Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/302

 was Whoredom under the Protection, or in the Colour and Disguise of Matrimony! He told her, they were married in the Sight of Heaven; he called her his Wife, and 'twas too evident he us'd her as such; and Heaven, in Justice, brought her to Shame for it. What was this but a Matrimonial Whoredom? and that of a fatal Kind; a Kind that has so many weak and vile Pretences for it, but yet so fair and specious, that many (till then) innocent Women, have been imposed upon by them, and ruined.

that which is still unaccountable in it, is, that the Hazard is so great, and the Benefit, the Gratification, or what other ugly thing we may call it, is so very small: 'Tis like a Man and Woman on Horseback, venturing to ford, or rather swim, a deep and rapid River, when the Ferry-boat is just ready on the other Side, and may be called to them in a few Minutes, to carry them over safe. There is no common Sense, no rational Argument, in their favour. But the Brutal Part prevails; the Woman, abused with fine Promises, prostitutes her Honour, her Virtue, her Religion, and her Posterity, on the lightest and most scandalous Pretences that can be imagined; and when she has done, has nothing to say but old Eve's Plea, The Serpent beguiled me.

I know nothing that can be said for the Man; nothing but what is too vile for me to mention, too gross for my Pen; and, as I said in another Place, the Crime must go without its just Censure, only because it is too gross to be named. The Motives to it are so wicked, the Pretences for it so foul, and there is so little to be said in Defence of it, that, in short,