enough, mixed with the Gravity of the Story, so as, I hope, not to tire you with the Reading; at the same time preserving the Chastity of the Subject, the Authority of a Reprover, and binding my self down with all possible Severity to the Laws of Decency, Modesty and Virtue, which I write in the Defence of.
But now, while I am making these Proviso's, pray let me be understood too with that just and necessary Liberty of Speech which shall render my Discourse intelligible. I am neither going to write in an unknown Tongue, nor in an unintelligible Stile; I am to speak so as to be understood, and I will not doubt but I shall be understood; and those whose vitious Appetites are under Government, so as to give them leave to relish decent Reproof for indecent Things, may understand me without large Explications, especially on Occasions where they know the Cases will not bear it.
The Scripture is the Pattern of Decency, and, (as the learned Annotator Mr. Pool, in his Synopsis Criticorum and in his Annotations also observes) speaks of all the Indecencies of Men with the utmost Modesty; yet neither does the Scripture forbear to command Virtue, gives Laws and Rules of Chastity and modest Behaviour, and that in very many Places, and on all needful Occasions: Nor does the Scripture fail to reprove the Breach of those Laws in the most vehement manner, condemning the Facts, and censuring and judging the guilty Persons with the utmost Rigour and Severity, as I shall on many Occasions be led to observe as I go on. Let none therefore flatter themselves that their Crimes shall avoid the Lashof
