This prayer shows that the predilection for self-interest expressed in some streams of modern christianity is nothing new. It is a prayer of one John Ward, M.P., from 1727:<\/p>\n
O Lord, Thou knowest that I have nine houses in the city of London, and that I have lately purchased an estate in fee simple in Essex. I beseech Thee to preserve the two counties of Middlesex and Essex from fires and earthquakes. And, as I have also a mortgage in Hertfordshire, I beg Thee also to have an eye on compassion on that county, and for the rest of the counties Thou mayest deal with them as Thou art pleased. O Lord, enable the Banks to answer all their bills, and make all debtors good men. Give prosporous voyage and safe return to the Mermaid sloop because I have not insured it. And because Thou has said: \u2018The days of the wicked are but short,\u2019 I trust Thee that Thou will not forget Thy promise, as I have an estate in reversion on the death of the profligate young man, Sir [name withheld].\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
(Source: Peter Bowler, The True Believers: Oddities and curiosities of religious faith<\/em> [Methuen, 1986], a very amusing little volume if you ever find a copy.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This prayer shows that the predilection for self-interest expressed in some streams of modern christianity is nothing new. It is a prayer of one John Ward, M.P., from 1727: O Lord, Thou knowest that I have nine houses in the city of London, and that I have lately purchased an estate in fee simple in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.shields-online.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}