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Some have thought it necessary that they should all be believed; others have considered them to be only articles of peace, that is to say, you are not to preach against them." BOSWELL. "It appears to me, sir, that predestination, or what is equivalent to it, cannot be avoided, if we hold an universal prescience in the Deity." JOHNSON. "Why, sir, does not God every day see things going on without preventing them?" BOSWELL. "True, sir, but if a thing be certainly foreseen, it must be fixed, and cannot happen otherwise; and if we apply this consideration to the human mind, there is no free will, nor do I see how prayer can be of any avail.” He mentioned Dr. Clarke and bishop Bramhall, on Liberty and Necessity, and bid Boswell read South's Sermons on Prayer; but avoided the question which has excruciated philosophers and divines beyond any other. Boswell did not press it further, when he perceived that he was displeased, and shrunk from any abridgment of an attribute usually ascribed to the Divinity, however irreconcileable in its full extent with the grand system of moral government. His supposed orthodoxy here cramped the vigorous powers of his understanding. He was confined by a chain, which early imagination and long habit made him think massy and strong, but which, had he ventured to try, he could at once have snapped asunder.

Boswell proceeded: "What do you think, sir, of purgatory, as believed by the Roman Catholics?" JOHNSON. "Why, sir, it is a very harmless doctrine. They are of opinion, that the generality of mankind are neither so obstinately wicked as to deserve everlasting punishment, nor so good as to

merit being admitted into the society of blessed, spirits; and therefore, that God is graciously pleased to allow of a middle state, where they may be purified by certain degrees of suffering. You see, sir, there is nothing unreasonable in this." Boswell. But then, sir, their masses for the dead?" JOHNSON. Why, sir, if it be once established that there are souls in purgatory, it is as proper to pray for them, as for our brethren of mankind, who are yet in this life." BOSWELL." The idolatry of the mass?" JOHNSON. "Sir, there is no idolatry in the mass they believe God to be there, and they adore him." BoSWELL. "The worship of saints?” JOHNSON. "Sir, they do not worship saints; they invoke them; they only ask their prayers. I am talking all this time of the doctrines of the church. of Rome : I grant you, that in practice, purgatory is made a lucrative imposition, and that the people do become idolatrous, as they recommend them-, selves to the tutelary protection of particular saints. I think their giving the sacrament only in one kind is criminal, because it is contrary to the express institution of Christ; and I wonder how the council of Trent admitted it." BosWELL. "Confession?" JOHNSON. " Why, I don't know but that is a good thing: the Scripture says, ' Confess your faults one to another—and the priests confess as well as the laity. Then it must be considered, that their absolution is only upon repentance, and often upon penance also. You think your sins may be forgiven without penance, upon repentance alone."

Boswell adds, "I thus ventured to mention all the common objections against the Roman Catholic church, that I might hear so great a man upon

them. What he said is here accurately recorded; but, it is not improbable, that if one had taken the other side, he might have reasoned differently.

"I must however mention, that he had a respect for the old religion,' as the mild Melancthon called that of the Roman Catholic church, éven while he was exerting himself for its reformation in some particulars. Sir William Scott informs me, that he heard Johnson say, 'A man who is converted from protestantism to popery, may be sincere; he parts with nothing; he is only superadding to what he already had: but a convert from popery to protestantism gives up so much of what he has held as sacred as any thing that he retains ; there is so much laceration of mind in such a conversion that it can hardly be sincere and lasting.' The truth of this reflection may be confirmed by many and eminent instances, some of which will occur to most of my readers."

On another occasion, the worshipping of saints was the subject of conversation. TOPLADY. "Does not their invocation of saints suppose omnipresence in the saints?" JOHNSON. "No, sir; it supposes only pluri-presence; and when spirits are divested of matter, it seems probable that they should see with more extent than when in an embodied state. There is, therefore, no approach to an invasion of any of the divine attributes in the invocation of saints but I think it is will-worship and presumption. I see no command for it, and therefore think it is safer not to practise it."

On Good Friday, after having attended the morning service at St. Clement's church, Boswell walked home with Johnson. They talked of the Roman Ca

tholic religion. JOHNSON. "In the barbarous ages, sir, priests and people were equally deceived; but afterwards, there were gross corruptions introduced by the clergy; such as indulgences to priests to have concubines, and the worship of images, not, indeed, inculcated, but knowingly permitted." He strongly censured the licensed stews at Rome. BOSWELL. "So then, sir, you would allow of no irregular intercourse whatever between the sexes?" JOHNSON. "To be sure I would not, sir: I would punish it much more than it is done, and so restrain it. In all countries there has been fornication, as in all countries there has been theft; but there may be more or less of the one as well as of the other, in proportion to the force of law. All men will naturally commit fornication, as all men will naturally steal: and, sir, it is very absurd to argue, as has been often done, that prostitutes are necessary to prevent the violent effects of appetite from violating the decent order of life; nay, should be permitted, in order to preserve the chastity of our wives and daughters. Depend upon it, sir, severe laws, steadily enforced, would be sufficient against those evils, and would promote marriage.”

Boswell talked of the recent expulsion of six students from the university of Oxford, who were methodists, and would not desist from publicly praying and exhorting. JOHNSON. "Sir, that expulsion was extremely just and proper. What have they to do at an university, who are not willing to be taught, but will presume to teach? Where is religion to be learnt but at au university? Sir, they were examined, and found to be mighty ignorant fellows." BOSWELL. "But, was it not hard, sir, to expel them ?

for I am told they were good beings." JOHNSON, "I believe they might be good beings, but they were not fit to be in the university of Oxford. A cow is a very good animal in the field; but we turn her out of a garden." Lord Elibank used to repeat this as an illustration uncommonly happy.

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No. XVII.

FREE WILL.

DR. MAYO, (addressing Dr. Johnson) "Pray, sir, have you read Edwards, of New England, on Grace?" JOHNSON. " "No, sir." BoSWELL. "It puzzled me so much as to the freedom of the human will, by stating, with wonderful acute ingenuity, our being actuated by a series of motives which we cannot resist, that the only relief I had was to forget it." MAYO." But he makes the proper distinction between moral and physical necessity." BoswELl. Alas, sir, they come both to the same thing. You may be bound as hard by chains when covered by leather, as when the iron appears. The argument for the moral necessity of human actions is always, I observe, fortified by supposing universal prescience to be one of the attributes of the Deity." JOHNSON. "You are surer that you are free, than you are of prescience; you are surer that you can lift up your finger or not as you please, than you are of any conclusion from a deduction of reasoning. But let us consider a little the objection from prescience. It is certain I am either to go home to-night or not: that does not prevent my freedom.”.

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