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;" 1 and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross, 2 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. 3 Wherefore, forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from 4 the beginning; "watching unto prayer," 5 and persevering in fasting; beseeching in our supplications the all-seeing God "not to lead us into temptation," 6 as the Lord has said: "The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak." 7
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1 John iv. 3. ↩
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Literally, "the martyrdom of the cross," which some render, "His suffering on the cross." ↩
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[The original, perhaps, of Eusebius (Hist. iv. cap. 14). It became a common-place expression in the Church.] ↩
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Comp. Jude 3. ↩
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1 Pet. iv. 7. ↩
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Matt. vi. 13; Matt. xxvi. 41. ↩
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Matt. xxvi. 41; Mark xiv. 38. ↩
