Irenæus elsewhere implies the Omniscience of the Son. 177 BOOK II. CHAP. V. $ 8,9. are his words concerning Wisdom, ii. 25k, at the very opening; "But how is it not a vain thing that they say, that even His Wisdom was in ignorance, diminution, and passion? IRENEUS. For these things are alien from Wisdom, and contrary to her; they are no affections of hers; for wheresoever there is want of foresight and an ignorance of what is useful, there is not Wisdom. Let them not therefore any longer give the name of Wisdom to a passible æon; but let them relinquish either its name or its passions." Now can any one suppose that Irenæus would have objected to these heretics their ascribing to their fictitious Wisdom the affection of ignorance, if he had himself attributed to the true Wisdom, that is, to the Son of God, the very same imperfection? Besides, it is Irenæus whom we have heard declare, that the immeasurable Father is measured in the Son; that the Son contains and embraces the Father. Is it credible that he who wrote thus should have himself supposed that the Son of God was in any respect ignorant of the will of the Father? In short, if any one is doubtful in this point, let him read over again the words of Irenæus1 which we have already quoted in this chapter, § 5. For there, in instituting a comparison between man and the Son of God, he attacks the omniscience which the Valentinians impiously arrogated to themselves, on this ground, that no man, no created being, "is equal to, or like the Creator, nor has been for ever co-existent with God, as His own proper Word has." It is therefore certain, that Irenæus did allow a most absolute omniscience to the proper Word of God the Father, as equal to, and eternally co-existent with Himm. 9. But inasmuch as some writers, with whom Sandius leagues himself, charge Irenæus also with this, that he nowhere in his writings acknowledges the divinity of the Holy Ghost, I have thought it well in this place, in passing, to vindicate the most holy martyr from this calumny likewise. CONSUB STANTIA THE SON. 83 178 Evidence (against Sandius) that St. Irenæus believed ON THE I shall therefore shew, briefly indeed, but most clearly, that Irenæus believed that the Holy Ghost is, 1. A Person disLITY OF tinct from the Father and the Son, not a mere unsubsisting energy of the Father; 2. A divine Person, that is to say, of the same nature and essence with God the Fathe and the Son. The former proposition is sufficiently proved from the following passages, not to mention very many others. In book iv. chap. 14', he thus speaks concerning the Son; "Receiving testimony from all, that He is truly man and that He is truly God, from the Father, from the Spirit, from the angels," &c.; where the Father is manifestly one witness, and the Holy Ghost another, and both distinct from the Son, to whom they bore witness. He refers, it is plain, to the baptism of Christ, in which all the three Persons of the most Holy Trinity distinctly shewed themselves at the same time, the Father in the voice which sounded from heaven, the Holy Ghost in the dove which descended from above, the Son in human flesh. Shortly after, in this same passage, he says again; "There is one God the Father, and one Word, the Son, and one Spirit." Here "one," and "one," and "one," necessarily make three Persons; and it is likewise clear that the Holy Ghost is by Irenæus called one in the same sense as the Son also is called one; but the Son, as all allow, was held by Irenæus to be a Person distinct from the Father. But most explicit is the passage from the 37th chapter of the same book, the whole of which I have quoted above; I will however again cite a portion of itk; "For there is ever present with Him (the Father) His Word and His Wisdom, the Son and the Spirit, through whom and in whom He made all things freely and spontaneously; to whom also He speaks, when He says, 'Let us make man in Our own image and likeness."" Observe, both [231] 1 ab æterno, the Son and the Holy Ghost were ever, i. e., from eternity', present with the Father; yet neither of them was the Father * Non meram Patris ἐνέργειαν ἀνυ TÓσтатоν, [i.e. not a mere energy of the Father, without a distinct personality or subsistence.] i Ab omnibus accipiens testimonium, quoniam vere homo et quoniam vere Deus, a Patre, a Spiritu, ab angelis, &c. . . . Unus Deus Pater, et unum Verbum, Filius, et unus Spiritus, &c. -[c. 6, 7. p. 235.] Adest enim, inquit, ei (Patri) 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.—[c. 20. p. 253. See above, p. 174.] BOOK II. CHAP. V. § 9. the Personality and the Divinity of the Holy Ghost. 179 Himself; and if in the words, "Let us make man," &c., the Father addressed not only the Son but the Holy Ghost likewise, then the Holy Ghost, equally with the Son, is a Person IRENEUS. distinct from the Father. Besides, from this passage the divinity also of the Holy Ghost is certainly inferred; for He is said to have existed from eternity with the Father and the Son; nothing however is eternal, at least in the judgment of Irenæus, except God. Next, He is associated with the Father and the Son in the work of creation; the work of creation however, according to Irenæus, (and indeed according to all of sound mind,) is the peculiar attribute of God alone. For in book iii. chap. 8, (a passage which we have already adduced',) ' [p. 168.] he teaches that He who makes and creates other things, is so distinguished from what is made and created, that He who creates is Himself uncreated, eternal, self-sufficient; whilst they on the other hand have a beginning of existence, are susceptible of dissolution, depend upon their Creator, and do service, and are subject to Him. Whence also, in the same passage, from the fact that God the Father created all things through His word or Son, he infers that the Son Himself is, equally with the Father, uncreated, eternal, and Lord of all. But in other places also Irenæus expressly asserts the divinity of the Holy Ghost. Thus in a passage also quoted already, in book iv. chap. 17', the Son and the Holy Ghost are called the very offspring and image2 2 ipsa progenies et of God the Father; and that for the purpose of distinguish-figuratio. ing them from ministering angels, created by God the 3 a. Father through the Son and the Holy Ghost, which are all per. in consequence declared to do service and to be subject to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, equally as to God the Father, that is, as to their Creator. But beyond all exception is that passage of Irenæus in book v. chap. 12, wherein he teaches that the Holy Spirit differs from that breaths, or 5 afflatus. spirit, whereby Adam was made a living soul, inasmuch as [232] the Holy Spirit, being uncreated, is the Creator and God of all things, whereas that breath was created. The passage is most worthy of being quoted entire; "The breath of life," he says", "which also makes man a living being, is one thing, m [c. 7, 4. p. 236. See above, p. 172.] Aliud est, inquit, afflatus vitæ, qui et animalem efficit hominem; et aliud CONSUBSTANTIA THE SON. 1 [Isaiah xlii. 5.] 2 [Isaiah lvii. 16.] 3 in Deo deputans. 180 Irenæus's interpretations, though incorrect, prove that ON THE and the life-giving Spirit, which also makes him spiritual, is another thing; and on this account Isaiah' says; ‘Thus saith LITY OF the Lord, that created the heaven and fixed it, that made firm the earth, and all that is in it; that giveth breath to the people that are upon it, and [the] Spirit to them that tread thereon;' declaring that breath is bestowed in common upon all the people that are on the earth; but the Spirit peculiarly to such as tread under foot earthly desires. Wherefore Isaiah' himself says again, distinguishing the things we have spoken of, For the Spirit shall go forth from Me, and I have made every breath;' reckoning the Spirit indeed to be peculiarly in God3, who in these last times hath shed It forth on the human race through the adoption of sons; but the breath in common on the creation, declaring it also to be a created being. Now that which is created is a different thing from Him who created it; the breath accordingly is temporal, but the Spirit is eternal"." We do not now trouble ourselves with this awkward interpretation of the prophet's words, for we are not consulting Irenæus as at all times the happiest expositor of Holy Scripture, but as a most trustworthy witness of the apostolic tradition, at any rate so far as concerns a primary point of Christian doctrine. Nor is it our present concern to enquire how valid the Scripture testimonies are by which he has established catholic doctrine, (although generally even in this respect he efficit eum. Et propter hoc Esaias ait, πνεῦμα ζωοποιοῦν, τὸ καὶ πνευματικὸν αὐτὸν ἀποτελοῦν. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο Ἠσαΐας φησίν· οὕτω λέγει Κύριος ὁ ποιήσας τὸν οὐρανὸν, καὶ στερεώσας αὐτὸν, ὁ πήξας τὴν γῆν, καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῇ· καὶ διδοὺς πνοὴν τῷ λαῷ τῷ ἐπ ̓ αὐτῆς, καὶ πνεῦμα τοῖς πατοῦσιν αὐτήν· τὴν μὲν πνοὴν παντὶ κοινῶς τῷ ἐπὶ γῆς λαῷ φήσας δε δόσθαι· τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα ἰδίως καταπατοῦσι τὰς γεώδεις ἐπιθυμίας· διὸ καὶ πάλιν ὁ αὐτὸς Ἠσαΐας διαστέλλων τὰ προειρημένα φησί· πνεῦμα γὰρ παρ' ἐμοῦ ἐξελεύσεται, καὶ πνοὴν πᾶσαν ἐγὼ ἐποίησα, τὸ πνεῦμα ἰδίως ἐπὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ τάξας τοῦ ἐκχέοντος αὐτὸ ... διὰ τῆς υἱοθεσίας ἐπὶ τὴν ἀνθρωπότητα· τὴν δὲ πνοὴν κοινῶς ἐπὶ τῆς κτίσεως, καὶ ποίημα ἀναγορεύσας αὐτήν· ἕτερον δέ ἐστι τὸ ποιηθὲν τοῦ ποιήσαντος. ἡ οὖν πνοὴ πρόσκαιρος, τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα ἀένναον.—c. 7, 4. p. 306.] n See also Tertullian adv. Marcion. ii. 4. almost throughout. the Holy Ghost was held to be Uncreated and Eternal. 181 BOOK II. CHAP. V. § 9, 1. has remarkably approved himself to all men of learning and piety,) but rather what he held to be catholic doctrine. In this place therefore, I say, Irenæus manifestly declares, that IRENæus. the Holy Ghost is both God and Creator. For, as Petavius [233] has very well remarked, the phrase, the Spirit being reckoned to be in God (in Deo deputari), which in Greek would be ἐν Θεῷ, οι εἰς Θεὸν λογίζεσθαι, means the same as to be reckoned to be God (Deum deputari)°; just as when he immediately adds, "declaring the breath [to belong] in common to the creation, and to be created," what he says is the same as, that it is held to be created and made. Then he clearly asserts, that what is made, that is to say, the breath, is different from the Spirit, that is, from Him who made it; and that the latter is eternal, whilst the former is but temporal. According to Irenæus, therefore, the Holy Ghost is neither a thing created, nor made, but is God, proceeding forth from God', and the Creator, and Eternal. And 1 Deus ex thus much at present is enough concerning Irenæus. 1 Deo exiens. CHAPTER VI. CONTAINING EXCEEDINGLY CLEAR TESTIMONIES OUT OF ST. CLEMENT OF 87 [239] 1. I Now proceed to St. Clement of Alexandria, the con- CLEM. AL. temporary of Irenæus, and the genuine disciple of the celebrated Pantænus, who, as Photius, [Bibliotheca] cod. 118, [240] relates on the testimony of others, had for his masters those who had seen the Apostles; nay, and who had also himself been a hearer of some of them. Of him even Petavius" allows, that he adapted the Christian doctrine concerning the Word and Son of God to the views of Plato, for the most part without being at all suspected of error; and that The Greek in John Damascene is, τὸ πνεῦμα ἱδίως ἐπὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ τάξας, τὴν δὲ πνοὴν κοινῶς ἐπὶ τῆς κτίσεως, καὶ ποίημα ἀναγορεύσας αὐτήν. The last words confirm the explanation of the most learned Bp. Bull.-GRABE. P [Thus understood by Petavius; Afflatum in conditionem, et facturam ostendens.] Clement flourished from the year 192. Cave.-BOWYER. De Trinitate, i. 4. 1. |