salvation. It was only by depriving that people of all human
support, and of all extraneous influences on its culture, that it could
acquire a character, firm, independent, tenacious in the principles
adopted, adverse to foreign notions, faithful to its vocation, and that
its mind could be deeply impressed with the sentiment of a constant
adoration of the Supreme Being, as its only Deliverer, Legislator,
Father, and Sovereign.

CHAPTER IX.

LXII. THE descendants of the patriarchs, grown into a numerous people,
were, then, obliged to undergo the severe trial of a long servitude in
Egypt, from which they could expect no rescue otherwise than by a
recourse to the God of their fathers. If the privations of earthly
enjoyments tended to strengthen their spirits and courage against
adversity, and to direct their desires towards gratifications of a more
elevated nature; if the repulsive conduct of their oppressors (by
character hostile to all strangers, and by system constituted in
different castes, each of which jealous of its own privileges) favoured
in a great measure their isolation, and kept them from a pernicious
contact and association, it was the prayer which they offered up from
the bottom of their hearts to the Supreme Ruler of their destinies,
whose covenant with their progenitors they remembered; it was that
prayer that hastened the termination of so severe a discipline, and drew
near the epoch of their glorification. A fit instrument only was wanted,
through which the deliverance should be effected, an organ to
communicate to the people the Divine laws, a medium for the new solemn
covenant which was to be proclaimed between God and Israel. This elect
from among all mortals--whose noble character, resplendent with all
human virtues, was heightened by the true grandeur of an unexampled
humility--was the holy legislator Moses, the divine man, the faithful
expounder of the will of God, the first link of the glorious chain
connecting the human family with its Maker. He was appointed to deliver
miraculously the Israelitish mass from the yoke of Egypt, and to lead it
to the skirts of a mountain, where the grand act of the revelation was
to be accomplished.

LXIII. Before imparting that revelation, the Divine wisdom vouchsafed to
declare to the people at large, in brief but clear words, the ultimate
object intended to be attained by such an institution, and the principal
condition conducive to its realisation.