irit). Irenaeus also tried by reference to
Scripture to distinguish the work of the Spirit from that of the Logos.
Thus in the creation, the guidance of the world, the Old Testament
history, the incarnation, the baptism of Jesus, the Logos is the energy,
the Spirit is wisdom. He also alluded to a specific ministry of the
Spirit in the sphere of the new covenant. The Spirit is the principle of
the new knowledge in IV. 33. 1, 7, Spirit of fellowship with God in V.
I. 1, pledge of immortality in V. 8. 1, Spirit of life in V. 18. 2. But
not only does the function of the Spirit remain very obscure for all
that, particularly in the incarnation, where Irenaeus was forced by the
canon of the New Testament to unite what could not be united (Logos
doctrine and descent of the Spirit upon Mary--where, moreover, the whole
of the Fathers after Irenaeus launched forth into the most wonderful
speculations), but even the personality of the Spirit vanishes with him,
e.g., in III. 18. 3: "unguentem patrem et unctum filium et unctionem,
qui est spiritus" (on Isaiah LXI. 1); there is also no mention of the
Spirit in IV. pref. 4 fin., and IV. 1. 1, though he ought to have been
named there. Father, Son, and Spirit, or God, Logos, and Sophia are
frequently conjoined by Irenaeus, but he never uses the formula [Greek:
trias], to say nothing of the abstract formulas of Tertullian. In two
passages (IV. 20. 5: V. 36. 2) Irenaeus unfolded a sublime speculation,
which is inconsistent with his usual utterances. In the first passage he
says that God has shown himself prophetically through the Spirit (in the
Old Testament), then adoptively through the Son, and will finally show
himself paternally in the kingdom of heaven; the Spirit prepares man for
the Son of God, the Son leads him to the Father, but the Father confers
on him immortality. In the other passage he adopts the saying of an old
presbyter (Papias?) that we ascend gradually through the Spirit to the
Son, and through the Son to the Father, and that in the end the Son will
deliver up everything to the Father, and God will be all in all. It is
remarkable that, as in the case of Tertullian (see above), it is 1 Cor.
XV. 23-28 that has produced this speculation. This is another clear
proof, that in Irenaeus the equality of Father, Son, and Spirit is not
unconditional and that the eternity of Son and Spirit is not absolute.
Here also we plainly perceive that the several disquisitions in Irenaeus
were