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BOOK 8  (from: _Apostolic Fathers,_ Charles H. Hoole, 1885 translation)

                           Ignatius to the Romans

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CHAPTER 0
 0:1  |Ignatius, who is also Theophorus, to the Church
that hath obtained mercy in the greatness of the
majesty of the most high Father and of Jesus Christ
his only Son, to her that is beloved and enlightened
according to the will of him that willed all things
that are, according to the love of Jesus Christ our
God, which also presideth in the city and
neighbourhood of the Romans, worthy of God, worthy of
glory, worthy to be thought happy, worthy of praise,
worthy of obtaining her wishes, worthily pure, and
presiding in love, bearing the name of Christ, bearing
the name of the Father, whom also I salute in the name
of Jesus Christ the son of the Father, united both in
flesh and spirit to all his commandments, filled with
the grace of God without distinction, and purified
from all alien colour, much blameless joy in Jesus
Christ our God.

CHAPTER 1
 1:1  |Since, in answer to prayer unto God, I have
attained to see your faces which are worthy of God,
even as I have for a long time asked to receive. For
having been bound in Christ Jesus, I hope to salute
you, if at least it be the will of God that I should
be thought worthy to endure unto the end.
 1:2  For the beginning is easy to arrange, if at
least I attain unto grace, so as to receive my lot
without hindrance. For I fear your love, lest it
injure me, for it is easy for you to do what you will;
but it is difficult for me to attain unto God, if ye
insist upon sparing me.

CHAPTER 2
 2:1  |For I do not desire to please you as men, but to
please God, even as ye also please him. For I shall
never again have such an opportunity to attain unto
God, nor can ye, if ye keep silence, be inscribed on a
better work. For if ye shall cease from defending me,
I shall become a partaker of God; but if ye love my
flesh, I shall again have my course to run.
 2:2  Give me nothing further than this, that I should
be offered unto God, while the altar is still ready.
In order that, having formed a band in love, ye may
sing unto the Father in Christ Jesus, because God hath
deemed me worthy to be found the bishop of Syria,
having sent for me from the east even unto the west.
It is a good thing for me to set from the world unto
God, that I may rise unto him.

CHAPTER 3
 3:1  |Ye have never envied any one. Ye have taught
others; but I desire that those things which ye have
commanded in your teaching should be firmly
established.
 3:2  Only seek power for me both from within and from
without, that I may not only speak, but may also will;
that I may not only be called a Christian, but may
also be found one. For if I be also found a Christian,
I can truly be called one, and then I can be faithful,
when I appear no longer to the world.
 3:3  Nothing that appears is eternal. For the things
that are seen are temporal, but the things that are
not seen are eternal. For our God Jesus Christ, being
in the Father, is the more seen. The work is not one
of silence only, but Christianity is a matter of
greatness.

CHAPTER 4
 4:1  |I write unto the Churches, and charge all that I
die willingly for God, if at least ye hinder me not. I
entreat you, show not unto me an unseasonable love.
Suffer me to be the food of the wild beasts, through
whom it is allowed me to attain unto God. I am the
corn of God; let me be ground by the teeth of the wild
beasts, that I may be found the pure bread of Christ.
 4:2  Rather encourage ye the beasts, that they may
become my tomb, and may leave nothing of my body, that
I may not, after my death, become troublesome to any
one. Then shall I be truly a disciple of Christ, when
the world shall not even behold my body. Beseech
Christ on my behalf, that I may be found a sacrifice
by means of these instruments.
 4:3  I give not commands unto you, as did Peter and
Paul. They were Apostles; I am condemned. They were
free men; I am even until now a slave. But if I suffer,
I am the freedman of Christ and shall rise free in him.
Now I am learning, being in bonds, to desire nothing
[worldly or vain].

CHAPTER 5
 5:1  |From Syria even unto Rome I fight with wild
beasts by land and sea, night and day being bound to
ten leopards, which are the band of soldiers, who even
when they receive benefits become the worse. But by
their wrong-doing I am the more instructed; yet not on
his account am I justified.
 5:2  May I have joy of the wild beasts that have been
prepared for me, and I pray that they may be found
ready for me, whom also I will allure to devour me
quickly, and not to avoid touching me through fear, as
they did to some men. And even if they be unwilling
and refuse, I will compel them.
 5:3  Pardon me in this. I know what is expedient for
me; I am now beginning to be a disciple. Let nothing
that is visible or invisible envy me the attaining
unto Jesus Christ. May fire and the cross, and the
attacks of wild beasts, dividings and rending, the
scattering of bones, the hewing of limbs, the grinding
of the whole body, the evil chastisements of the devil
come upon me, only may I attain unto Jesus Christ.

CHAPTER 6
 6:1  |The delights of the world and the kingdoms of
this life will profit me nothing. Better is it for me
to die unto Jesus Christ than to reign over the ends
of the earth. For what is a man profited, if he shall
gain the whole world but lose his own soul? I seek him
who died for us; him I desire, who rose for us; the
pains of birth are come upon me.
 6:2  Pardon me, brethren; do not prevent me from
living; do not wish me to die, me who desire to belong
to God. Please not the world. Suffer me to receive the
pure light. When I have arrived there I shall be a man
of God.
 6:3  Permit me to be an imitator of the suffering of
my God. If any one have him in himself, let him know
what I mean, and let him sympathise with me, knowing
the things that encompass me.

CHAPTER 7
 7:1  |The ruler of this world desireth to rend me, and
to corrupt my resolution towards my God. Let not any
one of you who are present assist him; rather be ye on
my side, that is on the side of God. Speak not of
Jesus Christ and at the same time desire the world.
 7:2  Let not envy dwell in you; do not even obey me
if I should exhort you being present, but rather obey
the things that I write unto you. I write unto you
alive, desiring to die. My love is crucified, and
there is not in me any earthly fire, but living water
which speaketh in me, and saith from within, Come
hither unto the Father.
 7:3  I delight not in the nurture of corruption, nor
in the pleasures of this life. I desire the bread of
God, the heavenly bread, the bread of life, which is
the flesh of Jesus Christ the Son of God, who was born
in the latter time of the seed of David and Abraham.
And I desire the drink of God, even his blood, which
is love incorruptible and ever-flowing life.

CHAPTER 8
 8:1  |I no longer desire to live according to men, and
that will be if ye are willing; be willing, therefore,
that goodwill may be showed unto you.
 8:2  I write you in few words, believe me. But Jesus
Christ, the mouth in which there is no falsehood, by
which the Father spoke truly, will manifest these
things unto you, that I say them truly.
 8:3  Ask concerning me that I may obtain. I have not
written unto you according to the flesh, but according
to the will of God. If I suffer, ye have had goodwill
towards me. But if I be rejected from suffering, ye
have hated me.

CHAPTER 9
 9:1  |Remember in your prayer the Church in Syria,
which instead of me hath God for its pastor. Jesus
Christ alone, and your love, shall be its bishop.
 9:2  But I am ashamed to be numbered among them, for
I am not worthy, being the last of them, and one born
out of due time. But I have obtained mercy, so that I
should be some one, if I attain unto God.
 9:3  My spirit saluteth you, and the love of the
Churches who have received me in the name of Jesus
Christ, not as a passer-by. For even those Churches who
were not connected with me conducted me from city to
city, on my way according to the flesh.

CHAPTER 10
 10:1  |I write these things unto you from Smyrna by
means of the Ephesians, who are worthily thought
happy. There is also with me Crocus, the name much
desired by me, together with many others.
 10:2  Concerning those who went before me from Syria
unto Rome for the glory of God, I believe that you
know them; to whom also ye showed that I was near at
hand. For they are all worthy of God and of you, whom
it is suitable for you to refresh in every way.
 10:3  I have written these things unto you on the
ninth day before the calends of September (that is, on
the twenty-fourth of August). Fare ye well unto the
end in the patience of Jesus Christ. Amen.