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Page:Ante-Nicene Fathers volume 1.djvu/197

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TO THE MAGNESIANS.
183
and be ye changed into the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ. Be ye salted in Him, lest any one among you should be corrupted, since by your savour ye shall be convicted. It absurd to profess[1] Christ Jesus, and to Judaize. For Christianity did not embrace[2] Judaism, but Judaism Christianity, that so every tongue which believeth might be gathered together to God.

This was first fulfilled in Syria; for "the disciples were called Christians at Antioch,"[3] when Paul and Peter were laying the foundations of the church. Lay aside, therefore, the evil, the old, the corrupt leaven,[4] and be ye changed into the new leaven of grace. Abide in Christ, that the stranger[5] may not have dominion over you. It is absurd to speak of Jesus Christ with the tongue, and to cherish in the mind a Judaism which has now come to an end. For where there is Christianity there cannot be Judaism. For Christ is one, in whom every nation that believes, and every tongue that confesses, is gathered unto God. And those that were of a stony heart have become the children of Abraham, the friend of God;[6] and in his seed all those have been blessed[7] who were ordained to eternal life[8] in Christ.


Chap. xi.I write these things to warn you.

These things [I address to you], my beloved, not that I know any of

These things [I address to you], my beloved, not that I know any of you to be in such a state;[9] but,

  1. Some read, "to name."
  2. Literally, "believe into," merge into.
  3. Acts xi. 26.
  4. 1 Cor. v. 7.
  5. Or, "enemy."
  6. Matt. iii. 9; Isa. xli. 8; James ii. 23. Some read, "children of God, friends of Abraham."
  7. Gen. xxviii. 14.
  8. Acts xiii. 48.
  9. i.e. addicted to the error of Judaizing.