Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/107

 what we call Contamination or Infection from others, and where none other has been concerned but the Man and his Wife singly and alone.

I were at liberty to explain myself upon this nauseous Subject, I could, from clear and rational Consequences, convince the ungoverned Criminal, how he lays the Foundation of the ruin of his Constitution, how he poisons his Blood, and spreads the corrupt Seeds of Disease into the very Veins of his Posterity; but the Occasion is too foul for my Pen: Let it suffice to admonish Christians, and Men of Sense, that they should remember they are so; that they have reasoning Powers to assist them in subduing their inordinate Heats; that they should summon Virtue and Modesty, Reason and Christianity to their aid, and act in all Things agreeable to reasonable Beings, not like enraged Lunaticks, though they are not under the restraint of Laws.

are greatly mistaken likewise who expect I should give Rules here, and prescribe to them what I mean by Modesty and Moderation in each Things as these; in short, such would please themselves if they could bring me to enter into Particulars of any kind, on one Side or other, for they love to dwell upon the Story. But ''Verb. Sap. Sat''. 'Tis enough; I have pointed out the Crime as far as Decency will permit, the Bounds are easily prescribed, so as a common Understanding may reach them; Reason will tell you where the Limits are to be placed between lawful and unlawful; as follows, namely.

Violences upon Nature on one Side or another; no pushing the Constitution to Extremities, no earnest Importunities, no immodest