acceptable to the Persians and in their place brought in as many young Men in Womens Habit with orders to punish the Ambassadors for their lasciviousness and accordingly when they begun to handle them as they had done the Women the young men kill'd every one of the Ambassadors with Swords which they had concealed under their Garments In that same Book we have an instance of an abominable Incestuous Intrigue of Eurydice Wife to another Amyntas King of Macedonia and Nephew to the former who falling in Love with her Son-in-Law upon promise of Marriage undertook to murder her Husband and advance her Gallant to the Throne but was prevented by her Daughter who discovered her Mothers Incest and bloody design yet Amyntas for the Love which he bare to the Children that he had by this wicked Woman spar'd her and the Unnatural Beast after his Death murdered her own Sons Alexander and Perdiccas by him tho'for their sakes he had spared her Life and all this mischief she committed that she might wallow without Interruption in her Impure Lusts. In his 9th Book he gives us an account of the death of Philip of Macedon Rather to Alexander the Great which was occasioned partly by his having Divorc'd Olympias on suspicion of Adultery or with an Adulterous design to marry Cleopatra and partly because he had not executed Judstice upon Attalus for having Committed Sodomy upon Pausanias who freâ—…uently complained of it but was always dismiss'd with scorn and therefore watching his Opportunity he stabb'd Philip on the day that he was married to Cleopatra as walking betwixt his own Sons afterwards Alexander the Great and Alexander his Son-in-Law Thus this Great Prince who had Conquer'd many Nations and Countries became a Conquest and Victim to his own Lusts and the Lusts of others and occasioned likewise the death of his Paramour Cleopatra Olympias having first murdered her Daughter and then forc'd Cleopatra to hang her self His â—…th Book furnishes us with a very remarkable instance of Artaxerxes King of Persia who had 115 some say 160 Sons by Concubines and three only by Lawfull Marriage for which Incontinence he was punish'd in the following manner his Son Darius being by the Indulgence of Artaxerxes admitted to the Throne while he himself was alive contrary to the Custom of the Persians he ungratefully Conspired against his Father's Life and engaged 49 of his Brethren in the Conspiracy The occasion of this Unnatural Plot was yet more vile than the Plot it self which Justin relates thus Artaxerxes having defeated and killed his Brother Cyrus in the War betwixt them he married Aspasia Cyrus his Concubine and her Darius wou'd have his Father to resign to him as well as his Throne which the Indulgent Father promised to do at first but repenting of it afterwards he made her priestess to the Sun that he might have a fair pretence of denying her to Darius because according to the Persian superstition those of that Office must observe perpetual Chastity Darius taking this as a great affront entred into the Conspiracy as abovementioned which being discovered the Incestuous and Unnatural Traitor with all his Associates their Wires and Children was cut off that there might be no memorial left of such a horrid piece of Villainy Thus was Uncleanness justly punish'd both in Father and Children and this Instance is so much the more remarkable that it fell out but a few years before the overthrow of the Persian Monarchy by Alexander the Great which the Lasciviousness and Effeminacy of the Persians made easy to be effected Our next instance is Alexander the Great who tho in the height of his Youth and Conquests he obtain'd so much Glory by abstaining from Darius his Beautiful Queen and Daughters who were his Captives yet giving himself afterwards up to Impure Pleasures he hath thereby rendred his Infamy as Immortal as his Fame It 's observed of him by his Historian Curtius that he was always more Famous in War than after Victory and that having broke the Power of the Persian Empire he degenerated into those very Manners or rather Vices which made the Persians such an easie Conquest to him That same Author in his 5th Book gives us an Account that Alexander having staid much longer at Babylon than he did at any other place the Corrupt Manners of the Citizens did more prejudice to the Discipline of his Army than any thing they had met with before that time and indeed the Description that Curtius gives us of the abominable Luxury and Impurity which reign'd in that City is sufficient to convince us that the Empire of which that was the Metropolis or at least the most Renowned and Greatest City was ripe for ruin The words of the Historian are as follow There was nothing more corrupt than the manners of that City and nothing more Accommodated to incite and provoke Voluptuousness and Lust. The Parents and Husbands permitted their Wives and Daughters to lie with their Guests provided they gave them a Reward Banquets Revells and Plays were the Chief delights of the Kings and Princes of Persia. The Babylonians were wholly giv'n up to Wine Drunkenness and the Consequences of it Their Women when they first came in to their Feasts and Banquets were apparelied modestly enough but in a little time after they threw off their upper Garments and in the last place with modesty be it spoken vncover'd their Nakedness nor was this only the practise of the Common prostitutes but of their Matrons and married Women who esteem'd such promiscuous dalliance a Great piece of Complaisance and Good breeding with which Dehauches says our Author that Army which Conquer'd Asia being glutted for 34 days they had doubtless been rendred very unfit for what they undertook afterwards if they had not been Reinforc'd by fresh supplies of uncorrupted men from Macedonia c. Our Author gives us another Instance of the Idleness and Luxury of the Persian Women viz. That when Alexander the Great had received Purple and Macedonian Apparel made by his own Sisters in a Present from home he ordered the same to be Presented to Sysigambis the Mother of Darius with this Complement that if she lik'd them he would furnish her with those who shou'd teach her Grand Daughters to make such which presently drew Tears from the Persian Princess there being nothing reckon'd more dishonourable amongst the Persian Women than to Card and Spin which I take to be the meaning of our Author's words to touch Wool How much this differs from Solomon's Character of a good Houswife and whether the handling of Wool had not been more commendable than such Dissolute Revels as we just now mentioned let the World Judge But to return to Alexander the Great After he had with great difficulty and danger past the straits of Susis and taken Persepolis the Royal Residence of the Kings of Persia the Lascivious Inhabitants became Executioners of Divine Justice upon themselves and their Impure City for putting on their
Pythia Daughter to the Queen of Epirus whilst his Wife who was Sister to Antiochus was yet alive so fatal hath the Adultery of Princes always been to Kings and Kingdoms In his 30th Book we have the Instance of Ptolemy King of Egypt who having murdered his own Wife Eurydice that was also his Sister he became so enamour'd on Agathocla the Strumpet that he minded nothing but Revelling and Dancing and thus says Justin the King became not only a Spectator but a Master of Villany and committing Sodomy also with Agathocles a handsome fellow and Brother to the Strumpet above mentioned they and their Mother Evanthe govern'd the King and Kingdom and disposed of all offices In the mean-time Ptolemy died which those vile Women concealed a long time and so shar'd the Royal Treasure and Government with Villains But the matter coming at last to be known the multitude assembled cut off Agathocles and hang'd his Mother and Sister such was the Tragical Exit they brought upon themselves by their uncleanness In his 37th Book we have the instance of Mithridates the great King of Pontus who married his own Sister Laodâ—…ce in which match he was Justly unhappy for during his long absence a viewing the chief places of Asia she had admitted strangers to his Bed and tho' she feigned a mighty Joy at his return yet she endeavoured to poyson him in order to cover her Unchastity whereof Mithridates being advertised by a Maid he punish'd his Wife by death for her Treachery and tho' he himself became Great and Glorious afterwards by his Vâ—…ctories over the Asiaticks and his Wars with the Romans yet Divine Justice pursued him so that he killed himself in his old Age when he heard that his Son by that Unnatural Marriage had usurp'd the Kingdom In his 38th Book we have the horrid instance of Ptolemy Physcon who after the death of Ptolemy King of Egypt Married his Widow Cleopatra who was his own Sister kill'd her Son by her first Husband the very day of his Marriage and afterwards Divorc'd her self and Ravish'd her Daughter whom he afterwards Married This made him so hatefull to the people that they deserted the City where he dwelt so that finding himself a King without Subjects he was forc'd to invite strangers to reside there And at last became so odious that he fled with the Son that he had begot on his Sister taking her Daughter along with him and with a Mercenary Army made War upon his Sister and his Country and sent for his eldest Son and killed him to prevent the peoples chusing him in his stead The Subjects were so much enraged with these proceedings that they threw down his Statues and Pictures every where which he conceiving to be done by his Sister's advice he cut the Son that he had by her in pieces put them up in a Box and sent them to his Mother on his Birth-day Thus were they mutually plagued and punished for their Incest and a destructive War was kindled betwixt them which took its first rise from their enflamed Lusts and proved fatal to their Subjects as well as to themselves Ptolemy Physcon or the Debauch'd dying a little time after and having been some time before reconciled to his Wife and Sister Cleopatra he left her the Kingdom of Egypt she being compelled by the people to chuse her eldest Son to Govern that Kingdom before she would resign the same she compelled him to Divorce his Beloved Wife and Sister Cleopatra and she being afterwards married to Cyricaenus in Syria those Incestuous matches were punished by a mutual War betwixt the Brethren Gryphus and Cyricaenus and the latter being overcome Gryphina Wife to Gryphus would not be content till his Sister and Wife Cleopatra whom his Mother had made him to Divorce was murdered and Cyricaenus obtaining a Victory over Gryphus in his Turn put Gryphina to death in Revenge Cleopatra the Mother being weary of her Son Ptolemy's Reigning with her jointly in Egypt she stir'd up the people against him took his Wife Seleuce from him after she had born him two Sons sent him into Exile call'd his younger Brother Alexander to Reign in his stead but he being afraid of her cruelty abandon'd her then the Wicked Woman being afraid that her eldest Son would make War upon her to recover the Kingdom she sent great assistance to Gryphus and likewise gave him Seleuce to Wife Having at the same time recall'd her Son Alexander he understood that she laid snares for his Life and therefore seiz'd and cut her off and he himself was banisht by the people for this parricide Thus were their raging Lusts punished by a mutual War and Raging cruelty against one another And as if Heaven would have Syria and Egypt to read their sin in their punishment they were invaded and plagued by Hierotimus King of Arabia and his Six hundred Sons whom he had beg t on Concubines and who attack'd the Syrians and Egyptians with separate Armies and parties We come next to the Roman History where in the very threshold we are presented with an Account that that City and Monarchy was founded by Whoredom The story of Remus and Romulus being born of a Vestal Virgin for whom it was not Lawfull to Marry and that they were the Founders of that City demonstrates the truth of Rome's being Deriv'd from a spurious Original and the City being once Founded Romulus made it a Sanctuary for Vagabonds and a disorderly Rabble who were so much contemned by their Neighbours that they scorn'd to give them their Daughters in Marriage which occasion'd their Ravishing the Sabine Virgins and that brought forth a War which endangered the overthrow of this new Government in its Infancy as Livy gives an Account at large in his first Book Dec. 1. so fatal hath Whordom and Uncleanness always proved to Societies Livy in that same Book and Decad gives us an Acccount that Kingly Government was overturned at Rome because of a Rape in the manner following The Kings Sons and Kinsmen did often spend their time in Feasting and Treating one another and in their Cups at supper there happened a Discourse concerning their Wives upon which each man launched out in the praises of his own and thence a Quarrel arising Collatinus said it was in vain to talk since it might easily and speedily be known how much his Wife Lucretia excelled the rest adding for they were then in the Camp before Ardea Let us mount our Horses and go see with our own Eyes what kind of Women our Wives are and that shall be the Test which occurs to each man upon this unexpected Visit so that Galloping to Rome they went thence to Collatia where they found Lucretia not imployed like the rest of the Kings Daughters-in-Law viz. spending their time in Banquetting and Luxury but sitting amongst her Maids a Spinning Whereupon it was agreed that her Husband Collatinus came off Conquerer in that dispute and he being pleas'd with it did
in his Life written by Plutarch tho' he was continually attended by that excellent person Socrates whose wholsome Instructions had much Influence upon him yet all his Philosophy was not able to reform him We find him accus'd when a Boy of a Suspicion of being a Catamite his Wife Hipparete a virtuous Lady and one that lov'd him entirely abandon'd him at last because of his multitude of Whores and su'd for a Divorce from him but when she pâ—…esented her self before the Magistrate for that end Alcibiades retook her again by Force He is accus'd of being Luxurious in his Eating Drinking and Amours and was much despis'd by the Athenians because instead of their usual Ensigns upon his Shield he had a Cupid painted upon it with a Thunderbolt in his Hand Aristophon the Painter drew him sitting in the Curtesan Nemea's Arms which much displeas'd the graver Athenians While he was an Exile at Sparta he debauch'd the Wife of Agis King of Lacedemon and had a Son by her And 't is observable that the cause of his being banish'd from his own Country and condemn'd to Death was his having perform'd the debauch'd Mysteries of the Eleusina Sacra by way of Mockery The Injury he did to Agis King of Lacedemon made him unsafe there so that he fled for Security to Tisaphernes the Persian General In a word his whole Life was a continued Series of remarkable Ups and Downs And his Death was no less remarkable the Historian giving us an Account of it in this manner viz. That having retir'd to a small Village in Phrygia with one Timandra a Mistress of his he was at the instance of the Lacedemonians attack'd in his House by some Barbarians who setting it on fire he with much ado escap'd thro' the Flames and was at last slain by their Darts his Mistress Timandra having buried him with as much Decency as her Circumstances would allow Thus did Alcibiades fall ingloriously by his Lusts who had done so many Great and Glorious Actions in the World We have already touch'd upon the Judgments which pursued Dionysius the Lustful Tyrant of Sicily for his Uncleanness but meeting with a further Instance of it in the Life of Timoleon it is thought proper to take notice of it here in the words of Plutarch viz. That all the Mischiefs and Vexations of his former Reign were abundantly repaid and outdone by those Evils and Calamities which he then suffer'd for he liv'd to see the Funerals of his Sons in the prime of their Age the Rapes of his Daughters in the Flower of their Virginity and the Prostitution of his own Sister that became his Wife who being first villanously treated and her Person expos'd to all the Lust and Lewdness of the common Souldiery she was afterwards murder'd together with her Children and their Bodies cast into the Sea Thus was Dionysius punish'd as we may say in Specie for his Lust and Cruelty In the Life of Pelopidas we find this remarkable Passage concerning Archias the Tyrant of Thebes who having render'd himself odious to the People by his Oppression and sent many of them into Exile some of the Chief of those Exiles contriv'd his Ruine under the Conduct of Pelopidas thus Philidas who was Secretary to Archias having invited him and some others to an Entertainment to drink freely and accompany some married Whores he was so much taken up with his Cups and the Expectation of his Female Guests that tho' he had a Letter sent him discovering the Plot against his Life and deliver'd with this Message That it contain'd Matters of Concern and therefore 't was necessary he should read it he answer'd Matters of Concern to morrow And as he was carrousing thus Charon and Molon two of the Conspirators having put on Womens Apparel over their Armour and thick Garlands of Firr and Pine to shade their Faces in this manner came to the Door upon which Archion and his Guests gave an Huzza thinking they had been the lewd Women that they expected but were quickly undeceiv'd and had their Hearts pierced by the Conspirators Swords at the same time when they were pierced with the Darts of raging Lust. And thus Thebes was deliver'd from Tyranny In that same Life we have an Account how Divine Justice pursued Alexander the Tyrannical King of Pherea for his Brutish Lust. His Wife Thebe Daughter to Jason being enrag'd at him for his Debaucheries and particularly for abusing her younger Brother to his Lust she contriv'd his Death thus She hid her three Brothers in a Room near to his Bedchamber all the other Apartments being full of the Tyrant's Night-guards before his Chamber there lay a fierce Dog chain'd which would flye at all but the Tyrant's Wife and a Servant that fed him When Night came Thebe went in alone to his Chamber according to the usual Custom and finding him asleep came out again commanded the Servant to lead away the Dog for the King would take some Rest and then covering the Stairs with Wool brought up her Brothers into his Chamber where they kill'd him and throwing out his Carcass it was trod under foot in great Contempt by the Phereans In the Life of Marcus Cato the Censor we find that the grave Romans thought that not so much as a Marriage or a Night's Lodging for the Procreation of Children nay not a Feast or Drinking-bout ought to be permitted according to every one's Fancy without being censur'd and enquir'd into and therefore they chose two Persons one out of the Patricians the other out of the Commons who were to watch correct and punish if any one ran too much after Voluptuousness and therefore Cato tho' he met with much Opposition because of his Severity was prefer'd to that Imployment and the first remarkable thing which we find perform'd by him in that Office was the Expulsion of Lucius Quintus from the Senate because he had to please a Boy whom he kept as a Catamite order'd a condemn'd Person to be executed before him at a Feast He did also throw Manilius out of the Senate because in the presence of his Daughter and in open Day he was a little too sweet upon his own Wife The People were so well pleased with his Behaviour in his Imployment that they erected a Statue for him in the Temple of the Goddess of Health with the following Inscription That this was Cato the Censor who by his good Discipline and Ordinances reclaim'd the Roman Commonwealth when 't was declining and supinely tumbling into Vice Yet we find that this very Man so famous for the Severity and Uprightness of his Manners not improving that Knowledg which God had given him was overcome by his Lusts even in his Old-age for Plutarch says that in his old days when he was past a Lover's Years he made use of Women and particularly of a young Wench who came privately to him which being discover'd by his Son who took Offence thereat the old Man in revenge married a
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
Supper of the twelve Gods at what time the Guests sate down in the Habits of Gods and Goddesses he himself representing Apollo upon which the following Verses were made viz. Cum primum istorum conduxit mensa Choragum Sexque Deos vidit Mallia sexque Deas Impia dum Phoebi Caesar mendacia ludit Dum nova divorum caenat Adulteria Omnia se a Terris tunc Numina declinarunt Fugit Auratos Jupiter ipse Thronos In English thus Soon as the Vestments for the Feasts were hir'd Six Gods six Goddesses themselves attir'd In Mallia 's view And impious Caesar nothing would suffice But Phoebus Shape and under that disguise Th' Adu'teries of the Gods to act anew But then the Gods withdrew From Sights on Earth they could not brook And Jove himself their gilded Thrones forsook Thus we see this great and excellent Emperor who was in a manner ador'd and admir'd by all Men could not with all his Magnificence and Bounty and the Fame of his other Actions wipe off that indelible Stain which those Impurities had fix'd upon his Memory so infallibly true is it what Solomon hath said of the Adulterer That a Wound and a Dishonour he shall get and his Reproach shall not be wip'd away The next Instance is that of Tiberius Caesar who to comply with the Emperor Augustus divorc'd his Wife Agrippina who had born him a Son and was then big with Child to marry Julia Daughter to the said Emperor much against his Inclination This Marriage as it was unlawful did justly prove uncomfortable so that some time after the Death of his Son by Julia there arose such a Difference betwixt them that from that minute he forbore the use of her Bed and she being convicted of Adulteries a Divorce was drawn up against her in his Name and sent him by Augustus After this Tiberius retir'd to Capraea where he gave himself up to Drink and Lust insomuch that he was call'd Biberius instead of Tiberius and Mero instead of Nero and was waited on at Meals by Wenches There he invented Alcoves which he furnish'd with Whores and Catamites and lewd Discoverers of unnatural and beastly Postures and Motions and those he call'd Spinctriae the Incendiaries of his Lust He entertain'd himself by seeing them in three several rows abusing each other thereby to excite his decay'd Appetite He provided likewise several Chambers hung about with filthy Pictures and infamous Statues and furnish'd them with the abominable Books of Elephantis that if any one had a mind to be prodigiously wicked he might not want a Pattern to sin by He invented also in the Woods Walks and Grottoes proper for the business of Debauchery where young People of both Sexes prostituted themselves in the Masquerades of Nymphs and Satyrs so that in allusion to the Island and his beastly Lustfulness he was publickly derided by the Name Caprinaeus One incredible piece of Debauchery he was guilty of viz. that he debauch'd young Children yet in ignorance calling them his little Fry teaching them to play between his Thighs while he swam to lick and tongue and suck him like Infants not yet weaned It is also storied of him that when a piece of Parrhasius's Work representing Atalanta offering her Mouth in that manner to Meleager was left him for a Legacy with condition that if he fancied not the Design he should receive in lieu thereof a Million of Sesterces he not only chose the Picture but placed it in his very Bed-chamber And one time when he was performing Sacrifice he was so seiz'd with a Fit of this unnatural Passion towards the Boy that carried the Censor that he could scarce restrain himself till the Sacrifice was over and as soon as that was done he debauch'd both that Boy and his Brother and hearing that they upbraided one another with that Ignominy afterwards he order'd both their Leggs to be broken He was wont to abuse Women and those of Quality too very unnaturally as was evident in the Case of Mallonia who being brought him by his Panders and resolutely withstanding his Brutish Desires was cited before him upon the Depositions of suborn'd Witnesses where he ask'd her openly if she did not yet repent of her coy Refusal and vex'd her so that she at last went out of Court and stabb'd her self having before-hand sufficiently reproach'd the old Goatish Lecher with his nasty and obscene Mouth upon which in the next Farce a severe Reflection was made upon him which took mightily and was in every-body's Mouth the Expression was thus The old He-goat licks the Pudenda of the She-goats Such Practises must necessarily be thought to render him odious and therefore he kept in his Retirement as not daring to venture himself among the People yet Justice found him out our Author gives us an Account that Caius was suppos'd to have given him Poyson which wrought upon him by degrees others say that they starv'd him and some that he was stifled with a Pillow in the 78th year of his age The next that falls under our Consideration is Caligula of whom Suetonius gives us this following Account viz. That during his Youth he spent Nights in haunting Brothel-houses and meeting upon Adulterous Assignations disguis'd in a Perruque and a long Gown and was most passionately addicted to Dancing Singing and all the Alurements of the Stage with every one of his Sisters he was incestuously familiar and at all his Entertainments they were placed next below him by turns while his Wife sate at the upper end of the Table Among the rest he is reported to have debauch'd Drusilla while he was yet but a Youth and was once taken a-Bed with her by his Grandmother Antonia soon after being married to Lucius Cassius Longinus he took her away from him by force and liv'd with her as if she had been his Wife and after her Death it was his usual Oath to swear by Drusilla's Deity As for his other Sisters he did not love them so passionately but did frequently prostitute them to his Ganimedes which afforded him a more easie Opportunity to condemn them in the Case of Aemilius Lepidus of whom he was afraid for Adultery As to his Marriages he contracted and dissolv'd 'em with equal Ignominy Upon the very day that Livia Orestilla was married to C. Piso he being present at the Wedding commanded her to be brought home to his Palace as his own Wife but within a few days turn'd her off again and two years after banish'd her pretending that she had convers'd privately with her Husband in the mean time Others report That being invited to the Nuptial Supper as he sate over against Piso he sent one to whisper in his Ear these words Forbear to lie with my Wife and presently after rising from the Table led her home along with him and next day set forth a Decree declaring That he was married according to the Example of Romulus and Augustus Lollia Paulina being married to a Person of
's uncleanness slain by a Woman 200 R Reveal'd Religion why devided by the Beâ—… 123 Reuben 's Incest and Punishment 32 Rings excess in them 297 Roman Women immodest in their Apparel ibid. Rome its Church why call'd in Scripture Whore and Mother of Harlots 132 Rome founded by Whoredom endanger'd at first by Rape 165 Roofs of Houses movable and chang'd at every course 292 S Sampson 's Whoredom and Punishment 53 c. The Rabbins think the Philistins debauch'd his Wife 53 Objections against the number of Foxes taken by him answer'd 55 Saracens their original 12 Sardanapalus 's uncleanness and remarkable death 135 137 Schechem 's Whoredom and Punishment 25 Scythian Women their Message to their Husbands in Asia 139 Married their Servants in their Husbands absence 140 Scipio rebukes Massinissa for his lust 176 Seed flux of it in Man and Menstrua in Women why it render'd 'em unfit for publick Worship 41 Seed passing thro' the Fire to Molech what 51 Seleucus King of Assyria parts with his wife to his Son 213 Servants excess in their number 300 Sextus Tarquinius his Rape and Punishment 168 169 Ships sailing in Wine 287 Simon Magus the Uncleanness of himself and Followers 300 Sodomites why they lusted after Strangers and particularly after the Angels 13 Solomon 's unclednness and punishment 79 whether sav'd or not 81 Solon 's Uncleanness and impure Laws 192 Sophonisba Daughter to Asdrubal her scandalous Marriage to Massinissa 176 her last Message to her Paramour Massinissa 178 Spinctriae what 235 Spitamenes and his Wife their punishment for Lust. 153 Statues the Excess of the Romans in them 290 Suppers excessive for cost 279 282 Scylla 's lustfulness eat up by Lice 201 Syphax 's Marriage with Sophonisba caused his War with the Romans 177 Syria and Egypt remarkably punish'd for their Uncleanness 165 T Tables the Excess and Expensivcness of them 276 Tarentum betray'd by an Harlot 195 Theatres Excess of the Romans therein 284 their Furniture costly 286 Theatre of Scaurus of Titus 284 285 Thehe Daughter to Jason how she aveng'd herself of her Husband for his Adultery 198 Theseus 's Lust and Punishment 188 189 Tiberius Caesar 's unnatural Lust filthy Inventions and Death 235 to 237 Titus 's Uncleanness 254 Trajan 's Sodomy c. 259 Troy ruin'd by Lust. 145 Tutula her filthy stratagem to defeat the Latins 193 U Unclean Women made use of to ensnare the People of God fatal to the Contrivers 57 Uncleanness the cause of the Jews Captivity 91 Uncleanness People judicially given up to it and why 117 Uncleanness the sorts of it the Trial and Punishment of it under the Law from 35 to 40 Unnatural Lust discover'd by heterogeneous Births 52 Valentinian the Emperor murder'd for Adultery 260 Vespasian 's uncleanness and reformation 254 255 Vestal Nuns their Whoredoms how expiated 175 Victualling houses at Rome under Ground what 306 Virginia kill'd by her Father to save her Chastity his Speech to the Roman Army 170 171 Vitellius 's Lust and Punishment Luxury Gluttony c. 252 c. W War occasion'd at Sparta by the Lust of Chelidonis 200 Wenches naked wait at Table 277 Whores and Whoremongers their Character by Solomon 87 Whoredom the cause of Apostacy and of the Deluge 6 7 the Judgments denounc'd against it in the New Testament 122 c. its Original 1 2 3 Wild Beasts vast numbers of 'em in the Theatres 287 Women that kill'd themselves to avoid being desil'd 304 Woman taken in Adultery the reason of our Saviour's acquitting her what he wrote upon the Ground at that time 109 World Peopled a first and second time by lawful Marriages 7 Y Young man ravish'd his Mother and kill'd his Father and Sisters 316 Z Zealots in Jerusalem their lustfulness 116 Zeno the Emperor's lust and punishment buried alive 308 309 ERRATA PAGE 15 l. 14 read touched p. 16 l. 31 r. a necessity p. 28 l. 8 r. murther p. 29 l. 19 r. Juvenile p. 29 l. 33 r. greater p. 30 l. 26 for but r. that p. 31 l. 18 dele he p. 35 l. 10 r. a Virgin p. 60 l. 3 r. to propagate p. 83 l. 8 r. as to p. 84 l. 34 r. Canaanites p. 112 l. 33 r. with her Hair p. 130 l. 28 r. Marcionites and l. 34 r. to ward p. 132 l. 29 r. he represents p. 134 l. 4 r. Justin p. 137 l. 4 r. which with and l. 6 r. my Desires and l. 27 r. Effeminacy p. 142 l. 2 r. of Xerxes p. 144 l. 3 r. as abovesaid and l. 26 r. prevail'd p. 147 l. 31 r. Justice p. 165 l. 14 r. begot p. 171 l. 1 r. upon which p. 178 l. 33 r. Disloyalty p. 192 l. 11 r. and another p. 194 l. 14 r. Bawd p. 252 l. ult r. Day p. 253 l. ult r. Streets AN ESSAY TOWARDS A General History OF WHORING c. THE Original of the Crime which is the Subject of the following Sheets must necessarily be deduced from the Sin of our first Parents for there is no doubt that Lust or the inordinate motions of the Flesh did invade their Souls at the same time when their other Faculties were corrupted And it appears plain that Idleness the lust of the Eye and intemperance of Appetite which ever since have been the forerunners and ushers of bodily uncleanness did precede the Eating of the forbidden Fruit and that as the Natural Consequence of such Antecedents the first thing taken notice of by our Parents after the Fall was their Nakedness whereof they were immediately asham'd and endeavoured to cover it This Nakeness say Commentators that they were so speedily made sensible of was not only that they felt their need of a Cover to their Bodies both for Ornament and Defence against the Injuries of the Air c. but that they were also sensible of the Rebellion of the flesh which doth not only war against the Soul but hath a natural tendency to the dissolution of the Body there being nothing which sooner extinguishes the flame of Life than an immoderate consumption of that Oyl which nature hath provided for its nourishment This impurity of the affections did no doubt exert it self quickly in actions which in our first Parents could not fall under the notion of Whoredom they being married by God himself in the State of Innocence yet there 's little doubt to be made of its having vented it self in an immoderate use of the Marriage bed and thus these impure desires were communicated to their Posterity who were thereby polluted and conceiv'd and brought forth in Iniquity The first direct breach of the Divine Institution of Marriage betwixt one Man and one Woman which we find Recorded was in the person of Lamch one of Cain's Posterity whose two Wives we find mentioned in the fourth of Genesis by which it appears plain that Murder and Whoredom are near a kin had both of 'em their rise from one and the same Family And according to the opinion of
follow a Military Employment which generally abounds with Tentations to Incontinence and many other Crimes And answerable to this is the Command of the Apostle That the Husband should pay all due benevolence to the Wife and that they should not defraud one another but with Consent for a time lest Satan tempt them for their Incontinence Chastity was so strictly enjoyned unto this select people of God that they were not only forbid to suffer any of their Daughters to be Whores or any of their Sons to be Whore-Masters as some think the word which in our Translation Deut 23. 17. is Sodomites ought to be rendered but all manner of immodesty was strictly forbid and therefore if any Woman seeing her Husband and another Man a Quarrelling should be so impudent in her Fury or Passion as to take the other Man by the Secret ' Parts to oblige him to forbear Quarrelling with her Husband her hand was to be cut off without any pity tho' every Man knows that a Pressure or Gripe in those parts would quickly Force her Husband's Antagonist to quit the Fray And by much more reason would those Judges have Condemned Women who put their hands to those parts upon a Lustful Account The Trials appointed in the Levitical Law to find out whether the Jealousie of the Husband was well founded was likewise admirably Accommodated for the Clearing of the Innocent and condemning the Guilty The Tokens of Viâ—…ginity which the Learned tell us never failed in that Climate were a Convincing proof of the Brides being a Maid or otherwise and therefore the Linen in which the Bridegroom and she lay the first night was carefully kept by the Parents of the Bride and taken from the Fed before proper Witnesses as a security for their Daughters Honour If the accusation were found false the Husband was to be Chastis'd and Fin'd in an Hundred Shekels of Silver to the Father of the Damsel and if it was found to be true she was to be stoned to Death for having wrought folly in Israel so that there 's no doubt but this Custom had a mighty influence upon Parents to watch carefully over their Daughters and on the Virgins themselves to preserve their Chastity The Trial to find out whether a Woman had committed Adultery after Marriage was yet more solemn and terrible as may be seen in the 5th of Numbers from the 11th to the 31st Verse And seeing the effect of the bitter Water which the Woman was to drink on that occasion was altogether Supernatural viz. to make her fruitful if Innocent and her Belly to swell and Thigh to rot if guilty it plainly demonstrated that God himself was the Patron of Chastity and Revenger of Adultery and the Person found guilty upon this occasion becoming a curse among the people it shews how odious and abominable that Crime then was in the Eyes of Man as well as in the Eyes of God and there 's no doubt but this had a very great influence upon Women to be Loyal to their Husbands and careful to avoid giving 'em any occasion of Jealousie It 's probable that the Trial of Adultery by the Fiery ordeal or laying so many hot Bars of Iron upon the ground covering the Woman's Eyes and making her go over them with her bare Feet which she burnt if Guilty and came off without any hurt if Innocent was an Apish Imitation of this solemn and severe Jewish Trial as many other of the Popish Superstitions are foolish and unwarrantable Imitations of the Jewish Ceremonies but as they have not the Divine Institution for their Warrant they come always short of the desired effect and turn to the disgrace of the Inventers and Practitioners It also deserves our observation that the flux of the Natural Seed in Man the menstrua in Women and their ordinary purgations after Child-bearing rendred them unfit for publick worship and were accounted unclean Nay even the very Lawful Act betwixt Man and Wife went under that denomination because as it is well observed by Divines the Corruption of Nature is more apt to discover it self in that Lawfull act than perhaps in any other and because Original Corruption is Conveyed unto us in our first Conception by that very substance whereof we are made The next scriptural Instance that Occurs is in the 25th of Numbers where we have an account that the Moabites and Midianites being afraid of the Children of Israel the King of the Moabites sent for Balaam a false Prophet and Enchanter to Curse them that he might the more easily prevail over them but Balaam finding that it was not in his power to Curse those whom God had Blessed gave them advice to send out their Beautiful Women among the Israelites to tempt them to Uncleanness which if they could he knew that it would render them odious in the sight of their Holy God and bring down Judgments upon them from the Almighty hand of Jehovah who had given them such Laws for the preservation of their Chastity as distinguished them from the polluted Nations of the Earth We must take notice by the way that the Moabites were the Descendants of Lot's Incestuous Brood by one of his Daughters and 't is very probable that they lookt upon promiscuous Copulations to be sufficiently Authoriz'd by the unhappy slip of that Good man which together with their zeal to save their Country made them ready enough to prostitute themselves to the Israelites And they notwithstanding the prohibition and Laws of that God who had chosen them for his peculiar people called them his first born destroyed the Egyptians and Amorites for their sakes and as he told them himself because of such pollutions yet they whom Balaam's Magick could not Enchant were so much bewitched with Lust towards the Daughters of Moab that they first committed Whoredom with them and then committed Idolatry to please them so easie and natural is the transition from a wicked Life to a false Religion This Lewd and Ungratefull Practice did quickly kindle the Anger of the Lord against them which was no other way to be expiated but by the Death of those who had been Ring-Leaders of this Uncleanness and Idolatry and therefore God Commanded the Judges and Magistrates by the Mouth of his Servant Moses every one to slay those Ring-Leaders and Heads of the people in their own Juridiction who had polluted themselves and to hang them up against the Sun in the face of which they had committed these Abominations so that a Thousand of those profane Great men were hanged as the Learned do compute and Twenty Three Thousand of the Common people were consumed by the Plague for their Whoredom In this General Instance of Uncleanness there is one more particularly taken notice of by the Scripture viz. That of Zimri a Prince of the Tribe of Simeon with Cozbi the Daughter of a Prince of Midian By the reading it would seem that this man was so far besotted with his Lustfull
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
who walk after their Ungodly Lusts to be mockers which is as Visible in our modern Beaus and Gallants as ever it was in any there being none who do more mock and despise Religion then such and now 't is become Familiar to them to run down Revelation and the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures In the 14th of the Revelations and 4th The 144000 who are there said to be singing a new song in Heaven in the Company of the Lamb are describ'd to be such as had not defiled themselves with Women That is such as had not polluted themselves with Unlawfull Lusts but had possessed their Vessels in Sanctification and Honour as Christians are advised to do 1 Thess. 4. 4. Not that they had abstain'd from Marriage for that is Honourable and such a state as tends to the preservation of Chastity but they had escaped the pollution which was in the World thro' Lust its true that the Sense of the place is not wholly restricted to a bodily Chastity but includes also a Spiritual Purity Freedom from Idolatry and Communication with false Religions but that it does also relate to bodily Chastistity is unanimously agreed upon by Interpreters It is also observable that the Holy Ghost to testify his hatred of Uncleanness hath represented Antichrist the Anti-christian Church and the Idolatry of that Society under the name of a Whore the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth those that are poyson'd with her Idolatrous Doctrine here presents as having committed Fornication with her and drunk of her Golden Cup full of Abominations and Filthiness of her Fornication Rev. 17. And indeed to any that have read the wicked Lives of many of the Popes and consider the impurity of their Monks and Nuns their contempt of Marriage their Unlawfull Divorces and Dispensations for Unlawfull Marriages It will appear that there 's great reason to call the Church of Rome a Whore in a Literal Sense In the 21st of the Revelations we are told that Whoremongers shall have their part in the Lake which Burneth with Fire and Brimstone and in the 23d we are told That Whoremogers are excluded from the new Jerusalem in Company of Murders Idolaters and Sorcerers So much for the History of Whoredom as far as it is touched in the Old and New Testament either as to the Instances thereof the Judgments inflicted upon the practioners of it the Laws concerning it and the punishments threatned against the Breakers of those Laws both in this World and that which is to come Having finished that part of our History for which the Scripture hath furnished us with materials We come in the next place to profane History for Instances relating to our Subject We have already made use of some Instances from Josephus and other Historians Obiter as they had a Relation to the Scripture passages that we were upon but come now to make use of them intirely for our Collections and think it fit to acquaint the Reader that we must look back again in order of time because 't was thought best to have the Scripture Instances altogether We have formerly made mention of Semiramis in the Account which we gave of the destruction of Babylon all that we have now to add is that Justin. Lib. 1. gives this Account of her that after her Husband Ninus's Death she puts on Mans apparrell and feigned her self to be Ninus her own Son who was but a Youth and therefore she was affraid that he would not be able to manage the Scepter Semiramis being a Woman of low Stature and small Voice was easily mistaken for her Son and the better to conceal the fraud she covered her Arms and Legs put a Tiara or round Ornament resembling a Bonnet upon her head and the better to prevent suspicion of a disguise Ordered her Subjects to apparell themselves in that same manner under the Notion of a new fashion so that she pass'd for her Son without any doubt or hesitation and having under this disguise enlarged her Husband's Conquests as was formerly said she conceived that the Greatness of her Actions had put her beyond the reach of Envy and therefore discovered her self which was so far from lessening her that it mightily advanced her Reputation but giving her self up afterwards to Brutish Lusts as was formerly mentioned she became enamoured on her own Son who thereupon killed her and thus she tarnish'd all her former Glory and brought her self to an untimely death by her unnatural Lust after she Reign'd 42 years in Great Honour Her Son Ninus tho' he abhorred his Mothers Incestuous Amours yet being Heir to her Vices as well as her Throne as if he had really changed Sexes as well as Habit with his Mother he became Effeminate and Lustful and spending his time Ingloriously among Women was rarely seen of any men and so concluded his days with Ignominy leaving that unmanly pattern to his successors that they seldom were seen of any of their Subjects and thus the Assyrian Empire which continued near 1300 years was extinguished by the Effeminacy and Lusts of their Princes and People and came to a Conclusion in the Inglorious Reign of Sardanapalus who Reigned as some Authors think when Jonah was sent to Preach Repentance to Ninive but this cannot be relied upon the Learned do so much differ as to the point of Chronology However this is agreed upon by all hands that he was a Lustfull and Effeminate Prince and gave himself so much up to Voluptuousness that he would sit and Spin in a Womans Habit amongst his Concubines And seeing it is commonly found by Experience that people imitate the bad example of their Princes there 's no great reason to doubt but that the Ninivites amongst whom he resided were tainted with his Vices and became dissolute so that they very well deserved those Judgments denounc'd against them by Jonah and Historians as Justin Peâ—…au and Scaliger acquaint us That the wiser part of his Subjects loathing to be Govern'd by such an unmanly Debauchee Rebell'd against him under the Conduct of Arsaces Governor of Media who coming to see him and being admitted to his presence with Great difficulty found him in Womans Habit Spinning purple upon a Distaff amongst a Company of his Whores to whom he divided their several Tasks of Wool c. And perceiving him to be more Effeminate and Lascivious in his looks than any of the Women he conceiv'd great Indignation that so many Warlike Men should be Governed by a Person who disown'd his Sex and handled a Distaff instead of a Sword so that having acquainted his Companions with what he had seen they conspired against him Besieged him in Ninive for two years and reduced him to such straits that in a desperate humor he retired into his Palace where having Erected a Funeral Pile and laid all his most precious Moveables upon it he burnt himself with his Wives Children and Pallace which was the only thing wherein he discovered a
Persons did upon their Accusation cut off his best Friends and became so hatefull to his own Greeks that they talk'd divers times of Revolting and at last Poyson'd him in Babylon amidst his Feasts and Revels which was very Remarkable that he should be Poyson'd there where he had suffered himself and his Army to be first Poysoned by the Vicious Manners of the Persians and thus by his Luxury and Uncleanness he occasioned the Division of that vast Empire which he had rais'd his Great Captains after his Death having each of them erected Monarchies for themselves in those Places where they Govern'd which occasioned the speedier dissolution of the Graecian Monarchy and that it was less taken notice of as not being cemented together under one head so true is it which the Wiseman tells us in the Proverbs That many strong men have been slain and cast down by strange Women nay we may add that Empires and Monarchies have been over-turned by Uncleanness The next remarkable instance we meet with in Justin is that of Dionysius junior the Tyrant of Sicily who was as infamous for Uncleanness as for Cruelty and being expelled by the Inhabitants of Syracusa he was received by those of Locris where having surprizâ—…d the Castle he Tyranniz'd also over them Ravish'd the Wives of the Great Men and the young Women before Marriage and would then send them back to their Sweet-hearts The Locrenses being at that time in War with Leophron they vow'd if they came off Conquerers to prostitute their Virgins on the Festival of Veâ—…us which having neglected to do Dionysius Circumvented the Citizens thus he advised them in order to perform their Vow to send all their Women with their Richest Apparel to the Temple of Venus and chuse out a hundred of their handsomest Virgins and send them Richly adorn'd to stay a Month in a Brothell-House but beforehand to oblige all their Men by Oath not to touch one of them and likewise to take an Oath that none should be Married 'till all those Virgins were first dispos'd in Marriage The Citizens thinking this a good Contrivance both to absolve themselves from their Oaths and to preserve the Chastity of their Virgins did accordingly Whereupon Dionysius sent his Soldiers who dispoiled the Women both of their Honour and Ornaments which so incens'd the Loâ—…enses against him that they likewise drove him out of their City and being received again by the Syracusans he Tyrannized over them in his usual Manner so that they Besieged him and forcing him to lay down the Government he liv'd in Exile at Corinth where he spent his time in Taverns and Bawdy-Houses went in a sordid Habit kept the Meanest and most Rascally Company Jangl'd with Scoundrels and Bawds became a laughing stock to every Body and would walk about in the Shambles to gaze upon the Meat that he was not able to buy and was reduced so low that partly to maintain himself and partly to satisfy his Tyrannical humour he taught a Trivial School and so concluded his Life as Ingloriously as he led it In his 22d book he gives us an Instance of Agathocles another Tyrant of Sicily Son to a Potter who during his youth was a Catamite and as soon as he was of Age became a Common Stallion and a Highwayman but being Valiant and Eloquent he was advanced to Great Commands in the Army and having Committed Adultery with Damasco the Generals Lady he succeeded in his Post after his death and twice attempted the Soveraignty of the Island which at last he obtained yet tho' he was prosperous for a long time and rendered himself Famous by his Victories over the Carthaginians Judgment pursued him at last that he was forc'd to flee from Africk where his two Sons were put to death by the fury of his Enemies and being himself taken with a grievous Disease his Son and Grandson made War upon one another for the Crown wherein the latter succeeded so that Agathocles was forc'd on his Death-Bed to send his Wife and two young Children to Egypt lest they should be cut off by his Grandson and in this Afflicted and Disconsolate Condition he ended his days so true has it always been found that Whoremongers and Adulterers God will Judge In his 24th Book he gives us the History of the Incestuous Amour of Ptolemy Ceraunus King of Macedonia with his Sister and the fatal Consequence of it to them both Ptolemy having a mind to Usurp the Kingdom from her two Sons and to possess himself of her fine City of Cassandria pretended Love to her and that he had no other design in desiring her to Wife but to make her a Queen and that her Children should succeed him and because she her self and her Son Ptolemy suspected him he swore to the Sincerity of his Intentions upon the Altar in Jupiter's Temple whereupon that Incestuous Marriage was contracted and his Sister now his Wife Arsinoe being overjoy'd at her new Title of Queen invited the King her Husband to her City of Cassandria where all things were prepar'd to receive him with the utmost Magnificence and she order'd her Sons to meet him with Crowns on their Heads He Received and Embrac'd them with much seeming Affection but as soon as he came to the Gate of the City he ordered them both to be kill'd and the Castle to be seiz'd their Mother endeavouring in vain to cover them in her Arms and preserve them After this Tragedy as a Just punishment for her consenting to such an Incestuous Mà rriage she went in Exile to Samothracia and Ptolemy in a little time after fell by the Sword of the Gauls who cut off his Head and fix'd it upon a Lance. In his 26th Book we have the Story of Aristotimus Tyrant of Epirus who having kill'd and banish'd many of the Nobility The Aetolians who entertained the Exiles sent Ambassadors to demand the Wives and Children of the banished which Aristotimus pretended to grane and as the Matrons had assembled together to go to their Husbands he sent and spoiled them of their Apparrel threw them in Prison kill'd the Infants in the Arms of their Mothers and Ravish'd the Virgins which so incens'd the people against him that under the Conduct of Helematus an old man they Conspir'd against him and cut him off In the Close of that Book he gives us an Account of the Incest of Demetrius King of Macedonia with his Mother-in-Law Arsinoe Queen of Cyrene who had sent for him on purpose to Marry her Daughter and enjoy that Crown but being her self taken with his Beauty she entertained an Incestuous Commerce with him which did so much provoke her Daughter and the people that by her Daughters order he was slain in her Mothers Bed the Incestuous and Impudent Woman endeavouring to preserve him by covering him with her own Body In the 28th Book he likewise gives an Account of a War betwixt Antiochus King of Syria and Demetrius King of Macedonia because the latter Married
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
that they knew not what the Name of Adultery meant it may be answerâ—…d That it implies a downright Contradiction for if those Ordinances were observ'd the Commonwealth of Sparta must necessarily have abounded with Adultery whether they knew the Name of it or not But it 's probable that seeing such a Choice of Paramours was allow'd them by Lycurgus's Laws they did not reckon lying with their Neighbours Wives Adultéry And therefore Geradas might well say That it was as impossible to find an Adulterer in Sparta as to find a Bull with a Neck so long that he could stand at one side of the Mountain Taygetus and drink of the River that run on the other side of it It is also observable that this Practise did not answer the End taken from his Brutish Reason viz. to have strong and healthful Children for we have an Account by this same Author that if they found the Child upon its Birth to be deform'd and of an ill Complexion they order'd it to be cast into a deep Cavern of the Earth near the Mountain Taygetus and that the Women did also bath the new-born Children in Wine thinking it would immediately kill those of a weak Constitution And yet notwithstanding all those Precautions we find that they had weakly Children bred up and those our Author says they employ'd in gathering Sallads and Herbs To conclude this point It is not at all to be wonder'd at that a People who allow'd such Unfaithfulness as to the Marriage-bed should grow so unfaithful in all their other Transactions as the Lacedemonians did which occasion'd their being utterly ruin'd by the Athenians In the Life of Numa Pompilius so much reverenc'd by the Romans for his Piety and accounted the first Instituter of their Religion we find that when a Roman was sufficiently stock'd with Children in case his Neighbour who had none should desire him to accommodate him with his Wife that he also might have the Benefit of Issue from such a fruitful Woman Numa allow'd the Husband either to lend his Wife for a time or to loose the Bonds of Marriage and consign her into the Hands of her Paramour for ever An early Presage that Rome was at last to become the Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth another Instance of those wise Heathens being judicially given up of God to their Uncleanness because they did not improve the Knowledge they had to the Glory of God of whose Being and Attributes they had such clear Ideas In the Life of Solon we have an Account That that great Philosopher and Law-giver was guilty of Unlawful Love towards Boys and that designing to appropriate that Brutish pleasure to such as he call'd Gentlemen he forbad the use of it to Slaves In one of his Laws he permits an Heiress if her Lawful Husband prove impotent to lye with his nearest Kinsman and yet he was so inconsistent with himself that he permitted any one to kill an Adulterer that found him in the Act. We shall conclude this passage with his Account of himself in this Distick I mind a Song a Miss and Glass of Wine These are most mens Delights and these are mine In the Life of Camillus we have an Account how the Latins were defeated by their Lasciviousness and Whoredom when they had reduced the Romans to a very great strait the passage is thus The Latins demanded a certain number of free Maids from the Romans in Marriage the latter looking upon this as a Trick only to gain Hostages and yet being both afraid and unable to carry on the War they durst not positively refuse them whereupon Tutula or Philotis as some call her advis'd the Magistrates to send her and some other beautiful Damosels who were Bond-maids habited like Free-Virgins and while the Latins were in their Dalliances with them they would give them a Signal to fall out upon them Which being agreed on accordingly Tutula in the Night-time set up a lighted Torch upon a wild Figtree hanging up some Clothes on the Tree that hid the Torch from the Latin Camp while it was perceptible to the Romans and accordingly they sally'd surpriz'd and destroy'd the Latins in remembrance of which a Festival was appointed call'd the Nonae Capraticae where in the People run out of the City in a confused manner calling aloud the most familiar and usual Names as Caius Marcus Lucius and the like as they did at the Sally and the Maid-servants richly adorn'd ran about playing and jesting upon all they met and amongst themselves use a kind of skirmishing to shew they help'd in the Conflict against the Latins and in the time of their Feasting they sit shaded over with Boughs of wild Figtree Our next Instance is that bold Athenian Gentleman Pericles whose Weak Side was Lasciviousness and therefore he became the Subject of the Railery of the Comick Poets of his time who upbraided him as being the errant'st Whoremonger that ever liv'd charg'd him with dishonest Converse with the Wife of Menippus and of committing Incest with his own Son's Wife His Intrigue with Aspatia before Marriage is also much taken Notice of and She is accus'd of being no better than a Bawd or as the Translator expresses it Keeper of a Vaulting-school They did also upbraid him with the Volaries or Birdcages of Pyrilampes who being Pericles's Friend they pretended that he us'd to present Peacocks and fine Birds to Pericles's Misses The Punishments inflicted upon Pericles we find to be that he was not only envied and disturb'd by Tumults and Seditions but disquieted with the Disobedience and Scurrilous Reflections of his own eldest Son depriv'd of him and his youngest Son whom he lov'd entirely by Death and constrain'd at last to repeal his own Law against Bastards enjoying any Inheritance that his Bastard Son should keep up the Name of his Family and he was cut off too at last by Order of the Senate And Pericles himself who had burnt so much in Lust was consum'd to death by a burning Plague his Uncleanness having fix'd such a Stain upon his Memory as all his great Actions have not been able to wipe off In the Life of Fabius Maximus we have an Account how Tarentum was betray'd to him by means of an Unchast Woman who with her Amours and Flatteries prevail'd upon her Lover a Noble Brutian to betray the Town to the Romans Fabius having sent her Brother who was in his Army into the Town on purpose to manage the Intrigue or according to others she had formerly been Fabius's own Mistress and he permitted her to go and corrupt the Tarentine Governor by her lewd Embraces which occasion'd the taking and cruel destruction of the Town So fatal are Harlots to all Commonwealths where they are suffer'd to remain unpunish'd We have already had occasion to observe how fatal the Impure Amours of Alcibiades was to all Greece and particularly to Athens but there are divers more observable Particulars as to that matter
of deflowring several other Women but the Judges being brib'd he was acquitted It appears also plainly enough by Plutarch that Cicero himself was not altogether without Blame as to his Chastity for he put away his Wife Terentia to marry a young Virgin as she alledg'd for the sake of her Beauty or as his own emancipated Slave said for her Riches to satisfie his Debts Not long after this Marriage his Daughter Tullia died for which he prov'd unconsolable and put away his new-married Wife for seeming to rejoyce at her Death but a further Judgment pursu'd him for Antony bearing him an irreconcilable Hatred sent Assassins after him when he fled from Rome and murder'd him in the 64th Year of his age his Hands and Head being cut off and publickly affix'd to the Rostra at Rome In the Life of Artaxerxes King of Persia our Author informs us That that Prince being desperately in love with Atossa one of his own Daughters but concealing his Criminal Passion for fear of his Mother Parysatis the wicked Woman to further some of her own mischievous Designs perswaded him to marry her contrary to the Determinations of the Grecian Sages alledging That he was determin'd by Providence to be a Law to the Persians and he is also accus'd by Heraclides the Cumean and other Historians of having likewise married his second Daughter Amestris The Judgments which pursu'd this lascivious Prince were that he was defeated in his War with the Egyptians and became contemptible in the Eyes of his Subjects upon the account of his unsuccessful Expedition against the Cadusians He was also punish'd by the Controversies amongst his Sons about the Succession and by the unnatural and villainous Amours of his Son Ochus with his Wife Atossa therefore to dash the Hopes of his Son Ochus he proclaim'd Darius the elder Brother his Successor who soon after begg'd of the King that he would give him Aspasia who was formerly Cyrus's beloved Miss but then Concubine to Artaxerxes who tho' he had Three hundred and Sixty most exquisite Beauties in his Seraglio could not endure to part with Aspasia to Darius but being constrain'd to it by the Law he afterwards took her from him and created her Priestess to Diana which bound her to perpetual Chastity upon which account the unnatural Son conspir'd against his Father at the Instance of Tiribazus who bore a mortal Grudge to Artaxerxes for having married his own Daughter Amestris whom he haâ—… promis'd him to Wife but the Plot being discover'd Darius was put to death as a just Recompence for his unnatural Lust and Treason After this Ochus by his Interest with Arossa was strengthen'd in his Hopes of Succession found Means to cut off his other two Brothers Ariaspes and Arsames the Grief of which kill'd Artaxerxes And thus was he justly punish'd by and in his own Children because of his horrid Uncleanness leaving his Son Ochus behind who being the wicked Son of a wicked Parent prov'd a Monster of Cruelty Thus we have finish'd Plutarch's select Lives and dare referr it to the Judgment of the Ingenuous Reader whether many of his Heroes have not been foully culpable as to the point of Chastity and as remarkably punish'd for the same We come in the next place to search among the Roman Emperors where we find many remarkable Instances for our purpose and as remarkable Judgments pursuing ' em The first is Julius Caesar who tho' he triumph'd over most part of the then known World yet was himself triumph'd over by his Lusts. When he was High-Priest of Jupiter he divorc'd Cossutia a Lady of an Equestrian Family and of a very great Fortune to whom he had been contracted during his Minority and married Cornelia the Daughter of Cinna Nor could all the Arguments of Sylla the Dictator prevail upon him to part with her Whereupon he was suspended his Sacerdotal Dignity and had his Estate sequestred which forc'd him to abscond and shift his Quarters almost every Night tho' sick of a Quartan Ague and with much ado obtain'd his Pardon at last Being thus unfaithful to the Marriage-bed he was punish'd in the same Coin for having afterwards married Pompeia she was accus'd of Uncleanness with Clodius as has been already mention'd who had access to her during publick Worship whereupon he divorc'd her The Lasciviousness of his Mind may be also guessed at by his Dream that he had ravish'd his own Mother which tho' those who pretended to interpret such things told him That it was a Presage that he should arrive at the Universal Monarchy yet is a plain Indication of the predominancy of his Lust. Suetonius also acquaints us That he divorc'd his Daughter Julia from Servilius Coepio her former Husband one who had stuck the fastest to him of all Men living in his Dispute with Bibulus his Fellow-Consul and married her to Pompey which made him guilty of his Daughter's Adultery and was a horrid piece of Ingratitude at the same time And tho' it 's true he had great Success in his War against the Gauls Germans and Britains yet he was not without Checks from Divine Justice having lost a whole Legion by the Gauls had two of his Lieutenants defeated on the Frontiers of Germany and lost the greatest part of his Fleet upon the Coasts of Britain And in his own Family he was punish'd by the Death of his Mother his Daughter Julia and his Grand-daughter Nor was he without danger of being indicted and try'd for his Life for his Male-administration during his Consulship and of being utterly ruin'd by Pompey tho' he had the good Fortune to overcome him at last in that decisive Battel on the Pharsalian Plains Suetonius gives us a particular Enumeration of his Amours which have spread his Infamy as far as ever his Fame reach'd His being a Catamite and guilty of Sodomy with Nicomedes King of Bythinia occasion'd many Railleries upon him and expos'd him to the Contempt of his Enemies as when he swagger'd one day in the Senate and said He would run down his Adversaries they reply'd that He would find that an hard Task for a Woman alluding to his being prostituted by Nicomedes They call'd him also The Queen of Bythinia 's Cuckoldmaker the Bawdyhouse of Bythinia and Nicomedes 's Stable His Adversary Bibulus said of him when he proscrib'd him That formerly he affected a King but now a Kingdom Octavius a prating Fellow whose Tongue usually got the start of his Wit did one day before a great company when he saluted Pompey by the Name of King give Caesar the Title of Queen Cicero upbraided him with those things in his Epistles and when Caesar in his Plea before the Senate for Nisa Daughter to the said Nicomedes insisted upon the good Offices that King had done him Cicero cut him shoâ—…t saying No more of that let me beg you Sir we all know very well what has passed betwixt you two Nay the very Souldiers who attended his Chariot in his Gallic
Triumph amongst other Lampoons us'd upon such occasions had this noted Lampoon Gallias Caesar subegit Nicomedes Caesarem Ecce Caesar nunc Triumphat qui subegit Gallias Nicomedes non triumphat qui subegit Caesarem Which may be English'd thus For conqu'ring Gaul Caesar doth Lawrels wear But Nicomedes doth no Trophies bear Tho' he made Conquest of the Conquerer He is generally said to have been much inclin'd also to lust after Women and to have been very prodigal in his Amours He debauch'd several Ladies of good Quality as Posthumia the Wife of Servius Sulpitius Lossia the Wife of Gabinius Tertulla the Wife of Crassus and Mucia Pompey's Lady insomuch that the Curio's upbraided Pompey that the Extravagancy of his Ambition should ever induce him to marry the Daughter of that Man for whose Intimacy with his Wife he was oblig'd to divorce her after he had three Children by her and frequently to own himself a Cuckold Caesar had a mighty Passion for Servilia the Mother of Brutus whom he presented with a Jewel that cost him 6000000 Sesterces besides other considerable Boons and the cheap Purchase of many noble Farms expos'd to publick sale and People being surpriz'd at her good Bargain Cicero quibbl'd upon it saying They would reckon it a better Bargain if they knew that Tertia was deducta meaning that she had prostituted her Daughter Terti as well as her self to Caesar. He likewise debauch'd several Provincial Ladies for which his Souldiers in his Gallick Triumph lampoon'd him in this manner Cits now be sure to keep your Wives at home For here 's a bald triumphant Stallion come In Gaul they made thee pay for Whoring dear But thou of Cits mak'st Cuckolds gratis here He is also accus'd of Unlawful Amours with several Queens as Eunoe Wife to Bogud King of Morocco to whom he gave many magnificent Presents but his Darling-Mistress was Cleopatra whom he often treated all Night long and had certainly accompanied her in her Pleasure-boat as far as Aethiopia had not his Army refus'd to comply with the Frolick and upon her he begat a Son who was call'd Caesario Nay he was so infamous both for Active and Passive Uncleanness that Curio the Father in an Oration call'd him Every Woman's Man and every Man's Woman He was so insatiable in his Lust that Helvius Cinna Tribune of the People acknowledg'd that he had a Bill ready prepar'd by him which Caesar commanded him to get pass'd into a Law whereby he might be authoriz'd to marry what Wives and in what Number he pleas'd to secure him Issue Yet Infinite Justice order'd it so that he left no Lawful Issue behind him We come now to take notice of the Judgments that pursu'd him some of 'em did represent his Crime in legible Characters as that of his Wife Pompeia's Intrigue with Clodius which was so publick that Clodius was prosecuted for the same as has been already mention'd It is also very well known to what Dangers his Contests and Wars with Pompey expos'd him and how at last he was murther'd in the Senate notwithstanding all the Warnings he had giv'n him of the Design And it deserves a particular Remark that Brutus whom many suspected to he his own Son his infamous Familiarity with his Mother being notorious was one of those that stabb'd him whereupon he cried out What and are you one of them also you my Son Brutus This is certainly one of the most remarkable Instances of God's punishing Whoremongers and Adulterers that is to be found in History when he who thought himself secure from all Attempts as being above them and was so much doted on and ador'd by the People that of their own accord they ran in quest of the Murderers up and down the City and burnt their Houses and afterwards worship'd him as a God when this Man could not avoid the just Hand of God which did so remarkably find him out at last and punish him for his Uncleanness and other Crimes The next is Augustus Caesar of whom Suetonius gives us this following Account That having divorc'd his Wife Scribonia because of her froward and peevish Humour he fell in love with Livia Drusilla the Wife of Tiberius Nero from whom he took her by force tho' at the same time she was big with Child and tho he lov'd her passionately yet he never had any Children by her for she miscarried of the only Child that ever she conceiv'd by him which was a very just and remarkable Judgment He married his Daughter Julia to M. Agrippa who was at that very time married to Marcella and had several Children by her and after his death he married her to Tiberius whom he forc'd to put away his Wife then big with Child and who had born him diverse Children Judgment pursu'd him for those Unjust and Tyrannical Proceedings for both the Julia's his Daughter and Grand-daughter were notoriously infamous his Grandsons Caius and Lucius he lost in Two and twenty months one after another his third Grandson Agrippa prov'd so unruly and brutish that he transported him into an Island under a Guard and obtain'd a Decree of the Senate to have him kept in the same place as long as he liv'd and every time mention was made of the two Julia's with Tears in his Eyes and fetching a deep Sigh he would utter a Verse of Homer to this purpose O that I ne'er the Name of Wife had known And without Children to my Grave had gone Nor did he use to call them by any other Name but those of his three Excrescencies or Imposthumes It is further observ'd that he was effeminate in his Youth Marc. Antony upbraided him with being his Uncle Julius Caesar's Catamite that he had also been guilty of prostituting himself to the unnatural brutish Lust of A. Hortius in Spain for 300000 pieces of Mony The whole Body of the People being also assembled one day to behold a certain Interlude they unanimously expounded and applauded a Verse pronounced upon the Stage to his dishonour viz. Videsne ut Cinaedus Orbem digito temperet In English thus Behold that Catamite how he the Orb Of spacious Earth can with his Finger curb His Friends own'd that he was addicted to the Crime of Adultery but alledge in excuse of it That it was by the familiarity with the Wives to discover the Secrets of their Husbands Marc. Antony charges him with taking a Lady out of the Room in her Husbands presence and bringing her back again with her Ears glowing and her Locks in disorder He accuses him of putting away Scribonia because she complain'd too freely of the Pride and Imperiousness of one of his Concubines and that moreover he us'd to imploy Thoranius to find out Women for him who after the Bargain was made were to be strip'd and expos'd to their View as if they had been to be sold in open Market There was also a Story flew about of him of a private Supper which he made vulgarly call'd The
by the Pollutions that besmear'd his Clothes His own Chastity he prostituted in such a manner that there was hardly a Member of his Body undefil'd insomuch that at length he invented a new sort of Lechery which was to cover himself all over with the Skin of some wild Beast and so to be let out of a Cage that he might fly upon the Secrets of Men and Women that were tied to a Stake and after he had that way gratified his monstrous Lust he prostrated his own Body to his enfranchis'd Bondman Doryphorus who had married him as he himself had wedded Sporus and in that passive posture counterfeited the soft Cries and Complaints of a new-bedded Virgin He was so very vile himself that he believ'd every-body to be so only that they dissembl'd their Vices and were private in their Debauches and if any Man would but confess their Obscenities to him he pardon'd all the rest of their Crimes His impious Mother was remarkably pursued by the Divine Vengeance which gave her up to the unnatural Fury of the Monster her Son to whom she had so unnaturally prostituted her Body for after he had divers ways attempted to rid himself of her but in vain he at last commanded her to be kill'd as having conspir'd against his Life which being effected he ran with eager Curiosity to view the naked Body of his Mother as she lay weltring in her Blood and handled all her Limbs of which he commended some for their Beauty and Shape and disprais'd others and happening to be thirsty in the midst of his unnatural Survey he was so little concern'd that he quench'd his Thirst over his murder'd Parent who left the World with that severe Reproof to him when his Murderers approach'd her viz. That they should strike her Belly first which had brought forth such a Monster into the World as Nero. After this barbarous and unnatural Murther the wicked Monster never enjoy'd Quiet but was constantly pursu'd with Horrour of Conscience and cry'd out That he was haunted by his Mother's Ghost Nero had also a plurality of Wives viz. Octavia Poppaea Sabina and Statilia Messalina having kill'd Atticus Vestinus the Husband of the latter that he might enjoy her His Wife Octavia he endeavour'd several times to have strangled and divorc'd her under pretence of Barrenness but perceiving the People took her Part he put her to death upon a false Accusation of Adulteries He had an entire Love to his Wife Poppaea yet kill d her with a kick upon the Guts when she was big with Child because she reprov'd him for staying too late at his Chariot driving Exercises He put Antonia the Daughter of Claudius to death for refusing to marry him after the death of Poppaea He also murder d Aulus Plantius a young Gentleman whose Body he had forcibly defil'd before-hand and after he had kill'd him used this taunting Expression Now let my Mother go and kiss my Successor giving it out That he was his Mother's Gallant and by her spurr'd on to lay Claim to the Empire This villainous Monster having wallow'd a long time in unnatural Lusts and cruel Murders became hateful to every one He set Rome on fire with his own Hands which was a just Judgment of God upon that City for suffering it self to be set on fire by his raging Lusts After that they were visited with a Pestilence which cut off many thousands of ' em His Souldiers in two of the chief Brittish Garrisons were massacred and many of the Romans and their Allies were slaughter'd in other places of that Island His Legions in the East had the Ignominy of being put under the Yoke and all Syria was like to be lost so closely did Vengeance pursue him Then France and Spain revolted under the Conduct of Galba and Vindex which so struck him tho' he seem'd little concern'd at his former Disasters that he sank down and for a long time lay Speechless like one that had neither Life nor Soul and when he came to himself he fell a tearing his Clothes thump'd himself about the Head and at length cried out that he was undone But being at last convinc'd of the necessity of making head against his Enemies his first Care was to provide Waggons to carry his Scenical Machines and Musical Instruments and to have his Concubines which he design'd to carry with him trim'd with their Hair cut like Men and arm'd with Battel-axes and small round Targets after the manner of Amazons so far was he judicially given up to his Lusts. In the mean time he was terrified with frightful Dreams and dreadful Omens such as that he was dragg'd into hideous Darkness by his Wife Octavia and that his Body was cover'd with a multitude of winged Emmets the Doors of the Mausoleum flew open of their own accord and a Voice was heard from thence summoning him distinctly by his Name It was also observ'd that the last Tragedy which he acted in publick was Oedipus exil'd which concluded in these Words that were very applicable to him viz. Thus Wife thus Mother and thus Father call For merited Revenge and I must fall Then upon fresh Intelligence that the Armies were revolted he tore the Letters as he sate at Dinner overturn'd the Table call'd for a Dose of Poison and retir'd into the Servilian Gardens where he tormented himself with perplexing Thoughts what to do in this Distress sometimes he thought of throwing himself at the Feet of Galba or to implore the Assistance of the Parthians and sometimes he thought of putting himself in Mourning humbling himself to the People and begging their Pardon before the Rostra but from that was deterr'd fearing he should be torn in pieces before he got to the Forum so waving the matter till next day he wak'd about Midnight and then finding his Guards drawn off he leap'd out of his Bed and sent up and down for his Friends but none of them coming to him he went himself with some few Attendants to their Houses where meeting with no admittance he return'd to his Chamber from whence by that time the few of his Guards that remain'd had also march'd off having first rifled his Apartments and carried off amongst other things his Gold Box with the Dose of Poison in it which put him into that Despair that he sent for any of the publick Executioners to dispatch him and none of them being to be found he cried out What have I neither Friends nor Enemies and ran away as if he would have thrown himself into the Tiber but upon second Thoughts he began to think of some private lurking place where he might consider what to do and for that end mounted on Horseback barefoot and in sordid Apparel with a thin Handkerchief before his Face to have retir'd to a Country House belonging to one of his enfranchis'd Bondmen having only four Persons with him of whom his Catamite Sporus was one but being terrified with a violent Earthquake and the Lightning that
famous Supper was that which was made him by his Brother to welcome him to the City at which time as 't was reported no less than Two thousand Dishes of Fish and Seven thousand of Fowl all Rarities in season were brought to the Table Only he himself exceeded this Festival at the Dedication of his great Platter which by reason of its extraordinary size he call'd The Buckler of Minerva This Platter he fill'd with an Oglio consisting of the Livers of Thornbacks the Brains of Phesants and Peacocks the Tongues of Phaenicopters and the milky Guts of Mullets for which the Bowels of the Ocean were ransack'd from the Carpathian Sea to the Streights of Spain by the Masters of the Roman Ships and Galleys His Appetite was so insatiable and bottomless and withal so unseasonable and sordid that whether he were upon a Journey or offering Sacrifice he could not forbear from snatching the Flesh of the Victim and the parch'd Barley from the Altars nor from tearing the Victuals from the Cooks Stalls in the Streets whether steaming hot or of yesterdays dressing and the Leavings of others But this lustful and luxurious Emperor becoming hateful to every body he was every where either vanquish'd or betray'd and at last seiz'd in the Porter's Lodge of his own Palace whence he was dragg'd ignominiously through the Snreets by the Hair with his Garments all torn and at last brought to the Scalae Gemoniae or common place of Execution where by gently stabbing him with small pricks at a time they tortur'd him to death by degrees and thence dragg'd along with an Hook they flung his mortified Carcass into the Tiber. As for the Emperor Titus and his Son Vespatian they were not without Blame as to the Point of Chastity and tho' their Exits were not tragical like those of the preceding Monsters yet they were not without their Troubles and Reproaches as just Punishments for their inordinate Passions Suetonius says of Vespatian That he had a great number of Concubines after the death of Coenis one of which lay by him all the while of his Reposeâ—… And that being persecuted by a certain Curtesan who pretended to be ready to die for Love of him he at length yielded to her Embraces and gave her Four hundred Sesterces out of his own private Purse which he order'd his Steward to place to his Account thus viz. To Vespasian for being belov'd That same Historian observes of him that he was much given to Drolling and that sometimes so broad and scurrilously that he could hardly refrain from Obscenity He died of a sudden Looseness as a just Punishment for his loose Life of which the indelible Stain is convey'd to Posterity by Suetonius and other Historians His Son Vespatian is accus'd of sitting up till midnight revelling with the lewdest of his Companions and that his Lechery was notorious by his Gangs of Catamites and Eunuchs and the excessive Love he bore to the Queen Berenice Upon the whole he was generally esteem'd and talk'd of as another Nero but after he came to the Empire he reform'd himself turn'd off his Paramour Berenice and all his Catamites and became one of the most excellent Princes that ever sway'd the Roman Scepter Yet so far hath the Divine Justice punish'd his Incontinence that the Infamy of it is transmitted to Posterity upon Record and he was cut off in a manner in the Vigor of his Age being but in his 41 st Year when he died And of this Misfortune he was very sensible the Historian telling us that he look'd up toward Heaven bitterly complaining that his Life was wrongfully taken from him for he had been guilty of no Action of which he need repent excepting one only which what it was he neither then declar'd himself nor could it be easily guess'd by any one else tho' some were of Opinion that 't was his Familiarity with his Brother's Wife Domitia but she swore positively there was no such thing and she would not have denied it had it been true but rather have gloried in it which it was usual for her to do of any kind of Lewdness But thus his Memory and Fame justly suffers because of his former Intemperance The following Instance is that of Domitian who was infamous from his very Youth Nero produc'd a Note under his Hand when he was a young Man wherein he had promised him a Nights Lodging at any time and he is also accus'd of having prostituted his Body to Nerva He divorc'd his Wife Domitia on pretence that she was in Love with one Paris a Stage-player and afterwards took her again Being greatly addicted to Venery he call'd frequent Coition his Bed-wrestling as if it had been a kind of Exercise and it is reported of him that he would often smooth and depilate his Concubines and swim amongst the most notorious Harlots When his Brother's Daughter was offer'd him in Marriage he would by no means accept of her as being engag'd in Wedlock with Domitilla but not long after when she was married to another he debauch'd her of his own accord tho' Titus was then alive but when her Father and Husband were dead he lov'd her with a most passionate Affection which he own'd before all the World insomuch that after he had got her with Child he forc'd her to miscarry which was the occasion of her death This vile Prince being justly hated for his Cruelty and Debauchery was kill'd in his own Chamber by those that conspir'd against him Stephanus Domitilla's Steward having stabb'd him with a Dagger in the Groin as he was reading a Paper which he â—…ad given him pretending it was a Discovery of a new Plot. And the Memory of this Emperor was so execrable to the Senate that they order'd all his Decrees and Titles to be every where ras'd out and the very Memory of him utterly abolish'd so infallibly true hath it always been found that Whoremongers and Adulterers God will punish Thus we have gone through such Instances as Livy and Suetonius afford us and must now have recourse to other Authors for the remainder of the Roman Emperors The next we shall instance is the Emperor L. Aurelius Commodus Antoninus who was elevated to the Imperial Dignity about the Year of Christ 180. From his very Infancy he was bent to all sorts of Vice notwithstanding the Care of the wise Philosophers who had the conduct of his Manners so that Rome found in him a second Nero. He would needs pass for Hercules Son to Jupiter appear'd as he did with the Lions Skin and Club and would have Altars and Sacrifices which the Senate consented to rather than they would irritate his furious nature He murder'd most of the Senators was a severe Persecuter of the Christians debauch'd his own Sisters and entertained three hundred Concubines and as many Boys for his detestable Pleasures and gave the Government of his Provinces to Men noted for Vice or Infamy But at last having design'd to cut off