Polycarp of Smyrna · Epistle to the Philippians

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;" and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross, 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. Wherefore, forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from the beginning; "watching unto prayer," and persevering in fasting; beseeching in our supplications the all-seeing God "not to lead us into temptation," as the Lord has said: "The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak."

Notes

  1. 377. 1 John iv. 3.
  2. 378. Literally, "the martyrdom of the cross," which some render, "His suffering on the cross."
  3. 379. [The original, perhaps, of Eusebius (Hist. iv. cap. 14). It became a common-place expression in the Church.]
  4. 380. Comp. Jude 3.
  5. 381. 1 Pet. iv. 7.
  6. 382. Matt. vi. 13; Matt. xxvi. 41.
  7. 383. Matt. xxvi. 41; Mark xiv. 38.