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strange a Man should be afraid to expose a Crime for fear of encreasing it, as if the very Shame should excite to the Sin.
But I must keep to the Point, and to which I resolve to confine my self. Chastity is no popular Subject, 'tis so broken into upon all Hands, and with such a Gust of general desire, that to rake into the Filth must be disagreeable to the generality of People; and tho' I do not let it alone for that Reason, being not at all reluctant to an attack upon a Crime, because grown flagrant and universal, yet at present I am upon another Subject; I am attacking a Crime equally odious, but which is not equally acknowledged to be a Crime, a Wickedness which even some that pretend to Purity of Life will not allow to be wicked.
So much more is the Danger, when Men walk among Barrels of Gunpowder, and know it not to be Gunpowder, who shall be cautious of his Candle? It is not so hard to persuade such Men to shun the Evil, as to convince them that it is an Evil; they cavil at the very Title of this Chapter Matrimonial Chastity, 'tis Nonsence, they say, in the Nature of the thing; Virgin Chastity indeed, and Chastity of a single Person, is something, and would bear to be exhorted to; but married Chastity is what they will by no means understand, or bear a Reproof about.
But because I have, as I said above, a whole Chapter upon this very Subject, and only mention it here with respect to Opinions of good Men about it, give me leave to quote the Reverend Person just now nam'd upon the same Subject, and refer you afterward to my own Opinion in the following Discourse.
