nce must be conceived as due to causes[637]
that do not affect the unity of the author and of the main points.[638]
We must make the nature of God and the nature of man our point of
departure. God is always the same, man is ever advancing towards God;
God is always the giver, man always the receiver;[639] God leads us ever
to the highest goal; man, however, is not God from the beginning, but is
destined to incorruptibility, which he is to attain step by step,
advancing from the childhood stage to perfection (see above, p. 267 f.).
This progress, conditioned by the nature and destination of man, is,
however, dependent on the revelation of God by his Son, culminating in
the incarnation of the latter and closing with the subsequent bestowal
of the Spirit on the human race. In Irenaeus therefore the place of the
many different revelation-hypostases of the Valentinians is occupied by
the one God, who stoops to the level of developing humanity,
accommodates himself to it, guides it, and bestows on it increasing
revelations of grace.[640] The fundamental knowledge of God and the
moral law of nature, i.e., natural morality, were already revealed to
man and placed in his heart[641] by the creator. He who preserves these,
as for example the patriarchs did, is justified. (In this case Irenaeus
leaves Adam's sin entirely out of sight). But it was God's will to bring
men into a higher union with himself; wherefore his Son descended to men
from the beginning and accustomed himself to dwell among them. The
patriarchs loved God and refrained from injustice towards their
neighbours; hence it was not necessary that they should be exhorted with
the strict letter of the law, since they had the righteousness of the
law in themselves.[642] But, as far as the great majority of men are
concerned, they wandered away from God and fell into the sorriest
condition. From this moment Irenaeus, keeping strictly to the Old
Testament, only concerns himself with the Jewish people. These are to
him the representatives of humanity. It is only at this period that the
training of the human race is given to them; but it is really the Jewish
_nation_ that he keeps in view, and through this he differs very
decidedly from such as Barnabas.[643] When righteousness and love to God
died out in Egypt, God led his people forth so that man might again
become a disciple and imitator of God. He gave him the written law (the
Decalogue), which contains nothing else than th