there is no
God beside Him; and He is one, because in Him there can be no
multiplicity or division of parts; He created out of nought the
universe, which He governs by pre-ordained physical laws, and all that
exists owes to Him its existence and conservation. Respecting man,
revelation teaches that he has an immortal soul, made in the image of
God--that is, endowed with various spiritual faculties similar, in their
nature, to those of his Maker--therefore susceptible of a progressive
perfection, which he will attain by sanctifying himself--that is, by
imitating God and carrying out his commands. To that effect, God entered
into an immediate relation with man, whereby He not only provides for
the preservation of mankind, as He does for that of all other things
created, but He, moreover, granted him a supernatural assistance to
improve his moral condition; and this assistance consists in having made
him the recipient of a revelation, by which He instructed him in the
best rules of life, and declared to him that He will be his support, his
protector, his judge, his loving father, and his guide towards eternal
felicity.

XCIV. But the religious idea is not simply a theory that may be accepted
or rejected without affecting the human actions, it is not an
abstraction confined within the sphere of contemplation; it is a
practical system, which requires to be put into execution, and to be
manifested in every part of the human conduct. As such, it was to pass
into the hands of men, to direct their actions; and they could conform
to it only to the extent of their intellectual comprehension of its
spirit. Now, every institution, however excellent in itself, is liable
to vicissitudes, as soon as human ingenuity seeks to comprehend it, and
human weakness to carry it into effect. Even as the intellectual powers
and the modes of viewing things vary among men, so the religious idea,
in its practical application, was subject, in the lapse of time, to some
alteration among those who became its depositaries. Judaism did not
remain always pure and consentaneous to its ends; and, although based on
a foundation unchangeable in its nature, and eternal, its practice was
sometimes at variance with its spirit, and its essence was either
neglected or misunderstood, according to certain circumstances of the
national development, as we are informed, even by the records of sacred
history.

XCV. There can be no doubt but the inspired man, who f