Appearance for God's Worship that ever the World saw; I say,
in the middle of all this, he drew him into such immoderate and
insatiable an Appetite for Women, as to set up the first, and perhaps
the greatest _Seraglio_ of Whores that ever any Prince in the World had,
or pretended to before; nay, and to bring whoring so much into
Reputation, that, as the Text says, seven hundred of them were
Princesses; that is to say, Ladies of Quality: Not as the Grand
Seigniors, and Great Moguls, (other Princes of the Eastern World) have
since practised, namely, to pick up their most beautiful Slaves; but
these, it seems, were Women of Rank, King's Daughters, as _Pharaoh_'s
Daughter, and the Daughters of the Princes and prime Men among the
_Moabites_, _Ammonites_, _Zidonians_, _Hittites_, &c. 1 _Kings_ xi. 1.

Nor was this all; but as he drew him into the Love of these forbidden
Women (_for such they were, as to their Nation, as well as Number_) so
he ensnar'd him by those Women to a Familiarity with their Worship; and
by degrees brought that famous Prince (famous for his Wisdom) to be the
greatest and most-impos'd-upon old Fool in the World; Bowing down to
those Idols by the Inticing of his Whores, whom he had abhorr'd and
detested in his Youth, as dishonouring that God for whom, and for whose
Worship he had finish'd and dedicated the most magnificent Building and
Temple in the World: Nothing but the invincible Subtlety of this _Arch
Devil_ could ever have brought such a Man as _Solomon_ to such a
Degeneracy of Manners, and to such Meannesses; no, not the _Devil_
himself, without the Assistance of his Whores, nor the Whores
themselves, without the _Devil_ to help them.

As to _Solomon_, _Satan_ had made Conquest enough there, we need hear no
more of him; the next Advance he made, was in the Person of his Son
_Rehoboam_; had not the _Devil_ prompted his Pride and tyrannical
Humour, he would never have given the People such an Answer as he did;
and when he saw a Fellow at the Head of them too whom he knew wanted and
waited for an Occasion to raise a Rebellion, and had ripened up the
People's Humour to the Occasion: Well might the Text call it _listening
to the Council of the young Heads_; that it was indeed with a Vengeance!
but those young Heads too were acted by an old _Devil_, who for his
Craft is called, as I have observ'd, the _Old Serpent_.

Having thus pav'd the Way, _Jeroboam_ revolts. So far God had directed
him; for the Te