LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. Ift 



that he hurt his health and constitution, and 

 was forced to retire into the countrj/. He found 

 his remedy in a Yorkshire journey ; which, at the 

 same time, gave him an opportunity of taking 

 his last leave of his father, who was then declining 

 apace, and died about a month after he left him, 

 in the si.vty-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 



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