THE WORKS OF ROBERT LEIGHTON, D.D. ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW. TO WHICH IS PREFIXED A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, BY JAMES AIKMAN, ESQ. COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME. EDINBURGH: PUBLISHED BY THOMAS NELSON. MDCCCXLIV. PSALM XXXIX................... ISAIAH VI............................................................... .324 ROMANS XII...........................331 CHARGES, &c. to the Clergy of the Diocese of Dunblane.....................338 LETTERS written by Bishop Leighton on different Occasions,...................345 JAMES iii. 18. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, &c..........351 JOB XXXIV. 31, 32. Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne SERMON VII. run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law,...................... that it is really to be found,.........557 In which it is proved that Human Felicity cannot be found either in the Earth or Earthly Things,......559 V. Of the Immortality of the Soul,......562 VI. Of the Happiness of the Life to come, 565 dence, and the Law given to Man, 572 IX. Of the Pleasures and Utility of X. Of the Decrees of God,...............575 XI. Of the Creation of the World,......577 XII. Of the Creation of Man,............581 XIII. Of Divine Providence,............584 XIV. Of Christ the Saviour,............ XV. Of Regeneration,......................... to Happiness on this Earth,.........601 XX. Of our Happiness, particularly that it is in God, who can direct us to the true Way of attaining it; that this Way he has discovered in the Sacred Scriptures, the di- vine Authority whereof is asserted and illustrated,.................................................................603 XXI. Of the Divine Attributes,.........608 XXII. How to regulate Life according to the Rules of Religion,............609 XXIII. Of Purity of Life,...............611 XXIV. Before the Communion,.........613 An Exhortation to the Students upon their return to the University after the Vacation,.... Exhortations to the Candidates for the LUKE xiii. 1-10. There were pre- A Defence of Moderate Episcopacy,......337 MEDITATIONS, CRITICAL AND PRACTI ..........658 A Sermon to the Clergy, from 2 Cor. v. LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP LEIGHTON. In an age when the study of Theology was the universal and leading pursuit, and amounted almost to a passion, ROBERT LEIGHTON was a pre-eminent Theologian; not so much from his acquirements in that species of Literature, in which, however, he was deeply skilled, as from the delightful example he exhibited in his life and writings, of a religion he cordially believed, and as far as his apprehensions extended, faithfully copied. He was not free in his conduct from the errors of humanity, but he was one of the very few, who err on the lovelier side; his amiability of temper, and purity of principle, led him to carry, among men of sterner stuff, the proposals of Charity which he professed, farther than either accorded with the situation he held, the rights that were in peril, or the temper of the times. It therefore happened to him, as must happen to all placed in similar circumstances, that his character was viewed by his contemporaries in extremes; and as posterity do not easily get rid of the feelings of their ancestors, it has even in our own days been looked at in very different lights. Men have no right to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, yet it is no indefensible propensity to esteem the seed of the righteous, to feel grief for them when they leave the paths of their progenitors, and if they have descended from persecuted parents, and join their persecutors, to address them as the prophet did Jehoshaphat, "Shouldst thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the Lord? therefore there is wrath upon thee from before the Lord: nevertheless there are good things found about thee." That such sentiments should have been entertained, respecting the subject of this memoir, by many excellent men in Scotland, will not appear strange when the cruel infliction his father Dr Alexander Leighton underwent is considered; and however his own mind might have felt justified in the change, it was not to be expected that Presbyterians, who were themselves suffering for the same cause, which they were fully persuaded was for righteousness' sake, could be easily convinced of the strength of those reasons, that influenced the son of such a father, to leave their ranks, and join their opponents. Dr Alexander Leighton was descended, it is said, of an ancient family in Forfarshire, whose chief seat was Ulys-haven, or Usen, but |