Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Simon Magus, a Formidable Antagonist.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter V.—Simon Magus, a Formidable Antagonist.
When Peter had thus spoken to us, Niceta asks
permission to say something to him;605
| 605 [The statements of
Niceta and Aquila are introduced in the Homilies before the
postponement of the discussion with Simon. There is a remarkable
variety in the minor details respecting Simon as given in the two
narratives.—R.] | and Peter having
granted permission, he says: “With your pardon, I beseech
you, my lord Peter, to hear me, who am very anxious for thee, and who
am afraid lest, in the contest which you have in hand with Simon, you
should seem to be overmatched. For it very frequently happens
that he who defends the truth does not gain the victory, since the
hearers are either prejudiced, or have no great interest in the better
cause. But over and above all this, Simon himself is a most
vehement orator, trained in the dialectic art, and in the meshes of
syllogisms; and what is worse than all, he is greatly skilled in the
magic art. And therefore I fear, lest haply, being so strongly
fortified on every side, he shall be thought to be defending the truth,
whilst he is alleging falsehoods, in the presence of those who do not
know him. For neither should we ourselves have been able to
escape from him, and to be converted to the Lord, had it not been that,
while we were his assistants, and the sharers of his errors, we had
ascertained that he was a deceiver and a
magician.”
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
