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Polycarp
And let the presbyters be compassionate and merciful to all, bringing back those that wander, visiting all the sick, and not neglecting the widow, the orphan, or the poor, but always “providing for that which is becoming in the sight of God and man;”[374] abstaining from all wrath, respect of persons, and unjust judgment; keeping far off from all covetousness, not quickly crediting [an evil report] against any one, not severe in judgment, as knowing that we are all under a debt of sin. If then we entreat the Lord to forgive us, we ought also ourselves to forgive;[375] for we are before the eyes of our Lord and God, and “we must all appear at the judgment-seat of Christ, and must every one give an account of himself.”[376] Let us then serve Him in fear, and with all reverence, even as He Himself has commanded us, and as the apostles who preached the Gospel unto us, and the prophets who proclaimed beforehand the coming of the Lord [have alike taught us]. Let us be zealous in the pursuit of that which is good, keeping ourselves from causes of offence, from false brethren, and from those who in hypocrisy bear the name of the Lord, and draw away vain men into error.
“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]<page 35> as the Lord has said: “The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.”[383]
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,”[384] “who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth,”[385] but endured all things for us, that we might live in Him.[386] Let us then be imitators of His patience; and if we suffer[387] for His name’s sake, let us glorify Him.[388] For He has set us this example[389] in Himself, and we have believed that such is the case.
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[390] 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.
Stand fast, therefore, in these things, and follow the example of the Lord, being firm and unchangeable in the faith, loving the brotherhood,[392] 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.”[393] Be all of you subject one to another[394] “having your conduct blameless among the Gentiles,”[395] 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![396] Teach, therefore, sobriety to all, and manifest it also in your own conduct.
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