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 committed to me, I may receive pardon, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen x.

21. PRAYER ON EASTER DAY.

Ap. 22, 1753.

O Lord, who givest the grace of Repentance, and hearest the prayers of the penitent, grant, that by true contrition, I may obtain forgiveness of all the sins committed, and of all duties neglected, in my union with the Wife whom thou hast taken from me, for the neglect of joint devotion, patient exhortation, and mild instruction. And, O Lord, who canst change evil to good, grant that the loss of my Wife may so mortify all in ordinate affections in me, that I may henceforth please thee by holiness of Life.

And, O Lord, so far as it may be lawful for me, I commend to thy fatherly goodness the Soul of my departed wife 2 ; beseeching thee to grant her whatever is best in her present state, and finally to receive her to eternal happiness. All this I beg for Jesus Christ's sake, whose death I am now about to commemorate. To whom, &c. Amen 3.

This I repeated sometimes at church.

22.

April 23, 1753. I know not whether I do not too much indulge the vain longings of affection ; but I hope they in- tenerate my heart, and that when I die like my Tetty, this affection will be acknowledged in a happy interview, and that in the mean time I am incited by it to piety. I will, however, not deviate too much from common and received methods of devotion 4.

1 Life, i. 255. common and received methods of

2 He had begun to write wife with devotion.'

a capital letter, but scored it out. A few weeks after Johnson made

3 Most of this prayer is quoted in this entry Gibbon joined the Church the Life, i. 240. of Rome. ' On the eighth of June,

4 Life, i. 237. It was, no doubt, 1753, I solemnly, though privately, in his conditional prayers for his abjured the errors of heresy.' Gib- wife that he deviated from ' the bon's Misc. Writ. i. 64.

[Undated

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