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Or, THE
OF
——Sanctum nihil est & ab inguine Tutum,
Non Matrona Laris, non Filia Virgo, neqq; ipse
Sponsus lævis adhuc, non Filius ante pudicus.
Juvenal. Satyr. 3.
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 [1]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[2] Amnon {2}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 [3]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: