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stay and receive the communion; I had not thought of it." This feemed to imply that he did not choose to approach the altar without a previous preparation; as to which good men entertain different opinions, fome holding that it is irreverent to partake of that ordinance without confiderable premeditation; others, that whoever is a fincere chriftian, and in a proper frame of mind to discharge any other ritual duty of our religion, may without fcruple discharge this most folemn one. A middle notion Mr. Bofwell feems to believe to be the just one, which is, that communicants need not think a long train of preparatory forms indifpenfably neceffary; but neither fhould they rafhly and lightly venture upon fo awful and mysterious an institution. Chriftians must judge each for himself, what degree of retirement and felf-examination is neceffary upon each occafion.

Being once (fays Mr. B.) in a frame of mind which, I hope for the felicity of human nature, many experience-in fine weather, at the country-house of a friend,-confoled and elevated by pious exercifes, I expreffed myself with an unrestrained fervour to my Guide, Philofopher, and Friend.' "My dear Sir, I would fain be a good man; and I am very good now. I fear God and honour the King, I

wifh to do no ill, and to be benevolent to all mankind." He looked at me with a benignant indulgence; but took occafion to give me wife and falutary caution. "Do not, Sir, accuftom yourself to truft to impreffions. There is a middle ftate of mind between conviction and hypocrify, of which many are confcious. By trufting to impreffions, a man may gradually come to yield to them, and at length be fubject to them, fo as not to be a free agent. A man who is in that ftate fhould not be fuffered to live; if he declares he cannot help acting. in a particular way, and is irrefiftibly impelled, there can be no confidence in him, no more than in a tyger. But, Sir, no man believes himself to be impelled irrefiftibly; we know that he who fays he believes it, lies. Favourable impreffions at particular moments, as to the ftate of our fouls, may be deceitful and dangerous. In general no man can be fure of his acceptance with God; fome, indeed, may have had it revealed to them. St. Paul, who wrought miracles, may have had a miracle wrought on himself, and may have obtained fupernatural affurance of pardon, and mercy, and beatitude; yet St. Paul, though he expreffes ftrong hope, alfo expreffes fear, left having preached to others, he himself should be a caft-away."

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The opinion of a learned Bishop, as to there being merit in religious faith, being mentioned, Johnfon faid, "Why yes, Sir, the most licentious man, were hell open before him, would not take the moft beautiful ftrumpet to his arms. We muft, as the Apoftle fays, live by faith, not by fight."

Mr. Boswell talking of original fin in confequence of the fall of man, and of the atonement made by our Saviour, "With respect to original fin (faid Johnfon), the enquiry is not neceffary; for whatever is the cause of human corruption, men are evidently and confeffedly fo corrupt, that all the laws of heaven and earth are infufficient to reftrain them from crimes.

"Whatever difficulty there may be in the conception of vicarious punishments, it is an opinion which has had poffeffion of mankind in all ages. There is no nation that has not Whoever, ufed the practice of facrifices. therefore, denies the propriety of vicarious punishments, holds an opinion which the fentiments and practice of mankind have contradicted from the beginning of the world. The great facrifice for the fins of mankind was offered at the death of the MESSIAH, who is called in fcripture, The Lamb of God, that taketh away the fins of the world.' To judge

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of the reasonableness of the scheme of redemption, it must be confidered as neceffary to the government of the Univerfe, that God fhould make known his perpetual and irreconcileable deteftation of moral evil. He might indeed punish, and punish only the offenders; but as the end of punishment is not revenge of crimes, but propagation of virtue, it was more becoming the Divine clemency to find another manner of proceeding, lefs deftructive to man, and at leaft equally powerful to promote goodness. The end of punishment is, to reclaim and warn. That punishment will both reclaim and warn, which fhews evidently fuch abhorrence of fin in God, as may deter us from it, or strike us with dread of vengeance when we have committed it this is effected by vicarious punishment. Nothing could more teftify the oppofition between the nature of God and moral evil, or more amply display his justice to men and angels, to all orders and fucceffions of beings, than that it was neceffary for the highest and pureft nature, even for Divinity itself, to pacify the demands of vengeance, by a painful death; of which the natural effect will be, that when juftice is appeased, there is a proper place for the exercife of mercy; and that fuch propitiation fhall fupply, in fome degree, the imperfections of our obedience,

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and the efficacy of our repentance; for obedience and repentance, fuch as we can perform, are still neceffary. Our Saviour has told us, that he did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil to fulfil the typical law, by the performance of what those types had forefhewn; and the moral law, by precepts of greater purity and higher exaltation.

"The peculiar doctrine of Christianity is that of an univerfal facrifice, and perpetual propitiation. Other prophets only proclaimed the will and the threatenings of God. Chrift fatisfied his juftice *.

He faid at another time, that the holidays obferved by our church were of great use in religion.

It was told Johnson, that Goldsmith had faid that he had come too late into the world, for that Pope and other poets had taken up the places in the Temple of Fame; fo that as but

Dr. Ogden, in his fecond Sermon On the Articles of the Chriftian Faith,' with admirable acuteness thus addresses the oppofers of that Doctrine, which accounts for the confufion, fin, and mifery, which we find in this life: "It would be fevere in God, you think, to degrade us to fuch a fad fta as this, for the offence of our firft parents; but you can allow him to place us in it without any inducement. Are our calamities leffened for not being afcribed to Adam ? If your condition be unhappy, is it not still unhappy, whatever was the occafion? with the aggravation of this reflection, that if it was as good as it was at firft defigned, there feems to be fomewhat the lefs reafon to look for its amendment."

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