WESLEYAN-METHODIST MAGAZINE. OCTOBER, 1865. JOHN HORNE OF LYNN: A BIOGRAPHY. (Concluded from page 785.) WHILE John Horne was thus employed in the exposition and defence of what he believed to be revealed truth, and in fulfilling the duties of his pastoral charge, the affairs of the nation underwent a great and sudden change, which affected him and his family to the end of their lives. Charles II., who had long been in exile, was allowed to return to England, and ascend the throne of his ancestors; an honour of which he was utterly unworthy, proving himself in subsequent years to be a shameless profligate in private life, and a heartless tyrant as a king. A general relaxation of public morals immediately ensued in the nation, and the affairs of the church were completely revolutionized. A stringent Act of Uniformity passed the two Houses of Parliament, received the royal assent, and was carried into operation August 24th, 1662; in consequence of which about two thousand ministers resigned their livings and retired into private life. Several of them, indeed, had held their livings by a dubious title, the former incumbents being yet alive, and ready to claim their own. Among the ejected ministers were some of the ablest and best men that ever occupied an English pulpit. To impose silence upon such men as Richard Baxter, John Howe, William Bates, and John Owen, was a sin which must be answered for at a future day, when the great men of the earth, who have abused their power, and interfered with the high and sacred prerogatives of Christ, must stand before His judgment-seat. Among the venerable confessors of 1662 John Horne took his place; but on what particular ground he refused to conform to the new order of things we are not able to specify. On resigning his ministerial charge, which it appears on some account or other he was allowed to retain three or four years longer, he published a "Farewell to his Neighbours, the Parishioners of Lynn Allhallows;" but this document we have never seen. If he had been ordained by presbyters, as was the celebrated John Howe, he would be required, as one condition of retaining his vicarage, to submit to re-ordination by a Right Reverend Prelate, and thus, in effect, confess that all the ministerial VOL. XI.-FIFTH SERIES. 3 K acts he had ever performed were unauthorized, and therefore null and void. When re-ordination was pressed upon John Howe, by one of the bishops, he was asked what hurt re-ordination would do him; he answered, with becoming warmth, "Hurt, my Lord! it is shocking. It hurts my understanding. It is an absurdity; for nothing can have two beginnings." We think that Horne was not in this predicament. The probability rather is, that he was ordained and entered upon his ministry before the bishops were deprived of their power in the church by a vote of the Long Parliament; and if so, other reasons swayed his mind at this eventful period. Some verses among his minor poems we think throw light upon the subject. He applied to a bookseller for the purchase of a Bible; when the question was proposed to him, "Will you have one with the Service in it ?" In reply to this inquiry Horne sent him a poetical epistle, with this motto:"SIR,-Whether you asked this question in a jeer, Or seriously, you have my answer here." The epistle is too long for quotation. The substance of it is, that the "service" which men owe to God, and which He requires them to pay, is spiritual worship, proceeding from a sanctified mind and heart, which Christian men and women ought always to have within them. If this "service" were in a book, instead of the mind and heart, it might be absent and to seek when it was most needed. From the subsequent conduct of Horne, it is clear that he did not object to worship God in the use of a printed "Service;" but to be confined exclusively to such a "Service" in the public worship of Almighty God is a very different affair; and to this, it is probable, he had conscientious objections: for the gift of prayer is certainly not entrusted to ministers to be folded up in a napkin, but used for the edification of the church. That such was the judgment of this upright and holy man is probable from the following lines, which conclude his epistle to the bookseller : : "Though I profess I ne'er could find it yet, In any passage of the Holy Writ, That God requires, or holy men did use To read their prayers to God. But pray excuse Let others leave me so, and we agree." Under the influence of a conscientious feeling, from whatever cause it may have arisen, Horne resigned the emoluments of his vicarage, relying upon other means of support. He also descended from the pulpit, which he had occupied for sixteen years, and retired with his family to a pew, or to a free bench, as an ordinary parishioner. At the same time, he exchanged the spacious old mansion, which he had occupied as the vicar of Allhallows, for a private dwelling, not without serious reflections, but with a pure conscience. To the end of his life he attended the public service of the church twice every Sunday; having also public worship three times in his own private dwelling,-morning, noon, and night,-when he exercised his gift in prayer and preaching, and was joined by as many of his neighbours as chose to attend. Though superseded in the vicarage of Allhallows, he persevered in his career of authorship, endeavouring to promote the honour of his Saviour, and the best interests of mankind, by means of the press; though grievously annoyed by the incompetency of his printers, and his inability to correct his books as they passed through the press. Generally speaking, his books, in respect of typography, are the most inaccurate we have ever read, considering the literary character of the author. The truth is, they were printed in London; he lived in Lynn; and the postal arrangements between these places were such as the present generation can hardly believe. Six years before Horne came to reside in Lynn, letters were conveyed between that town and London once a-week, by men who travelled on foot, and performed their journeys alternately, at a salary of thirty shillings a year, a sum which was paid to each of them by the parish authorities. What alterations were made during his residence in Lynn, we know not; but we can easily conceive how it was that he had so often to apologize to his readers for the inaccuracies in his books, "caused by his distance from the press." In the year 1667 he sent forth another small quarto volume, under the title of "Balaam's Wish; or, the Reward of Righteousness in and after Death: considered and explicated by Occasion of the Decease of Mrs. Barbara Whitefoot, late of Hapton, in the County of Norfolk ; who deceased April 9, and was interred April 11, 1667. By John Horne, Preacher of the Gospel in former Times in the Parish of Lynn Allhallows in the same County." The substance of this volume, extending to one hundred and seven pages, appears to have been delivered as a funeral sermon, and afterwards expanded into an elaborate treatise. It is not called a sermon in its present form; and indeed, if deliberately spoken, it would occupy several hours in the delivery. Mrs. Whitefoot the author describes as a lady of sterling piety, who in the course of her religious life had renounced the doctrine of particular redemption, and had adopted that of the redemption of all mankind, in the belief of which she lived and died an example of benevolence and devotion. She left two children; a son, who was a minor; and a daughter, who was married to a gentleman in Yarmouth. To them the volume is dedicated; and a few sentences from his address to the youth in his teens will show the spirit of the writer, who was anxious to turn the sorrows of bereavement to a good practical account. "To you Mr. Daniel, let me say, Remember the good advice of your dear deceased mother, especially her dying farewell, and endeavour so to seek the Lord; read and mind His word; believe His love and grace toward mankind in His Son, and yield up yourself to obey His heavenly counsels; preferring the Gospel (as your good mother advised you) not only above the pleasures of sin, and what vain companions, sports, and pastimes can afford, but above your worldly estate; and so adhere to the advice of such as be sober, stayed, and good friends; that she may at last reap the fruit of all her serious desires, prayers, and tears for your good; and of all her tender love for you; in receiving you at the resurrection of the just in the lot of the righteous and holy servants of God. You are young, and need help and direction. I would have you think so, and be sober minded; not thinking yourself so wise, that you may choose your ways, need none to guide you: not taking any for your friends that would flatter you into vain courses. In all things mind God's word, and call upon Him for His grace and blessing in and through Christ Jesus; and He will bless you, and do you good. Seriously peruse also this treatise, and let its contents be ever with you: and the Lord bless it you. That is all I shall say to you at present." to and Advice similarly wise and good he addressed to the daughter of his departed friend. During the same year the pious sympathies of this good man were excited by the discovery of a sad case of sin, and of the misery consequent upon it, in the town of Lynn. A young woman of respectable parentage, who had shown signs of hopeful piety, by her serious demeanour, and regular attendance upon religious ordinances, became first lukewarm in her spirit, then negligent in religious duty, and then a companion of ungodly persons. At length she gave birth to an illegitimate child, and was suspected to have murdered it to conceal her shame. She was apprehended, tried, convicted on circumstantial evidence, and suffered the extreme penalty of the law in April, 1667. During her imprisonment, both before and after her conviction, she was visited assiduously by Thomas Moore, then resident in Lynn, and related to her family by marriage. He was an intelligent Christian, strongly resembling a class of useful labourers in the vineyard of the Lord, known in modern times as Methodist Local preachers; for be also ministered the word of life in connexion with Horne, now a Nonconformist pastor. Moore's first concern was to bring this unhappy woman to repentance; and then to conduct her as a brokenhearted sinner to Christ as her Saviour. For these purposes he conversed with her, prayed with her, and read the Scriptures to her in her forlorn condition. In these labours of love he was happily successful. She gave signs of true repentance, and of sincere conversion, confessing her sin, acknowledging the justice of the sentence which had been passed upon her, meekly resigning herself to her fate, and expressing a joyous hope that as a sinner saved by grace the Lord |