4 5 
are independent of temporal events; the 
second aud third, from the nature of tne 
objects they decrce on, cannot enjoy the 
same permanence; they cannot be im- 
mutable, connected as they are with the 
circumstances of place, of time, and that 
political state to which they apply. This 
olitical state has been overturned, or 
dissulved by slow and unexpected revolu- 
tions, and necessarily untoosens those 
bonds which originated in its existence, 
and were preserved by its duration, 
“ Such has been thie ae of the ap- 
cient theocracy of the Hebrews, and of 
the government which moditied it under 
the monarchical system, till all sovereign- 
ty i Israel vanished. Our conscience 
was enabled, after all these reflections, to 
form that Declaration which is preserved 
in the preamble to our Doctrinal deci 
sions :-—a declaration which for ever an- 
mbuates those obstacles which have hi- 
therto impeded the Israelites to be re- 
ceived as citizens, and to share in the 
hemane indulsences of those sov ereigus, 
who are willing to relieve them, and in 
whose breast there cannot remam any of 
those political scrupies which induced 
them to imagine that the loss of their an- 
erent father-land enfeebled the patriotic 
ardour of all Israelites for the country in 
which they were really born, and to 
which they are attached as subjects. 
““ Doctors and Notables! you know a 
false opinion, an afflicting prejudice pre- 
vails im Europe, that attributes to our 
national insociability, what is merely a 
necessary effect of the civil intolerance 
which its nations have shewn to us, 
Every where we saw the Israelite con- 
centrate the cirele of his affections among 
those of his own religion; still fondly 
clinging to his brothers, living only among 
them, frequenting only their society, re- 
siding in the same streets, and rallying at 
the same point, as if surrounded by hos- 
tile neighbours; like those casts in India, 
to whom a certdin- sense of honour, 
which religious prejudices established, 
gives a ho orror to communicate with 
others. This insulation of self-defence 
only served to attach the fraternity of Is- 
raelites more closely together; they be- 
came as one family. They were re- 
proached with forming a nation in the na- 
tion; and that, being every where citizens, 
they were not ‘particular ly attached to any 
country: ina word, that they owned no 
country ! 
« Bet as man cannot divest himself of 
those social affections which are produced 
by his organization, and as all participate 
Asis of the Great Sanhedrim at Paris. 
[ Oct. Ty 
in that sentiment which leads to a prefe- 
rence of birth-place, or that spot of earth 
en which his physical and moral. facul- 
ties first expanded themselves, this preju- 
dice, w hich supposed us devoid of pa- 
triutism, was less an injury dove to a 
class of men, than to human nature 
herself. 
“ Not only we did not form a nation in 
the nation, but we did not even form a 
constituted reliion. The ancient tree 
planted by Mosss, shattered and rumed 
by so many storms, did no more cover 
withits shadow the children of Israel. 
Jiow many rites had fallen into disuse | 
What has become of the arand suleinnt 
ties of the temple of Jerusalem? What 
of all those numerous ceremonies whose 
remembrance is only preserved in his- 
tarys)) 
“ Ts there no difference between a con- 
stituted political body, and 4 peop le dis= 
persed among all the nations of the earth 
between a nation which existed three 
thousand years ago, and the descendants 
of that nation, spread at this moment 
among all others, and to whose laws they 
are religiously baud! adopting for their 
country the spot they inhabit, and all 
that th ley preserve of their ancient state. 
being only the manner of worshipping the 
Eternal? 
“* Are men ignorant that their ancient 
government was Fheocratical ; that their 
sp-ritual Sovereign was also their tempo- 
ral Sovereign; that among them ‘the two 
powers were long united in one hand ; 
that this order of things not prescribing 
the independence of the religious society, 
as a state naturally in hérent, the ecclesi- 
astical hierarchy disa; »peared with the 
dsssolution of the political body. 
“ Tt was not thus with a religion more 
modern. When the Roman empire dis- 
solved, the menarchies which raised them- 
selves on its ruins, adopted it. Iu these 
times of ignorance and confusion, it con- 
tributed to soften the ferocity uf the peo- 
ple, to bend them to the love of order, 
and to civilize them. The mfluence it 
acquired by its benefits facilitated the 
means of aggrandising its doniain, and the 
different states acknowledged a visible - 
head. 
“ Nothing like this has existed among 
the Hebrews. In the state of dispersion in 
which they have lived so many centuries, 
they have never had a chief for their re- 
ligion, no particular depository, no guare 
dian of their law,-no regulaior of their 
ecclesiastical hierarchy.: 
Sanhedrims had disappeared, like so 
| _ many 
Their Great: 
oe 
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