Some fpecimens of these have been given in a collection of prayers and devotional exercises lately published by his direction, to which I could add a great number. They are the effufions of a fervent piety, and the result of most severe examinations of himself in his hours of retirement; and have for their objects, early rifing, a good use of time, abftinence, the ftudy of the Scriptures, and a conftant attendance on divine worship; in the performance of all which duties he seems to construe his frequent interruptions into criminal remiffnefs. One extract from his diary I however here infert, for the purpose of fhewing the ftate of his mind at about the beginning of the year 1766.

Since the laft reception of the Sacrament, I hope I have no otherwise grown worse, than as continuance ' in fin makes the finner's condition more dangerous. 'Since laft New-year's day, I have rifen every morning by eight, at least, not after nine: which is more fuperiority over my habits than I have ever before 'been able to obtain. Scruples ftill diftrefs me. My ' refolution, with the bleffing of God, is, to contend 'with them, and, if I can, to conquer them.

It was a frequent practice with him, in his addreffes to the divine Majefty, to commemorate and recommend to mercy his wife and departed friends; and the knowledge thereof has induced a fufpicion, that he adopted the Romish tenet of Purgatory. To clear his memory from this imputation, I am neceffitated to mention a few particulars which I learned from him in converfation, that may ferve to fhew, that no fuch conclufion is to be drawn from his practice in this refpect; for that his acquiefcence therein arose from a controversy, which, about the year 1715, was agitated between certain divines of a Proteftant communion, that profeffed to deny, not lefs than they did the doctrine of tranfubftantiation, that of purgatory.

These were, the non-juring clergy of the time; of whom, and alfo of their writings, Johnson was ever used to speak with great respect. One of them, Dr. Thomas Brett, was a man profoundly skilled in ritual literature, as appears by a differtation of his, printed, together with a collection of ancient liturgies, in 1720*; and he, as I infer from the style of the book and the method of reasoning therein, wrote a tract intitled,

Reasons for reftoring fome prayers and directions, as they stand in the communion-service of the first English reformed liturgy, compiled by the bifhops in the second and third years of king Edward 'VI.' among which he argues for the following pe

Johnson once told me, he had heard his father say, that when he was young in trade, king Edward the fixth's firft liturgy was much enquired for, and fetched a great price; but that the publi cation of this book, which contained the whole communion office as it stands in the former, reduced the price of it to that of a common book.

8

tition,

tition, part of the prayer for the whole ftate of Christ's church, fince called a prayer for the whole ftate of Chrift's church militant here on earth. 'We 'commend unto thy mercye, O Lord, all other thy feruauntes, which are departed hence from us, with the figne of faythe, and nowe do refte in the flepe of peace: Graunte unto them, we befeche thee, thy mercy, and euerlaftyng peace, and that at the daie ' of the generall refurreccion, we and all they which < bee of the misticall body of thy sonne, may altogether bee fet on his right hand, and heare that his most ioyfull voice: Come unto me, O ye that be bleffed of my father, and poffeffe the kingdome whiche is prepared for you from the begynning of the worlde: • Graunt this, O Father, for Jefus Chriftes fake, our onely mediatour and aduocate.'

He firft fhews, that the recommending the dead to the mercy of God is nothing of the remains of popery, but a conftant ufage of the primitive church, and for this affertion, he produces the authority of Tertullian, who flourished within an hundred years after the death of the apostle St. John, and alfo, the authority of St. Cyprian, St. Cyril, St. Ambrofe, St. Epiphanius, St. Chryfoftom, and St. Auguftine, by citations from the several writings of thofe fathers.

He then argues, that this cuftom neither fuppofes the modern purgatory, nor gives encouragement to libertinifm and vice; that the ancient church believed the recommending the dead a ferviceable office; that the custom feems to have gone upon this principle, that fupreme happiness is not to be expected till the refurrection, and that the interval VOL. I.

G g

between

between death and the end of the world is a ftate of imperfect blifs; the church therefore, concludes he, might believe her prayers for good people would improve their condition, and raise the fatisfactions of this period.

No one will fay that these are mean authorities, or object to the practice of thus recommending the dead, as an innovation, excepting those persons who reject all tradition in matters of religion. Bucer was one that did, and, therefore, being confulted in the revifal of king Edward's first liturgy, he argued, that there being no exprefs warrant in Scripture for the practice, prayer for the dead was finful; and, accordingly, the words contended for were omitted in the fecond.

This tract was, with great acuteness, and no lefs learning, answered by another nonjuring divine, in one intitled No fufficient reafons for reftoring fome prayers and directions of king Edward the fixth's liturgy.' A reply was given to it, and the controverfy was carried on to a great length; the refult of it was, a fchifm among the nonjurors: thofe, for reftoring the prayers, compiled a new communion-office; others, who were againft widening the breach with the national church, chose to abide by the present form; and this diverfity of fentiments and practice was, as Johnfon once told me, the ruin of the nonjuring caufe.

In the ftudy of this controverfy, which I have reafon to think interested Johnfon very deeply, he seems to have taken part with Dr. Brett and the separatists his followers, whofe conduct is accounted for and vindicated, in the differtation on liturgies abovementioned.

Such

Such as are difpofed to charge Johnfon with weaknefs and fuperftition, and are fo weak as to infinuate that, because he recommended his deceafed wife and friends to the divine mercy, (though with the qualifying words, fo far as it may be lawful) he must have been popishly affected, or a believer in the doctrine of purgatory, may hence learn to be lefs fevere in their cenfures, and lament their ignorance of ecclefiaftical hiftory, which would have taught them, that the pracfice prevailed, long before popery was established, or purgatory thought of; and that, though it may not upon the whole be defenfible, there is more to be faid for it, than many of the enemies to his memory are able to anfwer*.

And to those of his friends, who think that, for the fake of his reputation, the prayers and meditations, in which these fentiments have appeared, fhould have been fuppreffed, it ought furely to be an anfwer, that they were put into the hands of the reverend divine, who, to my knowledge, attended him with great affection and affiduity through his laft illness, with an express charge to commit them to the press, and who, if he had forborne this friendly office, had deprived a charitable and laudable inftitution of a be nefit, which the performance of it was intended to confer.

With a view to improve the leifure he now enjoyed, and feemingly determined to reform thofe habits of indolence, which, in the former part of his life, he had

Johnson in his early years affociated with this feet of nonjurors, and from them, probably, imbibed many of his religious and poli tical principles.