The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Theologico

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A Theologico-Political Treatise

Part 1 - Chapters I to V

Baruch Spinoza

A Theologico-Political Treatise

Part 1 - Chapters I to V

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

PREFACE.

Origin and consequences of superstition.

Causes that have led the author to write.

Course of his investigation.

For what readers the treatise is designed. Submission of authorto the rulers of his country.

CHAPTER I - Of Prophecy.

Definition of prophecy.

Distinction between revelation to Moses and to the other prophets.

Between Christ and other recipients of revelation.

Ambiguity of the word "Spirit."

The different senses in which things may be referred to God.

Different senses of "Spirit of God."

Prophets perceived revelation by imagination.

CHAPTER II - Of Prophets.

A mistake to suppose that prophecy can give knowledge of phenomena

Certainty of prophecy based on:
(1) Vividness of imagination,
(2) A Sign,
(3) Goodness of the Prophet.

Variation of prophecy with the temperament and opinions of the individual.

CHAPTER III - Of the Vocation of the Hebrews,
and whether the Gift of Prophecy was peculiar to them.

Happiness of Hebrews did not consist in the inferiority of the Gentile.

Nor in philosophic knowledge or virtue.

But in their conduct of affairs of state and escape from political dangers.

Even this Distinction did not exist in the time of Abraham.

Testimony from the Old Testament itself to the share of the Gentilesin the law and favour of God.

Explanation of apparent discrepancy of the Epistle to the Romans.

Answer to the arguments for the eternal election of the Jews.

CHAPTER IV - Of the Divine Law.

Laws either depend on natural necessity or on human decree. The existenceof the latter not inconsistent with the former class of laws.

Divine law a kind of law founded on human decree:called Divine from its object.

Divine law:
(1) universal;
(2) independent of the truth of any historical narrative;
(3) independent of rites and ceremonies;
(4) its own reward.

Reason does not present God as a law-giver for men.

Such a conception a proof of ignorance - in Adam - in the Israelites -in Christians.

Testimony of the Scriptures in favour of reason and therational view of the Divine.

CHAPTER V - Of the Ceremonial Law.

Ceremonial law of the Old Testament no part of the Divine universal law,but partial and temporary. Testimony of the prophets themselves to thisTestimony of the New Testament.

How the ceremonial law tended to preserve the Hebrew kingdom.

Christian rites on a similar footing.

What part of the Scripture narratives is one bound to believe?

Author's Endnotes to the Treatise.

A Theologico-Political Treatise

Part 1 - Chapters I to V

PREFACE.

(1)Men would never be superstitious, if they could govern all theircircumstances by set rules, or if they were always favoured by fortune: butbeing frequently driven into straits where rules are useless, and beingoften kept fluctuating pitiably between hope and fear by the uncertaintyof fortune's greedily coveted favours, they are consequently, for the mostpart, very prone to credulity. (2) The human mind is readily swayed this wayor that in times of doubt, especially when hope and fear are struggling forthe mastery, though usually it is boastful, over - confident, and vain.

(3) This as a general fact I suppose everyone knows, though few, I believe,know their own nature; no one can have lived in the world without observingthat most people, when in prosperity, are so over-brimming with wisdom(however inexperienced they may be), that they take every offer of advice asa personal insult, whereas in adversity they know not where to turn, but begand pray for counsel from every passer-by. (4) No plan is then too futile,too absurd, or too fatuous for their adoption; the most frivolous causeswill raise them to hope, or plunge them into despair - if anything happensduring their fright which reminds them of some past good or ill, they thinkit portends a happy or unhappy issue, and therefore (though it may haveproved abortive a hundred times before) style it a lucky or unlucky omen.(5) Anything which excites their astonishment they believe to be a portentsignifying the anger of the gods or of the Supreme Being, and, mistakingsuperstition for religion, account it impious not to avert the evil withprayer and sacrifice. (6) Signs and wonders of this sort they conjure upperpetually, till one might think Nature as mad as themselves, theyinterpret her so fantastically.

(7) Thus it is brought prominently before us, that superstition's chiefvictims are those persons who greedily covet temporal advantages; they itis, who (especially when they are in danger, and cannot help themselves) arewont with Prayers and womanish tears to implore help from God: upbraidingReason as blind, because she cannot show a sure path to the shadows theypursue, and rejecting human wisdom as vain; but believing the phantoms ofimagination, dreams, and other childish absurdities, to be the very oraclesof Heaven. (8) As though God had turned away from the wise, and written Hisdecrees, not in the mind of man but in the entrails of beasts, or left themto be proclaimed by the inspiration and instinct of fools, madmen, andbirds. Such is the unreason to which terror can drive mankind!

(9) Superstition, then, is engendered, preserved, and fostered by fear. Ifanyone desire an example, let him take Alexander, who only begansuperstitiously to seek guidance from seers, when he first learnt to fearfortune in the passes of Sysis (Curtius, v. 4); whereas after he hadconquered Darius he consulted prophets no more, till a second timefrightened by reverses. (10) When the Scythians were provoking a battle, theBactrians had deserted, and he himself was lying sick of his wounds, "heonce more turned to superstition, the mockery of human wisdom, and badeAristander, to whom he confided his credulity, inquire the issue of affairswith sacrificed victims." (11) Very numerous examples of a like nature mightbe cited, clearly showing the fact, that only while under the dominion offear do men fall a prey to superstition; that all the portents ever investedwith the reverence of misguided religion are mere phantoms of dejected andfearful minds; and lastly, that prophets have most power among the people,and are most formidable to rulers, precisely at those times when the stateis in most peril. (12) I think this is sufficiently plain to all, and willtherefore say no more on the subject.

(13) The origin of superstition above given affords us a clear reason forthe fact, that it comes to all men naturally, though some refer its rise toa dim notion of God, universal to mankind, and also tends to show, that itis no less inconsistent and variable than other mental hallucinations andemotional impulses, and further that it can only be maintained by hope,hatred, anger, and deceit; since it springs, not from reason, but solelyfrom the more powerful phases of emotion. (14) Furthermore, we may readilyunderstand how difficult it is, to maintain in the same course men prone toevery form of credulity. (15) For, as the mass of mankind remains always atabout the same pitch of misery, it never assents long to any one remedy, butis always best pleased by a novelty which has not yet proved illusive.

(16) This element of inconsistency has been the cause of many terrible warsand revolutions; for, as Curtius well says (lib. iv. chap. 10): "The mob hasno ruler more potent than superstition," and is easily led, on the plea ofreligion, at one moment to adore its kings as gods, and anon to execrate andabjure them as humanity's common bane. (17) Immense pains have thereforebeen taken to counteract this evil by investing religion, whether true orfalse, with such pomp and ceremony, that it may rise superior to everyshock, and be always observed with studious reverence by the whole people—asystem which has been brought to great perfection by the Turks, for theyconsider even controversy impious, and so clog men's minds with dogmaticformulas, that they leave no room for sound reason, not even enough to doubtwith.

(18) But if, in despotic statecraft, the supreme and essential mystery be tohoodwink the subjects, and to mask the fear, which keeps them clown, withthe specious garb of religion, so that men may fight as bravely for slaveryas for safety, and count it not shame but highest honour to risk their bloodand their lives for the vainglory of a tyrant; yet in a free state no moremischievous expedient could be planned or attempted. (19) Wholly repugnantto the general freedom are such devices as enthralling men's minds withprejudices, forcing their judgment, or employing any of the weapons ofquasi-religious sedition; indeed, such seditions only spring up, when lawenters the domain of speculative thought, and opinions are put on trial andcondemned on the same footing as crimes, while those who defend and followthem are sacrificed, not to public safety, but to their opponents'hatred and cruelty. (20) If deeds only could be made the grounds ofcriminal charges, and words were always allowed to pass free, such seditionswould be divested of every semblance of justification, and would beseparated from mere controversies by a hard and fast line.

(20) Now, seeing that we have the rare happiness of living in a republic,where everyone's judgment is free and unshackled, where each may worship Godas his conscience dictates, and where freedom is esteemed before all thingsdear and precious, I have believed that I should be undertaking noungrateful or unprofitable task, in demonstrating that not only cansuch freedom be granted without prejudice to the public peace, but also,that without such freedom, piety cannot flourish nor the public peace besecure.

(21) Such is the chief conclusion I seek to establish in this treatise; but,in order to reach it, I must first point out the misconceptions which, likescars of our former bondage, still disfigure our notion of religion, andmust expose the false views about the civil authority which many have mostimpudently advocated, endeavouring to turn the mind of the people, stillprone to heathen superstition, away from its legitimate rulers, and so bringus again into slavery. (22) As to the order of my treatise I will speakpresently, but first I will recount the causes which led me to write.

(23) I have often wondered, that persons who make a boast of professing theChristian religion, namely, love, joy, peace, temperance, and charity to allmen, should quarrel with such rancorous animosity, and display daily towardsone another such bitter hatred, that this, rather than the virtues theyclaim, is the readiest criterion of their faith. (24) Matters have longsince come to such a pass, that one can only pronounce a man Christian,Turk, Jew, or Heathen, by his general appearance and attire, by hisfrequenting this or that place of worship, or employing the phraseology of aparticular sect - as for manner of life, it is in all cases the same. (25)Inquiry into the cause of this anomaly leads me unhesitatingly to ascribe itto the fact, that the ministries of the Church are regarded by the massesmerely as dignities, her offices as posts of emolument - in short, popularreligion may be summed up as respect for ecclesiastics. (26) The spread ofthis misconception inflamed every worthless fellow with an intense desire toenter holy orders, and thus the love of diffusing God's religion degeneratedinto sordid avarice and ambition. (27) Every church became a theatre, whereorators, instead of church teachers, harangued, caring not to instruct thepeople, but striving to attract admiration, to bring opponents to publicscorn, and to preach only novelties and paradoxes, such as would ticklethe ears of their congregation. (28) This state of things necessarilystirred up an amount of controversy, envy, and hatred, which no lapse oftime could appease; so that we can scarcely wonder that of the old religionnothing survives but its outward forms (even these, in the mouth of themultitude, seem rather adulation than adoration of the Deity), and thatfaith has become a mere compound of credulity and prejudices - aye,prejudices too, which degrade man from rational being to beast, whichcompletely stifle the power of judgment between true and false, which seem,in fact, carefully fostered for the purpose of extinguishing the last sparkof reason! (29) Piety, great God! and religion are become a tissue ofridiculous mysteries; men, who flatly despise reason, who reject and turnaway from understanding as naturally corrupt, these, I say, these of allmen, are thought, O lie most horrible! to possess light from on High. (30)Verily, if they had but one spark of light from on High, they would notinsolently rave, but would learn to worship God more wisely, and would be asmarked among their fellows for mercy as they now are for malice; if theywere concerned for their opponents' souls, instead of for their ownreputations, they would no longer fiercely persecute, but rather be filledwith pity and compassion.

(31) Furthermore, if any Divine light were in them, it would appear fromtheir doctrine. (32) I grant that they are never tired of professing theirwonder at the profound mysteries of Holy Writ; still I cannot discover thatthey teach anything but speculations of Platonists and Aristotelians, towhich (in order to save their credit for Christianity) they have made HolyWrit conform; not content to rave with the Greeks themselves, they want tomake the prophets rave also; showing conclusively, that never even in sleephave they caught a glimpse of Scripture's Divine nature. (33) The veryvehemence of their admiration for the mysteries plainly attests, thattheir belief in the Bible is a formal assent rather than a living faith: andthe fact is made still more apparent by their laying down beforehand, as afoundation for the study and true interpretation of Scripture, the principlethat it is in every passage true and divine. (34) Such a doctrine should bereached only after strict scrutiny and thorough comprehension of the SacredBooks (which would teach it much better, for they stand in need no humanfactions), and not be set up on the threshold, as it were, of inquiry.

(35) As I pondered over the facts that the light of reason is not onlydespised, but by many even execrated as a source of impiety, that humancommentaries are accepted as divine records, and that credulity is extolledas faith; as I marked the fierce controversies of philosophers raging inChurch and State, the source of bitter hatred and dissension, the readyinstruments of sedition and other ills innumerable, I determined to examinethe Bible afresh in a careful, impartial, and unfettered spirit, making noassumptions concerning it, and attributing to it no doctrines, which I donot find clearly therein set down. (36) With these precautions I constructeda method of Scriptural interpretation, and thus equipped proceeded toinquire - what is prophecy? (37) In what sense did God reveal himself to theprophets, and why were these particular men - chosen by him? (38) Was it onaccount of the sublimity of their thoughts about the Deity and nature, orwas it solely on account of their piety? (39) These questions beinganswered, I was easily able to conclude, that the authority of the prophetshas weight only in matters of morality, and that their speculative doctrinesaffect us little.

(40) Next I inquired, why the Hebrews were called God's chosen people, anddiscovering that it was only because God had chosen for them a certain strip ofterritory, where they might live peaceably and at ease, I learnt that the Lawrevealed by God to Moses was merely the law of the individual Hebrew state,therefore that it was binding on none but Hebrews, and not even on Hebrewsafter the downfall of their nation. (41) Further, in order to ascertain,whether it could be concluded from Scripture, that the human understanding isnaturally corrupt, I inquired whether the Universal Religion, the Divine Lawrevealed through the Prophets and Apostles to the whole human race, differsfrom that which is taught by the light of natural reason, whether miracles cantake place in violation of the laws of nature, and if so, whether they implythe existence of God more surely and clearly than events, which we understandplainly and distinctly through their immediate natural causes.

(42) Now, as in the whole course of my investigation I found nothing taughtexpressly by Scripture, which does not agree with our understanding, orwhich is repugnant thereto, and as I saw that the prophets taught nothing,which is not very simple and easily to be grasped by all, and further, thatthey clothed their teaching in the style, and confirmed it with the reasons,which would most deeply move the mind of the masses to devotion towards God,I became thoroughly convinced, that the Bible leaves reason absolutely free,that it has nothing in common with philosophy, in fact, that Revelation andPhilosophy stand on different footings. In order to set this forthcategorically and exhaust the whole question, I point out the way in whichthe Bible should be interpreted, and show that all of spiritual questionsshould be sought from it alone, and not from the objects of ordinaryknowledge. (43) Thence I pass on to indicate the false notions, which havefrom the fact that the multitude - ever prone to superstition, and caringmore for the shreds of antiquity for eternal truths - pays homage to theBooks of the Bible, rather than to the Word of God. (44) I show that theWord of God has not been revealed as a certain number of books, wasdisplayed to the prophets as a simple idea of the mind, namely, obedience toGod in singleness of heart, and in the practice of justice and charity; andI further point out, that this doctrine is set forth in Scripture inaccordance with the opinions and understandings of those, among whom theApostles and Prophets preached, to the end that men might receive itwillingly, and with their whole heart.

(45) Having thus laid bare the bases of belief, I draw the conclusion thatRevelation has obedience for its sole object, therefore, in purpose no lessthan in foundation and method, stands entirely aloof from ordinaryknowledge; each has its separate province, neither can be called thehandmaid of the other.

(46) Furthermore, as men's habits of mind differ, so that some more readilyembrace one form of faith, some another, for what moves one to pray may moveanother only to scoff, I conclude, in accordance with what has gone before,that everyone should be free to choose for himself the foundations of hiscreed, and that faith should be judged only by its fruits; each would thenobey God freely with his whole heart, while nothing would be publiclyhonoured save justice and charity.

(47) Having thus drawn attention to the liberty conceded to everyone by therevealed law of God, I pass on to another part of my subject, and prove thatthis same liberty can and should be accorded with safety to the state andthe magisterial authority - in fact, that it cannot be withheld withoutgreat danger to peace and detriment to the community.

(48) In order to establish my point, I start from the natural rights of theindividual, which are co-extensive with his desires and power, and from thefact that no one is bound to live as another pleases, but is the guardian ofhis own liberty. (49) I show that these rights can only be transferred tothose whom we depute to defend us, who acquire with the duties of defencethe power of ordering our lives, and I thence infer that rulers possessrights only limited by their power, that they are the sole guardians ofjustice and liberty, and that their subjects should act in all things asthey dictate: nevertheless, since no one can so utterly abdicate his ownpower of self-defence as to cease to be a man, I conclude that no one can bedeprived of his natural rights absolutely, but that subjects, either bytacit agreement, or by social contract, retain a certain number, whichcannot be taken from them without great danger to the state.

(50) From these considerations I pass on to the Hebrew State, which Idescribe at some length, in order to trace the manner in which Religionacquired the force of law, and to touch on other noteworthy points. (51) Ithen prove, that the holders of sovereign power are the depositories andinterpreters of religious no less than of civil ordinances, and that theyalone have the right to decide what is just or unjust, pious or impious;lastly, I conclude by showing, that they best retain this right and securesafety to their state by allowing every man to think what he likes, and saywhat he thinks.

(52) Such, Philosophical Reader, are the questions I submit to your notice,counting on your approval, for the subject matter of the whole book and ofthe several chapters is important and profitable. (53) I would say more, butI do not want my preface to extend to a volume, especially as I know thatits leading propositions are to Philosophers but common places. (54) To therest of mankind I care not to commend my treatise, for I cannot expect thatit contains anything to please them: I know how deeply rooted are theprejudices embraced under the name of religion; I am aware that in the mindof the masses superstition is no less deeply rooted than fear; I recognizethat their constancy is mere obstinacy, and that they are led to praise orblame by impulse rather than reason. (55) Therefore the multitude, and thoseof like passions with the multitude, I ask not to read my book; nay, I wouldrather that they should utterly neglect it, than that they shouldmisinterpret it after their wont. (56) They would gain no good themselves,and might prove a stumbling-block to others, whose philosophy is hampered bythe belief that Reason is a mere handmaid to Theology, and whom I seek inthis work especially to benefit. (57) But as there will be many who haveneither the leisure, nor, perhaps, the inclination to read through all Ihave written, I feel bound here, as at the end of my treatise, to declarethat I have written nothing, which I do not most willingly submit to theexamination and judgment of my country's rulers, and that I am ready toretract anything, which they shall decide to be repugnant to the laws orprejudicial to the public good. (58) I know that I am a man and, as aman, liable to error, but against error I have taken scrupulous care, andstriven to keep in entire accordance with the laws of my country, withloyalty, and with morality.

CHAPTER I. - Of Prophecy

(1) Prophecy, or revelation is sure knowledge revealed by God to man. (2) Aprophet is one who interprets the revelations of God to those who are unable toattain to sure knowledge of the matters revealed, and therefore can onlyapprehend them by simple faith.

(3) The Hebrew word for prophet is "nabi,"[Endnote 1] i.e. speaker orinterpreter, but in Scripture its meaning is restricted to interpreter of God,as we may learn from Exodus vii:1, where God says to Moses, "See, I have madethee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet;" implyingthat, since in interpreting Moses' words to Pharaoh, Aaron acted the part of aprophet, Moses would be to Pharaoh as a god, or in the attitude of a god.

(4) Prophets I will treat of in the next chapter, and at present considerprophecy.

(5) Now it is evident, from the definition above given, that prophecy reallyincludes ordinary knowledge; for the knowledge which we acquire by ournatural faculties depends on knowledge of God and His eternal laws; butordinary knowledge is common to all men as men, and rests on foundationswhich all share, whereas the multitude always strains after raritiesand exceptions, and thinks little of the gifts of nature; so that, whenprophecy is talked of, ordinary knowledge is not supposed to be included.(6) Nevertheless it has as much right as any other to be called Divine, forGod's nature, in so far as we share therein, and God's laws, dictate it tous; nor does it suffer from that to which we give the preeminence, except inso far as the latter transcends its limits and cannot be accounted for bynatural laws taken in themselves. (7) In respect to the certainty itinvolves, and the source from which it is derived, i.e. God, ordinaryknowledge is no whit inferior to prophetic, unless indeed we believe, orrather dream, that the prophets had human bodies but superhuman minds, andtherefore that their sensations and consciousness were entirely differentfrom our own.

(8) But, although ordinary knowledge is Divine, its professors cannot becalled prophets [Endnote 2], for they teach what the rest of mankind couldperceive and apprehend, not merely by simple faith, but as surely andhonourably as themselves.

(9) Seeing then that our mind subjectively contains in itself and partakesof the nature of God, and solely from this cause is enabled to form notionsexplaining natural phenomena and inculcating morality, it follows that wemay rightly assert the nature of the human mind (in so far as it is thusconceived) to be a primary cause of Divine revelation. (10) All that weclearly and distinctly understand is dictated to us, as I have just pointedout, by the idea and nature of God; not indeed through words, but in a wayfar more excellent and agreeing perfectly with the nature of the mind, asall who have enjoyed intellectual certainty will doubtless attest. (11)Here, however, my chief purpose is to speak of matters having reference toScripture, so these few words on the light of reason will suffice.

(12) I will now pass on to, and treat more fully, the other ways and meansby which God makes revelations to mankind, both of that which transcendsordinary knowledge, and of that within its scope; for there is no reason whyGod should not employ other means to communicate what we know already by thepower of reason.

(13) Our conclusions on the subject must be drawn solely from Scripture; forwhat can we affirm about matters transcending our knowledge except what istold us by the words or writings of prophets? (14) And since there are, sofar as I know, no prophets now alive, we have no alternative but to read thebooks of prophets departed, taking care the while not to reason frommetaphor or to ascribe anything to our authors which they do not themselvesdistinctly state. (15) I must further premise that the Jews never make anymention or account of secondary, or particular causes, but in a spirit ofreligion, piety, and what is commonly called godliness, refer all thingsdirectly to the Deity. (16) For instance if they make money by atransaction, they say God gave it to them; if they desire anything, they sayGod has disposed their hearts towards it; if they think anything, they sayGod told them. (17) Hence we must not suppose that everything is prophecy orrevelation which is described in Scripture as told by God to anyone, butonly such things as are expressly announced as prophecy or revelation, orare plainly pointed to as such by the context.

(18) A perusal of the sacred books will show us that all God's revelationsto the prophets were made through words or appearances, or a combination ofthe two. (19) These words and appearances were of two kinds; 1.- real whenexternal to the mind of the prophet who heard or saw them, 2.- imaginarywhen the imagination of the prophet was in a state which led him distinctlyto suppose that he heard or saw them.

(20) With a real voice God revealed to Moses the laws which He wished to betransmitted to the Hebrews, as we may see from Exodus xxv:22, where Godsays, "And there I will meet with thee and I will commune with thee from themercy seat which is between the Cherubim." (21) Some sort of real voice mustnecessarily have been employed, for Moses found God ready to commune withhim at any time. This, as I shall shortly show, is the only instance of areal voice.

(22) We might, perhaps, suppose that the voice with which God called Samuelwas real, for in 1 Sam. iii:21, we read, "And the Lord appeared again inShiloh, for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of theLord;" implying that the appearance of the Lord consisted in His makingHimself known to Samuel through a voice; in other words, that Samuel heardthe Lord speaking. (23) But we are compelled to distinguish between theprophecies of Moses and those of other prophets, and therefore must decidethat this voice was imaginary, a conclusion further supported by the voice'sresemblance to the voice of Eli, which Samuel was in the habit of hearing,and therefore might easily imagine; when thrice called by the Lord, Samuelsupposed it to have been Eli.

(24) The voice which Abimelech heard was imaginary, for it is written,Gen. xx:6, "And God said unto him in a dream." (25) So that the will of Godwas manifest to him, not in waking, but only in sleep, that is, when theimagination is most active and uncontrolled. (26) Some of the Jews believethat the actual words of the Decalogue were not spoken by God, but that theIsraelites heard a noise only, without any distinct words, and during itscontinuance apprehended the Ten Commandments by pure intuition; to thisopinion I myself once inclined, seeing that the words of the Decalogue inExodus are different from the words of the Decalogue in Deuteronomy, for thediscrepancy seemed to imply (since God only spoke once) that the TenCommandments were not intended to convey the actual words of the Lord, butonly His meaning. (27) However, unless we would do violence to Scripture, wemust certainly admit that the Israelites heard a real voice, for Scriptureexpressly says, Deut. v:4, "God spake with you face to face," i.e. as twomen ordinarily interchange ideas through the instrumentality of their twobodies; and therefore it seems more consonant with Holy Writ to suppose thatGod really did create a voice of some kind with which the Decalogue wasrevealed. (28) The discrepancy of the two versions is treated of inChap. VIII.

(29) Yet not even thus is all difficulty removed, for it seems scarcelyreasonable to affirm that a created thing, depending on God in the samemanner as other created things, would be able to express or explain thenature of God either verbally or really by means of its individualorganism: for instance, by declaring in the first person, "I am the Lordyour God."

(30) Certainly when anyone says with his mouth, "I understand," we do notattribute the understanding to the mouth, but to the mind of the speaker;yet this is because the mouth is the natural organ of a man speaking, andthe hearer, knowing what understanding is, easily comprehends, by acomparison with himself, that the speaker's mind is meant; but if we knewnothing of God beyond the mere name and wished to commune with Him, and beassured of His existence, I fail to see how our wish would be satisfied bythe declaration of a created thing (depending on God neither more nor lessthan ourselves), "I am the Lord." (31) If God contorted the lips of Moses,or, I will not say Moses, but some beast, till they pronounced the words,"I am the Lord," should we apprehend the Lord's existence therefrom?

(32) Scripture seems clearly to point to the belief that God spoke Himself,having descended from heaven to Mount Sinai for the purpose - and not onlythat the Israelites heard Him speaking, but that their chief men beheld Him(Ex:xxiv.) (33) Further the law of Moses, which might neither be added tonor curtailed, and which was set up as a national standard of right, nowhereprescribed the belief that God is without body, or even without form orfigure, but only ordained that the Jews should believe in His existence andworship Him alone: it forbade them to invent or fashion any likeness of theDeity, but this was to insure purity of service; because, never having seenGod, they could not by means of images recall the likeness of God, but onlythe likeness of some created thing which might thus gradually take the placeof God as the object of their adoration. (34) Nevertheless, the Bibleclearly implies that God has a form, and that Moses when he heard Godspeaking was permitted to behold it, or at least its hinder parts.

(35) Doubtless some mystery lurks in this question which we will discussmore fully below. (36) For the present I will call attention to the passagesin Scripture indicating the means by which God has revealed His laws to man.

(37) Revelation may be through figures only, as in I Chron:xxii., where Goddisplays his anger to David by means of an angel bearing a sword, and alsoin the story of Balaam.

(38) Maimonides and others do indeed maintain that these and every otherinstance of angelic apparitions (e.g. to Manoah and to Abraham offering upIsaac) occurred during sleep, for that no one with his eyes open ever couldsee an angel, but this is mere nonsense. (39) The sole object of suchcommentators seems to be to extort from Scripture confirmations ofAristotelian quibbles and their own inventions, a proceeding which I regardas the acme of absurdity.

(40) In figures, not real but existing only in the prophet's imagination,God revealed to Joseph his future lordship, and in words and figures Herevealed to Joshua that He would fight for the Hebrews, causing to appear anangel, as it were the Captain of the Lord's host, bearing a sword, and bythis means communicating verbally. (41) The forsaking of Israel byProvidence was portrayed to Isaiah by a vision of the Lord, the thrice Holy,sitting on a very lofty throne, and the Hebrews, stained with the mire oftheir sins, sunk as it were in uncleanness, and thus as far as possibledistant from God. (42) The wretchedness of the people at the time was thusrevealed, while future calamities were foretold in words. I could cite fromHoly Writ many similar examples, but I think they are sufficiently wellknown already.

(43) However, we get a still more clear confirmation of our position in Numxii:6,7, as follows: "If there be any prophet among you, I the Lord willmake myself known unto him in a vision" (i.e. by appearances and signs, forGod says of the prophecy of Moses that it was a vision without signs), "andwill speak unto him in a dream" (i.e. not with actual words and an actualvoice). (44) "My servant Moses is not so; with him will I speak mouth tomouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches, and the similitude of theLord he shall behold," i.e. looking on me as a friend and not afraid, hespeaks with me (cf. Ex xxxiii:17).

(45) This makes it indisputable that the other prophets did not hear a realvoice, and we gather as much from Deut. xxxiv:10: "And there arose not aprophet since in Israel like unto Moses whom the Lord knew face to face,"which must mean that the Lord spoke with none other; for not even Moses sawthe Lord's face. (46) These are the only media of communication betweenGod and man which I find mentioned in Scripture, and therefore the only oneswhich may be supposed or invented. (47) We may be able quite to comprehendthat God can communicate immediately with man, for without the interventionof bodily means He communicates to our minds His essence; still, a man whocan by pure intuition comprehend ideas which are neither contained in nordeducible from the foundations of our natural knowledge, must necessarilypossess a mind far superior to those of his fellow men, nor do I believethat any have been so endowed save Christ. (48) To Him the ordinances of Godleading men to salvation were revealed directly without words or visions, sothat God manifested Himself to the Apostles through the mind of Christ as Heformerly did to Moses through the supernatural voice. (49) In this sense thevoice of Christ, like the voice which Moses heard, may be called the voiceof God, and it may be said that the wisdom of God (i.e. wisdom more thanhuman) took upon itself in Christ human nature, and that Christ was the wayof salvation. (50) I must at this juncture declare that those doctrineswhich certain churches put forward concerning Christ, I neither affirm nordeny, for I freely confess that I do not understand them. (51) What I havejust stated I gather from Scripture, where I never read that God appeared toChrist, or spoke to Christ, but that God was revealed to the Apostlesthrough Christ; that Christ was the Way of Life, and that the old law wasgiven through an angel, and not immediately by God; whence it follows thatif Moses spoke with God face to face as a man speaks with his friend (i.e.by means of their two bodies) Christ communed with God mind to mind.

(52) Thus we may conclude that no one except Christ received the revelationsof God without the aid of imagination, whether in words or vision. (53)Therefore the power of prophecy implies not a peculiarly perfect mind, but apeculiarly vivid imagination, as I will show more clearly in the nextchapter. (54) We will now inquire what is meant in the Bible by theSpirit of God breathed into the prophets, or by the prophets speaking withthe Spirit of God; to that end we must determine the exact signification ofthe Hebrew word ruagh, commonly translated spirit.

(55) The word ruaghliterally means a wind, e.g.the southwind, but it is frequently employed in other derivative significations.It is used as equivalent to,

(56) (1.) Breath: "Neither is there any spirit in his mouth," Ps. cxxxv:17.

(57) (2.) Life, or breathing: "And his spirit returned to him" 1 Sam. xxx:12; i.e. he breathed again.

(58) (3.) Courage and strength: "Neither did there remain any more spirit in any man," Josh. ii:11; "And the spirit entered into me, and made me stand on my feet," Ezek. ii:2.

(59) (4.) Virtue and fitness: "Days should speak, and multitudes of years should teach wisdom; but there is a spirit in man," Job xxxii:7; i.e. wisdom is not always found among old men for I now discover that it depends on individual virtue and capacity. So, "A man in whom is the Spirit," Numbers xxvii:18.

(60) (5.) Habit of mind: "Because he had another spirit with him," Numbers xiv:24; i.e. another habit of mind. "Behold I will pour out My Spirit unto you," Prov. i:23.

(61) (6.) Will, purpose, desire, impulse: "Whither the spirit was to go, they went," Ezek. 1:12; "That cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit," Is. xxx:1; "For the Lord hath poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep," Is. xxix:10; "Then was their spirit softened," Judges viii:3; "He that ruleth his spirit, is better than he that taketh a city," Prov. xvi:32; "He that hath no ru over his own spirit," Prov. xxv:28; "Your spirit as fire shall devour you," Isaiah xxxiii:1.

From the meaning of disposition we get -

(62) (7.) Passions and faculties. A lofty spirit means pride, a lowly spirit humility, an evil spirit hatred and melancholy. So, too, the expressions spirits of jealousy, fornication, wisdom, counsel, bravery, stand for a jealous, lascivious, wise, prudent, or brave mind (for we Hebrews use substantives in preference to adjectives), or these various qualities.

(63) (8.) The mind itself, or the life: "Yea, they have all one spirit," Eccles. iii:19 "The spirit shall return to God Who gave it."

(64) (9.) The quarters of the world (from the winds which blow thence), or even the side of anything turned towards a particular quarter - Ezek. xxxvii:9; xlii:16, 17, 18, 19, &c.

(65) I have already alluded to the way in which things are referred to God,and said to be of God.

(66) (1.) As belonging to His nature, and being, as it were, part of Him; e.g. the power of God, the eyes of God.

(67) (2.) As under His dominion, and depending on His pleasure; thus the heavens are called the heavens of the Lord, as being His chariot and habitation. So Nebuchadnezzar is called the servant of God, Assyria the scourge of God, &c.

(68) (3.) As dedicated to Him, e.g. the Temple of God, a Nazarene of God, the Bread of God.

(69) (4.) As revealed through the prophets and not through our natural faculties. In this sense the Mosaic law is called the law of God.

(70) (5.) As being in the superlative degree. Very high mountains are styled the mountains of God, a very deep sleep, the sleep of God, &c. In this sense we must explain Amos iv:11: "I have overthrown you as the overthrow of the Lord came upon Sodom and Gomorrah," i.e. that memorable overthrow, for since God Himself is the Speaker, the passage cannot well be taken otherwise. The wisdom of Solomon is called the wisdom of God, or extraordinary. The size of the cedars of Lebanon is alluded to in the Psalmist's expression, "the cedars of the Lord."

(71) Similarly, if the Jews were at a loss to understand any phenomenon, orwere ignorant of its cause, they referred it to God. (72) Thus a storm wastermed the chiding of God, thunder and lightning the arrows of God, for itwas thought that God kept the winds confined in caves, His treasuries; thusdiffering merely in name from the Greek wind-god Eolus. (73) In like mannermiracles were called works of God, as being especially marvellous; though inreality, of course, all natural events are the works of God, and take placesolely by His power. (74) The Psalmist calls the miracles in Egypt the worksof God, because the Hebrews found in them a way of safety which they had notlooked for, and therefore especially marvelled at.

(75) As, then, unusual natural phenomena are called works of God, and treesof unusual size are called trees of God, we cannot wonder that very strongand tall men, though impious robbers and whoremongers, are in Genesis calledsons of God.

(76) This reference of things wonderful to God was not peculiar to the Jews.

(77) Pharaoh, on hearing the interpretation of his dream, exclaimed that themind of the gods was in Joseph. (78) Nebuchadnezzar told Daniel that hepossessed the mind of the holy gods; so also in Latin anything well made isoften said to be wrought with Divine hands, which is equivalent to theHebrew phrase, wrought with the hand of God.

(80) We can now very easily understand and explain those passages ofScripture which speak of the Spirit of God. (81) In some places theexpression merely means a very strong, dry, and deadly wind, as inIsaiah xl:7, "The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the Spirit ofthe Lord bloweth upon it." (82) Similarly in Gen. i:2: "The Spirit of theLord moved over the face of the waters." (83) At other times it is used asequivalent to a high courage, thus the spirit of Gideon and of Samson iscalled the Spirit of the Lord, as being very bold, and prepared for anyemergency. (84) Any unusual virtue or power is called the Spirit or Virtueof the Lord, Ex. xxxi:3: "I will fill him (Bezaleel) with the Spirit of theLord," i.e., as the Bible itself explains, with talent above man's usualendowment. (85) So Isa. xi:2: "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest uponhim," is explained afterwards in the text to mean the spirit of wisdom andunderstanding, of counsel and might.

(86) The melancholy of Saul is called the melancholy of the Lord, or a verydeep melancholy, the persons who applied the term showing that theyunderstood by it nothing supernatural, in that they sent for a musician toassuage it by harp-playing. (87) Again, the "Spirit of the Lord" is usedas equivalent to the mind of man, for instance, Job xxvii:3: "And the Spiritof the Lord in my nostrils," the allusion being to Gen. ii:7: "And Godbreathed into man's nostrils the breath of life." (88) Ezekiel also,prophesying to the dead, says (xxvii:14), "And I will give to you My Spirit,and ye shall live;" i.e. I will restore you to life. (89) In Job xxxiv:14,we read: "If He gather unto Himself His Spirit and breath;" in Gen. vi:3:"My Spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh,"i.e. since man acts on the dictates of his body, and not the spirit which Igave him to discern the good, I will let him alone. (90) So, too, Ps. li:12:"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me; castme not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me." (91)It was supposed that sin originated only from the body, and that goodimpulses come from the mind; therefore the Psalmist invokes the aid of Godagainst the bodily appetites, but prays that the spirit which the Lord, theHoly One, had given him might be renewed. (92) Again, inasmuch as the Bible,in concession to popular ignorance, describes God as having a mind, a heart,emotions - nay, even a body and breath - the expression Spirit of the Lordis used for God's mind, disposition, emotion, strength, or breath.(93) Thus, Isa. xl:13: "Who hath disposed the Spirit of the Lord?" i.e. who,save Himself, hath caused the mind of the Lord to will anything,? andIsa. lxiii:10: "But they rebelled, and vexed the Holy Spirit."

(94) The phrase comes to be used of the law of Moses, which in a senseexpounds God's will, Is. lxiii. 11, "Where is He that put His Holy Spiritwithin him?" meaning, as we clearly gather from the context, the law ofMoses. (95) Nehemiah, speaking of the giving of the law, says, i:20,"Thou gavest also thy good Spirit to instruct them." (96) This is referredto in Deut. iv:6, "This is your wisdom and understanding," and inPs. cxliii:10, "Thy good Spirit will lead me into the land of uprightness."(97) The Spirit of the Lord may mean the breath of the Lord, for breath, noless than a mind, a heart, and a body are attributed to God in Scripture, asin Ps. xxxiii:6. (98) Hence it gets to mean the power, strength, or facultyof God, as in Job xxxiii:4, "The Spirit of the Lord made me," i.e. thepower, or, if you prefer, the decree of the Lord. (99) So the Psalmist inpoetic language declares, xxxiii:6, "By the word of the Lord were theheavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth," i.e. bya mandate issued, as it were, in one breath. (100) Also Ps. cxxxix:7,"Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from Thypresence?" i.e. whither shall I go so as to be beyond Thy power and Thypresence?

(101) Lastly, the Spirit of the Lord is used in Scripture to express theemotions of God, e.g. His kindness and mercy, Micah ii:7, "Is the Spirit[i.e. the mercy] of the Lord straitened? (102) Are these cruelties Hisdoings?" (103) Zech. iv:6, "Not by might or by power, but My Spirit [i.e.mercy], saith the Lord of hosts." (104) The twelfth verse of the seventhchapter of the same prophet must, I think, be interpreted in like manner:"Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear thelaw, and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in His Spirit [i.e. inHis mercy] by the former prophets." (105) So also Haggai ii:5: "So My Spiritremaineth among you: fear not."

(106) The passage in Isaiah xlviii:16, "And now the Lord and His Spirit hathsent me," may be taken to refer to God's mercy or His revealed law; for theprophet says, "From the beginning" (i.e. from the time when I first came toyou, to preach God's anger and His sentence forth against you) "I spoke notin secret; from the time that it was, there am I," and now I am sent bythe mercy of God as a joyful messenger to preach your restoration. (107) Orwe may understand him to mean by the revealed law that he had before come towarn them by the command of the law (Levit. xix:17) in the same manner underthe same conditions as Moses had warned them, that now, like Moses, he endsby preaching their restoration. (108) But the first explanation seems to methe best.

(109) Returning, then, to the main object of our discussion, we find thatthe Scriptural phrases, "The Spirit of the Lord was upon a prophet," "TheLord breathed His Spirit into men," "Men were filled with the Spirit of God,with the Holy Spirit," &c., are quite clear to us, and mean that prophetswere endowed with a peculiar and extraordinary power, and devoted themselvesto piety with especial constancy(3); that thus they perceived the mind orthe thought of God, for we have shown that God's Spirit signifies in HebrewGod's mind or thought, and that the law which shows His mind and thought iscalled His Spirit; hence that the imagination of the prophets, inasmuch asthrough it were revealed the decrees of God, may equally be called the mindof God, and the prophets be said to have possessed the mind of God. (110) Onour minds also the mind of God and His eternal thoughts are impressed; butthis being the same for all men is less taken into account, especially bythe Hebrews, who claimed a pre-eminence, and despised other men and othermen's knowledge.

(111) Lastly, the prophets were said to possess the Spirit of God becausemen knew not the cause of prophetic knowledge, and in their wonder referredit with other marvels directly to the Deity, styling it Divine knowledge.

(112) We need no longer scruple to affirm that the prophets onlyperceived God's revelation by the aid of imagination, that is, by words andfigures either real or imaginary. (113) We find no other means mentioned inScripture, and therefore must not invent any. (114) As to the particular lawof Nature by which the communications took place, I confess my ignorance.(115) I might, indeed, say as others do, that they took place by the powerof God; but this would be mere trifling, and no better than explaining someunique specimen by a transcendental term. (116) Everything takes place bythe power of God. (117) Nature herself is the power of God under anothername, and our ignorance of the power of God is co-extensive with ourignorance of Nature. (118) It is absolute folly, therefore, to ascribe anevent to the power of God when we know not its natural cause, which is thepower of God.

(119) However, we are not now inquiring into the causes of propheticknowledge. (120) We are only attempting, as I have said, to examine theScriptural documents, and to draw our conclusions from them as from ultimatenatural facts; the causes of the documents do not concern us.

(121) As the prophets perceived the revelations of God by the aid ofimagination, they could indisputably perceive much that is beyond theboundary of the intellect, for many more ideas can be constructed from wordsand figures than from the principles and notions on which the whole fabricof reasoned knowledge is reared.

(122) Thus we have a clue to the fact that the prophets perceived nearlyeverything in parables and allegories, and clothed spiritual truths inbodily forms, for such is the usual method of imagination. (122) We need nolonger wonder that Scripture and the prophets speak so strangely andobscurely of God's Spirit or Mind (cf. Numbers xi:17, 1 Kings xxii:21, &c.),that the Lord was seen by Micah as sitting, by Daniel as an old man clothedin white, by Ezekiel as a fire, that the Holy Spirit appeared to those withChrist as a descending dove, to the apostles as fiery tongues, to Paul onhis conversion as a great light. (124) All these expressions are plainly inharmony with the current ideas of God and spirits.

(125) Inasmuch as imagination is fleeting and inconstant, we find that thepower of prophecy did not remain with a prophet for long, nor manifestitself frequently, but was very rare; manifesting itself only in a few men,and in them not often.

(126) We must necessarily inquire how the prophets became assured of thetruth of what they perceived by imagination, and not by sure mental laws;but our investigation must be confined to Scripture, for the subject is oneon which we cannot acquire certain knowledge, and which we cannot explain bythe immediate causes. (127) Scripture teaching about the assurance ofprophets I will treat of in the next chapter.

CHAPTER II. - OF PROPHETS.

(1) It follows from the last chapter that, as I have said, the prophets wereendowed with unusually vivid imaginations, and not with unusually perfectminds. (2) This conclusion is amply sustained by Scripture, for we are toldthat Solomon was the wisest of men, but had no special faculty of prophecy.(3) Heman, Calcol, and Dara, though men of great talent, were not prophets,whereas uneducated countrymen, nay, even women, such as Hagar, Abraham'shandmaid, were thus gifted. (4) Nor is this contrary to ordinary experienceand reason. (5) Men of great imaginative power are less fitted for abstractreasoning, whereas those who excel in intellect and its use keep theirimagination more restrained and controlled, holding it in subjection, so tospeak, lest it should usurp the place of reason.

(6) Thus to suppose that knowledge of natural and spiritual phenomena can begained from the prophetic books, is an utter mistake, which I shallendeavour to expose, as I think philosophy, the age, and the question itselfdemand. (7) I care not for the girdings of superstition, for superstition isthe bitter enemy, of all true knowledge and true morality. (8) Yes; it hascome to this! (9) Men who openly confess that they can form no idea of God,and only know Him through created things, of which they know not the causes,can unblushingly accuse philosophers of Atheism.

(10) Treating the question methodically, I will show that propheciesvaried, not only according to the imagination and physical temperamentof the prophet, but also according to his particular opinions; andfurther that prophecy never rendered the prophet wiser than he wasbefore. (11) But I will first discuss the assurance of truth which theprophets received, for this is akin to the subject-matter of thechapter, and will serve to elucidate somewhat our present point.

(12) Imagination does not, in its own nature, involve any certainty oftruth, such as is implied in every clear and distinct idea, but requiressome extrinsic reason to assure us of its objective reality: hence prophecycannot afford certainty, and the prophets were assured of God's revelationby some sign, and not by the fact of revelation, as we may see from Abraham,who, when he had heard the promise of God, demanded a sign, not because hedid not believe in God, but because he wished to be sure that it was God Whomade the promise. (13) The fact is still more evident in the case of Gideon:"Show me," he says to God, "show me a sign, that I may know that it is Thouthat talkest with me." (14) God also says to Moses: "And let this be asign that I have sent thee." (15) Hezekiah, though he had long known Isaiahto be a prophet, none the less demanded a sign of the cure which hepredicted. (15) It is thus quite evident that the prophets always receivedsome sign to certify them of their prophetic imaginings; and for this reasonMoses bids the Jews (Deut. xviii.) ask of the prophets a sign, namely, theprediction of some coming event. (16) In this respect, prophetic knowledgeis inferior to natural knowledge, which needs no sign, and in itself impliescertitude. (17) Moreover, Scripture warrants the statement that thecertitude of the prophets was not mathematical, but moral. (18) Moses laysdown the punishment of death for the prophet who preaches new gods, eventhough he confirm his doctrine by signs and wonders (Deut. xiii.); "For," hesays, "the Lord also worketh signs and wonders to try His people." (19) AndJesus Christ warns His disciples of the same thing (Matt. xxiv:24). (20)Furthermore, Ezekiel (xiv:9) plainly states that God sometimes deceivesmen with false revelations; and Micaiah bears like witness in the case ofthe prophets of Ahab.

(21) Although these instances go to prove that revelation is open to doubt,it nevertheless contains, as we have said, a considerable element ofcertainty, for God never deceives the good, nor His chosen, but (accordingto the ancient proverb, and as appears in the history of Abigail and herspeech), God uses the good as instruments of goodness, and the wicked asmeans to execute His wrath. (22) This may be seen from the case of Micaiahabove quoted; for although God had determined to deceive Ahab, throughprophets, He made use of lying prophets; to the good prophet He revealed thetruth, and did not forbid his proclaiming it.

(23) Still the certitude of prophecy, remains, as I have said, merely,moral; for no one can justify himself before God, nor boast that he is aninstrument for God's goodness. (24) Scripture itself teaches and shows thatGod led away David to number the people, though it bears amplewitness to David's piety.

(25) The whole question of the certitude of prophecy, was based on thesethree considerations:

1. That the things revealed were imagined very vividly, affecting the prophets in the same way as things seen when awake;

2. The presence of a sign;

3. Lastly, and chiefly, that the mind of the prophet was given wholly, to what was right and good.

(26) Although Scripture does not always make mention of a sign, we mustnevertheless suppose that a sign was always vouchsafed; for Scripture doesnot always relate every condition and circumstance (as many haveremarked), but rather takes them for granted. (27) We may, however, admitthat no sign was needed when the prophecy declared nothing that was notalready contained in the law of Moses, because it was confirmed by that law.(28) For instance, Jeremiah's prophecy, of the destruction of Jerusalem wasconfirmed by the prophecies of other prophets, and by the threats in thelaw, and, therefore, it needed no sign; whereas Hananiah, who, contrary toall the prophets, foretold the speedy restoration of the state, stood inneed of a sign, or he would have been in doubt as to the truth of hisprophecy, until it was confirmed by facts. (29) "The prophet whichprophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come topass, then shall the prophet be known that the Lord hath truly sent him."

(30) As, then, the certitude afforded to the prophet by signs was notmathematical (i.e. did not necessarily follow from the perception of thething perceived or seen), but only moral, and as the signs were only givento convince the prophet, it follows that such signs were given according tothe opinions and capacity of each prophet, so that a sign whichconvince one prophet would fall far short of convincing another who wasimbued with different opinions. (31) Therefore the signs varied according tothe individual prophet.

(32) So also did the revelation vary, as we have stated, according toindividual disposition and temperament, and according to the opinionspreviously held.

(33) It varied according to disposition, in this way: if a prophet wascheerful, victories, peace, and events which make men glad, were revealed tohim; in that he was naturally more likely to imagine such things. (34) If,on the contrary, he was melancholy, wars, massacres, and calamities wererevealed; and so, according as a prophet was merciful, gentle, quick toanger, or severe, he was more fitted for one kind of revelation thananother. (35) It varied according to the temper of imagination in this way:if a prophet was cultivated he perceived the mind of God in a cultivatedway, if he was confused he perceived it confusedly. (36) And so withrevelations perceived through visions. (37) If a prophet was a countryman hesaw visions of oxen, cows, and the like; if he was a soldier, he sawgenerals and armies; if a courtier, a royal throne, and so on.

(38) Lastly, prophecy varied according to the opinions held by the prophets;for instance, to the Magi, who believed in the follies of astrology, thebirth of Christ was revealed through the vision of a star in the East. (39)To the augurs of Nebuchadnezzar the destruction of Jerusalem was revealedthrough entrails, whereas the king himself inferred it from oracles and thedirection of arrows which he shot into the air. (40) To prophets whobelieved that man acts from free choice and by his own power, God wasrevealed as standing apart from and ignorant of future human actions. (41)All of which we will illustrate from Scripture.

(42) The first point is proved from the case of Elisha, who, in order toprophecy to Jehoram, asked for a harp, and was unable to perceive the Divinepurpose till he had been recreated by its music; then, indeed, he prophesiedto Jehoram and to his allies glad tidings, which previously he had beenunable to attain to because he was angry with the king, and these who areangry with anyone can imagine evil of him, but not good. (43) The theorythat God does not reveal Himself to the angry or the sad, is a mere dream:for God revealed to Moses while angry, the terrible slaughter of thefirstborn, and did so without the intervention of a harp. (44) To Cain inhis rage, God was revealed, and to Ezekiel, impatient with anger, wasrevealed the contumacy and wretchedness of the Jews. (45) Jeremiah,miserable and weary of life, prophesied the disasters of the Hebrews, sothat Josiah would not consult him, but inquired of a woman, inasmuch as itwas more in accordance with womanly nature that God should reveal His mercythereto. (46) So, Micaiah never prophesied good to Ahab, though other trueprophets had done so, but invariably evil. (46) Thus we see that individualprophets were by temperament more fitted for one sort of revelation thananother.

(47) The style of the prophecy also varied according to the eloquence of theindividual prophet. (48) The prophecies of Ezekiel and Amos are not writtenin a cultivated style like those of Isaiah and Nahum, but more rudely. (49)Any Hebrew scholar who wishes to inquire into this point more closely, andcompares chapters of the different prophets treating of the same subject,will find great dissimilarity of style. (50) Compare, for instance, chap. i.of the courtly Isaiah, verse 11 to verse 20, with chap. v. of the countrymanAmos, verses 21-24. (51) Compare also the order and reasoning of theprophecies of Jeremiah, written in Idumaea (chap. xlix.), with the order andreasoning of Obadiah. (52) Compare, lastly, Isa. xl:19, 20, and xliv:8, withHosea viii:6, and xiii:2. And so on.

(53) A due consideration of these passage will clearly show us that God hasno particular style in speaking, but, according to the learning and capacityof the prophet, is cultivated, compressed, severe, untutored, prolix, orobscure.

(54) There was, moreover, a certain variation in the visions vouchsafed tothe prophets, and in the symbols by which they expressed them, for Isaiahsaw the glory of the Lord departing from the Temple in a different form fromthat presented to Ezekiel. (55) The Rabbis, indeed, maintain that bothvisions were really the same, but that Ezekiel, being a countryman, wasabove measure impressed by it, and therefore set it forth in full detail;but unless there is a trustworthy tradition on the subject, which I do notfor a moment believe, this theory is plainly an invention. Isaiah sawseraphim with six wings, Ezekiel beasts with four wings; Isaiah saw Godclothed and sitting on a royal throne, Ezekiel saw Him in the likeness of afire; each doubtless saw God under the form in which he usually imaginedHim.

(56) Further, the visions varied in clearness as well as in details; for therevelations of Zechariah were too obscure to be understood by the prophetwithout explanation, as appears from his narration of them; the visions ofDaniel could not be understood by him even after they had been explained,and this obscurity did not arise from the difficulty of the matter revealed(for being merely human affairs, these only transcended human capacity inbeing future), but solely in the fact that Daniel's imagination was not socapable for prophecy while he was awake as while he was asleep; and this isfurther evident from the fact that at the very beginning of the vision hewas so terrified that he almost despaired of his strength. (57) Thus, onaccount of the inadequacy of his imagination and his strength, the thingsrevealed were so obscure to him that he could not understand them even afterthey had been explained. (58) Here we may note that the words heard byDaniel, were, as we have shown above, simply imaginary, so that it is hardlywonderful that in his frightened state he imagined them so confusedly andobscurely that afterwards he could make nothing of them. (59) Those who saythat God did not wish to make a clear revelation, do not seem to have readthe words of the angel, who expressly says that he came to make the prophetunderstand what should befall his people in the latter days (Dan. x:14).

(60) The revelation remained obscure because no one was found, at that time,with imagination sufficiently strong to conceive it more clearly. (61)Lastly, the prophets, to whom it was revealed that God would take awayElijah, wished to persuade Elisha that he had been taken somewhere wherethey would find him; showing sufficiently clearly that they had notunderstood God's revelation aright.

(62) There is no need to set this out more amply, for nothing is more plainin the Bible than that God endowed some prophets with far greater gifts ofprophecy than others. (63) But I will show in greater detail and length, forI consider the point more important, that the prophecies varied according tothe opinions previously embraced by the prophets, and that the prophets helddiverse and even contrary opinions and prejudices. (64) (I speak, be itunderstood, solely of matters speculative, for in regard to uprightness andmorality the case is widely different.) (65) From thence I shall concludethat prophecy never rendered the prophets more learned, but left them withtheir former opinions, and that we are, therefore, not at all bound totrust them in matters of intellect.

(66) Everyone has been strangely hasty in affirming that the prophets kneweverything within the scope of human intellect; and, although certainpassages of Scripture plainly affirm that the prophets were in certainrespects ignorant, such persons would rather say that they do notunderstand the passages than admit that there was anything which theprophets did not know; or else they try to wrest the Scriptural words awayfrom their evident meaning.

(67) If either of these proceedings is allowable we may as well shut ourBibles, for vainly shall we attempt to prove anything from them if theirplainest passages may be classed among obscure and impenetrable mysteries,or if we may put any interpretation on them which we fancy. (68) Forinstance, nothing is more clear in the Bible than that Joshua, and perhapsalso the author who wrote his history, thought that the sun revolves roundthe earth, and that the earth is fixed, and further that the sun for acertain period remained still. (69) Many, who will not admit any movement inthe heavenly bodies, explain away the passage till it seems to meansomething quite different; others, who have learned to philosophize morecorrectly, and understand that the earth moves while the sun is still, or atany rate does not revolve round the earth, try with all their might to wrestthis meaning from Scripture, though plainly nothing of the sort isintended. (70) Such quibblers excite my wonder! (71) Are we, forsooth, boundto believe that Joshua the Soldier was a learned astronomer? or that amiracle could not be revealed to him, or that the light of the sun could notremain longer than usual above the horizon, without his knowing the cause?(72) To me both alternatives appear ridiculous, and therefore I wouldrather say, that Joshua was ignorant of the true cause of the lengthenedday, and that he and the whole host with him thought that the sun movedround the earth every day, and that on that particular occasion it stoodstill for a time, thus causing the light to remain longer; and I wouldsay, that they did not conjecture that, from the amount of snow in the air(see Josh. x:11), the refraction may have been greater than usual, or thatthere may have been some other cause which we will not now inquire into.

(73) So also the sign of the shadow going back was revealed to Isaiahaccording to his understanding; that is, as proceeding from a goingbackwards of the sun; for he, too, thought that the sun moves and that theearth is still; of parhelia he perhaps never even dreamed. (74) We mayarrive at this conclusion without any scruple, for the sign could reallyhave come to pass, and have been predicted by Isaiah to the king, withoutthe prophet being aware of the real cause.

(75) With regard to the building of the Temple by Solomon, if it was reallydictated by God we must maintain the same doctrine: namely, that all themeasurements were revealed according to the opinions and understanding ofthe king; for as we are not bound to believe that Solomon was amathematician, we may affirm that he was ignorant of the true ratio betweenthe circumference and the diameter of a circle, and that, like thegenerality of workmen, he thought that it was as three to one. (76) But ifit is allowable to declare that we do not understand the passage, in goodsooth I know nothing in the Bible that we can understand; for the process ofbuilding is there narrated simply and as a mere matter of history. (77) If,again, it is permitted to pretend that the passage has another meaning, andwas written as it is from some reason unknown to us, this is no less than acomplete subversal of the Bible; for every absurd and evil invention ofhuman perversity could thus, without detriment to Scriptural authority, bedefended and fostered. (78) Our conclusion is in no wise impious, for thoughSolomon, Isaiah, Joshua, &c. were prophets, they were none the less men, andas such not exempt from human shortcomings.

(79) According to the understanding of Noah it was revealed to him that Godas about to destroy the whole human race, for Noah thought that beyond thelimits of Palestine the world was not inhabited.

(80) Not only in matters of this kind, but in others more important, theprophets could be, and in fact were, ignorant; for they taught nothing specialabout the Divine attributes, but held quite ordinary notions about God, and tothese notions their revelations were adapted, as I will demonstrate by ampleScriptural testimony; from all which one may easily see that they were praisedand commended, not so much for the sublimity and eminence of their intellect asfor their piety and faithfulness.

(81) Adam, the first man to whom God was revealed, did not know that He isomnipotent and omniscient; for he hid himself from Him, and attempted tomake excuses for his fault before God, as though he had had to do with aman; therefore to him also was God revealed according to his understanding -that is, as being unaware of his situation or his sin, for Adamheard, or seemed to hear, the Lord walking in the garden, calling him andasking him where he was; and then, on seeing his shamefacedness, asking himwhether he had eaten of the forbidden fruit. (82) Adam evidently only knewthe Deity as the Creator of all things. (83) To Cain also God was revealed,according to his understanding, as ignorant of human affairs, nor was ahigher conception of the Deity required for repentance of his sin.

(83) To Laban the Lord revealed Himself as the God of Abraham, because Labanbelieved that each nation had its own special divinity (see Gen. xxxi:29).(84) Abraham also knew not that God is omnipresent, and has foreknowledge ofall things; for when he heard the sentence against the inhabitants of Sodom,he prayed that the Lord should not execute it till He had ascertainedwhether they all merited such punishment; for he said (see Gen. xviii:24),"Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city," and in accordancewith this belief God was revealed to him; as Abraham imagined, He spakethus: "I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogetheraccording to the cry of it which is come unto Me; and, if not, I will know."(85) Further, the Divine testimony concerning Abraham asserts nothing butthat he was obedient, and that he "commanded his household after him thatthey should keep the way of the Lord" (Gen. xviii:19); it does not statethat he held sublime conceptions of the Deity.

(86) Moses, also, was not sufficiently aware that God is omniscient, anddirects human actions by His sole decree, for although God Himself says thatthe Israelites should hearken to Him, Moses still considered the matterdoubtful and repeated, "But if they will not believe me, nor hearken unto myvoice." (87) To him in like manner God was revealed as taking no part in,and as being ignorant of, future human actions: the Lord gave him two signsand said, "And it shall come to pass that if they will not believe thee,neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe thevoice of the latter sign; but if not, thou shalt take of the water of theriver," &c. (88) Indeed, if any one considers without prejudice the recordedopinions of Moses, he will plainly see that Moses conceived the Deity as aBeing Who has always existed, does exist, and always will exist, and forthis cause he calls Him by the name Jehovah, which in Hebrew signifies thesethree phases of existence: as to His nature, Moses only taught that He ismerciful, gracious, and exceeding jealous, as appears from many passages inthe Pentateuch. (89) Lastly, he believed and taught that this Being was sodifferent from all other beings, that He could not be expressed by the imageof any visible thing; also, that He could not be looked upon, and that notso much from inherent impossibility as from human infirmity; further, thatby reason of His power He was without equal and unique. (90) Moses admitted,indeed, that there were beings (doubtless by the plan and command of theLord) who acted as God's vicegerents - that is, beings to whom God had giventhe right, authority, and power to direct nations, and to provide and carefor them; but he taught that this Being Whom they were bound to obey wasthe highest and Supreme God, or (to use the Hebrew phrase) God of gods, andthus in the song (Exod. xv:11) he exclaims, "Who is like unto Thee, O Lord,among the gods?" and Jethro says (Exod. xviii:11), "Now I know that the Lordis greater than all gods." (91) That is to say, "I am at length compelled toadmit to Moses that Jehovah is greater than all gods, and that His poweris unrivalled." (92) We must remain in doubt whether Moses thought thatthese beings who acted as God's vicegerents were created by Him, for hehas stated nothing, so far as we know, about their creation and origin. (93)He further taught that this Being had brought the visible world into orderfrom Chaos, and had given Nature her germs, and therefore that Hepossesses supreme right and power over all things; further, that by reasonof this supreme right and power He had chosen for Himself alone the Hebrewnation and a certain strip of territory, and had handed over to the care ofother gods substituted by Himself the rest of the nations and territories,and that therefore He was called the God of Israel and the God of Jerusalem,whereas the other gods were called the gods of the Gentiles. (94) For thisreason the Jews believed that the strip of territory which God had chosenfor Himself, demanded a Divine worship quite apart and different from theworship which obtained elsewhere, and that the Lord would not suffer theworship of other gods adapted to other countries. (95) Thus they thoughtthat the people whom the king of Assyria had brought into Judaea were tornin pieces by lions because they knew not the worship of the NationalDivinity (2 Kings xvii:25).

(96) Jacob, according to Aben Ezra's opinion, therefore admonished his sonswhen he wished them to seek out a new country, that they should preparethemselves for a new worship, and lay aside the worship of strange gods -that is, of the gods of the land where they were (Gen. xxxv:2, 3).

(97) David, in telling Saul that he was compelled by the king's persecutionto live away from his country, said that he was driven out from the heritageof the Lord, and sent to worship other gods (1 Sam. xxvi:19). (98) Lastly,he believed that this Being or Deity had His habitation in the heavens(Deut. xxxiii:27), an opinion very common among the Gentiles.

(99) If we now examine the revelations to Moses, we shall find that theywere accommodated to these opinions; as he believed that the Divine Naturewas subject to the conditions of mercy, graciousness, &c., so God wasrevealed to him in accordance with his idea and under these attributes (seeExodus xxxiv:6, 7, and the second commandment). (100) Further it is related(Ex. xxxiii:18) that Moses asked of God that he might behold Him, but asMoses (as we have said) had formed no mental image of God, and God (as Ihave shown) only revealed Himself to the prophets in accordance with thedisposition of their imagination, He did not reveal Himself in any form.(101) This, I repeat, was because the imagination of Moses was unsuitable,for other prophets bear witness that they saw the Lord; for instance,Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, &c. (102) For this reason God answered Moses, "Thoucanst not see My face;" and inasmuch as Moses believed that God can belooked upon - that is, that no contradiction of the Divine nature is thereininvolved (for otherwise he would never have preferred his request) - it isadded, "For no one shall look on Me and live," thus giving a reason inaccordance with Moses' idea, for it is not stated that a contradiction ofthe Divine nature would be involved, as was really the case, but that thething would not come to pass because of human infirmity.

(103) When God would reveal to Moses that the Israelites, because theyworshipped the calf, were to be placed in the same category as othernations, He said (ch. xxxiii:2, 3), that He would send an angel (that is, abeing who should have charge of the Israelites, instead of the SupremeBeing), and that He Himself would no longer remain among them; thus leavingMoses no ground for supposing that the Israelites were more beloved by Godthan the other nations whose guardianship He had entrusted to other beingsor angels (vide verse 16).

(104) Lastly, as Moses believed that God dwelt in the heavens, God wasrevealed to him as coming down from heaven on to a mountain, and in order totalk with the Lord Moses went up the mountain, which he certainly need nothave done if he could have conceived of God as omnipresent.

(105) The Israelites knew scarcely anything of God, although He was revealedto them; and this is abundantly evident from their transferring, a few daysafterwards, the honour and worship due to Him to a calf, which they believedto be the god who had brought them out of Egypt. (106) In truth, it ishardly likely that men accustomed to the superstitions of Egypt,uncultivated and sunk in most abject slavery, should have held any soundnotions about the Deity, or that Moses should have taught them anythingbeyond a rule of right living; inculcating it not like a philosopher, as theresult of freedom, but like a lawgiver compelling them to be moral bylegal authority. (107) Thus the rule of right living, the worship and loveof God, was to them rather a bondage than the true liberty, the gift andgrace of the Deity. (108) Moses bid them love God and keep His law, becausethey had in the past received benefits from Him (such as thedeliverance from slavery in Egypt), and further terrified them with threatsif they transgressed His commands, holding out many promises of good if theyshould observe them; thus treating them as parents treat irrationalchildren. It is, therefore, certain that they knew not the excellence ofvirtue and the true happiness.

(109) Jonah thought that he was fleeing from the sight of God, which seemsto show that he too held that God had entrusted the care of the nationsoutside Judaea to other substituted powers. (110) No one in the whole of theOld Testament speaks more rationally of God than Solomon, who in factsurpassed all the men of his time in natural ability. (111) Yet heconsidered himself above the law (esteeming it only to have been given formen without reasonable and intellectual grounds for their actions), and madesmall account of the laws concerning kings, which are mainly three: nay, heopenly violated them (in this he did wrong, and acted in a manner unworthyof a philosopher, by indulging in sensual pleasure), and taught that allFortune's favours to mankind are vanity, that humanity has no nobler giftthan wisdom, and no greater punishment than folly.(112) See Proverbs xvi:22, 23.

(113) But let us return to the prophets whose conflicting opinions we haveundertaken to note.

(114) The expressed ideas of Ezekiel seemed so diverse from those of Moses tothe Rabbis who have left us the extant prophetic books (as is told in thetreatise of Sabbathus, i:13, 2), that they had serious thoughts of omitting hisprophecy from the canon, and would doubtless have thus excluded it if a certainHananiah had not undertaken to explain it; a task which (as is there narrated)he with great zeal and labour accomplished. (115) How he did so does notsufficiently appear, whether it was by writing a commentary which has nowperished, or by altering Ezekiel's words and audaciously striking out phrasesaccording to his fancy. (116) However this may be, chapter xviii. certainlydoes not seem to agree with Exodus xxxiv:7, Jeremiah xxxii:18, &c.

(117 ) Samuel believed that the Lord never repented of anything He haddecreed (1 Sam. xv:29), for when Saul was sorry for his sin, and wished toworship God and ask for forgiveness, Samuel said that the Lord would not goback from his decree.

(118) To Jeremiah, on the other hand, it was revealed that, "If that nationagainst whom I (the Lord) have pronounced, turn from their evil, I willrepent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. (119) If it do evil in mysight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good wherewith Isaid I would benefit them" (Jer. xviii:8-10). (120) Joel (ii:13) taught thatthe Lord repented Him only of evil. (121) Lastly, it is clear from Gen iv: 7that a man can overcome the temptations of sin, and act righteously; forthis doctrine is told to Cain, though, as we learn from Josephus and theScriptures, he never did so overcome them. (122) And this agrees with thechapter of Jeremiah just cited, for it is there said that the Lord repentsof the good or the evil pronounced, if the men in question change their waysand manner of life. (123) But, on the other hand, Paul (Rom.ix:10) teachesas plainly as possible that men have no control over the temptations of theflesh save by the special vocation and grace of God. (124) And when(Rom. iii:5 and vi:19) he attributes righteousness to man, he correctshimself as speaking merely humanly and through the infirmity of the flesh.

(125) We have now more than sufficiently proved our point, that God adaptedrevelations to the understanding and opinions of the prophets, and that inmatters of theory without bearing on charity or morality the prophets couldbe, and, in fact, were, ignorant, and held conflicting opinions. (126) Ittherefore follows that we must by no means go to the prophets for knowledge,either of natural or of spiritual phenomena.

(127) We have determined, then, that we are only bound to believe in theprophetic writings, the object and substance of the revelation; with regardto the details, every one may believe or not, as he likes.

(128) For instance, the revelation to Cain only teaches us that Godadmonished him to lead the true life, for such alone is the object andsubstance of the revelation, not doctrines concerning free will andphilosophy. (129) Hence, though the freedom of the will is clearly impliedin the words of the admonition, we are at liberty to hold a contraryopinion, since the words and reasons were adapted to the understanding ofCain.

(130) So, too, the revelation to Micaiah would only teach that God revealedto him the true issue of the battle between Ahab and Aram; and this is allwe are bound to believe. (131) Whatever else is contained in the revelationconcerning the true and the false Spirit of God, the army of heaven standingon the right hand and on the left, and all the other details, does notaffect us at all. (132) Everyone may believe as much of it as his reasonallows.

(132) The reasonings by which the Lord displayed His power to Job (if theyreally were a revelation, and the author of the history is narrating, andnot merely, as some suppose, rhetorically adorning his own conceptions),would come under the same category - that is, they were adapted to Job'sunderstanding, for the purpose of convincing him, and are not universal,or for the convincing of all men.

(133) We can come to no different conclusion with respect to the reasoningsof Christ, by which He convicted the Pharisees of pride and ignorance, andexhorted His disciples to lead the true life. (134) He adapted them to eachman's opinions and principles. (135) For instance, when He said to thePharisees (Matt. xii:26), "And if Satan cast out devils, his house isdivided against itself, how then shall his kingdom stand?" (136) He onlywished to convince the Pharisees according, to their own principles, not toteach that there are devils, or any kingdom of devils. (137) So, too,when He said to His disciples (Matt. viii:10), "See that ye despise not oneof these little ones, for I say unto you that their angels," &c., He merelydesired to warn them against pride and despising any of their fellows, notto insist on the actual reason given, which was simply adopted in order topersuade them more easily.

(138) Lastly, we should say exactly the same of the apostolic signs andreasonings, but there is no need to go further into the subject. (139) If Iwere to enumerate all the passages of Scripture addressed only toindividuals, or to a particular man's understanding, and which cannot,without great danger to philosophy, be defended as Divine doctrines, Ishould go far beyond the brevity at which I aim. (140) Let it suffice, then,to have indicated a few instances of general application, and let thecurious reader consider others by himself. (141) Although the points wehave just raised concerning prophets and prophecy are the only ones whichhave any direct bearing on the end in view, namely, the separation ofPhilosophy from Theology, still, as I have touched on the general question,I may here inquire whether the gift of prophecy was peculiar to the Hebrews,or whether it was common to all nations. (142) I must then come to aconclusion about the vocation of the Hebrews, all of which I shall do in theensuing chapter.

CHAPTER III. OF THE VOCATION OF THE HEBREWS, AND
WHETHER THE GIFT OF PROPHECY WAS PECULIAR TO THEM.

(1) Every man's true happiness and blessedness consist solely in theenjoyment of what is good, not in the pride that he alone is enjoying it, tothe exclusion of others. (2) He who thinks himself the more blessed becausehe is enjoying benefits which others are not, or because he is more blessedor more fortunate than his fellows, is ignorant of true happiness andblessedness, and the joy which he feels is either childish or envious andmalicious. (3) For instance, a man's true happiness consists only in wisdom,and the knowledge of the truth, not at all in the fact that he is wiser thanothers, or that others lack such knowledge: such considerations do notincrease his wisdom or true happiness.

(4) Whoever, therefore, rejoices for such reasons, rejoices in another'smisfortune, and is, so far, malicious and bad, knowing neither truehappiness nor the peace of the true life.

(5) When Scripture, therefore, in exhorting the Hebrews to obey the law,says that the Lord has chosen them for Himself before other nations(Deut. x:15); that He is near them, but not near others (Deut. iv:7); thatto them alone He has given just laws (Deut. iv:8); and, lastly, that He hasmarked them out before others (Deut. iv:32); it speaks only according to theunderstanding of its hearers, who, as we have shown in the last chapter, andas Moses also testifies (Deut. ix:6, 7), knew not true blessedness. (6) Forin good sooth they would have been no less blessed if God had called all menequally to salvation, nor would God have been less present to them for beingequally present to others; their laws, would have been no less just if theyhad been ordained for all, and they themselves would have been no less wise.(7) The miracles would have shown God's power no less by being wrought forother nations also; lastly, the Hebrews would have been just as much boundto worship God if He had bestowed all these gifts equally on all men.

(8) When God tells Solomon (1 Kings iii:12) that no one shall be as wise ashe in time to come, it seems to be only a manner of expressing surpassingwisdom; it is little to be believed that God would have promised Solomon,for his greater happiness, that He would never endow anyone with so muchwisdom in time to come; this would in no wise have increased Solomon'sintellect, and the wise king would have given equal thanks to the Lord ifeveryone had been gifted with the same faculties.

(9) Still, though we assert that Moses, in the passages of the Pentateuchjust cited, spoke only according to the understanding of the Hebrews, wehave no wish to deny that God ordained the Mosaic law for them alone, northat He spoke to them alone, nor that they witnessed marvels beyond thosewhich happened to any other nation; but we wish to emphasize thatMoses desired to admonish the Hebrews in such a manner, and with suchreasonings as would appeal most forcibly to their childish understanding,and constrain them to worship the Deity. (10) Further, we wished to showthat the Hebrews did not surpass other nations in knowledge, or in piety,but evidently in some attribute different from these; or (to speak like theScriptures, according to their understanding), that the Hebrews were notchosen by God before others for the sake of the true life and sublime ideas,though they were often thereto admonished, but with some other object. (11)What that object was, I will duly show.

(12) But before I begin, I wish in a few words to explain what I mean by theguidance of God, by the help of God, external and inward, and, lastly, whatI understand by fortune.

(13) By the help of God, I mean the fixed and unchangeable order of natureor the chain of natural events: for I have said before and shown elsewherethat the universal laws of nature, according to which all things exist andare determined, are only another name for the eternal decrees of God, whichalways involve eternal truth and necessity.

(14) So that to say that everything happens according to natural laws, andto say that everything is ordained by the decree and ordinance of God, isthe same thing. (15) Now since the power in nature is identical with thepower of God, by which alone all things happen and are determined, itfollows that whatsoever man, as a part of nature, provides himself with toaid and preserve his existence, or whatsoever nature affords him without hishelp, is given to him solely by the Divine power, acting either throughhuman nature or through external circumstance. (16) So whatever human naturecan furnish itself with by its own efforts to preserve its existence, maybe fitly called the inward aid of God, whereas whatever else accrues toman's profit from outward causes may be called the external aid of God.

(17) We can now easily understand what is meant by the election of God. (18)For since no one can do anything save by the predetermined order of nature,that is by God's eternal ordinance and decree, it follows that no one canchoose a plan of life for himself, or accomplish any work save by God'svocation choosing him for the work or the plan of life in question, ratherthan any other. (19) Lastly, by fortune, I mean the ordinance of God in sofar as it directs human life through external and unexpected means. (20)With these preliminaries I return to my purpose of discovering the reasonwhy the Hebrews were said to be elected by God before other nations, andwith the demonstration I thus proceed.

(21) All objects of legitimate desire fall, generally speaking, under oneof these three categories:

1. The knowledge of things through their primary causes.
2. The government of the passions, or the acquirement of the habit of virtue.
3. Secure and healthy life.

(22) The means which most directly conduce towards the first two of theseends, and which may be considered their proximate and efficient causes arecontained in human nature itself, so that their acquisition hinges only onour own power, and on the laws of human nature. (23) It may be concludedthat these gifts are not peculiar to any nation, but have always been sharedby the whole human race, unless, indeed, we would indulge the dream thatnature formerly created men of different kinds. (24) But the means whichconduce to security and health are chiefly in external circumstance, and arecalled the gifts of fortune because they depend chiefly on objective causesof which we are ignorant; for a fool may be almost as liable to happinessor unhappiness as a wise man. (25) Nevertheless, human management andwatchfulness can greatly assist towards living in security and warding offthe injuries of our fellow-men, and even of beasts. (26) Reason andexperience show no more certain means of attaining this object thanthe formation of a society with fixed laws, the occupation of a strip ofterritory and the concentration of all forces, as it were, into one body,that is the social body. (27) Now for forming and preserving a society, noordinary ability and care is required: that society will be mostsecure, most stable, and least liable to reverses, which is founded anddirected by far-seeing and careful men; while, on the other hand, a societyconstituted by men without trained skill, depends in a great measure onfortune, and is less constant. (28) If, in spite of all, such a societylasts a long time, it is owing to some other directing influence than itsown; if it overcomes great perils and its affairs prosper, it will perforcemarvel at and adore the guiding Spirit of God (in so far, that is, as Godworks through hidden means, and not through the nature and mind of man),for everything happens to it unexpectedly and contrary to anticipation, itmay even be said and thought to be by miracle. (29) Nations, then, aredistinguished from one another in respect to the social organization and thelaws under which they live and are governed; the Hebrew nation was notchosen by God in respect to its wisdom nor its tranquillity of mind, but inrespect to its social organization and the good fortune with which itobtained supremacy and kept it so many years. (30) This is abundantly clearfrom Scripture. Even a cursory perusal will show us that the only respectsin which the Hebrews surpassed other nations, are in their successfulconduct of matters relating to government, and in their surmounting greatperils solely by God's external aid; in other ways they were on a par withtheir fellows, and God was equally gracious to all. (31) For in respect tointellect (as we have shown in the last chapter) they held very ordinaryideas about God and nature, so that they cannot have been God's chosen inthis respect; nor were they so chosen in respect of virtue and the truelife, for here again they, with the exception of a very few elect, were onan equality with other nations: therefore their choice and vocationconsisted only in the temporal happiness and advantages of independent rule.(32) In fact, we do not see that God promised anything beyond this to thepatriarchs [Endnote 4] or their successors; in the law no other reward isoffered for obedience than the continual happiness of an independentcommonwealth and other goods of this life; while, on the other hand, againstcontumacy and the breaking of the covenant is threatened the downfall of thecommonwealth and great hardships. (33) Nor is this to be wondered at; forthe ends of every social organization and commonwealth are (as appears fromwhat we have said, and as we will explain more at length hereafter) securityand comfort; a commonwealth can only exist by the laws being binding on all.(34) If all the members of a state wish to disregard the law, by that veryfact they dissolve the state and destroy the commonwealth. (35) Thus, theonly reward which could be promised to the Hebrews for continued obedienceto the law was security [Endnote 5] and its attendant advantages, while nosurer punishment could be threatened for disobedience, than the ruin of thestate and the evils which generally follow therefrom, in addition to suchfurther consequences as might accrue to the Jews in particular from the ruinof their especial state. (36) But there is no need here to go into thispoint at more length. (37) I will only add that the laws of the OldTestament were revealed and ordained to the Jews only, for as God chose themin respect to the special constitution of their society and government, theymust, of course, have had special laws. (38) Whether God ordained speciallaws for other nations also, and revealed Himself to their lawgiversprophetically, that is, under the attributes by which the latter wereaccustomed to imagine Him, I cannot sufficiently determine. (39) It isevident from Scripture itself that other nations acquired supremacy andparticular laws by the external aid of God; witness only the two followingpassages:

(40) In Genesis xiv:18, 19, 20, it is related that Melchisedek was king ofJerusalem and priest of the Most High God, that in exercise of his priestlyfunctions he blessed Abraham, and that Abraham the beloved of the Lord gaveto this priest of God a tithe of all his spoils. (41) This sufficientlyshows that before He founded the Israelitish nation God constituted kingsand priests in Jerusalem, and ordained for them rites and laws. (42) WhetherHe did so prophetically is, as I have said, not sufficiently clear; but I amsure of this, that Abraham, whilst he sojourned in the city, livedscrupulously according to these laws, for Abraham had received no specialrites from God; and yet it is stated (Gen. xxvi:5), that he observed theworship, the precepts, the statutes, and the laws of God, which must beinterpreted to mean the worship, the statutes, the precepts, and the laws ofking Melchisedek. (43) Malachi chides the Jews as follows (i:10-11.): "Whois there among you that will shut the doors? [of the Temple]; neither do yekindle fire on mine altar for nought. (44) I have no pleasure in you, saiththe Lord of Hosts. (45) For from the rising of the sun, even until the goingdown of the same My Name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in everyplace incense shall be offered in My Name, and a pure offering; for My Nameis great among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts." (46) These words,which, unless we do violence to them, could only refer to the currentperiod, abundantly testify that the Jews of that time were not more belovedby God than other nations, that God then favoured other nations with moremiracles than He vouchsafed to the Jews, who had then partly recovered theirempire without miraculous aid; and, lastly, that the Gentiles possessedrites and ceremonies acceptable to God. (47) But I pass over these pointslightly: it is enough for my purpose to have shown that the election of theJews had regard to nothing but temporal physical happiness and freedom, inother words, autonomous government, and to the manner and means by whichthey obtained it; consequently to the laws in so far as they werenecessary to the preservation of that special government; and, lastly, tothe manner in which they were revealed. In regard to other matters, whereinman's true happiness consists, they were on a par with the rest of thenations.

(48) When, therefore, it is said in Scripture (Deut. iv:7) that the Lord isnot so nigh to any other nation as He is to the Jews, reference is only madeto their government, and to the period when so many miracles happened tothem, for in respect of intellect and virtue - that is, in respect ofblessedness - God was, as we have said already, and are now demonstrating,equally gracious to all. (49) Scripture itself bears testimony to this fact,for the Psalmist says (cxlv:18), "The Lord is near unto all them that callupon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth." (50) So in the same Psalm,verse 9, "The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are over allHis works." In Ps. xxxiii:16, it is clearly stated that God has granted toall men the same intellect, in these words, "He fashioneth their heartsalike." The heart was considered by the Hebrews, as I suppose everyoneknows, to be the seat of the soul and the intellect.

(51) Lastly, from Job xxxviii:28, it is plain that God had ordained for thewhole human race the law to reverence God, to keep from evil doing, or to dowell, and that Job, although a Gentile, was of all men most acceptable toGod, because he exceeded all in piety and religion. (52) Lastly, from Jonahiv:2, it is very evident that, not only to the Jews but to all men, God wasgracious, merciful, long-suffering, and of great goodness, and repented Himof the evil, for Jonah says: "Therefore I determined to flee before untoTarshish, for I know that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow toanger, and of great kindness," &c., and that, therefore, God would pardonthe Ninevites. (53) We conclude, therefore (inasmuch as God is to all menequally gracious, and the Hebrews were only chosen by him in respect totheir social organization and government), that the individual Jew, takenapart from his social organization and government, possessed nogift of God above other men, and that there was no difference between Jewand Gentile. (54) As it is a fact that God is equally gracious, merciful,and the rest, to all men; and as the function of the prophet was to teachmen not so much the laws of their country, as true virtue, and to exhortthem thereto, it is not to be doubted that all nations possessed prophets,and that the prophetic gift was not peculiar to the Jews. (55) Indeed,history, both profane and sacred, bears witness to the fact. (56) Although,from the sacred histories of the Old Testament, it is not evident that theother nations had as many prophets as the Hebrews, or that any Gentileprophet was expressly sent by God to the nations, this does not affect thequestion, for the Hebrews were careful to record their own affairs, notthose of other nations. (57) It suffices, then, that we find in the OldTestament Gentiles, and uncircumcised, as Noah, Enoch, Abimelech,Balaam, &c., exercising prophetic gifts; further, that Hebrew prophets weresent by God, not only to their own nation but to many others also. (58)Ezekiel prophesied to all the nations then known; Obadiah to none, that weare aware of, save the Idumeans; and Jonah was chiefly the prophet to theNinevites. (59) Isaiah bewails and predicts the calamities, and hails therestoration not only of the Jews but also of other nations, for he says(chap. xvi:9), "Therefore I will bewail Jazer with weeping;" and in chap.xix. he foretells first the calamities and then the restoration ofthe Egyptians (see verses 19, 20, 21, 25), saying that God shall send them aSaviour to free them, that the Lord shall be known in Egypt, and, further,that the Egyptians shall worship God with sacrifice and oblation; and, atlast, he calls that nation the blessed Egyptian people of God; all of whichparticulars are specially noteworthy.

(60) Jeremiah is called, not the prophet of the Hebrew nation, but simplythe prophet of the nations (see Jer. i.5). (61) He also mournfully foretellsthe calamities of the nations, and predicts their restoration, for he says(xlviii. 31) of the Moabites, "Therefore will I howl for Moab, and I willcry out for all Moab" (verse 36), "and therefore mine heart shall soundfor Moab like pipes;" in the end he prophesies their restoration, as alsothe restoration of the Egyptians, Ammonites, and Elamites. (62) Wherefore itis beyond doubt that other nations also, like the Jews, had theirprophets, who prophesied to them.

(63) Although Scripture only, makes mention of one man, Balaam, to whom thefuture of the Jews and the other nations was revealed, we must not supposethat Balaam prophesied only once, for from the narrative itself it isabundantly clear that he had long previously been famous for prophesy andother Divine gifts. (64) For when Balak bade him to come to him, he said(Num. xxii:6), "For I know that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and hewhom thou cursest is cursed." (65) Thus we see that he possessed the giftwhich God had bestowed on Abraham. Further, as accustomed to prophesy,Balaam bade the messengers wait for him till the will of the Lord wasrevealed to him. (66) When he prophesied, that is, when he interpretedthe true mind of God, he was wont to say this of himself: "He hath said,which heard the words of God and knew the knowledge of the Most High, whichsaw the vision of the Almighty falling into a trance, but having his eyesopen." (67) Further, after he had blessed the Hebrews by the command of God,he began (as was his custom) to prophesy to other nations, and to predicttheir future; all of which abundantly shows that he had always been aprophet, or had often prophesied, and (as we may also remark here) possessedthat which afforded the chief certainty to prophets of the truth of theirprophecy, namely, a mind turned wholly to what is right and good, for he didnot bless those whom he wished to bless, nor curse those whom he wished tocurse, as Balak supposed, but only those whom God wished to be blessed orcursed. (68) Thus he answered Balak: "If Balak should give me his house fullof silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord to doeither good or bad of my own mind; but what the Lord saith, that will Ispeak." (69) As for God being angry with him in the way, the same happenedto Moses when he set out to Egypt by the command of the Lord; and as to hisreceiving money for prophesying, Samuel did the same (1 Sam. ix:7, 8); if inanyway he sinned, "there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good andsinneth not," Eccles. vii:20. (Vide 2 Epist. Peter ii:15, 16, andJude 5:11.)

(70) His speeches must certainly have had much weight with God, and Hispower for cursing must assuredly have been very great from the number oftimes that we find stated in Scripture, in proof of God's great mercy to theJews, that God would not hear Balaam, and that He changed the cursing toblessing (see Deut. xxiii:6, Josh. xxiv:10, Neh. xiii:2). (71) Wherefore hewas without doubt most acceptable to God, for the speeches and cursings ofthe wicked move God not at all. (72) As then he was a true prophet, andnevertheless Joshua calls him a soothsayer or augur, it is certain that thistitle had an honourable signification, and that those whom the Gentilescalled augurs and soothsayers were true prophets, while those whom Scriptureoften accuses and condemns were false soothsayers, who deceived theGentiles as false prophets deceived the Jews; indeed, this is made evidentfrom other passages in the Bible, whence we conclude that the gift ofprophecy was not peculiar to the Jews, but common to all nations. (73) ThePharisees, however, vehemently contend that this Divine gift was peculiar totheir nation, and that the other nations foretold the future (what willsuperstition invent next?) by some unexplained diabolical faculty. (74) Theprincipal passage of Scripture which they cite, by way of confirming theirtheory with its authority, is Exodus xxxiii:16, where Moses says to God,"For wherein shall it be known here that I and Thy people have found gracein Thy sight? is it not in that Thou goest with us? so shall we beseparated, I and Thy people, from all the people that are upon the face ofthe earth." (75) From this they would infer that Moses asked of God that Heshould be present to the Jews, and should reveal Himself to themprophetically; further, that He should grant this favour to no other nation.(76) It is surely absurd that Moses should have been jealous of God'spresence among the Gentiles, or that he should have dared to ask any suchthing. (77) The fact is, as Moses knew that the disposition and spirit of hisnation was rebellious, he clearly saw that they could not carry out whatthey had begun without very great miracles and special external aid fromGod; nay, that without such aid they must necessarily perish: as it wasevident that God wished them to be preserved, he asked for this specialexternal aid. (78) Thus he says (Ex. xxxiv:9), "If now I have found grace inThy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray Thee, go among us; for it is astiffnecked people." (79) The reason, therefore, for his seeking specialexternal aid from God was the stiffneckedness of the people, and it is madestill more plain, that he asked for nothing beyond this special external aidby God's answer - for God answered at once (verse 10 of the same chapter) -"Behold, I make a covenant: before all Thy people I will do marvels, such ashave not been done in all the earth, nor in any nation." (80) ThereforeMoses had in view nothing beyond the special election of the Jews, as I haveexplained it, and made no other request to God. (81) I confess that inPaul's Epistle to the Romans, I find another text which carries more weight,namely, where Paul seems to teach a different doctrine from that here setdown, for he there says (Rom. iii:1): "What advantage then hath the Jew? orwhat profit is there of circumcision? (82) Much every way: chiefly, becausethat unto them were committed the oracles of God."

(83) But if we look to the doctrine which Paul especially desired to teach,we shall find nothing repugnant to our present contention; on the contrary,his doctrine is the same as ours, for he says (Rom. iii:29) "that God is theGod of the Jews and of the Gentiles, and" (ch. ii:25, 26) "But,if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision.(84) Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law,shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?" (85) Further, inchap. iv:verse 9, he says that all alike, Jew and Gentile, were under sin,and that without commandment and law there is no sin. (86) Wherefore it ismost evident that to all men absolutely was revealed the law under which alllived - namely, the law which has regard only to true virtue, not the lawestablished in respect to, and in the formation of a particular state andadapted to the disposition of a particular people. (87) Lastly, Paulconcludes that since God is the God of all nations, that is, is equallygracious to all, and since all men equally live under the law and under sin,so also to all nations did God send His Christ, to free all men equally fromthe bondage of the law, that they should no more do right by thecommand of the law, but by the constant determination of their hearts. (88)So that Paul teaches exactly the same as ourselves. (89) When, therefore, hesays "To the Jews only were entrusted the oracles of God," we must eitherunderstand that to them only were the laws entrusted in writing, while theywere given to other nations merely in revelation and conception, or else (asnone but Jews would object to the doctrine he desired to advance) that Paulwas answering only in accordance with the understanding and current ideas ofthe Jews, for in respect to teaching things which he had partly seen, partlyheard, he was to the Greeks a Greek, and to the Jews a Jew.

(90) It now only remains to us to answer the arguments of those who wouldpersuade themselves that the election of the Jews was not temporal, andmerely in respect of their commonwealth, but eternal; for, they say, we seethe Jews after the loss of their commonwealth, and after being scattered somany years and separated from all other nations, still surviving, which iswithout parallel among other peoples, and further the Scriptures seem toteach that God has chosen for Himself the Jews for ever, so that though theyhave lost their commonwealth, they still nevertheless remain God's elect.

(91) The passages which they think teach most clearly this eternal election, are chiefly:(1.) Jer. xxxi:36, where the prophet testifies that the seed of Israelshall for ever remain the nation of God, comparing them with thestability of the heavens and nature;

(2.) Ezek. xx:32, where the prophet seems to intend that though the Jewswanted after the help afforded them to turn their backs on the worship ofthe Lord, that God would nevertheless gather them together again from allthe lands in which they were dispersed, and lead them to the wilderness ofthe peoples - as He had led their fathers to the wilderness of the land ofEgypt - and would at length, after purging out from among them the rebelsand transgressors, bring them thence to his Holy mountain, where the wholehouse of Israel should worship Him. Other passages are also cited,especially by the Pharisees, but I think I shall satisfy everyone if Ianswer these two, and this I shall easily accomplish after showing fromScripture itself that God chose not the Hebrews for ever, but only on thecondition under which He had formerly chosen the Canaanites, for these last,as we have shown, had priests who religiously worshipped God, and whom Godat length rejected because of their luxury, pride, and corrupt worship.

(92) Moses (Lev. xviii:27) warned the Israelites that they be not pollutedwith whoredoms, lest the land spue them out as it had spued out the nationswho had dwelt there before, and in Deut. viii:19, 20, in the plainest termsHe threatens their total ruin, for He says, "I testify against you that yeshall surely perish. (93) As the nations which the Lord destroyeth beforeyour face, so shall ye perish." In like manner many other passages are foundin the law which expressly show that God chose the Hebrews neitherabsolutely nor for ever. (94) If, then, the prophets foretold for them a newcovenant of the knowledge of God, love, and grace, such a promise is easilyproved to be only made to the elect, for Ezekiel in the chapter which wehave just quoted expressly says that God will separate from them therebellious and transgressors, and Zephaniah (iii:12, 13), says that "Godwill take away the proud from the midst of them, and leave the poor." (95)Now, inasmuch as their election has regard to true virtue, it is not to bethought that it was promised to the Jews alone to the exclusion of others,but we must evidently believe that the true Gentile prophets (and everynation, as we have shown, possessed such) promised the same to the faithfulof their own people, who were thereby comforted. (96) Wherefore this eternalcovenant of the knowledge of God and love is universal, as is clear,moreover, from Zeph. iii:10, 11: no difference in this respect can beadmitted between Jew and Gentile, nor did the former enjoy any specialelection beyond that which we have pointed out.

(97) When the prophets, in speaking of this election which regards only truevirtue, mixed up much concerning sacrifices and ceremonies, and therebuilding of the temple and city, they wished by such figurativeexpressions, after the manner and nature of prophecy, to expound mattersspiritual, so as at the same time to show to the Jews, whose prophets theywere, the true restoration of the state and of the temple to be expectedabout the time of Cyrus.

(98) At the present time, therefore, there is absolutely nothing which theJews can arrogate to themselves beyond other people.

(99) As to their continuance so long after dispersion and the loss ofempire, there is nothing marvellous in it, for they so separated themselvesfrom every other nation as to draw down upon themselves universal hate, notonly by their outward rites, rites conflicting with those of other nations,but also by the sign of circumcision which they most scrupulously observe.

(100) That they have been preserved in great measure by Gentile hatred,experience demonstrates. (101) When the king of Spain formerlycompelled the Jews to embrace the State religion or to go into exile, alarge number of Jews accepted Catholicism. (102) Now, as these renegadeswere admitted to all the native privileges of Spaniards, and deemed worthyof filling all honourable offices, it came to pass that they straightwaybecame so intermingled with the Spaniards as to leave of themselves no relicor remembrance. (103) But exactly the opposite happened to those whom theking of Portugal compelled to become Christians, for they always, thoughconverted, lived apart, inasmuch as they were considered unworthy of anycivic honours.

(104) The sign of circumcision is, as I think, so important, that I couldpersuade myself that it alone would preserve the nation for ever. (105) Nay,I would go so far as to believe that if the foundations of their religionhave not emasculated their minds they may even, if occasion offers, sochangeable are human affairs, raise up their empire afresh, and that God maya second time elect them.

(106) Of such a possibility we have a very famous example in the Chinese.(107) They, too, have some distinctive mark on their heads which they mostscrupulously observe, and by which they keep themselves apart from everyoneelse, and have thus kept themselves during so many thousand years that theyfar surpass all other nations in antiquity. (108) They have not alwaysretained empire, but they have recovered it when lost, and doubtless will doso again after the spirit of the Tartars becomes relaxed through the luxuryof riches and pride.

(109) Lastly, if any one wishes to maintain that the Jews, from this or fromany other cause, have been chosen by God for ever, I will not gainsay him ifhe will admit that this choice, whether temporary or eternal, has no regard,in so far as it is peculiar to the Jews, to aught but dominion and physicaladvantages (for by such alone can one nation be distinguished fromanother), whereas in regard to intellect and true virtue, every nation is ona par with the rest, and God has not in these respects chosen one peoplerather than another.

CHAPTER IV. - OF THE DIVINE LAW.

(1) The word law, taken in the abstract, means that by which an individual,or all things, or as many things as belong to a particular species, act inone and the same fixed and definite manner, which manner depends either onnatural necessity or on human decree. (2) A law which depends on naturalnecessity is one which necessarily follows from the nature, or from thedefinition of the thing in question; a law which depends on human decree,and which is more correctly called an ordinance, is one which men have laiddown for themselves and others in order to live more safely or conveniently,or from some similar reason.

(3) For example, the law that all bodies impinging on lesser bodies, lose asmuch of their own motion as they communicate to the latter is a universallaw of all bodies, and depends on natural necessity. (4) So, too, the lawthat a man in remembering one thing, straightway remembers another eitherlike it, or which he had perceived simultaneously with it, is a law whichnecessarily follows from the nature of man. (5) But the law that men mustyield, or be compelled to yield, somewhat of their natural right, and thatthey bind themselves to live in a certain way, depends on human decree. (6)Now, though I freely admit that all things are predetermined by universalnatural laws to exist and operate in a given, fixed, and definitemanner, I still assert that the laws I have just mentioned depend on humandecree.

(1.) (7) Because man, in so far as he is a part of nature, constitutes apart of the power of nature. (8) Whatever, therefore, follows necessarilyfrom the necessity of human nature (that is, from nature herself, in so faras we conceive of her as acting through man) follows, even though it benecessarily, from human power. (9) Hence the sanction of such laws may verywell be said to depend on man's decree, for it principally depends on thepower of the human mind; so that the human mind in respect to its perceptionof things as true and false, can readily be conceived as without such laws,but not without necessary law as we have just defined it.

(2.) (10) I have stated that these laws depend on human decree because it iswell to define and explain things by their proximate causes. (11) Thegeneral consideration of fate and the concatenation of causes would aid usvery little in forming and arranging our ideas concerning particularquestions. (12) Let us add that as to the actual coordination andconcatenation of things, that is how things are ordained and linkedtogether, we are obviously ignorant; therefore, it is more profitable forright living, nay, it is necessary for us to consider things as contingent.(13) So much about law in the abstract.

(14) Now the word law seems to be only applied to natural phenomena byanalogy, and is commonly taken to signify a command which men can eitherobey or neglect, inasmuch as it restrains human nature within certainoriginally exceeded limits, and therefore lays down no rule beyond humanstrength. (15) Thus it is expedient to define law more particularly as aplan of life laid down by man for himself or others with a certain object.

(16) However, as the true object of legislation is only perceived by a few,and most men are almost incapable of grasping it, though they live under itsconditions, legislators, with a view to exacting general obedience, havewisely put forward another object, very different from that whichnecessarily follows from the nature of law: they promise to the observers ofthe law that which the masses chiefly desire, and threaten its violatorswith that which they chiefly fear: thus endeavouring to restrain the masses,as far as may be, like a horse with a curb; whence it follows that the wordlaw is chiefly applied to the modes of life enjoined on men by the sway ofothers; hence those who obey the law are said to live under it and to beunder compulsion. (17) In truth, a man who renders everyone their duebecause he fears the gallows, acts under the sway and compulsion of others,and cannot be called just. (18) But a man who does the same from a knowledgeof the true reason for laws and their necessity, acts from a firm purposeand of his own accord, and is therefore properly called just. (19) This, Itake it, is Paul's meaning when he says, that those who live under the lawcannot be justified through the law, for justice, as commonly defined, isthe constant and perpetual will to render every man his due. (20) ThusSolomon says (Prov. xxi:15), "It is a joy to the just to do judgment," butthe wicked fear.

(21) Law, then, being a plan of living which men have for a certain objectlaid down for themselves or others, may, as it seems, be divided into humanlaw and Divine law.

(22) By human law I mean a plan of living which serves only to render lifeand the state secure. (23) By Divine law I mean that which only regards thehighest good, in other words, the true knowledge of God and love.

(24) I call this law Divine because of the nature of the highest good, whichI will here shortly explain as clearly as I can.

(25) Inasmuch as the intellect is the best part of our being, it is evidentthat we should make every effort to perfect it as far as possible if wedesire to search for what is really profitable to us. (26) For inintellectual perfection the highest good should consist. (27) Now, since allour knowledge, and the certainty which removes every doubt, depend solely onthe knowledge of God;- firstly, because without God nothing can exist or beconceived; secondly, because so long as we have no clear and distinct ideaof God we may remain in universal doubt - it follows that our highest goodand perfection also depend solely on the knowledge of God. (28) Further,since without God nothing can exist or be conceived, it is evident that allnatural phenomena involve and express the conception of God as far as theiressence and perfection extend, so that we have greater and more perfectknowledge of God in proportion to our knowledge of natural phenomena:conversely (since the knowledge of an effect through its cause is the samething as the knowledge of a particular property of a cause) the greater ourknowledge of natural phenomena, the more perfect is our knowledge of theessence of God (which is the cause of all things). (29) So, then, ourhighest good not only depends on the knowledge of God, but wholly consiststherein; and it further follows that man is perfect or the reverse inproportion to the nature and perfection of the object of his special desire;hence the most perfect and the chief sharer in the highest blessedness is hewho prizes above all else, and takes especial delight in, the intellectualknowledge of God, the most perfect Being.

(30) Hither, then, our highest good and our highest blessedness aim -namely, to the knowledge and love of God; therefore the means demanded bythis aim of all human actions, that is, by God in so far as the idea of himis in us, may be called the commands of God, because they proceed, as itwere, from God Himself, inasmuch as He exists in our minds, and the plan oflife which has regard to this aim may be fitly called the law of God.

(31) The nature of the means, and the plan of life which this aim demands,how the foundations of the best states follow its lines, and how men's lifeis conducted, are questions pertaining to general ethics. (32) Here I onlyproceed to treat of the Divine law in a particular application.

(33) As the love of God is man's highest happiness and blessedness, and theultimate end and aim of all human actions, it follows that he alone lives bythe Divine law who loves God not from fear of punishment, or from love ofany other object, such as sensual pleasure, fame, or the like; but solelybecause he has knowledge of God, or is convinced that the knowledge and loveof God is the highest good. (34) The sum and chief precept, then, of theDivine law is to love God as the highest good, namely, as we have said, notfrom fear of any pains and penalties, or from the love of any other objectin which we desire to take pleasure. (35) The idea of God lays downthe rule that God is our highest good - in other words, that the knowledgeand love of God is the ultimate aim to which all our actions should bedirected. (36) The worldling cannot understand these things, they appearfoolishness to him, because he has too meager a knowledge of God, and alsobecause in this highest good he can discover nothing which he can handle oreat, or which affects the fleshly appetites wherein he chiefly delights, forit consists solely in thought and the pure reason. (37) They, on the otherhand, who know that they possess no greater gift than intellect and soundreason, will doubtless accept what I have said without question.

(38) We have now explained that wherein the Divine law chiefly consists, andwhat are human laws, namely, all those which have a different aimunless they have been ratified by revelation, for in this respect alsothings are referred to God (as we have shown above) and in this sense thelaw of Moses, although it was not universal, but entirely adapted to thedisposition and particular preservation of a single people, may yet becalled a law of God or Divine law, inasmuch as we believe that it wasratified by prophetic insight. (39) If we consider the nature of naturalDivine law as we have just explained it, we shall see:

(40) I.- That it is universal or common to all men, for we have deduced itfrom universal human nature.

(41) II. That it does not depend on the truth of any historical narrativewhatsoever, for inasmuch as this natural Divine law is comprehended solelyby the consideration of human nature, it is plain that we can conceive it asexisting as well in Adam as in any other man, as well in a man living amonghis fellows, as in a man who lives by himself.

(42) The truth of a historical narrative, however assured, cannot give usthe knowledge nor consequently the love of God, for love of God springs fromknowledge of Him, and knowledge of Him should be derived from general ideas,in themselves certain and known, so that the truth of a historical narrativeis very far from being a necessary requisite for our attaining our highestgood.

(43) Still, though the truth of histories cannot give us the knowledge andlove of God, I do not deny that reading them is very useful with a view tolife in the world, for the more we have observed and known of men's customsand circumstances, which are best revealed by their actions, the more warilywe shall be able to order our lives among them, and so far as reasondictates to adapt our actions to their dispositions.

(44) III. We see that this natural Divine law does not demand theperformance of ceremonies - that is, actions in themselves indifferent,which are called good from the fact of their institution, or actionssymbolizing something profitable for salvation, or (if one prefers thisdefinition) actions of which the meaning surpasses human understanding. (45)The natural light of reason does not demand anything which it is itselfunable to supply, but only such as it can very clearly show to be good, or ameans to our blessedness. (46) Such things as are good simply because theyhave been commanded or instituted, or as being symbols of something good,are mere shadows which cannot be reckoned among actions that are theoffsprings as it were, or fruit of a sound mind and of intellect. (47) Thereis no need for me to go into this now in more detail.

(48) IV. Lastly, we see that the highest reward of the Divine law is the lawitself, namely, to know God and to love Him of our free choice, and with anundivided and fruitful spirit; while its penalty is the absence of thesethings, and being in bondage to the flesh - that is, having an inconstantand wavering spirit.

(49) These points being noted, I must now inquire:

(50) I. Whether by the natural light of reason we can conceive of God as a law-giver or potentate ordaining laws for men?

(51) II. What is the teaching of Holy Writ concerning this natural light of reason and natural law?

(52) III. With what objects were ceremonies formerly instituted?

(53) IV. Lastly, what is the good gained by knowing the sacred histories and believing them?

(54) Of the first two I will treat in this chapter, of the remaining twoin the following one.

(55) Our conclusion about the first is easily deduced from the nature ofGod's will, which is only distinguished from His understanding in relationto our intellect - that is, the will and the understanding of God are inreality one and the same, and are only distinguished in relation toour thoughts which we form concerning God's understanding. (56) Forinstance, if we are only looking to the fact that the nature of a triangleis from eternity contained in the Divine nature as an eternal verity, we saythat God possesses the idea of a triangle, or that He understands thenature of a triangle; but if afterwards we look to the fact that the natureof a triangle is thus contained in the Divine nature, solely by thenecessity of the Divine nature, and not by the necessity of the nature andessence of a triangle - in fact, that the necessity of a triangle's essenceand nature, in so far as they are conceived of as eternal verities, dependssolely on the necessity of the Divine nature and intellect, we then styleGod's will or decree, that which before we styled His intellect. (57)Wherefore we make one and the same affirmation concerning God when we saythat He has from eternity decreed that three angles of a triangle are equalto two right angles, as when we say that He has understood it.

(58) Hence the affirmations and the negations of God always involvenecessity or truth; so that, for example, if God said to Adam that He didnot wish him to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it would haveinvolved a contradiction that Adam should have been able to eat of it, andwould therefore have been impossible that he should have so eaten, for theDivine command would have involved an eternal necessity and truth. (59) Butsince Scripture nevertheless narrates that God did give this command toAdam, and yet that none the less Adam ate of the tree, we must perforce saythat God revealed to Adam the evil which would surely follow if he shouldeat of the tree, but did not disclose that such evil would of necessitycome to pass. (60) Thus it was that Adam took the revelation to be not aneternal and necessary truth, but a law - that is, an ordinance followed bygain or loss, not depending necessarily on the nature of the act performed,but solely on the will and absolute power of some potentate, so that therevelation in question was solely in relation to Adam, and solely throughhis lack of knowledge a law, and God was, as it were, a lawgiver andpotentate. (61) From the same cause, namely, from lack of knowledge, theDecalogue in relation to the Hebrews was a law, for since they knew not theexistence of God as an eternal truth, they must have taken as a law thatwhich was revealed to them in the Decalogue, namely, that God exists, andthat God only should be worshipped. (62) But if God had spoken to themwithout the intervention of any bodily means, immediately they would haveperceived it not as a law, but as an eternal truth.

(63) What we have said about the Israelites and Adam, applies also to allthe prophets who wrote laws in God's name - they did not adequately conceiveGod's decrees as eternal truths. (64) For instance, we must say of Mosesthat from revelation, from the basis of what was revealed to him, heperceived the method by which the Israelitish nation could best be united ina particular territory, and could form a body politic or state, and furtherthat he perceived the method by which that nation could best be constrainedto obedience; but he did not perceive, nor was it revealed to him, that thismethod was absolutely the best, nor that the obedience of the people in acertain strip of territory would necessarily imply the end he had in view.(65) Wherefore he perceived these things not as eternal truths, but asprecepts and ordinances, and he ordained them as laws of God, and thus itcame to be that he conceived God as a ruler, a legislator, a king, asmerciful, just, &c., whereas such qualities are simply attributes of humannature, and utterly alien from the nature of the Deity. (66)Thus much we mayaffirm of the prophets who wrote laws in the name of God; but we must notaffirm it of Christ, for Christ, although He too seems to have written lawsin the name of God, must be taken to have had a clear and adequateperception, for Christ was not so much a prophet as the mouthpiece of God.(67) For God made revelations to mankind through Christ as He had beforedone through angels - that is, a created voice, visions, &c. (68) It wouldbe as unreasonable to say that God had accommodated his revelations to theopinions of Christ as that He had before accommodated them to the opinionsof angels (that is, of a created voice or visions) as matters to be revealedto the prophets, a wholly absurd hypothesis. (69) Moreover, Christ was sentto teach not only the Jews but the whole human race, and therefore it wasnot enough that His mind should be accommodated to the opinions the Jewsalone, but also to the opinion and fundamental teaching common to the wholehuman race - in other words, to ideas universal and true. (70) Inasmuch asGod revealed Himself to Christ, or to Christ's mind immediately, and not asto the prophets through words and symbols, we must needs suppose that Christperceived truly what was revealed, in other words, He understood it, for amatter is understood when it is perceived simply by the mind without wordsor symbols.

(71) Christ, then, perceived (truly and adequately) what was revealed, andif He ever proclaimed such revelations as laws, He did so because of theignorance and obstinacy of the people, acting in this respect the part ofGod; inasmuch as He accommodated Himself to the comprehension of thepeople, and though He spoke somewhat more clearly than the other prophets,yet He taught what was revealed obscurely, and generally through parables,especially when He was speaking to those to whom it was not yet given tounderstand the kingdom of heaven. (See Matt. xiii:10, &c.) (72) To those towhom it was given to understand the mysteries of heaven, He doubtless taughtHis doctrines as eternal truths, and did not lay them down as laws, thusfreeing the minds of His hearers from the bondage of that law which Hefurther confirmed and established. (73) Paul apparently points to this morethan once (e.g. Rom. vii:6, and iii:28), though he never himself seems towish to speak openly, but, to quote his own words (Rom. iii:6, and vi:19),"merely humanly." (74) This he expressly states when he calls God just, andit was doubtless in concession to human weakness that he attributes mercy,grace, anger, and similar qualities to God, adapting his language to thepopular mind, or, as he puts it (1 Cor. iii:1, 2), to carnal men. (75) InRom. ix:18, he teaches undisguisedly that God's auger and mercy depend noton the actions of men, but on God's own nature or will; further, that noone is justified by the works of the law, but only by faith, which he seemsto identify with the full assent of the soul; lastly, that no one is blessedunless he have in him the mind of Christ (Rom. viii:9), whereby he perceivesthe laws of God as eternal truths. (76) We conclude, therefore, that God isdescribed as a lawgiver or prince, and styled just, merciful, &c., merely inconcession to popular understanding, and the imperfection of popularknowledge; that in reality God acts and directs all things simply by thenecessity of His nature and perfection, and that His decrees and volitionsare eternal truths, and always involve necessity. (77) So much for the firstpoint which I wished to explain and demonstrate.

(78) Passing on to the second point, let us search the sacred pages fortheir teaching concerning the light of nature and this Divine law. (79) Thefirst doctrine we find in the history of the first man, where it is narratedthat God commanded Adam not to eat of the fruit of the tree of theknowledge of good and evil; this seems to mean that God commanded Adam to doand to seek after righteousness because it was good, not because thecontrary was evil: that is, to seek the good for its own sake, not from fearof evil. (80) We have seen that he who acts rightly from the true knowledgeand love of right, acts with freedom and constancy, whereas he who acts fromfear of evil, is under the constraint of evil, and acts in bondage underexternal control. (81) So that this commandment of God to Adam comprehendsthe whole Divine natural law, and absolutely agrees with the dictates of thelight of nature; nay, it would be easy to explain on this basis the wholehistory or allegory of the first man. (82) But I prefer to pass over thesubject in silence, because, in the first place, I cannot be absolutelycertain that my explanation would be in accordance with the intention of thesacred writer; and, secondly, because many do not admit that this history isan allegory, maintaining it to be a simple narrative of facts. (83) It willbe better, therefore, to adduce other passages of Scripture, especially suchas were written by him, who speaks with all the strength of his naturalunderstanding, in which he surpassed all his contemporaries, and whosesayings are accepted by the people as of equal weight withthose of the prophets. (84) I mean Solomon, whose prudence and wisdom arecommended in Scripture rather than his piety and gift of prophecy. (85) Lifebeing taken to mean the true life (as is evident from Deut. xxx:19), thefruit of the understanding consists only in the true life, and itsabsence constitutes punishment. (86) All this absolutely agrees with whatwas set out in our fourth point concerning natural law. (87) Moreover ourposition that it is the well-spring of life, and that the intellect alonelays down laws for the wise, is plainly taught by, the sage, for he says(Prov. xiii:14): "The law of the wise is a fountain of life" - that is, aswe gather from the preceding text, the understanding. (88) In chap. iii:13,he expressly teaches that the understanding renders man blessed and happy,and gives him true peace of mind. "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, andthe man that getteth understanding," for "Wisdom gives length of days, andriches and honour; her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her pathspeace" (xiiii:6, 17). (89) According to Solomon, therefore, it is only,the wise who live in peace and equanimity, not like the wicked whose mindsdrift hither and thither, and (as Isaiah says, chap. lvii:20) "are like thetroubled sea, for them there is no peace."

(90) Lastly, we should especially note the passage in chap. ii. of Solomon'sproverbs which most clearly confirms our contention: "If thou criest afterknowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding . . . then shalt thouunderstand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God; for the Lordgiveth wisdom; out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding."(91) These words clearly enunciate (1), that wisdom or intellect aloneteaches us to fear God wisely - that is, to worship Him truly; (2), thatwisdom and knowledge flow from God's mouth, and that God bestows on us thisgift; this we have already shown in proving that our understanding and ourknowledge depend on, spring from, and are perfected by the idea orknowledge of God, and nothing else. (92) Solomon goes on to say in so manywords that this knowledge contains and involves the true principles ofethics and politics: "When wisdom entereth into thy heart, and knowledge ispleasant to thy soul, discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shallkeep thee, then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, andequity, yea every good path." (93) All of which is in obvious agreement withnatural knowledge: for after we have come to the understanding of things,and have tasted the excellence of knowledge, she teaches us ethics and truevirtue.

(94) Thus the happiness and the peace of him who cultivates his naturalunderstanding lies, according to Solomon also, not so much under thedominion of fortune (or God's external aid) as in inward personal virtue (orGod's internal aid), for the latter can to a great extent be preserved byvigilance, right action, and thought.

(95) Lastly, we must by no means pass over the passage in Paul's Epistle tothe Romans, i:20, in which he says: "For the invisible things of God fromthe creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the thingsthat are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are withoutexcuse, because, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neitherwere they thankful." (96) These words clearly show that everyone can by thelight of nature clearly understand the goodness and the eternal divinity ofGod, and can thence know and deduce what they should seek for and whatavoid; wherefore the Apostle says that they are without excuse and cannotplead ignorance, as they certainly might if it were a question ofsupernatural light and the incarnation, passion, and resurrection of Christ.(97) "Wherefore," he goes on to say (ib. 24), "God gave them up touncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts;" and so on, through therest of the chapter, he describes the vices of ignorance, and sets themforth as the punishment of ignorance. (98) This obviously agrees with theverse of Solomon, already quoted, "The instruction of fools is folly," sothat it is easy to understand why Paul says that the wicked are withoutexcuse. (99) As every man sows so shall he reap: out of evil, evilsnecessarily spring, unless they be wisely counteracted.

(100) Thus we see that Scripture literally approves of the light of naturalreason and the natural Divine law, and I have fulfilled the promises made atthe beginning of this chapter.

CHAPTER V. - OF THE CEREMONIAL LAW.

(1) In the foregoing chapter we have shown that the Divine law, whichrenders men truly blessed, and teaches them the true life, is universal toall men; nay, we have so intimately deduced it from human nature that itmust be esteemed innate, and, as it were, ingrained in the human mind.

(2) But with regard to the ceremonial observances which were ordained in theOld Testament for the Hebrews only, and were so adapted to their state thatthey could for the most part only be observed by the society as a whole andnot by each individual, it is evident that they formed no part of the Divinelaw, and had nothing to do with blessedness and virtue, but had referenceonly to the election of the Hebrews, that is (as I have shown in Chap. II.),to their temporal bodily happiness and the tranquillity of their kingdom,and that therefore they were only valid while that kingdom lasted. (3) If inthe Old Testament they are spoken of as the law of God, it is only becausethey were founded on revelation, or a basis of revelation. (4) Still asreason, however sound, has little weight with ordinary theologians, I willadduce the authority of Scripture for what I here assert, and will furthershow, for the sake of greater clearness, why and how these ceremonialsserved to establish and preserve the Jewish kingdom. (5) Isaiah teaches mostplainly that the Divine law in its strict sense signifies that universal lawwhich consists in a true manner of life, and does not signify ceremonialobservances. (6) In chapter i:10, the prophet calls on his countrymen tohearken to the Divine law as he delivers it, and first excluding all kindsof sacrifices and all feasts, he at length sums up the law in these fewwords, "Cease to do evil, learn to do well: seek judgment, relieve theoppressed." (7) Not less striking testimony is given in Psalm xl:7- 9, wherethe Psalmist addresses God: "Sacrifice and offering Thou didst not desire;mine ears hast Thou opened; burnt offering and sin-offering hast Thou notrequired; I delight to do Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law is within myheart." (8) Here the Psalmist reckons as the law of God only that which isinscribed in his heart, and excludes ceremonies therefrom, for the latterare good and inscribed on the heart only from the fact of their institution,and not because of their intrinsic value.

(9) Other passages of Scripture testify to the same truth, but these twowill suffice. (10) We may also learn from the Bible that ceremonies are noaid to blessedness, but only have reference to the temporal prosperity ofthe kingdom; for the rewards promised for their observance aremerely temporal advantages and delights, blessedness being reserved for theuniversal Divine law. (11) In all the five books commonly attributed toMoses nothing is promised, as I have said, beyond temporal benefits, such ashonours, fame, victories, riches, enjoyments, and health. (12) Though manymoral precepts besides ceremonies are contained in these five books, theyappear not as moral doctrines universal to all men, but as commandsespecially adapted to the understanding and character of the Hebrew people,and as having reference only to the welfare of the kingdom. (13) Forinstance, Moses does not teach the Jews as a prophet not to kill or tosteal, but gives these commandments solely as a lawgiver and judge; he doesnot reason out the doctrine, but affixes for its non-observance a penaltywhich may and very properly does vary in different nations. (14) So, too,the command not to commit adultery is given merely with reference to thewelfare of the state; for if the moral doctrine had been intended, withreference not only to the welfare of the state, but also to the tranquillityand blessedness of the individual, Moses would have condemned not merely theoutward act, but also the mental acquiescence, as is done by Christ, Whotaught only universal moral precepts, and for this cause promises aspiritual instead of a temporal reward. (15) Christ, as I have said, wassent into the world, not to preserve the state nor to lay down laws, butsolely to teach the universal moral law, so we can easily understand that Hewished in nowise to do away with the law of Moses, inasmuch as He introducedno new laws of His own - His sole care was to teach moral doctrines, anddistinguish them from the laws of the state; for the Pharisees, in theirignorance, thought that the observance of the state law and the Mosaic lawwas the sum total of morality; whereas such laws merely had reference to thepublic welfare, and aimed not so much at instructing the Jews as at keepingthem under constraint. (16) But let us return to our subject, and cite otherpassages of Scripture which set forth temporal benefits as rewards forobserving the ceremonial law, and blessedness as reward for the universallaw.

(17) None of the prophets puts the point more clearly than Isaiah. (18.)After condemning hypocrisy he commends liberty and charity towards one'sself and one's neighbours, and promises as a reward: "Then shall thy lightbreak forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily, thyrighteousness shall go before thee, and the glory of the Lord shall be thyreward" (chap. lviii:8). (19) Shortly afterwards he commends the Sabbath,and for a due observance of it, promises: "Then shalt thou delight thyselfin the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of theearth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth ofthe Lord has spoken it." (20) Thus the prophet for liberty bestowed, andcharitable works, promises a healthy mind in a healthy body, and the gloryof the Lord even after death; whereas, for ceremonial exactitude, he onlypromises security of rule, prosperity, and temporal happiness.

(21) In Psalms xv. and xxiv. no mention is made of ceremonies, but only ofmoral doctrines, inasmuch as there is no question of anything butblessedness, and blessedness is symbolically promised: it is quite certainthat the expressions, "the hill of God," and "His tents and the dwellerstherein," refer to blessedness and security of soul, not to the actual mountof Jerusalem and the tabernacle of Moses, for these latter were not dwelt inby anyone, and only the sons of Levi ministered there. (22) Further, allthose sentences of Solomon to which I referred in the last chapter, for thecultivation of the intellect and wisdom, promise true blessedness, for bywisdom is the fear of God at length understood, and the knowledge of Godfound.

(23) That the Jews themselves were not bound to practise their ceremonialobservances after the destruction of their kingdom is evident from Jeremiah.(24) For when the prophet saw and foretold that the desolation of the citywas at hand, he said that God only delights in those who know and understandthat He exercises loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in theearth, and that such persons only are worthy of praise. (Jer. ix:23.) (25)As though God had said that, after the desolation of the city, He wouldrequire nothing special from the Jews beyond the natural law by which allmen are bound.

(26) The New Testament also confirms this view, for only moral doctrines aretherein taught, and the kingdom of heaven is promised as a reward, whereasceremonial observances are not touched on by the Apostles, after they beganto preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. (27) The Pharisees certainly continuedto practise these rites after the destruction of the kingdom, but more witha view of opposing the Christians than of pleasing God: for after the firstdestruction of the city, when they were led captive to Babylon, not beingthen, so far as I am aware, split up into sects, they straightway neglectedtheir rites, bid farewell to the Mosaic law, buried their national customsin oblivion as being plainly superfluous, and began to mingle with othernations, as we may abundantly learn from Ezra and Nehemiah. (28) We cannot,therefore, doubt that they were no more bound by the law of Moses, after thedestruction of their kingdom, than they had been before it had been begun,while they were still living among other peoples before the exodus fromEgypt, and were subject to no special law beyond the natural law, and also,doubtless, the law of the state in which they were living, in so far as itwas consonant with the Divine natural law.

(29) As to the fact that the patriarchs offered sacrifices, I think they didso for the purpose of stimulating their piety, for their minds had beenaccustomed from childhood to the idea of sacrifice, which we know had beenuniversal from the time of Enoch; and thus they found in sacrifice theirmost powerful incentive. (30) The patriarchs, then, did not sacrifice to Godat the bidding of a Divine right, or as taught by the basis of the Divinelaw, but simply in accordance with the custom of the time; and, if in sodoing they followed any ordinance, it was simply the ordinance of thecountry they were living in, by which (as we have seen before in the case ofMelchisedek) they were bound.

(31) I think that I have now given Scriptural authority for my view: itremains to show why and how the ceremonial observances tended to preserveand confirm the Hebrew kingdom; and this I can very briefly do on groundsuniversally accepted.

(32) The formation of society serves not only for defensive purposes, but isalso very useful, and, indeed, absolutely necessary, as rendering possiblethe division of labour. (33) If men did not render mutual assistance to eachother, no one would have either the skill or the time to provide for his ownsustenance and preservation: for all men are not equally apt for all work,and no one would be capable of preparing all that he individually stood inneed of. (34) Strength and time, I repeat, would fail, if every one had inperson to plough, to sow, to reap, to grind corn, to cook, to weave, tostitch, and perform the other numerous functions required to keep lifegoing; to say nothing of the arts and sciences which are also entirelynecessary to the perfection and blessedness of human nature. (35) We seethat peoples living, in uncivilized barbarism lead a wretched and almostanimal life, and even they would not be able to acquire their few rudenecessaries without assisting one another to a certain extent.

(36) Now if men were so constituted by nature that they desired nothing butwhat is designated by true reason, society would obviously have no need oflaws: it would be sufficient to inculcate true moral doctrines; and menwould freely, without hesitation, act in accordance with their trueinterests. (37) But human nature is framed in a different fashion: everyone, indeed, seeks his own interest, but does not do so in accordance withthe dictates of sound reason, for most men's ideas of desirability andusefulness are guided by their fleshly instincts and emotions, which take nothought beyond the present and the immediate object. (38) Therefore, nosociety can exist without government, and force, and laws to restrain andrepress men's desires and immoderate impulses. (39) Still human nature willnot submit to absolute repression. (40) Violent governments, as Seneca says,never last long; the moderate governments endure. (41) So long as men actsimply from fear they act contrary to their inclinations, taking no thoughtfor the advantages or necessity of their actions, but simply endeavouring toescape punishment or loss of life. (42) They must needs rejoice in any evilwhich befalls their ruler, even if it should involve themselves; and mustlong for and bring about such evil by every means in their power. (43)Again, men are especially intolerant of serving and being ruled by theirequals. (44) Lastly, it is exceedingly difficult to revoke liberties oncegranted.

(45) From these considerations it follows, firstly, that authority shouldeither be vested in the hands of the whole state in common, so that everyoneshould be bound to serve, and yet not be in subjection to his equals; orelse, if power be in the hands of a few, or one man, that one man should besomething above average humanity, or should strive to get himself acceptedas such. (46) Secondly, laws should in every government be so arranged thatpeople should be kept in bounds by the hope of some greatly desired good,rather than by fear, for then everyone will do his duty willingly.

(47) Lastly, as obedience consists in acting at the bidding of externalauthority, it would have no place in a state where the government is vestedin the whole people, and where laws are made by common consent. (48) In sucha society the people would remain free, whether the laws were added to ordiminished, inasmuch as it would not be done on external authority, buttheir own free consent. (49) The reverse happens when the sovereign power isvested in one man, for all act at his bidding; and, therefore, unless theyhad been trained from the first to depend on the words of their ruler, thelatter would find it difficult, in case of need, to abrogate liberties onceconceded, and impose new laws.

(50) From these universal considerations, let us pass on to the kingdom ofthe Jews. (51) The Jews when they first came out of Egypt were not bound byany national laws, and were therefore free to ratify any laws they liked, orto make new ones, and were at liberty to set up a government and occupy aterritory wherever they chose. (52) However, they, were entirely unfitto frame a wise code of laws and to keep the sovereign power vested in thecommunity; they were all uncultivated and sunk in a wretched slavery,therefore the sovereignty was bound to remain vested in the hands of one manwho would rule the rest and keep them under constraint, make laws andinterpret them. (53) This sovereignty was easily retained by Moses,because he surpassed the rest in virtue and persuaded the people of thefact, proving it by many testimonies (see Exod. chap. xiv., last verse, andchap. xix:9). (54) He then, by the Divine virtue he possessed, made laws andordained them for the people, taking the greatest care that they should beobeyed willingly and not through fear, being specially induced to adopt thiscourse by the obstinate nature of the Jews, who would not have submitted tobe ruled solely by constraint; and also by the imminence of war, for it isalways better to inspire soldiers with a thirst for glory than to terrifythem with threats; each man will then strive to distinguish himselfby valour and courage, instead of merely trying to escape punishment. (55)Moses, therefore, by his virtue and the Divine command, introduced areligion, so that the people might do their duty from devotion rather thanfear. (56) Further, he bound them over by benefits, and prophesiedmany advantages in the future; nor were his laws very severe, as anyone maysee for himself, especially if he remarks the number of circumstancesnecessary in order to procure the conviction of an accused person.

(57) Lastly, in order that the people which could not govern itself shouldbe entirely dependent on its ruler, he left nothing to the free choice ofindividuals (who had hitherto been slaves); the people could do nothing butremember the law, and follow the ordinances laid down at the good pleasureof their ruler; they were not allowed to plough, to sow, to reap, nor evento eat; to clothe themselves, to shave, to rejoice, or in fact to doanything whatever as they liked, but were bound to follow the directionsgiven in the law; and not only this, but they were obliged to have marks ontheir door-posts, on their hands, and between their eyes to admonish them toperpetual obedience.

(58) This, then, was the object of the ceremonial law, that men should donothing of their own free will, but should always act under externalauthority, and should continually confess by their actions and thoughts thatthey were not their own masters, but were entirely under the control ofothers.

(59) From all these considerations it is clearer than day that ceremonieshave nothing to do with a state of blessedness, and that those mentioned inthe Old Testament, i.e. the whole Mosaic Law, had reference merely to thegovernment of the Jews, and merely temporal advantages.

(60) As for the Christian rites, such as baptism, the Lord's Supper,festivals, public prayers, and any other observances which are, and alwayshave been, common to all Christendom, if they were instituted by Christ orHis Apostles (which is open to doubt), they were instituted as externalsigns of the universal church, and not as having anything to do withblessedness, or possessing any sanctity in themselves. (61) Therefore,though such ceremonies were not ordained for the sake of upholding agovernment, they were ordained for the preservation of a society, andaccordingly he who lives alone is not bound by them: nay, those who live ina country where the Christian religion is forbidden, are bound to abstainfrom such rites, and can none the less live in a state of blessedness. (62)We have an example of this in Japan, where the Christian religion isforbidden, and the Dutch who live there are enjoined by their East IndiaCompany not to practise any outward rites of religion. (63) I need not citeother examples, though it would be easy to prove my point from thefundamental principles of the New Testament, and to adduce many confirmatoryinstances; but I pass on the more willingly, as I am anxious to proceed tomy next proposition. (64) I will now, therefore, pass on to what I proposedto treat of in the second part of this chapter, namely, what persons arebound to believe in the narratives contained in Scripture, and how far theyare so bound. (65) Examining this question by the aid of natural reason, Iwill proceed as follows.

(66) If anyone wishes to persuade his fellows for or against anything whichis not self-evident, he must deduce his contention from their admissions,and convince them either by experience or by ratiocination; either byappealing to facts of natural experience, or to self-evident intellectualaxioms. (67) Now unless the experience be of such a kind as to be clearlyand distinctly understood, though it may convince a man, it will not havethe same effect on his mind and disperse the clouds of his doubt socompletely as when the doctrine taught is deduced entirely from intellectualaxioms - that is, by the mere power of the understanding and logical order,and this is especially the case in spiritual matters which have nothing todo with the senses.

(68) But the deduction of conclusions from general truths a priori, usuallyrequires a long chain of arguments, and, moreover, very great caution,acuteness, and self-restraint - qualities which are not often met with;therefore people prefer to be taught by experience rather than deducetheir conclusion from a few axioms, and set them out in logical order. (69)Whence it follows, that if anyone wishes to teach a doctrine to a wholenation (not to speak of the whole human race), and to be understood by allmen in every particular, he will seek to support his teaching withexperience, and will endeavour to suit his reasonings and the definitions ofhis doctrines as far as possible to the understanding of the common people,who form the majority of mankind, and he will not set them forth in logicalsequence nor adduce the definitions which serve to establish them. (70)Otherwise he writes only for the learned - that is, he will be understood byonly a small proportion of the human race.

(71) All Scripture was written primarily for an entire people, andsecondarily for the whole human race; therefore its contents mustnecessarily be adapted as far as possible to the understanding of themasses, and proved only by examples drawn from experience. (72) We willexplain ourselves more clearly. (73) The chief speculative doctrines taughtin Scripture are the existence of God, or a Being Who made all things, andWho directs and sustains the world with consummate wisdom; furthermore, thatGod takes the greatest thought for men, or such of them as live piously andhonourably, while He punishes, with various penalties, those who doevil, separating them from the good. (74) All this is proved in Scriptureentirely through experience-that is, through the narratives there related.(75) No definitions of doctrine are given, but all the sayings andreasonings are adapted to the understanding of the masses. (76) Althoughexperience can give no clear knowledge of these things, nor explain thenature of God, nor how He directs and sustains all things, it cannevertheless teach and enlighten men sufficiently to impress obedienceand devotion on their minds.

(77) It is now, I think, sufficiently clear what persons are bound tobelieve in the Scripture narratives, and in what degree they are so bound,for it evidently follows from what has been said that the knowledge of andbelief in them is particularly necessary to the masses whose intellect isnot capable of perceiving things clearly and distinctly. (78) Further, hewho denies them because he does not believe that God exists or takes thoughtfor men and the world, may be accounted impious; but a man who is ignorantof them, and nevertheless knows by natural reason that God exists, as wehave said, and has a true plan of life, is altogether blessed - yes, moreblessed than the common herd of believers, because besides true opinions hepossesses also a true and distinct conception. (79) Lastly, he who isignorant of the Scriptures and knows nothing by the light of reason, thoughhe may not be impious or rebellious, is yet less than human and almostbrutal, having none of God's gifts.

(80) We must here remark that when we say that the knowledge of the sacrednarrative is particularly necessary to the masses, we do not mean theknowledge of absolutely all the narratives in the Bible, but only of theprincipal ones, those which, taken by themselves, plainly display thedoctrine we have just stated, and have most effect over men's minds.

(81) If all the narratives in Scripture were necessary for the proof of thisdoctrine, and if no conclusion could be drawn without the generalconsideration of every one of the histories contained in the sacredwritings, truly the conclusion and demonstration of such doctrine wouldovertask the understanding and strength not only of the masses, but ofhumanity; who is there who could give attention to all the narratives atonce, and to all the circumstances, and all the scraps of doctrine to beelicited from such a host of diverse histories? (82) I cannot believe thatthe men who have left us the Bible as we have it were so abounding in talentthat they attempted setting about such a method of demonstration, still lesscan I suppose that we cannot understand Scriptural doctrine till we havegiven heed to the quarrels of Isaac, the advice of Achitophel to Absalom,the civil war between Jews and Israelites, and other similar chronicles; norcan I think that it was more difficult to teach such doctrine by means ofhistory to the Jews of early times, the contemporaries of Moses, than it wasto the contemporaries of Esdras. (83) But more will be said on this pointhereafter, we may now only note that the masses are only bound to know thosehistories which can most powerfully dispose their mind to obedience anddevotion. (84) However, the masses are not sufficiently skilled to drawconclusions from what they read, they take more delight in the actualstories, and in the strange and unlooked-for issues of events than in thedoctrines implied; therefore, besides reading these narratives, they arealways in need of pastors or church ministers to explain them to theirfeeble intelligence.

(85) But not to wander from our point, let us conclude with what has beenour principal object - namely, that the truth of narratives, be they whatthey may, has nothing to do with the Divine law, and serves for nothingexcept in respect of doctrine, the sole element which makes one historybetter than another. (86) The narratives in the Old and New Testamentssurpass profane history, and differ among themselves in merit simply byreason of the salutary doctrines which they inculcate. (87) Therefore, if aman were to read the Scripture narratives believing the whole of them, butwere to give no heed to the doctrines they contain, and make no amendment inhis life, he might employ himself just as profitably in reading the Koranor the poetic drama, or ordinary chronicles, with the attention usuallygiven to such writings; on the other hand, if a man is absolutely ignorantof the Scriptures, and none the less has right opinions and a trueplan of life, he is absolutely blessed and truly possesses in himself thespirit of Christ.

(88) The Jews are of a directly contrary way of thinking, for they hold thattrue opinions and a true plan of life are of no service in attainingblessedness, if their possessors have arrived at them by the light of reasononly, and not like the documents prophetically revealed to Moses. (89)Maimonides ventures openly to make this assertion: "Every man who takes toheart the seven precepts and diligently follows them, is counted with thepious among the nation, and an heir of the world to come; that is to say, ifhe takes to heart and follows them because God ordained them in the law, andrevealed them to us by Moses, because they were of aforetime precepts to thesons of Noah: but he who follows them as led thereto by reason, is notcounted as a dweller among the pious or among the wise of the nations." (90)Such are the words Of Maimonides, to which R. Joseph, the son of Shem Job,adds in his book which he calls "Kebod Elohim, or God's Glory," thatalthough Aristotle (whom he considers to have written the best ethics and tobe above everyone else) has not omitted anything that concernstrue ethics, and which he has adopted in his own book, carefully followingthe lines laid down, yet this was not able to suffice for his salvation,inasmuch as he embraced his doctrines in accordance with the dictates ofreason and not as Divine documents prophetically revealed.

(91) However, that these are mere figments, and are not supported byScriptural authority will, I think, be sufficiently evident to the attentivereader, so that an examination of the theory will be sufficient for itsrefutation. (92) It is not my purpose here to refute the assertions of thosewho assert that the natural light of reason can teach nothing, of any valueconcerning the true way of salvation. (93) People who lay no claims toreason for themselves, are not able to prove by reason this their assertion;and if they hawk about something superior to reason, it is a mere figment,and far below reason, as their general method of life sufficiently shows.(94) But there is no need to dwell upon such persons. (95) I will merely addthat we can only judge of a man by his works. (96) If a man abounds in thefruits of the Spirit, charity, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness,goodness, faith, gentleness, chastity, against which, as Paul says(Gal. v:22), there is no law, such an one, whether he be taught by reasononly or by the Scripture only, has been in very truth taught by God, and isaltogether blessed. (97) Thus have I said all that I undertook to sayconcerning Divine law.

End of Part 1

AUTHOR'S ENDNOTES TO THE THEOLOGICO-POLITICAL TREATISE

CHAPTERS I to V

Chapter I

Endnote 1. (1) The word nabiis rightly interpreted by Rabbi SalomonJarchi, but the sense is hardly caught by Aben Ezra, who was not so good aHebraist. (2) We must also remark that this Hebrew word for prophecy has auniversal meaning and embraces all kinds of prophecy. (3) Other terms are morespecial, and denote this or that sort of prophecy, as I believe is well knownto the learned.

Endnote 2. (1) "Although, ordinary knowledge is Divine, its professorscannot be called prophets." That is, interpreters of God. (2) For he aloneis an interpreter of God, who interprets the decrees which God has revealedto him, to others who have not received such revelation, and whose belief,therefore, rests merely on the prophet's authority and the confidencereposed in him. (3) If it were otherwise, and all who listen to prophetsbecame prophets themselves, as all who listen to philosophers becomephilosophers, a prophet would no longer be the interpreter of Divinedecrees, inasmuch as his hearers would know the truth, not on the authorityof the prophet, but by means of actual Divine revelation and inwardtestimony. (4) Thus the sovereign powers are the interpreters of their ownrights of sway, because these are defended only by their authority andsupported by their testimony.

Endnote 3. (1) "Prophets were endowed with a peculiar andextraordinary power." (2) Though some men enjoy gifts which nature has notbestowed on their fellows, they are not said to surpass the bounds of humannature, unless their special qualities are such as cannot be said to bededucible from the definition of human nature. (3) For instance, a giant isa rarity, but still human. (4) The gift of composing poetry extempore isgiven to very few, yet it is human. (5) The same may, therefore, be said ofthe faculty possessed by some of imagining things as vividly as though theysaw them before them, and this not while asleep, but while awake. (6) But ifanyone could be found who possessed other means and other foundations forknowledge, he might be said to transcend the limits of human nature.

CHAPTER III.

Endnote 4. (1) In Gen. xv. it is written that God promised Abraham toprotect him, and to grant him ample rewards. (2) Abraham answered that hecould expect nothing which could be of any value to him, as he was childlessand well stricken in years.

Endnote 5. (1) That a keeping of the commandments of the old Testamentis not sufficient for eternal life, appears from Mark x:21.

End of Endnotes to PART I

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