Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/363

 Apology for certain Gentlemen in the University of Oxford, aspersed in a late anonymous pamphlet,’ 1756. The anonymous pamphlet was called ‘A Word to the Hutchinsonians.’  ‘Cautions to the Readers of Mr. Law, and, with very few varieties, to the Readers of Baron Swedenborg,’ 1758, to which was added ‘A Letter to a Lady on the subject of Jacob Behmen's Writings.’ Horne had been deeply impressed by the earlier writings of William Law, and he was proportionately grieved when he saw him ‘falling from the heaven of Christianity into the sink and complication of Paganism, Quakerism, and Socinianism, mixed up with chemistry and astrology by a possessed cobbler.’  ‘A View of Mr. Kennicott's Method of Correcting the Hebrew Text,’ 1760, adversely criticising the design of [q. v.] and some of his friends to collate the text of the Hebrew Bible with such manuscripts as could then be procured, in order to reform the text and prepare it for a new translation to be made from it into the English language. In spite of their differences Horne and Kennicott became firm friends, and lived at Oxford on terms of great intimacy.  ‘A Letter to Dr. Adam Smith’ (anon.), 1777, a humorous refutation of Smith's account of David Hume's life and death.  ‘Letters on Infidelity,’ 1784, addressed to ‘W. S., Esqr.,’ that is, no doubt, William Stevens, his cousin and life-long friend, the founder of ‘Nobody's Club,’ and treasurer of Queen Anne's Bounty. Several of these letters are on the same subject as the letter to Dr. Adam Smith, and the titles of the rest tell their own tales. A satirical vein runs through all these letters.  (with Jones of Nayland) ‘Answer to Dr. Clayton's Essay on Spirit.’ He purposed writing a ‘Defence of the Divinity of Christ’ against Dr. Priestley, but did not live to execute the task.

The work by which Horne still lives is  his ‘Commentary on the Psalms,’ 1771, 4to, which occupied him twenty years, and, as he tells us in his well-written preface, proved to him a most delightful occupation. The ‘Commentary’ is partly exegetical and partly devotional; it proceeds on the principle that most of the psalms are more or less Messianic, and cannot be properly understood except in relation to the Messiah. Dr. Richard Mant has transferred the preface almost en bloc to the pages of his annotated ‘Book of Common Prayer.’ Hannah More, of whom Horne was a great friend, was much attracted by its ‘sweet and devout spirit.’ Of a similar character is  his ‘Considerations on the Life and Death of St. John the Baptist,’ 1769, which was an expansion of a sermon preached by him on St. John the Baptist's day 1755 from the open-air pulpit in the quadrangle of Magdalen College. Horne had a great reputation as a preacher, and his earnest and scholarly sermons were frequently reprinted. He also wrote a few short fugitive pieces in verse, which are not remarkable in any way.



HORNE, JOHN (1614–1676), puritan divine, was born in 1614 at Long Sutton in Lincolnshire, and was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge. After taking holy orders he was appointed to the living of Sutton St. James in Lincolnshire, and in 1647 was beneficed at All Hallows, Lynn Regis, Norfolk. Calamy (Continuation of Baxter, p. 634) says that he also held a living at Bolingbrook, Lincolnshire, and adds that he was not beneficed out of Lincolnshire at all; but Palmer (Nonconformist's Memorial, iii. 5) thinks that he was ejected from Lynn in 1662, and that he lived in that town until his death, a statement which is borne out by his publication of a sermon entitled ‘A Farewell to his Neighbours, the Parishioners of Lynn,’ n.d. His religious views were Arminian. His contemporaries state that he was ‘excellently skilled in Oriental languages.’ After his ejection he was accustomed to preach three times every Sunday in his own house, and to expound the Scriptures twice a day to any person who cared to attend. His piety and charity won him universal esteem. He died, apparently at Lynn, on 14 Dec. 1676.

Horne's principal works are:  ‘Θύρα ἀνεῳγμένη. The Open Door for Man's Approach to God,’ &c., London, 1650, 4to. <li> ‘Διατριβὴ περὶ παιδοβαπτισμοῦ, or a Consideration of Infant Baptism,’ London, 1654, 4to. <li> ‘Essays about General and Special Grace,’ London, 1659, 4to. <li> ‘A Brief Discovery of the Quakers,’ &c., London, 1659, 4to. <li> ‘The Quakers proved Deceivers,’ &c., London, 1660, 4to. <li> ‘Truth's Triumph,’ 1660, 4to. <li> ‘Balaam's Wish, or the Reward of Righteousness in and after Death,’ London, 1667, 4to. <li> ‘The Efficacy of the True Balme,’ &c., London, 1669, 12mo. <li> ‘The Best Exercise for Christians in worst Times,’ London, 1671, 8vo. <li> ‘A Comfortable Corroborative Cordial,’ &c., London, 1672, 8vo. <li> ‘The Divine Wooer’ (a poem), London, 1673, 8vo. <li> ‘The Brazen Serpent, or God's Grand Design,’ &c., London, 1673,<section end="Horne, John"/> </ol>