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 Æquitas 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 Pœnitentiam. 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.

All

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

he that hopes or depends upon Time

coming, dreams waking. So much of our Life as we have discovered is already dead; and all thofe Hours which we fhare, 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. 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 thefe Things are familiar unto us, and we fuffer them every hour; therefore we die daily, and I am older fince I affirmed it. I know many wife Men that fear to die, for the Change is bitter, and Flesh 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 defired, and to neglect that which is feared.

4. Why fhould 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, faving 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 must be, nor spend one Wish to have one Minute added to the incertain Date of Years. It was my 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 flackly 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

those of Statesmen, but now and then Nature is at a fault, and this good Guest of ours takes Soil in an imperfect body, and fo 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 surest 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, fends 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 she conceives again, and they become Roots in their own ftock.

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 perisheth not, but expects a quickening.

7. So we see Death exempts not a Man from Being, but only presents an Alteration; yet there are fome Men, I think, that stand otherwise per

fuaded. Death finds not a worse Friend than an Alderman, to whofe Door I never knew him welcome; but he is an importunate Gueft, and will not be faid Nay.

And though they themselves fhall affirm, that they are not within, yet the Anfwer will not be taken; and that which heightens their Fear is, that they know they are in danger to forfeit their Flesh, but are not wife of the Payment-day: which fickly Uncertainty is the Occafion that, for the most part, they step out of this World unfurnished for their general Account, and being all unprovided, defire yet to hold their Gravity, preparing their Souls to answer in Scarlet.

Thus I gather, that Death is unagreeable to most Citizens, because they commonly die inteftate: this being a Rule, that when their Will is made, they think themselves nearer a Grave than before: now they out of the Wisdom of thousands, think to scare Destiny from which there is no Appeal, by not making a Will, or to live longer by Proteftation of their unwillingness to die. They are for the most part well made in this World, accounting their Treasure by Legions, as Men do Devils, their Fortune looks toward them, and they are willing to anchor at it, and defire, if it be poffible, to put the evil Day far off from them, and to adjourn their ungrateful and killing Period.

No, these are not the Men which have bespoken Death, or whose looks are affured to entertain a thought of him.

8. Death arrives gracious only to fuch as fit in