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TO THE SMYRNÆANS.
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ferent opinion with respect to the grace of Christ which has come unto us, how opposed they are to the will of God. They have no regard for love; no care for the widow, or the orphan, or the oppressed; of the bond, or of the free; of the hungry, or of the thirsty.

notice those who preach other doctrines, how they affirm that the Father of Christ cannot be known, and how they exhibit enmity and deceit in their dealings with one another. They have no regard for love; they despise the good things we expect hereafter; they regard present things as if they were durable; they ridicule him that is in affliction; they laugh at him that is in bonds.

Chap. vii.Let us stand aloof from such heretics.

They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer,[1] because they confess not the Eucharist to be the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, which suffered for our sins, and which the Father, of His goodness, raised up again. Those, therefore, who speak against this gift of God, incur death[2] in the midst of their disputes. But it were better for them to treat it with respect,[3] that they also

They are ashamed of the cross; they mock at the passion; they make a jest of the resurrection. They are the offspring of that spirit who is the author of all evil, who led Adam,[4] by means of his wife, to transgress the commandment, who slew Abel by the hands of Cain, who fought against Job, who was the accuser of Joshua[5] the son of Josedech, who sought to "sift the faith"[6] of the apostles, who stirred up the multitude of the Jews against the Lord, who also now "worketh in the children of disobedience;"[7] from whom the Lord Jesus Christ will deliver us,

  1. Theodoret, in quoting this passage, reads προσφορὰς, "offering."
  2. Literally, "die disputing."
  3. Literally, "to love." Some think there is a reference to the agapæ, or love-feasts.
  4. Literally, "drove Adam out of."
  5. Zech. iii. 1.
  6. Luke xxii. 31.
  7. Eph. ii. 2.