From Maria Tucker in Queen Street, Bath, to John Fletcher in Madeley Wood. She begs pardon for intruding, as a stranger, upon Fletcher's time, but she feels that by avoiding this contact previously, she has brought down a great deadness upon her soul. She feels that she must express her gratitutde to Fletcher for his labours in writing his checks [to Antinomianism - published 1771-4]. She rejoices that Fletcher was called upon by God to act as 'an able David against that uncircumcised Philistian antinomianism, who had made larger strides towards the camp than you imagined'.
Tucker discusses her personal spiritual development in detail, especially when reading the second check. Tucker describes her spiritual progress from childhood onwards. Particular reference is made to Tucker attending the public preaching in Bath of the Anglican evangelical and associate of the Countess of Huntingdon Walter Shirley and to her forming a close relationship with Shirley as her pastor and spiritual mentor. She joined the 'chapel society' but also revered John Wesley, for she was not of a 'party spirit'.
Tucker soon began to see the differences between the different evangelical groups and she was ridiculed because of her plain dress. She attended both the [Countess of Huntingdon] Chapel and the 'room' [the Wesleyan place of worship] despite the annoyance this caused to many. Tucker underwent a spiritual crisis where she was groaning under the weight of her sense of sin. She was disappointed by Shirley's response, as he did not appear to understand her deep loathing of sin, and this dismissive response impacted on her commitment to be saved. 'A mind so young as mine was easily overcome and I know not what lengths I might have ran, had not your checks awoke me from the sleep of death, which I was in, and at the same time vainly imagining myself self-landed , my salvation was finished, I had nothing to do. Oh sir, how I shudder, my blood changes within me when I take a view of the state I was in ... my sleep was restless owing to the dreadful dreams I continually had concerning the [unreadable word], some of which leaves me little or no room to doubt their being warnings to flee from that dangerous point to which I was hastening ... how greatly I am indebted to you ... I think I could throw myself at your feet and pray for you till my bodily strength failed ... I shall never forget you at the Throne of Grace, as that is the only reward I can possibly give you ...'
Tucker's current spiritual state is described in great detail. Within the last week, she has been blessed with 'such near access to God, I could indeed cry my Lord and my God; and am frequently so bowed down under a sense of my great unworthiness and at the same time such a view of the love of God to my soul, that I am constrained to cry out loud ...'
In a postscript, Tucker reassures Fletcher that she does not mean to be critical of Walter Shirley for she esteems him very highly, but she cannot help laying out the full truth of her experience.
Notes
- Walter Shirley (1726-86) was born at Staunton Harold in Leicestershire, the grandson of Robert, first Earl Ferrers. He was first cousin to the Countess of Huntingdon and brother to the notorious Earl Ferrers, who was hanged at Tyburn in 1760 for murder. He was educated at Oxford and after his ordination was presented to the Irish living of Loughrea. Shirley was converted by Henry Venn and exercised an evangelical ministry despite the opposition of his bishop. Shirley played a major role in the controversy of 1770 over the relationship of the Methodist Church to the doctrines of Calvinism. His wife was Henrietta Maria, daughter of John Phillips of Dublin. Source: Encyclopedia of World Methodism (1974) and Dictionary of Evangelical Biography 1739-1860, edited by Donald M. Lewis (1995)