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.

Seeing then that I have looked on the whole congregation[*](Exhortation to harmony) in faith in the persons mentioned above, and have embraced them, I exhort you:—Be zealous to do all things in harmony with God, with the bishop

presiding in the place of God and the presbyters in the place of the Council of the Apostles, and the deacons,[*](The sentences seem to be unfinished: the Apostolic Constitutions ii. 26 say Let the Deacon be honoured as a type of Holy Sprit.) who are most dear to me, entrusted with the service of Jesus Christ, who was from eternity with the Father and was made manifest at the end of time.

Be then ail in conformity with God, and respect one another, and let no man regard his neighbour according to the flesh, but in everything love one another in Jesus Christ. Let there be nothing in you which can divide you, but be united with the bishop and with those who preside over you as an example and lesson of immortality.