which, in ports lying upon the edge of our channel, as Dover does, can never happen; where you need no pilotage, and are no sooner out of the haven, but you are at sea.'

In a word, I ended my discourse to his Majesty, with assuring him, that Dover promised every thing he could hope from such a port; was situated, the nearest of all others, to a great, dangerous, and aspiring neighbour, who had given so many instances of wisdom aud foresight, in the charge he had been at on that line of his coast which confronts ours, and which, whenever his Majesty should chance to have a war with that people, would be found to turn every way, both offensively and defensively, to marvellous

account.

That Dover stands on a promontory, which surveys, and might be made to command the greatest thorough-fair of navigation in the world, where no ship can pass unobserved, or escape the danger of being attacked, when there should be cause, and was of the same use by sea, as a pass is by land. And, that there was no design, his Majesty could entertain for its strength and improvement, that was not compassable by art, and that did not promise a plentiful return of profit and honour, of any the greatest sum he could spare to lay out upon it.

I departed, at that time, from his Majesty full of hopes, that what I had done and said, on this subject, would have produced the good effect of some speedy resolution; but, taking the liberty, some days after, to remind him thereof, I found him, to my great disappointment, much calmer than I had left him, and received this short answer: That it was a noble project indeed, but that it was too big for his present purse, and would keep cold.' Shortly after, I was dispatched to my business in a remote country, and, from that time to this, have neither said, nor heard any thing of Dover.

Now the remark I would make, on this sudden and surprising coldness of the King's, is namely this, That the long audience, I then had of his Majesty, chanced to be in a certain great lady's apartment in Whitehall, where I had no sooner began my discourse, and produced my papers, when Monsieur Barillon, the French Ambassador, came in; who I observed to listen, with great attention, to what was debated; asking the said lady, very earnestly, many questions about the subject-matter of our conference, who I perceived to interpret to him every thing that was said on that occasion, as did the king, afterwards, in my hearing; explaining the whole project, and the contents of the several designs; expressing his great approbation of the report I had made him; whereupon, making reflexion on this occurrence, I was no longer in doubt, touching the cause of my disappointment, but that it was not the French King's interest, and, therefore, not his pleasure, that we should proceed on this work: And, that so noble a project should thus die in the birth, who would have been contented, I make no question, to have given ten times the amount of the cost, to defeat so national an undertaking, which looked with so threat

ening an aspect on those great schemes of naval power, which he has since put in execution, and is prosecuting to this day; and, I think, it therefore becomes every hearty Englishman to conclude, that such an incident, as I have here produced, ought to superadd one new and solid argument of incitement, to those that have been urged towards some solemn deliberation, on so promising and important a subject: And if our forefathers, in those darker times of queen Elisabeth, saw a reason for their speculations on this article, then, when their views were narrow, their motives less, and the means to attain that purpose hardly to be compassed, through the limited funds of treasure in those days, and the insufficiency of undertakers to conceive, design, and prosecute works of that sort; so magnificent, so new, and out of the way of the world's practice: It may therefore be hoped for now, when our motives of danger, &c. are so visible, and so much stronger; the means of obtaining so noble an end every way more within our reach, while we behold by what arts and means, and with what profusion of treasure, a neighbouring prince pursues his maritime projects; and since we have seen and felt with what effect he has succeeded in his aims, to rival us by sea, and, in a word, while we know he must naturally ever be more than our match by land; and that nothing, at this day, can insure our safety, but a demonstrable superiority of naval strength. What greater wisdom and precaution can we manifest, or how can we more laudably publish our attention to the publick welfare, than by seasonably obviating the evils that seem to threaten us, by the growing naval power of France, towards which, no one step, we can make, promises better fruit, than this proposal of recovering and improving the haven of Dover, which is, by nature, situated to our wish, and, in my humble opinion, is capable of being made, by art, so useful to ourselves and friends, and so effectual to bridle, prevent, and annoy our enemies; that, were the argument duly weighed, I am persuaded, we should think no sum too great to be so employed.

REASONS* HUMBLY OFFERED

FOR A

LAW TO ENACT THE CASTRATION OF POPISH

ECCLESIASTICKS,

AS THE BEST WAY TO PREVENT THE GROWTH OF POPERY IN ENGLAND.

London; printed in 1700. Quarto, containing twenty-six Pages.

THE HE honourable House of Commons having been pleased to take into their consideration the unaccountable growth of popery

* This is the 136th number in the catalogue of pamphlets in the Harleian library.

among us of late, and to appoint a committee to consider of ways and means for preventing the same: it is thought fit, among the croud of proposals for that end, to publish what follows:

We may, without intrenching upon the province of divines, make bold to assert, that when the church of Rome is called in the sacred Scriptures, The Mother of Harlots, and of the abominations of the earth; there is something else meant by it than a mere religious impurity, or going a whoring after false gods, as their saints and angels, and multitudes of mediators between God and men, undoubtedly are. We need but cast our eye upon Platina's Lives of the Popes, and turn over a few leaves of the histories of most nations of Europe, to be convinced that the Romish clergy have, ever since the Pope's usurpation, been branded with uncleanness. The wanton observation made by Henry the Fourth of France, as he passed one day betwixt a friary and a nunnery, that the latter was the barn, and the former were the threshers, was found to have too much of truth in it, in all those countries, where monasteries were overturned or searched upon the Reformation. The vast heaps of children's bones that were found in draw-wells, and other places about them, were speaking, though not living monuments of the horrid impurity, as well as barbarous cruelty of those pretended religious communities. To insist any more upon this, were to accuse the age of inexcusable ignorance in history, and therefore we shall conclude this introduction with an observation from Fox's Acts and Monuments, that before the Reformation the priests alone were computed to have one hundred thousand whores in this kingdom; which must be understood of what the dialect of those times called Lemmans, from the French L'amante, that is, in the modern phrase, kept misses; besides their promiscuous whoredoms with the women they confessed, &c.

This horrid uncleanness of the Romish clergy cannot appear incredible to those who consider, that besides their being judicially given up of God to work all manner of uncleanness with greedi ness, their vow of chastity, and being forbidden to marry, lays them under a temptation peculiar to their order.

It will yet appear less strange if we consider their way of living and opportunity: they eat and drink of the best, are caressed in all families of their way; have an advantage of knowing the inclinations, and of private converse with women by their auricular confession, and by their pretended power to give pardon; have a door open to persuade the committing of one sin for expiating another, and accordingly improve it.

This is so far from being a calumny, that the Popish laity themselves in all ages and countries have been sensible of it; and therefore most of the Popish kingdoms sollicited the council of Trent to allow priests marriage. But the Pope, for reasons we shall touch anon, did not think fit to grant it; though Æneas Sylvius himself, afterwards Pope, was so fully convinced of the necessity of it, that

he said, 'Though priests were forbidden to marry for very good reasons, yet there were better reasons to allow it.'

They that have travelled in Popish countries, and observed their priests and monks, know, that generally speaking, they carry about them no marks of that austerity and mortification, which they pretend to. They look as fat, and generally fatter than other men; which is an infallible token that they fare as well,. if not better, than others do. You shall see as white and plump a hand under a monk's hood, as in any family of quality; and a foot as clean and neat many times in a sandal, as is to be found under a Spanish leather shoe, and silk stocking: nor is it any secret, that in the neighbourhood of convents there is as good diet prepared for the use of monks and nuns, as comes to gentlemen's tables. Nay, those very places of retirement, with their large gardens, adorned with walks and shades, and many times watered by pleasant fountains or murmuring streams, together with their idle way of living, seem to be accommodated to inspire them with amorous sentiments, against which their vows of chastity, and the rules of their order, are so far from being preservatives, that they only add fewel to their flames, and make them commit sin with the higher relish. So that, when they go abroad from their monasteries, they are like so many fed horses neighing, as the Scripture expresses it of the lustful Jews, after every woman they see; and, if they have not opportunity of giving vent to their lusts that way, they many times do it by other methods, which nature as well as religion forbids to name. This we may justly suppose to have been the motive that induced Emanuel de Saa in his Aphorisms to maintain that fornication, adultery, and sodomy did not make a priest irregular, whereas marriage did.

If besides their being forbidden to marry, we consider that they are provided for by the sweat of other men's faces, have no families to take care of, have no hard labour to mortify and keep them low, and are under no obligation to study hard, we shall find that there is no reason to wonder if they be more inclinable to venery than any other men whatsoever; and since by experience it is found to be so, forbidding them marriage may well be called a doctrine of devils, both as to its original and effects. That it comes from the devil, the father of lyes, and by consequence the author of every false doctrine, is not to be controverted, since the law of God and nature commands us to increase and multiply, and fits us for it; and that it might be in a regular way, God himself instituted marriage in Paradise, and the Apostle tells us, that marriage is honourable in all; and that this doctrine is devilish in its effects, is evident from the horrid impurity of the Romish clergy above mentioned, and the mischiefs they do by it to particular persons, families, kingdoms, and commonwealths.

We come next to take a view of the cause, why the court of Rome does so stifly insist on the celibacy of their clergy, which will further demonstrate the reasonableness of gelding them, to prevent their infesting this nation.

Though Rome pretends to have changed her religion, and hath actually changed her form of government, by taking an ecclesiastical instead of a temporal head; yet it is visible she hath abated nothing of her ambition, to be mistress of the universe, and did in a great measure effect it by her papacy, to which so great a part of those, called Christian nations, submitted before the Reformation. So as Catiline, 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 lewd 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 injoined celibacy upon their 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 inclined all men to propagate their species, their priests so, and so circumstantiated, as before mentioned, could not possibly refrain from the act, though they were not allowed 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 pampered and restrained 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 belonged 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 indulged 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 injoined by their directory in confessing women to examine them most as to the sins of the flesh, which they tell them 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 designed 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