of it with others that prize it little, have but low conceits of it, and do indeed find as little in it, as they look for. But oh! what precious consolation and grace doth a believer meet with at this banquet? How richly is the table furnished to his eye; what plentiful varieties employ his hand and taste? what abundance of rare dainties? Yet there is nothing but one here, but that one is all things to the believing soul, it finds his love is sweeter than the richest wine to the taste, or best odours to the smell; and that delightful word of his, Thy sins are forgiven thee, is the only music to a distressed conscience."

'The works of our author, however, are not merely suitable and highly gratifying to a spiritual taste. Without a single exception they are eminently practical. The great design of preaching is, not to amuse the fancy, not to store the understanding; but to make men wise and good, to form the heart, and regulate the conduct. Leighton excels in explaining and urging religious and moral duties; and he always grafts and builds them on the doctrines of the gospel. These are the proper root of the tree, and the only foundation of a good superstructure. It is painful to observe, that some who bear the name of ministers subvert, by the

order, or rather the disorder, of their inculcating morality, all the principles of scripture, of reason, and of common sense. In any other case, they would be reckoned worse than foolish. Our author never loses sight, for a moment, either of the necessity of religious and moral conduct, or of the place which it should occupy. Some of his discourses are entirely practical; but still he keeps in view the root and foundation. In other discourses which are doctrinal, he intersperses practical hints; and shews at large the necessity of obedience to the law, in both its essential parts. His highest raptures are the reverse of enthusiasm: as they lead, with increased force, to the way of the divine commandments.

But the crowning excellence of Leighton's discourses is, the rich and deep vein of experimental religion which runs through them all. Experimental religiòn is to the practice of piety and morality, what life is to motion, or the heart to the body; the necessary spring and impulse, The former, too, always includes proper exercise of soul, or is accompanied with it. The God of grace meets those who rejoice, and work righteousness; those who remember him in his ways; and ask the way to Sion, with their faces thitherwards. Discourses, in which religious

experience and religious exercise are totally omitted, or scarcely ever touched, are essentially defective. The tree must be made good, that the fruit may be sound and sweet; the fountain be purified, that the waters may be salutary. Accordingly, Leighton often urges the absolute necessity of the first and radical experience of religion, in a change of nature. He dwells frequently on religious experiences and exercises both pleasant and painful; on the various workings of gracious principles, and of remaining depravity. Our author, at the same time, warns against enthusiasm; or heat without light, impression without practice. While on the one hand he directs and comforts the genuine saint; on the other he exposes and alarms the self-deceiver.Some have remarked, and justly, that among the reasons why the gospel is committed to men, and not to angels, God in wisdom and kindness intended that his servants should be capable of entering deeply into the feelings of their hearers, of experiencing the power of saving grace, and exemplifying all the duties of religion. Leighton, in this point of view, was an experimental and practical preacher. He writes like one who knew and felt the terrors of the Lord, and who had also tasted that the Lord is gracious. He appears, in various instances, to be detailing his own experience and

exercise; and sometimes passes from instruction to confession, ejaculation, and praise. As a nurse, he is not only gentle, and cherisheth; but takes by the arms, and teaches to go; and feeds his beloved charge with the same provision which, like the milk of a nurse, had been first received and digested by himself.

Yet, this is the person whom the infidelhistorian, Hume, (Oh! the shame; ah! the grief), passes over in total silence; while he veils the treachery and cruelties of the infamous Sharpe, who did greater injury to the cause of religion than a thousand deists. How wide the difference, how marked the contrast, between the arch-bishop of St. Andrew's, and the archbishop of Glasgow! The former an angel of darkness, the latter an angel of light; the one a curse to the world, and the other a blessing.

If several cities contended for the honour of being the birth-place of Homer; England and Scotland, London and Edinburgh, Dunblane and Broadhurst, may lawfully claim Leighton as their own. England gave him birth, and Scotland gave him education; the latter was the scene of his active labours; the former the scene of his pious retirement from the world, and of his departure from this vale of tears:

Dunblane possesses his valuable library, and Broadhurst contains his precious dust.

What would be the glory of the Churches of England and Scotland, if all their pulpits, or the majority of them, were filled with such ministers as Leighton; particularly in the fundamental and essential qualities of orthodoxy and piety! Both churches, indeed, have their ornaments, and living ones too, who would reflect lustre on any society. But, the greater part, alas! preach another gospel. Of all the bishops in modern times, the late Dr. Horne, perhaps, came the nearest to our author, in his reluctant acceptance of a bishoprick, and in his calm departure in a lodging-house; especially, in the fervour of his piety, the amiableness of his temper, and the sweetness of his compositions. To those unacquainted with Bishop Horne's writings, the following specimen, which the reader may compare with Leighton's manner, must be acceptable. It is taken from the preface to his Commentary on the Book of Psalms.

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Could the author flatter himself, that any one would have half the pleasure in reading the following exposition, which he hath had in writing it, he would not fear the loss of his labour.