I have received from you the kindest letter that ever you wrote me :) and that you may know I take it so, I return you the free and friendly advice, never to judge any man before you hear him, nor any business by one side of it. Were you here to see the other, I am confident your thoughts and mine would be the same. You have both too much knowledge of me, and too much charity to think, that either such little contemptible scraps of honour or riches, sought in that part of the world with so much reproach, or any human complacency in the world, will be admitted to decide so grave a question, or that I would sell,-to speak no higher, the very sensual pleasure of my retirement, for a rattle, far less deliberately do any thing that I judge offends God. For the offence of good people, in cases indifferent in themselves, but not accounted so by them, whatsoever you do, or do not, you shall offend some good people, on the one side or other. And for those with you, the great fallacy in this business is, that they have mis-reckoned themselves in taking my silence, and their zeal, to have been constant and participative, which how great a mistake it is, few know better or so well as yourself: and the truth is, I did see approaching an inevitable necessity, to strain with them in divers practices, in what station soever remaining in Britain, and to have escaped further off,-which hath been in my thoughts,would have been the greatest scandal of all. And what will you say if there be in this thing somewhat of that you mention, and would allow of reconciling devout on different sides, and of enlarging these good souls you meet with from their little fetters, though possibly with little success; yet the design is commendable,-pardonable at least. However, one comfort I have, that in what is pressed on me, there is the least of my own choice, yea, on the contrary, the strongest aversion that ever I had in any thing in all my life; the difficulty in short lies, in a necessity of either owning a scruple which I have not, or the rudest disobedience to authority that may be. The truth is, I am yet importuning and struggling for a liberation, and look upward for it, but whatsoever be the issue, I look beyond it, and this weary weary wretched life, through which, the hand I have resigned to, I trust, will lead me in the paths of his own choosing, and so I may please him, I am satisfied. I hope that if ever we meet, you shall find me in the paths of solitude and a devout life, your unaltered brother and friend, R. L.

"When I set pen to paper, I intended not to exceed half a dozen lines, but slid on insensibly thus far; but though I should fill this paper on all sides, still the right view of this business would be necessarily suspended till meeting. Meanwhile hope well of me, and pray for me. This word I will add, that as there hath been nothing of my choice in the thing, so I undergo it,—if it must be,-as a mortification, and that greater than a cell and hair-cloth; and whether any will believe this or no, I am not careful.”

If this letter was written, as it probably was, after the first parliament, in which the king's supremacy was established, and by which Argyle and Guthrie were condemned, it shows how much Leighton had abstracted himself from the occurrences of the day, and how little he was ac

quainted with the politico-theological state of the country, that he should entertain even the slightest hope of advancing the interest either of peace or religion, by accepting a Bishopric in Scotland, and connecting himself with a band of apostates, who had so iniquitously commenced their atrocious career. His whole life proved, that Leighton was wholly uninfluenced by sordid or secular motives; but while we acknowledge his principles to be pure, and his personal behaviour exemplary, it may fairly be questioned, how far in this instance his conduct was justifiable, in holding fellowship with those who framed mischief by a law, who gathered themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and con. demned innocent blood; but as he foresaw, it proved to him a life of suffering, and he was, after years of mental anguish, forced to withdraw from the scene, and from all participation in measures, of which he left a strong condemnatory sentence in his affirmation to Charles, "that he would not consent to propagate Christianity itself by such means."

The following letter appears to have been written about this time: "Dear Friend, I did receive your letter, which I would have known to be yours, though it had no other sign but the piety and affectionate kindness expressed in it. I will offer you no apology, nor I hope I need not, for not writing since that to you. I will confess, that if the surprising and unexpected occasion of the bearer had not drawn it from me, I should hardly for a long time to come, have done what I am now doing, and yet still love you more than they do one another, that interchange letters even of kindness, as often as the gazettes come forth, and as long as they are too. And now I have begun, I would end just here; for I have nothing to say, nothing of affairs to be sure, private nor public; and to strike up to discourses of devotion, alas! what is there to be said, but what you sufficiently know, and daily read, and daily think, and I am confident, daily endeavour to do; and I am beaten back, if I had a great mind to speak of such things, by the sense of so great deficiency in doing these things, that the most ignorant among Christians cannot choose but know. Instead of all fine notions to fly to κυμα ἐλεησον χειστὲ ἐλέησον, I think them the great heroes and excellent persons of the world, that attain to high degrees of pure contemplation and divine love; but next to these, them that, in aspiring to that, and falling short of it, fall down into deep humiliation and selfcontempt, and a real desire to be despised and trampled on by all the world. And I believe, that they that sink lowest into that depth, stand nearest to advancement to those other heights: for the great King who is the fountain of that honour, hath given us this character of himself, that he resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble. Farewell, my dear friend, and be so charitable as sometimes in your addresses upwards to remember a poor caitiff who no day forgets you. R. L. 13th Dec. 1676."

Sydserf, the withered twig of the old stem, not being sufficient to communicate the undefinable sacredness of the prelatic character to a new generation, four of the bishops elect were summoned to the English capital, to receive from the bishops of London and Worcester such gifts as they could bestow by the imposition of their "holy" hands. Sharpe and Leighton having received Presbyterian ordination, they

hesitated about being re-ordained, but as it was determined that Presbytery should be destroyed root and branch, that was declared invalid, and after some short disputation, they submitted to receive the orders of deacon and priest, previously to their consecration as bishops. Hamilton and Fairfoul had previously to 1638 received the orders from the abrogated Scottish Hierarchy, which were held good. To this act, which desecrated the whole of the Scottish ministers, even had they been inclined to conform, Leighton is said to have reconciled his mind by an evasion,-that the new ceremony was only declaratory of his admission into another communion, but did not destroy the sanc tity of his former ordination; a distinction which Presbyterians would not readily be brought to comprehend.

Consecrated however they all were at Westminster on the 12th December 1661, with much clerical splendour, and a series of feasting between the nobles and the bishops followed, which grieved Leighton's pious soul, and gave plain augury of what kind of church they were about to establish. It is perfectly clear there was no community of soul between them; Sharpe hated and opposed him, and even Sheldon "did not much like his great strictness, in which he had no mind to imitate him," though both he and the rest of the English clergy greatly preferred him before his brethren, whom he excelled, not more in the extent of his learning, than in the uprightness of his walk and conversation. His trials began almost immediately.

When the revelry had ceased, he endeavoured to prevail upon Sharpe to settle some plan for their future procedure, and proposed for his consideration,-first, his favourite project of attempting to bring about an union between the Presbyterians and them,-next, the best means for promoting the growth of piety,-and then a method for gradually assimilating the mode of worship among the two persuasions. But he was sorely disappointed to find, that the Primate had formed no plan, and was unwilling to hear of any. He only looked forward to coercive measures; Episcopacy he knew would be established in the next Parliament, and when once they were legally settled in their dioceses, then he said every Bishop must do the best he could to get the people and clergy to submit to his authority; which once effected, it would be sufficient time to proceed to regulate other matters. Fairfoul had always" a merry tale ready at hand to divert him" whenever the subject was started, so that he found it impossible to hold any serious conversation with him, of which indeed he did not seem capable. "By these means," adds Burnet, "Leighton quickly lost all heart and hope; and said often to me upon it, that in the whole progress of that affair, there appeared such gross characters of an angry providence, that how fully soever he was satisfied in his own mind as to Episcopacy itself, yet it seemed that God was against them, and that they were not like to be the men that should build up his church, so that the struggling about it seemed to him like a fighting against God. He who had the greatest hand in it, [Sharpe] proceeded with so much dissimulation; and the rest of the order were so mean and so selfish, and the Earl of Middleton, with the other secular men that conducted it, were so openly impious and vicious, that it did cast a reproach on every thing relating

to religion, to see it managed by such instruments." About the middle of next year they set out for Scotland, but Leighton, understanding that they meant to make a grand entry into Edinburgh, left them at Morpeth, and proceeded forward alone ;-the rest were received by the magistrates in their robes, with sound of trumpet, or, as was sarcastically remarked, "with the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of music," at the hearing of which, the people were to fall down, and worship the prelates whom the king had made. Leighton proceeded directly to Dunblane, and not only declined sharing in these pageantries, but even requested that his friends would not give him the title of "Lord," a request which, however consonant with the injunctions of his heavenly Master, was by no means agreeable to his earthly brethren.

Episcopacy was set up by proclamation, the meetings of synods and presbyteries were forbid by the same authority, but it required an act of Parliament to restore the Bishops to their jurisdiction and their seats. This was done the first of the session 1662, in the most ample manner, and as soon as it was passed, the prelates who were in waiting, were invited by a deputation from each estate, to resume their places in the house, which they immediately did among the Earls on the right hand of the Commissioner, Leighton on this occasion also forming the only solitary exception. He was not however long suffered to enjoy his retirement, and the occasion which called him from it, is highly honourable to his memory. Several ministers, Mr John Carstairs, Mr James Nasmyth, Mr James Veitch, and some others, were accused of using seditious language in their sermons, but the accusations could not be substantiated; as was the custom however in these times, if a charge was brought against a presbyterian, and could not be proved, instead of being set free, the oath of allegiance, in which the King's supremacy in all affairs civil and ecclesiastical was asserted, was offered them, and they were required to take it as a mark of loyalty;-in this case the ministers were brought before parliament, and had the oath tendered. They required time to consider it, and after some days serious deliberation, gave in an explanation, in which they declared, "they believed the King was supreme governor over all persons, and in all causes, not only civil and ecclesiastic; but that the power of the King is, in its own nature, only civil and extrinsic as to causes ecclesiastical." This explanation the Commission refused, upon which a debate arose, whether an act explanatory of the oath should be offered to Parliament or not. Leighton strongly urged the propriety of its being done; the land, he said, mourned by reason of the multiplicity of oaths, and the words of the present were certainly susceptible of a bad sense; the papists in England had been allowed this privilege of explaining, and he thought a like tenderness should be shown to protestants, especially in a case where their scruples appeared to be just, otherwise it would look like laying snares for the people, by making men offenders for a word. Sharpe replied with great bitterness: he said that it was beneath the dignity of a government, to frame acts to satisfy the scruples of peevish men, and it ill became them who had forced their covenant on all ranks, without distinction or explanation, to come forward now, and ask such a licence for

themselves"-"For that very reason," retorted Leighton, "it ought to be granted, that the world may perceive the difference between the present mild government, and their severity;-nor does it become persons who complain of that rigour, to resort to similar harshness, lest thus it might be said, the world goes mad by turns." But his arguments were of no avail,—the ministers were required to take the oath or undergo the penalty, imprisonment or exile; they refused to subscribe, and preferred to suffer and Leighton had only the consolation, of having attempted in vain to avert their oppression.

For several years we do not meet with the Bishop's name in any of the political transactions of the times, but we find from his charges to his clergy, and some few letters which have been preserved, that he was far more honourably employed, in fulfilling the spiritual duties of his office. Of the difficulties with which he had to contend, some idea may be formed, from the character of the clergy over whom he was called to preside; this we are enabled to give from an episcopalian writer, and therefore the less liable to objection. At the close of the

year 1662, about two hundred faithful ministers of Christ, rather than violate their consciences, gave up their livings in the west of Scotland; and of these a number belonged to the diocese of Dumblane, of which an imperfect list is given in Wodrow's Appendix. To fill their places, Burnet says, "There was a sort of an invitation sent over the kingdom, like a hue and cry, to all persons to accept of benefices in the west; the livings were generally well endowed, and the parsonage houses were well built and in good repair, and this drew many very worthless persons thither, who had little learning, less piety, and no sort of discretion." 66 They were the worst preachers I ever heard, they were ignorant to a reproach, and many of them were openly vicious, they were a disgrace to their order and the sacred function, and were indeed the dregs and refuse of the northern parts. Those of them who arose above contempt or scandal, were men of such violent tempers, that they were as much hated as the others were despised. This was the fatal beginning of restoring Episcopacy in Scotland, of which few of the bishops seemed to have any sense." Only two non-conformists' names appear in the roll of the presbytery of Dumblane, which formed that part of the diocese more immediately under the Bishop's eye; whether this was owing to the influence and persuasion of Leighton, or whether the list be incomplete, it is impossible now to determine; but I should be rather apt to suppose the latter, as Wodrow affirms, that the clergy of the diocese formed no exception to the general character of these west country brethren.

No blame, however, can attach to Leighton for this, he has left ush is recorded opinion of the manner in which he thought a people should be treated, with regard to spiritual teachers, in a letter he wrote to the Heritors of Straiton, and which it would be well did the present patrons of presbyterian churches imitate.

"Worthy gentlemen and friends,-Being informed that it is my duty to present a person fit for the charge of the ministry now vacant with you, I have thought of one whose integrity and piety I am so fully persuaded of, that I dare confidently recommend him to you as one,