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[60]
Then Samuel called the people together to the city Mizpeh, and spake
to them in the words following, which he said he was to speak by the command
of God: - That when he had granted them a state of liberty, and brought
their enemies into subjection, they were become unmindful of his benefits,
and rejected God that he should not be their King, as not considering that
it would be most for their advantage to be presided over by the best of
beings, for God is the best of beings, and they chose to have a man for
their king; while kings will use their subjects as beasts, according to
the violence of their own wills and inclinations, and other passions, as
wholly carried away with the lust of power, but will not endeavor so to
preserve the race of mankind as his own workmanship and creation, which,
for that very reason, God would take cake of. "But since you have
come to a fixed resolution, and this injurious treatment of God has quite
prevailed over you, dispose yourselves by your tribes and scepters, and
cast lots."
Flavius Josephus. The Works of Flavius Josephus. Translated by. William Whiston, A.M. Auburn and Buffalo. John E. Beardsley. 1895.
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