JB/098/056/002

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Advantages and Disadvantages of the Religious Sanction

Frugality
a man must conclude that the quantity of the punishment of a future
life for any offence must be greater than the quantity
of temporal punishment need be to produce the requisite
effect, or the religious sanction can be of no
use in his behalf.

Either God must dispose men to this persuasion, or punishments
that belong to this source can be of no use. If he does dispose them /men/ to it either it is true or he deceives us.

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12 Equability and Variability Divisibility an 3. &c Variability and equability. The religious Sanction perfect in these respects
Of the two articles of divisibility and Equability and Variability little
need be said. On these points we may reasonable suppose
the Religious Sanctions to possess in the highest degree
the advantage of over the two temporal ones. In
point of equability where if the political Sanction is deficient fails
it is partly from owing to the [intractable] nature of the mode
of punishment itself, partly to the impossibility the
human judge is under of knowing the exact degree
of sensibility in the earnest individual that each individual to on whom punishment
is to be applied. inflicted. Now as then with regard to the [mode of] punishment
itself, we cannot consistently with
our notions of the Divine Power [oblige us to believe [be otherwise than persuaded]
entertain a doubt but that in a future life such a mode or modes will may
be provided as shall be perfect in this as well as
all other properties [to be wished for] that are
requisite to fit adapt it to its' purpose; as we are any more than we can consistently by
our notions of the Divide Justice & Wisdom that such modes if they can will
be provided and applied. As to Lastly as to the degree article
of sensibility [we have the same grounds for being persuaded
that the degree no inequality in the this application of

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Advantages and Disadvantages of the Religious Sanction

Equability and Variability
of future the punishments of a future state can arise from
any want of knowledge in the divine Judge] are
have equal reason from equally sound by our notions of the Divine omniscience
of the Divine Judge assured to be satisfied that no difference how minute
soever in between the degrees of sensibility in different persons
if in a future state any such difference there be, can escape his observation.
From the same sources we derive an equal
assurance of the perfection of the same punishments
in respect of variability divisibility.

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Exemplarity. The religious Sanction evidently deficient in this respect
In point of exemplarity the Religious Sanction
can not but fall short of the two temporal ones:
it falls short of the moral, much more of the political.
The reason ground of its' deficiency in this point
as in the others in which it is deficient is the
very circumstance that forms the characteristic of the
[punishments belonging to this sanction] source of punishment,
to wit its' futurity. No instance of its being
inflicted being ever before men's eyes, it can
not point colour itself in their imaginations under any
certain form. Of course it is essentially destitute of
all those concomitant circumstances which applying by their connection
to with the various modes of political punishment serve
to imprint in hold up & the imagination in colours more of less strong vivid the
several modes of punishment with which they are
respectively connected.

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14 Way in which the deficiency palliated by human management
Among the purposes of the Christian Religion The natural deficiency of future punishment, in
this behalf is in some measure remedied by a contrivance
which is apt to degenerate into what may be
called a kind of pious fraud; but a fraud as innocent and

Identifier: | JB/098/056/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 98.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering	12-14
Box	098	Main Headings	penal code
Folio number	056	Info in main headings field	advantages and disadvantages of the religious sanction
Image	002	Titles
Category	text sheet	Number of Pages	4
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	f9 / f10 / f11 / f12
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	[[watermarks::v g propatria [britannia motif]]]
Marginals	jeremy bentham	Paper Producer	caroline vernon
Corrections	jeremy bentham	Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	31664
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