up in a chair, for an hour; and was not very faint, when he went to bed. He does not care to talk much; but, when he does, speaks, for the most part, well. His expressions are so suddenly spoken, that many of them are lost, & cannot be taken [down]; yet, I believe, some part of what he has said, will be remember'd.

I told my son, that I heard Mr. Fanshaw said, that he hop'd he wou'd recover, and leave those principles he now profess'd. He answered, ، Wretch ! I wish I had convers'd, all my life-time with linkboys, rather than with him, & that crew; such, I mean, as Fanshaw is. Indeed, I wou'd not live, to return to what I was, for all the world.' I desire the continuance of your prayers, & all the good people who has been kind, in remembering my son in their prayers. I told him, that you pray'd for him heartily. He said,.. Pray thank my good aunt; and remember my service to her, & my uncle.' My daughter remembers her service to you. Dear sister, whatever becomes of me, thro' my afflictions, I am sincerely

Madam,

Your faithful friend, and affectionate servant,

A. ROCHESTER.

For the Lady St. John at Battersea.

Leave this to be sent with safety, at Mr. Dryden's in King Street, at the sign of the pestle and mortar, Westminster, London.

CHARACTERS

SELECTED FROM

BISHOP BURNET'S HISTORY

OF

HIS OWN TIMES.

'Through all varieties of climes, of tongues, of laws, of customs; through all alternations of barbarism and civilization; through all migrations of people, changes of empire, and confusion of the tribes of mankind; .. through all these impediments, the CHURCH OF GOD has come down to us, uninterrupted and triumphant: and, uninterrupted and triumphant, our Saviour hath assured us, it shall proceed unto the end.'.. ROBERT WILSON EVANS.

ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTOUN.*

WITH theset, there was a fourth man found out, who was then at London, on his return from the Bath, where he had been for his health and on him I will enlarge more copiously. He was the son of doctor Leightoun, who had, in archbishop Laud's time, writ Zion's plea against the prelates'; for which, he was condemned, in the star-chamber, to have his ears cut, and his nose slit. He was a man of a violent and ungoverned heat. He sent his eldest son Robert, to be bred in Scotland, who was accounted a saint from his youth up. He [Robert Leightoun, afterwards archbishop] had great quickness of parts, a lively apprehension, with a charming vivacity of thought and expression. He had the greatest command of the purest Latin, that I ever knew in any man. He was a master, both of Greek and Hebrew, and of the whole compass of theological learning; chiefly in the study of the scriptures‡, But that which excelled all the rest, was, he was

* Bishop Burnet's spelling of this name, is retained throughout the text: the usual mode of spelling, has been preferred in the notes.

The three persons named for vacant bishopricks in Scotland, after the restoration.

His French bible, now in the library of Dunblane, is marked in numerous places; and the blank leaves of it are filled with extracts made by his own pen, from Jerome, Chrysostom, Gregory Nazianzen, and several other fathers. But the bible which he had in daily use, gave yet stronger testimony, to his intimate and delightful acquaintance with its contents. ⚫ Scarce a line in that sacred psalter,' writes his nephew, that hath passed without the stroke of his pencil.".. Pearson's Life of abp. Leighton. p. cxxi.