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INTROD. Utility sooner found and per se, than [BR][1] Truth from Texts.
Truth & Utility since they are always found in company the question is which of them is the shortest way to look for
It may be said we cannot be certain what acts are they which produce a clear
unhappiness in Society: but we can always be more
certain th of what it is that gives us plain pleasure, than we can
of both together of two things viz: That we understand aright
a Sentence written in a dead Language, and that Precepts
collected many Centuries ago & written many years after they
were deliverd were accurately recorded.
It is a shorter & a surer way to know what Religion enjoyns by
learning what is consonant to General Utility, than to know
what is consonant to General Utility by learning what
Religion enjoins.
Everything that gives pleasure is prima facie good &
such as ought not to be forbidden, to prove that it ought,
it is necessary to shew some greater pain that it produces.
The Evidence that we have of the conducibility or inconducibility
of an action to Happiness is the evidence
of our Senses; & the original Evidence of the [Apostles] Historians of our Religion
as Archbishop Tillotson arges with irresistible force against
Transubstantiation, could be no greater. stronger. more
To know therefore whether an Act be criminal or Thought
sinful, the Appeal must always be ultimately to [Sentiment & leave to external & internal Sense
The Sum of the Divine Law contained in the New Testament
is "Do good to your Neighbour: i:e: to Mankind by all the
ways you can invent. Abstain from doing him harm evil by in every
way you can conceive. In proportion as you have so done &
abstained you shall taste of Happiness or Misery in a future Life.
If this be not, what is? If this were not, what regard would it
deserve. What Title would it have to the being believed to be what
it is professes?
If it could be supposed (for one may make extravagant suppositions for
the sake of illustration) that any Divine should have succeeded in proving our
Religion to be at variance with the greatest happiness of this life, he would
in coming ipso facto have suceeded in proving it to be false. He would have pulled down
about his Ears that Fabric which his ill-directed Industry had been employing itself to support.
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Identifier: | JB/070/028/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 70.
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070 |
of laws in general |
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028 |
introd. utility sooner found our per se than truth from texts |
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001 |
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text sheet |
1 |
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recto |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::l v g propatria [britannia motif]]] |
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caroline vernon |
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23143 |
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