b 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 

 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 



