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To the Magnesians

St Ignatius of Antioch, Lake, Loeb 1912

Chapter 6

Exhortation to harmony

Seeing then that I have looked on the whole congregation 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,¹ 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 all 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.

Notes

The sentences seem to be unfinished: the Apostolic Constitutions ii. 26 say “Let the Deacon be honoured as a type of Holy Sprit.”