Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
That the prophets and the righteous, before the Lord's coming, knew of his coming.
That it was not the prophets alone but many of the righteous besides who, having foreknowledge of his coming through the Holy Spirit, prayed to survive until that hour when they might meet their Lord in person and listen to what he would say -- this the Lord himself declared openly to those who followed him: 'Many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you now see, and were not granted sight of it, and to hear what you now hear, and were not granted hearing of it.' What, then, made them long to hear and to see, if not that they already knew in advance that his coming would take place? And by what means could they have known this beforehand, unless they had first been given that foreknowledge by him? And on what basis did the writings speak of him, if not because everything had, from the start, been disclosed and made known to the faithful through the one identical God acting by his Word -- conversing at one point with the creature he had shaped, giving commandments at another, rebuking here, exhorting there, and later releasing the bondservant and receiving him as a son, and, when the moment was ripe, granting the inheritance of incorruptibility, so that man might be brought to completion? For he formed man for growth and increase, just as Scripture also says: 'Increase and multiply.' And in this God differs from man: God makes, man is made; and he who makes is always the same, while what is made must receive a beginning, a middle stage, an addition, and an increase. God does well, and it is done well to man. God is perfect in all things, equal and like to himself, being wholly light, and wholly mind, and wholly substance, and the source of all good things; while man receives advancement and increase toward God. Just as God remains forever unchanging, so man, having once been established in God, shall progress toward God without end. God never tires of doing man good and making him rich, nor does man ever tire of gaining that benefit and being made rich by God. The man grateful toward his creator becomes a vessel fit to hold his goodness, an instrument through which he is glorified; whereas the ungrateful man, scorning his own maker and refusing submission to his Word, becomes instead a vessel fit for his rightful condemnation. To those who continually bear the most fruit, and who have charge of the most of the Lord's money, he has promised to give the most: 'Well done,' he says, 'good and faithful servant; because you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your Lord' -- the Lord himself promising the greater reward.
Just as, then, he has promised to give the most to those who now bear fruit, in proportion to the reward of his grace, though not according to any change in the knowledge of him -- for the Lord himself remains, and it is the same Father who is revealed -- so too the one and the same Lord, through his coming, has bestowed on those who came later a greater reward of grace than that which belonged to the old Testament. For the people of old heard through servants that a king was to come, and rejoiced only moderately, in proportion to their hope of his coming; but those who saw him present, and obtained and enjoyed the freedom of his gift, have a greater grace and a more abundant exultation, rejoicing at the coming of the king, just as David says: 'My soul shall exult in the Lord, it shall rejoice in his salvation.' And for this reason, when he entered Jerusalem, all who were on the road recognized their king with deep joy of soul, and spread their garments before him, and adorned the way with green branches, shouting out in great joy and triumph: 'Save now, Son of David; blessed be he who arrives in the Lord's name; save now in the highest heights.' And when the wicked stewards grew jealous -- those who defrauded their inferiors and lorded it over those who did not understand the matter -- and, unwilling that the king had come, said to him, 'Do you hear what these are saying?', the Lord answered: 'Have you never read, Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babes you have perfected praise?' -- showing that what had been spoken by David of the Son of God was fulfilled in himself, and signifying that they did not know the power of Scripture nor the dispensation of God, but that he was the Christ heralded by the prophets, whose renown is celebrated throughout every land, bringing praise to completion for his Father out of the mouths of infants and nursing babes. For this reason also his glory has been lifted up above the heavens.
If, then, it is the very one who was proclaimed by the prophets, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is now present, and if his coming bestows fuller grace and a greater reward on those who receive him, it is clear that the Father, too, is the very one who was announced by the prophets, and that the Son, in coming, did not bring knowledge of a different Father, but of the very one who was proclaimed from the beginning -- from whom he also brought freedom to those who serve him rightfully, with a ready mind and with their whole heart. But on those who despise him and are not subject to God, and who instead pursue outward observances for the glory of men (observances that had been handed down as a figure of things to come, the Law providing, as it were, the outline of a shadow, and sketching eternal things by temporal ones, heavenly things by earthly ones), who pretend to observe more than what was actually commanded, as though setting their own diligence above God himself, while inwardly full of hypocrisy, and greed, and every kind of wickedness -- on these he has brought everlasting destruction, cutting them off from life.