ly to visit the college as frequently as
he could; 'and,' writes Dr. Benson, the first head-master, 'he was
received as an angel of God.' 'It is not possible,' he adds, 'for me to
describe the veneration in which we all held him. Like Elijah in the
schools of the Prophets, he was revered, he was loved, he was almost
adored. My heart kindles while I write. Here it was that I saw, shall I
say an angel in human flesh?--I should not far exceed the truth if I
said so'--and much more to the same effect. It was the same wherever
Fletcher went; the impression he made was extraordinary; language seems
to fail those who tried to describe it. 'I went,' said one who visited
him in an illness (he was always delicate), 'to see a man that had one
foot in the grave, but I found a man that had one foot in heaven.'[757]
'Sir,' said Mr. Venn to one who asked him his opinion of Fletcher, 'he
was a _luminary_--a luminary did I say?--he was a _sun_! I have known
all the great men for these fifty years, but none like him.' John Wesley
was of the same opinion; in Fletcher he saw realised in the highest
degree all that he meant by 'Christian Perfection.' For some time he
hesitated to write a description of this 'great man,' 'judging that only
an Apelles was proper to paint an Alexander;' but at length he published
his well-known sermon on the significant text, 'Mark the perfect man,'
&c. (Ps. xxxvii. 37), which he concluded with this striking testimony to
the unequalled character of his friend: 'I was intimately acquainted
with him for above thirty years; I conversed with him morning, noon, and
night without the least reserve, during a journey of many hundred miles;
and in all that time I never heard him speak one improper word, nor saw
him do an improper action. To conclude; many exemplary men have I known,
holy in heart and life, within fourscore years, but one equal to him I
have not known--one so inwardly and outwardly devoted to God. So
unblamable a character in every respect I have not found either in
Europe or America; and I scarce expect to find another such on this side
of eternity.' Fletcher, on his part, was one of the few parish clergymen
who to the end thoroughly appreciated John Wesley. He thought it
'shameful that no clergyman should join Wesley to keep in the Church the
work God had enabled him to carry on therein;' and he was half-inclined
to join him as his deacon, 'not,' he adds with genuine modesty, 'with
any view of presiding