CHAPTER II.

FOUNDATION AND PRESERVATION OF THE CHURCH.

FIRST MEDITATION.

The Jewish Dispensation a preparation for the Catholic Church.

We have seen, in a former meditation, how close a union subsists between the old and new Covenants. Let us resume the subject. It will be well to contemplate more at leisure, the conduct of that adorably condescending Providence, which, not oblivious of the world's great empires, reserved, nevertheless, for so many ages, its more extraordinary mercies, for the Jewish nation.

Not for their own sake were such favours lavished on this chosen race. Viewed apart from their connection with the great Christian people, which was to be "ingrafted"* upon them later on, their end as a nation was purely temporary. Their Law itself, divine as it was, was destined to be one day abrogated in order to give place to another covenant of wider range and influence. "The Law," says St. Paul, "brought nothing to perfec

Rom. xi. 17.

tion, but an introduction of a better hope by which we approach to God."*

Yet weak and unprofitable as this elder covenant was, Divine Providence encompassed it with the tenderest solicitudes, just as we cherish some frail and delicate sapling, destined to become in due time a noble tree, magnificent in fruit and foliage. The Jews, insignificant as they appeared to the great heathen nations of antiquity, were nevertheless pre-ordained to be to the world its source of renovation and life; for "salvation is of the Jews;" and, "from them, according to the flesh, is Christ, who is over all things, God blessed for ever."‡

This consideration diminishes my wonder, at the marvellous dealings of the Almighty with this people. If Thou didst impress upon them Thy divine stamp, O my God, it was to prevent them from becoming confused with other nations; it was to prepare them to serve as a grafting-stock for Thy Church, when the season should come for her to germinate, blossom, and bear fruit for the salvation of the world.

Then, too, as lawgiver and supreme head of this Thy people, Thou didst choose no ordinary man, but one formed by Thyself for so great a work. But neither the political wisdom of Moses, nor the beauty and vigour of his genius are just now in my thoughts. Other legislators, whose authority was simply human, have exhibited ex

traordinary endowments of mind and a high morality. What awes me in him is that lofty mission which he held from Thee, and which was truly supernatural and divine. I am astonished at the transcendent miracles which Thou wroughtest by his hands, to show that he spoke in Thy name, miracles in testimony of which he appealed to the entire nation. "Your eyes have seen," he says, "all the great works of the Lord, that He hath done."* I am amazed at the various prophecies verified in his own person no less than at those which he delivered himself and which were so accurately fulfilled in after ages; add to which the extraordinary virtues of this great Legislator, his picty, his disinterestedness, his extreme candour, and other remarkable gifts.

But the course of God's providence with regard to this people, thus peculiarly called to Himself, exhibits still greater wonders. He gives them laws and institutions; He makes them the heirs of His promises; He supplies them from age to age with rulers chosen by Himself, and guided by His Spirit. He enters into solemn engagements with them; and declares Himself their sole exclusive Monarch, so that they alone, of all people, could say, "Our protection is of the Lord, and our King the Holy One of Israel ;" and, again, "Over every nation He set a ruler, but Israel was made the manifest portion of God." Assuredly, never hath God done in like manner, to any other nation; § and the very fury with which infidelity

* Deut. xi. 7.

Ps. lxxxviii. 19.
SPs. cxlvii. 20,

Ecclesiasticus xvii. 14.

has in all ages striven to depreciate this people, and to dispute their high importance in the history of the world, is in itself a proof that they deserve our earnest attention. If we except the New Testament, whose excellence is supereminent and beyond compare, there is nothing on earth so full of wisdom as the code of the Jews; nothing equal in purity to their system of morals; nothing more admirable than the characters of their sainted heroes, formed by divine influences, and doctrines that came from Heaven. It is impossible for any one to escape this conclusion, who peruses with devout attention those inspired books, in which are recorded the deeds of the Jewish worthies; their words so stamped with wisdom; their thoughts so full of God; their prayers so fervent; their obedience so loving.

And yet, notwithstanding this, a dispensation thus ancient, thus excellent, thus incontestably divine, was destined to have an end. It enjoyed no promise of immortality. Never was it said to the Jews, as later on to the Church Catholic, "Behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world."* On the contrary, their covenant had the promise, so to say, of extinction and death. "The Lord Thy God will raise up to thee a Prophet of thy nation and of thy brethren like unto me; him thou shalt hear."† Such are the words of Moses. St. Peter, in his second discourse to the Jews.‡ and St. Stephen before his accusers, § both apply this text to Jesus,

Matt. xxviii. 20.

+ Deut. xviii. 15.
Acts vii. 37.

+ Acts iii. 22.

the Adorable Author of the New Law. So, too, St. Philip, when he says to Nathaniel, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law, and the Prophets, did write, Jesus the son of Joseph of Nazareth."* The Jews, though wrong as to the interpretation, were well aware of the fact that their prophets had repeatedly announced "that the days should come when the Lord would make a new testament with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda, not according to the testament which He made to their fathers ;"† that is to say, not a temporary one, nor one which had relation simply to this present life, but a covenant spiritual, permanent, and altogether heavenly. The whole of Jewish prophecy involved indeed a termination of the Aaronic line, and the substitution in its stead, of an eternal priesthood according to the order of Melchisedech. It taught the Jews to expect the abolition of their imperfect local sacrifices, and the institution of a new and universal one, that of the Cross and the Altar. § It taught them to prepare for becoming a new people, according to the promise made to their father Abraham, and which was to find its fulfilment in one of his seed, namely, Christ.|| And so, when at last the Gospel made its appearance in the world, the true Israelites, in whom was no guile,¶ and who had not closed their hearts to the voice of the