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CHAPTER XI.

HIS CHURCHMANSHIP.

DR. JOHNSON read many works in divinity, and was well acquainted with the writings of some of the most celebrated divines of the Church of England, as well as with a few of those of dissenting denominations. Sir John Pringle once expressed a wish that Boswell would ask him, What were the best English sermons for style? Accordingly, Boswell took a fitting opportunity, and began with a name which probably he thought would best secure Johnson's favourable judgment and sympathy. BOSWELL:"Atterbury?" JOHNSON:-"Yes, Sir, one of the best." BOSWELL:-"Tillotson?" JOHNSON:" Why, not now. I should not advise a preacher at this day to imitate Tillotson's style: though I don't know; I should be cautious of objecting to what has been applauded by so many suffrages. South is one of the best, if you except his peculiarities, and his violence, and sometimes coarseness of language. Seed has a very fine style: but he is not very theological. Jortin's sermons are very elegant. Sherlock's style, not made it his principal study. And you may add Smalridge. All the latter preachers have a good style. Indeed, nobody

too, is very elegant, though he has

now talks much of style: everybody composes pretty well. I should recommend Dr. Clarke's sermons, were he orthodox. However, it is very well known where he is not orthodox, which was upon the doctrine of the Trinity, as to which he is considered a heretic: so one is aware of it." BOSWELL:-"I like Ogden's sermons on Prayer very much, both for neatness of style, and subtilty of reasoning." JOHNSON :-"I should like to read all that Ogden has written." BOSWELL :-"What I wish to know is, what sermons afford the best specimen of English pulpit eloquence." JOHNSON :-"We have no sermons addressed to the passions that are good for anything: if you mean that kind of eloquence." A CLERGYMAN (whose name I do not recollect) :-" Were not Dodd's sermons addressed to the passions?" JOHNSON :-"They were nothing, Sir, be they addressed to what they may."

Bishop Atterbury, as an adherent, in his heart, of the Pretender, a maintainer of the use and rights of Convocation, and as a supporter of Sacheverell, and drawing on himself the opposition of Hoadley, would certainly find favour in Johnson's eyes; but still, though a man of too ardent and haughty a disposition, he was accounted an eloquent preacher, and, next to Smalridge, one of the finest Latin writers of his time. He was both a learned and a brilliant man. The severity with which he was treated when the charge of high treason (too justly) was brought against him, and the rigorous treatment which was continued towards him in his banishment, though Pope hoped that Providence had appointed him to some great and useful

work (of genius rather than politics), and called him to it in this severe way, could not but call forth the commiseration of the multitude with whom he was popular, as well as the cordial sympathy of the learned and more accomplished of mankind. The spirit of Atterbury is still, in some degree, in the Church of England, and best represented, perhaps, by the able and undaunted Bishop of Exeter (Dr. Philpotts), a man supposed by the thoughtless to lean towards the Church of Rome, but, like Atterbury, when tempted by the doctors of the Sorbonne, ready to take up the gauntlet on the condition that the Bible should be taken for the sole and ultimate rule of decision. It was a brother of the Bishop (Lewis Atterbury) who answered the attack of Colson (a Roman Catholic) on the Discourses against Popery by Archbishop Tillotson, so that both the brothers, as High Churchmen, were learned and staunch Protestants.

Johnson qualifies his observations on Archbishop Tillotson, though elsewhere he complains of his "verbosity." Correct writers would not be pleased with the style of Tillotson, though his argument and matter are so valuable. In Sir Thomas Fitzosborne's Letters,* (the real author of which was William Melmoth, famed for elegant diction,) exception is taken to the Archbishop's ill-chosen words, inharmonious periods, and mean metaphors; this author regretting that " he who abounds with such generous and noble sentiments, should want the art of setting them off with all the

* Letters on Several Subjects, by Sir Thomas Fitzosborne, Bart. Letter 24.

advantage they deserve." Still his Sermons are a great storehouse of divinity, calculated to convince the sceptic, arm the Protestant, and confirm the Christian.

Tillotson, politically and theologically speaking, may be accounted the very opposite of Atterbury. He, the early nonconformist, (and friend of Bishop Wilkins, brother-in-law of Cromwell, so anxious to comprehend dissenters within the pale of the Church,) who was promoted by King William; who wrote, "I thank God I have lived to have my last desire in this world, which was this happy Revolution; who succeeded a retiring non-juror on the throne of Lambeth; who wished the Church were well rid of the Athanasian Creed: between such a one and the Bishop of Rochester there could be little agreement; and hence we find the whole of that party who would, in later times, have followed Atterbury, pronouncing Tillotson to be a schismatic, and pursuing him with hatred and scurrilous language, even to his death. All this he bore with remarkable mildness; and there seems to have been in him a notable union of intellectual power with natural sweetness of disposition. His moderation and sober arguments converted the Earl of Shrewsbury to Protestantism. “I am, and always was, more concerned," he says, " that your Lordship should continue a virtuous and good man, than become a Protestant; being assured that the ignorance and errors of men's understanding will find a much easier forgiveness with God, than the faults of their will." Now that all party prejudices of that time have passed away, as regards their personal application, Tillotson's works are reaping their due and just reward;

and though it may not be desirous always to imitate his style, yet who would not wish to possess one tithe of his vast powers of reasoning and sublimity in morals, as well as sound Christian teaching displayed in his discourses. He shone as a preacher, and is said, more than any other preacher of reputation, to have been the means of establishing in the Church of England the habit of delivering written sermons. Atterbury was born about seven years after the decease of this Archbishop.

Dr. South, in part a cotemporary of Atterbury, was born thirty-four years previous to the death of Tillotson. These divines are taken, not in chronological, but in order as spoken of by Dr. Johnson. Dr. Johnson especially recommended his sermons on Prayer. Some sentences in these resemble Johnson's style; for instance, where he is speaking on brevity of expression in prayer, especially since the Almighty can anticipate our wants: "For," he says, "according to the most natural interpretation of things, this is to ascribe to him a sagacity so quick and piercing, that it were presumption to inform, and a benignity so great, that it were needless to importune him." In this discourse he uses his more homely way, and says: "It is a common saying, If a man does not know how to pray, let him go to sea, and that will teach him :" and again, he speaks of a man talking of storms, shipwrecks, &c., when "safe and warm in his parlour;" though he finishes this discourse with elegant conciseness: "And I know no prayer necessary," he says, "that is not in the Liturgy, but one; which is this, That God would

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