Predestination: A Poem

APOSTLES teach, and Holy books declare,
That 'tis in God we move, and live, and are :
In him we all begin, continue, end,
And all our Actions on his help depend.
I therefore must eternally have laid
In Nothings bosom, and Oblivions shade,
Among existing Beings not confest,
(For nothing by no words can be exprest)
Unless obedient to his High command,
Call'd by his word, and Plastor'd by his hand,
And from his breath receiving Vital flame,
I had begun to be the thing I am.

Then the same pow'rfull, constant, heav'nly Aid
Must stil preserve the Creature it had made.
For shou'd that Aid one Moment be deny'd ;
Dissolv'd and lost, I shou'd again subside
Into the sad Negation where I lay.
Before I swell'd the Womb, or saw the Day.

Form'd by his Will, assisted by his Powr,
From the great period of my Native hour
Forward I hasten thro this path of life.
Nor with false pleasure smooth no violent Strife
Why was I then of my sole guide bereft ?
And why to errour and amazement left?
Collected to my self I sadly find
Ten thousand doubts divide my anxious mind.
The potent bias of my crooked will
I found averse to good, and prone to ill ;
Whence rises this depravity of thought
Was it from mine or my forefathers fault ?
Shal I descend and say that Death and Sin
Did from ill judging Adams crime begin
Or tracing them from springs perhaps too high
To good and Ill give Coeternity?

Say did the Godhead infinitely wise
Create all good ? then whence did ill arise ?
Do two great Pow'rs their adverse strength employ
This to preserve, and t'other to Destroy ?

Wou'd God set free what Deemon cou'd enslave ?
Cou'd Sin annoy what Sanctity wou'd save ?
Of this no further Mortal man can know,
Than as from Scripture God has deign'd to show.
Here too we find the mighty Probleme laid
In Mystic darkness, and Prophetic shade :
Pen'd by the Poets rage and breast enlarg'd,
Adorn'd with Emblems, and with figures charg'd;
Form'd to the Lyre, and fitted to be Sung
To proper measures of the Hebrew Tongue ;
By time corrupt, at first however pure.;
And by Translation render'd more obscure ;
By Sects eluded, and by Scholes perplext,
Till in the Comment we involve the Text.

E'er Time was bid his measures to begin,
E'er Angels knew to praise, or man to sin,
(Say Austin's words transfer'd to Calvins school,)
God fix'd one firm unalterable rule.
The word was fated which th' Almighty spoke
Nor can his future Will that will revoke.
All things determin'd by this Solemn Doom,
And settled in the order they must come.
Select to pleasures, or condemn'd to pains ;
Man only Executes what God ordains.
Is God subservient to his own Decree ?
Is that Omnipotent which is not free ?
Providence then in her continual course
Must stil be stopt by some superior force :
Then upon strict enquiry will be found,
That God himself by his own Act is bound ;
That in a like dependence, he and Man
Must own a Pow'r which neither can restrain ?
Then those Elect by this eternal doom
Must have been Sav'd, tho it had never come ;
And the reprov'd in vain for Mercy call
To him who came to free and save us All.
Vain therefore prudent thought, and previous care
Useless our Alms, and foolish is our Pray'r :
And with superfluous babling we have said,
"Give us this day our Father! dayly bread";
If what we ask by fixt decree of Heav'n
Was giv'n before, or never can be giv'n.

Now what is Man ? a reas'nable Machine,
A puppet danc'd upon this Earthly Scene,
An instrument in Gods o'erbearing hand,
Mov'd by his Pow'r and forc'd by his command.
Cou'd destin'd Judas long before he fell
Avoid the terrors of a future Hell ?
Cou'd Paul deny, resist, or not embrace
Obtruded Heav'n, and efficacious Grace ?
Yet is the great Apostle heard to say,
"Does not the Potters hand dispose the Clay ?
"And shal the Vase his makers Art upbraid,
"If or to honour or Destruction made ? "
'Tis true ; but view we then the different State
Of beings living and inanimate :
Incapable of Sense and void of mind,
The passive Vessel cou'd no pleasure find,
Tho plac'd above where Saints and Angels reign ;
And damn'd to Hell beneath, cou'd feel no Pain.
Nor in his action is that Agent free
Who must fulfill immutable decree.
Allow we freedom to the whirling Stone,
Which in the Battel from the sling is thrown ?
Allow we freedom to the flying reed,
From the drawn Bow elanc'd with violent speed ?
If these attain, or if they lose their Aim,
Their rectitude or Error is the same :
Who blames their fault, or celebrates their fame ?
Now scale our Deeds and let the Plummet fall
Betwixt the senseless and the rational.
If Both alike by primitive decree
Are bound to Act, and if what is must be ;
For Slain Goliah to young Davids praise
Can we in justice greater triumph raise,
Than to the chosen Pebble, which he took
Among the thousand from the Neighb'ring brook .'
Or greater Crime impute to furious Saul,
Than to his Jav'elin struck against the Wall ?
Far other sure with Human Mind it fares
Now raised to pleasures now deprest with Cares.

Possess we not free liberty of Will
How are our Acts imbu'd with good or ill
Allow Gods promises and threatnings made
E'er the foundations of the World were laid ;
They were contingent, and conditional;
From Adams Choice proceeded Adams fall.
By Cains free action Abells blood was spilt,
His Punishment must presuppose his Guilt.
And Abra'ms faith on Isaac doom'd to dye
Was founded on the Patriarchs piety.
When Judah breaks Jehovahs great command,
He turns his wrathful Viols on the land :
When of her Sins in Ashes she repents.
The weeping Priest attones and God relents.
Our Deed is form'd and guided by our thought,
And equal to our Duty or our fault.
By means however hid from human eyes
Gods future threatnings and his Mercy rise.
While yet we reconcile free Will to fates
To solve this doubt we greater doubts create :
That God regards the simple Act alone,
Making Omnipotence by Prescience- known ;
And leaves to Us by Impulse from within,
To Cloath that Act with Duty, or with Sin.
But does he then his previous will suspend,
And does his Science on our Deed attend ?
If this way acting, we the sequel draw,
We act as God permitted and foresaw :
But if our Act be otherways employ'd.
Is his permission and prevision voy'd ?
Has he, as human means may change the Scene,
In other guise permitted or foreseen ;
And left the Slacken'd Reins of Providence
To the mad guidance of our feeble sense ?
Say rather, that he Will'd what he foresaw ;
That his volition is his Creatures law :
For God (excuse the saying) cou'd not see
Contingences which never were to be.
And if they were to be, that very sight
Brought them from Nothing into future light
Permitting their Existence, fix'd their fate ;
And to forsee, was to Predestinate.

Well then Man Wills and from that Will proceed
The stains and Colours of his sinful deed
The Son whom he destroy'd he might have sav'd
And freed the Captive whom his hand enslav'd.

As rolling down the Rocks the waters bring
The last and hue of their original spring ;
So from our Will, that fountain of our Deed,
The stains and Colours of our Acts proceed.