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 ii4 Prayers and Meditations.

��163.

PRAYER FOR MRS. WILLIAMS DURING HER ILLNESS PRECEDING HER DEATH IN 1783 '.

{August, 1783.]

Almighty God, who in thy late visitation hast shewn mercy to me, and now sendest to my companion disease and decay, grant me grace so to employ the life which thou hast prolonged, and the faculties which thou hast preserved, and so to receive the admonition which the sickness of my friend, by thy appoint ment, gives me, that I may be constant in all holy duties, and be received at last to eternal happiness.

Permit, O Lord, thy unworthy creature to offer up this prayer for Anna Williams now languishing upon her bed, and about to recommend herself to thy infinite mercy. O God, who desirest not the death of a sinner, look down with mercy upon her : forgive her sins and strengthen her faith. Be merciful, O Father of Mercy, to her and to me : guide us by thy holy spirit through the remaining part of life ; support us in the hour of death, and pardon us in the day of judgement, for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

164.

September 6.

I had just heard of Williams's Death 2.

Almighty and most merciful Father, who art the Lord of life and death, who givest and who takest away, teach me to adore thy providence, whatever Thou shalt allot me ; make me to remember, with due thankfulness, the comforts which I have received from my friendship with Anna Williams. Look upon her, O Lord, with mercy, and prepare me, by thy grace,

��1 From the fly-leaf of a copy of the fifth edition of Prayers and Medi tations (1817) in the possession of Mr. C. E. Doble. There is nothing to show who transcribed the prayer or whence it was taken. The title is not Johnson's, for it begins ' Prayer of Dr. Johnson.' Moreover it is not correct, for though the prayer is partly for her it is still more for him.

8 This prayer is not in the Pem

��broke College MSS. For Mrs. Wil liams's death, see Life, iv. 235, and Letters, ii. 331.

John Hoole wrote to Bishop Percy: in the death of poor Mrs. Williams. . . Mrs. Hoole and I shall miss her ex tremely. She was a very valuable woman a hearty, sincere, and most intelligent friend.' Nichols, Lit. Hist. viii. 218.
 * We have here suffered great loss

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