writes, "some contrarieties very harmoniously meet: if he has too little charity for the opinions of others, and too little patience with their faults, he has the greatest tenderness for their persons." Yes, as we have seen, no man forgave more readily than he did, when occasionally hurried on to passion, or to rude contradiction, by some slight provocation, or through impatience at some resistance, or non-acquiescence to his authority. But in all cases of a serious kind, he practised the noblest part of true charity, and could worthily reason with himself, in the words of a divine before quoted,*— ""Tis true he hath wronged me, but unless it were for conquering wrongs, what need have I of Christian patience! Where is the meekness of the Christian spirit, if I am hurried away by the same passion with an heathen and infidel!" And might we not suppose that this passage was written by Johnson himself? for it is just what he was accustomed to do:-" In the survey of my daily deportment, which I make each night, I drag forth the crime, (impatience, &c.,) into the awful presence of an holy God! and there arraigning it of all the mischiefs it hath done me, of all the troubles it hath given me, and laying before myself seriously and devoutly all the obligations I have to the practice of the contrary virtue, I condemn it with an holy indignation, I cover myself with shame and sorrow, and renew most solemn resolutions against it, and earnestly beg of God his assistance against his and mine enemy." This is the repentant course of a great mind awakened to a just sense of its responsibility; and

* Lucas on Holiness, p. 104, sixth edition.

F

whoever peruses the holy Meditations and Prayers of Dr. Johnson, cannot fail to see that such was the manner of his powerful rebuke of self, and of forming resolutions, dependent on divine support, to conform himself more and more to the will and commands of the Almighty:

"Safe in His power, whose eyes discern from far

The secret ambush of a specious prayer:

Implore His aid, in His decisions rest,

Secure, whate'er He gives, He gives the best."

"We are brothers," writes Dr. Johnson,† "as we are men; we are again brothers as we are Christians: as men, we are brothers by natural necessity; but as Christians, we are brothers by voluntary choice, and are therefore under an apparent obligation to fulfil the relation: first, as it is established by our Creator, and, afterwards, as it is chosen by ourselves. To have the same opinions naturally produces kindness, even when these opinions have no consequence: because we rejoice to find our sentiments approved by the judgment of another. But those who concur in Christianity, have, by that agreement in principle, an opportunity of more than speculative kindness: they may help forward the salvation of each other, by counsel, or by reproof, by exhortation, by example: they may recall each other from deviations, they may excite each other to good works." Good would it be, if there were more of this brotherhood in the Christian Church.

* Johnson's Poems, p. 35; Kearsley, 1785.

+ In Sermon XI. of "Sermons on different Subjects," advertised as written by Dr. Taylor, but clearly of Dr. Johnson's composition. Bishop Porteus and Mr. Croker have no doubt of this. The above sermon has, perhaps, fewer of the characteristics of Johnson's style than some of the others.

CHAPTER VIII.

HIS CHURCHMANSHIP.

DR. JOHNSON's religion was that of the Church of England, as set forth in her liturgy, at once reasonable and devotional. His father had been a zealous high Churchman and royalist, and always retained his attachment to the unfortunate family of Stuart, although he reconciled himself, as Boswell tells us, "by casuistical arguments of expediency and necessity, to take the oaths imposed by the prevailing power." We find, that in the reign of Queen Anne he was elected a magistrate and brother of the corporation of Lichfield, having taken the oath of allegiance, and that "he believed there was no transubstantiation in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper." This latter he might, consistently with his religious views, apart from his political, have done; for so might Bishop Ken who strenuously combated the errors of the Roman Catholic religion, and others who continued to be non-jurors : but the oath of allegiance as yet was quite a different subject of consideration. His son, however he admired the character of James the Second, and detested the conduct of William the Third,* was yet a Church and

* William the Third was, nevertheless, in many respects a great man. Certainly, he had little taste for literature, the sciences, wit, and

King man before the non-jurors became so, who only on the death of the Pretender at Rome (1788) began to pray for the reigning monarch. Boswell records, singularly enough, though certainly late in Johnson's life, (1784,) that at an agreeable party at Dr. Nowell's, "we drank Church and King' after dinner, with true Tory

oratory, and he was ever guarded in speech, and famous for secret reserve; yet he was an able politician, and his skill and bravery in war almost unequalled. He was early called into difficult action, therefore his experience had to be learned from his own failures: and this he must have felt, for he once exclaimed,-"I would give a good part of my estates to have served a few campaigns under the Prince of Condé, before I had to command against him." Goldsmith hardly does him justice: Macaulay speaks of him as a veritable hero. Of his religious opinions, the latter brilliant historian says,-and we must recollect that the princes of Orange had generally been patrons of the Calvinistic divinity-" He had ruminated on the great enigmas which had been discussed in the Synod of Dort, and had found in the austere and inflexible logic of the Genevese school something which suited his intellect and temper. The example of intolerance, indeed, which some of his predecessors had set, he never imitated. For all persecution he felt a fixed aversion, which he avowed, not only where the avowal was obviously politic, but on occasions where it seemed that his interest would have been promoted by dissimulation or silence. His theological opinions, however, were even more decided than those of his ancestors. The tenet of predestination was the key-stone of his religion." At this time the Protestants of the United Provinces were divided into two great religious parties, which "almost exactly coincided with two great political parties." The Arminian party were regarded in the light of Papists by the multitude. It is easy to see to which division, both religiously and politically, Dr. Johnson would have belonged. He liked not the doctrine of predestination, and would not argue upon it,-perhaps from a dislike to enter conversationally upon a subject so replete with mystery, so above the reason of man, and demanding so much of our reverential awe. It "was a part of the clamour of the times," he said, "so it is mentioned in our Articles, but with as little positiveness as could be." The fulness and wisdom of the 17th Article will strike most persons, and it seems to satisfy the demands of the sensible and judicious of each party.

cordiality:"* and it is related before, that Dr. Johnson found fault with Archbishop Secker, whose life he said deserved to be recorded, though he differed with him. in politics, because the Archbishop in lieu of "Church and King" gave "Constitution in Church and State:" and on being asked what difference there was between the two toasts, said, "Why, Sir, you may be sure he meant something." In those and previous days the wellestablished toast of "Church and King" may have embodied the further significancy of "Church and no Pope," and hence meant more than the mere expression of loyalty as in the present time. But Johnson, who despised King William, and thought meanly of the first and second Georges, held George the Third in high regard, as "the only king who for almost a century has much appeared to desire, or much endeavoured to descrve," the affections of the people: "a king who knows not the name of party, and who wishes to be the common father of all his people."†

Dr. Johnson was certainly a Jacobite, and he took delight in talking of Jacobitism, but his zcal wonder

*

George Hardinge, the Welsh Judge, nephew of Lord-Chancellor Camden, calls Johnson "the most avowed and flaming Tory of his age;" and yet Dr. Johnson wrote the Latin inscription which is at the foot of the picture of the Whig Lord Camden in Guildhall.

Lord Camden was always on the popular side, both at college and in after life. What was said of this great lawyer, might with the utmost fitness be said of our great man of literature,-"No man ever breathed who had such an abhorrence of obscenity, or of an improper liberty with sacred names." His lordship was in the constant habit of associating with artists and men of letters, and throughout life he was an eager devourer of romances, in which taste he was joined by Pitt, Fox, Lord Mansfield, Bishop Warburton, Bishop Jebb, and other most eminent personages. See Lives of the Chancellors, by Lord Campbell, vol. v. p. 238, &c. The False Alarm, 1770.