This view, growing out of the myths, legends, and theologies of
earlier peoples, we also find embodied in the sacred tradition
of the Jews, and especially in one of the documents which form
the impressive poem beginning the books attributed to Moses. As
to the Christian Church, no word of its Blessed Founder
indicates that it was committed by him to this theory, or that
he even thought it worthy of his attention. How, like so many
other dogmas never dreamed of by Jesus of Nazareth and those who
knew him best, it was developed, it does not lie within the
province of this chapter to point out; nor is it worth our
while to dwell upon its evolution in the early Church, in the
Middle Ages, at the Reformation, and in various branches of the
Protestant Church: suffice it that, though among
English-speaking nations by far the most important influence in
its favour has come from Milton's inspiration rather than from
that of older sacred books, no doctrine has been more
universally accepted, "always, everywhere, and by all," from
the earliest fathers of the Church down to the present hour.
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