Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	wont_a	word_n	writer_n	14	3	7.2619	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30478	A vindication of the authority, constitution, and laws of the church and state of Scotland in four conferences, wherein the answer to the dialogues betwixt the Conformist and Non-conformist is examined / by Gilbert Burnet ...	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1673 (1673)	Wing B5938; ESTC R32528	166,631	359

not deeper in the knowledge of Affairs than any of us however since you expect News from me I was just now reading some Books lately printed at Holland and particularly an accurate and learned Confutation of these virulent Dialogues you were wont to magnifie so much and it doth my heart good to see how he baffles the writer of them on every occasion for he hath answered every word of them so well and so home that I believe we shall not see a reply in haste Philarcheus I suppose we have all seen the Book but it is like you are singular in your opinion of it I shall not deny its Author his deserved praises he hath been faithful in setting down most of the Arguments used in the Dialogues and no less careful to gather together all the vulgar answers to them and truly hath said as much as can be said for his Cause Neither writes he without art for when he is pinched he drives off the Reader with a great many preliminary things to make him forget the purpose and to gain a more easie assent to what he asserts I confess his Stile is rugged and harsh so that it was not without pain I wrestled through it but of all I have seen he hath fallen on the surest way to gain an Applause from the Vulgar for he acts the greatest Confidence imaginable and rails at his Adversary with so much contempt and malice that he is sure to be thought well of by these who judge of a man more by his voice and the impresses of earnestness and passion he discovers than by the weight of what he saith Eud. These things may well take with the ignorant Rabble with whom it is like he designs to triumph but truly such as understand either the civilities of good Nature or the meekness of a Christian will be little edified with them Indeed I am amazed to see so much indiscretion and bitterness fall from any mans Pen who hath read S. Paul condemning railings evil surmisings and perverse disputings Isot. Who begun the scolding The truth is there are some who think they may rail with a priviledge and if any in soberness tell them of their faults they accuse them of bitterness but was there ever any thing seen more waspish than these Dialogues whose design seems to have been the disgracing of a whole Party and all their actions for many years If then the Atheism the blasphemy the mockery the enmity to GOD and Religion the ignorance the malice the folly and arrogance of such a confident Babler be discovered you are so tender der hooffed forsooth as to complain of railings Eud. It seems these writings have made a deep Impression on you you have got so exactly into their stile b●t this is a place where Passion is seldom cherished therefore we will expect no more of that strain from you But to deal freely with you there were some Expressions in these Dialogues with which I was not well satisfied but the whole of them had such a visage of Serenity that I wonder how they are so accused It is true the Conformijt deals very plainly and yet ere we part I can perhaps satisfie you he said but a little of what he might have said But withal remember how severely he that was meekness it self treated the Scribes and the 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 Ministers of the Gospel owe the Souls of their Flocks obligeth them to unmask them As to these poor simple Reproaches that are cast on the Person of that Author as they are known to be false and unjust so they are done in a strain that seems equally void of Wit and Goodness But we shall meddle no more in these ●●●sonal difference● afte● I have told you what I heard the Author of that Conference say upon this subject he said He was so far from being displeased with the Author of this Answer that he was only sorry he knew not who he was that he might seek an opportunity of obliging him For the things charged on him if he was guilty of them he needed very many prayers but if innocent the other needed no fewer who so unjustly accused him but a day comes wherein a righteous judge will judge betwixt them and this was the utmost displeasure he expressed adding That he had another sense of the account he must give for his hours than to engage in a Counter scuffle or to play at such small game as a particular examen of that Book would amount to And he judged it unworthy of him to turn Executioner on that man's Reputation by enquiring into all the escapes of his Book which are too obvious But he is willing to stand or fall by the decision of rational and impartial Minds only where he was either too short or where the Answerer hath raised so much Mist as might obscure a less discerning Reader he will when he gets out of the throng wherein his Employment doth at present engage him offer a clearer account of the matters in question without tracing of that p●or Creature who it is like expects to be recorded among the Learned Writers of the Age and the Champions of Truth Bas. We have nothing to do with what is personal among these Writers But since so many of us have met so happily and seem a little acquainted with these Questions let us according to our wonted freedom toss these debates among us without heat or reflections which signifie nothing but to express the strength of his Passions and the weakness of his Reasons who makes use of them And indeed the matter of the greatest Importance is the point of Subjects resisting their Sovereigns in the defence of Religion which deserves to be the better cleared since it is not a nicety of the School or a speculation of Philosophers but a matter of Practice and that which if received seems to threaten endless Wars and Confusions Crit. I am no great Disputer but shall be gladly a witness to your debate and upon occasions shall presume to offer what I have gleaned among the Critical Writers on Scripture and I hope Ij●timus's Memory is so good that he will carefully suggest the Arguments used by the Patrons of defensive Arms. Isot. I will not undertake too much but shall take care not to betray this good Cause yet I will not have the Verdict passed upon my defence of it however I shall not sneak so shamefully as the Nonconformist did in the Dialogues Eud. I hope I shall not need to caution you any more against reflections but as for the alledged treachery of your friend the Nonconformist it may be referred to all Scotland if what he saith be not what is put in the mouths