Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
A demonstration that the Word of God, who sets all things in order, is one and the same in the old covenant and the new.
Since, then, the justice of God is the same in his judgments in both cases — in the former case, in a typical way, temporarily, and with a certain mildness; in the latter, truly, forever, and with greater severity, for the fire is eternal, and the wrath of God that shall be revealed from heaven comes from the presence of the Lord, just as David likewise states: "But the Lord's face is set against those who work evil, to erase all memory of them from the earth" — this entails a heavier penalty for those who fall under it. The elders pointed out how thoroughly foolish are those who, drawing on what befell men of old who once disobeyed God, try to introduce a second Father, setting against this how much the Lord accomplished, coming as he did to rescue those who welcomed him, moved by compassion for them, while passing over in silence his judgment, and what awaits those who heard his words yet failed to act on them, and how it would have gone better for such people had they never come into existence, and how the day of judgment will go easier for Sodom and Gomorrah than for the town that refused to welcome the message brought by his followers.
For just as in the New Testament the faith of men toward God has been increased, receiving the addition of the Son of God, so that man too might become a partaker of God, so also the diligence required in conduct has been increased: we are directed not merely to refrain from wicked acts, but even from wicked thoughts themselves, and from careless words, hollow talk, and coarse jesting; likewise the penalty facing those who refuse belief in God's Word, and who scorn his coming, and fall back, has grown harsher — no longer temporary but made everlasting. For to whomever the Lord pronounces, "Away from me," that very God, the Father, together with his Word — who has stood beside humankind throughout every age, active in manifold dispensations and rescuing, from earliest times onward, those destined for rescue (namely, those who cherish God and hold fast to his Word each according to their own capacity) — this same God is also the one who passes sentence on the condemned, namely those who have forgotten God, and blaspheme, and violate his Word.
For these very ones whom we have already named above as heretics have fallen out with themselves, accusing the Lord in whom they claim to believe. For the very things they point to in God — that he then, at that time, temporarily saved the obedient while leaving the disbelievers and the Egyptians to their fate — these same things will nonetheless recur with regard to the Lord: he who eternally condemns those he condemns, and eternally releases those he releases, will be found, according to their own words, to have become the cause of the greatest sin for those who seized him and drove the nails through him. Had he not come to them in that manner, they surely would never have turned into killers of their own Lord; and had he not dispatched prophets to them, they surely would never have put those men to death, nor the apostles either. If, then, God was unable to save his own people because those pursuing Israel drowned in the sea, the same complaint applies here: unless the Jews had turned into murderers of the Lord (which indeed stripped them of eternal life), and unless, by killing the apostles and persecuting the Church, they had sunk into the depths of wrath, salvation would never have come to us. For just as they obtained salvation through that event, so too we obtained salvation through the Jews' blindness: since the Lord's death means, for those who nailed him up and refused belief in his coming, condemnation, but for those who believe in him, salvation. For to some he is a fragrance from death leading to death, and to others a fragrance from life leading to life. To whom then does he prove a fragrance from death leading to death, if not to those who refuse belief and will not submit to God's Word? And who are they who at that time handed themselves over to death? Plainly those who refuse belief and will not yield themselves in obedience to God. And once more: which are the ones who were saved and received the inheritance? Clearly those who believe God and have kept the love that is owed to him — such as Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun, and the innocent children who had no sense of wickedness. And who are they who are saved in this case, and receive eternal life? Are they not those who love God, and who...