Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/224

 an Adulterer of me. What signifies it what I do now?

' a dismal Case, Sir, says the Minister; but I beseech you to consider the Crime is not to be continued in and encreased;and if you sinned in Marrying, you have the less need to sin after Marriage. All evil Courses are to be repented of, and broken off.

the Minister, went on serious, like himself, and made very earnest Applications to him to change his Course of Life. But as that Part is remote from our present Purpose, I omit the repetition. Thus far is suited to the Case before me, namely, the miserable Consequences of Marriages entered into contrary to pre-ingaged Affections; forced Matches made by Relations, for the meer sake of Money, without regard to the Obligations that may be subsisting at the same time, and without regard to the Affection and Inclination of the Parties concerned. Who can call such Matches lawful Marriages? And what is the submitting to them less than a Matrimonial Whoredom?

to the Matrimony that passes among Princes, Kings, Emperors, and such like, as I said at first, they seem to me to be rather Alliances and Political Agreements than Marriages, in which the Conjugal Affection is not considered as a material, or not as the most material Part. The Love of Princes is managed in a higher and superior Way; it seems to be a Consequence of that Marriage, not a Cause or Reason of it; and, for ought I know, as it is not often so extraordinary as in private Persons, so it is not so very often quite wanting; the Dignity and Quality of the Person has a great Influence upon their Behaviour, and, if they re-