Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	interest_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	20	3	8.8436	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B02912	Reasons humbly offer'd for a law to enact the castration, or gelding, of Popish ecclesiastics, as the best way to prevent the growth of popery in England.	Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.	1700 (1700)	Wing D843A; ESTC R175925	12,803	16

Castration was a Bar in their way they ought not to prefer the keeping of those things of which they stood in no need and of which she hop'd they made no use to the advancement of the Catholick Faith But this tho' the severest Reproof in the World has never been able to bring the Romish Clergy to so much sense of their Duty as to renew their Attempts of converting Sweden This may serve to confirm the story told us of an old Capuchin in the Menagiana the Works of the Abbot Menage that he rejected the Advice of his Physicians to be cut of the Stone for fear it should make him Impotent tho' he was then 80 Years of Age. Namque ad Vivendum castrari valde recusat Et propter vitam vivendi perdere causam The Romish Clergy have so much accustom'd themselves to those impure Pleasures that they will be sure to avoid those Countreys where they must be render'd uncapable of enjoying them If it be thought that the Laws already made will be more effectual against them there 's no need of repealing them tho' a new one of Castration be added Since that hath had so good an Effect in Sweden we have no reason to despair of the like here It 's generally concluded that our English Women are as tempting as any in Europe and are therefore as likely to prevail on a Romish Priest to venture hanging to enjoy their Favours as any others But if they be rendered uncapable of it the tempaation will have no force and so the Priests will save their Lives our Women will preserve their Chastity and our Religion and Liberty will be freed from their Attacques The only Objection of weight that can be made against it is that it may provoke our Popish Allies and other Popish Princes to treat Protestant Ministers in the like manner To which we answer That admitting it should be so it is not half so bad as to have them broke on the Wheel Hang'd or sent to the Gallies In the next place there 's not the like Reason for treating Protestant Ministers in that manner for they generally marry or if they be guilty of Uncleanness are thrust from the Ministry And in the last place there 's no reason why we should have any more regard to our Allies or other Popish Princes than they have to us We hear every day of the cruel Persecution in France and Germany notwithstanding our mildness to the Papists here so that our enacting a Law of Castration cannot possibly make them persecute the Protestants more severely than they do but may rather put a stop to it And indeed it is to be wondred at that the Protestants should be so much wanting in their Zeal and so little sensible of their own Interest when we have so Warlike and Zealous a Protestant Prince upon the Throne of Great Britain as not to agree on Methods for obliging the Papists to forbear that barbarous Persecution of their Brethren Endeavours of that Nature were us'd in some of those Reigns when Popery had so much Interest at Court that it seem'd to have a share of the Throne therefore it 's strange if nothing should be attempted towards it in this Reign To effect this would humanly speaking seem to be no difficult work since the Naval Strength of Europe is in the hands of the Protestants and that the strength of Great Britain and Holland is now under the Command of one Prince who is the Hero of his Age. This our own Safety seems to require and charity and compassion to our Brethren beyond Sea does loudly call for but if for reasons of State or otherwise it be found impracticable for us to interpose in behalf of persecuted Protestants abroad there 's nothing can hinder us if we be wiling to secure our selves against Popery at home by putting the old Laws in Execution or Enacting new ones This seems to be absolutely necessary if we consider either the State of the Protestants beyond Sea or our own Condition at home If we look abroad we shall find the Protestant Interest which was once so considerable in France quite ruin'd and one of the chife Causes of its being so was the neglect of our English Governments since Queen Elizabeth's time we have done nothing effectual for them since then which was a mighty oversight both in respect of Duty and Interest That it was our Duty will scarcely be deny'd by any Man that has any true Impressions of the Protestant Religion That it was our Interest is demonstrable because had the Protestants of France been supported by our Meditation and Assistance they would never have concurr'd in any ambitious design of their Monarchs against the Protestant Interest or this Nation and perhaps the fears of that Court that they might prove a Curb on their Designs of that Nature was none of the least causes of their having ruin'd them by the most ungrateful as well as the most barbarous Persecution that ever was known From all which it will naturally result that it is the Interest of England to save if possible the Remnant of the Protestants in France by some Effectual Interposition If we look a little further into the State of the Protestants of the Valleys of Piedmont we shall find that Antient Church almost totally ruin'd and disperst If we turn our Eye towards Hungary Transilvania and Poland the Reformed Interest is almost quite exterminated in those Countreys as it is totally ruin'd in Bohemia What danger it is liable to in the Neighbouring Countrey of Saxony is known to every one since that Country whose Prince was the first that embrac'd the Reformation is now under a Popish Government and if we come nearer home to the Palatinate there we shall also find a Protestant Church once the most flourishing and best reformed in all Germany under an unreasonable and cruel Persecution If we consider the Treaty of Reswick by that we shall find the German Protestants despoil'd of eight or nine hundred Churches The once famous Protestant City of Strasburgh deliver'd in Prey to the Church of Rome and the Protestants in Alsace and the Neighbouring Principalities on each side as the Dutchy of Montbelliard County of Veldents c. subject to Popish Incroachments In a word if we look throughout the whole Empire and take a view of the Diet at Ratisbon we shall find the Popish Interest every whene rampant and Incroaching upon the Reformation contrary to the Fundamental Laws and most solemn Treaties of the Empire If we cast an Eye upon Swisserland the little Republick of Geneva and the Principality of Neufchatel there also we shall find the Protestant Interest threatned and languishing If we look Northward there we find the Protestant Kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark ready to ingage in a War with one another and that the Quarrels betwixt them are fomented by those who carry on an Interest which is destructive both to the Protestant Religion and the Civil Liberties

those called Christian Nations submitted before the Reformation So as Cataline when Rome was Heathen thought it necessary to debauch the Women and then to carry on his Conspiracy against the Government by their Interest because of the influence leud Women had upon the loose Rabble and that they could either murder their Husbands or bring them over to his Party Rome since it became Antichristian hath enjoin'd Celebacy upon her Clergy that they might be rendered the more apt to debauch Women and to make use of their Interest in order to deprive the Civil Magistrates of their Right and to usurp the Temporal as well as the Spiritual Sword 1. Because they know that Nature having inclin'd all Men to propagate their Species their Priests so and so circumstantiated as before-mentioned could not possibly refrain from the Act tho' they were not allow'd to do it in a regular way and therefore so many Women as they debauch which they knew by their Circumstances and Opportunity must needs be innumerable so many Proselytes they were sure of 2. Because they knew that their Clergy being pamper'd and restrain'd from the use of the Marriage-Bed must needs be more inclinable to Venery than other Men and consequently more pleasing Companions to insatiable Women and therefore the better fitted for the practice of creeping into Houses and leading captive silly Women laden with divers Lusts as the Apostle expresses it 3. Because they knew that their Clergy by this means having an Opportunity of bringing to their Lure a Buxom Wife who perhaps has a sickly weak or absent Husband a Green-sickness Daughter or a wanton Maid they would by the same means become Masters in a manner of all that belong'd to the Family have the command of their Purses know all their Secrets and improve all to the advantage of the See of Rome which indulg'd them thus with a Mahomet's Paradise 4. By restraining their Clergy from Marriage they knew it would make them the more impetuous to satisfy their desires and that they might have the better Opportunity of doing it they are enjoyn'd by their Directory in confessing Women to examine them most as to the Sins of the Flesh which they tell 'em they must discover on pain of Damnation This being a ready method to inflame them mutually attended with Secrecy and the Priests pretended Power of giving a Pardon they knew it could not miss of the design'd Effect they knew also that so many of those silly Women as they captivated so many Champions and Advocates for their Religion they should have in Families Courts or elsewhere for they might assure themselves that such Women would not easily part with a Religion that did so much gratify their depraved Appetites by allowing them as many Men tho' not Husbands as they have Priests or Confessors And therefore many of the wise Popish Laicks have been of Opinion themselves that no Man ought to confess a Wife but her Husband and that a Daughter ought to be confessed by none but her Father 5. Another and that none of the least Reasons why they forbid Marriage to their Ecclesiastics is That if they had Wives or Families they could not so easily be sent on Missions and encompass Sea and Land to make Proselytes They would not be so ready nor so fit to engage in Assassinations Conspiracies and Rebellions against Princes and States at the Commands of their Superior Nor could they by their Whoredoms so much propagate the Interest of the great Harlot for then their Wives would be so many checks and spies upon them From all which it seems reasonable to infer that the best way to rid this Kingdom of Popish Priests and to prevent the growth of Popery is to make a Law that all of them who shall be discover'd in England except such as are thought fit to be allowed to Foreign Ambassadors shall be Gelded as they are in Sweden where since the same was Enacted into a Law and practis'd upon a few of them that Kingdom hath never been infested with Popish Clergy or Plots nor their Women reproach'd with want of Chastity This will appear the more reasonable if we consider that the Havock they are allow'd to make of Womens Chastity is one of the principal things that induces lustful Fellows to take Romish Orders upon them and to engage in desperate Designs to promote the Interest of that Church This any man may easily be convinc'd of that will give himself leave to consider what dangers other men of better Principles and who may have opportunities of satisfying Nature by lawful Marriage do many times expose themselves to for the Satisfaction of their bruitish Passions and how they frequently sacrifice Honour Interest and Estate with the Peace of their Families and Consciences to their irregular Appetites of that sort The Case then being thus let 's consider what a deluge of Uncleanness may be pour'd out upon this Nation by 1000 or 2000 supposing there were no more of those Popish Ecclesiasticks in England at a time especially since they look upon it to be their interest to debauch the Nation as one of the best Expedients to advance Popery as was evident from the Practice of the late Reigns and therefore it seems to be the natural way of obviating the growth of Popery to make the Romish Ecclesiasticks uncapable of promoting it by that Method which they like best and find most successful It will still appear to be more reasonable because they have vow'd Chastity and by their own Confession have no occasion for those Seminary Vessels therefore if they resolve to live as they have Sworn to do they would willingly unman themselves as Origen did so far would they be from having any reason to complain if others should do it for them It can no ways be reckon'd cruel since it may be done without hazard of Life as common experience shews both in Man and Beast and by consequence less to be complain'd of than those Laws which condemn them to the Gallows There have been more Priests put to death in England than ever were gelded in Sweden yet Experience teaches us it hath not had near so good an Effect This is demonstrable from the many Conspiracies against our Princes and Nation that the Priests have form'd since the enacting of those Laws and from the great Progress their Idolatry makes among us at this very day whereas Sweden since the enacting of that Law hath been liable to none of these misfortunes This Law of Castration occasion'd a pleasant Railery upon the Jesuits at Brussels by Queen Christina of Sweden When those Fathers came to Congratulate her there upon her Conversion they entertain'd her among other things with the wonderful Effects of their Missions in the Indies and other remote parts That Princess applauded their Zeal but at the same time rebuk'd their Indifference for her Countrey of Sweden where their endeavours were so much needed She pleasantly told them That tho' the Law of