Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/314

 Nature is a regulated Monarchy, and a well-established Constitution.

, to go farther; the Law I am speaking of, is Nature, supported by Reason; or, if you please, Reason supported by Nature. Reason thinks it just to follow where Nature leads, and where there is no just and rational Objection against her Dictates, because Nature is certainly judge of her own Constitutions, and best knows her own Actings; her Influences run in secret Channels, which no Force ought to obstruct, and, when they do not swell beyond Bounds, ought not to be check'd and stop'd up.

are many Arguments in Philosophy, as well as in Medicine or Physick, why the Course of Nature should not be obstructed and interrupted; and except where her Exorbitances seem to break out into Offence, she ought not to be restrained, and even there but gently and with good Reason, and in its proper Time.

Custom pretends to govern Nature with a kind of absolute Dominion, and to tyrannize over all the Laws of Reason and of Nature too.

if Custom has set up a vitious Practice, in contradiction to Nature and Reason too, shall this be a received Law among us, who pretend to know and practise so well? Besides, as the Devil said to the Sons of Sceva, Nature we know, Reason we know, but who are you? You, Custom, you are an Invader and an Usur-