upon those who countenanced it (*). Among thefe, Epiphanius fhines by his Judgment and Candour, as he does in all his other Accounts of Heretics, for he pretends that Simon (f) called himself both God the Fa ther, and the great Virtue of God, and this in the fame Place, at Samaria; without re, flecting, that if he pretended to be God the Father, he could not ftoop to the Title of his Virtue only; befides the Abfurdity of fuppofing that fuch a deteftable Teacher fhould not only have been fuffered to live in a City where the Law of Mofes was received, but that he could also have imposed upon great Part of its Inhabitants, and made them relifh his unparallelled Blafphemies. Our Herefiologifts in their Narrations, do not only tell us incredible Things, but flatly contradict one another. Austin (g), and Cyril (b) fay, that Simon testified of himself," that he, in the Perfon of "God the Father, had given the Law on "Mount Sinai," Whereas Epiphanius (i) affirms that it was one of Simon's Tenets, "that the Law had been given by a wicked Being, and not by the true God." How thefe Accounts can be made to agree I know not; (f) Epiph. Hæref. (*) Gyril. Hierof. Catech. 6. Theod. Hæref. Fab. Lib. I. Hieron. in Matth. xxiv. 5, &c. (g) Auguft. Hæref. I. xxi. §. i. (b) Cyril, (i) Epiph. ubi fupra. not; nor is it poffible for me to reconcile them with the Definition Simon himfelf is faid to have given of God (k); "that he is an immenfe and inacceffible Light, ap pearing only to the most perfect Intelligent Beings, and never acting in this World, but by his Angels or his Ser vants. We have feen that Simon is accufed of having called himself the Son of God. The fame idle Story is repeated by the Author of the Recognitions (1), who affirms he called himfelf the Son of God fubfifting from all Eternity; but this he foon forgets, and introduces him faying (m), "that to say that God "has a Son, is offering an Injury to him; "for how could he have a Son without being fubject to the fame Paffions which are in Men." Here is another Accufation laid against him, and much of the fame Nature; he declared that he was born of a Virgin. Now it is known, and Theodoretus (n) confirms it, that Simon's Principles were the fame with thofe of the Docetes, who thought that Jefus Chrift had only the Appearance of a Body, and laughed at the Catholics, (k) Recognit. Lib. II. §. 49, & 53. Patr. Apost. p. 520, & 521. Vid. de Beauf. Hift. du Manich. T. I. p. 35. (7) Lib. III. §. 47, (m) Ubi fuprà, §. 49. (*) Theod. in Proem. Dialog. I. tholics, for pretending that it is poffible for a real Man to be born otherwife than in the ufual Way (0), and yet it is not lefs certain, that he owned his having Flesh (p), or a real Body. The Zeal of the Fathers, in their Enquiries about Heretics, and whatever be longed to them, is most wonderful. They trace them throughout the whole Course of their Life, and make Discoveries which would escape any, even the most active, Searcher, if he be not an Herefiologist: Or to fpeak more feriously, to fupply the Want of Facts they let loofe their Imagination. They not only found out that Simon (q), in a Journey he made to Tyre, in Phoenicia, there fell in Love with a beautiful, but lewd Woman, and redeemed her out of a House of Proftitution; but they even know with what Money he got her out of that Houfe: Tertullian (r) fays it was the fame which he had offered to St. Peter, as is related by St. Luke. So nice they are in their Accounts. What all relate of this Woman is extreamly curious. Helena was her Name. Sometimes he calls her Ennæa, and at other Times Prunicos. They lived (p) Recognit. Lib. (q) Iren. Epiph. Cyril. Hier. Theod. (0) Ephrem, de Margarita. 11. §. 7. ubi fupra. Tertul. de anima, c. 34. Eufeb. H. E. Lib. II. (r) Tertul. ubi fupra. c. 13. lived together diffolutely, though they denied it. Yet he owned fhe was his Wife, and pretended it was by her he had created the Angels, and by Means of these Mankind. He is also made to have taught, that the Angels fo defperately fell in Love with her, that they murdered one another on her Account; and that in order to keep up this War, and thus entirely to destroy them by one another, the ufed, from Time to Time, to go into the Bodies of Girls and Women, which never failed to occafion a Quarrel, because they all wanted to enjoy the Woman inhabited by the beautiful Helena; that whatever they did to them, fhe could not be affected by it; that she was the fame Helena for whom the Greeks and Trojans had formerly waged together a moft bloody War; and he is further accufed of having given her the Name of Holy Ghoft (s). Now I appeal to the Reader, whether Men, who can write fuch a Story, deferve any Credit for any thing else they may fay, and whether they do not thew themselves, either to be out of their Senfes, or maliciously inclined to father any Thing, whether true or falfe, upon those whom they are pleased to call Heretics. (s) Tertul. & Epiph. ubi fupra. A A very ingenious Critic, that I have often Occafion to quote in this Effay, hath probably discovered what gave Rife to the above Story (t). He fuppofes there must have been a Platonic Philofopher, whose Name was Simon. Every Body knows that they used to personalize their ones or Emanations, from the great God. This Supreme God, say the Fathers (u), Simon called, an infinite Power, the Root, or Caufe of all Things; and taught he had fent forth three Emanations, viz. the pure Mind, or Intellect, the Thought, and Reafoning, (thus he believed a Quaternity instead of a Trinity). Helena was one of these three Emanations; her other Names prove it. Ennea is the Name the Platonic Philofophers gave to the univerfal Soul, as they called it; and PruniCOS (pixos,) that is to fay, a Meflenger, fignified, in their allegoric Way of speaking, a divine Power fent from Heaven to conquer and govern Matter, or the Body. According to Origen (v), they gave this Prunicos the Name of Wisdom. The learned Gentleman, whofe Conjecture I am relating, thinks that what occafioned Epiphanius's Miftake (he might have faid bis pious Fraud,) is the Affinity be (4) Beaufobre, Hift. du Manich. T. II p. 322. tween |