^iV 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 view 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 instructive 

 lesson to the Ardibishop's grandchildren, who. 



