Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 4.20
We do not know God by his magnitude; it is impossible to measure the Father. But we are led to God through his Word by his love, and by obeying him we always learn how great God is. He himself establishes, chooses, and adorns all things through himself — he who is present to us. And so we have been made together with everything he contains. This is what Scripture says: God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). Therefore angels did not make us; they did not form us, nor could angels fashion the image of God. No one else could do it except the Word of the Lord — no power far removed from the Father. God did not need such agents to accomplish what he had predetermined, as if he lacked his own hands. The Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, are always present to him; through them and in them he freely and willingly made all things. To them he speaks, saying, "Let us make man in our image and likeness"; he himself takes from himself the substance of creatures, the pattern of things made, and the design of the world's ornaments.
Latin
1. Icrrur secundum magnitudinem non est cognoscere Deum ; impossibile est enim mensurari Patrem ; secundum autem dilectionem ejus, hee est enim que nos per Verbum ejus perducit ad Deum, obedientes ei semper discimus quoniam est tantus Deus, et ipse est qui per semetipsum constituit, et elegit, et adornavit, qui est secundum nos. Et nos igitur cum his que continentur ab eo, factisumus. Et hic est de quo Scriptura ait; Ht plasmavit Deus hominem, limum terre accipiens, et insufflavit in faciem ejus Jjlatum vite. Non ergo angeli fecerunt, nos, nec nos plasmaverunt, nec angeli potuerunt imaginem facere Dei, nec alius quis preter Verbum Domini, nec virtus longe absistens a Patre uniNec enim indigebat horum Deus ad faciendum quie ipse apud se preefinierat fieri, quasi ipse suas non haberet manus. Adest enim ei semper Verbum et Sapientia, Filius et Spiritus, per quos, et in quibus omnia libere et sponte fecit, ad quos et loquitur, dicens: Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram; ipse a semetipso substantiam creaturarum, et exemplum factorum, et figuram in mundo ornamentorum accipiens.