Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	word_n	world_n	write_v	1,659	4	5.2306	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54939	A letter from Moses Pitt, to the authour of a book, intituled, some discourses upon Dr. Burnet, now Ld. Bp. of Salisbury and Dr. Tillotson, late Ld. A.B. of Canterbury occasioned by the late funeral sermon of the former upon the latter.	Pitt, Moses, fl. 1654-1696.; Hickes, George, 1642-1715.; Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1695 (1695)	Wing P2307; ESTC R7270	27,662	34

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

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