There are
instances of high admiration of the passage: I have not found
one of appropriation. Augustine (De Civ. Dei x. 29),
says: “Quod initium Sancti Evangelii, cui nomen est
secundum Johannem, quidam Platonicus, sicut a sancto sene
Simpliciano, qui postea ecclesiæ Mediolanensi præsedit
episcopus, solebamus audire, aureis litteris conscribendum et per
omnes ecclesias in locis eminentissimis proponendum esse
dicebat.” Eusebius (Præp. Evang. xi. 17
and 18) refers to the Statements of Plotinus and Numerius on
the δεύτερος
αἴτιος, and (19)
mentions Aurelius (on Aurelius vide Mosheim’s note on
Cudworth’s Int. System, vol. i. cap. iv. 17), as
quoting the passage in question. Vide also Theodoret,
Græc. Aff. 33, and Bentley’s Remarks on
Freethinking, § xlvi.