Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
A demonstration that the Church not only possesses perfect love, but that the Spirit of God also rests upon her. For this reason the Church in every place, on account of the love which she has toward God, sends forth in every age a multitude of martyrs to the Father, while all the rest not only have nothing of this sort to show among themselves, but do not even hold that such a thing is necessary — except that, once or twice, throughout the whole time since the Lord appeared on earth, someone has, as it were, obtained mercy along with our martyrs, and has borne the reproach of the Name together with them, and been led away with them, as though granted to them as a kind of addition. For the disgrace borne by those hunted down on account of righteousness, who withstand every punishment and are killed for love directed toward God and the confessing of his Son — this the Church alone bears in its purity; often weakened, yet at once increasing her members and becoming whole again — just as her figure, the type in the case of Lot's wife, the fashioning of salt, likewise shows; even as the ancient prophets endured persecution, as the Lord says: For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. For it is the same Spirit, though new in time, resting upon her, that undergoes persecution at the hands of those unwilling to accept the message God speaks. And this too the prophets foretold, among the other things they announced: that whoever had God's Spirit resting upon them, and heeded the Father's utterance, and served him in a life of virtue, would be hunted down, stoned, and put to death. For in themselves the prophets prefigured all these things, on account of the love of God and on account of his word.