Sacred to the Memory of The Right Reverend GEORGE HORNE, D. D. And late Bishop of this Diocese: In whose Character Depth of Learning, Brightness of Imagination, His Commentary on the Psalms will continue to be Till the Devotion of Earth shall end in the Hallelujahs of Heaven. Took its flight from this Vale of Misery, 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 ge-. nerally 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 written to that variety of judgment, 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 memory. A short life of him was written in the year 1793*, by the Rev. Mr. Todd, a clergyman of the 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 comparisons, 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 mistake, 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 censor to be a man who loves them not and though I have enlarged on many things much farther from my own knowlege, than it was possible or proper for Mr. Todd to do, I would nevertheless advise my * In a volume intitled Some Account of the Deans of Canterbury, &c. &c. by Henry John Todd, M. A. 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 occasion to the several pieces, which were written by Dr. Horne, at the different stages of his life. It has been hinted to me that Dr. Horne had embraced a sort of philosophy in the early part of his life, which he found reason to give up toward the latter 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 discover 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 nature, and the respective uses of the elements, or that he did not always admire, and so far as he thought it 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 premeditated compositions assert this in terms sufficiently plain and strong. In his Commentary On Commentary on the last Psalm he shows us what idea he had formed of the natural world. the words, Praise him in the firmament of his power, he has the following comment : "which 66 power is more especially displayed in the for"mation of the firmament, or expansion of the "material heavens, and their incessant opera❝tions by means of the light and the air, of "which they are composed, upon the earth "and all things therein. These are the ap 66 pointed 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 firma"ment of God's power in the new creation." In this passage it is the author's doctrine, that the firmament signifies the substance of the material heaven; 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 economy of grace by the divine light and spirit, the Son and Holy Ghost, as he acts in nature by the operation 6 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 philosophy 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 palpably 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 persuasion was once almost universal in this country, that matter is invested with attraction, repulsion, and gravitation, as immaterial principles: but this persuasion 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 satel VOL. XII. Р lite, |