Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 5.2.2-3
Those who claim that God came into something alien, as if desiring what is foreign, are empty in their thinking. They suppose He did this to present a man made by another to a God who neither made nor founded anything, a man abandoned from the beginning by the true fashioning of humanity. The coming of such a one is not just. Nor did He truly redeem us by His blood if He was not truly made man, restoring to His own creation what was declared in the beginning. He did not snatch away what was alien through deceit; rather, He justly and kindly restores what is properly His. As far as apostasy is concerned, He justly redeems us from it by His blood; as far as we who are redeemed are concerned, He acts kindly. We gave Him nothing beforehand, nor does He desire anything from us as though He were in need. We are the ones who need communion with Him, and so He kindly poured Himself out to gather us into the Father's bosom.
Those who despise God's entire economy, deny the salvation of the flesh, and scorn its regeneration, saying it is incapable of incorruptibility, are vain in every way. For if this flesh is not saved, then the Lord did not redeem us with His blood. Neither is the cup of the Eucharist a participation in His blood, nor is the bread we break a participation in His body (1 Cor 10:16). Blood comes only from veins and flesh, and from the rest of what belongs to human substance. By that very substance the Word of God was truly made flesh and redeemed us with His blood. His Apostle also says: "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins" (Col 1:14). Since we are His members and are nourished through creation, He Himself provides that creation for us — making His sun rise and sending rain as He wills. The cup, which comes from creation, He made His own blood poured out, by which our blood is increased. The bread, which comes from creation, He confirmed as His own body, by which our bodies are increased. When the mixed cup and the baked bread receive the Word of God, they become the Eucharist of the blood and body of Christ, from which the substance of our flesh is increased and sustained. How then can they deny that flesh is capable of receiving God's gift, which is eternal life — flesh that is nourished by the blood and body of Christ and is a member of Him? The blessed Apostle says in the letter to the Ephesians: "We are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones" (Eph 5:30). He does not say this of some spiritual, invisible man — for the Spirit has neither bones nor flesh — but of that constitution which belongs to the true human being, consisting of flesh, nerves, and bones. This constitution is nourished from the cup which is His blood, and increased from the bread which is His body.
Just as a vine shoot planted in the earth bears fruit in its season, and a grain of wheat falling into the earth, dissolved, rises multiplied by the Spirit of God who contains all things — and these then, through wisdom, come into human use, and receiving the Word of God become the Eucharist, which is the body and blood of Christ — so also our bodies, nourished by it, laid in the earth and dissolved there, will rise again in their season. The Word of God gives them resurrection, to the glory of God the Father, who clothes this mortal with immortality and freely gives incorruptibility to the corruptible. For God's power is perfected in weakness (2 Cor 12:9). This is so that we, not having life from ourselves, may not at some time be puffed up against God, harboring an ungrateful mind. Rather, learning by experience, we know that we have perseverance for eternity from His greatness, not our own. Thus we are not deprived of the glory that surrounds God as it truly is, nor do we ignore our own nature. Instead we come to know what God can do and what man receives as a benefit, so that we never stray from the true understanding of what things are and how they are — that is, of God and of man. Or did God perhaps become dissolution in us for this very reason: that, instructed through all things, we might be diligent in all things, neither ignorant of God nor of ourselves?
Latin
Vanr autem et qui in aliena dicunt Deum venisse, velut aliena concupiscentem, uti eum hominem qui ab altero factus esset exhiberet ei Deo, qui neque fecisset neque condidisset, sed et ? qui desolatus esset ab initio a propria hominum fabricatione. Non justus adventus ejus qui secundum eos %adyenit in aliena; neque vere nos redemit sanguine suo, si non vere homo factus est, restaurans suo plasmati quod dictum est in principio, factum aliena in dolo diripiens, sed sua propria juste et benigne assuquantum attinet quidem ad apostasiam, juste suo sanguine redimens nos ab ea; quantum autem ad nos, qui redemti sumus, benigne. Nihil enim illi ante dedimus, neque desiderat aliquid a nobis, quasi indigens ; nos autem indigemus ejus que est ad eum communionis: et propterea benigne effudit semetipsum, ut nos colligeret in sinum Patris. * Vani autem omnimodo, qui universam dispositionem Dei contemnunt, et carnis salutem negant et regenerationem ejus spernunt, dicentes non eam capacem esse incorruptibilitatis. 4Si autem non salvetur heee nec Dominus sanguine suo redemit nos, neque calix Eucharistize communicatio sanguinis ejus est, neque panis quem frangimus communicatio corporis ejus est.* Sanguis enim non est nisi a venis et carnibus, et a reliqua quze est secundum hominem substantia, qua vere factum Verbum Dei, sanguine suo redemit nos. Quemadmodum et Apostolus ejus ait: In quo habemus redemtionem per sanguinem ejus, et remissionem peccaTpepouedar Tv de 2. Et quoniam membra ejus sumus, et per creaturam nutrimur; creaturam autem ipse nobis prestat, solem suum oriri faciens, et pluens quemadmodum vult, eum calicem qui est creatura, suum sanguinem qui effusus est, ex quo auget nostrum sanguinem ; et eum panem qui est a creatura, suum corpus confirmavit, ex quo nostra auget corpora. Quando ergo et mixtus calix, et factus panis percipit Verbum Dei, et fit Eucharistia sanguinis et corporis Christi, ex quibus augetur et consistit carnis nostree substantia ; quomodo carnem negant capacem esse donationis Dei, quee est vita eterna, quee sanguine et corpore Christi nutritur, et membrum ejus est? Quemadmodum et beatus A postolus ait in epistola que est ad Ephesios; Quoniam membra sumus corporis ejus, de carne ejus, et de ossibus ejus: non de spiritali aliquo et invisibili homine dicens heec; (Spiritus enim neque ossa, neque carnes habet) sed de ea dispositione, quee est secundum ? verum hominem, que ex carnibus et nervis et ossibus consistit ; quae de calice, qui est sanguis ejus, nutritur; et de pane, quod est corpus ejus, augetur. 3. Et quemadmodum lignum yitis depositum in terram, suo fructificat tempore, et granum tritici decidens in terram et dissolutum, multiplex surgit per Spiritum Dei, qui continet omnia ; quee deinde per sapientiam in usum ‘ hominis yeniunt, et percipientia verbum Dei Eucharistia fiunt, quod est corpus et sanguis Christi: sic et nostra corpora ex ea nutrita, et reposita in terram, et resoluta in ea, resurgent in suo tempore, Verbo Dei resurrectionem eis donante, in gloriam Dei Patris: qui huic mortali immortalitatem cireumdat, et corruptibili incorruptelam gratuito donat, quoniam virtus Dei in infirmitate perficitur: ut non quasi ex nobisipsis habentes vitam, inflemur aliquando et extollamur adversus Deum, ingratam mentem accipientes; experimento Tautem discentes, quoniam ex illius magnitudine, et non ex nostra habemus in zeternum perseverantiam, neque ab ea que est circa § Deum gloria, sicuti est, frustremur aliquando, neque nostram naturam ignoremus ; sed ut sciamus, et quid Deus potest, et quid homo beneficii accipit: et non erremus aliquando a vera comprehensione eorum qu sunt, et quemadmodum sunt, id est Dei et Et numquid forte, quaemadmodum preediximus, propter hoe passus est Deus fieri in nobis resolutionem; ut per omnia eruditi, in omnibus simus diligentes, neque Deum, neque nosmetipsos ignorantes ?