“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] CHAP. VIII.—_Persevere in hope and patience._ Let us then continually persevere in our hope, and the earnest of our righteousness, which is Jesus Christ, “who bore our sins in His own body on the tree,”[362] “who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth,”[363] but endured all things for us, that we might live in Him.[364] Let us then be imitators of His patience; and if we suffer[365] for His name’s sake, let us glorify Him.[366] For He has set us this example[367] in Himself, and we have believed that such is the case. CHAP. IX.—_Patience inculcated._ I exhort you all, therefore, to yield obedience to the word of righteousness, and to exercise all patience, such as ye have seen [set] before your eyes, not only in the case of the blessed Ignatius, and Zosimus, and Rufus, but also in others among yourselves, and in Paul himself, and the rest of the apostles. [This do] in the assurance that all these have not run[368] in vain, but in faith and righteousness, and that they are [now] in their due place in the presence of the Lord, with whom also they suffered. For they loved not this present world, but Him who died for us, and for our sakes was raised again by God from the dead. CHAP. X.—_Exhortation to the practice of virtue._[369] Stand fast, therefore, in these things, and follow the example of the Lord, being firm and unchangeable in the faith, loving the brotherhood,[370] and being attached to one another, joined together in the truth, exhibiting the meekness of the Lord in your intercourse with one another, and despising no one. When you can do good, defer it not, because “alms delivers from death.”[371] Be all of you subject one to another,[372] “having your conduct blameless among the Gentiles,”[373] that ye may both receive praise for your good works, and the Lord may not be blasphemed through you. But woe to him by whom the name of the Lord is blasphemed![374] Teach, therefore, sobriety to all, and manifest it also in your own conduct. CHAP. XI.—_Expression of grief on account of Valens._