LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 357 



he was a very formidable one, yet in another) 

 he was as reasonable and fair a one as ever they 

 had to deal with. He never treated them or 

 spoke of them otherwise than with that calm 

 spirit which visibly runs through his writings in 

 their controversy ; and as he hated every thing 

 that had but the appearance of bitterness and 

 violence against their persons, so he was even 

 shocked to hear them vilified and maltreated in the 

 pulpit, which he abhorred should be prostituted to 

 such purposes. 



It is very true, he did oppose their occa- 

 sional conformity y and bore his testimony for 

 the bills that were brought in to prevent it. 



Diary. — '* I spoke as well as I could for the 

 bill, and not to my own dissatisfaction, I thank 

 God. December 14, 1703." It is true, likewise, 

 that in the debates about the Church being in 

 danger, in 1705, though he looked upon them 

 as most other people did, to be mere party 

 struggles, and not occasioned by any real ap- 

 prehensions of what the title of the bill im- 

 ported, yet he offered two or three clauses 

 which seemed to bear very hard upon the dis- 

 senters. These were the remarkable occasions 

 of his appearing against them in public ; and 

 they who knew his particular reasons for it, 

 might naturally conclude he was either influ- 

 enced by the party that opposed them, or was 



