Page:A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed.djvu/75

 and this makes those Actions criminal, which otherwise would have been lawful; makes the Man commit a Crime in that very Action, which done under due Regulations and Limitations, that is to say, in Wedlock, would not only be lawful, but his commanded Duty.

is the same afterwards; for example, when those Limitations are obeyed and submitted to, I mean, the Limitations of Matrimony, there are (as I have observed) yet farther Limitations, which the Laws of Nature concur with the Laws of in, and which the Man is obliged to observe, tho' this corrupt Principle would fain evade and avoid them; these are such as I hinted to be contained in the Words Decency and Modesty: Now tho' much of the Obligation is taken off by the allowed Intimacies between a Man and his Wife, and a full and free Intercourse of Sexes is granted; yet I must be pardoned the liberty of saying, there are Bounds and Limitations of Decency, Modesty and Moderation, which stand as a Pale about even their matrimonial Liberties, and say to them both, in the midst of their greatest Endearments, Hitherto shall you go, and no farther.

I am speaking to the married Persons only, in this Part, I need explain my self no farther than to say, there are Bounds and Measures, Times and Seasons, which Nature and Decency always will dictate to them, and will regulate too, and teach them to regulate between themselves their most intimate conjugal Delights and Embraces: These nothing but an Appetite criminally immoderate, and under no Government, no not of Reason, Religion, Philo-