150 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 



ceiving some complaints against the persons to 

 whom they were directed ; which he vehemently 

 suspected were just and well grounded, but 

 could not directly charge the parties with them. 



" Sir, 



*' It is very uneasy to me to write to 

 you upon such a subject as I now must. And I 

 am very sorry if you have given me the occasion. 

 It is complained to me, that you have for some 

 considerable time used your parishioners very 

 ill in your performance of divine offices among 

 them. As for sermons, you rarely give them 

 any ; and as for the divine service of the Church, 

 you begin it so uncertainly as to the hour, and 

 you perform it so indecently as to the manner, 

 as if you really had a mind to shew your hearers 

 that you are so far out of charity with them, 

 that you do not desire that they should receive 

 any benefit, even by their saying of their prayers. 

 *' I represent the complaints that have been 

 made of you in softer terms than I received 

 them. If there be no occasion for them, I shall 

 be heartily glad of it, and shall readily ask your 

 pardon for giving ear to them. But if they be 

 true, and you do really use your parish thus, 

 what must be thought or said of you ? Surely 

 you have lost not only all common discretion, 

 but all sense of that duty which you owe to 



