Gill: "I neither thought it, bought it, nor sought it."

I've been reading John Rippon's A Brief Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late Rev. John Gill, D. D. (Sprinkle reprint, 2006).  Rippon reports Gill's surprise when he was unexpectedly awarded the Doctor of Divinity degree by Marischal College and University of Aberdeen in 1748:

"Hence, when his deacons, in London, congratulated him on the respect which had been shewn him, he thanked them, pleasantly adding, I neither thought it, bought it, nor sought it" (p. 59).