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| Chapter XVII.—The apostles teach that it was neither Christ nor the Saviour, but the Holy Spirit, who did descend upon Jesus. The reason for this descent.
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Chapter XVII.—The apostles teach that
it was neither Christ nor the Saviour, but the Holy Spirit, who did descend
upon Jesus. The reason for this descent.
1. baptism" title="444" id="ix.iv.xviii-p1.2"/>Christ nor the Saviour" title="444" id="ix.iv.xviii-p1.3"/>It
certainly was in the power of the apostles to declare that Christ
descended upon Jesus, or that the so-called superior Saviour [came down]
upon the dispensational one, or he who is from the invisible places upon
him from the Demiurge; but they neither knew nor said anything of the
kind: for, had they known it, they would have also certainly stated it.
But what really was the case, that did they record, [namely,] that the
Spirit of God as a dove descended upon Him; this Spirit, of whom it was
declared by Isaiah, “And the Spirit of God shall rest upon
Him,”3614
as I have already said. And
again: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed
Me.”3615
That is the Spirit of whom
the Lord declares, “For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of
your Father which speaketh in you.”3616
And again,
giving to the disciples the power of regeneration into God,3617
| 3617 Harvey remarks on this:
“The sacrament of baptism is therefore ἡ δύμανις τῆς ἀναγεννήσεως
εἰς Θεόν.” [Comp.
book i. cap. xxi.] | He said to them, “Go and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost.”3618
For [God] promised,
that in the last times He would pour Him [the Spirit] upon [His] servants
and handmaids, that they might prophesy; wherefore He did also descend
upon the Son of God, made the Son of man, becoming accustomed in
fellowship with Him to dwell in the human race, to rest with human
beings, and to dwell in the workmanship of God, working the will of the
Father in them, and renewing them from their old habits into the newness
of Christ.
2. This Spirit did David ask for the human race,
saying, “And stablish me with Thine all-governing
Spirit;”3619
who also, as Luke says,
descended at the day of Pentecost upon the disciples after the
Lord’s ascension, having power to admit all nations to the entrance
of life, and to the opening of the new covenant; from whence also, with
one accord in all languages, they uttered praise to God, the Spirit
bringing distant tribes to unity, and offering to the Father the
first-fruits of all nations. Wherefore also the Lord promised to send the
Comforter,3620
who should join us to God.
For as a compacted lump of dough cannot be formed of dry wheat
without fluid matter, nor can a loaf possess unity, so, in like
manner, neither could we, being many, be made one in Christ Jesus without
the water from heaven. And as dry earth does not bring forth unless it
receive moisture, in like manner we also, being originally a dry tree,
could never have brought forth fruit unto life without the voluntary rain
from above. For our bodies have received unity among themselves by means
of that laver which leads to incorruption; but our souls, by means of the
Spirit. Wherefore both are necessary, since both contribute towards the
life of God, our Lord compassionating that erring Samaritan woman3621
—who did not remain
with one husband, but committed fornication by [contracting] many
marriages—by pointing out, and promising to her living water, so
that she should thirst no more, nor occupy herself in acquiring the
refreshing water obtained by labour, having in herself water springing up
to eternal life. The Lord, receiving this as a gift from His Father, does
Himself also confer it upon those who are partakers of Himself, sending
the Holy Spirit upon all the earth.
3. Gideon,3622
that Israelite whom God chose, that he
might save the people of Israel from the power of foreigners, foreseeing
this gracious gift, changed his request, and prophesied that there would
be dryness upon the fleece of wool (a type of the people), on which alone
at first there had been dew; thus indicating that they should no longer
have the Holy Spirit from God, as saith Esaias, “I will also
command the clouds, that they rain no rain upon it,”3623
but that the dew, which is the Spirit of God,
who descended upon the Lord, should be diffused throughout all the earth,
“the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and
might, the spirit of knowledge and piety, the spirit of the fear of
God.”3624
This Spirit, again, He did
confer upon the Church, sending throughout all the world the Comforter
from heaven, from whence also the Lord tells us that the devil, like
lightning, was cast down.3625
Wherefore
we have need of the dew of God, that we be not consumed by fire, nor be
rendered unfruitful, and that where we have an accuser there we may have
also an Advocate,3626
the Lord commending to the
Holy Spirit His own man,3627
| 3627
“Suum hominem,” i.e., the human race. | who had
fallen among thieves,3628
whom He Himself
compassionated, and bound up his wounds, giving two royal denaria;
so that we, receiving by the Spirit the image and superscription of the
Father and the Son, might cause the denarium entrusted to us to be
fruitful, counting out the increase [thereof] to the Lord.3629
4. The Spirit, therefore, descending under the
predestined dispensation, and the Son of God, the Only-begotten, who is
also the Word of the Father, coming in the fulness of time, having become
incarnate in man for the sake of man, and fulfilling all the conditions
of human nature, our Lord Jesus Christ being one and the same, as He
Himself the Lord doth testify, as the apostles confess, and as the
prophets announce,—all the doctrines of these men who have
invented putative Ogdoads and Tetrads, and imagined subdivisions [of the
Lord’s person], have been proved falsehoods. These3630
| 3630 The following period is translated from a
Syriac fragment (see Harvey’s Irenæus, vol. ii. p. 439), as
it supplies some words inconveniently omitted in the old Latin
version. | men do, in fact, set the Spirit aside altogether;
they understand that Christ was one and Jesus another; and they teach
that there was not one Christ, but many. And if they speak of them as
united, they do again separate them: for they show that one did indeed
undergo sufferings, but that the other remained impassible; that the one
truly did ascend to the Pleroma, but the other remained in the
intermediate place; that the one does truly feast and revel in places
invisible and above all name, but that the other is seated with the
Demiurge, emptying him of power. It will therefore be incumbent upon
thee, and all others who give their attention to this writing, and are
anxious about their own salvation, not readily to express acquiescence
when they hear abroad the speeches of these men: for, speaking things
resembling the [doctrine of the] faithful, as I have already observed,
not only do they hold opinions which are different, but absolutely
contrary, and in all points full of blasphemies, by which they destroy
those persons who, by reason of the resemblance of the words, imbibe a
poison which disagrees with their constitution, just as if one, giving
lime mixed with water for milk, should mislead by the similitude of the
colour; as a man3631
| 3631 Comp.
book. i. pref. note 4. | superior to me has said, concerning
all that in any way corrupt the things of God and adulterate the truth,
“Lime is wickedly mixed with the milk of God.”E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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