LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 06 



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 ail 

 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 



