Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/15





T is certainly true, that Modesty is no natural Virtue; what the Latins call'd Pudor or Shamefacedness, is the Effect of Crime, and is always occasioned by a Consciousness of Guilt, whether it be actual Guilt, or intentional, Guilt of a Fact already committed, or Guilt of a Crime resolv'd on, 'tis much the same.

Adam and Eve knew Evil as well as Good, before they were conscious of Offence, they went naked, and blush'd not, and 'tis most significantly express'd, they knew not that they were naked; they knew not that Nakedness was a Turpitude, an Indecency, and therefore when Adam gives that poor, foolish Excuse for hiding himself from the Eyes of the infinite Author of Sight, and says, because he was naked, Gen. iii. 10, 11. asks him, Who told thee that thou wast naked. Rh