Chapter VIII.--Exhortations to holiness and good order.
May I have joy of you in the Lord! Be ye sober. Lay aside, every one of you, all malice and beast-like fury, evil-speaking, calumny, filthy speaking, ribaldry, whispering, arrogance, drunkenness, lust, avarice, vainglory, envy, and everything akin to these. "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." [1211] Ye presbyters, be subject to the bishop; ye deacons, to the presbyters; and ye, the people, to the presbyters and the deacons. Let my soul be for theirs who preserve this good order; and may the Lord be with them continually!
[1211] Rom. xiii. 14.
Chapter IX.--Exhortations to the discharge of relative duties.
Ye husbands, love your wives; and ye wives, your husbands. Ye children, reverence your parents. Ye parents, "bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." [1212] Honour those [who continue] in virginity, as the priestesses of Christ; and the widows [that persevere] in gravity of behaviour, as the altar of God. Ye servants, wait upon your masters with [respectful] fear. Ye masters, issue orders to your servants with tenderness. Let no one among you be idle; for idleness is the mother of want. I do not enjoin these things as being a person of any consequence, although I am in bonds [for Christ]; but as a brother, I put you in mind of them. The Lord be with you!
[1212] Eph. vi. 4.
Chapter X.--Salutations.
May I enjoy your prayers! Pray ye that I may attain to Jesus. I commend unto you the Church which is at Antioch. The Churches of Philippi, [1213] whence also I write to you, salute you. Philo, your deacon, to whom also I give thanks as one who has zealously ministered to me in all things, salutes you. Agathopus, the deacon from Syria, who follows me in Christ, salutes you. "Salute ye one another with a holy kiss." [1214] I salute you all, both male and female, who are in Christ. Fare ye well in body, and soul, and in one Spirit; and do not ye forget me. The Lord be with you!
[1213] Literally, "of the Philippians."
[1214] 1 Pet. v. 14.
The Epistle of Ignatius to the Antiochians
Ignatius, who is also called Theophorus, to the Church sojourning in Syria, which has obtained mercy from God, and been elected by Christ, and which first [1215] received the name Christ, [wishes] happiness in God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Chapter I.--Cautions against error.
The Lord has rendered my bonds light and easy since I learnt that you are in peace, that you live in all harmony both of the flesh and spirit. "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, [1216] beseech you, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called," [1217] guarding against those heresies of the wicked one which have broken in upon us, to the deceiving and destruction of those that accept of them; but that ye give heed to the doctrine of the apostles, and believe both the law and the prophets: that ye reject every Jewish and Gentile error, and neither introduce a multiplicity of gods, nor yet deny Christ under the pretence of [maintaining] the unity of God.
[1216] Literally, "in the Lord."
[1217] Eph. iv. 1.
Chapter II.--The true doctrine respecting God and Christ.
For Moses, the faithful servant of God, when he said, "The Lord thy God is one Lord," [1218] and thus proclaimed that there was only one God, did yet forthwith confess also our Lord when he said, "The Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the Lord." [1219] And again, "And God [1220] said, Let Us make man after our image: and so God made man, after the image of God made He him." [1221] And further, "In the image of God made He man." [1222] And that [the Son of God] was to be made man, [Moses shows when] he says, "A prophet shall the Lord raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me." [1223]
[1218] Deut. vi. 4; Mark xii. 29.
[1219] Gen. xix. 24.
[1220] The ms. has "Lord."
[1221] Gen. i. 26, 27.
[1222] Gen. v. 1, Gen. ix. 6.
[1223] Deut. xviii. 15; Acts iii. 22, Acts vii. 37.