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History of the Nonjurors.
131

son made an arrangement with the King for him to take Lincoln or York on a vacancy. The Archbishopric soon became vacant, and Sharpe was appointed. On the 28th of June 1691, he preached a farewell sermon at St. Giles's. This sermon was examined in a Letter addressed to the Archbishop, and attributed to Hickes. The writer charges His Grace with having altered his views within the last two years, alluding to a sermon which he had preached before the Convention. He remarks, "I find you so altered, like many of your brethren, from yourself, that though Dr. Sharpe is still the same person, yet I do not find that the Dean of Norwich and the Archbishop are the same man."[1]

Alluding to the complying Bishops and Clergy, the writer says, "I hope to see such Bishops and Priests become base and contemptible, that expound St. Paul as you and Dr. Sherlock have done, and advance allegiance to the government upon a principle that is destructive to it, and the true and lasting peace of the kingdom, in which our happiness does consist."[2] He charges the Archbishop with having contradicted his former sermon: "Two years ago you were not of opinion, at least you were not fully persuaded, that the text (Romans xiii, 1) allowed us to pray in behalf of a king de facto against the king de jure, or in behalf of a king in possession against the legal king, as you and Dr. Sherlock still acknowledge King James to be, though he is out of possession: or else why did you, at his house in the Temple, express so much dislike and dissatis-


  1. An Apology for the New Separation: in a Letter to Dr. John Sharpe, Archbishop of York; occasioned by his Farewell Sermon. 4to. 1691. P. 1.
  2. Ibid. p. 4.