TREATISE II.
The Church, the Teacher of Revelation.
38. We have seen (n. 17) that the Primitive revelation was at first protected against adulteration by the long lives of the Patriarchs. But after the Deluge, when the span of human life was shortened, God set aside His Chosen People to guard and transmit His revelation. Besides, He established amongst them a perpetual body of teachers, called the Synagogue, to spread the knowledge of that revelation, and He sent them from time to time the inspired Prophets to be its infallible interpreters. Thus the pre-Christian revelation, Primitive, Patriarchal, and Mosaic, was preserved substantially intact till the coming of the Messias. It is true that the leaders of the Synagogue had by that time become unworthy of their Divine mission; but they had not ceased to teach substantially the true doctrine, so that Jesus could say to the multitudes and to His disciples: "The Scribes and the Pharisees have sitten on the chair of Moses. All things, therefore, whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do, but according to their works do ye not" (Matt. XXIII, 3). Amid all their vices, the High-Priests had not yet lost the supernatural light peculiar to their office; for St. John relates how Caiphas said in the council of the Jews, "It is expedient for you that one man should die for the people"; and he adds: "This he spoke not of himself; but being the High-Priest of that year, he
