2. Still more definitely did the promise given by God on Mount Horeb point to a new law-giver and, consequently, to the abolition of the Mosaic law. When the people, fearing the voice of the Lord and His majesty, begged Him to speak to them no more, the Lord said to Moses: "I will raise them up a prophet out of the midst of their brethren like to thee; and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all I shall command him" (Deut. xvii. 18). God promised a prophet like to Moses, and a mediator between Him and His people. This prophet was none other than He who in the New Law is so often called the prophet, or the great prophet, who was to come into the world (John vi. 14). Thus St. Peter (Acts iii. 22) and St. Stephen (Acts vii. 37) interpret the Mosaic prophecy. And, in fact, none other among the prophets who came after Moses, nor even the whole line of prophets collectively, could fully realize that promise; for "there arose no more a prophet in Israel like unto Moses" (Deut. xxxiv. 10). Unless we admit that God's promise has remained unfulfilled, or that it was only very partially fulfilled, we must conclude that it referred to a prophet who was to be, like Moses, the founder of a new law. For it is as a law-giver that Moses chiefly distinguished himself, and here it is with reference to the Mosaic legislation that a prophet like unto Moses, and, consequently, a legislator, is promised. Thus the Mosaic law itself, by pointing to the Messias as the founder of a new law, expressly pronounces its own future abolition.

IV. THE DIVINE ORIGIN OF THE PRE-CHRISTIAN REVELATION ESTABLISHED BY MIRACULOUS FACTS.

20. Moses proved his divine mission by miracles and prophecies.

If Moses was really a divine messenger, as he professed to be, the divine origin of what he taught as such is established by this very fact. But by the same fact the primitive and patriarchal revelations are also proved to be divine, because Moses, a messenger of God, based his law upon them as upon a supernatural foundation, and thus handed it down to posterity as divine. To convince our

selves of the divine mission of Moses we might appeal to his moral character, which excludes all possibility of imposture. We might point to the sublimity of his teaching concerning God at a time when other nations were shrouded in the darkness of ignorance and superstition. But the chief evidence of his divine mission are the miracles and prophecies on which he himself grounded his authority (10).

Two things must be established in regard to these miracles and prophecies in order that they may be considered as an evidence of Moses' divine mission: (1) that they were real miracles and prophecies, and (2) that Moses appealed to them as an evidence of his divine mission.

I. It cannot be gainsaid that those extraordinary actions performed by Moses, and considered by him as miracles, were really such; and that his predictions were also true prophecies.

It is certain beyond doubt that in the narration of those facts, set down as miracles, we possess historical records, and not, as rationalists pretend, mere poetical exaggerations of every-day occurrences. Moses characterizes them as supernatural facts when he thus addresses the people: "Know this day the things that your children know not, who saw not the chastisements of the Lord your God, His great doings and strong hand and stretched out arm, the signs and works which He did in the midst of Egypt to king Pharao and to all his land, and to all the host of the Egyptians, and to their horses and chariots: how the waters of the Red Sea covered them, when they pursued you, and how the Lord destroyed them until this present day: and what He hath done to you in the wilderness, till you came to this place: and to Dathan and Abiron, whom the earth, opening her mouth, swallowed up with their households and tents. Your eyes have seen all the great works of the Lord, that He hath done" (Deut. xi. 2-7). How would Moses have dared to relate to the people as something extraordinary every-day occurrences of which they themselves had been witnesses? The people also readily acquiesced in the record of these signs and wonders (Deut. vi. 22). But how could the people permit every-day occurrences which they themselves had witnessed to be handed down to their descendants as signs and wonders? There can be no doubt, then, that we possess an historical record in the Mosaic narrative.

1. The supernatural character of the facts related as miracles follows:

. Indirectly from the conduct of Moses and the Israelites and the behavior of their adversaries. If the facts characterized as miracles were not really such, how could Moses have

dared to make them the groundwork of his law? The assurance with which he appealed to them sufficiently proves that he was fully convinced of their supernatural character. And how could he palm off mere natural phenomena as miracles on a people so suspicious and turbulent as the Jews are known to have been? The people, in fact, had reason carefully to inquire into the circumstances of the facts, since on them depended whether or not they should submit to the heavy yoke of the law. Much less could national vanity have been the cause of attributing a supernatural character to the deeds of Moses; for many of them are chastisements for the people's transgressions, and with almost every one is associated some trait of disloyalty, ingratitude, or sensuality, the mention of which would rather wound than flatter their pride. Besides, not only the Israelites, but also the Egyptians, who were quite familiar with the conditions of the country, and the Magi, so expert in all arts, like Pharao, recognized in those signs "the finger of God" (Exod. viii. 19); and the renown of these wondrous deeds penetrated even as far as Canaan Jos. ii. 10).

b. Moreover, it may be directly proved that in all those occurrences there are, at least, some circumstances which give evidence of their supernatural character. Thus the plagues of Egypt, by their sudden appearance and disappearance according to the prediction and at the command of Moses, by the rapidity of their succession, by their violent nature, and particularly by the fact that they spared the Israelites, display a supernatural character. It was not without cause that God chose facts which, under other circumstances, might appear natural in Egypt, since in these the Egyptians could more easily distinguish the miraculous than in less familiar occurrences. The passage of the Red Sea, as also the manna in the desert, owing to the accompanying circumstances, are manifestly supernatural.

It was in firm reliance on a miracle, which he had expressly predicted, that Moses led the Israelites in a southerly direction to the Red Sea, instead of going around it in an easterly course. Having, at God's command, stretched forth his hand over the sea,

the waters were divided, and. a parching wind driea the ground, while the waters stood like a wall on their right and left. Again Moses stretched forth his hand towards the sea, and it closed over the Egyptian hosts (Exod. xiv).

The manna, which fed the Israelites, fell with the dew from heaven, while the sweet gum known by that name oozes from the branches of certain shrubs. The former fell for the first time when the Israelites entered the desert of Sin, accompanied them on their eastward journey, and fell for the last time on the plain of Jericho (Jos. v. 12). The latter is to be found only in a small tract between the coast and the highest mountains. The former roused the astonishment of the Israelites; the latter has nothing remarkable about it. The former

fell at night and early morning; the latter flows all day long. The former did not fall on the Sabbath, but a double quantity fell the day before; the latter flows regularly. The former fed the Israelites without intermission for the space of forty years; the latter lasts only for six weeks, during the great heat of summer. The former could be preserved only from the sixth to the seventh day, but putrefied if kept on other days; the latter may be kept for years. The former sufficed during forty years for the sustenance of nearly three millions of men; the latter is to be found only in small quantities, and some years not at all. Hence the fall of manna foretold by Moses was a supernatural occurrence (Exod. xvi.).

2. The same may be said of the prophecies. On his first appearance in Egypt Moses predicted the chastisements which were to visit the country (Exod. iii. 20; x. 4); their termination (Exod. viii. 11); the fall of the manna (Exod. xvi. 6). Neither the Israelites nor the Egyptians were so unacquainted with the quality of the soil or the climate as not to foresee ordinary occurrences, if there had been question of such. Besides, it is evident that Moses could only by divine com. munication know beforehand the events which depended, not on natural causes, but on God's free will. For instance, he could know only by divine inspiration that of all those over twenty years of age who had set out from Egypt, only Caleb and Josue would enter Palestine (Num. xxvi. 64).

II. From his first appearance at the court of Pharao till the end of the forty years in the desert, Moses appealed to these miracles and prophecies as to an evident proof of His divine mission (Exod. vii. 9). He foretold the death. of Dathan and Abiron in these words: "By this you shall know that the Lord hath sent me to do all things that you see, and that I have not forged them of my own head:

if these men die the common death of men, and if they be visited with a plague wherewith others also are wont to be visited, the Lord did not send me; but if the Lord do a new thing, and the earth opening her mouth swallow them down, and all things that belong to them, and they go down alive into hell, you shall know that they have blasphemed the Lord" (Num. xvi. 28–30).

Thus God repeatedly sealed the mission of Moses with di vine approval, and thus established the supernatural character not only of the Mosaic but also of the patriarchal and the primitive revelations.

V. THE SUPERNATURAL FACTS OF THE MOSAIC REVELATION PROVED 3Y DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE.

21. The books of Moses are authentic historic documents. That the revelation promulgated by Moses was divine is proved by his divine mission. The divine mission of Moses is established by miracles and prophecies, to which he appealed as an evidence. But how do we prove the authenticity of those books whence we derive our information regarding those facts and the accompanying circumstances? The answer to this question forms the last link in the chain of evidence which establishes the credibility of the preChristian revelation.

We must distinguish a twofold authority of the sacred books: divine and human. The divine rests on inspiration, namely, such an influence of the Holy Ghost upon the writer as to render the book written really divine. For the present we are not concerned with the question of inspiration. We have only to prove that the five books of Moses (or Pentateuch) can claim, at least, that authority which is due to any other merely historical document.

An historical book is authentic if it contains historic truth. Now, if the author of a given book is known to us, and if we have the certainty that the book has undergone no material change in the course of time, we may form an opinion of its authenticity, whether others bear witness to the trustworthiness of the author, or the work itself gives evidence of his knowledge and truthfulness. In order, therefore, to show the authenticity of the books of Moses, we have to prove (1) their genuineness, (2) their integrity, and (3) the author's trustworthiness.

1. A book is genuine when it has for its author the person