HUME (ALEXANDER).

BORN 1560-DIED 1609.

1. Beware thou justifie not thyself in heart; for thou knawest that thou cannot abstaine fra sinne, nor cannot be saued without the meere mercie of God, shewn in the righteous merits of Jesus Christ.

2. Travaile to be familiar and acquainted with thy God, be prayer and meditation, and walk with Him.

3. Remember that nothing can come unto thee bot by God's prouidence and permission: why, then, suld thou beare onie thing impatiently, seeing it is the Lord's work?

4. The Lord is able to doo exceeding aboundantlie aboue all that we aske or think: why suld thou, then, be carefull or avaritious?

5. Studie earnestly to be temperate of thy mouth; for intemperance hurts the memorie and the judgment, smores the spirituall gift, makes the heart fat and sensuall, banishes heauenlie thoughts and meditations, and makes men unable for any gude exercise.

6. Be continuallie occupied ather in the Lord's service, or in thine awin vocation, for the neglecting theirof wounds the conscience.

7. Gif the Lord haue given thee any reasonable maintenance of thy awin, haunt not meikle the tables of other

men.

8. Refrain thy tunge from cursed speaking, fraward or filthy speaking, whereby the conscience is wonderfullie wounded, and the Spirit of Christ that dwells in us sair greeued.

9. Crave of God a large and liberall heart; for a gnewous (ie., gnawing) and pinching heart, in matters of small importance, is odious.

10. Endeuour thyself to have thy mind stabill in thy prayer and meditation, and suffer not the samin to be interrupted with vaine thoughts or naughtie actions.

II. Be not bitter, fraward, earnest, or offended for trifles. . . . If thou be a pastour or a teacher, wherever thou cummis, let thy secret purpose be be to conqueis sum to Christ.

12. Whereuer thou art iniured, or heirs words vttered to thy reproch or griefe, incontinent perswade thyselfe that it proceids fra God, and that He has stirred up the speaker or iniurer against thee. Therefore, consider if thou be iustly quarrelled, and then take it as a chastisement for thy sin. But if thou be falsely and uniustly quarrelled, then think it is done by God to try thy faith and patience, wherein thou suld reioyce and receaue comfort.

13. Quhen thou art in perplexitie, and knawis not quhat to choose, intrenche thyselfe, and flee to the throne of grace to seeke resolution.

14. Thinke not that thou, by thy industrie, convoy (i.e. prudence), or diligence, art able to accomplish onye gude thing; therefore, craue the Lord's blessing to thy affairs, and wait patiently upon Him.

15. Walk with grauitie, integritie, and with ane upright

heart in all thy actions; and not craftely, feircely, or wilfully, bot without fretting, murmuring, or upbraiding.

16. Be silent and modest, and not light, revealing thy griefe, imperfection, and weakenes to euerie man, lest thou be despised. But poure out thy griefes before the Lord, and lament thine estait to Him.

17. Be benevolent till all men, and patient towards all; suffering euerie thing patiently for Christ's sake, and after His example.

18. Although thy prayer appeare to be without effect, yet cease not from praying; for, if thy petition be lawfull, and that thou submit the granting thereof unfeinedly to the will of God, be sure that at length thou sall ather get thy desire, or else contentment, as though thou had gotten it.

BACON (LORD).

BORN 1561-DIED 1626.

1. Virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they are incensed or crushed; for prosperity doth best discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue.

2. The Scripture exhorteth us to possess our souls in patience. Whosoever is out of patience is out of possession of his soul.

3. Men must know, that in this theatre of man's life, it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on.

4. A man's life is not to be trifled away; it is to be offered up and sacrificed to honourable services, public merits, good causes, and noble adventures.

5. A cripple on the right way may beat a racer on the wrong one. Nay, the fleeter and better the racer is, who hath once missed his way, the further he leaveth it behind.

6. There is no man that imparteth his joys to his friends but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his griefs to his friend, but he grieveth the less.

7. Fame is like a river that beareth up things light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and solid.

8. Great riches have sold more men than they have bought.

9. The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense; the last was the light of the reason; and His Sabbath work, ever since, is the illumination of His Spirit.

10. Clear and round dealing is the honour of man's

nature.

II. The mislayer of a stone is to blame; but it is the unjust judge that is the capital remover of landmarks. One foul sentence doth more hurt than many foul examples.

12. I can find no space of ground that lieth vacant and unsown in the matter of divinity; so diligent have men been, either in sowing of good seed or in sowing of tares.

13. It is not St Augustine's, nor St Ambrose's works, that will make so wise a divine as ecclesiastical history, thoroughly read and observed.

14. Divine prophecies being of the nature of their Author, with whom a thousand years are as but one day, are not fulfilled punctually at once, but have springing and germanent accomplishment through many ages, though the height of fulness of them may refer to some one age.

15. Earnest writing must not hastily be condemned; for men cannot contend coldly, and without affection, about things which they hold dear and precious.

16. The harmony of a science, supporting each part the other, is, and ought to be, the true and brief confutation and suppression of all the smaller sort of objections.

17. The night was even it is now not late, but early. their watch, and compound with this fleshly weakness for a time of perpetual rest; and I shall presently be as happy as though I had died the first hour I was born.

now; but that name is lost; Mine eyes begin to discharge

Believe

it, the sweetest Canticle is Nunc Dimittis,-Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace.