(51) Lastly, from Job xxxviii:28, it is plain that God had ordained for the
whole human race the law to reverence God, to keep from evil doing, or to do
well, and that Job, although a Gentile, was of all men most acceptable to
God, because he exceeded all in piety and religion. (52) Lastly, from Jonah
iv:2, it is very evident that, not only to the Jews but to all men, God was
gracious, merciful, long- suffering, and of great goodness, and repented Him
of the evil, for Jonah says: "Therefore I determined to flee before unto
Tarshish, for I know that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to
anger, and of great kindness," &c., and that, therefore, God would pardon
the Ninevites. (53) We conclude, therefore (inasmuch as God is to all men
equally gracious, and the Hebrews were only, chosen by him in respect to
their social organization and government), that the individual Jew, taken
apart from his social organization and government, possessed no
gift of God above other men, and that there was no difference between Jew
and 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 teach
men not so much the laws of their country, as true virtue, and to exhort
them 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 the
other nations had as many prophets as the Hebrews, or that any Gentile
prophet was expressly sent by God to the nations, this does not affect the
question, for the Hebrews were careful to record their own affairs, not
those of other nations. (57) It suffices, then, that we find in the Old
Testament Gentiles, and uncircumcised, as Noah, Enoch, Abimelech,
Balaam, &c., exercising prophetic gifts; further, that Hebrew prophets were
sent 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 we
are aware of, save the Idumeans; and Jonah was chiefly the prophet to the