160 On READING and PRAY E R. 
deny, in fad, that god is the beneficent lord of all we en~ 
joy. 
We ufually fay with tranfport, upon the arrival of any 
good news, “ thank god!” But it is not the fafnion of 
many great tables, nor of all little ones, to give any te- 
stimony of acknowledgment to him for their daily bread. 
You may have heard old people talk of the antient cuftom 
of great families keeping chaplains. Was it the fault of the 
lord, or the prieft, that this cuftom was difcontinued ? I fear 
piety has not gained any ground upon it. As to the pradice of 
fanatics in praying over their meat till it was cold ; this being 
enthufiaftic, if not hypocritical, we are fallen into the contrary 
extreme, and refining upon the too great formality of former 
ages, are become a graceless generation. Grace, as it is 
vulgarly called, is either not faid at all, or only said. You 
muff have obferved, that the common words, “ for what we 
CC ARE GOING TO RECEIVE, THE LORD MAKE US THANKFUL,” are 
hurried over as a matter of form, feldom heard by half the 
company, and never regarded by a quarter of it. Even your 
middling fort of people, whofe fortunes give them no title to be 
fashionably irreligious, are fafkionable enough in this refped. 
Is not thisabfurd ? is it not trifling with the almighty ? We 
fee, in this inflance, a coldness and indifference, to reli- 
gous concerns, which is almofl become the charaderiftic of 
this nation. It is indeed the contrary extreme to fuperflition ; 
yet it is an evil of fo dangerous a nature, that we ought to 
fhudder at the thought of it. 
Among the few who keep up to the ferioufnefs and recollec- 
tion which becomes every kind of prayer, can you hear grace 
pro- 
