John William Fletcher
Encyclopedia
John William Fletcher English
divine, was born at Nyon
in Switzerland
, his original name being de la Fléchère.
Fletcher was a contemporary of John Wesley
(the founder of Methodism
), a key interpreter of Wesleyan theology in the 18th century, and one of Methodism's first great theologians. Of French Huguenot
stock, his given name was actually Jean Guillaume de la Fléchère. Fletcher was renowned in the Britain of his day for his piety and generosity; when asked if he had any needs, he responded, "...I want nothing but more grace."
, but, preferring an army career to a clerical one, went to Lisbon
and enlisted. An accident prevented his sailing with his regiment to Brazil
, and after a visit to Flanders, where an uncle offered to secure a commission for him, he went to England in c.1740/50. He had harbored a secret desire to travel to England, and had studied the English language prior to his arrival in London. In 1752 he became tutor to the sons of Thomas and Susanna Hill, a wealthy Shropshire
family, who spent part of the year in London. On one of the family's stays in London, Fletcher first heard of the Methodists and became personally acquainted with John and Charles Wesley, as well as his future wife, Mary Bosanquet. In 1757 Fletcher was Ordained as deacon (6 March 1757) and Priest (13 March 1757) in the Church of England, being appointed curate to the Rev. Rowland Chambre in the parish of Madeley, Shropshire.
In addition to performing the duties of his curacy, he sometimes preached with John Wesley
and assisted him with clerical duties in Wesley's London chapels. As a preacher in his own right, but also as one of Wesley's coadjutors, Fletcher became known as a fervent supporter of the Evangelical Revival. Fletcher perceived a vocational call from God to parochial ministry, and being led by this calling rather than by the temptation to wealth and influence, he refusing an offer to be presented to the wealthy living of Dunham, accepting instead the humble industrializing parish of Madeley
in Shropshire
. He had developed a sincere religious and social concern for the people of this populous part of the West Midlands where he had first served in the Christian ministry, and here, for twenty-five years (1760-1785), he lived and worked with unique devotion and zeal, described by his wife as his "unexampled labours" in the epitaph she penned for his iron tomb. Fletcher was devoted to the Methodist concern for spiritual renewal and revival, and committed himself to the Wesley's by correspondence and by coming to their aid as a theologian, while maintaining a never wavering commitment to the Church of England. Indeed, much of Fletcher's controversial theological writings claimed their foundation was the 39 Articles, the Book of Common Prayer
, and the Homilies of the Church of England
. Yet, for all his support of John Wesley's and his Methodist societies which in many cases came into tension with the parish clergy, John Fletcher believed the Methodist model functioned best within the parochial system, and himself implemented his own brand of Methodism in his own parish.
doctrines of free will, universal redemption and general atonement, against the Calvinist doctrines of unconditional election and limited atonement. His Arminian theology is most clearly outlined in his famous Checks to Antinomianism. He attempted to confront his (and John Wesley's) theological adversaries with courtesy and fairness, although some of his contemporaries judged him harshly for his writings. His resignation on doctrinal grounds of the superintendency (1768-1771) of the countess of Huntingdon's college at Trevecca left no unpleasantness. Fletcher was characterized by saintly piety, rare devotion, and blamelessness of life, and the testimony of his contemporaries to his godliness is unanimous.
Although Fletcher's funeral sermon was preached by his friend, Rev. Thomas Hatton, a like-minded clergyman from a neighboring parish, Wesley wrote an elegiac sermon in the months after Fletcher's death, reflecting upon the text of Psalm 37:37, "Mark the perfect man." He characterized him as the holiest man he had ever met, or ever expected to meet "this side of eternity." Southey
said that "no age ever provided a man of more fervent piety or more perfect charity, and no church ever possessed a more apostolic minister." His fame was not confined to his own country, for it is said that Voltaire
, when challenged to produce a character as perfect as that of Christ, at once mentioned Fletcher of Madeley. There remains to date no complete edition of his Works, although varying editions of collections his Works were first published after his death, first in 1795, with subsequent editions in 1806, 1822, 1836, 1859-60, 1873, and 1883 (among others, including a twentieth-century reprint by Schmul Publishers).
The chief of his published works, written against Calvinism, were his Five Checks to Antinomianism, Scripture Scales, and his pastoral theology, Portrait of St Paul. See lives by John Wesley (1786); Luke Tyerman (1882); F.W. Macdonald (1885); J. Maratt (1902); also JC Ryle
, Christian Leaders of the 18th Century.
Most of Fletcher's theological publications date from the period between 1770 and 1778, when there was great conflict between Wesley and the Methodists and British Calvinists
(although, much of the thought found in these treatises can be traced to the early days of his ministry as the Vicar of Madeley). When Wesley's Calvinist opponents made the charge that Wesley had endorsed works righteousness, Fletcher demonstrated that this was not the case. Rather, Fletcher countered that Wesley's language was an attempt to attack antinomianism
in the British Church. Fletcher's subsequent publication Checks to Antinomianism supported Wesley further; this was the first distinctively Wesleyan
theological writing published by someone other than John
or Charles Wesley
.
Fletcher often wrote about entire sanctification
, which has been influential to the holiness movements in Methodism, as well as in the development of Pentecostal theology. John Wesley influenced, and was influenced by, the writings of Fletcher concerning perfection through the cleansing of the heart to be made perfect in love.
Fletcher became the chief systematizer of Methodist theology. Addressing Wesley's position on the sovereignty of God as it relates to human freedom, Fletcher developed a particular historical perspective espousing a series of three dispensations (time periods) in which God worked uniquely in creation. (This is not to be confused with Dispensational theology
, which was fashioned long after Fletcher's death.) Through these dispensations, God's sovereignty was revealed not in terms of ultimate power but in terms of an unfathomable love. Fletcher sought to emphasize human freedom while connecting it firmly with God's grace.
He typically wrote of God in terms of divine moral qualities rather than in terms of power or wrath. His themes were:
"1. Man is utterly dependent upon God's gift of salvation, which cannot be earned but only received; and
2. The Christian religion is of a personal and moral character involving ethical demands on man and implying both human ability and human responsibility."
Fletcher himself summarized his theological position:
"The error of rigid Calvinists centers in the denial of that evangelical liberty, whereby all men, under various dispensations of grace, may without necessity choose life...And the error of rigid Arminians consists in not paying a cheerful homage to redeeming grace, for all the liberty and power which we have to choose life, and to work righteousness since the fall...To avoid these two extremes, we need only follow the Scripture-doctrine of free-will restored and assisted by free-grace."
John Wesley had chosen Fletcher to lead the Methodist movement upon Wesley's passing, but Fletcher died prior to Wesley.
Though the entire Methodist family utilizes Fletcher's work, his writings have found particular popularity among Holiness
theologians.
----
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
divine, was born at Nyon
Nyon
Nyon is a municipality in the district of Nyon in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland. It is located some 25 kilometers north east of Geneva's city centre, and since the 1970s it has become part of the Geneva metropolitan area. It lies on the shores of Lake Geneva, and is the seat of the district of...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, his original name being de la Fléchère.
Fletcher was a contemporary of John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
(the founder of Methodism
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
), a key interpreter of Wesleyan theology in the 18th century, and one of Methodism's first great theologians. Of French Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
stock, his given name was actually Jean Guillaume de la Fléchère. Fletcher was renowned in the Britain of his day for his piety and generosity; when asked if he had any needs, he responded, "...I want nothing but more grace."
Early life
He was educated at GenevaGeneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, but, preferring an army career to a clerical one, went to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
and enlisted. An accident prevented his sailing with his regiment to Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, and after a visit to Flanders, where an uncle offered to secure a commission for him, he went to England in c.1740/50. He had harbored a secret desire to travel to England, and had studied the English language prior to his arrival in London. In 1752 he became tutor to the sons of Thomas and Susanna Hill, a wealthy Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
family, who spent part of the year in London. On one of the family's stays in London, Fletcher first heard of the Methodists and became personally acquainted with John and Charles Wesley, as well as his future wife, Mary Bosanquet. In 1757 Fletcher was Ordained as deacon (6 March 1757) and Priest (13 March 1757) in the Church of England, being appointed curate to the Rev. Rowland Chambre in the parish of Madeley, Shropshire.
In addition to performing the duties of his curacy, he sometimes preached with John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
and assisted him with clerical duties in Wesley's London chapels. As a preacher in his own right, but also as one of Wesley's coadjutors, Fletcher became known as a fervent supporter of the Evangelical Revival. Fletcher perceived a vocational call from God to parochial ministry, and being led by this calling rather than by the temptation to wealth and influence, he refusing an offer to be presented to the wealthy living of Dunham, accepting instead the humble industrializing parish of Madeley
Madeley, Shropshire
Madeley is a town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, now part of the new town of Telford. The parish had a population of 17,935 at the 2001 census.Madeley is recorded in the Domesday Book, having been founded before the 8th century...
in Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
. He had developed a sincere religious and social concern for the people of this populous part of the West Midlands where he had first served in the Christian ministry, and here, for twenty-five years (1760-1785), he lived and worked with unique devotion and zeal, described by his wife as his "unexampled labours" in the epitaph she penned for his iron tomb. Fletcher was devoted to the Methodist concern for spiritual renewal and revival, and committed himself to the Wesley's by correspondence and by coming to their aid as a theologian, while maintaining a never wavering commitment to the Church of England. Indeed, much of Fletcher's controversial theological writings claimed their foundation was the 39 Articles, the Book of Common Prayer
Book of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...
, and the Homilies of the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
. Yet, for all his support of John Wesley's and his Methodist societies which in many cases came into tension with the parish clergy, John Fletcher believed the Methodist model functioned best within the parochial system, and himself implemented his own brand of Methodism in his own parish.
His Marriage
In 1781, Fletcher returned from the Continent where he had been convalescing from a severe respiratory disorder. Upon his return he picked up a correspondence with a woman he had met nearly thirty years previous, Mary Bosanquet, who in the early 1770s had become the first woman preacher authorized by John Wesley to preach. Mr. Fletcher and Miss Bosanquet carried on a correspondence during the summer of 1781, finding they had both at one time considered the other as a suitable spouse. They were married at Batley Church in Yorkshire on 12 November 1781. Fletcher exchanged pulpits with the evangelical vicar of Bradford, John Crosse in order to settle his wife's affairs in Yorkshire. They returned to Madeley together on 2 January 1782. Their marriage was to be short-lived, for Fletcher died less than four years later, on 14 August 1785. After his death, Mary Fletcher was allowed to continue living in the vicarage by the new vicar, Henry Burton, a pluralist clergyman who was also the incumbent of Atcham parish near Shrewsbury. Though John Wesley attempted to persuade Mrs. Fletcher to leave Madeley for a ministry with the Methodists in London, she refused, believing she was called to carry on her late husband's work in the parish. This she did for the next thirty years. She died in the parish and was buried in the same grave as her husband in December 1815.Theology
In theology he upheld the ArminianArminianism
Arminianism is a school of soteriological thought within Protestant Christianity based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic followers, the Remonstrants...
doctrines of free will, universal redemption and general atonement, against the Calvinist doctrines of unconditional election and limited atonement. His Arminian theology is most clearly outlined in his famous Checks to Antinomianism. He attempted to confront his (and John Wesley's) theological adversaries with courtesy and fairness, although some of his contemporaries judged him harshly for his writings. His resignation on doctrinal grounds of the superintendency (1768-1771) of the countess of Huntingdon's college at Trevecca left no unpleasantness. Fletcher was characterized by saintly piety, rare devotion, and blamelessness of life, and the testimony of his contemporaries to his godliness is unanimous.
Although Fletcher's funeral sermon was preached by his friend, Rev. Thomas Hatton, a like-minded clergyman from a neighboring parish, Wesley wrote an elegiac sermon in the months after Fletcher's death, reflecting upon the text of Psalm 37:37, "Mark the perfect man." He characterized him as the holiest man he had ever met, or ever expected to meet "this side of eternity." Southey
Robert Southey
Robert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...
said that "no age ever provided a man of more fervent piety or more perfect charity, and no church ever possessed a more apostolic minister." His fame was not confined to his own country, for it is said that Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
, when challenged to produce a character as perfect as that of Christ, at once mentioned Fletcher of Madeley. There remains to date no complete edition of his Works, although varying editions of collections his Works were first published after his death, first in 1795, with subsequent editions in 1806, 1822, 1836, 1859-60, 1873, and 1883 (among others, including a twentieth-century reprint by Schmul Publishers).
The chief of his published works, written against Calvinism, were his Five Checks to Antinomianism, Scripture Scales, and his pastoral theology, Portrait of St Paul. See lives by John Wesley (1786); Luke Tyerman (1882); F.W. Macdonald (1885); J. Maratt (1902); also JC Ryle
John Charles Ryle
John Charles Ryle was the first Anglican bishop of Liverpool.-Life:Ryle was born at Macclesfield, and was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was Craven Scholar in 1836...
, Christian Leaders of the 18th Century.
Most of Fletcher's theological publications date from the period between 1770 and 1778, when there was great conflict between Wesley and the Methodists and British Calvinists
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
(although, much of the thought found in these treatises can be traced to the early days of his ministry as the Vicar of Madeley). When Wesley's Calvinist opponents made the charge that Wesley had endorsed works righteousness, Fletcher demonstrated that this was not the case. Rather, Fletcher countered that Wesley's language was an attempt to attack antinomianism
Antinomianism
Antinomianism is defined as holding that, under the gospel dispensation of grace, moral law is of no use or obligation because faith alone is necessary to salvation....
in the British Church. Fletcher's subsequent publication Checks to Antinomianism supported Wesley further; this was the first distinctively Wesleyan
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
theological writing published by someone other than John
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...
or Charles Wesley
Charles Wesley
Charles Wesley was an English leader of the Methodist movement, son of Anglican clergyman and poet Samuel Wesley, the younger brother of Anglican clergyman John Wesley and Anglican clergyman Samuel Wesley , and father of musician Samuel Wesley, and grandfather of musician Samuel Sebastian Wesley...
.
Fletcher often wrote about entire sanctification
Christian perfection
Christian perfection, also known as perfect love; heart purity; the baptism of the Holy Spirit; the fullness of the blessing; Christian holiness; the second blessing; and entire sanctification, is a Christian doctrine which holds that the heart of the regenerant Christian may attain a state of...
, which has been influential to the holiness movements in Methodism, as well as in the development of Pentecostal theology. John Wesley influenced, and was influenced by, the writings of Fletcher concerning perfection through the cleansing of the heart to be made perfect in love.
Fletcher became the chief systematizer of Methodist theology. Addressing Wesley's position on the sovereignty of God as it relates to human freedom, Fletcher developed a particular historical perspective espousing a series of three dispensations (time periods) in which God worked uniquely in creation. (This is not to be confused with Dispensational theology
Dispensationalism
Dispensationalism is a nineteenth-century evangelical development based on a futurist biblical hermeneutic that sees a series of chronologically successive "dispensations" or periods in history in which God relates to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants.As a system,...
, which was fashioned long after Fletcher's death.) Through these dispensations, God's sovereignty was revealed not in terms of ultimate power but in terms of an unfathomable love. Fletcher sought to emphasize human freedom while connecting it firmly with God's grace.
Writing style
Fletcher's writings, while serious in nature, display his keen wit, sometimes demonstrated by the use of clever satire. His typical form for constructing his arguments was a theological treatise written in epistolary fashion, though he utilized the literary convention of hypothetical Socratic "dialogues", as well as writing sermons and poetry, the most famous poem of which is his La Grace et la Nature. His Portrait of St. Paul, written in French, but translated and published posthumously, fit well within the genre of clerical training books of the period.He typically wrote of God in terms of divine moral qualities rather than in terms of power or wrath. His themes were:
"1. Man is utterly dependent upon God's gift of salvation, which cannot be earned but only received; and
2. The Christian religion is of a personal and moral character involving ethical demands on man and implying both human ability and human responsibility."
Fletcher himself summarized his theological position:
"The error of rigid Calvinists centers in the denial of that evangelical liberty, whereby all men, under various dispensations of grace, may without necessity choose life...And the error of rigid Arminians consists in not paying a cheerful homage to redeeming grace, for all the liberty and power which we have to choose life, and to work righteousness since the fall...To avoid these two extremes, we need only follow the Scripture-doctrine of free-will restored and assisted by free-grace."
John Wesley had chosen Fletcher to lead the Methodist movement upon Wesley's passing, but Fletcher died prior to Wesley.
Though the entire Methodist family utilizes Fletcher's work, his writings have found particular popularity among Holiness
Holiness movement
The holiness movement refers to a set of beliefs and practices emerging from the Methodist Christian church in the mid 19th century. The movement is distinguished by its emphasis on John Wesley's doctrine of "Christian perfection" - the belief that it is possible to live free of voluntary sin - and...
theologians.
External links
- Information on the life of John Fletcher from St. Michael's Church, Madeley. John Fletcher was vicar here, and his cast iron tomb is also located here.
- A website dedicated to the scholarly study of the lives, ministries, theologies, and contexts of John and Mary Fletcher
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