and elsewhere
Tertullian indeed argues against Marcion that God in contradistinction
to all creatures can transform himself into anything and yet remain God.
Hence we are not to think of a transformation in the strict sense, but
of an _adunitio_.]

[Footnote 603: So I think I ought to express myself. It does not seem to
me proper to read a twofold conception into Irenaeus' Christological
utterances under the pretext that Christ according to him was also the
perfect man, with all the modern ideas that are usually associated with
this thought (Bohringer, l.c., p. 542 ff., see Thomasius in opposition
to him).]

[Footnote 604: See, e.g., V. 1. 3. Nitzch, Dogmengeschichte I. p. 309.
Tertullian, in his own peculiar fashion, developed still more clearly
the thought transmitted to him by Irenaeus. See adv. Prax. 12: "Quibus
faciebat deus hominem similem? Filio quidem, qui erat induturus
hominem.... Erat autem ad cuius imaginem faciebat, ad filii scilicet,
qui homo futurus certior et verior imaginem suam fecerat dici hominem,
qui tunc de limo formari habebat, imago veri et similitudo." Adv. Marc.
V. 8: "Creator Christum, sermonem suum, intuens hominem futurum,
Faciamus, inquit, hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram"; the
same in de resurr. 6. But with Tertullian, too, this thought was a
sudden idea and did not become the basis of further speculation.]

[Footnote 605: Iren. IV. 14. 2; for further particulars on the point see
below, where Irenaeus' views on the preparation of salvation are
discussed. The views of Dorner, l.c., 492 f., that the union of the Son
of God with humanity was a gradual process, are marred by some
exaggerations, but are correct in their main idea.]

[Footnote 606: "Secundum id quod verbum dei homo erat ex radice lesse et
filius Abrabae, secunum hoc requiescebat spiritus dei super eum ...
secundum autem quod deus erat, non secundum gloriam iudicabat." All that
Irenaeus said of the Spirit in reference to the person of Christ is to be
understood merely as an _exegetical_ necessity and must not be regarded
as a theoretical _principle_ (this is also the case with Tertullian).
Dorner (l.c., p. 492 f.) has failed to see this, and on the basis of
Irenaeus' incidental and involuntary utterances has attempted to found a
speculation which represents the latter as meaning that the Holy Ghost
was the medium which gradually united the Logos, who was exalted above
growing and suffering, into one person with th