Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/322

382 that continued to his death, for twenty-three years, among the greatest blessings of my life, and for which I know 1 must give an account to God in the great day, in a most particular manner; and yet, though I know this account of his promotion may seem a blemish upon him, I would not conceal it, being resolved to write of all persons and things with all possible candour. I had the relation of it from himself, and more particularly from his brother. But what hopes soever the papists had of him at this time, when he knew nothing of the design 01 bringing in popery, and had therefore talked of some points of popery with the freedom of an abstracted or speculative man; yet he expressed another sense of the matter, when he came to see it was really to be brought in amongst us. He then spoke of popery in the complex at much another rate; and he seemed to have more zeal against it than I thought was in his nature with relation to any points in controversy, for his abstraction made him seem cold in all these matters. But he gave all who conversed with him a very different view of popery, when he saw we were really in danger of coming under the power of a religion that had, as he used to say, much of the wisdom that was earthly, sensual, and devilish; but had nothing in it of the wisdom that is from above, and is pure and peaceable. He did indeed think the corruptions and cruelties of popery were such gross and odious things, that nothing could have maintained that church under those just and visible prejudices but the several orders among them, which had an appearance of mortification and contempt of the world, and with all the work that was among them, maintained a face of piety and devotion. He also thought the great and fatal error of the Reformation was, that more of those houses, and that course of life free from the entanglements of vows and other mixtures, was not preserved; so that the protestant churches had neither places of education, nor retreat for men of mortified tempers. I have dwelt long upon this man's character, but it was so singular that it seemed to deserve it; and I was so singularly blessed by knowing him as I did, that I am sure he deserved it of me, that I should give so full a view of him, which I hope may be of some use to the world."

Leighton remained ten years principal of the college of Edinburgh, where he conducted himself with a degree of diligence, wisdom, and prudence, that engaged universal respect and esteem, and proved of essential benefit to the students. The funds of that seminary were then very low, and Leighton did not scruple to go to London to appeal to the generosity of Cromwell in favour of his object. That extraordinary man ordered an annuity of two hundred pounds a year to be granted in 1658, a sum that at the time was of considerable use; but on the death of the Protector, which took place, shortly after, it fell to the ground, as all his acts were rescinded at the Restoration. The state of the presbyterian church in Scotland when Charles the Second ascended the throne was extremely critical betrayed by its own ministers, and secretly hated by the king, who had sworn to defend its rights. James Sharpe, who was commissioned to go to London to defend the rights of the Scottish church, was a man capable of any duplicity or basenesss that would in the main advance his own interests, while his communications with his brethren at home were lying and deceitful. He had the effrontery to impress on the minds of the court that the people of Scotland were at heart unfriendly to presbytery, and secretly attached to episcopacy. However Charles may have doubted the truth of such an account, he was glad to avail himself of Sharpe's duplicity to give ascendancy to prelacy; and notwithstanding the memorials and emonstrances from the Scottish church, and the interference of men of rank and importance, he determined on the reestablishment of a hierarchy in Scotland.

Sharpe, as a reward for his perfidious apostasy, was to be elevated to the