LEIGHTON is universally allowed to be. He highly deserved to be introduced by some person of eminence; yea, by the late Rev. James Hervey himself, -He has indeed exalted him already in the following words. "Thus says an excellent Author [LEIGHTON;] "who writes with the most amiable spirit of benevolence; with the most unaffected air of humility; and "like the sacred originals, from which he copies with "a majestic simplicity of style."

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That this work, once more, may be made useful to the church of God, is the sincere prayer of,

HENRY FOSTER.

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 approved 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 this. 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 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 te 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 whatever pains it might -cost me to prepare it for the public.

and abundantly rewarded for

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, these papers consisted of his Meditations and Expositions on Psalm xxxix.;on part of Romans xii.; and on 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, as 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 piece, omitting, in the former, those passages that were af terwards 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 thing curious in criticism, history, or controversy of any kind, I would have published them apart, at the end of the volume. But as they were very few, and, like the rest of his writings, entirely of a devotional and tical nature, I thought it would have been a formality nearly bordering upon impertinence, to have collected and inserted them in such a manner.

prac

The delight and edification which I have found in the writings of this wonderful man, (for such I must deliberately call him,) would have been a full equivalent for my pains, separate from all prospect of that effect which they might have upon others. For, truly I know not that I have ever spent a quarter of an hour in reviewing any of them, but, even amidst that interruption which a critical examination of the copy would naturally give, I have felt some impressions which I could wish always to retain. I can hardly forbear saying, as a considerable philosopher and eminent divine, with whom I have the honour of an intimate correspondence and friendship, said to me in a letter, long ago,* and when my acqaintance with our author's works was but beginning, "There is a spirit in Archbishop Leighton I never met with in any human writings, nor can I read many lines in "them without being moved."

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Indeed it would be difficult for me to say where, but in the sacred Oracles, I have ever found such heart-affecting lessons of simplicity and humility, candour and benevolence, exalted piety, without the least tincture of enthusiasm, and an entire mortification to every earthly interest, without any mixture of splenetic resentment. Nor can I ever sufficiently admire that artless manner in which he lays open, as it were,

* April 10, 1740. The Reverend Dr. Henry Miles, F.R.S.

his whole breast to the reader, and shews, without seeming to be at all conscious of it himself, all the various graces that can adorn and ennoble the Christian, running like so many veins of precious ore in the rich mine where they grew. And hence, if I mistake not, is that wonderful energy of his discourses, obvious as they seem, unadorned as they really are, which I have observed to be owned by persons of eminent piety in the most different ranks, and amidst all the variety of education and capacity that can be imagined. As every eye is struck by consummate beauty, though in the plainest dress, and as the sight of such an object impresses much more than any laboured description of complexion, features or air, or any harangue on the nicest rules of proportion which could come into consideration; so in the works of this great adept in true Christianity, we do not so much hear of goodness, as see it in its most genuine traces; see him as a living image of his Divine Master, for such indeed his writings shew, I had almost said demonstrate, him to have been, by such internal characters as surely a bad man could not counterfeit, and no good man can so much as suspect.

Where the matter is so remarkably excellent, a wise and pious reader will not be over solicitous about the style; yet I think he will find it, in these compositions, far above any reasonable contempt or censure. When I consider what the prevailing taste was a century ago in this respect, I have often wondered at the many true beauties of expression that occur in these. pieces, and the general freedom from those false and fanciful ornaments, if they are to be called ornaments, which occur in contemporary authors. On the whole, the style wonderfully suits the sentiments; and, however destitute of the flights of oratory, has such a dignity and force mingled with that simplicity, which is to be sure its chief characteristic; so that, on the whole, it has often reminded me of that soft and sweet eloquence of Ulysses, which Homer describes as

και έπεα νιφάδειν εοικότα χμερίησιν. IL. iii. 222.