ESSAYES.

I.

OF TRUTH.

WHAT is Truth; said jesting Pilate; And would t stay for an Answer. Certainly there be, that light in Giddinesse; And count it a Bondage, fix a Beleefe; Affecting Freewill in Thinking, well as in Acting. And though the Sects of hilosophers of that Kinde be gone, yet there maine certaine discoursing Wits, which are of e same veines, though there be not so much loud in them, as was in those of the Ancients. ut it is not onely the Difficultie, and Labour, hich Men take in finding out of Truth; Nor gaine, that when it is found, it imposeth upon ens Thoughts; that doth bring Lies in favour: t a naturall, though corrupt Love, of the Lie it lfe. One of the later School of the Grecians, amineth the matter, and is at a stand, to thinke hat should be in it, that men should love Lies; here neither they make for Pleasure, as with pets; Nor for Advantage, as with the Merchant;

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but for the Lies sake. But I cannot tell: Thou same Truth, is a Naked, and Open day lig'eyithat doth not shew, the Masques, and Mumma)y ies, and Triumphs of the world, halfe so State y and daintily, as Candlelights. Truth may pcy haps come to the price of a Pearle, that shewe best by day: But it will not rise, to the price a Diamond, or Carbuncle, that sheweth best varied lights. A mixture of a Lie doth ever ad Pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if the were taken out of Mens Mindes, Vaine Opinio Flattering Hopes, False valuations, Imaginatio. as one would, and the like; but it would lea the Mindes, of a Number of Men, poore shrunken Things; full of Melancholy, and Indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves? One of the Fathers, in great Severity, called Poesie, Vinum Dæmonum because it filleth the Imagination, and yet it but with the shadow of a Lie. But it is not t e Lie, that passeth through the Minde, but the Lit that sinketh in, and setleth in it, that doth to the hurt, such as we spake of before. But howsoever these things are thus, in mens depraved Jud1 ments, and Affections, yet Truth, which one doth judge it selfe, teacheth, that the Inquirie Truth, which is the Love-making, or Wooing it; The knowledge of Truth, which is the Preser of it; and the Beleefe of Truth, which is the

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bu joying of it; is the Soveraigne Good of humane ji-ature. The first Creature of God, in the workes Dyf the Dayes, was the Light of the Sense; The ydast, was the Light of Reason; And his Sabbath Worke, ever since, is the Illumination of his Spirit. First he breathed Light, upon the Face, of the Matter or Chaos; Then he breathed Light, into the Face of Man; and still he breatheth and inspireth Light, into the Face of his Chosen. The Poet, that beautified the Sect, that was otherwise inferiour to the rest, saith yet excellently well: It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to see ships tost upon the Sea: A pleasure to stand in the window of a Castle, and to see a Battaile, and the Adventures thereof, below: But no pleasure is comparable, to the standing, upon the vantage ground of Truth: (A hill not to be commanded, and where the Ayre is alwaies cleare and serene ;) And to see the Errours, and Wandrings, and Mists, and Tempests, in the vale below: So alwaies, that this prospect, be with Pitty, and not with Swelling, or Pride. Certainly, it is Heaven upon Earth, to have a Mans Minde Move in Charitie, Rest in Providence, and Turne upon the Poles of Truth.

To passe from Theologicall, and Philosophicall Truth, to the Truth of civill Businesse ; It will be acknowledged, even by those, that practize it not,

that cleare and Round dealing, is the Honour of Mans Nature; And that Mixture of Falshoogl, is like Allay in Coyne of Gold and Silver; which may make the Metall worke the better, but it embaseth it. For these winding, and crooked courses, are the Goings of the Serpent; which goeth basely upon the belly, and not upon the Feet. There is no Vice, that doth so cover a Man with Shame, as to be found false, and perfidious. And therefore Mountaigny saith prettily, when he enquired the reason, why the word of the Lie, should be such a Disgrace, and such an Odious Charge? Saith he, If it be well weighed, To say that a man lieth, is as much to say, as that he is brave towards God, and a Coward towards Men. For a Lie faces God, and shrinkes from Man. Surely the Wickednesse of Falshood, and Breach of Faith, cannot possibly be so highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last Peale, to call the Judgements of God, upon the Generations of Men, It being foretold, that when Christ commeth, He shall not finde Faith upon the Earth.

II.

OF DEATH.

MEN feare Death, as Children feare to goe in the darke: And as that Natural Feare in Chil

dren, is increased with Tales, so is the other. Certainly, the Contemplation of Death, as the wages of sinne, and Passage to another world, is Holy, and Religious; But the Feare of it, as a Tribute due unto Nature, is weake. Yet in Religious Meditations, there is sometimes, Mixture of Vanitie, and of Superstition. You shal reade, in some of the Friars Books of Mortification, that a man should thinke with himselfe, what the Paine is, if he have but his Fingers end Pressed, or Tortured; And thereby imagine, what the Paines of Death are, when the whole Body, is corrupted and dissolved; when many times, Death passeth with lesse paine, then the Torture of a Limme: For the most vitall parts, are not the quickest of Sense. And by him, that spake onely as a Philosopher, and Naturall Man, it was well said; Pompa Mortis magis terret, quàm Mors ipsa. Groanes and Convulsions, and a Discoloured Face, and Friends weeping, and Blackes, and Obsequies, and the like, shew Death Terrible. It is worthy the observing, that there is no passion in the minde of man, so weake, but it Mates, and Masters, the feare of Death: And therefore Death, is no such terrible Enemie, when a man hath so many Attendants, about him, that can winne the combat of him. Revenge triumphs over Death; Love slights it; Honour aspireth to it;