greater importance, and would admit of less | able, although it borders in some degree upon dispute. cunning or stupidity. "The only way for a man to gain the favor of the Chinese, is to set forth his reasons in the coolest manner; that people being of such a disposition, as to despise the most rational arguments if delivered with anger." The same, said he, is true of mankind in general. A farther danger arose from that custom in which some of the followers of Mr. Hutchinson had too freely indulged themselves, of treating their opponents with too great asperity and contempt. Hutchinson himself was very reprehensible in this respect, as well in his conversation as in his The learning, which disposes us to affect a writings; and thereby lost much of that superiority over other men is too generally influence with men of learning which he attended by a forgetfulness of God: and it might have preserved, had he considered it has therefore been well observed, that knowas a duty to be more temperate and flexible ledge, though a good thing in itself, as light in his manner of addressing the public. But is when compared with darkness, is apt to he was a man of a warm and hasty spirit, puff us up; while charity, which is an humlike Martin Luther; who to certain modern ble and submissive virtue, edifieth, that is, speculations in philosophy and theology, builds us up in the way of grace, and makes could preserve no more respect than Luther us better Christians. So far as knowledge, did to the errors of popery. How far the though of the purest sort, infuses pride, just circumstances they both were under, the so far it extinguishes devotion. It was therezeal by which they were actuated, and the fore objected to the new Hebrew students, provocations they met with from the world, that they were a carnal sort of people, so will justify them in the use of intemperate full of Scriptural learning as to be much language, can be known only to God, to wanting in a due regard to Scriptural piety. whom they must give an account. But The intelligent reader will easily guess from whatever excuses may be made for the prin- what quarter such an accusation would arise. cipals, we do not see how they can be ex- It came from those who are apt to offend in tended to those who succeeded. Some of another way; who suppose that an appearthese, however, did claim for themselves the ance of godly zeal, and a passion to save like privilege, and gave great offence to per- souls, will supply the defects of Christian sons of cooler judgment. The world will knowledge: but without it, there will not not suffer things to be forced upon them. be Christian prudence; and such persons, When men are angry, it is always supposed neglecting to inform themselves, suffer under they have but little to say, and are provoked the want of judgment, and are carried into by a sense of the insufficiency of themselves delusion, of which they do not see the conand their cause. It was a wise saying of sequences. Ignorant piety, like ignorant Lord Coke, the famous lawyer, "Whatever ingenuity, must go to school before it will be grief a man hath, ill words work no good, able to work surely and with good effect. It and learned counsel never use them." To must itself be taught before it can be fit to this wise and excellent maxim the followers teach others. The great Lord Bacon obof Mr. Hutchinson did not in general attend served of the first Puritans, that they reaas they ought to have done. It filled them soned powerfully on the necessity of a seriwith indignation to see how little they pre-ous piety; and brought men well to the vailed against the perverse treatment of some question, what must I do to be saved? but ill-disposed adversaries: and, if they had when they had done this, they were at a loss found such principles as they thought of use how to give them an answer. There is danto themselves, it was a mortification to see ger to man on every side: learning is tempted them overlooked and disdained by others. to overlook piety, and piety thinks there is But there was so much sweetness in the no use of learning. Happy is he who prenatural temper of Mr. Horne, that no bitter serves himself from both these errors; who, weed could take root there; and the intem- while he seeks wisdom, applies it first to the perance of others only served to put him reformation of his own life, and then to the the more upon his guard; of which we lives of other men! This appears to have have a happy example in his State of the been the persuasion of Mr. Horne; in whose Case between Sir Isaac Newton and Mr. earliest writings we find such a tincture of Hutchinson. This was one of his earliest devotion, that some of his readers, who valued compositions; in which the argument is themselves upon their discernment, thought conducted throughout with perfect modesty, his warmth discovered a degree of enthusicivility, and a proper respect to all parties. asm; that he was devout overmuch; and I have heard him admire greatly that calm- consequently we have the testimony of such ness for which the Chinese are so remark-persons, that he was not wanting in Christian the breach which afterwards took place, and his own deliverance, in consequence of it, from all danger of fanatical infection. Dr. Clayton, then Bishop of Clogher in Ireland, in the year 1750, published his Essay on Spirit, with design to recommend the Arian doctrine, and to prepare the way for suitable alterations in the liturgy. The favorers of heresy are seldom found to be the enemies of schism: this author, therefore, to strengthen his party, distinguished himself as a warm friend to the cause of the sectaries; intimidating the church with the prospect of destruction, unless the safety of it were provided for by a timely compliance with the demands of its adversa from a person of such eminence in the church, alarmed her friends and animated her enemies. It carried with it a show of learning, and some subtilty of argument: an answer to it was, therefore, expected and wished for. piety. Thus much at least may be affirmed, | So long as a connection remained with the that he was in no danger of an outward for- non-conforming readers of Mr. Hutchinson, mal religion, destitute of the vital spirit of it was expected by them, that all church Christianity. differences would be laid aside, as matters of There was yet another danger to be appre- no signification; and that both parties would hended, and that of no small concern to a join hands against the common enemies of member of the church of England. It hap- Christianity. Things being thus disposed, an pened, that among the admirers of Mr. Hutch-occurrence intervened, to which Mr. Horne, inson there were many dissenters; who, with as it appears from some of his letters, imputed all the information they had acquired, did not appear (as might reasonably have been expected) to be much softened in their prejudices against the constitution of this church. With some of these Mr. Horne frequently fell into company; of which it was not an improbable consequence (and he afterwards was aware of it) that he might come by degrees to be less affected than he ought to be to the church of which he was a member; especially as there was some jealousy already in the minds of Mr. Hutchinson's readers against their superiors both in church and state, on account of the unfair and angry treatment (I may say, persecution) some of them had suffered, and the dislike and aver-ries. This essay, being reported to come sion which their principles had met with from persons of established reputation. The modest and civil Letter to a Bishop, from the lord president of the court of session in Scotland, the Honorable Duncan Forbes, had met with little or no attention; which, with It happened at this time, that I was settled many other slights and provocations, contri- at Finedon in Northamptonshire, as curate to buted to keep them in no very good humor; the Rev. Sir John Dolben; which I have so that it was to be feared they would be too reason to remember as a most happy circumready to hear what others might be too ready stance in the early part of my life. In this to suggest. With some of our dissenters, it situation I was frequently visited by my friend is too much the custom to turn the clergy of and fellow-student Mr. Horne. He came to the church and their profession into ridicule; me, possessed with a desire of seeing an ana sort of behavior which should always be swer to this Essay on Spirit; and persuaded avoided by religious men, when religion is me to undertake it. All circumstances being the subject. A piece was handed about, favorable, no objection was made; and acwhich calls itself a Dialogue upon Bishops; cordingly down we sat together for a whole a sly and malignant invective, in a strain of month to the business. The house of my irony, and by no means destitute of wit, patron Sir John Dolben had an excellent against the prelates of this church. The library; a considerable part of which had thing is written in the same spirit with the descended from Archbishop Dolben; and it Martin Mar-Prelate of the old Puritans, was furnished with books in every branch though in a superior strain of irony; and had of reading, as well ancient as modern, but for its author a man whose name was Biron, particularly in divinity and ecclesiastical hisa dissenting teacher of eminence; whose tory. In a country parish, without such an works are collected together, and published, advantage, our attempt had been wild and under the terrible title of The Pillars of hopeless: but with it, we had no fear of being Priestcraft Shaken. The church of England, at a loss concerning any point of learning that whose religion is here intended by the word priestcraft, never had a more willing adversary than this man; unless it were Gordon, the author of the Independent Whig; whose writings, plentifully dispersed there, contributed not a little to the revolt of America, by rendering the Americans more disaffected to the religion of the mother country. might arise. What Bishop Clayton (supposing him to be the author of an Essay on Spirit) had offered in favor of the non-conformists, obliged us to look into the controversy between them and the church, which as yet we had never considered; and to consult such historians as had given a faithful account of it. This inquiry brought many things to our view of which we had never heard; and contributed very much to confirm us in the profession to which we had been educated: but, at the same time, it raised in our minds some new suspicions against our non-conforming friends; and the occasion called upon us to say some things which it could not be very agreeable to them to hear, so long as they persisted in their separation. In every controversy, their will be some rough places, over which the tenderfooted will not be able to pass without being hurt; and when this happens, they will probably lay upon others that fault which is to be found only in themselves. It happened as might be expected. When the Answer was published, great offence was taken; and they who had argued for us, as Christians, in a common cause, began now to show themselves as enemies to the church of England. They addressed themselves to us in such a strain, to the one by letter, to the other in conversation, as had no tendency to soften or conciliate; for it breathed nothing but contempt and defiance. It had, therefore, the good effect of obliging us to go on still farther in our inquiries, that we might be able to stand our ground. To this occurrence it was first owing, that Mr. Horne became so well learned in the controversy between the church and the sectaries, and was confirmed for life in his attachment to the church of England. It was another happy circumstance, that, in the issue, by persons of more impartiality, the Answer to the Essay on * The following extract from a long letter will it was written: "I have been reading some of the works of Dr. George Hickes against the Romanists. He is a sound and acute reasoner, and differs from Leslie in this, that whereas Leslie's method was to single out one point which he calls the jugulum causa, and stick to that; Hickes follows them through all their objections, unravels their sophistry, and confirms all he says with exact and elaborate proofs. He shows the greatest knowledge of primitive antiquity, of fathers, councils, and the constitution and discipline of the church in the first and purest ages of it. This kind of learning is of much greater value and consequence than many now apprehend. What, next after the Bible, can demand a Christian's attention before the history of the church, purchased by the blood of Christ, founded by inspired apostles, and actuated by a spirit of love and unity, which made a heaven upon earth even in the midst of persecution, and enabled them to lay show how his mind was employed at the time when Spirit, on which we had bestowed so much labor, was very favorably received, especially in Ireland, where it was most wanted. The work was rendered more useful by the opportunity it gave us of explaining some abstruse articles in the learning of antiquity; particularly the Hermetic, Pythagorean, and Platonic Trinities; which the writer of the Essay had pressed into his service, to distract the minds of his readers, without pretending to know the sense of them. We had the advantage of the author in this subject, from having been permitted to look into some manuscript papers of a learned gentleman, who had spent several years of his life in studying the mysteries of the ancient Greek philosophy; which, at the bottom, always proved to be materialism. In this the speculations of Heathen philosophers naturally ended; and so do the speculations of those moderns who follow them in their ways of reasoning. From our frequent intercourse with the library above-mentioned, we had the good fortune to meet with the works of the Rev. Charles Leslie, in two volumes folio, which may be considered as a library in themselves to any young student of the church of England; and no such person, who takes a fancy to what he there finds, can ever fall into Socinianism, fanaticism, popery, or any other of those more modern corruptions which infest this church and nation. Every treatise comprehended in that collection is incomparable in its way: and I shall never forget how Mr. Horne expressed his astonishment, when he had perused what Mr. Leslie calls The History of Sin and Heresy; which, from the hints that are found in the Scriptures, gives an account how they, sin and heresy, were generated among the angels before the beginning of the world: "It is," said he," as if the man had looked into heaven, to see what passed there on occasion of Lucifer's rebellion." In reading Mr. Leslie's Socinian controversy, he was highly amused with a curiosity which the author, by good fortune, though with great difficulty, had procured and presented to the public in an English translation from the Arabic. It is a letter addressed to the Morocco ambassador, by two of the Socinian fraternity in England, who called themselves Two Single Philosophers, and sure is done by that cementing bond of the spirit, and proposed a religious comprehension with which unites Christians to their head and to one an- the Turks; the said Socinians having discovother, and makes them consider themselves as mem-ered, that the Turks and themselves were so bers of the same body, that is, as a church, as a fold of sheep, not as straggling individuals. What I see of this in a certain class of writers determines me to look into that affair." Such a man as this, so far advanced in the days of his youth, would pay but little regard to shallow reasonings and hasty language from the enemies of uniformity. down their lives for the truth's sake? Much I am nearly of one opinion, that very little was wanting on either side to unite them in the same communion. The present very learned Bishop of Rochester, Dr. Horsley, lighted upon the same thing many years after taken in that perilous business by the Rev. William Romaine, who opposed the Considerations dispersed about the kingdom in defence of the Jew-Bill, with a degree of spirit and success, which reminded us of Swift's opposition to Wood's halfpence in his Drapier's Letters. Mr. Horne having entered upon his first Hebrew studies, not without an ardent piety, he was ready to lay hold of every thing that might advance him in the knowledge and practice of the Christian life. He accordingly made himself well acquainted with the serious practical writings of the Rev. William Law, which, I believe, were first recom wards, and was so much struck with its sin- | (though then very young) to be at a table gularity, that he has referred to it in his where some persons of the first quality were works, to show how naturally the religion assembled; and I heard one of them* very of the Socinians ends in the enthusiasm of earnest on the matter and style of some of Mahomet. these papers, of which I knew the secret The sight of Mr. Leslie's two theological history; and was not a little diverted when folios, prepared Mr. Horne for the reading I heard what passed about them. To the such of his political works as should after-author of those papers the Jew-Bill gave wards fall in his way: and it was not long much offence, and the Marriage-Bill not much before he met with a periodical paper, under less. He was highly gratified by the part the title of The Rehearsals, which the author had published in the time of Queen Anne, when the infidels and dissenters were most busy; and had conceived strong hopes (as they said themselves) of destroying the established church. This paper boldly encountered all their arguments, dissected Sidney and Locke, confuted the republican principles, and exposed all the designs of the party. That party, however, had, at that time, interest enough to get the paper, which bore so hard upon them suppressed by authority; but not till the writer had done the best of his work; which made him boast, notwithstanding what had happened, that he had sown those seeds of orthodoxy and loyal-mended to him by Mr. Hamilton, afterwards ty in this kingdom, which all the devils in hell would never be able to root out of it. This singular work, then lately reprinted in six volumes (1750,) fell into the hands of Mr. Horne, at Oxford, and was examined with equal curiosity and attention. According to his own account, he had profited greatly by the reading of it; and the work, which gave to one man of genius and discernment so much satisfaction, must have had its effect on many others; insomuch that it is highly probable, the loyalty found amongst us at this day, and by which the nation has of late been so happily preserved, may have grown up from some of the seeds then sown by Mr. Leslie: and I have some authority for what I say.* This I know, that the reading of that work begat in the mind of Mr. Horne an early and strict attention to those political differences, and the grounds of them, which have at sundry times agitated this country, and disturbed public affairs. archdeacon of Raphoe, in Ireland, or by the Rev. Dr. Patten, of Corpus Christi College. He conformed himself in many respects to the strictness of Mr. Law's rules of devotion; but without any danger of falling, as so many did, after Mr. Law's example, into the stupendous reveries of Jacob Behmen, the German theosophist. From this he was effectually secured by his attachment to the doctrines and forms of the primitive church, in which he was well grounded by the writings of Leslie, and also of the primitive fathers, some of which had become familiar to him, and very highly esteemed. But being sensible how easy it was for many of those who took their piety from Mr. Law to take his errors along with it, he drew up a very useful paper, for the security of such persons as might not have judgment enough to distinguish properly, under the title of Cautions to the Readers of Law:† and excellent they are for the purpose intended; they show the goodness of his heart and the soundness of his judgment. In the year wheu the Jew-Bill was depending, and after it had passed the house, Some worthy ladies, who were in the habit he frequently employed himself in sending of reading Mr. Law, had from thence filled to an evening paper of the time certain com- their heads with several of the wild notions munications, which were much noticed; of Jacob Behmen, and were zealous in makwhile the author was totally unknown, ex-ing proselytes. A lady of fashion in Ireland, cept to some of his nearest acquaintance. By of the first rate for beauty, elegance, and the favor of a great lady, it was my fortune accomplishment, was going apace into this way, at the instance of a proselyting acquaint *No farther proof of this will be wanting to those intelligent persons who have read the learned Mr. Whitaker's Real Origin of Government, one of the greatest and best pieces the times have produced. * Lord Temple. †This paper is given in the Appendix. ance. Her situation was known and lament- | writer so accomplished, a Christian so exemed; and it was earnestly wished that some-plary, he must come out of the same school. body would undertake to open her eyes before With his mind thus furnished, the time she was too far gone. Mr. Horne, though much interested in the success of such an attempt, did not take the office upon himself, but committed it to a friend; and the paper produced the desired effect. When the writings of Leslie, or Law, or Hutchinson, were before Mr. Horne, he used them with judgment and moderation, to qualify and temper each other: he took what was excellent from all, without admitting what was exceptionable from any. To his academical Greek and Latin, he had added a familiar acquaintance with the Hebrew; and having found his way to the Christian fathers, I consider him now as a person furnished with every light, and secured from every danger which could possibly occur to him as a member of the church of England; and consequently well prepared for any service which the times might require of him. In English divinity he had also greatly improved himself by the writings of Dr. Jackson, and Dr. Jeremy Taylor; from the latter of which, I suppose him to have derived much of that mildness and devotion for which he was afterwards so conspicuous.* The former, Dr. Jackson, is a magazine of theological learning, every where penned with great elegance and dignity, so that his style is a pattern of perfection. His writings, once thought inestimable by every body but the Calvinists, had been greatly neglected, and would probably have continued so, but for the praises bestowed upon them by the celebrated Mr. Merrick, of Trinity College, in Oxford, who brought them once more into repute with many learned readers. The early extracts of Mr. Horne, which are now remaining, show how much information he derived from this excellent writer; who deserves to be numbered with the English fathers of the church. That there cannot be in the church of England a useful scholar unless he is precise in following the same track of learning, I will not presume to say: but this I shall always think, that if we are ever to see another Mr. Horne, a commentator so learned, a preacher so evangelical, a drew near when he was to take holy orders. This was a serious affair to him; and he entered upon it, as every candidate ought to do, with a resolution to apply the studies he had followed to the practice of his ministry, and, above all the rest, his study of the Holy Scripture. Soon after he had been ordained, on Trinity Sunday, 1753, by the Bishop of Oxford, he related the circumstance by letter to an intimate friend, not without adding the following petition, which is well worth preserving: "May he, who ordered Peter three times to feed his lambs, give me grace, knowledge, and skill, to watch and attend to the flock which he purchased upon the cross, and to give rest to those who are under the burden of sin or sorrow! It hath pleased God to call me to the ministry in very troublesome times indeed; when a lion and a bear have broken into the fold, and are making havoc among the sheep. With a firm, though humble confidence, do I purpose to go forth; not in my own strength, but in the strength of the Lord God; and may he prosper the work of my hands!" He came to me, then resident upon the Curacy of Finedon in Northamptonshire, to preach his first sermon; to which, as it might be expected, I listened with no small attention, under an assurance that his doctrine would be good, and that he was capable of adorning it to a high degree with beautiful language and a graceful delivery. The discourse he then preached, though excellent in its kind, is not printed among his other works. Scrupulous critics, he thought, might be of opinion that he had given too great scope to his imagination, and that the text, in the sense he took it, was not a foundation solid enough to build so much upon. This was his sentiment when his judgment was more mature; and he seems to me to have judged rightly. Yet the discourse was admirable in respect of its composition and its moral tendency. Give me an audience of well disposed Christians, among whom there are no dry moralists, no fastidious critics, and I would stake my life upon the hazard of pleasing them all by the preaching of that sermon. With farther preparation, and a From many passages which might be produced public pulpit, before one of the largest and little more experience, he preached in a more from his private letters and his printed works, no English writer seems to have taken his fancy, and most polite congregations at London. The fallen in so exactly with his own disposition, as Dr. preacher, whose place he supplied, but who Taylor; first in his Life of Christ, then in his Duc-attended in the church on purpose to hear tor Dubitantium, or Rule of Conscience, and after wards in his Rule and Exercise of Holy Dying, him, was so much affected by what he had which he calls a Golden Tract, and the author of it, heard, and the manner in which it was dethe inimitable Bishop Jeremy Taylor. See his livered, that when he visited me shortly after Commentary on Psalm cxix. v. 71. in the country, he was so full of this sermo", 5 VOL. I. |