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SUBSCRIPTION.
A short time after the presentation rejection when the enclosing local defenders of the establishment of all orders were exerting themselves
in confirming the good dispositions that had been manifested in its favor of the Petition, I happen'd to meet with a person, who had
just returned in raptures from a St James's Sermon, fully satisfied by it of the impropriety
of the attempted innovation. I expressed a desire curiosity to learn what called forth arguments
in particular it was that had produced such an extraordinary effect. I got could get no
other answer, than general expressions of satisfaction repeated reiterated in various ways. I soon met with so learnt enough
difficulty in conceiving to collect that it was the in it was of that ready & serviceable kind fluent compositions which are is neither true nor false, + + by which what is worst & what is best may be alike defended. which are
good at all times & at no time, & for one thing as well as for another — The precise choice of expressions
& cadence of the periods in which consisted that which distinguished that from any of made the multitudes cut out from on the same
model that might have been met heard with in any other Church in the Metropolis, and which had
operated the effect I saw produced, was more than I could pretend to figure to myself
accurately with any accuracy firm conjecture: but there were two negative circumstances in which I ventured to
devine it's concurrence with them all, for the existence of which at least in that at least
I venture to refer myself to the [ answer of the] Relater. The one was, that that why whether
there nothing was then anything said but what would apply with equal propriety force were each Article
the contrary to what it is: the other, that was not any thing neither but would might have more come with
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equal consistency from the defenders of the doctrines at the time of the Reformation.
After a pause & recollection of some time, he had the candour to acknowledge, that it was in both particulars as I had
guessed. And any one may I think make himself pretty sure that the same conjecture on this subject, will be ever attended with the same success. "Subvert" It is a well known practise on all such occasions to make use of words, which tho' indifferent of themselves having been usually most frequently applied to Acts dangerous and distinctive raise up by a secret association even when transferred to any after
the anxiety & Terror attending the Ideas of those Acts. Of this kind is the word "subvert" It is never after only the answer to this question of What are we the better for it? that can is determine can be decided whether a subversion is to be wished or dreaded. When the Hab. Corpus Act was framed enacted the Arbitrary power of Imprisonment was subverted — the ancient constitution in so far as it admitted of it, was subverted. From King Johns time to the present there has been a continued series of happy subversions; so that of the fabric of the constitution if it is to be called one which subverted at the time of W. the Conqueror, there is now scarce one stone left upon another.
1. Comm. 403. "The greater the general liberty is which any state enjoys, the more cautious
has it usually been of introducing slavery in any particular order or profession.
Those men, as Baron Montesquieu observes, seeing the liberty which others possess, &
which they themselves are excluded from, are apt (like Eunuchs in the Eastern Seraglios)
to live in a state of perpetual hatred & envy to the community; and indulge a
malignant pleasure in contributing to destroying those privileges, to which they can never be admitted."
Articles of Peace? Articles of Warfare — Articles of that sort of warfare
which will ever be, between those who oppress and those who rise against oppression,
those who force upon men a sense of their own upon that meaning which nobody has any business
to [pretend to] have nor can have any sense at all
Identifier: | JB/096/295/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 96.
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295 |
subscription |
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jeremy bentham |
[[watermarks::j honig & zoonen [lion with vryheyt motif]]] |
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