90

OUR RELATION TO THE DEITY,

[Part I.

and sublime scene in which they originated, and serve further todistinguish them from the ordinary laws of the Mosaic code,which were communicated without any remarkable circumstancesattending them. Moses ascended the mountain, and the tencommandments were delivered to him, written upon two tables ofstone, by the finger of the Almighty. When these tables hadbeen broken, the writing was renewed upon new tables by thesame Almighty hand. For their preservation, an ark was madeby divine direction, of immense value,* covered inside and out-side with gold. The lid, denominated the mercy-seat, was ofgold, upon which were placed two golden cherubims, overshad-owing it with their wings. By divine command, an apartment,lined with gold, was set apart in the tabernacle to receive theark, and was named the Holy of Holies. A similar apartmentwas appropriated to the same purpose in the temple, and of unex-ampled magnificence. Five hundred years after the ark wasmade, it was removed into the temple, and it then contained, aswe are informed, nothing but the two original tables of stone ;and these tables probably remained four hundred years more,when the temple was destroyed, f

Besides these circumstances, so manifestly distinguishing theten commandments from the body of the Mosaic laws, others stillmay be noticed. Most of the Jewish laws were suited exclu-sively to the people to whom they were given, and are whollyunsuited to other nations and countries ; but every one of the tencommandments may be observed by every nation upon the faceof the earth. Most of the precepts of the Mosaic code, too, areof a ceremonial , and not of a moral kind, — they do not pertainat all to morals ; but the commands of the Decalogue are directlyconducive to the peace, purity, and happiness of all who respectthem ; and a general obedience to several of them is indispensa-ble to the very existence of civil society. The tendency andeffect, also, of the Mosaic law, was to keep the Hebrews distinctfrom all other nations, and these ten commandments were ofcourse binding on them as a part of their law ; yet not one of

* Prideaux says, at the expense of £4,320,000 sterling,t Exodus xix. 31, 32, 34.