kind; and, therefore, for the sake of being so near the college and its library, and his friends Mr. CUTLER and Mr. BROWN, he gave this place the preference, although it had but little to recommend it; and he was extremely happy in this situation.

Mr. JOHNSON was always of a serious and devout turn of mind, but averse to every appearance of enthusiasm; and he never could be thoroughly reconciled to the practice of public extempore praying and preaching, which he looked upon as the great engines of enthusiasm. When at college he had conceived an aversion to extempore prayers, by observing the use that was made of them there, and the tendency of this practice to promote self-conceit and spiritual pride. The scholars, in his time, frequently held private meetings for prayer; and those of them that had acquired something of a talent at extempore praying could not forbear appearing vain of it: one, in particular, who was allowed to excel in that way, had the vanity frequently to boast of his gifts. On the other hand, some modest young gentlemen, of good sense and fair character, who wanted the assurance to pray in this manner, were discountenanced and despised. Mr. JOHNSON also could not help frequently ob

serving many familiar, impertinent, and indecent, and sometimes almost blasphemous expressions, that were uttered on these occasions, which were shocking to him, and gave him an early dislike to extempore praying. From such observations he could not avoid making the conclusion, that it would be much better to have our prayers pre-composed, with due care and attention.

In 1715 he happened to meet with Archbishop KING's discourse, Of the Inventions of Men in the Worship of God, which confirmed him in his opinion. That excellent writer proved, with an evidence that Mr. JOHNSON thought but little short of demonstration, that public worship carried on in the extempore way, was wrong and unscriptural; and that pre-conceived, well-composed forms of prayer were infinitely preferable. They show a much greater reverence to the Divine Majesty; and in the use of them there is no occasion to rack our invention in finding what to say, or to exercise our minds in ascertaining the meaning and propriety of what is said, as is necessarily the case in extempore prayers. When a form of prayer is used, we have nothing else to do than to offer up our hearts with our words, which, indeed, is the only proper busi

ness of prayer. He had been educated under strong prejudices against the Church of England, of which he knew but very little; but the next year (1716) the Book of Common Prayer was, for the first time, put into his hands, by one Mr. SMITHSON, a pious member of the Church, who had lately settled in Guilford. On perusing the Liturgy, he found that it chiefly consisted of a very judicious collection of sentiments and expressions out of the holy scriptures; and these he had always reverenced and loved. This inspection, together with Dr. KING's book before-mentioned, caused all his prejudices against the Liturgy of the Church of England entirely to vanish.

Mr. JOHNSON had, likewise, been always much embarrassed with the rigid Calvinistical doctrines in which he had been from his infancy instructed. He thought himself bound to believe them, because every body else did, and because some sounds in scripture seemed to favour them: but then, as many passages in scripture appeared, at the same time, to be utterly inconsistent with them, he never could be perfectly reconciled to these opinions. When the library came over, and after he and his associates had read and considered the writings of some of the most ce

lebrated divines of the Church of England, and conversed together freely on these subjects, they had the unspeakable satisfaction of being able to remove all their doubts and objections, and of obtaining rest to their minds, which had been long agitated and wearied with the perplexities that attended their inquiries. However, the times were such, that they found it necessary to be very cautious in these matters, and to keep their thoughts much to themselves.

. Mr. JOHNSON had also an early dislike to the Independent or Congregational form of church government, in which the people have so much influence. This, as well as extempore prayer, he plainly perceived to be productive of conceitedness and self-sufficiency, and, by natural consequence, of censoriousness and uncharitableness. The discipline was often applied to the mere frailties of nature, or prostituted to the purposes of private revenge, and issued commonly in great animosities, and sometimes in the most virulent separations and schisms. He was of opinion, that such a popular form of ecclesiastical discipline could not long subsist in such a manner as to answer the main ends of government; but must, from the very nature of it, soon crumble to pieces, especially in a country

where every individual seemed to think his own judgment infallible. Observations of this kind prepared him, when he came to read and to understand the nature of Episcopal government, to see its reasonableness and the great advantages that attend it.

Such was the state of Mr. JOHNSON's mind when he settled at West-Haven. It may, therefore, be well supposed, that it would then have been much more agreeable to him to have been ordained in the Episcopal than in the Congregational way; and this, he informs us, was really the case. But although he thought it eligible in most circumstances, yet he did not think it necessary, in point of duty, as he was then situated, to conform to the Church. Accordingly he made himself easy, and went on in the prosecution of his studies, and in the discharge of parochial duties, not appearing to vary from the customs of his country.

Notwithstanding, with regard to his public performances, his method was peculiar. As to his prayers, he commonly made use of forms, which he provided for himself in the best manner he could, and chiefly out of the Liturgy of the Church of England. And as to sermons, his practice was to write about one a month, taking