Chapter VII.—Avoid the Docetæ, and...

Chapter VII.—Avoid the Docetæ, 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 p. 35 as the Lord has said: “The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.” ³⁸³

Footnotes

34:377

1 John iv. 3.

34:378

Literally, “the martyrdom of the cross,” which some render, “His suffering on the cross.”

34:379

[The original, perhaps, of Eusebius (Hist. iv. cap. 14). It became a common-place expression in the Church.]

34:380

Comp. Jude 3.

34:381

1 Pet. iv. 7.

34:382

Matt. vi. 13; Matt. xxvi. 41.

35:383

Matt. xxvi. 41; Mark xiv. 38.