Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/334

 their Honour that I mention it, though, but in general, Sir W G, and his Lady, have treated one another always with such Justice, and with such Reserve in this Case, that as soon as ever the Lady has found her self with Child, she always lodged in Apartments by her self, till she was delivered, and the like at other Seasons; that no Occasion might offer, where there was so much Love, to have any excess.

has this modest Custom been so much a Stranger to our Ancestors, as it seems to have been to us; a Truth not at all to our Advantage; this was, without doubt, the Original of that good Custom among Persons of Quality, and of any tolerable Fortunes, to have separate Apartments, the Gentleman's Lodgings and the Lady's being separate, so that, when Decency required, they went from one another for a while, till proper Times returned, and made Lodging together reasonable again.

is true, middling Families have not this Convenience, and cannot keep separate Lodgings furnished for one another; it may be said of such indeed, that they have the greater exercise for their Virtue, because they are obliged always to lodge together. But how great soever the Exercise is, and how difficult soever to be put in Practice, still, as it is a Virtue, it ought to be strictly observed; nor, in my Opinion, can any Man be said to live a Life of Virtue that neglects it.

rest is all Prostitution; nay, 'tis worse, 'tis unnatural, 'tis a kind of lesser Sodomy; for, I doubt not, but Sodom's Sins, the Foundation of which was laid, as I have observed, in high feeding, emphatically express'd in the sacred