And the Duke of Monmouth, who had witnessed the unfeeling tyranny of the prelates, and the unmitigated misery of the people, during his residence there, influenced both by compassion and political motives, made an effort to introduce milder measures; and the consequence was the following letter from Charles :- WINDSOR, July 16. 1679. My LORD, I am resolved to try what clemency can prevail upon such in Scotland as will not conform to the government of the church there; for effecting of which design, I desire that you may go down to Scotland with your first conveniency, and take all possible pains for persuading all you can, of both opinions, to as much mutual correspondence and concord as may be; and send me, from time to time, characters both of men and things. In order to this design, I shall send you a precept for two hundred pounds Sterling upon my exchequer, till you resolve how to serve me in a stated employment.-Your loving friend,-CHARLES R.-For the Bishop of Dunblane." But the power of Monmouth declining shortly after, the proposition fell to the ground, deliverance came to the presbyterians from another quarter, and the venerable Bishop was left quietly to pursue the method of life that he loved, to meditate upon eternity, and to prepare for it. The scriptures were daily the men of his council, and the book of Psalms was especially a portion which he perused with delight himself, and recommended to others. The Sabbath was his delight, and no slight hindrance could detain him from the house of prayer. Upon one occasion, when he was indisposed, the day being stormy, his friends urged him, on account of his health, not to venture to church: "Were the weather fair," was the reply, "I would stay at home, but since it is otherwise, I must go, lest I be thought to countenance by my example the irreligious practice of allowing trivial hindrances to keep me back from public worship." But perhaps the highest eulogium that can be passed on the uniform holiness of his character, is the effect that it had on his brother-in-law, who upon daily beholding it exclaimed, "If none shall go to heaven but so holy a man as this, what will become of me ?" and became so deeply impressed with a sense of the importance of pressing forward unto perfection, that he relinquished a profitable business, lest it should too much entangle him, and devoted his remaining years to the care of his soul.

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In 1684 Leighton was induced to come to London upon a visit of mercy. Lord Perth, who had participated in all the atrocities of the times, arrived in the English capital to be invested with the office of Lord High Chancellor of Scotland, and whether from some temporary compunctious feeling or some pretensions to it, had earnestly requested Burnet to procure him an interview: thought," says the Bishop," that angelic man might have awakened in him some of those good principles which he seemed once to have, and which were now totally extinguished in him ;" and at his urgent desire Leighton came to London. "I was amazed to see him," continues Burnet, "at about seventy, look so fresh and well, that age

History of his Own Times, Anno 1684.

seemed as it might stand still with him; his hair was still black, and all his motions were lively he had the same quickness of thought and strength of memory, but above all, the same heat and life of devotion, that I had ever seen in him. When I took notice to him upon my first seeing him, how well he looked, he told me he was near his end for all that, and his work and journey both were now almost done. This at that time made an impression on me. He was the next day taken with an oppression, and as it seemed with a cold and with stitches, which was indeed a pleurisy. The [day after] Leighton sunk so that both speech and sense went away of a sudden, and he continued panting about twelve hours, and then died without pangs or convulsions. I was by him all the while. Thus I lost him who for so many years had been the chief guide of my whole life." He died in the seventy-fourth year of his age, and was interred at Horsted Keynes, where his brother Sir Ellis had been buried only a short time before; an unostentatious inscription marks the place where his dust rests in hope.-Depositum, Robert Leightounj Archiepiscopi Glasguensis apud Scotos, qui objt xxv die Junij Anno Dmj 1684, tatis suæ 74.

Two remarkable circumstances attended his death. He used often to say, that if he were to choose a place to die in, it should be an inn, it looking so like a pilgrim's going home, to whom this world was all as an inn. It was his opinion also, that the officious tenderness and care of friends, was an entanglement to a dying man, and that the unconcerned attendance of those who could be procured in such a place, would give less disturbance :-this wish was granted, it was at the Bell Inn, Warwick-lane, where he expired. Another was, that while Bishop in Scotland, he never harassed his people for his stipend, small as it was, not above L. 130 per annum at Dunblane, and only about L. 400 at Glasgow, but generally took what they were pleased to pay, by which means considerable arrears were due when he left, and the last remittance which he had reason to expect, arrived about six weeks before his death. His will, which had been written a short time before, shows however, that although not rich, he yet had something to leave,— it is subjoined. "At BROADHURST, Feb. 17. 1683.-Being at present (thanks be to God) in my accustomed health of body, and soundness of mind and memory, I do write this with my own hand, to signify, that when the day I so much wished and longed for is come, that shall set me free from this prison of clay wherein I am lodged, what I leave behind me of money, goods or chattels, or whatsoever of any kind was called mine, I do devote to charitable uses; partly such as I have recommended particularly to my sister, Mrs Sapphira Lightwater, and her son, Master Edward Lightwater of Broadhurst, and the remainder to such other charities as their own discretion shall think fittest. Only, I desire each of them to accept of a small token of a little grateful acknowledgement of the great kindness and trouble they have had with me for some years that I was their guest, the proportion whereof (to remove their scruple of taking it) I did expressly name to themselves, while I was with them, before the writing hereof, and likewise after I have wrote it. But they need not give any account of it to another,

the whole being left to their disposal. Neither, I hope, will any other friends or relations of mine take it unkind that I bequeath no legacy to any of them, designing, as is said, so entirely to charity the whole remains. Only, my books I leave and bequeath to the Cathedral of Dunblane in Scotland, to remain there for the use of the clergy of that diocese. I think I need no more, but that I appoint my said sister, Mrs Sapphira Lightwater of Broadhurst, and her son, Master Edward Lightwater, joint executors of this my will,-if they be both living at my decease, as I hope they shall; or if that one of them shall be surviving, that one is to be the sole executor of it. I hope none will raise any question or doubt about this upon any omission, or any informality of expression in it; being, for prevention thereof, as plainly expressed as it could be conceived by me. And this I declare to be the last Will and Testament of-ROBERT LEIGHTON."

But his liberality was not deferred till he could no longer hold a grasp of his money. He allotted every penny beyond what was barely necessary for his personal expenses, to pious and benevolent purposes. When principal of Edinburgh University, he founded a bursary, and for that purpose gave L. 150 to the city: when at Glasgow he allotted to the poor of Dumblane, a considerable sum due to him by a gentleman in that place; he appropriated L. 300 for three bursaries in Glasgow University, and as much for maintaining four old men in St. Nicholas Hospital. During his retirement in Sussex, "he distributed," says Dr Burnet, “all he had in charities, choosing rather to give it through other people's hands than his own: for I was his almoner in London." To enable him to be charitable, he was abstemious :-his sister, we are told, once asked him to eat of some delicate dish; he declined, saying, "What is it good for but to please a wanton taste,-one thing forborne is better than twenty taken." But, asked his sister, why were these things bestowed upon us? To see, he answered, how well we can forbear them, and then added, "Shall I eat of this delicacy while a poor man wants his dinner?" The same sister, upon another occasion, imagining he carried indifference to worldly things too far, remarked to him, "If you had a wife and children, you would not act thus." His reply was, "I know not how it would be, but I know how it should be,Enoch walked with God, and begat sons and daughters." Humility was one of the most distinguishing features of his character, of which many instances are given in the preceding pages, and so conspicuously did it shine, that, in order to dim its lustre, his enemies were constrained to doubt its reality, and describe it as affected; but it was too unostentatious, too general, and too consistent to be false. Indeed, personal holiness was the main object of his life, so much so, that when he heard of any changing their profession of religion, he would ask when they became holier?

His natural temper was singularly gentle and amiable, and endeared him to all with whom he had any intercourse, and overcame in many of his opponents the prejudices his dereliction of their party inspired; though in the latter part of his life, even from the partial statements of his pupil and friend, he does not seem to

"He

have been greatly enamoured of the change he had made. lamented oft to me the stupidity that he observed among the commons of England, who seemed to be much more insensible in matters of religion than the commons of Scotland were. He retained still a peculiar inclination to Scotland, and if he had seen any prospect of doing good there, he would have gone, and lived, and died among them." "He looked on the state the church of England was in, with very melancholy reflections, and was very uneasy at an expression then used, that it was the best constituted church in the world. He thought it was truly so with relation to the doctrine, the worship, and the main part of her government. But as to the administration, both with relation as to the Ecclesiastical courts, and the pastoral care, he looked on it as one of the most corrupt he had ever seen. He thought we looked like the fair carcase of a body without a spirit, without that zeal, that strictness of life, and that laboriousness in the clergy, that became us." His conversation is represented as having been eminently heavenly and spiritual, "and he had brought himself," says the writer so often referred to, "into so composed a gravity, that I never saw him laugh, and but seldom smile, and he kept himself in such a constant recollection, that I do not remember that I ever heard him say one idle word." Most probably the state of the country and the church, tended greatly to produce this general solemnity of manner, for he was deeply affected with public events. How he could improve little incidents is well illustrated by an answer he made to a remark of some of his friends, "You have been to hear a sermon." "I met a sermon, a sermon de facto, for I met a corpse, and rightly and profitably are the funeral rites observed, when the living lay it to heart." Bishop Leighton's stature was small, and his countenance benignant. That he was slender, we learn from an exclamation of his, when told that a corpulent person had died: "How is it that A has broke through these goodly brick walls, while I am kept in by a bit flimsy. deal ?" He would never sit for his picture, and the engravings we have of him, were done from one taken by stealth, but which those who knew him pronounced to be not a bad likeness, though it did not do full justice to the mild expression of the original.

It now only remains to notice his theological works. Their praise is in all the churches. Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Independents, have all concurred to express their high admiration of their unrivalled excellence; and without adventuring on the superfluous work of giving any lengthened opinion of my own, I subjoin the opinions of men well qualified to judge.

"Perhaps," says Mr Orme, "there is no expository work in the English language equal altogether to the exposition of St Peter. It is rich in evangelical sentiment and exalted devotion. The meaning is seldom missed, and often admirably illustrated. There is learning without its parade; theology divested of systematic stiffness; and eloquence in a beautiful flow of unaffected language and appropriate ima

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gery. To say more would be unbecoming, and less could not be said with justice."-Orme's Bibliotheca Biblica.

"The modesty of Leighton was the more comely and ornamental, that it was joined to high intellectual capacity and attainments, and to the graces of elocution. His acquaintance with literature was various and profound. Of a quick and capacious understanding; of an elevated genius, and refined taste; of a vigorous and elegant fancy; of a retentive memory,-he drank deep at the springs of knowledge, by close application, and almost incessant study. Our author had perused with care and delight the Roman and the Greek classics. His Latin would do honour to the Augustan age; and is not inferior in purity and strength to the style of the learned and polished Buchanan. The Hebrew was quite familiar to him, and he possessed a critical knowledge of that concise and energetic tongue. He understood French well; and could both speak and write the language with correctness and ease. He knew philosophy in the greater part of its branches; and had read with attention and profit, history sacred and profane, civil and ecclesiastical, ancient and modern. Divinity, however, was his principal study; and he was truly a master in Israel. Of the most of these rare and useful endowments his writings afford abundant and incontrovertible evidence.

"Leighton used all his learning as an handmaid to religion, and employed it in the service of the sanctuary. He derived Theological knowledge, not so much from human systems, as from the sacred oracles; and that knowledge received a mellowness from his own natural and gracious placidity. At times, a Boanerges in sentiment; he was usually, both in sentiment and style, a son of consolation. The cotemporary bishops of the North, compared with him, were dwarfs in mind, and wolves in disposition. There were bright constellations of divines, both in England and Scotland. But Leighton shone preeminent above the majority; and was a star of the first magnitude. Among the first preachers of his own day, he has never been surpassed, taking him all in all, since that period. More sententious than Reynolds, more refined than Howe, more eloquent than Baxter; less diffuse and argumentative, but more practical than Charnock; less profound, but clearer and more savoury than Owen; less ingenious, but sweeter and more sublime than Hall, he will not suffer by comparison with any divine, in any age.”—Jerment's Life of Leighton.

"He was gifted with a capacious mind, a quick apprehension, a retentive memory, a lively fancy, a correct taste, a sound and discriminating judgment. All these excellencies are conspicuous in almost every page of his writings; for in Leighton's compositions there is an extraordinary evenness. One is not recruited here and there, by a striking thought or a brilliant sentence, from the fatigue of toiling through many a heavy paragraph, but "one spirit in them rules ;" and while he occasionally mounts to a surpassing height, he seldom or never sinks into flatness. The reason is, that he is always master of his subject,