whether in an age when writing was a task of great difficulty (both from the inferiority of the materials then used, and the general ignorance of the people), any man would be likely to indulge in such long repetitions as those here found, and our inquietude is nowise allayed by the additional assurance that the Book is a revelation from God, especially when we read the list of terrible curses threatened in his name, but we feel that it is impossible a revelation from a loving God could include the directions for wholesale slaughterings of the human family, such as contained in this Book; or that an immutable God could have revealed that he had repented or changed his mind towards his people. There is no feature connected with the Book of Deuteronomy which enables us to place it in a better position than the four 'Books previously examined; its historical and educational character stands on the same basis. In quitting the Pentateuch, I must ask several questions of my readers. 1st. Are you satisfied that Moses is not its author? I have cone with you carefully through every verse, and nowhere have we round anything which should induce us to regard Moses as the author of the first four books; with regard to a portion of the fifth Book, it is possible that a few scattered phrases may lead some to conclude that Moses might have been its author. But this supposition is dissipated when we ascertain that whatever books of the law the Jews possessed, were burnt either prior to, or during their captivity under the Persians. (See 2 Esdras, chap, xiv., v. 21.) 'For thy law is burnt, therefore no man knoweth the things that are done of thee, or the works that shall be done.' I submit, therefore, that there is no evidence whatever to support the hypothesis that Moses is the author of the Pentateuch; against the proposition the evidence assumes a very strong character. There are numerous verses which I have specially noticed, which it is utterly impossible Moses could have written, as they relate to events which transpired after his death; and there are other passages which are very unlikely to have been the product of his pen, from the mode of reference to himself. There are numerous passages directly contradictory one of the other, and which compel the belief that more than one man must have been concerned in writing the Books. The incoherency of many portions of the Books betrays the fact, that they have been compiled from various manuscripts, and that in some passages due attention was not paid by the compiler to the manner in which he joined the different documents. {93} The reference to the book of the wars of the Lord admits the existence of other documents at the time Numbers was written; and the passages referred to on pages 76 and 77, are evidence that documents have existed containing more complete accounts of the life and times of Moses, than those we are commenting on. Bishop Watson says:--