Offer your oblations and prayers to our Lord Jesus Christ, who will both hear and accept them to your everlasting joy and glory; to the which he bring us, and all those whom he suffered death for. Amen. Latimer, Serm. p. 24.

By the grace and aid of Almighty God; who grant unto every one of us that when the uncertain hour of death shall come we may be found vigilant and well prepared. Grindal, Remains, p. 31.

He grant that His name may be glorified in you. Ibid. p. 238.

Bear, occurs in several phrases which have become antiquated or obsolete.

To bear rule, to hold office, rule (Esth. i. 22; Prov. xii. 24, &c.).

God is the great Grandmaster of the king's house, and will take account of every one that beareth rule therein, for the exe cuting of their offices. Latimer, Serm. p. 93.

To bear record, to testify (John viii. 14; Rom. X. 2, &c.).

If God's word bear record unto it, and thou also feelest in thine heart that it is so, be of good comfort and give God thanks. Tyndale, Doctr. Treat. p. 44.

To bear witness, to witness, give evidence (Ex. xx. 16; 1 Kings xxi. 10, &c.).

The Bible bereth witnesse
That the folk of Israel

Bittre a-bought the giltes
Of two badde preestes.

Piers Ploughman's Vis. 6187.

Beast, sb. (Lat. bestia) is frequently used collectively in the singular number, like the Lat. pecus, where the plural would be more strictly correct. See especially Gen. i. 24, 25; Ex. xxiii. 29; Judg. xx. 48, where the Hebrew idiom exactly corresponds. So Polydore Vergil (p. 9) speaks of 'the wilde beeste and fyshes.' In Rev. iv. v. &c. and Dan. vii. the original words mean 'living creature' of any kind,

not 'beast' in the modern sense. In Gower the usage is

the same:

That ilke ymage bare liknesse

Of man and of none other beste.

Conf. Am. prol, 1. p. 34.

Piers Ploughman, in allusion probably to the four beasts in the Revelation being assigned as symbols of the four Evangelists, has the following quaint usage of the word: Grace gaf Piers a teeme

Of foure grete oxen:

That oon was Luk, a large beest,
And a lowe chered;

And Mark, and Matthew the thridde,

Myghty beestes bothe;

And joyned to hem oon Johan,

Moost gentil of alle,

The pris neet of Piers plow,

Passynge alle othere.

Vision, 13479-88.

In Ps. Ixviii. 30 (Pr. Book) 'beasts' of the people' (A. V. 'calves of the people'), is explained by Bythner to mean chiefs or princes of the people.'

Compare the following curious passages:

A beestli [Auth. Vers. natural] man perseyueth not tho thingis that ben of the spirit of God; for it is foli to hym. Wiclif (2), 1 Cor. ii. 14.

It is sowun a beestli bodi, it schal rise a spiritual bodi. If ther is a beestli bodi, ther is also a spiritual bodi. Ibid. 1 Cor. xv. 44.

Because, conj. (Matt. xx. 31; Wisd. xi. 23). In order that. The etymology of the word by cause, or as spelt in Pol. Vergil, bie cause (Lat. causa), evidently shews that the word may as properly be applied to mark the intention of an action as the reason for it. Chaucer uses 'by the cause' in the same way:

But by the cause that they schuln arise
Erly a-morwe for to see that fight,

Unto their rest wente they at nyght.

Chaucer, Knight's Tale, 2490.

Compare also Shakespeare (2 Hen. VI. III. 2):

Because thy flinty heart more hard than they
Might in thy palace perish Margaret.

It is the care of some, onely to come off speedily, for the time; or to contrive some false periods of businesse, because they may seeme men of dispatch. Bacon, Ess. XXV. p. 101.

Beeves, sb. (Lev. xxii. 19, 21; Num. xxxi. 33). The genuine plural of beef, itself a corruption of boeuf, which still in French means the living animal. In like manner, real, mutton, and pork, correspond to the Norman or French names of the animals whose flesh only they are now used in English to denote. But the original usage was not obsolete even in Shakespeare's time:

A pound of man's flesh, taken from a man,
Is not so estimable, profitable neither,
As flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats.

Mer. of Ven. I. 3.

Ther was sent her mony grett gyftes by the mayre and aldermen, as beyffes, mottuns, velles, swines. Machyn's Diary, p. 11. (1551.)

The bœufs of India are as high by report as camels, and foure foot broad they are betwixt the horns. Holland's Pliny, VIII. 45.

Sir Walter Scott, in his Ivanhoe, alludes to the fact of the animals of a conquered country retaining their ancient names so long as they were alive, and required care and tendance; but when dead, and become matters of enjoyment, receiving names taken from the language of the conquerors.

Beforetime, adv. (Josh. xx. 5 ; 1 Sam. ix. 9; Neh.ii. 1). Before, in time past.

To the execucion wherof he appointed Miles Forest one of the foure that kept them, a felowe fleshed in murther beforetime. Sir T. More, Rich. III.; Works, p. 68 e.

Beguile, v. t. (Gen. iii. 13; xxix. 25, &c.). To deceive.
This dronken Myllere hath i-tolde us heer,

How that bygiled was a carpenter.

Chaucer, Reeve's prol. 3912,

He thought he could have beguiled God too. Latimer, Serm. p. 259.

Subtil, deceitful persons, which have no conscience to defraud and beguile their neighbours. Ibid. p. 375.

But now seemde best, the person to put on
Of that good knight, his late beguiled guest.

Spenser, F. Q. I. 2. § II.

You have beguiled me with a counterfeit
Resembling majesty.

Shakespeare, K. John, III. 1.

Behoof, sb. Profit, advantage; G. behuf: A. S. behófian or behófan, to be fitting, needful; connected etymologically with habeo and have.

For the behoofe and edifying of the vnlearned which hungred and thirsted after righteousnesse, and had soules to be saued as well as they, they prouided translations into the vulgar for their countreymen. The Translators to the Reader.

This tongue hath parleyed unto foreign kings
For your behoof.

Shakespeare, 2 Hen. VI. IV. 7.

Belief, sb. (Catechism). The Creed. A.-S. leáfa, geleáfa, connected with the Germ. glauben.

Ye, blessed be alwey a lewed man
That nat but oonly his bileeve can.

Chaucer, Miller's Tale, 3456.

Latimer, on the education of children and servants, says;

You ought to see them have their belief, to know the commandments of God, to keep their holydays, not to lose their time in idleness. Serm. p. 14.

On the prefix be-, which has taken the place of the Saxon augment ge- in the formation of participles and verbs, see a valuable note in Mr Craik's English of Shakespeare, 390. The instances which he gives are beloved, A.-S. gelufed; believe, A.-S. gelyfan; beseech, A.-S. gesecan; betoken, A.-S. getacnian.

Belike, adv. Perhaps.

Belike he had charged them with some leuies, and troubled them with some cariages. The Translators to the Reader.

Belike, for want of rain; which I could well
Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes.

Shakespeare, Mid. N.'s D. 1. I.

Bemoan, v. refl. (Jer. xxxi. 18). Used reflexively, to

lament.

You shall obserue that the more deepe, and sober sort of politique persons, in their greatnesse, are euer bemoaning themselves, what a life they lead. Bacon, Ess. IX. p. 32.

Beside, adv. (Lev. xxiii. 38; Josh. xvii. 5; xxii. 19). A.-S. besidian, from side, a side. Frequently used for 'besides, in addition to,' not 'by the side of,' which is the more modern sense. 'Beside,' and 'besides,' were probably identical and employed indifferently. So Chaucer:

But eek byside in many a regioun,

If oon sayd wel, another sayd the same.

And Latimer, Serm. p. 37:

Clerk's Tale, 8292.

Beside all this they are to be lighted with wax candles, both within the church and without the church. Serm. p. 37.

On the other hand, besides is used in Wiclif for 'beside;' 'forsothe other bootis camen fro Tiberiadis bisidis (A. V. ‘nigh unto') the place where thei eten brede' (John vi. 23).

Besides, prep. (Lev. vi. 10). Beside; in the ed. of

1611.

And sche set doun her waterpot anoon
Bisides the threischfold of this oxe stalle.

Chaucer, Clerk's Tale, 8167.

In the first quarto of Shakespeare's 2 Hen. IV. III. I (1598),

the same usage occurs:

In faith my lord you are too wilfull blame,

And since your comming hither have done enough
To put him quite besides his patience.