42 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[2'>'i S. VIII. July 16. '59. 



cullies what to do with them ; till they maturely con- 

 sidered the difference there ought to be made between a 

 settled resolute purpose, and an humble answer to a ques- 

 tion put to him concerning them." — Epistle to the Header 

 prefixed to. the First Edition of the Sermons. 



Of these MSS., some have been irrecoverably 

 lost, and the rest have been published at different 

 intervals, from 1692 to 1808.* It may be con- 

 venient to give here the title of the received and 

 standard edition of Leighton's complete works, 

 viz. Mr. Pearson's edition : 



" The Whole Wokks of the Most Reverend Father in 

 God, Robert Leighton, D.D., Archbishop of Glasgow. 

 To which is prefixed A Life of the Author, By The Rev. 

 John Norman Pearson, M.A., of Trinity College, Cam- 

 bridge. A New Edition. In Four Volumes. London : 

 Printed for James Duncan, Paternoster Row. mdcccxxv." 



Mr. Pearson's bibliography of these Works is 

 meagre in the extreme so far as it goes, and that 

 is only as far as the year 1708, after which he 

 curtly remarks, " The later editions of his works 

 are sufficiently known." — Vol. i. p. clxxvii. He 

 does not even give any account of the editions of 

 his immediate predecessors, Jermentf and Mid- 

 dleton.J Moreover, Mr. Pearson gives us no 

 clue as to his own mode and plan of editing : as 

 to whether he simply reprinted Leighton's Works 

 as he found them, — and in that case, what edi- 

 tions he followed; or whether he attempted to 

 revise and correct them, and in that case, how 

 far. 



Dr. Fall was the original editor of Leighton's 

 Works, and very carelessly he did his work. The 

 first of them which appeared was a volume of 

 Eighteen Sermons, London, 1692. 8vo. Dr. Fall's 

 Preface is an excellent one, and ought to be re- 

 printed in any 'careful edition of Leighton ; as 

 also his prefaces to the Comment on St. Peter, 

 Posthumous Tracts, &c., none of which Mr. Pear- 

 son gives.§ 



One of my chief objects in writing this note is 

 to direct attention to the second edition of these 

 sermons. It is thus entitled : — 



" Eighteen Sermons Preached by the Most Reverend 

 Dr. Robert Leighton, formerly Archbishop of Glas- 

 gow. First Published in 1692. At the Desire of his 

 Friends, from his Papers written with liis own hand : 

 And now Reprinted : Wherein all obvious Errors of the 

 Press are amended : Some Notes added for the sake of 

 the common Reader : And an Account of his Life pre- 



* The Lectures on the First Nine Cliapters of St. Mat- 

 thew's Goapel were first printed in Dr. Jerment's Edition 

 of the Works published in 1805—1808. 



■j- Leighton's Whole Works, with Life, §t., hi/ Rev. Geo. 

 Jerment. Lo7id. 1820. 4 vols. 8vo. Jerment's first edition 

 was ill 5 vols. 8vo. 1805, 6, 8. 



J Leighton's Works by Rev. Erasmus Middleton. I^ond. 

 1818. 4 vols. 



I have never seen either of these works, but thej' seem 

 to have been completely superseded by Pearson's edition. 

 Middleton's first edition was in 4 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1805. 



§ Some account of Dr. Fall is given by Mr. Pearson at 

 p. civ. The Editor of Rivington's edition calls him '' A 

 Scottish Divine and a Prebendary of York," — P. xvii. 



fixed. With an Appendix at the end, containing Expli- 

 cations of the Disputed Points of Justification, Assurance, 

 &c. And an Index of the most material things. . . . 

 London : Printed for J. Rivington, in St. Paul's Church- 

 yard. M.D.cc.xLV." 8vo. pp. 347. numbered, and pp. 57. 

 unnumbered. 



Though I call the above the second edition, it 

 would appear from Dr. Fall's preface to the 1st 

 vol. of the Comment on St. Peter, printed in 1693, 

 that the Sermons were reprinted either the same 

 year in which they first appeared, or the following 

 year ; — 



" Thou mayest remember, in publishing some of this 

 Author's Discourses [i. e. the Sermons'] about t^vo years 

 ago, a promise was made, that if they happened to be well 

 received, more of them should see the light. The gene- 

 ral acceptance they have met with, and the necessity the 

 Sooksellers found to make a secotid edition (though, by the 

 Printer's oversight, very incorrect) are sufficient grounds 

 to oblige me to the making good that promise," &c. 



The third edition of the Sermons, if I mistake 

 not, is thus entitled : — 



" Abp. Leighton's Select Works, containing Eighteen 

 Sermons, Exposition on the Creed, Lord's Prayer, and 

 Ten Commandments, with Ten new Sermons, &c. Edin- 

 burgh. Printed for David Wilson, m.dccxlvi." 



Dr. Doddridge, in the preface to the edition of 

 Leighton's Expository Works, published by D. 

 Wilson in two vols. 8vo., Edinburgh, 1748, speaks 

 of the third edition of the Sermons, as " that valu- 

 able edition of them published by Mr. Wilson at 

 Edinburgh two years ago, in comparison of which, 

 nevertheless, it is certain that neither of the for- 

 mer are to be named." By this it is evident that 

 Dr. Doddridge knew of only three editions of the 

 Sermons at the time he wrote. So I must make 

 a Query * with regard to the "second edition" 

 Dr. Fall speaks of, and meantime ignore it till 

 better informed. 



Wilson's " valuable edition " of the Sermons I 

 have never seen, but have good reason for doubt- 

 ing that it equals, much less surpasses, that of 

 Rivington. This latter, which I call the second, 

 is indeed a valuable edition. In it we can see at 

 a glance both the text as it stood in the first edi- 

 tion, and the corrections which are necessary ; 

 obscure passages are explained, and quotations 

 verified in many excellent notes ; moreover, there 

 are useful prefaces, &c., and a very good index. 

 In fact, as a critical edition, it will be found indis- 

 pensable. 



The editor of this edition (whoever he bef) 

 observes of the Sermons : — 



"Ashe [Abp. Leighton] did not publish them in his 

 lifetime, so we may presume from the form he left them 

 that he had no thought of ever letting them see the light : 



[* In a fly-leaf of the Commentary on St. Peter, 1701, 

 the Eighteen Sermons are advertised as having been 

 printed in 1691. The edition of 1692 would thus seem to 

 be the booksellers' reprint that Fall speaks of] 



[t It is ascribed to Wm. Wogan, Esq., of Ealing, 

 the learned commentator upon the Proper Lessons of the 

 Church of England. See " N. & Q." 1'* S. xi. 245.] 



