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was the means by which you ascended, and your love the way which led up to God. Ye, therefore, as well as all your fellow-travellers, are God-bearers, temple-bearers, Christ-bearers, bearers of holiness, adorned in all respects with the commandments of Jesus Christ, in whom also I exult that I have been thought worthy, by means of this epistle, to converse and rejoice with you, because with respect to your Christian life[1] ye love nothing but God only.
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And says He of the Holy Spirit, "He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever things He shall hear from me."[2] And He says of Himself to the Father, "I have," says He, "glorified Thee upon the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest me; I have manifested Thy name to men."[3] And of the Holy Ghost, "He shall glorify me, for He receives of mine."[4] But the spirit of deceit preaches himself, and speaks his own things, for he seeks to please himself. He glorifies himself, for he is full of arrogance. He is lying, fraudulent, soothing, flattering, treacherous, rhapsodical, trifling, inharmonious, verbose, sordid, and timorous. From his power Jesus Christ will deliver you, who has founded you upon the rock, as being chosen stones, well fitted for the divine edifice of the Father, and who are raised up on high by Christ, who was crucified for you, making use of the Holy Spirit as a rope, and being borne up by faith, while exalted by love from earth to heaven, walking in company with those that are undefiled. For, says [the Scripture], "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord."[5]
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THE EPISTLE OF IGNATIUS.
