Holy Spirit, but in life and in death have mercy on me for Jesus Christs sake. Amen.
acts of forgiveness[1].
p. m. In the pew I read my prayer and commended my friends, and those that θ[2] this year. At the Altar I was generally attentive, some thoughts of vanity came into my mind while others were communicating, but I found when I considered them, that they did not tend to irreverence of God. At the altar I renewed my resolutions. When I received, some tender images struck me. I was so mollified by the concluding address to our Saviour that I could not utter it[3]. The Communicants were mostly women. At intervals I read collects, and recollected, as I could, my prayer. Since my return I have said it. 2 p.m.
These resolutions I have not practised nor recollected. O God grant me to begin now for Jesus Christ's Sake. Amen.
116.
God who hast ordained that whatever is to be desired, should be sought by labour, and who, by thy Blessing, bringest
- ↑ In Jeremy Taylor's Holy Living, under the heading of A prayer of preparation or address to the holy sacrament, we find An act of love; An act of desire; An act of contrition; An act of faith. I do not find in the Dictionaries any definition of act as here used.
- ↑ Strahan prints 'died,' though 'died' it certainly is not. What Johnson wrote was the Greek letter θ. For an explanation of this see post, p. 89.
- ↑ 'O Lord, the only begotten Son Jesu Christ; O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us. Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer. Thou that sittest at the right hand of God the Father, have mercy upon us.
For thou only art holy; Thou only art the Lord; Thou only, O Christ, with the Holy Ghost, art most high in the glory of God the Father.'
Johnson defines to mollify 'to appease; to pacify; to quiet.' Here he must use mollified in the sense of affected or touched.
Boswell, who, 'according to his usual custom' on Easter Sunday, visited him after morning service, records:—'It seemed to me that there was always something peculiarly mild and placid in his manner upon this holy festival.' Life, iii. 25.
