We ought never to supplicate the Divine power, but through motives
of religion and virtue. Prayers dictated by blind self-interest,
or to gratify some misguided passion, cannot, it is presumed, be
acceptable to the Deity; and of all the involuntary sins which men
commit, scarcely any are more frequent than their praying absurdly
and improperly, as well as unseasonably, when their time might have
been employed to a better purpose. Would men, as they ought to do,
obey the commands of Omnipotence, by fulfilling their moral duties,
and endeavour with all their might to live as justly as they can, a
just Providence would give them what they ought to have: but stupidity
and ignorance, until better informed, and divested of superstition
and bigotry, will continue to form their notions of the Supreme Being
from their own poor shallow conceptions; and nothing contributes
more to keep up this injudicious practice among simple, but perhaps
well-meaning people, than the numerous collections of those crude
rhapsodies, the offspring of itinerant bigotry, with which the country
overflows; while most of those prayers are neglected which have been
composed with due reflection and matured deliberation, by the most
learned and pious of men. This Fable also teaches us, that frequently
the gratification of our vain prayers would only lead us into dangers
and evils, of the existence of which we had no previous suspicion.
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