THE

UNIVERSAL

PRAYER.

DEO OPT. MAX.

THE

Univerfal Prayer.

DEO OPT. MAX.

ATHER of All! in ev'ry Age,

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In ev'ry Clime ador'd,

By Saint, by Savage, and by Sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!

Thou Great First Cause, least understood:
Who all my Senfe confin'd

To know but this, that Thou art Good,
And that myself am blind;

COMMENTARY.

Univerfal Prayer.] It may be proper to observe, that some paffages, in the preceding Essay, having been unjustly suspected of a tendency towards Fate and Naturalifm, the author composed this Prayer as the fum of all, to fhew that his system was founded in free-will, and terminated in piety: That the first cause was as well the Lord and Governor of the Universe as the Creator of it; and that, by fubmiffion to his will (the great principle inforced throughout the Effay) was not meant the fuffering ourselves to be carried along by a blind determination; but the refting in a religious acquiefcence, and cofidence full

Yet gave me, in this dark Estate,
To fee the Good from Ill;
And binding Nature faft in Fate,

Left free the Human Will.

What Confcience dictates to be done,
Or warns me not to do,

This, teach me more than Hell to fhun,
That, more than Heav'n pursue.

What Bleffings thy free Bounty gives,
Let me not caft away ;

For God is paid when Man receives,
T'enjoy is to obey.

Yet not to Earth's contracted Span
Thy goodness let me bound,

Or think Thee Lord alone of Man,

When thousand Worlds are round:

Let not this weak, unknowing hand
Prefume thy bolts to throw,

And deal damnation round the land,

On each I judge thy Foe.

of Hope and Immortality. To give all this the greater weight, the poet chose for his model the LORD'S PRAYER, which, of all others, best deserves the title prefixed to his Paraphrase.

If I am right, thy grace impart,
Still in the right to stay;

If I am wrong, oh teach my heart
To find that better way.

Save me alike from foolish Pride,
Or impious Discontent,

At aught thy wisdom has deny'd,
Or aught thy Goodness lent.

Teach me to feel another's Woe,
To hide the Fault I fee;
That Mercy I to others show,
That Mercy show to me.

Mean tho' I am, not wholly so,
Since quick'ned by thy Breath;

Oh lead me wherefoe'er I go,

Thro' this day's Life or Death.

NOTES.

If I am right, the grace impart,-
If I am wrong, O teach my heart]

As the imparting grace on the chriftian system is a stronger exertion of the divine power, than the natural illumination of the heart, one would expect that right and wrong should change places; more aid being required to reftore men to the right than to keep them in it. But as it was the poet's purpose to infinuate that Revelation was the right, nothing could better express his purpose than the making the right secured by the guards of grace.

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