Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Horne, John

by Augustus Charles Bickley

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:

1. ‘Θύρα ἀνεῳγμένη. The Open Door for Man's Approach to God,’ &c., London, 1650, 4to.
2. ‘Διατριβὴ περὶ παιδοβαπτισμοῦ, or a Consideration of Infant Baptism,’ London, 1654, 4to.
3. ‘Essays about General and Special Grace,’ London, 1659, 4to.
4. ‘A Brief Discovery of the Quakers,’ &c., London, 1659, 4to.
5. ‘The Quakers proved Deceivers,’ &c., London, 1660, 4to.
6. ‘Truth's Triumph,’ 1660, 4to.
7. ‘Balaam's Wish, or the Reward of Righteousness in and after Death,’ London, 1667, 4to.
8. ‘The Efficacy of the True Balme,’ &c., London, 1669, 12mo.
9. ‘The Best Exercise for Christians in worst Times,’ London, 1671, 8vo.
10. ‘A Comfortable Corroborative Cordial,’ &c., London, 1672, 8vo.
11. ‘The Divine Wooer’ (a poem), London, 1673, 8vo.
12. ‘The Brazen Serpent, or God's Grand Design,’ &c., London, 1673, 4to.
13. ‘The Reward of Murder, or a Relation of the Penitent Behaviour of Rose Warne of Lynn, a condemned Malefactor,’ n.d.
14. ‘The Open Door, or a Vindication of the Extent of Christ's Death, in Answer to John Owen,’ n.d.
15. ‘A Brief Discovery of some Pieces of close Idolatry in some pretending to Religion, with Independents and Presbyterians,’ n.d.

[Calamy's Cont. of Baxter, p. 634; Palmer's Nonconformist's Mem. iii. 5; Watt's Bibl. Brit.; Smith's Cat. of Friends' Books.]

A. C. B.