Rivington remonstrated, the author insisted, and the matter was settled. With great self-denial, the clergyman waited at home for nearly two months in silence, but at length the hope of fame and riches so tormented him that he could hold out no longer, and he wrote to Rivington desiring him to send in the debtor and creditor account at once, but adding liberally that the remittance might be forwarded at his own convenience. What, then, was his astonishment, anguish, and tribulation, when the following account was received:-- The Revd. Dr. * * * To C. Rivington, Dr. £ _s._ _d._ To Printing and Paper, 35,000 Copies of Sermons 785 5 6 By sale of 17 Copies of said Sermon 1 5 6 -------------- Balance due to C. Rivington £784 0 0 -------------- In a day or two he received a letter from Rivington to the following purport:-- “REV. SIR,--I beg pardon for innocently amusing myself at your expense, but you need not give yourself any uneasiness. I knew better than you could do the extent of the sale of single sermons, and accordingly printed one hundred copies, to the expense of which you are heartily welcome.”[23] In 1736 Rivington became an active member of a society for promoting the encouragement of learning, but as he and his colleagues sustained much injury through it, this was in the following year abandoned.