Page:Ante-Nicene Fathers volume 1.djvu/250

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236
THE EPISTLE OF IGNATIUS
something transcendent [above the former dispensation], viz. the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, His passion and resurrection. For the beloved prophets announced Him,[1] but the gospel is the perfection of immortality.[2] All these things are good together, if ye believe in love.

and Isaac, and Jacob, Moses and all the company of the prophets, and these pillars of the world, the apostles, and the spouse of Christ, on whose account He poured out His own blood, as her marriage portion, that He might redeem her. All these things tend towards the unity of the one and only true God. But the gospel possesses something transcendent [above the former dispensation], viz. the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, His passion, and the resurrection itself. For those things which the prophets announced, saying, "Until He come for whom it is reserved, and He shall be the expectation of the Gentiles,"[3] have been fulfilled in the gospel, [our Lord saying,] "Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."[4] All then are good together, the law, the prophets, the apostles, the whole company [of others] that have believed through them: only if we love one another.


Chap. x.Congratulate the inhabitants of Antioch on the close of the persecution.

Since, according to your prayers, and the

Since, according to your prayers, and the compassion which ye feel
  1. Literally, "proclaimed as to Him."
  2. The meaning is doubtful. Comp. 2 Tim. i. 10.
  3. Gen. xlix. 10.
  4. Matt. xxviii. 19.