POSTHUMOUS PIECES

OF THE

LATE REV. JOHN FLETCHER;

CONTAINING

SIX LETTERS

ON THE

SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATION OF THE SON OF GOD;

TOGETHER WITH

DIVERS PASTORAL AND FAMILIAR LETTERS:

COLLECTED AND FIRST PUBLISHED

BY THE REV. MELVILLE HORNE.

MR. HORNE'S PREFACE.

THE name of the venerable Mr. FLETCHER, inscribed on this volume, will introduce it to the perusal of many; and its own intrinsic worth will, I flatter myself, entitle it to the approbation of proper judges. Thus I am relieved from the pain of soliciting for it the notice of the public, and giving it that commendation which will better become any other person than the editor. It may, however, be expected that I should give some account of my book; and I conform the more cheerfully to general custom, as it affords me an opportunity of conciliating the candour of the reader.

This book is truly Mr. FLETCHER's. A large part of the Letters is transcribed from the originals, others from authentic copies, and some from a small Collection of Letters, published a few years ago in Dublin. For the Letters on the Manifestation of Christ, and the Fragments, I am obliged to Mrs. Fletcher: the first are in the author's own manuscript, the last copied by Mrs. Fletcher from some of his old pocket books. The Pastoral and Familiar Letters are written from the period of Mr. FLETCHER'S Conversion, to within a few days of his decease. When the Letters on the Manifestation were written, or to whom they are addressed, I cannot learn; but from the beginning of the first letter, the decayed state of the manuscript, and the extreme smallness of the character, (which could scarcely have been legible to the author in his latter years,) I judge them to have been the first essay of a genius afterward so much admired. The Fragments, of which some appear as the thoughts of the day, others as notes of sermons, bear date the first few years of his ministry.

If, therefore, any part of this volume, however excellent, be deemed inferior to the more mature productions of the same admirable pen, it is hoped that candour will have at least as much weight as criticism.

The reader is farther requested to remember that the pious author wrote only for himself and his friends; that these sheets want his perfecting hand; and that the editor thought himself entitled to take no liberties.

It is not expected that Mr. FLETCHER's reputation, as a writer, will receive new lustre from these Posthumous Pieces: but, if the many friends who revere his memory, find edification and delight in perusing his apostolic letters; if any, whose opposition of sentiment would not allow them to converse with him as a polemic divine, shall now receive him to their breasts as a Christian brother; if any who have not reaped VOL. IV.

18

the rich harvest of his former writings, are benefited by toe gleanings of the field; and if the world in general is made better acquainted with the virtues of this excellent man, all the ends proposed by their publication will be obtained, and the editor will think himself justified in giving them to the press.

That the benediction of the Almighty may attend these last labours of his servant, that the reader may imbibe the spirit of the author, and that myself and all my fellow labourers in the Gospel may emulate his faith and work in the Lord, is the earnest desire of

THE EDITOR.

SIX LETTERS

ON THE

SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATION OF THE SON OF GOD.

LETTER I.

SIR,-When I had the pleasure of seeing you last, you seemed sur prised to hear me say that the Son of God, for purposes worthy of his wisdom, manifests himself, sooner or later, to all his sincere followers, in a spiritual manner, which the world knows not of. The assertion appeared to you unscriptural, enthusiastical, and dangerous. What I then advanced to prove that it was Scriptural, rational, and of the greatest importance, made you desire I would write to you on the mysterious subject. I declined it, as being unequal to the task; but having since considered that a mistake here may endanger your soul and mine, I sit down to comply with your request: and the end I propose by it, is either to give you a fair opportunity of pointing out my error, if I am wrong, or to engage you, if I am right, to seek what I esteem the most valuable of all blessings-revelations of Christ to your own soul, productive of the experimental knowledge of him, and the present enjoyment of his salvation.

As an architect cannot build a palace unless he be allowed a proper spot to erect it upon, so I shall not be able to establish the doctrine I maintain unless you allow me the existence of the proper senses to which our Lord manifests himself. The manifestation I contend for being of a spiritual nature, must be made to spiritual senses; and that such senses exist, and are opened in, and exercised by regenerate souls, is what I design to prove in this letter, by the joint testimony of Scripture, our Church, and reason.

I. The Scriptures inform us that Adam lost the experimental know. ledge of God by the fall. His foolish attempt to hide himself from his Creator, whose eyes are in every place, evidences the total blindness of his understanding. The same veil of unbelief which hid God from his mind, was drawn over his heart and all his spiritual senses. He died the death, the moral, spiritual death, in consequence of which the corruptible body sinks into the grave, and the unregenerate soul into hell. In this deplorable state Adam begat his children. We, like him, are not only void of the life of God, but alienated from it through the ignorance that is in us. Hence it is, that though we are possessed of such an animal and rational life, as he retained after the commission of his sin, yet we are, by nature, utter strangers to the holiness and bliss he enjoyed in a state of innocence. Though we have, in common with beasts, bodily organs of sight, hearing, tasting, smelling, and feeling, adapted to outward objects; though we enjoy, in common with devils, the faculty of reasoning upon natural truths and mathematical proposi.