Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 4.djvu/392

384 of the reasons, why he was guilty of so many mistakes in the first volume of his History of the Reformation? his excuses are just, rational, and extremely consistent. He says, he wrote in haste, which he confirms by adding, that it lay a year after he wrote it before it was put into the press. At the same time he mentioned a passage extremely to the honour of that pious and excellent prelate, archbishop Sancroft, which demonstrates his grace to have been a person of great sagacity, and almost a prophet. Doctor Burnet, then a private divine, desired admittance to the Cotton library, but was prevented by the archbishop, who told sir John Cotton, that the said doctor was no friend to the prerogative of the crown, or to the constitution of the kingdom. This judgment was the more extraordinary, because