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DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON.
OBSERVATIONS ON HIS CHARACTER AND DEATH.
Extracted from Wilks’s Christian Essays.
The case of our great English moralist is
a most decisive illustration of the impossi
bility of discovering anymore of solacing a
scripturally enlightened conscience, except
that which the gospel has revealed. Had
Dr. Johnson been ignorant of his sinfulness
in the sight of God, he might have expired,
as thousands every day expire, in a blind
and fatal repose ; or had he been inclined
to infidelity, he might have jested, like
Hume and others of a similar school, on the
subject of his approaching dissolution.
Neither, however, of these effects would
have constituted that true peace which his
spiritually-directed mind so eagerly sought,
.and which, before his death, he most cer
tainly obtained.
A few practical remarks upon the subject
of the last hours of this illustrious man, will
not only be a forcible comment upon the
foregoing propositions, but will tend to shew
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 per
ceive 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 instructed
in Christian principles. But he was also,
the strict judgment of revealed religion,
in 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
biograp'urs lamenting that “ the visits of
idle and some worthless persons were never
unwelcome 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 but as venial offences, appeared to
him as positive crimes. Even his constitu
tional indolence and irritability of mind
were sufficient of themselves to keep him
constantly humbled and self-abased ; and
though among his gay or literary compan
ions he usually appears upon the compara
tive! v high ground of a Christian moralist,
fend the strenuous defender of revealed reli
gion ; yet, compared with the Divine stand
ard and the test of truth, he felt himself
both defective and disobedient.
Together with this conscientious feeling
he hail adopted certian incorrect, not to say
superstitious ideas, respecting the method
of placating the Deity. He seems, fur ex
ample, to have believed that penance , in its
confined and popish 6ense as distinguished
from simple penitence, is of great avail
THE MISSIONARY.
in procuring the Divine favour and forgive
ness. Thus, when his conscience distres
sed him on account of an act of disobedi
ence to his parent, we find him many years
afterwards remaining a considerable time in
the rain, exposed in the publick 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 such a scene deserves and en
sures universal veneration and esteem.
Even while we smile at the somewhat ludi
crous nature of the action, we instinctively
feel a sympathy and respect, which perhaps
a wiser, bat less remarkable mode of exhib
iting 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 emphati
cally 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 with
out 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 acts of self-denial;
or, in other words, that God accepts human
penance as an expiation for human sins ; a
doctrine to which revealed 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 less the equivalent which he presented
should not be sufficient to entitle him, in the
Divine mercy, to the pardon of his trans
gressions. 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 blessings were offered
up solely through the merits and mediation
of Jesus Christ, be seems, in point of fact,
formany years to have viewed the atone
ment rather as i medium, through which
God is pleased to accept our imperfect ser
vices, and to make them adequate, by the
conditions of a remedial law, to the pur
chase of heaven, than as a sacrifice through
which alone heaven is fully secured and
freely given to the beliving penitent. Dr.
Johnson’s line ol reading in Divinity was,
perhaps, unfavourable to a full perception
of Christian truth. The writings of Mr.
Law in particular, which he had studied
with some attention, were by no means
well adapted to his peculiar case. For a
thoughtless, a frivolous, or an impenitent
sinner, the “ Serious Call” might have
been eminently useful in exciting a deep
consciousness of guilt, a salutary remorse
for the past, and holy resolutions for the
future ; and as far as these elements of re
ligion extend, the perusal of this celebrated
book might doubtless have had some good
effect upon the mind of Dr. Johnson. But
in the consolatory parts of the gospel; in
the free and undisguised exhibition of a
Redeemer, whose sacrifice is perfect and
all-snfficient; in the inculcation of the gra
cious promises of a reconciled Father to
the returning prodigal, Law, and other
writers of a similar school, are undoubtedly
defective; and the same defect seems to
have characterized, for many years, the
views of our illustrious moralist. He lived
in a perpetual dilemma, by trusting to
works which his well-informed conscience
told him were not good, and yet on the
goodness of which, in conjunction, at least,
with the merits of Christ, he placed his de
pendence for eternity.
To give, therefore, comfort to the mind
of such a man as Dr. Johnson, there were
but two modes ; either by blinding his con
science, or by increasing his faith ; either
by extenuating his sins, or by pointing out
in all its glories the sufficiency of the Chris
tian ransom. The friends who surrounded
this eminent man during (he greater part
of his life, were little qualified to perform
the latter, and therefore very nattrally re
sorted to the former. They found their
patient, so to speak, in agony ; but instead
of examining the wound and applying the
remedy, they contented themselves with
administering anodynes and opiates, and
persuading their afflicted friend, that there
existed no cause of if ger or alarm.
But Johnson was ri thus deceived. The
nostrum which has'mlled its millions to a
fatal repose, on him, by the mercy of God,
had no effect. His convictions of sin were
lasting as they were deep; it was not,
therefore, until he had discarded his natur
al 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.
GO YE INTO ALL THE WORLD AND PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE. -Jesus Christ.
MOUNT ZION, (HANCQjCK CO. Y, SEPTEMBER 17, 1821.
Let us view some of the recorded cir
cumstances of the transaction ; and in 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 na
ture, and the inadequacy of man’s best mer
its and repentance, than to congratulate
him upon the accession of such “ miserable
comforters” as those appear to have been,
who surrounded his dying pillow.
Finding him in great mental distress, “ l
told him,” remarks one of his biographers,*
“of the many enjoyments of which 1
thought him in possession, namely, a per
* Sir John Hawkins.
manent income, tolerable health, a high
degree of reputation for hie moral qualities
and literary exertions,” &c. Had John
son’s depression of mind been nothing more
than common melancholy or discontent,
these topicks 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 promp
ted him to acknowledge the value of the
blessing, and the duty of contentment and
praise. But, as arguments for quieting an
alarmed conscience, (hey were quite inade
quate, for what would it have profited this
distinguished man to have gained all his
w*dll-merited honours, or, even were it pos
sible, the world itself, if after all, he should
become, as he himself afterwards expres
sed it, “ a cast-awav.”
The feelings of Dr. Johnson on this sub
ject were more fully evinced on a subse
quent occasion: “One day in particular,”
remarks Sir John Hawkins, “ when I was
suggesting to him these and the like reflec
tions, 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 be
come terrible, and that he could not think
ofitbut with greatpain andtroubleof mind.”
Nothing assuredly could be more correct
than Dr. Johnson’s distinction. He acknowl
edged 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 meet
ing his Judge less painful and appalling.
Hawkins, who could not enter into his illus
trious 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 ex
tenuation. He reports that he “ told him
that he conceived his life to have been a
uniform course of virtue; that he had ever
shewn a deep sense of, and zeal for religion;
and that, both by his example and his wri
tings, he had recommended the practice of
it; that he had not rested, as many do, in
the exercise of common honesty, avoiding
the grosser enormities, yet rejecting those
advantages that result'from the belief of Di
vine revelation ; but that he had, by prayer
and other exercises of devotion, cultivated
in his mind the seeds of goodness, and was
become habitually pious.
This is the rock on which numberless
professed Christians have fatally split; and
to the mercy of the Almighty must it be as
cribed that the great and good Dr. Johnson
did not add one more to the melancholy cat
alogue. For what was the doctrine which
the narrator attempted to inculcate but this ?
that his friend, like the pharisee in the Gos
pel, ought to place his confidence upon his
being more meritorious than other men, &
instead of attributing the praise to Him,
who had “ made bim to differ,” was to “ sac
rifice to his own net, and burn incense to
his own drag.” Can we wonder that, with
such flattering doctrines constantly sounding
in his ears, Dr. Johnson was suffered to un
dergo much severe mental discipline,
in order to reduce him in his own es
teem to that lowly place, which as a hu
man, and consequently a fallen being, it
was bis duty, however high his attainments,
or his talents, to occupy.
The snare of spiritual pride, which Sir
John Hawkins thus unconsciously spread for
his dying friend, was the more seductive,
from the circumstance of Dr. Johnson’s life
having beeD, upoD the whole, correct and
laudable, and from his writings having been
eminently useful for the promotion of mo
rality and virtue. The convictions of a
profligate man might have been supposed
too keen and alarming to be quieted by
such common-place soporificks; but where
there was really so much apparent cause
for self-complacency and gratulation, as in
the case of Dr. Johnson, it must appear al
most wonderful that the self-righteous de
lusion did not succeed.
It would undoubtedly have given this
biographer much satisfaction to have heard
from his friend the usual language of an un
subdued heart. “ I thank God, that, upon
the whole, I have acted my part well upon
the stage of life. We are all frail and fal
lible ; but I have no great sins to account
for, I have been honest and charitable ; my
conduct, I trust, has been, with some few
exceptions, ‘ one uniform course of virtue
1 therefore die in peace, looking forward
to that happiness which, { trust, my actions
have ensured, from a God of infinite mercy
and compassion.” But to the humble and
well-informed Christian, the penitential
sorrows of Johnson, (springing as they did,
from a heart ill at ease with itself; not so
much on account of any one flagrant sin, as
from a general sense of the exalted nature
of the Divine law, and imperfections of the
best human obedience,) will appear a hap
pier and surer pledge of his Scriptual reno
vation of mind than the most rapturous ex
pressions which pharisaick confidence could
have produced.
The self-righteous arguments of Haw
kins could not, however, touch the case of
Johnson. “These suggestions,” he con
tinues, “made little impression on bim ;
he lamented the indolence in which he had
spent his life, talked of secret transgres
sions, and seemed desirous of telling me
more to that purpose, than 1 was willing to
hear.” Happy was it for Dr. Johnson that
bis confessor’s arguments produced so little
effect, and that he was, at length, instruct
ed by a better guide than his well-meaning
but inexperienced friend. Had the argu
ments of Hawkins effected their intended
operation, we should have seen one of the
greatest and most powerful mmds that ever
animated a human frame, quitting its frail
receptacle in a flimsy robe of self-righte
ousness, which must have fallen from its
grasp immediately after death, leaving the
soul naked, and guilty, and defenceless,
before its Almighty Judge.
It is easy to conceive the language of a
plain practical Christian, while he stood be
side the death-bed of 6uch a man as Dr.
Johnson, and poured in the balm of religious
consolation. “ I fully admit,” he might
have said, “ your sins, yet 1 would point
you to an all-powerful Saviour, and turn
those very apprehensions and that godly
sorrow into motives for repose. True, you
are in yourself all that you have confessed
yourself to be ; and if you were not, a Re
deemer would be of no value, for Christ
came ‘not to heal the whole, but them that
are sick.’ I rejoice that you thus feel and
acknowledge your transgressions; for
though beyond most men you have cause
for gratitude, though you have enjoyed
God’s highest gifts, though by his prevent
ing grace, operating through the medium
of a religious education, and a tender con
science, ycu have been enabled to preserve
a moral deportment, yet your ‘ righteous
ness extendeth not unto God.’ What you
have, you have received, and great, there
fore, as may have been your talents, and
useful as may have been your life, you
have nothing so good and perfect as to be
fit to offer to the Almighty as a claim to
Heaven. Yet, on the other hand, is not
your very consciousness of guilt the best
hope of safety, the brightest omen of par
don ? Has it not bowed you down in contri
tion ? Has it not taught you the inestimable
value of the Redeemer’s sacrifice and
death ? You acknowledge yourself a sinner,
and what is the characterislick of the gos
pel, but that the blood of Christ cleanseth
from all sin ? On this rock only can you
find a firm foundation for the hopes of a
human soul; but here it may build securely
amidst all the agitating storms of an alarmed
conscience and a tempestuous world. Re
pose, then, upon your Saviour, in simple
and firm reliance, knowing that he posses
ses the same ability and will, to be merciful
to you as to him, who, like you, confessed
himself the ‘ chief of sinners,’ but who, nev
ertheless, found peace in his Redeemer,
and was eventually filled ‘with joy un
speakable and full of glory.’—Look, then,
to Him who is 1 the Author and Finisher of
our faith,’ and to Him from whom ‘ all
good desires proceed;’ contemplate the
end, the nature, the extent, the value of
the sacrifice of Christ, and see whether
there be any scriptural reason why you
should be excluded from its benefits. Look
also to that Divine Spirit, who is the guide,
the enlightener, the consoler, and the sanc
tifier of the Christian church, to subdue
unbelief, to increase faith, and to implant a
never-ending hope, which shall support
you amidst aU the afflictions of life, and
raise you far above the terrors of the
grave.”
Thus, a plain and honest religious friend
might have gone on to ‘ preach the gospel’
in that simplicity with which it was at first
dispensed, and to exhibit in all their ampli
tude and freedom the grace, the mercy, the
compassion of God; the atonement and
intercession of Christ; the promised influ
ence of the Holy Spirit; with every other
topick connected with the salvation and
happiness of a penitent transgressor.
There might, indeed, have been nothing
remarkably novel or inviting in the man
ner of stating these simple truths; yet,
coming from a warm and honest heart, and
being accompanied with that Divine bene
diction which is never warning where the
soul has been prepared by contrition for its
reception, they might have produced the
happiest effects,when philosophick suasion,
and human advice had exerted themselves
in vain. In moments of great mental dis
tress, arguments, which even a child in re
ligion could readily discover and apply,
might be wauting to quiet the mind of eveii
such a man as Dr. Johnson himself.
But in the narrative of Hankins, and in
the arguments which we find him proposing
to the dying moralist, these and similar
topicks of genuine consolation appear to
have had no place. That 4 blood which
cleanseth from all sin’ is scarcely, or only
incidentally mentioned. We find the nar
rator continuing, in the following strain, his
inefficient consolations:
‘ In a visit which I made him ip a few
days, in consequence of a very pressing re
quest to see me, 1 found him labouring un
der very great dejection of mind. Me
bade me draw near to him, and said he
wanted to enter into a serious conversation
with tne ; aud upon my expressing my wil
lingness to join in it, he, with a look that
Price, ° T 'l
l $3,00 hi advance, >
cut me to the heart, told me ibal he had
the prospect of death before him, and that
be dreaded to meet his Saviour. I could
not but be astonished 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 bis writings; to which he answered, that
he had written as a philosopher, but had
not lived like one. In the estimation of
his offences he reasoned thus: ‘ Every
man knows his own sins, and what grace
he has resisted. But to those of others,
and the circumstances under which they
were committed, be is a stranger.—He is,
therefore, to look, on himself as the great
est sinner that he knows of.’ At the con
clusion of this argument which he strongiv
enforced, he uttered this passionate (im
passioned) exclamation: ‘Shall l,who have
been a teacher of others, be myself a cast
away ?’ ”
In this interesting passage—interesting
as detailing the religions progress of such
a mind as Dr. Johnson’s—how many im
portant facts and reflections crowd upon the
imagination ! We see the highest human
intellect unable, at the approach of dc-ath,
to find a single argument for hope and com
fort, though stimulated by the mention of
all the good deeds and auspicious forebod
ings which an anxious and attentive friend
could suggest. Who yet beholds this emi
nent man, thus desirous to open his mind,
aud “ to enter into a serious conversation”
upon the most momentous of all subjects
which can interest an immortal being, but
you must regret that he had not found a
spiritual adviser who was capable of full/
entering into his feelings, and administering
scriptural consolation to his mind.
The narrator informs us in this passage
that “ he could not but be astonished at such
a declaration,” as that which Dr. Jobtm*
had made. But in reality where was the
real ground for astonishment ? Is it aston
ishing that an inheritor of a fallen and cor
rupt 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
of the event, and be anxious to
undeaPmd fully the only mode of pardon
and acceptance ? Rather, is it not astonish
ing that every other intelligent man does not
feel at bis last hour the same anxieties
which Dr Johnson experienced ? Unless,
indeed, they have been previously remov
ed bv Ihe hopes revealed in that glorious
dispensation which alone undertakes to
point out in what way the Almighty sees
fit to pardon a rebellious world. No man
would, or could have been astonished who
knew his own heart ; for, as Dr. Johnson
truly remarked, every Christian, how fair
soever bis character in the estimation of
others, ought to look upon himself as the
“ greatest sinner that he knows;” a re
mark, be it observed, which shews how
deeply Dr. Johnson had begun to drink in
to the spirit of that great apostle, who
amidst all his excellencies confessed and
felt himself, as. was just remarked, “ the
chiefofsinners.”
What a contrast does the advice of Haw
kins. as Mated by himself in the preceding
passage, form to the scriptural exhortation
of our own church ? Instead of advising his
friend seriously to examine himself“ wheth
er he repented him truly of his former sins,
steadfastly purposing, (should he survive,)
to lead anew life, having a lively faith in
God’s mercy, through Christ, with a thank
ful remembrance of his death, and being in
charity with all men;” he bids him look
back to Lis past goodness, and is astonished
that the survey is not attended with the
hope and satisfaction which he had anticipa
ted. But the truth was, that on the sub
ject of religion, as on every other, Dr.
Johnson entertained far more correct ideas
than the friends around him ; and though
he had not hitherto found peace with his
Creator, through the blood of Jesus Christ,
yet he could not be satisfied with the ordin
ary exertions of an uninformed or pharisaick
mind.
The sun did not, however, set in this
Icng-continued cloud, for Johnson at length
obtained comfort where alone true comfort
could be obtained, in the sacrifice and me
diation of Jesus Christ; a circumstance to
which Sir John Hawkins transiently alludes;
hut the particulars of which roust” be sup
plied from the narrative of Boswell, whose
words are as follows:
“ Dr. Brocklesbv, who will not he sus
pected of fanaticism, obliged me with the
following account : For some time before
his death all his fears were calmed and ab
sorbed by the prevalence of his faith : and
his trust in the merits and propitiation of
Jesus Christ. He talked often to tne about
the necessity of faith in the sacrifice of Je
sus ; as necessary beyond all good works
whatever, for the salvation of mankind.”
Even allowing for the brevity of this
statement, and for the somewhat chilling
circumstance of its coming from the pen of
a man, who “ will not be suspected of fa
naticism,” what a triumph was here for the
plain unsophisticated doctrines of the Gor
pel, especially that of free justification by
faith in Jesus Christ! After every other
means had been tried, and tried in vain, a
simple, penitential reliance upon the sacri
fice o! the Redeemer, produced in th
