Marriage and to avoid as much as may be the Exhausting of their Men by Wars Colonies or Conquests which do naturally occasion the want of a sufficient number of Males to supply the Females whence proceeds Whoredom Uncleanness and Luxury which infallibly issues in Contempt of Marriage an Obstruction of Propagation and the ruin of a people Before we come to give an Account how the Persian Monarchy was overturn'd by Luxury and Lasciviousness we shall have occasion to touch upon some Remarkable Revolutions occasioned amongst the Greeks by Uncleanness The first that we meet with in Justin is that of Diocles King or Governour of Athens who having forced a young Woman he was in Revenge thereof killed by her Brother whereupon Hippias Brother to Diocles ordered the youngman to be apprehended and putting him upon the Rack examined him concerning those that were privy to his design the young man in further Revenge for this new Injury Nam'd all the Tyrant's Friends who being put to Death upon his Accusation Hippias ask'd if he knew of any more that were Conscious to his Crime To this the young man answered That there were no more at whose Death he could gladly rejoyce but the Tyrant himself which the Citizens took as a Signal to recover their lost Liberty and drove Hippias into Exile who thereupon joining with the Persians against his own Country was slain in Battle And here it 's proper to add that the Effeminacy and Luxury of the Persians under the Reign Xerxes was the chief cause of the shamefull overthrows which they received by the Grecians The next Remarkable instance which we find for our purpose in Justin is that in his 3d. Book of the War betwixt the Messenians and Lacedemoonians occasioned by the former's having Ravished the Virgins belonging to the latter whilst they were at Sacrifice upon which the Lacedomineans bound themselves by a solemn Oath never to return into their Country till they had taken in Messenia which laid the Foundation of Intestine Discord and Civil War in Grecia The Siege of this Town continued 10 years during which time the Lacedemonian Women being not able to brook the want of their Husbands Company they sent heavy complaints to them upon that head but the Lacedemonians being unwilling to violate their Oaths and at the same time sensible that their people must needs decrease they fell upon this Medium to send home all the young men who had come as Recruits to their Camp after the taking of the said Oath and allowing them the Liberty to Accompany with the Women the Children begot by this promiscuous Copulation were as a Brand of their Mothers Infamy called Parthenii and arriving at the Age of 30 they were so much afraid of coming to Want because they knew not whom to call Father nor which way to have any Patrimony that under the Conduct of Phalantus Son to Aratus who was the Author of the Advice to send the young men from the Camp abovesaid they resolved to seek new Habitations for themselves and so without so much as saluting or taking leave of their Mothers from whom they deriv'd the Infamy of being Bastards they arriv'd at last in Italy subdued the Tarentines and settled in their Country But to return to the Messenians they were at last overcome by the Lacedemonians in two Wars the 1st of 20 and the 2. of 14 years continuance and reduced to a miserable slavery which was originally occasion'd as we have just now heard by their Uncleanness Our next Instance is in Justin Lib. 5 concerning Timea Queen to Agis King of Lacedemon who being guilty of Adultery with Alcibiades the Athenian while an Exile from his Country at her Husbands Court â—…e discovered to him the design which the Lacedemonians had against his Life because they envied his Conduct and Glory upon which Alcibiades fled to the Persians and having by his cunning prevail with the Athenians to recall him he afterwards defeated the Lacedemonians by Sea and Land and brought them to sue for Peace so destructive to her Country was the Unlawfull Amours of this Whorish Queen and so ruinous to the whole East and particularly to Athens was the Vitious Lustfull Temper of Alcibiades the occasion of whose Exile as abovementioned was his discovery of something of the Mystery of Ceres's Worship or the Profane Eleusina Sacra which we have already described at large The fatal Exit of this Great Man is also Remarkable viz. That he was by the order of the 30 Tyrants burnt in his Chamber when asleep a suitable punishment from the hand of Divine Justice for one that had burnt in impure Lust however he deserved better Treatment at the hands of his Country That same Author in his sixth Book acquaints us that after the death of Epaminondas the great Theban General the Athenians having no Enemy to whet their Emulation or Exercise their Martial Courage grew Luxurious and Debauch'd spent their Time and Revenues in publick Festivals and Plays frequented the Stage and Play-Houses more than the Camp and did more extoll their Poets and Orators than their Captains and Generals by which means they lost their Glory and rendred themselves and all Greece and Asia a prey to the Macedonians formerly an obscure people Before we go any further in the History of the Unlawful Amours of Greece it may not be improper to take notice of the ruine of Troy by the Graecians after ten years War upon the account of the Rape of fair Helena from Menelaus a Graecian Prince by Paris Son to Priamus King of Troy This story being known to every School-Boy its needless to insist upon it but we shall only observe that the Lust of Paris occasioned the ruin of that Kingdom and City about the year of the World 2870. after it had stood near 296 years The ruins of that Famous Town are still to be seen near the Mountain Ida about 32 German Miles South of Constantinople upon the Asian side of the Hellespont or strait of the Dardanelles as a Monument of Divine Justice against Whoredom Justin in his 7th Book gives us this Remarkable instance of punishment inflicted upon the Persian Ambassadors for their Lechery viz. That being sent by Magabazus the Persian General to demand Hostages from Amyntas King of Macedonia that Prince received them kindly and the Ambassadors having drank largely in the time of the Feast so as their Lust was inflamed they demanded that they might have the Company of the Kings Wives and Daughters at their entertainment which they said was a Pledge of Hospitality among the Persians The King thinking fit to grant it the Persians began to handle the Women immodestly upon which Alexander Son to King Amyntas desir'd his Father to withdraw from the Banquet because of his Age and Gravity the Prince having done so Alexander a little while after called out the Women pretending that he would bring them back in a better dress that so they might be the more
with great difficulty he escap'd by the swiftness of his Horse And thus he had well nigh made a surrender of his Liberty and Design to the Charms of a lascivious Woman It is also observ'd of this Demetrius that he had many Wives at the same time and notwithstanding his multiplicity of Wives became so enamour'd upon Lamia a beautiful Lady but infamous for her looseness of Conversation that 't was said all other Ladies were amorous of Demetrius but Demetrius was only amorous of Lamia This Lustful Prince was not however satisfied with his variety of Women but did also pollute himself with the unnatural Crime of Sodomy and it 's sloried of him that having been lost several days in a Debauch among his Companions and pretending to keep his Chamber afterwards by reason of Indisposition his Father Antigonus came to see him upon his approach to Demetrius's Chamber out bolts a sprightly young Fellow and Antigonus going to his Bed-side and feeling his Pulse Demetrius not knowing well how to excuse himself pretended that he had been ill of a Fever but that he hoped it had now left him Yes reply'd the King I believe it for I just now met it at your Chamber Door alluding to the young Catamite that sprung out of his Chamber His Victories and the Benefits which he bestow'd upon the Athenians put their Invention upon the rack to conferr new-devised Honours and Flatteries upon him and therefore they order'd him a Lodging behind Minervas Temple in the Apartment of the Virgins the vow'd Votaries of that Goddess which occasion'd the Wits of the Time to say That Minerva had got a dangerous Inmate and That it was not much to the Reputation of her Virgins Chaestity to keep company with Demetrius And as for Demetrius himself he was so far from shewing any Reverence to the Goddess with whom he had taken up his Quarters that he gave himself up to the most infamous Liberties and debauch'd the young Women and Matrons of Athens to that degree as 't is a shame for a modest Pen to relate This brutish Youth was so much enrag'd with unnatural Lust that he tempted a beautiful young Man call'd Damocles to that degree as made him to decline all manner of publick Conversation on purpose to avoid his design'd Passion but Damocles going to a private Bath the villainous Demetrius having Information of it surpriz'd him there so that the poor Youth seeing no other way to avoid him leap'd into a boiling Vessel and so became a Martyr to his Virtue Demetrius was not only lustful but profuse and prodigal in his Expences as all lustful Persons are so that having commanded the Athenians to raise 250 Talents for his Service and when they to satisfie his demands had levied it upon the People by distress he gave it as a trifling Sum to Lamia and the rest of his lewd Women to buy them perfum'd Washballs for their Baths And thus were the Athenians punish'd for giving way to the lustful Excesses of this young Prince to whom they were so slavishly obsequious that contrary to their Laws when he desir'd to be enroll'd in the Fraternity of the Priests of Ceres without attending the time commonly allotted which injoyns that the lesser Mysteries should be celebrated in November and the great Solemnity in August following they made an Edict that the Month of March then currant should be accounted November that Demetrius might be then admitted to the lesser Ceremonies and as soon as that was done by another Edict they turn'd that same Month into August which occasion'd Philipedes the Comedian to exercise his Wit upon Stratocles the Inventer of this Trick in the following Couplet thus Prodigious Skill how strangely flattering Fear Into one Month hath crowded all the Year And upon the same Stratocles's proposing that Demetrius should lodge in the Temple of Minerva within the Castle he made the following Lines Stratocles thinks it is no Sin To turn a Temple to an Inn Or with lewd wanton Company To bless Minerva's Chastity We come now to treat of the Punishments which Divine Justice inflicted upon this Lecher which were very sharp and severe his Father and he both being dispoil'd of that large Empire which they had erected for themselves out of the Ruins of that of Alexander the Great His Mother and Children and divers of his Wives were made Prisoners and he himself forsaken by the Athenians who had formerly â—…o much ador'd him but now made it a capital Crime for any body so much as to propose a Treaty or Accommodation with him and Alexander King of Macedon miss'd little of having cut him off treacherously It is also remarkable that this lustful Prince was punish'd observably in his Daughter Stratonice who follow'd her Father's pernicious Example The Story is well known to be as followeth Demetrius having married this his beautiful Daughter to Seleucus King of Syria to whom she brought forth a little Son Antiochus Son to Seleuchus by a former Marriage fell so passionately in love with his Step-mother Stratonice that he sicken'd upon it and was in danger and not daring to discover the Cause of his Distemper he saw no other Remedy for his hopeless Misfortune but what was to be expected from Despair and Death which he therefore resolv'd upon by abstaining from Diet. Erasistratus the King's Physician quickly discover'd that Love was his Distemper but could not at first discover the Object he therefore diligently waited in his Chamber and when any of the Beauties of the Court came to visit the sick Prince he curiously observ'd the Emotions and Alterations in the Countenance of Antiochus and by that means discover'd Stratonice to be the Object of his Flames for when she came in either with the King or alone Antiochus became mute his Passion smothering his Words a fiery Blush would mount into his Face he would fix his Eyes upon Stratonice and then presently withdraw his stoln guilty Looks his Pulse would be disorder'd a cold Sweat would seize upon him and unable to support the violent Passion he would become sensless and pale Erasistratus having made this Discovery acquainted Seleucus that his Son's Distemper was Love but incurable because it is impossible for him to enjoy the Object of his Passion and as impossible for him to live without it The King demanding why he could not enjoy the Object Erasistratus answer'd Sir because he is in love with my Wife Upon this the King expostulated with the Physician saying How my dear Erasistratus will you not do me the Kindness as to bestow your Wife upon my Son and Successor when there is no other way to save his Life Nay then Sir replied the Physician the Object of the Prince's Love is your own Stratonice Ah my dear Friend answer'd Seleucus may some kind God or Man put the Safety of the Prince upon that Issue I would part not only with Stratonice but my Empire upon condition that I might preserve Antiochus And thereupon
of Genesis we have a very Extraordinary Testimony against Adultery from an Heathen Prince Abimelech King of Gerar upon the occasion of Isaac's having from that same principle of slavish fear with his Father called his Beautifull Wife his Sister to avoid being killed for her sake but the King perceiving him sporting more familiarly with her than 't was decent for a Sister and Brother to do he reproved him sharply for his having dissembled her being his Wife whereby he not only endangered her Chastity but might have brought wrath upon the People for defiling another Man's Wife and therefore to prevent any such thing he forbad any of the People to meddle with Isaac or his Wife on pain of death Certainly this Heathen Prince will rise in Judgment against those pretended Christians who pollute themselves with promiscuous Lusts and neither Account Fornication nor Adultery a Crime The next Instance offer'd us is that of Esau who married two Wives and those too the Daughters of Canaan which were a Grief of Soul unto his Father and his Mother that he Married two Wives at once considering his Grand-Father Abraham's Example and the Custom of those dark and ignorant times seems not so Criminal and yet his Father's praâ—…ice who had but one ought to have had more influence upon him but his marrying Canaanites Profane Women and Heathens contrary to the Command of his Grand-Father Abraham and not only without the Consent but against the Inclination of his Father and Mother was altogether unexcusable The Impulsive cause which mov'd him to do so we have no reason to doubt was his Ungovernable Lust for that he was a Man of intemperate Appetite and by Consequence Libidinous is plain from his having profanely bartered away his Birth-Right for a Mess of Red Pottage when to be sure he might have had other Food in his Fathers House or if he had rejected Jacob's proposal there 's no great reason to think that Jacob would have been so unnatural as to have insisted upon his demand and denied necessary Refreshment to his Brother but he did so much idolize his own Palate and Appetite that he preferred the satisfaction of them to every thing else and we have the same reason to think that his Concupiscence was as Ungovernable as his Stomach and therefore he married two Canaanitish Women at once to satisfy his raging Lust the fulfilling of which he prefer'd to his Father and Mother's good will and this no doubt had no small influence in moving the latter to suborn Jacob to deprive Esau of his Blessing as well as of his Birth-right and it 's Remarkable that as he made a Cursed choise of his Wives he was also accursed in his Posterity who as it appears by the Sacred History became irreconcilable Enemies to the people of God and were always their most Barbarous and Cruel Persecutors Esau's Marrying a third Wife of Ishmael's race while the other two were alive is another Argument of his Unbridled Lust and Enmity to true Religion It ' true that Interpreters disagree in this matter some thinking that Esau Married this Third Wife of his Father 's own kindred to please him because the Daughters of Canaan were hatefull to him but others seem to have more Reason who think that he did it out of Contempt with a design to provoke his Parents more by contracting a new Alliance with another wicked people who were as much Enemies to the Church and as much or more irreconcilable to his Father as the other seeing it 's apparent that Ishmael mock'd or as the Apostle Interprets it persecuted Isaac from his very Infancy And thus far we see raging incontinency and hatred at Religion go hand in hand The next Instance that occurs to us is that of Jacob who well may be charged with Polygamy as having four Wives at a time instead of one The first occasion of this good Patriarch's transgression in this matter was the Wicked Craft and Deceit of Laban his Father-in-Law who instead of Rachel whom Jacob Married brought Leah to his Bed and so was the cause of Jacob's Digamy and Incest and tho' it 's true that Jacob is no where Condemned in Scripture for this yet it 's plain that he acted contrary to Divine institution and he is reproved for it by our Saviour amongst others when he told the Pharisees That from the beginning it was not so There were some and particularly the Manichees of old who inveighed against this Polygamy of the Patriarchs and in very gross and foul Language accuse them as Whore-Masters and their Wives as Whores but their scurrilous Arguments are well answered by Augustine against Faustus and others There are some who think that this Polygamy of the Patriarchs was by a peculiar instinct and particular Dispensation and therefore as in that case it could not be blamable neither can it now be ordinarily imitable the chief Reasons they assign for their opinions are that it was permitted for the Increasing of the Promised Seed that Jacobs Wives c. were acted by more than a Natural principle and much self-denial in recommending their Maids to their Husband's Bed which in ordinary Cases must be supposed to alienate his Affection from themselves In the next place they observe that they pray'd for off-spring by their Maids and brought up their Children upon their own knees It must be own'd that those things were Extraordinary and Contrary to the Practice and Principle of the generality of Women yet it 's strongly presumable that there was something of Custom as well as of instinct in this matter and that the people of God were polluted with the bad Example of those amongst whom they lived But however these things were this is certain that all the Persons concerned were one way or other punish'd for their Concurrence in this Affair Laban had not only the mortifiâ—…ation to see his two Daughters Jarr and Disagree and Envy one another but also to find his Riches and Substance decrease and to be conveighed to another hand Leah she was severely punish'd by finding that she had less of her Husbands Love than her Sister whose Bed she had unjustly defiled Rachel was punish'd with barrenness for some time for consenting to live with Jacob as his Wife when she knew that her Father had given her eldest Sister into his Bed Jacob's life was very uneasy betwixt his Jarring Wives who did each of them Envy the others Enjoyment of him Nay he was perfectly Subject to the Command of his Imperious and Beautiful Rachel and obliged to take a third Wife to beget Children for her and this laid him under a necessity of obliging Leah in the like manner which as it must needs Consume his Body he being now above 80 years of age there was no doubt but it increased his care how to provide for so many Wives and Children at the same time he was also plagued with a Covetous Oppressing Father-in-Law and discontented Brethren who envied his growing
that he rashly vowed to grant her whatever she would demand and so the young Strumpet being suborn'd by the old one demanded the Head of John the Baptist which Herod granted her tho much against his Will and she carried it to her Mother in a Charger as an acceptable present so naturally do Whoredom Murder and Persecution agree One would have thought that the very scandal of acting contrary to that Pity and Compassion which is so natural to the fair Sex should have restrain'd those Lewd Women from any such demand and much more from rejoycing in any such Bloody Spectacle but it s commonly seen that Whores become void of all natural affection and that they are hurried headlong into perdition by unbridled Lust and raging Passion But to return to the History of Herod and Herodias they were not only guilty of Incest but of Adultery and a Rape for Herod took her forcibly from his Brother Philip and not from his Unkle Herod King of Chalcis as Josephus mistakes so that it was an Atrocious and Complicated Crime and by the Just Judgment of God Herod who committed this barbarous Murder upon John the Baptist against his own Conscience rather than he would disoblige his Whore was giv'n up to all manner of wickedness and afterwards with his Men of War exposed our Saviour to Scorn and Laughter in his Mock Royal Robes and so as his Ungodly Father Herod the Great destroyed all the Infants of Bethlehem with a design to cut off Christ the Wicked Son pursuing his Fathers bad design concurr'd in the Crucifying of our Saviour It remains that we take a view of the Judgments that fell upon this Impure Couple which Josephus in his Jewish Antiquities lib. 18. cap. 7. 9. gives us an account of as follows viz. that Herod's lawful Wife Daughter to Aretas King of Arabia Petraea understanding his Intrigue with his Sister-in-Law Herodias and that he had a mind to Divorce her to make way for that vile Strumpet fled to her Father and acquainted him with it whereupon he made War against Herod and defeated his Army And in the 40th year of Christ Herod being accused of Rebellion was together with his Strumpet Herodias banisht by the Emperor Caligula to Lions in France where they perisht in Ignominy and Misery and the whole Race of Herod the Great was extinguish'd in a 100 years time tho the Memory of their wickedness is perpetuated to all Ages This Instance is sufficient to convince all mankind that unclean persons are capable of the greatest Villainy of other kinds and justly given up of God to commit the same for this Lustful Prince having committed double Aduletry a Rape and Incest did afterwards commit two of the most horrid Murders that ever were committed upon the face of the Earth viz. That of John the Baptist our Saviours fore-runner and then that of ourSaviour himself such is the enmity which uncleanness does naturally lead men into against God and Good Men and to be given up to that enmity is certainly the most dreadful of all punishments The next thing that we meet with belonging to our Subject is the Instance of the Woman taken in Adultery in the 8th chap. of the Evangelist St. John and brought by the Pharisees before our Saviour that by their ensnaring questions they might have something whereof to accuse him Our Saviour knowing their wicked design eluded them by stooping and writing upon the Ground What it was that he then wrote is more curiously than wisely disputed by the learned some say that he wrote the words which he afterwards spoke to them others that he wrote these words viz. Yow are Earth and you judge after an earthly manner others that he wrote upon the Ground such Crimes of the same kind as the Pharisees were guilty off in order to put them to silence or some short pathetical Sentence exhorting them to the practise of Virtue and the abhorrence of Vice but these being all meer conjectures we let them pass In the mean time the Pharisees conceiving that he was put to a nonplus and knew not what to answer did insolently urge him to speak which he did to their Confusion by bidding those that were without sin throw the first Stone at her with which they were so daunted and ashamed that they desisted from their accusation and went out one after another being convicted by their own Consciences that they were Guilty as well as she and found that neither their speculative nor private uncleanness were hid from our Saviour who had formerly told them that lusting after a Woman was Adultery in the Eyes of God and it 's probable did now point at their secret bodily uncleanness when he commanded them that were Innocent to throw the first Stone at her according to the practice of their own Law Deut. 17. 7. which enjoyned the Witnesses to lay their hands first upon the Head of the Person convicted by their Evidence as a Testimony that they thought them worthy of Death and that they themselves abhorred the Iniquity they were condemned for whereas 't was plain to our Saviour that these Pharisees took care only to keep the outside clean before Men but had no regard to inward purity of mind nor to common honesty so that they could but commit wickedness with secrecy and impunity and thus they are accused by the God of Truth as making long Prayers and bestowing publick Alms while at the same time they devoured Widows Houses The Pharisees being thus defeated and convicted the Woman is freed from all her Accusers upon which our Saviour asks her if no man had condemned her and upon her answering no and finding that all her Accuâ—…ers were gone he said neither do I condemn thee go thy way and sin no more This answer of our Saviours hath been wrested by some as if he had thereby declared that Adultery was no capital crime under the Gospel whereas it is plain that he only declined the part of a Magistrate and Judge as he did in another Case when one Brother desired him to speak to another that he should divide his Fathers Estate with him Luke 12. 13. And therefore he only acts the part of a Minister in exhorting the Woman to Repentance and Reformation but no way extenuates her Crime Nay on the contrary he seems directly to insinuate that she deserved Condemnation and would not have reproved any Judge if he had condemned her but his main design was to discover the Hypocrisie of the Pharisees who imposed upon the people as if they had been the most Just and upright sort of men in the World and as an Evidence of it brought this person taken in flagranti delicto before him who was a Preacher of Righteousness to know what his opinion was concerning her punishment and yet when he came to put the Question home to their own Consciences whether they were not guilty of the same Crimes and if they were not bid them to proceed
rich in the World Nor is it to be doubted but there was frequent Quarrels amongst the Children of so many different Mothers seeing it's Common to find Children by the same Father and Mother often to disagree and this without doubt begot mutual Broils Contentions and Heats amongst the different Wives every one envying the prosperity or good Fortune of anothers Children An Instance of this we have in Rachel who was so much taken with Reuben's Mandrakes that there 's no doubt but she could have wish'd they had been found by one of her own Sons Hence also we may observe That as the Children did every one love their own Mothers best it must needs occasion Quarrels amongst them It 's not agreed among Interpreters what these Mandrakes were some will have them to be Beautiful Fragrant Flowers and others that they were Beautiful and Delicious Apples which promoted Conception and that therefore they were so much desired by Rachel which if it were so she was however disappointed for having agreed that her Husband should be with Leah that night it occasioned her Rival to have two Sons Successively one after another and also one Daughter But as to the Mandrakes themselves St. Augustine against Faustus tells us That he has seen of 'em Diligently Inquired into their Nature and says they were Apples fine to the Eye and of a sweet Scent but insipid taste but very rare to be bad and on that Account alone he thought Rachel did Covet them The sin of Jacob and Leah is also very legible in their punishment by the foul Crimes of their Children Reuben and Dinah Jacob was guilty of Incest with two Sisters and to the great grief of his Soul eternal Reproach of his Family and scandal to the Neighbouring Heathen his Son Reuben committed Incest with his own Concubine Bilhah which by the way was another punishment upon her for consenting to Marry one who had two Wives before and whom she had no reason to think could ever be able to perform Conjugal duty to so many and 't is not improbable that this made her an easy prey to the Tentation Then as to Dinah her being polluted by Schechem the Son of Hamor was another disgrace to Jacob's Family and brought a fresh scandal upon the Church as well as ruin upon the Schechemites whose destruction was occasioned by the Lustful Passion of their Prince in dealing with Jacob's Daughter as with an Harlot which so enraged her Brethren that by a fraudulent Covenant they obliged the Schechemites to Circumcise themselves came upon them while they were Sore and put all the Males to the Sword And thus Dinah was also punished for her Conversing with the Daughters of the Land who were Idolaters and of corrupt manners her Curiosity which is so common to young Maids was fatal to her self and many others neither is there any thing better to be expected from those Profane Festivals Revellings and Banquetings which Josephus thinks the Schechemites were now taken up with And that Dinah either having stole away from her Mother to see how the Daughters of the Land were adorn'd and behav'd themselves in their publick Dances or being so far indulged as to have Liberty to go the Libidinous young Prince being taken with her Beauty and under no restraint but dandled by an Indulgent Father violated her Chastity for which himself his Son and all their Male Subjects quickly after lost their Lives having first beeâ—… by the Just Judgment of God punish'd in the very Instrument of their Lasciviousness The wound as it 's usual putting them to great pain and making them unable either to resist or fly from Jacob's Armed Sons and Servants and thus also the Good Old Man was punish'd by the Rape of his only Daughter and his bleeding wound â—…ipt open afresh by the Treachery and Cruelty of his Children This is another Instance of a People cut off and destroyed for Uncleanness The next thing that occurrs is another affliction to the Good Old Patriarch from the Evil Report of the Sons of his Concubines Zilpah and Bilhah who being the off-spring of an Unlawful Marriage were also of a Lewd Conversation themselves and according to the opinion of some of the Hebrews guilty of Sodomitical Impurities But however that was this is plain from the Sacred Text that they had an ill fame and with this Joseph acquainted his Father which occasioned their Conspiracy to kill Joseph and at last to sell him so that here Jacob was remarkably punish'd for his Polygamy The Children of those Concubines being both wicked and haters of his Children by Lawful Wedlock and tho it be not directly to our purpose yet it may not be perhaps unpleasant to the Reader to acquaint him that the Hebrews think Jacob was justly punish'd when made to believe that the blood of a Kid was that of his Son Joseph because he had formerly deceived his Father and made him to believe that he was his eldest Son Esau by putting a Kid's Skin about his Neck c. Our next Instance is in Judah who having left his Brethren and his Father's House and by Consequence the then Church and Lodging with an Adulamite fell in Love with a Canaanitish Woman and Married her he not then exceeding 14 Years of Age himself as Chronologers think not only without his Father's Consent but against it according to the Example of Esau How he was punish'd for this fault the following History acquaints us viz. That having obliged his Son Er to an early and precipitant Marriage like his own who being a Wicked Man and as the Hebrews think guilty of Sodomy or as others of spilling his Seed upon the ground as his Brother Onan did the Lord destroyed him Nor was Judah any happier in his Son Onan abovementioned who being given to his Brothers Widow for a Husband to raise up Seed to his Brother did maliciously spill it on the ground that his Brother's Memory might not be continued Whereas to die Childless had not only a Tendency to the decay and ruin of the Family but was also look'd upon as Reproachful and therefore it is the opinion of Divines that that temporary Law was constituted Deut. 25. 5. The Rabbins according to their fabulous manner alledge That Onan did this because he would not have Thamar's Beauty spoiled by bearing Children but whatever truth there be in that 't is certain that God destroyed him for that Impurity and frustrating the End of Nature which is next akin to Muuther if not a species of it seeing it destroyed that which was potentially a Man or Woman But Judah's punishment does not cease here he is plagued with raging Lust in his own advanced years and being a Widower did incestuously pollute his own Daughter-in Law Thamar whom he took to be a Common Harlot by which he incurr'd a perpetual disgrace and brought an Indelible blot upon his Memory From that History we may plainly also perceive that Adultery was held a Capital
Crime even amongst those Canaanites seeing Judah ordered his Daughter-in-Law who was in a manner betrothed to his third Son Shelah to be burnt Nay and that the Crime which is called simple Fornication was accounted shamefull amongst them seeing when he sent his Friend to redeem the pledges which he had left with Thamar but could neither find her nor them he said Let her take them to her lest we be ashmed Thamar's fact some have endeavoured to excuse because say they It did not proceed from Incontinence but to revenge her self upon her Father for not giving her Shelah to Husband as he had promised and others alledge that she had some knowledge that the Messiah should descend from Judah and therefore desired to be impregnated by him but neither of these Excuses are sufficient and therefore we find that she was punish'd with a perpetual Widowhood for her Incontinence and also by a dangerous and monstrous Birth of twins who seemed to strive which of them should be soonest rid of their Impure Mother and by that means contributed to render the Memory of their Father and Mothers Crime immortal The next Scripture Instance is of a mixt Nature and contains a Glorious Triumph of Chastity in the person of Joseph against the Tentations of his Lascivious Mistress by embracing of which he might not only have satisfied the invenile heat of Concupiscence but also have expected Riches Preferment and what not by means of a Woman of her Quality and opportunity to fulfil the Lusts of the Flesh with Secrecy and Impunity the Repeated attacks which she made upon him his absence and unjust Expulsion from his Father's Family which then contain d the visible Church the Impure Example of the Egyptians and the unavoidable danger which he must needs foresee he threw himself into by resisting her Unlawful desires set his Victory off with the Creater Lâ—…e and depaints her Crime in Placker Colours and that same History which rewards his Chastâ—…y with immortal Fame punishes her Unâ—…ness with eternal disgrace and Brands her with a sort of Rape contrary to the Common Course of the Sex and with abominable Cruelty in accusing the Innocent youth of her own Crime for which he was shut up in Prison and brought in danger of his Life such is the Rage of disappointed Lust. The Rabbins alledge that she feigned her self to be sick or really might be so thro' her burning Lust as Amnon was for Tamar and finding that all her Sollicitations by words could not do order'd it so as he should find her a Bed in a Room where he frequented thinking thereby to add Strength to the Tentation and if that would not do was resolved to make use of Force which she did also attempt but in vain And it is also remarkable that her Husband tho no doubt incens'd upon her accusing Joseph yet was so far over-rul'd as to abstain from violence towards him and 't is not at all to be doubted but when Joseph's extraordinary Favour in the Court of Heaven advanced him to the Court of Pharaoh but this Unchaste Woman if then alive became a Curse and a Reproach or if dead that her memory became Vile and Contemptible This passage brings naturally to my mind that well known Reflection upon the Reformation here in England by some loose Persons viz. That it came from Henry VIII's Codpiece which opprobrious saying was probably invented by Enemies to our Religion and as there 's no doubt but that Princes Incontinence gave him occasion to Enquire into the Pope's Power and afterwards to break it when he oppos'd his divorce so we see it is no new thing for God to bring about his own holy and pure designs by the Impure and Wicked designs of Mortals for here this Woman's Incontinence occasionâ—…d Joseph's Imprisonment where becoming acquainted with some of Pharaoh's Courtiers then under disgrace that gave occasion to his being sent for to Court and laid the Foundation of that Deliverance which the Church of God had from an Universal Famine by his means I shall conclude this History of Joseph with one observation that as he is Recorded to posterity for a Mirror of Chastity we don't find that he was so much as he tainted with digamy or polygamy as his Father and Great Grand-Father were whose Examples herein tho' they were Holy men he never followed and this is the more Remarkable because his Dignity and Power in the Land of Egypt furnish'd him with all things necessary for Pampering the Flesh and afforded him an opportunity of keeping as many Wives and Concubines as he pleased and yet we find he contented himself with one by which also we may perceive that tho' a Pattern of Chastity yet he accounted Lawfull Marriage and Procreation of Children no violation of it as the Mad Popish Monks would pretend to do The next Instance we have of Divine Judgment upon Uncleanness is in the punishment inflicted upon Reuben and prophetically foretold by his Father Jacob in his last words unto his Children or in his last Will and Testament as some are pleased to call it The Judgment pronounced against Reuben is this Unstable as Water thou shalt not excell because thou wentest up to thy Father's Bed then defiled'st thou it he went up to my Couch c. Chronologers Reckon that this was 40 years after Reuben's Incest with his Father's Concubine Bilhah and tho' Reuben had no doubt repented of his Crime and was thereupon pardon'd by God and his Father so as to be continued both in the Church and in his Father's Family yet now his iniquity is called to remembrance by his dying Parent who puts Reuben to shame afresh before all his Brethren and declares it to be the Will of God that Reuben should be deprived of his Birth-right because of his Impurity and that whereas being the Eldest Son he ought of right to have expected the Priesthood Royalty and Preeminence over his Brethren he is now told that he should not excell that is he and his Posterity should neither be considerable for Strength Valour nor Number and the cause is subjoyned because he was Unstable as Water and had defiled his Father's Bed or had been acted by his Impetuous and Raging Lust like an inundation of Water which over-flows its Banks and drowns the Country and thus as Esau lost his Birth-right by one sort of Profanity Reuben lost it by another and as he had resembled an Inundation of Water for Fury and Instability so God poured him out like Water and made his state Unstable and this Judgment was pronounced in the hearing of all his Brethren as the last and irrevocable Will of God and his Father which there 's no reason to doubt set it home with the greater pungency upon Reuben's Soul and especially because not only he himself but his Posterity also was set up as a Monument of God's Judgment against Incontinence There are some who fabulously assert that Jacob being well vers'd in Astronomy
time but the solution is eaise by the Total destruction may be meant that of the Generality or some of them might escape to the Neighbouring Nations and return again with Foreign Colonies to re inhabit their desolate Country which the Israelites were not to stay in but press'd forward towards the Land of Canaan and so the new Inhabitants assuming the Name of the Country might invade the Israelites in the days of Gideon We have seen the destruction of Midian occasioned by their Uncleanness but that of the Moabites was respited for a while because they were the off-spring of Lot Of such advantage is it to be descended of Godly Parents tho' in an illegal manner We have already considered Incestuous and Unlawfull Marriages as they were forbidden to the Israelites whom God would have distinguish'd from other Nations not only in respect of the purity of their Morals but even in their Apparel Hair and laudable Customs as Maimonides and others think And we come now to consider those Incestuous Marriages and Promiscuous Copulations as the Causes of the destruction of the Egyptians amongst whom they had dwelt and of the Canaanites in whose Land they were to dwell as it is particularly expressed in the 18th Chapter of Leviticus It 's true that all along in the Book of Exodus the Chief Crime of the Egyptians taken notice of is Oppression and Persecution but as we have said before Persecution and Uncleanness are Generally Companions and we find that the multiplication of the Hebrews was one great Cause of the Envy and Hatred of the Egyptians towards them which being the usual Blessing and Reward of Chastity was a severe Reproof to the Lascivious Egyptians which no doubt did heighten their Enmity to the Children of Israel And by the Prophet's Reproof in the 20. and 23. Chapters of Ezekiâ—…l That Israel had plaid the Harlot in the days of her Youth when she was in the Land of Egypt there 's reason to think that too too many of the Israelites were infected with the corrupt Example of the Egyptians who for their Promiscvous Venery are Compared to Asses and Horses by the Prophet in these words Whose Members are as the Members of Asses and whose Issue is as the Issue of Horses Historians tell us That it was usual amongst the Egyptians for Brothers and Sisters to Marry together and that they made a Statute for the Lawfulness of it because Isis their Goddess was Married to her Brother Osiris Then seeing the Israelites had convers'd amongst them 200 Years and had not only seen but learned their Corrupt manners and been witnesses to all the plagues inflicted upon them on that Account there could not be a more proper Caution given them than to beware of their Practices It is also to be observed that the Arabians amongst whom the Israelites wandered married none but their own Kindred That the Persians held it Lawfull for the Fathers to marry with their Daughters and the Parthians accounted it no Crime for the Mothers to marry with their Sons so much were those Eastern Countries drowned in Uncleanness whence it is plain that Whoredom was one of the principal Causes of their destruction It 's true that in Abraham's time it would seem that such Incestuous Marriages were not Common amongst the Egyptians otherwise his advice to Sara to say that she was his Sister would have been no Argument to make the Egyptians conclude that she was not his Wife But it is plain from Historians that afterwards they grew more licentious And thus Ptolemy Pihladelphus married his Sister Arsinoe and Soter and Philopater Egyptian Kings did also marry their own Sisters And it 's a known Story of the Persians that when Cambyses King of Persia had a mind to his youngest Sister and ask'd his Judges whether there were any Law against it they answered him That they knew none but that there was a Law that the King 's of Persia might do what they would Then 't is also known that the Messagates Troglodites Brachmans and other Eastern People allowed a Community of Wives their Philosophers taught it and Crates and Cabades Kings of Persia made L aws for it Another of the Crimes forbidden to the Israelites and which the Canaanites and those Eastern People were guilty of was causing their Seed to pass through the fire to Moloch by which some understand that in a most filthy manner they consecrated their Sperm or Seed to their Idol Priapus as Baal's Priest offered their Blood to their Idol 1. Kings 18. and as the Manichees and Gnosticks mixed the Eucharist with humane Seed tho' the Current of Interpreters carry it for making their Children pass through betwixt two fires and sometimes offering them as a burnt-Sacrifice in Honour of their Idol They are also charged with Sodomy or the Unnatural Lust of Men towards Men to which they were given up by the Just Judgment of God as a due punishment for their Idolatry And at the dissolution of the Monasteries here in England our Anti-Christian Idolaters were found to have polluted themselves in this manner which Crime as it brought Hell upon the Sodomites before their time that is brought Fire and Brimstone upon them before they went off the Earth so this horrid Uncleanness of the Monks procur'd the dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII before their Religion was discharged out of the Nation The Egyptians and Canaanites are also charged with Bestiality their Men and Women having committed Confusion with Beasts and thus Pasiphae is accused of having accompanied with a Bull Polyphantes with a Bear Semiramis with an Horse and the Women of Mendis in Egypt with Goats Nay if we may believe the Fables of the Jews the false Prophet Balaam who was slain amongst the Midianites was guilty of Bestiality with his Ass which they foolishly collect from those Words of the Beast viz. Am not I thine Ass which thou hast ridden upon It is also observable that those brutal Commixtions were punish'd by the Infamy of the Criminals as well as by their destruction for we read that the Monstrous Births have many times discovered those Unnatural Crimes and that sometimes they have been betrayed by Heterogeneous tho perfect Births And thus Plutarch tells us of a Boy begotten betwixt a Man and a Mare and of a Girl betwixt a Man and an Ass And Olaus Magnus mentions a Man begotten of a Woman by a Bear who was thereupon called Ursus and of whom many Great Danish Princes did afterwards descend It 's true that Galen denies that there can be any such Generation of Mankind but others maintain it upon this reason That the Partial Cause being more Noble prevails over the less Noble as it is many times seen that a fair Woman hath brought forth a Black-a-moor In fine the Land of Canaan being polluted by those abominations Vomited out her Inhabitants the Posterity of Cham who did so impudently behold and revile his Fathers Nakedness and is thought to have
Father who as Josephus thinks wept continually after God had revealed to him that both his Sons should be slain in one day and the Scripture tells us that he fell backward and broke his Neek upon the receipt of that fatal News It reach'd also the Wife of one of 'em who died upon the News of her Husband's death and the Arks being taken and it reach'd also their Posterity who were for ever excluded from the Priests Office and had a perpetual Poverty entailed upon them as a Curse and to make them the more sensible of the dignity from whence they had fallen they were condemned to be a sort of slaves to the High-Priest of the succeeding Family of whom they were to beg a morsel of Bread and Employment so naturally does the Curse of Poverty or of bringing a Man to a piece of Bread follow upon Whoredom and Uncleanness There are some other Instances of lesser note as Sauls forcing his Daughter Michal after she had been married to David to marry another Man which was an act of Unncleaness and Tyranny too and had no doubt its influence amongst others of that Prince's Tyrannical and Impious Acts to hasten ruin upon him The Instance of Abner's going into Rispah Saul's Concubine which Interpreters think he did in an Adulterous manner and not by way of Lawfull Marriage deserves our Remark for hereby Saul suffered in his Fame after his Death and he who had compelled his Daughter to defile her Husband's Bed had this Ignominy and punishment inflicted upon his Son that he saw his Fathers-Wife dishonourably defiled and Abner who was guilty of that Villanous Action took occasion because of his Reproof to Revolt from him and to transfer the Kingdom to David and as he went about to effect it fell into the snare which Joab had laid for him and lost his Life We come in the next place to David's Adultery with Bathsheba a Crime which hath many aggravations to be committed by David a prophet who instructed others in the Law of God and did so grosly break it himself to be committed by David a King who ought to have defended the Chastity of his Subject and not to have violated it himself to be Commited by David a holy Man who did thereby expose Religion ro be ridicul'd and laid a stumbling block before others to commit the like Crime because of his Example then if we consider the time it was when his Generals and Army were expos'd to the Fury of their Enemy in a Siege when he ought to have been more sollicitous for the honour and dignity of his Crown and for the safety of his Subjects Then if we consider the Person against whom this Crime was committed we find it to be against a Brave Valiant and Faithfull Friend and Subject who would not indulge himself in his Pleasures and Accommodations while the Ark and People of the Lord abode in Tents tho' David who was his Sovereign allowed him nay Commanded and Enticed him to do it which heightned and aggravated the Crime of that Holy man who acted herein Hypocritally and Scandalously to cover his Iniquity and gave occasion to the Israclites to think that as for Personal Conversation they had made but a sorry Exchange betwixt Saul and David for we don't find that Tyrant accused of Personal Uncleanness But the bloody part of the Scene is still to be acted David finding that he could not effect his design by Hypocrisy hath recourse to downright Violence and Murder his Intrigue to make Uriah drunk which he thought might provoke him to a desire of his Wife having miscarried he resolves to cut him off by the Sword of the Ammonites and that too in a fraudulent manner by ordering him to be set in the front of the Battle and commanding the Men to retire from him that he might be smitten Nay so eager was he to have this Poor Man's life in order to cover his own Uncleanness that he was content to Sacrifice the Lives of many more of his Subjects so that this could be but effected so natural is it for Uncleanness to be the Parent and occasion of Murder The Crime is still further aggravated if we consider how deliberately it was committed how long he continued without Repentance and what a severe Judgment he gave against himself when Nathan the Prophet propounded the Case to him by way of Parable So much for David's Crime we must now consider that of Bathsheba she Wash'd and Bathâ—…d her self in open view of the Palace otherwise David could never have seen her from the Roof of his House which argues her to have been very Immodest nor do we find that she made any opposition to the proposal when 't was made to her so little regard had she either to the Law of God or her own and her Husbands Honour It remains then that we come to the punishment inflicted upon both The Judgment pronounced by Nathan against David was That the Sword should never depart from his House that the Lord would raise up evil against him out of his own House that he would take his Wives before his Eyes and give them unto his Neighbour who should lie with them in the sight of the Sun and that the Child which he had begot in Adultery should surely die all which was exactly fullfilled as we shall see in the following Instances The first part of the punishment inflâ—…cted was the Death of the Child and how near that went to David may easily be perceived by his afflicting himself with fasting and lying all night upon the Earth while it was sick and there 's no doubt but this part of the punishment reach'd Bathsheba as well as him seeing 't is reasonable to suppose that the Death of a Child for whom she had broke through all ties Divine and Humane must go very near her The next part of the punishment displayed David's Sin in Legible Characters and brought an horrid Disgrace upon his Family viz. The Incest of his Son Amnon with his Daughter Tamar the Story and Consequence of which is as follows Tamar being a fair Woman Amnon her Brother fell in Love with her but knowing that she was within the sorbidden degrees of Consangninity he found he could not Lawfully enjoy her Before we proceed any further in the History of this affair it is proper to consider that this Damsel's Mother was Maacha Daughter to Talmai King of Gâ—…shur Rabbi â—…hi says That David took this Lady Captive and being himself Captivated with her Beauty defil'd her and begot this Tamar and that persevering in his Love to Maacha tho' a Heathen he made her a Proselyte and did according as it is prescribed by the Levitical Law Deut. 21. viz. Shav'd her Head and Eyebrows cut her Nails c. and took her to Wife Lyranus and some of the later Rabbins say That when Maacha was taken she was with Child of this Tamar by another Husband and this they think favoured by
her saying to Amnon Speak unto the King for he will not with-hold me from thee But Modern Interpreters do with more reason think that she only said this to put him off for if they could have been married by Law Amnon would not have pin'd for her but have straightway demanded her of the King who was so indulgent to his Children that he would never have refused it if it could have been Lawfully Granted and therefore Amnon knowing that this could not be done he burned and consumed away in his Unlawfull Love which prevented his sleep disordered his stomach hindered hi digestion and occasioned a paleness in his Countenance which made his Friend Jonadab to guess at his Malady and put him upon that fatal Intrigue to satisfy his Lust viz. To feign himself sick and to desire of his Indulgent Father when he came to see him that his Sister Tamar might come and make him some Cakes by which means he should have an opportunity of satisfying his passion and this being accordingly put in Execution he ravish'd her and then his hatred to her became as excessive as ever his Love had been so that tho it was his Interest to have concealed his Villainy both upon the Account of his Reputation and safety His fury was so outragious that as he had forc'd her into his Bed he forc'd her also out of his Chamber which presently divulg'd his own shame The Rabbins according to their fabulous manner alledge that this hatred proceeded from the bitter Reproaches and Words which Tamar made use of against him during the Rape or from his having hurt himself while he struggled with her but the more probable reason is that it proceeded from those stings of Conscience and that perturbation of mind which usually attends such Villainies-and thus Nero hated his Mother Mortally and at last ordered her to be murdered after he had committed Incest with her but in the Case of Amnon there was something of a special Providence God would have David's sin legible in his punishment and therefore that the shame of his Children and Family should be publick nay it 's plain that God deprived him of his ordinary sagacity when he so easily consented to Amnon's desire of having his Sister Tamar to bake him some Cakes which was enough to Minister cause of suspicion that some wicked design lay conceal'd at bottom and in like manner he was deprived of his sagacity when about two years after he consented to Amnon's going to Absalom's Feast at the sheering of his Sheep for he might easily have conceived that his Daughter Tamar who remained desolate in her Brother Absalom's House kept the Memory of the indignity which Amnon had done to her fresh in Absalom's mind and that Absalom being an Ambitious Man might also be prompted to cut off Amnon who was David's Eldest Son that he might make way for himself to succeed but so God would have it that his Judgments denounced upon David's House because of his Murder and Adultery might be Executed and therefore Amnon is not only suffered to go but the rest of the King's Sons so much deprived of their Reason and Courage as that they could not prevent this horrid Fratricide and thus Amnon whom David had spared out of a fond affection tho' he ought to have died by the Law was Justly cut off for his Incestuous Rape and as David's Uncleanness was punish'd by Incest betwixt his own Children so his Murder is punish'd in that same manner by this Fratricide Committed by one of his Sons upon another which was an early presage of Absalom's usurpation by taking the Sword of Justice out of his Father's hand This must without all doubt have been a very sensible affliction to David to have one Son Murdered and another obnoxious to lose his Life by the Law for the said Murder It must needs also pierce him to the heart to hear the Reproaches of the wicked who no doubt upbraided him with the Ungodly Lives of his Children and the want of Discipline in his Family But his affliction did not terminate here being again reconciled to his Son Absalom which his Unwarrantable indulgence made easie to be effected this Unnatural Monster by his Treachery and Flattery stole away the hearts of the People from his Father and then broke out into a formal Rebellion That the People did so readily concur with him is attributed to the perswasions of Achitophel and others who exposing David's personal faults as his Adultery with Bathsheba his Murder of Uriah sparing his Incestuous Son Amnon and dealing hardly with Absalom for Executing Justice upon him did mightily Incense them against him and besides these we find that Absalom himself accus'd him of Male-Administration and a neglect of Justice which by the Just Judgment of God in order to the fullfilling of his threatning That the Sword should never depart from David's House did so take that he was in great danger of losing his Crown and it 's worth our observation that the Person which occasioned him so much trouble and disgrace was his own Son by a Heathen Wife with whom he had contracted Marriage out of a Lustfull principle as has been formerly taken notice of Absalom in the Course of his Rebellion does also commit Incest with his Father's Concubines by the Counsel of Achitophel contrary to the positive Law of God and thus was the threatning accomplish'd upon David of having his own Wives taken from him and given to another who should humble them in the sight of the Sun and of all the People and it is remarkable that this Villainy was Acted upon the roof of the Kings House where he himself did first commit Adultery with Bathsheba in his Heart The reason of Achitophel's giving this pernicious advice was that he might do what in him lay to make the breach between David and Absalom Irreconcilable that so he might never be called to an Account for aiding Absalom in this Rebellion and there are others who say that he had also a design of Revenge in it for David's having Debauch'd Bathsheba who it 's probable was this Achitophel's Grand-Daughter As to Absalom's own part in this Villany we have reason to think that he was thereunto prompted by Revenge and Lust both Revenge because his Father had not punish'd Amnon for his Rape upon Tamar his Sister and Lust because we find he was a Vain and Effeminate Person and Excessively proud of his Beauty and Hair which he nourished so prodigiously that at the end of the year when he poll'd it he usually cut off about Two Hundred Shekells which is computed at above Six Pound Averdupoize The next thing which in Course we are to take notice of is the punishment inflicted upon Achitophel who gave this pernicious Counsel and upon Absalom who followed it The former tho' his Wicked advice as to the polluting of David's Concubines was obey'd yet finding his Counsel as to the Military part despised took it so much
Manly temper Ordering the following distich to be engraven on his Tomb Haec habeo quae edi quaeque Exsaturata Libido Hausit at illa Jacent multa ac praeclara relicta Which says Aristotle was a fitter Epitaph for a Bull then a King It may be Paraphras'd in English thus Those things I have which delight I ate And also those which did my Lust asswage Yet may desires are still insatiate And that oughts left behind enflames my rage The Meaes having held the Empire 350 years it then fell into hands of the Persians under the Conduct of Cyrus and that the Persian Women were not over modest appears by the method they took to encourage their Men when they had the worst in the Battle at first with Astyages viz. When the Persians began to run their Women uncovered their Secret parts unbraidded them with Cowardice and askt whither they would hide themselves in the Bellies of their Mothers and Wives which did so animate them that from a principal of shame they returned to the Battle came off Victorious and by that means laid the Foundation of the Persian Monarchy which was afterwards overturn'd by Fffeminacy and Lasciviousness as we shall see in its place and that the Persians should have immers'd themselves in Lasciviousness is so much the more remarkable and inexcusable because their Emperor Cyrus to break the Warlike Temper of the Lydians whom he had overcome thought it not enough to deprive them of their Horses and Arms but commanded them to exercise themselves in Publick-Houses Plays and Bawdy-Houses and thus says Justin Lib. 1. this people who before Cyrus were invincible in War mighty by their industry and redoubtable by their Valour lost their Ancient Gallantry by their Effeminate Delicacy and Luxury And that this Wantonness had invaded their Throne is evident from the Instance of Candaules their King who doting upon his Wife because of her Incomparable Beauty commended her in all Companies and not satifised with that he was so mad as to expose her Naked to the view of Gyges his Favourite by appointing him a Secret place in her Bed-Chamber which the Qperceiving tho' unknown to her Husband she was so much incens'd at it that she propos'd it to Gyges either to kill the King and enjoy her and the Kingdom or to prepare for death himself the former of which conditions he accepted and performed and thus was Candaules punished for his Voluptuousness by losing his Life and Crown and having his Race extinguished Justin in his 〈◊〉 Book acquaints us also that one of the Magi called Comaris being imployed by Cambyses to kill his Brother Mergides performed it Secretly and Cambyses dying in the mean time of a Wound he received by his own Sword Comaris set up his own Brother Oropastes for King instead of Mergides to whom the Succession belonged after Cambyses Oropastes was very like Mergides but the matter being afterwards suspected Orthanus a Noble man found it out by his own Daughter that was one of the King's Concubines she by her Father's perswasion felt Oropastes his head when he was asleep and finding that he had no Ears acquainted her Father with it who thereby knew that it was Oropastes whose Ears Cambyses had ordered to be cut off and imparting it to the rest of the Nobility from whom it was easie to conceal it because the Kings of Persia under a shew of Majesty were kept from the view of their Subjects they conspired against him and slew both the Brothers thus was Oropastes deprived of his Life and Crown by the Treachery of one of his Concubines The next passage we meet with in Justin for our purpose is that of the Scythian Women whose Husbands being long absent he says 15 years in subduing Asia they sent Messengers to them telling them that if they did not return they wou'd take care to have off-spring by their Neighbours and that the Women should not be to blame if the Race of the Scythians failed whereupon they returned having imposed a small Tribute upon the Asiaticks rather as an acknowledgment of ther Conquests then as a Reward of their Victory That same Author Book 2d tells us that the Scythians having staid 7 Years from their Wives in their 3d. Expedition into Asia the Women reckoning they had been all cut off Married their Servants who were left at home to look after their Catttle so that when their Husbands returned Victorious they were look'd upon as Foreign Invaders and therefore their Servants kept them out by force of Arms so that after diverse Skirmishes with various fortune the Scythians considering that those who opposed them were their Servants they agreed to make use of Whips against them instead of Arms which had so good success that their Servants as if their Servile Spirits had returned to them upon the sight of the Whips fled before them It s also fit to take notice here that the Women so much fam'd in the World by the Name of Amazons were Wives to a Colony or rather an Inundation of Scythians who settling themselves in Cappadocia about the River Thermodoon and having subdued their Neighbours were at last wholly cut off by a Conspiracy of the people whom they had Conquered upon which their Women took Arms and not only defended their own Territories but enlarg'd their Dominions and being accustomed to Govern men lookt upon Marriage as a servitude cut off all the Men that were remaining among them that none of them might seem more happy than the rest by enjoyment of their Husbands and then having obtained Peace once a year they convers'd with the Men of Neighbouring Nations and if they brought forth Males they either killed them or sent them home to their Fathers but the Females they bred up to the use of Arms and all manly Exercises burning one of their Dugs that it might not hinder them to bend their Bows and preserving the other to suckle their Girls Amongst those Amazons are said to have Reign'd the Famous Queens Marthesia Lampeto Otrera Penthesilea Thalestris c. and their Monarchy is said to have continued till the time of Alexander the Great Some will have all that is writ of the Amazons to be a meer Fable and others that all the stories of them was occasioned by their Womens bearing Arms and Fighting in Battle as well as the Men and it may be being more numerous in diverse of those Battles than the Men who were either absent or consumed in those Expeditions they had the Chief Command as is observed by Juan Orelhan the Spaniard who discovered that great River call'd by the Name of the River of the Amazons in the West-Indies upon the Banks of which he perceived the Women in Arms to exceed the men in number and to Command them and upon that Account he gave the Name aforesaid to that River But however the matter be it affords us this Observation that all Kingdoms and States ought to take care of encouraging
Courteously invite the Royal Youths to Supper at which time Sextus Tarquinius was seiz'd with a Lustfull passion for Lucrâ—…tia a Lady of extraordinary Beauty and Chastity but for that night they returned again to the Camp Some days after Sextus Tarquinius in order to accomplish his Lustfull design went privily from the Camp to Collatia attended only with one Companion where he was kindly Entertained by Collatinus's Family who knew nothing of his Villainous intent and Conducted to his Chamber after Supper but being enflamed with Lust when he thought every body was asleep he came with his Sword drawn to Lucretia's Bed-side and laying his left hand upon her Preast told her who he was and threatned her with present death if she spoke one word The poor Lady being surpriz'd and afrighted he began to mix intreaties with his threats and to express himself in such Terms as his passion suggested but finding that neither his soft expressions nor Barbarous threats could prevail with her he told her that he would stab a Slave lay him naked by her when she was dead and raise a report that they were killed in the very Act of Adultery by this means Tarquinius overcame her and having satisfied his Lust went to Rome Lucretia being thus dishonoured sent immediately for her Husband and Father desiring them to come to her speedily with each of them a trusty Friend for a Grievous Accident had befallen her and coming accordingly they found her very Pensive her Husband having askt her the Cause and whether she was not well She burst out into Tears and answered No how can a Woman be well that has lost her Chastity there are yet the signs of another Man Collatinus in thy Bed but my Body only is violated and my mind Guiltless of which my death shall be a Witness but give me your hands and promises that the Adulterer shall not escape unpunished Sextus Tarquinius is the Man who like an Enemy rather than a Guest came Armed to my Bed last night and thence forced pleasures which if you are Men will prove fatal to him as well as to me They endeavoured to comfort her telling her that where there was no consent there could be no fault Upon which she answered Do you consider what he deserves tho' I absolve my self from the Crime I will not be free from the punishment Nor shall any Unchaste Woman live to say Lucretia was her Example and with that she stab'd her self to the heart with a Knife which she had hid under herGarment upon which her Father and Husband set up a loud cry Whilst they were overwhelm'd with Grief Brutus who came along with them pulling the Knife out of her Wound said I swear by this Blood which was so Chaste before the King Stain'd it and I take the Gods to Witness it that I will cut off Sextus Tarquinius Superbus his wicked Wife and Children with Sword Fire or any other violent means I can nor will I suffer them or any other from this time forward to be King of Rome The afflicted Father and Husband joined with him in this Oath and carrying Lucretia's Body into the Market-Place stir'd up the people and marching in Arms to Rome did the like there and inveighing against the Lust and Violence of Sextus Tarquinius he also provoked the Army to join with him against the King who had the Gates of Rome shut against him was Proclaimed an Exile and he and his Children expell'd the Government and the Country The Adulterer Sextus Tarquinius was murdered by the Gabii The King's Family was Plundered and Kingly Government Abolished after it had continued 244 years And thus the Government was over-turned by the Lustfulness of a Prince who thereby brought ruin and disgrace upon his Family a fatal Exit upon himself and entail'd a War upon his Country who join'd in the Oath with Brutus to suffer none of the Tarquins to Reign at Rome The next passage we find for our purpose is that in Livy Decad. 1. Lib. 3. concerning the Lustfull design of Appius Claudius one of the Decemvirs upon the Daughter of Virginius a Beautiful Virgin whom he endeavour'd to win with Money and fair Promises but finding her Chastity inviolable he suborn'd a Client of his to Challenge her for his slave and adjudg'd her to be such in order to have brought her into his own Lustfull Embraces All the intreaties and Arguments of her Father Virginius and her Lover Icilius join'd with the Complaints and Murmurs of the People could not influence Appius to abandon his Lustfull Design so that Virginius finding he had no Force to stand by him sufficient to grapple with the Decemvirs he snatcht a Knife from a Butcher's Stall and cried out thus Daughter seeing I can do it no other way do I vindicate thy Liberty and immediately stabb'd her after which looking back to the Tribunal he said to the Lustful Tyrant Appius with this Blood I destine thee to death The Decemvirs order'd him to be laid hold on but making way thro the Crowd with his Sword he went straight to the Camp whither a great number of Citizens followed him while in the mean time her Lover Icilius and Numitorius took up Virginia's Corps bewailing the Injustice of Appius the unhappy Beauty of the young Woman and the necessity of her Father's doing what he did and the Matrons at the same time cried out was that the Consequence of bringing forth Children was that the reward of Chastity and other expostulations of the like nature Virginius being arrived in the Camp all over besprinkled with his Daughters blood and the fatal Instrument of her Death in his hand the whole Army was amazed especially seeing him followed by so many Roman Citizens in their Gowns and having commanded Silence they askt him what was the matter to which assoon as Grief would permit him he held up his hands and begg'd of his fellow Soldiers that they would not impute that to him which was Appius Claudius 's Crime nor hate him as a murderer of his own Children that his Daughter was more dear to him than his Life if she could have lived to enjoy her Liberty and preserve her Chastity But when he saw her dragged like a Slave to be made a Whore on he thought it better for him to lose his Child by Death than Disgrace that he through his Mercy to her was fallen into a shew of Cruelty nor would he have survived his Daughter unless he had been in hopes by the help of his fellow Soldiers to revenge her Death They also he knew had Daughters and Wives nor was the Lust of Appius Claudius extinguished by his Daughters Death but that the more he escaped punishment the more extravagant he would be That by another Mans Calamity they were taught to provide against the like injury As for his part his Wife was Dead his Daughter because she could live no longer in Chastity died a miserable but an honest death Wherefore Appius 's Lust
that come out of such an obscene Brothel-house Will such Fellows as these that are cover'd all over with Buggeries of their own and other men fight for the Chastity of their Wives and Children And setting forth at large the Danger that might accrue to the State by those Nightly Meetings the Bacchanalian Rites were prohibited by Order of the Senate all the Priests of the Order were commanded to be shut up and the Frequenters of those Nightly Meetings enquir'd after such of them as they found to have been only initiated and had said Prayers according to the Sacred Form which the Priests repeated before them in which was contain'd a cursed Obligation to commit all Acts of Villany and Lechery but had not committed them them they imprison'd â—…ut those whom they found to have been defil'd by Lust or Murder false Testimonies false Tokens forging of Wills or other Frauds they put to Death after which the Bacchanalia were pull'd down at Rome and all over Italy We shall conclude our Instances from Livy with this Passage which is the last that fam'd Historian affords us that any way relates to our Subject It is proper however to observe here that the Bacchanalia which we have now describ'd may justly be reckon'd a-Kin to if not the Off-spring of the Eleusina Sacra formerly mention'd both of them had their Original from Greece and were solemniz'd with much the like Secrecy and Outrage and both of them serve to let us see how far Humane Nature may be deprav'd by raging Lust when a Person or People are justly given up to it of God We think it proper before we come to the Instances of the Roman Emperors c. which are but too too numerous to take a view of those persons whom Plutarch has honour'd to be their Biographer and to excerpt from thence what suits with our purpose We have taken notice that Rome was founded by a spurious Brood and in the Life of Theseus which is the first in Plutarch We shall find that Athens had much the same sort of Original which is the more observable because from those two Cities the Christian Religion met with the greatest Opposition viz. from the vain Philosophy of the former and the more bloody and cruel Persecution of the latter Our Author tells us That Theseus seems to resemble Romulus in many particulars and in his Birth especially both of 'em being born out of Wedlock and of uncertain Parentage Ageus however is reckon'd to be Father to Theseus by Athia Daughter to Plitheus whom having got with Child he left a Sword and a pair of Shoes hiding them under a great Stone and making her only privy to it commanding her that if she brought forth a Son who when he came to Man's estate should be able to lift up the Stone and take away what he had left there she should send him away to him with those things with all Secrecy Which she having accordingly observ'd her Son Theseus after he had slain Sinnis who from his way of murthering Men was call'd The Bender of Pines committed Fornication with his Daughter Perigune begot Menalippus upon her and afterwards married her to another The next Feat Theseus did was the killing of Phea a Beast of great fierceness according to some or a cruel and lustful Woman according to others who had the Name of a Sow given her from the beastliness of her Life which if true she was remarkably enough punish'd by one that was as guilty of Incontinence as her self The next thing we have of his Amours is that with Ariadne by whose Advice and Assistance he overcame the Miâ—…aur but having serv'd his Ends he deserted her for another viz. Aegle with whom he fell in Love and thereupon Ariadne died of Grief as some say tho' others contradict it and alledge She died in Childbed Our Author gives us also an Account of his Rape of Antiope Princess of the Amazons and in short sums up his unlawful Amours and the fatal Consequence of them in a few words thus That the Marriages of Theseus were neither honourable in their beginning nor fortunate in their Events and recounts them thus viz. that he forc'd Anaxo the Traxenian ravish'd the Daughters of Sinnis and Cercyon married Peribaea the Mother of Ajax and then Pheribaea and then Iope the Daughter of â—…phicles Further he is accus'd for deserting Ariadne as is before related being in love with Aegle the Daughter of Panopeus an Action neither just nor honourable and lastly for the Rape of Helen when he was fifty Years old which fill'd all Attica with War and Blood and occasion'd his Banishment and Death Lycomedes having thrown him headlong from a Rock as he had hurried himself headlong into Lustful Passion Such was the fatal Exit of this Ethnick Hero occasion'd by his Uncleanness In the Life of Lycurgus that great Lacedemonian Philosopher and Law-giver we have an eminent Instance of the truth of that of the Apostle concerning the Heathens that because when they knew God they glorified him not as God he gave them up to work all Uncleanness with greediness for what less than a Judicial Blindness could so much infatuate such a wise man as Lycurgus to allow a Communitv of Wives and the promiscuous Dancings of young Men and Women together naked that must necessarily inflame their Lusts Which is own'd by Plutarch himself tho' cover'd under the handsom Expressions of alluring them to Marriage not upon Interest and Equality of Fortune and Birth but from the sweet Constraint and unsophisticated Dictates of Nature The Reasons of this Community of Women he enforc'd by these Arguments following viz. That Children are not so much the Propriety of their Parents as of the Commonwealth and therefore he would not have 'em begot by the first Comers but by the best Men that could be found That the Laws of other Nations seem'd to him very defective and incongruous who were very sollicitous for the Bread of their Dogs and Horses and sent a great way to get the best Stallions and yet kept their Wives under Lock and Key for fear of other Men whereas themselves were craz'd old or infirm and more fit to propagate Diseases than their Species Certainly any man at first sight must needs see that those Dictates of our Philosopher are contrary to the Dictates of Nature and naturally Introductive of all manner of Villany and Disorders Reason as well as Revelation teaches us that Jealousie is the Rage of a Man and that there is nothing more unsupportable to Humane Nature All Histories are full of Tragical Instances of it and Experience teaches us that those Nations where such promiscuous Copulations are allow'd differ but very little from Brutes whose Example Lycurgus proposes and they follow If it be objected What we find in the Life of our Author that so long as these Ordinances were observ'd the Women were so far from that Scandalous Liberty which hath since been objected to them