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