O Pope, had I thy satire's darts To gie the rascals their deserts, [give] I'd rip their rotten, hollow hearts, An' tell aloud Their jugglin', hocus-pocus arts To cheat the crowd.
God knows I'm no the thing I should be, Nor am I even the thing I could be, But, twenty times, I rather would be An atheist clean, Than under gospel colours hid be, Just for a screen.
An honest man may like a glass, An honest man may like a lass; But mean revenge, an' malice fause, [false] He'll still disdain, An' then cry zeal for gospel laws, Like some we ken.
They tak religion in their mouth; They talk o' mercy, grace, an' truth, For what? To gie their malice skouth [scope] On some puir wight, An' hunt him down, o'er right an' ruth, [against] To ruin straight.
All hail, Religion, maid divine! Pardon a muse sae mean as mine, Who in her rough imperfect line Thus daurs to name thee; To stigmatize false friends of thine Can ne'er defame thee.
Tho' blotcht an' foul wi' mony a stain, An' far unworthy of thy train, Wi' trembling voice I tune my strain To join wi' those Who boldly daur thy cause maintain In spite o' foes:
In spite o' crowds, in spite o' mobs, In spite of undermining jobs. In spite o' dark banditti stabs At worth an' merit, By scoundrels, even wi' holy robes, But hellish spirit.
O Ayr, my dear, my native ground! Within thy presbyterial bound, A candid lib'ral band is found Of public teachers, As men, as Christians too, renown'd, An' manly preachers.
Sir, in that circle you are nam'd, Sir, in that circle you are fam'd; An' some, by whom your doctrine's blam'd, (Which gies you honour)-- Even, sir, by them your heart's esteem'd, An' winning manner.
Pardon this freedom I have ta'en, An' if impertinent I've been, Impute it not, good sir, in ane Whase heart ne'er wrang'd ye, But to his utmost would befriend Ought that belang'd ye. [was yours]
A further fling at orthodoxy appeared in _The Ordination_, a piece written to comfort the Kilmarnock liberals when an Auld Licht minister was selected for the second charge there. The tone is again one of ironical congratulation, and Burns describes the rejoicings of the elect with infinite zest. Two stanzas on the church music will illustrate his method.