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I don't understand how that can be, Sir, says the good Minister.
Why, 'twas all Adultery; the very Marriage was but a civil Whoring; 'twas all Adultery from the beginning; I was a married Man before.
Ay, Sir, says the Minister, there must be more in that then by a great deal than ever I understood before.
No, nothing more than you knew too; I say, 'twas a Civil Adultery, a Matrimonial Whoredom, to marry this Woman; for I belonged to another Woman, our Souls were married; we were united by the strictest Bonds of Faith and Honour; 'twas all breaking into the Rules of Justice, and the strictest Obligations that it was possible to lay upon one another; 'twas all Perjury and Adultery of the worst Sort. That old Wretch, my Uncle, made me an Adulterer, and 'tis but the same Sin continued in.
You really fright me, Sir, says the Minister. Why, this is a terrible Case: How could your Uncle force you? And why did not you declare at the Book, as you ought to have done, that you knew a lawful Impediment why you should not be joined together, for that you were firmly engaged to another, and the other to you; I dare say no Divine of our Church would have married you.
O, Sir, there was a Reason for that too, says the Gentleman, a Reason that no Body could withstand, a Reason enforced with an Estate of two thousand Pounds a Year, and the Reason all in the Power of a Tyrant, deaf to all Reasonings but that of Money; in short, there's the Reason that has undone me, and that madean
