Do ye also avoid those wicked offshoots of his, 5 Simon his firstborn son, and Menander, and Basilides, and all his wicked mob of followers,*" the worshippers of a man, whom also the prophet Jeremiah pronounces accursed.' Flee also the impure Nicolaitanes, falsely so called,** who are lovers of pleasure, and given to calumnious speeches. Avoid also the children of the evil one, Theodotus and Cleobulus, who produce death-bearing fruit, whereof if any one tastes, he instantly dies, and that not a mere temporary death, but one that shall endure for ever. These men are not the planting of the Father, but are an accursed brood. And says the Lord, " Let every plant which my heavenly Father has not planted be rooted up."" For if they had been branches of the Father, they would not have been " enemies of the cross of Christ," "^ but rather of those who " killed the Lord of glory." '3 But now, by denying the cross, and being ashamed of the passion, they cover the transgression of the Jews, those fighters against God, those murderers of the Lord ; for it were too little to style them merely