his traces, the high-blooded breeds must cease to eat. Besides, if this fiend-like doctrine were adopted, what would be the moral consequences? What limits would there be to that promiscuous intercourse, to which the sexes would constantly be impelled by a passion implanted by nature in the breast of every living creature, most amiable in itself and far too strong to be subdued by any apprehensions to which the human heart is liable? These impious "liars and hypocrites" affect to believe, that young men and women would, out of fear of the law, impose on themselves" a moral restraint." What! a moral restraint in defiance of nature, in defiance of their very organization, and in defiance, too, of all the commands and all the promises of God! A moral restraint in defiance of these! The very thought is madness as well as impiety; and no law, founded on such a notion, could produce any but immoral consequences, except universal and just contempt and hatred of those who should be so foolish and so detestably wicked as to pass such a law. The Book of Common Prayer of our reformed church declares to us, that it" is meet for Christian men to marry." It tells us, that "little children are 46 as arrows in the hand of the giant, and blessed is the man that hath his quiver full of them." One of the principal causes of dissenting from, and protesting against, the Church of our fathers, was, that it did not permit priests to marry, though the prohibition was, as we have before seen, sanctioned by, and founded on, the express and urgent recommendation of Saint Paul, who added his great example to the precept; and though, as we have also before seen, the recommendation was backed by numerous and most cogent reasons, connected with the diligent and zealous discharge of the duties of teachers of religion. There have been those who were of opinion, that this was, at bottom, the main point with many of those who made the reformation. But, be that as it may, it is a fact not to be denied, that one great ground of objection to the Catholic church, was, that she did not permit the priests to marry. And, what was the foundation of the objection? Why this; that, if not permitted to marry, they would, they must, be guilty of criminal intercourse; for that, it was to suppose an impossibility, it was to set reason, nature and God at defiance, to suppose, that, without marrying, the priests could preserve their purity. This is a fact notorious in every part of the world whither the sound of the words Catholic and Protestant has reached. Well, then, if this objection to the Catholic church were well founded, what becomes of the powers of that moral restraint," which these speakers of " lies in hypocrisy," have now, all of a sudden, discovered for the use of the whole body of the labouring classes of this kingdom? If men, few in number, educated for the purpose of the ministry, bound by the most solemn vows of chastity, jealous toothe last degree for the reputation of their order, practising fasting and abstinence, early and late in their churches, visiting constantly the sick, superstitious in their minds, having the awful spectacle of death almost daily under their eyes, and clothed in a garb which of itself was a deep mortification and an antidote to passion in the beholders; if such could not contain; if it were deemed impossible for such men to restrain themselves; and, if this impossibility were one of the grounds for overturning a church that had existed amongst our fathers for six hundred years, what hypocrites must the reformers of this church have been! or, what hypocrites are those who now pretend, that mere“ moral restraint” is, under a prohibition to marry, of sufficient force to preserve the innocence of farmers' men and maids! No adopt this impious doctrine, pass a law to put it in force, and all the bands of society are broken. Stigmatize marriage, and promiscuous intercourse is warranted and encouraged by law. To stay the current of the natural and amiable passions is to war against nature and against God. If the terms of the gratification be changed from the obligations of marriage to the voluntary offerings of affection or caprice, the indulgence can only be the more frequent and followed by effects more calamitous. From a community of fathers, mothers and families of children, this kingdom, so long and so justly famed for kind husbands, virtuous wives, affectionate parents and dutiful children, will become one great brothel of unfeeling paramours, shameless prostitutes, and miserable homeless bastards. Such |