You ask the cause of all this pother

You ask the Cause of all this pother,
And brother stigmatiz’d by brother?
Why all these floods of scandal shed
With curses on an 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 choak 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 Deceiver John,
But Patriots-Elect will never
Forgive the Nation’s Undeceiver.

Hymnal/Album: Originally titled: “To a Friend On some late infamous Publications in the Newspapers.” This hymn appears in the ca. 1785 manuscript “MS Miscellaneous Poems.” This manuscript is part of the collection of the Methodist Archive and Research Centre in The John Rylands Library, The University of Manchester (accession number MA 1977/559, Charles Wesley Notebooks Box 2). Accessed through the website of The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition, Duke Divinity School. Published in The Poetical Works of John and Charles Wesley, Collected and Arranged by G. Osborn, Vol. 8 (London: Wesleyan-Methodist Conference Office, 1870), page 446.
Publishing: Public Domain