Chap. vii.—Avoid the Docetæ, and persevere in fasting and prayer

Chap. 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;”[356] and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross,[357] 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[358] the beginning; “watching unto prayer,”[359] and persevering in fasting; beseeching in our supplications the all-seeing God “not to lead us into temptation,”[360] as the Lord has said: “The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.”[361]