Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 4.39
Humanity has received the knowledge of good and evil. Obeying God is good; so is believing Him and keeping His commandment, and this is the life of a human being. Disobeying God is evil, and that disobedience is death. Therefore, because God grants magnanimity, humanity has come to know both the good of obedience and the evil of disobedience, so that—receiving experience of both with the mind's eye—we may choose with judgment. We must never become sluggish or neglectful of God's commandment. By experience we learn that disobeying God is evil, and so we must not even attempt it; but we must keep obedience, which preserves life, with all intention, knowing it is good. For this reason humanity also possesses a twofold sense, holding knowledge of both opposites, so that we may choose the better with discipline. How could anyone have discipline concerning the good while ignorant of its contrary? Direct apprehension of realities is stronger and more certain than knowledge based on conjecture. Just as the tongue distinguishes sweet from bitter by taste, the eye discerns black from white by sight, and the ear distinguishes sounds by hearing, so the mind, receiving discipline of the good through experience of both, becomes stronger in preserving it, obeying God: first it rejects disobedience through repentance, because disobedience is bitter and evil; then, having learned by comprehension what stands opposed to the good and to sweetness, it will not even attempt to taste disobedience toward God. But if anyone flees the knowledge of both and the twofold sense of that knowledge, he secretly kills himself.
How, then, can one be God who has not yet become human? How can one be perfect who was only recently made? How can one be immortal who, possessing mortal nature, did not obey the Creator? You must first keep the order proper to humanity; only afterward may you share in the glory of God. You do not make God; God makes you. Since you are God's work, wait for your Artisan's hand, which acts opportunely in all things—opportunely, that is, as far as you are concerned, until you are fully formed. Offer Him your heart, soft and tractable, and keep the form with which the Artisan shaped you, retaining within yourself the moisture of clay, lest you harden and lose the traces of His fingers. By preserving this coherence you will ascend to perfection, for the clay within you is hidden from the art of God. He has formed the substance in His hands; He will anoint you inside and out with pure gold and silver, and adorn you so greatly that even the King will desire your beauty. But if you harden and immediately reject His art, showing ingratitude toward Him because you have been made human—ungrateful to God who made you—you lose both His art and your life. To make is proper to God's goodness; to be made is proper to human nature. Therefore, if you hand over to Him what is yours—that is, faith in Him and subjection—you will receive His art and become the perfect work of God. But if you do not believe Him and flee from His hand, the cause of imperfection lies in you who did not obey, not in Him who called. He sent messengers to call guests to the wedding; those who refused to obey have deprived themselves of the royal banquet.
The art of God does not fail; He is able to raise up children of Abraham from stones. The one who does not attain it is the cause of his own imperfection. The light does not fail because some have blinded themselves; persisting in their guilt, they are established in darkness. Nor does the light compel anyone by sheer necessity; nor does God force anyone who does not wish to receive His art. Those who have withdrawn from the paternal light and transgressed the law of liberty have done so by their own fault, acting through their own free will and power. God, foreseeing all things, has prepared habitations suited to both: for those who seek the light of incorruptibility and turn toward it, He graciously gives that light which they desire; for those who despise it, turn away, flee from it, and as it were blind themselves, He has prepared darkness congruent with their opposition to the light, and for those who flee from Him, subjection to punishment. Subjection to God is eternal rest, so that those who flee the light may have a place worthy of their flight, and those who flee eternal rest may have a habitation worthy of their flight. Since all things are good with God, those who flee from Him by their own choice deprive themselves of every good; deprived of all goods in relation to God, they consequently fall into God's just judgment. Those who flee rest will justly dwell in punishment; those who have fled the light will justly inhabit darkness. Just as in this temporal light those who flee it enslave themselves to darkness, so that they themselves become the cause of inhabiting darkness and not light—the light is not the cause of this condition, as we have said—so also those who flee the eternal light of God, which contains all goods, are themselves the cause of inhabiting eternal darkness, destitute of all goods, having made themselves the cause of that habitation.
Latin
Acnitrronem autem accepit homo boni et mali. Bonum est autem obedire Deo, et credere ei, et custodire ejus preeceptum ; et hoe est vita hominis: quemadmodum non obedire Deo, malum ; et hoc est mors ejus. Magnanimitatem igitur prestante Deo, cognovit homo et bonum obedientize et malum inobedientiz, uti oculus mentis utrorumque accipiens experimentum, electionem cum judicio faciat ; et nunquam segnis, neque negligens preecepti fiat Dei, et id quod aufert ab eo vitam, id est non obedire Deo, experimento discens quoniam malum est, neque tentet quidem illud unquam ; quod autem conservatorium vite ejus est, obedire Deo, sciens quoniam bonum est, cum omni intentione custodiat. Propter hoe etiam duplices habuit sensus, utrorumque agnitionem habentes, ut electionem meliorum cum disciplina faciat. Disciplinam autem boni quemadmodum habere potuisset, ignorans quod est contrarium? Firmior est enim et indubitata subjacentium apprehensio, quam ea que est ex susconjectura. Quemadmodum enim lingua per gustum accipit experimentum dulcis et amari, et oculus per visionem discernit quod est nigrum ab albo, et auris per auditum differentias sonorum scit ; sic et mens per utrorumque experimentum disciplinam boni accipiens, firmior ad conservationem ejus efficitur, obediens Deo: inobedientiam quidem primum respuens per poenitentiam, quoniam amarum et malum est; deinde ex comprehensione discens, quale sit quod contrarium est bono et dulcedini, ne tentet quidem unquam inobedientiam gustare Dei. Si autem utrorumque eorum cognitionem, et duplices sensus cognitionis quis defugiat, latenter semetipsum occidit hominem. 2. Quemadmodum igitur erit Deus, qui nondum factus est homo? quomodo autem perfectus, nuper effectus? quomodo autem immortalis, qui in natura mortali non obedivit factori? Oportet enim te primo quidem ordinem hominis custodire, tune deinde participare glorie Dei. Non enim tu Deum facis, sed Deus te facit. Si ergo opera Dei es, manum artificis tui exspecta opportune omnia facientem: opportune autem, quantum ad te attinet, squi efficeris. Preesta ei autem cor tuum molle et tractabile, et custodi figuram qua te figuravit artifex, habens in temetipso humorem, ne induratus amittas vestigia digitorum ejus. Custodiens autem compaginationem ascendes ad perfectum: ab artificio enim Dei absconditur quod est in te lutum. Fabricavit substantiam in manus ejus: liniet te ab intus et a foris auro puro et argento, et in tantum ornabit te, ut et ipse Rex concupiscat speciem tuam, Si vero statim obduratus respuas artem ejus, et ingratus exsistas in eum, quoniam homo factus es, ingratus Deo factus, simul et artem ejus et vitam amisisti. Facere enim proprium est benigisnitatis Dei: fieri autem proprium est hominis nature. Si igitur tradideris ei quod est tuum, id est, fidem in eum et subjectionem, recipies ejus artem, et eris perfectum opus Dei. Si autem non credideris ei, et fugeris manus ejus, erit causa imperfectionis in te qui non obedisti, sed non in illo qui vocavit. Ile enim misit, qui vocarent ad nuptias; qui autem non obedierunt ei, semetipsos priyaverunt regia coena. 3. Non igitur ars deficit Dei; potens est enim de lapidibus suscitare filios Abrahze: sed iile qui non consequitur eam, sibimet suze imperfectionis est causa. Nec enim lumen deficit propter qui semetipsos exceecaverunt: sed illo perseverante quale et est, exceecati per suam culpam in caligine constituuntur. Neque lumen cum magna necessitate subjiciet sibi quemquam: neque Deus coget eum, qui nolit continere ejus artem. Qui igitur abstiterunt a paterno lumine, et transgressi sunt legem libertatis, per suam abstiterunt culpam, liberi arbitrii et suze potestatis facti. Deus autem omnia preesciens, utrisque aptas preparavit habitationes : eis quidem qui inquirunt lumen incorruptibilitatis, et ad id recurrunt, benigne donans hoc quod concupiscunt lumen; aliis vero id contemnentibus, et avertentibus se ab eo et id fugientibus, et quasi semetipsos exceecantibus, congruentes lumini adversantibus preeparavit tenebras, et his qui fugiunt ei esse subjecti, ? convenienti subdidit poenze. Subjectio autem Dei requietio est zeterna: ut hi qui fugiunt lumen, dignum fugze suze habeant locum ; et qui fugiunt eeternam requiem, congruentem fugze suze habeant habitationem. Cum autem apud Deum omnia sint bona, qui ex sua sententia fugiunt Deum, semetipsos ab omnibus fraudant bonis: fraudati autem omnibus erga Deum bonis, consequenter in Dei justum judicium incident. Qui enim fugiunt requiem, juste in poena conversabuntur: et qui fugerunt lumen, juste inhabitabunt tenebras. Quemadmodum autem in hoc temporali lumine, qui fugiunt illud, ipsos se tenebris mancipant; ita ut %et ipsi sibi causa fiant, quod a lumine et inhabitant tenebras, et non lumen causa est eis hujusmodi conversationis, quemadmodum preediximus: sic eeternum Dei qui fugiunt lumen, quod continet in se omnia bona, ipsi sibi causa sunt ut ecternas inhabitent tenebras, destituti omnibus bonis, sibimetipsis causa hujusmodi habitationis facti.