So. It may be you have heard ’em, from them that are bad themselves.

Lu. Nay, from Men of the Gown.

So. Who are they?

Lu. It is not convenient to name Names.

So. Why so?

Lu. Because if you should blab it out, and it should come to their Ears, I should lose a great many good Cullies.

So. Don’t be afraid, I won’t speak a Word of it.

Lu. I will whisper then.

So. You foolish Girl, what Need is there to whisper, when there is no Body but ourselves?  What, lest God should hear?  Ah, good God!  I perceive you’re a religious Whore, that relievest Mendicants.

Lu. I get more by them Beggars than by you rich Men.

So. They rob honest Women, to lavish it away upon naughty Strumpets.

Lu. But go on, as to your Book.

So. So I will, and that’s best.  In that Book, Paul, that can’t lie, told me, that neither Whores nor Whore-mongers shall obtain the Kingdom of Heaven.  When I read this, I began thus to think with myself:  It is but a small Matter that I look for from my Father’s Inheritance, and yet I can renounce all the Whores in the World, rather than be disinherited by my Father; how much more then ought I to take Care, lest my heavenly Father should disinherit me?  And human Laws do afford some Relief in the Case of a Father’s disinheriting or discarding a Son:  But here is no Provision at all made, in case of God’s disinheriting; and upon that, I immediately ty’d myself up from all Conversation with lewd Women.

Lu. It will be well if you can hold it.

So. It is a good Step towards Continence, to desire to be so.  And last of all, there is one Remedy left, and that is a Wife.  When I was at Rome, I empty’d the whole Jakes of my Sins into the Bosom of a Confessor.  And he exhorted me very earnestly to Purity, both of Mind and Body, and to the reading of the holy Scripture, to frequent Prayer, and Sobriety of Life, and enjoin’d me no other Penance, but that I should upon my bended Knees before the high Altar say this Psalm, Have Mercy upon me, O God:  And that if I had any Money, I should give one Penny to some poor Body.  And I wondring that for so many whoring Tricks he enjoin’d me so small a Penance, he answer’d me very pleasantly, My Son, says he, if you truly repent and change your Life, I don’t lay much Stress upon the Penance; but if thou shalt go on in it, the very Lust itself will at last punish thee very severely, although the Priest impose none upon thee.  Look upon me, I am blear-ey’d, troubled with the Palsy, and go stooping:  Time was I was such a one as you say you have been heretofore.  And thus I repented.

Lu. Then as far as I perceive, I have lost my Sophronius.

So. Nay, you have rather gain’d him, for he was lost before, and was neither his own Friend nor thine:  Now he loves thee in Reality, and longs for the Salvation of thy Soul.