Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/217

 Man hates her when he takes her, could expect: For being thus tyed to the four Apple Tree, married to his Aversion, and separated from the Object of his Affection, he abandoned himself to Company, to Wine, to Play, and at last to Women, and all kinds of Excess.

Pious and Reverend Minister, not of his Parish, but of a neighbouring Parish, and of which the Gentleman was Patron, frequently took Opportunities to talk seriously to him upon the sad Subject of his extravagant Life, and with a Christian plainness, tho' with decency and respect too, especially as he was his Patron, he often press'd him to take up, to reform, and, at least, to regulate his Morals.

Gentleman took all his Admonitions in good Part; but told him in so many Words, 'twas his Uncle had ruined him. Soul and Body; that he had a sober Education, and was as promising a young Fellow as any in the Country, till his Uncle ruined him, by forcing him to marry against his Will; Forcing him to abandon a Lady that he loved, and whose very Example added to the Influence she would have had upon his Affections, was enough to have kept him within Bounds all his Days; and then he related all the Circumstances of his Match, as I have related them above.

vain the good Minister urged the Christian Arguments of Duty, the Command of, the Scandal to his Person, the Ruin of his Fortunes, and all the other Arguments which Religion and Reason furnish so fully on such Occasions. His Answer was, What can I do; I have no Retreat, my Family is a Bedlam; I have no Body there to receive me but a She-Devil, always raving, and always quarrelling;