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;”41 and whosoever does not confess the testimony of the cross,42 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.43 Wherefore, forsaking the vanity of many, and their false doctrines, let us return to the word which has been handed down to us from44 the beginning; “watching unto prayer,”45 and persevering in fasting; beseeching in our 35 supplications the all-seeing God “not to lead us into temptation,”46 as the Lord has said: “The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.”47 41 1 John iv. 3. 42 Literally, “the martyrdom of the cross,” which some render, “His suffering on the cross.” 43 [The original, perhaps, of Eusebius (Hist. iv. cap. 14). It became a common-place expression in the Church.] 44 Comp. Jude 3. 45 1 Pet. iv. 7. 46 Matt. vi. 13; Matt. xxvi. 41. 47 Matt. xxvi. 41; Mark xiv. 38. Chapter VII.—Avoid the Docetæ, and persevere in fasting and prayer. 98 Chapter VII.—Avoid the Docetæ, and persevere in fasting and prayer.