Thoughts on the plan for a Magdalen-House for repentant prostitutes / [Anon].

  • Hanway, Jonas, 1712-1786
Date:
1758
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thoughts on the plan for a Magdalen-House for repentant prostitutes / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [ 1° ] To bring thofe back to a fenfe of virtue, who have been long accuftomed to banifh reflexion ; or, in other words, to give a habit of piety to fuch perfons as have contracted ftrong habits of impiety, is a hard tafk ; but, if pro¬ per means are ufed, .we fhall be infenfibly led into a better opinion of hu¬ man nature, than is generally entertained. And fince divine providence now feems to point out the probable means of relieving penitent proftitutes^ it is our duty to try fuch means, and to truft in the afliftance of that God whofe mercy is over all his works. Divines and philofophers are not yet perfectly agreed, how far virtue is natural to the foul of man j and yet it is confefTed, that man is by nature a reafonable being, and that reafon declares againfl every thing we believe to be vicious. Whatever name we give to the propenfity in queftion, we know that nothing unhinges the whole frame, and diftempers the fouly as well as the body, more, than giving up ourfelves to an unlawful gratification of this appetite. The exprefs command of God, both in the literal fenfe, as well as the fpirit of the chriflian law, fixes the conditions. Thofe who have kept alive any fparks of their native ?nodeJl)\ and are not given up, to- what the royal prophet emphatically calls an impudent mind, will ever la¬ ment that illegal commerce, which is productive of fo much mifehief: and as it is the duty of men, it will ever be their honor, to endevor to reftore things to that order, which the God of nature certainly intended they Jhould be in \ namely, that reafon fhould prevail over paflion and appetite. Every aCt of general beneficence carries with it fome evidence of a reli- gious difpofition, but yours requires a more than common zeal and vigi¬ lance. And though your enterprize may be confidered as a fecular con¬ cern, you are, in faCt, acting the part of champions for your religion. Whilfh youi