Of
Truth
What is truth; said jesting pilate; and
would not stay for an answer. certainly there be, that delight in
giddiness; and count it a bondage, to fix a belief, affecting
free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. and though the sects
of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain
discoursing wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not
so much blood in them, as was in those of the
ancients.
But
it is not only the difficulty, and labour, which men take in
finding out of truth; nor again, mat when it is found, it imposeth
upon men s thoughts; that doth bring lies in favour: but a natural,
though corrupt love, of the lie itself. one of the later school of
me grecians, examineth the matter, and is at a stand, to think what
should be in it, mat men should love lies; where neither they make
for pleasure, as with poets; nor for advantage, as with me
merchant; but for the lie's sake. but i cannot tell: this same
truth, is a naked, and open day light, mat doth not show, the
masques, and mummeries, and triumphs of the world, half so stately,
and daintily, as candlelights. truth may perhaps come to the price
of a pearl, that showeth best by day: but it will not rise, to me
price of a diamond, or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied
lights. a mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. doth any man
doubt, mat if there were taken out of men s minds, vain opinions,
nattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and
the like; but it would leave the minds, of a number of men, poor
shrunken things; full of melancholy, and indisposition, and
unpleasing to themselves? one of the fathers, in great severity,
called poesy, vinum daenwnwn; because it filleth the imagination,
and yet it is, but with me shadow of a lie. but it is not me lie,
that passeth through the mind, but me lie mat sinketh in, and
settleth in it, that doth me hurt, such as we spake of before. but
howsoever these things arc thus, in men's depraved judgements, and
affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth, that
the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of it;
the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it; and the belief
of truth, which is the enjoying of it; is the sovereign good of
human nature.
The
first creature of god, in the works of the days, was the light of
the sense;the last, was the light of reason; and his sabbath work,
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 inferior to the rest, saith yet
excellently well: 'it is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and to
see ships tossed upon the sea: a pleasure to stand in the window of
a castle, and to see a battle, 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 air is
always clear and serene;) 'and to see the errors, and wanderings,
and mists, and tempests, in the vale below:' so always, that this
prospect, be with pity, and not with swelling, or pride. certainly,
it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest
in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth. to pass from
theological, and philosophical truth, to the truth of civil
business; it will be acknowledged, even by those mat practise it
not, that clear and round dealing is the honour of man's nature;and
that mixture of falsehood, is like allay in coin of gold and
silver, which may make the metal work 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 lay that a man lieth, is as much to say, as
mat he is brave towards god, and a coward towards men.' for a lie
faces god, and shrinks from man. surely the wickedness of
falsehoods, and breach of faith, cannot possibly be so highly
expressed, as in mat it shall be the last peal, to call the
judgements of god upon the generations of men, it being foretold,
that when christ cometh. he shall not find faith upon the
earth.
(2023-08-15 08:16:51) 
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