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Menander, who succeeded Simon Magus, showed himself in his conduct
another instrument of diabolical power, not inferior to the former.
He also was a Samaritan and carried his sorceries to no less an extent
than his teacher had done, and at the same time reveled in still more
marvelous tales than he. For he said that he was himself the
Saviour, who had been sent down from invisible aeons for the salvation
of men; and he taught that no one could gain the mastery over the
world-creating angels themselves unless he had first gone through the
magical discipline imparted by him and had received baptism from him.
Those who were deemed worthy of this would partake even in the present
life of perpetual immortality, and would never die, but would remain
here forever, and without growing old become immortal. These facts
can be easily learned from the works of Irenaeus. And Justin, in
the passage in which he mentions Simon, gives an account of this man
also, in the following words: "And we know that a certain
Menander, who was also a Samaritan, from the village of
Capparattea, was a disciple of Simon, and that he also, being
driven by the demons, came to Antioch and deceived many by his magical
art. And he persuaded his followers that they should not die. And
there are still some of them that assert this." And it was indeed an
artifice of the devil to endeavor, by means of such sorcerers, who
assumed the name of Christians, to defame the great mystery of
godliness by magic art, and through them to make ridiculous the
doctrines of the Church concerning the immortality of the soul and the
resurrection of the dead. But they that have chosen these men as their
saviours have fallen away from the true hope.
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