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PRINCETON, N. J.

BX 5199 .S52 1825
Sharp, John, 1645-1714.
The life of John Sharp, D.D
, Lord Archbishop of York

Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2015

https://archive.org/details/lifeofjohnsharpdOOshar

Jicm J693_Died 17.58,

THE

LIFE

JOHN SHARP, D.D.

LORD ARCHBISHOP OF YORK.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED,
SELECT, ORIGINAL, AND COPIES OF ORIGINAL PAPERS,

IN THREE APPENDIXES.

COLLECTED

FROM HIS DIARY, LETTERS, AND SEVERAL OTHER AUTHENTIC TESTIMONIES, BY HIS SON,

THOMAS ^HARP, D.D.

ARCHDEACON OF NORTHUMBERLAND;
PREBENDARY OF YORK, DURHAM, AND SOUTHWELL; RECTOR OF ROTHBURY.

EDITED BY

THOMAS NEWCOME, M.A.

RECTOR OF SHENLEY, HERTS ; AND VICAR OF TOTTENHAM, MIDDLESEX,

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR C. AND J. RIVINGTON,

st. paul's church-yard,
and waterloo-place, pall-mall.

1 825.

LONDON :

riUNTED BY R. GILBERT,

st. John's square.

THE

AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

Memoirs of the Lives of great and good men
have generally met with a favourable reception
in the world, partly from the acknowledged
usefulness of such kind of writings, and partly
from a curiosity natural to many people, which
invites them to examine the actions and cha-
racters of those, who, when alive, drew the
notice of the public upon them.

And as our country is intitled to its share of
honour, in having produced many persons emi-
nent in all faculties, whose memorable virtues,
learning, and public labours have deserved to
be transmitted to posterity ; so it is some fur-
ther credit to it, that justice has usually been
done to their merits by the pens of their sur-
vivors, which, after the public have been
deprived of their personal services, have kept
their characters alive for the instruction and

a 2

PREFACE.

improvement, as well as entertainment of those
that come after them.

Some of our divines, whose piety and learn-
ing- were conspicuous in the age in which they
lived, have been thought in succession deserving
of such posthumous respects, and have accord-
ingly received them. Among these, Dr. John
Sharp was considerable in his own time, and
hath as good a claim as any of his contempo-
raries, to be redeemed from oblivion, to be
remembered with honour, and to have his por-
tion in that sort of life which Memoirs, faith-
fully collected and published, are wont to give
and preserve in succeeding ages.

The undertaking took its rise from a little
design, the only one at first conceived, of ex-
tracting out of the Archbishop's Diary so much
only as related to his spiritual or interior life ;
and from the belief, that a yjew of him in his daily
and more secret acts of religion might be of
use to as many as it was then designed should
be intrusted with the perusal of it; and parti-
cularly that it might prove a most instinctive
lesson to the Archbishop's grandchildren, who,

PREFACE. V

it was natural to think, would receive a stronger
and more effectual impression of an imitable
pattern of piety, when the ideas of it were
conveyed in perpetual association with those of
the person and character of so near a relation.
This, therefore, it was proposed, should be
lodged in their hands, as a private memorial ;
to be preserved as an Heir Loom in the family,
without thoughts of making it public.

But in the prosecution of this as yet narrow
design, so many things offered themselves for
the enlarging it, and making the pattern more
complete, viz._ the principles by which he con-
ducted himself in all parts of life, the inviolable
integrity that regulated and reigned in all he
said or did, and the noble simplicity which
shone in his whole conversation and deport-
ment, in which respects also he seemed an
example as fit to be propounded to his de-
scendants, and with as promising an influence
upon them, as in his private exercise of religion
above mentioned, that these also, together
with his other social virtues, found place in
the scheme ; and being taken in, they either

vi PREFACE.

involved in them, or naturally drew after them,
several facts, some of which were the most
remarkable actions or passages of his life. So
that in short, by an unexpected increase of
materials, by the perusal of several original
papers, which at first were neglected, and by
the additions of one sort or other, that were
made by the assistance of those friends to
whom some of the executed parts of the plan
were communicated, the draught advanced,
and grew by degrees to the size and shape in
which it now appears. Insomuch that what
was the first and sole design is now become the
last and the least part of the whole work.

If the method into which it is thrown be
thought not altogether so uniform and exact,
as is sometimes found in books of this kind, it
ought to be remembered that the disposition
and arrangement of the several parts would be
best directed by the materials themselves, in
subservience to the main design of the com-
piler, which was to put them together in such
a way as would best serve towards giving a
clear and just idea of the man who is described

PREFACE. Vii

or represented in all the parts of his life. This
was the thing that was principally aimed at ;
and this end, it is hoped, is in good measure
attained.

As the diary is the foundation and chief sup-
port of the whole undertaking, it seems neces-
sary to give the reader a particular account of
it, and to acquaint him how far it is, and how
far it is not made use of.

It was begun by the Archbishop in 1691,
soon after his consecration. He first drew up
a short account of the most material things
which had ever happened to him, till that time,
which was either done upon memory, or was a
collection and transcript of several memoran-
dums, occasionally taken by himself in the
course of his life. And it is from hence that
the most considerable things in the first part of
the following work are taken.

This summary account of himself, till he
became Archbishop, was from thenceforward
carried on with some exactness and particu-
larity, by additions made to it weekly, of such |
things as he thought proper to keep notes of.

viii

PREFACE.

And in this way he continued all King William's
reign. But soon after the accession of Queen
Anne, when he began to have constant access
to her, and more business upon his hands,
especially while he resided at London, his me-
morandums grew more frequent and particular,
and he kept, instead of the weekly account, a
proper diary or journal, which, from the year
1702 to 1713 (the eleven last years of his life),
makes up five volumes 4to. in his own short
hand. By which the variety of its contents
may be in some measure guessed at.

That great use has been made of it in the
following work (and especially in the third and
fourth parts of it), will be observed in a great
number of particulars, which could not possibly
have been remembered, or known so many
years after his death, had they not been found
under his own hand. But how requisite it was
to use the liberty of quoting from thence with
caution, will appear from the design he had in
keeping such a diary, and the use he himself
proposed in doing so.

Nothing is more manifest from it, than that

PREFACE.

it was intended purely for his own private
use, without the least view or thought, that
any part of it should hereafter be made pub-
lic. And had it not been for the two great
advantages of his short-hand, viz. the secrecy
and the swiftness of it, it can hardly be con-
ceived he should have noted down such minute
particulars, and so many of them as he has
done.

The principal end that he seems to have
proposed to himself in it was a religious one,
and had respect only to the improvement of
himself and the peace of his own conscience.
For he is upon no one article so constantly
exact and particular, as in setting down his
public and private exercises of devotion ; where
and in what manner he performed them ; and
in what frame and temper of mind he was in
towards God and another world. And the use
that he made of his diary in this respect will
appear in the fourth and last part, wherein his
private religious life is considered.

Another end to which he made it serve was
ecclesiastical. It was in this respect a kind of

X PREFACE.

register of the business dispatched by him as
Archbishop. And as such it takes in the state of
affairs in his diocese and province ; the charac-
ters and talents of his clergy ; their admissions,
promotions, proceedings, difficulties, &c. And
under this head several things relate to the
laity too, who lived within his jurisdiction.

It is owing to the mention of these particulars
in the diary, that the second part (where he is
considered in his episcopal capacity) is so com-
plete as it is.

As to affairs of state, and the proceedings in
the Court and Parliament, he was wont punctu-
ally to put down his own share in them, so far
as he took any share upon himself, but seldom
more. For he doth not seem to have had the
least thought of making historical collections,
or treasuring up any memorandums of public
transactions, in which he had no personal concern.

So that as to court politics and councils, with
the issues of them ; changes of administration,
and practices of the ministry, with the reflec-
tions on them, and the intrigues of parties
striving to supplant each other, with the success

PREFACE.

of them, and the like points of more general
concernment, which almost engrossed the at-
tention of the public then, and remain subjects
of speculation to this day, he made no other
mention of them than what was cursory and
occasional ; that is, when they had some con-
nexion or affinity with the special business in
hand, of which he was making minutes. This
branch of his diary, therefore, consists prin-
cipally of these articles; his votes in the House
of Peers upon all occasions ; sometimes with
the reasons of them assigned ; the heads of his
speeches there; his application to the Queen
and her ministers, chiefly for Church prefer-
ments to be given to those of the clergy he
judged the most worthy, and objections made
against them whom he took to be less deserv-
ing ; private petitions to the Crown, passing-
through his hands, with her Majesty's respec-
tive answers to them. The whole course of
business that he dispatched as her almoner;
with relations, here and there interspersed, of
private discourses with her Majesty, rarely
political, more frequently religious. The entries

xii

PREFACE,

he made of these several particulars, furnish the
chief materials for the third part of this work,
wherein his conduct at court and in parliament,
is considered.

Another end to which he made his diary-
serve, was to preserve his fidelity in his pro-
mises; to which he was always very punctual.
Wherever he engaged his word or his interest,
though for the smallest favour, (and, consider-
ing his station, and particular office at court, it
may be easily guessed how he was pressed with
petitions and solicitations), he made his memo-
randum of it, and set a particular mark of re-
membrance upon it. And he generally put down
the very words or manner, in which he had
engaged himself by promise to any person, in
which he always appears to have been ex-
tremely cautious that his words should not be
interpreted to extend further than he himself
really designed to perform them.

And, lastly, he would sometimes set down
what he had said in conversation in mixt com-
panies, especially when the discourse had turned
upon public affairs ; and sometimes what was

PREFACE. Xiii

said to him by others on the like occasions. But
these things seem rather to have slipped acci-
dentally into his diary, than to have been de-
signed for any particular use ; for, they occur
but seldom, and when they do, it is hard to say
for what reasons.

Thus it is compounded of as great a variety
of materials as that of the different sorts of bu-
siness or actions in which he was engaged ; and
they lie intermixed and blended together in all
that irregularity and seeming incoherence, which
must be expected in an account of things, in
dependent of each other, and yet immediately
succeeding each other in order of time.

From this general description of it, it is ob-
vious to collect what was his intention in be-
ginning and continuing it. One thing, at least,
is manifest, that it was solely calculated for his
own private and particular use : and, therefore,
in selecting passages from thence in subserviency
to another design, and that of a public nature
too, some care and discretion was to be used.

To readers no ways interested in the subject,
and absolute strangers both to him and his affairs,

XIV

PREFACE.

far the greatest part consisting of common and
daily occurrences, must have appeared trifling
and insignificant ; and as to some other things,
neither altogether unworthy of their notice, nor
likely to prove unacceptable to them, there
are yet good reasons why they should not be in-
discriminately produced and divulged. Such pas-
sages, for instance, ought to be suppressed, as,
if published, would bear hard upon the cha-
racters of other persons, whether now living or
dead. For it was the furthest from his thoughts
when he inserted any thing of this kind, either
from his own observation or from the relation
of others, that his authority should be vouched,
or his notes made, in any wise, instrumental
into conveying evil or suspicious reports. He
abominated scandal, and giving of characters,
as much as any man alive, and was always
wont, notwithstanding his frank and undisguised
temper, to speak very warily and tenderly of
every thing that touched another's credit and
reputation. This bane, therefore, and reproach,
of all secret histories, it is hoped, is so far
avoided here, that nobody shall have reason to
be offended.

PREFACE.

The rule, then, which was laid down and pur-
sued, with respect to the choice or suppression
of what the diary afforded, was this : to extract
from thence no more than was apparently con-
ducive to one or other of these ends, viz. either
to the connecting some parts of this life together,
and adjusting the series of his actions and writ-
ings in proper order of time ; or to the clearing
up and explaining the more remarkable matters
of fact that occur in this account ; or to the
proving and confirming what is said of his sen-
timents and principles in politics ; or to the
giving him his just and true character in all
parts of life, and disproving whatever hath been J
falsely reported of him, either by those who
knew him not, or those who would not judge
the most favourably of him, through the preju-
dice of party.

Thus far, it is apprehended, no exceptions
ought to be taken against the use made of his
private comment. For, supposing it to be never
so solemnly devoted to secrecy, it may be de-
cently and unblameably appealed to, and quoted
for the establishing truth, and detecting false-

xvi

PREFACE.

hood and mistakes, and vindicating and doing-
justice to him, who had the sole right and pro-
perty in it. And, further than this, no man has
a right to make use of the MS. Diary, whatever
property he may claim in the possession of it.

It may seem, indeed, to be a question, how
far it is honourable or respectful to his memory,
not to suppress totally that part of the MS.
which relates to his private devotions and com-
munication with God, and his daily exercises
and essays to improve in all piety and virtue,
which he designed should be known to none but
to God and his own conscience. But to this it
may be said, that although to have done thus,
purely to gratify the curiosity of men, or to
enlarge the history, had not been so easily
pardonable, yet, when it is done with a view
to the real benefit of all who shall peruse it, as a
probable means of making them better, the
candid and serious reader will scarcely censure
it as a fault. It does not imply the least dimi-
nution of those respects which are due to his
character, to represent him as being, what
every one would wish to be, a sincerely religious

PREFACE.

xvii

and devout man. It is that part of his life and
character which was most properly his own, as
being the most independent of all the changes
and ci rcumstances of human affairs : and if it is
unusual to be met with in the lives which are
published of private persons, it is for this reason
only, because the writers of those lives could
have no ground or handle of considering their
subject in this particular view, for want of such
materials as are afforded in this case. Some-
thing, indeed, of this nature, is to be met with
in the Life of Dr. John Forbes, an eminent and
celebrated Scotch Divine, published before his
works at Amsterdam, 17G3. He had kept a
kind of journal of his spiritual life, and of that
only, for several years, which the editor of his
works, Dr. John Garden, translated into Latin,
and published under this title, Johannis Forbesii
a Corse Vitce Interioris sive exercitiorum Spiritua-
lium Commentaria. But his pains were better
laid out, in extracting out of this Commentary so
■much, and so much only, as was necessary to
give his reader a true notion of the devotional
part of Dr. Forbes's life, which he entitled Vitce
vol. i. b

Xviii PREFACE.

Foi'besiana? Interioris Idea Brevis. Now, it is in
imitation of this tract of Dr. Garden's, that a
sketch only, or general draught, of Dr. Sharp's
spiritual life, is presented to the world, formed
from his diary, and supported with no more
express testimonies produced from thence, than
what seemed necessary to prove it genuine and
true. Hereby the reader is relieved from those
repetitions which are unavoidable in a journal
of spiritual exercises, and likewise gains both
as much satisfaction and as much -benefit by a
partial view, as he could have got by perusing
the whole.

If it be considered into what times we are
fallen, in which it is by many insinuated, that
the Christian Religion is an imposture, and the
teachers of it a tribe of hypocrites, who out-
wardly practise it, and labour to defend it, out
of a principle of worldly interest, and not from
a real sense and thorough conviction of its being
what they would publicly teach it to be ; it
cannot be judged an improper season to bring
this secret part of the Archbishop's life upon the
stage. Not as if he were a singular, or even

PREFACE. Xix

rare instance, of the power of godliness, and of
the influence and efficacy of the Christian Re-
ligion, upon the minds and hearts of those who
truly believe the Gospel ; (for, there are as many
instances of this as there are good Christians in
the world, though it seldom happens that the
same kind of evidence can be had for their being
so, that is here produced in his case ;) but as a
new and fresh instance of that private divine
life, which is peculiar to the most exemplary
men, and of the extraordinary comforts and
pleasures they are wont to take, in their fre-
quent, though secret correspondences, with
Heaven. When the exterior and interior life
are found to tally so exactly, they confirm and
bear witness to each other, as well as to the
truth and sufficiency of the religion, or institu-
tion, from whence they are derived ; and are
an internal ■proof of the certainty \ as well as an
external evidence of the excellency, of the Christian
Revelation.

All that remains for the reader to be apprized
of, is, that all the matters of fact which are
reported in the following sheets, are either taken

b 2

XX •PREFACE.

from the diary, or from other evidences of equal
authority with it. And as to the reflections
which he will find here and there interspersed,
though very sparingly, he may judge of them as
he pleases : they are the compilers, and do not
belong to the Archbishop.

In material points, which depend wholly on
the testimony of the diary, it is for the most part
expressly quoted, as will be seen in the third
and fourth parts. But it is not always referred
to in other matters, for which there is other
collateral proof.

The several original letters, and copies of
originals, wrote by and to the Archbishop,
which are inserted at length, in different parts
of the book, and the original papers, of several
sorts, which are either scattered up and down
in the body of the work, or collected into the
appendixes, must speak for themselves. If they
be thought superfluous, they may be passed
over. If proper, the reader is welcome to them.
There are, indeed, more of this sort, than are
usually to be met with in the lives of private
men, already published ; but the authority and

PREFACE. Xxi

sanction they give to the narrative, would, it
was thought, make a sufficient excuse for their
number. And, indeed, the design of intermix-
ing so many of his own letters, was not only to
give light, but credit too, to the whole perform-
ance. They are generally brought in as testi-
monies to the truth of the account, either to
support matters of fact, as they are here related,
or to stand for specimens of his temper and
spirit, as they are here described ; or to vouch
for his principles in Church and State, as they
are here laid down. And of those letters that
were wrote to him, no more is made public than
what was necessary to the making what is said
of himself the more authentic.

The compiler, indeed, of this work, was, in
justice to the Archbishop's correspondents, very
scrupulous on that article, and very sparing in
embellishing his work with original letters,
when he might have done it, such was his
opportunity, with a liberal hand, had it been
consistent with the honour and respect due to
them.

In short, there is nothing of moment, through-

XXli PREFACE.

out the whole work, for which an authentic proof
could be produced, but is backed with such tes-
timony ; which, though it may make the relation
appear something more tedious, yet it will help
considerably to take off the prejudice that men
commonly have against works of this kind, from
the supposition, that the writers of them are too
much biassed, either by affection or gratitude,
or both, and thereby tempted to amplify things
beyond their due measure and extent, in order
to make the person they would describe, appear
in the greatest form and figure, and most ad-
vantageous light that is possible. When an in-
timate friend or near relation takes such a work
in hand, although he knows, (as Bishop Burnet
observes, in his preface to his Life of Bishop
Bedell), that lives must be written with the strict-
ness of a severe historian, and not helped up with
rhetoric and invention, which will incline men to
suspect his partiality, and make them look upon him
as an author, rather than a writer ; yet he may
I find it a difficult matter to prevent his over-
straining some points, or tincturing others with
the colours in which they appear to his own eye ;

PREFACE.

xxiii

that is, he will scarce forbear shewing his own
great kindness for the memory of the man whom
he recommends, and will not leave him wholly
to the praise of things themselves, without be-
stowing some good words of his own upon him.
But now this defect through private esteem and
friendship, if it be really such, or if the reader
shall fancy he discovers it in the present under-
taking, it is hoped he will consider is in great
measure, if not completely supplied, by the num-
ber of vouchers and testimonies *, that are faith-
fully brought to support what is advanced,
(especially in the more significant and material
passages that occur); and the more of these
there be, the more the reader is secured : nor
can he greatly err in distinguishing between that

* Mr. Skinner, in his preface to " Annals of Scottish Epis-
copacy," observes, in reference to himself, as the son and bio-
grapher of Bishop Skinner, that no son is competent to give a
fair, just, and acceptable account of a father s life, character,
and official conduct, if he do not confine himself to written do-
cuments, which serve not only to confirm the truth of his nar-
rative, but for the reader's correction of the filial partiality of
the author. — Editor.

xxiv

PREFACE.

which is sufficiently supported, and that which
is given him for granted.

The writer has this, however, to say, in behalf
of himself, and of this attempt to draw the true
character of Dr. John Sharp, that how imperfect
and unfinished soever the piece may seem, the
outlines and main strokes are just, being so
taken from the original, as hardly to be capable
of suffering by the unsteadiness of the hand that
copies. And as to the disposal of the colours,
and lights, and shades, in which something must
be allowed to fancy, which naturally would act
a kind part, there is yet this justice done through-
out the whole, that nothing is either falsified or
knowingly disguised.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The Editor of the following work has the hap-
piness to number amongst his friends Mrs. An-
drew Boult Sharp, wife of the Rev. Andrew
Boult Sharp, of Bamborough, in Northumber-
land, and daughter to his excellent neighbour,
Mrs. Sharp, of Clare Hall, Hertfordshire.

This lady is great grand-daughter to Dr. John
Sharp, Archbishop of York, and sole heir of
both the name and blood of Sharp, niece to Dr.
John Sharp, Archdeacon of Northumberland,
of William Sharp, of Fulham, the late eminent
Surgeon, and of the far-known and well-known
Granville Sharp, the late worthy sons of Dr.
Thomas Sharp, author of " Charges on the
Rubric of the Common Prayer," printed in

XXVi ADVERTISEMENT.

1753, and of this Life of his Father, now first
presented to the public. To the kind per-
mission of these friends, is owing the present
publication. Having traced his title to, and the
authenticity of, the MS. Life, the Editor has
only to declare, that he has faithfully executed
his office. He expects, indeed, that, in the
opinion of some persons, he will deserve censure
for having too faithfully published the whole of
the MS. history, just as the author intended to
give it to the public many years ago, without
suppressing any portion of those passages of the
Archbishop's private life, which his own hand
alone could have recorded. It is true that
scoffers and enthusiasts may make a bad use of
the passages alluded to ; but he has not deemed
this liability to abuse a sufficient reason for
withholding from the more candid and judicious
reader, that ingenuous confession of private
feeling and of human infirmity, which charac-
terises the good and great of all ages, and gives
to autobiography the highest charm and strongest
test of truth. As to his motives for publishing
the work, they are these, and none other. First

ADVERTISEMENT.

xxvii

and principally, to aid the founding a Chapel of
Ease at London Colney in Hertfordshire, by
appropriating the profit, if any, to furthering
that object of his aim and wishes ; and so,
the good Archbishop and the Author, " being
dead," shall yet work in their vocation and
wonted course, — in deeds of piety, charity, and
public spirit. — Secondly, to do justice to the
name of an honest man, " the noblest work of
God :" — for although " the righteous are had in
everlasting remembrance," far preferable to any
human and mortal memorial, yet as we inscribe
tombs to the dead for the sake of the living, so
a book is a monument more lasting than brass,
" asre perennius;" as the brazen effigies, long
since stolen or strayed from chancelled tomb-
stone of abbot, knight, or squire, will oftimes
testify to the men of this generation. — Thirdly,
to gratify, and not alone to gratify, but to edify
also the reader, by imparting to him the same
pleasure and profit which the Editor has himself
derived from the unreserved perusal of a work,
which he believes few living persons have seen
in MS. besides the present Bishop of London,

XXVlii ADVERTISEMENT.

the Lord Stowell, and Prince Hoare, Esq. the
author of the Life of Granville Sharp.

Such were his motives for publishing the work
at this time ; and such the Editor offers as his
excuse also for keeping in his own hands the
risk and responsibility of the editorial office,
from which another and abler editor might have
fairly proposed and acquired to himself some
personal reputation. To this he makes no pre-
tension, having, in truth, been so interrupted in
the course of his voluntary task, by several
events of no ordinary occurrence in the life of a
country clergyman and magistrate, and by cares
of too ordinary occurrence in the bosom of most
large families, as to have had neither time to
add much of note or comment in order to
illustrate his author, nor yet inclination to at-
tempt to illustrate himself. But in defect of
these less valuable additions, in the third Ap-
pendix, the reader will find letters of the late
Granville Sharp and other eminent persons,
elucidatory of the attempt to introduce the
English Liturgy into the kingdom of Prussia;
which object this publication may tend to re-

ADVERTISEMENT. XXlX

vive and to promote in these more favourable
times ; and the English, Prussian, a*nd Hano-
verian people, who have fought as allies at "La
Belle Alliance," may yet worship in more holy
alliance — in the "Beauty of Holiness," "and in
the bond of peace."

To the same generous friends before referred
to, the Editor owes the loan of many letters
from which he has made this selection, and
also the engraving, at their expense, of Dr.
Thomas Sharp, the author, some brief no-
tices of whom will be found among the ad-
denda, extracted from " Nichols's Literary Anec-
dotes of the Eighteenth Century." In Coles's
Collections for an Athenae Cantabrigienses,
he found many references to printed works ;
but nothing, both new and material, such
as the Editor deemed worthy of republishing,
after the lapse of so long a time since this
most worthy Archdeacon's decease. He has,
however, given Coles's notes and references
as to the Archbishop, and the Archdeacon, Dr.
Thomas Sharp. — From a MS. left by the latter
he has given to the public his sentiments on a

XXX ADVERTISEMENT.

scheme submitted to him for a Protestant
Convent ; and, as an apt conclusion of the
whole, " Monumental Inscriptions of the Family
of Sharp."

Mr. Prince Hoare, page 15 of the Introductory
View, in his Life of Granville Sharp, mentioning
this MS. narrative of the Life of Dr. John Sharp,
asserts that " whenever it shall be published,
it will form an important addition to the annals
of English Biography."

Shenley Parsonage,
April 9, 1825.

LIFE

JOHN SHARP, D.D.

LORD ARCHBISHOP OF YORK.

IN FOUR PARTS.
I.

CONTAINING THE HISTORY OF HIS LIFE AND ACTIONS, FROM HIS
BIRTH TO HIS CONSECRATION.

II.

HIS CHARACTER AS BISHOP, AND HIS PROCEEDINGS IN HIS DIOCESE.

III.

HIS MORE PUBLIC TRANSACTIONS IN THE AFFAIRS OF CHURCH AND

STATE

IV.

HIS SOCIAL VIRTUES, AND INTERIOR LIFE

The Index for both Volumes will be found at the end
of Vol U.

THE

LIFE

ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

PART I.

FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS CONSECRATION TO
THE SEE OF YORK.

John Sharp was the son of Thomas Sharp, of
Bradford, in the county of York, by Dorothy,
the eldest daughter of Mr. John Weddal, of
Widdington, in the said county, a younger
branch of the Weddal's, of Earswick, near York.
Her mother was a daughter of the family of the
Cutt's, of Childerly, in Cambridgeshire.

His father, Mr. Thomas Sharp, was the se-
cond or third son of the owner of an estate
called Woodhouse, near Bradford, being a
younger branch of the Sharp's, of Little Horton,
in the same neighbourhood : among whom there
had been kept up, as Mr. Thoresby says, not
only a succession of Thomas and John alter-
nately for many generations, but, what was much

PEIHCETOH X

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

more for their credit, a taste for letters and po-
lite studies ; for there were some among them
who were considerable for their writings, inso-
much that, he adds, it is rare to meet with so
many of the learned authors so nearly allied.

He tells us likewise, that the family of the
Sharp's had been very ancient in Bradfordale ;
but that all the writings (except some registers)
by which any further knowledge of them might
have been gained, were lost or destroyed at the
taking of Bradford, in the civil wars.

A loss of no great consequence to the Arch-
bishop's character: for it matters not to his
character, whether his ancestors were of little
figure and note in their age, or were ever so
illustrious.

For though the relative honour that per-
I sons of rank derive from their house and blood
is of use as well as credit to them while they
live, and serves, like other civil distinctions
from offices and preferments, to procure them
precedency and external respects among men,
yet neither their extraction nor their station,
considered in themselves, contribute any thing
to the real advantage of their memory. The
respects that are paid by posterity (if any be
thought due) arise from other considerations.
No recommendation remains acceptable but
what is founded on personal merit, which, in

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP .SHARP.

whatever shape it appears, stands always entitled
to a just regard.

Waving, therefore, any further notice of the
lives and characters of his progenitors, I shall
hasten to relate the great virtues and talents
remarkable in him, by which he raised himself
to be an ornament to that church in which he
held so eminent a station afterwards, and be-
came an honour and credit to his kindred, and
the family from whence he sprang.

He was born at Bradford, on Shrove Sunday,
Feb. 16, 1644, and was baptised there by Mr.
Blazet, a person episcopally ordained. His
sponsors were Mr. Weddall, Mr. Drake, and
Mrs. Cordingly. The circumstances of those
times make the mention of these particulars the
more seasonable ; especially, considering what
was objected many years afterwards, though
unjustly, to another Archbishop, his cotem-
porary. He took satisfaction himself in know-
ing, that he had been admitted into the church
in this regular way. For though it was his
constant opinion that baptism, administered
with the proper matter and form, though by a
lay hand, ought not to be repeated ; yet it was
always with pleasure he observed, that this hap-
pened not to be his own case, at a time when
the irregular administrations of it were so fre -
quent in all parts of the kingdom.

b 2

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

The first period of a man's life, which is spent
in his nurture and education, though it is far
from being insignificant in itself, for it is the
foundation of the whole superstructure that is
afterwards raised upon it ; yet commonly

I proves a barren subject, through the scarcity of
materials. But this does not lessen the curio-
sity of some, which extends itself to the know-
ledge of the earliest and most minute particu-
lars that can with certainty be reported, con-
cerning those who have at length proved eminent
in their times. And it has, accordingly, been
usual with those writers who have taken upon
them to recommend the lives and actions of
such men to posterity, to accommodate them-
selves to this taste as far as it lay in their
power, by picking up and preserving all the
scattered notices to be met with of what they
did, and what happened to them in the first
stages of life. In discharge, therefore, of this

I customary debt to such undertakings, and to
gratify the peculiar relish of those to whom the
relation of such little incidents is agreeable, and
likewise to make the narrative appear something
more complete, a few of the most material pas-
sages of this kind shall be selected.

His father and mother were religious, honest,
and hospitable people, and beloved in their
neighbourhood ; but yet in a different way of

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

thinking from each other upon the disputes of
those days. His father was not a little inclined
to Puritanism, according to the temper of those I
times, and much favoured the parliament party ;
and was himself in great favour with the Lord
Fairfax, who made his head-quarters at his house
in Bradford, and shewed him all the kindness,
and did him all the service that he could. —
Among other expressions of his favour, his
lordship offered him a commission, which pro-
bably he had accepted, had not his wife, who
was a strenuous royalist, persuaded him, with \
great difficulty, not to accept it. During these
turbulent times, it was her particular care to
instil her own principles of loyalty to the king,
and esteem for the liturgy, into her son John,
who was their eldest child. She had, with some
hazard of Lord Fairfax's displeasure, and not-
withstanding all searches made for the common
prayer-books, preserved those of her family ;
one of which she put early into her son's hands,
and taught him to love and value it. He used
to declare, that while he was yet a boy, he
much admired some of the offices, and particu-
larly the litany, with which he was much af-
fected, as, indeed, he seemed to be all his life
after ; for it was read every morning in his own
family, at the early prayers, as long as he lived.
He judged it, as to the matter, extremely well

C LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

suited to the wants of mankind ; and, as to the
manner of it, exceedingly well contrived for the
helping our infirmities in prayer.

But he was no less indebted to his father's
I piety for some happy and lasting impressions
that it made upon him, than to his mother's care
and instructions. If she first taught him to love
the letter of the liturgy, yet it was from his
father that he first admired, and became desirous
of being endued with a spirit of devotion, and
that by accident ; for his chamber being next
his father's, gave him an opportunity, (by means
of some chink or aperture in the partition of the
rooms, unobserved by any but himself,) of fre-
quently seeing his father at his private prayers.
His first attention to what he saw might only be
the effect of a childish curiosity ; but, never-
theless, there was something he noted in his
father's manner of addressing himself to God in
secret — something that smote his fancy so power-
fully— that he was wont to say himself, that the
impressions he got whilst a child, from the visi-
ble earnestness and importunacy of his father in
his private devotions, were so strong upon his
mind as never to be worn out afterwards.

So deep root will the actions of parents
sometimes take in the minds of their children,
though yet of a tender and seemingly undis-
cerning age. They have an early and natural

LIVE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

taste for what is good, as well as propensity to
evil, the encouragement of which, by timely
and seasonable examples, is commonly the first
step in a virtuous education : for these are their
best instructions, till reason calls them forth into
a higher class of learning arid improvement : and
what examples so instructive to them, as those
of their own parents, whose judgments they
are wont solely to rely upon, and whose actions
they are fond to imitate in every thing.

But he had also early imbibed from his father
(who fell in with the prevailing principles of those
times) the doctrine of Calvin about absolute
and irreversible decrees of predestination and
reprobation: insomuch, that he went up to the
University a rigid predestinarian, and thought \
himself able to vindicate the hardest point of
their doctrine, and to prove that absolute re-
probation manifested God's glory, as it shewed
his dominion over his creatures ; but his tutor
took some pains with him upon this head : and
by putting some questions seriously to him, as
whether he thought it any glory to himself to
tread out the life of a poor worm ? and others
of the like nature, (which would lead him to
reflect, that the glory of the Supreme Being
could not possibly consist in any of those things
which would not so much as make for the glory
of finite beings,) he brought him by degrees to

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

change his sentiments, and put him into a better
way of thinking, which, in his riper years, he
constantly pursued, without any tincture or re-
mains of the first prejudices of education.

Whilst he continued at Bradford school, his
father had him instructed in writing short-hand,
that he might take down in notes the preach-
ments of those times ; and he made him every
Sunday, in the evening, repeat to the family
from his short-hand copy, all that had been
delivered that day in the congregation. It may
readily be guessed what a tedious task this was.
However, it was attended with an advantage
which he valued ever after, viz. a perfect know-
ledge and command of the cypher, of which he
sufficiently experienced the benefit when he be-
came a preacher himself.

He never was at any other school than Brad-
ford ; — either his natural genius, or his industry,
or both, made amends for all deficiencies of that
school, and supplied the place of a more advan-
tageous education.

It is certain that he had made such a progress
in school learning, at fifteen years of age, that
his father was determined to complete his edu-
cation, and send him directly to the University,
and to maintain him there seven years, and
that not in a penurious way, which might cramp
his studies, but with as liberal a hand as he

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

was able, considering that he had five children
more to provide for out of the profits of his
trade.

He was admitted of Christ's College in Cam-
bridge, on April 26, 1660, just before the re-
storation of the King, under the tuition of Mr.
Brooksbank, who was an acquaintance of his
father's, and took no small pains in discharging
the trust reposed in him. He encouraged his
young pupil to resort freely to him for a solution
of whatever difficulties he met with in the course
of his studies ; and, accordingly, when he went
to lectures at night in his tutor's chamber, he
constantly carried in his pocket a paper of ques-
tions, which had arisen from what he had read
that day ; and when the other pupils were dis-
missed, these matters were discussed and re-
solved.

Mr. Brooksbank lived to receive some recom-
pense for the great care he took of his pupil at
this time ; for when Dr. Sharp was Archdeacon
of Berks, he procured for his tutor, by the in-
terest of the Lord Chancellor, the living of St.
Mary's, in Reading, within his own arch-
deaconry : and afterwards, he would have re-
signed the archdeaconry itself, in hopes of ob-
taining the favour that Mr. Brooksbank might
succeed him in that dignity ; but though the
bishop would not grant that request, yet he so

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

far complied with it, as to give Mr. Brooksbank
a prebend in Salisbury.

Besides the course of studies that he went
through under the direction of his tutor, he
heard lectures in natural philosophy from Dr.
Thomas Burnet, afterwards master of the Char-
ter-house, but then fellow of Christ's College,
who taught the Cartesian philosophy. He used
indeed to lament that the study of mathematics
was neglected while he was a youth ; but he
had naturally so clear a head, and so good a
taste, that neither any prejudice in favour of the
opinions of Des Cartes, nor want of a more
early insight into mathematics, could afterwards
prevent his studying, — admitting and admiring
the new philosophy of Sir Isaac Newton, of
which he used frequently to discourse, and al-
ways spoke of it with great delight, as setting
forth the Creator in the most beautiful light that
it was possible for us to conceive him in, with
respect to external nature.

Under whose direction he studied chemistry
and botany, does not now appear ; but that he
had, while he was at the university, taken a
great deal of pains and pleasure too, in both
those sciences, sufficiently appears from two
books wrote with his own hand in cypher, con-
taining transcripts of lectures, queries, and so-
lutions, and large excerpts out of writers upon

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

those subjects. The larger book of botany,
chemistry, and physics, was begun in the year
1665 ; — the lesser book was wrote before. And
after both these (but at what time is uncertain)
he wrote out a fair copy in round hand, of cer-
tain chemical experiments and conclusions.

Soon after he came to Cambridge, his studies
were very much interrupted by a quartan ague,
which stuck by him a considerable time, occa-
sioned, as he supposed, by his rising too early
in the morning, and bathing too frequently in
the evening. He returned into Yorkshire for
the recovery of his health, where he was se-
verely exercised with hypocondriac melan- 1
choly; the effect, as he believed, of his dis-
temper. But it was an effect happy enough
in the main, both for himself and others ; for it
gave him a most perfect insight into the nature
of that kind of melancholy, which, in innocent
people, arises from an indisposition or ill habit
of body ; and enabled him afterwards, as a
casuist, to treat admirably well upon that sub-
ject, and to be exceeding useful to as many as
applied to him for his advice in the like cases.
And, perhaps, few men had more applications
of this kind than himself, which occasioned his
writing a great deal upon the subject, as well
in letters for private use as in set discourses,
which were first delivered in the pulpit, and

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

published after his death, in the third volume
of his sermons, which entirely consists of dis-
courses of this sort.

He had begun from the year of his admission
to take down the substance, and sometimes
entire passages of such sermons as he heard
preached at the University (and herein his short-
hand served him to better purpose than it had
formerly done at Bradford). Whenever he met
with any critical explanation of scripture, or
clear solution of any difficulty, or any thing
remarkable or subservient to the study of theo-
logy, he was sure to book it, and preserve it by
him for future examination and use.

In 1663, he began to read books in divinity,
and applied himself close to the study of Dr.
Lightfoot's Harmony, and Grotius upon the
Gospels ; the advantage of which, especially the
latter, he often afterwards acknowledged. In
the same year he performed all his exercise for
his bachelor's degree, and commenced the win-
ter following.

He had no college preferment till his fourth
year, and then he was made scholar of the
house. He never desired any thing so earnestly
as he did a fellowship ; but his county ren-
dering him incapable, he could not obtain one,
though the master and all the fellows (as he
thought) were his friends. And, indeed, he had

li£e of archbishop sharp. 13

demeaned himself in the college so studiously
and virtuously, as to have gained their general
esteem ; and there is no doubt, had there been
room for him, they would readily have elected
him into their society. Proposals, indeed, were
made to his father by one of the fellows for the
obtaining a fellowship for him ; but the offer
was made upon such terms, as he did not think
to be honest ; and, therefore, how desirous
soever he was of that preferment, he had the
honour and courage to reject those proposals.
The learned Dr. Cudworth could have brought
him in, in the year 1669, and proffered to do
so; but Mr. Sharp, by that time, had better
views, and knew too much of the world to think
of a fellowship then. It appears from hence
how mistaken the account is, that is usually
given of his disappointment, viz. that he had
sate once or twice for a fellowship, and could
not obtain the favour to be chosen.

But, however, the prospect of this little pre-
ferment (then great in his eyes) was of no small
use and service to him while he had it in view ;
for it kept him to the hard study of the Greek
authors, and especially the poets, from the time
of his taking his bachelor's degree, till he com-
menced master, the greatest part of which time
he spent in and near Cambridge : for the plague
in 1665 and 1666, being at Cambridge, he, as

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

many others did upon that occasion, removed
to the neighbouring villages ; first, to Sawston,
near Cambridge, where he boarded, together
with Mr. Covell, of his own college, and others,
who removed their pupils ; and afterwards at
Dullingham, near Newmarket.

He never repented the pains he had taken
with the Greek poets, and indeed his head was
better turned for those elegant and polite stu-
dies, than one would easily imagine, who con-
siders him so early a disciple of the chemist
and the botanist, and himself afterwards so emi-
nent a casuist and antiquary ; and yet it is cer-
tain he took great delight, not only in poetry as
long as he lived, but while he was a youth in
plays and romances too, and whatever was cal-
culated to smite the fancy and move the pas-
sions. He had a happy talent of doing this
himself, whenever he proposed to stir the affec-
tions, (which he thought of great use in preach-
ing) ; and it may be observed in some of his
sermons, how much and how successfully he
hath, upon occasion, laboured this point.

There is but one thing more to be taken no-
tice of in this preliminary account of his youth
and education, which, though of little moment
in itself, yet as it proved the means of his first
being taken notice of, and favoured by the man
who gave him his first lift into the world, should

LIFE OK ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

not be here forgotten ; and that was, his grace-
ful, distinct, and proper manner of reading the
lessons out of scripture, in the college chapel,
while he was bachelor of arts. There was some-
thing in his way of performing this part of the
service, so peculiar to himself, and so agreeable
to the taste of that great divine and philosopher,
Dr. Henry More, that it gained him a friend I
without his knowledge, and preferment without
his expectation.

For having taken his master's degree in 1667,
and his leave of the University, despairing of a
fellowship, and being retired into Yorkshire to
prosecute his studies, with less expense to his
father, and there to wait the issues of God's
providence — it happened, in the mean time,
that Sir Heneage Finch, then Solicitor-general,
wrote to Dr. H. More to recommend to him a 1
. person who should be his domestic chaplain and
tutor to his sons.

Upon this the Doctor recommended Mr. Sharp,
knowing his abilities to be equal to that charge,
and being pleased with such an opportunity of
testifying the esteem he had for him, from the
time of his observing his way of reading in the
chapel.

Upon this recommendation of him, he was
called out of Yorkshire into Sir Heneage Finch's
family, before he had been a month with his

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

father; to which removal he owed his future
success and advancement in the world, as ap-
peared by the accumulation of preferments upon
him within the compass of a few years.

Mr. Sharp entered into holy orders on the
12th of August, 1667, together with Mr. Leigh
and Mr. Lovet, who were of the same college.
He was ordained deacon and priest on the same
day, in the parish church of St. Margaret's,
Westminster, by virtue of a faculty from his
Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, by the
hands of Dr. Fuller, then Bishop of Limerick,
afterwards of Lincoln. The assisting presbyters
were Dr. Outram, minister of St. Margaret's,
(the same who wrote the learned book De Sacri-
ficiis,) and Mr. White, afterwards Bishop of Pe-
terborough, and Dr. Gardiner, then chaplain to
the Duke of Monmouth, and afterwards Bishop
of Lincoln. The renowned Bishop Bull had
likewise received both orders in one day ; and
was but twenty-one years of age when he was
thus ordained by Bishop Skinner. That bishop
excused himself for this breach of the canons
by the necessity of the times ; but Dr. Fuller
had something more for his justification, viz. a
special dispensation from Dr. Sheldon, the arch-
bishop of the province : which, however extra-
ordinary, was of sufficient authority, and a sa-
tisfactory reason why the three grave and worthy

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

divines who assisted should, without scruple,
concur in the act.

From the time of his being called into the
Solicitor-general's family, who then lived in
Kensington House, he spent his time there much
to his satisfaction, and much to his improve-
ment. The young gentlemen of whom he had
the particular tuition were, first, Mr. John and
Mr. Charles Finch : the former was a youth of
extraordinary capacities and improvements, for
his age ; but was unhappily snatched away by
the small-pox, when he was ripe for the Uni-
versity, in the year 1674 : the other lived to be
a member of All Souls College in Oxford, but
died in the flower of his age. Afterwards, Mr.
Edward and Mr. Henry Finch, came under his |
care. Both these gentlemen afterwards, to their
great honour, voluntarily took upon themselves
the sacred function ; and both of them, to the
great pleasure of their old tutor, were at length
dignitaries in his Cathedral at York, where he
shewed, as long as he lived, the utmost respect
and kindness for them both ; and in some mea-
sure, as far as was in his power, recompensed
to them the many favours himself had received
in and from their father's family.

During his residence with the Solicitor, what
time he had to spare from his pupils, he spent
in improving himself in all kinds of learning.

18 LIFE OK ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

He yet followed, in some measure, his former
studies of philosophy and chemistry.

But what he chiefly applied himself to, were
such books as tended to make him an able
divine ; and his kind patron would not suffer
him to be destitute of the necessary means ; but
gave him, at different times, the Polyglot Bible
and Lexicons, St. Austin's and St. Chrysostom's
works, Crab's Councils., and the Centuriators,
and such books as it was not easy for him to
purchase, or come to the use of.

In the year 1669, he was incorporated Master
of Arts at Oxford, in company with several from
Cambridge, who went thither to the opening of
Sheldon's Theatre, when there was a great re-
sort to that University. In this year he took a
great deal of pains with the Pagan Theology ;
and this seems to be the time when he finished
his comment upon Genesis, and that part of
Exodus which precedes the giving of the Law
by Moses ; and also those large excerpts, or
rather abridgements, of the Greek historians,
which he wrote in another volume. Both are
in short-hand ; the comment considerably long,
and particular; by which it appears, that he
1 was tolerably skilled in the Hebrew tongue,
though probably no great master of it.

At length he pursued his studies with such close
application, and at such unseasonable hours,

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

that he hurt his health and constitution, and
was forced to retire into the country. He found .
his remedy in a Yorkshire journey ; which, at the
same time, gave him an opportunity of taking
Ms last leave of his father, who was then declining
apace, and died about a month after he left him,
in the sixty-third year of his age.

Upon his return to London, he fell upon the
study of the Law of Moses, and so on with the
remaining books of the Bible ; upon all or most
of which he hath left sufficient testimonies of
the pains he took.

He had, indeed, more leisure now to pursue
his studies (having yet no cure upon his hands,
and being under no necessity of constant
preaching) than he had afterwards, when he
became a parochial minister. So that it was
happy for him that he laid so good a foundation
in his younger years, that he might with the
more ease and readiness execute with credit
the business of his calling, when the perpetual
interruptions and avocations, unavoidable in a
large parish (which was his lot,) would not allow
him much time to himself.

This exemption from making sermons was
owing to Sir Heneage, who did not require his
chaplain to do that office in the family ; but
ordered him, as there was occasion, to read
printed sermons, and, among others, some of

c 2

LIFE OF AKCIIBISHOP SHARP.

Bishop Andrews's. Mr. Sharp, who ever dis-
liked playing upon words in discourses on reli-
gion, took occasion on a Christmas Day, when
he was directed to read Bishop Andrews's ser-
mon upon this text, " Thou shalt call his name.
Emmanuel" (where there is a whimsical jingle
upon the most solemn word in the sentence), to
lay his emphasis in such a manner on that pas-
sage which was most offensive to him, that Sir
Heneage perceived he intended to put him out
of conceit with that way of writing, which that
good Bishop sometimes affected. And the de-
sign was answered ; for Sir Heneage never
ordered those sermons to be read again in his
family.

The first sermon that Sir Heneage heard of
his chaplain's own composing, (and it was the
first that he made,) did so please him, that he
ordered one of his sons (who was afterwards
Lord Guernsey and Ailesford) to go and thank
him for it; and the kindness he had for him
seemed to increase every day.

The first step that Sir Heneage made towards
his preferment, was upon the death of Dr.
Thomas Hodges, Dean of Hereford, and Rector
of St. Peter's, Cornhill ; to whom Mr. Sharp
had administered in extremis, and had given the
absolution of the church, for which the Doctor
left him Pugeo jidei as a legacy. This living

LIKE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

being vacant by his death, Sir Heneage Finch,
who was now made Attorney-general, applied
to Dr. Henchman, the Bishop of London, for it ;
but his lordship was pre-engaged for his own
chaplain, Dr. William Beveridge, who suc-
ceeded in it accordingly.

But it was not long before the Attorney-
general succeeded more happily in his applica-
tion; and that was for the Archdeaconry of Berks,
vacant by the promotion of Dr. Peter Mew, to
the See of Bath and Wells, and in the disposal
of the Crown. Mr. Sharp was twenty-eight
years of age when this dignity was conferred
upon him by the King ; and it is observable,
that he never had any preferment afterwards, .
but what he had under the seals. And though '
all of them were bestowed upon him without his
own seeking or application, and most of them
without his knowledge or particular expectation,
yet this first was given him even against his in-
clination and will.

For when the Attorney- general told him,
(after he came from the court), that the King
had given him the Archdeaconry of Berkshire,
he answered, that he was too young for that
office, and that he knew nothing of the nature
of it : whereupon the Attorney-general bid him
read Lyndwood ; and for his further encourage-
ment paid all the fees of the seals for him ; and

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

shortly after, at his first visitation, he not only
lent him horses and servants, but put money in
his pocket to defray the expences.

But notwithstanding these favours, he met
with some difficulty and disappointment upon
the first exercise of his new jurisdiction; for
having held his visitation before induction, when
he came to Salisbury to be inducted, the Dean
refused to execute the mandate, supposing that
he had acted illegally in visiting before he had
complete possession ; and, accordingly, he sent
him back to London, re infecta. But the At-
torney-general befriended him again, and within
a week or ten days, after good advice had been
taken in London, he returned to Salisbury, and
was, without further dispute, inducted upon the
same mandate, which he had brought down at
the first.

Towards the latter end of this year, viz. in
November, 1673, Sir Heneage Finch was made
Lord Keeper, in which great post he continued
(as Lord Chancellor, after he was created Earl
of Nottingham) near ten years : whereby he be-
came, through the privileges of his office, a great
patron. And Archdeacon Sharp's interest with
his lordship (to whom he continued titular chap-
lain after he quitted the family till the year
1681, if not till the Lord Chancellor's death,)
gave him an opportunity, and an extraordinary

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 23

one it was, for a chaplain to meet with, of
making himself also a very useful friend, and,
in some sense, a patron likewise, to worthy j
clergymen ; which, no doubt, was the founda-
tion of the universal acquaintance he had among
the divines of that age, and of the unusual re-
spect he received from them. A full and just
account of this matter has been already given
to the world by Mr. Nelson, in his Life of Dr.
Bull, who was one of the worthy clergymen
promoted by the Lord Chancellor, at the in-
stance of Archdeacon Sharp ; and, therefore, it
will be sufficient to recite the passage from him,
P. 278, 27.9, where he mentions Dr. Bull's pro-
motion to a prebend in Gloucester :

" Among the many very commendable qua-
lities of this great man, (the Lord Chancellor
Finch) his zeal for the welfare of the Church
of England was not the least conspicuous ;
which particularly shewed itself in the care
he took in disposing of those ecclesiastical
preferments which were in the gift of the
seals. He judged rightly, in looking upon
that privilege as a trust for the good of the
Church of God, of which he was to give strict
account ; and, therefore, being sensible that
the several duties of his great post, as first
Minister of State, as Lord Chancellor, and
as Speaker of the House of Lords, would not

LIFE OF AKCHBISHOP SHARP.

allow his lordship time and leisure to make
that inquiry which was necessary, to know the
characters of such as were candidates for pre-
ferment, he devolved this particular province
upon his chaplain, whose conscience he charged
with an impartial scrutiny into this matter;
adding withal, that he would prefer none but
those who came recommended from him ; and
that, if he led him wrong, the blame should
fall upon his own soul.

" It is true that this was a great testimony of
my lord's entire confidence in the uprightness,
as well as capacity of his chaplain; but the
world will quickly be satisfied with what cau-
tion and judgment his lordship took his mea-
sures, when they shall know, that his then
chaplain was Dr. Sharp, the present Lord Arch-
bishop of York, who fills one of the archiepis-
copal thrones of the Church of England, with
that universal applause, which is due to his
Grace's distinguishing merits : whose elevation
hath not deprived him of his humility, but he
exerciseth the same affability and courtesy to-
wards all men, which he practised in a lower
sphere ; and that learning and piety, that inte-
grity and zeal for the glory of God, which
influence his Grace in the government of his
diocese, and of his province, were peculiarly
serviceable to the Earl of Nottingham, in the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

charge his lordship laid upon him, with so much
solemnity."

Thus far Mr. Nelson.

But his lordship did not so strictly keep to
this rule as in no case to depart from it ; for, in
1675, (while he was yet Lord Keeper) he dis-
posed of three preferments in one year upon
his own judgment, without receiving the recom-
mendation, or taking the advice of his chaplain;
and these were upon the chaplain himself. The
first was a prebend of Norwich ; the second
was the living of St. Bartholomew's Exchange,
vacant by the promotion of Dr. Bridoake to
Chichester ; at whose consecration, Mr. Sharp
preached in Lambeth chapel*. He was insti-
tuted into this benefice by Bishop Henchman,
but held it a very short time ; for the rectory
of St. Giles's in the Fields, (which was the
third) becoming soon vacant by the death of
Dr. Boreman, my Lord Keeper insisted upon
his taking that. Each of these favours were
accompanied with further marks of kindness ;
for his lordship would not suffer him to pay
the seal fees for the two former ; and when
he gave him the last, he did it with this
farther promise, that if St. Martin's in the

* April 18th, 1675. — At the consecration of Doctor Ralph
Bridoake to Chichester, and Doctor William Lloyd to Llandaff ;
by Archbishops Sheldon and Stern, and Bishop Gunning.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Fields would be more acceptable to him, if
ever it became vacant in his time, he should
have it ; which his lordship did accordingly
offer to him afterwards in the year 1680, (when
Dr. Tennison came in upon the removal of Dr.
Lloyd to St. Asaph). But he would not then
leave his parishioners of St. Giles's, who greatly
' loved and respected him, purely for the sake of
a more profitable benefice.

He had, indeed, two very early opportunities
of recommending himself to his parishioners at
St. Giles's, and of obliging them. One was the
advantage of the pulpit from the death of Dr.
Boreman to the time of his own induction,
which made his person and talents known to
them before he came to be their minister ; the
other was the serviceableness of his interest
with the Lord Keeper, which he shewed them
the very day after he had taken possession of
the church. For it happened that while he was
treating his vestrymen, immediately after his
induction, that the chests in the vestry were
broke open, and all the communion- plate stolen,
to the value of above £200 ; but my Lord
Keeper, upon Mr. Sharp's mentioning it the
next day, was pleased to order, for the use of
that church, two large silver gilt flagons, and
two chalices, for which he paid above an hun-
dred pounds.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

He was instituted into this rectory, January
3, 1675-6, by Dr. Henry Compton; and was
the first clergyman whom his lordship gave in-
stitution to : and, notwithstanding his lordship
was afterwards, in the reign of King James, a
great sufferer on his account, that is, for not
suspending those powers which he now granted
him, yet, it may be presumed, from the respect
and friendship that he shewed him upon that,
and upon all other occasions, that his lordship
never less regretted the admission of a clerk in
his whole life ; and never thought otherwise than
with satisfaction, on these first fruits of his
episcopal acts.

Towards the end of the spring following, Mr.
Sharp married Mrs. Elizabeth Palmer, of the
Palmer's, of Winthorp, in Lincolnshire ; her mo-
ther was heiress of the Halton's, another ancient
family. This lady was recommended to Mr.
Sharp by Mr.Rawlinson (afterwards Sir William
Rawlinson, and one of the Lords Commissioners
of the Great Seal, at the Revolution,) who had
married her sister. But Mrs. Mosely (for that
was the present name of their mother, who had
married again) having past the prime of her life j
in the late times, and received some taint from
the Puritans, and being a particular friend and
admirer of the famous Mr. Baxter, would not
consent to this treaty for her daughter, till she

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

had consulted him. Accordingly she did : and
Mr. Baxter not only consented and approved of
the proposal, but such was the opinion he had
of the Archdeacon, and such his esteem for him,
that he told her, had he a daughter of his own
to dispose of, he would not refuse her to Mr.
Sharp*.

This put an end at once to all Mrs. Mosely's
difficulties, and the marriage was soon con-
cluded and solemnized at Clerkenwell Church,
by Dr. Tillotson.

The first occasion of his becoming acquainted
with Dr. Tillotson, who was one of his intimate
friends, was this : — Not long after he came out
of Yorkshire into the Solicitor's family, going to
Mr. Joseph Tillotson, the Doctor's brother, a
wet and dry salter, or oil drawer, in London,
with a bill from his father, Sharp, who was of
the same trade in Bradford, he there happened
to meet with the Doctor himself ; who, finding
Mr. Sharp to be his countryman, and a young
clergyman, setting out into the world, did, out
of his usual goodness and humanity, take par-

* Mr. Baxter lived in great friendship with him for many
years afterwards, and did not only frequently attend at his
church at service and sermons, but at his sacraments. Mr.
Baxter's reasons for his occasional conformity, may be found
in his Life, published by Silvester, p. 437.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

ticular notice of him, and entreat him cour-
teously ; and having entered into some familiar
conversation with him, was pleased, at parting,
to give him leave, whenever he would, freely
to come to his own house, and to have recourse
to him as often as he thought it might be service-
able to himself. Mr. Sharp judged this a lucky
interview, and thought himself blessed in so
valuable an acquaintance ; and ever after spoke
with pleasure upon the occasion : for here com-
menced a friendship which lasted as long as Dr.
Tillotson lived, improved perpetually by an
intimate conversation for many years, and ce-
mented by repeated returns of good offices to
each other, and some of them, on either side,
considerable, as will hereafter be shewn. Of
all those good offices which Dr. Tillotson did
for him, that which he now performed in the
ceremony of giving him a companion for life,
proved in the event most acceptable ; as it was
the greatest worldly blessing that Providence
ever bestowed upon him, and contributed more
to his ease and comfort than any of the great
preferments he afterwards attained to ; for there
could not be a more happy couple than he
and his lady were : nor could any woman be
better qualified than she was to answer his pur-
pose, or scheme of domestic economy, in a
married state, which was, to commit his purse, as

LIKE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

well as the conduct of his household affairs,
wholly to the care and management of his wife.
And, accordingly, on the day of his marriage,
he gave her his money, bidding her to be a
good steward with it, and with what she should
for the future receive for him, for he would
have as little concern with it himself as possible, so
long as she lived ; and he was as good as his
word, as there may be further occasion to shew
hereafter.

Upon this change of his condition, he quitted
his patron's family, where he had lived eight
years and a half, and removed with his wife to

'\ Mr. Rawlinson (his brother by this alliance, as
lately mentioned,) in Chancery-lane, with whom
he dwelt four years, intent upon the affairs of
his parish, and such studies as concerned his
office and duty in it, and more especially the
preaching part, which he had (as was before
observed) much neglected, till he became a con-
stant preacher.

However, it was not long before his great
abilities this way were more publicly known.
The two first sermons that he printed were

! preached before the Lord Mayor ; the third, be-
fore the House of Commons, on April 11, 1679 ;
but that which most tended to advance his cha-
racter in the pulpit, was his taking the Friday
lecture at St. Lawrence s Jury (which he did in

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

the year aforesaid, March 28, 1679,) where there
was, not so much a concourse of people as a
convention of divines, especially those of the
* city, who had customarily attended those lec-
tures, from the time that Dr. Tillotson, who was
the Tuesday lecturer, had so successfully led
the way in reforming the method and stile of
composures for the pulpit. Mr. Sharp, whether
he thought himself too young for this service,
and unequal to it, or whether he imagined it
would encroach too much upon his time, and
necessary attendance on his parish, or what-
ever was his reason, was very unwilling to
undertake it ; but at the earnest request df Dr.
Ben. Whichcot, (who was Vicar of St. Law-
rence's) he was at length prevailed upon to hold
the lecture as long as that doctor lived, but he
would hold it no longer; and, accordingly, when
Dr. Whichcot dropt, he quitted it.

Being this same year of doctor's standing in
the University, he thought the taking his degree
was a debt that he owed to his character and
preferments in the church ; being a dignitary,
as well as minister, of one of the largest parishes
in town. Whereupon he went down to Cam-
bridge, and was admitted by Dr. Turner, the
Vice Chancellor ; and in July, was created Doc-
tor in Divinity by proxy, " Domino Doctore
Beveridgio stante in Comitiis in ejus Vice"

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

The next year, 1680, he published three ser-
mons more ; one entitled, " The doing Good in our
Lives,'" that it is every Man's great Concernment,
and in every Man's Power ; preached at the
Yorkshire Feast, February 17th. Another, en-
titled, " The Rich Mans Duty ;" preached at the
Spittal, April 14th following. (These two he
published together, for reasons given in their
respective dedications. 9. Vid.) The third, was
that excellent discourse which he preached at
the election of a Lord Mayor, on September
29th, entitled, " A Description of the Upright
Man, and his Security in Evil Times, ."

This year also, he left his brother Rawlinson,
and took a house for himself in Great Russel-
street, nearer his own church : where he con-
tinued to the time of his leaving the parish.

And here, it may not be improper to con-
sider him, in his labours as a Parochial Mi-
nister.

The sixteen years that he continued Rector of
St. Giles's, were the prime of his life. He was
not quite thirty-one years of age at his induc-
tion. At forty his parts were at the height,
and his head more bright, and his spirits more
vigorous, (as he himself thought), than in any
other part of his life ; and, indeed, he had suffi-
cient occasion both for a ready and able under-
standing, and a sound and clean constitution.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

For he was frequently obliged to spend the
greatest part of the night (especially Saturday
nights) in his study : not that he purposely
chose those hours to be free from noise and
disturbance, or secure from interruptions of
company and business, (for such late studying
no ways suited with his inclinations,) but be-
cause he frequently had no other time to answer
the constant demands of his pulpit. And now
it was, and chiefly in those midnight hours,
which he borrowed from his rest, that he com-
posed most of those discourses, which after-
wards, with a little revisal and finishing, he
made use of to his dying day.

No character can be given of his preaching,
more just or excellent than that which he him-
self, though very modestly, as well as seriously,
hath given of it, in his Farewell Sermon, where
he tells his flock, that although he could not
say he had done his duty as he ought, (and he
heartily begged of God to forgive him all his
defects,) yet he had this satisfaction, that, in all
his preaching, he had sincerely endeavoured to
instruct them in the true doctrine of the Gospel,
and to teach them the right way that leads to
salvation ; and that he was so certain that he
had neither been mistaken himself, nor misled
them in that matter, that he durst with confi-
dence address himself to them in the words of

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

the Apostle: "Those things which you have
learned, and received, and heard of me, do ; and
the God of Peace shall be with you."

And if he could thus answer and engage for
the truth and soundness of his doctrines, there
are enough, even as many as heard him, or have
read his discourses, who, though less capable of
answering for the matter of them, will yet give
testimony to his good manner of preaching.
His great excellency lay in representing the
truths of religion, with such plainness and un-
affected simplicity, as was, at the same time,
very persuasive and affecting. Even when he
undertook to treat the more nice and uncommon
subjects, his management of them was admirably
well adapted to common apprehension. The
arguments he used were always pertinent and
clear, and the stile in which he delivered those
arguments easy and familiar, as well as just and
correct *. So that few writers will be found to
equal, and none to surpass him, in perspicuity
and propriety of expression.

He studied, as much as any man, to move and
warm the passions, and he did it in so happy a
way, that is, with so little appearance of design,

* Vide Dr. Felton's Character of Archbishop Sharp's Ser-
mons, in his Dissertation upon reading the Classics : wherein
he proposes them as a model for the forming a just stile.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 35

that it is hard to know whether the success he
had in influencing the affections, be the effect
of his art in the arrangement of his matter, and
force of his expressions ; or whether his argu-
ments make their own address to the passions,
without being beholden to his skill and conduct,
for any adventitious recommendation. He had
withal an unusual pathos in his delivery, won-
derfully instrumental in exciting and preserving-
attention, and captivating the mind. He had
naturally no ear for music ; and yet there was
something very engaging and harmonious in his
elocution, owing to the regularity and justness
of his cadences, and the happy accommodation
of the tone of his voice to the subject matter of
which he was speaking, together with an ob-
servance of swift or slow measures of utterance,
as best suited the texture of his expressions, or
best served to enliven the sentiments he intended
to convey : so that, indeed, those discourses
which are published to the world, are only, as it
were, the dead letter, in comparison of what
they appeared under the persuasive power of
his delivery, and want that quickening spirit
that gave such life and inimitable beauty to
them in the mouth of their author. In short,
the advantages he gave to his own performances
were so remarkable, that it was his distinguish-
ing character among the London Divines, to

d 2

36 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

excel in the pathetical way, as is acknowledged
even by some who will give no other recommen-
dation of him as a preacher.

The learned Bishop Burnet, for instance, who
was never thought partial to him on the favour-
able side, gives this account of him in his History
of his Own Times, Vol. I. p. 674. " He was
(says his lordship) both a very pious man and one
of the most popular preachers of the age, who had
a peculiar talent of reading his Sermons with much
life and zeal.

This character is, indeed, so far as it goes, a
very just and true one ; and, when well consi-
dered, a great one too. For it is agreed by all
who have wrote upon the eloquence of the pul-
pit, that one of the first requisites to the making
a good preacher, is that he himself be a devout
and good man, deeply and seriously affected
with a sense of those things which he would
inculcate, and impress upon the minds and af-
fections of others. He ivho hath no other end
or view, either in composing or delivering his dis-
courses, than the making people better, and more
disposed to their duty, cannot well be otherwise than
an able preacher, and must have ill luck if he be
not a popoular one too; for he will certainly,
under this disposition, take more with his au-
dience than another of superior talents and
capacities can do, who happens to be guided

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

by any less worthy aims. That Dr. Sharp was
so popular a preacher, was no doubt principally
to be ascribed to the piety of the man, to
which he owed, in great measure, (what his
lordship stiles a peculiar talent, viz.) the reading
of his Sermons with life and zeal. For it
was impossible for him to speak of the things
that concerned God or Religion without being
affected himself, and without endeavouring, as
far as his natural powers would enable him, to
affect others also.

It may seem, indeed, to them who knew
Bishop Burnet's faculty of preaching extempore,
wherein he undoubtedly excelled, as if he men-
tioned Dr. Sharp's reading his Sermons as no
part of his laudable character ; and, surely, it
was very natural for his lordship, who was con-
scious of his own readiness upon all occasions,
and very reasonable to allow him who had been
bred up in this extemporary way, to be of
opinion, that it was no commendable thing for
a man to read a precomposed form, though ever
so peculiarly well. But yet, others are more
at liberty, and it may be, rather inclined to think
differently ; as they have been used to dis-
courses, penned with care and meditation, and
have observed it to be the choice, and almost i
universal practice of the English Divines, of that
and the present age, who have been thought as

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

able preachers as any in the Christian Church,
since the primitive times. And such will be
ready to own, that it is no small attainment even
to read a sermon well; and that it is worth a
man's while and pains, to endeavour after it;
especially considering, that there are not many
who arrive at any perfection in doing so. And
for this reason, several of our eminent Prelates
have given this in charge to their clergy, that
they study propriety of elocution, and endeavour
after a decent and ornamental way of delivering
their discourses ; judging very rightly, that not
only the character of the preacher, but even the
success of his labours depend, in too great a
measure, upon this seemingly inconsiderable
point.

As to Dr. Sharp, they who knew his way of
talking, especially upon divine subjects (which
were often in his mouth,) with so much fluency,
piety, gravity, and every ornament that is pro-
per for discourses of that nature, can hardly
think otherwise than that he must have acquitted
himself in the pulpit, even in the extemporary
way, as well as most men, had he made the
trial, or thought fit to have pursued such a me-
thod. But it was utterly against his principle,
and contrary to his idea of useful preaching,
especially in populous assemblies, and mixed
congregations, as are usual in the London

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 39

churches, to venture upon a work of so great
moment, without having prepared the diction
as well as the matter. He never thought he
could take too great precautions, or too much
pains, in composing his sermons, (some of which
he corrected and transcribed more than once).
He was careful and exact in the choice of his
words, and used to say, that the point which
put him most upon consideration in the making
his sermons, was oftentimes how to make things
plain enough, that is, to find out phrases suited
and levelled to the capacities of the vulgar, and
yet not vulgar enough themselves to offend the
politest taste. He was not at a loss for words
significant and proper enough to express his
sentiments, (and which came from him with
as much ease and readiness as from any man
living,) but he wanted to be understood by
every body, even his meanest auditors, at
the first hearing, and to effect this, too, with-
out using low and creeping similies, rustic
phrases, or tedious repetitions, or, if possible,
without impairing either the force of his ar-
gument or the beauty of his stile. And who-
soever can compass thus much, without weigh-
ing and adjusting his expressions beforehand,
as well as his sentiments, has indeed a pecu-
liar talent, and such as Dr. Sharp never pre-
tended to.

LI1K 01 ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

When it fell in Dr. Burnet's way to repre-
hend the loose, extempore, though popular way
of preaching among the Friars, before the Re-
formation, and to give the reason why the Re-
formers fell afterwards into the practice of
writing and reading their sermons, he thought
it not improper either to mention the incon-
veniences of the former practice, or to bestow
a good word or two upon the benefit of the
change. He says, "That those who were li-
censed to preach (viz. among the first Refor-
mers, who preached without notes,) being often
accused for their sermons, and complaints being
made to the King by hot men on both sides,
they generally came to write and read their
sermons.

"From thence the reading of sermons grew into
practice in this church; in which, if there was
not that heat and fire which the Friars had
shewed in their declamations, so that the pas-
sions of the hearers were not so much wrought
on by it, yet it hath produced the greatest
treasure of weighty, grave, and solid sermons,
that ever the Church of God had ; which does
in great measure compensate that seeming flat-
ness, to vulgar ears, that is in the delivery of
them." — Hist. Reform. V. I. p. 317.

The seeming flatness to vulgar ears, which
the Doctor here mentions as the sole imperfec-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

tion of delivering sermons from prepared notes,
is a consideration that doth indeed concern all
those who can suffer themselves to be careless,
and to appear indifferent in the delivery of their
discourses : but as there can be no room or
ground for this complaint in any who have the
talent of reading their sermons with much life
and zeal, so Dr. Sharp stood clear of it, and
consequently of all the exceptions that have
been commonly made against this modern way
of preaching.

It must be confessed, indeed, that his art of
short-hand contributed not a little to the ac-
ceptableness of his delivery ; for he so disposed
his characters as to take in a whole sentence,
or as much as could be distinctly pronounced
in the same breath, with one transient glance of
the eye, and so disposed those sentences dis-
tinctly under each other, as to be able, when
he had taken off his eye, without any difficulty,
to recover the place where it had left the page ;
and so expert was he at this, that he has been
sometimes thought to have preached by heart,
or to make little or no use of his notes, which
gave him all the outward advantages of extem-
porary preaching, without subjecting himself or
his audience to any of its disadvantages. For
hereby he was at liberty to execute whatever
is usually thought graceful, and ornamental in

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

the pulpit, either with respect to the mien,
posture, or movements ; which advantage is in
great measure lost to any person who is bound
perpetually to attend to his notes; and which is
not often found well improved by any person
who has his matter to consider of rather than
his manner, and is bound to watch more over
his words than his behaviour, and who, through
the entire disuse of notes, wants even those
seasonable restraints which they would give to
redundancy of action, and, perhaps, in some
cases, to extravagances of gesture.

So that, upon the whole, Dr. Sharp may be
said to have appeared equal, if not superior, to
an extempore man, in the agreeableness of his
way in delivering himself ; besides his hav-
ing the benefit and security of well-digested
and premeditated discourses, fit to be read
and criticised upon in private, as well as to
pass the transient judgment of the world in
public.

It may be added to his being a good preacher,
that he was likewise a constant one. For several
years he preached twice every Sunday in his
own parish, besides his lecture in the city, and
other occasional courses that he supplied in the
week days.

He had also a very solemn way of reading
the Church Service, and did great justice to the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 43

admirable form of prayer in the established
Liturgy. They who have taken up unreason-
able, and yet invincible prejudices, against all
set forms of public worship, will suppose it a
very small attainment for a man to learn his
paces in the same perpetual round or circle,
and may think it of no moment what manner is
used in offering up (what, in their opinion, may
be little better than) the dull repetitions of dry
addresses to God Almighty. But they who
have more thoroughly considered the thing, do
acknowledge, that it is neither so easy a matter
to read prayers well, nor of small consequence
whether the offices be performed with devotion
and solemnity or no. Too many complaints
have been made against the clergy upon this
head, and some of them, without doubt, very
unjustly ; it not being in every man's power,
how pious soever he be in disposition, to read
the common prayers to the general satisfaction
of others. But this is to be said for Dr. Sharp,
that the Church Service in his hands, was exe-
cuted to every body's taste ; and the common
petitions, where they were put up by him to
the Throne of Grace, were so far from being
liable to the imputation of dull performances,
that they always affected his audience, though
they did not seem always new. How far his
happiness in these exercises was a natural gift

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

in him, or how far it was an acquired perfection,
is not easy to determine ; but which of them
soever it was, he never displayed it more than
in the celebration of the holy mysteries. So
distinct, nervous, devout, and indeed seraphic,
was his elocution on those occasions, that he
not only disposed the congregation present to
seriousness and reverence, but inspired them
with some degrees of that devotion, life, and com-
fort which he expressed himself.

In a word, if he ever distinguished himself in
a more extraordinary manner under the charac-
ter of a Christian Priest, — if he ever did justice
to his function, or the Liturgic offices, it was
then when he stood before the altar.

There are two points more, not to be for-
gotten, under the consideration of him as a
Parochial Minister ; and those are, his care and
diligence in discharging two very material
branches of his function, viz. catechising of youth,
and visiting the sick.

As to the former, he well knew the great use-
fulness and expediency of laying a good foun-
dation of religion, by seasoning the mind early
with a sense of piety and duty, and furnishing
or pre-occupying it with good notions and prin-
ciples. It was one of his sayings, (and one that
he used to direct particularly to his clergy after
he became Bishop,) that, although he would

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

make no comparisons between the Magistrate's
office and the Minister's, nor take upon him to
determine which of them gave the better oppor-
tunities of reforming mankind, and promoting
true virtue and goodness; yet this he would say,
without offence, that unless men's minds were
informed and imbued with serious and good
notions, which was the Minister's province, as
well as their actions regulated by the laws,
which belonged to the Magistrate to take care
of, there could be no true reformation.

And no man could be better qualified than
himself for the office of catechising ; for he had
not only a faculty of making such things as are
not obvious and easy to be understood without
explanation, clear and familiar to the slenderest
capacities, but he had also a very kind, warm \
way of talking upon such matters ; which pre-
vailed much towards engaging the attention, as
well as informing the understandings of his
catechumens. His lectures on these occasions
were extempore, save that he always had a
little paper of memorandums, or heads of dis-
course, that he might proceed in order, and not
omit any thing that he judged material for their
information.

And, as to visiting the sick, and administering
the sacrament in private, though he had suffi-
cient curates, (able men and ably provided for,)

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

yet he bore his share of duty with them, even
among the poor in the garrets and the cellars;
and would never refuse his attendance when
particularly sent for, though his compliance
herein put him somctunes m hazard of his life.
He never had the small-pox, yet being brought
in to persons under that distemper, he hath not
through fear or surprize desisted from doing his
office ; and as he had the general character, not
only of a pious man, but a good casuist, he had
sometimes more business of this kind upon his
hand, than what arose immediately from his
own parish. And once, when he was called out
by two unknown gentlemen, to an unknown
place, on pretence of visiting their dying friend,
and not without suspicions of some treacherous
design upon himself, (for it was at a particular
time in King James's reign, when he had grounds
for such a distrust,) nevertheless, he ventured
with them, only taking with him the guard of a
servant, which was not usual with him, and
ordering him to stand in the street before the
house whither he was carried, and not to stir
from thence upon any account whatsoever, till
he saw him out of the house again. This, in-
deed, was Mrs. Sharp's advice and precaution.
And it had this effect, that when the design of
the servant's attendance in the street was ob-
served, by his utterly refusing to enter the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

house, the Doctor, after waiting some time, was
told that the stranger patient was then taking
rest, and could not conveniently be disturbed.
And so he was dismissed, and never heard
afterwards either of the patient or his friends.

He gave it in charge to his two curates, in
their course of visiting the sick, never to take
gratuities from ordinary tradesmen, or any of
the inferior sort of people ; and that they might
be the less tempted to complain of this injunc-
tion, he not only set off to them for their allow-
ance, such fees of his parish, (as raised their
stipend in some years to six score pounds each),
but he declined, as much as he could, the per-
forming, in his own person, all those offices
where extraordinary perquisites or presents
were to be of course expected, that his curates
might receive the benefit of his people's gene-
rosity.

Amidst the variety of business that he went
through, and frequent avocations from home
while he lived upon his cure, he took no kind
of diversion, unless the study of coins and me-
dals may be called so *. For of these he was

* Coins and medals were his amusement and delight for
several years after he was Archbishop. When he so improved
and enlarged his collection, that at length it was inferior to
few in England, especially in regard of the Saxon and
English coins. He likewise wrote and left a large MS.

48 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

fond, and begun a collection very early, which,
in progress of time, came to be large and cu-
rious. But his chief recreation and relief from
his more necessary employments, and serious
studies, was the conversation of learned and in-
genious men ; and for this he was happily
situated ; the town then affording him a set of
acquaintance not only very knowing and judi-
cious, but also very communicative ; in whose
agreeable and improving company, he spent
his vacant and leisure hours. The chief of
these were those celebrated London divines, who
were the ornaments of that age ; as Dr. Stilling-
fleet, Patrick, Beveridge, Cradock, Whichcot,
Calamy, Scot, Sherlock, Wake, and Cave ; and
above all, his dear and fast friends, Dr. Tillot-
son and Dr. Claggett, with whom he enjoyed
a more intimate conversation. They had fre-
quent stated meetings and conferences at each
other's houses (for it was a rule with Dr. Sharp,
and probably with the rest too, not to fre-
quent taverns, or places of public resort and
entertainment,) at which they proposed such
points of discourse, as they were desirous to
have each other's judgement and opinion upon ;
and chiefly such subjects as pertained to th'eir

account of them, in which some treatises respecting the Eng-
lish coins, and their proper marks of difference, have been
thought, by good judges, very accurate and valuable.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 49

own profession, or such passages of Scripture,
as any of them purposed to treat of in the pul-
pit ; which being freely talked over, and with a
friendly unreservedness, contributed not a little
to the clearing up their difficulties and resolv-
ing their doubts, unfolding and ranging their
thoughts, directing and regulating the dispo-
sition of their matter, and, in short, to the
making them sooner masters of their respective
subjects, than they could have been by build-
ing, though never so industriously, on their own
foundations, and pursuing their private searches
and inquiries, though never so closely and at-
tentively. And no doubt but it was much
owing to the happy harmony that was between
these great men *, and to their free communi-
cations with each other, that the Socinian and
Popish controversies, and the debates about
Nonconformity and Schism, were so excellently
handled in those times, as well in their sermons

* Bishop Burnet bears his testimony to the characters of the
Divines abovementioned, and some others, who, he says,
" were worthy and eminent men among the Clergy, whose
lives and labours did, in great measure, rescue the Church
from those reproaches that the follies of others drew upon it ;
as Tennison, Sharp, Patrick, Sherlock, Calamy, Claggett,
Fowler, Cudworth, Williams, and others who deserved a high
character, and were indeed an honour to the Church, and to
the age in which they lived."

50 LIFE OF ARC II BIS HOP SHARP.

as in their other writings, which will remain
lasting monuments of their great talents.

But it is time now to return to the thread of
the narrative, which was broken off at Dr. Sharp's
settlement in his house in Russel-street, in the
year 1680. In the year following, 1681, his
Majesty, King Charles, was pleased to bestow
a mark of his royal favour upon him, viz. the
Deanery of Norwich, vacant by the death of Dr.
Astley. This preferment was obtained for him
. at the intercession of the Duke of York, and the
1 Lord Arlington, and his patron the Lord Chan-
cellor, who may be presumed to have been his
principal friend upon this occasion.

This Deanery was the more acceptable to him
because he had been a member of that church
above six years, and was acquainted with the
constitution and affairs of that body ; neverthe-
less, that he might inform himself completely
of every thing that was requisite to make him a
good governor, he spent a great part of the fol-
lowing year, 1682, in looking over the ledger-
books, and making himself master of the state
of their revenues, and the extent of his own
rights and privileges. His recesses, likewise,
from London, which were now longer and more
frequent than heretofore, were beneficial to him,
as well as agreeable. For he not only had op-
portunity of studying more at leisure, and more

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 51

to his own satisfaction, than he could in town ;
but of recruiting his health and relieving him-
self from the fatigues of his parochial cure ; —
and, (what was still of more consequence to
him) of improving in his spiritual life, through
the advantages of retirement and disengagement
from company and business, which Norwich
afforded him ; a remarkable instance of which
blessing, (for so he esteemed it) shall be given
in its proper place.

Towards the latter end of this year, 1682,
died his friend, Sir John Finch ; and within a
month after him, viz. December 18, died his
beloved lord and patron, the Earl of Notting-
ham : each of them leaving him legacies, as
tokens of their esteem and friendship for him.

In the following year, 1683, he wrote his first
book about Conscience, at the desire of the
Bishop of London. To understand the reason
why this province was particularly assigned
him, it will be proper to look back to the head
of a dispute with the Dissenters, about Con-
formity, which he himself had undesignedly
opened near ten years before.

He had in the year 1674, while he was yet
Domestic Chaplain to the Lord Keeper, and
before he had any other preferment besides his
Archdeaconry, preached before the Lord Mayor
at Guildhall Chapel, upon the subject of the

e 2

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SIIAH1'.

Dissenters separation from the Established
Church, which his lordship desired might be
printed ; and so it was ; and is now the first
sermon in his Collection. In this discourse, he
shewed a great deal of sound reasoning, and a
great deal of temper too, more than men at their
first setting out into the world, and especially
at his age, are usually masters of. He under-
took in it the proof of the following proposi-
tions.

I. That every Christian, upon the very ac-
count of his being so, is a member of the Church
of Christ, and is bound to join in external com-
munion where it can be had.

II. That every one is bound to join in com-
munion with the Established National Church
to which he belongs, supposing there be nothing
in the terms of its communion that renders it
unlawful for him to do so.

III. That the being a member of any Church,
doth oblige a man to submit to all the laws and
constitutions of that Church.

IV. That we can have no just cause of with-
drawing our communion from the Church
whereof we are members, but when we cannot
communicate with it without the commission
of a sin.

V. That though we have a just cause to re-
fuse communion with the Church whereof we

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

are members, in some instances ; yet we are not
therefore to proceed to so total a separation
from it, as to erect new Churches in contra-
distinction to it, or to join with those that do.
This is never to be done unless a Church be so
corrupted in doctrine and practice, that the
salvation of all who communicate with her, is
thereby endangered.

To these propositions, he spoke short and
clearly ; and then proceeded to consider the
several ways of preserving peace and charity
with our Dissenting brethren. And very ex-
cellent rules he laid down for this purpose, but
not having room within the compass of a ser-
mon to go through his subject, he concluded
with laying down such further heads of dis-
course, as he either had, or at least designed
to have prosecuted, in order to complete his
arguments. But as it was ordered to be printed
in so unfinished a way, and it being the first
sermon he sent to the press, he wrote a dedi-
cation in the first edition of it, to Sir William
Hooker, and the Court of Aldermen, apologiz-
ing for this imperfection, in these words.

" Right Honourable. — The following Dis-
course was never designed to go further than
your own chapel, otherwise it had not been left
so imperfect ; but since you have thought fit to

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

order it should be made public, it would ill
become me, who do in it so earnestly press obe-
dience to superiors, to dispute your commands.
^Such therefore as it is, I humbly present it to
you ; heartily wishing it may, in some degree,
minister to the promoting peace and unity, and
brotherly love among us, which is the only thing
therein aimed at, by, Right Honourable,
Your most humble, and
most obedient servant,

J. Sharp."

But this sermon had not been long in print
before it was attacked by an anonymous writer
(supposed to be Mr. Wadsworth) who undertook
to answer it. However, Mr. Sharp had this
benefit from his mild and inoffensive way of
managing the subject, that his adversary treated
him with better temper, and in a gentler strain
than is usual with men of that persuasion ; as is
remarked by the great Mr. Dodwell who under-
took the defence of Mr. Sharp's discourse. For
" the occasion of Mr. Dodwell's writing his book
of Schism," to use the words of the learned
author of Mr. Dodwell's Life, "was his being
engaged in defence of an excellent sermon on
Rom. xiv. 19, preached before the Lord Mayor,
by the Rev. Mr. John Sharp, who was after-
wards (in the judgment of all impartial persons

LIFE OK ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

deservedly) placed in one of the highest digni-
ties of our church. This," says he, " pro-
duced that elaborate book, entitled, Separation
of Churches from Episcopal Government, as
practised by the present Nonconformists, proved
Schismatical."

Indeed, Mr. Dodwell confesses as much in
his preface to his book of Schism, where he says,
that "it was at first designed as a defence of
that sermon, but having made some entrance
upon it, he did not think it so convenient to be
confined to another's method in delivering his
own sentiments, nor to concern any particular
author in the controversy ; but rather to under-
take the whole subject in a method most natural
to his own conceptions of it. And the rather
so, because most of the answerer's objections
would have no place on his way of stating the
controversy; and he could not think it worth
his while to spend time on such things as were
grounded on misunderstandings. But," says he,
" I speak not this with the least design of dis-
paraging the performance of the adversary, for
the misunderstandings are no other than such
as are common to him with the generality of the
dissenting party."

And from hence we have a very good account
how it came to pass that Mr. Sharp never re-
plied to Mr. Wadsworth, or whomsoever it was

LIFE OK ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

that undertook to answer his sermon. For he
not only was acquainted with Mr. Dodwell's de-
sign, but it was agreed and concerted between
them, that Mr. Dodwell's work should stand for
an answer to the answerer of the sermon, though
thrown, by him, into a new and more natural
method to himself. For thus he writes in the
preface abovementioned, " However, these con-
siderations being approved by several of my
worthy friends to whom I communicated them,
and among others by the author of that excel-
lent sermon, I easily obtained his leave to pro-
ceed in my own way. Yet I thought it conve-
nient withal to give this warning of it, that the
answerer, whoever he be, may know that his
objections have been allowed for in my hypo-
thesis, though they be not expressly mentioned ;
and that he may not look on the silence of his
adversary as an argument of any neglect of him."

This seems to be the true state of the case,
and not that Mr. Sharp employed Mr. Dodwell
to undertake the dispute for him ; as Mr.
Brokesby, the author of Mr. Dodwell's Life, in-
timates in another place, where he says, "that
Mr. D. wrote his book of Schism at the request
of the late excellent Archbishop of York."

But it seems rather to have been Mr. Dod-
well's own choice and motion ; only as he was
engaged in that subject, it was proper for him

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

to consult the man who had started it, and take
his advice, and obtain his consent, as to any
new method in which he proposed to handle it.

However, this book of Mr. Dodwell's was
wrote against by Mr. Baxter in his True and
only Way of Concord. Which drew a reply from
Mr. Dodwell, published in 1681, where he
shewed how little that chapter in Mr. Baxter's
book which concerned himself, deserved to be
called, (what it was entitled,) a Confutation of
his book of Schism.

The controversy having proceeded thus far,
Dr. Sharp at length (Anno 1683,) at the special
request of the Bishop, put his hand to it, and
gave it a finishing stroke. He did not set his
name to his work, nor take any express notice
of any thing that had been said for or against his
sermon, in 1674 ; but, as if he were wholly dis-
engaged from any concern in that dispute, he
considered the dissenter's plea of conscience as
a casuist, and entitled his book, " A Discourse
concerning Conscience" wherein an account is
given of the nature, rule, and obligation of it ;
and the case of those who separate from the
communion of the Church of England, as by law
established, upon this pretence, that it is against
their conscience to join in it, is stated and dis-
cussed.

In this discourse he treats fully and distinctly

58 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

of the conscience in general ; and, in his appli-
cation to the case of dissenters, he fairly sepa-
rates the several pretences of conscience, which
are truly and justly made by them, from those
which are false, viz. such as are mere pretences,
and in reality foreign to the matter. And then
he shews distinctly who they are that may, and
who they are that may not plead conscience for
their nonconformity ; and lastly, he inquires how
far this plea of conscience, when truly made,
will justify any dissenter who continues in se-
paration from the church as established in this
kingdom.

When he had finished, he put his papers into
the hands of his friend Dr. Claggett, who pub-
lished them for him, while he himself went down
to Norwich to attend his business there.

But the next year, 1684, he prosecuted his
argument further, and with more pains and ac-
curacy. Now he undertook to resolve the case
of a doubting conscience, viz. the case of those
who separate from the Established Church, not
because they are fully persuaded that they can-
not lawfully join in our communion, but because
they doubt whether they may lawfully join in it
or no ; and therefore so long as they thus doubt,
dare not venture to communicate, fearing they
should sin against God if they should do any
action of this consequence with a doubting mind.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

This point he treated at large with great judg-
ment and solidity ; and considered both the
nature, rule, and authority of a doubting con-
science, and also the power that human laws,
ecclesiastical or civil, have of overruling it ; or
determining a man's doubts for him in any mat-
ter. And in this work he had, as he used to say,
covertly, and without naming of names, answered
all that Mr. Wadsworth, or the other writer (for
his sermon had been wrote against by more than
one) had objected to him; and more especially
what had been either omitted by Mr. Dodwell,
or not answered altogether to his satisfaction.

The reader who peruses these discourses will
find not only a wonderful clearness and exact-
ness in the management of a deceitful and per-
plexed subject, and great sagacity and nicety
in distinguishing, but the whole carried on and
wrought up with a temper befitting so tender a
subject as conscience is. He insists upon no-
thing further than he can make his appeal for,
to every man's own reason and sense. And
where he treats of the doubting conscience, his
discourse is suited to reach, if possible, the very
weakest side (which is ever the most inexpug-
nable) of an honest and sincere man. He seems
not to write for the pleasure and satisfaction of
those who have no doubts upon their minds, and
who therefore are apt to judge too hardly of

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

those who have, and to be too much pleased
with seeing the other s weakness exposed, but
with such caution and yielding to natural in-
firmity and involuntary prejudices, as excludes
all appearance of triumph in having the better
of the argument ; and scarce can fail to allure
the attention, and prevent the displeasure at
least, even of such whose doubts are not by
reason to be surmounted.

And indeed Dr. Sharp, in all his casuistry,
ever inclined to the milder determinations. He
had himself experienced the strong effects of
mistaken principles early instilled into the mind,
and how vigorously they resisted and embar-
rassed reason when ripe and mature. He him-
self had felt the pangs of a melancholy doubting
mind, though under great sincerity of intention
and rectitude of will ; and this taught him how
to treat others who fell into the like misfor-
tunes and unhappy ways of thinking, and how
necessary it was to be soft and gentle with such
tender consciences.

The substance of the two forementioned dis-
courses was afterwards published by Dr. Bennet,
at Cambridge, in the year 1700, in his Abridg-
ment of the London Cases ; and it was done
very exactly, for he had received the author's
own corrections of it, as he himself gives notice
in his preface to the book.

LIFE OK ARCHBISHOP SHARP. Gl

But this controversy concerning schism was
not the only dispute that accidentally took its
rise from that sermon mentioned before ; for it
gave occasion to more books upon a different
subject about thirty years after it was preached.
By this means an anonymous author of a book
intitled " An Essay towards a Proposal for Ca-
tholic Communion," printed at London, 1704,
8vo, cited out of this sermon the Six Rules
for promoting Peace and Church Communion,
and made them the foundation of a new and un-
digested scheme of reconciling the Church of
England with the Church of Rome. The author
was pleased to stile himself " a Minister of the
Church of England ;" but the principles he
espoused and the points he advanced do evi-
dently show that he only assumed that charac-
ter to render his performance less obnoxious to
the Protestant reader ; or, if he had been for-
merly a Minister of the Church of England, he
was, without doubt, at the time of his writing
this treatise reconciled to the Church of Rome,
as they who answered him did pertinently ob-
serve. He showed himself however to be a man
of parts and dexterity, and of sufficient learning,
and gave a very specious turn to those rules,
which Mr. Sharp had intended for reconciling the
Dissenters to the Church of England, in order
to press them into the service of the Church

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

of Rome. This book received three answers
the year following, viz. 1705. One intitled
" Concordia Discors, or Animadversions upon a
late Treatise, intitled ' an Essay for Catholic
Communion,' by a Presbyter of the Church of
England/' The second was also by an anony-
mous writer, but publicly recommended by an
advertisement from Dr. Fowler, Bishop of Glou-
cester. In this the essay itself was reprinted,
and suitable observations made upon each sec-
tion of it distinctly. The third and fullest
reply was given by Mr. Nath. Spinckes, who, in
his answer to the first chapter, destroys the
pretended foundation which the author of the
essay would be thought to build upon, by show-
ing the perverse use he had made of Mr. Sharp's
rules, and the unfair deductions he had drawn
from them ; and sufficiently proving that they
were not applicable to the purposes for which
they were cited. To this defence of Mr. Spinckes
in particular the reader is referred if he desire
further satisfaction.

To return now to the account of Dr. Sharp's
labours and behaviour in St. Giles's parish.

The face of public affairs was something
changed in 1685, upon the death of King Charles
and the accession of his brother to the throne.
And the Established Church began to require
another kind of support and defence from her

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

fi3

advocates than had been lately requisite. For
whereas the debates with the Nonconformists
were rather invitations of them into her bosom,
and recommendations of her purity, and beauty,
and external ornaments, than a contest about
her essentials ; so the dispute that was now
on foot, or rather the war that was now com-
menced, was such as threatened her destruc-
tion;— and the point to be decided, whether
she was a church or not. Whereby the clergy
might see how necessary it was for them to arm
themselves to fight pro Aris, as well as the lay-
subjects pro Focis. Dr. Sharp was as sensible
of the alarm as any of his brethren, as well
prepared to act his part, and as resolute to do
his duty.

The first Sunday after the King's death, and
proclamation of his successor, he preached at
his own church a serious sermon upon Provi-
dence ; a subject which he thought not im-
proper at that juncture.

He was desired to draw up the Address of the
Grand Jury for the City of London, upon the
King's happy accession ; which he did in these
words.

THE ADDRESS, &C.

" May it Please Your Majesty ;
" Since we are the first in your Majesty's
reign that are called to serve upon the Grand

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Inquest for your City of London, we hope your
Majesty, according to your wonted clemency,
will give us leave among the rest of your good
subjects to present ourselves at your Majesty's
feet.

" We do magnify the goodness of Divine
Providence, that hath so peaceably and happily
seated your Majesty in the throne of your
royal ancestors, which all the world must own
to be your undoubted right.

" We do from the bottom of our hearts thank
Almighty God, and your Majesty, for the gra-
cious assurances you have given your people to
maintain and support the government both in
Church and State as established by law.

" And as we have always endeavoured in our
place and station, to approve ourselves loyal
and dutiful subjects to your Majesty's dearly
beloved brother, our late dread Sovereign of
blessed memory, so (as it is our duty), we
promise and resolve, with all the faith and since-
rity in the world to serve your Majesty, your
heirs and successors, to the utmost extremity."

It has been remarked that most of the ad-
dresses upon this occasion ran in a warm ; some
think too warm a strain of loyalty. And possi-
bly some objections may be made to the last
expression of this address, of serving the King

LIFE OF ARC II BIS HOP SHARP. 65

(as upon afoot of duty), to the utmost extremity.
But it is to be remembered, that although no
man had a more unshaken loyalty than Dr.
Sharp, or could be more firmly attached to the
service and interest of his prince than he was ;
yet he never taught or held any principles of
submission, but what were agreeable to the
constitution. For he always laid down the
laws of the land as the rule and measure of obe-
dience. And therefore his general expressions
should be understood with such limitations as
the principles he professed, and to which he
ever inviolably adhered, will admit of, or rather
will confine them to.

Soon after the King's accession, he preached
his Lent Course at Whitehall, viz. March 20,
upon Luke xvi. 31. Concerning the evidences
we have at this time of the truth of the Christian
religion. This sermon was printed at the parti-
cular request of the Bishops who were then
present. And (if he, who had a mean opinion
of all his own performances, may be allowed to
make a good judgment of any of them,) he so
far himself approved of this discourse, as to
think it the least exceptionable in his whole
collection.

At the coronation, in the month following, he
was one that walked among the chaplains and
dignitaries that attended the solemnity. He

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

was afterwards appointed Chaplain in ordinary
to his Majesty, and continued so till the Revo-
lution ; but this appointment was not till the
next year, April 20, 1686.

In the mean time he was busied in giving
good advice, and doing good offices to as many
as applied themselves to him during the difficul-
ties of the present administration of affairs.
And he was able to do the more service for hav-
ing the good luck to be in some kind of favour
with the Lord Chancellor Jefferies, whose friend-
ship he not only made use of for the sake of
others, but experienced himself in his troubles,
which soon succeeded. This year he obtained
favour of his Lordship for Sheriff Cornish's,
widow and children. Mr. Cornish had sent for
Dr. Sharp and Dr. Calamy to attend him on the
morning he was executed, which accordingly
they both did, and the next day they went both
together to my Lord Chancellor Jefferies, to
plead on the behalf of that gentleman's family.
His Lordship was exceeding angry and pas-
sionate for some time. But they desisted not,
till they at length pacified and appeased him,
and then had good success with their petition.

It was at the close of this year, that he joined
with Dr. Busby, of Westminster, in an act of
charity and respect to the Rev. Dr. John Pell,
who had been Chaplain to Archbishop Sheldon,

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

and was a man of learning and worth, but died
December 12, very poor and almost wanting
necessaries. They caused him at their own
charges to be decently interred in a vault in
St. Giles's church, called the " Rector's Vault."

But not to interrupt the account during the
following years of this reign with any more
incidents of this kind, let the testimony of Sir
John Chardin (who knew the Doctor at this
time), supply the place of them all, as it is given
in a letter which he wrote Anno 1 703, in these
words.

" If I am so free with the most eminent Arch-
bishop of York, it is by remembering tenderly
the Rev. Pastor of St. Giles's before the Revolu-
tion ; his zeal with the Protestants ; his fatherly
concern for the persecuted and exiled ; his in-
comparable writing and preaching in the defence
of the truth and in advancement of Christian
virtue," &c.

The next year, 1686, Dr. Sharp fell under
the displeasure of the King, for treating upon
some points in the Romish controversy in the
pulpit. Whereby a handle was given to the
court of proceeding against the worthy Bishop
of London, who for refusing to suspend the Doctor
was himself suspended by the Ecclesiastical
Commissioners. Father Orleans in his History
of the Revolutions in England, tells us that this

f 2

LIFE OF

ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

affair of Dr. Sharp, in which his diocesan was
involved, gave rise to the Ecclesiastical Com-
mission, the effects of which proved afterwards
so prejudicial to the King and his affairs. And
Bishop Burnet places the advising and erecting
of that court after the Bishop of London's re-
fusal to suspend the Doctor upon the difficulties
that arose about a method of proceeding legally
against him. It has indeed been assured from
other hands, that the commission was actually
granted in April, before the Doctor preached the
sermon that gave offence, though it was not
opened till the August following. But that this
is a mistake appears from hence ; that when the
Bishop of London pleaded before the Commis-
sioners, that he conceived their commission did
not extend to the crime laid to his charge, be-
cause what he was accused of was before the
date of the said commission ; the Lord Chan-
cellor did not deny the date of the commission
to be subsequent to the offence, but alledged
that it had restrospect to offences past.

However the Bishop and the Doctor were the
first over whom that unprecedented authority,
and illegal power, was exercised.

Their troubles on this occasion (particularly
the Bishop's,) are taken notice of in most of the
histories of these times. But because several
things relating to Dr. Sharp's conduct in the

LIFE O ¥ ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

whole affair have not hitherto been published,
and others have been misrepresented in the ac-
counts that are made public, it may be proper
in this place to give a more particular and exact
narrative of the whole matter.

The King, in the beginning of this year, had
been advised, as the supreme ordinary of the
Church of England, to command the reprinting
of the Directions for Preachers, which had been
given by the late King, in 1662 ; and to autho-
rize them afresh by letters mandatory to the
two Archbishops ; not considering the differ-
ence of seasons, and disparity of circumstances
the King was then in, in respect of his Pro-
testant predecessors, whose practice it had been,
when there was occasion, to restrain the liber-
ties of the pulpit. And the consequences was,
that the jealousies of the Church of England
against the King, instead of being abated, were
increased ; and people's fears every day grew
greater concerning the designs which the court
was supposed to be carrying on. So that some
of the clergy, notwithstanding the abovemen-
tioned directions to them, continued as before,
to preach pretty zealously against Popery. Dr.
Sharp was one of those who would not at this
time drop the Popish controversy. And he was
the rather kept to it by the perpetual attempts
which he found were made by the Popish priests

70 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

upon his parishioners. And as he was a popular
preacher upon those arguments, he was carefully-
watched after the publication of the Directions
to Preachers, as a person likely to offend against
that order.

It was on the 2nd of May that he preached
in his own church upon 1 Cor. xii. 13. From
this text he took occasion to treat concerning
the nature of the Catholic Church, and to settle
the true notion of that term as it stands in our
creeds. Having done that, at the close of his ser-
mon, he drew six conclusions from what he had
said, against the Church of Rome ; to show the
vanity of her pretensions in engrossing the name
of Catholic to herself. But these he chose
rather to propose by way of inquiry than asser-
tion, that he might be led to a more equal and
just examination of them, which he proposed to
do afterwards with great particularity, had he
been suffered to have prosecuted the subject in
the manner he intended. Now the first of these
queries which he designed to speak to the next
Lord's Day, was this, whether upon the true
stating of the notion of the Catholic Church, the
question that the Romanists laid so much stress
upon, viz. in what part of the world, or in which
of the different communions of Christendom the
true church was to be found, be not quite im-
pertinent and out of doors ?

LIFE

OF A liCH BISHOP SHARP.

As he came out of the pulpit a paper was
put into his hands by an unknown person, con-
taining an argument for the right that the Church
of Rome had to the stile and title of the only
visible Catholic Church.

This probably was drawn up hastily, (for it
was not well expressed,) by one of his auditors,
who observed by the conclusion of his sermon,
what point he was next to proceed upon, and
who either desired satisfaction as to that argu-
ment, or designed to put him to a difficulty.

The Doctor looking upon this as a kind of chal-
lenge, and not knowing to whom he should send
an answer, and being at that time engaged in
that very question, took an opportunity in his
next sermon, preached May 9, to conclude with
a particular confutation of this paper. What he
said against it, and in what manner he intro-
duced it, will best appear from the very words
themselves which he then delivered ; and which
will be found in the 7th volume of his Sermons,
published 1735, from p. 13 to 148.

It was this conclusion or appendix to his se-
cond sermon on the above said text which gave
the offence, or rather which gave the handle to
such as sought occasion to misrepresent him to
the King. And this is what Father Orleans, who
knew nothing of the matter, calls " laSailliede
Sharp ;" and for which he stiles him " un homme

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

emport6," a hot forward man; and " le Cure de
clamateur," the railing Parson*. Nay, he takes
upon him to affirm that Dr. Sharp in his sermon
inveighed against the Catholics in such a manner
as the most zealous Protestants disapproved
and thought too violent. " Un homme Sharp,"
says he, " Cure de Saint Giles se rendit remar-
quable sur cette matiere, et mela dans un de ses
sermons des invectives contre les Catholiques,
que les plus zelez Protestans disapprouverent,
et jujerent trop violentes."

The reader must judge from the passage itself
how far either Protestants or Catholics had rea-
son to be offended at it. It is evident there are
no personal reflections in it, no insinuations about
the administration of the government, nor any
thing that tends to sedition. He opposes him-
self only to some false principles and positions,
the refutation of which was at that time of great
consequence. And if he does it with greater
briskness and tartness than is usual to be met
with in his writings, it should be remembered
that he was disturbed very much about that time
with the Romish priests tampering with his
parishioners, and likewise that he looked upon

* This is the expression used by Echard in his translation
of Father Orleans' " History of the Revolutions in England."
Second Edition, p. 289.

LIFE 01' ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

this paper as a sort of challenge, which if he had
not undertaken, would have been interpreted
by them as yielding to the strength of the argu-
ment.

Neither ought he to be charged, as the French
writer abovementioned thinks fit to charge him,
with wilfully transgressing the king's injunc-
tions. For the points prohibited were only
matters of state, rights of sovereign and subjects,
and such questions in divinity as were nice and
difficult, and merely speculative, which had for-
merly occasioned great troubles in the nation,
and particularly the doctrine of predestination
and free-will. But the controversy with the
Church of Rome, and particularly that question,
Whether the Church of England was a church,
or no church ? could not possibly be reckoned
among the prohibited questions in King Charles's
instructions, in 1662, nor consequently in those
instructions revived by King James ; though it
might be presumed the design of the court in
republishing them, was to put a stop, or at least
give a check to the clergy's proceeding in the
Romish controversy in their sermons.

But how unblameable soever the Doctor him-
self might be in this affair, yet his sermon gave
an opportunity to informers to represent what he
had said in a quite different construction from
what he intended. The allegory, or allusion, to

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

a civil case, which he had made use of in his
argument, was a thing easy to be remembered,
and yet liable to be diversified according to the
humour of the relators.

And the last sentences in the sermon, concern-
ing those who depart from the Church of Eng-
land and embrace Popery, might be construed
as a reflection on the King, whose case that was,
as Bishop Burnet well observes. But the chief
thing that seems to have occasioned the infor-
mations at court, and given them countenance
there, was a mistaken notion of several of the
Doctor's auditors, that the paper which he un-
dertook to refute was the same that had been
found in the late king's strong box ; and that
he had attacked, and seemed to triumph over
that very argument which was thought to be,
in the judgment of his late majesty, invinci-
ble. All this indeed was a mistake : but not-
withstanding it quickly spread in the town, and
no wonder if the report was carried to the King
himself. In fine, it was represented to the
court as if the Doctor had endeavoured, by
that sermon, to shew his contempt of the King's
late orders concerning preachers, to foment
divisions among his Majesty's subjects, and to
reflect upon his Majesty's person as well as
government.

V The information," says Bishop Burnet, " as

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

to the words pretended to be spoken by Sharp,
was false, as he himself assured me."

But what his lordship adds is a mistake, and
what most certainly he never had from Dr.
Sharp, namely, that Sharp went to court to shew
his notes, which he was ready to swear were
those from which he had read it ; by which the
falsehood of the information would appear. Dr.
Sharp was never forward to go to court, or to
swear any thing, but when first called upon by
proper authority ; and in this case his doing so
would not have helped him, for his notes being
all in cyphers, or characters, the falsehood of the
information, had he sworn to them, would not
thereby have appeared more than it did before ;
only he would have appeared himself, what by
his more prudent conduct he did not. For he
troubled not himself about any reports of infor-
mations against him, till Lord Chancellor Jeffe-
ries sent for him, and acquainted him with the
King's displeasure at what had been said con-
cerning his preaching. This was a fortnight
after the sermon was preached, being Whitsun-
day, May 23, in the evening ; whereas the ser-
mon which Dr. Sharp understood had given the
offence, was preached by him on the 9th of the
same month. His lordship having informed him
of the accusation laid against him, and of his
Majesty's resentment thereupon ; Dr. Sharp the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

next day waited upon his lordship with the notes
of his sermon, and read it over to him. Whether
the Doctor did this for his own justification, and
to satisfy his lordship that he had been misre-
presented, or whether my lord ordered him to
bring his sermon and repeat it before him, is not
certain ; but the latter seems most probable : be-
cause Dr. Sharp afterwards understood that his
lordship's design in sending for him and discours-
ing with him, was, that he might tell the King-
that he had reprimanded the Doctor, and that
he was sorry for having given occasion of offence
to his Majesty ; hoping by this means to release
Dr. Sharp from any further trouble. However
it was, his lordship took upon him, while the
Doctor was reading over his sermon, to chide
him for several passages which the Doctor
thought gave no occasion for chiding ; and he
desired his lordship when he objected to these
less obnoxious passages, to be patient, for there
was a great deal worse yet to come. In fine,
his lordship having reproved him for what he
thought proper, and as much as would answer
his design, seemed well enough satisfied with
the rest of the discourse, and so dismissed him.

Not long after this, Sir Richard Lloyd and Sir
Thomas Exton were sent for to Windsor, for
their opinion about ordering the Bishop of Lon-
don to suspend Dr. Sharp ; but what opinion

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 77

they gave is not known. In the mean time the
Doctor was more sensibly touched with a do-
mestic affliction, for he lost two of his sons in
two days, and buried them both on the third
day ; and on the day that followed that, the
King sent his letter to the Bishop of London,
which was delivered to his lordship at Fulham,
on Thursday, June 17th, by Mr. Atterbury the
messenger, and was as follows :

" JAMES R.
" Right Reverend Father in God.

" We greet you well. Whereas we have been
informed and are fully satisfied that Dr. John
Sharp, Rector of the parish church, Saint Giles's
in the Fields, in the county of Middlesex, and
in your diocese, notwithstanding our late letter
to the most Reverend Fathers in God, the Arch-
bishops of Canterbury and York, and our direc-
tions concerning preachers, given at our court
at Whitehall the 15th day of March, 1685, in
the second year of our reign. Yet he the said
Dr. Sharp, in contempt of the said orders, hath
in some of his sermons since preached, presumed
to make unbecoming reflections, and to utter
such expressions as were not fit or proper for
him, endeavouring thereby to beget, in the minds
of his hearers, an evil opinion of us and our go-
vernment, by insinuating fears and jealousies

78 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

to dispose them to discontent, and to lead them
into disobedience and rebellion. These are there-
fore to require and command you immediately
upon receipt hereof, forthwith to suspend him
from further preaching in any parish church
or chapel in your diocese, until he hath given
us satisfaction, and our further pleasure be
known herein. And for your so doing this shall
be your warrant, and so we bid you heartily
farewell. Given at our court at Windsor the
14th day of June, 1686, in the second year of
our reign. By his majesty's command.

" Sunderland."

The most that hath been or can be said in
favour of this step which the King was advised
to take, rests upon the following suppositiotis or
presumptions; for so they are, rather than rea-
sons or arguments. 1st. That the offence charged
upon Dr. Sharp amounted to an ipso facto
suspension by our constitutions. Nay, if the
opinions of the judges, given in the case of the
Puritans, were to be allowed good, it was an
offence jineable at discretion, and very near to
treason; and consequently a degradation and
deprivation should rather have followed than a
suspension. Therefore the King, in this method
which he pursued, took the very mildest course
with the Doctor, especially as the suspension

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

which he directed was not ab officio totally, but
only from one branch of his office, namely,
preaching within the diocese of London, till his
Majesty had received satisfaction. 2d. That
where an ecclesiastical superior or judge de-
clares any sentence virtute et vi canonis, there is
no need of any judicial process previous to the
sentence ; the delinquent having fallen under it
a jure, and therefore the ordinary acts not here-
in as judge, but as custos canonum. That ipso
facto excommunications (and ipso facto suspen-
sions are of the like kind and upon the same
footing) are decreed by the very canons them-
selves, and have their validity from thence, in
like manner as ipso facto deprivations are es-
tablished by our laws, namely, in certain cases
when a benefice shall be void without any de-
claratory sentence in the ecclesiastical court.
That therefore what was required by the King
of the Bishop of London, in the order to suspend
Dr. Sharp, was not that he should decree it as
a judge, but declare it as a party concerned and
engaged in defence of the canons, and in the
preservation of the laws of the church.

And 3d. That when the King, as supreme
ordinary, had informed himself of the offence
laid to the Doctor's charge, and was thereupon
fully satisfied of the truth of it, the Bishop of
London not only ought, when required to de-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

clare him suspended, but would of necessity
impeach his Majesty's ecclesiastical supremacy,
if he refused or disputed his commands herein.

It may easily be supposed these suggestions
might have weight enough with the King at that
time, to persuade him that his orders to the
Bishop were of sufficient authority, since they
have had weight enough since that time with
some people, to induce them to think they would
in great measure justify his letter. But the
Bishop himself was of another opinion, so were
all the men of the law whom he consulted.
They held it undoubted that Dr. Sharp could
not legally be punished by suspension without
being Jirst admitted to make a legal defence.
That his Majesty's command being directed to
a judge, and in consequence being a command
to act as a judge, was rendered inconsistent,
and obedience to it made it impracticable by
requiring him to act not as a judge, but arbitra-
rily and contrary to law and justice. Nothing
could seem harder upon the Bishop than such
an injunction. The utmost compliance that
could be made, or the most effectual obedience
that could be paid to it was this, to desire or to
advise the Doctor not to preach till they saw
some issue to the present difficulty. For a
Bishop's advice is in some sense an admonition,
which has the face of a judicial proceeding, and

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

to silence him by such admonition, came the
nearest, (and was indeed, if submitted to, tan-
tamount) to the suspending him from preach-
ing, which was all that the King had required.
Therefore this method was agreed upon by the
Bishop and the civilians, and Dr. Sharp was
ordered by his Lordship to meet him at Doctors'
Commons on June the 18th, (the day after the
King's letter was delivered.) He did so, about
noon the same day, and the Bishop giving him
to understand his Majesty's displeasure, desired
and advised him to forbear the pulpit till the
King's further pleasure was known. Which
the Doctor though already determined so to do
of himself, did promise the Bishop in form.
Whereupon his Lordship wrote the following
letter to Lord Sunderland, President of the
Council, and dispatched it by the hands of
Dr. Sharp.

" My Lord,

" I always have and shall count it my duty to
obey the King in whatever commands he lays
upon me, that I can perform with a safe con-
science. But in this I humbly conceive I am
obliged to proceed according to law, and there-
fore it is impossible for me to comply, because
though his Majesty commands me only to exe-
cute his pleasure, yet in the capacity I am to do

82 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

it I must act as a judge. And your Lordship
knows no judge condemns any man before he
hath knowledge of the cause, and hath cited the
party. However I sent to Mr. Dean and ac-
quainted him with his Majesty's displeasure,
whom I find so ready to give all reasonable
satisfaction, that I have thought fit to make him
the bearer of this answer from him that will
never be unfaithful to the King or otherwise
than,

" My Lord,
" Your Lordship's most humble servant,
" H. London."

On the same day the Doctor drew up his own
petition to the King in the terms following, as
taken from the original petition.

" TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

" The humble Petition of John Sharp, Clerk.
" Sheweth,

" That it is very grievous to your petitioner
to be so unhappy as to have incurred your
Majesty's displeasure.

" That from the time he heard of it to this
present he hath forborn to preach.

" Your petitioner can with great sincerity
affirm, that ever since he hath been a preacher,
he hath faithfully endeavoured to do the best

LIFE OK ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

service he could in his place and station, as
well to the late King, your royal brother, as
to your Majesty, both by preaching and other-
wise.

" And so far hath he always been from vent-
ing any thing in the pulpit tending to schism or
faction, or any way to the disturbance of your
Majesty's government, that he hath upon all
occasions, in his sermons, to the utmost of his
power, set himself against all sorts of doctrines
and principles that look that way. And this he
is so well assured of, that he cannot but appre-
hend that his sermons have been very much
misrepresented to your Majesty.

"But if in any sermon of his any words or
expressions have unwarily slipt from him, liable
to such construction as to give your Majesty
cause of offence ; as he solemnly protests he
had no ill intention in those words or expres-
sions, so he is very sorry for them ; and re-
solves for the future to be so careful in the
discharge of his duty, that your Majesty shall
have reason to believe him to be your most
faithful subject.

" And therefore he earnestly prayeth, that
your Majesty, of your royal grace and cle-
mency, would be pleased to lay aside the dis-
pleasure you have conceived against your
humble petitioner, and restore him to that fa-

g 2

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

vour which the rest of your Clergy enjoy under
your Majesty's gracious government.

" So shall your petitioner ever pray," &c.

With this and the Bishop of London's letter,
the Doctor went the next day, being Saturday,
June 19, to Hampton Court, where a council was
held, and the King present. He delivered the
Bishop's letter to the Lord Sunderland, who only
asked him " whether the Bishop had obeyed
the order ?" He told him, No. And that was
all that passed between them. As for the pe-
tition, the Doctor could not get it received ;
but waited there till the council broke up, and
all the members were gone ; and then returned
to town with the Lord Nottingham, who had
carried him thither.

Had the Bishop's letter to the Lord President
been taken notice of, and Dr. Sharp's petition
been received and read, the matter might well
have ended here ; but the silencing of the Doctor
was not so much the thing intended. The cen-
sure was evidently levelled more at the Bishop
of London than at the Doctor ; and having got
hereby some handle against his lordship, the
court seized the opportunity, and seemed de-
termined to make all the advantages they could
of it. But as yet it did not appear where the
storm was most likely to fall. Dr. Sharp was

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

still advised to attend with his petition, which
he accordingly did a week after, on June 26, at
Windsor, whither the court was removed, and
he put his petition into Lord Middleton's hands,
who, the next day, June 27, told his Majesty
of it at the Cabinet Council; but his Majesty
would not suffer it to be read. The Lord Ro-
chester had promised the Doctor to be his friend,
and no doubt he was so, as far as he could.
The Doctor, finding no hopes of favour at this
time, returned the next day to London ; but he
was afterwards assured, that there were spies
upon him all the time he staid at Windsor, and
that if he had gone into any public house,
stories would have been made upon it ; — but
it fortunately happened, that he lodged and
staid the whole time with Mr. Jones, in the
College, and so gave no opportunities for scan-
dal of any kind.

Upon this the Lord Chancellor JefFeries ad-
vised Dr. Sharp to get out of the way, who
thereupon, after two days stay in London, went
down to Norwich, July 1, where he continued
till the middle of December unmolested ; in
which time, as he says himself, they had done
the Bishop of London's work. For the court
having got a plausible pretence of mortifying
that worthy prelate, and in his person the ivhole
body of the clergy, and a good opportunity of

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

trying whether they could intimidate the rest
from preaching on those subjects, the handling
of which still checked and stopped the growth
of Popery in the kingdom, resolved to proceed
against his lordship for disobeying, as it was
termed, the King's injunctions. To this end,
the Ecclesiastical Commission was opened in the
beginning of August, in the Council Chamber
at Whitehall, and the Bishop was cited thither,
and appeared on the 9th, and 15th, and 31st.
On the last of which days, the cause came to a
full hearing, and was brought to a sentence or
decree of suspension ; an account of which is
given in all the histories of King James's reign.
But for the reader's satisfaction, a large and
more particular abstract of the process on the
31st of August, than hath been hitherto pub-
lished, is inserted in the Appendix *. The com-
mission itself may be found in the third volume
of the Complete History of England, p. 454 ; where
likewise the pleas and answers delivered into
court in writing, by the Bishop, may be met
with, p. 458 and 459.

To return to Dr. Sharp, who remained at
Norwich unmolested during the course of these
proceedings, and for some time after, till he
received information from his friends in London,
that if he would come up to town, he might

* App. II. No. I.

LIFE OF

ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

be restored ; upon which he left Norwich and
repaired to London, where, in company with
his brother Rawlinson, he waited on the Lord
Chancellor, (Dec. 22,) who was very civil, and
intreated him kindly, notwithstanding his late
very different usage of the Bishop of London.
His lordship advised the Doctor to draw up
his petition again, and employ some friend,
naming Mr. Henry Guy, (then Secretary of the
Treasury) to hand it to Lord Sunderland. Ac-
cordingly he waited upon Mr. Guy, and gave
him the same petition that he had offered at
Hampton Court, and again to no purpose, at
Windsor. But Mr.' Guy having perused it, said
it was too long, and would not do : and ordered
the Doctor to draw up one in two or three lines,
acknowledging his being sorry for having in-
curred the King's displeasure, and desiring it
might be removed, and not to meddle with
reasons and apologies. This the Doctor did im-
mediately, in the words following.

"TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

" The Humble Petition of John Sharp, Clerk.
" Sheweth,

" That it is a grievous affliction to your
petitioner to have incurred your Majesty's dis-
pleasure, for the which he is most heartily sorry,
and promiseth, for the future, to behave him-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

self in all things as becomes a most dutiful and
loyal subject.

" And therefore, humbly prays your Majesty
of your royal grace and clemency, to restore him
to that liberty of his function which the rest of
your Clergy enjoy, under your Majesty's gra-
cious government.

" So shall your petitioner ever pray," &c.

This petition was presented and received ; and
the Doctor immediately received the following
letter from my Lord Sunderland.

" Whitehall, Jan. 9, 1686-7.

" Sir,

" I have read your petition to the King, who
is pleased to accept of your submission, and
commands me upon it to acquaint you, that he
allows you to return to the exercise of your
function, as formerly.

" I am, Sir, your friend and servant,

" SUXDERLAXD, P."

Thus ended the matter. Dr. Sharp never
certainly knew who it wras that laid the infor-
mation against him. But the person who was
chiefly charged with bringing this affair upon
him, thought fit at the Revolution, to take sanc-
tuary and shelter under Doctor Sharp's cha-
racter. For he sent all his plate and valuable

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

things to him to Great Russel-street, where
they were secured faithfully, and taken care of,
till all apprehension of danger was over.

During the times of his troubles, Mr. White,
the engraver, applied to him for his picture,
believing, that if it was printed and published,
it would sell mighty well. But the same rea-
sons that induced Mr. White to ask this favour,
prevented the Doctor from granting it ; there-
fore, he told the engraver, he would upon no
consideration consent to such a proposal. Upon
which Mr. White changed his request, and de-
sired only that he would promise him to let him
take his picture when he was a Bishop. To
which the Doctor, supposing himself safe in
such promise, readily consented. And it was
wholly in regard to this promise, when claimed,
that he allowed Mr. White to publish his print
of him, after he was promoted to York.

In the meanwhile, after he returned to the
exercise of his function, his time was chiefly
taken up with the Popish controversy. For the
Papists, during his late absence, had been very
busy in his parish ; so that, upon his return, he
was much taken up in answering their prayers
and queries, detecting their sophistries, and in
preserving his parishioners secure from all their
attacks. And in this sort of work he employed
the greatest part of the year 1687.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Several of the papers wrote by him at this
time, are now published at the end of the se-
venth volume of his Sermons.

On Wednesday, March 28, 1688, his dear
I friend, Dr. Claggett, died. He never lamented
any loss so much. And though he could not
refuse paying his last respects to his deceased
companion, by preaching his funeral sermon, at
Bassishaw Church, where Dr. Claggett had been
lecturer, yet, he used to say, that never any
task was more grievous to him than this was.
The same night he brought home Mrs. Claggett,
the disconsolate widow, to his own house, and
treated her with the utmost tenderness and
affection, the little time she survived her hus-
band. Dr. Claggett indeed, and he, had all
along lived with the greatest familiarity and
most entire confidence in each other, that was
to be imagined. They not only communicated
studies, but often carried them on together.
For the former not being so well furnished with
books as the latter, occasioned his frequently
making use of Dr. Sharp's library, which he did
as if it were his own, coming in when he pleased
with the freedom of a domestic, and prosecuting
his enquiries as he pleased, without the least
ceremony used, or interruption given on either
side. Indeed, if similitude of temper and man-
I ners, if equality of age, and perfect conformity

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

of inclinations and studies, usually make (as is
thought) the truest and most delightful friend-
ships ; then these two persons needed only to
be known to each other, to create a mutual
endearment : but so it happened with them, that
their friendship was more firmly cemented, and
their correspondence rendered more intimate,
by being engaged in the same labours, the same
controversies. In carrying on of which, they
seemed animated with the same zeal, affected
with the same piety, and influenced by the
same modesty. They recommended and pub-
lished each others writings, not only with more
confidence, but with more pleasure than
they did their own. Nor did Doctor Sharp
ever do any thing for his friend that seemed to
give himself trouble, but the preaching at his
funeral *.

Such friendships as these being rare, and a
real credit to the parties engaged in them, it

* How valuable a man this was, and how much Dr. Sharp
esteemed and loved him, will best appear from a passage or
two of the Funeral Sermon above-mentioned, and from the
Preface which Doctor Sharp wrote to the first volume of his
friend's Sermons, which were soon published, as well for the
honour and credit of the departed Author, as for the public
benefit.

Both these will be found in the Appendix. App. I. No. I.
and No. II.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

seems a piece of justice due to both their me-
mories, not to omit an opportunity, fairly given,
of setting forth so remarkable a character of their
private lives, and therefore this digression needs
no excuse.

Not long after Dr. Claggett's death, the town
was alarmed and filled with variety of senti-
ments concerning the birth of a Prince of Wales.
Sunday, June 17, was appointed the Thanks-
giving Day for her Majesty's happy delivery.
On which day Dr. Sharp and Dr. Wake changed
pulpits, and the former preached (upon, How
shall we escape, if we neglect so great Salvation,)
a plain, practical sermon, and said not one
word about any matter that his text had no
relation to.

On the Friday following, he went down to
Norwich, where the church required his atten-
dance : and there spent his time chiefly in ex-
amining into the state of his own soul, and
improving himself in all Christian virtues and
graces. Now it was that he entered upon a
more strict and excellent way of living than he
had heretofore attained to, and which it was
ever after the main business of his life to labour
in, and bring to perfection. But this shall be
related in a more convenient place.

He returned to London on August 13, to
consult with his brethren the Archdeacons, who

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

were summoned to appear before the Ecclesias-
tical Commissioners, to shew cause why they
had not obeyed the King's orders with respect
to the Declaration. The orders had been given,
July 12; and were directed to all Chancellors,
Archdeacons, Commissaries, and Officials, to
enquire strictly within their respective juris-
dictions, in what churches or chapels his Ma-
jesty's Declaration had been read or omitted,
&c. And to transmit an account thereof.

The 16th of August was the day appointed
for their respective appearance. Upon this the
Archdeacons met at Doctors' Commons, and
consulted together on the 14th and 15th : and
there it was agreed by the majority, that none
of them should appear on the day following.
Upon which Dr. Sharp, on the 17th, retired
again to Norwich. What his sentiments were
about the order for reading the Declaration will
best appear from a short paper, drawn up by
him about this time, either for his own defence,
or for the conviction of such as applied to him
for advice on this occasion : wherein, though
he acknowledges the King's prerogative to be
higher in Ucitis et honestis, not only than the
Bishop's, but than the Metropolitan's too, yet he
doth not allow the aforesaid order ought to be
complied with. The paper is this.

" All the law that I know of, which relates" to

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

the publishing or declaring things in the Church,
is the Rubric in the Communion Service which
follows after the Nicene Creed. ' Nothing shall
be proclaimed or published in the Church dur-
ing the time of divine service, but what is pre-
scribed by the rules of this book, or enjoined
by the King, or by the Ordinary of the place.'

" I take it, that by this Rubric we are equally
obliged to publish in the Church what is en-
joined us by the King, as what is enjoined us
by the Ordinary. And I have reason for this
conclusion, because, as parish ministers, we have
taken an oath to obey our Ordinaries in all
lawful and honest things; and a higher obligation
cannot be laid upon us to obey the King.

* Taking now this for granted, I would ask,
whether supposing our Ordinary should enjoin
us to publish some declarations of his about
matters, which we were convinced in our judg-
ment to be against the known laws and consti-
tutions of this Church and realm, and likewise
to be highly prejudicial to the interests of the
Protestant Religion, which we do profess, we
should think ourselves obliged by our oath of
canonical obedience, to comply with such an in-
junction of our Ordinary? If it be said, we
should not think ourselves obliged, I then say,
neither can we think ourselves obliged to pub-
lish such a declaration if it comes from the King.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

" The only plausible thing that can be ob-
jected against this, is, that this way of reasoning
makes the Bishop's authority over the Clergy
to be equal to the King's. I answer by no
means. All that is meant is, that by the Rubric
we are as much bound to publish what is en-
joined us by the Bishop, as what is enjoined us
by the King. And we are sworn to obey the
Bishop, in Ileitis et honestis, which is all the
active obedience we owe to the King. But,
then there is this vast difference between the
authority of one and of the other. As we are
parish ministers we are bound in licitis et honestis
to obey our Ordinaries. But if his superior, our
Metropolitan gives us contrary commands, then
we must obey the Metropolitan, and not the
Ordinary. And if the King, who is by our
constitution, the supreme head of the church,
do controul the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan,
then we are released from all obligations to
comply with the Metropolitan, and must obey
the King. So that where there happens a
clashing of legal orders or jurisdictions we are
certainly bound to obey the King, rather than
our Bishop or Archbishop. But then even our
obedience to the King is to be extended no
further than licita et honesta"

Thus far the paper.

But to return. The commissioners finding no

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

effect of this order, published a second, direct-
ing and commanding the aforesaid Ecclesiastical
officers to make this a matter of their inquiry at
their visitations, which they were required to
hold before the 15th of November following,
and to transmit an account thereof before the
6th of December. But Providence prevented a
return of this inquiry.

For now came on that surprising change and
happy turn of affairs, which released the Clergy
of the Church of England, and all good Pro-
testants from the difficulties that surrounded
them, and the great dangers that threatened
them. During the several steps of which
transaction Dr. Sharp preserved the character
that befitted his station, by a conduct that best
suited with his calling. He divided his time
between his two churches of Norwich and St.
Giles's, though not a little interrupted in his ser-
vices to both by a severe fever that he had in
October. He never in his life meddled or in-
terposed in affairs of state, further than was in-
cumbent upon him by virtue of his station and
office. This was his principle, which he adhered
to both at this time and ever after. Nor did the
change of any man's private fortunes and condi-
tion through the alteration of the time, tempt
him to forget private and personal obligations ;
which principle of gratitude induced him to

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 97

make a visit (which were not his motive to it
known, would appear very unseasonable), to
the Lord Chancellor Jefferies in his great dis-
grace and distress in the Tower. But the Doctor
remembered his Lordship had been a friend to
him in his own troubles, and thought proper to
acknowledge his sense of his Lordship's kind-
ness in this manner. My Lord was not a little
surprised at his constancy, as appears by his
salutation of him at his first entrance into the
room, in these words : " What, dare you own me
now?" The Doctor seeing his condition judged
he should not lose the opportunity of being ser-
viceable to his Lordship as a divine, if it was in
his power to be so ; and freely expostulated
with him upon his public actions, and particu-
larly the affair in the west. To which last
charge, his Lordship returned this answer,
" that he had done nothing in that affair with-
out the advice and concurrence of

Who now," said he, " is the darling of the
people." His Lordship further complained much
of the reports that went about concerning him,
particularly that of his giving himself up to
hard drinking in his confinement ; which he de-
clared was grounded upon nothing more than
his present seasonable use of punch, to alleviate
the pressures of stone or gravel under which he
then laboured.

98 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Neither did Dr. Sharp quit his allegiance to
King James, or cease to acknowledge him to be
his sovereign, till both Houses of Parliament had
declared his desertion of the government and
kingdom to be properly an abdication of them,
and had thereupon filled the throne, in which
settlement he acquiesced. Of this he gave a
remarkable instance upon an occasion that suffi-
ciently tried both his principles and courage.
The convention opened Jan. 24th ; during the
debates upon the great and important subject of
the King's abdication and vacancy of the throne,
he was appointed to preach on Sunday, Jan.
27th, before the Prince of Orange, and on Wed-
nesday the 30th, before the House of Commons.
And in his prayer on both occasions he did as
usual pray for King James. His doing so upon
the first occasion was not so much, because
neither of the Houses had yet come to any de-
claration. But his doing it on the Wednesday
following, after the Commons had passed their
vote that King James had abdicated, and the
throne was vacant (which vote passed on Monday
Jan. 28th) was taken amiss by several members
as a contradiction of their vote ; though it should
have been remembered that as yet the Lords
had not concurred with them, and as yet the
service of the Church was not altered by au-
thority. However, after some warm disputes

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

among them they voted him thanks. There is a
memorandum in Dr. Sharp's own hand under the
vote of thanks which was sent him in these words.

" Veneris lmo die Feb., 1688. — Resolved, Ne-
mine Contradicente, That the Thanks of this
House be given to Dr. Sharp, Dean of Norwich,
for his Sermon preached before this House on
Wednesday last, and that he be desired to print
the same. And that Sir John Knight, and Mr.
Auditor Done, do acquaint him with such, the
thanks and desire of this House.

" Paul Jodrell, CI. D. C."

" This sermon here desired to be printed, was
that which I preached on Jan. 30, after the
House had made a vote, that King James had
abdicated. Nevertheless in my prayer before
sermon, I prayed for King James as I used
to do. At which, and I believe, at some passages
in the sermon, great offence was taken by several
of the warm men in the House of Commons.
And complaint was made by the Speaker, Mr.
Powel, to the House that very afternoon. Upon
which a great debate arose, which took up all
their time that night, but nothing was concluded.
The next day, being the 31st of January, was the
day of thanksgiving for the arrival of the Prince of
Orange. And then Dr. Burnet preached before
the House. The day after when the House was

h 2

100

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

set, the first motion that was made was for
1 Thanks,' &c. for my sermon, which produced
this vote, Sir John Knight made the motion.
But for all this order I did not print my ser-
mon."

Thus far for his own memorandum.

It seems when he perceived that he had dis-
pleased some gentlemen by the very mention of
the Jesuits doctrine of deposing of kings (which
he did in the latter part of his sermon,) he was
unwilling to give further -offence to as many as
should think proper to construe what he said as
a reflection on the proceedings of the House.
For though he always thought it his duty in the
pulpit both to speak to the point, and to speak
to the plain truth ; yet wherever he could avoid
giving unnecessary offence no man was more
careful to do so.

This sermon had been composed in King
Charles the Second's reign, viz. in 1679. And
had been often preached without offence, and
the words which were thought obnoxious on
this occasion, were penned at a time when it
was impossible the preacher should have any
design of reflecting on a procedure that was not
then dreamed of.

But least what he said or may be reported to
have said on this occasion, should hereafter be
imputed to a disposition which never was his, it

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

101

may not be improper to give the reader that
particular passage, which only can, by any con-
struction, be thought to have any untoward or
offensive look at so critical a juncture.

" Had this been done," said he, speaking of
the King's murder, " in a Popish country,
where the deposing and murdering of Princes is
allowed ; nay, and sometimes encouraged and
promoted by the pretended infallible Vicar of
Christ, it had been no such great wonder. But
to be done in a Protestant country, nay, and a
country that hath always gloried that, by the
principles of her establishment, she hath given
the best security to princes for their persons
and their rights that any Protestant country in
Europe hath done : — Oh, what a wound is this
to our religion, and what a blemish doth it cast
upon it ! ' Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in
the streets of Askelon, least the daughters of the
Philistines rejoice, least the daughters of the un-
ci rcumcised triumph *.' "

This seems to be the obnoxious passage re-
ferred to by Dr. Sharp in his memorandum,
which displeased certain members. But Dr.

The remainder of this sermon containing an answer to
the Roman Catholics for reproaching the Church of England
with the King's murder, which might likewise in the opinions
of some be unseasonable at this nice conjuncture, is thrown
into the Appendix. Appendix I. No. III.

102

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Burnet happening to preach before them the
day following, being the Thanksgiving for the
Prince of Orange's arrival, had put these gen-
tlemen into so good humour again, that they
dropt the resentments they had taken up on their
day of Fasting, and allowed a vote of thanks to
Dr. Sharp to pass unanimously. And it is
certain no displeasure was taken at Court from
what had happened, for on that day fortnight,
being the first Friday in Lent, he was appointed
to preach before the Queen, and was taken into
no small favour by her Majesty.

In the former part of this year, 1689, Dr.
Sharp and his friend Dr. Tillotson Jiad a good
deal of trouble upon their hands, and no small
share of their time taken up with a trust which
they were engaged in by Alderman Ask. He
dying and leaving considerable effects had made
them joint executors of his will, and made the
Haberdasher's Company his heirs. And among
several other legacies had left each of the
executors £200, and £400 to twenty such poor
clergymen as they should nominate.

The executors were so prudent as to let
the agents of the Company (whose concern in
this matter was the greatest) have the custody
of all the ready money and bonds that were
found belonging to the deceased ; or at least they
were put into some common hand, trusted by

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

103

both parties, till the will was completely exe-
cuted. Nor was there any thing transacted re-
lating to this trust from the time that the will
was opened, to the time of their surrendering all
their concerns into the hands of the Company,
but in the presence and with the advice and
consent of the deputies of the Company, parti-
cularly Sir Thomas Vernon and Mr. Mould,
which latter kept the accounts of all things done
in this affair. This caution of theirs proved af-
terwards of great use, by enabling them to give
full satisfaction to some who had suspected,
upon false suggestions made to them, that the
executors had disposed of some of the Alder-
man's effects before they delivered in the sche-
dules to the Company. And this being sug-
gested at a time when they were both Metropo-
litans, would have been something more than a
blot upon their private characters, had they not
had sufficient evidences to recur to, of their
great care and honesty in the management of
the aforesaid trust.

Not long after and in the same year, these two
friends, who still rose together both in their
characters and preferments, received notice of
more public trusts reposed in them by his Ma-
jesty, King William. Dr. Sharp received his at
Norwich, from the Earl of Nottingham, by the
following letter.

104

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

" Whitehall, Sept. 7, 1689.

" Sir,

" Dr. Tillotson being removed to the
Deanery of Paul's, I must wish you joy of that
of Canterbury, which the King has given you.
This need not hasten your journey to London
(though I should be glad to see you at any time,)
because it cannot be perfected till Dr. Stilling-
fleet be actually Bishop of "Worcester. I should
be extremely rejoiced to hear you have recovered
your health, which no man wishes you more
than,

" Your most affectionate, humble servant,

a Nottingham."

Dr. Sharp was not ignorant to whose interest
and application in great measure he must be
indebted for this unlooked for favour, as will
appear by his modest letter of acknowledgment
to his Lordship.

" My Lord,

" Be pleased to accept my most humble
thanks for this new instance of your favour
and kindness added to a thousand before ; and
which indeed is extremely surprising to me, be-
cause as I did not deserve it, so did I not in the
least expect it.

" It is to your father, my Lord, and yourself,
that, under God, I owe all that I have in this
world. And may I but have the continuance

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 105

of your favour so long as I study to express
myself thankful for the benefits I have received,
I shall never need nor desire any other patron.

" I thankfully accept the place which the
King, through your Lordship's mediation, de-
signs for me. And if my abilities to serve God
and the church in that post were but equal
to my desires, I am sure neither his Ma-
jesty nor your Lordship will repent of your
preferring me.

" I hope to wait on your Lordship the
week after Michaelmas, for then my residence
•here will be out. I pray God increase his
blessings upon your Lordship, and your family.
I am, my Lord, with the utmost sincerity, as I
have great reason,

" Your Lordship's,

" Most faithful, humble,
" and obliged servant,

" John Sharp."

The next post brought him another letter from
Lord Nottingham, to acquaint him that the
King had appointed him one of the Commis-
sioners for preparing such alterations and amend-
ments of the Liturgy and Canons, and such
proposals for the reformation of Ecclesiastical
courts as might be laid before the Convocation
at their next meeting, and to require his atten-

106 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

dance on that commission the 3d of October
following.

Upon this occasion, Dr. Sharp returned to
London immediately, and having waited on the
King, at Hampton Court, and kissed his hand
for his new Deanery (being introduced by Lord
Chief Justice Holt,) he deferred taking posses-
sion of it till he had discharged his trust with
respect to the Ecclesiastical Commission; which
he attended constantly in the Jerusalem Cham-
ber, so long as it sat.

They who would know what progress was
made in this great design, and for what reasons
it proved at last ineffectual, after great pains
taken by the Commissioners, may consult Dr.
Nichols, who gives a full and particular account
of the proceedings. Only here, let it be remem-
bered, that when the Convocation sat, viz. on
Nov. 21st, Dr. Sharp was the person who first
moved that Dr. Tillotson might be chosen pro-
locutor. But it was carried for Doctor Jane ;
which was thought one principal reason why the
Commission itself failed of success.

Dr. Sharp having done his part, and borne his
testimony for his friend, went down to Canter-
bury to be installed ; and the necessary affairs
of his new preferment, kept him from returning
to Convocation till the 14th of December, when
it was just upon the point of adjournment. So

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

107

that he was present only the first and last days
of that session, and consequently had no part
in the remarkable debates, and warm contentions
which then employed that reverend and learned
body.

The next year, 1690, his course of waiting at
Court as Chaplain, was in April, when he
preached before the Queen at Whitehall, a ca-
suistical discourse upon Gal. v. 13. ; containing
rules for our conduct when we are at a loss
to distinguish the bounds of sin and duty, lawful
and unlawful, in any action. Which was printed
by her Majesty's command. She was likewise
much pleased with a sermon he preached before
her, during his waiting this month at Kensing-
ton, upon the Prodigal Son, and ordered him to
print that also ; but he made his excuse, and the
Queen allowed it. On May 21st, he was called
upon to preach before the House of Commons
on occasion of the monthly fast. This was the
third time he had preached before that house.

The summer following, he resolved to visit
his native country and his mother, yet living
in Bradford, once more ; for he had not been
down for several years. Accordingly, he spent
what time he had to spare amongst his friends
there, and at York, where he also paid his re-
spects to Archbishop Lamplugh ; little imagin-
ing then how soon he should have a much

108

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

better claim to visit that country, and York and
Bishopthorp in particular.

For soon after his return to London, his Ma-
jesty pitched upon him amongst others for sup-
plying the Sees vacated by the deprivations of
their Bishops. Accordingly, he had two or three
of them, or the choice of them offered to him.
Norwich, which was thought would be most
acceptable to him on account of the friendships
he had in that city, was pressed upon him by
Dr. Tillotson. But he waved all these offers
on account of the dispossessed Bishops being
yet alive, with whom he was acquainted, and
for whom he bore respect : and as to Norwich,
in particular, he declared, that having lived
hitherto in great friendship with its Bishop, he
could not think of taking his place, but rather
chose to continue in his present situation, than
remove to more honourable posts under such
circumstances as made them no ways tempting
to him, or agreeable to his inclinations. But
though it appears sufficiently that he disliked
succeeding to these vacancies made by depriva-
tion, yet he seemed not at any time to make it
a matter of conscience with himself. Much less
did he take upon him to censure or blame others
who took the preferments that were thus voided.
He readily went down to Canterbury to elect
Dr. Tillotson to the throne of that church where

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

109

himself was Dean ; and was himself afterwards
consecrated by Dr. Tillotson, in company with
others who succeeded to these vacant Bishop-
ricks. Neither of which had been consistent
with his principle, had he thought it absolutely
unlawful or irregular to take those Bishopricks
in those circumstances. And as to all pretences
of separation from the Established Church, on
account of these deprivations and successions,
he very warmly opposed them. In the mean
time, whatever he might think of the matter
himself, his Majesty guessed that he made these
difficulties purely upon a principle which would
not recommend him much to his Majesty's fa-
vour. In fine, the King was not a little dis-
gusted at his peremptory refusal of those pre-
ferments.

And here, in all probability, Dr. Sharp had
forfeited all further favours from court, at least
in that reign, had not his friend, Dr. Tillotson,
(who was concerned and grieved to think of Dr.
Sharp's being wholly left out in the new promo-
tion to Bishopricks,) seasonably interposed an
expedient for advancing him not only more
agreeably to his inclinations, but also quite be-
yond his expectations ; and that was by laying
the scheme for his being Archbishop of York,
when that See should become vacant. For, on
Friday, April 24, 1691, (as appears by a me-

110

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

morandum under his own hand,) Dr. Tillotson
came to his house in Russel-street, and told him
that since he had so obstinately refused taking
any of the vacant Bishopricks, he had thought of
an expedient to bring him off with the King ;
that he should not fall under his displeasure.
And that was, he should promise to take the
Archbishoprick of York when it fell, as Dr.
Jennison should take Lincoln. This Dr. Sharp
readily promised he would, but withal said, that
he would not take any advantage of the offer
made him ; but they should still be at liberty as
to the disposal of that Archbishoprick, whenso-
ever it should become vacant, it being sufficient
satisfaction to himself that by means of such his
declaration or promise, he might stand clear of
the King's displeasure. Dr. Tillotson told him,
that he had thought of this thing as he came
from Whitehall to his house, and since he now
understood his mind, he directed him to go and
acquaint my Lord Nottingham with it, and if
his lordship approved of it, he would go him-
self and propose it to the King, on the Monday
following.

Dr. Tillotson then told him how all the other
vacant Bishopricks were designed to be disposed
of. And on the Monday, according to his en-
gagement, he acquainted his Majesty with what
had passed between Dr. Sharp and himself, and

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Ill

fixed the thing. And on the next council day,
which was on the Wednesday or Thursday fol-
lowing, the King declared in Council who should
fill the vacant Sees, and who should succeed
into York and Lincoln when they fell.

Thus amply did Dr. Tillotson requite the
smaller services that Dr. Sharp had done him
formerly; the chief of which was his obtain-
ing for him a residentiary ship at St. Paul's,
through his interest with the Lord Chancellor
Nottingham.

Within a week after this, viz. on May 5th,
Archbishop Lamplugh died ; and on the 8th, the
news of his death came to town, and that very
night a warrant was signed for Dr. Sharp's suc-
ceeding him. And this was just a fortnight
after Dr. Tillotson had laid and proposed to him
this scheme. On the next day, the Lord Not-
tingham introduced him to kiss the King's hands.

This point being thus secured to him, he went
down to Canterbury within a few days, to assist
at the election of his friend, Dr. Tillotson, to
that See ; which no doubt he did with the
greatest pleasure. Which having performed,
and settled his own affairs at Canterbury, and
taken his leave of that church, he returned to
town, and in a most affectionate discourse to
his own parishioners, he took his leave of them
also, having served them faithfully as their mi-

112

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

nister for sixteen years, and received very great
testimonies of their love and esteem for him.

It was a mighty pleasure to him that his
parish fell into the hands of so great and worthy
a person as Dr. Scott ; the man whom he had
singled out of the whole body of the London
Clergy, in his private thoughts, to be his suc-
cessor. How far he was instrumental in pro-
curing this preferment for Dr. Scott is not
known. But it is probable he was very much
so. For in one of his late fevers, (a distemper
he was liable to,) being apprehended to be in
great danger, he expressed his earnest desires
that his friend, Dr. Scott, might have the charge
of his flock ; and said, he hoped the Lord Chan-
cellor would think of him for that cure.

On the last day of May, Archbishop Tillotson
was consecrated, and he confirmed Dr. Sharp
(whose election at York was now over) at Bow
Church, on July 2d, and within three days
after, viz. July 5th, he consecrated him, together
with the Bishops who succeeded to Gloucester,
Norwich, and Peterborough. The assisting
Prelates were Winchester, Sarum, Worcester,
Ely, and Bristol.

The sermon was preached by Mr. Joshua
Clark, chaplain to the Lord Bishop of Norwich,
from Heb. xiii. 17. " Obey them that have the
rule over you,'''' &c. The discourse was printed.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 113

The day following, Dr. Sharp did homage.
On July 16th, he was by proxy enthroned at
York ; and on October 5th, he was introduced
into the House of Lords, and took both the
tests.

Not long after, letters of congratulation were
sent him from the University of Cambridge, and
from his own college.

PART II.

CONTAINING HIS CHARACTER AS BISHOP, AND
HIS PROCEEDINGS IN HIS DIOCESE.

Doctor Sharp was in the forty-seventh year
of his age when he was advanced to the see of
York ; in which he sat longer than any of his
predecessors since the Reformation, viz. above
two and twenty years.

As this dignity in the church brought him into
a new situation of life, and upon a more public
stage of action, and drew upon him a multipli-
city of business and a variety of trouble com-
monly attendant on great preferments, engaging
him in affairs not only very different from those
in which he had been concerned before, but
differing from each other, and of distinct con-
sideration in themselves, it will be requisite
from this period to make some alteration in the
method that has been hitherto taken, and in-
stead of proceeding in order of time, to lay
things together according to their subjects, and
suitable with their relations to each other ; that
is, to collect and put together such articles as
relate immediately to his diocese and province ;

116 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

and in the next place, such as concern his pro-
ceedings at the court and in parliament; and
last of all, such as have respect only to his pri-
vate life and economy. Which disposition and
arrangement of materials into different classes,
ecclesiastical, civil, and domestic*, seems most
convenient, and is preferable to a close prose-
cution and regular detail of particulars by the
dates of years and months ; which would neces-
sarily have involved several inconsiderable pas-
sages of no other consequence than to preserve
connexion and the thread of narration ; and
would likewise have occasioned several repe-
titions and recapitulations of points before men-
tioned ; — whereas by methodizing and digesting
the materials in the manner above described,
not only these inconveniences are avoided, but
a much better opportunity is given of forming a
judgment concerning the steadiness of his prin-
ciples, and the uniformity of his practice to
them, in the respective capacities in which he is
distinctly considered.

That which claims the preference in point of
order, is his proper character of a bishop or
pastor ; under which head will be comprized all
the steps that he took, and the rules by which

* This division of his materials is observed by the Author,
and corresponds with Part the Second, Part the Third, and
Part the Fourth of the Life. Editors Note.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

117

he conducted himself in the regulation and go-
vernment of his extensive diocese.

At his entrance upon this great charge, he
laid down to himself a rule or two of expedience
(for they came not within the ordinary and
stated duties of his office,) deserving to be men-
tioned. One was for the encouragement of the
clergy, viz. to bestow the prebends in his gift
upon such only as were either beneficed in his
diocese, or retained in his family. The other
more properly respected the laity, viz. never
to meddle or any ways concern himself in the
election of members of parliament. These ge-
neral rules he followed, though not altogether
without an exception, yet with such a steadiness,
that no solicitations could prevail with him to f
break through them.

As to the former, it is to be remembered that
the main branch of the patronage of the Arch-
bishops of York are the stalls in York cathedral
and the collegiate church of Southwell; which
preferments though most of them inconsiderable
in point of yearly value, are yet (at least many
of them are,) well circumstanced in regard of
their leased lands and Rectories appropriate,
and all of them acceptable promotions to the
Parochial clergy, on account of the credit that
attends them without any burden or inconve-
nience. Now these he appropriated to his own

118 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

clergy, viz. his domestic chaplains, and such as
were already beneficed within his diocese, nor
did he in any instance desert this rule, except
in the following case, which should be men-
tioned that the exception may be justified ; viz.
in the promotion of the Hon. Mr. Henry Finch,
(afterwards Dean of York,) to the prebend of
Wetwang, one of the best in the church, in
1695 ; and of the Hon. Mr. Edward Finch to
the same stall upon his brother's resignation of
it, in 1704. These had been his pupils, and
were branches of that noble house to which he
in great measure owed all that he had ; and
were the only persons of that family who were
in a capacity of receiving the tokens of his gra-
titude in this way of donation. These two
worthy gentlemen being excepted, it will be
found that of forty-six stalls which he filled in
the two fore-mentioned churches, and in less
than half that number of years, all were filled
agreeably to the foregoing resolution : and that
he might observe due proportion in the distri-
bution of these favours among his clergy, he
reserved his stalls at Southwell for the parochial
clergy of Nottinghamshire, where that church
is situate ; — those of York for the Yorkshire
clergy. And this disposition he preserved to
the last.

It will hardly be supposed but he had many

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

119

applications, and some very powerful ones, (as
in fact he had,) on the behalf of such clergymen
who were not within his rule (as not being of
his diocese,) that they might succeed to these
prebends as they became vacant. But notwith-
standing this was the chief branch of his patron-
age, whereby he had it in his power to oblige
those who interested themselves by their recom-
mendations ; and though he might without fear
of blame have dispensed these favours to whom
he pleased; yet he chose rather to resist all
solicitations, and deny all requests, (a thing
that went very hard with him, and which he
never did without a good reason,) than forego
the apparent advantages of this disposition.
For hereby he not only provided that the pul-
pits of those distinguished churches might be
more regularly supplied by their prebendaries,
among whom the preaching courses in each
place are distributed, and particularly that the
daily service in his cathedral might be better
attended by prebendaries beneficed aud residbig
in York city, where he always took care there
should be some, (and sometimes there were
four besides the residentiaries appointed by
statute,) but he also hereby gave proper and
seasonable encouragement to the ministers of the
great and populous towns in his diocese.

For whereas in large towns the livings usually

120 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

are small, or at least disproportionate to the
greatness of the cures, he providently made
these dignities in his metropolitical and col-
legiate churches serve to support the character
and credit of the clergy in those places, where-
ever he found them deserving such encourage-
ment. By which means the chief market towns
throughout his diocese, as Hull, Beverley, Leeds,
Wakefield, Sheffield, Doncaster, Nottingham,
Newark, &c. had by his appointment dignified
men residing and officiating in them.

This hath been before publicly taken notice
of by Mr. Willis, who, in his Survey of the
Cathedrals, speaks of him in these words :

" He made it his unalterable practice to elect
them (viz. prebendaries,) out of such as lived
in his diocese, and had recommended them-
selves by doing their duties in their respective
parochial cures. By which means no cathedral
in England was better attended by clergy, and
the service more regularly performed than at
York ; or the ministers of small livings in any
diocese more encouraged to attend their charge ;
because this good Bishop would reward their
diligence by such compensations, more espe-
cially those in York city, on whose conduct
the world had a more especial eye ; hoping his
example would influence his successors to take
the like course. Which certainly if other

LIFE OF AKCHBISHOP SHARP. 121

Bishops had in )ike manner practised, the dig-
nity of cathedrals would have been kept up
as in the primitive times, and we should not
have seen several of them so scandalously neg-
lected," &c.

The other rule above-mentioned, which he
laid down to himself, was, never to be concerned
in parliamentary Elections.

It will readily be believed that he could not
avoid being importunately applied to for his
countenance and interest on these occasions.
His interest was as extensive as his diocese,
both among laity and clergy. And so it ap-
peared to be, as often as he had occasion to use
it for recommending such things as he judged it
became him to recommend. But as to Elec-
tions of members for parliament, he never could
be brought by any applications to intermeddle
with them. He looked upon them as having no
relation to his office and business ; and judged
very rightly, that if he concerned himself any
ways with them, they would only entail checks
and difficulties upon him in his episcopal capacity.
Whereas, on the contrary, by waving his power
and influence, and forbearing to disoblige any
persons in these matters, which did not belong-
to him, he preserved his personal interest and
authority entire in all those points that related
to his pastoral care.

122 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

It may be more acceptable ,to the reader to
have his sentiments on this subject in his own
words. A letter or two of his upon these occa-
sions will sufficiently shew the rule by which
he governed himself, and the manner in which
he answered the applications made to him on
this head. The following letter was wrote by
him in answer to the Lady Russel, who had
solicited his interest for the Lord Hartington,
candidate for the county of York, 1702.

" Madam,

" I had the honour of your ladyship's letter
yesterday. In all things wherein I can fairly
serve my Lord Marquis of Hartington, your
ladyship may be sure I will ; but in this in-
stance your ladyship proposes, I cannot with-
out being guilty of great prevarication with Sir
John Hay, and Mr. Wentworth, who are both
now candidates for knights of our shire at the
next parliament, and are both my old friends,
and to whom I am much obliged. By whom
when I have been solicited to appear for them
(as I have been by the former several times
heretofore, and by the latter of late,) my answer
to them has always been, that I thought it very
improper for me to meddle in parliament elec-
tions, either for the city or county : that I
foresaw great inconveniences would come upon

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 123

it with respect to myself, and yet I should do no
great good; and therefore I made it a rule to
myself not to be concerned in these matters,
unless there was absolute necessity for it, as in
the case of a notorious bad man that should
offer himself, &c. Nor had I ever since I came
to this place broken this rule, and for these
reasons I begged they would excuse me. But
this I would promise them, that though I could
not serve them by making any votes for them,
yet I would never disserve them by espousing
any interest against them. These, madam, are
my sentiments ; and this declaration I have
made to these two gentlemen, and indeed to all
others as occasion has been offered. And now
I leave your ladyship to judge how I am to
behave myself in the matter your ladyship
writes to me about. Your ladyship sees I can-
not serve my Lord Hartington in the way you
desire ; but yet you see I am under no engage-
ment to any, and therefore may promise you as
I have done to these gentlemen, that though I
can make no votes for him, yet I shall make
none against him, but leave every one that I
converse with to their own liberty. But in all
other things it will be a great pleasure to me to
pay all the respects to his lordship that I am
capable of doing.

" I am, madam, with hearty prayers for the

124

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

health and prosperity of your ladyship, and all
your noble family,

" Your ladyship's most faithful

" And humble servant,

" Jo. Ebor."

" Bishopthorp, July 4, 1702."

To the same purpose, he wrote to Sir John
Kay, and to others, that " it was his first prin-
ciple, and long ago taken up, not to meddle
with those elections."

And he adhered to his principle with the same
steadiness at elections for the city of York ;
though his interest could not but be very great
in that place, on account of his influence over
the clergy, ecclesiastical officers, and tradesmen.
Yet no body had that influence over him as to
be able to engage him on either side ; though
the strongest and most tempting arguments,
(such as the expediency of his interposing for the
good of the church established,) were upon some
occasions urged to him. When the Duke of
Leeds, for instance, in the year 1695, had wrote
him word (Sept. 10,) that " it was very certain
a new parliament would be called ; and it was
likely to be of the highest concernment to the
church, that such members should be chosen as
were well affected to it ; and that it was the
duty of all such to be as active as they could,
at that time, in the promoting such elections,

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 125

and that his Grace's station afforded him a good
opportunity of doing so ;." and recommended
certain gentlemen for the city of York, and
borough of Ripon, where the Archbishop's in-
terest must of course be greatest, and concluded
with these words : — " That as the Dissenters
were neither sparing of their money nor their pains
to secure their elections in all counties, if those of
the church did not use a little more than ordi-
nary industry at that juncture of time, they
might repent it when it would be too late," &c.

He answered my Lord President (for so the
Duke then was) with respect to his interest in
York city, thus :

" I can by no means think it fit to appear as
a party in the election of city members, that
seeming to me, as things are now circumstan-
tiated, both to be to no purpose, and likewise
unavoidably to draw such consequences after it,
as will render me less capable of doing that
service in the city hereafter, which otherwise
in my station I might."

And he concludes, in answer to my Lord
President's reasons, " Why he should concern
himself as a Churchman, &c." thus :

" I have no fear that your Grace will censure
me as one unconcerned for the church's good,
upon account of my thus declaring my unwil-
lingness to meddle in the city elections, because

126 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

1 am confident my reasons are such, that if you
yourself were in my case, you would act as I
mean to do. And yet I believe your Grace to
be one of the best friends of the church ; and
upon that account all churchmen have reason
to pray for the continuance of your health and
prosperity, and none doth it more heartily
than/' &c.

" Bishopthorp, Sept. 21, 1695."

To the same purpose, he wrote again in 1698,
when the next election came on, to Alderman
Thomson, of York.

" As to matters of election (says he) you know
my principle, which is not to concern myself in
them, or to appear for or against any person
that the citizens of York think fit to propose for
their representative, this being a thing wholly
foreign to my province &c.

More testimonies of the same kind might be
added from his letters upon this head, but these
already given are sufficient for the purpose they
are brought to answer. Only thus much it may
not be improper to add further, viz. : that he
made no scruple in the Borough of Ripon (where
the Archbishop hath a temporal jurisdiction) to
recommend such candidates as he himself ap-
j proved of. Here he interposed his interest and
' authority, and here only ; and accordingly he
was able to give a more satisfactory answer to

MFE OF AKCHBISHOP SHARP. 127

the Lord President about the Ripon election,
than he could about York.

" I have done (says he) what I can to secure
the election of Mr. Jennings and Mr. Aislabie,
(where I think I may and ought to concern my-
self,) and I hope they will be chosen therein case
of a new parliament, without any opposition."

And here it was that Mr. Sharp, his eldest
son, did afterwards, upon his recommendation,
establish an interest that preserved him in par-
liament as long as the Archbishop lived : which
remark is here subjoined to the foregoing quo-
tation out of his letter, to obviate an objection
that might possibly be made to the firmness to
his principle about elections, as if he could
suffer himself to recede from it where the in-
terest of his own family was immediately con-
cerned. And had he really done so in favour
of his own son (who was withal a very deserving-
gentleman,) the peculiar circumstances of such
a case would have made it allowable ; but this
really was not his motive to recommend to that
borough, as appears from the forementioned
letter to the Duke of Leeds in 1695, antece-
dently to any views for Mr. Sharp, wherein he
declares that, in his judgement, he ought to
concern himself in that particular borough. So
that the favour he did his son in recommending
him to that town, was none other than he had

128

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

before granted to other gentlemen, and would
have granted to some or other upon every elec-
tion, if he had not had a son, or any relation to
recommend. And it is further to be remem-
bered, that even here, where he did allow him-
self to move in the elections, he was utterly
averse to any methods of coercion or discourage-
ment, but contented himself with a bare request
in favour of the person he approved.

Thus the whole of his conduct with regard to
elections, is fairly represented ; which, notwith-
standing, will probably be variously judged of
by those who do, and those who do not enter
into those prudential reasons and motives, upon
which he proceeded. For if these be duly con-
sidered, it will be found to be a conduct worthy
of an Archbishop, highly acceptable to his dio-
cese, and advantageous to himself ; as not only
securing to him the interest and esteem of all
parties, but enabling him to do more real service
to the public in his station, than he possibly
could have done by being warm and busy in
elections.

There may be truth, indeed, in what has been
observed of him upon this head ; viz. that he
was not always wary enough to carry the mat-
ter so equally between the contesting candidates
as never to discover his own inclination as to
the issue of the dispute. He had, as all men

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 129

must have in the like cases, his reasons for pre-
ferring in his private thoughts, some before
others ; and wishing success to one rather than
another. And as he was always of a frank open
temper, and never studied artful reserves, it is
likely he might not conceal a propensity of re-
gard and favour (when he had it) for one more
than another. But what is meant by his ad-
herence to this rule is this, that he never in-
terested himself by requests, or by his agents,
or by his letters. He neither used his own
authority, nor suffered his name to be used on
these occasions. He left all his Clergy, and all
his officers and dependents, as well as his friends
and acquaintance, at their full liberty to act as
they pleased. He neither gave them any pre-
vious encouragement, or used any dissuading
motives to bias them, nor shewed any after dis-
like on account of their following their own in-
clinations in election matters.

It was no doubt a great satisfaction and plea-
sure to all his Clergy, that notwithstanding the
influence he had over them, they were left free
to vote always according to their own discretion,
or their several private obligations, without
fearing their Diocesan's displeasure, or any
resentful or discouraging consequences from
him of so doing. And it was, likewise, an
instructive and noble pattern set to them all,

130 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

not to busy themselves in their oivn parishes with
election matters, to their own hurt and detri-
ment, in their pastoral capacities.

For the same reasons of prudence, which re-
strained him from making or soliciting votes on
such occasions, are equally prudential in the
parochial clergy, who cannot but have better
purposes in view, to which they may employ
the interest they have in their parishioners, than
in promoting or supporting private or party
interests. Not that the doing this is any other-
wise exceptionable, than as it draws (which it
seldom fails to do) resentments and inconve-
niencies upon themselves, which render them
less serviceable than otherwise they would be
in their respective cures. It is so natural for a
man who obliges his minister with his vote, to
expect in return for the favour, that his own
irregularities (such especially as elections draw
him into) should be connived at ; and so natural
for one who is in a different interest from that
of his minister, to interpret the most just repre-
hensions, or the kindest cautions from him, as
the effects of mere spleen and party resent-
ment; that it seems a most difficult and almost
an impracticable thing for a clergyman to en-
gage openly in an election, without lessening
and impairing his credit and authority as a
pastor.

LIFE OK AltCHBISIIOP SHAHP. 131

Experience proves this reasoning good. — -
Wherever a parish minister interests himself
deeply in such an affair, though he may by his
zeal and activity oblige some persons, and per-
haps finds his account in doing so, yet he may
be sure to gain no credit. And in what other
respects he is a loser, though less known, yet
may very easily be imagined by any one who
considers the necessity there is he should ap-
pear disinterested, and stand clear of the impu-
tation of worldly views, if he would preserve a
due influence over his people. When the best
construction is put upon his proceeding, it will
scarce reconcile him to those whom he hath dis-
obliged : and whatever his own reasons or mo-
tives may have been, he shall be commonly
thought (and perhaps be the only man in the
whole neighbourhood who shall be thought so)
to have been meddling with matters that did
little belong to him, and least become his cha-
racter and function. The laymen, how readily
soever they will cry up the interests of the
clergy, while they are on the same side, do as
readily reflect upon their conduct, when they
are against them. And the liberty of the cen-
sure being equally taken on both sides of
the question, it is the sure lot of the clergy,
especially such as signalize themselves, to be
the greatest sufferers ; that is, to be the most

k 2

132

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP

SHARP.

sharply inveighed against, and the most indif-
ferently defended.

And experience equally shews how highly
expedient their moderation and reservedness on
these occasions, prove to themselves and their
affairs. Certainly this may be collected from
the success of the Archbishop's conduct with
respect to elections, which gave occasion to this
digression. For, by this means, he was ho-
noured with the joint respects and compliments
of all the candidates for city or county. All the
gentlemen, however divided in their election
interests, yet agreed in this, to pay their
friendly visits together at Bishopthorp. Which
preservation of harmony on such occasions, be-
tween contending parties and himself, who
espoused the interests of neither of them, ap-
peared most agreeable to all persons, whether
interested in the contest or no.

Once he was sole arbitrator for compounding
some family differences between two gentlemen,
who were at the same time warmly engaged
against each other upon an election ; yet he
moderated matters between them with so much
address, as to prevent their election heats being
any bar to their ready compliance with the
terms of his arbitration, which had been in vain
attempted, had he concerned himself or his in-
terest on either side in the election. And more

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

133

than once he took upon him privately to reprove,
and to write letters of monition to Members of
Parliament within his diocese ; which were
equally well taken, and kindly acknowledged
by those gentlemen : whereas it is easy to guess
what had been the effect of this liberty he took,
if he had ever engaged himself in soliciting
votes, contrary to those gentlemen's interests.
These advantages, arising from his prudence
and forbearance in these matters, might easily
be proved by testimonies, were it not conve-
nient to suppress particulars for their sakes who
were immediately concerned.

One short observation more shall conclude
this head. It is, that this conduct of his with
respect to elections, served him for a justifica-
tion of himself when misrepresented as an abet-
tor of a faction. Lord Godolphin taxed * him
one day upon report, with being " one of those
who made a noise and a cry about the Church
being in danger." He replied, that " he ought
not to be charged with that, for he had declared
often, that he did not much apprehend the Church
was in danger ; but that it was a struggle be-
tween Whig and Tory, who should be upper-

* Diary, October 26, 1 705. — This was soon after the meeting
of the new Parliament, when Lord Godolphin, as Bishop
Burnet says, began to declare more openly than he had done
formerly, in favour of the Whigs. Vol. II. p. 426. Author's
Note.

J 34 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

most, and he believed neither of them meant
any harm to the Church." And then he asked
my Lord Treasurer, whether his lordship had
heard that he had made any bustle about Parlia-
ment-men9. A very pertinent question at that
junction, considering the vehement struggles
of the parties throughout the kingdom at an
election just before*.

The Earl cleared him of that imputation,
which was a better proof of his not having any
such apprehensions of the Church's danger, as
were suggested, and of his not being agitated
by party zeal, as was rumoured of him, than
any verbal remonstrances he could have made in
his own vindication.

More will be said hereafter, both of his prin-
ciples and conduct in party matters. — To pro-
ceed at present in the account of his Episcopal
acts.

He took early and extraordinary pains to

* Bishop Burnet gives the following account of it.-—" The
election of members of the House of Commons was managed
with zeal and industry on both sides. The Clergy took great
pains to infuse into all people tragical apprehensions of the
danger the Church was in. The Universities were inflamed
with this ; and they took all means to spread it over the nation
with much vehemence. The danger the Church of England
was in, grew to be as the word given in an army. Men were
known as they answered it. The Whigs exerted themselves
witk great activity and zeal."- — Vol. II. p. 425. Author s Note.

LIVE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 135

qualify himself for so weighty a charge as he
had undertaken, by inquiring into the rights of
his See; the state and condition of his cathedral
and collegiate churches ; the value, endowments,
patronage, &c. of the several benefices under
his inspection ; and, above all, the characters,
qualifications, and circumstances of the several
incumbents within his diocese. His diligence
herein, with the effects of it, shall be set forth
in two distinct articles. — One, respecting the
Church and its revenues; the other, respecting
the Clergy and their behaviour.

As to the former, he had gained so exact a
knowledge of the state of his See and of the
churches subject to it, as to have drawn up and
finished within the compass of four years after
his promotion, the following complete and ela-
borate treatises, whose titles will sufficiently
express and distinguish their subjects.

With respect to the Archbishoprick.

I. The ancient franchises, liberties, and im-
munities of the Archbishops of York, in their
estates and lands.

II. The ancient estates belonging to the See.

III. The present estates and possessions of
the Archbishop of York ; with an account of the
pensions, rent charges, and other annual pay-
ments and disbursements with which the Arch-
bishoprick is charged.

136 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

IV. An account of the ecclesiastical promo-
tions and benefices that are in the patronage or
gift of the Archbishop of York.

V. The lives and acts of the Archbishops,
from Paulinus, An. 625. This is brought down
to his predecessor, Archbishop Lamplugh. And
this treatise was made use of, and quoted by-
Mr. Le Neve, in his Lives and Characters of the
Protestant Archbishops, published 1720, under
the stile of MS. penes John Sharp, Armiger.

With respect to his Metropolitical Church.

I. The history of York Minster, from An. 627.

II. The ecclesiastical estates, revenues, liber-
ties, and jurisdiction of the cathedral church
of York ; with an account of the dignities and
offices thereto belonging, ancient and present ;
and of the foundations, endowments, and ren-
tals of the several prebends now enjoyed therein.

With respect to his Collegiate Church, at
Southwell, in Nottinghamshire.

A short history of it, with an account of its
state and government, both before its dissolu-
tion, and since its refoundation ; and of the
foundations, earlier and later, of the sixteen
prebends there, with their estates, endowments,
and annual rentals.

But the largest and most useful work of all,
was that which related to the possessions and
revenues of his Clergy, with an account of all

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

137

the parochial churches and chapels, whether
under ordinary or peculiar jurisdiction within
his diocese ; the value of the benefices, what
rights were lost, and what preserved ; in what
hands the patronages were, and the impropria-
tions and appropriations, and whatever else
could be learnt of them useful to be known.
This notitia of his diocese, as he called it, he
distributed into four volumes folio, according
to the division of the four Archdeaconries. —
These were left at his death by his executors to
the use of his successors*.

* He was greatly assisted in all these collections by some
MSS. lent him by Mr. Torr at that time, and which, by a
composition with Mr. Torr's widow some years after, came
entirely into his own possession. Concerning these MSS.
there is a passage in the preface to the History and Antiquities
of York, in these words :

" This almost invaluable treasure was given to the Dean and
Chapter's Library by the executors to the last will of the late
Archbishop Sharp. No doubt the worthy sons of that very
eminent Prelate imagined they had an unquestionable right
to make this present. I shall not enter further into this affair,
which by the good Archbishop's death, and other persons con-
cerned, is now rendered inscrutable.

" Yet this I may venture to say, that there never was a
quantum meruit paid to the Author's relict or his heir for them."
See Mr. Drake's preface.

This ingenious writer seems not to have been aware that his
worthy father, Mr. Francis Drake, Vicar of Pontefract, in
whose neighbourhood, at Sugdal, Mr. Torr died, in July 1699,
came soon after that gentleman's decease to the Archbishop,

138

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Then, as to the Archbishop's other enquiry,
viz. into the qualifications and behaviour of his
clergy, as it was wholly designed for his own
information and use, so it was very cautiously
and privately prosecuted.

And whatever notices he received about them,
with which he feared to trust his memory, and

with a generous offer from Mrs. Torr, the widow, of her hus-
band's MSS. as a present. But the Archbishop, after proper
acknowledgments made of her kind intentions and obliging
offer, told Mr. Drake then, and afterwards repeated it by let-
ter, that it would not be right in him to accept of them gratis.
But if she would likewise accept of a present from him (which
he named,) and could not dispose of them to more advantage
(for he would not be an hindrance to her making the best of
them) ; he would, on this condition, accept them from her.
A copy of the Archbishop's letter to Mr. Drake, which is
wholly on this subject, will be found entire in the Appendix I.
No. 4.

Mrs. Torr having kept the MSS. near twelve months after
this letter was wrote, and finding she could not dispose of
them better, sent them to the Archbishop, who gave her more
than he had promised her for them, though they were of little
use to himself then, having some years before extracted from
them all that he wanted.

This may be sufficient to clear up, in good measure, this
" inscrutable affair ;" and perhaps to the satisfaction of the
Author of the Antiquities, &c. who hath expressed so much
respect, both to the Archbishop and his executors, in his short
remonstrance of an insufficient compensation to Mr. Torr's
family, that it cannot be doubted he will be pleased to see them
stand clear of all blame in this matter.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 139

of which he thought fit to make memorandums,
he committed to short-hand, either in his diary,
or in loose papers, which latter, when he had
made that use of them that he designed, he
usually destroyed.

Perhaps no man in his station was ever more
inquisitive into the characters and conduct of
the Clergy than he was, or made a kinder or
better use of the notices he obtained. He never
censured or complained of any of them till he
had heard them ; and he always was so open
and free as to tell them whatever he had heard
amiss of them, and to give them an opportunity
of clearing themselves. If the things reported
or signified to him, were apparently to the dis-
advantage and hurt of their characters, and
could not conveniently be connived at till he
should happen to meet with them, he either
wrote himself to them, or sent for them to attend
him, according as the matters he had to acquaint
them with might best be delivered. If he found
any . of them upon examination blameworthy,
he was very frank and solemn in his admoni-
tions, (and how happy he was in discharging
this part of his office, we shall see hereafter;)
if they acquitted themselves, they found from
him all favour and encouragement.

By this means he knew his Clergy, and un-
derstood the worth of the deserving among

140

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

them, which often proved an advantageous cir-
cumstance to them. For he seldom failed to
remember them when it came in his way to do
them service ; and some of them who had no
claims or pretences in the world to his favour
but their good preaching, unblameable lives,
and diligence in their callings, were advanced
from one benefice to another, partly by his own
donations, and partly by his interests with
others, till they met with some rewards suitable
to their merits ; and to his private bounties and
pecuniary succours, (where such were agreeable,
till he could assist them in some other way,)
they were frequent and considerable debtors,
as will be more particularly shewn in another
part of this work. Here let it only be further
observed, that he guided himself in dispensing
his favours to his Clergy, not by their political
principles, but by their moral characters and
parochial labours. When once a man had qua-
lified himself according to the laws, and behaved
himself modestly, and discreetly, and industri-
ously in his station, he was entitled to his favour
and service, as opportunity offered, although he
were reputed to be of different sentiments from
himself in point of politics.

There are several instances of his preferring
such persons himself : and possibly no instance
to be given, in so many years as he presided in

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 141

this diocese, where he either discouraged or re-
warded any clergyman, purely for his being of
this or that party, but from some nobler con-
sideration. He considered them in the relation
they bore to the Church and himself, and not
according to their interests in private families
and parliamentary elections. If, indeed, they
went inconsiderately so far in their politics as
to do any thing disreputable to their function,
then they came within his consideration as party-
men; and which side soever they espoused, were
pretty sure to know his sentiments of their way
of proceeding-. For the example which he set
himself, gave him sufficient authority to reprove
upon such occasions.

He was curious to know, as far as he could,
their talent in the pulpit ; and omitted no op-
portunity that offered itself of hearing them
preach. His cathedral, to which he resorted
three times a-week, (viz. on the Litany days,)
for several years after he came to the See,
though he lived two miles out of the city, served
him well for this purpose. For in that church,
besides the preaching courses distributed among
the Prebendaries and Archdeacons, on all the
Sundays and holidays in the year, there are
sermons likewise on every Wednesday and Fri-
day in Advent and Lent. So that during those
seasons, at least, he had an opportunity of hearing

142 LIFE OF ARCHBfSHOP SHARP.

three sermons a-week from different hands. But
as all these turns in the Minster were chiefly
supplied by the members of it, the Prebendaries
or Vicars-Choral, that he might also exercise
and know the talents of the City Clergy, and
those of the neighbouring parishes, he set up an
Evening Lecture, to be preached on every Fri-
day, at All Saints' Church, in the Pavement.

He entered himself into the combination, and
took his turn among- them. This lecture was
opened in 1693, the second year of his residence
in his diocese, and was kept up with a large
resort, chiefly of the Clergy in and about York,
till the year 1707. During which whole time
he attended almost constantly while he resided
in the country, and brought thither preachers
at length from all parts of his diocese. By
which he had not only a better knowledge of
their several abilities, but an opportunity of im-
proving them by his advice, which he would
freely give them when he judged it would prove
useful. If there were any thing in their com-
posures or stile not well suiting the pulpit, or
remarkably unacceptable in their tone or man-
ner of delivery, he would kindly caution them
to avoid it in their preaching, and give them
proper directions how to do so. That this was
one great use he made of his attendance on this
lecture, appears from his constantly mentioning
ii

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

143

in his diary the preachers name, and generally
with some short remark upon the discourse, or
upon the man that made it; and sometimes
minuting the notice he had taken to the preacher
himself, of what had been said, or the manner
of saying it. Twice, indeed, he was so dis-
pleased, or rather provoked, as he observes,
with the sermon, that he durst not venture at
that time to talk with the preacher, lest he
should not sufficiently command himself; and
therefore chose to express his displeasure and
resentment by withdrawing, in a way that was
not usual with him. The persons, it seems,
called up to preach, being as much strangers
to him as he was to them, thought to approve
themselves to him by the bitterness of their in-
vectives against the Dissenters. A conduct that

was odious in his sight. " Mr. preached

(says he) so furious a sermon against the Dis-
senters, as I never heard the like. I went out
of the church before I came into the vestry,
because I knew not how to behave myself to-
wards him." In all his diary, (where he mi-
nutely sets down all the little heats he was
occasionally put into ) there does not appear
more than one other instance where the provo-
cation had so strong and visible an effect upon
him : and that was when the like case happened
again at this lecture, and an indiscreet hot man,

144 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

instead of preaching, " railed at the Dissenters"
as he words it. The prostitution of the pulpit
to such unworthy ends, was a thing he could
not endure ; nor the men that were guilty of it.

He set an excellent example to his Clergy
himself, both of the true manner of preaching,
and of diligence and frequency in it. In the
first years that he spent in his diocese, and was
yet in his full strength and vigour, he rarely
omitted preaching every Sunday. Insomuch,
that by a computation made some years after
he was Archbishop, how often he had preached
since his consecration, he found that one year
with another, he had preached once a fortnight.
His way at York was to hear the sermon at the
Minster on the Sunday morning, (and sometimes
in the absence of the Prebendary appointed, to
take his place,) and to preach one in the after-
noon at some or other of the parisli churches in
the city, or in the neighbourhood. And wherever
he was on Sundays, within his diocese, he
preached once, if not also twice. Towards the
latter part of his life, indeed, he could not at-
tend so constantly at sermons, nor preach them
so frequently as is before mentioned. But he
never remitted either of them so far as not to
be an example to his Clergy in preaching, and
to the Laity for attendance upon sermons.

He always had a great opinion of the effects

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 145

of good sermons, viz. wherein the fundamental
doctrines of religion were laid down distinctly,
and clearly disentangled of the controversies
about them, and wherein the practical duties
of Christianity were pressed warmly and affec-
tionately. When such discourses came from a
man of a good life, and one who in all other
respects shewed a real concern to make people
better, he judged them of great consequence
in reforming the world, and promoting true
piety and virtue ; and therefore it was a princi-
pal branch of his pastoral care, to engage his
Clergy in the study of this point, to make
themselves useful preachers ; and he took all
occasions of exhorting them to it, and instruct-
ing them in it.

There were two seasons in particular, when
he used to enlarge upon this topic, viz. at his
Ordinations and at his Visitations.

The first he held regularly at all the stated
times, when he was in his diocese. And as it
was a business of the greatest weight and con-
sequence that appertained to his office, he used
the properest means to qualify himself for the
discharge of it. He usually repaired privately
to his chapel to beg God's presence with him,
and blessing upon him, or, to use his own ex-
pression, to implore the guidance of his Spirit in
that work. He measured candidates for orders,

146

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

more by their modesty and good sense, and the
testimonials of their virtue, than by their learn-
ing. To have a right notion of the main doc-
trines of religion, to understand thoroughly the
terms of the new covenant, both on God's part
and on man's; and to know the reasons, and
apprehend the force, of those distinctions upon
which the Church of England explained and stated
those terms differently from the Church of Rome
and other communions separating from her, were
with him the chief qualifications for the ministry
in regard to learning.

He had often found and lamented a deficiency
as to these parts of knowledge, in persons
otherwise of good learning and abilities ; whom he
was obliged sometimes to remit to their studies,
that they might make themselves better masters
of this most necessary knowledge for a clergy-
man. He directed them in such cases, how and
where to apply themselves for the attaining it.
And if they were unable to provide themselves
with the proper helps, he would give them some
of the best books for their instruction, and tell
them, if they came to him again with this proof
of their diligence and improvement, that they
appeared well versed in those books, he would
then no longer scruple to put them into the
ministry. Others there were, on whom, when
he could not ordain them on account of their

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

147

insufficiency, he took so great compassion, on
account of some peculiar circumstances of their
misfortune, though they were otherwise un-
known to him, and independent of him, that he
entertained them in his own family till they were
so instructed, that he could satisfy himself they
might be put into holy orders.

To return : he laid hold on these occasions,
when young men were first engaging themselves
in the work of the ministry under his fiat or
commission, to lay before them with great so-
lemnity, and with an authority that became
him, and carried more than ordinary weight
with it at such times, " of what mighty con-
cernment it was, that they who took upon them
this profession, should do their duty. And what
horrible consequences must ensue, if they who
had the preaching of the Gospel intrusted with
them, either did not preach it at all, or preach
it negligently, or preach it unfaithfully, or did
any way, either by their life or doctrine, hinder
the belief and entertainment of it among those
they were to serve."

He told them, " The charge they were now
taking upon themselves was such, as even the
best qualified men, both for learning and piety,
in the primitive times, have trembled at, when
they considered of it. That they were now to
be made stewards of the mysteries of Christ,

l 2

148 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

the ministers of reconciliation between God and
man ; to preach that Gospel by which men
shall be saved or damned eternally; and to
administer those sacraments which are the keys
of the kingdom of heaven. That the best of
men, the most learned, the most virtuous, the
most pious, were not sufficient for these things ;
yet so gracious was God, that he did accept
the endeavours of all honest men, who do in
sincerity the best they can for his service ; but
then it did infinitely concern them to do the
best they could ; to apply themselves seriously
to the work to which they have given them-
selves up, and to make that their business which
they had made their calling; assuring them,
that it was a calling of so much employment,
that if they meant to discharge it with a good
conscience, they would not have much room for
the prosecution of any other. He begged of
them to read the Scriptures constantly, to study
them closely, and to take to their assistance
such other good books as might tend towards
making them masters of their profession, and
enable them to give an answer to every one
that asked them a reason of the faith which
they held ; and to give evidence to all they
conversed with, that in point of learning and
knowledge, they deserved the character they
bore."

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 149

As to their preaching, he gave them some
lessons very seasonable and proper for new be-
ginners, viz. " not to pump for witty expressions,
not to study the ornaments of language, not to
shew their reading or learning in the pulpit any
otherwise than by good sense and strong and plain
arguments. To remember always they were
doing God's work, and not man's ; and there-
fore to endeavour always to approve themselves
to their Master, and not to seek honour of men.
To make it their business to do good to their
hearers, by preaching to their consciences; telling
all people of their duty, representing to them
the Christian religion faithfully, and declaring
to them impartially the conditions of acceptance
with God, and to do this without fear or favour.
But if they took other ways, or had other views
in their sermons ; if they taught any other doc-
trines than what our Saviour had commanded,
or misrepresented those doctrines which he had
taught ; or if they did the work of the Lord
negligently, and were not solicitous in using
their endeavours, that the people committed to
their charge should profit under their ministry,
what account would they give of their steward-
ship."

What he added about their being careful to
preach every day by their good life and conversation,
(which he said was a constant sermon,) shall be

150 LIFE OF AUCHBISHOP SHARP.

omitted here, being to the same purport with
the extracts following out of his charges at his
ordinary visitations, which were the other and
more public occasions that he took of putting
all his clergy in remembrance of what they
owed to God, and the Church, and the honour
of their order.

These charges were weighty and pathetical,
suitable to his gravity and the solemnity of
those meetings. He always insisted on the same
topics, though he diversified a little the manner
of his address to his clergy. The main strokes
and substance of what he delivered to them at
those times cannot be better represented than
in his own words and phrases.

As to their lives and conversation, which was
his first topic, " He conjured them, in God's
name, and as they would answer it in judgment,
not only to keep free from scandal, but to shew
themselves, upon all occasions, virtuous and
grave. He told them, that when once they
arrived at such a vigorous sense of religion, as
would influence their whole conversation, when
they did in good earnest so love God, as to
make it the business of their lives to approve
themselves to him, that then they had done a
good part of their business, as to rendering
their ministry beneficial and successful."

He laid before them, " How very vain it was

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

151

to think that any one of their people should
mind what they preached to them out of their
pulpits ; unless they adorned their doctrine by
a holy, innocent, and unblameable demeanour.
That although tjiey used the best language in
their discourses, and the best arguments, and
added all the charms of a good utterance, that
the best orator could make use of, yet, if their
lives and sermons did not comport, their audi-
tors would have an argument against their dis-
courses, so prevalent, as to defeat all their argu-
ments against vice and immorality, viz. if our
minister really believed what he talks to us, he
would certainly practise otherwise himself. —
Therefore, he besought them, if they meant to
do any good in their parishes, to have a care of
themselves in the first place ; and to let all who
heard them, and all who conversed with them,
be convinced that they were in good earnest
when they talked to them of faith and holiness.
To shew the beauty and charms of a Christian
spirit in their own modest, quiet, peaceable,
and inoffensive deportment ; in their unaffected
piety, and a goodness to be discerned in all
their conversation ; to let their people see that
there are men who do more than talk of another
world, for they do live as if there were."

Another point that he urged to them was di-
ligence in their calling, and application of them-

152 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

selves to those things that immediately con-
cerned their profession. He exhorted them to
be " assiduous in following their studies, and
reading good books, and daily improving them-
selves in all good learning, especially those
parts of learning that related to their vocation.
He laid before them, how highly "necessary it
was for every clergyman to be well versed in
those points wherein religion is concerned ; that
unless they were masters of their profession,
they were lost, and the cause of God would
suffer by their ignorance and weakness. That
: the times would not now bear an ignorant clergy-
man, whatever they would have done heretofore.
That learning was become so common, that they
would quickly be found out if they were defec-
tive in any part of it ; and therefore, for their
own reputation and honour, as well as the
Church's, he besought them to study good
authors, and to use the best conversation they
could meet with, and to improve themselves in
all kinds of knowledge."

Again as to their "preaching, he laid down
very plain lessons. " That there was a trifling
way of preaching, though yet perhaps it might
be elaborate enough ; of which sort were all
those sermons wherein the business was to
make ostentation of learning, or reading, or wit,
or politeness of language ; but which, in the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 153

meantime, were not contrived for the making
people good. And this way of preaching to be
sure they were to avoid. He told them as to
the choice of their subjects, to take the most
weighty points, such as struck at the very root
of evil principles and vicious dispositions ; such
as if a man's conscience be once touched with,
it is in a manner impossible for him (if he were
given to think and consider,) not to be both a
moral man and a good Christian. He was sure
that there was so much truth and evidence, so
much power and efficacy in our religion, that if
it were but faithfully represented, and the ar-
guments of it duly set home upon men's con-
sciences, it would be very difficult for any one
who was not abandoned by God, not to yield
himself a convert to it. He begged of them,
therefore, to press upon their flocks the sub-
stantial doctrines, and the indispensable duties
of Christianity, and the mighty arguments they
had both for believing the one, and practising
the other : that they would do this very plainly,
warmly, and affectionately. That they would
do it in such a way that people of the meanest
capacities might understand what they said,
and that every man who was not wanting to
himself might go away from them either better
or wiser. He told them, if they took these me-
thods, whatever opinion some giddy-headed

154 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

people might have of their preaching, yet he
would vouch for them, that they were good
preachers, and workmen that needed not to be
ashamed."

As to personal residence upon their cures,
which was a topic he never omitted, " He de-
clared to them he did not see how they could
satisfy their consciences without it, unless there
was some very urgent or reasonable cause to
excuse them. He knew not how they could so
solemnly take the cure of souls upon themselves
(as they did at their institution), and afterwards
put all this charge to be executed by a deputy.
If they thus did their duty by proxy, it were
well if they had not their reward in the other world
in the same way. "Wherefore he besought them,
never to think of leaving their benefices, but to
live among their people, and set them good
examples."

As to their being punctual in catechising,
administering the sacraments, and visiting the
sick, and observing rules and orders according
to the rubrics and canons, he laid his solemn
injunction upon them; but withal "desired
they would take in good part his freedom, and
plainness wherewith he delivered himself, de-
claring it was not a humour of talking magiste-
rially that put him upon it, but a sense of his
own duty, and a hearty good will to them ; that

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 155

he had no design upon earth, but that both they
and himself might be good, and adorn the pro-
fession to which they were called; and dis-
charge the trusts committed to them, to the
honour of their Master, the good of his Church,
and the peace and comfort of their own minds."

With these and the like paternal monitions,
savouring of primitive zeal and simplicity, and
delivered with an air of seriousness and gravity
which was solemn and affecting, and in some
respects peculiar to himself, he addressed his
Clergy as often as he held his ordinary Visita-
tions.

And it was at these seasons that he took his
opportunities of privately discoursing with such
of them against whom he had heard any com-
plaints, or whom he had any reason to suspect
in the least deficient in discharging the duties
of their cures.

In what manner he executed this usually
ungrateful, yet necessary branch of his office,
they best knew who received the benefit of his
monitions in private. In how frank and inge-
nuous, in how tender and inoffensive a manner
he treated them on these occasions, may in
some measure be learnt from a specimen or two
of his way of admonishing by letter, when he
could not do it face to face.

The following letters were sent upon his re-

156 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

ceiving some complaints against the persons to
whom they were directed ; which he vehemently
suspected were just and well grounded, but
could not directly charge the parties with them.

" Sir,

" It is very uneasy to me to write to
you upon such a subject as I now must. And I
am very sorry if you have given me the occasion.
It is complained to me, that you have for some
considerable time used your parishioners very
ill in your performance of divine offices among
them. As for sermons, you rarely give them
any ; and as for the divine service of the Church,
you begin it so uncertainly as to the hour, and
you perform it so indecently as to the manner,
as if you really had a mind to shew your hearers
that you are so far out of charity with them,
that you do not desire that they should receive
any benefit, even by their saying of their prayers.

" I represent the complaints that have been
made of you in softer terms than I received
them. If there be no occasion for them, I shall
be heartily glad of it, and shall readily ask your
pardon for giving ear to them. But if they be
true, and you do really use your parish thus,
what must be thought or said of you ? Surely
you have lost not only all common discretion,
but all sense of that duty which you owe to

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

157

our Lord Jesus Christ, and the souls of that
flock that he has committed to you ; that in
revenge of some injury or ill usage you think
you have met with from them, you endeavour
to deprive them (as far as in law you dare) of
all the good that should come to them by your
ministry ; and not only so, but to force them,
if you can, to leave the Church.

" Good Sir, I beg of you that this may be
amended, and that I may hear no more of it.
If I do, I shall be forced to have articles exhi-
bited against you in Court, and to have the
matter brought upon the public stage, which I
am very unwilling should be done. I pray God
bless you, and give both you and me a serious
sense of the duty which is incumbent upon us
in our stations.

" I am, Sir, with great sincerity,

" Your affectionate friend and brother,

" Jo. Ebor."

The next is a more tender letter, and shews
how much he laid to heart the reputed faults of
his brethren, where no formal charge was brought
by open accuser.

" Sir,

" I should be failing, both in the dis-
charge of my duty, and in the friendship which
I owe to you and your family, if I should not

158 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

take notice to you of what hath lately come to
my ears, of the new differences, or the old ones
revived, betwixt you and your wife ; the blame
of which is laid at your door. I would gladly
believe, that all that is said of you about this
matter is not true, particularly the very severe,
cruel, and unmanly usage with which, in your
passion, you do sometimes treat her, and* the
just occasions you have given both to her and
others, to believe that you are not true to your
conjugal vow. These things are so bad, that I
should hardly think a clergyman can be guilty
of them; none can who is not abandoned of
shame, as well as virtue. I am sure none can
who hath any sense of his duty to God, or any
regard to the honour of the Church, or any
concern for the souls of his people, to whom,
by such scandalous examples, he doth frustrate
all the good effects that his labours ought to
have among them, and render his ministry per-
fectly ineffectual.

" I cannot, neither do I, charge you with
these things, because I have them only upon
report. And I should be very sorry, for your
sake, that matters should come to that pass, as
to give occasion to any to attempt the proof of
these things upon you. But thus far I think
myself bound to take notice of these reports,
as earnestly to admonish you so to behave your-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 159

self from henceforward, that I may hear no
more of them.

" And therefore, as I am your old school-
fellow and acquaintance, as I am your friend,
and a friend of your family, I do beg of you, I
do entreat you, as you have any love for your
own ease and peace, as you have any concern
for your reputation and your interest, both
which must needs suffer extremely by these
disorders in your family ; and, which is more
than all these, as you have any regard to give
a comfortable account hereafter to God of your
stewardship, either as a Christian or a clergy-
man ; that you would amend these matters, that
you would make up the breaches in your family,
and treat your wife with all that respect and
kindness, with all that love and tenderness,
which both the law of Christ and your own
solemn promise when you married her, oblige
you to do ; and that you will seriously consult
the common interests both of yourself, and her,
and your family, by making every one's life
about you as easy and as comfortable as may
be ; by minding your own business, and leaving
others to mind theirs ; by shewing respect to
all, according as in their several places they do
their duty ; but encouraging none to sow dis-
contents, and make parties among you ; and,
above all things, being so careful of your own

160 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

conversation, that malice itself should not he able
to fix upon you the imputation of any unlawful
love.

" Out of the tender respects, Sir, I have to
you, as a friend, I give you this advice, and
should be very much troubled ever to apply
myself to you under another character. I hope
I may have so much interest with you, as to
prevail upon you to think seriously of these
matters. And if you do, I am sure you will be
so far convinced of the reasonableness of my
advice, that you will follow it. I do assure you,
that I shall be most heartily glad to hear that
you do so.

" But if the discontents between you do still
continue, and a happy lasting union cannot be
made, I do at least expect that you will deal
as freely with me as I have been dealing with
you, viz. that you will tell me the reason thereof,
and what you have to charge her with, that
should put an hindrance to this peace, and love,
and entire confidence that ought to be between
man and wife. And then my request must
be to you both, if you think it Jit, that I may
see you together, and hear what each party
hath to say. I assure you I shall do it without
partiality to either. And this is all I can do by
way of friendship.

" I have no more to add, but that I heartily

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 161

pray God, to give you both a serious sense of
virtue, and honour, and Christianity. And then
I am sure you will either have no differences,
or they will be such, as nobody but yourselves
will know of.

" Your's, &c.

" Jo. Ebor."

He could not have treated his own son in the
like circumstances with greater affection or
more sensible concern. But this was his way
with all, while there were any hopes either of
their being wrongfully charged, or their being
reclaimed and brought to amend upon persua-
sion. But if he was fully persuaded of the
truth of the allegations against any clergyman,
or found that his first admonitions had not their
due effect, then he raised his style, and rebuked
with more authority, intermixing some threat-
enings.

The two following letters are a specimen of
his manner in doing this.

" Sir,

" I am very sorry that I must write to you
upon such an occasion as I now do. When

I was in my visitation at , the other

day, I there received great complaints against
you for your gross and scandalous neglect of

162 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

your cure. I do assure you it is a sensible
trouble to me to hear these things of you.
I beseech you, for Christ's sake, for your own
sake, for your function's sake, let these things
be amended. I should be unwilling to use any
severity towards you, but if I do not hear that
your cure is better served henceforward, and
that you live a more sober and regular life, I
must and will take care that you shall stay no
longer there. I desire you take this my admo-
nition in good part, which nothing else but the
sense of my duty, and a concern for your good,
and the good of your parish, puts me upon.
And be pleased to let me hear of your receipt
of this letter, and that you are fully resolved to
follow my advice, which will be very accepta-
ble to,

" Your's, &c.

" Jo. Ebor."

ANOTHER.

" Sir,

" I hoped I should hear no more com-
plaints of you, after the admonition I gave you
by letter ; — but I find it otherwise. I might,
I think, without more ado, remove you from
that cure, you having no legal title to it, but
serving it only by admission. And if I did so,
I think I had ground enough for it. But that
you may have no colour to complain of hard

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 163

usage, I am willing you should have an oppor-
tunity of vindicating yourself, if you can. And
therefore, I have here sent you a copy of the
petition. The particulars of which, I mean as to
the charge against you, are offered to be made
out fully, if there be occasion. What measures
are best for you to take in this case, you will
do well to consider. If you think fit quietly to
recede, there is an end of the business. If you
will stand upon your justification, you shall be
heard. But then articles must be drawn up
against you in form, and put into the Court at
York ; and a time likewise must be appointed
for you and your accusers to come thither, they
to make out their proofs, and you to disprove
them. And if, upon the hearing, these com-
plaints against you appear without grounds,
they will be obliged by the Court to bear your
charges; if they make good the articles, you
must expect both to have your admission with-
drawn, and to pay the charges of their prose-
cution. I pray let me know, as soon as you
can, what you mean to do.

" Your's, &c.

" Jo. Ebor."

When gentler methods did not prevail, he
never failed to put in execution those powers
which the laws gave him, insomuch that he hath

m 2

164

LIP E OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

been charged, in anonymous letters sent to him-
self, with rigour in his proceedings against his
Clergy ; though, in reality, he never was severe
where he could help it, or without a justifiable
cause, and that, too, after all other milder me-
thods had been taken in vain.

A vicious and scandalous clergyman did,
above all other things, provoke his resentments ;
he never found it so difficult to keep his temper
as when any such person came before him.
It is true, taking all his Clergy together, and
considering their number, he had as many valu-
able and worthy men as could be met with in
the same compass, who were an honour to their
profession and his diocese ; and he was troubled
with as few unworthy ones, as could in reason
be expected in a country where such scanty
provisions were made for the churches, as were
in his time ; but these few were a great trouble
to him, and when he was forced to use severities
with any of them, that usage always procured
his favour and bounty to their poor innocent
families, whom he lamented should any ways
suffer for the faults of those who ought to have
protected and provided for them.

Had he used his authority only over the clergy,
or confined his reprehensions and censures to
them alone who were neither of abilities to
cope with him, nor in a situation so independent

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 165

of him, as to remonstrate openly against any
overstrainings of his power, he had shewed ra-
ther a spirit of meanness or pride, than a spirit
of discipline or charity ; but he used equal
freedom in admonishing and censuring the laity
of what quality soever they were, when he
saw occasion for it. Whenever they gave any
public scandal by their immoralities, he would
make no scruple to reprimand them and tell
them their faults, either by discourse (when that
was feasible) or by letters. And if he appre-
hended any such persons were likely to offer
themselves for receiving the Sacrament, when he
was to officiate himself either in his cathedral or
in any churches of his diocese where he occa-
sionally preached or confirmed, he would take
that opportunity of advising them either to
clear their characters to him or not be present
at those ordinances. And this freedom he
would take, when there was occasion given, not
only with the chief magistrate of his metropolis,
but with gentlemen of the best quality, interest,
and fortunes within his diocese.

The following letter, written and delivered on
one of these occasions, will suffice for an instance
of his manner of exercising this discipline.

"My Lord,

" It grieves me to write to you upon such an

166 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

occasion as I am now going to mention; because
I am sure it will grieve you. And yet I know
of no other way of communicating my thoughts
to you, with that decency which is due to your
character, or that respect I have always, and
would always pay to your person, than this of
writing, because it is a way that will make no
noise. It is reported and that your Lord-
ship designs to receive the Sacrament at

next Sunday. Good, my Lord, let me beg of
you not to offer it, either then or at any other
time, while matters stand with you as they do.
I dare say there is none of us but would be most
heartily troubled to refuse you the Sacrament,
but yet I doubt we must do it if you offer
yourself. I am sorry I must say this ; but I am
more sorry for the cause. Be pleased my Lord
to accept this testimony of respect, (for I assure
you it is meant so) from

" Your humble servant, &c.

"Jo. Eboh."

This letter, as it stands unsupported by any
lights to explain it, may seem something harsh,
but if the case were better known in all its cir-
cumstances it would not appear so. The Arch-
bishop knew what he was doing ; and it answered
his intention ; neither did the party admonished
break friendship with him on that account.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

167

And indeed he was happy in making no
enemies, at least none that thought proper to
appear so, by his reproofs. He was wont to
press his arguments, drawn both from reasons
of religion and worldly considerations, with
so much tenderness and charity, and would
make such handsome apologies for interposing
his judgment and advice, that whatever
good he might do upon the parties concerned,
yet, he never did, apparently, hurt himself
by his pastoral monitions ; but his addresses
and expostulations were taken in such
good part, that he had generally the justice
done him to be thought a real friend by the
persons themselves to whom he thus applied
himself.

He seldom had recourse, as was before ob-
served, to his authority and powers by law ;
and never till he had found all persuasion and
gentler advertisements vain. But he was not
afraid of giving disturbance to persons of good
figure among the gentry, if they did not, upon
reasonable notice, remove any scandal that ivas
notorious in the country.

The following letter was sent by him previous
to a prosecution of this nature, which was well
enough known at the time it was carried on.
But as it may now be in great measure forgotten,
the name of the Baronet to whom it was written,

168

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

and of the places which might distinguish the
case, are purposely concealed.

" Sir,

" It is truly very grievous to me that my first
return for the civilities I received from you
at and which I do thankfully acknow-
ledge, should be a letter of such a nature as I
am now to write to you, and which I am sen-
sible must be very displeasing to you, but
indeed I cannot help it. I heard so much

at of your cohabiting with a woman that

is not your wife, and of the great scandal that is
thereby given, that I should be extremely want-
ing to the duty of my place if I should not take
notice of it to you : nay, indeed, my silence in
this matter would be an argument to the coun-
try that I approved of your practice, I having
but the day before publickly admitted you to
the Sacrament, which I must confess I would
not have done had I then known so much as I
was informed of the day after.

" I have heard what you alledge in your own
defence ; but it doth by no means satisfy me.
Let your circumstances with relation to your
lady be as they will (and truly I am informed
that on your side they are very pitiable,) yet I
cannot conceive how they will ever justify your
living with another woman while your lady

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 169

is alive ; no, nor after her death, without lawful
marriage.

" I could heartily wish, Sir, you could be
prevailed with to send that gentlewoman away.
It would both remove a great offence, which, by
your keeping her, you have given to the country,
and also prevent a great deal of trouble and
vexation which will necessarily come upon her
and you (and I know not how to help it,) by a
prosecution in the ecclesiastical court, if you
continue in this course of life.

" I beseech you, Sir, to take in good part
what I thought myself obliged in conscience
now to lay before you. I assure you I mean it
kindly and respectfully, and should be glad of
any opportunity of shewing myself,
" Sir,

"Your affectionate friend and servant,

" Jo. Ebor."

But as neither this letter nor another that he
wrote to the same gentleman, on the same
occasion, had the desired effect, he ordered a
Citation to be issued out of the Court for bring-
ing the matter to a judicial cognizance.

To conclude this article concerning his con-
duct towards the laity in his diocese notoriously
misbehaving themselves ; he took care always
to be sure of his charge before he laid it, and to

170

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

put it no stronger than he could justify it. He
was ever cautious (especially in cases where the
gentlemen of the country were any ways con-
cerned,) how and from whom he received in-
formations ; and ever backward to give ear to
any who had not some proper and immediate
right to complain. He was well aware of the
difficulties he should bring both upon himself
and others should he too easily admit any no-
tices that nearly concerned a man's honour and
character, and take any steps upon such ad-
vertisements. He always disliked and dis-
couraged, and chiefly upon this account, the
Societies for the Reformation of Manners ; which
were begun to be set up within his diocese (as
they were in many others) about the year 1697.
He was unwilling to check well-meaning peo-
ple in any design that seemed to tend to God's
honour, and the good of mankind, and yet he
feared whereunto the liberty that those societies
begun to take would grow.

As he differed in some measure from several
of the other bishops and clergymen in his sen-
timents of these societies, which for some years
made no little noise in the world ; it will not
be amiss to relate the steps he took, and give
the letters he wrote concerning those which
were forming within his own diocese and
province.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

171

The first account he received of any such
scheme taking place within his jurisdiction, was
from Nottmgham, where a society was formed,
upon certain laws and rules to be observed by
the members : and was quickly grown so con-
siderable, as to propose, the having a ,

quarterly lecture upon the subject of reformation, /
at which they invited the clergymen of Notting-
hamshire to assist in their turns ; who readily
promised their assistance, provided the Arch-
bishop approved of it. Upon this the society
applied to him, begging his licence for such a
lecture, and that he would be pleased to signify
his pleasure to Mr. Caryl, a very worthy cler- I
gyman and minister of Saint Mary's in Notting-
ham, whom they had pitched upon to open this
lecture. Upon this he wrote to Mr. Caryl in
the following manner.

January 29, 1697-8.

"Good Sir,
" 1 received a letter about ten days ago from
some persons at Nottingham, not named, who
call themselves " the Society for Iicformation.,y
I was a little surprised to find that that which
not two months before, when Mr. Ellis first gave
me an account of the project, seemed to me but
an embryo, should so suddenly be grown into
a just body.

172 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

" I am no enemy to reformation of manners,
(for God knows we too much need it,) nor to
any means that conduce to the promoting of
sincere virtue and piety, either in ourselves or
others. On the contrary, I would to the utmost
of my power encourage all lawful expedients
that can be desired for the serving of these ends.
But as for what is desired of me in this letter,
viz. that I would approve and license a quar-
terly lecture to be preached to this society, I
cannot readily give an answer to it, till I be
better satisfied about these two things.

"First, whether I can lawfully do it, the re-
solution of which depends upon this question,
whether these kind of fraternities and confedera-
tions be allowed by the laws of this realm and
the constitutioyis of our church. As to which point
I must confess I am not sufficiently clear.

" The other thing I must be satisfied about is,
the rules and orders of this society at Notting-
ham in particular.

"These I undertand are not always the same
in all the societies that have been of late set up.
1 And what your rules are at Nottingham I am
perfectly a stranger to. And yet, methinks, they
ought to have been laid before me, before 1 could
be supposed capable of giving an answer how
far I could concur with what is desired of me.

" As for the first of these points, I must get my

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHAttP. 173

satisfaction as I can. As to the other, the gen-
tlemen of the society are able to give it me, and
I hope they will. In the mean time, till I can
give a more positive answer, you may please to
tell the gentlemen, that, though I would not
have been the first adviser of such a combina-
tion as this is, yet now that they are actually
entered into it, and for good ends as I verily
hope, they shall meet with no discouragement
from me, so long as their methods are regular,
and their proceedings modest, and 'prudent, and J
inoffensive. Nay, further, I shall be ready to
give them the best assistance and direction I
can, if they think me worthy of being con-
sulted with.

" I could wish that their first lecture, which is
designed to be preached by you on the second
Tuesday in February, might be put off till I had
an account of the constitution of their society,
and the laws they have agreed upon. But if
these be uneasy to the gentlemen that are con-
cerned, I do not forbid you to preach at the
time and place they desire.

" I desire you to present my service to them.
I am, with hearty wishes of their and your
happiness,

"Sir,

"Your affectionate brother,

" Jo. Ebor."

174 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

This letter produced another from the so-
ciety, dated February 2d 1697-8, wherein they
excuse themselves for not informing him before
of their rules, &c, and send him a copy of all
their orders and votes, Sec, which immediately
drew a second letter from him to Mr. Caryl, in
the words following.

" Good Sir,

" On Friday last I received a letter from the
gentlemen of your society, with a copy of their
rules and orders. I desire you to return my
thanks to them for the civility and respect they
are pleased to express to me in their letter, and
to assure them that I would be glad to serve all
of them, and every one of them in particular, (if
I knew them,) in any way that I can.

" I have read over their orders, and that 1
might be the better able to make a judgment of
them, I have compared them with the orders of
the London societies as they were given by Mr.
Woodward, (whose book I had not seen when I
wrote my last letter,) and likewise with the
orders framed by Doctor Horneck, and agreed to
by the first societies of this kind in London, and
by which they have in a great measure ever
since been governed.

" Upon this comparison I cannot but observe a
great difference between the societies in London

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 175

(to which I am told several bishops have given
their countenance,) and that lately set up at
Nottingham.

" The principal end for which these societies
formed in London, was to promote piety and
devotion and all christian virtues and graces
among their own members; and the meddling with
others who were not of the society was not
thought on till of late, and still it is but a
secondary end. Whereas the whole business and
design of founding this society at Nottingham
(as far as I can judge by the orders and rules of
their constitution) is to reform others, that are
not of the society, by getting the laws to be
put in execution against them. But as for the
reforming themselves, or the improving one
another in holy christian living, there is little
provision made. I must confess I think it is of
a great deal more consequence, both to a man's
self, and to the public, that he use ail means
possible, to be devout, humble, charitable, and
(in a word) in all things to live like a christian
himself, than to be zealous in informing against
others who do not live like christians. The first
is of certain benefit, both to a man's self and
others; but the other may be often both in-
discreet and vexatious.

I do not deny that this design of theirs to
have the laws put in execution against profane-

176

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

ness and immorality is a very good one, and
deserves all encouragement. And I myself
would inspirit all that I converse with, as much
as I could, to contribute all their lawful endea-
vours towards it in their place and station. But,
on the other side, I do not take it to be proper
for me, as a clergyman, to take upon me either to
erect or to authorize any society for this pur-
pose : nor do I think it proper to my function
if such societies be set up to do any episcopal
act about them (as licensing of preachers is an
episcopal act), any more than I think it proper
to give orders to my clergy about business that
belongs to justices of peace.

" The truth is, as the society at Nottingham
is constituted, it seems to me, they would re-
ceive better directions for the carrying on their
work, from the charges that they may hear from
the justices of peace at the sessions, than they
can from the sermons of the Clergy.

" I observe another difference between your
society at Nottingham, and those of London,
which is a very material one with me. One of
the articles which all those who enter into any
of these societies in London are bound to sub-
scribe to, is this ; that they declare themselves
that they are, or will be, of the communion of
the Church of England ; that they will frequent
the Liturgy ; that they will once a month receive

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 177

the holy sacrament, &c. Whereas your consti-
tution is, that all dissenters may be admitted
into your society, provided they be persons of
sobriety and integrity.

" I am not against the coalition of churchmen
with dissenters, in any matter where they can
go together in promoting the common cause of
religion or good manners. So far from that, I
heartily wish them well. And it would be the
most pleasing thing in the world to me, if we
could all be united in one body. And, in the
meantime, while we continue separate, I would
have all possible tenderness and kindness shewed
to all good men amongst them. But while the
laws stand as they do, I do not know how I
can, without breach of that trust that is com-
mitted to me, come into the project and scheme
that the gentlemen of your society have laid
down for themselves. You desire me to license
a quarterly lecture to be preached to the society.
Is it not natural, that those of the society who
are dissenters, should also desire a lecture to be
sometimes preached to the society in their meet-
ings 1 And can you deny this request of theirs.
Is it not reasonable (since you are all on the
same level as members of the society) that you
should comply with them as they with you ?

" If now the case be thus, I must profess to
you, I can by no means allow any clergyman of

178 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHAKP.

my diocese to preach as a lecturer of this so-
ciety, because it would be giving an encourage-
ment to the breaking of those laws which I hold
myself bound in conscience to see observed as
far as I can.

" I desire you (good Mr. Caryl), to represent
to the gentlemen these difficulties I have upon
me. I beg my service to them. I have spoke
my mind plainly, and without reserve. If they
can so agree among themselves as to come in,
as to the main parts, to the rules set down by Mr.
Woodward or Doctor Horneck (which are to be
found in that Doctor's Life, wrote by the Bishop
of Bath and Wells), I shall, with some little
alterations or additions, comply with them.

" This is writ in very great haste, and I have
not time to take a copy of it. And therefore I
pray keep it, that I may have it again.

" I am, your's,

" Jo. Ebor."

Thus he quashed the design of a quarterly
lecture. And how well he judged of the advan-
tages that the dissenting ministers would make
; of it, by claiming to be heard in their turns, ap-
peared not long after (though not within his
own diocese, where he prevented it, yet) in
another part of his province, as will be seen
hereafter. In the meantime, that he might shew

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 179

them how desirous he was to gratify them as
far as he could, he allowed that they might
have a sermon once in a quarter, provided it
was preached by a clergyman of known charac-
ter and discretion, and also on that day of the
week on which the weekly lecture was preached,
so that it might pass for one of those courses.
And the same liberty he gave to his Clergy in
and about Hull, where there was a considerable
society for reformation formed, and also a weekly
lecture established, as at Nottingham.

Not long after these two societies were formed,
viz. in 1699, several persons at York, both of
the Church of England, and of the Dissenters,
were very zealous to have a society in that city
formed upon the same model. But the great
difficulty was how to reconcile him to the pro-
ject. The Clergy were backward, knowing how
coldly he received all those proposals ; and the
dissenters complained of unreasonable scruples
in him. Among some of the expressions used
to their corresponding reformers of the other so-
cieties, there were these.

" We do not find the difficulty that we feared.
There are several sober men of the Church of
England that incline to be active in putting the
laws in execution against vice. But how to
proceed safely, seems to be the present great
objection ; for his Grace the Archbishop of York

n 2

180

J.IFF. OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

(whose character is so well known throughout
England, as needs not my enlargement), ex-
presses such caution of breaking the just and
good laws of men, as that he encourages not
men's associating themselves in order to inform
against vice, least they thereby bring themselves
into a praemunire as offenders. We have the

promise of a sober, good gentleman f - .

to take informations from any against immorality
and profaneness, and never to discover the in-
former This we know that God

can do great things, and wonderful, and we
despair not but that he will effect a wonder for
York. Poor York ; the second city in the king-
dom, and likely to be the last in reformation ;
but better late than never," &c.

It was said " his Grace's scruple must cease,
if once his query was but put into plain English,
viz. whether it be lawful for private persons to
assist the magistrates by informations, &c. to
put the laws in execution for the suppressing
vice," &c. And that he should not want proper
admonitions and advice, care was taken to pro-
cure letters from those persons who were pre-
sumed to have good interest with him, begging
of him to espouse and encourage this pious de-
sign at York. In some of the letters he received
from men of note, these societies were repre-
sented as " the last effort likely to be made for

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

181

the suppressing vice and immorality ; that if this
was not defeated, it might be concluded their
cause was then desperate. That great weight
was laid upon his concurrence; that it was
presumed upon, that there could be no place
for deliberation, and the like."

But he appears to have made a better judg-
ment at that time of that whole affair, than most
other men did, not even excepting some of the
bishops themselves, and was not to be prevailed
upon to alter his sentiments, without having
better reasons given than were offered to him.
He wrote several letters upon the subject to
such Clergy as enquired after his opinion, not
only within his diocese, but throughout his pro-
vince. But as none of his letters are more full,
and better express his sentiments, than the two
following, they are for that reason inserted here
as his vindication from those partial suggestions
that were raised upon his not countenancing the
society at his metropolis. The occasion was

thus The Chancellor of Carlisle, with

some other justices of the peace, had set on foot
a society in that city, in imitation of many others
in the kingdom into which they had admitted the
dissenters. The bishop of that diocese had been
applied to by them for his countenance and
encouragement ; but was under difficulties con-
cerning the steps he ought in prudence to take

182

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

upon such their application. Upon which, Arch-
deacon Nicholson, to relieve his diocesan, con-
sulted his Grace as Metropolitan. And this
occasioned the following letter, in answer to the
enquiry.

" Reverend Sir,

" I had the favour of your's, which that
I did not answer sooner, you must impute to
the many affairs of sundry kinds (some of them
small enough, but unavoidable) which do here
take up our time.

" I myself have always been averse to such
sort of confederacies or combinations, whether
of clergy or others, as are now on foot every
where ; whether they be those they call religious
societies, or those of a later standing, which go
under the name of societies for reformation ; as
doubting whether they be legal in themselves,
(though, with submission, I think it may bear a
dispute whether they come under those ' con-
venticles' which are forbid in the 1 2th and 73d
canons). And apprehending likewise, that some
time or other we may feel ill consequences from
them. And for these reasons I refused my sub-
scription the last year to that book which was
writ for the recommending these societies;
though I was earnestly, by letters from two of
the bishops, pressed to join my hand with theirs.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 183

" But though these be my private sentiments,
I find many of the bishops of another mind.
Some of them look upon these societies for
reformation to be of mighty use. And consi-
dering how remiss the magistrates generally are
in executing the laws against prophaneness and
immorality, they think there is no other way to
retrieve that zeal for religion which is every
where lost among us, and to promote a reforma-
tion of manners, but by such a joint endeavour
of well disposed persons.

" And accordingly they do what they can to
promote these societies in their respective dio-
ceses. Others of the bishops go not so far, but
content themselves to endeavour the regulating
and keeping them within bounds where they are
voluntarily entered into.

"The truth is, the societies of London have
been so industrious in spreading their books,
and the success they have had (as they say) in
this way, has made such a noise every where,
that the whole nation almost hath taken the
alarm. And so eagerly in many places are the
minds of people set upon these new methods,
that it may justly be doubted whether it be in
the bishop's power to stifle or suppress these
societies, though he should use his utmost en-
deavours to do it.

" Add to this, that many of the clergy take

184 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

encouragement to enter into these societies, from
a passage of my Lord of Canterbury's circular
letter which was sent the last year to the
bishops of his province, though it is certain in
that passage he did not intend the setting up
such formal associations under rules and articles
as are now formed in many places. The pas-
sage is in the fourth paragraph, where he says —
' It were to be wished that the clergy of every
neighbourhood would agree upon frequent meet-
ings to consult for the good of religion, &c.
And these meetings might still be made a greater
advantage to the clergy in carrying on the re-
formation of men's lives and manners, by in-
viting the churchwardens of their several parishes
and other pious persons among the laity to join
with them in the execution of the most probable
methods that can be suggested for those good
ends. And we may very reasonably expect the
happy effects of such a concurrence from the
visible success of that noble zeal, wherewith so
many about the cities of London and West-
minster do promote true piety,' &c.

" I have transcribed thus much out of that
printed letter for fear you should not have it by
you.

" Upon these considerations I am thus far
come into these projects, that I tell my clergy
when any of them apply to me about this matter

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 185

(as very lately some of them have done,) that as
for their meeting together, as they have conve-
nience of neighbourhood, for the promoting of
religion and reformation in their parishes, it is a
thing I would advise them to. But as for the
societies for reformation that are now on foot in
several places, they are new things, and for
which there is no foundation in our laws and
canons; and we do not know what conse-
quences they may in time produce. And there-
fore I dare not be the author or adviser to any
one, either clergymen or laymen, to embark in
these projects. Nevertheless being sensible that
a great many wise and good men do approve of these
societies, I will not think the worse of any man for
engaging in them. Nor shall these societies meet
with any discouragement from me, so long as
they keep within the bounds which the laws of
the land and of the church have prescribed.

" Letters to this effect I have written to some
of my clergy who consulted me; but I must
confess I came not to this degree of compliance
till after a great deal of discourse with several
of the bishops.

" What my Lord Bishop of Carlisle will think
fit to do in the present case of the Chancellor
must be left to his own prudence, which I know
is very great. I must confess I dare not advise
him. Only this I believe I may say, that I

186

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

think that he will have gained a good point if he
can prevail with Mr. Chancellor to quit his dissent-
ing associates ; and if he be resolved on a society
for reformation, let only such be taken into it as
are hearty churchmen.

" Sir, your affectionate servant,

" Jo. Ebor,"

" Feb. 27th, 1699."

Upon the receipt of this seasonable letter,
the Bishop of Carlisle (as the archdeacon ac-
quainted his archbishop in his answer a few
days after,) being now delivered from his per-
plexities, resolved upon the following expedient,
both for the direction of his clergy, and for the
effectually preventing any further solicitations
from the members of the society. He drew up
a paper which he dispersed in his diocese,
wherein he recommended to his clergy to pro-
mote the good ends of his Majesty's late procla-
mation, not only by their sermons, but by their
voluntary meetings and conferences, or other
methods allowed by the canons of the church, and
laws of the land. That they would in these con-
ferences (if they saw it necessary,) request the
assistance of such justices of the peace, or other
persons of note and gravity as might best for-
ward their good designs, provided they were
well affected to the doctrine and discipline of
the Established Church.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 187

In the meantime the Chancellor sends the
Archbishop a copy of the rules and orders of
the society at Carlisle, and apologizes very
handsomely for himself, and the rest who were
concerned with him. And Archdeacon Nicol-
son gives him an account of an usual agreement
at Brampton, in the same diocese, between the
neighbouring clergy and a dissenting minister.

To both which he answers in the following-
letter to the Archdeacon.

" Good Mr. Archdeacon,

" I hope by that time I received your second
letter, my answer to your first had reached you.
I believe you will not think me too favourable
to these new societies, but in truth, as the state
of things is among us, I do not yet find reason
to alter my sentiments.

" As for that you mention at Brampton, where
the vicars have obliged themselves to take their
turns with the minister of a dissenting congre-
gation at a weekly lecture ; if the meaning of
that be that they are to take their turns in
preaching at his meeting, or that he is to take his
turn in preaching at their churches, or lastly
that they are to go and hear him preach in his turn
at the conventicle, I say, if any of these things be
meant in that article (and what other meaning
it can have I cannot find out,) I think the thing

188 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

ought not to be suffered, but they should be
admonished to forbear such practices ; being
directly contrary to our constitution, and to the
engagements they are under to preserve it.

" Since my last to you I have seen a copy of
the articles which your society at Carlisle have
subscribed, and upon which it is founded. I
dare now speak a little more positively to this
matter than I did before.

" I must confess if a society was entered into
at York upon these articles, I should neither
give the members of it any disturbance nor any
discouragement. I should only wish that those
of the clergy who joined in it would add an
article or two more, whereby they should more
particularly oblige themselves to the reading of
prayers on Wednesdays, and Fridays, and holi-
days, or in populous towns every day, unless
they were hindered by some urgent business.
Secondly, to the holding monthly communions in
their parishes, and lastly to the diligent attend-
ance upon catechising and instructing the youth
of their parishes in the principles of Christianity.
The practice of which things will in my poor
opinion more contribute to the promoting a reforma-
tion, than the informing against criminals, though
that is a good work too.

" Sir, I have freely given you my sense about
the matters of your two letters. I am, with

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 189

sincere respects to my Lord Bishop, and to
yourself,

" Sir, your very affectionate,
" Friend and servant,

" Jo. Ebor."

" March 5th, 1699."

The archdeacon made a very good use of this
letter with the clergy about Brampton, he con-
vinced them of their error, and prevailed upon
them to break their combination.

It appears from these letters, and indeed from
his whole conduct with respect to these socie-
ties, that he was as unwilling to oppose any
useful or commendable designs as to give en-
couragement to any uncanonical proceedings ;
the scheme of reformation which seemed in his
opinion to bid the fairest for success was, that
all they, whether of the clergy or laity, who
undertook to promote it in others, should lay
out their labours first of all in amending them-
selves ; and that till they became exemplary
men in their persons, they were not duly and
sufficiently qualified to attempt the reformation of
a degenerate age. This was the great labour of
his own life, to grow better and better every
day ; which he thought of all others the most
likely means to render a man truly serviceable
to the interests of religion, and a public bless-

190 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

ing to his country. Whosoever compares this
his judgment or principle with Cardinal du Retzs
determination of his own conduct upon his pro-
motion to the Archbishopric of Paris, will see
how widely different were their respective sen-
timents and resolutions*. The one thought that
in point of mere prudence or worldly policy (all
other considerations being abstracted,) it was
doubtless more safe and more effectual for serv-
ing the ends of his profession and calling, to
counterfeit godliness and virtue, than to prac-
tise them in reality; and to guard against the
appearances of evil rather than against the thing
itself. But the other judged that the reforma-
tion of mankind was not to be effected by arts
and human subtleties, or otherwise than by the
real practice as well as profession of godliness ;
that not only the merit, but in great measure
the capacity of being instrumental in that work,
was lost in one who did not conscientiously

* " Je pris apres six jours de reflexion le parti de faire le
mal par dessein, ce qui est sans compareuson le plus criminal
devant Dieu, mais ce qui est sans doute le plus sage devant le

monde. Voila la sainte disposition aveclaquelle je sortis de

St. Lazare. Elle ne fut pourtant pas de tout point mauvaise.
Car j'avois pris une ferme resolution de remplir exactment tous
les devoirs de ma profession, et d'etre aussi homme de bien
pour le salut des autres, que je pourvois etre mechant pour
moimeme." — Memoirs du Cardinal de Retz. Vol. I. Liv. 2.
p. 61. 8vo. Armst. 1719.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 191

strive to be himself what he proposed to make
others. And therefore he frequently repeated
this lesson to his clergy, that the main part of
their business as pastors was to be themselves
sincerely and substantially good : that if they
were so, and withal were punctual in observing
the rules prescribed them in the rubricks and
canons, they took the most certain and effectual
methods to render themselves useful in their
ministry, and eminently serviceable, under God,
to the cause of Christ and his religion. And
therefore his principle aim in the choice and
designation of persons for the service of the
church (so far as that fell to his share and be-
came his immediate concern,) was to find out
those whose private lives and characters did
best correspond with this idea of a successful
pastor, viz. that he himself be a true and faith-
ful servant of God.

Thus it is observable when he recommended
clerks to patrons, the sufficiency of their learning
was but one, and the least material part of their
character. He laid the main stress upon their
life and temper, and thought himself secure in
warranting a person of regular life, right hottest,
and well tempered, to be a good parish minister.
In large and populous towns indeed, where a
greater degree of learning and prudence is usually
necessary, he was careful to have regard to those

192 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

qualifications also, as well when he recommended
to others as when he received recommendations
from them, always endeavouring to fill vacant
livings with such persons as were sufficiently
qualified to answer the particular wants of the
respective cures. Which was a point that he
had more regard to than any considerations of
favour, friendship, or interest.

But how justly soever this rule in disposing
of church preferments will approve itself to all
considering people, yet it is easy to conceive
that his adherence to it would be interpreted
by some as an humoursome unreasonable deli-
cacy, and would draw upon him when he re-
fused to prefer clerks that were recommended
to him, difficulties if he concealed his reasons, and
complaints and greater difficulties if he gave them.
The following instance will shew both his ad-
dress and temper on such occasions.

The Duke of Leeds had recommended him a
clerk (one who was already beneficed in the
diocese of York by the duke's own presentation,)
for one of the most considerable cures in the
county, in the Archbishop's gift. But as he
was most careful and conscientious in the choice
of persons to serve in those places which were
under his patronage, so he found it necessary to
desire that the duke would not lay his com-
mands upon him in this particular, giving for

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 193

his reason that he much doubted whether the
person recommended to him had all the qualifica-
tions necessary for the discharge of so great and
so difficult a post. Upon this he was civilly
called upon by the duke, but not altogether so
civilly by the clerk, to declare what he meant
by that doubt with which he had excused
himself from granting the favour that had been
asked.

To the duke he wrote thus.

" My Lord,

" Since your Grace commands me to explain

myself as to what I wrote about Mr. ,

I will do it sincerely.

The things that lay uppermost in my mind,
when I said that I was afraid that he had not all
the qualifications necessary for the discharge of
such a post, were these two. I thought that
town needed one of a higher form of learning

and prudence, than in my opinion Mr. was.

And besides, being a town much given to good
fellowship, I was afraid, if he came thither, he
would be exposed to too much temptation that
way.

" This, my Lord, is all I meant by that ex-
pression, and I hope it will do him no prejudice
with your Grace, or hinder him of any prefer-
ment you designed him. And I hope likewise,

194 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

that since your Grace obliges me to write thus
freely, that it is to yourself only that I write.
" I am, my Lord,
" With the greatest respects, &c.

" Jo. Ebor."

To the clerk he answered in these words.

" Sir,

" I received your letter, which I had
answered sooner, but that I had a great deal of
other business upon my hands. As to the sy-
nodals, I leave it to yourself, both to pay what
you please of them, and when you please ; for
I am not used to be hard upon the Clergy in those
matters. Though, in strictness of law, you may
be called upon for those that were due in your
predecessor's time, as well as those that have
become due since you came to the living ; they
being, like the King's tenths, chargeable upon
the rectories and vicarages ; so that whoever is
incumbent is liable to all arrears. But far be
it from me to make any such demands.

As for the complaining part of your letter, I
will give you a short answer to it. I did ex-
press my unwillingness to comply with the
duke's request on your behalf ; not upon account
of any unkindness, or ill will to you (as God
knoweth I have none), but purely because it

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 195

was my opinion (as it is of others also, who have
known you better than I can pretend to do,) that

was neither a fit place for you, nor you a

fit man for it.

" Now, if this was my opinion, why might I
not say it, especially when I was under a kind
of necessity of giving some reason for my refusal
of what his Grace had moved to me ?

" But you call this a crimination, a drawing
up a charge against you. I wonder why you
should do so. What have I accused you of?
What crime have I laid to your charge ? I dare
say there are an hundred clergymen in this dio-
cese, of whom I know no ill, and therefore to
be sure would not charge them with any ; nay,
whom I believe to be very good men, of whom

yet, if they were candidates for I

would not scruple to say, that I am afraid
they had not all the qualifications necessary for
the discharge of so important and difficult a
post.

" As for what you desire, that I would give
you a particular account of what qualifications
I think you want for that place. / do not think
it a proper argument for a letter. But, if you will
give me an opportunity of talking with you, I
will sincerely tell you my whole heart about
this matter, and what my reasons were of my so
expressing myself to the Duke of Leeds. Tn

o 2

196

L1FL OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

the mean time I am, with hearty wishes of all
good to you,

" Sir, your loving friend, &c.

" Jo. Ebor."

Great was the mildness of this answer, consi-
dering the style of the letter to which he re-
plied, and the temper of the person he wrote
to. But it is a genuine specimen of that cour-
tesy which he shewed to all, how differently
soever they might behave towards himself. He
was not easily thrown off his bias, or put out of
his naturally sweet temper, though, at the same
time, he was not to be diverted from steadily
pursuing the rules he had laid down for his own
conduct in the discharge of his office.

He was observed to act so conscientiously
and cautiously in the choice of fit persons to
serve in the Church, that sometimes the patrons
of livings, who were well acquainted with him,
would refer the designation of the clerk, upon a
vacancy, entirely to himself. And this not only
within his own diocese, but in other parts of
his province. And sometimes, when he was
not applied to or consulted, he would himself
take the liberty of reminding patrons of the im-
portance of observing the trusts that were by the
laws reposed in them; desiring them to consider
how much they were concerned that the people

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 197

of those parishes to which they presented should
be provided of a good minister, one that was
sober and regular, and preached to them by his
life, as well as his sermons.

To a noble lord, who was more than ordina-
rily delicate in the choice of clerks for livings
in his gift, and who had desired the Archbishop
to give him a man for a benefice in the diocese of
Carlisle, in his patronage, that would set up his
rest there, and expect no other preferment, &c;
he wrote the following character of the cler-
gyman he had pitched upon for his lordship's
service, viz. " He is a good scholar, of a regu-
lar life, a right honest and good tempered man,
and will take a conscientious care of his flock.

" I do not name him to your lordship but with
a design that he should make good all the points
that your lordship requires, viz. that he shall
constantly reside upon the place, and make it
the whole business of his life to look after his
cure. My Lord, if your lordship gives him the
living, he takes it upon these conditions, and I
will undertake they shall be made good."

By this it appears that the Archbishop did
allow of promises and contracts at the taking of
livings, provided they were not of a Simonical
nature, had nothing of a pecuniary considera-
tion, nor any relation to the profits or rights of
the benefice. For when either of these came into

198

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

question, or were but suspected ; if he had but
the slightest intimation of any Simonical con-
tract, or illegal method of trafficking for prefer-
ment between patron and clerk, he was sure to
interpose, as occasion offered, and prevent, if
he could, any conclusion being made upon such
terms. Nor did he think any man too great to
be advertised of the mischief and scandal of such
practices. A testimony of this his liberty here
follows, being a letter to a noble lord whom
report had represented as too much inclined to
make an illegal composition for one of his livings.

" My Lord,

" It is very uneasy to me to meddle in
other men's matters, and especially in the affairs
of persons of your quality. But this that I now
take the confidence to write about, is such, that
neither the duty of my place, nor the honour I
have for your lordship, will suffer me to be
silent in it."

( Here follows the particular case.)

" I would gladly believe that the stories that
are told about this affair, are not true ; good my
Lord, be pleased to consider your own honour; to
consider the trust that is reposed in you as a patron,
to consider the honour of God and religion. All
which cannot but suffer by your permission of
ecclesiastical benefices to be thus prostituted.

LLFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 199

I have no design in the world in this represen-
tation I make to your lordship, but what I am
sure, if you knew my heart, you would not only
approve of, but thank me for, viz. the doing
some part of my duty to God, and paying all
the respects and service I am capable of to your
lordship.

" And therefore I will not doubt of your
goodness in putting a kind construction upon my
action.

" I heartily pray God to bless your lordship
and your noble family. I am, my Lord, with
great sincerity,
" Your lordship's most faithful humble servant,

" Jo. Ebor."

In another case, when a certain lady offered
him the nomination of the person whom she
should present to a living in her gift, in the dio-
cese of Chester, and he had given her ladyship
the choice or option of two men that he could
answer for, hearing something that led him into
suspicion that some dishonourable terms were de-
signed to be proposed to the clerk at his taking
the presentation, he took care in time to put in

this caution in a letter to her " But

Madam, I must beg leave to represent to you,

that if it be expected that the person that

is to be presented by your ladyship, should

200 LIFE OK ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

enter into any promise or engagement of any
kind relating to the rights and profits of the
parsonage, I must humbly desire to be excused
from recommending any one, though yet I will
answer for either of those persons I have named
that all that I shall propose to them as jit, or
equitable, or decent, shall be performed by them,
though without any promise.')

In a third case, he refused to give institution,
because he had reason to suspect that there was
a Simonical contract for the obtaining the pre-
sentation. But he withal declared, that if the
patron would give it under his hand that he had
made no sort of bargain or contract with the
clerk or his father ; or that, if any such was
made, he did release them from it, upon these
terms he would grant institution. When the
twenty-eight days from the tender of the pre-
sentation were expired, the clerk, attended by
a public notary, demanded institution, or rea-
sons why it was refused. They were given as
before, with a further exception against the pre-
sentation ; upon which the Archbishop was
served with an order to answer to a bill in
Chancery that was filed against him. To which
he caused his appearance to be made. But the
matter came not to an issue there, for the pa-
tron did soon after, under his own hand, declare
with great solemnity, that he had made no bar-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 201

gain or contract in the granting that presenta-
tion, and institution was given thereupon.

In point of residence, he was as strict with
his Clergy as the circumstances of their bene-
fices and reasons of their particular cases would
bear. And he had so great a dislike to plurali-
ties of livings (unless they were small and con-
tiguous), in which case there seemed some neces-
sity for them to be held in one hand, that he would
threaten, when he foresaw they were aimed at,
to oppose the dispensation as much as he could.
Neither would he, for the same reason, make
any titular chaplains, in order to qualify them
for holding more benefices than one.

To a gentleman that begged that favour of
him for a friend, he answered : — ■

" To speak the truth (says he), I should not
be easily prevailed upon to give certificates,
even to those that are really my chaplains, if the
design thereof be in order to their holding two
livings. You know how odious pluralities are
now grown, and how much the bishops in par-
ticular have been blamed upon that account,
with respect to their chaplains. So that I think it
concerns all of that order to be wonderfully
tender in that point. I must confess, I once,
upon great importunities, granted a qualification
to an old friend who had a great many children,
to hold two contiguous livings. But that is the

202

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

only time I broke my rule, and I would not wil-
lingly do it again."

If this seem too great a strictness and disre-
gard of the inferior clergy in refusing them fa-
vours, which the lay lords are willing to bestow
upon them as far as they have opportunity; let
it be remembered, that in all other respects,
where the rules and constitutions of the Church
(which he understood and kept to, according to
their true meaning and first intention) did not
confine him, he was an admirable friend to
them, and not only promised, but gave them all
the encouragement that he possibly could. And
especially to those who were constantly resident in
their ewes, and industrious in the busi?iess of their
profession. Such men as these always were enti-
tled to his protection, his counsel, and, if they
needed it, his purse also. Something should be
said in justice to him upon each of these arti-
cles of his kindness to his clergy.

They who behaved themselves diligently and
exemplarily in their calling, might depend upon
being supported by him against any opposition or
oppression that they met with, as far as either his
authority or his interest would go. If he heard
of their being ill-treated, or discouraged, or of
endeavours used to prejudice their people against
them, by disparaging them or their performances,
he would, after due enquiry into the truth of

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

203

the complaint, write himself to those who were
blameable in this respect, and represent to
them " how bad a thing it was to take such
methods of defeating the benefit of a minister's
labours, as being the most effectual course that
could be taken to render them insignificant. That
the honour of God and religion, and the good of
the people did demand of them, and he did beg
of them to do so no more. That, for his own
part, he was so well satisfied of his Clergy's
serious endeavours to do good, that, as far as
his authority went, he would stand by them and
vindicate them." He would apply himself also
to the principal gentlemen of any parish where he
thought the minister stood in need of their
countenance and encouragement, to shew him
their favour, and to give him their assistance in
the discharge of his duty. And to use their
interest in protecting him from all unjust or
unreasonable attacks upon his character, which
might make his ministry ineffectual. And if by
these means he could not procure that ease and
quiet to an industrious clergyman, that he
thought he deserved, he would endeavour to
make him amends by a removal (which should
likewise be an advancement), when a proper
opportunity offered.

The relief which he gave his Clergy out of
his pocket, when there was occasion, will more

204 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

properly fall under another head, in the latter
part of this work, than in this place ; but the
advantage which they reaped from his advice,
to which they had free recourse in all their diffi-
culties, is fittest to be mentioned here.

Whenever he was consulted about their parochial
concerns, he immediately answered their queries, and
clearly and positively determined them. In all his
letters of this kind, which are left, there is but
one in which he is something doubtful what to
resolve ; but even there he leaves no doubt or
difficulty upon the clergyman who consulted
him, by permitting, or rather advising him to
follow his own first determination. The case
not being very common, about the marriage of
a person with a quaker, according to the usage
of the Church, the letter itself will not be dis-
agreeable.

" November SO, 1700.

" Sir,

" The case which you propose hath some
difficulty in it, since our present canons say no-
thing about it. The old canons, indeed, are ex-
press against any person being married, who was
not first baptized. But then in those times mar-
riage was accounted a sacrament, and baptism
was janua sacramentorum. On the other side,
though marriage be no sacrament, but all men

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 205

and women have a natural right to it, yet whe-
ther any who are not initiated in Christianity,
ought to have the solemn benediction of the
Church ( as it is upon that account that the
Clergy have any thing to do with marriage), is
a thing fit to be considered. Add to this, that
there is something in the Church office which
supposeth that both the married persons are
baptized. For, according to the rubric, it is
" convenient that they receive the holy commu-
nion together at the first opportunity that pre-
sents itself." And therefore they must be in a
condition of receiving it, which unbaptized per-
sons are not.

" Pray ask yourself what you would do in
case a person excommunicated should desire you
to marry him. Methinks the case is much the
same.

" I do think, upon the whole, it is not advisa-
ble to depart from your first resolution, unless
the party will be first baptized, which I am not
against your doing as privately as may be.

" I am, Sir, &c.
" Jo. Ebor."

Another thing for which the Clergy might
certainly depend upon him, as often as they
stood in need of it, was the support and assist-
ance of his episcopal authority, in restraining

20G LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

licentiousness, preserving order and discipline,
and enforcing the ecclesiastical laws of the
realm. Such complaints as were made to him-
self, he took care himself to see redressed, if
they came within the cognizance of his courts ;
and would frequently confer with his officers
(and he was provided with an able set of men ),
about the fittest methods of executing the
powers the laws had invested them with. This
he seldom failed to do, in all those causes de-
pending in his courts where any of his Clergy
or the rights of their churches were concerned ;
or where the reformation of delinquents hy ecclesias-
tical censures was aimed at. And as he guarded
on the one hand against the neglects of inferior
officers, and was vigilant in seeing those powers
exerted which the laws had lodged with him ;
so he was very careful, on the other hand, not
to abuse them, by giving needless trouble and
distress, either to clergy or laity, when no other
end could be answered by it, than shewing his
power and authority over them. He rightly
distinguished discipline from persecution. And as
the latter is never allowable, so neither did he
think the former seasonable, but in such cases
where the mild and gentle methods of persua-
sion proved ineffectual. He wished the Clergy
to try, first all the softer means of reforming delin-
quents in their several parishes. And then, if

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 207

they stood further in need of the aid of their
ordinary, he was ready to afford them all the
assistance that the laws enabled him to give
them. One letter of this sort, wrote to a cler-
gyman in his diocese, will shew sufficiently his
temper and judgment in this matter.

" May 21, 1698.

" Sir,

" I have been informed that several of
your parishioners, even a considerable number
of them, are exceedingly negligent of the worship
of God on the Lord's day ; neither attending
prayers nor sermon, nor any other ordinances of
religion. I did think at first they might be dis-
senters against whom these complaints were
made ; who, though they did not appear at
church, yet served God in private meetings.
But I am told the matter is otherwise, and that
they do not serve God at all.

" If this be true, I am sorry for it, and I am
sure it concerns both you and me to do what
we can to have it amended. I beseech you,
therefore, Sir, that you will take some pains
with these people, that they may be brought to
some sense of their duty ; and do not content
yourself with general preaching against irreli-
gion and profaneness, and neglect of God's wor-
ship ; which they will be little better for, .since

208

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

they do not come to hear you: but be pleased
to go to them, and talk to them, man by man,
and try what you can do towards the awaken-
ing them out of their state of dozedness and insen-
sibility of their greatest concernments. Endea-
vour to convince them of the absolute necessity
there is of owning God and his religion, by join-
ing in the public worship on the Lord's day, and
receiving the holy sacrament at due times, if
they either would have God's blessing upon them
and their' labours, and their families in this world,
or would not perish everlastingly in the next.

" I would hope your good discourses and
persuasions will have effect upon them, and you
may gain several of them to a more lively sense
of religion than they have yet had. And I
must confess I like these gentle methods a great
deal better than force. But if, after all your
endeavours, there be any that are resolved to
continue heathens, and absolutely refuse coming
to Church, I must desire you to signify their
names to me, at least of the chief of them, that
other methods may be tried with them, such as
the law has provided for the reformation of
offenders of this nature.

" With my hearty wishes of the blessing of
God upon all your good endeavours, I rest,

" Your affectionate friend and brother,

" Jo. Ebor."

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 209

When delinquents were proceeded against
in his Court, he would use all kind endeavours
to have them brought to a due sense of their
fault, and a ready submission to the authority
and sentence of the ecclesiastical court, before
excommunication was denounced against them.
And he would not only put the Clergy upon
trying to convince them both of their sin, and
of the dangerous consequence of their being
cut off from communion with the Church, but he
would prevail with his officers to respite proceed-
ings till such trial was made. And his fatherly
concern and compassion for such offenders was
not confined within the limits of his diocese,
but was extended into other parts of his pro-
vince. An instance of which, (that will serve to
shew at once the greatness and extent of his
tenderness on such occasions,) we have, in a
letter that he wrote to the Commissary of Rich-
mond, in the diocese of Chester, concerning a
person under sentence of excommunication for
marrying his deceased wife's sister, and refusing
to obey the admonition of the ecclesiastical
judge, by separating from her.

" I know," says he, " Mr. Commissary, you
have done nothing in this affair, but what you
ought to do ; nor have the Bishop of Chester or
I any power to stop your proceedings, if we
had a mind to it, which I dare say neither of us

210 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

are inclined to ; for it is certain, this man and
his pretended wife must be separated. But yet
I could wish that all the tenderness might be
used towards this poor man, that the circum-
stances of the thing will admit of ; my meaning
is, that you would give him and his wife some
time to think of this fault of theirs, and to re-
ceive convictions of the unlawfulness or nullity
of this their marriage. And therefore, if they
be not already under the sentence of excommu-
nication, I could wish you would defer it till
another term ; or, if they be under that sentence
already, that you would order the curate not to
publish it till further orders ; or, if it be already
published, that you would not immediately take
out the writ de Excom. Capiendo, but give him time
till all the means have been made use of to per-
suade him and his sister to obey the law in this
matter. If you think this reasonable, then I
would further beg of you to send some one of the
clergymen about you, such an one as has reputa-
tion, and understands these matters, to discourse
both with the man and woman about the unlaw-
fulness of this marriage, and to dispose them,
by a representation of the sin they live in, to
do that voluntarily which must otherwise una-
voidably come upon them, to their greater hurt
and damage ; I mean, total separation. I think
all this would be charitable, and I hope it is

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 211

consistent with the ecclesiastical laws. And I
believe it will do you no injury, but tend to
your reputation/' &c.

"December 20, 1705."

Upon the receipt of this, the proceedings
were respited accordingly.

Again, when the sentence of excommunica-
tion was actually denounced and published
against another person, who afterwards, in a
fit of sickness, was penitent, and desired the
sacrament ; he empowered the minister of the
place to absolve him without the formal absolu-
tion under the court seal, by virtue of the fol-
lowing letter.

" Bishopthorp, April 22, 1704.

" I have received and perused your letter,
and am so well satisfied with the account you

give of Mr , his repentance, that I would

have you, or, if you think that word is too
little, I do empower you to give him the sacra-
ment, notwithstanding his excommunication ;
provided that, in the presence of some witness
or witnesses, he do particularly declare his sor-
row for that fact, for which he hath incurred
the censure of excommunication; and withal
do promise, that if it please God that he recover
of this sickness, he will give such satisfaction

p 2

212 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

to the Church as the ecclesiastical court shall
appoint. Upon these terms you may give him
the sacrament, and he may have Christian
burial. I pray you to certify me of what you
do in this matter. As for a formal absolution,
under the seal of the Court, I shall send that,
if there be need of it, when I have talked with
my chancellor, who at this time is from home.

I wish Mr happiness both in life and

death.

" I am, Sir, your affectionate friend,

" Jo. Ebor."

Commutations for penances were things which
he did not approve of in the general, and yet in
some few and particular cases he thought them
not only allowable, but expedient, viz. where
the interests of religion were as well served by
the commutation as by the personal penance ;
and where the application of it was made some
way to the benefit and service of that church
where the penance should have been performed,
and where the minister of such church was con-
senting and advising to it. For which reason,
he thought the Clergy themselves, who gene-
rally were the best judges of the expediency of
commutations, should be consulted on those
occasions. Here follows one of his letters to a
minister of his diocese upon this subject.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 213
"December 19, 1704.

" Sir,

" I understand there is one Mrs ,

of , presented in our court at York, for

having had a bastard child ; and, as I am told,
the sentence of excommunication is decreed
against her for that fact. So that she must
either speedily perform the penance enjoined
her, or commute for it, or else there will be a
signijicaoit. I was, I believe, applied to while I
was in Yorkshire, to grant a commutation of her
penance. But I would do nothing in it, nor
will I do now, without advising with you. You
know the state of the case best, and can best
resolve, whether the doing penance in person,
or by money to be applied to the use of religion
in your town, will be most serviceable to the
public good. If you like this latter way better,
viz. of commuting, then I would desire you to
send me word what sum you think (considering
the person's circumstances) may be insisted
upon for a commutation. And likewise to
what uses you would have it applied. For
I would have it entirely applied to the use of the
Church, and as notoriously as this her offence
to it hath been. If, on the other hand, you are
of opinion that this fault of her's ought not to
be commuted for, but that it is for the interest
of religion that she should do a personal

214 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

penance, I pray signify it to me. For I would in
all cases, as far as is in my power, make the
public good the rule of my actions. With my
hearty wishes of all good to you, I am,

" Your affectionate friend and servant,

" Jo. Ebor."

Indeed, Church discipline doth not deserve
that name whenever the public good is not made
the rule of exercising it. And it is either for want
of a steady adherence to this rule in those who
exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or through
an unhappy appearance of this rule being forgotten
in the manner of exercising it, that so many com-
plaints have been made against the spiritual
courts, and so many invidious reflections cast
upon them. He was very sensible, both of the
decay of discipline in general, and of the curbs
put upon any effectual prosecutions of it by the tem-
poral courts, and of the difficulty of preserving
and keeping up what little was left entire to the
ecclesiastics, without creating offence and admi-
nistering matter for aspersions and evil surmises.
So far as it was in his power, either to remedy
or obviate any complaints rof this kind in his
own diocese, he did it. He took care to put
his own courts upon such a footing as should
leave no room for exceptions against them, but
such as might be made against their just rights

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 215

and legal privileges, which it was neither in his
power to abridge them of, nor in his inclination
to do it in the least article. He made enquiries
of all his ecclesiastical officers, and of their
rules of practice in all the several branches of
their business ; putting interrogatories concern-
ing the orders and customs of the spiritual
courts to the several judges, advocates, proc-
tors, and acting registers in them ; and upon
their particular and distinct answers made, he
regulated the practice of the courts, and de-
clared and enjoined certain rules and orders to
be observed by all the rural deans and surro-
gates acting by any authority from the eccle-
siastical judges ; and he reformed, at the same
time, the table of fees in his consistory.

His " Articles of Enquiry," at the visitation of
these courts, being drawn up by himself, in
1699, (though the regulation was not completed
till 1705, and perhaps with good judgment,) are
inserted at length in the appendix*.

He endeavoured, as often as occasion was
given, to prevent or remove the restraints that
were put upon church discipline by the tempo-
ral courts, and to clear up those difficulties in
the exercise of it which were occasioned by the
statute laws, especially the act of toleration; of

* APp. I. No. V.

216 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

which instances will be given in a more proper
place; though one may not be improperly men-
tioned here, to shew his concern to maintain all
the force and effect that the laws had given to
ecclesiastical censures.

He had observed, that the benefit designed
by the legislature in the writ de excommunicato
capiendo was evaded or eluded, by the frequent
discharging of excommunicate persons out of
custody by writs of supersedeas from the Chan-
cery, grounded upon errors in the signijicavits
of the excommunication by the ecclesiastical
judges ; which errors, nevertheless, the said
judges did not know how to amend. And let
the cause be what it would, the easiness of ob-
taining these writs of supersedeas was so well
known by the practising attorneys in the country,
that they did generally encourage all sorts of
people to stand out in defiance of the Church
censures. He wrote to the Archbishop of Can-
terbury upon this head in pressing terms, beg-
ging his advice and assistance, as in a matter
that deeply affected the whole ecclesiastical
jurisdiction of which his grace, next to the
king (1698), was the chief patron. He sent
him a full account of the case, as it stood in
Yorkshire, and all that related to it, hoping that
if his grace would represent it fully to the Lord
Chancellor, his lordship would give such direc-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 217

tions in it as that his courts might go on to
enforce the ecclesiastical censures with the civil
penalties, without fear of being baffled in their
proceedings.

The great tenderness that he himself always
shewed to particular persons under the sentence
of excommunication, or liable to incur it (of
which some instances have been already given),
may acquit him, notwithstanding his zeal in
this matter, of all other views than that of the
public good ; which he apprehended must una-
voidably suffer by enervating discipline so much
in that only article, wherein, by the aid of the
temporal laws, it carries any terror in the eyes
of the lawless.

Schools likewise, and schoolmasters, who
were subject to his visitation, met with a due
share of his consideration and care. This ap-
peared as often as he undertook the examina-
tion and correction of such rules and orders
(or, as they are sometimes called, statutes), as
were drawn up by the feoffees, governors, or
other managers, of the trust and revenues of
schools endowed. He observed, that these rules
were commonly drawn too strict, and consisted
of too many, and some of them quite unneces-
sary particulars.

He thought the fewer and plainer they were,
they stood a better chance of being kept to,

218 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

and doing the service intended by them. Some
of his sentiments concerning the material points
to be attended to in the regulation of schools
are as follows, being extracted from his letters
wrote on the said occasions.

I. He observed, that little good ever came of
free grammar schools, where the endowment was
mean. If they turned to any account, it was
owing to a number of foreign scholars, who, not
being entitled to the privilege, paid well for
their learning. In all these foundations, there-
fore, the first thing to be looked at was the
provision of a sufficient encouragement for the
master, who ought to be a graduate in one of
our universities. And if the salary appointed
by the founder was not a competent and proper
subsistence for him, it ought to be a rule that
none should be received into the school, but
whose parents and friends should pay something
towards their teaching ; provided such an impo-
sition upon the inhabitants were consistent with
the letters patent, charter, deed of endowment,
or other act or instrument whatsoever, whereby
the school was founded. For his own part, he
did not see why this, generally speaking, might
not be so, but the lawyers being the best judges
of that, he left it to their determination.

II. Where it could be done, he judged three-
pence a week, or three shillings and six-pence

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 219

the quarter, was as little as ought to be paid.
Nor should more than that be paid by any that
are free of the school, when they came to learn
Greek. His reason was, because a greater price
would be a temptation to the master to put his
scholars into Greek before they were fit for it.
But some of the poorest people might be ex-
empted from this payment, and have their chil-
dren taught gratis, though not above such a
fixed number, and those put in from time to
time by the governors, &c.

III. It ought to be likewise a rule, that none
should be received into a free grammar school, but
such as could read English perfectly, and were
fit to go into their accidence. But, in case the
master were obliged by the charter or endow-
ment to receive scholars, to be taught reading,
that it were fitting that an imposition were laid
upon the inhabitants, if that could be legally
done, to contribute, as before-mentioned, to-
wards the master's better maintenance. The
reason is, because he must take as much, if not
more, pains, and spend more time upon these
readers, than upon those that learn grammar.

IV. He was of opinion, it were better the
school hours should be the same both in summer
and winter, than differently appointed. That
eight hours would sufficiently exercise both
teacher and learner ; that inconveniences follow

220

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

from beginning so early as six o'clock in the
morning (unless an hour be allowed between
six and eleven, for breakfast and relaxation),
and especially to those that live at a distance
from the school.

V. Morning and evening prayers in schools
he much approved of, provided the offices were
very short, viz. two or three collects out of the
Liturgy, with a short prayer in the morning for
God's blessing upon their endeavours (as that,
for instance, in the , beginning of the common
grammar). And, in the evening, the general
thanksgiving; each office to be concluded with
the Lord's prayer, and a blessing, viz. in the
morning, 2 Cor. xiii. 14 ; and in the evening,
Numb. vi. 24, as it is applied in the end of the
office of commination. If any thing more was
at any time proper to be done, it was using the
Litany and reading one select lesson out of the
New Testament (as the 5th, 6th, and 7th of St.
Matthew), to be chosen by the master, at the
close of the week, or Saturday noon, when the
master catechised.

VI. The swearing of masters to the observance
of particular rules and orders, he was absolutely
against ; this he judged would serve to no great
end, unless it were to raise scruples and per-
plexities every day in the mind !of the master,
if he were of a tender conscience. On the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 221

other hand, if he made little conscience of his
actions, he might break his oath very often.
Therefore, he would have the master's oath (if
any were to be administered) put into very
general terms, as that he would be faithful
and careful to and for the good of the said
school, in all things appertaining to his office
and charge, according to the trust reposed in
him.

These were the principal rules by which he
amended, as there was occasion, the orders or
statutes that were sent to him for his approba-
tion and confirmation. And in the choice and
appointment of schoolmasters, so far as he had
any concern, he was very inquisitive and wary,
knowing the qualifications for that business were I
sometimes mistaken, and interest and friendship
too often prevalent ; he thought that the capacity
of an useful schoolmaster lay more in his temper,
than in his parts, more in his taste, than in his
learning, and most of all in his virtue and sobriety.
That favour and friendships should always be
postponed to these material considerations.
The answer that he gave once to a person
that desired his recommendation to a school,
was in these frank words : — " It is not out of
any mean opinion of your abilities, that I am
averse to doing that which you desire of me.
So far from that, I really take you to be a per-

222 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

son of extraordinary wit and parts, and I believe
of very good learning, and I know you to be a
singular good preacher; but I cannot satisfy
myself that you will make a good schoolmaster,

especially at such a school as that at

If I am worthy to advise you, it should be the
last employment you should take. For this reason,
I have no mind to contribute any thing, either
directly or indirectly, to the carrying on that
project. I must also own ingenuously to you,
that I do make a little scruple of certifying for
your sobriety, because I have heard some stories
that are not to your advantage that way. I hope
they may be false ; but, however, they would
prevent at present my complying with your
request, though I had no other reasons for
declining to recommend you."

He was, indeed, upon all other occasions,
very delicate and conscientious in .the matter of
testimonials.

And now, to pass over all his other episcopal
acts of lesser moment, it may be time to give
some account of a more material instance of the
exercise of his authority, viz. in the visitation
and reformation of the collegiate church of South-
well. And the rather, because he has not been
a little censured since his death by some of the
vicars choral of that church, who have fancied
themselves injured and aggrieved, or prejudiced

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 223

in their legal rights, by the injunctions he gave
on that occasion.

To understand the ground of their complaints,
and the foundation and extent of the power he
used in making the regulations which he did,
some previous account ought to be given of the
old constitution of that church before its disso-
lution, and of the alterations made therein at
its refoundation by Henry VIII.

Saint Mary, the Virgin, of Southwell, is sup-
posed to have been founded by one of the first
Archbishops of York, who accordingly have
always been patrons of the church, as well as
the lords of the manor there. The ancient go-
vernment of it was by a certain number of canons
secular, who lived in common together, till they
were converted into prebendaries.

The number of these prebendaries, taking in
those of later foundation, were, at the time of
the dissolution, sixteen ; with their sixteen
vicars choral, and thirteen chantry priests. And
the whole revenue of the Church was divided
into five parts.

I. The commons, appropriated to so many of
the prebendaries, as were also residentiaries.

II. The corps appropriated to the prebendal
stalls.

III. Estates appropriated to the vicars choral,
of which they had the management ; they being a

224 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

corporation, and having their common seal. And
a college with a common hall, where they lived.

IV. The chantry lands appropriated to the
chantry priests (who had also a common house,
where they lived), besides the particular endow-
ments of the altars where they served.

V. " Our Lady's lands;" estates so called,
being appropriated to the fabric.

This was the old constitution. But, upon the
surrender of the Church and all its lands into
the hands, of King Henry VIII. he refounded
it, and made it one body corporate, by the name
of the " Chapter of Southwell"

So that all the vicar's lands and chantry lands
(which were yet in the Church) were laid in
common with the chapter's lands, and managed
by them. It is true, the chantry lands and rents
were afterwards seized by King Edward VI.
and disposed of otherwise ; but, in the reign of
Queen Mary, the chapter recovered them all by
law* ; forasmuch, as at the refoundation, all

* Some particular rents were not looked after as they ought
to have been at that time. One, for instance, of 20 marks per
annum, charged upon Battersea estate, by Archbishop Booth,
when he gave it to the see for maintaining two chantries, which
he founded in Southwell, was given by King Edward, at the
dissolution of chantries, to the school at Guildford, and never
was recovered to the Church: Archbishop Sharp was sensible,
that if every one had their right, the Chapter of Southwell

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

225

these chantry rents had been given or restored
to the chapter.

It is likewise true, that the vicars choral did
not thoroughly acquiesce in this new settlement
by Henry VIII., claiming some right to lease
the lands formerly appropriated to their college
in their own names, or at least to join with the
chapter in doing so, and of enjoying the vicarage
houses as their freehold. And as some clauses or
expressions in the act of foundation, which was
by act of Parliament in the 35th of Henry VIII.
did seem to favour their claims, this left room
for some dispute, more or less, between the
chapter and the vicars ; and that dispute occa-
sioned some variety of practice in letting of
leases of the old vicars' lands; till the act of
foundation was further explained, and the inten-
tion of it ascertained by the statutes of Queen
Elizabeth, whose authority to grant those sta-
tutes, and by them finally to decide any dis-
putes raised upon the wording or design of the
act aforesaid, being founded on a better bottom
than the bare royal prerogative will deserve in the
next place to be considered.

By an act, 31st Henry VIII., enabling the
king to make statutes for his new foundations,

ought to have this pension ; but found no means of getting it
restored to them, it having been so long appropriated to ano-
ther use.

226 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

it is declared, that what he shall ordain by
writing, under his great seal, shall be of as
good strength, force, value, and effect, to all
intents and purposes, as if it had been done by
authority of Parliament.

But, as the statutes which were prepared in
pursuance of these powers, ivere not executed and
delivered in due form, and thought invalid through
that error and defect, the same powers were
renewed and given to Queen Mary (1st Mariae,
c. 9.), that she might make good the deficiency ;
but, she making no further use of these powers,
than by setting forth the statutes of Durham
church, the same were a second time renewed
and given to Queen Elizabeth, in the first year
also of her reign. How it happened, that she
did so little towards establishing and rendering
effectual the king's statutes, or else providing
new ones in their room, is not material to en-
quire here ; (some account of it will be found
in Bishop Gibson's Codex, p. 206, and Strype's
Life of Parker, p. 342.) It is enough to the pre-
sent purpose, that she did, in pursuance and by
virtue of these powers, granted her by Parlia-
ment, give commission to Archbishop Sandys,
with other ecclesiastical commissioners for the
diocese of York, to draw up statutes for South-
well, which she gave in the twenty-seventh year
of her reign, under the broad seal, and in due

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

227

form, referring, for her authority, to the afore-
said act in the first year of her reign ; juxta
quendam Actum Parliamenti anno nostri regni
primo.

Now, by these statutes, all the lands and
possessions belonging to the Church were vested
in the chapter, and leases were to be granted
only by a certain number of 'prebendaries. The
number of vicars choral was reduced from sixteen
to six, and the ancient pensions payable by the
prebendaries, quasi vicarii ante hac vel habuerunt
vel vindicaverunt , were restored to the vicars,
yet not so fully,, but that the Archbishop of
York for the time being might diminish them
at discretion. By these statutes, likewise, the
vicars'1 houses in their college were allotted to
them at the sole discretion of the archbishops* ;
or they were permitted to enjoy them only so
long as the Archbishop did not appropriate
them to other uses.

To these statutes, as decisive in all the points
that had been before disputed, submission was
paid, and the Church was afterwards wholly
governed by them, at least in all matters per-
taining to the right and property of the several

* Habeant vero dicti vicarii sibi cantoribus et choristis do-
mos ad eosdem vicarios retroactis temporibus pertinentes nisi
dictus Avchiepiscopus quern visitatorem ecclesiae constituimus
aliter ordinaverit. Stat. Eccl. Southwell, c. 2. De Vicariis, &c.

« 2

228

LIFE OF ARCHBLSHOP SHARP.

members. But, as to the matters of discipline,
the same care was not taken. And especially
from the time of the great rebellion, a visible
desuetude or neglect appeared of that order
and regularity and decent observances which
the statutes directed ; though, at the same time,
there were several worthy men members of that
body, who wanted not inclination to have set
every thing on its right bottom. How it came
to pass that nothing was done, is of no conse-
quence to enquire now. In this declining and
disorderly state, Archbishop Sharp found this
church when he came to the see ; and to apply
some remedy was one of the first things he took
in hand upon his coming down into his diocese.
In the spring of 1693, (May 8,) he came to
Southwell, staying there three nights, and vi-
sited the chapter in form ; and, in pursuance of
that visitation, gave injunctions, as empowered
by the statutes, concerning residence, prebendal
houses, college of vicars choral, registry and
grammar school, &c. By which the whole body
was put under as good a regulation, as most
ecclesiastical bodies in this kingdom. And al-
though application was made to his successor,
Archbishop Dawes, for a relaxation of some
particulars relating to the vicarage-houses, and
a petition lodged with Archbishop Blackbourn
for a redress of what some of the vicars looked

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 229

upon as grievances or illegal restraints upon
them, yet both these prelates have esteemed
his regulations so proper, and his injunctions
so wise, as to offer at no amendments or altera-
tions in them. Nor will the service he did
that church be easily forgot, so long as his
injunctions remain upon the register of the
chapter.

As to the suggestions of those vicars who
complained that he had exceeded the limits of
his power, they are groundless, because he as-
sumed and exercised none but what were ex-
pressly invested in him by the statutes. And
the infringement upon their ancient rights and
privileges, if ever there were any made, was
made by Archbishop Sandys, in giving his suc-
cessors the liberty, by statute, of taking what
order they pleased during their own lives, con-
cerning the pensions and houses of the vicars.
Nor is it easy to account how Archbishop Sandys
should have taken this authority upon himself,
otherwise than that he knew himself to be
sufficiently warranted in what he did by Queen
Elizabeth's commission to him, authorized by
Parliament ; and which was granted to him
with more ample powers than had been ever
exercised before (except in the church of Dur-
ham by Queen Mary's commissioners, who had
the same parliamentary sanction to their acts),

230

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

in making and giving statutes to the cathedral
and collegiate churches.

Thus much seemed necessary to say to vindi-
cate him from some aspersions on this account,
and from the charge of oppression or arbitrary
doings, which the vicars, by carrying their com-
plaints of late years into Westminster Hall, seemed
to throw upon him ; though it was some justifi-
cation of him, that they could not obtain any
hearing of their complaint there, but were re-
mitted to their proper and local visitor, who
hath not hitherto made any alteration, upon their
remonstrance, in the forementioned injunctions
given by Archbishop Sharp.

He was, in other respects, no ordinary bene-
factor to this church, as will appear from the
two following singular instances.

I. King Edward VI. had settled a pension in
perpetuum, for the support of a divinity lecturer,
or afternoon preacher at Southwell ; which pen-
sion had been regularly paid till the year 1641,
but from thenceforward had been dropped. It
is commonly thought difficult enough to obtain
the revival of such a grant as this (after so many
years intermission of payment), and the esta-
blishment of it for the future ; how much more
so to recover arrears ? Yet he had a scheme
that he thought would bear, and having asked
as yet no favour of the crown (this was in 1692),

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 231

he conceived hopes of succeeding in it. He
drew up a petition, in the name of the chapter,
setting forth the settlement of ten pounds per
annum by Edward VI. for the maintenance of a
reader in divinity, in that large parish, with the
reasons of it ; and that the said pension had not
been paid for fifty years, so that they humbly
conceived there was an arrear of five hundred
pounds due to them from the Crown on that
account. Therefore, they most humbly re-
quested of his Majesty, King William, to grant
them an order for such a number of trees in his
forest of Sherwood, not fit for the naval stores,
as should amount to the value of five hundred
pounds, out of which fund they might make a
perpetual provision for a divinity lecturer, &c.

The answer he received to this was as fol-
lows.

" Whitehall, Dec. 29, 1692.

" My Lord,

"I am to acquaint your Grace, from
my Lord Godolphin, that the King is unwilling
to grant the timber you desired for the church
of Southwell, but his Majesty chooses rather
to give the money. And thereupon I am to
desire of your Grace the times and proportions
by which the payments of the sum proposed
will answer the end intended. And in this

232 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

your Grace will please to make it as easy to the
King as the case will bear. For so the grant
will, in all probability, be the more speedy and
effectual, &c.

m Nottingham."

It was afterwards concluded, that this pay-
ment should be made out of the tenths of the
diocese of Lincoln; which it accordingly was
in four years time. And with this sum a stipend
was established for a theological lecture, according
to the first institution.

II. When a great part of Southwell church
was destroyed by fire occasioned by lightning
in the year 1711, the repairing of which damage
cost near three thousand pounds, he, by his
own bounty and interest, raised almost the third
part of that sum. He gave himself two hundred
pounds. He procured a grant of license to cut
down wood in the Queen's forest of Sherwood,
from the Duke of Leeds, to the value of two hun-
dred pounds ; and from the Duchess of Newcas-
tle, five hundred pounds, which last benefaction
was obtained of her Grace by the following
letter, which he wrote to her on that occasion.

" May it please your Grace,

" I am sensible it is a very unusual
confidence in one who has not the honour so

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

233

much as to be known to your Grace, to pre-
sume to write to you about such an affair as I
now do. But the post I am in, and the urgency
of the occasion, together with the honourable
thoughts I have of your Grace's goodness, will,
I trust, so far apologize for me, as that I shall
at least obtain your pardon for my boldness, if
not (which I humbly hope) your gracious an-
swer to my petition.

" Your Grace, no doubt, has heard of the
dismal accident that lately happened at South-
well, in Nottinghamshire, where the greatest
part of the collegiate church was burnt by
lightning.

" Sure no Christian that has any concern for
the honour of God, or his worship, can think
that so ancient and useful a church ought to lie
in ruins, but that all imaginable care should be
taken for the restoring of it. This all the coun-
try, as well as we of the clergy, are desirous of.

" But there is no other way to repair these
ruins, but by the charitable contributions of
well-disposed persons, especially of those who
have concerns in the county where this church
stands.

" Now, it being the honour of Nottingham-
shire, that your Grace has a near relation to
them, they do presume that your Grace's good-
ness is such, that you will not be backward in

234

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP,

contributing to the rebuilding of Southwell
church ; and, at their desire, I have undertaken
to lay this matter before you, and humbly to
beg your assistance.

" Indeed, madam, your encouragement of
this good work, as it will be highly acceptable
to the country, and much tend to your honour,
so I doubt not but it will be very pleasing to
God, and prove a means of obtaining his farther
blessings upon yourself and all your concerns.

" Madam, I heartily wish your Grace all hap-
piness, both in this world and the other, and
am, with the greatest respect,

" Your Grace's most faithful,

" And most humble Servant,

" Jo. Ebor."

" Bishopthorp, January 8, 1712."

When he came to London, which he did the
latter end of the same month, the duchess sent
her chaplain to him to know what he thought it
was proper for her to give. But decency and
his modesty would not suffer him to prescribe
to her charity. So she herself determined upon
the aforementioned sum ; though she was dis-
posed even to a larger benefaction, if he could
have asked it of her, as Dr. Brailsford, the late
Dean of Wells, who knew her mind on that
occasion, was wont to declare.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 235

Thus much being said of his visitation and
reformation of the collegiate church of South-
well, and other services performed by him to
its great advantage ; it may not be improper to
conclude this part of the work with an account
of the most memorable of his acts as an archbishop
or metropolitan. And that was his interposition
and mediation of the differences between Dr.
William Nicholson, the Bishop, and Dr. Francis
Atterbury, the Dean of Carlisle ; and the rather,
because in this account, which shall be no fur-
ther laid open than is necessary to shew what
share he bore in accommodating matters be-
tween them, his own sentiments about the king's
ecclesiastical supremacy, which was the sole ground
of their dispute, will more fully appear.

In the year 1704, when Dr. Atterbury was
nominated by the Queen to the deanery of Car-
lisle, a scruple arose in the breast of the bishop
about the regularity of admitting him into that
preferment. For, in his lordship's judgment,
the doctor had, by some of his assertions which
were published concerning the regal supremacy,
incurred the censure of the second canon. The
natural inference from which was, that without
a retraction of those positions, at least before
the bishop and his chapter, institution could
not be canonically given him by them. How-
ever, his lordship, foreseeing the difficulties

236 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

that might be created upon this dispute with
the doctor, when he should come down with
the royal mandate, was so prudent as to apprise
the Archbishop very early with his difficulty,
and with his resolutions thereupon, viz. not to
give institution ; but withal expressing himself
willing that the whole thing should be referred
to him as metropolitan, first begging his private
opinion and advice in the case, which he desired
his Grace to signify either to himself or to Dr.
Atterbury, which alone might possibly settle the
controversy between them; but, if that could
not be done, the dernier resort should be to his
Grace's sentence ; who should be final judge of all
controversies between them. And thus the pre-
sent matter in dispute would be brought to a
legal and authoritative decision.

To this the Archbishop answered as follows.

« August 28, 1704.

" My Lord,

" I have perused your last, and I
have likewise several times read over those three
or four pages you refer to in Dr. Atterbury's
book. I must confess to you, whether it be my
own dulness, or that I am naturally inclined to
put a favourable construction upon an author's
expressions, till I be warned that there is some
ill meaning in them, that I might have read

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 237

those passages forty times over, and never have
found out that the author of them, by any thing
there said, was involved in the censure de-
nounced in the second canon against those that
deny the king's supremacy ; for I should have
reckoned, that the second canon was only a
clinching of the first, by adding an ecclesias-
tical censure against those that set up a foreign
jurisdiction, to the prejudice of the rights of the
imperial crown of this realm (which Dr. Atter-
bury, I dare say, never thought of), as is set
forth by that first canon.

" I must confess further to you, that now
that I see your objections against Dr. Atter-
bury's doctrine, I can see nothing that he hath
asserted but what is capable of a fair construc-
tion. And though he may not have expressed
himself so accurately as he might have done
(and perhaps would have done, if he had had
no other thing in his view but the king's supre-
macy, as it is taught in the first and second
canon) ; yet even in this point he hath been
guilty of no other slips but such as a candid
reader would be inclined to pass by, without
much censure, in most of the authors he reads,
especially where they treat of a thing kv irapepyu.

" As for those consequences which your lord-
ship insists upon as flowing from Dr. Atter-
bury's principles, I must in this also beg your

238

LIKE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

lordship's pardon, if I do not see how they can
be charged upon any thing he hath said, unless
with a little straining.

" Doth he any where make such a distinction
between the king's personal and politic capa-
city, as was made use of in the late times?
Doth he any where say, that the three estates
have a co-ordinate power with the king, or that
they can do any thing without him ? Doth he
any where deny, that the king, whether in or
out of Parliament, is ' supreme governor in all
causes, and over all persons, as well ecclesias-
tical as civil V Doth he any where affirm, that
any of the estates, or any of the king's minis-
ters, are invested with original jurisdiction, as
your lordship expresses it ? Nay, lastly, does
he assert any thing in any of these four pages
from which any of these assertions can necessa-
rily be inferred ?

" Well, but he saith that the king and the
three estates have more power in Church mat-
ters, than the king alone. And is not this true?
No, saith your lordship, the king alone hath all
Church powers ; but, in some cases, he cannot
exercise it without the three estates. Perhaps your
lordship's way of expression is something better,
and I fancy Dr. Atterbury would not scruple to
express himself so, if there were occasion. But
nevertheless, his expression is true enough, as

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 239

we ordinarily speak ; for a man has no right
further than he can lawfully exercise it.

" But Dr. Atterbury distinguishes between
the absolute sovereign and the limited sovereign,
making the absolute sovereignty to be lodged in
the king, in conjunction with the three estates.
I must own, that I do not see any great harm
in this neither ; nay, though he should have
said that the three estates are sharers with the
king in the absolute sovereignty ; for hath it not
been said an hundred times without offence,
that the Lords and Commons have a share in
the Legislature? And if so, they have a share
in the absolute sovereignty ; and then the king
is not the absolute sovereign without them.
And doth not the very style of the enacting
clause, in every act of Parliament, imply such a
thing ? ' Be it enacted, by the King's most
excellent Majesty, with the advice and consent
of the Lords, &c. and by the authority of the
same,'' &c. So that they are not mere advisers,
but have authority in the making of laws. It is
true, their authority signifies nothing without
the king's fiat. And, besides, what authority
they have may be derived from the king entirely,
for any thing that Dr. Atterbury insinuates to
the contrary.

" In short, my opinion is, that so long as
Dr. Atterbury doth not set up any foreign

240

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

usurped jurisdiction over this realm, nor doth
deny that the King or Queen of England is the
fountain of all lawful power that is exercised in
the same, as to my thinking, he doth neither of
these things, he cannot be called to account
for denying the king's supremacy, however he
and your lordship may differ in the expressions
about the exercise of this power.

" Your lordship, I dare say, will pardon me
for speaking my mind so freely in this business,
and will likewise excuse me for the little regard
I have had either to my choice of words, or
method in what I have said. I have wrote just
as things offered themselves. Indeed, neither
my time nor my head will allow me to do more.
And, which is worst of all, I doubt I am not
so competent a master in this sort of knowledge
as to be fit to offer any thing upon this argu-
ment to your lordship, or, if I do, to presume
it will give you any satisfaction. But the hints
I have given may tempt you to think more of
this matter.

" Indeed, I do heartily wish that your lord-
ship could so satisfy yourself as to these objec-
tions you have raised, as that, without further
expostulating the matter with Dr. Atterbury,
you might give him institution when he comes
down. Or, if that cannot be done, 1 could
wish, that for the pulling this thorn out of your

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 241

foot, I at this time had your authority to give
him institution before he reaches Carlisle. But
yet I know not how that would look, sure I am
it will be of very ill consequence, should you
refuse him institution upon this pretence of the
canon. What you do, I verily believe, out of
conscience, the most will look upon as the
effect of an old grudge ; and, which is worst,
I dare say you will find yourself at last to be
in the wrong.

" I am, with all sincere respect,

" And hearty good wishes, &c.

"Jo. Ebor."

His lordship, upon the receipt of this, re-
turned answer, August 31, " That being fully
persuaded of his duty in this matter, he did not
weigh consequences. That he was desirous
enough to live in a friendly manner with the
dean of his cathedral, and to avoid the scandal
that a new breach betwixt them must occasion,
but that he could not institute him unless he
first subscribed the following paper, which was as
favourably drawn up as he could contrive it.

" I. The Queen of England, out of Parlia-
ment, hath not the same authority in causes
ecclesiastical, that the Christian emperors had
in the primitive Church.

" II. The Church of England is under two

242

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

sovereigns, the one absolute and the other li-
mited.

"III. The supreme ecclesiastical jurisdiction,
annexed to the imperial crown of this realm,
can be exerted no otherwise than in Parliament.

" These three propositions separating her
Majesty's authority from her person, and im-
peaching her royal supremacy, are erroneous,
and contrary to the received doctrine of the
Church of England, as well as the known laws
of the realm ; and therefore (so far as they or
any of them are deducible from any thing that
I have heretofore asserted and published), I do
hereby openly and freely revoke and renounce
the same.

" For," says his lordship, in his letter to the
Archbishop, " if the first of these propositions
be true, the Queen is not supreme head of the
Church in her personal capacity; since the
having the same authority is the very definition
which both the second canon and the 37th
article gives of her supremacy. If the second
be true, the unicus gubernator suprenius in the
first article, to be subscribed before institution,
is nonsense. And if the last be law, an appeal
to the Queen's delegates (at least a commission of

review afterwards), is very illegal Upon

the whole, my Lord, if Mr. Dean consents not
to this proposal, and your Grace thinks that he

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 243

may be honestly instituted without any such
revocation, I humbly desire you will be pleased
to admit him, and send your metropolitical man-
date to the chapter for his instalment."

And this the Archbishop was very much in-
clined to do, knowing that Dr. Atterbury would
never submit to have new terms imposed upon him,
which the law did not require him to comply with ;
nor did he think the bishop had reason to insist
upon them ; and therefore would have made no
scruple himself of giving the doctor institution
at York. But he considered that the significa-
tion of the bishop's consent by letter, was not
sufficient to empower him to perform this act ;
for that there ought to be an instrument of re-
mission under the episcopal seal, by which the
bishop should refer the whole affair to his me-
tropolitan, and thereby give him authority to
institute at York, and issue out his metropoli-
tical mandate for such Allation by the chapter of
Carlisle. On the other hand, when the bishop
consented, in compliance with the Archbishop's
own proposal, that the doctor should be insti-
tuted at York, he meant no more than that his
Grace should determine this matter originally,
and at the first instance, which otherwise was
too likely to be brought before him by way of
appeal. And this he apprehended a metropolitan
might do, consentiente ordinario.

r 2

244

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

There was another method proposed, viz.
that my lord of Carlisle should grant a com-
mission under his episcopal seal to such persons
as he thought proper to give institution at
York ; which was the method Archbishop San-
croft took*, when he made a scruple of conse-
crating Bishop Burnet, &c. ; that is, he granted
a commission to some other bishops to do it for
him. But to this my lord answered, " That
it was first necessary that a tender should be
made to him of her Majesty's presentation, be-
fore any such commission could be regularly
issued out. And besides, he thought it would
look too much like shuffling to grant a commission
to others, to do an act for him, and by his authority,
which he could not in conscience do personally . And
besides, he hoped that when the doctor brought
his credentials, all their differences might be
compromised between themselves. And more-
over, he declared that he should not perempto-
rily insist upon the doctor's revocation of the

* Archbishop Sancroft's commission was to four bishops,
London, Asaph, Winchester, and Llandaff. By virtue whereof,
together with King William and Queen Mary's letters commis-
sional, they being assisted by the Bishops of Lincoln and Car-
lisle, consecrated Dr. Burnet to Salisbury, in the chapel at
Fulham, March 31, 1689 ; and afterwards other bishops were
consecrated, and other episcopal acts done by virtue of the
said commission.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 245

three propositions, if he could either convince
him that they were not deducible from what he
had published, or that they were reconcileable
to the laws of the Church and State.

As soon as he had received this advice from
the bishop, he dismissed the doctor on his jour-
ney to Carlisle ; and immediately after wrote
this friendly letter to his lordship.

" September 11, 1704.

" My Lord,

" I had your's on Saturday. Dr. At-
terbury is set out this morning for Carlisle, in
order to wait upon you with his patent. I
could wish, that upon his tendering of it, your
lordship would either think fit to give him insti-
tution yourself, or delegate your authority to
me by way of remission, if your lordship and he
judge that a proper method. But if neither of
these can be done, then I have this to beg of
you, that you would at the first give him your
positive denial, and not insist upon the twenty-eight
days, which the canon gives you to deliberate
about the matter ; that so he may, without
more loss of time, make his appeal. This I can-
not but think reasonable, considering here is no
dispute about the right of patronage ; and you
likewise know your own mind at the time he
tenders you his patent what you mean to do,

246 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

as well as you will know at the end of twenty-eight
days ; so that all delay will look like pure un-
kindness.

" I will not now meddle with the matter in
difference between you, you have had my
thoughts about it, and I have had your's. But
I must confess I am still of the opinion I was,
viz. that Dr. Atterbury, in the 213th, 14th,
15th and 16th pages has asserted nothing dero-
gatory to the Queen's supremacy, as in our con-
stitution, and by our laws it must be understood.

" I find the Bishop of Sarum is perfectly of
his mind. And so he has owned himself in that
very book which he writ against Dr. Atterbury.
I must confess I am entirely in the sentiments
of that bishop, when he declares thus. \ I
always thought that the king was no other
way head of the Church, than as he was the
head of the State, with whom the executive
power is lodged. And who is the head of the
legislative, in conjunction with the great body of
his Parliament.'

f* And this is exactly the doctor's doctrine.

" But I have forgot what I just now said,
that I would not enter into the merits. But
now that I have broke my word, give me leave
to say a little more.

" Of the three propositions which you would
have the doctor to renounce, the first I take to

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 247

be undoubtedly true. The second is not his,
but, with a little alteration, may be made his,
viz. if it run thus. The Church of England is
under a sovereign, who, with his Parliament, is
absolute, but without it is limited. And this I
take to be likewise undoubtedly true. The
third proposition seems to be foreign to the
present business, nor do I see how the doctor
is concerned in it. Yet I take it to be as true
as the other two, if the legislative be the su-
preme jurisdiction, as when one makes degrees
of comparison in jurisdiction, it must be ac-
knowledged to be.

" Good my Lord, forgive my zeal in this
business. I profess I have no ends to serve,
but those of peace, and to prevent, if I can,
a rupture; which I am afraid will be preju-
dicial to yourself ; and not only so, but if it
be not stifled in the beginning, may be the oc-
casion of a new quarrel in this Church, of which
we have too many already amongst us.

** I pray God direct you, and assure yourself
of me that I am always

" Your true friend, and brother,
" And servant,

" Jo. Ebor."

He had no occasion to mediate any further in
this affair ; for, upon the doctor's refusing to

248 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

subscribe the revocation, as being unprecedented,
and, upon the bishop refusing thereupon to give
him institution, both sent up their accounts of
the matter, and their own reasons for what they
did, to the Secretaries of State, the Bishop to
Secretary Hodges, the doctor to Secretary Har-
ley; by whom the affair was laid before the
Queen. And her Majesty was pleased finally to
determine it by the actual exercise of her supre-
macy • but withal ordered one of her secretaries
to acquaint the Archbishop that she was pleased
with all the steps that he had before taken in
that matter.

There was another accidental difficulty arose
in this business, and threatened more disputes
with the dean from the bishop and chapter, had
not the Archbishop given a seasonable solution
to it. It seems, after Dr. Atterbury's patent
had passed the seals, the Lord Keeper started a
doubt about the legality of a clause in it which
expressed the deanery of Carlisle to be vacant
per translationem of Dr. Grahme to the deanery
of Wells ; whereas his lordship observed, that a
translation to a second deanery did not make
the first void, without a resignation, two dean-
ries being no more incompatible than two arch-
deaconries.

Dr. Atterbury, upon this, consulted prece-
dents in the signet-office, and found that the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 249

Crown grants had usually ran so in the like
circumstances. As particularly when Dr. Sharp
succeeded Dr. Tillotson, who was removed from
the deanery of Canterbury to the deanery of
St. Paul's, and Dr. Fairfax succeeded Dr. Sharp
at Norwich. And believing, that if it was a
blot, it had never been hit since the Reformation
but in the present instance, and that the con-
sequences it might draw after it in relation to
leases signed by deans made by patents so
worded, would demand the most favourable
construction to be put upon it, he made no
great scruple of it himself, and was accordingly
instituted and inducted upon his first patent.

But afterwards taking further advice upon
this point, and apprehending his bishop and the
chapter of Carlisle might take all advantages
against him, he obtained a resignation in form
from Dr. Grahme, and had his patent passed
the great seal a second time by warrant from
the Queen, after the date was so adjusted, that
the resignation might precede the grant, and the
grant precede the institution.

However the bishop and the chapter, when
they understood the exception that had been
made to the first patent, on which he had been
admitted dean, were inclinable to dispute the
validity of his possession ; and the bishop wrote
their doubts about it to the Archbishop, who

250 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

answered, that what thoughts soever they might
have of disputing that point with the dean, yet,
if they would give him leave to speak his own
thoughts of the matter, he believed, if they did,

they would be in the wrong " For,"

says he, "let the patent upon which he was in-
stituted have been never so faulty, yet he having
been instituted and inducted upon it, he is, to
all intents and purposes, the legal Dean of Car-
lisle, till he be legally ejected, and another put
in by a new grant from the Crown ; so that he
could not tell what need the dean had to get his
patent new dated, unless it were to prevent the
granting a new patent to any other person, while
he kept the deanery, which is the only thing
that by this means he hath effectually done."

From these letters just now recited, wherein
he declares himself upon the nature of the king's
supremacy, according to the English constitu-
tion (which indeed was the chief reason why
any account was given of this affair at Carlisle),
a transition is very natural to his political princi-
ples and sentiments. Which, together with his
more public transactions in the affairs of State
and common interests of the Church, shall be
considered separately and distinctly in the third
part of the work.

PART III.

CONTAINING HIS MORE PUBLIC TRANSACTIONS
IN CHURCH AND STATE.

Hitherto Dr. Sharp has been considered
purely in his ecclesiastical or episcopal capacity ;
and it would be judged a great omission, if a
summary account were not likewise given of
his behaviour at Court and in Parliament, during
so many years attendance on both; especially
since the zeal of contending parties hath been
apt to disguise men's real characters, and either
give them credit and esteem, or bring them
under slanders and evil surmises, according as
their conduct seemed to favour the respective
principles and interests of this or that side.
His situation was something singular, at least
for many years in which he served the late
queen ; he had constant and free access to her
person, and was presumed to have no small
share of her confidence and favour during her
whole administration, under the conduct of dif-
ferent sets of ministers, of different attachments,
excepting the last year of her reign, in which
he was rendered incapable, through indisposi-

252 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

tion, of attending her*. And being considered
in this point of view, as it was impossible for
him to escape the remarks of a world divided
in its sentiments of the public interests, so he
would necessarily incur as much censure on the
one hand, as he gave satisfaction on the other. Yet
so guarded and moderate was his conduct on
the whole, and such was the good opinion that
men generally conceived of him, that his public
character was as little struck at, and himself as
universally esteemed, as could be expected in
those circumstances, and in an age when the ani-
mosities of party ran so high, and spared so few.

Bishop Burnet, in his history of those times,
speaking of the promotion of Dr. Tillotson and
Dr. Sharp at the same juncture, to the two
archiepiscopal sees, having acknowledged their
talents as divines, distinguishes upon their civil
characters in this manner, only Shaty did not
hwio the world so well, nor was he so steady as
Tillotson was.

As his lordship neither gives any further
explanation of this remark, nor produces any
instances throughout his whole history to sup-
port it, we are left at some uncertainty what
construction to put upon it, seeing it is capable
of a more or less favourable sense, as the reader

* He took his last leave of the Queen May 10, 1713,anddied
the February following. Queen Anne died August 1, 1714.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

253

shall be disposed to interpret it. If it be meant
that he did not understand mankind well
enough to (prevent their deluding him, or that
either through the weakness of his judgment,
or easiness of his temper, he was liable to be
practised upon; whatever reasons the bishop
might have to induce him to take up this opi-
nion, yet they who knew the Archbishop per-
fectly, will be apt to judge that the historian
knew him not ; and that how skilful soever he
might be in drawing characters, he missed the
point in this particular instance.

But if his lordship only meant (and consider-
ing his style, it is the most natural to think he
meant no more,) that Dr. Sharp was not tho-
roughly versed in the policies of the court, nor abso-
lutely attached to a party, there is great justice
and truth in the remark. And though it might
perhaps, in the learned historian's view of things,
even under this light, derogate from his character,
so far at least as he is represented upon the
comparison inferior to Archbishop Tillotson in
those respects, yet all people have not the same
ways of thinking. It will serve rather to in-
crease than lessen his reputation with others,
who are Hkewise capable judges both of men
and things; and discerning enough in this case
to see what was the most becoming his function
and station.

254

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Without entering into any part of Dr. Tillot-
son's character, whose memory is generally and
most deservedly esteemed, let the just part be
done to Dr. Sharp's, concerning the distinction
made between them.

He was, as is confessed on all hands, a -plain-
dealing man ; one who neither disguised his sen-
timents on any occasion, nor feared at any time
to take the liberty of following his own judg-
ment. He was so great a stranger himself to
wile and dissimulation, that he might be rather too
slotv in discerning it, and too backward in suspect-
ing it in others ; for which reason he was not
perhaps so skilful as some others are in pene-
trating into the intention of an intricate con-
duct, or shrewd in discovering men's designs at
a distance, not for want of good natural dis-
cernment, but for want of that acquired saga-
city which is only to be attained by long obser-
vation and study on the dark and shadowed, the con-
cealed and disagreeable side of human nature. He
studied mankind more as a divine than as a
statesman, and had a much clearer and quicker
apprehension of what men ought to be, than what
they really were, or might prove. If he some-
times judged wrong of particular persons, it
was owing to a generous motive (which was the
effect of the natural openness and honesty of
his own heart), that he cared not to be jealous

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 255

and mistrustful of those with whom he con-
versed. This would indeed have been a disad-
vantage to him in an intriguing world, had he
not withal been master of so much prudence
as to prevent his taking too much upon trust, and
to secure him from being injured by any abuses
of his goodness; and helped by intriguing, he
would have disdained to be.

How far therefore he was a politician or cour-
tier, is not so easy to say, as it is that he did
not affect the character of being so in any sense,
nor aim at any reputation of skill in things that
were out of his profession. Whatever he might
know of the world, yet he was never forward to tell
the world all that he knew of it ; which is too much
the temper of some who value themselves upon
such knowledge. He was not given to talk
much of state affairs, or deliver his judgment
upon them, nor indeed did he seem to meddle
with them farther than he was bound in dis-
charge of the duty he owed to the crown and
his country.

The affairs of the Church of England were the
things that lay at his heart. In these he interested
himself deeply and zealously. He looked upon
himself in that post which no intriguing had
obtained to him, but Providence had allotted him
to be one of her chief pillars, and was resolved
to support her with all his might. And the

25G

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

plainer man he was in himself, the less he re-
garded the world, and the less tincture he took
from the court in which he conversed, the better
was he fitted for this service. He gained more
credit and interest to himself and the cause in
which he was engaged by his native air of pro-
bity and openness in his whole conduct, than
he could have done, had he studied and prac-
tised the arts and refinements of the subtilest
politicians, or admitted the least mixture of
chicane into his address.

But as all men, at least all who are worthy of
the public notice, are commonly reputed and
voted by the world to be either of this or that
party, so was he, how much soever he disliked
those mischievous distinctions that kept up the
animosities and jealousies of a divided people.
They who were called the Tories, or the High
Church party, claimed him as theirs ; for he was
observed more generally to approve and favour
their principles, and to go more along with
them, than those of the other side. But what-
ever he might be reputed by the world, yet this
may be as truly said of him as of any man who
was his contemporary, that he was a fast friend
to the Constitution both in Church and State.
In this he was " steady*;' and did both heartily

* Allusive to Bishop Burnet's comminative comparison of
Sharp to Tillotson, p. 252.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 257

espouse whatever he thought conduced to its
preservation and security, and constantly oppose
what in his judgment tended to innovation and
alteration in it. But when the main point was
secured, he was not solicitous about party con-
tentions, for he looked upon them, as he often
declared, "to be mere struggles who should be upper-
most" Nor did he seem, as will be hereafter
shewn, in several instances, to change or vary
in his sentiments, either of things or persons,
though others were pleased to change their sen-
timents of him, as this or that party happened
to be "uppermost." And from hence the reflec-
tion of his not being steady might possibly take
its rise.

" To be on the side (as he said) of the established
government, and to endeavour to maintain that, was
not to be a favourer of parties and factions, but that
they were the factious, they were the setters up and
abettors of parties, who endeavoured to destroy, or
unsettle, or disparage, or in the least to hurt and
weaken the government and the laws as they are esta-
blished; let the principles upon which they ivent, or
the pretences they made, be what they would." And
he adhered to this principle of preserving the
constitution, and pursued this rule of attach-
ment to the establishment with such steadiness
and uniformity, that neither the influence of
private friendships, nor the entreaties of the

258

LIFE OF ARCHP.ISIIOP SHARP.

party that claimed him, nor the persuasions of
the ministry, nor even the personal applications
of his royal sovereign, were of weight and force
enough to engage him in any thing that in his
own judgment did not well consist with this
principle.

And here we see the whole compass of his
politics. But as so short and general an ac^
count of them will avail little towards vindi-
cating his character from party suggestions, and
clearing him of those unjust suspicions which
some were pleased to entertain concerning him,
it is requisite to be something more particular
upon this head, and to make use of all the light
that either his diary, or any other testimonies to
be met with at this distance of time, can throw
in upon this part of his character ; and to shew
that he followed no scheme but the good of his
country, was in no interest but that of the con-
stitution, and was a fast friend to the act of settle-
ment upon the House of Hanover.

It may not be amiss to observe, in the first
place, how careful he was to avoid all ap-
proaches to politics or party concernments in
his sermons. He judged the pulpit to be of all
places the most improper for the publication or
even suggestion of men's private sentiments
concerning public affairs or state matters. Much
less could he bear to have the doctrines of

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 259

Christianity give place to a laboured descant
upon civil government, princes, and administra-
tions. So far indeed as subjection to the higher
powers, praying for those that are in authority, and
pjrserving peace and unity, were Gospel duties,
and of an obligation distinct from that of na-
tional laws, so far he urged and insisted upon
them, on all proper occasions, and charged them
upon men's consciences. But even when he
did this, he always took care to let his audience
understand that he was acting within his own
province and sphere as a divine, least he should
be thought to be influenced by any civil consi-
derations, while he was laying down the com-
mon duties of Christianity. Thus when he op-
posed himself to that separation from the esta-
blished Church, which was made at the Revo-
lution, when it was pretended by some that
they could not join in prayers for their Majes-
ties, he introduces his consideration of that
point with these words.

" With men's differences as to their notions
about the politics, I am not concerned. Let
them frame what hypotheses they please about
government, though I do not like them, yet I
do not think myself bound to preach against
them. But when these differences are come to
that pass, that they threaten both the civil and
ecclesiastical peace, there I think no minister

s 2

2G0

I.1FF OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

should be silent.'' And then he proceeds upon
Christian principles to argue against schism and
Church divisions ; and shews how unreasonable
the pretence was, which was laid hold of after
the happy Revolution. And so again upon
another and more remarkable occasion, viz.
before the House of Lords, in a sermon which
was afterwards appealed to and quoted by both
sides in the trial of Dr. Sacheverell ; though
the discourse was professedly as the occasion
required, upon the duty of subjects to their
civil governors, yet he took care first to esta-
blish his own right to speak to that point in the
pulpit, and to answer all the objections which
are usually made to the clergy when they handle
that subject. And then he took care to speak
to it purely as a Christian duty, and to dis-
tinguish it from all questions of law, which
he professed he would not concern himself
about.

u In all those instances (says he) wherein this
argionent falls under the cognizance and determina-
tion of Parliamoits, or judges, or lawyers, we do
not pretend to meddle with it. We meddle not with
the politics, we meddle not with prerogative or pro-
perty ; we meddle not with the disputes and controver-
sies of law that may arise about these matters, but
preach a compa)iy of plain lessons of peaceableness,
<Kr Such as will at this day hold in all the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 261

governments in the ivorld, whether they be kingdoms
or commonwealths* '."

Nor is there to be observed in any other of
his occasional sermons upon fast and thanks-
giving days, nor even at the solemnity of the
late queen's coronation, any thing further said
of the then present state of the nation, than
was necessary to answer the ends of the ap-
pointment of sermons on those days. So care-
ful was he to shun the appearance of a party
man in the pulpit. For how zealously soever he
might in his civil capacity espouse, or oppose,
what was as yet in agitation and debate, yet he
could not endure to have the Cathedra Christi
made the stage of contention. He was grieved
to see it prostituted to the venting of private
resentments, or publishing reflections against
governors and administrations, and thought the
dignity of it debased, even when it was used to
a more excusable and plausible purpose, viz.
for the pronouncing panegyrics upon crowned
heads, and attempting vindications of their po-
litical counsels, although the characters drawn
by the preacher were ever so just, or his allega-
tions in defence and honour of their government
and administration ever so true. For besides
the impropriety of entering upon topics quite

* Archbishop Sharp's Sermons, Vol. II. p. 47. 49.

262 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

foreign to the business of the ministers of
Christ ; even upon a foot of discretion and pru-
dence, such digressions are hardly to be justi-
fied. For it always looks like an imputation of
weakness in a government, to suppose it should
stand in need of such public suffrages and en-
comiums of the clergy ; and it argues weakness
in the man who gives his voice for it in this way,
if he supposes that he can hereby do real service
to the public, and something more than weak-
ness, if he designs no more by it than to recom-
mend himself to the favour of the reigning party.

And this should be considered as the reason
why he never enlarged even upon so great a
topic as the Revolution in his sermons, although
the occasions were likewise such that he could
not be wholly silent about it, as may be seen in
his fast sermon, May 21, 1690; and his thanks-
giving sermon before the House of Peers, No-
vember 5, 1691 ; and before their Majesties,
November 12, 1693 ; and at the coronation of
Queen Anne ; in which, though he delivered
himself briefly upon the matter, yet what he
said was full and home, and as much as he
judged consistent with the liberty that a
preacher ought to take on such occasions.

And yet no man was more sensible of the
happy effects of the Revolution, both as to Church
and State, than he was ; no man came more

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 263

heartily into it. Nor did he barely acquiesce
in the being satisfied with it, but did as much
contribute as was in his power to recommend,
support, and perpetuate the establishment upon
the foot on which it was then settled.

When he first went down to his diocese, he
found the minds of several, both of laity and
clergy, perplexed about the Revolution ; and
some of them alienated from their Majesties.
And he was as willing as he was able to give
every one the satisfaction they desired, when
they applied themselves to him ; as some did
by letter, others in person. He had cases of
conscience put to him about the lawfulness of
taking the oaths to the government after the
Revolution. By his answer to one of these
cases, his sentiments will appear. The question
was, How a person who had sworn allegiance to
King James, could with a good conscience take the
same oath to King William ? To which he an-
swers directly, " That the laws of the land are
the only rule of our conscience in this matter,
and we are no further bound to pay obedience
to governors*, nor to any other governors than

* The sense here is a little obscured by the shortness of the
expression. The meaning is, we are no further bound to pay
obedience to governors (viz. with regard to the extent of our
obedience) than the lama enjoin. And we are no further bound to
fay obedience to any as our governors (viz. with respect to the
persons who are the proper objects of it), than the laws enjoin:

264 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

' the laws enjoin. If therefore King William, in
the eye of the law, be our king, we must in
conscience pay obedience to him as such. I
take this (says he) for a certain truth, that as
the law makes the king, so the same law
extends, or limits, or transfers our obedience
and allegiance ; and all oaths imposed by the
law oblige the conscience no further than the
law meant they should oblige; only this is
always to be remembered, that whatever obe-
dience the laws of the land require of us, it is
to be understood with this proviso, that it be
not contradictory to the laws of God. But in
that case we must obey passively, though we
cannot obey actively. And with this tacit con-
dition I do suppose all oaths of fidelity in the
world are given and taken."

It is true, he had a very great tenderness and
pity for all those who could not satisfy their
consciences in this point, after taking advice,
and using the best means of information. His
inclinations were always to relieve such, and
not to distress them. But if he found there
was any thing of humour or obstinacy in their
case, he would then use what authority he had
over them. Thus, having been informed that
some few of his clergy had been remiss in the
observation of the monthly fasts, and reading
the occasional prayers, and had likewise ex-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

265

pressed some disaffection to the government ; he
reprimanded them publicly at his visitation (in
1693), telling them, " How unaccountable a
thing it was, that any person who had already
taken an oath of allegiance to their present
Majesties, should refuse to pray for them, espe-
cially in such a cause, where, if they had any
kindness or regard either to their religion, or
to the nation, or to their own private interests,
they could not but wish well to it, though they
had taken no such oath. That as for those,
whether clergy or others, who were dissatisfied
upon pure principles of conscience, and behaved
themselves modestly and peaceably, keeping
their sentiments to themselves, and giving no
disturbance to the public, he had as hearty a
tenderness and compassion for all such as was
possible. But as for those who had given tes-
timony that it was not against their conscience
to own the present government, and who had
solemnly obliged themselves by oath to live dutifully
under it, yet, out of a factious or petulant hu-
mour, would take all the occasions they could
of running it down, he thought their case was
widely different from that of the former, and
that they ought to be animadverted upon. And,
for his own part, so far as any of their offences
of this kind fell under his cognizance, he should
think himself obliged to take notice of them."

266 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

And again, in 1698, after the king had con-
cluded the peace, he took occasion publicly to
congratulate the clergy of his diocese, " That
their circumstances were altered so much for
the better since their last meeting. The nation
(said he) was then embroiled in a dangerous
and expensive war. That war, through the
blessing of God upon his Majesty's conduct,
is now brought to a happy issue by the estab-
lishment of an honourable, and, we trust, a
lasting peace. I hope we are all sensible as we
ought to be, of this great blessing, and that it
will have such effects upon us as it naturally
calls for. One of those effects certainly ought
to be, the treating the discontents, and removing
the prejudices and animosities (if there be any
such left in men's minds), against the present
government ; and the knitting together the hearts
of all the people of this nation in the firmest
bonds of affection, and duty, and allegiance
to his Majesty. Sure it is hard, that when he
is owned the lawful King of Great Britain by
all the crowned heads and states of Christen-
dom, there should yet be found any in his own
dominions that are not in his interests."

When the oath of abjuration was under de-
bate in the House of Commons, and it was made
a question whether it should be proposed as an
oath to be taken voluntarily, and at mere dis-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 267

cretion, or imposed upon all by a general rule ;
some of the members (who were not well pleased
with the oath, and chose rather to decline it
than take it) thought it more eligible to have it
enjoined by public authority, and enacted by
law, than offered as a voluntary thing to be taken
or let alone at the discretion of each person:
apprehending that the sanction of the parliament
would supersede all private scruples about it.
And when a certain member suggested to the
Archbishop as his own private reason for voting
the imposition of the oath upon all in general*
" that what he could not easily do, if left 'purely to his
own choice, he could do without difficulty if he
were commanded:" to this his Grace answered,
" that whatever effect this argument might have
upon others who were not members of par-
liament, yet in you that are one, it is false rea-
soning. For your voting that the oath should
be imposed, makes it as voluntary in you as if it
were made voluntary in the act. And besides,
(says he) I think you are altogether mistaken in
your distinction of voluntary oaths, and those
that are required by law as you apply it : for I
do think as no law can oblige you in conscience
to take any oath but what upon just reasons you
may voluntarily take, so on the other side no
law can screen your conscience in taking an ill
oath, any more than private considerations will."

268 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

He was also very instrumental in removing the
difficulties which others had conceived with
respect to this oath. Some of great note in the
House of Peers seemed to refer themselves en-
tirely to his judgment in this matter; not so
much upon the belief of his being an indulgent
casuist, as of his being a faithful one. He did
good service to his friends in this way, and was
heartily thanked by them for it afterwards. He
was likewise very serviceable in bringing back
to the communion of the church those who had
separated from her since the Revolution, though
at the same time they were not to be persuaded
to take the oaths. And he was the man who
advised and prevailed upon Dr. Higden to
publish his View of the English Constitution, so far
as regards the taking oaths to government, it having
been first read over to him and approved. And
yet what trifling incidents will serve for party
insinuations : he was suspected by some to be a fa-
vourer of the Jacobites, and their principles, and
for no other reason, but because he did not quite
drop his acquaintance with, and conceal his
compassion for some, who declared that oath
was against their consciences. My Lord W — n
in the House of Peers, upon the debate concern-
ing the church being in danger, in Dec. 1705,
took notice that a certain noble Lord of that house
had educated his sons at a seminary kept by a non-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

269

juror. The Archbishop, who perceived himself was
pointed at, declared that although he had sent both
his sons to Mr. Ellis" s school, who was a sober vir-
tuous man, and a man of letters, yet he had qualified
himself according to the laws when they were sent to
him. But that as soon as he was informed that Mr.
Ellis had refused to take the oaths he immediately
took away his son, who then only remained with him,
and removed him to another and unexceptionable place.
And this was above three years before the com-
plaint was made in the House of Peers; and was
rather an instance of his dislike of those prin-
ciples he was charged of abetting. Whereas
others chose rather to run the hazard of such
unreasonable censures and reflections than forego
the advantages of so flourishing a school, and
such an able instructer of their children. Thus
did several persons of note and distinction, and
without being thought inclinable to jacobitism,
as may be presumed for so doing.

.As to his satisfaction in the Act of Settlement, and
affection toivards the house of Hanover, there never
were the least grounds to doubt or suspect them. He
indeed opposed the motion that was made by
Lord Haversham in the House of Peers, Nov. 15,
1705, to invite over the Princess Sophia; and not
only so, but took all opportunities of declaring
against it, as will be seen when we come to con-
sider his conduct in parliament. But least any

270 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

misinterpretations should be made at the court
of Hanover, of his zeal in this matter, he took an
opportunity (before it came to be agitated in
parliament, for it was intimated the year before)
by Dr. Hutton, then at Hanover, of repeating to
her Highness the Electress, assurances of his
integrity with respect to her interests in this
kingdom. And how perfectly well satisfied her
Highness was in his inclinations towards her, may
appear from her instructions given in answer to
Dr. Hutton on this occasion. The Doctor's letter
is as follows.

" Hanover, Oct. 1G— 27, 1705.

" My Lord,

" I performed your Grace's desire to
the Electress, and at the same time told Her
Royal Highness how much you have on all oc-
casions declared yourself a steady friend to her,
and her illustrious family, on the subject of the
succession. She bid me tell you, she knows you
very well her fast friend, and is satisfied of the
proof your Grace hath given her.

"Her grandson's marriage hath been per-
formed with great joy. His young princess, who
refused to be the Queen of Spain to preserve her
religion, is one of the best accomplished per-
sons of her sex and quality in the world. She
is a blessing to this family, and may prove the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

271

same in time to England and to the Protestant
religion.

"Your Grace knows the Electors character
very well. He makes his subjects easy by distri-
buting justice and equity to all sorts of men.
He is a prince of nice virtue, and keeps his word
to a punctilio : so that he hath an entire credit
with all his allies, as well as with all others
with whom he hath any business. He hath
given many proofs of his courage and conduct
in the camp (as he hath served in fifteen cam-
paigns) as well as in the closet.

Her Royal Highness the Electress is in per-
fect good health. She wonders at a groundless
story that was whispered about in London last
year, by which some were made to believe that
although the Queen and Parliament should invite
her to England, yet she would not come. Her
judgment on that subject, as well as on all others,
seems to be well grounded. For she thinks that
her Majesty and the Parliament knoio best what is
most proper for their own safety. Her Royal
Highness says she is here in quiet and hath all
that this world can give her in her own house ;
and is very sensible that her sex and age will
not allow her to be so useful to the public as she
could wish

" Yet notwithstanding, if the Queen and Par-
liament in their great wisdom, think it necessary

272

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

for the good of Europe and the preservation of
your constitution in church and state, to have
her as presumptive heir in the kingdom ; she is
willing to comply with what they shall think fit ;
and seems very willing to employ the remainder
of her life for the Queen's safety, and the people's
satisfaction. This she thinks by God's provi-
dence may prevent a convulsion in those kingdoms,
and preserve them from Popery and a French go-
vernment, and establish the succession in the Pro-
testant line.

"Their Electoral Highnesses have all the es-
teem and honour for the Queen that is possible,
and do all they can to keep up a good under-
standing between her court and their own.
They pray for her Majesty's long life and pros-
perity in particular, as well as in all their
churches : to which I have been witness, al-
though it was disputed at London but last
year.

'* I continue with respect, My Lord,
" Your Grace's most faithful

" Humble Servant,

" Jo. HuTTON."

There had passed before this time some com-
pliments and letters between her Electoral
Highness and the Archbishop. Their corre-
spondence having begun soon after the late

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 273

Queen's accession, upon occasion of his pre-
senting her Highness with his coronation sermon.
There was indeed an odd circumstance attend-
ing this first piece of respect from him, owing
partly to unusual inadvertency in himself, and
partly to the dexterity and dispatch of the
bearer of it, viz. that this sermon was trans-
mitted to the princess by the hands of Mr. John
Toland*, which, though in reality an accidental
thing, yet might have proved unlucky in its
interpretation to the Archbishop's character.
The Bishop of Sarum, whom nothing could
escape, laid hold of it, not indeed more severely
than the thing seemed primd facie to deserve.
But it either was not believed when reported,
or his credit was too well established to suffer
by it, though, as the prelate just now named
said upon it, " Had any of us done so, hoio should
we have been talked of."

But the true account of this whole matter
appears in his diary, minuted by himself at the
time when the accident happened, andwhileevery
circumstance of it was yet fresh in his memory.

" While I was making up my list of persons
to whom I should present my coronation sermon,
my servant came up, and acquainted me that
one from Sir Robert Clayton and his lady was
below. I ordered the man should be brought

* The « Free Thinker" and Infidel Author.
T

274

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

up. After he had presented Sir Robert's and
my lady's service to me, he asked me whether I
had not received a book yesterday, which was
sent me, viz. ' Mr. TolancTs defence of himself.'' I
told him ' I had.' He then told me that ' he was
the man (for I had never seen him before). Upon
this we fell a talking about his books and prin-
ciples. I dealt very freely with him as to both.
He owned he had been to blame; and that he had
begun to write very young, before he rightly under-
stood things. He promised he would trouble the
world no more about those matters. As for the
charge of his denying the Trinity, he declared
that he was so far from that, that he would subscribe
all the doctrinal articles of the Church of England.
I asked him whether he would subscribe the first
article (that which declares the Trinity), alone.
He answered, * Yes, ex ammo.' I told him, I
would, as I had occasion, do him right as to
that matter. But I said, he had, by his books
and carriage, given so great offence to the Church
of England, that he could never expect but
endeavours would be used to censure him. He
told me, upon that, he did not mean to stay here,
for he was going very suddenly to the Princess Sophia
of Hanover. He then told me, that the last time
he was there he presented her with one of my
sermons, and one of Dr. Tillotson's about the
government of the tongue (as mine was about the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 275

government of the thoughts ), and that he now meant
to buy one of my coronation sermons, and present it
to her. I told him, he should not need to buy one,
for I would send her one ; and that when my sermon
came out, I would send one for my Lady Clayton, and
therewith one for the princess ; which accordingly
I did the next day. This I think was on Thurs-
day. But when I came to reflect on this act of
mine, which was occasioned by my sudden
promise to him, not thinking what I did, I very
well saw what prejudice it might do me. And
thereupon resolved to get this sermon into my
hands again, if it was possible ; and accordingly,
on Saturday morning, I took coach, and went
to my Lady Clayton's, and begged of her to let
me have that sermon again ; or, if Mr. Toland
already had it, that she would command it from
him. But, unfortunately for me, she told me
that Mr. Toland that very day on which she
had received the sermon, had got his for the
princess; and the wind proving favourable (which
it had not been for a fortnight before), he had
that very night set sail for Holland, in order to
go to Hanover. So that it was impossible to
retrieve my sermon. This is a faithful account
in short of that business."

He received, however, some months after,
from the Electress, a letter of thanks for his
sermon, with many obliging expressions in it ;

t 2

276 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

which gave him an acceptable opportunity of
addressing her highness by letter, and signifying
his satisfaction in the prospect of her illustrious
house succeeding to the crown of these realms.

" York, September 4, 1702.

" Madam,

" I was struck with astonishment to
see your electoral highness's name to a letter
which I lately received, and much more so,
when I had read the contents of it. It was
great presumption in one to offer so mean a
thing as my sermon to so great a princess ; and
your pardon for it was all I could expect. But
that your electoral highness should vouchsafe
me a letter of thanks for it, and that so extremely
gracious a one, this was a favour as much
beyond my hopes, as it was above my merits.
But thus you charm all the world with your
condescending goodness.

" It is out of my power to express the grate-
ful sense I have of this surprising obligation ; as
it is also to make any returns for it, other than
those of my prayers. But these I shall never
cease to put up to the throne of grace for your
electoral highness and your princely issue ; that
God would multiply his blessings upon you both
spiritual and temporal, and preserve you for the
support, and welfare, and happiness of this

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

277

Church and kingdom. I am, Madam, with sin-
cerest esteem, affection, and duty,
" Your electoral highness's

" Most obliged, most humble,
" And most faithful servant,
" Jo. Ebor.

After this a correspondence was kept open
for some years between the Electress and the
Archbishop, of which Mr. Bagnall's letter is
the next voucher. He returned from Hanover
with a compliment from her highness in 1704.
But not finding the Archbishop in London, he
wrote his instructions as follows.

" London, June 18, 1704.

" My Lord,

" When I left the Court of Hanover,
which was about six weeks since, and whither
I went as chaplain to Mr. Poley. Her electoral
highness was pleased to command me to wait
upon your grace, and, if I mistake not her very
words (which I think I do not), ' to give you her
service.'1 She would have returned by me an
answer to your lordship's letter in favour of
your kinsman, Mr. Cholmondley (and which he
did not receive till after his arrival at Berlin,
from whence he transmitted it to her highness),
but my sudden departure from thence would

278 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

not afford her an opportunity. I can only add,
that she spoke of your grace with a particular
esteem and respect. When your grace shall
think fit to write to her electoral highness, I
would humbly beg the favour that you would
vouchsafe to acquaint her, that I had signified
her pleasure to you, and to present my most
humble duty and service."

The rest of Mr. Bagnall's letter is upon a
quite different affair.

They who are inclined to suspect that the
Archbishop, towards the latter end of his life,
and after the great change made by the Queen
in her ministry, dropped his good inclinations
to the House of Hanover, and directed his wishes,
if not also his counsels, to another quarter,
ought to have some good grounds for their sus-
picion ; which to them who intimately knew his
sentiments and conversation, cannot but seem
very unaccountable.

His alienation from the interests he had so
long espoused (unless he be also supposed to
have been acting a part from the beginning, a
supposition the most incompatible with his
general character that is possible), must have
appeared in some instances or other too noto-
rious to have been kept a secret to this time.
And yet he never was charged, at least not
openly so, as to give any opportunity of vindi-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 279

eating him, with any one action or saying that
could give the least umbrage of any change in
his sentiments concerning the succession to the
crown.

It is hard to know what kind of evidence to
object against unsupported and wanton surmise;
and much harder to guess what degree of evi-
dence may be necessary to overcome the pre-
judices of party. Whereas there would be little
difficulty in clearing up any particular fact or
counsels, if any such were or could be charged
upon him. In the meantime, such loose and
general imputations, however disadvantageous
or injurious to his memory, with those who are
disposed to relish them, must be left to their
own weight, to take their chance in the balance
against his more known and established charac-
ter of steadiness and sincerity, both in his prac-
tices and principles.

There was indeed an affair in which he most
interested himself in the latter end of the
Queen's reign, which, if all the papers relating
to it had been preserved, or could have been
recovered, might have been very serviceable
towards obviating any suggestions of this kind.
But though a perfect account of the share he
bore in promoting the design of introducing the
Liturgy of the Church of England at Hanover,
and procuring a chaplain of the Church of England

280 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

at the Queen's expense to attend on the Princess
Sophia (for this is the affair referred to), cannot
now be retrieved, yet enough may be produced
to shew that he was actually engaged in such a
project, and to satisfy reasonable persons in
any scruples they may have entertained con-
cerning his adherence to his former principles,
from any groundless reports or mere surmises.

It was in the year 1711, that measures were
taken to bring the aforementioned design to
bear. The sentiments of the Court at Hanover
were sounded upon this occasion, and the pro-
posal met with approbation, provided a little Eng-
lish court were likewise formed there ; and her Royal
Highness, by means of a civil list granted her in
England, were put into a condition suitable to a first
princess of the blood, and the relation she bore to the
Crown of Great Britain. The Archbishop, in
all probability, would have been highly instru-
mental in bringing both these points to bear,
had not the great affair of peace, then depend-
ing, disconcerted measures and prevented any
accomplishment of this design. The occasion
of his proposing a chaplain for the Electress,
will appear when we come to speak of his care
of the interest of the Church of England in
foreign parts ; it will be sufficient for the pre-
sent purpose to borrow a testimony as to the
other point from a letter of Monsieur Leibnitz

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

281

to Dr. Ayerst (then chaplain to the Earl of
Strafford), residing at that time at the Hague,
by whom this affair was principally negociated,
and through whom a correspondence was kept
between the Archbishop and Monsieur Leibnitz.

The entire passage of that letter which relates
to the matter in hand, is as follows.

"My Lord Archbishop of York* was in the
right to take no notice of the point I had touched

* My Lord Archeveque de York a eu raison de ne point
toucher le point que j'avois touche dans la lettre que je vous
avois ecrite ; car cela n'entre point directiment dans son object:
et il semble que sans en parler, il y a de la connexion dans les
choses, et que l'une est le fondement de 1'autre. Madame
l'Electrice n'entre aucunement dans tout ce que je viens de
vousecrire. Cette princesse a l'esprit trop eleve et trop con-
tent (son etat etant en effect tel qu'on pourroit souhaiter) pour
avoir la moindre pretension au faire la moindre demande. Mais
des personnes bien intentionnees ont grand sujet de s'y interes-
ser. Et puisque my Lord Comte de Strafford, est encore en
Angleterre et que my Lord Comte de Rivers, destine pour
venir icy, n'est pas encore en chemin, non plusque je sache ; il
se pent qu'on aye bientot quelque egard a ce qui est du verita-
ble interest de la nation et de l'Eglise Anglicane. J'apprends
deja que le parti contraire au parti qui a le dessus pretend se
moquer et voudroit faire croire que ceux qui ont parle autre-
fois en Parlement, et se taisent quand ils ont plus de pouvoir,
n'ont pas eu veritablement l'intention qu'ils faifoient pavoitre.
Pour moy je ne suis point de ce sentiment et je concois qu'ils
peuvent avoir a present des raisons de leur retenne. Cependant
leurs adversaires leurs en feront une affaire un jour. S'ils per-

282

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

upon in the letter I wrote to you. For it did
not directly fall within his subject, and it seems
too, without his mention of it in particular, to
be implied, from the connection of the two
points, the one being grounded on the other.
Madam the Electress has no part in what I have
now written to you. That princess having too
elevated a mind, and being too content with
her present condition (which is indeed such as
that a more happy one cannot be desired), to
form any pretensions or make any demand. But
other well-designing and public spirited persons
have great reasons to interest themselves in it ;
and since the Earl of Strafford is still in Eng-
land, and my Lord Earl of Rivers, who is de-
signed to come hither, is not yet set out, that I
have heard, it may be that some regard will be
shortly had to that which is the true interest of
the English Church and nation. I understand
that the contrary party to that now in power
pretends already to make a jest of it, and would
have it believed, that they who formerly spoke
in Parliament, and now are silent when they

dent entierement l'occasion de se faire un merite de un chose,
dont la justice est reconnue de tout le monde, et qui n'est pas
d'une petite importance pour asseurer la nation et la religion.
My Lord Comte de Strafford s'il a la occasion d'entrer en ma-
tiere pourra faire valoir I'interest de I'Eglise, et le sentiment de
my Lord Archeveque de York.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 283

have the power in their hands, had not truly the
intention they pretended. For my part, I am
not of that opinion. I conceive well enough,
that they may have their reasons for their re-
serve at present. However, their adversaries
will one day object it to them as a crime, if they
entirely lose the opportunity of making a merit
of a thing, the justice of which is acknowledged
by all the world, and which is of no little im-
portance to the nation and to religion. If my
Lord Strafford has an opportunity of entering
upon this affair, he may allege the interests of the
Church and the opinion of my Lord Archbishop of
York, as arguments for it"

This passage from a privy counsellor of Ha-
nover should seem sufficient to justify him, not
only as to his general affection to the interests
of that court, but as to the particular opposi-
tion he had once made to the address about
inviting the Electress into England. For though
he was against the proposal of a court of the
House of Hanover being kept at London, yet
he approved of an English court at Hanover ;
and at a time too when they who had urged
the invitation of the princess into England for-
merly, did not appear very forward to shew
their respects to her in the same or the like
way. But as they had their reasons for their
own conduct, so had he for his ; which might

284

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

have been discovered and represented more ex-
actly, if the papers relating to this negociation
had not been lost or destroyed in great measure.

Some further instances of his jealousy for the
interests of the House of Hanover, and zeal for
a Protestant succession, will follow in the course
of this narrative*.

In the meantime, let us attend him into the
House of Peers, where we shall find him neither

* As concerning a passage in a pamphlet entitled A Word
of Advice to the Freeholders (and quoted from thence in Togg's
Weekly Journal of Saturday, October 13, 1733, number 258,)
representing a dialogue between the Marquis of Wharton and
the late Archbishop Sharp, upon their happening to meet in
the Court of Requests, a few months before the Queen died, and
which the author says, is known but to very few, however justly
and truly the Archbishop's abhorrence of entering himself into
any measures with the then ministry in favour of the Pretender
be represented in it, yet it is plainly, from all the other cir-
cumstances therein mentioned, a mere fiction ; so ill calculated
in point of time and place as to confute itself. For the Arch-
bishop was not at London during the whole session of Parlia-
ment before the Queen's death, or for several months before
that. Or, if he had been there, and had really believed the
Queen's ministry engaged in such a design as is suggested, it is
most improbable he would have moved his suspicion or made
his complaint particularly to the Marquis of Wharton, which,
if he had done, he had deservedly enough met with the answer
said to be given him thereupon. But the whole story seems
only contrived to introduce a supposed jest of the marquis's,
which, because it is at best but an insipid one, appears, even on
that account, to be falsely ascribed to him.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

285

a warm nor a frequent speaker, and yet seldom
out of the debate when bills of ecclesiastical
concernment were depending. Two bills of this
nature offered themselves in the same session of
Parliament in which he was introduced in the
House of Peers; and he spoke upon each of
them. One was the Quaker's bill, debated on
February 12, 1691*. The other was the bill
for dissolving the marriage of the Duke of Nor-
folk with his duchess, February 16|. He took
upon himself the conduct of a bill about small
tithes, in 1694, framed and prepared most pro-
bably by Dr. Stillingfleet, who it seems could
not attend the House J. He bore a great share

* Diary. — On Friday, the 12th, came on the Quaker's Bill,
upon occasion of which I first took the boldness to speak in the
House.

+ Diary. — On Tuesday, the 16th, came on the Duke of
Norfolk's bill again. I was with the rest of the bishops. I had
occasion to speak about the lawfulness of divorce in the case
of adultery.

% Diary. — Saturday, April 7, 1694. On Monday night I
went to the Bishop of Worcester, about the bill of small tithes.
On Tuesday I spoke largely to that bill ; and it was ordered,
that we should bring in some amendments, and such provisos
as we had to offer. That afternoon five or six of us met at
the Bishop of Worcester's, and agreed upon alterations and a
proviso. On Wednesday I offered them to the House, and
spoke to them. That day the bill passed. One alteration was
allowed, but the proviso thrown out. In the afternoon I went
to the Bishop of Worcester, to give him an account of that
matter.

286

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

in the debates upon occasional conformity, in 1702,
and again in 1704. In those upon the Queens
bounty, 1703 ; and in those about the Church in
danger, in 1705 ; of which an account will be
given in its proper place. On other occasions
he did rarely interpose, and then only when
matters of real importance to the public were
debated, viz. such as immediately concerned
either the prerogative of the Crown, or the liberty
of the subject. The first instance of this we have
in 1693, on occasion of the bill for frequent
calling and meeting of Parliaments. A bill to
this effect had passed both Houses in January,
1692, while he was absent, and in his diocese*,
but had been rejected by the King. In Novem-
ber following it was resumed ; and while it was
under debate in the House of Peers, he made
the following speech, which being the only one
that is preserved, shall be here inserted entire ;
and the rather, because some things therein
foretold, concerning the effects of frequent elec-
tions and annual sessions, may be thought per-
haps sufficiently fulfilled, upon experience, since
passing the triennial act ; which did not take
place till the session following, in 1694. The
regulating of elections, which he proposed as
an antidote or previous step necessary to such

* He left London this winter on December 28.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 287

a bill, has been since attempted by way of re-
medy, with what success others must determine.

" My Lords, I have always avoided giving
you trouble ; and I would give you none now,
but that I think the matter before us is of so
great importance, that if ever I can judge it
proper for me to offer my reasons for the vote I
am to give, I must judge it so now.

" I was not here the last year when this
matter was debated, but I have attentively
heard and considered, since the bill hath been
now brought in, both what hath been said for
it, and what hath been said against it.

" I must confess, though I have a mighty
respect for the wisdom and judgment of those
noble lords who have spoke for the bill in all
the clauses of it, when it was examined in the
committee, yet I am so unfortunate, that I can
no more vote with them in the gross for passing
the bill, than I did in the particulars for the
passing the clauses of it. And that I may not
seem to dissent without reason, I desire to offer
a few things, upon account of which I think
myself obliged to give my vote against it.

" In the first place, my Lords, I am afraid
this bill is a little too hard upon the King ; and
doth in some measure tend to the making a
change in our constitution.

" Whereas our monarchy is now equally

288

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

balanced by the prerogative of the King on one
side, and the privileges and liberties of the sub-
ject on the other ; this bill seems to cast a great
weight into one of the scales, more than it had
before.

" I do not say that it is an invasion of the
prerogative, or that it is directly a diminution of
it; but, if I may be allowed to use that word,
it bears hard upon it. If once the King be obliged
to hold parliaments every year, in time of peace
as well as in time of war, whether he needs
them or needs them not, methinks it makes the
way easier, from an annual session, to come to
a constant session, or at least a committee of
both Houses to sit constantly.

" I dare say there is none in this House in-
tends such a thing as this ; but I ask, if ever
hereafter there should be any man who would
in good earnest design to cramp the royal au-
thority, and to oblige the King to take all his
measures, both of peace and war, and in the
disposal of all offices ; I say, to oblige him to
take all his measures, as to these things, from a
Parliament, or a committee of the same ; what
more effectual step can be made towards the
gaining such a point, than to make a law that
should oblige him every year to hold a Parlia-
ment ?

" I do, as I said, hope and believe, that none

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 289

who are for this bill think or aim at such a
matter. But if ever there should come a gene-
ration of men who should think of it, would it
not much tend to the facilitating their business,
that there was such a law already made ? Would
it not be a natural and easy foundation for them
on which to raise greater superstructures?

**■ It will be said, and it is truly said, that the
King may dissolve Parliaments when he pleases.
And if any such motion as I have now men-
tioned be made to him, he may reject it.

" Right ; he may so. And so his Majesty
did the last year reject this very bill. But will
his once rejecting such a motion as this hinder
it from being offered again ? No ; we see, by
this very bill, that it will not ; and when it is
offered, will it not be much harder and more
offensive in him to refuse it a second time ? Will
it not cause some ferment and ill humour in his
people ? So that at last the King must give his
consent to it, or be under a necessity of dis-
obliging his subjects.

" And therefore, in my poor opinion, since all
our properties and liberties are already so well
secured to us by law, we should not make one step
to abridge the King of any of his rights, which have
been so long in the possession of the Crown.

" But, my Lords, there is another reason for
which I cannot give my vote for this bill ; and

290 LTFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

that is, I think it will really be so far from a
benefit or privilege to the subjects of England,
that I am afraid it will be a grievance to them.
If Parliaments were now chosen in the same
manner, and as easily to come by, as they were
in Edward the Third's time, it would perhaps
be no great matter how often they sat. But, as
the way of election of Parliament men now is,
as their privileges as well as their charges are now
grown, methinks that annual sessions and trien-
nial elections are so far from being desirable,
that they will really prove a great burden, as
well as a great mischief to the country. Privi-
lege of Parliament is grievous enough to the people
of England as Parliaments now are. But will it
not be much more so, when a law is passed,
that there shall be in a manner always privilege,
and no such interval that any suit can be com-
menced and finished ? The members of Parlia-
ment and their dependants will have constant
privilege ; for I may call it a constant privilege,
where the intervals of privilege are so small,
that no suit can commence and be finished
within them.

" If this bill should pass, I hope, that by
holding of Parliament every year, will be con-
strued no more than that every year a Parlia-
ment should be called and assembled ; though
even that ambiguity of the word may be a snare

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 291

to the King's conscience, who is sworn to keep
the laws, as well as a handle of making differ-
ences between him and his people, if ever any
ill humour should work in them. But if by that
expression of holding of Parliaments, it should
be meant that there should be every year a ses-
sion of Parliament, in the sense that we com-
monly understand session ; I say, if this should
really be the law, and be the practice, for my
part I should think this would prove so intole-
rably vexatious and chargeable to the members
of both Houses, who live at any great distance
from this town, that it would be much more
heavy than any taxes that have ever been laid
upon them.

" But I spoke of a mischief to the country,
as well as a burden, by the passing this bill.
And truly I think I may reckon this as a mis-
chief. The debauching of people's manners,
and drawing them off from their calling and
employment to a course of drunkenness and
idleness. And I may likewise account this as a
mischief, the alienating people s affections one from
another, and their being engaged in factions, and
piques, and quarrels. And in truth, if these be
mischiefs, the elections of members of Parlia-
ment, as they are in our days commonly ma-
naged, do as much contribute to these mischiefs,
as any other thing I know whatsoever. And I dare

u 2

292 J-IFE OK AHCHBISIIOP SHARP.

say all your Lordships are sensible of it. And
I cannot think, that when elections come to be
so frequent (as by this bill they are ordered to
be), but that these mischiefs will be so far from
being remedied, that they will be much thereby
increased. There will be in all cities and bo-
roughs a solid foundation laid for debauchery
among the populace, and for feuds and animo-
sities among the gentry, which in all probability
may last as long as the Parliament, that is from
three years to three years.

" I must confess, I should have been a great
deal more willing to have given my vote for this
bill, had there been a previous act made for
the regulating of elections, and for the settling the
privileges of the members of Parliament, that they
might be no grievance to the subject in case of
constant Parliaments. But when this bill comes
without these two things, I am afraid it will do
mischief to the country, but no good.

" I beg your Lordships to believe, that I am
not against Parliaments, nor against frequent
Parliaments. But, in my poor apprehension,
they should just be as frequent as there is occasion
for them. I would not put any obligation upon
the King to call them, whether he had need of
them or no. In all probability, we shall have
too much occasion for them, in the circumstances
we now are ; and 1 could heartily wish a time

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

293

may come when we can live a year without
them. When such a time doth come, I should
then think it seasonable to have this matter
debated ; but, at the present, my humble mo-
tion is, that it may be laid aside, and that the
bill be rejected."

As upon all occasions he delivered his mind
freely when he spoke in the House, he ever
made voting a matter of conscience. When any
affair came on, of which he did not think him-
self so capable a judge as some others of the
peers, whose opinions he trusted he might
follow, as in cases of privilege of peerage, Sec. or
in matters of trade, which lay more out of his
way, he would then, after grounding his vote
upon the best judgment he could form, make a
private memorandum of the reasons that in-
duced him, and enter his own justification in
these or the like words : Ami I hope I have not
done amiss in voting so or so. Thus he did after
the debates upon the commitment and detainment of
the lords in prison*, in November, 1692; and

* His minutes of the resolutions oi* the House upon this
dehate, are as follows: — Nov. 12. "I have been every day this
week at the Parliament, and staid out all the debates. The
business they have been upon is the commitment and detainment
of the lords in prison this last summer ; and these points I
find agreed on, 1st. That to commit to prison, upon a bare
suspicion of the persons being ill affected to the government,
is not strictly legal, but is to be justified only by the necessity

204 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

upon the Banker $ Bill, in January, 1699, &c.
But when he was clear in his own opinion of
the justice, or equity, or fitness of giving his
voice rather one way than another, then no in-
terests or endeavours whatsoever could engage
him or take him off from voting that way ; because
he made it a rule to be governed, in such a case,
by his own judgment, independently of all other
views or motives. Some instances of the appli-
cations which have been unsuccessfully made
to him, may perhaps be worth the noticing.

of the juncture. 2dly. That to commit to prison upon a single
oath of treason against a man, is legal. 3dly. That to remand
to prison upon affidavit made, that the King's witnesses were
not ready, or could not then be procured, though these wit-
nesses are not then actually sworn, this also is legal, and so
affirmed by all the judges then present, which were ten.
4thly. I think it was acknowledged, that the judges could not
remand a man to prison, if it did appear to them there was
but one witness against him. But, 5thly, the judges all said
(I am sure my Lord Chief Justice did, for I am not certain
they all were examined on that question, but the House of
Lords took it for granted that this was their sense), that the
judges were not bound to examine whether there were two
witnesses or no. All that they were to take care of was, that
the affidavit was made according to the form that the act of
Habeas Corpus directs."

A subsequent memorandum. — " Nevertheless, on the Monday
following, it was, to the great grief of my Lord Chief Justice,
ordered to be entered on the books, that it is the judges' duty
not to remand any man to prison, unless it appear upon oath,
that there are two witnesses against him."

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 295

In the case of Sir John Fenwick, the King
spoke to him and the Bishop of Norwich at
Kensington, December 8, 1696; and did, " with
a great deal of earnestness (as he expresses it)
recommend the passing the bill of attainder against
Sir John Fenwick, telling us how much his govern-
ment was concerned in it. I then told him, that I
had always, in my own mind, been against bills of
attainder. He bid us consider well of the thing,
and he hoped we would." But how needful
soever it might be for the King's affairs, to
have the bill passed, yet he could not come
into it ; and accordingly voted against it, De-
cember 23d. And so did eight more of the
bishops, though twelve of that bench were for
it. This was grievously resented by the Bishop
of Sarum, which occasioned some little ruffle
between them, either in the House or in their
lobby.

Something was said on this occasion which
seemed to reflect strongly on the dissentient
bishops (those of them at least who had been
promoted since the late establishment of the
Crown), as if it were unaccountable how they
who "eat of the King's bread," should oppose mea-
sures necessary for his service. To which the
then Bishop of Bath and Wells is reported to
have replied, that " if he might be said in any
sense to eat another man's bread, it was Bishop

296 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Kemis. However the Archbishop's sentiments
on these expected compliances of the bishops
to the Court, on the account of their being per-
sonally obliged by the Crown for their seats in
that noble House, appear sufficiently, from many
instances (which will be hereafter given), of his
mn- compliance with the Court measures, when he did
not approve them, and of his asserting his right
to judge for himself, in all his votes to be given
in Parliament, even when the late Queen herself
pressed him to be, as she termed it, on her side.
To be on the side of the prerogative (which was
his principle, when taken in a proper and just
sense), admitted so great a latitude of construc-
tion, that sometimes the best friends to the
Crown could not come up to what was so
termed by the ministry, and yet were blamed
as deserters of the interests of the Crown in all
critical junctures. And to be sure, whenever
this charge was laid on the bishops' bench, it
was accompanied with insmuations of ingrati-
tude, forgetfulness of favours, and with com-
plaints of their having deceived their friends,
and being too late discovered. A hard case of
the bishops, who, when they are with the Court,
are scarce allowed to be so upon principle, but
are represented either as acknowledging and
compensating past favours, or seeking and press-
ing after future ; and when they are against it,

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

297

though it be acknowledged, perhaps, to be upon
principle, yet it will scarce be allowed to be
done with honour.

The next day after this dispute happened,
viz. on Christmas eve, my Lord of Salisbury
writ a letter to him upon the same subject'; but
he seems not to have regarded what was wrote,
making no mention of the particulars of the
letter, or of any answer returned to it by him-
self. He approved in his own mind what he
had done ; and though he had thereby sensibly
displeased the bishop, yet he had the satisfac-
tion of meeting with a favourable reception
from his Majesty, with whom he received the
sacrament the day following, viz. Christmas
day ; and upon whom he waited a few days
after, viz. January 1st and 14th ; and remarks,
"that the King received him without any signs of
anger"

He had upon all other occasions manifested
his affection to his Majesty and his government.
He had, in the beginning of the same year,
readily signed the association, on account of the
assassination plot, with the rest of the lords,
He having first got leave, that a declaration of what
was meant by revenging*, should be entered upon

* The word had been used on a like occasion, (viz. in the
association entered into when Queen Elizabeth was thought in
danger from supposed practices of Mary Queen of Scots), but

298

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

their books, February 27, 1695. He was like-
wise one of the bishops who, about that time,
joined in publishing a declaration concerning
the irregular and scandalous proceedings of three
non-juring clergymen, at the execution of Sir
John Friend and Sir William Perkins (an ac*
count of this was published in quarto, printed
for John Everingham). In a word, he told the
Earl of Portland, in a letter the year after the
attainder of Sir John Fenwick (in which he
recommended Mr. H. Finch to the King's fa-
vour for the deanery of York, then vacant by
the death of Dr. Wickham, but without suc-
cess), " that he had never, he believed, do)ie any
thing that might give his Majesty occasion of dis-
pleasure ; and as I do every day (said he), pray to
God for his Majesty s health and success in all his
off curs, so do I desire to live no longer than I do
uprightly and conscientiously endeavour, to the utmost

not explained. Bishop Burnet says (vol. II. p. 169), great ex-
ceptions were now taken to it, as not of evangelical sowid. His
Lordship must mean, that it seemed to interfere, in its natural
or obvious import, with a Gospel duty. For, in any other
sense, it would have been a trifling exception indeed. The
resolution at last was, that it should be meant in a legal sense,
either in the prosecution of justice at home, or of war abroad,
with which the Archbishop was well satisfied ; not troubling
himself, either about the obvious and natural import of the
word, or the evangelical sound of it, after this legal meaning of
it was once fixed and ascertained.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 299

of my poor power, faithfully to serve his Majesty in
that station wherein his mere goodness, without any
desires of mine, hath placed me.'"

In the late Queen's reign, soon after the meet-
ing of her first Parliament, in 1702, at which
time she offered him the almoner's place, and a
seat in the Privy Council (both which he at
present declined), she put him upon using his
endeavours " to make the bishops vote right" as it
was termed ; not suspecting, as may be pre-
sumed, his delicacy on that head ; and that the
same principle upon which he acted himself
would forbid his assuming to direct others who
had the same claim of liberty to follow their
own judgment which he asserted to himself.
Her ministers, who knew him better, and pro-
bably from greater freedoms which he took in
expressing his sentiments to them, seldom
touched upon this head, but sought to work
upon him through the Queen, to whom he could
deny nothing that was in his power to give.
And many a conference had he with her Majesty
upon this point. Some of which, on several
different occasions, shall be noted down from
the short memorandums he made of them in
his diary on the days that they happened.

Diary, 1704-5. Saturday, January 27. "I

was with the Queen again She again

fell a talking about the bill for qualifying people

300

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

to be elected ; and earnestly begged of me that
I would do what I could against it in our House.
She said she depended upon me. I told her,
I had as yet talked with nobody about this bill.
But she might be sure, if I was satisfied that
the passing of it would be prejudicial to the
Crown, I should oppose it."

Thursday, December 13, (1705). " She then
bespoke me to vote against the bill for exclud-
ing officers, which was that day to be brought
into the House of Commons. I gave her no
promise, but said I would consider."

Monday, December 9, 1706. " In the after-
noon I went to Kensington, to wait upon the
Queen. She pressed me earnestly to be on her
side in all matters that came before the Parlia-
ment relating to the prerogative She

desired I would not be governed by my friends
(meaning my Lord Nottingham* and that party)

* Her Majesty knew his attachment to that family, and the
reasons of it. He did all that was in his power to shew his
respect to all the descendants of his great patron. And the
Queen had many applications from him in their favour, and
many testimonies of his desire to serve them. And his friend-
ship and intimacy with the Earl of Nottingham (which was*
preserved to the last) would dispose her Majesty's ministers at
this time to be apprehensive that he would be governed by the
earl in his votes. But it appeared otherwise, as often as the
earl and he happened to differ in their sentiments, which they
did in several instances in the latter end of this reign, as well
as in some about this time.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 301

in my votes in Parliament. I told her, ' /
would always act according to the best sense I had.'
That I had a great duty to her Majesty ; that I
should always show myself a loyal subject ;
nay, and if she would give me leave to say it,
/ loved her; for which she thanked me. She
desired I would never promise my vote, till I
had acquainted her with my objections; she
said, ' I should be her confessor, and she would be
mine; and if she could not satisfy me, then I
should vote as I pleased.' I thanked her heartily
for this great favour and condescension, and
promised her, that I would consult her Majesty
in those things wherein she was concerned, be-
fore I voted against her inclinations. And I
desired no more than to be satisfied."

This passed when his Grace was just come
up out of the country to attend the session that
winter; and the next year, when he came to
town to the Parliament, her Majesty entered
upon the same topic.

1707. Monday, November 3. "I was just
come to town, and went to wait upon the Queen
and the Prince. I was received very kindly by
both of them. The Queen says, she will declare
the bishops for the vacancies in a little time,
and she will have some talk with me about it.
She hopes I will serve her this Parliament. She
seemed to intimate, that she was afraid of some

302 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

ruffles. I told her, she might be sure I would
always be her's ; but that I hoped she would
give me leave always to vote in Parliament
according to my sentiments. That I would
always act suitably to ray principles, or not
contradict them, or words to that effect. By
her talk I guess she fears least some of her mi-
nisters should be called to account."

Thursday, November 13. " She spoke to
me for my assistance or vote in matters that
were likely to come before the Parliament with
relation to the Admiralty. She said, that the
design was against Admiral Churchill, who was
one of the ablest men for that service that could
be found. I told her, as the merits of the cause
were, I should be able to determine how I
should act; that I would serve her in every
thing that I could, and if I met with any diffi-
culty, I should acquaint her first before I
engaged in any party."

Friday, November 21. " She again spoke to
me to be of her side as to my votes. I told her
I would in all cases where I could act honestly,
for that, next to God Almighty, I should desire
to please her, or to approve myself to her, I
know not which of the words I used."

1707-8. Monday, February 2. ff At Kensing-
ton the Queen pressed me to serve her in voting
against the bill to dissolve the Scotch council,

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 303

which is to come into the House on Thursday
next. I begged of her Majesty not to lay her
commands upon me, for I must vote according
to my judgment ; and according as I am satis-
fied what is for the interest of her Majesty and
of the kingdom, for I ivould make no distinction
betiveen them. I am at liberty whether I will
attend or no ; and if I attend, I mean to vote as I
judge best, however I may displease the queen.''
1708-9. Tuesday, January 18. " In the morn-
ing I went at eleven to the Queen (after much
business dispatched with her, it follows). When
I was coming away, she told me, she heard my
Lord Guernsey meant that day to bring in ques-
tion my Lord Duke of Dover's right of sitting
in our House, or rather her right to grant him
a patent to be duke, and desired my vote for
her prerogative. I asked her if that report did
not come from the Bishop of Sarum, which she
owned. I told her, that I did not know any
such thing. But that I believed that patent was
questioned by several, and perhaps my Lord
Guernsey might be one of them. As for me, I
should always serve her Majesty to the utmost
of my power ; but I must act according to my
judgment. That I did not yet understand on
which side the right was, but would well con-
sider of the debates, if that matter was brought
into the House."

304 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

To give but one passage more, and omit all
the rest, that are of the same strain.

1709-10. Friday, February 3. " I went to
the Queen at twelve o'clock, and staid prayers
with her. She then earnestly pressed me to
vote against the Bill of Officers, coming up
from the House of Commons ; and told me it
would look strange that I should be the only
bishop of the bench that voted for that bill,
which was so much against her prerogative. I
endeavoured to convince her it was a good bill.
But though I could not do that, yet I have
stuck to my point."

It will be very natural for those who consider
him as attached to a party, to interpret all these
reserves to his own judgment, as the effect of
a resolution not to drop or desert the Tories. Had
he indeed gone in with that party in every step,
this might have been more reasonably suspected.
But this was not the case, for he would not only
vote against them, but exert his interest too in op-
position to them, as often as he judged they were
taking wrong steps. Two pretty remarkable in-
stances of this shall here be given.

The first in the endeavours he used to prevent
the tack of the Occasional Conformity Bill to a
Money Bill, in 1704. He was entirely for bring-
ing in an act for preventing occasional confor-
mity, and espoused it whenever it was proposed ;

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 305

but had disapproved of that irregular way of
forcing it upon the House of Lords and the
ministry by a tack. And though it was a very
unusual thing with him to make use of his in-
terest in the House of Commons, yet, upon this
occasion, and also at the Queen's desire, he took
some pains to frustrate that design. And though
the party in the House of Commons put their whole
strength to the carrying this point (Burnet, vol.
II. p. 401), and were confident (as he told the
Queen), that their number was great enough to
carry it (see below, Diary) ; yet the event was,
as the writer of the Annals of Queen Anne tells
us on this occasion, " that, through a great pro-
vidence, the sticklers for the Bill were strangely dis-
appointed, above an hundred of those who before
used to vote with them, having deserted them on this
critical occasion."

And Bishop Burnet tells us, that upon the
division, 134 were for the tack, and 250 were against,
so that design was lost by those who had built all their
hopes upon it, and were now highly offended with
some of their own party, who had, by their opposi-
tion, wrought themselves into good places, and forsook
that interest to which they owed their advancement.
(Burnet, vol. II. p. 402.) But his Lordship,
when he assigned this reason, however true in
part, might not know that the Archbishop had
taken off several then in the House, to whom

306

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

his suggestion cannot possibly be applied ; by
treating with such as neither haA favour at Court,
or prospect from thence ; as Sir Bryan Stapleton,
Sir John Kay, Mr. Comers, &c. who were par-
ticularly influenced by the Archbishop himself,
and by his son, Mr. Sharp, then a member of
the House, in this affair.

But, at the same time that he joined with
the Court in his endeavours to prevent the tack,
he spoke with great freedom to the Queen about
the occasional bill itself. He told her (Diary),
" that they would (he believed) bring it in every
session till it was passed, and that it must pass
some time or other; that, if it did not, they
would fall upon my Lord Treasurer, in whose
power they thought it was to get it passed, if
he was so inclined; there being so many that had
dependance on him. That they were confident
their number was great enough to carry the
tack, and that he thought the true way to stop
it would be, that my Lord Treasurer should send
for any one of the leading members, and let
them know that if they would not attempt to
tack this bill, but let it come up to the House
of Lords by itself, he did promise them, that he
would do his endeavours with the Lords, that it
should pass. But (says he) / found she liked not
this proposal. I told her it was reported that
my Lord had the last session told some of the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 307

members as much as this comes to, viz. had
promised them, that he would this session use
his interest for the passing the bill. This the
Queen says was a mistake. I told her how good
a House of Commons she had this Parliament, and
that she ought if possible to oblige them in such
a thing as this, which I was very well satisfied
would quiet all.

"A good deal more passed between us about
this business. I freely spoke all my thoughts
to the Queen, and told her, I had made it my
business to represent her to every body as no
enemy to this bill ; and for that end I had taken
occasion to tell them what had passed between
her Majesty and me upon this occasion ; and I
begged her pardon if I had done amiss."

The other instance of his publicly declaring
against the Tory measures was in 1705, when
they proposed the calling over the Princess Sophia.
From the first time that this design was inti-
mated by the Earl of Rochester in the preced-
ing Parliament, he could never endure it, as
being in his apprehension calculated only to vex
the Queen and distract her councils. My Lord
Rochester indeed, as well as the Earl of Not-
tingham, then looked upon as the heads of the
Tory party, strongly espoused this invitation ;
and with these lords (says Bishop Burnet), by a
strange reverse, all the Tories joined, and by another

x 2

308 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHAKP.

and as strange a reverse, all the Whigs joined in
opposing it *■;. And this is represented by other
writers as the most remarkable instance of mere
party attachments that either this reign or the
former had produced. But let the Archbishop's
sense of this matter be represented in his own
words.

Diary —Wednesday, Oct. 24, 1705. " When
I came home to dinner, I found that a messen-
ger had been sent by the Queen to order me to
wait on her at five o'clock in the evening. Her
business was to tell me what she had heard.
That a motion would be made in our House to
send for the Princess of Hanover over, in pur-
suance of what my Lord Rochester had threat-
ened in a speech the last Parliament, and to
persuade me to use my interest with my friends
not to come into that motion ; which I readily
promised her, and told her, that I would always
oppose it, as looking upon that project to
proceed from nothing but a pique to her Ma-
jesty."

Saturday, October 27, 1705. ft I then went
to make a visit to my Lord Rochester, where I
talked with him about his speech the last Par-
liament, about calling in the heir of the House
of Hanover, which I took occasion to oppose as

* Burnet's History, vol. II. p. 430.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 309

a thing perfectly against my sense; and as a
thing that was very hard upon the Queen, and
seemed designed on purpose to pique her. But
he insisted upon the reasonableness of it in case
that we really meant the House of Hanover should
succeed after the Queen's death. For in that
case it was necessary the heir should be here
on the spot, otherwise it would be a mighty ad-
vantage to the Prince of Wales, who could pre-
sently land here with a French force. I opposed
this reasoning as well as I could ; and after-
wards went to the House, where the Queen
made her speech," &c.

Monday, November 12. " This morning the
Queen sent for me to come to her about eleven

o'clock It was, that she had heard the

business of the heir of Hanover would be moved
in both Houses, and therefore [she desired me
to take occasion, if I was talked to about it, to
tell every body my sense of it."

Thursday, November 15. " Then I went to
the House, where we staid till five o'clock at
night. The Queen was there. The debate was
about an address to the Queen, to call over the
Princess Sophia, or, as it was worded, the pre-
presumptive heir to the crown. After many
speeches, it was carried in the negative by a
great majority. All the bishops voted against
this address, except the Bishop of London (who

310 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

spoke likewise for it), and the Bishop of Bath
and Wells, who went out."

However, the motion had this effect, that it
produced a bill soon after, for the security
of the succession, by appointing lords justices of
England, impowered in the name of the succes-
sor to act as if the successor was present. This
Bill of Regency, notwithstanding it was moved
by the Lord Wharton, universally espoused by
the Whigs, and opposed by the leading Tories in
the House of Peers, he thoroughly approved of,
though in one clause of it he differed from the
ministry. " I was one of those (says he,) that
voted against my Lord Mayor's being one of
the justices ; in which vote I went with the
Court. But I was one of those who voted for
their being restrained from altering the Test
Acts, in which vote I was against the Court."

But however, her Majesty still suspected the
same motion would be made again the next
Parliament, as appears by the following memo-
randum.

1706. Monday, March 25. " At five o'clock
I went to Kensington to council. After the
council was over, the Queen took me aside, and
told me, as my Lord Treasurer had done before,
that she had apprehensions of the motion's being
renewed the next Parliament, of inviting over
the Princess Sophia into England. And there-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 311

fore she pressed me very earnestly, that I would
endeavour, in all my conversation, to discourage
that matter, and not barely to be silent in it. I
told her I was of the sentiments I was before ;
and should be ready to shew I was so upon all
occasions. She asked me if I had not once
expressed myself that I abhorred the thoughts of
it. I told her I could not remember the words,
but if her Majesty said I did use those words,
I could not doubt but I did."

Now it seems he had dropped such an ex-
pression to my Lord Treasurer Godolphin, as
he recollected afterwards, and marked it in his
diary.

These passages are brought together to con-
firm what was above observed, that he was
steady in this principle, to preserve his liberty
and discretion of voting in the House of Peers
free from the influence not only of •private friend-
ships (such as he confessedly had with the Lords
Nottingham, Rochester, Guernsey, &c), or of
the Court (where yet he had considerable favour
and interest), but also of party, considered as
such ; that is, so far as he deemed it mere faction
or opposition ; in which case he scrupled not to
declare himself fully against it. Indeed, it had
been impossible for him, without this temper,
notwithstanding the Queen's personal regard for
him, to have kept in so good correspondence as

312 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

he did, with the Court, during the whole admini-
stration of Lord Godolphin.

But there is no doubt his interest at Court
was principally owing to her Majesty's parti-
cular esteem for him, which, as it was the chief
reason that engaged his attendance there, and
made him in some sense a courtier, such at least
as she approved of, will deserve a more parti-
cular consideration here ; especially as he seems
to have been the only one that in the various
changes of councils and ministers, she never dis-
missed, nor, as far as appears, made any excep-
tions against, from the beginning of her reign
to his death, near the close of it.

It was immediately upon her accession to the
crown, that my Lord Nottingham, in a letter
wrote to him to persuade him to come up with-
out delay to pay his duty to the Queen (for he
was at that time in his diocese), uses these
words as his argument. " I ought to tell you I
have good reason to believe that your Grace is more
in her Majesty's favour and esteem, than any of
your order. And judge whether something more
than the ordinary respect of a subject is not due to
her from you." But, before this, he had taken
care by my Lord of Canterbury to send his
congratulations upon her accession ; which she
took very kind/y, and likewise gave him leave, at
his request, and on account of his then indispo-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 313

sition with the stone, not to attend at London
till the winter following.

However, the next time she saw my Lord of
Canterbury, she could not forbear suggesting
her desires, that the Archbishop of York should
not only attend the coronation, but preach too,
if possible, before her. My Lord of Canterbury
represented all this to him in a very kind letter,
dated March 28th ; to which he answered, April
1st, in the following words.

" My Lord,

" I had the favour of yours this
morning, wherein you tell me the Queen will
take it well if I attend the coronation on the
23d instant. God forbid that I should ever fail
in any thing whereby I can shew duty or pay
respect to her Majesty ; and therefore, if God
bless me with tolerable health, so much health
as to be able to perform the journey, I design
to wait upon her Majesty at that time. Indeed
I meant to have done it without this intimation,
notwithstanding her Majesty's gracious indul-
gence which you acquainted me with in your
last. For, upon second thoughts, I was sensible
it would be intolerable ill manners for me not
to pay my duty to the Queen upon so solemn
an occasion.

" As for what you further intimate, that I

314

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

must preach the coronation sermon, it confounds
me so that I know not what to say to it. On
one hand I am sensible it is a mighty honour
designed me, and I am infinitely obliged to her
Majesty, for having so good an opinion of me,
as to think me capable of discharging such a
work. Yet, on the other hand, my health is so
broken with cholics in my stomach, and stone
and strangury, that I am altogether unfit to go
about any work, and least of all such a business
as this. So that if her Majesty will please to
appoint any one else for this service, I do not
doubt it would be performed much more to her
satisfaction.

" But I do not say this with a design of de-
clining the service, if I thought I should be able
to go through with it. I have too great a honour
for her Majesty, not to take the least intimation
of her pleasure, to be a sufficient argument for
my obedience. And therefore I do mean to set
myself to make a sermon upon the occasion.
And I do likewise design to set out from hence
to London, on Monday, the 13th. But if any
thing happens in the meantime that renders me
incapable of prosecuting either the one design
or the other, I will give your Grace timely
notice.

I am, &c. &c.

" Jo. Ebor."

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

315

Presently after this, his fit of the stone re-
turned with some violence. But voiding the
stone at last, he became able, though with great
difficulty, to perform his journey ; and preached
both with more vigour and more acceptance,
than could well have been expected, considering
how he was disabled both in body and mind.

After this he had several conferences with her
Majesty about ecclesiastical matters ; and (says
he) " / thank God, I honestly spoke my thoughts
about things and persons. She promised that she
would not alter her list of chaplains. I did what
good offices I could to my Lord Canterbury, Lord
Norwich," &c. His stay in town was very short
upon this occasion. But, upon his return to
Parliament next winter, the Queen offered him
the almonry and a seat in the Privy Council, by
my Lord Treasurer. But he [entreated to be
excused from accepting either, especially the
former. He went to the Queen ; he prevailed
upon Lord Nottingham to intercede for him with
her ; but to no purpose, for,

1702, December 15th, " The Queen sent for
me, and again pressed me to take the almoner's
place. I refused it as much as I could ; but she
would not give over urging it ; and when I left
her, she bid me consider of it, and would not
take a denial. I afterwards met my Lord Trea-
surer at the Scotch Commission. He gave me
12

316

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP,

a paper containing that it was entirely necessary
for the Queen's service I should take this place.
I then got my Lord Nottingham to go once
more to the Queen, and get me off ; which he
promised to do, but endeavoured it in vain. So
that on Saturday morning I waited again upon
the Queen, and told her, if she would force me
to it, I must obey. I told her, I would take it
upon these terms, that she would dismiss me
with the first convenience. And that I should
have liberty to go into the country as I used to
do ; and that I should not have the care of pro-
viding for any more sermons than what fell while I
was in town ; but that in my absence she should
speak either to the dean of the chapel, or her
clerks of the closet, to take care of them."

Accordingly, on Friday, February 5th, he
received the Almoner's seal. And February 11th
he was sworn at the Chancery bar for the office
of Commissioner for the Scotch Union ; and March
20th following, he was sworn a privy counsellor,
with Lord Thanet and Lord Guernsey. And the
Queen afterwards told him, that she intended
to make him dean of her chapel, if the Bishop
of London should drop. And in every thing
shewed her inclination to oblige him as much
as she could. And he, for his part, made it
his endeavour to discharge his duty towards
her in the best manner, as her divine or

LITE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 317

casuist, with respect to her spiritual concerns ;
as a good bishop, with regard to ecclesiastical
affairs, and as a faithful counsellor m state points.

In the first of these capacities, as her pastor,
she trusted very much to his fidelity and skill.
She not only allowed him to enter with her into
warm discourses about religion, which he often
did, when he found proper opportunities for it ;
but she would send for him on purpose to dis-
course with her on practical duties, especially
before she received the sacrament ; and lament
to him upon some occasions, that she was really
so taken up with business, that she had not time to
say her prayers. The particulars of these dis-
courses were not always noted down by him in
his diary, but only mentioned in general. " At
this conference I said to her a great many things
about religion." December 31, 1705. Or, " I
talked sundry matters with the Queen, but
chiefly religious." Or, " I had a great deal of
talk with her about the preparation for receiving
the sacrament." Or, " I had a good deal of talk
with her about the exercise of devotion." Or,
" All our talk was about religion, the difference
between wilful sins and sins of infirmity, and
sins of ignorance ; about preparing for the sacra-
ment ; about saying one's prayers, &c. In short,
I was sent for to-night purely as a confessor."

March 30, 1711. " After chapel I went up
to the Queen (she having sent me orders by a

318 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

footman so to do). Her business was to talk with
me about her receiving the sacrament on Easter
day," &c. And he would charge things which
he thought amiss very home upon her, if they
were such as pertained to her conscience. As
in the case of the Savoy Hospital, where, upon
a visitation, the four chaplains had been deprived
by an order of the Lord Keeper. July 31, 1702.
" / took occasion, from the naming of the Savoy
( this was in November, 1707, ) to tell her Majesty
of the sad condition of that hospital, which was now
desolated by a decree of the Lord Keeper Wright's ;
and that she ought to restore it again ; nay, and to
refund all the money she had received from it, for it
was sacrilege to touch those revenuesT

He spoke often and freely to her about me-
thods of restraining the licentiousness of the
town, of regulating the play-houses ; of the hurt
done to city apprentices, &c. by the plays on Sa-
turday nights ; of shops kept open on Good Friday,
and other indecencies of that sort, which he
thought it became the government to prevent.
And then, as to her other affairs of a public
nature, whether civil or ecclesiastical, she ad-
mitted him to an intimate participation in her
counsels. In things relating to the Church, he
was her principal and guide. In matters of state,
he was her confident; one to whom she could
disclose her thoughts at all times, and in whose
faithfulness and friendship she could entirely

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 319

trust; though she could not always depend
upon his judgment in those matters. For, as was
before 'observed, he was a stranger to all that
sort of politics which consists in intrigues, ca-
bals, and party schemes; and would have no-
thing to do with the struggles of the other cour-
tiers and great men striving to surmount each
other, not so much in her Majesty's favour, as
in the great offices and posts in the government.
When her Majesty was pleased to acquaint him
beforehand with any of her designed changes in
the ministry, he would give her his advice very
freely. And when alterations were made with-
out his privity, and when he was absent in his
diocese, he would as freely speak his mind to
her about them after they were made*.

He quite disapproved of her giving herself up
to the conduct of any ministry or set of men
whatsoever ; and the more so, when she took
into favour those whom he knew she disliked; or
when she suffered herself to be prevailed with
to do any thing inconsistent with her former de-
clarations. These things consisted not with his

* " Cut bono?" For some persons may incline to think, that
there was more of honest temerity than of seasonable freedom
in such backward proudness to utter his mind, the changes
being effected without asking his advice. But the good Arch-
bishop, as he cannot now suffer by his plain dealing, so, were
he living, probably could answer the query. Perhaps the
Queen liked the compliment to her understanding, implied in
such " free speech." — Editor.

320

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

politics, how well soever they might pass at
Court. And when he was expostulating with
her on such occasions, and sometimes using
what he calls " very hard words," as, Poor Queen!
that he truly pitied her .... and prayed God to in-
spire her with more courage .... that such or such
things were a reflection on her government ; or owing
to the influence of those who govern you, madam,
and govern us all, or the like ; her Majesty would
then sometimes vindicate her proceedings, and
at others look grave and be silent. But he never
could perceive that she was in the least angry
with him, for this his frankness in declaring his
mind ; or that she was the more reserved to-
wards him in communicating her own designs
and thoughts. And^she had indeed this admira-
ble temper and disposition (which in a princess
is the more extraordinary and valuable), that
she could not bear any thing that looked like flattery,
but could allow and bear well with plain-dealing,
though it were such as could not be agreeable
to her on any other account but for the sincerity
of it, and the true friendship it denoted. Of
this he had abundant proof from what he ob-
served in many of his conversations with her.
And though what he said himself to her could
not furnish him with any evidence of her dislike
of compliment, yet he had proof of it on other
occasions, and in some instances where it was
known only to himself.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

321

One was, that when his friend, Dr. More,
then Bishop of Norwich, was publishing King
William's Prayers* to be used before the Com-
munion, with a preface, in which her Majesty
was spoken of in a very deserving, and what she
feared, too deserving a manner, and he ac-
quainted her with my Lord's design, she desired,
that if he would publish it, he would leave out all
that concerned her in it.

Another was, when she put into his hands the
new form of prayer for the inauguration office,
for his perusal and amendments, she insisted
upon his striking out one expression in that pe-
tition which relates to God's making her a mother
of children, who, being brought up in thy fear, and
taught by her example; these last words, taught
by her example, she begged might be erased,
which was accordingly done, and some other
amendments made by him of lesser moment.

Her Majesty had likewise another quality,
exceedingly commendable and becoming her
station ; and that was, her readiness in acknow-
ledging every body's liberty to judge for them-
selves, and in making all reasonable allowances
for those who could not think of her affairs as
she did. This moderation in her he often expe-

* These were composed by Archbishop Tillotson, and were
printed at the end of his posthumous works by I>r. Barker.
Vol. xiv. 8vo.

322 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

rienced, as might be observed in what was said
above, about his voting in Parliament. Here
follows a passage or two more to the same pur-
pose. After a close expostulation with her
about the measures she had lately taken, he
adds,

" I had a great deal of talk more of this kind.
I assured her that I loved her, and would do her
all the service that I could. Nay, and if she
should use me ill, I should always behave my-
self as a dutiful subject. She told me she hoped
I would always do what she desired. I told her
if she desired reasonable things, I would. She
said, she would desire no other. I answered, I
must be satisfied in my own judgment, that they
were reasonable, for I acted upon principles,
and must satisfy my own conscience. She over
and over again desired me to endeavour to allay
differences, and to contribute my endeavours
that things in this Parliament might go on
peaceably and smoothly." .... Again ; " I took
occasion to assure her of my own fidelity and
sense of her favours, but told her I could not
come into all her measures. She told me she
never desired any body to vote against their conscience,
even at her request"

And with respect to the bishops particularly,
she told him (it was upon the nomination of
Dr. Bull to St. David's, March 6, 1704-5), " that

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 323

she should always desire that the bishops she put in
should vote on the side that they who call themselves
the Church party do vote on"

Had her resolution been equal to her judg-
ment, several difficulties, and perhaps some
blemishes, in her administration had been pre-
vented. She declared to his Grace, more than
once, that she would neither be in the hands of the
Whigs nor of the Tories. And when she, of her
own accord, gave him the early notice (it was
on December 16, 1707), that she meant to change
her measures, and give no countenance to the Whig
Lords, but that all the Tories, if they would, should
come in" she added, "and all the Whigs likewise,
that would show themselves to be in her interests,
should have favour"

But though some particulars that passed be-
tween her Majesty and his Grace concerning
the two parties and their respective principles
and behaviour (upon which subject her Majesty
would sometimes deliver her sentiments with
that freedom that intimate friends take, and
which she used with him in talking about persons
as well as things ;) are here purposely omitted,
as not relating immediately to his Grace, and as
being of no consequence to the world, and like-
wise for other reasons given in the preface ; yet
it seems to be a piece of justice due to her Ma-
jesty's memory (and this appears to be the most

y 2

324 LTFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

proper place for doing it) to declare to the
world, and accordingly it is here solemnly affirmed,
that in all their private conversations, as they
appear in the Diary, there is not the least ground
to suspect, that her Majesty was not fully satis-
fied in the Act of Settlement, and firmly attached
to the present Constitution and Establishment,
both in Church and State ; nor is there the least
intimation or suggestion of any kind for the interests
of the Pretender. And but a single passage in
which their discourse occasionally turned upon
him, and that too upon his Grace's own motion,
who seemed designedly to sound her sentiments
and inclinations upon the subject, that he might
do her justice among those who appeared to be
jealous of her. The entire passage is this.

1708-9. Saturday, February 5. " I had a
great deal of talk about public affairs. I told
her that the great jealousy of the nation was,
that some people were too much inclined to the
Prince of Wales. That all our fears were about
Popery, and the eluding the Protestant succes-
sion, as established by law. She declared, that
she verily believed all sorts of people in the
nation, whether Whigs or Tories, were inclined
to the Hanover family, as is settled by law.
And that she knew none of her ministers, but were
in the same interest. I am sure I interpreted her
words to this sense. She seemed to adhere to

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 325

the Protestant settlement, and seemed to have
no manner of doubt about it, though I insinu-
ated that all our jealousies did proceed from
some of her ministers ; and from the little care
that was taken at the last invasion for the sup-
pression of it. But she answered all this, and
urged the address of Parliament, of thanks for
the care that had been taken."

No doubt he was fully satisfied with this de -
claration. And if afterwards he had either heard
any thing from her, or observed any thing about
her, so long as he had the honour and happiness
to be near her, that should lead him in the least
to suspect any alteration of her sentiments or
inclination in this point, it can hardly be con-
ceived (considering the great freedoms he took
in his discourses with her about affairs which
he judged of importance to the Church and
nation), either that he should have been
silent to her, or should not have minuted his confer-
ence with her on that subject, as he has done in
the place above recited. Whereas no such thing
appears in his notes, to the very last day (May,
10, 1713), when he took his final leave of her
Majesty, being disabled the winter following
from waiting upon her in town. It was observed
above, with what difficulties and under what
sort of composition, he accepted the Almoner's
place. But he found it not only more trouble-

326 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

some than he expected, but the Queen more
earnest and desirous to retain him in that office,
and have him about her. He found trouble and
delays in procuring from the Treasury the money
allotted for the almonry. And when that was
in arrear, he would lend the Queen, and some-
times borrow out of her privy purse, what was
sufficient to supply the demands of her pen-
sioners. He told her once, that " if my Lord
Treasurer would not pay up his arrears, it would be
necessary for them to shut up shop, for they should
have no money for the Maundy.'' He used to tell
her, in a pleasant way, that " she owed him so
much;" which she would generally pay him
with her own hands ; and for a specimen of her
private charity through his hand, let us take
one of his computations of all that he had re-
ceived from her Majesty in a winter.

April 25, 1711. " I have been casting up
what money I have received of the Queen since
my coming to town till this day. And find I had of
her 270 guineas; and sofne time after Christmas
100 guineas. On February 24th, I had 70 guineas;
on March \bth, 100 guineas; March 27th, 5 gui-
neas; at Easter, 400 guineas and 100/." And after-
wards, before he left London, 150/. more. In all,
1237/. 5s.

And then the providing preachers before her
Majesty, was another thing that gave him trou-

LIFE OK ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 327

ble, because he found it difficult to do it without
sometimes giving offence. For, though he avoided
doing so as much as he could, yet exceptions
could be taken for very small matters, which
came not into his Grace's considerations in the
appointment of an able man for that service ;
such as the preacher's being reputed an high man,
and not so acceptable to the then ministry.
Which is not so much to be wondered at, when
it was objected to a very learned and pious
prelate, whom he substituted to supply one of
his own courses, that he would be unacceptable,
having voted for the Princess of Hanover s being
invited over, whereas his Grace, though himself
against that vote, had no thought of making so
trivial a thing an exception to his being a
preacher. And then, if any thing happened to
be taken amiss in a sermon, he was pretty sure
to hear of it, and obliged to apologize either for
his clerk or for his choice, which he thought the
harder upon him, because he observed that he
himself could not always escape the censure of
the audience.

1706. December 16. Monday. " In the after-
noon I went to Kensington, where I had a long
private discourse with the Queen After-
wards about providing preachers for her in my
course. 1 represented the hardness of it to her,
unless I might use her name. She said it belonged

328 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

to my place. She asked me why I would not
preach myself at Christmas, and the next inau-
guration day. I told her I could not, for I was
grown old, and past making new sei^mons. And
besides, I told her I had no reason to be forward
in preaching before her, because I found the
last sermon I preached gave offence to some of
the auditory. She would not believe it." Nor
would any body believe it who knew how cau-
tious he was in his sermons at Court, least they
should give offence ; for which reason they were
generally practical. We have an instance of this
his superabundant care in the time of Sacheve-
rell's trial. He preached a sermon he had com-
posed on Ephesians iv. 1. But he left out the
former part of the text, / the prisoner of the
Lord beseech you; upon which he had a fine and
pathetical introduction, for fear he should be
thought in that preface to touch upon Dr. Sa-
cheverell.

But his greatest trouble, and what he told
the Queen was a torment to him, was the inces-
sant application that was made to him from all
parts for some share of her Majesty's bounty.
He had so much tenderness in his nature, that
he was not able to refuse his endeavours to suc-
cour the distressed. And his applications to
her Majesty were so frequent on their behalf,
as had not her disposition been exceedingly

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 329

beneficent, must have tired out her patience.
No wonder then he was so solicitous to get rid
of this troublesome office.

1704. Tuesday, November 14. "I told her I
hoped that between this and next year, some
new bishop might be made, to whom I might
resign the Almoner's office. She smiled, and
said, ' I must not, or I hope not,' or some such
word."

1706. Monday, December 9. " In the after-
noon I went to Kensington, to wait upon the
Queen. Afterwards I begged of her to think
of some one to be put into my place of Almoner.
For that I was weary of and incapable of serv-
ing it. And that I had done all that I promised,
which was to take it for a year or two, till she
was better provided. And I was sure there
were enow she might pitch upon, and begged
of her to advise with my Lord Treasurer and
my Lord Marlborough. I mentioned particularly
the Bishop of Norwich, for whom she declared
she had a kindness. But the Queen would not
hear of my quitting this place, notwithstanding
all that I said."

At other times he spoke to the same purpose.
March 25, 1706. Twice in the year 1707, he
offered to resign (April 21,) his seal; and the
second time " he did it upon his knees. But she
ivouldnot accept of it ; though ( he says) she expressed

330

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

great kind)iess to him, and said, that she had not
heard any ill representation of him."

On March 8, 1709-10, he offered it again,
alledging, " that he had no other consideration
that prevailed with him to continue in it, but
the prospect he had of doing good to the Church
and to worthy persons, by recommending them
to her. She told him he should not quit his
post."

But, as desirous as he was to resign his seal,
two things should be remarked, the first is, that
so long as he kept it, he would not suffer the
Almoner's rights or privileges in the least to be
invaded. The Lord Chamberlain claimed some
right of presenting two Maundy women, and
had firmly asserted it. " But I (says he) per-
sisted in denying it ; and March 19, 1706-7, icould
have made him see clearly, that neither he nor any
body else could have a right so long as I had the
Queen s patent . But I told him, I icould be as civil
to him as my predecessors had been."

The other is, that he would not offer to resign
his seal at any time, when he might be sus-
pected to be moved to it by the influence of
party. Thus, in 1705, October 25, " The Duke
of Buckingham told him, he wondered to hear that he
had not resigned his almoner's place." And in 1708,
April 15, discoursing with the Queen, " I had
some talk (says he) about Mrs. Masham, whom I

LIFE OF AUCHBISHOP SHARP. 331

find she hath a true kindness for. She seemed to be
pleased that I would not at this time offer to resign
my office till I was turned out. At least at present
she said she would not turn me out."

Her Majesty never seemed, except at this
particular time, to have had any thoughts about
removing him from her immediate service. And
though she had some such thoughts then, yet
she took care to let him see she had no such
inclinations, whatever part the necessities of
state might oblige her to act. She had formerly
signified her desires to him, that he should
never be parted from her, as in 1704-5, Wed-
nesday, March 21. He had taken occasion
before her to speak " what a world of good a cler-
gyman might do by applying himself wholly to the
making people good." He added, " I told her I
hoped in a little time I should be excused from
meddling in any state matters ; and that I should
have time to apply myself to the same work.
She told me, she hoped that would never be as
long as I lived. And indeed all his life long she
expressed herself with so much kindness and
affection for him, as shewed this declaration to
be sincere. His Grace could not help taking
notice sometimes of the particular courtesy
wherewith she treated him ; especially at their
salutations, when he came to town, and their
adieus when he left it. Thus, October 2, 1705,

332 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

" She treated me with all the kindness and freedom
that ever she did in her life. She told me she
hoped all was quiet at York. I told her (plea-
santly), ' Yes, we were there most of us Whigs.'"

March 25, 1706. " I desired her commands
into the country, and pleasantly asked her whe-
ther I might leave the town with a good con-
science, that I was not under her Majesty's
displeasure. She assured me I was not."

In the year that the prince died, he made
his first visit the day after the funeral.

November 14, 1708. " I waited upon the
Queen, who received me very kindly. We both
wept at my first coming in. She is in a very
disconsolate condition. I said all that I could
by way of comfort to her. She asked after my
health, and hath given me leave to come to her
whenever I please."

And at their last farewell. May 10, 1713.
'* She parted with me," says he, '■'with all the ex-
pressions of kindness and good wishes that could be."

But perhaps the greatest mark of her esteem
and friendship for him was given by her after
his death, in the immediate appointment of the
man whom he desired to be his successor.
There was no favour she could have obliged him
in equal to this. Sir William Dawes was a
person, whom, for his very great worth and
abilities, and inviolable attachment to the hi-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 333

terests of the Church of England, his Grace had
adopted in his wishes to succeed him in his
pastoral charge. For he was a man of gravity
and prudence, of decency and courtesy, of
singular presence of mind, of extraordinary re-
solution and constancy, and yet of a moderate
and cool spirit, and of exemplary regularity
and exactness in all parts of life. And he had
moreover a very strong and vigorous constitu-
tion, which fitted him to execute with ease the
most laborious parts of the episcopal function,
which in Archbishop Sharp's judgment was of
no small moment in the choice of a bishop. Upon
these considerations (not to mention Sir Wil-
liam's other natural and personal advantages,
viz. a tenacious memory, a graceful mien, a fine
address, and a sweet elocution). He drew the
Queen's affections upon that baronet. And
having first procured him the bishopric of Ches-
ter, and made experiment of his prudence and
assiduity in the management of that large dio-
cese, he made the way more easy for his re-
moval from thence to the metropolis of the
province.

It was said above, that in the affairs of the
Church he was her Majesty's principal guide.
This is in good measure true, with respect only
to ecclesiastical promotions, though more evi-
dently so in other Church affairs, as will be

334 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

shewn hereafter. At present let it be observed,
that the interest that he had with her Majesty
he chiefly employed in procuring preferments
for learned and worthy men; or at least her
bounty for such of them as were in distress.
He had been formerly, as was related above, an
useful friend to men of literature and merit,
while he was chaplain to Lord Chancellor
Finch, and recommended to preferments in the
gift of the seals, and no less so in the commis-
sion* appointed by King William for approving
and recommending to his Majesty fit persons to
succeed in the Crown preferments ; in which
he was joined with my Lord of Canterbury,
and the Bishops of Ely, Sarum, &c. And the
same desire of providing the Church with able
men, prompted him to labour this point with
the Queen ; in which he had more success than
any one man in her reign, though not so much
as he might have expected, could she always
have followed her own judgment or inclination.
For her ministry were constantly interposing and
directing her in the disjwsal of eccclesiastical pre-
ferments, as well as of civil and military offices.
So that frequently she was not at liberty to
yield to his influence, and follow his advice.

* The first commission was granted April 6, 1695. And
a new one was granted, May 9, 1 700, which Mr. Le Neve has
printed in his Lives and Characters, &c.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

335

Yet this regard was had to him, notwith-
standing, that the Queen would rarely give
her promise without his advice, and, generally
speaking, consent first obtained. And he did
not prove unworthy, either of this her Ma-
jesty's confidence in him, or condescension to-
wards him. For he neither would oppose any
man of real worth, upon account of party dis-
tinctions; nor would he consent to her preferring
any man whose religious principles or morals
were ill spoken of or suspected, though he were
otherwise of great abilities, useful to the minis-
try, or favoured at Court. He had remarkable
struggles with great men upon this score, but
he held to his point, and he prevailed, at least
as to the promotions in England. He could not
bear she should give her preferments to persons
who had no other merit, no other title to her
favour, than their zeal for a party. And he
thought it hard (and used to tell her Majesty so),
that men of known virtue and learning should
not share in these favours, purely because they
fell under the denomination of party men. He
laid before " her the ill consequences she would find
if she made distinctions of persons as to high and
low Church, in the disposal of her Church prefer-
ments.'''' He must mean, if she made party her
only or principal rule in the bestowing those
preferments. For at one time (as he observes) \

336

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

she refused persons, as he thought, for being Tories.
(1705.) At another time, when he recommended,
the reason given for the refusal was, that the
person he proposed was a notorious Whig. (1713.)
He imagined she might depend upon the good-
ness of her own judgment as to the worth and
fitness of persons, if she would but make use
of it. And told her, when he proposed several
to her for a vacant bishopric, " that whether she
put in any of his naming or no, she should put in
one of her own choice, and not have one put upon
her by others." It is true, that most of those
who succeeded in preferments through his
friendship were reputed Tories. Yet his ap-
plications for his own friends were made with
all the justice and fairness that could be to
the characters of those of the other party, who
happened to have the same preferments in view.
For instance, when the living of St. James's
was void by the promotion of Dr. Wake, his
Grace proposed Dr. Moss as a Jit person for it;
and the Queen told him, She had thoughts of him
herself ; yet Dr. Trimnel being occasionally
mentioned, he gave her a very good character of
him*. In which, though he did no more than

* He had before said to my Lord Sunderland, in a letter,
June 14, 1703. " / heartily wish Dr. Trimnel had some good
preferment in the Church; for he well deserves it, and indeed I
do not hww a better man. If my good character of him to her

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

337

what was just, yet probably Dr. Trimnel was
more obliged to him for this lift, than to all the
interest that was made by his other friends. And
the same may be said of the great Bishop Bull,
of whose late promotion, though the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury seemed to claim the
merit, yet she told the Archbishop of York,
that " She would not have done it, but for the great
character he had given her before of this Dr. Bull."
He indeed did not rightly approve of this pro-
motion, on account of the doctor's great age.
He thought his merit should have been rewarded
some other way ; and as it was a reflection on
the government, that a man of such worth should
not be earlier preferred, so it might prove a
detriment to the Church, that he was preferred
so late. And as to Dr. Beveridge, who natu-
rally occurs to the mind upon the mention of
age and learning among the English bishops,
his Grace reminded the Queen, " that her father
King James had in her hearing declared him to be the
learnedst man we had in our Church." He delighted
indeed in giving her Majesty good characters of
her clergy, and would never give a bad one,
though true, unless the interest of the Church
obliged him to do so. He used to grieve and

Majesty can add any thing to her Grace's (viz. the Duchess of
Marlborough,) recommendation, I am not only ready, but shall
be glad to give it at all times."

338

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

complain of the strange misrepresentations which
he observed were made to the Queen, of persons
who deserved her favour and countenance. He
set her right as often as he had opportunity,
and would sometimes " have (as he says) warm
talk with her about those who made false representa-
tions of persons to her Majesty."

And he had some reason too to expostulate
with her on this head, upon his own account,
for there were some who had endeavoured to
represent him to her Majesty, as not being true
to her interests, as both my Lord Godolphin
and my Lord Marlborough had acquainted him,
though the Queen herself took no notice of it,
nor seemed to receive the least impressions to
his prejudice.

But to proceed to his other acts and services
for the benefit of the clergy, and honour of the
Church of England. In all ecclesiastical affairs
during the Queen's reign, he was principally
consulted, and as he applied himself more
closely to those as being most properly within
his sphere, so his application generally met with
success, and turned to good account. The point
that claims to be first considered under this
head was, that glorious and ever-memorable
act of the Queen's reign, commonly called her
Bounty.

The thought was originally from Bishop Bur-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 339

net in the late reign, as is related in his life,
much to his honour. His lordship drew up two
memorials upon it, which he presented to the
King, one in 1696, and the other in the year
following; copies of which the Princess of
Denmark obtained ; and she also seconded his
motion to the King; but it did not then suc-
ceed. His Lordship afterwards made Lord So-
mers a friend to this scheme, and likewise the
Earl of Godolphin, who (as the author of Bishop
Burnet's Life observes) afterwards carried this
design into execution. And this he did with the
assistance of the Archbishop of York, to whom
he gave the first intimation of her Majesty's
disposition to give back the first fruits and
tenths to the Church, on the 6th of January,
1703-4. And also gave him hopes, that upon
application of the bishops to her Majesty, some-
thing of that kind might be effected. Upon
which he went to the Queen, January 10, and
spoke to her upon that head, where he met
with a disposition equal to his desires, only she
thought it was better not to make the design
public till the manner of executing it was in some
measure adjusted with my Lord Treasurer. Which
being done, the following message was agreed
upon between my Lord Treasurer and the Arch-
bishop, to be sent to the House of Commons,
then sitting.

z 2

340

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

" Anne R.

" Her Majesty having taken into her serious
consideration the mean and insufficient mainte-
nance belonging to the clergy in divers parts of
this kingdom, to give them some ease, has been
pleased to remit the arrears of the tenths to the
poor clergy. And for an augmentation of their
maintenance, her Majesty is pleased to declare,
that she will make a grant of her whole reve-
nues arising out of first fruits and tenths, so far
as it now is, or shall become, free from incum-
brances, to be applied to this purpose. And if
the House of Commons can find any proper
method by which her Majesty's good intentions
to the poor clergy may be made more effectual,
it will be a great advantage to the public, and
very acceptable to her Majesty. St. James's,
February 7, 1703-4."

This message was on the same day delivered
to the House by Mr. Secretary Hedges, and
was well received, most of the members having
been apprised of it before. The Archbishop
had upon this occasion turned solicitor, and
applied personally to Sir Thomas Pelham, Sir
Richard Onslow, Sir Simon Harcourt, Sir
Christopher Musgrave, Sir John Holland, Mr.
Bromley, Mr. St. John's, and others, who were
leading men. The same he did also in the
House of Lords, where there was rather more

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

341

occasion ; lor there the bill bore a long debate,
and was carried only by a small majority. " The
Bill for applying the tenths and first fruits" fyc.
says he, " was committed to a committee of the whole
House. We had a long debate about it. The Whig
Lords, and some of the Tories, about four, opposed
it. All the bishops were unanimous for it. I spoke
twice in it. We carried it by seven votes, the non-
contents being 27 ; the contents, 34."

In the meantime the Convocation were very
early in their address of thanks to her Majesty
for her gracious message to the House of Com-
mons. And it was thought proper, that the
Archbishop and Bishops of the province of
York should join with them in the address upon
that occasion. Whereupon he was pitched upon
to present it ; my Lord of Canterbury being at
that time disabled from going abroad. But this
created an unexpected difficulty upon both the
archbishops. For it was suggested to his Grace,
at Lambeth, that his appointment of the other
archbishop to appear at the head of the bishops
and Convocation of the province of Canterbury,
was giving up his rights, and what he could not
do, having, by an instrument of substitution,
appointed the Bishop of Worcester to represent
him in Convocation. And therefore that bishop
was to present the address. This my Lord of
Canterbury signified to the Archbishop of York

342 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

by letter, who was very willing to decline the
office that had been allotted him, least he should
seem desirous to invade a jurisdiction in which
he was not concerned. But it so happened that
the Bishop of Worcester could not be prevailed
upon to present the address himself; which
occasioned a second letter from Lambeth, to
contradict the purport of the former, and to
acquaint the Archbishop of York, that it was
now necessary for him to head the Convocation,
that being the day on which the address was
ordered to be presented : my Lord of York not
knowing what use would be made out of his
engaging again to perform that office, by those
who had instilled the former jealousies into his
Grace of Canterbury, wrote the following letter
to the Archbishop.

" February 14, 1703-4.

" My Lord,

" I had the favour of your Graces
letter by your servant, which indeed so sur-
prised me, that I was not sorry the business of
the Lords' House this day offered so fair an
occasion of getting the Queen to put off the
presenting our address till to-morrow. My Lord
Treasurer was pleased to undertake that matter,
and accordingly was gone to the Queen before
I had your second letter by the Bishop of Wor-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 343

cester. I suppose it was his Lordship's unwil-
lingness, or rather refusal, to present the ad-
dress, together with the straightness of time,
for the taking new measures, that inclined your
Grace so to alter your sentiments, as to desire
me in your second letter to present the address.
But now, my Lord, as it has happened, you
have time enough to settle that matter as you
please.

" I beg of you, therefore, if the Bishop of
Worcester persists in his refusal, that your
Grace would be pleased, some time to-morrow,
to send your deputation to the Bishop of Lon-
don (who will be in the House to-morrow, and
who in your Graces absence may expect such a sub-
stitution ), or to any other of the bishops whom
you shall think fit to attend the Queen with the
address of your Convocation.

"I assure your Grace, it never entered into
my thoughts to break into your Grace's jurisdic-
tion, by putting myself above your substitute
in any matter relating to your Province. But
since your bishops designed this as the address
of thanks of all the bishops of England, and
accordingly worded it so in the address ; and
told me, that I must present it, and the Lower
House made no objection to it; I made no
scruple of sending to Mr. Tillot for a copy of it.
But I hope there is yet no harm done, and

344 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

that there may be none done, I humbly desire
your Grace to order somebody else to carry it
to the Queen, only altering the title by putting
Archbishop, instead of "Archbishops ■," and leaving
out "of the Church of England."

" I am, your Grace's

"Most humble servant, &c."

But nevertheless, the next day, February 15,
upon repeated instances from my Lord of Can-
terbury, and to prevent any miscarriage on such
an occasion, and to preserve the appearance of
unanimity in the Convocation at that juncture,
he undertook the presentation of the address,
and read it accordingly to her Majesty.

And that the clergy of his own Province
might not be wanting in their compliments on
the same occasion, he himself drew up the fol-
lowing address for the Convocation at York, and
presented it to the Queen in their name, on the
last day of the same month.

" May it please your most excellent Majesty,
" We the clergy of the province of
York, in Convocation assembled, do, for our-
selves, and on the behalf of all our brethren of
the same province, who were present, humbly
beg leave to throw ourselves at your Majesty's
feet, in most hearty and thankful acknowledg-
ments of your Majesty's most pious and affec-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 345

tionate care for the Church of England, ex-
pressed in your late message to the House of
Commons ; wherein your Majesty is graciously
pleased to declare that you will give your whole
ecclesiastical revenue of first fruits and tenths,
as it shall become free from incumbrances, to
be applied to the augmentation of poor benefices
throughout England.

" We cannot forbear saying, that your Ma-
jesty has, in this surprising instance of your
kindness for the Church, outdone all your pre-
decessors since the Reformation. They took
care that our holy religion should be purged
from the errors and superstitions with which
Popery had corrupted it ; and they took care
likewise, that it should be so transmitted to us.
And for this their memories will be for ever
blessed. But your Majesty not only takes care
to preserve our religion in the same purity, and
to protect our Church in all its legal rights and
privileges ; but has farther taken care also, that
the minister of it shall in due time have a com-
petent maintenance. The want of which pro-
vision was indeed the great if not the only ble-
mish of our Reformation ; and therefore doubly
blessed will your Majesty's memory be in all
succeeding generations.

" As we are sure that this pious and charita-
ble act of your Majesty is highly acceptable to

346

LIFE OK ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

God, who fails not to recompense even a cup of
cold water given to a prophet in the name of a pro-
phet ; so we cannot but hope it will have such
an effect upon all your Majesty's subjects who
love our Church and religion, and especially
upon us of the clergy ; that we shall endeavour
more and more (if it be possible) to express
our zeal for your Majesty's service. And par-
ticularly we shall think ourselves obliged every
day to put up our most earnest prayers to God
Almighty for your Majesty's long life and happy
reign over us. And that for this exceeding
good work he would add an abundant increase
to the glorious rewards that we doubt not are
laid up for you in the heavenly kingdom."

To which her Majesty returned the following-
answer, drawn up likewise for her by the same
hand.

" Gentlemen, I take your address very kindly.
It is my desire that all the clergy should have
a comfortable maintenance, especially those of
them who faithfully do their duties to God and
the Church. Such it shall always be my care
to support and encourage."

My Lord Halifax was pleased to observe to
him, upon this answer of her Majesty's, " We
know," says he, " what the Queen means in her
answer to your York address ; but we cannot so well
understand her answer to that of the Convocation here."

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 347

He continued very active in whatever related
to the completing this design; as, in the dis-
patch of the charter, providing a place for the
commissioners, attending regularly and con-
stantly himself, &c. Nor was he wanting in his
solicitations for the like bounty to the clergy of
Ireland. He presented their petition to her
Majesty on March 13, following; in which they
besought her to be as kind to them, in granting
her ecclesiastical revenues there, as she had
been here in England.

And when difficulties arose to some private
clergymen, on the grant of the bounty, from
the Attorney-General's opinion, that it was not
proper to do any act which might lessen the Queens
gift ; and therefore my Lord Treasurer doubted
whether it were proper to remit the arrears of
tenths, which from some persons were consi-
derable, he interposed in behalf of the clergy
in arrear, " and alleged that the forgiving their
debt could not be a lessening of the general gift,
since the general gift was only designed for the ease
and benefit of particular men. That, as he took it,
the Queens grant had only respected the tenths and
first fruits that were to become due after passing the
act, but did not extend to the arrears of them. That
the discharging the arrears of abundance of the poor
clergy was necessary, especially such as were con-
tracted before their incumbency." And in another

348 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

letter to my Lord Treasurer, dated June 19,
1703, he has these words: — " I was in hopes,
before this time, to have heard of a privy seal
for the pardoning all the arrears of tenths due
from livings not above 30/. per annum. Good
my Lord, give me leave to put you in mind of
this." He pressed this matter both to the Queen
and Lord Treasurer with some warmth. And
no doubt the indigent clergy were exceedingly
obliged to him for it.

Another ecclesiastical affair, and of public
concern, upon which he was consulted and
employed, was the healing up the divisions
between the upper and lower House of Con-
vocation for the province of Canterbury. In
1700 and the two following years, differences
and disputes about convocat'tonal rights and 'pro-
ceedings had been carried on with some ve-
hemence. Several papers, pro and con, had
been published, and several able and great men
had been concerned on both sides. Some as-
serting the right of the Archbishop of Canter-
bury, with his suffragans, to continue or pro-
rogue the lohole Convocation ; others maintain-
ing the liberty of the lower clergy, as having
a right to convene and to dispatch, or rather
prepare matters in the intermediate days of
prorogations; and others challenging to them
an independent power of sitting, and rising,

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

349

and adjourning themselves at discretion. These
disputes having run a great length, the Lower
House petitioned they might have leave to
address the Queen to take this matter into her
consideration, and appoint persons to hear and
finally determine it. But the Upper House
thought it not proper that her Majesty should
be troubled with their controversies. Thus
things stood in the latter end of 1702. And the
next winter, upon the meeting of the Parlia-
ment, the Court apprehending these difficulties
might still increase, my Lord Treasurer took
an opportunity of speaking to her Majesty
before his Grace (November 11, 1703), and
" desired her that she would command my Lord of
York to take some pains in putting an end to the
differences in Convocation ; for that he believed both
parties, by his Grace's means, might be brought to
an accommodation" And three days after, my
Lord Treasurer wrote to him the following
letter.

" Sunday Night, Nov. 14, 1703.

" My Lord,

" In pursuance of what I mentioned
the other day to your Grace before the Queen,
I understand Dr. Atterbury designs to wait
upon your Grace to-morrow morning, with
intentions to submit all to your conduct.

i . .

350 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

" If you please to give him such a favourable
reception as may encourage his endeavours
towards composing the difference in the Con-
vocation, I hope it may lay a good foundation
for the peace of the Church, and great advan-
tage to her Majesty's service from it.

" I am, with great respect,
" My Lord, yours, &c.

" GODOLPHIN."

He applied himself accordingly to concert
measures with the members of both Houses ;
but chiefly Dr. Atterbury, of the Lower House,
and the Bishop of St. Asaph, of the Upper
(Dr. George Hooper). And in nine days time
he met the Archbishop of Canterbury at the
Cockpit, November 23 ; when they agreed upon
a meeting between two of the Upper House,
on the side of the Bishops, and two of the other
side. And the differences were for the present
at least laid asleep. The world hath been
already too much acquainted with the subject
of these controversies to make the repetition of
it, at this time of day, either necessary or
desirable. Nor do they, indeed, fall properly
within the compass of these Memoirs, to take
any further notice of them, than that the Arch-
bishop acted in this matter as a mediator or
umpire.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 351

But some years after (1710), he thought their
sitting and acting, when all these disputes were
blown over, might be of service to the Church;
and accordingly he proposed it to the Queen.

Thursday, November 30, 1710. f! I had a
good deal of talk with the Queen about the
Convocation acting, which she is willing they
should, provided the matters they are to act upon
be jirst concerted. I mentioned, upon this occa-
sion, the Prussian affair. She told me of some
new injunctions which my Lord of Canterbury
had put into her hands, and which she would
put into my hands to peruse."

Of the Prussian affair we shall give a more
particular account hereafter. In the meantime,
the sitting of the Convocation was forwarded,
and at an appointed meeting for that purpose at
the Bishop of Rochester's; where the Earl of
Rochester, Mr. Harley, and the Bishop of Bath
and Wells, were present; the Archbishop of
York proposed three several things for the Con-
vocation to consider of, if a licence were granted
for them to sit and act. 1. The state of the
Church, and the mischiefs that were done by
blasphemous and scandalous doctrines and pa-
pers which were spread about. 2. The affair
of the King of Prussia, who seemed inclined to
introduce the Liturgy of the Church of England
into his kingdom. 3. The turning the writ de

352

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

excommunicato capiendo, into a writ de contumaci ;
to prevent excommunications upon the mere
trivial or pecuniary matters. He was desired
to put these into writing, that they might be
considered of and laid before the Queen. Upon
which he sent for Dr. Atterbury, then Prolocu-
tor ; Dr. Smaldridge, and Dr. Stanhope, Dean
of Canterbury, and committed to them the
drawing up these minutes, which were after-
wards, at another meeting in the same place,
January 13, 1710-11, read and examined. Some
things were struck out, and some few amend-
ments made. Then they were delivered to Mr.
Harley, to be transcribed fair, and laid before
Jier Majesty. But before that was done, it was
thought proper to have the judgment of some
other prelates about them. Whereupon another
appointment was made on January 20, at which,
besides the above-mentioned company, were
present, the Bishops of Bristol, St. David's,
and Exeter ; who unanimously agreed, that the
heads before adjusted, were proper to be treated
of in Convocation. He would have added ano-
ther proposal concerning bishops being provided
for the plantations. But, as my Lord of Lon-
don, who had a right to be consulted first on
that project, was not there, the thing was
dropped.

The Queen afterwards told him, that she

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 353

approved of all the minutes that had been laid
before her about the Convocation, and that she
meant to send to every bishop to come to her,
and that she would send my Lord Dartmouth
to my Lord of Canterbury, to prorogue the
Convocation for one week longer.

Having set the design upon this fair footing,
he was obliged to leave the execution of it to
other hands. For it was not proper for him,
as he belonged to another province, to concern
himself further in it.

There were other ecclesiastical matters, about
which he had formerly conferred with the Pro-
locutor, as being proper subjects for the Con-
vocation to take into their consideration ; such
as these. To think of means to prevent clan-
destine marriages, by enforcing the canon about
licences. To find out a method of restraining
ecclesiastical officers from taking exorbitant fees,
and of regulating Spiritual Courts. To con-
sider of one book or form of Singing Psalms to
be used throughout England, and the like.
Upon which he thought the Convocations might
be both usefully and inoffensively employed.

But though he thought of these things, and
suggested them in a private way, yet it doth
not appear that he took any further steps to-
wards bringing them to bear. He might pro-
bably be apprehensive, that the times in which

a a

354 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

he lived were not seasonable for such proposals;
and that the reformation of discipline and esta-
blishment of new rules and orders, even in small
matters, were to be maturely considered and
thoroughly canvassed by men of other profes-
sions, as well as of his own, before they could
be properly carried into execution.

What opinion he had of the Established Church
of England, will best appear from his own words,
delivered upon a very solemn occasion, and in a
very solemn manner.

" If we take our measures (says he) concern-
ing the truths of religion, from the rules of the
Holy Scripture, and the platform of the primi-
tive Churches ; the Church of England is un-
doubtedly both, as to doctrine and worship, the
purest Church that is at this day in the world ;
the most orthodox in faith, and the freest on
the one hand from idolatry and superstition ;
and, on the other hand, from freakishness and
enthusiasm, of any now extant. Nay, I do
further say, with great seriousness, and as one
that expects to be called to account at the
dreadful tribunal of God, for what I now say,
if I do not speak in sincerity, that I do in my
conscience believe, that if the religion of Jesus
Christ, as it is delivered in the New Testament,
be the true religion (as I am certain it is), then
the conununion of the Church of England is a

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 355

safe way to salvation, and the safest of any I know
in the world."

And to this same purpose he has declared
himself a thousand times, when he hath occa-
sionally spoke of the blessings we of this king-
dom enjoy in our national Church.

But though he esteemed our ecclesiastical
establishment as valuable in itself, and gave it
the preference to all others now in being (and
perhaps no man ever considered it more tho-
roughly, or spoke of it upon better informations
and surer grounds than he did), yet he was
far from thinking it so perfectly constituted as
not to allow room for improvements, especially
in regard of discipline, which had never been
effectually provided for, and which likewise, from
time to time, had been gradually impaired
and enervated by encroachments upon it from
the temporal courts. Neither did he think the
Liturgy so exactly reformed, as to admit of no
further amendment, had there been opportunity
of attempting such a thing with safety. Though
he admired the communion office, as it now
stands, yet, in his own private judgment, he
preferred that in King Edward's first service
book before it, as a more proper office for the
celebration of those mysteries; nor was this
the only office that he thought might be ren-
dered more suitable to the respective occasions

a a 2

35C LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

for which they were compiled ; which judgment
probably he had formed from that examination
of the Liturgy which he was concerned in, as
one of the ecclesiastical commissioners in King
William's reign, for reforming the Liturgy and
Canons. But though he had these sentiments,
yet he ever blessed God that our public worship
was so pure as it is ; our rites so simple and
inoffensive, and our discipline in no worse a
state, all things considered.

But what most commendeth his zeal for the
Ecclesiastical Establishment is this, that it was
always accompanied with moderation and tender
compassion towards those whose consciences
would not allow them to comply with it. He
was generally thought a warm man against the
dissenters ; but this opinion of him seems rather
to be grounded upon another equally mistaken
one, viz. his supposed inviolable attachment to
a party, than upon any just reasons. He pressed
his arguments against separations and schisms
with warmth and earnestness in his sermons
and writings ; but it will be seen in them also,
with how mild a temper and with how Christian
a spirit he treats the dissenters themselves.
He compassionates their weaknesses, but never
exclaims at their obstinacy, or attempts to raise
resentment or indignation against them. So
that, if he was their adversary (and in one sense

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 357

he was a very formidable one, yet in another)
he was as reasonable and fair a one as ever they
had to deal with. He never treated them or
spoke of them otherwise than with that calm
spirit which visibly runs through his writings in
their controversy ; and as he hated every thing
that had but the appearance of bitterness and
violence against their persons, so he was even
shocked to hear them vilified and maltreated in the
pulpit, which he abhorred should be prostituted to
such purposes.

It is very true, he did oppose their occa-
sional conformity, and bore his testimony for
the bills that were brought in to prevent it.

Diary. — " I spoke as well as I could for the
bill, and not to my own dissatisfaction, I thank
God. December 14, 1703." It is true, likewise,
that in the debates about the Church being in
danger, in 1705, though he looked upon them
as most other people did, to be mere party
struggles, and not occasioned by any real ap-
prehensions of what the title of the bill im-
ported, yet he offered two or three clauses
which seemed to bear very hard upon the dis-
senters. These were the remarkable occasions
of his appearing against them in public ; and
they who knew his particular reasons for it,
might naturally conclude he was either influ-
enced by the party that opposed them, or was

358 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

himself an enemy to that liberty of conscience
which by the favour of the government they
enjoyed. But when his reasons, and the parti-
cular part in those debates which he bore, are
known, the injustice of both those imputations
will sufficiently appear.

Some of the first difficulties he met with in
his diocese, were from dissenters taking advan-
tage of the Act of Toleration to break loose,
and assume greater liberties than were designed
them by the act, or perhaps were justifiable
upon any construction of the words of the act.
Among other complaints, that of their setting
up schools and private academies, was the hardest
to find any remedy for. As he always proceeded
with temper and caution in such matters, he
applied to his brethren, the bishops in the
south, for their advice; and his friend, Dr.
More, Bishop of Norwich, procured him the
opinion of some of the best civilians upon
it. With respect to one particular academy set
up within his diocese, he had the following
kind and prudent direction of Archbishop Til-
lotson, whose letter the reader will not be dis-
pleased to have at length.

" Lambeth House, June 14, 1692.

" My Lord,

" Yesterday I received your Grace's
letter concerning Mr. Frankland, with the copy

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 359

of an address to your Grace against him. Your-
self are best judge what is fit to be done in the
case, because you have the advantage of en-
quiring into all the circumstances of it. If my
advice can signify any thing, it can only be to
tell your Grace what I would do in it, as the
case appears to me at this distance. I would
send for him, and tell him, that I would never
do any thing to infringe the Act of Toleration.
But I did not think his case came within it ; that
there are two things in his case which would
hinder me from granting him a license, though
he were in all things conformable to the Church
of England. First, his setting up a school
where a free-school is already established ; and
then, his instructing young men in so public a
manner in university learning, which is contrary
to his oath to do, if he hath taken a degree in
either of our universities ; and I doubt, contrary
to the bishop's oath to grant him a license for
doing of it ; so that your Grace does not, in this
matter, consider him at all as a dissenter. This
I only offer to your Grace as what seems to me
the fairest and softest way of ridding your hands
of this business. With my humble service to
Mrs. Sharp, and my hearty prayers for your
health, and long life, to do God and his Church
much service, I remain, my Lord, your Grace's
very affectionate brother and servant,

" Jo. Cant."

360 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Another consequence of the Act of Tolera-
tion was the dissenting ministers taking upon
themselves to perform parochial offices, to the
grievance and detriment of the clergy of the
Church established. In the year 1704 (not long
before those debates in the House of Lords,
with reference to which these particulars are
mentioned), complaints of this kind against the
dissenters being renewed, he consulted some of
the judges upon this point. His letter to my
Lord Chief Justice Holt, with his Lordship's
answer, are as follows.

" Biskopthorp, May 29, 1704.

" My Lord,

" Having always found you so ready
to give me your advice in any matter wherein I
have had occasion to consult you, and for which
I must ever own my great obligation, I humbly
beg leave to propose to you a case wherein I
am now concerned. But I do it in such a
manner, that if your Lordship do not think
proper to declare your opinion in this case, I
then do not desire it, but only desire your
pardon for my giving you this trouble.

" I have, my Lord, complaints from some of
my clergy, that the non- conformist ministers do
them a great deal of prejudice, by taking upon
them to marry, bury, christen children, and

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 361

church women within their families. And when
they have expostulated this matter with them,
they affirm, that the Act of Indulgence doth
allow them to do all this. What now to do, I
am in this case at a loss. I think it hard on
one side, that the dissenters should thus en-
croach on the Established Church, and yet, if
I should prosecute them in the ecclesiastical
court for these things, when they have the law
on their side, that would be ridiculous.

" As far as I can understand the Act, there
is no indulgence granted to the non-conforming
ministers, but only for preaching or teaching in
the meeting-houses. In one place, indeed, it
is expressed, officiating in any congregation for
the exercise of religion allowed or permitted by this
act. But whether this officiating for the exer-
cise of religion will extend to marrying, or
christening, or burying, or whether such offici-
ating be allowed by this act, I much doubt.

" I would beseech your Lordship, if you have
leisure, to look over this act ; and let me have
your Lordship's advice what I am to do. But
if I ask an unreasonable thing, I then beseech
you to pardon me, as I know you will. I am,
with the sincerest respects in the world, and
the heartiest wishes for all health and happiness
to your Lordship,

" My Lord, &c.

" Jo. Ebor."

362

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

" Bedford Row, June 13, 1704.

" My Lord,

" Your Grace may reasonably accuse
me of disobedience to your commands, which
I received by yours of the 29th last ; which I
should have more punctually executed, if the
weight of the subject had not obliged me to an
exact consideration thereof ; which at that time
the attendance on my business would not per-
mit me to take.

" As to the non-conformist's marrying, they
may be proceeded against in the ecclesiastical
court for marrying without license, or publica-
tion of the banns, or for clandestine marriages,
which the Act of Toleration doth not indulge
them in. But as for christenings, churching of
women, and burials, I know not how to deal
with them ; though that may be fit to be con-
sidered upon the stating of the case upon the
canon law ; which I have attempted to under-
stand upon this occasion, but cannot fix upon
any foundation upon which to proceed.

" I did propose these matters to my brother
Powell, and he doth concur with me. If your
Grace is pleased to state any particular ques-
tion to me upon this answer, I shall be very
desirous and ready to give the best account
thereof which I can. For I shall be always

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 363

very zealous to demonstrate myself to be, my
Lord, your Grace's

" Most humble and obedient servant,

" J. Holt."

Another inconvenience, which he apprehended
as a further consequence of the Act of Indul-
gence, was, that some people thought to shelter
themselves under it from ecclesiastical censures
for not attending the worship of God in any
place. Such there were in his own diocese,
and though the act does not in reality destroy
or enervate the bishop's power over such delin-
quents, yet it makes the exercise of it more
difficult, and more liable to be evaded than it
was before.

Taking now these observations along with us,
let us see what part he had in the famous de-
bates about the Church in danger, in December,
1705 : — " He owned the Church to be in danger in
one sense, as a Church militant having matiy ene-
mies, among which he named Atheists, Deists, and
Socinians. He added, that we acknowledged as much
in all our fast offices, where wc prayed God, that he
would make us sensible of the great danger we were
in by reason of our divisions, &c. And this was the
first reason given afterwards in the protest of the
dissentients. He feared likewise very ill consequences,
from the many academies set up by the dissenters,

364

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

and the liberties that some of them took from the
Act of Indulgence." ( And this brought upon him
the personal reflection from Lord Wharton, men-
tioned above, viz. his favouring the seminaries of the
non-jurors.) He thereupon took occasion to make
three motions. " One, for putting a stop to the semi-
naries and schools of the dissenters, and for remedy-
ing the laws which were deficient as to the bishops
power over schools. A second, for explaining the
Act of Toleration, that ministers might not be in-
sulted by the dissenters baptizing children, and mar-
rying and burying within their parishes. And a
third, that provision might be made to oblige men to
go to some Church, or to some meeting, and not to
stay at home on the Lord's day." Whether he had
not good reason to make these motions, after
the little satisfaction he had received, and the
doubtful answers that were made to his enqui-
ries upon these points, in order to have them
put upon some more certain footing, let the
impartial reader judge. The first of them was
thought so reasonable, that it was insisted upon
by the House, and at length carried in part, but
not perfectly. As to the question which was
put in the House, that all who went about insinu-
ating that the Chiireh was in danger under her
Majesty's administration, were enemies to her person
and government (and which was carried), he
voted against it ; but would enter into no pro-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

3G5

testation, though earnestly applied to by several
lords to do it*.

And here it may not be amiss to insert what
passed between him and my Lord Treasurer,
about the Church being in danger, a few weeks
before this debate came on in the Lords' House.
Meeting my Lord Treasurer, October 25, 1705,
in the House of Lords, and asking him how he
did, his Lordship coldly answered, " as well as
a poor man could be, that was run down by them
whom he had endeavoured to oblige.'" And then
he turned away. He was not a little sur-
prised with this answer and behaviour, because
he could not guess the reason of it. And " the
next morning he sent to my Lord to desire
leave to wait upon him, which was granted.
When I came to him (says he), I told him, that
he had much surprised me with his answer to
my salutation the day before. And that I was
come to know what I had done that should so
disoblige him. He told me, that his answer
did not particularly relate to me, but that he
meant it of ' all of us who made such a cry about
the Church's being in danger' I told him, he
could not charge me with that ; for a great

* In the History and Proceedings of the House of Lords,
vol. II. p. 161, it is said, the Archbishop of York and Bishop
of Rochester protested afterwards. But no mention is made of
this in the Archbishop's Diary.

36G LTFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

many witnesses could testify, that I had de-
clared I did not much apprehend that the
Church was in danger, but that it was a struggle
between Whig and Tory, who should be upper-
most ; but that I believed neither of them meant
any harm to the Church. I asked him whether
he had heard I had made any bustle about Par-
liament men. He said, no; but said he had
heard I was one of those who made a noise
about the Church being in danger, and com-
mended the memorial, and that the Queen had
been also told so. After all, we parted very
friendly, and he said, he hoped in his distress
he might have recourse to me, or words to that
effect. He was often, as I thought, in a great
concern, and very near weeping."

Within a few days the Bishop of Norwich
told the Archbishop, in a visit, November 3,
what had been reported to my Lord Treasurer
of him, which explained the matter, viz. " that
in his passage down the year before, he had
said to some of the clergy that met him upon
the road, that he apprehended danger to the
Church through the late changes." And ano-
ther thing, the bishop told his Grace was re-
ported, though not to the Lord Treasurer, that
he had said, " though he formerly advised his
son and others against tacking, yet he repented
that he ever did so. And if it was to do again,

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 307

he would have them to vote for it. I told him
(says he), I had said something to this purpose,
that if I had known how things would have followed,
and that they would have used the Church of Eng-
land men as they did, I should not have advised as I
did."

These representations of what he had acci-
dentally dropped in discourse, and the use that
was made of them, made him more cautious
ever after, how he expressed himself when he
spoke of public affairs, particularly when he
was met some time after by Mr. , at Gran-
tham. " I am sure (says he), / kept such a guard
upon myself, that all that I said might be proclaimed
at the market cross." But to return to the other
bill, which chiefly concerned the dissenters.

He had, as was related before, used his en-
deavours to prevent the tack to the bill of Occa-
sional Conformity ; but was withal desirous the
bill should pass; and spoke for it. But the
point that he laboured was not only a reasona-
ble one, but what all the clergy in England
would have been obliged to him for, if he could
have carried it. And that was, indemnifying
parish ministers for observing the rubric, from
all such damages as by the Test Act they might
stand liable to, for refusing to give the sacra-
ment in any instance wherein the rubric directed
repulsion from it. In the debates, December 4,

3G8

LIFE OF ARCH BISHOP SHARP.

1702, upon this bill, his Grace applied himself
to this point alone. " I made a speech (says he)
against the clause that was then brought in to oblige
all officers to receive the sacrament four times a year,
unless a clause might be brought in to indemnify
parish ministers for repelling such from the commu-
nion, as by the rubric they were empowered to do."
This was rather securing to the clergy their
rights, than opposing the dissenters in the favour
they desired. He thought the consciences of
the parochial clergy doing their duty in the
administration of the sacraments, were as much
to be considered, and to be as tenderly treated
as the consciences of those who could occa-
sionally conform. And that it was hard the
dissenters should be allowed to act inconsist-
ently, in order to obtain the benefits of the law ;
while the Church ministers, for acting consist-
ently, and according to rule, incurred the penal-
ties of the law ; that is, were liable to the
damages which any man sustained by being
rejected by them from the communion. There
were also several others who voted with him
for the bills against occasional conformity, who
yet were never thought unfavourable to the
dissenters. The Duke of Marlborough, who
endeavoured to hinder the bringing in of the
bill, and would have possessed the Archbishop with
the ill consequences of it, yet added, that kt it

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 369

come in never so often, he would give his vote for it,
but he was afraid it would break us. Allowances
should be made for their different way of argu-
ing, since they both voted the same way. One
shewed the spirit of a general, the other of a
bishop.

Upon another occasion he opposed the grant-
ing a privilege to the meeting-houses equal to
that of the Church of England, viz. in the Natu-
ralization bill, 1708-9. " He voted against the
commitment of it, March 15, and spoke (as did
also the Bishops of Carlisle and Chester) for
the alteration of that clause where it was en-
acted, that it should be sufficient to qualify a man
for naturalization, that he received the sacrament in
any Protestant congregation. They would have
had it inserted in any parish church, but it was
carried against them. There were seven bishops
more with them, and six against them."

Before we quit this head, which concerns the
dissenters, let his opinion of their baptisms be
added with that of several other bishops. On
Easter Tuesday, 1712, when, according to cus-
tom, most of the bishops of both provinces dine
with the Archbishop of Canterbury, their con-
versation turned upon the validity of baptism
by lay hands.

1712. Tuesday, April 22d. " At eleven
o'clock I went to Lambeth. We were in all

b b

370 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

thirteen bishops. We had a long discourse
about lay baptism, which of late hath made
«uch a noise about the town. "We all agreed,
that baptism by any other person, except law-
ful ministers, ought as much as may be to be
discouraged ; nevertheless, whoever was bap-
tized by any other person, and in that baptism
the essentials of baptism were preserved, that
is, being dipped or sprinkled in the name of
the Father, &c. such baptism was valid, and
ought not to be repeated."

This indeed is the sense of the Church of
England, as will appear to any person who
considers the rubrics in the office for private
baptism, and compares them with one another,
and with the previous questions in the office
itself. From all which, laid together, it may
be plainly collected, that where the essentials,
matter and form, have been preserved, though
administered by another hand than that of a
lawful minister, the baptism shall not be so much
as hypothetically repeated ; yet nevertheless, it is
so far condemned and disapproved, as irregular,
and uncanonical, that the child or person so
baptized shall not be received into the congre-
gation. But the officiating minister must have
recourse to the directions of his Ordinary, as in
other irregular, and uncommon, and difficult
cases. But as our Church hath no where

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 371

openly and expressly declared for the validity
of lay baptism, or allowed it to be administered
by laymen in any case, how extraordinary
soever, some handle is left for disputing or
speaking doubtfully about her sense of the
matter. Therefore, his Grace of Canterbury,
finding so many bishops unanimous in their
opinion, thought it would be of public service,
if they all joined in publishing a declaration of
their sentiments, which would appear as a kind
of decision of the point, and might help to
make the minds of some men more easy, at
least to shorten the disputes then raised upon
this question. What his Grace of Canterbury
did in prosecution of this thought, the following
transcripts from the papers wrote by himself
will shew. His letter to the Archbishop of
York.

" Lambeth, April 27, 1712.

" My Lord,

" In pursuance of the agreement made
here by your Grace and the rest of my bre-
thren the bishops, when I had the favour of
your good companies on Easter Tuesday, I
met yesterday with some of them, and we drew
up a paper suitable (as we judged) to the pro-
posal then made. It is short, and plain, and, I
hope, inoffensive ; and for a beginning, as I

b b 2

372 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

humbly conceive, full enough. 1 here enclose
a copy of it for the perusal of your Grace, and
of as many others as your Grace shall think fit
to shew it to.

" I send this declaration unsigned, because
we who were present desired first to have the
opinions of your Grace and others who were
absent, and should be glad to know whether
you would have any thing added to it, or altered
in it, for we affect not the vanity of dogmatiz-
ing. I hope for your Grace's speedy answer
(to-morrow, if it may be), because the evil
grows, and we have heard of more odd books
and sermons since we met, and of an increase
of the scrupulous. And your Grace well knows,
that the more timely the check is given, the
likelier it is (through God's blessing) to have a
good effect. I commend this weighty affair to
your Grace's most serious consideration, and
yourself to the protection of the great Shepherd
of souls, and remain, my Lord,

" Your most affectionate brother,
" Canterbury."

" A Declaration, &c. [The title is not yet
agreed on.]

" Forasmuch as sundry persons have of late
by their preaching, writing, and discourses,
possessed the minds of many people with doubts

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

373

and scruples about the validity of their baptism,
to their great trouble and disquiet, we, the
archbishops and bishops whose names are under-
written, have thought it incumbent on us to
declare our several opinions, in conformity with
the judgments and practice of the Catholic
Church, and of the Church of England in par-
ticular, that such persons as have already been
baptized in or with water, in the name of the
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, ought not to be
baptized again. And to prevent any such prac-
tice in our respective dioceses, we do require
our several clergy, that they presume not to
baptize any adult person whatsoever, without
giving us timely notice of the same, as the
rubric requires."

To these papers his Grace of York answered
the next day in the words following.

" April 28, 1712.

"My Lord,

" I had the honour of your Grace's
letter (with the Declaration enclosed) the last
night. I am entirely of the same sentiments
that we all declared we were, when we had the
honour to dine with your Grace the last week.
But yet, for all that, I can by no means come
into the proposal your Grace has now made in
your letter ; in that we should all declare, under

374 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

our hands, the validity of lay baptism. For I
am afraid this would be too great an encourage-
ment to the dissenters to go on in their way of
irregular uncanonical baptisms.

" I have, as your Grace desired me, commu-
nicated this matter to three* of our brethren,
the bishops, and we have had a full discourse
about it, and we are all of the same opinion
that I now represented.

" I am, with all sincere respects, and hearty
wishes of health and happiness to your Grace,
** Your Grace's most faithful friend

" And humble servant,

" Jo. Ebor."

It appears from hence that he was of opinion,
that to leave the question as much undecided,
as it is left in the public offices and canons of
the Church, was a good security to discipline,
and that an open declaration in favour of the
dissenters' baptisms, might prove inconvenient
from the bad use that might be made of it.

The account of this matter is the more fully
set down here, because Bishop Burnet has not
represented it in a favourable light with respect
to Archbishop Sharp. His words are these
(Hist, of his own Times, vol. II. p. 605).

* The3e were, Chester, Exeter, and St. David's.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 375

** The bishops thought it necessary to put a
stop to this new and extravagant doctrine (viz.
the invalidity of lay baptism), so a declaration
was agreed to, first, against the irregularity of all
baptism by persons who were not in holy orders,
but that yet, according to the practice of the
primitive Church, and the constant usage of the
Church of England, no baptism in or with
water, in the name of the Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost, ought to be reiterated. The Arch-
bishop of York jirst agreed to this. So it was re-
solved to publish it in the names of all the bishops of
England; but he was prevailed on to change his
mind, and refused to sign it, pretending that this
would encourage irregular baptism."

Whosoever reads this passage, will be apt to
take for granted, that the Archbishop of York
first agreed to the declaration ; that upon his
agreeing thereto, it was resolved to publish it,
and that he afterwards changed his mind, and
refused to sign it. Whereas, though the resolution
to publish such a declaration was founded on his
agreement with the rest of the bishops in their
judgment upon the validity of lay baptisms, yet
he was not apprised of any such resolution, till
the Archbishop of Canterbury communicated
it to him, and then he disapproved of it. My
Lord of Canterbury does indeed mention in his
letter, a proposition that was made at Lambeth

376 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

to this effect. But it appears by Archbishop
Sharp's answer, that although he remembered
well the conference they had on that subject of
lay baptism, yet this proposal of signing a decla-
ration upon it, was new to him and unexpected,
as it seems likewise to have been with the three
bishops, to whom he shewed my Lord of Can-
terbury's letter. His minutes of his discourse
with them upon it on Monday, April 28, is this.

" About six o'clock this evening, came in the
Bishops of Chester, and of Exeter, and of St.
David's, who staid here till nine o'clock. We
had a great deal of talk about the Archbishop
of Canterbury's proposal, in a letter he had
wrote to me, that we should sign a declaration
of our judgments, that all persons who were
baptized with water in the name of the Father,
Son, and Holy Ghost, their baptism ought not
to be repeated by whomsoever they were bap-
tized. They were all of opinion, and so was I,
that it was not proper for us to make such a
declaration under our hands, for that it would
too much encourage the irregular baptisms of
the dissenters. And accordingly, after they
were gone, I wrote a letter to my Lord Arch-
bishop to the same purpose ; a copy of which
letter I keep."

Such a declaration was nevertheless offered
to the Convocation afterwards, but it was laid

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

377

aside in the Lower House. And my Lord Trea-
surer, on May the 9th, spoke to him about the
Queens writing a letter, to stop the disturbances
raised by lay baptism. But he does not seem to
have given any encouragement to that motion.
He had, however, a great deal of talk with Mr.
Lawrence upon that subject, when he came the
day following, May 10, to present him with his
answer to the Bishop of St. Asaph's treatise
upon that argument.

With the same caution that he used in this
case, he acted in another, which is not foreign
to the present subject, especially as it was
grounded upon some words that he spoke in
the debates concerning occasional conformity.
He had said, it seems, on that occasion, that if
he were abroad, he would willingly communicate with
the Protestant Churches, where he should happen to
be. Monsieur de la Mothe, a French minister
at London, who was collecting passages from
the several sermons preached in London on the
day when the Orange brief, was read, with a
design to print them, in order to shew what a
fraternal tenderness was on that occasion ex-
pressed by the ministers of the Church of Eng-
land towards those poor Protestant sufferers,
and by that means to lessen the prejudice which
foreign Churches may be under in relation to
our opinion of them and concern for them ;

378 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

thought it would be of moment to give an
account of these words which the Archbishop
had used in the House of Lords, as before
recited. But because it was not so decent to
do it without his permission, M. de la Mothe
desired Dr. Atterbury to propose his design to
him, and desire his pleasure therein. The doctor
did so, giving the words as above cited, and
the Archbishop answered him thus.

" May 31, 1704.

" Good Mr. Archdeacon,

" I had the favour of your's by the
last post, and I thank you for it. I must own,
that I did in the House of Lords, when the
debate was about the bill of occasional confor-
mity, express myself to the same purpose as
you have set down in your letter. And truly,
I spoke my hearty sense, and if what I said was
published to all the world, I should not retract
it. But if my consent be asked about the pub-
lishing of it, I must needs say (for reasons you
very well know), that I cannot readily give it.
And therefore I shall take it kindly of M. de
la Mothe, if he mention not my name at all
upon this occasion.

. " I am, &c.

" Jo. Ebor."'

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 379

No doubt can be made but his reason for
this was the ill use that would have been made
of such a concession by our dissenters at home ;
and perhaps by some others too, who, not con-
sidering the difference there is between the case
of the Protestant Churches abroad, and our dis-
senting congregations here in England, might
argue loosely from it, that he could, in point
of conscience, were that only considered, oc-
casionally conform to the Presbyterian way of
worship in our meeting-houses ; which, as it
was far from his thoughts when he made the
aforesaid declaration, he prudently endeavoured
to keep it out of other people's thoughts too,
by not consenting to the publication of those
words, unless he had also added an explanation
of them, with respect to our non-conformists at
home.

What it was that he said in the House of
Lords by way of comparison between the
usage of Protestants abroad in Roman Catholic
countries, and our treatment of the English
Roman Catholics at home, which could occa-
sion a scandalous passage in a French book
printed at Brussels or Antwerp in 1703, and
styled Les Interests de VAngleterre mal-entendus
dans la Guerre presente; or whether he spoke
any thing at all that might be a foundation for
the calumny, is quite uncertain. Only thus

380

LIFE OF

ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

much is plain, that that passage is either a
mere fiction, or a gross misrepresentation. It
stands in the 294th page of the Amsterdam
edition, in these words: — " Avec quelle inso-
lence les principaux d'entre eux ne parlerent ils
pas contre My Lord Archveque d'York, quand
ce digne prelat en opinant dans la chambre
haute sur la maniere dont nous en devions user
avec nos Catholiques, eut represent^ vivement,
que le government d'Angleterre etoit oblige a
deplus grands egards envers leurs sujets Catho-
liques, que ceux qui doivent avoir les souve-
raigns Catholiques envers leurs sujets Protes-
tants ? Puisque nos Catholiques sont ceux de
nos compatriotes qui n'ont point voulu quitter
l'ancienne religion etablire dans le Pays, au lieu
que les Protestants des etats Catholiques y en
ont introduit une nouvelle*.

To understand this passage, the reader should

* " With what insolence (says he) did the leading men
among them exclaim against the Archbishop of York, when
that worthy prelate, in giving his opinion in the House of Peers
about the manner in which we ought to treat our Catholics, had
clearly shewn, that the English government was under an obli-
gation to pay more regard to its Catholic subjects, than
Catholic kings abroad are to their Protestant subjects 1 Since
our Catholics are such of our natives as would never renounce
the ancient religion that was established in the country, whereas
the Protestants in the Roman Catholic dominions have intro-
duced a new religion there."

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

381

be acquainted, that the book out of which it is
taken is pretended to be translated from an
English manuscript, with this title*, The In-
terests of England mistaken in the present War;
and therefore the author expresses himself as in
the person, or under the character of an Eng-
lishman, though he manifestly appears to be a
papist and a jacobite, but a man of shrewd sense
and thorough insight into the affairs of these
kingdoms. But it happened that he had little
insight into the Archbishop's character or prin-
ciples, for otherwise he never would have put
such an assertion, backed with such a piece of

* The character of this book and its author is given by
Monsieur Le Clerk, in a letter to the Archbishop from Am-
sterdam, April 29, 1704, in these words.

" Intelligo insilens tuis in manus tuas incidipe virulentam
satyram, Gallice conscriptam, non in Anglicam tantum et Bel-
gicam gentem sed et in te quoque privatim. Satyrici illius li-
belli, quoniam videris ubi editus sit, et a quo nescire, scito au-
torem esse pontificium, et nisi vehementer fallor, Anglum ex
eis qui aut Duaci aut in Belgio Pontificio alibi degunt et in
Gallia ab aliquot annis viscerent. Libellus vero editus est
Antwerpiae aut Bruscellis ut facile intelligunt characterum
periti, utque ostendit summa qua? hie est raritas exemplarium
cum in hisce provinciis nullo modo comporari possint. Quod
in inscriptione dicitur esse editus a Georgio Galleto qui fuit
ante hac prefectus typographic Huguetanorum, id plane falsum
est; nec Galletus officinam ullam hie habet aut libros ullos
vendit. Nomen ejus malique est adhibitum ut tegeretur locus
ubi libellus est editus."

382 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

false reasoning, into his mouth ; who thought
quite the reverse of what this man would have
him speak, as appears in all his writings in the
Romish controversy, viz. That the Roman reli-
gion, as it is now professed, was not the ancient reli-
gion of this country, nor the Protestant religion a
new one, either here or in foreign kingdoms, hut
the old one, and the true one, such as it was before
it was corrupted by the innovations and superstitions
of Rome. However, it helped to serve the
writer's end, to charge this inconsistency upon
him. And it is manifest, from another passage
in the preface to the same book (which shall be
considered in its proper place), that the author
of it had a prejudice against him. The book
was extremely scarce, and rarely any copies of
it to be met with here. It was conveyed from
Brussels, where it was printed, first into Hol-
land ; and there Dr. Cockburn, who gave him
the first account of it, obtained the perusal of
it with great difficulty. And afterwards a few
of the impression were transmitted into Eng-
land.

The author of Dr. Radcliffe's Life*, whoever
he was, either knew as little of the Archbishop
as the French writer, or was as much disposed
to invent, when he fathered upon him a Letter to

* Published after the Archbishop's death, in 1716, and
printed by Curll.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 383

Dr. Radcliffe about Dr. Sacheverell, supposed to
be wrote 1709-10, and while the trial was yet
depending. For, besides that neither the sen-
timents nor diction in that letter resemble those
of the Archbishop's, there are things spoken of
him which prove the whole piece spurious, as "his
recovery just before by the doctor s skill," whereas
he had been in good health all that winter;
and " his applauding Dr. Ratcliffe's care in making-
interest for Dr. Sacheverell, and preferring the
divine's for his bail before the duke's." Whereas he
would have so little concern in Dr. Sacheve-
rell's affair before his trial, " that he refused to
peruse his answer to the articles of impeachment
which the Doctor himself brought him, and would
have shewed him. But he told him, that upon his
trial he could do him no favour, but he would do him
all right and justice that he could."

And then what follows in the aforesaid pre-
tended letter of his, fearing that they should not
have power enough to give a parliamentary sanction
to the doctrines, he (Dr. Sacheverell) had preached,
is something so unlikely to be credited, that it
needs no refutation.

But to return from these digressions to the
consideration of points more material. The
next that offers itself is his Patronage of the
Episcopal clergy in Scotland.

Anciently the Archbishops of York asserted

384

LTFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

their jurisdiction in that kingdom, and did ac-
tually exercise it over some sees, particularly
St. Andrew's, Glasgow, Candida, Cassa*, and
all on the south side of Edinburgh Frith, once
the dominions of the kings of Northumberland.
The whole plea, indeed, is now quite out of
doors, as to any pretence of jurisdiction or pri-
macy. But Archbishop Sharp may be said to
have revived the old claim in one respect, that
he professed to be the patron and friend of the
episcopal clergy, and suffered himself to be
their resort in their difficulties and distresses,
as much as if they had yet been a part of his
provincial charge. And they, on the other
hand, did as readily and naturally apply them-
selves to him, as if he had been their primate.
He was hardly settled in his province before he
received a remonstrance from them of their de-
declining state after the Revolution. In June,
1693, at their general convention at Edinburgh,

* See Polydore Virgil, lib. 13. Spelman's Councils, torn,
ii. p. 5. Appendix to the Scotch History. Library by Nichol-
son. Liberty and Independency of the kingdom of Scotland
asserted. Edinburgh, 1702. Drake's Antiquities of York*
538, 539.

Original charter of Thomas, the first Archbishop of York,
preserved in the Archives of the Church of Durham. Whereby
he assigns Tevegetedale to the Church of Durham, and sends
his chrism to Glasgow, as an ordinary acknowledged act of
jurisdiction.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

385

they drew up a memorial or petition* which they
sent him, setting forth the abolition of episcopacy
in the first session of King Williams Parliament
in Scotland, and the estabishment of Presbyterian
government in the second or next session, and the
ejectments of several of the episcopal clergy in all
parts of the kingdom consequent upon it, that is, by
virtue of the powers granted to Presbyterian ju-
dicatories; and their own apprehensions of greater
persecutions still, notwithstanding they had acknow-
ledged their Majesties government, professed their
own fidelity, and implored their royal protection, and
had likewise received repeated assurances of it from
their Majesties. And concluding with these words:
— " Wherefore, in this time of our great dis-
tress, our only refuge next to the Divine Pro-
vidence and their Majesties' innate goodness and
justice, is to have recourse to your Grace and
the reverend clergy of the Church of England,
to which we are the rather encouraged, from the
former experience we have of your religious and
charitable concern for this afflicted and distressed
Church. We have good ground to believe, that
it is far from their Majesties' gracious inclina-
tions to allow of any thing that may be grievous
or straightening to their loyal subjects ; and
however our enemies may take occasion to as-
perse and misrepresent us, yet we can assure
your Grace we are still the same we have

c c

386 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

hitherto professed ourselves to be, and are re-
solved, whatever measures we meet with, to
persist in our loyalty and fidelity to their Ma-
jesties, and will be ready to give such further
proofs thereof as are consequential to our former
professions, and proper to persons of our cha-
racter and circumstances. We do therefore
humbly entreat that your Grace and the reverend
clergy of the Church of England may be pleased
seriously to consider our present case, and to
represent the same to their Majesties ; so as yet
we may subsist under the favourable influences
of their royal protection, and our feared ruin and
desolation may be prevented.

" That God may long preserve your Grace,
and the Church of England in that order, peace,
and lustre wherewith he hath blessed you, is,
and shall be, the earnest prayer of your's, &c.

" Signed in our name, and at the appointment
of our meeting, by William Demune Prceses —
Park CI."

The next winter, when he came to London, he
applied himself to some of the chief of the Scotch
nobility to use their endeavours for procuring
some more favourable measures to be taken with
the episcopal party. Duke Hamilton told him
plainly, (12th February, 1693-4) " that all that
could be done for the Scotch clergy was to get the king
to recommend it to the parliament of Scotland to give

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

387

new and clear and express terms of coming in to the
clergy, and that they might not be remitted to the
general assembly. But to think of excusing them
from the assurance was not a thing to be thought of
for that was what the parliament of Scotland would
never consent to take off; though he owned the clergy
of Scotland never used to be hampered with such oaths,
nor had it been enjoined them till the last sessions of
parliament, though it was put upon persons holding
offices of trust before that time."

When he found there was no room or likeli-
hood of doing them better service than by pro-
curing collections for their relief at present, he
became their solicitor in this respect, and his
kindness this way contributed very much to their
support. Their poverty became so great, and
their condition so low towards the latter end of
King William's reign, that there was a scheme
laid for a public collection of charity for them
throughout England; but how that was defeated
may be seen by a letter of Bishop Burnet to
the Archbishop in the following words.

" May it please your Grace,

" Your Grace's tender and compas-
sionate letter is as suitable to your own goodness
as to the charity of the Earl of Thanet to have
given the rise to it. I have transmitted it to my
Lord of Canterbury with what I could suggest

c c 2

388 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

on so sad a subject. My Lord, I know that the
miseries are great even to the last extremities in
Scotland. I spoke to the ministers of state for
that kingdom, and pressed that an address might
be made to the King for receiving the charities
of well-minded people here, but, to my great
amazement, I found they were cold to the mo-
tion ; they lessened the thing, and what through
a senseless piece of national pride ; what be-
cause they fancied an ill use might be made of
confessing they were in such extremities. — I
found nothing could then be done by them, so I
thought it became me to send my charity thither.
I sent <£200, the half of which I ordered to be
distributed by Mr. Chateris among the episcopal
clergy and their widows. I take my share in
the sense your Grace has of this great calamity
which lies on my country, as I pray God to
make them sensible of their sins, by which they
have drawn this on themselves, which will be
followed by heavier ones, both on them and us
if we do not repent. I am, with great duty and
a profound respect, my Lord,

" Your Grace's most humble and

" most obedient servant,

G. Sarum."

" Salisbury, 17th June, 1699."

But in the beginning of the late queen's reign,
when the design of uniting the two kingdoms

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

389

was first agitated, there seemed a fairer prospect
of making some provision, or at least obtaining
some security for the episcopal clergy. And
accordingly they themselves were early in their
address to the Queen to desire her Majesty to take
them into her royal protection, and to give liberty to
such parishes ivhere all or most of the heretors or
inhabitants were of the episcopal communion, to call,
place, and give benefices to ministers of their own
principles ; which the Presbyterians themselves would
have no reason to complain of, for if the plurality
they pretended to was true, by this act of grace,
neither their churches nor their benefices were in
hazard. There seemed to be nothing unreason-
able in this request, though it was more than
they expected would be granted : however, if
they could but obtain a toleration at present, as
a term of the union of the two kingdoms, it
would satisfy them very well, for they had
hopes, as the Archbishop learnt from Drs. Scott
and Skene, who were employed by them to pre-
sent their address, that if they had a toleration
then it might not hereafter be difficult to obtain of
the parliament of Great Britain to re-establish epis-
copacy. Accordingly, he whose wishes might be
as great as theirs, though his expectations less,
took an opportunity, when the treaty of union
was in some forwardness, to discourse with the

390 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Queen about the episcopal clergy. He told her
he should willingly come into the union, for he had no
objection against the articles that he had seen, provided
there was no detriment to the Church or constitution
thereby. But he was afraid of two things ; first,
that they would not grant a toleration for the episco-
pal communion in that kingdo?n, considering that we
had allowed a toleration here to their Kirk. She
said that she had given oi^ders to her commissioners in
Scotland to pi'opose this, and to get it settled ; but
she forbad him to make mention of this. The second
thing he objected against was — the fear he had they
would i?npose such oaths on her Majesty and her suc-
cessors, that they could not give consent to the altera-
tion of Church government if ever the parliament of
Great Britain should think it convenient. She said
she knew not of any such oaths that would be put upon
her : she further said that she meant to take care
that as there was a new security to be given to the
Kirk of Scotland, so she meant there should be an act
for securing the Church of E)igland.

But when the bill for the further security of
the Church of England upon the union with
Scotland was brought into the House of Peers
by the Archbishop of Canterbury, January the
31st. following, he made a strong objection to it
upon account of the test act not being continued as
well as the act of uniformity, and so he found did

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

391

some others of the Lords who seemed surprised at
this concession. And the Queen having that
night sent a page of the back stairs late to him
to order him to attend her at Kensington the
next morning, " he perceived her business was to
persuade him to vote for the bill that my Lord of
Canterbury had brought in, which within two days
was to be read a second time. I told her ( says he )
that I had seen the bill, and that some of the Lords
made a wonder that the test act was not mentioned in
that bill to be continued as well as the act of uni-
formity, and that I believed several of the Lords
would insist upon it that it should be, and that I was
of the same mind. I told her ( upon occasion of her
saying that she knew some Lords, viz. Lords Notting-
ham, Rochester, 8$c. who would take any occasion of
opposing that bill because they were against the union,
I say I told her ) that it was a Whig lord that first
made that objection to me. She asked me who it was.
I stuck a little, but she solemnly promised me she
would not discover it to any body ; upon that I told
her it was my Lord Scarborough , who, L assured
her, was, at the first time the union was treated of,
the most zealous man for it of any of the Lords."
But, however, when this came to be debated,
February 3rd, though the point was insisted on that
the test act should be particularly expressed in the
bill, yet it was carried in the negative by a great
majority. He spoke in this debate, and the next day

392 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

entered his protestation *. Five of the bishop's bench
were with him, twelve against him.

And when the Scotch act of pacification was
to be committed, he again spoke, and opposed
it, though he had none of the bishops with him except
London, Bath and Wells, and St. Asaph, the last
of which, namely Dr. Beveridge, had been con-
sulting with him, and desired him to consider of
the point, whether the bishops of the Church of
England could lawfully give their vote in parliament
for the Scotch ratification, viz. " an act of the
Scotch parliament for securing the Protestant
religion, and Presbyterian government, to be
ratified and confirmed and approved by her Ma-
jesty with and by the authority of the parliament
in England, as a term of the union ; when in this
act it is declaimed that the Scotch religion is the
true Protestant religion, and that the Presbyte-
rian government is necessary. So that although
this be only a Scotch act, yet the question was,
whether the ratifying it would not make it an
English act." Some thought that by ratifying
it could be meant no more, but that thereby the
Queen and parliament of England should give the
fullest assurance, that they would for ever after
the union allow this Scotch act to have the force

* This protest may be seen in the History and Proceedings
of the House of Lords, Vol. ii. p. 165.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 393

of a law within the present bounds of Scotland,
although the rest of Great Britain should be
under another law as to the same matter ; and
not that it implied any declaration of their assent
to or approbation of the Scotch discipline, or
form of Church government. But however that
was, such ratification cut off all the hopes of the
episcopal clergy, who were to entertain no fur-
ther thoughts of the restoration of their ancient
government. His Grace had told the Queen
*.f he could not vote for this ratification, though he
should not vote against any of the articles." And
he was as good as his word, March 3rd, when
this bill was committed.

From this time the usage of the episcopal
clergy grew yearly more grievous to them ; and
consequently their complaints and remonstrances
more frequent and lamentable. When he read
to her Majesty the letters of the Bishops of Edin-
burgh and Aberdeen, she would at one time say,
that " she could not think things were so had as
they were represented;'1 at another, "that they
must have patience, for all would do well in Scot-
land *." At last it came to a downright persecu-
tion, and when the account of it came to him
then in Yorkshire, he enclosed it in a letter of

* " That she would consider of that matter, and advise with
her ministers." These were the answers she gave him.

394

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

his own, to her Majesty ; which was a trouble
he seldom gave her but when he judged the im-
portance of the business required it.

" May it please your Majesty,

" I humbly beseech your Majesty of
your abundant goodness, of which I have had a
great deal of experience, to pardon the boldness
I now take of sending you a transcript (for the
original is not so legible) of a letter I received
the last Saturday from the Bishop of Edinburgh.
It is his earnest desire that I should communi-
cate the contents of it to your Majesty ; and I
have no other means of doing that (now that
your Majesty is at Windsor) than in the way
that I now take. I have the more reason to
hope your Majesty will pardon this confidence
in me in regard you have been graciously pleased
to grant me your permission to write to you
when I have any matter of importance to lay
before you, and indeed I take this to be such a
matter ; and I dare say your Majesty will think
so if you will please to give yourself the trouble
of perusing the Bishop's letter.

" As to what orders your Majesty will please
to give with relation to this affair of the distressed
clergy of Scotland, it is not for me to offer any
thing; that must be left to your Majesty's own
wisdom and goodness after you have considered

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

395

the case, and I dare say you will do that which,
all things put together, you judge to be best
and fittest. I am only concerned to pray most
heartily to God ( and I assure your Majesty I
daily do it ) that he would direct all^your coun-
sels, and prosper all your affairs both at home
and abroad, and make your reign long and happy
and glorious, and as much as is possible easy to
yourself and all your subjects.

" I am, madam,
ft With the greatest honour, esteem, and affection,
" Your Majesty's

" Most faithful and dutiful subject,

" Jo. Ebor."

" August 10, 1708."

And when he came to town the winter follow-
ing " he spoke earnestly to her Majesty about the

episcopal clergy. He told her what my Lord

had acquainted him with, concerning a conversation

he had with Sir James S 1, who had declared to

him that the measures were wrong, but he must obey
them. The Queen answered, why did he then advise
those measures ?"

He then undertook to concert matters with my
Lord Marr, about getting the Queen's letter

under the signet to Sir James S 1, to oblige

him to suspend the prosecution of the late orders
till further directions were given.
11

396 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

In February following " he told her Majesty of
the Judge Advocate's circular letter for shutting up
all the episcopal meeting houses ; in which letter he
said he had orders from the Queen, under her hand
and seal, to p this. The Queen said it was not
true. Hereupon he charged it again upon her
conscience with some warmth, to take care to
put a stop to these persecutions ; and she an-
swered she would take care of them as fast as
she could."

He applied himself by letter to the Duke of
Queensbury, May 1st, 1709, " praying him to
use his best interest with the Queen for them,
who (says he) I am sure is most ready to come
into any methods that can be proposed for their
ease and relief ; and if they be not made more
easy I am sure the fault will not lie at her
door."

Such repeated applications both to her Ma-
jesty and the nobility of Scotland had good
effect this year, for there followed a cessation of
those severities against the episcopal clergy with
which they had been before treated. In testi-
mony of which here follows a letter which he
received in the latter end of the same year.

" May it please your Grace,

" This new trouble is occasioned by
a letter I have from the clergy of the diocese

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 397

of Aberdeen, to let your Grace understand,
that to their great joy and satisfaction, the
names of such of them as were enrolled to be
prosecuted before the Justiciary Court, were
scored out, and none of them met with any trou-
ble from the late circuit. The diverting of which
danger, though by secret influence from court,
being, as they firmly believe, and I think very
justly, the happy effect of your Grace's friendly
endeavours, they have desired me in their names
to return to your Grace their humble and hearty
thanks for your great favour and goodness in
interposing so seasonably and successfully in
their behalf, of which they are exceedingly sen-
sible.

" They have also informed me, that the
thoughts of addressing for a toleration are laid
aside till we have peace abroad, and a new par-
liament at home. And that they are willing to
rest satisfied with what they feel of her Majesty's
gracious protection, renewed from time to time
by secret influences, till a favourable opportunity
offer for expecting a more public confirmation
of it.

" They heartily wish and pray it may please
God long to preserve your Grace in health and
prosperity, for the continued comfort of your
own clergy, and the charitable relief of those

398 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

who are in distress. And this in a more parti-
cular manner is the earnest petition of,
" My Lord,
" Your Grace's most humble and
" obedient son and servant,

" Ja. Gordon."

" Hawnby, Oct. 25, 1709."

The deliverance of the episcopal clergy, men-
tioned in the former part of the letter, was cer-
tainly a great one, and very seasonable, if their
apprehensions of the treatment that was designed
them in the northern circuits were well ground-
ed ; for in the beginning of August the same
summer the Bishop of Edinburgh in a letter to
the Archbishop has these words : —

" I am certainly informed that our lords of
the Justiciary have sent up to the court for in-
structions how to behave in the next circuits
with respect to the episcopal clergy. If the
return to this be unfavourable, and recommend
not much moderation, we shall be entirely
ruined, for the judges who go to the northern cir-
cuits are such, that unless some bonds be laid
upon them we can expect no kind of quar-
ter, and it is into their division that by far the
greatest part of our clergy do fall. We still
complain, and justly too, that we are sentenced
and punished for what the law does not require;

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

399

and were it not very just to supersede any fur-
ther proceeding against us until the sitting of
the parliament, that they may take the case into
their consideration, and by a clear plain law let us
know our obligations ?"

But in another respect he was more success-
ful, viz. in procuring her Majesty's private bounty
towards them, especially to this Bishop of Edin-
burgh and that of Aberdeen. There was but one
surviving archbishop in Scotland, viz. Dr. John
Paterson, Archbishop of Glasgow, burthened
with age and infirmities, eleven children, and
great poverty. There was procured him a grant
of £300 per annum out of the rents of his arch-
bishopric during his life, and £200 per annum
for fifteen years more, towards the support and
maintenance of his children. Among the in-
ferior clergy he procured for Dr. Scott, the epis-
copal clergy's agent at court, a pension of eighty
guineas per annum : and did his best offices with
her Majesty that what remained undisposed of,
of the Bishop's rents should be distributed among
them. In short, he shewed himself in all respects
as tender of them as their own circumstances
and those of the times would permit.

And here we may pass over to some other
instances of his compassion and care of poor
distressed Protestants, viz. those in foreign
parts. When he was applied to in King Wil-

400 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

liam's reign, by the agents of the Churches of
the Palatinate, and the state of those Churches
was laid before him, he wrote to his Grace of
Canterbury, to assure him, " of his own readiness
to do his part, for the giving a supply for those
Churches, whenever the King or his Grace should
direct the method" Having no answer to this, he
wrote next to the Bishop of London, who " he
hoped would take the case into his consideration,
and advise with my Lord of Canterbury, and peti-
tion the King for a brief or order for a private
collection among the clergy. For his own part, he
was heartily sorry for their condition, and would,
with all his soul, give them all the assistance he could
towards their relief." Which he did afterwards.

King William and Queen Mary had granted
all their reign, or at least for many years of it,
a pension of 425/. to the Vaudois, in Germany.
But this pension having been struck off when
he came to be made the Queen's almoner, he
put into her Majesty's hands a memorial of the
pensions that had been paid in the late reign,
among which he set down this to the Vaudois ;
but this taking no effect, and the Vaudois minis-
ters pressing for the pension and the arrears,
he wrote to my Lord Treasurer as the properest
person to be applied to.

" Give me leave (says he) to lay a matter
before you, which I think I am bound to con-

i.lFK ()!• ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 401

cern myself in, and your Lordship also, who
made me the Queen's almoner. I have received
since I came to York two letters from the Vau-
dois ministers in German, wherein they set forth
their great necessities, and earnestly petition
for the continuance of that pension, which was
settled upon them by King William and Queen
Mary in 1689. The first of these I have sent
up to Dr. Battle, the sub-almoner, and desired
him to move the Queen on their behalf. The
other I now make bold to send to your Lord-
ship, together with a memorial of the state of
these poor people, which I received this last
week from Sir John Chardin. I find that those
ministers and schoolmasters, who are upon the
Dutch establishment receive their pensions duly
and are well maintained. Sure, then, my Lord,
those that the Crown of England promised to
provide for, should not be quite abandoned,"
&c. He obtained at last a promise from her
Majesty, that this matter should be taken
care of.

But when the treaty of peace was on foot in
the year 1709, then was the season for doing-
true service to the foreign Protestants ; and he
was not wanting to remind either her Majesty
or her ministers of it, As, May L, 1709: " In
the evening, at the Queens appointment, I waited on

her Majesty / pressed heartily, that now, in

i) d

402 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP,

the treaty of peace that is on foot, her Majesty would
order her plenipotentiaries to concern themselves about
the Protestant religion, both in France, the Palati-
nate, tfie Vaudois, Silesia, $$c. that we might not be
served as we were at the great treaty of Berwick.
She saith, over and over again, that she will take
care of that matter. I recommended to her, that
she should sc?id a minister on purpose, who would be
content with a very small salary, and such a one as
understood the state of the Protestants abroad. And
that it should be his business to manage that affair.
I prevailed with her, that she would receive a memo-
rial about the state of religion in foreign parts,
which Mr. Hales is preparing, and which the Bishop
of Ely has promised to present ; and to solicit the
Queen and my Lord Treasurer about that affair."

To omit the kind assistance he gave to the
distressed Greek Churches in Armenia and
Egypt, in 1706, when the Armenian bishops
came over to solicit a contribution in England,
for printing bibles and some other books in the
Armenian language and character, and were
recommended by him to the Queen ; and, in
1713, when Arsenius, Archbishop of Thebais,
in Egypt, came over with Greek letters to the
Queen, and to himself, which were afterwards
translated and published by M. La Roche, in
his Memoirs of Literature, as also to omit the
share he had in procuring the settlement of an

L I F E

OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

403

English Church M Rotterdam; we shall pro-
ceed to give an account of a much nobler work
he was engaged in with regard to the foreign
Protestant Churches, and that was the intro-
duction of the Liturgy of the Church of England
into the kingdom of Prussia. An account whereof
may be the more acceptable, because none of
the steps taken therein have been as yet made
public.

The Protestant subjects of the kingdom of
Prussia consist parily of Lutherans, and partly
of Calvinists ; which latter call themselves the
Reformed; the word Calvinist being disagreeable
to them, and consequently used only by such
as are not their friends.

Frederick King of Prussia had found it neces-
sary, for the greater solemnity of his corona-
tion, in 1700, to give the title of bishops to two
of the chief of his clergy, the one a Lutheran,
the other a reformed. The former died soon
after; where upon the other, viz. Dr. Ursinus, con-
tinued without a colleague, and with the title of
bishop. Since that time the king, who was a
lover of order and decency, conceived a design
of uniting the two different communions in his
kingdom, the Lutherans and the reformed, in
one public form of worship. And as he had a
great respect for the English nation and Church,
and held a good opinion of the Liturgy of the

d d 2

404

LIFE OF ARCH BISHOP SHARP.

Church of England, he thought that might be
the most proper medium wherein both parties
might meet*. The person who, above all others,
was instrumental in creating in the king a
favourable opinion of the discipline and Liturgy
of the English Church, and in improving his
good dispositions to establish them in his own
realm, was Dr. Daniel Ernestus Jablouski, a
man of great credit and worth, first chaplain to
the King of Prussia, and superintendant or senior]'

* Neque vel Lutherani nostros vel nostratis homines Luthe-
ranorum vitus admissuri sunt : sed utrique in Ecclesiae Angli-
canae Liturgia commodissime convcnire atque uniri possent. —
Epist. Jablouski.

t Under the title of seniors, that Church has kept up a cha-
racter very much resembling that of our bishops. Since the
seniors received a second ordination, or consecration to their
office, and none can be received into the ministry but by impo-
sition of their hands, which character and power they are said
to have derived from a certain bishop, who turned Protestant
about or soon after the time of J. Huss. And they themselves
are supposed to be the remains of the Hussites, driven out of
Bohemia by the Emperors, and refuged chiefly in the proper
estate of King Stanislaus. There were usually three or four
of this order in Poland. But at this time Dr. Jablouski had
no colleague ; at least he was the only senior remaining in
Upper Poland. Extract of his letter to Mr. Ayerst, 18th
June, 1712, N.S. " Prodie Julii et sequentibus, B. C. D. Syno-
dum celebrabimus de stabilienda religionis evangelicae in Polo-
nia securitate deliberatori. Quo tempore simul duo seniores
sive episcopi pro successione conservanda ordinabuntur . Etenim
a pluribus annis nullus in Polonia majore minister ob senioris

LIKE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 405

of the Protestant Church in Poland. This gentle-
man had received very great prejudices in his
youth against the Church of England, from
those among whom he was educated. But after
he had been twice in England, and had spent
some time in Oxford, and in the conversation
of our English divines, and in the study of our
Liturgy and Church discipline, he became not
only reconciled to them, but an admirer of our
ecclesiastical constitution ; and took all oppor-
tunities ever after, of expressing his friendship
and zeal for the English Liturgy and ceremo-
nies*.

Dr. Ursinus was likewise very well inclined
to a conformity in worship and discipline to that
of the Church of England ; but if he did not
prosecute the design with a warmth and zeal
equal to Jablouski s, it may be imputed to his
never having seen the Church of England in her
own beauties and proper dress as the other
had.

absentiam ordinatus fuit. Sed duos ego hie Berolini ordinatos
in Poloniam misi." See more in Dr. Jablouski's Reflections on
Monsieur Bonet's letter, Appendix II. No XII.

* His own account of his sentiments of the Church of Eng-
land, and how he came by them is worth the reader's perusal.
It was wrote in a letter to Dr. Nicholls, in 1708 (which will
be found in the Appendix).

406 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

By the advice principally of these two, the
King ordered the English Liturgy to be trans-
lated into high Dutch, which was done at his
University of Frankfort upon the Oder, where
the professors in general were friends to the
Church of England. This done, he ordered his
bishop, Dr. Ursinus, to write a letter in his
name to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to ac-
quaint him with what had been, and what was
intended to be done; and to ask his Grace's
advice about it. The scheme was, if the King's
intentions met with due reception and encou-
ragement from England, which it was presumed
could not fail, to have introduced the Liturgy
first into the King's own chapel, and the cathe-
dral church ; and to leave it free for the other
Churches to follow the example ; and the time
prefixed for this introduction was the first Sun-
day in Advent, 1706. It was indeed debated in
the King's Consistory (called so because a privy
counsellor always sits with, yet presides over
the Divines), whether the English Liturgy should
be used, or a new one composed in imitation of
it, several objecting, that they should seem to
acknowledge a dependance on the Church of
England, by wholly using her service; upon
which some divines, who were not willing the
design should miscarry, drew up a formulary,

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 407

which was put in manuscript into the hands
of the King's bishop.

A letter was wrote by Dr. Ursinus to his
Grace of Canterbury, pursuant to the King's
directions. And two copies of the high Dutch
version of the English Liturgy were sent along
with it ; one for her Majesty the Queen, the
other for his Grace. And orders were given
to form a correspondence between the principal
of the clergy of both courts, about the means
of promoting the design. The letter and the
copies were put into the hands either of Baron
Spanheim, or M. Bonet, the King's ministers.
Her Majesty, upon the receipt of her copy,
ordered my Lord Raby, her minister at the
Court of Prussia, to return her thanks to the
King and to the bishop, which was done. But
it unfortunately happened, that the other copy,
and the letter, which were designed for the
Archbishop of Canterbury, by some neglect or
mistake, were not delivered to him ; and the
more unfortunately, because they were assured
at Berlin, that they had been delivered to him
by Mr. Knyster, a subject of the King of Prus-
sia, then in England. This occasioned some
disgust; and the king having often asked Dr.
Ursinus, what answer the Archbishop had given to
his letter, greatly wondered, when the bishop,

408

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP slIAKP.

after some time, continued to reply, that as
yet none had been sent*. And it was thought,

* " Restabat tamen ecclesiae reibrmatae una triumphi materies
quum temporum opportunitas obtulit quam tamen Archiepis-
copus noster praenimia cunctatione, timiditate vel abundante et
intempestiva cautela neglexit. Intelligo episcoporum in Borus-
sia ordinationem juxta ecclesiae Anglican.-*? exemplar quam Rex
Borus religionis reformatae juxta ac literatorum Fautor per
regna sua celebrari voluit, et ea de causa virum turn eruditione
turn pietate eximium D. Enestum Grabe in Angliam transmisit
in episcopum juxta ritus ecclesiae Anglicanae ordinandum. Ve-
rum Archiepiscopus adeo non avide occasionem oblatam arri-
puit, ut frigide et oscilanter rem momenti gravissimi curaret, et
difficultatibus et causationibus interjectis ita in longum petra-
scit et aliquando tandem irrita prorsus interciderit. Godw. de
Prcesul. cotit. per. D. Richardson, p. 167." It appears, from
this passage, that the learned writer of it had not a full and
complete information of the affair upon which this remark con-
cerning the Archbishop's conduct is formed. If Dr. Grabe
had been sent over in order to obtain a consecration here, it is
strange no mention should be made of it in any of the letters
and papers which came afterwards into the hands of Archbishop
Sharp, relating to this overture of his Prussian Majesty. Be-
sides, the first application that was made to his Grace of Can-
terbury by Dr. Ursinus, was not till the year 1705 ; whereas
Dr. Grabe was settled at Oxford in 1697, as appears by his
dedicatory epistle in the first volume of his Spicelegium Pa-
trum, printed there 169S. And this was before his Prussian
Majesty was crowned, or took the title of King upon him,
which was not till 1700. And it was after that time this his
Majesty entertained the thought of introducing the Liturgy of
the Church of England in his kingdom. And in Dr. Grabe s.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

409

that this misfortune (but looked upon in Prussia
rather as a neglect in the Archbishop of Can-
dedication of St. Irenseus to the King of Prussia, in 1702, he
says nothing of his being sent over by him, but rather intimates
the contrary, ascribing the leaving of his country to the provi-
dence of God in general, and not to any particular order of his
prince. And lastly, in Mr. Collier's account of Dr. Grabe, in
his Dictionary, who was instructed by Dr. Hickes in many par-
ticulars concerning him, there is no mention made of his being
first sent into England, on account of consecration ; which
could hardly have been omitted had there been any authority
for it ; the information, therefore, given to the learned editor
of Godwin, was undoubtedly grounded upon some imperfect
account of my Lord of Canterbury's refusal to answer Dr.
Ursinus's letter, wrote to his Grace by his Prussian Majesty's
order ; and which was supposed to be delivered, and yet was
not. The person who only could give the true account of this
matter was the same that was employed by Dr. Ursinus to ask
his Grace whether he received the letter sent him, and to desire
him to write something which might be shewed the King, to
satisfy him whether it was received or no, which person (a man
of strict veracity and honour, but desirous that his name might
not be used on this occasion), reported from his Grace, that the
said letter never came to his hands, but withal, that his Grace
was unwilling to write any thing to Dr. Ursinus (that being pro-
posed to him), alleging the scandalous report that was at that
time spread of the university of Helmstadt having declared, in
the case of the marriage of the Queen of Spain, that it was lawful
for a Protestant to change communion, which he said was such a
reflection on all the Protestant Churches of Germany, that it was
sufficient at that time to hinder his commencing a correspondence
with any of them. This was the whole of the matter, as appears
from a paper sent the Archbishop of York by Dr. Hobart,and the

410

LIKE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

terbury), was one of the chief occasions which
made the King grow cool in the design.

But though the King seemed to have laid
aside his former intention, on account of the
above-mentioned discouragement, yet herein he
still shewed his good dispositions and inclina-
tions towards it, that from that time forward,
he did not suffer any extempore, effusions of
prayer in the chapel royal, but obliged his
chaplains to use a set form, though it were a
short one. And though the bishop and Dr.
Jablouski had no further prospect of setting the
affair on foot again with the Archbishop of
Canterbury, yet they continued to cultivate a
good correspondence with the English divines
(hoping some favourable opportunity of moving
it might offer itself), and particularly with Mr.
Ayerst, at that time chaplain to my Lord Raby,
then Ambassador at Berlin ; whom they called
into a participation of their councils, and who
proved of singular use to them in the promoting
the great design they had in view. It was
through this gentleman's hands, (even after he

reason by which his Grace of Canterbury excused himself from
writing to Dr. Ursinus, seemed too trifling to have been alleged
on that occasion, yet, being the true reason, it is more for his
honour that it should be produced, than that the world should
be left at liberty to conjecture at large, and assign reasons for
him. »

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 411

removed from Berlin into Holland), that the
correspondence was afterwards carried on be-
tween Dr. Jablouski and the Archbishop of
York ; which correspondence took its rise from
the following occasion. The King, in 1710,
thought proper, by way of experiment, to give
orders to his divines to draw up their thoughts
separately, upon a model of a worship and dis-
cipline to be established. Among the rest, Dr.
Jablouski drew up his, with a great deal of
prudence, modesty, and candour. He avoided
in it the recommendation of the Church of Eng-
land in particular, as judging that not so sea-
sonable at that juncture, especially as he lay
under the imputation of being too much a friend
to it. Nor did he as yet treat of Church govern-
ment, because he thought it was yet too hard a
saying for them, and besides, he conceived that
the Liturgy, once established, would of course
bring on the discipline. This judgment of his
he delivered to Baron Printz, President of the
Council of Ecclesiastical Affairs at Berlin, on
June 25, 1710. It was rendered from high
Dutch into English, and by way of preface to
Mr. Chamberlain's translation of the Neufchatel
Liturgy, printed at London, 1712*. In settling

* This little tract, although it has been in print some years,
is nevertheless put in the Appendix, not only on account of its
relation to other papers therein collected, and the light it throws

412

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

which Liturgy, in conjunction with Mr. Oster-
wald, Dr. Jablouski had been very instrumen-
tal. In the meantime this order from his Prus-
sian Majesty, and the judgments of his divines
upon it seemed to make it a very proper season
once more to move the affair of introducing the
English Liturgy. And the rather, because my
Lord Raby having obtained a particular interest
in the King and his ministers, it was thought,
that if he was commanded to recommend this

upon the present subject, but also on account of the scarcity of
the impressions of the Neufchatel Liturgy, to which it is pre-
fixed in the English edition. Justice is likewise done hereby to
the worthy author, in the correction of a mistake in the trans-
lation, whereby the sentiments of the learned doctor concerning
the Church of England are very much misrepresented. For
whereas the doctor set out with an observation, dass manche
cvangeliscke gemeinem, i. e. that several evangelical congrega-
tions (meaning thereby the Lutherans and Calvinists in Prussia,
Poland, Bohemia, &c.) have fallen from one extreme, that of
the Romish idolatrous worship, to that other of a frigid, super-
ficial, and not enough respectful way of worship : his translator
not being apprised that Evglische was an abbreviation of Evan-
gelische, read it with a small difference, Englische gemeinem ;
which he rendered English congregations. Those, it seems,
were not in the doctor's thoughts when he made this reflection,
as appears by his own words, wrote shortly after to the trans-
lator, wherein he gives this very account of the mistake, and
adds, " Quod si tu ipse mihi non vertisti vitio quod mare
transvolans Anglos ad me nihil hie pertinentes lacessiverim,
saltern si ab aliis id fieri audiveris, me quseso excusa." 17th
Dec. N. S. 1712.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

413

affair to the King, from her Majesty in England,
the success of the motion might in all probabi-
lity prove good. Hereupon, Dr. Jablouski re-
solved to attempt it by an application to the
Archbishop of York (moved thereto chiefly by
the Rev. Mr. Ayerst) ; and made use of Dr.
Hobart, then in Berlin, and personally known
to the Archbishop, to transmit the letter*,
wherein he begs his Grace's correspondence and
assistance. Dr. Hobart took this opportunity
of mentioning the several steps which had been
made before in this business (out of whose
accounts that which is above related is for the
most part an extract), and inclosed Dr. Jablou-
ski's plan of a public form of worship ; and
added, that the doctor would be most punctual on
his side, to give information of all that should be
requisite for the furtherance of the design ; that he

* This letter itself is not to be found ; but that it was wrote
at the instance of Mr. Ayerst, and submitted to his judgment
and correction, appears from these words in the doctor's letter
to him, 17th Sept. 1710. N. S. " Cum hesternum tempus po-
meridianum universum extra cedes meas et partim extra urbem
transigere coactus fuerum, literas promissas ad bonum Archi-
episcopum Ebor, parare baud potui. Eas nunc rudi Minerva
conceptas tuae censuraB subjicio, ut siquid adjiciendum omit-
tendum, mutandum existimes, fraterne me moncas. Mitto
etiam exemplar Cogitationurn mearum ad Exc. Printziumi In
cujus versione praeter primum exordium (quod nullius vobis
esse potest utilitatis) alia quo? forte videbuntur libcre omittes."

414 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

would be the most proper person to carry it on, and
to suggest to the ambassador, with whom he already
had some acquaintance, all the best methods. That
Dr. Ursinus was old, a?id might be more afraid of
beginning again without the King's knowledge ; but
that, if the design were espoused in England, Dr.
Jablouski would communicate to the other what
passed, and carry it on in concert with him. That
which made the doctor the most proper man that
could be for the promoting such an affair was, that
though he admired and loved the Church of England
as much as any man, and would venture as much
for the introducing it in Prussia in its full perfec-
tion, yet his temper and discretion was such, that he
was the most proper judge what the time and place
would bear ; and if he should find that lie could not
entirely at first do all that he would, yet he would
have patience to do it gradually.

And indeed it appears pretty clearly that all
the steps that were taken in this matter were
owing more to Dr. Jablouski's labours and in-
fluence than to any thing else whatsoever.

The packet from Germany came enclosed to
Dr. Smaldridge in London * to whom the con-

* Dr. Hobart, who dispatched this packet September 22nd,
1710, the day before he left Berlin, was at a loss where to
direct it with most safety and dispatch. He first sent it to
Dr. Kenyon, desiring him to deliver it either to Dr. Smaldridge
or Dr. Jenkyn whichsoever of them should be in town, writing

LIFF. OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 415

tents were communicated, and it was transmitted
by him to the Archbishop, then in Yorkshire,
October 10, 1710, to which he immediately re-
plied by writing to all the parties who had con-
cerned themselves in the communication of that
affair. His letter to Dr. Jablouski, which is the
most material, is as follows :

" York, Oct. 14, 1710.

" Rev. Sir,

** I received the other day the favour
of a letter from you enclosed in one from Dr.
Hobart, for which I return you my humble
thanks. I shall esteem it a great honour to have
a correspondence with you by letters ; for
though I am a stranger to your person, I am not
so to your character : having had such an ac-
count from my friends in London of your great
learning and prudence and piety, that I must be
a very ill man myself if I had not a great esteem
for you. You may therefore, whenever you
please, freely communicate your mind to me, as
I shall make no scruple of doing the like to you.
And you may likewise assure yourself of all the
assistance that I can give you towards the fur-

a letter at the same time which might be delivered in his name
to either of them. Dr. Smaldridge proved the man. See Dr.
Hobart's said letter, and another of Dr. Smaldridge's to the
Archbishop of York in the Appendix.

41G LIFT OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

thering that noble pious icork, which I under-
stand you are now pursuing. I thank you heartily
for the papers you sent me containing your
thoughts concerning the public worship of God,
directed to Baron Printz. I agree with you in
every particular, and I hope his Prussian Ma-
jesty will be so affected with it as to establish
things according to your plan. And I know no
public worship in Christendom that comes up so
well to your measures as that used among us in
the Church of England. I heartily bless God
for raising up a prince among you who has so
great a concern for religion and the honour of
God. And I do as heartily pray that God would
crown his endeavours with success, and that he
may live to see the good effect of his glorious
designs in the happy union of the divided Pro-
testants among you; and in the establishment
of such a public worship of God as is most pri-
mitive, most pure, most decent, and most con-
ducive to the advancement of God's glory and
the edification of every soul that joins in it.

" I ought humbly to beg your pardon for not
answering your letter in the same language it
was writ in, but I was encouraged to this rude-
ness by Dr. Hobart, who tells me that you un-
derstand English very well though it is difficult
for you to write it. For my own part, though I
can read Latin as well as ever I could, yet for

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

417

many years I have had so little occasion to write
it that it is now very troublesome to me to at-
tempt it.

" That God Almighty would grant you health
and long life, and bless all your endeavours for
the public good, is the hearty prayer of, Sir,
" Your most affectionate friend,
" and humble servant,

" Jo. Ebor *."

About the middle of the next month, viz.
November 18th, he came to town, where he had
an opportunity of entering into measures to faci-
litate Dr. Jablouski's project.

There were two persons then in London who
were capable of being eminently serviceable to
him in the furtherance of it, namely, Dr. Grabe,
who was perfectly well acquainted with the state
of the matter, with Jablouski's character, and

* This letter was very acceptable to the Doctor, and gave him
great encouragement to proceed in his designs. See his an-
swer 7th February, 171!, N.S. Appendix.

Extract of his letter to Mr. Ayerst, 22nd November, 1710.
" Proposueram heri te convenireEpistolamque Grabianam quam
mecum communicaveras reddere, simul vero Eboraccnsem, in-
terea ad me delatam arnSwgot/ vice tecum communicare. Quod
vero ob intervenientia impedimenta destinata exequi baud potui,
utramque in praesens tibi mitto, ut, si ita placuerit, et Deus
vitam concesserit, die crastino, loco et tempore quo jusseris his
de rebus conferrc valenmus."

e e

418 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

with the disposition of the King of Prussia and
his courtiers and his divines ; and Mr. Hales, a
gentleman well known by the Protestants abroad,
and who was thought to understand the general
state of their affairs in all the kingdoms of Eu-
rope. This gentleman had been before pitched
upon, and recommended to her Majesty as a
person proper to be employed in her name
abroad for the good of Protestantism, and to
solicit for the relief of the distressed churches in
France and the Palatinate, and in Silesia, &c.
And he had drawn up a memorial or scheme of
the services that might be done to the Protes-
tants abroad. With this Mr. Hales he consulted
November 28, and promised him to lay his memorial
and the Queen of Poland her letter to him before
Mr. Harley, then at the head of the court in-
terest, which he afterwards did, and said to Mr.
Harley what he thought proper to engage him in
the service of these excellent designs ; for with-
out his concurrence it would have seemed a vain
attempt, at that time of day, to meddle with
foreign affairs.

On November 30th he spoke himself to the Queen
about the Pmssian affair ; and at the same time de-
sired that the Convocation might sit to do business,
this being, as he thought, a matter upon which they
might be very usefully employed. And this brought
on those meetings at the Bishop of Rochester's,

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

419

where Mr. Harley was present about the Con-
vocation's sitting, an account whereof hath been
given above ; where the Prussian was proposed
by him as one of the heads they were to take
into consideration.

By these applications and the concurrent as-
sistance that was given him by others of our
English divines, the design was again set on foot
and put into motion (as it seemed most agreeable
it should) on the part of England. Dr. Robin-
son, Bishop of Bristol, wrote to his Excellency the
Lord Baby to sound the inclination of the court of
Prussia, and inquire into the state of their ecclesias-
tical affairs ; upon which his lordship conferred with
Dr. Jablouski, and with Baron Printz, the director
of ecclesiastical affairs, February 7, N.S. 1710-11 :
and the Baron, after consultation with the Kings
bishop, laid the affair before his Majesty, who seemed
to receive the motion with a pleasure, and declaimed
both to the baron and to the bishop that he was yet
of the same mind he had formerly been, and recom-
mended the scheme to be adjusted by them and Dr.
Jablouski, but in a secret way, that a good and solid
foundation might be laid for it before it was made
public, by which means it would afterwards appear
tvith greater advantage.

When Baron Printz acquainted my Lord Ambas-
sador with the Kings dispositions, my Lord desired
him to signify as much to him in writing, which oc-

e e2

420

LIFF. OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

casioned the following letter from the baron to
his lordship as it is rendered into English.

" February Uth, 1711. N. S.

" My Lord,

" Your excellency having done me the
honour some time since to communicate the
overtures that had been made by our bishop
here, Mons. de Bar (Ursinus) to his Grace the
Archbishop of Canterbury, in order to establish
a nearer union and correspondence between the
reformed churches on this side the sea, (and par-
ticularly in the dominions of the King my mas-
ter) and the Church of England. In compliance
therewith, I have not failed to confer with
Monsieur de Bar, our bishop, upon that subject ;
and we have most humbly laid some overtures
before his Majesty, our august King. We con-
tinue, on our parts, in the same favourable dis-
positions, and are ready to enter into whatever
measures may contribute to the good success of
this affair. But as hitherto it has been treated
in England with so great an indifference, that
they have not vouchsafed to give any answer to
the overtures that have been made by us, nor
to the version of the English Liturgy, translated
into our German language, so we would not
expose ourselves to the like hazard, by making
any further advances, without being assured of
an answer from the part of England.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

421

" And, as far as I could judge by your Excel-
lency's discourses, her Majesty of Great Britain
cannot want the means to advance this impor-
tant affair by her consummate prudence, by her
great credit in England, and the laudable zeal
she has already shewn for enlarging and esta-
blishing the Protestant Church. And I believe
(if I may be allowed to give my opinion), that
the most certain and efficacious manner of faci-
litating this affair here, and also establishing a
profound esteem in all the reformed Churches,
for the Church of Great Britain, would be for
her Britannic Majesty to give that shining proof
of her royal bounty and gracious zeal, as to
procure, by her powerful solicitations, that
liberty of conscience and free exercise of reli-
gion to the poor reformed in Silesia, as the
Imperial Court has granted to the other Lu-
theran Protestants by the mediation of the King
of Sweden. And so many are the obligations
of the House of Austria to her Majesty of Great
Britain, that there is no doubt the Emperor
will pay the same respect to the gracious inter-
cessions of the Queen in favour of the reformed,
as he has done to the pressing instances of the
King of Sweden, in behalf of the Lutherans.
Dr. Robinson, the new Bishop of Bristol, who
was her Majesty's minister when that affair
was transacted between his Imperial Majesty

422 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

and the King of Sweden, is fully informed of
all the circumstances, and the miserable condi-
tion, as well as the evident right of the poor
reformed Church in Silesia. And I doubt not
but his justice, and the exemplary zeal he hath
ever shewed for the propagation of the Protes-
tant faith, will oblige him to use his utmost
endeavours, both by his solid remonstrances,
and by the authority his great merit has so justly
gained him, to relieve this afflicted people, and
in general to contribute to the mutual corre-
spondence and good agreement between the
Church of England, and all the reformed
Churches abroad.

" But I submit every thing to your Excel-
lency's great wisdom, and that admirable dex-
terity wherewith you dispatch whatever you
undertake. And I expect your last orders upon
this affair, being, with the utmost respect and
devotion," &c.

Two days after, my Lord Raby dispatched
this letter of Baron Printz's to the Lord Bishop
of Bristol, &c. as Dr. Jablouski did an account
of it to the Archbishop of York ; and added,
that if there was any thing in that letter which one
could have wished had been otherwise expressed, he
hoped his Grace would be pleased to consider, that
the baron, though a very prudent, sagacious, and

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 423

worthy gentleman, was not yet fully apprized of, and
instructed in the nature of this business, having been
promoted to that post since the time that this affair
ivas before in agitation. But that, notwithstanding,
he might be relied upon as one who ivould do the
Church signal service. The doctor expressed in
this letter an exceeding pleasure in the fair
prospect he now had of bringing the long
hoped for design to bear ; and concluded, that
there were two things highly requisite for the
effectual promotion of it, viz. directions from
her Majesty to the Lord Ambassador, to treat
expressly upon that subject, and the dispatching
Mr. Hales over to Berlin.

The Archbishop found the first of these much
easier to be obtained than the other. For
though no answer could be got for some time
with respect to Mr. Hales, yet the following
letter was sent in the same month to my Lord
Raby, by Mr. Secretary St. John's, a copy of
which is here inserted.

" Whitehall, Feb. 28, 1710.

" My Lord,

" If this letter finds your Excellency
still at Berlin, her Majesty desires that you
would take some proper opportunity of speaking
to Monsieur Printz, to the bishops, and to any
others who may concern themselves in so lauda-

424 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

ble a design as that mentioned in your Excel-
lency's of the 14th instant, N. S.

" You will please, my Lord, to assure them,
that her Majesty is ready to give all possible
encouragement to that excellent work, and that
those who have the honour to serve her are
heartily disposed to contribute all that is in
their power to the same end. Your Excellency
may venture to assure them further, that the
Clergy is zealous in this cause ; and if former
overtures have met with a cold reception from
any of that body, such behaviour was directly
contrary to their general inclination and to their
avowed sense, as appeared evidently from the
attempt which the lower House of Convocation
made some years ago, to join with the bishops
in promoting a closer correspondence between
the two Churches.

" Your Excellency will please to give, both
here and at the Hague, as early notice as you
conveniently can of your removal. I am,
" My Lord, your Excellency's

" Most obedient humble servant,
" H. St. John."

That the dispatch of Mr. Hales was likewise
attempted, will appear from the following me-
morandums in the Archbishop's diary.

Thursday, March 1,1710-11. "At eleven o clock

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 425

/ went to the Queen / would have read Dr.

Jablouskis two letters to her ; but she was in haste.
I left them with her, which she promises to shew to
Mr. Secretary St. Johns, which I pressed her to
do, in order that he might give dispatch to a com-
mission for Mr. Hales, who I told her was in both
these letters earnestly recommended to that employ-
ment by Dr. Jablouski, as being well known and
much esteemed, both by Ur sinus and Baron Printz,
and also the King of Prussia himself. Tuesday,
April 3d. Before twelve d clock I went to the Queen;
but she was so busy, I did no business with her, but
only put her in mind of Dr. Jablouskis letters, to
be put into the hands of Secretary St. Johns ; and to
speak to him upon Mr. Hales' affair. As I came
out, I spoke likewise to Secretary St. Johns, who was
there, and told him what I had said to the Queen,
and desired him to speak to her about these matters,
which he said he would."

There was another thing about this time well
concerted for the furtherance of the main de-
sign, viz. that her Majesty should grant a sum
of money to the Prussians, to buy ground for
the erecting a church here in London for a
Prussian congregation. She promised a thousand
pounds, and he having prepared her for the admitting
their petition, waited upon her with it on Tuesday,
April 17, she said she would speak with Mr. Hur-
ley, and so we left it with her.

426 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

In the meantime Mr. Bonet, the King of
Prussia's minister at London, had, on March
16th, a conference with Secretary St. John's,
about the introduction of the English Liturgy
and discipline into Prussia, which occasioned
Monsieur Bonet to write his thoughts to his
master upon that conference the next day, in
the following manner, in a postscript to a letter
upon other affairs.

P. S. " Sir, — In the same conversation that
I had yesterday with the aforesaid Secretary of
State, Mr. St. John's, he discoursed upon the
ecclesiastical affairs relating to your Majesty's
kingdoms, which have been the subject of the
letters and transactions between the Archbishop
and Dr. Jablouski ; and between the Bishop of
Bristol and my Lord Raby, and your Majesty's
minister, Baron Printzen. I had already some
intimation of this affair from the Archbishop of
York and the Bishop of Bristol, who are both
of them in great esteem with the Queen and
present ministry ; and who have shewed me
some letters upon this subject, and assured me
of her Majesty's good inclinations ; but the dis-
course of the Secretary of State was more par-
ticular, in that he gave me to understand he
should be glad I would write to your Majesty
about it.

" He began his discourse by telling me how

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 427

much the Queen and clergy were displeased
with the cold reception the German translation
of the English Liturgy met with by the answer
that was given concerning it ; that we ought to
impute.it to the character of the present Arch-
bishop of Canterbury. He added, that her
Majesty and the clergy were well disposed to
entertain a correspondence with the clergy of
Prussia, and to enter into any negociation, and
make all reasonable advances upon this subject,
as he himself had mentioned to the above-
named ambassador. And moreover, he often
mentioned a well writ letter of Baron Printzen's
to my Lord Raby, and that the Queen approved
of it. I told him I was not yet honoured with
your Majesty's commands upon this affair, nor
was I yet instructed in the scheme to be pro-
posed, no more than I was acquainted with the
disposition of the people, who are often jealous
and prepossessed against novelties, and that
their inclinations ought to be consulted before
we made any step of this nature, who must be
instructed and prepared by degrees, before
they will enter into any new measures, be they
ever so good. But I added, that I would not
fail to lay the Queen's inclinations in this affair
before your Majesty.

" Before we parted, he again repeated the
design the Court and clergy had of entering

428 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

into a negociation to create an union between
the Protestant Churches here and beyond sea, but
without entering into any particulars.

" Sir, I will not here enter into the considera-
tion of the nature of the Service of the Church
of England, the most perfect, perhaps, that is
among Protestants, though the many years that
I have frequented no other have given me time
to reflect upon the ritual and practice of that
Church, as well as upon some abuses there are
in her clergy and Discipline, I will apply myself
to other considerations. The Jirst is, that a
conformity between the Prussian Churches and
the Church of England would be received with
great joy here. The second is, that the confor-
mity to be wished for beyond the sea relates
more to Church government than to any change
in the Ritual or Liturgy. The clergy here are
for episcopacy, and look upon it, at least, as of
apostolical institution, and are possessed with
the opinion, that it has continued in an uninter-
rupted succession from the Apostles to this
present time ; and upon this supposition, they
alledge there can be no true ecclesiastical go-
vernment but under bishops of this Order ; nor
true ministers of the Gospel, but such as have
been ordained by bishops ; and if there be
others that do not go so far, yet they all make
a great difference between the ministers that

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

429

have received imposition of hands by bishops,
and those that have been ordained by a synod
of Presbyters. A third consideration is, that the
Church of England would look upon a con-
formity of this nature as a great advantage to
herself, and that the clergy, united to the Court
and the Tories, are a very considerable and
powerful body. On the other side, the Whigs,
the Presbyterians, the Independants, and all
the other non-conformists would look upon this
conformity with great concern as weakening
and disarming their party. And the Electoral
House of Brunswick, which depends more upon
the latter than the former, may fear least this
conformity should have other consequences.
But though the Whigs have more money, be-
cause they are more concerned in trade, and
though their chiefs may have the reputation at
present of a superior genius, yet the others
have more zeal and constant superiority and
interest.

" Ut in ratione humillima, &c."
" Tuesday, March 17."

What reception and effect Mr. Secretary St.
John's letter, and this of Mr. Bonet's, had at
Berlin, will appear from the account of them
given to the Archbishop by Dr. Jablouski, in
his letter of April 28, 1711; the translation of

430

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

which shall be given entire, because it is a
narrative of what was done at Berlin on this
occasion.

" My very good Lord,

" The day that his Excellency my
Lord Raby, the British ambassador, took his
leave of this place (which was on the 24th of
March, N. S.), he was pleased to acquaint me,
that he had received the Queen's commands by
the Right Honourable Mr. Secretary St. John's,
that he should confer with Baron Printz and
our bishops, and others, about our ecclesiastical
affairs, and assure them of the ready assistance
both of her Majesty and of the clergy of Eng-
land to promote so good a design. He also
told me, that in pursuance of her Majesty's
directions he had been the day before at Baron
Printz's, with a design to wait upon him. But
not finding him at home, he intrusted me to
deliver a copy of the above-mentioned letter to
Baron Printz and the bishop in his name, which
I did the day following*.

** Mr. St. John's letter, for the compass of it,

* Extract of Jablouski's letter to Mr. Ayerst, of May 5,
1711. " Grande illud negotium nostrum satis feliciter procedit
postquam illustris vester St. Johnius residenti Prussico Bonneto
Reginae vestrae ministorum status atque cleri ea de re mentem
exposuit, ipsum que de eadem ad Regem referre jussit."

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

431

breathes such a spirit of British piety and
generosity, that it mightily affected and pleased
me, and hath given a new life to our hopes.

" A few days after came a letter from Mr.
Bonet, the Prussian resident in Great Britain,
dated at London, March 17; in which he in-
forms his Majesty, that he had had a long con-
ference about our affairs with the Right Ho-
nourable Mr. St. John's, who expressed himself
very desirous that we should proceed in this
business, and generally offered the concurrent
assistances of her Majesty and the English
clergy. This letter is the more remarkable, in
that it gives us to understand, that Mr. St. John's
does not content himself with repeated declara-
tions that he would have the Church of England
keep up a brotherly correspondence with the
Church of Prussia, and be more closely united
to it, and such like general intimations of a
good disposition ; but expressly affirms, that
he is desirous this matter should be laid before
the King. And Mr. Bonet adds, that the Eng-
lish do not aim so much at a conformity in the
Liturgy, as in the Church government. By
which words the prudent minister, in short,
touches upon the very substance of the whole
affair.

" Baron Printz communicated Mr. Bonet's
letter to the bishop and myself ; but to each a

432

L I F E OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

part. And he desired each of us to give him
in writing our own sentiments upon this subject.
I did so yesterday ; and with that freedom of
speech that becomes a sen-ant of Christ, have
delivered my opinion for a form of prayer like
to the English Liturgy, and for the government
of the Church by bishops ; and have supported
my opinion, as I think, with weighty arguments.
I cannot yet tell whether Baron Printz is
pleased to approve of my thoughts, because he
is out of town. He has promised, indeed, that
he would duly and thoroughly consider what
each of us should offer, and whatever he judged
in his conscience to be most proper and advisa-
ble, he would lay it before the King in council.
The undissembled and unshaken piety of this
gentleman makes me hope that he will espouse
our cause. He gave me liberty to speak my
mind freely, and told me that he would take
upon himself the envy and odium of the ichole
affair. Mr. Bonet had very seasonably let us
know, that the Right Honourable Mr. St.
John's often called Baron Printz's letter to ray
Lord Raby, une lettre tres-sensee et tres bien ecrite;
and that her Majesty the Queen was mightily

pleased with it ' Principibus ptacuisse

viris non ultima laus est" I may add, that to
do so is not only an honour, but a great pleasure
to a noble and generous mind.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 433

" Thus far, my Lord, I have given your
Grace an account of this business. I have
indeed more particulars to acquaint your Grace
with, but such as cannot be conveniently in-
serted in a letter. And therefore I have desired
his Excellency the Lord Raby's chaplain, the
Rev. Mr. Ay erst (a man of judgment much
above his years, and who, to the veneration he
has for the Church of England, prudently joins
moderation towards those in foreign parts), that
when he should arrive in Britain with my Lord
Raby (which he supposed would be soon), he
would in person inform your Grace in every
thing. This gentleman understands our affairs
extremely well ; and I have let him into all my
designs and actions, having had experience both
of his candour and his zeal.

I* The confused prospect of affairs in Europe
seems to require the dispatch of another am-
bassador from her Majesty, to succeed my Lord
Raby at our Court ; upon whom, in great mea-
sure, will depend the good or bad event of the
business in agitation. May he therefore be a
man of a religious disposition, as well as dis-
cretion in civil affairs ; one who will be mindful
that he is not only the ambassador of the great
Queen Anne, but also the servant of Jesus
Christ; and that he is designed to serve the
interests and enlarge the kingdoms of botli ;

f f

4I>4 TIFF. OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.-

one who may adorn his external character by
the virtues of his mind, and by both these
secure his interest and reputation with the King
and his ministers, and make use of both for the

service of the Church But whither does

my zeal for God and his glory carry me ! that
I should launch out thus boldly, when my
meaning is only to express my desires for the
advancement of religion. I hope your Grace
will pardon me, I am sure you will ; since you
yourself know, by experience, how strong the
love of Christ is which constraineth us.

" Your Mr. Hales delays too long giving us
the pleasure that we expect from him. The
public concerns of the Church do not only in-
vite him, but require and demand him. Among
the many advantages which we on this side the
water hope to reap from his presence, this is a
considerable one, and would at this time be
very seasonable, viz. that as he understands our
language, the German provinces might by his
means resound with the English Liturgy, and
our natives be brought over by degrees, and be
reconciled to what at present seems unusual
and strange to them. Farewell, my Lord. Be
pleased to continue your Grace's respects to
" Your Lordship's most humble

" And most devoted servant,
" Daniel Ernestus Jablouski."

" Berlin, April 28, 1711."

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 435

The doctor having drawn up his thoughts
freely and fully, as Baron Printz directed him,
upon Mr. Bonet's letter to the King of Prussia,
and having presented them, as he acquaints the
Archbishop in this letter to the baron the day
before, had the satisfaction, within a very few
days, of receiving the following answer from
the baron himself.

" Charlottenburg, May 3, 1711.

" Worthy Sir,

" I have not failed to read over, with
a very particular attention, and consequently so
much greater satisfaction, the reflections you
sent me concerning our known affair ; and hav-
ing observed, among other things, that you
think a way might be found out (notwithstand-
ing the prejudices and inveterate opinions, and
the many difficulties which it is to be feared
might thence arise), to introduce and establish
an approved episcopacy, in such manner as should
give no offence, nor at all weaken or diminish
the jura mqjestatis circa sacra, especially in a
government entirely sovereign ; I do, therefore,
instantly desire you by this, that according to
your highly laudable zeal for promoting the
true welfare of the Protestant religion, you
would be so good as to write down, at your
leisure, those your thoughts, and communicate

f f 2

436 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

them to me ; which I will not only make use of
in such a cautious manner as you desire, that
you shall not fear incurring any censure or envy
on that account ; but will not fail, in proper
time and place, to extol the great care and
pains you have taken, as being, on many other
accounts, with a very particular high esteem
and true passion, &c.

" Printzen."

This further request of the baron produced,
in two or three days, another treatise from Dr.
Jablouski, which he entitled his project for intro-
ducing episcopacy into the King of Prussia s domi-
nions, and which he presented to the baron,
May 7, 1711. Both these discourses were
translated from the high Dutch (in which lan-
guage they were wrote) by Mr. Ayerst, then at
the Hague, the translator of the doctor's former
treatise prefixed to the version of the Neufchatel
liturgy. And as they are equally deserving to
be published, are therefore inserted at length in
the appendix.

Mr. Ayerst was so kind as to send copies of
these versions very early to my Lord of York,
and acquainted him in the letter which he sent
along with them (bearing date June 9, 1711,)
that it was a pity " Mr. Hales was not yet dis-
patched with the designed character into those

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

437

parts, and that he was not then at the Hague,
to join with my lord ambassador in soliciting
the King of Prussia (who was then at that
place) on that affair. One good effect (says he),
which your Grace's care has already had at
Berlin is, that they begin to have a greater
respect for the episcopal character; since the
doctor tells me, that at the King's coming from
thence, the titular Bishop Ursinus was made
Vice-President of the Royal Consistory, and
keeps the seals in Baron Printz's absence;
though, not above two years ago, it was de-
creed, that none of the clergy were capable of
that office. Your Grace will see, by Baron
Printz's answer after that he had read the doc-
tor's reflections, that things are in a fair way
if they are pursued ; and perhaps they might
still go on better, if the House of Hanover were
applied to in the same affair."

The Archbishop was at this time in Yorkshire,
but that he might not omit any service he was
capable of doing to advance the design he had
undertaken to encourage, he wrote a letter to
the new Lord Treasurer, July 21, 1711, wherein
he has these words : —

" I would beg leave to put your Lordship in
mind of Mr. Hales. He is capable of doing-
great service towards the promoting that noble
design that is now on foot of having episcopacy

438 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

and our Liturgy established in Prussia; he
being very well known there and in all parts of
Germany. I have had several letters from Dr.
Jablouski, wherein he earnestly presses that he
(Mr. Hales) may be sent abroad for that pur-
pose, under some public character. I could
heartily wish that your Lordship would concert
and settle this affair with Mr. Secretary St.
John's, who is very well apprised of this whole
business, and is no stranger to Mr. Hales."

In a few days after he wrote also to Mr.
Hales as follows.

" Sir,

" I beg your pardon for not sooner
returning you my thanks for Dr. Jablouski's
two letters, and for your own. Those of the
doctor I have taken copies of, and so send them
you back to be translated into English, and laid
before her Majesty, if it be thought fit.

" I beg of you, when you next write to that
excellent person, that you would present my
humble service to him, and beg his pardon, that
I have not of a long time writ to him. Indeed
I am ashamed of it, but, alas ! being at so great
a distance from London, I have nothing to com-
municate to him worthy of his knowledge.

•* You may assure him, that while I was at
London I took all opportunities of shewing my

LIFE OF A11CHB1SH0P SHARP. 439

zeal for carrying on that noble work that is now
in hand in Prussia; that I often spoke to the
Queen and Mr. Secretary St. John's about it;
that from time to time I got his letters trans-
lated, and laid them before the Queen; that
likewise I have often pressed, as he desired me,
that you might be sent abroad under a public
character, to promote the interests of our
Church and religion, and the settling epis-
copacy and a Liturgy in Prussia. And to tell
you, by the by, that you may see I do not
forget you, having occasion this last month to
write to my Lord Treasurer, that I put him in
mind of this affair of yours, which I understand
had been lately recommended to him by the
Prolocutor, and begged that it might have some
effect.

" Lastly, I desire you to return my humble
thanks to Dr. Jablouski for his two excellent
treatises, which I received since I came down
from Mr. Ayerst, viz. his Reflections on Mr.
Ballet's Letter- to the King of Prussia, and his
Project for introducing Episcopacy into the King of
Prussia's domin ions .

" I assure you, I do exceedingly approve of
them, as I must of every thing that comes from
that great man.

"But I beg your pardon for giving you this

440 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

trouble. I will add no more, but that I am,
with sincere respect and esteem, Sir,

" Your affectionate friend and servant,

" Jo. Ebor."

Mr. Ayerst, in his letter of June 9, 1711,
lately quoted, had intimated, that the design
in Prussia would be much forwarded, if the
House of Hanover were applied to in the same affair.
He had first moved and suggested the same to
Dr. Jablouski and Monsieur Leibnitz*, who
both indeed seemed to approve of the thing,
though doubtful as to the success of it. How-
ever, Mr. Leibnitz undertook to sound the incli-
nations of the Court of Hanover towards it.
And in a very short time he enabled Mr. Ayerst

* Extract of Jablouski's letter to Mr. Ayerst, of 5th May,
1711. " Quas Leibnitsia destinaveras ipse ei in manus tradidi.
Responsum ejus habes geminum iis quae de inventu tuo confa-
bulati sumus. Confecta res videri posset, nisi Electrix vidua,
expensarum pertsesa, spei autem pro sua. persona exors, ex-
pensas una cum spe in filium devolveret."

Mr. Leibnitz's letter was in these words.

" Monsieur, Je trouve votre pensee tres raisonable mais
avant mon retour a Hanover, je ne sauray dire, si elle pourra
avoir de success. Et M. Jablouski predicateur du Roy, qui
m'a fait l'honneur de me rendre votre lettre est du mesne senti-
ment. Quand je seray done de retour a Hanover, je prendrai
mon temps pour sonder les sentimens la dessus. Je menageray
la chose aussi de la sorte qu'elle ne puisse point eclater avant le
temps. Je suis, &c. Leibnitz." Berlin, ce 3 de May, 1711.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

441

then at the Hague, to tell the Archbishop of
York, in his letter, July 1, 1711, N. S. That he
was assured, by good hands from Hanover, that if
her Majesty would allow a pension for a chaplain of
the Church of England to attend the Princess Sophia,
it would be very acceptable there. And Dr. Smal-
dridge, through whose hands Mr. Ay erst trans-
mitted this letter, added, as from himself, V that
it would certainly be of great service to our
Church, that our Liturgy should be used at the
Court of Hanover. And since there is (says he)
so good a disposition towards it, I hope, by
your Grace's influence, it may be compassed.
If that design should succeed, Mr. Ayerst seems
to have a very good right to officiate as chap-
lain. He has given sufficient proofs of his pru-
dence and good affection to the Church ; and
being well known there, would, I doubt not,
be very acceptable to Madam and the Elec-
tress."

The connecting these two designs together,
was looked upon as a probable means of bring-
ing both to a good issue. For a stricter union
between the Courts of Prussia and Hanover
was entered into by the marriage of the Prince
Royal; and it was not without grounds judged
conducive, as well to the interests of the House
of Hanover, in relation to the succession in Eng-
land, as to the furtherance of the Prussian pro-

442

L I F K OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

ject, to introduce the Liturgy of the Church of
England first of all at Hanover. Of this opinion
were the Archbishop of York in England, M.
Leibnitz at Hanover, and Dr. Jablouski at
Berlin ; the three principals engaged in the
design, and holding a correspondence upon it,
through the hands of Mr. Ayerst, who, as is
said before, first projected or formed it. The
Archbishop's letters upon this subject cannot
be retrieved; and of those which were wrote
by Mr. Leibnitz and Dr. Jablouski, only a small
number remain, those written to Mr. Ayerst at
the Hague and at Utrecht ; and which he
chanced to preserve, though he had twice the
misfortune to lose the greatest part of his
papers*.

Out of Monsieur Leibnitz's letter to Mr.

* Extract out of Dr. Jablouski's letter to Mr. A., 15th
August, 1711. " Accepi novissimas tuas, 4 Augusti scriptas
unas cum inclusis a Rssimo Archiepiscopo et D. D. Smaldridge,
quae quod gaudio haud mediocri me affecerent facile ipse con-
jecis. 17 Sept. 1712. Nuper etiam epistolam accepi a Rssimo
Dom. Archiepiscopo Eboracensi. Mittam vero ad Te. V. R.
Respondum teque orabo, ut ad Rdum patrem illud promovere
dignesis. 22 Aug. 1711. Negotium simul Hannoveranum
quod reveru rebus nostris pondus haud leve additurum videtur
pro virili urgebo. 8 Sept. 1711. Iniisquae Rmo Dono Episcopo
Bristoliens : inscriptae sunt (sc. litterae) negotium Hannovera-
num iis arguments quae et tute mihi suppeditasti et sana ratio
dictat urgeo." See also the letters in the Appendix.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

443

Ayerst one large quotation has been made above,
as a testimony of the Archbishops readiness to
serve the interests of the house of Hanover, as
well as promote the honour of the Church of
England. Here follow a passage or two more
to show what opinion Mr. Leibnitz himself had
both of the Prussian and Hanover affair. In
his letter of June 28th, 1711, having mentioned
the inclination the Electress had to form a
Church according to the usage of the Liturgy of
England, he proceeds * " Monsieur TArche-

* Thus Englished — " The Archbishop of York and the Bishop
of Bristol would do a considerable service to the Church and
State if they any ways contribute to it, as you tell me they
have had some thoughts of doing. And as the Elector of
Brunswick is now the first prince of the empire of the Con-
fession of Augsburgh, it will be a means of uniting the two
Churches the more closely. I had the honour one day to talk
pretty freely with the Elector on the Thirty-nine Articles of the
Church of England, and he very well comprehended that they
come much to the same with what is believed in this country.

" They are a little too much Geneva stamp at Berlin ; yet,
since the King himself, the Bishop Ursinus, and Dr. Jablouski
are inclined to the Church of England, and I know are entered
into some correspondence about it, I hope that it will one day
come to something in spite of some rigorists that oppose it.
Mr. Ursinus and Mr. Jablouski did once confer with me on
these matters by order of the King, and likewise by my means
with some of our divines, who made some considerable progress
in this affair. The then English Envoy, Mr. Cresset, did like-
wise enter into it, and I have still some of the letters which he
wrote to me on that subject, as likewise the correspondence of

444 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

veque de York et Monsieur l'Eveque de Bristol
rendront un service considerable a l'Eglise et
meme a l'Etat, s'ils y contribuent comme vous me
le mandes. Et comme Monseigneur VElecteur de
Bronswic est maintenant le primier Prince de
TEmpire de la Confession d1 Augsbourg, ce sera un
moyen de rendre ces deux Eglises plus unies.
J'ay eu l'honneur de parler amplement un jour a
^Monseigneur CElecteur sur les 39 Articles de
l'Eglise Anglicane ; et il a fort bien compris
qu'ils reviennent aux sentimens recens dans ce
pays cy. On est un peutrop Genevois a Berlin;
cependant comme le Roy meme Monsieur
l'Eveque Ursinus et Monsieur Jablouski sont
asses portes pour VEglise Anglicane, et que Je

our divines, which may one day be of service. It would not
be amiss that the Lord Archbishop of York and the Bishop of
Bristol were informed of it : when the latter passed this way
he made but a very short stay, otherwise I should have been
extremely glad to have shewn them all to him, and have talked
with him on the measures that were proper to be taken.

" I hope the Archbishop of York has received a copy of my
book Upon the Liberty of Man, and other matters pertaining to
that subject, which Mr. Bothmar carried with him into England.
I could wish to have some time his opinion of it. I once saw
a printed Sermon * of that prelate which was something to my
purpose ; but I could not find it among Madam the Electress's
papers, where I had seen it."

• This was his Grace's Sermon on the Government of the Thoughts
given to the Princess Sophia by .Mr. Toland.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 445

scay qu'on est entre en quelque correspondence
la dessus, j'espere qu'on en tirera un jour quel-
que fruit, malgre quelques rigorists qui s'y op-
posent. Monsieur Ursinus et Monsieur Jab-
louski ont communique autrefois avec may sur
ces matiere par ordre du Roy, et il y a en quel-
que commerce et communication la dessus par
mon entremise entre nos Theologiens en les
leurs 011 Ton a fait des pars assez considerables.
Feu Monsieur l'Envoye Cresset y entroit, et j'ay
encore ses lettres la dessus quil inecrivoit, aussi
bien que les correspondences de nos Theolo-
giens, qui serviront beaucoup un jour. II sera
bon que Monsieur I Archveque de York et Monsieur
VEveque de Bristol en ayent information. Quand
le dernier passa icy il ne s'arreta pas asses autre-
ment j'aurois ete ravi de lui montrer le tout, et
de parler avec lui des mesures a prendre.

" J'espere que Monsieur V Archeveque de York
aura secu un des exemplaires de mon livre, sur
la Liberte et les matieres voisines, que Monsieur
Bothmar a porte avec lui en Angleterre; et je
souhaite d'en apprendre un jour son sentiment.
J'ay ou autrefois un Sermon imprime de ce
Prelat qui revenoit asses au mien : mais ou n'a
pas pu le retrouver cher Madame l'Electrice ou
il etoit."

And in another letter, dated the 18th of Sep-

446

LIKE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

tember the same year, and wrote to the same
person, he has these words.

" Gomrae la correspondence entre la cour de
la G. Bretagne, et celle de Berlin a ete renouee,
et que j'apprends que meme M. de St. Jean,
Secretaire d'Etat en a ecrit, j'espere qu'encore
cette affaire aura quelque bonne suite. On a
fort estime icy un livre de Monsieur JSicho.'s, ou
il montre qu'une bonne correspondence des Eg-
lises Protestants du Continent avec vos Insu-
laires pourra etre d'un grand effect pour lever
les animosites des parties, et j'ay lu autrefois ce
livre avec plaisir et avec fruit. Je voudrois pou-
voir retrouver un Sermon de my Lord Archeveque
de York sur la liberte, predestination, et matieres
approchantes ; qui Madame VRlectrice avoit, mais
qui s'est perdu *."

* Thus rendered — " Since I hear the correspondence be-
tween the Court of Great Britain and that of Berlin has been
renewed, and understand that Mr. Secretary St. John's has writ
about it, I hope that that affair will still have some good issue.
We esteemed very much here a book of Dr. Nichols, in which
he shews that a good correspondence between the Protestant
churches of the Continent and yours of England might be of
great use to extinguish that animosity which is between the two
contending parties. I once read that book with pleasure and
profit.

" I wish I could find my Lord Archbishop of York's Ser-
mon on the subject of Free Will, Predestination, and the like

LTFE OP ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 447

But the grand negotiations of state carried on
at this time in Holland, and in the respective
courts where the design of introducing the En-
glish Liturgy was espoused, took off the atten-
tion of the great ministers from ecclesiastical
afTairs, which if duly prosecuted, would have
been much to the honour of our Church of
England, and the strengthening the Protestant
interest in Europe. A correspondence was still
carried on between the Archbishop and Dr.
Jablouski in the years 1712 and 1713. As also
between the Doctor and the Earl of Strafford
and the Bishop of Bristol then Plenipotentiaries
at Utrecht; into the latter of whose hands se-
veral of the original papers relating to this affair
were put, which if ever it be thought proper (by
the persons into whose hands that prelate's pa-
pers are fallen) to publish to the world, will give
great light to this whole transaction, and more
fully shew that the persons concerned in it had
no other views than the honour of the Church of
England and the interest of the Protestant reli-
gion in general, joined with that of the Protes-
tant succession to the House of Hanover, from
which that interest is inseparable.

Nor was the correspondence altogether with-

matters, which Madam the Eloctress once had, but is now some
way lost."

448

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

out success, for though the King of Prussia was
grown colder in the main design, yet several
steps were made by Baron Printz and the King
himself, which shewed still disposition towards it.
In particular Dr. Jablouski acquainted the Arch-
bishop, in a letter dated January 14, 1712-13,
" that the King of Prussia had been prevailed
upon to establish a fund for the education
of students in divinity in the English Univer-
sities, legibus fundationis co?iscriptis" as his words
are " et redditibus necessariis eidem assignatis." And
in all probability after this step made, and the
great affair of peace being then also concluded,
a new life might have been given to these pro-
ceedings in both the courts, had not the demise
of the King of Prussia within a month after, viz.
February 25, 1713, put a stop to them in one,
and the death of the Archbishop within the year
following, given a final stroke to them in the
other.

However, the latter before his death had the
satisfaction of hearing from Dr. Jablouski, the
last letter he received from him, (22nd of April,
1713,) that the new King of Prussia had confirmed
his father s foundation for maintaining students in
the Universities of England. But the Archbishop
was then, both by reason of his absence and dis-
tance from court, and on account of his declin-
ing health, quite disabled from making any new

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 449

advances in the negotiation ; which occasioned
Dr. Jablonski, when Mr. Ayerst had acquainted
him with the Archbishop's present declining
state, to return answer, 22nd July, 1713. Quce
de Reverendissimo Archiepiscopo Eboracensi narras
gravi me dolor e affic 'mnt.

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THE

LIFE

JOHN SHARP, D.D.

LORD ARCHBISHOP OF YORK.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED,
SELECT, ORIGINAL, AND COPIES OF ORIGINAL PAPERS,

IN THREE APPENDIXES.

COLLECTED

FROM HIS DIARY, LETTERS, AND SEVERALO^HER AUTHENTIC TESTIMONIES, BY HIS SON,

THOMAS SHARP, D.D.

ARCHDEACON OF NORTHUMBERLAND;
PREBENDARY OF YORK, DURHAM, AND SOUTHWELL; RECTOR OF ROTH BURY.

iDlTED BY

THOMAS NEWCOME, M.A.

HECTOR OF SHENLEY, HERTS ; AND VlCAk 01" TOTTENHAM, MIDDLESEX.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.

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THE

LIFE

ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

PART IV.

CONTAINING AN ACCOUNT OF HIS SOCIAL
VIRTUES AND INTERIOR LIFE.

This last branch of the work consists of some
few memorials of the Archbishop's private friend-
ships, correspondence, benefactions, and such
personal qualities as recommended him to the
world as a private man. To which is added, a
short account of his spiritual or religious life.

It is not here intended to give a detail of his
constant and uniform practices of the common
duties of morality and religion (for these may
be presumed as being a necessary part of every
good man's character), but to set forth some of
his more eminent moral ornaments and advances
in the divine life, which are not the ordinary
felicities of every wise and good man.

VOL. II. b

2 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Among his social virtues, that which claims our
first attention, as the most obvious, distinguished,
and invariable character, was his simplicity.

He had nothing of intrigue in his temper ;
nothing covert or suspicious, either in his dis-
course or in his outward demeanour; had no
notion of perplexing or amusing those he con-
versed with by any kind of disguise, but was in
every instance, and throughout his whole con-
duct, a man without guile. It has already
been observed, that such an open and artless
conduct might prove a disadvantage to him in
his conferences and correspondences with the
courtiers; and his utter want of some degree
of polite subtlety might be interpreted as a
diminution of his abilities for public service.
However that was, they who valued themselves
most on their dexterity of address, could not
have a meaner opinion of his simplicity, than
he had of every species of dissimulation, not
excepting the most refined. Double meanings
and evasions could never be so elegantly and
speciously dressed up as to hide their ill shapes
and deformity from his eyes. The finest parts
and rarest endowments lost most of their merit
with him, if they did not appear accompanied
with sincerity, singleness, and uprightness of
design ; which are the chief beauty and the
only real worth both of words and actions.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 3

Once, when he had received directions from
the Queen (it was towards the latter end of her
reign), to confer with her minister about a point
to which her Majesty readily consented, he
was forewarned by one who knew the minister
better than he did, that he would not be able
to get one direct answer from him; and proba-
bly not one that was at all to the purpose.
He thought this was incredible ; and did not in
the least despair of knowing something of the
statesman's mind, whatever success or issue the
application to him might have. The thing itself
indeed was of little moment, viz. A proposal made
among some of the bishops about some proper robe to
be worn by them in the House of Lords, instead of
their episcopal habits, as a purple gown or some
plain but distinguishing dress. The noble earl
having received the Archbishop with the great-
est courtesy, and having hearkened very atten-
tentively to the overture that was made, entered
with great seeming seriousness, and with real
learning and judgment, upon a discourse con-
cerning the habits of the Roman Flamines, such
especially as they wore at the time of their
religious ceremonies. The Archbishop being
apprised of his lordship's skill and delight in
antiquities, and being himself an antiquarian,
complied for some time with an enquiry into
the form of the sacred vestments used by the

e 2

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Romans ; but found at length no end of it, not-
withstanding his repeated attempts to recal the
subject of his message. Nothing could be heard
or replied to but what related to the Flamines!
So that, after a long discourse, wholly confined
to Old Rome, he came away just as wise as he
went, without any further discovery of his lord-
ship's sentiments about the bishops' robes in
Parliament than (what was obvious to collect),
that he had no mind to give himself any thought
about them. As there was art enough in this
manner of the minister's evading the disclosure
of his sentiments upon the question asked him,
so it might strictly accord with the approved
rules of policy ; yet could not, on either account,
seem otherwise than trifling and impertinent to
the Archbishop's ope?i temper, who thought it
became nobody to act such a part, even for the
sake of important matters, and much less for
things of small consequence.

The reflection he made upon this visit to the
person who had foretold the effect of his appli-
cation was, that he had never met with so strange
a man in his life. And he knew not how to
place or to affect the reposing any confidence
in a person who could speak any thing but his
own mind. It was this in a great measure that
kept him and the noble earl above-mentioned
at a wider distance from each other, than

LIFE OF AHCHBISHOP SHARP.

seemed consistent with the share that both of
them had in the Queen's favour and confidence.

Yet nobody was more inclined than he was
to pass a favourable judgment on what he dis-
liked in other men, and to make all the allow-
ance for what they said or did, than their prin-
ciples or conduct would bear. He was not
wont to lose his temper, even when he freely
expressed his disapprobation ; and was calm
and candid in judging of other people's senti-
ments, at the same time that he was frank and
unreserved in delivering his own. These being
qualities that do not always go together, are
the more to be esteemed when they meet in the
same man. Honesty and open-heartedness are
ever valuable, but lose much of their praise,
when they serve to give the freer vent to heat
or resentment, or to disclose a severe or censo-
rious temper. In such cases they prove fre-
quently a disadvantage, by exposing, with too
great a promptitude, what in discretion should
rather be concealed. But when, by shewing
all, they exhibit nothing but what deserves
to be seen and ought to be discovered, viz. a
sweet benign disposition, and a mild and patient
temper, they become real blessings to the man
who has them.

And such they were to the Archbishop, whose
charily and moderation were as amiable as the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

sincerity that rendered them so visible. It hath
been observed of him, and confessed by indif-
ferent persons, who occasionally remarked and
attended to his conversation, that he seemed to
have as little of craft or disguise, and as much
candour and good nature, as any man they had
ever met with.

They who were not personally acquainted
with him will not easily conceive how happily
these qualities were expressed in his conversa-
tion and address. The best testimonies of them
that can now be produced are some of his letters,
wrote, as well to strangers as friends, upon
points in which he differed in opinion from
them; and which breathe the same spirit and
principles by which he lived. One of this kind
has been already published by Mr. Whiston,
in his historical preface to Primitive Christia-
nity Revived. London, 1711, p. 18. Being an
answer to Mr. Whiston's question propounded
to both the Archbishops, in what manner and
method those discoveries he had made of the primitive
doctrines concerning the Trinity and Incarnation,
might, with the greatest advantage, be communicated
to the world; which letter, as it represents the
Archbishop's sincerity and charity in associa-
tion, will bear republishing on this occasion,
and will be found in the Appendix, No. 10.

Mr. Whiston himself seems to have disco-

LIFE OK ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 7

vered something of primitive Christianity re-
vived in this letter, as may be judged by the
character he gives the writer of it in his Histo-
rical Memoirs of Dr. Clark, p. 16. " I sent,"
says he, " a copy of my MS. fourth volume, or
an account of the primitive faith concerning the
Trinity and Incarnation, to Dr. Sharp, the
Archbishop of York, that very good, that very
honest man, that excellent preacher and great
friend to Mr. Clark and myself."

He was not indeed mistaken in his opinion of
the Archbishop's real friendship to them both,
of which he gave undoubted instances to each,
when he entreated them to lay aside their inten-
tions of stirring up new debates, or rather re-
viving old ones upon the subject of the Trinity.
He warned both of them of the mischief they
were in danger of doing by publishing their
notions, and endeavoured to apprise them of
the ill consequences that might follow upon the
disputes that would necessarily arise in the
prosecution of that controversy. So that not-
withstanding his friendship for both their per-
sons, he was by no means a friend to those
doctrines, by which they distinguished them-
selves, but opposed them with that honest zeal
that became one who looked upon their errors
os dangerous and pernicious. He did not indeed
live to see any progress made in the controversy
upon Dr. Clark's «• Scripture Doctrine," for the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

debate was scarce opened in his time. But he
had made warm remonstrances to the doctor
himself against publishing that book, and fore-
shewed him both the disturbance he would
thereby give to others, and the troubles he
would bring upon himself ; and probably he
would have carried his opposition further, had
he lived longer. As to Mr. Whiston, he did
more* than barely declare himself against him.
He set others on work to confute him ; particu-
larly to him it is we owe Dr. Grabe's examina-
tion of Mr. Whiston's first article. He likewise
proposed to Dr. Jenkins, then Margaret Pro-
fessor in Cambridge, to lecture against Mr.
"Whiston's erroneous positions ; but he spoke too
late, for the doctor was then engaged upon ano-
ther subject : and something Mr. Whiston him-
self acknowledges about the Archbishop's looking
out for a man to prove the apostolical constitutions,
as we now have them, to be spurious or interpolated;
for so he understood Mr. Anderson, of Lutter-
worth, who informed him of what he had heard
said to that purpose to Dr. Smaldridge, either
by the Archbishop, or by some other person in
company with them. — See postscript to the
appendix to Dr. Clark's Life by Mr. Whiston.
Which testimony, though delivered a little un-
certainly, was no doubt, as to the main sub-
stance, true.

Yet nobody made greater allowances than he

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 9

did for men's different ways of thinking, so long
as they appeared to aim at nothing further than
the discovery of truth and advancement of
knowledge. And he approved of their commu-
nicating their notions (however new or uncom-
mon) for examination and trial, provided they
did it with modesty and candour, and in a
proper way; so that no breach might be made
in the peace of the Church ; no handle given to
artful, ill-designing men to lay hold of and
employ to bad ends ; nor snares laid for honest
and well-meaning people, who were not capable
or sufficient judges of what was advanced.
Where these points were secured, he did not
except against speculations in the mysteries of reli-
gion, even in the subjects above-mentioned, the
Trinity and the Incarnation. Thus in a letter
that he wrote to a gentleman who desired his
judgment upon certain passages relating to
those points, in a book entitled The principles of
the Black List, he has these words: — "As for
those treatises in it that relate to the Trinity and
the Incarnation, I have read them throughout
since I received your letter, and I cannot but
own I am much pleased with them ; I meet
there with a great many noble and uncommon
thoughts upon those subjects. And though
some of the speculations there advanced be
very metaphysical, and it is not easy to deter-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

mine whether the reasons upon them be abso-
lutely conclusive, yet being proposed with so
great modesty, and containing nothing that
doth in my apprehension in the least clash with
the received doctrines of the Christian faith,
but rather tend to illustrate and confirm those
doctrines; even these speculations are so far
from being matter of offence to me, that
they are very entertaining. In a word, I am
much taken with the learning and with the
spirit of the author; and, above all, with that
hearty zeal for God and religion, that shews
itself through his whole book."

He was always ready to put the most favour-
able construction upon men's tenets and senti-
ments, wherever there was but room to believe
their intention was upright and innocent; and
though their notions, even in the best lights,
and with the most candid interpretation, might
not please him, as being disagreeable to his
own way of thinking, yet he took no offence at
their persons, was not forward in censuring
them, if they were strangers to him, nor tempted
to drop his friendship and familiarity with them,
if they were of his acquaintance. He lived
many years in great intimacy with Mr. Firmin
and Mr. Baxter, and others with whose princi-
ples he could by no means be reconciled. Yet
he delighted in free conversation with such per-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

I I

sons, wherein he might express his own since-
rity and charity, though he might reap no other
fruits from it. Sometimes, indeed, he was so
fortunate in private discourse as to convince
people of their mistakes, and at other times to
prevent, by interposition of kind advice, their
publishing to the world what he judged would
have ill consequences ; in which applications it
is more to be considered that he should succeed
at all, considering the peculiar fondness men
are apt to have of their peculiar notions, than
that he should succeed no oftener than he did.

When any treatises designed for the press
were submitted to his judgment, whether the
authors were of his acquaintance or not, he
was scrupulously exact in giving his opinion of
whatever he disliked, with the reasons which
induced him to be of that opinion, always leav-
ing the authors to determine themselves by
those reasons, and not to rest themselves upon
his opinion and judgment. It was enough for
him, as he was wont to tell them, if they would
not take his freedom amiss ; for provided they did not
that, he left them to do with their own as they pleased.
The reader, perhaps, will not be displeased with
a specimen or two of his manner of representing
to authors the objections he had to some things
in their compositions, especially since those
that are given on the following occasions fully

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

express his own sentiments on some controver-
sial points.

Dr. Comber had been for many years a great
advocate for the divine right of tithes against
Selden and others. He had published largely
on this subject, under the titles of Rights of
Tithes asserted, and re-asserted, and Histonj of
Tithes. After his promotion to the deanery of
Durham, he took up the same subject again,
and comprised in a new treatise, wrote by way
of dialogue, the substance and strength of his
whole reasoning on that point, of which he was
a great master. But before he would publish
it, he sent it to the Archbishop, begging his
judgment of it ; and asking his leave, at the
same time, that he might dedicate to him his
second volume of Roman Forgeries, then ready to
be published, &c. The Archbishop's answer,
so far as it related to the treatise on tithes, was
as follows.

"It is your desire that I should deal very
freely with you as to my thoughts about your
papers. And I will do so.

" I think you have said as much upon the
subject as can be said, and as dextrously
managed your arguments, and answered objec-
tions, and all with as much perspicuity as pos-
sible. And there is enough, abundantly enough
in your discourse to convince any Quaker in the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

world (that is capable of being convinced by
argument), not only that he may lawfully, but
that he is bound by the laws of God to pay
his tithes.

" Indeed, I think that for the doing of that,
there needs no more than to make out three
things.

" First, that by the laws of God, both natu-
ral and Christian, the ministers of religion ought
to have not only a competent, but a decent and
comfortable maintenance provided for them.

" Secondly, that the laws of Christian coun-
tries might as well appoint this maintenance in
the way of tithes as any other way. Nay,
there was great reason why this way should be
chosen, rather than any other ; because it was
sufficient for the persons to be provided for ; it
was most equal with respect to the persons
who were to find the maintenance ; it was the
way most anciently and universally practised
(there being footsteps of it before the law, it
being commanded by the law, it being received
by many of the heathen nations) ; and lastly, it
was the way that obtained in almost all Chris-
tian countries, when churches (especially when
parishes) came to be settled.

" Thirdly, that the laws of this country have
de facto pitched upon this way for the mainte-
nance of the clergy, and given them as great a

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

right to their tithes in the place where they
live, as any man can possibly have to his estate.

** I say, if all these things be made out (as
you have effectually, and beyond all contradic-
tion, proved them all), I do not see what there
needs more to the convincing of all convincible
men, that they are as much bound in conscience
to pay their tithes, as they are to pay their
justest debts, or as they are not to steal or
defraud ; nay, and perhaps more so, upon ac-
count of God's being more immediately con-
cerned in the things devoted to His service.

" But all this will not satisfy you, unless
you also prove that tithes are due to the clergy
by the express laws of God, and that we hold
them by a divine right, strictly so called.

" I do confess you have offered as fair at it
as man can do ; and you have put all that can
be said upon that point into as fair a light as
can be, but yet I must confess to you, that all
your arguments, direct or consequential, singly
taken, or taken altogether, do not in my opi-
nion come up to the point that you would
prove.

" I do allow they prove thus much, that there
is great reason the ministers of the Gospel
should be as well or better provided for, than
the ministers of the old altar. And I have great
reason to believe, that most, if not all of the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 15

Fathers you quote, who mentioned the payment
of tithes, intended no more than this (as for the
passages in St. Austin, which are the most
express to your purpose, Father Paul thinks
they are spurious, though yet you give good
authority for them), and I can by no means be
persuaded that Christians at this day are obliged
by any law of God to pay a tenth, or ninth, or
eleventh, or any precise proportion of their
income to the maintenance of the clergy. If
the law of the land had not settled this affair,
perhaps sometimes (as things might have fallen
out) good Christians would have thought them-
selves obliged to pay more than a tenth of what
they had to their Minister.

" You see, Mr. Dean, I talk my mind with
you very freely, as 1 always do where I am
desired. And I do it the more willingly, be-
cause I know I am not singular in this opinion.
If I can judge of mankind by the conversation
I have had, I guess, that in these days your
hypothesis is not that which is generally es-
poused, even among good churchmen. As for
the last Lord of Canterbury*, our good friend,
to whom you meant to have shewed your dis-
course, I know what his opinion was in these
matters. He put the payment of tithes upon

* Archbishop Tillotson.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

another foot than you do, and he thought, that
thereby we had the better hold of them, if not
better right to them.

" I speak not this, either with a design to
dissuade or to discourage you from publishing
the treatise, as it now is (for as it is, it is a
good treatise, and I think it so), but purely to
shew my readiness to observe your directions,
which were, that I should freely speak my sense
of it.

" I am, &c."

What effect this letter had upon the learned
doctor is not certainly known, but may proba-
bly be collected from hence, that the doctor
himself never let that treatise go forth into the
world, though he lived long enough afterwards
to have published it, had he been so minded*.

In the year 1700, Dr. Nathaniel Grew had
finished his Cosmologia Sacra, and had it ready

* The copy which the Archbishop kept of this letter has
no date, but it appears, from the mention made in it of Arch-
bishop Tillotson's death, and Queen Mary's, that it was wrote
after the year 1694; and from his answer to Dr. Comber's
request, that he might dedicate his second part of Roman For-
geries to him, that it was wrote before the end of 1605, for in
that year the said book was dedicated to him- But, after Dr.
Comber's decease, which was in 1699, this Treatise of his upon
Tithes being found wrote in his own hand, was published as a
posthumous piece at the end of the second volume of his works
in folio, where it will be found.

LTPF. OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

for the press. One chapter in it related to
Church government, in which the doctor had
undertaken to give an account of what it an-
ciently was, and what it ought now to be. In
both which articles, if he committed some mis-
takes, they were the more pardonable, because
the subject was pretty much out of his way
and course of studies ; and still more so, because
he had the ingenuity and modesty to submit
this chapter to the judgment and correction of
those who were better versed than himself in
Church affairs, ancient and modern. He sent a
plan of his whole work with this chapter entire,
to the Archbishop, who was in great measure a
stranger to him ; begging his perusal and
amendment of it wherever it might appear
faulty. The Archbishop found objections to so
many things in it, though he owned it exceed-
ingly ingenious, that he advised him to suppress
it totally ; which Dr. Grew accordingly did,
leaving the whole chapter out of his work,
which he published the year following, with
one dedication to the King, and another to the
Archbishops.

As the Doctor himself thought fit, if not to
retract, at least not to publish what he had
written upon Church government, it is not
proper or respectful to his memory, that all his
private notions once entertained about it should

VOL. II. c

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

be divulged by another hand. Therefore, such
parts only of the Archbishop's answer to him
are here produced, as shew his own sentiments
of the doctor's scheme in general, and of some
notions in particular, which the doctor held in
common with many others.

" As for the chapter of Church government,"
says he, " which you sent me, if you will give
me leave freely to declare my thoughts, I wish
you would wholly leave it out of your work ;
because, indeed, to me it seems foreign to the
business you have undertaken ; for who would
expect to meet with a discourse upon Church
government in a book that is designedly written
against Atheists and antiscripturists ? What is
this to the proving the truth, either of natural
or revealed religion ? I must confess, I think it
comes oddly in among your other heads, all the
rest being of a piece, and serving to your main
design, but this looking like an heterogeneous
patch.

" And besides, when you are taking upon
you the part of an advocate for the cause of
our common Christianity, wherein all the parties
of professors are agreed, what reason is there,
or what good end will it serve to, that you should
mingle with the common cause the particular
matters that are in dispute among ourselves
about Church government and Church disci-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 19

pline ? Will this much tend to the edifying
of the Atheists ? Will it not rather occasion
the revival of disputes among ourselves, which
are in good measure laid asleep ? To this give me
leave to add one thing more. I do not think
it is for the interests of religion, that scruples
should be put into any body's head about our
constitution in Church matters, now that things
have been so long settled among us. But yet,
in this discourse of your's, where you are
making reflections and observations upon the
primitive form of Church government, you ad-
vance some things that plainly tend to the
unhinging and unsettling not only the constitu-
tion of our Church, but of all other Churches
that have been, or are in the world. That
which I chiefly refer to is your discourse about
the expediency of having all confessions of faith
drawn up in no other words than those of the Scrip-
ture. If things were to be new modelled all
the world over, I know not how far I might be
of your opinion in this matter. But as Chris-
tendom now stands, I desire to keep our creeds
and confessions of faith, and Church Articles
too, as we now have them, without arraigning
the wisdom of our ancestors in framing them,"
&c. &c.

" If you ask me whether I have any thing to
object against your scheme of Church offices

c 2

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

as mentioned in the Scriptures, I will deal freely
with you. I think you have managed that argu-
ment with a great deal of niceness and a great
deal of learning. But I think you have said
several things upon mere conjecture, and with-
out giving any proof for them.

" Among these I reckon your making the
prophets of the New Testament of the number
or order of the seventy. First, I do not know
that the seventy are ever mentioned at all,
either in the Acts of the Apostles, or in the
Epistles, much less as one of the orders for the
government of the Church. But if they were
an order (as it is not improbable), then methinks
there is as fair occasion given to you to alter a
little your scheme of Church officers, and to
make it run thus.

" That as at the beginning of Christianity,
when the Apostles first went about to preach
the Gospel, and to found Churches, there were
three sorts of Church officers, viz. the Apostles
themselves who presided over all, and next to
them the seventy Elders, and after them the
Septemvirate ; all which were extraordinary.
So when Churches came to be settled upon that
foot, or in that form, they were to continue ;
then, in the place of these, came three sorts of
stated ordinary officers, viz. the Presbyters (as
we now use the word) who answered to the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

seventy, the Deacons who answered to the
Septemvirate, and lastly, as the Apostles went
off the stage, the Bishops who answered to the
Apostles. This, if I remember right, is the
scheme of Bishop Andrews ; and as for the last
part of it, I believe it has the suffrage of the best
writers, both ancient and modern.

" But whether the seventy were an order or
no, I think it wants proof, that the Prophets so
often mentioned in the New Testament, were of
that order or number.

" You may as well reckon all the other gifted
men that had the power of speaking with tongues,
composing of hymns and prayers on a sudden
discerning of spirits, &c. to be of the same num-
ber or order ; for I suppose all these made use
of their gifts for the edification of Christians in
their assemblies, as well as for the conversion of
heathens ; and had some share in the govern-
ment of the Church. For this, I refer to the
14th chapter of the First Epistle to the Corin-
thians ; at the time of writing which Epistle,
there seems to have been no stated or settled
officers or pastors in that Church ; but the affairs
thereof to be administered by these inspired
persons.

" There is no doubt but the Apostles, in all
the Churches they founded, did take care,
either by themselves or their delegates, as there.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

was need and occasion, to settle a standing
ministry there for the government of them, &c.
but you seem to affirm two things which I can
by no means agree with you in,

" The one is, that as some Churches had
bishops superior to Presbyters, so many were
without them; nay, according to the calculation,
most were without them.

" The other is that, when bishops took place
it was the Presbyters that chose them to preside
among them, and transferred upon them the title
of bishops, and out of respect to them, forbore
some part of their office, in not ordaining, 8$c.

" As for the first point, I thus far agree with
you, that it cannot be proved from the Acts of
the Apostles, or from St. Paul's Epistles, that
there were these two distinct orders or degrees
(call them by what name you please) in all
Churches, or in most ; nay, indeed, it cannot
be proved, as I said, that in some Churches to
whom St. Paul wrote Epistles there were any
settled Church officers or pastors at all. But
then I say it may be proved from the Scriptures,
that even in the Apostles times, there were
bishops superior to Presbyters in more Churches
than are mentioned by St. Paul; as for instance
in the seven Churches of Asia, to the Angel of
which our Lord by St. John directs his Epistles,
which Angels I think may be proved both by

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 23

the authority of the ancientest writers, and by
the Epistles themselves, (see Bishop Usher's Dis-
course of the Lydian Asia), to have been settled
bishops distinct from and superior to the Pres-
bytery ; and it may likewise be proved, (as far
as the testimony of all Ecclesiastical authors
we have will go for the proof of such a matter),
that immediately after the Apostles times, this
form of Church government, by bishops superior
to Presbyters, obtained universally in all Chris-
tian Churches all over the world, none excepted.
So that all Churches had them, and none ivas
without them.

" And if this be admitted as matter of fact,
(as I will take it to be so till some instance be
given to the contrary ), then I say this universal
agreement among all Churches (though never so
much distant from each other, and that so near
to the Apostles times) in the form of Church
government, is a great argument to me, that the
second assertion of yours I now mentioned, is
not true, viz. that Bishops obtained their su-
periority over the Presbyters by the Presbyters
own act, and their voluntary yielding to forbear
the exercise of their powers that were given to
them in their ordination.

" I am of your opinion, that however they
might oblige their president by giving him one
of their names, yet they could no more anni-

24 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

hilate or give away their power, than they could
unpresbyter themselves.

" But I say further, if these powers were in-
herent or essential to their office, I do not know how
they could depart from the exercise of them. Nor can
I imagine that ever they did. And this is my ar-
gument for it. Though you might suppose two,
or three, or twenty Churches, so easy as for
the sake of peace and convenience, to be willing
to devolve all their rights of ordination and con-
firmation upon their president whom they had
chosen, yet that all the Churches in all nations
should conspire to do it, and that within half
a century after the death of the Apostles, and
this when they had no opportunity of consulting
one another, and no provincial or general coun-
cils to settle that affair; this to me seems in-
credible. And, therefore, I believe the distinc-
tion of Bishops and Presbyters, as to their
several powers, was not introduced by the con-
sent of private men, but by the direction of the
Apostles or inspired persons, because it is evi-
dent from all ecclesiastical history from the be-
ginning, that Bishops always exercised these
powers of ordination, &c. and the Presbyters
never did it.

" What may be done in a case of necessity,
(as that of the Reformed Churches abroad, and
other cases that may be put), I now dispute
not with you.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Ff Indeed I will dispute nothing at all with
you; for I design no more in this paper than
only to give you my thoughts on some of these

points which your discourse treats of

I take your application to me in this affair very
kindly, and I hope it will be a means that you
and I shall be better acquainted. I do assure
you, I have a great respect for you, and shall,
in all instances, endeavour to show myself,
honoured sir,

" Your's, &c.

" Jo. Ebor,"

" Bishopthorp, Nov. 26, 1700."

If his notions concerning both the evidence
and the authority of the primitive plan of
Church government by bishops (which may be
gathered from this letter) be well considered ;
he will seem to have been incapable of thinking
that this plan or rule of government was alter-
able at discretion, or for convenience, or to be
dispensed with on any other account than that
of absolute or mer^e necessity. Yet he is one of
the many learned men cited in Bishop Burnet's
Preface* to his Exposition on the Thirty-nine
Articles, (which was published the year before

* Both the most Reverend Archbishops, with several of the
Bishops, and a great many learned divines, have also read it.
I have reason to believe they read it over severely.

2(5 LrFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

this letter to Dr. Grew was wrote), as approving
that work, and by consequence admitting what-
ever is advanced therein concerning a lawful
authority of ordinations in certain cases, exclu-
sive of bishops, and yet owned by the Church
of England, and capable of being supported or
justified by reasons of state or of policy, as well
as of necessity, which passages in the Exposi-
tion of Article 23, in relation to the Reformed
Churches abroad, and in excuse for them all,
without exception, it will be hard to reconcile
with the archbishop's principles, and veneration
for the primitive and apostolical form of Church
government ; and, therefore, it is not easy to
give account how he should consent that they
should pass the press under the sanction of his
approbation. He was indeed as tender and
wary in speaking of the Reformed Churches,
which were without episcopacy as most men ;
neither did he take upon him to condemn or un-
church them for a defect owing to necessity,
wherever that could be pleaded : yet he never
carried his apologies for them so high as to vin-
dicate their claims of being true Churches, purely
because they used that plea of necessity, knowing-
how hard it is to distinguish between a real and
a pretended necessity, and how nearly the de-
sire of being justified by it, borders upon
a desire of not being exempted from it. He

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 27

might not be willing to enter into any dispute
with Bishop Burnet upon this subject, (any
more than with Dr. Grew upon a like occasion),
but might content himself with advising his
Lordship rather to decline a public declaration
of his private opinion about it, than give the
world occasion to say, that he spoke the sense
of the Church of England, or the current opinion
of our divines upon that head. It was thus he
prevented that same learned author and other
bishops publishing their private sentiments
(though they were his own likewise) concerning
the validity of lay baptisms, (a point left un-
decided by the Church of England in her
Articles, Offices, &c.) as was taken notice of in
a former part of this life ; and that he gave the
same or like caution to my Lord of Salisbury
upon perusing his Exposition, appears the more
probable, from the abatement in the approba-
tion of the Metropolitans, that his Lordship
makes in the next paragraph in his Preface.
Where he says, " I do not pretend to impose this
upon the reader as a work of authority ; for even
our most Reverend Metropolitans read it only as
private divines, without so severe a canvassing of all
particulars, as must have been expected if this had
been intended to pass for an authorized work under
a public stamp." But there is scarce room to
enter further into this enquiry, since there are

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

no authentic testimonies to be found among the
Archbishop's papers about his revisal of that
book, or his sentiments concerning it, as there
are about books of less consequence submitted
to his examination.

It appears indeed from a passage beforemen-
tioned in these memoirs, that he did not go
those lengths in his censures and reflections
upon the foreign Reformed Churches which
some other divines did ; for he extended his
charity so far towards them, as to declare that if
he were abroad, he could communicate with those
where he happened to be. Yet when M. La
Mothe was desirous to have his permission to
publish this, he had reasons (which were hinted
at before upon mentioning this request of M.
La Mothe's, with his answer) why he should
chuse at that time that this declaration of his
should not be made public. But that, neverthe-
less, he did not depart from this sentiment, is
pretty evident from what he wrote afterwards
to Mr. Robert Nelson, upon reading and weigh-
ing what the learned Dr. Hickes had said upon
the subject of the Reformed Churches abroad,
in his A?iswer to the Rights, <§c. Mr. Nelson had
sent him that book immediately after it was
published in 1707, which favour he acknow-
ledged by letter; and having called it a very
learned book, and declared that he had read it

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

with a great deal of pleasure, " I do think,"
says he, "that he has effectually confuted the
Rights of the Church, and has, beyond contra-
diction, shewed the nonsense and ridiculous-
ness of those principles upon which that
work is built. Neither am I displeased with
the warmth and sharpness with which he
writes ; for I think such men as make it their
business to expose the institutions of our
Saviour, under the notion of priest-craft, ought
to be treated with the utmost severity and
contempt, especially if it be done with such
seriousness and gravity becoming a minister of
the gospel, as Dr. Hickes has done it.

" But I do not know," says he, " whether I
be yet so High Church as to be able to come up
to all the Dean's notions asserted in this book.
His grounds and foundations I have always
looked upon as unquestionably true ; and most
of his superstructures likewise : but as to some
things he has advanced, I must confess I am yet
doubtful, particularly as to what he says about
the Foreign Churches of the Protesta?its that have
not episcopacy among them. Though yet I was
extremely pleased with that serious pathetical
address which he has made to them."

Although he does not mention particularly
what it was he excepted against in /)/•. Hickes

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

book, with regard to the Foreign Protestants,
yet it was more probable from what follows,
that he had in his eye the lawfulness or unlawful-
ness of communicating with them. For he says a
little farther, " Dr. Hickes, in his Preface, p.
205. affirms, that My Lord Chancellor Clarendon
did not think a call with the Presbyterian Ordi-
nation to be lawful; and for that reason never
would communicate with the French Protestants,
neither in his first nor second being in France.
Now M. De la Mothe affirms*, that though at
first being at Paris with the King, (before the
Restoration ), he neither communicated himself
with the Church at Clarenton, nor would advise
the King to do it, but opposed it all he could;
yet afterwards when he was banished out of Eng-
land, and came to reside at Montpellier, he did
then regularly enough frequent the Protestant
Assemblies at Montpellier.

" In the former case, (says my author), when
he was at Paris, he acted as a Minister of State ;

* This Book was printed in the same year, and published
much about the same time with Dr. Hickes' Answer to the Rights,
viz. An. 1707. It was dedicated to the Queen. The title of
it, Entretiens sur la Correspondence Fraternellc de I'Eglise
Anglicane avec les autres Eglises Reformees. The design of it
was to show, that our Church has always owned the Protestant
Churches abroad to be true Churches ; and that accordingly
we have always had a brotherly correspondence with them.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

but when he was at Montpellier, he acted as a
Protestant," &c*

Without descending into a closer examination
of this, or any other particulars, he concludes,
" that he had a good deal to say about our com-
munion office which he had not time then to
write, but should be glad to discourse with him
about the first time they met."

It may not seem improper to take notice in
this place, that he was very instrumental in
bringing back that great and good man, Mr.
Nelson, to communion with the Established

* But M. La Mothe's mistake in this representation of Lord
Chancellor Hyde, was fully disproved by Henry Earl of Claren-
don, in a letter that he wrote to Dr. Hickes the latter end of
this year, Oct. 22, 1707 ; wherein he calls it an injurious re-
flection on his father's memory, and asserts, that his father was
never present at the Huguenot Assemblies at Montpellier, save
once or twice at most, and that then he went, as some others
have done, out of mere curiosity. There being held at one of
those times a synod of their clergy, where his Lordship was
much dissatisfied with the manner of their debates and deport-
ment. And he further affirms, that he had a fragment of a
letter wrote by his father not long before his death, shewing
his reasons, under his own hand, why he would not frequent
the assemblies at Quevilly ; and wherein he likewise tells his
thoughts of the French Huguenots, both as to their religion
and their politics.

Having an opportunity from so good an authority to set this
piece of history right, it was but just to do so upon the acci-
dental quotation of M. La Mothe's words.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Church, from which he lived in separation at
the time when this letter was wrote, viz. 1707,
and for some time after. It was impossible
that two such religious men, who were so
intimate with each other, and spent many hours
together in private conversation, should not
frequently discuss the reasons that divided
them in Church Communion. It was in January
1709, after the death of Dr. William Lloyd, the
deprived Bishop of Norwich, that the Arch-
bishop renewed his application to Mr. Nelson,
" I fell upon a discourse, (says he, Diary, Friday,
January 27), with Mr. Nelson, about his continu-
ing in the schism now after the Bishop of Norwich
is dead. He tells me, that he is not without doubt
but he will further consider the matter ; and when
he comes to a resolution after enquiry how matters
stand, he will persist in it" What passed in par-
ticular between Mr. Nelson and the Archbishop,
who were frequently together about that time,*
is not noticed further than that it was on February
15th, that the Archbishop received the "good
news," as he called it, "of Air. Nelsons intention
to return to our Communion ;" who, on the Easter-
day following, received the Sacrament from the
Archbishop's hands in one of the Churches of

* Viz. Jan. 30. Feb. 6, and 17, and 25. Mar. 5, and 18.
On all these days Mr. Nelson is mentioned in the diary as a
visitant.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

the city, the memorandum of which is in these
words, "April 9th, being Easter-day, I preached
at St. Mildred's Poultry, and administered the
Sacrament ; where was present Mr. Nelson,
which was the first time that he had communi-
cated in the Sacrament since the Revolution.
I gave the Sacrament likewise to Mr. D'Oyley,
whom I * had reconciled to our Church ; he
having been educated a Papist."

But to return to the subject from whence we
have digressed a little, viz. his candour in judg-
ing of authors and their books. In points of
controversy , calm, meek, and modest reasonings,
made strong impressions upon him in favour of
the author, though he could not concur with
him in his principles and conclusions ; and the
greater evidences any writer gave of his temper
and charity, he judged him entitled still the
more to the best construction that could be put
upon his mistakes, or mismanagement of his
arguments. If indeed an author did manifestly
betray base principles and a corrupt design in
what he published, or if he treated serious and

* This reconciliation was made in form after the Archbishop
had been instrumental in his conversion. " Thursday, Mar. 23.
At eleven o'clock I went to Whitehall, to receive Mr. D'Oyley,
educated in the Church of Borne, to our Communion, which I did
after he had made and signed a solemn declaration of his re-
nouncing the errors of Popery, and desiring to be admitted to our
Communion"

VOL. II. D

LIFE OK ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

sacred things in a scornful and ludicrous man-
ner, then he thought that warmth and sharp-
ness of stile was not only justifiable, but
requisite and proper ; especially when it was
seasoned with seriousness and gravity, and
carried the marks of true zeal for the honour of
God and religion. And this was what he ap-
proved in Dr. Hickes' Preface to his Two Dis-
courses abovementioned, in answer to the author
of the Rights. He liked the manner as well as
the matter of the reply ; and thought both of
them pertinent and proper. But then, in all
cases where serious and sincere persons were to
be dealt with, whose writings did neither dis-
cover pride, or perverseness of disposition, nor
were conducted with artifices and cunning, he
would allow of nothing but what had the stamp
not only of sincerity and charity, but of mildness
and good nature also upon it ; and observed, that
through failure in these, more wrong was often-
times done to persons than right to arguments in
the common way of carrying on controversies ;
especially in that point of charging consequences,
and imputing worse things to a man than he ever
meant. Monsieur le Clerk, who thought he had
great reason to complain of this kind of treat-
ment from many of those who opposed his sen-
timents, was much affected with the equity and
impartiality he discovered in the Archbishop,

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 35

with respect to himself and his writings, and
told Dr. Cockburn (then in Holland) " that the
Archbishop of York had more true candour than
was to be found in a thousand others ; that he read
and judged more impartially than most people, and
would not exaggerate every different sentiment to a
condemnation." Tis true indeed he esteemed M.
Le Clerk for his genius, industry, and skill, in
many parts of learning, and withal " believed him
to be an honest man" but too free and incautious
in declaring himself upon some subjects, with-
out giving sufficient and satisfactory reasons for
his opinions. He would tell him the objections
were made against his writings, and signify the
offence that was taken at them in England, and
put him upon the explication and defence of
himself. And this drew from him sometimes
letters of justification ; and sometimes of com-
plaint and expostulation on the severity of his
censures, which he would conclude with these or
the like expressions : Haze paullo liberius apud
te R. prazsul cui scio charitate Christiana et
equitate nihil antiquius esse. Or, Haze apud te
aperte et sine fuco prqfiteri me debere existimari
ne me alium putes quam sum, et semper fui. It
will not be improper to add one letter of his to
M. Le Clerk, to shew the free and open man-
ner of his correspondence with him. The fol-
lowing will also serve another purpose, and

d 2

LIFE OK ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

vindicate him from a reflection cast upon him
by a French writer.

" A Monsieur Le Clerk,
" Professeur a Amsterdam."

" Lond. Old Stile, March 31, 1704."

" Honoured Sir,

" I cannot leave this town, which I
mean to do in two days, without returning my
thanks for the favour of your last, and the
present that came with it of your third Biblio-
theque Choisie. I read with pleasure your ac-
count of authors, and your observations upon
them, as often as I have any spare time, which is
indeed hard to be got here. Our people here
that read the defence of your version, in the last
article but one, are willing to acquit you of
Arianism or Socinianism ; but they say you talk
like a Sabellian or Nestorian, and some of them
are very angry that you charge the fathers of the
Nicene Council with being Tritheists.

" I have the same opinion of Mr. Dodwell's
Parsenesis that you have* ; and I find that those

* M. Le Clerk's opinion of that book is expressed in his
letter thus, — " Legi, non ita pridem, H. Dodrvelli Parcenesin
de Schismate Anglicano. Quce minime mihi placuit : nec
unquam credidissem talem virum fore Schismatis usque adeo
injusti fantorem. Nec mihi prqfecto hie suas innumerabiles
conjecturas probabit quce vel sold negatione omnes in auras
abevnt," fyc.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

of his own party here liked it so little, that they
did all that they could to hinder him from pub-
lishing it.

" I promised to send you Cyrill's works (of
Jerusalem,) and the Greek Testament lately
printed at Oxford. The former I have sent to
Mr. Varennes for you, as also Mr. Newton's
discourse of Light and Colours, which is newly
come out ; since I know you have writ a System
of Natural Philosophy, I thought a treatise of
this nature would not be unacceptable to you ;
especially coming from a man whom we here
look upon as one of the best mathematicians
and natural philosophers in the world.

" The Greek Testament I have not sent,
because, in truth, I look upon it as not worth
the sending. But I hope to make you amends
by sending you Dr. Mills's Testament within a
year ; he having in my hearing promised the
Queen to publish it in that time. And indeed
it is a noble work. I hope likewise I shall in
due time send you the Old Testament of the
Septuagint version ; for that is' preparing by
Mr. Grabe and others, with all the various
readings, according to the method of Dr. Mill.

" The Bishop of Worcester's book about the
seventy weeks of Daniel, still sticks upon his
hands. I believe you will not like his hypo-
thesis, but there will be a great many things
in it that will please you.

38 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

" And now, Sir, I must own myself obliged
to you for all the respects and civilities that,
without any desert of mine, I have received
from you ; particularly the honour you did me
in prefixing my name to your Harmony of the
Gospels. I am sensible I did not make such
an acknowledgment of that honour as it de-
served. But I would have made a better, if I
had been richer.

*i I mention this, because I hear my illibera-
lly to you is taken notice of in some of your
prints. I know you took it ill that I should be
reflected on upon that account ; and I thank
you for it. But in truth that author is so far in
the right, that I was by no means to be excused
for so poor a present, supposing that I was in
circumstances to make a better. But not know-
ing my circumstances, he was in the wrong to
blame me for it. This I can truly say, that I
esteem and honour you, and have a grateful
sense of your respects to me. And as it is
in my power, shall be always glad to make
suitable acknowledgments of them.

" I have no more to add to this long trouble
I give you, but that I heartily pray God to
bless you and all your labours for the public
good, and that I am your very affectionate
friend and servant,

" Jo. Ebor."

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 39

The occasion that was given for this apology
in the close of the letter, was a reflection on
his generosity by the author of a libel entitled
Les Interests de I ' Angleterre mat entendus dans le
Guerre presente ; who, in the preface to the said
piece, takes occasion, in order to shew what the
English are, to speak of their generosity ; of which
he said he had once a great opinion. But now he
had quite lost it, because he found the English had
none; and then instances in the present which
the Archbishop of York* had made to M. Le
Clerk for the dedication of his Harmony of the
Gospels. This was perhaps the only time that
his munificence was ever called in question.
And how unseasonable an instance of his parsi-
mony this is, will appear from hence, that how
small soever that present was (and for which he
freely gives the true reason), it was accompa-
nied with a promise, and succeeded by a dona-

* The French writer says only, Le Premier Prelat du Roy-
aume, probably through ignorance which of the two archbishops
took place. For that he meant that of York is plain, from his
mentioning the Harmony dedicated to him, in which he could
not mistake. But the editor, as it may be presumed, not aware
of the circumstance by which that expression should have been
corrected, explains it by this note in the margin, My Lord
Archeveque de Canterbury. Whereby, though he truly denoted
the first prelate in the kingdom, he undesignedly fastened the
reflection upon a wrong person. Therefore justice is done to
both the Archbishops in clearing up this matter.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

tion of the most valuable books printed in Eng-
land, which he knew were to M. Le Clerk
as money. When he first thanked him for his
dedication in 1699, he looked upon the gold he
sent him as nothing. " Be pleased, sir, (says
he) to accept my humble thanks for your unde-
served kindness, and which I should be glad to
express otherwise than in words, if it was in
my power. I have read your book with a great
deal both of pleasure and instruction, though I
cannot say I am of your sentiments in every
thing I meet with there. But you will no more
be angry with me for that, than I am with you,
whom I must profess most highly to esteem for
your learned works."

And then, as for the recompence of the favour
he deferred making it till he came to London,
where, he tells M. Le Clerk, " he hoped to meet
with some occasion of making his acknowledgments
with a better grace; which he accordingly did
by presents of new books, as M. Le Clerk
himself gratefully acknowledged in his letters.
In one of which, 1703, he has these words: —
" His (scil-prioribus litteris) gratias agebam oh
munus egregium librorum, quibus Bibliothecam meam
ditare tibi visum erat. Quam obrem iterum gratias
ago quam possum mdximas." And in answer to
the above quoted letter of March 31, 1704, he
says as follows : — " Est cceteroquin Must : prccsul,

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 41

cur tibl summas agam gratias propter libros quos ad
me mittendos Bibliopolce commisisti. Bibliotheca mea
dudum muneribus tuis superbit, nec parum ea acces-
sione dilabitur. Cave credideris quenquam vivere qui
me grato animo superet et qui minus sibi debere credat
praisertim a viris tantcs dignitatis quantum in te
divina Providentia contidit."

For these reasons M. Le Clerk expressed
himself heartily concerned at the unjust reflec-
tion cast on his benefactor by the French writer.
Though he supposed that it was rather designed
as a slur upon his Harmony, as if it deserved
little reward, than as an aspersion upon his
patron*. * Existimationem tuam," says he, " qua;
supra corum malignitatem posita est Icedere non tarn
voluerunt quam meam." The sum mentioned in
this preface to have been given is, div-huit gui-
iiees; but by M. Le Clerk's own account, it
was not so much (unless pel'haps paid in foreign

* There is some colour for this from the expression, " Qu'il
ne fut si chetif que par le peu de cas qu'il foi soit du Livre;"
i. e. his present would not have been so pitiful, but for the little
account he made of the book. Though possibly the writer
intended by this to reflect more upon the patron than the
editor.

" 'Tis probable that the present was made in Portugal pieces
of c£l 16s. each, ten of which make up the sum of .£18. So
that upon the supposition that the French author mistook
guineas for pounds both accounts will be reconciled." This
note by the late Granville Sharp.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

gold) ; for his words are, " Betieficentitf tuce mo-
numentum in Bibliotheca mea sunt undecim volumina
quibus decern tuos nummos permutavi, additd liber ali-
tatis inscriptione ut ejus memoria maneret dim ea
erunt volumina, sednunquam ex animomeodelenda."

Upon many other occasions he made presents
of books (and some of great use and value) both
to private persons and to public libraries. And
it may be truly said, that considering his cir-
cumstances, no man was more munificent for
the encouragement of learning than he was.
Nor were his endeavours ever wanting (though
not always successful) for promoting men of
the best learning, and encouraging them with
rewards proportionably to their merits. Inso-
much that there were very few men in England
of extraordinary knowledge and literature in
the age he lived, to whom his patronage, recom-
mendation, or interest were not at some time
or other highly useful. Such as Bull, Beve-
ridge, Prideaux, Bentley, Potter, Mills, Grabe,
&c. From some of them the acknowledgments
to him are still extant, which may not only
without injury, but with honour to their memory
be here inserted.

The first is a letter from Dr. Beveridge,
wrote the day after his consecration, and
breathes the primitive spirit of that great man.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP S1IAI1P.

" Hampstead, July 17, 1704."

** May it please your Grace,

" All things being then, and not till
then prepared for it, I was confirmed upon Sa-
turday last, the 15th instant, and consecrated
the Sunday following, which I was at first very
unwilling to consent to, being desirous to have
had more time to myself between the hurry of
a confirmation dinner, and the great solemnity
of the consecration. But there were but three
bishops in or about the town, Rochester, Bath
and Wells, and Chichester. The last whereof
had appointed business in the country, which
would oblige him to leave the city before the
next Lord's day. So that, if it had not been
done then, it must have been put off for a great
while longer, which I was very loth it should,
for fear the diocese might suffer by it.

" And now the business is over, I could not
but take the first opportunity of acquainting
your Grace with it, and of begging the favour
of you, that as you was an instrument, I believe, in
God's hand, to call me to this high office in the
Church, so you would be pleased to assist me
with your earnest prayers to Almighty God,
that I may be directed and enabled by him
faithfully to discharge the duty he hath laid
upon me, to the honour of his great name, the
edifying of his Church, and to the service of

44 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

her sacred Majesty. Which I have the more
ground to hope for, because, as your Grace
knows, 1 had no hand in seeking after it myself,
but undertook it in pure obedience to the will
of God, manifested in his directing her Majesty
to name me to it, whom she had so little know-
ledge of. But though she did not, yet God
knows how unfit I am for so great and high
a station in his Church, and notwithstanding
hath called me to it ; and therefore I trust in
him to carry me through it so, that I may give
a good account to him of it at the last day,
which, that I may, I again most humbly desire
your prayers for, my Lord, your truly affec-
tionate friend and humble servant,

" Will. St. Asaph."

What follows is the conclusion of a long letter
from Dr. Mill. But it is all that pertains to our
present purpose.

" I have something else of direct concern-
ment to myself, which I beg leave to acquaint
your Lordship with. The 14th of August last,
I took possession of ( what I owe under God to
your Grace's goodness and intercession,) my pre-
bend of Canterbury. I found Mr. Dean and
every body there extremely kind and obliging.
And I cannot look upon the easiness of the
place, and its suitableness to my genius and

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 45

present circumstances, without reflecting upon
this preferment as a very peculiar blessing of
the Divine Providence towards me. And accord-
ingly I cannot but in all sincerity profess, that
as it has pleased God, so in getting me this your
Grace has been a better benefactor to me than if
you had procured me the best deanery in Eng-
land. / have every thing I want, and what I
'value above all things leisure to study. And if
God give me life and health, I hope your Grace
shall see the fruits of your benefaction. I daily
remember your Grace in my prayers, and re-
main, with all possible gratitude, your Grace's
most obliged and most obedient faithful servant,

" Jo. Mill."

" Oxon, Nov. 14, 1704."

The next is a letter from Air. Potter, after-
wards Divinity Professor at Oxford, and bishop
of that see ; and at length Archbishop of Can-
terbury, but in great esteem, early in life, for
his Greek Antiquities, and other specimens of his
learning.

" My most honoured Lord,

" Beside many other favours for which
I am indebted to your Grace, there is now one
more, somewhat indeed unexpected, but which
I must impute to your character and recom-

4G LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

mendation of me ; that Dr. Hody being now to
leave Lambeth, the Archbishop of Canterbury
has fixed on me for his successor. As there is
no person whose kind intentions I have more
experienced, and to whom I have greater obli-
gations than your Grace, so I should have
accounted it a singular happiness (if Providence
had so ordered) to have lived under your Grace's
patronage, and in my native country; and
though my present circumstances render me
incapable of that, yet I shall always retain a
most grateful sense of your Grace's great and
undeserved kindness to me, and esteem it a
chief part of my felicity to be reckoned in the
number of,

" My Lord,
u Your Grace's most devoted servants,
" Jo. Potter."

" Oxford, June 19, 1705."

As for Dr. Prideaux, the learned and labo-
rious Dean of Norwich, we must borrow our
testimony from the Archbishop's own letters,
for the doctor himself had been possessed with
an opinion not only that he was out of favour
with him, but that he had been injured by him,
notwithstanding their long acquaintance at Nor-
wich, while Dr. Sharp was dean there. And
this persuasion was so strong as to discontinue

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 47

a correspondence for some years ; till, upon
occasion of the doctor's publishing his Life of
Mahomet, and sending the Archbishop a copy,
he received so friendly a letter from him in
return for it, that he began to think he had
been imposed upon, and resolved to be tho-
roughly satisfied of the Archbishop's disposition
towards him ; upon which he laid open his
grievances in a letter, ' ' desiring he might be eased
of the burthen he had so long laid under, from the
notion of his Graces being his enemy, as had been
by more than one reported to Mitt* And this pro-
duced the following frank declaration from the
Archbishop.

" July 20, 1697.

" Dear Sir,

" I had the favour of your's, and
because you so earnestly desire an answer to
the first part thereof, I will give you a sincere
one, though I must thereby own more than
will be pleasing to you.

" I never was your enemy in my life, nor
ever represented you as an ill man, nor ever
detracted from any virtue or good gift you were
owner of (as God hath endowed you with a
great many), nor ever thought, much less said,
that you pursued any sinister or unworthy
design in any of your actions ; but, on the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

contrary, have stood up for you against those
that would have possessed me with that opinion.
But this I must confess, that heretofore some-
times (according to the liberty used among
intimate friends in private conversation, of talk-
ing about persons and things) I may have com-
plained of the too great warmth of your temper,
which now and then created uneasiness to me,
and others of our society ; and in this I spoke
but what I felt; and without any malice or ill
will to you, I have discoursed with your pre-
sent Bishop of Norwich more freely concerning
you, than with any other man in the world. I
desire you to ask him (and I freely give my
consent he should tell you all), whether I ever
defrauded you of your due commendations, or
ever spoke worse of you than this I have now
owned amounts to. I am sorry for the afflic-
tions you have lately met with at Norwich.
And I do assure you, as little as you think I
am your friend, I should be heartily glad you
were in more easy circumstances," &c.

That he was very sincere in all this, will fur-
ther appear from the preference he gave Dr.
Prideaux to another person, who was one of
his favourites, when the deanery of Norwich lay
between them. In his letter to my Lord of
Canterbury, August 3d, 1700.

I.I F F. OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

"My Lord,

" I had the favour of your Grace's
yesterday, wherein you ask me who I would
desire should succeed in the deanery of Nor-
wich, Dr. Prideaux or Dr. Trimnell.

" Why truly, my Lord, though I have a
most high esteem of Dr. Trimnell, and do most
heartily love him, knowing his great worth and
goodness, and modesty, with which I have
been charmed ever since I have been acquainted
with him ; yet, as to this particular place, my
former obligations to Dr. Prideaux, and his
long services to that Church, and the circum",
stances he is in, which are unlikely to be ever
mended, if he be disappointed of this place ;
I say, these considerations sway with me to
give my vote for him, rather than Dr. Trimnell
oii any other. But this I say, with great sub-
mission to the judgment of your Grace, and the
rest of my brethren the Commissioners, and
particularly of the Bishop of Norwich ; who I
wish may have satisfaction in the choice of dean
to his cathedral."'

But Dr. Prideaux being disappointed of the
deanery, then the Archbishop, upon the vacancy
of it two years afterwards, applied to my Lord
Nottingham in his behalf, using these words in
his letter wrote out of Yorkshire, May 1G,
1702.... "My other business is with relation

VOL. II. E

I 1FE 07 ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

to Dr. Prkleaux, of Norwich ; Dr. Fairfax, the
dean of that church, is dead ; and he humbly
begs your Lordship's recommendation to the
Queen, that he may succeed in that deanery.
You know Dr. Prideaux's character as well as
L He has some faults, but he has a great many
virtues, and I hope he will do good service in
that post. I believe the Bishop of Norwich
will not oppose him ; if he do, I have nothing
to say. If he do not, I would readily give him
my vote, if the Queen should condescend to
ask my opinion."

This application had the good fortune to suc-
ceed, through Lord Nottingham's assistance, to
whom the doctor afterwards ascribed the whole
merit of his promotion.

He denied himself to nobody who had either
a request or a complaint to make. Nor did he
refuse to converse with any who were admitted
to him with great cheerfulness and condescension.
In large and mixed companies he had something
to say to every body ; those who were the least
known to him, or who could least expect, on ac-
count of their age or condition of life, to share in
his respects, never went from him without some
sufficient mark of his notice and regards. And
he had this peculiar happiness, that though he
talked so much, and in so free and open, and, in
appearance, careless a manner, yet he did it with

MFF. OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

so great a guard upon himself, that he hardly
ever gave offence to any that sat with him ; and
very rarely occasion to reproach himself for his
inadvertency. His conversation was contrived
and adapted for the entertainment of all that
heard him ; and it may be added, for their edifi-
cation too ; because he frequently, and as often
as decently he could, introduced into his dis-
course serious and religious topics, and such
things as might make his company either wiser
or better. And this he did so prudently, both
as to measure and manner, that it was disa-
greeable to none, but welcome to most; but
though these were his darling subjects, and
such as he most delighted to dwell upon in his
daily converse with his own family, and with
such of his friends as he knew it would be very
acceptable to; yet there was no topic so trifling,
and so much out of his own way, but he would
pleasantly enter into it, for the sake of making
himself agreeable to such as were addicted to
that sort of conversation, and pleased with it.
A noted fox-hunter in Yorkshire that dined with
him, was surprised at his entertaining him so
suitably with a discourse about horses, and
said, after he came away, that surely the Arch-
bishop had been reading the Gentleman's Jockey !

To his clergy he ever expressed the utmost
civility and respect. The meanest man in his

e 2

LIFE Or ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

diocese who wore a gown (provided he were
not obnoxious to his censure) was welcome at
his table as often as he pleased ; and was re-
ceived with as much affability and kindness, as
if Providence had set them both upon the level.
And though he had four public days in the
week for the entertainment of strangers and
reception of company, yet his house was always
open and his table public to the clergy; that is,
there was no time when they might not have
ready access to him, and entertainment too, if
they pleased. And this they knew ; and as the
convenience of dispatching business, or finding him
most at leisure required it, they made use of this
liberty.

It must, indeed, be supposed (for it was una-
voidable), that this great courtesy and affability
would sometimes prove troublesome and inconve-
nient to himself. Every body not having thought
and discretion enough to treat his candour with
that forbearance of tedious impertinences and
unnecessary importunities which it deserved
from all. Some thought his goodness and civi-
lity in this respect extended a little too far ;
and it really was sometimes so grievous to him,
that he was almost put out of humour by tedious,
unseasonable, and inconsiderate visitants. Yet
he rather chose to subtnit to this inconvenience,
than put on the least appearance of a haughty

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

reservedness, or do what might be interpreted
, by any person a failure of those respects which
he had a forward inclination to shew to all.

His acts of private friendship or good offices
done to particular people, both by his advice
and his parse, are so many and various, that an
account of them at large is not to be attempted ;
but a summary view may be taken of them
under the following articles.

1. Resolving doubts and removing unneces-
sary scruples of conscience.

2. Making peace in divided families by ac-
commodating their differences.

3. Acts of liberality and charity to persons
in want.

As to the first of these, viz. the calming
disquieted minds and directing weak and tender
consciences, which is the greatest act of kind-
ness imaginable, he was singularly serviceable,
both from his readiness and dexterity in solving
such difficulties as commonly perplex the scru-
pulous ; and from the opinion people had of his
fidelity and skill this way, which occasioned
a frequent resort to him of those who could
personally attend him, as well as frequent ap-
plications by letter from those who lived at a
distance, or who were willing to conceal their
persons, though they discovered their cases.
And it is to this latter kind of application that

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

those written cases are owing, which, with his
resolutions of them, are preserved among his
papers. Some of them to which his answers
(whereof he took copies) are found entire, are
thrown into the Appendix. Those of hypocon-
driacs excepted, both because they are not so
properly cases of consciences, as descriptions
of the sad effects of religious melancholy, and
because all the advice that he gave, or could
give to persons under this distemper, as a divine,
may be found collected together in the third
volume of his Sermons, which is altogether
made up of discussions on those religious doubts
and questions that so miserably disturb and
distract those who are afflicted with this malady.

The next article of his private good offices
to be taken notice of, was his making peace and
compounding differences, such especially as were
domestic, or arose among near relatives ; which,
though usually of the worst consequence if
not made up in time by some friendly hand
interposing, yet are commonly the most difficult
to be healed, and the most dangerous to be
meddled with by a third person, as being the
least capable of being taken up and managed
without giving offence. Yet, such was his
address on these occasions, that he scarce ever
disobliged the parties at variance, whether he
had success in reconciling them or not. And

LIFE OT' ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

how tenderly and inoffensively he managed
such points will in some measure appear by an
instance or two, wherein he was obliged to
proceed by letter. In one case to a gentleman
of his own diocese, who had discarded his
daughter upon pretences too frivolous to justify
so great a resentment. In another to a gentle-
man of fortune and figure, who had put away
his lady and obliged her to sue for a separate
maintenance. In a third, to a person who was
a stranger to him, out of mere compassion for
his lady and daughter lying under the highest
affliction. These letters are put all together at
the end of the first Appendix.

And as to those other acts of mercy and
charity, to which his purse was subservient,
and which is the remaining article of his good
offices, no testimonies can be expected from
himself, and yet howsoever many of them may
have been concealed, yet they are not altoge-
ther without testimony.

He decimated the whole profits of his prefer-
ments and estates. Whatever he received as
his own property, and for his own use, one
tenth of it was set apart and sanctified to the
uses of charity. The design of this rule or
disposition seemed to be either the settlement
of such proportion upon the pool-, as a kind oj
debt, without discharging which the ordinary

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

claims of mankind to his relief could not be
duly answered ; or the making an offering to
God of that proportion (by way of acknow-
ledgment of his temporal blessings) not to be
interrupted in consideration of any private con-
venience to his family, or omitted without some
extraordinary and unexpected reduction of his
fortunes, which might make it necessary or
highly reasonable to depart from this rule.
Whichsoever of these reasons it was that moved
him, as they had done Dr. Hammond (see his
life by Dr. Fell) and Mr. Herbert (see his Life
by Isaac Walton), and others before, to proceed
by the rule of decimation, yet as by God's
blessing he had no temptations to break through
it, so he had frequent invitations and a very
ready inclination to enlarge his good works
beyond it. But to what degree was a secret
to all but himself and his faithful bursar, his
equally charitable lady, who, from the day of
their marriage, as was above related, managed
his purse and kept his accounts, and disbursed
to his order.

Among the several occasions upon which he
demonstrated both his piety, liberality, and
charity, those which follow deserve to be re-
membered.

He granted yearly pensions, some of five, some
of ten pounds, for the better supply of small cures,

FIFE OF AUCIIDISHOP SHARP.

and chapelries, where the stipend was so incon-
siderable, that none could serve for it. And
this was usually done upon condition that the pa-
rishioners, or neighbouring gentlemen, or inhabi-
tants would yearly subscribe as much as lie gave.
By which means provision was made for the
service of God in several places which had
otherwise been destitute of it.

He would likewise remit a part of a Jine, and
in some cases the whole fine, upon the renewal
of a lease, on condition that the lessees would
engage, by themselves or their tenants, to pay
so much yearly towards the augmentation of
the stipend of the minister of the place where
the leasehold lay, and where the ancient and
appropriated stipend or provision for the mi-
nister was scandalously mean*.

* He gave a pretty remarkable instance of his public spirit
and generous respects to societies founded for the encourage-
ment of learning, as well as of kindness to his poor clergy, in
the following particular case.

A college in one of our universities held a lease of a farm
worth 551. or 60/. per annum, according to his books, and had
let it run so long, that upon the most moderate computation,
the fine should have been 120/. And such a fine, he told them,
he should expect from his other tenants; but that he had too
much respect and honour for that honourable society that were
his tenants, to think of treating them in that manner. That
he designed not to make any profit to himself by renewing their
lease, but having had it in his thoughts ever since he came to

58 LIFE OB ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

His other kind assistances to his poor clergy
out of his own pocket, were very great and
many. To some he contributed towatrls the ne-
cessary ?'epairs of their parsonage or vicarage
houses. To others he voluntarily remitted their
procurations* , synodals, and pensions. To others
he advanced money upon their taking their

the knowledge of the state of the parish (where the leasehold
lay), to make some hetter provision for the minister who served
the cure there (who had no more than 51. per annum, settled
maintenance ), he thought he might reasonably take this
occasion (which was the first that was offered him) of doing
something towards it. And therefore, with all respect, he ten-
dered this proposal to the college, viz. that he would renew
their lease gratis now ; and not only so, but would promise to
do it without fine as long as he continued Archbishop, when-
ever they desired it, provided they would oblige their tenant
to pay 51. per annum from henceforward to the minister that
served the cure, which the tenant might very well afford to do,
considering how good a bargain he had from the college. And
this would be a thing very honourable for the college to put
their tenant upon, and very little to their damage. Concluding
that he hoped the college would not take this proposal ill, since
upon the common terms of bargaining, that which he desired
might be purchased for less than half the money that even an
easy fine for renewing their lease would amount to.

* In this kind of negative munificence all his clergy shared ;
for the reason which he gave why he did not hold his ordinary
visitations regularly, but instead of them, went round his dio-
cese confirming was, that he thereby answered all the ends of
a visitation, without putting his clergy upon the payment of
procurations.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

benefices, to be refunded again if they were
afterwards able ; if not, to remain with them as
a gift. To others, who had large families, he
contributed towards the education of their chil-
dren at schools and the university. And many a
poor clergyman, upon making a complaint of
the narrowness of his circumstances, has gone
from him with 51. in his pocket. Nor was he
unmindful of their widows, after their deaths,
but contributed to the support of such as were
left in a deplorable condition.

He obtained a commission for pious uses at his
own expence, whereby he did great service in
his diocese.

To learned and ingenious men, who had been
educated at the Universities, and were after-
wards wholly unprovided for, he would, for
their encouragement, allow them something-
yearly till provision could be made for them in
the Church.

When he accommodated differences between
contending parties, and the only remaining diffi-
culties to be settled were matters of debt, or
law-charges, &c. he would sometimes chuse
rather to discharge and defray those himself,
than not effectually complete the reconciliation he
had undertaken to make. Which occasioned
one of his clergy, for whom he had settled a
difference with his parishioners by this means,

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

to tell him, that if his Grace often took this me-
thod of laying contentions in his diocese, he ought
to have the ancient revenues of his Archbishopric,
or the riches of his predecessor, Cardinal Wolsey,
that he might have a purse as large as his soul.

In his subscriptions towards the erecting- and
endowing charity schools, setting up organs, altar-
pieces, Sec. and whatever tended either to use
or ornament in parochial churches, and towards
such other public works as needed his encou-
ragement, and for which application was made
to him, he maintained the character of a Muni-
ficent Predate.

And he maintained it not only within his own
diocese, but out of it too. By his contributions
to the societies for public charities at London,
by his bounty to the distressed Episcopal clergy
of Scotland, and the relief he gave to several
poor foreigners, who had fled into England on
account of their religion.

By these acts of piety and charity that were
known, let those be measured or guessed at
that were not known.

Nor was his hospitality within doors less re-
markable than his liberality abroad ; of which
no more need be said, than that he was given to
it, as the Apostle directs those of his function to
be, and given to it in proportion to the eminence
of his station in the Church. And perhaps the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SUA UP. Gl

most laudable part of it was that which was the
least visible to the world ; viz. the share the
poor had in it ; for he made it in a manner the sup-
port of the village and indigent neighbourhood where
he lived. So that what with his hospitality and
charities, it is no wonder he saved so little to him*
self out of so great revenues. For, though he re-
ceived, out of the profits of the Archbishoprick,
in the first ten years after he came to the See,
that is, from 1G91 to 1701, as he computed him-
self, £39,276, and lived long enough afterwards
to receive more than would make that sum
double, yet all that he left behind him when he
died, (excepting some leaseholds and grants of
offices, which fell in to him to the benefit of his
family) was little more than his own private
fortunes, inconsiderable as they were, if reserved,
would have amounted to.

But he was not a man of this world. His heart
was no ways attached to secular interests. He
was moved by other springs, and guided by more
noble principles, as will be next seen in his in-
terior, or divine life.

And this is that part of his life, whereof the
world could have no knowledge, and wherein it
had no concern. Yet, as his diary proves a guide
able to conduct us into his retirements, and to
shew him in some of his private communication
with heaven, and of his most secret acts of re-

G2 LIFF. OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

ligion ; the following him thither with so uncom-
mon an advantage, will not only appear the more
excuseable, but will justify, by the materials
thereby furnished, the distinct consideration of
this subject, independently on what has gone
before.

Acts of piety and virtue done in secret, though,
for that reason, their beauty be lost to the eyes
of man, and oftentimes their credit too, for want
of testimonies, are nevertheless, in themselves,
most valuable, and the most amiable parts of
every good man's life. They are infallible marks
of his being governed by a sense of duty and
obligation, and clear him of all suspicions of
being any ways influenced in them by worldly
interests and friendships, the love of applause or
fear of disgrace ; or, indeed, by any other mo-
tive, than the obtaining God's favour.

They, indeed, who make light of private de-
votions, and of all human endeavours to keep up
a constant and daily correspondence with hea-
ven, will, of course, make light of this part of
these memoirs, in which the subject of them is
placed in an uncommon, and perhaps to them,
not agreeable point of view : for, however well
a narrative of this strain may suit the turn of
some mens' minds, there is reason to fear it is
too much out of the prevailing taste of the pre-
sent times, to pass uncensw^ed.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 63

This reflection often occurred to the compiler,
when he revised the contents of these last
sheets ; and it would absolutely have suppressed
his thoughts of letting them go abroad, had not
the opinion of some, who had the perusal of the
draught when it was in great forwardness, (to
whose judgment a deference was due, and who
also were friends both to the Archbishop and
himself), prevailed upon him not to drop the
execution of this branch of his design. They
encouraged him to think he had no need of an
apology for so doing, and that if serious people,
who look further than this world, and do not
judge of every thing by the maxims of common
life, and those scanty measures of what is ex-
cellent and praise-worthy to which ordinary con-
versation usually confines itself, shall here find a
specimen of secret, unaffected piety, adapted to
their taste, and be either instructed or encou
raged by it, it will more than balance the slight
that may possibly be cast upon it by persons of
less sedate tempers, or of less relish for spiritual
exercises.

Among the memoranda which he put to-
gether in 1691, (as it is mentioned in the Pre-
face to this work) there is little to be met with
upon this head, except one passage, which ought
to be set down here, as being necessary to the

L1FK

OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

explanation of several of the excerpts from his
diary that follow, viz.

That in the year 1688 he began to enter into
a more extraordinary course of devotion and
private exercise of piety, than he had practised
before that time. By a reflection upon his own
past life, minuted in 1682, it appears, that he
had for several years lived (as he expressed it
himself), very carefully ; especially at Norwich,
(while Prebendary), in his recesses from Lon-
don, and disengagement from the business of
> his cure. Being made Dean of that Church in
1681, his retirements thither were longer and
more agreeable to him, as giving him greater
opportunities of improving in his spiritual life.
And he made use of them to that end, but with
not so much effect and satisfaction as he desired.
For a constant and uniform perseverance in re-
ligious and devout exercises, must be the effect
of an habit formed by degrees, and by renewed
essays upon repeated interruptions and disappoint-
ments. The charge of a large parish upon his
hands at London, the controversies of those
times, in which he engaged himself, and his own
troubles in 1686, would be enough to disconcert
him, and occasion some remissions of that lively
sense of God upon his mind, and some discon-
tinuance of that devout frame of soul, which he

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

desired always to retain. However, in his re-
tirement at Norwich, in the summer, 1688, he
pursued his resolutions with greater strictness,
and with better success ; for he persevered from
that time in a way so satisfactory to himself,
that he never could reflect on that summer's
work, without praise and thanksgiving to God
for it. And certain it is, from his own accounts,
that he did, notwithstanding the multiplicity of
affairs that he went through, by constancy of prayer
and watchfulness over himself, preserve thence-
forward a vigorous sense of duty, which he never
let go, and a devout turn of spirit, which made
piety a perfect habit in him. He expresses these
effects himself, something differently in different
parts of his diary ; but still to much the same
sense, and always with so much humility, that
the lowest terms which serve to denote the com-
mon duties of the meanest Christian, are used by
him to express the highest advances towards
perfection that he could attain to.

Thus his own words (in the collection of
memorandums above - mentioned, made in
1691), are:— " On Sunday, June 24, 1688, I
began to apply myself more diligently to the
work of religion, and spent that summer well.
And I thank God most heartily since that I have
never relapsed. So that at the present writing
hereof, / have above three years lived with a

VOL. II. F

GG LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

constant sense of religion. Blessed be the name
of God for ever and ever. And, O blessed God,
continue thy mercy to me, and be pleased every
day more and more to perfect that good work,
which I hope thou hast begun in me."

If his whole life and story, from the beginning
down to the date of this minuted passage, had
been a blai^^ one would have imagined that,
instead of having lived for several years very
carefully, he had been a careless liver, and now
first began to think seriously about religion, and
to apply himself to it in earnest. His expres-
sions are of the same strain in his minutes of his
anniwrsary commemoration of Midsummer day
as in 1702.

" June 24. This day I returned my solemn
thanks to God, for his grace in keeping me in a
sense of religion now for these fourteen years
past, and devoted myself to his service anew,"
&c.

1704. " I went into my chapel, this being
Midsummer day, on which, now sixteen years
ago, I began to take up and live more devoutly
and regularly. And most earnestly, and with
tears, begged the continuance, &c. God Al-
mighty, I hope, will hear my prayers."

1707. He returns his anniversary thanks to God
for his mercy in inspiring him with a serious sense
6f religion, now nineteen years ago, &c.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 67

By sense of religion in all these places, he
plainly means, such a vigorous, energetic sense,
as kept him up to his duty in all instances, and
established his heart unblameable in holiness before
God, 1 Thess. iii. 13. Till he could bring his
sense of God and religion up to this standard,
he could not be satisfied with it. Every remis-
sion of it was with him a kind of relapse, but
when he had brought it to an habit, that he
could say he retained it constantly, then it was
the good work begun in him, upon which he stu-
died to improve daily ; then it was he began to
take up and live more devoutly and regularly ; and
all this he humbly and justly ascribes to the
good grace of God upon him, encouraging and
assisting him in his own sincere attempts to
improve himself in all goodness ; for thus his
commemorations at Midsummer are expressed
in 1705 and 1706, viz. To thank God for his bless-
ing upon his religious endeavours, these last seventeen
and eighteen years.

After he had continued in this course twenty
years, he used another phrase in minuting his
annual thanksgivings on the 24th of June, which
he styled, in the years 1708, 1709, 1710, the
day of his new birth, and his spiritual birth-day.
From whence it is obvious to remark, first, that
he dates the commencement of his spiritual life,
no higher than from the renewing his resolutions

f 2

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

above-mentioned, in 1688, because they were
his entrance into a course of stricter living,
from which he had never since departed, at
least not so far as to be construed by him a
relapse. Secondly, that he distinguishes this
spiritual life, or last state of improvement from
the whole former part of his life, not as a conver-
sion from a sinful, or a reformation of a careless
course of living (for in the one he never appears
to have been, nor in the other for several years,
as he himself could testify), but as a permanent
steady course of performing his duties to God
without those failures or intermissions which
he had found his former life had been subject
to. Thirdly, that he distinguishes it from any
notion or idea of a new or spiritual birth, by
new lights and extraordinary convictions, or
any instantaneous changes and sudden renovations
of nature. For he waits a confirmation, from
twenty years experience, of a spiritual life,
before he ventures to apply " spiritual birth" to
his entrance into it, and he always speaks of
it (as will be shewn afterwards) as a progressive
state, still mending and improving by steps and
degrees, at. least at no time retrograde ; and this
without any suggestion or pretence of impulses
or any extraordinary means whatever, but only
in the ordinary way of nature (subject to human
infirmities), on his own part, and in the ordinary

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

way of grace under the Gospel, on Gods part.
These observations may serve to prevent any false
conclusions tending to enthusiasm being made from
this expression, wherewith he chose to signalize this
day of his annual thanksgivings, and likewise to
shew the value that he himself set upon this
first means of so successful and lasting an im-
provement of his life. And how religiously
and solemnly he observed the returns of this
festival will abundantly appear from a transcript
or two out of his diary, exhibiting the course
and order of his religious exercises on Midsum-
mer day. We will take, for example, the year
following.

1711. June 24th. Fourth Sunday after Trinity.
" This being my anniversary day for my returning
of thanks to God for his wonderful mercies to me, now
twenty-three years ago, I resolved to spend this day as
devoutly as I could. Accordingly I said my prayers
most heartily alone, and with my wife and with my
family in the chapel. Afterwards, before I went to
Church, I said the prayers which I use on my
birth-day as devoutly as I could, and devoted myself
to God's service for the next year ; begging humbly,
that if I live another year, I may at the end of it
present myself improved in every grace and virtue.
I then went to the minster, where I thank God 1
said my prayers and received the sacrament with as
devout desires as ever I did. But I was not so bright

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

as I am sometimes. I came home in the coach alone.
So that I had a convenience/ of conversing with God
all the way, which I did as heartily as I could. In
the evening I walked in my gardens, and repeated
my thanksgivings, and renewed my vmvs. So also
I did just before I went to bed ; prostrating myself
upon the ground, and earnestly begging God's grace
and presence the following year."

The last opportunity that God was pleased
to vouchsafe to him of celebrating this private
festival was in 1713. When we find the whole
morning of that day was religiously laid out in
the following manner.

Wednesday, June 24. " I said my prayers most
heartily in my dining-room; and afterwards in my
chapel, and afterwards with my wife. I then locked
myself into my study, where, with hearty devotion
and tears, I returned my solemn thanks to God for
the infinite mercies he conferred upon me this day
twenty-jive years ; when the good work was begun in me
which hath been carrying on ever since. I likewise
then most solemnly devoted myself to his service all
the rest of my life ; and earnestly begged that if he
grants me another year in this world, I may at the
conclusion of it present myself before him improved
in virtue and goodness. I thank God I was most
heartily devout, and hope God will hear my prayers.

At ten o'clock I went into my garden, where

I likewise returned my thanks to God for his mercies

JJFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 71

on this day, and said my daily prayers. At eleven
o'clock I went in my chariot to York, and I thank
God said my prayers and thanksgivings most de-
voutly both going and coming, viz. my long prayers
and my thanksgiving prayers, and my prayer for
good resolutions. I likewise afterwards said my
prayers heartily in my chapel. Thus far well,
blessed be God. The afternoon was interrupted by
business. "

These passages may serve as a specimen of
the devout and divine life that he led for twenty-
five years. For though, on these more remark-
able occasions, his devotions were enlarged, yet
a considerable part of every day which he had
to himself, was taken up in communications
with God. And considerable part of his diary
consists of his account of himself in this his
merely spiritual capacity ; wherein he notes
down what prayers he said each day, and with
what temper and spirit he performs them, and
in what frame of mind he was. It may not
perhaps be so readily guessed upon the first
view of the matter, what could be his design in
noting down all these particulars with such exact-
ness. But it appears clearly, from the com-
paring the several accounts of his diary toge-
ther, that his intention was, that no omissions
of his private duty to God should at any time
escape him, or slip his memory. And there-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP

fore, when business interrupted the stated
course of his devotions, as often happened, and
especially at London, he knew by this means
how much he stood in arrear, of what he designed
and purposed to perform ; and so took the
next opportunities that offered. And when he
had said his prayers not to his satisfaction,
which would sometimes be the effect, as he
complains, of business or studies running in his
head, then he took care to say them over again,
when he was in a better or more undisturbed
disposition for them. But the great use he
found in this particularity was the discovering
his progress in the divine life, the gradual increase
and enlargement of his love towards God, and
the sensible detachment of his heart and affec-
tions from earthly things. So that he could form
a judgment of himself, not only for one day past,
with which he closed his diary every night, in
these or such expressions: — " All well, this day,
Dei gratia; or, / have lived well, thank God;
or, I have lived very well, God Almighty he for ever
praised, and loved, and served by me and mine" Sec. ;
but he could say at the week's end, as he has
occasionally done, " I have lived better this week
than ever I did." Or at the month's end, " I
reflect with much comfort on this month last past,
which concludes to-day ." Or at the end of two
months, " / thank God, I have not lived worse

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

these two last months than before.'" Or at the
year's end, upon examining and considering the
whole account : — 'c This last year I hope I have
lived better than any former year of my life." Or
indefinitely, " / thank God, I was never in a
better frame of mind, nor have been so long toge-
ther in a good frame, as I have been, and am now."

And he had also several stated times for the
enquiring after the state of his soul, and im-
proving his interior life. Of the annual days,
the most considerable was Midsummer day
above-mentioned. Next to that, his natural \
birth-day, February 16, which he ever religi-
ously observed " with hearty thanksgiving to God
for his continued mercies to him all his life long.
With humble supplications for pardon of all his sins
and neglects from his youth up till that time, and ivith
new and solemn dedications of himself to God's ser-
vice the remainder of his days, always accompanied
with petitions for grace to enable him to do and be
what he desired." He kept this anniversary in
this manner twenty-two times after he was
Archbishop. That day which would have been
the twenty-third return of it, and the sixty-
ninth from his birth, his body returned to the
ground from whence he was taken, and laid in
the grave, in hopes of a joyful resurrection.

Next to this he sanctified the first and last days j
of the year, and employed them in religious per-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

formances ; as appears from his notes of those
days, for every year, excepting the last year of
his life ; he being at that time languishing in his
last sickness, and incapable of continuing his
diary. But the year before that, the memoran-
dum, which may stand as a specimen of all the
former, is as follows :

1712. Dec. 31. Wednesday. " After even-
ing prayers I said my prayers as I used to do in my
dining-room. I took some time to think of my in-
finite obligations to God this year passed. . . . I
went into my study, where, upon my knees, I returned
my most hearty solemn thanks to God for all his
kindness, and at the same time most earnestly be-
seeched him to pardon all the offences and neglects
that I have been guilty of this last year : and begged
of him to continue all his mercies to me, and to assist
me still with his heavenly grace, that I may this next
year serve him better. . . . All well this day"

1712-13. Jan. 1. Thursday. " This being new
years day, I said my prayers heartily in the morning,
both in the dining-room and in my chapel, and with
my wife, as I used to do; and afterwards came into my
study, and with hearty devotion, said Dr. Patrick's
prayer for one's birth-day, applying it as well as I
could to the new year . I thanked God heartily for
all mercies and blessings both of soul and body, which
he had bestowed upon me the last year ; and I humbly
begged his grace, that I may grow better and better,

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

so that if it please God to let me live another year, I
may, at the conclusion of it present myself before him,
improved in virtue and goodness" &c.

He would sometimes conclude his notes on
Dec. 31, with this, or some such remark: " /
hope I am not worse but better this year than I was
the last." And those of January 1, with, " I
have begun very well, and make many good pur-
poses ;" or something to the same effect : signify-
ing the further improvements in a Christian life,
which he every year aimed at.

Another of his anniversary days which he de-
voutly solemnized, was July 5, the day of his
Consecration ; when he used " to retire into his
chapel, and beg God's pardon for all the faults and
neglects he had been guilty of in the administration
of his office, and most earnestly implore his blessing
and protection for the future, that he might discharge
his office the remaining part of his time, to the glory
of God's name." These were the five days in the
year that he set apart for his more enlarged and
particular devotions. But this was a small ser-
vice in comparison of the constant weekly
offices that he performed in private, which he so
distributed among the several days, that proper
parts were assigned or allotted to five days in
seven. Sundays and Thursdays were his days
of thanksgiving ; Wednesdays and Fridays were
his days of humiliation ; and Saturday was his

LIFE OF AHCHBISHOP SHARP.

P ar ascend ; for so we may call it, because he con-
stantly on Saturday, in the evening, prepared
himself for the eucliarist the day following, which
he received (unless necessity prevented him,
which very seldom happened) every Sunday.
Sometimes he performed these preparatory de-
votions with great life and pleasure ; and then he
noted it as a blessing, as in the last year of his
life, concluding his week's account, he has these
words : " / said my prayers before the sacrament
very devoutly : all well, thank God. I bless his name
that I have a hearty sense of religion and devotion,
and am truly disposed to serve my God to the utmost
of my power. And I humbly beg his grace, that I
may ( as I daily pray ) every day bless him more and
more, and serve him better"

And he usually kept the same rule, and made
the like preparation, for the due observance of
Christmas day, or any great festival, on which
he had opportunity of receiving the sacrament
on the week days. Thus, " Dec. 24, 1707, 1 was
most devout at home to prepare for Christmas day."
It was said above, that he never omitted to re-
ceive the eucliarist on the Lord's day, if he could
help it ; thus if he happened to lie upon the road
on a Lord's day, he usually procured the favour
of a sacrament at the Parish Church, from the
Minister of the place where he then was. But if
it so happened that he could not receive it in

LIFE OF ARCIIBTSHOP SHARP.

kind, he endeavoured to obtain the effects and
blessings of it by an eucharistical obation of his
own prayers in private. Thus, for instance, at
a time when he lost his opportunity of com-
municating at Church on the Lord's day, he
notes that " he endeavoured to supply that defect
with his devotions and hearty acknowledgments of
Christ's sacrifice, and begging the benefits of it might
be conferred upon his commemorating it in this way,
by hearty devotions, and giving up himself to God, as
if he had received the sacrament solemnly at Church."
When he resided at London, he constantly at-
tended the early sacraments, (for the most part
at Whitehall), that he might be at liberty to
preach afterwards in the Parish Church, or at-
tend the Queen's Chapel, whither he generally
resorted for the morning service, when he had
not engaged to supply any pulpit in town. The
afternoon service he had in his own family. In
short, he made it his serious endeavour, as he
often remarks, " to spend the whole Lord's day in
the best maimer he could to the glory of God, and the
good of his own soul."

Thursday was the other day of the week that
he appropriated to thanksgivings ; and these
were usually his acknowledgments to God of his
" great temporal mercies and blessings vouchsafed
to his country, his family, and to himself, in that he
and all who belonged to him lived in health, peace,

78 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

and safety ; joined with earnest petitions, that God,
for his mercies' sake, would have him and his always
in protection ." In the summer time, when he
resided at Bishopsthorp, and when the weather
was fair, he usually offered these thanksgivings
sub dio, either in his garden or in the adjoining
fields and meadows, whither he frequently
walked to perform his devotions. The Parish
Church of Acaster is within a little mile of the
Archbishop's palace. It stands by itself in the
fields. Thither he frequently retired alone, and
made the little porch of that church his oratory,
where he solemnly addressed and praised God.
And here it was that for some years he resorted,
as he had opportunity, to perform his Thursday
thanksgivings ; afterwards he removed from this
place to another which was more pleasant, and
more commodious too, as being nearer his
house ; and this was a shed or little summer
house, placed under a shade on the side of a
fish-pond, which stood north of his house and
gardens. Hither he frequently retired for prayer,
but most generally on Thursday. Afterwards,
when the plantations that he had made in his
garden, were grown up to some perfection, he
again changed the scene of his thanksgivings,
and offered them up in a particular walk, which
from thence he called his Temple of Praise. It

is a close grass-plot walk, lying north and south,

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

and hedged on each side with yew, so thick and
high, as to be completely shaded at all times of
the day, except noon. On the east it hath a
little maze or wilderness, that grows consider-
ably higher. The entrance into it at each end
is through arches made in a lime hedge, and the
view through these arches, immediately bounded
by a hedge of horn-beam at one end, and a
fruit wall at the other. So that from within the
walk, scarce any thing is to be seen but verdure
and the open sky above. In this close walk,
and in the adjoining maze, (for probably he
adopted both at the same time, for his Temple of
Praise), he spent many a happy hour, especially
in the last years of his life. Here was a privacy
that answered his design, and a solemnity that
suited his taste ; and here he poured out his soul
in prayers and thanksgivings, and had such de-
lightful intercourses with God, as would affect
him to a very great degree. Thus, for instance,
he notes, in the year 1712. " After evening
prayers I walked in my garden, and there, in my
Temple of Praise, poured out my soul to God in an
unusual ardent manner ; so that I think I was never
so rapturously devout in my life.''' This passage is
brought to shew what use he made of that place,
and not what effect the place had upon him. For
indeed, at this time of life, he had attained to
such a habit of raising his affections, beyond what

80 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

he had been formerly able to do, that, upon
several occasions, he wrought himself into ar-
dours which he had not felt in so great a de-
gree before. Thus, for instance, in the same
summer. " I never was in such transports of devo-
tion hardly as I was when I came home from the
Minster, being alone in the coach. I never prayed
more heartily and devoutly in my life. And I hope
God will hear my prayers which I put up for grace
and mercy, with tears."

As he noted these and such like passages
while the impressions of them remained strong
upon his mind, it is no wonder he should prefer
the freshest and latest of them, to those which
were more remote, at least were more effaced
in his memory. The truth is, that all his acts
of devotion, and particularly such as were
eucharistical, were very srong and lively, espe-
cially towards the latter end of his life. And
as they affected himself, so in some measure
they did others also. For, notwithstanding the
privacy of his Temple of Praise, and the solitude
of the other places he pitched upon for these
exercises, he could not always pass unobserved.
And it would have been a pity that he should ;
for surely the eye that once beheld him in one
of these warmer acts of piety, would rarely
meet with any sight again so extremely solemn
and affecting. And indeed there were few in

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

his family who had not, at some time or other,
undesignedly been witnesses of his secret con-
verse with God. And probably with some of
them, the remembrance of those ardours and
(in appearance) exstacies of devotion which
were observable in him, will stick not without
some proper influence to their dying day. It
was such a lively representation of the power
of godliness, as a verbal description cannot
reach, nor invention furnish ; which left upon
the mind and heart of the spectator an impres-
sion not to be communicated by mere verbal
account of it, of the charms of true religion.

But to proceed ; Wednesdays and Fridays
were days of humiliation with him. The latter
his fast, and he had particular devotions for
them. For some years he went constantly to
his cathedral on those days as well as on Sun-
days (viz. when he was in the country), and
he was as constant at the Friday lecture in the
afternoon, an account of which hath been given
above. But he remitted of these strictnesses
as he grew older, and could not bear an empty
stomach as formerly. But his devotions on
those days he never remitted. Those on Friday
particularly he performed with great solemnity
in his chapel, whither he retired by himself
every Friday morning.

But besides these fixed times, he did, upon

VOL. II. G

82 II FF OF ARCHEISHOP SHARP.

several particular occasions, use extraordinary
devotions. Before his visitations and confirma-
tions he med to fast while he could bear it, " to
recommend himself to God's mercy, protection, and
blessing during the ejisuing visitation, 8$c. beseeching
God earnestly to accompany him with his Holy
Spirit, that he might in all companies and upon all
occasions so behave himself, that he might do honour
to his name, and bring no scandal to the character
he himself bore ; and that God would bless him with
strength to go through his work both of preaching
and confirming, and I trust (says he ) that he will
grant my earnest prayers for Jesus Christ's sake."
He had always a very strong reliance upon God
that he would support him in the public exer-
cise of his function ; which encouraged him to
set out upon laborious and difficult works (for
such were his confirmations), sometimes under
very ill circumstances of health, viz. gout or
stone ; and yet he always returned home better,
and did his business completely; upon one
time, while he confirmed with the gout upon
him, that he could not stand, but sat in his
chair at the communion rails, and the catechu-
mens were brought to him, one after another,
he first recovered so much strength as by rest-
ing one knee upon a chair, which was gently
moved along, he could proceed as usual along
the rails, and soon after he quitted that sup-

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 83

port, and confirmed some thousands of persons,
and after profuse sweating lost his distemper
entirely.

His thanksgivings upon his return were as
regular and constant as his humiliations had
been before he begun. For instance, in 1707.
— " In the evening I got safe liome, blessed be God
for all his mercies. I had a most prosperous journey,
and God carried me through my work in every
place more prosperously than I could have expected,
considering in how low estate of health I was when I
set out. I preached every where to my own satisfac-
tion, except at , where yet I performed well

enough. I behaved myself , I trust, well enough in
all conversations, so that I had nothing to charge
myself with. I said my prayers constantly in pri-
vate, both morning and evening, and mostly with
hearty devotion. We had also prayer in my family
every night, and likewise every morning when we
travelled. And I had a lively sense of God upon
my mind all this journey. O God, I humbly beseech
thee, make me for ever truly thankful^

Always before he held an ordination, he used
to resort alone into his chapel, and " there
implore the guidance of God's Spirit in that work."
And indeed there was no business of any con-
sequence that he ever undertook without first
applying heartily to God for a blessing upon it.

His yearly journeys to London (or back
g 2

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

again) were all preceded by proper application
to " God for safety and protection and each
concluded with " hearty thanksgivings for that
good Providence that had watched over him and
his in that journey ; solemnly begging pardon for
all his sins, and particularly for whatever he had
said, or thought, or done that was a)niss since he set
out" &c.

And usually, when he came to London, where
much business, and company, and public affairs
would employ his time, and expose him to the
world, " He entreated Almighty God to be his
guide and counsellor ;" and this he would some-
times chuse to do at the solemn celebration of
the sacrament, as in 1709, November 14, just
after he got to town. " / was this morning at
the early sacrament at Whitehall, where I received
with as great devotion and with as hearty a sense of
God and his goodness as ever I did in my life. I have
most heartily implored the continual presence of his
Holy Spirit to guide and conduct me in all my
thoughts, words, and actions while I am at London ;
and that I may never , out of fear, or for favour,
do any thing that I ought not, and I hope he will
hear my prayers," Sec.

From these several passages, collected out of
his diary from among a great number which
relate to his own private devotions, the reader
may form an idea of his great piety and con

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

stant attendance, as well as dependance upon
God. No day passed in which he was not, at
least in some part of it, most heartily devout,
so as to satisfy himself he had done his duty,
And whensoever, either through indisposition
of body, or want of spirits, or distraction of
business, he failed in his endeavours in God's
service, he could not rest till by frequent trials
and repetitions he recovered his religious frame
of spirit; and then he heartily asked pardon
for his wanderings and distractions in his
prayers, and frequently did it with tears.

One would imagine, from a course of such
strict devotion, and a perpetual watchfulness
over himself, that he was in danger of souring
his natural disposition and appearing more stiff
and reserved in conversation than usual ; for
sometimes these prove the effects of such exercises in
devotionists. But he was certainly, with all his
piety, one of the most cheerful men alive, the
most free and easy in his temper, whether
employed in business or engaged in company.
He never let his devotions put any business to a stand,
or any man to an inconvenience ; but would break,
when interrupted, from a train of weeping hu-
miliations, into an air of sprightly complaisance,
and entertain the addresses of such as applied
to him with the utmost candour and good
humour.

86 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

And yet he took little delight or satisfaction in
any thing but in his endeavours to please God,
and to do good in his generation ; and he often
used to say, that " he could not bear to live a day,
if it were not for the comforts of religion."

He was so desirous of arriving, if possible,
to a strict purity in the worship of God, and an
unblameable conversation among men, that he
would often accuse and condemn himself for
little omissions and inadvertencies, which per-
haps but few other men would have regarded.
To give a few instances of this. May 12, 1692,
(on which day he first entered his cathedral
at York under his archiepiscopal character ; and
very devout he then was, yet he adds,) " The
Psalms of the day did please me ; I pray God for-
give me, if it was superstition to observe them.'"
October, 1711. " / was this noon so peevish and
disordered in my mind, that in truth I could not say
my prayers in the chapel; nor could I help it, being
incapable of thinking. I impute it to my dispirited-
ness upon taking the vomit. But afterwards I
heartily confessed my sin to God, and asked pardon
for it, and in the evening I said my prayers
heartily."

And then, as to his conversation ; if any thing
escaped him that possibly might tend to hurt
any man's character, though said without the

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

least design or thought of injuring him, he was
grieved at it afterwards.

Thus, Jan. 14, 1699-1700. " / repented that

I had said one thing to Mr. : talking of

Mr. , / said he was an immoral man ; that

I had heard so, but did not know whether he were so
or no." Again, at another time,

" Then came into me Dr. and Mr. ,

and staid with me till I was almost put out of pa-
tience ; and after the Doctor was gone, I did inti-
mate something to Mr. not to his advantage,

though I said nothing ill of him. If this was a
fault, (I think it was ), God forgive me."

And again, Jan. 12, 1710-11. " I was to blame
this day, and I asked Qod forgiveness for it, for my
so publicly telling the story which Dr. — — had told
me of Mr. , as he was told by a citizen. This
story I told in our lobby, where four or Jive of the
Bishops were present T

Perhaps such another instance cannot be found
in his conversation, for twenty years together.
So careful was he to avoid tattle and scandal,
and every thing that bore hard upon a man s
credit, unless he had full proof and evidence for
what he said ; and did as carefully avoid what-
ever had the appearance of arrogance or egotism.
He had as little of it as any man upon earth ;
but still he condemned himself whenever he was
led in discourse to say more of himself than was

LIFE OF ARCHEISHOP SHARP.

necessary : a remarkable instance of this we
have on March 31, 1711.

" / had so tired myself with walking, that
I drank wine to refresh myself before my usual

time, and then I sat prating with Mr. a good

while, and I told him a great many stories of myself,
for which I was afterwards grieved ; and both that
night and the next day, I did heartily ask God's par-
don for my pride and vanity."

Nay, he was so scrupulously careful of his
expressions, that at one time, when a certain
lady was importunate for his blessing, and he,
to satisfy her, had used these words, " Madam,
a thousand blessings on you;' he was afterwards
concerned at what he had spoke. " It was the
expression, (he said), he blamed himself for, and
not the thing."

Thus he endeavoured to be as perfect as he
could ; and he frequently, with his prayers for
God's grace and assistance, renewed his resolu-
tions " to watch narrowly over himself; to avoid
all little peevishness both at prayers and in conversa-
tion ; to attend to his devotions, both public and pri-
vate, with all diligence ; and to be careful in his words,
that he neither offended against truth or charity"

He had some infirmities which kept him al-
ways upon his guard ; the most prevalent in his
nature, was choler. But he so managed and sub-
dued it, that oftentimes when he was very angry,

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

it could hardly be perceived that his passion was
stirred. A vicious or idle clergyman did above
all things provoke him ; and, upon such an oc-
casion, he would give himself seasonable vent,
and so to any person over whom he had autho-
rity, and who deserved his rebukes. Any in-
stance of cruelty or hard-heartedness would like-
wise provoke him ; especially if he happened to
observe it in any of his domestics ; but otherwise
he was rarely discovered to be heated. He was
not without some other little infirmities, which
he took great notice of himself, but which are
not worthy the notice of the reader, unless it
were to observe how wisely, and cautiously,
and conscientiously, he governed himself under
them. It would look neither decent nor hind to open
his bosom in every minute particular of weakness
which he thought Jit to remark in himself. But
when thus much is said, it is but justice to
say further, that if any impartial person should
know all his failures with his conduct of or under
them, he would rather admire and love him the
more, than esteem him the less, for them. His
infirmities seem like those of St. Paul, such as
he might glory in ; for certainly, were it proper
and excuseable, he might be represented in as
amiable a view and character in the history of
his little failures which he watched over, as in
any other part of his conduct and behaviour.

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Let thus much then suffice to have said of his
" vita interior ;" which was led purely with re-
gard to God, and not to men. This was the life
that filled him with so much joy and comfort,
when all earthly satisfactions failed him, as they
entirely did in his last decline. So long as he
had any spirits to support him, he kept them up
by the testimony of a good conscience, and the
stedfast hopes of God's favour and endless re-
wards.

In the beginning of December, 1713, his ap-
petite failed him, and he grew very weak, and
exceedingly dispirited. On Thursday, Friday,
and Saturday, the 3rd, 4th, and 5th of Decem-
ber, he was forced to leave off his extraordinary
devotions, and had scarce vigour enough to per-
form the common service in his Chapel. On
Sunday, the Cth, he gives this short account of
himself: 11 1 got up about nine o'clock. At eleven
I had prayers in the chapel, and a sacrament. I
went to the sacramental office, but not to the former.
I was most horribly dull : God forgive me. But I
could not help it. I never was in so loiv a state in my
life. All the rest of the day I was the same. God
Almighty have mercy upon me, and either restore me
health and vigour, or take me out of the world."

On the Wednesday following, he revised and
made some alterations in his will ; and, on the
same day concluded his diary, (his hand being

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

grown so unsteady, that his characters are scarce
legible) with these words : ** All well, I thank
God ; but I am horribly dull and dispirited as ever
a poor man was."

The next day, by the advice of his physicians,
he set out for the Bath, which he reached by
short journeys. But the waters there not agree-
ing with him, his strength decreased, and his
memory decayed every day till he died. A more
particular account might have been given of his
thoughts and behaviour in his last sickness, had
he been capable of continuing his diary. But
we may conclude, as the writer of Dr. Forbes'
Life does, upon a like failure of an authentic
evidence of his interior life, towards the very
close of it: " Nulli dubium esto quin transitus
ejus ex hdc vita beatus fuerit, licet nullum extet
memoriale de statu mentis, et consolationibus Dei
animum ejus laztijicantibus in ultima vita, scend."
All that was particularly observed by those
about him was, that he prayed continually ; and
the chief token by which they perceived how his
strength declined was, his shortening of his
prayers. He ordered the daily service in his
family to be performed in his hearing, and was
observed to make his responses along with
them : and he frequently, in his bed, repeated
the most material parts of the communion ser-
vice ; the design of which may be understood by

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

what was said above of his private eucharistical
oblations of prayer, when he could not conve-
niently receive the sacrament in form. A little
before he expired, he told his lady, "that he
should be happy." The last words he said were
those of Mr. Herbert. " Ah ! my dear God, though
I am clean forgot," &c. He had these words often
in his mouth while he was in health ; but would
add, that Mr. Herbert was much dispirited when
he wrote them.

He had issue fourteen children ; seven sons
and as many daughters ; of which two only of
each sex survived him.

His body was brought down to York, and in-
terred there in St. Mary's Chapel, under the east
wall of the Minster, where a sumptuous monu-
ment was erected over him by his executors.

His general character was given by an unknown
hand, within a few days after his decease, in a
weekly paper entitled the Examiner ; which, be-
cause it is a recapitulation in effect of what has
been delivered in the foregoing memoirs, and
will be found to contain his real character, some
allowances being made for the encomiastic way
of writing which is common to the public papers
on such occasions, is inserted entire in the Ap-
pendix.

But his character is more closely and justly
drawn by the able and fine pen of Dr. Smalridge,

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

in the following inscription, which is put upon
the monument in York Cathedral ; and is the
more to be depended upon, both on account of
the known integrity of the composer, and of his
intimacy with the Archbishop for several
years.

M. S.

Reverendissimi in Chiisto Patris
Johannis Sharp, Archiepiscopi Eboracensis,

Qui

Honestis parentibus in hoc comitatu prognatus
Cantabrigice optimarum Artium studiis innutritus
Turn soli unde ortus
Turn loci ubi institutus est, famam
Sui nominis celebritate adauxit.
Ab Academia in domum Illust"" Dni Heneagi Finch,
Tunc temporis Attornati Generalis
Summi postea Anglia Cancellarii
Virtutum omnium altricem fautricemque evocatus
Et Sacellani Ministerium diligenter obiit
Et sacerdotis dignitatem una sustinuit.
Talis tantique viri patrocinio adjutus
Et naturae pariter ac doctrinae dotibus plurimum
commendatus
Peracto vite munerum ecclesiasticorum cursu
Cum Parochi, Archidiaconi, Decani officia
Summa cum laude praestitisset
Ob eximia erga Ecclesiam Anglicanam merita
Quam iniquissimis temporibus magno suo periculo
Contra apertam Pontificiorum rabiem
Argumentis invictissimis

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

Asseruerat, propngnaverat, stabiliverat
Apostolicae simul veritatis praeco, ac fortitudinis aeraulus
Faventibus Gulielmo ac Maria Regibus
Plaudentibus bonis omnibus
Ad Archiepiscopalis Dignitatis fastigium tandem
evectus est.

Nec hujusce tantum provinciae negotia satis ardua
feliciter expediit
Sed et Anna Principum optima? turn a consiliis turn ab
eleemosynis fuit
Quas utcunque amplas, utcunque diffluentes
Ne quem forte inopum a. se tristem dimitteret
De suis saepenumero facultatibus supplevit.
Erat in sermone apertus, comis, affabilis.
In concionibus profluens ardens, nervosus.
In explicandis theologiae casuisticae nodis
Dilucidus, argutus, promptus.
In eximendis dubitantium scrupulis
Utcunque naturae bonitate ad leniores partes aliquando
propensior

iEqui tamen rectique custos semper fidissimus.
Primaava morum simplicitate
Inculpabili vitae tenore
Propensa in calamitosos benignitate
Diffusa in universos benevolentia
Studio in amicos perpetuo ac singulari
Inter deterioris saeculi tenebras emicuit
Purioris aevi lumina aequavit.
Turn acri rerum caelestium desiderio flagrabat
Ut his solis inhians3 harum unice avarus
Terrenas omnes neglexerit, spreverit, conculcarit
Eo erat erga Deum pietatis ardore
Ut ilium totus adamaverit, spiraverit

LIFE OF ARCHEISHOP SHARP.

Ilium ubique prsesentem
Ilium semper intuentem
Animo suo ac ipsis fere oculis obversaverit.
Publicas hasce virtutes domesticis uberrime cumulavit
Maritus et pater amantissimus
Et a conjuge, liberisque impense dilectus.
Qui ne deesset etiam mortuo pietatis suae testimonium
Hoc marmor ei maerentes posuerunt.

Promotus ad
Archidiaconatum Bercherrensem
20 Feb. 1672.
Canonicatum Norvicensem,

26 Mart. 1675.
Rectoriam St. Bartholomei
22 Apr. 1075.
St. Algidii in Campis
3 Jun. 1075.
Decanatum Norvicensem
8 Jul. 1681.
Cantuariensem
25 Nov. 1689.
Arcliiepiscopatum Eboracensem
5 Jul. 1691.

Natus

Bradfordix in hoc comitatu

16 Feb. 1644.
Iu Academiara Co-optatus
26 Apr. 1660.
(Jradus suscepit, Artium Baccalaurei
26 Dec. 1663.
Artium Magistri
9 Jul. 1667.
Sanctae Theologiae Professoris
8 Jul. 1679.
Batlioniie mortuus aetatis suae 69.

2 Feb. 1713.
Sepultus eodam quo natus est die
16 Feb. 1713.

TWO APPENDICES

OF SELECT ORIGINAL AND COPIES OF

ORIGINAL PAPERS,

REFERRED TO IN THE

LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP.

THE FIRST,

CONTAINING PAPERS, LETTERS, &C. WROTE BY
HIMSELF.

THE SECOND,

CONTAINING ORIGINAL LETTERS, &C. BY OTHER
HANDS, FOUND AMONGST HIS PAPERS.

VOL. II.

APPENDIX FIRST.

No. 1.

The Preface to the first volume of Dr. Claget's Sermont,
made by Dr. Sharp. Referred to Vol. J. p. 91.

There will need no more to recommend the following
Discourses to the reader, than only to assure him he is
not imposed upon by the title-page ; but what is here
presented to him as Dr. Claget's Sermons, are really
bo, being published from his own papers, and by his
own brother.

And, indeed, the sermons themselves do sufficiently
speak their author ; for they everywhere express the
spirit, the judgment, and the reasoning, of that good
man ; though some of them, perhaps, want that finish-
ing which his masterly hand would have given them,
had he been to have published them himself.

The first of these sermons he meant to have printed,
if God had given him life, being prevailed upon by the
importunity of several of his friends, who then judged
it very seasonable.

The last in this collection was the last sermon he
preached. It was preached at St. Martin's in the

h 2

100

APPENDIX FIRST.

Fields, on the day of his Lent course there ; and that
very evening he fell into that sickness, which put a
period to his life twelve days after.

No man, perhaps, in this age, of so private a con-
dition, died more lamented. For as he had all the
amiable, charming qualities, to procure the esteem and
love of every one that knew him ; so God had bestowed
upon him so many great and useful talents, for the
doing service to religion, to the Church, to all about
him ; and he so faithfully and industriously employed
those talents to those purposes, that he was really a
public blessing ; and he had that right done him, as to
be esteemed so.

He was born at St. Edmund's Bury, Sept. 24th, 1646,
being the son of Mr. Nicholas Claget, then Minister
there.

His University education was at Emanuel College,
in Cambridge.

His first public appearance in the world, was at his
own native town of Bury, where he was chosen one of
the preachers : which office he discharged for several
years with so universal a reputation, that it might be
truly said as to him, that a prophet had honour in his
own country.

From thence, at the instance of some considerable
men of the long robe, (whose business at the assizes
there, gave them opportunities of being acquainted with
his great worth and abilities), he was prevailed with to
remove to Gray's Inn. And, indeed, it was no small
testimony given to his merits, that he was thought
worthy, by that honourable society, to succeed the
eminent Dr. Cradock as their preacher.

In this place he continued all the remainder of his

APPENDIX FIRST.

101

life, and he behaved himself worthily in it ; and the
gentlemen of that house took all occasions of declaring
that he did so, by the constant kindness they expressed
to him while he lived, and the respects they paid him at
his death. He had, indeed, at the time of his death,
two other preferments besides that of Gray's Inn ; the
Lord Keeper North (his wife's kinsman) had given him
a living in Buckinghamshire ; but the other place was
that which he himself most valued next to Gray's Inn,
and that was the lecture of Bassishaw, to which he was
chosen by the parish, about two years before his death.
It was the lecture which Dr. Calamy had immediately
held before him. Never were there two greater men
successively lecturers of one parish ; nor ever was any
parish kinder to two lecturers.

Dr. Claget died of the small-pox, March 28th, and
was buried in the Church of St. Michael, Bassishaw.

His wife, Mrs. Thomasin North, a most virtuous and
accomplished woman, died eighteen days after him, of
the same disease, and was buried in the same grave with
him.

There is this little passage not unfit to be mentioned
here : the last sermon Dr. Claget made, (though not the
last he preached), was that which is the sixteenth in this
collection, upon this text — " Shall we receive good at the
ha/ids of God, and shall we not receive evil ?"

This sermon he made upon occasion of the death of a
child of his, that happened a little before. And he had
writ it fairly out, I suppose for this end, that his wife
might read it. And accordingly she did so ; but upon
a much sadder occasion ; for it was after his death that
she got this sermon into her hands; and then she made

102

APPENDIX FIRST.

it her continual entertainment, (and a seasonable one it
was), as long as her strength would suffer her.

But to return to Dr. Claget. We owe it to the So-
ciety of Gray's Inn, that he was brought to this city :
but after he came hither, his own merits in a little time
rendered him sufficiently conspicuous.

For so innocent and unblameable was his life, such
an unaffected honesty and simplicity appeared in all his
conversation ; so obliging he was in his temper, so sin-
cere in all his friendships, so ready to do all sorts of
good offices that came in his way ; and withal, so pru-
dent a man, so good a preacher, so dexterous in untying
knots, and making hard things plain ; so happy in treat-
ing of common subjects in an uncommon, and yet use-
ful way : so able a champion for the true religion against
all opposers whatsoever ; and lastly, so ready, upon all
occasions, to advise, to direct, to encourage any work
that was undertaken for the promoting or defending the
cause of God : — I say, all these qualities were so emi-
nent in Dr. Claget, that it was impossible they should
be hid. The town soon took notice of him, and none
that intimately knew him, could forbear to love and
admire him ; and scarce any that had heard of him, to
esteem and honour him.

If the reader would know more of Dr. Claget, let him
peruse those writings of his which he published him-
self. By them he will in some measure be able to
make a judgment of the genius and abilities of the
man.

If a friend can speak without partiality, there doth,
in those writings, appear so strong a judgment, such an
admirable faculty of reasoning, so much honesty and

APPENDIX FIRST.

103

candour of temper, so great plainness and perspicuity,
and withal so much spirit and quickness; and in a
word, all the qualities that can recommend an author,
or render his books excellent in their kind: that I
should not scruple to give Dr. Claget a place among
the most eminent and celebrated writers of this Church.
And if he may be allowed that, it is as great an honour
as can be done him. For, perhaps, from the inspired
age to this, the world did never see more accurate and more
judicious composures in matters of religion, than the Church
of England has produced in our days.

No. II.

A Passage of Dr. Sharp's Sermon at the Funeral of
Dr. Claget, referred to Vol. I. p. 91.

[When he came to speak to the occasion, he told his
audience,] that it was not an easy matter for any man,
at any time, to speak discreetly or justly concerning
his friends, or to give characters of them, when he
hath his wits never so much about him. But for a
man on a sudden, when he hath lost one of the dearest
friends he had in the world, and is so surprised and
struck with the loss, that he hath no power of consi-
dering what is fit for him to say, or what is due to his
friend to be said, in this case, whatever comes upper-
most and first offers itself, and doth not injure truth, is
to be allowed, at least pardoned, though it fall short
of the truth.

And this (says he) is my case ; I am now to speak of
a man whom I loved as my own aoul ! — Something I

104

APPENDIX FIRST.

ought to say concerning him, for he was not a common
man: but God direct me what or how I should speak,
for I am not yet myself, since I heard of this great loss.
A great and a good man you all knew him to be ; he
was every way qualified to do service to God and the
Church, and he did it faithfully. No man more ready
to spend himself and be spent in the cause of Jesus
Christ, than he was. None ever needed his assistance,
but he was as willing to give it as they to ask it. Ready
he was upon all occasions to satisfy the scrupulous, to
resolve the doubtful, to confirm the weak, to oppose
the gainsayers. And he never did oppose them but
the victory remained on his side.

You all know how laborious, how indefatigable, and
how useful a preacher he was ; he had admirable skill
in untying the difficulties and giving the true sense of
Scripture texts. And so diligent and industrious he
was, that he never spared himself or any pains he could
take, if he could thereby either serve his friends or the
souls of men. And as was his life, such was his death.
We may in a manner say, that he died in his vocation.
For it was the preaching the last sermon he preached,
after too great a walk, that brought him into the dis-
temper of which he died.

As for those qualities that recommended him to the
world and to God Almighty, as a private man, all that
were acquainted with him can testify, that they have
rarely met with a man of more temper, more goodness,
more prudence, more simplicity, and plainness than he
was. He was certainly one of the best natured men in
the world ; as good a husband, as good a parent, as
good a neighbour, as good a friend as is to be found
among mankind, He was a man without tricks, without

APPENDIX FIRST.

105

designs, a plain, open-hearted person, and yet without
heat or passion. Infinitely ready to do kindnesses,
but without the mixture of self ends.

O Lord, what have we lost in losing this good
man. How good a friend ! how able a guide ! How
great an example of virtue, and piety, and good nature,
and prudence ! And what is most of all, how eminent
a minister of God's word ; and how skilful and judi-
cious a writer for the cause of God in the debates that
are now on foot ! Never could we spare or more unwil-
lingly part with such a man as this ; because we never
needed such men more. There is, I dare say, no Pro-
testant among us that ever knew, or read, or so much
as heard of Dr. Claget, but will much lament his death.
If any have reason to be easy or to be unconcerned for
this loss, it must be those who, having a bad cause to
maintain, happened to feel the weight and strength of
his invincible reason. This is the last office of friend-
ship that I can pay to my dear friend ; and considering
that, I think I do not do him right, unless I mention
two or three things which I am sure he was deeply
sensible of. The first is his obligation to the Honour-
able Society of Gray's Inn, &c.

Then follow particulars of no consequence.

106

APPENDIX FIRST.

No. III.

The entire Passage in Dr. Sharp's Sermon on January
30, 1688, before the Convention, which was supposed to
give offence. Referred to Vol. I. p. 101.

Had this been done (speaking of the King's murder)
in a Popish country, where the deposing and murdering
of princes is allowed ; nay, and sometimes encouraged
and promoted by the pretended infallible vicar of
Christ, it had been no such wonder. But to be done
in a Protestant country, nay, and a country that hath
always gloried, that by the principles of her establish-
ment she hath given the best security to princes for
their persons and their rights, that any Protestant
country in Europe hath done. — Oh! what a wound is
this to our religion, and what a blemish doth it cast
upon it! — " Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the
streets of Askelon, lest the daughters of the Philis-
tines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised
triumph !"

But if the Papists will reproach us for this fact, as
indeed they of all others are the most ready to reproach
us with it, we have these two things to say to them,
not in defence of the murder, (which God forbid any
body should pretend to justify) but by way of recrimi-
nation against them, and in defence of ourselves.

As to them, we say, that they of all other people
living have the least reason to object this to us, because
in truth they who were the authors of that infamous
fact they reproach us with, did but act upon such prin-
ciples as were learned of them. It was the Pope of

APPENDIX FIRST.

107

Rome who first taught the doctrine, and first gave the
precedent of deposing and murdering sovereign princes
in Christendom, and how tragical and mischievous an
influence those principles have had in all countries
where the emissaries of that see have got into credit
and power, is too evident in the histories of the several
nations to be denied. And all those emissaries and
factors for the Church of Rome had a mighty hand in
our late commotions ; nay, and even in bringing the
king to the block, there is too much reason to suspect,
though they did not act above-board, yet it is very sus-
picious they were under the curtain, and gave life and
motion to those engines that played the part upon the
open stage ; certain it is, that if all those stories that
Dr. Du Moulin has averred for truth, in his answer to
Philanax Anglicus, and those likewise that Bishop
Broomhall writes out of France to Archbishop Usher
here in England ; I say, if they are to have credit given
to them, the thing is beyond suspicion, and may be
concluded upon as a certain matter of fact.

But secondly, as to ourselves, we have this to say in
our defence, that this horrid murder of the King we
are speaking of, though it was publicly acted, yet it
was not so much the act of the nation as of a few men
that had got the power into their hands, who, against
the sense of the nation, did carry things to that extre-
mity they were carried. And surely, this ought to be
accounted a good answer to them, who are at every
turn so ready, when we object to them the pernicious
abuses and practices that are allowed in their Church,
to the danger of men's salvation, to answer us, that
those things we complain of are not so much to be
imputed to their Church as to the particular men of

108

A PPENDIX FIRST.

that Church, for whose extravagances the Church is
not to be answerable ; I say, this is our case, and if
their answer be a good one, they must in reason allow
of ours.

But further, if this be not sufficient, we have this
more to say, which we are sure ought to stop their
mouths, viz. that both the Church and nation of Eng-
land have disclaimed and condemned this fact of the
murder of the late King ; and have given all possible
evidences of their abhorrence of it, and sorrow for it ;
while yet the Church of Rome hath not to this day
(though they have so often, upon several occasions,
been provoked to it) ; I say, they have not to this day
given the least colour of any retractation of their doc-
trines of this kind.

Nay, though the present Pope hath condemned above
an hundred of the positions of the Jesuits, yet it is
observable he doth not in the least touch upon their
deposing and king-killing doctrines. These he lets
alone, as doctrines that may serve several good ends
and purposes when time and opportunity shall happen.
But now we have been far more honest in this matter.
For, upon the King's return, one of the first things
that the Parliament did was in the name of the whole
kingdom to testify their abhorrence of the late King's
murder, and of all the principles that led to it. In that
act they do declare, that because by this action the
Protestant religion hath received the greatest wound
and reproach ; and the people of England the most
insupportable shame and infamy that is possible for
the enemies of God to bring upon us, whilst the rage
of a few fanatic miscreants, who were as far from being
true Protestants as they were from being true subjects,

APPENDIX FIRST.

109

stands imputed by our adversaries to the whole nation ;
therefore they, the Lords and Commons assembled in
Parliament, do, &c. (reciting the words of the Act of
Parliament.) This (says he) was the sense, and this
was the act of the nation, when they first were restored
to their liberty, that is, to their lawful established go-
vernment. And I doubt not but it is the sense of all
here present, since it is in honour of that King's me-
mory, and in conformity to that act, that we are here
at this time assembled. We have hereby done right
to our religion and to our nation, and have made the
best satisfaction that is possible for the indignity and
scandal of that murder.

No. IV.

Letter to Mr. Drake, relative to Mr. Torrs Manuscripts.
Referred to Vol. I. p. 138.

Bishopsthorp, Oct. 28, 1699.

Sir,

Having heard no more from you about Mr. Ton 's
manuscripts, and being in a little time for a journey to
London, I give you the trouble of this, to desire you to
let me know how that affair stands, (viz.) whether Mrs.
Torr continues the same kind intentions towards me
that you acquainted me she had when you was last at
Bishopsthorp ; and if so, whether I may send for the
books before I go to London.

I told you then, and I beg of you to tell her, that I
take myself extremely obliged to her for the kind offer
she made me by you, and as I do return my hearty

APPENDIX FIRST.

thanks, so I shall be glad of all opportunities, whereby
I may express these thanks in real services. But how
generous soever her offer was, I told you, I thought it
did not become me to accept it, without some sort of
acknowledgment; such a one, at least, as might be
equivalent to what she might have made of the books
in my judgment, if she had sold them ; and therefore I
desired, and do desire, that she would accept of a pre-
sent of twenty guineas from me, which I will send when
you order me to send for the books. I do by no means
propose this sum as a just price for them, for I do not
pretend to purchase them ; but that Mrs. Torr may be
no loser by her kindness to me, and if she can make
greater advantage of them, I think I ought not to suffer
her respects to me to be her hindrance. I must ever
own my obligations to good Mr. Torr, whose death I
was extremely sorry for, and whose memory shall be
always dear to me, which I shall endeavour to shew by
a careful preserving of his collections, if they come into
my hands. I beg my humble service to Mrs. Torr, to
whom I wish all comfort and happiness. Accept of the
same service and good wishes to yourself and Mrs.
Drake, and be pleased to give me an answer to this as
soon as you can.

I am, Sir,
Your affectionate friend and brother,

Jo. Ebor.

Wrote at the bottom of the copy which was kept of
this letter, by the Arbishop, in his own hand — Memo-
randum: I gave twenty-Jive guineas for Mr. Torr's MSS.

N. B. It appears by the Archbishop's Diary, that
the above-mentioned sum was given on Oct. 6, 1700.

APPENDIX FIRST.

Ill

No. V.

Queries to be proposed to the Officers of the Archbishop's
Ecclesiastical Courts at York, Referred to Vol. I. p. 215.

I. Whether have the judges, the registrars, and their
substitutes, and all other officers of the said courts,
taken the oaths appointed by Act of Parliament,
Primo Gulielmi et Maria, entituled, An act for the abro-
gating of the oaths of supremacy and allegiance, and ap-
pointing other oaths ?

II. Whether have they made the subscription and
taken the oath for the due execution of their places,
appointed by the 127th canon, 1603, or that which is
enjoined by the statutes of the court?

III. Upon what terms do the said substitutes or de-
puties of the registrars, execute their several places 1
Whether do they only take clerks' fees, or a certain part
of the whole perquisites of the office, or they farm the
same for a sum of money, and take the whole profit to
themselves ?

IV. Whether other fees are taken for probate of wills
and granting administration, &c. than what are allowed
by the statute ? And in other cases, other than are
allowed by the 135th canon, 1603, or by the tables of
fees belonging to the courts of York? And if other
fees be taken, what they are ?

V. Whether are the said tables of fees set up fairly
written, in the respective courts and registrar's office,
according to 136th canon?

VI. What fees do the judges or registrars allow or

112

APPENDIX FIRST.

appoint to be taken by their clerks ? And how war-
ranted?

VII. What fees doth every rural dean pay for his
commission? And every surrogate for his commission
to grant matrimonial licences ?

VIII. What fees do rural deans or other substitutes
take for the dispatch of every business ? Or are they
unlimited ?

IX. Whether are the acts of courts, decrees, and all
other judicial proceedings, duly entered and registered?

X. Whether are all wills and testaments fairly en-
grossed, and their originals preserved in the registrar's
office ?

XI. Whether are all processes of instruments issuing
out of the several courts, as citations, monitions, com-
missions, &c. fairly drawn and carefully perused by the
deputies and actuaries of the office, before they be
brought to the seal ?

XII. Whether are the chief officers or those who act
under them in any court, diligent in the dispatch of
business, or do they use any unnecessary delays, or
demand any other fees, (upon account of dispatch or
otherwise) than are allowed, as above specified ?

XIII. Whether there be true catalogues or schedules
of all the records and books belonging to each office ?
and in whose custody are they?

XIV. What security is given by the respective regis-
trars for the due preserving the records committed to
their trust, without embezzling, erasing, or defacing the
same, or suffering them to be carried out of the office
without licence of the archbishop or judge of the
court ?

APPENDIX FIRST.

113

XV. \\ hether care be taken that the rural deans or
surrogates do not deliver out marriage licences without
caution given, that the marriage shall be celebrated in
the church or chapel, where one of the parties lives, ac-
cording to the 102nd canon?

XVI. Whether any prejudice or inconveniency doth
arise by the registrars or deputies practising in other
courts than those wherein they act as deputies ?

Nov. 7t/i, 1C99.

No. VI.

The Case of (lie Abbey Lands, resohed. Referred to
Vol. //. p. 54.

THE CASE.

A young clergyman in Devonshire, who was about
to marry the onlv daughter of a jrentleman that had
little more to give her by way of portion, than an estate
of fifty pounds per annum, which formerly belonged to
a Benedictine priory, had some doubt whether he ought
to accept abbey land for her portion. He had a suffi-
cient temporal estate of his own ; yet both the father and
daughter were displeased at his rejecting so much from
him and his posterity. He applied for satisfaction in
his doubt to a divine of his acquaintance, who advised
him to accept of the estate. But another divine, of
greater note, whom he likewise consulted, advised him
against it, least it should render him obnoxious to the curses
that attend the possession of Church lands ;for that no length
of time could make prescription for them, or wear out their
piacular nature, but the// would always be the accursed

vol,. II. 1

114

APPENDIX FIRST.

thing. Here the matter rested for some time, the young
clergyman being more confirmed in his scruples. At
length the person to whom he had first applied himself,
obtained his leave to ask the advice of the Archbishop
of York, and stated the case as above to his Grace,
who sent the following answer, which gave entire satis-
faction; and the marriage was immediately concluded
upon it.

Sir,

I received your's the last week ; and as to
the case therein put, I see no reason why the clergy-
man, your friend, should make any scruple of taking an
estate of fifty pounds per annum, as a portion with his
wife, merely because it is abbey land.

For since all the right that any man has to his estate,
and all the property he has in it is derived purely and
solely from the laws of the land ; and since the law of
this land hath settled all the lands that did formerly
belong to monasteries upon the crown, and upon such as
the crown shall grant them to ; I should think there
can be no doubt, but that those who are legally pos-
sessed of such estates from the crown have as much a
property in them, and have as much a power of dis-
posing them, and those to whom they are disposed have
as much a right to enjoy them, as any other estate
that never belonged to a monastery.

But your friend will say, were not these lands at
first given for ever by the owners of them to religious
uses? and consequently devoted to God? And will it
not be sacrilege in any human power to seize them into
their hands after they are thus devoted, and to dispose
of them to secular uses ? And the same sacrilege in

APT F.N niX FIRST.

115

any private person, either to purchase or accept any
grant of them ?

I answer no, by no means ; unless it appears that
there is some law of God that requires the erecting and
endowing those religious houses ; and forbids the secu-
lar powers from meddling with any thing that is given
to them. If there be no such law of God (as undoubt-
edly there is not), then it must be left to the legislative
authority in every country (in whose office it is to take
care, ne quid detriment i respublica capiat J, it must, I
say, be left to them to order and manage these sort of
endowments in such ways and to such purposes as they
shall judge to be most conducive to the public good.
Nay, and when they find it expedient for the public weal
(as most certainly our legislature thought it highly so
in the times of King Henry VIII.), they may both de-
molish these religious houses and make void all the
donations that had been made to them, how piously
soever the donors intended them ; and also apply what
was so given to what uses they judge most useful to
the community.

I must own, I think there is some difference between
abbey lands and the tithes of parishes, which were like-
wise given to them, and which we now call impropria-
tions. That the former may be possessed by lay men,
and become lay estates, now that the abbeys are dis-
solved, there can, I should think, be no doubt among
Protestants. But there may be some doubt, whether
tithes can lawfully be held as lay estates, because it is
thought by some, that by the law of God they belong
to the clergy, and therefore cannot by any human laws
be taken from Ihera.

But I must confess, 1 do not think the arguments
i 2

IK)

APPT.NDIX FIRST.

that are brought to prove this have any great strength
in them. For though I own, that both from the reason
of the thing, and from the New Testament, it may be
proved that in all Christian countries there ought to be
a decent provision made for the clergy, and that those
who serve at the altar should live of the altar, as the
apostle expresses it, yet I doubt whether there be any
law of God (as there was one, I own, given to the
Jews) that requires a tenth part of laymen's incomes
precisely to be appropriated to the clergy ; and if there
be no divine law for this, then, as I said before, it will
be in the power of the legislature to dispose of the
tithes that were settled upon monasteries, as well as of
the lands ; always supposing, that care be taken for a
sufficient maintenance of the clergy, either out of those
tithes or some other way.

After all this, I own that it. was a sad calamity to
this Church, that at the dissolution of the ■ monaste-
ries, and the Reformation that followed it, the estates
that belonged to them were not otherwise disposed of
than we see ; and especially that the impropriations
were not given back to the Church ; but since, by the
laws of the land, they are now become lay fees, I can-
not but think a layman may lawfully possess them,
provided he takes care that the minister of the parish
from whence the tithes arise be competently provided
for.

But I have transgressed my bounds in speaking
about impropriations, for your case is only about
abbey lands. However, I thought it no harm to give
you my sentiments about both. Hoping you will take
what I have said in good part, and forgive the incor-
rectness of this letter ; wishing you and your friend

APPENDIX FIRST. 117

all health and happiness, and committing you heartily
to God's protection, I am, Sir,

Your affectionate friend,

Though unknown,

Jo. Ebor.

Oclobn 3(l, 1710, from Biskopt/iorp, near York.

No. VII.

About the Marriage of a Popish Priest.
Madam,

I had the favour of your letter, and as to the
case enclosed, of which you desire my opinion, I have
these following things to represent.

First, we none of us doubt but that the canon laws
of the Church of Rome, which absolutely forbid mar-
riage to all clergymen, are very unreasonable, unjusti-
fiable, and absurd, and indeed have been complained
against as such by several learned men of that commu-
nion.

Neither (as far as I know) has there been any doubt
among us, but that priests of the Church of Rome, if
they come over to our communion, are perfectly dis-
charged of their obligations to these canons of the
Church of Rome, and may take wives, if they think it
expedient so to do ; and accordingly there have been a
great many instances of Romish priests that have mar-
ried after they have become Protestants, nor were they
ever censured for it ; and I make no doubt but that
your friend, if he come to our communion, as he is no
longer under the obligations of the Popish laws of this

118

APPENDIX FIRST.

or any other kind, so consequently is he at liberty to
marry when he pleases.

But then there is one thing in the case as he puts it,
that creates a little difficulty. He words it, as if upon
his taking priest's orders he did solemnly vow never to marry.
Now I must desire that this may be explained, for I
do not understand it. I know, that in the Church of
Rome all that take priest's orders are supposed to resolve
to live in celibacy all their days, but I do not know of
any " solemn vow" that they make to that purpose (I
am sure your friend did not, for he says it was then his
intention, that all such contracts were in themselves void.
And sure then his vow was not solemn (or rather no vow
at all) ; I say, I do not know that priests, when they
are ordained in the Church of Rome, do ever make such
a vow against matrimony. I have read in their pontifi-
cal the forms of ordinations, both of sub-deacons, deacons,
priests, and bishops, and I do not find any vow there
proposed to them, or so much as mentioned.

But if the gentleman, your friend, hath really, and
deliberately, and in good earnest, made a solemn pro-
mise or vow to God that he will never marry, I do not
know but he is bound to keep that vow as far as he can.
Because the matter or subject of his vow is not unlaw-
ful in itself, there being no obligation upon him from
God's laws to put himself into a married state. But
then, on the other side, if this vow be a snare to him,
if he find he has not the gift of continency (as that gift
is not to all), it is certain, that in that case he not only
may be allowed, but ought to break his vow; and for
this there is authority enough, both from St. Paul's
discourse upon this argument, and from the fathers.

I have given you my thoughts, madam, upon this case

APPENDIX FIRST.

119

as far as I understand it. But I believe I shall be able
to give the gentleman much better satisfaction, if he
will be so kind, when I next come to London, as to
give me a visit, and let us talk over these matters be-
tween ourselves. In the meantime, with thanks for
the favour you have done me, and hearty wishes of all
health and happiness to yourself and the gentleman,

I am, Madam,

Your humble servant,
Jo. Ebor.

No. VIII.

A Letter from an unknown Person about Breach of
Promise.

Bath, March 1, 1707.

My Lord,

I should not presume to give your Grace this
trouble, or to divert your thoughts from those great
and weighty affairs of the Church and State, on which
they are at this time, so happily for each, employed,
but that I am persuaded that your Grace has so much
goodness and charity as to forgive a trouble of this
nature ; and so great condescension as to spare a few
moments to favour me with an answer.

It is for the sake of a young gentleman who has
been for some years under a great perplexity and anx-
iety of mind, that I address this to your Grace ; he
humbly begging your direction and advice in a case of
conscience that appears to him to have difficulty in it,
and in which he has by his own extreme folly entangled
himself.

120

APPENDIX riKST.

Some years since, when he was very young (I believe
between sixteen and twenty-one), having an opinion
that an action he had sometimes allowed himself in was
in some measure sinful, or had a great tendency to be
so, he made.a resolution or promise to himself, that if
ever he again was guilty of it, he would give a certain
sum to charitable uses ; and for every repetition of it,
that he would increase that sum in a geometrical or
duple proportion, foolishly imagining that might be a
means of restraining him from an action which has at
least the appearance of evil in it.

But it pleased God to let him see, in no long time
after, what little ground he had for so vain a supposi-
tion ; for, through forgetfulness or heedlessness of his
promise, and the importunity of temptations, he made
so many forfeitures, that, should he dispose of all he
had in the world, to the ruin of himself and family, it
would not near amount to the sum. When, therefore,
he seriously considered the guilt he had brought upon
himself, and the penalty he had, by his own inconside-
rate resolution, subjected himself to, he was at a great
uncertainty what his duty was, and what he ought to
do. For he thought, that either the rash promise he
made with a good design, and through ignorance of his
own weakness, was of no force at all, nor did oblige
to any penalty ; or else, that it was his duty to endea-
vour to perform it to the utmost rigour, by giving all
he had to charitable uses, though to the ruin of himself
and family ; or lastly, that he ought to take a middle
way, and set apart annually a certain sum (over and
above what the common offices of charity do oblige
him to), and to dispose of it in pursuance and execu-
tion of the promise he had made, and which should

APPENDIX FJ RST.

121

be ten times more than when he made that resolution,
he imagined it would ever make him liable to.

His own reason and reading inclined him to the last
conclusion, as that which was the safest and fittest to
be followed ; but being unwilling to trust to his own
judgment in an affair of that infinite consequence, as
he thinks the lawfulness or unlawfulness of his actions
to be, he first acquainted the minister of the place
where he lives, who is a learned and judicious divine,
with the case ; and afterwards his own worthy dioce-
san, the present Bishop of Bath and Wells, who both
of them confirmed him in the course he before believed
he ought to follow, not thinking that it was altogether
a void promise, nor that it did oblige to unforeseen
consequences, which might perhaps be inconsistent
with other duties, or so grievous, as it might reasonably
be presumed they could never have been intended, had
they been foreseen. It was a great satisfaction to him
to have the approbation of those persons in what he
intended, whom the providence of God has more im-
mediately set over him for the guides of his conscience
in all doubtful matters. But having a just and most
profound veneration for your Grace's great learning,
judgment, and piety, he was desirous to lay the case
before you, and humbly begs that you will, for his own
full and entire satisfaction, favour him with your
thoughts of it. He also desires your direction in the
disposing of the charity which he designs to settle, and
thinks to do it in the following method, if your Grace
approve of it.

When he first thought himself obliged to set apart
something on this account, his circumstances were but
mean, and he could not, without great difficulty, live

122

AVPENMX FIRST.

in that rank and station in which the providence of
God had placed him, and which his ancestors have for
many ages held in the place where he lives ; however,
then, he resolved to give 10/. a year constantly to the
poor, and settle it on them for ever. Since that it has
pleased God to make a considerable addition to his
estate by an unexpected Providence, and thinking
himself obliged to increase the sum, he now intends
by God's blessing, to make it 20/. per annum, and to
settle it for ever on two or three places where his con-
cerns lie ; part of it to keep poor children at school to
learn to read English, and the remainder to buy Bibles
and other books of divinity for them and other poor
people that are unable to buy for themselves. This is
the most useful charity that does at present occur to
his thoughts ; but if your Grace think of any that is
more necessary, he will most readily and gladly govern
himself by your directions. He humbly intreats your
Grace's pardon for the length of this, but thought it
necessary to describe the case as fully as he could to
you, he hopes you will please to appoint the bearer a
time when he shall wait on you for your answer; and,
from the bottom of his heart, earnestly and humbly
begs your Grace's prayers and blessing on your un-
known but

Most obedient servant.

The bearer knows nothing of the business ; I beg
your Grace will take no notice to him of any thing,
but will only please to appoint him a time when he
shall attend for your answer.

A P TEN DIX F1HST.

123

Answer to the foregoing Letter about Breach of Promise.
Sir,

According as you have stated the case in
your letter, I do think the gentleman may rest satisfied
in the resolution that was given him by the minister
and the bishop. Nor do I knoio of any better way of
disposing money in charity than that which the gentleman
has pitched on.

When I say this, I depend 'upon the truth of your
report, viz. that the obligation he had brought upon himself
was only a resolution or promise he had made to himself,
so that it was not a promise made to God, but to him-
self; and if this be the case, there can be no doubt
but it ceased to oblige him when the consequences of
performing it proved intolerable to himself and family.

But now, if this was not a bare resolution or promise
made to himself, as you word it, [as indeed it is a very
idle thing to make promises to one's self], but a pro-
mise made to God, this does in some measure alter the
case ; for here God is made a party to the engagement,
the man is under a vow, is under an oath to perform
what he promised.

But yet, admitting this to be the gentleman's case,
I do not think he is under an obligation, from this
vow, or this oath, if the performing of it be inconsistent
with the discharge of those natural or legal duties that
were incumbent upon him before the making of this
vow, or are incumbent upon him since it was made.
But then, if this be the case, 1 would have the gentle-
man always be sensible of his sin, in making and

124

APPEN DIX FIRST.

breaking his vows to God, and continually to beg
God's pardon for it ; and likewise I would advise him
not to look upon this present settlement upon the poor
(though it be a very generous one, and I doubt not will
be acceptable to God), I say I would not have him
look upon it as an entire satisfaction for the breach of
his vow ; but I would have him always ready, as God
shall enable him, and as his stock of estate shall in-
crease, still to do more and more in the way of charity,
as God shall direct him. I take this to be the proper
way of obtaining God's blessing upon all his concerns,
and who knows but God will so bless him, that before
he dies he shall be satisfied he has performed his vow
even according; to the literal meaning:; of it. I believe
the gentleman is a very good man. I pray God bless
him, and make him every day better and better. The
letter you have writ to me is drawn up with very great
care ; I must beg pardon for this answer of mine, which
is writ in a hurry. I took no notice to the person that
brought me your letter of the contents of it, nor have
I to the Bishop of Bath and Wells, whom I have fre-
quent occasions of seeing.

I am, Sir, your hearty friend,
Though unknown,

Jo. Ebor.

March 8, 1707-8.

APPENDIX FIRST.

125

No. IX.

About Marriage with a Wife's Niece.

THE CASE.

London, June 8, 1697.

Most Reverend Lord,

I presume to give you this trouble, from a
case of conscience, wherein a near friend of mine is
concerned, and cannot be satisfied without the parti-
cular judgment of your Lordship, which I hope may
plead my pardon in desiring it.

The case is as follows.

Thomas married Elizabeth ; had no child by her.
Elizabeth died, and now he courts W., the niece of
Elizabeth, to make her his second wife ; he is under
violent illness, and doth solemnly declare, that it will
be his death if she refuses to marry him. She hath
likewise made him a sacred promise, that in case it
be not against the express law of God, she will consent
to take him for her husband. That it is contrary to the
canons, she is informed, but he hath produced a trial
at law that was had in the Court of Common Pleas
nine or ten years ago, with one Parsons, for marrying
his wife's sister's daughter, which is exactly her case;
and it is therein declared, that the marriage could not
be impeached, for it was not prohibited by the Levitical
degrees. And there is a clergyman of the Church of
England, counted a very good man, who is married to
his wife's sister's daughter ; and the Jews allow of it,
who are very jealous and strict to the law; and it is

126' APPr.XDIX FIRST.

expressed in Genesis, chap. xi. verse 29, that Nahor's
wife was the daughter of his brother Haran; and in
Exodus, chap. vi. ver. 20, Amram took to him Jochebed,
his father's sister, to wife. But quite contrary in Levi-
ticus, chap. xx. ver. 20, the man is forbid to lie with
his uncle's wife, and it is said they shall bear their sin
and die childless. Those places seeming to contradict
each other doth much perplex the party concerned;
and in the xviiith chapter of Leviticus, 13th verse,
whether it be not an uncovering her aunt's nakedness,
in marrying her aunt's husband. She was extremely
sorrowful at the knowledge of your Lordship's being
out of town, and said she could be satisfied by no
other ; which makes me most humbly beg your Lord-
ship to pardon my presumption of desiring a few lines
as soon as it suits with your Lordship's conveniency,
declaring you?' opinion whether marriage in this degree
above-mentioned, in which there is nothing of consan-
guinity, be absolutely forbidden in holy writ ; and if it
be not, whether then W., the party above-mentioned,
will not be in as much danger of committing a sin by
rejecting him after the promise made by her as above
said, and the dangerous circumstances her refusal may
bring him into. She leaves the decision to your Lord-
ship, relying upon your divine direction under Al-
mighty God, whether it be a sin or not, to have this man.
Begging your Lordship's advice and blessing, I most
humbly conclude,

Your Lordship's dutiful servant,
Eliz. .

APPENDIX FIRST.

127

Answer to the foregoing Letter.

Madam,

Since you desire my opinion in the case you
have proposed, I am willing to give it you, though I
doubt matters are gone so far with the parties con-
cerned in that case, that it will signify very little.

The resolution of the case depends upon this single
question, whether the marriage of a man with his wife's
sister's daughter be against the laws of God. For if it
be, whether it be so expressly, or by consequence,
such a marriage ought not to be contracted, notwith-
standing any inconvenience that one of the parties
may suffer thereby, and notwithstanding any promise
that the other party may have engaged herself in.

Now my opinion is that, so long as our constitution
in Church and State stands as it doth, such a marriage
is against the law of God, that is to say, a man and a
woman sin against God, if they marry within those
degrees. And my reason is this ; because the statute
law of the land has declared all marriages within the
Levitical degrees to be against the laws of God ; and
the ecclesiastical law of the land (which is of force
in those cases, except where it clashes with the statute
law, which, as to the present instance, it has never
been adjudged to do), has declared the marriage of a
man with his wife's sister's daughter to be within the
Levitical degrees, and to be against the law of God.

That you may not think that this way of reasoning
is only made use of by clergymen, I will recite to you
the words of the late Lord Chief Justice Vaughan, as
they are in his report of Hill and Goods' case, p. 327.

128

APPENDIX FIRST.

"As it is true,'" saith he, " that if a marriage be declared
by act of Parliament to be against God's law, we must
admit it to be so : by the same reason, if by a lawful
canon a marriage be declared to be against God's law,
we must admit it to be so : for a lawful canon is the
law of the kingdom, as well as an act of Parliament ;
and whatever is the law of the kingdom is as much the
law as any thing else that is so."

Now by a lawful canon all marriages within the de-
grees expressed in the table hung up in churches, are
declared to be prohibited bv God' s lair, and to be in-
cestuous and unlawful ; among which marriages, this
of a man with his wife's sister's daughter is named as
one.

Having thus laid down the grounds that I proceed
upon in framing: rnv opinion, I will now take notice of
the reasons that are or may be offered to overthrow ii.

I. And first, you say, how can this marriage be
against God's law, when holy men of old did marry in
the same or nearer decrees of consanguinity or affinitv,
and are not blamed for it, as ^Sahor, Abram, Ann am, See.

Answer. For any thing I know, these marriages were
not unlawful till God prohibited them. And we do not
find that he did prohibit them till he gave his laws
by Moses. But after that, they were altogether un-
lawful to God's people, and consequently they are and
must be so to us, since our laws have made the laws of
Moses in Leviticus to be the rule and standard accord-
ing to which the lawfulness or unlawfulness of any
marriage among us is to be judged.

II. Secondly, it seemeth that the marriage of a man
with his wife's sister's daughter is not within the pro-
hibited decrees of Leviticus, because the Jews, who

APPENDIX FIRST.

129

are very zealous for Moses's law, do allow of such a
marriage.

Answer. The Jews are not always the best inter-
preters of their own laws; or if they were, yet it is
not their interpretations, but our own laws that must
guide our consciences in those matters.

But besides, all the Jews do not allow of marriage
within this degree, but only the Talmudists ; there is
another sect among them, and those generally ac-
counted the honester expositors, called the Karaites,
which are utterly against it, and which give much the
same account of the prohibited degrees that our eccle-
siastical laws do, as may be seen at large in Se/den's
Uxor Hebraica.

III. Thirdly, it may and is commonly objected, that
by the statute of 32d of Henri/ VIII. all persons are de-
clared to be lawful to contract matrimony that are not pro-
hibited by God's law to marry : but now the persons we
are speaking of (viz. a man and his wife's niece), are
no where forbidden to marry by God's law. For, among
all the several prohibited degrees there, they are not
mentioned. And therefore it should seem, that the
ecclesiastical law, in prohibiting those persons, doth
intrench upon the subject's liberty, which the statute
allows them, and consequently is of no force.

Answer. If the statute had said, that all persons are
lawful to contract matrimony that are not in direct and
express words prohibited by God's law, this would have
been a strong argument against my position; but as
the words of the statute are, it makes nothing against
it. For persons may be within the meaning of God's
law, and so may be prohibited by it, though they are
not within the letter of it. Nay, we say positively,

130

APPENDIX FIRST.

that all persons that are within any of the same degrees
as to blood or kindred, with those that are by name
prohibited to intermarry, all those persons are equally
prohibited. And the reason is, because all those pro-
hibitions being made purely upon account of nearness
of kindred, those persons that are in the same nearness
of kindred must be supposed to be alike prohibited,
and it must be presumed that the statute accounted
them so.

And that the common lawyers, as well as the canon-
ists, do go this way in interpreting the Levitical laws,
and consequently in interpreting the statute which has
made them the directory of our marriages (not to
name other authorities,) is sufficiently evident from the
words of my Lord Chief Justice Cook, in his exposition
of this statute of the 32d of Hen. VIII. in the second
of his Institutes.

" Note here," saith he, " that albeit the marriage of
the nephew with his aunt, and the marriage of the uncle
with his niece, is not in express words there prohibited,
yet is the same prohibited ; because they stand in the
same relation of propinquity with those that are by
name prohibited, and the same must be said in all like
cases."

Now then to come to the particular case before us.
If by the laws of Leviticus such persons be expressly
forbidden to marry, as stand just in the same degree of
^propinquity to each other, as the man does to the
daughter of his wife's sister; then, by this rule, that
law that prohibits marriage in the one case, must be
understood to forbid it in the other. 'But now, I appeal
to you, whether a man and a father's brother's wife be
not exactly in the same degree of relation as to near-

APPENDIX FIRST.

ness of kindred, as is a woman and lifer mother's sister's
husband. Now it is certain, that the two former per-
sons cannot lawfully marry by the express laws of
Leviticus, and therefore neither can the two latter.

I perceive the gentlewoman who is concerned in this
case was aware of the force of this, and therefore
rightly puts the question, how it should be unlawful
as she finds it is, for a man to uncover the nakedness
of his uncle by marrying his wife, and yet it should
not be unlawful for a woman to uncover, as she ex-
presses it, the nakedness of her aunt by marrying her
husband? I must confess, they seem both alike to
me, and there is as great iniquity in the one as in the
other.

The truth is, the business of the laws of Leviticus is
to set out to us all the several degrees of consanguinity
or affinity within which God would not have his p*eople
to contract marriage ; and that is done effectually in
the 18th chapter, for some instances are likewise given
of persons within every degree. But it is plain it was
not designed there to name all the persons that were
forbidden in those several degrees (there being no need
of it), it being sufficient that every one knew the
degrees of proximity that were there forbidden, and
might easily apply them to his own case, at least those
that were to see the execution of the laws might, and
no doubt did.

I would ask any one that says that the statute of
32d of Henry VIII. is to be extended no farther than
just to the persons by name prohibited in the 18th of
Leviticus, what he thinks of the marriage of a man
with his mother s brother's wife ? nay, or of a man with
his grandmother, or with his own daughter ; will he

k 2

132

APPENDIX FIRST.

say, that any of these marriages are allowed by the
statute of 3'2d of Henry VIII.? I hope he will not.
And yet none of these persons are prohibited bu name
to contract matrimony by the laws of Leviticus.

IV. But fourthly, you mention another thing, which
seems to make strongly against my assertion ; and I
must confess, if the matter of fact be true, it is a
good objection. You say, the gentleman that is con-
cerned to have this marriage go on, has produced a
trial at law that was had in the Court of Common
Pleas nine or ten years ago, with one Parsotis, for mar-
rying his wife's sister's daughter, and it is therein
declared, that the marriage would not be impeached,
for that it was not prohibited by the Levitical degrees.

Answer. Parsons' case is very famous, but it was
not so late as nine years ago, for it was above ninety
years'ago, (viz. in the 2d of King James I.), since it was
before the Judges. My Lord Chief Justice Cook is the
man that mentions it, viz. in the first of his Institutes,
sect. 380. And he does say, indeed, as the gentleman
tells you, that the Court resolved Parsons' marriage
with his wife's sister's daughter to be a good marriage.
And upon his saying so, the story has generally been
taken for granted, and this precedent never fails to
be urged by those that have a mind to dispute the un-
lawfulness of such marriages. But see how unfortu-
nately for your friend the thing ends. There never was
such a resolution of the Judges in Parsons' case, nor I
believe in any other ; but Sir Edward Cook was per-
fectly mistaken in the matter of fact ; and thus it came
to be known. My Lord Chief Justice Vaughan being
to try Harrison's case in the 20th of King Charles II.
thought himself concerned to be thoroughly informed

APPENDIX FIRST.

133

about this case of Parsons. And thereupon he ordered
the record to be searched for ; and he found it : but he
likewise found by it that the Court of Common Pleas
was so far from allowing that marriage of Parso7is, and
resolving that it was a good marriage, as my Lord Cook
says they did, that, on the contrary, they granted a
consultation, that is to say, they remitted the case
back again to the Spiritual Courts, as being a marriage
within the Levilical degrees, and so not falling under
their cognizance.

For the truth of what I say, I refer you to my Lord
Chief Justice Vaughans report of Hill and Goods' case,
p. 322; and he there adds this farther, that this case of
Parsons was put into the first edition of Cook upon Lit-
tleton, but in the second edition, and all those that fol-
lowed, it was left out.

I never heard or read but of one instance more,
where, in the case of the marriage of a man with his
wife's sister's daughter, was tried in the Courts at
Westminster; and that was in the case of one man,
whichisin Cook's Reports, and happened inQueen Eliza-
beth's reign. But there also a consultation was granted,
and the Ecclesiastical Courts, having the cognizance
of the cause returned to them, proceeded to a sentence
of divorce.

So that you see both these trials in the Courts of
Westminster Hall are against you. I may add two
others in the High Commission Court, which are like-
wise mentioned by my Lord Chief Justice Vaughan.
One is the case of Reuninglou, who was sentenced to
do penance for marrying his wife's niece, and likewise
was separated from her company; though, as my Loid

134

AFFENDIX FIRST.

Chief Justice llobart, who reports the case, says, there
was cause for a divorce.

The other is, Sir Giles Allington's case, who, in King
Charles the First's time was deeply fined for marrying
his niece (which by our law is the same with marrying
his wife's niece), and a sentence of divorce was given.

To sum up, therefore, the whole matter, taking these
two things to be true, that our Ecclesiastical law has
declared the marriage of a man with his wife's sister to
be within the degrees forbidden by the law of God ; and
that there is no instance to be given of any sentence or
judgment in Westjninster Hall to the contrary, but what
was rather in affirmation of the Ecclesiastical law;
from the time of making the Statute of the 32d
of Henry VIII. (which was the first statute which gave
the temporal courts cognizance of marriages) to this
day : I say, taking these two things to be true (as the
one, I am certain, is true, and the other I believe to be
so), it follows immediately, in my opinion, that so long-
as our laws continue as they are, the marriage of a
woman with her mother's sister's husband is an inces-
tuous and unlawful marriage, and against the laws of
God.

See Worthy and Watkinson in Sir Thomas Jones's
Reports.

Murgetroid and Watkinson in Judge Raymond's Re-
ports.

APTENDIX FIRST.

135

No. X.

Archbishop Sharps Letter to Mr. Winston. Referred to
Vol. II. p. G.

Bishopthorp, August 6, 1 70S.

Dear Sir,

I had the favour of your letter above a fort-
night ago. I earnestly beg your pardon for not sooner
returning my thanks to you for it ; which I certainly
had done, had not something or other happened when
I designed it. I say, returning my thanks to you for
the civility you express to me in that letter, for, as for
giving an answer to it, I profess I am not able. I
must own, I do by no means approve of the design
which you tell me in your letter you are upon (as
thinking, if you do pursue it, you will do a great deal
more hurt to the Christian religion among us than you
will do good); and (being of this opinion) to be sure I
can give you no advice as to the method in which you
should make the world acquainted with it, which is
that you desire in your letter. If I was able to give
you any advice, it should be this, that you would lay
aside this project, at least so long as till you have had
an opportunity of talking freely about this matter with
your friends at London ; which you may have in the
Parliament time, if you will then be so kind as to make
a journey thither. A great many things may be offered
in discourse, for the conviction of either of the differ-
ing parties, which cannot be so easily writ in letters.
I myself now think that I have as great reason to be-

136

APPENDIX FIRST.

lieve that it will be a great sin in you to disturb the
peace and unity of the Catholic Church, by endea-
vouring to impose new articles of faith upon us about
the Blessed Trinity, different from, or contrary to, the
definitions of the Council of Nice, as you have to be-
lieve that it is your duty to expose the Nicene Creed,
as contrary to the common belief, for almost three cen-
turies, of the primitive Church. But, perhaps, if you
and I were to talk of these matters tog-ether, we should
not part at so wide a difference one from the other.
I do sincerely profess, that I not only love you, but
have a great esteem of your extraordinary abilities in
all the sorts of learning of which you have treated in
your books. And indeed I know no author whose
works I read with more pleasure than I do yours ; and
I do likewise really believe you to be a sincere, honest,
undesigning man. But then give me leave to add (for
I would desire that you should think me an honest
man also), that if you have any weakness, it is this,
that you are too fond of new notions, and oftentimes
lay too great a stress upon them, at least it appears so
to me. Forgive me this freedom ; I dare say you will,
because it is the pure effect of hearty friendship and
good will to you. You seem in your letter to intimate
that you have a collection of your authorities and rea-
sons, &c. in order to your designs, already drawn up.
If you have a copy of them by you, which you can
spare, and would be so kind as to send it down to me,
either by the carrier or some other safe hand, I should
own it as a very great favour, and will return it you
again as soon as I have perused it. By this means I
shall be the better able to form a judgment of what
you are now designing, and consequently more fit to

APPENDIX FIRST.

137

give my opinion when I shall have the happiness
of seeing you. I heartily wish you all health and hap-
piness, and pray God most earnestly to direct you in
all your undertakings, that they may be for his glory
and the good of his Church.

I am sincerely, with the most hearty esteem and
affection,

Sir,

Your faithful friend,

Jo. Ebor.

No. XI.

To a Gentleman of his own Diocese, who had discarded his
Daughter upon some pretences that seemed to him in
part groundless, in part loo frivolous to justify so great
resentment and severity. Referred to Vol. II. p. 55.

Sir,

I am heartily sorry for the occasion of giving
you this trouble ; I cannot but lament your misfortune,
as well as your daughter's, in the unhappy differences
and discontents that have happened between you. As
they are matter of great grief to her, so I am sure they
cannot but be very afflicting to you and her mother.
Since I know how hard it is for parents to put off the
tenderness and affection that nature hath impressed
upon them towards their children. I think every friend
in such a case ought to contribute their endeavours to
make up breaches of this kind. It is for this reason
that I now make this application to you, having no

138

APPENDIX FIRST.

other end in it but to do you and your daughter the
best service I can.

Indeed I am the more concerned for her, because,
among all that I have spoke with concerning her, she
hath the character of a very good young woman, truly
virtuous, truly pious, truly good natured. I must con-
fess to you, in all the conversation I have had with her
(which hath not been a little), I really take her to be
so. She seems to me to be extremely well inclined ;
to have a hearty sense of religion, and the worship of
God ; to be nice, even to scrupulosity, in all matters
which she takes to be tier duty, though perhaps she
hath not always been rightly informed. As for her
being Popishly inclined, or her being leavened with
Popery, I do in my conscience believe there is no
ground for such a suspicion. I have talked with her
over and over about that matter, and she hath given
me all the satisfaction I can desire, that she hath no
impressions that way. She comes to the sacrament
frequently, and she professeth herself ready to take
any test that shall be required of her, in order to the
purging herself of being Popishly affected. As to her
behaviour and conduct in your family, and especially
towards you and her mother, it is not for me to say
any thing about that, you and she best know it. If
she hath been guilty of any undutifulness or disobe-
dience to you or her mother, far am I from excusing
it., or making any defence for her. Nay, I am sure she
herself will not justify any thing of that kind. So far
from that, that she hath to me declared her readiness
not only to ask humbly your pardon or her mother's,
for any fault she may have committed against either of
you, but also to make any submission that can be

APPENDIX FIRST.

139

thought reasonable ; but after all, I hope her greatest
faults will not amount to crimes, but only to impru-
dences and indiscretions.

I have, Sir, taken the liberty to represent these
things to you, hoping they may have that effect, as
either to incline you to lay aside your displeasure
against your daughter, and to receive her again into
your family as a child, and to treat her as such. Or,
if you cannot bring yourself to that, yet at least you
would not abandon her to the wide world, and leave
her to depend upon others for a subsistence, but make
such a provision for her, that she may live like your
daughter. I am sure if you will not do one of these
things, you can never answer it to God or to the world.
I beseech you to pardon the freedom I have now used
in representing my sense. I believe that nothing could
put me upon it, but the obligations of doing what good
offices I can, and a hearty concern for the peace and
happiness of your family.

I am, Sir,

Your very affectionate friend and servant,

Jo. Ebor.

No. XII.

To a Gentleman that had put away his Lady, and obliged
her to sue for a separate Maintenance. Referred to Vol.
II. p. 55.

Honoured Sir,

You will be surprised at my giving you this
trouble, but 1 hope you will pardon it, since nothing
puts me upon it but a hearty respect for you and your

140

A I'PEN D I X FIRST.

family, as also for your lady and her family, together
with a consideration, that an attempt of this nature is
never unbecoming one of my function.

I am extremely sorry to hear the differences betwixt
you and your lady are arrived to that height, that you
are not only parted, but that she thinks herself under
a necessity of applying to the methods of law for the
obtaining a maintenance from you. Let the issue of
such suit be what it will, I dare be bold to say, you
will neither of you have cause to rejoice, for I foresee
it will deeply wound you both ; and therefore, as a
common friend to you both, I would earnestly beg that
a stop may be put to the proceedings, and that this
matter of your separate maintenance may be referred
to two such indifferent persons as each of you shall
agree upon, together with an umpire, if you please,
who shall be empowered to hear and determine this
affair.

If you please to favour me with an answer, I pray
that it may be in such terms that may be shewn to your
lady ; for, as I mean to shew her this letter of mine to
you, so I design likewise to shew her your letter to me.
The truth is, I am a hearty friend to you both, and
would behave myself without partiality to either.
I am, with sincere respects,

Your affectionate humble servant,
Jo. Ebor.

APPENDIX FIRST.

141

No. XIII.

To a Gentleman in the Country, who was a Stranger to
him, out of mere humanity and compassion for a Lady
and her Daughter, whose deplorable Condition is de-
scribed in it. Referred to Vol. II. p. 55.

Sir,

I hope the occasion upon which I write this,
and my good intentions, will apologise with you for
the trouble I now give you.

Your daughter is extremely ill, even I am afraid to
distraction ; and her mother, your lady, not much
better, being reduced to great indisposition by this her
grief and want of sleep.

The maid tells me the young lady has taken no rest
these six nights, and I can easily guess that her mo-
ther, who lies with her, has not had much. The truth
is, I never saw so melancholy a sight in my life as I
did this morning when I waited upon them ; I found
the one in bed, and the other sitting by her, both
wringing their hands, and in the saddest agonies of
grief and despair that can be conceived.

Your daughter has been growing worse and worse
ever since she came to town, which I think is about
five weeks. She has wanted no assistance of divines,
nor I believe of a physician ; but hitherto all advice
and endeavours have been ineffectual, and she is at
this present the most miserable disconsolate creature
that ever I saw in my life, though yet I have seen and
conversed with many under the same distemper. 1

142

APPENDIX FIRST.

lake her to be a truly virtuous, innocent, and well-dis-
posed young woman, and one of whom you will have
much comfort, if it please God to restore her health
again, for I account that all her troubles do arise from
hypocondriac vapours or melancholy, which have now
gained so much power over her mind, that she is not
herself. So that there is a necessity of using some
other methods with her, and that more speedily than
have yet been taken. In truth, if the mother and
daughter continue in this state they are, for any thing
I know, it may be the death of them both.

For God's sake, Sir, therefore, be pleased to come
up and take some care of them. Your duty, your repu-
tation, nay, let me say common humanity (considering
your relation to them) does oblige you to it. Forgive
my earnestness, for indeed the cause requires it. I
am a stranger to you, but I am not so to your son ;
and I hope he knows me so well as to be able to assure
you, that I can have no designs in being thus importu-
nate with you, but to serve you and your family ; I
would beg the favour of an answer to this by your son,
that I may save you all the trouble I can.

I am his and your very affectionate
Humble servant,

Jo. Ebok.

APPENDIX SECOND,

CONTAINING

ORIGINAL AND COPIES OF ORIGINAL PAPF.RS,
LETTERS, &C. BY OTHER HANDS.

MOST OF THEM FOUND AMONGST THE

ARCHBISHOP'S PAPERS.

APPENDIX SECOND.

No. I.

The Process against Henri/ Compton, the Bishop of
London, in the Council Chamber at Whitehall, August
31, 1686.

Lord CHANCELLOR(speafo'/<g to the Bishop ). — My Lord,
we are ready to hear your Lordship's answer at the
time appointed.

Bishop of London. — My Lords, notwithstanding the
time has been very short, considering the weightiness
of the matter, and the absence of many of the Council,
I have taken what advice I can, and consulted those
who are learned in the law.

I hope there will be no misinterpretation of my
words. I do not intend to say any thing that is dero-
gatory to the King's supremacy, that is undutiful to
his Majesty, or disrespectful to your Lordships. My
counsel tell me, that your proceedings in this court are
directly contrary to the statute law, and are ready to
plead it, if your Lordships will admit them.

Lord Chancellor. — We will neither hear your Lord-
ship nor your counsel in that matter. We are suffi-

VOL. II. L

14G

APPKMMX SECOND.

ciently satisfied in the legality of our commission, as
we told you.

Bishop of London. — My Lords, I am a Bishop of the
Church of England, and by all the laws of the Chris-
tian Church in all ages, and by the particular laws
of this land, I am, in case of offence, to be tried by
my metropolitan and suffragans. I hope your Lord-
ships will not deny me the rights and privileges of a
Christian Bishop.

Lord Chancellor. — You know our proceedings are
according to what has been done formerly, and that
we have an original jurisdiction. This is still ques-
tioning our power.

Bishop of London. — It is partly so.

Lord Chancellor. — Nay, it is absolutely so.

Bishop of Loyidon. — My Lords, I hope you will, in
your proceedings, interpret every thing in your com-
mission in favour of the person that is brought before
you ; I humbly conceive, that your commission does
not extend to the crime laid to my charge. For you
are to censure faults that be committed. This that I
am accused of was before the date of your commis-
sion.

Lord Chancellor. — I confess there is such a clause,
but there are general clauses also, that take in offences
that are past, as well as those that are to come. Hath
your Lordship any thing more to say ?

Bishop of London. — My Lords, protesting my own
rights to the laws of the realm as a subject, and to the
rights and privileges of the Church as a Bishop, I
shall, with your Lordships' leave, give my answer in
writing.

Which was accepted. [The Bishop withdrew, and

APPENDIX SECOND.

147

left Dr. Sharp's petition, which the King refused to
accept.]

Lord Chancellor. — My Lord, we have received your
paper, and here is another.

Bishop of London. — My Lords, it is Dr. Sharp's peti-
tion to the King.

Lord Chancellor. — My Lord, be pleased to take it
again, we are not concerned in it. Will your Lordship
be pleased that your answer be read ?

Bishop of London. — Yes, if your Lordships please.
My Lords, I have this to say further, what I did in
this matter was jurisperitorum consilio ; I consulted my
Chancellor (who is judge of my court), as well as
others, and the law says, what is done by advice of
counsel shall not be interpreted to be done maliciously
or obstinately. The law in this case directs, that if a
prince requires a judge to execute any order which is
not agreeable to the law, the judge is rescribcre et recla-
mare principi ; and this the law calls servireprincipi, a piece
of service to the prince. Now, my Lords, I conceive,
that I acted in this according to my duty; for I wrote
back to my Lord President in as becoming words as I
could, and acquainted him, that an order to suspend
before citation and hearing of the person is against
law, and therefore expected his Majesty's further plea-
sure. In the next place, my Lords, I did in effect what
the King commanded to be done ; for I advised Dr.
Sharp to forbear preaching till his Majesty received
satisfaction concerning him, and accordingly he has
forborne preaching in my diocese.

Lord Chancellor. — My Lord, will you have your paper
read ?

Bishop of London. — Yes, if your Lordships please.
l 2

148

APPENDIX SF.CGN I).

[Which was as followeth, containing the King's
letter and the Bishop's answer.]

" To the Reverend Father in God, Henry Lord Bishop of
London.

" Reverend Father in God, we greet you well : we
being informed that Dr. John Sharp, Rector of the
parish of St. Giles in the Fields, contrary to our late
order sent to the Archbishops, and by them to be com-
municated to the rest of the clergy, hath in several
sermons vented several expressions tending to schism,
sedition, and rebellion, filling the minds of the people
with fears and jealousies, being also informed that the
said Dr. Sharp is in vour diocese. — These are therefore
to require you forthwith to suspend him, the said Dr.
Sharp, from preaching any more in your diocese, till he
hath given us satisfaction ; for which this shall be
your sufficient warrant. By his Majesty's special
command.

" Sunderland."

[The answer of the Bishop was only a recital of what
he had said before, viz. that he could not suspend Dr.
Sharp before citation and hearing.]

Lord Chancellor. — Hath your Lordship any more to
say?

Bishop of London. — I desire your Lordships would
hear my counsel, by which you may have more clear
and full satisfaction concerning what I have said.

Thereupon the Bishop was required to withdraw,
and, after half an hour, he and his counsel were called
in. The counsel were, Dr. Newton, Dr. Brice, Dr.
Hodges, and Dr. Oldvs, Avho speaketh as followeth.

APPENDIX SECOND.

149

Dr.Oldys. — My Lords, the question before your
Lordships is, whether the Bishop of London hath
been disobedient to the King's command, concerning
which it must be considered, first, what was com-
manded. Secondly, what he has done in obedience to
it. Thirdly, what judgment ought to have been given
by him. It is apparent by the letter, that the King
did not take cognizance of the cause ; for the words
are, " Being informed that Dr. John Sharp." So that
it could not be an absolute suspension, for that sup-
poses a process of the crime charged upon him ; then
let us consider the words themselves, " That you sus-
pend him the said Dr. Sharp from preaching," &c.
Now, my Lords, we have no such thing in our law, so
that the meaning is only to silence him ; where there
is an absolute suspension, there ought to be a citation,
former proceedings, judgment, and a decree upon that
judgment. To act otherwise is against the law of God,
against Che law of nature, against the law of nations in-
all ages, and was never known in the world.

Lord Chancellor. — Doctor, I am loath to interrupt
you, but I must tell you this is an unnecessary ha-
rangue. We know it was not an absolute suspension,
but the question is, whether the Bishop could silence
him.

Dr. Oldys. — Then, my Lord, I have gained that
point; if it were only to silence him, then the question
is, whether the Bishop did not execute the King's
command ; I think he did, and in such a method as in
our courts is observed. When any eminent person is
accused, the judge sends to him by way of letter, and
not by a citation; and if he appears and submits to

150

APPENDIX SECOND.

the judge's order, the law is thereby satisfied. Judicium
redditur in invitos et non in volentes.

The Bishop sent for Dr. Sharp, shewed him the
King's letter, advised him not to preach till his Majesty
had received satisfaction ; in which the Doctor pro-
mised to observe his Lordship's pleasure, and has not
preached to this day, so that his Majesty's command
was in effect fulfilled. My Lords, there is the like
proceeding in the common law, for if an attorney
takes a man's word for his appearance, and he does
appear, it is the same thing as if he was arrested, and
there lies no action against the attorney.

Lord Chancellor. — " Cujus contrarium est lex" there
lies an action of escape against the attorney.

Dr. Hodges. — My Lords, the matter of fact has been
stated, and the question is, whether the Bishop has
been disobedient to his Majesty's commands. It will
appear he has not, because, upon the receipt of his
Majesty's letter, he required the Doctor not to preach,
and the Doctor has obeyed him. That which the King
commanded, viz. to suspend him, the Bishop could not
do. The act of suspension is a judicial act ; the King
writes to him as a bishop, to suspend as a bishop and a
judge, which could not be done before a hearing of the
cause. If a prince sends to a person who is not a
judge, but only a ministerial officer, that officer is to
execute his commands ; but when a king commands a
judge, he commands him to act as a judge. This is no
light matter. The Doctor is accused for preaching
sedition and rebellion, which requires a severe censure.
And if the Bishop as a judge had suspended him, he
had begun at the wrong end; for this had been judg-

APPENDIX SECOND.

151

ment before process. In this case there ought to be a
citation. Our books gives us many instances of this
kind, which would be too tedious to rehearse. I will
only give one. The Emperor proceeding against the
King of Sicily, upon information which he had received,
and giving him no citation, the King appealed to the
Pope, who declared the proceeding void, and that it
was against the law of nature ( which is above all posi-
tive laics J to pass sentence before citation. This is
the method of proceeding in all courts of Christendom,
and I humbly conceive it is or will be the method of
proceeding in this court, for otherwise the Bishop
needed not to have been cited to appear before your
Lordships. The Bishop has done what was his duty ;
he was bound to return his reasons to the King, why
he could not do what he was commanded, and expect
his further pleasure, which was done. I affirm, that if
a prince or the Pope command a thing which is not
lawful, it is the duty of the judge, rescribere principi,
which is all he can do (quoting his author).

Dr. Brice. — The question is, nt supra, &c. A citation
is jure gentium, and can never be taken away by any
positive law or command whatsoever. The Bishop has
done his duty, for he has obeyed the King as far as he
could, in that he did rescribere, expecting his Majesty's
further pleasure. If the Bishop could have suspended
him, it must have been in j'oro, but in regard it was
only silencing him which was required, it might be
done in a private chamber. The advice of a bishop is
M some sense an admonition, which was given by his
Lordship, and obeyed by Dr. Sharp.

Dr. Ncivlun. — My Lords, the question is ut supra, &c.
The Bishop has not in this been disobedient to tha

152

APPENDIX SECOND.

King, for as in nature nemo tenetur ad impossible. So
no man can be obliged to do an unlawful act. Id non
Jit quod non legitime Jit, the rule obligeth all men in the
world, in all places and in all times. The charge
against Dr. Sharp was of a very high nature, and he
desired to be heard before he was condemned. My
Lords, the bishops are custodes canonum, and therefore
must not break them themselves. The Bishop was so
far from being disobedient, that he was obedient to
the King, for when he did rescribere, and had not the
further pleasure of the King returned to him, he might
justly conclude the King was satisfied with what he
had written, according to his duty, and that the King
had altered his commands. A citation ought to precede
judgment. In all judicial acts there is something to
be done according to late, and something according to
the discretion of the judge, and for that reason, as well
as others, the offender ought to appear before him.
That which was in the Bishop's power he has done,
and it was in effect what the King commanded to be
done.

Bishop of London. — My Lords, if it is through
mistake I have erred in the circumstances of what is
past, I am ready to beg his Majesty's pardon, and shall
make any reparation I am capable of. [The Bishop then
withdrew for half an hour.]

Lord Chancellor. — We will be here again on Monday
next, and desire your Lordship will appear about ten
in the forenoon.

Bishop of London. — I desire that care may be taken
concerning the minutes which are taken by the clerks
cf what has passed, that I may not be misrepresented to
the King by the mistakes of the penmen.

APPENDIX SECOND.

153

Lord Chancellor. — My Lord, you need not fear it, I
hope you have a better opinion of us ; there shall be no
advantage taken by them.

Bishop of Rochester. — There shall be all imaginable
care taken about it.

No. II.

Reverendo et Clarissimo Viro D/io. Gulielmo N>cholsio
Eccles. Anglicance Presbytero D. E. Jablouski, S. P. D.

Librum tuum aliquandiu desideratum heri e manibus
Reverend Dni L'enfant accepi ; ilium quidem et in se
gratissimum, (defensionem nempe ecclesia? quam in
orbe evangelico omnium unam ego maxime veneror)
et mihi eo gratiorem quod amicissima auctoris epistola
comitatus ad me veniret. Utrumque munus seu suaves
amicitiae tuae primitias grato animo exosculor; et quo
illud minus sum promentus hoc tibi me magis devinc-
tum profiteer, toto corde peroratus, ut defensa abs te
ecclesia hie in militante, Deus vero O. M. olim in tri-
umphante gloriosa virtuti quae brabeat tribuat.

Quamvis vero per temporis brevitatem librum tuum
non nisi cursim lustrare licuit, in antecessum tamen
quid de Ecclesia Anglicana sentiam, te jubente baud
gravabor.

Pueritiam meam in Prussia et Polonia contrivi Bri-
tannos inter homines ab Ecclesia Anglicana. alienos ;
qui cum in Patria certaminum episcopales inter et
Presbyterianos aliquando pars fuissent, post, patria
extorres, caetus nostros dictis in .locis auxerant, severa
plerumque pietate conspicui. lnde cum virisistis com-

154

APPENDIX SECOND.

mercium tenellum animum tantis adversus ecclesiam
vestram praejudiciis oppleverat ut cum juvenis Angliam
ingrederer anno 1680 Ecclesiam Anglicanam toto
pectore horrerem, ejusque templahaud secus ac Ponti-
ficiorum devitanda esse censerem. Mox addiscenda:
linguae dum incumbo in 39 Ecclesiae Angl. Articulos
incido, qui cum intemerata sua orthodoxia mihi se
probarent, pristinae sentential non nihil dubius rem
omnem penitiis trutinandam mihi sumo. Constitu-
tionem ecclesiae, rationem cultus divini, praetensos utri-
usque naevos, omneque schismatis fundamentum quanta
possum diligentia. ad examen revoco, dubia cum amicis
(tarn popularibus meis quam Anglis) communico, eoque
tandem progredior, ut cum per tolerabilem lingua? An-
glicanae cognitionem castui alicui sacro me aggregare
possem episcopalis ecclesiae communionem prae reliquis
mihi appetendum esse statuerem. Amor ecclesiae juxta
ac veneratio incrementum sumpsit cum Trigam illam
praesulum vere Apostolicorum Gulielmum Cantuarien-
sem, Henricum Londinensem et Johannem Oxoniensem
paulo propius cognoscere daretur : Quorum et dicta et
facta primaevum ilium Christianismum spirare videbau-
tur, ut non possem eos non habere infelices quia tantis
viris tantillo praetextu scindi mallent.

Quo autem diutius Ecclesiae Anglicanae communione
usus sum, magis magisque in ea. sententia, confirmatus
fui, libros ejus symbolicos nihil habere heterodoxia?,
cultum nihil idololatriae vel superstitionis, hierarchiam
vero ordinis et decoris plurimum. Eamque hoc nomine
inter omnes ecclesias reformatas ad examplar Ecclesiae
primitivae maxime accedere, meritoque audire sydus in
Ccelo Christiano lucidissimum, Dec us rcforniationis
primarium et evangclii adveraus) papatuin piopugna( u-

APPENDIX SECOND.

155

lum firmissimum, cujus communionem absque schis-
matis nota aspernari possit nemo.

Ita autem Ecclesiam Anglicanam colo et veneror, ut
Presbyterianos vestros non tam odio quam commisera-
tione prosequor. Existimo enim majorem corum par-
tem avitis praejudiciis imbutos bona fide agere ; mino-
rem relinquorum simplicitate abuti; ideoque non tam
severitate obtundendos, quam lenitate demulcendos
esse puto ; eaque via plurimum apud ipsos profici posse
autumo. Quin nonnulla quae essentiam religionis non
tangunt, ipsorum autem conscientiam, (erroneam licet,)
offendunt, siquidem istis pax redimi queat omittenda
vel mutanda ; hoc que in casu dilectionem sacrificio
pragferendam esse haud negaverim ; eamque rem eccle-
Biae Anglicanas gloriae et laudi futuram humiliter mihi
persuadeo.

Vides, vir amicissime quam candide pectoris mei
sensa aperuerim. Jam ad legendum librum tuum me
compono, meaque de eo cogitata, pace tua, pari can-
dore deincepspromam, Interim pro acceptissimo munere
iteratas tibi exsolvo grates, Teque cum sanctissima
matre Ecclesia Anglicana divinaa gratiae pie com-
mendo.

Dabam Berolini d. 10 Jan. 1708.

156

APPENDIX SECOND.

No. III.

A Letter from the Rev- Dr. Jablouski, first Chaplain to
his Prussian Majesty, to his Excellency Baron Prinlz,
President of the Council for Ecclesiastical Affairs at
Berlin.

Your Excellency having lately commanded me and
my colleagues in the king's name, to draw up each of us
a plan of Church discipline, I here humbly present my
thoughts on that matter, and conceive that the good
order or discipline of the Church comprehends not
only a liturgy, or prescribed form of public worship
and administration of the sacraments, but also the
Politia Ecclesiastica, or prescribed form of governing
the Church of Christ.

I. Of a liturgy. And here I must acknowledge to
your Excellency, that having observed that several evan-
gelical congregations, and other Churches, have fallen
from one extreme, that of the Romish pompous, cum-
bersome, and idolatrous worship, to that other of a frigid,
superficial, and not enough respectful, way of worship.
I should have had little inclination to declare my
thoughts about it, and censure others, had not your
Excellency, in discoursing of that matter, let fall some
words concerning the great respect that every one
ought to shew in the worship of God ; which gave me
sufficient assurance that you had formed a right notion
of that affair, and that you did not judge of it according
to the common prejudices of the vulgar, but by expe-
rience, and the nature of the thing itself. This has
encouraged me, under your Excellency's protection, to

APPENDIX SECOND.

write down my thoughts of that matter, without pre-
tending to prescribe to others, and humbly submitting
all to your excellent j udgment.

But, before I proceed to the work itself, I must first
humbly lay before you my plan and ground-work, that
if that has the luck to have vour Excellency's approba-
tion, I may be encouraged to go on. Two things are
here to be considered.

I. Wherein the public worship or service consists.

II. After what manner and form it may be best
ordered and performed.

I. By public worship I understand, an outward act
of a reasonable creature, whereby he openly and
solemnly acknowledges the sovereignty of his Creator,
testifies his obedience to him, returns him thanks for
his benefits, and prays to him for his farther grace and
favour.

The opinion which has of late days prevailed is, that
the worship consists in the sermon ; so that the worship
of God has even lost its name among us. For exam-
ple, Ave do not say, Will there be divine service to-day ?
Will you go and worship God ? but only, Will there be a
sermon to-day ? Will you go to sermon ? Among Pa-
pists, divine service is performed with scarce any in-
struction of the people ; and we, on the contrary, place
our service in almost nothing else but instruction. But
as, when the master of the king's household tells the
servants of the court how they shall serve their prince,
this is not the service itself, but only an instruction
how they shall serve him ; so it is with sermons. Ser-
mons are indeed necessary, they are useful, and should
accompany the public worship ; but they are not the
worship itself, nor yet the most essential and principal

158

APPENDIX SECOND.

part of it. Among the primitive Christians, sermons
were not accounted the divine service, but rather an (
interruption of it: for when they had spent some time
in prayer, and singing of hymns, and reading the Word
of God, then stood up the minister, and made a short
exhortation to the people, from the passage of Scripture
that Jiad been then read unto them; this was done, as
it were, in a parenthesis, and then they proceeded in
their devotions.

When we consider, therefore, what relation there is
between the Creator and the creature, (which is the
foundation of all worship) the parts of worship seems
to be these following: 1st, Confession of sins; 2ndly,
Adoration ; 3dly, Praise and thanksgiving ; 4thly, The
consecrating ourselves to God ; 5thly, Prayer or pe-
tition ; 6thly, Reading of Holy Scripture ; 7thly, Ad-
ministration of the sacraments ; 8thly, Almsgiving ;
9thly, Fasting. Of which the first eight are ordinary
and constant parts of worship. The 9th is only upon
extraordinary occasions.

1st. Confession of sins must come first, as in Daniel's
prayer, chap. ix. ; repentance being the first step to recon-
cile ourselves to God.

2d. Adoration, or falling down before God and wor-
shipping, is required as a mark of our humility, and
that great respect we have for God, which, whoever
duly considers what God is, cannot but be moved to
do ; and therefore has it been common to all religions
that ever were in the world ; the Holy Scripture especially
does frequently exhort us to it. " O come, let us worship
and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker."
Psalm xcv. 6. Our Saviour comprehends the whole
worship of God in this one thing : Thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

APPF.NBIX SECOND.

159

Matt. iv. 10. Where the original word which we trans-
late worship, signifies the falling down or prostration
of the body to the earth. Neh. viii. 6.

3d. Praise and thanksgiving. We are to praise God^
both on account of what he is in himself, and what he
is to us. His own excellence and his goodness towards
us, do justly fill our mouths, as they once did David's,
with his praise. Tis our duty to thank him for all his
benefits, corporal and spiritual, common and particular,
but chiefly for the spiritual, and above all, for the gra-
cious redemption of the world by Christ Jesus, as the
first Christians used to do.

4th. The consecration of ourselves consists in de-
voting ourselves entirely and without reserve, to God's
glory and service, our bodies, our souls, our goods,
our life, and all that we are or have. All this we owe
to God, as our Saviour teaches us to say, " Thy will be
done." And forasmuch as offerings and sacrifices do
peculiarly belong to the divine service or worship, this
is the Christian offering, that they present themselves
and bodies, a living, holy, and acceptable sacrifice to
God, which is their " reasonable service," or worship.
Rom. xii. 1 .

5th. Prayer is commanded us by God and our Sa-
viour, and was constantly used by the primitive Chris-
tians. They prayed both for themselves and for others,
for the obtaining good, and averting evil ; yet chiefly
we must ask spiritual things rather than corporal.

6th. God's Holy Word is the rule of our faith and
our life; and because many cannot read it, many,
though they can, neglect it ; therefore was it, even in
the times of the Old Testament, openly read in the
divine service. Neh. viii. 3 — 18. Luke iv. 16. Acts
xiii. 15. The primitive Christians read it in the same

160

APPENDIX SECOND.

manner, as appears from the acts of the ancient
churches ; whereas that reading which is among us, is
not looked upon as a part of the service, and is only
heard by those, who, through mistake, come into
Church a little too early, and is done without the least
devotion or respect, only to fill up the void space, till
the minister comes in, and interrupts it. In the pulpit
there's only a text read, which is usually but a short
sentence, and then all the rest is but the work and
words of man, which yet has the most attention,
though even these sermons themselves are not heard
so much for our own edification, as to pass a judgment
on the gifts of the preacher.

7th. The holy sacraments are by all allowed to be
parts of divine worship, and therefore I shall not here
insist upon it.

8th. That almsgiving belongs to divine service, is
evident, for that God commands his people, not only
to appear before him in his temple, but likewise that
they should not appear empty. Ex. xxiii. 15. xxxiv. 20.
Our worship is our sacrifice ; by adoration and vows
we offer ourselves, by almsgiving we offer our goods; but
of this, as well as,

9th. Of fasting, 'tis unnecessary to add any more.

I conclude this first point with this observation, that
as well the aforementioned parts are necessary to di-
vine service, so is it not enough that, in the celebration
of it, these parts be in gross, and implicitly included
under general expressions, in one long, confused, and
undivided prayer; but each act must be so separated
from the other, and so clearly expressed, that the most
simple and ignorant Christian may be able to perceive
and distinguish the one from the other. Since each of

APPENDIX SECOND.

161

them is a particular and distinct help or means both to
devoutness and attention, and to holiness oflife.

Confession of sins humbles man's natural pride ; ado-
ration, or falling down on our knees before God, fills
us with an holy respect and fear for so great a Ma-
jesty, and puts us in mind that, in all things, we are
entirely dependent on him ; it likewise testifies this to
other men, and gives a good example. The praise of
God, or thanksgiving, which is common to us with all
creatures, especially the noblest, the holy angels, kin-
dles in us a love for so great a benefactor. The conse-
crating or devoting ourselves to God, awakens our
devotion, and hinders that common hypocrisy, to be
present in body, but absent in thought, and forces us
to perform our duty with earnestness before that God,
to whom we have consecrated both soul and body.
Prayer puts us in mind of our own indigence, since we
expect all good things only from another bounty, and so
renews in us trust and dependence on God. The public
reading of Holy Scripture represents God, as it were,
present, speaking to the congregation. More of God's
word, and less of man's, ought to be heard. Et sic de
cceteris.

II. The general rule concerning the way or manner in
which all these mentioned parts of devotion ought to
be performed, is this, that they be so ordered as may
be most for the honour of God and the edification of
men; to which end, in my judgment, the following par-
ticular rules may be useful.

I. Divine service must be duly distinguished from the
sermon, and often celebrated when there is no sermon,
as well as when there is.

II. Divine service should be so ordered as not so
\ 01. n. M

162

APPENDIX SECOND.

much designed for the instruction of the people, as for
exciting their devotion, and raising the heart to God ;
since instruction properly belongs to, and is performed by,
sermons, catechisations, and the public or private read-
ing of God's word, though there were no service added.

III. The Word of God ought to be constantly and
diligently read in the divine service ; and the method
of the English Church is in this excellent; where, in
the public prayers, the Old Testament is read through
once a year, the New three times, and the Psalms once
every month.

IV. The prayers must be plain and simple, without
pomp of words, affected eloquence, or long reasonings ;
the heart must pray, not the head alone.

V. It is a great help to devotion and attention when
the public prayers are not included in one long, con-
fused prayer, but are divided into several little prayers,
and the psalms, lectures, and prayers, so mixed and
varied with each other, that the natural weakness of
man may the better be enabled, by these changes, to go
through the whole with devoutness and attention.

VI. The divine service ought not to last too long;
half, or at most, three quarters of an hour, is sufficient,
that the attention of the mind be not tired.

VII. In divine service the people should not be mere
spectators or auditors, but actors, and that not only in
thought and heart, but with the mouth, in praying to,
and praising God, as it used to be in the Jewish and the
primitive Apostolical Churches. Vide 1 Cor. xiv. xvi.
'Tis well known that the first Christians performed their
devotions per antiphonias, or alternate responses ; of
which there remains nothing more amongst us than that
at the preparation of the holy communion, when the

APPENDIX SECOND.

163

minister asks the people whether they truly repent of
their sins ? whether they have faith in God's mercy,
through Christ? and whether they resolve to lead a
new life ? They should answer at each question, Yes.
And at the conclusion of the absolution, Amen. And yet,
among us, a great many do not speak out.

VIII. The rule by which a devout and edifying ser-
vice may be composed, is threefold.

1st. The Holy Scripture of the Old and New Testa-
ment, in which there are many excellent models of
hymns and prayers, and other parts of worship, which
we ought to imitate.

2d. Sound and sanctified reason, which (since the
Scripture has not prescribed every particular, but com-
prehended a great many things under that general rule,
" Let all things be done decently and in order ;" 1 Cor.
xiv. 40 ;) may, by considering the nature of God and
man, and, by the assistance of that light the Holy Scrip-
ture gives us, easily judge what will be most for God's
honour and man's edification.

3d. The example of the primitive Church, which
being ordered by the Apostles and Apostolical men,
ought to be of great weight with us. According to
this threefold rule, the Church of Neufchatel has now
for these two years past, ordered and performed their
divine service, after a very loving and edifying man-
ner, which likewise gave those of Geneva a desire of
doing the same ; which, whether it is as yet effected,
I am not informed.

These, gracious Sir, are my humble thoughts con-
cerning a liturgy. The all-seeing God is witness, that
they proceed neither from a desire of change, nor any
other carnal motive, but from conviction of their truth,

M 2

164

APPENDIX SECOND.

and a sincere desire to glorify God, and edify his
Church. I wait your Excellency's orders at your lei-
sure, whether, according to the plan here laid down,
I shall take upon myself this work ; and till then
defer my thoughts on the other part concerning Church
government. Gi>d fill your Excellency with his grace,
and make you a blessing to his Church. Amen.

(Signed) D. E. Jablouski.

Berlin, Jum 25, 1710.

No. IV.

Dr. Hobart's Letter to Dr. Smalridge, or to Dr. Jenkin,
whichsoever of them as should be in Town to be deli-
vered by Dr. Kenyan.

Sir,

I beg leave to transmit the inclosed papers to
my good Lord Archbishop of York through your hands,
because I am sure you will do your utmost to assist
his Grace in promoting the design of them, which is
to recover an opportunity (which once presented itself
to England, but was strangely lost) of establishing in
these countries the worship of the Church of England,
or one as near it as was possible. I hope the new
ministry in England are of such a disposition that they
will espouse the cause out of principle, at least that
they will not think they can do themselves any dis-
service or disreputation by it, either at home or abroad.
But if the design is heartily undertaken in England,
I beg you to endeavour, that in the instructions to my
Lord Raby, it may be represented how acceptable a

APPENDIX SECON 0.

165

service it will be to the Queen, if he can effect it, and
that it may be hinted to him how great they know his
interest to be ; and that he should inform himself, from
Dr. Jablouski, what the present state of the affair is,
before he addresses himself to the Court about it. I
take a great deal of liberty upon myself to talk thus, but
I know I talk to one that will put the best construction
upon it. I hope the enclosed letter of Dr. Jablouski to
my Lord of York, will prove the beginning of a corres-
pondence between them. The oftener his Grace can write
to him, I am sure it will be acknowledged on his side
with all due regard. I doubt not, too, but you will favour
him with your correspondence, as also Mr. Aycrst,
chaplain to my Lord Ambassador, a very good man
and very hearty in this affair. I wish most heartily
good success to your endeavours. I shall leave Berlin
to-morrow. If you can inform me, by a letter ad-
dressed to Messrs. Vanderhuyden and Drummond,
merchants of Amsterdam, whether the Court of Eng-
land thinks fit to protect this cause, you will very much
oblige,

Sir,

Your most obedient and most
Humble Servant,

T. Ho BART.

No. V.

May it please your Grace,

The packet which this accompanies was sent
to me from Dr. Hobart. All the papers in it were, as
you find them, open, except the letter from Dr. Jablou-

166

APPENDIX SECOND.

ski to your Grace, which I presumed to look into, not
out of an unpardonable curiosity to pry into a secret,
but because I was let into the matter of it by Dr.
Hobart's letter to me, and because I was willing to
take a copy of it (as I have done of the other papers),
that if this packet should miscarry by the post, your
Grace might have all that information which it gives
you from the transcript remaining in my hand. I am
sure this affair, which may tend so much to the glory
of God and the good of his Church, will find from
your Grace all the assistance and dispatch which you
can give it. Though I am afraid little can be done
before your Grace comes to town, yet I durst not
detain these papers, least so good a work, which has
already been too much neglected, should suffer by any
delay in me. Dr. Hobart tells me, that he transmitted
these papers to your Grace through my hands, because
he was sure I should do my utmost to assist your
Grace in promoting the design of them.

The doctor judges right, that I should be willing to
be subservient to your Grace in carrying on so excellent
a work ; the utmost I can do is but very little, but any
commands which your Grace shall honour me with, in
reference to this affair, shall be faithfully executed.
Dr. Grabe, who is perfectly well acquainted with the
state of this matter, with the character of Dr. Jablou-
ski, with the dispositions of the King of Prussia, and
his courtiers and divines, and with the obstructions so
excellent a design has met with in England and at
Lambeth, more than in Brandenburg and Berlin, will
be very useful to your Grace in promoting it. If your
Grace shall think it proper to write to Dr. Jablouski or
Dr. Hobart, or both, before you come up, I have direc-

APPENDIX SECOND.

167

tions from Dr. Hobart, who went from Berlin Septem-
ber 23, N. S. how to address a letter to him. Or if
you would have these papers put into the hands of any
bishop or other person here, I oan from my copy make
a transcript of them. But I hope your Grace is making
haste to town, and I am sure you will make the more
haste, if you think that by being here you can the
better expedite a work, in which the honour of your
own Church, and the edification of foreign Churches,
seem to be so much interested. I humbly beg your
Grace's blessing, and am,

My Lord,
Your Grace's most dutiful

And most obliged servant,
George Smalridge.

Westminster, October!, 1710.

No. VI.

Illustrissime et Reverendissime Archi-Prasul Domine et
Pater in Christo Gratiosissime.

Humillimo cultu illam tuam, Pater reverendissime,
pietatem exosculor quae ad humilitatem meara sese di-
mittere suisque d : 14 Oct. Eboraco scriptis me hono-
raredignataest. Sedcumlitteraeillae mihi traderentur su-
bita quaedam Ministerii Aulic. Conversio aulam nostram
ita concusserat ut quid ad Reverendissimam Paternita-
tem vestram rescriberem et tunc haererem dubius et
etiamnum haeream. Accessit mors Spanheimii Legati
apud vos Prussici et surgens inde dubium legatus
apud nos Britannicus diutiusne hie locorum moraturus

168

APPENDIX SECOND.

an quod nonnulli augurabantur hinc revoeandus esset.
Denique hie ipse excellentissimus Dominus Legatus no-
vissime a Reverendissimo Domino Episcopo Bristoliensi
per literas de reruni nostrarum ecclesiasticarum statu
peropportune interrogatus fuit, eaque re effectual est ut
praedictus Dominus Legatus non solum mecum de eccle-
siasticis nostris prolixe sermonem contulerit verum
quoque directorem rerum ecclesiasticarum Baronem
Printzium de iisdem compellare constituent. Et haec
quidem vera et certissima desideratum scopum obti-
nendi est via, sed Excellentissinio Domino Rabi, non-
dum se occasio dedit cum Barone Printzio de rebus
dictis commode colloquendi.

Hanc dum Ille expectat Ego interim tantarum mora-
rum jam tandem impatiens ne officii negligens videar
hasce humillimas meas prsemittendas esse duxi ut pro
tuo, Archi-prsesul apostolicerin res nostras favoregratias
tibi quantas mens concipere potest persolverem maxi-
mas. Cumque te collapsas Evangelicorum res juvandi
studio flagrare cernam, pace tua, Pater venerabilissime,
id ausim suggerere quod et rebus nostris perquam sa-
lutare est futurum et ne quid pretiosissimi nobis tem-
poris pereat praecavebit. Nempe aliquanto abhinc tem-
pore fama tulit Augustam Brittanniarum Reginam illus-
tri vestro Halesio Procurationem rei evangelicae cis
marinse gratiose commisisse ; qua re reverendissimus
noster episcopus et qui haec acceperant Ministri sta-
tus mirum in modum affecti fuerunt, sed et Legatus
Belgicus Baro de Lintelo in admirationem mag-
nanimitatis reginalis ita raptus ut ultro mihi affir-
maret effecturum se apud prospotentes Foederati Belgii
ordines ut si vel similem res evangelicae procuratorem
constituerent, vel Halesio negotium istud suo pari-

APPENDIX SECOND.

169

ter nomine tractanclum committerent, eaque utri-
usque mandati in una Halesii persona combinatio
fructu non videtur caritura apud eos qui forte a
monarchicis et hierarchicis principiis sunt alienores.
Interia igitur dum reliqua quae in bonum Ecclesiarum
commune Reverend issima vestra Paternitas medita-
tur maturescant, in antecessum nihil videtur agi posse
unde uberior ad universam rem evangelicam cis mari-
nam fructus rediturus sit quam si dimissio Halesii
maturetur ipseque authoritate regia munitus tarn sa-
crum opus quam fieri potest citissime aggredi jubere-
tur ; generosum istuc augustae Reginae exemplum pie-
tati regis nostri per se currenti calcar addet fortius ut
eat. Persona autem Halesii hominibus cis marinis
gratissima futura est, ut qui apud eos cum esset, ipsi
Regi, Domino Episcopo plurimisque passim Principibus
et status Ministiis non tantum de facie veram etiam
pietate raroque pro Dei gloria zelo innotuit. Quanti vero
Rex gentem et ecclesiam Anglicanam faciat praeter in-
numera alia hoc recenti specimine satis clare ostendit
quod equidem illustrissimae Paternitati vestrae non in-
gratum fore existimo. Nempe supra dictus director
rerum ecclesiasticarum Baro Printzius plus simplici
vice affirmavit constituisse regem ut tres alumni in
spem Ecclesiae Prussicae sumptibus regiis in perpetuum
Oxonii vel Cantabrigiae alantur. Vinculo tali animi
utrobique procul dubio arctius constringentur et hie-
rarchiae vestrae veneratio lathis se apud cis marinos
propagabit, quorum aliqui quod constitutionem vestram
minus suspiciant id inde fit quod eandem minus habeant
perspectam.

Insignem vtro voluptatem inde capio, quod mea
qualiacumque de re Liturgica meditata illustrissimae

170

APPENDIX SECOND.

Paternitati vestrae non displiceant. Sed qui possint?
Cum maximam partem in beato vestro Oxonio, atque
ex venerabilissimi vestri Beveregii p. m. concione de
Liturgia Anglicana. anno 1681 Londini habita (quam
ipsam aliquot abhinc annis in linguam Germanicam
transtuli, et typis exscribi curavi) hausta sint. Quid
autem in meditatis illis Liturgiae Anglicana? mentionem
parcius feci ; gravibus de causis factum est, cum alias
in Liturgise illius laudibus cum gaudio prolixus esse
soleo.

Jam Vale Archi-prsesul Eminentissime, mihique gra-
tiose indulge ut quam primum excellentissimus vester
Legatus cum Printzio nostro de rebus supradictis egerit
mihi hac de re ad reverendissimam Paternitatem ves-
tram referre liceat. Pro singulari autem gratia humil-
lime reputavero, ubi, si forte reverendissima Paternitas
vestra me porro alloqui dignata fuerit, id idiomate Angli-
cano fecerit: Ejus enim linguae amore ut gentis admi-
ratione ecclesiasquse veneratione intime affectus sum.

Illustrissimae et reverendissimam paternitatis vestras
Alius in Christo.

Obedientissimus et servus
Humillimus
Dan. Ern. Jablouski, D.

Berolini, d. 7 Feb. st.n. 1711.

APPENDIX SECOND.

171

No. VII.

Illustrissime, &c.

Libertate quam novissimis meis humillime expetieram
in prsesens utor, Pater Reverendissime atque in conspec-
tum tuurn denuo, non autem sine singulari voluptate,
prodeo, eo quod divinae benignitati placuit vestra in
Evangelii emolumentum molimina etiam apud nos be-
nedictione sua. comitari.

Quamvis vero Excellentissimus Dominus Legatus Bri-
tanicus quse occasione epistolae a Reverendissimo Do-
mino Episcopo Bristoliensi ad se scriptae acta sunt
plenius perscribet, spero tamen Illustrissimae vestra?
Paternitati non ingratum fore si et ipse quae de his
comperta habeo humillime significem.

Nempe postquam Excellentissimus Dominus legatus
die 7 Feb. St. N. rem de qua agitur Baroni Printzio ape-
ruissit, hie proximo die cum Domino Episcopo nostro
sermonem contulit deque tota re edoctus eandem ad re-
gem detulit, qui ipse quoque cum Domino Episcopo ean-
dem prolixe communicavit. Admiratus autem est Epis-
copus seriem rei ante septennium fere gestae tarn recenti
Regi memoria haesisse ac si heri aut nudius-tertius
gesta fuisset. Caeterum Rex eodem quo olim animo se
etiamnum esse et Printzio et Episcopo testatus est :
huicque et mihi commisit earn rem sedulo ut tractemus,
nemine tamen praeteria ad secreti participationem tan-
tisper admissio, dum prius fundamento rite posito res
cam fructu ad alios divulgari queat.

Printzius de Regis voluntate Dominum Legatum red-
didit certiorem ; cumque Dominus Legatus declarationem
istamScripto sibi fieri desiderasssit, id quoque facile obti-

172

APPENDIX SECOND.

nuit. Neque dubito quin epistolae Friutziana exeinplurn
per hodieruum tabellariuin ad Reverendissimum Domi-
nuni Episcopum Bristoliaisem idem sit niissurus ; in qua
epistola si quid forte occurrerit quod paulo aliter Scrip-
turn nonnemo exoptaret, dignabitur Illustrissima vestra
Pateruitas gratiose perpendere, Baroueru Printzium
viruru equidem esse prudentem, perspicarem, piuru,
magnauimum bonaeque voluntatis plenissimum, hoc
tamen innegotio, (quod antequam ipse Ministero Aulico
adrnoveretur gestum est) novitiuni, neque forte hactenus
de omnibus tunc actis satis eruditum. Talis tamen est
qualem modo dixi, et a quo in ecclesiae emolumentum
plurima expectari debeant.

Hie vero mirari subit divinae circa nos providentiae
sapientiam et bonitatem quae ultra expectationem ita
omnes res disposuit, ut animis eorum qui hac in re
plurimum possunt favorabiliter inclinatis, obstaculis
quae hactenus fuere maximam partem remotis, mediis
vero quae vix optari, certe non sperari poterant ultro
oblatis, rem quae alias impossibilis videbatur, non tan-
tum possibilem, sed etiam probabilem reddident.

Quod si jam divinae sapientiae prudentiam humanam
non nihil obstetricari par est, duo ad opus Sanctissi-
mum feliciter promovendum requiri videntur. Ununi
quidem ut Excellentissimus Dominus Legatus Britanni-
cus nomine SerenissimaeReginae negotium istud tractare
jubeatur: alterum vero ut dimissio Halcsii de qua nuper
prolixus fui maturetur. J^eque enim beneficium quod cis
marmis Ecclesiis destinavistis, sanctissimi Praesules,
Prussiae nostra? limitibus circumscribendum est, utpote
tunc demum vere magnum et praeclarum, vobisque anti-
stites Apostolici dignum futurum si ad universos Pro-
testantes se extenderit scissis ipsorum ecclesiis ad
unionem reductis, et liturgia quantum fieri potest uni-

APPENDIX SECOND.

173

versali per ofinnes ecclesias Protestantes introducta.
Utriusque autem viam Haksii negotio praeparabit.
Illustrissime et Reverendissime Archi-Praesul,
Reverendissinue Paternitatis vestras
Filius obedientissimus et
Semis humillimus,

Dan. Ern. Jablouski.

Berolini, tl 14. Feb. st. n. 171 1.

No. VIII.

L'Apostille cfune lettre ecrite par Mons. Bonnet, (It Resi-
dent du Frederic Roy de Prusse a Londres ) a sa Ma-
jeste Prussiernie.

17 de Mars, 1711.

(P.S.)

Sire,

Dans cette meme conversation que j'eus hier
avec le meme Secretaire d'Etat St. John, il m'entretint
aussy des affaires ecclesiastiques, qui regardent I'etat
de votre Majeste; et cela a l'occasion des lettres et
transactions qu'il y a eu sur cette affaire entre l'Arche-
veque d'York et le Docteur Jablouski ; et entre l'Eveque
de Bristol, (connu cy devant par son nom de Robinson
et par son caractere d'envoye a la cour de Suede ), et le
Lord et Ambassadeur Raby ; et entre celui cy et le
Ministre d'Etat de votre Majeste le Baron de Printzen.
J'avois deja eu quelque communication de cette affaire
par l'Archeveque de York, et par le dit Eveque de
Bristol, qui sont tous deux parfaitement bien dans
l'espritde la Reyne, tres estimes du present ministere :

174

APPENDIX SECOND.

et qui m'ont montre quelques unes de ceslettres du seen
et du ere de sa Majeste. Mais l'entretien du sus men-
tionne Secretaire d'Etat a ete plus precis, eu ce qu'il
m 'a fait connoitre qu'il seroit bien aise que j'ecrivisse
en cour.

II commenca par me temoigner le de-plaisir que la
Reyne et le clerge ressentoient de ce qu'on avoit re-
pondu froidement a la traduction Alleinande, (qui fuit
imprimee a. Berlin, 1734, du livre de la liturgie Angli-
cane ; qu'on avoit impute cette froideur au caractere
de l'Archeveque de Canterbury. II ajouta que sa Ma-
jeste et le clerge seroint tres disposes a entretenir une
correspondence avec le clerge des etats de Prusse, et
autres de ses provinces ; a entrer en negotiation la.
dessus ; et a faire toutes les avances qu'on jugeroit
convenables a ce sujet, comme il avoit lui mtme mande
au sus dit Ambassadeur. Et la dessus il me parla a.
diverses reprises d'une lettre tres sensee, et tres bien ecrite,
comme il s'explica, du sus mentionne Ministre le Baron
de Printzen a my Lord Raby, et que la Reyne a fort
approuve.

Je lui dis que je n'avois pas ete honore des tres gra-
cieux ordres de votre Majeste sur ce sujet; que je
n'etois pas meme bien instruit du plan qu'on pouvoit
se proposer, non plus que de la disposition des peuples
souvent embrageux, prevenus contre la nouveaute, et
dont on doit toujours consulter les inclinations avant
que de faire aucun pas de cette nature ; et qu'il faut
instruire et preparer par degr6s pour les faire entrer
dans les veiies les plus salutaires. Mais j'ajoutay que
je ne manquerois pas d'exposer les inclinations de la
Reyne sur cette matiere.

Avant que de le quitter il me repeta encore le dessein

APPENDIX SECOND.

175

ou est icy la cour et le clerge de correspondre, d'entrer
en negotiation, et de faire des avances pour l'union
de ces Eglises Protestantes de dega et de dela la
mer, mais sans entrer dans aucune precision.

Je ne me jetteray pas, Sire, dans des considerations
sur la nature du service de l'Eglise Anglicane, le plus
parfait peutetre qu'il y ayt parmy les Protestans ;
quoi que les annees qu'il y a que je n'en frequente pas
d'autre, ayent peu me donner lieu de ref!6chir un peu
sur le rituel et la pratique de cette Eglise, aussi bien
que sur quelques abus qu'il y a dans son clerge et dans
sa discipline. Je m'attacheray tres humblement a d'au-
tres considerations. La premiere, qu'on verroit icy
avec plaisir une conformite des eglises Prusienne3, et
autres des etats de votre Majeste, avec celle de 1' Eglise
Anglicane. La seconde, que la conformite qu'on peut
souhaiter par dega regardera moins un changement
dans la liturgie et dans le rituel, que dans le gouverne-
ment ecclesiastique ; on est icy pour l'episcopal, qu'on
regarde du moins comme d'institution Apostolique.
La plus part du clerge est icy dans la prevention, qu'il
y a une succession non interrompue depuis les apotres
jusques a present; et suivant cette supposition ils
pretendefit qu'il n'y a point de bon gouvernement ec-
clesiastique que celui ou il se rencontre des eveques
de cet ordre, ni des veritables ministres de l'evangile,
que ceux qui ont etc" ordines par des eveques. Et si
d'autres ne vont pas si loin ils font toujours une
grande difference entre les ministres d' l'evangile qui
ont receu l'imposition des mains d'un eveque, ou d'un
synode compose des ministres ordinaires — une troisieme
consideration c'est q'une conformite" de cette nature
seroit un triomphe pour l'Eglise Anglicane dont elle

176

APPENDIX SECOND.

tiendroit conte ; et que le clerge" uni avec la cour et les
Touries font un corps puissant et considerable. D'autre
part les Whigs, les Presbiteriens ; et les Independans et
d'autresNonconformistes ne se feliciterointpas de cette
conformite qui les desarme, qui donne prise contre eux
qui affoibliroit leur parti. lis la regarderoint avec
chagrin, et la Maison Electorale de Brunswick qui
conte bien plus sur ces derniers que sur les premiers
craindroit que cette conformite n'eut d'autres conse-
quences. Mais si les Whigs sont plus pecunieux, par
ce qu'ils sont plus dans le commerce ; et si leur chefs
ont la reputation d'avoir a present, une superiorite de
genie ; les autres ont une superiorite de force plus
reelle, et plus constante.

Ut in ratione humillima, &c.

De Lonures ee Mardy,
17 de Mars, 1711.

No. IX.

Hh'strissime, fyc.

Dominus Legatus Britannicus, My Lord Raby,
ipso quo hinc discesset die, (erat vero d. 24tus Martii st.
n.) mihi exposuit accepisse se ab Illustrissimo Status
Secretario Domino St. John mandata SerenissimseReginae
quibus rem nostram ecclesiasticam apud Baronem Print-
zium, Episcopum, et alios urgere, auxiliaque tarn ipsius
Reginae quam cleri Britannici in re tarn sancta pro-
mi ttere jubebatur : adfuisse etiam hesterna die a?dibus
Printzianis mandata regia executurum ; quod vero eas
possessore vacuas reperisset mihi committere, ut suo

APPENDIX SECOND. 177

nomine epistolnn predict® exemplum etBaroni Prihtzio,
et Domino Episcopo communicarem ; id quod sequenti
die feci.

Epistola ilia St. Joluuana, quanta est, pietatem
et geneiositatem Britannicam spirans, insignem nobis
voluptatem creavit, spesque nostras mi ram in modum
erexit.

Excepit banc paucos intra dies epistola residentis
apud Britannos Prussici Domini Bomieti die Xy Martii,
Londino scripla, qua is regi significabat illustrissimum
St. Johnium de negotio nostro prolixe secum contulisse,
ejus ulteriorem progressum exoptasse, reginaeque etcleri
Britannici subsidiariam operam liberaliter obtulisse.
Epistola isthaec eo cum primis nomine est memorabilia,
quod illustrissimum St. Johnium sistat non solum gene-
ralia ilia ingeminantem, velle ecclesiam Britannicam cum
Prussica correspondentiam fraternam colere, vinculo
arctiore ei jungi, &c. verum etiam praecise declarantem
cupere se de istis ad regem referri ; quibus Bonnetus
addit, a Britannis non tarn liturgise quam regiminis po-
tius ecclesiastici confirmitatem respici : quibus verbis
vir prudens par compendium in ipsam negotii arcem
invadit.

Epistolam Bonneti Baro Printzius Episcopo, mihique,
sed cuique seorsum, communicavit ; petiitque ut pari
ratione, nostra ea de re cogitata seorsum sibi scripte
exhiberemus ; id quod ego hesterna die ita exsecutus
sum ut napprmot. usus, qualis servum Jesu Christi tali in
casu decet ; Liturgiam Anglicanse similem, et Hierar-
chiam episcopalem, gravibus, (uti mihi quidem videntur)
argumentis suaserim. Quomodo istha3c mea Baroni
Printzio sese probavit hactenus ignoro : urbe enim
abest. Ipse vero affirmaverat se et meam et epis-

VOL. II. N

178 APPENDIX SECOND.

copi sententiam secum mature expensurum, et quod
conscientia suasissit regi in concilio propositurum
esse.

Accessurum esse partibus nostris generosa etmagnani-
ma viri pietas spem facit, qui etiamqua? sentirem libere
me proloqui jussit, addito, invidiam rei et odium sua fore.
Opportune vero Bonnetus significarat illustrissimum
St. Johnium epistolam Printzii nuper ad my Lord Raby
scriptam iteratis vicibus une letlre tres sensee et tres bien
ecrite appellasse,eandemque Serenissiiua? reginae apprime
placuisse. "Principibusplacuisse viris non ultima lam est ?
ita generosae menti cum primis delectabile. Haec
hactenus pater Reverendissime ; plura scribenda essent
sed quae chartae committi commode nequeant. Itaque
Reverendum Ayerst Excellentissimo Domino Rabio a
Sacris, virum judicio supra aetatem acri et qui venera-
tion! erga ecclesiam patriam, moderationem erga e\-
teras prudenter junxit, rogavi, ut in Britaniam cum
Excellentissimo Domino Legato delatus, (id quod brevi
futurum esse augurabatur) Reverendissima) Paternitata?
vestrae cuncta coram enarret. Estenim rerum nostrarum
egregie callens, eumque ego virum consiliorum et
actionum mearum testem mihi legeram, ut cujus can-
dorem aeque ac zelum habebam perspectum.

Turbulenta etiamnum Europaescena exposcerevidetur
ut Excellentissimo Rabio, alius Augusta? Reginae Lega-
tus in aula nostra succedat, qui ad felicem adversumve
negotii successum maximum utique momentum est col-
laturus. Sit ergo vir qui prudentia; civili pietatem junc-
tam habeat ; qui non solum Magnae Anna; legatum, sed
etiam Jesu Christi servum se esse meminerit, utriusque
regno ampliando destinatum. Qui dignitatem externam
interna virtute augeat ; utraque vero apud regem et

APPENDIX SECOND. 179

ministros anctoritatem et existimationem sibi con-
ciliare ; hac ipsa autem in emolumentum ecclesiae uti
sciat.

Sed quo me zelus pro Deo, et gloria ejus abripit ! ut
cum pius esse cupio, temerarius factus videar! In tua,
praesul Apostolice, pietate spemveniae impetrandae om-
neni pono; qui et ipse cum Apostolo experiris quanta
sit vis amoris Christi Nos constringentis.

Halesius vester, gaudia nostra, plus nimio moratur ;
quern tamen publica ecclesias commoda non vocant
tantum, sed inclamant accersuntque. Inter innumeros
ejus apud cis marinos Praesentiae fructus, is inter primos
esset, idemque in praesens, peropportunus, ut cum lin-
guae nostrae ipse peritus sit, Germanicae regiones litur-
gia personarent Anglicana, sicque nostri homines rei
insolitae paulatim adsuescerent.

Vale Archi-prajsul illustrissime, et paterno favore
complecti perge.

Reverendissimae paternitatis vestrac,
Servum humillimum

Atque devinctissimum,

Dan.Ern.Jablouski.

Berolini, d. 28, April, 171 1.

N 2

180

APPKXD1X SECOND.

No. XI

I/lustrissime, 8>c.

Novissimas meas die 23 Aprilis scriptas ad reveren-
dissimam paternitatem vestram recte delatas esse haud
dubito ; quibus quae circa Epistolam Bonneti ad regem
acta sunt retuli. Nudius tertius literas accepi a Barone
Printzio quibus cogitata mea ad relationem illom Botine-
tianem sibi baud displicuisse testabatur ; simulque desi-
derabat ut modum delinearem quo Episcopatus citra
offensam, et citra Jurium Majestatis circa Sacra imminu-
tionem introduci queat ; ejus enim rei in cogitatis illis
mentio facta fuerat neque minum videri debet talia
quaeri, quandoquidem Episcopatus prout in ecclesia
Romana viget, et qui solus in imperio Germanico occu-
lis Protestantium observatur, principibus gravis et in-
jurius jure creditur. In animo eo sum, ut mandata illus-
trissimi viri satisfaciam ; cui negotium coidi esse per-
spicio : tan turn enim abfuit, ut libertate qua. usus fueram
ofFenderetur, ut contra iterato me monuerit sensa animi
audacter promerem, invidia, si qute rem comitaretur, in
se devoluta. Cumque negotium fere supra spem procedat,
reverendissiniEe paternitati vestiae non ingratum fore
arbitratus sum, si exemplar relationis Bomietiance secum
communicarem : premendum tamen ne a me submissum
fuisse innotescat. Mitterem etiam cogitata de hoc
scripto mea, sed quiaidiomate vernaculo concepta sunt,
ad reverendiss-imum Ayerst ceu secretorum meorum
pridem purticipem dirigenda duxi, ut ipsius opera An-
glice expressa ad reverendissimam paternitatem ves-
tram deferantur.

APPENDIX SECOND.

181

Utinam vero Halesius vester mari trajecto nobis pas-
sim laborantibus tandem succurrat. Ipsius ope et
liturgiae vestrae apud nostros homines amor conciliari,
et unionis Protestantium semina spargi, et plurima
alia ad eximimum istam scopum collineantia effici pos-
sent. O si desiderato hac de re nuntio quanto ocyus
beari nobis contingat!

Tu vero Pater vcnerabilissimc interea vale, Deo et
gratiae ejus filial! pietate commendatus.

Illustrissime, &c. &c.

Dan. Ern. Jablouski.

Berolini, 5 Mali, St. N. 1711.

No. XI.

Idem ad Eundem.

Illastrissime, §c. $c.

Veniam praefari animus erat, pater indulgentissime,
quod gravissimos tuos labores iterum auderem inter-
strepere; quia vero sublimem illam tuam, pluriumque
simul capacem animum in negotiis tarn piis lassescere
charitas Christi prohibet, in conspectum tuum intrepi-
dus prodeo.

Nempe Rex noster serenissimus iter Belgicum nudius
tertius ingressus est, Baroque Printzius mihi valedicens
affirmavit de re liturgia et hierarchia in Belgio con-
silia agitatum iri. Hoc jam me movet, pater reveren-
dissime, imo vero urget et impellit ut per Deum quern
colis, et per ecclesiam cujus zelo flagras, te orem, ne
eximiam islam opportunilalcm pietati tua. elabi patiaris.
Rex enim ut et Baro Prinlzius negotio nostro favere

182

APPENDIX SECOND.

videntur: cujns rei egregium est specimen, quod Print-
zius abiturus Episcopo Vice-Presidium in Foro Eccle-
siastico, etiam sigillo ejus fidei comrnisso, obtulit.

Hanc Spartam jam turn abhinc septennio Rex Epis-
copo destinaverat ; sed minus faventium studio effectum
fait non solum ne ille honor Episcopo tunc obveniret
verum etiam ut circiter abhinc biennio velut lege lata
caveretur, ne vel Episcopus vel alius vir Ecclesiasticus
munere illo unquam fungi posset. Veruntamen ea con-
stitutione neglecta Episcopus absente Printzio Vice-
Presidio defungi jussus est. Eaque res tanto jam est
memorabilior quia hoc ipsum ego posteriore meo scripto
suasi, atque Episcopo vindicavi. Rationern vero qua
cum Rege cum Printzio porro agendum sit consumma-
tissima paternitatis vestra? prudentia optime iniverit.

Ego interim utrumque quod jussu Printzii exaravi
scriptum, una cum Printzii epistola ad me data, tem-
poris lucrandi causa, ad reverendissimum patrem Epis-
copum Bristoliensem misi, cum reverendissima pater-
nitate vestra communicanda ; non quod chartulas illas
meas aliquid esse putem, verum lmo ut reverendissima
vestra paternitas mentem Printzii ex ipsius epistola ut-
cunque estimare queat; haec autem absque meis non
satis posset intelligi, 2do ut sicubi minus recte sentio
a reverendissima vestra paternitate gratiose corrigar
3^° ut etiam si forte res minus feliciter cederet, prostarct
tamen apud vos testis veritatis qui nostram de Ilierarchid
ecclesiastica sententiam posteritati testaretur.

Sed tamen argumenta quibus utor genio loci et tem-
poris subinde attemperare coactus fui ; qua in re me
non peccasse arbitrer dummodo principali ad quern
collineo scopo nihil decederet.

Jam vale pater indulgentissime duke Decus meum et

APPENDIX SECOND.

183

Eeclesi-e Prussiear Presidium. Iterum vale et felix
sospesque diutissime perenna.

Ulustrissimae et reverendissimae paternitatis vestrac
Filius obedientissimus et serves humillimus,

Dan. Ern. Jablouski.

Beroluti, d. 23 Midi, 1711.

No. XII.

Dr. Jablouskg's Re/lections on a Letter of Mr. Bonnet's,
the King of Prussia's Resident at London, to the King
his Master, dated London, the 17 th of March, 1711 ;
which Refections were presented to Baron Printz at
Berlin, April 27, 1711.

It will be unnecessary to make any remarks on the
relation with which Mr. Bonnet begins his letter, espe-
cially since the principal things contained in it are
repeated again in the three considerations with which
he concludes the said relation.

The first of these is, that a conformity of the Prus-
sian with the English Church, would be very agreeable
there (in England.)

This is by so much the more credible, for that the
English Church has now at its helm so many wise and
prudent men, who are very sensible that the strength
of the whole Protestant body consists in the harmony
and firm union of its several members. Indeed the
Church of England has, from the beginning of the
Reformation, always kept a brotherly correspondence
with the Churches on this side the water, as among
others, Monsieur La Mothe, minister of the French

184

APPEN J>1X SECOND.

Church iii the Savoy, London, has made appear in two
learned treatises which he published in the years 1705
and 1707. However, the Reformed Churches on this
side, though agreeing with that of England ( quoad in-
terna ct dogmatica), yet differing very remarkably
(quoad externa el ritualia) — this brotherly correspon-
dence was not always so close and firm as was to have
been wished. And not only the Presbyterians in Eng-
land have endeavoured to loosen this band, to strengthen
their own party, by giving out that we were on their
side, in contradistinction to the Church of England,
but the Lutherans also in Germany have several times
given to understand that they were of the Church of
England's party ; tee Reformed of that of the Presby-
terians ; a nearer conformity, therefore, between us
could not but be very agreeable and advantageous on
both sides.

II. Mr. Bonnet's second consideration is, that there
(in England) not only an agreement in the Church Liturgy,
but likewise in the Church government, was mightily wished.

As to the Liturgy, Mr. Bonnet does just before, not
without good grounds, pass his judgment, that the service
of the Church of England is by much the most perfect of am/
used in the Reformed Churches. To which we may add,
that those who have any understanding in those matters
have observed several defects in the divine service of
the Reformed Churches on this side the sea, which, for
the public edification, they wished to see mended. As
our Majesty, our gracious Sovereign himself, has,
according to his most illustrious piety and wisdom,
made several very wholesome regulations* in these

* Viz. Set forms of prayer after sermon, kneeling at prayer, &c.

APPENDIX SI'.COND.

185

matters, and had lately a design of doing much more*.
The Church of Neufchatel has likewise, with the appro-
probation of that of Geneva, made some few years ago
the like changes, and ordered their public worship after
the English manner, though much shorter.

I had likewise the last year the honour to propose
" my humble sentiments how a Christian and edifying-
Liturgy ought to be formed; but forasmuch as the
English Liturgy is for the most part taken from the
best antiquity, not only quoad formam, sed quoad mate-
riam et ipsa verba, and is composed with so much sim-
plicity, as well as majesty, that, on account of the
former it may be understood by the meanest, and on
account of the latter may edify and instruct the great-
est capacity — therefore it would no doubt be incom-
parably the shortest way to a conformity to go through
the English Liturgy, and see what part of it would be
edifying and useful among us, and could be retained,
and what might be 7iecessarij to alter or leave out, on
account of the many different circumstances we lay
under. Or if it be so thought fit, the Liturgy may be
composed after the manner and form of that at Neuf-
chatel.

His Majesty might introduce this new Liturgy first
in the royal chapel, and some of the principal Churches,
where are the most understanding members, who may
be able to judge of the reason and grounds of things,
till, by degrees, a more general conformity might be
effected.

1 must not here forget what that judicious divine ot
Neufchatel, Monsieur Ostervald, mentions, viz. that

* Viz. To introduce an entire new Liturgy.

186 APPENDIX SECOND.

it is reasonable to think, that by such means an uni-
versal Liturgy may in time be introduced into all the
Protestant Churches, which would indeed be a most
noble and useful work; but which may, according to
all appearance, be entered upon with more success,
when the union between the two Protestant Churches,
the Reformed and Lutheran, shall by God's assistance
be first effected.

As to the Episcopal way of Church government, Mr.
Bonnet does very truly represent the opinion of the
Church of England concerning it. To which we may
add that of the learned Palatine-Divine, Abr. Scultetus,
who deserved so well of all Germany, especially of the
Reformed Church here of Brandenburg, and was know-
ing in Christian antiquity. He, in his annotations on the
second chapter of the Epistle to Titus, lays down and
clearly makes out the following proposition : — " Epis-
copatum," as his words are, " esse juris Divini, h. e.
Apostolos hoc Ecclesias regimen instituisse, ut units
aliquis non solum populo, sed etiam pastoribus etdiaconis
praficiatur penes quern sit et manum impositio sive ordina-
tio, et consiliorum ecclesiasticorum directio."

Likewise that most learned, and in this point irre-
proachable lawyer and Protestant, Hugo Grotius, does
in his book De Imperio summarum Protestation circa
sacra, lay down and learnedly prove the four following
theses : — " Episcopatum ab universali ecclesia fuisse
receptum : initium habuisse apostolicis temporibus :
jure divino fuisse approbatum : magnas in ecclesia uti-
. litates ex Episcopatu redundasse."

And as Scultetus and Grotius attribute this institu-
tion to the apostles, so do the most ancient Fathers of
the Church assure us, that in this the Apostles followed

APPENDIX SECOND.

187

their Master's example, who likewise divided his mes-
sengers, whom he sent to preach the Gospel, into two
orders, viz. the twelve Apostles and the seventy Disci-
ples, of which the former were the first and higher
order, the latter were of the second and lower rank.

It is likewise very remarkable there is no doctrine or
tenet of the Christian religion, in which all Christians
in general have, for the space of 1500 years, so unani-
mously agreed as in this of Episcopacy. In all ages
and times, down from the Apostles, and in all places
through Europe, Asia, and Africa, wheresoever there
were Christians, there were likewise bishops ; and even
where Christians differed in other points of doctrine or
custom, and made schisms or divisions in the Church,
yet did they all remain unanimous in this, in retaining
their bishops. The Arians, who had in a manner over-
turned the whole Christian religion ; the Nestorians,
the Eutychians, and the rest of those sects which
still prevail in the Eastern Church, did all retain this
ancient and deep-implanted idea of Episcopal Church
government. In like manner in the Western Church,
when, just before the great Reformation, the followers
of Huss in Bohemia separated themselves from the
Romish Church, they made this one of their first cares
to preserve an Episcopal succession {successioncm Epis-
eopalem) for their little Church, and that by the means
of some Bishops of the Vaudois, who were at that time
there in exile, which happened in the year 1467,
which may be seen in Regemwolscius's Hist. Eccles.
Slavon. p. 33.

Neither is all this so much to be wondered at, if we
consider that the Christians had every where received
these ideas of Episcopal government from the persons

188

APPENDIX SECOM'.

and writings of the most ancient Fathers of the Chin ch,
who were the Apostles own disciples, and for the most
part bishops themselves, such as Ignatius, Polycarp,
Clemens Romanus, and the like. Eusebius, the most
ancient Church historian we have, has very exactly
described the series of the Bishops' succession in those
principal Churches of Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, &c.
down from the Apostles to this time ; that, is, for the
space of three hundred years after Christ's birth.
Which succession continued in the same manner till
the time of the Reformation, when we in Germany
xoere the Jirst who ever departed from this well-estab-
lished practice ; for the design was, to make the Romish
Church smart as much as possible, and because
Bishops had assumed to themselves too much, we fell
into quite the other extreme, and were engaged in such
contests and confusion, that Christian antiquity was
the more easily forgot in the dispute. Though, ac-
cording to Grotius's remark, the then laying aside of
Episcopacy was not designed to be perpetual, but only
for a time ; and Beza himself, who was the sharpest
adversary of that order, seems to acknowledge, that
the reasons for laying it aside were but temporary,
since he says, that he would not be thought to be of
opinion, that the ancient order of Bishops ought not
to be again restored, si ruince Ecclesice restitutes esseut*.
So that Beza seems to consent, that Episcopacy might
be again introduced into the Church, when purged
from all papistical abuses, which it now entirely is
among Protestants.

And indeed that great change from the ancient way,

• Grotius de jure Suinmar, piotest circa sacra, cap. xi. s. 12.

APPEN DIX SECOND.

189

was not made without giving great offence to the East-
ern Churches, who, in certain conferences heretofore
held in Poland and Lithuania would scarce acknow-
ledge the then Protestants for Christians, because they
had deserted the universal form of Church government;
whereas, on the contrary, those Churches have always
shewn a particular veneration and love for the English
Church, on account of its hierarchy.

In my opinion, I hold these two things for certain.
First, that a subordination in the Church government
is as necessary as in all other societies and bodies
politic. Our Saviour compares himself to a captain or
general, and his Church to an army ; but now, if all
the officers of an army were equal, and depended di-
rectly upon the director of military affairs, without any
subordination, how could such an army be managed,
or of what use could it be ?

Secondly, that this necessary subordination can no
ways better be effected than by a well regulated Epis-
copacy. 1st. Propter venerationem primitives et confor-
mitatem prcesentis Ecclesice Christiana, ne cum a Romana
discessimus a Catholicd discessisse videamur. And, 2dly.
not to give offence and scandal to those Christians
both in the East and West, who have still retained the
ancient constitution. 3dly. In order to bring the clergy
out of that contempt into which in several places they
are fallen, it is well known, that no man of any fashion
among us will any longer let his children study divi-
nity ; so that in this great city, where there wants
not a stock of children in almost every family, there
are but two reformed students of divinity, one of which
is a baker's, the other a tailor's son. And though di-
vines should design their children for that study, and

190

APPENDIX SECOND.

they themselves should at first shew some inclination
to it, yet, as soon as they are grown up to years, and
are able to reflect on the present state of the clergy,
they then change their minds, and choose rather to
apply themselves to secular studies and employments ;
examples of which are sufficiently known. But now
from hence can proceed nothing else but that mean
persons, who have neither education, nor the necessary
helps or means to it, who must maintain themselves by
pedagoguing and living in other men's families, who
have neither learning nor conduct, and who, by conse-
quence, will bring shame rather than honour upon the
holy order, will be set apart for divinity ; whereby it
comes to pass that the public edification is hindered,
and vice and profaneness have a free scope, since, in
the persons of such men, the office itself must neces-
sarily be condemned. This is certainly not the right
way to thank God for the gracious light of his holy
Gospel. When God himself formed «. government
both in Church and State, he ordained an high priest,
with several other orders of priests and Levites de-
pending on him. And the first high priest he chose
was no less than the leader Moses's brother; he pro-
vided likewise the whole order with suitable revenues
and authority. On the contrary, when the ungodly,
schismatical Jeroboam instituted his order of Church
government, the Spirit of God does remark of him, in
two several places, with a peculiar emphasis, that he
made the priests out of the meanest of the people. I cannot
but confess these passages have often caused in me
sad reflections and a troubled heart. 4thly. It is well
known that the Romish Church accounts the Protest-
ants' ordination without bishops to be invalid, for that

APPENDIX SKf'ON 1).

191

bare Presbyters have no power to ordain, according to
that rule of Epiphanius, Quinam veto fieri potest, ut is
Presbi/terum constituat, ad creandum quern manuum impo-
nendarum jus nullum habet? And therefore, from the
Apostles question, how shall thei/ preach, except they are
sent? they constantly make this objection to the Pro-
testant ministers, Quis te misit? Let this objection be
as it will, good or bad, yet it were certainly the best
and safest way to regulate the ordination of ministers
by the means of Episcopacy, that this objection may
fall of itself. To my knowledge, several pious and
learned candidates of divinity, who began to have
some taste of antiquity, have had great scruples in this
case, and some, on this account, have chosen rather to
go and receive ordination in England. I, for my part,
have had no occasion for the like scruples, since the
Bohemian Union, in which I was bred up and ordained,
and which had its original from Huss before the great
Reformation, has retained (in the above-mentioned
manner) the Jilum successions Episcopalis, et missionem
rninistrorum Ecclesice, even to this day.

But though the introducing of Episcopacy be in it-
self so praiseworthy, and when regulated indue manner
would be highly profitable to the Church, yet there
seems to be so many obstacles among our German
Protestants, that it will require a very heroic spirit to
get over all those received opinions and other difficul-
ties, which may lay in the way of this undertaking.

I defer, therefore, for a time, to enter into any more
particular considerations on this matter ; though it
would not be at all difficult to point out a way to esta-
blish Episcopacy in such a manner as should give no
offence, and not in the least weaken, but rather

APPENDIX SECOND.

strengthen the jura majistatfa circa Sacra ; nor yet the
authority of the director of ecclesiastical affairs be in
the least diminished by it, but only the Ease of his
conscience better consulted, since, by our present
constitution, he is forced to manage this vast extensive
care of all the Churches, only as a work by the by,
and is unable to put a timely stop to any growing evil
till it has broken out into scandal and disorder. 3d.
Mr. Bonnet's third consideration is, that this conformitu
Would indeed be a triumph for the Church of England, but
would mightily displease and weaken the parti/ of the Pres-
byterians.

And so indeed it would, if we look upon the matter
only politically, and according to state maxims. But
when the view and design of the whole work is not the
favouring this or that party, but the honour of God,
and the enlarging the kingdom of Jesus Christ, things
must, and may be so ordered, that the triumph be only
our Saviour's, and each party may draw equal advan-
tage from it. As thus, when by means of this confor-
mity, the Prussian and the English Churches shall be
perfectly united, they both may join to heal the wounds
of the rest of the Protestants. The Church of Eng-
land, which is every where in so great veneration
among the Lutherans, would be a proper instrument to
unite the Protestants on this side the sea ; the very
conformity with that Church being itself a great step
to such an union. On the other side his Majesty our
most gracious Sovereign might very gratefully and
effectually employ his interests in England to unite the
Nonconformists with the Established Church. His
Majesty is in the highest veneration both with the
Church and nation, by reason of the many proofs he

A PPEN Hl\ SEGON !).

193

has given of his great piety and patriot zeal for the
common welfare ; and the Nonconformists have like-
wise the highest trust and confidence in his Majesty,
since, according to the relation we are now speaking
of, they look upon his Majesty, if not on their side,
yet as not against them. Besides, there are great num-
bers of them who live in his Majesty's dominions, and
under his protection, where no difference is made be-
tween Conformists and Nonconformists. There is no
potentate upon earth who has better opportunities of
going through with such a work than his Majesty,
who, if he would shew how justly he carries the name
of Friedereich (rich in peace), and would exert himself
so as to make the effects of it felt, not only in Germany
by uniting the Protestants there, but even as far as
Great Britain, by healing their divisions, the merit of
it towards the Church of Christ would exceed compa-
rison. His olive-branches would infinitely excel the palms
of conquerors, and his glory would remain bright among
posterity, even to the end of the world.

When Mr. Bonnet adds, that the F.lecloral House of
Hanover reckons more upon the Whigs than the Tories, and
therefore /he projected conformity might raise in them some
umbrage, I suppose he then had in his thoughts not the
true Tories (that is, those who hold to the Church of
England as by law established; among which is the
Queen herself and all the present ministry), but he
meant only those who associate themselves with the
Tories, in order to conceal themselves among them, and
enjoy their protection, though at the bottom they are
Jacobites and ill-designing persons. Such men, indeed,
are little to be depended upon ; but the true Tories are
those who began this chargeable war against James's

VOL. II. o

194

APPENDIX SECOND.

patron, and who in the present Parliament do so
vigorously maintain it. If these men were more in-
clined to the pretended Prince of Wales than to the
House of Hanover, it were easy for them to put an end
to the ivar in favour of the Prince, and by that means
spare a great many millions.

But all the proceedings of the present ministry shew
that the true Tories are likewise the true sustainers of
the interests of the House of Hanover, as well as of
the Monarchy and Church, whereas, on the contrary,
there be hid among the Whigs such factions, as, if suf-
fered to get strength, would be no less dangerous to
the House of Hanover, than to the Church and Mo-
narchy. It is true, indeed, that the late Hanover mi-
nister, Baron Schutz, who came into England in the
time of King William, and died there the last year, did
not hold so much with those called by the name of
Tories*, as with the Whigs ; who at last got all the
power into their hands, but that was only a personal
affair of that minister, whose successor does at present
accommodate himself to the times, and by pursuing his
Master's interest with the Tories, will no doubt suc-
ceed.

And since the House of Hanover is in expectation
of the English Crown, 'tis not to be doubted, if the
Queen shall think fit to make any proposals towards
this union, but they will be particularly acceptable to
that house, for that they cannot come to the crown
without first declaring themselves of the Church of
England, which may be done with a better grace by

* My Lords Roi-liester and Nottingham.

APPENDIX SECOND.

195

means of the union ; whereas without it, there will still
remain this objection, that they have changed their re-
ligion for a crown.

Berlin, 27 th April, \ 7\\.

No. XIII.

Baron Print z's Answer upon the Doctors Reflections being
communicated to him.

Worthy Sir,

I have not failed to read over, with a very
particular attention, and consequently, so much greater
satisfaction, the Reflections you sent me concerning
our known affair ; and having seen, among other things,
that you think a way might be found out, (notwith-
standing the prejudices, and inveterate opinions, and
the many difficulties, which, 'tis to be feared, might
thence arise), to introduce and establish an approved
Episcopacy, in such a manner as should give no offence,
nor at all weaken or diminish the jura Majestatis circa
sacra: especially in a government entirely sovereign.
I do therefore instantly desire you by this, that, ac-
cording to your highly laudable zeal for the promoting
the true welfare of the Protestant Religion, you wouid
be so good as to write down, at your leisure, those your
thoughts, and communicate them to me, whicn I will
not only make use of in such a cautious manner as you
desire, that you shall not fear incurring any censure
or envy on that account; but will not fail, in proper
time and place, to extol the great care and pains you

o 2

196

AFP EN DIX SECON U.

have taken, aa being, on many other accounts, with a
very particular high esteem and true passion, &c.

M. L. Pkintzen.

Charlottenbury, 3d May, 1711.

No. XIV.

Dr. Jablouskys Project of introducing Episcopacy in the
King of Prussia's Dominions, presented to Baron Print z,
Director of Ecclesiastical Affairs.

I. The introducing of Episcopacy, may be looked
upon as dangerous, either with respect to the Sovereign,
least his authority in ecclesiastical affairs should
thereby be in some measure infringed, or else with re-
spect to the people, who might look upon it as a step
towards Popery. In the first respect it must be made
appear, that a Protestant Episcopacy does no ways
diminish or infringe the jura Majestatis circa sacra, but
rather strengthens and confirms them : in the latter
respect, all prudent cautions must be taken to dispos-
sess the minds of the people of those prejudices they
may have against it, and likewise that the Episcopal
authority be established in such a manner as that
nothing be introduced with it which may give any real
cause of offence.

II. The Episcopal jurisdiction, as it is practised in
the Church of Rome, is utterly inconsistent with the
rights and authority of Christian princes ; and that in a
two-fold manner : First, because those bishops attribute
to themselves certain rights in the government of the
Church which belong to the sovereign ; and secondly.

APPENDIX SECOND.

197

Because they do not acknowledge the prince of the
country, but the Pope of Rome, for their supreme head
in Ecclesiastical affairs. The first intrenches upon the
sovereign's prerogative, the second entirely destroys
it, as setting up an imperium in imperio ; one state
within another.

III. The Protestants have better learned to give to
God and Caesar, what to each of them belongs, since
they acknowledge their sovereign as ( supremum custodem
utriusque tabula J supreme guardian of both tables of
the law : and as by his right of guardian of the second
table, all power belongs to him in secular affairs which
is not inconsistent with justice and equity ; so also, as
guardian of the first table, all authority is allowed him
in Ecclesiastical affairs which is not contrary to God's
Word, and the real welfare of the Church : all which
is emphatically expressed by the Church of England,
when, in the public canonical bidding of prayers and
before sermons, they stile the king " governor in all
causes, and over all persons, as well ecclesiastical as civil.
Supreme in these his realms."

IV. These jura Majestatis circa sacra shall presently
be recounted, and proved more particularly, when we
have first taken away a scruple that may here be raised,
viz. Some Protestants have doubted whether that au-
thority which princes have in ecclesiastical affairs, may
properly be called jus Episcopate, an Episcopal juris-
diction, since no secular person can properly have any
ecclesiastical authority ; and as, among the Papists,
bishops do unjustly pretend to be princes, so neither
ought princes to pretend to be bishops.

This difficulty will be easily taken away, if we make
the necessary distinction between the stricter use of

198

APPENDIX SECOND.

the word Episcopus, and its use in a greater latitude. In
the stricter sense, wherein it signifies a person who
executes the office of a preacher, administers sacra-
ments, and ordains ministers, 'tis plain that a prince of
a country, as such, is not a bishop. But in the more
extensive signification of the word, wherein it only
signifies in general, an administration and inspection
over Ecclesiastical matters, the sovereign may certainly
be stiled, in that sense, Episcopus, and has his Episcopal
rights and jurisdiction, and that not only in the bare
secular sense of the word, in which the Athenians
stiled their Praetors, and the Romans their iEdiles,
Episcopi, (whence Cicero calls himself cumpanie et mari-
time one Episcopum), but so far as a Christian sovereign
is supreme governor likewise over all ecclesiastical
persons and affairs ; in which sense Constantine spoke
these remarkable words in the presence of a great
many bishops : Vos quidem in Us que intr a eccksiam sunt ;
Episcopi estis ; ego vero in Us qua extra geruntur Episcopus
a Deo sum constitutus. This wise Emperor makes a just
distinction between the internals of the ministry, and
the external government of the Church, which is other-
ways called potestas archietectonica in ecclesia : the former
he left to the ecclesiastics, the latter he administered
himself : whence Eusebius, who writ his life, and re-
cords this saying of him, adds : Jtaque consilia cap/ens
dictis congruentia omnes imperio suo subjectos Episcopali
sollicitudine gubernabat. Since then imperium in sacra,
et sacra functio, are different things, the first remains
to the sovereign, the other to the minister of the altar.

V. Now to discover the particular branches of this
authority of the sovereign in ecclesiastical affairs, we
must, besides what sovereignty implies in its own

APPENDIX SECOND.

199

nature, have a particular regard to the examples of the
Jewish kings under the Old Testament , and of the
Christian emperors under the New, since the first go-
verned the Church after God's own command, the lat-
ter with the approbation of the whole Christian world.
And therefore, what was their right, may be likewise
the right of our sovereigns.

Now from this rule thus laid down, it will plainly
appear, that this ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the su-
preme power, does extend over all ecclesiastical persons,
high and low, without exception, and that in relation
to appointing them to their several offices, and depriv-
ing them of them when they deserve it.

2dly. Over all ecclesiastical concerns, Churches and
Schools, to build and endow them, to keep them in
good condition, to appoint days of prayer, humiliation,
and thanksgiving, to correct disorders, and reform what
is amiss.

3dly. To make ecclesiastical constitutions, to maintain
them, to change or repeal them, as he shall find con-
venient, and punish those that disobey them.

4thly. To call synods, when necessary ; to demand
the opinion of his Clergy in matters proposed to them ;
to confirm their resolutions, as they may be found, con-
venient, and give them the force of a law.

Sthly. To endeavour, by gentle means, to bring
heretics, infidels, and all that are in error, to the truth ;
to keep them in good order and peace ; or, when the
circumstances so require, for the common quiet, and
to avoid greater evils, to send them out of the country.

VI. These are the chief branches of a sovereign's
authority in ecclesiastical matters, in which are like-
wise comprehended the rest which arc not here ex-

200

APPENDIX SECOND.

pressly named. And now, 'twould be easv to confirm
all this by the examples of the above-mentioned Jewish
kings and Christian emperors, were it not a thing al-
ready made out, and confessed by all Episcopal Pro-
testants, and would here be too long and tedious. Let
it at present suffice what that ancient Church histo-
rian, Socrates, relates : Ex quo imperatores esse cceperunt
Christian* res Ecclesice ah Mis dependerunt : and what the
Emperor Justinian said of himself : \om solum belta ben*
ordinamus sed etiam res sac r as. The reason of which
that ancient Father of the Church, Optatus Melecitanus,
thus expresses : Xon enim Respublica est in Ecdesia sed
Ecclesia est in Republicu. Lib. III.

VII. From what hath hitherto been said concerning
the rights of the sovereign in Church matters, it evi-
dently appears that the Episcopal jurisdiction, as it is
among Protestants, does not in the least infringe the
rights of the sovereign in those affairs, since sovereigns,
where there are no bishops, cannot pretend anv other
rights than those we have mentioned, which rights all
Protestant bishops do readily grant and most vigourowly
defend. Whereas, on the contrary, not only the Romish
Clergy on the one hand do utterly destroy those rights,
but, on the other, the tenets of the Presbyterians in
England, do in this come so near the Romish, as that
of arrogating to themselves a right of holding synods,
making ecclesiastical constitutions, and the like, inde-
pendently of the prince or sovereign ,• whence King
James the first looked upon the bishops as the chief
support of his own authoritv, and often used to say —
No bishop no king.

VIII. We must farther distinguish in this matter,
(as Grotius has already remarked) inter jus el modum

APPENDIX

SKCONO.

juris recte exercendi. For, when we speak of introducing
Episcopal Church Government under a Protestant So-
vereign, the question is not de jure principis circa
sacra ; (that remains as full, perfect, and unlimited
with bishops, as without them) but the question is, de
modo juris illius exercendi ; whether, for several weighty
reasons, (which have been already offered) 'twould not
be better, and more useful to the Church, if the Prince
would exercise his Episcopal jurisdiction by bishops
rather than others.

IX. For the Prince, without dispute, has the highest
jurisdiction imaginable in ecclesiastical matters, yet
cannot he possibly exercise that jurisdiction in his own
person, but must let it be administered by other per-
sons, whether secular or ecclesiastical. Therefore,
since the prince exercises his civil authority by civil
persons, the military affairs by military officers and the
like ; so harmony seems to require that ecclesiastical
matters should be administered by ecclesiastical per-
sons; since the same reasons, a necessario, utili, et
decoro, will hold here as well as in any of the other
cases.

X. How then did the Jewish kings and Christian
emperors act in the administration of ecclesiastical
matters? Of the former, I do not remember that they
had any intermediate secular person whom they placed
over their Clergy, as their deputy ; especially since
there was, in the whole kingdom, only one high priest
who was always with the king in the residence city,
and therefore received the king's orders immediately
from himself; as, likewise, when there was a prophet,
he usually spoke to the king in person.

The Christian emperors had likewise no constant
director in ecclesiastical affairs, but have often, as occa-

202

APPENDIX SECOND.

sion required, made use of their Civil ministers to pre-
side in ecclesiastical councils, to determine weighty
causes, to be present in their name at synods, to judge
ib differences that might arise among bishops, &c.

Remarkable to this purpose are the words of Con-
staniine, who having called a numerous council of
bishops at Tyre, writ to them in this manner : Mist et
Dionysium conmlarem, qui et Episcopos illos, qui vobis-
cum esse debent, commoneat, et omnium qua. gerentur maxi-
me verb modestice inspector sit ; si quis vet o quod minim
arbitramur, prceceptum nostrum etiamnum violare prce-
sumens adesse renuerit, mittetur quarn primum a ?iobis
aliquis qui imperiali authoritate, hominem in exilium
pellens, docebit imperatoris sanctionibus pro veritate
editis minime esse repugnandum.

This same Emperor, when that dangerous schism of
the Donatists broke out in Africa, ordered that business
to be examined first by an ecclesiastical commission of
several bishops at Rome, afterwards in Africa by his
proconsul there, and lastly by an ecclesiastical com-
mission at Aries; and, in the same dispute, Honorius
and Theodosius, who were emperors together, appointed
Marcellinus the Tribune as principal commissary*. Cui
quidem disceptationi principe loco te judicem volumus
preesidere, as the words of the commission run ; which
commission Marcellinus did accordingly execute, though
with a great deal of gentleness and modesty, speaking
thus in the first assembly, in which abundance of Do-
natists, as well as Catholic bishops, were present:
Licet supra meritum meurn hoc cognoscam esse judicium,
ut inter eos videar judicare a quibus me potuis decuerat
judecari, lamen quia cerium est, hanc causarn spectanle Deo

• In Oppi Opt.it, Mil. p. 44vi.

APPENDIX SKCOiND.

203

et Angelis testibus agitandam, qua; sub Jidei calends examine
vel probata premium afferat vel Icesa judicium, ut et prce-
sentium disceptationibus Episcoporum Veritas elucescat Jm-
perialis primitus sanctio recitetur, &c.

The reigns of the ancient emperors are likewise full
of such examples. But I think it unnecessary to pro-
duce any more, contenting myself to add this one out
of history, because 'tis very remarkable and very much
to our purpose. Henry the Eighth, King of England,
though he still continued a Papist as to the faith, yet
rejecting the Pope's supremacy which he had usurped
over the English Clergy, he made himself be styled by
his parliament, Head of the Church of England ; and to
shew his supremacy, appointed Thomas Cromwell one
of his ministers of state, his vicar general in ecclesiasti-
cal affairs, and visitor general of the cloisters ; by virtue
of which offices he had not only an inspection over all
the abbeys and cloisters, but the whole Clergy in
ecclesiastical matters, in England, were subject to
him ; so that though the Archbishop of Canterbury
preceded him in other respects, he, as the king's vice-
gerent, took place of the Archbishop ; as may be seen
at large in Burnet's History of the Reformation,
torn. i. p. 172. 181. 213.

XI. Since, therefore, it sufficiently appears, from
what has been produced, that Christian sovereigns
have made use of their ministers of state as occasional
and temporary directors of ecclesiastical matters, there
is no doubt but they may likewise constitute them per-
petual directors of the same affairs, since the above-
mentioned vicegerent in England, held that office to
his death. And now, to come to ourselves : if it shall
please his Majesty, our gracious Sovereign, to intro-

204

APPENDIX SECOND.

duce Episcopacy, the office of director of ecclesiastical
affairs may not only remain as it was before, but must
necessarily do so for the following reasons. 1st. Since
the bishops with us will have as little right to imme-
diately address themselves to his Majesty, as authority
to give any thing directly into chancery. 2dly. Since
complaints, appeals, and other ecclesiastical causes,
from the several provinces, must, of necessity, be
brought before his Majesty. And, 3dly. Since it will
be necessary, in this new establishment, that a superior
Ephorus be appointed, who, in his Majesty's name, may
take care that every bishop does the duty of his office.

Thus, then, will the office of director of ecclesiastical
affairs remain, after Episcopacy is produced, only with
this difference, that it will then be of greater splendour
and dignity. We shall except, however, some few
points, which 'twould be proper to leave to the care of
the bishops in their several provinces, as shall presently
be shewn.

XII. We come now to the bishops themselves, and
their character and function; before we define which,
'twill be necessary to say something to that ques-
tion, whether these bishops should have the inspection
only over the Reformed Churches of their diocese, or
over the Lutherans also. For my part I believe the
Lutherans themselves would in most places be very
well satisfied with it: however, 'twould be more safe
at first to let it be only over the Reformed. And, upon
this footing, I consider the thing at- present : the rest
will follow in course from the designed union of the
Protestant Churches.

XIII. Now the function and jurisdiction of a bi-
shop, in each province, consists in the following things.

APPENDIX SECOND.

206

In general.

To have the inspection of the Churches and Clergy
of his diocese, and to exercise that jurisdiction accord-
ing to certain instructions and rules prescribed to him.
That he be tied to no special care of souls in any par-
ticular congregation, but have his liberty to preach in
this or that Church, as he shall see fit.

1st. In particular he is obliged to take care of the
examination of candidates for the ministry, and to ordain
proper persons to it.

2dly. To hold frequent visitations of his Churches in
person ; or, in case of necessity, by a deputy : and to
take care of all thing's that belong; to them.

3dly. He must have power with respect to the
ministers' doctrine, as well as their manner : when any
thing disorderly appears, which does not properly be-
long ad jurisdictionem content iosam, to cite the minister
before him, to give him fraternal admonition, and if
circumstances so require, to suspend him from the
actual exercise of his office, till his Majesty be in-
formed of it, and his royal resolutions known.

4thly. The ordering and disposal of the lower offices
of the Church, such as singers, organists, sextons, and
the determining their differences, do, in justice, and for
edification sake, naturally belong to the bishops, saving
always the power of appealing to his Majesty, if any
of them think themselves wronged.

5thly. When any corrupt member is, in the judg-
ment of the ministry, to be separated from the Church
by excluding him from the holy communion, the mi-
nister shall first communicate it to the bishop, and not
proceed to the execution of the sentence without his
approbation. But. in this the bishop must use a great

206

APPENDIX SECOND.

deal of Christian prudence, or expect that complaint
should be made of him to his Majesty.

6thly. When any disputes and offences arise between
the members of a Church, especially such as are usually
heard by the Consistory, the bishop must have power
to call such persons before him, and endeavour to com-
pose matters for the best.

7th. He shall have an inspection over the schools.
and take care they are kept in good order.

8th. The royal orders must be directed to the bishop,
and by him intimated to the rest of the ministers of the
diocese.

9th. And forasmuch as all these functions are those
of the general snperinteiidants by whom they are at this
time exercised ; that the Episcopal dignity may have
some reverence and authority, 'twould be but just that
every bishop in his province should be president of the
Consistory ; this city of the king's residence only ex-
cepted ; where the chief director of ecclesiastical affairs,
when of the Consistory, (which yet is not so constant
but that it has sometimes been otherwise), may remain
president, and the bishop vice-president. This pre-
sidentship may be granted without the least danger.
1st. Because the divines, when they know they may
come to be employed in those matters, would apply
themselves to the canon law, and the method of con-
sistorial proceedings. 2dly. Because scarce any but
old, experienced men, who have been members of Con-
sistories, would be chosen to be bishops. 3dly. Though
the president gathers the voices, yet the resolution
depends not upon him. but the plurality of voices. And
4thly. The sentence is always formed by some secular
member of the Consistory.

APPENDIX SECOND.

207

XIV. Upon all these branches of the Episcopal
function, a body of ecclesiastical constitutions and
laws of Church Government, must be formed with
mature judgment, and such standing rules prescribed,
as every one shall be obliged strictly to follow.

XV. An Episcopacy regulated after this manner,
can be of no prejudice to the sovereign, since his rights
are not in the least infringed, but rather established
and strengthened by it ; and the bishops entirely and
in all things depend upon him. Neither will it offend
the people, when they are once taught — 1st. That all
Christians, down from the Apostles, have constantly
had bishops. 2dly. That even now, not only all other
Christians, but all other Protestants than Prussians who
have kingly government, as England, Sweden, Den-
mark, have still retained them. 3dly. That those who
laid this order aside, were willing that it should be again
restored, when it was purged from all its abuses. 4thly.
That no German communion does disapprove of general
Superintendants ; and our bishops will be in effect
nothing else: and if that one point of their being made
presidents of the Consistories, be thought so great a
matter, it may be remembered that the general super-
intendant of this electorate, formerly preceded in rank
the president of the Consistory, as may be seen in the
instruments of those times. 5thly. That the dignity of
a bishop regards only his person ; that his wife can
pretend to no rank but what other people's civility is
pleased to give her; and his children no other than
what their own merit may procure them.

7th May, 1711.

■20S

APPENIilX .SECOND.

No. XV.

Admodum Reverende Vir,

Utrasque tuas die 19 et 27 Januarii scriptas
eodem die 31 Januarii accepi, quae uti pondere suo rae
perculerunt sic suavitate sua a bonae spei augurio
erexerunt mirifice.

Imprinius vero grandem illam Reverendissimi nostii
Praesulis * animam pectusque Apostolicum admiratus
sum qui Brittaniae Europaeque fata humeris suis baju-
lans de nostris tamen rebus ita est sollicitus quasi hoc
unicum curandum ipsiincumberet. Prioribus sane gestis
alios, novissimis seipsum superare visus est. Me pro-
fecto sanctus ille prassul plane in ruborem dedit,
cumque hactenus aliquid pro publico tentasse mihi
viderer nunc demum meam mihi ignaviam socordi-
amque exprobrare didici ; tantoque exemplo inflam-
matus humili in sphaera mea et ipse moveri, magnaque
vestigia pro modulo tenuitatis meae alacrius legere
percupio.

Sed mihi de rebus magnis breviter et succincte scri-
bendum erit.

1. Quaeris ex me quid illud sit quad in gratiam Nos-
tri Augusta Regina et Ecclesia Anglicana facere queat ?

Verbo dicam, hoc unum, vel certe precipuum ut
Legatum ad aulam nostram mittat talem qui et ipse
pius sit ecclesiaoque amans, et iis animi dotibus
pneditus ut amorem ordinis hierarchies et liturgiae ipsi
Regi et ministris indirecte et quasi aliud agendo in-

Episc. Bristol.

APPENDIX SECOND,

209

spirare queat. Scripsi ea de re ad Reverendissimum
Archi-Praesulera Eboracensem die 28 Aprilis anni praete-
riti, prolixeque oravi ut talis nobis destinetur legatus,
qui prudentice civili ecclesiasticam junctam habeat, &c.
Tu venerande vir qui res nostras geniumque aula?
intime perspecta habes facile mihi assentieris. Talis
vero Legatus si provida Reverendissimi Praesulis Bristo-
liensis cura nobis obtigerit, dimidium facti nos habere
existimabimus. Is enim sanctas regis nostri intentioni
pie obstetricabitur, et dubios vaccillantesque rei no-
vitate animos prudenter confirmabit. Turn vero toto
negotio pondus maximum accedit si vel legati litteris
credentialibus qu&dam de liturgia inserantur, vel Re-
gina singulari epistola Regem compellet eo modo quern
tu in epistola tua prudenter praescripsisti. De liturgia
inquam, non de hierarchia ecclesiastica : ejus enim
mentionem ore turtius quam scripto fieri posse autumo.

2d. Qua? de liturgia Anglicana auspiciti legati
Brittannici lingua nostra hie habenda memoras, optime
se habent. Et quemadmodum Rex eum in usum Legato
Templum lubens addicet, ita totam istam rem honori ec-
clesiae Anglicanae, maximaeque nostra? aedificationi fore
plane confido. Wilkinsium vero ei Spartae peridoneum
esse arbitror, possetque ipse saltern ad tempus, et ne
res ipsius in Brittannia detrimentum inde caperent
Legatum comitari.

3d. Metuere videris ne forte in gratiam nostri aliquid
in ordine vel ritibus vestris immutari desideramus. Et
conjicio quidem wide h&c vobis nata sit suspicio ;
simul tamen certiorem re reddo tale quid vel Regi vel
Ministris vel ipsi clero nostro nunquam in mentem
venisse. Si enim omnia et singula vestra amplecti
nostrarum rerum ratio haud forte pateretur, id tamen

VOL. II. P

210

APPENDIX SECOND.

certum firmumque stabit nunquam nos comtoissuros ut
vestra mutari cupiamus. Nisi forte (quod non nullis
theologorumBrittannicorum placuisse memini) ad lucri-
faciendos Non-Conformistas vestros ; plenamque cum
ipsis unioneni procurandam illud fiat ; quod tamen nos
ceu extra sphaeram nostram positum tempori et pru-
dentice vestrce in solidum relinquimus.

4th. Qua? de Halesianis prolixe disseris hie repetere
supervacaneum esset. Tu modo istum negotium ab
altero illo de quo prirao loco dixi distinguere memineris.
Etenim prius illud particulate est, solam ecclesiam
IMarchicara seu Prussicam, ejusque liturgiam et regi-
men tangens. Halesianum vero generalius, ad totam
Germaniam, imm6 ad Poloniam, Silesiam, Hungarian),
necnon ad u tram que Protestantium partem, Luther-
anam et Reforrnatam sese erat extensurum. Quia
enim virille incomparabilis pro suo quo in res ecclesiam
flagrabat zelo, multorum annorum itineribus, exquisi-
tam status et gravaminum omnium fere totius Europae
ecclesiarum Protestantium notitiam sibi comparaverat,
earumque emolumento totum se consecraverat, si Au-
gustas Brittannicarum Reginae autoritate fuisset mu-
nitus plurima in commune ecclesiarum bonum praestare
potuisset. Praeterquam enim quod ipsius opera ipsum
forte negotium liturgicum et hierarchicum principaliter
quidem per Legatum tractandum quandantenus adju-
vari potuisset, primario tamen. (1) Negotium Ireni-
cum in Germania resuscitari, Statibus Imperii commen-
dari et efficaciter promoveri potuisset : eique rei
Britannia? Regina non ut pars sed ut mediatrix sese
ingessisset. (2) Postquam Legati Brittannici ope res
liturgica et hierarchica in Prussia? Regno optatum
eventum sortita fuisset, opera Haksii, alii in imperio

APPENDIX SECOND.

211

status, ipsique Cantones Helvetici in aliqualem ejus rei
societatem potuissent invitari. Suppono enim, agentem
Mum ecclesiasticum non Berolini sed in aliquo Imperii
meditullio, (e. g. Cassellis, Francofuti ad Maenum, 8cc.)
residere debere unde facilis ipsi ad omnes imperii par-
tes, et ad vicinas quoque nationes, pro re nata, excursus
pateret. (3) Gravamina Protestantium in Polonia,
Silesia, Hungaria, &c. ad Halesium, perque hunc ad
Augustam Reginam deferrentur. Memorabile vero est
Dominum Baronem de Li?itelo cum istud Reginae Con-
silium primum audivisset pollicitum esse sese apud
ordines Fteed. Be/gic. effecturum ut vel ipsorum no-
mine similis rerum ecclesiasticarum Agens constitu-
eretur vel eadem res nomine D. D. Ordinum ipsi Domino
Halesio tractanda committeretur : quo ipso in Protes-
tantes harmonia fundaretur et Domini Halesii axio-
mati pondus haud exiguum accederet. (4) Cumque
praesenti pacis generalis tractatui plurima ad re-
ligionem spectantia jure inserenda essent, Halesius
ista undique colligere, digerere, et D. D. plenipotenti-
ariis praeparare posset, ne rerum minutarum et numero-
sarum congeries nimium ipsis esset molesta. Ex iis quae
dixi, et quae praeterea addi possent, facile intelligis,
Vir Reverende, rem utilem et Ecclesiis cis-marinis
salutarem nos optasse ; earn tamen gratiosae Numinis
Providential pie commendantes, hoc saltern precamur,
ut missio Legati idonei ad aulam nostram maturetur.
(5) Plenipotentiarorum Prussicorum primus Comes
Douhoffuis vir est magnanimus, candidus, pius, et
voluntatis bonae plenissimus : addo tamen militem esse,
et qui res ecclesiasticas, (praeter ea quae ad cultum
numinis consuetum, et exercitia pietatis faciunt) pa-
rum animo versavit. Perutile vero esset, si isti viro idea

p 2

212

APPENDIX SECOND.

quaedara et amor hierarchiae et liturgiae imprimi posset.
(6) Quod tenuitatis meae presentiam Ultrajecti non in-
gratum fore ais, id gratia? Reverendissimi Praesulis,
tuaeque V. A. humanitati acceptum fero. Nosti enim
animum meum, me si publico tantillum prodesse
queam, iter non ad Belgas solum, sed ad ultimos usque
Garamantas prompto animo suscepturum esse. Neque
de consensu Regis mei dubito, dummodo, de re ipsa,
deque mente Reverendissimi Patris porro, constet.
Berolini, 6 Feb. 1712.

No. XVI.

I/lustrissime, Sjc. &;c.

Patere ut in conspectum tuum mea pietas prodeat,
Pater Reverendissime, Vestrisque a quibus jam libertas
Europae, salus ecclesiae, spes posteritatis dependet con-
siliis, Gratiam Dei directionemque S. Spiritus ardenter
apprecetur.

Votis, gratias jungo humillimas pro eo in ecclesiam
Prussicam beneficio quod illustrem Brelonium Augusta
Brittanniae Regina Legatum ad aulam nostram mittere
voluerit. Vir enim iste quamvis militias nomen dedit,
ecclesiae tamen amantem, et de rebus ecclesiae sollici-
tum se probat. Et potuit ipsius opera in bonum ecclesiae
nostras jam nonnihil effectum fuisse, nisi praesens
Europae revolutio quae ita res civiles miscet, ut ecclesi-
asticas pariter afficiat conatibus ejusmodi remoram
fecisset. Ita enim cordatior quisque stupet, et cura
praesentium objecta, anxiam in futurum expectationem
intendit.

Guadeo tamen Dominum Legatum propinqui ad-
ventus Wilkinsii spem nobis fecisse, sacellani munere

APPENDIX SECOND.

213

apud se impleturi. Etenim si votis locus fuisset,
omnibus aliis hue mittendis, Reverendum Ayerstium
praeoptassem ceu rebus nostris utilissimum ; prudenti
enim conversatione Germanos seque ac Gallos ita sibi
obstrinxerat, ut propter hunc quem norant, ipsam quaru
norant, ecclesiam Anglicanam diligerent et veneraren-
tur. Quia vero virtutem ejus in illustriore theatro
apparere Serenissima Regina voluit, fortassis in ipsam
patriam ad prsemia meritissima capienda eundem prope
diem revocatura, Wilkinsii viri optimi praesentia illam
nobis jacturam utcunque pensabit, et Wilkinsius quae
Ayerstius seminavit metere inque labores ejus com-
mode introire poterit.

Interim liturgia Neocomeusis et Genevensis Lo>idi?ii
impresse ad nos delata est, quam amici bene multi
privatim secum communicatam in linguam Germanicam
transferri suadent. Ea res, ubi Reverendissiino Domino
Episcopo, (qui ob defectum valetudinis librum nondum
videt), probata fuerit, ut ocissime executioni detur
faxo.

Ne vero tempus hactenus elapsum publico ecclesiae
bono prorsus esset sterile, id nobis Divina bonitas
indulsit, ut consilia de Alumnis Regiis in Anglia
alendis, ecclesiaeque Prussicag Ministris sic praepar-
andis, pridem agitata, nunc tandem effectual sortita
sunt. Legibus Fundationis conscriptis, et redditibus
necessariis eidem assignatis, ita quidem ut sperem
primitiashuj us fundationis quo tempore Reverendissima
vestra Paternitas adhuc Londini morabitur in Angliam
appulsum, venerandisque ejus poplitibus advolutum iri,
Vale Reverendissime. &c. &c.

Dan. Ern. Jablottski.

Dubnm Berolini, d. 14 Jan. St. N. 1713.

214

APPENDIX SECOND.

No. XVII.

Illustrissime, &c. Qc.

Praemisso ardenti pro illibata Reverendissiniae vestrae
Paternitatis incolumitate voto, postquam a Domino
Chamberlayn accepi editionem Martyrologii Brayani ali-
qualem raoram pati; officii meiesse duxiReverendissimae
et Illustrissimae vestrae Paternitati significare hoc ipso
spatium mihi concessum esse, materiem, unde Martyro-
logiura Polonicum exsurgat congerendi. Et quidein in
Historia ab initio Reformationis ad an. 1650, contexenda
jam occupor ; sed ad ea quae dictum annum excipiunt
tempora persequenda, cum subsidiorum impressorum
prostet nihil, ea operosius veniunt conquirenda. Quia
vero ad initium Septembris nova synodus generalis in-
dicta est, ad quam ex omnibus Regni Poloniae partibus
Theologi confluent, primarios illorum rogavi ut ex suo
quisque tractu symbolas conferant, post a me in ordi-
nem redigendas ; adeoque historiolam universam prox-
imo autumno. B. C. D. ad praelum paratam fore confido.

Quantam Ecclesia Prussica morte Friderici gloriosaa
memoriae Regis, pii et munifici, cladem passa sit Reve-
rendissimae vestrae Paternitati ignotum esse haud potest.
Solatii tamen loco inter alia illud quoque est, quod
Serenissimus Successor paternam de alumnis in Anglia
alendis affectam fundationem gratiose conGrmavit.
Quam primum igitur de illis in Angliam mittendis
certi quid constitutum fuerit, quod proxima aastate fore
spero, leges ejus fundationis ad Reverendissimum Do-
minum Ayerst, mittam. ut, si ea res tanti videatur, in

APPENDIX SECOND.

215

linguam Anglicanam eas transferre Reverendissimaeque
vestrae Paternitati offerre possit. Quod superest Reve-
rendissime et Ulustrissime Archi-Praesul pacem univer-
salem Britlannorum cum primi opera, Occidenti nostro
illucescentem,Reverendissima3 vestrae Paternitati humil-
lime gratulor, atque eadem in Nominis Divini gloriam
et Ecclesiae Evangelicae (Anglicanae cum primis) eniolu-
mentum cedat ardentissime precor ; Reverendissima: et
Illustrissimae Paternitatis vestras Domini mei gratiosis-
simi,

Servus humillimus et filius obedientissimus,
Daniel ErvN. Jablouski.

Eerolini, d. 22. Apr. 1713.

No. XVIII.

Vol. V. Numb. 22.

The Examiner, from Monday, February 8, to Friday,
February 12, 1713.

Sunt alii simplices et aperti, qui nihil ex occulto, nihil ex insidiis,
agendum putant, veritatis cultores, fraud is inimici. — Cicero.

People are so entirely taken up with false reports
and idle rumours, and pay so much regard and atten-
tion to imaginary evils and disasters, that a real solid
loss does not affect them in the manner it ought, nor
make those lasting impressions on their minds which
the nature of the calamity requires. When good and
great men are taken away from the evil to come, and
removed out of a world full of confusion and disorder,

216

APPENDIX SECOND.

and almost reduced to atoms by the feuds and conten-
tions that reign in it, and as often in danger of being
set on fire before its time by those violent heats and
frequent eruptions which continually infest it ; there
is no doubt but death, in that shape, to wise and holy
persons, mature in years and virtues, comes in all the
appearance of a welcome messenger, and bestows a
favour from the Almighty, by calling up a faithful ser-
vant to higher and more durable honours, and to a
place nearer himself. But to us, who are left behind,
to a degenerate age, thinly set with shining lights and
unblemished examples to a Church and nation sur-
rounded with a boisterous sea, and agitated with con-
tinual storms and tempests, such a loss is a curse and
a punishment, and as much to be lamented as the loss
of a skilful pilot in a dangerous passage, or of a faith-
ful experienced guide upon a difficult and perilous
journey. Reflections of this nature, however disa-
greeable to our choice, which would rather fix upon
more entertaining objects, cannot possibly be avoided,
at the arrival of such melancholy news, as sensibly
damped the joys of the last week, I mean the death of
a great and excellent Primate of our Church, the most
Reverend Father in God, Dr. John Sharp, Lord Arch-
bishop of York, who for many years was an ornament
to the Reformed religion, and a public blessing to his
country.

One cannot be too early in doing justice to the cha-
racter of this incomparable Prelate ; and in distinguish-
ing the Saint, whilst his memory is fresh amongst us.
Because it is impossible to say any good of him, which
mankind will not readily attest. He had all the trea-
sures of ancient and modern learning, which were ne-

APPENDIX SECOND.

217

cessary to render him a perfect master of divinity in
its two main branches, preaching and controversy. He
thought, and spoke, and wrote with inimitable clear-
ness : his expressions were a covering for the truths of
Christianity, like crystal, solid, durable, and transpa-
rent. In his person and behaviour in the Church and
the Senate, at his table and in his retirements, he gave
all the natural unaffected proofs of primitive upright-
ness and integrity. But to the honest plainness and
simplicity of the Cyprianic age, he added all those re-
fined graces and improvements of modern erudition,
which others assume, to gain applause for themselves,
and which my Lord of York wholly employed in the
propagation of truth and the service of religion. No-
thing mean or trifling, sour or ill-natured, ever came
from him, scarce from any body else in his presence.
He was far from being of a retired monastic temper,
but had all that well-grounded cheerfulness, that decent
affability and humanity which struck a lustre upon all
his other virtues, and made the imitation of him infi-
nitely desirable and pleasing. As His Grace was the
delight of all mankind, so all mankind were his delight.
His charity and bounty were large and extensive, and
reached not only to whatever objects came in his way,
but to all that he could find, by an industry free from
ostentation, and that plainly shewed his own want of
opportunities to do good was as great as that of others
to receive it. He had a public spirit, immensely large
and perfectly sincere, and a greatness of soul, sufficient
to adorn the highest birth, and to proclaim the advan-
tageous difference between the Roman and Christian
honour and nobility. His generosity extended even to
the relicts and descendants of good and worthy men j

218

APPENDIX SECOND.

and became the happy instrument of Providence in
rewarding the posterity of religious and loyal ances-
tors. His continual exercise of this virtue vastly ex-
ceeded the intentional devotion of a thousand posthu-
mous charities. He was accessible, complaisant, and
courteous to a surprising degree ; and his good nature
made no difference in habits, fortunes, stations, and
degrees. Pity and compassion seemed to be a part of
his nature, and flowed directly from his heart. He
might rather be said not to know what resentment was,
than to stifle and suppress it. No man of a more for-
giving temper, less acquainted with injuries, or better
able to bear them. Amidst all our party piques and
contentions, I do not remember any one single creature
so wretched and abandoned as to deserve being called
an enemy to my Lord of York, though even that inquiry
might easily be pardoned, because of the title it had to
his constant and efficacious prayers. He perfectly
understood the meaning and measures of moderation,
and left the world without excuse for quarrelling about
the word, when they saw it so fully explained in His
Grace's life and conversation. All the relations of life
stood constantly before him in the clearest light ; and the
several duties annexed to them shewed themselves in the
highest beauty and fairest order, as they bore an exact
proportion and resemblance to his practice. He endea-
voured to make all who were born of him, placed uuder
him, or known to him, more worthy of that benefit, by
being more serviceable to the Church and State. Few
men rise as he did, by those virtues of lowliness and
submission, which, in a corrupt age, seem rather to
have a tendency another way ; and these he had fully
learned and exercised long before he merited to have

APPENDIX SECO>< U.

219

no other superior but God and the Queen. There are
many, who will value the hereditary honours they
enjoy, and study to improve them, from the advantage
they thereby had of being conversant with this incom-
parable prelate; who never contracted a friendship,
without enlarging those virtues upon which it was at
first founded. He was just, equitable, and impartially
good, to such a degree, that if the world does but use
him, as he treated all mankind, there will be no occa-
sion to say that he was one of the best men living.
His temperance was so great and exemplary, that his
senses and bodily appetites bore no proportion to those
of his mind ; to that spiritual sensation, which was
perpetually searching after the purest objects, and
never could be satisfied, but in that blessed state, whi-
ther he is now removed. His understanding and con-
science were two great luminaries, moving together by
unalterable concert; as remarkable for their purity and
lustre, as for the order and steadiness of their courses.
He loved truth, not with the vain curiosity and uncer-
tain distrust of one who searches after it, but with all
the delight and complacency of the happy wise man,
who has found and long enjoyed it. His word and
promise were esteemed equivalent to the firmest secu-
rities. His veracity so free from blemish, and so fully
attested by common consent, that it is become a sin to
praise him, but upon the fullest knowledge and the
clearest grounds. However, his boundless candour is
at least a reason why his name, which is all that re-
mains of him, should have justice done it; and when
interest is no more, it would be equally criminal, not to
proclaim that of him which the departed saint cannot

220 APPENDIX SECOND.

now hear ; and which all who are left behind him, will
hear with pleasure, and unanimously justify.

In his family every thing was managed with such
admirable regularity, as if all his care and wisdom had
been confined to that sphere only. His retirements were
divided between study and devotion. At his table
there was that decent freedom and alacrity, that hos-
pitable abundance and plenty, which became the dig-
nity of his station and character, and the liberality of
his disposition. Had Wolsey been to dictate splendour
to him, still his conversation must have been the best
part of the entertainment. He redoubled the esteem
and veneration of others for him, by aiming only at
their love, and lost nothing of the Archbishop in the very
good neighbour and obliging frien d. The chanty which
flowed from his table to his gate, was extremely mag-
nified by the manner of bestowing it : it reached to the
souls as well as bodies of the poor, and naturally led
them to a grateful remembrance of their Maker, when
they saw so lively an image of him in one of his most
faithful stewards. His delight in private charities
could not be well concealed ; but the measures of his
bounty in that way, are a secret, only known to Him
who shall one day reward them openly. In his Chapel
and devotions he was so intent, and abstracted from
the world, that the duty looked more like pleasure and
enjoyment : and such an unaffected humility and holy
ardour accompanied his daily offering of our most
Excellent Liturgy, that it sensibly diffused itself through
all who had the advantage of praying with him.

In his province and diocese he acted with all whole-
some but gentle authority, which became the spiritual

APPENDIX SECOND.

221

father of the Clergy and laity. He so far united these
two Orders in affection and love for each other, which
their first institution plainly tended to promote, that
they often joined together to give public marks of their
high esteem and veneration for him, and of the irresis-
tible force and influence which his example had upon
them, to compel them to love and unity. He was
constant in his residence, regular in his visitations,' and,
by his steady and uniform adherence to the rules and
ordinances of the Church, accompanied with a true
Christian humility and gentleness, he regained all that
authority and regard for the Episcopal function, which
is one of the distinguishing marks of the primitive
purity of religion. No man had a more tender concern
for the Reformed interest abroad, nor more careful to pre-
serve the beauty and order of the Church of England,
that it might be a standing pattern for all other Protes-
tants. That discipline, whose decay he often lamented,
and tried, in some measure, to restore, appeared truly
reforming and medicinal under his government ; and
wherever the canon was invalid, the ends of it were
answered by the force of his example. As his province
made a noble barrier against Presbytery , so it was much
for the honour and interest of the Church, that such a
Primate was placed in it, who, in the person of a single
Archbishop, could shew the bordering Schismatics more
Christian virtues than ever yet met together in a whole
Class or Assembly of Presbyters.

In the Senate his opinion and judgment were of the
greatest weight, and his veracity and sincerity had never
been called in question. He spake with all imaginable
clearness and solidity upon the most important sub-
jects, and very seldom or ever entered into any debates

222

APPENDIX SECOND.

which turned altogether upon private pique or interest ;
but he saw at once through the merits and tendency of
every cause which any ways affected the constitution
in Church and State, of which he was a consummate
judge, and an unalterable friend to both. Here he
always exerted himself, and discharged his conscience
with regard as well to his country, as to that sacred
trust reposed in him ; in such a manner, that he was
always consistent with himself, and sure to have God
and the Queen of his party.

His Works will be ever admired as the standard of
good preaching, so long as the English tongue and Pro-
testant Religion remain in any degree of purity and per-
fection. His Readers have it not in their power to wish
for any addition to the holy entertainment that is
before them, unless it were the graces of his elocution
and delivery. The important subjects of which he has
treated, are so justly and clearly stated, in so fine a
style, so exact a method, and with such strength and
energy of reason, that, whoever comes after him, must
be content to have his quotations esteemed by far the
best part of the performance. And so true and lively
a spirit of religion runs through all his discourses, that
they seem to be as much the dictates of his practice as
of his understanding.

For the honour of the British court I can say, that
since a late unhappy reign, there are few years in which
he was not in high trust and favour. Whatever fac-
tions, whatever arts or corruptions may prevail, emi-
nent examples of loyalty and piety will naturally attract
the notice of a state that is not over fond of its own
ruin ; and even the envy raised against those virtues,
must serve to distinguish them. I cannot come into

APPENDIX SECOND.

223

their opinion, who will not allow my Lord of York to
be a very great politician, till I first see it made out,
that an abhorrence of all chicane and artifice, a steadi-
ness in principle, and a consistency in behaviour, are
direct folly and mismanagement. It is certain he made
a great party for the Church, by his unshaken con-
stancy and exemplary integrity ; and because every
one who knew his principles, knew the man, therefore
he was the less liable to be deceived in his friends,
when both he and they, and the common cause, went
together.

He had the advantageous misfortune of presiding
in the Church for many years of trouble and disorder,
in which time he had frequent opportunities of giving
proofs of his unshaken zeal and integrity, whenever
any innovations were attempted against Religion in
general, or the Church of England and his own Order
in particular. He was not satisfied with a tame be-
wailing of these attempts, but undauntedly placed him-
self in the gap, and opposed them with a true Christian
bravery and resolution. He often saw the Church be-
set with enemies, both from within and without ; and
though not openly persecuted, yet violently opposed
and discouraged, and the most inveterate enmity to
her made a mark of honour, and a sure title to reward.
At last he saw her deserted even by her once most
zealous friends, and to whom he had many personal
obligations ; and yet he remained the same steady,
unalterable lover of the Church of England, and ac-
companied her through all her distresses, till she was
happily restored to a state of honour and safety. His
conduct before the Revolution, shewed him to be a
strenuous opposer of the idolatry and corruptions of

224

APPENDIX SECOND.

the Church of Rome; and his behaviour, both at and
after the Revolution, made it apparent, how just a sense
he had of that deliverance, when he promoted every
thing which tended to the restoration and establish-
ment of the constitution, that had before been lessened
and invaded, and as bravely opposed every thing that
tended to a further change and alteration in our laws
and religion, which were afterwards attempted by
another sort of tyranny. They who insist altogether on
His Grace's conduct at this juncture, would do well to
imitate him in all the other parts of his life ; and then
we should have fewer enemies to the Church, and less
trouble and disorder in the State.

APPENDIX THIRD.

ADDENDA.
LETTERS OF GRANVILLE SHARP AND OTHERS,

WITH

Utitt Notice* & monumental £iwt tptton*

THE FAMILY OF SHARP,

COLLECTED BY THE EDITOR.

VOL. II. Q

APPENDIX THIRD.

Extract of u Letter from Granville Sharp to Doctor
John Sharp.

London, Otk April, 1763.

Dear Brother,

P. S. It may perhaps be uncertain how long
my grandfather's life will be in preparing for the press,
therefore we shall be very glad if you can spare the
book for a short time, as there is so good an oppor-
tunity of sending it up with the other papers; we will
send it down again the very first opportunity. I ap-
prehend it will not take up above a week to read it.

I was asked several questions by a gentleman the
other day concerning my grandfather, which I could
not answer, upon which he seemed greatly surprised
that I should know so little concerning him.

London, 7th April, 17G4.

Dear Brother,

Mr. Gregory, (the Prussian), has hud an answer
from his brother-in-law at Embden, concerning our

Q 2

228

APPENDIX THIRD.

proposal of presenting Dr. Jablonski's Letters, &c. to
the king of Prussia. He thinks that will be very ac-
ceptable there ; but is afraid, that if only a single MS.
copy is presented to the King, that it may be laid out
of the way, and forgot, as his Majesty is much em-
ployed at this time in travelling round his dominions :
he therefore advises that a copy, with a dedication in
French to the king of Prussia, should be sent to him,
which he imagines he can dispose of to some advant-
age at Leipsig, in order to be printed ; and that the
money for which the copy is sold to the printer maybe
applied to any charitable use which you think proper -y
and that he would present to the king a printed copy
handsomely bound.

I told Mr. Gregory that I would consult you first ;
but I thought myself, that a well-wrote MS. copy
would be a handsomer present to the king, and that if
such a one was sent, his brother might have a rough
copy taken of it before presented, which he might
communicate among his friends, or even print, provided
that the king should give his consent to it.

If you will write a proper dedication or preamble to
the king of Prussia, I will get it translated into good
French, as likewise such other parts of the account as
are wrote in English. I fancy that the best and cheapest
way of having the copy wrote, will be to employ some
understrapper of the law in the country to engross it,
as my grandfather's life was wrote*.

I think that though the charge of writing should be

* From this understrapper's handy-work a copy was taken for the printer,
but the man of law had made infinite havoc of Doctor Jablonski's Latin, which
the Editor had to correct without access to view the original letters of
Dr. J. — Editor.

APPENDIX THIRD.

229

common expense, yet that the dedication should be
wrote in your own name, as being the properest repre-
sentative of the Archbishop's family.

As a MS. copy must be sent, it will make very little
difference in the expense to have it wrote well, that it
may be presented instead of a printed copy, as being a
greater compliment to the king. But, however, what-
ever directions you give me concerning this, I will
punctually follow, for I only mention my opinion that
you may have more matter to form your own upon.
I am,

Dear Brother,

Your sincerely affectionate Brother,
Granville Sharp.

Excuse haste.

London, 13/// Nov. 1764.

Dear Brother,

I shall be glad if you will turn back to a former
letter of mine relating to Dr. Jablonski's letters. You
will there find, that we need not be at a loss for a
method of presenting them to the king of Prussia. Mr.
Gregory of Berlin told me, that his brother-in-law, who
is a man of great repute in that country for learning,
had undertaken to have it properly delivered. I think
he also said, that a French translation of the letters
should be annexed to each, or that they would be other-
wise useless to the king of Prussia ; and that it would
be proper to prefix a French dedication, with some of
the usual compliments on such occasions to the king
of Prussia, to make it more acceptable to him. Mr.

230

APPENDIX THIRD.

Gregory's brother-in-law likewise offered, that if, in
order to make this affair more generally known in
Prussia? we should choose to have the book published,
that he would take care to have it printed properly
abroad, and would correct the press ; also would de-
liver the first copy to the king, and would dispose of
the money which he imagined would arise from the
sale of it, in any charily that we should approve of.
Now, as a French translation seems necessary, this is
a sufficient reason against sending the whole book,
which without, would be useless.
I am,

Dear Brother,

Your sincerely affectionate Brother,
Granville Sharp.

London, \6th August, 1765.

Dear Brother,

As I have received great civilities from the Mas-
ter of the Temple, (Dr. Sharpe), I ventured (as I thought
you would have no objection), to lend him my grand-
father's " Life ;" which, he told me, he read with the
greatest satisfaction : he said, likewise, that the pre-
fixing some short account of my father as the author *
of it, would be a great addition to the work. Now,
why may not the funeral sermon preached by Dr.
Bland, (if you can prevail upon the Doctor to favour
us with a copy of it), be very proper for that purpose ?

* The Editor could not discover Doctor Bland's Sermon, but has collected
such notices as he could find, or the present family could furnish. See the fol-
lowing " Preface," &c.

APPENDIX THIRD.

231

I thought it a good sermon when I heard it ; but as
your memory is much better than mine, I shall be glad
to know your opinion.

As I have not received your answer to my letters
about the promise which I made to Mr. Gregory of
Berlin, of an abstract from my grandfather's life, I take
it for granted that you have no objection ; and there-
fore, as soon as Mr. Lodge, (who is now reading the
books), has done with them, I intend to employ a per-
son to translate all that relates to the Prussian church,
into good and elegant French, (as Mr. Gregory's
brother-in-law advised), and send him a copy of the
same, well wrote, and richly bound, to be presented to
the king of Prussia.
I am,

Dear Brother,

Your sincerely affectionate Brother,

Granville Sharp.

London, \9tfi Dec. 17C5.

Dear Brother,

I hope you will excuse my long silence ; for
indeed it has not been owing to any remissness : but as
the cobler's wife is worst shod, (they say), so am I
spoiled for a private correspondent, since letter-writing
became my profession.

Inclosed I send you a copy of what I have drawn up
by way of preface to the extract from my grandfather's
life, relating to the Prussian church*. Whatever it may

* Sec the subjoined Preface, the title pages, in French as published by the
Rev. Mr. Muysson, and in English by Granville Sharp. — Editor.

232

APPENDIX THIRD.

want in point of elegance, I hope the French translator
will supply ; for my friend, Mr. Chalie, has recom-
mended to me a very good one, who is a French clergy-
man of the Church of England.

Dr. Sharpe approves of my preface, and has pro-
mised to assist me in drawing up a short dedication to
the king of Prussia ; but as, from your better acquaint-
ance with my father's writings and other affairs, you
are undoubtedly the best judge of what may be superflu-
ous or wanting in the said preface, I beg you will ac-
quaint me with whatever corrections you may think
necessary.

Mr. Chalie assures me that I may depend upon the
honour of the French translator, as he is a man of worth
and trust, that he will not make any extracts from the
book for his own private use.

Pray give my love to my sister, brother Tom, and to
little Jemima : I am heartily glad to hear she thrives so
well.

I am,

Dear Brother,
Your sincerely affectionate Brother,

Granville Sharp.

" Relation Des Mesures qui furent prises dans les
annees 1711, 1712, et 1713, pour introduire La Li-
turgie Anglicane dans le Roiaume de Prusse, et dans
l'Electoral de Hanover.

Eclaircie Par
Des Lettres et autres Pieces Originales
Relatives a, ce Projet.
Le tout extrait

APPENDIX THIRD.

233

D'un Manuscript qui n'a pas encore ete rendu public,
contenant des Memoires de la vie du
Docteur Jean Sharp
Archeveque d'York
Traduit de l'Anglois par J. T. Muysson
Ministre de la Chapelle Francoise du Palais
de St. James, et de l'Eglise Francoise
de la Savoie a Londres.
A Londres :

Imprime par W. Richardson et S. Clark dans Fleet-st.
m.dcc.lxvii."

Title to the Book.

An Account of what Steps were taken towards an In-
troduction of the English Liturgy into the Kingdom of
Prussia and Electorate of Hanover, in the Year 1711,
1712, and 1713, illustrated with Authentic Copies of
several Original Letters and Papers relating to that
laudable Design.

The whole extracted from a Manuscript (never yet
published) of the Life of Dr. John Sharp, Archbishop of
York.

Preface to the Reader, ( by Granville Sharp. )
Translated into French by the Rev. Mr. Muysson.

As the following account of the several steps taken to-
wards an introduction of the English liturgy into the
kingdom of Prussia, &c, is copied from the manuscript
of the Life of Dr. John Sharp, Archbishop of York, it

234

APPENDIX THIRD.

will be necessary first of all to acquaint the reader with
some particulars concerning the Author of the said
MS., as well as concerning that work itself ; because
on these the authority of this account chiefly depends.

The manuscript above mentioned was compiled by
Dr. Thomas Sharp, late Archdeacon of Northumberland
and Prebendary of Durham, a person not less remark-
able for integrity, piety, and a conscientious discharge
of his duty, than his father, the Archbishop, whose life
he wrote.

The candour, judgment, and learning of this author
are sufficiently shewn, in such of his works as are al-
ready printed ; and particularly in the Hebrew contro-
versy, wherein he so happily succeeded against the fol-
lowers of Mr. Hutchinson.

If he was remarkable for his great sagacity and dis-
cernment as a critic, he was not less so for his polite,
mild, and ingenuous behaviour to all those with whom
he differed in opinion ; of both which excellent qualities
the polemaical writings above mentioned contain suffi-
cient proofs.

The contents of the following pages being entirely
ecclesiastical, it may not be improper to observe further
concerning the author, that he had a thorough know-
ledge of ecclesiastical affairs, and that he has left to
posterity a lasting monument of the same, in his dis-
courses on the rubrics and canons of the Church of
England, so far as they relate to the parochial clergy.

With respect to the present work the author informs
us in his original preface, that all matters of fact which
are reported therein, are either taken from the Arch-
bishops own diary, or from other evidences of equal
authority with it.

APPENDIX THIRD.

235

It now remains to inform the reader that the grand-
children of Archbishop Sharp (for the instruction of
whom the above-mentioned work was compiled, and in
whose possession only it now is) have caused this ex-
tract to be made from the said work, and translated
into the French tongue ; not for any private purpose
whatever, but merely with a friendly design of com-
municating to those whom it more particularly concerns,
some matters relating to the Prussian church, which
they imagine may not now be known in Prussia ; be-
cause they were brought to light chiefly by means of
letters and other original papers preserved in Arch-
bishop Sharp's family ; there having been a private cor-
respondence carried on between the Archbishop, and
that truly pious and learned man Dr. Jablonski con-
cerning the business herein related.

The author of the above-mentioned manuscript ob-
serves in the original preface, that his first design in
undertaking the said work was, " that it might prove
an instructive lesson to the Archbishop's grandchildren,
who it was natural to think, would receive a stronger
and more effectual impression of an imitable pattern of
piety, when the ideas of it were conveyed in perpetual
association with those of the person and character of so
near a relation."

In like manner the descendants of the Archbishop
are willing to flatter themselves that the same kind of
reasoning may serve as their apology for offering the
perusal of this extract to the Prussian reader, they
having the greatest reason to suppose the relation in
respect to country, and the esteem and veneration justly
due to the two great encouragers of this noble design,
(the one an illustrious Prince, the other Dr. Jablonski

236

APPENDIX THIRD.

an eminent minister, and approved member of the Prus-
sian church) and that the zeal for God's honour, with
the love of decency and uniformity so conspicuous in
the former, and the candour, meekness and sincerity of
the latter, so becoming a true servant of Jesus Christ,
together with the clear and unanswerable arguments in
favour of episcopacy and established liturgies, set forth
in the course of this work cannot fail of making a deep
impression on the minds of all good Prussians.

This extract commences with some transactions of
Archbishop Sharp which do not at all relate to Prussia, '
and therefore may require some kind of apology for
their insertion here as well as the panegyric on the
Archbishop's character, with which the whole is con-
cluded, wherefore it will be necessary to acquaint the
reader that, the former were inserted for the sake of
shewing the Archbishop's brotherly disposition towards
foreign Protestants ; because a different and misconceived
opinion of them in another English prelate of his own time,
was unfortunately the means of putting a stop to the
king of Prussia's laudable design of introducing the
English liturgy when it was first proposed ; and the
latter was thought proper to be added, because it con-
tains a lively character of a truly worthy Protestant
divine which must needs be very acceptable to all good
Christians, whether in Prussia or elsewhere.

Some few pieces contained in the following pages
(viz. Baron Printz's two Letters, and No. 2, 11 and 12 in
the Appendix) were originally written in high Dutch,
and were translated into English before they were pre-
sented to the Archbishop ; therefore if this French
translation should chance to be compared with the high
Dutch copies (if any such are to be found) it is hoped

APPENDIX THIRD. 237

that the candid reader will excuse the translator, if it
should happen, that his versions appear to have lost
much of their original spirit and energy ; because as
they are only translations of translations, any devia-
tions from the justness of the author's expressions are
more easily to be accounted for, than they were to be
avoided.

Note — The Archbishops Tillotson and Tenison were
Archbishop Sharp's cotemporary metropolitan Bishops.
The former, it is well known, wished that " we were well
rid (not at any rate) of the Athanasian creed" in our li-
turgy ; of course before foreign Protestants should adopt
the use of it : and the latter might be influenced by a
suspicion, not only of the orthodox soundness of Ger-
man Protestants, but that Queen Ann's bounty would be
expected to precede their reception of the Services of
the Church of England. Yet the first King of Prussia
seems to have been sincere in his desire for its intro-
duction. As to the " great King," if he valued any
thing but military glory, and the French language, and
philosophy, (until he found the latter subverting his
throne), it was an English loan, not an English liturgy.
His present Majesty of Prussia, far wiser, knows that
" righteousness exalteth a kingdom," and has spared
Notre Dame, and worshipped in Westminster Abbey.
— Editor.

London, Dec. 12, 17GG.

Dear Sir,

So much time has elapsed since I first proposed
to send you an extract from the manuscript of my

238 APPENDIX THIRD.

grandfather's life, (relating to the intended introduc-
tion of the English liturgy into Prussia) that I am afraid
you will suspect me either of having been very negli-
gent, or of having forgot my promise.

I lost no time in acquainting all my brothers with my
intention, their consent being necessary ; but as some
of them were in doubt whether the whole of the manu-
script should not be made public (which would have
made this extract unnecessary) and all of them having
a great deal of other business which necessarily en-
grossed their whole attention, much time was lost be-
fore I could be informed of their determination. This,
as well as the translating the extract into French and a
variety of other incidents, have unavoidably prolonged
the time more than I could possibly have suspected.
However, I have the satisfaction of informing you that
the extract is now in the press, in order to have a few
copies printed off ; as I am advised to send a printed
rather than a MS. copy, lest the bulky appearance of
the latter should be any hindrance to its being read.
You told me when I last had the pleasure of seeing you,
that your brother-in-law would undertake to present
this book to his majesty the King of Prussia ; therefore
please to make my best respects to that gentleman, and
acquaint him, that I shall be extremely obliged to him
for his advice in this affair, and beg that he will inform
me, whether he thinks a copy ought to be presented to
the king only, in order to appear as a greater compli-
ment; or (lest his majesty should not have leisure, or
not be disposed to read it) whether copies should not
also be presented to some others of the royal family, or
to some particular persons of the nobility and principal
clergy; and if the latter, that he will please to ac-

APPENDIX THIRD.

239

quaint me, what number of books he thinks will be- ne-
cessary.

I must beg that you will make your brother-in-law
thoroughly to understand, that we have no personal or
interested views whatever in offering these presents ;
but that we are induced thereto by the desire of making
known, to those whom it more particularly concerns, a
part of history relating to the Prussian church, which
does honour to the memory of Frederick the First, king of
Prussia, and is capable (as we think) of affording both
instruction and entertainment not only to the Prussians in
particular, but to all foreign Protestants in general. And,
further, that we think this publication is injustice due
to the character of that great and learned divine Dr.
Jablonski, for the reason which he himself gives in one
of his letters to Archbishop Sharp, viz. " ut etiam si
forte res minus feliciter cederet, prostaret tamen apud
vos Testis Veritatis qui nostram de Hierarchia Ecclesi-
astica. sententiam posteritati testaretur."

I must likewise observe that the worthy and learned
gentleman (the Rev. Mr. Muysson minister of the royal
French chapel at St. James's and of the French church
at the Savoy) who translated this extract into French ;
is no less disinterested than ourselves, though we have
mentioned him by name as the translator in the title
page of the work : for this he permitted us to do, at
our particular request, as we are of opinion that the
name of one of the oldest, and most eminent French
Protestant ministers now in England will not only be a
considerable addition to the authority of the book, but
likewise be a means of recommending it to the more
favourable perusal of all foreign Protestants, in case

240

APPENDIX THIRD.

your brother-in-law should think proper to have it re-
printed in Prussia as he once proposed.

You will much oblige me by communicating your
brother's sentiments on this affair, as soon as you re-
ceive his answer, that as little more time may be lost as
possible.

I am, with great esteem,
Dear Sir,

Your most obedient,
humble Servant,

Granville Sharp.

P. S. — Please to direct to me at the Office of Ord-
nance in the Tower.

Gregory, Esq.

Dear Sir,

Having been absent for some time, I was not
able to answer your very agreeable letter of the 12th
Dec. any sooner, as I could not take any advice about
the affair in question.

It was a misunderstanding that I ever told you of my
brother-in-law being able to speak about the manu-
script in question to the king of Prussia, or to present
it to him, as it is very difficult for other people, than
those that are about him to speak to his majesty of par-
ticular affairs. I consulted since my return, which was
but a few days ago, some friends of my acquaintance,
whether it would be better to present a copy of the
Latin manuscript, or of the printed French translation,
to his majesty, who advised me to write to you to send

APPENDIX THIRD.

241

some of the French printed exemplars, as the king pre-
fers the French language to any other, by which means
his majesty might be induced to read it the sooner.
As I know the Marquis D'Argens who is a great favou-
rite to his master, I'll desire him to present it to the
king, which I don't doubt will succeed to your expec-
tation, at the same time I'll not fail to mention your
disinterestedness i?i this affair, of which I am evidently
assured. It would not be amiss to make a present of
a few exemplars to the principal clergy, and to some
relations of the deceased Dr. Jablonski, if you will
please to send me six or eight of them, I'll take with
the greatest pleasure upon me to distribute them to
the properest persons, and as I shall remain in Berlin,
I will be able to answer you the sooner, and acquaint
you of the success.

I beg of you to present my humble respects to all
your worthy family, and to be assured that I am with
the greatest esteem,
Dear Sir,

Your very humble,

and most obedient Servant,

Christian Fred. Gregory.

Berlin, June G, 1767.

VOL. II.

242

APPr.XDlX THIRD.

Dated about the middle of August, 1767.

Dear Sir,

Your obliging letter of the gave me

great pleasure, since I received it I have hastened in
the completing of the work as much as I possibly could,
though many unforeseen incidents have prolonged the
lime much beyond my expectations. In your letter
you have required only six or eight copies, but lest
" these should not be sufficient I have ventured to send
you double that number, and if any more should still
be wanting I hope you will not scruple to acquaint me.

I have sent two copies in richer binding than the rest,
the one for the Prussian king and the other for the
Marquis D' Argens, which I beg you will please to pre-
sent with the humble respects of this family to that
nobleman, as you think he will honour the work so far
as to present the first copy to his Prussian majesty.
Four other copies I have sent in red binding which I
must beg your acceptance of for yourself and friends ;
and the remaining eight copies are to be disposed of in
such manner as you shall think proper, two of the
copies are sent unbound lest any particular kind of
binding should be thought more proper for his Prussian
majesty than what I have sent ; and if this should be
the case I hope you will get them bound and inform me
of the expence that I may pay it into Mr. Meyer's hands'
to be remitted to you.

The books are packed in a small box, and sent to Mr.
Meyers who is so obliging as to undertake the forward-
ing of them to you, with a proper direction to the care
of his correspondent at Hamburgh. They are to be

APPENDIX THIRD.

243

sent on board the Sarah Elizabeth, Captain Jacob
Maslen Schlabohm who sails for Hamburgh in a few
days.

As I don't think it proper to give away any of these
books to my relations and friends here until I can hear
that a copy is presented to his Prussian majesty, for
whom it was originally intended, I shall be much
obliged if you will give me as early advice of the de-
livery of it as you conveniently can.
J am, with great esteem.
Dear Sir,
Your most obedient,

and much obliged

humble Servant,

Granville Sharp.

Gregory, Esq.

London, 13th Oct. 1767.

Dear Brother,

The Archbishop* is very well aware that the com-
pliment ought first to be paid to the king of Prussia,
but he knows that the books were sent a good while
ago, (viz. some time about the middle of August),
and that they must have been received in Prussia
before this time ; therefore his Grace was less scru-
pulous about giving a few copies (with proper
cautions), to some particular persons, without wait-

* Thomas Seeker, who was succeeded in the following year, 1768, by
Dr. Fred, Cornwallis.— Editor.

R 2

244

APPENDIX THIRD.

ing for an account of the books being received in
Prussia.

One great person in particular my brothers were
of opinion should be presented with a copy, before the
affair is more generally known ; I mean his Majesty.
Brother William mentioned this to the Archbishop last
week, who approved much of the proposal, and under-
took to present one himself ; so I sent him a copy ele-
gantly bound in red morocco, for that purpose, and
twelve other copies bound in calf, to dispose of here-
after at his own discretion.

My reason for sending so many was expressed in a
previous letter to his Grace, a copy of which I here
send you.

" 3d Sept. 1767.

" My Lord,

I have sent herewith two copies of the extracts
from my grandfather's Memoirs, and in a few days (in
which time I expect more from the binder's), your
Grace may command as many more as you think proper ;
being the best judge how to dispose of them to the
most advantage for the Protestant cause abroad, for
which alone they were intended. However, lest an ac-
count of this affair should by any means reach Berlin
before the books already sent are delivered, it may
perhaps be a proper compliment to my friend at that
place, as well as to the nobleman who has undertaken
to present a copy to the King of Prussia, that no other
copies be sent out of England, until we can be sure

APPENDIX THIRD.

245

that the former are delivered ; and I will certainly send
your Grace an account of this as soon as I receive ad-
vice of it."

I am,

Dear Brother,

Your sincerely affectionate Brother,

Granville Sharp.

Monsieur,

Sa Majeste a re§u le livre que vous lui aviez ad-
dresse par le canal de Mr. Gregori. Elle m'a ordonne de
vous faire beaucoup de remercimens de votre attention
et de vous en marquer la reconnoissance, je suis flatte
d'avoir cette occasion de vous assurer de l'Estime par-
faite avec la qu'elle j'ai l'honneur d'etre,
Monsieur,
Votre tres humble

et tres obeissant Serviteur,

De Catt.

d Berlin, ce 10c. 8bre. 1767.
Mr. Granville Sharp.

Berlin, the 13</t of Oct. 1767.

Dear Sir,

According to your kind favour of the 4th of
August, I received the copies of your grandfather's life,
(though but for a few days), and took the opportunity
of the king's being here, for to present it to him by Mr.
de Katt, his reader and favourite, the Marquis of D'Ar-
gens being sick at Potsdam. By the inclosed letter,

246

APPENDIX THIRD.

wrote by the order of his Majesty, you will find that he
received it very graciously. This letter would have
been signed by himself, if you had wrote to him, of
which custom I was not apprised of myself before, till
Mr. de Catt had told me of it, or else I should not have
failed of acquainting you with it. One copy was like-
wise given to the Crown Prince ; the others were dis-
tributed to the first clergymen, and to some of the chief
relations of the late Jablonski. I am very much obliged
to you for the four copies you have been pleased to send
to me ; but, desirous of promoting the work, I have
disposed of them likewise, and so would beg the favour
of you to send me two or three more, that I may at
least keep one in my library. I am very glad that this
circumstance gives me an opportunity of recommending
myself to your kind friendship, and to that of your
worthy family, wishing I may have an occasion of
being further serviceable to you in this country, to
maintain an acquaintance which I value so much. If
ever I would be so happy to see you again in Old Eng-
land, I should be overjoyed, for I love your country
dearly.

I am, with the highest sense of esteem and con-
sideration,

Dear Sir,
Your most obedient

Humble Servant,

Christ. Fred. Gregory.

APPENDIX THIRD.

247

Berlin, 19th Ocl. 17C7.

Dear Sir,

Some time after the books were sent for Prussia,
it happened that one of the old proof sheets of the title
page was wrapped as waste paper round a little parcel
which was sent by my printer to the Rev. Mr. Woyd,
a Polish clergyman, who has been in England for some
time past, to solicit (I believe) some pecuniary relief for
the distressed " Dissident" in Poland. This gentleman
was very anxious to see the work, and especially as
the title page mentioned Dr. Jablonski, who was a
Polish Bishop, and much esteemed*.

He immediately went to the Archbishop of Canter-
bury for further information, but was told by his Grace
that the work was entirely unknown to him. However,
the Archbishop had as much curiosity as Mr. Woyd,
and desired him to make all the enquiries he could con-
cerning it, and to endeavour to procure him a copy.
Mr. Woyd then applied to Mr. Muysson, who imme-
diately sent me notice of what had past : wherefore, I
thought myself obliged to wait on the Archbishop the
next day, to acquaint him with the nature of the work,
and the reasons which induced our family to print it ;
and further, that we had no other views in doing so,
than an earnest desire of serving the Protestant cause
abroad ; and his Grace was certainly the best judge how
to dispose of the books so as to answer that purpose in
the most effectual manner. I requested him to command

* The author of " Thorn Affligee," &c. translated from the German of M.
Jablonski into French, by M. C. L. De Beausobre, Amsterdam, chez Pierre
Humbert, Mdccxxvi. — Editor.

248

APPENDIX THIRD.

as many copies as he should think proper. He has given
one copy to Mr. Woyd, and another to the Rev. Mr.
Maclaine, at the Hague, (on account of some work on
Ecclesiastical History*, which he is at present employed
in) ; but these, I make no doubt, with proper cautions
not to let them go out of their hands till an account is
received that the first copy is presented to the king of
Prussia. Another copy he has undertaken to present
himself to his Majesty, (the king of England) ; for we
thought that this ought no longer to be delayed, lest,
by waiting for your answer, the work should in the
mean while, by some such sad accident as is above
mentioned, become more generally known, and then it
would be too late to pay the compliment. The same
reason has induced me to forward another copy by
means of a friend, to a relation of his in a very consi-
derable post under the Prince of Orange, in order to be
presented by him to his Royal Highness. Besides
these I shall give no others till I am favoured with your
answer. I am informed that a son of Dr. Ursinus,
(mentioned in the book), is now a Professor at the Uni-
versity of Francfort, upon the Oder ; therefore, I shall
be much obliged to you if you will forward one of the
books to him when you have an opportunity : I have
more copies at your service, if you should want them.
I am, with great esteem,

Dear Sir,
Your much obliged

Humble Servant,

G.S.

• The translator of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History. 2nd. Edit. 1758.

APPENDIX THIRD.

249

London, 18th Dec. 1767.

Dear Sir,

I am quite ashamed that I should have been so
long in returning an answer to your very kind and
obliging letter of the 13th October. But I have been
so closely engaged, partly with my ordnance business,
and partly with a law-suit commenced against me and
my brother James*, (for causing a poor negro slave to
be set at liberty from a tyrannical master, by the civil
magistrate), that I have not really had it in my power
till now, to return you the sincere thanks of all our
family, for your friendly offices and politeness.

I am honoured with his Prussian Majesty's acknow-
ledgments of the receipt of the book, by Mr. de Catt's
polite letter inclosed in your's. About a fortnight ago
Mr. Myer was so obliging as to forward a small box
directed for you to the care of Messrs. John Daniel
Baur and Son, at Hamburgh, on board the William,
Captain John Charlton.

It contains ten copies of the extract, one copy on fine
paper for your own library, and the rest for your friends,
and I should have sent more on fine paper had they not
all been disposed of.

I have sent by the same opportunity, a sermon by
my father on the Sacrament, and two little treatises of
my own which I printed this year, one of them on the
pronunciation of the English tongue, which I flatter

* James Sharp, wholesale Ironmonger, the father of Catherine, now Mrs.
Andrew Sharp, the present owners of the MS. Life. The negro slave was
Jonathan Strong. See Memoirs of Granville Sharp by Prince Hoare, 1820.

250

APPENDIX THIRD.

myself will render it more easy to foreigners ; and the
other, a short introduction to vocal music.

I hope by this time you have received them all safe.
If I can serve you in any business at London you
may command me.

I am, with great esteem,
Your much obliged

humble Servant,

Granville Sharp.

Mr. Christ. Fred. Gregory.

London, March 26, 1768.

Dear Sir,

I received your kind letter of the 12th December,
1767, and would have returned an answer much sooner,
had I not been greatly hurried in business all this
winter ; indeed as I had wrote to you since that date
(viz. on the 18th December, 1767, which I hope you have
received) I apprehended that an immediate answer was
not so necessary as it would otherwise have been.
Mr. Muysson informs me that the son of Dr. Ursinus,
mentioned in your last, goes now by another name,
viz. De Bar, and has since been created a baron, or
some such title of distinction. My brothers and myself
have the greatest satisfaction in your information that
the extract is so much approved of in Prussia. We
should be glad to make any addition to it, that might
make it more generally useful, but as it has been pre-
sented to his Prussian majesty in its present form, we
think that an additional translation would come better

APPENDIX THIRD.

251

from any other quarter than from our family, lest we
should seem to interfere too much in a point which does
not immediately concern us.

Be pleased to acquaint the noble clergyman (who
hinted to you the translating of Dr. Jablonski's letters)
with our sentiments on this head. But assure him at
the same time, that we have no objection at all to his
causing such an additional translation to be made if he
thinks it proper ; or if the learned Prussian clergy in
general are of opinion, that the work deserves to be
more known in their own country, we cannot possibly
have any objection to its being reprinted in Prussia with
such additions and comments as they may think ne-
cessary to render it more generally useful*.

My brother William has lately printed an account of
his method of treating fractured legs, which has been
greatly approved both here in England and in France.
He hath practised this method many years himself with
the greatest success, and therefore thought himself
obliged to make it public, as well for the sake of those,
who may have the misfortune to want assistance in that
way, as on account of some pretenders who have lately
claimed the merit of the invention without thoroughly
understanding the method. My brother being tho-
roughly persuaded of your humane disposition, and
that you will take pleasure in doing any thing which
may contribute to the relief of the distressed, has de-

* It is much to be desired, for the sake of truth and fairness iliat some
candid and well-informed Prussian would account for the failure of the scheme.
Meanwhile to Granville Sharp is due the honour of having introduced the
English episcopacy into a larger field for its growth — into the states of North
America. — Editor.

252

APPENDIX THIRD.

sired me to send you half a dozen of those books, and
a complete set of the splints * ; that you may present
them to one of the public hospitals or put them into
the hands of any gentleman professing surgery, whom
you shall think most capable of trying the experiment
with success. He has sent splints of three different
sizes, both for right and left legs, that there may be no
difficulty in fitting the patient's leg. These I have
packed in a box, and desired Mr. Meyer to forward the
same to you.

I am, with great esteem,
Dear Sir,

Your much obliged,
Humble Servant,

Granville Sharp.

P. S. Since I wrote the above, my brothers and
myself have been honoured with a very polite and oblig-
ing message from Dr. Jablonski, who, I believe, is
grandson to that worthy gentleman who corresponded
with my grandfather. He commissioned the Rev. Mr.
Woyd (a Polish clergyman) to acquaint us, that he has
several pieces and original letters relating to the subject
of the extract from Archbishop Sharp's Life, which
are not included in that work, and which he most gene-
rously offered us the use of. But we desired Mr. Woyd
to return an answer to the same purpose as that which

* Every member of this good family will be found walking in the steps of
their Divine Master, going about doing good to the bodies or souls of men, men
of every colour and of every clime. The Rev. Thomas Sharp, contributed
with his brother the Archdeacon to restore Bamborough Castle, of which work-
see the extracts from Nichols's Literary Anecdotes.

APPENDIX THIRD.

253

I have given above to your proposal of printing an ad-
ditional translation ; for though we shall think our-
selves greatly obliged to that gentleman for copies of
those papers for our own satisfaction, and to enrich the
MS. work of Archbishop Sharp's Life ; yet we think it
will not become us to make any addition, as from our-
selves to the work already presented to the king of
Prussia. Nevertheless we should be extremely glad to
hear that Dr. Jablonski could be prevailed upon to
publish a new edition of it himself, with whatever com-
ments and alterations he may think right ; especially as
he seems to be the properest person to do so, as well
with respect to his family and country, as on account
of his being furnished with such ample materials for
that purpose.

London, Jan, 22, 1768.

Dear Brother,

I delivered a copy of the extract at the bishop *
of Durham's myself, but his lordship was not at home.

I have done the same at Northumberland house.

I have had another letter from Mr. Gregory to ac-
quaint me, that the extract is greatly approved of at
Berlin among the Prussian clergy. The same accounts
from Holland where the clergy eagerly hand them from
one to another.

The Prince of Orange ordered his chaplain to return
thanks to this family for his copy, which the chaplain
did through Mr. Muysson.

Copies have likewise been sent (by desire of Mr.

♦ RicharJ Trevor, D.D.

254 APPENDIX THIRD.

Muysson's friends in Holland) to the Dukes of Wolfen-
buttle and Brunswick.
I am,

Dear Brother,

Your sincerely affectionate Brother,
Granville Sharp.

I long to see you, having more to say, than I have
time to write.

London, Jan. 24, 1768.

Dear Brother,

Mr. Woyd, a Polish clergyman called on me
yesterday ; he is very desirous to have the MS. of my
grandfather's Life in order to make a short abstracted
account to send to some gentlemen at Berlin, who have
undertaken to give an account of the most eminent
English prelates, and their writings, for the advance-
ment of learning ; as the English commentators are of
great repute abroad at present. I would give no answer
'til I had your consent. I apprehended that the
intended abstract will be very short, and not such a one
as would be likely to lessen the value of the MS. be-
cause the work it is intended to be applied to, is of so
general a nature that there cannot be room for very
circumstantial relations. But if there be any objection
to the lending of the MS. I believe we must endeavour
to prevail on brother Tom to make an abstract, be-
cause it is of some consequence to religion and learn-
ing that the archbishop should be properly represented
abroad.

Nobody, however, can be more capable than Mr.
11

APPENDIX THIRD.

255

Woyd of making a proper abstract, for he is indefati-
gable, learned, and sensible ; is a good character him-
self ; and is well known in the learned world.

I am, (with love to brother Tom, my sisters, and niece
Jemima,)

Dear Brother,

Your sincerely affectionate Brother,

Granville Sharp.

Rev. Dr. Sharp,

London, April 4, 1768.

Rev. Sir,

I am desired by my brothers to return the sin-
cere thanks of this family for your very polite and oblig-
ing message delivered by the Rev. Mr. Woyd, who, in
your name, offered us the use of some original letters
and papers relative to the subject of a correspondence
carried on between your grandfather and ours, and
which are not included in the account of that affair
lately printed by us.

We shall be extremely glad to have copies of these
several papers for our own satisfaction, and to enrich the
MS. copy of Archbishop Sharp's Life; but not for any
other reasons ; for we have no view of making any addi-
tion to our printed account lately sent to Prussia, be-
cause as that has been already presented to the king of
Prussia in its present form, we think it cannot well be-
come us to make any alteration or addition, lest we
should be thought to interfere too much in an affair,
which does not immediately concern us.

I am informed by a friend in Berlin, that a noble
clergyman there has given his opinion, that " if Dr.

256

APPEN DIX THIRD.

Jablonski's letters were translated into French it would
enhance the merit of the work to a great degree, as
there are many people that don't understand the
Latin." To this we returned an answer much to the same
effect as what I have mentioned above ; and that we do
not think ourselves at liberty to make any addition to
it whatsoever ; but have no objection to the desired
translation if added by any other persons independent
of us. I also acquainted him that if the learned Prus-
sian clergy are in general of opinion that the work de-
serves to be more known in their own country, we can-
not possibly have any objection even to its being re-
printed and published, with such additions, alterations,
and comments as they may think necessary to render it
more generally useful.

I informed my friend at Berlin likewise of the very
kind offer with which you have favoured us ; and took
the liberty to hint at the same time that if a new edition
of that work should really be thought necessary or pro-
per to be made in Prussia, it were much to be wished
that you yourself might be prevailed upon to undertake
it, being certainly the properest person to do so, as well
with respect to your country and family *, as on account
of your being furnished with such ample materials for
that purpose.

I am, with the greatest respect and esteem,
Rev. Sir,

Your most obedient,
and much obliged
humble Servant,

Granville Sharp.

* This letter is indorsed " to Dr. Jablonski" in the handwriting of Granville
Sharp, but has no other external or internal direction thereon.

APPENDIX THIRD.

257

P. S. My brothers desire your acceptance of a set of
my father's work, to which I have taken the liberty to
add three little pieces of my own. The whole will be
sent to Mr. Woyd in order to be forwarded to you.

London, 7th Jan. 1769.

Dear Brother,

Many thanks for your speedy answer concerning
Mr. Woyd's request. The reasons you give for not
lending him the MS. are very just, and indeed I ap-
prehend that a copy of the " sheet of paper of anec-
dotes and material occurrences," which you mention,
together with a reference to the Biographia Britannica
will be quite sufficient for Mr. Woyd's purpose ; there-
fore I shall be much obliged to you if you will transmit
a copy of the said paper as soon as you conveniently
can. I will mention to my brothers what you say
about printing the MS. life ; but I apprehend it would
by no means answer Mr. Woyd's purpose, to wait so
long for his abstract as the time of printing such a
book must necessarily take up.

I am, (with affectionate love to my Sisters, Brothei
Tom, and Jemima),

Dear Brother,

Your sincerely affectionate Brother,

Granville Sharp.

vol. II.

258

APPENDIX^ THIRD.

London, 2d March, 176».

Dear Brother,

Dr. Jablonski's MSS. at Oxford, if they are not
the same as those in the Extrait, are certainly very
valuable ; but we cannot make any use of them by way
of addition to that publication. I believe I acquainted
you in some former letter, that the present Dr. Jab-
lonski, grandson to Dr. Daniel Ernest Jablonski, has
all the papers of his father and grandfather, some of
which he offered us the use of.

I wrote him word, that it would not be right for us
to make any additions to the Extrait concerning the
Prussian church, as that book has been already pre-
sented to the King of Prussia; and also, that any ad-
dition or alteration, in a second edition, will certainly
come best from himself, as a second edition seems to
be desired in Prussia.

I am,
Dear Brother,
(With love to my Sisters and Niece,)

Your sincerely affectionate Brother,

Granville Sharp.

Extrait de la Lettre de Mr, Jablonski.

Landsberg le de Fevrier.

Parmi les Papiers de mon Grand-pere je trouve
beaucoup de choses qui regardent l'introduction, ou,
plutot, l'histoire de l'introduction de la liturgie et de

APPENDIX THIRD.

259

1'hierarchie Anglicane dans les etats de la Prusse : et
par lesquelles la relation des Mesnres pourroit etre con-
firmee ou completed et, s'il est permis de le dire, en
quelques endroits, corrigee.

Selon ces papiers, ce projet d'introduire la liturgie
et la hierarchie Anglicane dans notre Pais et dans celui
d'Hanover, commenca 1698, et son but etoit de pre-
parer, par la, les affaires pour unir les Protestans in
doctrina ut in cultu. II etoit occasionne, par une con-
ference entre Molanus, Abbe de Lockum, M. de
Leibnitz et le D.D. E. Jablonski, 1698, et par le rap-
port que le dernier en fit a sa cour ; depuis ce tems-la,
on a eu une correspondence touchant ce projet avecles
theologiens les plus celebres de l'Eglise Lutherienne,
dont plusiers l'ont approuve. Parmi les Anglois on a
confere avec Mr. Hales, qui se trouva a Berlin 1704 et
apres cela avec le Dr. Josias Woodward a Londres. II
me semble que j'ai toute cette correspondence entiere
qui est fort interessante. Elle contient aussi la Lettre de
l'Eveque Ursinus qu'il ecrivit en envoyant la Liturgie
Anglicane traduite en Allemand a 1' Archeveque de Can-
torbery et la Lettre de ce Prelat a. Milord Raby, dans
laquelle il dit a ce Ministre que M. de Spanbeim l'avoit
prie de presenter a la Reine la Liturgie Anglicane tra-
duite en Allemand, avec une Lettre a. sa Majeste, et que
la Reine avoit respondu : " that the letter was a letter
of compliment for which she thanked him, as she did
likewise for his book, and that she was very glad he did
so much approve of the service of the Church of Eng-
gland. If he (l'Eveque Ursinus, ainsi se finit la Lettre
de 1'Archeveque) is at Berlin, your lordship may be
pleased to acquaint him with this, for I write not as yet
to him, having not received any letter from him." Cette

s 2

260

APPENDIX THIRD.

Lettre de l'Archeveque est du 17 Oct. 1704 au lieu que
la Lettre d'Ursinus a l'Archeveque n'est que du 2nd Dec.
et elle paroit etre occasionne par celle de l'Archeveque.
Je ne trouve point si l'Archeveque y a respondu. De
mes Papiers on ne peut pas non plus se persuader si la
Raison pourquoi il n'y avoit point de Reponse etoit
celle qu' on a alleguee pag. 12 ou si, pour cette raison,
le Projet a notre cour ait ete retenu.

L'Affaire de Helmstadt n'arriva que quatre ans aprtis.
On en etoit etonne en Angleterre, surtout l'Archeveque.
Mon Grand-pere recut plusiers Papiers touchant cette
affaire, et en ecrivit beaucoup. J'en ai une collection,
mais l'affaire de la Liturgie n'y est point touchee.

(hi 18 de Fevrier.

J'ai enfin trouve les Paquets ou il y a plusiers Lettres
de l'Archeveque de York, le Dr. Sharp, de l'Eveque de
Bristol D. J. Robinson, du Dr. Ayerest, Smalridge, My
Lord Raby, M. de Bonnet, Mr. Hales, &c. &c. Peut
etre que je trouverai aussi quelque chose dans les Lettres
de l'Archeveque de Cantorbery (Wake) de Turretin,
Ostervvald, Zimmerman, Werenfels, Pictet.

Berlin, 13</t Aug. 1707».

Tis a piece of news from Coningsbergh, the
capital of Prussia, and printed here by the king's
order, the substance whereof is as follows.

* This seems to have been an extract by Archbishop Sharp from some
newspaper of the year 1707. The editor inserts it here, as he found it among
the Prussian papers of G. S. A closer union of the German Protestant Churches
has lately been effected under the royal sanction and auspices. A holy alliance
of all Protestant National Churches is a desideratum and will be urgently de-
manded hereafter.

APPENDIX THIRD.

261

They write from Koningberk, that the Calvinic and
Lutheran preachers of the King's Hospital Church had
united themselves in the celebration of the commu-
nion, after the following manner. On the 3d of July,
the Lutheran minister preaching in the morning, gave
notice, that on Sunday next there would be a commu-
nion for the Reformed ; that is, the Calvinists : accord-
ingly, on the 10th of July, after the reformed minis-
ter's sermon, the usual formulary for the Calvinists'
communion was read. After the prayer, the Lutheran
minister came to the table, the communicants reached
the bread from the reformed minister, without communi-
cating himselfe. Both ministers, in delivering the com-
munion, used the words of the reformed churches, viz.

"The bread which we break is the communion of the
body of Christ, which was broken on the crosse, for
the remission of your sins. The cup is the blessing,
by which we blesse, is the communion of the blood of
Christ, which was shed on the crosse, for the forgive-
nesse of your sins."

The reformed preacher had, after his sermon, before
the Lutheran people went out of the church, given, in
like manner, notice, that on the Sunday following there
would be a communion likewise for the Lutherans.

Accordingly, after the Lutheran minister had ended
his sermon on the 17th, he went to the table without
reading the usual formulary, or exhortation, of the
Lutherans, (which I presume, therefore, contains some-
thing against the Reformed, and was therefore left out.)

The communicants now reached the wafer from the
Lutheran, and the cup from the Reformed, after the
Lutheran minister reached both from the hands of the
Reformed.

262

APPENDIX THIRD.

In the delivery were both these words of the Lu-
theran form used —

" Take, eat, that is the body of Jesus Christ, which
was given for you ; let him strengthen you, and hold
you by his grace in the true faith, to everlasting life.
Amen.

" Take, drink, that is the blood of Jesus Christ, which
was shed for you. Let him strengthen, &c."

I suppose the first attempt was made in Prussia,
being no part of the Empire, where the king's power is
absolute and independent, it being ridiculously pre-
tended by some, that whereas only three religions are
allowed in the empire, Roman, Lutheran, Calvinist, the
uniting the latter would make a fourth.

Nichols's Anecdotes — Archbishop Sharp.

1701.

" Fifteen Sermons, preached on several occasions,
the last of which* was never before printed, by the
most Reverend Father in God, John (Sharp f), Lord
Archbishop of York, Primate of England, and Metro-
politan," 8vo.

f Mackay, about this period, 1702, says, " He is one
of the greatest ornaments of the Church of England, of
great piety and learning ; a black man, and fifty-five
years old." The Archbishop had unpardonably of-
fended Swift, by representing him as a person that was
not a Christian; by which, it is supposed, he lost a
bishopric, intended for him by Queen Anne. To this
Swift thus alludes, in the Poem called, " The Author
upon Himself, 1713 :"

* Preached before the King at ist James's, March 13th, 1697-8.

APPENDIX THIRD.

263

" York is from Lambeth sent, to shew the Queen
A dangerous treatise writ against the spleen ;
Which, by the style, the matter, and the drift,
'Tis thought could be the work of none but Swift.
Poor York ! the harmless tool of others' hate ;
He sues for pardon, and repents too late *."

Dr. Willis adds, " To the account given of this emi-
nent Prelate in his epitaph, drawn up by Bishop Smal-
ridge, whose knowledge of him, and integrity, will, as
M. Le Neve observes, render every particular in it to
be depended on, I shall only add, that he was a most
excellent governor, brought the prebendaries in his
Cathedral of York, and Colleges of Southwell and
Ripon, to strict residence ; and, that they might be the
better disposed thereto, he made it his unalterable prac-
tice always to elect them out of such as lived in his
diocese, and had recommended themselves by doing
their duties in their respective parochial cures ; by
which means, no Cathedral in England was better at-
tended by clergy, or the service more regularly per-
formed, than at York; or the ministers of small livings,
in any diocese, more encouraged to attend their charge,
because this good Bishop would reward their diligence
by such compensations, more especially those in York
city, on whose conduct the world had a more especial
eye. Hoping his example would influence his succes-
sors to take the like course, which certainly if other
bishops had in like manner practised, the dignities of
Cathedrals would have been kept up as in the primi-
tive times, and we should not have seen several of them

* Compare this with page 277 — which indicates that the Archbishop's ob-
jection was rather to the politics than the religion of Swift. — Editor. 1

264

APPENDIX THIRD.

so scandalously neglected, nor have reason to com-
plain, as we justly may, in relation to one of them, viz.
Landaff ; where, as there has scarce been, in these thirty
years last past, one clergyman in the diocese preferred
to a prebend therein, we may less wonder at the laying
aside the organ and choir service, and the suffering the
bells, which have been broke in less than that period,
to remain cracked, and the breaches made by some late
storms, in the towers and other parts of the church, to
continue unrepaired, (let it be remembered that this was
written in 1727) ; whereas, on a like accident to South-
well Collegiate Church, a place of less note than Llan-
daff, it being only a village, this good Archbishop im-
mediately set himself to work to repair that church,
and not only generously gave his own, but obtained
several large charities to it ; and, by his example and
zeal, soon made up the breaches." He was an able
antiquary, and excelled in the belles lettres. He gave to
the library of the Dean and Chapter at York, the valu-
ble collections towards a parochial history which had
been formed by James Torr ; and had himself begun a
most useful work of collecting the endowments and be-
nefactions to the churches and chapels in his diocese.
His remarks on English, Scotch, and Irish money were
in Thoresby's Museum, and another copy is in the Har-
leian library. They were published by Mr. Ives in his
" Select Papers, 1773," No. I. 4to. His " Observations
on the Coinage of England, in a letter to Mr. Thoresby,
1693-4," form the xxxvth number of the " Bibliotheca
Topographica Britannica."

APPENDIX THIRD.

265

Doctor Thomas Sharp. — From Nichols's Literary
Anecdotes. — Vol. 1st. Anno 1730.

" An Enquiry into the Causes of Infidelity ; in two
Discourses upon John vii. 17, delivered at St. Mary's
in Cambridge, before the University ; the former being
an Act Sermon on May 18 ; the other on the Com-
mencement Sunday, June 29, 1729, (the publication of
which, particularly the latter, was desired by several
who heard them). To which is prefixed, a Discourse
concerning the True Interpretation of the said Text,
by Thomas Sharp*. D.D. Archdeacon of Northumber-
land, and late Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge."

* A younger son of Archbishop Sharp. He was ad-
mitted of Trinity College, Cambridge, at the age of 15,
about 1708; B.A. 1712; M.A. 1716. He was Chaplain
to Archbishop Dawes ; Prebendary of Southwell, 17 — ;
Prebendary of Wistow in the Church of York ; April
29, 1719. He was collated to the rectory of Rothbury,
co. Northumberland, July 19, 1720; Archdeacon of
Northumberland, Feb. 27, 1722-3. When he took the
degree of D.D. he published " Concioad Clerum habita
in Ecclesia Sanctae Maria? Cantab. 14 to Maii. 1729, pro
Gradu Doctoratus in Sacra Theologia ; a Thoma Sharp,
S.T.P. Colleg. Trin. quondam Socio." He was installed
Dec. 1, 1732, in the tenth prebend of the cathedral at
Durham. July 6, 1753, he made a speech to Richard
Trevor, Lord Bishop of Durham, on visiting his dio-
cese ; and in 1755 he succeeded Dr. Mangey as official
to the Dean and Chapter of that cathedral. He mar-
ried a daughter of Sir George Wheeler ; who died July
2, 1757 ; died at Durham, March 16, 1758 ; and was
buried in the cathedral, in the place called the Galilee.

266

APPENDIX THIRD.

In 1753 he published in 8vo., " The Rubric in the
Book of Common Prayer, and the Canons of the
Church of England, so far as they relate to the paro-
chial clergy, considered in a course of visitation
charges." A volume of his " Sermons on several Oc-
casions" was published in 8vo., 1763.

His eldest son, John Sharp, D.D. was admitted of Tri-
nity College, Cambridge ; where he proceeded B.A.
1743 ; M.A. 1747 ; S.T.P. 1759. He was presented by
the Blackett family to the curacy of Hexham*, Jan 1,
1749-50. He was chaplain also to Bishop Butler, who
died before he had any preferment to bestow upon him ;
but Bishop Trevor gave him the vicarage of Hartborne,
co. Northumberland; collated him April 21, 1762, to
the Archdeaconry of Northumberland ; to which the
rectory of Howick in that county is annexed ; and to
the ninth prebend of Durham, Aug. 11, 1768. He was
nominated to the perpetual curacy of Bamborough, on
the death of his brother, Thomas Sharp, B.D. (who died
Nov. 25, 1772, see Gent. Mag. vol. xlii. p. 599), vicar of
St. Bartholemew the Less, London. His speech as
Subdean of Durham, Aug. 4, 1794, to Bishop Bar-
rington on his translation from the see of Salisbury to
Durham, is printed in Gent. Mag. vol. lxi. p. 696. He
died at his Prebendal house in that city, April 28, 1792,
at the age of 69.

The noble and extensive charity founded for the relief
of sick and lame seamen, at Bamborough, by Nathaniel
Lord Crew, Bishop of Durham, who died in 1720, was

* The Rev. Edward Robson of Whitechapel, possesses a MS. account of
Hexham, drawn up by the late Dr. Sharp's father, consisting of extracts from
Prior Richard's History of Hexham, with copious notes ; written for the infor-
mation of a lady who lived there.— Gen<. Mag. vol. lxii. p. 618.

APPENDIX THIRD.

267

arranged by the benevolence of this worthy man, who
was one of the trustees, and resided many months in
Bamborough Castle, superintending the works of cha-
rity, and having his eye open upon every new channel
by which he might give relief or consolation to his suf-
fering fellow-creatures. The shipwrecked and the dis-
eased were comforted by his visitation, having repaired
and rendered habitable the great tower, in which he
reserved for himself and family the great hall and a few
smaller apartments. The upper part is a granary, from
whence corn is dealt out to the poor, in the dearest
times at 4s. per bushel. Other apartments are provided
for shipwrecked seamen, and beds prepared for thirty ; a
constant patrole is kept every stormy night for above
eight miles, the length of the manor, along this tempes-
tuous coast ; and on the top of the tower is fixed a can-
non, the only thing saved from a Dutch frigate of 40
guns, lost here, with all the crew, about 80 years ago,
to collect the neighbourhood, whereby vessels as well
as men are frequently saved. A view of this castle,
and a table of signals, is given in Gent. Mag. vol. lxi.
p. 889. See also Hutchinson's Northumberland, ii.
174 — 178, Durham, ii. 225. The number of sick and
lame received into the hospital from October 1774, to
October 1775, were 763; to October 1776, 1120; to
October .1777, 1180.

The history of Archdeacon John Sharp, is so pleas-
ingly given in the following letter to Mr. Urban, dated
Ochterlyre, April 1, 1793, that I cannot resist the incli-
nation I feel to copy it.

" In the course of a jaunt to England three years
ago, in quest of health and intellectual food, a friend
and I visited Bamburgh castle ; and though we had no

268

APPENDIX THIRD.

introduction, Dr. Sharp received us with his usual
courtesy and goodness. I was so much delighted with
this second man of Ro?s, and his labour of love, that,
some time after my return home, I expressed my feelings
in an inscription for that very interesting castle. It is
perhaps too long ; but, where the circumstances are
equally appropriate, it is difficult to abridge. Mea-
sured prose is commonly applied to epitaphs ; yet why
should not the just and good be told, in the language of
tenderness and truth, what their contemporaries think
of them ? The Doctor's letter to me on that subject,
breathes a dignified simplicity, which does honour at
once to his head and heart. There is not a word in it
that a friend would wish to suppress, or any thing on
which malevolence could have laid hold, even in his
own time. I am advised by very good judges to publish
the inscription, for the sake of his letter. I therefore
send you the inscription a little varied from its original
form, with a copy of the letter.

" May I also request that you would add the inclosed
icon, a portrait, of the father of my fellow-traveller, it
being mentioned in Dr. Sharp's letter? I sent it him
six years before his death, which was as edifying as his
life. Any body who has seen (as I often have) the love
and affection with which his people regarded this excel-
lent man, in public and in private, would have thought
Goldsmith had him in view when he drew his picture of
a country clergyman. The father translated the New
Testament into Galic ; and the son has the charge of
publishing the rest of the Bible in that language. Two
men more amiable and useful in very different lines than
he and Dr. Sharp are seldom to be found in the same
age and island." Jo. Ramsay.

APPENDIX THIP.D.

2G9

Copy of a Letter from Dr. Sharp to John Ramsay, Esq.
" Sir,

You have so overpowered me by the handsome
things you have been pleased to write, so far above any
deserts of my own, that I am at a loss what answer to
give, or how to thank you as I ought. And as you have
so kindly interested yourself in what has been done
here, perhaps a little history of the gradual improve-
ments will not be disagreeable to you. It was owing to
the peculiar situation of this castle, and accidental cir-
cumstances, more than to any other cause, that so many
charities have been thought of, and instituted here. In
1757, a part of the old tower being ready to fall, my
father, in the last year of his life got it supported,
merely because it had been a sea-mark for ages, and
consequently, as such, beneficial to the public. I suc-
ceeded him in the trust. The children of the poor
wanted education ; therefore schools were necessary ;
and where so proper as under the eye of the trustees ?
The rights of the latter were suffering for want of manor-
courts being held ; to remedy which, a court-room was
fitted up, and other accommodations made for that pur-
pose, where courts are held regularly twice a year-
There was no house belonging to the minister of the
parish ; the trustees therefore (the living being in their
gift) consented to be at an equal expense with my bro-
ther, who was then the incumbent, in fitting up rooms
for that purpose. On my brother's death, I succeeded
to the living; and, as he had left me his library, I sold
it to the trustees, in order to its being made a public
library ; and applied the money, in part of a larger sum,

270

APPENDIX THIRD.

to be laid ont by me in land, by a deed enrolled in chan-
cery, as a fund for the perpetual repairs of the great
tower. The poor on this maritime coast were frequently
much distressed for want of corn, owing to the conve-
nience the farmers had of exportation. This grievance
was alleviated by the erection of granaries, and receiv-
ing a part of our rents in corn. Once a vessel was
wrecked behind the castle, and the crew saved ; but
the unfortunate master, after having escaped the perils
of the sea, died of a damp bed in the village. That the
like might never happen again ; all shipwrecked sailors
(who come) are received here, and supplied with every
necessary. This was the beginning of our little infir-
mary, which soon suggested the idea of a general dis-
pensary for the poor ; which is particularly useful in
this part of the country, as there is no other charity of
the kind between Edinburgh and Newcastle. The vici-
nity of the Fern islands, and the want of regular
soundings without them, pointed out the convenience
of regular firing in a fog ; and an old gun found in the
sand was applied to that purpose, which has answered
our most sanguine expectations. The accidental dis-
covery of the ancient well pointed out the convenience
of baths, and the infirmary required a variety of them.
The number of wrecks on this particular coast, of ves-
sels that had run for Holy Island harbour in a storm,
and had failed of getting into it, and the melancholy
sights from the castle of persons wrecked on the islands,
and starving with hunger and cold, together with the
savage plundering of such goods, &c. as were driven on
shore, induced the lords of the manor to try to give
every assistance to vessels in distress, and premiums
for saving of lives. But how are warlike preparations

APPENDIX THIRD.

271

consistent with charitable purposes? This requires
some explanation. The crews of vessels in time of war
chased by a privateer are glad to keep as near the shore
as they can, and rather run upon it than be taken.
Here we have some uncommon local advantages. The
deepness of the channel between the shore and the
islands, which is sufficient for the largest ships, and the
narrowness of that part of it opposite to us, and the
elevated situation of the castle, which an enemy's ship
cannot well pass but within gun-shot, demonstrate the
utility of a battery, of which we have already had some
experience, and in case of war shall perhaps have more.
By residing a good deal here, I had an opportunity of
raising the rents of the estates considerably, though
still with moderation, so as not to distress the tenants ;
this raised a farther income for charitable purposes.
But, as I can do nothing of myself in the trust, without
the concurrence of my brethren, if any praise be due,
they are entitled to their share of it ; for they readily
agreed to every proper plan of charity that was proposed
to them. But as for those improvements which did not
strictly ^come under the denomination of charity, but
yet were necessary for carrying on the repairs of the
castle, and making it habitable, commodious, and more
extensively useful ; I have hitherto defrayed the expense
of these, out of the clear yearly profits of the living of
Bamburgh, together with some assistance from my re-
lations and friends. One charity naturally brings on
another ; and perhaps there are few situations in the
kingdom, where so many and different charities were
practicable, and had so peculiar a propriety as in this
place, and where every incidental circumstance was
made subservient to the general plan. The wrecks

272

APPENDIX THIRD.

(that is, such as were not, or could not be claimed) sup-
plied us with a considerable quantity of timber, iron,
ropes, &c ; and every thing that came ashore was ap-
plied to the purpose of the building, in the manner it
would answer best. But now, by means of light houses
(in which we have no concern) and our own institutions
for the safety of navigation, our coast is safer than it
ever was before, and very few accidents happen. I can-
not conclude without repeating my grateful thanks for
your very elegant and classical inscription for this
place, &c. (which shall be carefully preserved) and also
for your well-drawn picture of what a minister of the
Gospel ought to be. I am, with compliments to your
fellow-traveller, who, I hope, will inherit his father's
virtues,

Sir,

Your much obliged,

Humble Servant,

John Sharp."

Bamburgh Castle, MDCCXC.

Hanc arcem, O Viator !
antiquitus unum e regni propugnaculis,
sevo feliciore refecit semirutam
Johannes Sharp, S.T.P.
cui hospitalitas avari lucro suavior ;
cujus labores, utetotii lusiones,
generis humani amorem redolent.
En horti cultum octogenario delegat
quia Domino priori* per annos quinquaginta

* The late Sir Walter Blackett.

APPENDIX THIRD.

incassum fuerat fidelis ;
eique raisellus opitulatur iEthiops,
ob libertatem (mirabile dictu)
e societate propemodum ejectus,
pii fidei commissi pius administrator !
In annonae penuria,
frumentum vili pretio industriis suppeditat.
Quo cibum animae salubrem melius largiretur,
Scholas instituit, et cura paterna fovet.

Qua bonitate, quibusque solatiis,
£ mari naufrago elapsos excipere solet !

Si verb tormenta bellica
prse pacis amantissimi foribus mireris ;
ista ambitionis causa minime parantur,
sed naves vel a prcedatoribus defendere,
vel nebula oblectis viam comiter monstrare.
O ! si pax, ergaque homines benevolentia,
in terris universe regnent !
tunc arces olim munitissimae,
templa charitatis quoque fierent.
Interea pro talibus operibus
pulcherrima speretur merces :
Veniet enim dies suprema,
qua totius mundi judex, majestate mitissimus,
ob ipsius amorem misericordes sic alLoquetur;
" Vos beatos cceleste rnanet regnura !"

VOL. II.

274

APPENDIX THTRD.

Sent in December 1783, to the Rev. Mr, James Stuart,
Minister of Killin, Perthshire, who died Jan. 30, 1789.

" Vivit, diuque vivat
licet octogenarius,
Jacobus Stuart, apud Killin, V.D.M.
vir utilissimae popularitatis !
•abhorrens enim a factione strepituque,
amoris opera, indefessa
suo sibi mirifice devincet.
Sive igitur in via loquitur,
sive e pulpito sacra exponit oracula,
auditorum corda intus ardent.
Peccato acerbus, peccatori lenis !
In illo conveniunt
doctrina, pudor, suadela,
sanctissimi mores, suavisque hilaritas.
•Domo modica sed peramaena,
corcordiae diu mansione^
vicinoB, viatores, egenOs,
: ex animo excipere,
est ei pro luxuria.
Ultima canente tuba,
(canet etenim, mortuique resurgent)
pro pastore pio ac fideli,
quantuli minuti philosophi,
vel Caesares, olim orbis terrarum Domini i"

" That the Sharps are truly a family both of genius and
philanthropy, two of the late Archdeacon's brothers, who
are still living ornaments of the metropolis, will testify.''

Note, — The living ornaments, when the above was writ-

APPENDIX THIRD.

275

ten by Mr. Nichols, were — the late Granville Sharp,
and the eminent Surgeon, William Sharp of Fulham.
The Life of Granville Sharp has been given to the public
from the pen of Prince Hoare, Esq. — Editor,

British Museum.— Cole's MS. 5880, fo. 75.

Sharp John Arch Bp of York of Christ's College
— Ricd Ward ded. his Life of Dr. Hen. More to
him in 1710, in wheh he tells his Grace that he was
used to express his acknowledging of obligations to Dr.
More. V. Whiston's Mem. of Dr. Clarke Edit: 3 p. 10.
V. Whiston's Memoirs of himself p. 27. John Clere ded.
hisHarmoniaEvangelicatohim. pr. at Amsterdam 1699.
fol. Joanni Archiepo Ebor: &c. wch gives a great char,
of him. quod vide. K. C. L.-^-V* Burnet's Times, Vol. 1
p. 462. 674. 675. 677. Vol. 2 p. 76. 312. 720. p. m.—
V. Ld Orrery's Life of Dr. Swift. Letter. 4.— Relation
des mesures qui furent prises dans les annees 1711,
1712 & 1713, pour introduire La Liturgie Anglicane
dans la Roiaume de Prusse, et dans l'Electorat de
Hanover. Eclaircie par des Lettres et autres Pieces
originales relatives a ce Projet. Le tout extrait d'un
manuscrit qui n'a pas encore ete* rendu public, con-
tenant des Memoires de la Vie du Docteur Jean Sharp
Archeveque d'York. Traduit de l'Anglois par J. T.
Muysson, Ministre de la Chapelle Francoise du Palais
de St. James, et de l'Eglise Francoise de le Savoie k Lon*
dres. Imprime par W. Richardson et S. Clark, dans
Fleet-Street. 1757 — 4to. containing 117 Pages — In the
blank Leaf of the Title Page is wrote " The Gift of the
Editors, Grandsons of ABp Sharp, to Mr. Lort" Mr.
Professor Lort of Trin : College lent it to me 1768 June

t 2

276

APPENDIX TH1P.D.

the 7th. It has a short Dedication to Frederic 3 King
of Prussia, in which it is said, that the Descendants of
ABp Sharp who possess the said MSS. presume to offer
this Book to your Majesty. The MS. was compiled by
Dr. Tho. Sharp, Archdeacon of Northumberland, a Pre-
bendary of Durham, Son to the ABP^ See his character
at p. 108 &c.

V. Birch's Life of Tillotson. p. 39, 166, 181, 199,
243, 235, 276, 277, 294, 295, 296, p. m. V. Silvester's
Life of Baxter : Part 3. p. 15 1. p. m.

A Discourse concerning Conscience. In 2 Parts. By
Dr. Sharp Ld ABP of York. Published in 1694, among
the Collection of Cases & Discourses to recover the
Dissenters. — By some London Divines p.m. — V.Ward's
Life of Dr. Henry More of Christ's College. Dedication
p. m. V. A Letter from the ABP to Dr. Radcliffe in
1710, in Dr. Radcliffe's Life. p. 58. p. m. int. Misc.
Pamph. V. Carter's Cambridge p. 235, p. m.

See his Remarks on our English Coins, printed by
Mr. Ives in his Select Papers, N° h p. 1.22. 4t0 1773
p. m.

Kettlewell's Life, p. 154. p. m.

Queen Anne pitched upon ABP of York to preach
her Coronation Sermon & to be her chief Counsellor
in Church matters, he being a warm & zealous Man for
the Church, & reckoned a Tory. Dutchess of Marl-
borough's Account of her Conduct, p. 134. p. m. How-
ever in Macpherson's Original Papers. Vol. 2 p. 562 is
a Lr from Shutz, the Hanoverian Resident to Robethon
at Hanover dated Feb : 1714 with this Acc' of the AE?
just then dead. " He (ABp Sharp) really believed 4
" yrs. ago, with others, whose eyes are now opened,
" that the Ch. of Engl, was in Danger & concurred in

APPENDIX THIRD.

277

" the Measures of those, who endeavoured to put it in
" Security, but having found out his Mistake, and being
" convinced that they had no other Design than to sa-
" tisfy their Avarice, their Ambition, and their private
" Resentments, he left them about a yr & half ago, and
" even hindered her Majesty from giving a Deanry in
" England to the Sieur Savist [He means Swift, &
" shews that the Dutch or Germans are as good at
" mangling English Names as the French] the Favou-
" rite and Creature of the Prime Minister, who gave
" him since a Deanry in Dublin" Fasti Oxon Vol. 2
p. 177. p. m. Jo: Sharp Coll: Chr admissus in Ma-
triculam Academige Cantabr. Jul. 9, 16G0 — Regr ibid
B : A : B : Coll: Chr. 1663, 4— A : M : 1667 Regr. B.

v. Drake's Eboracum. p. 467. p. m.

v. Whiston's Historical Preface to Primitive Xtianity
revived, p. 14. 18. 44. 49. 71. 72. 1 15. p. m.

Doctor Thomas Sharp — Ibid. fo. 181.

Sharp Thomas. Archdeacon of Northumberland v.
Mrs. Catherine Cockburn's Life prefix'd to her Works
p. xliv. Vol. 2 p. 311. 312. 353 &c— penes Mr. Comis-
sary Greaves de Fulburne.

v. Dr. Stukeley's Carausius. p. 96. 116 — p. m.

D.D. Fell : Trin : Coll : Son of ABP Sharp— Archd" of
Notthumbld Rr of Rothbury in Northumb. 1722. Concio
ad Clerum, habita in Ecclia T. Mariae Cantab : 14 Maii
1729, pro Gradu Doctoratus in Sacra Theologia. In
Joh: 7, 17— L. 1730, 8vo.

Joh. 7. 17. Maij 18 Jun

29, 1729 &c. 1730, 8vo. Rawl. HR. Miscell. 519.

— " Short Hand."

278

APPENDIX THIRD.

A Charity Serm: pr. in the Par: Ch : of All Su in
Newcastle upon Tyne, on the Festival of All Saints.
1722, being the Day for the annual Collection for the
Charity Children. On Acts 20. 25. Newcastle, 1722
8vo. Rawl. HR. Miscell : 519.

Doctor Thomas Sharp left in MS. now in the possession of
Mrs. Andrew Sharp.

Catalogus Episcoporum
Priorum — Decanorum — Canonicorum
Ecclesise Dunelmensis
Cui premittitur Series Episcoporum Lindisfarnensium
Subjiciuntur Catalogi
Archdiaconorum
Dunelmensium et Northumbrian
Et Cancellariorum
Temporalium et Spiritualium
Dunelmensium.

Editor,.

OPINION

DR. THOMAS SHARP,

ARCHDEACON OF NORTHUMBERLAND,

ON A FROrosAL FOR INSTITUTING

A PROTESTANT CONVENT

NOW URST PUBLISHED, 1K5.

The Editor presents the Reader with the fol-
lowing pleasing specimen of the vein and
judgment of Doctor Thomas Sharp.

THE

OPINION

DR. THOMAS SHARP,

ON A PROPOSAL FOR INSTITUTING

A PROTESTANT CONVENT.
1737.

Reverend Sir,

At the most earnest request of some well-dis-
posed persons in this part of our island, I take the
liberty to write to you on the following subject.

It has been observed, with great concern — that, for
a good number of years past, both in the southern and
northern parts of our country, ladies of quality, and
gentlewomen, though possessed of excellent merit and
handsomely provided in fortunes according to their de-
grees, have, however past the flower of their age and
perhaps more, in a single life. In this situation, espe-
cially after the death of their parents, they have found
themselves exposed to scorn, to say no worse, for their
being of little use to the world, and have been inclined
to wish they had some happy place of retreat, where
they might employ the remaining part of their days in

282

APPENDIX THIRD.

the comfortable society of some pious and virtuous persons
of their own sex.

Diverse speculations have been had by such as wish
heartily well to the good ladies on this occasion ; but
after mature deliberation, none has appeared more
agreeable than to propose a Nunnery of Protestant re-
ligious and virtuous persons, well born, of the female sex,
conforming themselves to the woi-ship of the Church of Eng-
land, as by law established : a scheme of this society is,
with all humble deference, inclosed here, for your perusal
at hours of greatest leisure, and submitted to your
opinion ; and if either this, or any such model, happen
to take, it must of course be subject to such regula-
tions as shall be concerted by the Bishop of the Dio-
cese where such nunnery shall be founded, with advice
and consent of the Dean and Chapter of such diocese :
and if it shall happily receive your approbation, some
hopes are pleasantly entertained, that you will be so
good as to recommend it to the Right Reverend the
Bishop of Durham, within whose diocese it is projected
the first religious society of this kind shall be founded.
To be yet more particular with you, it is with due sub-
mission thought, no part within his jurisdiction may
be more properly resolved on, for this first foundation,
than Sedgefield, where the ladies may have the benefit
of public worship in a decent little church, as well as of
the less solemn devotions in their own chapel.

All further insisting upon this subject is suspended
until you shall be pleased to give your sentiment about
the project in its general view. Only you will perceive
there is not the most distant intention here of introduc-
ing a practice according to the model observed in the
church of Rome, since the ladies are by no means to come

APPENDIX THIRD.

283

under voivs, but left at liberty to quit the nunnery, upon
condition they give timeous notice to their prioress,
and to the bishop of the diocese.

Now, dear Sir, I heartily beg your pardon for giving
you so much trouble upon a subject so uncommon as
this is ; but if the suggestion be not to your mind,
pray be so good as to let me know so much by your
answer, directed as underneath, so soon as you can
conveniently write it. I am, with unfeigned respect, upon
account of the most worthy character you are generally
said to have so long and so deservedly maintained,
Reverend Sir,

Your most engaged
humble Servant,

William Cunninghame.

Edinburgh, \7th of March, 1737.

P. S. Please to direct to Sir William Cunninghame,
at his house in the Lawn Market, Edinburgh.

Pray forgive that I write to you by another hand,
by reason of my old age.

A Scheme for erecting a Society of Ladies of' Quality, and
Gentlewomen, of Great Britain, in order to a pious and
comfortable Retirement.

It is humbly proposed to the serious consideration of
such of them as, after a certain age, have found the
diversions of the world become fat, and a great part of
its business uneasy to them, if they are unmarried, and
think of continuing in that state of life, that they cheer-

284

APPENDIX THIRD.

fully agree to have themselves formed into a religious
company of excellent persons, who may at the same
time be happy instruments of good — of glory to Almighty
God, and of true solace to one another; that, inconse-
quence of this, they do with all readiness concur in
opinion, that a society of that nature may be most ex-
actly modelled by some one or other of the bishops of
the Church of England, with avdice and consent of the
dean and chapter of the diocese. That therefore it is
supposed, the ladies are of the communion of that
church at present, or heartily willing to conform to it
hereafter.

It is further offered, with all submission to their de-
liberate thoughts, that widow ladies, as well as those
who never have been married, be taken into the num-
ber, provided they have no children ; and it is confi-
dently hoped — that (if prudent care be taken in the
choice of truly pious worthy matrons,) such admission
will extremely tend to the great honour and reputation
of the blessed society.

With all imaginable deference it is likewise laid
before ladies, seriously to advise among themselves
whether the following conditions may not be proper to
be observed, before the proposal above mentioned
takes effect.

As 1st, That proper certificates be had from the
several counties from whence the ladies offering them-
selves to be members shall come of their age, forty
or thirty-six years at lowest ; of their exemplary gravity,
agreeable temper, fit for a social, though not a conjugal
life; of their being well descended, piously disposed,
and frugally inclined ; and it must not be forgot, to
have it well attested, that they are absolutely free from

APPENDIX THIRD.

285

every kind of catching disease which may be of dan-
gerous and infectious consequence.

2ndly. That the ladies shall each of them pay into
the society forty pounds sterling yearly, at two terms
of the year, 25/. of which towards their table and other
charges of what kind soever relating to their common
interest, and fifteen pounds for the particular uses of
every one of the ladies.

3rdly. That they chuse by a steward,

who must be impowered to receive the money, to grant
discharges upon payment, and to apply the incomes of
the society, as orders shall be given him from time to
time; for all which it is humbly thought he may de-
S3rve a yearly salary of thirty pounds sterling.

4thly. That a Chaplain not under forty years old,
unmarried and resolved to continue so, be named by the
Bishop, with consent of the Dean and Chapter of the
diocese, within which this religious society shall fix
their residence, which Chaplain so named 'tis confi-
dently hoped, shall be prudent, devout and learned,
whose office may be to read prayers regularly mornings
and evenings every day, and to preach one of the week
regularly, at least once in the forenoon, to say grace at
the table, to inspect the conduct of every member of the
society, and make report to the Bishop, or in his ab-
sence to the Dean once a month, that when the visita-
tion by the Bishop and Dean comes about, as suppose
once in four months, the ladies may receive a just ap-
plause of their behaviour if good, and a censure accord-
ing to their demerit if it is not so. That the Chaplain
have besides his entertainment and lodging out of the
common funds, a yearly salary appointed him of forty

286

APPENDIX THIRD.

pounds sterling, to be punctually paid at the expiration
of each year.

5thly. That for the conveniency of these well dis-
posed ladies a house be built capable of accommodating
thirty in a humble, clean, and easy lodging, that the
situation of it be in a healthful air, and near to a decent
church, where the ladies may have the pleasant oppor-
tunity of joining with the congregation in the solemn
parts of divine worship, besides the more private devo-
tions in their own chapel ; that this house or convent
be built with a pretty, clean, and neat oratory or cha-
pel adjoining to it ; that within a proper precinct office-
houses, suchasbrewhouse, kitchen, laundry, be likewise
built, as also that about twenty acres of good ground, to
be purchased in the very neighbourhood of the convent, four
of which may be laid out into a garden containing plea-
sant walks for the diversion of the ladies, and furnished
with fruit trees and kitchen ground for their use ; that
this garden be inclosed by stone walls three or four
yards high, to which may be nailed fruit trees of the
best kinds. That the remaining sixteen acres be laid
out in four different inclosures, of equal extent, two
whereof for pasturing of eight good milk cows, and the
other two for hay for fodder to them in the winter sea-
son ; in this manner it is hoped provision may be made
for a dairy to the ladies.

6thly. Because the building of this convent, purchas-
ing of grounds as above described, and providing all
necessaries at first setting up of this religious society,
may seem to require a very considerable sum of money,
it is therefore humbly proposed that a modest applica-
tion be first made to the Duchess Dowager of Marlbo-

APPENDIX THIRD.

287

rough, that she be pleased to contribute to it out of her
great abundance, by which means she will do an excel-
lent work, purchase to herself the hearty prayers of
many well-disposed persons, and perpetuate her me-
mory to future generations. If this endeavour shall
not succeed, the next address may be made to one or
more of the pious, rich and beneficent ladies of England,
to that purpose, which, it is humbly presumed, they will
encourage with a hearty good-will. If this second at-
tempt should miscarry, there remaineth yet another,
which, it is humbly presumed, will take, and seems to
form itself in this fashion — that proper methods be used
to persuade noblemen and gentlemen of good families,
and plentiful estates, who may have daughters or near
relations disposed to enter into a religious society as above
described, to promote so pious a project, by generously
affording what sums they please towards the building,
purchasing, and providing, as aforesaid. In this well-
intended purpose, no doubt is made but that the Right
Reverend the Bishops of the Church of England, who
have the honour of religion and the good of the church
at heart, and are well provided in great revenues, will,
together with their clergy, particularly such as are pos-
sessed of rich benefices, be ready to concur with all cheer-
fulness. Now let it be supposed that by some one or
other of the ways already mentioned, the good ladies are
provided in a good house or convent, and then follows
the

7th condition, That the religious society so convened,
do immediately, after they have entered the convent,
proceed to chuse out of their number, by ballot, three
ladies for prioress, and three more for sub-prioress, who
are to be presented to the bishop of the diocese, where

288

APPENDIX THIRD.

they reside, that he may name one out of each class, for
the more regular government within doors.

8thly, That they all agree that these two ladies
punctually execute such rules and instructions as shall
from time to time be given them by the bishop, with
advice and consent of the dean and chapter of the
diocese.

9thly, That the ladies come under no vows other than
what they are bound by when admitted by holy bap-
tism, and 'tis presumed they have often renewed, at
their communicating in the holy eucharist — so it must
needs follow, that they be at full liberty to quit the con-
vent whenever they have a mind so to do, provided they
acquaint their prioress and the bishop of the diocese
with such their intention, six months at least before
they take leave, that timeous intimation may be made
of a vacancy to happen in the society.

lOthly, That if they shall, after trial deliberately had
of this manner of living in a pious and virtuous retire-
ment, find it so agreeable to their inclinations, as they
determine themselves to live and die in this happy so-
ciety, and further be disposed to bequeath to its use any
part of their estates, they take care such donation do not
exceed one-third of them, leaving at least two-thirds to
the use and behoof of the families from which they are
descended.

Now this scheme honestly intended, though perhaps
unskilfully described, is, with most humble deference to
the ladies, and to such as they shall be pleased to advise
with, submitted to their correction or absolute refusal.
But if either the whole, or any part, shall receive a kind
approbation, the person who first gave the hint will
reckon his poor endeavour sufficiently rewarded ; and

APPENDIX THIRD.

289

in this case it may possibly grow into such credit, as
in a proper season to be authorised by a parliamentary
sanction.

DOCTOR SHARP'S REPLY.

Sir,

I have received the favour of your letter of the
17th instant, in which you are pleased to do me honour
in asking my advice, being wholly a stranger to you,
and particularly in suspending the prosecution of your
scheme, till you knew my sentiments about it in its general
view. Now, though my opinion is not of such conse-
quence as to deserve this regard from you, yet you
have laid me under an obligation by this deference and
civility, to answer your letter, both as soon, and as
fully, and particularly as I can.

Every serious and sober proposal, (such as your's
plainly appears to be) for contriving means to make
any persons better or happier than they are, must needs
prove itself to be commendable in this view, and be ac-
ceptable, as such, to all good people, and nobody would
be more ready than myself to assist you, both in con-
triving (if I knew how), and in recommending any
proper and agreeable situation of life for those persons
for whom you are concerned.

But when I have said this, I must also freely tell
you, that I apprehend there are some difficulties in the
way you have proposed, that will not easily be got
over. Give me leave to mention them.

First. You are pleased to say, it is at the request of
some well-disposed persons in your parts, that you write to

VOL, II. V

290

APPENDIX THIRD.

me upon this subject. May I presume to ask a question
which seems to me very material — Are these persons of
that sex, or of that disposition, for which the scheme is
calculated, or not? If they are not, I have some doubts
how far any of our sex are proper judges for them in
such a matter as this, or whether we may venture to
form schemes of life to invite them into upon general
guesses and surmises of their inclinations and dispo-
sitions.

You say, indeed, that " it has been observed for a good
number of years past , that ladies of quality, and gentlewomen
possessed of excellent merit, and handsomely provided for in
fortunes, have found themselves, in single life, exposed to
scorn, and held of little use in the world." I am sorry any
occasion has been given for so melancholy a reflection j
but at the same time am willing to hope that this is not
real matter of fact. I am sure it never yet came under
my observation ; and it seems to me to be as much
against reason and probability as it is against expe-
rience : for, without regard to age, or any other circum-
stance of single women whatsoever, merit, and a com-
petent fortune, (especially when further recommended
by good alliance in blood) will always set them suf-
ficiently above being slighted or overlooked, and much
more above any contempt. Their virtues and good
qualities alone, exclusive of either fortune or family,
will gain them the esteem of all the sensible part of the
world ; and as to the rest of mankind, who are not dis-
posed to reverence virtue for its own sake, yet they
commonly pay a due respect to family and fortune. So
I cannot discover what it is such gentlewomen have to
fear or apprehend from the bare circumstances of being

APPENDIX THIRD.

291

single in life, and advanced in life. For suppose one of
these circumstances to be as involuntary and as una-
voidable as the other is, yet it is quite innocent and
unblameable. But if it be voluntary and upon choice,
it is a very great and honourable character in life.

If, therefore, any gentlewoman so circumstanced as
you suppose, should happen to take a fancy (for I must
call it so), that, became she is not married before a certain
age, she shall be exposed to scorn, and be thought of little
use in the world, and shall become thereupon inclined to wish
she had a place of solace and retirement, among some of her
own sex, I think, in the first place, that instead of allow-
ing and encouraging this fancy in her, she should be
disabused, and taught to think this certain truth, that
where virtue and goodness is, there can be no room for co?i-
tempt ; unless it be such pretended impotent contempt
as some senseless people affect to shew of all virtuous
and religious persons, without distinction. And to be
despised in such company, was always held an honour.
And she should be further given to understand, that to
retire from the world and business of life, upon account
of any idle railleries upon her present condition of life,
would be so far from preventing them, that it would
only tend to encrease them. And if this ought to be the
advice given to a person situated in such circumstances
and affected by them in such manner as you represent,
I must leave you to judge, upon a second consideration,
how improper it must be to confirm those notions in
gentlewomen who have unhappily entertained them, by
making a proposal which is founded upon a supposition
of their being really in that disagreeable situation which
their own fancy, and the equally fanciful railleries of
others, have seemed to place them in.

u 2

292

APPENDIX THIRD.

This, therefore, which is the ground of your scheme,
doth not appear (at least, not to me) to have so good a
foundation as is set forth in your preamble.

And though I might stop here till this point be
better cleared up, yet, hoping you will pardon me, I
will examine your proposals a little further.

2dly. I cannot see in what respects this scheme pro-
mises a more than ordinary advancement of piety and
religion. For there are no religious exercises which
the ladies can perform in their monastery, but what
they can as well perform out of it, especially if they
live in religious families, of which there are great num-
bers in which God is served with a family service, over
and above the stated services of the church. If they
find, as you observe, at a certain age, the diversions of the
world become flat to them, why cannot they both avoid
and despise those diversions out of a monastery as well
as in it ? If they find, as you observe, a great part of the
business of the world uneasy to them, (you mean such
business as they may lawfully quit and lay aside), why
are they not as much at liberty when out of a monastery
to drop it, if they please, as when in it ? If you should
be understood here to speak of any business that is in-
cumbent on them as a duty, the putting them out of a
capacity of doing it, under the notion of a religious re-
tirement, would be an insuperable objection to the
whole scheme.

Although, therefore, I do fully agree with you, that
ladies of quality and fortune that are unmarried, and think
of continuing in that state of life, would, if formed into a
separate society, prove a religious company of excellent
persons ; . yet I cannot but think their excellence as great
and as conspicuous. in common life; and that they are,

ATPENDIX THIRD.

293

while they live intermixed with mankind, both as
happy instruments of glory to God, and of solace too, (if
they can be supposed to need it) to one another, as they
would be in a recluse life.

But further, though a monastic life should be allowed
both more agreeable and more advantageous to them-
selves, yet it must be remembered, that we ought not to
live to ourselves only ; the public hath some right to
our service : and I look upon it as a great mistake to
think that the maids and matrons, for whose peace you
are concerned, are of little use to the public. Their ex-
ample and conversation are of great consequence to
young people of their own sex, and very often are sea-
sonable reproaches of the irregularities of ours. They
are likewise the support of the outward credit of re-
ligion, in all great towns, by their due and regular at-
tendance of God's worship ; and, in a word, I am per-
suaded that if every body's pretences to public useful-
ness were fairly sifted and examined, we should find
these maids and matrons, whom your scheme invites
out of common life, both capable of doing, and actually
doing, as much real good as their neighbours ; and
more good than all the young things, that have not
passed the flower of their age, put together.

3dly. You observe that divers speculations have been
had by such as wish heartily well to the good ladies on this
occasion, but that, after mature deliberation, none has ap-
peared more agreeable, than to propose a nunnery of Pro-
testants. I take it, Sir, for granted, you are no stranger
to Mr. Stephen's project on this head, or the serious Pro-
posals of a Lady, or Sir George Wheeler's Protestant
Monastery. I question whether any scheme hitherto
formed, doth exceed, or even come up to your's. Per-

294

APPENDIX THIRD.

haps nothing can be better projected, (a few circum-
stances being altered, which I shall mention presently)
by way of nunnery or collegiate life for ladies, than
your's is. But still, the grand query is left unanswered,
(viz.) whether any institution of this kind can be proper
and useful in this our Protestant kingdom, a query not
to be rejected 'till it be well considered.

For whatever accounts we meet with in any age or
in any part of the Christian Church, of colleges or so-
cieties of virgins, they are always to be understood of
such as were dedicated or consecrated, and deprived of
that liberty which you are willing to allow them, as in-
deed all Protestants do, and with very good reason.
Now however well the monastic life may be calculated
for persons having the vow upon them as the safest
means of preserving, and the likeliest means of making
life easy under it, yet these (only) recommendations of a
nunnery do cease when the vow, as in your scheme, is
to be out of the question. When I say this I am very
far from recommending the vow itself; but I mention it
only to shew that the recluse life, which seems chiefly
accommodated to the votaries of celibacy and virginity,
loses its apparent expediency when considered with
respect to other persons, who are not under the same
obligations.

If it be objected to the Church of England (as I be-
lieve it is by the Papists) that we want such public pro-
fessions of virginity and celibacy as they can shew in
the Church of Rome, the answer is obvious and easy
(viz.) that we do equally with them acknowledge a sin-
gle state, voluntarily chosen, to be both advantageous
and a saint-like situation in the Christian life. But in
this we differ from them, that we think this state of vir-

APPENDIX THIRD.

295

ginity is more glorious and praiseworthy without the
obligations of a vow than with it, and still more ex-
emplary in a public way of life than in a nunnery. It is
frivolous to object to this, that because we can make no
direct proofs of a voluntary virginity, therefore none
continue in that state but such as want opportunity of
changing it with convenience. This is just the same
reasoning as if we should conclude that nothing would
preserve the Popish nuns safe but their vow and their
confinement. All these and the like presumptions are
hasty and uncharitable. It may be the case of some to
be unwillingly ranged in this class of single women,
and yet they may be very virtuous and excellent per-
sons notwithstanding. However, there wants not un-
deniable proofs that this is not the case of all. And
what I observe in general is that where it cannot be
known (as commonly speaking I believe it cannot) what
are the true motives to a single life in any person ; it is
both unreasonable and ill natured to suppose the worst
as the satyrical part of the world are always disposed
to do.

And now, Sir, to return to your scheme. It is to
be feared your whole society, considering the age you
fix for the members to be admitted, will be interpreted to
consist of this disappointed class of ladies ; which though
it should be an unfair and unwarrantable presump-
tion, yet should it really prove the current sentiment
it will neither be of credit to the ladies themselves,
nor tend to the honour of the church of which they are
members. The ostentation of the Popish nunneries is
in the early vows of perpetual virginity, and the sacri-
fices made of the world and its pleasures by persons in
the flower of their age. These you do very justly ex-
12

296

APPENDIX THIRD.

elude out of your society. But then it is to be consi-
dered to what imputations your society is liable, (viz ;)
to be thought a company of discontented and despond-
ing creatures that are tired of the world because they
think the world is tired of them. And as I observed
above that such institutions as those do not promise
any extraordinary advancement of piety and religion
either in the recluses themselves or in the world in ge-
neral for the reasons before given ; so I must remark
here for these reasons now given, that such a Protestant
nunnery as you propose does not bid fair for any extra-
ordinary credit to the Church of England.

The liberty you allow the ladies to leave their retire-
ment when they please, no doubt is right, and indeed is
necessary : but still 'tis liable to this consequence, that
every instance of this liberty's being used will afford
some handle of reflection upon the whole society: and
if there should be frequent instances of it, (and who can
foresee the changes and inconstances of people's tem-
pers in matters purely indifferent and discretionary ?)
then such a society may in the event prove rather a
discredit than an honour to our Established Church.

These, Sir, are sincerely my present sentiments about
your project in its general view. How far they may
disappoint your expectations from me I know not, but
they are given with that freedom and impartiality that a
serious request upon a serious business did demand of
me. And now I submit them to you with all that ima-
ginable deference, and more if possible than you are
pleased to express in your very modest manner of pro-
pounding your scheme.

I cannot say but the difference between your way of
thinking on this subject and mine may in some measure

APPENDIX Till 11 D.

297

arise from the different customs of our countries, and
peculiar dispositions of the people among whom our
observations are made. Were I in your place I might
see more and better reasons for such a proposal than I
can apprehend at present. And were you in my situa-
tion you might perhaps see less : I make as little doubt
of your honest and pious intention in what you have
schemed, as I do of my own sincerity in telling you my
objections to it. I am sure we both shall agree in the
end if we can but think alike of the means, of pro-
moting the happiness, both temporal and eternal, of the
good people who are the subject of our correspondence.
And you shall always find me ready to assist you in any
proposal made for their sakes that I think will bear
when well examined and weighed. But as to this which
you have sent me, I both despair of giving you encou-
ragement from the ladies in these parts, and do likewise
suspend the acquainting our Bishop with it : because it
is not (at least not yet) what I can recommend to him.
Nevertheless I am so far from relying upon my own
judgment, or desiring you to rely upon it ; that if after
you have taken the trouble of perusing what I have
wrote, you still think it adviseable to have his lordship's
opinion too ; in this case I will obey your directions
and send it to him.

If you will give me leave to add a word or two
upon the particular conditions of this projected so-
ciety laid down in your enclosed articles, (though I
need say the less, because I observe them to be seri-
ously considered of and adjusted by the ladies who are
to be concerned in them, which is discreetly judged)
I will venture to mention a few things which if a little
altered would I believe make the scheme more palata-

298

APPENDIX THIRD.

ble ; and this you must take for lieu of instructions
from the ladies themselves, which though they would be
much better than my own, yet I have no hopes of get-
ting from them.

1. Might you not as well leave out the words convent,
prioress, nunnery, and whatever conveys an idea of si-
militude between your society and the Popish religious
houses?

2. The certificates or testimonials required are such
as perhaps cannot in some cases with any propriety be
given. As for instance ; who can certify that any tem-
per which is not Jit for a conjugal life, is fit for a social one,
founded upon compact as that of your college must be?
Your meaning I rather guess is, that the ladies shall be
fit for a social life upon account of their tempers, though
not for a conjugal one on account of their age. But
your proposal as it is worded implies what I have just
now excepted against.

3. Then as to certificates about infectious diseases, it
is too nice and delicate a point to put ladies of qua-
lity upon bringing certificates to clear themselves
thereof.

4. That the Chaplain should be unmarried and should re-
solve to continue so, is what I can see no reason to insist
upon. Happy indeed is every clergyman that hath this
power over his own will, and it is good if he so abide.
But still I apprehend that a married man might make
altogether as good a Chaplain to these ladies ; and if
he lived with his wife in a little house near them, it
might be to the full as well as if he lived among them
without one.

5. Then I think you give this Chaplain too much power
in inspecting the conduct of the members and making

APPENDIX THIRD.

299

report thereof to the Bishop. Inspecting the behaviour
should be the business most properly of their superior lady :
and as to informations to the Bishop it is a nice and
tender point as our ecclesiastical laws stand. The
Minister and Churchwardens of the parish where the
society shall be founded will claim the right, and exer-
cise the power if they see reason of presenting either
single persons or the whole society (Chaplain and all)
into the Bishop's Courts.

So that provision is already made for the correction of
delinquents against the laws ecclesiastical ; and the
Ordinary can proceed upon these presentments to exa-
minations and censures.

But reports from the Chaplain even of gross faults,
will not be legal informations. And if they be only of
slight matters not cognizable by the laws, the Bishop
will have no power to censure or to interpose ; much
less will the Dean, whom you by a natural mistake sup-
pose always present when the Bishop is absent. But
this is not a rule always to be depended upon in a dio-
cese. The same interest indeed that would procure a
parliamentary sanction (which you are not without
hopes of) to the execution of your scheme, might provide
also a remedy to all the inconveniences that may be
suggested on this head, and both procure peculiar pri-
vileges and exemptions to the society, and arm the
Bishop with authority to exercise a proper government.
But whether these things can be hoped for, as times
now are, I had rather leave you to judge than make
any attempt to explain myself.

And now asking your pardon if I have offended you
in any thing that I have said, and intreating you to
take this my freedom with you in that good part in

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APPENDIX THIRD.

which it is meant, I conclude (as it is time I should
after giving you so much trouble) with due respect and
wishes of success to all your good designs, &c.

T. Sharp.

Reverend and Dear Sir,

I take your's of the 24th as a very great compli-
ment. The pains you have been pleased to take at the
request of one so much a stranger to you, is indeed at
once an instance of your goodness and of your regard to
the subject about which he takes the freedom to ask
your advice. The scheme I must own does in many
things not appear to your mind, and I shall forbear to
mention here what occurs to my thoughts for support-
ing it in a great part, since I am not without hopes of
having the pleasure to pay you my duty sometime this
ensuing summer at Rothbury, if the Lord will, where we
may have the opportunity of conferring at length of the
matter which seems not so fit to be considered in the
way of an exemplary correspondence.

Meanwhile I think it incumbent upon me to answer
the question here which you look upon as a material in
the very introduction. The project as it was sent out
to you had been communicated to a few judicious and
well-disposed confidents of both sexes, who were pleased
to think well of it, and approved of the purpose of lay-
ing it before you for advice. Now, Sir, that you have
condescended so far as to take it in most of its articles
into your grave consideration, though I must beg leave to
dissent from your opinion in some of your remarks, yet
I cannot but acknowledge you have done it an honour

APPENDIX THIRD.

301

which a poor though perhaps a well-intended scheme, did
not deserve at your hands, since there appears so many
weighty scruples to you about it. In consequence of
this you may safely presume it is by no means expected
you will expose this humble suggestion to any person,
not of your strictest confidence, much less to the Right
Reverend your Bishop. It would seem you labour
under some mistake , of which you may be undeceived
if you please to advert that the ladies of this country
are not under the dominion of melancholy, for gratifying
of which you suppose the scheme to be calculated, nor
was it projected that they should make up the whole or
even the greatest part of the happy number, but it was
rather hoped that some of the worthy persons of that
sex and degree in your parts would some time or other
embrace the favourable opportunity of retirement, when
wisely concerted upon a model, whereof I took the li-
berty to transmit you an imperfect hint, to be by your
advice either approved or rejected. Pray give me leave
to acquaint you that the author of it had never seen
Mr. Stephen's project on this head, nor the serious
Proposals of a Lady, nor Sir George Wheler's Protestant
Monastery, so the schemist himself must bear the blame
of what may be amiss in his proposals. He could not
without some degree of vanity have expected a parlia-
mentary sanction to be given to a draught so rude as
his, but after concerting such a project in general with
mature and solid deliberation, he wanted not some faint
hopes as he had humble wishes, it might in a proper
season receive the benefits of it. You are by this time
I suppose weary of reading the scribble of one in the
74th year of his age, and I beg your pardon for the
trouble it gives you. Let me only add a line or two more

302

APPENDIX THIRD.

earnestly intreating the assistance of your prayers at
all times, more especially on occasion of the most
solemn devotions of your excellent church, now near at
hand.

I am,

Dear Sir,

With unfeigned sincerity,
Your much obliged
and humble Servant,

William Cunninghame.

Edinburgh, March 31, 1737.

MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS

OF THE

FAMILY OF SHARP.

MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS,

JOHN SHARP, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK,

Primate and Metropolitan of England.

Born, 1644.
Consecrated, 1691.
Died, 1713.

The Epitaph, written by Dr. George Smalridge, Bi-
shop of Bristol, is placed on the Archbishop's Monument
in York Minster, and inserted, Vol. II. page 93.

REV. SIR GEORGE WHELER, KNT. D.D.*

Buried in St. Marys Chapel, called the Galiley, in
Durham Abbey. His Monument is placed at the West
End of the Cathedral, on which is the following Inscription.

Hunc post parietem conditur
Quod Mortale fuit Georgij Wheler

* Father-in-law to Dr. Thomas Sharp, the author of the Life of his Father
the Archbishop. — Editor.

VOL. II. X

306

APPENDIX THIRD.

Equitis Aurati, S.T.P.
Rectoris vigilantissinii Ecclesiae de Houghton,

Hujusce Ecclesiae Canonici Meritissimi.
E Stirpe Generosa, inter Cantianos oriundus
Breda? tamen inter Batavos natus.
Parentibus ob Res;iam causam eo"re°;ie exulantibus
Prima Literarum Tyrocinia,
Inter Lincolnienses Oxonij posuit.
Deinde doctissimo Medico Sponio Comite,
In Italiam, Graeciam, Asiamqne profectus,
Antiqua rerum Monumenta Christiana, profana,

Tantum non exhausit.
Reversus ex illustri Granvillorum Stirpe natam
Filiam Tho. Higgins, Mil. ad Venetos legati

Forma, Virtute, Pietate, insignem
Duxit ; e qua numerosum suscepit Sobolem.
Post brevi a Serenissimo Principe Carolo II.
Equestri Titulo ornatus
Contranitentibus licet Suis
Sacros ambivit Ordines,
Maluitque in Ecclesia Servire
Quam in Aula Splendescere.
Per totum Vita? Cursum,
Munificentise in Literaros,
Humanitatis in Hospites,
Charitatis in Pauperes,
Singulare dedit Exemplum,
Pietatis, divinique Amoris rarissimum.
Ecclesia? Christianse ritus, mores, et dogmata,
Haud quisquam vel laboriosius indagavit,
Vel Studiosiiis Sectatus est,
Vel melius calluit,
Fidei primaeval in scriptis Assertor,

APPENDIX THIRD.

307

Discipline in Vita aemulus.
Obijt 18. Cal. Feb. Anno Domini 1723-4.
Anno iEtatis 74.
Hoc Marmor exstrui curavit
Filius unicus superstes Granville Wheler.

Translation of the foregoing Inscription.

Behind this wall lie the mortal remains of Sin
George Wheler, Knight, D.D. a most diligent Rec-
tor of the Church of Houghton le Spring near Dur-
ham, and a most deserving Prebendary of this Church.
He was descended from a Noble Family in Kent,
but born at Breda in Holland, when his Parents
were in noble Exile for the Royal Cause. He laid the
first rudiments of his learning at Lincoln College in
Oxford, and afterwards travelled with the learned Phy-
sician, Count Spon, into Italy, Greece, and Asia,
where he almost exhausted the monuments of ancient
learning, both Christian and prophane. After his re-
turn he married the daughter of Sir Thomas Higgins,
Knight, the Venetian Ambassador. She was descended
from the illustrious race of the Granvilles, eminent for
her Beauty, Virtue, and Piety ; by whom he had a nu-
merous offspring. A short time after he was knighted
by that most serene Prince, King Charles the Second,
and, contrary to the efforts of bis friends, he entered
into Holy Orders, choosing rather to serve in the
Church, than shine in the Court, Through the whole
course of his life he gave a singular example of muni-
ficence to the learned, of courtesy to strangers, of cha-
rity to the poor, and a most eminent example of piety

x 2

308

APPENDIX THIRD.

and charity divine. Scarce any one ever took more
pains in tracing out the rites, manners and opinions
of the Christian Church, or followed them more studi-
ously, or understood them better. He maintained the
primitive faith in his writings, and was a strict dis-
ciplinarian in life. He died on the 18th of the calendar
of Feb. in the year of our Lord 1723-4, in the 74th year
of his age. His only surviving Son, Granville Wheler,
Esq. erected this Monument to his Memory.

Family Monument under the West Windoxo in Durham
Abbey {Erected by Catharine Sharp, 1816,) Executed by
F. L. Chant rey.

Sacred to the Memory of Thomas Sharp, D.D. Son
of John, Archbishop of York. He was born Dec. 12th,
1693. Married, June 19th, 1722, Judith, Daughter of
the Rev. Sir George Wheler, by whom he had fourteen
Children. Died in 1758, and was buried at the West
End of the Cathedral Church of Durham, in the Chapel
called the Galilee.

He was eminent not only for Piety and Prudence, but
great learning and critical judgment.

He distinguished himself in the Hutchinsonian con-
troversy, in which his accurate knowledge of the He-
brew tongue gave him a decided advantage over Mr.
Hutchinson and his followers. His Tract on the
Rubric and Canons of the Church of England is highly
esteemed, as indeed are all his Charges to the Clergy of
Northumberland, over whom he presided many years as
Archdeacon.

Note — He was a Prebendary of the Cathedral and
Collegiate Churches of York, Southwell and Durham,
Rector of Rothbury, and one of Lord Crewe's Trustees.

APPENDIX THIRD.

309

Sacred to the Memory of John Sharp, D.D. the
Eldest Son of Thomas and Judith Sharp. Bom, March
21st, 1 723. He married Dec. 4th, 1 752, Mary, the Daugh-
ter of Dr. Heneage Dering, Dean of Ripon, by whom he
had one Daughter, Anne Jemima. He was a Preben-
dary of Durham, Archdeacon of Northumberland, Vicar
of Hartburn, and Senior Trustee of the Estates of the
late Nathaniel Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham, whose
Charities he was indefatigable in promoting, having
repaired and roofed the old ruined Tower of Bamburgh
Castle, at the joint expense of himself and his brother,
the Rev. Thomas Sharp. He trod in the steps of his
excellent father, and was eminent for learning and piety,
and for exemplary attention to his duties, both in his
Church and in his Archdeaconry. He died in April,
1792, and was buried in the Galilee.

Note — He was appointed Curate of the Perpetual
Curacy of Bamburgh, on the death of his brother Tho-
mas, 1772.

And in the same Place were also interred the Remains
of Judith, Wife of the said Dr. Thomas Sharp, and
Daughter of the Rev. Sir George Wheler. Born 1700,
Died 1757.

Of Mary, Widow of the said Dr. John Sharp, and
Daughter of Dr. Heneage Dering. Born 1720, Died
1798.

Of Anne Jemima, only Child of the said Dr. John
Sharp, and Mary his Wife. Born 1762, Died 1816.

310

APPENDIX THIRD.

Of Judith Sharp, Sister of Dr. John Sharp. Born
1733, Died 1809.

In united Remembrance of whom this Marble is in-
scribed by the only Survivor and Grand daughter of
Dr. Thomas Sharp, Catharine Sharp, 1816.

Written by the Rev. Heneage Elsley.

MONUMENTS IN WICKEN CHURCH,
NORTHAMPTON SHIRE,

( Five in Number.)

Here lies
John Sharp, Esq.
Eldest Son of Dr. John Sharp, Archbishop of York.
He served his country and her late Majesty Queen Ann,
in several Parliaments, and at the Board of Trade.
He was a polite Scholar,
An accomplished Gentleman,
A most affectionate Husband and Father,
A true Friend, and a desirable Companion.
Beloved and esteemed by all who knew him,
He died much lamented at Grafton Park,
March 9, 1726. Aged 49.

Note — The Archbishop had only two Sons, John Sharp,
Esq. of Grafton Park, as above, and Thomas Sharp,
D.D. Archdeacon of Northumberland, &c. &c.

APPENDIX THIRD.

311

Here lies
John Hosier Sharp,
the only Son of John Sharp, Esq.
Who died Jan. 6th, 1734, Aged 13 Years,
A Youth of promising capacities
and endeared to his Relations
By a peculiar resemblance to his Father,
Not only in Person, Temper, and Deportment,
But in his Virtues too,
Some of which he was obliged to exercise severely,
By a painful, lingering, and incurable Malady,
Which he bore with undaunted Resolution,
and exemplary Patience.

Sacred to the Memory of
Anna Maria Sharp,
Widow of John Sharp, Esq. and Daughter of
Charles Hosier, Esq. of Wicken Park,
and Mary his Wife.
She was born Oct. the 21st, 1691, and died
Sept. 30, 1747.
She was exemplary in every Christian Virtue, and
most eminently so in a constant and cheerful obedience
to her Parents, in a most faithful and affectionate regard
for her Husband, and a tender and watchful care over
her Children, by whom she was greatly beloved and la-
mented.

She piously erected the Monuments in this Church to
her Husband and her Son,
But modestly omitted to mention herself.
Her affliction for their loss was followed by several
years of pain and ill health, which she suffered with the
13

312

APPENDIX THIRD.

greatest patience and cheerfulness, resigned to God,
and easy to all about her, preserving to the last, the
most obliging temper, whereby she engaged the esteem
of all who knew her.

To the Memory of
Charles Hosier, Esq.
(Son of George Hosier, Esq. of Berwick, in the County
of Salop),
and Mary, his Wife,
Daughter of Sir Edward Barnard, Knight, of Beverley,
in Yorkshire.
He died Dec. 15th, 1750, Aged 90 Years.
She on the 1st of Aug. 1724.
They were the affectionate and beloved Parents of
Anna Maria Sharp, their only Child,
who lies buried near them, and who left two surviving
Daughters,
Elizabeth, married to Thomas Prowse, Esq.
of Axbridge, in the County of Somerset,
and

Mary, married to James Booth, Esq.
of Whitfield, in Herefordshire.
As a Testimony of Gratitude and Affection,
This Monument was Erected by Thomas Prowse, and
Elizabeth his Wife, in the Year 1758,
when this Church was Built.

APPENDIX THIRD.

313

(Executed by John Bacon.)

To the Memory of
Elizabeth,
Daughter of Thomas Sharp, D.D. Archdeacon of
Northumberland,
and Widow of George Prowse, Esq. late of Wicken Park,
Who died Feb. 22d, 1810, Aged 77.
This Monument was erected by her three Nieces,
Anna Jemima Sharp, Mary Baker, and Catharine Sharp,
as the affectionate expression of their
Veneration for her Character, and their
Gratitude for her Kindness.
Stranger, whose eyes to this memorial turn,
Where Wicken's sorrow points to Prowse's urn,
If grief for worth removed thy heart reveres,
Then add thy tribute to the village tears.
Oh ! wouldst thou Peace should cheer thy pilgrim way,
And Joy salute thee on thy rising day,
Go, live like her, by God and man carest,
Then die like her, and be for ever blest.

Written by the Rev. John Owen, of Fulham.

Three Nieces, viz.

Anna Jemima, Daughter of Dr. John Sharp.
Mary*, Daughter of William Sharp.
Catharine, Daughter of James Sharp.

* She married Lloyd Laker, Esq. of Hardwick, Gloucestershire, and died
leaving issue, a son and two daughters. — Editor.

314

APPENDIX THIRD.

Note — Thomas Prowse, Esq. of Axbridge, in Somerset-
shire, married Elizabeth, the Daughter of John Sharp,
Esq. of Grafton Park, and Anna Maria, his Wife, who
was the Daughter of Charles Hosier, Esq. of Wicken
Park.

George Prowse, Esq. of Wicken Park, Northampton-
shire, Son of the above Thomas Prowse and Eliza-
beth his Wife, (the Daughter of John Sharp, Esq.)
Married (his Cousin) Elizabeth Sharp, the eldest
Daughter of Dr. Thomas Sharp, Archdeacon of Nor-
thumberland.

TOMB IN FULHAM CHURCH-YARD (South-side.)

Here lie the remains of
Elizabeth Prowse, of Wicken Park,
Northamptonshire,
Who died February 23d, 1810, Aged 77 ;
and of her Brother,
Wm. Sharp, Esq. of Fulham House, in this Parish,

Who died March 17th, 1810, Aged 81.
Endeared to their Family Connexions and Society,
By an amiableness of Character which has seldom been
equalled,

And to each other, by a degree of mutual Attachment
Which has never been surpassed.
" They were lovely in their lives,
" And in death they were not divided."

APPENDIX THIRD.

315

North Side of the Tomb.
Here,

By the remains of the Brother and Sister
Whom he tenderly loved, lie those of
Granville Sharp, Esq.
At the Age of 79 this venerable Philanthropist
terminated his Career
of almost unparalleled Activity and Usefulness,
July 6th, 1813,
leaving behind him a Name
that will be cherished with Affection and Gratitude,
as long as any homage shall be paid to those Principles
of Justice, Humanity, and Religion,
Which, for nearly half a Century,
He promoted by his Exertions,
And adorned by his Example.

West End of the Tomb.

Here also lie the remains of
Catharine,
Daughter of Thomas Barwick, Esq.
and Wife of William Sharp, Esq.
Who died February 9th, 1814, Aged 73.
The conduct of this excellent Woman,
under the various relations of Domestic Life,
exhibited an amiable and edifying Example
of that " meek and quiet Spirit,
which is, in the sight of God,
of great price."

316

APPENDIX THIRD.

East End of the Tomb.

The Burial Place of
William Sharp, Esq.
His Wife Catharine,
and his Brother and Sister,
Granville Sharp, Esq.
and Mrs. Prowse ;
of whom, respectively,
a Record will be found, on the Sides and Head
of this Monument.

The Inscriptions on this Tomb were all written by the
Rev. John Owen, of Fulham.

Inscription on a Mural Monument erected by the African
Institution of London, in Westminster Abbey.

Sacred to the Memory of
Granville Sharp,
Ninth Son of the Rev. Thomas Sharp, D.D.
Prebendary of the Cathedrals and Collegiate Churches

of York, Southwell, and Durham,
and Grandson of Dr. John Sharp, Archbishop of York.
Born and Educated in the bosom of the Church of
England,

he ever cherished for her Institutions the most
unshaken regard,
while his whole soul was in harmony with the sacred
strain —

APPENDIX THIRD.

317

" Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace,
good-will towards Men,"
On which his Life presented one beautiful comment
Of glowing Piety and unwearied Beneficence.
Freed by Competence from Necessity, and by Content
from the desire of lucrative Occupation,
He was incessant in his labours to improve the
condition of Mankind,
founding public Happiness on public Virtue
he aimed to rescue his native Country from the guilt

and inconsistency
of employing the arm of Freedom to rivet the fetters of
Bondage,

and established for the Negro Race, in the person
of Somerset,
the long-disputed rights of Human Nature.
Having, in this glorious cause, triumphed over the
combined resistance
of Interest, Prejudice, and Pride,
He took his post among the foremost of the honourable

band

associated to deliver Africa from the rapacity of Europe,
by the abolition of the Slave Trade,
Nor was death permitted to interrupt his career of
Usefulness,

till he had witnessed that act of the British Parliament,
by which " The Abolition" was decreed.
In his private Relations he was equally exemplary ;
and having exhibited through his Life, a model of
disinterested Virtue,
he resigned his pious spirit into the hands of his Creator,
in the exercise of Charity, and Faith, and Hope,
On the 6th day of July, 1813,
in the 78th Year of his age.

318

APPENDIX THIRD.

Reader !

If on perusing this tribute to a private Individual,
thou shouldst be disposed to suspect it as partial,
or to consider it as diffuse,
Know, that it is not Panegyric, but History.

Erected by the African Institution of London. 1816.

Note — Executed by F. L. Chantrey. The Inscription
written by Wm. Smith, Esq. M.P. for Norwich.

INDEX.

VOL. I. — PART I

PACE

His family and parentage 1

His birth and baptism 3

The principles he imbibed from his father and mother .... 5

Was at first a Calvinist in the doctrine of decrees 7

Occasion of his learning short hand 8

Sent to the University of Cambridge 9

His first studies there 10

Afflicted with hypocondriac melancholy •• 11

Begins to study Divinity 12

Disappointed of a fellowship in Christ's College ib.

Removes from Cambridge on account of the plague 14

The occasion of his being taken notice of by Dr. Henry

More 15

Recommended by him to Sir Heneage Finch, Solicitor-
General • ib.

Ordained Deacon and Priest in one day 16

Is appointed tutor to four of Sir Heneage Finch's sons • • • • 17

Sir Heritage's kindness to him 18

Hurts his health with too close application ib.

Visits his father ; who dies t t 19

VOL. II, y

322

INDEX.

PAGE

Sir H. Finch pleased with his first sermon 20

Obtains for him the Archdeaconry of Berks 21

Difficulties raised about his induction at Salisbury 22

Sir Heneage Finch made Lord Keeper ib.

Intrusts Mr. Sharp with recommendations to livings in the

gift of the Seals 23

And gives him in one year a Prebend of Norwich, and the

livings of St. Bartholomew Exchange, and St. Giles in

the Fields, London 25

He succeeds to St. Giles with advantages 26

Is instituted 27

Marries Mrs. Eliz. Palmer ib.

Occasion of his first acquaintance with Dr. Tillotson 29

Devolves his worldly cares upon his wife •••«•••••••• • ib.

Removes into Chancery Lane • • 30

Takes the Friday's lecture at St. Lawrence at the request of

Dr. Whichcot ib.

Commences Doctor at Cambridge 31

His character as a parish minister 32

His preaching • 33

Bishop Burnet's account of his mamier justified 36

His manner of performing Divine Service . . . * 42

Of cathechising youth 44

Of visiting the sick 45

His directions to his Curates, and kindness to them 47

His conversation with the greatest Divines of the age 48

Promoted to the Deanery of Norwich 50

He writes his Discourses about Conscience 51

Account of his Sermon which opened a controversy with the

Dissenters ib.

And was the occasion of Mr. Dodwell's book upon Schism 54

To which Mr. Baxter replies 57

Dr. Sharp publishes his first book about Conscience •••••• ib.

And his second book about a Doubting Conscience 58

INDEX.

PAGE

Character of these two Treatises 59

Abridged by Dr. Bennet, with the author's corrections • • • • CO
Another dispute that arose from the sermon aforesaid, with

its issue CI

He pens the Address of the London Grand Jury 63

Remark upon it 64

His Sermon at the King's Chapel, published at the request

of the Bishor)s 65

Attends King James's Coronation • ib.

Intercedes for Mr. Cornishe's wife and children 66

Assists at the burial of Dr. Pell •••••• ib.

He falls under the King's displeasure 67

History of his troubles G8

Returns to his function and is busy in the Popish Controversy 89

His friendship with Dr. Claggett 90

He enters upon a more strict way of living • • • 92

Consults with the Archdeacons about the orders concerning •

the declaration • 93

A paper which he drew up on that occasion ib.

His behaviour during the Revolution 96

Visits Lord Chancellor Jefferies in the Tower 97

Preaches before the Convention 98

And prays for King James ib.

Offence taken by the House ib.

Yet a vote of thanks passed for the sermon 99

A passage in that sermon supposed to give offence 101

Is left executor with Dr. Tillotson, by Alderman Ask - • • • 102

Promoted to the Deanery of Canterbury 104

His letter to Lord Nottingham on that occasion ib.

Appointed one of the Commissioners for revising the

Liturgy 105

ProposesDr. Tillotson for Prolocutor of the Convocation 106
Refuses to accept any of the Sees vacated by deprivation,

and why 10S

y 2

324

INDEX.

PAGE

York proposed to him before the See became vacant, and

accepted 110

Becomes void within a few days after Ill

He is confirmed and consecrated by Archbishop Tillotson 112

Introduced into the House of Peers 113

Congratulated by his University and College » ib.

PART II.

Distribution of the remainder of the work 115

Doctor Sharp's character as a bishop 116

Two rules that he followed • 117

I. About the disposal of his Prebends • ib.

Advantage of such a method 119

A passage out of Mr. Willis concerning it 120

II. About elections of Members of Parliament 121

His answer to the Lady Russel about them 122

Part of the Duke of Leeds's letter to him • 124

And his reply thereto 125

Part of his letter to Mr. Alderman Thompson of York . . 126

Why he concerned himself in the Ripon elections ib.

Application to the Parochial Clergy • 131

His interest not lessened by this conduct 132

He justifies himself to the Ministry on that head 133

A passage out of Bishop Burnet 134

His notitia of his Diocese, when and how composed • • • • 135
A passage in Mr. Drake's History and Antiquities of York

cleared up 137

His enquiries into the characters of his Clergy •••••••• 139

The use he made of these enquiries • • • • ib.

He did not consider his Clergy as a party man 141

Inquisitive after the best preachers ib.

INDEX. 825

PAGE

Sets up a weekly Lecture at York 142

The use he made of it t ib-

Himself a frequent preacher 141

His judgment about sermons 145

Advice to his Clergy about preaching ib.

His ordinations ■ ib.

His advice to young candidates on those occasions 146

His visitation charges 150

His private admonitions of the Clergy 155

Censures of the Clergy 161

And of the Laity 165

Two admonitory letters 165, 16S

His judgment of the societies for the reformation of manners 1 70

His first letter to Mr. Caryl about them ••• 171

His second letter to the same 174

Is backward in giving any encouragement to the said

societies , : 179

Is complained of for it ib.

But vindicated 180

His letter to Dr. Nicholson on that subject 182

The effect of it 186

Another letter to the same 187

And the effect of that likewise 189

His scheme of reformation ib.

Compared with Cardinal du Retz, Archbishop of Paris .. 190
The chief qualifications of a Parish Minister in his appre-
hension 191

His delicacy on this point displeases 192

An instance of it ib.

His letter to the Duke of Leeds 193

His letter to the person concerned 194

He interests himself in private patronages 196

Admonitory letter to a private patron 198

A second and a third case 199, 200

326 INDEX.

PAGE

Refuses to make Titular Chaplains for Pluralities 201

A friend to the resident Clergy 202

Ready to advise them on all occasions ib.

His letter about the marriage of a Quaker 20 i

The care he took in preserving discipline 205

A letter shewing his temper and judgment concerning it 207
Respites excommunication till all other methods are

tried 209

His letter to the Commissary of Richmond ib.

Grants absolution to a Clinick excommunicated 211

Under what restrictions he allowed of commutations of

penance 212

His letter on such an occasion 213

Visits and reforms his Spiritual Courts ■ 214

Endeavours to prevent Writs of Supersedeas 216

Enquiry into Schools and their Masters 217

His sentiments about the regulation of Schools 218

Governed by them in confirming School statutes 220

Choice of School Masters •••• 221

His Visitation of the College and Church at Southwell in

Nottinghamshire 222

His benefactions to the Church there 230

Obtains from the Crown an equivalent for the arrears of the

Pension to a Theological Lecturer • • • 231

Benefactions procured by him to the church there, after it

was burned by lightning in 1 7 1 1 • • • • 232

His letter to the Duchess of Newcastle on that occasion - • ib.

The happy effect of that letter * 234

Is mediator between the Bishop and Dean of Carlisle • • • 235

His first letter to the Bishop 236

The Bishop's answer, and the terms insisted upon 241

His second letter to the Bishop « 245

The dispute concluded • 248

A new difficulty started • ib.

INDEX. 327

PAGE

He interposes again and with success 250

Transition to the next part of the work ib.

PART III.

His character at Court 252

Bishop Burnet's remarks upon him „ ... . ib.

Examined and explained 253

In what sense he was and was not a politician 255

How reputed by different parties 250

A fast friend to the Constitution •••••• ••• 257

Avoided all State Affairs in his Sermons 258

His sense of the Revolution 262

His answer to a case about Allegiance to King William. . 263

His monitions to his Clergy on the same • 266

His answer to a Member of the House of Commons about

imposing the Oath of Abjuration 267

Gives advice to several about the oaths 268

Lord W — n's reflection upon him in the House of Peers. . ib.

His satisfaction in the Act of Settlement 269

Dr. Hutton's letter to him from Hanover 270

Presents his Coronation Sermon to the Electress by the

hands of Mr. Toland 273

His account of that odd circumstance ib.

His letter to the Electress 276

Mr. Bagnal's letter, with a compliment from her Royal

Highness 277

Vindicated from the suspicion of unsteadiness in the inter-
ests of the House of Hanover 279

Promotes the introduction of the Church of England Service

at the Court of Hanover ib.

328

INDEX.

PAGE

Part of a letter from Mr. Leibnitz on it • 281

Reflections upon it 283

Confutation of a story in Fogg's Journal 284

His debating in the House of Peers 285

His speech upon the Triennial Bill, 1693 287

How he guided himself in his votes • 293

Is against the attainder of Sir J. Femvick 295

Censured for it by Bishop Burnet ib.

A common but unjust reflection upon the bench of Bishops ib.

His affection to King William and his Government 297

His frequent declarations to Queen Anne upon the subject

of voting in Parliament 299

Assists in preventing the Tack, 1704 301

Discourse with the Queen upon the Occasional Conformity

Bill. 306

Is against the proposal of calling over the Electress, 1705. 307

Talks with the Queen about it 308

And with Lord Rochester ib.

And with the Queen again 309

Reflections on those passages 311

Is in great favour with the Queen 312

Part of the Earl of Nottingham's letter to him on the

Queen's accession ib.

His answer to the Archbishop of Canterbury about coming

up to the Coronation • 313

Preaches at the Queen's Coronation 315

His first private conference with her Majesty ib.

Is made Lord Almoner and Privy Counsellor 316

The Queen advised with him in her private and spiritual

concerns 317

Andsometimes lethim into the measures of her Government 318
The great freedom he used with her on some points .... ib.

Some instances of her good qualities ••• • 320

He sounds her upon the Protestant succession 32i

INDEX.

329

PAGE

His opinion of her firmness and attachment to it 325

Computation of her private charities through his hands • • 326

Appointment of Preachers, uneasy to him and why ib.

Is very desirous to resign the Almoner's Seal'««« • 329

Frequently offers it but is not permitted ♦ • • • • ib.

Would not offer to resign when likely to be turned out by

the Ministry 330

The courtesy with which the Queen always treated him •• 33.1
Her regard to him in the appointment of a successor to

his See 332

How far he was concerned in promotions to Church Pre-
ferments 333

Upon what measures he proceeded in recommending per-
sons to her S35

Complained much of false representations made to her of

the Clergy 337

His acts for the benefit of the Church and the Clergy of

England 338

The share he had in the Act for the Queen's bounty to the

poor Clergy 339

Presents the address of the Convocation at London upon

that occasion* • • • • 344

Draws up, and presents another in the name of the Convo-
cation at York ib.

Intercedes for the remission of the arrears of tenths • • • • 347
Concerned in healing differences in the Convocation • • • • 350

And endeavours to have it usefully employed 353

His opinion of the Established Church 354

And of the Liturgy • 355

His moderation towards Dissenters • 356

His reasons for opposing their occasional conformity ••• • 357
Abuses of the Act of Toleration in his own Diocese .... 358
Archbishop Tillotson's letter to him about an academy

kept by a Dissenter ib.

INDEX.

PAGE

Another of his own to Lord Chief Justice Holt, about Dis-

senters performing Parochial Offices 360

Lord Chief Justice Holt's answer 362

His motions in the debates about the Church in Danger • • 363
His private discourse with Lord Treasurer Godolphin- • • • 365

His conversation in the country betrayed •••• S66

He grows more reserved on such subjects 867

The point that he laboured in the Occasional Conformity

Bill, 1702 If.

And in the Naturalization Bill, 1708" 369

His opinion of the Dissenters' Baptisms - • ib.

Lay Baptisms, how considered by the C!.urch of England 370

Proposal of publishing a Declaration about it 371

He dissuades the publication of it in the names of the Bishops 373
Bishop Burnet represents him as unsteady in this dissuading 375

He is vindicated in this matter ib.

He dissuades also the publication of what he himself had
said in the House of Lords about communicating with

the foreign Protestants 378

Is aspersed by a French writer . 380

Vindicated from the calumny , 381

A letter to Dr. Radcliff, about Dr. Sacheverell published

under his name, proved spurious 383

His Act for the distressed Episcopal Clergy of Scotland - • 384
Part of their memorial sent him from Edinburgh, 1693 . . 385
Duke of Hamilton's discourse with him about them • • • • 386

He solicits collections for them 387

Bishop Burnet's letter to him concerning them ib.

He applies to the Queen at the Union on their behalf. • • • 390
Opposes the ratification of the Scotch Bill of Security .. ib.

Bishop Beveridge's queries about the Bill 392

The affairs of the Episcopal Clergy grow worse 893

His letter to the Queen in their favour 394

His personal applications to her Majesty ..... 395

INDEX.

331

PAGE

The good effects of them « 396

Acknowledged in a letter from Scotland ib.

He procures the Queen's bounty for some of their Bishops 399

His services to distressed Protestants abroad ib.

His letter to the Lord Treasurer on behalf of the Vaudois 400
His endeavours to serve the Protestant churches at the

treaty of peace in 1709 401

State of Religion in Prussia* •••• 403

Dr. Jablonski's account of himself, and his sentiments of

the Church of England 405

English Liturgy translated into high Dutch 406

With design to introduce it into the King of Prussia's Chapel

and the Cathedral • • ib.

Dr. Ursinus's letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury .... 407

Not delivered to his Grace ib.

Which checked the whole design at that time ib.

A passage in the continuation of Godwin examined 408

The design in Prussia renewed 410

Dr. Jablonski applies to the Archbishop of York 413

The Archbishop's answer 415

And application to this business 417

The project set on foot again 418

Baron Printz's letter to Lord Baby 420

Secretary St. John's to the same 423

The Archbishop's application to the Queen 425

The scheme of a Church for the Prussian congregation in

London ib.

Mr. Bonet's P.S. to the King of Prussia 426

Dr. Jablonski's letter to the Archbishop of York thereupon 430

Baron Printz to Dr. Jablonski 435

Mr. Ayerst to the Archbishop 436

The Archbishop to the Lord Treasurer 437

And to Mr. Hales 438

Scheme of appointing an English Chaplain at Hanover . . 410

332

INDEX.

PAGE

Mr. Leibnitz concerns himself 440

By what means it was carried on 441

Mr. Leibnitz's opinion of both schemes 443

How they came to miscarry 447

The King of Prussia's design of maintaining Students in

Divinity at Oxford 448

He dies soon after ib.

The conclusion of the Prussian affair 449

VOL. II.— PART IV.

His social virtues • 2

His great sincerity, candour and charity • • • • ib.

His letter to Mr. Winston •••• (and Appendix, page 185) C
No friend to Mr. Whiston's notions nor to Dr. Clarke's

Scripture Doctrine 7

Yet a lover of free reasoning 9

His judgment of books, designed for the press, given to the

authors of them 11

To Dr. Comber on a Treatise about the Divine Right of

Tythes 12

To Dr. Grew on a Treatise upon Church Government. ... 18

Concerning his revisal of Bishop Burnet's articles 26

His opinion of Dr. Hickes's answer to the rights ........ 29

Is instrumental in bringing Mr. Nelson back to the Commu-
nion of the Established Church • 31

His great candour in judging of other men's tenets 33

Monsieur Le Clerk, his declaration upon it 35

His judgment of M. Le Clerk ib.

INDEX.

333

VACF.

One of his letters to M. Le Clerk 36

His generosity to M. Le Clerk vindicated from an aspersion

of a French writer •• • 39

Part of another letter to M. Le Clerk 40

The encouragement he gave to learning and learned

men 42

A letter of Bishop Beveridge • 43

Part of another from Dr. Mill 44

Another from Dr. Potter 45

His letter to Dr. Prideaux ■ 47

Application to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord

Nottingham, in behalf of Dr. Prideaux 49

His great courtesy and affability 50

Particularly to his Clergy 51

His acts of private friendship and good offices 53

His resolutions of cases of conscience ib.

And solutions of questions put to him ib.

His making peace and compounding differences • • ib.

His letter to a gentleman who had discarded his own

daughter 55

Another to a gentleman who had put away his wife ib.

A third to another in behalf of his lady and daughter . . ib.

His charity to the poor • • ib.

His liberality on many occasions 56

His hospitality 60

Laid up little out of the revenues of his Archbishopric • • 61

Transition to his Spiritual Life ib.

He enters into a stricter course of devotions in 1688 • • • • 64
His annual observance of Midsummer-day as the day of his

spiritual birth 66

He set down the course of his devotions in his Diary .... 71

The use he made of doing so 72

His solemnization of his birth-day 73

Of the first and last days in the year ib,

334

INDEX.

PAGE

And of the day of his consecration 75

His ordinary and weekly courses of devotion when in the

country ib.

The fervency wherewith he sometimes performed his

thanksgivings 79

His days of humiliation 81

His preparations before Visitations and Confirmations, and

before Ordinations 82

His exactness in remarking his defects 86

His conduct with respect to his natural infirmities 88

Conclusion of his spiritual life '90

His last sickness • • • • ib.

Goes to the Bath 91

His Death there ib.

His character in the Examiner 92

His Epitaph 93

APPENDIX I.

No.

I. Doctor Sharp's Preface to Dr. Clagget's 1st. vol. of
Sermons, printed in 1689, and referred to

vol. i. p. 91 99

II. A passage of his Sermon, at Dr. Clagget's funeral,

refered to vol. i. p. 91 103

III. A passage of his Sermon before the Convention,

supposed to have given offence, referred to
vol. i. p. 101 106

IV. His letter to Mr. Drake, about Mr. Torr's manu-

scripts, referred to vol. i. p. 138 109

V. His Articles of Enquiry at his visitation of the Eccle-
siastical Courts at York referred to vol. i. p. 215 111

INDEX. - 335

No. PAGB

VI. The case of the Abbey Lands resolved, referred to

vol. ii. p. 54 113

VII. Of marriage of a Popish Priest 117

VIII. Of breach of promise •••• 119

IX. Of marriage with a wife's niece 125

X. His letter to Mr. Whiston, taken from his Histori-
cal Preface 135

XI. To a gentleman who had discarded his own daughter 137

XII. To another who had put away his wife 139

XIII. To a third about his wife and daughter 141

APPENDIX II.

No.

I. The Process against the Bishop of London before

the Ecclesiastical Commission, August 31,1686 145
II. Dr. Jablonski's letter to Dr. Nicholls, in the

year 1708 153

III. His Discourse on Liturgies, published by way of

Preface to the Neufchatel Liturgy, 1710 •••• 156

IV. Dr. Hobart's letter to Dr. Smalridge 164

V. Dr. Smalridge's letter to the Archbishop 165

VI. Dr. Jablonski's letters to the Archbishop — one

of February 7, 1711 167

VII. Another of February 14, 1711 171

VIII, Postscript of a letter wrote to Frederick King of
Prussia, by Mr. Bonnet, his Prussian Majesty's

Resident at London, March 17, 1711 173

IX. Dr. Jablonski's letters to the Archbishop — one of

April 28, 1711 176

X. Another of May 5, do 180

33G INDEX.

No. PAGE

XI. A third of May 23, 1711 1S1

XII. Dr. Jablonski's Reflections upon Mr. Bonnet's
Postscript, above mentioned, presented to Baron
Printz, at Berlin, April 27, 1711 183

XIII. Baron Printzen's answer upon those Reflections

being communicated to him, May 3, 1711 ... . 195

XIV. Dr. Jablonski's scheme for introducing Episco-

pacy into Prussia, presented to Baron Printz,

May 7, 1711 19G

XV. Dr. Jablonski's letter to Mr. Ayerst 208

XVI. His letter to the Archbishop, of Jan. 14, 1713 212

XVII. And another of April 22, 1713 214

XVIII. Examiner, vol. v. p. 22, referred to vol. ii. p. 92 215

APPENDIX III.

Extract of a letter from Granville Sharp to Dr. John

Sharp 227

Another ditto ditto ditto • • ib.

Another ditto ditto ditto • • 229

Another ditto ditto ditto • • 230

Another ditto ditto ditto .. 231

Extract from the Archbishop's Life, relative to the Prus-

sian Church 232

Letter from Granville Sharp to Gregory, Esq. • • • • 237

Letter from Mr. C. F. Gregory 240

Letter from Granville Sharp to Gregory, Esq 242

Letter from Granville Sharp to his brother 243

Letter from Mr. C. F. Gregory 245

Letter from G. S , 247

INDEX.

337

Letter from Granville Sharp to Mr. C. F. Gregory • • • • 249

Letter from Granville Sharp • • • • - 250

Letter from G. S. to his brother 253

Another ditto 254

Letter from Granville Sharp to Dr. Jablonski 255

Letter from G. S. to his brother 257

Another ditto 258

Extrait de la lettre de M. Jablonski ib.

Extract by Archbishop Sharp 2G0

Extract from Nichols's Anecdotes • • 262

Another ditto 2G5

Copy of a letter from Dr. Sharp to John Ramsay, Esq. . . 269

Inscription for Bamburgh Castle 272

Extract fromCole's M.S. 58S0, f. 75, at the British Museum 275
The opinion of Dr. Thomas Sharp on a proposal for insti-
tuting a Protestant Convent • 279

Monumental Inscriptions of the Family of Sharp 303

Rev. Sir George Wheler, Knt. D.D. 305

Family Monument 308

Monuments in Wicken church yard to

John Sharp, Esq. •«.... 310

John Hosier Sharp 311

Anna Maria Sharp ib.

Charles and Mary Hosier • 312

Elizabeth Prowse 313

Tomb in Fulham church yard, (South side) Eliz. Prowse •• 314

(North side) Gran. Sharp • • 315

(West end) Catherine Sharp ib.

East end) William Sharp • • 316

Inscription on a mural Monument, erected by the African

Institution of London, in Westminster Abbey ib.

THE END.

Printed by K. Gilbert, St. Jolin'.- Square, London.

THE FOLLOWING ARE PUBLISHED BY

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THE NEW TESTAMENT, arranged in Chronological and

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Account of the Resurrection, on the Authorities of West, Townson, and Cran-
field. The Epistles are inserted in their places, and divided according to the
Apostles' Arguments. With copious Notes on many of the principal Subjects
in Theology. By the Rev. GEORGE TOWNSEND, M.A. of Trinity Col-
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Arrangement of the Old Testament, GMpus Romanus, Accusations of
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Full text of "The life of John Sharp, D.D., Lord Archbishop of York, to which are added, select original, and copies of original papers, in three appendixes, collected from his diary, letters, and several other authenic testimonies"

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