f citizens, for
confirmation. These senators were elected; the office was not hereditary;
neither was a salary attached to it.

(M101) The great congregation--or assembly of the people, in which lay the
supreme power, so far as any human power could be supreme in a
theocracy,--was probably a delegated body chosen by the people in their
tribes. They were representatives of the people, acting for the general
good, without receiving instructions from their constituents. It was
impossible for the elders, or for Moses, to address two million of people.
They spoke to a select assembly. It was this assembly which made or
ratified the laws, and which the executioner carried out into execution.

(M102) The oracle of Jehovah formed an essential part of the constitution,
since it was God who ruled the nation. The oracle, in the form of a pillar
of cloud, directed the wanderings of the people in the wilderness. This
appeared amid the thunders of Sinai. This oracle decided all final
questions and difficult points of justice. It could not be interrogated by
private persons, only by the High Priest himself, clad in his pontifical
vestments, and with the sacred insignia of his office, by "urim and
thummim." Within the most sacred recesses of the tabernacle, in the Holy
of Holies, the Deity made known his will to the most sacred personage of
the nation, in order that no rash resolution of the people, or senate, or
judge might be executed. And this response, given in an audible voice, was
final and supreme, and not like the Grecian oracles, venal and mendacious.
This oracle of the Hebrew God "was a wise provision to preserve a
continual sense of the principal design of their constitution--to keep the
Hebrews from idolatry, and to the worship of the only true God as their
immediate protector; and that their security and prosperity rested upon
adhering to his counsels and commands."

(M103) The designation and institution of high priest belonged not to the
council of priests--although he was of the tribe of Levi, but to the
Senate, and received the confirmation of the people through their
deputies. "But the priests belonged to the tribe of Levi, which was set
apart to God--the king of the commonwealth." "They were thus, not merely a
sacerdotal body, appointed to the service of the altar, but also a
temporal magistracy having important civil and political functions,
especially to teach the people the laws." The high priest, as head of the