21* S. X. Sept. 15. 'CO.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



213 



— it is their ery for food. We think this very likely ; 

 but, in order to realise the idea, the sound should be 

 heard. Perhaps some of our correspondents, who have 

 had more extended opportunities of investigation, may 

 be able to throw some farther light upon this subject.] 



BISHOP HICKES V. ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. 

 (2'"J S. X. 124.) 



If Bp. Hickes wrote the work and the passage 

 in it above referred to, it only furnishes another 

 instance of the ill effect which party-spirit and 

 controversial times exercise on the best of men. 

 If there be a redeeming point in Bishop Burnet's 

 character, it is his appreciation of such men as 

 Leighton and Scougal ; yet even this indication 

 of his better, nobler self, Burnet's adversaries take 

 as ground for fresh animadversion. Bp. Hickes 

 sees in the saintly Robert Leighton only " an 

 usurper of the see of Glasgow, a great libertine 

 in comprehension, and an enthusiast of the first 

 magnitude." 



It is true that there are certain passages in the 

 life and writings of Abp. Leighton which every 

 churchman must regret : doubtless he committed 

 some grave errors of judgment, and, in his endea- 

 vors to reconcile the Presbyterians, compromised 

 Church Principles to a serious extent, catching a 

 Tartar after all, as invariably follows in such 

 cases. Yet he was not singular in this, for it 

 appears that none of the Scotch Bishops, except 

 Bp. Mitchell, imposed reordination.* That he had 

 some misgivings about the soundness of his views, 

 appears from his own words addressed to the un- 

 compromising Presbyterians at the conference held 

 at the house of Lord Rothes : — • 



" My sole object has been to promote peace, and to ad- 

 vance the interests of true Religion. In following up this 

 object, I have made several proposals, which, I am fully 

 sensible, involved great diminutions of the just rights of 

 Episcopacy. Yet, since all Church power is intended for 

 edification, and not for destruction, I thought that, in our 

 present circumstances. Episcopacy might do more for the 

 prosperity of Christ's Kingdom by relaxing some of its 

 just pretensions, than it could by keeping hold of all its 

 rightful authority. It is not from any mistrust of the 

 soundness of our cause, that I have offered these abate- 

 ments; for I am well convinced that Episcopacy has 

 subsisted from the Apostolic age of the Church. Perhaps 

 I may have wronged my own order in making such large 

 concessions: but the unerring Discerner of Hearts will 

 justify my motives; and I hope ere long to stand excused 

 with my own brethren," &.c.\ 



The fact is, Leighton had great disadvantages 

 to contend with, both from his early education 

 and prejudices, as well as from the chaotic times 

 he lived in. He seems never to have clearly 



* Cf. a work entitled The Present State of Scotland, by 

 Matthias Symson, Canon of Lincoln ; Mr. Pearson quotes 

 it at p. xci. 



t Cf. Pearson, p. xcv. 



grasped those Principles and Truths on which the 

 Church was founded, and which make it what it 

 Is. This necessarily led him into much inconsis- 

 tency. Thus, to use his own words, he was so 

 " well convinced that Episcopacy has subsisted 

 from the Apostolic age of the Church," that he 

 took the solemn and decided step of leaving the 

 religious sect in which he had been brought up, 

 and joining the Church : nay more, after being a 

 Presbyterian minister, he, as a layman, received 

 the Three Orders at the hands of the Church of 

 Laud. Yet even in this very act he seems so little 

 to have understood the great Tact, as well as doc- 

 trine, of Apostolical Succession, and to have been 

 so little aware that it is the sine qua non of Church 

 Unity, Church Principles — even of Church Ex- 

 istence — that he actually declares that " the re- 

 ordaining a priest ordanied in another Church, 

 imported no more, but that they received him 

 into Orders according to their own rules ; and did 

 not infer the annulling the orders he had formerly 

 received." * In the same way he sanctioned the 

 monstrous Erastianism of the Assertory Act which 

 deposed Abp. Burnet from the see of Glasgow ; 

 and " intruded " into his chair as Bp. Hickes com- 

 plains ; though, to do him justice, he shewed the 

 utmost repugnance to this step, and persistently 

 resisted it till he was induced to believe it would 

 promote the great object of his life, viz. the 

 Glory of God, and the Peace and Welfare of His 

 Church. 



As to Abp. Leighton's Works, they contain 

 scarcely anything that a Churchman could object 

 to. To quote Dr. Fall's words : — 



" The Author was so averse to all Controversies, that 

 he thought the best way to refine some low notions was 

 to graft great and high thoughts on them. And there- 

 fore instead of attacking them, or disputing about them, 

 he studied to improve them to some pious reflection. If 

 he went along with some of the received Notions of that 

 Age and Place he lived in, he made them much brighter, 

 and less offensive, by his way of handling them."t 



I may appropriately close this reply to Bp. 

 Hickes in the Avords of that most pious and 

 learned Churchman William Wogan, who thus 

 introduces Burnet's account of Leighton : — 



" In the Preface to the first Edition of his Sermons, it 

 is mentioned that his Life would soon be published ; but 

 not meeting witii it after much inquiry, we are obliged to 

 extract the following account from Bp. Burnet's History 

 of His Own Times who was intimately acquainted with 

 the Author [s/c]. And although some may, on that score, 

 have a less regard for the Testimony and Character given, 

 yet whoever can so far divest himself of prejudice, as 

 candidly to attend to the rich vein of genuine and sincere 

 Piety which shines throughout these Discourses, and com- 

 pares it with the exalted Character wliich that Writer 

 gives him, will find no reason to suspect it of Partiality. 

 And indeed our Author so lives in his Works, that the 



* Cf. Pearson, p. xlvii. 



•j- Preface to the Eighteen Sermons. Cf. Wogan's " Short 

 Explanatory Essays " appended to his edition. 



