For the lips of a strange woman drop [as] an honeycomb, and her mouth [is] smoother than oil:
Ver. 3. For the lips of a strange woman drop.] Take heed therefore how thou exchange any words at all with her. But if thou be first set upon, as Joseph was by his mistress, and as Franciscus Junius a was by those impudent queans (harlots) at Lyons, in France (whither he was sent by his father for learning's sake), who night and day solicited him; then to keep thee from the bitter sweet lips of these enchantresses, "let thy lips keep knowledge"; answer them (as Joseph did) with "the words of truth and soberness"; Act 26:25 with "gracious and wholesome words," 1Ti 6:3 such as have a cooling and healing property in them; with Scripture language, which the devil and his agents cannot answer or away with. When, therefore, thou art tempted to this or any like sin, say No - I may not, I dare not; for it is forbidden in such a place, and again in such a place, "How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" Gen 39:9 "Lo this is the way, walk in it." Let thy lips keep knowledge, and it shall keep thee from the lips of a strange woman, though they drop as a honeycomb, and seem to have plenty of pleasure and sweetness in them.
Drop as a honeycomb.] But is like that honey spoken of by Pliny that had poison in it, as being sucked out of poisonous herbs and flowers. In the Cadiz voyage, at Alvelana, three miles from Lisbon, many of our English soldiers, under the Earl of Essex, perished by eating of honey, purposely left in the houses, and spiced with poison, as it was thought. b How much better is it to be preserved in brine than to rot in honey! to mortify lusts, than to enjoy them! Rom 8:13 Voluptatem vicisse voluptas est maxima, saith Cyprian, c nec ulla maior est victoria, quam ea, quae cupiditatibus refertur. There is no such pleasure as to have overcome an offered pleasure; neither is there any greater conquest than that which is gotten over a man's corruptions.
a Jun. in Vita sua.
b Speed. xii. 10.
c De bono pudicit.