But both HIM and the SON, who came from Him, and taught these
things to us, and THE HOST OF THE OTHER GOOD ANGELS ACCOMPANYING AND
MADE LIKE, and THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT, we reverence and worship, honouring
them in reason and truth; and without grudging, delivering the doctrine
to every one who is willing to learn as we were taught." [Page 47.]
Governing the words "the host of the other good angels," as much as the
words "Him" and "His Son," and "the prophetic Spirit," by the verbs "we
reverence and worship," Bellarmin and others[34] maintain, that Justin
bears testimony in this passage to the worship of angels. That this
cannot be the true interpretation of Justin's words will be
acknowledged, I think, by every Catholic, whether Anglican or Roman,
when he contemplates it in all its naked plainness; all will revolt from
it as impious and contrary to the principles professed by the most
celebrated and honoured among Roman Catholic writers. This
interpretation of the passage, when analysed, implies the awful thought,
that we Christians pay to the host of angels, God's ministers and our
own fellow-servants, the same reverence, worship, and honour which we
pay to the supreme Father, and his ever-blessed Son, and the Holy
Spirit, without any difference or inequality. No principles of
interpretation can avoid that inference.
[Footnote 33: The genuineness of this passage has been doubted.
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