CHAPTER XI.
THE BROTHERS FLETCHER.
I now come to make mention of two gifted brothers, Giles and Phineas
Fletcher, both clergymen, the sons of a clergyman and nephews to the
Bishop of Bristol, therefore the cousins of Fletcher the dramatist, a
poem by whom I have already given Giles, the eldest, is supposed to have
been born in 1588. From his poem _Christ's Victory and Triumph_, I select
three passages.
To understand the first, it is necessary to explain that while Christ is
on earth a dispute between Justice and Mercy, such as is often
represented by the theologians, takes place in heaven. We must allow the
unsuitable fiction attributing distraction to the divine Unity, for the
sake of the words in which Mercy overthrows the arguments of Justice. For
the poet unintentionally nullifies the symbolism of the theologian,
representing Justice as defeated. He forgets that the grandest exercise
of justice is mercy. The confusion comes from the fancy that justice
means _vengeance upon sin_, and not _the doing of what is right_. Justice
can be at no strife with mercy, for not to do what is just would be most
unmerciful.
Mercy first sums up the arguments Justice has been employing against her,
in the following stanza:
He was but dust; why feared he not to fall?
And being fallen how can he hope to live?
Cannot the hand destroy him that made all?
Could he not take away as well as give?
Should man deprave, and should not God deprive?
Was it not all the world's deceiving spirit
(That, bladdered up with pride of his own merit,
Fell in his rise) that him of heaven did disinherit?
To these she then proceeds to make reply:
He was but dust: how could he stand before him?
And being fallen, why should he fear to die?
Cannot the hand that made him first, restore him?
Depraved of sin, should he deprived lie
Of grace? Can he not find infirmity
That gave him strength?--Unworthy the forsaking
He is, whoever weighs (without mistaking)
Or maker of the man or manner of his making.
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