LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 179 



them how desirous he was to gratify them as 

 far as he could, he allowed that they might 

 have a sermon once in a quarter, provided it 

 was preached by a clergyman of known charac- 

 ter and discretion, and also on that day of the 

 week on which the weekly lecture was preached, 

 so that it might pass for one of those courses. 

 And the same liberty he gave to his Clergy in 

 and about Hull, where there was a considerable 

 society for reformation formed, and also a weekly 

 lecture established, as at Nottingham. 



Not long after these two societies were formed, 

 viz. in 1699, several persons at York, both of 

 the Church of England, and of the Dissenters, 

 were very zealous to have a society in that city 

 formed upon the same model. But the great 

 difficulty was how to reconcile him to the pro- 

 ject. The Clergy were backward, knowing how 

 coldly he received all those proposals ; and the 

 dissenters complained of unreasonable scruples 

 in him. Among some of the expressions used 

 to their corresponding reformers of the other so- 

 cieties, there were these. 



'* We do not find the difficulty that we feared. 

 There are several sober men of the Church of 

 England that incline to be active in putting the 

 laws in execution against vice. But how to 

 proceed safely, seems to be the present great 

 objection ; for his Grace the Archbishop of York 



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