The Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians (Long Version)
Chapter 9: You have ignored false teachers
Nevertheless, I have heard of some who have come among you, holding the wicked doctrine of the strange and evil spirit; to whom you did not allow entrance to sow their tares, but closed your ears so that you might not receive the error they proclaimed. You were persuaded that this spirit, which deceives the people, does not speak the things of Christ, but its own, for it is a lying spirit.
But the Holy Spirit does not speak His own things, but those of Christ, and this not from himself, but from the Lord; just as the Lord also announced to us the things that He received from the Father.
For, He says, “the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s, who sent Me.” And He says of the Holy Spirit, “He shall not speak of Himself, but whatever things He shall hear from Me.” And He says of Himself to the Father, “I have,” He says, “glorified You on the earth; I have finished the work You gave Me; I have manifested Your name to men.” And of the Holy Spirit, “He shall glorify Me, for He receives from Mine.” But the spirit of deceit preaches himself and speaks his own things, seeking to please himself.
He glorifies himself, for he is full of arrogance. He is lying, fraudulent, soothing, flattering, treacherous, rhapsodical, trivial, inharmonious, verbose, sordid, and timid. 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 by Christ, who was crucified for you, using the Holy Spirit as a guide, and being borne up by faith, while elevated by love from earth to heaven, walking alongside those who are undefiled.
For, says [the Scripture], “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.” Now the way is unerring, namely, Jesus Christ. For, He says, “I am the way and the life.” And this way leads to the Father. For “no one,” He says, “comes to the Father except through Me.” Blessed, then, are you who are God-bearers, spirit-bearers, temple-bearers, bearers of holiness, adorned in every way with the commandments of Jesus Christ, being “a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people,” on whose account I rejoice exceedingly, and have had the privilege, through this Epistle, of conversing with “the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus.” I rejoice, therefore, over you, that you do not give heed to vanity, and love nothing according to the flesh, but according to God.