214 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 



penance, I pray signify it to me. For I would in 

 all cases, as far as is in my power, make the 

 public good the rule of my actions. With my 

 hearty wishes of all good to you, I am, 



*' Your affectionate friend and servant, 



" Jo. Ebor." 



Indeed, Church discipline doth not deserve 

 that name whenever the public good is not made 

 the rule of cvercising it. And it is either for want 

 of a steady adherence to this rule in those who 

 exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or through 

 an unhappy appearance of this rule being forgotten 

 in the manner of exercising it, that so many com- 

 plaints have been made against the spiritual 

 courts, and so many invidious reflections cast 

 upon them. He was very sensible, both of the 

 decay of discipline in general, and of the curbs 

 put upon any effectual prosecutions of it by the tem- 

 poral courts^ and of the difficulty of preserving 

 and keeping up what little was left entire to the 

 ecclesiastics, without creating offence and admi- 

 nistering matter for aspersions and evil surmises. 

 So far as it was in his power, either to remedy 

 or obviate any complaints 'of this kind in his 

 own diocese, he did it. He took care to put 

 his own courts upon such a footing as should 

 leave no room for exceptions against them, but 

 such as might be made against their just rights 



