I come no enemy, but to set free
From out this dark and dismal house of pain
Both him and thee, and all the heavenly host
Of Spirits, that, in our just pretences armed,
Fell with us from on high.
Milton, Paradise Lost, ii. 822; cf. vi. 421.
This is the tree whose leaves were intended for the healing of the nations, not for a pretence and palliation for sin.—H. More, Grand Mystery of Godliness, b. viii. c. 1.
He [the Earl of Pembroke] was exceedingly beloved in the Court, because he never desired to get that for himself which others laboured for; but was still ready to promote the pretences of worthy men.—Clarendon, History of the Rebellion, b. i. c. 121.
It is either secret pride, or base faintness of heart, or dull sloth, or some other thing, and not true modesty in us if being excellently gifted for some weighty employment in every other man’s judgment, we yet withdraw ourselves from it with pretensions of unsufficiency.—Sanderson, Sermons, 1671, p. 208.
| Prevaricate, | } |
| Prevarication. |