26. Thirdly ; after the ascension of Christ into Heaven, Here^
Vices of Heathen gods.
Men deified.
IJ) same animals are considered by some to be gods; by others, Apol. to be wild beasts; and by others still, to be sacrificial i^^^i?^* victims, as you well know.
25. And, secondly, we who from every nation formerly Chris. worshipped Bacchus, the son of Semele ; and Apollo, thef'^"^ /. X
. behtve son oi L/atona ; whose practices with men it is shameful nothing even to mention ; and Proserpine, and Venus, who were ""^of maddened for love of Adonis, and whose mysteries also you^^^'celebrate
; or ^sculapius, or any other of those who are called gods ; do now, although threatened with death for it, hold them, through Jesus Christ, in utter contempt; and dedicate ourselves to God, the Unbegotten, and Impassible; who we are persuaded was never urged by lust to descend on Antiope, and other women likewise; nor on Ganymede, nor was released by assistance obtained through Thetis of that hundred-handed giant; nor was anxious, in return, that Achilles her son should, because of his concubine Briseis, bring death on so many of the G reeks
; and we feel pity for those who believe these things, but their authors we know to be devils.
26.
Thirdly ; after the ascension of Christ into Heaven, Here^ the devils put forward certain men who styled themselves f^^^^^^j" gods, who not only were not persecuted by you, but were even deemed worthy of honours.
There was Simon of Samaria, a native of a village called Gitto, who in the time of Claudius Caesar, through the craft of the devils working by his means, performed acts of magic, and was held in your royal city of Rome to be a god, and was honoured by you with a statue like a god, which was raised on the river Tiber, between the two bridges, bearing this inscription in the Roman language, '* To Simon the holy god%" whom Orat. iii, p. 83. (ed. Fen. Or. iv.
§. 81.
Csesar, because of his sTcill in magic." p. 117.) where the word seems to be Adv. Hseres. i. 20.
Tertullian speaks used so as to include statues. more decidedly, " Simon was inauq " Simon the ho'v god."
There gurated with the statue and inscriphave been great diversities of opinion tion ' of the holy god.'"'
Apol. §. xiii. as to St.
Justin's correctness in this Eusebius, ii. 13. and Cyril of Jerusalem, assertion.
Besides himself, this statue Cat. Lect. vi. 9. follow the account ot is mentioned among early writers by St.
Justin.
Theodoret tells us, that St.
Irenseus, Tertullian, Eusebius, Simon's was made of brass, Her. Fab.
Theodoret, and St.
Augustin.
St. i.
And St. Augilstm, de Hfcrea. i.
Irenreus merely says, that " Simon is says, that Simon erected his own reported to have been honoured with image, and that of Helena at Rome, a statue in the reign of Claudius by public authority, as if they were C 2
Deceptio7is of the Gnostics tolerated.
Just, almost all the natives of Samaria, with a few of other ' ^^^' nations, confess to be the first god, and worship ; and a certain Helena, who travelled about with him at that time, and had formerly exposed herself in the Stews ^, they term the first idea generated from him.
I know too, that one Menander, another Samaritan of the village of Capparataea, and a disciple of Simon, was also influenced by devils, and when in Antioch he deceived many by means of his magic, and he even persuaded his followers that they should never die, which some of his disciples still believe.
And there is a Marcion of Pontus^, who is even now teaching his disciples to believe in another and greater god than the Creator.
He, by the assistance of devils, has made many of every nation utter blasphemies, denying the Creator of this universe to be God, and causing them to confess another, who as being a greater god has done greater things than He.
All who come of these are, as I have said, called Christians; just as those who do not agree with the philosophers in their doctrines, yet bear the common title which is derivedfrom philosophy.
Whether or not these people commit those shameful and fabulous actions,—the putting out the lights, indulging in promiscuous intercourse, and eating human flesh, I know not ; but that they are not persecuted and put to death by you, at least for their opinions, I do knov/.
'I have by me, however, a treatise, composed against all the heresies that have existed, which, if you wish to peruse it, I will present to you.
»' Eusebius, in his citation of this images of the gods.
The chief arguineni" against the assertion of these passage from St. Justin, has added the Fathers, is derived from the fact, that words " in Tyre of Phoenicia," History, in the year 1574, a fragment of marble ii.
13. with whom St.
Irenseus, adv. was dug up at the spot described by Hser. i. 20, and St. Epiphanius, Hser.
StJustin, bearing the inscription 20. §. 2. agree.
" St-moni Sanco Deo Fideo," which >* Marcion was one of the Docetic St. Justin and the others are supposed class of Gnostics, a pUjil of Cerdo, to have mistaken for Simtni Deo and, accoiding to St.
Gregory NaSancto; whether it had ever been a zianzen, a follower of the doctrines statue at all, or any part of one, seems of Simon Magus.
Like many other very doubtful; and Theodoret, as we Gnostics, he distinguished hitween have seen, asserts, that that of Simon Jl'sus and Christ, and held that the was of brass.
The reader will find the Creator of the world was not the whole question of this inscription most Supreme God, but was evil in Himlully and ably discussed by the late self, and the Author of evil.
In coni)r.
Burton, in the 42d note of his sequence, he denied the Resurrection Bamftton Lectures, to which he has of the body.
St. Irenseus ad.
Her. i. also affixed a copious list of authorities Tertull. prescript. Hseret.
Theodoret on each side of the question.
And see Her.
Fab. i. 24.
Epiphan. Her. xlii.
Tertullian, Apol.
13. page 32.
Tillemont.