204 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 



properly fall under another head, in the latter 

 part of this work, than in this place ; but the 

 advantage which they reaped from his advice, 

 to which they had free recourse in all their diffi- 

 culties, is fittest to be mentioned here. 



Whenever he was consulted about their parochial 

 concerns, he immediately answered their queries, and 

 clearly and positively determined them. In all his 

 letters of this kind, which are left, there is but 

 one in which he is something doubtful what to 

 resolve ; but even there he leaves no doubt or 

 difficulty upon the clergyman who consulted 

 him, by permitting, or rather advising him to 

 follow his own first determination. The case 

 not being very common, about the marriage of 

 a person with a quaker, according to the usage 

 of the Church, the letter itself will not be dis- 

 agreeable. 



" November 30, 1700. 



'' Sir, 

 " The case which you propose hath some 

 difficulty in it, since our present canons say no- 

 thing about it. The old canons, indeed, are ex- 

 press against any person being married, who was 

 not first baptized. But then in those times mar- 

 riage was accounted a sacrament, and baptism 

 was janua sacramentorum. On the other side, 

 though marriage be no sacrament, but all men 



