Book: A Theologico Political Treatise [Part I]

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(96) Jacob, according to Aben Ezra's opinion, therefore admonished his sons
when he wished them to seek out a new country, that they should prepare
themselves 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 persecution
to live away from his country, said that he was driven out from the heritage
of 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 they
were accommodated to these opinions; as he believed that the Divine Nature
was subject to the conditions of mercy, graciousness, &c., so God was
revealed to him in accordance with his idea and under these attributes (see
Exodus 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 as
Moses (as we have said) had formed no mental image of God, and God (as I
have shown) only revealed Himself to the prophets in accordance with the
disposition 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, "Thou
canst not see My face;" and inasmuch as Moses believed that God can be
looked upon - that is, that no contradiction of the Divine nature is therein
involved (for otherwise he would never have preferred his request) - it is
added, "For no one shall look on Me and live," thus giving a reason in
accordance with Moses' idea, for it is not stated that a contradiction of
the Divine nature would be involved, as was really the case, but that the
thing would not come to pass because of human infirmity.

(103) When God would reveal to Moses that the Israelites, because they
worshipped the calf, were to be placed in the same category as other
nations, He said (ch. xxxiii:2, 3), that He would send an angel (that is, a
being who should have charge of the Israelites, instead of the Supreme
Being), and that He Himself would no longer remain among them; thus leaving
Moses no ground for supposing that the Israelites were more beloved by God
than the other nations whose guardianship He had entrusted to other beings
or angels (vide verse 16).

(104) Lastly, as Moses believed that God dwelt in the heavens, God was
revealed to him as coming down from heaven on to a mountain, and in order to
talk with the Lord Moses went up the mountain, which he certainly need not
have done if he could have conceived of God as omnipresent.

(105) The Israelites knew scarcely anything of God, although He was revealed
to them; and this is abundantly evident from their transferring, a few days
afterwards, the honour and worship due to Him to a calf, which they believed
to be the god who had brought them out of Egypt. (106) In truth, it is
hardly likely that men accustomed to the superstitions of Egypt,
uncultivated and sunk in most abject slavery, should have held any sound
notions about the Deity, or that Moses should have taught them anything
beyond a rule of right living; inculcating it not like a philosopher, as the
result of freedom, but like a lawgiver compelling them to be moral by
legal authority. (107) Thus the rule of right living, the worship and love
of God, was to them rather a bondage than the true liberty, the gift and
grace of the Deity. (108) Moses bid them love God and keep His law, because
they had in the past received benefits from Him (such as the
deliverance from slavery in Egypt), and further terrified them with threats
if they transgressed His commands, holding out many promises of good if they
should observe them; thus treating them as parents treat irrational
children. It is, therefore, certain that they knew not the excellence of
virtue and the true happiness.

(109) Jonah thought that he was fleeing from the sight of God, which seems
to show that he too held that God had entrusted the care of the nations
outside Judaea to other substituted powers. (110) No one in the whole of the
Old Testament speaks more rationally of God than Solomon, who in fact
surpassed all the men of his time in natural ability. (111) Yet he
considered himself above the law (esteeming it only to have been given for
men without reasonable and intellectual grounds for their actions), and made
small account of the laws concerning kings, which are mainly three: nay, he
openly violated them (in this he did wrong, and acted in a manner unworthy
of a philosopher, by indulging in sensual pleasure), and taught that all
Fortune's favours to mankind are vanity, that humanity has no nobler gift
than 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 have
undertaken to note. (114) The expressed ideas of Ezekiel seemed so diverse
from those of Moses to the Rabbis who have left us the extant prophetic
books (as is told in the treatise of Sabbathus, i:13, 2), that they had
serious thoughts of omitting his prophecy from the canon, and would
doubtless have thus excluded it if a certain Hananiah 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 not sufficiently appear,
whether it was by writing a commentary which has now perished, or by
altering Ezekiel's words and audaciously - striking out phrases according to
his fancy. (116) However this may be, chapter xviii. certainly does not seem
to agree with Exodus xxxiv:7, Jeremiah xxxii:18, &c.

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

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

(125) We have now more than sufficiently proved our point, that God adapted
revelations to the understanding and opinions of the prophets, and that in
matters of theory without bearing on charity or morality the prophets could
be, and, in fact, were, ignorant, and held conflicting opinions. (126) It
therefore 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 the
prophetic writings, the object and substance of the revelation; with regard
to the details, every one may believe or not, as he likes.

(128) For instance, the revelation to Cain only teaches us that God
admonished him to lead the true life, for such alone is the object and
substance of the revelation, not doctrines concerning free will and
philosophy. (129) Hence, though the freedom of the will is clearly implied
in the words of the admonition, we are at liberty to hold a contrary
opinion, since the words and reasons were adapted to the understanding of
Cain.

(130) So, too, the revelation to Micaiah would only teach that God revealed
to him the true issue of the battle between Ahab and Aram; and this is all
we are bound to believe. (131) Whatever else is contained in the revelation
concerning the true and the false Spirit of God, the army of heaven standing
on the right hand and on the left, and all the other details, does not
affect us at all. (132) Everyone may believe as much of it as his reason
allows.

(132) The reasonings by which the Lord displayed His power to Job (if they
really were a revelation, and the author of the history is narrating, and
not merely, as some suppose, rhetorically adorning his own conceptions),
would come under the same category - that is, they were adapted to Job's
understanding, 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 reasonings
of Christ, by which He convicted the Pharisees of pride and ignorance, and
exhorted His disciples to lead the true life. (134) He adapted them to each
man's opinions and principles. (135) For instance, when He said to the
Pharisees (Matt. xii:26), "And if Satan cast out devils, his house is
divided against itself, how then shall his kingdom stand? (136) "He only
wished to convince the Pharisees according, to their own principles, not to
teach 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 one
of these little ones, for I say unto you that their angels," &c., He merely
desired to warn them against pride and despising any of their fellows, not
to insist on the actual reason given, which was simply adopted in order to
persuade them more easily.

(138) Lastly, we should say, exactly the same of the apostolic signs and
reasonings, but there is no need to go further into the subject. (139) If I
were to enumerate all the passages of Scripture addressed only to
individuals, or to a particular man's understanding, and which cannot,
without great danger to philosophy, be defended as Divine doctrines, I
should 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 the
curious reader consider others by himself. (141) Although the points we
have just raised concerning prophets and prophecy are the only ones which
have any direct bearing on the end in view, namely, the separation of
Philosophy 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 a
conclusion about the vocation of the Hebrews, all of which I shall do in the
ensuing 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 the
enjoyment of what is good, not in the pride that he alone is enjoying it, to
the exclusion of others. (2) He who thinks himself the more blessed because
he is enjoying benefits which others are not, or because he is more blessed
or more fortunate than his fellows, is ignorant of true happiness and
blessedness, and the joy which he feels is either childish or envious and
malicious. (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 than
others, or that others lack such knowledge: such considerations do not
increase his wisdom or true happiness.

(4) Whoever, therefore, rejoices for such reasons, rejoices in another's
misfortune, and is, so far, malicious and bad, knowing neither true
happiness 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); that
to them alone He has given just laws (Deut. iv:8); and, lastly, that He has
marked them out before others (Deut. iv:32); it speaks only according to the
understanding of its hearers, who, as we have shown in the last chapter, and
as Moses also testifies (Deut. ix:6, 7), knew not true blessedness. (6) For
in good sooth they would have been no less blessed if God had called all men
equally to salvation, nor would God have been less present to them for being
equally present to others; their laws, would have been no less just if they
had 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 for
other nations also; lastly, the Hebrews would have been just as much bound
to 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 as
he in time to come, it seems to be only a manner of expressing surpassing
wisdom; it is little to be believed that God would have promised Solomon,
for his greater happiness, that He would never endow anyone with so much
wisdom in time to come; this would in no wise have increased Solomon's
intellect, and the wise king would have given equal thanks to the Lord if
everyone had been gifted with the same faculties.

(9) Still, though we assert that Moses, in the passages of the Pentateuch
just cited, spoke only according to the understanding of the Hebrews, we
have no wish to deny that God ordained the Mosaic law for them alone, nor
that He spoke to them alone, nor that they witnessed marvels beyond those
which happened to any other nation; but we wish to emphasize that
Moses desired to admonish the Hebrews in such a manner, and with such
reasonings as would appeal most forcibly to their childish understanding,
and constrain them to worship the Deity. (10) Further, we wished to show
that the Hebrews did not surpass other nations in knowledge, or in piety,
but evidently in some attribute different from these; or (to speak like the
Scriptures, according to their understanding), that the Hebrews were not
chosen 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 the
guidance of God, by the help of God, external and inward, and, lastly, what
I understand by fortune.

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

(14) So that to say that everything happens according to natural laws, and
to say that everything is ordained by the decree and ordinance of God, is
the same thing. (15) Now since the power in nature is identical with the
power of God, by which alone all things happen and are determined, it
follows that whatsoever man, as a part of nature, provides himself with to
aid and preserve his existence, or whatsoever nature affords him without his
help, is given to him solely by the Divine power, acting either through
human nature or through external circumstance. (16) So whatever human nature
can furnish itself with by its own efforts to preserve its existence, may
be fitly called the inward aid of God, whereas whatever else accrues to
man'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 can
choose a plan of life for himself, or accomplish any work save by God's
vocation choosing him for the work or the plan of life in question, rather
than any other. (19) Lastly, by fortune, I mean the ordinance of God in so
far as it directs human life through external and unexpected means. (20)
With these preliminaries I return to my purpose of discovering the reason
why the Hebrews were said to be elected by God before other nations, and
with the demonstration I thus proceed.

(21) All objects of legitimate desire fall, generally speaking, under one of 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 these
ends, and which may be considered their proximate and efficient causes are
contained in human nature itself, so that their acquisition hinges only on
our own power, and on the laws of human nature. (23) It may be concluded
that these gifts are not peculiar to any nation, but have always been shared
by the whole human race, unless, indeed, we would indulge the dream that
nature formerly created men of different kinds. (24) But the means which
conduce to security and health are chiefly in external circumstance, and are
called the gifts of fortune because they depend chiefly on objective causes
of which we are ignorant; for a fool may be almost as liable to happiness
or unhappiness as a wise man. (25) Nevertheless, human management and
watchfulness can greatly assist towards living in security and warding off
the injuries of our fellow-men, and even of beasts. (26) Reason and
experience show no more certain means of attaining this object than
the formation of a society with fixed laws, the occupation of a strip of
territory 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, no
ordinary ability and care is required: that society will be most
secure, most stable, and least liable to reverses, which is founded and
directed by far-seeing and careful men; while, on the other hand, a society
constituted by men without trained skill, depends in a great measure on
fortune, and is less constant. (28) If, in spite of all, such a society
lasts a long time, it is owing to some other directing influence than its
own; if it overcomes great perils and its affairs prosper, it will perforce
marvel at and adore the guiding Spirit of God (in so far, that is, as God
works through hidden means, and not through the nature and mind of man),
for everything happens to it unexpectedly and contrary to anticipation, it
may even be said and thought to be by miracle. (29) Nations, then, are
distinguished from one another in respect to the social organization and the
laws under which they live and are governed; the Hebrew nation was not
chosen by God in respect to its wisdom nor its tranquillity of mind, but in
respect to its social organization and the good fortune with which it
obtained supremacy and kept it so many years. (30) This is abundantly clear
from Scripture. Even a cursory perusal will show us that the only respects
in which the Hebrews surpassed other nations, are in their successful
conduct of matters relating to government, and in their surmounting great
perils solely by God's external aid; in other ways they were on a par with
their fellows, and God was equally gracious to all. (31) For in respect to
intellect (as we have shown in the last chapter) they held very ordinary
ideas about God and nature, so that they cannot have been God's chosen in
this respect; nor were they so chosen in respect of virtue and the true
life, for here again they, with the exception of a very few elect, were on
an equality with other nations: therefore their choice and vocation
consisted only in the temporal happiness and advantages of independent rule.
(32) In fact, we do not see that God promised anything beyond this to the
patriarchs [Endnote 4] or their successors; in the law no other reward is
offered for obedience than the continual happiness of an independent
commonwealth and other goods of this life; while, on the other hand, against
contumacy and the breaking of the covenant is threatened the downfall of the
commonwealth and great hardships. (33) Nor is this to be wondered at; for
the ends of every social organization and commonwealth are (as appears from
what we have said, and as we will explain more at length hereafter) security
and 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 very
fact they dissolve the state and destroy the commonwealth. (35) Thus, the
only reward which could be promised to the Hebrews for continued obedience
to the law was security [Endnote 5] and its attendant advantages, while no
surer punishment could be threatened for disobedience, than the ruin of the
state and the evils which generally follow therefrom, in addition to such
further consequences as might accrue to the Jews in particular from the ruin
of their especial state. (36) But there is no need here to go into this
point at more length. (37) I will only add that the laws of the Old
Testament were revealed and ordained to the Jews only, for as God chose them
in respect to the special constitution of their society and government, they
must, of course, have had special laws. (38) Whether God ordained special
laws for other nations also, and revealed Himself to their lawgivers
prophetically, that is, under the attributes by which the latter were
accustomed to imagine Him, I cannot sufficiently determine. (39) It is
evident from Scripture itself that other nations acquired supremacy and
particular laws by the external aid of God; witness only the two following
passages:

(40) In Genesis xiv:18, 19, 20, it is related that Melchisedek was king of
Jerusalem and priest of the Most High God, that in exercise of his priestly
functions he blessed Abraham, and that Abraham the beloved of the Lord gave
to this priest of God a tithe of all his spoils. (41) This sufficiently
shows that before He founded the Israelitish nation God constituted kings
and priests in Jerusalem, and ordained for them rites and laws. (42) Whether
He did so prophetically is, as I have said, not sufficiently clear; but I am
sure of this, that Abraham, whilst he sojourned in the city, lived
scrupulously according to these laws, for Abraham had received no special
rites from God; and yet it is stated (Gen. xxvi:5), that he observed the
worship, the precepts, the statutes, and the laws of God, which must be
interpreted to mean the worship, the statutes, the precepts, and the laws of
king Melchisedek. (43) Malachi chides the Jews as follows (i:10-11.): "Who
is there among you that will shut the doors? [of the Temple]; neither do ye
kindle fire on mine altar for nought. (44) I have no pleasure in you, saith
the Lord of Hosts. (45) For from the rising of the sun, even until the going
down of the same My Name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every
place incense shall be offered in My Name, and a pure offering; for My Name
is great among the heathen, saith the Lord of Hosts." (46) These words,
which, unless we do violence to them, could only refer to the current
period, abundantly testify that the Jews of that time were not more beloved
by God than other nations, that God then favoured other nations with more
miracles than He vouchsafed to the Jews, who had then partly recovered their
empire without miraculous aid; and, lastly, that the Gentiles possessed
rites and ceremonies acceptable to God. (47) But I pass over these points
lightly: it is enough for my purpose to have shown that the election of the
Jews had regard to nothing but temporal physical happiness and freedom, in
other words, autonomous government, and to the manner and means by which
they obtained it; consequently to the laws in so far as they were
necessary to the preservation of that special government; and, lastly, to
the manner in which they were revealed. In regard to other matters, wherein
man's true happiness consists, they were on a par with the rest of the
nations.

(48) When, therefore, it is said in Scripture (Deut. iv:7) that the Lord is
not so nigh to any other nation as He is to the Jews, reference is only made
to their government, and to the period when so many miracles happened to
them, for in respect of intellect and virtue - that is, in respect of
blessedness - 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 call
upon 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 all
His works." In Ps. xxxiii:16, it is clearly stated that God has granted to
all men the same intellect, in these words, He fashioneth their hearts
alike." The heart was considered by the Hebrews, as I suppose everyone
knows, to be the seat of the soul and the intellect.

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