“As no man is bound to believe what is contrary to common sense, if the above-stated doctrine appears irrational, Scriptures, Articles, Homilies, and Liturgy are quoted in vain. When men of parts are pressed with their authority, they start from it as an imposition on their reason, and make as honourable a retreat as they possibly can.
“Some, to extricate themselves at once, set the Bible aside as full of incredible assertions. Others, with more modesty, plead that the Scriptures have been frequently misunderstood, and are so in the present case. They put grammar, criticism, and common sense to the rack, to show that when the inspired writers say the human heart is desperately wicked, they mean that it is extremely good; or at least like blank paper, ready to receive either the characters of virtue or of vice. With respect to the testimony of our Reformers, they would have you to understand that in this enlightened age we must leave their harsh, uncharitable sentiments to the old Puritans and the present Methodists.
“That such objectors may subscribe as a solemn truth what they have hitherto rejected as a dangerous error, and that humbled sinners may see the propriety of a heart-felt repentance, and the absolute need of an Almighty Redeemer, they are here presented with some proofs of our depravity, taken from the astonishing severity of God’s dispensations towards mankind.”
Limited space renders it impossible to give an outline of Fletcher’s thirty-six arguments, all founded upon the following axiom:—
“If we consider the Supreme Being as creating a world for the manifestation of His glory, the display of His perfections, and the communication of His happiness to an intelligent creature, whom He would attach to Himself by the strongest ties of gratitude and love, we at once perceive that He never could form this earth and man in their present disordered, deplorable condition.”
An extract from the ninth argument will not be out of place, furnishing, as it does, a doleful picture of a large number of Fletcher’s parishioners—the colliers, the bargemen, and the iron-workers.
“To go no farther than this populous parish; with what hardships and dangers do our indigent neighbours earn their bread! See those who ransack the bowels of the earth to get the black mineral we burn; how little is their lot preferable to the Spanish felons who work the golden mines?
“They take their leave of the light of the sun, and, suspended by a rope, are let down many fathoms perpendicularly towards the centre of the globe; they traverse the rocks through which they have dug their horizontal ways. The murderer’s cell is a palace in comparison of the black spot to which they repair; the vagrant’s posture in the stocks is preferable to that in which they labour.
“Form, if you can, an idea of the misery of men kneeling, stooping, or lying on one side, to toil all day in a confined place, where a child could hardly stand; whilst a younger company, with their hands and feet on the black dusty ground, and a chain about their body, creep, and drag along, like four-footed beasts, heavy loads of the dirty mineral, through ways almost impassable to the curious observer.
“In these low and dreary vaults, all the elements seem combined against them. Destructive damps, and clouds of noxious dust, infect the air they breathe. Sometimes water incessantly distils on their naked bodies; or, bursting upon them in streams, drowns them, and deluges their work. At other times, pieces of detached rocks crush them to death; or the earth, breaking in upon them, buries them alive. And frequently sulphureous vapours, kindled in an instant by the light of their candles, form subterraneous thunder and lightning. What a dreadful phenomenon! How impetuous is the blast! How fierce the rolling flames! How intolerable the noisome smell! How dreadful the continued roar! How violent and fatal the explosion!