Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

not so pure as his lawn.
The third was Wishart, who had the See of
Edinburgh. He, too, was of damaged character, and
had a habit, when he had drunk freely, of
emphasizing his talk with oaths. The fourth was
Sydserf, now in his dotage, and made Bishop of
Orkney. The fifth was a man of pure character, and
fine genius, who was thrown in to reconcile the
Scots to the new Establishment. This was Robert
Leighton, appointed to the Episcopal chair of
Dunblane. His exposition of the first Epistle of
Peter, so chaste and graceful in style, and so rich in
evangelical truth, will long remain a monument of
his fervent piety. Leighton held that nothing had
been laid down, even inferentially, in Scripture on
the subject of Church government; and he looked
on episcopacy as the best form, but he knew that,
as matters then stood in Scotland, the liberties of
the nation were bound up with the maintenance of
the Presbyterian government; and that government,
moreover, he had sworn to maintain. This, if
nothing else, ought to have inspired him with a
salutary fear of becoming the tool of the tyrant and
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