A Guide for the Religious Instruction of Jewish Youth | Page 8

natural and inherent in mankind, so
long as reason is their only luminary in the research.
XXX. The experience of all ages teaches us that the obstacles above
stated have always exercised their influence upon the development of
the moral sense among men, by retarding, and sometimes even
rendering impossible to them, a clear and sound conception of their
destination, and a firm resolve to conform to it.
All the nations of antiquity, which, left to themselves, never received
from without any spiritual and religious instruction, could never rise
from the slough of sensuality and superstition; they sank deep in
idolatry, and ultimately adopted creeds and practices abominable and
repugnant alike to the excellence of reason and the dignity of man. On
the other hand, all the nations that totally or partly succeeded in

extricating themselves from a state of brutality and barbarism, must
acknowledge that not to the development of their intelligence alone
they owe their regeneration, but to certain sublime doctrines--originated
in causes quite extrinsical from human nature--which, having found
their way to them through a concourse of favourable and apparently
fortuitous circumstances, were more or less readily admitted, as notions
gained from without, and by degrees ingrafted, under various
modifications, on their own primitive ideas.
XXXI. It being, then, almost impossible, or, at least, extremely difficult,
for man to arrive, through the sole action of the faculties inherent in his
nature, at his intended goal, to shape his course accordingly, and thus to
lay the foundations of his future happiness, it was necessary that an
intelligence far superior to his own should come to his assistance,
communicate to him some fundamental truths concerning his present
and future life, enlighten his intellect, guide his reason, invigorate his
will in the paths of truth, justice, and righteousness, and thus facilitate
to him the attainment of his sublime destination. It was necessary that
God himself should instruct him in what was most important to know,
manifest His will to him, and explicitly point out to him the way he was
to follow, the obstructions he was to avoid, and the goal he had to reach.
Man, then, was in need of a revelation.
CHAPTER V.
XXXII. THIS revelation was actually vouchsafed. It pleased the
supreme Being, through His infinite mercy, to manifest His will, and
make known some great and precious truths, which men would have
vainly attempted to discover with the unaided operation of their reason;
He chose to undertake, to a certain extent, the education of mankind.
From the beginning of the world God revealed Himself to the first man;
and He continued afterwards for many ages, as His eternal wisdom
deemed proper, to communicate to such individuals as were the
worthiest among mortals the instructions which were afterwards to
work the salvation of all mankind. Those instructions, which contain
truths by far more comforting and sublime than any results which man
could have arrived at through his own faculties alone, constitute the

substance of Revelation; and he who acknowledges their divine origin,
and conforms to them the actions of his life, is called a professor of the
revealed religion.
XXXIII. That God has really revealed Himself to some individuals of
the human species is an historical fact, the truth of which is proved, like
all truths of a similar order, by testimony and documents. But
independently of the existing evidence, the possibility of such an act
can be easily conceived by the human understanding, when we consider
that everything is feasible to the omnipotence of the Creator; and
nothing is more consentaneous to His infinite goodness and wisdom,
than the blessed purpose of granting to human frailty an assistance
calculated to lead the noblest of creatures to the attainment of the
exalted end for which he was created. To conceive, also, the precise
modes and forms in which such a revelation is effected or conveyed, it
was given only to those elect who were themselves the recipients, and
who are called Prophets. But we can arrive at the knowledge of the
principal characteristics which constitute prophecy, after we shall have
placed in a clear light the essence and the final object of revelation.
XXXIV. All the revealed doctrines may be reduced to one fundamental
principle, from which they originate, and on which rests the whole
edifice of revelation. This principle may be expressed as
follows:--Besides the general relation of dependence existing
indistinctly between all creatures and their Creator, there is a relation
more intimate and special between God and man--a relation of a
spiritual and sentimental nature, arising from the circumstance of the
latter being created in the image of God, by virtue of which man is not
subject exclusively to the blind government of the physical laws of
nature, but, almost independent of them, he walks under the