Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/402

 enough, they will need no Explanations; is they pretend to it, they will be too easily confuted, by referring them to their own Practice.

is true, there are still some ill Usages among these People, some Matrimonial Whoredoms which are wholly omitted, which it is impossible to mention, no not at the greatest distance, no not by Simily, Allegory, or any other Representation. They are too wicked to admit the least Suggestion about them, or so much as to guide the Reader to guess at them. Nor are they a few Things which I am thus obliged to overlook. But there is no doing it; they must be buried in Silence if they cannot be reprov'd, because they cannot be mentioned. Let the Offenders, the guilty Persons, consider, Heaven can find out Ways to punish them, tho' we cannot find out Words to reprove them.

Justice, that brings to light the hidden Works of Darkness, can make the Crime publick in the Punishment; and there it may be read with Terror by every one that looks on it, when their Ears will not be offended with the Description. Nor is it an unusual Method; Providence often thinks fit to do so. Drunkenness, tho' in secret, is made publick by Solomon's Signals, Who has redness of eyes, who hath wounds without cause? they that tarry long at the Wine, &c. Prov. xxiii. 29.

it may be said again, who hath leanness of Countenance, who hath rottenness of Bones, who hath loathsome Diseases? Are they not the People I speak of? Let them take heed; 'tis not the Whoremaster and the Strumpet alone that contract Filthiness and Distempers; and 'twill be a dreadful Rebuke for a pretender