LIFE or ARCHBISHOP SHARP, 363 



very zealous to demonstrate myself to be, my 

 Lord, your Grace's 



*' Most humble and obedient servant, 



** J. Holt." 



Another inconvenience, w^hich he apprehended 

 as a further consequence of the Act of Indul- 

 gence, was, that some people thought to shelter 

 themselves under it from ecclesiastical censures 

 for not attending the worship of God in any 

 place. Such there were in his own diocese, 

 and though the act does not in reality destroy 

 or enervate the bishop's power over such delin- 

 quents, yet it makes the exercise of it more 

 difficult, and more liable to be evaded than it 

 was before. 



Taking now these observations along with us, 

 let us see what part he had in the famous de- 

 bates about the Church in danger, in December, 

 1705 :— '* He owned the Church to be in danger in 

 one se7ise, as a Church militant having many ene- 

 mies, among which he named Atheists, Deists, and 

 Socinians. He added, that we acknowledged as much 

 in all our fast offices, where we prayed God, that he 

 would jnake us sensible of the great danger we were 

 in by reasoji of our divisions, &c. And this ivas the 

 first reason given afterwards in the protest of the 

 dissentients. He feared likewise very ill consequences, 

 from the many academies set up by the dissenters, 



