Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/295

 teazing her, and wheadling her to it, and perhaps she as much inclined to it as he, only more for waiting till Marriage than he; so that the Devil takes hold of Inclination on both Sides, to bring about the Wickedness.

these Pressings and Importunings, at last he prevails, and she complies. And what is this to be called? The Woman will not allow her self to be a Whore, no, by no means: The Man declares 'tis no Whoredom, he scorns the Thoughts of it, he abhors it. He promised to marry her, and he performed it, and they were married afterwards. He did lie with her indeed, and she was with Child first. But what then? they were married before the Child was born; so that the Child was born in Wedlock; so that there's no harm done in all that.

all this is wrong; 'tis all vile and abominable: 'Tis not only Whoring, but 'tis worse than Whoring, or, if you please, the worst kind of Whoring, and that many Ways.

I. the Man's Part; here is a publick Confession, that you had a wicked filthy ungovernable Inclination, that could not contain your self from a Woman for a few Days, but must gratify your Appetite at the expence of Modesty, Honesty, Justice to your Wife, Justice to your own Reputation, Justice to the Child to be born, and besides all, a Breach of the Laws both of  and Man. How scandalous a Piece of Conduct is it? How Brutish, unlike a Man, and unlike a Christian? And all this under a Circumstance so easily complied with, under an apparent Agreement for Marriage, and even while the Preparations are making perhaps on both Sides.