LIFE OF AUCHBISHOP SHARP. 49 



own profession, or such passages of Scripture, 

 as any of them purposed to treat of in the pul- 

 pit ; which being freely talked over, and with a 

 friendly unreservedness, contributed not a little 

 to the clearing up their difficulties and resolv- 

 ing their doubts, unfolding and ranging their 

 thoughts, directing and regulating the dispo- 

 sition of their matter, and, in short, to the 

 making them sooner masters of their respective 

 subjects, than they could have been by build- 

 ing, though never so industriously, on their own 

 foundations, and pursuing their private searches 

 and inquiries, though never so closely and at- 

 tentively. And no doubt but it was much 

 owing to the happy harmony that was between 

 these great men *, and to their free communi- 

 cations with each other, that the Socinian and 

 Popish controversies, and the debates about 

 Nonconformity and Schism, were so excellently 

 handled in those times, as well in their sermons 



* Bishop Burnet bears his testimony to the characters of the 

 Divines abovementioned, and some others, who, he says, 

 " were worthy and eminent men among the Clergy, whose 

 lives and labours did, in great measure, rescue the Church 

 from those reproaches that the follies of others drew upon it ; 

 as Tennison, Sharp, Patrick, Sherlock, Galamy, Claggett, 

 Fowler, Cudworth, Williams, and others who deserved a high 

 character, and were indeed an honour to the Church, and to 

 the age in which they lived." 



