am sorry to find you so ill." Mr. Fletcher answered with the greatest sweetness, "Sorry, sir! Why are you sorry? It is the chastisement of my heavenly Father, and I rejoice in it. I love the rod of my God, and rejoice therein, as an expression of his love and affection toward me."

"Mr. Venn being here asked whether Mr. Fletcher might not have been imprudent in carrying his labours to such an excess, answered, 'His heart was in them, and he was carried on with an impetus which could not be resisted. He did not look on the work of the ministry as a mere duty, but it was his pleasure and delight. Tell a votary of pleasure that his course of life will impair his property and health, and finally ruin him: he will reply that he knows all this; but he must go on; for life would not be tolerable without his pleasures. Such was the ardour of Mr. Fletcher in the ministry of the Gospel. He could not be happy but when employed in his great work.' Something having escaped one in the company which seemed to bear hard upon a particular body of Christians, Mr. Venn gave a solemn caution against evil speaking in these words :-'Never did I hear Mr. Fletcher speak ill of any man. He would pray for those that walked disorderly, but he would not publish their faults.'

"This I believe is the substance of what fell from Mr. Venn respecting the Rev. Mr. Fletcher, and the manner in which he spake showed that his admiration of that great and good man was raised to the highest pitch. Indeed, Mr. Venn was a person peculiarly qualified to appreciate the value of Mr. Fletcher, as the ardour of his own zeal and devotion most nearly resembled that of Mr. Fletcher. He lived in very uncommon nearness to God, and, as I have been informed, made a most triumphant entrance into the kingdom of glory. I am, my dear sir, yours affectionately,

The following character of Mr. Fletcher appeared in the Shrewsbury Chronicle of August, 1785:

"On the 14th instant departed this life, the Rev. John Fletcher, vicar of Madeley, in this county, to the inexpressible grief and concern of his parishioners, and of all who had the happiness of knowing him. If we speak

of him as a man and a gentleman, he was possessed of every virtue and every accomplishment which adorns and dignifies human nature. If we attempt to speak of him as a minister of the Gospel, it will be extremely dif ficult to give the world a just idea of this great character. His deep learning, his exalted piety, his never ceasing labours to discharge the important duty of his function, together with the abilities and good effect with which he discharged those duties, are best known, and will never be forgotten in that vineyard in which he laboured. His charity, his universal benevolence, his meekness, and exemplary goodness, are scarcely equalled among the sons of men. Anxious to the last moment of his life to discharge the sacred duties of his office, he performed the service of the Church, and administered the holy sacrament to upward of two hundred communicants, the Sunday pre. ceding his death, confiding in that almighty power which had given him life, and resigning that life into the hands of Him who gave it, with that composure of mind, and those joyful hopes of a happy resurrection, which ever accompany the last moments of the just."

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HIS EPITAPH.

Here lies the body of

The Rev. JOHN WILLIAM de la FLECHERE,
Vicar of Madeley,

Who was born at Nyon, in Switzerland,
September the 12th, 1729,

And finished his course, August the 14th, 1785,
In this village;

Where his unexampled labours
Will long be remembered.

He exercised his ministry for the space of
Twenty-five years
In this parish,

With uncommon zeal and ability.
Many believed his report, and became
His joy and crown of rejoicing;
While others constrained him to take up
The lamentation of the prophet,

"All the day long have I stretched out my hands
Unto a disobedient and gainsaying people:
Yet surely my judgment is with the Lord,
And my work with my God."

"He being dead yet speaketh."

THE END.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. I. Of his parentage and youth
II. His conversion..

III. From his conversion to his taking orders,
and entering upon the work of the
ministry..

IV. Of his qualifications for, and faithfulness

23

34

in the work of the ministry, and of his
labours at Madeley, and elsewhere.. 58
V. Of the excursions he made to different
places, his first visit to his native coun-
try, his office and usefulness at Tre-
vecka, and of the steps whereby he was
led to write on controversial subjects. 122
VI. Of his declining state of health, the pro-
gress of his disorder, and his behaviour
under it, with an account of his other

polemical writings, and the conclusion

of the controversy

VII. From his leaving Newington till his re-
turn from Switzerland to Madeley..

VIII. Of his marriage

IX. From his marriage till the beginning of

164

203

273

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