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Chapter VIII. I Salute Him Who Is Reckoned Worthy to Go to Antioch in My Stead, as I Commanded Thee · The Epistle of Ignatius to the Philippians · Chapter X

Continuation: audacity of Satan

Page 288 of 830

Darest thou, then, who didst fall "as lightning"1341 from the very highest glory, to say to the Lord, "Cast thyself down from hence1342 [to Him] to whom the things that are not are reckoned as if they were,1343 and to provoke to a display of vainglory Him that was free from all ostentation? And didst thou pretend to read in Scripture concerning Him: "For He hath given His angels charge concerning Thee, and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest thou shouldest dash Thy foot against a stone?"1344 At the same time thou didst pretend to be ignorant of the rest, furtively concealing what [the Scripture] predicted concerning thee and thy servants: "Thou shalt tread upon the adder and the basilisk; the lion and the dragon shall thou trample under foot."1345

Notes

  1. 1341

    .

  2. 1342

    .

  3. 1343

    Comp. .

  4. 1344

    .

  5. 1345

    .

Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 1, ed. Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson and A. Cleveland Coxe (1885–96). Public domain. Text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.