thinketh there is no good Title to a Crown but by Conqueft.

10. A King that fetteth to Sale Seats of Juftice oppreffeth the People; for he teacheth his Judges to fell Juftice; and pretio parata pretio venditur juftitia.

11. Bounty and Magnificence are Virtues very regal, but a prodigal King is nearer a Tyrant than a Parfimonious; for Store at home draweth not his Contemplations abroad: but Want supplieth itself of what is next, and many times the next way a King herein must be wife, and know what he may justly do.

12. That King which is not feared is not loved; and he that is well feen in his craft muft as well study to be feared as loved; yet not loved for Fear, but feared for Love.

13. Therefore, as he must always resemble Him whose great Name he beareth, and that as in manifefting the sweet Influence of his Mercy on the fevere Stroke of his Juftice fometimes, fo in this not to fuffer a Man of Death to live; for befides that the Land doth mourn, the Restraint of Justice towards Sin doth more retard the affection of Love than the extent of Mercy doth inflame it: and sure where Love is [ill] bestowed, Fear is quite loft.

14. His greatest Enemies are his Flatterers; for though they ever speak on his fide, yet their Words ftill make against him.

15. The Love which a King oweth to a Weal Public fhould not be overftrained to any one particular; yet that his more special Favour do reflect

upon fome worthy Ones is fomewhat neceffary, because there are few of that capacity.

16. He must have a special Care of five Things, if he would not have his Crown to be but to him infelix Felicitas.

First, that fimulata Sanctitas be not in the Church; for that is duplex iniquitas.

Secondly, that inutilis Equitas fit not in the Chancery; for that is inepta Mifericordia.

Thirdly, that utilis Iniquitas keep not the Exchequer; for that is crudele latrocinium.

Fourthly, that fidelis Temeritas be not his General; for that will bring but feram Pænitentiam. Fifthly, that infidelis Prudentia be not his Secretary; for that is anguis fub viridi herba.

To conclude: as he is of the greatest Power, fo he is fubject to the greatest Cares, made the Servant of his People, or else he were without a Calling at all.

He then that honoureth him not is next an Atheist, wanting the Fear of God in his Heart.

III. An Effay on Death.

HAVE often thought upon Death, and
I find it the leaft of all Evils.
that which is paft is as a Dream; and

All

he that hopes or depends upon Time

coming, dreams waking. So much of our Life as we have discovered is already dead; and all those

Hours which we share, even from the breasts of our Mother, until we return to our Grandmother, the Earth, are part of our dying Days; whereof even this is one, and those that fucceed are of the fame nature, for we die daily; and as Others have given place to us, so we must in the end give way to Others.

2. Phyficians, in the name of Death include all Sorrow, Anguish, Disease, Calamity, or whatsoever can fall in the Life of Man, either grievous or unwelcome: but these Things are familiar unto us, and we suffer them every hour; therefore we die daily, and I am older fince I affirmed it.

3. I know many wife Men that fear to die; for the Change is bitter and Flefh would refuse to prove it: befides the Expectation brings Terror and that exceeds the Evil. But I do not believe, that any Man fears to be dead, but only the Stroke of Death; and fuch are my Hopes, that, if Heaven be pleased, and Nature renew but my Lease for twenty-one Years more, without asking longer Days, I fhall be ftrong enough to acknowledge, without mourning, that I was begotten mortal. Virtue walks not in the Highway, though fhe go per alta; this is Strength and the Blood to Virtue, to contemn Things that be desired, and to neglect that which is feared,

4. Why should Man be in love with his Fetters, though of Gold? Art thou drowned in Security? Then I fay thou art perfectly dead. For though thou movest, yet thy Soul is buried within thee, and thy good Angel either forfakes his guard or

fleeps. There is Nothing under Heaven, saving a true Friend (who cannot be counted within the number of Moveables), unto which my Heart doth lean. And this dear Freedom hath begotten me this Peace, that I mourn not for that End which muft be, nor spend one Wish to have one Minute added to the incertain Date of my Years. It was no mean Apprehenfion of Lucian, who fays of Menippus, that in his Travels through Hell he knew not the Kings of the Earth from other Men, but only by their louder Cryings and Tears, which was fostered in them through the remorseful Memory of the good Days they had seen, and the fruitful Havings which they fo unwillingly left behind them he that was well feated, looked back at his Portion, and was loth to forfake his Farm; and Others, either minding Marriages, Pleasures, Profit, or Preferment, defired to be excufed from Death's Banquet: they had made an Appointment with Earth, looking at the Bleffings, not the Hand that enlarged them, forgetting how unclothedly they came hither, or with what naked Ornaments they were arrayed.

5. But were we Servants of the Precept given, and Obfervers of the Heathens' rule, memento mori, and not become benighted with this seeming Felicity, we should enjoy it as Men prepared to lose, and not wind up our Thoughts upon fo perishing a Fortune he that is not ftarkly ftrong (as the Servants of Pleasure,) how can he be found unready to quit the Veil and false Visage of his Perfection? The Soul, having shaken off her Flesh, doth then

set up for herself, and, contemning Things that are under, fhews what Finger hath enforced her; for the Souls of Idiots are of the fame piece with thofe of Statesmen, but now and then Nature is at a fault, and this good Guest of ours takes Soil in an imperfect body, and so is flackened from fhewing her Wonders, like an excellent Musician, which cannot utter himself upon a defective Inftrument.

6. But fee how I am fwerved and lose my Course, touching at the Soul that doth least hold Action with Death, who hath the fureft Property in this frail Act; his Stile is, the End of all Flesh and the Beginning of Incorruption.

This Ruler of Monuments leads Men for the most part out of this World with their Heels forward, in token that he is contrary to Life, which, being obtained, sends Men headlong into this wretched Theatre, where being arrived their first language is that of Mourning. Nor in my own Thoughts can I compare Men more fitly to any thing than to the Indian Fig-tree, which being ripened to his full height, is faid to decline his Branches down to the Earth, whereof fhe conceives again, and they become Roots in their own stock.

So Man having derived his Being from the Earth, first lives the Life of a Tree, drawing his Nourishment as a Plant, and made ripe for Death, he tends downwards, and is fowed again in his Mother the Earth, where he perifheth not but expects a quickening.