[386] A measure containing half a mine, equal to thirty-nine litres.
A northern minister preaching on that, Esau sold to his brother Jacob his birthright for a morsel of pottage: base man that he was, quoth he, the belligod loune, sel his birth-right for a cog of pottage, what would he have done if it had bein a better dish.
They alleadge that a Frenchman sould have sayd, that if our Saviour had a brother, the greatest honor he could put upon him would be to make him King of France.
Anthoine le Bourbon, 1 protestant of the Kings of Navarre, having got a Capycin and a Minister together, he would have them dispute before him. The Minister began on the point of the crosse. Theirs a tree, sayd he, of the one halfe of it ye make a crosse which ye vorship, of the other halfe ye make a gallows to hang up a theif on. Whey carry ye respect for that peice ye make a crosse of, and no for that ye make the gibet of, since they are both of on matter? The Capycin seimed to be wery much pusled wt this. After a little pause he demands the Minister if he was married. Yes, that I am, what of it? quoth the M. Whow comes it to passe then, quoth the Capycin, that ye kisse your wifs mouth and not hir arse, whey have ye more respect for hir mouth then hir arse, since they are both of on mater? The Minister thought himselfe out; yea, King Anthony thought shame of him.
Their was a minister of Fyfe of the name of Bruce that had a great gade[387] of ending promiscuosly his sermons, as, for example, he was telling on a tyme how the Beaver, being purshued hotly by the hunters, used to bit of his stones, the silly fellow, forgetting what he had to sy more, added, to which end, good God, bring us, as if he had sayd to bit of our stoons. He closed in that same sort once whow Judas hanged himselfe. Once as he was exhorting the peaple to beware of the Devil, who was a roaring and ramping lyon, etc., he added, to whom wt the father and the holy ghost be all honnor and glory for now and ever, amen.
[387] Probably for ‘gait,’ way.
One being asked whence came the antipathy that we find betuixt some beasts, as the dog and the hare, the Lizard (Ichneumon) and the crocodile, the sheip and the wolfe, and he replyed that it began wt the flood of Noah when they ware all in Ark together, that then the hare stol the dogs shoe from him, and that theirfor the dog ever when he sies him since runs efter him to get his shoe again.
The Mythologists gives 2 reasons whey they[388] bloody bat flies under night, and compairs not on the day: the first is because of his defections from the birds when they ware in war wt the beasts; the 2d because beginning to marchandise he played banque route, whence he dare never be sein in the day for fear that his creditors take him wt caption.
[388] Perhaps ‘the.’
The ‘y’ is indistinct, as if it was intended
to be
erased.