Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	good_a	read_v	write_v	2,874	5	5.1956	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77900	The life and death of Sir Matthew Hale, Knt. late Lord Chief Justice of England. Containing many pious and moral rules for humane conversation. : Also, many remarkable sayings and worthy actions of the said lord chief justice. : And many other things worth the readers perusal. / Written originally by Dr. Gilbert Burnet, now Bishop of Salisbury.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1700 (1700)	Wing B5829A; ESTC R175615	23,651	17

Snares laid in our way Perimus licitis Day Imployment There must be an Imployment two kinds I. Our ordinary calling to serve God in it It is a Service to Christ though never so mean Col. 3. Here Faithfulness Diligence Chearfulness Not to overlay my self with more Business than I can bear II. Our Spiritual Imployments Mingle somewhat of God's Immediate Service in this day Retrestments I. Meat and Drink Moderation seasoned with somewhat of God II. Recreations 1. Not our Business 2. Sutable No Games if given to Covetousness or Passion If alone I. Beware of wandring vain lustful thoughts fly from thy self rather than entertain these II. Let thy Solitary thoughts be profitable view the Evidences of thy Salvation the state of thy Soul the Coming of Christ thy own Mortality it will make thee humble and Watchful Company Do good to them Use God's Name reverently Beware of leaving an ill Impression of ill Example Receive good from them if more knowing Evening Cast up the Accompts of the Day If ought amiss Beg pardon Gather resolution of more Vigilance If well Bless the Mercy and Grace of God that hath supported thee These Notes have an Imperfection in the Wording of them which shews they were only intended for his Privacies No wonder a Man who set such Rul s to himself became quickly very Eminent and remarkable Noy the Attorney General being then one of the greatest Men of the Profession took early notice of him and called often for him and directed him in his Study and grew to have such Friendship for him that he came to be called young Noy He passing from the extream of Vanity in his Apparel to that of neglecting himself too much was once taken when there was a Press for the King's Service as a fit Person for it for he was a strong and well built Man But some that knew him coming by and giving notice who he was the Press-Men let him go This made him return to more decency in his Clothes but never to any Superflulty or Vanity in them Once as he was Buying some Cloath for a new Suit the Draper with whom he differed about the Price told him he should have it for nothing if he would promise him a Hundred Pound when he came to be Lord Chief Justice of England to which he answered That he could not with a good Conscience wear any Man's Cloath unless he payed for it so he satisfied the Draper and carried away the Cloath Yet that same Draper lived to see him advanced to that same dignity While he was thus improving himself in the Study of the Law he not only kept the Hours of the Hall constantly in Term-time and continued then to follow his Studies with an unwearied diligence and not being satisfied with the Books writ about it or to take things upon trust was very diligent in searching all Records Then did he make divers Collections out of the Books he had Read and mixing them with his own Observations digected them into Common-place Book which he did with so much Industry and Judgment that an Eminent Judge of the Kings-Bench borrowed it of when he was Lord Chief Baron He unwillingly lent it because it had been Writ by him before he was called to the Bar and had never been throughly revised by him since that Time only what Alterations had been made in the Law by subsequent Statutes and Judgments were added by him as they happened but the Judge having perused it said That though it was Composed by him so early he did not think any Lawyer in England could do it better except he himself would again set about it He set himself much to the Study of the Roman Law and though he liked the way of Judicature in England by Juries much better than that of the Civil Law where so much was trusted to the Judge yet he often said that the true Grounds and Reasons of Law were so well delivered in the Digests that a man could never understand Law as a Science so well as by seeking it there and therefore lamented much that it was so little Studied in England When he was called to the Barr and began to make a Figure in the World the late unhappy Wars broke out in which it was no easie thing for a Man to preserve his Integrity and to live Securely free from great danger and trouble He had read the Life of Pompenious Atticus writ by Nepos and having observed that he had passed through a time of much Distraction as ever was in any Age or State from the Wars of Marius and Scilla to the beginnings of Augustus his Reign without the least blemish on his Reputation and free from any Considerable Danger being held in great Esteem by all Parties and courted and favoured by them He set him as a Pattern to himself and observing that besides those Virtues which are necessary to all Men and at all times there were two things that chiefly preseroed Atticus the one was his engaging in no Faction and medling in no publick Business the other was his constant favouring and relieving those that were lowest which was ascribed by such as prevailed to the Generosity of his Temper and procured him much Kindness from those on whom he had exercised his Bounty when it came to their turn to Govern He resolved to guide himself by those Rules as much as possible for him to do He not only avoided all publick Imployment but the very talking of News and was always both Favourable and Charitable to those who were deprest and was sure never to provoke any in particular by censuring or reflecting on their Actions for many that have Conversed much with him have told me they never heard him speak ill of any Person He was imployed in his practice by all the King's party He was assigned Council to the Earl of Strafford and Arch-Bishop Laud and afterwards to the Blessed King himself when brought to the infamous Pageantry of a Mock-Tryal and offered to plead for him with all the Courage that so Glorious a Cause ought to have inspired him with but was not suffered to appear because the King refusing as he had good reason to submit to the Court it was pretended none could be admitted to speak for him He was also Council for the Duke of Hamilton the Earl of Holland and the Lord Capel His Plea for the former of these I have published in the Memories of the Duke's Life Afterwards also being Council to the Lord Craven he pleaded with that force of Argument that the then Attorney-General threatned him for appearing against the Government to whom he answered he was Pleading in defence of those Laws which they declared they would maintain and preserve and he was doing his duty to his Client so that he was not to be daunted with Threatnings Cromwell seeing him possest of so much Practice and he being one of the Eminentest Men of the Law who was not at all affraid of

took nothing on Trust but pursued his Enquiries as far as they could go and as he was humble enough to confess his Ignorance and submit to Mysteries which he could not comprehend so he was not easily imposed on by any shews of Reason or the Bugbears of vulgar Opinions He brought all his Knowledge as much to Scientifical Principles as he possibly could which made him neglect the Study of Tongues for the bent of his Mind lay another way Discoursing once of this to some they said They looked on the Common Law as a Study that could not be brought into a Scheme nor formed into a Rational Science by reason of the Indigestedness of it and the Multipliciry of the Cases in it which rendred it very hard to be understood or reduced into a Method But he said He was not of their Mind and so quickly after he drew with his own Hand a Scheme of the whole Order and Parts of it in a large Sheet of Paper to the great Satisfaction of those to whom he sent it Upon this Hint some pressed him to Compile a Body of the English Law It could hardly ever be done by a Man who knew it better and would with more Judgment and Industry have put it into Method But he said As it was a Great and Noble Design which would be of vast Advantage to the Nation so it was too much for a private Man to undertake It was not to be Entred upon but by the Command of a Prince and with the Communicated Endeavours of some of the most Eminent of the Profession He had great vivacity in his Fancy as may appear by his Inclination to Poetry and the lively Illustrations and many tender Strains in his Contemplations but he look'd on Eloquence and Wit as things to be used very chastly in serious Matters which should come under a severer Inquiry Therefore he was both when at the Bar and on the Bench a great Enemy to all Eloquence or Rhetorick in Pleading He said If the Judge or Jury had a right Understanding it signified nothing but a waste of Time and loss of Words and if they were weak and easily wrought on it was a more decent way of corrupting them by bribing their Fancies and biassing their Affections and wondred much at that affectation of the French Lawyers in imitating the Roman Orators in their Pleadings For the Oratory of the Romans was occasion'd by their popular Government and the Factions of the City so that those who intended to excell in the Pleading of Causes were trained up in the Schools of the Rhetors till they became ready and expert in that luscious way of Discourse It is true the Composures of such a Man as Tully was who mixed an extraordinary Quickness an exact Judgment and a just Decorum with his skill in Rhetorick do still entertain the Readers of them with great Pleasure But at the same time it must be acknowledged that there is not that chastity of Style that closeness of Reasoning nor that justness of Figures in his Orations that is in his other Writings so that a great deal was said by him rather because he knew it would be acceptable to hsi Auditors than that it was approved of by himself and all who read them will acknowledge they are better pleased with them as Essays of Wit and Style than as Pleadings by which such a Judge as ours was would not be much wrought on And if there are such Grounds to censure the performances of the greatest Master in Eloquence we may easily infer what nauseous Discourses the other Orators made since in Oratory as well as in Poetry none can do Indifferently So our Judge wondred to find the French that live under a Monarchy so fond of imitating that which was an ill Effect of the Popular Government of Rome He therefore pleaded himself always in few Words and home to the Point And when he was a Judge he held those that Pleaded before him to be the main Hinge of the Business and cut them short when they made Excursions about Circumstances of no Moment by which he saved much time and made the chief Difficulties be well Stated and Cleared He had a Soul enlarged and raised above that mean Appetite of loving Money which is generally the Root of all Evil. He did not take the Profits that he might have had by his Practice for in common Cases when those who came to ask this Council gave him a Piece he used to give back the half and so made Ten Shillings his Fee in ordinary Matters that did not require much Time or Study If he saw a Cause was Unjust he for a great while would not meddle further in it but to give his Advice that it was so If the Parties after that would go on they were to seek another Councellor for he would assist none in Acts of Injustice If he found the Cause doubtful or weak in point of Law he always advised his Clients to agree their Business Yet afterwards he abated much of the Scrupulosity he had about Causes that appeared at first view Injust upon this occasion There were two Causes brought to him which by the ignorance of the Party or their Attorney were so ill represented to him that they seem'd to be very bad but he enquiring more narrowly into them found they were really very good and just so after this he slackned much of his former Strictness of refusing to meddle in Causes upon the ill Circumstances that appear'd in them at first In his pleading he abhorred those too common Faults of misreciting Evidences quoting Presidents or Books falsty or asserting things Confidently by which ignorant Juries or weak Judges are too often wrought on He pleaded with the same Sincerity that he used in the other parts of his Life and used to say it was as great a Dishonour as a Man was capable of that for a little Money he was to be hired to sav or do otherwise than as he thought All this he ascribed to the unmeasurable Desire of heaping up Wealth which corrupted the Souls of some that seem'd to be otherwise born and made for great Things When he was a Practitioner Differences were often refer'd to him which he setled but would accept of no Reward for his Pains tho' offer'd by both Parties together after the Agreement was made for he said in those Cases he was made a Judge and a Judge ought to take no Money If they told him he lost much of his Time in considering their Business and so ought to be acknowledged for it his answer was as one that heard it told me Can I spend my Time better than to make People friends must I have no time allowed me to do Good in He laid aside the Tenth Fenny of all he got for the Poor and took great care to be well informed of proper Objects for his Charities And after he was a Judge many of the Perquisites of his Place as his Dividend