Wesley's Designated Successor: The Life, Letters, and Literary Labours of the Rev. John William Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, ShropshireTyerman, L. (Luke)
Religion
Wesley's Designated Successor: The Life, Letters, and Literary Labours of the Rev. John William Fletcher, Vicar of Madeley, Shropshire
Tyerman, L. (Luke)
Fletcher, John, 1729-1785
In his next pamphlet, which was published March 1, 1774,[298] Fletcher
treats poor Berridge with yet greater severity. The whole work was
devoted to an exposure of the objectionable and the weak points in
Berridge’s “Christian World Unmasked.” Its title was “_Logica
Genevensis_ continued. Or the Second Part of the Fifth Check to
Antinomianism; containing a Defence of ‘Jack o’ lanthorn,’ and ‘the
Paper-kite,’ _i.e._, Sincere Obedience;—of the ‘Cobweb,’ _i.e._, The
evangelical law of liberty; and of the ‘Valiant Sergeant I. F.,’ _i.e._,
The conditionality of Perseverance, attacked by the Rev. Mr. Berridge,
M.A., Vicar of Everton, and late Fellow of Clare-hall, Cambridge, in his
book called ‘The Christian World Unmasked.’ London: 1774.” 12 mo., 44
pp.
Footnote 298:
_Lloyd’s Evening Post_, March 2, 1774.
Berridge was well aware of Fletcher’s intention to attack his book, for
Fletcher himself, seven months before, had told him that what he had
“said about sincere obedience was the very core of Antinomianism,” and
that he must freely expose what he had written. Berridge, in letters to
John Thornton, Esq., and the Rev. John Newton, complained of this, and
said Fletcher had misapprehended his meaning. He also wrote to Fletcher
to the same effect, and told him that, if he published his attack, he
(Berridge) would not answer it. There can be no doubt that Berridge
never _intended_ to “disparage sincere obedience” to the law of God; but
his similes, allegories, figures, and loose language, might be construed
by Antinomian readers in such a sense. Fletcher believed Berridge to be
a sincere, earnest, obedient Christian; but he also believed that
Berridge’s well-meant book might be turned to a bad account by men with
whose Antinomian sentiments Berridge had no sympathy. In the
introduction to his pamphlet, Fletcher writes:—
“Before I mention Mr. Berridge’s mistakes, I must do justice to his
person. It is by no means my design to represent him as a divine, who
either leads a loose life, or _intends_ to hurt the Redeemer’s
interest. His conduct as a Christian is exemplary; his labours as a
minister are great; and I am persuaded that the wrong touches which he
gives to the ark of godliness are not only undesigned, but _intended_
to do God service.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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