degree of wrong done them (as they think in that point of power), or whether they had not sufficiently acquitted themselves, and discharged their consciences by free declaring of their opinion concerning that matter, and modestly desiring the redress of it; and patiently waiting for it, though it be not presently redressed, and continuing in the performance of their own duty to their power, though others above them, or about them, do transgress theirs, or seem at least to them to do so; otherwise, if we think ourselves obliged for every thing that is, or that we judge faulty in other persons, or in the frame of things, to relinquish either the communion of it, or our station in it, what will there be but endless swarms of separations and divisions in any church under the sun.

But there is one thing in this business of ours that sticks after all the rest-the covenant. As to that, waiving all the irregularities of it, though so many and so great, that in the judgment of divers, both wise and good men, they seem to annul the obligation of it, suppose it still to bind all that took it, and suppose likewise, that the present episcopacy in this church is that same that was abjured in that covenant; yet the article relating thereto obliges each one only to this, to endeavour within their calling and station, if such an episcopacy shall be introduced and continued against their will. But the truth is, if men would have the patience to inquire into it, and consider the thing without prejudice and partiality, this our episcopacy will be found not to be the same with that abjured in that covenant: for that is the government of bishops and archbishops absolutely by themselves and their delegates, chancellors, archdeacons, officials, &c. as it is expressed in the very words of the article, and was on purpose so expressed, to difference that frame from other forms of episcopacy, and particularly from that which is exercised by bishops jointly with presbyters in presbyteries and synods, and that is it which is now used in this church. And that the presbyterians in England do generally take notice of this difference, and to that

excii degree, as to account the one model contrary to the covenant, and the other not contrary to it, but very well agreeing with it, is a thing that none can deny, nor any that uses diligence to inquire can be ignorant of, for it is clear in divers treatises extant in print. These things, to my best discerning, are truths; and if they be indeed so, I am sure are pertinent truths, toward the healing of our sad divisions; but if any like to be contentious, I wish I could say of this church, we have no such custom but this certainly may be said, that there is no custom doth more disedify the churches of God and less become the followers of the Prince of peace. I shall only add one word which I am sure is undeniable, and I think is very considerable, that he that cannot join with the present frame of this church, could not have lived in the communion of the christian church in the time of the first most famous general assembly of it, the Council of Nice, yea (to go no higher up, though safely I might) he must as certainly have separated from the whole catholic church in the days of the holy bishop and martyr, Cyprian, upon this very scruple of the government, as Novatus did upon another occasion.

TWO LETTERS BY ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON.

DR. DODDRIDGE'S PREFACE*.

WHEN Mr. Wilson undertook to publish several pieces of Archbishop Leighton, from the manuscripts in which they had so long lain concealed, having heard of the high esteem I have long professed for the writings of that excellent person, he entreated me that I would revise them, and if I approve the publication, would introduce them into the world by a recommendatory preface. The last of these requests I absolutely refused, knowing how very unworthy I am to pretend, by my suffrage, to add any thing to the reputation and acceptance of what came from the pen of so eminently great and good a man; and the more I know of him, and of myself, the more deeply sensible I must be of his. But with the former request I cheerfully complied, though my various and important business would have furnished a very plausible excuse for declining it. I apprehended that these pieces were not very large, and I knew that, like all the other remains of our incomparable Author, they were not designed for the press; so that it was probable they were written in a very hasty manner, considering how well he knew the

* Drawn up for the Edition of Archbishop Leighton's Expository Works, in two volumes, octavo, published by David Wilson, Edinburgh, 1748. VOL. I.

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value of time, and how entirely he was superior to popular applause in all his compositions for the pulpit, as most of these were. The numberless errors which I had observed in the first edition of all his English works, by which the sense of many passages is absolutely destroyed, and that of scores and hundreds very much obscured, made me the more ready to attempt the paying this little tribute of respect to his memory, which no words or actions can fully express; and I was morally certain, that whatever came from such a pen would be so entertaining and improving, that I could not fail of being immediately and abundantly rewarded for whatever pains it might cost me to prepare it for the public.

When these manuscripts came to my hands, I found new reasons to be satisfied with the task I had undertaken, which indeed was welcome to me in proportion to the degree in which I perceived it must be laborious. The papers which were sent me, were copies of others, which I suppose were transcribed from short-hand notes, which some skilful writer had happily taken from the Archbishop's mouth. They were beyond comparison more inaccurate than those of his printed works, which are most remarkably so; and yet they contained such inimitable traces of sweet natural eloquence, and of genuine and lively piety, as speak the author far more certainly, than the most exact resemblance of what was known to be his hand-writing could possibly have done.

Besides a large collection of letters, of which I shall afterwards speak, the papers consisted of his medita

tions and expositions on Psalm xxxix., on part of Rom. xii., and the whole sixth of Isaiah. On this last sublime and instructive portion of scripture, there were three distinct expositions, delivered, as I suppose, at different places; the latter being, so far as I could judge, supplemental to the former, yet so that additions were made to almost every verse, and sometimes the same things which had been said before, expressed in a different manner. I judged it consistent with the strictest fidelity owing to the works of so illustrious a person, (which absolutely forbade my adding or diminishing any thing) to divide them, and incorporate them into one whole, which could not possibly be done without transcribing the pieces, omitting those passages in the former, that were afterwards more copiously or more correctly expressed in the latter, and inserting here and there a line or two, by way of connexion, to prevent those disagreeable chasms which would otherwise have defaced much of its beauty. For the rest, the reader may assure himself, that if (which I cannot doubt) these papers came genuine into my hand, they are now entirely so, in every sentence and in every clause; for in those very few places where the sense was to me absolutely unintelligible, and the construction incurably ungrammatical, I chose rather to drop such imperfect fragments, than by uncertain additions of my own, to run the risk of imputing to the good Archbishop what I was not sure he ever wrote. Had these fragments contained hints of any things curious in criticism, history, or controversy of any kind, I would have published them apart, at the end of these volumes :