To a Friend on Some Late Infamous Publications in the Newspapers

You ask the cause of all this pother,
And brother stigmatized by brother:
Why all these floods of scandal shed
With curses on a hoary head.
Tis but the malice of a party,
As blind and impotent as hearty,
A Popish and Geneva trick.
"Throw dirt enough, and some will stick,
Will choke the reprobate Arminian,
And damn him in the world's opinion."

They blacken, not because he tries
To blind, but open people's eyes;
They blacken, to cut short dispute,
With lies and forgeries confute.
And thus triumphantly suppress
The calm debate,'-' and calm Address;
At once decide the controversy,
And boast, " He lies at Calvin's mercy!"
Mercy perhaps they might have shown
The nation's old deceive?- /oh /i;
But patriots-elect will never
Forgive the nation's tmdQCQiver.