The Jews at this time had much intercourse with the Romans, Judea having been' long reduced to the fituation of a Roman province, and no doubt, in the very corrupt ftate in which the Jews univerfally were, the Roman manners eafily infinuated themselves amongst the Jewish women. See before, p. 385. n. Divorces, tho' allowed very early in Rome, were never put in practice till about the year of Rome 520, which was before CHRIST 229 years, in the cafe of Carvilius Ruga, who divorced his wife because she was barren; after which they became fcandaloufly frequent, as a corruption of manners prevailed in the republic, till the Roman women grew as licentious in leaving their husbands, as the husbands were in putting them away.What was the character of the Roman ladies in this refpect, we may learn from Juvenal, who wrote not many years after this time. In Sat. vi. he is diffuading his friend Urfidius Pofthumus from marriage, by fetting before him the monftrous practices of the Roman women, one of which was, leaving their husbands, and marrying other men. Speaking So from Seneca, who fays- Who is now "afhamed of breaking the nuptial union, when fo "many ladies of eminence and quality reckon their years not by the number of confuls, but of buf "hands; Speaking of their imperiousness, he fays, their grand argument, in all difputes with heir hufbands, was t Hoc volo-fic jubeo, fit pro ratione voluntas. Then he proceeds 1. 222. Sed mox hæc regna relinquit * Permutatque domos, & flamea conterit. Inde Avolat, & fpreti repetit veftigia lecti. Ornatos paulo ante fores, pendentia linquit Vela domus, & adhuc virides in limine ramos. Sic crefcit numerus, fic fiunt octo mariti Quinque per autumnos ; titulo res digna fepulchri. "So will I have it-fo command I still, And yield no reafon but my fov'reign will." Then the imperious wanton leaves her spouse, From man to man fhe flies, from house to house, Forgetful of her bride's attire, and bridal vows. Again + fhe feeks her first-deserted man, And, in five years, eight husbands crown her plan.Pity, but fuch atchievments fhould be known, Engrav'd on brass or monumental stone ! That "bands; and are divorced in hopes of marrying, and marry in hopes of being divorced?" De Benef. Lib. iii. c. 6. પર Puffendorf obferves,' Lib. vi. c. 1. § 15. that the borrowing and lending of wives among the Romans, is a practice much talked of by authors. * Permutatque domos] Ab uno viro ad alium aliumque tranfiens.-Going from one husband to another and another. Lud. Prateus. + This line proves that they did not wait for their husbands' death to marry others, as does the next: Cc 3 for That this was a common practice, ap pears from 1. 45, &c. Quid quod & antiquis uxor de moribus illi What shall I fay to him who feeks a wife In short, fuch was the profligacy of the Roman women, that if one could be for they can hardly bé supposed to bury seven hufbands in five years. Ovid, who lived a little earlier than Juvenal, cenfures the man who makes a fcruple of his wife's going to others, as unacquainted with true politeness. Rufticus eft nimium quem lædit adultera conjux, Et NOTOS MORES non fatis urbis habet. He that won't lend his wife's an awkward clown, Unfkill'd in the known fashion of the town. Martial, cotemporary with Juvenal, has an epigram which thews the liberties which were taken by a Roman lady. Mochum GELLIA non båbet nisi unum, found found. fit for his friend to marry, he would call her a Phenix as we fay: Rara avis in terris nigroque fimillima cygno. But to return to Wetstein." Others « underland this επ' αυτην of the fryt "wife, to whom the husband might by "his unjust divorce give occafion of committing adultery, or of flying to a fecond or adulterous marriage: but These do not explain what thofe words-and fball marry another are to the purpofe; "fince the divorced woman would be equally in danger of committing adul tery, whether the hufband who put her away, marries another or not. This difficulty came into my mind at Matt. xix. 9; but on confidering the matter again, I do not think thofe words fuperfluous, but fo to cohere with the "reft of the fentence, as to denote, that though the unjust divorce was the occa "fion of the divorced wife's adultery, 66 66 yet the husband's fecond marriage was "the occafion of the divorce. For example-If a man, having met with ano"ther woman who pleafed him better "than his wife, fhould, in order to enjoy the other, give his wife a bill of "divorcement, and grant her liberty to marry any body elfe, whom the chofe, "would this be any thing elfe than to 66 CC 4 "expose 66 expofe her to an adulterer, and to com"mit the crime of pimping?" So the Roman laws-" To act the part of a pimp, "is not lefs a crime than to make a gain by proftituting the body. He who "makes a gain of the adultery of his wife, "whatever his rank or condition be, "is punished as an adulterer.-If a man, " in order to defame his wife, fhall put an adulterer in his place, both the huf"band and wife fhall, by law, be adjudged guilty of the crime of adultery." By all this it appears, that nothing kept this learned man from thinking, with those first mentioned, that the r' duty relates to the fecond wife, who, to make the man guilty of adultery, must be a divorced woman, but his fuppofing, that in this view the fame matter is repeated twice over. This makes him alfo, on fecond thoughts, differ from his own note on Matt. xix. 9. and take the poixaтai, Mark x. 11. in the fense of the Hebrew Hiphil conjugation, * as "Mochatur] i. e. Moechari facit illam, nempe "priorem a fe miffam. ex collat. Matt. v. 32. Facere "recté dicitur qui facto caufam præbet. Et mos "eft Helleniftarum verba formæ Hiphil per activa ex"primere, ut Rom. viii. 26. Gal. iv. 6. Pole Synop. in Matt. xix. 9." "Committeth adultery] that is, maketh her to "commit adultery, to wit, the former wife which he fent away from him; comp. Matt. v. 32. He |