who is also called Theophorus,* to the Church which is at Ephesus in Asia, deservedly happy, being blessed through the greatness and fulness 5 of God the Father, and predestinated before the world began that it should be always unto an enduring and un- changeable glory; being united and chosen through * Theophorus. All Christians were denominated TTieophori, ($so- <f>6poi) 1 Temples of God,’ and sometimes Christophori, (Euseb. Hist. Eccles. viii. 10. Ignat. Ep. to Ephes. § 9. Compare Ep. to Magnes. S 12.) ( Temples of Christ.’ The reason of the appellation, which was constantly applied to Ignatius, both by himself and others, is given in the History of his Martyrdom, Sect. 2. “ As soon then as he stood in the presence of the Emperor Traian, the Emperor de- manded of him, 1 Who art thou, unhappy and deluded man, who art so active in transgressing our commands, and, besides, persuadest others to their own destruction V ” Ignatius replied, “ No one ought to call (one who is properly styled) Theophorus, unhappy and deluded: for the evil spirits (which delude men) are departed far from the servants of God. But if you so call me because I am a trouble to those evil spirits, and an enemy to their delusions, I confess the jus- tice of the appellation. For having (within me) Christ the heavenly King, I loosen all their snares.” Trajan replied, %And who is Theo- phorus V 1 Ignatius answered, “He that hath Christ in his heart.” Then answered Trajan, “ Carries! thou, then, within thee him who was crucified V* “ Yea,” replied Ignatius, “ for it is written, * I will dwell in them and walk in them.’ ” (2 Cor. vi. 16.)
The notion of the later Greeks, that Ignatius was called Theopfub ms (Qedfopos, borne by God) because he was the child whom Christ took up in his arms, (Matt, xviii. 2. Mark ix. 36.) although adopted by several writers, is a mere fancy. Had such a tradition existed even in the time of Chrysostom, he would surely have known it, and was not of a disposition to have omitted it, in the Homily which he composed on the Martyrdom of Ignatius: whereas he there expressly states, that Ignatius never saw Jesus, nor had any intercourse with him. ( Homit. on Ignatius, YoL Y. p. 503. 37 ed. Savile.)
5 Eph. iii. 19.
56 THE EPISTLE OF IGNATIUS actual suffering/ according to the will of the Father, and Jesus Christ our God all happiness, by Jesus Christ, and his undefiled grace.
1. I have heard of your name which is much beloved in God, that which ye have attained by a habit of righteousness, according to the faith and love which is in Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being followers of God, and stirring up ourselves by the blood of God, a ye have perfectly accomplished the work which was agreeable to your nature. For hearing that I came bound from Syria, for the name and hope that are common to us all, trusting through your prayers to fight with beasts at Rome, that so by suffering martyr- dom I may become indeed the disciple ofliiin, who gave himself to God, an offering and sacrifice for us,* (ye hastened to see me). I receive therefore in the name of God your whole multitude in (the person of) Onesimus/ who for his love hath no word by which he can be described, but according to the flesh is your bishop:.whom I beseech you in Jesus Christ to love, and that ye would all strive to be like unto him. And blessed be God, who hath granted unto you, who are so worthy of him, to possess such a bishop.
2. But with regard to my fellow-servant Burrhus, your deacon, in the service of God, blessed in all things, I entreat you that he may remain to the honor both of you and of your bishop. And Crocus also, worthy both of God and of you, whom I have received as a pattern of your love, hath in all things refreshed s me, as (I • lv iradsi h\ri6ijfb). Archbishop Wake follows the interpretation proposed by Smith,' “ chosen through (his) true passion,” through the meritorious sufferings of Christ, which he truly underwent. Com- pare Epist. to the Trallians, § 9, 10.
a Compare Acts xx. 28. “ Feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” • Eph. v. 2.
t Compare the Epistle to the Magnesians, Sect. 6. Some suppose this Onesimus to be the servant of Philemon, who is mentioned as the first Bishop of Beroea, in the Apostolical Constitutions, Book vii. 46. Although that book is not genuine, it may yet have preserved the tra- dition of such a fact, and he might have been removed to Ephesus. The name of Onesimus was, however, by no means uncommon at that time.
TO THE EPHESIANS.
67 pray) the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ may refresh him, together with Onesimus, and Burrhus, and Euplus, and Fronto, in whom I have, as to your charity, seen you all. May I always have joy of you, h if I shall be worthy of it. It is therefore fitting that ye should by all means glorify Jesus Christ, who hath glorified you: that by a uniform obedience ye may be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judg- ment, and may all speak alike concerning every thing;* and that being subject to the Bishop and the Presbytery ye may be altogether sanctified.
3. These things I command you not, as if I were any one. k For although I am even bound for his name, I am not yet perfect in Jesus Christ. But now I begin to learn; and I speak to you as my fellow dis- ciples. For I ought to have been stirred up by you, in faith, in admonition, in patience, in long-suffering. But forasmuch as charity suffers me not to be silent toward you, I have therefore first taken upon me to exhort you, that ye would all run together according to the will of God. For Jesus Christ, our inseparable life, he is by the will of the Father:* as also the bishops, appointed unto the utmost bounds of the earth, are by the will of Jesus Christ.
4. Wherefore it becomes you to run together accord- ing to the will of your bishop, even as also ye do. For your renowned Presbytery, worthy of God, is fitted as exactly to the Bishop, as the strings are to a harp. m Wherefore, in your concord and harmonious love, Jesus Christ is sung. And every single person among you makes up the chorus; that all being harmo- nious in concord, taking up the song of God, in perfect unity, ye may sing with one voice to the Father, through Jesus Christ; to the end that he may both hear you, and perceive by your works, that ye are members of his Son. Wherefore it is profitable for you to live in an unblameable unity, that ye may always have fellowship with God.
* ’Itjaovs Xpiardf — to$ irarpds V yvi opt], “JESUS CHRIST — is the Will of the Father.” Smith proposes to read rp yvwpij, which is adopted in the text.
* See the Epistle to the Philadelphians, Sect. 1.
58 THE EPISTLE OP IGNATIUS [§5,6,7.
5. But if I, in this little time, have had such a fami- liarity with your bishop, (whom I have known) not in the flesh but in the spirit, how much more must I think you happy, who are so joined to him as the Church is to Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ to the Father, that all things may agree together in unity. Let no man deceive himself. Except a man be within the altar, he is deprived of the bread of God. For if the prayer of one or two be of such avail, n how much more shall that of the Bishop and the whole Church be? He therefore that comes not together into the same place with it, he is proud already, and hath condemned him- self.® For it is written, p “ God resisteth the proud.” Let us take heed, therefore, that we set not ourselves against the Bishop, that we may be subject to God.
6. The more any one sees his bishop silent, the more let him revere him. For whomsoever the master of the house sends, to be over his own household, we ought to receive him, even as we would him that sent him. It is evident, therefore, that we ought to respect the bishop, even as the Lord himself. And indeed Onesimus himself greatly commends your good order in God; in that ye all live according to the truth, and no heresy dwells among you. For neither do ye hearken to any one more than to Jesus Christ, speak- ing to you in truth.
7. For some there are who are wont to carry about the name (of Christ) in deceitfulness, but do things unworthy of God; whom ye must avoid, as ye would wild beasts. For they are ravening dogs, which bite secretly; of whom ye must beware, as of men hardly to be cured. There is one physician, both carnal and spiritual; create and uncreate;« God, manifest in the ■ Jas. v. 16. Matt, xvifi. 19. # Compare John iii. 18. a Jaa. iv. 6.
q ytvnrds koI dyfrriTos. This is the reading adopted by Smith. The other editions have yewijrfc *ai aytwnroi, “ begotten and unbegotten.” Bull, ( Defensio Fid. Nic. Cap. ii. 2. s. 6.) although he reads ycrvnrds koI hyiwriTos, translates the words “ create and uncreate,” following the old Latin version, and Athanasius dt Synodis Arim. et Seleuc. Tom.
TUmfopeOa Srt xal b fiaxapios lyv&nos 6p$utf lypaxpt, yattirip avri* Xiyo*p itb rip oapta' b ybp Xptcrds iybero’ dyttnjrov 61, Srt fib rOm totrfftdrtop xal ytvrjT&w icriw, h\\' vldg ix raro6f.
“ We are persuaded, that the blessed Ignatius also did well declare TO THE EPHESIANS.
59 flesh; true life**- in death; both of Mary, and of God: first capable of suffering, and then liable to suffer no more, (even Jesus, Christ our Lord).* 8. Wherefore let no man deceive you: 9 & indeed ye are not deceived, being wholly (the servants) of God. For inasmuch as there is no contention nor strife among you, which can trouble you, doubtless ye live according to God’s will. May my soul be for yours; and I myself be the expiatory offering for your Church of Ephesus, so famous to all ages. They that are of the flesh can- not do the works of the Spirit; neither they that are of the Spirit the works of the flesh. 1 As also faith cannot do the works of unfaithfulness, nor unfaithful- ness the works of faith. But even those things which ye do according to the flesh are spiritual; for ye do all things in Jesus Christ.
9. Nevertheless, I have heard of some who have passed t?y you, having perverse doctrine; whom ye did not suffer to sow among you; but stopped your ears that in his writings, respecting Christ, that he was made according to the flesh, for Ciirist was made flesh: and that be was uncreate, because he is not among those things which were created and formed, but the Son proceeding of the Father.”
Cotelerius shows that ytvTirds and hyivnrof and dytvvrtros, have been not unfrequently confounded. This confusion may have sometimes arisen from the errors of transcribers; but, before the council of Nice the distinction between the words was not so scrupulously observed as it was afterward. Orioen was censored for calling the Son yevnrds Oe6r although in another part of his works ( Contra Celsum vi. 17,) he expressly calls him hyivijros. See Burton, Testimonies of the Antenicene Father a, No. 12. Suicer, Thesaurus, on the words hyivnrot and yevnrds. Theodoret reads ytwrirds if lytwfiTov, “ begotten of him who is unbegotten ” Tertullian (De Came Ckristi, Cap. 5.) has a plain reference to this passage of Ignatius:,( lta utriusque substantia census hominem et Deum exhibuit: bine natum, inde non natum; bine carneum, inde spiritaiem; hinc infirmuro, inde prafortem: bine morientem, inde viventem. Qua propriety conditionum, divina et humana, aqu& utique naturae utriusque veritate dispuncta est, e&dem fide et spiritfis et carnis.”
* b ffartfrw AA*0n4. This seems to be the true reading, instead of is kBasdru words which convey no distinct meaning.
* These words are added in the old Latin version, and in the passage as quoted in the fifth Century by Theodoret, Epist. ad Monachos CanstantinopolUanos, and Gelasius, at the end of bis work Do duabus Naturis Christi.
60 THE EPISTLE OP IGNATIUS [§ 10.
ye might not receive those things which were sown by them as being the stones 0 of the temple of the Father, prepared for the building of God the Father, raised up on high by the engine of Jesus Christ, which is the cross; and using the Holv Ghost as the rope. And your faith is your support:* and your charity the way which leads to God. Ye are, therefore, and all your companions, full of God, his (spiritual) temples, full of Christ, full of holiness: adorned in all things with the commands of Christ: in whom also I rejoice that 1 have been thought worthy by this present epistle to converse, and joy together with you; that with respect to the other life, ye love nothing but God only.
10. Pray also without ceasing y for other men. For there is hope of repentance in them* that they may attain unto God. Suffer them, therefore, to receive instruction of you if it be only from your works. To their anger, be ye meek; to their boastings, be ye humble; to their blasphemies (return) your prayer; ta their error (oppose) your firmness in the faith; to their cruelty, be ye gentle; not studying in return to imitate them. Let us be found their brethren in moderation, and study to be followers of the Lord: for who was ever more unjustly used, more destitute, more despised? that no herb * of the devil may be found in you; but ye x hvayioyevs. Vossids thinks this word here signifies a pulley. ayuyeOs is sometimes used for the rein with which a horse is guided. Ignatius probably alludes to the metaphor used by St. Paul in writing to the same Ephesians, Eph. ii. 20. &c. He compares the faithful to the stones composing the Temple of the Father, Jesus Christ to an engine by which they are raised on high, the Holt Spirit to the rope by which they are drawn, faith to the pulley or windlass, and charity to the levelled road along which the stones are drawn from the quarry. Comparisons of this kind, carried even to a greater degree of minuteness, are common in the early Christian writers. Those who object to them, as opposed to our present notions of taste, roust re- member that refinement upon such points formed no part of the habits of those who were addressed: and tnat the writings of St Paul, as for instance Eph. vi. 14-18, owe much beautiful ana forcible illustration to comparisons of a similar nature.
* This is a favorite metaphor with Ignatius, to signify false doctrine; compare his- Epistle to the Philadelphians, Sect. 3. and Epistle to the TVaUians, Sect 6.
may remain in all holiness and sobriety in Christ Jesus, both bodily and spiritually.* 11. The last times are at hand. Let us reverence, let us fear the long-suffering of God, that it be not to us unto condemnation. For let us either fear the wrath to come, or love the grace that we at present enjoy; one of the two: only that we be found in Christ Jesus unto true life. Let nothing become you, beside him; for whom also I bear about these bonds, these spiritual jewels, b in which 1 would to God that I might arise, through your prayers;; of which 1 entreat you to make me always partaker, that 1 may be found in the lot of the Christians of Ephesus, who have always agreed with the apostles, through the power of Jesus Christ.
12. I know who I am; and to whom I write. I, a person condemned; ye, such as have obtained mercy; I, exposed to danger; ye, established. Ye are the passage of those that are killed for God; who have been instructed in the mysteries of the Gospel e with Paul, who was sanctified, and bore testimony even unto death, and is deservedly most happy; at whose feet I would that I might be found, when I shall have attained unto God; who throughout all his Epistle makes men- tion of you in Jesus Christ.
13. Let it be your care, therefore, to come more frequently together to the praise d and glory of God. For when ye frequently meet together in the same *> See the Epistle of Polycarp, Sect. L * evfxfxvoTat, Baptized Christians were denominated pvorai and ol lUfivtifiivoi, the initiated, while the Catechumens were called fytvoroi, and ifivoraycoyriToi, unitiated, as not yet admitted to the use of the sacred offices, and knowledge of the mysteries of the Christian religion. Hence the phrase ioaaiv ol ftspvrjfuvoi, the initiated know what is said, so constantly used in the early homilies and ad- dresses to the people, when any reference is made to the higher doc- trines of Christianity. Casaubon observes that this phrase occurs fifty times in the writings of Chrysostom and Austin. See Cave's Primitive Christianity, Part I. ch.'S. Bingham’s Antiquities of the Christian Church, Book L ch. iv. 2.
* sis r6%api<rrtav Qcov sat sis S6$av. He exhorts them to frequently gathering themselves together, for public worship, and especially to the celebration of the Eucharist, in which an offering of praise and thanksgiving is made to God. Compare 1 Cor. xi. 18-20.
Vox*. IV. 6 Google 63 THE EPISTLE OF IGNATIUS [$14,15*16.
place, the powers of Satan are destroyed, and his mischief is dissolved by the unity of your faith. Nothing is better than peace; by which all war is abolished, whether of heavenly or of earthly things.
'14. Of all which nothing is hid from you, if ye hare perfect faith and charity in Christ Jesus, which are the beginning and end of life: the beginning, faith; the end, charity. And these two, being in unity, are of God. And all other things which concern a holy life are the consequence of these. No man, who professes the true faith, sins: neither doth he, who hath charity, hate. The tree is made manifest by its fruit.® So they who profess themselves to be Christians, shall be mado known by their deeds. For now (Christianity) is not the work of an outward profession, but (shows itself) in the power of faith, if a man be found (faithful) unto the end.
15. It is better to be silent, and to be; than to say (a man is a Christian) and not to be. It is good to tfeach, if he who speaks, acts. He therefore is the only Master, who spake, and it was done. f And even those things, which he did in silence,® are worthy of the Father. He that possesses the word of Jesus is truly able to hear even his silence, that he may be perfect: and may both do according to what he speaks, and be known by those things of which he is silent. There is nothing hid from God: but even our secret things are nigh unto him. Let us therefore do all things as becomes those who have God dwelling in them; that we may be his temple; and he may be one God within us; as also he is, and will manifest himself before our faces, by those thirfgs for which we justly love him.
16. Be not deceived, my brethren. Those who cor- rupt houses (by adultery) shall not inherit the kingdom of GoD. h If therefore they who do this according to the flesh, have suffered death; 1 how much more shall he die, who by his wicked doctrine corrupts the faith of God, for which Christ was crucified? He that is thus defiled, shall depart into unquenchable fire; and in like manner he that hearkens to him.
• Matt. xii. 33. f Ps. xxxlii. 9.
Those actions which Christ performed in all humilitv.
i TO T PS EPHUUH3.
> 17. For this cause did the Lord receive oiatraeitf upon his head, k that he might breathe (the breath of) immortality into his Church. 1 Be not ye therefore anointed with the evil savor of the doctrine of the Prince of this world. Let him not take you captive from the lijjg that is set before you. And why are ye not all wise, seeing ye have reqeived the.knowledge of God, which is Jesus Christ. Why do we perish in our folly, ignorant of the gift which the Lord hath truly sent us?
18. Let my life be sacrificed for the doctrine of the cross, which is a stumbling-block to them that believe not, buj to us is salvation and life everlasting.® Where is the wise? Where is the,disputer? n Where is the boasting of those who are called men of understanding? For our God Jesus Christ was borne in the womb of Mary, according to the dispensation of God, of the seed of David, yet by the Holy Ghost. He was born, and was baptized, that through his passion, he might purify water (to the washing away of sin).
19. And the Prince of this world knew not the vir- ginity of Mary, 0 and him who was born of her, and the * Ps. xlv. 7,-cxxxm. 2. 1 Compare John xx. 22.
0 It was a favorite notion with the early Christian writers, that Mary was espoused to Joseph before the birth of Jesus, that his being born of a virgin might escape the knowledge of Satan. Thus Theophilus, the sixth bishop of Antioch, in the Latin version of his Commentary on St. Matthew's Gospel t i. 18. has this observation. “ Q,uare non ex simplici virgine, sed ex desponsata concipitur Christus? Primo, ut per generationem Josephi origo Mari® monstraretur: secundo, ne lapidaretur a Jud®is ut adultera: tertio, ut in iEgyptum habere! sola- tium viri: quarto, ut partus ejus falleret diaboium, pu tan ten: Jesum de uxorata, non de Virgine natum.” [Why was Crrist conceived not of a mere virgin, but of one betrothed i First, that the origin of Mary might be shown by the genealogy of Joseph: secondly, lest she should be stoned by the Jews for an adultress: thirdly, that in Egypt she might have the comfort of her husband’s company: fourthly, that her delivery might deceive the devil, causing him to think Jesus the son of a married woman, not of a virgin.”} Jerome ascribes this very reason to Ignatius, “Martyr Ignatius ctiam quarto addit causa m cur a desponsata conceptus sit, ut partus, inquiens, ejus celaretur a diabolo, dura eum put&t non de virgine sed de uxore generatum.” [The Martyr Ignatius adds also a fourth reason why he was conceived of one betrothed, saying that it was that her delivery might be concealed from the devil, he being led to think her child the offspring not of a virgin fnjt of a wife.] Basil, in his Sjerman on the Nativity ^Christ, 64 THE EPISTLE OF IGNATIUS [§20,21.
death of the Lord: three mysteries every where noised abroad, yet done by God in silence. How then was he manifested to the world? A star shone in heaven above all other stars; and its light was inexpressible; and its novelty struck terror. All the rest of the stars, with the sun and moon, were the chorus to thyi star; and that sent forth its light above all. And there was trouble, whence this novelty came, so unlike to all the others. Hence all (the power of) magic was dissolved; and every bond of wickedness was destroyed: igno- rance was taken away; the old kingdom was abolished; God being made manifest in the form of a man, for the renewal of eternal life. Thence began what God had prepared. From thenceforth all things were disturbed, forasmuch as he designed to abolish death.
20. But if Jesus Christ shall give me grace through your prayers, and it be his will, I purpose in a second Epistle, which I am about to write to you, to declare more fully to you the dispensation of which I have now begun to speak, unto the new man, which is Jesus Christ: both in his faith and charity; in his suffering, and in liis resurrection, especially if the Lord shall make it known unto me by revelation since ye all individually come together in common in one faith, and in one Jesus Christ, who was of the race of David according to the flesh, the Son of man, and the Son of God: obeying your Bishop and the Presbytery with an entire affection: breaking one bread, which is the medicine of immortality; our antidote, that we should not die, but live for ever in Jesus Christ.
21. My soul be for yours, and for those whom ye have sent, for the glory of God, to Smyrna, whence also I write unto you, giving thanks unto the Lord; quotes the same opinion. These passages appear to be allusions to this Epistle of Ignatius. ’’Origen, in his sixth Homily on St. Luke, translated by Jerome, says, “ Eleganter in cujusdam Martyris E pistol & scriptum reperi, Ignatium dico, Episcopum Antiochis post Petruni secundum, qui in persecutione Rome pugnavit ad bestias, Principem ssculi hujus latuit virginitas Maris.” [I have found it elegantly written in the epistle of a certain martyr, (I mean Ignatius, the second bishop of Antioch after Peter, who in the persecution fought with beasts at Rome,) that the virginity of Mary was bidden from the prince of this world.] -Pearsc^ Vindicice Jgnatiarue, Par. I. cap. 2.
* Compare 1 Cor. xiv. 3& TO THE EPHESIANS.
66 and loving Polycarp, even as I do you. Remember me, even as Jesus Christ doth remember you. Pray for the Church which is in Syria, whence I am being carried bound**to Rome, being the least of all the faithful that are there, as I have been deemed worthy to be found to the glory of God. Farewell in God the Father, and in Jerus Christ, our common hope.
*i Ignatius was bound in chains, at Antioch in Syria, and there delivered to the soldiers, to be carried to Rome, as he expresses in his Epistle to the Rpmans.
6* Til TO TH* MAGNESI ANS.
Ignatius, who is also ealled Theophorus to the (Church) blessed by the grace of God the Father, in Jesus Christ our Saviour; in whom I salute the Church which is at Magnesia, near the Msander; and wish it all joy, in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ.
1. Having heard of your well ordered love and charity in God, I determined, with much joy, to speak unto you in the faith of Jesus Christ. For having been thought worthy to obtain a most excellent name, in the bonds which I carry about, I salute the Churches, wishing in them a union both of the body and spirit of Jesus Christ, our eternal life; (as also) of faith and charity, to which nothing is to be preferred; but espe- cially of Jesus and the Father, in whom if we undergo all the injuries of the prince of this world, and escape, we shall enjoy God.
2. Seeing then that I have been thought worthy to see you, by Damas* your godly and excellent Bishop, and by your worthy Presbyters, Bassus and Apollonius; and by my fellow servant Sotio the Deacon, in whom I rejoice, forasmuch as he is subject unto his Bishop as unto the grace of God, and to the Presbytery, as unto the law of Jesus Christ, (I determined to write unto you.)
3. It is your duty also not to despise the youth of your Bishop, but to yield all reverence to him, accord- ing to the power of God the Father. As also I perceive your holy Presbyters do, not considering his youthful * Compare Ignatius’ Epist. to Ephea. Sect. 1. Eusebius, Ecclca. Hiat, iii. 36. says that 1 Ignatius wrote an Epistle to the Church in Magnesia near the Meander, in which he makes mention of their Bishop Damas.’
$4,5,6.] IGNATIUS TO THE MAGNESIAN8. 6T appearance, 1 * but as men prudent in Gob, submitting to him; and not to him (indeed), but to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Bishop of us all. It becomes you therefore to be obedient with all sincerity, in honor of him whose pleasure it is (that ye should do sol. For, otherwise, a man deceives not this Bishop whom he sees, but affronts him who is invisible. For whatsoever of this kind is done, it reflects not upon men, but upon Gob, who knows the secrets of pur hearts.
4. It is therefore fitting that we should not only be called Christians, but be so: as some call a Bishop by the name (of his office), but do all things without him. But such men appear to me void of a good conscience, since they are not gathered together firmly, according to God’s commandment.
5. Seeing then all things have an end, there are set before us at once these two things, death and life: and every one shall depart into his proper place. For as there are two sorts of coins, the one of God, the other of the world, each having its own stamp impressed upon it,* so the unfaithful bear the mark of this world, and the faithful in charity that of God the Father through Jesus Christ, through whom unless we hold ourselves in readiness to die, after the likeness of his passion, his life is not in us.
6. Forasmuch, then, as I have seen in faith and love your whole multitude, in the persons of whom I have before written, I exhort you that ye study to do all things in a divine concord; your Bishop presiding in the place of God, and your Presbyters in the place of the council of the Apostles, and your Deacons, most dear to me, being intrusted with the ministry of Jesus Christ, who was with the Father before all ages, and in the end hath appeared. 4 Do ye all, therefore, be in subjection one to another,® following the same holy course. And let no man look upon his neighbor after the flesh, but in all things love ye one another in Jesus Christ. Let there be nothing among you which can cause a division; but be ye united to your Bishop, and b tj)v feuvopivijv vturtpiicftv rdi-iv — This may refer either to his youth, or to his recent ordination.
m to those who preside over you, to be your pattern and direction' unto immortality* • 7. As therefore the Lord did nothing without the Father/ being united to Him; neither by himself nor yet by his Apostles, in like manner do ye nothing with- out the Bishop and the Presbyters. Neither endeavor that any thing may appear reasonable unto yourselves privately; but being come together into one place, have one prayer, one supplication, one mind, v>ne hope, in love and in joy undefiled. h There is one (Lord) Jesus Christ, than whom nothing is better. Wherefore come ye all together, as unto one temple of God, as unto one altar, as unto one Jesus Christ, who pro- ceeded from one Father, and exists in One, and is returned (to One). 1 8. Be not deceived with strange doctrines, nor with old fables which are unprofitable.* For if we still con- tinue to live according to the Jewish law, we acknow- ledge that we have not received grace. 1 For even the moat holy prophets lived according to Christ Jesus. For this cause they were persecuted also, being inspired by his grace, fully to convince the unbelievers that there is One God, who hath manifested himself by Jesus Christ his Son; who is his eternal word,* not coming forth from silence," who in all things was well- pleasing to him that sent him.
9. If, therefore, they who were brought up in these ancient laws, have come to the newness of hope, no longer observing sabbaths, but keeping the Lord’s day,* n See note(C) at the end of the volume.
0 The error here pointed out is that of observing the Jewish Sabbath, to the neglect of the Lord’s day. That the first day of the week was constantly observed by the early Christians is plain, as well from in- stances in the New Testament, in which the habitual assembling of Christians, and their celebration of the holy sacrament, on that day, are distinctly ascertained, (Acts xx. 7. 1 Cor. xvi. 2. compared with 1 Cor. xi. 20.) as from the testimony of Justin Martyr, (Apology, Sect. 89.) Tertullian, ( Apology, c. 16.) and others. It was kept so strictly as a festival, that fasting was forbidden on that day. “Die Dominico jejunium nefas ducimus.” Tertullian De Corond Militi », cap. 3.
The seventh day of the week, which is always designated by Jhe TO THE MAGNESIAN 8*