this strange adventure that had befaln their General and therefore had not the Courage to make head against them Whatever be the Circumstances of this story that may justly occasion the truth of it to be called in Question its plain from other passages which we shall have occasion to touch in the pursuance of this History that the dissoluteness of a General hath oftener than once occasioned the ruin of Armies We come now to the story of Susanna and the Elders of Israel This Woman says the Author was Wife to Joacim the Chief of the Jews then Captives in Babylon a Woman of Incomparable Beauty and Admirable Chastity This Lady using to walk in her Husbands Garden in the afternoons two of the Elders of Israel who attended at Joacim's House to execute Judgment became inflam'd with Lust towards her and tho' at first they were asham'd to declare it to one another yet afterwards being hardened in their Wickedness they plotted together against this Vertuous Woman and watching an opportunity till they found her alone in the Garden when she had sent her Maids out for Oil and Wash-balls in order to bath her self they surpriz'd her tempted her to Lewdness and upon her refusal accus'd her falsly as if they had taken her in Adultery with a young man upon which she was by the Authority of their Evidence Convicted and Condemned to die but Just as she was going to be put to death the Lord raised up Daniel says the Author to deliver her who obtaining that her Cause should be reheard he examined the Elders afresh and accusing them of that Villainous and Lustfull design against Susanna Convicted them of Perjury by their own Testimony the one of them saying they took her under a Mastich and the other saying that they took her under an Holm-Tree so that they themselves fell into the Pit which they had Digged for this Vertuous Woman and suffered the punishment which they design'd should have been inflicted upon her Whether this story be true or not is not material to our purpose but in the prosecution of this design we shall meet with several parallell Instances which discover the thing not to be impossible in it self however improbable in regard of its Circumstances We come now to the New Testamen times and find it observable that our Saviour in his first Sermon upon the Mount Matth. 5. inveighed against the impurity of the Jews who for light and frivolous Causes such as if they did not like their Wives c. Divorced them which was the occasion of Uncleanness in themselves and in the Women so Divorced who our Saviour says they caused to commit Adultery if they put them away upon any other account than that of Fornication so that 't is plain that the Woman whom they took into their Bed in the room of her that was Divorced was no other than a Concubine and that if the Woman so Divorced Married with another Man she thereby became an Adultress as our Saviour declares more at large in the 19th of Matthew where we have an Account of the malice and subtlety of the Pharisees in propounding that Question Whether it was Lawful for a Man to put away his Wife for every Cause For if our Saviour had answered in the Affirmative then they would have proclaimed him a Friend to Uncleanness and if In the Negative then they would have opposed him with the Authority of Moses but our Lord knowing their design referred them to the Creation when God made them Male and Female not Females or diverse Women for one Man and to the first institution of Marriage which was only betwixt one and one and therefore it was said they two not they three four or five shall be one Flesh which clearly subverted all that could be alledged for Polygamy or Concubinage and being the Commentary of the Lawgiver upon his own Law makes it of equal Authority with the Text and ought for ever to shut the Mouths of such as plead for a plurality of Wives Then to their Argument from the Authority of Moses he answers them that Moses indeed permitted Divorces because of the hardness of their Hearts and to prevent a greater evil as is Customary in all Political and Civil Constitutions as if Moses had said It 's better that you put away your Wives when you grow weary of them than Murder them and at the same time they were obliged to give them a Bill of Divorce which was a Testimony of the Womans Innocence and of the Husbands Levity and Impurity But our Saviour tells them that from the beginning it was not so and that what God had joined no man could put asunder which was as much as to say that common Laws allow more than is allowed by the Laws of Religion as is clear from this Instance that in all Christian Kingdoms there are Judges Constituted for deciding differences betwixt Man and Man of what nature soever they may be for preventing Oppression and Injustice so that the Bench is open to Trivial and Frivolous suits as well as to those that are Weighty and Material yet the practice of such as go to Law upon every occasion is contrary to the Apostles Command and Christian Charity as may be seen 1 Cor. 1. 6. It is also observable that our Saviour taught those Pharisaical Zealots who valued themselves upon their external sanctity a more refin'd and higher degree of Chastity than they had formerly been acquainted with viz. That the Law which forbad them to commit Adultery did not only reach the outward practice but the inward motions and thoughts of the heart and therefore he tells them Matth 5. 28. That whosoever lookt on a Woman to Lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his heart a Doctrine which does so much Gall our Modern Gallants That we have great reason to presume it is one of the Chief Latent Causes why so many of 'em denâ—… the Author of it to be God We come next to the Historical passages of the new Testament relating to our Subject The first we meet with is that in Mat. 14. concerning the Tetrarch Herod and Herodias his Brother Philip's Wife with whom that Prince committed Incest for which he was reproved by John the Baptist and this did so incense the wicked Woman that nothing less could expiate this supposed Crime of the Prophet than the loss of his life but she durst not attempt that rashly for fear of the people who as they knew her to be a Vicious Strumpet did also know that John was a Good Man and esteem'd him as a Prophet his Vertues being as conspicuous as her Vices and therefore she watch'd a convenient opportunity which she found on her Gallant Herod's Birth-day when he was feasting and revelling with his Nobles at which time she sent in her Daughter the unworthy off-spring of such an Ungodly Mother to Dance before them where with Herod and his Company were so extreamly well pleas'd
some Interpreters did both of 'em center in this Lamech who is thought to have been a bloody cruel Man as is gathered from this discourse to his Wives in that Chapter viz. I have slaâ—…n a man to my wounding and a young man to my hurt This bad example of Lamech's digamy did quickly infect the Infant World for we find in the next Chapter That when men began to multiply and that daughters were born unto them the Sons of God saw the Daughters of men that they were fair and they took them Wives of all that they chose It s still to be observed that as Whoredom and Uncleanness began in Cain's Family so there it continu'd and increas'd and by their Contagious Example the Family of Seth which did then contain the Visible Church became also infected and the Members of the Church having more regard to the Beauty and Comeliness of the Women of Cain's Race than to the vertue of those who were of their own Religion their Eyes betrayed their Hearts they lusted after their Beauty and without any consideration of Religion or Laws took them Wives of all that they chose by which Interpreters understand promiscuous Marriages Polygamy unjust Divorces Rapes and all manner of Lewd and Licentious practises which brought the Wrath of God upon the old World and occasion'd his saying as in the 3d verse That his spirit should not always contend with Man The occasion of this General Corruption of Manners is hinted to be the multiplication of Men and particularly of the Women of Cain's Posterity who being under no discipline and wanting the benefit of pious Instruction and good Example became dissolute and wanton and no care being taken to dispose of them duly in Marriage they took all occasions to satisfie their brutal desires for which their dwelling in Cities whereof Cain was the first Founder amongst multitudes of people gave them great opportunities it being always observ'd that in Great Cities the numbers of dissolute persons makes them to despise Laws and follow such practices as they durst not venture upon in Villages and Countries where they could be more easily restrained and punisht not that I would be understood to be against the building and maintaining of Cities which increase the Glory Riches and Strength of Nations but would to God that the great Cities of Christendom were not still too justly chargeable with avowed Impurities of the same nature which a zealous Magistracy might easily prevent It is also the opinion of some of the learned that the Cainites did first build themselves a City that they might strengthen one anothers hands in Cruelty and Uncleanness and follow such practises with all manner of impunity which gave their Women opportunity to pamper and deck themselves that they might be the more agreeable objects of Lust and this might also render them more amiable in the Eyes of the Posterity of Seth who living as 't is presumed a Rural Life for the most part and their Women being kept in order by Laws and Religion and applying themselves to the Affairs of their Families that they might approve themselves meet helps to their Husbands according to the design of God at the first Creation of Woman did not mind the decking and adorning of their Bodies nor the pampering of their Flesh and cherishing their Beauties as the Cainites did and therefore were not so pleasing to the Eye as those lascivious Women who behaved themselves as if God and Nature had design'd them for nothing else but a Man's bed whereas the Divine Goodness appointed that they should be meet-helps in their Religious Conversation Industry Care and Education of Children to all of which those loose practices of the Cainites were diametrically opposite From those unequal Marriages and promiscuous Copulations proceeded a contempt of Laws and Religion amongst the Cainites and an Apostacy from Godand Religion amongst many of the Posterity of Seth and it hath been observed amongst all Nations since that when Religion decays uncleanness increases and that a love to Licentiousness hath always been a great cause of Apostacy as is but too too observable in those that are called Deists and Socinians in this present Age most of their New Converts or rather Perverts being people of a loose life especially as to the point of Chastity The next effect of those unclean and beastly Commixtions was an off-spring of Giants so called as some Interpreters think from the vastness of their bulk as being begot in raging Lust or as others because of their Barbarous and Salvage Manners and filling all the World with Rapes Cruelty and Devastation so that by the just Judgment of God the Children of those unlawful Marriages and Promiscuous Copulations became the plague of their Parents and the scourge of Mankind as well as the declared Enemies of Heaven and Religion Whence the old doting Poets took occasion to amuse the World with the fabulous War of the Giants against Jupiter c. Noah not being able by his preaching of Righteousness to reform the World from this horrid Debauchery it provok'd God to bring the Deluge which drown'd that lascivious and wicked Generation of Men who had drown'd themselves in all manner of sensual Impurities with so much obstinacy that when that fatal Flood came it surpriz'd them as eating drinking marrying and giving in marriage Thus then it 's apparent that Whoredom was one of the principal Causes that brought the Wrath of God upon the old World And it deserves our observation that God by his Command to Noah to take only his own VVife and the three Wives of his three Sons into the Ark with him as he did thereby give another Testimony of his honouring and approving of Marriage he did also plainly testifie against Digamy Polygamy and Concubines and that as the World was peopled at first by lawful Marriage it should be also peopled in the same manner a second time To come next to the times after the Flood the first instance of impurity that occurs to us is Ham's deriding his father Noah 's nakedness by which there are some Interpreters who understand that he not only told it his Brethren but also before Women and Children in a lascivious and filthy manner and took occasion to fall into foolish Jesting and Sarcasms Nay if we give credit to the opinion of Berosus and the Rabbins he inchanted his Fathers Virile parts and unman'd him but however that is this is certain that he discover'd a frothy unclean lascivious temper for which he was severely punisht in his posterity The Canaanites who wallowed also in those fleshly impurities when God destroyed them by the Israelites the posterity of Sem as shall be taken notice of in its proper place From Ham did also proceed Nimrod the Mighty Hunter and cruel oppressor who was the first that laid the foundation of a Tyrannical Government after the Flood so that the observation still holds that Uncleanness Murder and those other Crimes which lay
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
plead for and will boldly assert that there 's no harm in keeping an Unmarried Woman for a Miss And that the Socinian Books and the Spreaders of that Heresie are entertain'd chiefly by Men of such Principles and Practices is so plain that it cannot well be deny'd To return to our Account of this Work We have in the next place taken all those Instances in the celebrated History of Josephus that did any way make for our purpose We have likewise taken those in Justin Plutarch's Lives and Quintus Curtius relating to the Greeks Persians and other Eastern Nations treated of by the Ancients and have turn'd over the Roman Histories from the foundation of Rome to the Reign of Augustulus wherein the Reader will find that this Sin of Uncleanness hath had Tragical Effects upon Empires and Emperors Monarchies and Monarchs occasion'd many Revolutions of Government and that neither the Victories of Alexander Julius Coesar and Pompey nor the great Dignity universal Esteem and Princely Qualities of Augustus and Titus the Son of Vespasian have been able to rub out the Stains which their impure Lusts have fixed upon their Memories Nor indeed is there any reason to think it should when the Faith of Abraham the Holiness of David and the Wisdom and Grandeur of Solomon have not been able to secure them against those Punishments which their Uncleanness brought upon their Persons Families and Reputations so infallibly true hath it always been found what the Wise-man hath foretold of the Adulterer in the 6th of the Proverbs That a Wound and a Dishonour shall he get and his Reproach shall not be wiped away We have also look'd into the Ecclesiastical Histories of Eusebius Socrates Evagrius c. for such Instances as relate to our Subject which we have faithfully set down to shew how hateful and abominable Unclean Persons were in the Eyes of the Ancient Church what severe Penances were injoyn'd them and with how much Difficulty they were receiv'd again into its Communion It was design'd to have taken a View of the Histories of all Nations extant and amongst others to have inserted the horrid Instances that are to be found in the Lives of the Popes and other Heresiarchs and in a word to have brought the History down to our Time but finding that the Volume swell'd I thought fit to deferr that to a Second Essay AN Alphabetical Table OF THE CONTENTS A A Bimelech how punish'd for taking Sara Page 18 His Testimony against Adultery ibid. Abraham 's Polygamy how occasion'd and punish'd 10 11 12 Abner 's Uncleanness and Punishment 64 Absalom 's Incest and Punishment the Opinions of the Rabbins upon it 71 73 The weight of his Hair how much the Opinion of the Rabbins how David deliver'd him from Hell ibid. Achitophel 's unclean Counsel and Punishment 73 Adonijah 's Uncleanness and Punishment 79 Adulterer who the first 2 Adultery how said not to be known at Sparta 190 Agathocla Agathocles and Evanthes Whoredom and Punishment 162 Agathocles 's Whoredom and Punishment 159 Ageus how he knew Theseus to be his Son 187 Agis King of Lacedemon betrayed by his Adulterous Queen 144 Ahab Zedekia 's uncleanness and punishment 94 Alcibiades why banish'd the manner of his Death 145 Alexander the Great his lust fulness and punishment 149 154 156 195 196 Alexander K. of Pherea 198 Amazons what they were their original and way of propagation 141 Ammon 's Incest and punishment 67 The cause of his hatred to Tamar after he had radish'd her 69 Anilaeus 's uncleanness and punishment 115 Antony 's Debauches and Death 215 270 221 Antiochus desperately in love with his Father's Wife how discover'd obtains her 213 Apparel Roman Luxury in it 295 Appius Claudius 's uncleanness and punishment 13 Apicius 's Gluttony poisons himself 278 Archelaus 's uncleanness and punishment 99 Archias ruin'd by Whoredom 197 Aristotimus 's Whoredom and Punishment 160 Arsinoe her Incest and Punishment 160 161 Artaxerxes 's uncleanness and punishment 148 224 Assyrian Empire overturn'd by Lust. 135 Athenians ruin'd by Luxury 145 Athens and Rome both founded by Lust and Enemies to Christianity 187 Angustus 's Lust and Punishment 231 Unhappy in his Children 232 His luxurious Feast 234 Aurelius Commodus 's Lusts Persecution and Death 257 St. Austin how converted 124 Adulteresses punish'd by being shut up in a Brothel-house that Custom abolish'd by Theodosius 306 B Baalpeor what 46 Babylonians ruin'd by Whoredom 95 c. Bacchanalian Rites what how discover'd and abolish'd 181 186 The Consul's Speech against 'em 185 Bacchus 's Worship why ridicul'd by the Scythians 120 Bagoas Alexander 's Catamite his Cruelty 156 Balaam 's fâ—…thy advice and punishment 46 Why the Jews say he was guilty of Bestiality with his Ass. 52 Barges of Heliogabalus describ'd 294 Baths Luxury of the Romans in 'em 288 Bedstcds of Silver and Gold 294 Benjamites their uncleanness and punishment 60 Berecinthia her Worship what 263 Births heterogeneous their cause 53 Bonosus 's Drunkenness 273 Bridge over the Sea by Caligula 285 Brutus cuts off the Tarquins for their uncleanness 168 Buildings Roman Luxury therein 291 Bells rung by Prostitutes at Rome to invite Passengers 307 C Caligula 's Lust and Punishment 237 c. His extravagant Taxes his Death Sueton 's Character of him 281 Canaanites uncleanness and punishment 52 53 Capua ruin'd by Lust. 176 Caracalla 's Lust and Death 259 Carinus kill'd for Adultery 260 Catiline 's Whoredom 223 Cato the younger's false Notions of Marriage 207 Parts with his Wife to Quintus Hortensius takes her again when a Widow 207 Murders himself 209 Cato the Censor punishes Voluptuousness 199 His own Amours ibid. Centurion remarkably punish'd for his Lust. 180 Cerinthus the Heretick's Uncleanness Chastity of the Primitive Christians testified by Tertullian Origen St. Jerome Pliny and Clem. Alexandrinus 312 313 314 316 Chastity of a Christian Youth remarkable 314 Children of weak Constitutions barbarously murder'd by the Spartans 191 Chrysargyrum what and how abolish'd 309 Cicero 's Incontinence Luxury in his Palaces 291 His Death 224 Cimon 's Lust and Punishment 202 Circumcision why only applied to Males 13 Cities when first built by whom and why 5 Claudius Caesar 's Lusts and Punishment 240 His Incest with Agrippina 241 His Agreement to the adulterous Contract betwixt his Wife Messalina and Silius his Death ibid. Clemens Alexandrinus 's Opinion concerning unclean persons 311 Cleonice flain by her Paramour 202 Cleopatra her Incest and Punishment 164 Her Drunkenness drinks Pearls to the value of 300000 Sestertii 271 272 Her manner of coming to Antony their riotous way of living poysons her self 220 221 Cloaks excessive number of ' em 296 Clodius 's Whoredom 203 223 224 Comes Romanus what 290 Cooks excessive in number and value 277 278 Cups excess expensiveness and beastly forms of ' em 275 D Damocles leaps into scalding Oyl to avoid Sodomy 211 David 's Amours with Maacha and the Opinions of the Rabbins concerning it 68 David 's
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
and Spear be Cruel and shew no Mercy May God avert fuch Judgments from England which does so well deserve it because of the pollutions of her Inhabitants In the 23d Chap. the Prophet Complains that the Land is full of Adulterers and because of swearing the Land mourneth the breach of the 3d. and 7th Commandment go usually together as is to be seen in the Dammees and Debauchees of our days In the 14th Verse of that same Chapter he says I have seen also in the Prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing they commit Adultery and walk in lyes they strengthen also the hands of evil doers that none doth return from his wickedness They are all of 'em unto me as Sodom and the Inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah And afterwards he adds For from the Prophets of Jerusalem is Profaneness gone forth into all the Land And would to God that none of our Clergy did pollute themselves with the reigning sins of the times nor encourage the wickedness of others by their Licentious Doctrine and loose Lives but certainly when profanity is arriv'd to that heighth we have reason to fear that such Judgments as destroyed the Nation of the Jews lie in wait for us It remains that we take notice of the Accomplishment of those dreadfull threatnings which were exactly fullfilled by the carrying away of King Zedekiah and the People into Captivity the slaying of his Sons before his Eyes and putting all the Nobles to Death after which the City was burnt with fire the People dispers'd and such of them as endeavoured to resetle themselves were broke in pieces by Intestine divisions And Zedekiah and Ahab two lying Prophets who endeavoured to perswade the people that what Jeremiah Prophesied against them should not come to pass and hardened the people by their profligate Example of committing Adultery with their Neighbours Wives were thro' the Just Judgment of God burnt in the fire by Nebuchadnezzar and the Memory of their Crime and Punishment was perpetuated to Posterity by this Curse among the Jews The Lord make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab whom the K. of Babylon roasted in the fire So that the fire of their Impure Lust was punished by a more severe punishment than that of a fiery Ordeal for as St. Jerome thinks they were fried and so burnt to death by degrees as they had from time to time burnt in their Uncleanness Thus we have another Instance of a Great and Mighty People ruined by Whoredom and how great their Ruin and Calamity was will speedily appear to any one that reads the Lamentations It likewise deserves our observation that the Babylonians the Instruments in the hands of God for punishing Israel were brought to ruin themselves and one of the principal Causes assigned for the same is That they grew fat as the Heifer at Grass and bellow'd as Bulls Jer. 50. which Calvin and other Interpreters understand to be a parallel phrase to that of Neighing after their Neighbours Wives The Judgments threatned upon Babylon in this Chapter we find to be exactly fullfilled and at a time too as Daniel gives us an account when their King Belshazzar was rioting and feasting with his Princes his Wives and his Concubines and profanely drinking out of the holy Vessels which were brought from the House of God at Jerusalem It has been formerly observed that Nimrod the Tyrant laid the Foundation of this Monarchy when the World began to degenerate again after the flood and to immerse themselves in all manner of sensualities and therefore the Greeks according to Bochart in his Canaan Lib. 1. Cap. 2. Confound Nimrod with Bacchus The Story of Semiramis Queen of Babylon and the dissolute Manners of that People during her Reign is well enough known She was a Warlike Princess and during her Regency in the Minority of her â—…on she Enlarged her Husbands Conquests on the one hand as far as Aethiopia and on the other as far as India having first subdued Media Libya and Egypt she likewise built a Magnificent Tomb to the Memory of Ninus her Husband finished the City of Babyloâ—… surrounded it with those Walls and caused those Gardens to be made on the Top of her Palaces which made them the wonder of the World But she Tarnished all her Glory by her Brutish Lust it being recorded of her that she tempted the handsomest of her Soldiers to lie with her and having satisfyed her Lust caused them to be murdered and to make them amends raised Stately Tombs over theirGraves at last she was so far transported by her raging Lust that she became enamoured of her own Son who as a Just Judgment from God slew her as she tempted him to commit Incest with her as is related by Justin Diodorus Siculus and Others All Historians who write of the Ba'ylonians agree that they were a very Luxurious People and it is not at all to be doubted but their Luxury and Lasciviousness as it drew down the Judgments of God upon them so it rendred them Effeminate and made them an easie Conquest to others after they had Conquer'd so many Nations themselves The Extent of this City was prodigious being as Heylin says 46 English Miles in Compass Aristotle says That it was rather a Country than a City and that when it was surprized by the Medes and Persians it was three days before the Inhabitants of the furthiest parts were aware of it It 's Walls were of Brick cemented with Bitumen 32 Foot thick 50 Cubits high and defended by Towers 10 Foot higher The River Euphrates run thro' the middle of it and the Walls were encompassed by deep Ditches It had a Castle 20 Furlongs in Circuit environ'd with Towers 30 Foot in the Ground and 80 above it yet all this strength could not secure it against those Judgments which pursued the people for their Luxury and Uncleanness for the Persians having drained the Channel of Euphrates by cutting many deep Channels on the Banks of it march'd into the City and surpriz'd it while Belshazzar and his Lords who should have taken care of the defence of it were profanely Carousing with their Wives and Concubines And to make the Judgment so much the more Remarkable they were terrified by the prodigy of a hand writing upon the Wall which made Belshazzar's knees smite together for fear and foretold the impending Fate of himself and his Guests and the destruction of his Kingdom It is worth our observation that this Famous City the wonder and the Metropolis of the World so Beautiful and Commodiously situated should for the Luxury and other Crimes of the Inhabitants be turned into a Wilderness by the just Judgment of God when according to the ordinary Methods of Men it might be supposed that the Conquerors would have taken all imaginable care to preserve such an Important City for their own Glory and Profit but it decay'd Gradually till at last it came to be turned into a Park for Hunting by the Kings of Persia so that in
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