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Excuses for all the wicked Excursions which are made after Marriage, either by one Side or other: The Man hangs about the Woman he loved before, follows her even after he is married to another; tells her, she is the Wife of his Affection, the other is only his Wife in Law, and by Form; that he is still faithful, and has reserved his Heart for her, though he has given his Hand to the other, who he is cruelly bound to call Wife.
It is not long since we had a publick Example of this, and that in the highest Class of Dignity, and where the Lady insisted upon her being as lawful a Wife, and as strictly Virtuous as the fairly and openly married Possessor; and even in the very Article of Death, refused to acknowledge it a Crime. But I would not, I say, bring Examples too near home, where they are publickly known, nor revive the Mistakes, which should rather be buried in the Grave with the Persons mistaken!
Forcing to marry, is, in the plain Consequences, not only a forcing to Crime, but furnishing an Excuse to Crime; I do not say, 'tis a just Excuse, for nothing can be a just Excuse for an unjust Action; but 'tis furnishing a plausible Pretence, to such Persons especially, who were but indifferently furnished with Virtue before, to justify the Excursions of their Vice: Now as a Man who is forced by any undue Restraint to enter into Obligations of Debt, give Bonds, Judgments, and such like Acknowledgments, meerly to obtain his Liberty, shall plead that Force in Bar of any Prosecution upon those Obligations; and the Law will allow the Plea, especially where the Debt also is just; so these Men plead the Breach made up-on
