vision of God. For if the manifestation of God in creation gives life to all who live on earth, much more does the revelation of the Father through the Word bestow life on those who see God. Adversus Haereses, iv. XX. 6

The Son always co-exists with the Father and has revealed the Father from of old, from the beginning.

Ibid. ii. xxx. 9

The name of God or Lord is given only to him who is God and Lord of all; who said to Moses 'My name is I AM. And you shall say to the Israelites, 'HE WHO IS has sent me to you.' The name of God and Lord is given also to his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who makes men the sons of God if they believe in his name. And the Son says to Moses, 'I have come down to rescue this people.' For it is the Son who descended and ascended for the salvation of men. Thus through the Son who is in the Father, and has the Father in himself HE WHO IS has been revealed. The Father bears witness to the Son; the Son proclaims the Father. So Isaiah says, 'I am witness, says the Lord God, and so is the child [servant] whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe and understand that I AM.'                                                                          Ibid. III. vi. 2

God makes all things in measure and order, and with him nothing is without proportion. He was right who said that the immeasurable Father is measured in the Son; for the Son is the measure of the Father, since he contains the Father.                                                                                                     Ibid. IV. iv. 2

Through the creation the Word reveals God the creator; through the world, the Lord who made the world; through the handiwork, the artificer; through the Son, the Father who begat him. All alike confess this [sc. by the fact of their existence]; but all do not believe. By Law and Prophets the Word proclaimed himself and the Father: and the whole people alike heard; but all did not believe. And through this same Word, made visible and tangible, the Father was displayed, although all did not believe in him. Yet all saw the Father in the Son; for the Father is the invisible of the Son, the Son the visible of the Father.                             Ibid. IV. vi. 5

(d) The Divine and Human Nature if Christ

There is one God, who by his Word and Wisdom made and ordered all things.. . . His Word is our Lord Jesus Christ who in these last times became man among men, that he might unite the end with the beginning, that is, Man with God. Therefore the prophets who received from this same Word their prophetic gift, proclaimed his advent in the flesh, by which was effected the mingling and uniting of God and man according to the Father's pleasure. For the Word of God foretold from the beginning that God would be seen by men and would live with them on earth and converse with them; that he would be present with his creatures to bring salvation to them and to be perceived by them; that he would free us 'from the hands of those who hate us', that is, from the whole spirit of transgression; and would make us 'serve him all our days in holiness and righteousness'; that man, taking to himself the Spirit of God, should pass to the glory of the Father.

Ibid. IV. XX. 4

Our Lord Jesus Christ, the word of God, of his boundless love, became what we are that he might make us what he himself is.                                                                                  Ibid. v. praef (ad fin.)

As he was man that he might be tempted, so he was the Word that he might be glorified. The Word was quiescent, that he might be capable of temptation, dishonour, crucifixion, and death; while the manhood was swallowed up [in the Godhead] in his victory, his endurance. . .his resurrection and ascension. Ibid. III. xix. 3

If anyone asks why it is that the Lord had made it plain that 'the Father alone knows the hour and the day', although he has communion with the Son in all things, he could not at present find an answer more suitable or more proper or less perilous than this; that we may learn from our Lord himself (our one true teacher) that the Father is above all. As he says, 'the Father is greater than I'. Our Lord has proclaimed that the Father is superior in respect of knowledge to the intent that we should leave to God complete knowledge and questions such as this, so long as we are subject to the conditions of this world.

Ibid. ii. xxviii. 8

IRENAEUS THE HOLY SPIRIT 85

See above on Man, sub-section (c), p.70 sq. (Adv. Haer. V. ix. i): Irenaeus continues:

where the Spirit of the Father is, there is the living man . . . flesh possessed by the Spirit, forgetful of itself, assuming the quality of Spirit, made conformable to the Word of God. . . (3). . . Receiving the Spirit, we walk in newness of life, in obedience to God. Without the Spirit of God we cannot be saved. Ibid. v. ix. 2-3

Through the Spirit we rise to the Son; through the Son we rise to the Father.

Ibid. v. xxxvi. 2

The Spirit of remission of sins, whereby we are brought to life.

Ibid. Iv. xxxi. 2

(d) Word- Wisdom-Spirit

We have shown at length that the Word, that is the Son, was always with the Father. And God tells us, through the mouth of Solomon, that Wisdom, that is the Spirit, was with him before the whole creation: 'The Lord established the earth by his Wisdom . . .' [Prov. iii. 19] and again, 'The Lord created me for his works as the beginning of his ways; he established me before the ages' . . . [Prov. viii. 22ff.]

Ibid. iv. xx. 3

(e) Son and Spirit (Word and Wisdom) in Creation

Throughout the Word and the Spirit God made, ordered, and governs all things, and gives them being.

Ibid. i. xxii. I

Man is a blend of soul and flesh. He was fashioned in the likeness of God, and was formed by the hands of God that is by the Son and the Spirit, to whom he said, "Let us make man."

Ibid. iv. praef. 3

Angels did not make us or fashion us. Angels could not have made the image of God, nor could any other have done this but the Word of God, nor a power much less than the Father of all. In carrying out his intended work of creation, God did not need any help from angels, as if he had not his own hands. For he has always at his side his Word and Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit. Through them and in them he created all things of his own free will; And to them he says, 'Let us make man...' [Gen. i. 26].                                                 Ibid. Iv. xx. I

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