... instructed, as we are, that He is the
Son of the True God, and holding Him in the second place; and the
Prophetic Spirit in the third order, we with reason honour." [Sect.
xiii. p. 50.] {111}
The impiety apparently inseparable from Bellarmin's interpretation has
induced many, even among Roman Catholic writers, to discard that
acceptation altogether, and to substitute others, which, though
involving no grammatical inaccuracy, are still not free from
difficulty.[37] After weighing the passage with all the means in my
power, and after testing the various interpretations offered by writers,
whether of the Church of Rome or not, by the sentiments of Justin
himself, and others of the same early age, I am fully persuaded that the
following is the only true rendering of Justin's words:
"Honouring in reason and truth, we reverence and worship HIM, the Father
of Righteousness, and the Son (who proceeded from Him, and instructed in
these things both ourselves and the host of the other good angels
following Him and being made like unto Him), and the Prophetic Spirit."
[Footnote 37: Le Nourry (Apparatus ad Bibliothecam Maximam
Veterum Patrum. Paris, 1697. vol. ii. p. 305), himself a
Benedictine, rejects Bellarmin's and his brother Benedictine
Maran's interpretation, and conceives Justin to mean, that the
Son of God not only taught us those truths to which he was
referring, with regard to the being and attributes of God, but
also taught us that there were hosts of spiritual beings, called
Angels; good beings, opposed to the demons of paganism.
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