John Trapp on Nahum 3:4

Verſe 4. Becauſe of the multitude of the whoredomes of the well-favored harlot] Specious, and therefore gracious with her paramours: of a faire countenance, but foule condition: like Aurelia Oreſtilla, that had beauty, but no good property. Chryſippus cailed beauty the flower of vertue;Cujus praeter formam nihil unquam bonus laudauit. Saluft. but that is not generally true. Diogenes ſaw cauſe to ſay to ſome faire women in his time, O quam bona domus, ſed malus hoſpes; Here's a faire hcuſe, but an ill inhabitant. Niniveh is the well-favored harlot here ſpoken of; her very name ſignifieth a faire habitation. Hierome and others interpret it, ſhe was indeed Vrbs formoſa et famoſ[illegible: 1 letter], faire and famous, but fooliſh and filthy, Meretrix meretriciſſima; ſhe multiplied her whoredomes both corporall and ſpir ituall; for theſe are ſeldome fundred: as we ſee in that once well-favored, but now withered whore of Rome, Rev. 17.1. Roma inverted is Amor, prepoſtrerous love, unnaturall filthineſſe is there as commonly practiſed, as Idolatry. And as a common harlot paints and deckes herſelf to pleaſe her lovers; ſo did Niniveh, ſo doth Rome in her pompous and men-pleaſing worſhips: I have read of a Lady in Paris, that when ſhe ſaw the bravery of a Proceſlion to a Saint, ſhe cried out, Oh how fine is our religion bepond that of the Huguenots. And Sir Walter Rawleigh was wont ſay, that were he to chuſe a religion for fleſhly liberty, and laſciviouſneſſe, he would chuſe Popery: which is indeed an alluring, tempting, bewitching religion, none like it.

the miſtreſſe of witch-crafts] Harlots are many of them enchantreſſes; and have their philtra, their love potions, wherewith to enſnare men, and to draw them on to lewdneſſe, and to take away their hearts. Hoſ. 4.11. Athenaeus brings in Plato bewailing himſelf, that he was taken ſo much with a filthy harlot. And Elian telles of a whore that boaſted to Socrates, that ſhe could eaſily get followers from him; not he from her. Of Sampſon and Hercules (whom ſome think to have been the ſame) thoſe two verſes verified, Nam potuit lenam, potuit ſuperare leaenam: Quem fera non potuit vincere; vicit hera.

Think the ſame of idolatry alſo; and if thoſe forceries, whereby the purple whore hath deceived all nations, as St. John (in alluſion to this place) ſaith of her Rev. 18.23. For in that book of the Revelation the holy Ghoſt borrowes all the elegancies and flowers in the ſtory of the old Teſtament: thereby to ſet out the ſtory of the New in ſucceeding ages.

That ſelleth nations through her whordoms] maketh prize of them, as thoſe impoſtours did, 2 Tim. 3.6. and then make ſale of them as her ſlaves 2 Pe[illegible: 1 letter]. 2.3. or otherwiſe uſe them at her pleaſure, as homely as the whore of Babylon now doth thoſe her ſlaves, and ſoules of men Rev. 18.13. whom ſhe ſits upon, even upon peoples, nations, multitudes and tongues, Rev. 17.15. tyrannizing over their conſciences, and appointing them to very meane offices: as that poſture of hers, in ſitting upon them, ſeemeth to import.