LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 371 



openly and expressly declared for the validity 

 of lay baptism, or allowed it to be administered 

 by laymen in any case, how extraordinary 

 soever, some handle is left for disputing or 

 speaking doubtfully about her sense of the 

 matter. Therefore, his Grace of Canterbury, 

 finding so many bishops unanimous in their 

 opinion, thought it would be of public service, 

 if they all joined in publishing a declaration of 

 their sentiments, which would appear as a kind 

 of decision of the point, and might help to 

 make the minds of some men more easy, at 

 least to shorten the disputes then raised upon 

 this question. What his Grace of Canterbury 

 did in prosecution of this thought, the following 

 transcripts from the papers wrote by himself 

 will shew. His letter to the Archbishop of 

 York. 



" Lambeth, April 9.7, 1712. 



" My Lord, 



*' In pursuance of the agreement made 

 here by your Grace and the rest of my bre- 

 thren the bishops, when I had the favour of 

 your good companies on Easter Tuesday, I 

 met yesterday with some of them, and we drew 

 up a paper suitable (as we judged) to the pro- 

 posal then made. It is short, and plain, and, I 

 hope, inoffensive ; and for a beginning, as I 



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