Anf-01 ix.iii.xxxiii Pg 15
Comp. Acts viii. 9; 18.
from them [on account of such miraculous interpositions]. For as she has received freely3277 3277
Anf-01 ix.ii.xxiv Pg 2
Acts viii. 9–11.
This Simon, then—who feigned faith, supposing that the apostles themselves performed their cures by the art of magic, and not by the power of God; and with respect to their filling with the Holy Ghost, through the imposition of hands, those that believed in God through Him who was preached by them, namely, Christ Jesus—suspecting that even this was done through a kind of greater knowledge of magic, and offering money to the apostles, thought he, too, might receive this power of bestowing the Holy Spirit on whomsoever he would,—was addressed in these words by Peter: “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God can be purchased with money: thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God; for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.”2935 2935
Anf-03 iv.xi.lvii Pg 10
Acts viii. 9; xiii. 8.
but the blindness which struck (them) was no enchanter’s trick. What novelty is there in the effort of an unclean spirit to counterfeit the truth? At this very time, even, the heretical dupes of this same Simon (Magus) are so much elated by the extravagant pretensions of their art, that they undertake to bring up from Hades the souls of the prophets themselves. And I suppose that they can do so under cover of a lying wonder. For, indeed, it was no less than this that was anciently permitted to the Pythonic (or ventriloquistic) spirit1825 1825 See above in ch. xxviii. p. 209, supra.
—even to represent the soul of Samuel, when Saul consulted the dead, after (losing the living) God.1826 1826 1 Sam. xxviii. 6–16.
God forbid, however, that we should suppose that the soul of any saint, much less of a prophet, can be dragged out of (its resting-place in Hades) by a demon. We know that “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light”1827 1827
Anf-03 iv.iv.ix Pg 13
See Acts viii. 9–24.
Both he and that other magician, who was with Sergius Paulus, (since he began opposing himself to the same apostles) was mulcted with loss of eyes.218 218
Anf-03 v.xi.i Pg 13
See Acts viii. 9–24.
He had the hardihood to call himself the Supreme Virtue,8335 8335 I use Virtue in this and similar cases in its Miltonic sense.
that is, the Supreme God; and moreover, (to assert) that the universe8336 8336 Mundum.
had been originated by his angels; that he had descended in quest of an erring dæmon,8337 8337 Or, “intelligence.”
which was Wisdom; that, in a phantasmal semblance of God, he had not suffered among the Jews, but was as if he had suffered.8338 8338 Or, “but had undergone a quasi-passion.”
