Page:Mahometanism in its relation to prophecy - or, an inquiry into the prophecies concerning antichrist, with some reference to their bearing on the events of the present day (IA mahometanisminit00philrich).pdf/253

 taken them "to mean Christ and St. John the Baptist;" and "St. Antoninus thought they were the Pope Sylverius and Mennas of Constantinople;" while others, he adds, took them to mean "Saint Dominic and Saint Francis;" and the Abbot Joachim held them to be the priests and the monks of the Catholic Church; while the glorious St. Teresa thought that they represented the Jesuit and Dominican orders; and Protestant authors have interpreted them to mean the two Testaments of Holy Scripture, or the sects of the medieval period, who protested against the Catholic Church,—such as the Waldenses and Albigenses, the Hussites and Lollards, and the rest.

It is manifest from all this that there is a very great variety of opinion amongst commentators whether they belong to the Catholic Church, or whether they be separated from her communion.

For my own part, whilst I have no doubt that Elias will come again, and restore all things, as our Lord Himself asserted; and while I think there is a very general tradition in the Church affirming the same of Enoch; and while I believe that St. John in this place alludes to Elias and Enoch, and probably includes them, I also am convinced that he means