PREFACE.

A NEW edition of Archbishop Leighton's Works being called for, it was thought desirable to accompany it with a more complete life, than has yet been given to the world, of their venerable author. To effect this object no trouble and expense have been spared by the publisher. Old sources of information have been explored anew; and inquiries have been carried into every fresh quarter, from whence it could be hoped that materials, which had eluded the diligence of former biographers, might be collected, to illustrate the conduct and character of this preeminent christian. It was indeed to be expected that, after the lapse of nearly a century and a half, little or nothing would be obtainable from local recollections; and that the voice of tradition would be totally silent, or, if it spoke at all, would speak only in broken and indistinct murmurs. And such VOL. I.

a

in some degree is the case. The shadows of forgetfulness have closed upon almost all that Leighton said or did, of which the memory has not been perpetuated by its connexion with matters of political interest: and even of those little anecdotes, which have reached this distant period with his name engraven on them, the descent is commonly so obscure and uncertain, that it has been thought better to reject what may possibly be genuine, than to run any risk of admitting what is spurious. It is almost needless to state, that Bishop Burnet's History of his own Times is the staple, from which a large proportion of the ensuing narrative is taken; nothing of any consequence which is told in that work being omitted in this memoir. One repository, however, has been unlocked to the present editor, which was not accessible to his predecessors. He has had the perusal of a manuscript letter, addressed to Bishop Burnet by Mr. Edward Lightmaker, in which the writer, who was son to that sister with whom the Archbishop passed his last ten years, recounts whatever particulars he could call to mind of his uncle's habits of life and discourse. To verify this manuscript by external evidence has been found impossible: but the internal proof is too strong to leave any reasonable doubt of its being the autograph of

Leighton's nephew; and its genuineness being ascertained, no question can arise about its authenticity. The composition of it is confused and disorderly: for the worthy writer has put down the memorable actions and sayings of his revered uncle, as they occurred to his memory; interspersing many pious and affectionate remarks, which are creditable to his disposition indeed, but prejudicial to the distinctness of his narration. It has been one principal business of the present biographer, to extract the jewels from this heap; and to arrange them in the order, that chronology seemed to prescribe, or that served best to reflect light on the Archbishop's character. One of the surest proofs of the genuineness of this document arises from copies of four letters subjoined to it, bearing Leighton's signature.

Besides drawing largely from this mine, into which no shaft had previously been sunk, I have endeavoured, by ransacking a variety of records for incidental notices of the subject, to enrich this memoir with new particulars, and to rectify former inaccuracies concerning facts and dates. To this end, the manuscripts in the Advocates' Library, and the Town Register of Edinburgh, have been carefully inspected; and nothing, I believe, has been over

looked, that would have contributed to our object, among the various papers in the College Library at Glasgow. Moreover, the "Memoranda of Dr. Robert Leighton, Bishop of Dumblain, by Bishop Kennet," which are included in the Lansdown manuscripts, have been collated with the chapter in Wodrow's History which treats of the attempted Accommodation, and proves to be a transcript from the former, with a few inconsiderable additions. For some of these researches I have been indebted to Mr. Fleming, the Librarian of Glasgow College; and for some to Dr. M'Crie of Edinburgh, than whom, the public will unanimously allow, an abler auxiliary could not be desired in biographical investigations. The Rev. Mr. Grierson, also, the respectable minister of Dunblane, has been at pains, which I regret to add have proved unavailing, to detect any relics of the venerable saint, which had not yet mouldered away, nor been discovered and enshrined by any antecedent historian. Upon the whole, however, the success of our researches has gone beyond our anticipations; and scattered fragments have been recovered, which are found, when put together, of value sufficient to overpay the labour it has cost to gather them up. If not enough

to fill up the chasms, by which the circumstances already known of the holy Prelate's life are widely severed, they yet shorten those blank intervals; they furnish links for connecting many incidents of his public career; and the glimpses we catch of him, though still lamentably "few and far between," are no longer so few and so widely apart, as to exhibit him, in his successive re-appearances, like a friend returning to us after an absence so protracted, that we with difficulty recognise his features.

In the biographical relation, now presented to the world, the public conduct of Leighton is discussed in such detail, as may possibly be deemed an invasion of the province of history. But I felt it incumbent on me to treat this part of my subject with an almost historical minuteness; because, after balancing friendly against hostile representations, I became fully satisfed that those deeds of his life, which are sometimes thought to tarnish his fair fame, are the very deeds, which will be found, if truly represented, to set the seal on his reputation for purity of purpose and for religious devotedness. In delineating Leighton's personal character, it has been my stedfast aim, to avoid the insnaring fault of drawing a beautiful portrait, and naming it after the subject of the memoir, instead of copying with scrupulous exact