the followers of John Hutchinson, Esq., a learned and
respectable layman, who was born at Spennythorn, in Yorkshire, in 1674.
In 1724, he published the first part of that curious work, “Moses’s
_Principia_,” in which he ridiculed Dr. Woodward’s “Natural History of
the Earth,” and exploded the doctrine of gravitation established in Sir
Isaac Newton’s “_Principia_.” In the second part of this work, published
in 1727, he maintained, in opposition to the Newtonian system, that a
_plenum_ is the principle of the Scripture philosophy. In this work he
also intimated that the idea of a Trinity is to be taken from the grand
agents in the natural system, fire, light, and spirit. From this time he
continued to publish a volume every year or two till his death; and a
correct and elegant edition of his works, including the MSS. which he
left was published in 1748, in 12 vols. 8vo. Mr. Hutchinson thought that
the Hebrew Scriptures comprise a perfect system of natural philosophy,
theology, and religion. He entertained so high an opinion of the Hebrew
language, that he thought the Almighty must have employed it to
communicate every species of knowledge, human and divine; and that,
accordingly, every species of knowledge is to be found in the Old
Testament. Both he and his followers laid a great stress on the evidence
of Hebrew etymology. After Origen, and other eminent commentators, he
asserted that the Scriptures are not to be understood and interpreted in
a literal but in a typical sense, and according to the radical import of
the Hebrew expressions; that even the historical parts, and particularly
those relating to the Jewish ceremonies and Levitical law, are to be
considered in this light; and he also asserted that, agreeably to this
mode of interpretation, the Hebrew Scriptures would be found amply to
testify concerning the nature and offices of Jesus Christ. His plan was
to find natural philosophy in the Bible, where hitherto it had been
thought no such thing was to be met with, or ever intended. His editors
tell us, he found, upon examination, that the Hebrew Scriptures nowhere
ascribe motion to the body of the sun, nor fixedness to the earth; that
they describe the created system to be a _plenum_ without any vacuum at
all, and reject the assistance of gravitation, attraction, or any such
occult qualities, for performing the stated operations of nature, which
are carried on by the mechanism of the heavens, in their threefold
condition of fire, light, and spirit, or air, the material agents set to
work at the beginning; that the heavens, thus framed by almighty Wisdom,
are an instituted emblem and visible substitute of _Yahweh Aleim_, the
eternal Three, the coëqual and co-adorable Trinity in Unity; that the
unity of substance in the heavens points out the unity of essence and
the distinction of conditions, the personality in Deity, without
confounding the persons or dividing the substance; and that, from their
being made emblems, they are called in Hebrew _shemim_, the names,
representatives, or substitutes, expressing by their names that they are
emblems, and, by their conditions or offices, what it is they are
emblems of. He also found that the Hebrew Scriptures have some capital
words, which he has proved, or endeavoured to prove, contain, in their
radical meaning, the greatest and most comfortable truths. Thus, the
word _Elohim_, which we call God, or, as he reads it, _Aleim_, he refers
to the oath or conditional execration, by which the eternal covenant of
grace among the persons in Yahweh was and is confirmed. The word
_berith_, which our translation renders “covenant,” signifies, “he or
that which purifies” and so the Purifier or purification _for_, not
_with_, man. The cherubim, which have been thought “angels placed as a
guard to deter Adam from breaking into Eden again,” he explains to have
been a hieroglyphic of divine construction, or a sacred image, to
describe, as far as figures could go, the _Aleim_ and man taken in, or
humanity united to deity. In like manner, he treats several other words
of similar, though not quite so solemn, import. Hence he drew this
conclusion, “that all the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish
dispensation were so many delineations of Christ, in what he was to be,
to do, and to suffer; and that the early Jews knew them to be types of
his actions and sufferings, and, by performing them as such, were in so
far Christians, both in faith and practice.” His followers maintain,
that the cherubim, and the glory around them, with the divine presence
in them, were not only emblematical figures, representing the persons of
the ever blessed Trinity, as engaged in covenant for the redemption of
man, but also that they were intended “to keep or preserve the way of
the tree of life, to show man the way to life eternal, and keep him from
losing or departing from it.” That Melchizedec was an eminent type of
Christ, there can be little doubt; but that he was actually the second
person of the Trinity, in a human form, is a tenet of the
Hutchinsonians, though not entirely peculiar to them. Mr. Hutchinson
supposes that “the air exists in three conditions, fire, light, and
spirit; the two latter are the finer and grosser parts of the air in
motion: from the earth to the sun, the air is finer and finer till it
becomes pure light near the confines of the sun, and fire in the orb of
the sun, or solar focus.” From the earth toward the circumference of
this system, in which he includes the fixed stars, the air becomes
grosser and grosser till it becomes stagnant, in which condition it is
at the utmost verge of this system; from whence, in his opinion, the
expression of “outer darkness,” and “blackness of darkness,” used in the
New Testament, seems to be taken. These are some of the principal
outlines of this author’s doctrines, which have been patronized by
several eminent divines, both of the church and among the Dissenters.
2. The followers of Mr. Hutchinson have not erected themselves into a
sect or separate community. Among them may be reckoned some eminent and
respectable divines, both in England and Scotland; but their numbers
seem at present to be rather on the decrease. Of those who, in their
day, were ranked in the list of Hutchinsonians, perhaps the most eminent
were the following: Mr. Julius Bate, and Mr. Parkhurst, the
lexicographers; Mr. Holloway, author of “Originals,” and “Letter and
Spirit;” Dr. Hodges, provost of Oriel College, Oxford; Mr. Henry Lee,
author of “Sophron, or Nature’s Characteristics of the Truth;” Dr.
Wetherell, late master of University College, Oxford; Mr. Romaine;
Bishop Horne; and Mr. William Jones, the bishop’s learned friend and
biographer.
respectable layman, who was born at Spennythorn, in Yorkshire, in 1674.
In 1724, he published the first part of that curious work, “Moses’s
_Principia_,” in which he ridiculed Dr. Woodward’s “Natural History of
the Earth,” and exploded the doctrine of gravitation established in Sir
Isaac Newton’s “_Principia_.” In the second part of this work, published
in 1727, he maintained, in opposition to the Newtonian system, that a
_plenum_ is the principle of the Scripture philosophy. In this work he
also intimated that the idea of a Trinity is to be taken from the grand
agents in the natural system, fire, light, and spirit. From this time he
continued to publish a volume every year or two till his death; and a
correct and elegant edition of his works, including the MSS. which he
left was published in 1748, in 12 vols. 8vo. Mr. Hutchinson thought that
the Hebrew Scriptures comprise a perfect system of natural philosophy,
theology, and religion. He entertained so high an opinion of the Hebrew
language, that he thought the Almighty must have employed it to
communicate every species of knowledge, human and divine; and that,
accordingly, every species of knowledge is to be found in the Old
Testament. Both he and his followers laid a great stress on the evidence
of Hebrew etymology. After Origen, and other eminent commentators, he
asserted that the Scriptures are not to be understood and interpreted in
a literal but in a typical sense, and according to the radical import of
the Hebrew expressions; that even the historical parts, and particularly
those relating to the Jewish ceremonies and Levitical law, are to be
considered in this light; and he also asserted that, agreeably to this
mode of interpretation, the Hebrew Scriptures would be found amply to
testify concerning the nature and offices of Jesus Christ. His plan was
to find natural philosophy in the Bible, where hitherto it had been
thought no such thing was to be met with, or ever intended. His editors
tell us, he found, upon examination, that the Hebrew Scriptures nowhere
ascribe motion to the body of the sun, nor fixedness to the earth; that
they describe the created system to be a _plenum_ without any vacuum at
all, and reject the assistance of gravitation, attraction, or any such
occult qualities, for performing the stated operations of nature, which
are carried on by the mechanism of the heavens, in their threefold
condition of fire, light, and spirit, or air, the material agents set to
work at the beginning; that the heavens, thus framed by almighty Wisdom,
are an instituted emblem and visible substitute of _Yahweh Aleim_, the
eternal Three, the coëqual and co-adorable Trinity in Unity; that the
unity of substance in the heavens points out the unity of essence and
the distinction of conditions, the personality in Deity, without
confounding the persons or dividing the substance; and that, from their
being made emblems, they are called in Hebrew _shemim_, the names,
representatives, or substitutes, expressing by their names that they are
emblems, and, by their conditions or offices, what it is they are
emblems of. He also found that the Hebrew Scriptures have some capital
words, which he has proved, or endeavoured to prove, contain, in their
radical meaning, the greatest and most comfortable truths. Thus, the
word _Elohim_, which we call God, or, as he reads it, _Aleim_, he refers
to the oath or conditional execration, by which the eternal covenant of
grace among the persons in Yahweh was and is confirmed. The word
_berith_, which our translation renders “covenant,” signifies, “he or
that which purifies” and so the Purifier or purification _for_, not
_with_, man. The cherubim, which have been thought “angels placed as a
guard to deter Adam from breaking into Eden again,” he explains to have
been a hieroglyphic of divine construction, or a sacred image, to
describe, as far as figures could go, the _Aleim_ and man taken in, or
humanity united to deity. In like manner, he treats several other words
of similar, though not quite so solemn, import. Hence he drew this
conclusion, “that all the rites and ceremonies of the Jewish
dispensation were so many delineations of Christ, in what he was to be,
to do, and to suffer; and that the early Jews knew them to be types of
his actions and sufferings, and, by performing them as such, were in so
far Christians, both in faith and practice.” His followers maintain,
that the cherubim, and the glory around them, with the divine presence
in them, were not only emblematical figures, representing the persons of
the ever blessed Trinity, as engaged in covenant for the redemption of
man, but also that they were intended “to keep or preserve the way of
the tree of life, to show man the way to life eternal, and keep him from
losing or departing from it.” That Melchizedec was an eminent type of
Christ, there can be little doubt; but that he was actually the second
person of the Trinity, in a human form, is a tenet of the
Hutchinsonians, though not entirely peculiar to them. Mr. Hutchinson
supposes that “the air exists in three conditions, fire, light, and
spirit; the two latter are the finer and grosser parts of the air in
motion: from the earth to the sun, the air is finer and finer till it
becomes pure light near the confines of the sun, and fire in the orb of
the sun, or solar focus.” From the earth toward the circumference of
this system, in which he includes the fixed stars, the air becomes
grosser and grosser till it becomes stagnant, in which condition it is
at the utmost verge of this system; from whence, in his opinion, the
expression of “outer darkness,” and “blackness of darkness,” used in the
New Testament, seems to be taken. These are some of the principal
outlines of this author’s doctrines, which have been patronized by
several eminent divines, both of the church and among the Dissenters.
2. The followers of Mr. Hutchinson have not erected themselves into a
sect or separate community. Among them may be reckoned some eminent and
respectable divines, both in England and Scotland; but their numbers
seem at present to be rather on the decrease. Of those who, in their
day, were ranked in the list of Hutchinsonians, perhaps the most eminent
were the following: Mr. Julius Bate, and Mr. Parkhurst, the
lexicographers; Mr. Holloway, author of “Originals,” and “Letter and
Spirit;” Dr. Hodges, provost of Oriel College, Oxford; Mr. Henry Lee,
author of “Sophron, or Nature’s Characteristics of the Truth;” Dr.
Wetherell, late master of University College, Oxford; Mr. Romaine;
Bishop Horne; and Mr. William Jones, the bishop’s learned friend and
biographer.