'Long since with woe
Nearer acquainted, now I feel by proof,
That fellowship in pain divides not smart,
Nor lightens aught each man's peculiar load.'
Richard Baxter's rule of preaching.
(Vol. iv, p. 185.)
The Rev. J. Hamilton Davies [See ante, p. xlix.] has furnished me with the following extract from Reliquiae Baxterianae, ed. 1696, p. 93, in illustration of Johnson's statement:—
'And yet I did usually put in something in my Sermon which was above their own discovery, and which they had not known before; and this I did, that they might be kept humble, and still perceive their ignorance, and be willing to keep in a learning state. (For when Preachers tell their People of no more than they know, and do not shew that they excel them in knowledge, and easily overtop them in Abilities, the People will be tempted to turn Preachers themselves, and think that they have learnt all that the Ministers can teach them, and are as wise as they———). And this I did also to increase their knowledge; and also to make Religion pleasant to them, by a daily addition to their former Sight, and to draw them on with desire and Delight.'
Opposition to Sir Joshua Reynolds in the Royal Academy.
(Vol. iv, p. 219, n. 4.)
'JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., TO BISHOP PERCY. '12 March, 1790.
'Sir Joshua has been shamefully used by a junto of the Academicians.
I live a great deal with him, and he is much better than you would
suppose.'
—Nichols's Literary History, vii. 313.
Richard Baxter on the possible salvation of a Suicide. (Vol. iv, p. 225.)