127. Men's desire to probe into mysteries of faith by means of sensory evidence and factual knowledge was not only the cause of the downfall of the Most Ancient Church, that is to say, of its descendants - to be dealt with in the next chapter; it is also the cause of the downfall of every Church. For that desire leads not only to falsities but also to evils of life.

10461. 'And threw the tablets out of his hand and broke them beneath the mountain' means that the outward sense of the Word was altered and made different on account of that nation. This is clear from the meaning of 'the tablets', on which the Law had been written, as the outward sense of the Word or its literal sense, dealt with above in 10453; from the meaning of 'throwing them out of his hand and breaking them' as destroying the true outward sense, and so also changing it and making it different (that the outward sense of the Word was altered and made different on account of the Israelite nation, see above in 10453); and from the meaning of 'Mount Sinai' as heaven, from which Divine Truth comes, dealt with in 9420, the expression 'beneath the mountain' being used because the outward sense of the Word exists beneath heaven, whereas the inward sense exists in heaven.