After the introduction of evil into creation, and the agency by which it
is propagated in the world, we have next to notice the Divine plans for
its counteraction and removal; and as Irenæus was opposing the Gnostic
notion that the whole government of the world, prior to the Gospel, was in
the hands of beings adverse to the Supreme Being, he was naturally led to
show that, on the contrary, the whole history of mankind has been a series
of dispensations emanating from one and the same Supreme and only God.
We have already(270) seen him stating that the whole of these
dispensations were planned from the beginning; and he states them to have
been carried into execution by God the Son exhibiting himself to mankind
under four different aspects, figured by the four faces of the cherubim;
first to the Patriarchs, in a kingly and divine character; secondly, under
the law, in a priestly and sacrificial aspect; thirdly, at his nativity,
as a man; fourthly, after his ascension, by his Spirit(271).
Again, he represents God as having made four covenants with mankind; one
with Noah, of which the rainbow was the sanction; a second with Abraham,
by circumcision; a third of the law, by Moses; a fourth of the Gospel, by
Christ(272). At least this is the enumeration made in the _Questions and
Answers_ of Anastasius, and in the _Theoria Rerum Ecclesiasticarum_ of
Germanus, where the Greek of Irenæus is transcribed, and from which it was
first published by Grabe. But the old Latin version makes a different
enumeration, reckoning the first covenant before the deluge with Adam, and
the second after that event with Noah(273).
He thinks that the knowledge of God was kept up amongst the patriarchs by
tradition from Adam, and amongst the Jews by the prophets; whilst in
heathen nations the tradition has been lost, and men are left to find it
out by reason(274): that human governments were providentially ordained to
restrain the ferocity and rapacity of mankind after they had given up the
fear of God(275); that the law of Moses was given by way of discipline, to
recover the Israelites back to that sense of justice, and responsibility,
and feeling of love to God and man which they had lost(276); that the
prophets were inspired in order to accustom man by degrees to bear God’s
Spirit and to have communion with him(277): and thus in various ways God
prepared mankind for salvation, providing for them laws suited to their
various states of preparation.
In opposing the notions of the Gnostics, Irenæus had to defend the
position that the Old Testament is not contrary to the New; that they both
emanated from the same God acting differently under different
circumstances. The abolition of the law, he contended, was no proof of a
change of mind, but only of a change of circumstances; the law being in
its nature symbolical and preparatory, when the Gospel, the reality and
the end, was revealed, the office of the law ceased(278).
He distinguishes, however, between what he calls the _natural_ portions of
the law and the rest. As _they_ were kept by good men before the law(279),
so he conceives them to be binding on us ever since(280). It is not at
first sight clear what he means by that term, but he expressly informs us
that he comprises in it the whole decalogue(281). And yet there is every
appearance that he would exclude the fourth commandment, which he
expressly asserts not to have been observed before the giving of the
law(282).
But although the precepts of the moral law are equally _binding_ at all
times, he thought that they were not formally _given_ to the just men of
old, because they observed them voluntarily, being a law unto
themselves(283). But when God’s people forgot them in the land of Egypt,
then it became necessary distinctly to enact them, to prepare man for the
fuller duties of love to God and goodwill to man(284). And when they did
not obey the moral law, he added to it the ceremonial(285), that, by
types, their servile and childish natures might be trained up to the
apprehension of realities; by temporal things, of eternal; by carnal, of
spiritual; by earthly, of heavenly(286). Some of their ordinances had a
twofold use; as circumcision was intended, equally with their rites and
ceremonies, to keep them distinct from the heathen, and also to signify
the circumcision of the soul(287).
To show that the moral law was preparatory to the Gospel, he alleges the
fact that Jesus taught its precepts as the way of life to the young lawyer
who came to inquire of him; not supposing that these were sufficient in
themselves, but that they were steps to the knowledge of Christ(288).
He, however, thought that our Lord wished that the whole ceremonial law
should be observed as long as Jerusalem stood(289).
But although he appears to think that the law, as a whole and in the
letter, is no longer binding to Christians, he does not think that this
leaves us at liberty to do as we like. If we are not tied down to the
letter, like slaves, that is because it was intended that the law of
liberty should be of wider range, and our obedience extend itself beyond
the letter, and that our subjection to our Heavenly King should be more
hearty and thoroughgoing than ever; and therefore, if we wish to remain in
the way of salvation through Christ, we must voluntarily adopt the
precepts of the decalogue, and, giving them a completer meaning, endeavour
to realize in our conduct all the fulness of their enlarged
application(290).
It is almost unnecessary to point out the exact agreement of these
sentiments with the seventh and fourteenth articles of the Church of
England, and how impossible it must be for a person holding them to think
that we can do any thing whatever beyond what Christ has a right to expect
from us. It is manifest that he would not have thought that any degrees of
Christian holiness are really at our option, whether we shall seek them or
not; but that every person who, having any degree of perfection, or any
means of advancement placed before him, knowingly neglects it, becomes
thereby unworthy of him who has given him liberty(291), and hazards his
salvation: in short, that “to whom much is given, of him will much be
required.”