Epistles

Ignatius of Antioch

Ignatius of Antioch. The Apostolic Fathers, Volume 1. Lake, Kirsopp, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1912.

Now do each of you join in this choir, that being harmoniously in concord you may receive the key [*](i.e. in the musical sense of the word.) of God in unison, and sing with one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father, that he may both hear you and may recognise, through your good works, that you are

members of his Son. It is therefore profitable for you to be in blameless unity, in order that you may always commune with God.

For if I in a short time gained such fellowship[*](The necessity of subordination to the bishop) with your bishop as was not human but spiritual, how much more do I count you blessed who are so united with him as the Church is with Jesus Christ, and as Jesus Christ is with the Father, that all things may sound together in unison!