So then he who does not join in the common assembly, is already haughty, and has separated himself. There is a curious mixture of tenses in the Greek: Lightfoot takes the final aorist as gnomic: but it is possible that Ignatius is, at least in part, referring to some special instance. For it is written God resisteth the proud: let us then be careful not to oppose the bishop, that we may be subject to God. Or, with the alternative reading, by our submission we may belong to God.