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spirit_n	able_a	act_n	act_v	157	3	7.1200	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42935	God's judgments against whoring. Vol. I being an essay towards a general history of it, from the creation of the world to the reign of Augustulus (which according to common computation is 5190 years) and from thence down to the present year 1697 : being a collection of the most remarkable instances of uncleanness that are to be found in sacred or prophane history during that time, with observations thereon.		1697 (1697)	Wing G959; ESTC R40905	162,422	375

says That under the name of Sacrifices Cerinthus hid his Lusts that he might make a shew of Honesty and Decency Cap. 29 he gives us an account of the Nicolaitans who took their denomination from Nicholas one of the Deacons concerning whom they say That having a beautiful Wife and being accus'd of Jealousie by the Apostles he brought his Wife forth and permitted her to marry whom she had a mind to and that his Followers pretending to imitate him gave themselves up to all manner of Fornication but that those Hereticks were on a sudden wholly extinct Book 14 Cap. 7 he gives us an account of the Gnosticks who boasted of their amorous Potions and of certain Spirits and Familiars maintain'd that they who would arrive to Perfection in their Mysteries must act all things that were most filthy and unclean being no other ways able to avoid the Rulers of the World as they call them unless they distributed to all of them their Dues by most filthy and detestable Acts of Obscenity which brought a Scandal on the Christians of those Times as if they had indulg'd themselves in promiscuous Uncleanness with their Mothers and Sisters but the Truth and Purity of their Doctrin and Practice did quickly vindicate it self from those Calumnies Book 6 Cap. 8 he gives us an account of Origen's emasculating himself upon his understanding those words of our Saviour in a literal sense viz. Some there are who have made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heavens sake This shews how much Fornication and Uncleanness was condem'd by the Christians in his time and how careful he was to avoid giving any occasion of Slander to the Enemies of the Christian Religion tho' this Act in it self was no way justifiable Book 7 Cap. 30 he gives us an Account that Paulus Samosatenus who spoke against the Godhead of Jesus Christ and became a Founder of that Heresie was a sensual Man countenanc'd those call'd Subintroduc'd Women who were neither Wives nor Concubines but a third sort whom they kept as they pretended not to gratifie their Lusts but out of a pious design And they take particular notice that this Paul glutted himself with all Sensual Delights as Feasting Drinking and the like which are the common Incentives of Lust and that he carried two beautiful Women constantly along with him And thus he is accus'd by an Assembly of Bishops in their Letter to the Bishop of Rome and Alexandria which confirms the Observation we have had sometimes occasion to make that a Love to Sensual Pleasures seems to be a great Motive to the Deists and Socinians of our Times to embrace those damnable Heresies In his 8th Book we have an Account That a Gentlewoman at Antioch and two beautiful Virgins her Daughters threw themselves into a River where they were drown'd rather than they would submit to the Brutish Lusts of their Heathen Persecuters And in Cap. 14 of that same Book we have a Relation how Maxentius and other Persecuters of the Christians omitted no manner of Action that was impure and libidinous they committed Adulteries and Rapes of all sorts he parted Husbands by Divorce from their lawful Wives and when he had defil'd them he most dishonourably sent them back again to their Husbands And thus he treated Persons of all Qualities He passed through no City in his Journey without ravishing Women and Virgins and these his vile Practises succeeded according to his desire against all Persons the Christians only excepted who having contemn'd Death despis'd his outragious Tyranny And thus one of the most noted Women of Alexandria being a beautiful Person and sollicited to commit Adultery with him chose rather to expose her Life to Danger and so was sent into Exile And a Roman Lady whose Husband was Prefect of Rome being sent for by Maxentius in order to be defil'd by him and finding that her Husband had for fear permitted the Souldiers to carry her away she kill'd her self rather than she would be defil'd by the lustful Tyrant So that to the shame of many who call themselves Christians now-adays their abominable Lecheries were formerly the Character of their Persecuters and nothing could be more odious to the Primitive Christians than such vile Practises as many who bear that Name do now indulge themselves in But to return to this Monster of Tyranny Maxentius the Divine Vengeance pursu'd him for his Army being defeated by Constantine he himself and a great part of them were drown'd in the Tiber after which his Corps were dragg'd out and his Head being cut off it was carried about on a Launce as a joyful Spectacle to the People Eusebius also takes notice that the Heathens were at that time punish'd with intestine Wars Famine and Pestilence on the account of their Persecution and those impure Practises and that Galerius Maximianus who to his Persecution of the Christians had also added Impurity of Life died of a most dreadful Distemper in his Genitals and a Fistula in Ano to the Horrour and Amazement of all that were about him the stink of his Body being so intolerable that it kill'd divers of his Physicians In his ●…oth Book he gives us an Account of the wicked Emperor Licinius who to his hatred of the Christian Religion and Learning of all sorts join'd abominable Uncleanness forcing Wives from their Husbands and giving them to be defi●…'d by his Slaves Nay his own Lustful Rage was so great that his decrepit Years could not asswage the same but even then he abus'd married Women and Virgins towards the fulfilling of his insatiable Lust at last Judgment p●…rsu'd him for being overcome by Constantine the Great and continuing unreclaimable notwithstanding the Clemency us'd towards him by that gracious Christian Emperor he order'd him to be strangl'd And thus was his Exit suitable to his inglorious Life Socrates lib. 5 cap 18 gives us an Account That the Heathen Romans had Victualling-houses under Ground wherein they prostituted Whores by which Devices they trepann'd many persons some going in thither to supply themselves with Food others to satisfie their libidinous and filthy Desires for by a certain Engine purposely made for that end they were convey'd from the Victualling-house down into the Bakehouse where they were forc'd to work and continued there till they were grown old and being never suffer'd to go out their Relations took it for granted that they were dead This Trick was chiefly put upon Strangers and was discover'd by one of the Emperor Thcodosius's Souldiers who being trappan'd in this manner kill'd some of those with his Dagger that would have detain'd him and escaping by this means acquainted the Emperor with it who order'd those Houses to be pull'd down and the Masters of them to be punish'd Another a●…ominable Custom they had which was abolish'd also by this Emperor of which he gives the following Account If a Woman were taken in Adultery they shut her up in a narrow Brothel-house and forc'd her to play

Land and they did according to all the Abominations of the Nations which the Lord cast out before the Children of Israel so that Idolatry Adultery and Unnatural Lust were productive of one another it being Just with God to give up those who did not like to retain him in their knowledge to work all manner of Unncleanness with Greediness It 's proper also to observe here that as the Wicked Princes and Rulers erected those Groves and high Places so the good ones whenever they attempted a Reformation remov'd and broke them down as in the Instances of Jereboam Asa Ahab c. The next Remarkable Instance is in Jezebel who was an Harlot Persecuter Idolater and bloody Woman those sins being so near a kin that they were many times found in one and the same subject we find that she was rather worse then Ahab her Husband who sold himself to do evil and was more wicked than any King of Israel had been before him but that which more particularly relates to our purpose is her Uncleanness and many Whoredoms wherewith she is so plainly Charged by Jehu The Judgment of God upon her for those Crimes is very observable she seem'd to have so little sense of approaching Vengeance tho' she had heard how Jehu cut off all Ahab's House that as he was coming to the Pallace she painted her self in an Obstinate and Whorish manner as if she were either resolv'd to outbrave the Judgments of God and to die with Obstinacy and Impenitence in that very sin which hastned wrath upon her or that she thought thereby to bewitch Jehu and convert his Rage into an Amorous Passion but behold the Event he Commands her to be thrown headlong out at the Window which being effected that Body which she had so much pampered and adorn'd had the burial of an Ass viz. To be eaten up by Dogs and thrown as dung upon the face of the Field as had been threatned by the Prophet a suitable Exit for such a Vile and Abominable Life which may serve as a dreadfull warning to our Painted Ladies Having thus run thro' all the principal old Testament Instances of Uncleanness and the Judgments inflicted upon those that were guilty by God from the Creation to the Captivity of Israel The next thing that offers it self to our observation is that passage in the 9th and 10th of Ezra where after the Restoration of the People One of the General sins which they lamented and reformed was their having taken strange Wives and liv'd a Loose and Licentious life according to the Abominations of the Canaanlies Hittites Perizzites Jebusites Ammonites Moabites Egyptians and Amorites whom the Lord had destroyed for those Crimes and we find that the very Priests were polluted with this Contagion so far had Lust got the ascendent over the Laws of God But when they had been harass'd with Judgments and brought to set about a Reformation then they willingly put away those strange Wives according to the Command of the Prophets on pain of Forfeiture and Excommunication We find also that when Nehemiah came to Rebuild Jerusalem and reform the Jews he insisted upon their putting away of their strange Wives and chas'd away one of the Priests because he was Son-in-Law to Sanballat the Horonite concerning which Josephus tells us the following Story viz. That the Person thus chased away by Nehemiah was Manasses Brother to the High Priest Jaddus who refusing to put away this strange Woman was driven out of the Priesthood and thereupon going to his Father in-Law Sanballat who was made Prince or Governour of Samaria by Darius the last King of the Persians he told him how he had been treated and thrust from the Priesthood by his Brother Jaddus or Jaiada whose Colleague he was upon the account of his marriage whereupon Sanballat encouraged him to retain his Wife promising that he would take care that he should not only enjoy the Priesthood but also the Principality of the People and that he would obtain leave from King Darius to build a Temple upon Mount Gerizim which hangs over Samaria and was much higher than the rest of the Hills and resembled that of Mount Moriah upon which the Temple of Jerusalem stood which design took so well that all the Jews who had transgressed in the matter of strange Wives followed this Manasses and made him a strong party Darins in the mean time being overcome by Alexander who was then Besieging Tyre Sanballat went thither acknowledged Alexander for his Soveraign and obtained leave from him to build the said Temple wherein his Son-in-Law Manasses officiated as High-Priest and all such as transgressed the Law at Jerusalem fled to him for Protection so that it became an Asylum or Sanctuary for dissolute Persons This hightned the Enmity so much betwixt the Jews and Samaritans that the former could never be reconciled to the latter even after that Temple was demolish'd by Hircanus after 100 years standing and the Samaritans after the said demolition still held the Mountain on which it stood Sacred and hated those who went to Jerusalem to worship as appears by the Woman of Samaria's treatment of our Saviour Luke 9. 53. Where she told him that their Fathers worshipped in that Mountain c. The Observation which naturally results from this passage and makes it applicable to our purpose is that Lust or Unlawfull Love to strange Women does naturally turn away the heart from God and makes Men become easie Proselytes to Idolatry or a false Religion Having thus gone thro' all the material passages of the old Testament which have any reference to our Subject it may not be improper to close that part of our History with Solomon's Character of Lewd Women Whoremongers Whoredom c. of which he was the best able to give an account of any Man that ever liv'd not only because of the assistance of the Divine spirit which inspired his Pen but because of his own Experience In the second of the Proverbs he tells us That Wisdom will deliver us from the Strange Woman who flattereth with her words forsaketh her Husband the guide of her youth and forgetteth her Marriage Vows the Covenant of her God her House inclineth unto death and her Paths unto the dead that is lead both to Temporal and Eternal destruction none that go unto her return again neither take they hold of the Paths of Life That is few who haunt the Society of such Women do ever find Grace to repent of it or to betake themselves again to a chaste Life In his 5th Chapter he pursues her Character thus That her Lips drop as an Hony-Comb and her Mouth is smoother than oil but her end is bitter as Wormwood sharp as a two edged Sword her feet go down to death her Steps take hold on Hell her ways are moveable that thou canst not know them That is sometimes fawning and sometimes frowning as she thinks she can best work upon the humours of her Lovers and