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
'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
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
of Genesis we have a very Extraordinary Testimony against Adultery from an Heathen Prince Abimelech King of Gerar upon the occasion of Isaac's having from that same principle of slavish fear with his Father called his Beautifull Wife his Sister to avoid being killed for her sake but the King perceiving him sporting more familiarly with her than 't was decent for a Sister and Brother to do he reproved him sharply for his having dissembled her being his Wife whereby he not only endangered her Chastity but might have brought wrath upon the People for defiling another Man's Wife and therefore to prevent any such thing he forbad any of the People to meddle with Isaac or his Wife on pain of death Certainly this Heathen Prince will rise in Judgment against those pretended Christians who pollute themselves with promiscuous Lusts and neither Account Fornication nor Adultery a Crime The next Instance offer'd us is that of Esau who married two Wives and those too the Daughters of Canaan which were a Grief of Soul unto his Father and his Mother that he Married two Wives at once considering his Grand-Father Abraham's Example and the Custom of those dark and ignorant times seems not so Criminal and yet his Father's praâ—…ice who had but one ought to have had more influence upon him but his marrying Canaanites Profane Women and Heathens contrary to the Command of his Grand-Father Abraham and not only without the Consent but against the Inclination of his Father and Mother was altogether unexcusable The Impulsive cause which mov'd him to do so we have no reason to doubt was his Ungovernable Lust for that he was a Man of intemperate Appetite and by Consequence Libidinous is plain from his having profanely bartered away his Birth-Right for a Mess of Red Pottage when to be sure he might have had other Food in his Fathers House or if he had rejected Jacob's proposal there 's no great reason to think that Jacob would have been so unnatural as to have insisted upon his demand and denied necessary Refreshment to his Brother but he did so much idolize his own Palate and Appetite that he preferred the satisfaction of them to every thing else and we have the same reason to think that his Concupiscence was as Ungovernable as his Stomach and therefore he married two Canaanitish Women at once to satisfy his raging Lust the fulfilling of which he prefer'd to his Father and Mother's good will and this no doubt had no small influence in moving the latter to suborn Jacob to deprive Esau of his Blessing as well as of his Birth-right and it 's Remarkable that as he made a Cursed choise of his Wives he was also accursed in his Posterity who as it appears by the Sacred History became irreconcilable Enemies to the people of God and were always their most Barbarous and Cruel Persecutors Esau's Marrying a third Wife of Ishmael's race while the other two were alive is another Argument of his Unbridled Lust and Enmity to true Religion It ' true that Interpreters disagree in this matter some thinking that Esau Married this Third Wife of his Father 's own kindred to please him because the Daughters of Canaan were hatefull to him but others seem to have more Reason who think that he did it out of Contempt with a design to provoke his Parents more by contracting a new Alliance with another wicked people who were as much Enemies to the Church and as much or more irreconcilable to his Father as the other seeing it 's apparent that Ishmael mock'd or as the Apostle Interprets it persecuted Isaac from his very Infancy And thus far we see raging incontinency and hatred at Religion go hand in hand The next Instance that occurs to us is that of Jacob who well may be charged with Polygamy as having four Wives at a time instead of one The first occasion of this good Patriarch's transgression in this matter was the Wicked Craft and Deceit of Laban his Father-in-Law who instead of Rachel whom Jacob Married brought Leah to his Bed and so was the cause of Jacob's Digamy and Incest and tho' it 's true that Jacob is no where Condemned in Scripture for this yet it 's plain that he acted contrary to Divine institution and he is reproved for it by our Saviour amongst others when he told the Pharisees That from the beginning it was not so There were some and particularly the Manichees of old who inveighed against this Polygamy of the Patriarchs and in very gross and foul Language accuse them as Whore-Masters and their Wives as Whores but their scurrilous Arguments are well answered by Augustine against Faustus and others There are some who think that this Polygamy of the Patriarchs was by a peculiar instinct and particular Dispensation and therefore as in that case it could not be blamable neither can it now be ordinarily imitable the chief Reasons they assign for their opinions are that it was permitted for the Increasing of the Promised Seed that Jacobs Wives c. were acted by more than a Natural principle and much self-denial in recommending their Maids to their Husband's Bed which in ordinary Cases must be supposed to alienate his Affection from themselves In the next place they observe that they pray'd for off-spring by their Maids and brought up their Children upon their own knees It must be own'd that those things were Extraordinary and Contrary to the Practice and Principle of the generality of Women yet it 's strongly presumable that there was something of Custom as well as of instinct in this matter and that the people of God were polluted with the bad Example of those amongst whom they lived But however these things were this is certain that all the Persons concerned were one way or other punish'd for their Concurrence in this Affair Laban had not only the mortifiâ—…ation to see his two Daughters Jarr and Disagree and Envy one another but also to find his Riches and Substance decrease and to be conveighed to another hand Leah she was severely punish'd by finding that she had less of her Husbands Love than her Sister whose Bed she had unjustly defiled Rachel was punish'd with barrenness for some time for consenting to live with Jacob as his Wife when she knew that her Father had given her eldest Sister into his Bed Jacob's life was very uneasy betwixt his Jarring Wives who did each of them Envy the others Enjoyment of him Nay he was perfectly Subject to the Command of his Imperious and Beautiful Rachel and obliged to take a third Wife to beget Children for her and this laid him under a necessity of obliging Leah in the like manner which as it must needs Consume his Body he being now above 80 years of age there was no doubt but it increased his care how to provide for so many Wives and Children at the same time he was also plagued with a Covetous Oppressing Father-in-Law and discontented Brethren who envied his growing
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
this strange adventure that had befaln their General and therefore had not the Courage to make head against them Whatever be the Circumstances of this story that may justly occasion the truth of it to be called in Question its plain from other passages which we shall have occasion to touch in the pursuance of this History that the dissoluteness of a General hath oftener than once occasioned the ruin of Armies We come now to the story of Susanna and the Elders of Israel This Woman says the Author was Wife to Joacim the Chief of the Jews then Captives in Babylon a Woman of Incomparable Beauty and Admirable Chastity This Lady using to walk in her Husbands Garden in the afternoons two of the Elders of Israel who attended at Joacim's House to execute Judgment became inflam'd with Lust towards her and tho' at first they were asham'd to declare it to one another yet afterwards being hardened in their Wickedness they plotted together against this Vertuous Woman and watching an opportunity till they found her alone in the Garden when she had sent her Maids out for Oil and Wash-balls in order to bath her self they surpriz'd her tempted her to Lewdness and upon her refusal accus'd her falsly as if they had taken her in Adultery with a young man upon which she was by the Authority of their Evidence Convicted and Condemned to die but Just as she was going to be put to death the Lord raised up Daniel says the Author to deliver her who obtaining that her Cause should be reheard he examined the Elders afresh and accusing them of that Villainous and Lustfull design against Susanna Convicted them of Perjury by their own Testimony the one of them saying they took her under a Mastich and the other saying that they took her under an Holm-Tree so that they themselves fell into the Pit which they had Digged for this Vertuous Woman and suffered the punishment which they design'd should have been inflicted upon her Whether this story be true or not is not material to our purpose but in the prosecution of this design we shall meet with several parallell Instances which discover the thing not to be impossible in it self however improbable in regard of its Circumstances We come now to the New Testamen times and find it observable that our Saviour in his first Sermon upon the Mount Matth. 5. inveighed against the impurity of the Jews who for light and frivolous Causes such as if they did not like their Wives c. Divorced them which was the occasion of Uncleanness in themselves and in the Women so Divorced who our Saviour says they caused to commit Adultery if they put them away upon any other account than that of Fornication so that 't is plain that the Woman whom they took into their Bed in the room of her that was Divorced was no other than a Concubine and that if the Woman so Divorced Married with another Man she thereby became an Adultress as our Saviour declares more at large in the 19th of Matthew where we have an Account of the malice and subtlety of the Pharisees in propounding that Question Whether it was Lawful for a Man to put away his Wife for every Cause For if our Saviour had answered in the Affirmative then they would have proclaimed him a Friend to Uncleanness and if In the Negative then they would have opposed him with the Authority of Moses but our Lord knowing their design referred them to the Creation when God made them Male and Female not Females or diverse Women for one Man and to the first institution of Marriage which was only betwixt one and one and therefore it was said they two not they three four or five shall be one Flesh which clearly subverted all that could be alledged for Polygamy or Concubinage and being the Commentary of the Lawgiver upon his own Law makes it of equal Authority with the Text and ought for ever to shut the Mouths of such as plead for a plurality of Wives Then to their Argument from the Authority of Moses he answers them that Moses indeed permitted Divorces because of the hardness of their Hearts and to prevent a greater evil as is Customary in all Political and Civil Constitutions as if Moses had said It 's better that you put away your Wives when you grow weary of them than Murder them and at the same time they were obliged to give them a Bill of Divorce which was a Testimony of the Womans Innocence and of the Husbands Levity and Impurity But our Saviour tells them that from the beginning it was not so and that what God had joined no man could put asunder which was as much as to say that common Laws allow more than is allowed by the Laws of Religion as is clear from this Instance that in all Christian Kingdoms there are Judges Constituted for deciding differences betwixt Man and Man of what nature soever they may be for preventing Oppression and Injustice so that the Bench is open to Trivial and Frivolous suits as well as to those that are Weighty and Material yet the practice of such as go to Law upon every occasion is contrary to the Apostles Command and Christian Charity as may be seen 1 Cor. 1. 6. It is also observable that our Saviour taught those Pharisaical Zealots who valued themselves upon their external sanctity a more refin'd and higher degree of Chastity than they had formerly been acquainted with viz. That the Law which forbad them to commit Adultery did not only reach the outward practice but the inward motions and thoughts of the heart and therefore he tells them Matth 5. 28. That whosoever lookt on a Woman to Lust after her hath committed Adultery with her already in his heart a Doctrine which does so much Gall our Modern Gallants That we have great reason to presume it is one of the Chief Latent Causes why so many of 'em denâ—… the Author of it to be God We come next to the Historical passages of the new Testament relating to our Subject The first we meet with is that in Mat. 14. concerning the Tetrarch Herod and Herodias his Brother Philip's Wife with whom that Prince committed Incest for which he was reproved by John the Baptist and this did so incense the wicked Woman that nothing less could expiate this supposed Crime of the Prophet than the loss of his life but she durst not attempt that rashly for fear of the people who as they knew her to be a Vicious Strumpet did also know that John was a Good Man and esteem'd him as a Prophet his Vertues being as conspicuous as her Vices and therefore she watch'd a convenient opportunity which she found on her Gallant Herod's Birth-day when he was feasting and revelling with his Nobles at which time she sent in her Daughter the unworthy off-spring of such an Ungodly Mother to Dance before them where with Herod and his Company were so extreamly well pleas'd
that he rashly vowed to grant her whatever she would demand and so the young Strumpet being suborn'd by the old one demanded the Head of John the Baptist which Herod granted her tho much against his Will and she carried it to her Mother in a Charger as an acceptable present so naturally do Whoredom Murder and Persecution agree One would have thought that the very scandal of acting contrary to that Pity and Compassion which is so natural to the fair Sex should have restrain'd those Lewd Women from any such demand and much more from rejoycing in any such Bloody Spectacle but it s commonly seen that Whores become void of all natural affection and that they are hurried headlong into perdition by unbridled Lust and raging Passion But to return to the History of Herod and Herodias they were not only guilty of Incest but of Adultery and a Rape for Herod took her forcibly from his Brother Philip and not from his Unkle Herod King of Chalcis as Josephus mistakes so that it was an Atrocious and Complicated Crime and by the Just Judgment of God Herod who committed this barbarous Murder upon John the Baptist against his own Conscience rather than he would disoblige his Whore was giv'n up to all manner of wickedness and afterwards with his Men of War exposed our Saviour to Scorn and Laughter in his Mock Royal Robes and so as his Ungodly Father Herod the Great destroyed all the Infants of Bethlehem with a design to cut off Christ the Wicked Son pursuing his Fathers bad design concurr'd in the Crucifying of our Saviour It remains that we take a view of the Judgments that fell upon this Impure Couple which Josephus in his Jewish Antiquities lib. 18. cap. 7. 9. gives us an account of as follows viz. that Herod's lawful Wife Daughter to Aretas King of Arabia Petraea understanding his Intrigue with his Sister-in-Law Herodias and that he had a mind to Divorce her to make way for that vile Strumpet fled to her Father and acquainted him with it whereupon he made War against Herod and defeated his Army And in the 40th year of Christ Herod being accused of Rebellion was together with his Strumpet Herodias banisht by the Emperor Caligula to Lions in France where they perisht in Ignominy and Misery and the whole Race of Herod the Great was extinguish'd in a 100 years time tho the Memory of their wickedness is perpetuated to all Ages This Instance is sufficient to convince all mankind that unclean persons are capable of the greatest Villainy of other kinds and justly given up of God to commit the same for this Lustful Prince having committed double Aduletry a Rape and Incest did afterwards commit two of the most horrid Murders that ever were committed upon the face of the Earth viz. That of John the Baptist our Saviours fore-runner and then that of ourSaviour himself such is the enmity which uncleanness does naturally lead men into against God and Good Men and to be given up to that enmity is certainly the most dreadful of all punishments The next thing that we meet with belonging to our Subject is the Instance of the Woman taken in Adultery in the 8th chap. of the Evangelist St. John and brought by the Pharisees before our Saviour that by their ensnaring questions they might have something whereof to accuse him Our Saviour knowing their wicked design eluded them by stooping and writing upon the Ground What it was that he then wrote is more curiously than wisely disputed by the learned some say that he wrote the words which he afterwards spoke to them others that he wrote these words viz. Yow are Earth and you judge after an earthly manner others that he wrote upon the Ground such Crimes of the same kind as the Pharisees were guilty off in order to put them to silence or some short pathetical Sentence exhorting them to the practise of Virtue and the abhorrence of Vice but these being all meer conjectures we let them pass In the mean time the Pharisees conceiving that he was put to a nonplus and knew not what to answer did insolently urge him to speak which he did to their Confusion by bidding those that were without sin throw the first Stone at her with which they were so daunted and ashamed that they desisted from their accusation and went out one after another being convicted by their own Consciences that they were Guilty as well as she and found that neither their speculative nor private uncleanness were hid from our Saviour who had formerly told them that lusting after a Woman was Adultery in the Eyes of God and it 's probable did now point at their secret bodily uncleanness when he commanded them that were Innocent to throw the first Stone at her according to the practice of their own Law Deut. 17. 7. which enjoyned the Witnesses to lay their hands first upon the Head of the Person convicted by their Evidence as a Testimony that they thought them worthy of Death and that they themselves abhorred the Iniquity they were condemned for whereas 't was plain to our Saviour that these Pharisees took care only to keep the outside clean before Men but had no regard to inward purity of mind nor to common honesty so that they could but commit wickedness with secrecy and impunity and thus they are accused by the God of Truth as making long Prayers and bestowing publick Alms while at the same time they devoured Widows Houses The Pharisees being thus defeated and convicted the Woman is freed from all her Accusers upon which our Saviour asks her if no man had condemned her and upon her answering no and finding that all her Accuâ—…ers were gone he said neither do I condemn thee go thy way and sin no more This answer of our Saviours hath been wrested by some as if he had thereby declared that Adultery was no capital crime under the Gospel whereas it is plain that he only declined the part of a Magistrate and Judge as he did in another Case when one Brother desired him to speak to another that he should divide his Fathers Estate with him Luke 12. 13. And therefore he only acts the part of a Minister in exhorting the Woman to Repentance and Reformation but no way extenuates her Crime Nay on the contrary he seems directly to insinuate that she deserved Condemnation and would not have reproved any Judge if he had condemned her but his main design was to discover the Hypocrisie of the Pharisees who imposed upon the people as if they had been the most Just and upright sort of men in the World and as an Evidence of it brought this person taken in flagranti delicto before him who was a Preacher of Righteousness to know what his opinion was concerning her punishment and yet when he came to put the Question home to their own Consciences whether they were not guilty of the same Crimes and if they were not bid them to proceed
Manly temper Ordering the following distich to be engraven on his Tomb Haec habeo quae edi quaeque Exsaturata Libido Hausit at illa Jacent multa ac praeclara relicta Which says Aristotle was a fitter Epitaph for a Bull then a King It may be Paraphras'd in English thus Those things I have which delight I ate And also those which did my Lust asswage Yet may desires are still insatiate And that oughts left behind enflames my rage The Meaes having held the Empire 350 years it then fell into hands of the Persians under the Conduct of Cyrus and that the Persian Women were not over modest appears by the method they took to encourage their Men when they had the worst in the Battle at first with Astyages viz. When the Persians began to run their Women uncovered their Secret parts unbraidded them with Cowardice and askt whither they would hide themselves in the Bellies of their Mothers and Wives which did so animate them that from a principal of shame they returned to the Battle came off Victorious and by that means laid the Foundation of the Persian Monarchy which was afterwards overturn'd by Fffeminacy and Lasciviousness as we shall see in its place and that the Persians should have immers'd themselves in Lasciviousness is so much the more remarkable and inexcusable because their Emperor Cyrus to break the Warlike Temper of the Lydians whom he had overcome thought it not enough to deprive them of their Horses and Arms but commanded them to exercise themselves in Publick-Houses Plays and Bawdy-Houses and thus says Justin Lib. 1. this people who before Cyrus were invincible in War mighty by their industry and redoubtable by their Valour lost their Ancient Gallantry by their Effeminate Delicacy and Luxury And that this Wantonness had invaded their Throne is evident from the Instance of Candaules their King who doting upon his Wife because of her Incomparable Beauty commended her in all Companies and not satifised with that he was so mad as to expose her Naked to the view of Gyges his Favourite by appointing him a Secret place in her Bed-Chamber which the Qperceiving tho' unknown to her Husband she was so much incens'd at it that she propos'd it to Gyges either to kill the King and enjoy her and the Kingdom or to prepare for death himself the former of which conditions he accepted and performed and thus was Candaules punished for his Voluptuousness by losing his Life and Crown and having his Race extinguished Justin in his 〈◊〉 Book acquaints us also that one of the Magi called Comaris being imployed by Cambyses to kill his Brother Mergides performed it Secretly and Cambyses dying in the mean time of a Wound he received by his own Sword Comaris set up his own Brother Oropastes for King instead of Mergides to whom the Succession belonged after Cambyses Oropastes was very like Mergides but the matter being afterwards suspected Orthanus a Noble man found it out by his own Daughter that was one of the King's Concubines she by her Father's perswasion felt Oropastes his head when he was asleep and finding that he had no Ears acquainted her Father with it who thereby knew that it was Oropastes whose Ears Cambyses had ordered to be cut off and imparting it to the rest of the Nobility from whom it was easie to conceal it because the Kings of Persia under a shew of Majesty were kept from the view of their Subjects they conspired against him and slew both the Brothers thus was Oropastes deprived of his Life and Crown by the Treachery of one of his Concubines The next passage we meet with in Justin for our purpose is that of the Scythian Women whose Husbands being long absent he says 15 years in subduing Asia they sent Messengers to them telling them that if they did not return they wou'd take care to have off-spring by their Neighbours and that the Women should not be to blame if the Race of the Scythians failed whereupon they returned having imposed a small Tribute upon the Asiaticks rather as an acknowledgment of ther Conquests then as a Reward of their Victory That same Author Book 2d tells us that the Scythians having staid 7 Years from their Wives in their 3d. Expedition into Asia the Women reckoning they had been all cut off Married their Servants who were left at home to look after their Catttle so that when their Husbands returned Victorious they were look'd upon as Foreign Invaders and therefore their Servants kept them out by force of Arms so that after diverse Skirmishes with various fortune the Scythians considering that those who opposed them were their Servants they agreed to make use of Whips against them instead of Arms which had so good success that their Servants as if their Servile Spirits had returned to them upon the sight of the Whips fled before them It s also fit to take notice here that the Women so much fam'd in the World by the Name of Amazons were Wives to a Colony or rather an Inundation of Scythians who settling themselves in Cappadocia about the River Thermodoon and having subdued their Neighbours were at last wholly cut off by a Conspiracy of the people whom they had Conquered upon which their Women took Arms and not only defended their own Territories but enlarg'd their Dominions and being accustomed to Govern men lookt upon Marriage as a servitude cut off all the Men that were remaining among them that none of them might seem more happy than the rest by enjoyment of their Husbands and then having obtained Peace once a year they convers'd with the Men of Neighbouring Nations and if they brought forth Males they either killed them or sent them home to their Fathers but the Females they bred up to the use of Arms and all manly Exercises burning one of their Dugs that it might not hinder them to bend their Bows and preserving the other to suckle their Girls Amongst those Amazons are said to have Reign'd the Famous Queens Marthesia Lampeto Otrera Penthesilea Thalestris c. and their Monarchy is said to have continued till the time of Alexander the Great Some will have all that is writ of the Amazons to be a meer Fable and others that all the stories of them was occasioned by their Womens bearing Arms and Fighting in Battle as well as the Men and it may be being more numerous in diverse of those Battles than the Men who were either absent or consumed in those Expeditions they had the Chief Command as is observed by Juan Orelhan the Spaniard who discovered that great River call'd by the Name of the River of the Amazons in the West-Indies upon the Banks of which he perceived the Women in Arms to exceed the men in number and to Command them and upon that Account he gave the Name aforesaid to that River But however the matter be it affords us this Observation that all Kingdoms and States ought to take care of encouraging
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
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