Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/304

 or to be jealous of her doing the same for others, according to the Scots Song mentioned above: On the other hand, suppose the Woman does not upbraid the Man with deluding her, making a thousand scurrilous Reflections upon him for drawing her in by his fair Promises, his horrid Oaths and solemn Protestations, and now to upbraid her with yielding. Suppose, I say, the Man and the Woman both, not so ill-humour'd as to Reproach one another with the Crime; yet they will deeply Reproach themselves, for laying themselves so open to publick Scandal, for the satisfying a meer Gust; and the prevailing Importunities of their corrupted Appetite, when so small a Time of forbearance would have made all safe on both Sides.

the mean time, let the Self-Reproaches on either Side be ever so severe; let the Repentance be as sincere and as publick as you please to imagine it, the Fact is the same; and I cannot call the Thing it self any thing more or less than, according to my Title, a Matrimonial Whoredom, and that in the coursest Degree.

some may think my Censure too hard on the other Side; I mean, as to the Man's marrying the Woman afterwards; and that while I exclaim so loudly against the Offence of lying together, though under sacred Promises of Matrimony, I encourage the Men to break those Promises, pretending, that the Offence being already so great, they can be no worse, for since it does not lessen the Crime, say they, what should they marry the Woman for? If she must be counted a Whore all her Days, and he a Criminal, though he is so honest as to marry her, what signifies the Honesty? He can be