o have even forgotten the law written in
the heart; wherefore the Jews stand much higher, for they only lacked
the _agnitio filii_. See III. 5. 3: III. 10. 3: III. 12. 7, IV. 23, 24.
Yet there is still a great want of clearness here. Irenaeus cannot get
rid of the following contradictions. The pre-Christian righteous know
the Son and do not know him; they require the appearance of the Son and
do not require it; and the _agnitio filii_ seems sometimes a new, and in
fact the decisive, _veritas_, and sometimes that involved in the
knowledge of God the Creator.]

[Footnote 644: Irenaeus IV. 16. 3. See IV. 15. 1: "Decalogum si quis non
fecerit, non habet salutem".]

[Footnote 645: As the Son has manifested the Father from of old, so also
the law, and indeed even the ceremonial law, is to be traced back to
him. See IV. 6. 7: IV. 12. 4: IV. 14. 2: "his qui inquieti erant in
eremo dans aptissimam legem ... per omnes transiens verbum omni
conditioni congruentem et aptam legem conscribens". IV. 4. 2. The law is
a law of bondage; it was just in that capacity that it was necessary;
see IV. 4. 1: IV. 9. 1: IV. 13. 2, 4: IV. 14. 3: IV. 15: IV. 16: IV. 32:
IV. 36. A part of the commandments are concessions on account of
hardness of heart (IV. 15. 2). But Irenaeus still distinguishes very
decidedly between the "people" and the prophets. This is a survival of
the old view. The prophets he said knew very well of the coming of the
Son of God and the granting of a new covenant (IV. 9. 3: IV. 20. 4, 5:
IV. 33. 10); they understood what was typified by the ceremonial law,
and to them accordingly the law had only a typical signification.
Moreover, Christ himself came to them ever and anon through the
prophetic spirit. The preparation for the new covenant is therefore
found in the prophets and in the typical character of the old. Abraham
has this peculiarity, that both Testaments were prefigured in him: the
Testament of faith, because he was justified before his circumcision,
and the Testament of the law. The latter occupied "the middle times",
and therefore come in between (IV. 25. 1). This is a Pauline thought,
though otherwise indeed there is not much in Irenaeus to remind us of
Paul, because he used the moral categories, _growth_ and _training_,
instead of the religious ones, _sin_ and _grace_.]

[Footnote 646: The law, i.e., the ceremonial law, reaches down to John,
IV. 4. 2. The New Testament is a law of freedom, because through it we