"He was not saying the 10 commandments were the law of the land and had to be enforced on us by the state."
Wrong.
Jefferson wrote: "Man has been subjected by his Creator to moral law, of which his feelings, or conscience are the evidence with which his Creator furnished him ... the moral duties which exist between individual and individual in a state of nature, accompany them into a state of society ... their Maker not having released them from those duties on their forming themselves into a nation."
Because of the woeful side of human nature, the founders realized that a system of laws in harmony with God's divine law and a written Constitution were necessary to protect and secure the rights of those who were endeavoring to live in peace and harmony with their neighbors according to the dictates of the natural law of God.
"The founders' goal was to revive the ancient principles (these ancient principles Thomas Jefferson referred to as the laws and the representative government that were given by God through Moses to ancient Israel.)
From the example of the ancient principles of the Hebrews, Jefferson reasoned that God brought a people out of slavery and gave them a law for the good of society and the protection of individual liberty. This law known as the Ten Commandments contains four laws dealing with man's responsibility to God and six laws dealing with man's responsibility to man. Jefferson believed that the ancient Hebrew culture contained the pattern of privilege and liberty that the laws of nature and of nature's God entitled every man.
And.....
The purpose of the United States Constitution was not to grant rights to the American people. The purpose was to establish a government of laws that would protect and secure each person's Creator- endowed rights to life, liberty, and property. As the Declaration of Independence states, "to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men."