40 LIFE OF 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 iweached 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 

 sei^mons. 



'^ Prom thence the reading of sermons gr^ew 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- 



