Too bad this was never added to the NT. Beautiful and to the point epistle.
But this would impugn the judgment of your own church, while Reformers could favor it due its statement,
...inasmuch as God had promised, "Thy seed shall be as the stars of heaven." All these, therefore, were highly honoured, and made great, not for their own sake, or for their own works, or for the righteousness which they wrought, but through the operation of His will. And we, too, being called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, nor by our own wisdom, or understanding, or godliness, or works which we have wrought in holiness of heart; but by that faith through which, from the beginning, Almighty God has justified all men; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Which would seem to conflict with one being formally justified and made holy by his own personal justice and holiness (causa formalis), - Catholic Encyclopedia>Sanctifying Grace
And of a believer and truly meriting the attainment of eternal life itself, as per Trent (Canons Concerning Justification, Canon 32)
On the other hand, invoking a myth to support the literal resurrection is not wise:
Let us consider that wonderful sign [of the resurrection] which takes place in Eastern lands, that is, in Arabia and the countries round about. There is a certain bird which is called a phoenix. This is the only one of its kind, and lives five hundred years.
Yes, there were lots of beautiful writings outside of the New testament writings. Some spurious and others considered apocrypha. The Patristic writings are very important to understanding the Church as a whole and how it understood the teachings of Christ and the Scriptures. This early writing was one of them. It actually took nearly 400 years for the Church to declare what comprised the Christian scriptures and what did not. The synod at Hippo was the first in 393 A.D. The Councils at Carthage in 397 and 419 established the Catholic bible we accept even today. There are two exceptions that change the books... the eastern orthodox have a couple added OT writings and the reformers removed some. (long history lesson)