Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 9.djvu/128

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106
IRENÆUS AGAINST HERESIES.
[Book v.

therefore He came to His own in a visible[1] manner, and was made flesh, and hung upon the tree, that He might sum up all things in Himself. "And His own peculiar people did not receive Him," as Moses declared this very thing among the people: "And thy life shall be hanging before thine eyes, and thou wilt not believe thy life."[2] Those therefore who did not receive Him did not receive life. "But to as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God."[3] For it is He who has power from the Father over all things, since He is the Word of God, and very man, communicating with invisible beings after the manner of the intellect, and appointing a law observable to the outward senses, that all things should continue each in its own order; and He reigns manifestly over things visible and pertaining to men; and brings in just judgment and worthy upon all; as David also, clearly pointing to this, says, "Our God shall openly come, and will not keep silence."[4] Then he shows also the judgment which is brought in by Him, saying, "A fire shall burn in His sight, and a strong tempest shall rage round about Him. He shall call upon the heaven from above, and the earth, to judge His people."


Chap. xix.A comparison is instituted hetween the disobedient and sinning Eve and the Virgin Mary, her patroness. Various and discordant heresies are mentioned.

1. That the Lord then was manifestly coming to His own things, and was sustaining them by means of that creation which is supported by Himself, and was making a recapitulation of that disobedience which had occurred in connection with a tree, through the obedience which was [exhibited by Himself when He hung] upon a tree, [the effects] also of that deception being done away with, by which that virgin Eve, who was already espoused to a man, was unhappily misled,—was happily announced, through means of the truth [spoken] by the angel to the Virgin Mary, who was [also espoused] to

  1. The text reads "invisibiliter," which seems clearly an error.
  2. Deut. xxviii. 66.
  3. John i. 13.
  4. Ps. l. 3, 4.