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THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER.

DEO ОР Т.

MAX.

FA

ATHER of All! in every Age,
In every Clime ador'd,

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

Thou Great Firft Cause, leaft understood;
Who all my Sense confin'd

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

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

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Let not this weak, unknowing hand

Prefume thy bolts to throw,
And deal damnation round the land,
On each I judge thy Foe.

If I am right, thy grace impart,
Still in the right to ftay:
If I am wrong, oh teach my heart
To find that better way.

Save me alike from foolish Pride,
Or impious Difcontent,
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 fhow,
That Mercy fhow to me.

Mean though I am, not wholly fo,
Since quicken'd by thy Breath;

O lead me wherefoe'er I go,

Through this day's Life or Death.

This day, be Bread and Peace my Lot:
All elfe beneath the Sun,

Thou know'ft if beft befow'd or not,
And let thy Will be done.

To Thee, whofe Temple is all Space,

Whofe Altar, Earth, Sea, Skies!
One Chorus let all Being raife!

All Nature's Incenfe rife!

MORAL

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"Eft brevitate opus, ut currat fententia, neu fe
"Impediat verbis laffas onerantibus aures:
"Et fermone opus eft modo trifti, fæpe jocofo,
"Defendente vicem modo Rhetoris atque Poetæ,
"Interdum urbani, parcentis viribus, atque
"Extenuantis eas confultò."

HOR.

T

ADVERTISEMENT.

HE ESSAY ON MAN was intended to have been com.

prifed in four Books:

The First of which, the Author has given us under that title,

in four Epiftles.

2. Of thofe Arts and

The Second was to have confifted of the fame number: 1. Of the extent and limits of human Reason. Sciences, and of the parts of them, which are useful, and therefore attainable, together with those which are unufeful, and therefore unattainable. 3. Of the Nature, Ends, Ufe, and Application of the different Capacities of Men. 4. Of the Ufe of Learning, of the Science of the World, and of Wit; concluding with a Satire against a Mifapplication of them, illuftrated by

Pictures, Characters, and Examples.

The Third Book regarded Civil Regimen, or the Science of Politics, in which the feveral forms of a Republic were to be examined and explained; together with the feveral Modes of

Religious Worship, which the Author always fuppofed there was the moft interefting relation and clofeft connexion; fo that this part would have treated. of Civil and Religious Society in their full extent.

as far forth as they affect Society; between

The Fourth and laft Book concerned private Ethics, or practical Morality, confidered in all the Circumftances, Orders, Profes fions, and Stations of human Life.

The Scheme of all this had been maturely digefted, and communicated to L. Bolingbroke, Dr. Swift, and one or two more, and was intended for the only work of his riper Years; but was, partly through ill health, partly through difcouragements from the depravity of the times, and partly on prudential and other confiderations, interrupted, poftponed, and, laftly, in a manner laid

afide.

But

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