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 throughout 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 author 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 interpretation, 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, 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 invites, 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 opinion 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 collating 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. Horne. He was shy of speaking 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. Horne 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 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 converted 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. Horne had no great affection, as thinking it could never be of much service: I mean that custom, which has prevailed since the days of Grotius, 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 acquaintance, 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... 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 corruption. Take the heathen doctrine of the origination of mankind, and compare it with the sacred history 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 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 together? Yet was this actually done by the learned Dr. Shuckford, as it may be seen in the last-written preface 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 illustrated 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 tempt of blasphemers and infidels. This abuse of learning Mr. Horne 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 ardent, 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 ridiculous 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 evidence 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. Horne and his friends. The candle, 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 understanding. How often do we see, that when men should be reformed, and are not, they are only provoked 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. Horne, according to an established custom at Magdalen College in Oxford, had begun to preach before the University, on the day of St. John the |
