date

22 July 1810 1810 July 22 32 Ch.
22 July 1810 1810 July 22 32

Ch. | | Authority worshipper

10

4 Churchman's Sinister interest

2. It is their interest that whatsoever course of insincerity they have been induced by the joint power of reward and punishment to engage and persevere in should be persevered in by all persons whom the like reward backed with the like punishment is or shall ever be received. For if /in proportion/ /in as much as/ other persons being free to choose their own declared opinion were to be known to choose /profit/ /entertain/ opinions different from those forced /compulsory/ ones, the imputation either of weakness or insincerity will be apt to fasten upon the professors of these compulsory ones. /[...?]/ Member of Clergy suppose for example 10,000: before the supposed charge all having subscribed and thence continuing to profess to believe a given set of articles. The obligation of subscribing bring taken away, the number professing to believe in these articles is now reduced suppose to 5,000: the inference will be that of the former 10,000 5,000 professed to believe what they did not believe.
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    . 4. Churchmen's Sinister interest

    In these circumstances it is the intrest of the Churchman to do what he can towards supporting and propagting the following opinions

    1. That where /in a case /cases// insincerity may to an unlimited extent be practiced without possibility of detection, especially for /particularly to/ any such purpose as that of punishment or general dishonour /disrepute/, rewards attached to the practice of such insincerity, rewards rising as high as to[?] [...?] [...?] several times greater than what is allotted to /in/ a [...?] by whom the whole business of the [...?] is directed, have no tendency to produce insincerity /it/;

    2. - or else that money which in the event of a certain course of conduct being conformed to is bestowed, and in the event of its not being conformed to is not bestowed does not operate as /[...?] in the character/ a reward to engage men to pursue such /give brith to such/ practices.

    3. - or else that insicnerity is not a vice but a virtue, and as such fit to be cultivated and promoted.

    4. and so in regard to punishment; viz. in so far as om relation to insincerity as above punishment is employed either in addition to or in lieu /place/ of, reward.
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    4. Churchman's Sinister interest

    5. That it is not only consistent with but requiste to good government to extort from poor /with money extorted from poor/ as well as rich for the purpose not merely /for the purpose/ of paying men for doing nothing, but also for the purpsoe of paying men for doing euther nothing at all or that the doing of which requires little labour and all[?] talent, several times as much as annexed to those most efficient laborious and important offices for the due or any thing like due discharge of which the highest measure of talent is as ever thus[?] requiste: and that in dispute of the known disapprobation of nine-tenths of the people who are thus treated.
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    . 4 Churchmen's Sinister interest

    3. In this situation /Thus circumstanced/ he beholds absurdity and insincerity crowned with honour and /held in honour and crowned /incrusted/ with/ reward /honoured and rewarded/: good sense /wisdom/ and sincerity held in disgrace and afflicted /disgraced /dis[...?]ced/ and punished/ and kept down /under/ on a state of punishment /disability/ For let the propositions be what they will the very circumstance of its thought necessary to employ reward or punishment to cause /engage/ a man to declare his belief in them /say he believes them/ is of itself if false proof positive of there not being believed to be true by him by whom such means for engaging men to profess a belief in their being true and thus far proof presumptive of their not being actually true but to a degree of absurdity false: and thence of their not being belived to be true by the person who by such means in induced to profess his believing them true /to believe them true/. That by means of reward or punishment a man should be made really and immediately to believe the truth of a thing which he believes to be false or vice versa is not possible in any single instance. (a) What by such means it is possible to make a man do is 1. to refrain from declaring his disbelief in it: 2. to make him declare a /his/ belief in it: 3. to make him turn instantly aside from all considerations tedning to confirm him in his disbelief of it 4 to look out for and fix his attention on all considerations tending to induce him to believe in it: especially authority, by an instrument by which in so many instances men have contrived to force themselves into the belief of /p[...?] false/ propositions in dispute[?] /repugnancy/ of the concomitant evidence of their own senses