Fletcher, John; Horne, Melvill. Posthumous Pieces of the Rev. John Fletcher : by the Rev. Melvill Horne, Curate of Madeley. Philadelphia: Printed by Solomon W. Conrad, for Ezekiel Cooper, no. 118, North Fourth Street, near the Methodist Church, 1804. [12426]
Full tree calf with a red leather spine title label, gilt lines to spine, binding very good showing little wear and no cracks, 6 3/4 x 4 3//8 inches, tight. "The property of Ezekiel W. Coffins" in brown ink on the ffep. [i]-vi, [7]-345 pp., complete. Foxing to the first several leaves, most of the book is clean, some creasing to the bottom corner of the last few leaves. Very good. Hardcover.
"Here we have a discovery of that great man, in the character of the most humble and deeply experienced christian. Here we have his very heart and private conduct unfolded to public view: and as we read, we must gaze with astonishment. We may perhaps venture to say, we have never seen any publication better to instruct, comfort, and strengthen the sincere enquirer after holiness and heave, than the contents of this book." - To the Reader.
Contents: Pastoral Letters, pp. [7]-255; Six Letters on the Spiritual Manifestation of the Son of God, pp. 245-304; Fragments, pp. 305-338 (These are excerpts on various spiritual subjects); The Test of a New Creature, or Heads of Examination for Adult Christians; pp. 339-345.
John Fletcher (1729-85), a native of Nyon, Switzerland, received orders in the Church of England in 1757. Educated at Geneva, where he studied both philology and philosophy. He was a master of the French, German, Latin, Greek and Hebrew languages. Fletcher was closely associated with John Wesley in his labors, and was a man of most exemplary character. Fletcher was quickly shunned by higher society, including the clergy, because of his reproving of their sports and pastimes. He led a life of severe abstinence in order to save money to help the poor of his parish. In 1770 at the request of Lady Huntington he became president of her seminary for educating young men for the ministry.
“One of the holiest men that the Christian Church has seen in modern times.” – Dr. Williams.
“Fletcher was a man of heavenly temper; a saint in the ancient and high sense of the term, whose enthusiasm was entirely inimical with bitterness, and whose life and death are alike edifying.” – London Quarterly Review.
Melvill (or Melville) Horne (c. 1761-1841), Wesleyan Methodist minister, briefly a missionary to Sierra Leone, instrumental in the founding of the London Missionary Society in 1795. He was the successor to the Rev. John Fletcher at Madeley, and after his return from Africa was the pastor at Olney and several other places.
