Small learning they had, and wanted no more;
Not many could read, but all could adore.
No help from the college or school they received,
Content with his knowledge in whom they believed.
Calvinism has to take it hot and heavy. The sweet singer lets sweetness take a vacation, while he pours forth his wrath in song:
There is a reprobated plan,
Say how did it arise?
By the predestinated clan
Of horrid cruelties.
The plan is this—they hold a few
Who are ordained for heaven,
They hold the rest a cursed crew
That cannot be forgiven.
———
If all things were fore-ordained,
Or finally decreed,
I would like to know why mortal man
Is responsible for his deeds?
If Calvinism thus be true,
And all things fore-decreed,
The Lord has been very kind
Unto the devil indeed.
———
But we do say God’s Holy Word
Doth no such doctrine teach,
For if it do, then why do you
Attempt His word to preach?
For if God has fore-ordained
All things to be just so,
Then we do say, all cease to pray,
And to a-fishing go;
But, my friends, all on you I call
To mind this doctrine well,
It has its birth, not on this earth,
But in the pit of hell.
A vision of the judgment day swept the poet’s high-strung sensibilities and the fires of Parnassus caused him to warble:
I dreamed I was out to the east—cast mine eye—
The atmosphere calm, and serene was the sky,
So calm, still and awful—tremendous the sight—
I thought the last judgment was drawing to light.
The dead all arose immediately then,
And covered the earth with both women and men
All standing together—’tis hard to indite
The aspect most shocking—surprising the sight.