[ 389 ]
to lawful Things, and no more, to see himself brought to the same Distress by his Excesses, that others are reduc'd by their Vices and open Wickednesses, and loaded with those Diseases, which so strongly intimate another kind of Guilt, that no Body will believe him Innocent, tho' he really be so.
I leave it to Physicians to explain what I say, and to tell whether there are not many scandalous Diseases which People bring upon themselves by their Intemperances and Excesses, which are so near the main Contagion, that no People will believe they are Innocent that have them, and that yet may befal those who have never been guilty out of the Marriage Bed.
Let such People reflect upon the Grief it will be to them, to be universally condemn'd where they are not guilty; and to bear the reproach of a Crime they have not committed for the Crime which none imagine, and which they have dwelt unreprov'd in so many Years, till they come to be a Reproof to themselves, and a Reproach to all about them.
I could give Examples of several who have fatally suffered in this Manner, under the Weight of their own immoderate Practices, to say no worse of them; and I could, I believe, find some Instances of those who have perished under the Misery, rather than discover the Grief they lay under, least they should be supposed guilty of what they abhorred so much as to think of.
But how just is divine Vengeance thus to reprove those Intemperances in his own Way, which were otherwise out of the reach of human Laws, and indeed of human Eyes? Andhow
