3. The Holy Ghost.— On the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, IrenjBus, more nearly than the Greek Church fa- thers, especially the Alexandrians, represents the dogma of the perfect, substantial identity of the Holy Sjiirit with the Father and the Son ; " though his rejieated tig- urative (i)ut for this reason not so definite) designation of the Son and Spirit as the ' hands' of the Father, by which he made all things, implies a certain subordina- tion (sec Irenteus's views given below under "Trinity"). He differs from n.ost of the fathers in referring the AVisdom of the book of Proverbs not to the Logos, but to the Spirit, and hence he must have regarded him as eternal. Yet he was far from conceiving the Spirit as a mere power or attribute ; he considered him an inde- pendent personality, like the Logos. ' With (Jod,' says he (A dr. J/ceres. iv, '20, § 1), ' are ever the Word and tiie Wisdom, the Son and tlie Spirit, through whom and in whom he freely made all things, to whom he said, " Let us malic man in our image, after our likeness." ' But he speaks more of the operations than of the nature of the Holy (Jhost. The Spirit predicted in the prophets the coming of Christ; has been near to man in all di- vine ordinances; communicates the knowledge of the Father and the Son; gives believers the consciousness of Sonsliip; is fellowsliip with Christ, the pledge of im- perishalilc life, and the ladder on which we ascend to God"(Scliaff, §80).
4. The Trinity.— On the doctrine of the Trinity, the language of Irenicus is perhaps plainer and more incon- trovertible tliau that of any other of the early Church fatlii rs, and yet both Arians and Socinians have some- time s j. resumed to claim him as a supporter of their ])e- euliar 1 licorics. I'.ut we have his own expressions mak- ing both Clirist and the Holy Spirit ])arts of the supreme divinity. Nay, Clirist is often expressly declared to be God. Thus, in a passage in which Iren.cus is comment- ing on the prophecy respecting the birth of Emmanuel he says : " Can fully, then, has the Holy Ghost ])ointed out, by what has been said, his birth from a virgin, and his essence, that he is God. for the name I'^mmanuel in- dicates this" (iii, 21,4); and again, in allusion to the Father: "With him vcre always present the. Word and Wiidom, the Son and the Spirit, by whom and in whom, freely and spontaneously, he made all things; to wliom, also, he spoke, saying, ' Let us make man after our im- age and likeness.' " Indeed, Dr. vSchaff (Ch. J/iyt. i, 28G) seems hardly justifietl in his statement that " of a supra-
mundane trinity of essence Irenjeus betrays but faint indications." He continually quotes from Genesis, with the object of showing that both Christ and the Holy Spirit existed with the F'ather anterior to all creation ("ante omnem constitutionem"). With a writer in the B7it. and For. Evany. Rev. (1869, p. 12), we are inclined to believe that the word " hands" is used by Irenaus to indicate that they are both co-workers of the Father rather than his subordinate workman (compare Ebrard, Kirchen- vnd Bogmengesch. i, 110 and 111, note 8). "In all things and through all things there is one (iod, the Father, and one Word, and one Son, and one Spirit, and one salvation to all that believe in him." Another very beautiful passage " reveals the doctrine of the Trinity as being, in fact, wrapped up in the official title by which the Saviour is designated." Says he : " In the name of Christ (iii, 18, 3) is implied he that anoints, he that is anointed, and the unction itself with which he is anoint- ed. And it is the i'ather who anoints, but the Son who is anointed by the Spirit, who is the unction, as the word declares by Isaiah, ' The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me,' thus pointing out the anointing Father, the anointed Son, and the Unction which is the Spirit" — certainly " a rich and pregnant thought, which will bear much consideration. It is very striking and satisfactory to find the doctrine of the three divine persons thus developed out of the very name which the Saviour bears. Nor does there seem anything fanciful in the reasoning; for, as we cariuot think of an anointed one without necessarily thinking also of one who anoints, and of the unction with which he is anointed, we are thus led to conceive, by a simple remembrance of our Lord's official designation, of the Father, the anointer, the Son, the anointed, and the S]iirit, the living unction who came down, in infinite fulness, from the Father on the Son — the three-one God, being by means of a single word thus liroiii:bt lif tore us as the God of our salvation" {Brit. ai<d For. l^noin.Eer. 1869. p. 13). With all these direct testimonies staring us in the face, it is certainly ridiculous to see the (ii(/rts on the part of some Eationalistic theologians to assert that Irenaeus was not strictly Trinitarian in his views on this subject. But more than this : it was this self-same Irc- na?us who opposed the Philonic doctrine of the Xoyvc, which other Church fathers, especially of the Alexan- drian school, seemed so ready to accept, as Theophilus of Antiochia, and even Tertulliau (comp. Ebrard, A'jV- chen- V. Doymengesch. i, 116.