Fletcher of MadeleyMacdonald, Frederic W. (Frederic William)
Religion
Fletcher of Madeley
Macdonald, Frederic W. (Frederic William)
Fletcher, John, 1729-1785
A proper discussion of this question would require, amongst other
things, an examination of the terms in which it is stated. They would
be found to contain, with some truth, assumptions utterly false and
misleading. Amongst these is the assumption that sanctity is not such,
unless it have a certain form, diverging not too widely from an
accepted type. The Roman controversialist objects to the Church of
England that it does not exhibit notes of sanctity, "that it has no
saints." As Dr. Mozley has said, "He refuses, in a certain case, to see
and recognise the Christian type, because it does not come before him
in the Latin shape, and with the accompaniments of intellectual grace
and refinement, which it has incorporated on its European area."[2] By
a very slight alteration in the wording of this sentence, it would
describe with equal accuracy the attitude of those who cannot recognise
sanctity which does not come before them in the Anglican shape; and by
a second and a third alteration, it would describe the inability, here
and there existing, to discern any sanctity but that of an accepted
type or favoured school. Much of the disparagement of "Evangelical"
piety is plainly of this kind; and the truth needs to be spoken with
regard to all these narrow and sectarian gauges of Christian character.
Amid the "diversities of ministrations and diversities of workings,"
there is no essential distinction as to the so called "note of
sanctity"; Eastern or Western, Anglican or Puritan, holiness is always
and essentially the same, rebuking every attempt to fasten it to a
particular type, or ignore it apart from a particular succession.
Fletcher was an Evangelical of Evangelicals, teaching conversion, the
witness of the Spirit, and the entire sanctification of believers. He
profoundly influenced the theology and general religious spirit and
character of Methodism. What then is the bearing of his spiritual life
and the influence of his example upon these latter? It is this: that
while holiness is, in its truest, deepest aspect, the gift of God,--it
is God who sanctifies as surely as it is God who justifies,--yet, alike
in the pursuit and possession of holiness, the Christian is called to
work together with God, in watchfulness and prayer, in self-examination
and self-denial, in reading and meditation, "exercising himself unto
godliness" in the many ways which Scripture enjoins and which insight
and experience will suggest.
If at any time the Methodists, or Evangelical Christians generally,
should let slip either of these truths; if holiness be thought of, on
the one hand, as a human attainment and not a Divine gift, or, on the
other, as a gift of God having no relation to personal discipline and
culture,--they will at least be breaking with their best traditions,
and have against them both the teaching and the example of their
fathers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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