Chapter VII. — Avoid the Docetae, and persevere in fasting and prayer.
"For whosoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is antichrist;" [377] and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross, [378] is of the devil; and whosoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says that there is neither a resurrection nor a judgment, he is the first-born of Satan. [379] Wherefore, forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from [380] the beginning; "watching unto prayer," [381] and persevering in fasting; beseeching in our supplications the all-seeing God "not to lead us into temptation," [382] as the Lord has said: "The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak." [383]
[377] 1 John iv. 3.
[378] Literally, "the martyrdom of the cross," which some render, "His suffering on the cross."
[379] [The original, perhaps, of Eusebius (Hist. iv. cap. 14). It became a common-place expression in the Church.]
Polycarp in Print
