Proverbs 9:17

Stolen waters are sweet, and bread [eaten] in secret is pleasant.

Ver. 17. Stolen waters are sweet.] Forbidden pleasures are most pleasing to sensualists, who count no mirth but madness; no pleasure, unless they may have the devil to their playfellow. Venison is nothing so sweet, they say, as when it is stolen.

“ Quod licet ingratum est; quod non licet, acrius urit:

Sic interdictis imminet aeger aquis. ” - Ovid.

Men long to be meddling with the murdering morsels of sin, which nourish not, but rent and consume the belly that receives them. Many eat on earth that which they digest in hell. a

a In terris manducant quod apud inferos digerant. - Augustine.