Epigram To A Hypocritical Calvinist
By Thomas Oldham
By faith alone, you say, not works,
Man must obtain salvation;
If you are saved, the doctrine needs
No better confirmation.
* * * * *
My Lady Sceptical, for want of proof,
What all believe, denies;
Yet she believes what all, with proof, deny,
That she is wondrous wise.
* * * * *
'The dullest ass may write
In verse, that jingling stuff!'
Indeed, Sir? have you tried?
'I have.' That's proof enough.
Yon fop has strangely got it in his noddle
That he excels in tragic declamation;
Kemble's the favourite, and the model,
That claims his praise, and prompts his imitation;
Now, that the praise is just, none can deny;
But the imitation gives that praise the lie:
Decide, ye Critics! for 'tis hard to know,
Is he to Kemble's fame a friend or foe?