Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/280

 Advantage, for he's no Fool: I'll answer for Satan so far, he can hardly be ever charg'd with missing his Opportunities, or not seeing his Times and Seasons; he never fails to break in at every weak Place, and always knows where those weak Places are.

cannot doubt but the Devil, if you will grant there is such a Thing, takes all the Advantage that can be of this Part; he shews the Law protecting, and persuades you, that 'tis therefore justifying the Fact, a Fallacy as black as himself; he prompts the vitious Appetite, and then shews you how 'tis lawful to gratify it; he quotes Dryden upon you, and shews the Case of King David, and the Polygamists, for a Parallel.

What can be more specious, what more easily gilded over? Inclination calls for it, and the Law allows it. Under this Pretence, all the criminal Things which the Marriage-Bed is capable of, are justified.

was the true intent and meaning of the Laws of or Man impartially judged of, or enquired into, the Case would be quite otherwise. forbid, we should dare to say, that the Institution of Matrimony, which was Pure, as the Institutor was Holy, could be designed for a Pandor to our impure and corrupt Inclinations! or that holy Ordinance can be made a plea for any of our unholy and vitious Practices; and, above all, that they should be made a Cover and Protection for them.

the Heats and Fires, rais'd within us by the Acrimony of the Blood, by the Inflamation of the Spirits and Animal Salts, are kindled from Hell, set on Fire by the Devil, and made to rage and boil up in the Veins, by the in-