was it solely on account of their piety? (39) These questions being
answered, I was easily able to conclude, that the authority of the prophets
has weight only in matters of morality, and that their speculative doctrines
affect us little.

(40) Next I inquired, why the Hebrews were called God's chosen people, and
discovering that it was only because God had chosen for them a certain strip
of territory, where they might live peaceably and at ease, I learnt that the
Law revealed 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 Hebrews after the downfall of their nation. (41) Further, in order to
ascertain, whether it could be concluded from Scripture, that the human
understanding standing is naturally corrupt, I inquired whether the
Universal Religion, the Divine Law revealed through the Prophets and
Apostles to the whole human race, differs from that which is taught by the
light of natural reason, whether miracles can take place in violation of the
laws of nature, and if so, whether they imply the existence of God more
surely and clearly than events, which we understand plainly and distinctly
through their immediate natural causes.

(42) Now, as in the whole course of my investigation I found nothing taught
expressly by Scripture, which does not agree with our understanding, or
which 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, that
they clothed their leaching 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 and
Philosophy stand on different footings. In order to set this forth
categorically and exhaust the whole question, I point out the way in which