The Church of England catechism examined Author:Jeremy Bentham Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: and rmposed)—by our wisdom and our care, against abuse of this power, provision—effectual provision—has in and by this very instrument been made . . . Answer,... more »—Yes; such provision as will be seen. But, in the mean time, and to authorize you to make this provision, what you have assumed,— and what for that purpose it was necessary for you to assume, — and that in the character of an universal proposition, is—that, by the Almighty, in consideration of that particular portion of wisdom which to you in particular it has happened to be blest with, such power not only is fit to be given to rulers in general, but has actually been given to them;—and this, be they who they may, to all rulers: and sure enough, if, to the extent to which, to the purpose of the argument, it is necessary it should be assumed, this general proposition is granted, every proposition necessary to the establishment of your own aptitude in particular may be thrown into the bargain, as not being worth disputing about. But, any such power—when and on what occasion was it ever given ? where is any the least evidence of any such gift to be found ? A job for the casuists.—Here is an engagement taken—an engagement taken in the solemn and awful form of a vow—a vow made by the sponsors—that the child shall do so and so: a vow made by A, not that he himself, but that B, shall do so and so. B, in process of time, breaks the vow: for this transgression—for this breach of a vow—of a promissory oath—for this species of perjury, who is it that is to be punished ? A or B? or some one else, and who else? If putionf.d, viz. " the keeping God's holy will anH commandments." If all the days of his life so it is that a man has been keeping this holy will and these holy commandments, what he has thus been doing, is he to underst...« less