ΟΝ ΤΗΕ LIFE AND DEATH O F ST. JOHN the BAPTIST. BY GEORGE HORNE, D. D. PRESIDENT OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE IN OXFORD. OXFORD, PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON-PRESS, For S. PARKER, in Oxford; Sold by J. and F. RIVINGTON . in St. Paul's Church -Yard, and T. CADELL (Succeffor to Mr Millar) in the Strand, London. MDCC LXIX. PREFACE. I' irt T is a fine remark of Lord Bacon, that, "As wines, which, at fir *preffing, run gently, yield a more pleasant taste than those, where the "wine-prefs is hard wrought, because thofe fomewhat relish of the stone «and skin of the grape; fo those ob"fervations are moft wholesome and fweet, which flow from Scriptures "gently expreffed, and naturally ex" pounded, and are not wrefted or "drawn afide to common places, or * controverfies." OBSSR OBSERVATIONS of this kind may certainly be made, to great advantage, on hiftorical portions of Scripture more especially; fince, as the fame incomparable author tells us elsewhere, Knowlege drawn freshly, and as it "were in our view, out of particulars, "knows the way beft to particulars again and it hath much greater life "for practice, when the difcourfe at"tends upon the example, than when "the example attends upon the dif "courfe; as Machiavel handled mat"ters of policy and government, by "difcourfes 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 difcourfe, which is heard with pleasure, and remembered with ease. HISTORY HISTORY and biography are frequently employed in the service of error and vice. They may operate as effectually in the recommendation of truth and virtue. Example fhews truth as it were embodied; and while it displays the excellency of virtue, de monftrates its practicability. The contemplation of faith, as it discovereth itself in the lives of patriarchs and prophets, apostles and faints, inclineth us to believe as they did; and the fight of frail mortals, like ourselves, who, by the divine affiftance, furmounted all obftructions, and continued to walk in the paths of righteoufnefs, naturally fuggefteth, to every beholder, the question What fhould hinder me from doing the fame ? OPPORTUNITIES for fuch exercises are continually afforded by the return of those days, whereon we commemo |
