|
WHEREFORE on those passages which are brought forward with a clear
explanation we also can constantly lay down the meaning and boldly state
our own opinions. But those which the Holy Spirit, reserving for our
meditation and exercise, has inserted in holy Scripture with veiled
meaning, wishing some of them to be gathered from various proofs and
conjectures, ought to be step by step and carefully brought together, so
that their assertions and proofs may be arranged by the discretion of the
man who is arguing or supporting them. For sometimes when a difference of
opinion is expressed on one and the same subject, either view may be
considered reasonable and be held without injury to the faith either
firmly, or doubtfully, i.e., in such a way that neither is full belief nor
absolute rejection accorded to it, and the second view need not interfere
with the former, if neither of them is found to be opposed to the faith: as
in this case: where Elias came in the person of John, and is again to be
the precursor of the Lord's Advent: and in the matter of the "Abomination
of desolation" which "stood in the holy place," by means of that idol of
Jupiter which, as we read, was placed in the temple in Jerusalem, and which
is again to stand in the Church through the coming of Antichrist, and
all those things which follow in the gospel, which we take as having been
fulfilled before the captivity of Jerusalem and still to be fulfilled at
the end of this world. In which matters neither view is opposed to the
other, nor does the first interpretation interfere with the second.
|
|