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.

We can now easily understand what is meant by the election of God. 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. Lastly, by fortune, I mean the
ordinance of God in so far as it directs human life through external and
unexpected means. 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.

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.

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. 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.
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.
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. 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. Now for forming and preserving a society, no ordinary
ability and care is required: that society will be most secure, most
stable, and l