A Treatise concerning the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed/Chapter 11
CHAP. XI.
Of going to Bed under solemn Promises of Marriage, and although those Promises are afterwards performed; and of the Scandal of a Man's making a Whore of his own Wife.
Have dwelt upon the Inequalities of Matrimony the longer, because of their Variety. I come now to single Cases again, and I shall dispatch them in single Sections as I go. I have now before me a very particular Case, in which Marriage is made a healing or protection to a scandalous Crime. Promise of Marriage is Marriage in the Abstract, say our Advocates for Lewdness; and therefore for the Parties to lie together is no Sin, provided they sincerely intend to marry afterwards, and faithfully perform it.
This is, in short, a scandalous Defence of a scandalous Offence; 'tis the weakest Way of arguing that any Point of such Moment was ever supported by. It is so far from covering the Offence against God, that it does not recompence the Personal Injury done to Man. I have hinted at it already in theChapter; and given you there the Opinion of the best of Men, and particularly the Censure of the Protestant Churches upon it, in which, as I said, they are more strict, and punish with more Severity, than in Cases of simple Fornication.
It may be true, that Promise of Marriage is Marriage, but it is not marrying; it may be called Marriage, or rather a Species of Marriage; and therefore our Law will oblige such Persons to marry afterwards, as well in Cases where they have not consummated the Agreement, as where they have; and will give Damages, and that very considerable, in proportion to the Circumstances of the Parties, where these Promises are broken; especially where the Person makes the Breach, by marrying another purely in Contravention of those Promises. And this is all the Remedy the injured Person can obtain.
Also such a Promise, especially if made before Witness, will be, and frequently is admitted as a lawful Obstacle or Impediment, why a Person under such an Obligation should not be allowed to marry any other; nay farther, the Person claiming by Virtue of such a Promise, may forbid the Bans, as we call it; or may stand forth, and shew it as a Cause, even at the very Book, why the two Persons coming to the Book may not be lawfully joined together, and the Minister cannot proceed, if such a Cause is declared, till the Matter is decided before the proper Judges of such Cases.
But all this does not reach the Case propos'd at all; for were Promises of Marriage thus allowed, and lying together upon such Promises lawful, you would have no more Occasion of a fair and formal Espousal, and we should have very little open Marrying among us. And what Confusion would this make in the World? How would the sacred Obligations of Marriage be enforced, Claim of Inheritances secur'd, Legitimacy of Children clear'd up, and Obligation of Maintenance be preserv'd? How and where would these Promises be recorded, when denied and revoked? How would they be brought into Evidence, and the Offender against them be convicted? In a word, what Confusion would such loose coming together make in Families, and in Successions, in dividing the Patrimonies and Effects of Intestate Parents; and on many other Occasions.
Our Laws have therefore carefully provided, that Marriages should not be esteemed fair and legal, if not performed in a fair and open Manner, by a Person legally qualified to perform the Ceremony, and appointed to it by Office; and the Government is always concerned and careful to punish any Defect, in the Peformance even of those qualified Persons, when they connive at any Breach upon the Institution. in the Office of Matrimony; such as marrying People clandestinely, in improper Places, at unseasonable Times, and without the apparent Consent of Parties; and though the Law is very tender with respect to making such Marriages void, yet they are much the more severe in fixing a Punishment upon the Person that officiates; in order, if possible, to prevent all clandestine and unlawful Matches.
The Law then requiring an open and formal coming together, as a just Recognition and Execution of all previous and private Engagements, and refusing to legitimate those Engagements, however solemn, and however attested, so as to admit them to pass for a real and legal Marriage; at the same time forbidding all Consummation of such Agreements, till the open and appointed Form of Marriage, settled by the Legislature, is submitted to, and mutually performed. All coming together of the Man and Woman, upon the Foot of such private Engagements, Promises or Contracts, is thereby declared unlawful, and is certainly sinful; 'tis no Marriage; the Children are Bastards; the Man and Woman are guilty of Fornication; the Woman, let her Quality be what it will, is no better or other than a W———, and the Man a ———; what you please to call him.
But now, notwithstanding all this, we have an Excuse ready, which is, it seems, growing Popular; at least, it is calculated for abatement of the Censure, and alleviating the Crime or the Guilt, and consequently it is calculated to legitimate the Practice also; that is to say, they allow it is not strictly legal; 'tis not a full Compliance with the Laws of the Land, and therefore they comply with that Part, and marry afterwards.
It may be supposed, the Advocates for this Practice have ranged over all the Protestant or even Christian Nations of Europe, to find out some Allowance for this Wickedness in the Practice of any other Country, and I have traced them in the Enquiry, and can testify, that they have but one little Corner of Europe to fix it in, and that is, our little diminutive would-be-Kingdom, called, The Isle of Man. And here Mr. Cambden tells us, it is a Custom, or rather was a Custom, that if a Woman be with Child, and the proper Father of the Child marries the Woman within two Years after its Birth, the Child shall be legitimate.
Now supposing this to be so; 'tis to be observed,
1. That this was nothing but a Custom, in favour of the poor innocent Child, whose Hardship was great, in suffering the Reproach of a Crime it was no Way concern'd in.
2. That this was only a Custom in that barbarous Corner, and before the People there had received the Christian Religion, or were civilized under a regular Government.
3. That it is not allowed so at this time, since the Christian Religion is received, and have been reformed, no not in that Country.
The Advocates for it are therefore beaten from all their Defences; and they can find the Practice no where justified, no where continued. All they have left for it now is, that they will not have it be Criminal in the Sight of Heaven, no Breach upon Conscience; in a word, no Sin: And if this can be obtained, the Practice has but one Obstruction more to remove, in order to make it general, and that is, the risque the Woman runs, from the Weakness of the Obligation of Honour, and from the Men's making light of the Promise, after they have obtained the favour on her Side.
Hence it seems the strongest tye upon Modern Virtue, is the regard to Safety; and the Women pay a greater Homage to that Security than to the Duty; to their Interest than to their Virtue; to their Alimony than to their Conscience; and to their Prosperity than to their Posterity. Let us state this Case a little clearer than it seems to stand in your present View, and see if we can bring the World to have a right Notion of it, for at present, I think, the generality of Mankind are greatly mistaken about it.
1. The Obligation we are all under to the Laws of God, is a Foundation-Principle, every Christian must allow it; and that we ought not to commit any Crime against Heaven, that is, not to do any thing which he has forbidden. He that denies Principles is not to be disputed with; and therefore I lay this down as a Fundamental, a Maxim, which, without begging the Question, I may take for granted, while I live among Christians, and am talking to such.
2. The Obligation we are under to the Laws of the Country, under whose Government and Protection we live, is a rational Deduction from, and is commanded by the Laws of God, viz. to be subject to the higher Powers, and in all Things lawful to submit to Governours.
3. The Obligation we are under to our own Character, and the regard to Reputation, are undisputed; and we ought to do what is of good Report, seeing a good Name is better than Life.
All these three establish the Rules of Marriage to be not only lawfully imposed, but absolutely necessary; and that they ought to be exactly complied with: And all of them make it Criminal for any Persons, that is to say, Man and Woman, to lie together before they are legally married.
Having laid this down as a settled and stated Preliminary; it then follows, that no pre-existing Engagement or Promise between the Man and Woman, no, nor any subsequent Performance of the Promise, can be substituted in the room of Marriage, or make the coming together (which is so, as above, forbidden) be lawful or justifiable.
Nor can any subsequent Performance, I say, take off the Crime or Scandal of what is past. It is true, a subsequent Marriage makes it lawful for them to come together afterward, because it is not indeed unlawful for such to marry. It is not unlawful for a Man to make his Whore his Wife, however foolish; but it is unlawful for any Man to make his Wife his Whore, however seemingly and intentionally Honest.
But the Promise, say they, makes the Woman his Wife. I grant it does so indeed, in Point of Right, but the Form alone gives the legal Possession. Signing a Writing, and depositing an Earnest, or part of the Money, gives a Man a Right to the Estate he has thus purchased, and he may fairly be said to have bought the Estate, but he must have the Deeds fairly executed, sign'd, seal'd and delivered, and Livery and Seisin given in Form, before he can receive the Rents, and before he can take Possession of the Land, or the Tenants own him for their Landlord.
Under the old Jewish Institution, which, it must be allowed, was critically just in every Part, being instituted immediately from Heaven, a Woman betrothed or espoused to a Man, was called his Wife, yet he never knew her till she was openly and lawfully married; that is, till he took her in Form.
The Virgin Mary was espoused to Joseph, but he was not married, or, as the Word is, there used, he had not taken her to him; yet she is called his Wife, and he is called her Husband, Matth. i. 15. his Mother Mary was espoused—But before they came together—she was found with Child—in the next Verse Joseph is call'd her Husband, ver. 19. Joseph her Husband being a just Man———
Again, ver. 20. The Angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a Dream, saying, Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy Wife: And again, ver. 24. He did as the Angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his Wife.
Thus the Espousal made the Woman a Wife. But they were not allowed to come together, until the publick Ceremony of taking her to him, which publick Ceremonies also are to be seen at large in the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewish Church. Vid. Dr. Godwin.
In like manner, a Man and a Woman engaged by Promise, are Man and Wife, in foro Conscientiæ; but they are not legally Man and Wife, till they are legally and publickly married in due Form, as the Law requires.
All this Preliminary is made needful by the wicked Pretence of being Man and Wife, as they call it, in the Sight of God, which is a Mistake: They really are not Man and Wife in the Sight of God, any other than as espoused; so indeed they are and cannot be lawfully separated, much less joined to any other Person, but they are not effectual Man and Wife in the Sight of God, till they are so also in the Sight of Man, till the Publick Marriage, which is a Part of the Ordinance it self, is performed, whereby the Espousals are recognized, and the Law satisfied.
And what is this Promise they generally speak of in such Cases? Is it not expressly so made, and do they not call it, a Promise of Marriage? Is not the Woman's Excuse or Plea delivered always in those very Words, He promised to marry me; at least these are the Promises we mean, and that I am now speaking of. As to those wicked Promises between two, so to take one another, and to live as Man and Wife without the Ceremony, it may be called an Agreement, but it is not a Promise of Marriage, and so does not relate to our present Discourse.
But now, to bring it down to the Case in hand. Suppose here are two young People, a Man and Woman, they treat of Marriage, the Woman agrees, and the Man solemnly promises to marry her: But, in the mean time, the Fellow (Hell prompting, and his own Wickedness tempting) presses this Woman to let him lie with her. His Arguments are smooth and subtle, Why should you refuse? says he: We are fairly Man and Wife already by Agreement, (and, in the Sight of God, the Intention is the same thing as the Action) there is nothing more to be done but just a few Words of the Parson, and the formality of repeating it in the Church, and that we will do too as soon as I can get the Licence down, (suppose it to be in the Country) or as soon as the Asking in the Church is over and you may take my Word, for I assure you again, I will be very honest to you, (and then perhaps he swears to it) and How can you refuse me? And then he kisses her, and continues urging and teazing her, and wheadling her to it, and perhaps she as much inclined to it as he, only more for waiting till Marriage than he; so that the Devil takes hold of Inclination on both Sides, to bring about the Wickedness.
Upon these Pressings and Importunings, at last he prevails, and she complies. And what is this to be called? The Woman will not allow her self to be a Whore, no, by no means: The Man declares 'tis no Whoredom, he scorns the Thoughts of it, he abhors it. He promised to marry her, and he performed it, and they were married afterwards. He did lie with her indeed, and she was with Child first. But what then? they were married before the Child was born; so that the Child was born in Wedlock; so that there's no harm done in all that.
But all this is wrong; 'tis all vile and abominable: 'Tis not only Whoring, but 'tis worse than Whoring, or, if you please, the worst kind of Whoring, and that many Ways.
I. On the Man's Part; here is a publick Confession, that you had a wicked filthy ungovernable Inclination, that could not contain your self from a Woman for a few Days, but must gratify your Appetite at the expence of Modesty, Honesty, Justice to your Wife, Justice to your own Reputation, Justice to the Child to be born, and besides all, a Breach of the Laws both of God and Man. How scandalous a Piece of Conduct is it? How Brutish, unlike a Man, and unlike a Christian? And all this under a Circumstance so easily complied with, under an apparent Agreement for Marriage, and even while the Preparations are making perhaps on both Sides.
2. On the Woman's Part; to say nothing of the vitious and Beastly Part, and her want of Modesty, in respect only to her Sex; yet besides all that, here is a Testimony of most egregious Folly; a perfect neglect of her own Virtue, and of her Reputation: Abandoning the first to gratify the Man, and risquing the last on a bare verbal Promise, which it is not only possible he may break, and probable he will break, but highly improbable that he should not; nay, according to the Custom of Men, according to the profess'd Notion, and the common Language of the Town, she ought never to expect the performance of such a Promise. He's a Rogue, say they, that gets a Woman with Child before Marriage; and he's a Fool that marries her afterwards: He's a Knave that promises to marry her; but he's a Fool that performs it.
3. To return to the Man's Part. How absurd a Thing is it to make a Whore of his own Wife; to expose her for a Whore, who he proposes to embrace as an honest Woman ever after; to draw her in to be exposed, to be flouted at, to be jested with, and insulted all her Days, to be the scorn of her Neighbours, slighted and shunned by modest Women, and laughed at by every Body; and all this to gratify a present Gust of vitious Desire, which, in a few Days, would be satisfied without the hazard of Reputation, without Reproach, and without Reproof? How ridiculous does it make the Man, and how ashamed is he afterwards to think of it, even as long as he lives? And it may be, that very Child born, the Product of this Matrimonial Whoredom, shall live to upbraid his own Father with it, or perhaps do the same, and justify it by his Father's Example.
4. Again, to speak of it as to the Woman's Part. How rash, how inconsiderate? To expose her self to the Reproach of being a Whore, whereas, in a few Days, she might have gratify'd both her self, and her Husband too, without any Scandal to her Character. Now she exposes her self, not only to the Reproach of all her Neighbours, but to the Contempt of the Virtuous, and to the Jest of the Mob; and, which is more than all the rest, 'tis ten to one but her Husband himself comes to upbraid her with it, and, perhaps, hate her for it; at least he will be always telling her, how honest he was to perform such a Promise, which no Body but himself would have made good, and no Body but a Fool, that is to say, no Body but her, would have trusted to; and indeed, though 'tis ungenerous and unjust in him to treat her in that Manner, yet 'tis what she has a great deal of Reason to expect, and what the really deserves by her Conduct.
R——— H———, is a North Country Laird, which is a Title there not beneath a Man of Quality; the Lady had, it seems, made a Slip in his favour before Marriage, of what kind you may guess: However, he healed up the sore, and married her afterwards; so his Character, as an honest Man, was saved also. But how far'd it with the Lady?
In the first Place, as he carried it but very indifferently to her as to Kindness, so he never failed to upbraid her with his extraordinary Honesty in taking her; how just he was, and how infinitely obliged she ought to think she was to him; that it was what no Body but he would have done: And if he took any thing ill from her, though it was twenty Years after, he would not fail to tell her, she was Ingrate; that she ow'd him a Debt she could never pay; and so run back the whole Story upon her; and how, if he had not been honester than she was, he had never taken her, and then she had been undone.
2. To make the poor Lady compleatly unhappy, he is Jealous of her to the last degree, and treats her very hardly on that Account; and when she expostulates with him upon that Head, and appeals to him for her Conduct ever since Marriage, which has, indeed been blameless, the Brute runs it all back to the first and only false Step of her Life, and, with a flout upon all her Integrity and exactness of Living, tells her, with an old Scots Ballad at the End of it:
False to ea Man, false to au Men.
It seems, 'tis a proverbial Saying for a Man who has married a Whore, intimating, that as she was a Whore to him, so she would be a Whore to any Body else, or to every Man.
Thus she is all her Life subject to the Reproach; not forty Years Wedlock, and an unblameable Life, will make it up; the Debt is never paid, and yet always a paying; and all this for a shameful yielding her self up a few Days before the Form would have sanctified the Action.
Nor is it sufficient to plead, no not to himself, that he importuned her, or surprized her, or drew her in; those Things are all forgot; or, if remember'd, amount to no Excuse. The Breach in the Woman's Virtue being once made, he must be a Man of uncommon Temper, and of a great deal of good Humour, that does not one time or other throw it in her Face, and load her with the Reproach of it.
In the next Place, the hazard on the Woman's Part is unequal, extremely unequal; for she runs the hazard of Mortality. Suppose the Man would be just to her, and marry her; but then, as I once knew to be the Case, suppose he falls sick and dies; the Woman is undone, she is left with Child; she cannot claim the Man, nor the Child inherit from him as a Father; she has not only no right to any Thing he has left, but, for want of a Power to make such a Claim, she discovers that she is not a legal Wife, but was his Whore; and this in spight of ten thousand Promises of Marriage; ay, though there were ten thousand Witnesses of those Promises. So certain is it, that no Promises of Matrimony make a Marriage, and that a Woman cannot expose her self with greater Disadvantage, than to take Matrimony upon trust; that all the Assurance that it is possible for a Man to give her, cannot be an equivalent to the sacrifice of her Virtue, besides the risque of Mortality, as above, in which Case she is inevitably ruin'd.
And after all, what Pretence is there for the thing, since Matrimony is the Matter treated of? Why is not the Treaty finished? and if the Treaty is finished, why in such haste for the Consummation? or why the Consummation without the Ceremony, or before it? Horrid unrestrained Appetite! Why must the brutal Part be gratified at the Woman's Expence, and that at an Expence so very great, that nothing can make amends for it?
I knew a Disaster happen on the very same Case as this, when Mortality interpos'd; Death snatch'd away the Man, in the very critical Moment.
The Case was thus: A young Man courted a neighbouring Maid; the Girl had a very good Character, was not a Servant, liv'd with her Mother, and liv'd tolerably well; but his Circumstances were the better of the two; so that it was thought to be a very good Match for her.
Their Marriage was agreed on; and the young Woman, at his Request, took a Lodging in the Town where he liv'd; several Things for a time prevented their marrying, and particularly the want of a Licence; but he being, after some time, obliged to go to London, on some particular Occasion, he promis'd his Mistress to bring a Licence down with him to marry her.
However, in this Interval it unhappily appeared that he had prevailed with her to let him Lie with her, and the Girl proved with Child. He was so just to her, that when he came back from London, where he had staid some time, he brought the Licence with him, and twice they went together to a neighbouring Minister to be married; but still one Thing or other intervened; as once they came too late, the Canonical Hour being past, the scrupulous Gentleman refused, and would not; and the next time the Minister was really very ill, and could not, but appointed them to come the next Thursday, that being Tuesday, and he would not fail, God willing, to marry them.
On the Evening of the Wednesday, the young Man was taken sick, which proved to be the Small-Pox, and, in a few Days, he died. He declared upon his Death-bed, that she was, as he called it, his betrothed Wife, own'd the Child to be his, obliged his Mother to take Care of the young Woman, and of the Child, which was as much as Providence allowed him time to do.
But this took Wind; the young Woman was known to be with Child, and known to be unmarried; and some maliciously informed the Parish Officers of it, and they the Justices of the Peace, on pretence of securing the Parish. But the young Man's Mother answered presently to the satisfaction of the Parish; and the Minister testify'd for both the young Man and the young Woman also, that they were twice with him to be married; so that the honesty of Intention was on both Sides apparent; yet the young Woman was exposed by it to the last degree.
What Folly, as well as Wickedness, was here? A young well-meaning Woman prevail'd with, on the weak Pretence of being essentially though not formally married; I say, prevail'd with, to gratify the Man at the hazard, and, as it proved, at the cost or price of her Virtue and of her Reputation; forced to acknowledge her self a Whore, and to bring a Bastard into the World, when, upon only waiting a few Days, all the Scandal, all the Reproach, and, which is more, the Crime also had been avoided.
Here was Whoredom under the Protection, or in the Colour and Disguise of Matrimony! He told her, they were married in the Sight of Heaven; he called her his Wife, and 'twas too evident he us'd her as such; and Heaven, in Justice, brought her to Shame for it. What was this but a Matrimonial Whoredom? and that of a fatal Kind; a Kind that has so many weak and vile Pretences for it, but yet so fair and specious, that many (till then) innocent Women, have been imposed upon by them, and ruined.
But that which is still unaccountable in it, is, that the Hazard is so great, and the Benefit, the Gratification, or what other ugly thing we may call it, is so very small: 'Tis like a Man and Woman on Horseback, venturing to ford, or rather swim, a deep and rapid River, when the Ferry-boat is just ready on the other Side, and may be called to them in a few Minutes, to carry them over safe. There is no common Sense, no rational Argument, in their favour. But the Brutal Part prevails; the Woman, abused with fine Promises, prostitutes her Honour, her Virtue, her Religion, and her Posterity, on the lightest and most scandalous Pretences that can be imagined; and when she has done, has nothing to say but old Eve's Plea, The Serpent beguiled me.
I know nothing that can be said for the Man; nothing but what is too vile for me to mention, too gross for my Pen; and, as I said in another Place, the Crime must go without its just Censure, only because it is too gross to be named. The Motives to it are so wicked, the Pretences for it so foul, and there is so little to be said in Defence of it, that, in short, the best Thing I can add, is to say, 'tis the worst Piece of Matrimonial Wickedness that can be practised; I call it Matrimonial, because committed under the Shelter of that sacred Covering; the holy Ordinance is made the disguise for it, the Woman is beguiled, under the Masque, and on the Pretence of its being no Crime.
The Man is the Deceiver, he acts the Devil's Part every Way, he is the Tempter, and is a Party to the Crime: As for himself, his Reason must be subjected, or he could never submit to so sordid an Action; he must be degenerated into something below a Man; his Appetite must be all brutal and raging, perfectly out of the government of his Understanding; in a word, he must be out of himself, the thing is so contrary to Reason, that it is indeed contrary to Nature, and to common Sense, for a Man to defile his own Bed, corrupt his own Race, make a Whore of his own Wife; nothing can be more inconsistent with Nature, and, as I say, with common Sense; not to say a Word about Religion, or the Laws of God; These, to the People I am speaking of, are not to be mentioned, or, in the least, supposed to have been thought of.
What must the Man or the Woman think of themselves, when, after Marriage, they come to reflect upon this Part? What Reproaches will they cast upon one another? What Comfort, as the Scripture says, can they have in those Things whereof they are now ashamed? Granting for once what, however, very seldom happens, that they do not come to Reproach one another, and Revile one another; suppose the Man good-humour'd enough not to abuse his Wife for her easy complying, or to be jealous of her doing the same for others, according to the Scots Song mentioned above: On the other hand, suppose the Woman does not upbraid the Man with deluding her, making a thousand scurrilous Reflections upon him for drawing her in by his fair Promises, his horrid Oaths and solemn Protestations, and now to upbraid her with yielding. Suppose, I say, the Man and the Woman both, not so ill-humour'd as to Reproach one another with the Crime; yet they will deeply Reproach themselves, for laying themselves so open to publick Scandal, for the satisfying a meer Gust; and the prevailing Importunities of their corrupted Appetite, when so small a Time of forbearance would have made all safe on both Sides.
In the mean time, let the Self-Reproaches on either Side be ever so severe; let the Repentance be as sincere and as publick as you please to imagine it, the Fact is the same; and I cannot call the Thing it self any thing more or less than, according to my Title, a Matrimonial Whoredom, and that in the coursest Degree.
Perhaps some may think my Censure too hard on the other Side; I mean, as to the Man's marrying the Woman afterwards; and that while I exclaim so loudly against the Offence of lying together, though under sacred Promises of Matrimony, I encourage the Men to break those Promises, pretending, that the Offence being already so great, they can be no worse, for since it does not lessen the Crime, say they, what should they marry the Woman for? If she must be counted a Whore all her Days, and he a Criminal, though he is so honest as to marry her, what signifies the Honesty? He can be to worse if he lets it alone? And thus my Reproof, they say, will do more hurt than good.
To this I answer: Let the Woman then provide against that; for I shall never think Pity due to any Woman after this, who, being thus warn'd, will let a Man lie with her upon Promises of After-Marriage; there can be no wrong done to the Woman, seeing she may avoid the Danger by avoiding the Crime, and yet the Man is greatly mistaken too, who pretends, that to break his Engagement with the Womon does not encrease the Offence. If this were true, and that by performing the Promise the Person was not the less Criminal, the Offender would always take care not to perform the Obligation, and so we should have a continual Complaint. But, I say, let it be so, nay, let the Woman take it for granted, I am sure she ought to do so, that whenever she yields on such Terms, she will be left in the lurch, and exposed; and this, if any thing, would shut the Door against her complying.
Nay, I must needs say, the common Usage is so much against her, that one would wonder any Woman should be so weak to yield upon those Conditions; and, to me, it argues necessarily one of these two Things.
I. Great neglect of the Consequences of Things; great Indifference not only as to her being with Child or not with Child, taken or refused, married or not married, and so also also with respect to her Fame and Character, whether Honest or a Whore. But,
2. It argues likewise a perfect Indifference as to the Crime; and as to its being an Offence, against God or Man; and such a Woman ought not to be supposed to value the Sin of being a Whore, any more than the Scandal of it.
Indeed; to be utterly thoughtless of the Consequence, and every Way as wicked as the Man, seems to be just the Character of the Woman in this particular Case: And I must leave it upon her, that she who thus complies, declares her self, by the very Fact, to be utterly unconcerned about her Character, whether as a Woman of Virtue, or as a Christian; and if ever she is brought to her Senses again, she must be convinced, that she deserves to be so understood.
