[ 48 ]
Restraints where you suggest, and perhaps believe, there are really none.
You acknowledge, that Chastity in general is a Virtue, and a Christian Duty; and I affirm there is a particular Chastity, that is to say, a limited Liberty, which is to be observed and strictly submitted to in the conjugal State; This I call Matrimonial Chastity, and the Breach of this I call, as in my Title, matrimonial Whoredom; let others call it what they will, I can give it no other Name than what I think it deserves.
'Tho' they're called Misses which lewd Men adore,
'I cannot guild their Crimes, a Whore's a Whore.
Having thus entered upon the difficult Task of reproving those criminal Practices of Men, which are acted under the shelter of supposed lawful Liberty, I must state the due Bounds and Extent of that Liberty, that we may the better ground our future Censures, and be able to justify the Reproof from the Rules established in the Foundation.
Now, that I may do this with the better Authority. I begin with quoting the late Pious and Reverend Dr. Taylor; in his Book of Holy Living, he has a whole Chapter upon this very Subject, I mean of Chastity, and I cannot take my Arguments from a better Beginning.
"Chastity, says the Doctor, is the Circumcision of the Heart, the suppressing all irregular Desires in the Matter of carnal and sensual Pleasures.
Here the Doctor has made a Provision to encounter the merry Disputants of this Age, as pungent and as natural, as if he had been now
