Laudianism in the land of the Pilgrim Fathers: Samuel Johnson
Episcopacy as the right and apostolic ordering of the Church lay at the heart of the Yale Apostasy. Some weeks after the event, Johnson "set down the motives" for his participation in the original declaration:
Sundry texts of Scripture there are which seem to me plainly to intimate that Episcopacy is of apostolical appointment, which together with the unanimous witness of the Church immediately after the Apostles' times and downward in the purest ages of Christianity, seem as much at least (if not more) to oblige my conscience to submit to Episcopacy as a divine appointment, as to observe the first day of the week, and therefore do as much oblige me to declare in favor of Episcopacy in this country as for the Lord's day ...
I am indeed forced to think (comparing my case with what I find in ancient authors, and especially in S. Cyprian) that had I lived and administered without and in opposition to Episcopacy, I should have been excommunicated for a schismatic in the purest ages ...
These considerations all laid together, it seems to be my duty to venture myself in the arms of Almighty Providence to cross the ocean for the sake of that excellent church, the Church of England.
The superiority of the Church of England's Formularies, embodying "the golden mean", reflected the Laudian conviction that the modesty of the Articles was faithful to Scripture and served the peace and catholicity of the Church in the face of "rigid Calvinism, Antinomianism, enthusiasm, divisions, and separations", suggested when he elsewhere states "it is good to keep the golden mean and hold moderation":
And I am still apt to think that no well-meaning Dove that has proper means and opportunity of exact consideration, will ever find rest to the sole of his foot amid such a deluge, till he comes into the Church as the alone ark of safety, all whose Articles, Liturgy, and Homilies taken together and explained by one another, and by the writings of our first Reformers, according to their original sense, shall ever be sacred with me; which sense, as I apprehend it, is neither Calvinistical nor Arminian, but the golden mean, and according to the genuine meaning of the Holy Scriptures.
Regarding the liturgy, it is difficult not to immediately recognise the Laudian resonance in the title of Johnson's later 1761 sermon: 'A sermon on the beauty of holiness, in the worship of the Church of England'. The beauty of the Prayer Book liturgy, Johnson declares in a manner echoing Laudian critiques of the Directory, contrasts with the "tedious" nature of the public worship of "our Neighbours":
This Beauty is further mightily improved by that grateful Variety that appears among them, which renders our Liturgy like a beautiful Garden, wherein there is a delightful Variety of luxuriant Nature intermixed with curious Art of other various Plants with Trees; of Fruits with Flowers of divers Sorts, all ranged in a various and beautiful Order. In like Manner, in our Liturgy, Devotions are gratefully intermixed with Lessons, and Prayers with Praises. The People's Part is generally intermixed with the Minister's, and short Responses, in the Form of Ejaculations, with set and continued Prayers, in which there is an agreeable Variety, and the Prayers are each of them short, in Imitation of our Lord's Prayer; and there is a correspondent Variety of Actions of the Body, suited to this Variety of the Exercises of the Mind; all wisely contrived to keep the Congregations wakeful, lively and attentive. This Method is therefore vastly preferable to one tedious, long-continued Prayer, without any Variety, as is the Case with our Neighbours, in which the People's Attention flags, and they grow dull and heavy, and the Force of their Devotion is extremely weakened. On which Account nothing should tempt me to exchange our beautiful Variety of short Devotions, for their long, dull, and unvaried Performances: For such is our Frailty at best, that we need all the wise Precautions imaginable to be used to keep our Minds vigorous, wakeful and attentive, both by a Variety of Devotions and of bodily Worship, which is the true Intent of all that beautiful Variety wherewith our Worship is attended; and which, in Proportion as it attains those Ends, it may be truly stiled, the Beauty of Holiness.
His suggestion regarding organs and chant - and the manner in which they echo the worship of Heaven - certainly echoed Laudian ambitions:
And if to our vocal, we add instrumental Music; if according to the ancient Scripture Method, we add Organs to our Voices, and if to both of them we would add the sincere and intense Devotion of our Hearts, our Worship would then be a very Heaven upon Earth, especially if we used the admirable Chaunt of the Cathedral.
Finally, the sense of native pride in the liturgy of the ecclesia Anglicana was an essential part of Laudian identity and convictions:
Thus I have endeavoured to demonstrate, not only that ours is the true genuine Worship, and that it is adapted in the best Manner to promote Devotion and Holiness, but that we do truly worship God in the Beauty of Holiness. Let us therefore, my Brethren, rejoice and give Thanks to Almighty God for the unspeakable Advantages we enjoy, and be zealous in our Attachment to this our holy and beautiful Worship, and be steady and diligent in our Attendance on it.
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