Glimpses of Christian History Presents Pastwords #99: Personal Devotions by Samuel Johnson ©2007

SAMUEL JOHNSON lexicographer, and conversationalist. His religious beliefs and practice were of a standard rare in the Church of England in the 18th cent. He ascribes his conversion as a young man to reading William Law's Serious Call, and, although unlike Law he was never a Nonjuror, he was a strong High Churchman, regular and sincere in his religious duties, and very generous to his friends and to the poor. He sometimes caused surprise by his marked tolerance of Roman Catholicism, but, though he was on friendly terms with individuals, he was at no pains to conceal his dislike of Presbyterianism and Nonconformity.

Besides his famous Dictionary of the English Language (2 vols., 1755), his works include London, A Poem (1738); An Account of the Life of Mr. Richard Savage (1744), The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749); The Prince of Abyssinia [Rasselas] (1759); A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland (1775); The Lives of the English Poets (3 vols., 1779-81), an edition of Shakespeare's plays (8 vols., 1765), the twice-weekly essays entitled the Rambler, which appeared from 1750 to 1752 and earned him the title of 'the Great Moralist', and the weekly essays called "The Idler" which he wrote for the Universal Chronicle from 1758 to 1760. He also wrote many sermons for friends.

He was born at Lichfield, Staffordshire, on Sept. 18, 1709. His father, Michael Johnson, was a prominent citizen of Lichfield, being sheriff of the city at the time of Samuel's birth. As a bookseller, he conducted a substantial but not very profitable business.

Samuel was not a healthy child. His eyes were weak and he was the victim of a tubercular infection in the glands of the neck, commonly known then as "the King's evil." In the hope that the cure for this disease lay in the royal touch, Mrs. Johnson traveled to London in March 1712 and Samuel was duly touched by Queen Anne. His memories of the ceremony were naturally slight, but he retained a sort of solemn recollection of a lady in diamonds and a long black hood." It is not recorded that he derived any physical benefit form the royal touch, but the gold amulet which the queen hung round his neck remained there until his death.

Michael Johnson was a high churchman with Jacobite sympathies. His wife, Sarah (daughter of Cornelius Ford, a Warwickshire yeoman) was a devout woman with leanings toward Calvinism. It was she who taught her son to learn the collect for the day by heart and expounded to him the contrast between heaven and hell.

Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church and Encyclopedia Britannica.

PREFACE

HESE Posthumously printed Devotions of Dr. Johnson will be, no doubt, welcomed by the Public, with a distinction similar to that which has been already paid to his other Works.

During many years of his life, he statedly observed certain days* [Viz. New Year's Day; March 28, the day on which his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson, died; Good Friday; Easter Day; and September the 18th, his own birthday.] with a religious solemnity; on which, and other occasions, it was his custom to compose suitable Prayers and Meditations; committing them to writing for his own use, and, as he assured me, without any view to their publication. But being last summer on a visit at Oxford to the Reverend Dr. Adams, and that Gentleman urging him repeatedly to engage in some work of this kind, he then first conceived a design to revise these pious effusions, and bequeath them, with enlargements, to the use and benefit of others.

Infirmities, however, now growing fast upon him, he at length changed this design, and determined to give the Manuscripts, without revision, in charge to me, as I had long shared his intimacy, and was at that time his daily attendant. Accordingly, one morning, on my visiting him by desire at an early hour, he put these Papers into my hands, with instructions for committing them to the Press, and with a promise to prepare a sketch of his own life to accompany them. But the performance of this promise also was prevented, partly by his hasty destruction of some private memoirs, which he afterwards lamented, and partly by that incurable sickness, which soon ended in his dissolution.

That the authenticity of this Work may never be called in question, the original manuscript will be deposited in the library of Pembroke College in Oxford. Dr. Bray's associates are to receive the profits of the First Edition, by the Author's appointment; and any further advantages that accrue, will be distributed among his relations.

That such Prayers are, or may be, efficacious, they who sincerely offer them must believe. But may not a belief in their efficacy, so far as it prevails, be attended with danger to those who entertain it? May it not incline them to carelessness; and promote a neglect of repentance, by inducing a persuasion, that without it, pardon may be obtained through these vicarious intercessions? Indeed the doctrine (I speak with deference to the great names that have espoused it) seems inconsistent with some principles generally allowed among us. If, where the tree falleth, there it shall be; if, as Protestants maintain, our state at the close of life is to be the measure of our final sentence; then Prayers for the dead, being visibly fruitless, can be regarded only as the vain oblations of superstition. But of all superstitions, this perhaps is one of the least unamiable, and most incident to a good mind. If our sensations of kindness be intense, those whom we have revered and loved during life, death, which removes them from sight, cannot wholly seclude from our concern. The fondness, kindled by intercourse, will still glow from memory, and prompt us to wish, perhaps to pray, that the valued dead, to whose felicity our friendship can no longer minister, may find acceptance with Him, who giveth us, and them, richly all things to enjoy. It is true, for the reason just mentioned, such evidences of our surviving affection may be thought ill-judged: but surely they are generous; and some natural tenderness is due even to a superstition, which thus originates in piety and benevolence.

But however the soundness of his principles might, in general, be apparent, he seems to have lived with a perpetual conviction that his conduct was defective; lamenting past neglects, forming purposes of future diligence, and constantly acknowledging their failure in the event. It was natural for him, who possessed such powers of usefulness, to consider the waste of his time as a peculiar delinquency; with which, however, he appears to have been far less frequently, and less culpably chargeable, than his own tender sense of duty disposed him to apprehend. That he meritoriously redeemed many days and years from indolence, is evinced by the number and excellence of his Works; nor can we doubt that his literary exertions would have been still more frequent, had not morbid melancholy which, as he informs us, was the infirmity of his life, repressed them. To the prevalence of this infirmity, we may certainly ascribe that anxious fear, which seized him on the approach of his dissolution, and which his friends, who knew his integrity, observed with equal astonishment and concern. But the strength of religion at length prevailed against the frailty of nature; and his foreboding dread of the Divine Justice, by degrees subsided into a pious trust and humble hope in the Divine Mercy.

He is now gone to await his eternal sentence; and as his life exhibited an illustrious example, so his death suggests and interesting admonition. It concerns us to reflect, that however many may find it impossible to rival his intellectual excellence, yet to imitate his virtues, is both possible and necessary to all; that the current of time now hastens to plunge us in that gulph of Death, where we have so lately seen him absorbed, where there is no more place of repentance, and whence, according to our innocence of guilt, we shall rise to an immortality of Bliss or Torment.

George Strahan.
Islington,
August 6, 1785.

PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS 1738.
On my Birthday. September 18.

O GOD, the Creator and Preserver of all mankind, Father of all mercies, I thine unworthy servant do give Thee most humble thanks, for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to me. I bless Thee for my creation, preservation, and redemption, for the knowledge of thy son Jesus Christ, for the means of grace and the hope of glory. In the days of childhood and youth, in the midst of weakness, blindness, and danger, Thou hast protected me; amidst afflictions of mind, body, and estate, Thou hast supported me; and amidst vanity and wickedness Thou hast spared me. Grant O merciful Father, that I may have a lively sense of thy mercies. Create in me a contrite heart, that I may worthily lament my sins and acknowledge my wickedness, and obtain remission and forgiveness, through the satisfaction of Jesus Christ. And, O Lord, enable me, by thy grace, to redeem the time which I have spent in sloth, vanity, and wickedness; to make use of thy gifts to the honour of thy name; to lead a new life in thy faith, fear, and love; and finally to obtain everlasting life. Grant this, Almighty Lord, for the merits and through the mediation of our most holy and blessed Saviour Jesus Christ; to whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, Three Persons and One God, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen.

Transcribed June 26, 1768.
This is the first solemn prayer, of which I have a copy. Whether I composed any before this, I question.

1745 - 5 .
January 1 .

Almighty and everlasting God , in whose hands are life and death, by whose will all things were created, and by whose providence they are sustained; I return Thee thanks that Thou hast given me life, and that Thou hast continued it to this time; that Thou hast hitherto forborn to snatch me away in the midst of sin and folly, and hast permitted me still to enjoy the means of grace, and vouchsafed to call me yet again to repentance. Grant, O merciful Lord, that thy call may not be vain; that my life may not be continued to increase my guilt, and that thy gracious forbearance may not harden my heart in wickedness. Let me remember, O my God, that as days and years pass over me, I approach nearer to the grave, where there is no repentance; and grant, that by the assistance of thy Holy Spirit, I may so pass through this life, that I may obtain life everlasting, for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

And, O Lord, so far as it may be lawful for me, I commend to thy fatherly goodness the soul of my departed wife; beseeching Thee to grant her whatever is best in her present state, and finally to receive her to eternal happiness. All this I beg, for Jesus Christ's sake, whose death I am now about to commemorate. To whom, &c. Amen

This I repeated sometimes at church .

1754.

Fl . Lacr .
March 28 , in the morning

O God , who on this day wert pleased to take from me my dear wife, sanctify to me my sorrows and reflections. Grant, that I may renew and practice the resolutions which I made when thy afflicting hand was upon me. Let the remembrance of thy judgments, by which my wife is taken away, awaken me to repentance; and the sense of thy mercy, by which I am spared, strengthen my hope and confidence in Thee, that by the assistance and comfort of thy Holy Spirit, I may so pass through things temporal, as finally to gain everlasting happiness, and to pass, by a holy and happy death, into the joy which Thou hast prepared for those that love Thee. Grant this, O Lord, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.

The melancholy of this day hung long upon me. Of the resolutions made this day, I in some measure kept that of breaking from indolence.

March 28, 1754, at night.

Almighty God, vouchsafe to sanctify unto me the reflections and resolutions of this day; let not my sorrow be unprofitable; let not my resolutions be vain. Grant that my grief may produce true repentance, so that I may live to please Thee; and when the time shall come that I must die like her whom thou hast taken from me, grant me eternal happiness in thy presence, through Jesus Christ our Lord . Amen.

When my eye was restored to its use. February 15 , 1756.

Almighty God, who hast restored light to my eye, and enabled me to persue again the studies which thou hast set before me; teach me, by the diminution of my sight, to remember that whatever I possess is thy gift, and by its recovery, to hope for thy mercy: and, O Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit from me; but grant that I may use thy bounties according to thy will, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

1760. Sept. 18. RESOLVED, Deo juvante,

To combat notions of obligation.
To apply to study.
To reclaim imagination .
To consult the resolves on Tetty's coffin.
To rise early.
To study religion.
To go to church.
To drink less strong liquors.
To keep a journal.
To oppose laziness, by doing what is to be done tomorrow.
Rise as early as I can.
Send for books for Hist. of War.
Put books in order.
Scheme life.

O Almighty God, merciful Father, who hast continued my life to another year, grant that I may spend the time which Thou shalt yet give me in such obedience to thy word and will, that, finally, I may obtain everlasting life. Grant that I may repent and forsake my sins before the miseries of age fall upon me; and that while my strength yet remains, I may use it to thy glory and my own salvation, by the assistance of thy Holy Spirit, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

1761. EASTER EVE.

SINCE the communion of last Easter, I have led a life so dissipated and useless, and my terrours and perplexities have so much encreased, that I am under great depression and discouragement; yet I purpose to present myself before God tomorrow, with humble hope that he will not break the bruised reed.

Come unto me all ye that travail.

I have resolved, I hope not presumptuously, till I am afraid to resolve again. Yet hoping in God, I stedfastly purpose to lead a new life. O God, enable me, for Jesus Christ's sake.

My purpose is,

To avoid idleness.
To regulate my sleep as to length and choice of hours.
To set down every day what shall be done the day following.
To keep a journal.
To worship God more diligently.
To go to church every Sunday.
To study the Scriptures.
To read a portion every week.

GOOD FRIDAY. April 20, 1764.

I have made no reformation; I have live totally useless, more sensual in thought, and more addicted to wine and meat. Grant me, O God, to amend my life, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.

I hope to put my rooms in order*. [Disorder I have found one great cause of idleness]. I fasted all day. April 21, 1764 in the morning.

My indolence, since my last reception of the Sacrament, has sunk into grosser sluggishness, and my dissipation spread into wilder negligence. My thoughts have been clouded with sensuality; and, except that from the beginning of this year I have in some measure forborn excess of strong drink, my appetites have predominated over my reason. A kind of strange oblivion has overspread me, so that I know not what has become of the last year; and perceive that incidents and intelligence pass over me without leaving any impression.

This is not the life to which heaven is promised. I purpose to approach the altar again tomorrow. Grant, O Lord, that I may receive the Sacrament with such resolutions of a better life as may by thy grace be effectual, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.

April 21. I read the whole Gospel of St. John. Then sat up till the 22nd.

My purpose is from this time,
To reject or expel sensual images, and idle thoughts.
To provide some useful amusement for leisure time.
To avoid idleness.
To rise early.
To study a proper portion of every day.
To worship god diligently.
To read the Scriptures.
To let no week pass without reading some part.
To write down my observations.
I will renew my resolutions made at Tetty's death.

I perceive an insensibility and heaviness upon me. I am less than commonly oppressed with the sense of sin, and less affected with the shame of idleness. Yet I will not despair. I will pray to God for resolution, and will endeavour to strengthen my faith in Christ, by commemorating his death.

I prayed for Tett.

EASTER DAY. April 22, 1764

HAVING, before I went to bed, composed the foregoing meditation, and the following prayer; I tried to compose myself, but slept unquietly. I rose, took tea, and prayed for resolution and perseverance. Thought on Tetty, dear poor Tetty, with my eyes full.

At church I purpose,

Before I leave the pew, to pray the occasional prayer, and read my resolutions.
To pray for Tetty and the rest.
The like after communion.
At intervals to use the Collects of Fourth after Trinity, and First and Fourth after Epiphany, and to meditate.
This was done, as I purposed, but with some distraction. I came in at the Psalms, and could not hear well. I renewed my resolutions at the altar. God perfect them. Then I came home. I prayed, and have hope; grant, O Lord, for the sake of Jesus Christ, that my hope may not be in vain.

I invited home with me the man whose pious behavior I had for several years observed on this day, and found him a kind of Methodist, full of texts, but ill-instructed. I talked to him with temper, and offered him twice wine, which he refused. I suffered him to go without the dinner which I had purposed to give him. I thought this day that there was something irregular and particular in his look and gesture; but having intended to invite him to acquaintance, and having a fit opportunity by finding him near my own seat after I had missed him, I did what I at first designed, and am sorry to have been so much disappointed. Let me not be prejudiced hereafter against the appearance of piety in mean persons, who, with indeterminate notions, and perverse or inelegant conversation, perhaps are doing all they can.

At night I used the occasional prayer, with proper Collects.

August 17, 1767.

From that time, by abstinence, I have had more ease. I have read five books of Homer, and hope to end the sixth to night. I given Mrs. _ _ _ _ _ _ a guinea.

By abstinence from wine and suppers, I obtained sudden and great relife, and had freedom of mind restored to me; which I have wanted for all this year, without being able to find any means of obtaining it.

I am now about to receive, with my old friend Kitty Chambers, the sacrament, preparatory to her death. Grant O God, that It may fit me. I purpose temperence for my resolution. O God, enable, me to keep my purpose to thy glory.

5.32. PM.

I have communicated with Kitty, and kissed her. I was for some time distracted, but at last more composed. I commended my friends and Kitty. Lucy and I were much affected. Kitty is, I think, going to heaven.

Study of Tongues

Almighty God, giver of all knowledge, enable me so to persue the study of tongues, that I may promote thy glory and my own salvation.

Bless my endeavours, as shall seem best unto Thee; and if it shall please Thee to grant me the attainment of my purpose, preserve me from sinful pride; take not thy Holy Spirit from me, but give me a pure heart and humble mind, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Of this Prayer there is no date, nor can I tell when it was written; but I think it was in Gough-square, after the Dictionary was ended. I did not study what I then intended.

Transcribed June 26, 1768.
Townmalling, in Kent,

Sept. 18 ,1768, at night.
I HAVE now begun the sixtieth year of my life. How the last year has past, I am unwilling to terrify myself with thinking. This day has been past in great perturbation; I was distracted at church in an uncommon degree, and my distress has had very little intermission. I have found myself somewhat relieved by reading, which I therefore intend to practice when I am able.

This day it came into my mind to write the history of my melancholy. On this I purpose to deliberate; I know not whether it may not too much disturb me.

September 18, 1769.

This day completes the sixtieth year of my age. What I have done, and what I have left undone, the unsettled state of my mind makes all endeavours to think improper. I hope to survey my life with more tranquillity, in some part of the time which God shall grant me.

The last year has been wholly spent in a slow progress of recovery. My days are easier, but the perturbation of my nights is very distressful. I think to try a lower diet. I have grown fat too fast. My lungs seem incumbered, and my breath fails me, if my strength is in any unusual degree exerted, or my motion accelerated. I seem to myself to bear exercise with more difficulty.

1770. Jan.1, prima mane.

Almighty God , by whose mercy I am permitted to behold the beginning of another year, succour with thy help, and bless with thy favor, the creature whom Thou vouchsafed to preserve. Mitigate, if it shall seem best unto Thee, the deseases of my body, and compose the disorders of my mind. Dispel my terrours; and grant, that the time which Thou shalt yet allow me, may not pass unprofitably away. Let not pleasure seduce me, idleness lull me, or misery depress me. Let me perform to thy glory, and the good of my fellow-creatures, the work which Thou shalt yet appoint me; and grant, that as I draw nearer to my dissolution, I may, by the help of thy Holy Spirit, feel my knowledge of Thee encreased, my hope exalted, and my faith strengthened; that when the hour which is coming shall come, I may pass by a holy death to everlasting happiness, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Wednesday, March 28, 1770.

This is the day on which, in 1752, I was deprived of poor dear Tetty. Having left off the practice of thinking on her with some particular combinations, I have recalled her to my mind of late less frequently; but when I recollect the time in which we lived together, my grief for her departure is not abated; and I have less pleasure in any good that befalls me, because she does not partake it. On many occasions, I think what she would have said or done. When I saw the sea and Brighthelmstone, I wished for her to have seen it with me. But with respect to her, no rational wish is now left, but that we may meet at last where the mercy of God shall make us happy, and perhaps make us instrumental to the happiness of each other. It is now eighteen years.

April 14, 1770. THIS week is Passion Week.

I have for some weeks past been much afflicted with the lumbago, or rheumatism in the loins, which often passes to the muscles of the belly, where it causes equal, if not greater pain. In the day the sunshine mitigates it; and in cold or cloudy weather, such as has for some time past remarkably prevailed, the heat of a strong fire suspends it. In the night it is so troublesome, as not very easily born. I lie wrapped in flannel, with a very great fire near my bed; but whether it be that a recumbent posture encreases the pain, or that expansion by moderate warmth excites what a great heat dissipates, I can seldom remain in bed two hours at a time without the necessity of rising to heat the parts affected at the fire.

One night, between the pain and the spasms in my stomach, I was insupportably distressed. On the next night, I think, I laid a blister to my back, and took opium; my night was tolerable, and, from that time, the spasms in my stomach, which disturbed me for many years, and for two past harassed me almost to di distraction, have nearly ceased; I suppose the breast is relaxed by the opium.

1776. April 7.

THE time is again at which, since the death of my poor dear Tetty, on whom God have mercy, I have annually commemorated the mystery of Redemption, and annually purposed to amend my life. My reigning sin, to which is perhaps many others are appendant, is waste of time, and general sluggishness, to which I was always inclined, and, in part of my life, have been almost compelled by morbid melancholy and disturbance of mind. Melancholy has had in me its paroxysms and remissions, but I have not improved the intervals, nor sufficiently resisted my natural inclination, or sickly habits. I will resolve, henceforth, to rise at eight in the morning, so far as resolution is proper, and will pray that God will strengthen me. I have begun this morning.

Though for the past week I have had an anxious design of communicating to day, I performed no particular act of devotion, till on Friday I went to church. My design was to pass part of the day in exercises of piety, but Mr. Boswel interrupted me; of him, however, I could have rid myself, but poor Thrale, orbus et exspes, came for comfort, and sat till seven, when we all went to church.

In the morning I had at church some radiations of comfort.

I fasted, though less rigorously than at other times. I, by negligence, poured milk into the tea, and, in the afternoon, drank one dish of coffee with Thrale; yet at night, after a fit of drowsiness, I felt myself very much disordered by emptiness, and called for tea, with peevish and impatient eagerness. My distress was very great.

Yesterday, I do not recollect that to go to church came into my thoughts; but I sat in my chamber, preparing for preparation; interrupted, I know not how. I was near two hours at dinner.

I go now with hope,
To rise in the morning at eight.
To use my remaining time with diligence.
To study more accurately the Christian Religion

1782.

This is the day on which, in 1752, dear Tetty died. I have now uttered a prayer of repentance and contrition; perhaps Tetty knows that I prayed for her. Perhaps Tetty is now praying for me. God help me. Thou, God, art merciful, hear my prayers, and enable me to trust in Thee.

We were married almost seventeen years, and have now been parted thirty.

I then read 11 p. from Ex. 36. to Lev. 7. I prayed with Fr. And used the prayer for Good Friday.

29. Good Friday.

After a night of great disturbance and solicitude, such as I do not remember, I rose, drank tea, but without eating, and went to church. I was very composed, and coming home, read Hammond on one of the Psalms for the day. I then read Leviticus. Scott came in. A kind of letter from Gastrel. I read on, then went to evening prayers, and afterwards drank tea, with buns; then read till I finished Leviticus 24 pages et sup.

To write to Gastrel tomorrow.
To look again into Hammond.

30. Sat. Visitors Paradise, and I think Horsley. Read 11 pages of the Bible. I was faint; dined on Herrings and potatoes. At prayers, I think, in the evening. I wrote to Gastrel, and received a kind letter from Hector. At night Lowe. Pr. with Francis.

Easter Day. Read 15 pages of the Bible. Caetera alibi.

1784. EASTER DAY. April 11.

Almighty God, my Creator and my Judge, who givest life and takest it away, enable me to return sincere and humble thanks for my late deliverance from imminent death; so govern my future life by thy Holy Spirit, that every day which Thou shalt permit ot pass over me, may be spent in thy service, and leave me less tainted with wickedness, and more submissive to thy will.

Enable me, O Lord, to glorify Thee for that knowledge of my corruption, and that sense of thy wrath, which my disease and weakness and danger awakened in my mind. Give me such sorrow as may purify my heart, such indignation as may quench all confidence in myself, and such repentance as may, by the intercession of my Redeemer, obtain pardon. Let the commemoration of the sufferings and death of thy Son, which I am now, by thy favour, once more permitted to make, fill me with faith, hope, and charity. Let my purposes be good, and my resolutions unshaken; and let me not be hindered or distracted by vain and useless fears, but through the time which yet remains, guide me by thy Holy Spirit, and finally receive me to everlasting life, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.

Against inquisitive and perplexing Thoughts. August 12 , 1784.

O Lord, my Maker and Protector, who hast graciously sent me into this world to work out my salvation, enable me to drive from me all such unquiet and perplexing thoughts as may mislead or hinder me in the practice of those duties which Thou hast required. When I behold the works of thy hands, and consider the course of thy providence, give me grace always to remember that thy thoughts are not my thoughts, nor thy ways my ways. And while it shall please thee to continue me in this world, where much is to be done, and little to be known, teach me, by thy Holy Spirit, to withdraw my mind from unprofitable and dangerous enquiries, from difficulties vainly curious, and doubts impossible to be solved. Let me rejoice in the light which Thou hast imparted, let me serve Thee with active zeal and humble confidence, and wait with patient expectation for the time in which the soul which Thou receivest shall be satisfied with knowledge. Grant this, O Lord, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

Ashbourn, August 28, 1784.

Almighty and most merciful Father, who afflictest not willingly the children of men, and by whose holy will _ _ _ _ _ _ _ now languishes in sickness and pain, make, I beseech Thee, this punishment effectual to those gracious purposes for which Thou sendest it; let it, if I may presume to ask, end not in death, but in repentance; let him live to promote thy kingdom on earth, by the useful example of a better life; but if thy will be to call him hence, let his thoughts be so purified by his suffering, that he may be admitted to eternal happiness. And, O Lord, by praying for him, let me be admonished to consider my own sins, and my own danger, to remember the shortness of life, and to use the time which thy mercy grants me to thy glory and my own salvation, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[The following Prayer was composed and used by Doctor Johnson previous to his receiving the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, on Sunday December 5 , 1784]

Almighty and most merciful Father, I am now, as to human eyes it seems, about to commemorate, for the last* time, the death of thy Son Jesus Christ our Saviour and Redeemer. Grant, O Lord, that my whole hope and confidence may be in his merits, and thy mercy; enforce and accept my imperfect repentance; make this commemoration available to the confirmation of my faith, the establishment of my hope, and the enlargement of my charity; and make the death of thy Son Jesus Christ effectual to my redemption. Have mercy upon me, and pardon the multitude of my offences. Bless my friends; have mercy upon all men. Support me, by thy Holy Spirit, in the days of weakness, and at the hour of death; and receive me, at my death, to everlasting happiness, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.

[He died the 13th following.]

July 30.

Almighty God, creator and governor of the world, who sendest sickness and restorest health, enable me to consider, with a just sense of thy mercy, the deliverance which Thou hast lately granted me, and assist by thy blessing, as is best for me, the means which I shall use for the cure of the disease with which I am now afflicted. Encrease my patience, teach me submission to thy will, and so rule my thoughts and direct my actions, that I may be finally received to everlasting happiness, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Almighty and most merciful Father, whose clemency I now presume to implore, after a long life of carelessness and wickedness, have mercy upon me. I have committed many trespasses; I have neglected many duties. I have done what Thou hast forbidden, and left undone what Thou hast commanded. Forgive, merciful Lord, my sins, negligences, and ignorances, and enable me by the Holy Spirit, to amend my life according to thy Holy Word, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen