Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	eat_v	good_a	great_a	123	3	2.1246	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58914	A seasonable answer to a late pamphlet entituled, The vindication of Slingsby Bethel, Esq. one of the sheriffs of London and Middlesex / by one who is a citizen of London and an inhabitant of the borough of Southwark.	Citizen of London and an inhabitant of the borough of Southwark.	1681 (1681)	Wing S2217A; ESTC R33731	9,381	10

upon Conference with one another found themselves divided in their Opinions concerning the Superiority of Merit between Sir Richard How and Mr. Pilkinton and yet resolv'd if possible to have one of them Of this indeed they might have been certain if they had return'd them two but it is to be considered that then there had been no Tryal of Skill between their two Parties and also that being both worthy Men either of them which should be assign'd to that Office would have seem'd to be the Court of Aldermen's Choice rather than theirs Hereupon to leave as little scope as might be to the Court of Aldermen for the exercise of their Prerogative both parties consented to return Mr. Sheriff Bethel for one as knowing him to be a person so un-acceptable to that Court that they might be sure of him of the other two to whom it should fall by the Decision of their own Votes So that that Gentleman who lost it at the Poll had more respect shewn him by the Ward than he who carried it without a Poll and they unanimously agreed to chuse Mr. Bethel because they knew they were in no Danger of being troubled with him And now Sir much Joy to you of the Honor of that General Consent and the concurrent Votes which you so highly boast of Now because the Court of Aldermen had discovered a Dislike of his Company he therefore resolves and declaims against House-keeping and groundlesly misplacing his Anger falls foul upon the Innocent and without any Provocation in the Earth does vent such undeserved Reproaches and bitter Invectives against all the Dishes of a Generous Sheriff's Table even from Rost-Beef to Custard that certainly it is his Interest to dissuade all men from reading his Book till they have Dined For no Hungry Stomach can with Patience bear to have its good Friends and Allies so vilely abused He says that nothing can be less Honourable to the Sheriffs than Feasting of the Companies that good Eating is a great Expence of time and a plentiful an Enemy to that sober Industry which is the rise and glory of a Trading City as if a sober industrious Trader who intended to thrive and grow wealthy were obliged now and then to satisfie himself with the refreshment of sucking a Button and be glad to take up with the smell of a Cooks shop instead of a Meal Beef and Mutton defend us say I If this man were Manciple he would within the compass of a Week so effectually promote his Landlords Trade as to deserve to sit Rent-free for within that time our Bellies would dwindle and grow so lank that happy were he who could get a Taylor to adjust the Wast-band of his Breeches Being destitute of any farther Arguments to put a colour upon his sordid way of living in so publick an Employment he falls to his Prayers to God that among other Sins Fulness of Bread which was charged upon Sodom and Jerusalem as one Cause of Gods Judgments may not grow to that height in this City as to become the Ruin and Destruction of it I do not love to jest in Serious Matters and shall therefore only take notice that there are certain Citizens under his Custody who through his Neglect are able truly to plead Not Guilty to that Charge Had Mr. Sheriff Bethel fed the Poor instead of Feasting the Rich had he supply'd the Defect of Splendid Entertainments by an extraordinary Charity towards his Prisoners he might have had a fairer Plea But he himself without blushing grants it to be true that he does not contribute to the Relief of their Necessities and has so utterly renounc'd all Modesty as boldly to undertake to prove it his Duty to be unmerciful For mark you me by putting a Stop to the usual Payments If any Prisoners be famish'd this Year the Court of Aldermen and a Committee of the City will take care to prevent the like Mischief against the next And my holding of my Hand says he will prevail with others to open theirs and encourage them to Chrritable Benevolences and Legacies for the Maintenance of those wretched People Heavens what Arguments are these But such a man can never be defended but by such Logic. I shall now trouble the Reader no further after I have told him that I am a Person not at all delighted in enquiring after or exposing and publishing the Vices or Follies of any man and as probably I had never known that he has been reported to be a Jesuite one of the late Kings Judges c. unless he himself had told me so the World had never known for me that his carriage towards his own Company of Leather-Sellers has been such that they have thought fit contrary to their usual Method of Proceeding to wave his Merit of Congruity in their late Election of a Master notwithstanding that he is present Sheriff of London That a Person who might have escap'd a troublesome and to any but himself a Chargeable Office by swearing that he was not worth 10000 l. should yet to come off for a Shilling at the time of the last Poll-Tax give order to a Maid-Servant to acquaint the Officers that he was a Decayed Merchant That when he knew the Easter Sermons were to be at S. Sepulchres he should yet perversly make a Ridiculous Cavalcade to the Spittle by himself like the Pied Piper of Halberstadt drawing all the Boys and Girls in the Town after him These things I say with all which has gone before I should not have concern'd my self to Publish had he not provoked me to enquire concerning him and by lewdly applying a Text of Scripture to himself with a seeming mighty Confidence of his own Innocence challeng'd all the World to Come down and see FINIS

Published soon after the Election entituled How and Rich c. which by the way I observe lies very heavy upon his Stomack out of which Scandalous Libel as he calls it he unluckily selects that Passage between him and Mr. Mason one of the King's Watermen who when Mr. Bethel threatned to pull his Coat over his Ears replied Ay Sir so perhaps you would my Master's too if it were in your Power This Mr. Bethel declares to be most notoriously false and without any Color or Ground of Truth p. 4. There lying now so much Stress upon Mr. Bethel's Veracity we will bring the Case to a short Issue If no such words passed at the time and place of the Poll between those two Gentlemen then I will take Mr. Bethel's bare Denial of the foregoing Articles to be a just Vindication But to see how Time will bring things to light It happen'd that on Wednesday June the 29th 1681. a General Sessions of the Peace being then holden for the Borough of Southwark at the Bridge-house-hall by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London and Mr. Sheriff Bethel being there present an Indictment was exhibited against him upon the occasion of these words together with the foul Battery that accompanied them and the Battery and Words were proved by the Oaths of four substantial Witnesses and the Bill accordingly found by the Grand Jury Now I leave the Reader to judge whether he that will Print a Lye to wipe off a smart Repartee is likely to boggle at saying or un-saying any thing to bring himself off in Matters of so heynous a Nature as the Articles contain Having hitherto put on as good and as bold a Face as the former matters required he next proceeds to some Exceptions of a less dangerous Nature that have been made against him and expressing a wonderful Glee that the Laws of the Land do not make Covetousness a Capital Crime he becomes now unconcern'd and cares not much if it be admitted to be wholly true that he is an Inmate a Garreteer and all that For he hopes this will be no good Exception in the Case of a Burgess to serve in Parliament telling us it is a Maxim That those that are most saving of their own Estates will be most careful of the Peoples thereby unhandsomly insinuating that a Parliament-Man is only a kind of Padlock for securing the Peoples Money whatever just occasion there may be to part with it But pray Mr. Bethel come no more among us with your sordid Maxims 't is well known that we have better Maxims of our own and you may see by all the Papers we have Published since you gave us the last Trouble that this Maxim is like to do you but little Service with us In How and Rich you will find that one part of the Character which recommended those Gentlemen to our Choice was That they were Liberal Benefactors to the Poor of our Borough In our Address to them at their setting forth towards Oxford we declare it our Opinion That it is highly reasonable that we should help to defray the Charge as well as enjoy the Benefit of His Majesties Gracious Government and Protection and in our Address to His Majesty upon the Occasion of his late Declaration we humbly assure His Majesty That whenever His Majesty in his Princely Wisdom and Providence shall see fit to call another Parliament we will take all possible care to chuse such Representatives as shall be ready to present His Majesty with such Supplies as the Dignity of the Crown and the Necessities of the Government shall require By this Mr. Bethel you may judge that your Temper and ours do not at all agree and you may rest satisfied that the Borough of Southwark will never be guilty of so great a Blunder as to send to the Parliament such a Mis-representative as your self The Subject of the following part of his Pamphlet is very pleasant and diverting and with or indeed without Mr. Sheriff's Leave that the Reader may know what Entertainment he is to expect I shall give him the following Bill of Fare 1. Here is the Grandeur of living in a Garret 2. The Hospitality of keeping no House and 3. The Charity of Starving Poor Pris'ners But you will say these are all empty Dishes Why truly if they be I cannot help it they are such as Mr. Sheriff's Table and Book afford For unless you will allow Mr. Bethel the Titles of Great and Hospitable and Charitable in spite of that Contradiction which his Actions give to them all there is nothing which he says for himself that can give him any shadow or color of Right to either Indeed to vindicate his Honor from the Disparagement of living in a Garret he says That to avoid the Trouble and Inconveniency which commonly attends the Shifting of Lodgings he took the House he now lives in but such a House it is as is rarely to be seen in the City of London For this House has neither Garrets nor Cellars nor Rooms on the first Floor so that either he must acknowledge himself to have taken only some Rooms of an House and consequently to be an Inmate or else he must be suppos'd to live in a Wirdmill for there is no other sort of House that I can think of which answers that Description He goes on to tell us what I would not for a World should be omitted by the Writer of his Life That at the Beginning of his Year he kept two Feasts of Famous Memory to his great Charge Nay that he had agreed for a fair large Inn much better and more capacious than the other House and had resolv'd to keep a plentiful Ordinary and for one Year round to live as merry as mine Host but as he says it fell out unluckily to this purpose that the Ancient Wise Prudent Sumptuary Laws of the City lighting hard upon his Conscience and a Repulse received from the Court of Aldermen sticking fast in his Gizzard these two Accidents gave such a Check to his Natural Complacency that he presently un-resolved all again and has not been in an Entertaining Humor ever since As for the former of these Accidents I shall only make this Remark upon it That of all Laws Mr. Sheriff Bethel has most diligently enquired into and most religiously observ'd the Sumptuary Laws they being as he observes most wholesome for the Pocket Though I cannot imagine those Laws do forbid any Person to exceed a Nine-penny Dinner so strictly as not to allow him the Liberty of an Orange with his Plate of Veal and yet this is a Law which a Renowned Citizen who to avoid the ungrateful Repetition of the same word too often shall be nameless has for a certain enacted to himself For the latter I have obliged my self to give an acount of it so far as the Ward which return'd him is concern'd and it is briefly thus The Alderman of the Ward of Farindon Without dying the Principal Inhabitants