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Franklin, Benjamin

"Philadelphia 1785-1790"

Probably it might not have immediately occur'd to
him, that the Experiment had been try'd, and that the Event was
recorded in the most faithful of all Histories, the Holy Bible;
otherwise he might, as it seems to me, have supported his Opinion by
that unexceptionable Authority.
The Supreme Being had been pleased to nourish up a single
Family, by continued Acts of his attentive Providence, till it became
a great People; and, having rescued them from Bondage by many
Miracles, performed by his Servant Moses, he personally deliver'd to
that chosen Servant, in the presence of the whole Nation, a
Constitution and Code of Laws for their Observance; accompanied and
sanction'd with Promises of great Rewards, and Threats of severe
Punishments, as the Consequence of their Obedience or Disobedience.
This Constitution, tho' the Deity himself was to be at its Head
(and it is therefore call'd by Political Writers a _Theocracy_),
could not be carried into Execution but by the Means of his
Ministers; Aaron and his Sons were therefore commission'd to be, with
Moses, the first establish'd Ministry of the new Government.
One would have thought, that this Appointment of Men, who had
distinguish'd themselves in procuring the Liberty of their Nation,
and had hazarded their Lives in openly opposing the Will of a
powerful Monarch, who would have retain'd that Nation in Slavery,
might have been an Appointment acceptable to a grateful People; and
that a Constitution fram'd for them by the Deity himself might, on
that Account, have been secure of a universal welcome Reception.


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