Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol I:
POLYCARP: Chapter I.—Praise of the...

Chapter I.—Praise of the Philippians.

I have greatly rejoiced with you in our Lord Jesus Christ, because ye have followed the example 339 of true love [as displayed by God], and have accompanied, as became you, those who were bound in chains, the fitting ornaments of saints, and which are indeed the diadems of the true elect of God and our Lord; and because the strong root of your faith, spoken of in days 340 long gone by, endureth even until now, and bringeth forth fruit to our Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sins suffered even unto death, [but] “whom God raised from the dead, having loosed the bands of the grave.” 341 “In whom, though now ye see Him not, ye believe, and believing, rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory;” 342 into which joy many desire to enter, knowing that “by grace ye are saved, not of works,” 343 but by the will of God through Jesus Christ.

Footnotes

Literally, “ye have received the patterns of true love.”

Phil. i. 5.

Acts ii. 24. Literally, “having loosed the pains of Hades.”

1 Pet. i. 8.

Eph. 2:8, 9.