viour was not less creditable to his political discretion, than to his christian boldness and integrity. Called upon in his official capacity to admonish some of his parishioners, after they had made a public profession of repentance for being actively concerned in that Engagement to which he himself had subscribed, he directed their consciences to the many offences against morality and religion which they had committed in the course of their military service; and of these, without touching on the grounds of the expedition and the merits of their cause, he solemnly charged them to repent. About this time, we find him in correspondence with several of the episcopal clergy, and especially with Bishop Burnet's father, His mind seems to have been led by observation of the faults under which the presbyterian discipline labours, to an attentive examination of the episcopal form, against which he had imbibed the strongest aversion with his mother's milk; an aversion, which would gather strength from sympathy with his father, of whose martyrdom, as he would be taught to esteem it, his soul must have drunk in a deep resentment. Although Leighton never considered any particular mode of ecclesiastical polity a point of sufficient moment to justify schism, yet it is clear that from this time he regarded the episcopal model, as adapted beyond any other to the edification of the church universal. Assuredly it was no prospect of secular preferment, that helped him to shake off the prepossessions of his early years; for his worldly interest pointed another way. Besides, conversions, to which unrighteous motives have conduced, are usually characterized by extraordinary bitterness against the deserted party; whereas Leighton, after he was become a moderate episcopalian, breathed nothing but good-will and kindness towards his former associates. He wholly sequestered himself, indeed, from their legislative conclaves, and at length relinquished his cure. But he took this last step, not from any scruple about continuing to officiate in a church framed on the Genevese platform, but from a hearty repugnance to that system of spiritual despotism, which had been linked by violent and ambitious men with the cause of presbytery. It must have been in the latter part of his residence at Newbottle that a calamity befel him, which elicited a striking manifestation of his indifference to money, of his large-heartedness and piety. At his father's death, he came into possession of about a thousand pounds; which sum was in fact his whole property. This he placed, or suffered to remain, in the hands of a merchant without adequate security; notwithstanding the remonstrances of Mr. Lightmaker, his brother-in-law, who urged him to come up to London and vest it more safely. Leighton's reply to this good counsel is very characteristic. SIR, I thank you for your letter. That you give me notice of I desire to consider as becomes a Christian, and to prepare to wait for my own removal. What business follows upon my father's may be well enough done without me, as I have writ more at large to Mr. E, and desired him to show you the letter when you meet. Any pittance belonging to me may possibly be useful and needful for my subsistence; but truly if something else draw me not, I shall never bestow so long a journey on that I account so mean a business. Remember my love to my sister your wife, and to my brother and sister Rathband, as you have opportunity. I am glad to hear of the welfare of you all, and above all things wish for myself and you all our daily increase in likeness to Jesus Christ, and growing heavenwards, where he is who is our treasure. To his grace I recommend you. December 31, 1649. Sir, Your affectionate brother, Before long, the event anticipated by Mr. Lightmaker took place. The merchant failed, and Leighton's patrimony was irretrievably lost. How he took this misfortune may be learnt from the following letter to his brother-in-law. SIR, Your kind advice I cannot but thank you for, but I am not easily taught that lesson. I confess it is the wiser way to trust nobody; but there is so much of the fool in my nature as carries me rather to the other extreme, to trust every body. Yet I will endeavour to take the best courses I can in that little business you write of. It is true there is a lawful, yea a needful, diligence in such things: but, alas! how poor are they to the portion of believers, where our treasure is. That little that was in Mr. E.'s hands hath failed me; but I shall either have no need of it, or be supplied some other way. And this is the relief of my rolling thoughts, that while I am writing this, this moment is passing away, and all the hazards of want and sickness shall be at an end. My mother writes to me, and presses my coming up. I know not yet if 'that can be; but I intend, God willing, so soon as I can conveniently, if I come not, to take some course that things be done as if I were there. I hope you will have patience in the mean time. Remember Remember my love to my sisters. The Lord be with you, and lead you in his ways. Newbottle, Feb. 4th, 1650. Your loving Brother, R. LEIGHTON. Being in England sometime afterwards, his recent loss was touched upon by Mr. Lightmaker, who regretted that he had so sadly misplaced his confidence. "Oh! no more of that," cried Leighton; "the good man has escaped from the care and vexation of that business." "What, is that all you make of the matter?" rejoined his brother-in-law with surprise. Truly," answered the other, "if the Duke of Newcastle, after losing nineteen times as much of yearly income, can dance and sing, while the solid hopes of christianity will not avail to support us, we had better be as the world." 66 Somewhere about this time,-for the date cannot be assigned with certainty,-there happened an accident, which drew forth a proof of his admirable self-possession in the sudden prospect of death. He had taken the water at the Savoy stairs, in company with his brother Sir Ellis, his lady, and some others, and was on his way to Lambeth, when, owing to some mismanagement, the boat was in imminent danger of going to the bottom. While the rest of the party were pale with terror, and most of them crying out, Leighton never for a moment lost his accustomed serenity. To some, who afterwards expressed their astonishment at his calmness, he replied; "Why, what harm would it have been, if we had all been safe landed on the other side?" In the habit of dying daily, and of daily conversing with the world of spirits, he could never be surprised or disconcerted by a summons to depart out of the body. Another anecdote of him, which bears witness to his devout equanimity on perilous occasions, belongs to this period of his history. During the civil wars, when the royalist army was lying in Scotland, Leighton was anxious to visit his brother, who bore arms in the king's service, before an engagement which was daily expected should take place. On his way to the camp he was benighted in the midst of a vast thicket; and having deviated from the path, he sought in vain for an outlet. Almost spent with fatigue and hunger, he began to think his situation desperate, and dismounting he spread his cloak upon the ground, and knelt down to pray. With implicit devotion he resigned his soul to God; entreating, however, that if it were not the divine plea. sure for him then to conclude his days, some way of deliverance might be opened. Then remounting his horse, he threw the reins upon its neck; and the animal left to itself, or rather to the conduct of an Almighty Providence, made straight into the high road, threading all the mazes of the wood with unerring certainty. In the year 1652, after eleven years of close resi |