66 trance on the ministry, as well as in retiring so early as he did from its more laborious province, he acted agreeably to his avowed opinion, that some men preach too soon, and some too long." His judgment of what is most reverent towards God corresponded with those canons of the Levitical economy, which prescribe a mature age for engaging in the more arduous department of the sacerdotal office, and grant an honourable superannuation at that period of life, when the strength of mind and body commonly begins to decay. It was on the sixteenth day of December, A. D. 1641, that Leighton was ordained and admitted minister of Newbottle, in Midlothian, a parish in the presbytery of Dalkeith. No pains have been spared to retrieve traditional reminiscences of the manner in which this exemplary pastor discharged the duties of an office which he was so religiously fearful of undertaking. But research has been fruitless. No traces remain of his parochial ministrations, which doubtless fill an ample page in that book of Divine remembrance, from which no work of faith, no labour of love, is ever obliterated. Of the general tenor, however, of his life and ministerial occupations, we have a few invaluable notices in Burnet's History of his own Time. Engrossed with the care of his parish, he seldom mixed in the convocations of the presbyters, to whom indeed he was obnoxious, because he condemned their practice of descanting on the Covenant from the pulpit, and their stern determination to force that bitter morsel on conscientious objectors. It was his aim to win converts to Jesus Christ, not proselytes to a party. And exemplary indeed must he have been, if that picture of a finished evangelist, which his intimate friend has produced in the beautiful Discourse of the Pastoral Care, was faithfully copied from the lively pattern exhibited by Leighton. Yet the blameless sanctity of his manners, his professional excellence, and his studious inoffensiveness, were not enough to content the zealots of his church. In a synod he was publicly reprimanded for not "preaching up the times." Who," he asked, "does 66 preach up the times?" the brethren did it. It was answered that all "Then," he rejoined, "if all of you preach up the times, you may surely allow one poor brother to preach up eternity." Christ Jesus and Although Leighton was averse both by temper and principle from meddling with politics, yet there were certain conjunctures of perplexity and peril, in which he thought himself bound to set an example to his flock of intrepid loyalty. In the year 1648, he acceded to the Engagement for the King; a step which would have involved him in serious trouble with the republican government, but for the interposition of the Earl of Lothian, and the charm of his personal character. When the Engagement expired in the discomfiture of those enterprises to which it had given birth, he was placed in a very delicate predicament; in which, however, his behaviour was creditable not less to his political discretion, than to his Christian boldness and integrity. Called VOL. I. b upon in his official capacity to admonish some of his parishioners, from whom there was a public profession of repentance for their concern in that very Engagement to which he had himself 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 observing the faults under which the presbyterian discipline labours, to an attentive examination of the episcopal form, notwithstanding the antipathy to it which had been instilled into him with his mother's milk, and which must have been augmented by a pious resentment of his father's sufferings. 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 becoming a moderate episcopalian, breathed nothing towards his former associates but good-will and kindness. 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 of Calvinistic construction, but from hearty repugnance to that system of spiritual despotism, which had been linked by violent and ambitious men with the presbyterian cause. It must have been in the latter part of his residence at Newbottle that a calamity befel him, which gave occasion to a striking manifestation of his indif ference to money, of his large-heartedness and piety, At his father's death, he came into possession of about a thousand pounds, which constituted his whole property. This sum he placed, or allowed 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 invest it more safely. Leighton's reply to this good counsel is highly 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. Sir, Your affectionate brother, December 31, 1649. 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 gathered 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 |