diffusive benevolence, which are dispersed among the beings that inhabit it, are derived from thee, and are indeed but a faint shadow of that boundless perfection which thou possessest. And thou hast so fixed the universal frame of nature, that when it is allowed to fulfil its appointed and regular course, it always tends to good upon the whole. The instinct of inferior creatures to tenderness and beneficent offices I justly adore as displays of thy goodness, O thou great Creator of the world!

O Lord, thou art good to all, and thy tender mercies are over all thy works. But I am bound in a peculiar manner to praise thee for the singular care which thou wert pleased to express for the happiness of thy rational creation; and above all, for the wonderful acts of thy loving-kindness and mercy to all the children of men. I adore thee, not as my creator and father only, but as the merciful father of all mankind, who hast displayed thy wisdom and goodness in the curious frame and structure of my body, in respect to which I acknowledge myself to be fearfully and wonderfully made; but much more, in the powers and faculties of my mind, whereby

I am rendered capable of the réfined and exalted pleasures of religion and virtue; of the pleasures of society, benevolence, and friendship; and capable of knowing, loving, serving, resembling, and for ever enjoying thee, the immutable fountain of life and light, of perfection and happiness.

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I likewise adore thee as my constant preserver, and unwearied, bountiful benefactor, the God of my life, and the author of all happiness, to whose unmerited bounty I owe any degree of health which I enjoy in my body, the free and regular exercise of the inward powers and capacities of my mind, plenty, peace, and liberty, my reputation, influence, and usefulness; and all the necessaries, conveniences, and comforts, which thy liberal hand has provided to sweeten human life, and to render my passage through this state of discipline and trial agreeable and easy to me. These clear testimonies of thy goodness thou hast been pleased to afford me in the present state, the better to support and encourage my mind, while I am waiting for the fuller manifestations of it in the glorious world above.

To my unspeakable joy and consolation, all

nature proclaims thee, and thou hast been pleased to represent thyself to us, not as a God surrounded with inaccessible terrors, and breathing nothing but eternal vengeance and destruction to all who have been so unhappy as to deviate from the law and order of their being into paths of vice and extravagance; but as one to whom judgment is a strange work, averse from thy stated, unchangeable disposition, unless urged to it by necessary maxims of wisdom and goodness; as one in whom fury resideth not, and who art abundant in mercy; who dost commiserate our errors, art desirous that we should return from our backslidings, and ever ready to extend thy pardoning mercy to thy frail, degenerate creatures, upon their sincere repentance and reformation. And I desire to raise my thanks to thee for the mission of thy holy servant and messenger Jesus Christ, to declare the terms of forgiveness and salvation, and to give full assurance of a future and immortal life. Who can sufficiently declare thy marvellous works of goodness, and compassion, O God! Who can utter all thy praise!

While I enjoy all these innumerable and unmerited favours, thy free gifts, O munificent

parent of good! let me not darken and distress my mind, by entertaining any dishonourable and ungrateful suspicions concerning thy infinite goodness. Let me not be insensible of the mercies by which I am encompassed, enlivened, comforted, and preserved from sin and misery. Let me not, from my ignorance of the views of Providence in particular events, object against the whole administration of it, nor be so absurdly vain and arrogant, as to pretend to substitute in the room of any any of the works which thou, O God, hast wrought, a wiser and more effectual method of communicating the greatest good upon the whole. But may this part of thy divine character, which supplies universal life to the creation, diffuse its warmth and influence amongst all mankind; exciting all to the highest refinement of their moral and social powers. Let it, according to its natural tendency, produce, in the virtuous, an increasing and generous ardour and delight in doing good; a reformation of manners in the degenerate; confidence of mercy in the penitent; and calm resignation and hope, in the afflicted.

And for myself in particular, I most humbly pray, that I may love thee above all, as a being

supremely excellent. Let not my love of thee be a gross and enthusiastic affection, but pure and intellectual. My understanding being fully enlightened, and established in just and worthy conceptions of thee, let me prefer thee to all other beings, and centre my supreme complacency in thee. And let the foundation of this high esteem be the essential goodness of thy nature. Let me raise my love of thee, and my delight in thee, into truly generous and disinterested dispositions, by chiefly fixing their ground in thy infinite benevolence; which always inclines thee, O universal parent, to administer impartial justice to all, without respect of persons; to communicate happiness, not to any arbitrarily distinguished, and chosen to be favourites, but in the most equitable and fit proportions, to the universe of thy rational creatures. But above all, O God, grant that I may endeavour to transcend the character of a merely righteous, and rise above it, to that of a truly good man, tender-hearted, sympathizing, and universally benevolent. May I be a real lover of my country, and the friend of all mankind. May my mind be so enlarged and diffused, as to comprehend, within the scope of its good wishes at least, all beings capable of happiness. May I imitate thee, O