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Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

St Irenaeus of Lyons, tr. Robinson, 1920

Chapter 67

At this point let us speak of His healings. Isaiah says thus: He took our infirmities and bare¹ our sicknesses: that is to say, He shall take, and shall bear. For there are passages in which the Spirit of God through the prophets recounts things that are to be as having taken place.² For that which with God is essayed and conceived of as determined to take place, is reckoned as having already taken place: and the Spirit, regarding and seeing the time in which the issues of the prophecy are fulfilled, utters the words (accordingly). And concerning the kind of healing, thus will He make³ mention, saying: In that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and in darkness and in mist the eyes of the blind shall see. And the same says again: Be strong, ye weak hands and feeble and⁴ trembling knees: be comforted, ye that are of a fearful mind. Be strong, fear not. Behold, our God will recompense judgment: He will come and save us. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear: then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be plain. And concerning the dead,⁵ that they shall be raised, he says thus: The dead shall be raised, and they that are in the tombs shall be raised. And in bringing these things to pass He shall be believed to be the Son of God.

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