Excerpt
The lips of a strange woman drop as an honey-comb, and her mouth is smoother then oyl: But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword.
The Text here presents you with a strange woman; with whom though I desire not to procure you a familiar acquaintance, yet I'le give you such cognizance of her, and excite that abhorrency of her baseness in all your minds, that if any have heretofore been sick for want of her company, he shall now be as sick of it; after I have made it appear that this beautiful Siren, having a Womans face, ends in the Serpents tail; and discovered, not onely the Virgins-face of this unsatiable Harpye, but her cruel talons also shrowded under her wings. That you may therefore (as Amnon did upon Tamar) bolt the door upon this strange woman, and no longer endure the whoredoms of this painted Jezebel; I'le endeavour to characterize her to you, and by the infallible clue of Truth conduct you through all her intricate and winding Labyrinths. Be pleased therefore, for the explication of the word [Strange] to take notice, that this Epithite was by the Græcians attributed to their common Prostitutes, which they called ξενας, strangers: And hence, I conceive, it was that the Comœdian called Glycerium who was thought to live by the unlawful submission of her body, Peregrinam, a stranger, a strange woman. But I have onely hitherto told you her name; I shall now therefore proceed further to describe her to you by her sordid actions, which will ascertain you of those miseries which are her constant waiting-women or attendants. That I may therefore speedily prosecute my design, She is one whom not Argus's hundred eyes, nor brazen walls, nor the most vigilant Guards can secure from her lascivious incontinency: the bars and hedges which Nature has made for her tongues confinement are not sufficient to restrain it within the limits of a modest discourse; and should we lock up her impure lips with a command of silence, yet could we never limit the infiniteness of her lascivious thoughts, with which she would as freely commit fornication, as if she were at liberty, and in the enjoyment of the greatest voluptuary; and we may say of her what Scipio in another case said of himself, She is never less alone than when alone. She tricks her self up with such variety of gauderies as if she were to expose her body to bring the Devil to her lure, and tempt the Tempter himself to love her; and were that opinion of Tertullian true, That the Devils and fallen Angels had carnal commerce with the Daughters of Men, and they should desire one to satisfie their lustful appetite, I'de recommend the strange woman in the Text unto them; who (like Circe) is an amiable Sorceress, and when she hath once charmed her Gallant with youthful blood sparkling in his veins, and beauty dancing in his face, into the endless Circle of her lust, hee'l find a difficult recovery. Physitians tell us, that the reason we have in Feverish distempers our Paroxysme but every second, third, or fourth day, and not at every circulation of the blood about the body, is, because the blood when it arrives to the heart must acquire such a degree of corruption before it can effect it, and therefore because this corruption is not sensible before many circulations have been performed, it cannot so soon create a Paroxysme: But in this impure and libidinous strumpets heart 'tis far otherwise; for she endures the Paroxysmes of the Fever of Lust every hour and moment, and the circulation of her lusts in her heart is sooner performed then that of her blood....