Here’s Charles Wesley hypocritically fulminating against the Calvinists of his day (his poem is entitled The Horrible Decree:
Sinners, abhor the Fiend,
His other gospel hear:
The God of truth did not intend
The thing His words declare,
He offers grace to all,
Which most cannot embrace
Mock’d with an ineffectual call
And insufficient grace.The righteous God consign’d
Them over to their doom,
And sent the Saviour of mankind
To damn them from the womb;
To damn for falling short
Of what they could not do,
For not believing the report
Of that which was not true.The God of love pass’d by
The most of those that fell,
Ordain’d poor reprobates to die,
And forc’d them into hell.
He did not do the deed
(Some have more mildly rav’d,)
He did not damn them — but decreed
They never should be saved.He did not them bereave
Of life, or stop their breath,
His grace He only would not give,
And starv’d their souls to death.
Satanic Sophistry!
But still All-Gracious God,
They charge the sinner’s death on Thee,
Who bought’st him with thy blood.They think with shrieks and cries
To please the Lord of Hosts,
And offer Thee, in sacrifice
Millions of slaughter’d ghosts:With new-born babes they fill
The dire infernal shade,
For such they say, was Thy Great Will,
Before the world was made.How long, O God, how long
Shall Satan’s rage proceed?
Wilt Thou not soon avenge the wrong,
And crush the Serpent’s head?
Surely Thou shalt at last
Bruise him beneath our feet:
The Devil, and his doctrine, cast
Into the burning pit.Arise, O God, arise,
Thy glorious Truth maintain,
Hold forth the bloody Sacrifice
For every sinner slain!
Defend thy mercy’s cause,
Thy grace divinely free,
Lift up the Standard of thy Cross,
Draw all men unto Thee.
Agrammatos 