TO

THE PRINCIPAL INHABITANTS

OF

THE PARISH OF MADELEY,

IN THE COUNTY OF SALOP.

GENTLEMEN,

You are no less entitled to my private labours, than the inferior class of my parishioners. As you do not choose to partake with them of my evening instructions, I take the liberty to present you with some of my morning meditations. May these well-meant endeavours of my pen be more acceptable to you than those of my tongue! And may you carefully read in your closets, what you have perhaps inattentively heard in the church! I appeal to the Searcher of hearts, that I had rather impart truth than receive tithes. You kindly bestow the latter upon me: grant me, I pray, the satisfaction of seeing you favourably receive the former, from,

Gentlemen,

Your affectionate Minister,

And obedient Servant,

J. FLETCHER.

Madeley, 1772

CONTENTS.

AN INTRODUCTION.

PART I.

The doctrine of man's corrupt and lost estate is stated at large. in the words of the Prophets, Apostles, and Jesus Christ; and recapitulated in those of the Articles, Homilies, and Liturgy of the Church of England.

PART II.

Man is considered as an inhabitant of the natural world ; and his fall is proved by arguments deduced from the misery in which he is now undeniably involved, compared with the happiness of which we cannot help conceiving him possessed when he came out of the hands of his gracious Creator.

A view of this misery in the following particulars :I. The disorders of the globe we inhabit, and the dreadful scourges with which it is visited.-II. The deplorable and shocking circumstances of our birth.-III. The painful and dangerous travail of women.IV. The untimely dissolution of still-born, or newborn children.-V. Our natural uncleanliness, helplessness, ignorance, and nakedness.-VI. The gross darkness in which we naturally are, both with respect to God and a future state.—VII. The general rebellion of the brute creation against us.-VIII. The various poisons that lurk in the animal, vegetable, and mineral world, ready to destroy us.-IX. The heavy curse of toil and sweat to which we are liable; instances of which are given in the hard and dangerous labours of the author's parishioners.-X. The other innumerable calamities of life.-And, XI. The pangs of death.

PART III.

Man is considered as a citizen of the moral world, a free-agent, accountable to his Creator for his tempers and conduct; and his fall is farther demonstrated by arguments drawn from,-XII. His commission of sin. — XIII. His omission of duty.-XIV. The triumphs of sensual appetites over his intellectual faculties.-XV. The corruption of the powers that constitute a good head; the understanding, imagination, memory, and reason.-XVI. The depravity of the powers which form a good heart; the will, conscience, and affections. XVII. His manifest alienation from God.-XVIII. His amazing disregard even of his nearest relatives.-XIX. His unaccountable unconcern about himself.-XX. His detestable tempers.—XXI. The general out-breaking of human corruption in all individuals.-XXII. The universal overflowing of it in all nations. Five objections

answered.-XXIII. Some striking proofs of this depravity in the general propensity of mankind to vain, irrational, or cruel diversions; and,— XXIV. In the universality of the most ridiculous, impious, inhuman, and diabolical sins.-XXV. The aggravating circumstances attending the display of this corruption.-XXVI. The many ineffectual endeavours to stem its torrent.-XXVII. The obstinate resistance it makes to divine grace in the unconverted.-XXVIII. The amazing struggles of good men with it.-XXIX. The testimony of the Heathens and Deists concerning it; and, after all,XXX. The preposterous conceit which the unconverted have of their own goodness.

PART IV.

Man is considered as an inhabitant of the Christian world; and his fallen state is further proved by six scriptural arguments, introduced by a short demonstration of the authenticity of the Scriptures, and by a little attack upon the amazing credulity of Deists. The heads of these arguments are,-XXXI. The

impossibility that fallen, corrupt Adam should have had an upright, innocent posterity; with answers to some capital objections.-XXXII. The spirituality and severity of God's law, which the unrenewed man continually breaks; and,—XXXIII. Our strong propensity to unbelief, the most destructive of all sins according to the Gospel.-XXXIV. The absurdity of the Christian religion with respect to infants, and strict moralists; -XXXV. The harshness and cruelty of Christ's fundamental doctrines; and, -XXXVI. The extravagance of the grand article of the Christian faith; if mankind are not in a corrupt and lost estate.

PART V.

The doctrine of man's fall being established by such a variety of arguments, 1. A few natural inferences are added; 2. Various fatal consequences attending the ignorance of our lost estate; 3. The unspeakable advantages arising from the right knowledge of it. The whole is concluded with an Address to the serious Reader, who inquires what he must do to be saved.— And with an Appendix, concerning the evangelical harmony that subsists between living faith and loving obedience.