all cases, thus
unveiling the law in its whole severity; and lastly the _particularia
legis_, i.e., the law of bondage, had to be abolished. But in the latter
connection Christ and the Apostles themselves avoided every
transgression of the ceremonial law, in order to prove that this also
had a divine origin. The non-observance of this law was first permitted
to the Gentile Christians. Thus, no doubt, Christ himself is the end of
the law, but only in so far as he has abolished the law of bondage and
restored the moral law in its whole purity and severity, and given us
himself.

The question as to the difference between the New Testament and the Old
is therefore answered by Irenaeus in the following manner. It consists
(1) in the _agnitio filii_ and consequent transformation of the slaves
into children of God; and (2) in the restoration of the law, which is a
law of freedom just because it excludes bodily commandments, and with
stricter interpretation lays the whole stress on the inclinations of the
heart.[646] But in these two respects he finds a real addition, and
hence, in his opinion, the Apostles stand higher than the prophets. He
proves this higher position of the Apostles by a surprising
interpretation of 1 Cor. XII. 28, conceiving the prophets named in that
passage to be those of the Old Testament.[647] He therefore views the
two Testaments as of the same nature, but "greater is the legislation
which confers liberty than that which brings bondage" ("maior est
legisdatio quae in libertatem, quam quae data est in servitutem"). Through
the two covenants the accomplishment of salvation was to be hastened
"for there is one salvation and one God; but the precepts that form man
are numerous, and the steps that lead man to God are not a few;" ("una
est enim salus et unus deus; quae autem formant hominem, praecepta multa
et non pauci gradus, qui adducunt hominem ad deum"). A worldly king can
increase his benefits to his subjects; and should it not also be lawful
for God, though he is always the same, to honour continually with
greater gifts those who are well pleasing to him? (IV. 9. 3). Irenaeus
makes no direct statement as to the further importance which the Jewish
people have, and in any case regards them as of no consequence after the
appearance of the covenant of freedom. Nor does this nation appear any
further even in the chiliastic train of thought. It furnishes the
Antichrist and its holy city becomes the capital o