Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/241

 in the World. Such Strife, such Breaches, such Family-Wickedness! While the End for which they marry, and that kind of vitious Love which brought them together lasts, they run out in their wicked Midnight Excesses one Way; and when that Love is cool'd, the vitious Flame quenched, the Fire extinguished, there being no solid Affection founded upon Virtue and true Merit; they run out into their Day-light Excesses another Way; I mean, jarring, scandalous Contention and Discord. Thus the first Part of Life is Matrimonial Whoredom, and the last Part Matrimonial Madness.

all this, I think, 'tis apparent that, next to Virtue and Religion, Suitability is the only solid Foundation on which the Conjugal Felicity is grounded; and unsuitable Matches ought to be avoided with our utmost Care. And that I may explain my self at large, and because these unsuitable Things are too many, and have too great Obstructions attending them to be contained in a general Definition, and more than at first Sight seems probable, take them in the following Particulars, all of them really inconsistent with the Felicity of Marriage.

1. Unsuitable Years. 2. Unsuitable in Quality. 3. Unsuitable Estates. 4. Unsuitable Tempers. 5. Unsuitable Principles of Religion.

all these I should speak distinctly, and employ distant Chapters upon some of them; nor would it be remote to the Design of this Work to