SERMONS BY SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D. LEFT FOR PUBLICATION BY JOHN TAYLOR, LL. D. PREBENDARY OF WESTMINSTER. RIPON: PRINTED BY T. PROCTER, MARKET-PLACE. MDCCCXXXV. XIX. On Charity, Scoffers, XXIII. On Strife, XVIII. On the Nature and Wickedness of Fraud, 'ΧΧ. On the Folly and Wickedness of Religious XXI. On the Goodness of God, XXII. On the State of Mind necessary for the Re- ception of the Lord's Supper, XXIV. On the Happiness which a Nation may derive from Righteous Governors, SERMON I " Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife."—Genesis, chap. ii, ver. 24. THAT Society is necessary to the happiness of human nature, that the gloom of solitude and the stillness of retirement, however they may flatter at a distance, with pleasing views of independence and serenity, neither extinguish the passions, nor enlighten the understanding, that discontent will intrude upon privacy, and temptations follow us to the desert, every one may be easily convinced, either by his own experience, or that of others. That knowledge is advanced by an intercourse of sentiments, and an exchange of observations, and that the bosom is disburthened by a communication of its cares, is too well known for proof or illustration. In solitude perplexity swells into distraction, and grief settles into B |