LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 09 



whole affair have not hitherto been published, 

 and others have been misrepresented in the ac- 

 counts that are made public, it may be proper 

 in this place to give a more particular and exact 

 narrative of the whole matter. 



The King, in the beginning of this year, had 

 been advised, as the supreme ordinary of the 

 Church of England, to command the reprinting 

 of the Directiom for Preachers, which had been 

 given by the late King, in 1662 ; and to autho- 

 rize them afresh by letters mandatory to the 

 two Archbishops ; not considering the differ- 

 ence of seasons, and disparity of circumstances 

 the King was then in, in respect of his Pro- 

 testant predecessors, whose practice it had been, 

 when there was occasion, to restrain the liber- 

 ties of the pulpit. And the consequences was, 

 that the jealousies of the Church of England 

 against the King, instead of being abated, were 

 increased ; and people's fears every day grew 

 greater concerning the designs which the court 

 was supposed to be carrying on. So that some 

 of the clergy, notwithstanding the abovemen- 

 tioned directions to them, continued as before, 

 to preach pretty zealously against Popery. Dr. 

 Sharp was one of those who would not at this 

 time drop the Popish controversy. And he was 

 the rather kept to it by the perpetual attempts 

 which he found were made by the Popish priests 



