Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/371

 on; the two wretched Examples I have given, and which were both within the narrow Compass of my own Knowledge, are not at all justified by the practice of other Nations; we are, as Christians, to be bound by the Laws of Decency and Modesty, and, as Subjects of a just Government, by the Laws practis'd and receiv'd in our own Country. It is the Custom in some Nations to go naked, and in others they cloath so light, that it is, as we say, next Door to going naked; their Cloaths being so thin and light, that all the Parts of the Body are, as it were, described to the Eye, by the Garments setting so close to them; as in Italy, in Turkey and Barbary, and other hot Countries: But such a Practice, though 'tis thought nothing of there, would be thought immodest here to the last Degree, and indeed scandalous; and Christians are to cleave so far to the Custom of the Place, as to do all Things that are of good Report.

I return to the Case of untimely Marriages, and I shall close it with a Story which I have very good Authority for the Truth of, where, though I cannot say there was any thing of Immodesty in the Design or Intention, nor any thing Immodest practis'd, or intended to be practis'd, yet Heaven seem'd to make it an Unhappiness to the Party, at least it was a surprizing Disappointment.

A certain antient Widow, having a tolerable good Estate, but no Children, and being upwards of sixty Years of Age, had fixed her Thoughts upon two young Women, which were her Relations (Nieces I think) to leave what Estate she had to, and which, divided between the two, would have made them tolerable good Fortunes.