[Vision2020] Calvinist imprecatory prayer (Standard English)

[Ralph Nielsen]

Standard English Translation

Holy Willie''s Prayer


O You that in the Heavens does dwell,
Who, as it pleases best Yourself,
Sends one to Heaven and ten to Hell
All for Your glory,
And not for any good or ill
They have done before You!

I bless and praise Your matchless might,
When thousands You have left in night,
That I am here before Your sight,
For gifts and grace
A burning and a shining light
To all this place.

What was I, or my generation,
That I should get such exaltation?
I, who deserved most just damnation
For broken laws
Six thousand years before my creation,
Through Adam's cause!

When from my mother's womb I fell,
You might have plunged me deep in hell
To gnash my gums, and weep, and wail
In burning lakes,
Where damned devils roar and yell,
Chained to their stakes.

Yet I am here, a chosen sample,
To show Your grace is great and ample:
I am here a pillar of Your temple,
Strong as a rock,
A guide, a buckler, and example
To all Your flock!

But yet O Lord! confess I must:
At times I am irked with fleshly lust;
And sometimes, too, in worldly trust,
Vile self gets in;
But You remembers we are dust,
Defiled with sin.

O Lord! last night, You know, with Meg -
Your pardon I sincerely beg -
O, may it never be a living plague
To my dishonour!
And I will never lift a lawless leg
Again upon her.

Besides, I further must avow -
With Leezie's girl (daughter), three times, I think -
But, Lord, that Friday I was drunk,
When I came near her,
Or else, You know, Your servant true
Would never meddle with her.

Maybe You let this fleshly thorn
Buffet Your servant evening and morning,
Lest he too proud and high should turn
That he is so gifted:
If so, Your hand must even be borne
Until You lift it.

Lord, bless Your chosen in this place,
For here You have a chosen race!
But God confound their stubborn face
And blast their name,
Who bring Your elders to disgrace
And open shame!

Lord, remember Gavin Hamilton's deserts:
He drinks, and swears, and plays at cards,
Yet has so many taking arts
With great and small,
 From God's own Priest the peoples hearts
He steals away.

And when we chastened him therefore,
You know how he bred such a row,
And set the world in a roar
Of laughing at us:
Curse You his basket and his store,
Cabbage and potatoes!

Lord, hear my earnest cry and prayer
Against that Presbytery of Ayr!
Your strong right hand, Lord, make it bear
Upon their heads!
Lord, visit them, and do not spare,
For their misdeeds!

O Lord, my God! that glib-tongued Aiken,(preacher)
My very heart and flesh are quaking
To think how we stood sweating, shaking,
And pissed with dread,
While he, with hanging lip and sneering,
Held up his head.

Lord, in Your day of vengeance try him!
Lord, visit him who did employ him!
And pass not in Your mercy by them,
Nor hear their prayer,
But for Your people's sake destroy them,
And do not spare!

But, Lord, remember me and mine
With mercies temporal and divine,
That I for grace and wealth may shine
Excelled by none;
And all the glory shall be Yours -
Amen, Amen!