JB/015/210/001

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67

If after all God be infinitely wise & good what service can be rendered him so
acceptable it as to obey his laws which can propose, or intend nothing but
that which is the great,– the necessary – the sole result of wisdom & goodness
namely the production of happiness. Is not the duty we owe to God necessarily
involved in the circle of duties we owe to the human race – ourselves included.
And if benevolence be more prominently an attribute than pride in
the divine nature must not the duties we owe to others our neighbours be in his view
pre-eminent over the services claimed by him? And can any service
claimed by him be more urgent than that which he claims on
behalf of the whole family of man?

To prove that the divine being had prohibited pleasure, would be to implicate
to deny – to disprove his Benevolence. disproved by a prohibition of pleasure It would set up our experience in opposition
to his benevolence.

That such or such a thing is a cause of pain or pleasure is a
matter of fact and experience: that the use of it has been prohibited
by the Deity, is it but a matter of inference and conjecture.

That the use of it is allowed by him who was able to have prevented it if he had pleased is a matter of fact and experience; that it
is prohibited any otherwise than in virtue of its impurity is a matter of inference
and conjecture.

Infinite are the points that a man must have been satisfied of before
he can justly be satisfied that any pleasure not impure can have been
prohibited by that Deity: that who has implanted in his mind our bodily & intellectual frame
such a capacity & desire for pleasure.

The proofs of that such a prohibition has been issued by the Supreme being
can never rise to be so strong as to equal the proofs of its being inconsistent
with his benevolence.

Identifier: | JB/015/210/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 15.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	015	Main Headings	deontology
Folio number	210	Info in main headings field
Image	001	Titles
Category	linking material	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f67
Penner	sir john bowring	Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	5426
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