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he conceived that it would be necessary to proclaim a higher and celestial defence , to assemble them , as it were , beneath the banners of a divine commander .
He gives them therefore a god in the first place to liberate them from the Egyptians , But as to effect this alone would be doing nothing ; as , in lieu of the country of which he deprives them , he must provide them with another , to be won and held
sword in hand ; so is it necessary that lie should bind together their united powers in one cpmmonweaJ , — he must give them laws and a constitution . Knowing as priest and politician that the firmest and most
indispensable prop of all constitutions is religion , he must employ in the impending legislation that power which he at first only gave them for their deliverance from Egypt , to perform the functions of a mere general : he must too announce him in the beginning in the character he is afterwards to fill .
For the purposes of legislation and the formation of the state , he requires the true God ; for Moses is a # reat and noble man who cannot found on a lie a labour which is to endure . He seeks to make the Hebrews happy , and permanently so , by the code he destines for them , and this can only be done
by building the constitution on truth . For these realities , the understandings are as yet too obtuse , nor can they be introduced into the soul by the open path of reason . Where he cannot convince , lie must persuade , overpower and bribe . He must bestow on the real God whom lie announces
qualities which will render him comprehensible and acceptable to weak minds ; he must veil him in a heathenish garb , and be content , though they should prize in the divinity the
drapery alone , and receive the truth only after a pagan form . And thus is he an infinite gainer , for he obtains a true and solid principle for his legislation , an essential foundation that no future
reformer need overthrow for the purpose of improving or correcting particular parts—thus steering clear of an inevitable result in all false religions , as soon as flashed on by the torch of
reason-All other states of this and subsequent periods arc founded on deceit , error and polytheism , although we
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have seen that in Egypt a Jit tie circle existed , nursing just conceptions of the Supreme , Moses , himself one of this group , and beiog indebted to its tuition alone for his more elevated
ideas , Moses is the first who ventures not simply to publish the hidden result of the mysteries , but even to make it the fundamental principle of a Republic . He becomes , therefore , for the advantage of the world and of posterity , a traitor to the mysteries , and admits a whole nation to the
participation of a truth , hitherto the property of a handful of sages . He could not , indeed , together with the new doctrine ,-bestow a mind to grasp it , and in this respect the Egyptian Seers maintained a vast superiority . The Seers perceived the truth by their reasoning faculty ; the Hebrews could , at the best , only blindly believe in it .
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204 Dr . J . Pye Smith ' s fleply to Mr * Gibson ' s Questions .
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Harnerton , Sir , April 8 , 1825 . MR . GIBSON has favoured me with the proposal of the following question , supplementary to the four preceding : •* Will every individual be included in the act of
Justification , who has improved to the utmost of his power the means for attaining personal holiness , placed within his reach by the Supreme Moral Ruler ? " ( P . 154 )
With deep humility of feeling , but with the most satisfactory conviction ' of mind , I record my decided reply ,
YES , But I must also beg permission to ask a question and to add some remarks . Quest . Where is , or ever was , such an individual , among all the sons of Adam ; except the man Christ Jesus ? Hem * 1 . Of such an individual , the
Justification would be essentially different from that which I have endeavoured to describe , and to which I supposed Mr . Gibson ' s former
questions to refer ; namely , the Justification of a sinful human being , a Justification of which a free and full pardon is a necessary part . To the person whom Mr . Gibson now describes ,
that Justification would be irrelevant . Such a person needs no pardon . He is under no charge of defect or blame . He has * the utmost of his power " improved his opportunities and means of attaining holiness ; and the Riglv
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1825, page 204, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2535/page/12/
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