227 POSTSCRIPT. I THOUGHT I had done here; but find myself obliged to take some notice of the reverend Mr. Heathcote, who (as it should seem by an advertisement of his, in capitals) has entirely overthrown Mr. Hutchinson. Upon looking into his book, Į find he has indeed made quotations from him. Several of them contain great and important truths, against which Mr. Heathcote has said nothing. Some are mangled and misrepresented, as the reader may see, if he thinks it worth his while to turn to and compare them. And a few more passages are quoted for the severity of the expressions in them. But, in order to judge of their propriety or impropriety, it is necessary to know who are the persons spoken of, what is the nature and quality of the crimes charged upon them, and what the strength of the evidence that supports the charge. If, when these circumstances are duly weighed, they appear to be unjustifiable, we defend them not. This is a sufficient answer to all that is advanced by Mr. Heathcote.Though, upon second thoughts, it may not be amiss, just to give the reader a specimen of the manner in which he uses those who are so unhappy as to fall under his displeasure. "We are told," says he, p. 85, "that Mr. Hutchinson never offended with "his tongue; never spoke with more warmth than 228 was strictly justifiable." And he refers to the page in the editor's preface', where he is told so. But in that page it stands thus-"That he never "offended with his tongue, never spoke with more "warmth than was strictly justifiable, WE SAY NOT." This method of quoting, together with the phrase cabalistic theologue, and other flowers of rhetoric scattered up and down, and, above all, the paradoxes in his system, demonstrate the truth of an assertion in his title page;-that he is ASSISTANT PREACHER at Lincoln's Inn. The reader will be pleased to observe, there is but one edition of that preface, PREFACE. It is a fine remark of Lord Bacon, that "As wines which, "at first pressing, run gently, yield a more pleasant taste "than those, where the wine-press is hard wrought, be 66 cause those somewhat relish of the stone and skin of the 66 grape; so those observations are most wholesome and sweet, which flow from Scriptures gently expressed and "naturally expounded, and are not wrested or drawn aside "to common places or controversiesa." Observations of this kind may certainly be made to great advantage, on historical portions of Scripture more especially, since, as the same incomparable author tells us elsewhere," Knowledge drawn freshly, and as it were in our "view, out of particulars, knows the way best to particu"lars again: and it hath much greater life for practice, "when the discourse attends upon the example, than when "the example attends upon the discourse; as Machiavel "handled matters of policy and government, by discourses "of history and example taken from Livy'." The doctrines and duties of Christianity are, in like manner, best deduced from the facts on which it is founded. The narration furnisheth both matter and method for the discourse, which is read with pleasure and remembered with ease. History and biography are frequently employed in the service of error and vice. They may operate as effectually Advancement of Learning, Book IX. Ibid. Book VIII. |