Page 679
VERS. XXIV.
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c.
Pray ye to the Lord for me.
IF he begged this in earnest and from his heart, it is a wonder he should afterward break out into so much blasphemy and wickedness that Church-history reports con∣cerning him, if that say true. d 1.1 And when he did still more and more disbelieve God, and set himself more greedily in an opposition against the Apostles, &c. e 1.2 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c. Simon the great adversary of the great and Holy Apostles, &c. For him to beseech the Apostles earnestly to pray for him, and yet from thenceforth to oppose them to the utmost of his power? This certainly is the gall of bit∣terness and the bond of iniquity.
We have (if we believe the story) St. Peter and this Simon meeting with one ano∣ther again at Rome, where the Apostle by his prayers tumbles this Magician headlong to the ground, while he was flying in the Air, and so Simon Magus breaths his last. If it had been taken notice of, that (if Philostratus may be believed) it is probable St. Peter and Apollonius Tyanaeus were at one and the same time together in Babylon, doubtless there would have been some such tale as this framed about St. Peters triumphing over him also.
That in Justin Martyr concerning a statue erected at Rome to Simon Magus with this inscription Simoni Sancto Deo, To Simon the Holy God, is shewn by learned Men to have been so called by mistake, when it was rather a Statue erected Simoni Sango Deo. I fear there is some such mistake concerning St. Peters chair erected in Rome, as there was con∣cerning the Statue of Simon erected at Rome.