Passion as neither to regard the Command of God for hanging up other Great men that were guilty of the like Crime nor the hand of God which was gone out against the Common People destroying those by a burning Plague who just before were burning in their Lusts but in the very heat of God's Anger and while the Congregation were all in Tears for their Sins and Judgments as if he would out brave the wrath of God and insult over the Calamities of the people he brought his Midiantish Whore in the sight of Moses and all the Congregation into his Tent and as he made himself thus a Remarkable Sinner the Lord did pursue him with as Remarkable a Judgment by sturring up Phinehas to go beyond the ordinary bounds of his Vocation and become Executioner of his Justice upon this Lustfull Gallant whom together with his Whore he thrust through with his Javelin so that instead of sending a Priest to give him absolution God Commissioned a Priest to be the Messenger of dispatching him to everlasting flames in the very mids of his own Impure flames and while not only the names of Common Sinners but even those of other Great men who were hanged for the same Crimes are buried in oblivion the Name of this Prince and his Tribe are conveyed down to Posterity to perpetuate the Memory of his Infamy and this Remarkable Zeal of Phinehas was so well pleasing to God that the Plague amongst the People did immediately cease upon it It 's an observation naturally deducible from this passage that the Chief Magistrate ought to punish Great Men in an Exemplary manner for such Great and Heinous Crimes as Whoredom and Idolatry Here the great ones are hung up before the Sun while Sinners of a lower rank are suffered to rot by a Common Contagion From hence also we may observe That then a Reformation may have prospect of Success when Ministers and Magistrates concur in it as here Phinehas did with Moses The horrid advice of Balaam before-mentioned puts me in mind of the Counsel which Cardinal Mazarine is generally charged with as to England viz. That the best way to make us Papists was to debauch our Morals particularly by Whoredom We find by the Instance just now related that Uncleanness is a strong attractive to Idolatry and whether the Lewd Example of the Court which overspread the Nation with Debauchery did not very much promote the Popish Interest in former Reigns and likewise lay the Foundation for that Atheism Deism and Socinianism which doth so much abound in this now that the Debauchees cannot find their Account in Popery let Experience testify If the Advocates of Lechery should object that the punishments abovementioned were inflicted upon the People because of their Idolatry and not upon the Account of their Infamous Commerce with the Daughters of Midian it is easie to answer them that they were punish'd for both in Conjunction and the Apostle in the first of Corinthians 10. and 8. assigns their Fornication as the Cause of their Judgments it being indeed the Original Cause and as has been said already Whoredom and Idolatry have a Natural Tendency to one another and therefore Cardinal Mazarine's Receipt abovementioned for perverting Protestants to be Papists may very well pass with a probatum est There 's one thing more to be taken notice of in this Instance and that is the Judgments which this Whoredom brought upon the Midianites as well as upon the Children of Israel It is well enough known that Corrupt Nature is prone enough to Revenge and there 's little reason to doubt but the Israelites were incens'd enough against those of Midian for this Great Injury they had done them yet the Almighty thought fit to whett their Revenge and Commanded them to Vex the Midianites and Smite them because they vexed them with their Wiles and beguil'd them in the matter of Peor and Cozbi that is by enticing them to Idolatry and Whoredom Peor being the Mountain where the Midianitish Baal was worshipped for Baal was an Appellative Name to Heathen Idols as Mary is to the Popish ones but distinguish'd by the places where the most Famous Statues or Pictures of 'em were worshiped as our Lady of Loretto Lady of Prague c. now a days So that here 's a War declared against Midian with as good Authority and for as great and weighty Causes as ever any War was declared under Heav'n The Execution of which we have an account of in the 31. Chap. where it 's recommended unto Moses as the last Military Exploit that ever he was to perform to Avenge the Lord and the Children of Israel of the Midianites which was accordingly done by an Army Contemptible for Number viz. 12000 Men who destroyed a Numerous People Governed by 5 Kings put all their Males to the edge of the Sword their Kings not excepted and amongst the rest Balaam the false Prophet was slain as a just reward for his pernicious Council and so the Riches which he acquir'd and was so covetous of that for the Lucre of 'em he would act contrary to God's Express Command became a prey to the Israelites against whom he had given such Hellish advice It is also observable that Phinehas who had formerly signalized his Zeal is sent along with the Troops which was both a great Honour to him and an Encouragement to them as fighting under the Auspices of Heaven and had it been otherwise they could never possibly have Conquer'd such a great People as the Midianites appear to have been 3 by the Number of the Women saved that had never known Man viz. 32000 their Sheep which were 675000 their Beeves 72000 and Asses 61000 so that God powred Contempt upon that Effeminate Whoring Nation in destroying them by such an Inconsiderable Number of men It 's also to be observed that Moses was very Angry with the Captains for having saved all the Women and the reason given for it is this Because they had enticed the Children of Israel first to Whoredom and then to Idolatry and therefore he Commanded every Woman who had known a Man to be destroyed and thus those Women who thought to have sav'd their Country by Prostituting themselves did thereby accelerate the destruction of themselves and their Country too and the Midianitish Men who consented to this Hellish Stratagem of exposing their Wives to save themselves did thereby procure the ruin of both and their Virgins became a prey to the Conquerors The just hatred of God against this Impure Nation appears likewise in this that their Furniture Gold Silver c. was not to be made use of by the Israelites 'till purified by Fire and Water according to the nature of the thing so abominable in the Eyes of God are all those things spotâ—…ed with the Flesh. There are some who make an exception to the truth of this History of the Total destvuction of the Midianites because they afterwards invaded Israel in great Multitudes in Gideon's
rich in the World Nor is it to be doubted but there was frequent Quarrels amongst the Children of so many different Mothers seeing it's Common to find Children by the same Father and Mother often to disagree and this without doubt begot mutual Broils Contentions and Heats amongst the different Wives every one envying the prosperity or good Fortune of anothers Children An Instance of this we have in Rachel who was so much taken with Reuben's Mandrakes that there 's no doubt but she could have wish'd they had been found by one of her own Sons Hence also we may observe That as the Children did every one love their own Mothers best it must needs occasion Quarrels amongst them It 's not agreed among Interpreters what these Mandrakes were some will have them to be Beautiful Fragrant Flowers and others that they were Beautiful and Delicious Apples which promoted Conception and that therefore they were so much desired by Rachel which if it were so she was however disappointed for having agreed that her Husband should be with Leah that night it occasioned her Rival to have two Sons Successively one after another and also one Daughter But as to the Mandrakes themselves St. Augustine against Faustus tells us That he has seen of 'em Diligently Inquired into their Nature and says they were Apples fine to the Eye and of a sweet Scent but insipid taste but very rare to be bad and on that Account alone he thought Rachel did Covet them The sin of Jacob and Leah is also very legible in their punishment by the foul Crimes of their Children Reuben and Dinah Jacob was guilty of Incest with two Sisters and to the great grief of his Soul eternal Reproach of his Family and scandal to the Neighbouring Heathen his Son Reuben committed Incest with his own Concubine Bilhah which by the way was another punishment upon her for consenting to Marry one who had two Wives before and whom she had no reason to think could ever be able to perform Conjugal duty to so many and 't is not improbable that this made her an easy prey to the Tentation Then as to Dinah her being polluted by Schechem the Son of Hamor was another disgrace to Jacob's Family and brought a fresh scandal upon the Church as well as ruin upon the Schechemites whose destruction was occasioned by the Lustful Passion of their Prince in dealing with Jacob's Daughter as with an Harlot which so enraged her Brethren that by a fraudulent Covenant they obliged the Schechemites to Circumcise themselves came upon them while they were Sore and put all the Males to the Sword And thus Dinah was also punished for her Conversing with the Daughters of the Land who were Idolaters and of corrupt manners her Curiosity which is so common to young Maids was fatal to her self and many others neither is there any thing better to be expected from those Profane Festivals Revellings and Banquetings which Josephus thinks the Schechemites were now taken up with And that Dinah either having stole away from her Mother to see how the Daughters of the Land were adorn'd and behav'd themselves in their publick Dances or being so far indulged as to have Liberty to go the Libidinous young Prince being taken with her Beauty and under no restraint but dandled by an Indulgent Father violated her Chastity for which himself his Son and all their Male Subjects quickly after lost their Lives having first beeâ—… by the Just Judgment of God punish'd in the very Instrument of their Lasciviousness The wound as it 's usual putting them to great pain and making them unable either to resist or fly from Jacob's Armed Sons and Servants and thus also the Good Old Man was punish'd by the Rape of his only Daughter and his bleeding wound â—…ipt open afresh by the Treachery and Cruelty of his Children This is another Instance of a People cut off and destroyed for Uncleanness The next thing that occurrs is another affliction to the Good Old Patriarch from the Evil Report of the Sons of his Concubines Zilpah and Bilhah who being the off-spring of an Unlawful Marriage were also of a Lewd Conversation themselves and according to the opinion of some of the Hebrews guilty of Sodomitical Impurities But however that was this is plain from the Sacred Text that they had an ill fame and with this Joseph acquainted his Father which occasioned their Conspiracy to kill Joseph and at last to sell him so that here Jacob was remarkably punish'd for his Polygamy The Children of those Concubines being both wicked and haters of his Children by Lawful Wedlock and tho it be not directly to our purpose yet it may not be perhaps unpleasant to the Reader to acquaint him that the Hebrews think Jacob was justly punish'd when made to believe that the blood of a Kid was that of his Son Joseph because he had formerly deceived his Father and made him to believe that he was his eldest Son Esau by putting a Kid's Skin about his Neck c. Our next Instance is in Judah who having left his Brethren and his Father's House and by Consequence the then Church and Lodging with an Adulamite fell in Love with a Canaanitish Woman and Married her he not then exceeding 14 Years of Age himself as Chronologers think not only without his Father's Consent but against it according to the Example of Esau How he was punish'd for this fault the following History acquaints us viz. That having obliged his Son Er to an early and precipitant Marriage like his own who being a Wicked Man and as the Hebrews think guilty of Sodomy or as others of spilling his Seed upon the ground as his Brother Onan did the Lord destroyed him Nor was Judah any happier in his Son Onan abovementioned who being given to his Brothers Widow for a Husband to raise up Seed to his Brother did maliciously spill it on the ground that his Brother's Memory might not be continued Whereas to die Childless had not only a Tendency to the decay and ruin of the Family but was also look'd upon as Reproachful and therefore it is the opinion of Divines that that temporary Law was constituted Deut. 25. 5. The Rabbins according to their fabulous manner alledge That Onan did this because he would not have Thamar's Beauty spoiled by bearing Children but whatever truth there be in that 't is certain that God destroyed him for that Impurity and frustrating the End of Nature which is next akin to Muuther if not a species of it seeing it destroyed that which was potentially a Man or Woman But Judah's punishment does not cease here he is plagued with raging Lust in his own advanced years and being a Widower did incestuously pollute his own Daughter-in Law Thamar whom he took to be a Common Harlot by which he incurr'd a perpetual disgrace and brought an Indelible blot upon his Memory From that History we may plainly also perceive that Adultery was held a Capital
time but the solution is eaise by the Total destruction may be meant that of the Generality or some of them might escape to the Neighbouring Nations and return again with Foreign Colonies to re inhabit their desolate Country which the Israelites were not to stay in but press'd forward towards the Land of Canaan and so the new Inhabitants assuming the Name of the Country might invade the Israelites in the days of Gideon We have seen the destruction of Midian occasioned by their Uncleanness but that of the Moabites was respited for a while because they were the off-spring of Lot Of such advantage is it to be descended of Godly Parents tho' in an illegal manner We have already considered Incestuous and Unlawfull Marriages as they were forbidden to the Israelites whom God would have distinguish'd from other Nations not only in respect of the purity of their Morals but even in their Apparel Hair and laudable Customs as Maimonides and others think And we come now to consider those Incestuous Marriages and Promiscuous Copulations as the Causes of the destruction of the Egyptians amongst whom they had dwelt and of the Canaanites in whose Land they were to dwell as it is particularly expressed in the 18th Chapter of Leviticus It 's true that all along in the Book of Exodus the Chief Crime of the Egyptians taken notice of is Oppression and Persecution but as we have said before Persecution and Uncleanness are Generally Companions and we find that the multiplication of the Hebrews was one great Cause of the Envy and Hatred of the Egyptians towards them which being the usual Blessing and Reward of Chastity was a severe Reproof to the Lascivious Egyptians which no doubt did heighten their Enmity to the Children of Israel And by the Prophet's Reproof in the 20. and 23. Chapters of Ezekiâ—…l That Israel had plaid the Harlot in the days of her Youth when she was in the Land of Egypt there 's reason to think that too too many of the Israelites were infected with the corrupt Example of the Egyptians who for their Promiscvous Venery are Compared to Asses and Horses by the Prophet in these words Whose Members are as the Members of Asses and whose Issue is as the Issue of Horses Historians tell us That it was usual amongst the Egyptians for Brothers and Sisters to Marry together and that they made a Statute for the Lawfulness of it because Isis their Goddess was Married to her Brother Osiris Then seeing the Israelites had convers'd amongst them 200 Years and had not only seen but learned their Corrupt manners and been witnesses to all the plagues inflicted upon them on that Account there could not be a more proper Caution given them than to beware of their Practices It is also to be observed that the Arabians amongst whom the Israelites wandered married none but their own Kindred That the Persians held it Lawfull for the Fathers to marry with their Daughters and the Parthians accounted it no Crime for the Mothers to marry with their Sons so much were those Eastern Countries drowned in Uncleanness whence it is plain that Whoredom was one of the principal Causes of their destruction It 's true that in Abraham's time it would seem that such Incestuous Marriages were not Common amongst the Egyptians otherwise his advice to Sara to say that she was his Sister would have been no Argument to make the Egyptians conclude that she was not his Wife But it is plain from Historians that afterwards they grew more licentious And thus Ptolemy Pihladelphus married his Sister Arsinoe and Soter and Philopater Egyptian Kings did also marry their own Sisters And it 's a known Story of the Persians that when Cambyses King of Persia had a mind to his youngest Sister and ask'd his Judges whether there were any Law against it they answered him That they knew none but that there was a Law that the King 's of Persia might do what they would Then 't is also known that the Messagates Troglodites Brachmans and other Eastern People allowed a Community of Wives their Philosophers taught it and Crates and Cabades Kings of Persia made L aws for it Another of the Crimes forbidden to the Israelites and which the Canaanites and those Eastern People were guilty of was causing their Seed to pass through the fire to Moloch by which some understand that in a most filthy manner they consecrated their Sperm or Seed to their Idol Priapus as Baal's Priest offered their Blood to their Idol 1. Kings 18. and as the Manichees and Gnosticks mixed the Eucharist with humane Seed tho' the Current of Interpreters carry it for making their Children pass through betwixt two fires and sometimes offering them as a burnt-Sacrifice in Honour of their Idol They are also charged with Sodomy or the Unnatural Lust of Men towards Men to which they were given up by the Just Judgment of God as a due punishment for their Idolatry And at the dissolution of the Monasteries here in England our Anti-Christian Idolaters were found to have polluted themselves in this manner which Crime as it brought Hell upon the Sodomites before their time that is brought Fire and Brimstone upon them before they went off the Earth so this horrid Uncleanness of the Monks procur'd the dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII before their Religion was discharged out of the Nation The Egyptians and Canaanites are also charged with Bestiality their Men and Women having committed Confusion with Beasts and thus Pasiphae is accused of having accompanied with a Bull Polyphantes with a Bear Semiramis with an Horse and the Women of Mendis in Egypt with Goats Nay if we may believe the Fables of the Jews the false Prophet Balaam who was slain amongst the Midianites was guilty of Bestiality with his Ass which they foolishly collect from those Words of the Beast viz. Am not I thine Ass which thou hast ridden upon It is also observable that those brutal Commixtions were punish'd by the Infamy of the Criminals as well as by their destruction for we read that the Monstrous Births have many times discovered those Unnatural Crimes and that sometimes they have been betrayed by Heterogeneous tho perfect Births And thus Plutarch tells us of a Boy begotten betwixt a Man and a Mare and of a Girl betwixt a Man and an Ass And Olaus Magnus mentions a Man begotten of a Woman by a Bear who was thereupon called Ursus and of whom many Great Danish Princes did afterwards descend It 's true that Galen denies that there can be any such Generation of Mankind but others maintain it upon this reason That the Partial Cause being more Noble prevails over the less Noble as it is many times seen that a fair Woman hath brought forth a Black-a-moor In fine the Land of Canaan being polluted by those abominations Vomited out her Inhabitants the Posterity of Cham who did so impudently behold and revile his Fathers Nakedness and is thought to have