Into the causes of that exclusiveness I will not now enter; suffice it
to say, that it was pardonable enough in a people asserting Monotheism
in the midst of idolatrous nations, and who knew, from experience even
more bitter than that which taught Plato and Socrates, how directly all
those popular idolatries led to every form of baseness and immorality.
But we may trace in them, from the date of their return from Babylon,
especially from their settlement in Alexandria, a singular change of
opinion. In proportion as they began to deny that their unseen personal
Ruler had anything to do with the Gentiles--the nations of the earth, as
they called them--in proportion as they considered themselves as His
only subjects--or rather, Him and His guidance as their own private
property--exactly in that proportion they began to lose all living or
practical belief that He did guide them. He became a being of the past;
one who had taught and governed their forefathers in old times: not one
who was teaching and governing them now. I beg you to pay attention to
this curious result; because you will see, I think, the very same thing
occurring in two other Alexandrian schools, of which I shall speak
hereafter.
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