Reading the "religious" language of Samuel Johnson's Sermons

For the most part, Johnson uses religious terms when he is writing about a divine attribute such as mercy ("Sermon 2") or justice ("Sermon 3"), or when he discusses a particular phase of the liturgy, such as communion ("Sermon 9" and "Sermon 22"). For all other subjects, particularly those which deal with human behavior and relationships, he begins on the secular level and gradually moves into a religious context.

ALTHOUGH much of the style of Johnson's Sermons closely resembles his most energetic writing in the Ramblers, there is a noteworthy lack of versatility and a structural rigidness in the conclusions of his Sermons. These conclusions rely heavily on highly formalized patterns of diction which characterized the homiletic element of the sermon tradition-the diction is liturgical and often paraphrases Biblical forms of address. Johnson uses the formalized exhortation "Let us" in his Sermons rather than the more intimate "I" or "you" of the Ramblers. For example, in "Sermon 19" he ends:

Let us endeavour to reclaim vice, and to improve innocence to holiness; and remember that the day is not far distant, in which our Saviour has promised to consider our gifts to these little ones as given to himself; and that "they who have turned many to righteousness shall shine forth as the sun for ever and ever." (Sermons 213; "Sermon 19")

An important rhetorical quality-absolute restrained involvement with the subject matter-distinguishes these conclusions from the more subjective and personal endings of his Rambler essays. Moreover, on some occasions, Johnson concludes his Sermons with a traditional liturgical formula:

A uniform perseverance in these holy practices, will produce a steady confidence in the Divine favour, and that confidence will complete his happiness. To which that we may all attain, God of his infinite mercy grant, for the merits of Jesus Christ, our Saviour; to whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed, as is most due, all honour, adoration, and praise, now and ever! Amen. (Sermons 84; "Sermon 7")

After examining Johnson's imaginative adaptations of so many elements from the English sermon tradition, this unoriginal use of a formula in his sermon conclusions is striking.3 However, it is only after Johnson makes his vigorous arguments that he conforms to the restricting convention of a formula; as such, the standardized formula never interferes with the stylistic versatility which characterizes the main divisions in all the Sermons.

A close reading of the "religious" language of Samuel Johnson's Sermons reveals many of the rhetorical devices which characterize his Ramblers: a general introduction to the Sermons' subject-matter grounded in human experience; secular diction which stresses universal concepts over particular ones; parallelism; the disciplined use of emotional appeal and figurative devices; the delayed and in a sense "buried" outline; and the restrained use of easily comprehended Biblical quotations. These traits are important deviations from the conventions of English sermon style and accentuate Johnson's efforts to test the validity of any postulate of religion against common sense and human experience. Even when writing in the explicitly religious context of the sermon genre, Samuel Johnson could not completely anesthetize his aesthetic principles and skeptical propensities. Grounded in objective human experience, Johnson's Sermons promote a doctrine of stability which informs and empowers religion.