But to look a little back upon this Part (for it cannot be omitted, it makes so considerable a Part of the _Devil_'s History) I mean his drawing God's People, Kings and all, into all the Sins and Mischiefs which gradually contributed to their Destruction.
First, (_for he began immediately with the very best and wisest of the Race_) he drew in King _Solomon_, in the midst of all his Zeal for the building God's House, and for the making the most glorious and magnificent 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_.