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one time shall make a person a member
for life.

Art. 3d. All life subscriptions, and
all donations of money, shall con-
stitute a permanent fund, the interest
only to be expended.

Art. 4th. The business of this Society shall be transacted by a President, Vice-President, Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, Treasurer, and nine Managers, all of whom are to be chosen annually. Six managers shall constitute a quorum. The Managers, at the annual meeting, on the second Tuesday in October, shall make a report of their proceedings to the Society.

Art. 5th. All life Subscribers shall be Directors, and shall vote at special meetings.

Art. 6th. This constitution shall
not be altered except by consent of
two thirds of the members, voting at
the annual meeting.

Mrs. Thomas Colden, President.
Mrs. Clark, Vice-President.
Miss M. A. Willett, Corresp. Sec.
Miss A. A. Vanhorne, Record. Sec.
Mrs. Lasher, Treasurer.

Directors-Mrs. Susan B. Phin-
ney, Mrs. Jane Murray, Mrs. Ger-
trude Colden, Mrs. Margaret Gala-
tian, Mrs. Maria Walden, Mrs. Sarah
C. Ruggles.

Managers-Miss Jemima Graham, Miss Catharine McCoy, Miss A. M. Galatian, Miss Jane Colden, Miss Susan F. Bogart, Miss Hannah Galatian, Miss Maria Graham, Miss Elizabeth Galatian, Mrs. Mary Schoonmaker.

These all had converse with the soul:
Mysterious work of Heav'nly skill.
Clay join'd to spirit, form'd an whole,
And quicken'd dust obey'd the will.
God call'd the life he gave away;

The dust return'd from whence it came;
The spirit left the stiff'ning clay,
And death dissolves the wond'rous frame.
Be witty, mortal; bold and free,

But own thy knowledge centers bere:
Ere long, like this, thy scalp shall be
Not worth the sordid Sexton's care.

Perhaps a crown these temples bound,
Before it subject nations bow'd;
Now, undistinguish'd in the ground,
The beggar tramples on the proud.
All, all must pass this dreary road,

To dust and silence, cold and gloom,
And rest in one obscure abode,

The dwelling of the world-the tomb.
Thou, whose gift 'tis to bestow
Much more in virtue and in truth;
O, lead me through this vale of woe,
Thou staff of age and guide of youth.
Sustain me in this mortal hour,

Because 'tis thou alone canst save;
And let me triumph, in thy pow'r,
A joyful victor o'er the grave.

[Orthodox Churchman's Mag.

On Monday, the 23d of November, T. & J. Swords will publish, "Swords's Pocket Almanack, and Christian Calendar,

for the year of our Lord 1819; being the third after Leap year. Containing the rising, sitting, and eclipses of the Sun and Moon, the time of high Water, &c." Also

Observations on the Observance of Sundays-Explanations of the Festivals and Fasts of the Church-Succession of American Bishops-List of the Clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States-Standing Committees— gious Societies attached to the Epis Time of Conventional Meetings-Relicopal Church in the United StatesScientific, Literary, and Benevolent Institutions-Officers of the Government of the United States-Ministers Plenipotentiary

On opening a Grave, and laying hold from the United States to Foreign Powers

of a Skull.

THIS preacher, silent, yet severe,
Proclaims mortality to man:
Thou like this emblem shalt appear,
When time has measured out thy span.
Here hung the lips that once could smile,
And here were fix'd the orbs of light,
Extinguish'd now, corrupt and vile,

Suffused in everlasting night.
Gay friend, here hung the list'ning ear,
That fed the soul with sense by sound;
Here the loquacious tongue, and here

The nose, on this distorted wound.

-Ministerial Appointments from Foreign Powers to the United States-Officers of the Government of the State of NewYork-Common Council of the City of New-York-Courts in the State of NewYork-Clerks of the Supreme CourtMayor's Court-Rates of Postage-Times of arrival and closing of the Mails, &c. &c. &c.

Printed and published by T. & J. Swords, No. 160 Pearl-street, New-York; where Subscriptions for this Work will be received at one dollar per annum, or 24 numbers.All Letters relative to this Journal must come free of Postage.

No. 21.]

THE

AND

LITERARY REGISTER.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1817.

[VOL. I.

Remarks on the last Hours of Dr. with the Divine standard and test of

SAMUEL JOHNSON.

(From Wilks's Christian Essays.)

A FEW practical remarks upon the subject of the last hours of this illus trious man will tend to show that what Dr. Johnson's best friends and biographers have been almost ashamed to confess, and have industriously exerted themselves to palliate, constituted, in truth, the most auspicious circumstance of his life, and was the best proof of his increase in religious knowledge and holiness of mind,

Whoever considers with a Christian eye the death of Dr. Johnson will readily perceive that, according to the usual order of Providence, it could not have been free from agitation and anxiety. Johnson was a man of tender conscience, and one who from his very infancy had been in structed in Christian principles. But he was also, in the strict judgment of revealed religion, an inconsistent man. Neither his habits nor his companions had been such as his own conscience approved; and even a short time before his end we find one of his biographers lamenting that "the visits of idle and some worthless persons were never welcome to him," on the express ground" that these things drove on time." His ideas of morality being of the highest order, many things which are considered by men at large as but veniel offences appeared to him as positive crimes. Even his constitutional indolence and irritability of mind were sufficient of themselves to keep him constantly humbled and self-abased; and though among his gay or literary companions he usually appears upon the comparatively high ground of a Christian moralist, and the strenuous defender of revealed religion, yet compared VOL. I.

truth, he felt himself both defective and disobedient.

Together with this conscientious feeling he had adopted certain incorrect, not to say superstitious, ideas respecting the method of placating the Diety. He seems, for example, to have believed that penance, in its confined and popish sense as distinguished from simple penitence, is of great avail in procuring the Divine favour and forgiveness. Thus when his conscience distressed him on account of an act of disobedience to his parent, we find him many years af terwards remaining a considerable time bare-headed in the rain, exposed in the public streets to the ridicule and the conjectures of every spectator. As far as filial affection and true amiableness of mind are concerned, the actor in sun a scene deserves and ensures úversal veneration and esteem. Even while we smile at the somewhat ludicrous nature of the action, we instinctively feel a sympany and respect which perhaps a wiser but less remarkable mode of exhibiting his feelings might not have procured. But Johnson seems to have performed this humiliation from higher considerations than mere sorrow for the past; for he emphatically adds, "in contrition I stood, and I hope the penance was expiatory."

If these words really mean any thing-and when did Dr. Johnson utter words without meaning ?-he must have intended by them to express his hope that the previous fault was really atoned for, in a religious sense, by the subsequent act of self-denial; or, in other words, that God accepts human penance as an expiation for human sins; a doctrine to which reveal

41

ed religion gives no sanction whatever. Johnson's system appears at this time to have been, as it were, a sort of barter between himself and heaven, and consequently his chief fear was lest the equivalent which he presented should not be sufficient to entitle him in the Divine mercy to the pardon of his transgressions.-His trust on the Redeemer, though perfectly sincere, does not appear to have been either exclusive or implicit ; for though all his prayers for mercy and acknowledgments of blessing were offered up solely through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, he seems, in point of fact, for many years to have viewed the atonement rather as a medium through which God is pleased to accept our imperfect services, and to make them adequate, by the conditions of a remedial law, to the purchase of heaven, than as a sacrifice by which alone heaven is fully secured and freely given to the believing penitent.

To give, therefore, comfort to the mind of such a man as Dr. Johnson, there were but two modes; either by blinding his conscience, or by increasing his fath; either by extenuating his sins, or by pointing out in all its glories the suficiency of the Christian ransom. The friends who surrounded this eminent man during the greater part of his life, were little qualified to perform the latter, and therefore very naturally resorted to the former. They found ther patient, so to speak, in agony; ut instead of examining the wound and applying the remedy, they contented themselves with administering ane dynes and opiates, and persuading their afflicted friend, that there existed no cause of danger or alarm.

But Johnson was not thus deceived. The nostrum which has lulled its millions to a fatal repose, on him, by the mercy of God, had no effect. His convictions of sin were as lasting as they were deep; it was not therefore until he had dircarded his natural and long-cherished views of commutation and human desert, and had learned to trust humbly and exclusively to his Saviour, that his mind became at peace.

Let us view some of the recorded circumstances of the transaction, and so doing we shall, as Christians, have much more occasion to applaud the scriptural correctness of Johnson's feelings respecting the value of his soul, the guilt of his nature, and the inadequacy of man's best merits and repentance, than to congratulate him upon the accession of such miserable comforters' as those who appear to have surrounded his dying pillow.

Finding him in great mental distress, I told him, remarks one of his biographers, of the many enjoyments of which I thought him in possession, namely, a permanent income, tolerable health, a high degree of reputation for his moral qualities and literary exertions, &c. Had Johnson's depression of mind been nothing more than common melancholy or discontent, these topics of consolation would have been highly appropriate; they might also have been fitly urged as arguments for gratitude and thanksgiving to the Almighty on account of such exalted mercies. In either of these points of view the piety of Dr. Johnson would doubtless have prompted him to acknowledge the value of the blessing, and the duty of contentment and praise. But as arguments for quieting an alarmed conscience, they were quite inadequate; for what would it have profited this distinguished man to have gained all his wellmerited honours, or, even were it possible, the world itself, if, after all, he should become, as he himself afterwards expressed it, a cast-away?

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The feelings of Dr. Johnson on this subject were more fully evinced on a subsequent occasion. One day, in particular, remarks Sir John Hawkins, when I was suggesting to him these and the like reflections, he gave thanks to Almighty God, but added, that notwithstanding all the above benefits, the prospect of death, which was now at no great distance from him, was become terrible, and that he could not think of it but with great pain and trouble of mind.' Nothing assuredly could be more correct than Dr. Johnson's distinction. He ac knowledges the value of the mercies

which he enjoyed, and he gratefully gave thanks to Almighty God' for them; but he felt that they could not soften the terrors of a death-bed, or make the prospect of meeting his Judge less painful and appalling. Hawkins, who could not enter into his illustrious friend's more just and enlarged views of human guilt and frailty, confesses himself to have been "very much surprised and shocked at such a declaration from such a man, and proceeded therefore to urge for his comfort the usual arguments of of extenuation. He reports that told him that he conceived his life to have been a uniform course of virtue; that he had ever shown a deep sense of, and zeal for religion; and that, both by his example and his writings, he had recommended the practice of it; that he had not rested, as many do, in the exercise of common honesty, avoiding the grosser enc.mities, yet rejecting those advantages that result from the belief of Divine Reve

few days, in consequence of a very
pressing request to see me, 1 found
him labouring under very great de-
jection of mind. He bad me draw
near him, and said he wanted to en-
ter into a serious conversation with
me; and upon my expressing my
willingness to join it, he, with a look
that cut me to the heart, told me that
he had the prospect of death before
him, and that he dreaded to meet
his Saviour. I could not but be as-
tonished at such a declaration, and
advised him, as I had done before, to
reflect on the course of his life, and
the services he had rendered to the
cause of religion and virtue, as well
by his example as his writings; to
which he answered, that he had writ-
ten as a philosopher, but had not lived
like one.
the estimation of his
offences h
reasoned thus: Every
man kpws his own sins, and what
But to those
gracene has resisted.
of hers, and the circumstances un-

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lation; but that he had, by which they were committed, he

a stranger. He is therefore to and other exercises of devotion, look on himself as the greatest sinner tivated in his mind the seeds of od- that he knows of.' At the concluness,and was become habitual pious. sion of this argument, which he strongThis was the rock on which num- ly enforced, he uttered this passionate berless professed Christians have fa- [impassioned] exclamation: Shall I tally split; and to th mercy of the who have been a teacher of others, Almighty must it ascribed that the be myself a cast-away?" great and goodDr. Johnson did not In this interesting passage-interthe melancholy cata- esting as detailing the religious proadd one mo what was the doctrine gress of such a mind as Dr. Johnson's logue. which narrator attempted to inbut this, that his friend, like ePharisee in the Gospel, ought to place his confidence upon his being more meritorious than other men, and instead of attributing the praise to Him, who had made him to differ,' was to sacrifice to his own net, and burn incense to his own drag ions and attentive friend could sug

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Can we wonder that with such flattering doctrines constantly sounding in his ears, Dr. Johnson was suffered to undergo much severe mental diseipline, in order to reduce him in his own esteem to that lowly place, which as a human, and consequently a fallen being, it was his duty, however high his attainments or his talents, to occupy.

"In a visit which I made him in a

-how many important facts and reflections crowd upon the imagination! We see the highest human intellect unable, at the approach of death, to find a single argument for hope or comfort, though stimulated by the mention of all the good deeds and auspicious forebodings which an anx

gest. Who that beholds this eminent man thus desirous to open his mind, and to enter into a serious conversation' upon the most momentous of all subjects which can interest an immortal being, but must régret that he had not found a spiritual adviser who was capable of fully entering into his feelings, and administering scriptural consolation to his afflicted mind?

hitherto found peace with his Creator, through the blood of Jesus Christ, yet he could not be satisfied with the ordinary consolations of an uninformed or Pharisaic mind.

The sun did not, however, set in this long continued cloud, for Johnson at length obtained comfort, where alone true comfort could be obtained, in the sacrifice and mediation of Jesus Christ; a circumstance to which Sir John Hawkins transiently alludes, but the particulars of which must be supplied from the narrative of Boswell, whose words are as follows:

Dr. Brocklesby, who will not be suspected of fanaticism, obliged me with the following account: For some time before his death all his fears were calmed and absorbed by the prevalence of his faith; and his trust in the merits and propitiation of Jesus Christ. He talked often to me about the necessity of faith in the sacrifice of Jesus, as necessary beyond all good works whatever for the salvation of mankind.

The narrator informs us in this passage, that he could not but be astonished at such a declaration' as that which Dr. Johnson made. But in reality, where was the real ground for astonishment? Is it astonishing that an inheritor of fallen and corrupt nature, who is about to quit the world, and to be judged according to the deeds done in the body,' should be alarmed at the anticipation of the event, and be anxious to understand fully the only mode of pardon and acceptance? Rather is it not astonishing that every other intelligent man does not feel at his last hour the same anxieties which Dr. Johnson experienced unless, indeed, they have been previously removed by the hopes revealed in that glorious dispensation which alone undertakes to point out in what way the Almighty sees fit to pardon a rebellies world. No man would or could ha been astonished, who knew his own art; for, as Dr. Johnson truly remard, every Christian, how fair soever h character in the estimation of others, 'ought to look upon himself as the greatest sinner that he knows of;' a remark, be it observed, which shows how deeply Dr. Johnson had begun to drink into the spirit of that great Apostle, who, amidst all his excellencies, confessed and felt himself, as was just remarked, the chief of sinners.' What a contrast does the advice of Hawkins, as stated by himself in the preceding passage, form to the scriptural exhortation of our own Church! Instead of advising his friend seriously to examine himself whether he re pented him truly of his former sins, steadfastly purposing (should he survive) to lead a new life, having a lively faith in God's mercy though Christ, with a thankful remembrance of his death, and being in charity with all men,' he bids him look back to his past goodness, and is astonished that the survey is not attended with the hope and satisfaction which he had anticipated. But the truth was, that on the subject of religion, as on every other, Dr. Johnson entertained far more correct ideas than the friends around him; and though he had not

6

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the

Even allowing for the brevity of statement, and for the somewhat

chill circumstance of its coming from th

pen of a man who will not

be suspecd of fanaticism,' what a triumph washere for the plain unsophisticated docnes of the Gospel, especially that of justification by faith in Jesus Chris After every other means had been tr, and tried in vain, a simple penitentia reliance upon the sacrifice of the Rea produced in the heart of this det man a peace and satisfaction which no reflections upon human merit could bestow. He seems to have acquired a

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completely new idea of Christian theology, and could doubtless henceforth practically adopt the animating language of his own church in her eleventh article, 'that we are justified by faith only, is a most welcome doctrine, and very full of comfort.'

There are several ways in which the distress of Dr. Johnson during his latter years may be considered, of which the most correct perhaps is that of its having been permitted as a kind and fatherly chastisement from the Almighty for the inconsistencies of

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