Against Heresies: Book IV
Chapter 11: The ancient prophets and virtuous individuals anticipated the arrival of Christ and yearned to see and hear Him. The Holy Ghost revealed Him in the Scriptures, and He continuously enriched humanity without changing Himself
The Lord has shown that it was not only the prophets and many righteous people who, through the Holy Spirit, foresaw His coming and prayed to experience the time when they could see their Lord face to face and hear His words. He made this clear when He told His disciples, “Many prophets and righteous people have wanted to see the things you see and have not seen them, and to hear the things you hear and have not heard them.” How, then, could they have both wanted to hear and to see unless they had a foreknowledge of His future coming? But how could they have foreknown it unless they had already received this knowledge from Him? And how do the Scriptures testify about Him, unless all things have always been revealed and shown to believers by one and the same God through the Word? At one time, He communicated with His creation, and at another, He gave His law; at one time, He corrected and at another, encouraged, then freed His servant, and adopted him as a son; and, at the right time, granted an incorruptible inheritance to bring humanity to perfection. For He created humans for growth and increase, as the Scripture states: “Increase and multiply.”
In this way, God is different from man: God creates, while man is created. Truly, He who creates remains unchanged, but what is created must have a beginning, middle, and growth. God creates with skill, whereas man is skillfully created. God is perfect in all things, consistent and similar to Himself, as He is all light, all mind, all substance, and the source of all good; but man moves forward and grows towards God. Just as God is always the same, so too shall man, when united with God, continually progress towards God. God never stops blessing or enriching man, and man never stops receiving these blessings and being enriched by God. The person who is grateful to his Maker is the vessel of His goodness and the instrument of His glorification. On the other hand, the ungrateful person, who despises his Maker and does not follow His Word, becomes the vessel of His just judgment. God has promised to give greatly to those who consistently bear fruit and even more to those who have the Lord’s resources. “Well done,” He says, “good and faithful servant: because you have been faithful with little, I will appoint you over many things; enter into the joy of your Lord.” The Lord Himself promises abundantly.
As, therefore, He has promised to give much to those who now produce fruit, according to the gift of His grace, but not according to the changeableness of "knowledge;" for the Lord remains the same, and the same Father is revealed; thus, the one and the same Lord has granted, through His coming, a greater gift of grace to those of a later time than what He had given to those under the Old Testament. For they used to hear from His servants that the King would come, and they rejoiced to a certain degree because they hoped for His coming; but those who have seen Him present, and have gained freedom, and shared in His gifts, possess a greater amount of grace and a higher degree of joy, rejoicing because of the King’s arrival: as David also says, “My soul shall rejoice in the Lord; it shall be glad in His salvation.” And for this reason, when He entered Jerusalem, all those who were in the way recognized David their king in His sorrow, spread their garments for Him, and decorated the way with green branches, crying out joyfully, “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord: hosanna in the highest.” But to the envious wicked stewards, who deceived those under them, and ruled over those of little understanding, and for this reason did not want the king to come, and who said to Him, “Do you hear what these say?” the Lord replied, “Have you never read, Out of the mouths of babes and infants You have perfected praise?”—showing that what David said about the Son of God was fulfilled in Him; and indicating that they were ignorant of the Scripture and God’s plan; but declaring that He was the one announced by the prophets as Christ, whose name is praised in all the earth, and who perfects praise to His Father from the mouths of babes and infants; therefore, His glory has been raised above the heavens.
If, therefore, the same person is present who was announced by the prophets, our Lord Jesus Christ, and if His arrival has brought a fuller measure of grace and greater gifts to those who have received Him, it is clear that the Father is also the same who was proclaimed by the prophets, and that the Son, upon His coming, did not spread the knowledge of another Father, but of the same one who was preached from the beginning; from whom He has also brought liberty to those who, in a lawful manner, and with a willing mind, and with all their heart, serve Him. However, to scoffers and those not subject to God, who follow external purifications for the praise of people (observances given as a type of future things—the law symbolizing certain things in a shadow, and representing eternal things by the temporal, celestial by the terrestrial), and to those who pretend to observe more than what has been prescribed, as if favoring their own zeal over God Himself, while internally they are full of hypocrisy, greed, and all wickedness—to them, He has assigned everlasting ruin by cutting them off from life.