LIBRAEY 
 
 Theological Sem 
 
 inary 
 
 BX 5037 
 
 PRINCETON, 
 
 1826 
 
 Jones 
 The 
 
 Will 
 theolo 
 
 iam, 1726-1800 
 ical and 
 
 scellaneous works of the 
 
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 ) ^ 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/theologicalmisce06jone 
 
THE 
 
 THEOLOGICAL 
 
 AND 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS WORKS 
 
 OF THE LATE REV. 
 
 WILLIAM'JONES, M.A. 
 
 MINISTER OF NAYLAND, SUFFOLK. 
 
 TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, 
 
 A SHORT ACCOUNT 
 
 OF HIS 
 
 LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 BY WILLIAM STEVENS, ESQ. 
 A NEW EDITION. 
 
 IN SIX VOLUMES. 
 VOL. VI. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR C. AND J. RIVINGTON, 
 
 st. paul's church-yard, 
 and waterloo-place, pall-mall. 
 
 1826. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY R. GILBERT, 
 
 ST. John's square. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 SIXTH VOLUME. 
 
 TAGE 
 
 The Life of Bis*Top Home 1 
 
 A Letter to the Hon. L. K. on the Use of the Hebrew 
 
 Language 173 
 
 Considerations on the Religious Worship of the Heathens 189 
 
 A Letter to Three Converted Jews 209 
 
 A Letter to the Church of England 231 
 
 Thoughts on a Church Organ 250 
 
 The True Christian 251 
 
 Two Letters to a Predestinarian 257 
 
 An Address to the British Government on a Subject of 
 
 present Concern, 1776 268 
 
 Thoughts on the Resolutions of the Protestant Dissenters, 
 
 at their Meeting at Stowmarket, in Suffolk, 1790 275 
 
 A Proposal for a Reformation of Principles, 1792 284 
 
 A Small Whole-Length of Dr. Priestley from his printed 
 
 Works 297 
 
 Resolutions of Common Sense about Common Rights. 
 
 By Thomas Bull, 1792 343 
 
 One Penny-worth of Truth from Thomas Bull to his 
 
 Brother John, 1792 347 
 
 One Penny-worth more, or a Second Letter from Thomas 
 
 Bull to his Brother John, 1792 354 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PACE 
 
 A Letter to John Bull, Esq. from his second Cousin, 
 
 Thomas Bull, 1793 363 
 
 Fable of the Rats, to the associated Friends of Liberty 
 
 at the Feathers Tavern, 1771 395 
 
 The Learning of the Beasts. A Fable. For the Year 1795 400 
 
 The Candid Review, 1771 416 
 
 The Moral Character of the Monkey 418 
 
PREFATORY EPISTLE 
 
 TO 
 
 WILLIAM STEVENS, ESQ. 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND, 
 
 The works of the late Bishop Home are in many hands, and 
 will be in many more. No reader of any judgment can pro- 
 ceed far into them, without discovering that the author was a 
 person of eminence for his learning, eloquence, and piety ; 
 with as much wit, and force of expression, as were consistent 
 with a temper so much corrected and sweetened by devotion. 
 
 To all those who are pleased and edified by his writings, 
 some account of his life and conversation will be interesting. 
 They will naturally wish to hear what passed between such a 
 man and the world in which he lived. You and I, who knew 
 him so well and loyed him so much, may be suspected of par- 
 tiality to his memory ; but we have unexceptionable testimony 
 to the greatness and importance of his character. While we 
 were under the first impressions of our grief for the loss of 
 him, a person of high distinction, who was intimate with him for 
 many years, declared to you and to me, that he verily believed 
 him to have been the best man he ever knew. Soon after the 
 late Earl of Guildford was made Chancellor of the University 
 of Oxford, another great man, who was allowed to be an ex- 
 cellent judge of the weight and wit of conversation, recom- 
 mended Dr. Home, who was then vice-chancellor, to him in 
 the following terms; "My Lord, I question whether you 
 know your vice-chancellor so well as you ought ; When you 
 are next at Oxford, go and dine with him ; and, when you have 
 done this once, I need not ask you to do it again ; you will 
 find him the pleasantest man you ever met with." And so his 
 lordship seemed to think (who was himself as pleasant a man 
 
 VOL. VI. B 
 
2 
 
 A PREFATORY EPISTLE 
 
 as most in the kingdom) from the attention he paid to him ever 
 after. I have heard it observed of him by another gentleman, 
 who never was suspected of a want of judgment, that, if some 
 friend had followed him about with a pen and ink, to note 
 down his sayings and observations, they might have furnished 
 out a collection like that which Mr. Boswell has given to the 
 public ; but frequently of a superior quality ; because the 
 subjects which fell in his way were occasionally of an higher 
 nature, out of which more improvement would arise to those 
 that heard him : and it is now much to be lamented, that so 
 many of them have run to waste *. 
 
 An allusion to the life of Dr. Johnson, reminds me how much 
 it was wished, and by Dr. Home in particular, who well knew 
 and highly valued him, that Johnson would have directed the 
 force of his understanding against that modern paper-building 
 of philosophical infidelity, which is founded in pride and ig- 
 norance, and supported by sensuality and ridicule. A great 
 personage was of opinion, that Johnson, so employed, would 
 have borne them down with the weight of his language ; and 
 he is reported to have expressed his sentiment with singular 
 felicity to a certain person, when the mischievous writings of 
 Voltaire were brought into question: " I wish Johnson would 
 mount his dray-horse, and ride over some of those fellows." 
 Against those fellows Dr. Home employed much of his time, 
 and some of the most useful of his talents : not mounted upon 
 a dray-horse to overbear them ; but upon a light courser to 
 hunt them fairly down ; with such easy arguments, and plea- 
 sant reflections, as render them completely absurd and ridi- 
 culous : an account of which will come before us in the proper 
 place. His Considerations on the Life and Death of St. John the 
 Baptist, and his Sermon preached in St. Sepulchre's church 
 at London, for the benefit of a Charity-school for girls, on 
 the Female Character, seem to me, above all the rest of his 
 compositions, to mark the peculiar temper of his mind, and 
 the direction of his thoughts. When I read his book on John 
 the Baptist, I am persuaded, there was no other man of his 
 time, whose fancy, as a writer, was bright enough, whose 
 
 * A collection of his thoughts on various subjects is preserved in a manuscript, 
 written with his own hand. 
 
TO WILLIAM STEVENS, ESQ. 
 
 3 
 
 skill, as an intei-preter, was deep enough, and whose heart, as a 
 moralist, was pure enough to have made him the author of that 
 little work. His Female Character, as it stands in the sermon 
 above-mentioned, now printed in his fourth volume, displays 
 so much judgment in discriminating, such gentle benevolence of 
 heart, and so much of the elegance of a polished understand- 
 ing, in describing and doing justice to the sex ; that every sen- 
 sible and virtuous woman, who shall read and consider that sin- 
 gular discourse, will bless his memory to the end of the world. 
 
 While we speak of those writings which are known to the 
 public, you and I cannot forget his readiness and excellence in 
 writing letters ; in which employment he always took delight 
 from his earliest youth ; and never failed to entertain or in- 
 struct his correspondents. His mind had so much to commu- 
 nicate, and his words were so natural and lively, that I rank 
 some of his letters among the most valuable productions of the 
 kind. I have therefore reason to rejoice, that, amidst all my 
 interruptions and removals, I have preserved more than a hun- 
 dred of them ; in reviewing of which I find many observations 
 on the subjects of Religion, Learning, Politics, Manners, &c. 
 which are equally instructive and entertaining; and would 
 certainly be so esteemed, if they were communicated to the 
 world ; at least, to the better part of it : for there were very 
 few occurrences or transactions of any importance, either in 
 the church, or the state, or the literary world, that escaped 
 his observation ; and in several of them he took an active part. 
 But in familiar letters, not intended for the public eye (as 
 none of his ever were) and suggested by the incidents of the 
 time, some of them trivial and domestic, there will be of course 
 many passages of less dignity than will entitle them to publi- 
 cation : yet, upon the whole, I am satisfied that a very useful 
 selection might be made out of them ; and I will not despair 
 of making it myself at some future opportunity *. 
 
 From an early acquaintance with Greek and Latin authors, 
 and the gift of a lively imagination, he addicted himself to poe- 
 
 * In tne Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1793, p. 688, I threw out a letter 
 of Bishop Home, as a specimen both of the style and of the usual subjects of his 
 epistolary writings. It was the first that came to hand on opening a large parcel of 
 them : and I may leave every reader to judge whether that letter be not curious and 
 important. Compared with the present times, it seems prophetical. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 
 
 A PREFATORY EPISTLE 
 
 try ; and some of his productions have been deservedly ad- 
 mired. But his studies were so soon turned from the treasures 
 of classical wit to the sources of Christian wisdom, that all his 
 poetry is either upon sacred subjects, or upon a common sub- 
 ject applied to some sacred use ; so that a pious reader will be 
 sure to gain something by every poetical effort of his mind. 
 
 And let me not omit another remarkable trait of his cha- 
 racter. You can be a witness with me, and so could many 
 others who were used to his company, that few souls were 
 ever more susceptible than his of the charms of music, es- 
 pecially the sacred music of the church : at the hearing of 
 which, his countenance was illuminated ; as if he had been 
 favoured with impressions beyond those of other men ; as if 
 heavenly vision had been superadded to earthly devotion. He 
 therefore accounted it a peculiar happiness of his life, that, from 
 the age of twenty years, he was constantly gratified with the 
 service of a choir ; at Magdalen College, at Canterbury, and at 
 Norwich. His lot was cast by Providence amidst the sweets 
 of cloystered retirement, and the daily use of divine harmony ; 
 for the enjoyment of both which he was framed by nature, 
 and formed by a religious education. Upon the whole I never 
 knew a person, in whom those beautiful lines of Milton *, of 
 which he was a great admirer, were more exactly verified ; 
 
 But let my due feet never fail 
 
 To walk the studious cloyster's pale ; 
 
 And love the high embovver'd roof 
 
 With antique pillars massy proof ; 
 
 And storied windows richly dight, 
 
 Casting a dim religious light. 
 
 There let the pealing organ blow, 
 
 To the full voic'd quire below ; 
 
 In service high, and anthems clear, 
 
 As may, with sweetness through mine ear, 
 
 Dissolve me into ecstasies, 
 
 And bring all heaven before my eyes. 
 
 You, who are so perfectly acquainted with the discourse de- 
 livered at Canterbury, 1784, when the new organ was opened 
 in the great church, may guess how refined his raptures were: 
 by what he has there said, it maybe known what he felt. 
 
 * In the // Penseroso. 
 
TO WILLIAM STEVENS, ESQ. 
 
 5 
 
 And I can assure you farther, he was so earnest in this sub- 
 ject, that he took the pains to extract, in his own hand-writ- 
 ing, all the matter that is most observable and useful in the 
 five quarto volumes of Sir John Hawkins upon music. I find 
 among his papers this curious abridgment, which is made with 
 critical taste and discernment. 
 
 But his greatest affection being to the science of divinity, he 
 would there of consequence make the greatest improvements ; 
 and there the world will find themselves most obliged to him. 
 No considerable progress, no improvement in any science, can 
 be expected, unless it be beloved for its own sake. How this 
 can happen in divinity, all men may not be able to see : but 
 it is possible for the eye of the understanding to be as truly 
 delighted with a sight of the divine wisdom in the great ceco- 
 nomy of redemption and revelation, as for the eye of the astro- 
 nomer to take pleasure in observing the lights of heaven, or 
 the naturalist in exploring and collecting, perhaps at the hazard 
 of his life, the treasures of the natural creation. What I here 
 say will be best understood by those, who know what affec- 
 tion, what animation, is found in the first writers of the Chris- 
 tian church ; with what delight they dwell upon the wonders 
 of the Christian plan, and comment upon the peculiar wisdom 
 of the word of God. To the best writers of the best ages he 
 put himself to school very early, and profited by them so much, 
 that I hope no injustice will be done to their memory, if I 
 think he has in some respects improved upon his teachers. 
 
 A man with such talents, and such a temper, must have 
 been generally beloved and admired ; which he was almost 
 universally ; the exceptions being so few, as would barely suf- 
 fice to exempt him from that ivoe of the Gospel, which is pro- 
 nounced against the favourites of the world. But his undis- 
 guised attachment to the doctrines of the Church of England, 
 which are still, and, we hope, ever will be, of the old fashion, 
 would necessarily expose him to the unmannerly censures of 
 some, and the frigid commendations of others, which are some- 
 times of worse effect than open scandal. But he never ap- 
 peared to be hurt by any thing of this sort that happened to 
 him. An anonymous pamphlet, which the public gave to the 
 late Dr. Kennicott, attacked him very severely ; and soon re- 
 ceived an answer from him ; which, though very close and 
 
6 
 
 A PREFATORY EPISTLE 
 
 strong, was the answer of a wise and temperate man. He also, 
 in his turn, not foreseeing so much benefit to the Scriptures, 
 as some others did, from Dr. Kennicott's plan for collating 
 Hebrew manuscripts, and correcting the Hebrew text, wrote 
 against that undertaking ; expressing his objections and sus- 
 picions, and giving his name to the world, without any fear or 
 reserve. But so it came to pass, from the moderation and 
 farther experience of both the parties, that, though their ac- 
 quaintance began in hostility, they at length contracted a 
 friendship for each other, which brought on an interchange 
 of every kind office between them, and lasted to the end of 
 their lives, and is now subsisting between their families. To 
 all men of learning, who mean well to the cause of truth and 
 piety, while they are warmly opposing one another, may their 
 example be a lasting admonition ! But let not this observa- 
 tion be carried farther than it will go : 
 
 Non ut 
 
 Serpentes avibus geminentur, tigribus agni. 
 
 In his intercourse with his own family, while the treasures 
 of his mind afforded them some daily opportunities of improve- 
 ment, the sweetness of his humour was to them a perennial 
 fountain of entertainment. He had the rare and happy talent 
 of disarming all the little vexatious incidents of life of their 
 power to molest, by giving them some unexpected turn. And 
 occurrences of a more serious nature, even some of a frightful 
 aspect, were treated by him with the like ease and pleasantry ; 
 of which I could give some remarkable instances. 
 
 Surely, the life of such a man as this ought not to be for- 
 gotten. You and I, who saw and heard so much of it, shall, 
 I trust, never recollect it without being the better for it : and, 
 if we can succeed in shewing it so truly to the world, that they 
 also may be the better for it, we shall do them an acceptable 
 service. I have heard it said, and I was a little discouraged 
 by it, that Dr. Home was a person, whose life was not produc- 
 tive of events considerable enough to furnish matter for a his- 
 tory. But they, who judge thus, have taken but a superficial 
 view of human life ; and do not rightly measure the import- 
 ance of the different events which happen to different sorts 
 of men. Dr. Home, I must allow, was no circumnavigator: 
 he neither sailed with Drake, Anson, nor Cooke ; but he was 
 
TO WILLIAM STEVENS, ESQ. 
 
 7 
 
 a man, whose mind surveyed the intellectual world, and brought 
 home from thence many excellent observations for the benefit 
 of his native country. He was no military commander ; he 
 took no cities ; he conquered no countries ; but he spent his 
 life in subduing his passions, and in teaching us how to do the 
 same. He fought no battles by land or by sea ; but he op- 
 posed the enemies of God and his truth, and obtained some 
 victories which are worthy to be recorded. He was no prime 
 minister to any earthly potentate ; but he was a minister to the 
 King of Heaven and Earth : an office at least as useful to 
 mankind, and in the administration of which no minister to 
 any earthly king ever exceeded him in zeal and fidelity. He 
 made no splendid discoveries in natural history ; but he did 
 what was better : he applied universal nature to the improve- 
 ment of the mind, and the illustration of heavenly doctrines. 
 I call these events : not such as make a great noise and signify 
 little ; but such as are little celebrated, and of great significa- 
 tion. The same difference is found between Dr. Home and 
 some other men who have been the subject of history, as be- 
 tween the life of a bee, and that of the wasp or hornet. The 
 latter may boast of their encroachments and depredations, and 
 value themselves on being a plague and a terror to mankind. 
 But let it rather be my amusement to follow and observe the 
 motions of the bee. Her journies are always pleasant ; the 
 objects of her attention are beautiful to the eye, and she passes 
 none of them over without examining what is to be extracted 
 from them : her workmanship is admirable ; her ceconomy is 
 a lesson of wisdom to the world : she may be accounted little 
 among them that fly, but the fruit of her labour is the chief of 
 sweet things. 
 
 You know, Sir, to what interruptions my life has been sub- 
 ject for thirty years past, and there is some tender ground 
 before us, on which I am to tread as lightly as truth will per- 
 mit; you will pardon me therefore if my progress hath not 
 been so quick as you could have wished ; and believe me to 
 be, as 1 have long been, 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 Your most affectionate and 
 
 obliged humble servant, 
 
 WILLIAM JONES. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 In publishing the Memoirs of the Life of Bishop Horne, my 
 intention was only to give a true idea of that good man, as it 
 presented itself to my memory and affections ; and to produce 
 an edifying book, rather than a formal history. I flatter my- 
 self it has done some good ; and I hope it may do more. If 
 any offence has been given, I can only say it was no part of my 
 plan : but it is a common fault with plain Christians, who know 
 little of the world, to tell more truth than is wanted ; and they 
 have nothing left but a good conscience to support them 
 under the mistake. 
 
 Some few exceptions have been made to the performance by 
 little cavillers, which are not worth mentioning : but I brought 
 myself into the most serious difficulty of all, by representing 
 Bishop Horne as an Hutehinsonian ; which thing (it seems) 
 ought not to have been done ; as it was strongly suggested to 
 me, from the late learned Doctor Farmer, while my work was 
 in hand. On this matter I beg leave to explain myself a little. 
 I never said, nor did I ever think, that Bishop Horne owed 
 every thing to Hutchinson, or was his implicit follower. I 
 knew the contrary : but this I will say, because I know it to 
 be true, that he owed to him the beginning of his extensive 
 knowledge ; for such a beginning as he made placed him on a 
 new spot of high ground ; from which he took all his prospects 
 of religion and learning ; and saw that whole road lying before 
 him, which he afterwards pursued, with so much pleasure to 
 himself, and benefit to the world. This declaration, however 
 clear it may be to me, is more than some of my readers will 
 be willing to admit, or able to bear. I perceive, by what has 
 been written, that, if it can be effected, Bishop Horne must 
 be taken away from the Hutchinsonians : or, if that cannot be 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 9 
 
 done, his character must not be set too high ; we must beware 
 of exaggeration ; he must be represented as good and pious. 
 rather than wise or great. This comes not from the truth, but 
 from the times : and it is what we must expect to hear, till the 
 times shall alter, and a few stumbling-blocks shall be removed 
 out of the way. After what I had related, with so little dis- 
 guise, concerning the studies of Doctor Home, I could foresee 
 that his character, excellent as it is, had a fiery trial to pass : 
 I therefore prepared myself to see — what I have seen. 
 
 But, while I heard some things which were unpleasant, I heard 
 others which gave me encouragement. For, though it was com- 
 monly reported, that I had bestowed too many words upon a 
 cause which neither required nor deserved them, one of the 
 wisest men of this age, who is an host of himself, wished I had 
 said more ; it being a cause of which the world heard much, 
 but knew little, and wanted to know more. I shall take this 
 opportunity of satisfying their curiosity as faithfully as I can. 
 
 But I find myself called upon, by the way, to justify the 
 Bishop against an unexpected accusation of a late author ; who 
 charges him with fancifulness and presumption: for what rea- 
 son, and with how much justice, learning, and judgment, we 
 shall see presently : and I am glad this second edition was de- 
 ferred, because the delay has given me an opportunity of 
 seeing some things, of which I ought not to be ignorant. 
 
 In a New Biographical Dictionary, a life of Doctor Horne is 
 inserted ; the author of which speaks of him with as much cau- 
 tion, as a man would handle hot coals. For what he is pleased 
 to say of me, as a writer of Doctor Home's life, I am much 
 obliged to him ; and I think it more than I deserve or desire : 
 but, I should be false to the Bishop's memory, were I to allow 
 his account of him to be either just or true. He gives him the 
 praise of being a blameless man ! (cold enough !) when, they that 
 have eyes to see, and judgment to discern, must discover him to 
 be, both for matter and manner, one of the first orators and 
 teachers this church can boast ; and that he often displays a rich 
 vein of wit, rarely indeed to be'found in a man of so much sweet- 
 ness and good temper. What a poor figure does Priestley make 
 in the hands of the Under-graduate .' And the great philoso- 
 pher, Hume, in the letter to Dr. Adam Smith ! Where the 
 Bishop is reflected upon, for being an Hidchinsonian, it is al- 
 
10 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 lowed, nevertheless, that he might be partly right in his natural 
 philosophy ; though I do not understand the biographer's me- 
 thod of making it out ; and I question whether he understood 
 it himself. But then it is added, that " if he proceeded to a 
 supposed analogy between material and immaterial things, and 
 compared the agency of the Son and Holy Ghost to that of 
 light and air in the natural world ; it will surely be thought, that 
 he went upon very uncertain and fanciful, not to say, presump- 
 tuous grounds." I thank him for speaking out. But is this true 
 divinity ? Is there then no analogy between things natural and 
 divine ? And have I been beating the air, and writing a volume, 
 to prove and explain it, and demonstrate the great use and value 
 of it ; and has this author discovered at last, that there is no such 
 thing ? How mortifying is it to me to hear, that so much of the 
 labour of my life has been thrown away ! This analogy, which 
 he will not suffer Bishop Horne to suppose, without being fan- 
 ciful and presumptuous, has been admitted and insisted upon, as 
 plain and certain, by the best Divines of the Christian Church ; 
 who'used it, and admired it, because they found it in the word of 
 God : and it holds particularly in the two great objects of nature 
 air and light, where this modern divine (for such I suppose him) 
 cannot see it himself, and will not permit us to see it without him. 
 Was not the presence of the Divine Spirit, on the day of Pente- 
 cost, announced to the senses of men by the sound of a rushing, 
 mighty wind ? Did not our Saviour, in his discourse with Xi- 
 codemus, illustrate the agency of the Divine Spirit by that of 
 the natural ? The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hear- 
 est the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and 
 whither it goeth : so is every one that is born of the ■Spirit. 
 Why did he communicate the Holy Ghost under the outward 
 sign of breathing upon them, if no comparison is to be made 
 between the sign and the thing signified I The word inspiration, 
 which is the act of the Holy Ghost, denotes a blowing or breath- 
 ing as of the air; and the name Spirit is common to the natural 
 air and to the Holy Ghost. What is the meaning of all this ? 
 Does the word of God make comparisons, and put one thing 
 for another ; and shall we say there is no analogy or likeness : 
 that is, no sense or propriety in the substitution ? That would 
 indeed be presumptuous, if not blasphemous : and the author 
 would not have entangled himself in this manner, if he had not 
 10 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 11 
 
 been frightened out of his wits at Hutchinsonianism ! But after 
 all, to those who search for it, the analogy must instantly dis- 
 cover itself; and it hath been pointed out to us without reserve 
 by a Divine of the old school, Bishop Andrews: who was in no 
 fear of being called to an account for it by the learned of that 
 age. In his first discourse, on the descent of the Holy Ghost, 
 he has these words : " The wind, which is here the type of the 
 Holy Ghost, doth of all creatures best express it : for, of all 
 bodily things, it is the least bodily, and even invisible, as a 
 Spirit is. It is mighty or violent ; seemingly of little force, and 
 yet of the greatest : but never so vehement as the Spirit is in 
 its proceedings. As the wind serveth for breath, so doth the 
 Spirit give life, and is called the Spirit of life. As it serveth for 
 speech, so doth the Spirit give utterance : and, as the one serv- 
 eth for sound, so by the other the sound of the Apostles went 
 out into all lands." This, and more to the same purpose, saith 
 Bishop Andrews ; and I call this true Divinity : he was in no fear 
 about types and analogies : he finds the analogy as strict, as if 
 the air had been created for this use. And what Christian, 
 who reads his Bible, will find fault with Bishop Home, if he 
 thought, and preached, as Bishop Andrews did before him ? 
 The one was the delight of his times ; and the other may con- 
 tinue to be the delight of our times ; notwithstanding the cen- 
 sures which have been thrown out against him, with so little 
 experience, that I am ashamed for the author of them. 
 
 The other great object of nature, where the analogy is not 
 permitted to us, is that of the light ; but it holds in this case as 
 strictly as in the other : for our Saviour calls himself the true 
 light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world ; and 
 a Prophet calls him the Sun of Righteousness. All the men of 
 this world, who have light, have it from the same sun; and all, 
 that have the light of life, have it from the same Saviour. And 
 the operations and attributes of the true light in the kingdom of 
 Grace are the same as those of the light in the natural world. 
 We took the authority of Bishop Andrews in the former exam- 
 ple ; we may now take that of Archbishop Leighton * ,• who 
 sees the analogy between the natural and divine light : — first, 
 in their purity ; both are incapable of pollution : secondly in 
 
 * See Sermon fifth of Archbishop Leighton's eighteen. 
 
12 
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 their universality ; both are imparted to all, without being di- 
 minished : thirdly, in their vivifying power ; the one raises 
 plants and vegetables from the earth, and the other raises men 
 from the dead : fourthly, in their dispelling darkness ; all sha- 
 dows fly before the sun ; all the types and shadows of the law, 
 all the mists of darkness and idolatry, at the appearance of the 
 other, who is the light of the Gentiles, and the glory of Israel ; 
 even that glory which had been so often fore-shewed to them : 
 for as the glory was in their tabernacle and filled it, so the 
 fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in Christ: iotcmuoev ev wptiv, 
 — he dwelt in a tabernacle amongst us. Is not this a just and 
 beautiful analogy ? And can there be any man of taste, who 
 will not see and admire it ? Is the Scripture fanciful in teach- 
 ing it? And is this good Bishop presumptuous in following it? 
 It is a grief to me to be urging so many questions in so plain 
 a case : but wise men lay us under a cruel necessity, when they 
 are in such a hurry to run away from doctrines, which they call 
 Hutchinsonian, without knowing that they have been common 
 to the Christian world ; and that every master in Israel (sup- 
 posing this gentleman to be of that character) is expected to 
 have acquired, from a proper study of the Scripture, that ex- 
 perience which makes all these things plain, and enables us to 
 see the spiritual in the natural world ; the glass in which (Sia, 
 by means of which *) God hath been pleased to shew us that 
 and Himself, till we shall see him face ta face ; and not, as we 
 do now, by reflection from the objects of nature. All, who 
 do not know the use of this grand speculum, are under the 
 poverty of ignorance ; they lose a great help to their faith, to- 
 gether with a great instrument for the improving of their under- 
 standing; at least in spiritual things. What would divinity be, 
 and what can a teacher of it be, without the use of analogies, 
 and the power we acquire, when we argue from them? They are 
 so universal in the Scripture, that a man may as well read Eng- 
 lish without the alphabet, as read the Bible without understand- 
 ing its analogies. They are, therefore, never to be given up, but 
 
 "oY taoTTTpov tv atviy fian — Though the preposition cia is here used, we do not 
 suppose with our English version that the allusion is to dioptrics, but catoptrics ; 
 so loonrpov is aspcc/ilum, wherein things are seen by reflection. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 13 
 
 to be insisted upon, and recommended to others, as the very 
 life and soul of Christian wisdom *. 
 
 I would willingly have avoided a party name, being conscious 
 that I am not a party man; but disposed to exercise an indepen- 
 dent judgment, and take what is good and useful from every 
 quarter where I can find it ; either for my own benefit, or that 
 of the public. If I can do good, I am willing to do it under 
 any character which an honest man may wear. But my adver- 
 saries (who are not a few) have found such an advantage, for 
 many years past, in giving me the name of an Hutchinsonian , 
 that they will never part with it. So, as I am stamped with 
 that name, I may speak freely, without losing any ground. Too 
 many of the learned have shown an unusual propensity, for 
 many years, to censure and reject every principle reported to 
 be Hutchinsonian, without first knowing what it is, and what is 
 to be said for it. The Biographer,against whom I have defended 
 Bishop Home, attacks him as an Hutchinsonian, without know- 
 ing, that he was making his attack on that quarter where the 
 Hutchinsonians are strongest : and this, not with weak argu- 
 ments, but no arguments at all ; unless we can find one in the 
 words — it will surely be thought — which is not an argument, 
 but an appeal to the judgment of others, who are under the 
 same prejudice with himself. To prevent which for the time 
 to come, and to satisfy those, who, having heard some things 
 to perplex them, would be glad of better information ; I shall 
 tell them, as well as I can, what the principles really are, by 
 which an Hutchinsonian is distinguished from other men. But 
 when I consider, that this inquiry will lead us into some great, 
 deep, and difficult subjects — of which no man can speak wor- 
 thily—and of which so many have spoken rashly — I tremble at 
 my undertaking ; and intreat every wise and good man to make 
 allowances for me, at a stage of life, when forces fail, and me- 
 mory is weak ; and to give me a fair and charitable hearing. 
 
 1. In the first place, the followers of Mr. Hutchinson give 
 to God the pre-eminence in every thing. His authority with 
 them is above all authority : His wisdom above all wisdom : 
 His truth above all truth. They judge every thing to be good 
 or bad, wise or foolish, as it promotes or hinders the belief of 
 
 * For the Bishop's sentiments on this subject, see the Life, near the conclusion. 
 
14 
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Christianity. On which account, their first enemies are to be 
 found among sceptics, infidels and atheists. Their next ene- 
 mies are those who are afraid of believing too much : such as 
 our Socinians and their confederates, who admit Christianity 
 as a fact, but deny it as a doctrine. 
 
 2. Theyhold, that only one way of salvation has been revealed 
 to man from the beginning of the world ; viz. the way of faith 
 in God, redemption by Jesus Christ, and a detachment from 
 the world : and that this way is l-evealed in both Testaments. 
 
 3. That in both Testaments divine things are explained and 
 confirmed to the understandings of men, by allusions to the 
 natural creation. I say confirmed; because the Scripture is so 
 constant and uniform in the use it makes of natural objects, 
 that such an analogy appears between the sensible and spiritual 
 world, as carries with it sensible evidence to the truth of reve- 
 lation ; and they think, that, where this evidence is once appre- 
 hended by the mind, no other will be wanted. They are there- 
 fore persuaded, it may have great effect towards making men 
 Christians, in this last age of the world ; now the original 
 evidence of miracles is remote, and almost forgotten. 
 
 4. They are confirmed Trinitarians. They became such at 
 their baptism in common with other Christians ; and they are 
 kept such, by their principles ; especially by what is called the 
 Hutchinsonian philosophy of fire, light, and air. Nature shews 
 us these three agents in the world, on which all natural life and 
 motion depend : and these three are used in the Scripture to 
 signify to us the three supreme powers of the Godhead, in the 
 administration of the spiritual world ; notwithstanding the 
 judgment which our new biographer hath passed against 
 them. Let any philosopher shew us one single effect, of 
 which it may be proved, that neither fire, light, nor air, con- 
 tribute to it in any of their various forms *. 
 
 * To shew how differently the same things will appear to different men, and 
 how men of learning, through habits of thinking, may be unprepared to judge of 
 common things, I will mention the example of my own Tutor of University College 
 in Oxford ; who, having been persuaded to read a little piece of Duncan Forbes on 
 the system of Hutchinson, (which by the way I would recommend to the reader) 
 was heard to say " there were some good things and some curious things in it ; but 
 the man raves when he talks of his fire, light and spirit." Now herein is to me a 
 marvellous thing, that Learning, seated in the chair of Alfred, should take this 
 doctrine of fire, light and air to be raving; when Ignorance, with a tallow candle 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 15 
 
 5. On the authority of the Scriptures, they entertain so low 
 an opinion of human nature, under the consequences of the fall, 
 that they derive every thing in religion from revelation or tradi- 
 tion. A system may be fabricated, and called natural; but a 
 religion it cannot be ; for there never was a religion, among 
 Jews or Gentiles, Greeks, Romans, or Barbarians, since the 
 beginning of the world, without sacrifice and priesthood : of 
 which natural religion, having neither, is consequently no reli- 
 gion. The imagination of man, by supposing a religion without 
 these, has done infinite disservice to the only religion by which 
 man can be saved. It has produced the deistical substitution 
 of naked morality, or Turkish honesty, for the doctrines of 
 intercession, redemption, and divine grace. It has no gift from 
 God, but that nature, which came poor, and blind, and naked 
 out of Paradise ; subject only to farther misery, from its own 
 lusts, and the temptations of the Devil. A religion, more flat- 
 tering to the pride of man, pleases his fancy better than this ; 
 but it will never do him any good. 
 
 in his hand, need only light it, to see them all at work together. Air enters at the 
 bottom, where the flame looks blue : fire and smoke from the snuff are at the top, 
 and the brightest light is about the middle. No man can draw a line between them, 
 or say where one ends and another begins. But here they are certainly ; for, 
 without air, the candle goes out : without fire, it will not burn us : and, without 
 light, we shall not see by it. And all this is no theory, but a plain, undeniable 
 matter of fact. How wonderful, that a philosopher cannot see this ; when a child or 
 a ploughman may be made to understand it ! Two strange events of the same kind 
 are more credible than one. The people among the Jews, who knew most, were 
 those who could see least. 
 
 When the good Lord President Forbes wrote his letter from Scotland, there were 
 rocks and mountains in his way ; and he had the mortification to see that he pre- 
 vailed but little. These are now not nearly so formidable as they were then : 
 great and unexpected events have intervened. Infidelity, the grand adversary, hath 
 now overshot its mark ; and is found to have in it so much more of the felon, than 
 the philosopher, that gentlemen begin to be ashamed of its company. Its oppo- 
 nents are inspired with new zeal, and act with new vigour ; as may be seen in two 
 periodical publications of modern date. Attraction is going down ; and the demon- 
 stration of a vacuum is not to be supported ; as I shall shew in another place. Elec- 
 tricity hath risen up, and given us the knowledge of a new power in nature, which 
 is an object of sense, and may be extended to the whole system of the world. Lord 
 Forbes's letter to a Bishop was written with the best intention in the world ; but, 
 when a scheme is new, and admitted in all its parts, more weight is laid upon some 
 things, than they will bear. He tells his reader many curious things, for which I 
 have not room ; neither would I choose to introduce them, because they depend on 
 Hebrew evidence. 
 
16 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Hutchinson himself had so strong a sense of this, that he 
 looked upon natural religion as Deism in disguise ; an engine of 
 the Devil, in these latter days, for the overthrow of the Gospel ; 
 and therefore boldly called it the religion of Satan or Anti- 
 christ. Let the well-informed Christian look about him and 
 consider, whether his words, extravagant as they may seem at 
 first, have not been fully verified. I myself, for one, am so 
 thoroughly persuaded of this, that I determined never to give 
 quarter to natural religion, when it falls in my way to speak of 
 the all-sufficiency of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We know very 
 well how the Scripture is brought in to give its countenance to 
 the notion of a natural religion : but we know also that dark 
 texts are drawn to such a sense, as to render all the rest of the 
 Scripture of no effect; as hath happened in the doctrines of pre- 
 destination and natural religion ; by the former of which we 
 lose the Church, by the latter its Faith. Facts bring a dispute 
 to a short issue. If Voltaire were alive, I would be judged by 
 him, whether Christianity hath not been going down ever since 
 natural religion came up. And we know, by what his disciples, 
 the French, have done, that natural religion comes up, when 
 Christianity is put down. These facts teach us, that they will 
 not stand long together. Whether they possibly might or not 
 is not worth an inquiry ; because he, that has got Christianity, 
 may leave natural religion to shift for itself. 
 
 G. Few writers for natural religion have shewn any regard 
 to the types and figures of the Scripture, or known much 
 about them. But the Hutchinsonians, with the old Christian 
 Fathers, and the Divines of the Reformation, are very atten- 
 tive to them, and take great delight in them. They differ in 
 their nature from all the learning of the world ; and so much 
 of the wisdom of revelation is contained in them, that no Chris- 
 tian should neglect the knowledge of them. All infidels 
 abominate them. Lord Boling broke calls St. Paul a Cabbalist 
 for arguing from them ; but the Hutchinsonians are ambitious 
 of being such Cabbalists as St. Paul was. 
 
 7. In natural philosophy, they have great regard to the name 
 of Newton, as the most wonderful genius of his kind. But they 
 are sure, his method of proving a vacuum is not agreeable to 
 nature. A vacuum cannot be deduced from the theory of resist- 
 ances : for, if motion be from impulsion, as Newton himself, 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 17 
 
 and some of the wisest of his followers have suspected ; then 
 the cause of motion will never resist the motion which it 
 causes. The rule, which is true when applied to communi- 
 cated motion, does not hold when applied to the motions of 
 nature. For the motions of nature change from less to more; 
 as when a spark turns to a conflagration : but communicated 
 motion always changes from more to less : so that there is an 
 essential difference between them, and we cannot argue from 
 the one to the other. Mr. Coles's demonstration, it is well 
 known, is applicable only to communicated motion : I mean 
 such only as is violent or artificial. There is no need of a 
 vacuum in the heavens : it is more reasonable and more agree- 
 able to nature that they should be filled with a circulating 
 fluid, which does not hinder motion, but begins it and pre- 
 serves it. 
 
 They cannot allow inert matter to be capable (as mind is) 
 of active qualities : but ascribe attraction, repulsion, &c. to 
 subtle causes, not immaterial. There may be cases very in- 
 tricate and difficult ; but they take the rule from plain cases, 
 and supposing nature to be uniform and consistent, they apply 
 it to the rest. 
 
 8. In natural history, they maintain, against all the wild 
 theories of Infidels, which come up, one after another, like 
 mushrooms, and soon turn rotten, that the present condition of 
 the earth bears evident marks of an universal flood ; and that 
 extraneous fossils are to be accounted for from the same 
 catastrophe. Many of them are therefore diligent collectors 
 of fossil bodies, which are valuable to the curious in consider- 
 ation of their origin. 
 
 9. What commonly passes under the name of learning, is a 
 knowledge of Heathen books : but it should always be ad- 
 mitted with great precaution. For they think of all Heathens, 
 that, from the time when they commenced Heathens, they 
 never worshipped the true God, the Maker of heaven and 
 earth ; but, instead of him, the elements of the world, the 
 powers of nature, and the lights of heaven : that the love of 
 vice and vanity was the real cause of their ignorance : they 
 did not know the true God, because they did not like to know 
 him : and that the same passions will give us an inclination 
 to the principles of Heathens, rather than to the principles of 
 
 VOL. VI. C 
 
18 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Christians ; and that most of the ill principles of this age 
 come out of the Heathen School. The favourers of Mr. 
 Hutchinson's scheme are therefore reputed to be the enemies 
 of learning. But they are not so. They are enemies only to 
 the abuses of it, and to the corruptions derived from it. To 
 all false learning, that is to human folly, affecting to be wis- 
 dom, they have indeed a mortal aversion in their hearts, and 
 can hardly be civil to it in their words ; as knowing, that the 
 more a man has of false wisdom, the less room there will be 
 for the true. Metaphysics, which consist of words without 
 ideas ; illustrations of Christian subjects from Heathen pa- 
 rallels ; theories founded only on imagination ; speculations 
 on the mind of man, which yield no solid matter to it, but 
 lead it into dangerous opinions about itself ; these and other 
 things of the kind, with which modern learning abounds, they 
 regard as they would the painting of a ghost, or the splitting 
 of an atom *. 
 
 10. Of Jews they think, that they are the inveterate ene- 
 mies of Christianity ; never to be trusted as our associates 
 either in Hebrew or Divinity. No Philo, no Josephus, no 
 Talmudist, is to be depended upon ; but suspected and 
 sifted, as dangerous Apostates from true Judaism. It is plau- 
 sibly argued, that Jews, as native Hebrews, must, like other 
 natives, be best acquainted with their own language. But 
 the case of the Jews is without a parallel upon earth. They 
 are out of their native state ; and have an interest in deceiving 
 Christians by every possible means, and depriving them of the 
 evidence of the Old Testament. 
 
 11. They are of opinion, that the Hebreio is the primaeval 
 and original language ; that its structure shews it to be divine ; 
 and that a comparison with other languages shews its priority. 
 
 12. The Cherubim of the Scriptures were mystical figures, 
 of high antiquity and great signification. Those of Eden, 
 and of the Tabernacle, and of Ezekiel's vision, all belong to 
 the same original. Irenceus has enough upon them to justify 
 the Hutchinsonian acceptation of them. The place they had 
 in the Holy of Holies, and their use in the Sacred Ritual, sets 
 them very high. Their appellation, asf Cherubim of glory, 
 
 * See more on this subject in the Life. t Compare Acts vii. O 6£oc rt)g ioh\c. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 19 
 
 tloes the same ; and the reasoning of Saint Paul, from the 
 shadows of the law to the priesthood of Christ, sets them 
 highest of all : obliging us to infer, that they were symbolical 
 of the Divine presence. The naaapa £wa in the Revelation 
 of Saint John (improperly called beasts ; for one of them was 
 a man, and another a bird) must be taken from the same : 
 where the figures of the old law bow down and surrender all 
 power and glory to the evangelical figure of the Lamb that 
 was slain. Here the doctrine is thought to labour a little : 
 but, if the iuia are considered only as figures, the case alters. 
 And, if this great subject should have parts and circumstances 
 not to be understood, we must argue from what is understood. 
 They seem to have been known in the Christian Church of 
 the first centuries ; but not with the help of the Jews. So 
 also was the analogy of the three agents (fwe, ^vp, Trvev/xa,) 
 these being expressly mentioned by Epiphanius, as similitudes 
 of the Divine Trinity. 
 
 In their physiological capacity, so far as we can find, the 
 Cherubim seem never to have been considered before Mr. 
 Hutchinson ; who very properly derives from them all animal- 
 worship among the Heathens. This subject is of great ex- 
 tent and depth ; comprehending a mass of Mythological learn- 
 ing, well worthy of a diligent examination. 
 
 These things come down to us under the name of John Hut- 
 chinson ; a character sui generis, such as the common forms 
 of education could never have produced : and it seems to me 
 not to have been well explained, how and by what means he 
 fell upon things, seemingly so new and uncommon : but we 
 do not enquire whose they are, but what they are, and what 
 they are good for. If the tide had brought them to shore in 
 a trunk, marked with the initials J. II. while I was walking 
 by the sea-side, I would have taken them up, and kept them 
 for use ; without being solicitous to know, what ship they 
 came out of, or how far, and how long, they had been floating 
 at the mercy of the wind and waves. If they should get from 
 my hands into better hands, I should rejoice ; being per- 
 suaded they would revive in others the dying flame of Chris- 
 tian faith, as they did in Bishop Home and myself. And why 
 should any good men be afraid of them? There is nothing 
 here, that tends to make men troublesome as Heretics, 
 c 2 
 
20 
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Fanatics, Sectaries, Rebels, or Corrupters of any kind of use- 
 ful learning. All these things a man may believe, and still be 
 a good subject, a devout Christian, and a sound member of 
 the Church of England : perhaps more sound, and more use- 
 ful, than he would have been without them. For myself I 
 may say, (as I do in great humility) that, by following them 
 through the course of a long life, I have found myself much 
 enlightened, much assisted in evidence and argument, and 
 never corrupted ; as I hope my writings, if they should last, 
 will long bear me witness. If these principles should come 
 into use with other people, I am confident they would turn 
 Christians into Scholars, and Scholars into Christians : 
 enabling them to demonstrate, how shallow infidels are in their 
 learning, and how greatly every man is a loser by his igno- 
 rance of Revelation. 
 
 When we are describing Hutchinsonians, it would be unjust 
 to forget, that they are true Churchmen and Loyalists ; steady 
 in the fellowship of the Apostles, and faithful to the Monarchy 
 under which they live. This, however, is not from what 
 they find in Hutchinson, though it is to be found in him * ; 
 but from what he has taught them to find, by taking their 
 principles from the Scripture. Had this man been a splendid 
 character, and a great favourite with the world, we might 
 have received his doctrines with our mouths open, and our 
 eyes shut ; but our dangers are quite of another kind. From 
 him nothing is to be taken upon trust : every thing must be 
 sifted and examined to the uttermost. And so let it : for thus 
 it will be better understood. Prove it well, and hold it fast. 
 Of leaders and guides in learning beware: for, as wisely 
 speaks the author of the Pursuits of Literature, they ought, 
 in this age, to be well watched: if they fall into dangerous 
 mistakes, many fall witli them : and, if evil once creeps in, 
 and finds public entertainment, no man can say how or when 
 we shall get rid of it. Such leaders are as watchful against 
 us, as we ought to be against them. They neither enter in 
 
 * No being whatever can have any power over man, but the God that made him ; 
 therefore no man can have any power over any other man, unless he has it from 
 God. Parent3 have it over their children by Creation ; therefore from the Creator : 
 and Rulers have it, by being God's ministers. This is Mr. Hutchinson's argument ; 
 and it is as close as a demonstration. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 21 
 
 themselves, nor suffer other people, if they can prevent it. 
 Many young men would find employment and amusement for 
 their lives, if the way were open, and they were permitted to 
 inquire for themselves. Here, free enquiry would be honour- 
 able, safe, and laudable : but discouragements are often thrown 
 in their way ; and I have met with some examples of it ; one 
 in particular, which made a great impression upon me. 
 
 Some years ago I became acquainted with a young man, of 
 bright parts, a studious disposition, and a pious turn of mind ; 
 in whose conversation I found comfort and pleasure. To 
 such advice as I gave him, in regard to his future studies, he 
 was remarkably attentive. He saw a new field of learning 
 opening to his view, which promised him much profitable 
 employment ; and he seemed in haste to enter upon it. As 
 he was intended for the Church, I flattered myself he would 
 take some active part in the defence of Christian truth as a 
 writer; together with the advancement of Christian piety as 
 a preacher. With this prospect upon my mind, he left me for 
 many months. But, at his return, 1 found him totally changed ; 
 and I rarely conversed with him but to my disappointment. 
 His mind, which used to be undisguised and open, was now 
 guarded at every pass : and, whatever I proposed, as formerly, 
 he had now an evasion ready. It seemed as if somebody had 
 hung a bell about my neck, so that I could not stir without 
 raising an alarm. To a man, rather shy of making proselytes, 
 but always pleased to meet with volunteers, fit for the service 
 of God and his Church, my situation was distressing. 1 dis- 
 covered, that my friend was no longer his own man : I guessed 
 at the cause ; and gave little trouble afterwards to him or 
 myself. But I lamented, that he had lost a view of things, 
 which would have animated him ; and, while it found exercise 
 for the best of his talents, would have given strength and 
 effect to all his labours. His pursuits in literature will now 
 most probably be frivolous in themselves, and foreign to his 
 profession as a clergyman. No man will do great things, 
 when he yields to secular influence, where literary and re- 
 ligious ought to prevail. The vineyard is a better spot to 
 cultivate than the highway ; and, when labourers are wanted, 
 it is pity any one should be led away upon other service, 
 less pleasant and less profitable. Why even of your ownselves 
 
22 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 judge ye not what is rigid? said our Saviour to those, who 
 could judge of the weather by the face of the sky, without 
 going to ask the Pharisees : and who ought, after the same 
 manner, to have judged for themselves, in matters of much 
 greater moment, from the signs of the times and the state of 
 the church. I hazarded a great, and, as it may be thought, a 
 rash, assertion, in the following Life : I said, " that, if we 
 were ever to see such another man as Bishop Home, he must 
 come out of the same school." I am still of the same mind ; 
 for I think no other school will form such a man. I will now 
 hazard a farther opinion to the same effect: for I think it not 
 improbable, that if some man were to arise, with abilities for 
 the purpose, well prepared in his learning, and able to guide 
 his words with discretion : and such a man were to take up 
 the principles called Hutchinsonian, and do them justice ; the 
 world would find it much harder to stand against him than 
 they are aware of, even with all the new biographers of the 
 age, to encourage and assist them. I may be called a visionary, 
 when I say this : that I cannot help : but how many stranger 
 visions have been realised of late, which, twenty years ago, 
 would have been pronounced utterly incredible ! When 
 strange things are to be done, strange men arise to do 
 them. One man, as powerful in truth, as Voltaire was in 
 error, might produce very unexpected alterations, and in less 
 time than he did. Then might a new aera of learning succeed, 
 as friendly to the Christian cause, as the learning, which has 
 been growing up amongst us for the last hundred years, has 
 been hostile and destructive. As to confirmed infidelity, it 
 is a deaf adder, never to be charmed. Yet even here the 
 case is not always to be given up in despair. Many forsake 
 truth, because they hate it : of such there is no hope : but 
 some believe wrong, only because they never were taught 
 right. 
 
 Nayland, July 30, 1799. 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 DR. HORiNE. 
 
 Doctor George Home, late Bishop of Norwich, and 
 for several years President of Magdalen College in 
 Oxford, and Dean of Canterbury, was born at Otham, 
 a small village near Maidstone in Kent, on the first of 
 November, in the year 1730. His father was the 
 Reverend Samuel Home *, M.A. rector of Otham, a 
 very learned and respectable clergyman, who for some 
 years had been a tutor at Oxford. This gentleman 
 had so determined with himself, to preserve the integ- 
 rity of his mind against all temptations from worldly 
 advantage, that he was heard to say, and used often to 
 repeat it, he had rather be a toad-eater to a mounte- 
 bank, than flatter any great man against his conscience. 
 To this he adhered through the whole course of his 
 life ; a considerable part of which was spent in the 
 education of his children, and in a regular performance 
 of all the duties of his parish. He married a daughter 
 of Bowyer Hendley, Esq. by whom he had seven 
 children, four sons and three daughters. The eldest 
 son died very young. The late Bishop was the next. 
 
 * He died in 1708, aged 75. 
 
24 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 His younger brother, Samuel, was a Fellow of Uni- 
 versity College; where he died, greatly respected and 
 lamented. He inherited the integrity of his father, 
 and was an Israelite indeed, who never did or wished 
 harm to any mortal. Yet his character was by no 
 means of the insipid kind : he had much of the hu- 
 mour and spirit of his elder brother ; had a like ta- 
 lent for preaching ; and was well attended to as often 
 as he appeared in the university pulpit. His death 
 was announced to an intimate friend by his elder 
 brother in the following short and pathetic letter : 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND, ( No date.) 
 
 Last night, about half an hour past eight, it pleased 
 God to take from us, by a violent fit of the stone in 
 the gall-bladder, my dear brother Sam. He received 
 the blessed sacrament, with my mother and myself, 
 from the hands of Dr. Wetherell * ; and, full of faith, 
 with the most perfect resignation, departed in peace 
 with God, the world, and himself. It is a heavy 
 stroke to my poor mother ; but she and my sisters 
 bear up with great fortitude. I have lost a very dear 
 friend, and pleasant companion! Pray for us — All 
 join in every affectionate wish for the happiness of 
 you and yours, with 
 
 G. H. 
 
 The youngest brother, the Reverend William 
 Home, was educated at Magdalen College in Oxford, 
 and was rector of Otham, in which he succeeded his 
 father, as also in the more valuable rectory of Brede 
 in the county of Sussex. 
 
 * Then Master of University College, and Dean of Hereford, &c. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 25 
 
 Mr. Home, the father of the family, was of so mild 
 and quiet a temper, that he studiously avoided giving 
 trouble on any occasion. This he carried so far, that, 
 when his son George was an infant, he used to wake 
 him with playing upon a flute ; that the change from 
 sleeping to waking might be gradual and pleasant, and 
 not produce an outcry ; which frequently happens 
 when children are awakened suddenly. What impres- 
 sion this early custom of his father might make upon 
 his temper, we cannot say : but certainly, he was re- 
 markable, as he grew up, for a tender feeling of music, 
 especially that of the church. 
 
 Under his father's tuition, he led a pleasant life, 
 and made a rapid progress in Greek and Latin. But 
 some well-meaning friend, fearing he might be spoiled 
 by staying so long at home, advised the sending of him 
 to school. To this his good father, who never was 
 given to make much resistance, readily consented : and 
 he was accordingly placed in the school at Maidstone, 
 under the care of the Reverend Deodatus Bye, a man 
 of good principles, and well learned in Latin, Greek 
 and Hebrew ; who, when he had received his new 
 scholar, and examined him at the age of thirteen, was 
 so surprised at his proficiency, that he asked him why 
 he came to school, when he was rather fit to go from 
 school ? With this gentleman he continued two years ; 
 during which, he added much to his stock of learning, 
 and among other things a little elementary knowledge 
 of the Hebrew, on the plan of Buxtorf, which was of 
 great advantage to him afterwards. I am a witness 
 to the high respect with which he always spoke of his 
 master ; whom he had newly left, when my acquaint- 
 ance with him first commenced at University College, 
 to which he was sent when he was little more than 
 fifteen years of age. When servants speak well of a 
 
26 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORN" E. 
 
 master or mistress, we are sure they are good ser- 
 vants ; and, when a scholar speaks well of his teacher, 
 we may be as certain he is, in every sense of the word, 
 a good scholar. 
 
 I cannot help recounting, on this occasion, that 
 there was under the said Deodatus Bye another 
 scholar, very nearly related to Mr. Home, of whom 
 the master was heard to say, that he never did any 
 thing which he wished him not to have done. But, 
 when the lad was told of this, he very honestly ob- 
 served upon it, that he had done many things which 
 his master never heard of. He is now in an office of 
 great responsibility. They, who placed him in it, 
 supposed him still to retain the honesty he brought 
 with him from Maidstone school ; and I never heard 
 that he had disappointed them. 
 
 While Mr. Home was at school, a Maidstone 
 scholarship in University College became vacant ; in 
 his application for which he succeeded, and, young 
 as he was, the master recommended his going directly 
 to college. 
 
 Soon after he was settled at University College, 
 (where he was admitted on the 15th of March 1745-6), 
 Mr. Hobson, a good and learned tutor of the house, 
 gave out an exercise, for a trial of skill, to Mr. Home 
 and the present writer of his life, who was also in his 
 first year. They were ordered to take a favourite 
 Latin ode of Boetius, and present it to the tutor in a 
 different Latin metre. This they both did as well as 
 they could : and the contest, instead of dividing, united 
 them ever after, and had also the effect of inspiring 
 them with a love of the Lyric Poetry of that author ; 
 which seems not to be sufficiently known among 
 scholars, though beautiful in its kind. The whole 
 work was once in such esteem, that King Alfred, the 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORN'E. 
 
 27 
 
 founder of University College, and of the English 
 constitution, translated it. 
 
 His studies, for a time, were in general the same 
 with those of other ingenious young men ; and the 
 vivacity of his mind, which never was exceeded, and 
 made his conversation very desirable, introduced him 
 to many gentlemen of his own standing, who resembled 
 him in their learning and their manners, particularly 
 to Mr. Jenkinson, now Earl of Liverpool, Mr. Moore, 
 late Archbishop of Canterbury, Mr. Cracherode, Mr. 
 Benson, the Honourable Hamilton Boyle, son of Lord 
 Orrery, the late Reverend Jasper Selwin, and many 
 others. Mr. Denny Martin, afterwards Dr. Fairfax, of 
 Leeds Castle, in Kent, was from the same school with 
 Mr. Home ; and has always been very nearly con- 
 nected with him, as a companion of his studies, a 
 lover of his virtues, and an admirer of his writings. 
 
 To shew how high Mr. Home's character stood with 
 all the members of his college, old and young, I need 
 only mention the following fact. It happened about 
 the time when he took his Bachelor's degree, which 
 was on the 27th of October, 1749, that a Kentish 
 fellowship became vacant at Magdalen College ; and 
 there was, at that time, no scholar of the house who 
 was upon the county. The senior fellow of Univer- 
 sity College, having heard of this, said nothing of it 
 to Mr. Home, but went down to Magdalen College, 
 told them what an extraordinary young man they 
 might find in University College, and gave him such 
 a recommendation as disposed the society to accept 
 of him. When the day of election came, they found 
 him such as he had been represented, and much more ; 
 and in 1750 he was accordingly chosen a fellow of 
 Magdalen College, and on the first of June, 17.52, he 
 took the degree of Master of Arts. 
 
28 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 If we look back upon our past lives, it will gene- 
 rally be found, that the leading events, which gave a 
 direction to all that followed, were not according 
 to our own choice or knowledge, but from the hand 
 of an over-ruling Providence, which acts without 
 consulting us ; putting us into situations, which are 
 either best for ourselves, or best for the world, or 
 best for both ; and leading us as it led the patriarch 
 Abraham; of whom we are told, that he knew not 
 ivhither he was going. This was plainly the case in 
 Mr. Home's election to Magdalen College. A person 
 took up the matter, unsolicited and in secret : he 
 succeeded. When fellow, his character and conduct 
 gave him favour with the society, and, when Dr. 
 Jenner died, they elected him president : the head- 
 ship of the college introduced him to the office of 
 vice-chancellor ; which at length made him as well 
 known to Lord North, as to the Earl of Liverpool : 
 this led to the deanry of Canterbury, and that to the 
 bishopric of Norwich. 
 
 If we return to the account of his studies, we shall 
 there find something else falling in his way which he 
 never sought after, and attended with a train of very 
 important consequences. While he was deeply en- 
 gaged in the pursuits of Oratory, Poetry, Philosophy, 
 and History, and making himself well acquainted with 
 the Greek Tragedians, of which he was become a great 
 admirer, an accident, of which I shall relate the ac- 
 count as plainly and faithfully as I can, without dis- 
 guising or diminishing, drew him into a new situation 
 in respect of his mind, and gave a new turn to his stu- 
 dies, before he had arrived at his Bachelor's degree. 
 I may indeed say of this, that it certainly gave much 
 of the colour which his character assumed from that 
 time, and opened the way to most of his undertakings 
 
THE LIFE OP DR. HORNE. 
 
 29 
 
 and publications; as he himself would witness if he 
 were now alive. 
 
 It is known to the public, that he came very early 
 upon the stage as an author, though an anonymous one, 
 and brought himself into some difficulty under the 
 denomination of an Hutcliinsonian ; for this was the 
 name given to those gentlemen who studied Hebrew 
 and examined the writings of John Hutchinson, Esq. 
 the famous Mosaic philosopher, and became inclined 
 to favour his opinions in Theology and Philosophy. 
 
 About the time of which I am speaking, there were 
 many good and learned men of both Universities, but 
 chiefly in and of the University of Oxford, who, from 
 the representation given to the public, some years 
 before, by the Right Honourable Duncan Forbes, then 
 Lord President of the Court of Session in Scotland, 
 and from a new and more promising method of study- 
 ing the Hebrew language, independently of Jewish 
 error, and from a flattering prospect also of many 
 other advantages to the general interests of religion 
 and learning, were become zealous advocates in 
 favour of the new scheme of Mr. Hutchinson. Mr. 
 Home was led into this enquiry, partly by an acci- 
 dent which had happened to myself. 
 
 An attachment to some friends, then well known in 
 the University for their abilities in music, of whom the 
 principal were, Mr. Phocion Henley of Wadham Col- 
 lege, Mr. Pixel of Queen's, and Mr. Short of Worces- 
 ter, drew me often to Wadham College; which society 
 has two Hebrew scholarships, on one of which there 
 was a gentleman, a Mr. Catcott of Bristol, whose father, 
 as I afterwards understood, was one of those authors 
 who first distinguished themselves as writers on the 
 side of Mr. Hutchinson : he possessed a very curious 
 collection of fossils, some of which he had digged and 
 
30 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 scratched out of the earth with his own hands at the 
 hazard of his life ; a pit near Wadham College, which 
 would have buried him, having fallen in very soon 
 after he was out of it. This collection * I was invited 
 to see, and readily accepted the invitation, out of a 
 general curiosity, without any particular knowledge of 
 the subject. This gentleman, perceiving my attention 
 to be much engaged by the novelty and curiosity of 
 what he exhibited, threw out so many hints about 
 things of which I had never heard, that I requested the 
 favour of some farther conversation with him on a fu- 
 ture occasion. One conference followed another, till 
 I saw a new field of learning opened, particularly in 
 
 * It is now deposited in the public library at Bristol, to the cor- 
 poration of which city he left that and his MSS. on a principle of gra- 
 titude for the preferment they had given him ; and there I saw it in 
 the year 1790, with many large and valuable additions. 
 
 Of the collector it may be truly said, that he was not only an 
 Hebraean in his learning, but an Israelite in life and manners. To 
 his industry we owe a Treatise on the Deluge, which, when com- 
 pared with many others, will be found to give the best and most 
 curious information upon the subject. This good and innocent 
 man, whose heart was well affected to all mankind, died before 
 his time ; and the manner of his death, if it has been truly reported, 
 will raise the indignation of every sensible and charitable mind. 
 He kept his bed with a bad fever ; and when rest was necessary, he 
 was disturbed by the continual barking of a dog that was chained 
 up near at hand. When his friends sent a civil message desiring 
 that the dog might be removed till the patient was better, it was 
 refused ; and, in the event, he was fairly barked to death. If this 
 fact be true, how cheap are the lives and sufferings of some men 
 in the estimation of others ! — Hercule ! hom'ini plurima ex hominc 
 sunt mala! — for the dog intended no harm. — Of this gentleman 
 himself, we are informed by one of his intimate fiends, that, when 
 he settled his account at the year's end, he considered all the money 
 that remained after his own debts were paid as the property not of 
 himself but of the poor, to w hose use (being a single man) he never 
 failed to apply it. 
 
 15 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 31 
 
 the department of Natural History, which promised so 
 much information and entertainment, that I fell very 
 soon into the same way of reading. Dr. Woodward 
 the physician, who had been a fellow-labourer with 
 Hutchinson, and followed very nearly the same prin- 
 ciples, had made the natural history of the Earth, 
 and the diluvian origination of extraneous fossils, so 
 agreeable and so intelligible, that I was captivated 
 by his writings : and from them I went to others ; 
 taking what I found, with a taste and appetite, 
 which could not, at that time, make such distinctions 
 as I may have been able to make since. In the sim- 
 plicity of my heart, I communicated some of the 
 novelties, with which my mind was now filled, to 
 my dear and constant companion, Mr. Home, from 
 whom I seldom concealed any thing ; but found him 
 very little inclined to consider them ; and I had the 
 mortification to see, that I was rather losing ground 
 in his estimation. Our College-Lectures on Geo- 
 metry and Natural Philosophy (which were not very 
 deep) we had gone through with some attention, and 
 thought ourselves qualified to speak up for the Phi- 
 losophy of Newton. It was therefore shocking to 
 hear, that attraction was no physical principle, and 
 that a vacuum never had been, and never would be, 
 demonstrated. Here therefore Mr. Home insisted, 
 that if Sir I. Newton's Philosophy should be false 
 in these principles, no Philosophy would ever be 
 true. How it was objected to, and how it was de- 
 fended, I do not now exactly remember ; I fear, not 
 with any profound skill on either side ; but this I 
 well recollect, that our disputes, which happened 
 at a pleasant season of the year, kept us walking to 
 and fro in the Quadrangle till past midnight. As 
 I got more information for myself, I gained more 
 
32 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 upon my companion : but I have no title to the 
 merit of forming him into what he afterwards proved 
 to be. 
 
 In the same College with us, there lived a very ex- 
 traordinary person. He was a classical scholar of the 
 first rate, from a public school, remarkable for an unu- 
 sual degree of taste and judgment in poetry and ora- 
 tory ; his person was elegant and striking, and his 
 countenance expressed at once both the gentleness of 
 his temper and the quickness of his undestanding. 
 His manners and address were those of a perfect gen- 
 tleman : his common talk, though easy and fluent, had 
 the correctness of studied composition : his benevo- 
 lence was so great, that all the beggars in Oxford knew 
 the way to his chamber door ; upon the whole, his cha- 
 racter was so spotless, and his conduct so exemplary, 
 that mild and gentle as he was in his carriage toward 
 them, no young man dared to be rude in his company. 
 By many of the first people in the University he was 
 known and admired : and it being my fortune to live in 
 the same staircase with him, he was very kind and at- 
 tentive to me, though I was much his junior : he often 
 allowed me the pleasure of his conversation, and some- 
 times gave me the benefit of his advice, of which I 
 knew the meaning to be so good, that I always heard 
 it with respect, and followed it as well as I could. This 
 gentleman, with all his other qualifications, was a reader 
 of Hebrew, and a favourer of Mr. Hutchinson's philo- 
 sophy ; but had kept it to himself, in the spirit of Ni- 
 codemus ; and when I asked him the reason of it after- 
 wards, and complained of the reserve with which he 
 had so long treated me in this respect ; " Why," said 
 he, u these things are in no repute ; the world does 
 not receive them; and you, being a young man, who 
 must keep what friends you have, and make your for- 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. IIOKNE. 
 
 33 
 
 tune in the world, I thought it better to let you go 
 on in your own way, than bring you into that em- 
 barrassment which might be productive of more 
 harm than good, and embitter the future course of 
 your life : besides, it was far from being clear to me, 
 how you would receive them ; and then I might 
 have lost your friendship." It was now too late for 
 such a remonstrance to have any effect ; I therefore, 
 on the contrary, prevailed upon him to become my 
 master in Hebrew, which I was very desirous to learn : 
 and in this he acquitted himself with so much skill and 
 kind attention, writing out for me with his own hand 
 such grammatical rules and directions as he judged 
 necessary, that in a very short time I could go on 
 without my guide. I remember, however, that I had 
 nearly worked myself to death, by determining, like 
 Duns Scotus in the Picture-Gallery, to go through a 
 whole chapter in the Hebrew before night. 
 
 To this gentleman, whose name was George Wat- 
 son, I recommended Mr. Home at my departure from 
 Oxford ; and they were so well pleased with each other, 
 that Mr. Home, instead of going home to his friends 
 in the vacation, stayed for the advantage of following 
 his studies at Oxford, under the direction of his new 
 teacher : and in the autumn of the year 1 749, he began 
 a Series of Letters to his Father, which fill above 
 thirty pages in large quarto, very closely written; from 
 the whole tenor of which, it is pleasant to see, how 
 entire a friendship and confidence there was between 
 a grave and learned father, and a son not yet twenty 
 years of age! Of these letters, though they are by no 
 means eorrect enough, either for style or judgment, to 
 stand the test of severe criticism, it is highly proper 
 I should give some account; to shew what those opi- 
 nions were, which had now got possession of his 
 
 VOL. vi. D 
 
34 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 mind ; intermixing with my abstract such notes and 
 explanations as shall seem requisite for a better un- 
 derstanding of it. 
 
 Having first apologized to his father, for not visit- 
 ing him in the vacation, he gives him an account of 
 his teacher. ** I am obliged for the happiness I have 
 enjoyed of late to a gentleman of this society, and 
 shall always bless God that his providence ever 
 brought me acquainted with him. He is a Fellow of 
 our house; and, though but six and twenty, as com- 
 plete a scholar in the whole circle of learning, as 
 great a divine, as good a man, and as polite a gentle- 
 man, as the present age can boast of." These words 
 of Mr. Home I introduce with peculiar satisfaction ; 
 because they afford so strong a concurring testimony 
 to the truth of what I have already ventured to say 
 of Mr. Watson. This excellent man never published 
 any large work, and will be known to posterity only 
 by some occasional pieces which he printed in his 
 life-time. His Sermon on the 19th Psalm, which he 
 preached before the University, and afterwards left the 
 printing of to my care, so delighted Mr. Home (as it 
 appears from these letters to his father) that it proba- 
 bly raised in his mind the first desire of undertaking 
 that Commentary on the whole book of Psalms, which 
 he afterwards brought to such perfection*. Mr. Wat- 
 son published another Sermon on the Divine Appear- 
 ance in Gen. xviii. ; which was furiously shot at by the 
 bush-fighters of that time in the Monthly Review; in- 
 somuch that the author thought it might be of some 
 service to take up his pen and write them a letter ; in 
 which their insolence is reproved with such superior 
 
 * This is the gentleman who is spoken of in a Note to the Com- 
 ment on Psalm xix. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 35 
 
 dignity of mind and serenity of temper, and their ig- 
 norance and error so learnedly exposed, that, if I were 
 desirous of shewing to any reader what Mr. Watson 
 was, and what they were, I would by all means put 
 that letter into his hand ; of which I suppose no co- 
 pies are now to be found, but in the possession of 
 some of his surviving friends. It is however made 
 mention of with due honour by Dr. Delany, the cele- 
 brated Dean of Down in Ireland, who was once the 
 intimate friend of Swift, and has given us the best 
 account of his life and character in his Observations 
 in answer to Lord Orrery. In a Preface to the third 
 volume of his Revelation examined with Candour, 
 which he printed at London very late in life, he speaks 
 of a malignant style of criticism, in practice at that 
 time with the obscure and unknown authors of a 
 Monthly Review ; and observes upon the case, that 
 " he must seem at first sight a rash as well as a bold 
 man, who would venture to wage war at once with 
 Billingsgate and Banditti. And yet in truth," adds 
 he, " such a war (defensive only) hath been waged 
 with them to great advantage, by a gentleman, whose 
 mind and manners are as remote from illiberal scur- 
 rility and abuse, as his adversaries appear to be from 
 learning, from candour, and from every character of 
 true criticism. Mr. Watson, the defendant here men- 
 tioned, hath, in return to their scurrility, answered 
 and exposed them with strong, clear and irresistible 
 reasoning, and such a meek, calm and Christian spi- 
 rit, as hath done honour to his own character, and 
 uncommon justice to the Christian cause ; such as 
 were sufficient to silence any thing but effrontery, 
 hardened in ignorance, to the end of the world." Mr. 
 Watson also printed a Sermon, preached before the 
 University on the 29th of May, which he calls an Ad- 
 d2 
 
.30 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 monition to the Church of England. In a long Pre- 
 face to this Sermon, he has thrown out such valuable 
 observations, that an excellent manual might be 
 formed out of them, for preserving the members of 
 the Church of England steady in their profession ; 
 by shewing to them, so plainly as is here done, the 
 principal dangers to which they are now exposed. 
 Having said thus much of his teacher (and I could 
 with pleasure have said much more) I must now 
 shew what he learned under him. 
 
 From the general account he gives of his studies, 
 he appears in consequence of his intercourse with Mr. 
 Watson, to have been persuaded, that the system of 
 Divinity in the Holy Scripture is explained and attested 
 by the Scriptural account of created nature : and that 
 this account, including the Mosaic Cosmogony, is true 
 so far as it goes : and that the Bible, in virtue of its 
 originality, is fitter to explain all the books in the 
 world than they are to explain it : that much of the 
 learning of the age was either unprofitable in itself, or 
 dangerous in its effect ; and that literature, so far as it 
 was a fashion, was in general unfavourable to Chris- 
 tianity, and to a right understanding of the Scripture : 
 that the Jews had done much hurt in the Hebrew ; 
 not to the text by corrupting it, but by leading us into 
 their false way of interpreting and understanding it ; 
 and that their Rabbinical writers were therefore not 
 to be taken as teachers by Christian students : that a 
 notion lately conceived of the Mosaic law, as an in- 
 stitution merely civil or secular, without the doctrines 
 of life and immortality in it, was of pernicious ten- 
 dency; contrary to the sense of all the primitive 
 writers, and the avowed doctrine of the Church of 
 England : that the sciences of Metaphysics and Ethics 
 had a near alliance to Deism ; and that, in conse- 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 37 
 
 quenceof the authority they had obtained, the doctrine 
 of our pulpits was in general fallen below the Chris- 
 tian standard ; and that the Saviour and the Redemp- 
 tion, without which our religion is nothing, were in a 
 manner forgotten ; which had given too much occa- 
 sion to the irregular teaching of the Tabernacle : that 
 the sin of modern Deism is the same in kind with the 
 sin of Paradise, which brought death into the world ; 
 because it aspires to divine wisdom, that is, to the 
 knowledge of divine things, and the distinction be- 
 tween good and evil, independently of God. 
 
 He had learned farther, that the Hebrew language, 
 and the Hebrew antiquities, lead to a superior way of 
 understanding the mythology and writings of the 
 Heathen classical authors : and that the Hebrew is a 
 language of ideas; whose terms for invisible and 
 spiritual things are taken with great advantage from 
 the objects of nature ; and that there can be no other 
 way of conceiving such things, because all our ideas 
 enter by the senses : whereas in all other languages, 
 there are arbitrary sounds without ideas. 
 
 It appeared to him farther, that unbelief and blas- 
 phemy were gaining ground upon us,in virtue of some 
 popular mistakes in Natural Philosophy, and threat- 
 ened to banish all religion out of the world. Voltaire 
 began very early to make his use of philosophy, and 
 corrupt the world with it. He never was fit to mount 
 it ; but he walked by the side of it, and used it as a 
 stalking-horse. It is therefore of great consequence 
 to the learned to know, that, as the heavens and the 
 elements of the world had been set up by the Hea- 
 thens, as having power in themselves ; and that as the 
 Heathens, building on this false foundation, had lost 
 the knowledge of God ; the modern doctrine, which 
 gives innate powers to matter, as the followers of De- 
 
•48 
 
 THE LIFE OP DR. HORNE. 
 
 mocritus and Epicurus did, would probably end in 
 Atheism* : that the forces, which the modern Philoso- 
 phy uses, are not the forces of nature ; but that the 
 world is carried on by the action of the elements on 
 one another, and all under God : that it is no better 
 than raving, to give active powers to matter, sup- 
 posing it capable of acting where it is not ; and to 
 affirm, at the same time, that all matter is inert, that 
 is inactive, and that even the Deity cannot act but 
 where he is present, because his power cannot be but 
 where his substance is. 
 
 He was also convinced, that infinite mischief had 
 been done, not only by the tribe of Deists and Philo- 
 sophers, but by some of our most celebrated divines, in 
 extolling the dignity of human nature and the wisdom 
 of human reason ; both of which the Scripture delivers 
 to us under a very different character ; which the ex- 
 perience of the world is daily confirming. That infidels 
 and profligates should wish to establish their own 
 opinions upon the ruins of revelation was not to be 
 wondered at ; but that they, whose office it was to 
 dress and defend the sacred vineyard, should fall in 
 with them, and join with the wild boar out of the wood 
 to root it up, was a matter of grief and surprise. A 
 distemper must indeed be epidemical, when the phy- 
 sicians themselves are seized with it. This malady, 
 when traced to its fountain-head, appears to have 
 arisen from a general neglect in schools and semi- 
 naries of the study of the Scriptures in their original 
 languages ; where they attend so much to the works 
 of heathens, and so little to the book of light, life and 
 immortality. While the heads of boys are filled with 
 tales of Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Bacchus, and Venus, the 
 
 * This hath now actually come to pass. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 39 
 
 Bible is little heard of; and so the heathen creed be- 
 comes not only the first but the whole study. Jews, 
 mistaken as they are, are still diligent in teaching the 
 Scripture to their children in their own way ; while we 
 are teaching what even Jews are wise enough to abo- 
 minate. Possessed by this opinion, that all polite 
 knowledge is in heathen authors, and the Bible but a 
 dull heavy book, which, instead of promoting, rather 
 stands in the way of improvement, a lad is sent from 
 school to the university. Here is a very alarming 
 crisis. If he happen to be of a sprightly wit, he falls 
 into loose company, and, for want of religious prin- 
 ciples, is led into all manner of wickedness. Should 
 he study, he obtains logic under the form of a scho- 
 lastic jargon, which in its simplicity* is of excellent 
 use. Then he learns a system of Ethics, which teaches 
 morals without religious data, as the Heathens did ! 
 After which, he probably goes on to Woollaston, 
 Shaftsbury, and others ; and is at length fixed in the 
 opinion, that reason is sufficient for man without re- 
 velation. Our young philosopher having proceeded 
 thus far, wants nothing but Metaphysics to complete 
 him ; by setting him to reason without principles, to 
 judge without evidence, and to comprehend without 
 ideas. He learns to deduce the being and attributes of 
 God h priori; in consequence of which he discovers, 
 that God is not a Trinity, but a single person. When 
 a gentleman thus equipped, takes the Bible into his 
 hand and commences divine, what must become of it y 
 and of him ! Thus it appears, that, as things go now, 
 a man may be a master of what is called human learn- 
 
 * The more simple the better : but the old logic, ever with all 
 its jargon, is a better guard to truth, than the new which has super- 
 seded it ; and is found by many, who have considered the difference, 
 so to be. 
 
10 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. IIORNE. 
 
 ing, and yet ignorant to the last degree of what only 
 is worth knowing. 
 
 The foregoing abstract, which I have taken as 
 faithfully as I could, is sufficient to shew upon what 
 great and important subjects Mr. Home's mind was 
 employed at this early period of his life. In the 
 course of this correspondence, there are several 
 strokes of humour which ought not to be forgotten. 
 The Hebrew Concordance of Marius de Calasio 
 had lately been republished by the Rev. Mr. Ro- 
 maine, and was an expensive work, so high as ten 
 guineas at that time, though now at a price very 
 much reduced. Mr. Home had set his heart upon 
 this work, thinking it necessary to his present stu- 
 dies ; but knew not how to purchase it out of his 
 allowance, or to ask his father in plain terms to make 
 him a present of it ; so he told him a story, and left 
 the moral of it to speak for itself. 
 
 In the last age, when Bishop Walton's Polyglott 
 was first published, there was at Cambridge a Mr. 
 Edwards, passionately fond of Oriental learning ; who 
 afterwards went by the name of Rabbi Edwards : he 
 was a good man, and a good scholar : but being then 
 rather young in the University, and not very rich, 
 Walton's great work was far above his pocket. Never- 
 theless, not being able to sleep well without it, he sold 
 his bed, and some of his furniture, and made the pur- 
 chase : in consequence of which, he was obliged to 
 sleep in a large chest, originally made to hold his 
 clothes. But getting into his chest one night rather 
 uncautiously, the lid of it, which had a bolt with a 
 spring, fell down upon him and locked him in past re- 
 covery ; and there he lay well nigh smothered to death. 
 In the morning, Edwards, who was always an exact 
 man, not appearing, it was wondered what was become 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 41 
 
 of him : till at last his bed-maker, or the person who 
 in better times had been his bed-maker, being alarmed, 
 went to his chambers time enough to release him : and 
 the accident, getting air, cameto the ears of his friends, 
 who soon redeemed his bed for him. This story Mr. 
 Home told his father ; and it had the desired effect. 
 His father immediately sent him the money ; for which 
 he returns him abundant thanks, promising to repay 
 him in the only possible way, viz. that of using the 
 books to the best advantage. They were without 
 question diligently turned over while he worked at his 
 Commentary on the Psalms, and yielded him no small 
 assistance. 
 
 The use of Hebrew to divines was well understood 
 by Bishop Bull, who did not content himself with a 
 slight and superficial knowledge of it ; and judged it 
 so necessary in divinity, that it was usual with him 
 to recommend the study of it to the candidates for 
 orders, as a foundation for their future theological 
 performances. Without this knowledge in Mr. Horne, 
 we should never have seen his Commentary upon the 
 Psalms. 
 
 When a student hath once persuaded himself that 
 he sees truth in the principles of Mr. Hutchinson, a 
 great revolution succeeds in his ideas of the natural 
 world and its oeconomy. Qualities in matter, with a 
 vacuum for them to act in, are no longer venerable : 
 and the authority of Newton's name, which goes with 
 them, loses some of its influence. Nor is this in the 
 present case so much to be wondered at : for Mr. 
 Hutchinson had conceived an opinion, which possessed 
 his mind very strongly, that Sir I. Newton and Dr. 
 Clarke had formed a design, by introducing certain 
 speculations founded on their new mode of philoso- 
 phizing, to undermine and overthrow the theology of 
 
42 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 the Scripture, and to bring in the Heathen Jupiter or 
 Stoical anima mundi into the place of the true God, 
 whom we Christians believe and worship. This will 
 seem less extravagant, when it is known that Mr. 
 Boyle * had also expressed his suspicions, many years 
 before, that Heathenism was about to rise again out 
 of some new speculations, and reputedly grand dis- 
 coveries, in Natural Philosophy. Yet I am not willing 
 to believe, that the eminent persons above mentioned 
 had actually formed any such design. What advan- 
 tage unbelievers have, since their time, taken of their 
 speculations in divinity and philosophy, and of the 
 high repute which has attended them, and of the ex- 
 clusive honours given to mathematical learning and 
 mathematical reasoning, is another question ; and it 
 calls for a serious examination at this time, when the 
 moral world is in great disorder, from causes not well 
 understood. 
 
 However these things may be, the prejudice so 
 strongly infused by Mr. Hutchinson against an evil 
 design in Clark and Newton, took possession of Mr. 
 Home's mind at the age of nineteen ; and was farther 
 confirmed by reports which he had heard of a private 
 good understanding betwixt them and the Sceptics of 
 the day, snch as Collins, Toland, Tindal, &c. more 
 than the world generally knew of. It is an undoubted 
 fact, that there was an attempt to introduce Atheism, 
 or Materialism, which is the same thing, here in Eng- 
 land, toward the beginning of this century ; of which the 
 Pantheisticon of Janus Junius Eoganesius, a technical 
 name for John Toland, is a sufficient proof: and 
 Hutchinson, who knew all the parties concerned, and 
 the designs going forward, dropped such hints in his 
 
 * This remarkable passage from Mr. Boyle is quoted in The 
 Scholar Armed, lately published by Rivingtons, vol. ii. p. 2S2. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 43 
 
 Treatise on Power Essential and Mechanical*, as 
 gave a serious alarm to many persons well disposed. 
 But our young scholar, viewing the whole matter at 
 first on the ridiculous side, and considering it not only 
 as a dangerous attempt upon religion, but a palpable 
 offence against truth and reason, drew a parallel be- 
 tween the Heathen doctrines in the Somnium Scipionis 
 of Cicero, and the Newtonian Philosophy ; which he 
 published, but without his name, in the year 1751 ; all 
 the particulars of which parallel I shall not undertake 
 to justify. I see its faulty flights and wanderings, 
 from a want of more mature judgment and experience. 
 It provoked several remarks, some in print, and some 
 in manuscript; of whichremarks the judgment was not 
 greater, and the levity not less. The question was in 
 reality too deep for those who attempted to fathom it 
 at that time. Mr. Horne soon saw the impropriety of 
 the style and manner, which as a young man he had 
 assumed for merriment in that little piece : these were 
 by no means agreeable to the constitution of his mind 
 and temper. He therefore observed a very different 
 manner afterwards ; and, as soon as he had taken 
 time to bethink himself, he resumed and reconsidered 
 the subject; publishing his sentiments in 1753, (the 
 year after that in which he had taken his degree of 
 M.A.) in a mild and serious pamphlet, which he 
 called A fair, candid, and impartial State of the Case 
 between Sir I. Newton and Mr. Hutchinson : allow- 
 ing to Sir Isaac the great merit of having settled laws 
 and rules in Natural Philosophy; but at the same time 
 claiming for Mr. Hutchinson the discovery of the two 
 physiological causes, by which, under the power of the 
 Creator, the natural world is moved and directed. The 
 * See p. 24>3, &c. of the old edition ; beginning with the account 
 of Woodward's conduct. 
 
41 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 piece certainly is, what it calls itself, fair, candid, 
 and impartial; and the merits of the cause are very 
 judiciously stated between the two parties : in con- 
 sequence of which, a reader will distinguish, that 
 Newton may be of sovereign skill in measuring/brces 
 as a Mathematician ; and yet, that Hutchinson may 
 be right in assigning causes, as a Physiologist. It 
 would carry me out too far, if I were to shew by 
 what arguments and evidence Mr. Home has sup- 
 ported this distinction. For these I must refer to the 
 pamphlet itself, which, having become very scarce*, 
 hath been lately reprinted with some other of his 
 works ; and I will venture to say thus much in its behalf, 
 that, whatever becomes of the argument, the manner 
 in which it is handled shews Mr. Horne, who, when 
 he wrote it, was only in his twenty-third year, to 
 have been a very extraordinary young man. 
 
 New studies and new principles never fail to bring 
 a man into new company ; all mankind being naturally 
 disposed to associate with those who agree best with 
 themselves. Of these his new friends it will be just 
 and proper to give some short account. The chief of 
 them was Mr. Watson, whom I have already men- 
 tioned. Another of them was Dr. Hodges, the Provost 
 of Oriel College ; who composed a work to which he 
 gave the title of Elihu ; the chief subject of it being 
 the character of Elihu in the Book of Job. The style 
 of it has great dignity and stateliness, without being 
 formal ; and is at the same time clear, and easy to be 
 understood. Dr. Hodges was undoubtedly a very 
 great master of his pen ; but, having declared himself 
 
 * This Pamphlet, together with another entitled An Apology 
 for certain Gentlemen in the University of Oxford, being reprinted, 
 may be had of the Booksellers by whom the Life is sold. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 15 
 
 without reserve in favour of Mr. Hutchinson's doc- 
 trines, his work was virulently assaulted and grossly 
 misrepresented. Of this he complained ; as he might 
 well do : and what did he get by it ? He was told in 
 return, that a writer upon the book of Job should 
 take every thing with patience ! His book, however, 
 went into a second edition. He was a man of a vene- 
 rable appearance, with an address and delivery which 
 made him very popular as a preacher in the Univer- 
 sity. 
 
 The learned Provost of Oriel, so far as it occurs to 
 me, was the first who with a strong hand sounded the 
 alarm-bell against those speculations and their conse- 
 quences, which have now prevailed to the overthrow 
 of the church and kingdom of France. A piece intitled 
 Les Moeurs {Manners) was published there in the 
 year 1748 ; the tendency of which was to establish na- 
 tural religion on the ruins of all external worship, and 
 so to free the world from all laws human and divine ; 
 that man might be guided by nothing but the light of 
 his own mind. This was burned by the hangman at 
 Paris ; the soil, as Dr. Hodges observed, being not 
 quite, though nearly, prepared for the reception of 
 these tares. The country and the climate chosen by 
 the writer were certainly promising, on this consider- 
 ation, that superstition and irreligion are generally 
 observed to be the reciprocal causes and effects of 
 each other. Against the principles and spirit of this 
 undertaking, the author of JElihu was so much in ear- 
 nest, that he gave an abridgment of the work from a 
 French copy, which he procured for that purpose. I 
 could here stop with great pleasure, if it were proper, 
 to extract some of the evidence so powerfully urged 
 against all such attempts by this learned gentleman : 
 but I must refer the reader to his Preliminary Dis- 
 13 
 
46 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 course. It is, however, a fact never to be neglected, 
 which he and others have ascertained by abundant 
 authority, that, " all the religion of the heathen world 
 was traditional revelation corrupted:" which, if it 
 can be made good, overthrows at once all the modern 
 theories of infidelity. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Holloway, Rector of Middleton- 
 Stoney in Oxfordshire, had been a private tutor to 
 Lord Spencer, in the house of the Hon. John Spencer 
 his father ; who, with all his extravagances, never 
 failed to preserve due respect * to Mr. Holloway, and 
 listened to him with attention, when he conversed 
 freely with the company at his table. This gentleman 
 had been personally acquainted with Mr. Hutchinson, 
 and had published an elementary piece in favour of 
 his philosophical principles. But he was better known 
 in the University of Oxford by three excellent dis- 
 courses on the Doctrine of Repentance, with a Sup- 
 plement in answer to the perverse Glosses of Tindal 
 the Freethinker. The Vice-chancellor of that time 
 took a pique against him for dropping a hint, in his 
 Supplement against Tindal, that the person of Mel- 
 chizedec was an exhibition of Christ before his Incar- 
 nation. This was no novel opinion ; it had been ad- 
 vanced by others, before and after the Reformation : 
 and in them the doctrine had given no offence. But 
 Mr. Holloway, being a man suspected and proscribed 
 
 * A military gentleman, who was sometimes of the party, re- 
 marked to a friend, that the strictest decorum was always observed, 
 whenever Mr. Holloway, who supported the dignity of his profession, 
 was present : while another clergyman, who thought to recommend 
 himself by laying aside the clerical character, was treated with little 
 ceremony and held in sovereign contempt ; from which he naturally 
 inferred, that the clergy would not fail to meet with proper respect, 
 if it was not their own fault. 
 
THE LIFE OP DR. HORNE. 
 
 47 
 
 on some other accounts, met with some hard and un- 
 worthy treatment upon the occasion : yet to avoid a 
 misunderstanding with the whole University, when 
 only some individuals were concerned, he sup- 
 pressed what he had written in his own defence. His 
 scheme for an Analysis of the Hebrew Language, 
 though it comprehends a vast compass of learning, is 
 partly fanciful, and would bear a long dispute, into 
 which I shall not enter : but this must be said in re- 
 spect to Mr. Home, that when he first commenced his 
 theological studies, he derived many real advantages 
 from his acquaintance with this gentleman ; and I 
 could name one of his most shining and useful dis- 
 courses, which in the main argument of it, was taken 
 from some loose papers of Remarks on Warburton's 
 Divine Legation ; to the principles of which this learned 
 gentleman, for many good reasons, which he spared 
 not to give, was a zealous adversary. To say the 
 truth, there was little cordiality on either side between 
 the renowned writer of the Divine Legation and the 
 readers of Mr. Hutchinson. On most subjects of re- 
 ligion and learning, their opinions were irreconcil- 
 able. He despised their doctrines and interpreta- 
 tions, and railed at them as Cabbalistical ; and they 
 despised his Empirical Divinity ; while, at the same 
 time, they dreaded the ill effect of it, from the bold- 
 ness of the man, and the popularity of his books : 
 which have a great flash of learning, but with little 
 solidity, and less piety. To the purity of Christian 
 Literature they have certainly done, and are still 
 doing, much hurt. When the first volume of the 
 Divine Legation was shewn to Dr. Bentley, (as his 
 son-in-law the late Bishop Cumberland told me) he 
 looked it over, and then observed of the author 
 to his friend — This man has a monstrous appetite, 
 
18 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 with a very bad digestion *. In justice to Mr. Hol- 
 loway, whatever might be said against him, it must 
 be said for him, that he was a sound classical scho- 
 lar, who had gone farther than most men into the 
 mysteries of the Greek Philosophy ; and to an at- 
 tentive study of the Christian Fathers had added great 
 skill in the Hebrew and Arabic languages ; such as 
 qualified him to take up and maintain the cause of the 
 Hebrew Primcevity against its opponents. Confined 
 as he was to the solitude of a country parish, if he 
 found himself out of practice in the writing of Latin, 
 he used to renew it occasionally by reading over the 
 Morice Encomium of Erasmus, which never failed to 
 reinstate him : and I am persuaded the anecdote may 
 be of use to other scholars when in danger of losing 
 their Latinity. 
 
 Mr. Holloway was first induced to take notice of 
 Mr. Horne, on occasion of some verses which he 
 had addressed to his friend Mr. W atson. They ex- 
 
 * This was written before I had a sight of the learned Bishop 
 Hurd's Life of Dr. Warburton, lately published, in which such sub- 
 lime praises are bestowed on the Alliance, the Divine Legation, and 
 other works of that fanciful but very ingenious projector of un- 
 founded theories. Though I honour the character of Bishop Hurt], 
 and admire every thing he writes, my opinion of the usefulness of 
 the works of Dr. Warburton is very little changed by what I have 
 seen. I am still persuaded, that neither religion nor learning will 
 ever derive much benefit, nor the Christian world any considerable 
 edification, from the works of that famous writer : neither will they 
 probably derive any great harm ; because it is apprehended, the 
 reading of Bishop Warbuton's books will hereafter be much less 
 than it hath been. The Methodists despised him for a part of his 
 Christian character, as much as he despised them for a part of their 
 character ; and both had equal reason. His learning is almost 
 as much unlike to Christianity, as their Christianity is unlike to 
 learning. I forbear to indulge any further reflections on so critical 
 a subject. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 49 
 
 pressed the ardour of his gratitude, and discovered 
 a poetical genius *. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Welbourne of Wendelbury near 
 Bicester in Oxfordshire, whom, from the monastic 
 spirit of a single life, and a remarkable attachment to 
 the study of Antiquity, Mr Home delighted to call by 
 the name of Robertus Wendelburiensis, was very much 
 respected and beloved, and often visited by Mr. Horne 
 so long as he lived. Educated at Westminster and 
 Christ-church, he was a scholar of the politer class ; 
 and a deep and skilful student in the Scripture, of 
 which he gave a specimen in an interpretation of the 
 last words of David from the Hebrew. He went far- 
 ther in this, and with better success, than the learned 
 and ingenious Dr. Grey, the versifier of the Book of 
 Job, after the manner of Bishop Hare's Psalms, with 
 whom he had been acquainted. He wrote well in 
 English and Latin, and composed several learned 
 works, which had their exceptionable passages, from 
 a visible inclination toward some of the peculiarities 
 of the church of Rome. He had lived several years 
 in strict friendship with Dr. Frewen, the physician, in 
 whose house he always resided when he made a visit 
 to Oxford ; also with the Reverend Sir John Dolben, 
 of Finedon in Northamptonshire, the learned, accom- 
 plished, devout, and charitable father of the late 
 worthy Sir William Dolben, member for the University 
 of Oxford ; and also Mr. Counsellor Gilpin ; to the 
 last of whom he left his collection of Grecian and 
 
 * It was rather officious to give them to the world, as somebody 
 hath done since Dr. Home's death. Our opinion of a great and 
 good man, who has finished his course, ought not to be gathered 
 from the hasty and ardent productions of his youth. 
 
 VOL. VI. E 
 
50 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 Roman coins ; which, if I am rightly informed, is now 
 in the new library of Christ-church *. 
 
 Another excellent friend of Mr. Home was the 
 late Dr. Patten, of Corpus Christi College ; a gentle- 
 man of the purest manners and unquestionable eru- 
 dition. On reconsidering the state of the question 
 between Christians and infidels, and seeing how ab- 
 solutely necessary it was to speak a plain language 
 in a case of such importance to the world, he gave 
 to the university of Oxford a discourse which he 
 called the " Christian Apology ;" and which the 
 Vice-chancellor and Heads of Houses requested him 
 to publish. It went upon true and indisputable 
 principles ; but it was not relished by the rash rea- 
 soners of the Warburtonian school ; and a Mr. Heath- 
 cote, a very intemperate and unmannerly writer, 
 who was at that time an assistant-preacher to Dr. 
 Warburton at Lincoln's- Inn, published a pamphlet 
 against it ; laying himself open, both in the matter 
 and the manner of it, to the criticisms of Dr. Patten ; 
 who will appear to any candid reader, who shall re- 
 view that controversy, to have been greatly his su- 
 perior as a scholar and a divine. Dr. Patten could 
 not with any propriety be said to have written on the 
 Hutchinsonian plan : but Mr. Heathcote, in aid of 
 his own arguments, found it convenient to charge him 
 with it, and suggest to the public that he was an 
 Hutchinsonian ; which gave Dr. Patten an opportunity 
 of speaking his private sentiments, and doing justice 
 to those gentlemen in the university of Oxford, who 
 
 * The complexion of this good man's character may be distin- 
 guished in the last letter I received from him, about two months be- 
 fore his death, of which I had an account from Dr. Home. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 51 
 
 were then under the reproach of being followers of 
 Mr. Hutchinson *. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Wetherell, late Dean of Hereford, was 
 then a young man in the College of which he was after- 
 wards the worthy Master : and such was his zeal at that 
 time in favour of Hebrew literature, that Mr. Horne, 
 Mr. Wetherell, and Mr. Martin (afterwards Dr. Fair- 
 fax,) and a fourth person intimately connected with 
 them all, sat down for one whole winter, to examine and 
 settle, as far as they were able, all the Themata of the 
 Hebrew language : writing down their remarks daily, 
 and collecting from Marius, and Buxtorf, and Paginus 
 and others, what might be of use for compiling a new 
 Lexicon. How much judgment they had, at this 
 early period, to render their papers valuable, we dare 
 not say : but, such as they were, the fruits of a faithful 
 and laborious scrutiny, a copy of them was handed to 
 the learned Mr. Parkhurst, late of the University of 
 Cambridge, an eminent labourer in the same vineyard, 
 to whom the public have since been greatly indebted 
 for three editions of his Hebrew Lexicon; which con- 
 tains such variety of curious and useful information, 
 that contrary to the nature of other Dictionaries (pro- 
 perly so called) it may be turned over for entertain- 
 ment as a Commentary on the Scripture, and a maga- 
 zine of Biblical Erudition. His two scriptural Lexi- 
 
 * On occasion of this paragraph, I have reconsidered Dr. Pat- 
 ten's Discourse and the Defence of it ; and am persuaded it might 
 be of much service, if every young man were to read them both, 
 before he takes holy orders. His picture of fashionable Christi- 
 anity is very alarming, and I fear it is not exaggerated. Another 
 Discourse preached before the University, and from the same pen, 
 published also by request, intitled " The Opposition between the 
 Gospel of Jesus Christ, and what is called the Religion of Nature," 
 deserves to be noticed here. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 cons, the one Greek, and the other Hebrew, are both 
 so excellent in their way, that they will last as long as 
 the world ; unless the new Goths of infidelity should 
 break in upon us and destroy, as they certainly wish 
 to do, all the monuments of Christian learning *. 
 
 Doctor George Berkeley, of late years a Prebendary 
 of the Church of Canterbury and Chancellor of Breck- 
 nock, was then Mr. George Berkeley, a student of 
 Christ-church, a son of that celebrated pattern of vir- 
 tue, science, and apostolical zeal, Dr. Berkeley, Bishop 
 of Cloyne in the kingdom of Ireland ; who chose to 
 spend the latter days of his life in retirement at Ox- 
 ford, while his son was a member of the university. 
 Between this gentleman and Mr. Horne a very early 
 intimacy commenced, and much of their time was 
 spent in each other's company. Under the training 
 and with the example of so excellent a father, Mr. 
 Berkeley grew up into a firm believer of the Christian 
 religion, and discovered an affectionate regard to 
 every man of letters, who was ready, like himself, to 
 explain and defend it. He was consequently a very 
 zealous admirer of Mr. Horne ; and the one had the 
 happiness of belonging to the Chapter, while the other 
 for several years was Dean of Canterbury : and when 
 his friend was removed to the See of Norwich, Dr. 
 Berkeley preached his Consecration Sermon at Lam- 
 beth ; an act of respect for which he had reserved 
 himself, having been under a persuasion, for some 
 years before, that he should see Mr. Horne become a 
 
 * The third edition of Mr. Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon was pro- 
 moted by Bishop Horne, whose name stands first among the patrons 
 to whom it is inscribed ; though Bishop Horne did not live till it was 
 published. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 53 
 
 Bishop. His discourse * on that occasion shewed him 
 to be a true son and an able minister of the Church of 
 England : and another discourse, originally delivered 
 on a 30th of January, and reprinted since with large 
 and curious annotations, has distinguished him for as 
 firm and loyal a subject to his king and the laws of his 
 country. Dr. Berkeley was very greatly esteemed by 
 his patron the late Archbishop Seeker, with whom he 
 had much influence ; and he never ceased to take ad- 
 vantage of it, till he had obtained preferment from him 
 for one of his old friends, who had no other prospect. 
 The father of Dr. Berkeley has been made known to 
 the world by a few happy words of Mr. Pope : but the 
 following anecdote, which is preserved among the pri- 
 vate notes of Bishop Horne, will give us a more exact 
 idea of his character. Bishop Atterbury, having heard 
 much of Mr. Berkeley, wished to see him. Accordingly, 
 he was one day introduced to him by the Earl of 
 Berkeley. After some time, Mr. Berkeley left the 
 room : on which Lord Berkeley said to the Bishop, 
 " Does my cousin answer your Lordship's expecta- 
 tions ?" The Bishop, lifting up his hands in astonish- 
 ment, replied, " So much understanding, so much 
 knowledge, so much innocence, and such humility, 
 I did not think had been the portion of any but 
 angels, till I saw this gentleman." The passage is 
 taken from Hughes's Letters. II. 2 -f. 
 
 * This Sermon is now published, and may, not improperly, be 
 bound up with this volume, if the reader pleases. The title of it is, 
 An Inquiry into the Origin of Episcopacy, in a Discourse preached at 
 the Consecration of George Horne, D.D. &c.&c. 
 
 + Dr. Berkeley, the excellent son of an excellent father, changed 
 this world (in which he had seen much trouble) for a better, on the 
 day of Epiphany 1795, before the first edition of this work went to 
 the press. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Glasse, a student of Christ-church, 
 who had the repute he merited of being one of the 
 best scholars fromWestminster-school, was another of 
 Mr. Home's intimate friends, and continued to love 
 and admire him through the whole course of his life. 
 The world need not be told what Dr. Glasse has been 
 doing since he left the University, as a divine, as a 
 magistrate, and as a teacher and tutor of the first 
 eminence ; of whose useful labours, the Gospel, the 
 law, the church, the bar, the schools of learning, the 
 rich and the poor, have long felt and confessed the 
 benefit : and may they long continue so to do ! al- 
 though it may be said, without any suspicion of flat- 
 tery, in the words of the Poet — non deficit alter aureus 
 — a son, whose learning, abilities, and good principles 
 have already entitled him to the thanks of his country, 
 and will secure his fame with posterity. 
 
 This gentleman, the son of Dr. G., distinguished 
 himself very early in life by his uncommon proficiency 
 in Hebrew literature, which procured him the favour 
 of Dr. Kennicott, and a studentship of Christ-church. 
 He has since acquired a great addition of fame as a 
 classical scholar, by his elegant translation into Greek 
 Iambics of Mason's Caractacus, and Milton's Samson 
 Agonistes, adapted in form, and style, and manner, 
 to the ancient Greek drama *. And he has recently 
 
 * Though I speak with respect of this, as a work of great 
 scholarship, and even wonderful in a young man, I have my doubts, 
 whether any Englishman can exhibit unexceptionable Greek ver- 
 sification, in which a Critic cannot, with a microscope in his hand, 
 and a little jealousy in his eye, discover flaws and pinholes : and 
 that a Greek version of a fine English Poem, whoever produces it, 
 will at last be but a bad likeness of a good thing : which may be 
 said without impeaching the parts or the diligence of any trans- 
 lator. When a man writes iu a dead language, he does it at a great 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 55 
 
 shewn himself an elegant English writer, as well as 
 a pious and well informed divine, by his publication 
 of the Contemplations of Bishop Hall, in a form 
 very much improved. He had prepared a Dedication 
 of that excellent work to Bishop Home ; but the 
 Bishop dying, while the work was depending, an ad- 
 vertisement is prefixed, which does great honour to 
 his memory. 
 
 From Westminster-school there came, at an earlier 
 period, a Mr. John Hamilton of University College, 
 whose father was a member of the Irish Parliament, 
 and his mother a lady of high rank. This amiable 
 young man, for the politeness of his behaviour, his 
 high accomplishments, his vivacity of temper and 
 readiness of wit, was a companion equally respect- 
 able and desirable; so nearly allied in disposition 
 and abilities to the two characters of Mr. Watson 
 and Mr. Home, that a strict friendship grew up be- 
 tween them. The example of some seducing com- 
 panions from Westminster-school had rendered him 
 for a while dissipated and thoughtless : but when 
 the time approached, in which he was required to 
 prepare himself for holy orders, he determined to 
 become a clergyman in good earnest ; gave himself 
 up to study and retirement ; and was known to rise 
 frequently at four o'clock in a summer's morning, to 
 read the works of St. Austin. With this disposition, 
 it is no wonder he was ready to embrace every op- 
 portunity of deriving more light to his Christian 
 studies. He therefore soon became a Hebrew student 
 
 hazard : and I have heard this matter carried to such a nicety by a 
 person of distinguished learning, as to suppose it dangerous, even 
 in Latin composition, to put a noun and a verb together, unless you 
 can find that noun and that verb actually standing together in some 
 native Latin writer of allowed authority. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 in common with his friends, and made a rapid pro- 
 gress in divinity. For a time he took upon himself 
 the curacy of Bedington in Surrey : but he was soon 
 advanced to the archdeaconry of Raphoe in Ireland, 
 having first obtained a presentation to the valuable 
 living of Taboyne ; where, to the loss of the world, 
 and the unspeakable grief of the author of these 
 papers, to whom he was a most affectionate and valu- 
 able friend, he soon afterwards died. In the begin- 
 ning of his indisposition, he had been almost mira- 
 culously restored at Bristol in the spring of the year 
 1754, just at the time when the living was given to him 
 by Lord Abercorn his relation, and the dignity super- 
 added by the Bishop of the diocese. Ireland was a 
 stage, on which his learning and principles, his active 
 zeal, his polite manners and great abilities, were much 
 wanted. They have at this time but a mean opinion 
 of that kind of learning which this young archdeacon 
 so much valued and affected. Had he lived, he 
 might have done much good in bringing over many 
 considerable persons to an attentive study of the 
 Scripture, which had produced so happy an effect 
 upon himself. But, alas ! instead of this, it is now 
 reported, that the country has been considerably hurt 
 in its principles by some modern writings, which 
 have lately come into vogue ; of which it is not my 
 business in this place to speak more particularly. 
 
 It has given me great pleasure, thus to take a re- 
 view, hasty as it has been, of some of those excellent 
 persons with whom Mr. Home was connected in the 
 days of his youth. A reader, who is a stranger to all 
 the parties, may suspect that I have turned my pen 
 to the making of extraordinary characters; but I trust 
 he will take my word for it, that I have only made 
 them such as I found them; and such as the late 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 57 
 
 good Bishop their friend would have represented 
 them, had he been alive and called upon to do them 
 justice. I am convinced, his own pen would have 
 given more to some, not less to any : and that he would 
 have mentioned others of whom I have not spoken ; 
 for certainly I might have added many to the collec- 
 tion ; such as the Rev. John Auchmuty, whose fa- 
 ther was Dean of Armagh, and who used to amuse us 
 with an account of his adventures at Tetuan in Africa, 
 during his chaplainship under Admiral Forbes : Mr. 
 James Stillingfleet, a grandson to the celebrated and 
 learned Bishop of that name ; first one of the Hebrew 
 Exhibitioners at Wadham College ; afterwards Fel- 
 low of Merton, and late Prebendary of Worcester : 
 Mr. George Downing, another Hebrew Exhibitioner 
 at Wadham College, and afterwards a Prebendary of 
 Ely, whom Mr. Horne admired and respected for those 
 virtues and qualifications, which have endeared him 
 to all his acquaintance. To these I might add Mr. 
 Edward Stillingfleet, a Gentleman Commoner of 
 Wadham ; the Reverend John Whitaker, now so well 
 known by his learned and valuable writings ; with 
 others of like character and literature, to none of 
 whom do I mean any disrespect if I have omitted 
 them. There was one very learned gentleman in par- 
 ticular, Mr. Forster of Corpus Christi College, who 
 published a beautiful quarto edition of the Hebrew 
 Bible. He had the reputation of being a profound 
 scholar, and was a great favourite with Bishop Butler, 
 author of the celebrated Analogy, &c. This learned 
 man introduced himself to Mr. Home's acquaintance, 
 only for the opportunity of conferring with him on 
 some principles which he had newly adopted in Phi- 
 losophy and Divinity. How far Mr. Home and Mr. 
 Forster proceeded in the argument, I cannot exactly 
 
58 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 say ; but this I well remember, that, when the con- 
 substantiality of the elements came into question, Mr. 
 Forster did not seem to think that doctrine impro- 
 bable, which later enquiries have rendered much less 
 so : and allowed, that if the public were once satis- 
 fied in that particular, he believed very few objec- 
 tions would be made to the philosophical scheme of 
 Mr. Hutchinson*. 
 
 I am now to conclude with a character, which I 
 introduce with some reluctance ; but it is too remark- 
 able to be omitted in an account of Mr. Home's li- 
 terary connections ; and some useful moral attends it 
 in every circumstance : the character I mean is that 
 of the late Dr. Dodd. Humanity should speak as 
 tenderly of him as truth will permit, in consideration 
 of his severe and lamentable fate. 
 
 A similitude in their studies and their principles 
 produced an acquaintance between Mr. Home and 
 Mr. Dodd : for when Mr. Dodd began the world, he 
 was a zealous favourer of Hebrew learning, and distin- 
 guished himself as a preacher ; in which capacity he 
 undoubtedly excelled to a certain degree, and in his 
 time did much good. After Mr. Dodd had been no- 
 ticed in the University of Cambridge for some of his 
 exercises, he made himself known to the public by an 
 English poetical translation of Callimachus, in which 
 he discovered a poetical genius. Of the Preface to 
 the translation of Callimachus, which gives the best 
 general account, that was ever given in so short a 
 compass, of the Heathen Mythology, the greater part 
 was written for him by Mr. Home. It is supposed, 
 with good reason, that Mr. Dodd Avas obliged to others 
 of his friends for several useful notes on the text of 
 
 * See Mr. Home's Apology; where this conference with Mr. 
 Forster is alluded to. 
 
 13 
 
THE LIFE OF DK. HOUNE. 
 
 51) 
 
 Callimachus. He makes a particular acknowledgment 
 to the Rev. Mr. Parkhurst, " from whose sound judg- 
 ment, enlarged understanding, unwearied applica- 
 tion, and generous openness of heart, the world has 
 great and valuable fruits to expect." Archbishop 
 Seeker conceived a favourable opinion of Mr. Dodd, 
 from his performances in the pulpit ; and it was pro- 
 bably owing to the influence of the Archbishop, that 
 he was appointed to preach the sermons at Lady 
 Moyer's Lectures. But this unhappy gentleman, hav- 
 ing a strong desire, like many other young men of 
 parts, to make a figure in the world, with a turn to an 
 expensive way of living ; and finding that his friends, 
 who unhappily were suffering under the damnatory 
 title of Hutchinsonians, would never be permitted (as 
 the report then was) to rise to any eminence in the 
 Church ; Mr. Dodd thought it more prudent to leave 
 them to their fate, with the hope of succeeding better 
 in some other way : and to purge himself in the eye 
 of the world, he wrote expressly against them ; laying 
 many grievous things to their charge : some of which 
 were true, when applied to particular persons ; some 
 greatly exaggerated ; and some utterly false ; as it 
 may well be imagined, when it is considered that the 
 author was writing to serve an interest *. 
 
 * When it was under deliberation whether any answer should be 
 given to this book of Mr. Dodd's, Mr. Home objected to it in the 
 following terms, which discover his great prudence and judgment. 
 " Whoever shall answer it, will be under the necessity of appear- 
 ing as a partizan, which in these times should be avoided as much as 
 possible. I had much rather the name of Hutchinson were dropped, 
 and the useful things in him recommended to the world, with their 
 evidence, in another manner than they have been. Mankind are tired 
 and sick (I am sure I am for one) with the fruitless squabbles and 
 altercations about etymologies and particularities. In the mean time, 
 the great plan of Philosophy and Theology, that must instruct and 
 edify, lies dormant." 
 
60 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 There could be no better judge than Mr. Dodd 
 himself of the motives on which he had assumed a 
 new character. He certainly did himself some good, 
 in the opinion of those, who thought he was grown 
 wiser: but being sensible how far he had carried 
 some things, and how much he had lost himself, in 
 the esteem of his old friends, he was anxious to know 
 what some of them said about him. He therefore 
 applied himself one day to a lady of great under- 
 standing and piety, who knew him well, and who 
 also knew most of them ; desiring her to tell him 
 what Mr. such an one said of him ? He says of you, 
 answered she — Demas hath forsaken us, having loved 
 this present world : with which he appeared to be 
 much affected. Not that the thing had actually been 
 said, so far as I know *, by the person in question ; 
 but she, knowing the propriety with which it might 
 have been said, gave him the credit of it. There 
 was a general appearance of vanity about Mr. Dodd, 
 which was particularly disgusting to Mr. Horne, who 
 had none of it himself ; and the levity, with which he 
 had totally cast off his former studies, being added to 
 it, both together determined him to drop the acquaint- 
 ance with little hesitation. He not only avoided his 
 company, but conceiving a dislike as well to his moral 
 as to his literary character, is supposed to have given 
 such an account of him in one of the public papers as 
 made him very ridiculous, under the name of Tom 
 Dingle. Not long afterwards Mr. Foote brought him 
 upon the stage for a transaction which reflected great 
 dishonour upon a clergyman, and for which the King 
 ordered him to be struck off the list of his chaplains. 
 
 The revolt of Mr. Dodd, if he meant to raise him- 
 self in the world by it, did by no means answer his 
 
 * But I am now informed, it actually was said. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 61 
 
 purpose. It brought him into favour with Lord Ches- 
 terfield ; but that did much more hurt to his mind, than 
 good to his fortune. The farther he advanced in life, 
 the more he became embarrassed : and his moral con- 
 duct was commonly known to be so far depraved, that 
 a late celebrated gentleman of Clapham, who was privy 
 to it, is said to have predicted some years before, that 
 he would come to an untimely end. How unsearch- 
 able are the wisdom and justice of divine Providence! 
 The worldly policy of Dr. Dodd lost him the friendship 
 of some wise and good men, particularly of Mr. Home, 
 but procured for him the favour of Lord Chesterfield ; 
 and that favour tempted him to another step of policy, 
 which brought him to his death. The memory of Dr. 
 Johnson is much to be honoured for the tender part 
 he took in behalf of Dr. Dodd during the time of his 
 affliction. And let it be remembered, in justice to his 
 former friends, that few persons were more deeply 
 affected by his lamentable end than some of those who 
 had been under the necessity of dropping his acquaint- 
 ance. I have it on the best authority, that one of 
 them kept a solemn fast till night on the day of his 
 execution, and afterwards moralized very seriously 
 upon his fate in one of the newspapers of the time. 
 
 From this account of Mr. Home's friends and ac- 
 quaintance I return now to the history of his studies. 
 When a young man of a vigorous mind determines, in 
 these latter days of the Church, to make himself learn- 
 ed, he is in great danger, from the books he may read, 
 and the company into which he may fall ; notwith- 
 standing the integrity of his mind, and the purity of 
 his intentions. If he join himself to aparty,he will be 
 under the influence of an affection, which is very pro- 
 perly called partiality ; and which inclines him to 
 favour the measures of his party indiscriminately ; and 
 
62 
 
 THE LIFE OF DH. HORNE. 
 
 therefore does great hurt to the judgment. He is apt 
 to praise and censure, to love and hate, not with his 
 own spirit, but with the spirit of his party. With their 
 singularities, whatever they may be, he will find little 
 fault ; and if they have errors, they are such as he 
 will not soon discover. To this danger Mr. Horne 
 was exposed as a reader of Hutchinson. I shall 
 therefore describe it more particularly, and shew how 
 and by what means he escaped it in all its parts, and 
 preserved the independency of his understanding: in 
 doing which, if I can do it faithfully, I shall certainly 
 make myself of some use to the public. 
 
 Mr. Hutchinson fell into a new and uncommon 
 train of thinking in Philosophy, Theology, and Hea- 
 then Antiquity ; and appears to have learned much of 
 it from the Hebrew, which he studied in a way of his 
 own : but as he laid too great a stress in many in- 
 stances on the evidence of Hebrew Etymology, his 
 admirers would naturally do the same : and some of 
 them carried the matter so far, that nothing else 
 would go down with them; till by degrees they 
 adopted a mode of speaking, which had a nearer re- 
 semblance to cant and jargon, than to sound and sober 
 learning. To this weakness those persons were most 
 liable, who had received the fewest advantages from 
 a learned education. This was the case with some 
 sensible tradesmen and mechanics, who, by studying 
 Hebrew, with the assistance of English only, grew con- 
 ceited of their learning, and carried too much sail 
 with too little ballast. Of this Mr. Horne was very 
 soon aware ; and he was in so little danger of follow- 
 ing the example, that I used to hear him display the 
 foibles of such persons with that mirth and good hu- 
 mour which he had ready at hand upon all occasions. 
 With the like discretion and candour, he allowed to 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 03 
 
 the Rev. Dr. Sharp of Durham all that could reason- 
 ably be allowed, when he attacked the followers of 
 Hutchinson upon the Etymological quarter, where 
 they seemed most vulnerable, or, where they might at 
 least be annoyed with most appearance of advantage : 
 and he never, through the whole course of his life, 
 was a friend to the etymological part of the con- 
 troversy ; as it appears from his writings ; in which 
 Hebrew etymology, however he might apply to it for 
 himself, is rarely if ever insisted upon. In some of 
 his private letters, one of which has been already re- 
 ferred to in a note, he declared his mind very freely 
 on the inexpediency of squabbling about words, when 
 there were so many things to be brought forward, 
 which were of greater importance, and would admit 
 of less dispute. 
 
 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 writings ; and thereby lost much 
 of that influence with men of learning, which he might 
 have preserved, had he considered it as a duty to be 
 more temperate and flexible in his manner of address- 
 ing the public. But he was a man of a warm and 
 hasty spirit, like Martin Luther : who to certain mo- 
 dern speculations in Philosophy and Theology could 
 preserve no more respect than Luther did to the errors 
 of Popery. How far the circumstances they both 
 were under, the zeal by which they were actuated, and 
 the provocations they met with from the world, will 
 justify them in the use of intemperate language, can 
 be known only to God, to whom they must give an 
 account. But whatever excuses may be made for the 
 
64 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 principals, we do not see how they can be extended to 
 those who succeeded. Some of these however did 
 claim for themselves the like privilege, and gave great 
 offence to persons of cooler judgment. The world 
 will not suffer things to be forced upon them. When 
 men are angry, it is always supposed they have but 
 little to say, and are provoked by a sense of the in- 
 sufficiency of themselves and their cause. It was a 
 wise saying of Lord Coke, the famous lawyer, " What- 
 ever grief a man hath, ill words work no good, and 
 learned counsel never use them." To this wise and 
 excellent maxim the followers of Mr. Hutchinson did 
 not in general attend as they ought to have done. It 
 filled them with indignation, to see how little they pre- 
 vailed against the perverse treatment of some ill-dis- 
 posed adversaries: and if they had found such princi- 
 ples as they thought of use to themselves, it was a mor- 
 tification to see them overlooked and disdained by 
 others. But there was so much sweetness in the natu- 
 ral temper of Mr. Home, that no bitter weed could 
 take root there : and the intemperance of others only 
 served to put him the more upon his guard ; of which 
 we have a happy example in his State of the Case 
 between Sir Isaac Newton and Mr. Hutchinson. This 
 was one of his earliest compositions ; in which the 
 argument is conducted throughout with perfect mo- 
 desty, civility, and a proper respect to all parties. I 
 have heard him admire greatly that calmness for which 
 the Chinese are so remarkable, although it borders in 
 some degree upon cunning or stupidity. " The only 
 way for a man to gain the favour 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. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORXE. 
 
 The learning, which disposes ns to affect a superi- 
 ority over other men is too generally attended by a 
 forgetfulness of God: and it has therefore been well 
 observed, that knowledge though a good thing in 
 itself, as light is when compared with darkness, is apt 
 to puff us up : while charity, which is an humble and 
 submissive virtue,, edifieth ; that is, builds up in the 
 way of grace, and makes us better Christians. So far 
 as knowledge, though of the purest sort, infuses pride, 
 just so far it extinguishes devotion. It was therefore 
 objected to the new Hebrew students, that they were a 
 carnal sort of people, so full of scriptural learning, as 
 to be much wanting in a due regard to scriptural piety. 
 The intelligent reader will easily guess from what quar- 
 ter such an accusation would arise. It came from 
 those who are apt to offend in another way ; who sup- 
 pose that an appearance of godly zeal, and a passion 
 to save souls, will supply the defects of Christian 
 knowledge : but without it there will not be Christian 
 prudence ; and such persons, neglecting to inform 
 themselves, suffer under the want of judgment, and 
 are carried into delusion, of which they do not see the 
 consequences. Ignorant piety, like ignorant ingenuity, 
 must go to school, before it will be able to work surely 
 and with good effect. It must itself be taught before 
 it can be fit to teach others. The great Lord Bacon 
 observed of the first Puritans, that they reasoned 
 powerfully on the necessity of a serious piety ; and 
 brought men well to the question, what must I do to 
 be saved? But when they had done this, they were at 
 a loss how to give them an answer. There is danger 
 to man on every side : learning is tempted to overlook 
 piety ; and piety thinks there is no use of learning. 
 Happy is he who preserves himself from both these 
 errors: who, while he seeks wisdom, applies it first to 
 
 VOL. vi. F 
 
QG 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. IIORNE. 
 
 the reformation of his own life, and then to the lives of 
 other men ! This appears to have heen the persuasion 
 of Mr. Home ; in whose earliest writings we find such 
 a tincture of devotion, that some of his readers, who 
 valued themselves upon their discernment, thought 
 his warmth discovered a degree of enthusiasm ; that 
 he was devout overmuch ; and consequently we have 
 the testimony of such persons, that he was not want- 
 ing in Christian piety. Thus much at least may be 
 affirmed, that he was in no danger of an outward formal 
 religion, destitute of the vital spirit of Christianity. 
 
 There was yet another danger to he apprehended, 
 and that of no small concern to a member of the 
 Church of England. It happened, that among the 
 admirers of Mr. Hutchinson there were many dissen- 
 ters; who, with all the information they had acquired, 
 did not appear (as might reasonably have been ex- 
 pected) to be much softened in their prejudices against 
 the constitution of this Church. — With some of these 
 Mr. Home frequently fell into company : of which it 
 was not an improbable consequence (and he after- 
 wards 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. Hutchin- 
 son's readers against their superiors both in Church 
 and State, on account of the unfair and angry treat- 
 ment (I may say, persecution) some of them had suf- 
 fered, and the dislike and aversion which their princi- 
 ples had met with from persons of established reputa- 
 tion. The modest and civil Letter to a Bishop, from 
 the Lord-President of the Court of Session in Scotland, 
 the Honourable Duncan Forbes, had met with little or 
 no attention ; which, with many other slights and pro- 
 vocations, contributed to keep them in no very good 
 
THE LIFE OP DR. HOUNE. 
 
 67 
 
 humour; so that it was to be feared they would be too 
 ready to hear, what others might be too ready to sug- 
 gest. With some of our dissenters, it is too much the 
 custom to turn the clergy of the Church and their pro- 
 fession into ridicule ; a sort of behaviour which should 
 always be avoided by religious men, when religion is 
 the subject. A piece was handed about, which calls 
 itself a Dialogue upon Bishops ; a sly and malignant 
 invective, in a strain of irony, and by no means desti- 
 tute of wit, against the Prelates of this Church. The 
 thing is written in the same spirit with the Martin 
 Mar-Prelate of the old Puritans, though in a superior 
 strain of irony ; and had for its author a man whose 
 name was Biron, a Dissenting Teacher of eminence ; 
 whose works are collected together, and published, 
 under the terrific title of The Pillars of Priestcraft 
 Shaken. The Church of England, 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. 
 
 So long as a connection remained with the non-con- 
 forming readers of Mr. Hutchinson, it was expected 
 by them, that all Church differences would be laid 
 aside, as matters of no signification ; and that both 
 parties would join hands against the common enemies 
 of Christianity. Things being thus disposed, an oc- 
 currence intervened, to which Mr. Horne, as it ap- 
 pears from some of his letters, imputed the breach 
 which afterwards took place, and his own deliver- 
 ance, in consequence of it, from all danger of fanati- 
 cal infection. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 
 
 THE LIFE OF DB . HOUNE. 
 
 Dr. Clayton, then Bishop of Clogher in Ireland, in 
 the year 1750, published his Essay on Spirit, with de- 
 sign to recommend the Arian doctrine, and to prepare 
 the way for suitable alterations in the Liturgy. The 
 favourers of heresy are seldom found to be the ene- 
 mies 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 adversaries. This Essay, being re- 
 ported to come 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. 
 
 It happened at this time, that I was settled at Fine- 
 don in Northamptonshire, as Curate to the Reverend 
 Sir John Dolben; which I have reason to remember 
 as a most happy circumstance in the early part of my 
 life. In this situation I was frequently visited by my 
 friend and fellow-student Mr. Horne. He came to 
 me, possessed with a desire of seeing an Answer to 
 this Essay on Spirit; and persuaded me to undertake 
 it. All circumstances being favourable, no objection 
 was made ; and accordingly down we sat together for 
 a whole month to the business. The house of my 
 patron Sir John Dolben had an excellent library ; a 
 considerable part of which had descended from Arch- 
 bishop Dolben ; and it was furnished with books in 
 every branch of reading, as well ancient as modern, 
 but particularly in divinity and ecclesiastical history. 
 In a country parish, without such an advantage, our 
 attempt had been wild and hopeless : but with it, we 
 had no fear of being at a loss concerning any point of 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORN'E. 
 
 69 
 
 learning that might arise. What Bishop Clayton (sup- 
 posing him to he the author of an Essay on Spirit) had 
 offered in favour 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 ac- 
 count 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-con- 
 forming 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 sepa- 
 ration. In every controversy, there will be some rough 
 places, over which the tender-footed 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 shew 
 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 ten- 
 dency 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 in- 
 quiries, that we might be able to stand our ground. 
 To this occurrence it was first owing, that Mr. Home 
 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 
 
 * The following extract from a long letter will show how his 
 mind was employed at the time when it was written : " [ have been 
 
7 0 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 was another happy circumstance, that in the issue, by 
 persons of more impartiality, the Answer to the Essay 
 on Spirit, on which we had bestowed so much labour, 
 was very favourably 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 
 
 reading some of the works of Dr. George Hickes against the Roman- 
 ists. 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 causae, 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 shews the greatest 
 knowledge of primitive antiquity, of fathers, councils, and the con- 
 stitution 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 de- 
 mand a Christian's attention before the history of the Church, pur- 
 chased 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 lav- 
 down their lives for the truth's sake ? Much I am sure is done by 
 that cementing bond of the spirit, which unites Christians to their 
 head and to one another, and makes them consider themselves as 
 members 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. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. I-IOKNE. 
 
 71 
 
 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 vols, 
 fol. which may be considered as a library in them- 
 selves 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 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. Home ex- 
 pressed 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 Scrip- 
 tures, gives an account how they, Sin and Heresy, 
 were generated among the Angels before the begin- 
 ning 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 proposed a religious com- 
 prehension with the Turks : the said Socinians having 
 discovered, that the Turks and themselves were so 
 nearly of one opinion, that very little was wanting 
 
7 2 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR.. HOKNE. 
 
 on either side to unite them in the same communion. 
 The late very learned Bishop of Rochester, Dr. 
 Horsley, lighted upon the same thing many years 
 afterwards, and was so much struck with its sin- 
 gularity, that he has referred to it in his works, to 
 show how naturally the religion of the Socinians ends 
 in the enthusiasm of Mahomet. 
 
 The bight of Mr. Leslie's two Theological folios 
 prepared Mr. Home for reading such of his Political 
 works as should afterwards fall in his way : and it was 
 not long before he met with a periodical paper, under 
 the title of The Rehearsals, which the Author had 
 published in the time of Queen Anne, when the Infi- 
 dels and Dissenters were most busy ; and had con- 
 ceived strong hopes (as they said themselves) of de- 
 stroying the established Church. This paper boldly 
 encountered all their arguments ; dissected Sidney and 
 Locke ; confuted the republican principles, and ex- 
 posed all the designs of the party. That party, how- 
 ever, had, at that time, interest enough to get the pa- 
 per, which bore so hard upon them, suppressed by au- 
 thority : 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 loyalty 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 vo- 
 lumes (1750) fell into the hands of Mr. Home 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 
 
THE LIFE OF Dll. HORNE. 
 
 78 
 
 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. Home 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. 
 
 In the year when the Jew Bill was depending, and 
 after it had passed the house, he frequently employed 
 himself in sending to an evening paper of the time 
 certain communications, which were much noticed ; 
 while the author was totally unknown, except to 
 some of his nearest acquaintance. By the favour of 
 a great Lady, it was my fortune, (though then very 
 young) to be at a table, where some persons of the 
 first quality were assembled ; and I heard one of 
 them f very earnest on the matter and style of some 
 of these papers, of which I knew the secret history ; 
 and was not a little diverted when I heard what passed 
 about them. To the author of those papers the Jew 
 Bill gave much offence, and the Marriage Bill not 
 much less. He was highly gratified by the part taken 
 in that perilous business by the Reverend 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 Half-pence in his Dra- 
 pier's Letters. 
 
 Mr. Home having entered upon his first Hebrew 
 
 * 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. 
 
74 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. IIORNE. 
 
 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 accpaainted with the 
 serious, practical writings of the Reverend William 
 Law, which, I believe, were first recommended to 
 him by Mr. Hamilton, afterwards Archdeacon of 
 Raphoe in Ireland, or by the Reverend Doctor 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 stu- 
 pendous 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 Fa- 
 thers, some of which were 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 dis- 
 tinguish properly, under the title of Cautio?is to the 
 Readers of Mr. Laiv : and excellent they are for the 
 purpose intended : they show the goodness of his 
 heart, and the soundness of his judgment. 
 
 Some worthy ladies, who were in the habit of read- 
 ing Mr. Law, had from thence filled their heads with 
 several of the wild notions of Jacob Behmen ; and 
 were zealous in making proselytes. A lady of fashion 
 in Ireland, of the first rate for beauty, elegance, and 
 accomplishment, was going apace into this way, at 
 the instance of a proselyting acquaintance. Her 
 situation was known and lamented ; and it was ear- 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 75 
 
 nestly wished that somebody would undertake to open 
 her eyes before she was too far gone. Mr. Home, 
 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 Hutchin- 
 son, were before Mr. Home, 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 divi- 
 nity, 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 de- 
 rived 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 writ- 
 ings, once thought inestimable by every body but 
 
 * From many passages which might be produced from his private 
 letters and his printed works, no English writer seems to have taken 
 his fancy, and fallen in so exactly with his own disposition, as Dr. 
 Taylor ; first, in his Life of Christ, then in his Ductor Dubitsntium, 
 or Rule of Conscience, and afterwards in his Rule and Exercise of 
 Holy Dying, which he calls a Golden Tract, and the author of it 
 the inimitable Bishop Jeremy Taylor. See his Commentary on 
 Psalm cxix. ver. 71. 
 
76 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 the Calvinists, had been greatly neglected, and would 
 probably have continued so, but for the praises be- 
 stowed 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. Home, which are now remaining, 
 show how much information he derived from this ex- 
 cellent 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. Home ; 
 a commentator, so learned ; a preacher, so evangeli- 
 cal ; a writer, so accomplished ; a Christian, so exem- 
 plary ; he must come out of the same school. 
 
 With his mind thus furnished, the time drew near 
 when he was to take holy orders. This was a serious 
 affair to him : and he entered upon it, as every candi- 
 date 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 circum- 
 stance 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 havock 
 among the sheep. With a firm, though humble 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. 1I0RNE. 
 
 7 7 
 
 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 doc- 
 trine 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 judg- 
 ment 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 fasti- 
 dious 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 little more 
 experience, he preached in a more public pulpit, be- 
 fore one of the largest and most polite congregations 
 at London. The preacher, whose place he supplied, 
 but who attended in the church on purpose to hear 
 him, was so much affected by what he had heard, and 
 the manner in which it was delivered, that when he 
 visited me shortly after, in the country, he was so 
 full of this sermon, that he gave me the matter and 
 the method of it by heart; pronouncing at the end of 
 it, what a writer of his life ought never to forget, 
 that " George Home was, without exception, the 
 
78 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 best preacher in England." Which testimony was 
 the more valuable, because it came from a person, 
 who had, with many people, the reputation of being 
 such himself. This sermon is preserved ; and if the 
 reader should be a judge, and will take the pains to 
 examine it, he will think it merits what is here said 
 of it. The subject is the second advent of Christ to 
 judgment. The text is from Rev. i. 7. Behold he 
 cometh ivith clouds, and every eye shall see him, and 
 they also which pierced him; and all kindreds of the 
 earth shall wail because of him. Even so. A men *. 
 
 Besides his talent for preaching, which from the 
 beginning promised (and has now produced) great 
 things ; Mr. Home had obtained so high a character 
 at Oxford, for his humanity, condescension, and piety, 
 that his reputation came to the ears of a criminal in 
 the Castle, under sentence of death for one of the 
 many highway robberies he had committed. The 
 name of this man was Dumas ; he was an Irishman 
 by birth ; and his appearance and address had so 
 much of the gentleman, that he was a person of the 
 first rank in his profession. This man having heard 
 of Mr. Home, as a person remarkable for his sense 
 and goodness, requested the favour of his attendance ; 
 to which, on a principle of conscience, he consented ; 
 though the office was such as would probably put the 
 tenderness of his mind to a very severe trial. And so 
 it proved in the event ; his health being considerably 
 affected for some time afterwards. I do not find 
 among his papers any minutes of this affair preserved 
 in writing f : and though he gave me a large account 
 of it, to which I could not but listen with great atten- 
 
 * See Serm. vol. i. Disc. 6. 
 
 t But the prayers he composed for the occasion are in one of his 
 MSS. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 7!) 
 
 tion, I cannot recollect so much of it as I wish to do, 
 at this distance of time. This I know, that he used 
 to think anxiously with himself day and night, in what 
 manner he should address this unhappy man, and what 
 kind of spiritual counsel would be most likely to suc- 
 ceed with him ; for he found him, though ready and 
 sensible enough in all common things, deplorably des- 
 titute of all religious knowledge. To the best of my 
 remembrance he always chose to be quite alone with 
 him when he attended ; and by repeated applications, 
 and constant prayer, recommended by his mild and 
 engaging manner, thought he had made some consi- 
 derable impression upon his mind. In the last con- 
 ference before his execution, he thanked Mr. Home 
 very heartily for his goodness to him, and used these 
 very remarkable words : " Sir, you may, perhaps, 
 wonder at what I am about to tell you ; but I do 
 assure you, I feel at this moment no more sense of 
 fear, than I should do if I were going a common 
 journey." To this Mr. Horne answered, that he was 
 indeed very much surprised ; but he hoped it was 
 upon a right principle. And so let us hope : though 
 the criminal was scarcely explicit enough to give due 
 satisfaction, whether this indifference proceeded from 
 Christian hope or constitutional hardness. The con- 
 versation between the Ordinary and the prisoner the 
 evening before he suffered (as Mr. Horne related it, 
 who was present at the interview) consisted chiefly in 
 an exact description of all the particulars of the cere- 
 monial which the prisoner was to go through in the 
 way to his death ; and of course had very little either 
 of comfort or instruction in it. The feelings of that 
 gentleman, who had attended the executions for se- 
 veral years, were very different from those of his as- 
 sistant ; and he spoke of the approaching execution 
 10 
 
so 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORXE. 
 
 with as little emotion, as if Mr. Dumas had taken a 
 place for the next morning in an Oxford coach. He 
 even amused himself with telling them the story of 
 another unhappy criminal, who had nothing of the 
 fortitude of Mr. Dumas ; a person of the law, put to 
 death for forgery, whose heart had failed him at the 
 time of execution ; " There was poor Paul" (said he) 
 " we could not make him rise in the morning — he 
 would not get up — I thought we should never have 
 got him hanged that day," &c. Such is the effect of 
 custom and habit upon some minds ! 
 
 Thus was Mr. Home initiated early into the most 
 difficult duty of the pastoral charge, the visitation of 
 the sick and dying : a work of extreme charity ; but for 
 which all men are not equally fit; some, because they 
 have too little tenderness ; others, because they have 
 too much. It is a blessing that there are many helps 
 and directions for those who wish to improve them- 
 selves. The office in the Liturgy is excellent in its 
 kind, but it doth not come up to all cases. Among 
 the posthumous papers of Bishop Home, I find an in- 
 estimable manuscript, which it is probable he might 
 begin to compile for his own use about this time, and 
 partly for the occasion of which I have been speaking. 
 He was by no means unacquainted with the matter 
 and language of prayer ; having shewn to me, as we 
 were upon a walk one summer's evening in the coun- 
 try, when he was a very young man, that precious com- 
 position of Bishop Andrews, the first copy of which 
 occurred to him in the library of Magdalen College ; 
 on which he set so great a value during the rest of his 
 life, that, while he was Dean of Canterbury, he pub- 
 lished, after the example of the excellent Dean Stan- 
 hope, his predecessor, a handsome English edition of 
 it. The original is in Greek and Latin ; and it happened 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 SI 
 
 some time after Mr. Home had first brought the work 
 into request, that a great number of copies of the 
 Greek and Latin edition were discovered in a ware- 
 house at Oxford, where they had lain undisturbed in 
 sheets for many years. In the copy published after 
 Dean Stanhope's form, the Manual for the Sick, 
 though the best thing extant upon its subject, is wholly 
 omitted : but in the posthumous manuscript I speak 
 of, the whole is put together, with improvements by 
 the compiler ; and I wish all the parochial clergy in 
 the nation were possessed of it. 
 
 We are now coming to a more busy period of Mr. 
 Home's life, the year 1756, when he was called upon 
 to be an apologist for himself and some of his friends, 
 against the attack of a literary adversary. 
 
 In the controversy about Hebrew names, and their 
 doubtful interpretations, in which the learned Dr. 
 Sharp of Durham was prevailed upon (as it is re- 
 ported, much against his will) to engage, Mr. Home 
 never interfered; as being of opinion, that, if all that 
 part of Mr. Hutchinson's system were left to its fate, 
 the most useful and valuable parts of it would still 
 remain, with their evidences from the Scripture, the 
 natural world, and the testimony of sacred and pro- 
 fane antiquity. He was likewise of opinion, that 
 where ivords are the subject, words may be multiplied 
 without end : and the witnesses of the dispute, at least 
 the majority of them, having no competent knowledge 
 of so uncommon a subject, would be sure to go as 
 fashion and the current of the times should direct. 
 That a zealous reader of the Hebrew, captivated by 
 the curiosity of its etymologies, should pursue them 
 beyond the bounds of prudence, is not to be wondered 
 at. Many Hebrew etymologies are so well founded, 
 and throw so much light on the learning of antiquity, 
 VOL. vi. G 
 
82 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORN E. 
 
 and the origin of languages, that no man can be a 
 complete Philologist without a proper knowledge of 
 them. The learned well know how useful Mr. Bryant 
 has endeavoured to make himself of late years by fol- 
 lowing them : and yet, it must be confessed that, with 
 all his learning, he has many fancies and peculiarities 
 of his own, which he would find it difficult to maintain. 
 If Mr. Hutchinson and his followers have been some- 
 times visionary in their criticisms, and carried things 
 too far, it does not appear that the worst of their in- 
 terpretations are so bad as those of some learned 
 critics in the last century, who, from the allowed pri- 
 msevity of their favourite language, applied it without 
 discretion to every thing. All the names in Homer's 
 Iliad and Odyssey were hebraised, and all his fables 
 were derived from some history or other in the Bible : 
 and this to such a degree, as was utterly improbable, 
 and even childish and ridiculous*. Such are the weak- 
 nesses to which great scholars are subject, in common 
 with other men : sometimes for want of light, and 
 sometimes for want of discretion : and the greatest 
 scholars of this age are not without them. Dr. Home, 
 I have reason to think, did so much justice to the 
 criticisms of Dr. Sharp, as to read them carefully : 
 which is more than I dare say of myself ; and I may 
 plead in my behalf the example of my learned and 
 respectable friend Granville Sharp, Esq. the son of the 
 Archdeacon ; who very ingenuously owned to me, 
 that he had never read his father's books in the 
 Hutchinsonian controversy : perhaps, because he is as 
 little inclined to logomachy as I am. However, I 
 
 * If the curious reader can meet with a book under the title of 
 O/ir/poe Efipai(ujv, he will see this plan, of deriving all things from 
 the Hebrew, carried to extremity. He may also find other exam- 
 ples, but not so extravagant, in Gale's Court of the Gentiles. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 have seen enough to discover from the general tenor 
 of them, that it seems to have heen the design of that 
 learned author, to raise difficulties, and throw things 
 into the shade: in which he has apparently succeeded. 
 When I look into a writer of the Hutchinsonian per- 
 suasion, though I may suspect his criticisms, and dis- 
 like his manner, I am animated by his zeal, and ge- 
 nerally learn something useful : but when I look into 
 the criticisms of Dr. Sharp, I learn nothing ; I feel 
 cold and dissatisfied with all languages and all science; 
 as if the Scripture itself were out of tune, and divinity 
 a mere dispute. It is therefore my persuasion, that 
 his writings have done little service to Theology or 
 Philology, but that they have operated rather as a dis- 
 couragement ; for who will labour, if there be no 
 prospect of coming to any determination one way or 
 the other ? That I am not taking a part against Dr. 
 Sharp, but that Dr. Sharp did in this respect take a 
 part against himself, is evident from his own words ; 
 which do plainly declare, that his object in writing 
 against the followers of Hutchinson was, to " prove 
 the uncertainty of something affirmed to be certain." 
 I know of some, who took the contrary part ; endea- 
 vouring to prove " the certainty of something affirmed 
 to be uncertain f and I think they were more hope- 
 fully employed : for where uncertainty is the prize, 
 what encouragement is there to strive for it ? Mr. 
 Home, who knew the value of his time, had no in- 
 clination to waste any of it in this endless chace of 
 verbal criticism : and I have reason to think, that, if 
 there was any study in particular to which he took a 
 complete aversion, it was the Hutchinsonian contro- 
 versy about a few Hebrew words *. 
 
 * I have here allowed more than I can strictly justify ; and, by 
 so doing, I have given advantage to some, and offence to others ; 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 Another dispute soon arose, after that of Dr. Sharp, 
 which was of much greater concern; and so Mr. 
 Horne thought, from the part he took in it. How he 
 acquitted himself, the reader must judge when he has 
 heard the particulars. 
 
 With many young scholars in the University of 
 Oxford, the principles of Mr. Hutchinson began to be 
 in such esteem, that some member of the University, 
 who was in the opposite interest, or had no fancy to 
 that way, made a very severe attack upon them in an 
 anonymous pamphlet, intitled A Word to the Hut- 
 chinsoniam ; and Mr. Horne, being personally struck 
 at, as the principal object of the author's animadver- 
 sions, was obliged to take up the pen in defence of 
 himself and his friends. The public in general, and 
 Mr. Horne in particular, by some very broad hints, 
 gave the thing to Mr. Kennicott of Exeter College, a 
 man of parts, and a clear agreeable writer, who had 
 very justly acquired some fame for his skill in the He- 
 brew language. His two Dissertations, one on the 
 Tree of Life, and the other on the sacrifices of Cain 
 and Abel, were in many hands, and so well approved, 
 
 I beg therefore to be rightly understood. In respect to Dr. Sharp, 
 Mr. Horne was certainly of opinion, that the Doctor had left the 
 more useful and valuable parts of Mr. Hutchinson's system un- 
 touched : so I myself have thought, and been assured from that 
 day to this ; and I believe the reader will himself be of the same 
 opinion, if he duly considers the contents of my Preface. What- 
 ever dislike Mr. Horne might express toward the verbal disputes 
 of that time, no man could set a greater value than he did on He- 
 brew Learning discreetly followed and applied. That I may not 
 be thought to leave so weighty a matter under an unjust statement, 
 I have subjoined to this Edition a letter which I wrote to a person 
 of honour, recommending the study of the Hebrew language by 
 showing its usefulness and excellence. I embrace the present oc- 
 casion of making it public, and wish it may derive some vitality from 
 the reputation of Bishop Horne. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 83 
 
 that some farther and better fruit of his studies might 
 reasonably be expected. As to the author of this 
 anonymous pamphlet, I can affirm nothing positively 
 from my own knowledge : I can only relate what was 
 told me by Dr. Golding of New College, who was 
 afterwards Warden of Winchester. From this gentle- 
 man I heard what happened to himself in regard to 
 the publication above mentioned, and what his own 
 sentiments were. Soon after it appeared, Mr. Ken- 
 nicott accosted him in a bookseller's shop, " Dr. 
 Golding, I give you joy, on being the author of a very 
 ingenious pamphlet, called A Word to the Hutchin- 
 sonians." — " Indeed," said Dr. Golding, " I was not 
 the author of it; but I believe you know who was." 
 When an answer had appeared, with the name of 
 Mr. Horne to it, Dr. Golding, meeting Mr. Kennicott 
 in the street, said, " Well, Mr. Kennicott, and who 
 is the author of the Word to the Hutchinsonians 
 now?" Which question was only answered by a 
 laugh. The Dr. Golding, of whom I am speaking, 
 had been a preacher much approved in the pulpit of 
 the University, and had contended with some zeal 
 for the principles of Hutchinson : but had now the 
 reputation of having forsaken them all ; which report 
 might possibly give occasion to Mr. Kennicott 's com- 
 pliment ; it being not improbable, that a person who 
 could forsake them would make it his next step (as 
 Dr. Dodd afterwards did) to write against them. He 
 had been an intimate friend to the above-mentioned 
 Mr. Watson of University College, who had recom- 
 mended him to travel as a tutor with the Earl of Dart- 
 mouth and Mr. North, afterwards Lord North and 
 Lord Guildford, with whom he spent some time 
 abroad. He was undoubtedly a man of learning and 
 ability : but being under the repute of having re- 
 
8G 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 nounced some principles he had once received, I was 
 very desirous to know how that matter might be : and 
 Dr. Golding, at my request, was so obliging as to do 
 me the honour of a visit, while I lived at a private 
 house in Oxford. I told him plainly, that there were 
 some opinions of Hutchinson in Natural Philosophy, 
 which, when properly distinguished, did appear to me 
 to be true, and, as such, worth recommending to the 
 world : and that, as I had some intention of taking 
 the office upon myself, I should esteem it as a great 
 favour, if he, being a person of more years and ex- 
 perience, would communicate to me fairly those ob- 
 jections, which had taken effect upon his own mind ; 
 that if I should be staggered with them, my design 
 might be laid aside. The Doctor was full of plea- 
 santry and good humour ; gave me the whole story 
 about the pamphlet, as above related, and spoke with 
 great respect of Mr. Horne : but as to the particular 
 object of my enquiry, his philosophical reasons, I could 
 not succeed in drawing any one of them out of him, 
 and am to this hour in the dark upon the subject. I 
 shall not therefore indulge myself in speculations and 
 conjectures, for which I have no authority ; but only 
 remark in general, what all men of discernment know 
 to be true; that, as a man's opinions have an influence 
 upon his expectations in this world, so his expectations 
 in this world may have an influence upon his opinions. 
 Hoping that I shall be pardoned for a small digres- 
 sion, not quite foreign to the subject in hand, I return 
 now to Mr. Horne and his Apology *, of which I shall 
 give a short view ; but it is a work which cannot with- 
 
 * The title is — " An Apology for certain Gentlemen in the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford, aspersed in a late anonymous Pamphlet," &c. A 
 new Edition, with a new Preface, is just published. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 out injury be abridged ; as comprehending a great 
 variety of subjects in a small compass. 
 
 The temper of it appears in the first page. The 
 excellent Hooker had replied to a petulant adversary 
 in the following very significant words : " Your next 
 argument consists of railing and reasons. To your 
 railing I say nothing : to your reasons I say what 
 follows." " This sentence," says the apologist, " I 
 am obliged to adopt, as the rule of my own conduct ; 
 the author I am now concerned with having mixed 
 with his arguments a great deal of bitterness and 
 abuse, which must do as little credit to himself as 
 service to his cause. He is in full expectation of 
 being heartily abused in return : but I have no occa- 
 sion for that sort of artillery : and have learned 
 beside, that the wrath of man worketh not the righte- 
 ousness of God. Therefore, in the words of the ex- 
 cellent Hooker, to his railing I say nothing : to his 
 reasons I say what follows." 
 
 To the charge of being an Hutchinsonian, a name 
 so invidiously applied, as a sectarian appellation, to 
 himself and other readers of Hutchinson's writings, 
 he answers, that, as Christians, they acknowledge no 
 Master but one, that is, Christ : that they were mem- 
 bers only of The Church : and that, as all their read- 
 ing had not formed them into a Sect, they ought not 
 to have a mark set upon them. " Is it not hard 
 measure," says he, " that when a clergyman only 
 preaches the doctrines and enforces the duties of 
 Christianity from the Scriptures, his character shall 
 be blasted, and himself rendered odious by the force 
 of a name, which, in such cases, always signifies 
 what the imposers please to mean, and the people to 
 hate? There are many names of this kind now in 
 vogue. If a man preaches Christ, that he is the end 
 
88 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 of the law, and the fulness of the Gospel—' You 
 need not mind him ; he is a Hutchinsonian.' If he 
 mentions the assistance and direction of the Holy 
 Spirit, with the necessity of prayer, mortification, 
 and the taking up of the cross — * O, he is a Metho- 
 dist !' If he talks of the divine right of Episcopacy, 
 with a word concerning the danger of Schism — 
 * J ust going over to Popery !' And if he preaches 
 obedience to King George — ' You may depend 
 upon it, he is a Pretender's man.' Many things 
 may be ridiculed under their false titles, which it 
 would not be so decent to laugh at under their true 
 ones." 
 
 As to their being a sect or combination of Sepa- 
 ratists from the Church-of-England Christians, " We 
 do," says he, " most sincerely disavow the name 
 and the thing. In the communion of the Church of 
 England we intend to die. To every zealous friend 
 and promoter of the interest of Christianity, the 
 Scriptures, and the Church, we are ready cheerfully 
 to give the right hand of fellowship, whether he be 
 a reader of Mr. Hutchinson or not" &c. " They 
 tell men," (said their accuser) " that they, and they 
 only, are the servants of the most high God, who 
 shew forth the way of salvation :" — " they labour to 
 discredit all other preachers." " By no means f 
 (says the answerer) " they labour to discredit all false 
 doctrines, preached by many who should preach the 
 Gospel. It is the complaint of hundreds of serious 
 and pious Christians, who never read or heard of 
 Mr. Hutchinson, that there is at present a lament- 
 able falling off from the old way of preaching and 
 expounding the word of God. And, if there be such 
 a defection from the primitive manner of preaching, 
 the proper place wherein to speak of it is in the Uni- 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 89 
 
 versity, where preachers are educated. If offence 
 should be taken at this, I can only say, that if any 
 one will tell me how truth may be spoken, in such 
 cases as these, without offending some, I will spare 
 no labour to learn the art of it." 
 
 If any person wishes to know all the particular 
 charges brought forward by this author, and how 
 they are answered, he will find the pamphlet at large 
 a very curious piece, and to that I would refer him : 
 but some of these answers carry so much instruction, 
 that I cannot refrain from extracting a few of them. 
 To the charge of their insulting and trampling upon 
 reason, under pretence of glorifying revelation, 
 Mr. Horne answers : " The abuse, not the use, of 
 reason, is what we argue against. Reason, we say, 
 was made to learn, not to teach. What the eye is to 
 the body, reason or understanding is to the soul ; as 
 saith the apostle, Eph. i. 18, having the eyes of your 
 understanding enlightened. The eye is framed in 
 such a manner as to be capable of seeing ; reason in 
 such a manner as to be capable of knowing. But 
 the eye, though ever so good, cannot see without 
 light : reason, though ever so perfect, cannot know 
 without instruction. Therefore the phrase, light of 
 reason, is improper ; because it is as absurd to make 
 reason its own informer, as to make the eye the 
 source of its own light : whereas reason can be no 
 more than the organ which receives instruction, as 
 the eye admits the light of heaven. A man may as 
 well take a view of things upon earth in a dark night 
 by the light of his own eye, as discover the things of 
 heaven, during the night of nature, by the light of 
 his own reason," &c. 
 
 To another similar objection, often made against 
 them, that they decry natural religion, it is answered, 
 
90 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 " To be sure, we do ; because, at tbe best, it is a re- 
 ligion without the knowledge of the true God, or the 
 hope of salvation ; which is Deism : and it is a matter 
 of fact, that, from Adam to this day, there never 
 was, or could be, a man left to himself, to make a 
 religion of nature. It is, we know, a received no- 
 tion, that man, by a due and proper use of his reason- 
 ing faculties, may do great things : and so by a due 
 and proper use of the organs of vision, he may 
 know much of the objects around him. But still, 
 the pinching question returns : Is it not light that 
 enables him to make a due and proper use of the 
 one, and instruction of the other 1 Shew us the eye 
 that sees without light, and the understanding that 
 reasons upon religion without instruction, and we 
 will allow they both do it by the light of nature. 
 » Till then, let us hear no more of natural religion. 
 And let me, on the subjects of reason and nature, 
 recommend two books : the first, Mr. Leslie s Short 
 and Easy Method with the Deists ; where the debate 
 between them and the Christians upon the evidence 
 of revelation is brought to a single point, and their 
 cause overthrown for ever. This most excellent 
 piece, with the other Tracts of the same author 
 usually bound with it, have, I thank God, entirely 
 removed every doubt from my mind : and, in my 
 poor opinion, they render the metaphysical perform- 
 ances upon the subject entirely useless. The second 
 book I would recommend is Dr. Ellis's Knowledge 
 of Divine Things from Revelation, not from Reason 
 or Nature. In this book natural religion is fairly 
 demolished." 
 
 Mr. Home and his friends were farther charged 
 with -* a great contempt for learning." " But that," 
 says he, " depends upon the nature and kind of the 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 91 
 
 learning. Because sometimes a man is called a 
 learned man, who after a course of several years 
 hard study, can tell you within a trifle, how many- 
 degrees of the non-entity of nothing must be annihi- 
 lated, before it comes to be something. See King's 
 Origin of Evil, ch. iii. p. 129, with the note. That 
 such kind of learning as that book is filled with, 
 and the present age is much given to admire, has 
 done no service to the cause of truth, but on the 
 contrary, that it has done infinite disservice, and 
 almost reduced us from the unity of Christian faith 
 to the wrangling of philosophic scepticism, is the 
 opinion of many besides ourselves, and too surely 
 founded on fatal experience." — " As to those who 
 are engaged in the study of useful Arts and 
 Sciences, Languages, History, Antiquities, Physics, 
 &c. &c. with a view to make them handmaids to 
 divine knowledge ; we honour their employment, 
 we desire to emulate their industry, and most sin- 
 cerely wish them good luck in the name of the Lord." 
 The Metaphysical System alluded to above was a 
 book in great request at Cambridge between the 
 years 1740 and 1750 ; and was extolled by some 
 young men who studied it as a grand repository of 
 human wisdom. The notes *were written by Dr. 
 Edmund Law, afterwards Bishop of Carlisle. Hav- 
 ing heard so high a character of it, I once sat 
 down to read it, with a prejudice in its favour. I 
 afterwards shewed it Mr. Home : and, when he had 
 considered it, we could not but lament in secret, 
 what he at length complained of in public, that a 
 work so unfounded and so unprofitable should 
 have engaged the attention, and excited the admira- 
 tion, of scholars, intended for the preaching of the 
 Gospel. The account here given of it has some- 
 
92 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 thing of the caricature ; but the leading principle 
 of the book is in substance as the apologist has de- 
 scribed it. 
 
 Whoever the author of the pamphlet was, he seems 
 to have entered upon his work with a persuasion, 
 that the gentlemen of Oxford, to whom he gives the 
 name of Hutchinsonians, were in such disesteem with 
 the world, so little known by some, and so much dis- 
 liked by others, that any bold attack upon their cha- 
 racters would be sufficient to run them down : and 
 imagining that his book must have that effect, he fore- 
 tels them how they must submit, in consequence of it, 
 to " descend and sink into the deepest humiliation," 
 &c. This is not criticism, but unmerciful outrage ; 
 and the author has so much of it, that the apologist, 
 having collected it together, concludes with a very 
 pathetic remonstrance : " These, sir, are hard speecJies 
 against men, of whom, their enemies themselves 
 being judges, must own that they are sound in the 
 faith, steady to the Church, and regular in their du- 
 ties — Upon an impartial survey of all that has been 
 said or written against us — I must declare, that nei- 
 ther against the law, neither against the temple, nei- 
 ther against Ccesar, is it proved that we have of- 
 fended any thing at all," &c. &c. 
 
 The reader may perhaps observe upon what I have 
 presented to him, and he would see it more plainly, if 
 he were to read the whole book, as I would advise 
 him to do, that the dispute relates chiefly to the foun- 
 dations of religion. Of Mr. Hutchinson we hear but 
 little ; his name was the match that gave fire to the 
 train : but the question seems really to have been this ; 
 whether Christianity, in the truth and spirit of it, ought 
 to be preserved ; or whether a spiritless thing called 
 by the name of Christianity, would answer the purpose 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 93 
 
 better : in other words, whether the religion of Man's 
 Philosophy, or the religion of God's Revelation, should- 
 prevail. If this was the question, a more important 
 one was never agitated since the beginning of the Re- 
 formation ; and every true Christian hath an interest 
 in the issue of it. The temper with which Mr. Horne 
 conducted himself, though under very great provoca- 
 tion, is very much to be admired. There never was a 
 piece of invective more and completely taken down 
 than in the Apology ; the matter of it is both instruc- 
 tive and curious : several points of divinity, more 
 than my short abstract would admit, are truly and 
 clearly stated : and as to the characters of the writer 
 himself and his friends, we see the crimes of which 
 they were accused, and the defence they were able to 
 make ; of which defence those persons could form no 
 judgment, who had taken their opinion of the parties 
 from the Reviews and other disaffected publications of 
 the time ; unless they were wise enough to collect 
 by inference, that where bad things were so much ap- 
 plauded, that which was dispraised and outraged 
 must have some good in it. As to myself, I freely 
 confess, I am to this hour delighted and edified by 
 that Apology ; and after so many years, I see no rea- 
 son to depart from any one of its doctrines ; but 
 should be thankful to God, if all the young clergy of 
 this church were almost and altogether such as Mr. 
 Horne was when he wrote it ; and I heartily rejoice 
 that it is now republished, that they may have an op- 
 portunity of reading it. And I would advise, if it 
 were possible, they should see what the learned Dr. 
 Patten wrote in the same year; who was author of an- 
 other Apology ; which, with its defence against the 
 Reverend Mr. Ralph Heathcote, displays the meek- 
 ness of great learning against the vain blusterings of 
 
9* 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HOKNE. 
 
 great assurance * : and, to shew how the Reviews of 
 this country impose upon the ignorant and the credu- 
 lous, Mr. Heathcote was highly commended, and the 
 character of Dr. Patten was taken from the represen- 
 tation of his adversary, without reading his book |- 
 
 But I must now proceed to another cause, which 
 made more noise in the world, and is in itself of such 
 importance, that it ought never to be forgotten. 
 
 After his Apology, Mr. Horne took a part in the 
 controversy with Mr. Kennicott on the Text of the 
 Hebrew Bible J; in which he and his friends so deeply 
 interested themselves, on a principle of conscience as 
 well as of literary evidence, that it is impossible for me 
 to proceed in the task I have undertaken, without 
 giving a plain and impartial account of what passed 
 upon that occasion ; and it will afford me an oppor- 
 tunity of bringing to light an extraordinary character 
 of whom the world never heard. 
 
 Mr. Kennicott having distinguished himself as a 
 person learned in the Hebrew : a proposal was set on 
 foot by himself and his friends for collating the text of 
 the Hebrew Bible with such manuscripts as could now 
 be procured ; in order to reform the Text, and pre- 
 pare it for a new translation to be made from it into 
 the English language. Mr. Kennicott explained at 
 large the nature of this design, and attempted to 
 
 * What David Hume calls the illiberal Petulance, Arrogance, and 
 Scurrility of the Warburtonian School. See his Life, page 21. 
 
 f Vestra solum legitis, vestra amatis : caeteros, causa incognita, 
 condemnatis. See the Crit. Rev. for April, 1756. In the year 1759 
 Dr. Patten preached another sermon before the University, which he 
 printed. In this the subject of his two former pieces is continued, 
 and the argument carried on farther, and well supported. 
 
 J In a pamphlet published in 1760, entitled, A View of Mr. Ken- 
 nicott's Method of correcting the Hebrew Text, &c. 
 15 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. IIOUNE. 
 
 9b 
 
 prove the necessity of such a measure, in some learned 
 dissertations on the state of the printed Hebrew Bibles.- 
 The design came at length to maturity ; Mr. Kenni- 
 cott himself was appointed the sole conductor of it ; 
 and such powerful interest was made in its behalf, that 
 persons of the first honour and eminence supported 
 it by an annual subscription to a very great amount. 
 Manuscripts were collected from all parts of the world; 
 and a company of collators were employed under the 
 eye of Mr. Kennicott at Oxford ; who gave an annual 
 account, attested by Dr. Hunt the Hebrew professor, 
 of the state of the collation. The subscription was 
 continued, and the work went on for several years. 
 A new Hebrew Bible was at length printed in folio ; 
 a copy of the first volume of which came to the li- 
 brary of Sorbonne while I was at Paris in the year 
 1776, and was shewn to me by Mr. Asseline the He- 
 brew professor of that time *. 
 
 Far be it from me to speak with disrespect of an 
 undertaking, which had the encouragement of so many 
 great, so many good, and so many learned persons ; 
 who must be supposed to have acted with the best in- 
 tention, in consequence of such reports as were laid 
 before them ; for many of them certainly had no judg- 
 ment of their own upon the subject. But Mr. Horne, 
 and some other readers of Hebrew never approved of 
 the design from the beginning ; and Dr. Rutherforth 
 of Cambridge, a man of no small erudition, wrote 
 professedly, and with some asperity, against it; or, at 
 least, against the way in which he thought it would 
 
 * After the Revolution of 1789, this gentleman was made Bishop 
 of Bologne by the King ; but by reason of the increasing troubles, he 
 went to Brussels, and afterwards into Germany. He is universally 
 spoken of as a person of great worth and learning. 
 
THE LIFE OF DK. HORNE. 
 
 be executed. Some of the considerations they went 
 upon were these following : 
 
 1. That the design was dangerous, and had a bad 
 aspect. A new translation of the Bible into English 
 had been strenuously recommended some years be- 
 fore by suspected persons with an ill intention *. 
 That such persons, being not well affected to the 
 Church of England or its doctrines, would probably 
 interfere with all their heart and interest, to turn the 
 design to their own purposes. For it was evident 
 by the intention of Dr. Kennicott at first, that there 
 should be both a New Hebrew Text, and a New 
 English Version : and I am rather of opinion, that 
 Mr. Horne and his friends, by their remonstrances, 
 however apparently unnoticed, might have some little 
 share of merit in preventing it. 
 
 2. It hurt and alarmed them to see a learned gen- 
 tleman plead and argue, as if he had a victory to ob- 
 tain by proving the corruption of the Hebrew Text, 
 and it were the game he was hunting after ; for this 
 did not look as if the glory of God was the object in 
 view, but rather his own emolument as a collator — 
 
 OTTOV TO GVfUjHpOV, EKEl TO IVffifitC;. 
 
 3. They were of opinion, that the attempt was super- 
 fluous; because the exactness of the Masoretical Jews 
 had guarded and secured the Text of their Bible in 
 such a manner, that no other book in the world had 
 
 * It appears from a Life of Dr. Sykes, page 334, that the Socini- 
 ans had great hopes from a new English Version of the Bible, by 
 which all our present learned illustrations of the S. S. were to be su- 
 perseded — all things were to become new — the disciples were to become 
 one fold, and the absolute unity of the peerless majesty of God was to 
 be maintained by the whole community of Christians — Socinianism 
 alone was to introduce Paradise and the Millennium. The Socinians 
 of Poland had a translation made ; but it did not answer their pur- 
 pose. See Mosheim's Hist, of Socinianism. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 J)7 
 
 ever been so guarded and secured : that therefore 
 there could not be room for any great alarm upon 
 the subject. 
 
 4. That Cardinal Ximenes and his assistants, about 
 two hundred years before, had carefully collated the 
 Hebrew Text with manuscripts, older and better than 
 were now to be met with in the world ; and had exhi- 
 bited a printed Hebrew Text, as perfect as could be 
 expected or need be desired : because, by Mr. Kenni- 
 cott's own confession, no such errors occurred in the 
 Text as affected any point of doctrine ; the various 
 readings being chiefly to be found in dates and num- 
 bers, which are of less importance and more un- 
 certain notation. That therefore, what Cardinal 
 Ximenes had done in a better manner and with 
 greater advantages, would now be done with more 
 difficulty, and probably to less effect. 
 
 5. They apprehended, that the dispute about the 
 Hebrew Text, the Samaritan Pentateuch, &c. had 
 been sufficiently agitated and judiciously stated by 
 Carpzov of Leipsic in his writings against Winston ; 
 so far at least as to shew, that no great things were to 
 be expected from any adventurer, who should after- 
 wards take the same ground. Carpzov's book was 
 thought so useful and satisfactory, that Moses Mar- 
 cus a converted Jew, had translated it into English. 
 
 6. A consideration which had great weight with 
 Mr. Home was that of the probable consequence of 
 an undertaking so conducted as this was likely to be. 
 Unbelievers, Sceptics, and Heretics, of this country, 
 who had affected superior learning, had always been 
 busy in finding imaginary corruptions in the Text of 
 Scripture : and would in future be more bold and busy 
 than ever ; as the work of confounding the Text by 
 unsound criticism would be carried on with the sanc- 
 
 VOL. vi. H 
 
98 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 tion of public authority, and the Bible left open to the 
 experiments of evil-minded critics and cavillers. For 
 besides the collating of manuscripts, the collator, in 
 his Dissertations, had opened three other fountains of 
 criticism, by which the waters of the Sanctuary were 
 to be healed : the Ancient Versions, the Samaritan 
 Pentateuch, and sound Criticism. Having considered 
 these in their order, Mr. Home sets before his readers 
 above twenty instances from Mr. Kennicott's own 
 books, as a specimen of his manner of proceeding ; 
 to shew, " what an inundation of licentious criticism 
 was breaking in upon the sacred Text." These in- 
 stances are such as fully justify his reflections ; 
 which the reader may find at p. 12, &c. of his View 
 of Mr. Kennicott's Method, &c. 
 
 Such were the considerations on which Mr. Home 
 and his friends opposed Mr. K's undertaking ; and, it 
 is hoped, nothing has appeared to their disadvantage. 
 In the progress of the controversy, some other consi- 
 derations arose, which served to confirm them in the 
 part they had taken. They observed that Mr. Kenni- 
 cott changed his ground : first urging the necessity of 
 a new Text for the purpose of a new English Version ; 
 and afterwards giving it up, without assigning his rea- 
 sons. Another fact arose, which was palpably con- 
 trary to his own principles. When the design was to 
 come forward, he had objected to the labours of Car- 
 dinal Ximenes, as being ineffective, because he ad- 
 mitted manuscripts furnished by Jews: but, when the 
 work was to be carried on, he himself made Jews his 
 agents to collect manuscripts for him in foreign parts, 
 and admitted them, so far as we know, without re- 
 serve : and with this remarkable difference, that the 
 Jews of the Cardinal were turned Christians ; whereas 
 the Jews of Mr. Kennicott were still in their unbelief— 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 99 
 
 except one; and he was of a character so extraordinary 
 that the reader cannot be displeased if I give some 
 account of him ; without which, so great a curiosity 
 would, in all probability, be lost to the world. While 
 the work of collation was going forward, it so happened, 
 that Mr. Kennicott and his work, and Mr. Home, and 
 some of the friends to both, fell into difficulty and dan- 
 ger, from a man whose name was Dumay ; a person, 
 who having been encouraged upon benevolent motives 
 in the beginning, proved in the issue to be not much 
 better than the Dumas, who had been attended in the 
 Castle at Oxford ; and of whom it is still uncertain, 
 whether he did not come to the same untimely end. 
 It was my fortune to be the first person in the Univer- 
 sity of Oxford that took notice of him, and the last that 
 received any intelligence about him after he left this 
 country ; and it is doubtful to me whether any body is 
 better acquainted with his character and history than 
 myself. He was a French Jew, born upon the borders 
 of Lorrain, and had received such an education as 
 enabled him to understand Hebrew, and to write it with 
 consummate excellence. He could turn his hand to 
 drawing, and any other work of art : he had the ingra- 
 tiating address of a Frenchman, with an appearance of 
 sincerity ; but with the unprincipled mind of a Jew ; so 
 that there was no depending upon him. Before he 
 was twenty years of age, he appeared at Oxford as a 
 petty Jew merchant, whose whole stock consisted of a 
 few seals, pencils, and other trinkets. His civility drew 
 my attention, and I took him to my chambers, to in- 
 quire what he had learned. I soon found his qualifi- 
 cations considerable, and, for his excellence in writing 
 Hebrew, set him to work, with design to preserve his 
 performances as curiosities ; and I have several of 
 them by me at this time. His ingenuity soon pro- 
 h 2 
 
100 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 cured him more friends, of whom Mr. Home was 
 one of the most considerable ; by means of which he 
 gained a moderate livelihood ; and some pains were 
 taken with him occasionally, with the hope of bring- 
 ing over a person of so much Jewish knowledge to 
 some sense of Christianity. After he had led this sort 
 of life for some time, he returned to visit his relations 
 in France ; having first prevailed on me to write him 
 a testimonial of his late behaviour, to procure him a 
 favourable reception ; from which it seems probable, 
 that he had left his friends in consequence of some 
 misdemeanor. While he was abroad, he turned 
 Christian, and received baptism from a priest of the 
 Church of Rome, under the name of Ignatius. Then 
 he went into the army of the King of France ; promoted 
 desertion among his comrades, quarrelled with his 
 officer, and ran him through the body, but without 
 killing him. Just at this juncture, the army in which 
 he served came to an engagement with Prince Ferdi- 
 nand, and he was taken prisoner. But the Prince hav- 
 ing heard something of his history, and understand- 
 ing it would be certain destruction to him if he were 
 sent back to his own party, gave him a passport to 
 England, with a recommendation to Mr. De Reiche, 
 the Hanoverian Secretary at St. J ames's ; a very worthy 
 friendly gentleman, who had been a considerable bene- 
 factor to Dumay, till he found him at length a dead 
 weight upon his hands, and grew tired of him. In the 
 year 1761, after the famous transit of Venus, he pre- 
 sented himself to Mr. Home at Magdalen College 
 with terrible sore eyes ; and being asked what was the 
 matter, he answered, that he had suffered in his eye- 
 sight by looking at the sun : for having omitted to 
 furnish himself as other people did for the occasion, 
 he had made all his observations through a crack in 
 
THE LIFE OF Dlt. HORNS. 
 
 101 
 
 his fingers, and had nearly put his eyes out. I do not 
 recollect at what time he entered into his employment 
 under Mr. Kennicott, who certainly found him very 
 well qualified for his purpose in point of ability and 
 industry, but high spirited, turbulent, and discon- 
 tented ; so that, after he had been a year or two at the 
 work of collating Hebrew manuscripts, he quarrelled 
 with his employer, threw himself out of his work, and 
 came with his complaints to me in the country, desir- 
 ing to shew me some extracts he had made from the 
 collations, that I might be a witness with him to the 
 futility of the undertaking. The specimen he produced 
 was not to the advantage of it ; but it was not easy to 
 judge, how far the fidelity of a person in an ill humour 
 was to be depended upon. None but the collator him- 
 self could determine with precision. I advised him by 
 all means to return to Mr. Kennicott, make his peace 
 with him, and go on quietly with his business. Which 
 he did ; but after a perfidious manner ; playing a false 
 game between two parties ; and carrying stories from 
 the one to the other as it suited his purpose, till all his 
 friends found a reason to be afraid of him, and Mr. 
 Kennicott (now Dr. Kennicott) was under the neces- 
 sity of dismissing him. So he left the occupation of a 
 collator, formed a plan for forging Hebrew manu- 
 scripts, with all the appearances of antiquity, and put- 
 ting them off for genuine, to shew how the world might 
 be imposed upon. Somebody in compassion to his 
 distress recommended him as an assistant to a charit- 
 able gentleman at a school in Bedfordshire, for which 
 employment he was well qualified ; but there also, after 
 he had given much trouble, he miscarried. At length 
 he got into some place of trust, which gave him an 
 opportunity of making off with a sum of money : for, 
 with all his ingenuity and industry, and without any 
 
102 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HOKNE. 
 
 one expensive vice, yet, as if some daemon had pursued 
 him, so he ordered his affairs, that, having now a wife 
 and child to maintain, he was very seldom far from 
 beggary ; whence one would hope he did some things 
 rather from distress than malignity ; though it must be 
 owned, that upon the plea of his own wants, he could 
 justify himself to his own conscience in any act of per- 
 fidy against the best of his benefactors ; his conduct 
 being exactly the same to his friends and his enemies, 
 if his affairs required it. With what he had thus got 
 he went over to Paris ; where, by means of his own 
 Hebrew papers, and some others which he had carried 
 away with him, he had the address to introduce him- 
 self to a society of Hebrew scholars among the Capu- 
 chin Friars of St. Honore; and amongst them all they 
 fabricated awork,in the French language, which came 
 over into England under the title of Lettres de M. 
 I' Abbe de * * * * Ex-prqfesseur en Hhbreu en I'Uni- 
 versite de * * *, cm Sr. Kennicott Anglois. It has 
 Rome in the title, as if it had been there printed, but 
 -it was sold at Paris; and its date is 1771. This pam- 
 phlet is severe, both in its reflections and its examples, 
 on the work of collation, so celebrated in England, that 
 people would hear nothing against it ; and I was told, 
 that the bookseller, who traded in foreign books, re- 
 fused to take this into his shop : and yet some of its 
 assertions are but to the same effect with those of Mr. 
 Home in his View ; the substance of which the reader 
 may see from the quotation in the margin *. This 
 
 * II ne restera pas un seul mot dans la Bible Hebraique dont on 
 puisse garantir la sincerite. Sentez done les suites de votre entre- 
 piise : il n'en resultera qu'un ouvrage mal concu, peu conforme aux 
 regies de la saine critique, totalement inutile, et plus propre a eblouir 
 par un vain etalage de pretendues corrections, qua instruire par des 
 raisonnemens solides, P. IS. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 103 
 
 piece was afterwards translated into English by a 
 worthy gentleman, who was struck by its facts and 
 arguments ; and a small anonymous pamphlet was 
 published soon after its appearance, apologizing for 
 the silence of Dr. Kennicott, and alledging that he 
 had no time to answer it. 
 
 While I was at Paris, I inquired of Mr. Asseline, 
 the Hebrew professor at the Sorbonne, whether he 
 had ever seen such a person as I described Dumay 
 to be? He answered, that he had seen him, but 
 that he was gone off from Paris, and he supposed 
 nobody knew what was become of him. When I 
 inquired farther, who had been his friends, he con- 
 fessed that the Capuchins of St. Honore were sus- 
 pected to have been the compilers and editors of his. 
 book. Now the reader has heard my story, let him 
 consider, whether he can recollect a more extraor- 
 dinary [character, than that of this Jew, Christian, 
 Papist, Protestant, Soldier, Scrivener, French, Eng- 
 lishman! If it so happened that he survived his 
 fourberies, he may have proved to be a serviceable 
 hand, and have acted some useful part upon the stage 
 of the French Revolution *. 
 
 * This man is frequently spoken of in Dr. Home's Letters ; from 
 one of which, of March, 1770, I take what follows: " The Sieur 
 Dumay is a curious rogue indeed ! The subject is so pregnant, that 
 I could with pleasure put out my candles, to pass the evening in 
 meditation upon him and his proceedings, since we had first the ho- 
 nour of knowing him, when he talked so much of Titus and the 
 copper fly. If the best men are most imposed upon (as some say 
 they are) we may, I think, without vanity, esteem ourselves to be a 
 tolerably good sort of people." N. B. The Jews have a foolish le- 
 gend, that when Titus had destroyed Jerusalem, God Almighty to 
 be revenged on the enemy of his people, sent a copper fly for his 
 punishment, which crept up his nose, and fed upon his brain, till it 
 had killed him. 
 
101 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 Neither Mr. Home nor his friends could ever be 
 persuaded, that, under the present state of the printed 
 Hebrew Text, the labours of an Hebrew collator were 
 at this time wanted by the Christian world ; or that 
 the experiment, from the face with which it made its 
 appearance, would not be attended with some danger : 
 and it might be owing (as I have said) to their press- 
 ing remonstrances, that the plan of a new Text, and 
 a new English Translation, was laid aside. How far 
 they were right in apprehending evil from it to the 
 Christian cause, doth not appear from any conse- 
 quences which have yet followed, and we hope it 
 never will. The edition makes a very fine book, 
 which will do honour to the memory of the editor, 
 and, with its various readings, may be a very inno- 
 cent one, if used with discretion. My learned and 
 worthy friend the late Rev. Mr. Parkhurst (the last 
 edition of whose Hebrew Lexicon was patronized by 
 Dr. Home after he was made a bishop) speaks of it 
 with due respect : his words are these — " The prin- 
 cipal various readings in Dr. Kennicott's Hebrew 
 Bible have been carefully noted, and are submitted 
 to the reader's consideration and judgment. And it 
 is hoped that the use which is here made of that 
 elaborate work cannot fail of being acceptable to 
 every serious and intelligent inquirer into the sense 
 of the Hebrew Scriptures." See the advertisement 
 to the third edition. 
 
 Of the friendly way in which Dr. Kennicott and Dr. 
 Home lived together, forgetting all their former dis- 
 putes, yet without changing their opinions on either 
 side, so far as I have been able to discover, I have 
 already spoken: but the cause of learning and religion 
 is still, and ever will be, so deeply concerned in the 
 argument between them, that it well deserves to be 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. IIORNE. 
 
 105 
 
 remembered and understood ; and for this reason only 
 I have spent so many words upon it. I may there- 
 fore hope to be pardoned, if I still go on to do as 
 much justice as I can to Dr. Home's side of the ques- 
 tion, by adding one weighty reason, which he had 
 (though he did not say much about it) for his sus- 
 picions in regard to the good effect of the collating 
 system *. He thought it would be of disservice to 
 turn the minds of the learned more toward the letter 
 of the Bible, when they were already too much turned 
 away from the spirit of it. The best fruits of divine 
 wisdom may be gathered from the word of God, in 
 any language, and in any edition. To what the 
 Scripture itself calls the spirit of the Scripture, the 
 learned of late days were become much more inat- 
 tentive than in past ages. The Puritans of the last 
 century set a proper value upon it, and some of them 
 did well in displaying it : but when their formal 
 manners, with their long prayers, and their long 
 graces, were rejected, their interpretations of the 
 Scripture, and with them all sounder interpretations 
 of the kind, fell into disrepute ; for men are such 
 hasty reformers, that if they cast out evil, they cast 
 out some good along with it. When tares are plucked 
 up, the wheat is always in danger. 
 
 To this cause another may be added. The persons, 
 who since that time have risen into chief repute for 
 parts and learning, had nothing of this in their com- 
 positions ; such as Clarke, Hoadley, Hare, Middle- 
 ton, Warburton, Sherlock, South, William Law, Ed- 
 mund Law, and many others, who have flourished 
 
 * In Bishop Kurd's late Life of Dr. Warburton, Dr. Lowth is 
 reflected upon for his expectations from the labours of Dr. Ken- 
 »icott. 
 
106 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 since the Restoration ; they either did not know it, or 
 did not relish it, and fell totally into other ways of 
 studying and reasoning : after which it was naturally 
 to be expected in their disciples, that the spirit of the 
 Scripture should be less regarded. This actually did 
 happen, and to such a degree, that many did not 
 even know what was meant by it. Somebody was 
 wanting to revive the knowledge that was lost : but, 
 alas ! when this was attempted, the door was shut. 
 This sort of learning, the best and the greatest of which 
 the mind of man is capable in this life, had been so 
 long asleep, that it seemed likely never more to awake. 
 Accordingly, when Mr. Horne sat down to write his 
 Commentary on the Psalms, which proceeds through- 
 out upon the true principle, he was under great 
 anxiety of mind about the reception of it by the world ; 
 and expressed his fears in the Preface to the work, 
 telling his readers " he is not insensible that many 
 learned and good men, whom he does not therefore 
 value and respect the less, have conceived strong 
 prejudices against the scheme of interpretation here 
 pursued ; and he knows how little the generality of 
 modern Christians are accustomed to speculations 
 of this kind. — In the first age of the Church, when 
 the apostolical method of citing and expounding 
 was fresh upon the minds of their followers, the au- 
 thor cannot but be confident, that his Commentary, 
 if it had then made its appearance, would have been 
 universally received and approved as to the general 
 design of it, by the whole Christian world," &c. &c. 
 How unfortunate it is that such strong prejudices 
 should be conceived against that mode of interpre- 
 tation, in which Christians differ from Jews ! But so it 
 is ; and so long as it is the custom for learned men to 
 employ their time and talents, as the Masorites did, 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 107 
 
 and more reputation is to be obtained by picking and 
 sifting of letters, than by the apostolical method of 
 opening the sense and spirit of them, the evil will be 
 rather increasing than diminishing. When fashion in- 
 vites, vanity will always follow ; critic will succeed to 
 critic, and he that is the boldest will think himself 
 the greatest, till all due veneration for the Bible is 
 lost, and the Text is cut and slashed, as if it were no 
 longer a living body, but the subject of a Lecture in 
 Surgeons' Hall. While the rage of editing prevails, 
 and the state of the copy is the grand object, we 
 have then too much reason to apprehend, that the 
 spirit of life, which is still to be found, even in the 
 worst copies and poorest editions, will be less regarded 
 and understood. We should have but a mean opi- 
 nion of the gardener, who should always be clearing 
 and raking his borders, but never raising any thing 
 from them to support the life of man. Thus, if col- 
 lating ends in collation, the tendency of it may be 
 bad, though it be ever so well executed : and I believe 
 this was, at the bottom, the chief objection against 
 it in the mind of Mr. Home. He was shy of speak- 
 ing too plain, through a fear of giving offence ; but 
 the time has now many greater dangers than that of 
 offending some few modern critics and editors. 
 
 I relate it as a singular occurrence, that when the 
 mind of Mr. Home was first filled with the design of 
 commenting upon the Psalms, he should meet with a 
 traveller in a stage-coach, who was in principle the 
 very reverse of himself. The man gave his judgment 
 with all freedom on all subjects of divinity, and among 
 the rest on the use of the Psalms in the service of the 
 Church. The Psalms of David, he said, were nothing 
 to us, and he thought other compositions might be 
 substituted, which were much more to the purpose 
 
108 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 than David's Psalms. He happened to be speaking to 
 a person, who could see deeper than most men into 
 the ignorance and folly of his discourse, but was wise 
 enough to hear him with patience, and leave him to 
 proceed in his own way. Yet this poor man was 
 but the pattern of too many more, who want to be 
 taught again, that David was a Prophet, and speaks 
 of the Messiah where he seems to be speaking of 
 himself; as the Apostle St. Peter taught the Jews, in 
 the second chapter of the Acts, and thereby con- 
 verted three thousand of them at once to the belief 
 of Christ's resurrection. 
 
 There is another modern way of criticising upon the 
 Scripture, to which Mr. Home had no great affection, 
 as thinking it could never be of much service: I mean 
 that custom, which has prevailed since the days of Gro- 
 tius, of justifying and illustrating the things revealed 
 to us in the Scripture from heathen authorities. I had 
 seen too much of this among some of my acquaint- 
 ance, persons of no mean learning, but who, instead of 
 employing themselves in the more successful labour of 
 comparing spiritual things with spiritual, in order to 
 understand them, were diligent in collecting parallel 
 passages from Heathen authors,to compare them with 
 the Scripture ; as if the sun wanted the assistance of a 
 candle ; or the word of God was not worthy to be 
 received, but so far only as we are able to reconcile it 
 with the wisdom of Greek and Roman authors. He 
 was rather of opinion, with a certain writer, that the 
 Bible will explain all the books in the world, but wants 
 not them to explain it. St. Paul did not think it 
 improper, on certain occasions, to refer to Heathen 
 authorities *, and make his use of them for the confir- 
 
 • See Acts xvii. ver. 23. 28. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 109 
 
 mation of his own doctrine ; but this was done when 
 he was arguing with Heathens, not with Christians. 
 There is not the same propriety, when his sublime 
 chapter on the Resurrection is compared (as I have 
 seen it) with Plato's doctrine of generation and cor- 
 ruption. Take the heathen doctrine of the origina- 
 tion of mankind, and compare it with the sacred his- 
 tory in Paradise, and it will soon appear how little 
 the one wants the help of the other : 
 
 Quum prorepserunt primis animalia terris 
 
 Brutum et turpe pecus, glandem atque cubilia propter 
 
 Unguibus et pugnis, dein fustibus, atque ita porro 
 
 Pugnabant armis, quae post fabricaverat usus : 
 
 Donee verba, quibus voces sensusque notarent, 
 
 Noniinaque invenere 1 — Hor. 
 
 It was a doctrine of the heathen poets, that men, 
 when first made, were without speech, creeping on all 
 four like beasts, living upon acorns, and lodging like 
 swine in a forest : whereas, when we consult the Bible, 
 we find the first man conversing with his Maker, 
 placed under a state of instruction and probation, and 
 in a condition but little lower than an angel. What 
 must the consequence be, when an attempt is made to 
 reconcile these two accounts, and melt them down to- 
 gether ? Yet was this actually done by the learned Dr. 
 Shuckford, as it may be seen in the last-written pre- 
 face to his Connexion ; where the history of Adam, 
 and of Eve, and of Paradise, and the intercourse of 
 Man with his Creator, is commented upon and illus- 
 trated from Ovid and Tully, and Mr. Pope's poetical 
 system of Deism, called an Essay on Man ; till the 
 whole is involved in obscurity, and becomes even 
 childish and insignificant ; as if it had been the design 
 of the critic to expose the sacred history to the con- 
 
110 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HOKNE. 
 
 tempt of blasphemers and infidels. This abuse of 
 learning Mr. Home could not see without a mixture 
 of grief and indignation : he is therefore supposed to 
 be the person, who, in a little anonymous pamphlet, 
 made his remarks on this unworthy manner of handling 
 the Scripture. While he was young, his zeal was ar- 
 dent, and his strictures were unreserved. Yet I can 
 never persuade myself, that it was the intention of 
 Dr. Shuckford to put a slight upon the Bible ; though 
 he certainly has made the Mosaic account as ridicu- 
 lous in simplicity, as Dr. Middleton did in malice. I 
 rather think he was betrayed into the mistake by a 
 prevailing custom of the age. When the learned are 
 less studious of the Scripture, and become vain of 
 other learning, it may easily be foreseen how the 
 Scripture must suffer under their expositions ; and, if 
 they do not foresee it, we would refer them for evi- 
 dence to the Supplemental Discourse on the Creation 
 and Fall of Man, by Dr. Shuckford. The reformer, 
 who dares to censure a corrupt practice, can never be 
 well received by the parties who are in fault. This 
 was the lot of Mr. Home and his friends. The can- 
 dle, which they had lighted at the Scripture, and 
 held up to show some dangers and absurdities in 
 modern learning, was blown out, and they themselves 
 were accused as persons of great zeal and little un- 
 derstanding. How often do we see, that when men 
 should be reformed, and are not, they are only pro- 
 voked past remedy ! This being, upon the whole, 
 but an unpleasant subject, I shall proceed to one 
 that will entertain us better. 
 
 A letter of July the 25th, 1755, informed me that 
 Mr. Home, according to an established custom at 
 Magdalen College in Oxford, had begun to preach 
 before the University, on the day of St. John the 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Baptist. For the preaching of this annual sermon a 
 permanent pulpit of stone is inserted into a corner of 
 the first Quadrangle ; and so long as the stone pulpit 
 was in use (of which I have been a witness) the Quad- 
 rangle was furnished round the sides with a large fence 
 of green boughs, that the preaching might more nearly 
 resemble tbat of John the Baptist in the wilderness ; 
 and a pleasant sight it was : but for many years the 
 custom hath been discontinued, and the assembly have 
 thought it safer to take shelter under the roof of the 
 chapel. Our forefathers, it seems, were not so much 
 afraid of being injured by the falling of a little rain, or 
 the blowing of the wind, or the shining of the sun 
 upon their heads. The preacher of 1755 pleased the 
 audience very much by his manner and style, and all 
 agreed that he had a very fine imagination : but he 
 was not very well pleased with the compliment. As 
 a Christian teacher, he was much more desirous that 
 his hearers should receive and understand, and enter 
 into the spirit of the doctrines he had delivered ; but 
 in this he found them slower than he wished, and la- 
 ments it heavily in a private letter. Two sermons on 
 the subject of St. John the Baptist were printed, and 
 many others succeeded which were not printed : for 
 the author, at last, on a review of what he had done, 
 thought it more advisable to throw the matter out of 
 that form, and cast an abridgment of the whole into 
 the form of Considerations : on which performance I 
 have already spoken my mind, and, I believe, the 
 mind of every competent judge, in the beginning of 
 this work. (See Pref. Epist. p. vi.) I can only say 
 here, that if there be any Christian reader, who 
 wishes to know what a saint is and aspires to be one 
 himself, let him keep before his eyes that beautiful 
 and finished picture of St. John the Baptist, to the 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 executing of which hut one person of the age was 
 equal. But behold how this was described by the 
 Critical Reviewers of the time ! " In the Considera- 
 tions," they say, " there are some judicious and 
 solid remarks relative to practice, but nothing to en- 
 gage the attention of a curious, inquisitive or critical 
 reader." They might have said the same of the 
 Sermon on the Mount. It looks as if they would 
 have been better pleased with a dissertation upon the 
 manner in which the wild honey was made and col- 
 lected for John to eat*, properly interspersed with 
 
 * Many examples might be given, to illustrate the distinction 
 between Christian Divinity, by which men are edified, and curious 
 Divinity, by which they are only amused and entertained. We 
 read in the Gospel, Luke xix. 4. that Zaccheus climbed up into a 
 sycamore tree, to see Jesus pass by, and was led by that circumstance 
 to repentance and salvation. When this case is considered by the 
 Christian Divine, he dwells upon the circumstance of Zaccheus's 
 desiring to see the Saviour of the world, and the inestimable blessing 
 of being called by him, as Zaccheus was, to a state of salvation. But 
 when the curious Divine hears that Zaccheus climbs up into a tree, 
 he climbs up after him ; not to see what he saw, but to examine the 
 nature of the tree, and ascertain to what species of plants, botanically 
 considered, it properly belongs. 
 
 In this example we have two very different modes of treating 
 the Scripture. No man that loves learning will condemn the 
 critical disquisitor : let him pursue his inquiries ; there is no harm 
 in them : but when he presumes, as from an upper region, to 
 disdain the Christian Divine, as unworthy of all commendation, 
 he pays too great a compliment to his own importance, and raises 
 a very just suspicion against his own religious principles. The 
 case of Zaccheus is considered in the Christian way by Bishop 
 Hall (see Mr. Glasse's edition, vol. iii. p. 219) and matter enough 
 for the critical way may be found in the Voyages of Frederick Has- 
 selquist, p. 129, et alib. The same inquisitive person was, as he tells 
 us, very solicitous to discover what kind of tree in particular David 
 had his eye upon in the Jirst Psalm : which never can be discovered, 
 if his expressions, as they seem, have an allusion to the Tree of Life. 
 See our author's Commentary on the first Psalm ; who inclines to 
 this opinion. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 113 
 
 quotations from Athenaeus and other authors, to show 
 the learning of the writer, and that, perhaps, but im- 
 pertinently introduced. When there is a party al- 
 ways ready, and always upon the watch, to hinder 
 the success of every good attempt, and mislead the 
 ignorant on subjects of the first importance, such a 
 writer as the author of those Considerations had lit- 
 tle chance of escaping. Their artifices had been so 
 well observed and understood by him, that he was 
 able to predict their proceedings. When I had 
 printed a discourse on the Mosaic Distinction of Ani- 
 mals in the Book of Leviticus, which had cost me 
 much research and meditation, under the title of 
 Zoologia Ethica, in which I had traced the moral in- 
 tention of that curious institution, he foretold me 
 how it would be represented to the public ; that the 
 critics would select some part of the work, which 
 was either ambiguous in itself, or might be made so 
 by their manner of exhibiting it, and give that as a 
 specimen of the plan, to discourage the examination 
 of it. " The passage (said he), at page 19, &c. about 
 the camel and the swine will probably be selected by 
 the Reviewers, given to the reader without a syllable 
 of the evidence, and then the whole book dismissed 
 with a sneer." In a few months after, his predic- 
 tion was so exactly verified, that one would have 
 suspected him to have been in the secret. " If you 
 look into the Critical Review, you will be tempted 
 to think I wrote the article on the Zoologia, to ve- 
 rify my own prediction. Without giving the least 
 account of your plan, and the argument by which 
 it is so irrefragably supported and demonstrated, 
 
 the give the very passage about the 
 
 swine and the camel, and conclude the whole scheme 
 to be visionary, and problematical, as they phrase 
 VOL. vi. 1 
 
114 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 it *." Thus is a malignant party gratified, and the 
 public is beguiled by false accounts : the deception 
 may continue for a time ; but truth and justice ge- 
 nerally take place at last. 
 
 There is a portion of the New Testament, very in- 
 teresting and full of matter, on which the author of 
 the Considerations, soon after he was in holy orders, 
 bestowed much thought and labour ; I mean the ele- 
 venth chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews. 
 On this he composed at least twenty sermons ; which 
 are all excellent : but being more agreeable to the 
 spirit of the first ages than of the present, he was not 
 forward, though frequently solicited, to give them to 
 the world. He objected, that they wanted to be re- 
 viewed with a more critical eye, and even to be re- 
 composed ; and that this would be a work of time. 
 Toward the latter end of his life, however, he set 
 about it, but got no farther than through the third 
 discourse. The first is on the Character of Abel, the 
 second on Enoch, the third on Noah. Of these I 
 have the copy, and hope it will be published. Who- 
 ever looks at them, will wish he had lived to satisfy 
 his mind about all the rest. They would certainly 
 have been improved by such a revision; yet, per- 
 haps, not so much as he supposed. First thoughts, 
 upon a favourite subject, are warm and lively ; and 
 the language they bring with them is strong and na- 
 tural ; but prudence is apt to be cold and timorous ; 
 and, while it adds a polish, takes away something 
 from the spirit of a composition. 
 
 * The date of the letter from which this extract is taken is Feb. 
 12, 1772. The work, thus unfairly treated, I sent to the learned 
 Bishop Newton, a writer of profound skill in the language of the 
 Scripture ; who allowed that I had proved the moral intention of that 
 law which is the subject of it. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. H0RNE. 
 
 115 
 
 But the greatest work of his life, of which he now 
 began to form a design, was a Commentary on the 
 whole Booh of Psalms. In the year 1758, he told 
 me how he had been meditating on the Book of 
 Psalms, and had finished those for the first day of the 
 month, upon the following plan * : 1. An analysis of 
 the Psalm, by way of argument. 2. A paraphrase on 
 each verse. 3. The substance digested into a prayer. 
 " The work (said he) delights me greatly, and seems, 
 so far as I can judge of my own turn and talents, to 
 suit me the best of any I can think of. May he, 
 who hath the keys of David, prosper it in my hand ; 
 granting me the knowledge and utterance necessary 
 to make it serviceable to the Church !" Let any per- 
 son of judgment peruse the work, and he will see 
 how well the author has succeeded, and kept up the 
 spirit of it to the end. His application of the book 
 of Psalms is agreeable to the testimony so repeatedly 
 given to it, and the use made of it, in the New Tes- 
 tament. This question is stated and settled beyond 
 a doubt, in a learned preface to the work. The style 
 is that of an accomplished writer ; and its ornaments 
 distinguish the vigour of his imagination. That all 
 readers should admire it as I do, is not to be ex- 
 pected ; yet it has certainly met with great admira- 
 tion ; and I have seen letters to him, from persons of 
 the first judgment, on the publication of the book. 
 It will never be neglected, if the Church and its reli- 
 gion should continue ; for which he prayed fervently 
 every day of his life. When it first came from the 
 press, Mr. Daniel Prince, his bookseller at Oxford, 
 was walking to or from Magdalen College with a 
 
 * This plan he afterwards thought proper to alter, and, as it is 
 judged, lor the better. 
 
 i 2 
 
116 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 copy of it under his arm. " What have you there, 
 Mr. Prince ?" said a gentleman who met him. " This, 
 Sir, is a copy of Dr. Home's Psalms, just now finished. 
 The president, Sir, began to write very young : but 
 this is the work in which he will always live." In 
 this Mr. Prince judged very rightly : he will certainly 
 live in this work : but there are many others of his 
 works, in which he will not die, till all learning and 
 piety shall die with him. 
 
 His Commentary on the Psalms was under his hand 
 about twenty years. The labour, to which he sub- 
 mitted in the course of the work, was prodigious : 
 his reading for many years was allotted chiefly to this 
 subject ; and his study and meditation together pro- 
 duced as fine a work, and as finely written, as most 
 in the English language. There are good and learned 
 men, who cannot but speak well of the work, and 
 yet are forward to let us know, that they do not fol- 
 low Dr. Home as an interpreter. I believe them : 
 but this is one of the things we have to lament: and, 
 while they may think this an honour to their judgment, 
 I am afraid it is a symptom that we are retrograde in 
 theological learning. The author was sensible, that, 
 after the pleasure he had received in studying for the 
 work, and the labour of composing and correcting, 
 he was to offer what the age was ill prepared to re- 
 ceive. This put him upon his guard ; and the work 
 is in some respects the better for it, in others not so 
 good ; it is more cautiously and correctly written, 
 but perhaps not so richly furnished with matter as it 
 might have been. Had he been composing a novel, 
 he would have been under none of these fears : his 
 imagination might then have taken its course, with- 
 out a bridle, and the world would have followed as 
 fast as he could wish. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. IIORNE. 
 
 117 
 
 The first edition in quarto was published in the year 
 1776, when the author was vice-chancellor ; and it 
 happened, soon after its publication, that I was at 
 Paris. There was then a Christian University in the 
 place ! and I had an opportunity of recommending 
 it to some learned gentlemen who were members of it, 
 and understood the English language well. I took the 
 liberty to tell them, our church had lately been en- 
 riched by a Commentary on the Psalms ; the best in 
 our opinion, that had ever appeared ; and such as St. 
 Austin would have perused with delight if he had lived 
 to see it. At my return the author was so obliging as 
 to furnish me with a copy to send over to them as a 
 present; and I was highly gratified by the approbation 
 with which it was received. With those who could 
 read English, it was so much in request, that I was 
 told the book was never out of hand ; and I appre- 
 hend more copies were sent for. Every intelligent 
 Christian, who once knows the value of it, will keep it 
 to the end of his life, as the companion of his retire- 
 ment : and I can scarcely wish a greater blessing to 
 the age, than that it may daily be better known and 
 more approved. 
 
 About the time when it was published, that systema- 
 tical infidel, David Hume, died. It had been the aim 
 of his life, to invent a sort of Philosophy, that should 
 effect the overthrow of Christianity. For this he lived ; 
 and his ambition was to die, or be thought to die, hard 
 and impenitent, yea, and even cheerful and happy ; 
 to shew the world the power of hjs own principles : 
 which however were weakly founded, and so inconsist- 
 ent with common sense, that Dr. Beattie attacked and 
 demolished them in the life-time of the author. Special 
 pains were taken by Hume himself, and by his friends 
 after him, to persuade the world, that his life, at the 
 
118 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 last stage of it, was perfectly tranquil and composed ; 
 and the part is so laboured and over-acted, that there 
 is just cause of suspicion, even before the detection 
 appears. Dr. Horne, whose mind was ever in action 
 for some good end, could not sit still, and see the pub- 
 lic so imposed upon. He addressed an anonymous 
 Letter to Dr. Adam Smith from the Clarendon Press ; 
 of which the argument is so clear, and the humour so 
 easy and natural, that no honest man can keep his 
 countenance while he reads it, and none but an infidel 
 can be angry. While Dr. Adam Smith affects to be 
 very serious and solemn in the cause of his friend 
 Hume, the author of the Letter plays them both off 
 with wonderful effect. He alludes to certain anec- 
 dotes concerning Mr. Hume, which are very incon- 
 sistent with the account given in his Life : for at the 
 very period, when he is reported not to have suffered a 
 moment's abatement of his spirits, none of his friends 
 dared to mention the name of a certain author in his 
 presence, lest it should throw him into a transport of 
 2?assion and swearing : a certain indication that his 
 mind had been greatly hurt ; and nobody will think 
 it was without reason, if he will read the Essay on 
 Truth by Dr. Beattie ; which is not only a confutation 
 of Hume's Philosophy ; it is much more ; it is an ex- 
 tirpation of his principles, and delivers them to be 
 scattered like stubble by the winds. 
 
 The letter to Dr. Adam Smith, like the Essay of 
 Dr. Beattie, has a great deal of truth, recommended 
 by a greal deal of wit : and if the reader has not seen 
 it, he has some pleasure in store. We allow to the 
 memory of Dr. Adam Smith, that he was a person of 
 quick understanding and diligent research, in things 
 relating merely to this world ; of which his Inquiry 
 into the Causes of the Wealth of Nations will be a 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 119 
 
 lasting monument ; and it is a work of great use to 
 those who would obtain a comprehensive view of 
 business and commerce : but when he set up Mr. 
 Hume as a pattern of perfection, and judged of all 
 religion by the principles of that philosopher, he was 
 very much out of his line. 
 
 The Letter was followed in course of time by 
 Letters on Infidelity : which are very instructive and 
 entertaining, and highly proper for the preventing or 
 lessening that respect which young people may con- 
 ceive unawares for unbelieving philosophers. It has 
 been objected by some readers of a more severe tem- 
 per, that these Letters are occasionally too light * : 
 and I must confess, I should have been as well pleased, 
 if the story of Dr. Radcliffe and his man had been 
 omitted : but there is this to be said, that these are 
 not sermons, but familiar letters ; that Dr. Home con- 
 sidered the profession of infidelity, as a thing more 
 ridiculous and insignificant in itself, than some of his 
 learned readers might do ; that, as it appeared in 
 some persons, it was really too absurd to be treated 
 with seriousness ; and, as Voltaire had treated reli- 
 gion with ridicule instead of argument, and had done 
 infinite mischief by it, justice required that he and his 
 friends should be treated a little in their own way f . 
 
 * In his preface to these Letters, the author lias endeavoured to 
 obviate this objection ; and we think he has done it very sufficiently. 
 
 f One of the severest reflections, that ever came from the pen 
 of Dr. Home, was aimed, as I suppose, at this Mr. David Hume : 
 yet it is all very fair. This philosopher had observed, that all the 
 devout persons he had ever met with were melancholy : which is 
 thus answered : " This might very probably be ; for, in the first 
 place, it is most likely, that he saw very few, his friends and ac- 
 quaintance being of another sort ; and, secondly, the sight of him 
 would make a devout person melancholy at any time." Serm. vol. 
 iii. p. 96. These Letters are a demonstration that all devout per- 
 sons are not melancholy. 
 
120 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 Besides, as infidels have nothing to support them hut 
 their vanity, let them once appear as ridiculous as they 
 are impious, and they cannot live. They can never 
 approve themselves, but so far only as they are upheld 
 and approved by other people. To treat them with 
 
 seriousness (as W — has treated G ) is to make 
 
 them important ; which is all they want. The opi- 
 nions of Mr. Hume, as they are displayed in these 
 Letters, are many of them ridiculous from their pal- 
 pable absurdity : but, it must be owned, they are some- 
 times horrible and shocking ; such as, that man is not 
 an accountable but a necessary agent ; consequently, 
 that there is no such thing as sin, or that God is the 
 author of it : that the life of a man and the life of an 
 oyster are of equal value * : that it may be as criminal 
 to act for the preservation of life, as for its destruc- 
 tion : that as life is so insignificant and vague, there 
 
 * It is a fundamental doctrine in the Creed of Materialism, that 
 nature consists of matter and a living substance of which all living 
 creatures equally partake ; and which, when it dies in a carcase is 
 continued in the reptiles that feed upon it. The origin of indi- 
 vidual life, in every form, is from the general animation of the 
 world ; on which the philosophers of antiquity speculated ; and 
 some inconsiderate Christians have taken it up on their authority. 
 You have it in Virgil : 
 
 Principio ccelum, ac terras, camposque liquentes, 
 Lucentemque globum Lunae, Titaniaque astra 
 SPIRITUS intus alit: totamque infusa per artus 
 MENS agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet. 
 INDE hominum pecudumque genus, VIT^IQUE volantum. 
 And in Mr. Pope's Essay on Man, 
 
 All are but parts of one stupendous whole, 
 Whose body Nature is and God the soul, &c. 
 
 Eph. i. 267, &c. 
 
 What follows is in exact conformity with the principle of Virgil, and 
 of our philosophical Deists. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 121 
 
 can be no harm in disposing of it as we please : that 
 there can be no more crime in turning a few ounces of 
 blood out of their course (that is, in cutting one's 
 throat) than in turning the waters of a river out of 
 their channel. What is murder ? It is nothing more 
 than turning a little blood out of its way. And so the 
 Irishman said, by the same figure of rhetoric, that 
 perjury was nothing more than kissing a book, or, as 
 he worded it, smacking the calveskin. This is the 
 sage Mr. Hume ! whom Dr. Adam Smith delivers to 
 the world, after his death, as a perfect character ; 
 while a man of plain sense, who takes things as they 
 are, would think it impossible that any person, who is 
 not out of his mind, should argue at this rate. Mr. 
 Hume seems to me to have borrowed from the school 
 of the old Pyrrhonists much of that system which he is 
 supposed to have invented. They made all things in- 
 different, and doubted of every thing, that there might 
 be nothing true or real left to disturb them. The 
 chief good they aimed at in every thing, was what they 
 called arapaZta, a state of undisturbance or tranquil- 
 lity, in which the mind cares for nothing : and it was 
 the ambition of Mr. Hume to be thought to have lived 
 and died in this state ; but by all accounts his arapaZiu 
 was not quite perfect*. His object was undoubtedly 
 the same with that of the Pyrrhonists, and he pursues 
 
 * Pliny the Natural Historian has rightly observed, that Philo- 
 sophers, through the affectation of apathy, divested themselves of 
 all human affections ; that this was the case with Diogenes the 
 Cynic, Pyrrho, Heraclitus, and Timon of Athens ; the last of whom 
 actually sunk into a professed hatred of all mankind. " Exit hie 
 animi tenor aliquando in rigorem quemdam, torvitatemque na- 
 turae duram et inflexibilem ; adfectusque humanos adimit, quales 
 apathes Graeci vocant, multos ejus generis experti." Nat. Hist, 
 lib. vii. c. 19. 
 
122 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 it by a like way of reasoning. The speculations of 
 these men were so copious, that there is matter enough 
 left for another Mr. Hume to set himself up with, and 
 pass for an original. Of all the sects of antiquity 
 this was the most unreasonable ; though pretending 
 to more wisdom than all the rest. That, which was 
 but folly under Heathenism, turns into desperation 
 and madness under the light and truth of Chris- 
 tianity. Where all was blind tradition, or wild con- 
 jecture, there might be some excuse for fixing to no- 
 thing ; but to affect undisturbance, after what is now 
 revealed, concerning death and judgment, and hea- 
 ven and hell, is to try how far a man can argue him- 
 self out of his senses. What angels may think of 
 such a person, I do not inquire : but how must evil 
 spirits look upon that man, who sleeps or laughs over 
 the things at which they tremble ; and then calls 
 himself a Philosopher ! 
 
 Of the Letters on Infidelity, the first half is em- 
 ployed on Mr. David Hume ; the latter half on a more 
 modern adventurer; who, to be revenged on the 
 Bishops of this Church, put together a miscellany of 
 objections against the Scripture and the Christian re- 
 ligion. The Right Reverend Bench had procured an 
 act of Parliament against the Sunday-Clubs, which 
 met together on the evening of the Sabbath-day, to 
 indulge themselves, and corrupt an audience, with 
 blasphemous disquisitions and disputations. For thus 
 cruelly disturbing the amusements of infidelity, the 
 Bishops are repi-esented as the vilest of persecutors : 
 whips, tortures, racks, and all the implements of the 
 Holy Office, are introduced to confirm the accusation ; 
 from all which a stranger to the case might suppose it 
 a common thing with the Prelates of this country, to 
 break the bones of Infidels, or roast them alive : and 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 123 
 
 all this is for nothing else, but that they had season- 
 ably and wisely provided, that the Christian religion, 
 in a Christian country, should not be trampled under 
 foot, upon the Sabbath-day. 
 
 The objections this man hath brought together are 
 very well taken off : but if Christians are bound to 
 answer, so long as infidels will object, who never wish 
 to be satisfied, and are probably incapable of being so, 
 their lot would be rather hard, and much of their time 
 unprofitably spent. The Gentlemen of the Long 
 Robe attend the court, not to answer the scruples 
 which felons may entertain about the principles of 
 justice, but to administer the law ; otherwise their 
 work would never be done : and it is the business of 
 the clergy to preach the Gospel to the people : it was 
 the part of God, who gave the word, to prove it to 
 the world by prophecies and miracles. The prophe- 
 cies are as strong as ever ; some of them more so than 
 formerly : and miracles are not to be repeated for proof, 
 after the world hath once been persuaded. All is then 
 left to testimony and education. Before Moses gave 
 the law, he showed signs and wonders : but, when the 
 law was once received, parents were to tell their chil- 
 dren, and confirm the truth by the memorials that 
 were left of it. It therefore lies upon our adversaries 
 to show, how it came to pass, on any of their princi- 
 ples, that men like themselves, as much disposed to 
 make objections, should receive the Scripture as the 
 word of God in the several nations of the world, and 
 receive it at the peril of their lives : a fact which they 
 cannot deny. Let them also try to account for it, on 
 their own principles, how the Jews have been strolling 
 about the world for seventeen hundred years, as wit- 
 nesses to the Scripture, and to the sentence therein 
 passed upon themselves. Till they can do these 
 
124 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 things, it is nothing but an evasion to cavil about words 
 and passages ; a certain mark of prejudice and per- 
 verseness. They know they cannot deny the whole, 
 but, as they must appear to be doing something, they 
 natter their own pride by keeping up a skirmish, and 
 perplex weak people, by raising difficulties about the 
 parts. This was the expedient on which Mr. Voltaire 
 bestowed so much labour. It does not appear to me 
 that he really thought the facts of Christianity to be 
 false ; but that his vanity and perverseness tempted 
 him to ridicule the Bible, without denying in his mind 
 that God was the author of it : in fact, that he was a 
 Theomachist, who hated the truth, knowing it to be 
 such, and braved the authority of Heaven itself : or, 
 in the words of Herbert, that he was a man, 
 
 Who makes flat war with God, and doth defy 
 With his poor clod of earth the spacious sky. 
 
 If a religion, to which the nature of man is so hostile, 
 did actually make its way without force, and against 
 the utmost cruelty and discouragement from the 
 world ; that fact was a miracle, including within itself 
 a thousand other miracles. 
 
 See, on the other hand, how Paganism, Mahomet- 
 ism, and modern Atheism, were and are supported 
 and propagated : the Pagan Idols by ten bloody perse- 
 cutions, with every act of outrageous mockery and in- 
 sult, for want of reasons and miracles : the religion of 
 Mahomet (a sort of Christian Heresy) by rewards of 
 sensuality and the power of the sword; that is, by force 
 and temptation : the Atheism of France by farcical re- 
 presentation and ridicule of truth, assisted in the rear 
 by imprisonments, murders, and confiscations. These 
 be thy gods, O Infidelity, by the power of which thy 
 kingdom is established in the world ! These efforts of 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 125 
 
 violence show the weakness of false reason, and the 
 strength of that which is true ; and demonstrate, that 
 men were prevailed upon by true evidence, and ra- 
 tional persuasion, to receive the Christian faith. Here 
 lie the merits of the cause in a small compass : and let 
 all the infidels upon earth lay their hands together, and 
 give a direct answer. Swift assures us, from his own 
 observations, and I believe very truly, that a man was 
 " always vicious before he became an unbeliever ;" 
 and that " reasoning will never make a man correct 
 an opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired." 
 Some service, however, is done to the cause of piety, 
 and defensive weapons are put into the hands of those 
 whose minds are as yet uncorrupted, when the malice 
 or ignorance of an infidel is exposed by an examina- 
 tion of his objections : the corruption of his mind is 
 thereby displayed in such a manner, that even a child 
 may see it : and therefore we are much obliged to Dr. 
 Home, for answering the doubts of infidels, and for 
 reasoning his answer with such wit and spirit, that the 
 work, in some parts of it, has the force of a comedy : 
 it should therefore be put into the hands of young 
 people, that they may see how foolish some men are, 
 when they pretend to be over-wise. The Letter to Dr. 
 Priestley from an Under-graduate, that to Dr. Adam 
 Smith on the Character of David Hume, and the Let- 
 ters on Infidelity, are three choice pieces upon the 
 same argument, which should always go together. But 
 suppose infidelity is answered, the business is not all 
 done : we have still the believing unbeliever to contend 
 with, of whom there is but little hope. The Christian 
 evidence can certainly have no effect on those that 
 deny it : but that it should have so little effect on some 
 that believe it, and even argue and dispute well for it, 
 this is the greatest wonder of all : but so the matter 
 
126 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 stands. There is a sort of people amongst us, who 
 believe Christianity as a fact, while they deny it as a 
 truth i and such persons may do more harm,, and be 
 themselves as far from the kingdom of heaven, as 
 the open unbeliever : the Gospel assures us that he 
 and the hypocrite will have their portion together. 
 Priestley asserts the facts of Christianity against the 
 Philosophers of France, while he believes no more of 
 its truth than the Sadducees of Jerusalem did, who yet 
 never denied that God had spoken unto Moses. That 
 men professing Christianity should be under tempta- 
 tions to vice, we can easily understand : but that their 
 minds should believe and deny, at the same time, con- 
 cerning the same thing, there is the difficulty. May 
 it be said, that the mind has antecedently admitted a 
 principle, which militates against the truth while it 
 does not militate against the fact ? God knows how 
 the matter is : but I see too much of it in the world. 
 
 Though the imagination of Dr. Home was some- 
 times at play when the Speculum of Infidelity was in 
 his hand, his heart was always serious : thence it came 
 to pass, that the composition of sermons was a work 
 never out of his mind ; and it was the desire and the 
 pleasure of his life to make himself useful in the pulpit 
 wherever he went. The plan which he commonly 
 proposed to himself in preaching upon a passage of 
 the Scripture was that of giving, 1. The literal sense 
 of it : then, 2. The interpretation or spirit of it : and 
 3. The practical or moral use of it, in an application 
 to the audience : and he was of opinion, that one dis- 
 course, composed upon this plan, was worth twenty 
 immethodical essays ; as being more instructive in the 
 matter, more intelligible in the delivery, and more 
 easily retained in the memory. Yet after long prac- 
 tice, he came to a determination, that no method was 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 127 
 
 more excellent than that of taking some narrative of 
 the Scripture, and raising moral observations on the 
 several circumstances of it in their order. His Sermon 
 on Lot in Sodom, vol. II. disc. i. and on Daniel in 
 Babylon, vol. II. disc. viii. are of this kind. The Noble 
 Convert, or History of Philip and the Ethiopian 
 Eunuch, vol. II. disc. iii. is another. The Paralytic, 
 and the Woman taken in Adultery, belong to the same 
 class. One of the most skilful and excellent preachers 
 this Church could ever boast, was the late Dr. Heylyn, 
 a Prebendary of Westminster. His discourse on the 
 Canaanite was considered by Dr. Home as a most 
 perfect and elegant model of a sermon, on a miracle, 
 or any other portion of the Scripture ; he pronounced 
 it to be succinct, clear, and forcible, with nothing in 
 it superfluous or tiresome : and it came into his 
 mind, on reading it, that another after the same model 
 might be composed on the Samaritan Woman and 
 the discourse our Saviour held with her. This he 
 lived to execute. It is still among his unpublished 
 discourses, and is itself worthy to be printed, as a 
 specimen of this manner. 
 
 There are certainly different modes of preaching, 
 all of which are good in their way : some are most 
 proper for one subject, some for another. One of 
 these is that of Jesus Christ himself ; who, from pre- 
 sent occasions, and circumstances of time and place, 
 made use of the opportunity to raise such doctrines as 
 were wanting for the instruction of his hearers : the 
 mind being under the best preparation for the conceiv- 
 ing of truth, when that truth is raised from the objects 
 of its present attention. We see our Saviour at a well 
 of water (a precious object in hot countries) discours- 
 ing on the waters of life, to a person who came, in 
 the heat of the day, to draw the water of the well. 
 2 
 
128 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 After this example did Dr. Home, when he was by the 
 sea-side at Brighthelmstone, take the Sea for the sub- 
 ject of a sermon ; one of the most ingenious he ever 
 composed; and, without question, peculiarly striking 
 to the audience, who had the object before their eyes *. 
 This naturally reminds me of a reflection he made, 
 when, with other young people of the University, he 
 attended a course of Chemical Lectures at Oxford. 
 It was the custom of Dr. Alcock to carry his pupils 
 over such ground, as rendered the science of great 
 service to every person of a learned profession. The 
 last lecture was upon poisons: and the subject re- 
 quired, that snakes should be produced upon the 
 table, and made to bite poor harmless animals to 
 death ; whose cries, and howlings, and convulsions, 
 after the wounds were given, were extremely affect- 
 ing, and made some of the spectators ready to faint. 
 On which he observed afterwards — " that would have 
 been the moment, to have delivered a theological 
 lecture on the Old Serpent of the Scripture — that 
 hath the power of death — and first brought it, with 
 all its fatal symptoms and miseries into the world !" 
 And he judged right ; it would have been better un- 
 derstood, and more felt at that time, than at any 
 other ; for it is not to be calculated, how much the 
 mind is assisted in its contemplations by the senses 
 of the body, giving life to its ideas, and working ir- 
 resistibly upon the passions. 
 
 His opinion concerning the duties of a preacher is 
 to be found in the Preface to the first volume of his 
 Sermons, expressed in the words of Fenelon. He 
 considered also, but never printed, the faults and 
 abuses which every preacher should study to avoid: 
 
 * See vol. III. disc. iv. 
 
 6 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 129 
 
 and, as it may be of much service to some readers, 
 I shall take the liberty of mentioning them in this 
 place : 
 
 Let those teach others who themselves excel, 
 And censure freely who have written well. 
 
 " A preacher should avoid rambling upon general 
 or trivial subjects ; such as are not to the purpose ; 
 nor adapted to the wants and occasions of the audi- 
 ence, which are always to be considered. 
 
 " He should beware of polemical and wrangling 
 compositions. 
 
 " He should not mix things sacred and. profane to- 
 gether, from an ostentation of learning. Such learn- 
 ing is quite out of place. Also a discourse, consist- 
 ing of critical remarks, is fitter for an editor than a 
 preacher. See Heylyn, I. 155. with the Preface to 
 Massillon's Petit Careme; and the note in Oswald's 
 Common Sense, vol. I. for some very useful observa- 
 tions on this part of the subject. 
 
 " To be always dwelling on the expedience, neces- 
 sity, and evidence of revelation, is to suppose that 
 the audience consists of Deists : for such discourses 
 have no effect on any but Deists, and rarely upon 
 them. 
 
 " There may be a fault also, in dwelling too much 
 on the elementary and catechetical doctrines, and 
 not (as the Apostle expresses it) going on unto per- 
 fection. 
 
 " It is always bad to treat religious subjects in a 
 dull, dry way ; neglecting the imagery, energy, and 
 persuasive elocution of the Scriptures. 
 
 " Nor is it better to discourse on morality in a rigid, 
 legal, and comfortless manner, without first warming 
 
 VOL. vi. K 
 
130 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 and animating the mind to the practice of it hy mo- 
 tives of faith and love. St. Paul, in 1 Cor. xv. dis- 
 courses, for fifty-seven verses together, on the ani- 
 mating doctrine of the Resurrection of Christ, and in 
 one single verse, the last in the chapter, conveys the 
 moral of the whole. 
 
 " Much time and labour are frequently lost in 
 proving what all the hearers allow : as for example, 
 the obligation they are under to do their duty, in- 
 stead of showing and exposing the various modes of 
 self-deceit, by which they contrive to elude the obli- 
 gation, and live in contradiction to their principles. 
 Pleas and pretences of this sort should be collected, 
 stated, and answered in a close lively manner, till 
 the hypocrite is completely unmasked, driven out of 
 his strong holds, and obliged to surrender at discre- 
 tion. Masillon is admirable at this, and it makes the 
 general plan of his sermons. 
 
 " The word of God is abused by preachers, when 
 it is accommodated and made subservient to the cor- 
 ruptions of the time. It is then an instrument for 
 the gratifying of their vanity, or procuring wealth 
 and promotion. Such a traffic with the word is like 
 Judas, when he sold Christ for money. 
 
 " All affected elegance, and trifling conceits, are to 
 be avoided, as having a bad effect upon the audience, 
 who are tempted to forget the errand they came 
 upon, and to suppose that the preacher, appearing 
 to have no sense of the greatness of his subject, is 
 not in earnest. 
 
 " Too great familiarity of expression, with coarse 
 images, taken from low subjects, are fulsome. Dr. 
 South has some excellent observations in vol. IV. p. 
 40, on the words, Every scribe instructed into the 
 kingdom of God, &c. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 131 
 
 " In what is called an application, at the end of 
 a sermon, the preacher makes a transition by the 
 shortest way, from the subject to the audience, and 
 shows them their duty from what has been said. A 
 writer, strong in his expressions, affirms, that a ser- 
 mon without an application does no more good than 
 the singing of a shy-lark : it may teach, but it does 
 not impel ; and though the preacher may be under 
 concern for his audience, he does not show it, till he 
 turns the subject to their immediate advantage." 
 
 These observations, upon the composition of ser- 
 mons, are so much the more valuable, because we 
 have them from a most excellent preacher, who had 
 formed himself upon the rules he has given for others. 
 He is a good farmer, who raises a good crop ; but he 
 is a better who teaches others also to do the same ; 
 and the public are more obliged to him. If these pre- 
 cepts were properly attended to, the people would 
 soon know how to distinguish between a sound teacher 
 and an unlearned enthusiast ; the Methodists would 
 decrease, and the Church would be edified. If some- 
 thing had been added against errors in the pronun- 
 ciation of sermons, I should have been glad to com- 
 municate it : but, as I find nothing to this purpose, I 
 shall venture but a single remark upon the subject. 
 Every preacher wishes to be understood as well as 
 heard ; but many are deficient in this respect, for 
 want of a distinct articulation ; which might easily be 
 acquired, if they would attend to a simple rule, with- 
 out the observation of which no man's delivery can be 
 perfect. It is well known, that a piece of writing may 
 be understood, if all the vowels are omitted ; but, if 
 the vowels are set down, and the consonants omitted, 
 nothing can be made of it. Make the experiment 
 upon any sentence : for example, judge not, tlutt ye be 
 
132 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 not judged. Take out the vowels, and it will stand 
 thus— jdg nt tJd y b nt jdgd: This may readily be 
 made out : but take away the consonants, and no- 
 thing can possibly be made of it — ue o a e e o ue. It is 
 the same in speaking as in writing : the vowels make 
 a noise, and thence they have their name, but they 
 discriminate nothing. Many speakers think they are 
 heard, if they bellow them out : and so they are ; but 
 they are not understood ; because the discrimination 
 of words depends upon a distinct articulation of their 
 consonants : for want of considering which, many 
 speakers spend their breath to little effect. The late 
 Bishop of Peterboi-ough, Dr. Hinchcliffe, was one of 
 the most pleasing preachers of his time. His melo- 
 dious voice was the gift of nature, and he spake with 
 the accent of a man of sense, (such as he really was in 
 a superior degree) ; but it was remarkable, and, to 
 those who did not know the cause, mysterious, that 
 there was not a corner of the Church, in which he 
 could not be heard distinctly. I noted this myself 
 with great satisfaction ; and, by watching him atten- 
 tively, I perceived it was an invariable rule with him, 
 to do justice to every consonant, knowing that the 
 vowels will be sure to speak for themselves. And thus 
 he became the surest and clearest of speakers ; his 
 elocution was perfect and never disappointed his au- 
 dience. In this respect, most preachers have it in 
 their power to follow him : his sense, and his matter, 
 and the sweetness of his tone, were such as few will 
 attain to. He was a prelate, to whom I owed much 
 respect ; and I am happy in giving this testimony to 
 his excellence. 
 
 The last literary work which Dr. Horne proposed 
 to execute, while Dean of Canterbury, was a formal 
 Defence of the Divinity of Christ against the Objec- 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 133 
 
 tions of Dr. Priestley; in which it was his intention 
 to show, how that writer had mistaken and perverted 
 the Scripture and the Liturgy. 
 
 I have often wondered secretly, why this good man 
 should have felt as if he was called upon to encounter 
 a writer of Dr. Priestley's disposition, who had already 
 passed under the strong hand of Dr. Horsley, and 
 would have been humbled for the time to come, had 
 he been blessed with any feeling. That Dr. Priestley 
 is a man of parts, a versatile genius, and of great sa- 
 gacity in philosophical experiments, is well known and 
 universally allowed : but let any person follow him 
 closely, and he will see, that if ever there was a wise 
 man, of whom it might be said, that the more he learnt 
 the less he understood, it will be found true of Dr. 
 Priestley. His vanity made him believe, that he was 
 wise enough to enlighten, and powerful enough to dis- 
 turb the world : he was therefore for ever busy at one 
 of these or the other; a Volcano, constantly throwing 
 out matter for the increase of heresy, schism, or sedi- 
 tion, and never to be quenched by disputing. It is 
 the way of the world, to make their estimate of a man 
 from his parts and abilities ; but it is more wise and 
 just to measure him by the use he makes of them, to 
 the benefit or the hurt of mankind : for the beams of 
 the sun are used to warm and animate ; while the 
 brightness of lightning is to shatter and consume. So 
 long as Dr. Priestley felt nothing (or seemed to feel 
 nothing,) it had a bad effect upon him, and made him 
 more troublesome, that such persons as Dr. Horsley 
 and Dr. Home should enter the lists against him : it 
 made him appear more formidable in the eye of the 
 public, and so it tended to gratify the prevailing pas- 
 sion of his mind. So far indeed as he deceived and 
 disturbed others, a compassionate regard to them 
 
134 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 might be the motive with those who disputed with 
 him. 
 
 In the year 1786 Dr. Home preached a sermon at 
 the Primary Visitation of the Archbishop at Canter- 
 bury, on the duty of contending earnestly for the 
 Faith ; and, when this was printed, together with an- 
 other discourse on the Trinity, he subjoined an adver- 
 tisement, declaring his intention to answer the objec- 
 tions against the Divinity of Christ, which had been 
 urged of late. " Indulgence," said he, " is requested 
 as to the article of time : I cannot write so fast as 
 Dr. Priestley does ; and I wish to execute the work 
 with care and attention ; after which it shall be left 
 to the judgment of the learned, the pious, and the 
 candid, of all denominations." At the close of this 
 year, he alludes to the advertisement, in a letter from 
 Canterbury : " You see the task I have undertaken." 
 And here nobody will wonder, that as he had given 
 me his assistance in the first work I published, and its 
 chief merit had been owing to that circumstance, he 
 should demand of me in return any service he thought 
 it in my power to execute : he therefore goes on, " It 
 is undertaken in confidence of your friendly aid ; and 
 I should be happy, as we began together with Clay- 
 ton, if we might end together with Priestley." For 
 the sake of Dr. Home, I was ready to work under 
 him, in any capacity he should prescribe ; but it al- 
 ways appeared to me, that Priestley was a person of 
 too coarse a mind to be the proper object of a serious 
 argument. That he had borrowed most of his objec- 
 tions, I had very little doubt; and that his remarks on 
 Jews, Gnostics, Ebionites, Plato, Philo, and Justin 
 Martyr, were not original ; there being a magazine in 
 store, to which the orthodox of this country do but 
 rarely apply themselves. If this could have been 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 135 
 
 pointed out, it would have done more toward the 
 curing of his readers, and given more mortification to 
 himself, than the most laboured confutation of the 
 matter in the four volumes of his Objections. 
 
 Dr. Horne, I am very sure, had a mean opinion of 
 Priestley's originality as a scholar : he speaks of him 
 undeT the character of a man, who is defying all the 
 world, and cannot construe a common piece of Greek 
 or Latin *. I find another note concerning him, with 
 the date of 1788, affixed to it, taken from Dr. Johnson, 
 who spoke his opinion of Priestley to Mr. Badcock 
 in these words ; " You have proved him as deficient in 
 probity as he is in learning." Mr. Badcock had call- 
 ed him an Index-scholar : but Johnson was not willing 
 to allow him even that merit ; saying, that he borrowed 
 from those who had been borrowers themselves, and 
 did not know that the mistakes he adopted had been 
 answered by others f. There was an expectation 
 about this time, that a controversy would break out 
 between Priestley and Gibbon ; of which an arch 
 Quaker spoke thus : " Let those who deny, and those 
 who corrupt, the true religion of Jesus Christ, fight 
 it out together ; and let his faithful followers enjoy 
 their mutual overthrow 
 
 In the eyes of all reasonable men, the Church of 
 England could want but little defence, in a literary 
 way, against an adversary so enflamed with political 
 hatred against it, and openly avowing a design to 
 undermine and blow up its foundations, as with an 
 explosion of gunpowder §. When it comes to this, the 
 
 * Letter, Aug. 22, 1786. 
 
 t See the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1785, p. 596. 
 t Ibid. p. 600. 
 
 § It was an observation of Dr. Horne, upon the curious sermon 
 on Free Inquiry, that the author spoke of this Powder-plot against 
 11 
 
136 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. H0RNE. 
 
 dispute is no longer literary ; the person who carries- 
 it on in this way, should be considered (if a gentle- 
 man) as a person of an unsound mind ; if not a gen- 
 tleman, then as an object of the penal laws of his 
 country, if it should have any against such offenders. 
 One, who is so wild and dangerous in his politics, 
 must be a counterfeit in his Christianity ; who, being 
 detected, is thereby sufficiently answered. 
 
 On these considerations, without any view to the 
 sparing of my own trouble, I was as well pleased to 
 see, that the design of writing farther against Priest- 
 ley was not prosecuted with vigour. How much had 
 been collected for this purpose, I do not find ; yet I 
 know that the subject had been long and often in the 
 mind of Dr. Home ; who told me when at Nayland 
 in the year 1789, he had satisfied himself in respect 
 to every objection from the Liturgy, except one ; 
 and that was from an expression in the Athanasian 
 Creed, which sounded like Tritheism ; the Creed 
 affirming each person by himself to be God and Lord. 
 I ventured to assure him, that the passage gave me 
 no trouble, because I did not consider it as a meta- 
 physical assertion, but as a plain reference to the 
 words of the Scripture ; which to each person of the 
 Godhead, distinctly taken by himself, so far as that 
 can be done, does certainly give the titles both of 
 God and Lord*. In this, therefore, instead of de- 
 pending on the Creed, we only depend, as that does, 
 upon the words of the Scripture. With this he was 
 satisfied, and allowed that such an intention in the 
 Creed removed the difficulty. 
 
 the Church of England with as much certainty as if he had held the 
 lantern. 
 
 * See John xx. 28. Acts v. 4. and xxviii. 25. and many other like 
 passages. 
 
THE LIFE OP DR. HORNE. 
 
 137 
 
 The last considerable affair in which he concerned 
 himself while Dean of Canterbury, was an application 
 from the Bishops of the Episcopal Church of Scot- 
 land ; three of whom, in the year 1789, came up to 
 London to petition Parliament for relief from the 
 hard penalties under which they had long suffered. 
 This they ventured to do, in consideration of the 
 loyalty and attachment they had lately professed 
 toward the King and the Constitution. 
 
 It was my lot likewise not to be an unconcerned 
 spectator in this business. Through an intimacy which 
 had long subsisted between myself and a gentleman of 
 great worth and learning in the county of Kent (the 
 Reverend Nicholas Brett, of Spring-Grove) I became 
 acquainted with the Bishop of Edinburgh, Dr. Aber- 
 nethy Drummond of Howthornden, and had frequent- 
 ly corresponded with him. As soon as he came to 
 London with his colleagues on the business aforesaid, 
 he wrote me word of his arrival, and explained the 
 cause of the journey they had undertaken. Being 
 myself of too inconsiderable a station to be of any 
 immediate service to them in a matter of such im- 
 portance, I thought it the most prudent step I could 
 take, to forward the letter to a great person : who, 
 with his usual goodness and discretion, undertook 
 to be an advocate for them ; together with many 
 other persons of high respectability ; and their pe- 
 tition was at length brought to such an issue, as 
 excited great thankfulness in the petitioners, though 
 it did not exactly come up to the wishes they had 
 formed at setting out. 
 
 There was no small difficulty in making some per- 
 sons understand, who and what these poor petitioners 
 were : and the case, notwithstanding all that has 
 passed, may still be the same with many at this day* 
 
138 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 I therefore hope to be excused, if I enlarge a little in 
 this place on their history and character, as they ap- 
 peared, and were known to Dr. Home ; whose good 
 opinion will be remembered as an honour, and may be 
 of some use to them hereafter. 
 
 He had considered, that there is such a thing as a 
 pure and primitive Constitution of the Church of 
 Christ, when viewed apart from those outward appen- 
 dages of worldly power, and worldly protection, which 
 are sometimes mistaken, as if they were as essential to 
 the being of the Church, as they are useful to its sus- 
 tentation. The history of the Christian Church, in its 
 early ages, is a proof of the contrary ; when it under- 
 went various hardships and sufferings from the fluctu- 
 ating policy of earthly kingdoms. And the same hap- 
 pened to the Episcopal Church of Scotland, at the 
 Revolution in 1688 ; when Episcopacy was abolished 
 by the State, and the Presbyterian form of Church- 
 Government established *. By this establishment the 
 Bishops were deprived of their Jurisdiction, and of 
 all right to the Temporalities of their Sees. But in 
 this forlorn state they still continued to exist, and to 
 exercise the spiritual functions of their episcopal cha- 
 racter : by means of which, a regular succession of 
 Bishops, and episcopally ordained Clergymen, has 
 been kept up in Scotland, under all the disadvantages 
 arising from a suspicion of their being disaffected to 
 the Crown, and attached to the interest of an exiled 
 family. While attempts were making in behalf of that 
 
 * It is notorious, that the violence of the adverse party against 
 the Episcopal Church in Scotland began before the Government 
 under King William was settled: when it could not be known by 
 experience whether they would join with it or not. Before the 
 Convention met, their Clergy were forcibly driven from their 
 churches, and their possessions seized. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 139 
 
 family, a variety of circumstances rendered it impos- 
 sible for them to remove this suspicion, notwithstand- 
 ing the many inconveniences and hardships to which 
 it exposed them. All they could do was to con- 
 duct themselves in such a quiet manner, as might at 
 length convince the Government, they had nothing 
 to fear from a Scotch Episcopal Church, and, conse- 
 quently, that there was no necessity for the execution 
 of those severe laws, which on different occasions 
 had been enacted against it. 
 
 At last the happy period came, which was to re- 
 lieve them from this embarrassing situation. The 
 wisdom and clemency of his late Majesty's Govern- 
 ment encouraged them to hope, that an offer of their 
 allegiance would not be rejected : and as soon as they 
 could make that offer in a conscientious manner, they 
 had the satisfaction to find by the King's answer to 
 their address, that it was graciously accepted : in con- 
 sequence of which, they could not but hope, that the 
 British Legislature would take their case into con- 
 sideration, and see the expediency of relieving both 
 Clergy and Laity of the Episcopal Communion in 
 Scotland from the penalties to which they were ex- 
 posed in the exercise of their religion. 
 
 With this hope, three * of their Bishops, as I have 
 said, came to London in the year 1789 ; and, notwith- 
 standing the ample recommendations they brought 
 with them from their own country, they found it a 
 work of time to make themselves and their application 
 properly understood. It would have been barbarous, 
 after the die was cast, to have thrown any discourage- 
 ment in their way : but I was of opinion, from the be- 
 
 * Dr. John Skinner, Bishop of Aberdeen; Dr. Abernethy 
 Drummond, Bishop of Edinburgh ; and Dr. William Strachan, 
 Bishop of Brechin. 
 
140 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. IIORNE. 
 
 ginning, that they were come too soon : more prepa- 
 ration was requisite than they were aware of. The 
 penal laws had reduced the Scotch Episcopal Church 
 to a condition so depressed and obscure, that it could 
 scarcely be know n to exist, but by such persons as were 
 previously acquainted with its history. Among these, 
 none entered more willingly and warmly than the then 
 good Dean of Canterbury. As soon as he heard of 
 the arrival of the Scotch Bishops at London, he was 
 anxious to let them know how heartily he approved 
 of the object of their journey, and kindly offered 
 every assistance in his power to bring the matter to 
 a happy conclusion. He paid them every mark of 
 attention both at London and Oxford ; and, when 
 they set out on their return to Scotland, without 
 having attained their object, he expressed, in very 
 affectionate terms, his concern at their disappoint- 
 ment, and told them at parting not to be discouraged : 
 for, said he, " your cause is good, and your request 
 so reasonable, that it cannot long be denied." 
 
 In February 1791, after having taken his seat in the 
 House of Lords as Bishop of Norwich, he wrote a 
 friendly letter to Bishop Skinner of Aberdeen, assur- 
 ing him and the other members of the Committee for 
 managing the business of the Episcopal Church of 
 Scotland, that any help in his power should be at their 
 service: and speaking of their applying anew to both 
 Houses of Parliament, he said, " It grieved him to 
 think they had so much heavy work to do over again ; 
 but business of that sort required patience and per- 
 severance." 
 
 It was said about this time, that the Lord Chancel- 
 lor, Thurlow, withheld his consent to the Scotch Epis- 
 copal Bill, till he should be satisfied by some of the , 
 English Prelates, that there really were Bishops in 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HOBNE. 
 
 HI 
 
 Scotland. When Bishop Home was waited upon with 
 this view by the Committee of the Scotch Church, 
 and one of them observed, that his Lordship could 
 assure the Chancellor they were good Bishops, he 
 answered, with his usual affability and good humour, 
 " Yes, Sir, much better bishops than I am." 
 
 A clergyman of Scotland, who had received English 
 ordination, applied to him, wishing to be considered 
 as under the jurisdiction of some English Bishop ; 
 that is, to be, in effect, independent of the Bishops of 
 Scotland in their own country ; but he gave no coun- 
 tenance to the proposal, and advised the person who 
 made it quietly to acknowledge the Bishop of the 
 diocese in which he lived, who, he knew, would be 
 ready to receive him into communion, and require 
 nothing of him, but what was necessary to maintain 
 the order and unity of a Christian Church ; assuring 
 him, at the same time, that, if he were a private cler- 
 gyman himself, he should be glad to be under the 
 authority of such a Bishop. One anecdote more 
 upon this subject, and I have done. 
 
 From the present circumstances of its primitive 
 orthodoxy, piety, poverty, and depressed state, he had 
 such an opinion of this Church, as to think, that, if the 
 great Apostle of the Gentiles were upon earth, and it 
 were put to his choice with what denomination of 
 Christians he would communicate, the preference 
 would probably be given to the Episcopalians of Scot- 
 land, as most like to the people he had been used to. 
 This happened, as I perfectly recollect, while we were 
 talking together on the subject of the Scotch Petition, 
 on one of the hills near the city of Canterbury, higher 
 than the pinnacles of the Cathedral, where there was 
 no witness to our discourse but the sky that was over 
 our heads, and yet, when all things are duly con- 
 
142 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 sidered, I think no good man would have been angry, 
 if he had overheard us. 
 
 If the reader should wish to know more of the peo- 
 ple of this communion, let him consult an Ecclesias- 
 tical History of the Church of Scotland, by Mr. Skin- 
 ner, father to the late worthy Bishop of Aberdeen ; 
 a history comprehending a plain and unaffected detail 
 of facts very interesting and amusing : and I hope he 
 will also be convinced by the narrative I have here 
 given, not only that the Bishops of Scotland are true 
 Christian Bishops, but that the Bishops of England, 
 from the part they kindly took in the affair, do little 
 deserve the clamour which some have raised against 
 them, as if they were so dazzled by their temporalities, 
 as to lose sight of their spiritual character, and bury 
 the Christian Bishop in the Peer of Parliament. 
 
 The year 1789 was the fatal period, when French 
 infidelity, with all the enthusiastic fury of fanaticism, 
 which it had affected to abhor, rose up to destroy all 
 regal authority, to extirpate all religion, to silence with 
 the halter or the axe all that were not with them ; and, 
 in consequence of their success at home, undertook to 
 shake, and dissolve, if possible, all the kingdoms of the 
 world. When this tremendous form of wickedness 
 first appeared, it happened that I was at Canterbury, 
 on a visit to the Dean ; and being called upon to 
 preach in the Cathedral, I took the subject of the 
 time, and freely delivered my own sense of it; which 
 is now, I believe, the universal sense of all that are 
 true friends to this country. But some persons, to 
 whose affairs a similar Revolution in England would 
 have been of great service, were very much offended; 
 and one of them abused me grossly for it in a News- 
 paper. Not many weeks after, the Dean himself, on 
 a Court holiday, took the same subject in the same 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. IIORNE. 
 
 143 
 
 pulpit ; in consequence of which, the same person that 
 had reviled me was heard to declare, that his sermon 
 ought to be burned by the hangman. When he in- 
 formed me by letter of this accident, he observed upon 
 it in his easy way, that, as our doctrines, in bad times, 
 would certainly bring us both to the lamp-post, it 
 might then be said of us " in their death they were 
 not divided." The character of the man, who had 
 treated us with all this insolence, was so vulnerable 
 from its infamy, that some other person, who was in- 
 timately acquainted with his exploits, paid off our 
 scores to the last farthing, by exposing them to the 
 public in a paper of the time. In so doing, he verified 
 a wise observation, which I once received from a tra- 
 veller in France, who had seen and knew more of the 
 world than any I ever met with : " The man," said 
 he, " who injures me without provocation, will never 
 be able to contain himself without injuring others in 
 like manner ; some of whom will be sure to pay off* 
 my scores, and save me the trouble : and in the 
 course of my life, I never yet found, but that some- 
 body or other, in due time, revenged my quarrel, 
 far beyond its value, upon that man whose ill man- 
 ners and insolence I had patiently neglected *." 
 
 The life of Dr. Home, during his episcopate, af- 
 fords but few incidents considerable enough to be here 
 related : but there was one, which became the subject 
 of much conversation between him and some of his 
 friends. In the summer of the year 1790, he was 
 upon a visit at the seat of a gentleman in Norfolk, fo? 
 whom he had a great regard. I met his Lordship there, 
 
 * The two discourses here spoken of are to be found in Bishop 
 Home's Sermons, vol. IV. disc. xvi. Jones's works, vol. V. disc, 
 xvi. 
 
144 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 by his appointment ; and it so happened, that during 
 our visit, Mr. John Wesley was upon his circuit about 
 the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, and came to a 
 market-town very near us. Here he had many fol- 
 lowers ; and, being desirous of preaching to a large 
 congregation, he sent some of his friends to the 
 minister of the place, to ask for the use of the parish 
 church for the forenoon of the next day. The clergy- 
 man was under some difficulty how to conduct him- 
 self; but, recollecting that the Bishop of the diocese 
 was near at hand, he advised them to go and ask his 
 permission. The messengers accordingly went ; and 
 the Bishop sent them back to the clergyman with this 
 answer : " Mr. Wesley is a regularly ordained Clergy- 
 man of the Church of England ; and, if the minister 
 makes no objection, I shall make none." So it was 
 determined that Mr. Wesley should preach in the 
 church the next day. As I never had an interview 
 with that extraordinary man, and had often desired to 
 meet him, I would have taken this opportunity ; espe- 
 cially as there was a matter of no small importance, 
 concerning which I had a question to ask him. But 
 being at this time an attendant upon the Bishop of the 
 diocese, we did not know how it might appear, and 
 were unwilling to run the hazard of such reports as 
 might have been raised upon the occasion. But our 
 friend, at whose house we then were, being of the 
 Laity, was under none of our difficulties ; and a more 
 intelligent person for the purpose was no where to be 
 found. I therefore requested him to get to the speech 
 of Mr. Wesley in private, after the sermon should be 
 over, and to ask him in my name the following ques- 
 tion : " Whether it was true, as I had been assured, 
 that he had invested two gentlemen with the Episcopal 
 character, and had sent them, in that capacity, over 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 145 
 
 to America?" With some difficulty our friend ob- 
 tained a private audience, and, after some short 
 civilities had passed, he put his question. At first, 
 Mr. Wesley was not direct in his answer ; but by de- 
 grees he owned the fact, and gave the following rea- 
 son for it ; that, as soon as we had made peace with 
 America, and allowed them their independence, all 
 religious connexion, between this country and the in- 
 dependent colonies, was at an end ; in consequence 
 of which the Sectaries fell to work to increase their 
 several parties, and the Anabaptists in particular were 
 carrying all before them. Something therefore was to 
 be done, without loss of time, for his poor people (as 
 he called them) in America : and he had therefore 
 taken the step in question, with the hope of prevent- 
 ing farther disorders. The fact being not denied, the 
 gentleman, who, for a layman, is as able a Church- 
 casuist as most of his own or any other order, began 
 to inquire a little farther into the case, with the desire 
 to know, how Mr. Wesley had satisfied his own mind 
 in this matter, and what grounds he had gone upon. 
 But as they were proceeding, some of his friends, 
 either being impatient of any delay, or suspecting that 
 some mischief might be going forward, came abruptly 
 into the room, and reminded Mr. Wesley that he had 
 no more time to spare. Thus the conference was 
 ended, and our friend was obliged to take his leave. 
 Some time afterwards (for we had left his house that 
 morning) he gave us this account, as nearly as I can 
 recollect ; and having been present at Mr. Wesley's 
 sermon, was so well pleased, that he wished half the 
 clergy of the Church of England had preached the 
 same doctrines, with the same zeal and devotion *. 
 
 * Let us hope that the other half do preach them. 
 VOL. VI. L 
 
146 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 In this preaching of Mr. Wesley, and the subject of 
 the conference, when compared together, we have the 
 character of Methodism complete : it is Christian god- 
 liness without Christian order. It is pity we could not 
 obtain Mr. Wesley's own sense of the commission with 
 which his Bishops were sent out : but as we were dis- 
 appointed in that, we must inquire for ourselves, and 
 answer as well as we can, without his help. The case 
 obliges us to ask these two questions : 1. With what 
 view was this done ? and 2. By what authority ? By 
 Mr. Wesley's own account, this was his expedient for 
 the preventing of confusion : whence we may gather, 
 that he supposed confusion was not to be prevented 
 among Christians, but by retaining the order of 
 Bishops : and farther, that unity had, in his opinion, 
 been preserved among his own people by their rela- 
 tion to the Episcopacy of the Church of England, from 
 which neither he nor they did ever profess themselves 
 to be in a state of separation. Of this many proofs 
 might be given. Their present application to the 
 Bishop of the diocese was a confession of his autho- 
 rity, and signified a desire of acting under it : and 
 Mr. Wesley had presented himself at the communion 
 in the Cathedral Church at Bristol, and had received 
 it from the hands of Bishop Bagot, as the Bishop him- 
 self informed me. Mr. Wesley might perhaps have 
 considered farther, that, if Bishops were wanting in 
 America, for the preservation of unity among his 
 people, and he himself did not send them, nobody else 
 ever would : for, as the British Government did not 
 send them, when it had power so to do, it was little 
 to be expected they would attempt it when they had 
 none. I cannot say what use he might make of the 
 dispute between Dr. Mayhew, an American Dissenter, 
 and Archbishop Seeker, about the sending of Bishops 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HCRNE. 
 
 147 
 
 from hence to America ; which I have always consi- 
 dered as the beginning and cause of the revolt that 
 soon followed: this, I say, I do not know, and it 
 would be vain to speculate : therefore let us now ask 
 the second question, by what authority he sent Bi- 
 shops to America ? 
 
 There are but two possible ways of putting men 
 truly into the ministry : the one is by succession ; the 
 other by immediate revelation or appointment from 
 God himself. Paul received his commission to preach, 
 not of man, nor by man, but of God ; who put him into 
 the ministry. Other ministers of the Gospel receive 
 their commission by imposition of hands, from those 
 who had received it before. In this latter way of suc- 
 cession, no man can possibly give that which he hath 
 not received. Mr. Wesley, being himself but a pres- 
 byter, could no more make a bishop, than a member of 
 the House of Commons can make a member of the 
 House of Lords, who is made by creation from the 
 King : the less is blessed of the greater, not the greater 
 of the less. And, as this could not be done by Mr. 
 Wesley in virtue of what he was, it must be done in 
 virtue of what he thought himself to be; a vicar-gene- 
 ral of heaven, who was above all human rules, and 
 could give a commission by a superior right vested 
 in his own person. If he acted of himself, as John 
 Wesley, a presbyter of the Church of England, he 
 acted against all sense and order; and, by taking upon 
 himself what no man can take, he would introduce in 
 the issue more confusion than he would prevent. The 
 end will never be prosperous, when we do evil that 
 good may come ; and, if it doth not please God to up- 
 hold his own work in his own way, no man can do it 
 for him. He may seem to do something, but it will 
 not last ; he works upon a principle, the tendency of 
 l 2 
 
148 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 which is not to edification but to dissolution. If Mr. 
 Wesley did not act as of himself, but as by immediate 
 revelation from God, and by the primary authority of 
 Jesus Christ in his Church, then he was an Enthusiast, 
 in the strictest and fullest sense of the word ; and any 
 other person, or any hundred persons, might act as he 
 did, if they could think of themselves as he thought of 
 himself. But all such confusion was foreseen and pre- 
 vented, by the rules and orders of a Church, visibly 
 appointed and visibly continued. When any people, 
 whoever they are, think they can act with God against 
 the rules of God, they are either become Rationalists, 
 who do all by human authority, and deny all spiritual 
 communication between God and man ; or Enthusi- 
 asts, who think the Inspiration or Spirit of the Gospel 
 has set them above the forms of the Church ; which 
 persuasion terminates in Spiritual Republicanism. In 
 the Christian society, two things are to be kept up with 
 all diligence ; these are unity and piety. The man 
 who should suppose, that unity without piety will be 
 sufficient to carry him to heaven, would be under a 
 great mistake, and he would be justly condemned and 
 despised for it. But is not he, who supposes that 
 piety without unity will carry him to heaven, under as 
 great (and, if he believes the Apostle, as dangerous) 
 a mistake*? The subject merits great consideration: 
 but I say no more of it in this place. It reminds me 
 of an anecdote I heard several years ago, and I believe 
 Bishop Home was my author. When John and Charles 
 Wesley began their new ministry, one of them went to 
 consult with Mr. William Law, as a person of profound 
 
 * See and consider the xiith and xiiith chapters of 1 Cor. the 
 xiiitb as a continuation of the xiith. Some excellent hints will be 
 found on this subject in the Cautions to the Readers of Mr. Law, 
 printed in the Appendix. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 149 
 
 judgment in spiritual matters ; and, when the case 
 had been opened, and the intention explained, Mr. 
 Law made answer ; " Mr. Wesley, if you wish to 
 reform the world and spread the Gospel, you must 
 undertake the work in the same spirit as you would 
 take a Curacy in the Peak of Derbyshire ; but, if you 
 pretend to a new commission, and go forth in the 
 spirit and power of an Apostle, your scheme will end 
 in Bedlam." 
 
 John Wesley was a wonderful man in his way: his 
 labours were abundant and almost incredible * : in 
 many respects he did good ; he made thousands of 
 people sober and godly : and, while he was doing 
 good, he avoided evil ; he avoided (at least in words) 
 the sin of schism : he took the Christian side, in 
 stating the origin of power, against the Republicans 
 of America ; for which he was abused as an old fox, 
 who only wanted to be made a bishop. But with all 
 this he raised a society on such principles as cannot 
 preserve its unity ; and thence, in effect, its exist- 
 
 * Among his own people, he seemed to do more than he did. Of 
 this I was informed by a bookseller, who like others had been injured 
 in his trade by the encroachments of Mr. Wesley in the way of 
 book-making : and I was witness to some instances of this myself. He 
 put his name to a Translation of Thomas a Kempis, as if the Trans- 
 lation had been his own : but a friend shewed me an old Translation, 
 with which it agreed, so far as we could see, in every word. He 
 put his name to a Compendium of Philosophy, though he tells us 
 curiously in the Preface, it was taken from the work of a Professor 
 at Jena in Germany : yet he must be allowed great merit in ampli- 
 fying the work. He sold a work of mine, as if it had been an ori- 
 ginal work, partly copied, and partly put into English verse, with- 
 out asking the consent, or making a word of acknowledgment, in 
 the Title or a Preface, to the author. He was free to produce any 
 possible good from any labour of mine, without being envied : but 
 such proceedings have too much the appearance of party-craft to 
 consist well with honest unaffected piety. 
 
150 
 
 TIIE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 ence. I now understand, that partly from the loss 
 of their leader, and partly from the confusion of the 
 times, they have embraced some bad opinions ; in 
 consequence of which, with little or no relation to 
 the Church, they will not much longer be distin- 
 guished from other dissenters, and may in time be as 
 bad as the worst of them. When the lamp is broken, 
 the snuff may lie burning for a time ; but the supply 
 of oil being gone, the light can be of no long conti- 
 nuance. If the Methodists would keep what they 
 have got, and prevent their own ruin, they must do 
 as Mr. Wesley did : they must preserve some relation 
 to the Church, so long as any Church shall remain 
 to which they may be related. 
 
 About a year after the accident of the Sermon and 
 the Conference, a Life of Mr. Wesley was published 
 by a Mr. Hampson, in which the fact of sending out 
 bishops is confessed. This book Bishop Home had 
 procured ; and, taking it out of his pocket as we were 
 walking together in his garden at Norwich, he turned 
 to the passage and shewed it me : and afterwards he 
 put it into his Charge, which was the last work he 
 printed before his death : and this brings me to the 
 end of his literary life. 
 
 For the sake of those who admire Bishop Home's 
 works, and were not acquainted with his person, it 
 may be proper, before I conclude, to say something 
 of his natural life. When he first came to the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford, he was quite a boy ; but being at a 
 time of life when boys alter very fast, he soon grew up 
 into a person so agreeable, that, at the opening of the 
 Radcliffe Library, when all were assembled and made 
 their best appearance, I heard it said of him, that there 
 was not then a handsomer young man in the Theatre. 
 But he was not of a strong and muscular constitution ; 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 151 
 
 and, from the disadvantage of being very near-sighted 
 (quite helpless without the use of a glass) he did not 
 render himself more robust by the practice of any 
 athletic exercise. Amusements of that sort gave him 
 more trouble than they were worth, and he never 
 pursued them with any alacrity. It is related of 
 Bishop Bull, that he was not addicted to any innocent 
 pleasure, which is often necessary to unbend the mind, 
 and preserve the body in health and vigour. The only 
 diversion (if it may be called a diversion) to which 
 this great man was addicted, was the enjoyment of 
 agreeable conversation: and the same was the favou- 
 rite amusement of Dr. Home to the end of his life. I 
 wish every young man who is intended for a scholar, 
 had some good or some necessary reason for not being 
 led away by any sort of recreation. It was of service 
 to his mind, that he was no fisherman, no shooter, no 
 hunter, no horseman : the cultivation of his under- 
 standing was therefore carried on with less interrup- 
 tion, and his improvements were rapid. While on 
 horseback he seemed to be in more danger than other 
 young men : and he had a friend, who was so much 
 concerned for his safety, that he sometimes rode after 
 him, to watch over him, without letting him know of 
 it. But so it happened, notwithstanding his vigilance, 
 that he saw him suffer one bad fall, upon a dirty road, 
 into a deep slough, and another upon very hard ground 
 in the middle of the summer. His horse was then 
 upon a gallop, and the fall pitched him upon his 
 forehead ; but, by the protection of a good Providence, 
 the blow only gave him a head-ach, which soon went 
 off without any other ill effect. When he came at 
 last to be a Bishop, the friend, who had formerly been 
 his attendant, reminded him of these accidents, and 
 observed upon them, " My Lord, I saw you fall twice, 
 
152 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 I have seen you rise three times :" meaning, that he 
 had first risen to be President of Magdalen College, 
 then to be Dean of Canterbury, and afterwards Bishop 
 of Norwich. The year after he came to Oxford, he 
 fell sick of the small-pox, which proved very favour- 
 able, and he was removed to a house upon the hill at 
 Headington for an airing ; where his recovery had 
 raised his spirits to such a pitch, that his friends could 
 not but observe the growing vigour of his mind, and 
 augurate that his wits were intended for some very 
 active part upon the stage of human life, as it after- 
 wards proved. 
 
 In the year 1758 he was appointed junior Proctor of 
 the University; on the 27th of April, 1759, he took the 
 degree of B.D. and on the 28th of January, 1764, 
 that of D.D. His health continued tolerably good, 
 till the time of his proctorship : and here it ought in 
 justice to be remembered, that he made one of the 
 best Proctors ever known in the University of Oxford. 
 He was strict in the exercise of his office ; but his 
 strictness was accompanied by so much mildness and 
 goodness, that he was equally beloved and feared. 
 His duty called upon him to visit and inspect the 
 houses of poor and disorderly people ; in one of which 
 he took the measles, and suffered much by that distem- 
 per. The time at which this accident happened was 
 in one respect rather unfortunate; for he was confined 
 at the time when he should have resigned his office by 
 a personal attendance in the Theatre. Dr. Thurlow, 
 the late Bishop of Durham, being at that time Col- 
 lector, delivered the Latin speech, at the close of which 
 he spoke to this effect : " As to the late Proctor, I 
 shall speak of him but in few words, for the truth of 
 which I can appeal to all that are here present. If 
 ever virtue itself was visible and dwelt upon earth, 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORaNE. 
 
 153 
 
 it was in the person who this day lays down his 
 office." Which words were followed by an univer- 
 sal clapping. It was fortunate in one respect that he 
 was not present ; for thus it came to pass, that full 
 justice was done to his character. 
 
 On the 27th of January 1768, on the death of Dr. 
 Jenner, he was elected President of Magdalen Col- 
 lege : in 1771 he was appointed Chaplain in ordinary 
 to his Majesty ; which appointment he held till he 
 was preferred to the Deanry of Canterbury, on the 
 22d of September 1731 : and on the 7th of June 1791 
 he was consecrated Bishop of Norwich in Lambeth 
 Chapel, on the translation of Dr. Bagot to the see 
 of St. Asaph. After he became President of Mag- 
 dalen College, he adhered to the interest of Mr. Jen- 
 kinson (now Earl of Liverpool) a little to the dis- 
 turbance of his academical peace. Mr. Jenkinson 
 had been one of his contemporaries at University 
 College ; a gentleman, who from his first appearance 
 in the University, always promised to do something, 
 and to be something, beyond other men of his time. 
 It was not possible that two such young men as he 
 and Mr. Horne could be near neighbours without 
 being fond of each others company. The friendship 
 once formed was ever after preserved ; and when 
 Mr. Jenkinson, though well known to be of what 
 was then called the Court party, offered himself to 
 represent the University in Parliament, his two 
 friends, the President of Magdalen, and the Master 
 of University College, voted for him without success. 
 Their departure on this occasion from what was 
 then thought the old and proper interest of the Uni- 
 versity, brought upon them some animadversions 
 from a few of the warmest advocates on the other 
 side; and little scurrilous witticisms flew about 
 
154 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 against them both in the newspapers ; which, so far 
 as their own persons were concerned, had little effect 
 upon either, but that of exciting their laughter ; and 
 they have often been heard to make themselves merry 
 with several passages of that time. 
 
 Soon after he was advanced to the Presidentship 
 of Magdalen College, he married the only daughter 
 of Philip Burton, Esq. a lady for whom he always pre- 
 served the most inviolate affection. By her he had 
 three daughters ; of whom the eldest is married to the 
 Rev. Mr. Selby Hele, and the youngest to the Rev. 
 Mr. Hole. The unmarried daughter resides with 
 Mrs. Horne, at Uxbridge. The former residence of 
 this family near Windsor introduced him to the ac- 
 quaintance of several great and respectable characters 
 in that neighbourhood, particularly Sir George How- 
 ard, who received, and may probably have preserved, 
 many of his letters *. 
 
 In the year 1776 he was appointed Vice-chancellor 
 of the University, and continued in that office till 
 October 1780. His vice-chancellorship introduced 
 him to the acquaintance of Lord North, then Chancel- 
 lor of the University : a nobleman, who to a fine tem- 
 per and pleasant wit, had added such good principles 
 and useful learning, that he found in Dr. Horne a 
 person exactly suited to his own mind; and I suppose 
 
 * 1 recollect in this place an accident which happened to one of 
 his letters. He corresponded formerly with Mr. Price of Epsom, 
 whose lady was the sister of Andrew Stone, Esq. By a mistake one 
 of these letters fell into the hands of Mr. Stone ; and it happened 
 to contain some free remarks upon the lives and characters of cour- 
 tiers. When this was lamented as an unfortunate circumstance, 
 " No, no," said Mr. Price, " no misfortune at all — very proper 
 those busy gentlemen in high life should see what learned men think 
 of them and their situation." 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 155 
 
 it owing to the united interest of Lord North and the 
 present Earl of Liverpool, that he was made Dean of 
 Canterbury. When this happened, he would willingly 
 have quitted his cares at Oxford, and taken up his re- 
 sidence in Kent, his native county ; but that a friend, 
 to whose judgment he owed respect, would not agree to 
 the prudence of such a step. As for the Dean himself, 
 worldly advantage was no object with him ; he lived 
 as he ought ; and, if he was no loser at the year's end, 
 he was perfectly satisfied. This I know, because I 
 have had it under his own hand, that he laid up no- 
 thing from his preferments in the Church. What he 
 gave a way was with such secrecy, that it was supposed 
 by some persons to be little : but, after his death, 
 when the pensioners, to whom he had been a con- 
 stant benefactor, rose up, to look about them for 
 some other support, then it began to be known who 
 and how many they were. He complained to one of 
 his most intimate friends, how much it was out of his 
 way to discover such objects as were worthy and pro- 
 per, because he descended so little into commerce 
 with the world ; yet, said he, let any body shew me, 
 in any case, what ought to be done, and they will al- 
 ways find me ready to do it. So far as he knew, he 
 did good ; and often attempted it, when he could not 
 know ; which is more or less the case with every 
 charitable man. The discernment of objects is the 
 privilege of God alone ; who yet doeth good unto 
 all, where we know it not. 
 
 As often as he was at Canterbury, his time passed 
 very pleasantly : he was in his native county : the fa- 
 milies of the place and the neighbourhood shewed him 
 the greatest respect, and were delighted with his com- 
 pany and conversation : if he could have indulged 
 himself with prudence, as he wished to do, he would 
 
156 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 have fixed himself there for the remainder of his life : 
 hut he still submitted to the unsettled life of a pilgrim, 
 between the two situations of his College and his 
 Deanry ; with every thing that laid between Oxford 
 and Canterbury he was acquainted, and with little be- 
 sides. In the year 1788 his constitutional infirmities 
 began to increase upon him : " I have been more than 
 ever harassed (said he) this year, for four months 
 past, with defluxions on my head and breast : they 
 have driven me to take the benefit of the Headington 
 air, this charming season *, which, by God's bless- 
 ing, will enable me to get clear for the summer, I 
 believe. But, as I grow older, I shall dread the 
 return of winter. Do you know what could be done 
 in the way of preservative '! My good friends of the 
 Church wish me to continue here, and engage to do 
 the business of the Midsummer Chapter without me. 
 I am urged to get once more upon a horse — as much 
 like an ass as possible. Long disuse hath now been 
 added to an original awkwardness : however, by 
 keeping to a gentle pace, I shall avoid going off, as 
 you remember it was my hap once to do, like a frog 
 from a board." The visiting of some watering-place, 
 Brighthelmstone, or Ramsgate, for the benefit of sea- 
 bathing, had often been of great service to him. But 
 notwithstanding all that could be done, he grew old 
 faster than his years would account for, being now 
 only in his fifty-seventh year; so that when a design 
 was formed of making him a bishop, he felt himself by 
 no means inclined to undertake the charge of so 
 weighty an office ; and it was not till after much rea- 
 soning with himself, that he was prevailed upon to ac- 
 cept it. I do not remember, that I ever took upon me, 
 
 * The letter is dated May 20, 1788. 
 
THE LIFE OP DR. HORNE. 
 
 157 
 
 while this affair was depending, to throw in one word 
 of advice, for it or against it ; but rather that I left all 
 things to work, as Providence should direct *. It was 
 a sincere affliction to me, when I attended him at Nor- 
 wich, to see how his limbs began to fail him. The 
 Palace there is entered by a large flight of steps ; on 
 which he observed one day, " Alas ! I am come to 
 these steps, at a time of life, when I can neither go 
 up them nor down them with safety." However, 
 he resisted his infirmities with a degree of resolution. 
 He accustomed himself to walk early in the garden by 
 my persuasion ; and assented to it, in his pleasant way, 
 with these words : " Mr. William, (for so it had been 
 his custom to call me for many years) " I have heard 
 you say, that the air of the morning is a dram to 
 the mind : I will rise to-morrow and take a dram." 
 That the faculties of his mind did not fail, in the way 
 it was imagined, so long as he remained at Norwich, I 
 could show by the contents of the last letter he wrote 
 to me, within a few weeks of his death ; in which there 
 is the same humour and spirit as had distinguished him 
 in the prime of his life. That he was not subject to fits 
 of weakness in his mind, 1 do not say : he could not 
 persevere in a train of thought, as he used to do, but 
 
 * Very soon after the nomination of Dean Home to the See of 
 Norwich, a clergyman of that city, calling upon a clergyman of the 
 city of London, said to him, " Report tells us that the Dean of 
 Canterbury is to be our Bishop." " Yes," said the London clergy- 
 man, " so I hear, and I am glad of it, for he will make a truly 
 Christian Bishop." — " Indeed !" replied the other : " well, I do not 
 know him myself, being a Cambridge man ; but it is currently re- 
 ported at Norwich that he is a Methodist." — The same clergyman, 
 when he became acquainted with his Bishop, was much delighted 
 with him ; and afterwards lamented his death as a great loss to 
 the Christian Church in general, and to the Diocese of Norwich in 
 particular. 
 
158 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 applied himself by short intervals as his ability would 
 permit ; and in that way he could execute more than we 
 should have expected from him, under his bodily infir- 
 mities. From two visits to Bath he had received sensible 
 benefit, and was meditating a third, when I left him in 
 the autumn of 1791, which he had been requested not 
 to defer too long. At my departure from Norwich, 
 he carried me in his coach about ten miles ; and we 
 conversed by the way on the subject of his Charge, of 
 which his mind was full, and which he was then be- 
 ginning to print. When I had made him a promise to 
 meet him during his next visit at Bath, he set me 
 down at Lodden, and I betook myself to my horses. 
 That moment will for ever dwell, like a black spot, 
 upon the mind, in which we had the last sight of a 
 beloved friend. After this parting I never saw him 
 more. His company I can now seek only in his writ- 
 ings ; which are almost my daily delight. His jour- 
 ney to Bath, contrary to the persuasion of his friends, 
 was deferred too long. Yet he had still such remain- 
 ing vigour in his mind, that he did not intend to make 
 his visit to Bath an idle one ; but selected from his 
 manuscript Sermons a sufficient number to compose a 
 volume, and took them with him, intending to employ 
 a printer at Bath upon them. To this he was partly 
 encouraged by an observation his good and affec- 
 tionate lady had made upon him, from the experience 
 of several years, that he never seemed to be so well 
 as when he had printers about him ; of which she had 
 even then seen a striking example at Norwich. But, 
 alas ! while he was upon the road, he suffered a para- 
 lytic stroke, and, though very ill, finished his journey. 
 Mrs. Home after this wrote me a letter, full of hope, 
 that, as the Bishop could walk to the pump-room daily, 
 he would still recover : in consequence of which, I 
 10 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 159 
 
 went with some courage to London, intending to go 
 on from thence to Bath ; but was informed, as soon 
 as I arrived in town, that he was not expected to con- 
 tinue many days : and the next day brought us the 
 melancholy news of his death. 
 
 My worthy friend and pleasant companion, the 
 Reverend Charles Millard, his chaplain, was with him 
 at Bath, and was witness to many affecting passages 
 which happened towards his latter end. Bad as he 
 was, if Mrs. Home entered the room, he spoke to her 
 with his usual cheerfulness ; although a stupor com- 
 monly oppressed him, under which his mind wander- 
 ed, and his speech was confused : but from what could 
 be understood, his thoughts were always at work 
 upon some heavenly subject. When it was proposed 
 that the Holy Communion should be administered to 
 him by his chaplain, " By all means," said he, " you 
 cannot do a better thing." In this service he joined 
 with great devotion, and when it was ended, " Now," 
 said he, " I am blessed indeed * !" 
 
 On the Friday before his death, while his house- 
 keeper was in waiting by his bed-side, he asked her, 
 on what day of the week the seventeenth day of the 
 month would fall ? She answered on Tuesday. " Make 
 a note of that," said he, " in a book :" which, to 
 satisfy him, she pretended to do. This proved to be 
 the day on Avhich he died — as quietly as he had lived. 
 From this occurrence, a rumour got abroad, as if he 
 had received some forewarning of the time of his 
 death. To this I can say nothing ; but I can think, 
 without any danger of being mistaken, that if ever 
 there was a man in these latter days, who was worthy 
 
 * The letter of Mrs. Elizabeth Salmon, describing this scene, is 
 well worth reading. 
 
160 
 
 THE LIFE OT" DIl. HORNE. 
 
 to receive from above any unusual testimony due to 
 superior piety, he was that man. 
 
 The affliction of his family was much relieved at 
 this time by the friendly and charitable visits of the 
 celebrated Mrs. Hannah More, who was then at Bath, 
 and well knew how much was due to the memory of 
 the departed Bishop. 
 
 One of his Lordship's chaplains attended him to his 
 grave, and then returned in sorrow to Norwich : his 
 other chaplain paid the tribute due to his memory in 
 a plain monumental inscription. Both of them can 
 unite in declaring, as they do with pleasure, that the 
 loss to the diocese of Norwich, and to themselves in 
 particular, hath been repaired far beyond their expec- 
 tations, in the person of their present Diocesan, the 
 respectable and amiable successor of Dr. Horne. May 
 his days be as long and as happy, in his present situa- 
 tion, as those of his predecessor were few and evil ! 
 
 The inscription is upon the tomb where he was bu- 
 ried, in the church-yard at Eltham in Kent, the resi- 
 dence of his father-in-law Mr. Burton ; and the same 
 is repeated upon a Tablet of Marble affixed to a pillar 
 on the north side of the choir of the Cathedral Church 
 at Norwich ; of which the following is a copy : 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HOIiNK. 
 
 101 
 
 Saered to the Memory of 
 The Right Reverend George Horne, D.D. 
 Many Years President of Magdalen College in Oxford, 
 Dean of Canterbury, 
 And late Bishop of this Diocese : 
 In whose Character 
 Depth of Learning, Brightness of Imagination, 
 Sanctity of Manners, and Sweetness of Temper 
 Were united beyond the usual Lot of Mortality. 
 With his Discourses from the Pulpit, his Hearers, 
 Whether of the University, the City, or the Country Parish, 
 Were edified and delighted. 
 His Commentary on the Psalms will continue to be 
 A Companion to the Closet, 
 Till the Devotion of Earth shall end in the Hallelujahs of Heaven. 
 His soul, having patiently suffered under such Infirmities, 
 As seemed not due to his Years, 
 Took its flight from this Vale of Misery, 
 To the unspeakable Loss of the Church of England, 
 And his surviving Friends and Admirers, 
 January 17, 1792, in the 62d Year of his Age. 
 
 Thus have I brought this good man to his end, 
 through the labours and studies of his life ; in all 
 which his example may be attended with some happy 
 effect on those who shall make themselves acquainted 
 with his history. In writing it I have not permitted 
 myself to consider, what suppressions or alterations 
 would have rendered it more agreeable to some people 
 into whose hands it may fall. As truth will generally 
 succeed best in the end, I have made the story such 
 as I found it. I have concealed nothing out of fear ; 
 I have added nothing out of malice ; and must now 
 commit what I have written to that variety of judg- 
 ment, which all my other writings have met with. 
 
 Some slight reports have been thrown out, which, 
 without such an explanation as I have in readiness, 
 might be understood to the disadvantage of his me- 
 mory. A short life of him was written in the year 
 1793*, by the Rev. Mr. Todd, a clergyman of the 
 
 * In a volume intitled Some Account of the Deans of Canterbury, 
 &c. &c. by Henry John Todd, M.A. 
 VOL. VI. M 
 
102 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. IIORNE. 
 
 Church of Canterbury, who has spoken very highly of 
 him, but not above his character in any one respect. 
 Yet some writer in a periodical publication could not 
 content himself without making invidious compari- 
 sons, and insinuating to the public that Mr. Todd had 
 been guilty of exaggeration ; but I may appeal to the 
 feelings of the reader, whether it be not a worse mis- 
 take, in such a case as the present, to depreciate with 
 an ill design than to exaggerate with a good one ; 
 even supposing Mr. Todd to have done so ; which to 
 me doth not appear. I take Mr. Todd to be a man 
 who loves the Bishop's writings ; and I take his cen- 
 sor to be a man who loves them not : and though I 
 have enlarged on many things much farther from my 
 own knowledge, than it was possible or proper for 
 Mr. Todd to do, I would nevertheless advise my 
 readers to consult his account, which I believe to be 
 very accurate in respect of its dates, and in the titles, 
 and the particular circumstances which gave occa- 
 sion to the several pieces, which were written by Dr. 
 Home, at the different stages of his life. 
 
 It has been hinted to me that Dr. Home had em- 
 braced a sort of philosophy in the early part of his 
 life, which he found reason to give up toward the lat- 
 ter end of it. Before it can be judged how far this 
 may be true, a necessary distinction is to be made. 
 I do not recollect, that his writings any where dis- 
 cover a professed attachment to the Hebrew criticisms 
 of Mr. Hutchinson ; and I could prove abundantly, 
 from his private letters to myself, that he was no friend 
 to the use of such evidence either in philosophy or 
 divinity. But that he ever renounced or disbelieved 
 that Philosophy, which asserts the true agency of na- 
 ture, and the respective uses of the elements, or that 
 he did not always admire, and so far as he thought it 
 
THE LIKE OF DR. HORNE. 163 
 
 prudent insist upon it and recommend it, is not true. 
 And I need not here appeal to any of his private 
 letters, because some of his most serious and preme- 
 ditated compositions assert this in terms sufficiently 
 plain and strong. In his Commentary on the last 
 Psalm he shows us what idea he had formed of the 
 natural world. On the words, Praise him in the fir- 
 mament of his power, he has the following comment : 
 " which power is more especially displayed in the for- 
 mation of the firmament, or expansion of the mate- 
 rial heavens, and their incessant operations by means 
 of the light and the air, of which they are composed, 
 upon the earth and all things therein. These are 
 the appointed instruments of life and motion in the 
 natural world, and they afford us some idea of that 
 power of God unto salvation, which is manifested in 
 the Church by the effects produced on the souls of 
 men, through the gracious influences of the light 
 divine, and the Spirit of Holiness, constituting the 
 firmament of God's power in the new creation." In 
 this passage it is the author's doctrine, that the fir- 
 mament signifies the substance of the material hea- 
 ven ; and that this substance is composed of light 
 and air. And farther, that these are the appointed 
 instruments of life and motion in the natural world : 
 that they give us an idea of the power of God, who 
 acts in the ceconomy of grace by the divine light and 
 spirit, the Son and Holy Ghost, as he acts in nature 
 by the operation of the air and light upon all things ; 
 and that thus the two kingdoms of grace and nature 
 are similar in their constitution, and confirm one 
 another. In this doctrine, the doctrine of a philoso- 
 phy which the world does not generally receive, the 
 author of the Commentary persevered to the last day 
 of his life. And why should he not, when it is pal- 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. IIORNE. 
 
 pably true ? Whoever asserts the agency of nature, 
 and the offices of the elements as here described, 
 need be afraid of no contradiction : he stands upon 
 a rock, and has all nature to support him ; and the 
 long experience of mankind, however it may lose 
 itself in the endless mazes of chemistry, and leave 
 what is useful, to hunt after what is new, does yet 
 all tend to confirm this universal principle, that 
 matter acts upon matter, and that the world and all 
 things therein are moved, sustained, and animated, by 
 the agency of the heavens upon the earth. The per- 
 suasion was once almost universal in this country, 
 that matter is invested with attraction, repulsion, and 
 gravitation, as immaterial principles: but this per- 
 suasion hath very much abated of late years ; and it 
 should never be forgotten, that Newton himself left 
 the question open. It was indeed once thought that 
 the motion of a secondary planet, or satellite, was a 
 case which demonstrated the necessity of attraction : 
 but since that time, the phaenomena of electricity have 
 taught us, that aether can act from an opaque body as 
 from a luminous one ; and therefore, that the same 
 element may move both the primary and secondary ; 
 of which discovery philosophers had no conception 
 when gravity first came into fashion. Our Royal So- 
 ciety have therefore expressed a disposition to admit 
 such a ^ause of motion, if it can be reasonably applied 
 to the case. Sir John Pringle recommended it to be 
 examined whether there be not a certain fluid acting 
 as the cause of gravity, and of the various attractions, 
 and of the animal and vital motions : and it has been 
 argued by other members of the society concerning 
 the solar system, as if it were now more apparent than 
 heretofore, that an aether is dispersed through all 
 space, which gives to bodies a tendency from its denser 
 
THE LIFE OP DR. HORNE. 
 
 1G3 
 
 to its rarer parts. In this the followers of Newton 
 and Hutchinson are now so nearly agreed, that it is 
 to be lamented that science should suffer by any of 
 their disputes, or that the name of any person should 
 be held in contempt upon that account ; particularly 
 of so excellent a person as Dr. Home. Why this 
 good man should be reported to have renounced 
 what Newton himself, if he had seen what we have 
 seen, would probably have adopted and carried on in 
 his superior way, I cannot understand. Therefore 
 I distinguish once more, that the philosophy, which 
 Dr. Home professed, did not depend on doubtful in- 
 terpretations of the Scripture, but was confirmed by 
 reason and experience, as it was argued in his State of 
 the Case between Newton and Hutchinson ; from 
 which he never departed, and from which no sensible 
 man could depart. In philosophy, thus defined and 
 limited, he and I were always of a mind. Of myself 
 I will say but little ; and that little should have been 
 omitted, if I had not been forced upon an explana- 
 tion, which I did not expect. For the proof of such 
 a system of nature as Newton was not averse to, I 
 published a large quarto volume, above seven hundred 
 copies of which are dispersed about the world ; and 
 there must be learned and ingenious men to whom 
 the thing is not unknown. Against some particulars 
 there may be weighty objections ; but against the ge- 
 neral plan, I never yet saw one, that would trouble 
 me for five minutes to answer it. Yet it does not fol- 
 low, that people will see as we do. Where things 
 have a new appearance, the world must have time ; 
 and the author who proposes them must wait with pa- 
 tience, and bear with every kind of opposition and 
 defamation ; the latter of which is never to be under- 
 stood as an unpromising symptom : for it shows that 
 
166 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 an adversary is in distress, when he answers any thing, 
 in such words, as will equally answer every thing. 
 From the books of foreigners I learn, that attraction 
 and repulsion are not in such estimation as they were 
 fifty years ago. And at home, the ingenious Mr. 
 George Adams, who has been a student and practi- 
 tioner in Natural Philosophy for more than twenty 
 years, has found it necessary to adopt the new agency 
 of nature, and has made his use of it through the 
 whole course of a large work, which may be consi- 
 dered as an Encyclopaedia in Natural Philosophy, 
 taking a larger circuit than has yet been attempted 
 by any writer upon the science. Other ingenious men 
 may in time (as I am confident they will) follow his 
 example ; till it shall be no longer thought an honour 
 to Dr. Horne that he renounced this Philosophy, but 
 that he did not renounce it. 
 
 If the reader will not be displeased with me I will 
 tell him a secret, which he may use as a key to decy- 
 pher some things not commonly understood. Between 
 that philosophy which maintains the agency of the 
 heavens upon the earth, and the religion revealed to 
 us in the Bible, there is a relation, which renders them 
 both more credible. By a person with the Christian 
 religion in his mind, this philosophy is more easily 
 received ; and if any one sees that this philosophy is 
 true in nature, he will not long retain his objections 
 against Christianity : but here is the difficulty; he will 
 never begin, who resolves never to go on. But of any 
 reasonable person, whose mind is still at liberty, let us 
 ask, why it should be thought a thing incredible, that 
 the creation of God should confirm the revelation of 
 God ? By which I would be understood to mean — 
 that the world which we see should be a counterpart 
 to the world of which we have heard, and in which we 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HOKNE. 
 
 167 
 
 believe ? Many in this age see the force of that argu- 
 ment in favour of Christianity, which is drawn from 
 the analogy between the kingdom of Nature and the 
 kingdom of Grace, and admire it above all other 
 things. Dr. Horne in particular had such an opinion 
 of it, and conceived such hopes from it, that he used 
 to say, and did say it late in life, that if Priestley 
 should ever become a believer in the doctrine of the 
 Trinity, it would be from the Hutchinsonian philoso- 
 phy. To such a declaration as this, which the reader 
 may depend upon, I can add nothing better, or more 
 to the purpose, than a passage from one of his manu- 
 scripts, concerning the religious use that may be made 
 of Mr. Hutchinson's writings ; and I am persuaded 
 he persevered, to the day of his death, in the opinion 
 there delivered. The passage is as follows : 
 
 " Cardinal Bellarmine wrote a small treatise, in- 
 titled, De ascensione mentis in Deum per scalas, re- 
 rum creatarum, which he valued more than any of 
 his works, and read it over continually with great 
 pleasure, as he says in the preface to it. A work 
 of that kind may be done in a far better and more 
 complete manner, by the key Mr. Hutchinson has 
 given, than has ever yet been done, and the natural 
 and spiritual world made to tally in all particulars. 
 Such a work would be of standing use and service 
 to the Church, and be a key to Nature and the S S. 
 teaching all men to draw the intended instruction 
 from both. For this purpose, the S S. should be 
 read over, and the texts classed under their respec- 
 tive heads; and in reading other books, all just ap- 
 plications of natural images should be extracted 
 from them, particularly where there are any good 
 divisions of an image into its parts and heads, as 
 much will depend on method and regularity. For 
 
 11 
 
168 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 the blessing of God on such an undertaking, with- 
 out which all will be in vain, the Fountain of all 
 wisdom and Father of lights is humbly and fervently 
 to be implored, to enlighten the understanding, and 
 purify the heart, that it may be counted worthy, 
 through the merits of the dear Redeemer, to under- 
 stand the mysteries of the new creation shadowed by 
 the old, and explained in the S S. of eternal truth, 
 and be enabled to declare it to the people unadul- 
 terated with any private imaginations, to the glory 
 of God, the edification of the church, and his own 
 salvation." 
 
 On the other hand, there are in this age philosophical 
 opinions, in which infidelity triumphs : and certain it 
 is they have too plain an affinity to the atheistical 
 doctrines of Epicurus and Democritus, if they are not 
 the same thing ; and therefore such an evil-minded 
 wit as Voltaire caught at them with eagerness. He 
 foresaw how, with a little of his management, they 
 might be turned against all religion, and lead to the 
 abolition of all divine worship : he therefore strained 
 every nerve to magnify and recommend them : his 
 industry in this respect was wonderful ; and we find, 
 by fatal experience, how far it has answered his pur- 
 pose. The philosophers of France have now seated 
 themselves upon the clouds, from whence they look 
 down with contempt upon every degree of Christian 
 belief; — considering even Newton himself as an ex- 
 ample of the weakness of human nature for believing 
 the Scripture ! Where will this end. 
 
 There is another report against the name of our 
 good Bishop, which wants explanation. The learned 
 adversary of the amiable Bishop Hurd, and of the 
 Reverend Mr. Curtis of Birmingham, and the friend 
 of Dr. Priestley, a judge of all men and of all things, 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 169 
 
 took occasion, soon after the death of Bishop Home, 
 to give us his character of him, in a note to a book he 
 was then publishing ; in which note many things are 
 said well, and like a scholar : but there is one thing 
 which, though well said, is not just to the Bishop's 
 memory ; who is there reported to have diffused a 
 colouring of elegance over the wild, but not unlovely, 
 visions of enthusiasm *. Where could the gentleman 
 
 * The Socinian notion of enthusiasm being a curiosity which de- 
 serves to be known, I shall give it to the reader in this place. I 
 
 have a book before me, published by a Mr. E n in the year 
 
 1772: a man, who seems no natural fool, but has made himself 
 much worse than one through a conceit of superior Christian wisdom. 
 He delivers it to us as a doctrine of the orthodox, that " if our be- 
 lief were not attended with some difficulties to our reason, there 
 would be no merit in our believing ;" and then adds, " such men I 
 shall not scruple to call enthusiasts ; and to argue the case with 
 them, would be trying to convince the poor straw-crowned monarch 
 of Bethlehem — who is a king, because he knows he is a king." This 
 gentleman tells his mind fairly and plainly ; for which we are obliged 
 to him: but now let us try by his rule, the faith of our Father Abra- 
 ham. He believed in his old age, that his seed should be as the 
 stars of heaven, from a wife that was barren ; and this is the belief 
 which was accounted to him for righteousness. Here the reason 
 and experience of all mankind were contrary : against hope he be- 
 lieved in hope : here were not only difficulties to reason, but an actual 
 impossibility to reason. The promise might have been given before, 
 while Abraham was young : but it pleased God to defer it till he 
 was old, when reason could not receive it : and from this circum- 
 stance only his faith was meritorious. No, says the Socinian ; this 
 man, by my rule, was an enthusiast, no more to be argued with than 
 the monarch of bedlam, &c. 
 
 What the mind of that man can be made of, who receives the 
 Scripture as the word of God, and denies that faith has merit in 
 admitting what is attended with difficulties to reason, it is as hard for 
 me to understand, as it is for him to receive the Articles of the 
 Church of England ; and yet, if he has spoken of himself truly, I 
 cannot deny the fact : and as this man is but a pattern of other 
 Socinians, I do suppose it to be the opinion of them all, that the 
 proper act of faith in a Christian is an act of enthusiasm. 
 
168 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 the blessing of God on such an undertaking, with- 
 out which all will be in vain, the Fountain of all 
 wisdom and Father of lights is humbly and fervently 
 to be implored, to enlighten the understanding, and 
 purify the heart, that it may be counted worthy, 
 through the merits of the dear Redeemer, to under- 
 stand the mysteries of the new creation shadowed by 
 the old, and explained in the S S. of eternal truth, 
 and be enabled to declare it to the people unadul- 
 terated with any private imaginations, to the glory 
 of God, the edification of the church, and his own 
 salvation." 
 
 On the other hand, there are in this age philosophical 
 opinions, in which infidelity triumphs : and certain it 
 is they have too plain an affinity to the atheistical 
 doctrines of Epicurus and Democritus, if they are not 
 the same thing ; and therefore such an evil-minded 
 wit as Voltaire caught at them with eagerness. He 
 foresaw how, with a little of his management, they 
 might be turned against all religion, and lead to the 
 abolition of all divine worship : he therefore strained 
 every nerve to magnify and recommend them : his 
 industry in this respect was wonderful; and we find, 
 by fatal experience, how far it has answered his pur- 
 pose. The philosophers of France have now seated 
 themselves upon the clouds, from whence they look 
 down with contempt upon every degree of Christian 
 belief; — considering even Newton himself as an ex- 
 ample of the weakness of human nature for believing 
 the Scripture ! Where will this end. 
 
 There is another report against the name of our 
 good Bishop, which wants explanation. The learned 
 adversary of the amiable Bishop Hurd, and of the. 
 Reverend Mr. Curtis of Birmingham, and the friend 
 of Dr. Priestley, a judge of all men and of all things, 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 169 
 
 took occasion, soon after the death of Bishop Home, 
 to give us his character of him, in a note to a book he 
 was then publishing ; in which note many things are 
 said well, and like a scholar : but there is one thing 
 which, though well said, is not just to the Bishop's 
 memory ; who is there reported to have diffused a 
 colouring of elegance over the wild, but not unlovely, 
 visions of enthusiasm *. Where could the gentleman 
 
 * The Socinian notion of enthusiasm being a curiosity which de- 
 serves to be known, I shall give it to the reader in this place. I 
 
 have a book before me, published by a Mr. E n in the year 
 
 1772 : a man, who seems no natural fool, but has made himself 
 much worse than one through a conceit of superior Christian wisdom. 
 He delivers it to us as a doctrine of the orthodox, that " if our be- 
 lief were not attended with some difficulties to our reason, there 
 would be no merit in our believing ;" and then adds, " such men I 
 shall not scruple to call enthusiasts ; and to argue the case with 
 them, would be trying to convince the poor straw-crowned monarch 
 of Bethlehem — who is a king, because he knows he is a king." This 
 gentleman tells his mind fairly and plainly ; for which we are obliged 
 to him: but now let us try by his rule, the faith of our Father Abra- 
 ham. He believed in his old age, that his seed should be as the 
 stars of heaven, from a wife that was barren ; and this is the belief 
 which was accounted to him for righteousness. Here the reason 
 and experience of all mankind were contrary : against hope he be- 
 lieved in hope : here were not only difficulties to reason, but an actual 
 impossibility to reason. The promise might have been given before, 
 while Abraham was young: but it pleased God to defer it till he 
 was old, when reason could not receive it : and from this circum- 
 stance only his faith was meritorious. No, says the Socinian ; this 
 man, by my rule, was an enthusiast, no more to be argued with than 
 the monarch of bedlam, &c. 
 
 What the mind of that man can be made of, who receives the 
 Scripture as the word of God, and denies that faith has merit in 
 admitting what is attended with difficulties to reason, it is as hard for 
 me to understand, as it is for him to receive the Articles of the 
 Church of England ; and yet, if he has spoken of himself truly, I 
 cannot deny the fact : and as this man is but a pattern of other 
 Socinians, I do suppose it to be the opinion of them all, that the 
 proper act of faith in a Christian is an act of enthusiasm. 
 
170 
 
 THE LIFE OP DR. HORNE. 
 
 find these wild visions ? In the State of the Case be- 
 tween Newton and Hutchinson, the author argues 
 from the words of each, and confirms what he says by 
 fact and reason. The whole is written with the ut- 
 most coolness of temper, and without once appealing 
 to any ambiguous evidence. In his sermons his sense 
 is strong, his language sweet and clear, his devotion 
 warm, but never inflated nor affected : and, from the 
 editions through which they pass, it is plain the world 
 does see, and will probably see better every day, that 
 they are not the discourses of a varnisher of visions. 
 In his Commentary on the Psalms, he has followed 
 the plan of the writers of the New Testament, and of 
 the Primitive Church, in applying them as prophecies 
 and delineations of the person of Christ and of the 
 Christian ceconomy. If he is judged to have betrayed 
 any enthusiasm in so doing, it is only because he hap- 
 pened to write in the eighteenth century ; when Chris- 
 tian learning, under the notion of improving it, is 
 greatly corrupted ; the Fathers of the Church but lit- 
 tle known *, and less relished ; and the zeal and piety 
 of the Reformation very much abated. Erasmus was 
 just such another enthusiast in his divinity as Dr. 
 Home; and is frequently found to have diffused alike 
 colouring of elegance over like interpretations of the 
 Scripture : in which, however, he is not always either 
 so elegant, or so successful, as the late Bishop his 
 follower : yet for this, in the days of better divinity, 
 
 * I was therefore pleased with a seasonable attempt to revive the 
 reading of the Christian Fathers, by the Rev. Mr. Kett, in the Notes 
 and Authorities subjoined to the second edition of his very useful 
 and learned Bampton Lectures, p. iii. where lie recommends to the 
 Ecclesiastical Student a Selection from the writings of the Greek and 
 Latin Fathers. I could add other names and other pieces ; but those 
 he has mentioned are very sufficient. 
 
THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 171 
 
 when faith and piety were more in fashion, Erasmus 
 was never reputed an enthusiast. A little warmth of 
 devotion is very excusable in a Christian writer ; and 
 we apprehend that a very strong conviction of the 
 wisdom and excellence of Christianity is necessary 
 to the making of a good divine. — Ov 8« fierpwc k£kiv»i- 
 
 /.uvov airrioQai. 
 
 When a man of learning censures without justice, 
 he opens a door for the free remarks of others upon 
 himself. But I search not into the gentleman's writ- 
 ings, for any examples of severity, scurrility, adula- 
 tion, perplexity of principle, smoke and smother, 
 pedantry and bombast : let others look for such things 
 who take delight in finding them. For my own part, 
 I would rather wish that my learned friend, when he is 
 throwing his fine words about, would consider a little 
 beforehand, how unworthy it may be found to attempt 
 to lessen in any degree the good effect of such a cha- 
 racter as that of Dr. Home upon the Christian world, 
 in its present declining condition and dangerous situa- 
 tion: and how much more it would be for his honour 
 to use the eloquence he is master of, rather in promot- 
 ing than in hindering its influence. He knows too 
 much of the world to be ignorant, that in this age, 
 when so many counterfeits are abroad, when some 
 are so wild, and others so squeamish, no wound is so 
 cruel upon a religious man, as the imputation of a 
 wild enthusiastic fancy : a fault wantonly imputed by 
 the vicious and the ignorant, to unexceptionable per- 
 sons, only because they have a little more religion 
 than themselves : and if such persons have made it 
 their business, like Dr. Home, to be deep in the 
 Scripture, they will always be in danger from those 
 who are not so. Heathens accused the first Christians 
 of atheism and sacrilege, because they would not 
 
172 
 
 THE LIFE OF DR. HORNE. 
 
 worship idols ; and abused them as haters of man- 
 kind, only because they avoided evil communications, 
 and refused to be conformed to this world. Voltaire 
 had no name for the Christian faith, but that of su- 
 perstition or fanaticism. There is a very useful and 
 judicious dissection of enthusiasm, by Dr. Home 
 himself, the best I ever met with, just published in 
 a compilation by a society for a Reformation of Prin- 
 ciples, which if gentlemen will condescend to exa- 
 mine, they may be better able to distinguish properly 
 betwixt those who are enthusiasts and those who 
 are called so. 
 
 All good men are walking by the same way to the 
 same end. If there are any individuals, who by the 
 shining of their light render the path more plain and 
 pleasant, let us agree to make the most we can of 
 them, and be followers of them, who through faith and 
 patience inherit the promises. 
 
USE OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE, 
 
 IN A 
 
 LETTER TO THE HON. L. K. 
 BY W. J. 
 
LETTER 
 
 ON THE 
 
 USE OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE. 
 
 Nayland, Oct. 29th, 1795. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 You will want little persuasion to the Study of the 
 Hebrew Language, when you know how valuable it 
 is in itself, and what help you will find from the use 
 of it in your other studies : for it will be of service 
 to you as a critic, a mythologist, an antiquarian, a 
 philosopher, and a divine. If the Hebrew were the 
 original language (which, however, is disputed, as all 
 other things are) the different languages of the world 
 must partake of it more or less ; and consequently 
 they may be traced up to it. Unless a scholar is 
 able to do this he will be wanting in a very material 
 part of his business ; and, though I would not affront 
 any man of learning, who is an able critic in Greek 
 and Latin, as if he were a person of no knowledge, 
 I am nevertheless very certain he would see much 
 farther, and find great satisfaction, if the Hebrew 
 were added to his other learning. 
 
 I must leave it to the compiler of the Lexicon to 
 collect the various instances in which later languages 
 may be traced up to this original : but I will give you 
 
176 
 
 LETTER ON THE USE OF 
 
 a few examples, to show how easily it may be done, 
 and to tempt you to find others for yourself at a 
 future time. 
 
 The word Aurum, Gold, is Latin ; which can be 
 traced up to no Latin original : but in Hebrew the 
 word "iitf Aur expresses a kindred idea ; it signifies 
 Light, to which Gold is more nearly allied than any 
 other substance, from its colour and its splendour ; 
 and, in the symbolical language of the chemists, Gold 
 stands for the Sun. When we have once obtained a 
 leading idea in Hebrew, it is pleasant to see how other 
 words in abundance will fall in with it : for hence we 
 have the word Aurora, for the light of the morning ; 
 Horus, a name of the sun with the Egyptians ; Orion, 
 the bright constellation, the brightest in the heavens ; 
 wpa and wpaioc, beautiful ; because the light is the most 
 beautiful of all things ; oupavoe, the heaven ; and many 
 others. So simple is the Hebrew, and so perfect in its 
 construction, that even light itself is not an original 
 sense ; for "UN is from "itf, a biliteral root, which sig- 
 nifies to flow ; light being in perpetual flux, and the 
 most perfect of all fluids ; perhaps the only absolute 
 fluid in nature. 
 
 Nothing is more common than for large families of 
 words to arrange themselves under'some simple root 
 in the Hebrew. Thus the words fruit, fertilis,fructus, 
 fero, in Latin, <pcpo in Greek, Freya the Northern god- 
 dess of fertility (whence our Fryday) all come from 
 the Hebrew mD FeRA, to bear fruit. Even in the 
 English tongue, where you would little suspect it, the 
 Hebrew word will account for the English. What 
 is the word Sweat but the nyr Zet of the Hebrew ? 
 Cypher in English, is "iflD SePheR in Hebrew : Dumb 
 in English, is DH to be still: Shiver in English, is in 
 Hebrew Sheber or Shever, to break in pieces : 
 
THE HEBREW LANGUAGE. 
 
 177 
 
 Hush, be still, is from nt^H HaSHaH, to be silent : 
 Trade is from the Hebrew 1~n DRaCH, a way, which 
 in Arabic is taracq : Earth is from 'ptf AReTZ or 
 EReTZ, a word of the same sense. Is in English, 
 and £<tti in Greek, and esse and est in Latin are all 
 from the Hebrew Substance: Shed is from the He- 
 brew to pour out. In Latin words, which have 
 no affinity with any other word, the like agreement is 
 frequently discovered with the Hebrew. The word 
 Olim, hereafter, or long ago, is not a word of a Latin 
 form, but is the same with dby Olem an age, ever, 
 &c. Thus in Greek the word ^ito>v tunica, admits of 
 no Greek derivation, but ]J"D CheTeN in Hebrew has 
 the same sense. 
 
 In multitudes of Greek words, where the Lexicons 
 force an etymology upon them, their deduction from 
 the Hebrew is evident and natural. In their mytho- 
 logy nothing is more common than for the Greeks to 
 use terms of which their own language knows nothing. 
 Their religion was more ancient than themselves; and 
 so has many names which their own language was not 
 ancient enough to interpret ; though they often attempt, 
 it in an absurd aiid ridiculous manner. What can we 
 make of the word Seipvjvee, Sirens, first mentioned by 
 Homer, as Nymphs that enchant and destroy men 
 with their singing? The Lexicons derive it from aupa 
 a chain, which is nonsense ; but go to the Hebrew, and 
 you find that "Vil^ SYeR is a Song, and will therefore 
 very naturally give a name to Singers. 
 
 Mulciher, one of the names of Vulcan, the god of 
 fire (the same in character with the Moloch of the 
 East) which the Latins account for from mulcendofer- 
 rum, because they will needs have it from their own 
 language : but it is such Latin as never was used ; and 
 besides,/never changes into b, in the syllable ber, hut 
 
 VOL. vi. N 
 
178 
 
 LETTER ON THE USE OF 
 
 the change is the contrary way. All is plain enough, 
 if we go back to the original Vulcan, which is Moloch; 
 for then the word Mulciber becomes "f^D Melech 
 Abir, the Mighty King, which is Moloch. All the 
 deities, which are many, whose names give them an 
 alliance with Moloch, are from the Hebrew Melech, a 
 king ; such as Adramelech, Anamelech, Milcom, MUi- 
 cm, &c. Melicartus, the Tyrian Hercules, is of no 
 sense in Greek or Latin ; but in the Hebrew it resolves 
 itself into pK -j^D Melech Aret%, King of the 
 Earth. 
 
 Saturnus, the god Saturn, and the Satyri of the 
 woods, are names to which the Latin can give no in- 
 terpretation : but if Saturn, according to his physical 
 character, be taken for that secret first matter of 
 Nature, out of which all forms arise, and into which 
 they are again resolved ; and if Satyrs are considered 
 as beings hiding themselves in woods and mountains ; 
 then they are all accounted for from the Hebrew 1DD 
 SaTaR,tohide : and even the discourse called a Satire, 
 in which the meaning is always obscure and hidden, 
 is best derived from the same word *inD SaTaR, to 
 hide ; as I remember I once mentioned to Dr. Johnson, 
 and he affirmed the derivation to be right. Near of 
 kin to this is the Egyptian Isis, the first matter of the 
 world, from the Hebrew {JV, substance. This first 
 matter is concealed under the forms or species of 
 things, and never to be discovered as it is in itself ; to 
 signify which the image of Isis had a veil on. 
 
 They, who have no practice in the pursuit of etymo- 
 logies, will hardly believe with what reason and cer- 
 tainty a derivation may be hunted down, which at first 
 sight appears very wild and remote. — Ash or Esh, 
 in Hebrew signifies burning fire (whence our word 
 ashes). Now it seems rash to say that the Latin Vesta 
 13 
 
THE HEBREW LANGUAGE. 
 
 179 
 
 is from the Hebrew Ash; but it is plainly so : for 
 from the original Ash is the dialectical Chaldec Kn£2W 
 Ashta, whence the Greek Emia, and thence (with the 
 soft F prefixed, as in vinum from oivog) is the Latin 
 Vesta. 
 
 In accounting for customs which we find in anti- 
 quity, we shall often be much at a loss, unless we are 
 prepared to have recourse to the Hebrew. When you 
 read in Xenophon, that the war-shout or signal for 
 battle was sWtXev, this word being not Greek, you 
 may take it for an unmeaning barbarous outcry, like 
 the war-whoop among the American Indians : but it 
 is no other than the ancient Hebrew acclamation 
 Hallelu, so often repeated in songs of praise. It is 
 also written uXaXzv ; and was probably the customary 
 acclamation for mutual encouragement in the wars 
 of the Hebrews with the Heathen nations of Canaan ; 
 from whom the later Heathens took it. 
 
 The Phoenicians spoke very nearly the same lan- 
 guage with the Hebrews ; and Virgil acted with judg- 
 ment in giving Phoenician names to Phoenician people 
 in his poem. The name Dido is the beloved one, 
 from the same root with TH DUD or David ; her 
 other name, Eliza, is one of the Hebrew names of the 
 New Testament ; and her sister Anna, is the Hebrew 
 Hannah of the Scripture. In Sallust, &c. the famous 
 name of Hannibal is Hebrew, and signifies Gracious 
 Lord, or my gracious Lord: Hiempsal is b^ft' Ime- 
 shal, he shall reign, or be a Rider ; and there are other 
 like names which can only be interpreted in the same 
 way. In one of the plays of Plautus (the Poenulus) 
 a Carthaginian is brought upon the stage, as we should 
 bring a Frenchman, to laugh at his broken English. 
 The language he is there made to speak was taken 
 for unmeaning gibberish ; till Bochart was able, by a 
 n 2 
 
180 
 
 LETTER ON THE USE OF 
 
 most happy stroke of criticism, to interpret it through- 
 out, from the affinity of the Carthaginian to the He- 
 brew. As the antiquity which is most remote brings 
 us nearer to the time when all men spoke some dialect 
 of the Hebrew, it is impossible to interpretthe ancient 
 names of persons and people, but from a familiarity 
 with the Hebrew. The Greeks derived themselves 
 from a most ancient ancestor by the name oiJapetus : 
 and who can he be, but their real ancestor Japliet ? 
 Their Letters were derived to them from the East ; 
 and the tradition is preserved under the fabulous per- 
 son of Cadmus; which is from DTp Cadom, the East, 
 or, a man of the East. Every body knows there was 
 such a city as Babylon ; but the Hebrew reader only 
 knows it had its original from the word Babel, which 
 being interpreted means in confusion, because lan- 
 guage was there first confounded : and, to this day, 
 a man that talks unintelligibly or nonsensically, is 
 said in English to babble. 
 
 In Divinity it often happens, in particular cases, 
 that you cannot so well judge what is right or what is 
 wrong, nor detect the perverse glosses of wanton or 
 evil-minded critics, unless you are well enough ac- 
 quainted with the Hebrew to use some critical judg- 
 ment in it : of which Mr. Parkhurst's pamphlet against 
 Priestley is a remarkable instance, and opens a mine 
 of evidence, which that juggler knows not what to 
 make of. We live in an age fond of novelty ; when 
 literary adventurers are rather too free and bold in 
 their experiments upon the Sacred Text. Dr. Ken- 
 nicott promised great things, and raised the expecta- 
 tions of the public. His pretensions were examined 
 and disputed by some persons who were learned in 
 the Hebrew; and we narrowly escaped the danger of 
 a new text and new version. On any future occasion 
 
THE HEBREW LANGUAGE. 
 
 181 
 
 of the same kind, the like danger may not be escaped, 
 if the Hebrew language, and its scholastic history, 
 should be neglected. 
 
 When we consult Mr. Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon, 
 it is pleasant to see how many passages of Scripture 
 are illustrated ; how many difficulties cleared up by 
 the author : and whoever follows his examples, will 
 soon discover how much his prospects are enlarged 
 when he studies the Bible in the original. He that 
 should read the New Testament in the Greek, and be 
 under the necessity of taking all his knowledge of it 
 from the Latin of the Vulgate, would be thought very 
 deficient in his learning ; and the case is parallel, if, 
 in the interpretation of the Old Testament, we are 
 unable to compare the Greek version of the Septua- 
 gint with the original Hebrew ; which it is often ne- 
 cessary to do. Many discoveries arise, if this com- 
 parison is faithfully made: among other things it ap- 
 pears, from the different manner in which the Greek 
 Translators have pronounced many proper names, 
 that they did not translate from a copy with the pre- 
 sent Vowel Points *, such as are used by the Jews ; 
 against whom we are to provide ourselves with wea- 
 pons, as against the most dangerous enemies of the 
 Gospel : and who, but a Hebrew Christian, can be a 
 
 * The Hexapla of Origen is a work to whicli I have at present 
 no access ; but I set down what I suppose to be a faithful account 
 of it. He gives the Hebrew Text in Greek letters : wherein he 
 " uniformly expresses what the Masorites call the quiescent letters, 
 the Alep, He, Vau, and Jod, by Vowels ; but so variously, that it is 
 clear he considered it to be a matter of indifference by what vowel 
 he should denote them. He always treats the Ain and Heth as vow- 
 els : and, when two consonants occur, he seems to have considered 
 it optional, what vowel he should admit between them. All this is 
 diametrically opposite to the system of the Masorites." Horae 
 Biblica;, p. 77. 
 
182 
 
 LETTER ON THE USE OF 
 
 match for them in their own way ? In the New Testa- 
 ment there is a sort of Greek, which cannot be recon- 
 ciled with ordinary Greek authors : because there is a 
 frequent use of such forms of language (we call them 
 Idioms) as are transferred to the Greek from the He- 
 brew of the Old Testament, and which cannot other- 
 wise be accounted for. 
 
 But now, lastly, I recommend the Hebrew chiefly 
 on this consideration ; because the language is in it- 
 self instructive ; its words give us light into things, in 
 a manner different from those of any other language in 
 the world : and this, beyond all other arguments, con- 
 vinces me of its divine original. I will give you some 
 examples. — The word clotlie, in Latin vestio, in Greek 
 tv^vw, gives us no instruction ; but the Hebrew 
 LeBeSH to clothe, comprehends the idea of tiO BeSH 
 Shame, (whence the English hashful and abash) and, 
 with V prefixed, it is for, or on account of shame: so 
 the term not only stands for the thing, as in other lan- 
 guages, but gives us the reason of the thing ; it refers 
 us to the moral history and origin of clothing ; and 
 all this in three letters. 
 
 The English word hail, in Latin grando, in Greek 
 ya\al,a, gives us no information about the nature of 
 the thing : but, if we take the word BeReD in 
 Hebrew, as we took LeBeSH, it resolves itself into 
 "11 — 2, which signifies in descensu, and so describes to 
 us the physiological formation of hail; which, as phi- 
 losophers agree, is first formed into drops of rain, and, 
 as it falls, is frozen into hail *. 
 
 * When a Gentleman very learned in the Hebrew saw this ac- 
 count of TD, he observed upon it that Y"Q an Egg was such another 
 word compounded of 2 and ; for it is remarkable in the phy- 
 siology of the egg, that the shell acquires its hardness incxitu, as it 
 comes forth. 
 
THE HEBREW LANGUAGE. 
 
 183 
 
 In roots of the Hebrew language, which consist 
 mostly of two letters, some idea is taken from nature ; 
 and the word, with some new modification, is carried 
 on, and applied to other objects ; and, if there were 
 no other argument, this alone would convince me that 
 the Hebrew, from the simple fabrication of its terms, 
 is not only the first of languages, but of a construc- 
 tion beyond the invention of human wisdom. Thus, 
 for example, the word ob)l Tzelem signifies an 
 image: but why so ? because ^Jf Tzel is a shadow, the 
 first of images, such as nature itself makes : the light 
 of the sun forms it naturally, and presents it to the 
 sight of man. In many words, two ideas are com- 
 prehended, because they are found together in na- 
 ture. It is impossible for us, in many cases, from our 
 imperfect knowledge of things, to account for and 
 reconcile the kindred senses of Hebrew words ; but 
 in many the reason of them is too plain to be contra- 
 dicted. The word jptn RASH signifies the Head 
 and it signifies Poison ; and the relation appears in 
 nature, which has placed the most deadly of poisons 
 in the head of the Serpent : a creature of great signi- 
 fication in Hebrew doctrine. I do not see that this 
 reason is assigned by the learned Mr. Parkhurst ; but 
 I find it in Marius — Sunt qui dicunt sic appellari, eo 
 quod venenum sit in capite aspidis. 
 
 The same word which signifies the hoar-frost signi- 
 fies to cover ; because the hoar-frost is a sudden and 
 universal covering spread over the face of the ground. 
 The word also signifies an atonement ; by which, as it 
 appears from several passages of the Scripture, either 
 the face of the person offended is understood to be 
 covered, so that he no longer looks upon the offence ; 
 or the sin itself is so covered that it can no longer be 
 seen, and even assumes a new appearance from the 
 
184 
 
 LETTER ON THE USE OF 
 
 nature and quality of the covering; just as the face of 
 the earth becomes white and pure when the hoar-frost 
 is upon it: which conveys a very beautiful and plea- 
 sant idea of atonement and propitiation. All this is 
 expressed by the word ^DD CaPHaR; whence is 
 plainly derived our English word cover. This term 
 admits of an accident, which may seem to contradict 
 our system of kindred ideas, but does really confirm it. 
 The word which signifies hoar-frost does also signify 
 pitch; the one as white as snow, the other as black as 
 a coal : but the leading idea of covering is still pre- 
 served, for pitch is the most effectual covering in the 
 world to keep out water and weather. In Gen. vi. 
 14, it is applied to the covering of Noah's ark ; and 
 the reader will find that the pitch and the covering 
 are both expressed by the same word. 
 
 GaL is a root which, as a verb, signifies to roll 
 round, or circulate ; and, as a noun, any round thing. 
 Hence it signifies to dance ; because the motions of 
 the dance were circular, to imitate the motions of the 
 heavenly bodies. It signifies also to be glad; because 
 gladness is that way expressed. And likewise a wheel, 
 from its form and its revolution; and particularly the 
 watering wheel of the East, which yields its water by 
 a circulation : Solomon is supposed to have used this 
 term in that famous allegory of Eccles. xii. with an 
 allusion to the circulation of the blood in the human 
 body, which ceases in death : the passage is well worth 
 considering. Hence also we have a name for the 
 human shdl *, from the roundness of its figure ; and 
 also for the thistle down, or winged seed, because it is 
 a light round body, and has a rotation as it rolls along 
 before the wind. And I may add, what is as curious 
 
 * Hence the word Golgotha in the New Testament. 
 
THE HEBREW LANGUAGE. 
 
 185 
 
 as any thing, that the root in question gives us the 
 word D^J GeLeM, which signifies the human foetus 
 or embryo ; and with philosophical propriety, because 
 in that the body is rolled up or folded together. From 
 Gelem comes the word glomus a ball of thread, and 
 glomero to wind about or gather together. 
 
 How simple is the construction of that language, 
 which, beginning with the preposition by OL, upon or 
 over, adds another letter, and turns it into a verb, rhv 
 OLaH, to ascend ; which, becoming a noun, signifies 
 a burnt-offering ; teaching us to consider it as an as- 
 cension, because the smoke and flame of it goes up 
 towards heaven, which cannot happen unless it is 
 consumed by fire ; on which much might be said ! 
 The barbarous people of Madagascar have a sacrifice 
 which they call an Owley ; retaining the very word 
 of the Mosaic law. From the same root we have a 
 word for the wild goat of the mountains, from its 
 climbing upwards ; also for the leaf of a tree, from its 
 superior situation ; whence, with the f, or digamma 
 prefixed, we have the Latin folium. It furnishes us 
 also with a word for stairs, because people ascend 
 by them ; and for a lord or ruler, because he is over 
 others : in alliance with which we have one of the 
 names of God, ]vby Olion, because he is over all; and 
 it is rendered by the word Altissimus in Latin, in 
 English the Most High. 
 
 Compare this set of words with one another in La- 
 tin, and you will find neither root, branch, nor rela- 
 tion among them. Super has no alliance with scando; 
 nor scando with gradus; nor gradus with folium; nor 
 folium with altus ; nor altus with rupicapra: every 
 word, when compared with the rest, is an unrelated 
 individual ; and the case would be found the same in 
 the Greek, or any other language of more modern use 
 
186 
 
 LETTER ON THE USE OP 
 
 and invention : so that when I view the Hebrew lan- 
 guage, such as I have now represented it to you, (in 
 too small a compass for the greatness of the subject) 
 I am persuaded it must either have been originally 
 given to man by his Creator ; or framed by men, the 
 powers of whose minds were very different from our 
 own. 
 
 But give me leave to forewarn you, that caution is 
 to be used, and great experience is requisite in order 
 to handle the Hebrew with safety ; otherwise you may 
 chance to make that ridiculous, which you intend to 
 magnify. For want of knowing better, we may give 
 the lead to a wrong idea j that which is not the radi- 
 cal one ; and then we shall be forced upon strange 
 and unnatural alliances ; and, from our imperfect in- 
 sight into many things, we may not be able to disco- 
 ver that there is any leading idea at all. It is natural 
 to follow with too much assurance the alluring pur- 
 suits of etymology ; and, if we are found to do it with- 
 out temperance or discretion, we shall find no mercy 
 from those who are not well affected to the originali- 
 ties of learning and religion ; who may therefore treat 
 us with a smile, meaning it for the smile of superior 
 wisdom : but folly and ignorance are more given to 
 smile than wisdom and science. 
 
 I have said enough to convince you, that the study 
 of Hebrew, if you use it properly, will abundantly 
 repay your labour ; that it is even necessary and es- 
 sential, if you would be, what I may call (to speak 
 after the Hebrew style) a radical scholar, and see into 
 the originals of things both sacred and profane : that 
 it is related to itself by associations and images, not 
 merely curious, but often very beautiful and instruc- 
 tive : in short, that it communicates knowledge of the 
 best kind under a singular form, no where else to be 
 
THE HEBREW LANGUAGE. 187 
 
 met with. I could have multiplied my examples in 
 abundance; for there was a time of my life when I 
 sat for half a year together to compare the Hebrew 
 language with itself in every word of it (so far as it is 
 retained and preserved) and I have loved and admired 
 it ever since. You will do the same, if you take half 
 as much pains as I did ; and for your encouragement, 
 you will have an advantage which I had not ; later 
 years having produced that excellent work, the Lexi- 
 con Hebrew and English of Mr. Parkhurst ; who has 
 made it a magazine of general learning, antiquity, 
 divinity, and natural history ; and has illustrated his 
 Hebrew literature from the Greek and Roman 
 classics, and from useful authors, ancient and modern, 
 of every denomination. 
 
 In the modern Hebrew learning, you have another 
 advantage, and a great one it is ; that you are taken 
 out of the hands of the Jews; who begin their teaching 
 with the egregious absurdity of an alphabet without 
 vowels to make way for their Hebrew points, which 
 are a modern invention, and overburthen you with 
 an insupportable multiplicity of rules. Their notions 
 of the Hebrew are much of a size with their sense of 
 divinity. That noble instrument of wisdom in their 
 hands, is like an instrument of astronomy in the hands 
 of a child, or like a telescope with the blind. Trust 
 yourself to Mr. Parkhurst, a good Christian, and he 
 will take you by the hand at the first step, and carry 
 you as far as you will wish to go in CHRISTIAN 
 HEBREW. That your success may be such as I 
 augurate from a foreknowledge of your capacity and 
 application, is the sincere wish of, 
 Dear Sir, 
 Your affectionate friend, 
 
 and obedient, humble servant, 
 
 W. JONES. 
 
CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 RELIGIOUS WORSHIP OF THE HEATHENS, 
 
 AS BEARING UNANSWERABLE TESTIMONY 
 
 TO THE 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 IN A 
 
 LETTER 
 
 TO THE 
 
 REV. W. VINCENT, D.D. 
 
 HEAD MASTER OF WESTMINSTER-SCHOOL. 
 
CONSIDERATIONS, 
 
 REVEREND SIR, 
 
 I have a great subject before me of which I believe 
 there is no better judge in this kingdom than your- 
 self: and I have good reason to suppose, from your 
 sincere attachment to the Christian Religion, that 
 you are as much interested as myself in the use I am 
 about to make of it. 
 
 From the common forms of school-education, our 
 youth are in danger of returning back from the purity 
 of Christians to the impure manners of Heathens ; a 
 very afflicting example of which once fell under my 
 own observation. An amiable youth, of the first 
 fashion, was found to have kept loose company very 
 early in life ; from which every bad consequence was 
 to be apprehended. So far there is no rarity in the 
 case : you must have heard many of them : and I 
 should not mention it to you, but for the observation 
 made upon it by his father, which struck me to the 
 heart ; and I determined never to forget it all the 
 days of my life. He accounted for the evil in the 
 following manner : that his son having been accus- 
 tomed at school to the loose ideas, communicated by 
 Horace and other Heathen poets, had carried their 
 principles into his own practice ; and was therefore 
 only in a train with other young men of his age and 
 
192 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE 
 
 education. Good God ! said I to myself, is this the 
 case 1 and are we asleep about it ? Do we sit still, and 
 see Christians, under the light of the Gospel, sinking 
 into worse than heathen corruption ? This led me to 
 consider, whether it be not possible to turn this evil 
 into some good, by showing young men of learning, 
 that, as the false religion of Heathens was borrowed 
 from the true religion of Revelation, and is a witness 
 to its authority, it ought rather to confirm us in the 
 truth than draw us into evil. I thought, if this could 
 be shown, something might be done toward the pre- 
 servation of our youth, without breaking in upon the 
 established forms of education : that the attempt 
 would be laudable, and merit the thanks of parents, 
 who see this matter in a proper light ; that no learned 
 teachers, if Christian, could be offended ; and that, 
 at all events, he that should give notice of the evil, 
 might deliver his own soul by it. 
 
 With these thoughts in my head, I sat down to 
 examine the true state of the case : and to you, Sir, 
 or any other gentleman who has gone over the com- 
 mon ground of classical erudition, there will be no 
 difficulty in showing, not barely that the true Religion 
 and the false have a resemblance in many particulars ; 
 but that the resemblance is wonderful and striking, in 
 such a manner as will make the one a proof of the 
 other ; and I am convinced others must have been 
 struck by it as I am. The Religion of the Divine 
 Law comprehends the institutions of Priesthood, Sa- 
 crifice, Atonement, Purification, Prayers and Suppli- 
 cations. It gives us the history of Divine judgments, 
 miraculous interpositions, sacred commemorations, 
 and communications between God and Man. These 
 are the doctrines which distinguish the Religion of the 
 Bible : and we meet with them all in the Religion of 
 
RELIGIOUS WORSHIP OF THE HEATHENS. 193 
 
 the Heathens. For in the first place, Heathens had 
 priests. A priest is one of the first remarkable per- 
 sons we meet with in the Iliad of Homer : and he ap- 
 pears under a very respectable character. He is not a 
 minister appointed by the people : that absurdity was 
 not then thought of. He is under the appointment 
 and protection of a Deity ; he wears the insignia of 
 his power ; and is seconded in a miraculous way by 
 his interposition. The character is not given to him 
 by halves. No Heathens were what we now call Low 
 Churchmen : they carried things to such a height on 
 the contrary part, that I wonder Infidels do not burn 
 their books for teaching Tory principles, and bearing 
 such testimony against themselves. 
 
 Now let any man ask himself the question — How 
 Heathens ever came to think of such a thing as a 
 priest ? a minister appointed by Heaven, to officiate 
 between God and Man in holy things ? I say in holy 
 things ; for this is the reason of the name both in Greek 
 and Latin. 'Upevg is from 'Iepoe, sacred; and sacerdos 
 in Latin from sacer. They never would, they never 
 could, have thought of this, unless a priest had been 
 first appointed by the true God. We go back to the 
 times, when all the earth was of one religion : from 
 which times, the Heathens began to carry off what we 
 find amongst them. The fact is in no other way to be 
 accounted for. Did nature ever invent a priest ? The 
 men of Nature, the Deists abhor the idea : they are 
 gentlemen who can do every thing for themselves : 
 they even look upon a Bishop at this day, not as an 
 object of reverence, but of scorn and mockery ; and 
 call his ministry juggling and conjuring. In bringing 
 things to this pass, Infidels have acted very unfairly : 
 and indeed no man who knows them would expect any 
 honesty from them. They have taken advantage of 
 
 VOL. vi. O 
 
194 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE 
 
 the forms and fopperies of Popery ; as if Christianity 
 had been nothing till the Papists had spoilt it. What 
 would Voltaire have done, if he could not have played 
 on Popish abuses, to make the character of a priest ri- 
 diculous ? But if he had lived in other times, and had 
 argued against the Heathen priests as he did against 
 the Christians, the Heathens would have put him to 
 death : perhaps they would have flayed him alive : 
 they would not have crowned him with roses, and set 
 up his image in their temples. They were mad enough 
 in many things ; but not so mad as that. Such acts 
 were reserved for the time when Christians should 
 run mad. 
 
 The case is then plain concerning the origin of 
 priesthood. It must have come either from God, or 
 from Nature, or from Tradition. From Nature it 
 could not come ; not a Deist in the nation will pre- 
 tend it. If it came from tradition, that tradition 
 must have had some true original ; and this is but 
 another way of saying that it came from God. 
 
 What we say of priesthood, we must say of sacri- 
 fice : they are relative terms : and one is nothing 
 without the other : for in the one we have the minis- 
 ter, and in the other the ministry. And here we shall 
 ask the same question as before. Did Nature think 
 of sacrifice as a duty ? Never. She pronounces it 
 to be folly. 
 
 — moritur cur victima pro te? 
 
 Stultitia est. 
 
 Is it possible for reason to conclude, that the Crea- 
 tor can be pleased with the destruction of his crea- 
 tures ? Can a guilty person become less guilty by add- 
 ing one offence to another? Here some consideration 
 must be admitted, which does violence to natural rea- 
 son : and this is, the doctrine of man's fall into a sin- 
 
RELIGIOUS WORSHIP OF THE HEATHENS. 195 
 
 ful state : for without this the whole is an absurdity : 
 it is an effect without a cause. To suppose sacrifice 
 is to suppose sin : and the heathen practice bears uni- 
 versal testimony to it : so that our Infidels have ano- 
 ther reason for burning their heathen books. I grant 
 that, when the Heathens themselves reasoned about 
 it, they said many foolish things ; nevertheless, the fact 
 is what I insist upon. Some of them thought that 
 animals were offered in sacrifice on a principle of re- 
 venge, because they did mischief. This might be a 
 reason for killing them, but no reason for offering 
 them to God by a religious act. The question still 
 recurs, how came they to imagine that this could be 
 an act of devotion, acceptable to God ? Is the Crea- 
 tor revengeful, because we are so ? Is he spiteful to 
 poor creatures for being such as he made them 1 Yet 
 in this foolish manner did some of them argue, when 
 they had lost the primary intention : they then thought 
 this to be the original : 
 
 Prima putatur 
 
 Hostia sus meruisse mori, quia semina pando 
 
 Eruerit rostro, spemque interceperit anni. Ovid, lib. xv. 
 
 But then they perceived, that not the most hurtful, 
 but the most harmless creatures were chiefly con- 
 demned to this use ; which, being contrary to the 
 other practice, makes it senseless and absurd. 
 
 Victima labe carens, et prsestantissima forma, 
 (Nam placuisse nocet). 
 
 This reason is in point against the other : for here 
 the victim is to be the most perfect of an harmless 
 kind : 
 
 Quid meruere boves ? animal sine fraude dolisque : — 
 Quid meruistis oves, placidum pecus, &c. 
 
 When people talk and give reasons in ignorance, 
 they are sure to betray themselves by talking incon- 
 o 2 
 
196 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE 
 
 sistently. The latter distinction, of which we speak, 
 is agreeable to the Divine Law, and leads to the doc- 
 trine of atonement : a victim ivithoid spot or blemish 
 was required, with great propriety. When Heathens 
 offered unclean animals, such as dogs and swine, I 
 am not clear whether they meant it as an affront to the 
 Mosaic distinction, or whether they judged impure 
 victims more acceptable to their impure deities. How 
 deplorable does human reason appear, when it departs 
 from the true God ! departs from the true God into 
 darkness, and then falls to giving its reasons ! Here 
 the wise man makes a worse figure than the idiot. 
 The Christian, who looks with his eyes open into the 
 regions of Heathenism, will often shake his head with 
 pity, as a sober man when he looks into Bedlam. The 
 more the Heathens were in the dark about this affair, 
 so much the better for my plan : for, if they practised 
 what they did not understand, it is evident, that the 
 practice was not the result of any reasoning of their 
 own, but that it was received from authority. The 
 more we reflect on this, the more we shall be per- 
 suaded of it : for nothing but authority will make a 
 wise man practise what he does not understand : and, 
 if it came from authority, that brings us at once to the 
 point I am aiming at. 
 
 Sacrifices, according to the Scripture, were used in 
 different capacities ; as expiations, purifications, and 
 preparatives to divine inspiration * : To expiate is to do 
 away sin by an act of piety ; the great act of piety, the 
 offering of a sacrifice ; from whence piety takes its 
 name : and it was never thought, from the days of 
 Cain and Abel, that there could be such a thing as 
 
 * They were used, as we shall see, under the same capacities 
 among the Heathens. 
 
RELIGIOUS WORSHIP OF THE HEATHENS. 197 
 
 piety to God without sacrifice. And the same holds 
 good to this day. He that does not offer to God 
 some sacrifice, is not pious, but impious ; his prayers 
 are an abomination. But how could such a persua- 
 sion enter the heart of man, otherwise than by Reve- 
 lation from God ? No man could think that the 
 shedding of innocent blood would take away sin, unless 
 he had been originally told so on unexceptionable au- 
 thority*; so that the very existence of such a thing 
 in the world is sufficient to prove that it came from 
 Revelation : and divines think with good reason that 
 it came in with the first promise in paradise — " the 
 seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head." 
 
 Sacrifices had also the name of purifications with 
 the Heathens : they were called KaOapnara, because 
 they took away the foulness of guilt, and purged the 
 conscience from the sense of sin. But, besides this, 
 they were certainly used as preparatives to divine in- 
 spiration. Balaam offered seven bullocks and seven 
 rams before he began his prophecy. And it is re- 
 markable, that the priestess in Virgil, before she pro- 
 phesies, prescribes the same animals, and in the same 
 number. 
 
 Nunc grege de intacto septem mactare juvencos 
 
 Praestiterit, totidem lectas de more bidentes. Lib. vi. 38. 
 
 The coincidence is here very remarkable, and must 
 have been derived from the highest antiquity. 
 
 But the false priests resembled the true in another 
 part of their office, beside that of offering sacrifice. 
 A priest was not only called 'IfpsOc, from his being 
 concerned in holy offerings ; he was also called 
 
 * They never would have injured themselves so much in their 
 property as to offer sacrifice, more especially when they offered he- 
 catombs at once. 
 
198 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE 
 
 iifitirrip, an intercessor, napa to apaaOat, o tcrriv tvytaQui, 
 
 from his offering prayers in behalf of the people : 
 and it was accounted a great offence for the people 
 to dishonour their intercessor ; and Homer tells us 
 how the Greeks suffered for it. 
 
 Ablutions or baptisms were prescribed, in the Di- 
 vine Law, as necessary to wash away the impurity 
 contracted by offending against it: particularly in the 
 case of those who touched the body of the slain : and 
 even to this day washing with water is the outward 
 sign of the washing away of sin * : and it was neces- 
 sary that the water used for sacred purposes should 
 be living water ; that is, not stagnant, but running 
 water. These ablutions were common among the 
 Heathens, and the water was of the same sort applied 
 on various occasions. In the case of iEneas, we have 
 nearly the whole doctrine. Having been defiled 
 among the slain, he declares himself unfit to meddle 
 with holy things, till he had washed his body with 
 living water, 
 
 Donee me flumine vivo 
 
 Abluero f. 
 
 The articles of wine, flour, cakes, oil, honey, incense, 
 salt, were all used by Heathens as in the law of 
 Moses : insomuch that I heard it once observed by a 
 learned man, to whom I looked up for much infor- 
 mation when I was young, that even Homer alone, 
 in the circumstantials of sacrifice, would nearly 
 
 * Pilate, an Heathen, washed his hands, to signify that his con- 
 science was clear of guilt. 
 
 + The same occurs in Homer. 
 
 Xtpal c)' avinToiaiv Aft Xtifiuv ciiOojra oiyov 
 
 " k'CofiaC ovlt TTt) ion KtKaivttyti Kpovliovt 
 
 A'i/ian Kai Xvdpid -Kt^aXay^ivov tvxtTaaoOat. £. 167. 
 
RELIGIOUS WORSHIP OF THE HEATHENS. 
 
 199 
 
 furnish us with the particulars of the Levitical 
 ritual. 
 
 But it is time now to consider, that the rites of wor- 
 ship require a place wherein they are to be performed. 
 In this place the Scripture was called the tabernacle 
 or temple, into which it was commanded that offerings 
 of every kind should be brought. The Heathens also 
 had their temples, and they were-almost as numerous 
 as their deities. In these their sacrifices were offered ; 
 and I suppose 'hpuov, a victim, to have been so called 
 from 'hpov, a temple : because it was the chief offering 
 made in that place. They affected a division in their 
 temples similar to that of the Jewish temple ; as that 
 had a secret place called the Holy of Holies, so had 
 they their adyta, with tripods and cortynae, and other 
 furniture, where the oracles were delivered. As to the 
 oracles themselves, I care not what they were : they 
 might be false in their matter, or false in their author ; 
 all I say is this, that there never would have been a 
 false oracle, unless there had been a true one. And 
 the same may be said of dreams ; which was another 
 mode of divine revelation ; and another name for a 
 prophet was a dreamer of dreams. The same charac- 
 ter we find in Homer*, on occasion of the Greeks de- 
 siring to know the reason why they were visited with 
 a plague. 
 
 'A\\' aye c>>/ Tiva fiavriv ipeiofiey, >; Upija 
 
 "II icoi 6veipoizo\ov (jcai yap t ovap eic Atog eariv). 
 
 I might collect many other circumstantials relating 
 to offerings, purifications, and ablutions ; but what I 
 have mentioned seem to me of principal consideration. 
 
 * And under both the names of fidvriQ 6veiponu\o<:. 
 
200 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE 
 
 But there is one custom of very high antiquity, which 
 ought not to be forgotten. We read that the Father 
 of the Faithful offered to Melchizedeeh, as the priest 
 of God, the tenths of the spoils he had taken in war. 
 This we find to have been the practice with Hea- 
 thens * ; who also paid tenths to their kings, for reli- 
 gious uses. Florus tells us, that the Romans sent the 
 tenths of the spoils they had taken, after a ten years' 
 siege, to Apollo Pythius. Lib. i. cap. 12. 
 
 As we read of many signal judgments in the Scrip- 
 tures; so there was an universal opinion, that the Gods 
 visited the sins of men, and had been known to have 
 done it personally. But, instead of searching for 
 particulars, I shall speak of one instance, which might 
 stand for all the rest; and this is the destruction of the 
 world by a flood. The testimony of Ovid is so well 
 known, that it need not be repeated ; but the fact is 
 attested by the Greeks as well as the Latins. They 
 relate, that the present race of wicked men are not the 
 first that were upon earth ; for that there were a former 
 race, who all perished ; and that the present race 
 came from Deucalion, a man who survived the flood, 
 by entering into an ark with his family, and all kinds 
 of living creatures, none of which hurt him: that this 
 fact was annually commemorated at the temple of 
 Juno, in Syria, a temple said to have been originally 
 built in commemoration of the flood. All this may be 
 found in Lucian's Treatise de Dea Syria, quoted by 
 Grotius, lib.i. 16. Mr. Bryant has taken great pains to 
 show, in his Analysis of Ancient Mythology, what foun- 
 dation the Arkite ceremonies of the Heathens had in 
 Divine Revelation. For this he has met with his due 
 praise : but it is much to be regretted, that when he 
 
 * Joscphus gives many examples from Heathens in his Antiqui- 
 ties. 
 
RELIGIOUS WORSHIP OF THE HEATHENS. 201 
 
 had so fair an opportunity, he did not also show, that 
 other ceremonies of their religious worship had the 
 same foundation, and bore their testimony to the same 
 authority. I believe it may be said with truth, that 
 there never was a single rite in general use among 
 Heathens which was not founded in Revelation *. 
 Mr. Bryant would then have done what the learned 
 Dr. Spencer ought to have done when he did exactly 
 the contrary. He preposterously deduced the rites of 
 the Hebrews from the rites of the Heathens ; and so 
 produced a work of learned appearance, and com- 
 posed in elegant Latin, but disgraceful to Christian 
 Divinity, dishonourable to the Church of England, 
 and affording a very bad example to vain scholars who 
 should succeed him. The Hebrew rites, he contends, 
 were derived from the Heathen rites. But this posi- 
 tion laid him under an obligation which he did not 
 foresee : for the Heathen religion, like that of the He- 
 brews, abounded also with miracles. Did the Hebrews 
 derive their miracles also from the miracles of the 
 Heathens 1 This one question, to my apprehension, 
 makes nonsense of his whole scheme. The true Reli- 
 gion had its miracles. Its miracles were the creden- 
 tials of its doctrines. Those who professed that reli- 
 gion believed and knew them to be true, because their 
 eyes had seen them. This their Heathen enemies 
 knew ; and, resolving not to be behind them, overact- 
 ed the part, and multiplied miracles to such a degree, 
 that they became fulsome and ridiculous : and here we 
 shall find the true reason Avhy they so universally hated 
 the nation of the Jews. When a man is a plagiary, 
 he either hides the original out of which he borrows, 
 or represents it as worthless and contemptible. When 
 
 * And so far as their rites differed, they were corruptions ; as. 
 when they offered unclean animals in sacrifice. 
 
202 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE 
 
 boys are taught to read Heathen historians, they find 
 so much of this miracle-making, that they wonder not 
 at it. But it is a wonderful thing ; and they should 
 stop to think about it : for how came Heathens to 
 dream of such things as miracles 1 No man could 
 dream of a thunder-storm, unless he had heard one. 
 The reason of an Infidel, in these days, tells him there 
 can be no such thing as a miracle. But the man who 
 says this, must give us a reason why they were so 
 universally received among the Heathens. Dr. Mid- 
 dleton would reason upwards, from the legendary 
 miracles of the Papists, to the Apostolical miracles of 
 Christianity, and conclude them all legendary : but 
 we will reason down to them, and make the false 
 prove the true ; for the false would never have ex- 
 isted, but for the true, which made way for them. 
 
 Is any man so weak as to think, that base money 
 came into use before true money? That the shadow 
 was made first, and the substance afterwards ? Ridicu- 
 lous! Heathens knew that there had been true mira- 
 cles wrought by the true God for his people ; there- 
 fore they never questioned the reality of miracles — 
 they knew too well — and feeling it a defect and dis- 
 grace to them, that they had no miracles of their own 
 to support them, they fabricated them in such abund- 
 ance, that the Heathen Celsus impudently argued, that 
 the miracles of the Scripture were borrowed from the 
 miracles of their mythology. But what can our poor 
 modern Infidel say ? The weight of the evidence, pro- 
 fane and sacred, for the existence of miracles, is so 
 great on both sides, that between them he is crushed to 
 death: his scheme cannot last a moment. If the phi- 
 losopher Hume's arguments against miracles had then 
 been produced, they would have made a wretched 
 figure ; though Christians may be so bewitched as to 
 
RELIGIOUS WORSHIP OF THE HEATHENS. 203 
 
 listen to them, the Heathens themselves would have 
 cast them out. This is a strange case, and it shows 
 us that no man can rightly judge of the enemies of 
 God, till he compares them with one another ; and 
 then he will see how senseless they are. Truth being 
 one, the friends of God are alike in all ages : but error 
 being various, and never able to fix its foot any where, 
 produces nothing but inconsistent characters. When 
 all the kings ivest of Jordan, and all the Canaanites, 
 heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan 
 from before the children of Israel, until we were passed 
 over, then their heart melted ; neither was there spirit 
 in them any more. Thus it was then ; now, indeed, 
 the time is remote, the thing is pronounced impossi- 
 ble, and the fact itself is denied : but Mr. Leslie's argu- 
 ment sets all that to rights. The Heathens of Canaan 
 knew that there was a power which wrought true 
 miracles for the people of God ; and the correspond- 
 ing society of Heathens would communicate it to one 
 another, and never forget it afterwards : the report 
 went down to their posterities ; and nothing remained, 
 but to make as many miracles as they could of their 
 own, in order to maintain the credit of their false dei- 
 ties * ; and their universal practice is a demonstration 
 of miracles that were true. Every boy that reads Livy, 
 or Florus, or Homer, or Virgil, will see how univer- 
 sally miracles were admitted among the Heathens. 
 What they were I care not : I am contented with 
 knowing that there never was a shadow without a sub- 
 stance ; and that there is not an Infidel upon earth 
 who can speak sense upon this subject. How far 
 Satan might sometimes interfere, to make Heathen 
 
 * Cadmus very likely brought a great deal of this knowledge 
 into Greece. 
 
204 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE 
 
 prodigies real, I do not inquire now : because the Infi- 
 del will not choose to come off that way. The suppo- 
 sition would be fatal: for then the Devil, who deluded 
 Heathens, may delude him. There was a time when 
 he deceived the world, by showing himself openly : for 
 God then showed himself openly ; but the same end is 
 answered now by hiding himself : though his works 
 betray him to Christians, and ever will, as effectually 
 as if they saw him acting in person. 
 
 If the Bible describes or predicts the appearance of 
 divine persons upon earth, say not the Heathens the 
 same ? We are stunned with the exploits of the sons 
 of their Gods and Goddesses. Achilles, the hero of 
 Homer, is like the Hero first predicted in the book 
 of Genesis, vulnerable only in the heel. If we read 
 that heavenly beings are visible to some and not to 
 others, we find the like in Homer, as when Minerva 
 comes to Achilles from Heaven : 
 
 O'tw <paii'Ofitvri, tUv & aWuiv ovtig vparo. 
 
 She appears to him alone, while nobody else could 
 see her. See Daniel, x. 7. 
 
 If we read of beasts speaking with human voice, 
 we find the same in Virgil * : 
 
 . pecudesque locutae. 
 
 In short, there is scarcely a sign or a wonder re- 
 corded in the Bible, but we find something of the same 
 sort in the history which the Heathens give of them- 
 selves, and their gods ; even to the restoring the dead 
 to life ; it being told of Jupiter, that he restored 
 
 * Some of these things I noted long ago, in Letters from a Tutor 
 to his Pupils. 
 
RELIGIOUS WORSHIP OF THE HEATHENS. 205 
 
 Pelops, who had been slaughtered by his father. It 
 seems more remarkable that they should borrow the 
 wonders of the sacred History, than that they should 
 use the same ceremonies in their religion : for, when 
 they undertook to set up a religion against God, they 
 found themselves baffled and discomfited in their first 
 attempt ; they had nothing to begin with, and so were 
 under the necessity of taking such rites as they found, 
 and changing the application of them to false objects, 
 to make it answer their wicked purpose. Thus it 
 came to pass, that although they abhorred the Jews 
 for denying their gods, they all used the same rites 
 of divine worship : which is a prodigious fact ; but 
 we are so early accustomed to it, that it does not 
 strike us. 
 
 But I think we may go a step farther : for, though 
 it may seem strange to say it, yet learned men have 
 thought, with good reason, that, even the false objects 
 which the Heathens worshipped were taken from Re- 
 velation ; for God, being an invisible spirit, could 
 never be known to men from the beginning of the 
 world, but through the emblematic visible powers of 
 nature ; particularly by the power of fire, which at- 
 tended his presence in Egypt, at the burning bush, 
 then in the Red Sea, and afterwards at Mount Horeb, 
 when the law was delivered. All this while, the Spi- 
 rit of God, thus represented, was invisible ; conse- 
 quently an object of faith. This they lost, having their 
 reasons for not retaining it in their minds, and took 
 the visible fire of Nature for the true object, when it 
 was nothing but the figure. Mr. Bryant, in his His- 
 tory of Mythology, shows abundantly, that fire was 
 the first and great object of ancient idolatry all over 
 the world : and the fire of the natural world being the 
 Sun, they made him the standing object of adoration. 
 
206 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE 
 
 And Macrobius, a very learned Heathen, has a long 
 chapter, in which he attempts (but overstrains the 
 point) to reduce all the gods of Heathenism to the 
 Sun, which the Scripture itself uses as an emblem of 
 HIM, in whom there is no darkness. So that, upon 
 the whole, if we examine Heathenism, and turn it 
 about on every side, it answers the purpose of my 
 argument, and gives never-failing testimony to an 
 original revelation. There was absolutely nothing 
 original in Heathens, but only that rebellious wicked- 
 ness, which turned every thing to a wrong use. They 
 invented little ; but abused every thing. 
 
 These sacrifices, which were originally offered to 
 God, they offered to impure, revengeful, cruel, be- 
 ings, whom the Apostle calls devils ; who were never 
 content, in any part of the world, without human sa- 
 crifices. Wherever was Heathenism there was hu- 
 man sacrifice, which must have been derived from a 
 knowledge, that man was to atone for man ; not only 
 the ancient Molochians, but the more polished Greeks 
 and Romans. Homer, at the death of Patroclus, and 
 Virgil at the funeral of Pallas. The act of Q. Cur- 
 tius most probably proceeded from the same idea, 
 that one man must perish for the redemption of 
 others. Their objects, the elements, which were in- 
 nocent as they stand in Scripture, were abominable 
 and detestable, when taken for realities; and Mr. 
 Bryant hath shown how the plagues of Egypt were 
 generally aimed at the false objects of Heathen wor- 
 ship : but the author of the Book of Wisdom had told 
 us the same long before : " for look for what things 
 they grudged, when they were punished, that is, for 
 them whom they thought to be gods ; now being pu- 
 nished in them, when they saw it, they acknowledged 
 him to be the true God, whom they before denied to 
 
 13 
 
RELIGIOUS WORSHIP OF THE HEATHENS. 207 
 
 know, and therefore came extreme damnation upon 
 them." Wisd. xii. 27. 
 
 From all that has been said, I have two inferences 
 to make. 
 
 I. That, if Heathen books give this testimony to 
 Divine Revelation, we should use them for the best 
 end they are capable of answering, the confirmation 
 of our own faith. They will never draw us away 
 from God, if we understand what Heathenism is, and 
 whence it came; nor should we ever omit to take ad- 
 vantage of it, in our arguments against Infidels. Thus 
 it will answer a purpose contrary to its intention and 
 nature ; it will confirm what it was intended to con- 
 found : as when " out of the eater came forth meat ;" 
 and it will be happy for us, if our teachers of youth 
 will give them such hints occasionally, as will ac- 
 quaint them with this use of it. We shall not then 
 be long under the dominion of profligate scholars, 
 who use their heathen learning for no end, but as an 
 instrument of evil, to corrupt and destroy the Chris- 
 tian world ; increasing all that misery daily, which 
 abounds too much already. 
 
 II. I would also recommend, that the deplorable 
 consequences of a departure from the true God should 
 be pointed out to all school-boys, as the Apostle has 
 displayed them in the first chapter to the Romans : 
 which was intended as a warning against the corrup- 
 tions of Heathenism, and should never be forgotten 
 to the end of the world. It is full as necessary now, 
 as when the Apostle wrote it. For these times have 
 now brought us about to a parallel apostacy in the 
 French nation ; worse in its guilt than the original 
 departure to Heathenism ; and, I believe, worse in its 
 fruits. All that the Apostle has said of the ancient 
 Heathens and their abominable morals may now be 
 
208 CONSIDERATIONS, &C. 
 
 applied to the French, in whom it is fully verified, so 
 that they are become the very pests of the earth, and 
 their metropolis, in the literal sense of the words, a 
 second Sodom. Heathenism will be no source of 
 corruption to Christians, who, with their eyes open, 
 remember the dreadful effects of it of old, and see 
 the consequences of it now : from which may God 
 defend all those young men, who are now on the road 
 to a learned education ! and in this prayer, I am con- 
 fident you, Reverend Sir, will most heartily join with 
 
 Your faithful and 
 
 obedient humble Servant, 
 
 WILLIAM JONES. 
 
 Nayland, March 3, 1799. 
 
LETTER 
 
 TO 
 
 THREE CONVERTED JEWS, 
 
 LATELY 
 
 BAPTIZED AND CONFIRMED 
 
 IN THE 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 " When thou art converted, strengthen thy Brethren." 
 
 Luke xii. 32. 
 
 VOL. VI. 
 
 P 
 
A 
 
 LETTER, 
 
 MY CHRISTIAN FRIENDS, 
 
 For your late happy conversion to the Christian Re- 
 ligion, I am more than thankful ; I glorify God for it ; 
 and I am persuaded, all true believers in Jesus Christ 
 will do the same : for you are now become the chil- 
 dren of Abraham's faith, and heirs of the promises 
 made to him. Before, you were only the children of 
 his nature, as your Jewish brethren are : and if we 
 lament over them, as over those that are dead, we are 
 to rejoice over you as persons who are alive from the 
 dead. We are much surprized when a single Jew 
 becomes a Christian ; but that three should become 
 so at once is a great event ; which would give us 
 great encouragement, if we might presume to consider 
 it as the first fruits of an harvest not far off ; when 
 your nation shall have their eyes opened to discover 
 that Jesus Christ, whom they despised and rejected, 
 is the true Saviour of the world. 
 
 The Christian Religion in these last days having as- 
 sumed various forms, and being even without form ; 
 I am thankful that the good providence of God hath 
 directed you to that form of it which is still preserved 
 by the Church of England ; as sound a part of the 
 p 2 
 
212 
 
 A LETTER TO 
 
 Church of Christ, in its profession, as is to be found 
 this day upon earth ; I wish we might say as much 
 for its discipline ; and from it you may certainly re- 
 ceive what the Church of Christ hath to give. On 
 one side of it we see the errors and usurpations of the 
 Church of Rome ; on the other the lamentable divi- 
 sions of the sectaries : who are to be peaceably ad- 
 monished of that certain ruin which division must 
 sooner or later bring upon the Christian world. Your 
 high priest, Aaron, was no universal bishop : he pre- 
 sided over one peculiar nation, who were the chosen 
 people of God. And when the nations of the world 
 were taken into one great Catholic church, so called to 
 distinguish it from the Jewish particular church, there 
 was no universal bishop, but our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 the chief Shepherd and Bishop of our souls : and every 
 national church was governed by bishops of its own, 
 of whom we know the succession to these days, down 
 to bishops of our own time : and you have had the 
 blessing of being confirmed by one of the best of them. 
 As your friend in Christ Jesus, I wish you to be far- 
 ther instructed in the state of the case between us and 
 the unbelieving Jews ; that you may be enabled not 
 only to stand your ground, but to perform the blessed 
 office of leading others into the truth. Though I can 
 say sincerely with St. Paul, " that my heart's desire 
 and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be 
 saved ;" yet I dare not indulge a hope, that any 
 feeble efforts of mine, or any thing I can teach you to 
 say, will have effect on the Jews as a body, or on any 
 considerable number of them, after they have so long 
 resisted the arguments of wise and learned men. 
 Whenever that shall happen, and by whatever instru- 
 ments, it must be the Lord's doing, and it will be mar- 
 vellous in our eyes. But the cause should never be 
 
THREE CONVERTED JEWS. 
 
 213 
 
 neglected : it is not to be given up in despair ; for 
 St. Paul assures us God is able (there is therefore no 
 determination to the contrary,) to graft his people in 
 again into their own olive, if they abide not still in un- 
 belief. And the most promising method we can pursue, 
 is to make use of their brethren whose eyes are opened, 
 and by them to present a new sort of evidence, which 
 Jews are not prepared to answer or evade. The evi- 
 dence I mean is that of signs ; such as our Saviour 
 himself gave them from the Scripture of his own future 
 resurrection. He gave them the sign of the prophet 
 Jonah, swallowed for three days into the belly of a sea 
 monster, and cast up alive upon the land. If the 
 books of the prophets had been half filled with pre- 
 dictions in words, this one sign will have more force 
 than them all on those who believe the fact : which, 
 how it is possible to believe, without also believing 
 the fact foreshown by it, I see not. Because there 
 never would have been so strange a fact brought to 
 pass in the world, as the return of Jonah from the 
 belly of a fish ; but for the sake of the resurrection of 
 Jesus Christ from the heart of the earth, which in due 
 time was to follow : and in the mind of God, the fact 
 of Christ was before the fact of Jonah. 
 
 This is the sort of evidence I would use, to prove 
 what the Jews disbelieve of Christ and his religion. 
 Men disbelieve truth, because they have first em- 
 braced error, and cannot part with it. This we shall 
 find to have been the case with the Jews, whose 
 errors were these following. 
 
 That God had promised to them in their father 
 Abraham the possession of the land of Canaan ; that 
 is, the enjoyment of this present world ; and that they 
 were to serve him with this expectation. This was 
 their first and greatest error; the foundation of all the 
 
214 
 
 A LETTER TO 
 
 rest. For from hence it followed, that the kingdom 
 of their Messiah was to be a kingdom of this world ; 
 and as Jesus of Nazareth did not affect such a king- 
 dom, but declined it, they concluded he could not be 
 the person ; and that God had showed it, by leaving 
 him to be despised, persecuted, and put to a shameful 
 death. Concerning themselves they thought, that as 
 God had chosen them for his people, they should 
 never fall away, and be separated from him. That 
 their law and their temple being intended for perpe- 
 tuity, would never be abolished. And, lastly, that the 
 Church of God and its privileges could not be ex- 
 tended to the Gentiles, and that the Gentiles never 
 would be taken into it. 
 
 Such were the doctrines of the Jews when Jesus 
 Christ came amongst them. In these doctrines their 
 teachers had brought them up ; and by the prejudice 
 of their education they thought them all true ; but 
 they were every one false, and the New Testament 
 hath taught us how to answer them. 
 
 REFUTATION OF THEIR FIRST ERROR. 
 
 God, they thought, had promised them the pos- 
 session of this world in their father Abraham. To 
 this we answer, that such could not have been the 
 sense of the promise to them, because it never had 
 been so fulfilled to Abraham to whom it was made. 
 The life of Abraham had not been a life of possession 
 and enjoyment, but of trial and pilgrimage, from the 
 time when God first called him, to the end of his days. 
 He was commanded to leave his country and kindred, 
 and go out as a stranger into a land, which, as he had 
 never seen, could only be an object of his faith. When 
 
THREE CONVERTED JEWS. 
 
 215 
 
 he was removed into the land of Judea, no inheritance 
 was given him in that land, not so much as to set his 
 foot on : he had no possession in it, but a place for a 
 burying-ground ; and that he paid for with his own 
 money, that it might never be mistaken for a part of 
 the promised inheritance. Isaac and Jacob, who 
 were heirs with him of the same promise, led the same 
 kind of life, confessed themselves pilgrims and stran- 
 gers upon earth, and died without receiving any pos- 
 session in this world. 
 
 How did it happen then, that their posterity, who 
 had this history constantly before them, should make 
 so fatal a mistake ? How came they to be so ensnared 
 by this world ; so irrationally, so totally contrary to 
 the example of their forefathers ? The case was this : 
 to the obedience of the law, which came afterwards, 
 the rewards of this world were promised. Thus it 
 came to pass, that the Books of Moses contained two 
 sorts of promises. To the obedience of faith, such 
 as was the obedience of the Patriarchs, the spiritual 
 promise of the other world was given, as in those 
 words of God to Abraham : " I am thy shield, and 
 " thy exceeding great reward." But to this the Jews 
 were blind ; and seeing the present world also pro- 
 mised to another sort of obedience, they fixed upon 
 that, and there they stopped. The mire and clay of 
 this world was from thenceforward upon their eyes ; 
 and so they could not see what their forefather Abra- 
 ham would have seen, and have leaped for joy at the 
 sight : for to his mind, who had given up the world for 
 God, there were none of these impediments. A mis- 
 understanding of the law, which came afterwards, did 
 all the mischief, and does to this day. This was the 
 first error of the Jews, and is now their great stum- 
 bling-stone. 
 
216 
 
 A LETTER TO 
 
 REFUTATION OF THEIR SECOND ERROR. 
 
 Their second error was in consequence of the first. 
 Jesus Christ did not put them in possession of this 
 world, therefore he could not be the person they ex- 
 pected. And they were obliged to determine, before 
 they examined his credentials, that he was not the 
 Messiah : and then made their own vile treatment of 
 him an argument against him. But here again they 
 were blinded, and proved the very thing they meant to 
 deny, by fulfilling the Scripture. For had not Jesus 
 Christ been persecuted by them, he would have been 
 neither a Saviour nor a prophet to them; for thus had 
 saviours and prophets been persecuted by them 
 before ; and that with such singular circumstances, as 
 to foreshew, in a wonderful manner, what the great 
 Saviour and Prophet of all should suffer from them. 
 Examples of this might be multiplied : but two, which 
 are full to the purpose, will be more than sufficient. 
 The first is that of Joseph ; a man wise, innocent, and 
 great, beyond the example of any before him : but en- 
 vied and hated by his brethren, and sold for a slave to 
 heathen Egyptians. His enemies intended this for his 
 ruin, but God turned it all to good, and highly exalted 
 him. Heathens, to whom he had been sold, bowed 
 the knee before him : his own family were preserved 
 from perishing ; and thus he became the Saviour of 
 all, to whom every knee should bow, both of his own 
 family and strangers. But see how this man was 
 treated: look at him, and believe your eyes. He was 
 persecuted and imprisoned under a malicious and false 
 accusation. He was sold, and by his own brethren, 
 who ought to have loved and admired him. And if 
 
THREE CONVERTED JEWS. 
 
 217 
 
 you look into your Bibles, you will find it was Judah 
 who contrived the selling of him, of the same name 
 with the traitor who sold Jesus Christ : and the re- 
 presentative of the whole Jewish nation. When I 
 read these things, I am astonished. Here is a man 
 perfectly just and innocent, so humbled, as never in- 
 nocent man had been humbled before. He is an 
 humble man, so exalted, as never humble man had 
 been exalted before ; and it was all from God, who had 
 given to him a prophetic spirit. We have here a sort 
 of evidence stronger than prophecy. A sign so exactly 
 suited to the thing signified, as if the truth itself had 
 been acted beforehand. Joseph did not indeed die 
 and rise again ; but he was cast into a dry pit, and 
 came out of it alive. He was not actually crucified ; 
 but he suffered with two malefactors, and he promised 
 life to one of them. How could his history come 
 nearer to the truth ? But there is a circumstance still 
 behind, most remarkably to our purpose ; for Joseph 
 was met twice by his brethren, and at the first meeting 
 they knew him not, but at the second meeting he was 
 made known to them. And thus we trust it will 
 be at some future day, when the brethren of Jesus 
 Christ shall become sensible of their crime with the 
 brethren of Joseph, and say in the bitterness of their 
 souls " we are verily guilty concerning our brother, 
 in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he be- 
 sought us, and we would not hear, therefore have all 
 our evils come upon us." O think of this, ye who 
 with unpitying eyes beheld the agonies of your Sa- 
 viour, and let your hearts, at least, be melted. How 
 ought Jews to rend their garments when they think 
 on these things ! 
 
 They have amongst them an absurd doctrine of two 
 Messiahs, as necessary to satisfy the different predic- 
 
218 
 
 A LETTER TO 
 
 tions of the Scripture; the one a suffering character, 
 the other glorious and triumphant. But were there 
 two Josephs ? Was not he that was sold and falsely 
 accused, and imprisoned, the same Joseph, before 
 whom men bowed their knee, and his own brethren 
 fell prostrate ? Think of this and confess the truth, 
 which you are not able to avoid. 
 
 Such is the history of Joseph : after which let it 
 never be objected to the true Saviour, that he was 
 persecuted and afflicted ; for so it was to be according 
 to the Scriptures. And we have another great ex- 
 ample of it in the person of Moses, who said, " a 
 prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you 
 of your brethren like unto me." And the likeness 
 appears as soon as they are born : for at the time 
 when Moses was born, there was a massacre of He- 
 brew infants, from which Moses escaped in a wonder- 
 ful manner. At the birth of Christ there was a mas- 
 sacre of Hebrew infants in Bethlehem. Herod knew 
 not what he did; but he acted the part of Pharaoh to 
 fulfil the Scripture, and shew that a Ruler and De- 
 liverer was born to the nation of the Jews. The wise 
 men of the East said, " we have seen his star, and are 
 come to worship him." And if there had been such 
 wise men at Jerusalem, they might have said, we have 
 seen the massacre of Hebrew infants, and thence let 
 us conclude, that a prophet like unto Moses is born 
 amongst us. The first time this Moses offered himself 
 as a deliverer to his people, they took him for a de- 
 stroyer, and said, " wilt thou kill me as thou didst the 
 " Egyptian ?" He supposed that his brethren must 
 have understood hisdesign,buttheyunderstood it not, 
 and put him from them. What a promising appear- 
 ance was it to people, crying and sorrowing under op- 
 pression as they were, that an Hebrew should come 
 
THREE CONVERTED JEWS. 
 
 219 
 
 out of the court of their tyrant Pharaoh, to take part 
 with the Hebrews against the Egyptians ! We should 
 expect they would have received such a man as an 
 angel of God : but they were blind, and objected that 
 to him as a crime, which was a sign of his commission 
 from God to be their deliverer. When he would have 
 restored them to peace, they insolently demanded, 
 " who made thee a ruler and a judge ?" Thus was that 
 Moses treated, whose memory they now hold in 
 honour. They know now, that God made him a ruler 
 and a judge : but in the day of their visitation, they 
 knew it not, when it most concerned them to know it, 
 and when all circumstances concurred to make it de- 
 sirable, and render it intelligible. Their ignorance 
 drove Moses from them into an heathen land, where 
 he formed an alliance, and had a family of heathen 
 extraction. On a review of these circumstances, we 
 may now say in the words of the Scripture : This 
 Moses whom they refused, the same did Godsend to be 
 a ruler and deliverer, by the hands of the angel which 
 appeared to him in the bush. They refused him; but 
 God gave him a commission from heaven : their re- 
 fusal therefore was no argument against him ; but it 
 gives us a very strong argument against them, inas- 
 much as it sheweth plainly to all that understand the 
 ways of God, and the words of Scripture, that the 
 same people who had refused Moses, should after- 
 wards refuse Jesus Christ: and we appeal to the 
 whole, as a proof that Jesus Christ was the true Mes- 
 siah : and let the disciples of Moses think of it. When 
 the facts of Joseph, and Moses, and Jesus Christ are 
 laid together, the evidence thence arising is so full, 
 and of so peculiar a sort, that it appears to me irre- 
 sistible. 
 
 The first two and greatest errors of the Jews are 
 
220 
 
 A LETTER TO 
 
 answered. Jesus Christ did not give this world to 
 them ; for it was not given to Abraham, so much 
 better than they were, and to whom the promise was 
 first made. His lot, like that of Christians, was tri- 
 bulation in this world, and reward in another. Jesus 
 Christ was persecuted and rejected by his own peo- 
 ple : but so were the greatest prophets and deliver- 
 ers before him : and if it had not been thus, the 
 signs of the Scripture could not have had their sig- 
 nification. 
 
 REFUTATION OF A THIRD ERROR. 
 
 If we go on to examine the other false doctrines of 
 the Jews, we may not find them so considerable as 
 the foregoing ; but still they were such as had great 
 weight in producing their apostacy. Knowing them- 
 selves to be the chosen people of God, they presumed 
 on their privilege, and were confident they should 
 never be cast off. But why so? They had been cast 
 off before, and therefore certainly might be cast off 
 again, upon a like occasion. They forgot Moses in 
 the wilderness, when he was absent from them in the 
 Holy Mount; and changed the God who had brought 
 them out of Egypt, into an idol, and offered sacrifices 
 to it; though Moses, while absent from them, was 
 present with God ; for their sakes, and on their busi- 
 ness. This was a dreadful crime ; and all Jews are 
 sensible of it. They say there has been a grain of 
 that golden calf in all the calamities they have suffered 
 since. But to this sin they added many others; and 
 committed many shameful idolatries ; for all which 
 God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of 
 heaven; till they were carried away captive into As- 
 
THREE CONVERTED JEWS. 
 
 221 
 
 syria, where ten of their tribes were lost : and after 
 that the rest were led captive to Babylon. If all this 
 had happened to them, it might happen again : and if 
 their crime should be greater, their separation from 
 God would be greater. And so they have found it. 
 Like Cain, and for the same crime, the murder of a 
 righteous brother, they have been fugitives and vaga- 
 bonds, not at Damascus or Babylon, but in the Earth; 
 scattered over all the world ; and with a mark set 
 upon them to distinguish them from all other people : 
 not but that the Turks have the same mark ; and 
 very properly ; for they are to be considered as Jewish 
 Heretics ; and our Unitarians, who are of the same 
 stock, ought to have the same mark. 
 
 How strange and deplorable after all this, that Jews 
 who had so shamefully apostatised, and been so se- 
 verely punished, should yet be inflated with a per- 
 suasion, that they ought always to have kept their 
 place and nation. For their idolatry they were carried 
 to Babylon ; but by murdering their Messiah, they 
 fell into the condemnation of Cain, and became fugi- 
 tives and vagabonds in the earth, and hid from the 
 face and worship of the Lord. Are these the people 
 who thought they could never lose their country ? 
 But they who had lost it before might lose it again. 
 So deeply as they must feel this error, wonderful it 
 is that they do not see it : but this they never will 
 do till God shall open their eyes. 
 
 REFUTATION OF THE FOURTH ERROR. 
 
 The Jews had another false opinion about their 
 Temple. They concluded, that as it was built for its 
 own sake, it would be perpetual. But it was not built 
 
222 
 
 A LETTER TO 
 
 for its own sake. Moses had given them to under- 
 stand, that it was only a copy of an heavenly and per- 
 manent original. In the form of a tabernacle, which 
 it had at first, it was said of it, " See thou make all 
 things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the 
 Mount." What is the design of a tabernacle ? Is it 
 not a House for God to dwell in ? If so, that House 
 in which God dwelleth must be the true tabernacle. 
 But we are told that God dwelleth not in temples 
 made with hands. The fulness of the Godhead dwelt 
 bodily in the person of Christ, as the glory of God 
 had formerly filled the temple. His body, therefore, 
 was the true building, in which the temple was ful- 
 filled ; and he called it by its true name, when he said 
 to the Jews, destroy this temple, meaning his body, 
 which he said he would raise again. When the Jews 
 had killed that body, their own temple very soon fell 
 to ruins, and has never been raised since : which 
 shews us how the nature of it was mistaken by those 
 who thought it perpetual. 
 
 REFUTATION OF THE FIFTH ERROR. 
 
 They were under the same mistake about their 
 law, as about their temple : for neither was that an 
 original. Its services had a shadow and pattern of 
 the good things which were to be under the Gospel ; 
 so that there was a sense in which the law was empty 
 till the Gospel had fulfilled it. Jews were enraged at 
 Christians for attempting to change the customs which 
 Moses had delivered. But how did they change them ? 
 only by shewing their true use and signification. The 
 law of Moses had been observed by the Jews as an out- 
 ward law : the Christians made it inward and spiritual; 
 11 
 
THREE CONVERTED JEWS. 
 
 223 
 
 and thus changed its old temporary form into one that 
 was perpetual. It is not destroyed, because the spirit 
 of it is preserved ; which spirit we Christians have ; 
 and so are more truly Jews than the Jews ever were. 
 Their law is killed, as God kills a righteous man, when 
 the body dies, but the soul lives. Thus we have the 
 circumcision of the heart, which Moses commanded : 
 they have the circumcision of the flesh ; which their 
 fathers had who fell in the wilderness, and came short 
 of the promised land. They have the Lamb of Moses, 
 which was sacrificed in Egypt : we have the Lamb of 
 God, which taketh away the sin of the world. We 
 have therefore saved the law, which the Jews have 
 lost ; and our law shall never be changed, so long as 
 the world lasts. O that the Jews had this law ! they 
 would then be Israelites indeed, and love Moses bet- 
 ter than ever they did before. 
 
 REFUTATION OF THE SIXTH AND LAST ERROR. 
 
 But Jews never were more offended, than when 
 it was thought possible that the Gentiles should be 
 made partakers of the same covenant with themselves. 
 And they were about to cast Jesus Christ headlong 
 from a mountain, as an enemy to his country, for the 
 most distant allusion to it. They heard Paul pa- 
 tiently, till he declared his mission to the Gentiles ; 
 and then they immediately became outrageous. But 
 who shall dare to say, the Church of the Jews should 
 never go to the Gentiles ; when the first Church the 
 Jews ever had was carried to them ? The tabernacle 
 of witness in the wilderness was carried with Joshua 
 (Jesus) into the possession of the Gentiles: it went 
 into Canaan while the Gentiles were in possession of 
 
224 
 
 A LETTER TO 
 
 the country ; and thereby showed that the Christian 
 Church should go with our Jesus, when he should 
 pass into the Gentile world. They who went into 
 Canaan with Joshua were a new generation : those 
 who came out with Moses fell with him in the wil- 
 derness. Thus have the followers of Jesus attained 
 the promises, after the Jews had fallen short of them. 
 
 If you look at the furniture of the temple, you find 
 a curious article which conveys the same doctrine. 
 There was a brazen sea, with twelve oxen underneath 
 it ; with their faces pointing to the four quarters of 
 the world : thereby showing, that the laver of Chris- 
 tian regeneration for the baptizing of the world should 
 be carried out into all nations by the twelve Apostles 
 of Jesus Christ. The Scripture has other signs of 
 the baptizing of the Gentiles. There were many le- 
 pers in Israel in the days of Elisha : — but the prophet 
 who was sent to none of them cured Naaman the Sy- 
 rian, by sending him to wash in the sacred river of 
 Jordan. With this fact our Saviour presses the Jews; 
 showing them what would be from what had been ; 
 and they were not able to bear it. The Queen of the 
 South came from a remote land of the Gentiles to 
 hear the wisdom of Solomon ; and carried back with 
 her the religion of Solomon into her own country. 
 This was another sign that Christ should be received 
 by the Gentiles. And what shall I more say ? Did 
 not your lawgiver Moses go into an heathen land, 
 and form an alliance there ? But not till he had of- 
 fered himself to his own people and been forced to 
 fly from them. So the Apostles of Jesus Christ 
 turned not to the Gentiles, till the Jews had put from 
 them the word of life. 
 
THREE CONVERTED JEWS. 
 
 225 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Such is the sort of argument, by which I would at 
 this time refute the errors of the Jews; as being 
 more likely to take effect upon them, than any I have 
 yet met with. I borrow the whole plan from an in- 
 spired disciple of Jesus Christ, the blessed St. Ste- 
 phen, the first Christian Martyr ; who tried all I have 
 said, and more than I have been able to say, upon the 
 High Priest and Council of the Jews, with no effect, 
 but that of provoking them to put him to death ; the 
 answer which power often gives to truth for want of a 
 better. It appears that St. Paul heard Stephen's apo- 
 logy without being converted. But he could then 
 hear nothing, when his mind, agitated with the fury of 
 opposition, breathed out threatenings and slaughter. 
 The miraculous power of God's grace was necessary 
 to him, before the scales of Jewish blindness fell from 
 his eyes. And the same grace, in its proper degree, 
 is necessary before any Jew can hear these things now : 
 and I should not dare to try the experiment now, but 
 with some hopes that their hearts may be better pre- 
 pared, and the grace of God may no longer be with- 
 held. Then may the pattern of St. Paul be accom- 
 plished in his brethren, who shall at length believe as 
 he did to life everlasting. Little good can be done on 
 any other terms. I take, as nearly as I can, the same 
 ground with St. Stephen in the 7th chapter of the Acts 
 of the Apostles : whose apology I had often read, 
 without being able to see the force of it : the whole 
 seemed rather unmeaning and impertinent to my great 
 surprise. Yet I was convinced the Jews must have 
 seen it, because they so much felt it, and put him to 
 death for it. After much consideration, I saw its re- 
 VOL. vi. Q 
 
226 
 
 A LETTER TO 
 
 lation to the character and sufferings of Jesus Christ 
 and the nature of his religion : and from that moment 
 I wished, for more than thirty years, for some oppor- 
 tunity of trying it on some Jews in this age of the world : 
 and the late happy conversion gives me the opportu- 
 nity I wished for. In Stephen's time it did not suc- 
 ceed ; it could not possibly, when circumstances were 
 so different, and prejudices so violent. But times are 
 now greatly altered, and wonderful things have inter- 
 vened. Their temple which was then standing is now 
 fallen, and has not one stone upon another. Their 
 whole oeconomy is overthrown. The Romans whom 
 they stirred up against Jesus Christ, lest they should 
 lose their place and nation, have long since, by the 
 just judgment of God, taken away both, and dispersed 
 the inhabitants over the world. Their land is now 
 usurped and trodden by those Turkish infidels, who 
 arose out of their own apostacy. All these things, 
 and many more, have they seen : and are they still un- 
 moved ? Are their hearts so hard as they were seven- 
 teen hundred years ago ? May the God of Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob forbid it ! I feel myself under so 
 much concern for the welfare of the Hebrew nation, 
 having long been a reader of the Hebrew language ; 
 that I could take great delight in representing these 
 things to them myself ; but few of them are known to 
 me; nor indeed should I like to talk with any one of 
 them, unless I were first assured, that he could sin- 
 cerely fall down on his knees, and beg for light and 
 direction from the God of his fathers. 
 
 When Paul was struck blind in his Jewish unbelief, 
 Ananias, a Christian disciple, was sent to him after a 
 time, for this reason — for behold he prayeth— and his 
 prayer was this — Lord, what wouldst thou have me to 
 do ? — Till a Jew can utter the same prayer from the 
 
THREE CONVERTED JEWS. 
 
 227 
 
 bottom of his heart, no message from Jesus Christ 
 will do him any good. 
 
 You, my new fellow Christians, who are of the Jews, 
 and must know many of them, will have many oppor- 
 tunities, and I entreat you not to neglect them. You 
 now see what may be said to your brethren, on whom 
 many unanswerable arguments have long been tried 
 without effect ; for they have their evasions ready. 
 These arguments of St. Stephen, from the signs of the 
 Scripture, are such as they are not prepared to answer ; 
 and though they are not new in themselves, they are of 
 so new a sort, both to Jews and Christians, that they 
 may excite new considerations, and lead to new con- 
 clusions. You see what a new face they give, and 
 what new light they cast upon the law of Moses ; 
 which gives me occasion to mention a remarkable cir- 
 cumstance in the history of St. Stephen's defence. 
 When Moses gave the Law, he had a veil upon his 
 face to conceal that glory which the Jews were not 
 able steadfastly to behold. In this apology you see 
 another minister of God delivering the Law to them 
 over again ; but now without its veil, as it is fulfilled in 
 Jesus Christ, under the Gospel, which is its true glory. 
 And while he does this, his face shines: all that sat in 
 the council, looking steadfastly at him, saw his face as 
 it had been the face of an angel. He certainly was 
 performing the office of another Moses to them, and 
 doing for them what the first could not do ; and I 
 am confident, that all who listen to this new Moses 
 of the Gospel will see farther into the wisdom of the 
 Old Testament than they did before. 
 
 Hitherto, my friends, I have spoken to you as to 
 those who were Jews : I wish, before I conclude, to 
 address you as those who are Christians ; and to re- 
 mind you that Christians are still subject to the mis- 
 Q 2 
 
228 
 
 A LETTER TO 
 
 takes of Jews, and should be careful to avoid them. 
 You may now call yourselves true children of Abra- 
 ham : if you would continue such, you must not think 
 that your inheritance is in this world, but set your 
 faces towards that country which Abraham expected, 
 and which in this life is as unseen to us as it was to him. 
 The Jerusalem he looked for is a city that hath foun- 
 dations, whose builder and maker is God. This was 
 the reason why God was called the God of Abraham, 
 Isaac, and Jacob, because he had a spiritual relation 
 to them which continued after they were dead. He 
 was therefore called their God, and was not ashamed 
 of the title, as he would have been had they looked 
 for nothing from him but temporal promises. Of the 
 Land of Promise you may have a prospect as Moses 
 had; but you must die before you can reach it. Do 
 not then mistake the nature of your inheritance. 
 Abraham had no possession till his death ; he then 
 began to take possession of the estate he had pur- 
 chased, to show that the righteous hath hope in his 
 death : this was the true meaning of the Cave of 
 Macpelah, and the expectation of the faithful Pa- 
 triarchs, who are buried in that cave, is worth all the 
 riches of all the Jews upon earth, as I hope you will 
 think when you come to die. 
 
 If Christ suffered on the cross, the doctrine of the 
 cross will ever be essential to his religion. There is 
 one respect in which we are all Jews, for the natural 
 man never did relish this doctrine of the cross ; there 
 is indeed nothing in the world he hates so much ; but 
 it is your duty to pray that you may love it and bless it, 
 for the cross must be taken up by every follower of 
 Christ : and if it be the cure of sin and sorrow, and 
 leads to heaven, keep it as your life, and regard not 
 what men say of you for so doing ; for the time will 
 
THREE CONVERTED JEWS. 
 
 229 
 
 never come when your Saviour will not be rejected 
 of the world : but think not the worse of him for 
 that. Though like Joseph, he was hated and sold, 
 he is " gone before to preserve life," and prepare a 
 place for us. 
 
 If the hope that is set before you is great, so also 
 is your danger. Your forefathers, after all the pro- 
 mises they had received, and all the mighty works 
 they had seen under Moses, left their carcases in the 
 wilderness and fell short of Canaan. This sinful 
 world has all the temptations of Egypt, to seduce 
 your affections from the living God ; and may be 
 remembered to your ruin as it was by your fore- 
 fathers. They displeased God by an attachment to 
 an outward religion : but no religion can be pleasing 
 to him, without the religion of the heart, and an eye 
 that can discern spiritual things. Having now, by 
 your reception of the Gospel, obtained the true key 
 to the Law and the Prophets, you ought to see far- 
 ther into them every day : to which end I would ear- 
 nestly recommend unto you the diligent reading of 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews, in which their spiritual 
 use is unfolded at large. 
 
 After what we have learned from St. Stephen, let 
 us conclude with a prayer to Almighty God, that 
 with the doctrine of that blessed Martyr, the light 
 which shone upon his face may shine inwardly upon 
 our hearts : then shall we at length see what he did : 
 we shall see the heavens opened, and Jesus standing 
 at the right hand of God. Amen. 
 
 N. B. The respectable persons, to whom the foregoing Letter is 
 addressed, being a brother and his two sisters, were baptized, with 
 
230 A LETTER TO THREE CONVERTED JEWS. 
 
 true satisfaction and comfort to themselves and to their pastor, on 
 Monday the 18th day of March, 1799, by the Rev. George Gaskin, 
 D.D. Rector of Stoke-Newington, Middlesex, in the church of that 
 parish, and were confirmed, on the Saturday following, by the Right 
 Rev. Beilby, Lord Bishop of London, in the parish church of St. 
 Ajidrew, Holborn. 
 
LETTER 
 
 TO THE 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 
 
 POINTING OUT 
 
 SOME POPULAR ERRORS 
 
 OF BAD CONSEQUENCE. 
 BY 
 
 AN OLD FRIEND AND SERVANT OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 " I have a few things against thee." Rev. ii. 14. 
 
MEN, BRETHREN, AND FATHERS, 
 
 The Christian Church, at the first establishment of 
 the gospel, had a perfect rule of faith and discipline, 
 which it was commanded to preserve pure and entire, 
 but was not expected to improve. In process of time, 
 when Christian people found what corruptions had 
 entered by means of that authority, which the Church 
 of Rome had assumed, to teach and order all other 
 churches, every church was under the necessity of 
 restoring itself, as nearly as might be, to the primitive 
 pattern ; in doing which, not one amongst them all 
 succeeded so well as the Church of England, whose 
 articles contain a godly and wholesome doctrine ; suf- 
 ficient at that time to preserve the faith and keep out 
 error. And if we were now where the Church of 
 England was then, we might do well. But as the 
 world is always changing, time hath lately brought up 
 many new and strange things ; Revolution hath suc- 
 ceeded Revolution ; every one worse than the former : 
 but what is worst of all, there hath been a revolution 
 in men's minds as well as in their fortunes. What 
 was sense formerly, is not such now ; and if a man 
 starts up this day with something new and wonder- 
 ful, the public are so divided about him, that while 
 some think him wise and ingenious, others see that he 
 is mad ; not with that sort of madness which brings 
 him into confinement, but which unfortunately leaves 
 him at liberty to ruin other men, with an appearance 
 of reason. To this degree of depravity men could 
 not arrive all at once ; the evil must have been steal- 
 ing upon us by degrees ; and it is now grown to such 
 
234 A LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 a size, that we are warranted to say, some new security 
 is wanting, beyond those articles which were sufficient 
 at the Reformation, to keep out new errors, far more 
 pernicious than the old. But how shall they be intro- 
 duced, or who shall introduce them ? At the Reforma- 
 tion this Church knew itself to be wrong, and was 
 ready to take advice ; but our wrong opinions are now 
 so generally thought to be right, that few men see 
 them, and fewer still will dare to contradict them. A 
 private person can only say what he would propose, if 
 it lay upon him to purge the Church of England of 
 those errors which modern times have produced ; and 
 which will inevitably bring us to ruin, if they continue 
 to prevail. For error will not be stationary ; the 
 breach at which the waters enter will grow wider, and 
 admit more of them continually, till the inundation is 
 universal, and the breach irreparable. 
 
 GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The first and the most pressing of all popular mis- 
 takes, at this time, relates to government. We are 
 now called upon, as Christian men, to protest against it, 
 and declare, that God, who is the maker of the world, 
 is the governor of it 5 and that there can be, as the 
 Scripture expressly teaches, no power but of God. 
 Force and violence there may be, by his permission, 
 for a curse upon a wicked people ; but power of autho- 
 rity, for the execution of legal justice, and the preser- 
 vation of peace amongst men, there can be none. 
 For there is but one lawgiver, who can save and de- 
 stroy. He makes the law, and he executes it ; men act 
 under him, and for him* in defence of the Ten Com- 
 mandments ; and woe be to them when they cease to 
 11 
 
A LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 235 
 
 do it ; for in that case God takes the power into his 
 own hand, and turns the sword against the prince as 
 well as against the people, where his laws have not 
 been maintained. 
 
 We ought, therefore, to renounce and detest that 
 abominable doctrine, that the power of government 
 is from the people who are governed. We see now 
 immediately how false and contradictory is this prin- 
 ciple, that the subject should be the sovereign. When 
 once it is admitted, it produces licentiousness, injus- 
 tice, and anarchy. And it must be so, for the laws of 
 God are restraints upon the passions of men ; and if 
 the power be given to those who are to be restrained, 
 they cry out Liberty, and throw them all off; breaking 
 loose like wild beasts, to tear and devour one another. 
 We see an example of it before our eyes, so that the 
 consequence wants no proving. The moral world be- 
 comes such as the natural would be, without the lights 
 of heaven, which God hath placed over our heads, 
 and out of our reach, to rule over the day and over 
 the night ; and we will as soon believe, that the sun is 
 made out of earthly clay, as that the power of Govern- 
 ment is made out of the people. The people are a 
 large body ; but government is as much bigger than 
 they, as the sun is bigger than the earth. The power 
 of the people is not a doctrine of this church ; but it 
 has been so long and so much the opinion of the 
 nation, and has done so much mischief in the world, 
 that the time is now come when we ought to examine 
 its pretensions, and cast it out if we can. 
 
 REVOLUTION. 
 
 From the English Revolution, as it was unfortu- 
 nately called, our modern atheists think they can prove 
 
236 A LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 that the King of England and the Directory of France 
 has the same title ; and that it is the only good one. 
 However this notion might be endured at one time, it 
 is not to be endured now facts have taught us that 
 it is an axe laid to the root of all the Governments 
 and Laws upon earth. All wise men might plainly 
 foresee this ; and did, when the doctrine first came 
 into fashion. Revolution principles have long been 
 cried up by the seditious, but they were not the prin- 
 ciples of our Revolution ; which will authorize no 
 change, but when the Prince is introducing Popery 
 into the land, and leaves the throne vacant to the 
 next Protestant heir ; for this was the fact at our 
 Revolution. Popular potver was avoided by the po- 
 liticians of that day ; who well knew, that no Govern- 
 ment could be secure if that were once admitted ; it 
 being a principle which must breed everlasting con- 
 fusion. Bad men embrace it, and cry it up to the 
 skies, because they delight in mischief, and hate the 
 power of God. Where the people are King, God is 
 not God ; nor will be, till he shall re-assert his rights, 
 and put down all usurpation. 
 
 SCHISM. 
 
 The same principle which disturbs the order of civil 
 government breaks the peace of the Church. When 
 it operates against the State, it is called the power of 
 the people; but in religion it is called private judgment, 
 and sometimes conscience ; but it always acts against 
 the judgment of authority. It has been a great mis- 
 fortune of late times, that we have been partakers in 
 other men's sins, by making too light of the offence 
 and danger of schism. What self-interest denominates 
 
A LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 237 
 
 liberality and charity, is really nothing but indifference 
 or ignorance. The Church being the Church of God, 
 it cannot be in the power of man to put ministers into 
 it, and give them authority to act. The rule of the 
 Scriptures is therefore absolute, that no man taleeth this 
 honour unto himself, but he that is called of God; 
 which calling must be visible, because that of Aaron 
 was so, who is the pattern in the Scriptures. Minis- 
 ters in the Christian Church act for God to the people ; 
 which they cannot do without Gods Commission. 
 The rule and its reason are both plain to common 
 sense, and want no explanation. It is to be consider- 
 ed farther, that if the promises of God are made to his 
 Church, no man can expect to obtain them by joining 
 himself to any other company of men, after his own 
 fancy. The ark of Noah was a pattern and pledge of 
 the Church of Christ, and the persons saved in it were 
 saved by water, as we are by baptism; so the Church 
 of England understands it. Now let us only ask our- 
 selves, what became of those who were out of the ark ? 
 The parallel will suggest what great danger there must 
 be to those who are out of the Church. Thus did pri- 
 mitive Christians argue, and unless they had privileges 
 which we have lost, we must argue in the same manner 
 now. If not, we do dishonour to the grace of God, 
 who hath mercifully taken us into the ark of his 
 Church, and our indifference will do no good : nobody 
 will be gained by it ; offences among men will be 
 multiplied, and the authority of God's religion will 
 be weakened : for if the Church may be any thing, 
 men will soon conclude it may be nothing ; and who 
 will not own, if his eyes are open, that much of the 
 relaxation and confusion of modern times hath arisen 
 from the poor low ideas which some good men have 
 entertained and propagated upon this great subject ? 
 
238 
 
 A LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Others, who have dared to argue of late years as 
 Christians did of old, have been branded with the 
 name of high Churchmen, and very deservedly ; for 
 we know of no other true Churchmen ; but faction, 
 seeking rest for itself, can find none, but by inventing 
 names and distinctions which have no sense in the 
 mouth of a Christian ; they are all of this world, and 
 calculated to serve some carnal purpose. Rebellion 
 in the State comes forward at this time with a more 
 threatening aspect toward religion, than it ever yet 
 assumed amongst mankind ; yet, if due enquiry be 
 made, the same near alliance will still be discovered 
 as hath always subsisted between schism and rebellion. 
 Wise people should consider, that whatever examples 
 there may have been of piety, learning, wit, or wis- 
 dom, joined with schism, they can never prove that 
 schism is no sin : no man can be taken as an authority 
 against the laws of God : and the great law of cha- 
 rity, is supreme over all. It is not kindness, but 
 meanness, which shews respect to sin in any man ; 
 for no man's person can render sin respectable. What 
 is convenient to him, if pernicious in itself and its 
 consequences, ought to be detestable to us ; and if 
 offence must be given, it is better to offend man than 
 God. — Tenderness to schism may be a fine thing, 
 and pass for true piety, so long as men shall judge 
 one another; but when God shall judge us all, it 
 must give an account of itself to Him who is no 
 respecter of persons. 
 
 REVELATION. 
 
 The light of the Church is the Scripture; but from 
 man's invention and the fashion of the times, another 
 light hath arisen among us, and is now in its meridian. 
 
A LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 239 
 
 There are some who would retain both, supposing 
 them to be consistent ; while others, knowing they are 
 not so, make use of the one against the other. The 
 first offence of man was a desire of wisdom indepen- 
 dent of God ; but in the things of God, we must be 
 all taught of God, as man was at first ; and till we are 
 so taught, we must set in darkness, as the heathens 
 did, from the time when they became their own 
 teachers. The example of the whole heathen world 
 yields us a demonstration that wisdom in religion is 
 not natural to man; the very supposition is an absur- 
 dity, contrary to fact and reason ; for if nature cannot 
 keep the wisdom of religion when it hath it, who will 
 expect that it should find it out when it hath it not? 
 Besides, the eye of man, and the mind of man, are 
 both under like circumstances. The eye can see, and 
 the mind can understand; but as the eye cannot see 
 the things of this world without light, so neither can 
 the mind see the things of the other world, without 
 revelation. It is dishonourable to God, and ungrate- 
 ful, to look within ourselves for another rule, when he 
 hath given us one from himself; and by admitting 
 such a thing, the world hath been self-deceived and 
 corrupted, till now the Gospel is rejected, and what is 
 falsely called reason (but under the present use of it, is 
 infatuation) hath taken its place. What nature hath 
 falsely and proudly claimed, that we have weakly al- 
 lowed to the deists ; and they have now taken full ad- 
 vantage of it. This evil was long foreseen ; but not 
 in all its magnitude, till it lately displayed itself to the 
 world. O fatal day for England ! when the religion 
 of nature, and the power of the people, first gained 
 admission into lecture-books : they are now too firmly 
 established to be shaken by such a hand as mine. Our 
 teachers, reputed by some to be most wise and learned, 
 
240 A LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 and our reforming writers, who mean well to their 
 country, and think they see all the dangers of the time, 
 leave both these errors in full possession of the schools. 
 What shall I say ? where shall I find such words as 
 will be heard 1 For these things I weep ; mine eye, 
 mine eye, runneth down with water * ! I would call 
 for some to join me in the alarm, but who will an- 
 swer ? If the salt hath lost its savour, wherewith shall 
 it be seasoned ? If the teachers want to be taught, 
 wherewith shall we teach them 1 O learned Andrews ; 
 O blessed Ken ; O holy Beveridge ; O wise and sa- 
 gacious Leslie ; your days are past ! If I had cried 
 unto you, ye would have listened to me ; ye would not 
 have disdained to enquire whether these things are so. 
 God might be gracious, and preserve our candlestick 
 in its place, for the sake of that light which he gave 
 to it: but can it be expected, that he will preserve 
 this false light of deism, (for the religion of nature 
 certainly is no better) which the enemy, in an evil 
 hour, hath established in the place of it; while the 
 watchmen were asleep, and knew not whence he 
 acted, nor what he was doing ? Every real Christian 
 should understand, and confess, that we are depend- 
 ent upon God for all we know of religion ; and 
 never admit any thing for a principle but what is 
 certainly and clearly taught in holy Scripture. 
 
 SPIRIT. 
 
 Man being composed of soul and body, all true re- 
 ligion has a part for both ; a sign visible, and spiritual 
 grace invisible. Baptism, which is a washing with 
 water, is effectual to wash away sin, only as it is a 
 washing with the Spirit. In the sacrament of the 
 Lord's Supper, Bread is the sign; but it is the Bread 
 * Lam. i. 1G. 
 
A LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 241 
 
 of Life only, as it is the Body of Christ, -who gave it to 
 us with this intention, that it should be spirit and life 
 to us. If it have nothing nutritive, why should it be 
 expressed by food 9 But there are too many amongst 
 us, who, professing themselves to be wise, and to see 
 farther than others, take away from us all the inward 
 and vital part, and leave us nothing but the husks of 
 religion. All the rest, they say, is a deception, of 
 which rational men see nothing. But I say, that if 
 our religion be any thing, it is a communication, re- 
 stored and kept up between the Spirit of God and the 
 spirit of men. If the Gospel be true in its promises, 
 something is noiv done, whereby man becomes pos- 
 sessed of that eternal life which he shall never lose : 
 but the new scheme of formality takes all this away, 
 and renders it impossible. To talk of life and spirit 
 to such men, is, in their estimation, to cant ; but in 
 ours, it is to cast pearls before swine, who trample 
 them under their feet. Spiritual things are real, 
 though invisible. God is not seen ; the soul of man 
 is not seen ; what acts upon it is not seen ; therefore 
 it is truly said of us, that we walk by faith, and not 
 by sight ; so that without faith we see nothing ; we 
 know nothing ; we receive nothing ; we are nothing ; 
 and the whole Gospel is no better than a dream. But 
 this is learning ; this is reason ; which wisely ad- 
 mitting but what it sees, loses all the benefits of Chris- 
 tianity. ^Yhen we affirm that spiritual things are real, 
 it may be added, that nothing else is so ; the whole 
 world, and all things therein, are but shadows of 
 things eternal ; and like a shadow shall pass away 
 when they have answered a temporary purpose. 
 
 VOL. VI. 
 
 R 
 
2i2 A LETTER TO TTIE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 Too many mistakes are current amongst us in re- 
 gard to the Old Testament; without which, the New 
 never was and never will be understood. From the 
 beginning of the world, life was revealed to man 
 through Jesus Christ, the promised seed. The reli- 
 gion which God gave, was a religion of expectation ; 
 always proposing something not yet to be seen, but to 
 be believed; and why? because without Faith it is 
 impossible to please him. All religion without this is 
 vain ; and, as the Apostle assures us in the eleventh 
 chapter to the Hebrews, ever was. For this, our 
 father Abraham lived as a stranger upon earth, looking 
 for a better state, and a better life. On this account 
 only, God is called his God now he is ffe«e?,and though 
 dead he still liveth. The law, which came after, was 
 added to this faith, not to destroy it, but to preserve 
 it ; by severing, securing, and as it were shutting up, 
 the people of God from the company of idolaters. It 
 is therefore false and dangerous to teach, that the Old 
 Testament had not the promise of life, because the 
 law had it not. The law could not have it ; for the 
 promise being already given to faith, the law could 
 neither give it nor take it away. Yet the law answered 
 a great purpose ; its passovers, and sacrifices, and 
 baptisms, had so near a relation to the Gospel in sign 
 and figure, that it was a schoolmaster unto Christ ; 
 and its elements were so plain, that children might 
 understand the design of them, when it was shown 
 how Christ at his coming had fulfilled them. Faith 
 has been the religion of man, and the trial of man, 
 ever since the fall of Adam, and will be to the end. 
 For the want of it, the Jews fell into a blindness of 
 
A LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 243 
 
 heart, which the conceit of worldly wisdom and the 
 lust after worldly power never fail to produce. But 
 this is no proof that they had not the example of their 
 father Abraham constantly before their eyes ; which, 
 as Jews, they were called to understand and follow. 
 
 IDOLATRY. 
 
 The design of the law, as I said before, and as 
 divines well know, was to keep the people of God 
 separate from heathen idolaters. The reason of this is 
 manifest, and the rules for keeping up the separation 
 were so strict, that they operate on the Jews to this 
 very day; who still hold all the wisdom of idolatry in 
 abomination. But this has not been the case with us 
 Christians ; we have not been so zealous and careful 
 in this matter as we ought to have been. At the first 
 publication of the Gospel, the partition between Jew 
 and Gentile was broken down for the salvation of the 
 Gentiles ; but about the time of the Reformation, at 
 what is called the revival of learning, it was again 
 broken down in another manner, for the corruption of 
 Christians ; when, under the name of learning, a flood 
 of heathen books broke in upon the Christian world : 
 and it has been the pride of some men's hearts, and 
 the labour of their lives, to read them continually and 
 indiscriminately. Greeks and Romans were certainly 
 masters of expression and composition, and attained 
 in a high degree to that wisdom of words which they 
 were ever seeking after. For this wisdom we apply to 
 them ; but we take their pride, their licentiousness of 
 sentiment, their error of principle, and sometimes even 
 the vilest of their idolatry, along with it. From the 
 two great authors of antiquity, Homer and Virgil, 
 sacred with scholars, pick out all the idolatry, and lay 
 it by itself ; then look at it, and see what frightful, 
 r 2 
 
244 A LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 what abominable stuff, what absurd blasphemy, we 
 tolerate and swallow down, for the sake of the poetry 
 with which it is dished up ; but, alas ! the charge of 
 blasphemy will be to those who dare to speak against 
 it. From Heathens we have sucked in that haughty 
 spirit of independence which disdains all superiority. 
 In Scripture it is called Belial; let it loose, and it will 
 soon drive the world to madness and ruin, as it does 
 at this time. Show me an angel of heaven, who has a 
 single grain of this spirit in his composition, and then 
 I will believe there may be some good in it. From 
 Heathens we have gathered that fungus of literature, 
 that doctrine of Bedlam, the majesty and sovereignty 
 of the people. Had it not been for them, Christians 
 had never been so weak as to believe that the visionary 
 liberty which is setting the world on fire, is the great 
 object in society, the blessing of human life. From 
 them we learned, that no nation, with a King over 
 them, can be free, though it be Solomon or Augustus; 
 in consequence of which, we see men falling under a 
 multitude of tyrants, all bloody-minded, all thieves, 
 and not one of them responsible. O miraculous infa- 
 tuation ! Christians can never be so foolish, but by 
 infection from Heathens. And how is the evil to be 
 corrected ? for it is now as profane to scruple heathen 
 books, as it once was to admit them. If a man speak 
 against Heathens, he affronts Christians ; and with as 
 little peril he may write against the incarnation of 
 Jesus Christ. Learning is now a very different thing 
 from what it was formerly. When joined with good 
 principle and the fear of God, it turned a good man 
 into a, great man ; but if joined with error and ungod- 
 liness, as is now too frequently the case, it turns a 
 scholar into a ruffian ; and of two men who are both 
 equally wicked, he that is the more learned (as learn- 
 
A LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 215 
 
 ing is now) will be the more noxious animal of the two. 
 I love Greek ; I admire genius ; I honour science ; 
 but, supposing man to be made for another world, I 
 know it is above all to be able to say, Lord I am not 
 high-minded ; for life is short and vain, eternity is 
 before us, God is to be our judge. If our learning 
 be such as leads us astray from God, and turn an irre- 
 sistible judge into an enemy — away with it all ; the 
 humble ploughman who says his daily prayers, is the 
 more useful subject, the happier man, and will soon 
 be the greater. 
 
 HUMAN AUTHORITY. 
 
 Though all human authority, as such, is dangerous, 
 and often fatal, we are always disposed to follow it ; 
 and we have warning of this in the Gospel ; " If an- 
 other shall come in his own name, him ye ivill receive." 
 The reason of this does not lie very deep ; we give 
 honour with the hope of receiving it ; vanity is the 
 passion which is first awake in man, and is seldom at 
 rest before his last sleep. When we magnify another, 
 we are providing reputation to ourselves ; for if the 
 world allow him to be great for what he thought, it 
 will allow us to be so likewise, for thinking as he did, 
 and perhaps on no other condition. On which consi- 
 deration, no man shews real humility and fortitude so 
 much, as when he dares to follow an authority which 
 the world does not follow. Blessed is he (said Christ) 
 that shall not he offended in me ; he will see how I am 
 received by the world, and if he can stand that trial, 
 he is a happy man, and entitled to a blessing. Christ, 
 though the light of the world to those that have eyes, 
 was attended with no glare, to invite and attract ad- 
 miration ; but if the world put a book into your hand, 
 you are apprised in the first place, how great the au- 
 
246 A LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 thor was in understanding, what a miracle of abilities, 
 and how universally accepted and esteemed ! Oh, 
 what a vigorous mind ! when the meaning perhaps 
 is not whether he is wrong or right, but that he is a 
 learned manufacturer of his opinions. He works up 
 his stuff well, but it is good for nothing ; and if the 
 mischief be great, it is chiefly because we do not begin 
 with God, who will never deceive us. I am the more 
 earnest in this matter, because the age abounds with 
 affected declamations against human authority ; where- 
 as there never was a time when men so meanly sub- 
 mitted their understandings to be led away by one 
 another. When opinion takes us captive, we think 
 our chains honourable, and attempt not to recover 
 the liberty wherewith God hath made us free from 
 one another. It is an honour to submit our faculties 
 to God, who gave them ; but it is base and servile to 
 submitto the usurpations of man, in things pertaining 
 to God. There is no remedy, but in taking his word, 
 and depending upon his truth ; after which, all other 
 truth, so far as it is necessary or useful, shall be 
 added. 
 
 We have allowed so much to human philosophy, 
 that it is too commonly known against our preachers, 
 and factiously objected to them, that they neglect the 
 Gospel, and take what they call good natural religion 
 into the pulpit. This is justly thought to be a great 
 and crying abuse; in consequence of which gospel- 
 preachers arise and abound, who have no authority 
 to teach the people. One reformation without au- 
 thority soon begets another of the same sort ; con- 
 fusion thickens ; and of spiritual, as well as of politi- 
 cal anarchy, we all know the end ; we know whence 
 it cometh, and whither it goeth. One corruption, 
 once admitted, soon increases to more, till all is lost. 
 
A LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 247 
 
 We preach wrong: that error is corrected by another ; 
 by a reformation founded in disobedience : that turns 
 to schism: and in schism, they that are wise without 
 the Church, will soon be wise against it ; this leads to 
 heresy, and that to infidelity ; a dreadful progress ; 
 but it hath been verified a thousand times. Whence 
 comes all this? what is the root of all? how are our 
 preachers formed and educated ? Look at Bishop War- 
 burton's directions for the studies of a young Clergy- 
 man; his first book is Locke on Human Understand- 
 ing : you need look no farther, for if he begin here, 
 we know what road he will pursue. When I speak of 
 Mr. Locke, I speak not of the man, but of his prin- 
 ciples. God will measure no man by his powers, but 
 by his application of them. We must allow that he 
 was a man of uncommon talents, and wise in his gene- 
 ration ; but so much the worse, if his foundations 
 were false, and his schemes dangerous. We must 
 allow that the world is gone after him : worse still, for 
 they are a large body ; and if they are out of the way, 
 great must be the power to fetch them back again : 
 We may add, which is worst of all, that he was the 
 oracle to those who began and conducted the Ameri- 
 can Rebellion; which led to the French Revolution; 
 which will lead (if God permit) to the total overthrow 
 of Religion and Government in this kingdom, perhaps 
 in the whole Christian world ; and all this from Mr. 
 Locke ; the prime favourite, and grand instrument, 
 with that mischievous infidel Voltaire ; who knew 
 what he was about, when he came forward to destroy 
 Christianity, as he had threatened, with Mr. Locke 
 in his hand ; and it has answered his purpose : after 
 which, let any person judge, whether the doctrines of 
 Mr. Locke will prepare any young man for preaching 
 the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Facts are stubborn things, 
 
248 A LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 and they furnish a plain and certain rule to our judg- 
 ment; the same with that of the Gospel, By their 
 fndts ye shall knoiv them. 
 
 I may be thought to have said too much, and gone 
 too far, but I am afraid I have not gone far enough. 
 This is not a time to trifle; we are not to tremble at 
 small dangers, when evils of the first magnitude are 
 ready to fall upon us. I would not rudely conclude 
 any notion to be false, because it is popular; but po- 
 pularity with me is no recommendation, when I con- 
 sider what absurdities have been propagated by learned 
 men, and swallowed by the populace in the Church of 
 Rome. But this I know withal, that be who slights 
 popularity must never expect to be popular : a great 
 misfortune to some men, but a very small one to others. 
 I learned very early in life, that if any one would go 
 through the world with peace to his mind, and advaiv- 
 tage to his fortune, he must hear, and see, and say no- 
 thing ; but I learned afterwards, that the truth of 
 God is worth all the world ; and in this persuasion, as 
 I have long lived, so now I hope to die ; leaving be- 
 hind me this paper, as a witness that there was one 
 man, of little note, and of no ambition, who, having 
 his eyes opened to see some great errors of the time, 
 with the power they have obtained over the judgments 
 of learned men ; and knowing their tendency to alie- 
 nate us farther from God, and involve us in that total 
 corruption which must bring divine judgment upon us, 
 could not refrain from warning his brethren, that 
 they consider in time (if time be still left to us) 
 how far, and in what respect, they are departed from 
 the faith and truth of the Church of England, as it was 
 at the Reformation : how far they have been seduced 
 by novel schemes, which have no foundation but in 
 men's heads ; how far they have been carried clown 
 
A LETTER TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 249 
 
 the stream by the current opinions of the time, and 
 the influence of fashion, which few minds are able 
 to withstand. We are told that things may be highly 
 esteemed among men, and yet be abomination in the 
 sight of God. What are these things 1 where are 
 they to be found ? and how are they to be detected ? 
 not by scholastic subtilties, but by this easy rule be- 
 fore mentioned, and ever to be remembered ; in the 
 application of which it is scarcely possible to err, by 
 their fruits ye shall know them. One naked 
 strait line from Heaven will detect all the numberless 
 crooked lines of earthly wisdom, with all their flou- 
 rishes and decorations about them. 
 
 Let every word I have said be put to this test ; it 
 is all the allowance I ask or desire ; but from the 
 world I will never take the rule of my judgment: I 
 will take it only from God, who is the judge of all. 
 Knowing the danger of human authority, and the 
 rashness of human speculation, I will depend no more 
 on any philosopher, however great and celebrated, 
 than upon the poor fallen Pope of Rome : if he do 
 not depend upon God, I will not depend upon him : 
 and if the world, for so doing, should shut me out 
 from its mercy, God, I trust, will receive me to his, 
 through Jesus Christ : in whose name, and for whose 
 sake, I subscribe myself, with duty and affection. 
 
 A Friend and Servant to the 
 Church of England. 
 
THOUGHTS 
 
 ON 
 
 A CHURCH ORGAN. 
 
 The structure of this instrument is not unlike that 
 of my bodily frame, with its different powers and facul- 
 ties — the marvellous work of God, who buildeth 
 all things. The materials of which it is composed 
 were taken from the earth ; when the work was com- 
 plete, it left the world, and was brought hither to be 
 dedicated as long as it lasts to the service of God. 
 And here it remains abstracted from all earthly con- 
 cerns, and inclosed within the walls of this sacred 
 building ; it keeps company with none but those who 
 come to worship God, together with the departed, 
 who in the days of their flesh did the same, and never 
 refuses to join in the sound of his praise, either by 
 day or night. But yet of itself it is a machine dead 
 and silent, incapable of acting, till it be first acted 
 upon, for it hath no voice, unless the air supplies it 
 with breath, of which men hear the sound, but see 
 
 not whence it cometh, or whither it goeth. Such, 
 
 oh my Soul, is every one that is born of the Spirit. 
 God hath taken thee out of the world, and given thee 
 a place in his holy Catholic Church ; the Temple of 
 Jerusalem, whose walls are called Salvation, and his 
 gates Praise. This organ by its situation is become 
 
THOUGHTS ON A CHURCH ORGAN. 251 
 
 Christian ; it might have been appropriated like 
 many others to a profane use ; it might have been 
 fixed in some garden of pleasure, to bear its part in 
 nightly songs of praise to the god of this world — 
 and it might have been thy lot, but for God's grace, 
 to have stood in the way of sinners, devoted to the 
 pleasures of this world, the paradise of fools, where 
 thou wouldst have yielded all thy members servants of 
 iniquity ; and nought but filthy communication would 
 have proceeded out of thy mouth. — There is not a 
 pipe of this organ that spends its breath in boasting of 
 its privileges ; it came not hither of itself, neither doth 
 the organ sanctify the Temple, but the Temple sanc- 
 tifieth that. Do thou practise the like humility ; for 
 it is no honour to the Church of Christ, that thou 
 hast taken up a place in it ; thou earnest not hither of 
 thyself, it was the grace of God that brought thee to 
 this place and state of salvation, and all the honour 
 thou hast is borrowed from the Lord's mystical body, 
 whereof thou art a member : in this station, be not 
 useless to him who hath chosen thee as an instrument 
 fitted for his service. — The pattern thou seest here be- 
 fore thee is always prepared to answer when the mas- 
 ter touches it. — Oh, mayest thou be as ready to join at 
 all times with the great congregation in uttering the 
 voice of Blessing and Honour, and Glory, and Power 
 unto the Lamb that hath redeemed thee from the 
 world by his own blood. When thy Master calls upon 
 thee, be it in the evening, in the morning, at noon- 
 day, or at midnight, do thou answer, " Oh God my 
 heart is ready, my heart is ready, I will sing and 
 give praise with the best member that I have. Awake 
 up my glory, awake lute and harp ; I myself will 
 awake right early." — But the organ sounds not, till 
 the wind communicates a voice to it. — " Every thing 
 15 
 
252 
 
 THOUGHTS ON A CHURCH ORGAN. 
 
 that hath breath may praise the Lord" — nothing that 
 is without breath can do it. — Yet such is the organ 
 of man's body. — An instrument dumb and lifeless, 
 till God that formed it breathes into it the breath of 
 life: Look down, therefore, O Lord, with compassion 
 upon the emptiness of my nature. — 
 
 Come Holy Ghost, eternal God 
 Proceeding from above, 
 Both from the Father and the Son, 
 The God of Peace and love ! 
 
 According to thy promise made 
 Thou givest speech with grace, 
 That thro' thy help, the praise of God 
 May sound in every place. 
 
 Thus prepared, assisted, and fixed in the Church of 
 the living God, O my soul, it is good for thee to be 
 here ; and mayst thou go out no more for any pro- 
 fane purposes. The way to keep thy place is to 
 preserve thy use, to be serviceable in returning to 
 God the praises he put into thy mouth, and leading 
 others forward to do the same. Thou must be con- 
 tent to do this by intervals, with the Church below, 
 till thy voice shall sound in that other congregation, 
 where they rest not day or night. 
 
 It is but too notorious, that in many (not to say 
 most) congregations, the time of the voluntary is a 
 time of trifling chat and dissipation. It is to be wished 
 that organists would always play such short and so- 
 lemn pieces of music as might gain some attention. 
 But where this is not the case (and where persons 
 have not much taste for music) perhaps it might 
 tend to kindle some serious reflections in the mind, if 
 these few thoughts were transcribed upon a blank leaf 
 in our Common Prayer Book ; and so subjected to 
 
THOUGHTS ON A CHURCH ORGAN. 253 
 
 our sight and consideration during the time that the 
 organ is playing, which surely is most unseemly to 
 employ in idle conversation. — " What ! have ye not 
 houses to eat and to drink in" — to talk of your po- 
 litics and your news — " that ye thus profane the 
 temple of the living God ?" The least share of reflec- 
 tion would be sufficient to remedy this evil, while 
 we desire it to be observed, that indecent and irre- 
 verent behaviour in the house of the Lord is always 
 a sign of a deficiency in good sense, good breeding, 
 and religion. 
 
THE 
 
 TRUE CHRISTIAN. 
 
 / am the Vine, Ye are the branches. Matt. xv. 5. 
 By their Fruits Ye shall know them. Matt. vii. 20. 
 
 When the way of truth is evil spoken of, and man- 
 kind follow their own lusts, forsaking hoth the doc- 
 trine and fellowship of the Apostles of Jesus Christ ; it 
 must needs be difficult, amidst the variety of opinions 
 and opposite persuasions of men, all of whom are 
 called by the common name of Christians, to distin- 
 guish good from evil, and truth from falsehood. The 
 safest course that can be taken, is to trust neither to 
 the word nor to the example of any man living, but to 
 look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith ; 
 who, while men are changing with every blast, is the 
 same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. The Scripture 
 having plainly told us what the Master is, we may 
 thence learn what the disciple ought to be, and collect 
 the qualifications of the true Christian from the cha- 
 racter and offices of his Saviour Jesus Christ, 
 
 1. Whom as God the Chris- 
 tian is to worship and serve. 
 Compare 2 Cor. v. 19, with Luke 
 iv. 8. 
 
 2. As He is the true Light, 
 the Christian is to derive all spi- 
 ritual wisdom and understanding 
 
 1. Hereby the Christian is 
 distinguished from the Arian 
 and the Socinian ; from indevout 
 believers ; and from idolaters of 
 all denominations. 
 
 2. Here the Christian differs 
 from the philosophical tribe of 
 Deists, who discover a pretended 
 
THE TRUE CHRISTIAN. 
 
 255 
 
 from him : to see God and the 
 things of eternity by his light, 
 as the things of this world are 
 seen by the light of the sun, 
 which is an image of him. John 
 ix. 5. and 39. Isa. xlii. 6, 7. 
 and xxxv. 5. Psal. xxxvi. 9. 
 Mai. iv. 2. Rev. iii. 18. 
 
 3. As he is a Master, the 
 Christian is to sit at his feet, 
 and hear his Word ; consulting 
 that word upon all the subjects 
 it has treated of, and abiding 
 peaceably by all its determina- 
 tions. Matt.xxiii. 10. Col. ii. 3. 
 
 4. As He is a Builder and 
 an Husbandman, the Christian, 
 according to the institutions of 
 Christ, is to be huilded and plant- 
 ed by him into his Church, which 
 is his House and his Vineyard. 
 Heb. iii. 3, &c. 1 Tim. iii. 15. 
 1 Cor. {a. 9. Psalm xcii. 13. 
 Rom. vi. 4, 5. 
 
 5. As he is the High Priest 
 and BisHOP of Souls, the Chris- 
 tian is to partake of his Sacrifice; 
 to rely on his intercession and 
 atonement ; and to obey those 
 who are put in authority under 
 him. Heb. iv. 14. 1 Pet. ii. 
 25. Eph i. 7. Heb. xiii. 17. 
 
 6. As He is a Bridegroom, 
 the Christian is to give him his 
 affections. John iii. 29. and 
 xiv. 23. Eph. vi. 24. 
 
 law by the light of reason, and 
 call it the Religion of Nature, 
 which is the Gospel of the natural 
 Man; for whose character see 
 lCor.ii. 14. Job xi. 12. Jer. 
 x. 14. 
 
 3. By this he is distinguished 
 from Heretics of all denomina- 
 tions : and his doctrines are dis- 
 tinct from imaginations, and 
 every high thing that exalteth 
 itself against the knowledge of 
 God, and the obedience of Christ. 
 2 Cor. x. 5. 
 
 4. In this he differs from the 
 Enthusiast and the Schismatic, 
 who are for receiving the divine 
 grace without those means of 
 grace which God hath appoint- 
 ed, who has an undoubted right 
 to save mankind in his own way. 
 1 Cor. xiv. 33. and 35. 
 
 5. By this the Christian is 
 distinguished from those who 
 forsake the Holy Communion ; 
 from the Socinian who denies the 
 Christian redemption ; and from 
 those who perish in the gain- 
 saying of Korah. Judell. 
 
 6. This distinguishes him from 
 the carnal believer, who holdeth 
 the truth in unrighteousness, and 
 giveth his affections to the 
 World, the Flesh, and the Devil, 
 
256 
 
 THE TRUE CHRISTIAN. 
 
 7. As He is a King, the 
 Christian must submit to his 
 authority, and acknowledge it 
 in the persons of all earthly 
 kings his representatives. Prov. 
 viii. 15. John xviii. 37. Dan. 
 ii. 21. 1 Pet. ii. 17. Col. ii. 
 10. Rom. xiii. 1. Tit. iii. 1. 
 
 8. As he is an Example or 
 pattern, the Christian is to fol- 
 low his steps, by doing good to 
 the souls and bodies of men ; 
 maintaining a spirit of Zeal for 
 the House of God, his truth, and 
 his Religion ; and patient suffer- 
 ing of contempt, reproach, and 
 persecution, for righteousness 
 sake. 1 Pet. ii. 21. John xiii. 
 15. Acts x. 38. Matt. xxi. 12. 
 John xviii. 17. and vii. 7. 1 Pet. 
 ii. 23. Matt. v. 10, &c. 1 Pet. 
 ii. 18, &c. and chap. iv. 12, &c. 
 
 which he renounced at his bap- 
 tism. Rom. i. 18. 
 
 7. Here the Christian differs 
 from those who hold it lawful to 
 depose kings, by virtue either 
 of the Pope's or the People's 
 power : from those who are trai- 
 tors, heady and high-minded ; 
 who while they plead for rebel- 
 lion under the name of liberty, 
 are the servants of corruption, 
 and obnoxious to the penalty of 
 damnation. Matt. xxvi. 52. 
 2 Pet. ii. 10, &c. to ver. 20. 
 2 Tim. iii. 4. Rom. xiii. 2. 
 
 8. His practices in these re- 
 spects distinguish him from all 
 those who are conformed to this 
 world; from the friends of luke- 
 warmness and latitudinarianism ; 
 from the drowsy and the indif- 
 ferent ; the covetous, the impa- 
 tient, the proud, and the un- 
 merciful. John viii. 23. Luke 
 xxiii. 12. Acts xviii. 17. Rev. 
 iii. 16. Gal. i. 10. James ii. 
 13. Luke xvi. 14. 1 Cor. vi. 
 9, &c. 
 
 Such was the Christianity of Apostles and Martyrs : 
 and he who hath thus learned Christ, is a CHRIS- 
 TIAN, not in word only but in deed and in truth. 
 
 BLESSED is He, whosoever shall not be OF- 
 FENDED in ME. Matt. xi. 6. 
 
TWO LETTERS 
 
 TO 
 
 A PREDEST1N ARIAN. 
 
 VOL. VI. 
 
 s 
 
A 
 
 LETTERS 
 
 TO 
 
 PREDESTINARIAN. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 MY GOOD BROTHER, 
 
 I find that you are one of the Predestinarians of 
 these latter days. You are assured of your own sal- 
 vation, and look with pity on us poor, unlearned, 
 Christians, who are left behind, and dare not think so 
 highly of ourselves as you do. We take the whole 
 word of God, as the rule of our faith and obedience : 
 you take apart of it ; and that part you interpret, in 
 such a way of your own, as to endanger all the rest. 
 We are taught, as plainly as words can teach us, to 
 make our calling and election sure. But why should 
 we do so, if our election, like your's, is sure already ? 
 If you can once bring yourself to think that you stand, 
 you are safe; whereas the Apostle lets me know, that 
 I am, from that moment, in danger ; and accordingly 
 bids me take heed lest I fall. But no sins can make 
 you fall ; because God is so partial, that, in favour to 
 you and some others, he distinguishes between the sin 
 and the sinner, and sees not the one for the sake of the 
 other : whereas I am told, that the soul that sinneth, it 
 shall die ; and that there is tribulation and anguish 
 upon every soul of man that doeth evil, without distinc- 
 tion of persons. How strange is it, that you and I 
 s 2 
 
260 LETTERS TO A PREDESTINARIAN. 
 
 should find in the same Scripture two such different 
 religions ! What will unbelievers say ? Will they not 
 say, that we are both mad ? I am as well assured that 
 I shall be saved as you are ; but I am not assured on 
 your principles. You will be saved in preference to 
 others : I humbly hope to be saved even as others. I 
 am no where taught in the Scripture, nor have I any 
 private revelation of it, that my Christian baptism gave 
 me any privilege, which baptismdoes not give to other 
 Christians. I am assured, and I believe it, that God 
 is no respecter of persons ; whereas, with you, he is 
 nothing else. So the Jews thought ; and that they 
 themselves were the persons respected. As such, they 
 justified themselves, and despised all others, as sinners 
 of the Gentiles; which opinion led them to their ruin. 
 I never met with any persuasion which comes nearer 
 to theirs than yours doth. But here you will say you 
 are no Jew. The Jews hated Jesus Christ ; but you 
 love him. And I believe what you say. But do you 
 love him in sincerity ? Have you no reserves ? 
 Perhaps you have neither seen nor heard, and will not 
 believe me, but will rather be angry with me, when I 
 tell you, that the contempt, which was formerly shown 
 to the person of Jesus Christ, is now shown to his 
 Church, which is his body ; and that, as his own 
 death was the beginning of Christianity, so the death 
 of his Church will be the end of it. When I speak 
 of his Church, I mean that ark which is now on the 
 waves of this troublesome world, towards a new 
 heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righte- 
 ousness ; I mean that Church in the wilderness which 
 is now travelling to the Land of Promise ; containing 
 many enemies within the camp, and having many 
 more without, who are all waiting for its destruction, 
 and boasting that it is near at hand. 
 
LETTER I. 
 
 2G1 
 
 Your way of proving your election is also very 
 weak, and will bear no examination. For what testi- 
 mony have I but your own word ; while your works 
 (as we ignorant people understand them) speak a very 
 different language ? But you add, that it must be true 
 because you feel it; and you say this ought to suffice. 
 But it will not suffice ; for it is the very witness which 
 I am warned not to take ; because, as it comes from 
 yourself, it is not true ; (see John v. 8.) and it opens 
 a door to all manner of imposture and delusion. For 
 if I am to believe what one man says of himself, why 
 am I not to believe another ? Some better rule, there- 
 fore, is wanting ; and our Saviour himself tells me, 
 that there must be a second witness, and that this must 
 be the witness of God, in some shape or other : unless, 
 therefore, a man can produce it, I am not bound to 
 believe him. I shall still think, that the man, who is 
 his own witness, is a false man, whether I can detect 
 him or not. Here, neighbour, I have got you upon 
 new ground, which, perhaps, you never saw before. 
 But study your Bible better than you have done, and 
 you will find that I am right, and that there is more 
 error, and more sorts of error (in the world) than you 
 have hitherto been aware of. 
 
 You and your companions think that the Gospel is 
 in a very flourishing state : but I see and lament the 
 contrary. I see much evil under the name and ap- 
 pearance of good. You think the age of imposture is 
 past : and that Satan has laid aside his old devices. 
 You see him with his robe of light on — I see the wolf 
 stript : and whatever shape he may assume to deceive 
 the ignorant, I pray daily and earnestly that the flock 
 of Christ may be defended from him. 
 
 One more important question I must ask you. If, 
 by your election, you mean that your final salvation is 
 
262 LETTERS TO A PREDESTINARIAN. 
 
 determined ; how then is God to judge the world 1 
 Are you to judge firsthand is God to judge afterwards? 
 Suppose that he and you should judge hy two different 
 rules ; where are you then ? Suppose you should put 
 evil for good ; (which has been a common mistake in 
 all ages) will God follow your example ? We are, 
 therefore, bid to judge nothing before the time ; till 
 God, who alone is fit to judge, shall bring to light the 
 hidden things of darkness : then shall strange things 
 appear, now totally unexpected and unknown. Then 
 the applauses of a mistaken world, and of a man's 
 own false heart shall signify nothing. No praise shall 
 be lasting, but that which cometh only from God. 
 
 I have now given you, with that truth and friend- 
 ship, which you may expect from a brother, my three 
 grand objections against your new law of Predestina- 
 tion. I do not, I cannot, receive it. First, because 
 God is no respecter of persons : secondly, because no 
 man can be admitted as his own witness : and thirdly, 
 because God shall judge every man according to his 
 works. These objections are so short and plain, that 
 you must understand them. You cannot plead igno- 
 rance. Can you answer them ? If you cannot, you 
 should cease to prevent the right ways of the Lord ; 
 you should come down from your high thoughts, and 
 serve God with me, in the good old humble way of 
 faith, hope, and charity, which will never mislead you : 
 and may God direct us both in the same, for the alone 
 merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. So shall we be able 
 to stand in the evil day. In which prayer I hope you 
 will join with your faithful brother and humble 
 servant, 
 
 PHILALETHES. 
 
 January 1, 1800. 
 
LETTER II. 
 
 GOOD BROTHER, 
 
 If you can hear me with patience, I have something 
 farther to communicate on the subject of my former 
 letter, which it may be useful for you to know. Old 
 spiritual divines formerly taught Christians how they 
 might know whether they were of the number of God's 
 elect, by the signs which attend the true children of 
 God ; which signs were genuine and unexceptionable ; 
 but would take up more room than this letter will 
 allow. But let me tell you, Brother, I had much 
 rather seethe signs without the doctrine, than the doc- 
 trine without the signs ; for the doctrine of predestina- 
 tion, on which you lay as much stress as if it were the 
 one thing necessary to salvation, was never heard of 
 in the Church till Christians amused themselves with 
 raising perplexing questions out of the Scriptures, and 
 disputed about many things to no profit ; but it made 
 no great noise till after the Reformation; when Chris- 
 tians disputed about every thing ; and, after all, Chris- 
 tians may certainly be saved without troubling them- 
 selves about it. The Scriptures, which Timothy had 
 known from a child, were able to make him wise unto 
 salvation ; but the difficult passages, from which your 
 doctrine is drawn, were written long after. The secret 
 counsels of God were revealed to St. Paul, for the 
 sole purpose of reconciling the Jews to the calling of 
 the Gentilfes, which they could never bear to hear of ; 
 
264 LETTERS TO A PREDESTINARIAN. 
 
 nor could the Apostles themselves believe it, till they 
 were compelled by the case of Cornelius and his fel- 
 low-converts. It makes no part of our Saviour's Ser- 
 mon on the Mount, which comprehends a perfect rule 
 of the Christian life; nor has it a place in the Creed ; 
 so that we may certainly affirm, it is no article of faith. 
 The Apostles taught it not on the day of Pentecost, 
 when they made some thousands of new Christians. 
 When the people asked them, " What they should 
 do V they answered, " Repent, and be baptized, every 
 one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the 
 remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost." The truth is, the Jews, to whom they 
 addressed themselves, were too much filled up with 
 the opinion of their own election already. It was 
 the beam which they should have cast out of their own 
 eye, but would not ; let Christians beware of their 
 mistake. 
 
 Tell me, how comes it to pass, that predestination 
 should be so necessary now, which was then so danger- 
 ous? It wanted rather to be preached down, than to 
 be taught as necessary to salvation. This convinces 
 me there must be with you, who so strongly recom- 
 mend it, some fundamental mistake ; whether we can 
 point it out or not. It is to be feared, you impute to 
 individuals that election spoken of in Scripture, which 
 is meant of people, nations, or churches. As see the 
 following texts: 1 Pet. i. 1, 2. 5. 13. Gen. xxv. 23. 
 Acts x. 35. Now pray observe, this election comes 
 first in order, and separates Christians from the world ; 
 but there is still a judgment to come, which will sepa- 
 rate good Christians from bad Christians. They, who 
 confound these two things, present election, and future 
 judgment, do greatly err : and they, who teach others 
 to confound them err more ; as it will be understood 
 
LETTER II. 
 
 265 
 
 in that day, when the Searcher of hearts shall lay all 
 things open. You say the Church of England is on 
 your side ; but the calling, spoken of in the 17th 
 article, is of the former kind ; that is, of Christian 
 people chosen out of mankind; not of Christians out 
 of Christians : besides, whatever it is, it is such as 
 will consist with the general promises of God, made to 
 all Christians. As such, we hold with it ; and so may 
 all sober people. You blame us and despise us, for 
 not having assurance ; but we have the assurance of 
 faith, and the assurance of hope ; and the Scripture 
 teaches no other. But there are many in these days, 
 who will be satisfied with nothing but inward reve- 
 lations, and voices from Heaven. 
 
 I have heard you talk much about doctrines of 
 grace ; as if our doctrines were not of grace ; but if 
 we inquire what your doctrines of grace are, we shall 
 find they are doctrines, to which none of the means of 
 grace are necessary : and the promises of God follow 
 the means he has appointed, which means of his can- 
 not be had without his church ; therefore schism has 
 no greater support than in what you falsely call the 
 doctrines of grace. Take away these, and our new 
 church-makers have no ground to stand upon. You 
 say the grace of God is free ; understanding that it 
 can act with the instituted means, or without them. 
 So it can ; for God is not bound by the laws by which 
 he binds us. Grace, with respect to Him, the Giver, 
 is free ; but if we, therefore, think it is free to us, the 
 receivers, we shall introduce that confusion under 
 which grace itself will soon be lost; which is the thing 
 Satan wishes to see. 
 
 Extraordinary commissions, and revelations from 
 the Spirit of God, are always attended with extraor- 
 dinary gifts; such as, speaking with tongues, gifts of 
 
266 LETTERS TO A PREDESTINARIAN. 
 
 healing, miracles of various kinds. The man, who 
 pretends to an extraordinary commission, and has it 
 not, is one of the most dangerous men upon earth, 
 whether he succeeds or not. If he succeeds, it is as an 
 impostor; if he does not, he gives the enemies of the 
 Lord occasion to blaspheme, and makes Christianity 
 the scorn of the world, when he is detected. The 
 false miracles of Papists gave advantage to Infidels 
 abroad, till they extirpated the Gospel ; and the pre- 
 tensions of fanaticism will give the like advantage here, 
 and produce the same effect. Even at this moment 
 we are in a tremendous situation, and have a prospect 
 before us, which cannot be viewed without horror. 
 Without the Church of Christ the religion of Christ 
 will never long subsist ; and a Christian is very im- 
 perfectly instructed, unlesshe understands what perils 
 are to be expected in the latter days ; when the Church 
 shall become so degenerate that men shall say, the 
 Church of Christ is not his Church ; it is under such 
 bad regulation as a society, that they can make a 
 better for themselves. They shall make sport with its 
 corruptions and its misfortunes ; over which wise and 
 good men will rather weep and lament (I would to 
 God they all did so !) as Christ shed tears over Jeru- 
 salem. In such tears, there is true brotherly love, 
 which needs no apology. 
 
 With respect to the present moment, in particular, 
 if the doctrines of Calvin are increased of late, as re- 
 ported, it is to be feared an enemy is at the bottom 
 more than we know of. The Church is so calum- 
 niated and exposed on all sides, as if there were some 
 latent design on foot to ruin it. Calvinism is a con- 
 venient engine against the government ; perhaps the 
 most convenient of all others ; and will be promoted, 
 for that end, even by those who have no religion at all. 
 15 
 
LETTER II. 
 
 267 
 
 If our enemies at home or abroad can destroy us, they 
 will not be nice in the choice of the instruments. 
 That which destroyed it once may destroy it again, 
 and will, unless the Church be supported in this cri- 
 tical time against their assaults. Let us remember 
 what a good man once said, " If the King supports 
 the Church, the Church will support the King, and 
 God will support both." Thus it will be, unless the 
 time be now come, when all are to perish in one com- 
 mon ruin ; which may God forbid ; and I trust you 
 will join in this prayer with your Christian friend, 
 
 February, 1800. 
 
 PHILALETHES. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 TO THE 
 
 BRITISH GOVERNMENT 
 
 ON A 
 
 SUBJECT OF PRESENT CONCERN. 
 177C. 
 
 Under the cloak of Whiggism are concealed factions, which, if suffered 
 to gain ground, would prove no less dangerous to the House of Ha- 
 nover, than to the Church and Monarchy. 
 
 Dr. Jablonski's Letter to the King of Prussia, 
 dated London, March 17th, 1711. 
 
 The situation of our public affairs at this time may 
 have opened the minds of people to receive those 
 friendly informations, which they would have rejected 
 some years ago as the insinuations of an enemy ; it is 
 therefore now a duty incumbent on those who would 
 preserve as well as restore the peace of this kingdom, 
 to take this opportunity of reminding the government, 
 that episcopacy ought, according to the laws of God, 
 and the rights of Englishmen, in the great charter of 
 this country, to have been settled in the American 
 
AN ADDRESS TO THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 2G9 
 
 Colonies above an hundred years ago ; and had like- 
 wise a political as well as a religious claim to be pro- 
 tected against all other interests, as congenial and 
 friendly to the British government. But instead of 
 this it has been left under every possible disadvantage. 
 All attempts made by good men, either here or in 
 America, to introduce episcopacy, have either been 
 coldly neglected by those in power, or purposely de- 
 feated ; and this, either by silent artifice, or clamorous 
 opposition. And why? Because the Presbyterians 
 would be disobliged. But now this paroxysm of mo- 
 deration is come to a crisis, we may have sense and 
 spirit to inquire at last, who the Presbyterians are, 
 and why it is of such great consequence not to dis- 
 oblige them ? They are Calvinists by profession, and 
 Republicans in their politics, who never can side with 
 kingly government, but are of the same opinion with 
 Hugh Peters, that the office of a king isuseless, charge- 
 able, and dangerous ; and that all kings, especially 
 the best, are to be blackened as much as possible, to 
 bring about a Republican Revolution. When it serves 
 their turn, they will affect to be in the interest of the 
 government, and yet never fail to oppose it, if its es- 
 tablishment is of service to any party but themselves. 
 They sided with William, but it was for the sake of 
 ruining the episcopacy of Scotland ; they favoured 
 the Hanoverian succession, but it was out of hatred 
 to Queen Anne, who had favoured the Church of 
 England. And having now nothing to oppose but the 
 Hanover family on the throne, they have at last taken 
 up arms against that, and will carry on a war against 
 the authority, the commerce, and the honour of this 
 country, as long as they have the means of rebellion 
 in their hands ; for this has been a Presbyterian war 
 from the beginning as certainly as that in 1611 ; and 
 
270 
 
 AN ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 accordingly the first firing against the King's troops 
 was from a Massachuset meeting-house. 
 
 These are the people, whom it hath been the ruling 
 policy of this government not to disoblige for almost a 
 hundred years past ; and now they are justly raised up 
 to scourge us for our folly, by bringing upon us a 
 most expensive war, exposing us to the attempts of 
 our natural enemies, and hazarding the very existence 
 of the British empire. The rule has been, let us not 
 encourage episcopacy in tJie colonies, lest we offend tfie 
 Presbyterians, and they turn against us. So the Jews 
 said, lest the Romans come and take away our place 
 and nation ; for which treacherous policy, the Ro- 
 mans, by the just judgment of God, were made the 
 instruments of their punishment, and brought to pass 
 all those things, against which they were securing 
 themselves by a wicked and foolish timidity. God 
 forbid that the issue should be any thing like to this in 
 our own case ; but no wise or good man, who consi- 
 ders what is past, and is used to compare events with 
 their causes, can wonder if the fruitless cries of our 
 episcopal brethren in America, who have been almost 
 afraid to utter their voice, while their enemies have 
 been indulged to the uttermost in all their unreason- 
 able clamours, should at last bring down some signal 
 misfortune on those, who on so many occasions have 
 refused to hear them. God knows where the chief 
 blame is to be laid ; whether the State or the Clergy 
 have been most in fault. When Herring was Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, Bishop Sherlock of Lon- 
 don desired his concurrence in a petition to the 
 Throne, for leave to consecrate suffragans (Bishops 
 without sees) for America ; but was answered, that he 
 would have no hand in any proceedings that might 
 give offence to our dissenting brethren : on which Dr. 
 
BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 
 
 271 
 
 Sherlock is said to have replied, that he had always 
 heard the Church would be in danger when his Grace 
 should be at the head of it, and now he found the sus- 
 picion verified. In the late excellent Dr. Seeker, the 
 Church of England had a sincere friend, who endea- 
 voured both in word and deed to promote epis- 
 copacy in America : and if the measure had then suc- 
 ceeded, it would have given a seasonable check to the 
 growth of the rebellion, which has since broke out, 
 by raising the spirits of the episcopal party, and add- 
 ing influence to those good principles of obedience 
 and loyalty, which never fail to thrive under episcopal 
 government ; but with what scorn and violence were 
 his pious attempts treated by Dr. Mayhew, a dissent- 
 ing orator in the Colonies, and the furious author of 
 the Confessional at home ! And now we understand 
 the views, with which the Dissenters have kept up a 
 clamour against American episcopacy : the Colonies 
 were to throw off their dependence on the mother- 
 country, and form themselves into a Republic of 
 United Provinces, under the arbitrary power of the 
 Hancocks, the Adams's, and the other sovereigns of 
 the Congress ; while the poor, loyal, episcopal party, 
 the Issachar the new, as they have long been of the 
 old world, were to be dragooned into submission under 
 Presbyterian taxers and task-masters. This is the end 
 to be accomplished in America, if they can support 
 themselves in what they have undertaken ; and when 
 we are wasted and weakened with emigrations, addi- 
 tional taxes, and all the consequences of a civil war, 
 our domestic Republicans, who have been their ma- 
 nagers here in the whole business from the beginning, 
 will have a strong party there to assist them, when 
 matters shall be ripe for overturning the constitution 
 at home. Then will our religion be new modelled, 
 
272 
 
 AN ADDRESS TO THE 
 
 till the experiments of reforming-chemistry shall re- 
 duce it to a caput mortuum ; and all the power and 
 wealth of the state shall fall into the merciless hands 
 of Republican usurpation ; till the constitution of this 
 country, fermenting with heterogeneous mixtures, 
 shall undergo a total dissolution, and furnish the 
 materials for a new form of existence at the arbitration 
 of some foreign power. When Cassandra said what 
 would come of it, the people were infatuated, and 
 understood her not; but now the Greeks are descended 
 from the Trojan horse in broad day-light, he must be 
 worse than an idiot who cannot read their intentions 
 in their actions, and will not provide for his own se- 
 curity. Lest we should forget the share the Presbyte- 
 rians have had in the present troubles, our memories 
 have very lately been refreshed by the production of Dr. 
 Price. Whence do all these seditious pieces originate 
 but from the Dissenters ? Is not Dr. Price a Dissenter ? 
 And what is the design of his pamphlet ? Is it not 
 plainly calculated to make the government odious ; to 
 dispirit all Englishmen by representing to them the 
 desperate state of their affairs; and to justify the Ame- 
 ricans in their rebellion, by shifting the cause from the 
 principles of positive law, and the common rights of 
 possession, by which only it must be tried, to those 
 other visionary principles of Republican enthusiasts, 
 who confound the freedom of human action with the 
 authority of civil government, and make every man 
 his own king, pope, and chancellor, by the great char- 
 ter of human nature, to be found among the archives 
 
 of the moon, and interpreted by the Earl of S e, 
 
 and his Presbyterian sectaries ? Such is the plan of 
 our Dissenters at home, who go onto insult the govern- 
 ment without molestation, and have a noisy multi- 
 tude always ready to magnify the wisdom of every 
 
BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 
 
 273 
 
 Dissenting orator; while the loyal Church of England 
 party are under oppression and persecution from the 
 Dissenters abroad, and are obliged to fly over hither 
 to the seat of government, for a little present peace 
 and protection. But the worst part of our story is yet 
 to come ; and a story it is which hath been taken up 
 by Whigs and Dissenters as a ground for clamour, 
 while but little hath been said by those who have most 
 reason to complain : for that same government, which 
 for so many years hath adopted the tender policy of 
 obliging the Dissenters at the expence of its own friends 
 in the Church of England, has made no scruple of ex- 
 tending its favour to popish episcopacy in the Ame- 
 rican colonies. In July 1766, a popish Bishop went 
 over from London to Quebec, by permission of this 
 government ; and popery is now licensed by the crown 
 of England in that part of the world, where a protes- 
 tant Bishop of the Church of England has never been 
 tolerated ! Hear, O Heavens, and give ear, O Earth ! 
 for neither the one nor the other was ever witness to 
 such an instance of injustice and absurdity. Papists 
 are licensed ; Presbyterians are obliged ; where the 
 religion of the crown and government is not tolerated ! 
 Never let us wonder if strange effects arise from such 
 unprecedented ceconomy. It is therefore hoped by the 
 best friends of both countries, that the charm which 
 hath bound us will now at last be dissolved ; that 
 the grievance under which the Church hath so long 
 groaned, and for which the State is now suffering in 
 common with it, may be redressed at a proper, that 
 is, at the first opportunity ! and then we shall have 
 reason to expect some quietness and loyalty in the 
 British colonies. God is not mocked; what a man 
 soweth, that shall he also reap. Be wise now there- 
 fore, O ye Kings, he learned ye that are judges of the 
 
 VOL. VI. T 
 
274 AN ADDRESS TO THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Earth: oppress not your friends out of favour to your 
 enemies ; for your friends may be lost by your neglect, 
 but your enemies will never be gained by your indul- 
 gence. All wise men have been long acquainted with 
 this maxim : and it is now written in letters of blood, 
 for all true Englishmen to read and consider. We 
 who are of the people can consider it only to lament 
 it : they who are in power and authority may consider 
 it to a better purpose : and may the Author of all good 
 give them grace and wisdom to do it effectually ! 
 
 The above thoughts are written in the true spirit 
 of Dr. South ; if not in part in his very words ; and 
 every true Member of the Church of England will 
 readily concur with them. 
 
THOUGHTS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 RESOLUTIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PROTESTANT DISSENTERS, 
 
 AT THEIR LATE MEETING 
 
 AT STOWMARKET, IN SUFFOLK. 
 
 The Protestant Dissenters having entered into a 
 confederacy, in opposition to the present municipal 
 laws, or laws by which persons hold offices of trust in 
 this kingdom; with such declarations as tend to abridge 
 the freedom of voting in parliament, and disturb the 
 public peace ; we beg leave to offer a few observa- 
 tions on the principles they profess, and the measures 
 they have adopted, as they have opened them to the 
 public in their late Resolutions at Stowmarket. 
 
 In the beginning of this century, when parties ran 
 high, under the reigns of Queen Anne and George the 
 First, they were distinguished by the names of high 
 Church and low Church; but the times are changed; and 
 the Dissenters now come forward on the new ground 
 of Scepticism and Infidelity ; the former of which is 
 t 2 
 
276 THOUGHTS ON THE RESOLUTIONS 
 
 adverse to all authority in government, as the object 
 of the latter is to destroy the Church. Clergymen will 
 naturally consult for the security of our religion; but 
 the laity are here equally concerned, for the safety of 
 the State, and the freedom of the House of Commons. 
 The first resolution of the Dissenters of Suffolk is as 
 follows : 
 
 I. That Liberty, civil and religions, is the unalien- 
 able right of every good citizen. 
 
 REMARK. 
 
 Religious liberty consists in worshipping God ac- 
 cording to our consciences. This liberty the Dissen- 
 ters enjoy to the full, without any disturbance. Civil 
 liberty is a liberty under the restraints of law, and can 
 be no other, in any civil society. A liberty of being 
 trusted, (which is here intended) is a liberty which 
 does not exist, because by the constitution of every 
 country, it must depend upon approved qualifications, 
 which the Government is to fix for its own security, 
 on the universal principle of self-defence. 
 
 II. That when perfect liberty is enjoyed, all good 
 citizens of every denomination of religion, are uncon- 
 troided in their sentiments, writings, and modes of wor- 
 ship ; and equally eligible in point of right to all of- 
 fices of trust, honour, and emolument. 
 
 REMARK. 
 
 Citizens may he good men, without being good citi- 
 zens; because in a civil sense no man is good but he 
 who submits to the laws, and has legal qualifications. 
 It is no reflection upon a Protestant Dissenter, to say 
 he is not good in this sense, and so not equally eligible 
 in point of right : for there is no right in civil society 
 where there is not the qualification required by law. 
 
OF THE PROTESTANT DISSENTEItS. 277 
 
 We think, moreover, that there is not the right of 
 equity in the present case ; because Protestant Dis- 
 senters who left the religion established, and the 
 offices of trust which go along with it, took liberty 
 of conscience as an equivalent ; and, therefore, cannot 
 consistently with justice, claim both; for then they 
 would be better off than their fellow-subjects, yea 
 even than the King himself, who cannot hold his Crown 
 without conforming to the Religion established. 
 
 III. That the Protestant Dissenters of this realm 
 hold no principles inimical to the peace and order of 
 society, but are confessedly loyal and deserving sub- 
 jects. 
 
 REMARK. 
 
 The word loyal is applicable only to those who are 
 voluntarily subject to the laws, and well affected to 
 the constitution. Now as the State and the Church 
 are here united into one constitution, and the safety 
 of both depends upon their union, it is not possible 
 the Dissenters should be loyal, that is, well affected to 
 the constitution. Their present attempt demonstrates 
 the contrary ; and we suppose it is not forgotten, how 
 lately the King and the two Houses of Parliament, 
 and the property of the nation, were all brought into 
 imminent danger, at the time of the riots in London, 
 when many thousands of disorderly people were 
 headed by a person of the Dissenting persuasion. 
 Whether or not, any of the present popular writers 
 among the Dissenters were secret abettors of that 
 confusion, we do not take upon us to say : but that 
 the revolt of America was promoted by their avowed 
 writing is undeniable. 
 
 IV. That by the Corporation and Test Acts they 
 have long been deprived of an important and unques- 
 
278 
 
 THOUGHTS ON THE RESOLUTIONS 
 
 tionable civil right, viz. that of being eligible to serve 
 their King and country in many offices of public 
 titility and confidence; and, by proscription, are 
 branded with a mark of infamy, and exposed to severe 
 penalties, as dangerous foes to the State. 
 
 REMARK. 
 
 When a man forfeits a right by his own choice, it is 
 improper to say he is deprived of it. This is the case 
 with the Dissenters, who take liberty of conscience 
 instead of the qualifications required by the laws, and 
 they cannot forfeit their right, and have their right at 
 the same time. There is no expression in the laws, 
 that we know of, which brands Protestant Dissenters 
 with infamy : nor doth it follow, that because a man 
 is not selected and rewarded, he is, therefore, branded 
 with infamy ; for if that were true, the Church abounds 
 with honest men, who are to be accounted infamous, 
 because they are not preferred and exalted. If we, of 
 the Church, do not look upon the Dissenters as infa- 
 mous by their profession, which we are far from doing, 
 why should they throw out such words as, with un- 
 wary readers, may bring suspicion upon themselves ? 
 
 V. That by these acts, an ordinance of the Christian 
 Religion, instituted by its Divine Founder, solely with 
 a spiritual view, is shamefully prostituted to civil pur- 
 poses, and made, oftentimes, to the irreligious and pro- 
 fane, a mere passport to posts of secular power, dig- 
 nity and profit. 
 
 REMARK. 
 
 From the abuse of any thing against the use of it, 
 there lies no argument. For the safety of the State, it 
 should be known what Church a man is of. We are 
 to suppose he is of that, with which he freely commu- 
 
OF THE PROTESTANT DISSENTERS. 279 
 
 nicates ; and the Law leaves the act as spiritual as 
 before. It is only the wickedness of self-interested 
 men, which perverts the use of it, as it doth of Oaths ; 
 without the security of which society cannot be car- 
 ried on ; and he who trifles with an oath (as is to be 
 feared thousands of profane people do) may be in as 
 great danger as the unspiritual communicant. Dis- 
 senters have been known to make as profane &2 xtss ~ 
 port of the Sacrament, as other people ; and their 
 temporising in this matter, made it necessary to pass 
 a bill in the year 1711 against occasional conformity : 
 in which practice some of their friends defended them, 
 while others, on whom they most depended, forsook 
 them. 
 
 VI. That feeling our rights as citizens, and oar 
 obligations as Christians, we are determined to adopt 
 every constitutional measure apparently calculated to 
 procure t/ie repeal of these acts, with firmness and 
 perseverance. 
 
 REMARK. 
 
 We do not see how it can consist with the laws, or 
 agree with the safety of any constitution, that com- 
 mittees should form themselves for civil purposes, 
 without a commission from the Government under 
 which they live. We judge this a breach of the peace, 
 to which Liberty of conscience in Religion does not 
 extend; and we think it of very dangerous tendency, 
 that men should form themselves into one body, 
 throughout the Nation, with design to act against the 
 Laws. If the English Constitution is defective in this 
 respect, they who are with the laivs must purchase 
 what security they can for themselves by a similar As- 
 sociation of the different Counties and Dioceses ; and 
 this measure should be strongly recommended, and 
 
280 THOUGHTS ON THE RESOLUTIONS 
 
 seasonably entered upon, with firmness and perse- 
 verance. 
 
 VII. That at an cera distinguished for its liberal 
 and enlightened sentiments, when we behold a neigh- 
 bouring nation, ivhich has long groaned under a most 
 arbitrary government, as with one voice asserting the 
 rights of equal liberty, and nobly sacrificing the pre- 
 judices of religion and habits of despotic rule, to the 
 claims of reason and humanity ; and when even Ro- 
 man Catholics are freely declaring, that diversity of 
 religious opinion is no bar to a mutual participation of 
 all tlie privileges of society ; we cannot but hope that 
 in a nation, long priding itself in an unrivalled attach- 
 ment to justice and liberty, our moderate expectations 
 will not be disappointed. 
 
 REMARK. 
 
 The state of affairs in France is here much misre- 
 presented, and a miserable spectacle of Anarchy is 
 held forth as a pattern of light and liberty. The 
 liberty there prevailing was invented by Infidels and 
 Atheists: and Catholics submit to it, not by choice, 
 but by necessity : How a mutual participation of pri- 
 vileges can subsist, where the Clergy are deprived 
 of their Tithes, held by chartered right from the first 
 ages of Christianity, we do not understand. When 
 one man robs another of half his possessions, it may 
 be said that there is a mutual participation ; but the 
 words thus applied, are terms of mockery. If the 
 Government in England is already free, the proceed- 
 ings of men under the despotic Government of France 
 can be no fit example for us to follow. 
 
 VIII. That we are determined on our parts, and re- 
 commend it to all our brethren, to siiew a decided pre- 
 
OF THE PROTESTANT DISSENTERS. 281 
 
 ference at the ensuing general election, to the interest 
 of such candidates as are approvedfriends to the cause 
 of civil and religious liberty. 
 
 REMARK. 
 
 Candidates are here intended to be threatened with 
 exclusion, unless they adopt the Dissenters' Cause ; 
 which will lead them to act against the constitution ; 
 but we apprehend few Gentlemen of liberal minds or 
 ample fortunes will choose to come into the house 
 with this mark of servility upon them. 
 
 IX. That we are gratefully sensible of the zeal and 
 ability which has been exerted by the Committee of 
 Dissenters in London, to obtain the repeal of the ob- 
 noxious statutes ; and while we express our obligations 
 to Edward Jeffries, Esq. their Chairman, and to the 
 Committee through him for their eminent past services, 
 we confide in their perseverance until the desired object 
 shall be obtained, assuring them that we shall be happy 
 to concur in every peaceable measure adopted to se- 
 cure it. 
 
 X. That the thanks of this meeting be transmitted 
 to Henry Beaufoy, Esq. for the distinguishing ability 
 and energy with which he has repeatedly asserted the 
 rights of the Dissenters, in the House of Commons ; 
 and to Sir Henry Houghton, Bart, the Right Hon. 
 Charles James Fox, William Smith, Esq. and all the 
 other members of parliament who have voted for the re- 
 peal of the test and corporation acts. 
 
 REMARK. 
 
 The Gentlemen thus honoured with the thanks of 
 this meeting, maybe very worthy persons in their own 
 
282 THOUGHTS ON THE RESOLUTIONS 
 
 private families ; but men fall into their public opi- 
 nions more from custom, connexion, and education, 
 than from reason or religion. The same inducements 
 may prevail with some to plead for the supposed rights 
 of Dissenters, as prevail with others to plead for the 
 doctrines of Jews and Mahometans. As to the Right 
 Hon. Charles James Fox, a late publication informs 
 us, that he was a professed Unbeliever when he was a 
 school-boy; and the date of his reformation since that 
 time, is not known to us. 
 
 XI. That the chairman of this meeting, and the 
 deputies from the different congregations, be a com- 
 mittee, for the purpose of co-operating with any other 
 public bodies of Dissenters in the kingdom, that have 
 united in the pursuit of the same laudable object, and 
 that copies of these resolutions be transmitted to Ed- 
 ward Jeffries, Esq. and the chairman of every other 
 associated body of Dissenters. 
 
 XII. That the chairman, and any five of tlie com- 
 mittee, be empowered, at any future time, to call a 
 general meeting of the deputies from the different con- 
 gregations in this county. 
 
 REMARK. 
 
 As these articles give Power to hold civil meetings 
 for the pursuit of a civil object, we apprehend they ex- 
 ceed the Act of Toleration, and so are without Au- 
 thority of Law, and consequently against the peace of 
 the kingdom. Of this measure, therefore, the Honour- 
 able House of Commons, and Gentlemen skilled in the 
 Law, and all good citizens, who wish to preserve tlie 
 peace we at present enjoy, should consider in due time. 
 For if this should be neglected, a National meeting of 
 
OF THE PROTESTANT DISSENTERS. 283 
 
 the Dissenters may soon follow, when OTHER RE- 
 SOLUTIONS, not now expected, may be agreed 
 upon. 
 
 Quere. Whether an assembly, which meets with a 
 declared intention to change the Laws of the king- 
 dom, or to procure a change of the Laws of the king- 
 dom, is not to be deemed an unlawful assembly, and, 
 as such, within the cognizance of the civil magistrate ? 
 
 1790. 
 
PROPOSAL 
 
 FOR A 
 
 REFORMATION OF PRINCIPLES. 
 
 N° I. 
 
 The late institution of Sunday Schools having been 
 so well supported by the rich and honourable of this 
 kingdom, and so well received by the poor, we are en- 
 couraged to hope that some similar plan will be 
 adopted for preventing the corruption which prevails 
 among scholars, and persons of the higher orders of 
 life, from evil principles, and what may be called a 
 monopoly of the press. We have long been witnesses 
 to the artifices and assiduity of sectaries, republicans, 
 socinians, and infidels. These may differ very much 
 from one another in their opinions ; but if any mis- 
 chief is to be aimed at the church or its doctrines ; 
 if any popular lure is to be thrown out for the raising 
 of a party, and promoting some public disturbance, 
 they never fail to make a common cause of it ; and 
 a large body of men, animated by one spirit, and 
 acting in one direction, must necessarily act with 
 weight and effect. Let us observe what they do, and 
 it will hence appear what we ought to do. 
 
 About forty years ago, when some promising 
 schemes had failed, a Monthly Review of religion and 
 literature was set on foot ; the object of which was to 
 lessen the influence of all such works as should be 
 written in defence of the doctrine and discipline of the 
 Church of England, by defaming either the abilities 
 
A PROPOSAL, &C. 
 
 285 
 
 or the integrity of their authors, omitting their argu- 
 ments, and exhibiting unconnected scraps, from which 
 the public must form an unjust idea: and, on the 
 other hand, by praising the parts and literature of 
 loose, dangerous, and fanatical writers, blanching 
 their bigotry, and presenting their productions to the 
 best advantage. 
 
 This undertaking, contrived by some out of malig- 
 nity, and encouraged by others through inadvertence 
 and curiosity, must in so long a time, by possessing it- 
 self of the avenues to public opinion, have had a per- 
 nicious effect on the Principles and Learning of the 
 age. By another like artifice, some useful works, of 
 established reputation, have been taken up, and re- 
 published by insidious Editors, with omissions and 
 interpolations of their own, for the purpose of misre- 
 presenting public characters, and dispersing unsound 
 opinions. Many readers are apprised of what hath 
 happened to the Biographia Britannica, under the 
 management of an Editor, who is a person of influence 
 among the Dissenters ; and it hath been hinted, that 
 a plan is in embryo, of setting forth the English lan- 
 guage after the manner of the great work de la Crusca, 
 by dissenting Editors ; in which case, such authorities 
 will be admitted as are proper to insinuate into stu- 
 dents the new doctrines and dangerous opinions of the 
 conventicle. This would be a great stroke, and there- 
 fore the alarm should be given in time. For which 
 purpose, we request the readers of this paper to pe- 
 ruse Mr. Burke's account of that literary cabal in 
 France, which, by poisoning the fountains of literature, 
 of late effected the destruction of their church and 
 government. See Reflections, p. 165, &c. The same 
 practices, and with the same views, are now carrying 
 on in this country ; and the party have been heard to 
 
286 
 
 A PROPOSAL FOR 
 
 boast, that their purposes will be accomplished with- 
 out force of arms, by the effect of the press, in giving 
 new lights to the people *. A reverend and learned 
 Divine, now the head of a College in Oxford, in a 
 sermon lately preached before that University, ob- 
 served of the same party that " they command almost 
 every channel of information, and have the direction 
 of almost every periodical publication." 
 
 That no opportunity may be lost, novels have been 
 written, to insinuate under that disguise the errors of 
 heresy and infidelity ; as people, if they were to poison 
 children, would mix arsenic with their sugar-plums. 
 
 Many pious and learned, and some great men, dis- 
 persed about the kingdom, as well laity as clergy, have 
 long seen and lamented the evils here complained of, 
 and wished for a remedy. The first object, therefore, 
 of this Proposal is, to bring some of these together 
 into small parties, as time and place will admit, and 
 promote a farther consultation, by a correspondence 
 between them. All particulars will dispose them 
 under the three following questions : 1. What is to 
 be done ? 2. With what support ? and 3. By what 
 persons ? 
 
 If it be asked what is to be done 9 we have an answer 
 ready, while we observe what the adversary is doing. 
 If false accounts are given of authors and their works, 
 to deceive the public, let a true account be given, to 
 undeceive them. If some old books are republished 
 in a spurious form, to mislead the readers of them, let 
 other good and useful pieces be either republished, or 
 brought out to the light : and let students in divinity 
 
 * We have heard it reported, that the sum of lO.OOOJ. was sub- 
 scribed, for dispersing that mischievous and worthless piece of 
 Thomas Paine ; which in virtue of this liberal support was found in 
 pot-houses and petty assemblies in all parts of the country. 
 
 10 
 
A REFORMATION OF PRINCIPLES. 287 
 
 be furnished, at a cheap rate, with such compilations as 
 they may read without danger to their principles. 
 Little cheap pamphlets might also he dispersed among 
 the common people: and such might be found, as 
 would be of great effect, though little Mown. 
 
 If it should farther be asked, by what means, and 
 by what persons, all this is to be effected ? We answer : 
 as all other things of the kind are ; by the counsel of 
 the wise ; the money of the opulent ; and the activity 
 of men who are fit for business ; of whom, we pre- 
 sume, many will be found in our Universities, and 
 among the parochial clergy, and in the Inns of Court ; 
 when they shall be enquired after by their friends, 
 and encouraged by their superiors. 
 
 We add nothing farther to alarm or allure our 
 readers. With the blessing of God, the design will 
 grow and prosper, even to the surprise of those who 
 are the first feeble instruments. To him, therefore, 
 we recommend it and ourselves, under an assurance, 
 that all they who are zealous for his honour, and would 
 rescue their country from the prevailing tyranny of 
 a self-elected literary cabal over our minds, which is 
 worse than any that can be over our persons and 
 estates, will take this Proposal into consideration. 
 And let it not be urged, as it probably will, that what 
 can be done for the purpose in view, is already done 
 by the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge. 
 We are sensible of, and thankful for, the good which 
 accrues daily to the relig ious interest of this kingdom, 
 from the pious and extensive efforts of that respectable 
 body ; and have good reason to expect the hearty con- 
 currence of many of its members in their private 
 capacity ; but it must have appeared from what has 
 been said, that such a Proposal as the present cannot 
 be brought to effect, but by due recourse to several 
 
288 
 
 A PROPOSAL FOR 
 
 expedients, which do not lie within the limits of their 
 general plan. 
 
 London, Jan. 1, 1792. 
 
 Something farther will be laid before the public, 
 when the gentlemen who now have this business under 
 their consideration, shall be ready to offer it. 
 
 N° II. 
 
 A SEQUEL TO THE PROPOSAL FOR A REFORMATION OF 
 PRINCIPLES. 
 
 Some Gentlemen, who are undoubted friends to 
 our civil and ecclesiastical constitution as by law esta- 
 blished, having farther considered the state of things 
 as set forth in a late Proposal for a Reformation of 
 Principles ; and seeing how many ill-affected and se- 
 ditious associations are formed and forming amongst 
 us, to the corruption of religion, learning, and good 
 manners ; the disturbing of the public peace, the en- 
 dangering of life and property, and of every thing that 
 can be dear to Englishmen and Christians, do resolve, 
 to the utmost of their power, to take such measures, 
 in a literary way only, as shall be thought most con- 
 ducive to the preservation of our religion, government, 
 and laws. And they do most earnestly and affection- 
 ately call upon all persons, who are disposed as they 
 are, to assist them herein ; as conceiving that there is 
 not, at this time, an object of greater importance than 
 that which they are now recommending to the atten- 
 tion and support of their countrymen. 
 
 For the promoting of which, they judge it necessary, 
 in the first place, to provide that a just and impartial 
 
A REFORMATION OF PRINCIPLES. 289 
 
 account be given of all considerable works in divinity, 
 literature and politics ; with a faithful history of facts 
 and occurrences in Europe, as well literary as civil, 
 military and political. For the compiling of which, 
 under the form of a periodical review, gentlemen of 
 the first character have offered their services, with no 
 view but that of acting faithfully for the benefit of 
 their country ; duly considering how grossly it hath 
 been abused and imposed upon by false and interested 
 reports of things and persons : insomuch that we 
 have reason to wonder and be thankful, that the 
 times have not thereby been rendered even worse 
 than we find them. 
 
 They judge it another necessary measure to publish 
 and disperse works of such good principles, as may 
 enlighten those who are uninformed, or rectify those 
 who have been falsely taught; and of such excellence, 
 as may deservedly engage their attention : of which 
 a collection is already forming, to be approved and 
 adopted by this society ; who will repeatedly have 
 recourse to the same expedient on every future 
 occasion. 
 
 This society will consist of three classes, all uniting 
 their powers and employing their interest to the same 
 great and laudable effect, under the patronage and 
 inspection of a committee : that is to say; 
 
 1. Of acting members, who will be responsible for 
 the monthly publication of a review, &c. and of their 
 occasional assistants. 
 
 2. Of a committee, who will meet at regular times 
 for the transaction of business, and to superintend 
 such publications as the society shall direct. 
 
 3. Of annual subscribers, at not less than one 
 guinea each, to be paid at the time of subscribing. 
 Which money so collected will be applied, under the 
 
 VOL. vi. U 
 
290 SEQUEL TO THE PROPOSAL FOR 
 
 direction of the committee, to the general purposes of 
 the society : and when the subscribers shall amount 
 to a sufficient number, and a competent sum shall be 
 subscribed, the society will begin to act. 
 
 All persons of the nobility, gentry, and clergy, who 
 wish to concur in the design of this society, are re- 
 quested to direct their letters to Messrs. Rivingtons, 
 St. Paul's Church- Yard, to be laid before the next 
 meeting ; and the said Messrs. Rivingtons are also em- 
 powered to receive subscriptions and benefactions, 
 and to register the names of the subscribers. 
 
 The members present at this meeting have the 
 satisfaction of being informed, that similar meetings 
 will be held at Oxford and Bath ; and we trust, when 
 this plan shall have been farther made known, at 
 many other considerable places in Great Britain and 
 Ireland: and they observe with pleasure how nearly 
 their design, started by a few private persons about 
 six months ago, accords with his Majesty's most gra- 
 cious intention for promoting the peace and pros- 
 perity of this kingdom in his late proclamation. 
 
 London, June 11, 1792. 
 
 (N° III.) 
 
 When the two preceding numbers of this Proposal 
 were offered to the Public, it was justly apprehended 
 that a more impartial account of literary publications, 
 though essential to the plan of the Society, would give 
 more trouble than any other object that they had in 
 view ; but that difficulty is now in a great measure re- 
 moved : and though the British Critic doth not pretend 
 to perfection, or to so near an approach to perfection, 
 as it may attain hereafter, its claim to candour and 
 impartiality has never been disputed. 
 
A HEFORMATION OF PRINCIPLES. 291 
 
 But there are other objects in view, which should 
 by no means be neglected. When the principles of a 
 nation are changed, as hath been too much the case in 
 this nation within the present century, it is a certain 
 sign that there hath been some change in the studies of 
 those persons, who are educated to learned profes- 
 sions : and if so, there can be no prospect of any 
 amendment till a new and better course of study shall 
 take place. Of this the society being fully persuaded, 
 have determined to collect, and with the assistance 
 and interest of all good men, whom they conjure to 
 give attention to the case, will recommend to young 
 students (especially students in divinity) such tracts 
 as may furnish their minds with good principles, and 
 with such sober and strong reasons as may (with the 
 Divine Blessing) enable them not only to maintain 
 their own ground for themselves, but to recover to 
 the truth those who have departed from it. They 
 apprehend, that without this step, all the good that 
 may be done by other means will be slow and pre- 
 carious. Sermons upon single texts are found to do 
 little good to those, who never learned their Cate- 
 chism; such persons having no rule of judgment in 
 their minds to distinguish between good and evil. 
 The British Critic, if honestly and impartially con- 
 ducted, may serve in its department to keep us from 
 growing worse; but it cannot reach to the root of 
 the evil. Learned as we are in the present age, there 
 are many and great subjects in which we are to begin 
 again. And though corruption is powerful and in- 
 fectious, and falsehood is overbearing ; let us hope 
 the opportunity is not lost. None of us can say how 
 soon it may be : and therefore we should work while 
 some day-light is left, lest the night overtake us. By 
 some such expedient as that now proposed, we may 
 u 2 
 
292 
 
 SEQUEL TO THE PROPOSAL FOR 
 
 be furnished with a new generation of skilful critics, 
 who may prevail to the preservation of the age in 
 which they shall live ; unless the time is come, when 
 the Light we have so long neglected and abused 
 shall be removed from us : which may God, in his 
 infinite mercy, avert ! 
 
 The first thing wanting is, a general and correct idea 
 of the Christian plan ; which is furnished in an incom- 
 parable piece by the great Lord Verulam. We would 
 next attend to the truth of Revelation, as proved by 
 its proper evidences : which have never beenlaiddown 
 more clearly and briefly, than by that eminent contro- 
 versialist Mr. C. Leslie, in his Short Method with the 
 Deists, and his Truth of Christianity demonstrated. 
 
 Errors concerning the nature of civil government 
 endanger the peace of mankind, and were never more 
 current than at present : that subject, therefore, de- 
 mands our attention ; and for this purpose we prefer 
 a discourse on the English government, extracted from 
 the late Roger North, Esq. an eminent writer of the 
 Guildford family; who goes through the subject in a 
 clear and masterly way ; and having been a lawyer by 
 profession, his judgment may be liable to less excep- 
 tion. The late Soame Jenyns having well exposed the 
 absurdity of some modern false ideas of civil govern- 
 ment ; we would extract this piece from his works, if it 
 may be permitted: and to this we mean to add a ser- 
 mon from the works of the late Bishop Home, on the 
 Origin of Civil Government ; who has considered the 
 subject, as it ought always to be considered by divines 
 of the Church of England. A wild sectarian spirit 
 would not prevail so much as it does if the sin and 
 danger of schism were better understood by the learn- 
 ed, and more diligently taught among the people. 
 Nothing can be more excellent upon the subject than 
 
V REFORMATION OF PRINCIPLES. 293 
 
 the three letters of the Rev. W. Law against Bishop 
 Hoadley, in what was called the Bangorian contro- 
 versy : which is now in a manner forgotten, though 
 every clergyman ought to be acquainted with it; for 
 it was an occurrence of great concern, not to the 
 peace of this church only, but to the very being and 
 subsistence of Christianity in the world. To these 
 letters we would add an Essay on the Nature and 
 Constitution of the Church; with some extracts from 
 Mr. Leslie, on the same subject. 
 
 We shall speak a great and interesting truth, if we 
 affirm, that no man will understand rightly the nature 
 of God, unless he has a proper knowledge of himself, 
 that is, of the real state of human nature, and the limi- 
 tation of its powers. This subject was never treated 
 to better effect, than by the late Dr. Ellis of Dublin. 
 His book on the Knoivledge of Divine Things from 
 Revelation, not from Reason and Nature, hath happily 
 convinced many readers : who knew not how to think 
 justly of God or themselves, till they were taught by 
 this author. His work being too large and diffuse for 
 this collection, an abridgment of it has long been ar- 
 dently wished for : and it is now happily discovered, 
 that his principles were laid down by himself in two 
 sermons, the substance of which he contracted into 
 one discourse; of which we have been favoured with 
 a copy; and to this we would add another discourse 
 on the same subject, which rectifies a text of the 
 Scriptures, a false interpretation of which has given 
 countenance and currency to most of the modern 
 deistical mistakes about nature and reason. 
 
 Infidelity having been very busy of late years, under 
 the new name of Unitarianism, the people should be 
 properly informed upon this subject, and the argu- 
 ments in favour of the fundamental doctrines of the 
 
294 
 
 SEQUEL TO THE PROPOSAL FOR 
 
 Church of England should be well understood, in op- 
 position to such gainsayers. For this end we shall 
 add from the Rev. Mr. No?-ris's decisive Treatise on 
 Faith and Reason, the last chapter ; in which the argu- 
 ment is summed up ; and shall subjoin to it, two trea- 
 tises adopted by the Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge ; the first, A Preservative against the Pub- 
 lications of the Socinians; the second, the Catholic Doc- 
 trine of the Trinity: which is now out of print, except 
 in the small edition distributed by the society. It was 
 little suspected in the last century, that the time would 
 come, when the fabulous idolatry of heathens should 
 be openly preferred to the Gospel in a Christian coun- 
 try. But it hath now actually been done in this coun- 
 try by individual authors, and is done by the nation 
 itself in another. It will not be superfluous nor im- 
 pertinent if we subjoin some anonymous Remarks on 
 the Growth of Heathenism among modern Christians. 
 
 No divine of this church ever studied his profession 
 with better opportunities, nor with more diligence and 
 success, than the late excellent and amiable Bishop 
 Home : we are informed, that in the papers he has 
 left behind him, there are such rules and directions in 
 many separate pieces, for the study of divinity, with 
 such an apparatus of theological matter, collected from 
 all the sources of learning, as would of themselves, if 
 put together, form an inestimable treasure for the im- 
 provement of young students in divinity. Some of 
 these we propose to add, if it may be permitted. 
 
 It is our intention to publish the whole collection, 
 with the names * of the subscribers prefixed ; and we 
 trust it will appear, that the times, bad as they are, can 
 
 * The society, on farther consideration, deemed it not necessary 
 to solicit a subscription for this collection. 
 10 
 
A REFORMATION OF PRINCIPLES. 295 
 
 still exhibit a large and respectable association of gen- 
 tlemen and clergy, who will show by their patronage 
 of this publication, that they are desirous and ready, 
 so to think, and so to teach, and so to live, as to 
 draw down the protection of Heaven, for the preser- 
 vation and increase of true learning and true reli- 
 gion. 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 The reader of these three papers should be informed, 
 that the first draught of the plan laid down in them 
 has received some considerable alterations ; partly 
 from choice, and partly from necessity ; but it was 
 thought better to reprint the papers, as they were 
 published, than to give new trouble by such anno- 
 tations and explanations, as are not necessary to the 
 main design. 
 
 January, 1795. 
 
A 
 
 SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 OF 
 
 DR. PRIESTLEY, 
 
 FROM HIS PRINTED WORKS : 
 
 OR 
 
 A FREE ACCOUNT, 
 
 (in consequence of a free inquiry) 
 
 OE 
 
 HIS STYLE, I HIS LOGIC, 
 
 HIS POLITICS, HIS RELIGION, 
 
 HIS FEELINGS, I HIS PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 CONCLUDING WITH AN ANALYSIS, 
 
 AND 
 
 AN APPENDIX 
 
 Of Extracts from the Writings of Dr. Priestley, which were 
 read in Court at the Assizes at Warwick. 
 
 MENS CUJUSQUE, IS EST QUISQUE. CIC. 
 
PREFATORY EPISTLE 
 
 TO THE 
 
 REVEREND MR. H D. 
 
 DEAR SIR, 
 
 The celebrated Dr. Priestley having long presented to the 
 world a character new and curious in its kind, you expressed 
 a desire, that a portrait of him might be taken from his works, 
 and given to the public upon a small scale. 
 
 In consequence of what had passed, the writer of the follow- 
 ing pages, having some acquaintance with the Doctor's publi- 
 cations, sat down to a sketch of his whole-length ; which, being 
 verified by proper authorities, may be considered as a piece 
 taken from the life. He has employed some pains to make the 
 drawing correct, and he hopes the colours will stand : that if 
 the Doctor's writings should hereafter be scarce, (as it is con- 
 jectured they will be) people may know what he was. With 
 the outward tabernacle of Dr. Priestley he has no concern ; 
 but with that Dr. Priestley only, which is to be found in books 
 and pamphlets to a very great amount : mens cujusque is est 
 quisque : and if the present exhibition of him to the connoisseurs, 
 at the usual price of one shilling a-piece, shall furnish you (or 
 nearly so) with the thing you wished for, and convey to the 
 public a just idea at a small expence, I shall be happy, that 
 in a time of leisure, while the town is empty, I could turn my 
 pencil to the present subject. 
 
 What have you and 1 lived to see ! a staymaker of Thetford, 
 and a Dissenting teacher of Birmingham, called upon to take 
 their share of the government in that city, which in the last age 
 affected universal monarchy ! Thus was Babylon once the mis- 
 
300 
 
 PREFATORY EPISTLE. 
 
 tress of the world : but if we should go to look for it now, the ' 
 Prophet tells us, we shall find a nest of owls. When you think 
 on these things, you will not forget 
 
 Your affectionate Brother, 
 
 and humble Servant, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 OF 
 
 DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 I. THE STYLE AND LEARNING OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 Of what kind soever our sentiments may be, on sub- 
 jects of religion and literature, the manner in which 
 they are delivered is of so much consequence, that 
 when an author is spoken of, we generally enquire in 
 the first place, how lie writes. The work which first 
 made Dr. Priestley more extensively known to the 
 public, was his History of Electricity. Let any 
 reader of judgment cast his eye over the preface to that 
 history, and he will be shocked with the affectation 
 and poverty of his diction. There is such a jumble of 
 scenes, prospects, objects and ideas, as render his style 
 boyish and ridiculous. The word Views, which occurs 
 ten times in a few paragraphs, would never have been 
 permitted to stand, if the writer had understood how 
 to revise and correct his own language. We are told 
 (p. 1.) of pleasing objects according to all the genuine 
 and universal principles of taste deduced from a know- 
 ledge of human nature — of objects throwing a pleasing 
 idea upon scenes : which is profound nonsense ; though 
 the author probably took it for fine writing. 
 
 When he produces himself as the champion of his 
 party against Mr. BurJce, the poor lame English which 
 
302 
 
 A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 he presents to the supreme critical eye of that learned 
 gentleman, becomes more remarkable and offensive — 
 What I have more particularly replied to is what he 
 has advanced, &c. and again (p. 2.) there is nothing 
 extraordinary in this revolution having excited, &c. 
 In a plain unassuming person, of little education, 
 such mistakes might be considered as vernacular 
 oversights ; but when they come from a teacher of 
 eloquence, who writes books upon rhetoric, they take 
 a very different character. 
 
 As to Dr. Priestley's skill in the learned languages, 
 there is a vast appearance of it in his voluminous 
 writings ; but in the critical analysis of Greek and 
 Latin, he is ill grounded and injudicious ; insomuch 
 that any well-trained scholar will soon find out that he 
 was never put into proper possession of school-learn- 
 ing. The Bishop of St. David s (then Archdeacon of 
 St. Albaiis) charges him with gross blunders, even to 
 the mistaking of a passage, the sense of which ivas 
 hardly to he missed at first sight by a school-boy in his 
 second year of Greek. (Tracts, p. 101.) When any 
 man does his best, candour will be ready to make the 
 most of him ; but when such a person holds in con- 
 tempt and defiance his adversaries, who are better 
 learned, he has then no longer any claim upon our 
 candour or politeness, but deserves to be held up to 
 the public in his true colours; more especially, if any 
 evil purpose is to be promoted amongst the ignorant 
 and the disaffected by his pretensions to superior 
 learning. None of Dr. Priestley s principles are more 
 mischievous in their intention than his political : we 
 shall therefore begin with a short sketch of his politics 
 from his own writings. 
 
OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 303 
 
 m THE POLITICS OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 His system is briefly this. To gain clear ideas, as 
 he tells us, he supposes (in common with some higher 
 authors who ought to have known better) a state of 
 nature, in which every individual is possessed of na- 
 tural liberty, part of which he resigns into a common 
 stock, out of which arises that power of directing the 
 conduct of others, which we call government. This 
 scheme, even at first sight, must be false : because, 
 out of liberty, nothing can arise but liberty : whereas 
 government is a power of restraining, and power must 
 arise out of power not out of liberty, for this is the 
 antagonist of power ; and accordingly, all those busy 
 gentlemen who are now striving against government, 
 call themselves the friends of liberty. The principle 
 which dissolves government can never be the principle 
 out of which it arises ; and the case is so plain that a 
 child may see it. 
 
 This absurdity, however, runs through all our au- 
 thor's politics; in which, as occasion requires, he 
 substitutes power and liberty for one another. Thus 
 doth he begin his fundamental definition. — Political 
 liberty consists in t/ie power which the members of the 
 state reserve to themselves of arriving at public offices, 
 &c. (Essay on the first Pr. of Gov. p. 9.) Here li- 
 berty is confounded with the power of governing ; 
 that is, of restraining liberty : and we reckon a writer 
 who is loose in a definition, to be either cloudy in his 
 understanding, or fraudulent in his intention ; a 
 swindler in reasoning, who takes up what he has not 
 fairly purchased. 
 
 When the Doctor's principles are brought together 
 and compared, the perplexity is obvious. He distin- 
 
304 
 
 A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 guishes (for clearness, as he observes) liberty into 
 political and civil ; making the latter a power over 
 our own actions, and the former a power over the 
 actions of others; that is, a power of ruling, and a 
 power of not being ruled: which in effect leave all 
 power in equilibrio; and so amount to nothing. His two 
 sorts of liberty are evidently two sorts of power, which 
 annihilate each other : and all this is for clearness. 
 
 He farther asserts (p. 12.) that " as every man re- 
 tains, and can never be deprived of his natural right 
 of relieving himself from all oppression ; that is, from 
 every thing that has been imposed upon him without 
 his own consent; this must be the only true and proper 
 foundation of all the governments subsisting in the 
 world." Which means in plainer English, that the 
 only proper foundation of government is the power 
 of overturning government; which he calls relieving 
 ourselves from oppression ; and a power this is which 
 may be turned against the ten commandments ; for 
 these having been imposed upon us wit/iout our own 
 consent, (it being certain that we had no hand in the 
 making of them) are consequently, by Dr. Priestley's 
 rule, an oppression. 
 
 It is another of his fundamental maxims, that kings, 
 senators and nobles are to all intents the servants of 
 the public, and accountable to the people : (p. 23.) 
 which principle, when transferred from the body civil 
 to the body natural, asserts the headship of the feet 
 and toes : which is very good sense when our mean- 
 ing is to turn the world upside down. If it be our in- 
 tention to overturn establishments, we must advance 
 such principles as will promote the great work of 
 decomposition. But decomposition, as we find by 
 experience, is an experiment attended with some loss. 
 When chemists undertake to analyze, a subtile prin- 
 
OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 305 
 
 ciple evaporates, which can never be restored ; and 
 this extends by analogy to other cases. It is easy to 
 take a man to pieces ; but life escapes in the experi- 
 ment, and the man can never be put together any 
 more. Every legal government is a composition, of 
 which God, by his laws and his providence, makes 
 himself a part; the animating part, which gives energy 
 and effect to the whole. When this is lost, on a dis- 
 solution of the state, and of laws human and divine, 
 it is not in the power of man to restore it. There 
 may be a thing framed which will call itself a govern- 
 ment ; but it will have no authority nor stability, be- 
 cause it is built upon a loose bottom. Cruelty and 
 revenge will take the place of penal, and robbery and 
 sacrilege of distributive justice ; and a thousand other 
 evils will happen, which all good men will deprecate, 
 because none but evil men can be gainers by them : 
 and they only in appearance ; for the whole is a de- 
 ception and a phantom. 
 
 Our author's political casuistry is as curious as his 
 principles. He has one measure for us and another 
 for himself. In his letters to Mr. Burke he lays it 
 down, that we have no business to find fault with the 
 French for what they have thought proper to do in 
 their own affairs, (p. 3.) But if it be a good rule to 
 let our neighbours alone in managing for themselves, 
 how comes it that the Doctor is so busy and so severe 
 a critic upon the church of England, a society to which 
 he does not belong 1 and why were he and his friends 
 so zealous to celebrate the French revolution ? Why 
 is he, who is a stranger, at liberty to applaud and 
 give his sanction to their proceedings : if we, who are 
 also strangers, are not at liberty to censure them ? 
 It will never be a matter of indifference whether vice 
 or virtue prevail in the world : the cause of the French, 
 
 VOL. vi. X 
 
306 
 
 A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 in this view of it, is the cause of mankind. The Doc- 
 tor and his friends obliged us to consider whether the 
 French had done right or wrong, because they per- 
 suaded us to do the same thing at home ; and their 
 motions toward it alarmed the people at Birmingham, 
 and occasioned all those disturbances, the causes of 
 which are as well understood by the Doctor himself 
 as by any person in this kingdom. 
 
 The French nation were at liberty, he says, to better 
 their condition without consulting us. But here again, 
 the Doctor's casuistry is as loose as before : for no 
 man can be justified in bettering his condition, unless 
 he does it by lawful means. If a man betters his con- 
 dition out of the property and lives of his fellow-sub- 
 jects, he is a felon and a murderer ; and, as Dr. 
 Franklin rightly observed, it makes no difference 
 whether this be done by a single person or by a larger 
 gang, or by one half of a nation against the other 
 half. 
 
 There may be some worthy persons, who, although 
 they look up to Dr. Priestley as a great political ca- 
 suist, are not above being admonished. Let them 
 consider calmly, what is in a manner self-evident, 
 that all vice is from the liberty of human action ; all 
 virtue from the restraints either of law or conscience. 
 So far as restraint is from the law of God, it cannot 
 be opposed. But of this law, no account is made by 
 Dr. Priestley or his followers : and if they are plot- 
 ting to overturn establishments, as they openly pro- 
 fess, it is proper they should keep it out of sight ; for 
 the moment it is introduced, all their fairy edifices 
 fall to pieces like a house of cards. That man must 
 be an atheist or an infidel, who forgets that there is a 
 foundation of law, by which all men are bound, in 
 their relation to God, and to one another ; and that 
 
OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 307 
 
 the ten commandments are made for men in a state of 
 inequality. In the new subject of human Right, the 
 ignorant may think there is a pro and a con of argu- 
 ment against argument : but the whole is a dispute 
 between the duties of religion and the claims of athe- 
 ism : all of which are answered for ever in this one 
 short sentence — no man hath a right to do wrong. 
 How their plots will succeed in time, it may be im- 
 possible to foresee ; but, I think, before the party of 
 Republicans and Unitarians will succeed in this 
 country, they must provide a political manager not 
 so much given to betray and contradict himself as 
 Dr. Priestley : who in one page assures us, that Uni- 
 tarians are as good subjects as Trinitarians ; and in an 
 adjoining page, that they are laying gunpowder, grain 
 by grain, under the old building of error and super- 
 stition, which a single spark may hereafter enfiame *. 
 This open unguarded temper, which lays a plot, and 
 then tells it to every body, has brought the Doctor 
 into great miscarriages, and was undoubtedly the 
 cause of all the losses he suffered at Birmingham. 
 
 III. OF THE FEELINGS OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 The Doctor's feelings are very unaccountable, being 
 totally disproportionate, and sometimes quite of a 
 contrary nature to their causes. He tells us how the 
 sudden union of Mr. Burke and Lord North filled him 
 with horror, (Lett, to Mr. Burke, p. 6.) If an un- 
 looked-for coalition in the ministry goes to court, to 
 manage public business, he is troubled with the hor- 
 rors ; but he can hear of captive kings, of plots, 
 massacres, confiscations, and sacrilege, and find all 
 
 * Free Inq. p. 40 — 45. 
 
 x 2 
 
308 
 
 A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 these things not only agreeable, but consistent with 
 celebrity and festivity. He mocks at the humanity of 
 Mr. Burke, for being alarmed and disturbed at the late 
 horrible commotions in France. This worthy gentle- 
 man, blessed with the tender feelings of a polished 
 mind, and concerned for the peace of the Christian 
 world, did look with abhorrence on the confusion, in- 
 humanity, and felony of the French Revolution ; and 
 therefore justly and pathetically exclaimed against it, 
 as a most wicked and cruel transaction. At all this 
 Dr. Priestley wonders ; and says — you are alarmed — 
 you are not cool — your mind is heated, &c. &c. The 
 contrast here is a little striking : The one, with the 
 heart of a man and a Christian, feels, as the attending 
 chaplain would, at a miserable execution ; while the 
 other stands by with all the indifference of the hang- 
 man ; considering only what he and his party may get 
 by it ; and how the catastrophe may serve to pro- 
 mote his own political ideas. 
 
 The power of kings and rulers is designed by Pro- 
 vidence as a terror to evildoers; so the Gospel teaches : 
 and a terror it is, which seems to lie very hard upon 
 Dr. Priestley ; but if the law of Providence be in- 
 verted, and the terror happen to fall backwards, upon 
 kings and rulers themselves, then he has his wish. He 
 rejoices when they are made to tremble, as if it were a 
 delicious circumstance : " It is time," says he, " that 
 they who have made others tremble, (i. e. who 
 have been a terror to evil-doers ) should in their turn 
 tremble themselves. But let the people rejoice." 
 (Lett, to Mr. Burke, p. 40.) The two great red-letter 
 festivals of Dr. Priestley's year (kalendered with blood ) 
 are the 30th of January and the 14th of July. " Let 
 all tyrants read the history of both," says he, " and 
 tremble." We shall rarely meet with any instance of 
 
OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 309 
 
 a flaming advocate for liberty, who does not, through 
 all the disguise of his fair words, discover the spirit 
 of a tyrant. If I had no other reason for detesting 
 our Doctor's politics, this alone would be sufficient, 
 that they deliver us over to an unmerciful mind, and 
 even invert the passions natural to man : so that when 
 the world is in tears, we are preparing for a feast ; 
 like vultures, when they smell slaughter at a distance : 
 and, in the sunshine of peaceable times, like Spenser's 
 fiend, which chews a toad, we weep, that cause of 
 weeping tliere is none. 
 
 When a man denies his own conduct to those who 
 are witnesses of it, and expects to be believed ; what- 
 ever that man may call himself, we generally agree to 
 call him impudent. Has not our Doctor, for many 
 years past, been libelling the religion and the clergy 
 of the Church of England ; predicting ruin to the 
 government, and recommending a new one after the 
 model of France ; calling our religious establishment 
 a fungus, a sloth, a glutton : and threatening it with 
 a destructive explosion from the gunpowder, which he 
 and his friends have been conveying under the fabric ? 
 Yet the man who had said all these things, and many 
 more, (for which see the collection in the Appendix^) 
 tells the inhabitants of Birmingham, they had uniform 
 experience of his peaceable behaviour for eleven years. 
 (See Thoughts on the late Riots at Birmingham, p. 7.) 
 
 His Letter to Mr. Pitt displays a degree of assurance 
 rarely to be met with. When a man, in this country, 
 writes a saucy letter to a minister of state, there is 
 nothing prodigious in the case : but if he does this in 
 defiance of all decency, and puts his name to it, as 
 Dr. Priestley did, he glories in his shame ; which a 
 man seldom does, till he is past the feeling of it. Tell 
 him his creed gives him a near alliance to the Turks ; 
 
310 
 
 A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 he is not abashed at it ; but considers it rather as a 
 favourable circumstance ; telling us how the Turks are 
 in a fair way to become Christians, because they are 
 Unitarians. " You are mistaken," says he, in his 
 Letter to Mr. Parkhurst, " if you think that I am 
 ashamed to avow my agreement with the Mahome- 
 tans, or any other of the human race, in the doctrine 
 of the divine unity, and to worship together with t/iem 
 the one God and Father of all, the Maker of heaven 
 and earth." (Letters, p. 185.) Whether it be the 
 Reverend Mr. Parkhurst then, or any other worthy 
 gentleman, who shall suspect that the Doctor is weak 
 enough to be ashamed ; he has reason, from the Doc- 
 tor's own authority, to retract his suspicions. 
 
 IV. THE LOGIC OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 When a writer has a good cause, and understands 
 it well, his defence of it will be plain and rational : 
 but if his cause be bad, and too weak to support it- 
 self, he will apply to the arts of false logic, which we 
 call sophistry ; and, as we say, will try to persuade 
 people out of their senses. Dr. Priestley has been 
 celebrated for his abilities : and I am convinced he is a 
 man of parts, when I see the ingenuity and variety of 
 his subterfuges. When the case is desperate, and we 
 see him sinking ; he is never at a loss for some shift to 
 keep his head above water. One of his artifices is, to 
 dazzle the eyes of his readers with a splendid idea of 
 his own powers. The multitude of his volumes, and 
 the expedition with which he writes, are favourite to- 
 pics, and frequently alluded to ; whence the public is 
 to believe, that he is greater than other men, because he 
 writes/aster ; and that he writes unanswerably, because 
 he writes without end. It is a common evasion with 
 him, to find fault with the qualifications of his antago- 
 
OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 311 
 
 nists : none of them are the right sort of men : so 
 instead of answering their arguments, he amuses his 
 readers with reflexions on their learning and abilities : 
 and the world is to infer, how powerfully he would 
 confute and display his superior skill in the science of 
 defence, if he could but meet with a proper opponent. 
 But unfortunately they are all of the wrong sort ; so 
 he treats with contempt all that are past, and with de- 
 fiance all that are to come ; assuring the public, that 
 the greatest coward may think himself a match for the 
 orthodox — / have reconnoitred the force of the enemy, 
 and I see nothing that can daunt the most timid — I" 
 want to see their Goliah — Thus doth the Doctor flou- 
 rish his pen over the heads of us weak churchmen, in 
 the spirit of a prize-fighter. In the same vapouring 
 strain, he calls Dr. Horsley, the late Bishop of St. 
 David's, a boastful Champion, so confuted and baffled 
 by himself, that all the encomiums and encouragements 
 of his friends cannot bring him into the field again. 
 (Letters to the Dean of Cant. p. 3.) Here we have a 
 specimen of the language of the cockpit, applied to a 
 dignitary of the church, and a controversy in divinity. 
 The case is this : If persons of better learning and 
 more manners leave him to himself, because they find 
 it is to no purpose to argue with him ; he reports, that 
 they have ran away, and left him in possession of the 
 field. He puts a like interpretation upon the pious con- 
 duct of Dr. Home. This most amiable of men, when 
 Dean of Canterbury, preached an exhortatory sermon 
 on theduty of contending earnestly for thefaith: which 
 exhortation Dr. Priestley very ingeniously interprets 
 into the voice of distress : as if all his opponents were 
 confuted, and the good Dean crying out for more 
 help ; the Champion of Socinianism had got them all 
 down, and was belabouring them at his mercy. Much 
 10 
 
312 
 
 A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 of the Doctor's logic consists in boasting and defiance. 
 He therefore tells the world, the defenders of ortho- 
 doxy have no dependence but on the act of William 
 and Mary, which he calls the real Goliah in this busi- 
 ness. (Free Enquiry, p. 80.) But Dr. Priestley 
 knows this Goliah has never been produced, because, 
 so far as argument is wanted, we find ourselves able 
 to do without it. But, if to apply to other aids, is 
 tacitly to confess our weakness in point of argument; 
 how comes he to depend, so much as he does, on the 
 foreign helps of railing, blustering and terrifying ? 
 This impertinent application to the force of ill words, 
 I call his Act of William and Mary, which he is put- 
 ting into execution on every occasion ; and therefore, 
 by his own rule, he is under a state of conscious in- 
 ability and confutation. 
 
 There is a sophistry in defying the laws made for 
 the support of religion, which few people can see 
 through. From their non-execution, it is argued, that 
 we are ashamed of them, as being sensible they are 
 the fences of falsehood. It is likewise suspected that 
 the Socinians are courting persecution, and wish the 
 laws to be put in force against themselves : but this 
 can never be the case with those men who make so 
 great a show of their impunity ; and are so frequently 
 turning it into an argument in their favour. In truth, 
 their logic will be a match for us either way : if the 
 laws are executed, then it is because we have no argu- 
 ment : if they are not executed, then it is because we 
 are afraid it should be seen that we have no argument : 
 so they have us at bay in either case. The experience 
 of the world tells us, on the one side, that impunity 
 begets licentiousness : and prudence teaches, on the 
 other, that penal laws should never be executed, if 
 lighter methods are found sufficient. Our laws in 
 
OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 313 
 
 support of religion, were not intended to exclude fair 
 and reasonable argument ; their use is to repress in- 
 solence and outrage ; and to secure the peace of the 
 state; which never thought itself secure with subjects, 
 who boldly deny the Godhead of Jesus Christ, and 
 teach the people to do the same. If there is any pro- 
 per object of such a law, it is the man, who, when 
 he should be arguing, falls to blaspheming : who, be- 
 cause he is not able to confute, alarms the minds of 
 his readers with the prospect of being soon over- 
 powered by numbers, or destroyed by some sudden 
 and unforeseen explosion, for which he and his friends 
 have so long been preparing the materials. I leave 
 Dr. Priestley to look into the writings of modern con- 
 trovertists, and see if he can find a person of that de- 
 scription. Another of the Doctor's arts is to impose 
 upon his readers with unfair samples. Thus, if an 
 adversary should lay upon him a dozen hard names, 
 of which eleven should be true, and the twelfth doubt- 
 ful ; he will pick out the last, and hold it up to the 
 public as a specimen of all the rest. In this way he 
 can answer a large book before breakfast ; by taking 
 a few passages without their dependencies, and then 
 boasting that he has confuted the whole work. 
 
 But Dr. Priestley never displays his sophistry to 
 greater advantage, than when he undertakes to evade 
 the force of a text of Scripture, which is very often 
 necessary, from the part he has unhappily taken in 
 divinity. The Scripture asserts plainly of Jesus Christ, 
 that all things were created by him and for him, and 
 he is before all things, and by him all things consist. 
 Col. viii. 16. Now behold the answer to this plain 
 positive Scripture — " I would only observe," says the 
 Doctor, " that neither the earth, nor the sun, moon 
 or stars, nor any material substance, is specified 
 
314 
 
 A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 among the things created by him." (See Letters, 
 p. 119.) So all things signify none of these things, 
 because none of them are particularly mentioned. To 
 rid himself of the argument for the pre-existence and 
 divinity of Christ from the act of creation, &c. he sup- 
 poses, that as Christ is said to have reconciled the 
 world as well as created it, created and reconciled may 
 well be supposed to be synonymous : so that if a man 
 reconciles two neighbours at variance, he may be said 
 to have created them. I beg the reader to review 
 p. 118, 119, 120 of his letters to Dr. Price, as a 
 specimen of Unitarian logic and divinity : such as the 
 learned Bishop of St. David's might well run away 
 from ; but not because he is beaten out of the field. 
 
 We prove the divinity of our blessed Saviour, by 
 shewing that the same divine acts are ascribed to Him 
 as to God : and as the Almighty is demonstrated by 
 the works of omnipotence, the argument will never be 
 answered. But nothing is too hard for Dr. Priestley ; 
 who replies, that this argument will prove God and 
 Satan to be the same being ; because it is said of David, 
 that God moved him to number the people; and in 
 another place that Satan tempted him. But the Doc- 
 tor, who writes very fast, cannot stop on such occa- 
 sions to make proper distinctions : all he aims at is, to 
 make a little appearance, and get off as soon as he 
 can. Temptation is no divine act ; which is the thing 
 always supposed in the argument he is answering. 
 God, or man, or even Satan himself, may be said to 
 tempt, if regard be had to the sense in which it is 
 spoken ; but God and Satan are never said either to 
 have created the world or to have saved it. Such, 
 however, is the style of criticism, which Dr. Priestley 
 has opposed to Mr. Jones's Catholic Doctrine of the 
 Trinity. (See his Letters to Students in the Univer- 
 sities.) 
 
OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 315 
 
 When a man is what we call a Proteus, he can trans- 
 form himself from one shape to another, and assume 
 any temper, to serve the present purpose ; he can be 
 audacious when he is in fear ; pleased when he is vex- 
 ed ; glad when he is sorry ; and compassionate while 
 he is gratified with another's misery. Our Doctor re- 
 joices in the orthodox defences of the church of Eng- 
 land, because, as he informs my Lords the Bishops, 
 they will hasten its destruction. He is glad that his 
 property and his life were attacked, because this does 
 honour to his writings ; his adversaries having found 
 this the only way of answering them. Every thing 
 makes for him, which we should suppose to be against 
 him. He boasts, that the Unitarians are more obliged 
 to Dr. Horsley, than to any Trinitarian : but for what 
 no mortal can tell, unless it be for detecting and ex- 
 posing them past remedy to the world. The design of 
 all this is, to make the writers of the church believe, 
 that notwithstanding all their efforts, they do and will 
 write to no good purpose ; rather to a bad one ; and 
 that they may as well give it up, and leave the Doctor 
 unmolested in corrupting our faith, and deluding the 
 people, till the grand plot of total subversion shall 
 be ripe for execution. 
 
 I shall trouble the reader but with one more of his 
 sophisms ; which is that of his insinuating so frequently 
 as he does, that the age in which we live is greatly en- 
 lightened. Every monitor who advises us to become 
 wiser than we are, deserves to be heard : but his mean- 
 ing is, that we ought not to be contented with the faith 
 of our forefathers, because we know some new things 
 of which our forefathers were ignorant. The argument 
 is altogether impertinent and inconsequential : but 
 weak minds, and young scholars, whose vanity grows 
 faster than their wisdom, may be influenced by it. 
 
316 
 
 A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 The age, it is true, has found out some new experi- 
 ments in philosophy ; and have acquired some new 
 ideas in natural history: hut what then ? what is this 
 to our religion ? Have we found out a new Bible 1 If 
 we get forward in learning, is that any reason why 
 we should go backward in divinity ? There are, to 
 be sure, some curious discoveries of late years, and 
 we cannot deny it. Our new vellum paper, which 
 goes by the name of the wove paper, is of a quality 
 and substance much superior to the paper made in 
 former years : but if all Dr. Priestley's improvements 
 in theology, with all his interpretations of the Scrip- 
 ture, were written upon it, the blank paper of the last 
 century would be a better thing in the library of an 
 Englishman. The present reformers of France call 
 themselves the illuminated : but they were a people 
 of more worth and wisdom with their old darkness 
 about them, than with their new light ; which, like a 
 coup de soleil upon their brain, has put them out of 
 their wits; and made them, what Dr. Priestley s prin- 
 ciples would soon make us, if they should be gene- 
 rally admitted, madmen, scalpers, and cannibals. 
 
 V. THE RELIGION OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 Dr. Priestley's religion must be described different- 
 ly from that of other men ; all by negatives ; for he has 
 taken great pains to shew us what he is not. The truth 
 of religion is nothing yet known, but something that 
 will be found out, if there be but discussion enough ; 
 and therefore discussion is what he is constantly recom- 
 mending. There is to be no establishment of any 
 kind ; but all discussion, discussion ; and the end of it, 
 a right understanding of religion. Every person who 
 is strongly possessed with any persuasion, of which he 
 
OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 317 
 
 has no proof, is an enthusiast or fanatic. Dr. Priest- 
 ley comes fairly under this description, because he 
 turns prophet without his credentials *. " Whatever 
 was the beginning of this world," says he " the end 
 of it will be glorious and paradisaical, beyond what 
 our imaginations can now conceive ; the contemplation 
 of which always makes me happy" (Essay on Gov. 
 p. v.) How this will come to pass the Doctor to be 
 sure knows ; but we can only conjecture from his 
 example ; who, as he tells us himself, was once what 
 we commonly call a Christiati, but what he calls a 
 Trinitarian ; then he was a high Arian ; then a low 
 Arian, like his friend Dr. Price ; then he became a 
 Socinian, and that, as he confesses, of the lowest kind, 
 (Letters, p. 101.) All these changes are in a progress 
 
 * We have heard it asserted, that Dr. Priestley had predicted 
 the end of the world in fourteen or twenty years. But this matter 
 was not truly represented. In the sermon on the death of Dr. Price, 
 he taught his audience, that they who should die at the end of four- 
 teen, or twenty, or seven years, would at the end of those periods 
 respectively meet Dr. Price: and thus he made it out ; that as the 
 soul dies with the body, the interval between any particular person's 
 death and his resurrection, is to be reckoned as nothing ; therefore 
 he that should die soonest would soonest meet Dr. Price. Q. E. D. 
 
 After this he proceeded to tell them, that the news with which the 
 surviving friends of Dr. Price will entertain him at the Resurrection, 
 will consist of those events, in which while alive he was so much in- 
 terested. He knew the triumphs of the memorable 14th of July; 
 and as they were so agreeable to his taste, how will he be delighted 
 to hear of the massacre on the 10th of August! &c. &c. 
 
 The idea the Doctor has formed of persons of his own persuasion 
 in a future state is very singular. Such saints, he thinks, will be 
 pleased at the tremendous day of the Resurrection, to hear what 
 rebellions and massacres happened after their death ; and enquire 
 with anxiety, perhaps, whether England had been as fortunate in 
 this respect as France ? But, as the jyrospect is opening wider, he that 
 goes latest to Dr. Price, will have the best news to tell him ! 
 
318 A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 of descent ; the Doctor is a falling body all the way. 
 We may judge from this his progress toward paradi- 
 saical felicity, what the end will be ; men will believe 
 less and less all the way, as he has done, till they come 
 to paradise and believe nothing at all. The learned 
 have held many arguments about the situation of pa- 
 radise ; but thus much we learn now for certain, that 
 the road to paradise is downwards. 
 
 In his capacity of a prophet, he tells us what won- 
 derful things will come to pass in consequence of the 
 French revolution. His 14th letter to Mr. Burke is 
 such a curiosity upon this subject, that I wish the 
 reader would peruse the whole. He will there disco- 
 ver, what a new and happy creation is to arise out of 
 the French chaos. Religion shall no longer be estab- 
 lished, but truth will establish itself — Governments 
 will all be rectified, when the superstitious respect 
 paid to kings and priests shall vanish : all contention 
 for power shall cease, and differences will no longer be 
 determined by the sword : the grand secret is discover- 
 ed of living without war. Religious disputes will be 
 at an end ; because so great a majority will be of one 
 opinion that the minority will see the necessity of giving 
 way. The one opinion is his own opinion, Socinianisra 
 of the lowest kind ; and the thing which is to be over- 
 powered by numbers, and give way, is the Christian 
 persuasion : and thus he provides for the preservation 
 of religious liberty to us all. Some must decide, and 
 the rest must give way, and then every man will, as 
 the Doctor has it, provide religior.for himself. How 
 ignorant would this world be, if there were not pro- 
 phets to enlighten it ! I would not, however, depend 
 absolutely on the Doctor's infallibility. For when he 
 wrote his letters to Mr. Burke, he foresaw the ap- 
 proaching downfall of that nuisance (p. 128.) that old 
 
OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 319 
 
 and decmjed building (p. 129.) the Church of England, 
 from the rapid increase of the Dissenters, and parti- 
 cularly of those at Birmingham. But how little do pro- 
 phets sometimes foresee ! The fable tells us, how the 
 astrologer, gazing at the stars and foretelling the fate 
 of empires, did not foresee, that he himself was falling 
 into a ditch : even so, that ruin which the Doctor had 
 so plainly and so positively predicted to the old build- 
 ing, fell unfortunately upon the new meeting-house, 
 and upon his own dwelling. How active the Doctor 
 might be at that time in promoting the ruin he had in 
 prospect, he knows better than we do : but instead of 
 being so weak as to take any thing to himself, he per- 
 sists in laying all the blame upon the clergy of Bir- 
 mingham. Yet he has not made it appear in a single 
 instance, that any person of character had a share in 
 the mischief of the late riots : it rather appears to have 
 originated totally with the undistinguishing vulgar : 
 who seeing their country menaced by some alarming 
 motions towards a French revolution in England, and 
 not approving it, very unadvisedly took the preserva- 
 tive justice of the time into their own hands. Persons 
 of more refined understandings act differently. When 
 they see a man parading the streets with a torch in his 
 hand ; telling the populace that the combustibles are 
 all ready ; and that the conflagration will be sudden 
 and unexpected ; they are tender of his rights ; so they 
 leave him to proceed, and wait to see what he will do ; 
 and when the town is on fire, they try to put it out as 
 well as they can. This was the policy which brought 
 the city of London to the verge of destruction in 1780. 
 Sleeping justice in time of danger ; and a dangerous 
 execution of it by the vulgar, are so bad, that it is 
 hard to say which is the worst ; yet we might have 
 justified the latter on our Doctor's principles ; which 
 
320 
 
 A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 are accommodated to the demolition of Churclies, but 
 not of conventicles. We might have pleaded, that 
 old and decayed buildings, maintained at a great ex- 
 pence, for purposes of error and superstition, being 
 nuisances, it were better for the good of the whole, 
 that they should be removed by the justice of the 
 people: Unitarian liberty being an adequate compen- 
 sation for a time of calamity ; and a paradisaical 
 .state upon earth, the glorious end of all. 
 
 The Christian religion sits so easy upon him, that 
 he can droll and sport with the greatest objects of it, 
 in a manner fearful to repeat. Comparing the Arian- 
 ism of Dr. Clarice with the Arianism of Dr. Price, he 
 scofflngly remarks, that the diminutive logos of Dr. 
 Price shrinks into nothing before the logos of Dr. 
 Clarke ! (Letters, p. 100.) And of transubstantiation 
 he says—" with what unspeakable reverence and de- 
 votion do the Catholics eat their Maker." (p. 101.) 
 The Catholics are in error upon this subject ; but the 
 subject, in every view of it, is so great, that no serious 
 Christian would treat it with words of contempt. The 
 Heathens frequently mocked at the first and best 
 Christians for eating their Deity; stating the doctrine 
 in the same terms of mockery as Dr. Priestley does, 
 because they felt the subject as little as they under- 
 stood it. 
 
 Levity upon sacred subjects is bad enough ; but 
 blasphemy is worst of all. If Christianity is the reve- 
 lation of God, Jesus Christ is adorable and eternal ; 
 the only begotten Son of God, to be honoured by men 
 and angels, as the Father himself is honoured; and the 
 time of his appearance is approaching, when the hea- 
 ven and earth which he created shall fly away before 
 his face. This is the divine Person, concerning whom 
 Dr. Priestley reflects upon the Church of England for 
 
OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 321 
 
 tempting the Dissenters to pay supreme worship to a 
 fellow-creature, to a man like ourselves, (Letters to 
 Dr. Home, p. 21.) a mere man, the son of Joseph and 
 Mary — naturally as weak, as fallible, and as peccable 
 as other men — possessed of no natural advantages over 
 his father Joseph, or any other man in a similar situa- 
 tion of life in Judea. (Letters, p. 172.) At Paris, 
 since the date of their illumination, the most hideous 
 blasphemies have been cried about the streets ; (they 
 are a little farther advanced in their way toward Pa- 
 radise than we are) and so great are the liberties taken 
 by Dr. Priestley against divine revelation, that if he 
 had lived in the days of Oliver Cromwell, he might 
 have reckoned himself very fortunate if he had escaped 
 the fate of James Nailor. The difference between 
 them is no more than this : Dr. P. believes Jesus 
 Christ to have been a peccable man : James Nailor 
 believed a peccable man to be Jesus Christ. Yet this 
 is the man who writes pastoral letters to students in 
 the university, Methodists, Jews, and Emanuelists ; 
 who thinks himself a terror to bishops, priests, and 
 deacons; and labours to convert all men by the su- 
 perior excellence of his own persuasion. By Ema- 
 nuelists, I mean the followers of Emanuel Swedenborg ; 
 who among the other gross errors of their new reve- 
 lation, hold a doctrine in direct opposition to Dr. 
 Priestley : the latter, as we see, maintains that Jesus 
 Christ is a man like ourselves; but Swedenborg taught, 
 that the humanity of Christ is God ; even that God 
 whose name is the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
 Ghost ! To show how mistaken Dr. Priestley is in 
 his judgment of things, he has written an address to 
 those people, reminding them how near their doctrine 
 is to his own, and that as they arc not much divided, 
 they may as well work together : but the result is> they 
 VOL. vi. Y 
 
322 
 
 A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 dislike him as much as he mistakes them : and if both 
 sides argue till doomsday, neither will ever be con- 
 verted to truth by what the other has to offer. 
 
 VI. OF HIS PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 By many worthy persons who take a side-view of 
 Dr. Priestley, he has been celebrated in his capacity 
 of a natural philosopher : and very justly : he is indis- 
 putably eminent in inventing and diversifying experi- 
 ments ; such especially as relate to the analysis of the 
 air. Yet, so far as we can see for ourselves, and have 
 learned from the sentiments of others, he is by no 
 means so happy in explaining his experiments as in 
 performing them ; and in philosophy is found to fluc- 
 tuate in his principles, as muckas he does in divinity 
 and politics. The thing is taken different ways. Some, 
 from an admiration of his philosophical abilities, be- 
 come infected with his religious errors : while others, 
 shocked by the impiety of the latter, become jealous 
 of philosophy altogether, and think the study danger- 
 ous ; because it is so frequently observed, that philo- 
 sophy deceives itself, and becomes too proud to be a 
 Christian. If the philosophy of Dr. Priestley should 
 have tempted him to blasphemy, he would have been 
 a better man without it ; and the time may come, 
 when even he himself will wish there had been no such 
 thing upon earth. The extreme weakness and want of 
 sense in churchmen, are very favourite topics with 
 him ; our clergy are universally bigotted and supersti- 
 tious, or hypocritical and hardened, for pt-qfessing with 
 the church, and believing with Dr. Priestley : so they 
 are all contemptible for the one reason or the other ; 
 and he accordingly, while he claims the merit of great 
 candour, abuses them at his will in his publications. 
 
OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 323 
 
 Several years ago, he promised himself so much success 
 from the effect of philosophy in overturning our esta- 
 blishment, that the clergy, he thought, had reason to 
 tremble for the fate of their hierarchy at the sight of 
 an air-pump : though the hierarchy has nothing more 
 to fear from a philosophical apparatus in proper hands, 
 than Dr. Priestley's meeting-house from a bladder of 
 inflammable air. Strange effects do sometimes follow 
 from unexpected causes. Dr. Franklin, who lighted 
 up that fire in America, which has now extended with 
 increased fury to France, derived much of his influence 
 from the fame he had acquired in philosophy. We 
 hope his brother Doctor, who is neither so useful a 
 philosopher, nor so clear a writer, will not succeed so 
 well in separating the people of England from their 
 government, as his predecessor did in separating the 
 colonies from the mother country. But he makes a 
 dangerous use of philosophy, when he suggests to 
 young people in our universities, that they should re- 
 fuse to receive divinity otherwise than as they receive 
 philosophy *. And how is that ? Do not they receive 
 philosophy on the authority of man, and the evidence 
 of experiment ? Whereas we receive divinity on the 
 authority of God, and the evidence of Faith ; which, 
 as the apostle teaches, is the evidence of things not 
 seen; and things not seen cannot have the evidence of 
 experiment. If young men proceed as he advises, they 
 will miscarry as he has done, we would therefore warn 
 them to beware of what he has insinuated upon this 
 subject ; there being a little too much of the fox in it 
 for them to discover, till they are better informed. 
 What are the present incendiaries of France, but a 
 gang of philosophical felons ; who, because they could 
 
 * See his Letters to them, p. 45. 
 
 y 2 
 
324 A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 not receive divinity as they received philosophy, have 
 astonished the world with such a scene of absurdity, 
 rapine, murder, and sacrilege, as is not to be found in 
 the annals of man ? It seems as if the providence of 
 God intended to shew the world, by their example, 
 to what a deplorable degree of depravity the nature of 
 man may sink, when it despises the lights of religion. 
 As philosophers, they began with a sovereign contempt 
 for all mankind but themselves, as poor low creatures 
 of a different species : and what is the consequence of 
 their pride ? they themselves are fallen below the na- 
 ture of man, and are become a spectacle of inhu- 
 manity to the world : but they are greatly admired 
 by Dr. Priestley. The science of philosophy is plea- 
 sant, and may be very improving to the mind : but 
 what will a man gain, if he should take philosophy in 
 exchange for his soul ? Of this danger Dr. PurJcis 
 gave very proper and seasonable warning from an uni- 
 versity pulpit. But our author objects to his applica- 
 tion of St. Paul's admonition to beware of 'philosophy, 
 because, says he, the philosophy intended by the apostle 
 was that of the Gnostics ; which having long been out 
 of date, no danger is now to be apprehended from it. 
 But in this he asserts what the text will not warrant. 
 
 St. Paul Speaks Of a philosophy * Kara ra aroiytia tov 
 
 * Dr. Priestley has instructed us, that the Apostle here alludes 
 to the philosophy of the Gnostics. But in this, we have an instance 
 of that rashness of judgment, and want of due discrimination, with 
 which he forms his opinions. The name of Philosophy was first 
 assumed by Pythagoras as a student of nature ; and Cicero from 
 Pythagoras applies the term to those, Qui rerum naturam studiose 
 intuerentur ; Tuscul. v. 3. Therefore philosophy in its original 
 sense is natural philosophy ; and the philosophers who gave St. 
 Paul a surfeit of their wisdom at Athens, were Epicureans and 
 Stoics. It does not appear that the word philosophy is ever ascribed 
 to any thing in the Scripture but to what the Heathens taught. 
 
OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 325 
 
 according to the elements of the world ; concern- 
 ing which elements, philosophers of all ages have had 
 variety of traditions, and were, as they are now, for 
 ever wrangling and disputing. If this be the sense of 
 oroiytia, (as the margin gives it) natural philosophy is 
 particularly specified : and if it he not, that kind of 
 philosophy must be included : because we are bid to 
 beware of all but that which is after Christ : and the 
 philosophy in which Dr. Priestley has distinguished 
 himself, will certainly not come under that description. 
 The doctrines of the Gnostics are dead and gone; but 
 the spirit of the Gnostics, a worse thing, is alive still, 
 and in a flourishing state ; I mean that vain humour 
 of being thought more knowing, than other Christians; 
 that affectation of being wise without book, and pre- 
 ferring the wild imaginations of their own brain to the 
 wisdom of divine revelation. This is the corrupt tree 
 whose fruit poisons the world ; and of that fruit, the 
 philosophy of the Gnostics was but an inconsiderable 
 part. The Gnostic spirit never displayed itself more 
 than in the whole Socinian system, and particularly in 
 
 The false teachers who infested the Christian Church, were not 
 called Philosophers, but Heretics and Sectaries ; and their teaching 
 was not called philosophy, but liSaxn NticoXairuiv ; as in the Revela- 
 tion of St. John. 
 
 As for the Gnostics in particular, they first began to be distin- 
 guished about a hundred and thirty years after the death of our 
 Saviour ; and could not be alluded to by St. Paul. So the Doctor 
 is every way wrong : and is himself an instance, that the admoni- 
 tion to beware of what then was, and now is, called Philosophy, 
 may be seasonably urged at this time : he having denied the sepa- 
 rate existence of the human soul on the ground of certain specu- 
 lations in natural philosophy, which admit of no proof. And it was 
 foreseen and foretold in the last century, that those speculations 
 (being of the Ejiicurcan school) would lead Christians to Materialism; 
 which is philosophical Atheism. Vanini, who suffered as an Atheist, 
 does not appear to have been guilty of any other. 
 
326 
 
 A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 the writings of our present philosopher; who instead 
 of lifting up his mind to the mysteries of the Gospel, 
 is for reducing all mysteries to the level of his own 
 understanding ; and consequently, he soon finds him- 
 self under the necessity of denying them : of which I 
 produce this singular example. Great is the mystery 
 of godliness, saith the apostle, God teas manifest in 
 the flesh, &c. Mysteries, saith the Doctor, the only 
 mysteries known to the Scripture, are things perfectly 
 intelligible: therefore to make this perfectly intel- 
 ligible, he changes the mystery of the incarnation 
 into the mere fact of speaking by inspiration ; God 
 manifest in the flesh, that is, speaking to mankind by 
 the man Christ Jesus *. God was therefore no other- 
 wise manifest in Jesus Christ than in any other pro- 
 phet by whom he had spoken to mankind; and so 
 Moses or Isaiah were as truly God manifest in the 
 flesh as Jesus Christ. 
 
 His Gnosticism is farther apparent in the boastings, 
 which so frequently occur in favour of his own attain- 
 ments, too surfeiting to be repeated. He has been so 
 accustomed to extravagant and indiscriminate flattery 
 from his brethren and admirers, that he looks upon 
 encomium as his due ; and therefore bestows it largely 
 upon himself. Though Mr. Parkhurst, the first He- 
 brew scholar of the age, has detected him in palpa- 
 ble errors in that language, nothing checks him ; and 
 he answers it all by telling us, how at eighteen years of 
 age he was able to teach Hebrew. Though convicted 
 of illiterate mistakes in Greek by Dr. Horsley, and in 
 Latin by Mr. Badcock ; he still holds out the flag of 
 defiance as before, and gives us to know, (leaving us 
 to smile if ive please, as we probably shall ) that as he 
 
 * Letters to Dr. Home, &c. p. 67. 
 
OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 would not exchange his knowledge of the Greek ivith 
 that of Dr. Horsley, so neither ivoidd he exchange his 
 knowledge of Hebrew even with that of Mr. Park- 
 hurst *. I have known many boasters ; but not one 
 that was a man of any permanent effect ; because this 
 failing betrays such great want of discretion and good 
 manners. Boldness and importunity will have weight 
 with the ignorant; and the mountebank is often well 
 paid for his bouncings upon a stage at a country 
 market. Sauciness of language to superiors will 
 always give pleasure to the mean and the malicious, 
 and people of common understandings think it impos- 
 sible that any man should be so confident unless there 
 is some strength in his cause. But there being none, 
 confidence is necessary to supply the defect; and 
 without it some writers could never get forward. It 
 was my fortune to be acquainted with a worthy dissent- 
 ing minister, who having been at the same academy 
 with Dr. Priestley, told me, he was the most conceited 
 youth that ever came amongst them ; who thought he 
 then knew every thing ; and discovered, in the bud, 
 that same self-sufficient spirit which being now full- 
 blown, and in maturity, rails at doctors, deans and 
 bishops, for the inferiority of their learning. When I 
 call to mind the character of the plain honest man who 
 related this, a person of the old puritanical persuasion ; 
 I am sorry to see (being no enemy to conscientious dis- 
 senters, for many of whom I have great respect, and 
 with whom I have held long acquaintance) a new ge- 
 neration daily increasing upon us, with so little of the 
 faith and piety of their predecessors. I could point 
 out another of their ministers, in a very conspicuous 
 situation, who is orthodox in his belief, and peaceable 
 
 Letters, p. 187. 
 
328 
 
 A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 in his politics : but what shall we say, when such a 
 man is scouted by his brethren, and challenged to 
 name one single minister more among the dissenters, 
 who is of the same opinions with himself? If this be 
 true, they are all gone out of the way ; and with little 
 chance of returning to it any more, if they put them- 
 selves under the direction of Dr. Priestley. 
 
 It has been a matter of wonder to many, how he has 
 been attended to so much as he has been. I heard 
 it observed lately, that he rarely writes a controversial 
 piece without contradicting himself fifty times before 
 he gets to the end of it : which want of consistency 
 will be found in every writer who is without true prin- 
 ciples. When we see such a man, with abilities so ill 
 directed, riding the understandings of a large party 
 of people, the case seems at first unaccountable: but, 
 if duly considered, it will explain itself ; for parties 
 will submit to any thing : they have a tame side as 
 well as a wild one : they will bear every thing, and 
 they will bear nothing. Some little time after the riots 
 at Birmingham, a Quaker went into a coffee-house of 
 that place ; where meeting with a Dissenter, one of the 
 Doctor's abettors, " Well, friend," said he, " how 
 dost thou do now V " Do T said the other, " I 
 should do well enough, if we were not priest-ridden."' 
 " Friend," said the Quaker, " thou art Priestley- 
 ridden." To this privilege of riding the people, the 
 Doctor advanced himself, partly in virtue of the philo- 
 sophical fame he had so justly acquired : and he might 
 have kept his seat better, had he been more temperate 
 in his politics, and more sound in his divinity. But 
 he incautiously mounted the wrong steed at Birming- 
 ham; and putting on with more haste than good speed, 
 the beast threw his heels into the air : and it is probable 
 
OF DR. PHIESTLEY. 
 
 329 
 
 the Doctor will not put his foot into that stirrup any 
 more. 
 
 Whatever degree of popularity he may have ac- 
 quired with his party, he has little reason on that con- 
 sideration to be high-minded. Popularity is too fre- 
 quently the reward of base arts and bad principles, and 
 has been bestowed on very bad characters. The 
 famous Titus Oates, the son of an Anabaptist teacher 
 and dipper, a pestilent incendiary of the last century, 
 who was whipped from Newgate to Tyburn for per- 
 jury, agreed very much with Dr. Priestley in some of 
 his religious opinions. The best name he could find 
 for Athanasius was, that creed-making rascal. He 
 was always delighted, and remarkably active, when 
 mischief of any kind was going forward against the 
 church. In the day of his prosperity, he Avas a per- 
 sonage of such influence, that no man dared to open 
 his mouth against him, for fear of being put into a plot, 
 and either hanged or sent to the Tower ; and nearly a 
 whole sessions of parliament was employed upon him. 
 He assumed the doctorate ; was served in plate ; and 
 had a pension of 600/. per annum. His name was as 
 precious then, as that of Thomas Paine is now, and with 
 the same sort of people, for the same reason, an un- 
 common disposition and ability to disturb the peace 
 of mankind. Dr. Priestley ought to be, and might be, 
 a character very superior to these : he has great merit 
 with natural philosophers for what he has clone well, 
 and they have given him at least as much as his due : 
 but his popularity with a party may be accounted for 
 from some other qualifications in which he more 
 nearly resembles Titus Oates and Thomas Paine. The 
 patriots who rule the floods of sedition in Fra?ice,ha,\e 
 honoured our Doctor (as the newspapers report) with 
 (heir testimony, that his principles and his inclinations 
 
330 
 
 A SMALL WHOLE LENGTH 
 
 are up to the high-water mark of republican mischief; 
 and in so doing have given that warning to English- 
 men, which none of them can want, who are in any 
 degree acquainted with the spirit of his publications *. 
 
 * When Dr. Priestley would whet our appetites for a new revo- 
 lution, he holds out to us the noble example of America, and the 
 noble example of France, which has grown out of it. But the Ame- 
 ricans are not in such an enviable state as he represents, whose 
 judgment is very little to be depended upon. An inquisitive and 
 judicious gentleman, who has lately visited several parts of Ame- 
 rica, and conversed with people of all ranks, assured me, he found 
 but two persons of character who expressed any interest in the 
 French revolution : and that the French nation is universally held in 
 very low esteem there. In religion, he observed, they are in a poor 
 condition; broken into parties by a sectarian spirit almost universally 
 prevailing, and tending to the extirpation of all solid piety. In the 
 southern provinces, the chief religion is pure deism, called by the 
 name of philosophy in Europe; which has produced their unbounded 
 tolerations. 
 
 In the moral principle, they are certainly not improved ; many 
 of them having been induced to favour a separation from this coun- 
 try, with a view to be well rid of their British creditors. The small 
 province of Virginia only, owed two millions to the mother country 
 at the beginning of the war ; and it is not in my power to show how 
 much of it has been paid. Their courts, I am told, are to this day 
 not opened for fulfilling the 4th article of the peace, which obliged 
 them to the payment of their debts ; and on that very considera- 
 tion, our government can enter into no commercial negociation with 
 them. It is an universal complaint, that scarce a debt contracted 
 by the American states is punctually discharged : their fraud is co- 
 extensive with their country. Their bubble bank at New York, 
 which ruined so many people by a display of false credit, is well 
 known. See Memoirs of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin, p. 62, 
 a very interesting pamphlet, by some person well versed in the 
 subject he has undertaken. In their political state (for it cannot be 
 called a government) they find some new advantages ; but nothing 
 to compensate for that peace, order, stability, and respectability 
 which they enjoyed under the old government ; and they did not 
 spare to say, that upon the whole the old was better. The gentle- 
 man from whom this information was obtained, learned some parti- 
 
OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 331 
 
 VII. THE ANALYSIS OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 When a strange phenomenon appears in nature, 
 we are all desirous to account for it. Dr. Priestley 
 being a phenomenon in religion and learning, it is 
 natural to look for some solution of him. The excur- 
 sions of his mind are unbounded ; his versatility is 
 without example ; his obstinacy in argument, inflexi- 
 ble ; and his disposition to disturb the peace of the 
 world, indefatigable ; and yet I never heard it offered 
 in excuse for him, that much learning hath made him 
 mad. What then are we to say ? for his mind must 
 be under some unhappy malady. The proper method 
 of investigation in such a case will be, to learn from 
 past times what men have been, and why : and then 
 we shall be better able to understand, what and why 
 they are as we now find them. 
 
 In the life of Mr. Richard Hooker, by Isaac Walton, 
 we have the description of a set of people, such as they 
 discovered themselves on their first appearance in this 
 kingdom ; when their portrait was taken by an able 
 hand, and is still preserved in an account of the opi- 
 nions and activity of the Nonconformists ; from which 
 I make the following extract. " In which number of 
 Nonconformists, though some might be sincere well- 
 meaning men, whose indiscreet zeal might be so like 
 charity,as thereby to cover a multitude of their errors ; 
 
 culars relating to the conduct of the war, from a leader in it, which 
 were generally suspected in the mother country, but not so well 
 known before upon American testimony. I wish the reader would 
 consult those Memoirs of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, where he will find 
 a full detection of the false information that philosopher held out to 
 persons disposed to remove from hence to America. 
 
 10 
 
332 
 
 A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH 
 
 yet of this party were many that were possessed with 
 a high degree of spiritual wickedness ; I mean with an 
 innate restless pride and malice, and an opposition to 
 government : men that joyed to be the authors of mi- 
 sery ; which is properly his work, who is the enemy 
 and disturber of mankind : men whom prejudice and 
 a furious zeal hath so blinded, as to make them neither 
 to hear reason, nor adhere to the ways of peace : 
 whom pride and self -conceit had made to overvalue 
 their own crooked wisdom so much, as not to be 
 ashamed to hold foolish and unmannerly disputes 
 against those men whom they ought to reverence, and 
 those laws which they ought to obey. — They began 
 with tender and meek petitions; then proceeded to 
 admonitions; then to satirical remonstrances ; and at 
 last, having like Absalom numbered who was not, and 
 who was for their cause, they got so great a party, that 
 they dared first to threaten the bishops, and then the 
 queen and parliament. — Men of the slightest learning, 
 and the most ignorant of the common people were 
 mad for a new, or super, or re-reformation of religion ; 
 like that man, who would never cease to whet and 
 whet his knife, till there was no steel left to make it 
 useful." — " With these the church was pestered; her 
 lands in danger of alienation ; her power at least neg- 
 lected; and her peace torn to pieces by several schisms, 
 and by such heresies as do usually attend that sin. 
 People seemed ambitious of doing those very things 
 that were forbidden, and attended with danger, that 
 so they might be punished, and then applauded and 
 pitied. They called the spirit of opposition a teuder 
 conscience, and complained of persecution, because 
 they wanted power to persecute others *." 
 
 * See Life of Hooker, 4th edit. p. 181, or as prefixed to his 
 works. 
 
OF DR. PRIESTLEY. 
 
 333 
 
 The style of Isaac Walton is so strong, that a very 
 little of it will be sufficient for our purpose, and pre- 
 pare us to account for the eccentric appearance and 
 motions of Dr. Priestley. He was bred up in what 
 this author, who follows the old fashion, calls the sin 
 of schism : and schism, as we learn from the example 
 before us, begets many other sins ; that of heresy in 
 particular. Division from the church breeds that 
 hatred against the church, which is so conspicuous in 
 Dr. Priestley : a secret sense of superiority in the 
 church breeds envy : and when hatred and envy work 
 together, they will produce very strange and alarming 
 effects. Envy, wishing the church to be as wrong in 
 its doctrine, as it is hateful in its authority, will soon 
 find it so ; first in one article ; then in others ; and at 
 last in all. From the habit of proving so frequently 
 that the church believes wrong, it will itself at last 
 come to believe nothing. Our author goes to the 
 primitive writers of the Christian church ; where he 
 might find truth, wisdom, and piety : but he finds 
 what he wishes to find, and what the raven looks for, 
 as he flies croaking through the air, corruption. His 
 hatred and envy are attended with that native self- 
 conceit, for the gratifying of which, as Walton has 
 worded it, he is not ashamed to hold foolish and un- 
 mannerly disputes against those whom he ought to re- 
 verence. He differs from all, because he would be 
 wiser than all : so he falls into notions of hopeless ab- 
 surdity, and is at his wits end how to maintain his 
 ground. He is therefore such an heterogeneous com- 
 position, as men may well look at with amazement : 
 he is wise and foolish; learned and ignorant; civil 
 and insolent ; meek and intolerant ; a leader in want 
 of leading-strings ; cold-hearted as a philosopher, and 
 hot-headed as a fanatic : and, as the result of all, in- 
 
334 A SMALL WHOLE-LENGTH, &C. 
 
 corrigible in his opinions : with whose evasive logic 
 and unmannerly spirit of detraction no man of cha- 
 racter would hold an argument, but for the sake of 
 those who may be in danger from his writings. Mr. 
 Wakefield, who has a fair title to the character of a 
 scholar, and knows a certain person well, laments 
 over him as almost an angel in wisdom, and all but an 
 idiot in judgment. I do not carry the opposition of 
 the character so high or so low as he does. In those 
 departments of learning, with which Mr. Wakefield 
 is not so well acquainted, he allows too much : in 
 those with which he is acquainted, he finds him very 
 deficient, and possessed of self-conceit in no ordinary 
 measure. See his Short Strictures on Dr. Priestley's 
 Letters, P. 1. p. 10. 
 
APPENDIX, 
 
 Extracts from the works of Dr. Priestley were 
 read in court at the assizes at Warwick ; because, 
 when he applied for the damages he had sustained, 
 no judgment could be formed by the court of the 
 value of writings which were lost, but from the value 
 of those which remained. They were afterwards 
 printed at Birmingham, with the following motto in 
 the title page. 
 
 If the opinions and principles in question be evi- 
 dently subversive of all religion, and of all civil so- 
 ciety, they must evidently be false. 
 
 [Essay on the First Principles of Government, by 
 Joseph Priestley, L.L.D. p. 121.] 
 
 On these extracts no remarks are added ; as the 
 reader, after what has been said, will be prepared to 
 make his own reflections. 
 
 UPON ACTS OF PARLIAMENT. 
 
 But can an Act of Parliament authorize a manifest injustice ? And 
 when you are taxed with oppressing your neighbours in exacting of 
 them that, for which you have given them no equivalent, will it be 
 sufficient at the great day of Judgment to say, that you had an Act 
 of Parliament for doing it ? 
 
 [Familiar Letters addressed to the Inhabitants of Birmingham, 
 page 66, paragraph 3, line 3 — published in 1790. 
 
336 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Will an Act of Parliament excuse you in the sight of God, for ex- 
 acting of any man more than in the eye of reason and equity he ought 
 to pay? If an Act of Parliament will not justify the taking men's 
 lives, neither will it justify the taking their money. 
 
 [Tlie same paragraph — line 13. 
 
 II. UPON RESISTANCE TO GOVERNMENT. 
 
 If government, though legal and constitutional, has not made 
 sufficient provision for the happiness of the people, no other property, 
 or title by which it may be dignified, ought to shelter it from the 
 generous attack of the noble and daring patriot. 
 
 [Essay on the First Principles of Government, Sect. II. of 
 Political Liberty — page 35, paragraph 2, line 9, to pnge 
 36 — published in 1791. 
 
 Governors will never be awed by the voice of the people, so long 
 as it is a mere voice, without overt acts. 
 
 [Ibid, page 46, 47, paragraph 3, line 24. 
 
 III. UPON LIBERTY, CIVIL AND POLITICAL. 
 
 Civil liberty extends no farther than to a man's own conduct and 
 signifies the right he has to be exempt from the control of the society, 
 or its agents. 
 
 [Ibid. Sect. I. of the First Principles of Government and the 
 different kinds of Liberty — p. 9. paragraph 2, line 7. 
 
 In countries where a man by his birth or fortune is excluded from 
 the supreme offices, or from a power of voting for proper persons to 
 fill them, that man, whatever may be the form of the government, or 
 whatever civil liberty or power over his own actions he may have, has 
 no power over those of another, and therefore has no jwlitical liberty 
 at all. Nay, his own conduct, as far as the society does interfere, is 
 in all cases directed by others. 
 
 It may be said, that no society upon earth was ever formed in 
 the manner represented above. — I answer, it is true, because all 
 governments whatever have been, in some measure, compulsory, 
 tyrannical, and oppressive in their origin ; but the method I have 
 described, must be allowed to be the only free, and equitable me- 
 thod of forming a society ; and since every man retains, and can 
 never be deprived of his natural right of relieving himself from all 
 oppression, that is, from every thing that has been imposed upon him 
 without his consent ; this must be the only true, and proper foun- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 337 
 
 dation of all the governments subsisting in the world, and that, to 
 which the people who compose them, have an unalienable right to bring 
 them back. 
 
 [Ibid. Sect. II. page 11, line 7, to page 12, and the end of 
 the second paragraph. 
 
 IV. OF LEGAL RESTRAINT UPON HUMAN ACTIONS. 
 
 In truth, the greater part of human actions are of such a nature, 
 that more inconvenience would follow from their being fixed by laws, 
 than from their being left to every man's arbitrary will. 
 
 [Ibid. Sect. III. of Civil Liberty— p. 52, paragraph 2, line 9. 
 
 V. OF LEGAL RESTRAINT ON OPINION. 
 
 If a man commit murder, let him be punished as a murderer, and 
 let no regard be paid to his plea of conscience for committing the 
 action ; but let not the opinions which lead to the action be meddled 
 with. [Ibid, page 118, line 8. 
 
 VI. RELIGION IN GENERAL. 
 
 Besides, though religion, or the belief of a God, a Providence, and 
 a future slate, have its use with respect to society, it is not absolutely 
 necessary for that purpose. 
 
 [Familiar Letters addressed to the Inhabitants of Birmingham, 
 page 55, paragraph 2, line 1. 
 
 VII. THE BISHOPS AND THE INFERIOR CLERGY. 
 
 As to the Clergy, we make ourselves perfectly easy about them ; 
 for should the Court once more smile upon us, and should the 
 Minister of the day only give a single nod, opposition will vanish as 
 by a charm. [Ibid, page 86, line 10. 
 
 The Bishops of this reign would in such a case instantly become 
 as those of the last ; and as to the inferior Clergy, they would wheel 
 about as quickly as soldiers on a parade, when the word of command 
 is given them in the presence of the King in St. James's Park. 
 
 [Ibid, line 21. 
 
 We are the sheep, and (the Clergy) our accusers are the wolves, 
 and say what we will, we must be guilty. 
 
 [Ibid, page 21, paragraph 2, line IS, 
 VOL. VI. Z 
 
338 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 VIII. THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE GOVERNMENT. 
 
 We are now in the situation of the primitive Christians, as the 
 friends of reformation have nothing to expect from power or general 
 favour, but must look for every species of abuse and persecution that 
 the spirit of the times will admit of. If even burning alive was a 
 sight that the country would now bear, there exists a spirit that would 
 inflict that horrid punishment, and with as much cool indifference, and 
 savage exultation as in any preceding ages of the world. 
 
 [Extract from a Sermon preached for the benefit of Hackney 
 College, and quoted by Dr. Priestley in his " Appeal to 
 the Public on the Riots at Birmingham," page 23, para- 
 graph 3, line 1, to page 24, line 12. 
 
 IX. THE KING. 
 
 What has been the return for this unquestionable proof of our 
 loyalty and zeal ? — Has it secured to us the gratitude of the King? 
 [Familiar Letters addressed to the Inhabitants of Birmingham, 
 page 15, paragraph 3, line 1. 
 
 Now it has unfortunately happened, that " another King is 
 arisen who knowcth not Joseph *," or the obligations that his family 
 are under. [Ibid, page 14. 
 
 Should the king, like Ahasuerus in the book of Esther, vi. 1. 
 not be able to sleep, and call upon one of the Lords of his bed- 
 chamber to read to him out of the book of the records of the Chro- 
 nicles of the Kings of England, and should there find who had been 
 the most zealous for the revolution under King William — for the 
 accession of the House of Hanover — for the suppression of the 
 rebellions in 1715 and 1745 — and who took his part in a late 
 change of administration ; and then enquire what honour and dig- 
 nity (chap. vi. G.) had been done to his friends, and the friends of 
 his family ; and learn, that instead of any thing being done to re- 
 ward, much had been done to mortify, and punish them ; that to 
 this very day they had been persecuted by lies, and calumnies, as 
 men whose laws were diverse from those of all other people, and who 
 do not keep the King's laws, and therefore say, that it is not for the 
 King's profit to suffer them (chap. iii. 8. :) poor despised Mordecai 
 
 * This passage is taken from Scripture. " Now there arose up a new King 
 
 over Egypt, which knew not Joseph." 
 
 That new Kii/i! was Pharaoh — of all tyrants the most impious and cruel. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 339 
 
 may be advanced, and some other use made of the gallows that was 
 erected for him. [Ibid. p. 36, paragraph 2, line 1. 
 
 X. THE AMERICAN FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The Americans ventured to do a great deal more than our an- 
 cestors at the Revolution, and set a glorious example to France and 
 the whole world. 
 
 They formed a completely new government on the principles of 
 equal liberty and the rights of men (as Dr. Price expressively and 
 happily said) " without Nobles — without Bishops — and without 
 a King." 
 
 [Letters to Mr. Burke — page 40, line 3 — published in 1791. 
 
 XI. THE LATE REVOLUTION IN FRANCE. 
 
 By means of national debts the wheels of several European go- 
 vernments are already so much clogged, that it is impossible they 
 should go on much longer. The very Peace Establishment of 
 France could not be kept up any longer ; and the same must soon be 
 the situation of other countries. All the causes which have operated 
 to the augmentation of these debs, continue to operate ; so that our 
 approach to this great crisis in our affairs is not equable, but 
 accelerated. 
 
 [Letters to Mr. Burlce — page 153, paragraph 2, line I. 
 
 If the condition of other nations be as much bettered, as that of 
 France probably will be by her improved system of government 
 that great crisis, dreadful as it appears in prospect, will be a con- 
 summation devoutly to be wished. 
 
 [Ibid, page 154, paragraph 2, line 1. 
 
 I rejoice to see the warmth with which the cause of orthodoxy, 
 that is, long established opinions, however erroneous, and that of 
 the hierarchy is now taken up by its friends — because, if their sys- 
 tem be not well founded, they are only accelerating its destruction. 
 In fact, they are assisting me in the proper disposal of those trains of 
 gunpowder which have been some time accumulating, and at which they 
 have taken so great an alarm, and which will certainly blow it up at 
 length as suddenly, as unexpectedly, and as completely as the over, 
 throw of the late arbitrary government in France. 
 
 [Preface to the Letters to Mr. Burn — pages 207 and 208, in the 
 same volume that contains the Familiar Letters to the 
 Inhabitants of Birmingham. 
 
 z 2 
 
340 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 What a contrast is now exhibited between the two rival nations of 
 France and England, and how many Englishmen blush to look upon it ! 
 
 [Familiar Letters, p. 210. 
 How different are the spectacles that are now exhibited in France 
 and in England! Here bigotry has been fostered, and has acquired 
 new strength ; there it is almost extinct. 
 
 [Preface to the Appeal — page xxiv. note x. 
 
 XII. RIOTS AT BIRMINGHAM. 
 
 1. THE KING, 
 
 Only in Part exculpated from the Guilt of them. 
 Of the two parties in whose names the outrages at Birmingham 
 were committed, the Church and the King ; the latter has in a 
 great measure exculpated himself by his proclamation to appre- 
 hend and punish the rioters. 
 
 [An Appeal to the Public on the Riots in Birmingham — page 
 56, paragraph 2, line 1 — published in 1792. 
 
 2. THE BISHOPS. 
 
 Considering the part that many of the lower clergy have acted in 
 this business, the eyes of the country are now upon the Bishops ; 
 and their silence will be construed into approbation. 
 
 [Ibid, page 75, line 9. 
 
 3. THE BISHOP AND CLERGY OF THE DIOCESE. 
 
 There are several places in Germany, in which the Catholics and 
 Protestants constantly make use of the same places of public wor- 
 ship. Such an offer on the part of the Clergy and the Bishop of the 
 diocese, would have done them the greatest credit, and have contri- 
 buted very much towards exculpating them from having any share 
 in the outrage. But this natural and easy method, which would 
 have cost them nothing, not having been done, they remain without 
 that exculpation. [Ibid, page 73. 
 
 4. MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH AT BIRMINGHAM. 
 
 Here, instead of answering our books, the Members of the Church 
 of England at Birmingham have burnt them, together with our houses, 
 and places of public worship. [Ibid, page 80. 
 
 5. THE GREAT BODY OF THE CLERGY, AND THE FRIENDS OF THE 
 KING. 
 
 Having always been an avowed advocate of public liberty, and 
 religion, which led me to write in defence of your late glorious re- 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 341 
 
 volution, the great body of the cleroy in this country, and many 
 of those who call themselves the friends of the King, have long 
 been my enemies ; and in accomplishing my ruin, have not spared the 
 instruments of that science, my application to which gave some degree 
 of weight to my labours in another field. 
 
 [Appendix to the Appeal — page 156. 
 Letter to Condorcet, par. 2, 1. 7. 
 
 The violences were committed by the lower order of the people ; 
 but if the friends of the Church, and of the King, in the higher ranks, 
 had been in earnest to suppress the riots, it might, no doubt, have 
 been effected before any mischief had been done. 
 
 [Appeal — page 71, line 1. 
 
 There was, therefore, at least a criminal remissness in the friends 
 of the Church, and of the King. But the clearest facts shew that 
 there was more than remissness on the part of many persons of better 
 condition, and nothing that they ever did, shewed a real disappro- 
 bation of the conduct of the mob, previous to the demolition of my 
 house — but only a wish that they should proceed no farther than 
 that. [Ibid, page 71, line 19. 
 
 6. THE TOWN AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF BIRMINGHAM. 
 
 Making every allowance for the perpetrators and abettors of these 
 horrid scenes at the moment, there has been time for reflection, and 
 compunction since ; and the eyes of the nation, and of all Europe, are 
 open to see what part both the town, and neighbourhood, and above 
 all, the Government of the country, will take in the case. On the 
 part of the town and neighbourhood, nothing favourable to justice has 
 appeared as yet. 
 
 [Ibid, page 71, paragraph 2, line 1, to page 72, line 7. 
 
 The whole town and neighbourhood therefore must fall under the 
 suspicion of screening the criminals, and therefore of jmrtaking the 
 guilt. [Ibid, pages 72, 73. 
 
 7. PROVIDENCE. 
 
 Though I had read, and reflected much on the feelings of Chris - 
 tians in a state of persecution, and never doubted, but that in ordi- 
 nary cases their joys far exceeded their sorrows, I could not know 
 that they did so to the degree in which I can truly, and I hope 
 without much vanity (for in this I mean nothing but the instruction 
 and encouragement of my readers) say, that I have lately found it. 
 It is only in trying situations that the full force of religious pirinciplc 
 is felt, and that its real energy can shew itself. And firmly believ- 
 
342 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 ing, from the doctrine of philosophical necessity, that the hand of 
 God is in all events, and that in all cases men are only his instru- 
 ments — that under his sure guidance all evil will terminate in good — 
 and that nothing so effectually promotes any good cause as the per- 
 secution of its advocates, all that / have suffered, and all that / can 
 suffer, has, in many seasons of the calmest reflection, appeared as 
 nothing, and less than nothing. 
 
 I consider this persecution, (for so I shall call it, though my ene- 
 mies will of course consider it as the punishment of my evil deeds, 
 and much less than I deserve) let it be carried to what extent it 
 will, as a certain prognostic of the prevalence of every great truth 
 for which / have contended; and this prospect, together with the 
 idea of my being an instrument in the hand of Providence of pro- 
 moting the spread of important truth by suffering, as well as by acting, 
 has given me at times such exalted feelings of devotion (mixed, as 
 sentiments of devotion ever will be, with the purest good-will towards 
 all men, my bitterest enemies not excepted) as I had but an imperfect 
 idea of before. [Ibid, page 111, paragraph 2, line 1. 
 
 So fully am I persuaded that more good than evil will result from 
 what has happened to me, that were it in my power I mould not be 
 restored to my former situation. Had the late events not happened, 
 I should of course have wished, and prayed for continuing as I was : 
 for no man, I believe, ever thought himself more happily situated 
 than I did — but Providence having now declared itself, / ac- 
 quiesce, and even rejoice in the decision. 
 
 [Ibid, page 113, paragraph 2, line 1. 
 
RESOLUTIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 COMMON SENSE ABOUT COMMON RIGHTS. 
 BY THOMAS BULL. 
 
 COMMON SENSE RESOLVES, 
 
 1. That Subjects have no common rights, because 
 all men are not fit for all things: 1. In their natural 
 capacity. The fool has no right to sit at the council- 
 board ; nor the coward to be the leader of an army. 
 
 2. In their moral capacity. The thief has no right to 
 be a steward for thepublic : the idle man has no right 
 to the wages of the industrious. 3. Least of all in 
 their religious capacity. The Jew has no right to be a 
 Bishop: the Turk has no right to be a Schoolmaster for 
 the teaching of Christian children. Men have been 
 guilty of more cuelty and injustice and robbery on 
 motives of false religion, than on any others what- 
 soever. Heathens against Christians — Papists against 
 Protestants — Puritans against the Church and Go- 
 vernment of England. Tantum religio potuit suadere 
 malorum ! 
 
 II. That the natural rights of man, are the rights 
 of man in a state of nature only : that is, of man con- 
 sidered as an unsociable independent savage. These 
 
344 RESOLUTIONS OF COMMON SENSE 
 
 are, the rights of eating, drinking, sleeping, hunting, 
 fishing, propagating his species, whipping his chil- 
 dren, and defending himself against wild men and 
 wild beasts. 
 
 III. That as soon as man becomes a member of 
 society, and property is divided by authority, and 
 secured by laws ; he is bound as a moral agent. If he 
 takes away the property of another man against law, 
 he is a thief: if he takes away the life of another man 
 without law, he is a murderer, and the law hangs him. 
 All his natural rights are under restraints, and he can- 
 not exercise them at his will, for fear of an executive 
 power, ordained to prevent it. They are now no lon- 
 ger natural, but are changed into civil rights. 
 
 IV. That upon the reception of the Christian Reli- 
 gion,natural rights are farther restrained by the divine 
 authority of the ten commandments; which forbid 
 robbery, murder, false witness, disobedience, and 
 even the desire of another man's property : and man 
 himself rises from a moral, into a religious agent. 
 And no Christian is a good Christian until he acts in 
 obedience to God as the Supreme Lawgiver, and 
 obeys the laws of man for God's sake. 
 
 V. That therefore, if any member of a Christian 
 Society now pleads his natural rights, he thereby de- 
 clares, that he intends to break through the laws of civil 
 society, and the restraints of religion, and go hack, as 
 fast as he can, to the state of nature ; that is, to reduce 
 things, if he and his fellows shall be able, to a political 
 chaos, or state of anarchy, under which there shall be 
 no distinction of right, or property, but such as they 
 themselves shall be pleased to settle. To presume 
 that property is vested in the nation at large, is in vir- 
 tue of no law existing in the world, nor any charter 
 but that of Beelzebub. 
 
ABOUT COMMON RIGHTS. 
 
 345 
 
 If all the beasts of the forest and the desert were 
 mingled into one society with sheep, goats, oxen, and 
 horses ; against which God's providence hath wisely 
 provided ; Common Sense foresees what must happen, 
 when they begin to pursue and exercise their common 
 rights. The swine would make his part good by his 
 impudence ; and his hard snout would lay waste our 
 fields and gardens at his pleasure. Foxes and other 
 vermin would no longer be thieves, because there would 
 be no laiv to make them such : they would take what 
 they wanted by natural right. The wolves would 
 scatter the sheep and tear them in pieces. The dogs, 
 having no master to encourage and direct them, would 
 forget their duty and join the enemy : and thus the best 
 part of the animal creation would become a prey to 
 the worst. The dogs might perchance quarrel with a 
 wolf; but as this would happen, not out of friendship 
 to the sheep, but only out of hatred to the wolves, the 
 poor sheep would be no gainers. All these circum- 
 stances will hold good in human society : for mankind, 
 like other creatures, are distinguished by birth, 
 humour, and education, into the wild and the tame, the 
 cunning and the simple, ihepeaceable and the rebellious, 
 the temperate and the insatiable, the harmless and the 
 blood-thirsty ; and have no more claim to the exercise 
 of common rights than the beasts have : of which the 
 absurdity is so plain, that to show it, is to prove it : and 
 if any man asserts common rights in a civilized coun- 
 try where laws are .established, a trap should be set 
 for him as for other vermin. 
 
 Upon the whole ; as it is best for the beasts that 
 they should be under man ; so it is best for man that 
 he should be under God; and under Laws divine and 
 human: If he knows his own interest, he will plead 
 for a due distinction of rights, and defend them to the 
 
34:6 RESOLUTIONS OF COMMON SENSE, &C. 
 
 last drop of his blood : he will say and do all he can 
 to strengthen the hands of the government under which 
 he lives, in return for the security he enjoys. 
 
 Happy is he who is made wise by seeing misery in 
 others, rather than by feeling it in himself. — Instat 
 lupus, caveat grex : the wolf is at hand, let the sheep 
 look to themselves : and, above all, let them beware 
 of wolves in sheep's or shepherd's clothing. 
 
 December 12, 1792. 
 
ONE PENNY-WORTH OF TRUTH, 
 
 FROM 
 
 THOMAS BULL TO HIS BROTHER JOHN. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER, 
 
 There has always been such a good understanding 
 between us, that you and I can speak our minds freely 
 to one another. Our father, you know, always main- 
 tained the character of a blunt, honest, sensible man ; 
 and our mother was as good a sort of woman as ever 
 lived. They gave us the best teaching they could af- 
 ford, and the neighbours have never counted us fools. 
 But some people are taking great pains to make us so, 
 and rogues into the bargain. They have tried their 
 skill upon me, and so they will upon you ; but I write 
 you this letter to give you warning, that you may look 
 to yourself. For it seems, John, you and I are now to 
 learn every thing from those conceited monkeys the 
 French. Nobody knows any thing now but they, and 
 some Englishmen at home, who hate this country as 
 bad as the French do. With talking about right and 
 equality, and constitution and organization, and such 
 like, they made my head turn round : but I see now 
 pretty well what they mean. 
 
 They begin with telling us all mankind are equal : 
 but that is a lie, John ; for the children are not equal 
 to the mother, nor the mother to the father ; unless 
 where there is petticoat government ; and such fami- 
 
348 
 
 ONE PENNY-WORTH OF TRUTH. 
 
 lies never go on well : the children are often spoiled, 
 and the husband brought to a gaol. But I say people 
 are not equal. The clerk is not equal to the parson ; 
 the footman is not equal to the squire ; the thief at 
 the bar is not equal to the Judge upon the bench. If 
 it were as they say, then the clerk might get up into 
 the pulpit, the footman might sit at the top of the 
 table, the thief might take his place upon the bench 
 and try the judge, and the coachman might get into 
 the coach and set his master upon the box ; who not 
 knowing how to drive, 'tis ten to one but he overturns 
 him. Pretty work we should have with their equality : 
 but, let us have patience and go on with them. 
 
 You and I were taught that God governs the world, 
 and that nobody has any power in it but such as he 
 gives them : there is no power but of God: and our 
 Saviour allowed it even in Pontius Pilate, the Roman 
 judge. But you are to believe now, out of the French 
 Bible, that all power is of the people, that is, of you 
 and I, Thomas and John Bull. But if the people in 
 any great national question of difficulty, which is very 
 possible, should be divided into two halves, who are 
 the people then, John ? They that lay hold of a sword 
 first, and get to be strongest, will always call themsel ves 
 the people, and the rest must go to be hanged or lose 
 their heads. If you and I should quarrel about our 
 rights, and there were no law above us, then there's 
 people Thomas against people John, and we must settle 
 it by a civil war; for when there's no law, there's no- 
 thing left but the sword or the halter to settle all dif- 
 ferences : so I must cut your throat or you must cut 
 mine. This is what always comes of the power of the 
 people, as it is now in France ; where all questions 
 have been carried by cutting off heads and hanging 
 people upon lamp-irons ; and then, you know, they 
 
ONE PENNY-WORTH OF TRUTH. 
 
 349 
 
 that are hanged can give no vote, and they that are 
 left are all of a mind. But, however, they are as far 
 off from being settled now as they were four years 
 ago ; and one of their new kings {Marat) said they 
 must have two hundred and eighty thousand more 
 heads off before they should be right. 
 
 Now for their wise notions about government. As 
 all power is in the people, they say there can be no 
 lawful government but what the people make. When 
 all power is taken from those who are now entitled to 
 it by law, and put into the hands of the mob armed 
 with pikes and daggers, that's a constitution, John. 
 Then out of this, the said mob raises what they call 
 organs and functions, and makes a government ; but 
 they have been at it in France for four years, and 
 though they have worked very hard sometimes, they 
 have hardly got to the beginning yet. And now have 
 you not sense enough to see what a fine contrivance 
 this is for plundering every gentleman of his property, 
 his house, his land, his goods, and his money, under a 
 pretence that every thing belongs to the Nation? And 
 it holds as well, or better, against churches than against 
 private houses. They tell you farther, that no man 
 has a right to any thing but what he earns himself: so 
 if you and I, John and Thomas Bull, work ever so 
 hard, and leave what we have to bring up our children 
 in the world, they will have no right to it, because they 
 did not earn it themselves. This notion cuts off all 
 right of inheritance, which is the most sacred upon 
 earth, and without which it would not be worth while 
 either to work or to live : for the nation may meet, 
 make a new government, and take it all away at a 
 stroke. I'll tell you a story: Some while ago a high- 
 wayman met with his death upon the road for demand- 
 ing a gentleman's money : " That fellow (said a wag) 
 
350 ONE PENNY-WORTH OF TRUTH. 
 
 was a good patriot ; who, supposing the gentleman 
 might have more money in his pocket than he had 
 earned, discovered that it was the property of the 
 nation : so, making himself the nation, he only de- 
 manded his own property. But the gentleman being 
 rather too quick for him, shot the nation through 
 the head, and spoiled the new principles of govern- 
 ment." This was bad luck : that man might have 
 lived to have given us a continuation of Thomas Paine. 
 And now, John, I'll tell thee plainly, this new notion 
 of government from the mob, is the foolishest, as well 
 as the most rascally, that ever entered into the world : 
 and the very people, that have raised themselves to 
 power and plunder by it, will be fools enough to deny 
 it. They will be telling us presently how God has 
 fought for the French against the Prussians and Aus- 
 trians ; while they don't believe there's a God in the 
 world. 
 
 Let us hear next what they have to say about kings. 
 We are shortly to have no more of them, neither beloio 
 nor above : Tom Paine having been heard to declare, 
 that when he had made revolutions against the kings 
 upon earth, he would try his hand at a revolution in 
 Heaven! You see, John, who they are that talk 
 against kings : they never fail to talk against God Al- 
 mighty ; and in such words as the devils of hell dare 
 not utter ! When they pretend to argue with us, they 
 tell us, all kings are bad : that God never made a king : 
 and that all kings are very expensive. But, that all 
 kings are bad cannot be true ; because God himself 
 is one of them : he calls himself King of Kings ; 
 which not only shows us he is a king, but that he 
 has other kings under him : he is never called King 
 of Republics. The Scripture calls kings tlie Lord's 
 anointed : but who ever heard of an anointed re- 
 
ONE PENNY-WORTH OF TRUTH. 351 
 
 public? There are now, brother John, many thou- 
 sands of Frenchmen, who have taken to themselves 
 that power which belonged to their king : where 
 shall we get oil enough to anoint them all ? And 
 what would they be when we had done it ? They 
 would not be the Lord's anointed ; they would be 
 the mob's anointed: and there is little doubt but that, 
 proud as they are at present, somebody will anoint 
 them well at last. 
 
 That God never made a king is a great lie ; when 
 we hear him telling us in his own words — yet have I 
 set my king upon my Jwly hill of Sion ! Did not our 
 Saviour say he was King of the Jews ; and was not he 
 crucified for saying so ? The Jews who crucified him 
 have never had a king of their own from that day to 
 this : not because they dislike a king, but because 
 they are not good enough to have one. They are 
 the only nation upon earth that ever were or ever 
 will be in a state of equality : and it has been a great 
 and mighty work of God to make them so. No 
 power can make men equals, but that which makes 
 men kings. And what should we get by it ? We 
 should be just where the Jews are ; a proverb to all 
 nations ; a monument of the divine wrath ; and a dis- 
 grace to the world. 
 
 Kings are very expensive things, said the Presbyte- 
 rian at Birmingham, when they were going to make 
 their French revolution dinner. 
 
 That may be true, brother John : but if kings keep 
 us from such miseries as the want of a king has pro- 
 duced in France, they deserve to be well maintained, 
 let them be who they will. When there is no king, 
 then every man does that which is right in his own 
 eyes ; and, mind, John, not in the eyes of any body else : 
 and you may see in your Bible, how people were 
 
352 ONE PENNY-WORTH OF TRUTH. 
 
 given up to sodomy and murder, and how sixty-five 
 thousand of them presently fell in battle, because 
 there was nobody at that time set over them. Look 
 about you like a man of sense, and you will soon see 
 that bad subjects cost more money than good kings. 
 Our national debt, for which we are now paying such 
 heavy taxes, was doubled by the troubles in America, 
 all brought upon us from the beginning by the Dis- 
 senters, there and here. Did not Dr. Price write for 
 them ? And did not the Birmingham doctor (late one 
 of the kings elect of France) encourage them, and 
 write mob-principles of government to justify them ? 
 Yet these people, who brought our burdens upon us, 
 are they that rail most at the expensiveness of our 
 government, and use it as a handle for overturning 
 it : just like the devil, who drives men into sin, and 
 then gets them damned for it if he can : and then he 
 is pleased, because he delights to be the author of 
 misery : that is his greatness ; and some people have 
 no notion of any other: so they massacre poor priests ; 
 rob and plunder their country and their church ; put 
 kings and queens in prisons ; and then sing ca Ira, 
 for joy that Hell is broke loose! 
 
 I have nothing more to say (till my next letter) but 
 that the government which is most wicked, be the 
 form of it what it will, is generally the weakest in 
 itself, and the most expensive to the people : and so, 
 after all that can be said, honesty is the best policy, 
 and the honest man is the best subject. Keep this in 
 your mind, brother John ; and farewell. 
 
 From your loving brother, 
 
 THOMAS BULL. 
 
 1792. 
 
 P. S. Perhaps they may tell thee, John, that thou 
 
ONE PENNY-WORTH OF TRUTH. 353 
 
 hast nothing to lose, and that any change may be to 
 thy advantage; but thou hast a body and a soul: and 
 if thy body goes to the gallows, and thy soul to the 
 devil, won't that be a loss, John ? 
 
 VOL. VI. 
 
ONE PENNY-WORTH MORE, 
 
 OR 
 
 A SECOND LETTER 
 
 FROM 
 
 THOMAS BULL TO HIS BROTHER JOHN. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER, 
 
 So kindly as you have received my former letter, I 
 feel as if I should be much wanting in my duty, if I 
 did not send you a few more of my thoughts, at this 
 critical time. The hand of Providence, brother John, 
 is very manifest : all my neighbours see it, and talk 
 about it. The French, they say, are as great an ex- 
 ample of punishment as of perfidy. They tried to ruin 
 old England, by sending their soldiers to fight against 
 our government in America; and in so doing they 
 taught them the evil lesson of fighting against their own 
 government at home. They came back with the itch 
 of rebellion upon them, and gave it to their old com- 
 rades ; while our honest fellows, who took the other 
 side, brought home as much loyalty, or more, than they 
 carried out, and have kept it ever since. The bound- 
 less expenses of that wicked attempt, by land and by 
 sea, brought the French nation to beggary : and from 
 beggars they turned into thieves : like the gipsies, 
 who are either the one or the other as it suits their 
 
THOMAS BULL'S SECOND LETTER. 355 
 
 convenience: and so they have got a gipsy government. 
 Their famous Fayette is fallen, with all his money, 
 into the hands of the enemy : and may forfeit his head 
 if he comes home. Such is the fate of their noble 
 general. The poor king, when he set his hand to that 
 vile treaty with America, did not foresee that he was 
 signing his own death-warrant. The queen, who 
 persuaded him (because she never loved the English) 
 is in prison with him: both of them in danger of being 
 murdered (if they are not already) by a moclc-trial, 
 like our king Charles. These are strange things, bro- 
 ther John, and almost make my hair stand on end ! 
 Many people said, years ago, it would come home to 
 them ; and now their words are fulfilled beyond all 
 that could have been thought of : for the French are at 
 this time the most distracted nation under Heaven ; 
 and, what is worse, they are the most wicked. Was 
 not their good-will to this country the same as ever, 
 when they picked out two famous Englishmen, Thomas 
 Paine and the Birmingham doctor, to sit in their new 
 assembly, and assist them in the work of teaching John 
 Bull to eat revolution- soup, dished up with human flesh 
 and French pot-herbs ? I love liberty with law, such 
 as we have in England, as well as any body does; but 
 that liberty without law, which makes men eat one 
 another, can come only from the devil, who would eat 
 us all. I thought those frightful stories that came 
 from France were past belief: but a gentleman of our 
 county, who was there last summer, says he will take 
 his Bible oath before any justice, that he saw the blood 
 of people they had killed run out of the mouths of 
 their murderers. — When they had shut up three hun- 
 dred and fifty poor helpless priests in a pound, and 
 were putting them to death as one would kill hogs for 
 the navy, an English gentleman was walking along the 
 a a 2 
 
356 
 
 THOMAS BULL'S SECOND LETTER 
 
 street, and heard a soldier say, as the muskets were 
 firing in that bloody massacre. " Aha ! tlierj are shew- 
 ing the priests fine sport there." A man will stand 
 at his door, and see his next neighbour dragged out of 
 his house, to have his throat cut by villains in the 
 street, and take no more notice, than if the parish 
 officers had called upon the man for a poor's rate or 
 a window tax ! When an English gentleman, seeing a 
 raw head carried along, and the corpse shamefully 
 dragged after it, only advised them to bury it, they 
 seized him, and cut off his head and threw it among 
 the mob. This is French liberty, my boy. Our king 
 (God bless him) is contented if a man pulls his hat off: 
 but to these new tyrants of France, he must pull his 
 head off; and even then they are not satisfied : they sell 
 his house and land from his family, and put the money 
 into the purse of the nation, that is, of themselves. 
 What think you of an impudent whore of Babylon, 
 riding along the streets on horseback, at the head of a 
 troop, with along sword by her side, and pistols in her 
 belt, like the goddess of liberty ; and if she did but 
 point with her finger at any person going along the 
 street, his head was off in a moment. There's petti- 
 coat government for you ! John Bull. " France and 
 England (says the Birmingham doctor, as the repre- 
 sentative of this kingdom) have now discovered the 
 secret that it is their interest to be friends." It may 
 be his interest, and it may be their interest ; but it 
 will never be our interest, till Tom Bull turns into 
 Tom Fool, and Englishmen are changed into a nation 
 of villains. It would, no doubt, be a pleasant sight to 
 some folks, if we were to pull down King Charles and 
 his horse at Charing Cross, and set up the idol of 
 liberty (that she-devil of the French) for fools to dance 
 about, and sing hymns with Tom of Bedlam for their 
 
TO HIS BROTHER JOHN. 
 
 357 
 
 clerk. This would bring people together ; and when 
 they were together, they would take heat, just as 
 horse-dung does, when it is laid in a heap. This is 
 the use of your liberty trees, popular clubs, and re- 
 volution dinners, &c. 
 
 When we talk about kings, it reminds me of what 
 happened here very lately. A man, like a London 
 rider, thrust himself in amongst us at a public house. 
 He talked at a high rate about French liberty, and 
 the tyranny we live under at home, he laughed at the 
 nonsense and blasphemy of 'kings having authority from 
 Providence : what, said he, are we such fools as to 
 believe that kings are sent down booted and spurred 
 from the clouds to ride mankind ? Some of the com- 
 pany stared at him, and looked as if they felt the spurs 
 in their sides : but, says I, hold a little, Mr. Lon- 
 doner, you don't put that case quite right. You know, 
 we must all be ridden by somebody ; for we cannot 
 ride upon ourselves. When a good horse carries a 
 gentleman, he is as well pleased as his master : but 
 suppose, Mr. Londoner, said T, suppose he should 
 take it into his head to throw his master, that he might 
 be ridden by his equals ! then in that case, you know, 
 Mr. Londoner, he will have a horse upon his back in- 
 stead of a man ; ay, twenty, or a hundred horses, all 
 clambering upon his back at once, till they break him 
 down, and he is fit for nothing but the dogs. This is 
 my way of understanding liberty and equality. And 
 now, go and ask your Birmingham doctor how much 
 that horse will better himself. This is the way they 
 have bettered themselves in France. They that will 
 not carry a King, shall have the beasts of the people 
 upon their backs ; and the poor fools are pleased, 
 because they think it will be their turn to ride next. 
 Every body can see how bad it would be for horses to 
 
358 THOMAS bull's segond letter 
 
 carry horses ; and it is always the same thing when 
 the people carry the people. 
 
 After this Londoner was gone we found he was 
 one of those fellows who are hired to go about with 
 Tom Paine 's books : but he did not think proper to 
 produce them : if he had, we should have put them 
 into a pitch-kettle, and stirred them about well, and 
 then burned the pitch and the books together : this 
 being the proper end of that black doctrine, which 
 some men put into others to set the world on fire. 
 
 And now, Brother John, if you find I am a little 
 better taught than you expected, I will tell you how 
 it happened. Our minister takes us all now and 
 then, rich and poor, to dine with him. One day after 
 dinner, when we had lighted our pipes, and neigh- 
 bours were talking to one another about common 
 things, he gave a rap upon the table to call our at- 
 tention, and when he saw we were all ready, he be- 
 gan as follows : 
 
 " MY DEAR FRIENDS, 
 
 " Wicked people are at work to corrupt your 
 minds with a frantic affection for unlawful liberty, 
 by giving false and nonsensical notions of civil society. 
 I will therefore show you, in a plain way which you 
 can easily understand, the danger to which all go- 
 vernments are now exposed from the arts of design- 
 ing people. 
 
 " In countries where they feed their flocks a little 
 differently from what we are used to, four parties 
 are concerned ; the sheep, the shepherd, the dogs, 
 and the wolves. Once upon a time, the wolves 
 wanted to have the sheep to themselves ; and 
 thought it would be best if they could eat them with 
 their own consent. So they sent messages to them 
 
TO HIS BROTHER JOHN. 
 
 359 
 
 privately, wondering how sheep, in these enlightened 
 times, should have no more spirit, than to live under 
 that Tyrant the Shepherd; and telling them how 
 happy they would all be if he were out of the way ; 
 and how they hoped soon to see all those ruffians 
 the shepherds worried out of the world. But how 
 to get at the shepherd they did not know, because 
 of the dogs : so they sent another message to corrupt 
 the dogs ; telling them how sorry they were to see 
 them living upon stale crusts and sour butter-milk, 
 when there would be soon mutton enough for them 
 all, if they would but come over to their interest. 
 So they got the dogs to their side ; made the shep- 
 herd fly for his life ; and then began to kill the 
 sheep : of which when the sheep complained, they 
 told them it was all for their good ; that a great 
 improvement had taken place, which must cost a 
 great many lives ; but that all would be right soon. 
 Thus the poor sheep were in a miserable case. The 
 dogs, their old guardians, were now turned traitor- 
 ous and blood-thirsty : and no justice could be had 
 by complaining of one wolf to another wolf : so they 
 were either worried to death at home, or scattered 
 over the mountains, in hourly danger both from 
 dogs and wolves, and with no shepherd to protect 
 them. 
 
 " The wolves having succeeded so well, sent to their 
 brethren in other countries : and the wolf-principles 
 grew so fast, that the species of sheep were nearly 
 extinct, and there was now a new world of wolves ; 
 who, when there are no sheep left, must fall upon 
 the dogs whom they used for their convenience, and 
 at last devour one another. 
 
 " Neighbours," continued he, " you have heard and 
 read so much lately, that you will want little of my 
 13 
 
360 
 
 THOMAS BULL S SECOND LETTER 
 
 help in applying the story to what has happened in a 
 neighbouring country. The Shepherd is the King; 
 driven from his throne, and in danger of his life 
 from his traitorous subjects ; whose hearts were first 
 poisoned by the enemies of all religion, permitted to 
 corrupt the people, and spread their atheistical 
 opinions without controul. The wolves are the pre- 
 tended Patriots and Democrats, who have got the 
 nation into their own clutches, and can kill whom 
 they please, without law, judge, or jury : there 
 being now no law but their own savage will ; and so 
 the vilest of murderers go without punishment. The 
 dogs, those faithful and warlike animals, are the 
 French army ; once the guardians of the King and 
 the People ; and kept for their security against 
 thieves, rebels, and invaders ; but now, bribed with 
 plunder ; with no sense of honour left ; and carrying 
 about war, to levy contributions from innocent 
 people, and spread their new Liberty, as Mahomet 
 did his fools paradise, by the terrors of the sword : 
 and they are assisted in all this by an infatuation 
 peculiar to this time, and never heard of before in 
 the world. The poor silly sheep are the bulk of the 
 people ; first gulled into vile opinions, and then de- 
 voured by their unmerciful and insatiable fellow- 
 subjects. The country of France has of late taken 
 up a new political slang, or cant-language, accommo- 
 dated to their new monster of a government, and 
 put it into a catechism for women and children ; 
 while the Christian catechism is kicked out of doors. 
 Hitherto they have murdered and plundered with as 
 little difficulty as a gang of wolves devour sheep and 
 lambs. They have made money of the possessions 
 of the church ; they have robbed their King of all 
 his treasures to an immense value ; they have seized 
 
TO HIS BROTHER JOHN. 
 
 361 
 
 and sold the estates of their countrymen, for not ap- 
 proving their proceedings, which no man of sense or 
 humanity can endure. But all this is not sufficient, 
 without plundering and taxing the cities and coun- 
 tries round about them. Where this will end, God 
 knows ! A prospect of their devouring one another, 
 when their supplies of plunder shall be drained and 
 wasted, is all that appears at present. Before which, 
 infinite mischief may be done ; and we ourselves may 
 suffer ; unless the shepherd, the sheep, and the faith- 
 ful dogs shall hold together against the wolves." 
 
 A few such discourses as this, brother John, would 
 save our country from all the perils of the present 
 times, and as soon as I learn more, you may expect to 
 hear farther from your loving brother, 
 
 THOMAS BULL. 
 
 December 12, 1792. 
 
LETTER 
 
 TO 
 
 JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 FROM HIS 
 
 SECOND COUSIN THOMAS BULL, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE 
 
 FIRST AND SECOND LETTERS 
 
 TO HIS 
 
 BROTHER JOHN. 
 
A 
 
 LETTER 
 
 TO 
 
 JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 SIR, 
 
 You belong to an honourable branch of our family ; 
 but you have never despised your poor relations. 
 I am therefore well assured, that this address, which 
 comes from one of them, will meet with a kind recep- 
 tion. To Brother John I can say what I please, and 
 treat him with a jest or two, when he wants it, because 
 he and I are upon easy times : but when I speak to 
 You, Sir, I must observe the formalities due to a per- 
 son of a superior station. 
 
 Thomas Bull is a plain formerly man, given up to 
 the business of his calling, and finding in it that con- 
 tentment, which you great gentlemen do not always 
 find in the higher ways of life. It must be some 
 pressing occasion which draws him out of his ob- 
 scurity, to embroil himself with adversaries of more 
 words than he has to spare : he knows with how much 
 trouble and hazard to himself, every man that under- 
 takes it, must encounter public error; and that they, 
 who cannot answer, will never cease to rail. But he 
 is supported under these discouragements by some 
 short and plain considerations. He is told of human 
 life, that the way of it is a pilgrimage ; and that the 
 
366 
 
 A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 time of it is short. He must therefore pass through 
 the world as he would ride through a town ; where, if 
 the people are rude, and the hoys stout, and the dogs 
 bark, a little patience and a quiet horse will soon con- 
 vey him to the silence and safety of a private road. It 
 was also inculcated very early into his mind, that no 
 danger is to be avoided when the good of our country 
 is at stake, and that it is far more eligible to perish 
 for it than with it. If life itself is due to our country, 
 every wise and honest man will readily offer to it his 
 care and his reputation. He saw with how much in- 
 dustry that wicked libel of Thomas Paine was dis- 
 persed, and even conveyed by stealth (like a rotten 
 egg) into people's pockets, to poison the minds of the 
 common sort, and prepare them for some deadly mis- 
 chief ;how it was posted up, to be sold, even along with 
 old shoes, and butcher's meat. He heard how the 
 approach of equal liberty and equal property, the uni- 
 versal downfal of Royalty and Religion, were trum- 
 peted about by persons affected to the anarchy of 
 Frame ; he had also received private intimations of a 
 confederacy of a very dangerous description : and 
 though not with such evidence as was clear enough to 
 bring it forward, yet sufficient to alarm a private per- 
 son, and convince him that some great evil was in- 
 tended : that no time was to be lost, and that no lan- 
 guage could be too strong to secure the people against 
 the prevailing delusion of French politics. Common 
 understandings having been deceived, were to be ad- 
 dressed in a common way, and argued with from the 
 plain principles of common sense and religious duty, 
 such as they imbibed when they learned their Cate- 
 chism ; and such as Thomas Bull, having always been 
 used to them, could handle better than any other. 
 The man in lower life, who writes by the light of a 
 
A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 367 
 
 farthing candle, cannot be expected to see so far into 
 some things as gentlemen do who burn wax. His 
 first address, however, with all its faults, was received 
 with unexpected approbation, and had certainly a 
 great and sudden effect in opening the eyes and paci- 
 fying the minds of the common people *. But as one 
 man's good is another man's evil (which, by the way, 
 renders equal liberty an impossibility in nature), great 
 disapprobation was also to be apprehended. If there 
 was a design to introduce a French Government, and 
 that design was in any forwardness, and Thomas Bull 
 happened to come across with his Letter just at the 
 critical time to intercept it ; gentlemen who were well 
 inclined to such a government would be a little ruffled 
 and discomposed. The defeat arising from that, and 
 other co-operating causes, would add to their former 
 malignity the rage of disappointment. 
 
 It was easy to foresee, that for the use of any re- 
 ligious argument, it might beobjectedto Thomas Bull, 
 that he revives the Doctrines concerning government, 
 which (as some would have it) were given up at the 
 Revolution in 1688. But Mr. Burke hath very ably 
 and very seasonably taught us, that the Revolution of 
 that time did not alter the hereditary government of 
 this kingdom, but left laws and doctrines as sacred as 
 they were before. The Revolution in France hath 
 abolished them all : it is treason there to cry God save 
 
 * It is supposed, that in the English and Welsh Languages, two 
 hundred thousand copies were dispersed ; and that by a multitude 
 of Editors ; amongst whom there was one Dissenter, if not more, 
 who printed it without correcting or curtailing it, as some other 
 persons did ; who would probably have done more good to the 
 Public, and acquired more honour to themselves, if they had stood 
 their ground. Other gentlemen, of the same good intention with 
 themselves, did so ; and found themselves able to maintain it. 
 
368 A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 the King : If it were so here, our theatres would be 
 as guilty as our churches. We are still a Christian 
 Nation, and may talk and reason, may say or sing, as 
 if we were so ; till the time shall come, which Heaven 
 avert, when we shall be allowed neither to speak nor 
 to write, but at the will of such despots as have taken 
 away the liberty of the press in France. When a go- 
 vernment is to be overturned, the licentious use of the 
 press is demanded ; but when it is overturned, the 
 press is strictly guarded, and printers are hanged up, 
 lest it be overturned again ; and then we see at last 
 what patriots meant by the Liberty of the Press. If 
 we assert any alliance between the Powers of Earth 
 and the Powers of Heaven, we must expect to be ac- 
 cused of setting up an indefeasible divine right ; a sort 
 of right not to be found in the Bible, but by those who 
 can see farther than Thomas Bull. He is indeed very 
 plainly taught, that the Most High ruleth in the king- 
 dom of men ; but he knows better than to expect that 
 any statesman, as such, will second him in the appli- 
 cation : because this is an article of doctrine, not a 
 rule of government. Every good government sup- 
 poses it ; but no government immediately acts upon 
 it ; till it maintains, with the fanatics of the last cen- 
 tury, that grace and dominion go together. How 
 much worse than these are the fanatics of the present 
 time ; who do not act under God by mistake, but 
 against God by profession ! 
 
 It was also apprehended, that such of our Dissen- 
 ters, as had been notoriously active in spreading the 
 doctrines of Thomas Paine ; and who keep up an in- 
 terest against the Church, not for conscientious scruples, 
 but for political purposes, would be stung when they 
 were reminded of any share they might have in the 
 troubles of America, out of which proceeded the 
 
A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 369 
 
 troubles of France : and exclaim against the sugges- 
 tion as a libel upon the whole body. But such an in- 
 terpretation is reckoned very uncandid in all other 
 cases of the kind ; and has not been insisted upon by 
 those among them, who, if the reflection were general, 
 would have reason to be offended. When it is said, 
 that the outrages at Birmingham were committed by 
 tJie Churchmen, it would be very unjust to apply this 
 to the whole body of the Church of England ; the 
 peaceable and pious members of which disclaim and 
 abhor such violent and illegal proceedings. If Dr. 
 Priestley had offended against the laws and the peace 
 of his country, he should have been punished by the 
 law. That his adversaries should act in such a manner 
 as to expose themselves to punishment instead of him, 
 was probably the very thing he wished for ; that with 
 some show of reason, he who had so indiscreetly acted 
 for his own party, might cast the blame of it upon 
 other people. It would be a long question, if we were 
 to go into the origin and causes of the troubles in 
 America, most of which, however, are pretty well 
 known : and I hear of a very respectable gentleman, 
 who has by him in manuscript a series of small pieces, 
 composed at the time, and upon the spot, in which 
 they are faithfully noted and laid open. As nothing 
 of the kind has^yet appeared, it is pity these pieces 
 have been so long kept from the eye of the public. 
 That some of the Dissenters had a large share in those 
 troubles cannot be denied ; because they have claimed 
 the honour of it ; and surely it would be inconsistent, 
 if not ridiculous, to repel as an accusation what has 
 been publicly boasted of as a merit. The words of 
 Dr. Priestley in his discourse at the funeral of Dr. 
 Price, are very remarkable, and decisive upon the 
 case. " So ardent was his zeal for the natural rights 
 vol. vi. B b 
 
370 A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 of men, and so forcibly and effectually did he plead 
 the cause of liberty, civil and religious, that no incon- 
 siderable proportion of the human race acknowledge 
 his writings to have been of eminent use to their at- 
 tainment of those great blessings : and the most 
 august assembly in the world, by which I wish to be 
 understood the national assembly of France, have 
 justly styled him the Apostle of Liberty" p. 8. To 
 his apostolical labours the blessings in America are 
 here imputed by Dr. Priestley. But then it happened 
 unfortunately, that their blessi?igs were our troubles : 
 and when he imputes blessings, and we impute trou- 
 bles, to the same cause, we are agreed as to the fact, 
 and only view the same subject on a different side. 
 Thus it is in respect to the affairs of Frauce : what to 
 us is rebellion, to them is the sovereignty of the peo- 
 ple ; and what to us is an attempt to restore the con- 
 stitution, to them is rebellion ; the only sort of rebel- 
 lion now remaining in the world : where we see mas- 
 sacre, they see deliverance ; what we call anarchy, 
 they call government; and what is misery in our eyes, 
 is enjoyment in their's. But then this is not true of 
 «//the people of France; thousands of whom sit by in 
 silent captivity, weeping over the ruins of their coun- 
 try. So when we speak of the Dissenters, the worth 
 of individuals is always to be excepted ; and Thomas 
 Bull himself will be as ready as any body to make the 
 exception, where it is clue. Nothing should be marked 
 for censure, but the restless spirit of a faction ; which, 
 wherever it is found, is always of pernicious effect ; 
 for parties never blush ; they are so supported by 
 their numbers. A great sin is broken into small 
 shares, so that they can commit enormities without 
 remorse, at which single men would shudder. For 
 the same reason, popular assemblies can do such in- 
 
A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 371 
 
 juries, as no King, being a single person, would choose 
 or dare to do, for the sake of his honour, and perhaps 
 of his life. Many of the Dissenters are as averse as 
 we are to the religious principles of Dr. Priestley, 
 and the political principles of Thomas Paine ; and 
 though their flatterers may not wish it, their friends 
 would have been glad, if they had signified the same 
 by some public act half a year ago, that the wheat 
 might have been separated from the chaff. It is the 
 misfortune of every faction, that they who are best 
 among them are led by the worst ; who, being com- 
 monly clever and active persons, have the forming of 
 their schemes, and see to the execution of them. But 
 I say no more of this, because I am informed that a 
 gentleman of great abilities and equal candour in- 
 tends to expostulate with the Dissenters as to several 
 particulars of their late conduct. 
 
 And now, sir, I beg leave to quit the consideration 
 of my affairs, that I may talk with you a little about 
 your own, which are of more consequence. From 
 your ancestors you have inherited a good estate,which 
 you will be glad to keep and transmit to your posterity : 
 therefore you have good reason to be alarmed, when a 
 war is declared against property on the supposed na- 
 tural rights of man. Let us ask then, who is man ? 
 Man, in the abstract, is a being between the Deity and 
 the brute creation ; and his rights, in that capacity, can 
 be only against God and against the beasts. There is 
 a third right, which is that of one man against another 
 man ; and when we treat of this, we may speak sense. 
 Instead then of saying man, in the general, let us say 
 some man, and then we may get forward : but the lo- 
 gicians teach us, that they always dwell u^pon generals, 
 who wish to deceive us about particulars. Thus 
 Englishmen, for example, have their rights against 
 b b 2 
 
372 A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 Frenchmen ; and one Englishman has a right against 
 another Englishman ; and every possessor in the world 
 has a right to what he has got, till somebody else can 
 show a better. How is that to he done ? Never but 
 by some law, applicable to the case. All actual right 
 is under some law ; and, till there is law to distinguish, 
 there is no right ; nor any security of possession, till 
 there is an authority to execute the law. Hence the 
 Romans signified right and law by the same word jus. 
 I take lex to be the law as it is written, and jus to be 
 the law as it is administered ; from whence comes the 
 word justice, which means the administration of law, 
 or distribution of right and property. Hence, if 
 there be no law, there is no justice ; consequently, a 
 state of nature, if there were such a thing, must be a 
 state of violence, with no right but that of force, 
 which is the right of the beasts. It is the right a dog 
 has to a bone, which he has taken from another dog, 
 because he was the stronger of the two. A right above 
 law is the right of a despot, who is a law to himself, 
 and becomes such by the power of the sword. A 
 right without law is the right of a thief; and every 
 man who asserts it is a thief in theory ; worse than a 
 thief in practice : as an evil spirit, being an author of 
 sin, is worse than an evil man, who is only a prac- 
 titioner. 
 
 Natural right is a principle, which cannot be 
 brought to any effect, but upon a presumption that 
 the world is now unoccupied ; or by divesting the pre- 
 sent possessors, and laying all property open, to be 
 scrambled for. By those who have any thing, this 
 principle should be guarded against in time : they 
 only can profit by it, who have nothing, or deserve 
 nothing. Any change will be acceptable to those who 
 cannot change for the worse. 
 
A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 373 
 
 National right has of late made a great noise; but 
 who can discover what it is? If it be a defensive right 
 in a nation against their King, what will become of it 
 when there is no King ? If it be a defensive right in 
 one nation against another nation, it must go with the 
 soil of which they are possessed ; that is, it must be 
 confined to the natives ; and then how comes it to 
 pass, that any rational rights of France can be found 
 in Thomas Paine and Dr. Priestley, who are English- 
 men ? Thetford and Birmingham being within the 
 borders of England, how can the natives of those 
 places have national rights in France ? I grant they 
 may be taken into a participation of such rights de 
 facto ; but then the philosophy of national right is 
 either given up, or comes to nothing. 
 
 When man is taken in the abstract, it is never in- 
 quired whether he has any religion, or whether he 
 has none ; whether he is wise or foolish, white or black : 
 he is taken without his qualities either of mind or 
 body, and without his obligations to God or to man : 
 and then there is nothing left of him but the animal 
 called by the name of man ; and his rights as such 
 are not the rights of a Christian, nor of a civilized, 
 nor of a social being, but of an animal only. I have 
 therefore frequently wondered, why they who assert 
 rights to man in this capacity, do not allow the claim 
 of right in other animals : and why they do not carry 
 on their principle, where it must go in spite of them, 
 from the rights of man to the rights of beasts. For, 
 so far as right is natural, beasts must have it as well 
 as man : and what will it prove 1 It will prove, in the 
 rat, a right to gnaw our victuals and undermine our 
 habitations : in the fox, a right to take the poultry : 
 in the tvolf a right to eat the sheep ; for all creatures 
 have a right to live, and it is the nature of these 
 
374 A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 creatures to live in this manner. When religion is 
 brought into the question, without which man and 
 the world are both inexplicable, all the difficulty is 
 answered in a moment. We produce our Magna 
 Charta of Revelation, which shews us how God has 
 given to man a sovereignty over all the creation ; 
 and that wild beasts are made to be taken and destroyed: 
 because, as God will one day cast out of his kingdom 
 all things that offend, man has authority to do the 
 same thing now in his kingdom. This we allow to 
 be one of the rights of man ; but not a natural right, 
 because it is a right held under a positive law : and 
 he who parts with that law deserves to suffer the 
 consequences, and forfeit the prerogatives of a man : 
 the beasts of the field ought to prevail against him ; 
 the horse should kick him ; the bull should toss him ; 
 the swine should gore him ; the serpent should bite 
 him. 
 
 If natural rights were extended to the beasts, it is 
 evident, the most evil of them would always have the 
 advantage ; and the innocent being weaker, would be 
 sure to suffer. So if men were turned loose to their 
 natural liberty, it is equally certain the worst men 
 would have the most of it. This they themselves 
 know ; and that makes them bawl so loud for it : but, 
 to prevent what they wish is the first design of govern- 
 ment ; and power is given to kings and rulers for this 
 purpose only. As things are now, no man can pos- 
 sibly injure another, without offending against some 
 known law of God : and as God does not execute his 
 own laws in person, others must be appointed to do it 
 for him, and by his authority, not by their own : for 
 then the sovereignty would be not in God, but in 
 them. This is my original of government; and I think 
 men never did, nor ever will make sense of any other 
 
A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 375 
 
 scheme. And if after this any gentleman of property 
 can spend his wit and his oratory in defending the 
 principle of natural right against positive law, he is 
 whetting the axe which is laid to his own root : and 
 his understanding, whatever noise he may make with 
 his tongue, is at last but of a size with that of the 
 poor Irishman, who, sitting on the bough of a tree, 
 chopped on the wrong side of him, and let himself 
 down to the ground. 
 
 As for the invention, of which the French revolu- 
 tionists are now so fond, that all power of government 
 must arise by contribution from the people who are 
 governed, and that no power is legal but what does so 
 arise; these are very rash assertions, not agreeable to 
 the order of nature and the sense of things. And be- 
 sides, we have a principle here, which, as it is now 
 applied, instantly dissolves the British government. 
 For, if all legal power must arise from popular delega- 
 tion (which is now the French principle of government) 
 then the power, which doth not so arise, but descends 
 by inheritance, is illegal : which being the case here 
 with the crown, and the House of Lords, they must 
 fall of course as soon as this popular principle shall 
 be brought to effect, in its full extent. Therefore let 
 Englishmen be aware, that if what is called a reform 
 of parliament, to which the friends of Thomas Paine 
 are now transferring their hopes, should come forward 
 on the French principle, it must amount to a dissolu- 
 tion of the present government, and the whole system 
 of our laws ; and Magna Charta itself must go with 
 them, as being a law derived to the people by conces- 
 sion from the crown : for though Magna Charta was 
 forced from the king, yet they who forced it from him, 
 did so, because they knew it would not be legal with- 
 out him. What I here say is not merely from the 
 
376 
 
 A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 reason of the case, though that is plain enough ; but is 
 grounded on positive evidence. I have before my 
 eye a piece by the Politician, who styles himself the 
 author of A Call to the Jews, and who in the year 
 1785 struck out for England, under the fictitious 
 name of Utopia, apian of Parliamentary Reformation; 
 and took the form of thirty-nine Articles, for an in- 
 sult on the Religious Doctrines of the Church of Eng- 
 land : applying to it, in a Motio, that text which Dr. 
 South applied to Dr. Burnet— forty stripes save one. 
 By these articles of reform, all persons promoted by a 
 King or by a minister, and all grandees, that is, all 
 who are noble by birth or by creation, are excluded, 
 with convicts and madmen, from having any share in 
 the Legislative Delegation. This curious publication 
 let the Fox out of the bag very early : and the author 
 of it has been remarkable for the simplicity and in- 
 tegrity of mind, with which he has always betrayed 
 his own schemes and those of his party. 
 
 I would request you, Sir, farther to observe, how 
 this new opinion, of there being no legitimate power 
 but by popular delegation, totally excludes the Provi- 
 dence of God from having any share in the Govern- 
 ment of Nations : and indeed they who argue for it do 
 generally speak throughout, as if God was not in all 
 their thoughts. They call the belief of Divine Provi- 
 dence by the cant name of Superstition ; a word which, 
 in their mouths, includes all true Religion; and 
 openly declare they must destroy it, or it will destroy 
 them. But does not every school-boy know, how 
 many Governments have arisen in the world from the 
 sole principle of conquest, and lasted for ages ? and is 
 not this principle, though disavowed for convenience, 
 still lurking behind the curtain in France ; where the 
 sword in the hand of one party has erected a govern- 
 
A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 377 
 
 ment upon the ruins of another party ? All Europe 
 can answer the question. When authority and power 
 were any where established on the principle of con- 
 quest, he that gave the victory made the Government : 
 and therefore he claims a prerogative of putting down 
 one, and setting up another. He is therefore called 
 the Lord of hosts, that is, of armies; and celebrated 
 as a man of war ; because the armies of the world 
 ever were under his direction, and ever will be; though 
 the heathen furiously rage together, and the people 
 imagine a vain thing ; even that vainest of all vain 
 things, an imagination, that they can dethrone God, 
 and govern the world in his stead, by their own laws 
 and their oivn providence ! When the Jews were to be 
 destroyed, and the Romans went against them for that 
 purpose, the parable had foretold, that the King 
 ( God) should send forth his armies : and when the 
 same nation was captive under the Assyrians, he com- 
 manded his people to submit to them ; to pray for the 
 life of Nabuchodonosor and of Balthazar, his son ; 
 even as our Saviour allowed the Roman power in 
 Judea by paying tribute to it; and even working a 
 miracle to enable himself so to do. This was a govern- 
 ment by conquest : and, by the laws of God such 
 Governments are valid, though the feelings of man do 
 not find them agreeable in theory. Strike off the 
 power of Divine Providence ; and strike off the laws 
 of Religion ; and then, and not till then, we may de- 
 rive all Government by a delegation from the people : 
 it is therefore nothing wonderful, that this principle 
 and atheism should go together, as they now do in 
 France; and whether atheism begets it, or it begets 
 atheism, is not worth a dispute. Yet after all I have 
 said on delegated power, I desire you, Sir, who are a 
 moderate man, to observe, that I deny no more than 
 
378 
 
 A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 the universality of the principle, as applied to Go- 
 vernment. I hold it utterly untrue to affirm, that all 
 power must arise by delegation : and as untrue to say, 
 that no power doth so arise ; because we see in fact a 
 part of the power of our own Government undoubt- 
 edly so constituted. I would therefore here keep a 
 middle path; to secure Government from insult on 
 one hand, and presumption, on the other. 
 
 Government is sometimes rendered odious and 
 frightful, because it provides for the public defence 
 by a standing army. But the truth of the case is 
 this : every Gentleman must either defend his pro- 
 perty himself, or hire somebody else to do it for him. 
 If good men will learn the use of arms, and be ready 
 on occasion to defend themselves in person, which 
 might be a good thing, and is already done in part 
 by the establishment of our Militia, there will be of 
 consequence less call for standing forces. But after 
 all, what is the evil of a standing army, compared with 
 that of a Paris Mob P I use myself to consider this 
 world as an highway; and the case of every Govern- 
 ment as parallel to that of a stage-coach upon the 
 road. A military force is as necessary to a nation, as 
 a guard is to defend the passengers from robbers. 
 But then an army may be an Engine of Tyranny ; so 
 it may : but much worse, when it is under dema- 
 gogues who are afraid of it, and must keep it in good 
 humour by glutting it with plunder, than when it is 
 under a King, who has the command of it by Law. 
 The guard behind may turn his blunderbuss upon the 
 passengers in the coach ; and so may every provision 
 for our security in this world be turned to our de- 
 struction. Our victuals may choak us : but surely 
 they are foolish people, who expose themselves to 
 danger which is obvious and certain, through a ridi- 
 
A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 379 
 
 culous fear of that which is imaginary ; and give up 
 their purse to a highwayman, because the guard may 
 misuse his weapons. Nothing demonstrates to me 
 so fully the fanatical absurdity of the French Political 
 Philosophy, as the notion with which they first set 
 out ; viz. that we should have no more war when we 
 had no more kings. For, will there be no more high- 
 waymen upon the road, when there is no, longer a 
 coachman upon the box ? And was ever war carried 
 about so wantonly, and executed so severely, as by 
 the French under their new Republic ? And were the 
 French Soldiery ever such Instruments of Tyranny, 
 as since they proved faithless to their Kings and their 
 Laws ? Take away the sword from the King, and 
 give it to the people ; and what shall we get by it ? 
 We shall fall into the hands of a faction ; about whom, 
 all the rogues and beggars of the nation will assem- 
 ble, and form a lawless power, more troublesome and 
 merciless than any single tyrant upon earth. 
 
 Which is the best for society, a monarchy, or a 
 republic? is a question much agitated of late, and 
 happy would it be, if it might be decided rather by 
 the pen than by the sword. On the republican side, 
 there is the great learning of Mr. Thomas Paine, 
 and the arms of the French nation : for the French, 
 finding their tongues fail them in the argument, set 
 the mouths of their cannons and mortars to dispute 
 for them. On the monarchical side, there is the ex- 
 perience of mankind ; the general rule of Providence ; 
 and the arms of the greater part of Europe. To fol- 
 low this great question, Sir, in its detail, is not my 
 intention, neither would a short piece, like this, admit 
 of it. I shall therefore throw together a few facts 
 and observations, out of which something like an 
 answer might be framed. 
 
 11 
 
380 A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 History does not inform us, that any government of 
 the popular form existed in the world, till the repub- 
 lics of Greece and Rome were generated of rebellion 
 and regicide. Egypt was a great and flourishing king- 
 dom, about a thousand years before they were heard 
 of. From the account of the Trojan war, we find that 
 Greece was then divided into monarchical states : and 
 the writers, who give a history of the Roman and Gre- 
 cian republics, are obliged to confess, that all the states 
 upon earth were originally under kings {Initio reges*, 
 nam in terris nomen imperii id primum fait.) And 
 what is more, they allow this to have been the legitimate 
 form of government (imperium legitimum nomen im- 
 perii regium hahebat,) as being the only form agreea- 
 ble to the laws of nature : for every body must have a 
 head, and that head can properly be but one : and 
 when the body of the Roman State took two heads 
 instead of one, this form was introduced (more immu- 
 tato) as an innovation ; and with it came in the new 
 doctrine of the power of the populace, never before 
 heard of : as the world had never before heard of a 
 body with two heads, but under the character of a 
 monster. The state of the Hebrews, as soon as they 
 emerged from Egyptian slavery, was a monarchy under 
 Moses, who is called king in Jeshurun. He was in 
 alliance with the Church, the head of it being his 
 brother; and he was assisted by a council, who joined 
 with him in the government of the people : and in this 
 we have the outlines of every good government which 
 hath since been established in the Avorld. Mr. Thomas 
 Paine, in his capacity of a political divine, would make 
 us believe, that regal government is contrary to the will 
 of God, because God is said to have given the Hebrews 
 
 * Sallust— Bell. Cat. 
 
A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 381 
 
 a king in his wrath, when he gave them Saul. Under 
 what circumstances he did this, and in what sense the 
 thing was wrong, the staymaker of Thetford was not 
 qualified to distinguish. But if you look at the 
 history, you will see, that when Saul was appointed, 
 there was no change of the species of government, but 
 only of the person. From their settlement in Canaan, 
 God was their king, as he tells them, and some pro- 
 phet was his prime minister, who happened at that 
 time to be the prophet Samuel. But they took a 
 dislike to this religious kind of polity, as they had 
 before taken a distaste to the manna in the wilderness ; 
 and demanded a military leader; a soldier-king, such 
 as the heathen nations had who were round about 
 them. With this God was offended, though he as- 
 sented to their demand, because, in requiring a mor- 
 tal king, they had rejected him: and therefore he 
 tells Samuel, his minister, they have not rejected thee, 
 but they have rejected me from being king over than. 
 To make our case in England parallel to this ; and 
 to shew from the case of the Hebrews, that we ought 
 not to have George the Third for our king, at least 
 that God will be in wrath with us if we take him, 
 some monstrous suppositions must be made : as, that 
 George the Second was the divinity of the people of 
 England, and that the duke of Newcastle, his minis- 
 ter, was a prophet : but this being totally inadmis- 
 sible, it is preposterous to argue from one of these 
 cases to the other; and if God gave Mr. Thomas Paine 
 who has done this, to be an interpreter of the Scrip- 
 ture to the people of England, it must have been an 
 act of his wrath. 
 
 The Roman historians confess, that all that order 
 and dignity of their state, that plan of their city, those 
 arts and ensigns of war, which, with many other par- 
 
382 A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 ticulars, were the foundation of their future greatness, 
 were wholly derived from the authority and wisdom of 
 their kings; who are said to have settled all things in 
 so exact a form, that the oeconomy of their state was as 
 well regulated as that of a private family by the father 
 or the master of it. And so was the oeconomy of this 
 kingdom, as it subsists even to this day, chiefly derived 
 from the wisdom and attention of one great Alfred; 
 in whom, with the character of a king, we find the 
 patriot, the scholar, the hero, and the saint. 
 
 After Rome became a republic, it was so divided in 
 its authority, that it could not act with effect in cases 
 of any great and sudden emergency ; and therefore it 
 retained a stated provision, that in all such cases it 
 should resolve itself into a monarchy under the absolute 
 power of a dictator : and every reader of their history 
 knows how often they were saved by the expedient of 
 suspending the authority of their two supreme magis- 
 trates, and returning to the order of nature, which to 
 one body gives but one head. We are shocked when 
 we see how they provided against the return of royalty 
 by every possible act of ingratitude and severity : 
 fathers cutting their children to pieces on suspicion 
 of loyalty : the populace disgracing their best friends, 
 and even destroying the deliverers of their country, 
 through a jealousy of their turning themselves into 
 kings. For as royalty was reputed the greatest of 
 evils, ingratitude, perfidy, cruelty, and all other evils, 
 transformed themselves into virtues, if they were 
 practised to exclude it. 
 
 Republics, some say, are to be preferred for their 
 cheapness ; none of that expense being required, which 
 is necessary to keep up the state of a king and his 
 officers. But the observation is not agreeable to fact. 
 The kings of Rome lived upon their own territories; 
 
A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 383 
 
 but the republic aimed as much at universal property 
 as universal empire; they drew money from all nations ; 
 and their pro-consuls were every where kept with the 
 state and the expensivenessof monarchs, subsisting on 
 that property, to which they had no right but from 
 their ambition and the power of the sword. Our first 
 commonwealth in England, which was raised on the 
 ruin of Charles the First and of the people, cost the 
 nation more money, and raised more taxes, than all 
 their kings before, from William the Conqueror, put 
 together : more in ten or twelve years than the kings 
 in five hundred. And if the French nation compute 
 fairly their charges of the last year, they will find 
 nothing like it in the annals of their kings *. 
 
 * It has been computed, that they have lately expended twelve 
 millions sterling in a month. To shew how the world imposes upon 
 itself in respect to the expensiveness of government, I beg leave to 
 introduce the following observation on the expensiveness and tyranny 
 of the republic of Holland, from Sir William Temple. "Thus this 
 stomachful people, who could not endure the least exercises of ar- 
 bitrary power or impositions, or the sight of any foreign troops under 
 Spanish government, have since been inured to all of them, in the 
 highest degree, under their own popular magistrates ; bridled with 
 hard laws, terrified with severe executions, environed with foreign 
 forces ; and oppressed with the most cruel hardship and variety of 
 taxes that was ever known under any government ; but all this, 
 whilst the way to office and authority lies through those qualities 
 which acquire the general esteem of the people ; whilst no man is 
 exempted from the danger and current of laws ; whilst soldiers are 
 confined to frontier garrisons (the guard of inland and trading 
 towns being left to the burghers themselves) ; and whilst no great 
 riches are seen to enter by public payments into private purses, 
 either to raise families, or to feed the prodigal expences of vain, 
 extravagant, and luxurious men ; but all public monies are applied 
 to the safety, greatness, or honour of the state, and the magistrates 
 themselves bear an equal share in all the burdens they impose." 
 Observations on the United Provinces and their Government. 
 
384 
 
 A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 It is farther objected to monarchies, that they are 
 productive of wars, from the ambition of princes : but 
 Republics have generally been much more productive 
 of them ; and the man must be as ignorant as a child 
 who denies it. How often did the Roman Republic 
 betake itself to the expedient of foreign war, as the 
 only remedy against those domestic feuds and dis- 
 turbances, which arose naturally in their government, 
 from the mock-equality of the whole, and the conjunct 
 tyranny of the few ? Did they not carry wars all over 
 the world, more than any nation had ever done be- 
 fore them : while the Monarchy of the Hebrews, when 
 once settled, never extended itself beyond its natural 
 limits ? Its powers were all employed for the benefit 
 of its own internal oeconomy : all its wars were defen- 
 sive. But did not Ptome and Carthage, two Re- 
 publics, fight to the last extremity, each suffering 
 slaughter and devastation in its turn, and sweeping 
 down great and opulent cities with their train, for 
 nothing but superiority; and nothing could pacify the 
 one but the extirpation of the other. After this, I 
 think we need not go to kingdoms and monarchies 
 for the slaughterous effects of ambition and avarice. 
 
 The Romans, by their own account of themselves, 
 inherited abarbarous and savage spirit from the begin- 
 ning- Their first King, saved, as they say, from a 
 river in his infancy, like Moses, was suckled by a wolf : 
 and when his city was building, the rapacious temper 
 of its people was prognosticated by a flight of vultures. 
 Upon its first walls Romulus slew his brother, conse- 
 crating them by the shedding of human blood. Its 
 first stock of inhabitants were begotten of ravished 
 virgins. From such an origin, what could be expect- 
 ed, but that Providence was about to show, from the 
 example of the Romans, what is the temper and quality 
 
A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 385 
 
 of human society, when it is generated, as their first 
 state was, from the ferocious passions and appe- 
 tites of human nature ? For a time they endured the 
 government of their kings ; and they would have been 
 nothing without it : but at the end of two hundred 
 years, the wild spirit of republicanism began to work, 
 and they drove out their kings with enthusiastic 
 fury ; transferring all the rights of royalty from the 
 head to the body, and ascribing sovereign majesty to 
 the people. Whensoever and wheresoever the same 
 spirit arises, it will work in the same way, and use 
 the same language to the end of the world. 
 
 At this time we are witnesses to an event of the same 
 kind ; but with symptoms of superior wickedness ; be- 
 cause that which was best will always become worst 
 when it is corrupted. And it is curious to observe 
 how closely the French have followed the Romans in 
 the degeneration of their state ; sometimes perhaps by 
 a fatality on their proceedings; but generally from 
 affectation and design, as pedants in rebellion ; and 
 their pedantry is such, as to teach the world that their 
 principles are of lieathen original. When the king 
 was expelled from Rome, the people seized his effects, 
 destroyed his palace, and converted his land into their 
 Campus Martins ; so the French have now their Champ 
 de Mars upon the spot lately occupied by the bastile : 
 but when they had emptied and razed one prison of 
 the king, in which (notwithstanding the horrid idea 
 the people had been taught to entertain of it, and 
 which it had, in former times, certainly well deserved) 
 very few prisoners were found, they soon filled a hun- 
 dred prisons of their own. The project of assassination 
 was adopted at Rome, when Porsena interposed for 
 the restoration of their king, and three hundred assas- 
 sins conspired to make away with him : as the French 
 
 vol. vi. C c 
 
386 
 
 A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 declared an intention to convey death by some hand, 
 and by some means, to every crowned head in Europe ; 
 and it was proposed to embody and equip twelve hun- 
 dred men for the sole purpose of private assassination. 
 When royalty fell into disgrace at Rome, the female 
 sex grew bold with the new fire of liberty, and have 
 been celebrated by historians for their valour. After 
 which example, ladies in France have affected the mar- 
 tial character, and distinguished themselves in the field. 
 The transformation of monarchical Frenchmen into 
 Republicans, is attended by another as monstrous 
 transformation of women into men ; and we know not 
 which we are most to wonder at. Instead of raising 
 themselves to honour, both have forgotten their na- 
 ture, and are equally out of place. A hen is a respect- 
 able animal when she is feeding or brooding her 
 chickens ; but in a cockjnt she is ridiculous. 
 
 The doctrine of equality was introduced as a fine 
 principle, when the Romans had changed their govern- 
 ment : and their great men, who were too proud to 
 submit to kings, humbled themselves in the most abject 
 terms to the populace; in which they have been follow- 
 ed and exceeded by the new republicans of France ; 
 who as soon as they had taken away the head, gave 
 sovereignty to the members, and set the feet upper- 
 most. In these particulars, we see, the French have 
 followed the Romans : but in others they have differed 
 from them to their shame. The Romans were wise 
 enough to know, that they could never be well united, 
 but under the obligations of religion : on which consi- 
 deration the forms and doctrines, established under the 
 second of their kings, were retained inviolate through 
 all the following ages. They began with the establish- 
 ment of piety : but our modern republicans began with 
 the abolition of it. The Romans depended religiously 
 16 
 
A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 387 
 
 on such Gods as they knew, for the protection of their 
 state, and served them with supplications and thanks- 
 givings; but the French, from all that appears, are of 
 opinion they can better protect themselves, and seem 
 to have no Deity left but their Goddess of Liberty, 
 with her altars. No heathens ever invaded the pro- 
 perty of their priests, or seized lands, tenths, or offer- 
 ings of any kind set apart for the maintenance of di- 
 vine worship : but it was one of the first steps of the 
 new government in France to seize all sacred property 
 whatsoever, and reduce their ministers to miserable 
 stipendiaries; dependents upon^m instead of depen- 
 dents upon God. When the nation of Egypt was 
 driven to the last extremity by a famine, the lands of 
 the priests were spared, though all other lands were 
 alienated. The Romans, when they carried wars 
 about the world, honestly confessed their ambitious 
 intention to make all other nations slaves, under a per- 
 suasion that Rome was to be the head of the world. 
 The French on the contrary affect to carry liberty to 
 other people — specie socios adjavandi, re autem sollici- 
 tante prcedd — their errand is plausible ; but it appears 
 in the issue that they are always well paid for it. The 
 freebooters of England would gladly carry the same 
 liberty to all the corporations and market towns in 
 this kingdom, if they might take their goods and 
 money in exchange. In this all are agreed, that they 
 who begin in robbery must go on with it, under some 
 pretence or other : and true it is, all power must be 
 maintained as it is acquired. If it descends by inheri- 
 tance, it has nothing to do but to maintain the laws, 
 for the laws will maintain it. But if it is acquired by 
 violence, it must be supported by the same ; and when 
 any new authority starts up which the laws do not 
 acknowledge, it must render itself respectable by san- 
 c c 2 
 
388 
 
 A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 guinary terrors : and woe be to the people who are in 
 such a case ! 
 
 Much has been said, sir, of late against the expen- 
 siveness of our government ; with design to persuade 
 unthinking people, that if the government were ruined, 
 the nation would be saved. If I were speaking to one 
 of the common people upon this subject, I would desire 
 him to consider ,whether he has been taught to confound 
 liberty of plunder with cheapness of living: a doctrine 
 which has been offered as a temptation to many of the 
 soldiery of this country ; but by the blessing of God 
 upon their honesty, very few of them have listened to 
 it. When the idle may seize upon the gains of the in- 
 dustrious, to be sure they live cheap for a time, though 
 it seldom lasts long. I would also observe to them 
 farther, that the very persons who are most clamour- 
 ous against our pecuniary distresses, are they whose 
 politics brought upon us the enormous increase of our 
 national debt : therefore by them this complaint is taken 
 up as a convenience, in the use of which they mean 
 no more good to the nation at large than they did be- 
 fore. I would likewise remind them, that a projected 
 equality would be of no general benefit for two rea- 
 sons : first, because there never will be wealth to the 
 end of the world where there is neither industry nor 
 economy. Many of our murmurers are found 
 amongst those, who can earn high wages for one half 
 of the week, and spend the rest at a public house, to 
 the impoverishing of their wives and families: second- 
 ly, because the poor of this country (exclusive of two 
 millions and a half which they receive per annum in 
 the poor rates) do better under the benevolence of the 
 rich, than they would do if they were stewards for 
 themselves. It is the interest of the poor, that all 
 gentlemen should be rich where all gentlemen arc 
 
A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 389 
 
 charitable. On every occasion of scarcity and dis- 
 tress, they take delight, and even vie with one another 
 in relieving their poor neighbour. So distinguished 
 is the benevolence of this country above all others 
 (and particularly France) that some are of opinion 
 that our national character in this repect is delivered 
 in the Revelation under the name of the church of 
 Philadelphia ; and the fate of that church, as there 
 predicted, is agreeable to that promise of the Gospel 
 — blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. 
 Thus much I would say to the poor. 
 
 To the rich I say, it is a low and sordid policy, which 
 makes money the measure of all things. There are 
 some things for which we cannot give too much ; and 
 there are others too dear at any price. Gin is much 
 cheaper than Madeira : and if it be a man's object to 
 be drunk at as small an expence as possible, gin will 
 have the preference. Dr. Adam Smith seems to have 
 reasoned wholly on a supposition, that national wealth 
 is national happiness : with a disciple of Voltaire, as 
 he was, who thought little or nothing about another 
 life, this might pass : but if a man hx'mgs that into the 
 question, we shall make a very different estimate of 
 things ; for money, which does every thing here, will 
 do nothing there. The expensiveness therefore of 
 government is atopic, from which Thomas Paine, -who 
 addressed himself chiefly to those who have little to 
 expect in another life, conceived great hopes, and 
 from which our frenchified politicians have boldly 
 predicted our ruin. But, to give it out among its sub- 
 jects, that a government must soon be ruined, is one 
 sly practice of the seditious to effect its ruin : as, to 
 bring on a revolution, it was trumpeted about in all 
 our coffee-houses by the emissaries of a wicked party, 
 that there would certainly be a revolution in England: 
 
890 A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 and we may give them the merit of partly believing 
 what they said, because most of them know what they 
 were doing to make a revolution. It was the same in 
 France. Their busy republicans spread abroad the 
 belief of a revolution among the people ; and I heard 
 of it in England two years before it came to pass, and 
 of the base artifices then in practice to bring it about; 
 which unhappily succeeded but too well on the ill- 
 disposed people they had to deal with. One way of 
 killing a man is, to make him believe he is mortally 
 sick : under which persuasion, he will either be 
 dispirited into his death, or neglect the use of medicine. 
 To you, Sir, who can compare causes and effects, and 
 judge of things with calmness and proper discrimina- 
 tion, I shall confess, that our taxes are very heavy, 
 and the public income very great ; but our taxes in 
 England do not affect the lowest ranks of the people, 
 such as day-labourers, like the taxes in France ; and 
 more than two-thirds of the public income revert again 
 to the nation, being applied to the payment of the in- 
 terest, and the discharge of the capital, of the national 
 debt, which has been contracting from the Revolution 
 to the end of the last war, in securing the British 
 dominions, and in defending ourselves against a very 
 powerful and ambitious neighbour. If during this 
 period wars have been waged without sufficient occa- 
 sion, and the wealth of the public thereby improperly 
 expended, every description of men, who have directed 
 the affairs of this country from the revolution to the 
 end of the last war, ought to bear the blame : and it is 
 singular, that the present administration have had no 
 share in augmenting the debt : they have the merit 
 of having contrived a plan for the reduction of it, 
 more likely to be successful, than any hitherto devised ; 
 and which will certainly have the effect of consider- 
 
A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 391 
 
 ably reducing the debt, and gradually diminishing 
 the taxes, if the events which are now impending 
 do not force us into a new war. The common an- 
 nual expenditure of this country, in time of peace, is 
 by no means extraordinary, when we consider the 
 greatness of the country, the extent of our dominions 
 in various parts of the world, and the almost univer- 
 sal commerce, to which some protection must always, 
 even in time of peace, be extended *. 
 
 The expence of the civil government, though 
 greater in appearance, is (if we consider the compa- 
 rative value of money) in effect less than in former 
 periods. The salaries of many offices are in fact less 
 than they were. Many ancient offices have been 
 abolished ; and I do not believe that the salary of 
 any one office is become greater, if we take into con- 
 sideration the different value of money. 
 
 The cheapest governments certainly are despotic 
 monarchies, such as Prussia, where little state is kept 
 up, and where the subject is obliged to serve the 
 monarch for any allowance he may make him. The 
 governments also of some republics are cheap ; pro- 
 vided they are content to live within themselves, and 
 have little concern with other nations. Ancient mo- 
 narchies, in which from usage great state is maintained, 
 and limited monarchies, in which some degree of state, 
 and some degree of influence is necessary for the pur- 
 pose of making an impression on the people, are, una- 
 voidably in a certain degree, expensive. It is singu- 
 
 * If the number of souls in Britain be taken, and compared with 
 the whole of the revenue, how much will it amount to per head? 
 It might be useful to show this : because people have been cor- 
 rupted by an unfair statement of this sort respecting the imposts in 
 America. 
 
392 
 
 A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 lar, however, that the new republic in America, and 
 the new republic in France, are forced to make the 
 members of their legislatures a daily allowance; with- 
 out which these republics would not find subjects, 
 who would be at the trouble of giving their attendance 
 for the purpose of making laws for them ; which was 
 the case in this country formerly, when we were much 
 poorer than we are at present. In the business of life, 
 there must be some motive to induce people to en- 
 counter the fatigues and dangers, to which public 
 situations expose them : and if you wish to have a 
 wise and honourable government, these inducements 
 must be in some degree equal to the talents of the 
 men who are employed. I would only observe far- 
 ther, that many of the hardest expences which happen 
 under a government, are not such as arise imme- 
 diately from the government itself,but from the extor- 
 tions and impositions of subjects on one another. Here 
 it behoves every government to be as vigilant as it can, 
 and to restrain so far as its power goes, and to rectify 
 abuses before thsy become inveterate. The people 
 are more commonly hurt by the weakness of govern- 
 ment, in suffering infringements to be made upon it, 
 than by a just and impartial execution of its laws : on 
 which consideration, the people will find their advan- 
 tage in the issue, if they unite like wise men and good 
 subjects to strengthen the hands of their own govern- 
 ment ; though the maxim be contrary to some of the 
 current persuasions of Englishmen. 
 
 I have now, Sir, offered to you such of my ideas on 
 the subjects of the time, as are more fit for gentlemen 
 than for the common people. You have a son at the 
 university, and two more who are very forward in 
 school-learning. Pray put these papers into their 
 hands, that they may know how to argue for the pre- 
 
A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 393 
 
 servation of their country. And give them notice to 
 beware of those rascally Frenchmen who attend in 
 many of our schools and seminaries for the teaching 
 of the French language, but are many of them spies 
 and emissaries of republicans, who take the oppor- 
 tunity of recommending their pernicious politics to the 
 young people with whom they are concerned. Marat 
 who makes such a figure among the new tyrants of 
 France, was a teacher of the French language at Ox- 
 ford ; and in his character but a pattern of many 
 more. When Thomas Hull's first letter was shown 
 to one of these, who teaches in a very respectable 
 seminary, he fell into a violent rage, and pronounced 
 it all to be Betise ! Sottise ! stupidity and nonsense. 
 And why so ? Is it not because they, who wish to see 
 this country ruined, hate the principles on which we 
 hope to see it saved. Another of these gentlemen, 
 for the notoriety of his principles, was imprisoned by 
 the boys of a great school ; and after he had cried out 
 of the window for his liberty to the people in the street, 
 they made him sing, as well as he could, God save the 
 King, before they released him. All these, where- 
 ever they are to be found, should now be well looked 
 to : the times demand it : and masters and tutors 
 should admit such only as are known to be of good 
 principle as well as good ability. Let the gentry 
 also be aware of their French servants : for many of 
 them are spies. 
 
 We are also called upon to pay some regard to 
 those laws made in support of religion ; which the 
 same right honourable gentleman would abolish, who 
 in his printed speech (if it be genuine) objected high 
 treason to the first innocent letter of Thomas Bull to 
 his Brother John. When a piece is overcharged, it is 
 apt to burst in the hand ; which actually happened 
 
394 A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 
 
 when the piece was levelled at Thomas Bull's letter. 
 Such accidents should be avoided : and it might be a 
 blessing to themselves and their country, if certain 
 gentlemen of high parts, and great popularity, would 
 read more, and talk less ; that they may know better 
 what is true, and speak for it instead of speaking 
 against it. There is a wild audacious spirit stirring ; 
 which, presuming on a supposed fear in the govern- 
 ment to do itself justice, mounts upon a table, to in- 
 flame the multitude with incendiary speeches. Blas- 
 phemous writings are published with the like au- 
 dacity ; not only breaking, but even menacing the 
 laws, and reflecting upon those who have neglected 
 to put them in execution. Where can such things 
 end but in the ruin of religion ? The loss of religion 
 in France was the loss of their government, and the 
 chief cause of all their late enormities. 
 
 Our nation, Sir, is now in a state of vigilance : but 
 it must continue so. French anarchy was breaking in 
 at the front door of the house. That door is now 
 barred and guarded ; but we are far from being sure 
 that another attempt will not be made upon it : and 
 if not that, we are still to take care that it does not 
 enter by stealth at the other door of reformation : a 
 good thing in good times, but a frightful thing at this 
 time : because no man can say, from its first step, 
 what will be its last. The meeting of tlie notables in 
 France was the beginning : the bloody death of Louis 
 their well-beloved is the end ! If it should please God 
 that any like calamities should fall upon us ; let all 
 true men stand their ground : and I second my advice 
 with a story. A worthy friend of Thomas Bull was 
 observing to a French emigrant, the son of a noble- 
 man and of late an officer in the army, that in case of 
 a revolution here, we should not be able to fly as they 
 
A LETTER TO JOHN BULL, ESQ. 395 
 
 had done, to any place of refuge : so much the better, 
 said he ; you will then be under the necessity of 
 dying with your swords in your hands : and had we 
 resolved to do the same, we might have saved our- 
 selves and our country. 
 
 Believe me, sir, with all proper respect, 
 
 Your affectionate Relation, 
 
 and obedient humble Servant, 
 
 London, Jan. 30, 1793. 
 
 THOMAS BULL, 
 
FABLE OF THE RATS. 
 
 TO THE ASSOCIATED FRIENDS OF LIBERTY AT THE FEATHERS 
 TAVERN. 
 
 GENTLEMEN, 
 
 A letter of information with respect to a design of 
 petitioning for relief in the matter of Subscription to 
 the Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, 
 having lately been dispersed among the members of 
 the House of Commons, I sent my copy to a friend, 
 requesting his opinion of it, which I received in the 
 form of 
 
 A FABLE. 
 
 There was a certain house, into which the rats 
 had made an entrance, by gnawing an hole in the bot- 
 tom of the main door. It happened that the servants 
 were grown careless, and the traps rusty with disuse ; 
 so that the rats were in a manner unmolested. Not 
 satisfied with the scraps of the kitchen, they got into 
 the library to nibble the books : they brought the old 
 family-bible into a very tattered condition : they en- 
 dangered the house, by burrowing deep into the ground 
 and making themselves nests under some of the main 
 pillars of the fabric. Notwithstanding all these ad- 
 vantages, they were very discontented. There were a 
 few plain-spoken servants in the family, who were apt 
 to cry out, a rat, a rat, if any of them were seen in 
 the day-time which gave them great offence ; and 
 
FABLE OF THE RATS. 
 
 397 
 
 they were now and then reminded of their rat-like 
 nature by others, who shewed them the marks of 
 their teeth at the bottom of the door. 
 
 It was therefore proposed among themselves, that 
 the only way to spare their pride and improve their 
 character, would be to persuade the heads of the house 
 to take the main door off the hinges, that animals of 
 all kinds might have free access : after which there 
 would be no room for odious distinctions and reflec- 
 tions. 
 
 This proposal, though started only by one or two 
 of the forwardest, was readily approved by many 
 others ; and their discontent having attained its high- 
 est pitch, just at a time when other creatures of the 
 voracious kind were making petitions, they also 
 agreed to make a petition. The difficulty was, how 
 to put a good face upon the business. For as doors 
 are affixed to houses, and porters are stationed on 
 purpose to keep out ill-designing people, to take off 
 the door by a deliberate act, would argue an inten- 
 tion of letting them in. This difficulty, however, 
 did not stop their proceedings. They knew some 
 would overlook it ; and others, who were no friends 
 to the family, would pay little regard to it ; so it was 
 at length voted, that the following reasons for making 
 a petition should be submitted to the consideration 
 of the family. 
 
 1st, That they apprehend rats have an instinct 
 proper to themselves, which no power can deprive 
 them of ; and, consequently, that they have a natural 
 right to follow it as far as they are able, in opposition 
 to the tyranny of man. Why else was it given ? 
 
 2dly, That the door they wish to see removed is very 
 ill made, very old fashioned, the work of an ignorant 
 carpenter, who knew nothing of modern mechanics ; 
 
398 
 
 FABLE OF THE RATS. 
 
 and that if doors are necessary (as they are persuaded 
 in their consciences they are not) they could make 
 better themselves. That modest people, seeing the 
 door shut, are shy of coming near the house — that the 
 best friends of the family are thereby kept at a dis- 
 tance, and the interest of the master thereby very 
 greatly hurt — That the nature of rats is now much 
 better understood than formerly — That men and rats 
 are growing every day more and more like one ano- 
 ther — That there have been two or three men of 
 very great fame, who are known to have kept the 
 tail of a rat privately in their snuff-boxes to smell to. 
 That so long as the door keeps its place, they are 
 under the necessity of eating their way through it, 
 or of creeping through the hole made heretofore by 
 their progenitors — That so long as they are obliged 
 to act like vermin, they are liable to be reproached 
 with the name of vermin by the most worthless mem- 
 bers of the family, the professed adversaries of hones- 
 ty and liberality — That the hospitality of the house 
 is every where ill-spoken of, on account of the de- 
 structive practice of keeping up the door, and set- 
 ting a porter at it — That weasels, polecats, foxes, and 
 other like useful creatures, who are now obliged to 
 follow the disreputable practice of catching poultry 
 in the out-houses, would be invited to become do- 
 mestic animals, and tender their services to the family, 
 according to their several persuasions. 
 
 3dly, That as the property of the family is already 
 secured by the laws, and the penalties annexed to 
 them, the door is superfluous ; it being agreed in every 
 well-ordered community, that it is better to punish an 
 evil than to prevent it. That as there is no danger to 
 be apprehended from any one species of animals ex- 
 cept cats; some of the servants of the house having 
 
FABLE OF THE RATS. 
 
 399 
 
 been terribly scratched by them formerly, and the 
 children bitten by a mad she-cat, who kept the whole 
 family in fear for some time ; they are ready to express 
 their abhorrence of the teeth and claws of cats, and 
 to give repeated assurance, as often as they shall be 
 called upon, that they wish to see the whole genera- 
 tion of cats extinct. 
 
 It maybe objected to this application, that we ought 
 to have waited for the concurrence of the servants 
 who are our superiors in the house. To which we 
 answer ; that the grievance of being obliged to eat a 
 way through the door, and subjected to the reproach 
 of so doing, is no grievance of theirs, but peculiar to 
 ourselves in our present unhappy condition. And we 
 think proper to declare, that we have actually held no 
 consultation with our friends in the out-houses ; that 
 we have not the least connection with them, and that 
 we have no hope of assistance from any other class 
 of discontented petitioners— That nothing has moved 
 us to appear in this cause but a sense of duty, a love 
 of liberty, and a strict regard to the honour of the 
 family; in which we hope to remain with indulgence 
 and reputation, till our own private sentiments shall 
 get the better of all human prejudices, and our spirit 
 and manners become universal. 
 
 Ratchestee, Nov. 27, 1771. 
 
THB 
 
 LEARNING OF THE BEASTS. 
 A FABLE. 
 
 FOR THE YEAR 1795. 
 
 The Lion, as king of the forest, issued a proclama- 
 tion, requiring beasts of every kind to assemble on a 
 certain day, and give him an account of their several 
 opinions and discoveries : " For," said he, " I wish to 
 know better than my ancestors seem to have done, the 
 temper of my subjects and the degree of proficiency 
 to which the capacity of beasts will carry them. That 
 some may not be afraid of others, I shall issue a noli 
 prosequi to all beasts of prey ; and I promise a safe 
 conduct to all such as are defenceless, that they may 
 be under no fear of attending the assembly. All crea- 
 tures will be required to speak their minds without re- 
 serve, for no advantage will be taken of what they shall 
 think proper to say. And it is expected that every 
 tribe will depute some individual that will speak with 
 ability, and is the best informed of his kind." 
 
 On the day appointed the assembly met, and were 
 disposed into a circle by the Jackall. The Tyger 
 began : 
 
 " An't please your Majesty, I hold my rank as a 
 beast of prey, and I perceive that the state of nature is 
 
A FABLE. 
 
 401 
 
 a state of war ; for how are tygers to subsist but by 
 making war upon other beasts ? If there were to be a 
 peace, what must tygers do ? Of the arts of peace they 
 know nothing ; they can make no bread, they can drink 
 no milk ; their bread is flesh, and their drink is blood. 
 The teeth of a tyger and his claws are offensive wea- 
 pons ; they were made to be used, and their use is in 
 tearing and destroying other creatures ; and nature 
 being the sovereign law by which we are directed, 
 there can be no harm in acting up to it. T therefore 
 kill and slay without remorse, and I think myself 
 placed in a very honourable station. Let the ass 
 carry burdens, let the ox draw the plough, let the 
 horse be whipped and driven ; I live like a beast of 
 arms, upon plunder : and if tygers were to go in droves, 
 they would drive the world before them ; and all in- 
 ferior creatures would soon be put into a state of re- 
 quisition, to be devoured at our pleasure." Here 
 some of the tame beasts that were present looked very 
 uneasy, and the lion in consequence desired he would 
 carry the subject no farther ; so the wolf was ordered 
 to speak next. 
 
 " Sir," said he, addressing himself to the Lion, 
 'f my honourable friend the Tyger delivered some very 
 noble sentiments, in which I perfectly agree with him. 
 He observed, that if tygers w ere to associate together 
 they would drive the world. That is the case with us 
 wolves ; we go in gangs, and when we are in great 
 want we can attack a whole village : and we hold, that 
 whatever we can catch and overpower we have a right 
 to seize and feed upon. We find the night more con- 
 venient for our purposes than the day, and think it 
 was made chiefly for our use. The sun may be ad- 
 mired for his brightness, but he is of much less value 
 to us than the moon. We argue that power and right 
 
 vol. vi. D d 
 
402 
 
 LEARNING OF THE BEASTS. 
 
 are the same thing; and that nature intended we 
 should exercise what power we have. Why else was it 
 given ? Exclusive property we utterly declare against : 
 every beast ought to have as much as he can get, and 
 to make his appetites the measure of his conduct. 
 The law of terror is the only law that cannot be con- 
 tradicted : and if every wolf in the world were to be 
 consulted, your Majesty would find them invariably 
 of my opinion. I am no orator, my temper is rough, 
 and my reasons are short ; and having great expec- 
 tation from the shining abilities of the fox, I beg to be 
 excused from proceeding any farther." 
 
 The Fox was then desired to speak, who began as 
 follows : — " I am not a beast of such power as the 
 wolf or the tyger. In the use of power I am exactly 
 of their mind; but it is my way to effect my purposes 
 by policy and cunning ; and I can prove the world to 
 be my own, by a set of principles which I have long 
 studied. I allow your Majesty," addressing himself 
 to the lion, " to be a king in fact ; but I hold, that all 
 beasts are members of one great and indivisible re- 
 public ; and that there is by right of nature as much 
 majesty in a fox as in a lion. My father was brought 
 up under a fox who was a profound politician, 
 and began to teach me while I was a cub, that 
 power is inherent in beasts of every kind ; and that 
 there was a time, when they all met together and made 
 a lion amongst them by contribution. One gave him 
 his shaggy mane, another gave him a tooth, and an- 
 other a claw, while others gave him his nerves and his 
 sinews. What they thus gave they have a right to re- 
 sume, should the lion be found to exercise his au- 
 thority improperly : and they themselves are judges of 
 the occasion when this happens." He added, " that 
 his theory was greatly to the honour of the lion, because 
 
A FABLE. 
 
 403 
 
 it was better that he should reign by the kindness of 
 his subjects than by conquest, or by any right and title 
 of his own : and that the idea of the latter was so hate- 
 ful to every beast of sense and spirit, that if there 
 should be found an individual in the brute creation 
 who should be of a different opinion, the foxes had 
 agreed together to chase him out of society, or accuse 
 him to the lion as a traitor against the natural rights of 
 the brute creation. As the Lion had proclaimed 
 liberty of speech (the birth-right of foxes,) he would 
 proceed so far as to say that there was a scheme in 
 agitation among the wolves, to extinguish the regal 
 character in the lion, and revive it in jack-asses and 
 all other beasts of the lower order ; that he had a fa- 
 vourable opinion of the scheme, though it was not yet 
 quite ripe ; and he hoped to see the time when foxes 
 should send and receive ambassadors instead of the 
 lion ; in which case, he would graciously condescend 
 to give them his tail to kiss." — Here a dog, who was in 
 the assembly, and had been brought up under a 
 good master, began to growl, and could hardly keep 
 himself from falling upon Mr. Reynard ; but knowing 
 it was not permitted, he remained quiet till his own 
 turn should come. " I deny," continued the fox, 
 " that there is any such thing as property. He that 
 breeds poultry has no more right to the profit of them 
 on that consideration than I have : and he that plants 
 a vine has no right to the grapes, if I can get at them 
 before they are gathered. The lord of the manor may 
 think to preserve his game ; but I take rabbits, hares 
 and pheasants, without asking his leave, and carry 
 them to my cubs, who are brought up to the same way 
 of getting their livelihood. I tell them, as soon as 
 they can understand, that there is but one great bless- 
 ing in life, which is liberty, and I mean a fox's liberty ; 
 d d 2 
 
404 
 
 LEARNING OF THE BEASTS. 
 
 that they had better not exist than be deprived of it ; 
 that it is inherent in foxes and inalienable ; that it is 
 absolute slavery to be deprived of it ; and accordingly, 
 that the alternative to all foxes is, either to be free, 
 or bound with a chain : there is no medium. Foxes 
 therefore maintain, that all creatures are born free 
 and equal ; and I make it out thus : they are either 
 born free and equal, or they ai-e born slaves ; but they 
 are not born slaves (for what fox was ever born with 
 a chain on ?) therefore they are born free and equal. 
 There is indeed no such thing as slavery in the world ; 
 the very sound of it makes my blood run cold. I 
 never made a slave, not even of a goose ; I love to 
 see them free upon a common, or cackling upon the 
 sea-shore, better than in a farmer's yard ; where the 
 barking of a great dog, in the night when I go my 
 rounds, is a detestable noise ; and the keeping of dogs 
 is a wicked invention, a base encroachment upon 
 common rights. The dog is a sycophant, who neither 
 eats geese himself, nor will permit me to do it. I love 
 a wild dog, and I am a sort of dog myself ; but your 
 mean-spirited rascals, that confine themselves to a 
 yard, are my aversion."— Here the lion observed, that 
 the fox was ingenious and entertaining ; but, as rights 
 were common, other beasts would expect their turn, 
 so he ordered the jackall to speak. 
 
 " As for me," says the jackall, " I am ready to obey 
 your Majesty "s command ; but I have no opinion of 
 my own ; I recommend myself at court, by falling into 
 the opinions of the time, and of those persons who 
 may be supposed to know more than I do. I have 
 but little force, and not so much policy as my brother, 
 the fox. I believe that the lion has royalty by birth 
 and inheritance, if it is the fashion to believe it ; or, 
 that there is no true scheme of government but that 
 
A FABLE. 
 
 405 
 
 of the fox, founded on liberty and equality ; and that 
 the lion has no real and sensible friends but those 
 that derive his power from rats and other beasts, even 
 the lowest of vermin. To be plain, I believe nothing 
 at all; but I say something, because other beasts do. 
 My object is to live in ease and plenty; and if I have 
 the picking of such bones as your Majesty is pleased 
 to leave half eaten, it is all I desire; and you will find 
 me on all occasions obsequious to your will." — " We 
 shall not learn much from you," said the lion ; " bid 
 the ox come forward." 
 
 " Your Majesty," said the Ox, " has heard many 
 sentiments, subtle and ingenious, on power, liberty, 
 and right; things about which I never gave myself 
 any trouble. Of power I have none ; of liberty I de- 
 sire none; and as to right, I hold that there is no right 
 but from justice, labour, and honesty. I am content 
 to work ; my neck was made for the yoke ; I am well 
 defended from the weather ; and I fare better at the 
 rack and in the pasture, than if I were to provide for 
 myself by any wits of my own. My life would be in- 
 supportable to a tyger ; but it is nothing to me, be- 
 cause I have an easy, patient temper, which finds no 
 faults, and is not galled and fretted, as the spirit of a 
 wild beast would be with my work. Happiness and 
 misery are chiefly in the mind : it is no mortification to 
 me that I do not eat blood ; it is no confinement to me 
 that I cannot prowl about like the wolf, nor spend my 
 nightsabroad in doing mischief to other creatures, like 
 the fox. When the labour of the day is over, I return 
 to my stall, with more pleasure than the tyger to his 
 den with his paunch full of blood ; I like hay and 
 straw better; and I think I have a happier life on the 
 whole in servitude than I should lead if I were wild on 
 the plains, under continual dread from wolves and 
 
406 
 
 LEARNING OF THE BEASTS. 
 
 tygers. My station in the world is nearest to that of 
 the farmer, who is one of the most useful members 
 of society ; and if he minds his business, and keeps 
 himself sober, is like me free from ambition and cor- 
 ruption." — " Honest friend," said the lion, " I admire 
 thy simplicity and integrity ; and if I were not a lion, 
 I would choose to be an ox. But let us hear now 
 what the swine has to say." 
 
 " You cannot expect much from me," said the Hog, 
 " who never studied any thing but myself. I have but 
 one maxim, Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we 
 die. I aspire to nothing but self-indulgence ; and if 
 I have any torment in my mind, it is from the appre- 
 hension of being under a state of compulsion. I hate 
 all government, and am incapable of being under di- 
 rection. As soon as I find which way they are driving 
 me, I go the other way ; and if I were to be harnessed, 
 and put into a carriage, I would save myself the trou- 
 ble of drawing the load, by pushing it backwards. I 
 wish they would plant afield with potatoes, and turn in 
 hogs to root them up at the present season ; it would 
 save the trouble of ploughing the land, and be a great 
 improvement in modern agriculture. If there is an 
 island, where the earth produces roots without tillage, 
 and there are no inhabitants but swine, there would I 
 live ; it would be a pig's paradise. So far as I am ca- 
 pable of thinking, I see no sense in any scheme but 
 that of the fox, universal liberty and no property ; for it 
 is my opinion that every place is free if I can break 
 into it, and that every thing I find there is my own if I 
 can get it. I never did any work in my life but once, 
 when they made me tread mortar under the lash of the 
 cart-whip; but I took care to spoil it so much with my 
 dung, that they never employed me any more. As I 
 am bred for nothing but my flesh and my blood, I 
 
A FABLE. 
 
 407 
 
 know my life is short, and so I make the most of the 
 present moment. Now you have heard my princi- 
 ples, I have nothing farther to say." 
 
 The Lion then required the Dog to speak, and 
 bade him take courage; that he believed him to be an 
 honest fellow, and expected to hear something useful 
 from him. " Sir," said the dog, " your Majesty can 
 form no judgment of a dog's character from the 
 animals of our species, who are wild in the state of 
 nature — a poor uninformed rabble. It is of the 
 greatest advantage to us, that we receive our educa- 
 tion under man, which makes us what we are, and has 
 given rise to all the stories which do honour to our 
 character. They say, dogs are by nature impudent; 
 but our education has produced that awe and reverence 
 toward our superiors, which has wholly altered our 
 character. By living under man, I am taught the 
 value of order and obedience; and that one educated 
 dog is worth an hundred wild ones. I find it no hard- 
 ship to follow my master, and hunt as he orders me ; 
 it is the pleasure of my life, and I am well fed for what 
 I do. When I heard the villainous principles of that 
 rascal the fox, I could scarcely refrain from tearing 
 him to pieces. He receive ambassadors ! and expect 
 his tail to be kissed ! That can never be till my master 
 and all other men are eaten up by the wolves. He 
 loves liberty ; so do all thieves ; and they have the 
 merit of hating all laws as much as he does. I assert 
 property; I am kept for the guard of it; and I live by 
 partaking of it in common with those to whom it be- 
 longs : I would rather lose my life in defence of it, 
 than go sneaking about in the night, as that fellow 
 does, to steal it: but he often meets with his deserts; 
 cunning as he is, he lights upon a trap that bites 
 sharper than he does ; and I am delighted when I see a 
 11 
 
408 
 
 LEARNING OF THE BEASTS. 
 
 wall covered with the scalps of foxes, whom the dogs 
 have killeu ; and I hope it will not be long before I see 
 his head in the same place. The tyger is under a great 
 mistake in supposing there is no law but that of force : 
 it may be the law of tygers; but the law of justice and 
 of self-defence is the law of men and dogs; and a tyger 
 is justly killed when he invades the life or property of 
 man ; nay, he is killed wherever he is met, because it is 
 known that his violence is incorrigible. It has, how- 
 ever, the good effect of driving men into society, that 
 their united strength may defend them against wild 
 beasts : and I myself as well as the rest of my species, 
 should be in continual danger, if we were not retained 
 as assistants to mankind. I am therefore faithful to 
 my master; he and I have one interest; and that rascal- 
 ly fox shall never corrupt my mind with his doctrine 
 of liberty, which if it were put in practice, I can fore- 
 see, that we dogs should fight and tear one another to 
 pieces. While we are under man, nothing can hurt 
 us but a want of fidelity, of which we are seldom guilty. 
 Your Majesty will recollect that it has fallen in my 
 way to hear many things, of wbich other beasts hear 
 nothing ; while I have been laying by the fire-side, and 
 seemed to take no notice, I have overheard such things 
 as never came to the ears of your Majesty; but I will 
 trouble you with only one observation, in which the 
 honour of dogs is nearly concerned. Suppose there 
 were thieves besetting a house, to rob and murder the 
 family; and suppose the master of it, to defend his 
 wife and children, should present his gun at the thieves, 
 and be just going to fire ; when the house-dog, instead 
 of barking at the common enemy, comes behind his 
 master, and bites his heels ; would not that dog be a 
 traitor, and deserve to be hanged ? or to have a spit 
 run through his body from his mouth to his tail ? — he 
 
A FABLE. 
 
 409 
 
 would certainly. But, a'nt please your Majesty, there 
 is no such dog; it is not in the nature of dogs to be so 
 unfaithful. This is a sort of wickedness to be found 
 only among our superiors of the human race. When 
 a king is in danger from foreign enemies, who come 
 to plunder and destroy, some men shall be found who 
 come behind his heels, to bite him while he is de- 
 fending himself; and instead of barking at the rogues, 
 keep up a constant yelp against their master and all 
 his friends. And if instead of being trod upon as 
 vipers, they should not only escape, but receive ac- 
 clamations, your Majesty will then see that, however 
 dogs and other beasts may be complained of, and 
 avoided, the greatest of rogues and the greatest of 
 fools are to be sought for among the human species. 
 Thank heaven, I was not born to be the dog of any 
 of them ! and I pity every poor cur whose fate it is 
 to fall into the hands of such masters. I would 
 rather die than be in their condition." 
 
 The Lion thanked the dog for his communication ; 
 it was such as he had never heard nor thought of ; 
 and he would have been glad to hear more, but time 
 was wearing away, and many of the beasts had far to 
 go: he must therefore call upon the sheep, who began 
 thus : 
 
 " I am a plain simple animal, Sir, who have neither 
 the cunning of the fox, nor the sagacity of the dog, 
 and can speak only of such things as occur in my own 
 way of life. I heard with patience what was said by 
 animals of greater parts, who perhaps may find many 
 admirers ; I have nothing but plain truth to advance 
 on the other side. The fox may be wise ; but I think 
 the badness of his heart has got the better of his wits. 
 It is not my opinion that we beasts, as he says, ever 
 made a lion amongst us. I can as soon believe that 
 
410 
 
 LEARNING OF THE BEASTS. 
 
 my fleece was borrowed from a bear, or that the shep- 
 herd's staff was made of one of my shanks : I know 
 that if I were to try to make a lion, he would be so 
 like a sheep at last that the difference would not be 
 known. How can I arm his mouth, who have no teeth 
 upon my upper jaw ? How can I give him a courageous 
 heart, who take to my heels at the barking of a lap- 
 dog ? And as for generosity and magnanimity of tem- 
 per, let the fox consider whether he can furnish it 
 out of his own stock, who comes sneaking in the dark 
 to a hen-roost, and never spared a poor chicken in all 
 his life ? My lambs have been often in danger from 
 him and his elder brother the wolf, and would have 
 suffered death and dilaceration if it had not been for 
 the shepherd and his dog ; neither should I myself 
 have grown up to be, as I have been, the mother of 
 ten lambs, as white as a lily. Plain fact is my rule ; I 
 never trust to my own thoughts, like beasts of the 
 higher order ; and therefore I content myself with the 
 ordinary blessings of my situation, under a shepherd 
 who will not see me abused. But woe be unto me 
 when the government of man shall cease, and that of 
 the most worthless of beasts shall rise up in its place ! 
 I know I must die and so must all creatures ; but I 
 have a better lot than some of those who despise me : 
 the profit of a fleece yearly saves the life of a sheep, 
 which does not save the life of a swine ; and it is better 
 at last to die under the hand of man than to lie in a 
 wood, as the fox does, howling and biting an iron trap, 
 which has catched him by the leg as he was running 
 after a pheasant. I never suffer thus : when a maggot 
 finds its way into my back, the crook catches me by 
 the leg, and I am dressed for the sore : my shepherd 
 even breaks the teeth of his dog, that he may not be 
 able to tear my skin. And now, sir, I should have rea- 
 
A FABLE. 
 
 411 
 
 son to be afraid of many who are in this assembly, but 
 that your Majesty has taken me under your protection, 
 and will provide that I am conducted safe home. 
 The dog spoke with so much goodness and honesty, 
 that I think I can trust myself in his company." 
 The Lion then spoke for himself: 
 
 " BEASTS OF EVERY KIND, 
 
 " I commend the loyalty and respect which my 
 subjects have shown to the proclamation I issued for 
 their benefit and my own satisfaction. What has 
 passed upon this occasion may be of use to us all in 
 the recollection ; and I think it highly proper that 
 the memory of it should be preserved in some public 
 record." 
 
 " An't please your Majesty," said the Monkey, 
 who had never been called upon to speak, " I will 
 write a review ; in which the company shall have an 
 exact account of the whole ; for which purpose I 
 have been taking notes all the while : it is a great 
 charge I take upon me, and in these days I have 
 many competitors who are catching at the favour 
 of the public ; but I shall not be behind the best of 
 them all. The task I know cannot be executed 
 without the greatest candour and liberality, that the 
 public may be acquainted with the real worth of 
 every production ; that modest merit may be en- 
 couraged and brought forward ; falsehood and igno- 
 rance exposed ; and learning and science fixed upon 
 their true basis; which will be such an advantage 
 to the beasts of this age, as they never enjoyed 
 before. 
 
 " I begin with the question, whether your Majesty 
 had power to issue the proclamation, in virtue of 
 which we have all attended this day ? and I think 
 it should be put to the vote whether the jackall, who 
 
412 
 
 LEARNING OF THE BEASTS. 
 
 acted under you, ought not to be called to an ac- 
 count for it. 
 
 " Of the tyger I say, We are happy to introduce 
 an author so respectable for his rank and abilities to 
 the notice of the public, and hope one day or other 
 to meet him again, and be better acquainted with him. 
 His sentiments are fine, and distinguish the supe- 
 riority of his taste and understanding. The rights 
 of nature are not to be controverted ; and he has as- 
 serted what we think extremely probable, that the 
 state of nature is a state of war ; that power is to be 
 used by those that have it ; and that every beast may 
 have it, if he can get it. The equality of all creatures 
 is a valuable doctrine. That the ass should be equal 
 to the lion ! wonderful ! (I'll let my cubs know this 
 as soon as I get home.) 
 
 " As to the wolf ; wolves we know are under a bad 
 name, and there are such things as wolves in sheep's 
 clothing; but the wolf of this assembly speaks out very 
 fairly and plainly, and we cannot but in justice com- 
 mend the goodness of his intention. To be sure it was 
 rather bold to say the night is better than the day ; 
 but some indulgence is always due to the prejudices 
 of education. That his appetite should be the mea- 
 sure of his conduct ; there we cannot quite agree 
 with him, because it may so happen that his appetite 
 may hunger after a monkey ; and yet if there is a tree 
 at hand, we have little to be afraid of. 
 
 " The fox has fully satisfied us in the opinion we 
 had formed of his great understanding ; his method of 
 making a lion out of the limbs and faculties of inferior 
 creatures is extremely ingenious, though it is not 
 quite new ; we have met with it before from an old 
 monkey, whose father had been a tame monkey to an 
 English traveller, but escaped to the woods in the 
 
A FABLE. 
 
 413 
 
 night. That such a sentiment should be hazarded in 
 the presence of the lion is a little extraordinary, but it 
 is a happy proof that the age is an age of liberty ; and 
 he hoped never to see the day when foxes and monkeys 
 should be afraid to speak their minds. From the ut- 
 most liberties of this kind, the lion had nothing to fear 
 in respect of his government. It had indeed been 
 reported, that the wolves were about to assemble in a 
 body, and join with the tygers in an attempt to take 
 his crown from him ; but the alarm was found to be 
 totally without foundation, all raised by the jackall to 
 increase the power of his Majesty's ministers. It would 
 give us pleasure to see the subject of the slave-trade 
 handled by this ingenious author, whose liberal way 
 of thinking, and acute manner of reasoning could not 
 fail to set that matter in a proper light. His wishing 
 to see all geese loose upon a common, is a demonstra- 
 tion of the goodness of his heart. 
 
 " In the jackall, the courtliness of his humour, and 
 the wickedness of his designs, constitute him a true 
 pattern of all ministers ; and his character is so well 
 known that nothing farther need be said of him, but 
 that he is a scoundrel of a bone-picker, a fit instru- 
 ment of tyranny and taxation. 
 
 " From the ox what can we expect but heaviness 
 and dulness ? We are extremely sorry to see such 
 principles as his in this age of illumination ; mere 
 old-fashioned stuff, fit only for the days of ghostly 
 ignorance : we rather take him to be a methodist 
 with horns on. What an abject beast, to desire no 
 liberty ! Poor creature, he has been brought up in 
 obscurity, and has heard nothing of the late improve- 
 ments. We would advise him to consider in time 
 that nature never designed him for an author, and 
 that he is quite out of his element ; — optat ephippia 
 
414 
 
 LEARNING OF THE BEASTS. 
 
 bos — we never wish to meet this gentleman any more 
 in public. 
 
 " To the hog Ave are disposed to do as much justice 
 as possible, but really his principles are too bad to be 
 openly avowed, and it might have been better if he had 
 kept them to himself. The true critic should preserve 
 an inviolable neutrality, and therefore we do not pro- 
 nounce that his principles are absolutely wrong in 
 themselves, but we cannot proceed so far as to answer 
 his wishes in recommending them to the world. 
 
 " The dog does not want sense, and is to be ad- 
 mired for some of his qualities, particularly that of 
 playing about like a monkey when he is a puppy ; but 
 we are afraid his notions have a little tincture of pas- 
 sive obedience, which ought not to be encouraged. 
 The language he uses towards the fox is such as no 
 gentleman should use towards another, and we rather 
 suspect that he is the dog of some tory master. If the 
 story he tells of men biting the heels of government 
 be really true (but we are inclined to think it a minis- 
 terial fabrication), it was improper to tell it ; as it 
 may tend, in the eyes of bigotted ignorant people, to 
 lessen freedom of speech in some great assemblies ; 
 and a few more such stories might expose mankind to 
 the contempt of the brute creation. 
 
 " The sheep is, as we should expect, a poor silly 
 animal, who knows little of the world, and is below 
 the spirit of true enquiry. What an argument ! that 
 because it may be good for sheep to be under a shep- 
 herd, it is therefore good for all creatures to be under 
 authority. Are monkeys, the free inhabitants of the 
 woods, to be owned like a flock of sheep ? A fine 
 sight indeed ! to see them driven bare a — d into a 
 fold, to lay their tails upon a turnip-ground. But the 
 sheep did not see far enough to be aware of this ab- 
 
A FABLE. 
 
 415 
 
 surdity ; and we suppose she would have wolves un- 
 der a shepherd too. We must be so candid indeed 
 as to allow, that she does not positively affirm this ; 
 but we shrewdly suspect it was intended : and then 
 the wolves must first apply to a felt-monger to provide 
 themselves with sheep skins : thus we should reform 
 backwards with a witness. But enough of this un- 
 interesting and unentertaining performance. 
 
 " I have now surveyed the whole, and expect your 
 Majesty's approbation. If your highness should be 
 pleased to convene, or the friends of liberty should 
 convene for themselves, in virtue of a prior right, an 
 assembly of this kind once a month, I shall then be 
 ready to write a Monthly Review." 
 
On Monday, September 30, 1771, will be published, 
 (To be continued Monthly) 
 A NEW WORK, ENTITLED 
 
 THE CANDID REVIEW, 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 A FAIR AND IMPARTIAL ACCOUNT OF ALL WORKS OF DIVINITY 
 AND LITERATURE. 
 
 BY A SOCIETY OF JEWS. 
 
 The Editors of this work hope for a preference to 
 other periodical publishers on the following consider- 
 ations. 
 
 1 . As they belong to no party of men who call them- 
 selves Christians, neither to the Socinians, Avians, 
 Quakers, nor Cameronians, they are less interested 
 against the doctrines of the established church, than 
 those who have some private system to contend for. 
 They are sensible that the scheme of establishing Ju- 
 daism in England would be absurd and desperate ; 
 therefore they shall make no advances toward it, but 
 suffer the evidences of the Christian doctrines to stand 
 as they are represented in the works of the learned. 
 
 2. As no Jew is in any danger of being called upon 
 to subscribe the articles of the Church of England, no 
 invidious remarks need be expected against that ar- 
 ticle of the present discipline. If the reasonings of 
 any writer on the side of the church should be un- 
 answerable, and the objections of the other part weak 
 
THE CANDID REVIEW. 
 
 417 
 
 and frivolous, their language insolent and clamorous, 
 this is nothing to us ; and therefore we shall have no 
 temptation to depart from our impartiality. 
 
 3. As we shall never use any Christian liturgy, we 
 shall not think it necessary to extol such pamphlets 
 as recommend alterations in the Liturgy of the 
 Church of England. 
 
 4. As we are known to he very sincere believers of 
 the Old Testament, there will be no reason to sus- 
 pect us of recommending Deism in opposition to 
 Moses and the prophets. 
 
 We might insist on many other advantages, which 
 fairly intitle us to the first place in the esteem of the 
 public : but we think these are sufficient to recom- 
 mend our projected Review to all such readers as 
 have any concern for the interest of Revelation in 
 genera], and the faith of the Church of England in 
 particular. 
 
 Printing- Office in Duke s-place, 
 July 19, 1771. 
 
 VOL. VI. 
 
THE MORAL CHARACTER 
 
 OF 
 
 THE MONKEY. 
 
 A gentleman, whose premises were infested by a 
 large breed of sparrows, said tbey were birds of no 
 principle. Of all monkies it may be said, with much 
 more propriety, that they are beasts of no principle ; 
 for they have every evil quality, and not one good one. 
 They are saucy and insolent; always making an at- 
 tempt to bully and terrify people; and biting those 
 first who are most afraid of them. An impertinent 
 curiosity runs through all their actions. They never 
 can let things alone, but must know what is going 
 forward. If a pot or a kettle is set upon the fire, and 
 the cook turns her back, the monkey whips off the 
 cover to see what she has put into it ; even though 
 he cannot get at it without setting his feet upon the 
 hot bars of the grate. 
 
 Mimickry is another of the monkey's qualities. 
 Whatever he sees men do, he must affect to do the 
 like himself. He seems to have no rule of his own, 
 and so is ruled by the actions of men or beasts ; as 
 weak people follow the fashion of the world, whether 
 it be good or bad. 
 
 With regard to its offspring, the monkey hath little 
 more than the foolish part of parental affection. The 
 mother often dandles her young one till she has stifled 
 11 
 
TIIE MORAL CHARACTER OF THE MONKET. 419 
 
 it, ox' wearied it out of its life ; and holds out her ugly 
 brat for every body to see and admire it ; as if, for 
 its beauty, it were the wonder of the animal creation. 
 
 No monkey has any sense of gratitude, (ingratum 
 qui clixerit, omnia dixit,) but takes his victuals with 
 a snatch, and then grins in the face of the person that 
 gives it him, lest he should take it away again : for 
 he supposes that all men will snatch away what they 
 can lay hold of, as all monkies do. 
 
 Through an invincible selfishness, no monkey con- 
 siders any individual but himself, as the poor cat 
 found to her cost, when the monkey burned her paws 
 with raking his chesnuts out of the fire. They can 
 never eat together without quarrelling and plundering 
 one another. As the Poet said of mankind in the 
 state of nature — vivitur ex rapto — so are all Monkies 
 possessed by a spirit of rapine : and are as cunning 
 in contriving a theft, as they are nimble and dexterous 
 in the performance. 
 
 Every monkey delights in mischief, and cannot help 
 doing it when it is in his power. If any thing he 
 takes hold of can be broken or spoiled, he is sure to 
 find the way of doing it : and he chatters with plea- 
 sure when he hears the noise of a China vessel 
 smashed to pieces upon the pavement. If he takes 
 up a bottle of ink, he empties it upon the floor. He 
 turns your sand-box upside down, or sifts it into the 
 ink-horn. He unfolds all your papers, and scatters 
 them about the room ; and what he cannot undo he 
 tears to pieces : and it is wonderful to see how much 
 of this work he will do in a few minutes when he 
 happens to get loose. 
 
 Though a monkey has never been considered as a 
 fit subject for a Biographer, yet tradition has preserved 
 the history of some of their exploits, which are curious 
 e e 2 
 
120 THE MOHAL CHARACTER OF THE MONKEY. 
 
 and characteristic : but the event is generally unfor- 
 tunate. Every body has heard of the monkey, whose 
 curiosity led him to the mouth of a cannon to see how 
 it went off'; when he paid for his peeping with the loss 
 of his head. In a ship where a relation of mine was 
 an officer, while the men were busy in fetching powder 
 from below, and making cartridges, a monkey on board 
 took up a lighted candle, and ran down to the powder- 
 room to see what they were about: but was happily 
 overtaken just as he got to the lanthorn, and thrown 
 out at the nearest port-hole into the sea with the lighted 
 candle in his hand. Another lost his life by the spirit 
 of mimickry. He had seen his master shaving his own 
 face : and at the first opportunity took up the razor 
 to shave himself, and made shift to cut his throat. 
 
 When the wild monkies have escaped to the top of 
 the trees, the people below who want to catch them 
 shew them the use of gloves, by putting them on and 
 pulling them off repeatedly ; and when the monkies 
 are supposed to have taken the hint, they leave plenty 
 of gloves upon the ground, having first lined them with 
 pitch. The monkies come down, put on the gloves, 
 but cannot pull them off again* ; and when they are 
 surprised and betake themselves to the trees as usual, 
 they slide backwards upon their hams and are taken. 
 
 A monkey who had seen his mistress upon her pil- 
 low in a night-cap, which at her rising she pulled off 
 and hung upon a chair, puts on the cap, lays his head 
 upon the pillow, and by personating the lady made 
 himself ten times more frightful and ridiculous ; as 
 awkward people do, when they ape their superiors, 
 and affect a fashion which is above their sphere. 
 
 Another ran away with a basket of live partridges, 
 and when he was pursued, escaped to the top of the 
 house ; where he managed the lid of the basket in such 
 
THE MORAL CHARACTER OF THE MONKEY. 421 
 
 a dexterous manner as to let the birds fly off by one 
 at a time. When they were all gone, he got into the 
 basket himself; but the basket falling with him be- 
 fore he had time to do as the partridges did, his 
 bones were broken when he came to the ground. 
 
 A mischievous disposition is always inclined to 
 persecution. There are minds, whose greatest plea- 
 sure it is to ride and teaze and whip the minds of 
 other people. A late friend and neighbour of mine 
 in the country kept a monkey, who took to riding 
 his hogs, especially one of them, which he commonly 
 singled out as fittest for his use ; and leaping upon 
 its back with his face toward the tail, he whipped it 
 unmercifully upon the hind quarters, and drove it 
 about, till it could run no longer. The hogs lived 
 under such continual terrors of mind, that when the 
 monkey first came abroad in the morning, they used 
 to set up a great cry at the sight of him. Swine are 
 vile creatures for greediness and uncleanness, and so 
 stubborn withal, that when they take an opinion (as 
 
 the Quaker said of them) the d 1 cannot get it 
 
 out of their heads again ; but they are as far below 
 the monkey, as the stupid sot is below the sharper 
 and the ruffian : and even an hog, at the mercy of a 
 monkey, is an object of compassion. 
 
 A nobleman once well known upon the turf, had a 
 wild horse whom nobody could ride. I know not what 
 your lordship can do with him (said one) but to put 
 the monkey upon his back. So they put on a pad to 
 the horse, and set the monkey upon it with a switch 
 in his hand, which he used upon the horse, and set 
 him into a furious kicking and galloping : but Pug 
 kept his seat, and exercised his switch. The horse 
 lay down upon the ground; but when he threw him- 
 self on one side, the monkey was up upon the other : 
 
422 THE MORAL CHARACTER OF THE MONKEY. 
 
 he ran into a wood with him, to brush him off : but 
 if a tree or a bush occurred on one side the monkey 
 slipped to the other side : till at last the horse was 
 so sickened and fatigued and broken spirited, that he 
 ran home to the stable for protection: when the 
 monkey was removed, and a boy mounted him, who 
 managed the horse with care, and he never gave any 
 trouble afterwards. 
 
 In all the actions of the monkey, there is no ap- 
 pearance of any thing good or useful, nor any species 
 of evil that is wanting in them. They are indeed like 
 to mankind ; they can ride a pig as a man rides a 
 horse, or better, and are most excellent jockeys ; but 
 after all, they are only like the worst of the human 
 species, whom no education hath or can correct. If 
 all the qualities of the monkey are put together, they 
 constitute what is properly called ill-nature: and if 
 any person would know what an ill-natured man is, 
 he must find one who is artful, insolent, selfish, prag- 
 matical, rapacious, mischievous, and tyrannical : that 
 man is a monkey to all intents and purposes ; with the 
 addition of reason, which makes his character much 
 worse; and the loss of religion and conscience, which 
 is worst of all ; for without these reason is rather a 
 disadvantage; as no monkey can possibly be managed 
 but by being kept continually in fear, so all laws, re- 
 straints, and penalties, amongst mankind, are made 
 for those who are most like to monkies. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by R. Gilbert, St. John's Square, London.