The Poems of John Byrom Edited by Adolphus William Ward |
 | I. |
 | II. |
| I. |
| II. |
THOUGHTS ON PREDESTINATION AND
REPROBATION.
|
|
|
 | The Poems of John Byrom |  |
THOUGHTS ON PREDESTINATION AND REPROBATION.
A Fragment.
501
Flatter me not with your “Predestination,”
Nor sink my Spirits with your “Reprobation!”
From all your high Disputes I stand aloof,—
Your Pre-'s and Re-'s, your Destin-, and your Proof,
And formal Calvinistical Pretence
That contradicts all Gospel and good Sense.
Nor sink my Spirits with your “Reprobation!”
From all your high Disputes I stand aloof,—
Your Pre-'s and Re-'s, your Destin-, and your Proof,
And formal Calvinistical Pretence
That contradicts all Gospel and good Sense.
When God declares so often that He wills
All sort of Blessings and no sort of Ills;
That His Severest Purpose never meant
“A Sinner's Death, but that he should repent;”
For the whole World when His Belovèd Son
Is said to do whatever He has done,—
To become Man, to suffer, and to die,
That all might live, as well as you and I,—
Shall rigid Calvin after this, or you,
Pretend to tell me that it is not true;
But that eternal, absolute Decree
Has damn'd beforehand either you, or me,
Or anybody else; that God design'd,
When He created, not to save Mankind,
But only some? “The rest,” this Man maintain'd,
“Were to decreed Damnation pre-ordain'd.”—
No, Sir; not all your metaphysic Skill
Can prove the Doctrine, twist it as you will.
All sort of Blessings and no sort of Ills;
That His Severest Purpose never meant
“A Sinner's Death, but that he should repent;”
For the whole World when His Belovèd Son
Is said to do whatever He has done,—
To become Man, to suffer, and to die,
That all might live, as well as you and I,—
Shall rigid Calvin after this, or you,
Pretend to tell me that it is not true;
But that eternal, absolute Decree
Has damn'd beforehand either you, or me,
Or anybody else; that God design'd,
When He created, not to save Mankind,
But only some? “The rest,” this Man maintain'd,
“Were to decreed Damnation pre-ordain'd.”—
No, Sir; not all your metaphysic Skill
Can prove the Doctrine, twist it as you will.
502
I cite the Man for Doctrine so accurst
In Book the third, and Chapter twenty-first,
Section the fifth,—an horrid, impious Lore
That one would hope was never taught before.
How it came after to prevail away,
Let them who mince the “damning” Matter, say,
And others judge, if any Christian Fruit
Be like to spring from such a pagan Root.
In Book the third, and Chapter twenty-first,
Section the fifth,—an horrid, impious Lore
That one would hope was never taught before.
How it came after to prevail away,
Let them who mince the “damning” Matter, say,
And others judge, if any Christian Fruit
Be like to spring from such a pagan Root.
“Pagan,” said I? I must retract the Word;
For the poor Pagans were not so absurd.
Their Jupiter, of Gods and Men the King,
Whenever he ordain'd an hurtful Thing,
Did it, because he was oblig'd to look
And act, as Fate had bid him in a Book.
For Gods and Goddesses were subject then
To dire Necessity as well as Men,—
Compell'd to crush an Hero or a Town,
As Destiny had set the Matter down.
For the poor Pagans were not so absurd.
Their Jupiter, of Gods and Men the King,
Whenever he ordain'd an hurtful Thing,
Did it, because he was oblig'd to look
And act, as Fate had bid him in a Book.
For Gods and Goddesses were subject then
To dire Necessity as well as Men,—
Compell'd to crush an Hero or a Town,
As Destiny had set the Matter down.
But in your Scheme 'tis God that orders Ill
With Sov'reign Pow'r and with Resistless Will;
He, in Whose Blessèd Name is understood
The One Eternal Will to ev'ry Good,
Is represented, tho' untied by Fate,
With a Decree of damning to create
Such as you term “the Vessels of his Wrath,”
To “show his Pow'r,” according to your Faith.
Just as if God, like some tyrannic Man,
Would plague the World, to show them that He can;
While others, (they, for Instance, of your Sect)
Are “Mercy's Vessels,” precious and elect,
Who think, God help them! to secure their Bliss
By such a partial, fond Conceit as this!
With Sov'reign Pow'r and with Resistless Will;
He, in Whose Blessèd Name is understood
The One Eternal Will to ev'ry Good,
Is represented, tho' untied by Fate,
With a Decree of damning to create
Such as you term “the Vessels of his Wrath,”
To “show his Pow'r,” according to your Faith.
Just as if God, like some tyrannic Man,
Would plague the World, to show them that He can;
503
Are “Mercy's Vessels,” precious and elect,
Who think, God help them! to secure their Bliss
By such a partial, fond Conceit as this!
Talk not to me of Popery and Rome,
Nor yet foretel its Babylonish Doom;
Nor canonise reforming Saints of old,
Because they held the Doctrine that you hold!
For if they did, altho' of Saint-like Stem,
In this plain Point we must reform from them.
While freed from Rome, we are not tied, I hope,
To what is wrong in a Geneva Pope;
Nor what is right should Sirname supersede
Of Luther, Calvin, Bellarmine, or Bede.
Rome has been guilty of Excess, 'tis true,—
And so have some of the Reformers too.
If in their Zeal against the Roman Seat,
Plucking up Tares, they pluck'd up also Wheat,
Must we to Children, for what they have said
Give this Predestination-Stone for Bread?
Nor yet foretel its Babylonish Doom;
Nor canonise reforming Saints of old,
Because they held the Doctrine that you hold!
For if they did, altho' of Saint-like Stem,
In this plain Point we must reform from them.
While freed from Rome, we are not tied, I hope,
To what is wrong in a Geneva Pope;
Nor what is right should Sirname supersede
Of Luther, Calvin, Bellarmine, or Bede.
Rome has been guilty of Excess, 'tis true,—
And so have some of the Reformers too.
If in their Zeal against the Roman Seat,
Plucking up Tares, they pluck'd up also Wheat,
Must we to Children, for what they have said
Give this Predestination-Stone for Bread?
Sir, it is worse, is your Predestination,
Ten thousand Times than Transubstantiation.
Hard is the Point that Papists have compil'd
With Sense and Reason to be reconcil'd;
But yet it leaves to our Conception still
Goodness in God and Holiness of Will,—
A Just, Impartial Government of all,
A Saving Love, a Correspondent Call
To ev'ry Man and, in the fittest Hour
For him to hear, all offer'd Grace and Power;
Which he may want, and have, if he will crave
From Him Who willeth Nothing but to save.
Ten thousand Times than Transubstantiation.
Hard is the Point that Papists have compil'd
With Sense and Reason to be reconcil'd;
But yet it leaves to our Conception still
Goodness in God and Holiness of Will,—
A Just, Impartial Government of all,
A Saving Love, a Correspondent Call
To ev'ry Man and, in the fittest Hour
504
Which he may want, and have, if he will crave
From Him Who willeth Nothing but to save.
Whereas, this Reprobation Doctrine here
Not only Sense and Reason would cashier,
But take by its Pretext of sov'reign Sway
All Goodness from the Deity away;
Both Heav'n and Hell confounding with its Cant,
Virtue and Vice, the Sinner and the Saint;
Leaving by irresistible Decree
And Purpose absolute, what Man shall be,
Nothing in Sinners to detest so much,
As God's Contrivance how to make them such!
Not only Sense and Reason would cashier,
But take by its Pretext of sov'reign Sway
All Goodness from the Deity away;
Both Heav'n and Hell confounding with its Cant,
Virtue and Vice, the Sinner and the Saint;
Leaving by irresistible Decree
And Purpose absolute, what Man shall be,
Nothing in Sinners to detest so much,
As God's Contrivance how to make them such!
That ever Christians, blest with Revelation,
Should think of His decreeing Men's Damnation,—
The God of Love, the Fountain of all Good;
“Who made,” says Paul, “all Nations of one Blood
To dwell on Earth, appointing Time, and Place;”—
And for what End this Pre-ordaining Grace?
That they might seek, and feel after, and find
The Life in God which God for Man design'd.
Should think of His decreeing Men's Damnation,—
The God of Love, the Fountain of all Good;
“Who made,” says Paul, “all Nations of one Blood
To dwell on Earth, appointing Time, and Place;”—
And for what End this Pre-ordaining Grace?
That they might seek, and feel after, and find
The Life in God which God for Man design'd.
“We are His Offspring;”—for in that Decree,
The pagan Poet and St. Paul agree;—
“We are His Offspring.”—Now, Sir, put the Case
Of some great Man and his descending Race;
Conceive this Common Parent of them all
As willing some to stand and some to fall,—
Master, suppose, of all their future Lot,
Decreeing some to Happiness, some not;
In some to bring his Kindness into View,
To show in others what his Wrath can do;
To lead the chosen Children by the Hand,
And leave the rest to fall—who cannot stand.
The pagan Poet and St. Paul agree;—
505
Of some great Man and his descending Race;
Conceive this Common Parent of them all
As willing some to stand and some to fall,—
Master, suppose, of all their future Lot,
Decreeing some to Happiness, some not;
In some to bring his Kindness into View,
To show in others what his Wrath can do;
To lead the chosen Children by the Hand,
And leave the rest to fall—who cannot stand.
I might proceed, but that the smallest Sketch
Shows an absurd and arbitrary Wretch,
Treating his Offspring so as to forbid
To think that ever God Almighty did,—
To think that Creatures who are said to be
“His Offspring” should be hurt by His Decree;
Which had they always minded, Good alone,
And not a Spark of Evil, had been known.
For His Decree, Appointment, Order, Will,
Predestinating Goodness, Pow'r and Skill,
Is of Itself the Un-beginning Good,
The pouring-forth of an Un-ending Flood
Of Ever-flowing Bliss, which only rolls
To fill His Vessels, His created Souls.
Shows an absurd and arbitrary Wretch,
Treating his Offspring so as to forbid
To think that ever God Almighty did,—
To think that Creatures who are said to be
“His Offspring” should be hurt by His Decree;
Which had they always minded, Good alone,
And not a Spark of Evil, had been known.
For His Decree, Appointment, Order, Will,
Predestinating Goodness, Pow'r and Skill,
Is of Itself the Un-beginning Good,
The pouring-forth of an Un-ending Flood
Of Ever-flowing Bliss, which only rolls
To fill His Vessels, His created Souls.
Happy Himself, the true Divine Desire,
The Love that flames thro' that Eternal Fire,
Which generates in Him th' Eternal Light,
Source of all Blessing to created Sight,
Longs with an Holy Earnestness to spread
The boundless Glories of Its Fountain Head;
To raise the possibilities of Life
Which rest in Him into a joyful Strife,—
Into a feeling Sense of Him from Whom
The various Gifts of various Blessings come.
The Love that flames thro' that Eternal Fire,
Which generates in Him th' Eternal Light,
Source of all Blessing to created Sight,
Longs with an Holy Earnestness to spread
The boundless Glories of Its Fountain Head;
To raise the possibilities of Life
Which rest in Him into a joyful Strife,—
Into a feeling Sense of Him from Whom
The various Gifts of various Blessings come.
506
To bless is His Immutable Decree,
Such as could never have begun to be;
Decree (if you will use the word “decreed”)
Did from His Love eternally proceed,
To manifest the hidden Pow'rs that reign
Through outward Nature's universal Scene;
To raise up Creatures from its vast Abyss,
Form'd to enjoy communicated Bliss;
Form'd in their sev'ral Orders to extend
Of God's Great Goodness Wonders without End.
Such as could never have begun to be;
Decree (if you will use the word “decreed”)
Did from His Love eternally proceed,
To manifest the hidden Pow'rs that reign
Through outward Nature's universal Scene;
To raise up Creatures from its vast Abyss,
Form'd to enjoy communicated Bliss;
Form'd in their sev'ral Orders to extend
Of God's Great Goodness Wonders without End.
Who does not see that Ill of any Kind
Could never come from an All-perfect Mind;
That its Perception never could begin
But from a Creature's voluntary Sin,
Made in its Maker's Image and imprest
With a free Pow'r of being ever blest,—
From ev'ry Evil in itself so free
That none could rise but by its own Decree?
By a Volition opposite to all
That God could will did Evil first befall,
And still befalls; for all the Source of Ill
Is Opposition to His Blessèd Will,
And Union with It plainly understood
To be the Source of ev'ry real Good.
Could never come from an All-perfect Mind;
That its Perception never could begin
But from a Creature's voluntary Sin,
Made in its Maker's Image and imprest
With a free Pow'r of being ever blest,—
From ev'ry Evil in itself so free
That none could rise but by its own Decree?
By a Volition opposite to all
That God could will did Evil first befall,
And still befalls; for all the Source of Ill
Is Opposition to His Blessèd Will,
And Union with It plainly understood
To be the Source of ev'ry real Good.
To certain Truths, which you can scarce deny,
You bring St. Paul's Expressions in Reply;
Some few obscurer Sayings prone to choose,
Where he was talking to the Roman Jews.
You never heed the num'rous Texts and plain,
That will not suit with your “decreeing” Strain,
Confirming God's Unalter'd Will to bless
In Words as clear as Language can express.
“Who willeth all Men to be sav'd,” is one,
Too plain for Comment to be made upon;
So that, if some be not the same as all,
You must directly contradict St. Paul,
Whene'er you push to its direct Extreme
Your wild, absurd Predestination Scheme.
You bring St. Paul's Expressions in Reply;
Some few obscurer Sayings prone to choose,
Where he was talking to the Roman Jews.
You never heed the num'rous Texts and plain,
That will not suit with your “decreeing” Strain,
Confirming God's Unalter'd Will to bless
In Words as clear as Language can express.
507
Too plain for Comment to be made upon;
So that, if some be not the same as all,
You must directly contradict St. Paul,
Whene'er you push to its direct Extreme
Your wild, absurd Predestination Scheme.
Paul's open, generous, enlighten'd Soul
Preach'd to Mankind a Saviour of the Whole,
Not Part of, human Race; the blinded Jew
Might boast himself in this conceited View,—
Boast of his Father Abraham and vent
The carnal Claims of Family Descent;
But the whole Family of Heav'n and Earth,
Paul knew, if blest, must have another Birth;
That Jew and Gentile was in ev'ry Place
Alike the Object of a Saving Grace.
Paul never tied Salvation to a Sect;
“All who love God” with him are “God's Elect.”
Preach'd to Mankind a Saviour of the Whole,
Not Part of, human Race; the blinded Jew
Might boast himself in this conceited View,—
Boast of his Father Abraham and vent
The carnal Claims of Family Descent;
But the whole Family of Heav'n and Earth,
Paul knew, if blest, must have another Birth;
That Jew and Gentile was in ev'ry Place
Alike the Object of a Saving Grace.
Paul never tied Salvation to a Sect;
“All who love God” with him are “God's Elect.”
This plain, good Maxim he himself premis'd
To those fam'd Chapters which were so disguis'd
By studied Comments of a later Day,
When Words were prest to serve a partial Fray,
And Scripture turn'd into a Magazine
Of Arms for sober or for frantic Spleen.
To those fam'd Chapters which were so disguis'd
By studied Comments of a later Day,
When Words were prest to serve a partial Fray,
And Scripture turn'd into a Magazine
Of Arms for sober or for frantic Spleen.
“All who love God;”—how certain is the Key,
Whate'er disputed Passages convey!
In Paul's Epistles if some Things are read,
“Hard to be understood,” as Peter said,
Must this be urg'd to prove in Men's Condition
Their “Pre-election” and their “Præterition,”
Or “Pre-damnation?” For that monstrous Word,
Of all absurd “Decree” the most absurd,
Is into formal Definition wrought
By your Divines,—unstartled at the Thought
Of Sov'reign Power decreeing to become
The Author of Salvation but to some;—
To some, resembling others, they admit,
Who, are rejected,—why? “He so thought fit;
“Hath not the Potter Pow'r to make his Clay
Just what he pleases?”—Well, and tell me, pray,
What Kind of Potter must we think a Man,
Who does not make the best of it he can;
Who, making some fine Vessels of his Clay,
To show his Pow'r, throws all the rest away,
Which in itself was equally as fine?
What an Idéa this of Pow'r Divine!
Happy for us, if under God's Commands
We were as Clay is in the Potter's Hands;
Pliant and yielding readily to take
The proper Form which He is pleas'd to make!
Happy for us that He has Pow'r; because
An equal Goodness executes Its Laws,
Rejecting none butsuch as will behave
So as that no Omnipotence can save!
Whate'er disputed Passages convey!
In Paul's Epistles if some Things are read,
“Hard to be understood,” as Peter said,
508
Their “Pre-election” and their “Præterition,”
Or “Pre-damnation?” For that monstrous Word,
Of all absurd “Decree” the most absurd,
Is into formal Definition wrought
By your Divines,—unstartled at the Thought
Of Sov'reign Power decreeing to become
The Author of Salvation but to some;—
To some, resembling others, they admit,
Who, are rejected,—why? “He so thought fit;
“Hath not the Potter Pow'r to make his Clay
Just what he pleases?”—Well, and tell me, pray,
What Kind of Potter must we think a Man,
Who does not make the best of it he can;
Who, making some fine Vessels of his Clay,
To show his Pow'r, throws all the rest away,
Which in itself was equally as fine?
What an Idéa this of Pow'r Divine!
Happy for us, if under God's Commands
We were as Clay is in the Potter's Hands;
Pliant and yielding readily to take
The proper Form which He is pleas'd to make!
Happy for us that He has Pow'r; because
An equal Goodness executes Its Laws,
Rejecting none butsuch as will behave
So as that no Omnipotence can save!
Who can conceive the Infinitely Good
To show less Kindness than He really could,—
To pre-concert Damnation and confine
Himself, His own Beneficence Divine?
An Impotency this, in evil Hour
Ascrib'd to God's Beatifying Pow'r
By bitter Logic and the sour Mistake
Which overweening Zeal is apt to make,—
Describing Sov'reignty as incomplete,
That does not show itself less Good than Great!
Tho' true in earthly Monarchs it may be
That Majesty and Love can scarce agree,
In His Almighty Will, Who rules above,
The Pow'r is Grace, the Majesty is Love.
What best describes the Giver of all Bliss,
Glorious in all His Attributes, is this;
The Sov'reign Lord all Creatures bow before,
But they who love Him most, the most adore.
To show less Kindness than He really could,—
To pre-concert Damnation and confine
Himself, His own Beneficence Divine?
An Impotency this, in evil Hour
Ascrib'd to God's Beatifying Pow'r
509
Which overweening Zeal is apt to make,—
Describing Sov'reignty as incomplete,
That does not show itself less Good than Great!
Tho' true in earthly Monarchs it may be
That Majesty and Love can scarce agree,
In His Almighty Will, Who rules above,
The Pow'r is Grace, the Majesty is Love.
What best describes the Giver of all Bliss,
Glorious in all His Attributes, is this;
The Sov'reign Lord all Creatures bow before,
But they who love Him most, the most adore.
From this one Worship if a Creature's Heart,
Fixt on aught else, determines to depart,
There needs no “pre-determining” the Case;
Idolatry ensues, and Fall from Grace.
Without, and contrary to, God's Intent,
Its own Self-ruin is the sure Event;
The Love forsaken Which alone could bless,
It needs must feel Wrath, Anger and Distress,—
The Sensibilities that must arise,
If Nature wants what Sacred Love supplies.
Fixt on aught else, determines to depart,
There needs no “pre-determining” the Case;
Idolatry ensues, and Fall from Grace.
Without, and contrary to, God's Intent,
Its own Self-ruin is the sure Event;
The Love forsaken Which alone could bless,
It needs must feel Wrath, Anger and Distress,—
The Sensibilities that must arise,
If Nature wants what Sacred Love supplies.
| The Poems of John Byrom | |