Section 143
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112 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. in fact immortal. This account may be easily confirmed from Irenaeus ; but Justin, in the same place where he mentions Simeon, also adds the narrative respecting this one as follows : "But we know that Menander who was a Samaritan of the village Caparattrea, becoming a disciple of Simeon, and likewise stimulated by the da3mons, came to Antioch, and deceived many by his magic arts. He persuaded those that followed him, that they should never die. And there are now some of his followers that make a profession of the same thing. It was indeed, a diabolical artifice, by means of such impostors assuming the .title of Christians, to evince so much zeal in defaming the great mystery of piety by magic arts, and to rend asunder by these means the doctrines of the church respecting the immortality of the soul, and the resurrection of the dead. Those, however, who called these their Saviours, fell away from solid hope. CHAPTER XXVII. The Heresy of the Ebionites. THE spirit of wickedness, however, being unable to shake some in their love of Christ, and yet finding them susceptible of his impressions in other respects, brought them over to his purposes. These are properly called Ebionites by the ancients, as those who cherished low and mean opinions of Christ. For they con sidered him a plain and common man, and justified only by his advances in virtue, and that he was born of the Virgin Mary, by natural generation. With them the observance of the law was altogether necessary, as if they could not be saved, only by faith in Christ and a corresponding life. Others, however, be sides these, but of the same name, indeed avoided the absurdity of the opinions maintained by the former, not denying that the Lord was born of the Virgin by the Holy Ghost, and yet in like The word ebion, in Hebrew, signifying poor, seems to allude either to the opinions or the condition of this sect.