176 



H O R S L E Y. 



Horrify, been expected from one whose acquirements on other 

 s "V"' subjects were so diversified and distinguished ; but, 

 at the same time, to have failed in that full illustration 

 of his author, which the improved methods of calcula- 

 tion and analysis might have accomplished. In 1 778, 

 he published a sermon on the consistency of the doc- 

 trine of divine Providence with the free agency of man, 

 in which he combats the necessitarian tenets with great 

 ability. In 1789, he collected and printed in one vo- 

 lume the tracts which he had written during the pre- 

 ceding six years, in his celebrated controversy with Dr 

 Priestley on the Unitarian system; a discussion in 

 which he is now generally acknowledged to have had 

 a decided superiority, both in learning and argument, 

 and in which his productions must always be read as 

 standard works, and admired as models of clear and 

 powerful reasoning. In 1790, he published a pam- 

 phlet without his name, entitled, " A Review of the 

 Case of the Protestant Dissenters," in which he vindi- 

 cates in a highly nervous style the high church princi- 

 ple-! on the subject of the test laws. In 179fi, appear- 

 ed from his pen a very learned dissertation on the 

 Latin and Greek Prosodies; in 1800, a critical dis- 

 quisition on the 18th chapter of Isaiah, in a letter to 

 Lord King ; in 1 802, a new Translation of the Prophet 

 Hosea, with critical and explanatory notes. Besides 

 many smaller pieces, he was the author of an Elemen- 

 tary Treatise on the fundamental principles of Practical 

 Mathematics, which appeared in three volumes in 1801 

 and 1803, and of a Critical Essay on Virgil's Two 

 Seasons of Honey, and his Season of Sowing Wheat, 

 with a new and compendious method of investigating 

 the Rising and Setting of the Fixed Stars. There 

 have been published, since his death, three volumes of 

 his Sermons, a volume of his Charges, a volume of his 

 Speeches in Parliament, and a Translation of the Book 

 of Psalms with notes. He has also left in manuscript, a 

 Treatise on the Pentateuch, and on the Historical Books 

 of the Old Testament ; and a Treatise on the Prophets, 

 containing Notes on Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Joel, 

 Amos, and Obadiah ; which are announced to be in a 

 state ready for the press, and which it is to be hoped, 

 will not be suffered to be lost to the Christian world by 

 any want of encouragement on the part of the public. 

 His son, the Rev. Heneage Horsley, proposes to pub- 

 lish an uniform edition of all his father's works, with a 

 biographical account of the author. 



The name of Bishop Horsley stands unquestionably 

 in the first rank of the scholars and divines of the pre- 

 sent age. His intellectual powers were of the highest 

 order, and of so versatile a nature, that wherever he 

 applied his attention, he was generally sure to take 

 precedence. He possessed an almost inexhaustible ac- 

 tivity of mind united with an ardent spirit of research, 

 and a capability of constant exertion, which, had his 

 pursuits been less various, might have raised him to 

 a still higher point of eminence. In the mathematical 

 and physical sciences, he held a respectable station. In 

 metaphysical acuteness and research, he had few supe- 

 riors. In classical attainments, and particularly in a 

 critical knowledge of the sacred languages, he occu- 

 pied the very foremost rank of excellence. In the 

 most recondite theological erudition, he was not sur- 

 passed by any of his contemporaries. And, in the 

 church of which he was so distinguished an ornament 

 and support, he was pre-eminent for his consistency 

 and decision, as the champion of a sound and scrip- 

 tural creed. In public speaking, his voice was so- 

 norous and commanding, and his whole elocution dis- 

 tinct and impressive^ Jn the duties of his Episcopal 



office, he was eminently exemplary ; and, in the see 

 of St David's particularly, he strenuously exerted 

 himself to accomplish a regular system of improve- 

 ment in the qualifications and condition of its clergy. 

 He examined in person the candidates for holy or- 

 ders, and inspected carefully the titles which they 

 produced. He treated them, at the same time, with 

 paternal kindness, encouraging them to visit him, 

 assisting them with his advice, and ministering, with a 

 bountiful hand, to their temporal necessities. In his 

 progress through his diocese, he preached frequently 

 in the parish churches, and bestowed liberal donations 

 on the poor. In the House of Peers, he supported the 

 character of an enlightened and eloquent senator ; and 

 took a part in most of the important discussions of his 

 time. In his political and ecclesiastical sentiments, he 

 must be classed, and readily classed himself, among 

 high churchmen (a term, which we profess to use not 

 as vituperative, but merely as descriptive) ; but it has 

 never been doubted, that his zeal was conscientiously 

 sincere ; and it is certain, that, on many occasions, he 

 discovered a greater degree of genuine liberality anil 

 practical toleration than many who were louder in their 

 pretensions. He w;.s a systematic opponent of the 

 slave trade ; and is understood, on good authority, to 

 have been anxious to enter into a parliamentary enquiry 

 into the claims of the Irish Catholics, with a view to 

 grant them whatever privileges might have appeared 

 compatible with the security of the Protestant succes- 

 sion and the Protestant establishment. He was an 

 earnest advocate for mutual forbearance between the 

 two most respectable parties in the Church of England ; 

 and the decision of his comprehensive mind on the 

 points in dispute deserves to be emblazoned in every 

 vestry of the English and Irish establishments. " The 

 Calvinists contradict not the avowed dogmata of the 

 church ; nor has the church in her dogmata explicitly 

 condemned or contradicted them." He has been charged 

 with harshness and dogmatism in his character and 

 manner, especially as a controversialist, and it would 

 not be easy to exculpate him wholly ; but much of this 

 intolerance, often more apparent than real, evidently 

 arose from his zeal for the truth which he defended, 

 and his high sense of its importance. His language, 

 at the same time, however strong, was always digni- 

 fied ; and his works in general rather display an undis- 

 turbed liberality of judgment and expression towards 

 the advocates of conflicting opinions. Even his stern- 

 est polemical tracts contain many expressions of the 

 most magnanimous candour, of which the following 

 conclusion of one of his letters to Priestley may be given 

 as a striking specimen. " The probability, however, 

 seems to be, that, ere those times arrive, (if they arrive 

 at all, which we trust they will not) my antagonist 

 and I shall both be gone to those unseen abodes, where 

 the din of controversy and the din of war are equally 

 unheard. There we shall rest together, till the last 

 trumpet summon us to stand before our God and King. 

 That whatever of intemperate wrath and carnal anger 

 hath mixed itself, on either side, with the zeal with 

 which we have pursued our fierce contention, may then 

 be forgiven to us both, is a prayer which I breathe 

 from the bottom of my soul, and to which my antago- 

 nist, if he hath any part in the spirit of a Christian, 

 upon his bended knees will say, Amen." See Preface to 

 Horsley's Sermons; Monthly Magazine, 1SOG, vol. xxii. 

 p. 401. ; Gent. Magazine, 1806, vol. Ixxvi. p. 987, &c. 

 Montucla, Hist, des Mathemaliques, torn. iii. p. 13. edit. 

 1803; Phil. Trans, vol. Ivii. Ixvi.; and Public Cha- 

 racters for 1807. (?) 



