★ Keep up to date with the latest news - subscribe to the Transcribe Bentham newsletter; Find a new page to transcribe in our list of Untranscribed Manuscripts
Man's faith must have been firm, that is,
must have had all the firmness which it is
in it's nature to have, because for there was
nothing to oppose it.
The Sanction must then have had it's
greatest force: for there was nothing to oppose
the belief of it's existence. Yet even then
we see it contemned over and over by the
the heads of the nation, and in particular by none more than
by the those devoted to it by profession.
On the Restoration, more regard was shown
why? because the moral Sanction had
gotten got greater hold.
At the Reformation, nobody preached there was scarce any such as preaching The
Clergy, armed with secular authority, unopposed
in their claims established by using to the desperation disposal of
---page break---
the Religious Sanction, trusted to the awe
which these prerogatives inspired: for their
influence on men's minds indiscriminately to the whole body. It was one
great and compact Aristocracy that by virtue of its
consolidated powers, tyrannized over the people.
At the Restoration the case was very different.
In the Civil Wars: the grand Aristocracy
had gone to wreck: and was broken
into so many little Monarchies, of in
a great measure independent of each other,
of which the governed each by its own Minister was the who depended for
his power, on his personal character
and particular instructions.
These who instructions were had been assiduously & successfully and
incessantly delivered. The pious song
had been dinned incessantly into men's
ears — of this Song what was then had been the burthen?
of it? That the points opinions in dispute and for
their adherence to which they suffer'd, were
of essential importance: that the desertion
---page break---
of them would be an apostacy to God, and a
renouncement of their religion. that
Under these circumstances should they have abjured these
opinions, What must have been the consequence? They
must have sunk at once into the profoundest
contempt & detestation. They must have
forfeited all pretensions to sincerity, veracity
and integrity: to those qualities whereby
men conciliate the esteem and good will of men, and
the it produces. Nothing it would
appear plain, they should ever after say,
would be to be depended on.
On the other hand should they suffer for
their adherence, their influence would be
ten times stronger than ever. What set of
men could be so base, so rebellious to the at one
to the force influence of both religious and moral
---page break---
<p>The obligation of on a man (which derived results from
the moral Sanction,
to adhere to an opinion, goes is in proportion
depends not on to the reasonableness of it, but
on to the testimony he has given of his persuasion
of the reasonableness of it, by the warmth
with which he has embraced and defended it.
Sanctions, and of those sentiments of generosity
which secretly derived from the moral
sanction, seem to possess an independent
force, as to suffer a man to want,
who had left every thing for their sake.
Such depravity in men whose social passions
were in that state of vigour and agitation
could not appear probable. A prudent
man, who had not believed a syllable of what
he taught, had had no other conduct to pursue.
SANCTION Moral. Superior to the Religious in force [BR][ ][ ] Instance Reformation X Restoration.
|
Identifier: | JB/096/137/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 96.
|
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
096 |
legislation |
||
|
137 |
sanction moral superior to the religious in force instance reformation & restoration |
||
|
001 |
|||
|
text sheet |
1 |
||
|
recto |
|||
|
jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::gr [crown motif] [britannia with shield motif]]] |
||
|
31141 |
|||