The Scottish Philosophy [39]
non- subscribing Presbyterian ministers in Ireland, some of whom (such as Abernethy and Leland, and Bruce and Boyce) were as accomplished men as any theologians {64} of their age, and of whom it may be said to their credit, that they suffered in their temporal interests rather than subscribe articles which they did not believe. In particular, Hutcheson carried on a very genial correspondence with the Rev. Thomas Drennan, a non-subscribing minister at Belfast.[15] The ministers of this communion, more especially as they were often abandoned by the people when their views became known, were at times in very poor circumstances. On hearing this, Hutcheson writes to his friend (May 31, 1742) am concerned that in my prosperous circumstances I did not think of it sooner. If you have any little contributions made towards such as are more distressed than the rest, you may mark me as a subscriber for L5 , and take the above ten pounds as my payment for two years past. . . . I think it altogether proper you should not mention my name to your brethren, but conceal it. I am already called New Light here. I don't value it for myself, but I see it hurts some ministers who are most intimate with me. I have been these ten days in great hurry and perplexity, as I have for that time foreseen the death of our professor, who died last Wednesday, and some of my colleagues join me in laboring for Mr. Leechman to succeed. We are not yet certain of the event, but have good hopes. If he succeed, it will put a new face upon theology in Scotland."
This was no doubt one of the ends for which Hutcheson lived and labored, "."[16] Discouraging all doctrinal exposition, and all rousing appeals to the conscience, he would have the preachers recommend the Christian religion as embracing a pure morality, and holding out the hope of a blessed immortality; but meanwhile providing no pardon to the poor sinner anxious about the past, nor gracious aid to help him in his struggles to deliver himself from sin in the future. Never avowing any doctrinal belief, his students {65} looked upon him as a Socinian, and so his influence went in that direction. The crop that sprang up may be taken as represented by such men as Carlyle, elegant and accommodating but dreadfully rankled by a Calvinistic creed which they had to swear, and by the opposition of the people, who could not be made to feel that the New Light was suited to them, or to believe that it had any title to be called a religion. But all this was in the future, and was not the precise result expected b), Hutcheson. Meanwhile he rejoices in Leechman, and describes him as one " who sees all I do." It seems that the Scotch divine received a call from a non-subscribing congregation in Belfast, and Hutcheson is rather inclined that he should go; he is so anxious to have him out of "that obscure place where he was so much lost," and where he was "preaching to a pack of horse-copers and smugglers of the rudest sort," who, we venture to say, would not profit much by that calm, abstract, elegant style which so pleased the professor of moral philosophy. Hutcheson uses every means to secure Leechman's appointment to the chair of theology in Glasgow, and brings influence of a very unscrupulous character (as I reckon it) to carry his point. He writes Mr. Mure of Caldwell (Nov. 23, 1743) that he wants a letter from the Duke of Montrose, the Chancellor of the University, in behalf of Leechman to Morthland, professor of Oriental languages, to be shown to others, and he malignantly mentions that Professor Anderson, the chief opponent of Leechman, " made himself ridiculous to all men of sense by dangling after Whitefield and M'Cullogh " (" Caldwell Papers "); and he wants this to be specially known to Tweeddale, who was Secretary of State for Scotland, and to Andrew Mitchell, his private secretary' It seems that the advocates of liberality could not tolerate that a man should be favorable to a revival of religion. It was by such means that " a new face was to be
This was no doubt one of the ends for which Hutcheson lived and labored, "