id her company: For, we must be extremely cold, not to be
warmed by so {11} 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 [Greek: Peirazon], 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 {12} 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 {13} 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.