Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/382

 Matches, however, come within the reach of our Complaint, and are but with too much Justice branded with the Charge of Matrimonial Whoredom. It is true, in these Cases it is the Money more then the Sensuality, the Fortune more than the Woman; and so it might be called Matrimonial Avarice. But as the knowing of the Woman is the essential finishing Part of the Work, and the Title or Claim to the Estate is fix'd upon a full Possession, which they call a Consummation of the Marriage, the Word Whoredom is not foreign to the Charge, at least on the Man's Side, because he lies with the Woman, not as a wedded Wife, according to holy Ordinance, but meerly to entitle him to her Estate, which, in short, is perfecting the End of Matrimony; and no Man can say, it is a legal Marriage in the Sight of Him whose appointment only can make Matrimony lawful.

Women by force, can never be called marrying according to holy Ordinance; for all Violence is unjust, and all Injustice is inconsistent with Holiness. For an impure and righteous Design can never be comprehended in a holy and pure Institution; it is determined by almost all the Laws of Matrimony in the World, that Marriage ought to be the Act and Deed of both the Parties, the Act and Deed not of their meer Compliance, and submission by Necessity, but the Act of their Minds, their free and unconstrained Choice, and if it be not so, it is not really a lawful Marriage. Marriage by constraint is like a Bond given in Prison, the Party is not bound to the Payment: To be marry'd by force is not to be Married, but to be taken Captive