That the short and transitory pleasures which the strange woman affords us, are accompanied with the sharpest and most permanent evils.
And that, First, Because she'l wound and stain our reputation. How full is the adulterer of fears and jealousies, scorching desires, and impatient waitings, tedious demurrs, sufferance of indignities, and amazements of discoveries, and his uncleanness is ever attended by shame which is its eldest daughter; for let us consider how infamous it has ever been, to be noted for a common Pathick, or a lustful Amoretto, how opprobriously Adulterers have been used by most Nations. The Law of the Ægyptians was to cut off the Nose of an Adulterer; the Locrians put out the Adulterers Eyes; and (the more notoriously to intimate his effeminacy) others cloathed him with wool; and Solons Law was this, If any man take an Adulterer in the fact, he may use him how he pleases: And in the Twelve Tables, [[12]]If you
take a man in the act of Adultery, you may kill him without danger of punishment; Impunity was intailed upon the murther of him. You may observe, that this sin of Adultery is in Scripture called a sin of darkness; intimating to us, how the Adulterer, asham'd of the light, sneaks up and down in obscure recesses, and is onely active and vigilant when others are quiet and taking their repose. Other sinners iniquities are in Scripture numbred by the hairs of the head; but we cannot number the Adulterers so, because as his sins increase his hairs do fall; the Spring of his sins is his hairs Fall o' th' leaf. The second account upon which the Adulterer will conclude, That the transitory pleasures which the strange woman affords us are accompanied with the sharpest evils, is,
2. Because hee'l finde she will impair the health of his body; for though her Lips drop as an Honey-comb, and she distil the Quintessence of Rhetorick in every expression; though she does amorously caress and embrace him, yet 'tis but as the encircling Ivie does the Oak, to make him rot, wither, and decay.
Though he may think himself in Heaven, and imagine her curled Arms about him to be his Celestial Zodiack, yet hee'l (at length) finde them but as chains and fetters to enslave and captivate him to her insatiable Lust; the gratifications whereof whilest he endeavours to shew her, he must undergo as many gripes in his guilty Conscience, as Aches in his impure and vitious Body. She, it may be, will foment and cherish the flames of his Lust with these pleasing Blasts, by telling him that the Virgin Spring does not appear less chaste because many thirsts are there quenched; and that those Waters stink soon that continue long in one place, but remain sweet and wholsome whilest they leave one bank and kiss another. But let us (like a prudent Ulysses) stop our ears to the fatal voice of this dangerous Siren, least, while we sail in the Ocean of this World, we suffer shipwrack of Grace and a good Conscience: Don't let us stand to dispute the case, and parley with her, but rather flie from her, and avoid her company: For, we must be extremely cold, not to be warmed by so
fair a fire, and very strong, to make defence against so charming an Enemy. Nor can we touch Pitch with our hands, but a foul impress will be received from it: One rotten kernel of the Pomgranate infects the fellows; and St. Paul made that Verse Canonical, Evil communication corrupts good manners. And it is noted of Joseph, that as soon as his Mistress had laid her impure hands upon his garment, he leaves it behinde him, that he might be sure to avoid the danger of her contagious touch. And we shall assuredly finde, that she who but now compared her self to a pleasant Spring, will at last serve us with the bitter Waters of Marah. For I appeal to the common Adulterer, Whether he be not a walking Hospital and Pest-house of Diseases? Whether he is not alwayes possest with a Πειραζων, a Devil that first tempts him to all Uncleanness, and afterwards terrifies and exanimates him with the greatest horrour imaginable? and whether the violent and fervent heat of his lustfull appetite be not as unquenchable as Hell-flames? Could we have Lynceus his eyes, and look through
the decayed walls of his Body, what rottenness should we discover in his exhausted Bones? how would the whole Fabrick of his Body appear invalid and unnerved, and represent it self to us as the Embleme of a Sack of dry Bones, whose every part, were it anatomized and opened, it would corrupt and infect the Air, and store the World with as many Diseases as the opening of Pandora's Box: insomuch that he who shall be besotted with so Lethargick a stupidity as to harbour and caress this strange woman, He (like the Hyrcanians) may be said to keep a Dog to devour himself, or (like the mad Romans in Arrian) court the Fever of his own Lust, that will soon consume him, and render him as meager and pellucid as the meerest Skeleton; causing withal a no less decay in his Estate then in his Body; and this I conceive induced Solomon to say, [[13]]That by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. But if this be not sufficient to deter the Adulterer from this Prostitutes company, I'le advance a step higher, and press
him with a third Argument, to prove, That those transitory pleasures the strange Woman affords us are accompanied with the sharpest and most permanent evils: and that
3. Because by her means an irreparable and irrecoverable damage will accrue to his immortal Soul. And in this St. Paul shall be my President, who [[14]]bids us not be deceived, assuring us, That neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate persons, shall enter into the Kingdome of God. [[15]]It was not permitted to a Dog to enter into the Acropolis, because of his excessive heat in Venery; and so neither will it be permitted to those that (like the Dog) indulge themselves in the excessive heat of Venery, to enter into Heaven, which may for its heighth be called an Acropolis, which (being interpreted) is, a City built upon a Hill. Let us consider how impossible it is that our Prayers and Oblations should be acceptable to God, when they are offered with impure hands, reeking in lust: How can we expect to look God in the face (whose eyes are purer then to behold iniquity) with our impure
eyes? How can we hope to be Eagle-ey'd enough to look up to God, whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter then the Sun, when we have so weakned our eyes by the Works of Darkness, that (like Night-birds) we dread to behold the Light? How should Chamberings and Wantonness hope to get room in Heaven, whence all kind of Marriage is excluded? When the two opposite Poles of the World meet together, and two Contradictions at the same time prove true, then, and not till then, will I believe that the Fornicator and Heaven can kiss each other. How can we call God Father, who utterly renounces those spurious off-springs of our sinful lusts, which have not their Original, nor derive their Pedegree from God, but the World and our depraved Natures? Which S. John[[16]] intimates to us; who making an Inventory of the Goods, or rather of the Evils of this World, besides the Lust of the Eye, and the Pride of Life, he tells us, that the Lust of the Flesh is not of God, but of the World.