376 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP SHARP. 



to this effect. But it appears by Archbishop 

 Sharp's answer, that although he remembered 

 well the conference they had on that subject of 

 lay baptism, yet this proposal of signing a decla- 

 ration upon it, was new to him and unexpected, 

 as it seems likewise to have been with the three 

 bishops, to whom he shewed my Lord of Can- 

 terbury's letter. His minutes of his discourse 

 with them upon it on Monday, April 28, is this. 



" About six o'clock this evening, came in the 

 Bishops of Chester, and of Exeter, and of St. 

 David's, who staid here till nine o'clock. We 

 had a great deal of talk about the Archbishop 

 of Canterbury's proposal, in a letter he had 

 wrote to me, that we should sign a declaration 

 of our judgments, that all persons who were 

 baptized with water in the name of the Father, 

 Son, and Holy Ghost, their baptism ought not 

 to be repeated by whomsoever they were bap- 

 tized. They were all of opinion, and so was I, 

 that it was not proper for us to make such a 

 declaration under our hands, for that it would 

 too much encourage the irregular baptisms of 

 the dissenters. And accordingly, after they 

 were gone, I wrote a letter to my Lord Arch- 

 bishop to the same purpose ; a copy of which 

 letter I keep." 



Such a declaration was nevertheless offered 

 to the Convocation afterwards, but it was laid 



