Online Encyclopedia

JOHN WILLIAM FLETCHER (1729-1785)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 498 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JOHN WILLIAM FLETCHER (1729-1785)  ,
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English divine, was 'born at Nyon in
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Switzerland on the r2th of September 1729, his
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original name being DE LA FLECEERE . He was educated at Geneva, 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
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uncle offered' to secure a commission for him, he went to England, picked up the language, and in 1752 became tutor in a Shropshire
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family . Here he came under the influence of the new Methodist preachers, and in 1757 took orders, being ordained by the bishop of Bangor . He often preached with John Wesley and for him, and became known as a fervent supporter of the revival . Refusing the wealthy living of Dunham, he accepted the humble one of
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Madeley, where for twenty-five years (1760-1785) he lived and worked with unique devotion and zeal . Fletcher was one of the few parish clergy who understood Wesley and his
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work, yet he never wrote or said anything inconsistent with his own
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Anglican position . In
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theology he. upheld the Arminian against the Calvinist position, but always with courtesy and fairness; his resignation on doctrinal grounds of the superintendency (1768–1771) of the countess of Hunting-don's college at Trevecca
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left no unpleasantness . The outstanding feature of his
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life was a transparent simplicity and saintliness of spirit, and the testimony of his contemporaries to his godliness is unanimous . Wesley preached his funeral sermon from the words " Mark the perfect man." 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 . He died on the 14th of August 1785 .
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Complete
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editions of his
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works were published in 1803 and 1836 .

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chief of them, written against Calvinism, are Five Checks 'to Antinomianism, Scripture Scales to weigh the Gold of Gospel Truth, and the Portrait o St Paul . See lives by J . Wesley (1786); L . Tyerman (1882); F . W . Macdonald (1885); J . Maratt (1902); also C . J . Ryle, Christian Leaders of the' 8th Century, pp .

End of Article: JOHN WILLIAM FLETCHER (1729-1785)
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