Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
Against the teaching of Tatian. All, then, who contradict his salvation are shown to be liars, forever excluding themselves from life, inasmuch as they refuse to believe the sheep that was lost has now been recovered. But if that sheep has not been found, then mankind's entire lineage remains yet in a condition of ruin. A liar, then, is the one who first introduced this opinion — or rather this ignorance and blindness — having become, as we have shown, a link joining together all the heretics; and he devised this from himself, so that by bringing in something new beyond the rest, and speaking emptily, he might prepare for himself hearers empty of faith, aspiring to be regarded as a teacher, and attempting, moreover, to make use for this purpose of the words repeatedly spoken by Paul: that in Adam we all die — not knowing that where sin abounded, grace has abounded still more. Given, then, that this has been plainly demonstrated, let everyone be ashamed who belong to his school and who dispute about Adam, as though they would gain something great if he were not saved — when in fact they gain nothing, just as the serpent gained nothing by persuading man, except that it revealed him as a transgressor, having man as the beginning and material of its own apostasy, but did not conquer God. So too those who contradict the salvation of Adam gain nothing by it, except that they turn themselves into heretics and deserters from the truth, revealing themselves as champions of the serpent and of death.