268 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 



He was also very instrumental in removing the 

 difficulties which others had conceived with 

 respect to this oath. Some of great note in the 

 House of Peers seemed to refer themselves en- 

 tirely to his judgment in this matter; not so 

 much upon the belief of his being an indulgent 

 casuist, as of his being di faithful one. He did 

 good service to his friends in this way, and was 

 heartily thanked by them for it afterwards. He 

 was likewise very serviceable in bringing back 

 to the communion of the church those who had 

 separated from her since the Revolution, though 

 at the same time they were not to be persuaded 

 to take the oaths. And he was the man who 

 advised and prevailed upon Dr. Higden to 

 publish his Vieiv of the English Constitution, so far 

 as regards the taking oaths to government, it having 

 been first read over to him and approved. And 

 yet what trifling incidents will serve for party 

 insinuations : he was suspected by some to be a fa- 

 vourer of the Jacobites, and their principles, and 

 for no other reason, but because he did not quite 

 drop his acquaintance with, and conceal his 

 compassion for some, who declared that oath 

 was against their consciences. My Lord W — n 

 in the House of Peers, upon the debate concern- 

 ing the church being in danger, in Dec. 1705, 

 took notice that a certain noble Lord of that house 

 had educated his sons at a seminarij kept by a non- 



