testifie if living I shall raise to my self Legions of Enemies however Truth I will own seeing you have called me so fairly to it and if you and your Party be disobliged I will say in my Dear Lord and Saviour's Words whom I will imitate and follow so far as He is to be imitated by poor Mortals Am I your Enemy because I tell you the Truth It 's Truth you have given me a very fair Character with which a great many Men in the World would have pleased themselves with and parted with Truth and not declar'd it and liv'd and hug'd themselves with the vain Conceit of the World 's believing them honest Men and that they had a good Name in the World but I for my own part must part with that Character of a good Name though it be better than precious Ointment when it stands in competition with Truth and therefore I must undeceive you and the World I do not remember neither do I believe that there ever was any such Passage as you have related or that I ever gave the Bishop any such good Reason you mention and so farewel a good Name when it stands in competition with Truth And then you go on and say Upon which He I suppose you still mean the Lord Bishop of Salisbury was angry and threatned Him I presume you mean my self Moses Pitt with the Loss of all the Favours he intended to do him in his Trade This Sir is so very harsh an Expression that it 's not to be supposed I could forget it if the now Lord Bishop of Salisbury had said it to my dying Day but I declare I do not remember neither do I believe he the Lord Bishop of Salisbury ever said it or any thing like it Then you say This Mr. Pitt can testifie if he is living I hope you are now fully satisfied I am living and who knows but the Great and Good God has preserved my Life and the Life of Mr. Angus also hitherto to glorifie his Name in declaring and testifying the Truth in this particular Matter Indeed Sir I own a Prison is a living Grave and he that by Charity takes a Man out of Prison does a Work next to raising the dead some Account of this shall be given of one of those great Men you mention in your Book towards the latter End of this my Letter As for my being in the Land of the Living it had been no hard Task for you to have satisfied your self either by your Bookseller or Printer or both for I presume that most I was going to say almost all but I consider before whom I speak of the Master-Booksellers and Printers in London personally know me or have heard of me and the Oppressions I am under so that they could soon have satisfied you I was living wh n you penn'd this Passage But say you if he is not it can be attested by an honourable Person who heard him solicite Mr. Pitt to this base and unworthy practice It 's True it had been a base unworthy Practice of the Lord Bishop of Salisbury I believe he himself would own it provided it had been Truth But Sir I wish you had nam'd whose Acquaintance this Honourable Person is that can attest this that he heard the Bishop solicite me whether of the Bishop's or of your own or of Mine or of all or either of us and when it was and where it was And if he can put it into my remembrance by naming Tokens and Circumstances or any way whatsoever whereby I may call it to my Memory and remember the thing so as to attest it I will assure you Sir I will observe what my Lord Bacon directs in this Case in his Moral Essays Alway turn to the Pole of Truth so that if this you write of the Lord Bishop of Salisbury's be a Truth and I be fully in my Conscience convinced of it as I am now convinc'd it is false I will then Recant Repent Confess and Publish to the World my great Sin and beg Pardon of God and You for it But Sir I have often been thinking who this Honourable Person should be that can attest this it cannot be the late Honourable Robert Boyle Esq who was that worthy I want proper words to express my self Gentleman that brought my Lord Bishop of Salisbury and me first acquainted and recommended me to print for him and we have been in Conversation together but he is dead so he cannot be the Person Sir I wish we had this great Man I mean Robert Boyle's Life wrote fully by a good Pen and though it were by the present Bishop of Salisbury whom you so much despise it would be very acceptable to the Great and Learned Men of the World Sir I cannot think but of one Honourable Person more that I had at that time the Honour of a familiar Acquaintance with but I think it not proper for me at this time to name him but if I should I should do it with as much Respect and make him in my opinion as great a Heroe as the present Lord Bishop of Salisbury has made the late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury as you have exprest it in your Preface for indeed he is the Gamaliel unto whom I do own I had the best of my Knowledge in Authours of Books and the Subjects they wrote on he being a Man of gentile and universal Learning but I forbear to speak his due Commendations lest you and the World should think I flatter him but I will assure you that I do not remember that ever the now Lord Bishop of Salisbury and him and my self were ever in Conversation together but I do own that the present Lord Bishop of Worcester Dr. Edw. Stillingfleet with this Person of Honour and my self have been in Conversation together and this Person of Honour was the Spoaksman and I have reason to believe that his Lordship had then a great Honour and Respect for him and did value him as one of his chiefest Acquaintance and did present him with one of his Books soon after they were printed and I have several times in King William's Reign met with this Honourable Person passant in the Street and we saluted each other after a friendly Manner and therefore he could not be ignorant of my being in the Land of the Living And then Sir you go on and tell the World But though Mr Pitt would not consent to sell the Books without the Dedication yet he was content to let him have them again and then they came abroad without it Sir as to this Paragraph I do not believe neither do I remember that ever I did consent to the Sale of one of the Books without the Dedication neither do I believe or remember that ever I was content to let him have them again or that he ever had them again from me or that ever they came abroad without it And then you tell the World again And so hard it was till
Terror of the Wicked and Rejoycing of the Righteous And although you so much despise the present Lord Bishop of Salisbury and tell the World how apt he is to write Lives I will give it you in your own VVords as in Page the 10th of your Preface you say And when I consider how apt he is to write Lives and to write his own Imaginations and Opinions in them I could not but bewail the Fate of the late Honourable Mr. Boyle after that of Bishop Bedel should he also write his Life as Report saith he designs to do And I cannot but wish for the Honour of that great Man's Memory that his Honourable Relations would oblige some Person of unblemished Reputation to write it whom the World hath no reason to suspect even when he writes Truth Sir As to this Point of writing of the late Honourable Mr. Robert Boyle's Life I will give you the following Account Some time before I knew or heard of the publishing your Book I met as I was passing through the Temple with Mr. John Warr who was Steward to Mr. Robert Boyle many Years and so continued to Mr. Boyle's Death and Mr. Boyle had that Esteem for him that he made him one of his Executors in his last Will after some Discourse we had about Mr. Boyle's putting 500 l. into Benj. Hinton's Hands which is a Loss to his Estate to this Day I ask'd Mr. Warr what was the reason Mr. Boyle's Life was not all this time published to the World he gave me this for Answer That the Bishop of Salisbury and others I think he said and others but I am not certain I would keep to Truth as near as in words I could had desired him to get Materials ready for that Work but he said the Labour was so great and his Expectations of Reward not considerable and also he having Business of his own on his Hands that he could not well spare his Time for to do it and then also the Fatigue would be great for that to do it well he must look over Hundreds of Books Papers and Letters which he could not well spare Time to do this was his Excuse to me that Mr. Boyl's Life was not to this Day published to the VVorld Now Sir do you not think but if the Bishop of Salisbury had published the Life of Mr. Boyle it would not have been very acceptable to the World especially he having made use of Mr. Boyle's Steward for so many Years to search Books Papers and Letters which are in the Nature of Records in this Affair of writing Lives and who can be presumed to know Mr. Boyle's private Transactions better than him and Mr. Boyle himself demonstrated the Esteem he had for him by making him one of his Executors and therefore the VVorld could not blame the Bishop for using of him and trusting to him in this Affair of bringing him Materials for so good a VVork and I doubt not but the Bishop would have very Honourably rewarded Mr. Warr for his great Fatigue in this Affair For I hear a very great Character of the Bishop's Generosity and also Charity from one I presume should know as well as any whatever I will give it you in his own VVords to me That the Bishop is No covetous Man no lover of Money for said he if the Bishop had 20000 l. per Annum he would dispose of it and give it away honourably and charitably I do not write this to flatter his Lordship for I abhor and scorn Flattery for I never had any other Advantage or Benefit from the Bishop than what I have had in way of Trade and the same for ought I know I might have had from you for I have reason to believe you have been a familiar Acquaintance of mine by your Quotation And Sir I am of the Opinion that when any Man especially a Peer of the Realm is scandalized in his Reputation it behoves all Men to vidicate them and their Reputation so far as Truth is on their Side Although I am also of your Opinion that if any Man much more great Men do ill and base Actions they ought to be told of it and that publickly for it 's no Fault in the Relator but the Fault is his that did the ill Action I remember I was at a Coffee-House and I think it was before this last Revolution where I heard that most Learned Mr Dodwel who indeed is a great Example of Heroick Piety and Vertue as you your self own in the 53 Page of your Book tell a Learned Knight well known in this Nation I name him not because I would not give Offence to any Man or Party of Men in express words that he was a Roman Catholick the Knight answered Mr. Dodwel I am no Roman Catholick Mr. Dodwel replies Sir I will not believe you the Knight answered again Sir I am a Gentleman why will you not believe me on my Word no Sir saith Mr. Dodwel I will not believe your Words but I will believe your VVritings for your Books denotes you a Roman Catholick So I say it 's not your Sayings no nor VVritings that can make the Bishop of Salisbury an ill Man but it must be his own VVritings and VVorks that must make him an ill or a good Man let his Lordship look to that I have told Matter of Fact and leave it to the VVorld to judge between the Bishop and your Self it 's You and not the Bishop has called on me to write what I have written and it's Truth And now Sir I am upon this great Subject of writing Lives let me also give my Opinion which is that if the Lives of great and good Men were wrote by their most intimate Friends that were Persons of Unblemished Reputation that would not write their own Fancies and Inventions for Truth but would take on them the Fatigue of searching of Books Papers and Letters which concerns the Person whose Life they intend to write and report Matters of Fact faithfully it would be a very useful and acceptable Work for Examples of Heroick Piety and Vertue are more pleasant and prevalent with Mankind than just Precepts and Commands And although it be a Truth Sir you assert in the 72 Page of your Book that our Hookers Sandersons and Hamomnds c. have asserted the great Truths of Religion as zealously as his Heroe did but Sir what need of these Comparisons and that in so much heat had we not also the Ushers the Pearsons which have done the like And we have the four first of these great and good Men's Lives written and we are beholding to the Writers of them and why should we not also covet the Lives of the Pearsons the Wilkins and the Tillotsons they being also the great Assertors of the great Truths of the Christian Religion its not to be doubted but their Lives would be very acceptable to all good Men but especially to the Clergy that so they might imitate their
A LETTER FROM Moses Pitt TO THE AUTHOUR of a Book INTITULED Some Discourses upon Dr. Burnet now L d. B p. of Salisbury and Dr. Tillotson late L d. A.B. of Canterbury Occasioned by the Late Funeral Sermon of the former upon the latter Deuteronomy Chap. 19. V. 16 17. V. 16. If a false Witness rise up against a Man to testifie against him that which is wrong V. 17. Then both the Men between whom the Controversie is shall stand before the Lord before the Priests and the Judges which shall be in those Days LONDON Printed for Moses Pitt and Sold by the Booksellers of London and Westminster MDCXCV A LETTER from Moses Pitt To the Authour of a Book Intituled Some Discourses upon Dr. Burnet and Dr. Tillotson occasioned by the late Funeral-Sermon of the former on the latter SIR LAtely walking the Streets of London a Citizen of my Acquaintance calls me into his Shop and tells me that he was glad to see me and that he desired me to tell him the Truth of what he should ask me I told him I would as near as I could upon that he proceeds in his Discourse and said that he had seen a Book lately come forth against Dr. Burnet the now Bishop of Salisbury which saith he if the things are true therein related of him he is a very ill Man or Words to that effect and you are quoted to justifie one of the Passages mentioned in the said Book about Dr. Burnet's dedicating a Book to Duke Lauderdale I replied I could not answer him till I saw the Book and passage there in mentioned wherein I was quored for Authority upon which I made it my business to get one of your Books which with much difficulty I did and in Reading of it in Page the 18th and 19th I found this Passage in relation to the present Bishop of Sabisbury which I have here set down Verbatim by reason your Book is not easily by every Reader to be got which is as followeth I shall now proceed to things of something of a different Nature but which will shew no less what little Credit to be given to him and how unsafe it is to rely upon his Authority He dedicated his Vindication of the Authority c. of the Laws of Scotland to the Duke of Lauderdale then High Commissioner of Scotland In that Dedication he tells the Duke How worthily he bore that noble Character with the more lasting and noble Characters of a Princely mind and praises him for the long uninterrupted Tranquility that Kingdom had enjoyed under his wise and happy Conduct and saith That he was a Prince greater in his Mind than Fortune and that there was something inward to him which commanded all the Respect that could be paid by all such that had the Honour to know him as well as he did He acknowledges also the particular Engagement by which he was obliged to him and saith That it was not fit for him to express the Sense he had of them and of the vast Endowments of his Mind for fear he should seem to flatter him Then he instances in the profoundness of his Understanding and well-ballanced Judgment for which he might deservedly pass for a Master in all Learning And in the Conclusion tells him That from him they expected an happy Settlement and wished that Success Blessings might attend his Endeavours Not long after the printing of this Book at Glascow he brought a great Part of the Impression to London where he sold it to Mr. Moses Pitt and not long after that again he came to him to desire him with great Earnestness to sell the Copies of it without the Dedication For by this time the Duke had fallen out with him and discarded him for some Arts and Qualities he had observed in him which I need not name Mr. Pitt gave him very good Reasons why he ought not to do so and particularly told him he could not honestly sell an imperfect for a perfect Copy Upon which he was angry and threatened him with the loss of all the Favours he intended to do him in his Trade This Mr. Pitt can testifie if he is living but if he is not it can be attested by an honourable Person who heard him solicite Mr. Pitt to this base unworthy Practice But though Mr. Pitt would not consent to sell the Book without the Dedication yet he was content to let him have them again and then they came abroad without it And so hard it was till it was privately Reprinted to get one single Copy with it that I profess I could never get such a one till a Gentleman presented me with one out of his private Study And when he delated his Patron to the House of Commons Sir A. Forrester his Grace's Secretary told me That after the utmost diligence he could get but one single Copy with the Dedication though he would have purchased more at any Rate to shew the Gentlemen of the honourable House what kind of Man his Evidencer was that would publish such things in the Commendation of the Duke after he knew (a) See his Vindication in his xviâ—j Papers as he pretended he had a Design of bringing in an Army out of Scotland for the spoiling and subduing of England This discovery of the Dedication and his suppressing of it coming to be known made all the House curious to see it and he foreseeing what use would be made of it against him was willing to decline his noble Undertaking But the House by the Interest of the Duke's Friends who increased much upon that Discovery made him restifie what he since saith created Horrour in him and how much Reputation he got by it I need not now tell the World I am sure many of the Duke's greatest Enemies looked upon it as an horrible Lye not thinking the Design or the Discovery of it if he had designed it consistent with so much Wisdom as he was Master of above most great Men of his Time Now Sir after I had read not only this Passage but the whole Book over I consider'd with my self what Person or Persons were alive at that time when I printed for Dr. Burnet now Lord Bishop of Salisbury for it s now above 20 Years past that could any ways help my Memory that so I might declare to you and the World the Truth the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth in this Matter or Passage you call me if living to testisie Sir you must know that I am of the Cobler's Mind that lived in Holborn in King James the 1st's Time when Goundemore the Spanish Ambassadour was passing by in his Chair the Sedan-men happening to stumble and fall and the Ambassadour being on the Ground Multitudes of People came running at this Accident one of which cries to the Cobler to come out of his Stall and help up the Ambassadour The Cobler replies not he for he would not meddle with State-matters But considering with my self that two
mighty Things are concerned in this Passage of yours that is Truth and a Good-name the latter of which Solcmon tells us is better than precious Ointment And for the former Truth it 's an Attribute of our great and good God and it 's the Duty of all Men to imitate God in this Attribute and That Man is worse than the Beasts that perished that is not a Man of Truth and Truth makes a Man as bold as a Lion Ask the Lawyers what plead for they will tell you for Truth Ask the Ministers of all perswasions what they preach and they will tell you Truth Ask all Writers of Books in all Arts and Sciences what they have written and they will tell you Truth You your self say in this your Book speaking against Dr. Burnet You say you could produce more Instances out of Beedle's Life to shew how apt he was to write his own Inventions for true History and thereby impose upon the World and you believe you have brought enough for that purpose and hope you have thereby convinced all Lovers of Truth more than of Men's Persons how unsase it is to take things upon Trust from him page 33 and Sir I find you your felf so much a Lover of Truth as you pretend at least that I hope you will not be angry with me for declaring the Truth in this Passage you your self appeal to me in between the late Duke of Lauderdale and the now Lord. Bishop of Salisbury mentioned in the 18th and 19th Pages of your said Bock And Sir I shall speak the Truth so as you are pleased to express it in the 1st and 2d Pages of your Presace to your said Book So as it may serve to inform and entertain inquisitive Searchers after Truth And then you go on and say speaking of Dr. Jo. Tillot son late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and Dr. Gilbert Burnet now Lord Bishop of Salisbury Against whom you say you have been provoked to draw up two several Charges or Informations which somewhat blomish their Honour so you hope you have proved them in every part by very good Evidence And as some Trials are longer than others according to the Number and Length of Depositions so if this Book of mine which contains as it were so many Depositions against them hath proved longer than I would have had it that is none of my Fault And you farther say you know very well it will be called a Libel and a Defamatory Libel but you care not for that since many excellent Books were so miscalled in the Times of our former Usurpations which detected the ill Men of those Times and their Hypocrisies and Imquities to the World The same thing have I done lately in a Book called The Cry of the Oppressed printed 1691. Wherein I have detected many Men by Name now hving some of them in great splendor of Oppression Extortion Bribery Perjury Blusphemy and several other the like Crimes and there has not to this Day Nav. 1695. any one of the Passages therein mentioned been contradicted and I still challenge any one therein accused to clear himself from those Villanies I therein charge him with for I am still ready to prove on them all the Matters of Fact I have therein related thus hold is Truth And then you go on and say and I agree with you and so I believe will all good Men. And besides to speak properly and justly of the Nature of a Libel all Books onght not to be so called which expose Men's Reputations but such only as expose them falsly injuriously and out of pure Malice But this Book though in some things it blemishes the Fame and Reputation of these Men yet it doth it truly justly and deservedly and so far am I from bearing the Person of the one or the Memory of the other any Malice that had I been acted by that evil Passion I could have written against them both much sooner and have been better provided to write against them now Men that do ill things openly and with an high hand though under never so splendid Pretences ought to hear of them especially when they go about to make Saints and Heroes of one another with a Design to cover their own Iniquities and deceive the People When this happens to be the Case Charity to the People's Souls and the Love of the Publick obliges all Lovers of Truth and Righteousness to unvizard such Men and expose them in their true Appearance before their credulous and deluded Admirers As to this last Paragraph so far all good Men will agree with you but how far the World will believe you as to these two popular Divines as you are pleased to call them when I have told my Matters or given my Deposition as you your self are pleased to term it I leave it to judgment And as I have endeavoured in the following Discourses to do so by these two popular Divines so I assure the Reader I have done it purely upon these generous Motives wishing with all my Heart that neither of them had given so many and publick Provocations to undeceive any part of the World by writing such severe Truths So much I have taken out of your own Preface and now Sir I will go on and give you the Truth of this Matter you mention in Page the 18th and 19th of your Book as touching that Passage of the Dedication of Dr. Gilbert Burnet's Vindication of the Authority c. of the Laws of Scotland to the Duke of Lauderdale as far as I know or can any way call to my Remembrance And this I do as in the Presence of the Great God who is the God of Truth and the True God and of Angels and of Men and that without any Respect to the Person of the now Lord Bishop of Salisbury Dr. Gilbert Burnet with whom I have had no Conversation neither by word of mouth not by writing or otherwise since he lest England in King James's Days otherwise than that very soon after I printed my Cry of the Oppressed which was in 1691 or before I believe I might send him as I did several other of the Bishops and Judges c. a Letter with one of my said Books but I never received any Answer from him neither directly nor indirectly only Mr. Richard Chiswel the last Time but one that I saw him told me that the Bishop ask'd him how I did and that he was sorry for my Misfortunes but whether Mr. Chiswell did this in a Complement I know not neither did it affect me neither doth the Bishop know of what I now write neither have I or any Person for me any way applied my self to him about this or any other Matter although very much urged to it by some of my Friends since he came into England with King William Neither has he the said Bishop applied himself to me neither by himself or any Friend that I know of to declare my Knowledge in this Matter neither is
it any Envy Spleen or Malice I have to your Person for you treat me very civilly and have represented me an honest Man in transacting the Affair between the Bishop and my Self provided your Story had been True and further I say if Truth had been on your Side I would have declared it to the World as freely and as willingly as I now do And this I have now here said has been against the Intreaties of some of my nearest and dearest Relations they using their Arguments to me that I should disoblige a great Number of my Friends some of them of the first Rank of Great Men and that you had not treated me amiss but have spoken well of me and had not disobliged me and therefore what need had I to be so much concerned as to declare the Truth in this matter or Arguments to this effect To which I replied and that with some Zeal That if both their Lives and my own also lay at stake with Truth and that either our Lives or Truth must be parted with we must part with our Lives and keep to Truth Further I told them I was by you called on to speak the Truth in this matter your Words are This Mr. Pitt can testifie if he is living By this I have wrote you may see I am living for to tell you and the World the Truth of this Matter of Fact to the best of my Knowledge and Remembrance it being above 20 Years since that this Difference betwixt Duke Lauderdale and the present Lord Bishop of Salisbury happened Now to the Passage it self After Sir I had read your Book I considered who were alive at that Time when this Affair you call me to witness happened that could any way help my Memory and there accrued to my Memory one Mr. Adam Angus at this present Time Reader at St. Dunstans in the West London who was about the Year 1675. as he told me Amanuensis to Dr. Burnet the now Lord Bishop of Salisbury whom I found out and I discoursed him about this Matter at several Times at the second Meeting with him I shewed him Dr. Burnet's Vindication of the Authority c. of the Laws of Scotland in which was the Dedication to Duke Lauderdale and your said Book and desired him to read the 18th and 19th Pages which he did with some Consideration and at all the Meetings he gave me this sincere Account and was extremely surprized at such groundless Expressions this was on or about the second Day of Octob. 1695. and the other Meetings was about a Day or few Days before or after That as for the Book it self viz. Dr. Burnet's Vindication c. he did believe that it was sent me by the Bookseller that printed it or some other Bookseller out of Scotland there being more printed there than could vend in that Kingdom and that I was to give Books in way of Barter for them and that I had them not from the Doctour then I ask'd him if either the Doctour or he had any of the said Books from me he answered me that they had not to the best of his Remembrance but said that that Dedication to Duke Lauderdale had made a great noise in the World then I ask'd him if he did remember that any of the books were sold without the Dedication he told me he did not remember that any was neither do I remember there was or that ever Dr. Burnet had any of them of me either with or without the Dedication Then I ask'd him whether Dr. Burnet did desire me with earnestness to sell the Copies of it without the Dedication and whether he was angry with me and threatned me with the Loss of all the Favours he intended to do me in my Trade he answered me Fy Fy there was no such thing said or done I replied I remembred no such thing or expression for it might be supposed if there had it was so harsh a one that no Man in way of Trade as I was could forget it all Days of his Life I also ask'd him if he remembred what Books I printed of Dr. Burnet's he answered me I printed his Mystery of Iniquity Unvail'd this was a Book he printed in Scotland and by his Order I reprinted it here in London in 1673. which was the Year his Vindication of the Authority c. of the Laws of Scotland was printed at Glasgow by Robert Sanders and this was before Mr. Adam Angus was Dr. Burnet's Amanuensis then he told me I printed Dr. Burnet and Dr. Stilling fleet 's now Lord Bishop of Worcester Conference with Mr. Edward Coleman this was the Coleman whom Dr. Titus Oates caused afterward to be seized and also his Letters which so fully discovered the Popish Plot for which he was hanged December the 3d. 1678. although he was then Secretary or reputed Secretary to the then Dutchess of York an others of the Church of Rome which Conference Mr. Adam Angus told me he took in Writings from Dr. Gilbert Burnet's own Mouth after it was over which he shewed to Dr. Edward Stillingfleet and to Mr. Edward Coleman c. who all of them owned it under their Hands that it was faithfully taken this Book being brought me in M. S. by Mr. Adam Angus I printed it in the Year 1676. and it made 17 Sheets of Paper for which I gave Mr. Adam Angus 17 l. I further ask'd Mr. Adam Angus if Dr. Burnet had the Moneys or any part of it he told me very frankly and readily no not one Farthing for he the said Mr. Angus owned he had it for his own use for his Care about it Then he farther said I printed Dr. Burnet's Answer to Naked Truth this was a Pamphlet what you accuse the now Lord Bishop of Salisbury about it in the 23 d. Page of your Book is his own Province to answer for I am altogether a Stranger to that Passage all I say I believe Mr. Angus brought it me and I printed it as the now Lord Bishop of Salisbury's Book Then Mr. Angus told me he thought I printed another Book of the Bishops but he could not well call it to mind neither can I. Then I ask'd how it came to pass that the Bishop forsook me and gave his Copies to another Bookseller in answer to which he gave me the following Account That I was to give him the said Mr. Angus 10 l. more if I printed another Impression and that the Printer who was Henry Critenden since dead had told him I had so done for which Reason he thought fit to employ another and transacted with him and that the Doctour was innocent and knew nothing of this Transaction till afterwards I replied I had not printed a second Edition of the said Book but I did believe that by the Persuasion of the Printer I did order him to print a greater Number of the latter Sheets than of the First out of hopes that it would have come to a second Impression
and thereby I should have saved the Charges of composing so many of the last Sheets but I was disappointed in my Expectation and so I was forced to make wast Paper of all them supernumerary Sheets So by this misunderstanding between Mr. Angus and my Self I lost my Authour the now Lord Bishop of Salisbury for which I cannot in the least blame Dr. Burnet as you call him what I have here wrote as far as Mr. Adam Angus is concerned in this Paragraph is Truth And now Sir I have done what I can to refresh my Memory I will own what is Truth and disown what is not so far as you appeal to me in your Book page 18 and 19. for I find you lay a great stress on this Book of Dr. Burnet's Vindication of the Authority Constitution and Laws of Scotland For except Terent. in Prolog ante Eunuchum it 's the only Authour or Book you quote in the very Title Page of your Discourses and you quote Page the 4th of the Doctour's said Book the Words are as followeth Remember how severely he that was Meekness it self treated the Scribes and Pharisees and he having charged his Followers to beware of their Leaven it is obedience to his Command to search out that Leaven that it may leaven us no more And when any of a Party are so exalted in their own Conceit as to despise and disparage all others the Love the Ministers of the Gospel owe the Souls of their Flocks obligeth them to Unmask them Sir this Quotation of yours is True for I have compared it only you have a The between Love and Ministers more than is in the Doctour's Book but that 's not material the Reason why I am so critical is because I write as if I made an Affidavit before a Master in Chancery For Livy the Famous Roman Historian saith if my Memory fails me not That he that writes a Lye for Truth is the greatest of perjured Persons and he gives a good Reason for it because he imposeth upon Generations to come But I believe your chief Reason for quoting this Book more than any other of the Bishop's Works except his Funeral-Sermon on the Late Archbishop Tillerson is upon the Account of the Dedication to Duke Landerdale Now you say Sir Not long after the printing this Book at Glasgow this is true that this Book was printed at Glasgow and that in the Year 1673 and that it was dedicated to the Duke of Landerdale then High Commissioner of Scotland that the Dedication is in substance what you have printed though not printed exactly word for word For in your first Paragraph you say that he tells the Duke How worthily he bore that Noble Character with the more lasting and noble Characters of a Princely Mind in the Dedication it is inward Character and so likewise you say and praises him for the long uninterrupted Tranquility that Kingdom had enjoyed under his wise and happy Conduct whereas in the Dedication it is and under whose wise and happy Conduct we have enjoyned so long a Tract of uninterrupted Tranquility This I now say I find true by the said Book which I have now in my Hand at the writing of this Passage but what have I to do with the Dedication as to the difference of the Expressions Let the present Bishop of Salisbury look to that he being most immediately concerned I go on then you say He that is you mean as I take it the present Lord Bishop of Salisbury brought a great part of the Impression to London where he sold it to Mr. Moses Pitt Indeed Sir if you remember this Passage so well you have a good Memory and you must have been a very familiar Acquaintance of mine at that time that you should know my Transactions and Dealings for indeed I do not remember that the Present Lord Bishop of Salisbury Dr Gilbert Burnet did bring a great part of the Impression of his said Book Entituled A Vindication of the Authority c. to London Neither do I remember he sold it as you say to me Moses Pitt that I had some of them I believe but of whom I do not at this great distance of Time remember and therefore in this particular must refer my self to Mr. Angus who tells me that I had them from some Bookseller out of Scotland in Barter for some other Books and then you go on and say And not long after that again He I presume you mean the present Lord Bishop of Salisbury came to him that is as I understand it to me Moses Pitt to desire him with great earnestness to sell the Copies of it without the Dedication Sir I assure you I do not remember any thing of this Paragraph but do believe the contrary that the now Lord Bishop of Salisbury did ever come to me to desire me with great Earnestness or otherwise to sell the Copies of it without the Dedication neither do I remember I ever sold one Copy without the Dedication to any Person whatsoever as to what you say For by this time the Duke had fallen out with him and discarded him for some Arts and Qualities he had observed in him Indeed Sir I have heard that as you and others might likewise hear that the Duke and the present Lord Bishop of Salisbury did fall out but what the Ground of their Quarrel was I was not privy to neither can I tell for what Arts and Qualities the Duke discarded him he can I presume if he he pleases give you the best Account of this Transaction and therefore to the Bishop I leave it and proceed You say Mr. Pitt gave him very good Reasons why he ought not to do so and particularly told him he could not honestly sell an imperfect for a perfect Copy Sir if this Story of yours had been true I should have I hope acted the honest Part as you here relate but Sir though my Oppressions on me have been and are great by reason of false Oaths by which I have lost my Estate of about 1500 l. per Annum c. an Account of which you will find in my Book called The Cry of the Oppressed and have been a Prisoner ever since the 18th Day of April 1689. which was but a Week after King William and his late Queen Mary was Crowned and have Multitudes of Enemies upon the Account of contending against my own Oppressors and the Oppressors of the Creditors of Benjamin Hinton late of London Goldsmith Banker and Bankrupt there being now at this time a Bill of 349 Sheets pending in Chancery against fifty Defendants for the Discovery of the said Bankrupt's Estate which is unjustly kept from the Creditors which I hope will be proved and as we have laid it in our Bill to the Value of One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Pound or some such great Summ And now Sir I have cause to suspect that by reason of declaring the Truth in this Matter as you your self own I can
which were going for London and when they drew near the City one was saying to his Companions that as soon as they met with their City Acquaintance they would be asking them what News in Cornwall and they had none to tell them whereupon one of his Company which had a good Faculty at Invention told them he would supply that Defect upon which he invented that Story as it is related in Dr. Franklin's Annals Which as soon as they met with their Friends and Companions at the Tavern upon their asking what News in Cornwall he the Romancer told them the said Story with so much Confidence that it was believed by some of the Company who caused a Ballad to be made of it and some few Nights after these Sparks meeting at the same Tavern heard the Ballad sung in the Street just against their VVindow From which Ballad Dr. Franklin I suppose had his Authority but Sir as for Dr. Franklin he was a Physician and any one that reads his very first lines in his Book must imagin he is going to read a Pomance for he begins thus There was amongst other Persons of Honour and Quality in the Court a young Lady of great Birth and Beauty Frances Daughter of Tho. mas Howard Earl of Suffolk married in her Minority unto Robert Earl of Essex c. This is the Story of the poysoning of Sir Thomas Overbury which has proved as fatal to a great Family As Incest to the Family of the Carmino's in Cornwall the Story is this Carmino was reputed the ancientest Family we had in Cornwall it was supposed long before William the Conquerour's Days and most of our Cornish-Gentry were pleased when they could derive their Pedegrees from that Family One of the last of these Carmino's having committed Incest by lying with his own Daughter in the Morning when he rose came into his Hall and over the Chimney finds these words wrote O! Carmino This has bred thy Woe This thine Iniquity Has cancell'd thine Antiquity This Passage of the Carmino's I have often heard my own Father telate who was born and died in the 90 th Year of his Age in the same Parish with Carmino and I my self knew the last Male-heir of the Family who as I was informed was in Exeter Prison for Debt and there died and the Estate all spent By this Sir you see Monster Sins whereof I reckon Slandering and taking away the Good name of our Neighbour is one is the Cause of the Destruction of Persons Families and Kingdoms And Truth Sir is like the Sun it may be Fogg'd Clouded nay Eclipsed yet at last it will shine forth with the greater Splendour and Glory and will dissipate scatter and destroy the Fogs Clouds and Eclipses I will persume Sir you have read the 3d. and 4th Chapters of the first of Esdras I own the Book is Apocryphal but the last of the three young Men's Sentences is Canonical The first wrote Wine is strongest the second wrote the King is strongest and the third wrote Women are strongest but Truth overcometh all things But when Judgment was to be given and that by all the People they cried and said Truth is great and strongest And that it doth abide and is strong for ever and liveth and reigneth for ever and ever Sir no Age is so barren of Tragedies that we have need to invent Romantick Murthers as Dr. Franklin has done in the Story related and write them for Truths I will parallel his Tragedy with a more Modern one acted in our Memory The Passage is a Major-General who was well known in this Nation especially in the West in the Time of the late Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion This Person having the Command of the Army in Tangier before its Demolishment against the Mocres there was three Soldiers condemn'd by a Court-Martial one was an English-man the second a Scotch-man the third an Irishman The English-man and Scotch man one of them was condemned for murthering his Comrade the other for â—urglary and Felony but the poor Irish man was condemned for stealing some Hens which the Woman from whom they were stolen had them again All the Ladies of Quality of the Garison were petitioners to the General for the poor Irish-man's Life but could not prevail The General falling sick sent for the Chief Chirurgeon of the Garison whose Name is Mr. Andrew Herriot to let him Blood which when he had done he fell on his Knees and begg'd a Boon of the General the General ask'd him what it was he told him he would not beg the English-man's life nor the Scotch-man's Life although his Country-man for they both deserved to die but he begg'd the poor Irish man's Life he having stolen a few Hens and the Woman from which they were stolen had them again The General answered him he would not grant him his Life for he never had the Opportunity of hanging the three Nations at one Time nor never might have the like again and for that Reason and the Fancy of it he should be hanged and that very Day he hanged them all three This Relation I had from Mr. Herriot's own Mouth more than once This Mr. Herriot is a Man of Veracity and I have heard him speak many a bold Truth and I know he will justifie what I now write This Story puts me in mind of the Prophet who came to a Captain as related in Holy Writ and told him he should amongst other Villainies rip up Women with Child What replies the Captain is thy Servant a Dog Upon which the Prophet tells him he should be a King that is he should have Power and I must tell you Sir Power is such a mighty Liquour that it 's a hard matter to get Vessels strong enough to hold it .. Sir all I say on this Subject you have done your Endeavour to take away the Good name of a great Man which is next to taking away his Life and if I had not through mercy been in the Land of the Living to vindicate him it would have passed for a Truth I speak as to the Passage you call me to testifie if living and therefore I will tell you what I would do if I were guilty of such a foul Scandal especially it being against a Peer of the Realm I would repent and go to him and make my Confession and beg the Great God and him Pardon and make him what Restitution was in my Power But Sir I will not be so bold as to direct you I presume you are not ignorant of your Duty in this Case Now Sir what I have wrote you that is of my own Knowledge is Truth and what I have by the Information from others I believe to be Truth and if I have offended you in words that are any ways offensive I beg your pardon for I had no such design and if any of those Persons whom I have so freely nam'd take offence at me for so doing I must beg their Pardon but if I must lose your or their Friendships for telling the Truth then farewell Friendship and Favour and All I stick to the Truth and shall be yours and all Mens on that Account Moses Pitt Nov. 22. 1695. ADVERTISEMENT The Cry of the Oppressed Being a True and Tragical Account of the Unparallell'd Sufferings of Multitudes of poor imprisoned Debtors in most of the Goals in England together with the Case of the Publisher