ou in a few words;
I pray you believe me.

7 Jesus Christ will shew you
that I speak truly. My mouth is
without deceit, and the Father
hath truly spoken by it. Pray
therefore for me, that I may
accomplish what I desire.

8 I have not written to you after
the flesh, but according to the will
of God. If I shall suffer, ye have
loved me: but if I shall be rejected,
ye have hated me.

9 Remember in your prayers
the church of Syria, which now
enjoys God for its shepherd instead
of me. Let Jesus Christ only oversee
it, and your charity.

10 But I am even ashamed to
be reckoned as one of them; for
neither am I worthy, being the
least among them, and as one
born out of due season. But
through mercy I have risen to
be somebody, if I shall get unto
God.

11 My spirit salutes you; and
the charity of the churches that
have received me in the name of
Jesus Christ; not as a passenger,
for even they that were not near
to me in the way, have gone before
me to the next city to meet me.

12 These things I write to you
from Smyrna, by the most worthy
of the church of Ephesus.

13 There is now with me, together
with many others, Crocus, most
beloved of me. As for those which
are come from Syria, and are gone
before me to Rome, to the glory
of God, I suppose you are not
ignorant of them.

14 Ye shall therefore signify to
them that I draw near, for they,
are all worthy both of God and of
you: Whom it is fit that you
refresh in all things.

15 This have I written to you,
the day before the ninth of the,
calends of September. Be strong
unto the end, in the patience of
Jesus Christ.

IGNATIUS TO THE PHILADELPHIANS.

CHAPTER I.

Commends their bishop, whom they had sent unto him,
warns them against division and schism.

IGNATIUS, who is also called
Theophorus, to the church of
God the Father, and our Lord
Jesus Christ, which is at Philadelphia
in Asia; which has obtained mercy,
being fixed in the concord of God,
and rejoicing evermore in the passion
of our Lord, and being fulfilled in
all mercy through his resurrection:
Which also I salute in the blood of
Jesus Christ, which is our eternal
and undefiled joy; especially if
they are at unity with the bishop,
and presbyters who are with him,
and the deacons appointed according
to the mind of Jesus Christ; whom
he has settled according to his own
will in all firmness by his Holy
Spirit:

2 Which