Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	author_n	know_v	name_n	1,893	5	5.0397	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30378	A letter writ by the Lord Bishop of Salisbury, to the Lord Bishop of Cov. and Litchfield, concerning a book lately published, called, A specimen of some errors and defects in the History of the reformation of the Church of England, by Anthony Harmer	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1693 (1693)	Wing B5824; ESTC R7836	16,103	32

my Pattern And that I might copy after it with some Resemblance and Success I read it over five or six times before I set about that Work If a Man is to write Memoirs he must keep close to his Vouchers but when he writes a History on a Subject of much Consequence and that was transacted long before his own Time and that it is visible that many of the most valuable Papers relating to it are lost but that enough remains to give him a right view of the whole and a Thread to guide him in it he may certainly find many Hints of Things which since he cannot lay before his Reader as Historical Facts he may and ought to suggest them as Probabilities And he who forms a true Character of a Man from some of his secretest Papers can frame Judgments and see Likelyhoods that could never come in the way of one who only reads his Work but does not dwell so long upon it nor turn it so much in his Thoughts as he himself has done And yet the offering of these may be necessary since they may be of use to let his Reader see further than he would do without them For instance he is angry for my taking notice of Bonner's writing to his Friends for Puddings and Pears I must desire you to observe his Ingenuity in this since my Reflection did not fall upon these words of Bonner but on his adding that if his Friends did not furnish him with them he would give them to the Devil to the Devil and to all the Devils Now this from a Bishop in Affliction writing to his private Friends shewed a strange kind of Brutish levity and the observing of that was not below the Majesty of History since Bonner acted so great a Part during the whole time that I write upon so that such a Stroke as this in my poor Opinion ought not to have been suppressed I come now to the fourth and last Head of the Specimen which relates to those additional Discoveries that he has made He calls them the Defects of my History how justly I leave to you who are a true Critick in the use of Words According to my sense a Defect is a vitious want of that with which one might have supplied himself if he had not been too careless I cannot see what I could have done more than I did to be well Informed I put Advertisements in Gazettes desiring the assistance of all that could furnish me with Materials I let two Years and a half pass between the publishing my first and second Volume I did in the first desire the assistance of all the Learned and Curious Men of the Nation I went through all the Offices and Records that were about London or Westminster I went to Cambridge when I understood that Arch-Bishop Parker's Manuscripts were there I was upon going to Oxford had not Bishop Fell let me know that he was informed they had nothing worth my Journey that was not already printed I met with great Assistances from many Learned Men all which I gratefully and publickly acknowledged and made the best use of them that I could I do not see what more I could do Your Lordship and several others of my worthy Friends set all Persons that you thought capable of assisting me on work for Materials That Great and good Man who was then Lord Chancellour the late Earl of Nottingham did on many Occasions recommend the procuring Materials for me in the most effectual manner Their Majesties most deserving Attorney General that now is was pleased without my presuming to give him the trouble to visit and examine some Offices for me in the Countrey If our Author has been an Inquisitive Man of so long a standing he pretends to be longer for he tells us of what he observed 20 Years ago he could not but hear of all this so there was occasion offered and Time given for him to have contributed out of his store If I had refused any help that had been offered me or had not look'd out and got together all that could be had If I had either called for no Assistance presuming on my own Industry or if I had made so much haste that I had prevented even the diligence of Learned Men here had been great occasion for Censare But he has got a Council-Book of the last four Years of King Edward the sixth's Reign and this must be brought out with great Pomp to reproach the Defects of my Work I had the Book of the first two Years of that Reign But though it was freely given me I thought it did of right belong to the Crown and delivered it in to be kept among the council-Council-Books if this Author does the same with his then his Quotations out of it may be examined They make indeed the Valuablest part of his Book But neither these nor any thing else he says can be of any value till he gives himself his true Name that 〈◊〉 one may know how to look into or examine those things that he pretends to have in his Hands I have now gone as far as I can in so general a way when your Lordship or any other Person whose Judgment is of weight with me advises me to descend into further Specialties I shall not decline it Yet if I had any Inclination to it I think still it is best to make one Work for all and to stay till he brings forth that which he has in Reserve for I will still hold him to it he must either give the World a great deal more or he must expect to be thought to have insinuated that which he cannot perform Only when he writes next I wish he may do it with a better Spirit and in a decenter Stile He who knows so much cannot judg so ill as not to see that the attacking a Man's Reputation but especially a Bishop's in so great a Point as is that of his Truth and Fidelity upon which the Success of all his Labours and the Credit of his whole Life and Ministry does depend is not a slight thing and is not to be attempted unless one is very well assured that what he objects is not only just in it self but that it is incumbent on him to do it The Fame of a Man is a most valuable thing and the Rules of Charity and against Detraction and Slander are delivered in such weighty Strains in the New Testament that it is no small matter to make so bold with them The Years I have spent in the Service of the Church the Labours I have undergone and the Station I am in deserve at least a modest and decent treatment and my Diligence in that History the Designs I pursue through it all and that Sincerity and Candor that even Enemies do acknowledg appears in its Contexture the great Additions I had made to what was formerly known and the general Acceptance with which it has been entertained both at Home and Abroad ought to have made a Man to have thought well of what he did before he had attack'd it at all but if he was so full of his Matter that he was not to be restrained at least he ought to have writ it in another manner with another Air and in a Strain of Civility I had almost said Respect sutable to the Subject and such as my way of Writing had deserved If this Author is so made that nothing of all this touches him I am sorry for it I will not treat him more roughly but must despair of working on him so as to do him good I should think it a very particular Happiness to be able to turn such a Man to a better Mind from that Sourness which prevails over him at present He seems capable of better and greater things but till his Capacity and his Industry are sanctified to him at another rate than this Specimen shews he is a much worse Man for them and will have a much greater Account to make at the last Day I ask your Pardon for having given you so long a Trouble I am with all possible Esteem and Respect My LORD Your Lordship 's most Affectionate Brother and most humble Servant Gi. Sarum Windsor Feb. 23. 1692 3. FINIS Books Sold by Richard Chiswell BOOKS written by GILBERT BURNET D. D. now Lord Bishop of Sarum THE History of the Reformation of the Church of England in 2 Volumes Folio Abridgment of the said History Octavo Vindication of the Ordinations of Church of England Quarto History of the Rights of Princes in disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices and Church-Lands Octavo Life of William Bedel D. D. Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland togewith the Copies of certain Letters which passed between Spain and England in matter of Religion concerning the general Motives to the Roman Obedience Between Mr. James Wadsworth a late Pensioner of the Holy Inquisition in Sevil and the said William Bedel then Minister of the Gospel in Suffolk Octavo Some Passages of the Life and Death of John late Earl of Rochester Octavo Examination of the Letter writ by the late Assembly-General of of the Clergy of France to the Protestants inviting them to return to their Communion together with the Methods proposed by them for their Conviction Octavo A Collection of seventeen Tracts and Discourses written in the Years 1687 to 1685 inclusive Quarto A Second Volume or a Collection of eighteen Papers relating to the Affairs of Church and State during the Reign of King James the Second With twelve others published a little before and since the late Revolution to Christmas 1689. Fast Sermon at Bow-Church March 12 1689. Luke 19. 41 42. Fast Sermon before the Queen July 16 1690. On Psal. 85. 8. Thanksgiving-Sermon before the King and Queen Octob. 19. 1690. On Psal. 144. 10. 11. Fast-Sermon before the King and Queen April 19 1691. On Psal. 82. 1. Thanksgiving-Sermon before the King and Queen Nov. 26. 1691. On Prov. 20. 28. Sermon at the Funeral of Robert Boyle Esq Jan. 7. 1691. On Eccles. 11. 26. A Discourse of the Pastoral Care Octavo 1692. Pag 161. Pa● 26. P. 9. 10 1● 2● Pag. 3. P. 28 121 153. P. 127. Pag. 51. P. 140. 141. Pag. 87.

furnish him with to blemish the Work of one of the greatest Men of our Church who was the lasting Honour of that See which I do now so unworthily possess I mean Bishop Jewell does but follow his stroke when he Calumniates my History and he who has so barbarously attackt the Memory of my immediate Predecessor Bishop Ward who was in so many respects one of the greatest Men of his Age but that had appeared with too much zeal against Popery to be spared by one of their Faction he I say does but like himself when he endeavours to blacken me with his Calumnies But what is it that this angry Correcter is pleased to take upon the word of such an Author He says Mr. Fulman complained much that I had not dealt faithfully with him in Publishing his Correction of my first Volume I have not that despicable Book now by me so I cannot quote the words but this is the sense of them and upon this the Author of the Specimen depends so intirely that he thinks he is by it excused from using me in that friendly way that I had proposed or in that Charitable method which the Gospel directs It happens that I have in this Instance a great variety of proo● to shew the falshood of this Calumny You know My Lord in particular that it was Bishop ●ell of pious and blessed Memory that engaged Mr. Fulman to send up his Corrections to me You your self and indeed every body else thought they were not of that moment that they deserved so publice a notice as I took of them I confess I was of that mind my self but I thought it was fit for me upon that occasion to behave my self so as to encourage all others to set me right if they found I was mistaken in any particular and that I might make as much advantage from Mr. Fulman as was possible I bore with an odd strain of sourness that run through all his Letters Bishop ●ell had prepared me for that and I took every thing well at his hands I in conclusion drew a short Abstract of all his Corrections and sent it down to him to have his approbation of it before it should be Printed for it would have been too tedious to have published them so largely as he had sent them to me I staid long for his Answer till the Carrier that brought his Letters to me had come up a second time from those parts where he lived It happened to be in the Month of February before the Sitting of the Oxford Parliament and Mr. Chiswell thought it might be of some Consequence in the Sale of the Work to have it ready to appear at that time so he pressed a dispatch for all stuck at the return which I expected from Mr. Fulman But the second Carrier bringing me no Answer I took it for granted that he was satisfied with the Abstract that I had sent him so I put it in the Press But before it was Printed off the third Carrier came and brought me his Answer He was satisfied with the main of what I had prepared only he desired that some Alteration might be made in four or five Articles and so careful was I to gratifie him in every thing that tho' these things were of no Consequence yet I would needs have all to be reprinted his Corrections happened to be all in one Leaf so that Leaf was only reprinted and pasted to the other half of the Sheet and this will be found in the greatest part of the Copies of the First Edition of my Work not in them all for I stopt the Press which was working and reprinted a Leaf for all that were wrought off and the rest were Printed with those Amendations So that both from Mr. Fulman's own Letters which I still do keep and from this real Evidence it appears how unjustly this is laid upon me and how weak an excuse this will prove for the method in which this Author has thought fit to deal with me Since I had in that very Instance which he gives used that Person with a Candour that gave me a right to expect fair dealing from all others Yet after all this and a great deal more that I might well urge if I intended to aggravate matters I must say that I have not seen any one thing relating to my History that has pleased me so much as this Specimen does It is plain that here is a Wrirer who has considered those times and that matter with much application And that he is a Master of this Subject he has the Art of writing skilfully and how much soever he may be wanting in a Christian Temper and in the decency that one who owns himself of our Communion owed to the Station I hold in it yet in other respects he seems to be a very valuable Man so valuable that I cannot without a very sensible regret see such Parts and such Industry like to be soured and spoiled with so ill a Temper All the Heresies and Schisms in the Church have been either started or carried on by Men who have been pussed up with their Knowledge and have not tempered it with that Charity which edifieth As he is a Man capable of making the severest Observations that the subject will bear so he shows that he is so much set on it and so inclined to disparage both me and my work that no body who reads his Specimen will believe that he is tender of me or that he has spared me in any one thing So many Remarks that are so very trifling force a Reader to believe that he had a mind to make a great Muster and that it was meerly want of Matter that led him t● make so much of things on which no body as far as I can hear besides himself sets any value I confess I my self value his Book much more than I find any of the more judicious Readers tell me they do I value it so much that I do earnestly desire that all those who have my Book will likewise procure this as the best Apology that I know can be made for it Since in all this Collection there is not any one material fault relating to any of the Transactions of the Reformation and among those that he pretends to find there is not any one in which even he himself who is liberal in accusing me of Falshood yet can charge me with any Fraud or ill Design So that how much soever the reputation of my own Learning or Exactness may be lessened by this Specimen there is nothing brought to overthrow the Truth of the History in any important Matter and if in things of no moment there was not all that exactness used that was possible the fault is the more pardonable And after all so the Credit of that Work stands unshaken let the Credit of the Historian take its venture and stand or fall as men may be disposed to be kind to him or severe upon