Wesley Corpus

“One end of his retiring to Newington was, that he might hide himself from company. But this design was in nowise answered; for company came from every side. He was continually visited by high and low, and by persons of various denominations; one of whom being asked, when he went away, what he thought of Mr. Fletcher, said, ‘I went to see a man that had one foot in the grave, but I found a man that had one foot in heaven. Among them that now visited him were several of his beloved and honoured opponents; to whom he confirmed his love (however roughly they had treated him) by the most respectful and affectionate behaviour. But he did not give up any part of the truth for which he had publicly contended; although some (from whom one would have expected better things) did not scruple to affirm the contrary. Those of his particular friends who visited him here will not easily forget how he exhausted his whole soul in effusions of thankfulness: Mrs. Cartwright and Cavendish in particular, with his faithful and affectionate friend Mr. Ireland, will remember their interviews with him. And those of the family were almost oppressed by the outpourings of his love and gratitude, whenever they showed their love and care in the most inconsiderable instance; yea, so thankful, in proportion, would he be to even the meanest servant. 19. “It was not without some difficulty that Mr. Ireland at length prevailed upon him to sit for his picture. While the limner was drawing the outlines of it, he was exhorting both him and all that were in the room, not only to get the outlines drawn, but the colourings also, of the image of Jesus on their hearts. He had a very remarkable facility in making allu sions of this kind; in raising spiritual observations from every accidental circumstance; in turning men's employments, pleasures, and pains, into means of edification: This he did, in order to engage the attention of the thoughtless, the more deeply to fix the attention of the thoughtful, and to prevent the trifling away of time in unprofitable conversation. And such little incidents as used to pass away unnoticed by almost any other person, acquired from Mr. Fletcher's fine imagina tion a kind of grace and dignity.