompa.s.sed with trees and hills. It was a great comfort to me to converse once more with a Methodist of the old type, denying himself, taking up his cross, and resolved to be altogether a Christian.

"_Sunday, July 22nd._ At ten Mr. Fletcher read prayers, and I preached on those words in the gospel, 'I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd layeth down His life for the sheep.' The church would nothing near contain the congregation; but a window near the pulpit being taken down, those who could not come in stood in the churchyard, and I believe all could hear. The congregation, they said, used to be much smaller in the afternoon than in the morning; but I could not discern the least difference, either in number or seriousness. I found employment enough for the intermediate hours in praying with the various companies who hung about the house, insatiably hungering and thirsting after the good word. Mr. Grimshaw, at his first coming to Haworth, had not such a prospect as this. There are many adversaries indeed, but yet they cannot shut the open and effectual door."

Wesley's itinerant preachers were welcomed by Fletcher when their rounds brought them to his parish. To Alexander Mather, a brave and devoted Methodist preacher, he wrote to say that an occasional exhortation from him or his colleague to the societies he had formed would be esteemed a favour, and expressed at the same time a willingness, if it were not deemed an encroachment, to go, as Providence might direct, to any of Mr. Mather's preaching-places.

And as Fletcher rejoiced in the evangelistic labours of others in his own neighbourhood, so he willingly engaged in similar labours himself in various parts of the country. In the year 1765 we find him exchanging pulpits for a while with Mr. Sellon, curate of Breedon, in Leicestershire, and preaching to the crowds who filled the church, and clambered to the windows to see and hear.

Two years later, having secured the services of an acceptable curate to serve the parish in his absence, he spent some weeks in Yorkshire with the Countess of Huntingdon and Mr. Venn, the Vicar of Huddersfield.

They were joined by a number of earnest clergy from different parts of the country, Mr. Madan from London, Dr. Conyers, Rector of Helmsley, Mr. Burnet, Vicar of Elland, and several others, by whom the gospel was preached to mult.i.tudes in town and country. In such companionship and in such labours Fletcher rejoiced greatly, and returned to his parish with renewed strength. The sense of loneliness was relieved. The difficulties of his work at Madeley seemed no longer exceptional.

Cheered by the success vouchsafed to his labours and those of his friends, he came back to his people "in the fulness of the blessing of Christ." Modern experience has shown how a parish or a congregation may be benefited by the coming of a mission preacher, and how a minister may be enlarged in heart and utterance by special labours away from his own flock. Missions based upon the recognition of these truths are now familiar to us all; but in this matter, as in so much of the quickened life of the Church, the men of the Revival led the way.