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The business of Graduation would would give us better be an soon robbed a man
trouble, if who would it were sufficient for me to follow enough to imitate
the Sr M Hale – Rape Ask him
what punishment he would have for Rape? Oh says
according to him says is without more ado to be
punished with he, by all means – Death – Why so? because it
is a most detestable offence crime. "It is true, Rape
is a most detestable crime, and therefore ought
to be punished severely and impartially to be punished
with death .....
In This strain of reasoning appears to find to the seems to have had the Author
Author of the Commentaries for among its admirers:
for he has been at the pains of copying it
into his book.
Tis in much the same manner compendious expeditious manner that the
last mentioned learned person finds out the properest
punishment for another a still more operation –
This too is to be death "capital." Why so? "because the
voice of Nation and of reason, and the express Law
of God determine" that it should be.
t would be more to regard him to tell us much⊞ ⊞ to insist upon his telling us
what ideas he had were present to his mind, when
the 2 harmonious words of nation & of reason issued
from his pen: or but [one may ask him a
little more closely] about this same law of God one
may interrogate him a little more closely.
When the Author of the Commentaries is an
Angel, & wears a flaming sword, he may burn
as many cities as he pleases: meantime we for us
who are very far from Angels
"Of which we have a signal instance, long"
"before the Jewish Dispensation, by the destruction"
"of two cities by Fire from heaven: so that this"
"it seems is an universal not merely a provincial"
"precept.
To be serious – [If we] would perceive see the least
spark of proportion in our punishments Laws here below, or
of conformists to the ends for which they are
designed[?] ? that a stop should be put, it is absolutely necessary to put a
stop to this abuse of Scripture; and that if
nothing will satisfy an author at ths time of day but [that he
must [take it into his head] this ...
as Bishop Warburton calls it, of reforming
every thing upon Jewish ideas, he must may should
be made if possible to stand single in his conceit. Simple Foundation
---page break---
A Writer who can reason in this manner
one may believe him without much difficulty
when he assures us, that after looking over all
the Laws made against liberty of conscience,
he was so happy as to find every thing as it
should be.
may be Jure Divino capital – for one knows not how
many thousand of the Jews were destroy'd in
one a day for this offence. Telling of a
Lye may be capital jure divino" for Ananias &
Saphira (& this was not under what is called Jewish dispensation) were struck dead for telling a
lie. What do I say? Indecent may be capital: and it may be the duty in of the civil Magistrate
say he bound to cause to be torn to pieces
by wild beasts (for thus did Elijah) all such naughty little
children, as the shall have [known to] have
made themselves merry as with old men.
It may be very right⊞ ⊞ that men of this fancy should be so served: to hang men found: men should be hanged
but it is a very bad reason to give, that men
in a state of things totally different from the
present were burnt for it (supposing this was the case†† †† Note – by God himself,
why men should hang one another for it now.
Our concern is not at present with any particular
punishment to know whether for any
particular offence it be† † or be not proper or no –
but with the method that men writers have taken
to satisfy themselves that a given punishment
is proper. The jumping to the conclusion
at once without an attempt at reason or
after an attempt at reason which is
worse than none at all.
One might further observe that for every thing that appears there was no
precept in the case: Such a precept given
to the Jews there was – but it rests upon
the Author of the commentaries to prove, that
giving a precept to give the Jews was giving a precept
to another people to whom there was an
end put, several somehundred years before.
We have indeed a very efficacious precept against
it, which is it's abominable loathsomeness
– but this it seems the people destroy'd
had not since they did the thing which
they would not have done some may suppose unless they had
liked it.
GRADUATION. [BR][5]
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Identifier: | JB/067/024/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 67.
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law in general |
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graduation |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
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21857 |
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