the committees of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.  In his ‘Life of Bull’ Nelson speaks in terms of much admiration for Beveridge, whom he calls ’a pattern of true primitive piety.’  He praises his plain and affecting sermons; and says that ’he had a way of gaining people’s hearts and touching their consciences which bore some resemblance to the apostolical age,’ and that he could mention many ’who owed the change of their lives, under God, to his instructions.’[68] Like Bull and Ken, the latter of whom was born in the same year with him, his life belongs chiefly to the history of the preceding century, for he died in 1707; his short episcopal career however lay, as was the case with Bull, only in the first decade of the eighteenth.

Sharp, Archbishop of York, must by no means be omitted from the list of Robert Nelson’s friends, the more so as he was mainly instrumental in overcoming the scruples which for many years had deterred Nelson from the communion of the national Church.  ‘It was impossible,’ writes the Archbishop’s son, ’that such religious men, who were so intimate with each other, and spent many hours together in private conversation, should not frequently discuss the reasons that divided them in Church communion.’[69] Sharp’s diary shows that early in 1710 they had many interviews on the subject.  His arguments prevailed; and he records with satisfaction that on Easter Day that year his friend, for the first time since the Revolution, received the Communion at his hands.  The Archbishop was well fitted to act this part of a conciliator.  In the first place, Nelson held him in high esteem as a man of learning, piety, and discernment, ’who fills one of the archiepiscopal thrones with that universal applause which is due to his distinguishing merit.’[70] This general satisfaction which had attended his promotion qualified him the more for a peacemaker in the Church.  At a time when party spirit was more than usually vehement, it was his rare lot to possess in a high degree the respect and confidence of men of all opinions.  From his earliest youth he had learnt to appreciate high Christian worth under varied forms.  His father had been a fervent Puritan, his mother a strenuous Royalist; and he speaks with equal gratitude of the deep impressions left upon his mind by the grave piety of the one, and of the admiration instilled into him by the other of the proscribed Liturgy of the English Church.  He went up to Cambridge a Calvinist; he learnt a larger, a happier, and no less spiritual theology under the teaching of More and Cudworth.  His studies then took a wide range.  He delighted in imaginative literature, especially in Greek poetry, became very fairly versed in Hebrew and the interpretation of the Old Testament, took much pleasure in botany and chemistry, and was at once fascinated with the Newtonian philosophy.  He was also an accomplished antiquary.  At a later period, as rector of St. Giles in the Fields, and Friday lecturer at St. Lawrence