his son drank thereof, which cost the former his life, and the other a long languishing sickness.*

This Cæsar Borgia once bragged to Machiavel, that he had so cunningly contrived his plots, as to warrant himself against all events. If his father should die first, he had made himself master of such a way, that, by the strength of his party in the city of Rome, and conclave of cardinals, he could choose what Pope he pleased, so from him to get assurance of this province of Romania to make it hereditary to himself. And if (which was improbable) nature should cross her hands, so that he should die before his father, yet even then he had chalked out such a course, as would insure his conquest to his posterity: so that, with this politic dilemma, he thought himself able to dispute against heaven itself.

But (what he afterwards complained of) he never expected, that, at the same time wherein his father should die, he himself should also lie desperately sick, disenabled to prosecute his designs, till one unexpected counterblast of fortune ruffled, yea, blew away, all his projects so curiously plaited. Thus three aces chance often not to rub; and politicians think themselves to have stopped every small cranny, when they have left a whole door open, for Divine Providence to undo all which they have done.

The cardinals proceed to the choice of a new Pope, whilst Borgia lay sick a-bed, much bemoaning himself; for all others, had they the command of all April showers, could not bestow one drop of pity upon him. Pius III. was first chosen Pope; answering his name, being a devout man: such black swans seldom swim in Tiber. But the chair of pestilence choked him within twenty-six days; and, in his room, Julius was chosen, or rather his greatness chose himself, a sworn enemy to Cæsar Borgia, who still lay under the physicians' hands, and had no power to oppose the election, or to strengthen his new-got dukedom of Romania. The state of his body was to be preferred before the body of his state; and he lay striving to keep life, not to make a Pope. Yea, the operation of this poison made him vomit up the dukedom of Romania, which he had swallowed before; and, whilst he lay sick, the states and cities therein recovered their own liberties formerly enjoyed.

Indeed, this disease made Borgia lose his nails, that he could never after scratch to do any mischief; and, being banished

Italy, he fled into Navarre, where he was obscurely killed in a tumultuous insurrection.

He was a man master in the art of dissembling, never looking the same way he rowed; extremely lustful, never sparing to tread hen and chickens. At the taking of Capua, where he assisted the French, he reserved forty of the fairest ladies to be abused by his own wantonness.* And the prodigality of his lust had, long before his death, made him bankrupt of all the moisture in his body, if his physicians had not daily repaired the decays therein. He exactly knew the operations of all hot and cold poisons, which would surprise nature on a sudden, and which would weary it out with a long siege. He could contract a hundred toads into one drop, and cunningly infuse the same into any pleasant liquor, as the Italians have poisoning at their fingers' ends. By a fig, which restored Hezekiah's life, (2 Kings xx. 7,) he took away the lives of many. In a word, if he was not a practical atheist, I know not who was.

If any desire to know more of his badness, let them read Machiavel's "Prince," where Borgia is brought in as an instance of all villany.† And though he deserves to be hissed out of Christendom, who will open his mouth in the defence of Machiavel's precepts, yet some have dared to defend his person; so, that he in his book shows not what princes should be, but what then they were; intending that work, not for a glass for future kings to dress themselves by, but only therein to present the monstrous face of the politicians of that age. Sure, he who is a devil in this book, is a saint in all the rest; and those that knew him, witness him to be of honest life and manners: § so that, that which hath sharpened the pens of many against him, is his giving so many cleanly wipes to the foul noses of the Pope and Italian prelacy.

• GUICCIARDINI, lib. v. p. 260,

+ Nunquam verebor in exemplum

Valentinum subjicere.—MACHIAVEL's "Prince," cap. xiii. p. 73. + His "Notes on Livy," but especially his "Florentine History," savours of religion. S BOISSARDUS, Iconum Virorum illustrium pars iii.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE HYPOCRITE.

By hypocrite we understand such a one as doth "practise hypocrisy," (Isaiah xxxii. 6,) make a trade or work of dissembling for otherwise, Hypocriseorum macula carere, aut paucorum est, aut nullorum.† The best of God's children have a smack of hypocrisy.

MAXIM I.

A hypocrite is himself both the archer and the mark, in all actions shooting at his own praise or profit.-And therefore he doth all things that they may be seen. What, with others, is held a principal point in law, is his main maxim in divinity,— to have good witness! Even fasting itself is meat and drink to him, whilst others behold it.

II.

In the outside of religion he outshines a sincere Christian.Gilt cups glitter more than those of massy gold, which are seldom burnished. Yea, well may the hypocrite afford gaudy facing, who cares not for any lining; brave it in the shop, that hath nothing in the warehouse. Nor is it a wonder if in outward service he outstrips God's servants, who out-doeth God's command by will-worship, giving God more than he requires; though not what he most requires, I mean, his heart.

III.

His vizard is commonly plucked off in this world.-Sincerity is an entire thing in itself: hypocrisy consists of several pieces cunningly closed together; and sometimes the hypocrite is smote, as Ahab with an arrow, (1 Kings xxii. 34,) betwixt the joints of his armour, and so is mortally wounded in his reputation. Now by these shrewd signs a dissembler is often discovered: First, heavy censuring of others for light faults.

* HIERONYMUS, contra Pelag., lib. ii.; et AUGUSTINUS, in eadem verba Sermo. 59, De Tempore. "It is the lot of very few, if of any at all, to

be devoid of the blot of hypocrisy."-EDIT.

Secondly, boasting of his own goodness. Thirdly, the unequal beating of his pulse in matters of piety; hard, strong, and quick, in public actions; weak, soft, and dull, in private matters. Fourthly, shrinking in persecution; for painted faces cannot abide to come nigh the fire.

IV.

Yet sometimes he goes to the grave neither detected nor suspected. If masters in their art, and living in peaceable times, wherein piety and prosperity do not fall out, but agree well together. Maud, mother to king Henry II., being besieged in Winchester Castle, counterfeited herself to be dead, and so was carried out in a coffin, whereby she escaped.* Another time, being besieged at Oxford in a cold winter, with wearing white apparel she got away in the snow undiscovered.† Thus, some hypocrites, by dissembling mortification, that they are dead to the world, and by professing a snow-like purity in their conversations, escape all their life-time undiscerned by mortal eyes.

V.

By long dissembling piety, he deceives himself at last.—Yea, he may grow so infatuated, as to conceive himself no dissembler, but a sincere saint. A scholar was so possessed with his lively personating of king Richard III., in a College-comedy, that ever after he was transported with a royal humour in his large expenses; which brought him to beggary, though he had great preferment. Thus the hypocrite, by long acting the part of piety, at last believes himself really to be such an one, whom at first he did but counterfeit.

VI.

God here knows, and hereafter will make hypocrites known to the whole world.-Ottochar, king of Bohemia, refused to do homage to Rodolphus I., emperor, till at last, chastised with war, he was content to do him homage privately in a tent; which tent was so contrived by the emperor's servants, that, by drawing one cord, it was all taken away, and so Ottochar presented on his knees, doing his homage, to the view of three armies in presence. Thus God, at last, shall uncase the closest

CAMDEN'S Britannia, in Hampshire.

+ MATTHEW PARIS, n anno Domini 1141. PANTALEON, lib. de Illustribus Germanis in Vitá Rodolphi Imperatoris, part. ii. p. 285.

dissembler, to the sight of men, angels, and devils, having removed all veils and pretences of piety: no goat in a sheepskin shall steal on his right hand at the last day of judg

ment.

CHAPTER IX.

THE LIFE OF JEHU.

JEHU, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, was one of an active spirit, and therefore employed to confound the house of Ahab; for God, when he means to shave clear, chooses a razor with a sharp edge, and never sendeth a slug on a message that requireth haste.

A son of the prophets, sent by Elisha, privately anointed him king at Ramoth-Gilead; whereupon he was proclaimed king by the consent of the army. Surely, God sent also an invisible messenger to the souls of his fellow-captains, and anointed their hearts with the oil of subjection, as he did Jehu's head with the oil of sovereignty.

Secrecy and celerity are the two wheels of great actions. Jehu had both: he marched to Jezreel faster than fame could fly, whose wings he had clipped by stopping all intelligence, that so at once he might be seen and felt of his enemies. In the way, meeting with Jehoram and Ahaziah, he conjoined them in their deaths, who consorted together in idolatry. The corpse of Jehoram he orders to be cast into Naboth's vineyard, -a garden of herbs royally dunged, and watered with blood.

Next he revengeth God's prophets on cruel Jezebel, whosc wicked carcass was devoured by dogs to a small reversion, as if a head that plotted, and hands that practised, so much mischief, and feet so swift to shed blood, were not meat good enough for dogs to eat. Then, by a letter, he commands the heads of Ahab's seventy sons, (their guardians turning their executioners,) whose heads, being laid on two heaps at the gate of Jezreel, served for two soft pillows for Jehu to sleep sweetly upon, having all these cor-rivals to the crown taken away.

The priests of Baal follow after. With a pretty wile, he fetches them all into the temple of their idol, where, having ended their sacrifice, they themselves were sacrificed. However,