Page:The Works of Samuel Johnson ... A journey to the Hebrides. The vision of Theodore, the hermit of Teneriffe. The fountains. Prayers and meditations. Sermons.v. 10-11. Parliamentary debates.pdf/469

 argument against suffering ourselves to dwell too long upon pleasing dreams, or delightful falsehoods, or admitting any inordinate passion to insinuate itself, and grow domestick; so it is a reason, of equal force, to engage us in a frequent and intense meditation on those important and eternal rules, which are to regulate our conduct, and rectify our minds; that the power of habit may be added to that of truth, that the most useful ideas may be the most familiar, and that every action of our lives may be carried on under the superintendence of an overruling piety.

The man who has accustomed himself to consider that he is always in the presence of the Supreme Being, that every work of his hands is carried on, and every imagination of his heart formed, under the inspection of his Creator, and his Judge, easily withstands those temptations which find a ready passage into a mind not guarded and secured by this awful sense of the Divine presence.

He is not enticed by ill examples, because the purity of God always occurs to his imagination; he is not betrayed to security by solitude, because he never considers himself as alone.

The two great attributes of our Sovereign Creator, which seem most likely to influence our lives, and, by consequence, most necessarily to claim our attention, are his justice and his mercy. Each of these may suggest considerations, very efficacious for the suppression of wicked and unreasonable murmurs.

The justice of God will not suffer him to afflict any man, without cause, or without retribution. Whenever we suffer, therefore, we are certain, either that we have, by our wickedness, procured our own miseries, or that they are sent upon us as further trials of our virtue, in order to prepare us for greater degrees of happiness. Whether we suppose ourselves to suffer for the sake of punishment or probation, it is not easy to discover with what right we repine.

If our pains and labours be only preparatory to un