Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/301

 he would not fail, willing, to marry them.

the Evening of the Wednesday, the young Man was taken sick, which proved to be the Small-Pox, and, in a few Days, he died. He declared upon his Death-bed, that she was, as he called it, his betrothed Wife, own'd the Child to be his, obliged his Mother to take Care of the young Woman, and of the Child, which was as much as Providence allowed him time to do.

this took Wind; the young Woman was known to be with Child, and known to be unmarried; and some maliciously informed the Parish Officers of it, and they the Justices of the Peace, on pretence of securing the Parish. But the young Man's Mother answered presently to the satisfaction of the Parish; and the Minister testify'd for both the young Man and the young Woman also, that they were twice with him to be married; so that the honesty of Intention was on both Sides apparent; yet the young Woman was exposed by it to the last degree.

Folly, as well as Wickedness, was here? A young well-meaning Woman prevail'd with, on the weak Pretence of being essentially though not formally married; I say, prevail'd with, to gratify the Man at the hazard, and, as it proved, at the cost or price of her Virtue and of her Reputation; forced to acknowledge her self a Whore, and to bring a Bastard into the World, when, upon only waiting a few Days, all the Scandal, all the Reproach, and, which is more, the Crime also had been avoided.