The rules, orders and regulations, of the Magdalen House, for the reception of penitent prostitutes.

  • Magdalen Hospital (London, England)
Date:
1759
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The rules, orders and regulations, of the Magdalen House, for the reception of penitent prostitutes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    prefervlng are alfo rendered fubfervientto population, in a manner equally agreeable to divine and human laws, charity and policy will then go hand in hand, and we may hope to fee the happieft fruits from national zeal; but if our piety is not ftridtly watched in its operations, it will fometimes bewilder us, and pervert the end intended. The undertaking here recommended is of a delicate nature, but we need not be alarmed, as if we fhould trefpafs on thofe wholefome rules which are neceflary to keep mankind in awe : there is fuch a ftriCt analogy between the di[obedience of the divine law, and thepunifhment of it, that mifery, in fome fhape or other, is infeparable from vice. The worldly diftrefs which the poor bring on themfelves, is indeed the mojl level to common obfervation, and oftentimes fo very ftriking, that we anxioufly wifh to relieve them, upon the principles of meer humanity \ but, when religion fteps in, and they exprefs a defire to rejorm, it becomes an effen. tial duty to afford them afliftance. Whatever our national prejudices may have formerly been, when we come to diftinguifh the various caufes whence the miferies of life generally fpring, we are unavoidably led to compaflionate the cafe of many thought- lefsyoung women, who become facrijices, by the means of thofe temptations to which their perlonal advantages expofed them. Surrounded by fnares, too often laid with great art and indufiry, it is no wonder that fallacious promifes, which favour aprope?ifity to evil, fhould fometimes prevail. But the repentance here propofed, carries with it the ftrongeft marks, that their fond expectations of uninterruptedjoys, vanifh like a dream. They foon behold themfelves, as monuments to delujion, abandoned by the fedu cer, jorfaken by their relations and jriends, defpijed, and even infulted by the world. When thus left to ffruggle with poverty andJcorn, what i can
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