No Prayers, no Sighs, no Tears wil now avail, Mercy rejected will not ever laft, A Day was once, but oh! that Day is past: In vain for you I liv'd, I bled, I dy'd: Deifts begone, tafte Vengeance you defpis'd, Conscience distracts them, Devils mock their Cries, And point with flaming Fingers to the Skies : Then hurl the Wretches where Flames ever flash, And Smoak, Shrieks, Light'ning, Thunders, always clash. every Curse, and every Plague's confin'd, Where every Where dies all Hope, the cordial of the Mind, And ever lives the confcious, guilty, Self-deceiver, The Grand Affize Compleatly Ended; Chrift the Judge is Reascended; The Heavenly Hoft their Lord Attended With Shouts of Joy,-TIME IS Ended. ΤΟ The GOD of Univerfal Nature, A PRAYER, Composed by the Author of the foregoing Epistle, for the use of thofe DEISTS who are honeft, fincere, and industrious in fearching after Truth, in order to embrace it in the love of it; who are very willing and defirous to part with every pre-conceived fenti→ ment, that does or may obftruct their finding it. THOU Almighty, incomprehen fible God of univerfal nature! Thou great first cause and fupport of all worlds, creatures, and things vifible and invifible! O Thou only good, beneficent, generous Being, who hast so excellently distinguished mankind from all the other of thy creatures on earth, with that noble faculty of reason and understanding, with which I adore I adore and worship Thee, in profound reverence and proftration of foul, and with the most hearty, unfeigned fincerity and gratitude offer up unto thee my thanksgivings and praise, in the highest strains of devotion a finite creature poffibly can pay to his Creator, Preferver, and conftant, unwearied, munificent Benefactor: at the fame time with the utmost humility of heart and abasement of foul, (to my unspeakable shame and forrow) I acknowledge and confess before thee, that I have acted very unbecoming the dignity of a rational creature, both toward thee, my neighbour, and myfelf; having very frequently permitted my reason and understanding to be baffled and conquered by my almoft ungovernable headstrong lufts and paffions; for even when I found myself somewhat inclined to do good, evil was prefent with me with great prevalency; and I find my heart and mind much more prone to vice than virtue, to evil than good. How I came by this corrupted depraved nature, my judgment is not yet convinced of my reason and understanding dictates to me, it could not poffibly be derived from thee, who art the very fpring and fountain of all goodness, perfection and knowledge; confequently thou must have access to the very thoughts of my heart, the defires of my foul, the intentions of my mind, and the actions of my life, from whom no fecret can poffibly be concealed. Therefore I most humbly and importunately befeech thee that thou wouldeft, in the course of thy Providence, teach me what I do not perceive, for my fpiritual advantage, by directing my thoughts, illuminating my understanding, conveying to me the knowledge and cause of my corrupted vitiated nature, and informing me through what channel I received received it, and what remedy I fhall make use of, in order to mafter and conquer it, fo as to be freed from it. I frequently find my heart cold and lukewarm, languid and lifeless, very far from being fired with that love and gratitude to thee my God, which my reafon and understanding dictates is thy just unalienable right, due from rational creatures to their great Creator. Therefore I most humbly beseech thee to beget in me a hearty and fincere affection to love thee, and an earnest defire to please thee in all things, being conscious I have in innumerable instances tranfgreffed the laws of natural religion, and violated the dictates of reafon and confcience, which thou haft engraven on all the hearts of thy reasona¬ ble creatures. Here call to remembrance the particular fins you have been guilty of, especially that fin or fins that do most easily befet you, praying for grace and ftrength to con quer and overcome them in the future part of life. I |