Church, to which he is attendant. This is the first step in Scotland, towards an admiffion into orders, and was practised both under the Epifcopal and Prefbyterian Oeconomy. The method obferved in it has fomething fo different from what is cuftomary in England, that it may perhaps be worthy the reader's notice. Thefe Probationers are firft appointed to preach practically on a text affigned them; next, critically upon another, the fenfe of which is controverted; and then a mixed Sermon, of criticism on the text, and practical inferences from it, is expected from them. After this, the examiners allot a head of Divinity to each, on which they are to make a Latin oration, and to give out Thefes upon it, which they undertake to defend in publick: Then a Hebrew pfalm and a portion of the Greek Testament is given them, to render into English extempore; and last of all comes the questionary trial, in which every minifter of the diftrict is at liberty to put fuch queftions to the perfon under examination, as occur to him, out of the Scripture or Body of Divinity. Before any one can be admitted to this, he must produce a teftimonial of his good life from the minifter of the parish where he lives; and if during his trial, which lafts for three months, any fcandal can be proved upon him, he is laid afide as unfit for the Church.

living.

This probation our author went through, at the Refufes a age of eighteen; about which time his father was prefentamade a Lord of the Seffion, and his Coufin Ger- tion to a man, Sir Alexander Burnet, gave him the prefentation to a very good benefice, where his family refided, and which lay in the center of all his Kindred. There is no law in Scotland, that limits the age a Minifter muft be of; but our author thought his own fo unfit for a Cure of Souls, that he abfolutely refufed to accept of it, notwithstanding the repeated importunities of all his relations,

A 4

His fa

relations, except his father, who left him wholly to his own difcretion.

In the year 1661, his father died; and foon ther's after his brother Robert, who was then become death, and his further very eminent at the bar, as his other brother puruit of Thomas was afterwards in Phyfick: Upon the his ftudies. occafion of his brother's death, our author was

much follicited, by his mother's relations, to return to his former ftudy of the law, wherein he was affured of the greateft encouragement; but he perfifted in his former refolution, of devoting his life to the fervice of the Church, in which he was confirmed by Mr. Nairn, Minifter of the Abbey Church at Edinburgh. Mr. Nairn was then the admired preacher of that country, remarkable for accuracy of ftyle, as well as ftrength of reasoning and fublimenefs of thought: Him our author purposed to make his pattern, in this branch of the Paftoral Office; and was not a little furprized to find, that he always preached extempore. For though all Sermons in Scotland were delivered without book, yet were they premeditated Discourses, firft written and then learn'd by heart; which was a lofs of time Mr. Nairn could not fubmit to, and he foon put our author upon attempting the fame method of preaching, which he continued to practife all the reft. of his life *.

He

I fhall only mention two remarkable inflances in relation to his preaching without book. In 1691, when the Sees, vacant by the deprivation of the Nonjuring Bishops, were filled up, Bishop Williams was appointed to preach one of the confecration fermons at Bow-Church. But being detained by fome accident, the clerk had twice fet the pfalm, and ftill the preacher did not appear. Whereupon the Archbishop of Canterbury defired Dr. Burnet, then Bishop of Sarum, to supply his place, which he did; and, as the Archbishop declared, gave them the beft fermon he ever heard him preach. In 1705, he was appointed to preach the Thanksgiving Sermon before the Queen at St. Paul's; and it was the only difcourfe he had ever wrote beforehand, fo this was the only time that he was ever at a

paufe

He attained to an eafinefs in it, chiefly by allotting many hours of the day to meditation upon all forts of fubjects, and by accuftoming himself, at thofe times, to fpeak his thoughts aloud, studying always to render his expreffion correct. Mr. Nairn led him likewife into a new courfe of reading, by recommending to his perufal Smith's Select Difcourfes, Dr. Moore's Works, and the Writings of Plato and his followers; but no book pleafed him more than Hooker's Ecclefiaftical Polity, from the principles of which he never departed.

In the year 1662, the Scotch Bishops, who had been confecrated at Westminster, made a pompous entry into Edinburgh, and, by the pride of their first appearance, gave no good omen of their future conduct. Bishop Leightoun, though one of their number, would have no fhare in the ftate they took upon them, on this occafion: He foon became acquainted with our author's growing fame, and as he conceived a great affection for him, he took a peculiar pleasure in overlooking his ftudies. By his advice, he became converfant with all the Primitive Writers, going through the apologies and other treatifes of the Fathers of the three first centuries, and Binnius's Collection of Councils, down to the second Council of Nice.

At the fame time, our author contracted an intimacy with another eminent Divine, Mr. Charteris, a man of great prudence, joined to an unaffected fimplicity of Behaviour: He was not only very knowing in his own profeffion, but was likewife a great Mafter of Hiftory, both antient and modern, of Geography and Books of Travels, and not a little fkilled in Mathematical Learning. Thefe three perfons, by their converfation and advice,

paufe in preaching, which on that occafion lafted for above a minute. Thefe two incidents were fo publickly known and fpoke of, that I think it needlefs to alledge any particular authority for them, unless they thould be questioned.

contri.

His jour

ney to

contributed towards finifhing an education, which had been fo happily begun. And indeed, what might might not be expected from fuch early helps, where nature had lain in materials, fo fit to be wrought upon? For there was a robust conftitution, capable of the hardest labour and study, an apprehenfion that took things quickly, and a memory that retained them long, an imagination rather too lively, and a natural fluency of expreffion.

In the year 1663, our author took a fhort tour into England: He firft vifited the two UniEngland. verfities; at Cambridge, he had an opportunity to know and admire the extenfive learning of Dr. Cudworth, the judgment and moderation of Dr. Pearson, the fine luxuriant imagination of Dr. Burnet (Author of the Theory) and the Freethinking of Dr. Henry More, one of whofe fayings, with relation to rites and ceremonies, then made great impreffion on him; "None of thefe," faid he," are bad enough to make men bad, and "I am fure none of them are good enough to "make men good." At Oxford our author was much carefs'd, on account of his ready knowledge of the Councils and Fathers, efpecially by Dr. Fell, and Dr. Pocock, that great mafter of Oriental Learning; he was much improved there in his Mathematicks and Philofophy by the inftructions of Dr. Wallis, who likewife gave him a letter of recommendation to the learned and pious Mr. Boyle at London. Upon his arrival there, he was introduced to all the most noted Divines, fuch as Tillotson, Stillingfleet, Patrick, Lloyd, Whitchcot, and Wilkins, whose characters are faithfully drawn by him in the hiftory. But no converfation proved a greater advantage to him, than that of Sir Robert Murray, not only as he brought him into the beft company, but as he alfo acted the part of a faithful monitor, in reproving him for any errors or indifcretions his youth might betray him into. After

I

After a stay in England of about fix months, which, being spent in the manner I have mentioned, could not but be highly useful, he returned to Scotland, where he was again prefs'd to enter into Orders, and accept of one of the best benefices in the Weft.

Sir Robert Fletcher of Saltoun, who, during Delays his stay at Paris, had received many obligations accepting a good from his Father, hearing fo great a character of Benefice. the fon, invited him down to his feat, and had no fooner heard him preach, than he offered him that Church, the Minifter of it being nominated to one of the vacant Bifhopricks. Our author would have excufed himself, as having determined for some months to travel beyond Sea; and follicited the Living for his friend Mr. Nairn; but Sir Robert would admit of no denial; and as the prefent incumbent was not to be confecrated immediately, refolved to keep the Benefice vacant, till his return from his Travels.

and

It was in the year 1664, that our author went His Traover to Holland; where, after he had feen what vels into was remarkable in the Seven Provinces, he fixed Holland his refidence at Amfterdam. There, by the help France. of a learned Rabbi, he perfected himself in the Hebrew Language; he likewise became acquainted with the leading men of the different Perfuafions tolerated in that Country; as the Arminians, the Lutherans, the Unitarians, the Brownists, the Anabaptifts, and the Papifts: Amongst each of whom, he used frequently to declare, he had met with men of fuch real piety and virtue, that there he became fix'd in that strong principle of univerfal Charity, and of thinking well of thofe that differed from him, as likewife in an invincible abhorrence of all severities, on account of religious diffenfions, which hath often drawn upon him the bitterest cenfures from thofe, who, perhaps by a narrower Education, were led into a narrower way of Thinking.

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